JodockWorldTravel

Santorini, Greece was the site of one of the world’s largest volcanic eruptions in all recorded history.  The eruption occurred about 3600 years ago and left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits thousands of feet deep.  That caldera filled with water and is now the Aegean Sea.  The Santorini Volcano continues to be the most active in the area.  Its last eruption was in 1950.

About 70 miles away, the Minoan Civilization of Crete was believed to have been destroyed around 1600 BC by a giant tsunami.  An archaeologist investigating the theory discovered there had been a large volcanic eruption of Santorini Volcano around that same time and traveled to Santorini to learn more. His research uncovered the settlement of Akrotiri.  Archaeological evidence proves there was a major earthquake on Santorini two weeks before the volcano erupted.  It is believed the earthquake caused the people to abandon Akrotiri.  Twenty minutes after the eruption the tsunami hit Crete, and soon after the town of Akortiri was buried in volcanic ash.

Buried in 20’ of volcanic ash Akrotiri was preserved much like Pompeii.  The big difference between the two is that no human remains have been found in Akrotiri; archaeologists think this is because the earthquake served as a warning to the people that a major eruption was about to happen, giving them time for an orderly evacuation.  Akrotiri happened about 1,000 before Pompeii.  Prior to the volcanic eruption the sea level was much higher.  Today Akrotiri sits high on a cliff, but back in the day it would have been a sea-side town.

Archaeologists have discovered that Akortiri had a city sewage system, water supply, paved roads and multi-storied buildings.  The walls of the buildings were thick, providing good protection against the cold and against seismic activity.  The corners of the buildings were reinforced with wooden beams indicating they were familiar with earthquakes and knew that wood absorbs earthquake tremors.  The tallest building found to date is four stories tall.  Beautiful paintings and ornate pottery have been found, indicating that these were people whose basic needs were being met, allowing them to spend their resources on more luxurious items.  Furniture “molds” have been found that show what furniture might have looked like 3600 years ago.  Much of the furniture was made of wood, which has long since decayed, leaving behind in the ashes molds that can be filled with plaster for a recreation of the original furniture.  The ash was so tightly packed around the furniture artists can see the tiniest of details. 

Portraits of fair-skinned women with make-up and jewelry suggests there were privileged women (working women would have had more exposure to the sun).  Original ceramic jars with carbonized food particles provide insight to the diets of the people. 

Amazing what you can learn from a pile of dirt! Fun fact: volcanic ash is also a great construction material. Thousands of tons of it was bought from Santorini and used to build the Suez Canal!

After Akrotiri we had time to grab some lunch and wander around the town.  Santorini is situated high on a cliff overlooking the sea; there are only two ways up from the water or down:  walk or ride a donkey up/down a very steep set of stairs or take the cable car.  We opted to avoid the donkey droppings and took the cable car!

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On today’s tour history met technology as we visited the ancient walled fortress of the Doric Temple of Athena, built about 2500 years ago.  The walk from the parking lot to the fortress was beautiful and a bit adventurous, traveling down and up pedestrian-only cobblestone streets enjoying the whitewashed buildings of the town overlooking the sea below, climbing a steep hillside and 250 steps to reach our destination.  Once we arrived at the base of the fortress we were given special tablets that allowed us to see renderings of what the fortress would have looked like in its original state – just point the tablet a certain direction, click on the screen, and there you go.  We tried to share the experience with you by taking pictures of some of the screens -please excuse the glare on some of them.

Following our visit to Athena we stopped at a ceramics store that specializes in hand-made Rhodes-style pottery.  In ancient times decorative clay plates were a symbol of wealth.  The more plates a home displayed, the greater the owner’s wealth was supposed to be.  Sometimes the walls of an entire room would be covered in plates.  The artists at Rhodes Potter carry on the ancient craft, using the same designs found at archaeological sites.  They also recreate the famous “cup of justice.”  In ancient times young men would arrive in Rhodes to attend university.  Like young people of any era they were eager to celebrate their new-found freedom and independence and would often over-indulge.  To help them improve their self-discipline, the famous mathematician Pythagoras of Samos (famous for creating the saying, “Everything in moderation”) developed a special cup.  The cup has a line etched into the top of its inside lining.  Fill your beverage to this line and all is well.  Fill it beyond this line – even the slightest little bit, and the entire contents of the cup drains out a hole in the bottom!

Upon our return from the tour we made a mad dash to the Old City of Rhodes where on a reconnaissance mission earlier this morning Ken found an old castle that needed visiting.  We had a great tour of the castle and fell totally in love with the Old City before meeting some friends for dinner on a rooftop terrace.  It was wonderful!

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Welcome to Cyprus, land of Greek mythology and home to Aphrodite.  Cyprus has over 11,000 years of history; artifacts related to the Stone Age have been found here, and water wells found in Western Cyprus are believed to be among the oldest in the world.  Adding to its archaeological lure is the fact that it is located on one of only two land masses (Iran occupies the other one) created in the plate tectonic shift. 

One hundred million years ago Cyprus was completely covered in water.  It is this image of Cyprus having come from the sea that is believed to have inspired the legend of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation, who is said to have been born from the sea.  Almost all of the Greek gods were worshipped in Cyprus, but Aphrodite was the star of the show.  Archaeological evidence and inscriptions show numerous sanctuaries and temples dedicated to her.  We visited Pafos, home to the House of Dionysus, famous for the mosaics found during the excavation of a Roman nobleman’s villa from the 3^rd Century.  As impressive as the craftsmanship of the mosaics is how well-preserved they are.

The mosaics were created using small pebbles from the area’s stones.  Most of them contain scenes from Greek mythology and help tell the history of the area.  The oldest ones found date back to 600 BC; others are from the 2^nd Century AD.  While the older mosaics contain scenes from Greek mythology, the newer ones have Christian references, reflecting the introduction of Christianity in the area around 47 AD.

We stopped for lunch at a seaside restaurant in Kourion where we had time to play in the water.

After lunch we visited another site of ruins, which had a massive theater and a 5^th Century AD villa with 25 rooms.  The theater was built in the 7^th Century BC and is still used for performances today.  The villa provides evidence of how advanced folks were in the 5^th Century – pipes confirm they had running water; there was a large bath area with marble floors and evidence of a steam room.  It was pretty impressive.

And we learned something else today – the reason a fish is the international symbol of Christianity.  The Greek spelling of the word fish is an anagram for: Jesus Christ Son of God.  Pretty cool, eh?

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Our final two stops of the day were the wailing wall and the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Wailing Wall is the holiest place on earth for the Jewish people.  It is all that remains of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.  The First Temple was built in 1000 BC after King David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital.  The altar of the temple is said to have been built over the exact place where God took the dirt to create Adam (Genesis 2:7), and the altar was where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his only son, Isaac (Genesis 22:1-15).  That temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, in 586 BC when he conquered Jerusalem and exiled the Jews to Babylon.  The Jews could return under an edict issued by Cyrus King of Persia, and by 515 BC they had completed the Second Temple, a replacement for the one destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.  In 70 AD the Romans destroyed that temple.  Despite having been back in Jerusalem for nearly 2,000 years they have not rebuilt the Second Temple.  One of the reasons is because it is believed that the Temple may only be rebuilt when the majority of the Jewish nation resides in Israel and when there is a Jewish king or prophet.  According to prophecy the Third (and final) Temple is to be built according to dimensions provided in the Book of Ezekiel, and correct placement of the altar is so critical the builders will need a prophet to confirm its location.

Tradition calls for individuals to write their prayer(s) on a piece of paper, slip it into a space in the wall, and express their prayer to God.  Twice a year the papers are collected by a local Rabbi and his team and buried on the Mount of Olives.

The Wailing Wall is in the Jewish quarter of the Old City (the 14 Stations of the Cross are in the Christian Quarter).  You know when you’ve reached the Jewish Quarter.  It is the only area whose entry is surrounded by armed guards and for which you must pass through a metal detector and have your bags scanned.  It’s a very sad comment that this community is under such extreme threat.

Our journey from the Wailing Wall to the Garden of Gethsemane took us past Mt. Zion, referred to in I Kings as the City of David, and the Mount of Olives, where Jesus ascended into Heaven. 

The Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus prayed the night before his betrayal and arrest.  The olive trees that grow there today are said to be descendants of the seeds of the trees that grew there during Jesus’ time.  The garden is beautiful, and the trees are spectacular – there is no question they have been around for a long time!  It was here Jesus begged God to spare him.  It is impossible to imagine how conflicted and frightened he must have been.

The Church of All Nations was built next to the Garden and is said to enshrine the exact rock where Jesus prayed.   We don’t know how one can be certain of such things, but we appreciate the sentiment.

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We are in Monte Carlo today and we are in love – not with Monte Carlo, which would be easy enough, but with a little French town near it called Eze (pronounced Ez). 

Our time in port was limited, so we elected to skip the ship tours and just explore the local area with our friends Wayne and Nancy.  We took a solar-powered water taxi across the harbor and made a 30-minute walk up steep hills along the famed Formula One Monaco Grand Prix route, past the beautiful Casino Monte Carlo to the local bus stop.  There was no time to go into the casino, but we certainly enjoyed a view of the cars parked around it!  We paid 1.5 euros each (less than $2.00) for the 15-mile ride to Eze and were on our way.

Eze is a magical medieval city with a maze of steep, windy cobblestone streets and steps and stone cottages and shops literally carved into the limestone rock of French Alps.  Only the main street that leads into town from the highway can accommodate vehicular traffic.  There are a myriad of shops and restaurants throughout the town.  Their deliveries are made by what is essentially an oversized motorized square wheelbarrow.  Bougainvillea, honeysuckle, and other flowering plants and vines cover the rock faces of the buildings.  Trees join together to create canopies of shade over walkways.  The entryways of homes give the appearance that this is the land of hobbits, they’re so short. We can’t imagine anyone over 12-years-old who wouldn’t have to stoop to enter – except maybe Pam’s late sister, Sherrie, who was only 4’9-1/4”.  The views from the 1400’ cliffs overlooking the French Mediterranean are fantastic and it was easy to imagine ourselves staying there forever.  Alas, real life (well, our sort of surreal real life) beckoned and it was soon time to catch the return bus to Monte Carlo and the ship. 

In Monte Carlo we ran into another couple from the ship who joined us for lunch at a place located in the middle of a giant indoor market before heading up to check out the Royal Palace Princess Grace (American actress Grace Kelly) called home.  No pictures were allowed inside the palace.  It is filled with beautiful 200-year-old furniture, portraits of all the kings and queens who have come before, etc., as one would expect, and there is a photographic exhibit commemorating the initial meeting of Grace Kelly and the Prince of Monaco.  It’s an impressive display of antiques and royal history, but it didn’t seem particularly cozy to us.  We hope the section the current royal family lives in (not open to the public) is a little more inviting.

We were back on the ship in time to spend some time admiring the impressive array of some of the world’s most expensive yachts.  For a mere $50,000 – $150,000 you can rent one of these bad boys for the week of the Formula One race. A gun-metal gray boat generated particular interest among Oceania passengers. One rumor pegged it as a Russian spy boat, but it seemed a little too ostentatious for that. A little time with Google revealed that the rumor was partially true – it is owned by a Russian. Turns out it is among the top five most expensive yachts in the world and is owned by a Russian billionaire.

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Stations of the Cross (Jerusalem, Israel 05/27/2017)

We left Bethlehem for a 2-1/2 hour walk through Jerusalem, following the path of the crucifixion backwards from the end to the beginning.  It was quite an emotional journey.

We entered the Old City of Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate, one of seven entrances and the main gate to the Old City.  On the day of the crucifixion, Jesus travelled up an extremely steep hill to his destination at Calgary.  Entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which contains five of the 14 Stations of the Cross (locations focused on specific events that occurred on Jesus’ last day as he made his way from Prison to Calgary) we made a hard right turn and began the climb up a nearly vertical winding staircase.  It is impossible to understand the physical stress Jesus would have been under as he walked these same steps, carrying the weight of the cross as he climbed.

We visited each of the five Stations of the Cross located within the church and learned that the church is run by five different denominations.  Each denomination has a specific area of the church they are responsible for maintaining.  There are two huge wooden doors leading into the church, doors that have an equally large key. It is 12” long and weighs eight ounces.  When Muslim Arabs took over Jerusalem in   the 1187, they confiscated the key from the church and gave it to one of the tribe’s most prominent clans.  To this day the key remains in the hands of that same family.  Another prominent family of the time was given the duty of opening and closing the church, a tradition that also remains intact.  A member of the family comes every morning to open the church, waits on a bench by the door until it is time to close the church, locks the doors and goes home, then repeats the process the next day.  In both families the responsibility is handed down from father to eldest son.  It is ironic that access to a protestant church would be controlled by Muslims, especially in this region of the world.  The church is an amazing model of peaceful co-existence.

Leaving the church we continued follow the Stations of the Cross, passing each of the three places where he fell while carrying the cross up the hill, the place where Veronica wiped his face, where Simon tried to help him carry the cross…Easter Sunday may never be the same again.

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Israel and Palestine have long argued over possession of land in this region of the world with Jerusalem being the biggest bone of contention because of its religious significance.  Currently Palestine controls Bethlehem and Israel controls Jerusalem.  The two towns are situated right next to one another; the only indication you are leaving one and entering the other is the border patrol station with armed guards carrying AK47s.  Since 2000 Israelis have not been able to travel freely between Israel and Bethlehem.  Only tour guides and Arab Israelis may travel at will – Arabs because of their connection to Palestine and tour guides because of the importance of tourism to both states’ economies.

This incredibly solemn day began with a bit of levity.  It turns out Elvis isn’t dead – he’s alive and well in the desert of Nowhere, Israel! During the 3-hour bus trip from our port to Bethlehem we made a bathroom stop and discovered him drinking a coke inside this 50’s themed diner, “Jailhouse Rock,” blaring in Hebrew in the background. It was hilarious!

Reaching the Jerusalem/Bethlehem border brought us back to reality.  Immediately after crossing the border from Jerusalem into Bethlehem we were joined by an Arab Israeli guide who walked with us to The Church of the Nativity, built around the grotto where Jesus is said to have been born.  One of the many things we didn’t know before today’s tour is that during Jesus’ time on earth the people of Bethlehem lived in cave-like dwellings.  They also kept their animals in cave-live dwellings, thus the manger where Christ was born would have been a grotto like the one the church is built around.  We have been unable to determine how experts know that this is the exact location of Christ’s birth, but we’re told there has been agreement on it since at least the mid-200’s.

The church was originally built in 339, but it was destroyed by fire in the 6^th Century.  It was rebuilt in 565 and has remained largely untouched since then.  Over the centuries the compound has expanded and now includes three monasteries.  The church itself is built above the grotto where Jesus was born.  There is a gold star in the floor marking the location of the grotto below.  Visitors can go into the grotto, but we were unable to do so because a service was being held in it when we were there.  Services are also held in the main sanctuary.

We entered the church through the “Door of Humility,” a small rectangular entrance created during the Ottoman times.  The original door was more than 20’ tall.  It was shortened to prevent cart from being driven into the church by looters and to force even the most prominent of visitors to dismount from their horses before entering.  The revised height of the door forces any adult who enters to stoop to enter, thus earning it its name.

The Church of the Nativity is one of nine religious sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem protected by the Status Quo, an informal agreement among religious communities that no matter what happens in the world these nine structures will “remain forever in their present state.”

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An Open-Air Concert (Akko, Israel 05/26/2019)

Every so often Oceania treats all the Around the World guests to a special dinner event.  Such an event was held on May 26^th while we were in Haifa, Israel.

We were taken by bus to Old Acre (pronounced Akko), about 45 miles from the port.  Akko is one of the world’s oldest known inhabited sites.  Our event took place in the Hospitaller Compound, the ruins of a huge 12^th century Roman fort.  The entry way is lined with enormous fig trees estimated to be more than 500 years old.  The path led us to a large grass-covered courtyard where two knights were waiting on their trust steeds to joust for possession of the town of Akko.  A court jester set the stage:  one knight represented England; the other France.  The reenactment was of a battle that actually occurred.  The crowd was divided in half:  half the crown rooted for England, the other half for France.  The two knights pranced around the courtyard.  As Queen’s “We Will Rock You” began playing in the background, they dismounted and began swinging their mallets (the big round balls with spikes sticking out of them).  It wasn’t long before one of the knights had been disarmed.  Now it was time to unsheathe the swords!  France’s knight pulled out two.  Our guy (England) had just one.  Not much of a fair fight, but our Knight was the more skilled of the two and easily beat the Frenchman.  England was awarded Akko and we walked away to the strains of Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

We entered the Fortress and were instantly wowed by the size of the rooms we were passing through.  Holographs depicting fortress life as it would have been in the 12^th Century were being displayed on the walls of the different rooms.  We walked through one room after another, hearing the story of how the fortress was initially discovered.  We were told that there used to be a prison over the area of the fortress we were walking through.  A couple of prisoners were planning a break and were using spoons to dig a tunnel from their cell.  Things were going along just find until they hit what turned out to be the roof of the fortress, and all progress came to a halt.  They were found out and when prison officials investigated the tunnel, they realized there was something more here.  The rest is history.

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner under a beautiful sky with terrific entertainment.  A musical group recounted the history of Israel through song, narration and dance.  They began with clips of Tivia from “Fidler on the Roof” singing “Tradition!,” showed a newsreel of Israel receiving its independence, included songs like “Yesterday” (“…all my troubles seemed so far away…”) and traditional Israeli songs that went from haunting to invigorating.  We even had a sing-along.  It was a memorable night in a memorable location, and we loved every minute of it!

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How do we as Christians express what it is like to visit Nazareth and the River Jordan, to walk the lands we know Jesus once walked, to see views similar to those he would have looked upon?  Our tour today included a visit to the archaeologically confirmed home of the Virgin Mary, where the Angel Gabriel came to visit her, the location in Galilee where Jesus delivered the sermon on beatitudes to his disciples, and the River Jordan where he was baptized.  It was an incredible day.

The day began with a drive-by of Mount Carmel, where Elijah challenged 450 prophets who believed in another god to a contest to see whose god was truly watching over the people of Israel.  As the story is told in 1 Kings 18:22-39, the challenge required the deity to light a sacrifice on fire.  After the other 450 prophets failed Elijah asked that his sacrifice and the alter be drenched with water.  Then he got down on his knees and prayed.  Fire fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones of the alter…everything.  The witnesses who saw this were convinced that Elijah’s god was the true God.

Our first official stop was the Sea of Galilee and the memorial that has been built to commemorate Jesus’ sermon on beatitudes, recounted in Matthew 5:1-11 and referred to as the Sermon on the Mount.  Beatitudes are attitudes all Christians should aspire to incorporate into their character.  There are eight beatitudes; the memorial is built with 8 sides and inside the memorial there is an alter in the center of an octogen with each of the eight beatitudes called out on a side.  It is a beautiful and serene location.

From here we visited the River Jordan.  There are two locations along the River Jordan where Jesus is believed to have been baptized, the one we visited near Galilee and another closer to Jordan.  Those who visit the Galilee location are met with an entry wall that contains the words of Mark 1:9-11 in a variety of languages.  More walls within the confines of the site contain the scripture in even more languages.  We don’t know how many are included, but it appears they tried to include every major recognized languages on earth.  Along the banks of the river are several baptismal areas; the guide who greeted us said they can do as many as 1,000 baptisms at a time.  Some people felt the area was a bit too commercialized, but for the Christians who come here to be baptized there is nothing commercial about it.  Some people save their whole lives to be able to make the trip here to be baptized.  We were fortunate to witness a few while we were there.

Our final stop of the day was the Church of the Annunciation, built directly over what would have been the Virgin Mary’s home.  During this period the people of Nazareth lived in caves.  In the lower level of this Roman Catholic Church is the grotto Mary was living in when she was visited by the Angel Gabriel and told of Jesus’s birth.  Services are regularly held in the church, and one was in process when we were there.

It was a beautiful day full of beautiful sites.

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The sun was just beginning to make its appearance as we entered the mouth of the Suez Canal, a journey that would take nine hours and see four armed Egyptian security guards join us on board, multiple coast guard escorts handing us off one to another at various intervals along the way, and a military helicopter escort that included repeated low-level fly-overs.  It was quite the event!

The Suez Canal connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.  It affords ships and boats a more direct route between the north Atlantic and northern Indian Ocean, reducing travel distance from, say, the Arabian Sea to London by 5,500 miles.  It is 120 miles long and contains no locks.

Archaeological evidence suggests this is not the first canal to connect these two seas.  A canal existed here as early as the 13^th Century BC but fell into disrepair.  Re-excavation was begun in 600 BC, but the project was abandoned.  More than 1,000 years passed before anyone tried again.  Napoleon Bonaparte considered digging a canal, but a French survey mistakenly determined that the waters of the Red Sea were higher than those of the Mediterranean.  The first part of today’s canal was finally built between 1860 and 1862.  The final canal became operational in 1869.  After years of fighting about it, the canal is now under the Suez Canal Authority’s control.  Under the Convention of Constantinople, the canal may be used “in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or war, without distinction of flag.”

At 79 feet deep, 673 feet wide and 120 miles long the Suez Canal is larger than both lanes of the Panama Canal and is therefore able to handle more traffic and larger vessels than the Panama Canal.  A typical day will see three convoys making their way through the canal, two southbound and one northbound.   To prevent erosion of the canals bank caused by the ships’ wake, the convoys travel at a speed of just 9 mph.  It is the goal of the Suez Canal Authority to move an average of 97 ships/day through the canal.  At an average fee of $250,000 per vessel that’s a hefty revenue stream!

In 2014 Egypt’s president launched the Suez Canal Corridor project aimed at increasing the role of the Suez Canal region in international trading.  Referred to as “The Great Egyptian Dream” because of the hopes pinned on it for improving the country’s economy after so many years of corruption and unrest.  When complete the project will include four canal cities, an industrial zone, fish farms and vessel repair and service centers.  We saw lots of evidence of this project along the way – we’re talking major construction!

Along the way we passed under the Suez Canal Bridge, also known as the Mubarak Peace Bridge.  It connects the continents of Africa and Asia.  It was a surreal experience to pass under that bridge and realize we were literally sailing within view of two different continents.  This was a totally different experience than the Panama Canal and we feel so fortunate to have experienced both.

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Egypt is the oldest tourist destination on Earth.  One of its major tourist attractions, Luxor has been called the world’s greatest outdoor museum.  According to our guide one third of all the world’s monuments can be found here.  Everywhere you look is another historic site.  Our visit focused on the Valley of the Kings, the Hatshepsut Temple, Colossi of Memnon, and the Luxor Temple complex.  Along the way we dined one the banks of the Nile River.  Pretty incredible.

From the 16^th to 11^th Century BC rock cut tombs were excavated for the pharaohs and nobles of the dynasties of Ancient Egypt.  Now known as the Valley of the Kings these tombs were created from the inside out and decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology.  The pictures that remain provide clues about the beliefs and funeral rituals of the period.  To date 63 tombs have been discovered, ranging from simple tombs created for one individual to a tomb with more than 120 chambers, one for each of the Pharaoh’s children.  It is also where King Tut’s tomb is located.

Hatshepsut was only the second woman to rule Egypt, and the longest reigning female in its history.  She was the daughter, sister and wife of a king.  During her 20-year reign, Egypt prospered. Unlike other rulers in her dynasty, she was more interested in ensuring economic prosperity and building and restoring monuments throughout Egypt and Nubia than in conquering new lands. 

