Thursday, June 5, 2008
Itinerary for the Maasdam
My next contract on the ms Maasdam - Bold is a turn around/embarkation day!
June
21- Boston, Massachusetts
22- Bar Harbor, Maine
23- Halifax, Nova Scotia
24- Sydney, Nova Scotia
25- Charlottetown, Prince Edward Isand (Canada)
26- Scenic Cruising of St. Lawrence
27- Quebec City, Quebec
28- Montreal, Quebec
29-Quebec City, Quebec
30- Scenic Cruising of St. Lawrence
21- Boston, Massachusetts
22- Bar Harbor, Maine
23- Halifax, Nova Scotia
24- Sydney, Nova Scotia
25- Charlottetown, Prince Edward Isand (Canada)
26- Scenic Cruising of St. Lawrence
27- Quebec City, Quebec
28- Montreal, Quebec
29-Quebec City, Quebec
30- Scenic Cruising of St. Lawrence
July
1- Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (Canada)
2 - Sydney, Nova Scotia
3- Halifax, Nova Scotia
4- Bar Harbor, Maine
5- Boston, Massachusetts
6-At Sea
7- Sydney, Nova Scotia
8- Corner Brook, Newfoundland
9- St. Anthony, Newfoundland
10- At Sea
11- Qaqoroq, Greenland
12- Scenic Cruising - Prince Christian Sound
13- At Sea
14- Isafjord, Iceland
15- Akureyri, Iceland
16- Seydijofordur, Iceland
17- At Sea
18- Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Great Britain
19- Stavanger, Norway
20- Oslo, Norway
21- At Sea
22- Rotterdam, The Netherlands (optional embarkation day)
23- Cherbourg, France
24- Milford Haven, Wales, U.K
25- Dublin, Ireland
26- Liverpool, England
27- Belfast, Northern Ireland
28- Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, UK
29- Thorshaven, Iceland
30- At Sea
31-Reykjavik, Iceland
1- Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (Canada)
2 - Sydney, Nova Scotia
3- Halifax, Nova Scotia
4- Bar Harbor, Maine
5- Boston, Massachusetts
6-At Sea
7- Sydney, Nova Scotia
8- Corner Brook, Newfoundland
9- St. Anthony, Newfoundland
10- At Sea
11- Qaqoroq, Greenland
12- Scenic Cruising - Prince Christian Sound
13- At Sea
14- Isafjord, Iceland
15- Akureyri, Iceland
16- Seydijofordur, Iceland
17- At Sea
18- Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Great Britain
19- Stavanger, Norway
20- Oslo, Norway
21- At Sea
22- Rotterdam, The Netherlands (optional embarkation day)
23- Cherbourg, France
24- Milford Haven, Wales, U.K
25- Dublin, Ireland
26- Liverpool, England
27- Belfast, Northern Ireland
28- Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, UK
29- Thorshaven, Iceland
30- At Sea
31-Reykjavik, Iceland
August
1- At Sea
2- Scenic Cruising, Prince Christian Sound
3-Nanortalik, Greenland
4- At Sea
5- St John’s, Newfoundland
6- St. Pierre, French Territory
7- At Sea
8- Bar Harbor Maine
9- Boston, Massachusetts (I go home)
1- At Sea
2- Scenic Cruising, Prince Christian Sound
3-Nanortalik, Greenland
4- At Sea
5- St John’s, Newfoundland
6- St. Pierre, French Territory
7- At Sea
8- Bar Harbor Maine
9- Boston, Massachusetts (I go home)
Monday, May 26, 2008
De Ja Vu
May 2, 2008 – 1st time around
My life is truly like Groundhog Day (the movie)…I will live the same day twice! Today we are crossing the International Date Line and tomorrow it will May 2nd all over again!
Two days ago we were in Petropavolsk, Russia. What a DISASTER! As one passenger said, “There’s no rushing the Russians.” We anchored in Petropavolsk around 6:30 in the morning. The crew all knew ahead of time that it was a crazy day and there was no crew shore leave due to lack of time and the fact that we had to tender over to the shore. We started the immigration process and the Russian’s took hours to look at people’s passports. We had passengers yelling at us left and right because they wanted to get off. Mind you, every Russian in the city was on board – it was like a Disneyworld just pulled up outside their city! But this immigration officers went through the Shore Excursions passports first, then moved on to the Independent’s. I was getting screamed at over and over again~ Truly, I don’t blame these people for being upset – If I paid the same thing as these other passengers on the excursions and couldn’t get off the ship until 2:30 P.M.!!!! Especially when the last tender left from shore at 5 p.m.
My life is truly like Groundhog Day (the movie)…I will live the same day twice! Today we are crossing the International Date Line and tomorrow it will May 2nd all over again!
Two days ago we were in Petropavolsk, Russia. What a DISASTER! As one passenger said, “There’s no rushing the Russians.” We anchored in Petropavolsk around 6:30 in the morning. The crew all knew ahead of time that it was a crazy day and there was no crew shore leave due to lack of time and the fact that we had to tender over to the shore. We started the immigration process and the Russian’s took hours to look at people’s passports. We had passengers yelling at us left and right because they wanted to get off. Mind you, every Russian in the city was on board – it was like a Disneyworld just pulled up outside their city! But this immigration officers went through the Shore Excursions passports first, then moved on to the Independent’s. I was getting screamed at over and over again~ Truly, I don’t blame these people for being upset – If I paid the same thing as these other passengers on the excursions and couldn’t get off the ship until 2:30 P.M.!!!! Especially when the last tender left from shore at 5 p.m.
I guess this is the "Reader's Digest Version"...
April 30, 2008-05-01
Ok – so it seems that all my blogs have started out the same for the last several months “Wow! It’s been such a long time since I’ve posted!”...And this time, it truly has been a very very long time! I’ve been having too much fun and have not had time to sit on the internet to type! It seems that I haven’t typed anything since we’ve been in Asia.
I’ll take it through all the ports…
Nagasaki, Japan: Nagasaki is a nice city and one of the cleanest (anything, really, is clean after being in China!). It is a typical downtown with malls, restaurants and of course, Chinatown! It is actually the oldest Chinatown in Japan. Sherwin introduced me to this steamed bread with pork in it. They steam it in these boxes and it is absolutely delicious. I’ve also fallen in love with sashimi and order it wherever we go now, along with sushi. It is fantastic here! A favourite stop in Nagasaki would be the 100 Yen store ($1.00 store) – you can buy anything there. Japanese money is the Yen and currently 100 yen is approximately $1.00US.
Busan, South Korea: Busan is the very crowded and typical Asian city that you would imagine – very very dense! The apartment buildings are probably 30-40 stories high and there are 6-8 of them in one complex alone. They are incredible to look at – it amazes me because it truly shows how much housing is truly needed in order to accommodate all of the residents. I went on a crew tour to the Beomeosa Temple which is a temple that is still in use today. Many, many steep stairs and smaller temples where there were worship services going on. There was singing and chanting and it was interesting to see the monks leading the services. We saw several monks in training walking around because it was one of their worship times. I believe the guide said they worshipped around 3 times a day: morning, noon, and early evening. The buildings were vibrant colors with very detailed patterns and designs. There were rocks with carvings and many many of miniature Buddha’s sitting in nooks and crannies – not quite sure of the significance. We bought some traditional “South Korean Candies” which were a little sweet, but they were a combination of sesame seeds (which I’ve grown to love even more!), peanuts and I guess maybe it was sugar that held it together? Like I said, it wasn’t sweet (most Asian “sweets” aren’t what we would call sweet), but quite good! Also, leaving the temple, there were these pancake/egg looking things that they served on a stick. No clue as to the name- but we figured out that is was just a steamed egg that you dipped in soy sauce. One stick was about 500 Won. 1000 Won is approximately $1.00US. It’ll be quite interesting to look back in a few years, especially if the recession continues, and see how strong/weak the US dollar is against all the other currencies.
After leaving the temple we headed to the Busan City Sky Tower. When we reached the top of the sky tower you could truly see how dense all the buildings were. You could only see buildings and homes for miles and miles – not an ounce of clear land in sight! We (the captain’s wife, Gale, and I) walked around underneath the tower for a while because there was a huge bell, statues, cherry blossoms and pigeon’s everywhere.
Our last stop was the Fish Market and the International Market. The fish market is incredible – just a huge street loaded with primarily women in rubber boots and aprons selling many different kinds of fish, lots of squid and other water creatures that we could only imagine eating!!! The squid are stuck in my head – I can’t wait to show you all the pictures – these squid are stacked on top of each other like legos – and fish still begging for life in their rubber buckets. After being in the outside fish market, we headed to the indoor fish market. There were huge fish tanks full to the brim of fish still “alive” but let’s just say not enjoying it! They were packed like sardines. The floor had drains all along it and the water consistently flowed into the buckets and out onto the floor. The most fascinating part was that the women did all of the work. Very few men were around anywhere in the fish markets. You could pick out the fish of your choice and the women would clean it and pack it for you to go.
