second of two today
Exhausted! By the time we woke up after our big evening in Honolulu, breakfast in the dining room was over, so we ate in the Lido. We were in no hurry anyway and were just looking forward to the relaxing day in Maui because “Maui no ka oi” or Maui is the best.
Before we even left the ship, we were enthralled by a whale and her calf swimming right near the ship throughout the day. We watched the two swim slowly together blowing spouts of water and a couple of times flipping a tail. The Captain said he had never seen so many whales in a port in all his years at sea. It is always exciting to have even a glimpse of these giant mammals of the ocean and to have one nearby for so long was wonderful.
Taking our time we had a pleasant 15-minute tender ride to the pier where we headed off for a stroll through Lahaina, the former whaling port on the island, now a tourist spot. We wandered through some shops, stopped at the post office, made some phone calls, and boarded a bus to Kaanapali Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We rode the bus to Whalers’ Village, a shopping mall adjacent to the beach. Jerry headed right to the large towel on the sand and I headed to the restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we spent our time swimming and sunbathing. The water was clear and cooler than I expected but welcome in the 90 degree temperature of the air.
Since the ship was to sail at 6 p.m. and all aboard was at 5:30 and we were more than 30 minutes away and the bus left once an hour, we reluctantly left the beach at 3 p.m. to board the bus back to Lahaina and the tender back to the ship. After showering and getting dressed for dinner, we returned to the top deck to wave good-bye to the whales and Lahaina. Sitting at the dinner table, I had a perfect view of the sunset and one more green flash. A show in the Grand Lounge featuring two young men singing Beatles music was a perfect ending to our stay in the Hawaiian islands.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Honolulu
first of two today
After six days at sea from Osaka, we both woke up at 5 a.m. without a wake-up call anxious to see the arrival in Honolulu. It was still dark when we went to the top deck, where it was a beautiful tropical morning with a light breeze blowing across the bow. On the horizon, the lights of Honolulu grew brighter and larger as we approached. The city was just waking up, with light traffic on the highways and lights in the high buildings just starting to come on. There were clouds hanging above the mountains, but the city itself was clear as the sun rose. We watched as tugs gently pushed the QE2 towards the pier and the terminal building. As a 40-year old ship, the QE2 does not have the side thrusters of the newer cruise ships. She is however the fastest merchant ship at sea, easily maintaining a speed of 28 knots for days. We were soon joined at the pier by the gorgeous Diamond Princess and although she is one of the newest ships in the Princess fleet, the QE2 can go faster in reverse than she can go forward.
After breakfast at 6 a.m., we joined a queue so the US customs and immigration people could see the passport and ship’s id for each passenger, all 1800 of us. Once the queue began to move, it moved quickly but the entire process took well over an hour. Finally, the ship was cleared. As people began to disembark, each one received a lovely orchid lei. We were down the gangway and aboard the free shuttle bus to Hilo Hattie’s, a store specializing in Hawaiian clothing, jewelry and souvenirs. From there we walked to K-Mart for toothpaste, a phone card, fresh batteries and playing cards. From K-Mart, we walked back to Hilo Hatties, where we tried unsuccessfully to use the pay phone. I think our families are never in their homes. We took a different shuttle from there to Maui Divers, a jewelry store, where we saw a really interesting video about coral mining and jewelry making. We toured the area where they design and produce the jewelry, including where they give the final polish to the gold pieces under a powerful exhaust system, recovering hundreds of thousands dollars worth of gold a year.
By this time, you know who needed food. We boarded the Maui Divers shuttle and were fortunate enough to get the same driver, who was already a friend of Jerry’s, of course. They discussed politics, economics and restaurants. At first the driver suggested The Cheesecake Factory but we said no, no, something more Hawaiian. He dropped us off at the door of his recommendation, Fatty’s Chinese Restaurant, consisting of a take-out counter and 6 stools at a bar surrounding the food preparation area. The cook prepared each dish individually in a huge wok. When we got there it was very crowded and we got the last two seats at the bar. The vegetable fried rice was fabulous.
We crossed the street and walked to ocean and Waikiki Beach where thousands of people were surfing the breakers, swimming, sunning, playing and having fun in the sun and water. Back onto the shuttle and a sight-seeing tour of the downtown area, we were soon on board the ship again in time to dress for the World Cruise Dinner held at the Honolulu Convention Center for passengers on the full world cruise. Buses were waiting at the gangway at 5:45 for a tour of historic Honolulu narrated by a guide accompanied by recorded Hawaiian music. Soon we were at the Convention Center circular entrance and being greeted by torch bearing men in traditional Polynesian costume and by a couple dozen adorable little girls also in traditional costume. They presented us with more leis to wear throughout the evening over our formal clothes. We had to ascend two double floor escalators to the roof-top garden and the cocktail hour under the stars. Miss Hawaii and other lovely people stood on pedestals around the garden for informal photos with guests. We were entertained with hula dancers and traditional music while we enjoyed champagne, cocktails and delicious hors d’ouvres.
We were led by the entertainers to the ballroom for dinner and dancing and more entertainment. Lucky us! We sat at table number 2, right next to both the stage and the dance floor. Captain David Perkins and the President of Cunard, Carol Marlowe, sat on the opposite side of the room at table number 1. The room was spectacularly decorated, the entertainment non-stop, and the food outstanding. Even the vegan food was outstanding! We had vegetables wrapped in puff pastry with a wonderful light tomato sauce.
After five hours, at least one of which we were dancing, it was time to return to the bus and the ship. We were still wide awake and wired so we joined some friends at the midnight buffet and enjoyed a plate of fruit.
After six days at sea from Osaka, we both woke up at 5 a.m. without a wake-up call anxious to see the arrival in Honolulu. It was still dark when we went to the top deck, where it was a beautiful tropical morning with a light breeze blowing across the bow. On the horizon, the lights of Honolulu grew brighter and larger as we approached. The city was just waking up, with light traffic on the highways and lights in the high buildings just starting to come on. There were clouds hanging above the mountains, but the city itself was clear as the sun rose. We watched as tugs gently pushed the QE2 towards the pier and the terminal building. As a 40-year old ship, the QE2 does not have the side thrusters of the newer cruise ships. She is however the fastest merchant ship at sea, easily maintaining a speed of 28 knots for days. We were soon joined at the pier by the gorgeous Diamond Princess and although she is one of the newest ships in the Princess fleet, the QE2 can go faster in reverse than she can go forward.
After breakfast at 6 a.m., we joined a queue so the US customs and immigration people could see the passport and ship’s id for each passenger, all 1800 of us. Once the queue began to move, it moved quickly but the entire process took well over an hour. Finally, the ship was cleared. As people began to disembark, each one received a lovely orchid lei. We were down the gangway and aboard the free shuttle bus to Hilo Hattie’s, a store specializing in Hawaiian clothing, jewelry and souvenirs. From there we walked to K-Mart for toothpaste, a phone card, fresh batteries and playing cards. From K-Mart, we walked back to Hilo Hatties, where we tried unsuccessfully to use the pay phone. I think our families are never in their homes. We took a different shuttle from there to Maui Divers, a jewelry store, where we saw a really interesting video about coral mining and jewelry making. We toured the area where they design and produce the jewelry, including where they give the final polish to the gold pieces under a powerful exhaust system, recovering hundreds of thousands dollars worth of gold a year.
By this time, you know who needed food. We boarded the Maui Divers shuttle and were fortunate enough to get the same driver, who was already a friend of Jerry’s, of course. They discussed politics, economics and restaurants. At first the driver suggested The Cheesecake Factory but we said no, no, something more Hawaiian. He dropped us off at the door of his recommendation, Fatty’s Chinese Restaurant, consisting of a take-out counter and 6 stools at a bar surrounding the food preparation area. The cook prepared each dish individually in a huge wok. When we got there it was very crowded and we got the last two seats at the bar. The vegetable fried rice was fabulous.
