MARCH 3, 2008 – TO HONG KONG

Ed got up and got out to exercise. While he was gone, I got ready and when he returned, we went to the laundry room. Yep, it’s that time again. There was a short line and many folks came and went while I was there. I got two washers (of the 3 I needed) fairly quickly and got them started. I tried to read my book but it was useless as folks want to visit. Folks keep track of who’s next for the most part; some men help their wives. I got a dryer in good time and put the two loads to dry. When the 3rd load was done, I was lucky enough to get a dryer for that too. Eventually Ed showed up with his Sudoku and we waited for the dryers to finish. When it was 10:55 am I opened the dryer and began to take out the clothes which had to be hung up and Ed helped sort out the others. When we finished with this dryer, the other was pretty much ready. I headed downstairs with several bags of dry but unfolded clothing and Ed followed with two more bags and the clothes on hangers. We dumped the bags on the bed and made sure nothing else needed to be hung up. I headed on up to Trivia and he joined me pretty quickly after draping some T-shirts around that needed a little more drying.
TRIVIA: Val showed up with a huge black eye and cheek. I immediately said: “Eric finally hit you back, eh?” It turns out that she fell on some uneven stones in Shanghai yesterday (easy enough to do: I trip regularly on these shore excursions) and went flying, breaking her glasses along the way. Fortunately, she had brought an older pair with her. Ro commented that her sweater matched the coloring around her eye, and I suggested this would be a good night for her to take a formal portrait.
We started the trivia and the first few questions were really killers. Eric sat observing our interactions and eventually said, “well, I think it’s time for me to go back to sleep.” We soldiered on, making (educated?) guesses about some of the answers. One I knew for sure: Pancreatic juices are acidic, true or false? Well it’s false as they are alkaline.
LAUNDRY: We quickly folded and put away the clothes lying around. Whew. Finished for a few more days.
LUNCH: We were placed with Lea and Bill and a delightful lady named Gwen who is now a naturalized citizen of the US and lives in San Diego. She’s originally from San Diego and real delight. There was one other couple with whom we’ve had lunch before. They described their ride on the maglev train and a trip to the top of an 88 floor tower where you can look down the inner tube of the tower and see the atrium of the Hyatt 88 floors below.
EXOTIC CRUISES: We went to this presentation by Ben, the future cruises person as much to give him support as to get the info (he went to the Galapagos with us). Gwen was there too and afterwards we discussed a new cruise around the Western parts of Australia. She’s either lived in, or visited all but one of the ports on that cruise and is excited at the possibility of sending a packet of info to Princess to see if they might use her as a port speaker. She’s certainly knowledgable and has taught at the elementary and university level. Furthermore, she’s very personable and is always upbeat. I think she’d be great at it.
AFTERNOON MOVIE: “Evening” with Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Claire Danes, Mamie Gummer (isn’t this Streep’s daughter?) and others. I left after about 15 min. Under other circumstances it might have interested me but it’s about the flashbacks and memories of a dying, and slightly demented woman (played by Redgrave). So I came up to fix some photos to post and write this blog.
TRIVIA: There had been a discussion this morning about all of us showing up for afternoon trivia; Murray and Ro come everyday. So Val woke up Eric to come along and left him in the room (probably went back to sleep as he never showed up and there were at least two questions where Val would have awakened him for the answer as he would surely have known). Ed joined us; Ro and Murray never showed up (go figure).
Well it wasn’t easy. We comported ourselves well we thought though we had no illusions about our performance. In the end, we tied for #2 at 11; 14 won the passport cases today, the group calling themselves “the 4 Nations.” If we hadn’t changed two answers, and if Eric had been present, we might have won. Oh well: there’s always tomorrow. Val went back to the room to beat up on Eric—give him a black eye to match hers—since he let us down.
FORMAL NIGHT: I’m amazed that I’m able to cobble together a different outfit for formal night and I still have 2 ensembles (just listen to me will you) in reserve for future formal nights. Since it is pretty cold on the ship, I figured I could afford to wear a velvet top. I’m keeping my Shanghai jacket in reserve for another time when I don’t want to think.
And speaking of ensembles, I had picked up a teal Chinese style peddle pusher set at the Discovery Shop before we left and several people today came up and asked me if I bought it in Shanghai. Such a deal.
DINNER: Dave and Twyla and us in our glad rags. The Head waiter made Cherries Jubilee thus my resolution about a fruit plate was done in. After dinner, Ed said he was sweating and wanted to take his clothes off as he thought he was getting what I had. That may be, but if so he didn’t get it from me as I haven’t been communicable for a long while now (though with this bronchial cough which remains it may sound very ominous) and the incubation period doesn’t fit.
INTERNET CAFÉ: So I went up to check my email. Ro and Murray were up there. She didn’t feel well and slept through the trivia time. Many of the terminals are very cranky and won’t accept the card swipe, so one has to travel from terminal to terminal until one decides it likes you. No ominous news and more junk mail than serious mail, so I cleaned everything up and emptied all the boxes.
TOUR OF THE BRIDGE: Got an invitation for tomorrow am at 10 o’clock. That’s the same time as the port talk but we are taking a tour to Macao and were in Hong Kong in 2004 so we can miss the misinformation of the port talk. We can also see it on the TV later tomorrow.

