Dead sea?

Hazy, warm, fairly quiet seas

But then we haven’t been going very fast today either. It isn’t that far from Taiwan to Hong Kong.

My raspy throat and pulmonary involvement have been tough for the past few days so I took longer to get moving this morning. Ed ordered in tea and oatmeal and I plodded along while he went to the destination talk for Sanya, China, the stop after Hong Kong.

I did make it to the culinary demonstration which is always fun as the chefs and other staff poke fun at each other and do crazy things with food.

Trivia was fun with the Aussie couple and another from Ohio. The Aussie is relocating to England. He has dual citizenship and his wife is in the early stages of Pick’s disease a type of dementia. He’s very interesting and knowledgeable as he is a water engineer and is very knowledgeable about water issues in the US. Except for the northernmost cities, allthe coastal cities in Australia have desalination plants.

English Pub Lunch

This is offered occasionally and we had heard good things about it so we went here as our time was limited. I had fish n chips and Ed had shrimp n chips. Quite good actually though the malt vinegar wasn’t nearly tart enough for me.

Last WWII talk

This was very poignant and touching. He told the stories of several true heroes of WWII and the first few were black men who did extraordinary things in terms of achievement and sacrifice. Along the way he told us a little about his career as a naval pilot with grace and no chest thumping. He saw his best friend get shot down and wasn’t able to help him. Very tough.

Penguins

This was a DVD we checked out with great hopes. It took Ed a while to figure out how to make it work (I would have been useless) and we watched about 15 min of it and then hummed and hawed about whether or not to finish it. In the end, we shut it off. But the cartoons were cute.

Book Review

The readers reviewed a book by Jodi Picoult (sorry I don’t know this author although I recognized the name. It deals with many issues including racial, sibling rivalry, white supremacist, and such. The readers were mostly white, one black woman, some Jews, Aussies, US, and one lady from UK. A man also joined in. It was interesting to hear the different interpretations of events in the book and the personal stories and revelations of the readers. It made me think a lot and I was surprised at the emotions the discussion brought up in me. I only listened as I haven’t read the book.

Trivia this afternoon: Frances and I got there late as we were at the book review. We were able to make some contributions despite our tardiness and we don’t have to hang our heads in shame over our performance.

Dinner was formal with the traditional baked Alaska as dessert. Lucian leaves us tomorrow to return to his home in Romania. I have become very fond of his with his very dry sense of humor. He is also very bright and I got a lot of insight into the politics of the Balkan region.

Photo issues

Show

Was a Motown group: two guys from Detroit who met in Japan. Go Figure.

Mardi Gras

Celebration at 9 pm on the upper deck. I’m taking my mask I made the other day.

Very fun, busy day

KAOSHIUNG

It was foggy and remained hazy for a good part of the day. The ship enters this busy harbor through a gap created between two long wooden extensions from shore.

Since we had our customs materials all ready, going on shore and onto the busses was quick and easy. We were off by 8:10 and our bus was not due to leave until 8:30.

Motorcoaches

These are really nice. Two stories. I have no idea what’s on the first level except the driver and a shot gun seat. And it has two exit doors.

The windows have drapes and valances with fringe balls. We were given water and encouraged to drink it liberally. And they weren’t kidding. We knew we were sweating a little, but he weather was in the 70s with occasional breezes and so we didn’t think much of it. We did drink however without making many contributions back to the environment except perhaps through sweat evaporation.

The city

Is a bustling metropolis with lots of scooters with separate lanes and parking spaces. In fact, I don’t really recall any specific auto parking lots.

There are many modern, elevated freeways with many bridges and interchanges. Hot Water tanks are atop all the homes, something often seen in other sunny countries. I like the idea but it is unsightly.

7 elevens abound here. But I didn’t go into one to see if they sold lottery tickets and were run by India folks.

Housing is small and very expensive.

Monastery

This was such a beautiful place and you certainly get your exercise going up 150 stairs and then winding your way around the mountain and eventually to a very tall, lovely, female looking Buddha that reminded me a little of Christ the Redeemer in Rio. It is a calm refuge and redolent with many large Buddha statues, niches for Buddhas, flowers and wonderful gardens everywhere, statuary every where. Buddhist nuns (I saw only one monk) were everywhere in their brown cassock looking clothes and with shaved heads (what a time saver).

We were here over an hour learning about the numbers of stories in the temples and the number of doors/windows to each side. Yellow painting is the emperor as an example.

Bathrooms

This one is for ladies. Unlike other places I’ve been where Chinese hole-in-the-floor toilets were the only option, here they had both options. It took me a while to realize that there is often a little icon on the door to indicate whether it is Chinese or Western toilet. As you may expect, the Western toilets were always full. I’m not choosy and took my turn at the Chinese ones and without grab bars can still get up and down. You must carry your own toilet tissue here and it has to be put into an adjacent trash can, never down the commode. I was told in China, this is because the toilet water is called night water and goes to the fields. Don’t know how true that is.

Museum

From the monastery we took a bus ride a few miles around and stopped at the opposite end of this enormous property where there are 8 pagodas and the largest sitting Buddha in the world. The property is expansive and wonderful to walk. It reminds me in some instances of the Forbidden City in Beijing. We walked it seemed forever. Finally we reached a building with so many rooms, layers, and temples inside that I lost count. All lovely.

Temple socks.

I forgot to bring ours. You must take off your shoes to enter temples and so we usually carry socks with gripper soles for this but just went in our stocking feet for today. But it is a pain to take off and put your shoes on again and again as we wear sneakers for outings.

Vegetarian lunch

Prior to going into the museum, we wandered around a small mall with a few shops (none you’d know except for Starbucks!). they had things like jewelry, crystal items, ice cream cones, shirts with roosters on them (it is the year of the rooster), and so on.

The luncheon was all vegetarian but other than Bok Choy and some cheese, noodles, and red bean curd, I couldn’t begin to tell you what we actually ate. But overall it was not bad and very creative. We ate Chinese style at tables of 10.

Stadium

This stop was to the see the World (some sport) stadium which is made like a dragon. Quite impressive actually. Hard to describe actually.