We crossed the street and walked to ocean and Waikiki Beach where thousands of people were surfing the breakers, swimming, sunning, playing and having fun in the sun and water. Back onto the shuttle and a sight-seeing tour of the downtown area, we were soon on board the ship again in time to dress for the World Cruise Dinner held at the Honolulu Convention Center for passengers on the full world cruise. Buses were waiting at the gangway at 5:45 for a tour of historic Honolulu narrated by a guide accompanied by recorded Hawaiian music. Soon we were at the Convention Center circular entrance and being greeted by torch bearing men in traditional Polynesian costume and by a couple dozen adorable little girls also in traditional costume. They presented us with more leis to wear throughout the evening over our formal clothes. We had to ascend two double floor escalators to the roof-top garden and the cocktail hour under the stars. Miss Hawaii and other lovely people stood on pedestals around the garden for informal photos with guests. We were entertained with hula dancers and traditional music while we enjoyed champagne, cocktails and delicious hors d’ouvres.
We were led by the entertainers to the ballroom for dinner and dancing and more entertainment. Lucky us! We sat at table number 2, right next to both the stage and the dance floor. Captain David Perkins and the President of Cunard, Carol Marlowe, sat on the opposite side of the room at table number 1. The room was spectacularly decorated, the entertainment non-stop, and the food outstanding. Even the vegan food was outstanding! We had vegetables wrapped in puff pastry with a wonderful light tomato sauce.
After five hours, at least one of which we were dancing, it was time to return to the bus and the ship. We were still wide awake and wired so we joined some friends at the midnight buffet and enjoyed a plate of fruit.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City
Our day in Ho Chi Minh City was such an exhausting day that it took us many days to be able to talk about it. Our ship’s tour, Ho Chi Minh City on Your Own, was supposed to leave at 8 a.m., right after breakfast. We were scheduled to drive to the city with a comfort stop on the way, have a brief tour on the bus of the most important buildings, and then be on our own until time to board the bus for the return ride to Vung Tau, where the ship was docked. In fact, the ship never received clearance from the Vietnamese government for passengers to disembark until 10 a.m. Because of the 2 ½ hour ride from the port of Vung Tau to the city it was at best going to be a very, very long day and now we had a 2 hour delay before we even boarded the bus.
The bus was nearly new and very comfortable and we had an English speaking guide on the bus to provide commentary along the route. One nerve-racking part of the ride was the large number of bicycles and motorbikes competing with the buses and cars for the same spaces on the highway. They did not use a bike lane because there was no bike lane. The driver drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand on the horn and sometimes one foot on the brake. You cannot imagine the traffic on a narrow highway and the stress of the constant horn blowing and breaking unless you have been there. At any rate, we did pass through typical third world country landscape and housing. When we reached the comfort stop, the driver at first drove past the entrance to the small shopping center. He then had to go to a roundabout, reverse directions, travel on a limited access side road to make a u-turn in too narrow a space to get to the entrance again, dodging bikes, people, cars, scooters as he went.
The shopping center consisted of little stores, a McDonald’s and a grocery store with a turnstyle to limit entrance even though no one was in the store. The toilet facilities were adequate as long as you didn’t have trouble using the Asian toilet on the floor. As we returned to the bus, we were beset by local peddlers and beggars who tenaciously tried to separate us from our dollars. Postcards, t-shirts, and other tourist trash didn’t tempt us.
The closer we got to the city, the heavier the traffic became and the more Vietnamese we saw wearing face- masks and scarves to cover as much of their faces as they could because of the dust and air pollution. By the time we arrived it was way past lunchtime. Oh,oh! You know who needed a meal. We drove by the former US Embassy famous for the night-time helicopter removal of the last of the personnel at the end of the war. The guide showed us their other important sights. And then, we were on our own and searching for a restaurant. We found one the guide recommended in a small upscale hotel with a quaint dining room where we sat at a table for two by the front window. We had a tasty typical Vietnamese meal of noodles and vegetables and set off again on foot to see the city. First stop, a market that covered one square block with 3 foot aisles and merchandise displayed on 3-foot wide tables on both sides of the aisle. The air was humid, filled with the exhaust of the thousands of vehicles, and there were awful smells. It was a very short visit through the market.
Walking back to one of the main streets over flat sidewalks, we were both very short of breath. All along the way, there were shops and street hawkers trying to sell us something. In retrospect, there were a couple of things we might have bought, but we were so much overwhelmed by the mass of humanity, we just said no, no, no to everything.
We returned to an area near our drop-off point, stopping at the famous Rex Hotel, from which the US press corps made all of their broadcasts during the war. It is still a very prestigious hotel with hostesses greeting people at the door, a gambling casino on the mezzanine, elegant stores beyond the lobby, including Cartier. We sat in seats by window watching for a while with others waiting like us to leave. We strolled through a park to the other hotel where we once again joined our guide and fellow passengers to wait to board the bus.
On the trip back we would both have liked nothing better than to sleep, but no luck with rush hour traffic now added to the misery. Did my head ever ache. We did have another comfort stop at the side of the road, but we passed this time and stayed on the bus. Beggars and hawkers did their best to sell us some of their junk without their even boarding the bus. Finally back at the ship, we said been there, done that and were on to find a dinner in the Lido since we were too late for the dining room. What a day!
Our day in Ho Chi Minh City was such an exhausting day that it took us many days to be able to talk about it. Our ship’s tour, Ho Chi Minh City on Your Own, was supposed to leave at 8 a.m., right after breakfast. We were scheduled to drive to the city with a comfort stop on the way, have a brief tour on the bus of the most important buildings, and then be on our own until time to board the bus for the return ride to Vung Tau, where the ship was docked. In fact, the ship never received clearance from the Vietnamese government for passengers to disembark until 10 a.m. Because of the 2 ½ hour ride from the port of Vung Tau to the city it was at best going to be a very, very long day and now we had a 2 hour delay before we even boarded the bus.
The bus was nearly new and very comfortable and we had an English speaking guide on the bus to provide commentary along the route. One nerve-racking part of the ride was the large number of bicycles and motorbikes competing with the buses and cars for the same spaces on the highway. They did not use a bike lane because there was no bike lane. The driver drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand on the horn and sometimes one foot on the brake. You cannot imagine the traffic on a narrow highway and the stress of the constant horn blowing and breaking unless you have been there. At any rate, we did pass through typical third world country landscape and housing. When we reached the comfort stop, the driver at first drove past the entrance to the small shopping center. He then had to go to a roundabout, reverse directions, travel on a limited access side road to make a u-turn in too narrow a space to get to the entrance again, dodging bikes, people, cars, scooters as he went.
The shopping center consisted of little stores, a McDonald’s and a grocery store with a turnstyle to limit entrance even though no one was in the store. The toilet facilities were adequate as long as you didn’t have trouble using the Asian toilet on the floor. As we returned to the bus, we were beset by local peddlers and beggars who tenaciously tried to separate us from our dollars. Postcards, t-shirts, and other tourist trash didn’t tempt us.
The closer we got to the city, the heavier the traffic became and the more Vietnamese we saw wearing face- masks and scarves to cover as much of their faces as they could because of the dust and air pollution. By the time we arrived it was way past lunchtime. Oh,oh! You know who needed a meal. We drove by the former US Embassy famous for the night-time helicopter removal of the last of the personnel at the end of the war. The guide showed us their other important sights. And then, we were on our own and searching for a restaurant. We found one the guide recommended in a small upscale hotel with a quaint dining room where we sat at a table for two by the front window. We had a tasty typical Vietnamese meal of noodles and vegetables and set off again on foot to see the city. First stop, a market that covered one square block with 3 foot aisles and merchandise displayed on 3-foot wide tables on both sides of the aisle. The air was humid, filled with the exhaust of the thousands of vehicles, and there were awful smells. It was a very short visit through the market.
