Incheon, Korea

Sunday March 15th - The approach to Incheon, this morning, was unusual because the tides here can vary by up to 7 metres (23 feet) difference between high and low, we had to pass through a lock system to enter the harbour. We were more than an hour behind originally scheduled time as we ran into strong headwinds yesterday coming up through the Yellow Sea. I watched the docking procedure from deck 5 and it was bitterly cold, about 1 degC (34 degF), the forecast was for a daytime high of 5 degC (41 degF) with sunny /cloudy periods.



Izzy samples some street food at Walmido island



Walmido island street



Some appetizing street food


We booked a Princess tour, Walmido Island and SinPo market, due to leave at 10am, so we headed dockside and boarded our bus. The guide, a young Korean woman, Joy, was generally upbeat and provided lots of information as we made our way to our first stop, a typical Korean 17th century house and garden area, pretty uninspiring as it appeared to be still under construction. During our stroll through the garden area, we amused ourselves by comparing deformities with several other passengers, I was happy to see that in the bent finger department I was pretty far down in the pecking order (I blame Pat for the previous sentence).

Incheon Chinatown street with Izzy at bottom right


Next stop was the waterfront boardwalk at Walmido, with amusement arcades, rides and food concessions. Izzy tried a hotdog on a stick, wrapped in mashed potatoes with diced potatoes stuck to the outside, all deep fried, from the couple of bites I got, it wasn’t too bad, maybe because it had been 3 hours since I’d eaten and I was starving. Next stop, we walked through Chinatown and Japanese town, visiting the museum of architecture.

Ladies in the fish market



I like a nice piece of fish, with some chips


We then moved on to the most interesting stop of the tour, the fish market. The vendors were quite friendly, even knowing that we probably wouldn’t buy anything, we tried our newly learned few words of Korean, “Al mah eh yo” (how much does it cost?) and “An yong has eh yo” (hello). Last stop was SinPo market, above and below ground shopping, average Korean stuff, nothing in the usual tourist vein (tshirts etc). We realised on the way back that SinPo market was quite close to the ship, so it could be walked to easily enough and in fact, while in Chinatown we met Lucerne (86 years old) single lady who had walked there from the ship. Later we had a late lunch with her and she told us she planned to go back in to town again, while we were ready for a sleep.

Pat & Jim standing on a street corner, close to the fish market


We skipped dinner in the restaurant tonight and instead had a snack in the Panorama buffet, then watched the ship negotiate the locks at the exit to Incheon harbour. On our way out we met Ella, youngest passenger on board, she is visiting her grandmother, with her parents, ’til HongKong, grandmother is on the full world cruise and each segment, a different family member group comes on board and the previous set leaves, great idea, I thought. Later, we closed out the evening taking in the caberet show, an English pub style singer, who was quite good and got the crowd going, singing lots of fifties and sixties songs.

Ella with her new slippers



Me as we pass through the lock system at Incheon port

Next Post

Sea day before Korea & captains profile

Saturday March 14th - This morning we rounded the southernmost point of South Korea on our way to our next port, Incheon, 232 miles to the north west of us. The seas are rough, with 30mph winds (50kph) and the current temperature is 7 degC (45 degF) but it’s not all bad, it’s sunny cloudy and it’s not raining. In the morning, we attended a lecture on Korea, history and information on the Incheon area by Maureen O’Crowley, an American married to a Korean, living in Seoul, then we met friends in the Royal Lounge for trivia. After lunch, I watched a lecture by Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, espionage insider and expert, on Russian Intelligence and the coming return to the cold war, very interesting. Later we went to the medical centre and Izzy had some follow up blood tests. The results were good and the doc decided that Warfarin shots were no longer required instead small doses of Aspirin would suffice, we were happy to hear the news. After dinner, since we had just left Japan, we watched the movie ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’.

Captain William Kent


Since tomorrow marks the half way point of our voyage (53 to 54 days) it would be prudent to add a profile of the ships captain. We had met him briefly at a reception some weeks ago, then tonight, we met him once again in the medical centre when Izzy went to get her blood test results. I took the opportunity to ask him about the story of the sack of potatoes and he was kind enough to explain, if you want more details email me. Captain William Kent, born and educated in Boston, England, joined P&O (Princess parent company) in 1974 and has served on many P&O/Princess cruise ships. Married with 2 daughters, his first command position was in 2004, as captain of the Regal Princess.