The Colossi of Memnon are twin statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III.  Built in 1350 BC they are all the remain of Amenhotep’s memorial temple, which once covered 86 acres.  The temple originally stood on the edge of the Nile floodplain and the annual floods have led to the temple’s destruction.

Last, but not least, the Luxor Temple is a massive Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River.  Built around 1400 BC, the complex includes several different temples dedicated to the rejuvenation of the status and position of kings, and a variety of chapels built by different dynasties.  King Tut even contributed some of the buildings on the property.  Leading to the entry way of the Luxor Temple complex is the Avenue of the Sphinx, an ancient road lined on either side with more than 50 sphinx statues.

Not only was it a day of amazing sites, it was also a day of amazing temperatures. We hit a whopping 121 degrees while visiting the tombs, and it just got hotter from there.  And let us tell you, 121 is HOT!!

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Petra is a historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan that lies in the basin o a valley that runs from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.  It is believed to have been settled as early as 9,000 BC by the Nabataeans, a nomadic people believed to have originally been farmers.  The theory is that they were affected by a severe drought and wandered the desert for 30-50 years before entering the trade business.  During the winter months they would take camel trains across the desert to Mesopotamia to buy things from the silk trade route and bring them home in the spring to sell to the local people.  In this way they established themselves as an important trade center.

They were also extremely resourceful.  The area they settled in, though located in the desert, was subject to flash flooding.  It was the Nabataeans ability to control their water supply that allowed them to flourish in this valley.  The built dams to redirect the natural course of the flood waters into man-made canals and created aquafers to store the water for use during the dry season.

Rather than try to describe the natural magnificence of Petra, we’ll let the pictures do the talking.  It was an incredible experience to walk the cobblestone streets of the siq, the long narrow gorge leading into Petra, alongside people riding horses and donkeys and carriages – just as they would have 9,000 years ago, watching the play of light amongst the cliffs, and to see these amazing structures carved out of the stone walls – no nails, wood or any other material used.  Everything you see was carved directly out of the mountain itself, all out of one piece of rock on the side of a mountain. 

After visiting Petra, we went for a 4×4 ride in the desert of Wadi Rum, famous for its association with Lawrence of Arabia.  In 1917 Aqaba (where our ship docked) was the invading Turk’s last outpost on the Red Sea.  Lawrence of Arabia and his 1,000 recruits planned a counterattack that required them to pass through this area of Wadi Rum.  The story is too long to recount here, but if you aren’t familiar with it, we’d encourage you to Google it or watch the movie.  Lawrence is quite the hero in these parts and there are many things named after him.

We finished the day with a traditional Bedouin meal eaten under tents in the middle of nowhere, listening to traditional Bedouin music and enjoying traditional dance.  It was a great day!

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The skyline of Dubai is a feast for the eyes, and the many attractions offered throughout the city will feed the rest of your senses.  In the late 1990’s government officials made the decision to move Dubai from an oil-based economy to one rooted in the service and tourist industries.  To be successful they believed they would need to create over-the-top experiences that would garner international recognition and encourage outside investment.  It looks to us like they’ve succeeded.  Dubai is a city of “tallest,” “biggest” and “best” of just about everything.  Here are the highlights of our 6-hour visit to this beautiful city…

Atlantis at the Palm – Located on the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial cluster of islands shaped to form the outline of a palm tree under a crescent sun or moon, whichever you prefer.  Its construction increased Dubai’s shoreline by 320 miles.  It is the world’s largest artificial island and is referred to by some as the eighth wonder of the world.  It was created using 7 million tons of rock and dredging 131 million cubic yards of sand.  The total amount of sand and rock used is enough to build a two-foot thick wall around the circumference of the earth three times.   A 6-lane sea tunnel connects the “trunk” to the “crescent.”  More than 44 million gallons of water had to be displaced to build the tunnel, and more than 2,000 fish were captured and relocated as part of the project.  Thirty thousand tons of reinforcing steel and 110,000 tons of rock were used to build the tunnel.  It took six years to build the islands at a cost of $12 billion, and no time to fill it with high-end condos, hotels, office buildings and retail space.   It is amazing!

Dubai Eye – Currently under construction, the Eye will be the world’s largest Ferris Wheel when it is completed.  At a whopping 700 feet tall, it will easily eclipse the current record holder located in Las Vegas, which is only 550 feet tall. 

Mall of the Emirates – An 800,000 square foot shopping and recreational mecca billed as “the world’s first shopping resort.”  It houses more than 600 retail brands, a massive amusement park and an indoor ski resort where the temperature is always right for a downhill run and you can rent not only your skis and boots, but the parka, gloves and goggles to go with them.

Burj Khalifa – The World’s Tallest Building stands 2,722 feel tall and has won numerous awards/recognitions, including:  World’s largest light and sound show staged on a single building; world’s highest nightclub; word’s tallest free-standing structure and tallest structure every built.

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Fujairah is one of the seven independent city states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE).    The UAE is a monarchy controlled by the royal families of each of the seven emirates, with the royal family of Abu Dhabi acting as the head of state.  Each emirate has an elected parliament that creates laws and manages government business, but the royal family has the final say on everything.  Oil is the country’s #1 export (they export 2 million barrels/day), but it makes up only 7% of the country’s total revenue.  The royal families have income from their own businesses and (supposedly) do not keep the country’s oil revenue for themselves; instead that money is redistributed to the local people in the form of free healthcare, free education through college, and – an especially nice perk – a free 3-4 bedroom home when they marry.  The government owns all the land, so individuals actually receive a 99-year lease on the homes and are free to sell them and purchase something else any time they like.  The population of Fujairah is 80% foreigners and 20% locals.    Foreigners do not share in the government benefits, may not hold more than 49% interest in any business there, and must leave the country when they turn 60.

Today’s tour included a stop by the Fujairah Fort, one of the oldest and largest remaining castles in the country.  The royal family lived here consistently until 1975, when a new palace was built nearby. 

Next stop was Friday Market, so named because it was originally only open on Fridays.  There came a time when they decided to try being open two days a week; that went so well they tried three.  That went so well they tried four…and now they’re open seven days a week, but they still call it Friday Market.

Final stop of the day was Al Badiyah Mosque, Fujairah’s oldest surviving mosque.  It is uncertain when the mosque was built because the mud and stone structure contains no wood.  It is impossible to do radiocarbon dating on mud and stone, so…. archaeologist believe it may have been built around 1446 AD.  The mosque still hosts daily prayers.

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NOTE: We’re having problems downloading some of the pictures for this post. Check back later for more photos.

Mumbai is a city of extremes.  It is home to both the most expensive home in the world – a 27-story, 400,000 square foot monstrosity valued at between one and two BILLION dollars (6 stories, by the way, are just for cars) – and the world’s second largest slum.  It is the wealthiest city in India with the highest number of millionaires and billionaires.  At the same time 55 percent of its population (over 1 million people) live in slums and 25 percent live on less than $1.25/day.  Those living in the slums are hard-working people; there are 5,000 business and 15,000 factories located within the slums. 

Mumbai is also home to the Dabbawalas, a unique lunch deliver service that has been in operation for more than 130 years.  Every day around 10:00 a.m. men riding bicycles and pushing carts collect tiffins (stackable metal tins filled with food) from homes as far as 30 miles away and deliver them to the nearest railway station.  The tiffins contain no names or addresses – of the sender or the recipient.  They are labeled using a system of symbols and colors indicating where the tiffin is picked up, which train station it is going to and the final address where it is to be delivered.  The tiffins travel on the train and are met at the other end by another set of Dabbawalas who load them up and deliver them in time for lunch.  In 130 years not one lunch has ever been late.  This all started when a single banker decided he’d like to have home-cooked meals for lunch in his office. He hired a gentleman to pick lunch up from his wife and deliver it to him every day.  Now 200,000 lunches are delivered every day.  Pretty impressive! 

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After the sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal and the morning visits to Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort, Pam went to a marble in-lay factory and jewelry store where several famous tapestry are housed.

The marble inlay artwork Agra has become famous for originated in Italy. Visitors from Italy would bring gifts of marble inlaid with colored glass or semi-precious stones to the Mughal Emperors. The Emperors enjoyed these gifts so much they demanded their artisans learn this craft. This is the same artistry that is used extensively throughout the Taj Mahal. Today the craft is handed down from one generation to another, but only through the males of the family. Craftsman are very proud of the work they do and want to keep the tradition within the family; women will marry and enter into other families, taking their skills and family heritage with them, so they are not allowed to learn the art of marble inlay.

The factory we visited creates doors, tables of all shapes and sizes, artwork, cups, picture frames…you name it, they’ve got it. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the gallery, but the few Pam was able to take in the demonstration area will give you an idea of the quality of workmanship. The marble is made into the shape of the finished product and covered in a red paint that will wash off when the design is complete. The paint allows the craftsmen to better see the design in the marble so that they can properly place the glass or stones. The craftsman then carves out the portion of the design where the stones or glass will be placed using nothing but a putty knife. Anything else would be too abrasive. Other craftsmen take larger pieces of glass or stone and grind them down to pieces no thicker than gold leaf. The pieces of stone or glass are then layered into the design to create the finished product. Everything is done by hand. It is a very laborious process and the finished products are not cheap.

Zardozi embroidery is one of the most ancient forms of artwork. It was used to adorn the clothing of Indian royals as far back as medieval times. Elaborate designs are created using gold and silver wire with copper and silk thread. Sheikh Shamsuddin was a famous painter in India who was taught Zardozi by his father. He spent years creating the masterpieces that now live in the jewelry store Pam visited, kept in glass cases behind metal roladdens in a dark room. There was a collective gasp when the first tapestry was unveiled, but when the second one was shown, “The Good Shepherd,” the group was speechless. We were not allowed to take photos, but Pam was able to find some on the Internet to share. These 3-D tapestries are all done by hand and are made of nothing but fabric and thread. The shading, the relief…it’s all layers and layers of thread. Shamsuddin’s dedication to this work cost him his eyesight. Born with perfect vision and no health issues he was completely blind when he died.

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While Ken visited Fatehpur Sikri Pam headed off to the Agra Fort.

The Agra Fort was the main residence where all of the early Mughal emperors lived. The Mughals are the people who built and ruled India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh from the early 16th Century to the mid-19th Century. This is where the Emperor who built the Taj Mahal lived with his family. At one time the Fort included 500 buildings and as many as 20,000 people a day would be on the grounds. In the evening most of those individuals would return to their homes outside the gates, leaving about 500 or so who lived here on a full-time basis. Only 30 of the original buildings remain today, and 75% of the Fort is still used by the Indian Army, so not all of those buildings are open to the public.

We were able to see the exterior of the building where the Emperor and his wives would have lived. We walked through the building that would have housed the apartments where the Emperor’s children would have lived, and we visited the courtyard where the people would come to air their grievances to the Emperor or make requests of him. Those granted an audience would share their complaint or request with the Prime Minister who would then stand on a platform and share the information with the Emperor, who was seated on a throne overlooking the courtyard. Windows were provided for the women to watch the proceedings from inside.

Emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, was born here and died here. He was very fond of the eldest of the four sons he had with Mumtaz Mahal and planned to give up the throne to him. Another of his sons wanted the throne for himself and killed all three of his brothers and declared his father unfit to rule so that he could have it. He put the Emperor under house arrest and kept him in his home at Agra Fort where the Emperor could see the Taj Mahal from his balcony. The Emperor died eight years later.

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Following our visit to the Taj Mahal, Ken visited Fatehpur Sikri and Pam visited the Agra Fort.

Fatehpur Sikri was founded as the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571. The city was built in celebration of the birth of the Emperor Akbar’s first son. All of the buildings are built entirely of red sandstone, and we were once again struck by the incredible craftsmanship on display in the detail of the carvings and paintings.

India is an incredibly hot place. To help keep things cool, the Emperor had canals incorporated throughout the city, both inside the buildings and among the buildings and courtyards. Some of the interior canals were filled with rose water that worked much like our room deodorizers do today. Others had clear water that was available for drinking. If one got thirsty, you could kneel down and scoop up a palm of water any time. The canals also helped to keep things cool. All of the buildings were built with four entrances to allow for the greatest amount of air circulation. It wasn’t air conditioning, but it was better than nothing!

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We rose at 3:30 a.m. today to witness the sun rise at the Taj Mahal – an experience that was totally worth the sleep deprivation.  The Taj Mahal is the centerpiece of a 42-acre complex which includes a mosque and a guest house and is set in formal gardens surrounded by walls and massive gateways.  We entered through the east gate.  It took more than 20,000 artisans and laborers nearly 22 years to build the complex at a cost of nearly $830 million in today’s dollars.  According to our guide that was the equivalent of one year’s worth of taxes at the time the complex was completed in 1653.  The Taj Mahal itself is the ivory-white mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna River where Emperor Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, is entombed. 

As the story is told the Emperor met his future wife at a local market when she was just fourteen years old.  She was selling silk and glass beads in one of the booths there.  He was struck by her beauty, and then by her wit when she engaged in some lively banter with him.  Five years later the two were married.  The Emperor had a total of four wives and a harem of concubines, but Mumtaz Mahal was his favorite.  It is said that she travelled everywhere with him, including military campaigns.  The Emperor and Mumtaz had 14 children together, only 6 of whom survived.  She died from complications associated with the delivery of her 14^th child.  The Emperor was so distraught he vowed to build a monument to her.

A less well-known story theorizes Mumtaz, who it is well-documented had a keen mind and participated in many of the Emperors business and military decisions, bested the Emperor in a high-stakes game of chess where the Emperor gambled the throne.  It is suggested the Emperor was horrified that he had lost the throne and wanted it back.  He pushed Mumtaz, causing her to fall and sending her into premature labor, which ultimately led to her death.  He was so wracked by guilt that he built the Taj Mahal as a sort of penance and apology to Mumtaz.

The Emperor commissioned 32 architects to offer their best designs for the project.  The finished product is a combination of the features the Emperor liked best from each of the proposals.  The mausoleum is constructed entirely of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones to form intricate designs.  Its central dome is 240 feet high.  Love poems from the Quran are inscribed in calligraphy around the arches of the entrance, with the size of the letters increasing from the bottom to the top to give them the appearance of all being the same size.  Additional writings are found inside the tomb and   around other areas of the mausoleum.  Inside the mausoleum, in the center, is an octagonal marble chamber adorned with carvings and semi-precious stones where symbolic tombs for Mumtaz and the Emperor are displayed (the real caskets are buried below).  The Emperor had originally planned to build a smaller version of the Taj Mahal for his own tomb on the opposite side of the river and join the two buildings with a bridge.  Unfortunately, his son intervened before he could do that (more on that in the next post) and when the Emperor died his son had his body entombed next to his favorite wife instead.

We visited the Taj Mahal again at sunset. The last few pictures of the post are from the evening visit.

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We are on our way to the Taj Mahal, by way of New Delhi. Yesterday (May 6th) we left the ship to fly from Cochin to New Delhi, then boarded a bus from the airport to our hotel. What an adventure that was! Traffic is bumper to bumper, and there are no traffic signs or signals, and no one directing traffic. Our guide said they don’t need them here – they use “logic.” He said the recently agreed to some common rules of the road and that has made things much better. People used to be honking their horns, making angry gestures at one another…you don’t see that anymore, he said. When we commented that we still heard a lot of horns honking he responded, “You hear horns honking; I hear communication!”

Today we made our way from New Delhi to Agra, which is nothing like Delhi. Nearly 50% of Agra’s population live in slums or squatter settlements. Cows roam the streets defecating when and where they please. Everything is matted in dust. There is no rhyme or reason to the traffic. The dirt roads have no lane markings, and there may be six lanes of traffic with cars going both directions in all lanes, weaving in and out and around one another to get where they want to go. If they bump into one another along the way, no one bothers to notice – they all just keep on going. It’s crazy!

Our hotel is an oasis in the midst of this chaos…sidewalks surrounded by beautifully manicured bright green lawns and hedges and 5-star accommodations. Somehow, this doesn’t seem right. During dinner we were entertained with a “Kathak” dance. In ancient times traveling bands of storytellers (Kathaks) would communicate stories of epic battles and mythology through dance, songs, and music. Dancers tell their stories through their hand movements, footwork and facial expressions. Their feet and wrists are adorned with small bells and their movements are harmonized to music.

A nation of more than 100 ethnic groups, Myanmar has struggled with Civil war for most of its years of independence. It has been under direct or indirect military rule since 1962. Between 1962 and 1974 it was ruled by a revolutionary council that brought almost all areas of society under government control. During this period Myanmar’s economy plummeted and it became one of the poorest countries in the world. The country’s first non-military president since 1962 was elected in 2016, and there are major efforts underway to improve life for the average citizen, but Yangon unemployment continues to be at 26%, the majority of the population has access to electricity only 6 hours a day, and there is an average of 50 children per classroom. Most children leave school around 3rd grade when they are old enough to get a job to help support the family, which leaves the area with a graduation rate of only 4%.

We wandered around the town a bit during the day, then enjoyed a cultural dinner and dance in the evening. Our traditional meal showcased the country’s most famous dishes – steamed rice, curried fish, beef and chicken, a light soup and vegetable soup topped off with watermelon. The cultural show involved music and dance. Myanmar dancing involves posturing of the hands, feet, hip and head. There are approximate 2,000 different ways to move during the performance, each of which may be connected to one of 13 movements of the head, 28 kinds of expressions with the eyes, 9 movements of the neck, 24 movements of each individual hand, 24 movements involving both hands, 38 movements of the leg, 5 different acrobatic movements, 8 ways of turning the body or 10 styles of walking. Whew! That’ a lot to remember!

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The Ao Phang Nga National Park is an area of the Andaman Sea populated with more than 80 limestone tower karst islands.  Tower karst are tall rock structures that form as near-vertical joints.  These particular formations were created more than 300 million years ago when the tectonic plates between Thailand and Malaysia collided. 

Phuket was experiencing its first rain in two months when we stepped off the ship, and it was forecast to continue throughout the day, so we were a little concerned about whether we’d be able to see much.  We needn’t have worried.

We loaded into colorful flat-bottomed boats with noses that rose up out of the water.  Overhead was a sign that read “James Bond Island.”  We slowly made our way through Mangrove forests – impressive in and of themselves – eyes peeled for any of the 52 varieties of poisonous snakes that live in Thailand (including a jumping Cobra – REALLY??!!!).  We didn’t know if any of them lived here, but Pam wasn’t taking any chances!  Before long, our eyes were drawn to faint outlines of limestone rising out of the water in the distance, and then we were surrounded.  These formations are spectacularly beautiful and appear across the water with no rhyme or reason to the pattern.  The clouds were lifting, and the rain had stopped, but we still couldn’t see the top of some of the islands as they disappeared into the sky. 

We came to what we though was a cave we would be passing and discovered it was actually a low-hanging arch, complete with stalactites, and we weren’t just viewing it, we were going through it!  On the other side of the arch the water opened up into a beautiful bay.  We passed two islands where scenes from two separate James Bond movies were filmed – “The Man with the Gold Gun” and “Tomorrow Never Dies.”  Looking across the horizon of the bay was like looking into another universe…tower karst dotting the landscape shrouded in clouds…it was so cool.

We visited Ko Panyi, a Muslim water town built entirely on stilts at the base of one of the karst.  Established in the 18^th Century by Nomadic fisherman the village is now home to 367 families, all of whom are Muslim and direct descendants of the original two founders.  Despite seeming like it is out in the middle of nowhere, the town is actually less than five miles from Phuket and is able to tap into its water, electricity and internet capabilities.  173 children live here and there is a school that goes from kindergarten through age 16.  In the late 1990s the town found itself struggling to support itself.  The postman suggested they invite tourists to the village.  Today the town hosts 5,000-6,000 visitors per day.

As we were leaving the town we passed by a cave with hieroglyphics.  Our guide said the drawings have been scientifically verified as being more than 3,000 years old and were drawn with ink made by mixing sap and animal blood.

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Now known as the Silicon Valley of the East, Penang has its roots in the tin industry.  Our today began with a visit to a museum that was once the home of one of the fathers of that industry, Chung Keng Quee.  Chung came to Penang as a 20-year-old peasant boy and made his fortune in tin and other industries.  Along the way he became one of the most influential citizens in the country’s history, creating a secret society that influenced business, politics and military activities.  The Penang Peranakan Mansion was built as a home for his four wives, ten children and the family’s many attendants (each child had his/her own nanny).

The home was built using materials from all over the world.  There are Chinese carvings, marble statues from Italy, timber from Burma, windows from France, Venetian mirrors and iron railings and pillars from Glasgow.  We lost count of the number of rooms the house has, none of which are small.  There are beautiful outdoor courtyards, a room specifically designated for the family’s gambling activities, and a separate temple, built to house the ghosts of departed ancestors.  That area of the house continues to be owned by the family and Chang’s descendants still come here twice a year to pay homage to those who have passed.  The temple has its own entrance away from the main house with images of the patron immortal gods of gangsters (gangsters have immortal gods?  Who knew?) painted on the main door.  Immortal gods stand guard at either side of the entrance and there is an altar with twelve urns depicting Chang’s ancestral line.  This is where meetings of Chang’s Secret Society would meet and where they would carry out initiations.

Chang’s family lived in the house until it was requisitioned by the Japanese during WWII.  The house remained empty after the war and fell into disrepair until another Chinese immigrant bought it from a fifth-generation Chang and restored it.  It now houses 2,500 artifacts from the Chung area the new owner has collected over the years, examples of how Chung himself may have decorated it.

Next up was the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.  A massive complex, the property was developed between 1890 and 1930.  There are several large prayer halls and pavilions, but the largest attraction is a seven-story pagoda that houses ten thousand golden buddha statues.  Buddha should feel very loved by the people of this area.

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A relatively young city-state, Singapore gained its independence in 1963 and accomplished the remarkable feat of transitioning from a developing country to a developed country in just one generation.  It is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, but listen to what other designations it has achieved:  most technology ready nation; world’s smartest city; world’s safest country; second most competitive country; third least corrupt country; fifth most innovative country…these guys have it going on!  Despite the high cost of living ninety percent of the homes in Singapore are owner-occupied.  The city is beautiful and clean and a place we would love to revisit. 

Our day began with a trishaw ride.  A trishaw is a bicycle with a side car and an electric motor.  They first surfaced in Singapore in 1914 and were once a major form of transportation.  Today they are used mostly by tourists.  Our driver seamlessly maneuvered his way through the busy streets from Burgis Street through Little India and back again, cars seemingly happy to make room for him.  After the ride we walked through an area that offered four houses of worship in less than a half-mile stretch:  Protestant, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu.  Their proximity to one another is emblematic of how inclusive this city-state of 5.6 million (a million of whom are foreign workers) is.

We rode a bumboat down the Singapore River, past renovated Colonial buildings and warehouses now teeming with trendy restaurants, bars and boutiques and a thriving night life.  Bumboats are flat-bottomed boats that were once used to transport dirt and waste (and occasionally food supplies) to and from ships located off shore.  Originally powered by sail, oars or long poles, the boats now have electric motors which helps keep the river water clean.  This is a good thing since it is also the city’s drinking water. 

