Tour Day 123, Cruise Day 25 – “The UN Memorial Cemetery, Busan Museum & Gukje Market” Shore Excursion – Busan (Pusan), South Korea – Korea's UN Memorial Cemetery honors fallen United Nations soldiers killed in battle during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. This serene park spreads across a grassy plain, with memorial sites including the Memorial Service Hall, Memorabilia Hall, two Turkish monuments, the Greek Monument, Australian Monument, British Commonwealth Monument and two ponds. At the Busan Museum, discover seven regular exhibition rooms spread over three floors, as well as the Kiln Exhibition Hall and the Outdoor Exhibition Hall. The museum's role is to showcase traditional culture through a wealth of excavated relics and meticulous research. Artifacts housed here range from the Prehistoric Age to the modern period. Pagodas, Buddhist statues and monuments are ... read more

Tour Day 122, Cruise Day 20 – Day at Sea Tour Day 123, Cruise Day 21 – Shore Excursion: Chiran Samurai Houses & Peace Museum – Kagoshima, Japan Chiran, just nineteen miles south of Kagoshima, is sometimes called Little Kyoto because of the many Samurai residences preserved here. The houses and their beautiful gardens are approximately 250 years old. The gates to the residences, moss-covered stone walls, hedges and black tile roofs evoke the Edo period. The samurais’ descendants still use several of the residences. View them from the outside. Tour the Chiran Peace Museum, which explores the background of Japan’s kamikaze pilots. They trained nearby before embarking on suicide missions against Allied sea vessels. The museum includes photos and final letters of the young pilots, many of whom were teenagers, and it makes a plea ... read more

Tour Day116, Cruise Day 14 – Day at Sea Tour Day 117, Cruise Day 15 – Day at Sea – While on a shore excursion in Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand on 23 JAN, I visited the Pattaya Buddha Mountain and, while gawking at the surroundings and not paying attention to the task at hand (walking), I missed a single step down from the sidewalk to the parking lot, lost my balance, fell and stretched out my right hand to break my fall. No bounce, just plop! OUCH!!! I paid a visit to the ship’s infirmary upon return to the ship, and Xray revealed I had severely cracked my right radius (the big bone in the forearm) just below the elbow. Fortunately, there was no displacement, and a splint (half a cast) was applied to keep everything ... read more

Tour Day 112, Cruise Day 10 – Day at Sea Tour Day 113, Cruise Day 11 – Da Nang (Hue), Vietnam – Tour Name: Da Nang by Rickshaw & the Cham Museum See Da Nang as the local people do, aboard a pedal cab. An air-conditioned motor coach or minibus will whisk you to the Cham Museum, where your pedal cab awaits. Aboard this simple and somewhat noisy conveyance, you take a whirlwind tour through the city streets to see such landmarks as the Han Market, the Da Nang Cathedral and the TV Broadcasting Station en route to the Cham Museum. Leave the pedal cab there as you step inside for a 30-minute museum sojourn. View an extraordinary collection of sandstone-sculpted items, which provide insight into the history and culture of the fascinating Cham minority ... read more

Tour Day 109, Cruise Day 7 – Day at Sea Tour Day 110, Cruise Day 8 – Phu My, Vietnam – Tour Name: Sensational Saigon Those who have been following my post–COVID blogs might know that I typically copy and paste the tour shore excursion description into my blog to give my readers some information and insight into the photos I have included. For some reason, Holland America has decided to remove those ports of call (and the accompanying shore excursions) from its web site within hours of leaving port. For a few blogs, you’re not going to get much background as I cannot remember the names of the gardens, temples and shrines I visited and photographed. Anyway, here it is, and I hope you enjoy!... read more