Next Post

Hiroshima

The port area at Hiroshima, dont know what the big silver monument was, but it was pretty cool


Even though Hiroshima is only about 175 miles from Osaka, our ship took 13 hours to make the journey as we had to thread our way through islands and under bridges. We docked in Hiroshima about 09.10am, it was raining steadily, the temperature was around 10 deg C (50 deg F) and Izzy was feeling good after her previous few stressful days. Our tour was scheduled to depart at 09.30am, so we headed down to the dockside and boarded our allocated bus A3.


Two pictures from Shukkeien Garden


The bus left a few minutes late and drove toward town and our first stop, Shukkeien Garden, dating from the early 17th century. The garden was completely destroyed, by the atomic bomb in 1945 and it wasn’t ‘til 1974 that restoration was completed, we spent about 45 minutes strolling around enjoying the scenery.

Me with the A-Bomb dome across the river



Izzy rings the Peace Bell



Two kids at the Childrens Peace Monument


Next stop was Peace Memorial park and A-Bomb dome, the park was created in remembrance of the lives lost in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The A-Bomb dome is the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, it stands as it was, immediately after the bombing, as a lasting symbol of the horrors of war. We rang the peace bell, then walked down toward the Childrens Peace Monument where thousands of folded paper cranes were displayed. The crane symbolizes long life and it’s believed that if you fold a thousand origami cranes, it leads to a long life. Next stop was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, displaying many artefacts left by the victims, photos, re-creations and other material, it was a moving and thought provoking visit.

The kids who asked us some questions


As we exited the museum, we were approached by some school children, it seems that their school project was to interview visitors. They wanted to know where we came from, why we had come, what kind of Japanese food we liked etc. and it was fun talking to them as their command of English was pretty limited and our Japanese language skills were limited to 4 or 5 words. They were very interested that we had come from the ship and we managed some communication with hand signals and animal noises, as Izzy spoke to them I went back to the bus, got our copy of the ships itinerary and gave it to them.

Izzy samples some Saki


We returned to the ship around 01.30pm and decided to walk the 20 minutes to a local supermarket. By 03.00pm we were back at the dock, the local tourism board had set up a display of Saki production and we had a few samples, they permitted us to keep the neat square cups used to drink the Saki. I grabbed a quick sandwich and had an hours sleep back in the cabin while Izzy went to the medical centre for her shot and around 05.00pm we sailed away, the weather was drizzling rain as it had been all day, but we still enjoyed our visit and were sad to be departing Japan as we moved off on our way to the next port, Incheon, Korea. I went to the show in the evening, comedian Milt Abel, he was dreadful, but I stuck it out ’til the end, don’t know why as plenty of other people didn’t. I found Izzy and we decided to have an early night as we were both tired, all things considered, Izzy did well today, there was a lot of walking and she held up quite well.
Next Post

Osaka

I haven’t posted for a few days as we had a bit of a medical scare.


Continuing on Tuesday - Izzy had chest pains on and off all day, so when she complained of feeling ill as we were getting ready for dinner, I decided it was time to see the doctor. As soon as we explained the symptoms to the nurse, we were immediately rushed into the examination room, an ecg was started and blood was withdrawn for tests. A few minutes later, as I filled out her past medical history, the doctor arrived and made an examination. Heart problems were all but eliminated, the most likely diagnosis was a lung embolism. A chest xray was unsuccessful as the ships motion affected the machine (the sea was fairly rough, causing lots of rocking and rolling). We spoke to the doctor and he informed us that to be certain of the diagnosis, Izzy needed to have a catscan which would confirm his diagnosis with 100% certainty, so within 15 minutes, he had contacted Osaka University hospital to arrange for her to be examined. Izzy had an injection of Warfarin, to thin her blood, a process that will be repeated daily. We left the medical centre, Izzy still had the catheter in her arm, in case it was needed later, she was feeling weak and decided to spend the rest of the evening in bed. Around 08.00pm we had some food delivered by room service, Izzy had some chicken soup and a bread roll which she promptly threw up again 10 minutes later. She took a seasickness pill and soon fell into a restless sleep. Realising that we would be unable to meet our private guide, I emailed him and cancelled our arrangements. We were very disappointed that we couldn’t go through with the tour, our guide, Ichiro, was a volunteer, part of a government supported organisation whose aim is to provide help to visitors at no cost and after we had exchanged several emails, we were particularly looking forward to meeting him in person.

