Day 32 - Saturday, March 17, 2018 - Manila

Not only were we awakened by the whir of the mooring line motors, but our alarms went off at 6:30am as we were to assemble with our group at 7:30am in the Ocean Bar. This was one of the few ports for which Bruce would announce when the ship was cleared and we could go ashore. While eating breakfast we could see some 30 buses assembled to take guests on shore excursions. Plus there was a local dance troupe greeting us as well as the Volendam gently slid into its position at Pier 15. It was shortly later joined by the Silver Whisper (a ship of the Silver Seas group). We made our way into the port where several hundred of the families of the Philippine crew were waiting to board the ship to re-unite with their relatives. It's a nice touch that HAL does for the crew!  

We easily found our guide, John Eldon (yes named after the famous singer/composer). His brothers and sisters also have singer names as well. John was a good Tours by Locals guide and the small group of 6 of us fit easily in the small Toyota van.  

The port area is very very close to the Intromuros (walled old city), but our tour took us to the the very south end of Manila to the Subaro Jeepney factory. A couple of us are car guys and this was totally fascinating to see how they literally build the iconic Jeepney's from the ground up based upon the basic design of WWII jeeps. They put a new frame under them, fabricate all new sheet metal and weld the panels together with spot welds, install 4 cylinder diesels and "doll" them up. All of this is done with lots of hand tools, a couple of sheet metal brakes, a bead roller, hand grinders and use of arc & gas welders without any shielding helmets. It was truly fascinating!

From there we went to visit the Bamboo Organ Church. There was a wedding about to start so we didin't get to hear the organ, but we certainly got to look at it up close and take a tour of the little museum as well. It's a worthy stop. Our next stop took us on a traffic choked drive across town to the meticulously manicured American Memorial Cemetery which holds the largest number of American servicemen & women's graves outside of the United States. it was somber to view the headstone of young Americans who died shortly before I was born.

After spending about 1/2 hour at the cemetery, John told us it would be about 1/2 hour drive to the restaurant where we would have lunch. Because of the traffic it took us over an hour to get there. There's no easy fix for their traffic situation. It was a Saturday, and it was almost a gridlock situation. At the Aristocrat Restuarant, we enjoyed local food and $1 San Miguel beer, and while we were waiting for food, John took me to a local money changer to exchange some money. Our meals cost approximately $10US each.  

From the restaurant we creeped over to Rizal Park where Jose Rizal, founder of the modern Philippine nation who was falsely accused of treason and executed, was buried. Chinatown was our next stop and it was very, very crowded. It's the oldest Chinatown in Asia (outside of China). We took a walk around it and through narrow streets and past venders selling many types of produce and other items.

Fort Santiago and Intramuros was our next stop where we got to watch a video on the history of the Fort and see the cell where Jose Rizal was held before his execution. They even have replicas of his footsteps leading from his cell to his execution point. It was very chilling. Our last stops were at the Manila Cathedral and St. Augustine's both of which were having weddings. That made 3 weddings that we crashed today and unfortunately we couldn't go in the churches!

Back at the Port we said our goodbyes to John and made our way back onto the ship. We ended up watching the local band seranade us as the ship went through its final disembarkation procedures. There seemed to be a delay until a piece of luggage was delivered to the ship. With that accomplished, the gangway was stowed, the mooring lines released, and the Volendam slowly slipped sideways away from the dock, backed into the harbor, rotated 180º clockwise, and sailed out of Manila Bay under the watchful eye of an accompanying fire boat.

We ate a very light dinner in the LIDO before watching Rikki Jay, a British comedian, at the 8pm Main Stage show. His show was clean and funny. Afterwards it was back to the room (or statecupboard as an earlier comedian called our staterooms), for a quiet time and a chance for me to update this blog. I should add that we lost our internet access this morning when my wife accidentally used all of our data by downloading a book from Amazon which triggered some further downloads until our data was used up. So we'll have to wait until Taiwan where a new data plan will kick in.

Tomorrow is another sea day, so I'm looking forward to several lectures and leading the Sunday interdenominational service. Stay tuned for details.   