Walking back to one of the main streets over flat sidewalks, we were both very short of breath. All along the way, there were shops and street hawkers trying to sell us something. In retrospect, there were a couple of things we might have bought, but we were so much overwhelmed by the mass of humanity, we just said no, no, no to everything.
We returned to an area near our drop-off point, stopping at the famous Rex Hotel, from which the US press corps made all of their broadcasts during the war. It is still a very prestigious hotel with hostesses greeting people at the door, a gambling casino on the mezzanine, elegant stores beyond the lobby, including Cartier. We sat in seats by window watching for a while with others waiting like us to leave. We strolled through a park to the other hotel where we once again joined our guide and fellow passengers to wait to board the bus.
On the trip back we would both have liked nothing better than to sleep, but no luck with rush hour traffic now added to the misery. Did my head ever ache. We did have another comfort stop at the side of the road, but we passed this time and stayed on the bus. Beggars and hawkers did their best to sell us some of their junk without their even boarding the bus. Finally back at the ship, we said been there, done that and were on to find a dinner in the Lido since we were too late for the dining room. What a day!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Osaka, Japan
Japanese Immigration and Customs staff were with us after the stop at Shanghai to take care of the paperwork onboard while we were at sea. They were very efficient. They gathered forms for customs, immigration and health information. They digitally photographed and fingerprinted us, and used a thermograph of some kind to take everyone’s temperature. They really want to make sure that everyone is healthy when they land in Japan.
At 8:30 we disembarked in Osaka, met three friends and walked a short distance to the nearest subway station, Osakako. We had exchanged a few Yen and acquired a full color map of the subway system at the Information Center at the port and were ready to set off. At the Osakako subway station an employee who spoke no English showed us how to work the ticket machine and said we needed tickets for 230 Yen to reach our stop in the heart of the city. At our stop at Tanimachi4-chome we put our tickets into the machine to exit and red lights flashed and bells rang. When another employee came over to us, he said we owed another 40 yen apiece because we had walked underground to the next station on the line without realizing it! So we paid our money – about 40 cents – and were able to exit.
A few minutes walk took us to Osaka Castle Museum, our destination point. On the way, the overcast skies let loose the rain so we stopped and all put on our raingear. At the Castle, we paid the entrance fee of 600 Yen (about $6) each, once again using the machine to make our purchase. An elevator took us to the top floor observation deck, where we had 360 degree view of the moats surrounding the Castle and the city beyond. We were able to see the huge ferris wheel beside the ship’s berth, a baseball field, and the buildings of the city in spite of the rain. From there, we worked our way down through 7 floors of exhibits showing the construction of the Castle, the customs and battles of the era.
It was time for coffee. We found a Japanese version of Starbucks, copied right down to the names of the drinks, so Jerry had no trouble ordering his beloved Americano latte. We stood out not only because of our appearance and dress, but also because we talked and laughed out loud. It was incredibly quiet in the coffee shop and on the streets. On the main street with all the automobiles, you could hear a pin drop. It took a little while to figure out that one reason for the silence was that the automobiles were so quiet, maybe they were electric. Anyway, there were no sounds of horns blowing, no muffler noise, no pollution, no people talking, no music playing. It was as if all five of us had gone deaf.
Our mission then was to find a restaurant before returning to the ship. We looked in vain, finding Chinese restaurants, Japanese restaurants serving raw fish, cooked fish-heads and food we didn’t recognize, and coffee shops. I wanted noodles! By that time we were at the subway station and ready for the return trip. Once again we needed help with the ticket machine. We asked a man at the ticket booth for help and he said, “You go” and motioned to the ticket machines. So we obeyed thinking that wasn’t much help. Then, a little door opened up in the middle of a wall and he leaned out and helped us make our purchases right at the machines. After we put the tickets in the turnstyle, he came out of the ticket booth and walked us to a map to show us the way through the station to a different level and the Chuo line green train to get back to the Osakako station and the port.
On the subway train, a three-year-old in a stroller boarded with his parents. They parked the stroller right beside us and the child couldn’t take his eyes off of us The child didn’t even blink, just looked until we all got off the train. Jerry says he never saw people quite like us. Off the train, we resumed our mission to find a restaurant for lunch. Finally we found one. We walked in and saw a family eating exactly what I wanted: soba noodles, soup, and rice with vegetables. It was a very small place, so we think the owner was the server. After we were seated, I said I wanted the dish that the woman at the next table was eating. Jerry said “Two.” And the others added 3, 4, 5. The server said 1. We said 5. She said 1. We looked at each other and she spoke in Japanese to the other customer who said to us in English, “Last one.” I was tempted to let them watch me eat it, but we left and had lunch on the ship. Bummer.
In the subway, there were posters with pictures of the QE2 and words in Japanese. My guess was that like the other ports it was to give directions to the port and for selling boat rides and such for the local people to view our ship when we sailed away. For a while before we sailed, there were many people on balconies in the 5-story building adjacent on to the pier. We were walking around the ship and looked out the large window at the people looking in at us. Jerry started waving to different groups of people. First he waved to three women, who imitated whatever wave he did so we know they were waving back at him. Then he waved to a child about 4 years old who was so excited he started to jump up and down and Jerry copied him jumping up and down. They walked across the balcony and Jerry walked to different windows of the ship, waving and laughing together with the little boy. The Pied Piper transcends nationality, attracting children around the globe.
On the water side, there were sightseeing boats filled with people taking pictures of us taking pictures of them. It is exciting to make contact with individuals without a common language.
We sailed at 6 and had our usual formal dinner and evening. We went to bed by 10:30 and at 12:30 a.m., we began intermittent waking up because we were being bounced around quite a lot. This noon, the Captain made his daily announcement and said that during the night we had sailed into an unreported low pressure area and had experienced 80 mile an hour winds or force 11 to 12 on the Beaufort scale. The ship was bouncing a lot, but we didn’t think that there was such a storm outside. One of our dinner table companions told us at bridge lessons that his water carafe had fallen over on top of him and he slept the rest of the night in a wet bed! The Captain told us to remember the old adage, “one hand for you, and one for the ship” and hang on to railings as we walked about the ship today. There has been some movement of the ship today, but nothing to take note of and certainly nothing like the spray that was reaching 3 levels above our deck during the night. All of the water splashed out of the indoor swimming pool located in the exercise area on Deck 7, two decks below us.
Update on fatalities: so far 14 people have died onboard and 2 of them were given burials at sea. There were people having coffee one morning at the Pavillion Restaurant on One Deck and observed several of the ship’s officers conducting a brief ceremony for one of the burials.
At 8:30 we disembarked in Osaka, met three friends and walked a short distance to the nearest subway station, Osakako. We had exchanged a few Yen and acquired a full color map of the subway system at the Information Center at the port and were ready to set off. At the Osakako subway station an employee who spoke no English showed us how to work the ticket machine and said we needed tickets for 230 Yen to reach our stop in the heart of the city. At our stop at Tanimachi4-chome we put our tickets into the machine to exit and red lights flashed and bells rang. When another employee came over to us, he said we owed another 40 yen apiece because we had walked underground to the next station on the line without realizing it! So we paid our money – about 40 cents – and were able to exit.
A few minutes walk took us to Osaka Castle Museum, our destination point. On the way, the overcast skies let loose the rain so we stopped and all put on our raingear. At the Castle, we paid the entrance fee of 600 Yen (about $6) each, once again using the machine to make our purchase. An elevator took us to the top floor observation deck, where we had 360 degree view of the moats surrounding the Castle and the city beyond. We were able to see the huge ferris wheel beside the ship’s berth, a baseball field, and the buildings of the city in spite of the rain. From there, we worked our way down through 7 floors of exhibits showing the construction of the Castle, the customs and battles of the era.