Dr Tagg, Izzy and Nurse Kelly

Next day, the pain was gone and Izzy felt a lot better, it was another sea day so we took it easy, it was much colder outside, down to about 15 degrees. After another Warfarin shot, we went to dinner at night, watched the show then went to the cabin.
This morning, Thursday 12th March, we had to clear Japanese immigration. We were scheduled to go at 07.45am, but the doctor had asked us to meet at the medical centre at 08.00am so that he could escort us to the dockside and introduce/transfer us to a medical interpreter, who would accompany us to the hospital. We arrived at the immigration inspection point at 07.15am to find a line up, literally from one end of the ship to the other. Knowing we wouldn’t meet our 08.00am meeting if we joined the end of the line, with help from friends, Mary and Andy, we skipped the line and managed to clear inspection by 07.40am. The inspection process was interesting in that everyone was photographed and fingerprinted, then provided with a stamped document to be used ashore, instead of a passport. We met the ships doctor and he accompanied us as planned to the dockside where he introduced us to, who he called, the medical interpreter. The doctor went back on board the ship and after a few seconds, it became clear that the gentleman he had introduced was actually our volunteer guide, Ichiro. Anyway we eventually found the interpreter and were soon on our way to the hospital, with Ichiro accompanying us, a situation that we were very happy about, Ichiro was easy to talk to and turned out to be an excellent help during the time we spent in the hospital.

Mr Hyushi (interpreter), Izzy and Ichiro.

We arrived at the hospital (Osaka Seamans Insurance Hospital not University Hospital) in about 10 minutes, stepped inside, and the kaleidoscope began to turn. Nothing was familiar, all signs in Japanese of course, all people looked Japanese, nurses in colourful uniforms, doctors in crisp whites, adolescent schoolboy patients in military style uniforms and all the sounds completely unrecognisable to us. Thank goodness for our medical interpreter and most of all thank goodness for Ichiro, who was contributing his time and friendship for no personal gain. Over the next 5 hours, Izzy had a CT scan, 2 xrays, a sonogram, several blood tests and consultations with 5 different doctors. The consensus, as far as we could understand from the interpreter was that the heart was OK but we should follow up with a cardiologist when we return to Canada, there was evidence of an embolism, but the Warfarin should resolve the problem. The last process in our hospital time was paying the bill which fortunately was possible thanks to Visa and surprisingly was less expensive than we thought 9covered by Princess travel insurance). The Japanese people, everywhere we went, were absolutely amazingly helpful, efficient and polite, they made our time as easy as possible. By 01.30pm we were back at the ship to leave our copies of tests, xrays and ct scan films before going back ashore to meet Ichiro. Ichiro refused to allow us to pay his travel expenses so we were determined to at least provide lunch and, in fact, I had been looking forward to trying some traditional Japanese food.

Izzy tries some of my lunch, Misoshiru & Dombu Ri to the left and Gyo Za to the right.

We stayed close to the ship and after surveying a few possibilities, we decide on a small ‘fast food’ place whose advertised meal pictures looked appetizing. Ichiro and I each had the 3 course special and Izzy had a bowl of rice and pork. Our 3 courses consisted of Misoshiru (seaweed soup), Gyo Za (fried pork and garlic fingers) and Dombu Ri (rice, egg noodles, chunks of chicken and vegetable topping). The latter was particularily good and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the soup and pork fingers were palatable but not really to my taste, nevertheless we enjoyed the experience, eating with chopsticks and it was even more special that there were no other tourists around and it felt as if we were eating genuine Japanese everyday fare, Gochisosama Ichiro. I can’t say enough about how happy we were to have the company of Ichiro, he made our time in Osaka so much better and it was with some sadness that we said our goodbyes, I hope he will visit us some day in Canada. Back on the ship, Izzy had an afternoon nap as she was worn out, mostly with the stress of the morning’s events, I took a walk into the streets of Osaka, not with any other intention than to absorb the moment and observe the everyday events. During my walk, I was surprised to be approached on the street by an old guy who spoke fairly good English and just wanted to talk, he asked where I was from and I enjoyed talking to him for about 10 minutes, telling him where we had come from and where we were going. Later in the afternoon we met with the ships doctor again, (a Scotsman named Andrew Tagg) and he confirmed most of what we had understood, though he will get the final report from the hospital in the next two days.
At 05.00pm we attended a ‘welcome ceremony‘ marking the inaugural visit of Royal Princess to Osaka, local dignitaries and our captain exchanged plaques of commemoration, followed by a demonstration by pseudo ninjas. We were overwhelmed by the good wishes and prayers accorded to Izzy by so many people, Bill & Shell (thanks for the flowers), Pat & Jim, Mary & Andy, Jim & June, Doreen & Bob, Lucy & Jim, Alice & Catherine, Harry & Bob, Sue & Jim, Dave & Jo, John & Irene, Martha, Mirza (dishwasher) and Montano (our steward) plus others that we can‘t even name.