Day 31 - Friday, March 16, 2018 - At Sea to Manila

Today was a wonderful day at sea. I hosted the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet which was the largest of the three I'm hosting on this 2 month voyage. In order to host this, I had to miss Master Kam's lecture on Fillipine history. We were invited to the Indonesian lunch at noon but passed on it because we're having dinner in the Pinnacle tonight and we didn't want two large meals. So for lunch all I had was 3 pieces of sushii.

After lunch I continued my read of a Tom Clancy spy/terrorist novel (Power & Empire) which I find quite captivating. It's mimicking all sorts of current events in this part of the world as well as others we've traveled in. It's really fun to imagine the fiction taking place in locations we're familiar with.

We had a mandatory Fillipine temperature check as part of the pre-clearance process and when I went through the line on deck 5, it stretched the length of the ship. Fortunately it went fast and I was able to read while walking in line. Yes, the book is that good!

Dinner tonight was a gala night, but we weren't interested in the Main Dining Room menu, so I booked us into the Pinnacle Grill where we had a lovely and relaxing dinner of ribeye steak and Alaskan King Crab which we shared which made it into a "surf & turf" meal. Afterwards we watched the movie, "Darkest Hour" about Winston Churchill. We'd seen it previously in a theatre, but it was nice to see it again to catch little nuances.

We're on a tour of Manila tomorrow with another Cruise Critic couple we met online. Stay tuned for what we see and discover. Manila is a new city for us and it really doesn't matter what we see as all of it will be new!

Day 29 - Wednesday, March 14, 2018 - Hong Kong Day 1

Early on Wednesday morning, well before we woke up, the Volendam reached its berth at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal and the whir of the mooring line motors sort of woke us out of a drowsy sleep. Since we're continuing on for another 28 days we were in no hurry to get up and get going. Plus we had to change rooms. Since the LIDO closed for breakfast at 9:30am, my goal was to make it there before closing. And I made the goal after overseeing the transfer of our goods to the new room. We ate breakfast with Katie and Dennis and each of us shared our day's plans. It turned out that both of us couples were planning to take the MTR into Kowloon before departing on separate adventures.

It took 3 tries to get a room key card that would work, but the transfer of luggage went smoothly. While the new bed was made, the room still needed finishing touches of cleaning. But that was okay as we were planning to be gone for the entire day. We could always unpack later when we returned and that was what we did.

It's a really long walk to get off the ship at this terminal. Once we were through the non-existent immigration check, it was another long walk to the free shuttle that would take us to a shopping mall that was also the location for the Kwun Tong MTR subway station. I had changed some money at the ship's front desk which was enough to purchase MTR Octopus cards (be sure if you are over 65 to ask for the senior card, which is only $70HKG, We did add another $50 to each card. Any unused amount is refundable except for $9HK or a little over a dollar. Our ride clear across town only cost $2HKG or about $0.30US. The 4 of us successfully navigated our first rides on the Hong Kong MTR including a transfer. We felt like victors in a battle after having accomplished the ride.

We said our goodbyes to Dennis and Katie and pointed them to the waterfront while we headed the opposite direction to the Museum of Science. We visited it a couple times last year, and decided we wanted to visit it again. Since we're familiar with the street layout of Hong Kong, we walked the side streets and looked for pie since today was national Pi day (3.14). We enjoyed a bakery pie, a KFC custard pie, a bakery chicken pie, a McDonald's apple pie and after a visit to the Temple Street night market, an excellent seafood pizza at Pizza Hut.

At the Science museum, they had an excellent exhibition on graphene which a pair of Nobel prize winning scientists accidentally discovered using simple adhesive tape to remove one atom layer from graphite rock. Google it, it's a fascinating story. We did a quick tour of the museum and stopped to view the Energy Machine which is a four story high demonstration of energy using 9" balls on cleverly designed tracks.

We wandered our way to the Temple Street Night Market and purchased a few items including some inexpensive net travel vests and a few other items.

After our pizza dinner, we found our way to the Jordan street station, and we retraced our steps back to the shopping mall where the MTR station was located. And who did we run into? Dennis & Katie, plus another couple who didn't know their way back to the boat via the shuttle bus. We enjoyed sharing with each other about what we did during the day.

