Day 61, Tuesday March 6, 2018 Manila day 2

Today we didn’t have a tour, so we slept in a bit, didn’t get up until 7:30 am. We knew that the free shuttle to the Robinson mall wouldn’t be leaving, befor 9:30, as the mall didn’t open until ten, and you can’t even get into the Mall until ten. They said they didn’t want people standing around the outside. Now these guards at the entrance have big guns, rifle types, wish I had taken a picture, but this time I did get one inside. 

So our day was spent at the Mall, we found some Merrill shoes for me, as I broke my shoe getting on the bus. The shoes were half the price I would have paid at the outlets, if they had them. They had lots of brand name stores in this mall. We also found Ed a nice pair of pants, at Marks & Spencer’s, that replaced the ones that got ruined in the laundry, because I thought they were washable and they were dry clean only, wops. Other then that, not much else. We came back to the ship about two, and had lunch, and took a nap as we had walked over 10,000 steps. 

Then we watched sail away, and saw the huge Chinese ship that was also docked.  We knew there was a large ship, but until we left, couldn’t really make out how large from our side. 

 

Dream Cruses 

Bye bye Manila 

Quote: “BETTER TO SEE SOMTHING ONCE, then to hear about it a THOUSAND TIMES.”  -Asian Proverb 

Day 60, Monday, March 5, 2018 Manila Philippines 🇵🇭

  Weather, 95 F partly cloudy, that was the forecast and it lived up to it, although I will say, in the shade, when the breeze blew it was pleasant. .  

This was our welcome group. 

So we met our group of seven, and off we went to meet our guides, yes guides, we had a driver, that I assumed was the owner of the nice air conditioned van, and two guides, I think this was a language thing, the one guide could speak the language of the driver and the one guide was the contact for Bonnie, who organized the tour,,,,,, are you confused, I am. LOL

We found our seats in the van, or I should say we crawled in, but nevertheless we were off to Clark AFB, or what was left of it, there is a lot out there but very little is left of the old AFB, some burned out buildings like the old hospital, which was brand new in 1973, that was sad to see. And there is a lot of ash, when you scratched the ground you could see it. 

 

There were two guards sitting inside the lower area of the hospital, you weren’t allowed to go inside, not that we wanted too anyway. Our guides said there were ghosts in there and at night you could hear them screaming. 

So we moved on to the K9 sematery, this was the place for the dogs that served in Vietnam. 

 

Then we went to the Museum, but it was closed, that was a disappointment, but saw some of the housing still, standing. 

 

After that we went to lunch 

Lunch as in a mall, seems that is where the best restaurants are, and we met a very nice Philippine woman who helped us with the food and gave us some wonderful watermelon that she brought for her friends from California.  And have I told you there are guards at every entrance and every store entrance, and at the mall parking area, you have to get a parking ticket, and when you go in the mall entrance your bags are checked. It is all very secure, I guess. 

Then we had the two hour drive back, on the way we passed the largest stadium in the world! It can hold 5% of the population of Manila! 

The drive back was a hair raising experience in its self, we defied death one more time, as my dad used to say. 

When we returned, we showered, and went up to the Crows Nest for happy hour. And the ship had let on many family members of some of the crew. So they were getting tours of the ship, and we met the family of our Sommelier, two little boys his mother and father and wife. What fun they were having. And the captain was up there too. 

On a sad note we found out that our dance instructor Martha, was hurt, badly on the tour to Coreggador, when she fell, and really broke her arm, a compound fracture and tour up the skin,,,,,,, anyway she was air evacted to Manila by helicopter, and is now in the hospital with an IV to prevent infections, then she will have surgery, she is 70, there, but for the grace of God goes any of us. 

Quote: “TRAVEL is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age.”

Dr. Jose Rizal, “Los Viajes”

Day 59 At Sea March 4, 2018

Well today was another sea day, it is nice to have them spread out this way, port day, Sea day port day. We will be in the port for Manila at 5 am our time in the morning. Capt Jonathan has it planed for us to dock at 5am so we are the first ship in. There are going to be three other large ships in port with us tomorrow, so this is going to make traffic really bad. We have a private tour out to the old Clark AFB, it is an all day tour, so I will try to keep you updated, tomorrow evening. We don’t get back before eight PM! 

So have a good day. 