Osaka as we sailed away, with giant ferris wheel on the left.

After dinner, we watched the sail-away, a poignant experience as many shore side watchers waved and called goodbye, we said a sad sayonara to Osaka a surprisingly friendly city of memorable people.
Next Post

Sea days before Osaka

Monday 9th March - Not quite as hot, today, as we head toward Japan, our next port, Osaka, is 900 miles to the North and currently the weather service is showing a high of +15 deg C.

Tom Fletcher and Izzy


This morning, as usual, we were up on deck having a coffee and talking to friends. There were a few other people sitting around at other tables who we didn’t take much notice of. The subject came up of the previous nights entertainment and when asked what she thought of the comedian’s show, Izzy said “Oh, his jokes were all old, I’ve heard them all before, so I left after the first five minutes”. From behind us came a booming voice “Are you talking about all my old jokes”, we turned around and there sat Tom Fletcher, the comedian. Izzy was immediately flustered, but to her credit she recovered quickly and said “Well, I’d heard your first three jokes before, so I left”. He seemed a bit ticked and said “so if you go in to hear a singer, do you say ‘oh I’ve heard that song before’ and then leave” “so why leave when you’ve heard a few of my jokes”. Going on the offensive, Izzy countered “ok, I actually left because I wanted to go to the casino, but I can tell you a few good jokes”, with that, she lifted her coffee and moved over to his table. The mood softened and Izzy went into joke mode as she and Tom traded jokes and insults. We sat for about an hour laughing, ‘til we had to leave to play trivia. Parting words went to Tom, when Izzy said “You can join us to play trivia, if you want”, Tom laughingly replied “Oh I think I’ve seen enough of you for this morning”. We didn’t win trivia, missed by one point again.


The bridge of the Royal Princess

Me on the outside wing of the bridge

Izzy steers the ship



After lunch, we had signed up for a tour of the bridge and around 02.00pm we gathered with 14 others and passed through the mysterious gateway to the ship’s control centre. The first barrier opened to reveal a continuation of the corridor with several doorways, officers quarters and meeting rooms. I noticed the corridor walls were covered with awards and plaques given to the ship for various achievements as we made our way to the second barrier door. Inside the bridge area, we had a guided tour of all the instrumentation, by Alan, the officer on watch, the highlight was stepping out onto the open-air wings at each side of the bridge. The view down the side of the ship was spectacular, we stood on the floor grating, looking straight down at the ocean breaking against the hull. Back inside, we were free to look around ourselves and ask any questions of the two officers on duty, though we were warned not to touch any buttons, apparently, true or not, we were told that on a past bridge visit a passenger had pushed the emergency stop button. At evening dinner, we applied a little lubrication to the maitre’d and arranged to move to another table with bill and Shelley but for tonight we had dinner back at our usual table to let our tablemates know that we would be moving, it went surprisingly well. We lost some money in the casino, watched the evening show, ’the sensational voice of Claude eric’, for five minutes before deciding that we’d rather have a quiet evening in the cabin.


Tuesday 10th March - Didn’t sleep well at all last night, Izzy was up with chest and back pain and we came close to calling a doctor, but after a while we decided it was probably indigestion. Anyway she was somewhat improved in the morning, but she decided to stay most of today in the cabin.
Next Post

Guam

Our escort into Guam harbour












The dock in Guam


Sunday 8th March - We weren‘t scheduled to arrive in Guam ‘til noon, but the captain put his foot to the floor and we docked about 10.30am. Immigration officials came on board, since Guam is US territory and everyone on board had to be cleared before disembarking, we went through the process about 11.30am and went ashore about noon. Before disembarking we said our goodbyes to all of the tradesmen from UK as they were heading back home after finishing their alteration work in the captains quarters, during their 10 days on board, we had got to know them all. A free shuttle was provided by Galleria Mall in the closest town, Hagnata, about a 30 minute journey each way, the mall was very expensive and filled with upper end retailers, Gucci, Fendi, Louis Vuitton etc, so we passed through it quite quickly and stepped out into the street. It was extremely hot and humid so we crossed the road and went into another plaza, bought some beer and pop and had a look around. The beach was very close and several shopping trolleys were available to transport you around the different shopping centres, but as Izzy’s back was bothering her we just made our way back to the shuttle stop and then back to the ship. The town of Hagnata was basically like any other North American town with all the usual franchises except everything was written in Japanese and English, probably because most of their visitors are Japanese, it’s a three hour flight from Japan. Although Princess said there would be taxis available pierside, in fact there were none until you got clear of the main gates, about 30 minutes walk away from the ship.
The ship was deserted when we got back and after having something to eat, we had the whole upper deck and pool to ourselves.