Lotus Pond

This is a large man made lake with great walking paths. The original city wall surrounds much of it. It had two large pagadas on one end and it is said that you will have good look if you do the following. A dragon guards one pagoda, a tiger the other. So you enter through the dragon’s mouth and then exit via the tiger’s mouth. There’s not much to see inside except some murals of Chinese history.

There are lots of lily pads outside and I saw a big heron and got some interesting shots of him/her. Barely moved…

Then across the street was another temple where I could hear, but not see, monks  chanting.

Made curfew

We drove up to the pier right on time and went through the ship’s terminal where there were some vendors (no idea what was being sold) and where we saw many folks from the ship using the good WiFi in the terminal. We had been downloading stuff all day but really must get caught up in Hong Kong as the apps are hanging up our Apple devices.

Supper

I had my photo taken with Lucian as he is leaving us in Hong Kong. First he put his back to the camera and then he finally turned slightly. It looks like we’re doing something illicit.

We had been talking about how rough the seas were last night when the Captain came on saying we’d have 1-3 meter waves after we left the gap. Lucian remarked in his dry way: Double it. That means the waves with bee twice as high tonight.

Oscars

The ship taped it for rebroadcast this evening in the Cabaret Lounge so that’s where Ed went. They have an ice carving of Oscar, a grungy looking gold poor substitute for Oscar, and many gold and silver balloons around. The staff are all dressed in tuxes and designer dresses to welcome you as you go in.

Oscar, our matre de, dressed in a gold lame suit tonight for the occasion. He is such fun with his high pitched happy little voice always resonating around the ship: “hall-llllooowww”. Such fun.

We have a day at sea and then two days in Hong Kong. We are looking forward to all. Of them.

really rough seas

Another hour back

We did that two nights ago and again this evening we will gain an hour of sleep. We are so spoiled. At the point we wake up around 6 something no matter the time.

Hong Kong lecture

I remembered some of it and some not so much. There’s hope the ship will berth in a central location so we can walk off the ship to most things we’d want to see. Lots of walking in our future there. I presume lots of Chinese food since that is Ed’s destination.

Engineer’s lecture

This included a lot of technical information about the propellers, engines, thrusters, stabilizers, etc. I find it all very fascinating. I am constantly amazed at how self-sustaining this ship is. There is a lot of redundancy. They can make (out of sea water) an excess of water over our demand. The sewage system works off of bacteria and produces carbon dioxide and water in the end part. The water is equivalent to the seawater condensation on board.

Trivia

Played with Aussie and Brits today. Fun group. Lots of good vibes. They named our group UUA (US, UK, Aus)

Chinese extravaganza brunch.

The crew goes all out for this. Decorations, costumes, etc. Ed kind’ve frowned as he was looking forward to lots of Chinese food and there was none of that.so he says why call it Chinese? Because we are going to Taiwan tomorrow and Hong Kong shortly after! And they had the costumes and the decorations! The food is always very good though.

The Patter

This is a daily newspaper which tells us what to expect. It hasn’t been the best source of details lately. Perhaps the editor is having a bad week. In addition to the schedule and special announcements or notes, it gives us the times of various dining options and entertainment details. Temperature and weather expectations. Whether or not it is smart casual dress or formal. Survival info.

Connectivity related

Since my apps haven’t downloaded updates except slowly and only a few, it is creating some challenges for me. As an example, so many of them are in the process of downloading updates and thus don’t work well. Facebook show that I have IMs but I can’t access them. Perhaps this can be corrected in Hong Kong. We have become so accustomed to unlimited access at a high speed. Sigh.

Small world dept

At brunch today a man walked up to Ed and introduced himself. It seems that he worked as an investigator for Ed when he was in Worker’s comp in the DA office. They are getting off at Hong Kong so not much time to catch up.

Choir

They did another remarkable 45 minute concert and the lounge was packed. It is quite amazing what David get out of a group of strangers in a few weeks of rehearsal of 45 min on weekdays.

Trivia

Just Ed and I and a man we usually play with in the afternoon. He wife was at the gym as she missed it this morning and the other woman who usually plays in our group got into a snit with the man yesterday when we did  We saw her finding another group on the other side of the room. I’m not crying tears for her as she can be annoying in many ways. Long ago I asked Ed to sit between us so I didn’t have to deal with her. We thought we had done terrible until we saw that the full group of 6 that won had only 2 points more than we did.

Limelight

This was the name of tonight’s dance show. The two main singers are very strong voices and the dancers are simply amazing. Two of the females must wear dresses a size below zero. They are so tiny and thin.

As I write the wind is absolutely howling around the ship. The seas are equally rough and it is hard to walk around. You have to be careful you don’t head somewhere and be pitched forward as the ship rolls. The doors to the outside are closed with yellow tape to keep the fools from trying to go outside.

Photo contest

Passengers can submit photos taken while on this leg of this journey. They pay $3 for them to be processed and then they are posted and passengers vote (once only) on their pick for the best. I’ve forgotten the theme for this set.

Since the days of Photoshop, this isn’t nearly as much fun to see. I”ll be watching it closely to see how it goes as in the past we’ve seen some pretty tacky behavior on the part of some who really want to win. I don't know what the prize is for this leg but usually at the end, the staff choose their favorite from the winners and that person wins a point and shoot camera or something

We are now 7 hr earlier than LA

SCULLY

This was the movie today in the Cabaret Lounge. Quite well done but I saw an interview with Tom Hanks and it seems the Hollywood types took some liberties with the truth of the story. Why couldn’t they just present it as it actually happened?

Miracles of WWII

Our speaker went over the many tremendous leaps forward in WWII. He is considering writing a book about this and I think it will be of interest to all, not just WWII buffs.

I’d love to see a book that talked about the advances in medicine/health care that have come about as a result of war. Out of tragedy, we have made many advances.

Entertainment

David Crathorne, a very fine musician who puts together the onboard choir (his idea for 20 yrs that has been coopted by others), and who also entertains at night, did a show of his favorite songs with their backstories. A few were new to me but with wonderful lyrics. In on instance the writer is buried on one of the islands near the Solomons and he had visited his grave as a tribute to the talent of this Finnish composer.

Weather was rainy at times, temps in the 80s and the seas were sometimes rocky.