Across the street from the fish market was the international market which primarily sold junk and really bad knockoffs of purses and other “luxury items.” The coolest part was the food- there were tons of women who set up these makeshift tables in the middle of the alleys with large woks and fresh food. The women would sit in the middle of all of their food and surround their area with the little plastic stools you often find in preschools where patrons could sit for a bite to eat. We took a walk through the cinema district and found lots of eats on the street. Corn on the cob, sushi, noodles of all sorts and my favourite was the miniature octopi that were served in the popcorn-style containers. They told us that these were the foods that they take into the movies with them. All of the snacks were either dried octopus or some sort of dried seafood. Again, it’s one of those things that you’ll have to see pictures of to believe!
Dalian, China: Beautiful City – architecture was pretty much all European. The first day I just walked around the Friendship Store (a department store found all over Asia) that is about 8 floors of all souvenirs, purchased nothing (very overpriced) and headed back to the ship. Second time in Dalian we went to Victory Plaza where everyone said you can buy the best pirated DVD’s. Arwin, the assistant Housekeeper, took Sherwin and me to this guys store and he then took us downstairs in this big closet that was set up as a store also. He had EVERYTHING new – he showed us how to check the region codes to ensure that it would work on our DVD players. I bought Sex in the City (all of the seasons), Sydney White (just cause it had my name on the box…never heard of it before), Hairspray (because I love it!), PrisonBreak Season 3 (all that you can buy because of the writer’s strike!) and Juno. Now, I’m kicking myself because I should have purchased so much more – they work perfectly and they were only about $1.00 or $1.50 per DVD, depending on what it was. So very worth it!
Xinging, China: Oh goodness…here start the big entries – I love China (except for the horrible pollution!). Xingang is the port that gets us into Beijing. It’s about a 3 hour drive there, but bearable. We actually overnighted in this port both times. The first day we were there I took a crew tour into Beijing where we saw Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square wasn’t really much – reminds me of the squares over in England, like Piccadilly Square - basically a building with a huge cement square with statues.
Before entering the Forbidden City I had to visit the ladies room. Let me preface this with “I will never in my life EVER use a bathroom in China! Let’s just say Eastern and Western restrooms dramatically differ. First off, you must prepare your backpack with your own toilet paper – otherwise it’s the shimmy and shake method. To prepare even more, please prepare your cerebellum for a balancing act. Not quite sure how people who wear high heels or even fat people can make this particular style of restroom work! When you venture into a Chinese Bathroom (now not all are this particular model – there are some Western toilets here, but unfortunately none when I needed them!). Anyways, the Eastern toilets are basically a hole in the ground! You have to squat over this hole and pee in it! Mind you, we don’t have the benefit of aim like the male species. I think I’ve pissed on myself twice just trying to balance without anything touching the ground! So gross…I stopped drinking water in public for fear of not finding a Western toilet!
Speaking of toilets, the children who are not yet potty trained all have these slits in the back of their pants where they just pop-a-squat and pee/poop whenever necessary. I almost got caught in a few streams because some kids decided they had to go right in front of me!
The entrance of the Forbidden City was at the end of the square so we walked through. The Forbidden City was quite fascinating. The walls were, if I remember correctly, 11 Meters high. The detail on all of the buildings was beautiful and brightly colored. We went into some of the buildings in the City – rooms had old traditional wedding carriages and wedding gifts, weapons, armour and an entire room for Chinese instruments. We called the Forbidden City the Never-ending City because as you walked through thinking it was the end, there was a whole different area to look at. Took us about 2 hours to briefly look at everything – our guide was a speed demon! Didn’t give us much time to browse. There were these huge vats everywhere – we found out that they were for water in case of a fire. It’s so hard to describe it all – they’re just things you have to see in person to appreciate – I’ve got pictures! After seeing those sights, we had a group lunch. We sat at a table with a giant lazy Susan in the middle (this was a new toy for my Dutch friends) and they just brought out one dish at a time about every 5 minutes or so and we devoured about every bite with the exception of the fish with its head and eyeballs still in tact and the mysterious meatballs….yuk! After finishing dinner, we drove past the “Bird’s Nest” where the Olympic Games are being held and also the hall where the swimming competitions will be done before heading back the long 3 hour drive in horrific Beijing traffic back to the ship.
The next time we were in Xingang, China I did a crew tour to the Great Wall at Hyuongong (I think that’s how they spell it!) We arrived at the Great Wall and first had lunch at a restaurant located at the bottom of the wall we were going to climb. The lunch was delicious, but as in all means in Asia – you leave hungry because the servings are small! Then we headed up to the Great Wall. I had previously decided that I was going to climb the wall since I was there, young and physically able! I was a little sick due to an allergy problem from Shanghai, but I will still determined to climb! It was SO hot, which made it even more difficult. I and a few others climbed all the way to the top of the section we were at. The stairs were so inconsistent in size – a few would be over a foot tall, then they would be only a few inches tall and back and fourth all the way. The stairs were also very very rugged! So in the heat with my lungs feeling like there was a 20 pound weight on them and wearing long sleeves – I still managed to climb to the top – it took about an hour and a half going up and a half hour coming down. My body and my shins hurt so much for the next few days – but hey…I climbed the Great Wall of China!
Coming back from the Great Wall was a bit more of an adventure. We couldn’t figure out why we were sitting in traffic for about 45 minutes just coming down from the Great Wall area. The bus began moving again but only for about 10 minutes before we were stopped at the entrance to the highway. We were all quite frustrated and hungry! The police told us it could be anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 hours that we could be sitting there and waiting…of all things…for a TREE! China loves their trees and there was a 100 year old tree that they shut down the highway in order to transport it! RIDONKULOUS! We ended up having to use this police facility (with scary toilets) to go to the restroom and stood on the side of the highway for about 2 hours. Eventually, our tour guide convinced the cops to let us go because we had to meet the ship (really…we didn’t have to be back for 24 more hours!~) But…we made it!
Funny Note: Four cops standing outside of the cop car on the side of the freeway…with their pants down pissing in the grass!
The next day in Xingang we went to the market and got our Hummers. All the boys had gotten these remote control hummers (really...they are AMAZING!) and I had to have one. The doors open, lights flash, horn honks and I can hook up my Ipod and listen to it through the speakers! I’m in love with it! I also got other little things like sunglasses and sneakers. Everything is cheap in China!
Shanghai, China: By far my favourite...simply for the shopping (and I’m not a fan of shopping!). Before coming to Shanghai, everyone who had been here before talked about the fabric market where you could get custom clothes made (really…they will custom make anything for you!) I went in to the market ready to bargain and get some clothes made. In the end, I ended up getting a Traditional Chinese dress, a 4-piece suit with 5 custom button-down shirts, and an amazing Cashmere coat! They are all amazing and I got them all at very very great prices. I want to go back and have so much more made, but I didn’t think about it until it was too late. We went into the “Underground Market” and found lots of great knockoff purses, suitcases, backpacks, toys, shoes, etc. Didn’t buy much, figured I’d look more in other ports before purchasing.
Our first time in Shanghai, we ended up having to stay a whole extra night because of the smog and tides. I’m so glad that we did stay that extra night because the next day was amazing to watch. We were in the canal and it is known as one of the busiest canals in China, I believe. There were hundreds of boats carrying cargo (they looked like fishing boats with huge dumpsters full of tires/asphalt etc.) going up and down the canal – it looked like traffic on I-4 in the morning! Because of the traffic and our location, we literally had to reverse for a mile down the canal and completely flip ourselves around in the middle of all of this cargo traffic.
The second time we were in Shanghai was my birthday! I must say, it was, by far, one of the best birthdays I have ever had! It all started the night before, on April 11th. I finished up in Club Hal at 10 and I was cleaning up when I got a page. I was practically finished, so I decided to walk down to the Petty Officer’s bar, where the page came from, to see who it was. I walked in and all of my friends had a surprise party for me. Katie, one of my very close friends, had taken a sheet and painted it with “A Very Merry Unbirthday for Sydney” (from Alice in Wonderland) and painted Alice, The Mad Hatter and the cat. She cut out the faces and we all took pictures in the holes. Katie had a chocolate cake made that said the same thing as the banner, Amy had her husband make me a cake (with my name spelled wrong...but so sweet) and everyone was there with wine and everything. It was so sweet – I’ve never had friends that do things like that for me! Made me so happy! I found out the next morning she made invitations for everyone and delivered them that morning. Anyways, fantastic night!
The next day was my actual birthday and we were in Shanghai. I picked up all my custom clothes and came back to the ship to get Sherwin when he went on his break. I had been eyeing this Louis Vuitton suitcase that I had seen in the market the previous time and also saw a Swiss Army backpack that I had liked too. (I need a new backpack anyways!) So, we went and bought both – he bargained them down to way less than I had anticipated! So...perfect for packing my new things. My sweetheart took me to lunch at a Chinese restaurant…let’s just say it’s not American Chinese that we love so much…lots of fishy fish and odd animals on your plate. But I can’t complain – it wasn’t horrible! Sherwin made sure everyone knew it was my birthday and so walking around the ship absolutely everyone wished me a happy birthday! (I hadn’t told anyone!) After Sherwin went back to work, I went to the gym, hung out a bit and headed to work – no kids showed up!! Nice for me! So, about 10 of the deck boys and me went and got massages (70 minute full body massage only $9) it’s an interesting layout – there’s about 8 beds in one room – and probably 6 or so rooms. They sent the boys to theirs and luckily they sent Sherwin and me together. We had to laugh – He asked me “How did they know we’re together – if we weren’t, this would be very awkward.” It would have been very awkward if they sent all of us to the same room – because you had to change into their pajamas (that made Sherwin look like an 85 year old Chinese man and I look like a 24 year old borrowing an 8-year-old’s jammies!).
