Somalia-Pirates!! (THE PICTURE TO THE RIGHT IS NOT ONE THAT I TOOK, I COPIED IT FROM THE INTERNET SO YOU COULD SEE WHAT THE PIRATES LOOK LIKE) Yes, if you look at the Spot Tracker, you will see that we are very, very close to the coast of Somalia where today's modern pirates live and ply their trade of hi-jacking ships and holding them and their crews and cargos hostage for ransom. Are we scared?? No-no-no! We have the Coalition countries? naval ships and their helicopters watching out for and over us. They were here with us this morning when we [View Full Entry]

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Up until a few years ago it was called Bombay, like so many Asian cities which have changed their names in recent years. With an estimated population of 13,000,000, it is the largest city in India. We have been here twice before and have stayed or dined at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels where the terrorists attacked last year. Accordingly, we haven't felt any sort of strong urge to go ashore this time. If you want to see a capsule of India, go to see the movie ´Slum Dog Millionaire, which Granny Lynne saw yesterday on the ship. The primary [View Full Entry]

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Another place for a pin, but not much else. Today it is called Kochi so you will have to look for it on the map under both names. It is on the west coast of India. We have been here before, so we did not get off the ship. You can see from the picture of where we are docked that it is not exactly a "posh" place. However, this is a city where you can find snake charmers with their little baskets and they play their flute-like instrument and the cobra comes up out of the basket and looks all [View Full Entry]

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Phuket is a Thailand resort city on the coast and derives most of its commerce from tourism. Hopefully you can find it on the World Map for a pin. We are anchored off shore and using the ships tenders to go ashore. We were here for two days in 2001, so we are staying on board. Besides that, today is the first rainy day in any port since we left Los Angeles. There was a tsunami (tidal wave) here on December 26, 2004, which caused a great deal of damage and a large loss of life. A giant wave originating from [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday (Monday) we were in Bangkok. Actually, we docked in the port city of Laem Chagang, about an hour and a half drive from Bangkok. We were picked up by a private car and driver with an English speaking guide, ´Chat¡, who took us to Bangkok for a city tour including the king's Grand Palace and the spectacular Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The highway to Bangkok and back was an 8 lane interstate just like we have in the US. We then had a wonderful lunch of Thai food at a very nice restaurant. Thailand used to be called Siam [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday, Friday the 13th, we were in Nha Trang, Vietnam which is on the south central coast of Vietnam. You may have trouble finding it on the map as it is a small coastal resort city of about 300,000 people. Nice hotels and beaches, but not much else. Today, Saturday, we are docked at Phu My. It is a service port for Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon on the Saigon River and is about 70 miles from Saigon. We have been to Saigon before so we did not sign up for any of the tours that go there today as it is [View Full Entry]

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Today is Thursday, March 12th for us and we are at sea on our way to Vietnam. It is still Wednesday evening for you in Columbus and Naples. Yesterday we were in Hong Kong, China. It is one of the largest container ports in the world and we were docked in the middle of the container activity. See the photos. I went downtown for an hour or so to look around but Granny Lynne stayed on board as we had been here twice before and had done all the things that the Queen Victoria's shore cruises did. China has a population [View Full Entry]

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You need to find a really big pin for Shanghai!! There are twenty million (yes, I said 20,000,000) people living in the greater Shanghai area. It is the largest city in China and one of the largest cities in the world. It is growing by leaps and bounds. In the last 5 years alone its size has almost doubled. The picture of the skyscrapers on the ´new¡ side of the Yangtz river illustrates the growth for Granny Lynne and me. When we were here 19 years ago, the other side of the river was farmers' fields, mostly rice. Today, it is [View Full Entry]

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We are in Pusan (Busan) South Korea this morning. I was last in Pusan 55 years ago as a lieutenant in the US Army. I cannot describe the changes. This morning I don't recognize a thing. The water in the harbor is the only thing I can see that I remember. When I was here in 1953 and 1954, the tallest building was about 3 stories high and most of the vehicles on the roads/streets were US Army jeeps and trucks. Today Pusan is nothing but skyscrapers, condos and apartments everywhere you look and the automobile traffic is just like it [View Full Entry]

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It is 6:00 P.M., Thursday, here in Japan as we leave Nagasaki and head overnight for Busan, South Korea. Please note that when you look on your map for Busan, it may be spelled ´Pusan¡. More to come about Pusan tomorrow. We are now 14 hours ahead of you, so it is 4:00 in the morning on Thursday for the Martin/Doolittles and Sarah Merriwether. Nagasaki is the Japanese city on which the US dropped the second atomic bomb and the one that ended World War II. Japan surrendered 3 days after the second bomb was dropped. Granny Lynne and I got [View Full Entry]

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