Quiet Friday

Slow awakening

It is a little like those alarm clocks that gradually turn the lights up to wake you. There is enough light coming in around the drapes to create the same effect here.

Destination Lecture

Kaoshung Taiwan

This is a totally new port for us and is located on the southern coast of the Taiwan Island. It is the 3^rd largest cargo port in the world. Not sure what we’ll be doing here but there are lots of temples and Chinese historic sights. Very little English spoken here and many do not read Chinese either so venture forth alone at your own risk. The ship will give us info in Chinese to use to get us back to the ship if we find someone who reads Chinese.

Apparently this was a planned city with large boulevards and an excellent public transit system.

WWII

The speaker, who needs to fill in with more lectures that he had originally planned, decided to discuss some topics related to the Vietnam War. I stayed for about half of it and couldn’t hold my interest.

Trivia

I played with our two other table mates and enjoyed it. One of the questions asked which country has the longest coast line. Craig said Canada but eventually we put down another answer. When we found out the correct answer was actually Canada we thanked him and he said well it was among other answers he proposed. I told him he obviously hadn’t been playing trivia with others on the ship long enough because the correct response was: “If you had listened to me and given my first answer, we would have gotten it right.” We all had a good laugh at that.

I did manage to catch the young Aussie couple and give them the flash drive with the photos of Grant during the crossing the equator extravaganza. They don’t have a computer with them so after some discussion they are going up to the internet café and view them and email those he wants to keep as a memento. They are such a cute couple.

The seas

Some folks are having some problems with the rocking of the boat though it isn’t as bad as we’ve experienced. Still they take their medication and then they are very sleepy. It is beautiful outside with bright sun, fluffy clouds, 82 degrees and a steady wind. We are travelling north.

Ice carving

Take a block of ice about 3-4 ft high, and about 1 foot on two sides and 1 ½ ft on the other two sides. Using only two chisels’, carve out a marvelous horse in 15 minutes! Well these guys are simply amazing. And they are on display for a few times before they melt so much they need a new one.

Did our usual trivia. Not as brain wracking as usual but still we fell short. It is fun to see what answers are and which ones we nailed without really knowing the issue. They are throwing in Aussie questions regularly and we Americans are clueless so those teams with Aussies are at an advantage.

Entertainment

Was the comedian musician we saw before. He’s Ok. Some complain that he’s recycling some old jokes.  Don’t they all? He’s not the greatest but he’s clever and fun.

Again on the windy seas after the lush green island

Rumble rumble

5:30 or thereabouts the engines begin to make a LOT of noise. Forget about any sleep after that. I could see the lights of Guam in the far black distance. Pretty soon the sun began to hint at dawn and still we didn’t seem to be any closer. It turns out the pilot didn’t get on board at the planned time and the US Coast Guard won’t let a ship like this into US waters unless it has a pilot. So we were an hour late berthing. And in the meantime, the wind was fierce, which it pretty much maintained all day. And then there was some rain.

But alas, finally, all is well.

Immigration

We are give all our forms in advance, and our passports are delivered to us. At our appointed time (we go in cohorts by number and based on your tour time and such) We present appear at the door of (this time) the Cabaret Lounge where a crew member at the door checks that we have all our forms properly completed. Stationed at regular intervals are other crew members to assure we keep moving along. So first we surrender our instruction sheets with our names on them. Then we stand in line (very briefly I assure you) to be pointed to immigration officials. there Were at least 6 that I saw and more wandering the ship. After our passports are stamped, we are directed to yet one more immigration official, this time about agriculture. So he checks it all over and gives us a piece of paper that says we passed, and we move along to surrender our passports once again to the ship’s staff (I pity the poor soul who gets the job of remaining on the ship and refiling all these!), get our card sized piece of paper saying we have gone through immigration and are now pointed in the direction of yet one more gathering site where we are given our number for the free shuttle if we wish to use it. This is provided free by the local merchants and only goes one way: to the GPO: Guam Premium Outlets. It takes about 30 minutes to get there and we debated finding other folks to share a cab. Eventually we rode along in a nicely air conditioned bus and saw the district court, Governor’s House, some Chamorro sites (the local indigenous peoples who were pretty much eliminated by the Spanish).

The temp was in the 80s and humid but the wind so fierce it was actually nice. The poor coconut trees here are so bent to the wind many look frazzled and others just gave up and their branches only point away from the wind.

The locals

Mostly Asian. This is a Japanese destination, but we heard Tagalog too. Few Americans but everything here would be familiar to you. Lots of Polynesians of course.

Topography

The area is lush as you’d expect a Pacific Island to be with lovely beaches (though we didn’t see anyone on them: it is Thursday). There were puddles of water indicating recent rain beyond what I say this am.

GPO

This complex has about 15 stores and you’d recognize all the names including the ABCstores which are also found in Hawaii. There are no bargains here but lots of folks were looking for decent toothpaste and other consumables. There is also a food court here with about 8 outlets. Ok you can laugh at me: I had a burrito supreme at Taco Bell, my first in so long I can’t recall. Ed got a big Asian assortment from the Imperial Court. One of the clerks in the mall asked how we all came in. We told her by ship and she said earlier this week, a 2000 passenger ship was in port and she thought they all came to the mall!

Free WiFi

Most people immediately logged onto the free WiFi which was even stronger than the ship (which isn’t saying much) AND all theprevious free WiFi sites we have tried. I think at least a third of the ship’s crew were in the seats in the mall area making phone calls home and catching up on other WiFi related actions.

I looked for shoes without much luck. It’s very hard for me to find shoes I can wear.

ROSS

Has a big store here and the line to check out was the entire length of the store and this is a BIG store. We visited in line with ship’s friends and finally left and they were still in line (we didn’t buy anything).

We took our time and when we returned to the ship, we were not exhausted as we usually are.

Returning to the ship

A man behind us remarked on the intense security here. It is not uncommon to have security in and out of the port area. But they also came on the bus to look around. (We’ve had this before in other ports and in those instances, we were often required to show our immigration pass and cruise card but not this time). Then when we are discharged from the bus there are signs warning us of sniffer dogs (though I saw none), our bags were visually searched and questioned, and we had to be wanded before moving on toward the ship where we went through the ship’s usually routine: your cruise card is examined at two separate stops and you must go through a metal detector just like an airport. Just before the metal detector was a Homeland Security officer with whom Ed had a brief conversation as the line was backed up. When we had to wait, it was in the shadow of the ship and with brisk winds so it was quite comfortable.