So we got our massages and looked over at each other when they told us they’d be right back…he says “do you feel like they just did kung-fu on you?”….they were vicious! Their elbows dug so deep into my back. They came back in with the hot stone bags and that was phenomenal. I want to get a full hot stone next time. I was so bruised I think – the next day my body was KILLING me! But it’s all in the experience. After our massages (which ended about 11 p.m.), we went to this whole in the wall for dinner. The menu in the window had “exploding chicken and exploding pig” as the first things. We laughed and went in and ordered our food. Actually, the food was great there. All the food had arrived except for Phillip’s chicken rice and the girl that was by the table didn’t speak English. So Phillip started flapping his elbows like a chicken and we all started laughing hysterically! On all the tables were pots on little burners for when they served the steam pots. A little kitten came walking in and we someone said…”uh oh…exploding kitten too”. Anyways, more fun times! We headed back to the ship around 1 a.m. where everyone started drinking until about 3. Phillip got out his guitar and started singing all these songs in Tagalog and any English one he could think of for me – but it was great…every chorus for every song became some Happy Birthday to Sydney song. The guys are wonderful!
Lots of the guys couldn’t come to my party because we didn’t get back until it was too late and they start work at 6 a.m. So, Jane and Jovan had a cabin party the next night with about 15 people in the hallway and cabin and had this great chicken salad (but the Filipino version of it)…had lots of lemon – delicious! So...three amazing birthday parties – can’t ask for more!
Only one bad thing did happen – the second day in Shanghai, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t breathe – my throat was very very swollen, my lungs were full of crap and I couldn’t breathe through my nose. Turns out – even though I don’t have regular allergies – I had allergy problems with all the pollution in Shanghai! Yuk!
Oh – bought a really cool stamp, too. A guy carved my name in English and Chinese onto a stamp in about 4 minutes…it was pretty nifty!
Hong Kong – WAY TOO CROWDED. I walked through the terminal (Ocean Terminal) – which was actually a massive mall….it never ever ended! I looked at electronics – maybe I would buy a computer, but the prices are the same, so I went home.
Tokyo, Japan: Bobby (Gary’s brother) picked me up at the Terminal that morning and we took a cab back to his condo a few minutes away. Taking an elevator up 25 floors made my ears pop like crazy! Yuko was there and Naomi woke up the minute we walked in the door. She has curly hair like me – looks like a birds nest when she wakes up…it’s absolutely everywhere! Mia was at school and we were going to pick her up at lunchtime. So, the four of us walked around Moon Island, where they live, for a few hours – saw a shrine and a park with the most painful reflexology sidewalk ever! We picked up Mia from school and took the subway to Ginza, the very expensive shopping district – looks just like New York City (Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier).
In Ginza, we went to a restaurant where Yuko made reservations. It was actually buffet style – but very very classy and nice. Food was excellent – but I felt greedy (and like a fat cow) going back for seconds. Had a pot in the middle of the table that they filled with soy milk, a big ice cube, and gold flakes! After it heated up- they put this very very thin and tender meat in it, which cooks rapidly. Bobby told me that it’s a very expensive meat because they feed the cow only beer and don’t let them move so their meat gets really fat and tender. I was a little nervous to taste it – but it was fantastic! Naomi was going crazy in the restaurant – no interest in anything! She started yelling out “titty” in Japanese so her mom would breastfeed her! As soon as Yuko did…she was quiet.
We left there and walked down to the electronics district. We went in this massive store – I mean massive! Literally, each floor was the size of a Target and there were 8 floors with only electronics. Anything and everything your heart could desire. Mia played this little girl version of Dance Dance Revolution with Disney Princess’ and she loved it. Naomi watched because she wants to do whatever Mia does. After some more subways and trains, Yuko took me to get a tea set because I had been wanting on forever and they were very expensive (and ugly) everywhere I had looked. So I found one and I love it! We all walked to a temple and took pictures there – and a Geisha Girl showed up. Well, Bobby explained she’s not actually a Geisha – something that starts with an M. There was a huge building, which was the home office to a local beer- and the building looked like a glass of beer with foam at the top!
We walked around a bit more and headed home to hang out for a while. Mia and Naomi were tired – Naomi is a spitfire and gets very upset if things don’t go her way! She was mad because Mia took her chair and yelled out the Japanese word for “idiot” – it was hilarious – then started crying when Mia said it back to her. I couldn’t help but laugh! TaiChi (Sp?) showed up and we all went to dinner at this little restaurant on the corner with absolutely amazing sushi and a great Fuzzy Naval drink (you even juiced the orange yourself...well, Yuko did it for me! )– I ate so much I had to roll myself back to the ship!
It was nice to see them – they are so big now and I’m sure next time they’ll be in high school!
As you can see – I’ve done a lot and I’m sure I’ve left out tons of things. I’m so sorry it’s so long – but I keep it as a record for myself too. It’s been over a month, I believe, since I’ve updated anything! I hope everyone is doing well and I will update you as to what is happening next in my world…I’ll be home May 10th!
Ok – so it seems that all my blogs have started out the same for the last several months “Wow! It’s been such a long time since I’ve posted!”...And this time, it truly has been a very very long time! I’ve been having too much fun and have not had time to sit on the internet to type! It seems that I haven’t typed anything since we’ve been in Asia.
I’ll take it through all the ports…
Nagasaki, Japan: Nagasaki is a nice city and one of the cleanest (anything, really, is clean after being in China!). It is a typical downtown with malls, restaurants and of course, Chinatown! It is actually the oldest Chinatown in Japan. Sherwin introduced me to this steamed bread with pork in it. They steam it in these boxes and it is absolutely delicious. I’ve also fallen in love with sashimi and order it wherever we go now, along with sushi. It is fantastic here! A favourite stop in Nagasaki would be the 100 Yen store ($1.00 store) – you can buy anything there. Japanese money is the Yen and currently 100 yen is approximately $1.00US.
Busan, South Korea: Busan is the very crowded and typical Asian city that you would imagine – very very dense! The apartment buildings are probably 30-40 stories high and there are 6-8 of them in one complex alone. They are incredible to look at – it amazes me because it truly shows how much housing is truly needed in order to accommodate all of the residents. I went on a crew tour to the Beomeosa Temple which is a temple that is still in use today. Many, many steep stairs and smaller temples where there were worship services going on. There was singing and chanting and it was interesting to see the monks leading the services. We saw several monks in training walking around because it was one of their worship times. I believe the guide said they worshipped around 3 times a day: morning, noon, and early evening. The buildings were vibrant colors with very detailed patterns and designs. There were rocks with carvings and many many of miniature Buddha’s sitting in nooks and crannies – not quite sure of the significance. We bought some traditional “South Korean Candies” which were a little sweet, but they were a combination of sesame seeds (which I’ve grown to love even more!), peanuts and I guess maybe it was sugar that held it together? Like I said, it wasn’t sweet (most Asian “sweets” aren’t what we would call sweet), but quite good! Also, leaving the temple, there were these pancake/egg looking things that they served on a stick. No clue as to the name- but we figured out that is was just a steamed egg that you dipped in soy sauce. One stick was about 500 Won. 1000 Won is approximately $1.00US. It’ll be quite interesting to look back in a few years, especially if the recession continues, and see how strong/weak the US dollar is against all the other currencies.
After leaving the temple we headed to the Busan City Sky Tower. When we reached the top of the sky tower you could truly see how dense all the buildings were. You could only see buildings and homes for miles and miles – not an ounce of clear land in sight! We (the captain’s wife, Gale, and I) walked around underneath the tower for a while because there was a huge bell, statues, cherry blossoms and pigeon’s everywhere.
Our last stop was the Fish Market and the International Market. The fish market is incredible – just a huge street loaded with primarily women in rubber boots and aprons selling many different kinds of fish, lots of squid and other water creatures that we could only imagine eating!!! The squid are stuck in my head – I can’t wait to show you all the pictures – these squid are stacked on top of each other like legos – and fish still begging for life in their rubber buckets. After being in the outside fish market, we headed to the indoor fish market. There were huge fish tanks full to the brim of fish still “alive” but let’s just say not enjoying it! They were packed like sardines. The floor had drains all along it and the water consistently flowed into the buckets and out onto the floor. The most fascinating part was that the women did all of the work. Very few men were around anywhere in the fish markets. You could pick out the fish of your choice and the women would clean it and pack it for you to go.
Across the street from the fish market was the international market which primarily sold junk and really bad knockoffs of purses and other “luxury items.” The coolest part was the food- there were tons of women who set up these makeshift tables in the middle of the alleys with large woks and fresh food. The women would sit in the middle of all of their food and surround their area with the little plastic stools you often find in preschools where patrons could sit for a bite to eat. We took a walk through the cinema district and found lots of eats on the street. Corn on the cob, sushi, noodles of all sorts and my favourite was the miniature octopi that were served in the popcorn-style containers. They told us that these were the foods that they take into the movies with them. All of the snacks were either dried octopus or some sort of dried seafood. Again, it’s one of those things that you’ll have to see pictures of to believe!