A group of local entertainers (Chamoro indians) came on board and we enjoyed a folk show before the ship departed around 06.30pm.







Bob, Jim and Izzy on deck


We watched the sail away under a beautiful sunset, then sat talking to friends over a few beers before going in to the buffet about 07.30pm. Also leaving us were the guest entertainers while a new set came on board. They were supposed to change in Rabaul, but because of the ash from the volcano, all flights in and out were cancelled. One of the new acts was Tom Fletcher, a comedian, and we went in to his show later in the evening, Izzy lasted three jokes then announced she had heard them before and was taking off for the casino, (shades of Philipino crew show) I stayed to the end and was quite glad as he was funny.

Sunset over Guam harbour













Joggers on track on deck 10 at sunset

Next Post

Sea days before Guam

Friday 6th March - Hot and sunny this morning though the sea was a bit rough. I took my laptop up to the Panorama buffet at 06.00am to do some typing, the wifi access is very good on the ship, it seems to be available from just about anywhere on board. Izzy slept in ‘til about 10.30am as she wasn’t feeling to good, with back and shoulder pain. Later we went up play trivia and won again this morning, that’s 2 in a row, can we make it 3 tomorrow?. After lunch we had the ‘crossing the equator’ ceremony, I didn’t go to it, but Izzy said it was quite funny as this time the captain was one of the victims. We actually crossed zero degrees latitude at about 09.30am this morning so the ceremony was a bit late. I spent most of the afternoon in the sun by the pool, reading, then when it started to rain heavily, I went down to the cabin. By then we were rolling quite a bit and the wind had picked up, conditions that remained for the rest of the evening. After dinner, I went to see a Tom Jones tribute artist, Jaques Renay, despite the name, he is Welsh and looked a bit like the real guy. A few people didn’t think much of him, but I thought he was quite good and actually laughed out loud at a couple of his jokes.


Saturday 7th March - Rough seas again this morning, according to the official weather page, the proper term is ‘high seas with windblown foam’. We slept in ‘til 10.30am this morning after having breakfast delivered at 07.30am, so by the time we got out on deck, it was stifling hot and I spent most of the afternoon by the pool again until I couldn’t take any more. We had dinner with Bill and Shelley instead of our regular table, we‘ll probably move tables next segment if not sooner. The evening show was pretty bad, ‘comedian’ Yakov Nyoy, s strange act part improv, part storytelling and lots of miming, as I said, pretty bad. Tomorrow we’ll be in Guam, it’s still about 200 miles North of us, so we’re not scheduled to arrive there ‘til after lunch.

Next Post

Rabaul - Papua New Guinea

Thursday 5th March - I was up before the alarm went off at 05.15am, I’d read from previous reports that the view was worth the loss of sleep. Rabaul in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea was established by the German Empire in the early 1900’s as the capital of their colony Deutch Neu Guinea. And the area was later ceded to Australian administration as a ‘trust territory’. The town was all but destroyed in 1994 by volcanic ash from the eruption of Vulcan, one of the 5 volcanoes surrounding the area and even to this day it is still threatened by continuous volcanic activity from Tavurvur, another one of the volcanoes. Above, (Izzy and me, early morning, on the sail into Rabaul)



The sun hadn’t appeared yet as we sailed into Simpson harbour and one of the first things I noticed was the faint smell of sulphur, fortunately the wind was blowing toward the volcano. I could see the shapes of the volcanoes ahead and at first light the streaming black smoke and giant cloud above it were clearly visible. Simpson harbour is a beautiful big bay, dense tropical forest down to the waterside on two thirds of its’ circumference and a grey wasteland with smoking volcanoes on the other side.(see left) The 1994 eruption covered the old town with up to 2 metres (6 feet) of ash and all that survived of the vegetation in the area was the bare stocks and branches of what had once been jungle. We had arranged to meet our travelling companions, Elaine and Bob, at 07.45am and walk to the Rabaul Hotel where we’d find our rental car and driver. Even at that time, it was hot and humid, we passed through the dock area gates and some vendors had already set out there wares on the ground. The roads were wide uneven paths of black volcanic ash with few buildings on either side, fortunately it hadn’t rained or they’d have been much more difficult to negotiate. Ten to fifteen minutes later we reached the hotel and met our driver, Robert, before entering the hotel to meet Bruce, the owner, he was the guy who had made all the arrangements with Bob, online. A pleasant enough Australian fellow, Bruce had the casual manner of many of his countrymen. I enquired about exchanging some Australian dollars into local currency, I’d checked the day before and it was about 1.7 PNG kina to 1 Australian dollar. “No worries” said Bruce “we usually change them at 2 for 1”, ’very reasonable’ I thought.



