We ended our third cruise at Civitavecchia where everyone typically goes to Rome.  We decided to take a "Tours By Locals" tour to Tuscany lead by an awesome experienced tour guide named Susanna.  What a great decision!  We found another couple (Sharon & John) to go with us who were eventually going into the city for a few days after the tour.  We had been to some of the main cities in the Tuscany Region such as Florence, Pisa and Luca but we wanted to see some of the country you see in the movies of the more peaceful countryside and history.  We started out from the port admiring the country scenery.  We first went through an area that contained the burial sites of the Etruscans (an ancient tribe before the Romans took control).  These burial sites were huge mounds of earth (small hills that you can see all around the country side) that were used to bury a tomb in which one to four people were buried.  The Etruscan tribes ruled the Romans in 600 BC prior to the Roman Empire coming into power.  We then went to Tuscania which is an old Etruscan/Roman town with many old walls, buildings and churches.  We had coffee in the town and visited one of the churches which still had frescos painted on the walls that were being restored.  Around the town you could see many of the old tombs that had been removed from the Etruscan burial sites.  They have opened so many of these burial sites; they don’t know where to put all of the tombs that they have exhumed!  We then went over to Lake Bolsena.  This was a beautifully calm volcano lake in the middle of Tuscany that has several ancient cities on its banks.  We started in Marta which looked more like a lazy fishing village and went on to Montefiascone which sat high up overlooking the lake and had occasionally been used by the pope as a summer residence.   We then went to Bolsena where we walked around the old town and ended up in a little wine shop that was operated by two (very old) sisters.  We bought a couple of bottles of the local wine and headed out to our final stop – Civita di Bagnoreggio.  Well as they say – leave the best until last!  This was beyond a picture post card of someplace you need to see (they filmed parts of the most recent film of Pinocchio here).  It is called the Dying City for a good reason.  Hundreds of years ago what is left of the city used to be on flat ground until over the last hundreds of years of erosion caused by two streams has left just a fraction of the city on a high pedestal that can only be accessed by a recently built pedestrian bridge.  This is truly an amazing sight and we suggest you see it soon, if you can, because it might not be there tomorrow!  We hiked across the pedestrian bridge and enjoyed a very nice wine and an Italian assortment of cheese and meats. This visit was certainly the highlight of our tour.  We plan to return next year with a cruise group and look forward to Susanna being our guide once again - we can’t wait!  

Our next stop was Naples where we had planned to go to Capri.  When we awoke and looked at the dark and gloomy skies outside, we decided to make it a “sea day at port".  We enjoyed walking around the city and on our way back to the ship we stopped at one of the local restaurants where we went inside for a coffee and pastry.

Sicily was our next stop where we went to the port of Catania.  Normally we stopped at Messina but it was nice to go someplace different.  We left the ship with the intent on taking a train to Taormina where we have been before but we met another couple (Dave and Mandy) who were looking at getting a taxi to Mount Etna (the local volcano).  We decided to share a taxi with this couple to go to Mount Etna first and then drive down to Taormina before going back to the port.  It looked like a nice day down by the port but by the time we got up to the “top” of Mount Etna (which was 7000 feet still 4000 feet below the summit) the weather was very overcast and cloudy.  We decided to take the cable car up which got us a 1000 feet further up and the skies were actually better when we made it through some of the clouds.  We hiked around for a couple of hours as the fog and clouds swirled around with the heavy breezes.  We eventually got up to around 8300 feet where we were able to get a good view of the summit.  We were dressed in shorts and short sleeved shirts when we left the port in 70 degree weather but were just a little surprised at the freezing temperatures (below 32 degrees) and snow when we ended up hiking.  Fortunately, they rented nice warm ski jacket for fools like us who didn’t expect that type of weather.  We then got back in our taxi and headed to Taormina which we had discovered on our last visit to Sicily.  When we arrived in the city our first stop was to have lunch at La Christina’s Cucina restaurant that was known for their “arancini” (baked rice balls stuffed with cheese and spinach) that we had the last time we visited.  We found the restaurant and enjoyed our meal with a little wine and beer.  We then took a leisurely stroll around the town admiring the flowers, shops, cliffs/beaches and unique style that this little village has to offer.  We had hoped to go to Caste Loma which was very close to Taormina, and has a special type of almond wine, but we found that it was not walkable and will have to try it out next time we are in the area.  We took the taxi back to the ship to board and head out to our next destination.

This was our first visit to Valletta, Malta.  We didn’t have any significant plans but took the Hop On/Hop Off bus to view the city highlights and to see the Blue Grotto.  Along the bus ride we marveled at the hundreds of stone walls around the island.  It turns out that in 5000 BC farmers inhabited these islands and built stone walls to terrace the fields.  When a farmer was dying he built several more stone walls to partition the land so his sons could have an equal portion of his land as his inheritance.  We are not sure where they got all of these rocks but there are literally hundreds if not thousands of rock walls around the island of Malta.  Our first stop of the bus was at Marsaxlokk which was a small fishing village on the west coast with very colorful fishing boats.  We then got back on the bus for our next stop at Blue Grotto.  There we boarded one of the many boats (for 8 Euros) which take you in and out of the several sea caves in the area, one of which is called the Blue Grotto.  It was a very nice place to visit and we saw many divers in this area.  After our enjoyable boating trip we stopped at one of the restaurants and enjoyed a little snack with some beer/wine before heading back to our ship.  Malta was a very nice port stop and if we go back again we will take a trip to Goza which has many beaches and coastal water features that look very interesting.

We now have a sea day where we can get some rest before visiting Palma de Majorca, Cartagena and Gibraltar.  

Sharon & Greg

Our last stop in the Middle East was Aqaba, Jordan.  We went to Petra on this port stop because it is by far the most popular destination and we had not been there before.  We had a semi private excursion arranged with two other couples via Jordan Travels.  It was an excellent tour and got us to Petra before the crowds arrived from the ship.  Prior to entering this ancient city we purchased some Arab headscarves to look the part (one of the other cruise passengers took a picture of Sharon in her headscarf until he realized she wasn’t a local!).  Petra was a lost city that was not re-discovered until the mid-1800’s.  It is sometimes called the Rose City because of its pinkish color.  It was built by the Nabatean Tribe in 300 BC.  The city lies in a gorge which is very narrow with side walls that are over 100 feet tall.  The buildings are actually carved into the sandstone gorge walls.  Many of the buildings are actually tombs and are designated by an upside down pyramid carving above the tomb opening.  Water was carried into the city by two trenches built into the sandstone gorge walls and covered by stone.  The entrance of the city was through the Siq which is a very narrow portion of the gorge which allowed the city’s people to control (or stop) whoever entered the city.  The most notable building in the city is called the “The Treasury” which was actually a temple.  It was named the treasury because it was rumored that a great treasure was contained in one of the large urns that sat atop the Treasury.  It took us 3 hours to walk through Petra with a guide that told us about the many tombs and structures within the city.  We could have spent another 2 or 3 hours there exploring the many tombs that were available to walk into.  After our leisurely stroll through the city we walked back to the front of Petra in 45 minutes to meet our driver who was taking us to another stop – Wadi Rum.
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Wadi Rum (Roman Valley) is a beautiful dessert valley surrounded by sandstone mountains on each side.  The sand is multicolored and goes from white all the way to a deep red.  Our guide took us to a few stops as we zipped around in our little 4x4 vehicle.  We took some pictures of the sunset as we drove back out of the valley.  We also took several pictures of a small family of camels with one baby camel feeding on her mother.  It was a nice visit.

One day after we left Aqaba we entered the Suez Canal.  This is a little different than the Panama Canal and does not have any locks.  The Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea that it connects are at the same height.  It was built by the French and took 10 years to build before it was opened in 1869.  When it was built they had a 99 year lease until it reverted back to Egyptian control.  After the French built this canal they decided to try and build the Panama Canal but that did not turn out to be successful for them due to the heat and mosquitoes that killed so many of their workers (Malaria).  We took several pictures of some of the towns along the shores and the ships in front and behind us.
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After we left the Suez Canal we went to Athens where we elected not to visit the Acropolis again.  We have seen the Acropolis many other times and when the construction with all the scaffolding is eliminated, we will go back and see it again.  We took a Metro into the city along with 3 other couples who wanted some help getting into the city a little more economically.  Two of these couples went on to the Acropolis since they had never seen it before.  The other couple went with us to an area of the city beyond the Platka.  This area of the city was not crowded with tourists but had many of the local people doing their shopping.  We had a great time meandering down the winding roads looking into whatever shop that might interest us.  We eventually headed over to Syntagma Square to see the Greek Parliamentary Building which used to be their Royal Palace.  They have a tomb of the Unknown Soldier there with two uniquely dressed guards.  Every hour they have a changing of the guards.  These soldiers “goose step” back and forth and bang their oversized shoes against the stone floor.  It is very unique to watch them marching around.  After we watched the guards for a while we decided to head up to Mount Lycabettus to get a good view of the city and the Acropolis.  The walk was a little strenuous climbing up to the top of the hill and although it was a good view at the top, it was a little hazing.  We then went and found a restaurant for a quick drink before getting back on the metro to head back to the ship.

