Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 76

Geo: 18.3389, -64.9663Saturday, March 22nd St. ThomasHere we are back in St. Thomas and already, first thing this morning, it a better stop than last week because 1) the ship's thrusters are working and we can walk off the boat and 2) the sun is shining! Wheee!We have anchored in Crown Bay - which is not where we tendered in last week. Last week we went into Charlotte Amelia, but our ship is too large to dock there. There are a lot of smaller boats in Crown Bay and it is one of the prettiest places we've been.Left the ship around 9:30 and shared a taxi with a couple from Switzerland to Coki Beach to snorkel. The couple, Rossana and Reto, seem pretty cool - I think they are about our age. She is carrying a ... read more

Geo: 18.3389, -64.9663Friday, March 21stDay at seaThis morning I popped right out of bed at 7 and was in the gym before 7:30. Don't know what the deal with that is! I got on an elliptical planning to do 45-60 minutes. These ellipticals have their own little TV screen, so I plugged in my headphones and surfed for something to watch. There was a movie, "Letters from Juliet" just starting. It was the perfect workout movie! Romantic comedy and entertaining enough to make me forget about my knees. 2 hours+ later when the movie ended, I got off and hobbled away.Got back to the cabin just as Jeff was leaving for a class on photographic lighting. He went to the talk and I took my IPad to sit in a lovely seating area to write. There ... read more

Geo: 21.914, 95.9562 The Summary The locals wear lungyi which provides enough air circulation at the legs, while covering the knees being a very important aspect in Buddhism. Smoochy kissy noises The hissy kissy noises are used at restaurants to get the waiter's attention or to tell someone if they are on your way. There are vendors at every street corner selling the Betel leaves which are wrapped around pieces of the areca nut, tobacco and spices. This is chewed for a mild stimulant effect and then spit on the ground - red spit. You will see some men with the red stained mouth and terrible teeth. People put on a traditional face make-up and sun-block powdered bark called Thanakha, the yellowish paste is made from wood. There are now a few ATMs available in Yangon ... read more

Geo: 16.7837, 96.1568 Ruby true Hotel is situated a little away from the town but it is oasis away from hassle and bustle of the old town, my room was nice, bed comfortable and the service was excellent. I loved the beautiful gardens before entering my room, the place was clean and the staff did their best to make me comfortable. Breakfast was nice and hotel was good value for Bagan so I was happy in this hotel, I said good bye to all the staff and set off for the airport. I had booked the flight from Bagan to Yangon online and paid by paypal but they had emailed me that the Asian wings flight was cancelled and they would put us on Yangon airlines which was fine. At the Bagan airport the currency for ... read more

Today we are on our way back to Australia. It is a two-day cruise back and provided us with a nice restful time to relax and enjoy the sway of the ship as it moved over the waves. Actually, the Tasman Sea has a reputation for being a bit rough sometimes (contrary to what we experienced at the start of our cruise), and we did hit some bumps in the sea today, especially during the morning. There must be some remnants around somewhere of the storm that was blowing the past couple of days. By mid-morning the sky was clear and the temperature up to mid-60’s – just breezy. See the pictures of waves in the pool today. Today we slept in fairly late for us. We didn’t get up until almost 8:30. We had a ... read more