Palm Springs 2019
9 more sleeps until we head to our happy place for 2 months. Stay tuned for updates of our travels
Saturday, 23 March 2019
Sunday, 30 October 2011
It's almost over - Part 2
Neither of us slept well, I was worried we would not get a wake up call, or not hear the alarm or have problems with our tickets at the airport...a million thoughts ran through our minds.
Both the wake up call and alarm came at 6 am, what was I worrying about. We packed everything up and off to the airport we went.
Our cabbie dropped us off at the terminal and we went to check in. That is when the fun started. Our travel agent gave us paper tickets, like the old days. The tickets were issued by Air India but we were flying Singapore Air. First we went to Air India, they sent us to Singapore Airlineswho sent us back to India who sent us back to Singapore......by this time I was a nervous wreck and we only had 1/2 hour until our flight closed. Finally a supervisor from Singapore Airlines came to Air India with us and they were able to get a proper ticket issued. Needless to say, it is a good thing I go to the hairdresser on Tuesday as I grew a few hundred grey hairs during this exercise.
Oh, did I mention that the cabbie dropped us off at the wrong terminal so after all of this we had to catch a sky train to a different terminal.......with an escort from Singapore Airlines. When we got there the girl told us that there were not 2 seats together on the flight. I think the look on my face scared her as there was no way I was flying for over 18 hours without Kevin beside me. She did another check and found 2 seats together in row 55. She seemed reluctant as she said it was row 55 of 56 but I smiled and said "That's great, we are close to the washroom and the beverage cart, and if the plane goes down, we are the last ones to die". Apparently you shouldn't mention planes going down in an airport....who knew. We barely had time to go to the bathroom before we were on our 18.5 hour flight to San Francisco.
Our plane was huge, 56 rows with 9 seats across. We tried to upgrade to Business Class but when we found out it would be almost 5000.00 more each we figured we would go sit with the rest of the peeps. The meanest thing the airlines do is make you walk past all those lucky people in first class.....just mean. There must have been a lot of no shows as the plane was not full at all. The seats were nice and roomy and the tv screens were about 15 inches and had gaming controls. It was quite lovely. The funniest part of the flight is when they gave us a menu to choose our meals....all 4 of them. The food was awesome and the service was amazing. When we got to Seoul we got off the plane for about 45 minutes and then off to San Fran. When we got back on the plane it was even more empty so Kevin and I each had our own bank of 3 seats and were able to stretch out to sleep. Think I slept for about 3 hours but Kevin couldn't sleep. I watched 4 movies.....The Help was a great movie, I recommend it to everyone.
We arrived in San Fran at noon on Thursday......funny since we left Singapore at 9:30 am on Thursday. We were both a bit tired but knew we had to keep moving. Surprisingly the 18 hour flight was not that bad. We checked into the hotel and then headed to Alcatraz for a night tour. Very cool...and a bit creepy. The weather was beautiful so we could see for miles around the Island. Normally it is quite foggy this time of the year so we were very lucky. We were at Alcatraz for about 2 hours and then headed back to land. We were exhausted and hungry so headed back to the hotel for a bite to eat. We looked at the menu at the hotel and nothing interested us so we started walking. We thought we could watch the baseball game and have some pub food.....no luck, we ended up at 7-11 microwaving a burger and falling asleep before the game was over. Jet lags a bitch.
Our sleep was awful, we were both wide awake at 2 am because of the time change but that didn't stop us from getting on the Hop and Stop bus to explore San Francisco. We were a bit foolish and dressed in shorts and flip flops and went to the top of the open air bus. We froze our 10 little piggies for a couple of hours but then the temps rose and we finally warmed up. The bus tour was about 2 1/2 hours and we saw all the highlights of the city. We went across the Golden Gate bridge and again the weather was amazing with no fog...we were very lucky. After the bus ride we went to Pier 39 and wandered around the pier catching all the sites. The sea lions hang out on the pier and they are so cute.....and loud. We headed ton the cable cars to experience the topsy turvy roads of San Fran. We both hung from the side of the car so had a lot of fun.
Game 7 of themselves World Series was at four. We got back tom the hotel to catch a couple of innings and then head to dinner.....but we both both fell asleep so Kevin went to Subway and grabbed us some dinner. I must admit, I do not remember eating, I was sleeping when he went and fell back asleep as soon as he got home and handed me the sub.
Saturday morning we headed out to Chinatown before heading to the airport. Unfortunately most everything was closed but we still got the feel the area. San Francisco is an amazing place and we will definately go back when we are not suffering from jet lag.
Our amazing journey is over, we had the time of our lives and I am so fortunate to have been able to experience this adventure with the love of my life. I could not imagine experiencing it without him.
I have to apologize for any spelling or grammatical in the blog. I was typing on my IPad and generally did not have time to proofread everything before posting it as my Internet access was less than savory. The Ipad likes to change words on me.....hopefully you could figure out what I was trying to say.
We are back home now. Big thanks to my family trying to keep us awake last night....I think the jet lag is almost done.....15 hour difference reeks havoc on a body.
I hope you all enjoyed our adventure and I hope to see many of you soon.
Both the wake up call and alarm came at 6 am, what was I worrying about. We packed everything up and off to the airport we went.
Our cabbie dropped us off at the terminal and we went to check in. That is when the fun started. Our travel agent gave us paper tickets, like the old days. The tickets were issued by Air India but we were flying Singapore Air. First we went to Air India, they sent us to Singapore Airlineswho sent us back to India who sent us back to Singapore......by this time I was a nervous wreck and we only had 1/2 hour until our flight closed. Finally a supervisor from Singapore Airlines came to Air India with us and they were able to get a proper ticket issued. Needless to say, it is a good thing I go to the hairdresser on Tuesday as I grew a few hundred grey hairs during this exercise.
Oh, did I mention that the cabbie dropped us off at the wrong terminal so after all of this we had to catch a sky train to a different terminal.......with an escort from Singapore Airlines. When we got there the girl told us that there were not 2 seats together on the flight. I think the look on my face scared her as there was no way I was flying for over 18 hours without Kevin beside me. She did another check and found 2 seats together in row 55. She seemed reluctant as she said it was row 55 of 56 but I smiled and said "That's great, we are close to the washroom and the beverage cart, and if the plane goes down, we are the last ones to die". Apparently you shouldn't mention planes going down in an airport....who knew. We barely had time to go to the bathroom before we were on our 18.5 hour flight to San Francisco.