The road to Kokopo

Our vehicle fitted 4 passengers comfortably, it was a Nissan Patrol, similar to a Ford Explorer, though probably slightly smaller, but plenty big enough for us. First stop we decided was the Commonwealth war dead cemetery at BitaPaka since it was furthest away about a 40 minute drive. The roads varied from completely paved and pothole free, to dirt tracks with ruts and potholes deep enough to hang the truck up on its’ axles. The cemetery was incredibly well kept, grass perfectly edged and manicured bushes all around. Inside a large rectangular area bounded by colourful head height bushes lay 1114 Australian and Indian dead from the second world war and 32 from the first war. It was very moving, most were no older than their mid twenties and we were moved close to tears by the thought that underneath this ground lay the last remains of many promising young people, lives cut short before their time. Izzy collected fallen Frangipani flowers and laid them on as many graves as possible, then sadly we were on our way back toward Rabaul.




Two pictures from the cemetery at BitaPaka


The drive back took us through the town of Kokopo, school kids all in uniform, throngs of people going about their business, quite different from Rabaul where life and business operate on a lower level. Our next stop was the Japanese Barge tunnel, off the main road a kilometre or so up a dirt track, a leftover from world war 2, the tunnel, about 200 metres deep, still holds 5 Japanese barges rusting out. The approach to the tunnel was flanked by several vendors, mostly women and children, selling beaded bracelets, necklaces and bags. Seeing the children, Izzy brought out her bag of candies and passed them out to kids and adults, the people as everywhere else we went on the area, were friendly and welcoming, living standards are generally quite low, but most people seemed happy.



We stopped at the roadside to look at a small beach and this little guy was sitting by himself, his dad came out and told us his name was Alex




Our next stop was the volcanological observatory atop one of the dormant volcanos, it provided excellent views over the town and the active volcano. We spent a brief amount of time in the observatory, but there’s not much of interest to the layman, the outside views are much more rewarding. Next we temporarily bypassed the market and drove off toward the active volcano, over ash covered fields, fording deep channels cut by water flowing through the ash. We crossed a wide expanse of untravelled ash, reaching a stretch of water separating us from the volcano and the bubbling ocean at its’ base. We could hear the faint rumbling of the explosions within the volcano as it threw up vast clouds of ash and steam, it was quite a sight and if there had been anywhere to have a beer I’d gladly have sat for a while and enjoyed the spectacle.


As our time was limited, we were soon on our way again, visiting the Japanese memorial to the war dead and then the market which was disappointingly predominantly local produce. We returned to the hotel, settled our bill (it worked out to be about US$50 each including all entrance fees etc) and then Robert dropped us off at the entrance to the dock.


Of future interest, 2 to 3 hour tours were available on the dockside for US$20 each, in non-airconditioned 15 seat vans. Most people seemed to think they were good value and although they were way too hot, they covered most of the nearby places of interest.



We got back to the ship right at 01.30pm and the ship sailed 15 minutes later, 15 minutes before scheduled departure, maybe the captain was concerned that the wind might change and blow the ash toward the ship. After a late lunch, I spent some time in the pool before getting ready for dinner. We watched the show in the Cabaret Lounge, it was the ‘Royal variety Performance’, a bit of a ‘fill in’ show by the onboard dancers, highlighting their dubious other talents, juggling (not too bad), singing (wouldn’t get past the first round of American Idol) and instrumentalist (quite good).

Next Post

Sea Days after Cairns

Tuesday 3rd March - Where does the time go, this morning I no sooner finished breakfast and it seemed like it was lunchtime. Hot and humid again today, didn’t do much other than read and eat. Tonight at 05.00pm we had a ‘Meet Your New Captain’ reception, free drinks all round. Captain William Kent joined the ship in Sidney, he was born and raised in England and is married with 2 daughters. He holds the rank of Commander in the Royal Navy Reserve. After dinner we had a drink up on deck, it’s strange to sit on a ship with almost 1100 passengers and crew and see no-one on deck, the open decks are virtually deserted (picture above) in the evening, except when there’s a deck party or some other celebration.