It was time for coffee. We found a Japanese version of Starbucks, copied right down to the names of the drinks, so Jerry had no trouble ordering his beloved Americano latte. We stood out not only because of our appearance and dress, but also because we talked and laughed out loud. It was incredibly quiet in the coffee shop and on the streets. On the main street with all the automobiles, you could hear a pin drop. It took a little while to figure out that one reason for the silence was that the automobiles were so quiet, maybe they were electric. Anyway, there were no sounds of horns blowing, no muffler noise, no pollution, no people talking, no music playing. It was as if all five of us had gone deaf.
Our mission then was to find a restaurant before returning to the ship. We looked in vain, finding Chinese restaurants, Japanese restaurants serving raw fish, cooked fish-heads and food we didn’t recognize, and coffee shops. I wanted noodles! By that time we were at the subway station and ready for the return trip. Once again we needed help with the ticket machine. We asked a man at the ticket booth for help and he said, “You go” and motioned to the ticket machines. So we obeyed thinking that wasn’t much help. Then, a little door opened up in the middle of a wall and he leaned out and helped us make our purchases right at the machines. After we put the tickets in the turnstyle, he came out of the ticket booth and walked us to a map to show us the way through the station to a different level and the Chuo line green train to get back to the Osakako station and the port.
On the subway train, a three-year-old in a stroller boarded with his parents. They parked the stroller right beside us and the child couldn’t take his eyes off of us The child didn’t even blink, just looked until we all got off the train. Jerry says he never saw people quite like us. Off the train, we resumed our mission to find a restaurant for lunch. Finally we found one. We walked in and saw a family eating exactly what I wanted: soba noodles, soup, and rice with vegetables. It was a very small place, so we think the owner was the server. After we were seated, I said I wanted the dish that the woman at the next table was eating. Jerry said “Two.” And the others added 3, 4, 5. The server said 1. We said 5. She said 1. We looked at each other and she spoke in Japanese to the other customer who said to us in English, “Last one.” I was tempted to let them watch me eat it, but we left and had lunch on the ship. Bummer.
In the subway, there were posters with pictures of the QE2 and words in Japanese. My guess was that like the other ports it was to give directions to the port and for selling boat rides and such for the local people to view our ship when we sailed away. For a while before we sailed, there were many people on balconies in the 5-story building adjacent on to the pier. We were walking around the ship and looked out the large window at the people looking in at us. Jerry started waving to different groups of people. First he waved to three women, who imitated whatever wave he did so we know they were waving back at him. Then he waved to a child about 4 years old who was so excited he started to jump up and down and Jerry copied him jumping up and down. They walked across the balcony and Jerry walked to different windows of the ship, waving and laughing together with the little boy. The Pied Piper transcends nationality, attracting children around the globe.
On the water side, there were sightseeing boats filled with people taking pictures of us taking pictures of them. It is exciting to make contact with individuals without a common language.
We sailed at 6 and had our usual formal dinner and evening. We went to bed by 10:30 and at 12:30 a.m., we began intermittent waking up because we were being bounced around quite a lot. This noon, the Captain made his daily announcement and said that during the night we had sailed into an unreported low pressure area and had experienced 80 mile an hour winds or force 11 to 12 on the Beaufort scale. The ship was bouncing a lot, but we didn’t think that there was such a storm outside. One of our dinner table companions told us at bridge lessons that his water carafe had fallen over on top of him and he slept the rest of the night in a wet bed! The Captain told us to remember the old adage, “one hand for you, and one for the ship” and hang on to railings as we walked about the ship today. There has been some movement of the ship today, but nothing to take note of and certainly nothing like the spray that was reaching 3 levels above our deck during the night. All of the water splashed out of the indoor swimming pool located in the exercise area on Deck 7, two decks below us.
Update on fatalities: so far 14 people have died onboard and 2 of them were given burials at sea. There were people having coffee one morning at the Pavillion Restaurant on One Deck and observed several of the ship’s officers conducting a brief ceremony for one of the burials.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Shanghai
The second of 2 posts today
We don’t usually take one of the ship’s tours, but with our berth an hour away from this city of 16 million people whose primary language is in an alphabet we can’t read, we decided we would. It turned out to be a good decision. The tour bus picked us up at the ship. The tour guide was a young, unmarried man who told us all about his family, including mother, father, auntie, and their customs and traditions. It was interesting and informative to hear about their culture. Not far away is the city of Chung King, a city of 32 million people, which ballooned in population with the relocation of factory workers from Shanghai. Close to 50 million people in just these 2 cities.
Our first stop was downtown Shanghai in front of the Jin Mao Building and Oriental Pearl Tower, their television tower. Just about every city now seems to have a tower for observation from a high perspective. Jin Mao is a tall building, 88 stories high, which was the largest building in Asia until Dubai beat them by more than 10 floors. So now they are building another skyscraper that will be 110 floors. The lower floors are usually banks and shops, middle floors are hotels and restaurants, top floors are offices.
After that the next stop was The Bund, which is the elegant riverfront promenade, lined with lovely 19th century buildings. The river carries an enormous number of vessels of all kinds, many container ships on a very busy waterway.
There is surprisingly a Chinatown in a city in China. When the Europeans first began trading, there were established zones, American, British, French and of course, Chinese. The Chinese section became known as Chinatown. The Old Town stop included a walk through the narrow, winding streets lined with shops (a Starbucks) and a temple.
The Children’s Palace, is an after school center run by the government for economically disadvantaged children 3 to 7 years old. The school emphasizes the arts and provides one-on-one training on musical instruments, in dance, and visual arts in an attempt to make up for the time and resources that more affluent parents put into extra lessons for their children. In appearance, the school could be a day care center in the US except for the language. Cute little kids entertained us playing the piano, violin, zither, cello. One child was very much like one of our grandchildren with a twinkle in his eye as he leapt off the stage to shake hands with gusto with each of the many tourists in the audience.
At the Jade Buddha Temple we climbed flights of stairs to see two statues carved out of one large piece of white jade. Quite nice pieces. In the tea house we sampled 4 varieties of tea, some good, some bad depending on individual taste. Each of the teas was supposed to be good for various ailments, such as insomnia, headache, and cancer.
At lunch time, they took us to the 14th floor of the Jin Jiang Hotel, which opened in 1929 and is now the only 5 star hotel in Shanghai. It is the hotel where in 1972 President Nixon and Premier Zhou Enlai signed the papers to re-establish US-China relations. We sat at large round tables, with a turntable in the center for passing around the various dishes. We enjoyed corn soup, dumplings, rice, Tsin-tao beer, spinach, and an assortment of Asian dishes unknown to us, but very tasty.
Then back to the pier and our ship.
We don’t usually take one of the ship’s tours, but with our berth an hour away from this city of 16 million people whose primary language is in an alphabet we can’t read, we decided we would. It turned out to be a good decision. The tour bus picked us up at the ship. The tour guide was a young, unmarried man who told us all about his family, including mother, father, auntie, and their customs and traditions. It was interesting and informative to hear about their culture. Not far away is the city of Chung King, a city of 32 million people, which ballooned in population with the relocation of factory workers from Shanghai. Close to 50 million people in just these 2 cities.
Our first stop was downtown Shanghai in front of the Jin Mao Building and Oriental Pearl Tower, their television tower. Just about every city now seems to have a tower for observation from a high perspective. Jin Mao is a tall building, 88 stories high, which was the largest building in Asia until Dubai beat them by more than 10 floors. So now they are building another skyscraper that will be 110 floors. The lower floors are usually banks and shops, middle floors are hotels and restaurants, top floors are offices.