Our last stop of this cruise was in Katakolon.  This is a stop that most people will go to Olympia to see the ancient ruins but we have seen this previously and had no interest in seeing it again.  Instead we took a stroll around the small town with its shops and restaurants.  Eventually we decided to take a little walk above the city and ended up hiking for 10 miles seeing some of the rocky coast line behind the small town.  After our hike we found a quaint little café that sat above the town and harbor where we had a little sangria, beer and pizza.  Sangria was appropriate since it was Cinco de Mayo back in the US and our daughter, who works at a Mexican restaurant, wanted to make sure we had a frozen Margarita to celebrate.  Sangria was as close as we could find.  We had a very relaxing afternoon with a nice cool breeze while we sipped our drinks overlooking the town below.  Eventually we walked back to our ship.

This is the end of our third cruise and our fourth cruise begins in two days in Rome.

Sharon & Greg

We are now in the Middle East with Muscat, Oman being our first stop.  This is where we had our Distinctive Voyage excursion and we were the host of a group of 28 people.  Our tour guide took us to a small museum which allowed us to get a good perspective of the history of Oman.  It is amazing how much fighting the people did to get where they are today.  We were told by our guide that Oman is one of the most peaceful countries in the world now.  Even though they have the exact same religions that are found in Iraq where fighting is a way of life, the people live peacefully and happily in Oman.  One of the main reasons for this is the Sultan that rules Oman is a benevolent dictator who is very progressive in his thinking to make Oman a modernized country.  He actively promotes tourism as a way to bring money into the country knowing that their oil supply will only last so much longer. We were told that Muscat is the second cleanest city in the world (Singapore is number one).  Our tour also took us by the Royal Palace and the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque which was very impressive. The mosque is extremely large and can accommodate 20,000 people praying inside!  The day we were there was Friday which is their religious day and we were not allowed in the mosque.  Although we didn’t go into any forts, it is amazing to see all the forts scattered around the mountains.  Many of these forts are just large towers on various mountain peaks that provide a look out point and a good place to mount cannons for the city’s protection.  We also were able to see the Mutrah market which is an extremely large and busy market place where they sell almost anything.  Throughout the market you can see the local people bargaining for various items that they want to buy.  

We came back to Muscat a second time on the next segment of our cruise, 4 days after our first visit.  We elected to just take a long walk down the corniche which is a beautifully tiled sidewalk that goes along the water’s edge.  The water was clear and the breeze was nice and cool (considering it was 90 outside).  It was a nice relaxful (6 miles) walk to the end and we got some nice pictures of the mountainous country all around this city.  We climbed up into one of the towers surrounding the city and found two old cannons aimed outward to protect the city.  We walked to the city gates and came back to the down town area.  We stopped on the way back at a restaurant (Fast Food Juice Centre) for one of the fruit drinks we saw everyone getting last time we were here.  It was refreshing and great after our walk! 

Our next stop was in Dubai which is in the United Arab Emirates.  This is country that is made up of several small kingdoms (emirates) that banded together.  Dubai as a city (also an emirate) is one of the most modern cities that you can imagine with so many exotic looking buildings and hotels.  The tallest building in the world is there, the Burj Khalifa, where you can go to the 148th floor observation deck to get an outstanding view of the city.  It has a set of fountains outside the building that is much more impressive than what you see at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  Since we had visited this building and city on our last trip to Dubai, we elected to go out in the desert and see a different side of Dubai.  We went on an excursion that took us in 4x4’s out into the desert.  On our way out of the city we passed the camel market.  This market is where you can buy and sell camels.  Camels cost between $3,000 and $20,000.  They are also housed there in fenced areas.  There are supposed to be 1000 camels in this area!  They even have a small stadium where they do camel racing although no betting is allowed.  There are cash prizes though for the camels who win.  Once we got out into the desert we raced around the sand dunes with other 4x4’s seeing how much sand we could throw over our windshield as we made sharp turns and barreled over the sand dune peaks.  It was a fun time!  We were told that you have to have a special driver’s license to be able to drive out in the desert.  Our driver did a great job.  We then went to a quiet area where we watched the sun set over the desert.  Very beautiful!  After sunset we headed to a Bedouin camp to have dinner and ride a camel.  The camel ride was short but it is always fun to get on a camel and hold on when it either rises up or sits back down!  We have ridden on both a camel and an elephant during this cruise – what will be next?  The “Bedouin” meal was very good allowing us to try some good Middle Eastern delicacies.  During the meal we were treated to a belly dancer who gave us a nice performance.  After this we wandered around to check out some of the shops and eventually headed back to our 4x4 for the ride back to Dubai.  It was nice driving back and seeing Dubai’s skyline lit up in the evening.  The Burj Kahlifa has a nice light show 3 times every hour.  We didn’t get back on to the ship until 10 PM and then went up to the upper deck to get a nice view of the city as our ship departed.

Our next stop was in Abu Dhabi.  We had never been to this city before and found it to be very interesting also.  We elected to just do this city on our own instead of getting an excursion.  We took a taxi to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque which is the 3rd largest mosque in the world (after the ones in Mecca and Madina in Saudi Arabia).  It is a beautiful mosque and was designed with the Taj Mahal in mind.  We viewed this mosque from all angles and you really had to be standing a long way away from the mosque to be able to get it all in your picture.  We had not dressed appropriately to go into the mosque and had dressed comfortably as we planned to just make this a day of picture taking and exploring.  We then took a taxi over to the Intercontinental Hotel to use a starting point to do some walking in this city.  Like Dubai this is a city of amazing buildings.  Some are symmetrical towers like the 5 buildings that make up the Etihad Towers.  Other buildings have huge cut outs in them while others have bridges between the towers.  Some are built crooked or twisted while others are built with an intentional lean.  If you wanted to be an architect, this would be one of the two cities where you would want to work (Dubai being the other city).  Imagine your boss saying build me a huge, uniquely styled building and budget is not object.  This would be a dream world for an architect!  Across the street from the Etihad Towers is the Royal Palace.  It is a large building with a huge dome on top of it that looks like it is made of tiles and/or marble.  As we went up to an open gate to take a better picture we were stopped by a guard.  Since we were both wearing shorts we knew we were not dressed appropriately.  We were surprised to be told that Greg could not go any further but Sharon could.  We thought this was really strange considering on restrictive Arab countries are with the dress of women (knees and shoulders covered) but they seem to be even more concerned about men’s dress also (at least at the palace).  Near the palace was an oil rig that we assume was to remind the city of where it got its wealth.  It gave Greg some old memories when he worked on these oil rigs 40 years ago in the Middle East.  As we walked to the Marina Mall we stumbled across a new landmark called the Founders Memorial.  We read sign stating that it just opened in 2018 and was amazed that we were the only people there.  After we took a few pictures of this very unique memorial, we started to head out when we were stopped.  As it turned out we were interviewed because they had just opened up the memorial and we were one of the first (if not the first) tourists to visit the memorial.  They took a couple dozen pictures of us and did a brief interview of both of us.  Maybe we will be on the next promotional Abu Dhabi video!  We gave them our contact information in case they put us in any of their promotional literature.  Pretty neat!  We eventually made it to the Marina Mall which was a beautiful mall with hundreds of stores and restaurants.  We stopped at one of the restaurants for a little lunch and something to drink.  We ended up drinking one liter of water each!  It is amazing how dehydrated you can get walking around in 105 degree temperature.  Even though it is that hot and there isn’t a cloud in the sky the weather doesn’t feel that warm because there is a nice sea breeze that is constantly cooling you off.  From the mall you got another good view of the Royal Palace and the President’s House behind it.  Also next to the mall is a hotel that looks just like Atlantis Paradise Resort in the Bahamas called the Fairmount Marina Residence.  From the mall we walked over to a place called Heritage Village.  This was somewhat like a museum where you could see various homes (tents) that the desert people (Bedouins) lived in and the boats they built.  It also contained many shops that you could purchase the local clothes, scarfs or other items.  Since time was getting to be a factor we took a taxi with the last of our local money to the beach side which is called the Corniche Beach. There weren’t many people out on the beach but there were a few.  Some areas of the beach were fenced off and were private or you had to at least pay a fee to use that area of the beach.  We walked from there to the heart of the World Trade Center where there was a shuttle to take us back to our ship. 