Wednesday 4th March - this morning after breakfast we sat on the top deck chatting with several friends and I passed the time getting Chinese (Mandarin) lessons from Lucy. I brought a page full of common words and phrases but needed to get my pronunciation correct. We had a lot of laughs as I struggled to get the correct tone and accent. It is still warm and humid, though we’ve had a few rain showers today, each lasting only about 15 or 20 minutes. Late morning I played cards (31) with Bill and Shelley before morning trivia, which we won with afantastic score of 15 out of 20. Later, after an enjoyable dinner we went up to the open deck for a coffee and sat outside speaking to the matre’d of the bistro for about an hour. Extremely interesting young guy from Bucharest, I impressed him with my few phrases in Romanian. He’s been working for princess for 13 years and has spent time on many ships including Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth 2. It’s 10.30pm just now and we are 102 miles from Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, I’m looking forward to our visit tomorrow as I’ve heard that the volcano is more active than normal.

Next Post

Cairns

Monday 2nd March - I was up on deck to watch the ship dock at Trinity Wharf, Cairns (left) around 07.00am. We did a complete 180 degree turn close to the pier and for the first time we docked on the port side. The dock area, which is a short walk from the city centre, was not what I‘d call impressive, a tin roof shed, and around 08.00am we went ashore and walked the 10 minutes along to the Reef Fleet Terminal. I had booked a tour online the previous day, with Big Cat Green Island and after checking in at their counter, we found our boat and took a seat on board. We had a 4 hour tour which included the 45 minute trip each way, about 2 hours on the island and a glass bottom boat trip, all for A$69 per person , Bill and Shelley arrived shortly afterward and after dumping our bags on our seats we decided to spend the 45 minutes from Cairns to Green Island on the front deck of the catamaran. The front deck had some bench seating extending from the superstructure but we chose to stand facing forward against the waist height front bulkhead. It was a beautiful morning and as we left the dock at 09.00am the sky was clear blue and the temperature was 30 deg C (86 deg F). The big cat started out slowly and the resulting breeze was a relief from the humidity, as we cleared the dock area, the boat captain announced that as we got into the open ocean, the movement up front would be considerable. I could hear the low rumble of the engines steadily increase and soon we were up to full speed as we were treated to a roller coaster ride slapping across the water, being soaked occasionally as the waves sprayed across us.


Windswept on front of the catamaran (left)


Fortunately there was a handrail across the front of the bulkhead, without it I’m sure one or two of us would have been pitched overboard, and all too soon we were slowing down in preparation for docking at Green Island (above). We made our way directly to the only patrolled beach and settled down on the sand with our ships towels. The beach was not anything like I remembered from our visit 20 years ago when we’d walked out 100 yards in waist deep water followed by a myriad of fish, now it was perhaps 200 yards long by about 10 yards of waist deep cordoned off before falling off into deeper water. It was much busier than we’d remembered and interestingly most of the beachgoers were Japanese. It was probably busier since they had built a large hotel on the island in recent years and I assume it is largely marketed in Japan.


We’d been in and out the water a couple of times when we noticed some hurried activity over to my left, the lifeguard, accompanied by a couple of other swimmers was dragging a small lifeless body in toward the shore. A young Japanese girl was laid out on the beach and as the lifeguard administered first aid, he was quickly joined by, first 2 then 3 and 4 medical types. As they all continued to work on her, I didn’t see any movement, but I assume she was recovering since they carried her off on a stretcher (pictures, left). I decided to walk around the island to see if there were any better beach areas and soon after starting, I saw some familiar figures heading my way, along the beach.

Shelley and Bill, (left) with a stout walking staff in hand were just completing a circuit of the island, apparently most of the rest of the shoreline was rocky, so I cancelled my planned circuit and we all returned to Izzy.