Quote for the day. “TRAVEL is never a matter of money, but of COURAGE .”  - T.S. Eliot 

Day 58, Saturday March 3, 2018 Puerto Princesa

Weather, 85F Isolated thunderstorms

It was very warm, but it wasn’t hot, but then it may have felt a lot hotter, had we not been in an AC, bus and mall. Yup, that was our day here, as I told you yesterday we didn’t want to see the caves, so  we took the free shuttle and walked around a three story mall. It is amassing how you have this modern mall, and across the stree, there are shacks people live in. And this is a beautiful island, but some how they need to learn how to handle there garbage, it is everywhere, in the ocean, on the streets, and piles all around where they live, it is sad. Then there is this big beautiful mall. With guards at the front doors and at each of the doors, of each of the store doors, and the big department store had so many people available to help you, and not really pushy, but there. It just dawned on me, I bet they work for almost nothing because they can work in clean, cool surroundings! 

So we walked around and did a bit of shopping, but mostly just observed. 

 

The garbage is piled high. And check out the electric grid!

If you didn’t have the nice air condition bus this is what you ride in. It is there version of the tut tut. Or there bus that travels all around, and if you get stuck in the front, you are stuck, as people cram, in from the back. 

 

So back to the ship we went, and up to the pool, and a hamburger for me, and a wrap for Ed 

Quote “I love the feeling of being ANONYMOUS in a city I’ve never been before.”  -Anonymous 

Day 55,56,57, February 28, March 1 & 2, 2018 AT SEA

Ok, OK, I know it has been three days Spence we left Benoa, Bali, but sea days don’t offer a lot of info, to put on a blog. I didn’t even have watercolor for two of the days as there we VIP people using our room, the Kings room.  I have heard it was a Dinner for the Presidents club people. In order to be a Presidents club member, you have to have sailed 1500 days on Holland American and you have to be invited!  We won’t be in that club. LOL

So what have we been doing? Well Ed still had tai chi, and he has been very good about attending, I will need to sneak in next time I can and get a photo of him. He-he. Any way, we have a new chef in the Test Kitchen, Jessie Roasa, we went to her demo, she is all of 25, self taught Philippine chef, that owns her own restaurant in Manila. So one day we learned to make a version of chicken adobo, which is almost a national dish, of the Philippines. Looks 

 an awful lot like Coco van to me but with a lot of vinegar and soy sauce. 

Then we went to see Barbara’s presentation on Puerto Princesa, our next port. Interesting little port, famous for one of the wonders of the natural world, The Underground River. Found in 1997. This is the only major tour here, we pass, neither Ed nor I want to do caves in water, with lots of bats!

So the next day was Gala night, and the theme is White Dinner, Ed and I were prepared for that one.  So no watercolor class again fo me so I rearranged clothes, putting away cold weather clothes and pulling out some of the hot weather clothes I had put away.  See, boaring. Then we went to see Barbara tell us about Manila. And we saw one on Hong Kong, not sure how that is going to work out.  As we are docking at Tie Tech, the old airport, and that is far away from everything, oh well we’ll see. 

Oh I forgot to tell you about crafts class, in these three days we have made a button note card, an Asian pendent, and a stone pendant, this is a great class, and I have learned a lot, about jewelry making, and lots of other little ideas too. 

And somewhere in this time I worked on my watercolor paintings, that I was behind on, and the third day we had a class again. 

So here is some of the paintings.  The spirit House was the last one. 

Now one thing that is happening is the precautions the ship is taking about pirates, here are some of the pictures Ed took of the water cannon. 

As I write this we are landing in Poerto Princesa and this is really humorous as the pilot boat is a canoe!

 You an see the pilot out on the ramp. And Ed tried to get him climbing up the ship, but the best he could do without falling overboard was the next one. 

 

So we are off to see the port. 

QUOTES: 

“TRAVEL in the younger sort, is a part of EDUCATION, in the elder, a part of EXPERIENCE.” - France Bacon

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.”  -Anais Nin 

“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, and unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.”  - Cesare Pavese 

Day 54, Tuesday, February 27, 2018 day two in Benoa Indonesia

Today was the second day in Bali and we had no plans, it was hot already at 10 am, so this was a day to sleep in and then go to the market. So that’s just what we did. And we met some of the crew members family’s and saw many on board. This will happen again in the Philippines, it is so nice for them. 

So we went out to the market and did some haggling, bought a few things we didn’t know we needed, and came back to the ship for lunch and a beer, a shower and got ready for happy hour and sail away, up in the Crows Nest, that was fun and took off some of the tension of dinner,,,,,, long story, 

we have a new waiter too, that is unrelated. He seems to be very good, but is gettin the cold shoulder from some at the table. 

