April 16 - Home

We had breakfast again at Eggs N Things to fuel up for the long trek home.  Interestingly, they sell branded water bottles made by Hydroflask (a local Bend company).  And we saw Deschutes beer in Sydney so Bend is truly internationally known.

Caught a bus transfer to the airport and our flight to Seattle took only 8 hrs, 15 mins.  They fed us twice with an ice cream snack in between. I watched 3 movies again so that really helped pass the time.  Unfortunately we had a 4 hour layover in Seattle, but the flight to Redmond left on time.

This was a very good trip.  Saw a lot of different things, experienced very different cultures, met some very nice people and made lots of good memories.  Someday we'd like to go back to New Zealand and Japan. 

April 15 -Tokyo, Japan

Forgot to mention dinner last night.  Since we ate a late lunch, we weren't overly hungry so we went to a sushi bar with the plates that go around on a conveyor belt.  If you didn't see what you want, you could order off of a tablet provided.  Each item comes on a specific colored plate that indicates the price.  At the end the cashier scans the pile of plates with a gizmo and it gives him the total bill.  We had one beer, one wine spritzer and about six pieces of nagiri each for $25 total.  Very good deal for Tokyo and it was delicious! 

Woke up to lots of wind and rain so we lazed around.  After a late breakfast at a place called Eggs 'n Things, a Hawaiian restaurant chain (no salad with my eggs benedict), we took the train and subway back to the area around yesterday's temple.  The weather was better by then so we just walked around for a while.  There were many young women in kimonos around the temple, most of them posing for selfies.  A vendor was selling octobus balls (pieces of octopus cooked in a dough) which were a specialty of Osaka but we didn't get to try there.  The port expert on the ship recommended them.  Hmmmm, maybe they are better in Osaka, but we couldn't finish the Tokyo version.

At breakfast I noticed several families were wearing shirts that had horizontal black stripes - not all the same shirt, but all with black stripes.  Then I noticed others outside the restaurant, also in black stripes.  We theorize it was some kind of a promotion to get into a movie or an amusement ride at a discount.

We realized today that the train we've been riding has no driver, but is run completely automatically.  Many airports have trams like that, but this is a line with 19 stations and trains that come every 3 or 4 minutes.  It also runs on rubber tires with a third rail for power which must also keep it centered on the course.

For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant, Zest Cantina, which was pretty good.  We were a little surprised that the jalapeno popper appetizer included only 2 pieces, but they were good as were the tacos and chicken enchiladas.

Another good day in Tokyo.  We are very favorably impressed with everything here.  The streets are amazingly clean and we only saw one homeless person begging and he wasn't Japanese. I admit I don't get the thing with small dogs though. I suppose if you live in a big city in a high rise apartment, they make sense, but why do so many clothe them and push them in little doggie prams? 

April 14 - Tokyo, Japan

We had to meet our morning tour at 8:30 and yesterday on our reconnoiter of the meeting place we saw a Danny's nearby so we thought it would fun to give it a try.  It wasn't busy when we arrived so having only 2 waiters was OK.  We ordered American style breakfasts, although my scrambled eggs with bacon also came with a little lettuce salad.  After a while.e we figured out what all the various bell ringing about - one when the door opened, another when an order was ready and the last when a table wanted something. There was a little plastic gizmo on each table with a button at the top. When you pushed it, a bell sounded, your table number lit up on the wall and the waiter came over.  As it got busier, more and more bells were going off.  The poor waiters were running every which way.  It was like a comedy skit.  I imagine those poor guys heard those bells in their sleep.

Probably 6 or 8 tours left from one central bus station at the same time which is a smart plan, but it was pretty chaotic for a while.  We went to another shrine, a castle and a temple, all of which were lovely.  At the Shinto shrine there was a wedding party coming out which was fun to see.  A couple of times along the road we saw little kids from a daycare or school on an outing.  Several of the teachers escorted the kids (around 1 or 2 years old) on the sidewalk by putting them in what amounted to a large laundry cart like a hotel would use and wheeling them around.  All the kids had uniforms and hats on in bright colors.