We are now on our third cruise heading towards the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.

​Sharon & Greg

We arrived in Cochin, India on April 14th.  Since we had a bike tour set up for later in the afternoon we decided to take a Tuk Tuk tour in the morning.  For those of you that don’t know what a Tuk Tuk is, it is a three wheel vehicle that carries 2 to 4 passengers and the driver.  The driver is basically driving a motorcycle with two rear wheels and a passenger compartment.  These vehicles race in and out of traffic as much as possible to ensure they get to where they are going as fast as possible.  Our driver started off by taking us to an Indian woman on the side of the street that made us a very nice “welcoming” necklace of jasmine and carnation flowers that smelled.  We kept the necklaces in our cabin after this tour to enjoy the fresh fragrance it provided for the next few days.  Cochin is your typical Indian city with cows wondering around in the streets.  We made a stop by a neighborhood Indian laundromat where clothes are washed in a big concrete basin and then thrown against stones or concrete slabs to “wash” the clothes (or scare the dirt out of them!). After washing they are hand wrung out and hung on the clothes lines.  Instead of using clothes pins, the clothes line has two strings twisted together which allow them to slide the clothes between the two strings which hold them in place while drying.  After drying, some of the clothes are taken to be ironed by some very unusual irons.  Some are electric (and look like they were built when electricity was invented) and others are heated by putting hot charcoal in the iron.  We took a ride by a local fish market where they had some Chinese fishing nets.  These are huge fishing nets that extend out into the water on poles and are lifted up and down by counter weights of stones.  We tried lifting the nets up by pulling the stones down.  These nets we were working typically require six men to operate while fishing.  Sharon bought a bead bracelet for $1 from a little Indian orphan girl who came by.  We visited a spice market that had both spices for cooking and herbal remedies.  One of the roads we went down had a local market where we stopped and watched them load and unload huge bags of rice, peppers and other products.  We walked down an alleyway in the marketplace to see where some of the people lived.  They were very small “homes” with just a small room or two.  Clothes were out hanging everywhere and kids were playing.  All the children were happy and ran out to have a photo taken of them.
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In the afternoon of Cochin we did our bike rides in the backwater area.  We were picked up in a Tuk Tuk at the port and taken out of the city 10 to 15 miles to the backwater country where fortunately the traffic was a little less.  Most of our biking was done going down small paths between the various fishing areas.  People owned these fishing areas and actually had little lookout stands on stilts over top the water to ensure no one fished in their areas.  We saw several people fishing along the way.  Some just waded out into the water with a net and caught their meal for the day.  We then stopped at a shop where they built wooden canoes.  These were very large canoes and they used bread fruit trees for the lumber.  They heated the wood to curve it along the length of the canoe.  Coconut husks were sown into the canoes to create a seal for the wood plank joints.  After seeing these canoes being built we were given a ride in a canoe.  The canoe was plenty big enough to fit five people and our four bikes.  We floated down one of the canals and saw all the Chinese fishing nets used by many of the homes along the canal.  These nets were smaller than what we had previously seen and we were told that they could be operated by just one person.  The homes were very small and many had roofs that required plastic tarps to keep out the rain.  Some of the walls of the homes were under repair.  It appeared that each home was a work in progress where they made repairs or additions as they got enough money to do the work.  Even though some of the roofs were almost missing, almost every home had a TV antenna!  We were later told that TV service was very cheap in India as was electricity.  As we rode our bikes done the paths it was amazing how many of the Indian children would stop to say hi and “what is your name”.  English is actually the official language of India although many people do not speak it.  They are now teaching it in school and that was why the children all wanted to practice using it.  We were obviously easily determined to be non-Indians as we rode our bikes if for no other reason than we were the only bikers with helmets on!  Towards the end of our bike ride we came across a beach on the ocean which was very nice.  It was a nice bike ride and a nice way to see some different parts of Cochin.

Goa was our second stop in India.  Like Cochin we had been to Goa once before, five years ago.  There was nothing we really wanted to do or see in Goa so we decided to make it a beach day.  India supposedly has some very nice beaches.  We took a taxi and went to one of the local beaches not too far from the cruise port.  We were surprised to only see taxis at the port and no Tuk Tuks like we saw in Cochin.  When we were here five years ago we saw mostly Tuk Tuks but they don’t seem to be very popular here anymore in Goa. It is also interesting that your taxi ride in Goa is round trip with the taxi driver waiting for you while you stay at the beach.  The beach was nice and we were able to get a few chairs and an umbrella.  The chairs were a little different in that they were wooden chaise chairs and weighed a ton.  The time at the beach was enjoyable with a nice breeze and pretty blue skies.  Boats could be seen out in the distance.  The beach had several local Indian restaurants to grab a snack or a beer but since we were going to a specialty restaurant that night on the cruise ship we decided not spoil our appetites.  We spent several hours at the beach before heading back to the ship.  We had a pleasant and relaxing day in Goa.

Our third a final stop in India was in Mumbai.  Sharon was very excited to make this stop because she wanted to visit the Dharavi Slum where Slum Dog Millionaire was filmed.  In order to view the slums we had arranged a tour with a company called Tours by Locals.  This is a company that allows you to search local tour guides for specific tours they offer in various cities.  They charge a single fee for the tour and offer it to a specified number of people.  We did this tour with just the two of us but we could have brought along another couple for the same price.  It is a worthwhile tour company to consider if you like relatively private tours for a reasonable amount of money.  Our guide was Shailesh who actually lived in the slums and turned out to be a great guide for the day.  Since this was a private tour for us we were able to customize it to see what we wanted to see and we spent the majority of our time visiting the slum area.  Mumbai is a city of more than 20 million people with more than 60% of them living in the slums.  The particular slums we went to (where the movie had been filmed) is the third largest slum in the world (Brazil #1 and Pakistan #2) and covers a one square mile area.  We weren’t allowed to take too many pictures in the slums but did take some from some overviews and at some specific areas.  The slums were amazing!  We had no idea that so much work was done there.  While the people lived over head in buildings made of corrugated metal or plywood, the bottom portion of the building was used as a small business.  The three primary businesses performed there were plastic recycling, leather production and clay pottery manufacture.  The government sponsored these programs and it allowed the people to have very labor intensive jobs but make enough money to eat and keep a roof over their heads.  There were bags and bags of plastic that were brought in and out of the slums for the plastics to be sorted by type, color and purity.  After this work was done it was re-bagged and sent to manufacturing plants outside of Mumbai that made this recycled plastic into finished product.  Corrugated boxes were recycled by cutting open the boxes and reprinting new information on the opposite side of the carton before reassembling them.  Everything was recycled and reused!  The hides from animals were brought into the slums were it was processed and made into finished leather products.  We bought a few items as souvenirs.  Another different area of the slums was dedicated to clay pottery making.  They produced a great quantity of pots and sold them to stores for sale to people.  As we walked along the streets of the slums, people hustled around and most everyone seemed happy.  Many children wanted us to take their pictures.  We were told about the making of the movie and in one alley where they filmed they decided to film a daylight scene at midnight so they had full use of the alley way.  They had to use a great deal of power to light up the entire area to make it look bright enough for a daylight scene.  We were told that no people in the slums received anything for the filming of the movie in their area.  It was also interesting to find out that the film upon its completion could not be shown in India because the government thought that it showed a degrading look of the Indian people (i.e., beggars and crime, which neither did they have).  Years later after the movie continued to gain popularity throughout the world, that ban was lifted.  It was a very interesting morning viewing the slums and learning about it and the people there.

After our slum tour we asked our guide to take us to a good Indian restaurant in the area for lunch.  He had just the place and we were treated to his favorite local Indian restaurant.  While Greg had his beer, Sharon had some Indian rum with Pepsi (she actually had several of them!).  The meal was great as we had an appetizer – a chopped pickle mixed in oil and Indian spices; rice; curry; vegetables and chicken with some of that great Indian flat bread.  We thoroughly enjoyed the lunch and some more time to chat with our guide about the Indian lifestyle.  The lunch was extremely inexpensive and we provided a large tip to show our thanks to the manager who was a good friend of our guide and took great care of us!