Our plane was huge, 56 rows with 9 seats across. We tried to upgrade to Business Class but when we found out it would be almost 5000.00 more each we figured we would go sit with the rest of the peeps. The meanest thing the airlines do is make you walk past all those lucky people in first class.....just mean. There must have been a lot of no shows as the plane was not full at all. The seats were nice and roomy and the tv screens were about 15 inches and had gaming controls. It was quite lovely. The funniest part of the flight is when they gave us a menu to choose our meals....all 4 of them. The food was awesome and the service was amazing. When we got to Seoul we got off the plane for about 45 minutes and then off to San Fran. When we got back on the plane it was even more empty so Kevin and I each had our own bank of 3 seats and were able to stretch out to sleep. Think I slept for about 3 hours but Kevin couldn't sleep. I watched 4 movies.....The Help was a great movie, I recommend it to everyone.
We arrived in San Fran at noon on Thursday......funny since we left Singapore at 9:30 am on Thursday. We were both a bit tired but knew we had to keep moving. Surprisingly the 18 hour flight was not that bad. We checked into the hotel and then headed to Alcatraz for a night tour. Very cool...and a bit creepy. The weather was beautiful so we could see for miles around the Island. Normally it is quite foggy this time of the year so we were very lucky. We were at Alcatraz for about 2 hours and then headed back to land. We were exhausted and hungry so headed back to the hotel for a bite to eat. We looked at the menu at the hotel and nothing interested us so we started walking. We thought we could watch the baseball game and have some pub food.....no luck, we ended up at 7-11 microwaving a burger and falling asleep before the game was over. Jet lags a bitch.
Our sleep was awful, we were both wide awake at 2 am because of the time change but that didn't stop us from getting on the Hop and Stop bus to explore San Francisco. We were a bit foolish and dressed in shorts and flip flops and went to the top of the open air bus. We froze our 10 little piggies for a couple of hours but then the temps rose and we finally warmed up. The bus tour was about 2 1/2 hours and we saw all the highlights of the city. We went across the Golden Gate bridge and again the weather was amazing with no fog...we were very lucky. After the bus ride we went to Pier 39 and wandered around the pier catching all the sites. The sea lions hang out on the pier and they are so cute.....and loud. We headed ton the cable cars to experience the topsy turvy roads of San Fran. We both hung from the side of the car so had a lot of fun.
Game 7 of themselves World Series was at four. We got back tom the hotel to catch a couple of innings and then head to dinner.....but we both both fell asleep so Kevin went to Subway and grabbed us some dinner. I must admit, I do not remember eating, I was sleeping when he went and fell back asleep as soon as he got home and handed me the sub.
Saturday morning we headed out to Chinatown before heading to the airport. Unfortunately most everything was closed but we still got the feel the area. San Francisco is an amazing place and we will definately go back when we are not suffering from jet lag.
Our amazing journey is over, we had the time of our lives and I am so fortunate to have been able to experience this adventure with the love of my life. I could not imagine experiencing it without him.
I have to apologize for any spelling or grammatical in the blog. I was typing on my IPad and generally did not have time to proofread everything before posting it as my Internet access was less than savory. The Ipad likes to change words on me.....hopefully you could figure out what I was trying to say.
We are back home now. Big thanks to my family trying to keep us awake last night....I think the jet lag is almost done.....15 hour difference reeks havoc on a body.
I hope you all enjoyed our adventure and I hope to see many of you soon.
Friday, 28 October 2011
It's almost over - part 1
I can't believe that the trip is coming to a close. We have had so much fun and I am sure that things happened that I forgot to blog about but if I remember I will simply just add it as time goes on. It was a busy week with very limited access to the internet so here goes what I can remember.
Monday was a sea day, it was glorious outside with the exception of the humidity. It was very difficult to sit anywhere except somewhere with air conditioning because it was 33 degrees with 100% humidity. We had a quiet day reading and doing sudokos. In the evening we went to the casino and to our surprise there were people playing craps.....this was the first time this cruise that anyone was at the table so we thought we would check it out. It was formal nite so everyone was dressed in their Sunday best filtering through the casino to get to the theatre to watch the nitely performance. The craps table was buzzing with activity when suddenly an announcement was made over the loud speaker for some staff to go to a gally in one of the restaurants. The table quickly filled with more chips, dice were being thrown and all was going very well......then all hell broke loose. None of the passengers knew what the 2nd announcement meant, but suddenly the pit bosses were grabbing the plastic cages to cover the chips and all the chips we had on the table were thrown back to us and the casino staff disappeared. All the slots were shut down and some staff from other parts of the ship began putting on their life jackets and preparing the casino for a muster station in the event of an evacuation. The captain came onto the speaker to announce that there was a fire in one of the gally's and that they had to send in people with "oxygen masks" into the affected area. A few minutes later he confirmed that there was a fire and they were attempting to contain it. Then a few minutes after that he announced all was well, people could continue on eating their dinner and sorry for the interruption. It was a blast. Many of the crew, who have been on ships for over 10 years, have never had this happen before. The funniest part was the captain saying at the end "sorry for the inconvenience but when something like this happens we "hit it hard and fast" For the record, it was a dishwasher that caught fire which was the 2nd time such an incident occurred, however this one was much more severe. By the way, did I mention that the ship was in the middle of nowhere when this happened:) Kevin and I are still not convinced that we got all our chips back when the alarm was rung.
Tuesday was a quiet sea day, hotter and muggier than Monday and again we stayed inside the ship for the better part of the day to beat the heat. We also had to do the terrible task of packing......not fun. An early dinner and early to bed as Wednesday was disembarkation day and we had to be up early.