Back on board the ship, two different ladies stopped me for tour advice. I was beginning to feel like I had "Tour Guide" tattooed on my forehead. But maybe it was the "Dam Ships" hat I was wearing. We unpacked and went up to the LIDO for one last Pi treat: I had pizza and Angela had Pi kiche. Of course we chased it down with a chocolate chip cookie which was pie shaped.

And so our first day in Hong Kong ended well. I wonder what we'll do tomorrow. As in transit guests, we don't have to do the mandatory face to face immigration inspection so we can stay out until 4pm. The mandatory safety drill is at 4:15pm and we'll set sail shortly threreafter. Stay tuned for more of our adventures. We're not certain what we'll do. But I can assure you we will follow our guiding principle: Just show up.

Day 28 - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - At Sea to Hong Kong

Today is the final day of this segment of the cruise And we're at the halfway point.  With the clocks being advanced by an hour, bedtime last night translated into a 1:30am occurrence. That, in turn, translated into sleeping in until 9:30am I just made it to my favorite fried egg station in time for my breakfast to be prepared. I ate with one of the tour participants from yesterday and we enjoyed lots of pleasant conversation.  

Since returning from the shore excursion yesterday, I received a number of very positive comments about the excursion which I was glad to hear since I wasn't able to be on the other boats.

Kristian Grey performed another excellent magic show at 11am in the main stage with lots of audience participation. He's truly a master at his craft. My wife and I certainly couldn't figure out how he did it. Following a LIDO lunch, Dr. Kam gave part 2 of his Hong Kong history (excellent), and afterwards I re-met a couple we had sailed on the Maasdam to Australia and circumnavigated the continent with. Jack and Jo were fun to reminisce with and share travel tips with. They're continuing on to Shanghai, so I'm sure we'll spend more time with them over the next two weeks.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Crow's Nest where the visibility was quite limited with the overcast and there was lots of ship traffic passing through the narrow Haikou straights. Even the Captain seemed concerned about the passage due to the number of vessels we might encounter and that the timing of the passage was designed to be done in daylight hours to afford greater visibility. It also afforded me the chance to catch up on my blog which is now ready to post when we get to Hong Kong.

There was only one Main Stage Show tonight, "Rock Legends" which was a rescheduled performance from a few days ago when the 'motion in the ocean' caused a postponement. We also completed the majority of our packing to be ready to vacate our room tomorrow. We move down one deck to 1949. Stay tuned.

Day 27 - Monday, March 12, 2018 - Halong Bay

Today was the day I've been waiting for the entire cruise so far. The preceding ports have been wonderful, but I've really anticipated seeing Halong Bay. As this was a tender port, I had arranged for our 50 person group to meet at 6:30am in the Ocean Bar. With 50 people to 'cat herd' I wanted to make sure all were present before 7am when tender tickets were issued. Everyone showed up on time and I assigned a person as the lead for the other two boats. 5 people didn't make it for sickness reasons, but they were still on the hook for the tour cost. When tour tickets became available, I procured the tender tickets and we were all put on the first tender except one person who forgot his Vietnam landing card and had to take a later tender.  

The dock at Halong is essentially a small barge that's run aground on a sloping landing. There is what seems to be a new cruise ship dock under construction. Once we were on the land, we waited a bit for our tour guides and finally Boat #3's guide showed up followed by #2, and finally my Boat #1 guide, Nguyen. With only about 15 persons per bus or junk, it was a nice size! It was about a 10 minute ride over to Phuong Tuan Chau Island and the departure terminal for our junk boat ride for the day.

The junk boats are converted fishing boats and look like they were built in the time of Noah. Each appeared to have a metal hull but the superstructure was built of what now seems to be very ancient wood. The engine is below deck in the stern and its noise was of no issue during the cruise. Throughout the day there was a lady trying to sell all manner of tourist items including jewelry, fans, purses, paintings, and tapestries. We were free to wander the junk except when docking when we needed to be in the main cabin.

Each group boarded their junk and soon we were off. Each junk had two levels: the main deck was enclosed with tables and chairs and restrooms. The upper deck was a viewing platform and was a lovely way to see the scenery. Throughout the day we only cruised at about 6 miles per hour, and none of the boats in Halong Bay created any significant wake. All the landings were accomplished by pushing headfirst into the docking area and we alighted off the squared off bow. There was an assortment of various sized boats ranging in size from 200-300 person tourist boats filled with Korean and Chinese tourists to little single person fishing vessels as well as high speed speedboats filled with Chinese tourists.