Dinner

Was a catch up on the tour and most everyone wound up at a shop to stock up on “necessities”. No one seemed wild about the tour they took but it did get them around the island a little.

Entertainment

The Cruise Director has had his work cut out for him. The act tonight was to be two singers who were first runner up on Britain’s Got Talent (or a show like that). There was a problem with them getting to the ship in Rabaul related to airline issues. It seems they were scheduled to meet the ship in Guam and this time (reason unstated) the airline wouldn’t let them board. So the Polynesian couple were a quick substitute. The mass exodus when they were opening was actually embarrassing. I’m sympathetic to the dilemma but I did not want to endure this duo one more time.

We are headed to Kaoshung Taiwan which is 1000 nautical miles away so we have some wonderful days at sea ahead.

Guam tomorrow

K-mart get ready. half the ship will be there!

Pollywogs are now shellbacks

The highlight of the morning was the crossing the equator ceremony with King Neptune. Grant was to be one of the pollywogs and was a little concerned about what might happen. I suggested he not carry anything he didn’t want soiled and to wear washable clothes. It turns out he was the one that the ship’s doctor (he was actually the one to do it this time) does surgery on the pollywog. As usual all kinds of old food was extracted from Grant. At the end the doctor declares that the patient died but Nurse Listerine Liz applies a, well you really couldn’t call it CPR, and Grant was miraculously revived.

Along the way, the Captain got thrown in the brink (the swimming pool), and various other fun, but clearly stupid, things were done to great laughter. The band was renamed Jane and the Tuna Fishes.

Kiss the Fish

I did it again. I swear it’s the same fish. Ugly, rubbery, but with no odor, thank God.

WWII lecture

Today was the battle of Midway and more history on the new Lexington. The speaker then told us of his training as a pilot from an aircraft carrier and the experiences of first landing on the ship. Apparently there was an air strip in Florida painted exactly as an aircraft carrier so they could avoid destroying the ship until they had some skill. He said the ship looks about the size of a fingernail until you start to head for the deck in which instance the rear end of the ship looms huge.

Weather

Bright sun, temps in the 80s, wind Force 5 so pretty brisk. The ship is challenging to walk on and so you walk gingerly and cling to the rails.

Low vision

I met Sharon again and spoke more with her about the challenges of her visual loss. She didn’t bring her white cane which she now regrets. Despite her pin that says visually impaired, people try to test you, especially if you appear to be well compensated. (I know what that’s like). She was pushing a door to go into the grill this morning and some one slammed it in her face. As she said: something like that ruins her whole day.

She has a guide dog named Blitz who she dearly loves. She didn’t bring him on ship because he couldn’t go off the ship without going through quarantine so it seems useless to bring him. He’s a yellow Lab and she told me how that system works in Australia.

Wine tasting

This is done on each leg and allows us to try out wines without spending a lot of money. Ed enjoys wines more than I do but they did have Asti Spumonte which I do enjoy. There was a german reislng that was tolerable for me.

Captain’s reception

I’m still not sure why we are invited but it is a small group with many of the officers and department heads there. The chef is always present and puts on a great appetizer selection.

I asked the Captain about the laws about marrying at sea. He said he is legally able to do this as the ship is registered for Bermda and the marriages are thus registered in Bermuda. These are in international waters.

If someone wants to get married on board and have their own minister perform the ceremony, that must be arranged through headquarters.

Speed demons

Many passengers are using electric scooters on this trip. I rarely saw them before. The dining servers seem to delight in taking turns driving them around to store them during dinner and then to bring back to the passengers for use. It is actually pretty funny as we have begun to grade them on their driving and turning skills.

Modestly rowdy seas

Thank the Lord for stabilizers on ships!

82 degrees outside with modest wind, puffy clouds, clear, bright, wonderful.

The rounds

Made the rounds to get the newspapers, some postcards (these are supposedly helpful if you have a taxi driver who doesn’t speak English but be careful they don’t drop you off at the post office instead. The Sudoku and Crossword puzzles were not yet out in the Library. One very chagrined lady made a remark about how “they can’t get it right.” As if this were the worst thing to happen to her today.

Destination lecture

This time about Guam. There have been a number of rumblings about this speaker. On Rabaul she reported on the shore situation much as we would have based on our experience 8 years ago, that is, no a/c, no springs, awful transport, beggars. It turns out the transports are now pretty new with good AC and springs in the seats and on the vehicle.

She is somewhat confusing in her presentations.For example, it was hard to distinguish when she was talking about Rabaul in praticular or the whole of PNG. So it is suspected that she will be leaving us soon.

Can’t figure out what I did to change margin!

Next was a talk by the ship’s navigator about how the ship runs, the equipment, the staffing, etc. The amount of redundancy is impressive. They never assume anything is working so there are so many built in checks and balances. And they all look sooo young.

Trivia

Ed and I played alone and enjoyed it very much. This afternoon we played with our usual group but the questions were miserable (we weren’t you understand: it was the questions!)

Battle of Midway

Further info on the ships and the battles with fill in about the sailors and flyers. I am enjoying this but some folks consider the speaker laconic (cant ‘disagree with that) and he does have the annoying habits of sniffing, clearing his throat, and smacking as he speaks but at least he does it at low volume.

In between we had a quick snack which doesn’t mean it was less calories than we would have had in the dining room alas.

Dr. Chuck

As I said, he is the most travelled passenger and someone we have known for a long while. He invited us to be his guests last evening at the soiree. They give the 3 most travelled a gift and he had a gift bag and a crystal medallion. So today I asked him what he was given. He no longer takes the medallions as he has scads of them and they are just dust catchers, so they give him two bottles of their cheap champagne.

In anticipation of Guam

We got the customs forms today to complete along with our passports. We will need to be personally viewed by immigration before we canleave the ship.

I think half the ship and staff are headed for the largest K-mart in the world, at least that’s the assertion. There are 3 large malls on Guam, one an outlet mall and there is a free shuttle to one of them. After that you can pay $12 USD (they’ll take Aussie, Japanese and USD we were told) for unlimited transportation among all 3.