Now in the hotel, I figured out how to add photos so I'll throw in some of my favorites.  They are in no particular order.   Look at the left side of the street scene for the kids in the orange hats - I only got it on the run as we drove by.  The stuffed crocodile, Sweetheart, was about 18 feet long.  The five huge apartment buildings are outside Ho Chi Minh City.  The toilet instructions are fun.  There is a replica of the Statue of Liberty near our hotel, not sure why. 

After the tour we had a late lunch and walked around the Ginza area for a while.  It has lots of upscale shops so we didn't make any stops.  Then the train back to the hotel for a bit.  I took a nice bath in the big tub with the provided bath salts and I can confirm that the water drains clockwise now.

April 13 - off the ship and into Tokyo

We had a nice breakfast in the dining room where we saw Peter and Carol one last time and said goodbye to other friends made on board.  Unfortunately one of the 4 couples with us was one we'd eaten with before and she is rather a grumpy snob.  She complained to the waiter that one of her two poached eggs on English muffins was "stone cold and unpalatable".  I had to wonder if perhaps it had gone cold while
she was eating the first one, but didn't say anything.  She had also dumped HP sauce (like our Heinz 57 steak sauce) all over it all so I had to wonder at her taste to begin with 😉.  Ah well, takes all kinds and fortunately she was in the small minority of complainers.

We were called to get off the ship right on time at 9:40 and walked right off to our bags and out to the taxi stand.  As suggested by the concierge at our hotel, the Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba, we took a taxi to the Yokohama City Air Terminal, which is a bus terminal despite its name.  From there we bought tickets on the highway bus to Odaiba leaving in an hour which has a drop off at the door of the hotel.  Easy breezy.  The check in clerk said that even though check in technically is 3:00 pm (it was noon) our room was ready so we could go on up, but don't tell anyone (wink).  They normally have a charge for early check in.  The room isn't very big, but it has free WiFi and they provide a free smart phone that has unlimited WiFi and unlimited local and international calling! We are free to bring it with us when we go out! Unbelievable, especially since we are paying about $150 a night for this room - a deal through booking.com. 

We booked a half day tour tomorrow with the concierge, reserved 2 seats on the bus to the airport on Monday and headed out to explore.  There is a multistory shopping center right across the street with lots of restaurants so we ate at a noodle shop.  There is a train station (Odaiba) right in front of the hotel so we went to the location of our tour meeting place so we could find it tomorrow morning.  Of course we got on the train in the wrong direction and had to get off and turned around, so it's good we did a dry run.  We wandered a bit more then came back for a rest before having a good dinner at a different place in the shopping center.  Love that the restaurants have pictures of everything on the menu since even the English translations aren't that informative.  The hotel has many restaurants also,  but looking at the menus online, the average price for dinner is nearly $100 per person, so we'll give them a miss.

April 12 - Shimizu, Japan

This morning we did most of our packing since we didn't arrive into port until around noon.  Around 11:00 am the captain announced that Mt. Fuji was visible ahead so we grabbed the phone and headed up top for pictures.  It was beautiful!  There is still snow on top and the air was pretty clear. Apparently the day before was very cloudy, so we were very fortunate.  While a nice gentleman was taking our picture together, my visor flew over the railing and landed just out of reach on a ledge.  It stayed there and since we couldn't reach it through the slats, I wrote it off.  But the gentleman used his camera on the strap to snag it and pull it in.  I was so afraid he'd drop his camera all for a $5 visor!

Our tour was to 2 more shrines, but I enjoyed these more than those in Osaka probably because they were smaller and less crowded.  The last stop was to a beach where we got more good pictures of Mt. Fuji.   Wish I could post them, but the WiFi on the ship just doesn't allow for it, or I'm not doing it right.

