Tour Day 106 & 107, Cruise Day 4 & 5 – Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand – Tour Name: A Day in the Thai Countryside 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

Tour Day 103, Cruise Day 1 – I boarded ms Westerdam in Singapore for the 28-Day Far East Discovery & China Explorer Collector cruise to Yokohama (Tokyo), Japan without any glitches and found my home for the next six weeks to be totally satisfactory. At 4:30 PM, there was the standard Sailaway Celebration that happens at the beginning of every cruise and then the standard Welcome Aboard Steak Dinner. I attended the Singles and Solo Travelers Meetup, met two ladies I had not met before and, yes, Martha. Martha and I met at the singles get together aboard ms Noordam between San Diego, California, USA and Auckland, New Zealand in late fall 2023. The singles get together on that cruise was massive by comparative standards. There were 10-12 regular attendees. During our travel–dominated conversations, Martha and ... read more

Tour Day 96-99 – What will I do in Perth? Several day trips looked like interesting possibilities – the Wave Rock, York, Wildflowers, and Aboriginal Cultural Day Tour from Perth (12 hours 30 minutes); the Margaret River, Caves, Wine and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse Tour from Perth (13 hours 30 minutes); Pinnacle Desert Sunset and Night-time Stargazing Tour (8 hours) and the Rottnest Island Round-Trip Ferry (7 to 8 hours). Did you notice the length of each? Of course, there is always the ever-present Perth Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour, but the web site sucks – no route map, no list of bus stop locations, no hours of operation, etc. But first, I had some business to do – deal with two double charges by service providers, try to get my Facebook and my secondary email accounts functional ... read more

Tour Days 88–93 – The plan was to make the journey from Melbourne to Adelaide by rail, The Overland. I had a hotel reservation walking distance from the main train station, Adelaide Railway Station – the central terminus of the Adelaide Metro railway system. The Overland, as well as the Indian Pacific, uses Adelaide Parklands Terminal which is 4.2 kilometers or 2.6 miles from Adelaide Railway Station. I strive for attention to detail but, fortunately, missed this one. Had I recognized the difference and booked a hotel near Adelaide Parklands Terminal, that is if there even IS a nearby hotel, I would have found myself in an industrial area. As fate had it, my hotel, and Adelaide Railway Station, are in the heart of the older part of the city, and I found a lot of ... read more

Tour Day 85 – Melbourne hosts a starting point for a wide variety of attractions, but the New Year holiday found several attractions not operating for much of my short stay and the weather kept this “fair weather camper” at home for another day. Few of the attractions are close to or within Melbourne (ala the Opera House, the Sydney Bridge and Bondi Beach in Sydney), so a significant drive is required both before and after the attraction and the tour duration is long by the day trip norms I’ve encountered – generally 9 1/2 to 12 hours. Grampians National Park is a bit too rugged for me, sampling the wine and produce of the Yarra Valley just isn’t my flute of champagne and the drive home from the “as the sun is setting” penguin parade ... read more