Dalian, China: Beautiful City – architecture was pretty much all European. The first day I just walked around the Friendship Store (a department store found all over Asia) that is about 8 floors of all souvenirs, purchased nothing (very overpriced) and headed back to the ship. Second time in Dalian we went to Victory Plaza where everyone said you can buy the best pirated DVD’s. Arwin, the assistant Housekeeper, took Sherwin and me to this guys store and he then took us downstairs in this big closet that was set up as a store also. He had EVERYTHING new – he showed us how to check the region codes to ensure that it would work on our DVD players. I bought Sex in the City (all of the seasons), Sydney White (just cause it had my name on the box…never heard of it before), Hairspray (because I love it!), PrisonBreak Season 3 (all that you can buy because of the writer’s strike!) and Juno. Now, I’m kicking myself because I should have purchased so much more – they work perfectly and they were only about $1.00 or $1.50 per DVD, depending on what it was. So very worth it!
Xinging, China: Oh goodness…here start the big entries – I love China (except for the horrible pollution!). Xingang is the port that gets us into Beijing. It’s about a 3 hour drive there, but bearable. We actually overnighted in this port both times. The first day we were there I took a crew tour into Beijing where we saw Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square wasn’t really much – reminds me of the squares over in England, like Piccadilly Square - basically a building with a huge cement square with statues.
Before entering the Forbidden City I had to visit the ladies room. Let me preface this with “I will never in my life EVER use a bathroom in China! Let’s just say Eastern and Western restrooms dramatically differ. First off, you must prepare your backpack with your own toilet paper – otherwise it’s the shimmy and shake method. To prepare even more, please prepare your cerebellum for a balancing act. Not quite sure how people who wear high heels or even fat people can make this particular style of restroom work! When you venture into a Chinese Bathroom (now not all are this particular model – there are some Western toilets here, but unfortunately none when I needed them!). Anyways, the Eastern toilets are basically a hole in the ground! You have to squat over this hole and pee in it! Mind you, we don’t have the benefit of aim like the male species. I think I’ve pissed on myself twice just trying to balance without anything touching the ground! So gross…I stopped drinking water in public for fear of not finding a Western toilet!
Speaking of toilets, the children who are not yet potty trained all have these slits in the back of their pants where they just pop-a-squat and pee/poop whenever necessary. I almost got caught in a few streams because some kids decided they had to go right in front of me!
The entrance of the Forbidden City was at the end of the square so we walked through. The Forbidden City was quite fascinating. The walls were, if I remember correctly, 11 Meters high. The detail on all of the buildings was beautiful and brightly colored. We went into some of the buildings in the City – rooms had old traditional wedding carriages and wedding gifts, weapons, armour and an entire room for Chinese instruments. We called the Forbidden City the Never-ending City because as you walked through thinking it was the end, there was a whole different area to look at. Took us about 2 hours to briefly look at everything – our guide was a speed demon! Didn’t give us much time to browse. There were these huge vats everywhere – we found out that they were for water in case of a fire. It’s so hard to describe it all – they’re just things you have to see in person to appreciate – I’ve got pictures! After seeing those sights, we had a group lunch. We sat at a table with a giant lazy Susan in the middle (this was a new toy for my Dutch friends) and they just brought out one dish at a time about every 5 minutes or so and we devoured about every bite with the exception of the fish with its head and eyeballs still in tact and the mysterious meatballs….yuk! After finishing dinner, we drove past the “Bird’s Nest” where the Olympic Games are being held and also the hall where the swimming competitions will be done before heading back the long 3 hour drive in horrific Beijing traffic back to the ship.
The next time we were in Xingang, China I did a crew tour to the Great Wall at Hyuongong (I think that’s how they spell it!) We arrived at the Great Wall and first had lunch at a restaurant located at the bottom of the wall we were going to climb. The lunch was delicious, but as in all means in Asia – you leave hungry because the servings are small! Then we headed up to the Great Wall. I had previously decided that I was going to climb the wall since I was there, young and physically able! I was a little sick due to an allergy problem from Shanghai, but I will still determined to climb! It was SO hot, which made it even more difficult. I and a few others climbed all the way to the top of the section we were at. The stairs were so inconsistent in size – a few would be over a foot tall, then they would be only a few inches tall and back and fourth all the way. The stairs were also very very rugged! So in the heat with my lungs feeling like there was a 20 pound weight on them and wearing long sleeves – I still managed to climb to the top – it took about an hour and a half going up and a half hour coming down. My body and my shins hurt so much for the next few days – but hey…I climbed the Great Wall of China!
Coming back from the Great Wall was a bit more of an adventure. We couldn’t figure out why we were sitting in traffic for about 45 minutes just coming down from the Great Wall area. The bus began moving again but only for about 10 minutes before we were stopped at the entrance to the highway. We were all quite frustrated and hungry! The police told us it could be anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 hours that we could be sitting there and waiting…of all things…for a TREE! China loves their trees and there was a 100 year old tree that they shut down the highway in order to transport it! RIDONKULOUS! We ended up having to use this police facility (with scary toilets) to go to the restroom and stood on the side of the highway for about 2 hours. Eventually, our tour guide convinced the cops to let us go because we had to meet the ship (really…we didn’t have to be back for 24 more hours!~) But…we made it!
Funny Note: Four cops standing outside of the cop car on the side of the freeway…with their pants down pissing in the grass!
The next day in Xingang we went to the market and got our Hummers. All the boys had gotten these remote control hummers (really...they are AMAZING!) and I had to have one. The doors open, lights flash, horn honks and I can hook up my Ipod and listen to it through the speakers! I’m in love with it! I also got other little things like sunglasses and sneakers. Everything is cheap in China!
Shanghai, China: By far my favourite...simply for the shopping (and I’m not a fan of shopping!). Before coming to Shanghai, everyone who had been here before talked about the fabric market where you could get custom clothes made (really…they will custom make anything for you!) I went in to the market ready to bargain and get some clothes made. In the end, I ended up getting a Traditional Chinese dress, a 4-piece suit with 5 custom button-down shirts, and an amazing Cashmere coat! They are all amazing and I got them all at very very great prices. I want to go back and have so much more made, but I didn’t think about it until it was too late. We went into the “Underground Market” and found lots of great knockoff purses, suitcases, backpacks, toys, shoes, etc. Didn’t buy much, figured I’d look more in other ports before purchasing.
Our first time in Shanghai, we ended up having to stay a whole extra night because of the smog and tides. I’m so glad that we did stay that extra night because the next day was amazing to watch. We were in the canal and it is known as one of the busiest canals in China, I believe. There were hundreds of boats carrying cargo (they looked like fishing boats with huge dumpsters full of tires/asphalt etc.) going up and down the canal – it looked like traffic on I-4 in the morning! Because of the traffic and our location, we literally had to reverse for a mile down the canal and completely flip ourselves around in the middle of all of this cargo traffic.
The second time we were in Shanghai was my birthday! I must say, it was, by far, one of the best birthdays I have ever had! It all started the night before, on April 11th. I finished up in Club Hal at 10 and I was cleaning up when I got a page. I was practically finished, so I decided to walk down to the Petty Officer’s bar, where the page came from, to see who it was. I walked in and all of my friends had a surprise party for me. Katie, one of my very close friends, had taken a sheet and painted it with “A Very Merry Unbirthday for Sydney” (from Alice in Wonderland) and painted Alice, The Mad Hatter and the cat. She cut out the faces and we all took pictures in the holes. Katie had a chocolate cake made that said the same thing as the banner, Amy had her husband make me a cake (with my name spelled wrong...but so sweet) and everyone was there with wine and everything. It was so sweet – I’ve never had friends that do things like that for me! Made me so happy! I found out the next morning she made invitations for everyone and delivered them that morning. Anyways, fantastic night!
The next day was my actual birthday and we were in Shanghai. I picked up all my custom clothes and came back to the ship to get Sherwin when he went on his break. I had been eyeing this Louis Vuitton suitcase that I had seen in the market the previous time and also saw a Swiss Army backpack that I had liked too. (I need a new backpack anyways!) So, we went and bought both – he bargained them down to way less than I had anticipated! So...perfect for packing my new things. My sweetheart took me to lunch at a Chinese restaurant…let’s just say it’s not American Chinese that we love so much…lots of fishy fish and odd animals on your plate. But I can’t complain – it wasn’t horrible! Sherwin made sure everyone knew it was my birthday and so walking around the ship absolutely everyone wished me a happy birthday! (I hadn’t told anyone!) After Sherwin went back to work, I went to the gym, hung out a bit and headed to work – no kids showed up!! Nice for me! So, about 10 of the deck boys and me went and got massages (70 minute full body massage only $9) it’s an interesting layout – there’s about 8 beds in one room – and probably 6 or so rooms. They sent the boys to theirs and luckily they sent Sherwin and me together. We had to laugh – He asked me “How did they know we’re together – if we weren’t, this would be very awkward.” It would have been very awkward if they sent all of us to the same room – because you had to change into their pajamas (that made Sherwin look like an 85 year old Chinese man and I look like a 24 year old borrowing an 8-year-old’s jammies!).