After lunch we visited another Indian laundry but this one was even more amazing.  It is in the Guinness World Record as the largest outdoor laundry facility.  Although the clothes were cleaned in the same manner as we had seen in Cochin, this laundry was so much larger in size and the people lived right where they did the laundry.  We then went off and did some more touristic sightseeing. We saw the Gateway of India which is a large archway at the pier built in honor of King George V. Right next door is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel which was built to replicate the Taj Mahal.  One of the most beautiful buildings in the city was the Victoria Train Station where 90% of Mumbai’s population goes through every day!  We visited the Hanging Garden which had a nice overlook of the city and the beach.  We went by to visit the house that Gandhiji lived in for 17 years (1917-1934).  It was more of a museum dedicated to his life.  After that, we headed back to our ship and amazed at how much we had seen that day.  We had a very fun and full day in Mumbai!  Thanks Shailesh for sharing your city and home with us!

We are now heading across the Arabian Sea on our way to Muscat, Oman!

​Sharon & Greg

Our flight from Shanghai to Singapore was uneventful.  We arrived at our Swissotel hotel and we were extremely impressed.  Once again we had a great view of the city.  We could see the financial district with all of the tall buildings in Singapore and we had a view of Gardens by the Bay behind the beautiful Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  Although it was 10 PM we decided to take a quick walk around the hotel.  Most places had closed down for the night but we got a chance to get a little exercise and see what was around us.  We also got to feel the temperature which was almost 90 degrees at night.  What a change from coming from Shanghai where the temperatures were in the 40s when we left.

The next morning we played pickleball!  Sharon had made some arrangements with Janet Lye from Singapore who picked us up from our hotel and took us over to a community center where they played pickleball.  Across the street was a market where we first had a little coffee/treats and was shown what they like to eat for breakfast in Singapore.  The pickleball play was indoors but NOT air conditioned.  They had a huge fan on the ceiling that was at least 16 feet in diameter which provided some air movement.  They had two courts set up.  The nets were a little flimsy but the lines were actually tiled into the floor.  The floors were hard tile and they played with an outdoor ball.  They hit the ball hard and it was very different to play on these courts but very fun.  We met some new friends and played pickleball for a few hours.  Janet and her husband, David, took us to lunch (rice and chicken and yummy desserts) and then back to the hotel.  It wasn’t until after she picked us up we found out her daughter was getting married the next day!  She spent all this time with us and had to go decorate the hotel and last minute preparations for the wedding on the next day.  We felt really bad but had a great time playing and meeting them.  Thanks so much Janet and David for the hospitality, meeting your club and playing pickleball.

After we got back to the hotel and changed, we went out to explore Singapore.  We had been there several times previously, most recently 5 years ago after a cruise.  We walked around looking at some of the hotels and checking out the Merlion which overlooks the harbor.  We stopped in one of the shopping malls and had a refreshing smoothie before going over to Gardens by the Bay.  This is a very unique area where the city has created over two dozen artificial trees (called Supertrees) that reach up to 90 feet in height.  These trees are actually made up of mesh of structural steel that has literally 100’s of different species of plants stuffed all the way up the trunks of these trees.  The trees are totally self-sufficient and collect water when it rains that gets pumped to the plants via pumps operated by solar power.  They really are quite fascinating and we had first seen them on our last trip to Singapore.  We didn’t get an opportunity on our last trip to go into the two glass enclosed structures called the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest.  The Flower Dome was a large greenhouse with 1000’s of different species of plants.  It was extremely well put together and maintained.  Throughout the plants there were various carved or shaped figures that were very interesting.  We happened to be there while they were having their Japanese garden event where you could see some beautiful Cherry Blossom Trees and other Japanese plants.  It was amazing how many people came to take pictures of themselves with some of these beautiful flowers.  The Cloud Forest was also a huge greenhouse with many different plants and it included a 100 foot mountain with a waterfall on display.  You took an elevator to the top and took a casual walk down enjoying the views and the plants as you got down to the bottom.  After visiting these two greenhouses we went over to the Supertree Grove and bought some tickets to walk on the Skyway that is 70 feet above ground and connects several of these Supertrees.  You get some great views of the city from there.  After going down from the Skyway we waited for the daily light show that happens twice each evening.  We had never seen it before and it was very impressive.  Many Disney songs were played while some of the huge Supertrees danced in flashing and strobing lights.  We then took a night stroll through other areas of the gardens seeing some of the unique sculptures like 100 foot baby and the 15 foot dragonflies.  We walked through the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and admired its opulence.   After that we took a leisurely stroll around the harbor admiring the views and night until we got back to our hotel.

The next day we headed out for the cruise port and our home for the next month and a half – the Celebrity Constellation.  We got situated on this ship and headed off for Phuket, Thailand our first port of call.  We had originally planned a boat trip to Phuket but decided to cancel that and try out the beaches there.  There was a beach just off where the tender dropped us of and we spent the day enjoying the sand, sun and water.  It was a beautiful island off the coast of Thailand.  Towards the end of the afternoon we took a walk and Sharon found a place to get a mani and pedi.  While she was busy, Greg tried out one of the Thai massages where they walked all over his back and beat him to a pulp.  After our fun day in Phuket we headed back to the ship on the tender.

Our next stop was Colombo, Sri Lanka.  We had found a private tour company that would take us to the Elephant Orphanage for one third what the ship was charging.  We weren’t sure how it would work out but it was great and we would highly recommend Gemini Travels if you ever need a tour in Sri Lanka.  Our driver met us at the port entrance and we had a nice air conditioned car and a personal driver who spoke English (highly accented English but we could communicate OK).  While we were driving to the Elephant Orphanage, if we wanted to stop for pictures, he would pull over the car.  It is very nice when it is just you and your guide.   Before going to the orphanage we stopped at a Tea Factory and learned how tea was made.  It was very educational to see how it was dried, fermented, sorted and packed.  They even had a 120 year old machine from Belfast, Ireland that they still used to make their tea.  We sampled some tea and we bought a little tea before we left.  We also stopped at a Gem store and learned about how gems were mined in Sri Lanka.  It is a very manual process where they had dig very small mine shafts with just two people working at a time.  

We then went to the Elephant Orphanage and were impressed to see all the elephants running loose.  You could get pretty close to them and take some good pictures.  We had lunch there while overlooking the elephants in the river.  It was great Indian food with a little wine and beer.  When we left the orphanage, our driver asked us if we wanted to ride or bath the elephants.  We said why not and he took us to another nearby place that had about 12 elephants.  There we took an elephant ride while our guide took pictures.  We then went to a stream where there was an elephant that we were able to scrub it down with a coconut shell.  They then asked if we wanted to have the elephant spray water on us.  Sharon said sure while Greg got out.  Sharon said just one little squirt while the elephant doused her with three long squirts of water from his trunk.  It was really a great time and this little side adventure only cost us $14.  

After Sharon’s bath we went to a “Spice Market” which really turned out to be a spice garden where they primarily grew the spice as herbal remedies for many things.  We were told how various oils removed hair while others promoted hair growth.  They had herbs to stop snoring, lower your cholesterol, promote weight loss, control diabetes, eliminate headaches/allergies, etc.  You name it and they had an herb to fix it.  Sharon bought several herbal remedies and we will see how well they do.  

That was the end of our tour except for getting back to our ship which was quite exciting with all the traffic that had built up because of the torrential rain that began just after we arrived at the spice garden.  Much of the traffic might also have been caused by Sri Lanka’s New Year’s which was to occur the day after we left.  Driving in Sri Lanka is like driving in India – unpredictable and dangerous.  At least it appears dangerous to us watching vehicles come down the road in no particular lane, moving from side to side to avoid other vehicles.  The drivers seem to know what each other is doing but it is quite a sight watching motorcycles and tuk tuks be pushed out of the way by car, truck and buses.  Everyone honks away as they are flying down the road passing vehicles slower than them.  We made it back safe and sound!

Our next three stops will be in India where we hopefully will have some more good food to eat!

