Next Adventure Booked

We will be sailing on the Sea Princess. April 15th 2013, sailing to Hawaii and back yet again.

Laem Chabang - Bangkok

Sunday 12th March, 2012

Our last port before Singapore. We did not go into Bangkok this trip, neither of us needed another long drive. We caught the ships shuttle to Pattaya, 30ish minutes away. We spend the day watching people on the beach and shopping. The skies opened up late afternoon and made everything wet including us, but we soon dried out in the warm air. There is plenty of eateries and shops; the area is popular with local people as well as the holiday makers from overseas.

Phu My - Saigon

Friday 9^th March 2012

Once again we went on a Cruise Critic organized trip. 41 of us today, with I think it was 5 who we left in Saigon to catch a plane to Cambodia for a 2 nighter to see Angkor Wat.

Cannot say I enjoyed the day. It was not the tour content really, but the long trip into Saigon I feel needs to broken up with a stop for a snack. You cannot take food from the ship on these tours and having to wait for a lunch break is not good for my head. I ended up with a headache. The return trip I dozed a lot because of the medication I had to take.

We visited a Temple, the Reunification Building, and then we saw a water puppet show which was probably the highlight of the day for me. We drove through the city and had the important landmarks pointed out to us. We did stop at the Post Office which is a beautiful building, but did not have enough time to even get a stamp.

We stopped for lunch and shopping before starting our return 2+hour trip at 2.30pm.

A quiet moment in the traffic.

The puppeteers

Nha Trang - Vietnam

Thursday 8^th March 2012

Our Cruise Critic group of 40 met in one of the dining rooms at 7.45am and caught a tender ride to Nha Trang soon after. 

The Port of Nha Trang

Our guide Dung was on the dock with an air conditioned bus waiting for us.

We started the day with a visit to an embroidery factory. Women sit and embroider all day. They do beautiful work but cannot be good for their eyesight.

Our next stop and a short walk took us to Pagoda Orphanage which it shelters and cares for over 120 abandoned, orphaned and street children. The children aged from several months to 9 years are cared for by a group of Buddhist nuns and volunteers. This was a highlight for many of us. I was delighted as was Tony to hold their youngest orphan, a young boy who was born without arms. He would have been about 5 months old and thriving. He engaged eye contact and responded with smiles for us when we spoke to him.

The classroom Area

Eating Area

Classroom

Younger Children

Tony with Youngest Orphan

Our Tracksuits were very much appreciated

Another short walk on a village path leads us to the home of a family who weaves mats from rushes which grow abundantly in the surrounding areas. Two people working together will weave just four mats in a day. These are taken to local markets and traded for food and essentials.

Me Weaving a Mat

Next on our tour list was an Ancient house, here we enjoyed fruits and green tea before setting off again.

We were lucky enough to pass a farmer with his buffalo out ploughing in his rice field. As this was a private tour we were able to get the driver to stop while we got out and took photos. We also took a photo opportunely at a big Buddha.

The next stop was a conical hat making village, the manual work is done by women.

Next was a place where the bus had to avoid knocking over the bamboo brackets which a layer of rice or saffron pulp is places on to be dried in the sun.

Rice being dried and collected

Shredding the dried rice for noodles

Lunch was next at a riverside restaurant and then we traveled down the Cai River to rejoin our bus, and make our way back to the ship. 

This is where we got off after our boat ride

This was a wonderful tour, well worth the $US55 each it cost.

Hong Kong - Take Two

Tuesday March 6th, 2012

Today were  back in Hong Kong. Shopping was the only thing on the agenda. We walked lots and bought some things, but not much.
All aboard for 530pm but we did not set off til 7ish. The fog that had been around for the last couple of days stayed away so the Captain was able to sail thru Victoria Harbour and show us the Light show.  The Diamond is too big for the cruise harbour so this was a treat.

 

Shanghai – Take 2

Saturday, 3^rd March 2012

Today our adventure entailed getting to the Maglev Train station; we wanted to take a ride to the Shanghai Airport. It was raining when the shuttle dropped us at the Bund, so we hopped in a taxi and thanks to the translation sheet Princess gave us we were driven to the station which is in the Pudong area.

Why did we want to go to the airport....just so that we could ride in the Maglev train.....It was only going to take us 7 mins each way... so why not?

Magnetic levitated Train – this is the world’s first commercialized high-speed magnetic transportation system. The whole MAGLEV Line runs only 7 minutes for 30 kilometers from Pudong International Airport to Longyanglu metro station, giving the passengers a high speed experience. The train reaches an exciting maximum speed of 430 km/h in just a few minutes and then has to start to slow so that it can stop by the time the 7 mins are over.

Inside Maglev Train

Train at the Airport

We were all done soon after 10 and caught a slow train to the shopping areas. Bought nothing and caught the shuttle back to the ship well before final boarding time.

Nagasaki-take two

Thursday 1^st March, 2012

Nagasaki today was wet, wet, wet. We decide we needed to be adventurous and travel further away from the city. We bought all day tram tickets again and caught a tram to the train station. By using our tourist map we were able to indicate by pointing where we wanted to go and bought our return train tickets to Shimabara (Cost 5800Yen). We only had a few minutes to get to our 8.33 train to Isahaya, our transfer point. This is a quick train and has many tunnels, it was supposed to be a 26 min ride but a school girl directed us off a stop too soon at the 24 min mark. Now we had to get to the next station in fewer than 22 mins to make our connection. By the way the train we got off only runs hourly, so we did not wait for the next one. TAXI... Yes... no English......more pointing and much gesturing got us to Isahaya station with 5mins to spare. The train ride to Shimabara was over an hour but we got to see so much of the countryside and agricultural areas.

Now the reason we wanted to get to Shimabara was to see the Shimabara Castle and Samurai Village. The ship tour was $179 pp we ended up spending less than $100 for the both of us. Granted we did not get a lunch served to us, but if it was anything like the Chinese one provided for the Wall tour, we did not miss much.

The Shimabara Castle was visible from the train station so we made our way to it. No photos were allowed inside so we only have outside shots.

Fuedal lord Shigemasa Matsukra built this castle in 1624. It is now an historical museum displaying Christian relics and swords, armour and cultural artefacts.

 Not too far from the castle the houses of the low ranking samurai can be found.  Here there is a stream flowing down the middle of the street.

Wet wet wet!!!!!

We made it back to Nagasaki before 2.30pm and used our tram pass to further explore the city area.

Busan –Take 2

Wednesday 29th February, 2012

Today we arrived in Busan at 12 noon. We teamed up with a couple from Tucson to find our way to the Hae Dong Yong Gung Temple (meaning the King’s Dragon palace),was founded in 1376 AD. The shuttle again dropped us at the Phoenix hotel where we hired a taxi for 80,000 Won to take us to the temple; wait for us and then return to the hotel. The whole trip took approximately 3 hours. An hour at the temple was sufficient time to see it all. The ships tour arrived and left at same time as us, but, our trip cost $20 each; the ships tour was $79 per person.