(Backup) Day 72, Saturday, March 17, 2018 Phuket, Thailand and St Patrick’s day

What a day we had today,,,, some good some not so good.  The good was the tour to ride the elephant and the St Patrick’s day party, the not good was Ed broke/cracked his front tooth, and now we need to figure out how to get it fixed. I tried to do a temporary fix with some super glue, but it didn’t hold, as I couldn’t keep it dry enough, long enough. So that is on the agenda first thing when he wakes up, it is just 7:08 AM here. So I will skip, watercolor class, as today is Sunday and Ed doesn’t have Thi Chi, so we will go see what the ship can do. Ed is down at the clinic now, so I will try to post some pictures of the day. 

 

These were taken at the park, they are better in person, but it will give you some idea.  I will post more later when I know more info. Right now I need to get the cabin made pretty and organized for the cabin crawl our cruise critic group is doing. There all going to see our cabin! 

Day 70 Singapore, Singapore, day 2, Thursday, March 15, 2018

We awoke, tired and sore from yesterday’s 15,000 steps, and the heat. Boy when you aren’t used to this kind of heat, this close to the equator, it can really get to you. And today was no exception, we didn’t stay hydrated, like we should have, and it has really hit Ed. He is paying for it today. 

We once again walked around China town looking for silly things we didn’t find and could have done without anyway. We took a taxi from the Millenia walk shopping center, where the shuttle dropped us off. Not knowing the name of the mall in China Town we needed to go to,,,, that was inside and had AC we just went to China Town, which was all tourist stuff, not where the locals shopped! Oh well live and learn. We came back to the ship about three, exhausted and dehydrated, not good. Ed now is fighting a cold. Luckily tomorrow is a Sea day, we’ll see how it goes. 

 

Streets were crowded,,, and check out the sign in this shop. 

  

This was the kind of stuff they had. The nex picture is of the food street, too hot to eat at 95F 

 

Needless to say I’m not Chinese size. 

 

This was a temple at the intrance of Chinatown, we didn’t go in as we both had shorts on. I hope you can make the picture bigger, to see the statues on the temple they are quite extraordinary.   This is the year of the dog, so there were lots of statues of dogs. 

So we went to dinner, and there were only 5 of us, Cathy was missing, as the day was too much for her too. Tomorrow’s a sea day. 

Quote:  “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may become friends.”    - Maya Angelou 

Day 69 Wednesday, March 14, 2018 Singapore, Singapore weather 89 F partly cloudy

We awoke about 7:30 AM which will be our normal 6:30 when we turn the clock back in Thailand, but who knows, we really don’t know what time is any way, we just have to know what the ships time is,,,, that’s all that matters. 

So we got up and had a bit of breakfast, Ed had oatmeal and I had a bowl of bluberrys. Held us over until our late lunch, in Chinatown, but I get ahead of my self. 

We went down to the shuttle bus that took us to the Millenia Mall, it took about 20 minuets to get there. Then we bought tickets for the MRT / subway to take us to Little India.  Wow what a place, the fabrics were unbelievably beautiful, I could go nuts, and almost did, poor Ed he was a real pack horse today. After much searching, I found a Saree, to wear on March 19 for the Formal night that is the Indian theam. If I can learn how to do it between now and then. LOL. If not,,,,, oh well. 

 

These are all flowers on this elephant. Some stalls that selling everything. 

 

 

Then it was on to Chinatown and lunch 

  

 

The beer is easy to tell you what it is, the rest was wonderful, but all in Chinese, was delicious. We didn’t stay in Chinatown long after eating, as we were hot, tired and sweaty, and there were two Singapore slings waiting for us. 

      

The lights from the city were wonderful and the piano player from the piano bar was playing, it was a magical night, and had been a good day. 

  


Quote: “ A ship in harbor is safe....... But that’s NOT why ships are built.”  - John A. She’d 

Days 66,67,68 March 11, 12, and 13th 2018 At Sea, and Phu My, Vietnam and at sea

So here we are again, catch-up day. Our room has a big dehumidifier going, trying to get the moisture out of the carpet, and prevent the mold from developing as I could tell by the smell was happening, and by the fact that my eyes were burning,,,,, etc etc. So hopefully this will be resolved soon 

Here are some pictures of the mess. 

 

The crew scrambling after getting the water turned off from the sprinklers, boy do they put out a lot of water! 