Our final destination was the Marine Bay Sands Skydeck, a viewing platform situated at the top of the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel, owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation.  The hotel is built in what was once part of the bay.  It took the equivalent of 18,500 football fields worth of sand to create the ground on which it is built and 3 years to build at a cost of $8 BILLION dollars.  The hotel boasts a convention/exhibit hall that is more than 1.3 million square feet; 800,000 square feet of shopping; a museum; two movie theaters; 80 upscale restaurants and bars; the world’s largest atrium casino, and, oh yeah, 2,500 hotel rooms that rent for $700 or more per night.  One of the lounges has a marque that promotes itself as Singapore’s largest nightclub with an indoor Ferris wheel and 3-story slide.  The place has proven so popular that it paid for itself within three years and continues to enjoy a 98% occupancy rate 365-days/year.  The property has three huge towers on top of which sits a boat-like structure that houses the Skydeck, a patio bar and restaurant, and a 490-foot long infinity pool.  This place is seriously over the top and 30 minutes was not nearly enough time to explore.

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For most of its life Ko Samui was an isolated, self-sufficient island community.  It didn’t even have a road until the late 1970s.  It could take an entire day to walk the less than ten miles from one side of the island to the other.  An economy originally based on subsistence agriculture, fishing and coconuts has been replaced with one based on tourism.  There are now more than 2,000 hotels covering the island’s 150 square mile radius, and in 2017 they saw more than 2.5 million visitors pass through.  This is putting tremendous pressure both on the area’s infrastructure (2.5 million people generate a LOT of waste!) and the local culture as they struggle to remake themselves from a simple farming and fishing community into a place everyone wants to visit.

The waters surrounding Ko Samui are a beautiful turquois blue, and so shallow our ship had to anchor far out in the bay.  We had a 30-minute tender ride to shore and were looking forward to visiting what we thought was going to be an elephant preserve where we might have an opportunity to ride the elephants.

We visited a home-based coconut factory, an elephant camp (their version of a zoo – and we didn’t get to ride the elephants), and a local waterfall.  We were shown how rubber is extracted from rubber trees and turned into useable rubber products (rubber trees were first introduced to Ko Samui in 1899 and for a time rubber was an important part of their economy but overplanting and decreasing rubber prices has led to a decrease in the rubber business).  Lunch was served at a kind of funky bar place set just off the beach, and then it was off to the Big Buddha, a 39-foot gold painted Buddha that sits at the top of a 100-step staircase adorned with the body of a dragon on either side of where handrails would normally be.  It wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but it was okay.

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We first visited Bangkok in April 2017 as part of a land tour through China and Thailand.  The King had passed away the previous October and the country was observing a year of mourning.  This year the country is preparing for the coronation of the new king.  He has been ruling since immediately after his father’s death, but in Thai culture before the new king can be coronated there must first be a period of mourning and then the royal astrologist must determine the best date for coronation based on astrological considerations that will best position the king for a successful reign.  The new king’s coronation involves several weeks of activity, culminating in his coronation scheduled for May 4^th of this year, followed by several more ceremonies including the Royal Barge Procession.

The Royal Barge Procession is a 700-year-old tradition reserved for significant cultural events.  A fleet of 52 barges manned by 2,082 oarsmen will make their way down the Chao River past the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and The Grand Palace to the Temple of Dawn.  During the procession the oarsmen will pace their strokes to the rhythm of beating drums.  Our tour today followed the reverse route the royal procession will take and ended at the Royal Barge Museum.

The Temple of Dawn takes its name from the Hindu god Aruna, often personified as the radiation of the rising sun.  It is a gorgeous massive collection of structures with incredibly detailed ornamentation that totally lives up to its name.  The first light of the morning reflects off the surface of the temple with “pearly iridescence.”

Continuing down the river we passed several other temples, including the Emerald Buddha.  Along the way we saw several people fishing, including some using spears!  We passed make-shift homes resourcefully constructed of a variety of materials and stilt houses leaning precariously to one side or the other, looking as if all it would take is one strong wind to wipe them away. 

The Royal Barge Museum is not a museum in the traditional sense; it is a covered dock where the barges are being restored in preparation for the coronation activities.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures while we were inside the museum, but Ken got some excellent photos from a distance.  Artisans were actively working on the barges while we were there, taking painstaking care to ensure perfection in every tiny detail – and there are is a LOT of detail!  Each barge is assigned to a specific member of the royal party, with a specific role to play.  They are outfitted with the same type of raised and covered cushioned seating associated with the litters you see royalty being carried on by elephants or four individuals on foot.  The barges are true works of art.

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The Mekong River is a 2,700-mile body of water that flows from the Tibetan Plateau through six different countries:  China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  It is a major trade route between China and Southeast Asia.  The Mekong Delta is the area in southwestern Vietnam where the river approaches and empties into the sea.  It was also the site of a massive and successful attack launched by the North Vietnamese against U.S. and South Korean troops.

We expected to hear a retelling of the battle that occurred here and some reference to the war, but there was no mention of it at all.  Instead, we were bussed to My Tho, where we were loaded onto boats and carried across the river.  Once there we walked through a very rudimentary and manual candy making operation to a canal area where we were loaded into sampan boats (flat-bottomed Chinese boats used as river taxis) and taken on a 20-minute ride up the Mekong.  There was an individual “paddling” at the front of the boat and one at the back.  They weren’t paddling in the traditional sense of moving the paddles to displace the water and move us forward; instead as often as not the paddles would make contact with silt and our handlers would have to push us along the canal.  Along the way we passed make-shift staircases that appeared to lead nowhere and stilt open-air houses.

When we arrived at our destination, we made our way back up one of those make-shift staircases, and down a covered walk way.  There was housing on one side of the walkway, with a ditch between the walkway and the houses.  A man was up to his waist in water, removing silt with his hands and stacking it on the bank.  Our guide said they have to do this to create a barrier for the rainy to season to keep their homes from flooding – much like we use sandbags during a flood in the U.S.  We were served tea and fruit and treated to a musical performance, then moved on to another covered area where we tasted honey tea and a variety of local candies.  Then it was back to the original boats.

We stopped for a traditional lunch that started with fried spring rolls, which were delicious, then moved on to the main course:  deep friend elephant ear fish served in a fresh spring roll with cold rice noodles, cilantro and pineapple.  It was actually really good, but the presentation was not so appetizing.  The entire fish is speared onto a board and deep fried – head, eyes, fins, everything.  One of the women peeled meet off the fish’s bones and placed it in the spring roll with the other ingredients before serving it to us.

On the way back to the ship we had a photo op at an iconic 19^th century temple with beautiful gardens, and giant buddha statues all around.  Our guide didn’t provide us any context for this stop either, but during the remainder of the ride back to the ship we did learn some interesting things about Vietnam.  There are 54 different languages spoken across Vietnam. Saigon is home to 7 MILLION motor bikes.  It is the most popular city in Vietnam; everyone wants to live here unless they can get to the U.S.  The locals refer to the city as Ho Chi Minh City only when speaking of official buildings or events.  When speaking of their home or more sentimental aspects they refer to it as Saigon.  The best jobs are given to members of the Communist party, but there’s more to becoming a member than simply signing up.  You must be interviewed, and three generations of your family are vetted – if anyone in those three generations lived in South Vietnam before it was unified or served in the South Vietnamese Army you cannot join the party.  Another educational day.

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Saigon served as the main headquarters for U.S. operations during the Vietnam war.  Today’s tour included a visit to a section of the tunnels the North Vietnamese used in their operations and of that war and a war museum that tells the story of the war from North Vietnam’s perspective. 

Gunfire punctuated the air as we made our way through the grounds of the Cu Chi tunnel complex, evidence of an on-site firing range that affords visitors the opportunity to fire weapons used during the war, including the M16 rifle, the AK-47, and the M60.  The constant rat-a-tat-tat added an eerie feel to an already surreal experience.  As we made our way through the 83° heat loaded with 85% humidity, summer clothes clinging to our sweat-laden bodies less than ten minutes off the bus, we tried imagining what it would have been like for our soldiers wearing full battle dress uniform, Kevlar helmets bobbing on their heads, 50 lb. rucksacks on their backs, toting rifles, ammunition, radio equipment, etc., on constant alert for enemy forces, booby traps and landmines.  How does such an experience not play with your mind?

We were shown the small trap doors used to gain entry to the tunnels, flat against the earth’s surface and camouflaged by leaves, dirt or shrubbery. Viet Cong soldiers would drop down into the opening, landing in a crouched position and make their way through the tunnels by crawling on their hands and knees or walking in a bent-over position.  Some of the tunnels contained sleeping quarters, meeting areas and cooking areas.  Crude ventilation was provided by creating air holes that were disguised on the service as termite hills.  U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers initially mistook the small air holes in the “termite hills” as termite burrows.  For those below, it was hardly life at the Ritz.  Air, food and water were scarce.  There were ants, centipedes, spiders and scorpions sharing the space.  Most of the time soldiers would spend all day in the tunnels and come out only at night, which is also when they added new sections to the tunnels.  It would take a team of 3 an average of 5 nights to dig a new leg.  Sickness was rampant; malaria was the second leading cause of death among the Viet Cong, after battle wounds.  According to a captured Viet Cong report, “at any given time half of a unit had malaria and one hundred percent had intestinal parasites of significance.”

We also saw a variety of booby traps that employed punji sticks, extremely sharp wooden or bamboo sticks arranged in substantial numbers to inflict maximum harm.  As a testament to how lethal they were, in 1980 members of the United Nations agreed to ban them from use as a military weapon. 

The War Remnants Museum, previously named the “Exhibition House for U.S. and Puppet Crimes,” and then “Exhibit House for Crimes of War and Aggression,” (are you sensing a theme?), pulls no punches in presenting the North Vietnamese view of what it calls the U.S. War of Aggression.  Their version is substantially different from ours, recounting how the U.S. attacked North Vietnam without provocation because we wanted to make South Vietnam a U.S. territory and the Viet Cong stepped in to save the day.  Gruesome pictures are provided to document the atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers (and there is no denying they did occur).  Quotes by U.S. Presidents and military officials are provided without context to give entirely different meaning to the words they spoke. 

As we walked the museum Pam kept thinking, “What do you believe and why do you believe it?”  Our guides in Vietnam were very open about their disdain for North Vietnam and shared their own stories of the horrors inflicted on them after Hu Chi Minh took control of South Vietnam and the country was “unified.”  They referred to the information in the museum as propaganda, and said everyone in South Vietnam wants to go the U.S.  When we drove by the U.S. Embassy at 7:30 in the morning there was a line around the block of people already waiting to apply for a Visa to the U.S. and our guide said it is like this every day.  When Pam asked our guide about the difference in how vocal the South Vietnamese are in opposing Communism compared to the Chinese, he said, “We were a democracy before we were Communist.  We remember what that was like.  We know it’s better.  They want us to be quiet and forget, but we are not going to be quiet.”

It was a day we will not soon forget.

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Prior to the Vietnam war, Da Nang served as the country’s capital.  Thirteen different kings reigned during this period, between 1802-1945, under the Nguyen Dynasty.  Our tour today focused on the Citadel, the “court” of the dynasty.  Modeled after the Forbidden City in Beijing, the complex took 27 years to complete and in its prime boasted a total of 150 buildings within its 1,000-acres.  Ten different gates, each with tiled dragons over the entry way, lead into distinct areas of the grounds, with different points of entry for the King, soldiers (men), women, and animals.  The buildings had bamboo roofs crossed with golden rods positioned to reflect the yin and yang of the universe and were all painted using the same five colors, each of which reflects a specific element of the universe (fire, earth, water, metal and wood). 

Seventy percent of the Citadel’s buildings were destroyed during the war, first in 1947 when the North Vietnamese and French battled over the area, and again in 1968 during the Tet Offensive.  Today only ten of the original 150 buildings remain; however, there is a major restoration project underway and the full complex is expected to be ready for touring by 2035.

Our route to the Citadel took us over the Dragon Bridge.  On Friday and Saturday nights the dragon spits water and fire out of its large head.  It’s quite the spectacle.  Since we were here on a Tuesday, we missed the fun, but Pam did find some pictures to share. 

Following our visit to the Citadel we stopped by the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady, built in 1601, then road the dragon boats across the river for lunch.  We made our way down the embankment balancing on loose stones, walked a plank with a large crack down the middle, and entered a boat with plastic lawn chairs and plenty of air between the slats that made up the bottom of the boat.  It was an adventure!

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Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China but, as part of the agreement made in 1997 when the British returned control of Hong Kong to China, it has a different political system than mainland China. Hong Kong Basic Law stipulates that Hong Kong shall have a “high degree of autonomy” in all matters except foreign relations and military defense. Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy, meaning that it is highly focused on privately owned service sector offerings such as financial services, hospitality, retail, health and human services and information technology. It has a free market economy, which is very different from Shanghai’s social market economy where individuals may own a business but the government maintains ultimate control of the company’s assets. This difference has allowed Hong Kong to maintain low taxation and free trade, which in term has made it one of the world’s leading international financial centers with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. It also explains why so many Chinese want to live here. Every day an average of 450 Chinese people migrate to Hong Kong from other areas of China.

We had a limited amount of time here, so elected a Hop On/Hop Off tour to see as much of the city as possible. The rain that met us last night stuck around for the day, so it wasn’t a perfect day for picture taking, but we were able to get a flavor for the city at least.

One of the first thing we noticed was the number of women gathering on small blankets or pieces of cardboard everywhere we looked…under overpasses, along sidewalks. These are the nannies and other young workers of the town whose only day off is Sunday. Each Sunday they have little picnics around the city and catch up on gossip and the goings-on of one another’s life.

The city is a mish-mash of old meets new with older apartment buildings nestled in between newer modern structures, making use of every square inch of land. City side streets are incredibly steep and narrow; if you live here and choose to walk anywhere you’ve gotta be in pretty good shape!

Because of our limited time we stayed on the bus for most of the tour, but we did get off to ride the Peak tram, Hong Kong’s oldest and most famous funicular railway. It climbs 1,300 feet above sea level in 8 minutes with a grade so steep it makes it seem as if the high rises are falling as you pass them. Despite the steepness the tracks are lined with stairs all the way up for those who choose to walk. When we arrived at the top we were met with a massive shopping center and had to ride SEVEN escalators to get to the actual viewing platform, which offers 360 degree views. The clouds interfered with our ability to fully enjoy that view, but we got the idea.

By the time we were ready to make our way back to the ship it was pouring rain. We grabbed a couple yellow ponchos offered by the bus company and caught the Star Ferry back to the mainland and our ship.

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We arrived in Hong Kong to cool weather and the threat of rain. It is a city of tall buildings and shopping for days! The Hong Kong Ocean Terminal, where our ship docked, empties into one of the biggest shopping centers we have ever seen – four stories with more than 700 shops and 50 eateries, and it was PACKED! We had a few hours to kill between our arrival in port and a scheduled special event, so we spent a little time exploring. Armani, Dolce, Versace (for kids, even!), Tiffany….we weren’t doing any buying but plenty of other people were – and they brought their suitcases with them to do it! Our evening tour guide explained that things are much less expensive here than in Shanghai, and it’s close enough the Chinese can hop the ferry over in the morning, spend the day filling their suitcases and get back home in time for dinner. That’s some serious shopping!

Oceania sponsored another exclusive event for its Around the World travelers tonight – a dinner show at the Hong Kong Hockey Club, originally founded in 1884. One of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong, the Club offers horse racing and sports betting for overseas activities like soccer. We enjoyed performances by a youth opera group who were kind enough to perform their songs in English and even did one portion of the program to the tune of Farra Jacka! The kids were very talented and the make-up and costumes were gorgeous.

The kids’ performance was followed by a Face Changer. We tried to load videos with no luck – it sounds kind of boring, but it’s actually pretty cool. The guy does traditional dance and in the blink of an eye changes the mask on his face with no more than a quick nod of his head. Pretty cool.

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Many of you have asked about life on board the ship, so we thought we’d take advantage of a little down time and tell you!

We’re trying to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so on most of the days we’re in port we have something scheduled, either an excursion through the cruise line or something we’ve arranged on our own. Our schedule on those days is dictated by the our arrangements; sometimes we have to be ready to check in for the tours by 7:15 a.m., sometimes by noon. That is usually determined by what time we arrive in the port.

It took us a little while to develop a routine for the days we’re at sea, but after three months we think we finally have it figured out. Pam rises early (usually between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m.) and does her Bible study, journal and the blog. If there’s time she also walks 3 miles/day. Ken’s up by then and may have done his own 3-mile jaunt. We get ready for the day and head off to breakfast, usually in the main dining room where we can enjoy yummy pancakes or eggs and bacon or lamb chops.

The ship offers lots of activities throughout the day – lectures, bean toss, mini-golf competitions, painting, crafts, trivial pursuit, cooking demonstrations, etc. We don’t usually partake of these things; we do more of our own thing. We meet our friends El and Terry in the card room at 10:00 and play double deck Pinochle until 1:00, when El has to leave us to go play Bridge. If the weather’s nice we may head to the pool for a couple of hours; if not, we’ll read a book in the library or maybe hook up with some other friends for Mexican Train or Phase 10. Occasionally there will be a lecture we’re interested in and we’ll do that instead. At 3:00 it’s time for Ballroom Dance lessons (yes, Ken’s taking dance lessons!). There’s about 20 people the class, and after four weeks we’re actually getting to be pretty decent.

By 5:00 we’ve dressed for dinner and are playing SkipBo, Cribbage or Backgammon and enjoying Happy Hour in one of the lounges as we listen to the band or piano (depending on where we’ve gone) in the background. This is also an opportunity for us to practice our dance moves, but we haven’t been brave enough to try that yet.

We almost always share a table at dinner, regardless of the restaurant we’re in. Our options are the main dining room, the Polo steakhouse or Tuscano Italian restaurant. All are excellent, but Ken’s favorite (of course!) is Polo and Pam really likes Tuscano. Dinner is usually at 6:30, and depending on the conversation may go until 8:30 or 9:00.

There is entertainment every night. Sometimes it’s the ship’s string quartet or pianist, sometimes it’s the ship talent singing and dancing, sometimes it’s a musician, comedian or magician from outside, and sometimes it’s a movie. From 8:30 – 9:30 you can dance to the music of the ship’s band. We did that for the very first time ever a couple of nights ago and had a great time. We pre-arranged with several of our classmate to be there at the same time and make our debut together, so it was a lot less intimidating, and it was a good time. On the nights we don’t go to the show we may choose to play games with friends, read or watch movies we’ve downloaded when we’ve been in ports with high-speed internet.

Every few weeks the ship does something special for all of its Around The World guests. Sometimes it’s an evening reception with free drinks and appetizers; sometimes it’s an 11:00 reception with a beautiful display of appetizers and deserts. Most recently it was sushi and seafood. We’ve never seen so many lobsters!!! One day they prepared a special brunch for us. What an amazing display of talent. Every decoration was made by the culinary team on board – the most incredible food art – from ice sculptures to chocolate to fruit and vegetables – very impressive!

It’s a rough life and we are thoroughly enjoying it!

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More than 50 skyscrapers fill the Shanghai’s skyline in Shanghai’s Pudong financial district. The newest and tallest has 128 floors, and at the beginning of 2019 was the 2nd tallest building in the world (after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai).

Shanghai’s skyline comes alive at night with millions and millions of dancing, changing lights. Nearly every building puts on its own coordinated light show and our boat was docked in the perfect viewing location – all we had to do was take a stroll around the deck. Vegas ain’t got nothin’ on Shanghai. Beautiful!

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Since we’d been to Shanghai just two years ago and saw most of the city’s highlights then, we opted for something a little different this visit. Zhouzhuang Water Town is an ancient town about 20 miles southeast of Shanghai. It is one of the most famous water townships in Shanghai, a cluster of ancient towns dating back more than 900 years. Originally developed during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911), the town still has its original layout with narrow flagstone roadways leading to tranquil shady areas where cozy lanes weave their way through more than 60 brick-covered gateways. A total of 14 arched bridges of various styles connect one side of the canal to the other. Sixty percent of the buildings are original.

Six-person gondolas ferried us from the entry of the Town about midway down the canal. The clouds in the sky did nothing to diminish the allure of the quaint villages, as we traveled under Cherry Blossom canapies and observed the quiet stirrings of locals just beginning their day.

Exiting the gondolas we began the return journey on foot, meandering through shops offering hand-made musical instrument, silk-embroidered artwork, hand-painted parasols, hand-crafted jewelry, clothing, etc. We passed unique tea houses with extravagant seating areas that hung out just over the canals. Each business was housed in brick enclaves probably taking up less than 300 square feel of space. We stopped by the Great Qing Post Office, founded in 1903, and home now to a museum that traces recounts the history of China’s mail system, dating back more than 3,000 years. Inside is a series of paintings that depict the Chinese version of the Pony Express. We also stopped by a Chinese Medicine store, where more than 1,000 herbal remedies fill the shelves. We wondered past food vendors selling smoked pork, pigs’ feet, quail that looked like tiny birds, and many more unidentifiable items.

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Welcome to Kagoshima, Japan, the first city to introduce western civilization to the Japanese and gateway to trade between Japan and the rest of the world – and home to Sakurajima volcano, an active volcano that has been continually erupting since 1955.

We began our day at the base of the volcano and made a much more civilized climb to viewing points than when we visited the volcano in Nicaragua.  This climb included stairs, viewing platforms, and picnic-like shelters, and although we were blanketed in ash from time to time there was no pelting by lava rock or pebbles imbedded in our hair!  The views were stunning!  We even got to see the volcano erupting.  No[PJ1]  massive lava flows, but you can see the smoke coming out of the crater in a couple of the pictures.  The last time the volcano spewed was 1914.  Smoke clouds reportedly reached as high as 59,000 feet and ash landed as far away as Russia.  Scientist predict another massive explosion within the next thirty years, and i1t seems to be affecting the population.  Our guide lived here when she was a little girl and said the population then was around 8,000.  Today it’s 4,200 and shrinking.

The constant eruption of the volcano makes life interesting for the residents.  The ash is very heavy and wet, so it solidifies quickly and can be damaging to everything it comes in contact with.  Residents are constantly sweeping it up, and the city provides them with special bags to put the ash in for disposal.  The roofs of the houses are built without gutters or spouts because the weight of the ash would tear them from the roof; tombstones and crypts have roofs over them to keep the ash from destroying them, and the mandarin oranges the area is known for all have paper bags wrapped around them while they are hanging from the trees.  It’s an interesting site!  On the plus side the volcanic soil is nutrient-rich making it perfect for growing the mandarin oranges I mentioned earlier and giant radishes – and I mean GIANT.  The largest radish on record here is a whopping 68 lbs.!

We visited the Shoke Shuseikan museum, which tells the story of the Shimadzu family and how they forged international relationships over a period of 800 years that allowed them to gain access to information and inventions that informed and fueled Japan’s own industrial revolution.  Across from the museum is what was once the Shimadzu’s summer home, a sprawling Japanese garden created by the family in 1658.  The grounds include the family home, the original “tin roof” gate that only the lord and his eldest son could enter through (everyone else had to use a different entrance), Japan’s first gas lamp (it’s as big as a garden shed), a reverberatory furnace and a Satsuma Kiriko glassworks factory and store.

The reverberatory furnace was built by Samurai using pictures from a Dutch textbook and combining Japanese craftsmanship with western knowledge.  It’s a process furnace that isolates the material being processed from the fuel used to process it.  It was just beginning to be used in smelting operations in the late 17^th century and would have been cutting edge when it was built.