More immigration papers

For Taiwan now and Hong Kong. I am so glad the ship keeps track of all of this!

Supper

Everyone present and we had our usual fun. Ed and Frances slipped away for a special wine tasting since I don’t care and Randy doesn’t drink. They set up this elaborate table and go through the routine.

Tonight’s comedian

He was delayed in getting onto the ship in Rabaul because of flight issues. In fact, the ship waited for him. He’s quite amusing and unexpected in his humor. It was one of those things you would have to see in person to get the flavor of it.

Our favorite photographer

Urosh has been so good about air dropping our photos from the flash drive to his Mac and then to our iPhone and iPad. This is not something they usually do. He does it on his own equipment.

Tomorrow is crossing the equator madness. I wonder who is going to have all the old food dumped on them and which officer will be dunked. More later.

crossing the equator...again.

What a glorious morning!

We are clearly in open ocean now with the rolling and swaying. We have been especially lucky with almost glass like seas while in the Coral Sea. We are now in the Solomons and headed toward the Marianas.

It is clear, bright, sky is light blue contrasted with the deep blue of the ocean.

I stand corrected(back to my original position)

Rabaul is on an island right next to the northernmost point of the main land of PNG (which is supposedly the second largest island in the world??) Now maybe I can put that to sleep. Zzzz

WWII lecture

The speaker focuses his talks around the ships and we are now into the Battle of Midway. He doesn’t try to cram too much into his time and he gives you interesting tidbits usually from people who were actually there and who has interviewed. Today he introduced two more WWII vets among us. Such a nice recognition.

Trivia

I’m going to change the folks with whom I play trivia in the am. The one lady is so controlling and unpleasant it just ruins the fun of it all.

Lunch

Delightful couple who have no regular home and have done so many different adventures in their lives. When they return to the states, they’ll buy another RV and travel the states. I never understood if they have family or anything else about them except their extensive travels which were fascinating to hear about. One of the other ladies at the table worked as a travel nurse for a while and she would go to Flagstaff AZ for 13 weeks and help in OR as people would get into the Grand Canyon and try dumb things and get hurt.

Captain’s Circle Party

Dr. Chuck, who at almost 1600 days is the most travelled person on this ship, invited us to join him this evening. The advantage, in addition to fun conversations, is that we didn’t have to wait to get into the venue and our drinks were ready when we arrived. This is pretty much a PR and recognition event and the Captain comes down to make the awards of gifts to most travelled and then to have photos taken with him.

Formal portraits

We know all the photographers on board by now so we did photos with two of them. We have a good time.

Dinner

Full table tonight and we talked a lot about Guam. We hear there’s a K-mart there and many will bee line there once on shore. Craig said he had met a retired military who served on Guam and they are going to visit the base with this gentleman. What fun.

The Oscars are supposed to be taped and then shown to us on board. We’d love to see some of the pictures but that may not happen for a while if at all.

007

That was the theme of the spectacular show the dancers and singers put on tonight. Keep in mind that the ship is moving a lot now that we are not in protected seas. The two main singers are very strong voice, very confident, very good. A real delight.

Crossing the equator

That happened this afternoon but because of scheduling, the equator crossing extravaganza won’t be held until day after tomorrow. There are a few pollywogs on board (Aussies mostly) and they have no idea what’s in store for them.

Shorter days

As we have left the Southern Hemisphere and its summer days, our sunlight has grown less and less. At the equator, you have 12 hrs of sunlight and 12 hrs of darkness. It feels very weird.

Book: The gunning of America

I’m almost through with this fascinating book about the history of firearms in America. It intermingles other history, e.g. Western frontier with its endless stories of bad men (mostly made up). The Winchester family is featured prominently and especially the history of Sarah Winchester and the Winchester mystery House in San Jose. Remington and Smith and Wessen are also major players.

It seems that the government was just about the only client for firearms and initially they were made one at a time by craftsmen. Then Standardization and assembly line production began and they had even more trouble selling their products. So then as now, the firearms manufacturers went overseas to sell to other governments. When those markets were saturated, the idea of selling to individuals came up.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the story is how marketing has been used to change the culture around firearms and create a market. Some of the sales techniques were very clever manipulations.

I recommend the book highly if you have any interest in the culture of firearm ownership and use through our history.

Off to Guam

Rabaul

All these years, I have been of the impression that Rabaul was on a separate island. It turns out, it is on a high NE peninsula of PNG.

Rather a snooze but then we knew that.  It is green and lush and the volcano seems to be tired. Almost no sense of a plume. The water is a dusky gray blue and we can see good sized fish in the area between the pier and land. The chef did say he was going out to purchase fresh fish today.

Ed is dragging today. Probably too much food last night and too late. So as usual we left the ship around 10:30 since we did not have a tour scheduled (we have done both of the tours before). We went through a metal shed where the temperature rose 10 degrees until you come out the other side into the really hot sun with high humidity and no breeze to mention. Many locals had set up their wares on the grasses nearby. The wares included tote bags made out of colorful threads of something. This and the necklaces of cowry and other beads were probably made locally. But there were no realistic bargains. You had to want something pretty badly to buy. I saw no one buying anything but lots of questions. There was a little boy dressed in native costume and so I gave him a dollar to take his photo. He’s probably around 7 and this technique is common all over the world. The income these kids get is important to their family’s economy.

You see a lot of people with Negroid features and blond hair. This is a genetic trait and not the function of interbreeding. They also have the most dark skinned people in the world but I’ve forgotten the name of the tribe.

A pleasant woman attached herself to us and chatted away. Among the stories were how hard it is there (which I’m sure is true but this ploy is used to squeeze donations out of foreigners too). Well it was successful because as we left Ed gave her $10. I would rather have purchased one of those overly priced shell necklaces than to give that much of a tip for her company. There is no rationale to that. $10 would be the tip for a tour guide for a day’s tour!

Spa

When we returned, I decided to use the spa bubbling hot tub. It is salt water and the jets are powerful so it is a good massage. The power of them is enough that I had to cling to the metal bars you sit on or I’d have been swept over the side.