When we got off the ship we were nestled right in the middle of the most massive shipping yard I have ever seen. We had to board a shuttle to the cruise ship centre where our luggage was and it took us over 20 minutes to get there. I would suspect that this port is one of the biggest ones in the world. We got our luggage and found a cab to take us to our hotel.....what a fraudster that dude was. He charged us 40 bucks and our friends only paid 10. Guess they saw us coming. However, he was a nice young man who basically gave us a city tour while taking us to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 11:00 am and were delighted to find out our room was ready. We were able to offload the luggage and then head out on our trek of Singapore. We walked for hours and saw many sites. The worlds most expensive (cost of building) hotel is located in Singapore. It is absolutely massive. There are 3 towers and on the top of the span of the towers is a ship. You can go to the top of the tower and sit in the gardens and enjoy the roof top pool, but only if you are a guest of the hotel. The architect who created the building based it on what you see after a Tsunami....boats on top of buildings. There is a huge mall and casino attached to the hotel. The mall has every store you can think of as well as a skating rink.
It poured outside and we did not have an umbrella so we looked like drown rats. Some of the other people on the ship were meeting at Raffles for a Singapore Sling so we headed over there to meet them. We were both very thirsty so opted for a Tiger beer first as we waited for our friends. When they arrived, we asked for the bill for the 2 beers - $44.00.....yes, $44.00 for 2 Tiger beers......that is the most expensive beer that I have ever had and the crazy thing is that we bought the same beers in Vietnam for $1.00!!!! The Singapore Slings are $31.00 for the cheapest ones and go up to $40.00 depending on what kind of booze you want in it.......not a chance. The worst part is that because they serve so many in a day, the mixture they use is now just a powder and the booze is pre-mixed. None of our friends thought that it tasted too good.
We walked down the street to another pub and there you can get 5 Tiger beers for $45.00, what a deal!!!!!
Kevin and I decided that if we ever want to return to Singapore again that we will need to win the lottery first. We had dinner at the hotel as we had to be up at 6 am the next morning to prepare for our 18 hour flight home and opted for the buffet......get a load of this..............$65.00 per person. Thankfully it was 2 for 1. Unbelievable.
You cannot chew gum in Singapore, you cannot buy gum in Singapore. If you have gum you must have got it from Malaysia. You will be fined 300.00 if you are caught chewing gum. If you throw your cigarette butt on the ground and get caught it is a 500.00 fine and there are all sorts of cops watching, if you carry a weapon you get charged 300.00 and if you traffic drugs you get executed. No messing around in this country.
However, Singapore is a very beautiful town and the people are delightful.
I think you have read enough for one day so I will blog again tommorow with the escapades of a 18.5 hour journey to San Francisco.
Off to watch the Cardinals win the World Series.
Until next time.
Monday was a sea day, it was glorious outside with the exception of the humidity. It was very difficult to sit anywhere except somewhere with air conditioning because it was 33 degrees with 100% humidity. We had a quiet day reading and doing sudokos. In the evening we went to the casino and to our surprise there were people playing craps.....this was the first time this cruise that anyone was at the table so we thought we would check it out. It was formal nite so everyone was dressed in their Sunday best filtering through the casino to get to the theatre to watch the nitely performance. The craps table was buzzing with activity when suddenly an announcement was made over the loud speaker for some staff to go to a gally in one of the restaurants. The table quickly filled with more chips, dice were being thrown and all was going very well......then all hell broke loose. None of the passengers knew what the 2nd announcement meant, but suddenly the pit bosses were grabbing the plastic cages to cover the chips and all the chips we had on the table were thrown back to us and the casino staff disappeared. All the slots were shut down and some staff from other parts of the ship began putting on their life jackets and preparing the casino for a muster station in the event of an evacuation. The captain came onto the speaker to announce that there was a fire in one of the gally's and that they had to send in people with "oxygen masks" into the affected area. A few minutes later he confirmed that there was a fire and they were attempting to contain it. Then a few minutes after that he announced all was well, people could continue on eating their dinner and sorry for the interruption. It was a blast. Many of the crew, who have been on ships for over 10 years, have never had this happen before. The funniest part was the captain saying at the end "sorry for the inconvenience but when something like this happens we "hit it hard and fast" For the record, it was a dishwasher that caught fire which was the 2nd time such an incident occurred, however this one was much more severe. By the way, did I mention that the ship was in the middle of nowhere when this happened:) Kevin and I are still not convinced that we got all our chips back when the alarm was rung.
Tuesday was a quiet sea day, hotter and muggier than Monday and again we stayed inside the ship for the better part of the day to beat the heat. We also had to do the terrible task of packing......not fun. An early dinner and early to bed as Wednesday was disembarkation day and we had to be up early.
When we got off the ship we were nestled right in the middle of the most massive shipping yard I have ever seen. We had to board a shuttle to the cruise ship centre where our luggage was and it took us over 20 minutes to get there. I would suspect that this port is one of the biggest ones in the world. We got our luggage and found a cab to take us to our hotel.....what a fraudster that dude was. He charged us 40 bucks and our friends only paid 10. Guess they saw us coming. However, he was a nice young man who basically gave us a city tour while taking us to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 11:00 am and were delighted to find out our room was ready. We were able to offload the luggage and then head out on our trek of Singapore. We walked for hours and saw many sites. The worlds most expensive (cost of building) hotel is located in Singapore. It is absolutely massive. There are 3 towers and on the top of the span of the towers is a ship. You can go to the top of the tower and sit in the gardens and enjoy the roof top pool, but only if you are a guest of the hotel. The architect who created the building based it on what you see after a Tsunami....boats on top of buildings. There is a huge mall and casino attached to the hotel. The mall has every store you can think of as well as a skating rink.
It poured outside and we did not have an umbrella so we looked like drown rats. Some of the other people on the ship were meeting at Raffles for a Singapore Sling so we headed over there to meet them. We were both very thirsty so opted for a Tiger beer first as we waited for our friends. When they arrived, we asked for the bill for the 2 beers - $44.00.....yes, $44.00 for 2 Tiger beers......that is the most expensive beer that I have ever had and the crazy thing is that we bought the same beers in Vietnam for $1.00!!!! The Singapore Slings are $31.00 for the cheapest ones and go up to $40.00 depending on what kind of booze you want in it.......not a chance. The worst part is that because they serve so many in a day, the mixture they use is now just a powder and the booze is pre-mixed. None of our friends thought that it tasted too good.
We walked down the street to another pub and there you can get 5 Tiger beers for $45.00, what a deal!!!!!