Satsuma Kiriko is a highly regarded form of cut crystal glass.  It is made by layering colored glass over clear glass and carefully cutting patterns into the outer layer to make the colored glass look like it is melting into the clear glass underneath.  It was created by one of the heads of the Shimadzu family, and for about 100 years after his death it was a lost art.  In 1985 the family resurrected it, and it has since been declared a Traditional Cultural Craft Product.  It ain’t cheap, though.  The little glasses you see in the pictures cost around $950, and the big bowl is more than $10,000.  Beautiful to look at, but our pockets aren’t that deep!

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After returning from Miyajima (see previous post), we enjoyed a traditional bento box lunch and made our way to the main event of the day, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. To help the 45-minute drive go a little more quickly our guide taught us how to make origami samurai helmets. Ken was an excellent student, don’t you think? This is where the hijinks ended.

During WWII Japan’s Second General Army and Chugoka Regional Army were headquartered in Hiroshima. The Army Marine Headquarters was located in the port. The city had large military supply depots and was a key shipping center for Japan. On Monday, August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. local time the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city. Seventy thousand lives were immediately lost and the city was leveled. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park pays tribute to those who died and advocates for world peace. It is situated in what was once the busiest area of the city, and includes the A-bomb Dome, the shell of what remains of what was a grand structure built in 1918 as an exhibit hall commandeered for military offices during the war. The building is exactly as it was immediately following the bombing. Hiroshima rebuilt after the war and proclaimed a City of Peace by the Japanese Parliament in 1949. It is now a thriving city with 6 rivers, 93 bridges and more than 1.2 million people. The stark contrast of this bombed-out building against the vibrancy of the city as it stands today is a constant and sober reminder of what human beings are capable when we fail to make an intentional effort to preserve peace.

Across from the Dome is the Peace Bell. On its surface is a world map with no national boundaries. This is to symbolize that we are all one world. Visitors to the bell can ring it using a wooden log that hangs outside the bell. Where the log makes contact with the bell is the elemental symbol for atomic energy. On the opposite side is a mirror to reflect the heart of the person ringing the bell. Near the bell is a pond. After the bombing lotus leaves were used to treat peoples’ burns and sooth their souls. Lotus seeds were planted in the pond and every year around ugust 6th they bloom.

Near the Peace Bell is the Atomic Mound, where the ashes of the 70,000 people who died are buried. Inside the mound lies a vault that contains the ashes of roughly 70,000 individuals whose ashes were unclaimed because the entire family had perished or because they were never identified. Every year, Hiroshima City publishes a list of people whose identity has been learned, hoping that relatives will emerge to claim the ashes. Of the 2,432 individual containers of ashes identified and originally placed in the vault in 1955, 824 remain unclaimed.

Continuing toward the Peace Memorial Museum we passed through the Children’s Memorial, built in memory of the children who died. Every October school children from around Japan create paper cranes, in chains or in works of art, and bring them to the Memorial. Just past the Children’s Memorial is the Flame of Peace, which will continue burning until all nuclear weapons have been destroyed. Next to the Flame is a marble coffin with the names of all who have perished and continue to perish as a result of the bomb are listed, including those of U.S. POWs. New names are added every year. When you look through the center of the structure covering the coffin, you can see the previous monuments lined up in a straight line, an avenue of monuments with a single purpose.

Finally we arrived at the Peace Memorial Museum, committed to preserving the memory of that day and encouraging us to never allow it to be repeated. The pictures from our visit speak for themselves.

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Said to tbe one the top three picturesque destinations in Japan, Miyajima is an island near Hiroshima famous for its production of brushes of every size and kind – from the tiniest make-up brushes to calligraphy brushes to paint brushes – and the beautifully unique Itsukushima Shrine.

The shrine is unlike any we’ve visited before. Built on pier-like supports, its 20-plus buildings extend out over the sea are all connected by a single walkway. The walkway has slits built into it to allow for the changing water levels between low and high tides. In addition to the gated entrance found on land, this shrine also has an O-Torii (gate at the entrance of a shrine that signifies the separation between the common every-day life and that of a sacred space) situated out in the water. During low tide you can walk from the shrine to the O-Torii. We were there during high tide and could not do that, but we thought it was probably cooler when surrounded by water anyway.

The shrine was originally built in 593 in what is called the Shinden style of architecture. Two spiritual dogs stand guard at the front entrance, signifying the Alpha and Omega, protecting the grounds from evil spirits. Every aspect of the temple is designed with purpose, from the colors, to the buildings to the direction things are facing, everything has meaning. Our guide’s knowledge was impressive, but it was too much information for us to keep track of. We do remember that the bridge you see in the pictures was built solely for the use of Imperial messengers. No one else was ever allowed to use it, and it is closed off from the public.

While we were visiting someone was participating in a sacred ceremony. Our guide said people often arrange for these ceremonies to show their appreciation when a particularly significant prayer has been answered.

As we exited the temple our nostrils filled with the delicious smells of the outdoor market area. Local specialties include maple cakes, which you can watch being made much like you can the donuts at Pike Place Market in Seattle, and grilled oysters. There are loads of oyster beds in the waters surrounding Hiroshima, and the folks here clearly know what to do with them! Unfortunately, we did not bring any Japanese Yen with us, so we were restricted to buying things at places that accepted good ol’ American plastic. Starbucks, anyone? Check out Pam’s name spelled in Japanese.

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Tokyo is the world’s most populous metropolitan area. The most recent census puts the metropolitan population at 13 million people, and at least 2 million of them were there to welcome us during our visit today. We have never seen so many people continually in one place. It was like being in a non-stop Seattle Seahawks crowd exiting the stadium times ten with no breaks. It was crazy!

We began our day at the Imperial Palace. A famous local Shogun defeated a rival Shogun in a village far away. To celebrate his victory and demonstrate his power the winning Shogun tore down the defeated Shogun’s home and brought the stones to Tokyo one by one and incorporated them into this palace. Although it is built on the Imperial grounds, it was never intended to be a residence. The Emperor lives in a home in the trees behind the Palace, as do his two adult sons. The palace is used by the Emperor for entertaining and for special ceremonies. The Palace is surrounded by a large wall and moat, just like a castle, and those invited to visit the Emperor enter here and make a long journey to get to his actual home. They enter using the bridge in the front of the photo, walk through the archway to the left of the picture of the bridge, then make a right and continue onto the metal bridge directly behind the first bridge (you can see it if you look closely) and follow that bridge into the woods on to the Emperor’s home. Quite the journey. Commoners are allowed to access the bridges twice a year, when they can stand at the end of the bridge and wave to the Emperor- once on the Emperor’s birthday, and on the first day of a new year. Similar to the Queen of England, an emperor has no political power. It is the Prime Minister who actually leads the country, but the Emperor is a treasured figure head and deeply respected.

We were here during Tokyo’s Cherry Blossom festival. The trees have special significance for the Japanese, signifying new beginnings. People come from miles away to view the trees. One of the favorite viewing sites is on the grounds of the Imperial Palace – the festival is the only time commoners can access the grounds – and they will wait in line forever and walk three miles one way to see them. Around the city they stake out space under the trees with blankets (much like Americans do with lawn chairs for parades) for Cherry Blossom “parties” of their own, little picnics with friends and family.

Next up was a visit to a Shento shrine. Before entering we had to cleanse ourselves with water from a special station, washing first our right hand and then our left, then rinsing our mouth to cleanse our spirit. We were privileged to witness a wedding in progress while we were at the shrine. The big white head dress the bride is wearing is to hide her horns, because everyone knows that when a woman gets angry she grows horns out of her head and we wouldn’t want those to show on her wedding day! The shrine had all of the features of those that we have visited before – three golden crests representing the family crest of the emperor to whom the shrine is dedicated, decorated sake barrels, beautiful buildings. This particula shrine also has ropes made of rice. The ropes are adorned with paper lightening bolts. The rope is tied between two Camphor trees. The lightening bolts represent rain, and tying them to the rice rope represents a prayer for good harvest. Tying them between the two trees represents unity, and newlyweds traditionally have their picture taken here for good luck in their marriage.

We finished the afternoon up by visiting another temple and outdoor market, where we were joined by 2 million of our closest friends.

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What a great welcome to Tokyo!  As we entered the port we were greeted by the Tokyo fire department, and then tonight Oceania hosted a special event for all of its Around the World travelers.  We were treated to a traditional Japanese dinner theater performance at the magnificent Hotel Gajoen.   The hotel originally opened in 1928 and is famous for housing thousands of Japanese works of art, especially those related to the era of Emperor Hirohito’s reign.  From the moment you step through the front doors you are swept to another world, passing through corridors lined with lavish wooden Japanese murals, strategically placed cherry blossom trees, intricately carved wooden columns…it was all so lavish and beautiful.

As we entered the conference hall Geisha dancers accompanied by a fellow Geisha playing a shamisen (like a small guitar) were performing traditional songs and dance for us.   Throughout dinner we were entertained by a special, individualized performance by the Miyabiya performance group.  They kicked the show off with a Kabuki dance to Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”  It was great!  There was an incredible magician whose tricks included completely changing his appearance by simply making a 180 degree turn right in front of us.  He was terrific!  There were more Kabuki dancers, more Geisha dancers, a Ninja warrior, a Samurai…. they pulled out all the stops.  Dinner was a bit of an adventure…raw fish and raw eggs are not our usual fair, but overall it was a very impressive and enjoyable evening.

On a separate note, there is a tremendous amount of new construction going on near the pier. Our guide explained that these are condos being built to house athletes that will be coming for the 2020 summer Olympics being hosted by Japan. We’ve included a picture of the construction – multiple high rise buildings – and every single unit in every single building is already sold. New owners will move in as soon as the athletes have vacated. Incredible!

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Kobe, Japan, home of the world-renowned Kobe Beef.  Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to sample this local delicacy, but we did get to visit more temples and shrines!  😊

Our tour began at the Todai-Ji Temple where the world’s tallest Buddha lives inside the world’s tallest wooden building.  The buildings we visited are the third iteration of the original structures, and they are not a complete replica of the original compound.  Inside the temple there is a very detailed wooden model of the full original complex built by local juvenile inmates.  The buildings that are now in place were built over 300 years ago, using the same materials contained in the original buildings.  It’s impressive to think about the expertise and labor required to build these things 300 years ago; imagine doing it in 728 A.D.!  The Buddha itself is over 300’ tall, making the building probably five or six stories tall.  In the original complex there were two towers on either side of the Buddha building that were more than seven stories tall. 

On either side of the main Buddha, are two other Buddhas.  These two Buddhas represent the on-going quest to reach full enlightenment.  A major tenet in Buddhism is letting go of the greed associated with our earthly being.  The Buddhas on either side of the main one are draped in fancy clothing and jewels, demonstrating that they have not yet mastered this requirement of enlightenment.

The temple is in the town of Nara.  Immediately upon entering Nara we were struck by the number of wild deer roaming about the town.  They were everywhere!  And when we arrived at the temple, their numbers were multiplied.  Deer are considered sacred animals here and are given free reign.  There is an annual ceremony for removing the antlers of young males, but other than that the deer are pretty much left alone.  Their numbers would qualify them as a nuisance in the U.S., but not here.

The Kashuga Taisha Shento Shrine was originally built in 768 to entice the gods to protect Nara.  The shrine is famous for its lanterns – there are thousands of them – a symbol of illumination, a guiding light on the path of enlightenment.  Most lanterns are built of stone, purchased by individuals who place their personal prayer over the candle opening, believing that this will gain them favor with the gods and increase the chances of getting the desired answer to their prayer.  There are also copper and gold lanterns in the shrine, some purchased for as much as $20,000.  There are several decorated sake barrels at the entrance to the shrine, representing the breweries in the area who donate their first batch of sake to the shrine for use in special ceremonies throughout the year.  Another cool feature is an 800-year-old wisteria vine.

Like Todai-Ji, these are not the original shrine buildings.  It, too, has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, always in keeping with original building techniques.  The shrine is refurbished every 20 years, partly to ensure the integrity of the buildings, but also to ensure that the carpentry skills continue to survive from generation to generation.

Our final stop of the day was the Osaka Castle Museum, an eight-story home originally built in 1321 to house the family of a famous Shogun.  The castle is protected by an enormous stone wall, much of which is original, and a moat.  Inside is a Shogun museum that includes shogun artifacts, figurines in battle scenes, and displays that provide historical narratives using 3-D characters.  Pretty cool.

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What an emotional day.  The Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest of WWII.  More than 200,000 individuals lost their lives, over half of them civilians, and the island of Okinawa was all but obliterated.  The battle has been nick-named the “Typhoon of Steel” because of the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of the Japanese kamikaze attacks and the overwhelming number of allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island.  The U.S. dropped more than two million bombs over a period of 83 days.  When the fighting ended all of Okinawa’s buildings, its physical history and artifacts, and 25% of its population were gone.

We visited the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, devoted to promoting peace by reminding all who visit of the atrocities and absurdity of war.  Located on Mabune Hill, next to the “suicide cliffs” where many Japanese soldiers chose to jump their deaths rather than surrender, the museum includes an outer area with a semi-circular avenue of stones similar to those found at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.  It includes 32 memorial monuments engraved with the names of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa, organized by nationality or ethnicity.  The stones are located near the exact place where Japanese Commander General Mitsuru Ushijima committed suicide rather than surrender to the U.S. troops.  It is impossible to describe what it felt like to stand in a space where so much terror was experienced and so much death occurred.

The inside of the museum is beautifully and effectively done.  It is incredible respectful to the memories of those who perished and so clear in its mission to promote peace.  It doesn’t cut the Japanese or the Americans any slack for their part in the Battle, an includes a number of disturbing photos from the time.  It also includes testimonials from those who were there, people who experienced the war at all different ages.  You can listen to the words of someone who was 5 years old when it happened, 10 years old, 20…each offers a unique perspective.  One of the stories Pam listened to was from a woman who was about 12 when the battle occurred.  She was hiding in a tunnel with her five younger siblings.  They were suffering from dehydration and malnutrition but were afraid to leave the tunnel.  She finally convinced them to crawl out and their worst fears were realized – they were found by U.S. soldiers.  The soldiers immediately gave them water and offered them two squares of chocolate each.  The children did not speak English and could not understand what the soldiers were trying to tell them.  They didn’t know what chocolate was and were certain it was going to kill them but agreed that it was better to eat it and die together than face whatever else might lie ahead.  They ate the chocolate and it didn’t kill them.  Then the soldiers brought them milk.  It was incredible to hear her relive the experience.

After the Peace Museum we visited the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters, a series of tunnels constructed using hoes and picks that still exist in their original form.  Visitors are able to see replicas of the commanding officers’ room, staff room, generator room, etc.  One hundred seventy-five men committed suicide here (are you seeing a theme?), but not before their Commanding Officer sent a telegram to the Navy Vice Admiral commending the people of Okinawa for their cooperation and self-sacrifice.  Every single civilian – whether they were 3 years old or 80 – was conscripted into service.  Near the end of the war, they were all given grenades, and many were forced to participate in mass suicides.  It is such a sad story.  Throughout the museum hang chains of 1,000 origami cranes, created to represent grief for those who passed and a prayer for the peace of their souls and of the world.  A group of Japanese Navy cadets were there at the same time, and it was kind of cool to share the space with them as they absorbed lessons for their own future.

We had the same guide today as we had yesterday.  She was a young girl living in Nagasaki when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb there.  At one point Pam asked her how, given this history, she could be so welcoming and gracious to Americans.  Soda answered, “It was war.  People do horrible things in war.  And we started it – we bombed Pearl Harbor first.  Japan had nothing after the war, nothing.  I remember going to school and getting the powdered milk the Americans provided to the school.  It was the only nutrition I had.  You saved my life. After the war the U.S. was the only country that came to help us rebuild.  And instead of keeping Okinawa as an American territory and killing the Emperor, as China or Russia would have, you let Japan keep Okinawa and you let the Emperor live.  I love Americans.  They are the kindest people in the world.”

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Whatever we were expecting in Japan, it wasn’t this!  An island of fewer than 60,000 residents, Miyako- Jima is considered one of the most picturesque destinations in Japan.  It’s about 190 miles southwest of Okinawa and home to some of the most beautiful water we’ve seen thus far – right up there with Rangiroa.

Our tour guide was a 74-year-old retired middle school teacher who was very familiar with the area and had a terrific sense of humor.  She explained that the reason the sea water is so clear and blue here is because there are no rivers on the island, no waterways delivering silt or any type of foreign materials into the sea waters.  Whatever the explanation, the water is breath-takingly beautiful.

We drove through town where we passed two small rocks, similar to headstones, the tallest of which was a little less than 4’ tall.  These stones have been in place for hundreds of years.  In 1603 Miyako-Jima found itself beholden to both China and Japan.  Japan owned the island, but China was providing protection from foreign invaders.  Both demanded heavy financial support from Miyako-Jima.  To meet the obligations the government placed a heavy tax on its citizens.  Anyone as tall or taller than the stones was required to give 80% of the fruits of their labor to the government.  Farmers had to give 80% of their crops; women were generally employed in textiles and had to give 80% of anything they made to government.  This tax continued until 1903, 300 years(!), until a group of citizens rose up in protest.

Our travels took us across the Irabu Ohashi Bridge which connects Miyako-Jima to Irabu Island.  At a little over two miles it is Japan’s longest toll-free bridge.  It is considered the “Bridge of Dreams” because it was 40 years in the planning and took nine years and nearly $360 million to build.

Once across the bridge we visited the Makiyama Observatory, where we climbed 75 steps for a terrific view across the sea to Miyako-Jima.  Afterwards we traveled back across the bridge for the highlight of the day, a semi-submarine ride.  The boat took us within inches of the coral below, where we saw formations of every shape and size, and a variety of fish.  Pam even saw a small shark, but we weren’t quick enough to capture it on camera.

We drove along the Higashi-hennazaki Cape, designated a Place of Natural Beauty.  The low, rocky cape has spectacular views and a gorgeous park area with a light house and walking trails.  There is an amazing variety of plants, from lilies to sticker bushes to pineapple trees, and incredible rock formations and boulders.  It’s not clear if the boulders have always been there or if they were brought ashore by one of the many typhoons experienced in the area, but they were a beautiful touch and enjoying the path was a perfect way to get in some steps in.

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Taipei, Taiwan is located within the Ring of Fire, a string of volcanoes situated around the edges of the Pacific Ocean.  It has the highest number and density of mountains in the world – 286 of which are 9,800 feet or more above sea level.  Our tour today took us away from the city and through some of these mountains and past Taiwan’s tallest dormant volcano, Xiaoyoukeng (zow-you-king).

The day began with a steady rain, but that didn’t prevent us from stopping at one of the areas beautiful gardens known for its cherry blossoms and azaleas.  We were too late for the azalea blooms, and a little early for the cherry blossoms, but even through the rain we could appreciate the beauty each adds when they are at their peak. 

The area is known for its hot springs and sulfur deposits, and that was the focus of our tour.  We were making our way to the Calla Young Garden Resort to enjoy their sulfur baths.  Along the way we stopped by Xiaoyoukeng.  Volcanic activity in the area has created openings in the rock where hot sulfurous gases escape, creating puffs of steam.  It was pouring rain while we were there, and the area was enveloped in clouds, so we weren’t able to see the steam then, but we did witness it from a distance when the clouds began to clear later in the day.  What the rain and clouds didn’t hide was the overwhelmingly distinct odor of sulfur.  Phewee!  The sulfur from the volcano feeds into the hot springs we were about to visit, reputed to provide a number of health benefits.   A soak in a sulfur hot springs is said to stimulate your immune system, alleviate the pain and swelling of a different type of arthritis and reduce your blood pressure. 

After lunching on a number of interesting food options, we made our way to the baths.  Everyone was required to don a swimming cap; bathing suits, however, were optional.  There were four sulfur hot springs options, each a different temperature and on of which offered a string of “massage” beds.  It was like sitting on an open water bed of hot tub jets.  There was also a regular swimming pool for cooling off, and massage showers.  The showers were hilarious.  You have the option of choosing a moderate pressure or a more intense one.  Pam opted for moderate, which was bad enough, but when Ken went for the “vigorous” massage we thought he was going to be jetted all the way back to Taipe!

The resort overlooks a very pretty river valley, providing a beautiful viewpoint for the surrounding mountains.  Towards the end of our visit the rain stopped and as the sun began to peek through the clouds we were able to see the steam rising from Xiaoyoukeng off in the distance, a nice end to a good day.

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Kaohsiung, Taiwan is a beautiful city with much to offer.  Our half day tour barely scratched the surface. 

The two main religions in Taiwan are Buddhism and Taoism, a reflection of the part India and China have played in the country’s history.  The influence of these religions is felt everywhere, from the many temples that populate the landscape to the joy and humility of the people you meet. 

Our first stop was The Spring and Autumn Pavilions are a Taoist temple complex situated on Lotus Lake, the Tao goddess of mercy, riding a dragon.  According to legend, Guanyin appeared to her followers riding a dragon through the clouds.  She instructed them to build a representation of her between the two pavilions and in 1953 they did.  She is joined by two of her “assistants,” Dragon Girl and Sudhana.  In Chinese culture dragons symbolize favorable power and strength.  They have control over water, including rains and floods.  Only the emperor was allowed to wear the image of a dragon on his clothing.  If anyone else did, they would be beheaded – pretty good incentive for following the rules! 

You can walk through the body of the dragon Guanyin is sitting on.  Entering through the dragon’s mouth is supposed to bring one good luck.  Inside the body are carvings of the 32 manifestations of the Bodhisattva, individuals who are on the path to Buddhahood but have not yet reached it, or who are able to reach Nirvana but delay doing so out of compassion for others.

Near the Spring and Autumn pavilions is a tortoise pond.  People buy small tortoises and release them into the pond, believing doing so will gain them good “merits” with Buddha.

Across from the pavilion complex is the Chi Ming Palace, a temple built to worship Confucius and Guan, the god of war.  After a short visit there that included a very complex explanation of the ritual of praying to the gods, we made our way to the Confucius Temple, built during the Qing dynasty and designed to resemble The Forbidden City in Beijing.  At the front of the property is the 10,000 Foot Wall depicting all the activities Confucius mastered during his life – education, archery, music, teaching, travel, etc.  The wall is so named because of something one of his students once said about the amount of knowledge Confucius had, comparing it to the height of a 10,000-foot wall. 

Our last stop of the day was the Chizin Old Street market, located across the street from a shoreline park where individuals were riding motorized bicycles, walking with family and friends or enjoying the songs of street entertainers.  There were a number of food vendors along both sides of the street, and inside the covered market area there were lots and lots of fish vendors offering fresh fish, pickled fish, smoked fish, dried fish…. just about any kind of fish you can imagine!

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Manila is the capital city of the Philippines and the most densely populated city in the world.  It is also one of the most polluted.  According to Wikipedia, pollution alone causes more than 4,000 deaths a year in Manila, and the Pasig River that flows through its corridor is one of the most polluted in the world.  It is also said to be one of the wealthiest regions in Southeast Asia but based on what we saw today that wealth must be concentrated among a very small segment of the population.  We were struck by  extreme poverty, the number of ramshackle metal shanties occupying every spare inch of space.  As our guide described life for the average citizen many people on our bus commented on how “cheap” everything is – a gymny (a shared cab that can hold up to 16 people – the brightly colored vehicles in the pictures below) can be had for less than 10 cents a mile, an average McDonald’s meal is about $3.50,  city apartments rent for $300/month, it’s about $5/day to park if you drive your own car to work – but when you’re making $350/month these things aren’t quite so cheap.

