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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

.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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

.We spent the day with friends and on our own boating, swimming, snorkling and shopping the town; we saw the Sunday morning market [View Full Entry]

---

---

.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. [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

.Kemaman, Malaysia Sunday April 5th, 2009 We were docked at an industrial gas platform, refinery and major port of this tiny area of Malaysia. The tour guide who was brought in from Kuala Lumpur for the day to provide services for the more than 1000 tourist coming to town had been there 2 years ago and she could not believe the difference= OIL makes: traffic, cars, parallel parking, commerce, booths, boutiques, stores, dance and music performances. As we disembarked a troupe of women and men dancers were entertaining on a platform outside the ship and there were about 10 covered stalls [View Full Entry]

---

---

.Singapore, symbol: Merlion- a lion with a fish tail Saturday, April 4th, 2009 A clean, organized town with no soul, 90 miles north of the equator described as an Orwellian-esque society, jaywalkers are fined on the spot and media is scanned. It is one of 4 small city states with the Vatican, Monaco and Lichtenstein. We were docked close to town and were able to ride the MRT into town for 1.20$ each way. First we climbed a building to the 15th floor and boarded a cable car (extra $ for glass to the bottom of the cabin). We rode over [View Full Entry]

---

---

.Semarang, Indonesia Thursday April 2nd, 2009 Many buses left the ship at 6 this morning in a convoy with police escort running through red lights to get to Borobudur, a monumental temple complex, the biggest in the southern hemisphere; it was a 2 and ½ hour drive each way, with a one hour stop there and a lovely lunch provided near the temple. The travelers said: ..” interesting…” I would have loved to go, but again, the effort was too much, both in time and climbing high steps and we had never seen the town of Semarang, so we stayed on [View Full Entry]

---

---