It was a hazy day and the islands looked like an Ansel Adams paintings with the ghostly shapes of the rocky sillouettes being quite scenic. All day we wandered throughout the islands stopping to climb the tower (400 plus steep steps!),visit the immense caverns, served an immense lunch with a choice of a soft drink, beer, or water, a pearl farm, and concluded with a hand rowed sampan ride through a limestone cave. To the delight of Asian tourists on other vessels, we sang choruses of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat'. And all too soon it was time to head back to our port by sailing back through the magnificent rock formations.

We were whisked back to the port arriving around 4:30pm where my wife and I headed out to walk the Port and beach area. I found a barber and got a nice 100,000 dong or $5 haircut that was very nice. We wandered a bit further and decided to take a cable car ride at Sunworld (owned by the same owner VinPearl which we encountered at previous ports. It turned out to be a Guiness Book of World Records holder in two categories: tallest tower at 619 feet tall and two cable cars each carrying 230 persons on two levels in each car. The cars were pretty impressive. The route made its way over the harbor to a large ferris wheel and very active amusement park with some very pretty lighting. We didn't have enough time to ride the wheel, so we made our way back to ride the Gondola to the port side area which also has another very large amusement park including a twister styler roller coaster. The night views were spectacular as the nearby suspension bridge was well lit as was the Ferris wheel and cable car as well as the ships in the harbor.

On our walk back to the tender port, we used the majority of the last of our Vietnamese Dong currency to purchase a couple of Coke Zeros. It was important to spend it as it's not exchangeable on the ship. The current exchange rate is about 22,000 Dong per $1US. We boarded the next to the last tender and departed for the 10 minute ride to the Volendam at 7:10pm.

After dropping off our backpacks and coats, we had a light dinner in the LIDO before going to the 8pm Main Stage show which featured Craig Richard, saxophonist and piano player as well as a finalist on American Ninja Warrior. Afterwards we watched the 10pm showing of a Mel Gibson movie, "A Year of Living Dangerously", which was about a young Australian reporter trying to live in Jakarta during the political turmoil during the reign of Sukharto.

Upon returning to our room, we received the official paperwork informing us of our room change to 1949 plus our "in transit" cards for being able to get on and off of the ship in Hong Kong as we'll be there for two days. So we'll have to pack our loose items and vacate our room by 9am. We will be assisted by housekeeping staff to make the transition easier. We've had to do this before so we're familiar with the process. And the day ended with the only bummer: we had to set our clocks ahead by one hour so we would be on Hong Kong time.

Tomorrow is our final sea day of this segment of the voyage. Except for packing it should be a pretty low key day. Stay tuned.

Day 26 - Sunday, March 11, 2018 - At Sea to Halong Bay

Oh the joy of sea days. It provides a refreshing break from all day touring. Jeremy and Phil gave an interesting presention on Hong Kong and Dr. Kam gave oartvone of his history of Hong Kong. There was another session of 'Ask the Captain' which was once again lively and full of good questions from the passengers.

Once again I led the interdenominational service and we had a good time singing hymns, sharing Scripture, and praying for one another. Afterwards we enjoyed a Gala night dinner in the Main Dining Room followed by another presentation of 'Classique' by the cast. We've seen this one at least a dozen times, but I ended up missing the first 15 minutes as I needed to make reminder calls to the next day's tour participants. So we went back for the 10pm show! Yes, it's that good!

Tomorrow is scheduled to be a full day of touring Halong Bay. I have three groups totaling 50 people on this final tour I've organized. Stay tuned to see how this went.

Day 25 - Saturday, March 10, 2018 - Da Nang, Vietnam

I love it when a plan comes together! And did it ever do so today at our port stop in Da Nang.