Tomorrow will be different as they have temporarily canceled watercolor class as they are using the room for something else. And there will be an anti-piracy drill tomorrow, not sure what that will be like. Hummmmmm

Quote  “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my LIST.”  - Susan Sontag

(Backup) Day 52 At Sea Sunday February 25, and Day 53 Monday February 26, Benoa, Indonesia (Bali)

I will start out with Sunday, the sea day as we had a rather special sea day. I started out deciding to skip watercolor class and just catch up with finishing some of the paintings that had gone unfinished due to trying to put to much into a day. And I did just that, so that was good. Then we both, went to Barbara’s talk on Bali, and I think that was productive as we both enjoyed the tour the next day more because of it.  Then Ed went to the test kitchen, to see Bella Jakubiak make Aussie lamb burgers with beetroot relish, while I painted. I was determined to finish before we had to go to the crafts and make a bonefish bracelet, and for the most part I did. 

Now we made reservations for the Sommelier Dinner that night featuring Chef Bella, which probably was not the smartest move, as it made it difficult to get up the next morning, to go on a tour, but I get ahead of myself. 

The Sommelier Dinner is held in the Pinnacle dinning room, that is the specialty dinning venue on the Amsterdam, you always pay an extra price to dine there and on this night it’s even more! LOL. It was very nice, we had 7 coarse’s  and 7 wine parrings, so now you get the picture, of why it was hard to get up in the morning. We’re haveing so much fun we’re killing ourselfs. 

This was the menus:

First Course, Big Easy Chenin Blanc, paired with Australian snapper, lemon myrtle, coconut, wild finger lime

Second course, Laroche Chablis premier cru, paired with beef consommé, oxtail, vegetable pearls

Third course, cloudy bay Sauvignon Blanc, paired with lobster medallion, poached in butter, Espuma of old Amsterdam, saltbush dust

Intermezzo, same wine as above, with lemon sorbet, dehydrated lemon, almond streusel

Fourth course, Meiomi Pinot Noir, paired with duo of veal cheeks & beef tongue, Tasmanian mountain pepper, chili broth, roasted eggplant, jasmine rice 

Fifth course, Errazuriz late harvest Sauvignon Blanc paired with vanilla panna cotta, Lilly Pilly berry compote, macadamia crumble 

Final course, Warre's Warrior Tawny Port, paired with artisan cheeses, dried fruits and nuts

I’m full all over again, but it was a Dinner we’ll remember, for a long time

So the next morning we got up, slowly, but had to make our meeting time and walk the gaunt let to the bus, beautiful Bali was HOT! We the good news was the bus had good AC and it was a smaller one, so off we went, to see Bali arts & Safari Park, 8 hours, first stop, the Batik factory where besides seeing beautiful Batik fabrics, two of the artists painted with wax on mine and Ed’s shirts, in just minutes, wow what ability. 

 

 

This is what she used to do my flower, and a man did Ed’s eagle, this fabric starts out white!

So then next stop was the wood carvers, 

We were not allowed to take any pictures inside, they did have beautiful work

Then it was on to the Safari Park, this was very similar to Disney, we also had lunch there, and it was good. 

I got a nice shot of a lion. 

Then it was on to Ubud the artist area, to see some very interesting paintings, we couldn’t take pictures there either, but I got a great idea for a painting, we’ll see if it works out. 

Then Lucky our guid took us to see a typical Balinese home, very interesting, not what I expected at all. 

 
The bed in the back is not for sleeping it is for sickness or dying, the above is for washing 

This little house in the family compound is for newlyweds, there are no windows, it just looks like windows, they stay there three days, and others bring them food and water.  It is also used for birthing, and then the mother and baby stay there for 42 days. Others shop for their needs during that time, and baby’s can not touch the ground for 42 days either. 

So when we returned, we did a bit of shopping on the pier and had a good shower, and made it to dinner, then attended the Balinese show, it was really different the costumes were spectacular and so was the dancing, but the music,,,,, not so much

  

Quote “To me Travel is more VALUABLE than any piece of bling money can buy.”  -Raquel Cepeda 

Quote “ EXPLORE * DREAM * DISCOVER “ - Mark Twain

Day, 50-51 At Sea February 23-24, 2018

Ok, dear reader we are once again are at sea, the seas are pretty much calm and the wind is not presenting a problem. And it is getting warmer, I think we can pack our jackets, in the suitcase under the bed. And get out the Off, as Asia will bring out the bugs. Other than that, back to the same routine of sea days. 