Kevin and I decided that if we ever want to return to Singapore again that we will need to win the lottery first. We had dinner at the hotel as we had to be up at 6 am the next morning to prepare for our 18 hour flight home and opted for the buffet......get a load of this..............$65.00 per person. Thankfully it was 2 for 1. Unbelievable.
You cannot chew gum in Singapore, you cannot buy gum in Singapore. If you have gum you must have got it from Malaysia. You will be fined 300.00 if you are caught chewing gum. If you throw your cigarette butt on the ground and get caught it is a 500.00 fine and there are all sorts of cops watching, if you carry a weapon you get charged 300.00 and if you traffic drugs you get executed. No messing around in this country.
However, Singapore is a very beautiful town and the people are delightful.
I think you have read enough for one day so I will blog again tommorow with the escapades of a 18.5 hour journey to San Francisco.
Off to watch the Cardinals win the World Series.
Until next time.
Monday, 24 October 2011
Almost home
Kevin and I were siting in the balcony enjoying a nice quiet evening before dinner when the older couple beside us decided to bring put their IPod docking station and rock to the oldies. Apparently they are both hard of hearing as the volume was quite high. We remained quiet and listened to the music.....when they started signing quite loudly we almost hated a gut. Kevin had to go in the cabin for fear of laughing out loud.
We were on an excursion on Saigon and had a 10 minute stop to take photos from a large square in the middle of town. The bus was waiting for us as we tok photos. We all got back on the bus with the exception of 4 people. We all sat on the bus for another 25 minutes waiting for them to finish their shopping in the Post Office. When they finally came back on the bus they simply went to their seats, they were completely oblivious to the fact they held us all up. Some people just don't get it
Traffic in Saigon is crazy. The population is about 10 million and there are more than 5 million motorcycles on the road. There is no semblance of order and people drive wherever the want, including the sidewalks.
Electrical in Saigon is just as crazy as in other parts of Vietnam, except in Saigon. We actually saw the electricians fixing the wires. There are so man wires running from post to post that instead of having a bucket truck that they stand in, they just sit on the bundle of wires and it supports their weight.....and they are doing this during a rain storm. Crazy
We went to a Lacquer factory while in Saigon and it is really interesting the steps they go through when you purchase a piece of furniture that has any sort of inlay. I am sure these people get paid a dollar a day to do the work that they do, but they certainly charge a lot for it in the gift shop.
The roads in Vietnam are the worst that we have been on, and I think that the bus we travelled in for 2 hours didn't have much of a suspension system. It is amazing that the road from the port to the main highway was not even paved. By far Saigon was the poorest city that we were in, with several shanty towns and garbage everywhere. It is definitely not on the list of places we want to return.
We were quite happy when we had a 2 hour break from the tour to do what we wanted. We stopped for lunch at a bar and had a couple of local beers to try to defeat the heat. It is amazing that in this climate you can drink 5 litres of water in a morning and not have to use the toilet. Then it was back on the bus for another 2 hour tour.
A quiet day at sea on Saturday, nothing of real excitement happened.
Sunday we headed to Bangkok (tee hee, I always laugh when I say that name). We opted for a afternoon tour as we did not set sail until midnite so we were able to take in the sights and sounds of a port in the evening, not very often you can do that. We had another 2 hour bus ride from the port into Bangkok and unfortunately our bus did not have air conditioning so the bus was very hot. The funniest part was that we were the last two to get on the bus, we like to sit at the back. The first 2 seas were reserved for handicap passengers so we to the back, that is when we found out there were no more seats and the guide told us to sit in the front, you should have heard all the groans from then gummers, they were pissed. The view from the front was amazing, but our driver was a maniac and that made for a very interesting view of the cars weaving in front of us. Fortunately they were able to get us a new bus, 1 1/2 hours into the journey and it was marvelous from there. The driver was a much better one than the one before so I didn't have to white knuckle it anymore:). We had a lovely tour guide, probably the best of the entire cruise who guided us the Bangkok with ease. We were supposed to do a river cruise but it was cancelled because of the high water levels and impending flooding. At first we were a bit pissed that that portion of the tour was cancelled as it was the real reason we wanted the tour, but when we drove to where the boats were to sail from we could see why it was cancelled. You could not even see the docks, they were submerged. Everywhere you drove in Bangkok there were sand bags. There is supposed to be more flooding closer to the end of the week. The flooding that they had a week ago has caused 6000 people to lose their jobs. Countless homes were affected and now they are trying to rebuild. This is the worst flooding that Thailand has had in 30 years.
We went to some amazing temples (yes, we do not need to see another temple for another 10 years), one of the temples was called the reclining buddha temple, it had this huge buddha laying down taking a nap, it was huge. Then we saw part of the Royal families motorcade pass us, wow - they have nice cars. We then headed to the Marble Temple where we saw all the monks doing their chant......that was very cool. It was a very special day in Thailand yesterday because on October 23rd every year they celebrate the life of King Raman the 5th. He was the most influential King that Thailand has ever had. He revolutionized what Thailand is today. There were big pictures of him all over the city and there were celebrations going on everywhere. Our guide explained that normally it is much busier in Bangkok but most people are staying at home because of the flooding. We saw about 100 cars parked along an off ramp (heading up) and they were parked there so that their cars would not get flooded. Who knows where they live, they jsut found the highest piece of ground they could and parked. We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant in a very nice hotel.....probably one of the best meals that we have had. The hotel was situated on the river and because the water tables are so high, the water was already starting to come through the walls of the hotel. i am sure we will be able to watch the devastation on tv this week.
Thailand is a beautiful place, however you can tell that there are definitely some very poor areas of town. It is not very clean compared to a lot of the places we saw in China.
We went to a market at night and they have peep shows all along the streets. Guys come up to you with a menu of things that you can get......and it is not food. It is far to "adult" for this friendly blog so you will have to ask me about it when we see each other.
Only 1 1/2 more days on the ship and then to Singapore for a quick day trip and then the long flight to San Francisco......we are both dreading that flight. I probably wont post another blog until we get to San Francisco on Thursday so enjoy your week and we will see you all soon.
We were on an excursion on Saigon and had a 10 minute stop to take photos from a large square in the middle of town. The bus was waiting for us as we tok photos. We all got back on the bus with the exception of 4 people. We all sat on the bus for another 25 minutes waiting for them to finish their shopping in the Post Office. When they finally came back on the bus they simply went to their seats, they were completely oblivious to the fact they held us all up. Some people just don't get it
Traffic in Saigon is crazy. The population is about 10 million and there are more than 5 million motorcycles on the road. There is no semblance of order and people drive wherever the want, including the sidewalks.
