Day 73/74 At Sea March 18/19, 2018 On our way to Colombo, Sel Lanka

Well here we are again with the time, we set our clocks back a half hour last night, so as I write this it is 6:44 AM  on the 19th, and on the east coast it is 8:14 PM on the 18th, and we have 373 mile to go to Sri Lanka 🇱🇰, Sri Lanka,,,, that is a place I read about in books, not one I ever thought I might visit. 

And it is already 81 F, so once again the heat will be a factor in the day even at sea.  There seems to be a problem wit the AC in different areas on the ship, we all thought we would melt, yesterday up in the Lido doing our craft class, and then we had a cabin crawl, getting a chance to see 7 other cabins, including ours, but all that walking around the ship, really made us milt. So it was rush back to shower, and get ready for the evening, and they say sea days are relaxing!

We are still waiting to hear if the ship has been able to arrange something for Ed, luckily he is not in pain, the tooth, I think had a root canal in the distant past, but he doesn’t remember. 

So I will post some more pictures from Phuket and our time at the Island Safari. 

   

Ed feeding the baby elephant bananas and not fast enough, LOL I already gave this one all the bananas I had and he thinks he can find more. 

 

 

They did a cooking demonstration, these are eggplant and she is now putting in lemon grass and scallions. This wok is holding the dish we ate. 

It was good, but they put in too much hot pepper for me, Ed loved it. 

  

A little Singh’s beer to go along. 

 

On the way to lunch, not our buss but couldn’t resist taking a picture. 

How about this for an electrical grid? 

Back on the ship it was St Patrick’s day. Aby, from the Test Kitchen and I. 

Quotes:  “Once a year GO SOMEPLACE you’ve never been before.”-    -  Dalai Lama

“It is in all of us to defy expectations to go into the world and to be brave and to want, to need to hunger for ADVENTURE to embrace change and chance and to risk, so that we may breath and know what it is to be FREE.”  - Mae Chevrollo

(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 

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