As it was now getting close to the time for our side tour, we headed back to the pier and were soon crammed into the glass bottom boat (inside shown left). We saw a few fish but nothing spectacular and soon we returned to the dock to rejoin the Reef Rocket, our transport back to the mainland. The trip back was as windblown as before, I’m sure we’ll both look like giant tomatoes, tomorrow, from windburn. We walked back to the ship, a slow walk as I was dragging our 50lb bag and it was hotter than h e double hockey sticks, back on board we had a quick lunch and shower (the sandwiches got very soggy) and went back off again as we wanted to do some shopping and visit the Reef Casino. We both broke even in the casino, but weren’t so lucky with the shopping. Soon we were heading back with our bags of junk, hope you like the $3 tee-shirts, kids, back on board again after a short nap, we decided not to go to the main dining room and instead just eat up in the Bistro. Izzy went up to the top deck and I went to the Promenade deck as I wanted to watch the ship’s departure from port. Our departure time came and went and we were still firmly tied to the dock, the gangway was still down and several officers and crew were standing around. Then about 15 minutes after scheduled departure the side gates, in the dock area, were pulled open and 4 figures raced toward the ship. It was some of the casino staff and they quickly ran on board to the cheers and applause of the watching crowds on board. I found Izzy on the upper deck and we sat talking to Seattle Jim, Lucy, Maine Bob, Doreen, Welsh Bob and Dave, for a while before going into the Bistro for dinner. I had some nice black bean and beef chowder followed by some rotini in oxtail sauce then for a change, a western omelette. It was all delicious and when we went back out on deck around 09.00pm, Lucy and Jim were in the pool, we were tempted to join them as it was still very warm and humid but I was tired and decided to come down to the cabin and do some work online, Izzy stayed on deck chatting before coming down to the cabin about 10.30pm.

Next Post

Dining

Seems like a good time to profile our table companions who have been with us since Fort Lauderdale, now 40 days ago.
This is Mary and Andy from Minnesota, they are a retired couple, their cabin is on the port side and Andy likes to joke how much better port side is from starboard, assigning points to each side depending on its’ advantages. Andy was was an engineer before retiring and has a great time kidding with his grandchildren via email. It‘s obvious they‘re both very proud of their grandchildren.


Next is June and Jim from Utah, they are not Mormon and June is Jims’ only wife, they have been married 3 years and are in their early fifties. Jim is an engineer also and is quite a practical joker, he likes to kid around with people and can frequently be seen sword fighting with one of the waiters using any of the many implements on the table. June and Jim are always first to volunteer for all the activities on board and have won a pile of prizes for their participation.


Next is Martha from Massachusetts, travelling on her own, as her husband is confined to a home due to illness. She has not talked about what kind of work she does or in fact, if she still works or is retired. She is a member of an international woman’s organisation which welcomes and guides women travellers wherever they may be.


Then, of course, there’s us.










Q. Could you ask the Captain that when they are in port that they park the ship so that we have a better view....
A. I mentioned your concerns to the captain, at dinner last night, I‘m writing this email from an island somewhere with all my luggage piled around me.
Q. Da, you never told me how your movies are working out? Have you watched many of them?
A. The DVD player works gr8, but we’ve only watched 3 out of the 150 we have with us, 2 bc losing m1y in the casino.

Next Post

Sea Days before Cairns

Saturday 28th February - Beautiful warm morning, clear skies and calm seas, we awoke around 05.00am and went up for an early morning coffee and a muffin. Walked 11 times around the exercise track (1 mile) then went back down to the cabin for our 07.30am room service breakfast delivery. Karla (picture left), our usual room service delivery person since Michael left, wasn’t on duty this morning and breakfast was delivered by a new girl, Exxy. We also met our new room steward this morning, don’t know what happened to Chonpat, our new guy seems much more confident, Montano is his name. He said Chonpat had been transferred to another area, hope he’s alright, he always looked so sad, it was his first contract and I think he missed his family. We played our usual trivia game with Harry & Bob and Shell & Bill, before lunch, lost as usual, didn’t have any lunch and just lazed about the deck ’til dinner time. Watched the ‘big’ production singing and dancing show, they tried, but were lacklustre as usual.

Sunday 1st March - We are travelling in the deep channel between the Great Barrier reef and mainland Australia. Early this morning we passed the long string of the Whitsunday Islands on the port side. It was very hot and humid with calm seas and after breakfast I took to the pool, the water was warm, but cooler than the surrounding air and it was a relief to float easily in its’ salty depths. Many more ships to be seen in these waters and we passed several freighters and small islands on both sides. I spoke, for a while, to some of the tradesmen brought on board to convert the captains lounge into two separate cabins for officers, unfortunately someone had forgotten to order the special toilet fitments required for the conversion and it’s debatable whether they will be able to complete the job by the time they’re due to leave in Guam. Before lunch, I attended part of a lecture on ‘The Great Barrier Reef’ by Marylou Blakeslee, it focused on coral and fish life on the reef. While in the pool this morning I arranged with Bill and Shelley to join them on a catamaran trip to Green Island when we docked in Cairns tomorrow so we decide to book the tickets online as we were concerned about availability. Booking was relatively easy, printing the voucher proved to be a little more difficult and occupied about an hour of the early afternoon. The rest of the afternoon I caught up on reading my latest book ‘Blood and Thunder’ the true account of events in the early exploration of the American west.

Next Post