 

This is the hall carpet hung out to dry.  They brought us chocolates and a bottle of wine, the next day, of coarse we slouched around all night, when you went to the bathroom, guess who didn’t kneed to go all night, he slept like a baby. I was up most of that night walking in water in our hall. They tried to help by putting down half a dozen towels, but I think it just made a bigger mess, because there was no where for the water to go.  The next morning, or I should say latter that morning, they started to use big vacuums to suck up the water. Then they pulled up the carpet in the hallway, and hung it out to dry.  Our room was mopped up the next day, but it took two more days before it was really dry, that didn’t happen unti yesterday the 13th when they finely brought in a big dehumidifier, it is now back to normal.  It was unfortunate that they kept our balcony door open all day when we were in Vietnam as that air was any thing but fresh. 

So now on to our day in Vietnam, it was fun, we learned how to make spring rolls and a wonderful salad, did you know, that they use Lotas in there salads. They harvest the stalks 15 feet under the water and it is really good. Taste a bit like celery root. The dressing we learned to make was wonderful too, the spring rolls were greasy as they tried to rush us, but I learned a lot a bought some great spring roll wrappers, and of the freshest pistachio nuts  I have ever had, in the market, but that was the only shopping in the market we had. I wanted so much to by an ou-di, but they didn’t let us shop. :( 

  

Charline and I drinking water getting ready to cook. 

 

 The food was ready to be prepared, all very clean. This is the cooking school, on the top floor, it was also CIA headquarters / MAC-V, during the war. 

So after a long day, we once again boarded the bus for the 1 1/2 hour ride back to the ship. 

 

 

Chinese are taking over. There are still some rice fields around, but they are plowing over them to build high-rises. 

Day 63, 64, 65 Hong Kong, and at sea. March, 8, 9, 10th 2018

I know it has been a while since I last wrote, but it has been busy three days, and as I write this we are walking around in water of about four inches deep. They had a fire in the incinerator right as we were finishing dinner. It was taken care of in about 20 minuets. Now I don’t know if this was related, but about 30 minuets after we got back from diner, about 10 pm our time, we herd noises that sounded like running water and sure enough it was,,,,,, the sprinklers in the hall were all going off! Water was flooding our room, pouring in under the door!  So now they are sucking up the water in the hallway and then they will suck up the water in the room. It is now 11:56 PM don’t think we will get to sleep anytime soon. So I might as well try to get thi blog written. 

March 8, Hong Kong day 1. We arrived as scheduled, and it was raining, bummer. They said that it might clear a bit in the middle of the day, but it didn’t. It rained off and on all day, and it was cold. Mid 50s and the wind was blowing. Ed was determined to go to Hong Kong Disney soooo we did! We got dressed, and when they finely cleared the ship, we went downstairs and walked the LONG WALK out of the terminal and talked to where there were port guides to tell us wear to go, if you didn’t take the shuttle to the Paninsula hotel. So after determining that our best bet was a taxi for the 45 minute joinery, we got in, and we were off. 

We had a good driver who spoke a little English, more then my manderan, LOL  on the ride over it was obvious how much Hong Kong 🇭🇰 has grown. I should say exploded in population supper high rises every where. We arrived Disney and 250 Hong Kong dollar ride, which is about $32 not bad for as far as it was. And ther  

was a toll the guy had to pay along the way, and he was a good driver. 

So it was raining, still when we arrived, but not hard, more a drizzly mist, so now we walked about 3/4 of a mile to get to the gate area, here you had a bag check before you buy tickets.  So we bought our senior tickets about $20 each, what a bargain. The rest of Disney price wise was about the same as Florida, price wise. So off we went to the emporium to buy goodies. After about an hour or so, while it was once again raining hard, once it had stopped raining we started down Main Street. Everything was written in English, and all the park guides spook perfect english.  They were such nice young people. So we walked and walked, road the train, had lunch, walked some more, and at about four decided it was time to go back to the ship as we were tired. The long walk back to the taxi stand was bad, but not as bad as the walk in the terminal, that seemed never ending.

We went to the Lido for dinner not feeling up to dressing for dinner, and had planed to see the show which was a big Chinese extravaganza, but knew we wouldn’t make it. We were fast asleep by nine, we had walked 16,000 steps! 

So the next day, we were off to see Hong Kong markets,,,,, well that didn’t work out :(. Long story. 

Now the carpet is a bit dryer and we went to Formal night, a Chinese theam and I didn’t have my Chinese jacket, because we didn’t make it to the market, whine, whine. 

Quotes: “ I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world”.  - Mary Anne Radmacher 

               “You CAN leave Hong Kong, but it will never LEAVE YOU”.  - NurynVittachi