So we got our massages and looked over at each other when they told us they’d be right back…he says “do you feel like they just did kung-fu on you?”….they were vicious! Their elbows dug so deep into my back. They came back in with the hot stone bags and that was phenomenal. I want to get a full hot stone next time. I was so bruised I think – the next day my body was KILLING me! But it’s all in the experience. After our massages (which ended about 11 p.m.), we went to this whole in the wall for dinner. The menu in the window had “exploding chicken and exploding pig” as the first things. We laughed and went in and ordered our food. Actually, the food was great there. All the food had arrived except for Phillip’s chicken rice and the girl that was by the table didn’t speak English. So Phillip started flapping his elbows like a chicken and we all started laughing hysterically! On all the tables were pots on little burners for when they served the steam pots. A little kitten came walking in and we someone said…”uh oh…exploding kitten too”. Anyways, more fun times! We headed back to the ship around 1 a.m. where everyone started drinking until about 3. Phillip got out his guitar and started singing all these songs in Tagalog and any English one he could think of for me – but it was great…every chorus for every song became some Happy Birthday to Sydney song. The guys are wonderful!
Lots of the guys couldn’t come to my party because we didn’t get back until it was too late and they start work at 6 a.m. So, Jane and Jovan had a cabin party the next night with about 15 people in the hallway and cabin and had this great chicken salad (but the Filipino version of it)…had lots of lemon – delicious! So...three amazing birthday parties – can’t ask for more!
Only one bad thing did happen – the second day in Shanghai, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t breathe – my throat was very very swollen, my lungs were full of crap and I couldn’t breathe through my nose. Turns out – even though I don’t have regular allergies – I had allergy problems with all the pollution in Shanghai! Yuk!
Oh – bought a really cool stamp, too. A guy carved my name in English and Chinese onto a stamp in about 4 minutes…it was pretty nifty!
Hong Kong – WAY TOO CROWDED. I walked through the terminal (Ocean Terminal) – which was actually a massive mall….it never ever ended! I looked at electronics – maybe I would buy a computer, but the prices are the same, so I went home.
Tokyo, Japan: Bobby (Gary’s brother) picked me up at the Terminal that morning and we took a cab back to his condo a few minutes away. Taking an elevator up 25 floors made my ears pop like crazy! Yuko was there and Naomi woke up the minute we walked in the door. She has curly hair like me – looks like a birds nest when she wakes up…it’s absolutely everywhere! Mia was at school and we were going to pick her up at lunchtime. So, the four of us walked around Moon Island, where they live, for a few hours – saw a shrine and a park with the most painful reflexology sidewalk ever! We picked up Mia from school and took the subway to Ginza, the very expensive shopping district – looks just like New York City (Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier).
In Ginza, we went to a restaurant where Yuko made reservations. It was actually buffet style – but very very classy and nice. Food was excellent – but I felt greedy (and like a fat cow) going back for seconds. Had a pot in the middle of the table that they filled with soy milk, a big ice cube, and gold flakes! After it heated up- they put this very very thin and tender meat in it, which cooks rapidly. Bobby told me that it’s a very expensive meat because they feed the cow only beer and don’t let them move so their meat gets really fat and tender. I was a little nervous to taste it – but it was fantastic! Naomi was going crazy in the restaurant – no interest in anything! She started yelling out “titty” in Japanese so her mom would breastfeed her! As soon as Yuko did…she was quiet.
We left there and walked down to the electronics district. We went in this massive store – I mean massive! Literally, each floor was the size of a Target and there were 8 floors with only electronics. Anything and everything your heart could desire. Mia played this little girl version of Dance Dance Revolution with Disney Princess’ and she loved it. Naomi watched because she wants to do whatever Mia does. After some more subways and trains, Yuko took me to get a tea set because I had been wanting on forever and they were very expensive (and ugly) everywhere I had looked. So I found one and I love it! We all walked to a temple and took pictures there – and a Geisha Girl showed up. Well, Bobby explained she’s not actually a Geisha – something that starts with an M. There was a huge building, which was the home office to a local beer- and the building looked like a glass of beer with foam at the top!
We walked around a bit more and headed home to hang out for a while. Mia and Naomi were tired – Naomi is a spitfire and gets very upset if things don’t go her way! She was mad because Mia took her chair and yelled out the Japanese word for “idiot” – it was hilarious – then started crying when Mia said it back to her. I couldn’t help but laugh! TaiChi (Sp?) showed up and we all went to dinner at this little restaurant on the corner with absolutely amazing sushi and a great Fuzzy Naval drink (you even juiced the orange yourself...well, Yuko did it for me! )– I ate so much I had to roll myself back to the ship!
It was nice to see them – they are so big now and I’m sure next time they’ll be in high school!
As you can see – I’ve done a lot and I’m sure I’ve left out tons of things. I’m so sorry it’s so long – but I keep it as a record for myself too. It’s been over a month, I believe, since I’ve updated anything! I hope everyone is doing well and I will update you as to what is happening next in my world…I’ll be home May 10th!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
This is Great, I don't understand anything, but it's great! - Katie in Naha
So we are finally rid of the passengers of the 25 day WWII cruise and we are quite grateful for that! I will admit, quite a few nice ones, but the bad ones ruined it for all of the crew. Quite a few passengers from Florida, especially south Florida. Someone asked me the other day where I was from and I said Orlando, Florida (because it's way easier than saying Longwood, Florida and then having to explain it's location!). Another gentleman in the library spoke up and asked me from where in Orlando. I told him where and he said "Oh, I live in Altamonte Springs. Turns out, he's one of our guest entertainers on board - a musician by the name of Kenny Watson. One of our cruise staff that got on board a few weeks ago graduated from FSU the same night with the same major. I told him he looked familiar and after talking we discovered all of that, we had classes together and my sorority and his fraternity hung out together a lot! It's a small world!~
Since the last time I wrote, we stopped in Guam which was neat - since it's an American port, we got to eat some American restaurants that we are familiar with and there was a grocery store where we reconigzed brand names and all of that! Didn't do much because I didn't have much time, but it seemed to be a nice vacation spot with all the resorts and the beautiful water!
Saipan was even nicer - the water was crystal clear and we went on a yellow submarine about 25 meters under the sea. The water was so blue and so clear that we saw all the fish and the white sand floors along with a very large ship wreck and a plane wreck from the WWII time. Very very cool - unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice because we were so far under and they just don't come out well. Was neat to see the way the water filters out color too - as we descended to the ocean floor, people that were wearing anything red soon turned purple...a science project of sorts :) Towards the end of the ride the submarine released fish food and attracted all the fish to the windows so it gave us a great chance to be up close and personal with the fish!
We had a crew party the other night and Katie, Edmark and I painted a huge banner with the theme Goodbye Australia, Hello Asia. Of course, I'm known for making a mess, but it came out really well. We had the crew party on the mooring deck and we had signups for DJ's and bartenders. I DJ'ed for the first 45 minutes and everyone loved it, then everyone else that came played house music, which only some of the European's like...so I got lots of compliments :)
In Naha, Japan, my friend Katie and I hopped on the monorail and took it all the way to the end of the line and visisted a castle. The monorail was an experience figuring out the Yen and how to insert them into machines since nothing is in English. The castle was not the typical castle you would expect, but it seemed to be more of a worship center. Took some pictures of that and headed to grab some lunch at Cafe Smiley. Food was great, but it is definitely a new experience being in a country that doesn't speak the language very well at all! I realized how much I've traveled, but they've always spoken english! So, we order from pictures or display windows :) That night, I went out with my usual dinner group and we found a restaurant that seemed decent. We all picked one thing (off of a very unappetizing menu, if I do say myself) and they brought it out one at a time. There were six of us so we would devour it within seconds of it coming out. The poor guy probably thought we were the biggest group of pigs ever! We devoured everything and after leaving, we decided that it was the best $120 appetizer we've ever eaten because we were all still starving after it was over with!
Nagasaki, Japan was nice - went and walked around a bit. Visited Chinatown, which is the oldest Chinatown in Japan. We walked through there looking in all the shops and found a bread that he loved- in the Philippines, they call it "hopia". It's basically a very very doughy bread stuffed with pork. ABsolutely delicious, because I love doughy! After tons of searching for a restaurant that spoke any english, we found a sushi place that was fantastic - but my nose was running for hours after it because the wasabi is in everything. It was definitely fantastic either way. We stopped and got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins of all places and headed back home.
Weather in Japan has been quite cold, but it seems all the cities are realatively similar - small but very very dense. And the cold weather is not exactly what I expected. Today I worked on the gangway and my pantyhose and skirt did not keep me warm! Today we finally start the new cruise and I have kids again (about 20 of them!) so I should be busy for a while. Makes me happy to be out of the library for a few days~! We are in Kobe, Japan and leave here tonight on a 14 day run to Hong Kong. Get to see China finally :)
Had a party last night with the casino guys and girls in the hallway where they live....always fun. Wine in dixie cups :)
I think that's it for now! Talk to you all soon!