​Sharon & Greg

Our arrival in Shanghai was delayed by heavy fog.  This was our departure port and fortunately the ship was able to arrive later in the day and get all the passengers off in order to welcome the next group of passengers on board.  They certainly had a busy day trying to make that happen.  It is amazing how the China smog causes so much fog and poor visibility.  We took a half day tour from the ship with hotel drop off included since the port was a good distance away from the city.  Part of the tour took us to the Bund which is a beautiful walkway on the old side of the city where you get a great view of the amazing Shanghai skyline.  The tour also stopped at the Oriental Pearl Tower which is an iconic shape on the city horizon and also serves as a radio and TV tower.  The highlight of the tour though was a ride up the Jin Mao Building to the observation deck on the 88th floor.  It was a clear night and you could see the entire city.  Right next door was the Shanghai Tower which is by far the largest building in Shanghai (over 2073 feet tall) and the second tallest in the world.  We will see the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa at 2717 feet) when we visit Dubai on our next cruise.  We found it really interesting that we were standing on an observation deck on the 88th floor of a building right next door and could not even see the top of the Shanghai Tower because it was so much taller than where we were standing (127 floors – 39 floors above us)!  Another fascinating thing about the Shanghai Tower is the outside of the building is a “shell” that is totally made of glass panels and is attached to the structural center of the building.  This allows the shell to be shaped in a twisted manner and the building looks a little like a pretzel from the outside and does not have straight sides.  It is quite a unique design.  There was also the Shanghai World Financial Center on the other side of where we were standing which is “only” 1614 feet tall (101 floors) but is considered to be the tallest building in the world with a cut out (at the very top of the building there is a huge square cut out in the building).  It was interesting to learn that all three of these buildings were designed together as part of the overall city redesign of the Pudong side of Shanghai.  The Jin Mao building was completed first in 1999 and the Shanghai tower last in 2015.  It is also fascinating to know that Shanghai has 20 buildings that are over 750 feet tall which is one of the reasons its skyline looks so spectacular.  When we arrived at our hotel later that night we were pleased to get a room which overlooked the Bund and the skyline.  It was a little odd though that the picture window was in the bathroom over the sunken tub!
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The next day was another gorgeous day with very clear skies and a temperature just over 80 degrees.  We first walked down the Bund once again in the daylight admiring the skyline and taking lots of pictures.  We then walked to the Yu Yuan Market which was near Yu Yuan Garden.  Along the way we happened upon Old Shanghai Road which is a unique road with Chinese shops where not much English was understood and haggling was not part of the buying process like it is in so many tourist shopping areas in Asia.  We were able to take a lot of pictures of some typical Chinese life and culture.  As we completed our walk on Old Shanghai Road it came right to Yu Yuan Marketplace which was a very unique set of shops geared to tourists but still very fascinating.  We did stop and have a few Chinese dumplings because we saw a long line of people ordering them.  While we were eating our dumplings in this very small Chinese restaurant, two of our friends from the cruise just happened to come inside.  We had said goodbye on the ship because they were staying at a different hotel and for only one day.  We didn’t expect to run into them in a city of more than 25 million people.  What was even funnier is later in the day while we were walking along the Bund with 10,000 other people, we ran into this same couple a second time.  How strange is that!

We didn’t visit the Yu Yuan Gardens because we were told the flowers were not yet in bloom yet.  We did walk across the bridge to the garden which has a very old teahouse in the center of a very large pond.  It was a very picturesque area and the pond was loaded with Koi.  We also did some shopping on the other side of the Garden where a person had told us was where all the locals shopped.  This was a large four story building that contained hundreds of small shops.  Many of the shops sold exactly the same things and the place certainly was not very busy when we were there.  We bought a couple of items but really just looked around. 

After going back to the hotel to freshen up we went back out to see the city at night.  When the city starts getting dark the city’s many buildings start lighting up and you can see a unique light show.  There are no lasers flashing around like Hong Kong but you can see many lights flashing on the top and sides of the buildings.  Many of the buildings look like giant TV screens where you can watch commercials or short videos.  Some scroll words or letters up or around.  Other buildings have fireworks going off in lights on the side of their building.  The Oriental Pearl Tower changes colors throughout the evening and has flashing lights going up and down.  The huge Shanghai Tower has Chinese characters that rotate around and up to the top of the building along with messages that rotate around its top.  In addition to the buildings there are ships that are lit up going up and down the river adding to the light show.  These boats provide a river cruise tour for 50 minutes.  We took a cruise on the third night and found the ride very enjoyable.  It is really quite a sight and at least 10,000 people every night stroll along the Bund walkaway to view this amazing view.

On the second night we took the passenger tunnel underneath the river to the Pudong side to see the Oriental Pearl Tower a little closer.  We had thought the passenger tunnel was a walking tunnel but it turned out to be a little ride where you got in a little “car” just like an attraction at Disney World.  The car took you through the tunnel which was colorfully lit up to enhance the experience.  When we did get to the Pearl Tower we took some pictures and made our way over to the Disney Store to look for some souvenirs of Disney products from Shanghai but there really wasn’t much that was unique to Shanghai.  Outside the Disney store was a very unique clock that had Disney characters going around and Disney songs being song at certain times.  We also made our way over to a large shopping center next to the Pearl Tower.  It is amazing on how many name brand stores they have and how many large shopping malls they have.  We spent most of our time in the bottom floor of the mall looking at the various food stalls selling strange foods that didn’t really look too appealing to us.  We did sample a little fried bread with vegetables in it and a smoothie.  After this we walked back to the passenger tunnel to take us back to the Bund side of the river.
We found a restaurant not far from our hotel called Lost Heaven that we ate at the first night because it was about the only thing open at 10 PM besides the hotel restaurants.  We ended up eating there three nights and really enjoyed the food.  We had their vegetable noodles, spring rolls and a couple of different Chinese chicken menu items.  Everything we ate there was delicious!  This was a huge restaurant and it was packed every night we were there.

On our second day we spent doing a little shopping back at the Old Shanghai Road stores.  We bought a few souvenir gifts.  We picked up a few Disney lollipops for our granddaughters at one of the Yu Yuan Market stores we had seen the first day.  Disney items are sold everywhere you look but you have to be careful that it is really a Disney product.  They also sell a Diversity product that has a logo that looks like Disney and is packaged the same way.  Some of the characters don’t quite look the same though.  The prices are a lot less expensive for these copy brands.
We spend much of the second and third days walking to different areas of the city.  We went to most of the markets that tourists go to in Shanghai but most were not that impressive.  We spent more time walking through the residential areas seeing how people lived.  Little things fascinated us like the little containers with water outside the small restaurants where they did their dishes.  It is always amazing to see how the laundry is hung out the windows for the entire world to see.  Small little “golf carts” were used to pressure wash the sidewalks and bike areas.  You constantly saw bikes or mopeds with families of 3, 4 or even 5 people going down the road.  Bikes were used for hauling everything from trash to products for delivery and food deliveries.  No matter how far into the city we went, we always felt safe and never felt threatened.  People would look at us a little strange at times because they definitely could tell we were tourists but most people just smiled at us and asked where we were from.

The last day we were in Shanghai it was cold and the visibility was extremely poor.  Not a good day for photography.  You could only see one third up the Shanghai Tower before it disappeared into the fog.  We took the ferry over to the other side of the river.  Like Hong Kong this was a very old ferry and only cost us around $0.30 per person each way.  We walked along the promenade on the Pudong side of the river and this was a very nice area created as part of the new city plan.  It was also used as a bike trail and jogging area.  We then went walking into the city which is really the financial district.  Shanghai has one of the largest financial districts in the world and rivals New York City’s Wall Street in size and the number of large banks who have their corporate headquarters there.  We walked into a few of the shopping malls and browsed at a few stores.  We walked into the Shanghai Tower, the World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Tower.  It was a good walk and allowed us to see how expensive everything was on this side of the river.  When we came back to the other side on the ferry we went to Nanjing Road which is another huge shopping area and at night it looks like Times Square with all of the street signs lit up and people crowding the streets.  These shops were expensive and there were no bargains to be found on this road.  We did see several food stalls though that were doing a great business.
To give you an idea on how much we liked Shanghai, you can tell this by the quantity of pictures that we took here.  In the first two and a half weeks of our trip (including a 3 night stay in Hong Kong), we took 650 pictures.  In the 4 days we visited Shanghai we took 650 pictures in just this city and hardly took any on the last day because of the poor visibility.  This was by far our favorite city we have visited during this trip and look forward to coming back here again.

We also learned a little about Chinese culture during this trip.  Here is what we learned:

• Be very careful when you are at a tourist site with a Chinese group.  They will push and shove you out of the way without any thought that this is wrong.  Sharon had a man reach over her head and basically use her shoulders to rest his arms so that he could put his camera in front of her face to take his pictures.  In the Jin Mao Tower we were almost trampled by a Chinese group of tourists behind us.
• When Chinese people walk along the streets, they walk in a straight line and expect you to get out of the way.  They also have a cell phone in their hands and are looking down 90% of the time.  Everyone in China appears to have a cell phone.
• Don’t try to talk when there are two or more Chinese people having a conversation near you.  They YELL everything they say so that the other person can hear them.  It almost appears as if they are angry because they are yelling but they are just having a normal conversation.
• Don’t ever walk across the street just because the Green Pedestrian sign says you can.  It is guaranteed there will still be several bikes, mopeds or motorcycles still coming through and they certainly believe they have the right of way.  Cars will even be flying around a corner just to beat the traffic.  Although we never saw a pedestrian get hit, they certainly have no right of way in China.
• Interesting that we saw, that police will ticket you for jaywalking, we saw that quite a bit.  But, no tickets for driving at night with no headlights.