We had our last dinner with Peter and Carol, which was very sad.  They are so much fun to be around and we will miss them very much.  Hopefully we can cruise again, or do something else with them in the future.

Our waiters confirmed that the errant third engineer they were looking for that night was indeed in another cabin when they tried to reach him after he didn't turn up for his watch.  A big no-no.   And there was someone who had a heart attack in Osaka and didn't get back on board, so we think it probably was that couple on our tour.  Hope all's well with them.

Final packing and put out our bags after dinner.  We have to be out of our cabin before 8:00 in the morning.

April 11 - Osaka, Japan

We were welcomed to the pier this morning by a sort of marching band wearing black suits.   One of their songs was "Life Goes On" by the Beetles - interesting choice.  Since we all had to go through Customs and Immigration here, the tours were late getting started. Everyone had to put two fingers on a scanner and look into the retinal scanner as well, so it wasn't a very quick process. Our tour stopped first at a Samurai castle which was impressive on  the outside, but too modern on the inside.  It was rebuilt in the 1930s so the best parts were the grounds and outside walls. Unfortunately, 2 people never made it back to the bus, so after waiting 35 minutes for them, we had to leave. We did see an ambulance take someone away - hope it wasn't them!  Next stop was a Shinto shrine which was interesting. Then back to the ship. All in all not the best tour. There was a lot of driving and not through very interesting areas but Osaka is very clean and modern, of course.

There was fast free WiFi at the cruise terminal so everyone took advantage of that, naturally.  There is also a huge ferris wheel that takes 15 minutes to go around and has a capacity of around 450, and a shopping center with a small Legoland right here as well.   The public toilets have heated seats and all the buttons for washing and drying, but you have to figure it out as it's in Japanese. They provide paper also for those of us who like the old fashioned way. Can't wait for our hotel in Tokyo where I'll have time to learn what all the buttons do.

At departure time they paged 2 passengers to please check in.  Maybe our missing pair didn't make it back to the ship.

April 10 - at sea

Nothing to report today. Still not feeling 100% so we hung around the cabin although Michael spent 90 minutes in the gym. He also found me another Lee Child book in the Jack Reacher series in the library, so I was a happy camper.

April 9 - at sea

I was feeling a little under the weather intestinally so we did a whole lot of nothing again. The seas are pretty calm and it's a nice temperature so reading, sudoku, and gazing out from our balcony was the order of the day. Lots more fishing boats lately and we came very close to a net marker.  Wonder how many we've run over.

April 8 - at sea

At 1:15 this morning again over the speakers in the cabin we heard DING, ding. We know this can't be good. The captain came on calling for crew member Dory Cameron, 3rd engineer, to please report to the senior engineer in the engine control room.  Ok, at least not a fire, but is it a man overboard situation?  A second call 15 minutes later.  Then finally the announcement that the crew member has been located so all's well and sorry for the interruption of sleep.  We speculate that Dory was in a cabin where (s)he wasn't supposed to be and perhaps didn't turn up for watch. I bet Dory gets off at the next port.

Other than that, it was a typical quiet sea day of reading and watching the ocean go by.

April 7 - Hong Kong

Our tour departed about on time at 9:30 this morning.  The woman guide was a little difficult to understand, but  she was enthusiastic. We drove to Victoria Peak and caught the tram down. Wonderful views. Took a sampan ride of the Inner Harbor, went to  a jewelry shop (of course) and then had some time at a local market in Stanley.  That doesn't sound like that much, but with traffic we weren't back to the ship until 3:30.   What a fascinating place this is. With a population of 7.4 million living in such a small area, it's easy to see why they have more than 8,000 skyscrapers of over 14 floors. I believe our guide siad there are 60,000 people per square kilometer.  Many of their private apartment buildings and public housing towers are 50 stories high.  And everywhere you look there are more being built, many using bamboo scaffolding.   Didn't see many scooters, too much affluence I guess, but there were lots of buses. This was Saturday so I would hate to see what traffic would be like on a workday.

