62 catching up with 45

During the cruise they have 2 formal nights a week where everyone gets dressed up. These are not compulsory but most people get dressed up and get formal photos taken. The ship's photographers are constantly taking photos of you from the moment you board, to visiting every port, at the dining table, celebration nights and of course on the formal nights. These shots are then displayed as the cruise continues and sold to people at exhorbitant prices. Being a keen photographer, I’m usually behind the camera and rarely get anyone to take a shot of me, however, this time I got my Cabin Steward (who invariably was close to my cabin when I walked out all dressed up) to take a shot each time. For those in the know, these are the custom dresses I got ... read more

After the cruise I was spending 5 days in Hong Kong (22-27th Jan) and unfortunately because its winter in January, the place was cold and wet and foggy. I am truly amazed how the weather can go from 26 degrees to 9 degrees in just 200 miles. I'd booked a Hotel in Kowloon so after checking in, I headed to the Post Office to post my lacquered panels home. Even though I'd been to H.K. before, I'd planned to do a lot of touring and photography. However, there didn’t seem any point in going up to The Peak as you wouldn’t see anything with all the mist and cloud coverage, so I went down to a Station to pick up an Octopussy card (which allows you to travel on all transport instead of having the right ... read more

Next day was spent at sea and 19th Jan we were into Sanya (Hanoi), China at 1.00 p.m., departing 10.00 that night. The Chinese officials wouldn't allow anyone off the ship until an hour later - for what reason we never found out. Sanya was a real surprise as it was a huge city. We got a lovely reception coming into port with Chinese dancers and we moored right by the new 3-building Casino they were still building on the Island. I never booked any tours in Sanya nor bothered with a Chinese Visa, but wished I had as it was apparently a tourist place for the Russians for summer holidays and of course the Chinese, and it looked great from the ship. Just after sunset I was out on the back deck photographing the lights ... read more

Thurs 18th Jan – I, and almost the remainder of the ship, caught a stinking cold. All of a sudden you heard lots of hacking coughs around the ship with loads of people blowing their nose. When something spreads around the ship, it sure spreads quickly. So with a streaming cold, this day saw us into Halong Bay (pronounced Harlong Bay, not hey), in winter and very cold. This was the one place I was dying to see with its limestone cliffs jutting out of the sea and I’d wanted to go there for ages and ages. Sailing into Halong Bay was actually through the Bay itself, so I was up at 5.00 a.m. for this and even then I missed half of it. Even with the mist and rain and cold, sailing into it was ... read more

Saturday 14th was spent at sea before arriving on Sunday 15that Phu My (otherwise known as Ho Chi Minh City), in Vietnam – another place I hadn’t been to. Phu My is the new name for Ho Chi Minh, although most people still refer to it as Ho Chi Minh City. A group of us took a private tour which entailed a 2 hour drive into Ho Chi Minh City - again very dirty roads, and the inevitable visit to the loo along the way. Asian loos are an education in itself with just a hole in the ground and after a while, you are inevitably asking "is it western?". We also went to the Jade Emperor Pagoda followed by a tour of the Independence Palace (which was more like a Gov. building than a palace) ... read more