But there are a few changes, we had a presentation on what to see and do from Bali to Singapore, it can all make your head spin. There are so many things to do it is hard to know what to do, and what will just wear you out. 51 days of good times can really be expensive and exhausting. Even sea days can be exhausting. When you do this for even say 45 days, it’s a vacation this is becoming a life style,,,,,,,,, 

Today besides the talks, there was crafts class, and I haven’t really told you about some of the things we have made. Today we made cloisonné earrings, and also chain Malle bracelet, you could have made a mans or woman’s. 

And then there was a visiting chefs presentation,  Isabella Jakubiak in the Test Kitchen. What a great personality, I can see why she has an award winning cooking show on tv in Australia. Her first day, she just warmed us all up, with smashed avocado, feta and tomato bruschetta. Then the second day it was Kangaroo and macadamia sausage rolls, and bush tomato relish! Did you know that bush tomatoes, look like little red berrys, almost like a cranberry, but, where would I get those never mind the Kangaroo meat, she did say we could substitute venison, and sun dried tomatoes. LOL. Then there was the Wattlessed Pavlova, we really are in another country when in Australia.

 

Isabella and her Pavlov with wattlessed, they smelled like coffee. And the infamous kangaroo sausage rolls. 

Ok the next  day was focused around the fact that we are going to be in Bali, so many of the crew is from Bali, they are getting so excited about coming to their home port, we are loosening our main waiter Aris, he has been on board for nine months and to say he is excited is putting it mildly. Also our room stewards are both from Bali so most of our section have put up little signs on the door to say they can skip cleaning our rooms for the two days we are in port. I think it is a nice thing to do, and God knows we can make our own bed for a couple days. 

The show on the first night was a good one, Matilda and Patrick Murray, she is a puppet he is a very good ventriloquist, We laughed and laughed. 

We also had Gala night on the second night it was a Pan-Asian Dinner, combining culinary delights from Indonesia and the Philippines, well they flunked in mine and Ed’s opinion, the worst dinner of the cruise. And it wasn’t just the different food, it wasn’t prepared well. We both ordered the Indonesian curry lamb chops,  and the sauce was wonderful, but the lamb was tough and overdone, oh well you win some and lose some. It was fun anyway. 

The man on the left is Aris, nice man and so happy his contract is up for now, and he will be able to spend time at home. 

Quotes

 “Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.” 

- Anne Sophie Swetchine

“ We travel not to escape life, but for LIFE to escape us.”   -Anonymous 

(Backup) Day 48 & 49 February 21 & 22, 2018 Fremantle, Australia

Good-by, Australia 🇦🇺 it was a wonderful visit. The people in the country are very kind. And we enjoyed our time in this vast country. We have been traveling around Australia for 10 days, and as of this morning, the 23rd as I write this we are still going around, heading north, to Bali, which will take us three sea days. 

Screen shot on tv, 

So now on to what we did in Fremantle for the last day and a half. We arrived about 4 o’clock on the 21st, and our tour to the aboriginal dance and dinner was to leave at 4:30. And indeed it did, there were two busses. Not knowing what to expect, we were full of aspiration. They drove us around Fremantle first and I was happy to see we could do some shopping there the next day, would you believe they had a Target store?  Not quite the same as the ours, but still proved the next day to be good. Any way back to this day. It took us about an hour and a half, to get to the place where they had the dinner, and this was a huge surprise!  It was like driving into a resort in old Palm Springs, beautiful green grass and large palm trees, and eucalyptus trees, that they called “gum” trees.  Seems they have over 400 species of eucalyptus, who knew?  

 

Our dinner venue. 

The dinner was very interesting, we ate Kangaroo, Emu,  and for desert there was an Australian peach, that looked like a cheery, but didn’t taste like either. Any way the food was good, in my opinion, there were other things too, but they didn’t give us a menu, so who knows what we ate. LOL

Then a family of aborigines, came and did some dances for us, that we didn’t understand but enjoyed watching. 

We didn’t get back to the ship until midnight, but we had a great trip through Perth, so now we didn’t need to take the train the next day to see the city, looked to be a very modern city. 