Our 8 hour day began with an introduction to the motorcycle police that would be escorting us on our tour – not for security purposes, but because when you’re the most densely populated city in the world traffic is a problem.  Not “can be” but constantly is.  Our live about 30 minutes outside the city and told us they have to allow themselves at least 4 hours to get to work every day – each way!  They take the bus or a gymny.   This creates the potential for serious problems for cruise ships that operate on very strict schedules.  They need their passengers returned from their tours on time.  To make sure that happens the city assigns police escorts to pave the way for the tour buses and ensure they get back to the ship when they’re supposed to.  If the buses are late they have to pay big fines and run the risk of losing the cruise ship’s business.  We were in the second of three buses so we weren’t able to see the lead motorcycle, but friends in the front of the first bus said they were quite entertaining – the way they stopped traffic to allow the buses to move against the flow of traffic using the wrong lane, preventing people from pulling out in front of the buses, etc.

First up on the tour was a stop at St. Joseph Parish Church, where we saw and heard the world’s only bamboo organ.  Built in 1824 by the Parish’s first priest to accommodate the Filipino climate, 902 of the organ’s 1,031 pipes are made of bamboo.  It has required repairs and refurbishment over the years, but it’s pretty impressive that an instrument like this built nearly 200 years ago continues to be part of the every day life of the church and has such a beautiful sound.

Next we visited a fruit and vegetable market.  Nothing too extraordinary to report here except that for some reason the Manila government requires all tour buses to stop at this location and allow visitors a chance to make a purchase.  Some folks bought bananas or flowers.

Our main destination was Tagaytay Ridge, an area overlooking the bay below and the world’s smallest active volcano.  There is a smaller volcano in Mexico, but it is not considered to be active, so Mount Taal (an ironic name for the smallest volcano, don’t you think?) wins the title.  Unfortunately, the air quality made it difficult to see the volcano clearly, but Ken did get some pictures.

Our return trip included a drive through the walled city of Manila, a one quarter square mile area built in the late 16th Century to protect the city from invaders. It was protected by Fort Santiago and served as the seat of government and political power, and was the center of the area’s religion, education and economy.

When we entered our stateroom Pam was greeted with a nice birthday surprise.  Our stewards even made her a cake!  We couldn’t eat it, but it was pretty creative. 

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Puerto Princesa is the capital of the islandprovince of Palawan. It has been called the cleanest and greenest city in the Philippines, a result of its stringent anti-littering and conservation policies. With a population of only 210,000 it is the most sparsely populated city in the the Philippines. There are plenty of cars and traffic, but the most common mode of transportation for the local people is the tricycle, a covered 3-wheel motorbike used to taxi individuals from one point to another at a cost of about 9 cents/mile. Cashews and tourism are the main industries in the area, and although there is a thriving downtown area most people live in more rural outskirts of the city. Seventy percent of the land of Puerto Princes is forest; only 30% has been developed, and the law prohibits foreigners from owning property here. There is an active volcano on the island that fuels hot springs, which provide the water used for bathing, cooking etc., and there is wide-spread use of solar power.

We started our day hoping to find a way to visit an underground river Ken had heard about. After a little investigating he discovered a woman on the cruise had booked a private tour, and when he saw her across a crowded room he approached her to learn more. It turned out her group had some available seats and she quickly invited us to join, subject to her guide’s approval. The park has strict limits on the number of visitors it allows each day and we had to be sure we would be allowed in. The guides got the okay and we are so glad they did!

As with all of our best stories so far, this journey began with a steep and windy road. The park was far from the pier. It was nearly noon when we boarded our vans, and we had to be back by 6:30, so there was no time to waste. Our driver was a young Mario Andretti on steroids, weaving in and out of traffic, cutting through parking lots to avoid traffic lights, whipping around the curves of the roller coaster road, making the 2-1/2 hour drive in just 1 hour and 45 minutes. The ride was so adventurous our fitness devices credited us with traveling more than a mile and taking more 3,000 steps along the way!

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature, an initiative begun in 2007 to create a list of seven natural wonders as chosen by people in a global poll. It encompasses approximately 55,000 acres with a full mountain-to-sea ecosystem with eight intact different types of forests. The highlight of the park is an underground river system that flows directly into the sea, with the lower half of the river subject to tidal influences. At nearly five miles long, it is the longest navigable subterranean river in the world. To access the river we first had to cross the ocean. We did so on motorized outrigger canoes, passing steep limestone cliffs along the way. We arrived at a pristine beach, where we descended the canoes using a stepladder and waded through knee deep water to the shore. We journeyed another 600 yards or so through a riverine forest to the most beautiful lagoon where we were fitted with hard hats and loaded into 6 person canoes powered by young men using long poles to guide them.

We entered the mouth of a cave and were immediately mesmerized by the beauty of the stalactites and rock formations. We were surroundedfa by flying bats, the silence of the cave broken only by the faint echo of bird calls, the only light provided by our guide’s small flashlight. Above us hung thousands more bats. It was magical!

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What a wonderful and full day!

We began our day at the Blasinga Waterfall, near Ubud. After paying the nominal entrance fee we made our way down an outdoor corridor, lined on either side by tall bamboo poles. We emerged in a multi-level tropical paradise, complete with infinity pools, tiki bars, and bamboo swings. We could hear the waterfall but would need to walk down two more levels before we could actually see it. It was incredible! On the opposite side of the river local folks were already beginning to gather at the pool at the bottom of the falls for a day of fun. It was really cool!

The weather, however, was hot! hot! hot! as you’ll notice in the pictures from our next stop – the Kemenuh Butterfly Park. I’ve never seen so many butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors. The park is small but impressive, designed for conservation and education, and to attract the highest number and variety of butterflies possible. Included in the park is a small garden shed where the pupa/chrysalis are kept to protect them from the birds and lizards that would otherwise prey on them in the garden. Here we saw the various stages of butterfly development and met the Giant Moth, a beautiful creature with a very short life span. It is born without a mouth and no way to take in nutrition, and lives only 24 hours. Being a butterfly is a hard life – even the other butterflies in the park have a life-span of only 5-7 days.

Next up was the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. The intent of the Sanctuary is to preserve the area based on the doctrine of Tri Hita Karana, a Hindu philosophy of maintaining a happy life through harmony with others, harmony with the environment, and harmony with the Supreme God. Home to approximately 900 Balinese long-tailed monkeys, the park is filled with beautiful sacred trees and is the site of three 14th century temples.

No visit to Bali is complete without a visit to at least one temple. Our final stop of the day was an historic temple whose name we do not know, where we were both required to don appropriate attire (wrap skirts kindly provided by the people at the temple). Thanks to our wonderful driver and guide, Fepi, we were able to fit a lot into our five hour day before it was time to return to the ship and set sail for the Philippines!

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Bali, Indonesia…white sand beaches, clear blue water lapping the shore, mountainous backdrops…not the Bali we visited today. Our Bali was incredibly crowded, with serious amounts of traffic, dirt and poverty. It was a far cry from what we expected, but it had much to offer.

Bali is land of many, many temples. It is said to have as many as 50,000, and after our visit here I believe it! In addition to the historical and community temples, there are individual temples at every place of business, every Hindu home, along important roadways, along sidewalks…they are literally everywhere. The temples are a reflection of Bali’s number one religion, Balinese Hinduism. Balinese Hinduism follows traditional Hindu philosophy and incorporates the traditional Balinese belief that objects, places and creatures all have a distinct spiritual essence. There are many gods in Balinese Hinduism, and homage is paid to them throughout the city in the forms of huge monuments. Our first stop of the day was to the Cultural Park, which is beautifully situated in the middle of the city, offers a tremendous amount of history and is home to a number of these monuments.

The main feature of the park is the Garuda Wisner Kencana statue, one of the world’s largest and highest monumental statues. It is made of copper and brass and stands 400′ tall, has a wingspan of 210′ and weighs in at a whopping 900 tons. It sits atop a large convention center-type building and can be seen from miles out at sea.

Following our visit to the park we stopped by one of the most famous beaches in the area, Pandawa Beach. It is surrounded by steep cliffs. Carved into the side of one are six statues with alters, a statue for one of each of the five sons of the Hindu god, Pandu, and one of his wife.

The afternoon was spent at a bird sanctuary, followed by a traditional Balinese dinner and ceremonial performance and fire dance. The variety and color of birds was amazing, and the performances were impressive. The costumes were incredibly detailed and vibrant, and the fire dance was the most unique we’ve ever seen!

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Komodo Island is probably the most untouched of all the places we’ve visited so far. There is only one small fishing village on the island, located an hour’s walk from the pier that we tendered to. There are no roads and cars are forbidden. Fewer than 20,000 people are allowed to visit each year, and aside from a small café and little shopping area where the locals hawk their wares there are no commercial interests on the island. As we approached the bay, we could see small fishing and houseboats reminiscent of Hemingway’s day dotting the horizon and hear children playing in the distance.

We began our journey in the main camp of Loh Liang, translated as “Big Dragon Nest.” Our group of 20 or so was accompanied by three guides. Agus provided the narrative for the day, and two other gentlemen carried big sticks in the shape of a tall “Y” to protect us from the dragons. Before we entered the forest, Agus pointed out lemon basil plants and had everyone crush the leaves in the palms of our hands and spread them all over any exposed parts of our body. This would be our natural bug and mosquito repellant. It worked great!

Indonesia is the only place in the world where Komodo Dragons can be found. They are scattered among five islands. Populations range from three on one island to 1,373 here on Komodo, for a total count of 3,013 dragons. They have existed for more than 40 MILLION years, but they were discovered by humans just a little over 100 years ago. They are said to have been the inspiration for the movie, “King Kong.”

Komodo Dragons can grow to nearly 10 feet in length and 300 pounds. They are generally solitary animals that live on meat, can run up to 20 mph, and swim up to a mile at a time. They have massive shoulders and wicked long, sharp claws that they use to take down their prey. They have a keen sense of smell, which they use their tongue for, and can smell food from as far as five miles away. Their large, curved serrated teeth are considered their most deadly weapon, and their bit is poisonous. We were fortunate to see quite a few of these guys, one of which walked right in front of us. It was a great day!

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Today we are in Darwin, Australia, home of the world’s oldest living culture (the Aborigines have lived here for 60,000 – 70,000 years) and jumping crocodiles!  The day greeted us with an amazing sunrise, warm temperatures and EXREME humidity!

Saltwater crocodiles are among the largest and most dangerous crocodiles on the planet.  Females generally grow to a maximum of 10 feet and 180-220 lbs., but males will continue to grow their entire lives.  They’ve been known to grow as large as 20’ and weigh in at nearly 2,400 lbs.!  These are some big guys – and we are part of their food chain.  Yikes!!! 

We travelled a little over an hour away from our ship, passing wetlands, orchards and fields as we went.  Darwin is only 121 feet above sea level, and tides in the area reach 20-30 feet, so much of the land we passed becomes flooded during high tide, with water coming right up to the roadway.  We saw Brahman cattle grazing in fields, geese with their baby ducks and we even saw a Wallaby, but he was quickly spooked by the bus, so we weren’t able to get a picture of him.

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the saltwater croc is that it lives in saltwater.  It especially likes the brackish waters of the Australian rivers that combine river and sea waters, like the Adelaide River we visited.  They live in the waters, coming to land only to hunt and lay eggs.  They will eat literally anything, frequently taking down cows and buffalo in the area, and can jump up to 6’ in the air to catch bats and birds.  A female will lay about 70 eggs at a time, but only 6 or so will make it to maturity and it is the temperature of the nest that will determine the gender of the baby – 86° for females; 89° for males.

There are about 200,000 saltwater crocodiles in Australia these days, 50 of which live along the stretch of the Adelaide River we visited.  Our guides claim to know all 50 crocodiles, differentiating them by their color, missing limbs (they will eat each other – ugh!), scars, etc.  As we boarded our boat there was a huge croc – probably 6-8 feet – loitering by the boat.  “Trolling” might be a better word!  The skipper said this was a “rogue” croc, one they do not recognize who only showed up a couple of days before.  He certainly looked like he was waiting for one of us to become crocodile bait, and the skipper was extremely nervous, advising us to keep all body parts and possessions inside the boat and to remain seated in the front row. 

It was a short excursion, but we were able to get some decent shots of the crocs jumping.

Enjoy!

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Pam has never been able to master the art of the snorkeling mask and breathing tube, so she opted for a different kind of adventure.  She went on a Sea Walk!

She donned her wet suit, put on a weight belt, and descended into a “holding pen” in the ocean space below the platform.  There she waited as a pressurized helmet was lifted over her head via crane (these puppies are HEAVY!) and settled onto her shoulders, making her look more like she was preparing for a space walk than a sea walk.  She made her way down another set of steps, completely submerging herself in the sea below, her helmet tethered to the oxygen chamber above.  Staff guided her along a metal rectangular platform that allowed her to mingle with the fish without having to deal with that pesky snorkeling mask.  There were professional photographers there to help capture the moment, and Pam augmented their photos with a few of her own (see if you can tell the difference – ha!).  Pam’s pictures prove that giant fish in the professional photos really was that big – no photoshopping here!

It was a fantastic experience lasting a short 20 minutes.  She would have stayed all day if they would have let her. 

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Another day so fantastic we need two blog entries to tell you about it!

On March 9, 2019 we visited one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Cairns (pronounced “Cans”), Australia.  The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is the largest living organism on the Earth.  It is 16,000 miles long – the equivalent of 70 MILLION football fields!  It occupies 214,00 square miles of ocean floor.  The Reef itself accounts for only 7% of the park; the rest consists of underwater islands, cays and grasses.  There are 2900 individual reefs, 900 of which can be seen from space.  There are 1,625 different kinds of fish in the Reef, 600 varieties of coral, 133 types of sharks and rays, and 16 types of turtles.  It’s easy to understand why the Reef is considered the most complex ecosystem on the planet, an ecosystem whose origins began more than 20 million years ago.  At its most shallow the Reef is 115 feet deep; at its deepest more than 6,500.

We began our day by boarding a catamaran directly off our own ship, just like we would a tender.  It was raining when we left, but as we bounced across the water toward the diving platform, clouds began to part, and the sun began to shine.  An hour and a half later we reached our destination – a large platform complete with a dive/snorkeling supply area, a staging area with metal picnic tables, an underwater viewing room, a Sea Walk platform (more on that in Part II), a dive platform, and a water slide/swimming area.  They pretty much thought of everything!

We shared the cost of an underwater camera with our friends Richard and Kathy (we left the camera behind and took a photo card with us when we left), and Ken got some great pictures while he snorkeled.  Pam went on a Sea Walk (see Post II of II), and we took a short voyage on a semi-submarine vessel to explore a little further away from the platform. We hope you’ll enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the day!

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Entering the Tamborine Mountain Rainforest is the most beautiful assault on the senses – lush green vegetation everywhere you look, the songs of a million cicadas and hundreds of birds ringing in your ears, butterflies as big as Pam’s hand flitting about…just when we thought we couldn’t stand another forest…this!

The Tamborine Mountain Rainforest was formed more than 22 million years ago by lava flow from the eruption of Mount Warning (great name for a volcano, don’t you think?).  It is home to 210 different species of trees, 40 different types of shrubs, 75 species of vines, 55 kinds of ferns, 26 varieties of orchids, 10 types of lilies and gingers and numerous herbs, mosses and fungi.  Apart from two of the tree species everything in the forest is evergreen.  At one point in history, eighty-five percent of the Australian continent was covered in forests like this; today that percentage has been reduced to 22%.  To protect the remaining forests Australia has passed a number of conservation acts, including one that prevents any further development in this area.  There are three villages on the mountain now, none of which have running water or sewage.  They rely on the collection of rain water and septic systems.

Standing on the steel suspension bridge that connects the visitor center to the forest walkway, it is amazing to realize that many of the trees that surround you begin their growth on the forest floor nearly one hundred feet below and continue their growth more than one hundred feet above you.  These are some tall, tall trees!

Following our walk, we visited Mount Tamborine Village, a quiet shopping village with a variety of boutiques with locally made wares, and then on to St. Bernard’s for lunch.  St. Bernard is the oldest hotel on the mountain and is beautifully situated on a hill overlooking the valley below, providing a view that goes on for miles and miles and miles.  The surrounding gardens and landscaping provide a perfect compliment to what nature has to offer.  The hotel has two St. Bernard dogs as mascots, and after a delicious lunch of extremely generous portions our hostesses brought the dogs out for petting and picture taking.

After lunch we visited the Witches Falls Winery, where we were treated to a very informal wine tasting.  It was very hot, so everyone sought shade under the voluminous olive trees.  We weren’t crazy about any of the wines, but we did enjoy the company and the scenery.

On the return trip home, we stopped at a viewpoint hang gliders often use for their launches.  Just as we were loading the bus to pull away one of those hang gliders approached the ledge for landing.  We weren’t fast enough with the camera to get a picture, but it was cool.  The perfect ending to a perfect day!

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When we entered the port area of Sydney we were struck by the beautiful cliffs surrounding the area, the number of sailboats in the water (it felt like we had interrupted a regatta!) and the many bays and beaches within our view. We passed by the Sydney Opera House and under the Sydney Harbor Bridge, providing Ken with photo opportunities worthy of a postcard. It was a spectacular entry.

Most people are familiar with Australia’s history as a penal colony for England, its famed Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge, its Great Barrier Reef, koalas and kangaroos, but did you also know that more than 16% of its territory is covered in a variety of forests?  That’s more than 300 million acres!  And more than 80% of their plants are unique to Australia, found nowhere else. We were fortunate to visit one of those forests today while we were in Sydney.

We drove about 60 miles west of Sydney to the Blue Mountains, named for the bluish tint created when the sun hits the eucalyptus trees of its forests and is seen from a distance.  The Mountains were once home to about 40 coal and oil shale mines, and as we walked the path of the densely populated forest, we found memorials to those days.  We rode one of the world’s steepest trains, originally built to haul coal and oil shale out of those mines in 1882 and continuing this function until 1945, when the last of the mines closed.  From 1928 – 1945 the train carried coal during the week and tourists on the weekends. 

From the top of the scenic railway we plummeted down the mountain at a 52° angle, through a dark tunnel and narrow passageway carved out of the rock, emerging on the slope of the valley.  This provided a great vantage point for viewing the valley of this densely populated eucalyptus forest that has pockets of semi-rainforests in gullies where the water pools.   Trees have massive, rope-like vines that carry water and nutrients to them – one of these vines is so strong it will support a small a car suspended in mid-air!  We saw Ribbon Gum trees, large, white-trunked trees that shed entire branches as they grow.  The shed branches look like long strands of hair and provide nesting holes for birds and possums.  We were introduced to the Rough Tree fern.  These ferns look more like trees.  They grow tall into the air, with long trunks that sprout the leaves of the fern at the top.  The trunk is covered in “shoot”-looking things called adventitious roots, which protect the tree and can also become roots.  If the tree is cut off at any point along its trunk and these roots come in contact with soil, they will activate and support the fern, causing it to grow again.

After wandering through the forest, we took a cable car back up the mountain.  The picture we took inside the car gives you a sense of the steepness of its path.  Once we arrived at the top, we took a skyway across the valley of the mountains.  Suspended about 1,000 feet in the air, the car provides a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains, cliffs and waterfalls – and the bottom opens (covered in clear glass) for an even more dramatic view.  Pretty cool!

Later we stopped at a viewpoint to get a better view of the Three Sisters, a rock formation of three side-by-side columns, and Jamison Valley, referred to as the Grand Canyon of Australia.  Incredible views.We stopped in the town of Katoomba for lunch and shopping.  Ken shopped for a local pub and found a beauty in the tree shrouded Bon Ton.  Last stop before returning to the bus was the remnants of Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Village, where we saw their Olympic stadium and the Olympic Torch stand.  A full day! 

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Last night we enjoyed what is for us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – we attended a play at the Sydney Opera House! What it made it doubly exciting is that we weren’t supposed to be here for this. Our ship was scheduled to arrive in Sydney on Monday morning and depart Monday evening, which would not have allowed us to experience any performances at the Opera House. Unfortunately, one of the crew members developed appendicitis, making it urgent for the ship to arrive earlier so that she could get the medical attention she needed. This meant the passengers got a little more time here than originally planned. For reasons we can’t remember we chose an excursion that does not include a visit to the Opera House, so we were especially happy to have a chance to make up for that decision. We had hoped to join a tour of the Opera House, but we weren’t able to get off the ship until 4:30, so we missed the last one. We did, however, discover there would be a play at 6:30, a comedy, no less, and we jumped at the chance to go. Tickets were surprisingly affordable – about $35 each – and the play was hysterical! We invited our new friends, El and Terry, to join us, and we all had a wonderful time. Afterwards, we enjoyed a meal along the waterfront. It was a special night we will not soon forget!

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After returning from the tour, we explored the town on foot.  We began with the Old Government Building, built entirely of timber in 1876 to house New Zealand’s civil service.  Even though it looks like a stone building on the outside, there is no stone in its structure.  It’s all wood – from the original pilings that continue to support the building today to the beams in the roof.  The interior woodwork is breathtaking.  All the building materials came from the Kauri tree we told you about in our Bay of Islands post.  Many say that if the building had been built of stone it would never have survived all the earthquakes that have hit Wellington. 

Next up was Old St. Paul’s, the Provisional Cathedral of the Diocese of Wellington from 1866-1964 and another magnificent wooden structure.  It too is made of Kauri wood, with stunning stained-glass windows and an interior design reminiscent of an upturned hull of a sailing ship.  Services are no longer held here, but people do still use it for baptisms (that round thing with a large wooden cone-shaped top is a baptismal bath) and weddings.  Outside the church are these two magnificent trees you see in the pictures.  They’re everywhere, and so, so pretty!

Not far from Old St. Paul’s is The Thistle Inn, New Zealand’s second oldest pub still standing in its original location.  The pub used to be located right on the pier, until that 1855 earthquake I mentioned earlier, when the land in front of the bar was lifted and the pier was relocated about a quarter of a mile down the hill.  The bar still uses the original cellar and they’ve put windows in the floor so you can see what it looks like, complete with a giant RAT!

Next up was the Parliament buildings, where Ken stopped to smell the roses in the massive rose garden in front of the Parliament Library (where only members of Parliament can enter).  You can guess from the pictures which building is referred to as “the Beehive,” which houses the offices of the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet.  They say it’s called that because of its looks, but we think the real reason is because this is where the Queen’s business is done.

Lastly, we rode the iconic Wellington Cable Car to the top of the hill where we found a university, botanical gardens, a tea room and an observatory.  As you might imagine, it was getting late in the day, so we weren’t able to explore any of these, but we did make time for Ken to test out the human sun dial we found.  The sun dial had numbers on the top half of its circle, beginning with number 9 on the right, and ending with number 8 on the left.  In the center in front of the numbers was an elongated figure 8.  Along the lines of the figure 8 were the names of the months and numbers 1-31.  The instructions were to stand on the date that you are visiting with your back to your sun.  Lift your arms over your head, clasp your hands and point straight up.  The dial will match the exact time of day you are visiting.  Ken did as instructed and it worked!

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What a fun day!  It was so spectacular we need two posts to tell you about it!