We provide these words of wisdom in case you travel here.  We have no prejudice the Chinese people and they were always most gracious to us at almost all times.  There are just some different personal behaviors they have in China that we had never noticed in the US before.
We left Shanghai to go to Singapore where we depart on the Celebrity Constellation for four back to back cruises that eventually takes us to Venice.

Sharon & Greg

After two weeks into our trip we have finally set foot into China.  Beijing was our first stop where we were supposed to originally stay 3 days (2 nights).  Unfortunately due to the fog in Korea (caused by the smog in China), our delayed departure in Incheon cost us one of our days in Beijing.  Fortunately we were able to have our excursion we had booked modified to a two day excursion.

Our first day in Beijing was at the Great Wall of China.  This had been one of our bucket list items that we can cross off now.  It truly is a spectacular sight.  We only saw a very small fracture of the over 5,000 miles of wall that was built over 600 years ago.  We elected to walk up to the wall versus taking a cable car in hopes of seeing more of the wall on the walk up the mountain.  We really didn’t see the wall until we were right up to it, as it was hidden by the forest around it.  Climbing up to the top of the wall and looking around was quite a sight.  As far as you could see in each direction was the wall.  Every 500 yards or so is a watch tower that was used for the look outs to keep the Chinese empire safe from the various invaders that threatened them.  The towers are close enough together that no one could sneak up and try to climb up the wall without being seen.  The wall itself varies from 20 to 30 feet tall and is at least 30 feet thick at its base.  It definitely was not going to be knocked down!  Unfortunately the thick Chinese smog (or red dust as they called it), prevented a clearer view of the wall in the distance but we were definitely treated to some great views.  In walking along the top of the wall you had to walk up and down many steps since the wall went up and over hills and down into the valleys.  Some of these steps around the watch towers were over 1 ½ feet in height.  In between the watch towers there were canons located on the wall.  They were very simple cylindrical iron tubes that the Chinese could use the black powder they invented hundreds of years ago.  We walked for over an hour along the top of the wall (mostly up - to the top of one of the higher hills) and it seemed that one view was better than the next.  There are other places in China to see different sections of the wall and you can even go see where the wall actually is built going right out into the ocean at one end.  I am sure we will come back again and see the wall in one of our future trips.

It had taken us 3 hours to drive to the Great Wall from the port and it took us another 2 hours to drive into Beijing after visiting the wall.  Our excursion we had arranged through a local Chinese tour company (Beijing Tour Company) included an overnight stay in Beijing.  This saved us from having to drive all the way back to the port and then drive back into Beijing the next morning.  Not only did this save us 5 hours of driving time it also allowed us to spend some time in Beijing at night.  After checking into our 4 star Chinese hotel (which was pretty nice), we ventured off to see some sights with some friends we had met on board the ship.  We walked down a pedestrian shopping street that sort of reminded us of New York with all the bright neon signs everywhere.  Our first stop was at a shop that sold candy and pastries.  Most of the candies seem to be more fruit oriented.  We bought a few things and tried them as we continued to walk down the street.  We later stopped at one of the tea shops and bought a cold Rose tea.  We were going to walk to Tiananmen Square but stumbled across a Chinese night market filled with various vendors selling some very strange food items.  One of the first items we noticed were these sticks with live scorpions on them wiggling around.  They took these sticks and cooked them over a fire to have nice crispy scorpions.  We passed on this delicious food item.  Shortly after that we saw another vendor with a large mound of noodles he was selling.  These turned out to be sea worms; another delicacy we passed on.  There were some items that looked pretty good and we even tried some.  Sharon bought a long stick with a sugary fruit on it.  We saw many people eating these and it was pretty good although we never really learned what the fruit was.  It sort of tasted like a juicy plum with large seeds in them that you had to spit out.  We saw rice in many different colors served on a stick.  Ice cream that was piled in an egg waffle that we had tried while in Hong Kong.  There was an interesting item that looked pretty good where they put a shrimp in a small muffin pan and cooked an egg over the shrimp.  You could pick it up by the shrimp tail and eat it, but the egg was definitely NOT a chicken egg.  Since most people didn’t speak English, you were at your own risk to try things and not really know what you might be eating!  We really enjoyed the nice walk in the city to visit the stores and market as the temperatures were nice and cool but not cold.
The next morning we headed out to explore the city with our tour guide.  Our first stop was Tiananmen Square which is the largest public square in the world and China’s spiritual center.  At the square you can see Mao Tse-tung’s burial mausoleum.  Tens of thousands of Chinese pay their respects to him every day.  In the daytime his tomb is on display and at night it is lowered into the ground.  We were told by our guide that 70% of the Chinese people loved him when he came into power.  People took trains from all over China to come to Peking (Beijing now) to get a glimpse of him.  The people were given free food on the trains to come see him.  Other people literally walked thousands of miles to come see him.  He was considered a leader of the people and the farmers loved him.  The other 30% of the Chinese didn’t love him because he closed down ALL schools in China for over 10 years and stopped all religious practices in the country.  Also seen in Tienanmen Square is the 10 year monument (in celebration of 10 years of communism) and the people’s monument which was erected in honor of the students and people that gave their lives 30 years ago in one of the rare political demonstrations in China.

Our tour then went to the Forbidden City which is right across the road from the square.  In front of the entrance we saw several soldiers at attention with riot gear at their feet in case it was needed.  As we walked through the gates of the Forbidden City there were guards in civilian clothes who looked like Chinese Secret Service.  When you walk into this “city” you have to be impressed with it size (over 180 acres) and the number of buildings (over 900) it contained just to accommodate the emperors of the Chinese empire.  It was built 600 years ago by the Ming dynasty and for 500 years housed the emperors of both the Ming and Qing dynasties.  No one was allowed in this city except the emperor and his servants (- his 3000 servants!).  It was called the Forbidden City because no one else was allowed inside its walls.  The walls were built high (30 feet) and thick (20 feet) with a moat (150 feet wide) around them in order to ensure the safety of the emperor.  No trees were allowed inside to prevent assassins hiding in them.  All the men servants were eunuchs (castrated men), and there were hundreds of concubines for the pleasure of the emperor.  This was actually considered an imperial residence as opposed to a palace yet the Forbidden City has several palaces within its walls.  There is also a very unique Imperial Garden that should be in full bloom in another 2 or 3 weeks.  The architecture of the buildings is truly amazing when you consider it was built over 600 years ago.  The use of jade throughout the city provides some beautiful artistic touches.  The material to build the city came from all over China.  Everywhere you look around the city are huge iron pots (4 foot tall and in diameter).  These pots contained water to put out any fires that might occur in the city.  It has been open to the public since the mid 1900’s and 100,000 people visit it each day.  As we were leaving the Forbidden City we saw several Chinese wedding couples having their pictures taken outside with the city towers in the background.

After our visit to the Forbidden City we went for a traditional Chinese lunch.  It was very similar to what we had had the day before.  After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven that was built for the emperors to worship their gods and pray for good crops.  The temple is made up of some very unique buildings and is located on a very large park.  While at the temple we went to a tea ceremony to be shown the different types of Chinese tea that is available.  We were given samples of the most popular types of teas and shown how it is traditionally made and drank.  After the ceremony we were offered the opportunity to buy the tea and tea sets available. 

This concluded our tour except for our long ride back to the port.  Also included in the pictures are several shots of the bicycles, mopeds and cars driven in the area.  Traffic in Beijing is terrible as in any large city that has more than 20 million people.  You will notice that many of these mopeds and motorcycles had gloves and or jackets attached to the vehicle.  This was very unique where the rider just sat on their bike and fit their hands into gloves that were physically attached to the handle bars.  Most of these riders also had a coat that was similarly attached to provide a “windshield” as they drove.  It was very different to see.  We were told that if you lived in Beijing your public education was not free unless you were actually born there.  Many people who work in the city and rent apartments must send their children to school in the city or village that they came from in order to give them a free education.  Buying property in China is like most places we have visited in Asia.  The price to purchase a very small 2 or 3 room apartment would cost you 2 or 3 million (US) dollars.  Most people have to rent apartments.  What was a little different here though, is that many of these apartments do not come with a bathroom!  There are public bathrooms all around the city that are available for the residences to use since they do not have bathrooms in their apartments.  When we were walking the free night we had in Beijing, we observed an older Chinese man in his pajamas going to one of these public bathrooms.  They shower in these bathrooms and even wash their clothes there.  In some of the bathrooms in the restaurants you will see a sign on the ladies bathroom stalls showing whether it was a western toilet (it has an actual toilet seat) or an eastern toilet (it is a urinal in the ground that you squat over).  Fortunately all the men’s rooms had traditional urinals.  Chinese life is certainly very different from ours and we are certainly glad we live in the good old USA!