So the next day we took the free shuttle into Fremantle to check out the Target store and see what else we could find. I did find my eyebrow pencil, it was Maybelean and only $9.00 and I had AZ money to use up any way. Then we found the best thing, a pub for fish & chips and two Australian beers. 

It was back to the ship and say goodbye to Australia. 

Tomorrow is a sea day and a busy one at that. 

Quote “The IMPULSE to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of LIFE.”  - Cherkasy

Quote  “Oh the places you’ll find if you don’t stay behind.” - Unknown 

PS I sent this out but it didn’t go and I thought I lost it, but low and behold I found it! 

Day 45,46 At Sea and Day 47, Tuesday February 20, 2018 Albany Western Australia

Well here I am again and behind, but I will catch you up if I can in the time I have this morning. It is 7:03 am here right now on Wednesday, but, at your house it is still Tuesday and it is 6:03 pm. So I’m not as far behind, he-he. 

So the tw sea days were pretty uneventful except, I met Fiona, in watercolor class, and come to find out, we were going to see her and her partner Penny in the show that night. They do a singing duet mixing opera, and contemporary music, called Divalicious. Where they dueling Divas, they compete for both the top notes and the spotlight. It was very entertaining as they competed for high C on the high seas. 

The next day we bought them a drink and had a good chat, at happy hour. 

Ok, yesterday, we docked in a small town, called Albany, Western Australia, Australia 🇦🇺. And we did some walking around. I found some art supplies I needed and a few personal items one of them being a eyebrow pencil, but I refused to pay $22 NZ for one. Where the ones I brought with us are I don’t know, I guess they are in the suitcase under the bed we can’t get to. We did get some things we needed, like Fritos, would you believe you get a craving for junk food when you have all this good food. LOL

So here are some pictures of the pictures from the town, it was like we were back in the 60s. 

 

Quote 45, “Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world”. Gustauve Flaubert

Quote 46, “Live, Travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.”  Jack Kerouac 

Day 44 Saturday February 17, 2018. Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

We arrived in Adelaide as scheduled, so we readied ourselves for a long tour day, 8 hours, as we were getting ready, T-Mobile informed us we had service, so Ed sent out messages and we had reply’s right back, and then our youngest son called! Not sure what that will cost, but we don’t care as it all really helped with the homesickness. Thanks kids we really needed that. 

It was a beautiful day, not hot and not cold, we ended with a high of 82F. So off we went for a tour of the winery’s.  The first one was Jacobs Creek. What a pretty place. Very modern, but lots of history.  The story’s of these placeses in Australia have a similar start, like the old west in the US, but the time line is not as long ago. 

 

It had a 300 year old Eucalyptus that was beautiful and these were all over the Barossa Valley. It was a good day and we had a good lunch in another winery. We were suppose to see an old German settlement and I guess if you call driving by on the bus seeing it we did. 

At a stop at a dam, not scheduled, we saw some kangaroos. 

So all and all a good day, bought some wine, came back mellow and had dinner.

Quote “Like all great TRAVELERS, I have seen more than I can remember, and remember more than I have seen.” -Benjamin Disraeli 

Day 43, Friday February 16, 2018 Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island Australia

Chinese New Year, they decorated the Lido it was all decked out.

  

We went for lunch, as our tour didn’t leave until 12:30, as the ship was late getting in. The storm we came through, made the captain slow ship speed to make us as comfortable as he could. Ed had his tai chi, and I did some housekeeping while he was gone. And then we got ready to go to lunch, and then go down for the tour. 

This is a tender port and there were a lot of people ready to get on dry land after the last two days. So instead of taking us down the passenger way, we went down through the crew area. I’m not crazy about stairs any way, but the stairs the crew has to use are really steep, and I’m thinking of them having to do there job the last couple days, we’ll you get the picture. We board the tender and again we are rocking and rolling, I was ready to hit dry land too. 

Kangaroo Island is a place that reminds me of West Texas, and the hill country, all at the same time. Very hilly and very dry.  Not much here except 20,000 Koloa bears, we saw none, and kangaroos, which we did see. 

Our first stop was the Dudley winery, nice way to start a short four hour tour. We tasted 6 wines and purchased one. 

Then over some very rough roads, we went to the light house, wear we saw the lighthouse and a family of Kangaroos. 

Then it was a walk to the beach,,,, and back to the ship 

Dinner was ok, but nothing special, I’m getting homesick. 

Quote “ When was the last time you did something for the first TIME?” - Live learn Evolve