Since the last time I wrote, we stopped in Guam which was neat - since it's an American port, we got to eat some American restaurants that we are familiar with and there was a grocery store where we reconigzed brand names and all of that! Didn't do much because I didn't have much time, but it seemed to be a nice vacation spot with all the resorts and the beautiful water!
Saipan was even nicer - the water was crystal clear and we went on a yellow submarine about 25 meters under the sea. The water was so blue and so clear that we saw all the fish and the white sand floors along with a very large ship wreck and a plane wreck from the WWII time. Very very cool - unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice because we were so far under and they just don't come out well. Was neat to see the way the water filters out color too - as we descended to the ocean floor, people that were wearing anything red soon turned purple...a science project of sorts :) Towards the end of the ride the submarine released fish food and attracted all the fish to the windows so it gave us a great chance to be up close and personal with the fish!
We had a crew party the other night and Katie, Edmark and I painted a huge banner with the theme Goodbye Australia, Hello Asia. Of course, I'm known for making a mess, but it came out really well. We had the crew party on the mooring deck and we had signups for DJ's and bartenders. I DJ'ed for the first 45 minutes and everyone loved it, then everyone else that came played house music, which only some of the European's like...so I got lots of compliments :)
In Naha, Japan, my friend Katie and I hopped on the monorail and took it all the way to the end of the line and visisted a castle. The monorail was an experience figuring out the Yen and how to insert them into machines since nothing is in English. The castle was not the typical castle you would expect, but it seemed to be more of a worship center. Took some pictures of that and headed to grab some lunch at Cafe Smiley. Food was great, but it is definitely a new experience being in a country that doesn't speak the language very well at all! I realized how much I've traveled, but they've always spoken english! So, we order from pictures or display windows :) That night, I went out with my usual dinner group and we found a restaurant that seemed decent. We all picked one thing (off of a very unappetizing menu, if I do say myself) and they brought it out one at a time. There were six of us so we would devour it within seconds of it coming out. The poor guy probably thought we were the biggest group of pigs ever! We devoured everything and after leaving, we decided that it was the best $120 appetizer we've ever eaten because we were all still starving after it was over with!
Nagasaki, Japan was nice - went and walked around a bit. Visited Chinatown, which is the oldest Chinatown in Japan. We walked through there looking in all the shops and found a bread that he loved- in the Philippines, they call it "hopia". It's basically a very very doughy bread stuffed with pork. ABsolutely delicious, because I love doughy! After tons of searching for a restaurant that spoke any english, we found a sushi place that was fantastic - but my nose was running for hours after it because the wasabi is in everything. It was definitely fantastic either way. We stopped and got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins of all places and headed back home.
Weather in Japan has been quite cold, but it seems all the cities are realatively similar - small but very very dense. And the cold weather is not exactly what I expected. Today I worked on the gangway and my pantyhose and skirt did not keep me warm! Today we finally start the new cruise and I have kids again (about 20 of them!) so I should be busy for a while. Makes me happy to be out of the library for a few days~! We are in Kobe, Japan and leave here tonight on a 14 day run to Hong Kong. Get to see China finally :)
Had a party last night with the casino guys and girls in the hallway where they live....always fun. Wine in dixie cups :)
I think that's it for now! Talk to you all soon!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Finally! Please forgive any mistakes!
March 15, 2008
Yes, I know. It has been a VERY long time since I posted. I know you see I posted one I wrote a while back saying I think I found a new way of sending the posts to myself....Well, didn't work. So here I am going to give you all the reader's digest version of what's been happening over the last month and a half! We finished our Australia/New Zealand runs and on March 1st picked up our 25 day WWII cruise.
The last few cruises in Australia/NZ were fantastic - weather was unpredictable - freezing cold one day, boiling hot the next. Overall, pretty chilly though - especially in all the New Zealand ports. Did a few tours - in Melbourne, did two - both involving Kangaroos and Koala's and seeing them. I know Koala's are called Koala bears - but I never truly thought of them that way - just thought they crawled up and down a tree. But one came down out of the tree and walked across the street in front of us. Definitely neat to see! One thing I wish I could have done again that I did when I was here 5 years ago was hold a koala. Laws have changed - in the North, very few places still allow you to hold them and in the south you are not allowed to hold them at all. Studies [apparently] show that holding koalas can take up to three years off their lives. I guess I can consider myself lucky that I was here when I was and did it then. Quite sad that I didn't get to do anything in Sydney that I wanted to do because it was always an embarkation day - so I was a bit disappointed, but hey...I'm not dead yet - maybe another opportunity will find me!
We did a few crew tours too, which are tons of fun and worth the money we have to pay for them. In Picton, New Zealand we did a crew winery tour and visited 4 different wineries. Had an absolute blast considering it was all crew and we started drinking at 10:00 a.m. The cellar master even brought along some sparkling wine for us to drink in between the first couple wineries. Let's just say there were a lot of tipsy crew! :)
In Bay of Islands, New Zealand we did a crew tour where we were picked up in a "Waka" which is a canoe that the Maori tribe used/uses. They're quite stable, but so much fun. It picked up about 14 of us and we paddled for an hour and a half (my arms, back and ass were killing me for the next four days!) all the way out to this raging waterfall. We got some really neat pictures in front of it. The guys taught us these chants that they used to keep rhythm way back when. After the waterfall, we paddled all the way back to the Maori village where we visited a Marae (the meeting place of some Maori's) and they greeted us with the traditional hongi or welcome ceremony. "Kia Ora" is the term they typically use meaning Hello/Welcome/Be well. We were exhausted and running late, so they flipped on the lovely and oh-so-wonderful honda motor to get us home! :)
The WWII cruise has been an eye opener so far. The first two ports were in New Zealand, so nothing different. After leaving New Zealand we headed to our first Island which is Noumea, New Caledonia. This Island reminded me of the Bahamas - everyone else who's been other places said Bermuda or Jamaica. Neat place. We went to a Japanese restaurant where I ate lots of raw fish for the first time and really enjoyed it. Everyone spoke French and ironically, no Japanese worked there. Very expensive there though...for example, chips in the Grocery store costs about 500 francs....you do the math! (a lot!)
Next stop: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Our first third world country stop. Everyone there (and at several of the other islands) had red teeth, which comes from these things they eat out of palm trees called "beetle nuts". They chew on them because apparently they get a certain "high" off of them, but I've also heard they they make their teeth stronger. This island was so dirty which garbage everywhere. The people (which were very friendly and pleasant) were all just hanging around - nowhere to go and nothing to do. Amazing to see and gives me a true eye opener to a culture that truly doesn't have much, but where the people are happy. Walked through town, but there was not much to see at all - and it was SO ridiculously hot, I turned around and walked back home!
Rabaul, Papau, New Guinea - very very awesome culture to observe. As soon as we got there, the volcano was very very active, which is apparently not active too frequently. The smoke was billowing out. When we got off the ship I could feel the ash hitting us like raindrops. I've never seen that before - our clothes were black, our faces were covered and my feet were so black I looked like Fred Flintsone! It was so bad around 1:30ish, that the captain revoked crew shore leave and told everyone that they had to stay inside if they weren't already off the ship - the sulfur content was so high in the air that it wasn't safe for us to be out or even out on the decks. All of the ships crew were out cleaning the ash off of the decks for hours after we left the port - and three days later, still having to scrub things because it was so think on the ship. The lido deck, where there is a glass dome over the pool, was pitch black dark because the ash was coating the glass! We walked through the market, as they called it, loaded with vegetables and baskets made out of palm leaves and banana leaves. One thing I thought was pretty cool was that the women were selling lots of rice mixed with vegetables and various stews but they didn't pack them in tupperware or anything of that nature - they took a banana leaf and made it into a pouch and that's how everything was packaged. Weather there was very hot and humid and ashy :)
We were in Yap Islands, Federal States of Micronesia today. Wasn't much to the place and pretty much everything was closed, but we went to a Filipino restaurant that was very good - a hole in the wall on the water. I enjoyed it. Some of the native dancers did come on board and do some tribal dances which was awesome to watch and the guys enjoyed it because the women did the dances with no tops :)
Tomorrow we are in Guam and I'm very excited about being there for some reason - we all are because there is a K-Mart and a Wal-Mart and shopping for tolietries has not been easy recently and I hear Asia isn't the best for them! We have a very long day though - I have to be up and at work at 6 a.m. to do traffic control for passenger immigration, then we have a full crew inspection (immigration), then the US Coast Guard is coming on board because we are in US territory and haven't been hit with an inspection for awhile. They run all of our drill with us and see that we are all following proper procedure - they ask us questions when we get to our muster stations and just make sure that we are all on the same page. We also have the health and safety inspectors possibly coming too - so it's going to be quite hectic!
I'm very excited about getting to Asia soon - I have booked crew tours in China to go see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tien'amen square (sp?) I also booked a tour in Pusan, South Korea where we will visit a temple, a park and an international market!