Electrical in Saigon is just as crazy as in other parts of Vietnam, except in Saigon. We actually saw the electricians fixing the wires. There are so man wires running from post to post that instead of having a bucket truck that they stand in, they just sit on the bundle of wires and it supports their weight.....and they are doing this during a rain storm. Crazy
We went to a Lacquer factory while in Saigon and it is really interesting the steps they go through when you purchase a piece of furniture that has any sort of inlay. I am sure these people get paid a dollar a day to do the work that they do, but they certainly charge a lot for it in the gift shop.
The roads in Vietnam are the worst that we have been on, and I think that the bus we travelled in for 2 hours didn't have much of a suspension system. It is amazing that the road from the port to the main highway was not even paved. By far Saigon was the poorest city that we were in, with several shanty towns and garbage everywhere. It is definitely not on the list of places we want to return.
We were quite happy when we had a 2 hour break from the tour to do what we wanted. We stopped for lunch at a bar and had a couple of local beers to try to defeat the heat. It is amazing that in this climate you can drink 5 litres of water in a morning and not have to use the toilet. Then it was back on the bus for another 2 hour tour.
A quiet day at sea on Saturday, nothing of real excitement happened.
Sunday we headed to Bangkok (tee hee, I always laugh when I say that name). We opted for a afternoon tour as we did not set sail until midnite so we were able to take in the sights and sounds of a port in the evening, not very often you can do that. We had another 2 hour bus ride from the port into Bangkok and unfortunately our bus did not have air conditioning so the bus was very hot. The funniest part was that we were the last two to get on the bus, we like to sit at the back. The first 2 seas were reserved for handicap passengers so we to the back, that is when we found out there were no more seats and the guide told us to sit in the front, you should have heard all the groans from then gummers, they were pissed. The view from the front was amazing, but our driver was a maniac and that made for a very interesting view of the cars weaving in front of us. Fortunately they were able to get us a new bus, 1 1/2 hours into the journey and it was marvelous from there. The driver was a much better one than the one before so I didn't have to white knuckle it anymore:). We had a lovely tour guide, probably the best of the entire cruise who guided us the Bangkok with ease. We were supposed to do a river cruise but it was cancelled because of the high water levels and impending flooding. At first we were a bit pissed that that portion of the tour was cancelled as it was the real reason we wanted the tour, but when we drove to where the boats were to sail from we could see why it was cancelled. You could not even see the docks, they were submerged. Everywhere you drove in Bangkok there were sand bags. There is supposed to be more flooding closer to the end of the week. The flooding that they had a week ago has caused 6000 people to lose their jobs. Countless homes were affected and now they are trying to rebuild. This is the worst flooding that Thailand has had in 30 years.
We went to some amazing temples (yes, we do not need to see another temple for another 10 years), one of the temples was called the reclining buddha temple, it had this huge buddha laying down taking a nap, it was huge. Then we saw part of the Royal families motorcade pass us, wow - they have nice cars. We then headed to the Marble Temple where we saw all the monks doing their chant......that was very cool. It was a very special day in Thailand yesterday because on October 23rd every year they celebrate the life of King Raman the 5th. He was the most influential King that Thailand has ever had. He revolutionized what Thailand is today. There were big pictures of him all over the city and there were celebrations going on everywhere. Our guide explained that normally it is much busier in Bangkok but most people are staying at home because of the flooding. We saw about 100 cars parked along an off ramp (heading up) and they were parked there so that their cars would not get flooded. Who knows where they live, they jsut found the highest piece of ground they could and parked. We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant in a very nice hotel.....probably one of the best meals that we have had. The hotel was situated on the river and because the water tables are so high, the water was already starting to come through the walls of the hotel. i am sure we will be able to watch the devastation on tv this week.
Thailand is a beautiful place, however you can tell that there are definitely some very poor areas of town. It is not very clean compared to a lot of the places we saw in China.
We went to a market at night and they have peep shows all along the streets. Guys come up to you with a menu of things that you can get......and it is not food. It is far to "adult" for this friendly blog so you will have to ask me about it when we see each other.
Only 1 1/2 more days on the ship and then to Singapore for a quick day trip and then the long flight to San Francisco......we are both dreading that flight. I probably wont post another blog until we get to San Francisco on Thursday so enjoy your week and we will see you all soon.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
VIETNAM
I forgot to tell you about our funny experience in Shanghai. Kevin decided to wear his red and white loud mouth shorts that day. He looked very nice with a matching red shirt. As we walked down one of the walking streets a lady looked at him and politely said "you should be younger to wear those shorts". We broke out into laughter.....Kevin gets called old in China and I got called fat in Korea......well at least the people are honest:)
Why do women over the age of 60 feel the need to wear two piece bikinis??
Why is it that when Kevin and I are the only ones on an elevator and the doors open and we try to get off that the gummers, normally two, have to bowl us over to get onto the empty elevator??
The light show leaving Hong Kong was beautiful. All of the buildings were lit up and the lights danced to the music. There are a lot of insurance companies here and their signs were shining brightly.....ugh, reminded us of work.
We had a nice quiet sea day yesterday, we went into the slot tournament but didn't make it to the final this time....oh well, maybe we will do one more before we go home. We had a lovely meal at the steakhouse, Kevin decided not to get the 22 ounce porterhouse this time and opted for the 16 ounce sirloin instead. I took a walk on the wild side and had a 6 oz filet mignon, much to their chagrin I had it well done. We gained an hour last nite but it still didn't help us get out of bed any earlier this morning.
We woke to a downpour of rain as we got to Vietnam, it was actually quite refreshing. It was about 30 degrees outside with 100% humidity. I don't think I could ever get used to this humidity.
