10 /31/24 1 sea day before Tokyo

Happy Halloween!! Our favorite crew member Rafa dress up as a pirate with a skeleton monkey… Brilliant !!!

Today is also our flash mob performance day….. Lots of rowdy fun and laughter…. I really like Anthony’s choreography and loose attitude… He knew how to work the crowd….

Later we have a drink with our world cruise buddies

…. And later in the night the fun goes on… It’s the Halloween party and some people are going all out for it!! We were not prepared but now we are….  Lots of fun and dancing

10/30/24 Osaka, Kyoto, Japan

Beautiful weather greets us in Osaka port

We joined a ship excursion to visit couple of attractions in kyoto

First stop is the buzzling Nishiki fish market, they only gives us 30 minutes and definitely not enough time 😆

2nd stop is the golden Pavillion with temple made of gold

Best Macha ice cream

3rd stop is lunch at a hotel with a beautiful garden nearby so we wolf down the bento lunch and took a quick walk

After lunch we went to the famous Kiyomizu temple

Happy hour at the temple

This place is packed with people… Many tourists rented a kimono to come visit this temple

Gift shops lined the street in front of the temple

10/27/24 Keelung Taiwan

The sunrise view against Keelung port is beautiful… So happy to be back even for just half a day…

Taiwan flag was raised on the ship

The stop at Keelung was very invigorating…. Bought a lot of daily stuff, ate a hotpot lunch, had coffee, ate some shredded ice desserts, some stinky tofu, bought some bread, some mochi… Etc… We returned totally satisfied ✌️

基隆夜市
石二火鍋!love it 😋
Coffee time at an artistic alley cafe
Our ship at Keelung port
Bye Taiwan!! We will be back! 

10/25/24 Hong Kong…

I haven’t been back in almost 4 decades now…. Hong Kong changes a lot but in some places still stays the same..

City is still humming and buzzling…. Cant imagine living in one of those little apartment units like before…. But we do enjoy it’s cosmopolitan landscape and Harbour view….

Harbour view when the ship pulled in the harbor and it’s spectacular
Sunset harbor view on the star ferry
Little beer stand by the ferry piers in 中環
Spent a lot of time here enjoying the night view of kowloon
Taiwanese all you can eat hot pot lunch
Ferry station at Kowloon still looks the same as 4 decades before
On star ferry

The light show at Ave of the stars that involved 40 buildings between Kowloon and hong Kong island is cool!!

Meet up there with our world cruise buddies

10/24/24 one Sea day before Hong Kong

The usual activities with the same enjoyment all around…. In Zumba class I was right in front of instructor Rafa and I can totally feel his energy and that makes me dance even more merrily

The flash mob class has 4 songs to rehearse, uptown funk, beat it, all the single ladies and gunman style.. Lots of fun and lots of cool moves

Wait. There’s something new!! Learn Bon Odori Japanese dance class today. There’s the coal mine dance and squid dance… Very interesting

10/23/24 Nha Trang Vietnam

The ship docked at Cam Ranh and it’s 1 hour away from Nha Trang…

It’s really raining hard in the morning

Welcome party at the port

Today instead of ship excursion.. We were on our own and found an on the spot assembled group tour of 12 on a mini bus…. On tours like these, the drivers usually don’t speak English but they took you to the major attractions for a fraction of the cruise ship excursion, which is fine with us

They sell Portuguese egg tart at local KFC and it’s 😋

Other random street scene

Lunch at local pho restaurant

They serve their pho with soup and noodles separate..  Love the pork grind bits on top, the whole meal including two main dishes and two drinks only costs $9.00
Ship view on the way back to it
Reward ourselves with vodka and Coke

…. And then tried on the Vietnamese long dress that I finally found for $10.00

Overall, another successful outing on our second port in Vietnam

Bye Vietnam…. We didn’t get to see the country side of you but I’m sure it’s beautiful with its mountains and seas and rice fields and…….

10/22/24 Ho Chi Ming city Vietnam

It started with a very gloomy morning…. They said it’s going to rain 100% for sure… And we are glad it did… Otherwise it’s too unbearably hot and humid….. The whole city felt like a big Sauna and it’s really baking……

However we were excited to be here in this very characteristic country and historic city… We joined the ship’s excursion and it’s a full day excursion…. Lots of getting in and out to see places and take pictures. 

Good morning Vietnam!!!!…. Misty morning arrival at port
Pleasantly awoke by very strong delicious ice espresso with milk…. Vietnamese style
Buzzling street scenes
Grab bike taxi service  😆… Passengers ride on Grab (equivalent of Uber) bike….. Thailand also have this…. Very interesting
Many street food with low tables and chairs looked so yummy 😋
Modern side of Ho Chi Ming city… Complete with KFC, Starbucks, rolls royce dealership… Etc
Central post office with Renaissance architecture
Lunch was buffet and a show at a hotel…. Love the Vietnamese long dress!
The famous Independence palace where South Vietnam government hands over the country to north Vietnam
The gate now
The gate then…. That tank is now a hero and had it’s own museum 🤣
A Chinese temple in Chinatown, the twirling insense that’s up for purchasing and blessing can burn up to 1 week long
National flower of vietnam is the lotus flower, they said the embryo of the lotus helps with insomnia
Our wonderful and energetic guide Ten, shows us pic of where the last US helicopter took off during the war…. we saw this scene in the show Miss Saigon!

Vietnamese people seem to all have a calm and sweet demeanor but they are also tough and strong and were able to fend off multiple genkhis khan’s mongols invasion and of course won many wars including with the US 😉

Did not get a long dress but got a hat 🙌