We crossed the equator the night of the 12th and there is a King Neptune Ceremony associated with it - it is a ceremony for anyone who hasn't crossed it with Holland America before. Our names were submitted by our managers and I was one of the 26 picked. First we met in the spa and we were "Pollywogs". The had us all hang on to a rope as we walked around the ship in front of passengers while the band played that dun dun dun song. (Good description, eh?). We got to our Navigation Deck aft pool where the whole ceremony was set up and we were thrown in our cage where they threw hot and cold water all over us. They took us two at a time where you were "made fun of" in front of everyone for something regarding your job and then they made you Kiss a fish - mind you the fish was around 40 kg. After that you were sent to the Doctors and nurses (our cast members) where they threw spaghetti and some different cream stuff all over us. It was only a little bit that the first 24 people got on them so we thought we were in the clear. Everyone kept getting called and Whitney and I looked at each other and realized that we were going to be the last ones to go - since our department was hosting it. Just as we suspected, we were called last and had to kiss the fish for 10 seconds. We got to the tables with the food and they emptied out all the remaining buckets of food on us (which was a lot!). So we got up and then they said to sit back down and they filled the buckets up again with the crap that was all over the pool floor and dumped it again! It was tons of fun and a great time - especially since we got our favorite cellarmaster and Bar manager along with the paymaster covered in spaghetti (in their white uniforms) and then threw them in the pool! Great times - and the pictures are even better!
Best question from a passenger about crossing the equator: "Is there going to be a sign so I know exactly when we're crossing it?"
Overall, this has been a hard cruise with very difficult and grouchy guests- never do we get a please or thank you and truly i've never been verbally abused until I met a few of these passengers who think I'm dirt! They're very old - most of them veterans. We did a wreath ceremony for them in memory of those lost and lots of things - but it's all crap to them. All-in-all they just want to get some money back!
We did send out a rescue boat the other day for an unidentified object (looked like a missle) - turns out it was nothing but everyone got a good show of how our rescue team works!
I think i've written a novel and still haven't mentioned half of it! I'll have to get better at this :)
Hope everyone is doing well~!
Yes, I know. It has been a VERY long time since I posted. I know you see I posted one I wrote a while back saying I think I found a new way of sending the posts to myself....Well, didn't work. So here I am going to give you all the reader's digest version of what's been happening over the last month and a half! We finished our Australia/New Zealand runs and on March 1st picked up our 25 day WWII cruise.
The last few cruises in Australia/NZ were fantastic - weather was unpredictable - freezing cold one day, boiling hot the next. Overall, pretty chilly though - especially in all the New Zealand ports. Did a few tours - in Melbourne, did two - both involving Kangaroos and Koala's and seeing them. I know Koala's are called Koala bears - but I never truly thought of them that way - just thought they crawled up and down a tree. But one came down out of the tree and walked across the street in front of us. Definitely neat to see! One thing I wish I could have done again that I did when I was here 5 years ago was hold a koala. Laws have changed - in the North, very few places still allow you to hold them and in the south you are not allowed to hold them at all. Studies [apparently] show that holding koalas can take up to three years off their lives. I guess I can consider myself lucky that I was here when I was and did it then. Quite sad that I didn't get to do anything in Sydney that I wanted to do because it was always an embarkation day - so I was a bit disappointed, but hey...I'm not dead yet - maybe another opportunity will find me!
We did a few crew tours too, which are tons of fun and worth the money we have to pay for them. In Picton, New Zealand we did a crew winery tour and visited 4 different wineries. Had an absolute blast considering it was all crew and we started drinking at 10:00 a.m. The cellar master even brought along some sparkling wine for us to drink in between the first couple wineries. Let's just say there were a lot of tipsy crew! :)
In Bay of Islands, New Zealand we did a crew tour where we were picked up in a "Waka" which is a canoe that the Maori tribe used/uses. They're quite stable, but so much fun. It picked up about 14 of us and we paddled for an hour and a half (my arms, back and ass were killing me for the next four days!) all the way out to this raging waterfall. We got some really neat pictures in front of it. The guys taught us these chants that they used to keep rhythm way back when. After the waterfall, we paddled all the way back to the Maori village where we visited a Marae (the meeting place of some Maori's) and they greeted us with the traditional hongi or welcome ceremony. "Kia Ora" is the term they typically use meaning Hello/Welcome/Be well. We were exhausted and running late, so they flipped on the lovely and oh-so-wonderful honda motor to get us home! :)
The WWII cruise has been an eye opener so far. The first two ports were in New Zealand, so nothing different. After leaving New Zealand we headed to our first Island which is Noumea, New Caledonia. This Island reminded me of the Bahamas - everyone else who's been other places said Bermuda or Jamaica. Neat place. We went to a Japanese restaurant where I ate lots of raw fish for the first time and really enjoyed it. Everyone spoke French and ironically, no Japanese worked there. Very expensive there though...for example, chips in the Grocery store costs about 500 francs....you do the math! (a lot!)
Next stop: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Our first third world country stop. Everyone there (and at several of the other islands) had red teeth, which comes from these things they eat out of palm trees called "beetle nuts". They chew on them because apparently they get a certain "high" off of them, but I've also heard they they make their teeth stronger. This island was so dirty which garbage everywhere. The people (which were very friendly and pleasant) were all just hanging around - nowhere to go and nothing to do. Amazing to see and gives me a true eye opener to a culture that truly doesn't have much, but where the people are happy. Walked through town, but there was not much to see at all - and it was SO ridiculously hot, I turned around and walked back home!
Rabaul, Papau, New Guinea - very very awesome culture to observe. As soon as we got there, the volcano was very very active, which is apparently not active too frequently. The smoke was billowing out. When we got off the ship I could feel the ash hitting us like raindrops. I've never seen that before - our clothes were black, our faces were covered and my feet were so black I looked like Fred Flintsone! It was so bad around 1:30ish, that the captain revoked crew shore leave and told everyone that they had to stay inside if they weren't already off the ship - the sulfur content was so high in the air that it wasn't safe for us to be out or even out on the decks. All of the ships crew were out cleaning the ash off of the decks for hours after we left the port - and three days later, still having to scrub things because it was so think on the ship. The lido deck, where there is a glass dome over the pool, was pitch black dark because the ash was coating the glass! We walked through the market, as they called it, loaded with vegetables and baskets made out of palm leaves and banana leaves. One thing I thought was pretty cool was that the women were selling lots of rice mixed with vegetables and various stews but they didn't pack them in tupperware or anything of that nature - they took a banana leaf and made it into a pouch and that's how everything was packaged. Weather there was very hot and humid and ashy :)
We were in Yap Islands, Federal States of Micronesia today. Wasn't much to the place and pretty much everything was closed, but we went to a Filipino restaurant that was very good - a hole in the wall on the water. I enjoyed it. Some of the native dancers did come on board and do some tribal dances which was awesome to watch and the guys enjoyed it because the women did the dances with no tops :)
Tomorrow we are in Guam and I'm very excited about being there for some reason - we all are because there is a K-Mart and a Wal-Mart and shopping for tolietries has not been easy recently and I hear Asia isn't the best for them! We have a very long day though - I have to be up and at work at 6 a.m. to do traffic control for passenger immigration, then we have a full crew inspection (immigration), then the US Coast Guard is coming on board because we are in US territory and haven't been hit with an inspection for awhile. They run all of our drill with us and see that we are all following proper procedure - they ask us questions when we get to our muster stations and just make sure that we are all on the same page. We also have the health and safety inspectors possibly coming too - so it's going to be quite hectic!
I'm very excited about getting to Asia soon - I have booked crew tours in China to go see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tien'amen square (sp?) I also booked a tour in Pusan, South Korea where we will visit a temple, a park and an international market!
We crossed the equator the night of the 12th and there is a King Neptune Ceremony associated with it - it is a ceremony for anyone who hasn't crossed it with Holland America before. Our names were submitted by our managers and I was one of the 26 picked. First we met in the spa and we were "Pollywogs". The had us all hang on to a rope as we walked around the ship in front of passengers while the band played that dun dun dun song. (Good description, eh?). We got to our Navigation Deck aft pool where the whole ceremony was set up and we were thrown in our cage where they threw hot and cold water all over us. They took us two at a time where you were "made fun of" in front of everyone for something regarding your job and then they made you Kiss a fish - mind you the fish was around 40 kg. After that you were sent to the Doctors and nurses (our cast members) where they threw spaghetti and some different cream stuff all over us. It was only a little bit that the first 24 people got on them so we thought we were in the clear. Everyone kept getting called and Whitney and I looked at each other and realized that we were going to be the last ones to go - since our department was hosting it. Just as we suspected, we were called last and had to kiss the fish for 10 seconds. We got to the tables with the food and they emptied out all the remaining buckets of food on us (which was a lot!). So we got up and then they said to sit back down and they filled the buckets up again with the crap that was all over the pool floor and dumped it again! It was tons of fun and a great time - especially since we got our favorite cellarmaster and Bar manager along with the paymaster covered in spaghetti (in their white uniforms) and then threw them in the pool! Great times - and the pictures are even better!
Best question from a passenger about crossing the equator: "Is there going to be a sign so I know exactly when we're crossing it?"
Overall, this has been a hard cruise with very difficult and grouchy guests- never do we get a please or thank you and truly i've never been verbally abused until I met a few of these passengers who think I'm dirt! They're very old - most of them veterans. We did a wreath ceremony for them in memory of those lost and lots of things - but it's all crap to them. All-in-all they just want to get some money back!