The Captain was walking his almost 2 yr daughter around the ship and was in the spa area where she is a great hit with all around.

They did have trivia this am and I’ll bet there were a good many folks there to play but I hadn’t done the hot tub yet so…

At breakfast this am there was a couple next to us calling all their family. Clearly they have money as he was discussing legacy enrollments in some colleges for his grandson and how much it would cost for him to get the grandson ahead of the line so he wanted to be sure his money would be well spent and the kid would actually go. Next phone call (as you can tell, his voice was loud enough to be heard for a far distance) was to tell (not ask mind you) a granddaughter to make a date and destination for her wedding as he was paying for it and they weren’t getting any younger and might not be around forever. I’ll spare you the details of the other, numerous, and all similar, phone calls.

Lunch

We sat with a British couple who now live in Florida and are celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary by visiting his brother in Australia and then meeting a grandson who lives in Hong Kong. The other family members are flying to Hong Kong where they will properly celebrate their anniversary.

As they were leaving, she said she couldn’t have another husband because it took her too long to train this one. She said when he comes out of his morning bath, you can’t tell he’s been in there: everything is neat including the mirror being wiped down. I told her Ed would need more than 60 yrs to even come close to that. The gentleman was very cute with muttonchops whiskers: when’s the last time you saw that?

Nap time

Ed slept about 1 ½ hrs this afternoon and I finally work him up as he will keep me awake all night if he sleeps in the pm.

Lounge Lizards

There are two basic kinds: those who lay around the swimming pool frying in the hot sun. the second group are a much smaller group of folks who you only see sitting on bar stools.

Tankards

There were several of these ships in the harbor here and then I recalled we had seen them last trip here. They look like oil tankers but since coconut oil is one of the major exports here, who knows.

Sad theft

One of the room stewards went on shore alone and along the way he was filched of his money (amount unknown). Our steward said they are advised to always go in groups and he went out with 2 others today. They bought the little kids ice cream and before they knew it, they had a whole crowd asking them for ice cream. No good deed shall go unpunished.

We are now off to Guam in the Mariana Islands and that is 1000 miles away. Some wonderful sea days ahead.

chef's table day

Illegal Passengers

We’ve seen no sight of them so far today but the poor guy who has to keep the front of the ship clean had some gifts to clean up again this morning.

Weather is warm; sea is calm, wind is mild, sun is really bright, sea a wonderful medium blue, sky a light blue with fluffy clouds.

Battle of Coral Sea

We had the last presentation on this topic this am. The speaker focuses on telling us the history of the ships with marvelous anecdotes that make it all come alive. Today he also told the story of some Medal of Honor winners and their courage and sacrifice are astonishing and make you wonder what you would do under similar circumstances

90 year old WWII veteran

In the audience who was 15 when he enlisted, did 42 flight missions in the Coral Sea and this included many over Rabaul where we dock tomorrow. Brought tears to our eyes.

Trivia

This one female is such a control freak. She insists on being the scribe and pushes her answers mercilessly. If she thinks the group’s answers aren’t right, she puts down what she thinks the answers ought to be. It became somewhat heated today and she reminded us once again that if we had taken her answers the other day we would have made a higher score. We all have to continually double check what she puts down as the answer. I told Ed I’d rather just he and I play alone than to endure her one more time. He asked me to give it one more try. He is being more direct with her but she is very defensive. I could give so many more examples where she is WRONG and the group puts down the right answer, but of course she doesn’t recall those instances. We all have experiences where we contribute the correct answer and the group decides differently. It’s on a game! And they don’t even announce what prizes they are giving to the winners any more.

Zika warning

The Captain came on unexpectedly to give us a warning about being in many ports, including Rabaul, where there are Zika warnings. The usual sun screen and insect repellant.

But then he remarked on the meeting the reef pilot had with passengers this afternoon where he answered questions. It seems that his navigational charts that he uses for teaching purposes “disappeared”. The Captain handled that very tactfully, impressively actually, but I am appalled that people do things like that.

Casual pictures

We were good sports, watching others doing silly things and then taking our turn. Might be some good blackmail pics in these.

Chef’s table

We had to don white lab coat looking coverings to go into the galley. We had previously received a letter telling us to wear freshly laundered clothing, closed toed shoes, and were led to wash our hands. After this, we proceeded to a tour of the galley eventually ending up with several appetizers and wines.

As we left, we surrendered our white jackets and were escorted to the beautifully decorated table for 16 of us which is quite a large group for such an event. The chef was the host for all of this assisted by the matre de. I lost track of the courses but I will say it wasn’t so overwhelming that you felt stuffed at the end. Wines were paired with each course and clearly some folks had my share of the wine as well. At the end the women were given a long stemmed red rose and a cookbook signed by the chef and matre de. It was a wonderful experience.

We are reading about the storms in LA and are unable to reach Lisa who I’m sure is OK but what a time to visit. Hopefully it will be done by the time Tate and Tallie come out.

unwanted passengers

GREETING PARTY

As I looked out this morning, there were birds (sea gulls?) coasting on the air wakes from the ship all around us. We’d see them in front swooping down and up; on the side through the port hole. But they also left little “gifts”. And big amounts of it! On the deck AND the windows because the wind blows it back.

When we came back from our morning runs, the crew had already cleaned everything up and low and behold, our welcoming party, not to be deterred, had replaced all those gifts with new ones!

Destination talk

This was about Rabaul and Papua New Guinea. We’ve been to both before and some of the photos brought back some memories of previous visits.

Then the Captain was back with more stories of the war in the Coral Sea which is where we are now.

The water is such a wonderful medium blue; the skies filled with fluffy clouds and a bright sun, and the surface is almost glass like. Ed thinks he saw some kind of sea creature popping up now and then this morning but I could never make it out.

Trivia

Again we came in second to two teams who tied. It wasn’t the most horrific trivia we’ve had mercifully and it was fun in the end.

Lunch

Several folks at the table with whom we’ve had lunch before (lunch is open seating). The two elderly ladies were again present. When you try to strike up a conversation with the quieter of the two, the other immediately takes over the conversation. So I’m making it my goal to try to focus on her more in table conversation and see what happens.