Wellington has been New Zealand’s capital since 1865.  Located between Cook Straight, which connects the Tasman Sea to the South Pacific Ocean and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable bodies of water in the world, and the Remutaka Mountain Range, Wellington is home to two universities, lots of history, and tons of great shopping.  More than half of its population of 200,000 are between the ages of 18 and 49.  Lonely Planet recently called it “the coolest little capital in the world.”  In 2016 Mercer’s Quality of Living Survey ranked it the 12^th most livable city in the world.

On the down side, it sites o the Wellington fault line, where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate, making it prone to significant earth quakes.  The most recent was a 6.2 that hit in 2016.  The most severe was an 8.2 quake that occurred in 1855.  That quake displaced nearly 2,000 square miles of land, the largest displacement along a vertical fault line ever recorded anywhere.  In that quake the ground in some areas were raised as much as 20 feet.  Other pieces of ground were moved horizontally as much as 60 feet.  The whole bayfront area was created by this quake – the water used to come up 5-6 blocks from where it is now.

We boarded a bus and headed to Pencarrow Station, New Zealand’s first sheep farm.  The farm itself wasn’t that interesting, but the scenery along the way and the road we had to travel to get there made the drive worthwhile (what is it with these cruise excursions and harrowing drives????).

We drove along the Storm Coast Highway, hugging the Pacific Ocean shoreline.  Winds in this area average 50-70 mph, and today was a 50+ day.  Our driver said anything less than 50 is referred to as a “Wellington breeze.”  Waves in this area can reach 25 feet.  They relentlessly pounded the shore as we drove along.  Along the way we passed New Zealand’s first ever lighthouse, and one that was manned by the first and only woman to be a lighthouse keeper.  In 1851 the town’s governor promised to build a lighthouse and keeper’s home.  By 1852 only a temporary keeper’s cottage had been built, with a light in the window.  George and Mary Jane moved in and kept that light going until George died in a boating accident in 1855.  A pregnant Mary Jane continued lighthouse duties and was the first to shine the light when the real lighthouse was finally operational on January 1, 1859.  Mary Jane stayed on until 1865 and raised her six children there alone. 

 The highway ends at a private dirt road.  Our driver opened the gate and continued on until he reached the base of steep and windy mountain road, with hairpin turns not designed with a full-size tour bus in mind!  Our driver expertly maneuvered the turns, the front of the bus hanging over the edge of some to ensure a wide enough turning radius for some corners, using 3-point turns to make it around others.  One the way back down we could hear the front of the bus bottoming out against the gravity of the steep grade.

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Auckland is New Zealand’s largest and fastest growing city. Built atop a cluster of extinct volcanos between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea, it offers something for everyone. It has a thriving city, more boats per capita than any other city in the world, and plenty of rolling hillside for those who prefer land. It’s easy to understand why a full third of New Zealand’s entire population chooses to live here.

We visited the Maukatia Takapu (otherwise known as the Gannet bird) sanctuary located along the beautiful Muriwai coast. Approximately 1200 pairs of birds share two of the giant rock formations on the coast, one of only three places you will find them in New Zealand. Gannets mate for life (20 years or so). They separate for a while during the winter, but return to the same spot every year to create a new family. They’re very affectionate birds, frequently kissing one another, tapping beaks and preening one another. The birds co-parent; both mom and dad sit on the nest to hatch the baby, and they take turns finding food once the baby has hatched. They have only one fuzzy little hatchling a year. The chicks spend about three months growing and gaining strength, and then one day they just fly off the rock – no practice or training – and find their way to Australia, where they will live for three years before returning to this same rock to find their own mate and continue the cycle of life.

Next up was a visit to a sheep farm deep in the hills. Situated on 200 acres surrounded by forest land and overlooking the bay, this was a personal residence that has been expanded to include this tourist opportunity. In addition to the sheep, the family is home to a herd of fallow deer. We had an opportunity to enjoy and feed the deer before being served a delicious lunch of roasted lamb, pork sausages, potatoes, homemade bread and a variety of local salads. Following lunch we watched a sheep shearing demonstration and observed the dogs do their work leading and driving the sheep. The dogs were fun to watch, especially the lead, a multi-colored border collie who could not wait to do her job. She was so happy to be out there – it was great!

On the way back to the ship we passed by the Auckland Sky Tower, a telecommunication and observation tower. Similar to the Space Needle of Seattle there is a restaurant at the top that rotates a full 180 degrees every hour. One big difference? This tower offers a 630 foot jump from the observation deck, during which a jumper can exceed 50 mph. The jump is guide-cable-controlled to keep the jumpers from being slammed into the building if the wind should gust. You can also climb to the antenna mast portion of the town or walk around the observation deck’s exterior.
^]

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Considered the birthplace of New Zealand, the Bay of Islands is a natural harbor about 10 miles wide on the northeastern coast of New Zealand’s north island. It is home to 144 islands whose landscapes range from rocky outcrops to largely populated islands with private farms. We anchored off Waitangi Wharf and tendered in.

The Maori arrived in the Bay of Islands in canoes as big as a bus. When they reached the short they placed logs under the canoes and rolled them to the base of the mountains, where they picked them up and carried them over the mountains to the west side of the shore. We’re talking some strong guys here! The Maori pretty much had the islands to themselves until the 19th Century, when the British arrived. Eventually the French found them, too, and in 1840 a little more than 500 Maori chiefs signed a treaty with the British government, giving them sovereignty over the island in exchange for protection from the French. The treaty was intended to be drafted in a way that respected the Maori rights, but problems arose. The treaty is drafted in both English and Maori, with the Maori text written as a direct translation of the English text. Unfortunately, some things were lost in translation which led to some unsavory acts by the Brits along the way. In 1975 a tribunal was established to serve as mediator between the Maori and British, interpreting the intent of the treaty and resolving disputes. New Zealanders celebrate the signing of the treaty every February 6th, but it continues to be a controversial document.

As our bus climbed 1,000 feet above sea level to the Manginangina Kaura Walk we enjoyed the soothing beauty of the rolling green hills, orchards and farmlands. The Kaura tree is a towering giant that produces a gum used to make linoleum and varnish. People used to “bleed” the tree to more easily access the gum, a practice that damaged the tree and made it more susceptible to disease. The practice was outlawed in 1905. The forest we visited is home to these trees and one of the last remaining examples of a subtropical rain forest.

From the forest we headed to the Kawiti Caves, a 20 million year old formation created when earthquakes created fissures in the rock and water began to flow through those fissures. The caves were found by a famous female Maori chief and are still owned and operated by her direct descendants. They are home to some 10,000 glow worms, tiny insect larvae that literally glow in the dark. The worms are covered in a stick substance that allow them to attach themselves to the roof of the cave when they are born. They position themselves directly above streams of water where bugs live and release long strings from their bodies. Their light attracts the bugs to them, they get caught in the string, the worm slurps them up…each worm eats a single bug every two weeks. The brightness of their glow indicates how recently they’ve eaten: the brighter the glow the longer its been. The worms live about 11 months. They are hatched from eggs, turn into larvae, the larvae becomes pupa, the pupa becomes an adult insect, mates, lays about 120 eggs and dies. Glow worms are only found in caves of New Zealand and Australia. They are able to survive there because they have no predators in these locations. The birds and bats that would eat them tend to stick to the bush in these areas, where food is in greater supply. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the cave, but Pam found one on the Internet that looks exactly like what we saw. It was magical!

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We spent February 22, 2019, Ken’s 63rd birthday on the east side of the island of Fiji. We didn’t see the beautiful white sand beaches one sees in travel brochures, but what we did see was still beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Fiji was once known as Cannibal Island. Tribal chiefs believed that by eating the flesh of your enemy you would gain power and control over their people and transfer that individual’s knowledge to yourself. It was also the ultimate revenge! As Christianity spread across the island, cannibalism occurred less and less frequently. The last known act of cannibalism occurred in 1867. In an effort to thwart Christianity a tribal chief killed and cannibalized Reverend Thomas Baker and six Fijian student teachers. Ultimately Christianity prevailed (Go, Christ!), and the chiefs formally agreed to end the practice. Interestingly, in 2003 Fijians from the village where the Reverend and students were killed formally and publicly apologized and asked for forgiveness. They believed their village had been cursed because of the killings and plagued with misfortune. They sought to atone for the sins of their ancestors. We don’t know the name of the village, so we’re not able to tell you if the apology worked, but we do know that action without faith won’t get you what you’re looking for, so we hope they had some conversations with God, too!

We left the port, and drove an our out of town, past urban residential and business areas and into the tropical rainforests of Fiji, past rural villages with simple but heat, well-cared for homes, some with beautiful gardens, all with open doorways and windows. Our guide explained that the villages in this area continue to use a barter system to exchange goods and services, there are no fences around individual houses, and there are no doors or closures on windows. This is because in the Fijian culture everything is shared and one’s open is always open to one’s neighbors.

We arrived at the longboat facility, where we were given waterproof bags and life vests and loaded into long boats, long narrow boats designed to navigate shallow waters. We were a little concerned when we saw a guy scooping water out of the hull of his boat while he waited to load passengers, but everyone survived just fine. The boats took us another hour upstream where we had the opportunity to swim under a giant waterfall. Along the way we noticed bamboo rafts parked here and there. Longboats are the main mode of transportation for villagers along the river to get to town for shopping. They run twice a week. If someone misses the boat or needs to get to town when they are not running, they cut down a couple bamboo branches, make a raft and oar and make their way to town. Our driver said it takes all of about 10 minutes. When they get where they’re going they park the raft for others to use, kind of like our free bike programs in the U.S.

At one point in the ride the river was so shallow we had to get out of the boats and walk. After exiting the boats we walked about a quarter of a mile into the rainforest up steep and narrow steps, and were rewarded with the beautiful falls and a refreshing swim in the river. A couple of the young guides also gave us a bit of a dive show, scrambling up the rocks of the falls and diving in as if it were nothing.

On the way back the boats dropped us off at one of the local villages where we were treated to a traditional welcome ceremony, complete with a bracelet dance by the women and a warrior dance by the men, and fed a delicious lunch that had been prepared using the earth ovens of the village.

When we returned to the ship Ken was greeted with a really sweet surprise. Our room stewards had decorated the cabin with balloons and banners and left a special friend on the bed with a message for him. Later that night we enjoyed dinner at his favorite shipboard steakhouse overlooking the end of the ship as we sailed away from Fiji and onto our next adventure.

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On Wednesday, February 20th, we crossed the International Date Line, immediately moving us 23 hours into the future. The International Date Line is an imaginary line on the Earth’s surface that defines the boundary between one day and the next. Pam wanted to know why we have an International Date Line, and she found a terrific explanation at http://www.livescience.com/44292-international-date-line-explained. Here’s a synopsis….

Before mechanical clocks time was measured mostly by using sun dials. “Noon” was when the sun was highest in the sky and due south. A “day” was the time between two consecutive noons. That worked fine within each individual city; however, the introduction of transcontinental railroads and accurate time pieces in the 19th century complicated things a bit. “High noon” occurs at different times in different locations. Travelers would have to reset their watches by several minutes each time the train pulled into another station. Telegraphy also created issues for commercial and military entities. The telegraph, introduced in 1832 allowed communication over great distances using electricity, which moves at the speed of light. The telephone followed in 1876. To use either system effectively required knowing what time it was at both the sender’s location and the recipient’s location. Scientists, railroads, the military and others agreed it was time to create a global standard for time.

The first system for time was introduced in 1876. It wasn’t officially sanctioned by any particular country or global entity, but by 1900 it had led to the adoption of the time zone system we use today. To create a global time system the day and date have to be separated. The 180 degree meridian was chosen as the point of separation because it runs mostly through open water, creating the least amount of inconvenience for countries applying the standard. Although the date line runs along the 180 degree meridian, it is not a straight line (as shown on the map). And it can be moved!

In 2011, Samoa changed its timezone by shifting the dateline west and skipping December 30th. In previous centuries Samoa’s greatest trading partner was the U.S. Over time New Zealand and Australia became Samoa’s leading trading partners. They were geographically closer to these countries, but on opposite sides of the International Date Line, which meant there was a 23 hour time difference. This caused them two lose two trading days a week with their main trading partners. Changing the date line allowed them to better synchronize their work weeks. For 119 years Samoa had witnessed the last sunset of the day and were the last to ring in the new year. Now they are the first. Another fun fact: American Samoa, located on the same island as Samoa, did not make the change, so now there is a 24 hour time difference between Samoa and American Samoa!

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Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa. It encompasses nine villages strung together along Pago Pago Harbor, one of which is itself named Pago Pago. It is home to one of the deepest natural deep water harbors in the South Pacific, making it a fisherman’s mecca. Ninety percent of the island is covered in untouched tropical rainforest. It is beautiful!

During the 1800s Germany, Britain and the U.S. all staked claims to Samoa for shipping interests. This led to two Samoan civil wars as different chiefs supported different countries’ interests. After the U.S. and Britain shelled a harbor being controlled by Germany things came to a head. The three countries reached an agreement on the division of the island, apparently with little or no input from the Samoans themselves. The U.S. gained control of the eastern side of the island, and it was renamed American Samoa.

As citizens of a U.S. territory American Samoans can travel to the U.S. serve in our military, but they cannot vote in our elections, hold any Civil Service positions, or sponsor family members for immigration. They have their own form of government and do not pay U.S. taxes.

For our day in Pago Pago we arranged a tour with a local company. We rode on the “Rambo” bus to visit the site of an abandoned tram that was built in 1965 to facilitate education. At the time it was very difficult for children of the different villages to get to school. A local TV station offered to solve the problem by broadcasting the day’s lessons. To do so they needed to install and maintain transmitters on one of the island’s tallest mountains. The tram provided regular transportation for TV engineers to service the transmitters. It ran from an elevation of 191 feet to 1,612 feet over Pago Pago Harbor, a span of 5,100 feet. We visited the office of the National Park Service where we saw examples of traditional cloth made from local plants, the skeleton of a BABY whale, and information about the surrounding rainforests, then drove through those rainforests and the villages that make up this side of Pago Pago. Look closely at the picture of the home and you’ll see an interesting sight in the front yard. It is full of tombstones and crypts. The Polynesians bury their dead in the front yard of their homes. The greater the position the individual held in the tribe, the larger the marker for their grave. Crypts are generally reserved for chiefs.

There’s much more to the story of this 3-hour tour that lasted 6 hours, but we’ll save that for when we return home. Not enough room here for all the details!

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What a fun day four-wheeling through the beautiful island of Bora Bora!

Bora Bora is the main island in the Society of Islands chain in French Polynesian. Pam looked high and low for an explanation of why they are called the Society Islands, but could not find an answer. If you know, please tell her! The island is 24 miles around, surrounded by a lagoon and barrier reef. We don’t need to say anything about the views – the pictures speak for themselves. This is what Bora Bora is known for, and is easily the most beautiful water we have ever seen. In the early 2000s there were 17 resorts on the island, many of them with the huts built out over the water like you see in all of the tourist brochures. All but one of these resorts were closed during the economic crisis, leaving 600 people without jobs. Tourism is the only source of income on the island, so you can imagine how devastating those closures have been for the people here. Two new resorts are being built now, but the companies building them are bringing workers in from France instead of using the workforce, which is pretty sad. The lack of employment opportunities has led many of the island’s youth to join the French Army, creating a concern for the long-term future of the island.

We had a fun and knowledgeable guide who took us up incredibly steep “roads” to amazing viewpoints. Scrambling up the sides of volcanic hillsides in the back of an open-air jeep with a tailgate that keeps swinging open and no seatbelts made for quite the adventure as we all hung on for dear life to avoid sliding into each other or flying out the back. It was hilarious!

The entire island of Bora Bora is run on one diesel-fueled generator (yes, for the whole island), water is provided through a de-salinization plant, and there is no hospital. There is a small medical clinic on the island, and if someone needs more extensive medical care they can be flown by helicopter or small biplane to Tahiti. The ride itself is only 15 minutes, but there aren’t a lot of readily available helicopters or planes, so a person can wait 5-6 hours to be transported. No babies are delivered on the island. Women who are expecting spend the last month of their pregnancy at a birthing center in Tahiti. There are no husbands or family members in the delivery room. The woman delivers and the husband receives a phone call telling him he’s a dad.

Until two years ago there was no high school on the island. Kids would be sent to Tahiti or Papeete, leaving their homes on Monday morning and returning Friday night. Those with families who lived farther inland would only come home once a month. Education is free, but it was the family’s responsibility to arrange room and board for their student, a tremendous hardship for families with many children. As a result, many children did not continue their education beyond grade school. Having the high school on the island has been a very big deal.

The last viewpoint our guide took us to had an old cannon positioned at the top of it and the remnants of ammunition bunkers. The U.S. placed eight cannons around the island during WWII to protect against an attack by the Japanese. When it was all over the Americans returned home, leaving the cannons and 126 children behind.

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Papeete is the economic center of Tahiti. Its main industries are tourism, coconut-related products, fishing and black pearls. We took advantage of our time here to join a tour of the island, where we learned a bit about the deep spirituality of the Tahitian people, visited beautiful gardens, and checked out a grotto.

Tahitian people are very spiritual and feel a deep connection to their ancestors. In days gone by young men would go through a rite of passage from childhood to manhood. Each year, the Chief of each tribe would gather all of the boys who had turned 18 and together all of the chiefs and young men would make a journey into the mountains. Before going, each young man would have the opportunity to volunteer to be the sacrifice that would be offered to the Gods during this trek. The chiefs would choose one person from among all of the volunteers – no one was ever forced to be the sacrifice. When they got to their ceremonial site, the young man chosen would be given a special drink that would cause him to fall into a coma. The group would lay the body on special alter, conduct their ceremony and set the pyre on fire. The young man would remain “asleep” as his body was offered as sacrifice. The rest of the men would leave the mountain and return 45 days later. This allowed time for the body to fully burn, and for the ashes to be spread among all of the villages. At the end of 45 days the men would return to the mountain to complete the ceremony. Each tribe would give a piece of land to the family whose son had been sacrificed. That land was handed down from generation to generation, and remains in families today. Our guide’s father was a chief whose family had received such land and the family now owns land on all of the islands of Tahiti. They are not allowed to sell it, and their family will always have a place to live. Tahitians also believe that their ancestors continue to live among them in this way, and they feel their spirits everywhere. Our guide spoke with great reverence about feeling the spirits of the ancestors at the ceremonial site we visited, in the gardens…it was pretty cool.

We also learned about the Noni fruit, the item you see Pam holding in her lap on the large green leaf. Polynesian people are great believers in natural medicine, and the Noni fruit is a large part of that tradition. It is used to treat diabetes, cancer, reduce weight, and manage one’s energy. It’s even used as a natural form of Viagra! As an energy drink they mix it with four other fruits, put the juice in a tightly sealed container and let it ferment for three days. Then they hold their nose as they take 1 teaspoon a day to give them energy.

After visiting the gardens, Ken walked across the street to check out the view and found a water taxi site. We thought the sign offering valet parking was pretty funny.

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Located more than 3,000 miles from the nearest continent, Rangiroa is part of the Tuamotu archipelago, the French Polynesian group of more than 80 islands and reefs that form the world’s largest chain of atolls (ring-shaped reef, island or chain of islands formed of coral). It is a mere 124 miles in circumference, and ranges between 2/10 and 3/10 of a mile wide. Captain Jacques Cousteau called it one of the most beautiful sites in the world, and we have to agree.

The island is buffeted on either side by the Pacific Ocean, but locals refer to one side as Moana-tea (Peaceful Ocean) and Moana-uri (Wild Ocean). All along the coast you see coral, most of which has been bleached out. We were told by a couple who’ve been here before that the coral used to be a variety of brilliant colors, but over time warming ocean temperatures and other factors not clearly understood have caused the coral to become bleached out or die.

There is an abundance of black lip pearl oysters in the atolls of French Polynesian, and the farming of these pearls is one of the main industries on Rangiroa. A more surprising industry is winemaking. Rangiroa is home to one of the world’s most unusual vineyards, with vines growing on the edge of a lagoon, right alongside coconuts. The grapes were brought to Rangiroa from various parts of Europe in 1992, and have been successfully harvested since 2000. The vineyard currently produces 30,000 bottles of award-winning wine every year.

The island has a flattened, elliptical-shaped lagoon teaming with fish. The water is an indescribably clear blue, shallow enough for the average adult to be able to touch the bottom as much as 300 yards out, and incredibly warm. The pictures speak a thousand words to the beauty of Rangiroa.

People here live a simple life – the houses have no doors or glass in the windows, and we saw no beds – only mattresses laying directly on the floor. Most cooking seems to be done outside, over an open fire, and there didn’t appear to be much electricity. There is no running water on the island. Each household must retrieve and store fresh rainwater in tanks. This could explain why there are literally no public toilets on the island. When Pam had the need to go she ventured down a road where a sign indicated she would find a restaurant and “pension.” She found three free-standing buildings, one of which had a couple sitting on the porch. Fortunately they spoke English. When she asked about a restaurant they said there wasn’t one. Public restroom? None on the island. Then they did a very generous thing: they offered to let her use theirs. And she did!

Want to get away from it all? Come to Rangiroa!

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Nuku Hiva is the largest f the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. It is where Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, abandoned his whaling ship to live among the Typee people and found the inspiration to write his first book, Typee, and it’s sequel, Omoo. Robert Louis Stevenson also spent time here, stopping by on his way from San Francisco to Hawaii. Finally, it’s where the fourth season of the reality TV show, “Survivor” took place. That’s a lot of claim to fame for an island covering a mere 127 square miles.

Interestingly, an American Army Captain came upon the island in late 1813. The Polynesians were at war. The Captain and his troops overcame first one group and then another, holding them prisoners or enlisting their help in overthrowing others until all of the Polynesian factions had been beaten. The Captain named the islands the Washington Islands and claimed them for the U.S. When he eventually returned to the U.S. and shared the good news with his government, however, they did not approve of his methods or behavior and refused to have anything to do with the islands. The people were essentially left alone until the French came along in 1842 and took possession of the island, including it in the islands that make up French Polynesia.

We were tendered from the ship and greeted by native dancers when we arrived at the island’s dock. As we stepped onto the island we saw a huge statue on the hill in front of us. Our first mission was to make our way to the top of that hill and learn more. When France took over Nuku Hiva, they brought the Roman Catholic Church to the island. The church forbid many of the cultural traditions, such as native dress, dancing and chanting, tattooing, and embalming the dead. Much of the Typee culture was lost. France returned the island to its native people in 2013. In 2017, the local people erected this monument and others to re-establish their culture. The front of the statue is a woman’s face. The woman, Tiku Tuhiva, holds all the ancestral strength and knowledge of the Typee people. A young warrior has filled himself with this strength and knowledge and is stepping forward to master his future, just as the Typee people are now stepping forward to reclaim their future.

We also saw beautiful foliage, black sand beaches and a church with masterful carvings and wooden architecture. We were joined on the return tender by some of the crew taking loads of fresh fruit back to the ship, including bananas and breadfruit, an island staple. Later that afternoon on the ship we were treated to a traditional dance performance by the local people. A final highlight of the day for Pam was seeing multiple schools of Manta Rays swimming around our ship. She couldn’t get a good picture, so we’re borrowing some from the Internet to share.

It was a good day!