We headed to town where we were able to get free wi fi for as long as we wanted so we were able to get caught up on paying bills and replying to some emails. We ran into a couple of crew members and we shared a taxi for a tour of the city. It worked out to 10 per person and we travelled for about 3 hours. Our first stop was a temple. The sign outside said that when you are purchasing your tickets you are not to show too much cleavage......too funny. We walked around this beautiful temple and then headed back to our taxi who was waiting for us. We then travelled to the Long Son Pagoda. This area commemorates Buddhist monks who protested the abuse of the Diem regime in the early 1960's by setting themselves on fire. There are plaques for 7 monks who set themselves on fire. There is a white buddha, which is quite uncommon that stands about 100 feet high and has a temple inside. Also in this area is a area where the ashes of the Vietnamese are kept. People who live here as well as Vietnamese people from all over the world have their ashes stored here after they pass. It is still a working temple and the Buddhist monks meditate during the day and then go to school at nite. There were young people who were also going to school there and they took us for the tour. There is no cost to go into this temple area, however you are expected to give them a good tip at the end and buy postcards. All the money, so they tell us, goes towards the cost of schooling. When we arrived at this location one of the students looked at Kevin's belly and told him that he was Buddha, I almost cried I was laughing so hard.
The electrical wiring here is crazy. As the story goes, if your father is a electrician than you need to be one as well because nobody can figure out the wiring that you have strung so you need to teach your children so if something goes wrong that they will know how to fix it. It is difficult to explain what it looks like but suffice it to say that there is about 200 feet of wires hanging in big loops at the end of each pole.
The traffic is also crazy, there are motorcycles and mopeds everywhere. It would appear that cars have the right of way because they just zoom around these machines.
The best part of Vietnam is the fact that 100.00 US dollars is 1, 280,000. We were millionaires for a few hours:) We passed by an incredibly huge Catholic Church on our way back to the shuttle stop. The cab driver stopped so that we could take photos, only in Vietnam:)
We stopped for a beer, $2.00 and some salad rolls....very yummy and then back to the ship.
When we got on the shuttle bus this morning I thought Kevin was going to have a heart attack. At first glance the bus has 2 seats on either side, but as the bus filled up we noticed that there was another seat that plopped down into the middle of the walkway. A woman, who I think was about 65, but Kevin swears she was at least 70 bent over to sit down and wouldn't you know it, she was wearing a thong. It was pulled up so high that it was in the middle of her back. I didn't see it so was not quite as traumatized as Kevin but he could not hold back his disgust.......so when she got up to get off the bus I had to sneak a look.......disgusting....and presumably quite uncomfortable.....yuck. I think that is worse than the 2 piece bathing suits we have seen.
Tommorow we are off to Ho Chi Ming City (Saigon) for another day of adventures. Forecast is 31 degrees and rain......blissful. We are taking a short tour and then walking around on our own. It is a 2 hour bus ride to get from the Port to Ho Chi Ming City so hopefully we can sleep a bit as we leave early.
A birthday shout out to Jen, hope you had a good one.
Until tomorrow
Why do women over the age of 60 feel the need to wear two piece bikinis??
Why is it that when Kevin and I are the only ones on an elevator and the doors open and we try to get off that the gummers, normally two, have to bowl us over to get onto the empty elevator??
The light show leaving Hong Kong was beautiful. All of the buildings were lit up and the lights danced to the music. There are a lot of insurance companies here and their signs were shining brightly.....ugh, reminded us of work.
We had a nice quiet sea day yesterday, we went into the slot tournament but didn't make it to the final this time....oh well, maybe we will do one more before we go home. We had a lovely meal at the steakhouse, Kevin decided not to get the 22 ounce porterhouse this time and opted for the 16 ounce sirloin instead. I took a walk on the wild side and had a 6 oz filet mignon, much to their chagrin I had it well done. We gained an hour last nite but it still didn't help us get out of bed any earlier this morning.
We woke to a downpour of rain as we got to Vietnam, it was actually quite refreshing. It was about 30 degrees outside with 100% humidity. I don't think I could ever get used to this humidity.
We headed to town where we were able to get free wi fi for as long as we wanted so we were able to get caught up on paying bills and replying to some emails. We ran into a couple of crew members and we shared a taxi for a tour of the city. It worked out to 10 per person and we travelled for about 3 hours. Our first stop was a temple. The sign outside said that when you are purchasing your tickets you are not to show too much cleavage......too funny. We walked around this beautiful temple and then headed back to our taxi who was waiting for us. We then travelled to the Long Son Pagoda. This area commemorates Buddhist monks who protested the abuse of the Diem regime in the early 1960's by setting themselves on fire. There are plaques for 7 monks who set themselves on fire. There is a white buddha, which is quite uncommon that stands about 100 feet high and has a temple inside. Also in this area is a area where the ashes of the Vietnamese are kept. People who live here as well as Vietnamese people from all over the world have their ashes stored here after they pass. It is still a working temple and the Buddhist monks meditate during the day and then go to school at nite. There were young people who were also going to school there and they took us for the tour. There is no cost to go into this temple area, however you are expected to give them a good tip at the end and buy postcards. All the money, so they tell us, goes towards the cost of schooling. When we arrived at this location one of the students looked at Kevin's belly and told him that he was Buddha, I almost cried I was laughing so hard.
The electrical wiring here is crazy. As the story goes, if your father is a electrician than you need to be one as well because nobody can figure out the wiring that you have strung so you need to teach your children so if something goes wrong that they will know how to fix it. It is difficult to explain what it looks like but suffice it to say that there is about 200 feet of wires hanging in big loops at the end of each pole.
The traffic is also crazy, there are motorcycles and mopeds everywhere. It would appear that cars have the right of way because they just zoom around these machines.
The best part of Vietnam is the fact that 100.00 US dollars is 1, 280,000. We were millionaires for a few hours:) We passed by an incredibly huge Catholic Church on our way back to the shuttle stop. The cab driver stopped so that we could take photos, only in Vietnam:)
We stopped for a beer, $2.00 and some salad rolls....very yummy and then back to the ship.
When we got on the shuttle bus this morning I thought Kevin was going to have a heart attack. At first glance the bus has 2 seats on either side, but as the bus filled up we noticed that there was another seat that plopped down into the middle of the walkway. A woman, who I think was about 65, but Kevin swears she was at least 70 bent over to sit down and wouldn't you know it, she was wearing a thong. It was pulled up so high that it was in the middle of her back. I didn't see it so was not quite as traumatized as Kevin but he could not hold back his disgust.......so when she got up to get off the bus I had to sneak a look.......disgusting....and presumably quite uncomfortable.....yuck. I think that is worse than the 2 piece bathing suits we have seen.