We did send out a rescue boat the other day for an unidentified object (looked like a missle) - turns out it was nothing but everyone got a good show of how our rescue team works!
I think i've written a novel and still haven't mentioned half of it! I'll have to get better at this :)
Hope everyone is doing well~!
I wrote this on January 23rd!
It’s been a while since I’ve last written. My computer won’t charge and is being a pain as usual! So, I don’t have the internet time to sit and write a blog entry! But I found a way around it – so we shall see if this method works!
I’ve been on a couple excursions since the last time I’ve written. In Burnie, Tasmania I went on an excursion called “Taste of Tasmania”. We went to the Anvers Chocolate Factory, the Tassie Wildlife Center and the Honey Farm.
The chocolate factory was amazing! It’s just an old cottage style house surrounded by tons of flowers. This guy started – about 20 years ago – just making truffles and chocolates as a hobby for friends, family and selling small batches to locals. One day a Japanese business owner said he wanted to purchase enough for all of his staff for Christmas, but since it was nine months away he would fax his order because he wanted to make sure not to forget anyone. Well, this guy who makes the chocolate thought nothing of it – just another small sale. Three weeks later he receives the fax to find out that this guy had hundreds of employees and wanted something along the lines of 2 tons of chocolate. The guys said, I’m sorry, I don’t have the time/money/manpower to produce that for you. The Japanese business man told him to check his bank account tomorrow and he’d put enough money in for him to hire some people to make all those chocolates. The next morning, sure enough, he had $180,000 AUD in his account to produce all of this chocolate! Pretty cool story, eh? So that was the beginning of the Anvers Chocolate Factory!
Anyways, we got there and were served tea and each seat had either a [HUGE] slice of chocolate cake or chocolate/mint cheesecake. I hate mint, but the cheesecake was absolutely fabulous – top notch! We went outside following the cake and sampled their vanilla fudge, truffles, and other kinds of chocolates that they make and I’ve never had fudge I’ve like that much. (Yes, Aunt Louise, I want to send you some but shipping is out of this world!) I saved the card so maybe when I’m rich I can order some and have it shipped!
The next stop was the Tassie Wildlife Center where we saw wombats, Tasmanian Devils (they’re vicious!), kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and several Joey’s! We didn’t get to hold them like when I went to the wildlife park in Brisbane several years ago – but it was so cool to see them. At the park, they served us a bar-b-q lunch with lamb-burgers and salads, but they all had curry! Yuk!
As if we hadn’t had enough foods and sweets, we went to a Honey farm in Chudleigh, Tasmania. They produced tons (like 40-50) different kinds of honey. I don’t like honey, but I did try a few and it was interesting to see the different types that they created. We also were treated to ice creams they made from honey, which again I didn’t think I would like, but I tried a Vanilla Honey Ice Cream and it was by far the second best Ice Cream I’ve ever tasted. (The first is the Hokey Pokey Ice Cream they make in New Zealand with vanilla and real honeycomb pieces – trying to find out if there’s a way to ship that too ;) )
Spent another day in Melbourne after that – walking around just for fresh air and exercise! In Sydney I had IPM AGAIN. We only have one more turnaround day in Sydney so I’m praying I can do SOMETHING like the bridge climb before leaving here!
When we hit Tasmania again on this cruise, I went on a Pioneer Museum and Unique Crafts tour. I was a bit nervous that it was going to be boring and cheesy – but it ended up being quite cool. We went to a place called Creative Paper. They make paper out of cotton, denim, plants, lavender, and ‘roo poo’! Yes, kangaroo poo! It was neat how they did it and we even got to make our own. Unfortunately, we weren’t there long enough to let it dry so we couldn’t bring it home, but they did give us another piece. There were huge statues made out of paper mache – really cool place to see how it’s all done!
We stopped at Burnie Park and walked to a small waterfall which was pretty and then onto a museum, which was the anticipated boring – but the paper place was worth it!
Other than the excursions, life is pretty good here. I’ve made lots of friends – especially because Whitney from my last ship is now leaving here March 1st instead of May like originally planned to be with her boyfriend on another ship! Honestly, I’ve being hanging out with the Filipino Security guards and other guys in the Crew Mess and the PO (Petty Officer’s Bar). They seem to be some of the most fun people on board! They all told me they though I was snobby when I first got on – just because I was quiet- now I’m one of the only females they hang out with. I’m having fun though! Only 3 kids on board this week so it’s been pretty quiet and I’m just trying to relax and enjoy!
Every turnaround day, I seem to be stuck on IPM, which means I have to stand at the Gangway and greet all oncoming passengers. I swear if I hear “Is that your real name?” one more time I’m going to scream! All the guys on the lido always say…Sydney’s in Sydney or Sydney’s moving to Melbourne! It’s funny though – on the ship everyone has started calling me Syd – that never happens! It’s all fun though!
I’ve been on a couple excursions since the last time I’ve written. In Burnie, Tasmania I went on an excursion called “Taste of Tasmania”. We went to the Anvers Chocolate Factory, the Tassie Wildlife Center and the Honey Farm.
The chocolate factory was amazing! It’s just an old cottage style house surrounded by tons of flowers. This guy started – about 20 years ago – just making truffles and chocolates as a hobby for friends, family and selling small batches to locals. One day a Japanese business owner said he wanted to purchase enough for all of his staff for Christmas, but since it was nine months away he would fax his order because he wanted to make sure not to forget anyone. Well, this guy who makes the chocolate thought nothing of it – just another small sale. Three weeks later he receives the fax to find out that this guy had hundreds of employees and wanted something along the lines of 2 tons of chocolate. The guys said, I’m sorry, I don’t have the time/money/manpower to produce that for you. The Japanese business man told him to check his bank account tomorrow and he’d put enough money in for him to hire some people to make all those chocolates. The next morning, sure enough, he had $180,000 AUD in his account to produce all of this chocolate! Pretty cool story, eh? So that was the beginning of the Anvers Chocolate Factory!
Anyways, we got there and were served tea and each seat had either a [HUGE] slice of chocolate cake or chocolate/mint cheesecake. I hate mint, but the cheesecake was absolutely fabulous – top notch! We went outside following the cake and sampled their vanilla fudge, truffles, and other kinds of chocolates that they make and I’ve never had fudge I’ve like that much. (Yes, Aunt Louise, I want to send you some but shipping is out of this world!) I saved the card so maybe when I’m rich I can order some and have it shipped!
The next stop was the Tassie Wildlife Center where we saw wombats, Tasmanian Devils (they’re vicious!), kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and several Joey’s! We didn’t get to hold them like when I went to the wildlife park in Brisbane several years ago – but it was so cool to see them. At the park, they served us a bar-b-q lunch with lamb-burgers and salads, but they all had curry! Yuk!
As if we hadn’t had enough foods and sweets, we went to a Honey farm in Chudleigh, Tasmania. They produced tons (like 40-50) different kinds of honey. I don’t like honey, but I did try a few and it was interesting to see the different types that they created. We also were treated to ice creams they made from honey, which again I didn’t think I would like, but I tried a Vanilla Honey Ice Cream and it was by far the second best Ice Cream I’ve ever tasted. (The first is the Hokey Pokey Ice Cream they make in New Zealand with vanilla and real honeycomb pieces – trying to find out if there’s a way to ship that too ;) )
Spent another day in Melbourne after that – walking around just for fresh air and exercise! In Sydney I had IPM AGAIN. We only have one more turnaround day in Sydney so I’m praying I can do SOMETHING like the bridge climb before leaving here!
When we hit Tasmania again on this cruise, I went on a Pioneer Museum and Unique Crafts tour. I was a bit nervous that it was going to be boring and cheesy – but it ended up being quite cool. We went to a place called Creative Paper. They make paper out of cotton, denim, plants, lavender, and ‘roo poo’! Yes, kangaroo poo! It was neat how they did it and we even got to make our own. Unfortunately, we weren’t there long enough to let it dry so we couldn’t bring it home, but they did give us another piece. There were huge statues made out of paper mache – really cool place to see how it’s all done!
We stopped at Burnie Park and walked to a small waterfall which was pretty and then onto a museum, which was the anticipated boring – but the paper place was worth it!
Other than the excursions, life is pretty good here. I’ve made lots of friends – especially because Whitney from my last ship is now leaving here March 1st instead of May like originally planned to be with her boyfriend on another ship! Honestly, I’ve being hanging out with the Filipino Security guards and other guys in the Crew Mess and the PO (Petty Officer’s Bar). They seem to be some of the most fun people on board! They all told me they though I was snobby when I first got on – just because I was quiet- now I’m one of the only females they hang out with. I’m having fun though! Only 3 kids on board this week so it’s been pretty quiet and I’m just trying to relax and enjoy!
Every turnaround day, I seem to be stuck on IPM, which means I have to stand at the Gangway and greet all oncoming passengers. I swear if I hear “Is that your real name?” one more time I’m going to scream! All the guys on the lido always say…Sydney’s in Sydney or Sydney’s moving to Melbourne! It’s funny though – on the ship everyone has started calling me Syd – that never happens! It’s all fun though!
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