The ship arrived before 7am and we scurried up to the Lido for a quick breakfast before meeting up with our little group of 8 in the Ocean Bar at 7:25am. Everyone was there early and that makes it so much easier for me as the organizer. We headed down to deck 1 where we disembarked and immediately spotted out guide, Nguyen (pronounced Win), or "Jimmy" as he suggested. We boarded our nice Ford 12-13 passenger van and and headed out to Hue which is supposedly a 2 hour drive from the port. Just outside the port area we stopped at a marble factory and saw how marble statues were carved. I was thinking, "Oh no, not another sales pitch and early in the morning." But they were low key and the pieces were gorgeous; I just wouldn't want to pay for shipping home.  

While there we could see Marble Mountain and a temple structure on the side with an elevator taking tourists up close to the temple. Fortunately we were back in the van and continuing on our way on Route H1A which headed to Hue (pronounced WAY). The road was crowed with scooters but not as many as previous cities. But they all still do the same dance of weaving in and out and somehow being able to turn left in front of big trucks or cars without crashing. We even passed a location where there was a class being given regarding the "new" traffic laws.

Fortunately we didn't have to climb the mountain pass as there is a relatively new tunnel through the mountain that costs around $2US. Once we reached Hue, we had to navigate crowded and narrow city streets. At one point we encountered an overpass that was too low and it took 20 minutes for the driver to figure out a workaround. And finally after 3 hours we reached what was to be our destination: Hue Eco Lodge. By this time I was a bit concerned that we wouldn't be able to get all that was planned in on what was supposed to be Hue Countryside Tour and Cooking Class. Fortunately all of the activities centered around this venue. First we donned aprons and were instructed how to make spring rolls. Each of us then had the opportunity to make a 1/2 dozen and those were deep fried and we ate them all on the spot! Next we made a taco like creation with a crepe filled with a shrimp, some pork carrots, onions, and a quail egg. The quail egg was difficult to crack and flipping the taco like creation was challenging and all enjoyed that. Last we watched the creation of a paste of pork, figs, and various spices. We all had the opportunity to slice the figs which had a mushroom like consistency.. That paste was served on dainty little potato chip sized seafood crackers. Once again, yummy! All throughout this process many pictures were taken, laughs shared, and a great time was had by all.  

We were then served a lunch, but we had to purchase our own drinks. For two Coke Lites and one local beer, it was 100,000 Vietnamese Dong or $5. Next on the agenda was a bicycle ride through the local villages. This was a hoot as most of us had not been on bicycles in quite a while. The first one they gave me had a flat front tire and the second one had a seat that wouldn't adjust. But the third time was the charm. And off 7 of the 8 of us went. The eighth person rode on the back of a motorcycle as he was a large fellow who didn't fit the bikes. We stopped at a picture painting studio and watch an artist masterfully and quickly create pictures. Many of us elected to purchase a picture as they were so pretty. And they cost a whopping $4US. All of us gave $5. After riding back to the Eco Lodge, giving kids 'High Fives" as we rode by them, we were treated to neck and foot massages. Again this was wonderful. I've never had a massage, but I really liked it. With the small group of eight, we all soaked our feet in warm water with special leaves while receiving a head and neck massage until it was our turn for the foot massage.

We gathered for one last group picture at the Eco Lodge before boarding a Dragon Boat for a short sail down the river. There were a number of local craft items for sale and some took advantage of the opportunity to shop. Others of us enjoyed the scenery especially the dredging operation which yielded sand for building contruction.

At the end of our journey on the river, we landed at a Pagoda shrine and reboarded our bus for the trip back to the ship which only took about 2 hours including a bio-break along the way. The universal sentiment was that this was one of if not the best shore excursions we had been on this trip. There was something about the hands on teaching process combined with the bicycle ride, the meal, the painting experience, and the boat ride that just made it special. Yes, the plan came together! 

Back at the harbor, there was a Windstar ship moored next to us. It was considerably smaller.

On board the ship, it was Taste of Asia night in the Lido, and they pulled out all of the stops. There were all kinds of cooked Asian dishes, sliced fuits, coconuts with the milk inside, and more. It was terrific. There was also a local Vietnamese dance troupe from Hue who performed two shows: 7 and 9pm. We attended the 9pm show and it was wonderful.

Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way to our last port of call in Vietnam: Halong Bay. There are some good things on the agenda, and I'll be leading the Interdenominational Sunday service at 5pm.

Stay tuned for details about our sea day.