After dinner we sat on the balcony and watched the lights until we sailed at 9:00 pm.  There were jelly fish around the ship but no other sea life that we could see.  Michael said he remembered way more traffic on the harbor in the past. There weren't any sampans in the main channel this time.  Twice a night there is a coordinated light and music show with many of the buildings participating. Apparently you  need to download the app "ICC light and music show" to hear it, but the lights alone were pretty cool.

April 6 - at sea

Today was a good day to recover from the busy Vietnam days. Did a load of laundry because I wanted some of the things back right away and the free service takes a couple of days.  Went to the wine tasting and met a Philippina woman who retired to Klamath Falls - it's a long story.  Had another fun dinner with Carol and Peter, who is feeling much better, thank goodness.

I forgot to mention that we could have  bought Pringles in "chili and fried squid" flavor in Vietnam but for some reason Michael didn't want to.

April 5 - Nha Trang, Vietnam

This is a tender port and our tour wasn't until 12:30 so we didn't get onto the tender until about 10:00 am. There was a complimentary shuttle into town (15 minutes away) so we took that. Since we had to be back at the pier at 12:20 we only had a little time to walk around a bit. The tour was good, but a lot of on and off the bus. Fortunately there were only 12 of us and everyone was nimble and on time. We saw a temple dating back to the 13th century and then took a short boat ride to a village  where a man made the clay pots used in traditional cooking.  We went into a typical local house and visited the community hall. Every place is dominated by the shrine to the ancestors. The village was what you would expect. I was struck by the very sickly looking chickens pecking around. There were plenty of dogs but not a single cat to be found.  And not many people around since they were all working. Children go to school starting at 1 year old, but our guide said education isn't free, even in the elementary grades, which is not what our guide said yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City.   She said that you didn't pay for the school, but you had to pay for the uniforms, books, supplies, etc.   Maybe that's what he meant by "not free".

Again this is a city of contrasts. It is a lovely beach town with many beautiful hotels and resorts along the beach and fishermen eaking out a living around the corner. We saw the remains of the bunkers built into the hill by the Americans next to a new water slide park.   We ate with a fellow who was here with the navy during the war and remembers they would say at the time that Nha Trang would make a great beach town after the war and now he was able to see that come to fruition.

As before the scooters are amazing to watch. We saw a few with 2 mothers and 2 children on the same bike coming home from school. My favorite was the 2 men with the fellow in the rear holding a piece of window glass on his lap that was about 3x4 feet big. But it was ok  because they had their helmets on!  One of the passengers commented that it was safety glass, so no worries. 😉

There is no Uber here, but Asia has Grab ride sharing service. I believe there was something in the news the other day about Uber investing heavily in Grab.  You see the Grab drivers on their scooters with green jackets and helmets with the logo. Passengers have to wear the Grab helmet too.  It works the same as Uber with the app and set price and is becoming very popular.

April 4 - Phuy My (Ho Chi Minh City)

Since Ho Chi Minh City is 90 minutes away by bus, our tour started early. The first half was along a busy commercial street with little businesses one after the other - some nice, others not so nice. Our guide told us that many of the owners live at the back of the stores. The second half of the drive was on the freeway which was just completed a few years ago.  As we drew near to the city the high rise apartments began. They are building thousands of apartments with investment money from all over the world. HCM has a population of almost 10 million already and it looks like that will just continue to grow.  We stopped at a laquer factory to see how it's made and have a little shopping opportunity. Next was the Notre Dame Cathedral and post office building. From that square we could see the famous building rooftop where the last helicopters took out the people as Saigon fell.  Then to a market that was an indoor maze where Michael bought 2 sarongs. We had a couple of hours of free time so we went to the Rex Hotel which was used by the journalists covering the war. They would sit at the rooftop bar and count the planes and choppers leaving and returning to see how many were lost each day.  We ran into Peter and Carol so we joined them for a beer and a plate of fried rice for me.  We also tried the Vietnamese coffee which is delicious but more expensive than Starbucks. We took advantage of the free WiFi to check emails, but no calls home due to the time difference.  We had a bit of a walk around before meeting the bus for the return trip to the ship.  As expected it was very hot and muggy so a quick shower felt very good before dinner.