We depart Celebrity Millennium tomorrow in Shanghai and hope to see as much as we can during our 4 day stay  before departing to Singapore.

Sharon & Greg

Our second stop in Korea was Jeju Island which is the resort area of South Korea.  This is where people go to get married, vacation and to enjoy the scenic beauty.  It is the “Hawaii” of South Korea.  We took a full day tour here and visited the south side of the island.  Our first stop was the Yakchunsa Temple which is one of the many Buddhist temples on the island.  We were told that the Korean people are not overly religious (less than 50% have a given faith) but those that are either are Buddhists or Christians with a few Muslims in the area.  The temple grounds were surrounded by orange and grapefruit trees which are very prominent on the island.  Inside this large temple people can pray and meditate.  Many of the Buddhists provide donations either as bags of rice or by displaying their contributions on candles, lights or lanterns in the temple.  A donation provided for an item displayed is shown for a period of one year.  What you get depends on what the size of your donation is.  If you make a large donation you get one of the large paper lanterns that adorn the ceiling of the temple.  A smaller donation gives them a light that is put on display along with hundreds of other lights. 

The next stop on our tour was the Columnar Joints (Rock Fractures) at Jungman Daepo Coast.  These columnar rock formations were caused by lava flow from the hundreds of volcanoes on the island.  Interestingly when the lava cooled in the sea water it created these five sided columns.  It was a very interesting sight.  We then went on to the Hyatt Regency Hotel where we had a traditional Korean lunch – a spicy beef with a side of sticky rice.  After we ate, we went to Yeomiji Botanical Gardens which had many beautiful flowers.  Different areas of the Gardens showed various types of plant life: desert, jungle, aquatic, flowers and tropical fruits.  We were next taken to an Cheonjeyeon Falls.  This is a series of three waterfalls along a manmade canal created to help water 250,000 acres of rice paddies.  The waterfalls were not that impressive(due to lack of water) but the walk was pleasant and along the way you had the opportunity to walk over a very unique pedestrian bridge (Seonimgyo Bridge).  We made one last stop on our way back to the cruise ship to see Mysterious Road.  This was a stretch of road that mysteriously seemed to allow your vehicle to roll uphill.  Apparently it is just an optical allusion but it seems to be pretty popular place to visit.  Our driver stopped the vehicle and we coasted for about 100 yards going upward instead of going downhill (unusual natural wonder).  Jeju Island was interesting but felt we didn’t see much of the beauty of this island given the timeframe we visited – just prior to Springtime when everything would be in bloom.

During our trip to Jeju Island we did learn more about the history of South Korea and the Island.  We were told about the women who were the primary bread winners in the family.  This seems to go back to when the women divers went down to very deep depths to get valuable seafood (albacore) to sell.  The men did not have the capability to dive to depths of 70-80 feet and many of the women died on some of these deep dives.  The women were forced to dive in the winter time with snow on the ground and into freezing water.  Many of the men were taken away by the Japanese when they took over the region in the 1930’s.  Any man that showed political resentment to the Japanese takeover was imprisoned on mainland Korea and many were eventually killed.  Some of these men returned to the island when the US helped Korea restore its independence from Japan but most of the men never returned and were assumed dead.  To this day the island has many more women than men because of this.  Many of the women were forced to become pleasure slaves for the Japanese during this time.  There is no love lost between South Korea and Japan because of what happened during this time in history but even today they are extremely close allies because of the tensions between North Korea, China and Russia.
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Out next port stop was Incheon where we were going to see Seoul.  Unfortunately extremely thick fog and China dust closed down the Incheon port delaying our arrival in the port by almost 4 hours.  We were taking a full day excursion that was supposed to start at the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) where we would be able to step into North Korea briefly.  Unfortunately, the late arrival prevented us from going to the DMZ because they closed it down to tourists at 3 PM.  We instead spent a full day in Seoul and had the opportunity to visit the Changdeokgung Palace.  The palace, built 600 years ago, is very large and two thirds of the area is devoted to the Gardens.  We did not see the Gardens but it would not have been a very impressive sight since the weather was still too cold for the plants to start blooming.  We did learn about the Korean Red Pine which is one of the most durable trees in the world.  It was used to build the palaces and many of the better homes in Korea.  Unfortunately, when the Japanese invaded Korea they chopped down the many forests of these trees to send the wood back to Japan for their use.  Around the palace we were able to see many Korean men, women and children dressed in formal attire as they visited this site.  We learned a lot about the kings and how they took power but we won’t go through all of that detail right now.  The palace was large and impressive but not overly beautiful.  The roofs and architecture made it appear very exotic compared to what we would normally see in the US.  From the palace we went to Bukchon Hanok Village which is an area of Seoul that has maintained the original style of Korean homes for the last 300 years.  The homes are very small (200-400 sq. ft.) and are packed side to side along some windy, hilly streets.  These are actual residences where people currently live.  When the homes need to be renovated the Seoul government helps pay the home owners for the renovations to maintain the historical appearance of the area.  Although the homes are small they are still extremely expensive at more than one million dollars.  Housing in general in Seoul is very expensive as we have been told in each of our Asian stops so far.  To own a house requires several hundred thousand dollars just to buy the least expensive house far away from the city center.  Most people have to rent and even that is very expensive.  The monthly rental cost is dependent on how much security deposit you put down.  It is not uncommon to put down a security deposit of $500,000 so that your monthly rent is only several hundred dollars a month.  You get the security deposit back after your 2 year contract is over. 

Our last stop was Insadong Street where we were dropped off for two hours of shopping and to have dinner on our own.  This was a very nice area and had many interesting shops and restaurants.  We first ate a few Korean pancakes with a very hot and fruity tea.  We then tried out some chicken that was sort of like Sesame Honey Chicken.  We ended up our snacking festival with a Korean donut (Hodduk) that was freshly made and had something sweet in the center that we could never quite identify.  The shopping and eating was enjoyable and we used up our full two hours before heading back to the bus for our ride back to the ship.

We have been delayed departing Incheon (Seoul), South Korea due to heavy fog.  This has caused a one day later arrival into Beijing, China where we will have 2 full days of excursions and an overnight stay instead of a 3 visit.

Sharon & Greg

Our ship departed Hong Kong on March 18th.  After a day at sea our first port stop was Keelung, Taiwan.  Keelung is a port city for Taipei the capital of Taiwan.  Since Taipei was a 45 minute drive from Keelung we elected to do an excursion on the north side of the island to see some of the famous geological formations there.  The weather was a little rainy and overcast.  The Geopark that we visited had many unique rock foundations (erosion caused by wind, rain and water).  There were some nice views in the area and at times you could see large fossils in the rock.  Outside the park were several food vendors where you could sample some local delicacies. 
We then went to a local fish market where the fish were kept alive in various tanks that allowed people to select what they wanted to eat.  There were some nearby restaurants that they could take their selection to have cooked.   Behind the fish market were some of the fishing boats that were used to catch the fish.  Our last stop on this excursion was a Buddhist Temple.  Every temple we have seen is very colorful (primarily reds and gold) and has a large figure standing in front of the temple or on the roof of the temple.  We will certainly see many more temples along the way during our cruises.

After Keelung we had a sea day before arriving in Nagasaki, Japan.  This city is most famous for being the second city in Japan (after Hiroshima) to have an atomic bomb dropped on it.  From the cruise port we walked to Peace Park which was created as a memorial to this devastating act.  In the park are several sculptures from various countries paying tribute to the devastation of this city and the desire for it never to happen again.  One statue in particular was the Peace Statue; the elevated right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons, the outstretched left hand symbolizes tranquility and world peace.  A prayer for the repose of the souls of the war victims is expressed in the eyes.   The folded right leg symbolizes quiet meditation, while the left leg is poised for action in assisting humanity.  Over 75,000 people lost their lives to this one bomb and 75,000 more were seriously injured.  Many more thousands died in the years after the bomb due to radiation poisoning and cancers caused by the radiation.  You can still see the outline of the prison foundation.  We walked over to the actual epicenter of where the bomb struck and a black monolith was erected in the exact spot of impact. 
A short distance away is the Atomic Bomb Museum which we went through.  It reminded us eerily about the 911 memorial in New York City.  Besides providing all the history about the creation of the bomb and the devastation it created in the city, the museum also had a lot of information about the various peace movements underway to help ensure an event like this never happens again. 