After that the next stop was The Bund, which is the elegant riverfront promenade, lined with lovely 19th century buildings. The river carries an enormous number of vessels of all kinds, many container ships on a very busy waterway.
There is surprisingly a Chinatown in a city in China. When the Europeans first began trading, there were established zones, American, British, French and of course, Chinese. The Chinese section became known as Chinatown. The Old Town stop included a walk through the narrow, winding streets lined with shops (a Starbucks) and a temple.
The Children’s Palace, is an after school center run by the government for economically disadvantaged children 3 to 7 years old. The school emphasizes the arts and provides one-on-one training on musical instruments, in dance, and visual arts in an attempt to make up for the time and resources that more affluent parents put into extra lessons for their children. In appearance, the school could be a day care center in the US except for the language. Cute little kids entertained us playing the piano, violin, zither, cello. One child was very much like one of our grandchildren with a twinkle in his eye as he leapt off the stage to shake hands with gusto with each of the many tourists in the audience.
At the Jade Buddha Temple we climbed flights of stairs to see two statues carved out of one large piece of white jade. Quite nice pieces. In the tea house we sampled 4 varieties of tea, some good, some bad depending on individual taste. Each of the teas was supposed to be good for various ailments, such as insomnia, headache, and cancer.
At lunch time, they took us to the 14th floor of the Jin Jiang Hotel, which opened in 1929 and is now the only 5 star hotel in Shanghai. It is the hotel where in 1972 President Nixon and Premier Zhou Enlai signed the papers to re-establish US-China relations. We sat at large round tables, with a turntable in the center for passing around the various dishes. We enjoyed corn soup, dumplings, rice, Tsin-tao beer, spinach, and an assortment of Asian dishes unknown to us, but very tasty.
Then back to the pier and our ship.
Melbourne
The first of two posts today, Tuesday, March 18
The morning of February 29 we were off the ship and walking to the end of the pier right after 9:30. Melbourne is a city with an incredible public transportation system, so we took full advantage of it. At the terminal at the pier, we purchased all day transportation passes for $6.50 Aus and that was the only money we spent on transportation for an entire day of getting around the city. We got on the 109 tram at the end of the pier and rode into the city center. The trams are mostly new, very clean, safe, quiet and abundant. They run on train tracks and are powered by electric wires overhead. They are very easy to figure out, and whenever we had trouble we just asked people nearby and they helped us.
At city center we switched to the free city center shuttle tram that runs a loop around the downtown area, with stops at major attractions and shopping areas. We rode that about half way around the loop and got off at the stop closest to the Victoria Market, the largest outdoor market in the southern hemisphere. It is an amazing complex of buildings and semi-open structures housing over 1000 vendors selling everything – organic produce, doughnuts, fabulous cheeses, meats, prepared foods, and stuff of all kinds. The variety and abundance of food was mouth-watering. After wandering through the stalls for a while, we headed off on foot to find Chinatown and lunch. We got turned around a couple of times, but managed to find the area of streets with Chinese lettering on all of the store signs and the perfect restaurant – Post Deng. It was named for Deng Xiao Ping to recognize his love of food and his making Szechwan food popular. Jerry had hot and sour soup and vegetables with rice and I had steamed vegetable dumplings and vegetables with rice. We chose the restaurant because it wasn’t glitzy and it was very crowded. It turned out to be an award winning restaurant and the food tasted like it.
From there we walked back to a stop where we could board a number 16 tram to St. Kilda, a popular seaside suburb, on another part of the bay from where the ship was docked. There is a lovely beach and a very new complex of spas and indoor swimming pools. We wandered a bit there and went into a restaurant for a cup of tea. In addition to the tea we shared an excellent nougat candy with cherries and pistachio nuts in it. Back on the number 16 tram, we rode it until we reached Royal Botanical Gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance, a monument honoring Australians who died in wars. More wandering through the gardens until nearly 5 p.m. when we decided it was enough for one day and we headed back to the ship. We weren’t sure which way to go, so we asked a man walking past and he said we needed to board the number 8 tram, the same as he was. We sat with him on the ride and shared a few minutes of interesting conversation.
We left the number 8 tram at Federation Square and walked a few blocks across the city in rush hour traffic, with commuters mostly on foot and trams until we reached a stop where we could board the number 109 back to the ship after a fun-filled day in another Australian port.
The morning of February 29 we were off the ship and walking to the end of the pier right after 9:30. Melbourne is a city with an incredible public transportation system, so we took full advantage of it. At the terminal at the pier, we purchased all day transportation passes for $6.50 Aus and that was the only money we spent on transportation for an entire day of getting around the city. We got on the 109 tram at the end of the pier and rode into the city center. The trams are mostly new, very clean, safe, quiet and abundant. They run on train tracks and are powered by electric wires overhead. They are very easy to figure out, and whenever we had trouble we just asked people nearby and they helped us.
At city center we switched to the free city center shuttle tram that runs a loop around the downtown area, with stops at major attractions and shopping areas. We rode that about half way around the loop and got off at the stop closest to the Victoria Market, the largest outdoor market in the southern hemisphere. It is an amazing complex of buildings and semi-open structures housing over 1000 vendors selling everything – organic produce, doughnuts, fabulous cheeses, meats, prepared foods, and stuff of all kinds. The variety and abundance of food was mouth-watering. After wandering through the stalls for a while, we headed off on foot to find Chinatown and lunch. We got turned around a couple of times, but managed to find the area of streets with Chinese lettering on all of the store signs and the perfect restaurant – Post Deng. It was named for Deng Xiao Ping to recognize his love of food and his making Szechwan food popular. Jerry had hot and sour soup and vegetables with rice and I had steamed vegetable dumplings and vegetables with rice. We chose the restaurant because it wasn’t glitzy and it was very crowded. It turned out to be an award winning restaurant and the food tasted like it.
From there we walked back to a stop where we could board a number 16 tram to St. Kilda, a popular seaside suburb, on another part of the bay from where the ship was docked. There is a lovely beach and a very new complex of spas and indoor swimming pools. We wandered a bit there and went into a restaurant for a cup of tea. In addition to the tea we shared an excellent nougat candy with cherries and pistachio nuts in it. Back on the number 16 tram, we rode it until we reached Royal Botanical Gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance, a monument honoring Australians who died in wars. More wandering through the gardens until nearly 5 p.m. when we decided it was enough for one day and we headed back to the ship. We weren’t sure which way to go, so we asked a man walking past and he said we needed to board the number 8 tram, the same as he was. We sat with him on the ride and shared a few minutes of interesting conversation.
We left the number 8 tram at Federation Square and walked a few blocks across the city in rush hour traffic, with commuters mostly on foot and trams until we reached a stop where we could board the number 109 back to the ship after a fun-filled day in another Australian port.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Hong Kong
(We have had very unstable satellite access for quite a while now. They tell us it should soon improve. Everything else is still fabulous. We have had a change of port in April. We will go to Cartagena, Columbia instead of Puerto Moin, Costa Rica. They told us it is because it is a port in which we must anchor and use the tenders to get to shore. In Puerto Moin it is often difficult to use the tenders and right now they are experiencing very strong easterly swells making tender use even more difficult. The change doesn’t matter to us.)
We sailed into another busy container port on the island of Kowloon. There was a foggy mist covering the tops of the tall skyscrapers and mountains and we weren’t really sure where Central Hong Kong was from the QE2’s berth. As soon as the ship was cleared by local officials, we were down the gangway and off the ship to find out. The ship provided a free shuttle for us through the canyons of containers stacked 7 high and into Central Kowloon. We had plans with friends to go to the island of Lantau, but first we had to get to Hong Kong. We had no Hong Kong dollars, but the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong was free for senior citizens and took 8 minutes.