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No ones seems to know exactly why or when it began, but approximately 400 years ago navies the world around began an initiation ritual for anyone crossing the equatorial line for the very first time. This time-honored tradition is now also carried out on commercial cruise ships. This “line crossing” ceremony celebrates a passengers rite of passage from slimy pollywog (one who hasn’t crossed the equator) to trusty Shellback, the nickname given to a son or daughter of King Neptune, ruler of the seas.

The ceremony goes something like this…As the ship approaches the equator, King Neptune boards the ship to execute his authority over the high seas and hold all of the pollywogs accountable for posing as sailors; one must have crossed the equator to be considered a true sailor. Initiation rituals differ from ship to ship, but in our case, the King calls all pollywogs to task, beginning with the pollywogs on the crew, then deals with them one by one. Each pollywog approaches the King, gets water dumped on their head, then has to kiss a REAL dead fish (ewwww!)!!! The crew also got noodles and all kinds of stuff rubbed in their hair, but the King was a little more kind to the passengers. It was a good time, and in case you are wondering, no, we did not choose to participate in the ceremony. We didn’t pay close enough attention to our bulletin and so did not come properly dressed for the occasion. Darn!

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On Saturday, February 9th we joined a mixology class offered on the ship. Sebastian Houdemon is a Frenchman who grew up immersed in the worlds of catering and restauranteering. As a teen he saw the Tom Cruise movie, “Cocktail,” and fell in love with the idea of blending his love of catering and food with cocktails. Over time he combined his formal catering education with personal research and began creating his own cocktails. He experimented on friends, and even used customers of a deep sea fishing operation he ran for a while to hone his craft. Customers would hire Sebastian and his boat to take them fishing, and once they were situated he would go to work asking about their individual taste preferences, and then make up cocktails on the spot just for the individual. He has now advanced to offering his services at corporate or special events, blending unique cocktails for those in attendance or teaching them how to make their own concoctions. Not long ago a mutual friend invited Sebastian and the head chef for all of Oceania to a party, where the two of them met. The chef was intrigued by Sebastian, and after a follow up meeting where he sampled his cocktail making talents, the chef invited Sebastian to board a leg of our Around the World journey to share his gifts with Oceania guests. We spent an entertaining 90 minutes learning the importance of balancing the flavors of our ingredients, how critical it is to the flavor of the drink to properly muddle ingredients like cucumbers, basil and mint using ice and a shaker, and even how to smoke ice. Smoked ice? Really??? Who knew this was even a thing???

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Unfortunately, today’s excursion was canceled because of a road closure. The tour company did its best to find another way around to get us there, but they just couldn’t make it happen. So instead of a first-person account of this magnificent volcano, Pam will share what she’s learned, and share pictures other people have taken and posted on the internet.

Mauna Kea is one of five volcanos that form the island of Hawaii, aka The Big Island. It measures over 33,000′ from its base to its tip. Most of the volcano is under water; only 13,802′ can be seen above water (so Pam wonders how they measured it from its base so far under the ocean – pretty impressive stuff!). It is over 7,580 cubic miles in volume, and continues to slip and flatten under its own weight. Scientist estimate it is flattening at a rate of about 1/10″ every year. It is Hawaii’s highest point, and the only Hawaiin volcano with evidence of an ice cap. The volcano is over a million years old and dormant.

Because of its high elevation, dry environment and stable airflow, Mauna Kea’s summit is considered one of the best sights in the world for astronomical observations. At its summit there are 13 telescopes from eleven different countries, and the largest electromagnetic research facility in the world.

As you can see from other people’s pictures it would have been really cool to visit this place, and we are really bummed that we weren’t able to. Maybe next time.

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Honolulu is the capital and largest city of Hawaii. A bit of trivia for you…it is also the most remote city of its size in the entire world, and the westernmost major city in the U.S. In 2015 it was ranked the 2nd safest city in the U.S. (in case you’re wondering – as Pam was, of course – the #1 safest city at that time was Irvine, CA. In 2018 Naperville, IL was the safest city and Irvine dropped to #2. Honolulu isn’t even on the list any more…hmmm….).

Honolulu is a gorgeous location, and since we’ve been here before we elected to go golfing – yes, again! Today it was Ko’olau Golf Club, considered one of the toughest courses in the nation and one of the top three courses in Hawaii. That’s not why we chose it, though. We chose it because the location looked amazing, and we were not disappointed. Located on the windward side of the Ko’oalau mountain range, the pro shop shares its location with a church and conference center (all three are located in the same building), and the course was carved out of a rain forest.

It has been raining for the past three days, so the course was very wet. The guy in the pro shop even tried to talk Ken out of golfing, but Ken wouldn’t be deterred, and we are so glad we went. We were joined on the 5th hole by one of the Club’s maintenance guys, Dane, who was doing a little golfing of his own while on vacation. Dane pretty much adopted us, insisting Ken accept his gift of about 15 orphaned golf balls, chaperoning us from hole to hole, sharing “secret” lookouts with great photo ops, and even buying us some refreshments at the turn. He did all of this expecting nothing in return. He didn’t even give us a chance to invite him to lunch at the end of the round. Dane is a local, and was simply sharing the very generous Hawaiin spirit of hospitality. Dane told us that when it rains water flows between all of the folds of the mountain you see in the background of our photos. He said when this happens it looks as if the mountain is crying. Beautiful imagery, eh?

The course was definitely a challenge, and at the end of the day we were grateful for Dane’s donation of balls. Ken left a dozen or so behind for Dane and his co-workers to find again tomorrow.

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The sun was just beginning to peek above the horizon as our ship made its way into the harbor at Kauai, Hawaii on February 4th after 5 days at sea. We were greeted by a pilot boat responsible for guiding the ship into the harbor and avoiding all the hazards along the way. Kauai is the oldest of the main Hawaiin Islands, and is often referred to as the Garden Island because of its many tropical rainforests, cascading waterfalls and abundance of natural beauty. It is one of Hawaii’s least populated islands with only 66,000 residents and generally popular with those who prefer a quieter, more serene experience of Hawaii.

Kauai is also known for being overrun by wild roosters and chickens. We’ve heard a couple of explanations for this, but the most common seems to be Hurricane Iniki, which ripped across the island in 1992, destroying chicken coops and releasing the domesticated birds into the open. There were too many to round up in the aftermath of the hurricane and over the years their population has grown so much many consider them a neusance. On the plus side they are beautiful birds and they eat pesky bugs; on the minus side they are literally everywhere and Pam wasn’t too fond of them waking her at 4:00 a.m. every morning when we stayed here with our friends Bob and Kathy Kelln a couple of years ago.

Because we’ve been here before we opted to spend the day on the golf course. It started out beautiful, but by the 9th hole it was pretty wet. The rain didn’t bother Ken, though, and he ended the day with a terrific 85 for the day. Not bad!

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We arrived in the Port of Los Angeles (aka America’s Port) around 5:00 a.m. Wednesday, January 30th. Located in San Pedro Bay, the Port of Los Angeles is America’s largest port and the busiest in North America. In 2018 the port moved approximately 9.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (port speak for shipping containers – a twenty-foot equivalent is equal to one shipping container 20′ long x 8′ tall). It covers 7500 acres of land and 43 miles of waterfront, and includes passenger and cargo terminals. There’s a lot going on here, including the replenishment of our cruise ship’s supplies. During the journey from the ship to Customs (even though we began our trip in the U.S. and it’s not yet over we had to clear customs) we caught site of the many pallets of foods and other supplies being loaded onto the ship for these next few days of sailing. These pictures are a fraction of the load.

Once we made it through Customs we met up with Ken’s youngest sister, Lois, who graciously agreed to make the 90-minute one-way journey from L.A. proper to San Pedro. We spent the day at Knott’s Berry Farm. Most folks familiar with Knotts Berry Farm know that it began as a real berry farm owned by the Knotts family. Over time the family added a restaurant, stores, and small attractions to keep waiting guests entertained. One thing led to another and an amusement park was born. Here’s an interesting bit of trivia for you. In 1932 Walter Knotts was visiting his friend Rudolph Boysen. Boysen introduced Walter to a new berry he had created by cross-breeding a blackberry, a red raspberry, and a loganberry. Boysen sent Walter home with his last six plants, which Walter proceeded to cultivate at his farm and sell at a roadside stand. When people asked him what the big delicious berries were called he told them, “Boysenberries!”

Ken spent the day at Knotts Berry Farm getting his adrenaline fix for the year. If you look closely, you’ll see him in the front seat of the roller coaster that is going straight up in the air. The name of the coaster is Hang Time – just as the coaster is about to begin its descent from the top it stops. The track comes back in on itself just enough to create the illusion you are being suspended in mid-air. You get to “enjoy” this feeling for about 10 seconds before the mad rush through the flips and turns begins. He’s also in the front seat of the pink colored coaster tracks, where the operator warns you to plant your head firmly against the headrest to avoid whiplash just before the coaster shoots out of the gate like a rocket, and sends you straight up and straight down. On the Supreme Scream, he rode his car all the way to the top, just so he could experience the quick drop to the bottom!

There were also some fun historical stops. Lois is a teacher, so it was especially fun to check out the school house from the 1800s with her. Take a look at the rules for the teachers and the punishments for student’s bad behavior. Note that male teachers were allowed to court but female teachers were not; female teachers who married would be immediately dismissed; and male teachers who made the poor decision to visit a barber for a shave would have their character and integrity called into question. If you performed your duties faithfully and well you might receive a raise after THREE years.

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We’ve spent the last three days visiting ports in Mexico, a country we’re very familiar with and very fond of. Because we’ve been here so often we opted not to do any of the excursions that were offered. Instead, Ken went golfing with Pam as his (sort of) caddy.

First stop was Manzanillo, Mexico’s busiest port city. We passed miles and miles of ship containers on the drive from the port to the golf course. Golfing in Mexico and Hawaii has been the plan all along, and Ken’s been storing his golf clubs under the bed in anticipation of this day. Today’s outing was at Las Hadas, the most famous of the city’s resorts because it was featured in the Bo Derek/Dudley Moore movie, “10.” The course was VERY challenging – we’ve never seen so many hazards and it took longer to find some of the holes than to play them. Ken lost 6 balls along the way, but the day was beautiful and we had a great time.

Day two was our favorite Mexican city, Puerto Vallarta. Here we were greeted by a Mariachi Band, typical P.V. Ken played a course he originally golfed with his friends Pat and Scott nearly 20 years ago. It was a perfect day for golf – bright blue skies, temperatures in the mid-70s. Ken remembered that the last time the guys played the course there were crocodiles in the water, and sure enough as we made our way around the course we saw lots of signs warning us about the crocodile habitats, but we weren’t seeing any crocodiles. Until we got to the 6th hole or so. As we made our way to Ken’s excellent drive we went right past a big ol’ croc laying right next to one of those warning signs. Talk about “getting the picture!” Not long after that we counted SIX more spread out in one of the water hazards, and so it continued through the rest of the course. Made for some pretty exciting golf, we gotta say. Fortunately, Ken’s shots were spot on and we didn’t tick off any crocs.

Day three was supposed to be golf in Cabo San Lucas, but when we realized we wouldn’t be teeing off until 1:00 p.m. we quickly traded that plan for a day at the pool. Given the Cabo afternoon sun, that was a wise decision indeed!

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Today we visited Puntarenas, Costa Rica, a country that recently celebrated its 70^th year with no Army.  They purport to be the most educated country in Latin America, but I’m not sure how accurate that claim is.  Elementary school is mandatory, but high school is optional.  Approximately 85% of elementary students elect to continue through high school, but only 30% of those who go to high school continue to University.

Our tour today was in the beautiful Cloud Mountain.  We were promised a hummingbird garden and a butterfly garden, and we did see hummingbirds and butterflies, but our definition of a “garden” appears to be slightly different than that of our tour company.  We arrived at the trailhead to discover we would be sharing the area with zipliners – and Ken spent the rest of the short hike wishing he could be on those lines!  As we entered the opening to the trailhead, there was the hummingbird “garden” – a small group of short trees with a large collection of plastic red and clear hummingbird feeders hung all over them.  And they were very busy!  Ken got some excellent shots of the birds visiting the feeders, and Pam always loves watching hummingbirds in any setting, so we weren’t too disappointed.  We learned that there are over 200 species of hummingbirds, 25% of which can be found in Costa Rica.  According to our guide, a single hummingbird will visit between 2,000 and 2,500 flowers in a single day, and yet they only spend 20% of their time in the air.  Pretty amazing!

As we walked along the forest floor, we could hear the wind howling through the trees towering above us, and the roar of a distant river running through the woods.  We crossed five suspension bridges along the way, each of which gave us a different view of the river we were hearing.  After approximately 20 minutes or so of walking we can to the end of the trail and the butterfly garden….an area of plants enclosed in mesh.  We did find a couple of butterflies in the enclosure, so they didn’t lie, but it wasn’t quite what we were expecting.

After a stop for lunch there was the requisite visit to a souvenir shop.  This one had a pretty garden area behind it where we snapped some photos while waiting for our fellow passengers to complete their purchases.

Costa Rica is a beautiful country; 65% of its land is covered in lush forests.  Much of the remaining 35% is covered in a variety of vibrant crops.  We would love to have got pictures of this landscape, but alas!  There were no photo opportunities on our way up or down the mountain.

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We don’t know how many of you out there have ever tried climbing a volcano, but just being able to say that was our plan seemed pretty exciting to us.  Little did we know!

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America.  It is home to 13 volcanos, 6 of which are still active, and all of which appear in a straight line in the same mountain range.  We could see one of them off in the distance spewing ash and steam when we arrived at the pier, where we greeted by a group of local musicians and brightly dressed dancers performing traditional music and dances for us.  As we moved from the ship to our tour busses, a little girl handed us small welcome bags.  It was very sweet.

On our drive from the port to the volcano, we passed many bicyclists and tuk-tuks, bicycle-like vehicles with a bench on each side to carry passengers.  We also passed several oxen pulling wagons full of twigs and small branches or other supplies.  Our guide, Pedro, explained that most of the homes in the area do not have power or running water.  Because of conservation efforts the people are not able to cut down trees for firewood, so they make trips into the wooded areas to collect fallen branches and twigs.  Only if a tree is diseased or dying may they cut it down.

We also saw several cars and motorcycles being stopped by police.  Pedro said the police were looking to see if any of them had two women traveling with them – Mary Jane or Snow White.  😊  Soon we noticed the police were following us.  Pedro said they often escort tour busses through the city to ensure that they don’t get delayed by traffic and are late getting back to the ship.  We would later question the truth of this.

We travelled along a well-maintained highway for quite a while, then turned onto cobblestone streets before finding the deep volcanic ash road that led to the base of the volcano.  When we arrived at the base, it was very windy.  We were joined by a second bus from the ship, giving us 2 guides for 34 hikers.  The guides told us to look at the trail and decide if we wanted to continue, because once we started there would be no turning back.  They also warned the wind would be three times stronger when we go to the top.  We thought that meant there’d be a short section where we would experience a lot of wind, and then we’d find a windbreak and make our way down.  Wrong and wrongThe climb was steep and rocky, as expected, and the wind was relentless.  More than once we stopped to wait out a gust before continuing on. About 1/3 of the way up we reached a bit of a plateau where we stopped to rest.  The wind was howling at 60+ mph, pummeling exposed skin with small volcanic rocks, spraying dust and particles into our eyes, and threatening to steal anything that was not firmly secured to our body.  Ahead of us was the ridge leading to the rim of the volcano, wide enough to walk 3 across, with steep drops on either side.  As the wind continued to rage, our guide said it was time to move on.  We struggled to stand, let alone move forward.  Ken grabbed Pam’s hand (he literally saved her life today) and pulled her the quarter of a mile to the rim.  A woman traveling alone crawled along the path.  An older gentleman with two walking sticks repeatedly fell, picked himself up, and fell again until he had to stop for a while.  When we reached the rim, we sat in a line, waiting for the rest of the group.  We saw a man in his early 20s nearly get blown over.  How was the view?  Pam couldn’t really say – she was curled up in ball trying to stay alive, but Ken got some great photos.  😊 

And then it was time for our descent….straight down a barren 45-degree slope of hot volcanic rock, all the time continuing to battle that 60+ mph wind.  Turns out there were no windbreaks.  The recommendation was to walk sideways, allowing your foot to slide forward in the “sand” as you sank about half-way up to your calf with each step, or slide down on your bottom.  Ken chose to stand against the wind; Pam chose the “easy” way, until her seat got too warm and she realized she had ‘burned’ through the entire bottom of her shorts!  It might have been embarrassing if she hadn’t had so much company – there was more than one pair of ruined shorts this trip, and they didn’t all belong to women!

We did eventually make it down.  The police that had been following us?  They had to rescue five of our fellow hikers.  Once everyone was present and accounted for at the bus, they high-tailed it out of there.  We were now at least an hour behind scheduled, so the bus driver and Pedro decided to take a short-cut to our lunch location.  Mistake!  They got lost!!!  We arrived back at the ship more than an hour later than we were supposed to, tired, dirty, and with stories to tell!

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It is one thing to know of the Panama Canal. It is another thing entirely to experience it. The Panama Canal is a 48 mile stretch of water connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, THROUGH the Central Mountain Range of the Panama Mountains. A series of three locks carries ships from their starting ocean to Gatun Lake, the third largest man made lake in the world. Construction on the dam took about 13 years. It began under President Theodore Roosevelt, and was completed under the watch of President Woodrow Wilson. When the project first began it was being done by civilian contractors. After the second contractor within three years quit, President Roosevelt got frustrated and wanted to find a contractor that COULDN’T quit until the task was completed. Bring in the Army Corps of Engineers! They completed the project under budget and in less time than expected. Along the way 30,000 men lost their lives. It should be noted that although the Army Corps of Engineers managed the project, workers came from all over the world. Now operating continuously since 1914, the canal is open 24 hours/day and hosts an average of 36 ships/day. The locks truly are an engineering feat – especially when one considers they were built more than 100 years ago. The original doors and gate mechanisms continue to be used today.

We entered Panama a little after 5:00 this morning, and were in the locks shortly before 7. As we prepared to enter the first lock we were met by a couple of small boats with men carrying cables that were attached to the side of our ship. These cables were then connected to these strange looking train engines on either side of the lock. The cables are pulled taught and the engines travel alongside the ship as we move through the locks to ensure that we do not bump up against the sides. As we exit the locks, the cables are removed. Large tugboat looking vessels accompany us as we move from one lock to the next, to be sure we stay in the proper lane of the canal. This is a very intricate process and well-refined.

As we traveled through the canal we crossed the Gatun Lake, created 85 mile above sea level by blowing out huge sections of the mountain, and the Continental Divide. We pass under the Bridge of the Americas, a road bridge in Panama that spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal and connects the North and South American land masses. Amazing!

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Situated between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Cartagena is a beautiful city, with a rich and colorful history and a HOT! HOT! climate! There are a total of seven forts built outside the walls of the city to protect it from its enemies – pirates and enemies of Spain. We visited the larges of these forts -the Castillo San Filipe. This massive structure took nearly 95 years to complete. It contains 13 cannon batteries, each with multiple positions for cannons, and a sophisticated tunnel system with more than 1500 tunnels. In between each cannon position is a platform. Each time a cannon fired it would take approximately 30 minutes to clean and reload it. While that was happening, soldiers would stand on the platform and defend the fort. Cartagena is surrounded by water – the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Atlantic on the other. To better protect themselves from the threat of water invasion, they built a wall under the water in the main bay. The wall could not be seen above water, but when the bottom of the boats hit the wall it was dead in its tracks. This forced invaders to use the shallower, more narrow canal on the opposite side of the city. That canal was not only more difficult to navigate, it was infested with mosquitos carrying malaria and yellow fever. Even if a ship successfully navigated the canal, many on board would die of disease. These Spaniards were very clever people. That underwater wall I mentioned remains in place to this day!

The streets of Cartagna are lined with colorful window baskets and beautiful trees with massive branches. Some of the branches look like totally separate trees themselves, they’re so big! We visited a Spanish Inquisition museum, where we found a hangman’s gallows and a guillotine. During the Inquisition a number of women were tried for witchcraft. One of the ways the church determined if a woman was a witch was to weigh her. Less than 50 kilos (110 lbs.) she must be a witch because she was so light she could fly away; more than 50 kilos she must be a witch because she was filled with sin.

Sixty-seven percent of all the world’s emeralds are mined from Cartagena. Among the pictures here you will see an emerald in its natural state. Pretty cool! We also learned that the doors on the homes the walled city of Cartagena tell their own story. During colonial times the doors were adorned with nails and knockers. The size and number of the nails told you how wealthy the homes inhabitants were (the larger and more numerous the nails the wealthier the family), and the knockers told you their profession: lion = government; hand = church; iguana = sea.

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Interesting day visiting the beautiful old town of Havana, Cuba. What was once a thriving mecca of capitalism is now a struggling socialist country where the average monthly wage is $45/month, individuals were not allowed to own cell phones, computers, or cars until 2008, and although they may own property few can afford it. Banks do not offer mortgages in Cuba, and it’s difficult to save the money to buy the tiniest, most affordable $15,000 apartment, so many families combine the income of multiple generations to buy a single 2-bedroom apartment for three or more families to share. We heard stories of individuals marrying someone simply because that person has a car. Then they immediately file for divorce and ask to be awarded the car as part of the settlement!

Most of our time was spent on the bus, and little information was provided about the places we stopped, so I’m not able to share much information here. We saw beautiful buildings in Old Town, but there were no photo opportunities. We visited this cool old fort, but I don’t know it’s name or why it was important. Many of you have heard stories about the multitude of older cars found in Cuba. It’s true! I don’t think we saw a single new car. There are lots of 1940 and 1950 model vehicles, and a lot of WWII-era motorcycles with side cars that look pretty cool. ‘Course, that’s not why people own them. A lot of the cars (especially the Chevys from the 50s) look great from a distance, but up close you find that some have been painted with spray paint or paint brushes, there is a lot of rust, and few have their original engine. Most of them were built as hard tops but have been made into convertibles to attract more tourists. Many of the nicer ones operate as taxis, offering tourists a trip down memory lane as they ride around the island.

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We set sail for our 177-day around the world cruise on Monday, January 14. We are sailing on Oceania’s Insignia ship with 682 other passengers, 285 of which are joining us for the entire journey. The other 400 or so will be disembarking at Los Angeles, where we will pick up a new group of passengers for the next leg of the journey. And so it will go every 30 days or so as we make our way around the globe.

The ship is beautiful, with plenty of activity, dining and lounge options. There’s even a putt-putt golf course! We will be living in 210 square feet, which may sound pretty tiny, but we were able to find room for all of our belongings, including the three large suitcases we used to get them here and Ken’s golf clubs.

We have already begun making new friends, some on the bus that took us from the hotel to the port, some at the Champagne Welcome Reception for the world travelers, and some at dinner. We are a diverse group. There are those who have done multiple world cruises (one woman is on her FORTIETH – 4-0 – world cruise!), those who have never cruised before (what a way to start!), blue collar folks, senior executives, business owners – all of whom are retired. We’re probably within 10 years of the majority of our fellow passengers, but there are some older folks. Everyone has been very friendly so far, but, alas, we haven’t found anyone to play Mexican Train or Pinochle with us yet (sigh).

It looks to be a wonderful experience and we can’t wait to get started!