Tommorow we are off to Ho Chi Ming City (Saigon) for another day of adventures. Forecast is 31 degrees and rain......blissful. We are taking a short tour and then walking around on our own. It is a 2 hour bus ride to get from the Port to Ho Chi Ming City so hopefully we can sleep a bit as we leave early.
A birthday shout out to Jen, hope you had a good one.
Until tomorrow
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
FUN -
If we were on the Amazing Race today, we definitely would have lost that leg of the race, but luckily we were not the last ones to get to the pitstop so we have survived another day. Hong Kong is one freakin big area, it has 6,980,412 people (in 2007) Because our ship is so big we could not dock in the cruise ship area so we docked at the shipping yard. I have never seen so many containers in my life. We were a bit late getting in as so many vessels were entering this area and cruise ships do not get any preferred passage.
We awoke to the banging of huge drums just outside of our room. It was spectacular.
After a quick breakfast we boarded the 20 minute shuttle bus ride to the ferry terminal and headed off to get our bus passes. For 150 Hong Kong dollars each we could use our bus passes on any subway, bus or ferry. That works out to about 15.00 Canadian. Once you have finished your day, you return the pass to them and they refund what you did not use. So we spent 300.00 dollars and got 250.00 back. We went on a ferry 2 times, a bus and 2 subways so for a mere 3 dollars each we travelled a long way. Taking all this public transportation is preparing me when I come home and no longer have a company car:(
We got lost first thing in the morning and walked the same road 4 times before finally realizing we were going around in circles. We eventually found the ferry to take us from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. We took the ferry to Wan Chai and again walked and walked looking for the 15c bus to get us to the highest point on the Island. We could not find it and I was getting frustrated. A very nice man who spoke english got on his Iphone to see where the stop was and could not locate it, that is when he realized we took the wrong ferry, we were supposed to go to Sheung Wan instead.....aaaargh. He tried to find us a bus route to take and then when we asked how much a taxi would be he told us it would be about 30 Hong Kong Dollars, less than 3 bucks Canadian so he flagged a taxi for us, gave the driver directions in Cantonese and off we went. What a wonderful man.
Once we got to the right side of the island we went up to Victoria Peak on a tram. It travels up a very steep incline to get us 1805 feet above sea level. The views on Hong Kong Island as well as the surrounding islands was magical. There are high rise apartment buildings everywhere, and most of the complexes have between 5 - 8 towers. We suspect that probably about 100,000 people live in these complexes.
Many of the older parts of Hong Kong are soon going to be demolished for more of these buildings to go up. It is very bitter sweet for the people who live here as the culture is changing rapidly.
When we came down from the tram the bus 15c was right outside of the entrance....funny. We took the bus back to the Ferry to walk around Kowloon. We really wanted to go see the park that has over 12,000 statues of Buddha, but the subway was going to take too long and given our inability to find anything fast today we opted to just walk around.
They have a tremendous amount of markets here, including flower markets, gold fish markets and clothing/knock off markets. The flowers are amazing and we bought a huge bouquet to bring back to the ship for 12.00......at home it would have cost well over 75.00. We have made some really nice friends on the ship (crew), so we put them in a vase (cost 2.00) and brought them down for them.
Susy, if you ever decide to come here, make sure you stay for a week and bring lots of money. There is every designer store you can imagine here and they are all huge. Many of them had line ups outside as they only let a certain amount of people in at a time. Cartier, Hermes, D&G, Versace.....you name it, they got it here.
There are times during the day when you are walking in Kowloon and you would think it is nighttime because all the high-rises and huge trees cover the sun.
7-11 stores are very popular in Asia. Most of the stores are about 10 x 20 but there are at least 50 people in them at any given time. You can buy everything in these stores so they have become quite popular with us.......yet again today we were able to smuggle local beer on the ship.....at a cost of less than $2.00 Canadian for a supercan.
Tonite we get a special treat as the captain has arranged for us to cruise through Victoria Island, this does not happen on every sailing. There are many corporations who sponsor the event and it is supposed to be a spectacular light show with music that is synchronized. It is to last about 15 minutes so we will go to the top of the ship so that we can get a panoramic view. We are off to Nha Trang the day after tomorrow so will have a relaxing sea day tomorrow to prepare.
Mount On (Good Evening) from very hot and very humid Hong Kong.
We awoke to the banging of huge drums just outside of our room. It was spectacular.
After a quick breakfast we boarded the 20 minute shuttle bus ride to the ferry terminal and headed off to get our bus passes. For 150 Hong Kong dollars each we could use our bus passes on any subway, bus or ferry. That works out to about 15.00 Canadian. Once you have finished your day, you return the pass to them and they refund what you did not use. So we spent 300.00 dollars and got 250.00 back. We went on a ferry 2 times, a bus and 2 subways so for a mere 3 dollars each we travelled a long way. Taking all this public transportation is preparing me when I come home and no longer have a company car:(
We got lost first thing in the morning and walked the same road 4 times before finally realizing we were going around in circles. We eventually found the ferry to take us from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. We took the ferry to Wan Chai and again walked and walked looking for the 15c bus to get us to the highest point on the Island. We could not find it and I was getting frustrated. A very nice man who spoke english got on his Iphone to see where the stop was and could not locate it, that is when he realized we took the wrong ferry, we were supposed to go to Sheung Wan instead.....aaaargh. He tried to find us a bus route to take and then when we asked how much a taxi would be he told us it would be about 30 Hong Kong Dollars, less than 3 bucks Canadian so he flagged a taxi for us, gave the driver directions in Cantonese and off we went. What a wonderful man.
Once we got to the right side of the island we went up to Victoria Peak on a tram. It travels up a very steep incline to get us 1805 feet above sea level. The views on Hong Kong Island as well as the surrounding islands was magical. There are high rise apartment buildings everywhere, and most of the complexes have between 5 - 8 towers. We suspect that probably about 100,000 people live in these complexes.
Many of the older parts of Hong Kong are soon going to be demolished for more of these buildings to go up. It is very bitter sweet for the people who live here as the culture is changing rapidly.