Then we set about finding a place to exchange our money because we knew everything wouldn’t be free. We were 10 feet from where the ferry to Mui Wo on Lantau would leave, but we couldn’t pay for a ticket. We were told that there was an HSBC across a footbridge over a large highway and into a mall, so we set off to find the bank. Finally we found it, only to be told that we would be charged about 12% to change money since we didn’t have an account in the US with HSBC. Our friend went to an ATM and changed enough money for all of us to use, so we found our way back through the levels of the mall to the footbridge and the ferry pier. The Hong Kong ferries are amazing! Each day they move thousands of people among the islands of Hong Kong. Some of the ferries are hydrofoils, some double decker, some old, some new. But all of them that we saw were clean and punctual.
We paid our half-price senior citizen fee for the 50-minute ride to Lantau, twice the size of Hong Kong Island and the largest island. Hong Kong Island has a population of 1.4 million while Lantau has about 84,000. We had been told to take the number 2 public bus when we got off the ferry and it was there waiting when we arrived. But, no one told us we would need to pay exact fare. So the six of us traveling together for the day, pooled our Hong Kong Dollars and managed to come close enough to the fare to not mind overspending a bit. The bus ride! The guidebook describes it this way, “The bus hurtles around hair-raising curves and up and down through lush countryside – not for the faint of heart.” Well, I was there anyway, faint heart and all! We went up and down and around hairpin turns for about 45 minutes and we were indeed hurtling. There were sheer drop-offs, the roadway went across dams, and in two places, the road was single lane. On the way up the mountain, I thought the lane closure was for construction, but coming back down, I saw that there had been huge rockslides that filled half the road. The construction was to try to remove the boulders and create a retaining wall for the cliff remaining beside the road. It was an exciting ride, but Jerry managed to take a nap on the return trip.
Lantau is a popular destination in part because of the Giant Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. Both are on a plateau at an elevation of 2,421 feet – high enough for ear popping getting there. The Buddha is enormous, more than 98 feet tall and built only about 15 years ago. Adjacent to the Buddha is the Po Lin Monastery, famous for vegetarian lunches served family style in a plain dining hall. The food was excellent and abundant although we didn’t know what some of the dishes were. There is a large temple with an ornate interior that contains three bronze statues of The Buddha. We went to the temple after lunch and were wandering around just in time to witness the monks doing their afternoon chanting and bell ringing. What a treat that was for us. The smell of incense filled the interior of the temple and the surrounding area.
We went back to the bus stop for the number 2 bus to reverse our route and get back to the ship. A bus was there as we approached and we tried to board, but the driver waved us away. Why did he not let us on?? We had to line up on an island within a special area, then he picked us up. Again the fiddling around pooling our small Hong Kong dollars to get the exact fare – close enough.
Back on the ferry, only this time we were on a fast hydrofoil. It took us only about 20 minutes to return on this fast ferry. When we arrived in Hong Kong, we walked back to the huge mall where Jerry treated all 6 of us to a Starbucks! It is everywhere and just as delicious everywhere. One of our friends had broken his glasses so in the mall we found a Lenscrafters, they are everywhere! After purchasing glasses, we walked back to the footbridge, were amazed at the display of colored lights on all of the skyscrapers in the growing darkness. A beautiful sight.
Back again on the free ferry to Kowloon where after a short walk, shuttle buses were waiting to return us to the ship. We arrived back, had dinner at the Lido, and the ship left at 10 pm. Watching the ship sail away from Kowloon past the bright lights of Hong Kong was another spectacular display.
This is a place to return to.
Hong Kong
We sailed into another busy container port on the island of Kowloon. There was a foggy mist covering the tops of the tall skyscrapers and mountains and we weren’t really sure where Central Hong Kong was from the QE2’s berth. As soon as the ship was cleared by local officials, we were down the gangway and off the ship to find out. The ship provided a free shuttle for us through the canyons of containers stacked 7 high and into Central Kowloon. We had plans with friends to go to the island of Lantau, but first we had to get to Hong Kong. We had no Hong Kong dollars, but the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong was free for senior citizens and took 8 minutes.
Then we set about finding a place to exchange our money because we knew everything wouldn’t be free. We were 10 feet from where the ferry to Mui Wo on Lantau would leave, but we couldn’t pay for a ticket. We were told that there was an HSBC across a footbridge over a large highway and into a mall, so we set off to find the bank. Finally we found it, only to be told that we would be charged about 12% to change money since we didn’t have an account in the US with HSBC. Our friend went to an ATM and changed enough money for all of us to use, so we found our way back through the levels of the mall to the footbridge and the ferry pier. The Hong Kong ferries are amazing! Each day they move thousands of people among the islands of Hong Kong. Some of the ferries are hydrofoils, some double decker, some old, some new. But all of them that we saw were clean and punctual.
We paid our half-price senior citizen fee for the 50-minute ride to Lantau, twice the size of Hong Kong Island and the largest island. Hong Kong Island has a population of 1.4 million while Lantau has about 84,000. We had been told to take the number 2 public bus when we got off the ferry and it was there waiting when we arrived. But, no one told us we would need to pay exact fare. So the six of us traveling together for the day, pooled our Hong Kong Dollars and managed to come close enough to the fare to not mind overspending a bit. The bus ride! The guidebook describes it this way, “The bus hurtles around hair-raising curves and up and down through lush countryside – not for the faint of heart.” Well, I was there anyway, faint heart and all! We went up and down and around hairpin turns for about 45 minutes and we were indeed hurtling. There were sheer drop-offs, the roadway went across dams, and in two places, the road was single lane. On the way up the mountain, I thought the lane closure was for construction, but coming back down, I saw that there had been huge rockslides that filled half the road. The construction was to try to remove the boulders and create a retaining wall for the cliff remaining beside the road. It was an exciting ride, but Jerry managed to take a nap on the return trip.
Lantau is a popular destination in part because of the Giant Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. Both are on a plateau at an elevation of 2,421 feet – high enough for ear popping getting there. The Buddha is enormous, more than 98 feet tall and built only about 15 years ago. Adjacent to the Buddha is the Po Lin Monastery, famous for vegetarian lunches served family style in a plain dining hall. The food was excellent and abundant although we didn’t know what some of the dishes were. There is a large temple with an ornate interior that contains three bronze statues of The Buddha. We went to the temple after lunch and were wandering around just in time to witness the monks doing their afternoon chanting and bell ringing. What a treat that was for us. The smell of incense filled the interior of the temple and the surrounding area.
We went back to the bus stop for the number 2 bus to reverse our route and get back to the ship. A bus was there as we approached and we tried to board, but the driver waved us away. Why did he not let us on?? We had to line up on an island within a special area, then he picked us up. Again the fiddling around pooling our small Hong Kong dollars to get the exact fare – close enough.
Back on the ferry, only this time we were on a fast hydrofoil. It took us only about 20 minutes to return on this fast ferry. When we arrived in Hong Kong, we walked back to the huge mall where Jerry treated all 6 of us to a Starbucks! It is everywhere and just as delicious everywhere. One of our friends had broken his glasses so in the mall we found a Lenscrafters, they are everywhere! After purchasing glasses, we walked back to the footbridge, were amazed at the display of colored lights on all of the skyscrapers in the growing darkness. A beautiful sight.
Back again on the free ferry to Kowloon where after a short walk, shuttle buses were waiting to return us to the ship. We arrived back, had dinner at the Lido, and the ship left at 10 pm. Watching the ship sail away from Kowloon past the bright lights of Hong Kong was another spectacular display.
This is a place to return to.
Hong Kong
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Hobart, Tasmania
The second port in Australia was the small city of Hobart on the island of Tasmania. We disembarked at 9:30 after breakfast and took a free shuttle bus into the center of town, where they dropped us off at the tourist information office.