The birds

When we returned, the sightings are even funnier. The birds have totally taken over the flag pole and the flag/light lines from the top of the ship to the flag pole. What do you call a congregation of sea gulls? The alpha guy is always at the top of course. And the “gifts” are now spreading more widely on the front of the ship as more join the meeting on those flag lines. It is actually very funny.

Equator

We are getting closer and closer with the attendant hot sun and temperatures never mind the humidity.

Stowaways

We have illegal immigrants hitching a ride on board: non-paying passengers no less. And the clean up after them is never-ending. I’m talking about the sea gulls of course the numbers of which seemed to increase as the day wore on. No window near wind or at an angle was spared their “gifts”. The staff seemed to always be cleaning up after them.

And then they simply disappeared. Maybe they got a better offer…or sensed another ship somewhere within flying distance.

Entertainment

3 male singers as a group and they were delightful. They are all from Australia and will be doing a show again tomorrow night before they leave us at Rabaul in another day.

Photos

Tonight’s photos were casual ones. And speaking of photos, Ed got a great one of our illegal immigrants earlier today.

AND now that Ed got iTunes downloaded onto the laptop, thanks to the help and generosity of those young men at Hilton in Cairns, we have now backed up our Apple devices. So if one disappears or is damaged, we are covered.

Leaving the cute fruit bats

First you hear the hint of sounds on the front of the ship. Then rustling a little louder with metal being scraped now and then. So I got up and looked out to see the beginning of dawn and the men on the front of the ship with lines ready.

Cairns is surrounded b degree turny rounded mountains and you can see the ridges extending into the distance forming a chiaroscuro (sp) effect into the distance. The ship is sailing through a very wide clear channel with small boat craft on both sides of this channel and some ferries moving quickly along that area too. In the distance, the sun begins to rise over the mountains and this illuminates the glass faces of the buildings on shore.

Cairns is much more developed since we were last here 7 years ago. Lots more tall apartment buildings along the harbor. A Crystal ship is already docked.

We get to the area near our berth and the thrusters begin to make themselves heard as we do a 180 degree turn in the harbor to put us headed out to sea for our departure this evening. Then they slide sideways into the berthing site. Why can’t cars do this for parking I’m always thinking.

Great Barrier Reef

You can tell when the ship gets into this area as the seas calm down and remain that way until your vessel leaves. It is not quite eerie.

We met our friends and headed out into the hot, humid weather. We walked along the esplanade which has free WiFi but at a baud rate not quite enough for our needs. This finally dawned on us about over 30 frustrating minutes. We had among us: 4 iPhones, 2 iPads, 3 laptops. So then we went to Mickey D’s for a coke and to hook up there. A slight bit better baud rate but not by much. We had to sign up for Macca, their web site here but now we are permanently registered with them. At least this place was air conditioned and no one gave us funny looks.

Well we figured out we could do this until the ship left, so we wandered to the Hilton nearby and I told them I was a Hilton Honors person. They didn’t care, they gave us the password for the lobby with a smile. This still was not good enough to download iTunes on the laptop, so these lovely people pulled out a direct connection cord so we could use really good WiFi. What a group. I have to write HQ for Hilton a nice note. Frances was able to call Amex and complete some business with them that was keeping her awake at night using Ed’s cell phone and it also gave her an opportunity to call her son who is looking after things for them at home. This was all done using Facebook connections.

We were hot and sticky by now so we traipsed back to the ship to drop off all this heavy electronics and have lunch. Then we all walked along the esplanade and lagoon (so much has changed since we were last here). We walked through some of the streets looking for the fruit bats. We found them; I couldn’t make them out but our friends got smiles from them (they think. Ha).

We saw much aboriginal art in various places. People are very friendly and helpful.

The trees are festooned with fruit bats, and now with their babies. Alas I could not see them but others did. The flies are giant sized here. Reminded me of flies around cows and horses.

But I was beet read, had heat rash all over, short corns between my toes and it was time to go back to the ship and a WONDERFUL shower. Ed and I are absolutely wiped out by heat and humidity. This helped quite a bit and we are now catching up on our news.

We continue to try to complete the updates of all our apps etc. None of us could ever back up our iCloud accounts but since Ed downloaded iTunes thanks to Hilton and their help, we can download to the laptop so if we lose or damage our iPhones or iPads, we are not totally lost.

Leaving Cairns

It is fascinating to see how they loose the lines to the ship along with the help of the little tug boats and then use the thrusters to get out into the channel. We still had some sprinkles as we were leaving and as we got farther out, the seas got more like you expect an ocean to feel.

Lucian, our head waiter, was in fine teasing form this evening. He is leaving us in Dubai and we have come to enjoy his wry humor. He will return to Bucharest for a much deserved rest.

Photos

We’ve come to know all the photo personnel and have fun with them. They work very hard as they have to be printing and doing other work when they aren’t actually taking photos or videos. It isn’t a cake walk by any means.

Tonight’s show

Wow! New crew and singers and they are all incredible. Their athleticism is marvelous to watch and the new singers have strong, booming voices. Tonight’s show was mostly Latin and with great energy. The male dancers are now pretty tall  but the females are shorter than I am.

Rabaul

We are now off to Rabaul, a part of New Guinea. We’ve been there twice before. It is a small island with a volcano but mostly we stop here because it is a great site to scuba dive and see the old WWII planes ships in the bottom of the harbor. They have also excavated some planes on shore. Not exactly a heart stopping port for us but a fun distraction.

Happy Birthday Lisa!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!

We send best wishes for a great birthday and wish we were there to help you celebrate properly. And may you enjoy many many more happy healthy celebrations!

Whitsunday Islands (spelling)

Sunrise is before 6 am so we usually wake up around that time. With luck we can bet a few more snoozes in. But I had an appointment for a pedicure because of a problem interfering with my walking in close toed shoes and I can see well enough to do my own toes. I am managing well with my fingers though they may not look so good, they grow and who cares.

The young lady is lovely and quite careful. She is from England and this is her first contract and she was talking about how lucky she was to get this ship. The appointment took 1 ¼ hours and included hot rocks and oils (no choice on the royal treatment I’m afraid) I won’t tell you how much this indulgence cost, but I’m thinking of trying to make a medical deduction out of it given the charge (determined by Princess, not her).