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On December 28th we visited friends in beautiful Delray Beach, Florida.  What we expected to be a rainy day visited turned into a beautiful day for walking the streets and visiting the beach.  Friends John and Lisa Barrett and their son, Mitchell, gave us an awesome tour of the highlights of Delray, including a 100′ Christmas tree in the town square.  The tree is gorgeous on the outside and offers a unique experience to visitors – inside the tree is a little village that houses vintage stores and a vintage telephone beach (the fourth picture below is taken inside the tree, looking up).  After a walk to the local beach, John and Lisa introduced us to the town’s best margaritas at El Camino, a popular watering hole that was standing room only, despite Ken’s attempt to steal a table for us.  Later they taught us to two new games, Stick Stacks and the Monopoly card game.  In the photos below you see John attempting to beat us at Stick Stacks (and losing!).  It’s a fun, fast-paced game that’s like a combination of Pick Up Sticks and Janga.  We ended the night with a traditional round of Mexican Train.  A really great day!  Thanks, John, Lisa and Mitchell!!

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We spent the day after Christmas introducing the boys to go karts, feeding baby alligators and going on a scavenger hunt while playing putt-putt golf. There were far too many people behind us for us to take time for pictures on the putt-putt course (who knew it would be so popular in sunny 75-degree Orlando the day after Christmas???), but we got some good photos of the other activities. The following night Nana and Papa got to take the boys bowling while mom and dad enjoyed a night out – but guess who got home first? Mom and dad are seriously out of practice when it comes to date night!

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Like many of you, the past few weeks have been spent enjoying family traditions. As “old” people, it’s fun to see traditions established with our kids being carried through with the next generation, as well as to participate in new traditions being created. Our family traditions begin We’re spending this Christmas in Orlando with our older daughter, Jenn, her husband, Michael, and their three boys, Michael, Ian and Levi. Traditions enjoyed included making Christmas cookies, building gingerbread houses, visiting Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate, leaving hand-made stockings out for Santa to fill, and devouring a salt-encrusted prime rib Christmas dinner.

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We spent December 13-17 in Lorton, VA with our younger daughter Kim, son-in-law, Jack and grandson, Dillon. As usual, we were so busy enjoying our time with them, that we neglected to get many pictures, so I’m relying on some historical ones for sharing. During our visit we witnessed Dillon win 2 of his 3 wrestling matches, and Kim and Pam enjoyed a mother-daughter day in historic Occoquan, VA. We also got a sneak peak at Jack’s unit Christmas card. He’s a member of the U.S. Army Honor Guard, and is just to the left of Santa in the photo.

Occoquan is located about 22 miles south of DC. Officially established in 1804, the town is located along the Occoquan River in Northern Virginia and served as both an important industrial settlement and the site of critical river crossings for troops during the Civil War. The Merchants Mill was the first automated gristmill in the U.S., and was actively used until 1924 when a generator fire started in the Occoquan Electrical Light and Power Company destroyed the main structure. The small house where the mill’s administrator worked was unharmed in the fire and is used as the Mill House Museum today.

The Rockledge Mansion is one of the town’s remaining original structures. It was built in 1758 as a single family home. It still has a lot of its original features, including a ballroom that can hold up to 150 people and is available for commercial use today. The building also houses what Kim and Pam thought might be a really cool candle shop, but ended up being a wicken store, complete with a variety of potions for sale, and floors so uneven they gave Kim motion sickness!

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I think we may have just found a new Christmas tradition!  On December 9th Jenn and I took the boys to First Baptist Church Orlando’s rendition of The Singing Christmas Tree.  Neither of us had ever been before and had no idea what to expect, but for sure it wasn’t what we got!  Before the show even began they offered an opportunity to walk the town of Bethlehem, set up in an outside area of the church complete with pigs, lambs, chicken, rabbits, donkeys…and people dressed in period costumes play the parts of individuals from the original Christmas Story.  Mary approached us to tell us about a dream she’d had; a couple of Roman soldiers asked if we were there for the census.  As we explored the “town” a young man played silent night in the background on an acoustic guitar.

Those of you who have never experienced the Singing Christmas Tree should definitely check it out.  A colleague of mine participated in the one in Portland, OR, but I never went, and now I really wish I had.  At first Baptist there are 300 choir members arranged as Christmas bulbs in two 45′ Christmas trees adorned with 250 THOUSAND lights that light up in coordination with the different songs being performed.  As amazing as all of that is, there’s more!  A team of actors tells the back story of the first Christmas as it affects their life in today’s world.  There are Christmas gift boxes filled with life-size toys that spring into action, professional quality singers who blow the doors off the place, and a final act that brings all those live animals we first saw in the town of Bethlehem onto the stage, including a huge camel.  The boys loved every minute of it.  During one scene where a dozen or more toy soldiers came marching out of gift box big enough to hold only four of them Ian exclaimed, “Where are they all coming from?!”  before he realized there was a false back in the box.  Later, as we took a quick bathroom break he said, “This is FUN!”  What a great night!

 

On December 5th we joined Jenn and Michael and the boys on a visit to Disney Springs for a Lego Build event and a walk through the Disney Trail of Trees.  So much fun!  Before I tell you about the day, let me introduce you to this part of the family.  In today’s lead photo you see our older daughter, Jenn, and her husband Michael behind their three children (from left to right), Levi, Ian and Michael.  We’re having an awesome time hanging out with them while we wait for our sailing date, and they are all being very gracious hosts, especially Little Michael, who had to give up his room and move in with Levi.  Thank you, Pendraks!  Now, onto the day…

Lego offers these build events once a month free of charge.  All you have to do is sign your child up and show up; Lego provides a free kit to build and folks to help your child(ren) build it.  It’s a pretty neat idea.  Today’s build was a reindeer and sleigh.  The boys loved it!  And Ken and Michael made it even more enjoyable for the adults by fetching us some adult beverages for the occasion!

After Lego Build we rode on a carousel, had dinner at the Rain Forest Café, and strolled through the Trail of Trees.  It’s been a cold week in Florida, and on December 5th it was cold enough to snow on the Trail of Trees and it did!!  The Trail of Trees is a collection of Christmas trees, each decorated to the theme of a different Disney movie.  You’ll see the Haunted Mansion,101 Dalmations, Pinnochio, Tangled…all to the accompaniment of never-ending Christmas carols.

We topped the night off with a boat ride across the lake in lieu of walking all the way back to the parking lot.  It was a brisk night, but it was super fun to be on the boat with the kids.  There’s a hot air balloon ride available at Disney Springs, and it was cool to see it going up in the night sky.   Perfect ending to a perfect day!

 

The warm winter weather and low housing prices proved too much for us to resist – and being close to four of our six grandchildren doesn’t hurt, either.  This wasn’t part of the plan when we left for our year of travel, but we’re very excited to be making this slight adjustment.  The house is located about 45 minutes from the theme parks and Disney Springs, in a wonderfully active 55+ community.  Our daughter and grandsons visited it for the first time yesterday and the boys declared it “The Best House Ever!,” even better than the lake house, which is high praise indeed.  When we return from our cruise next July we’ll be living in Florida in the winter and Washington in the summer.  Feel free to visit any time!

 

On November 30th we visited St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continually occupied city in the United States established by Europeans.  There’s so much to see in this little gem, and we barely scratched the surface.  We visited the Old Jail, where 72 prisoners or more shared the dozen or so cells in the building, used the same one tub of water for their monthly outdoor bath whether the temperature was 9 degrees or 90, and prisoners sentenced to death were tasked with building their own gallows.  This is also where the term “home free” is said to have originated.  Prisoners would be loaned out to local homeowners and use that occasion to escape, generating the term.  Next up was The Fountain of Youth Archeological Park, where we saw what is purported to be the cross Ponce de Leon placed in the ground marking the year he found this area (a common practice of explorers of the time) – fifteen stones down and thirteen across, 1513 – and drank from the Fountain of Youth.  You can learn more colorful history than you ever imagined existed at the Pirate Museum, and the boys got to fire cannons and find hidden treasures, too!  Across from the Pirate Museum is the Costillo de San Marcos, the oldest standing masonry fort in the U.S.  Here we learned that the moats we find around castle ruins were never intended to hold water; they were used to hold livestock when the townspeople ran to the forts for safety during sieges or other types of emergencies.  One of the guards told Jenn that when he was a boy St. Augustine kept water in the Costillo’s moat.  A slew gate (or something like that) was used to control the water level during the changing of the tides.  High tides would bring fish in from the bay, and the local boys would gig for fish, until they were chased away!   Our boys also learned about colonial medicine and got to practice removing a bullet using the old instruments.  We also enjoyed the Hop On/Hop Off daytime and Christmas light tour.  For the Christmas lights tour they gave us special glasses that made the lights look like reindeer heads or snowflakes.  Such a full day and still so much we didn’t see.  We will be back!!!

 

 

Following a wonderful Thanksgiving with our son-in-law, Michael’s, family, Ken was able to join Michael and his dad for some paramotoring.  He didn’t actually get to fly, but he did get to try the 70-lb pack on and try to walk with it – not an easy task.  And to paramotor you have to actually RUN with it!  Paramotoring is a lot like hang gliding with a lawn mower motor on your back.  There are different ways to do it, but Michael and his dad use a foot launch method.  They wear a harness attached to a metal frame, which carries the engine and propellers.  The frame has a hoop and protective netting to separate the pilot from the propellers and engine.  The pilot wears the frame like a giant backpack and then attaches himself to a paragliding wing.  The advantage of the engine is that it allows the pilot to fly without being dependent on winds to provide specific elevations or allow for landing.  The hardest part of paramotoring is learning to control the wings.  You control the wings by using break throttles, shifting your weight, using something called stabile steering, or a combination of all three.  Easy, right?

 

 

 

Oh the joys of science!  Our first night back from Mexico Jenn and Michael took us to a really cool place where they make ice cream right in front of you using liquid nitrogen.  It takes less than five minutes – you choose a flavor, decide what goodies you want  mixed in, much like Cold Stone Creamery, and then watch while they throw everything together, add a little liquid nitrogen and mix it at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit.  Want to have a little more fun?  Pour the liquid oxygen over some fruity pebbles and make Dragon Breath!

 

We spent the week of November 9-16 in Cancun with our good friends Bob and Kathy Kelln.  We took our first trip to Mexico with the Kellns way back in 2002, and it quickly became an annual tradition.  Our visits tend to focus on Puerto Vallarta, Cabo and Cancun.  This year it was the Grand Mayan Riviera in Cancun, and we loved every minute of it.  Great weather, gorgeous location and terrific company.   We’ve been so many times that we’ve pretty much exhausted all the touristy things to do.  Our visits these days are more about relaxing by the pool, enjoying good books and playing LOTS of Pinochle.  Saw lots of iguanas, were introduced to the coati, a raccoon-like animal, and Ken made a new friend when we visited the market.  Very relaxing week.

 

After a stop in Gulf Shores, Alabama for the wedding of Ken’s niece, we finally made it to Orlando, the final destination of our southern road trip.  This will be our home base until we board the ship for our Around the World Cruise on January 14th.  Ken’s sisters Chris and Cathy, and sister-in-law Trisha were also here for a few days, and we had a great time exploring Universal Studios with them on November 7th.  Highlights of the day included roller coasters, a visit to Hogwarts – complete with a fire breathing dragon and Grindotts Bank -, a performance from the Blues Brothers and a visit with the Men in Black!

 

 

Two days before Halloween we made a quick visit to New Orleans, Ken’s childhood home from 1963-1968.  We stayed at a small hotel in the French Quarter (a small hotel with even smaller rooms!), and enjoyed some quintessential New Orleans sites – the Joan of Arc memorial statue, the St. Louis Cathedral, the Nachez Paddle Wheeler, and the beautiful architecture of Royal Avenue.  Of course, no visit to New Orleans would be complete without beignets from Café Du Monde, serving patrons since 1860.  We capped it all off with a pirate-guided tour of the French Quarter, where we learned some interesting new pieces of history.  Did you know that Andrew Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans was made possible by pirates?  It’s a fascinating story you won’t find in any history books!

Some of you may recall that the Clinton/Gore ticket was the youngest to ever make it to the White House.  And while many people like to make fun of Gore (saying he invented the Internet didn’t help), he is actually credited with making the Vice Presidency more than just a figurehead.  Throughout the Library Clinton gives Gore great credit for things like cutting $137 billion from the national budget, reducing the number of federal regulations and decreasing the number of civilian employees to its lowest number since JFK was in office.

Unlike many of the other libraries we’ve visited, Clinton’s doesn’t provide a lot of insight into the man behind the presidency, the experiences that shaped him or drove him to become the Rhodes Scholar that he was.  The emphasis is on his presidency, his priorities and accomplishments – and they were many.  Not only did Clinton and Gore lead the U.S. to its first budget surplus since 1969 and achieve the longest peacetime expansion in our history, 95% of America’s schools were connected to the Internet, there was a world-wide ban on child labor, and Clinton received the Charlemagne Prize for American’s role in creating a Europe that was democratic, undivided, and at peace for the first time in history.

Another unique feature of this library is that you can actually see some of the documents it houses as a library.  In some of the pictures below you’ll see what appear to be giant bookcases.  These bookcases hold 4,536 blue boxes containing presidential records representing approximately 2-3% of the entire Clinton Library archival collection, estimated to be about 80 million pages in total. Ugh!  Glad I didn’t have to catalogue those records!

 

 

Eureka Springs, Arkansas is another favorite spot from our days in Missouri.  Located in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in the northwest corner of Arkansas, Eureka Springs is a Victorian town named after the “healing waters” rumored to flow in the area.  Local tribes told stories of miraculous healings that had happened after individuals bathed in the water or had it sprinkled over injured or diseased areas of their bodies.  Eventually white visitors to the area heard these stories, and when they shared them with folks back home, people began to flock to the area.  At one time there were more than 10,000 residents.  Those residents lived and did business in hastily built wooden structures.  In 1890, after the fourth devastating fire in ten years ravaged the entire downtown, the City Council passed an ordinance outlawing wooden structures and requiring all buildings in the town center have a stone or brick façade so that if there was another fire it would be less likely to spread so quickly from one building to the next.  This ordinance is largely responsible for the preservation of the town we see today.  Many buildings and homes are literally built into the side of the mountains, using the limestone as their  interior wall.  The streets are narrow, steep and windy (and prone to giving a GPS fits!), and full of character.

Eureka Springs is home to The Crescent Hotel, whose history includes serving as a world-class hotel for the wealthy, a women’s college, a cancer hospital (for the notorious Dr. Baker who was no doctor at all and sold a fake elixir as a cancer cure and made about $4 million dollars in the process – in the 1930s!), and then back to being an upscale hotel; the Eureka Springs Bath House, where individuals can still pay for a bath, but can now add spa treatments to the mix; and The Basin Hotel, where we stayed.  It’s a city that is proud to hold onto its heritage (like wall-mounted toilet tanks), and tends to attract individuals with an independent and quirky spirit.  Instead of walking all the way down one block and around the corner to get to a building on the street below, you can take any one of a series of stairs located between buildings, and you may find as many as six more businesses built into the side of the hill along the staircase as you make your way down. Sometimes you even find colorful decorations on those stairs!

We encourage you to Google the town or some of the sights we’ve mentioned to learn more about their colorful history.  We hope you enjoy the photos.

 

What better way to cap off a day at Silver Dollar City than a visit to Big Cedar’s Top of the Rock.  Big Cedar is owned by the same talented visionary who owns Bass Pro and the aquarium we shared with you earlier this week.  His love of the outdoors and passion for mother nature are as evident here as in the wildlife museum and aquarium.  Big Cedar covers more than 4600 acres and includes cabins, lodges, walking trails, riding trails, caves, restaurants, a museum, an amusement center (bumper cars inside giant bubbles that rotate 360 degrees anyone?), mini golf, and one of only two par-3 golf courses to be used in official PGA-sanctioned competition.  From the moment you enter the property through the massive limestone gate you see homage being paid to the history of the region.  Bronze Native American and wildlife statues permeate the landscape.  Immaculately manicured lawns and landscaping compliment naturally occurring and strategically placed limestone boulders.  The building materials and placement are designed to compliment and blend into their natural surroundings.  It is a stunning property.

Top of the Rock is the highest ground on the property, and is home to two of the restaurants, the golf course, and a beautiful chapel.  There was actually a wedding going on while we were there – pretty cool!  In the basement of the restaurant is a super cool wine cellar, a virtual catacomb of limestone walls and hidden passages…Each evening the restaurant hosts a sunset ceremony.  As the sun begins to set, a bagpipe player stations him or herself on the patio of the restaurant and plays a series of traditional bagpipe songs, including our national anthem and Amazing Grace.  When the bagpipe player finishes, a civil war canon located on the grounds between the restaurant and the church fires off a shot, leaving a smoke ring in the sky.  Magical.

The top two pictures to the right of us on this page are of a giant sinkhole that opened up on the property in 2015.  The grass you see in the photo is just outside the restaurant.  When the sinkhole first occurred it was 80 feet wide and 35 deep in some places.  As they began excavating the site they discovered the columns you see in the lower picture.  Johnny Morris thinks the sinkhole may lead to an underground cave.  The project has now morphed from one of excavation and restoration to one of exploration and development.  As of April of this year they had dug down 200 feet, and now Morris is planning to build a new Top of the Rock Lodge that will be positioned directly on the rim of the sinkhole.  Crazy!

 

 

Today was a total “Pam” day.  We spent the first half of it at Silver Dollar City, MO, and the second half at Top of the Rock in Ridgefield, MO.   It was perfect from start to finish!

Silver Dollar City is an amusement park near Branson.  It began its life as a tribute to the mining town that originally occupied the area near the mouth of Marvel Cave, located just inside the park entrance.  What began as a small collection of historical town square with a blacksmith shop, general store and two authentic 1800s log buildings is now a 100-acre park with more than 100 resident craftsman – woodcarvers, glassblowers, potters, leather crafters, candle makers, knife makers, furniture makers, and more – amusement park rides for all ages, musical performances, comedy shows, and lots and lots of food!  The park also hosts a variety of festivals throughout the year.  Today the park was decorated for Halloween (complete with unexpectedly talking scarecrows) and hosting the Cowboy Festival.  Throughout the park you find the craftsmen I mentioned earlier demonstrating their trade and you can buy the beautiful things they make in the stores around the park.  It’s a really cool place, with a great family vibe, and always a fun place to be.

Highlights of the day included a ride on the Outlaw Run, the newest roller coaster in the park.  You know it’s going to be good (?) when they not only secure your body with the traditional bar over the shoulders and across the waist, but also with leg braces (!).  Outlaw Run is the world’s fastest wooden roller coaster, and the only one with a double barrel roll – a whopping 720 degree roll!  It is also the only wooden roller coaster to twist upside down with a record-breaking three inversions, AND it has the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster.  Right out of the gate you drop 162 feet at an 81 degree angle – nearly vertical! – and you’re going 68 mph.  And yes, Pam rode it.  It was such a piece of cake she fell asleep.  Just look at the picture.  Ken’s face speaks volumes.

We also rode the park’s new coaster, Time Traveler.  This one is marketed as the fastest, steepest and tallest complete circuit spinning – yes, that’s right, spinning – rollercoaster.  Pam actually stayed awake for this one, but, sadly, there are no pictures to prove it.

Oh, and yes, that is a frog race we’re in.  Pam’s behind the camera doing double duty and STILL her frog beat Ken’s.  That wheel you see Ken turning creates a stream of water down the chute that encourages the frog along.  It looks like a dead heat in the picture, but it was actually no contest.

 

Following a very social week, we’re visiting an old stomping ground, Branson, MO for a little R&R.  We did our laundry, caught up on our blogging, and reassured ourselves that recent market activities will not leave us destitute while we are on our cruise. With all of that behind us, it was time to explore! We headed straight to Branson Landing.

For our friends who are not familiar with Branson Landng, it’s a Boardwalk-like area of Branson situated on the banks of Lake Taneycomo, full of shops and restaurants. Cruising the shops we came upon Smith Creek Moonshine Distillery. We wondered in and found ourselves participating in a real live moonshine tasting! There were like 20 different flavors, and they were giving full shots of each and every one to anyone of legal age courageous enough to belly up to the bar and partake. It was quite the experience…orange creamsicle, apple pie, chocolate, peach, coffee…as well as the “good” stuff – clear 100 Proof moonshine with a whopping 50% alcohol content. That’ll clear your sinuses!
In the center is a town square with an impressive dancing water show that includes music, fountains, colored lights and fireball cannons.  It’s one of our favorite things about visiting the Landing.

We capped the day off with a really good Three Dog Night tribute concert (“Joy to the World,” “Celebrate,” “Momma Told Me Not to Come,” “Never Been to Spain, “Shambala”). Welcome to the Midwest South!

…and when we moved to Springfield, Mo in the winter of 2006, we chose the Ridenours and the Ridenours chose us. Our lives are definitely the better for it. Tony and Alma Ridenour and their six kids were our neighbors in Springfield. It has been a privilege to witness the growth of their family. We have lots of warm and funny memories of our time with them and are always happy for a chance to reconnect.

They not only made time in their incredibly busy lives to have lunch with us while we were in town on Thursday, Tony rearranged his work schedule so they could introduce us to the recently completed Bass Pro Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium. We’ve seen the Wildlife portion before, and our time was limited so we focused on the aquarium this visit. If your travels take you anywhere near Springfield, you should definitely check it out. It was voted America’s Best Aquarium and Best New Attraction. As the pictures below prove, it is AMAZING!

From Springfield we headed to Branson, where we saw illusionist Rick Thomas. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but the show was a lot of fun. We’re talking multiple floating people (with no detectable wires), instantly appearing and disappearing fully functional helicopters and motorcycles, a crafty card trick and a very entertaining and charismatic performer.

Not a bad day!

 

After our visit with Rachel and Luke we headed a little further west to visit our friends the Tyrees.  Along the way we stopped at a local park to get some steps in (our goal is 3-5 miles/day).  After some trial and error, Ken found Vlasis Park in Ballwin, MO.  It was a beautiful location on a beautiful day.

Lisa Tyree is another friend from our time in Springfield. Lisa was head of HR while we were there. She’s since moved on to bigger and better things with another company, which makes the rare opportunity to visit with her and her fabulous family all the more special. Once again we got so busy having a good time we forgot all about taking pictures. We would love to be able to share the sight of the Tyree’s oldest daughter, Carly, as she labored over a batch of her famous toffee, or Caitlyn’s (the younger Tyree) bright and open face as she talked about possible plans for college, or, perhaps best of all, the consternation on Eric’s face when Lisa lured Ken into playing the Queen of spades on a trick Eric ended up taking in one of several games of Hearts. Needless to say, we had a really good time with the Tyrees, despite our lack of photographic evidence. We did manage to get one picture – not the best of Ken, but that’s totally Pam’s fault – with Ken and Lisa before we left.

Thanks for the wonderful hospitality and good times, Lisa and Eric!

 

 

 

After an uneventful day on the road with an overnight stay in Little Rock, AR, we arrived in St. Louis, MO.  We had a great time visiting with our friends, Luke and Rachel Weaver, and hearing about all the exciting things they have been involved in.  We’ve known Luke since before Rachel (he was the zone HR manager in Springfield, MO when Ken was there).  It makes our hearts happy to see how his relationship with Rachel has enriched his life.  We were also the benefactors of Luke and Rachel’s exceptional culinary skills.  Check out that grilling technique (Green Eggs rule! according to Luke) and the finished product.  Yum!!!!