So once again the doomed glasses gave us a mission. This time it wasn’t my fault, but one of the plastic nosepieces had broken and needed repair. The tourist office directed us to an optician where we dropped off the glasses and picked them up after our stop at the Post Office where we mailed some postcards.
We walked around the newer pedestrian mall, strolled through a park with a monument and statue, sat in a square with modern restaurants and shops watching storm clouds gather and pass without our getting rained on. As we walked back to the shuttle bus, a young businessman in a nice car pulled alongside us and started a conversation. We couldn’t imagine what he could be intending to try to sell us. To our surprise, he only wanted to talk with people from the QE2 about the ship. He was fascinated by her. He arrived in Hobart at 6 a.m. to watch her sail in to the port. What a love between Aussies and the QE2. We told him what a grand ship she still is and he told us how fortunate we are to be onboard and how envious he was. He said he had purchased a lottery ticket just to win enough for the voyage, but it wasn’t a winner. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie – Oy, Oy, Oy!
We returned on the shuttle bus to the ship in time to be in the Grand Lounge for the Hobart Police Pipeband. There were several musicians dressed in kilts playing bagpipes, big drums and snare drums. What a show and a farewell to Hobart and Tasmania.
So once again the doomed glasses gave us a mission. This time it wasn’t my fault, but one of the plastic nosepieces had broken and needed repair. The tourist office directed us to an optician where we dropped off the glasses and picked them up after our stop at the Post Office where we mailed some postcards.
We walked around the newer pedestrian mall, strolled through a park with a monument and statue, sat in a square with modern restaurants and shops watching storm clouds gather and pass without our getting rained on. As we walked back to the shuttle bus, a young businessman in a nice car pulled alongside us and started a conversation. We couldn’t imagine what he could be intending to try to sell us. To our surprise, he only wanted to talk with people from the QE2 about the ship. He was fascinated by her. He arrived in Hobart at 6 a.m. to watch her sail in to the port. What a love between Aussies and the QE2. We told him what a grand ship she still is and he told us how fortunate we are to be onboard and how envious he was. He said he had purchased a lottery ticket just to win enough for the voyage, but it wasn’t a winner. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie – Oy, Oy, Oy!
We returned on the shuttle bus to the ship in time to be in the Grand Lounge for the Hobart Police Pipeband. There were several musicians dressed in kilts playing bagpipes, big drums and snare drums. What a show and a farewell to Hobart and Tasmania.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Sydney
(We were too busy to write anything while in Australia, so these ports will be out of order. Now you will have our last and first ports.)
Leaving Auckland, we sailed one day on the South Pacific Ocean and then one day on The Tasman Sea before entering the magnificent Sydney Harbor. It has to be the most beautiful in the world, capped by the stunning Opera House. It was barely dawn when we were greeted by helicopters, water cannon, a flotilla of small boats, kayakers, and people on the shore. We sailed past the swimming club where there were already people swimming laps as the sun flashed brilliantly off the glass on the skyscrapers. TV cameras were on the shore and in the helicopters overhead to capture our arrival. The Queen Victoria arrived ahead of us and had taken the best berth, so we were pushed and pulled by tugs into a secondary spot, which was still close enough to the sights to be fun.
After docking and breakfast we took the free shuttle to the center of the city, determined to find a place to buy both phonecards and pay phones to call our families. We were successful, but it wasn’t easy. It is always hard to figure out how technology works in other countries and Australia was no exception. The phone ate the first card so we had to buy a second one. While I was at the store making the purchase, Jerry found someone who had an iron grip and was able to pull the card from the phone. So we then had plenty of minutes on 2 cards and had a wonderful time throughout our stay in Australia making calls to family.
We rode the hop-on hop-off Explorer bus all morning covering the route of the downtown city area – casino, Queen Victoria Mall, gardens with palm trees, the State Library, churches with ringing bells. We passed Darling Harbor with the Maritime Museum, aquarium, and shops. After lunch back on the ship, we walked the long, long way to get back on the Explorer Bus, rode to the Train Station, and switched to the other route for a ride out to the suburbs and Bondi Beach, famous for white sand covered with people and large waves filled with surfers on their boards. At the beach, the bus stopped for 10 minutes so we were able to walk along the sand, see the surf and take a few pictures. Along the way we passed hordes of fans in their team shirts, cheering madly on their way to football games at the stadium. They were very intense, shouting cheers and waving to all of us on the double decker bus. We drove in and around Fox Studio where they shoot films.
The welcome we received in the morning paled in comparison to the fanfare surrounding the departure of Queen Victoria and the QE2 moving from the first berth to the one right by the Opera House where the QV had been. There were an estimated 400,000 people on the shores and a hundred small boats to witness the only time the Queens had ever passed going in opposite directions. The turnout was evidence of the great love people throughout our travels have for the ship.
The second day in Sydney we walked near the ship to get a close look at the Opera House inside and out and the area called the Rocks where there are many tourists, historic buildings and stores. We are able to restock Jerry’s bar in the cabin with quinine water for vodka and tonic with a piece of lime. Late in the afternoon, the QE2’s sailaway was hailed with more crowds of people lining the shore, on rooftops, and boats. As we sailed away, there was a blast of her magnificent horn, one not to be confused with the paltry tweet of any other vessel. It was a magnificent sight for the QE2’s final departure from Sydney, never to return again. There was again an array of boats, planes, and people eager to cheer the much-loved vessel out of the harbor.
Leaving Auckland, we sailed one day on the South Pacific Ocean and then one day on The Tasman Sea before entering the magnificent Sydney Harbor. It has to be the most beautiful in the world, capped by the stunning Opera House. It was barely dawn when we were greeted by helicopters, water cannon, a flotilla of small boats, kayakers, and people on the shore. We sailed past the swimming club where there were already people swimming laps as the sun flashed brilliantly off the glass on the skyscrapers. TV cameras were on the shore and in the helicopters overhead to capture our arrival. The Queen Victoria arrived ahead of us and had taken the best berth, so we were pushed and pulled by tugs into a secondary spot, which was still close enough to the sights to be fun.
After docking and breakfast we took the free shuttle to the center of the city, determined to find a place to buy both phonecards and pay phones to call our families. We were successful, but it wasn’t easy. It is always hard to figure out how technology works in other countries and Australia was no exception. The phone ate the first card so we had to buy a second one. While I was at the store making the purchase, Jerry found someone who had an iron grip and was able to pull the card from the phone. So we then had plenty of minutes on 2 cards and had a wonderful time throughout our stay in Australia making calls to family.
We rode the hop-on hop-off Explorer bus all morning covering the route of the downtown city area – casino, Queen Victoria Mall, gardens with palm trees, the State Library, churches with ringing bells. We passed Darling Harbor with the Maritime Museum, aquarium, and shops. After lunch back on the ship, we walked the long, long way to get back on the Explorer Bus, rode to the Train Station, and switched to the other route for a ride out to the suburbs and Bondi Beach, famous for white sand covered with people and large waves filled with surfers on their boards. At the beach, the bus stopped for 10 minutes so we were able to walk along the sand, see the surf and take a few pictures. Along the way we passed hordes of fans in their team shirts, cheering madly on their way to football games at the stadium. They were very intense, shouting cheers and waving to all of us on the double decker bus. We drove in and around Fox Studio where they shoot films.
The welcome we received in the morning paled in comparison to the fanfare surrounding the departure of Queen Victoria and the QE2 moving from the first berth to the one right by the Opera House where the QV had been. There were an estimated 400,000 people on the shores and a hundred small boats to witness the only time the Queens had ever passed going in opposite directions. The turnout was evidence of the great love people throughout our travels have for the ship.