The traffic in HCM is amazing. There are almost no stop lights or signs and everyone just seems to figure out how to get through intersections by weaving in and out.  Scooters outnumber cars and trucks and they don't always stay in their lanes or even on the right side of the road in some cases.  To cross on foot, you wait for a little break and then just start across. You don't look at the traffic or change your pace or direction - they will go around you.  It's rather unnerving to say the least, but it works.

We were beat so we skipped the show tonight - some Japanese jugglers.  Tomorrow is our second Vietnamese and port, Nha Trang. 

April 3 - at sea

Today was one of the laziest yet.   After breakfast we headed to the atrium for coffee as we usually do and ended up spending the whole morning there reading or chatting with other passengers.   An Australian couple told us about a man (also Australian) they ate with who went on about how bad it is that so many people don't wash their hands enough on the ship and spread their germs everywhere, and then he proceeded to put his finger on the open top of the Worcestershire bottle and shake it!  She said she was too flabbergasted to even say anything.    After lunch, more of the same laziness.  Michael didn't even make it to the gym.

Our TVs were out yesterday again, but are working today.   We seem to put on the Australian or NZ news channels more often than not and it's interesting to see that they have the same problems we do - lying politicians, police officers being bad, real estate prices getting too high, etc.

I've been checking the water as it drains and so far it is still counter clockwise. The captain did say that the phenomenon is real, but you have to get far enough from the equator to see the change.  I'll keep checking. And sort of related to that, we've noticed that in Australia, NZ and even on the ship, people tend to walk on the left, so we are making a real effort to follow suit.

Peter has not been himself for a few days now and tonight he left dinner early. Hopefully it's just a cold or something, but we are a little worried about him. 

Tonight's show was the wonderful Welsh violinist, Chris Watkins, again with the ship's pianist as accompanist (?).

Tomorrow is Phu My,  Vietnam the port for Ho Chi Minh city.

April 2 - Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Last night was more excitement. At 3:15 am we were awakened by an announcement in the cabin from the captain calling for First Station on deck 10 in the breadbox. At least that's what it sounded like.  Fifteen minutes later he came back on to say there had been a small fire on deck 10, but it was out now and the smoke should be clearing soon, so not to worry, everything is fine. And again 15 minutes later to ask those on deck 10 to please not open their cabin doors, that the smoke would clear better if they let the ventilation work.  Needless to say, sleep was a long time coming after that.

Kota Kinabalu is the capital of the state of Sabah,  one of the states of Malaysia and located on the island of Borneo along with parts of Indonesia and the nation of Brunei. This morning was a tour of "the colours of Borneo", although I have no idea why it was called that.  We took a nice air conditioned bus on a 45 minute drive to a sort of beach resort (I use that term generously) where we made a little batik painting,  had a chance to try a blow dart weapon, and had tea and banana fritters. There was a beach, with jelly fish warnings,  and nice hammocks in the shade and that was about it. We spent 90 minutes there, which was 30 minutes too long. It was terribly hot and humid.   Then we drove to a pottery factory, which was ok, then back to the ship. We did get a chance to see the extremes - lots of high rise office and apartment buildings going up,  and then poor tin roof houses of wood with trash all over. They all had satellite dishes though.

Again the pool was very refreshing after the heat.  During dinner the captain explained that the incident last night was a fire in the motor of a dishwasher in the room service kitchen on deck 10.  It was promptly extinguished and no one was hurt.

Tomorrow is another sea day before Vietnam.

April 1 - Easter at sea

They offered church services this morning and had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids, but the dinner menu was the same as scheduled, although there was lamb available.

The show was a couple who did flamenco dancing, but not particularly well, in my opinion.  Tomorrow is Borneo.