I believe we were sailing through the Whitsunday islands during all this time as you could see islands all around and that is the beginning of the Great Barrier Reef from the south. It is kind’ve overcast but warm and humid outside.

The Queen of the Flattops

The Naval Captain (ret) told the story of the USS Lexington in WWII in the Coral Sea. So many interesting tidbits he includes in his talks.

Trivia

Sat with two from the last morning trivia and they were fine. The young Aussie couple did not show up and I was disappointed. The man who was there, when we were discussing whether or not the young Aussie couple were coming (recall she is going blind) said something about she wasn’t good at it. That kind’ve stabbed at me since I rather identify with her problem. I explained that she had participated and in fact had given us two of the answers.

So they were two and when I went to our area there was another woman there whom they obviously knew. Ed showed up in time and the trivia was again given by the young man from So Africa but he put the trivia up on a screen and had clearly worked on his pronunciation. Still there are two people in separate adjacent groups who got into a shouting match about moving a chair for a better view of the screen. Honest to God.

We were 5 in the end and the woman in our group who was new to me has an ego issue and is sure she knows it all. She’d be better off playing alone as she’s definitely not a team type. At the end, Ed had been doing the scribe work but she insisted we should use her record of the answers. She was quite firm about using her version of the answers and finally I said to Ed let her have her way so we can move on.

After the quiz answers were given, she made a remark that if we had taken three of the answers she had, we would have made 3 more points. This was said with some irritation and I left before the determination of the winners was held. This is just a game and I enjoy the interplay and team process in agreeing on answers. I don’t need a know it all like her around and so we’ll see what happens next time I go. If she’s there, I’ll make my apologies to the man and woman I already knew, and find another group.

Lunch

Dining room didn’t have many folks in it but there is an English Pub event upstairs and I’ll bet most were there. One of the crotchety ladies was again at our table; she was an OR nurse probably before I got out of diapers. She’s somewhat imperious but I can deal with that for brief periods. However, when the other older woman is at the table, I really feel sorry for that person.

A couple from Michigan, probably in their late 40s or 50s who are new onto the ship and leaving in Dubai, and an elderly Aussie couple who are leaving at Hong Kong.

We spoke with a delightful Aussie while waiting for our table and he is probably in his 50s somewhere. He gave us a lot of insight into how Aussie’s travel versus Europeans, and in some instances, Americans. He said there was a lot of room on the Sydney to Hong Kong leg of the cruise. We’ll likely see another mass exodus of passengers in Hong Kong.

Technology help

Uros again helped us get photos onto our Apple devices so that, assuming we can find some decent WiFi tomorrow in Cairns, we can upload some for everyone to see.

Wet and rainy weather are predicted for tomorrow. We have ponchos and will taking them and hoping that the temp is moderate and if it rains, it is mild as well.

A special day on the sea

VALENTINE’S DAY

Woke a little after 6 and went outside where it was very windy but with a mild humid temperature. There is no Princess flag (the sea witch) on the pole on the front. I wonder if they take it down when we are out of port.

Destination Lecture

Cairns (pronounced Kanz) is our next port day after tomorrow. The speaker gave a good overview of the place and it brought back many temporarily lost memories of the park, train, cable car and such.

Documentary

At various points, the staff who us documentaries they have prepared about the areas we are travelling through. Today it was on this are of Australia. The interviewees are very knowledgeable and I believe you see things you would otherwise not know about.

Renewal of Vows

The Princess Harmony Choir (all passengers) sang Love me Tender and then the Captain did the renewal of vows for the couples on board. It was cute and nicely done. Most people wore red, white or pink.

Dining Room

Is festooned with lots of red, pink and white balloons, and the other customary plentiful Valentine’s Day decorations. There is a pastry display in the bar near the dining room with the most elaborate hearts, cakes and such decorated with clearly hours of detailed chef’s time. So gorgeous.

At lunch Oscar came around dressed as a huge puffy heart giving everyone big hugs.

Reef Pilot

We always enjoy these guys. The ship must have pilots when going through many areas of the world and each port. Each one’s talks are different and cover different topics. The speaker today is originally from Scotland and attended maritime school with our current captain 27 years ago.

The presentation including much information with photos of how being a reef pilot works. Their hours are limited. They are under close scrutiny by the Australian government. They travel by small ship, helicopter, small planes, etc. they serve all kinds of sea vessels. Some of their stations are as much as 10 miles off shore where they live on small islands with many bedrooms and pets that everyone enjoys. One dog, Marley, likes to take on sharks and sting rays and has the scars to prove it. Another station has a cat named George who has his own captain’s hat.

When on a ship for a long period of time, they have regular sleep breaks and he showed us some photos of the “accommodations” which appeared to be a broom closet, hospital bed, all the way to a nice cabin. The chefs in all instances want to be hospitable so they outdo themselves to feed the pilots while they are on board. They serve ships that have staff from 12 to several hundred, and bridges that will barely hold two people, to large ships with a huge (by comparison) bridge.

Getting onto the vessels can be ridiculous as they must climb a ladder and the maintenance on some of these ladders is questionable. He shared some photos of many of them including one being held by two Chinese sailors! In the future they required the end of the ladder to be shackled to the deck. When climbing up in the dark, it can be very dicey.

All in all it was fascinating and a view of an area of work about which we knew very little.

Trivia

Was miserable! The staff who did it today is leaving us in Cairns and this was her revenge: everything being said in a sweet voice. She read a quote from a movie and we had to guess the movie and the name of the actor who said it. We got 8 out of 40 but the winners only got 11. They damned well earned it. Everyone was sitting there with a basset hound face. Ha.

Formal night

Ed ordered a corsage and buttoner. They said they couldn’t do it but they did pull something together. It is our 33^rd wedding anniversary so the Ship put a sign and balloons on our door, and left a greeting card for us. At dinner, Lucian brought over a special dessert (we were already full) and had a cute way of presenting it. Then he told us he’d have it sent to our cabin. Thank goodness but I need no more sweets.

We had formal photos taken again as well. Just as well, they are paid for and we had all our finery on.

We passed on the entertainment however, it is the nice young man from the other evening. If it was his cousin we would have shown up.