Our next stop was the site of the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan.   This memorial was built for some of the first Christian ministers and some of their Chinese Christian converts who were killed by the Japanese government who did not allow Christianity to be practiced until the 20th century.  We then moved on to see Fukusai Temple that was founded in 1628 by the Chinese Buddhist monk Kakukai.  The roof of the temple was shaped like a turtle shell with a turtle head protruding from the front of the temple.  Our final stop in Nagasaki was at Chinatown.  This area was very colorful and interesting to walk through.  There were many different things you could eat and we tried one of the fried balls with some sort of sweet bean center.  It wasn’t too bad.  We found Nagasaki to be a very interesting port to visit.

Our next port stop was Busan, Korea.  This was our first of three stops in Korea and was also the port where we had our Distinctive Voyage excursion.  Distinctive Voyages is a program that is offered to some travel agents to provide an extra set of amenities for their customers that book with them on certain defined cruises.  We went on this specific cruise because we acted as a host for these other travel agent’s customers.  We host a cocktail party and escort them on one complimentary excursion.  Busan was our port to escort a group of 22 passengers on an excursion led by a local tour guide.  Our first stop was at the Hongbeopsa Temple where we participated in a formal Korean Tea Ceremony.   The making and drinking of the tea was as much for meditation as it is for drinking the tea.  The ceremony was extremely interesting and the temple was beautiful.  This temple was even nicer because the floors were heated.  Since you have to take your shoes off before entering a temple, having warm floors is nice when the temperature outside is in the 50’s.  After leaving the temple we headed back into town where we went to a Korean restaurant to try some traditional Korean food (Bulgogi – with beef or Bibimbab – vegetables only).  This was served in a large pot on a warmer and each pot served around 4 people.  The food was very good and was served with rice and several other side dishes.   After lunch we went to the Jagalchi Fish Market.  This was a large fish market right on the harbor and contained many vendors selling fish, snakes, crabs and other assorted seafood delicacies.  This market was somewhat unique from what we had previously seen in that all the fish were kept alive in fresh water tanks and the pure size of the market with so many different vendors all selling the same seafood items.  It was quite a sight to see and we were told that the seafood was actually purchased (auctioned) nearby under large roofed structures where the fishing boats came in.  The vendors at the market would keep the fish alive until they sold them or they unfortunately died.  Once a fish died they had to immediately sell it either to a customer or to one of the many vendors “outside” the market who had their own stalls and just sold dead fish.  Whatever dead fish couldn’t be sold that day had to be put on ice until the next day when they tried to resell it.  We were told this whole process is regulated by the government to ensure the safety of the food that is being sold.  Our excursion ended with this visit and so did our trip to Busan.

In the next two days we will visit Jeju Island and Seoul in Korea before heading on to China.
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We arrived in Hong Kong on the evening of March 15th after a very, very long flight from Atlanta.  The second flight that day was 17 hours LONG!  We stayed at the Salisbury YMCA which although sounding very strange turned out to be a very nice hotel in a great location (thanks Aunt Linda and Steve for the recommendation).  The next morning we woke up to get an early start in exploring a city that Sharon had never been too and Greg had last seen 43 years ago.  Our hotel had a harbor view and the first thing we did was to walk over to the Promenade and view the harbor and Hong Kong Island.  We stayed on the Kowloon side right next to the Star Ferry.  We took a Free Walking Tour and this gave us a good perspective of the area we were staying and allowed us to learn about the Hong Kong culture.  We met at a Clock Tower which was originally built over 100 years ago by the British for the train station that was there.  During the tour we tried a few delicacies such as an egg waffle and a Jasmine Milk Tea.  After the tour we made our way up to the “Ladies Market” to see the large open marketplace that you could bargain for those special deals.  We bought a few dresses for our granddaughters at some very good prices.  In the evening we watched the laser light show that the Hong Kong hotels create with laser lighting coming from the very top of some of the larger buildings.  It was nice but not nearly as impressive as the light show at Epcot in Disney World.  After the light show we headed over to some food vendors to get a little dinner.  We first ate some Ramon noodles which were really good and tasty with the spices they used.  We also tried some fried flour roll and a fried chicken breast.  The chicken was pretty good but that was probably the last fried flour roll we will eat in a while but you have to try some of the different things when you are traveling to new places.
 
On the second day we took the Star Ferry (cheapest and oldest ferry in the world) to Hong Kong Island.  As we made our way to the Wet Market (Chun Yeung St) we stopped at a local indoor marketplace that we just happened to notice along the way.  It was quite a market with fresh fish everywhere along with fresh produce and live chickens.  The live chickens for sale weren’t live when they were sold.  When someone wanted to buy one they put them in this conical metal container until their head stuck out the small end.  This device allowed them to better grab the chicken so that they could easily hold it while they cut the throat.  After that they threw them in a bucket to bleed out before they cut them up and gave them to the buyer.  Talk about fresh food!  Quite a scene!  We also saw a bucket of rather large snakes for sale that looked pretty disgusting to us!  We then walked to the Wet Market at Chun Yeung Street and watched the many people hurrying around to buy their dinner for the night.  This is the way fish, beef and produce have been sold for hundreds and maybe thousands of years.  No grocery stores, just little shops along the street selling extremely fresh products that people would buy for a single meal.  These same people would be back the next day (and the next) to buy their food for their meal each day.  It was quite a sight.  After seeing these market places we headed over to the financial district to take another free walking tour.  Hong Kong is one of the largest financial cities in the world and three of the largest international banks are headquartered here.  The walking tour took us to many different places we would have probably not discovered or understood on our own.  We saw the world’s longest escalator at almost a half mile in length (30 minutes to travel the entire distance).  We were told about the cost of housing and how almost all of the money that people earned went to pay for the house or apartment they lived in.  Where we were taking the tour, we were told a 3 room house (not 3 bedrooms – just 1 bedroom, a kitchen and a living area) that was 200 square feet large would cost around 1.4 million in US dollars!  Imagine if our real estate market sold houses at $7,000 a square foot!  During this walking tour we tried an Egg Tart which was delicious, and a drink created back in 1952 that was filtered through a sock and contained a mixture of coffee, tea and milk.  The drink was really good and tasted like a unique flavor of ice coffee (although not a flavor we had ever tasted before).  Along the way our guide showed us stores selling various dried seafood items (fish intestines, sea horses, etc.) that were used for medicinal purposes.  We would have to be pretty darn sick before we would try some of that stuff!  And if the dried seafood items wouldn’t cure you, then you could try out the store that sold animal part such as livers, hearts, intestines, ears, etc., that also had supposedly medicinal purposes.  They certainly had plenty of homemade recipes to stay healthy and we were told that the health care in Hong Kong was very good.  People live to around 85.
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After the tour we went back to Kowloon on the Star Ferry and went to the Temple Street Night Market also known as the Men’s Market.  It didn’t look that terribly different from the Ladies Market.  We went there because it was supposed to be a good place to go and eat but we had a hard time selecting someplace to eat there that looked good.  We eventually found a restaurant on our way back to the hotel where we had some noodles and stirred fried chicken.  We forgot to take a picture of the meal but it was great.  The chicken dish was pretty hot with a mixture of different types of peppers, ginger and onions that they used.  As we walked back to the hotel we admired all of the neon and LED lights along the streets.  It lit up the roads so well, that they don’t need any street lights here in the city. 

We walked two days and logged almost 70,000 steps or about 33 miles.  We are starting to get back into shape for visiting all the many ports we will visit during this 2 ½ month trip.   For those that do not know, this will be the first blog in a trip that starts in Hong Kong with a pre-cruise stay before heading off on a two week cruise to China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.  We will then stay in Shanghai for 4 nights before flying to Singapore where we will take 4 back to back to back to back cruises to Abu Dhabi (via Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Oman and Dubai), and then to Rome through the Suez Canal.  From Rome we will go to Barcelona and then end up in Venice.  At Venice we will take a short train ride to Milan where we will eventually fly back to Atlanta on May 30th.
We have added several people to our distribution list.  If you do not wish to be on this list, just let us know and we will take you off.

Sharon and Greg