Gruxy
Claire McManus Joined: December 26th 2005
Logged in: March 18th 2010
Logged in: March 18th 2010
Travel Blog Posts
Friday March 12th, 2010 Fly out from Ottawa to Frankfurt Saturday March 13th, 2010 Transfer to Cannes, lovely view of the snowy Alps Arrive a 10 am, tired, lovely spring weather Bus 98 from the airport to Promenade des Anglais, riverfront Cannes, walk to the Westminster, 5th floor, our home for 2 days, balcony on the sea, nosy with waves and cars We had a 3 hour nap and went to walk the Promenade, I went up town to buy rose wine- made from Grenache grapes, some Salade Niçoise and onion bread which tasted like fish, everything here does! Early to bed Sunday March 14th, Nice I enjoy the Hop On, Hop Off bus, so that was the plan for today, but the French are running the Paris- Nice 10 day bicycle race and all the ... read more
Hoover DAm
The Grand Canyon is beautifull all day, from Dawn till dusk and after with a full moon Breathtaking hiking East and West of the South side... read more
Pulling silk threads
Hong Kong - Beijing (Peking) Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 We are celebrating a successful transition and will soon enjoy room service of Dandan noodles, rice and dim sum. We left HK this morning in a bright, clear, sunny day; boarding a bus from our hotel and driving right to the airport, easy. We had no tickets but with information from Travel China we boarded a 2 and ½ hour flight on China Air- lots of leg room for Terry, he sat in the emergency door space which had one row of seats missing. Upon our arrival, our private guide, Gloria and our driver were waiting for s and drove us across town to the Holiday Inn Central Plaza, south west of the 2nd ring road. This city has 5 ring roads or more and 15 million ... read more
Sail in
We are off the ship after 33 glorious days Hong Kong Day One, Saturday, April 18th, 2009 We disembarked at 9 this morning after a 5:15 to 7 am sail in to Victoria Harbour between Mainland Kowloon and Hong Kong Island; the sky is grey. We grabbed a cab to our hotel (no view) the Regal Kowloon. We could not get into our room but were able to leave our 7 pieces of luggage with the concierge and off we went to explore Hong Kong. We could not see the top of Victoria Peak so we opted to walk the Avenue of Stars on the water front between Hong Kong Island and Mainland Kowloon- where we are staying. There were many tourists with us all taking pictures. We reached the Star Ferry terminal to Central and ... read more
Jose Rizal
.Manila, Philippines Thursday April 16th, 2009 Last port before Hong Kong and disembarking Lovely beautiful sunny day, all day but H O T We started off by getting our meeting plans crossed, I got off the boat at 7:30 as soon as the ship was cleared, but the plan was to meet at St-Agustin church at 8:30. Finally around 8, waiting in the sun with the dancers and the drummers there to welcome us, everybody got together, 12 of us, which is too many, we started walking very fast to the east end of the walled Old city called Intramuros. We soon realized that we could not keep up the pace and T and I lost the group; we met up with 4 at the church and museum of St-Agustin and 2 decided to go back ... read more
Snorkling and BBQ
Puerto Princesa Puerto Princessa, Filipines Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 3 days to go, we have one destination left on this cruise before the end at Hong Kong. We had a lovely day of snorkeling and boating in Honda Bay of Palawan Island; Palawan means land of beautiful safe harbor. We purchased the 7 hour island hopping tour. We travelled by van to a pier where we boarded an outrigger boat called a bakku. We swam and snorkeled in lovely clear warm water and saw corals, fish and mollusks; the back of my legs are burned to a crisp and some of my butt also. We saw many islands, stopped at 2 and ate a lovely BBQ lunch at a third. The menu included fresh papaya (in season), pineapple and small bananas, then came rice and mixed ... read more
Market in Kine Kenabal
.We spent the day with friends and on our own boating, swimming, snorkling and shopping the town; we saw the Sunday morning market... read more
Scooters all over
.Ho Chi Minh City- was Saigon before 1975, still is downtown April 10th, 2009 Breakfast never came to the room at 6, I had last night’s cold room service coffee and fruit, Holland America did not live up to its reputation for fine service, I am very disappointed. We purchased the 10 hour Colonial Saigon Tour and boarded a bus at 8 am. The city is 70 miles or km away but with the horrendous traffic it takes 2 to 2 ½ hours to get to Central Saigon: an adventure and a great opportunity to see the lifestyle of the people. They live behind their individual businesses in various styles and level of housing; at the street they have tire shops, eateries, junk plastic shops, fruit and vegetable markets or hammock stands. Only 20% of rural ... read more
Group in the van
Stayied at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel saw Megan W, she is studiyng here for 4 months Bangkok, Thailand at port Laem Chabang April 7-8, 2009 A HUGE DESTINATION, Megan’s premier destination at this time We joined 8 other passengers (Anita and Phil, Ron and Jean, Barbara and David, Mark and Janet) van-pooled into Bangkok, a 2 hour ride, longer with traffic and there is a lot of it in this city of many million people in a small land of 63 million. Six passengers went back that evening, allowing them only 6-7 hours of touring, not long in this traffic trying to reach different destinations; Megan can walk to school in 5 minutes but prefers to cab, a 15 minute drive because of the high humidity. We came back the next day at noon with another ... read more