When we came down from the tram the bus 15c was right outside of the entrance....funny. We took the bus back to the Ferry to walk around Kowloon. We really wanted to go see the park that has over 12,000 statues of Buddha, but the subway was going to take too long and given our inability to find anything fast today we opted to just walk around.
They have a tremendous amount of markets here, including flower markets, gold fish markets and clothing/knock off markets. The flowers are amazing and we bought a huge bouquet to bring back to the ship for 12.00......at home it would have cost well over 75.00. We have made some really nice friends on the ship (crew), so we put them in a vase (cost 2.00) and brought them down for them.
Susy, if you ever decide to come here, make sure you stay for a week and bring lots of money. There is every designer store you can imagine here and they are all huge. Many of them had line ups outside as they only let a certain amount of people in at a time. Cartier, Hermes, D&G, Versace.....you name it, they got it here.
There are times during the day when you are walking in Kowloon and you would think it is nighttime because all the high-rises and huge trees cover the sun.
7-11 stores are very popular in Asia. Most of the stores are about 10 x 20 but there are at least 50 people in them at any given time. You can buy everything in these stores so they have become quite popular with us.......yet again today we were able to smuggle local beer on the ship.....at a cost of less than $2.00 Canadian for a supercan.
Tonite we get a special treat as the captain has arranged for us to cruise through Victoria Island, this does not happen on every sailing. There are many corporations who sponsor the event and it is supposed to be a spectacular light show with music that is synchronized. It is to last about 15 minutes so we will go to the top of the ship so that we can get a panoramic view. We are off to Nha Trang the day after tomorrow so will have a relaxing sea day tomorrow to prepare.
Mount On (Good Evening) from very hot and very humid Hong Kong.
STILL HAVING FUN
Shanghai is a beautiful city, but is it ever crazy. We caught a shuttle in and it took over an hour to get through traffic. We had 2 crew members come with us, Ashley and Orest are both from India, and they knew all the hot spots to go. Ashley is about 6'2 and weighs about 250 pounds so he was my bodyguard. Orest was my negotiator. I got a nice cover for our IPad for 20 bucks, would have paid about 75 for it at home. If you want something specific and they do have it in the store you are in they will take you to their "aunts" store. I was dragged by a very small Asian woman by the elbow, very tightly until we reached the small store. These stores are about 10 x 10 and have more stuff in them then we an fit it our house. I was taken into the back room and then into another back room before they showed me what I wanted. Then came the negotiations. The rule of thumb is to cut their price in 4. However this can take some time and given how patient I am at the best of times I am a bad negotiator......queue Ashley and Orest. The funniest part is that they took over the negotiations and the shopkeeper asked if I was their mother....yes, the 5 foot, white blonde chick is the mother of these 2 East Indian fella's. We were successful in cutting down the price by 4 times. We walked through the market and each stall had the same stuff, but these shopkeepers are relentless. You are best to look directly at the ground because if you make any sort of eye contact you are a goner!!!!!
We went for a nice authentic Chinese lunch...the menus are a riot. We stayed with normal food just to be on the safe side. After lunch we hit a couple more shops and walked for miles but our time was short so we did not go to the 2nd largest building in the world:(. Kev and I have agreed that we are definitely coming back to Asia and spending the time we need to see everything we want to. Basically Shanghai is a shopping town so that is what we did.
The cab drivers here are crazy, cranky and like to rip off Westerners. Our first cab driver did not want to pick us up but was told by the boss he had to take us. This resulted in him taking us on a wild goose chase throughout the streets of Shanghai.
We saw a hypnotist show and it was hilarious. Kevin was bugging me to go onstage but I just wanted to watch. We enjoyed it so much. One fella was an absolute riot, we were crying when the show was over.
2 sea days of beautiful weather. Nothing much fun happened, I think all the wacko people got off the ship in Beijing....there is a really odd threesome of Russians, really unattractive older man and 2 very young, robust girls.....one who has so much Botox in her lips I am unsure how she eats. Kevin and I have been trying to figure them out. He thinks he is their daddy, I say he is their "Sugar Daddy".
Last night the hypnotist was back on stage. All afternoon Kevin was bugging me to go on stage, I was reluctant but decided to go must for a lark.....we an hour later I left the stage and apparently was the star of the show. Kevin had a smile from ear to ear and that made it all worthwhile. I am going to see if If I can get a video of it so I can see how much of an ass I made of myself. The worst part was all the people on the ship laughing as I walked by.
Quiet night after that, I am not sure how I will return to work when we get back as Kevin and I have a habit of sleeping until 10 am on sea days. Perhaps I will have to work from noon - 4 instead.
Until next time
We went for a nice authentic Chinese lunch...the menus are a riot. We stayed with normal food just to be on the safe side. After lunch we hit a couple more shops and walked for miles but our time was short so we did not go to the 2nd largest building in the world:(. Kev and I have agreed that we are definitely coming back to Asia and spending the time we need to see everything we want to. Basically Shanghai is a shopping town so that is what we did.
The cab drivers here are crazy, cranky and like to rip off Westerners. Our first cab driver did not want to pick us up but was told by the boss he had to take us. This resulted in him taking us on a wild goose chase throughout the streets of Shanghai.
We saw a hypnotist show and it was hilarious. Kevin was bugging me to go onstage but I just wanted to watch. We enjoyed it so much. One fella was an absolute riot, we were crying when the show was over.
2 sea days of beautiful weather. Nothing much fun happened, I think all the wacko people got off the ship in Beijing....there is a really odd threesome of Russians, really unattractive older man and 2 very young, robust girls.....one who has so much Botox in her lips I am unsure how she eats. Kevin and I have been trying to figure them out. He thinks he is their daddy, I say he is their "Sugar Daddy".
Last night the hypnotist was back on stage. All afternoon Kevin was bugging me to go on stage, I was reluctant but decided to go must for a lark.....we an hour later I left the stage and apparently was the star of the show. Kevin had a smile from ear to ear and that made it all worthwhile. I am going to see if If I can get a video of it so I can see how much of an ass I made of myself. The worst part was all the people on the ship laughing as I walked by.
Quiet night after that, I am not sure how I will return to work when we get back as Kevin and I have a habit of sleeping until 10 am on sea days. Perhaps I will have to work from noon - 4 instead.
Until next time
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)