The second day in Sydney we walked near the ship to get a close look at the Opera House inside and out and the area called the Rocks where there are many tourists, historic buildings and stores. We are able to restock Jerry’s bar in the cabin with quinine water for vodka and tonic with a piece of lime. Late in the afternoon, the QE2’s sailaway was hailed with more crowds of people lining the shore, on rooftops, and boats. As we sailed away, there was a blast of her magnificent horn, one not to be confused with the paltry tweet of any other vessel. It was a magnificent sight for the QE2’s final departure from Sydney, never to return again. There was again an array of boats, planes, and people eager to cheer the much-loved vessel out of the harbor.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Freemantle and Perth
Freemantle is the port city for Perth, the capital of Western Australia. All we did in Freemantle was walk to the station to catch the train to Perth and stop in the Coles Supermarket on our return to the ship. However, our sailaway from Freemantle was another spectacular event with people lining the docks, the jetties, and every available spot on the shore to wave good-bye as QE2 sailed from Australia for the very last time. Most of the Australians were waving flags both on the shore and on the ship. There was a good-sized band playing music on the pier, including the Australian national anthem. The Aussies have a tradition of a cheer. One group of people shouts “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” and another group responds, “Oy, oy, oy.” Someone told us that it started at the Olympics at some sport, but I don’t know if that is true. Whatever the source, it is a perfect representation of what I have seen of the Australian spirit and it is great fun to listen to them do it. You may be able to see that I have fallen in love with Australians. They are relaxed, genuine, high-spirited, kind, friendly and any number of other admirable qualities. Many of them will be leaving the ship in Singapore which is closer to WA than Sydney is. I will miss them. As we sailed away, there were water cannons and a flotilla of small boats of all kinds, as well as some good-sized yachts that saw us out of the channel.
As the sun set, there were many people remaining on the open decks and the horizon did us the favor of showing us a green flash. While it was not an impressive one, it was observed by many who had never seen the green flash before. I have lost count of how many I have seen now, but this time Jerry also added one more to his count. We stayed on deck with another couple as the sky grew darker and the stars came out. The woman we were with knew astronomy and she showed us our first view of the Southern Cross, the constellation visible only from the Southern Hemisphere which functions somewhat like the North Star. She showed us how the use two fingers to measure three widths of the constellation across the sky, drop a line to the horizon and have a close approximation to the true south direction.
Now that I have covered the night, I will get back to the day. From the Freemantle train station, we boarded the inexpensive, clean, safe, prompt, quiet reliable train into the city of Perth. In Perth, there are extensive FREE bus routes, so we jumped on the Blue Cat for a quick ride to the ferry terminal. But, at the first stop, there was a Maoz Vegetarian restaurant. We were quite late in getting docked, clearance from local authorities, and off the ship, so it was almost noon and we hopped off. We first discovered this restaurant on Las Ramblas in Barcelona and then in Boynton Beach about 15 minutes from our house. (In Boynton the name is now Fala and it is in the strip mall in front of Home Depot.) The restaurants serve Belgian chips (steak fries) and falafels with pita and a huge salad bar with fresh chopped vegetables, sauces, pickles, olives. We stuffed ourselves for $10 each including a bottle of water and unlimited visits to the salad bar.
Back on the Blue Cat we rode the few stops to the pier and purchased a ticket for the ferry to South Perth and the zoo. That was also a short and inexpensive ride. A few blocks of walking and we were at the zoo. That would not have been inexpensive except that it was Wednesday and on Wednesdays adults enter for half price. We had to visit the zoo because we have not seen any of the animals typical of Australia anywhere along the way. The zoo is a modern one with authentic habitats created for the animals. We did finally see many birds, penguins, crocodiles, emus, kangaroos, koalas, wombats. In fact, many of the people who paid to go on tours did not see kangaroos because they are a bit like deer in upstate New York. The kangaroos come out at dawn and dusk so the people on the tours were told that they were at a spot where in a few hours there would be 55 kangaroos. So we saw some kangaroos with joeys taking their daytime siesta. Our dinner table companions from Perth say that you never see a kangaroo when you want to, only when you don’t want to like in the dark in front of your car. It was a very warm and humid day with full sunshine so we enjoyed ourselves at the zoo and walking around the city.
Back on the Blue Cat, we rode to the stop for the train terminal, purchased tickets, found the correct track and rode back to Freemantle in about 25 minutes. As we left the train station in Freemantle, we walked to the Coles Supermarket – the long way. We couldn’t find the entrance until we had walked three sides of the building! But then we were able to make our purchases: tonic water to go with the limes and vodka in our cabin, a pencil sharpener, pencils and erasers. I have become addicted to Sudoku in the daily USA Times we get each day onboard and wore out the one pencil I brought on the cruise.
So back to the QE2 and farewell to Australia.
As the sun set, there were many people remaining on the open decks and the horizon did us the favor of showing us a green flash. While it was not an impressive one, it was observed by many who had never seen the green flash before. I have lost count of how many I have seen now, but this time Jerry also added one more to his count. We stayed on deck with another couple as the sky grew darker and the stars came out. The woman we were with knew astronomy and she showed us our first view of the Southern Cross, the constellation visible only from the Southern Hemisphere which functions somewhat like the North Star. She showed us how the use two fingers to measure three widths of the constellation across the sky, drop a line to the horizon and have a close approximation to the true south direction.
Now that I have covered the night, I will get back to the day. From the Freemantle train station, we boarded the inexpensive, clean, safe, prompt, quiet reliable train into the city of Perth. In Perth, there are extensive FREE bus routes, so we jumped on the Blue Cat for a quick ride to the ferry terminal. But, at the first stop, there was a Maoz Vegetarian restaurant. We were quite late in getting docked, clearance from local authorities, and off the ship, so it was almost noon and we hopped off. We first discovered this restaurant on Las Ramblas in Barcelona and then in Boynton Beach about 15 minutes from our house. (In Boynton the name is now Fala and it is in the strip mall in front of Home Depot.) The restaurants serve Belgian chips (steak fries) and falafels with pita and a huge salad bar with fresh chopped vegetables, sauces, pickles, olives. We stuffed ourselves for $10 each including a bottle of water and unlimited visits to the salad bar.
Back on the Blue Cat we rode the few stops to the pier and purchased a ticket for the ferry to South Perth and the zoo. That was also a short and inexpensive ride. A few blocks of walking and we were at the zoo. That would not have been inexpensive except that it was Wednesday and on Wednesdays adults enter for half price. We had to visit the zoo because we have not seen any of the animals typical of Australia anywhere along the way. The zoo is a modern one with authentic habitats created for the animals. We did finally see many birds, penguins, crocodiles, emus, kangaroos, koalas, wombats. In fact, many of the people who paid to go on tours did not see kangaroos because they are a bit like deer in upstate New York. The kangaroos come out at dawn and dusk so the people on the tours were told that they were at a spot where in a few hours there would be 55 kangaroos. So we saw some kangaroos with joeys taking their daytime siesta. Our dinner table companions from Perth say that you never see a kangaroo when you want to, only when you don’t want to like in the dark in front of your car. It was a very warm and humid day with full sunshine so we enjoyed ourselves at the zoo and walking around the city.
Back on the Blue Cat, we rode to the stop for the train terminal, purchased tickets, found the correct track and rode back to Freemantle in about 25 minutes. As we left the train station in Freemantle, we walked to the Coles Supermarket – the long way. We couldn’t find the entrance until we had walked three sides of the building! But then we were able to make our purchases: tonic water to go with the limes and vodka in our cabin, a pencil sharpener, pencils and erasers. I have become addicted to Sudoku in the daily USA Times we get each day onboard and wore out the one pencil I brought on the cruise.
So back to the QE2 and farewell to Australia.
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