MARCH 2, 2008 – IN SHANGHAI

I woke up to the tap tap tap of Ed in the bathroom. I had been waking up periodically as the sounds of the ship change. We entered the estuary to Shanghai much earlier and so the pitch and sway of the ship are no longer present.
We got ready and Eric came down to call his son from our phone. I had just received a text message (funny that Ed didn’t get it on his phone: we are on the same account!) telling us how to do this. Their son is visiting in shanghai and they are going to spend the day together.
Then we went up to hinese immigration. It was pretty much a walk through. We already had our visas. They simply checked the photo with the name on our landing card and we surrendered our passports to the ship again. So again all we carry is a piece of paper while on shore.
This pier is also new and there are new high rise buildings going up right on the shore. Huge multi-story apartment bldgs. Overlook the river; it’s impossible to see in more than a block because of all the high rises. There is a shuttle bus to take us downtown and back.
The weather is cold. I d don’t know the temp. (I have a thermometer on a zipper pull somewhere around here) but it is definitely cold. The Chinese officials are all in dark suits and overcoats. Ed has been trying on various jackets of his to be sure he’ll be as warm as he needs to be. It’s almost like a fashion show with narration and critique.
We met a couple with whom we shared the day. There were lovely young ladies outside to provide us with business cards and information sheets prior to getting on the bus. We all took the shuttle to a downtown location where you are routed through a handicraft store (more like a factory) before you could emerge onto the street. Once there, we took a cab to Yuyuan Gardens in the Old Town. Along the way, we stopped in front of the museum; this is because the taxi driver misunderstood our destination. We had a form from the ship and the Chinese was ABOVE the line, not below. So finally we got squared away and were dropped off across from the Mickey D’s there. The architecture is old Chinese and the lanes are like rabbit trails through the old town. In the end we only saw a small part of Old town but we were delighted with our experiences.
We looked at some of the shops on our way to locate the garden and we promised to return to shop later. People are very friendly and helpful. We found the entrance to the gardens. This was a Sunday and many families were also out for the day. The temperature warmed up but never terribly hot. I’d rather have weather like that than too hot.
This garden is hard to describe. It has many old Chinese buildings, many bodies of water, lots of rock formations, lanes with pebble designs on them. There were bonsai trees everywhere and many in bloom: plum and perhaps cherry: pink and darker magenta ones. We had a map but it wasn’t very helpful; not even the locals could tell us where we were. There are several zig zag bridges and lanes. You’d see an opening in the rock face and when you went in, you’d have to duck down to keep from hitting your head, and zig zag through it to get to the other side. Each time we emerged, it was an entirely different scene. Often this only meant the same scene you had just observed, but now, in viewing it from a different perspective, it looked entirely unfamiliar.
The most fun we had was in a place where there was a large mirror. Who knows what it’s real purpose is. We four stood there and took photos of each other in the mirror. We felt like little kids. It was lunch by this time, so we pulled out Ed’s Frommer’s print out and decided we didn’t know how to find the addresses anyway. So we spied a large restaurant in a busy area; we decided to give it a try. There was a 20 min. wait for a table so we took a number and looked around to see if there was anything else that had a shorter wait. No luck. Even the line for fast food dumplings had 100 people in line. So we returned to the first restaurant where we were seated in a private alcove by ourselves. Ed and Lea chose the foods while Bill and I agreed. Eventually we had hot and sour soup, some kind of egg and corn chowder, sweet and sour pork (really delicious), shrimp, rice for each of us, soy sauce and vinegar, a shared bottle of beer, marinated Edamame with green veg of some kind, cashew chicken with chilis, and hot tea. Absolutely scrumptious every bit of it and we had way too much food. The total cost for it all was $36 USD.
Now it was time to shop so we headed for the shop where we promised we’d return. Along the way, I saw a thigh length jacket I wanted. After some haggling, I walked away with it. I was careful to check the bag and put the jacket on again to be sure it was the one I had actually purchased. Then we picked up some odds and ends at the original shop. They were delighted to see us. Lea got dolls and Chinese outfits for her grandkids. Overall we were very pleased with the day and went out of the rabbit warren to find a taxi which was very quick. Instead of returning for the shuttle, we decided to take the taxi right back to the ship. The piece of paper with English and Chinese on it helped a lot along with the post card with a photo of the ship. We were taken straight to the ship and this wasn’t a short trip. The cost? $2.50 USD. Can you imagine?
We got back to the ship in time to see the folklorico show arranged by the ship. This was the shanghai aifu int’l acrobatic show. We sat with Fr. Austin (who didn’t have a Chinese visa and thus was stuck on board) and had a grand time. These children are so flexible; even that adjective is inadequate. The youngest was probably 7; the oldest surely no more than 16. I can begin to tell you what they did but they can fold their bodies into the smallest spaces you can imagine. They are great showmen even at early ages. An older woman (the mother?) did a breathtaking balancing act with fans and glasses with water. Even if they were magician glasses, it was still a true feat!
Many of the tours were later returning to the ship so we didn’t leave port until we were at dinner. In the meantime, we watched flat bed trucks go down the pier and return loaded with containers. Along the river away from Shanghai we saw several dry docks for boats. Many boats were anchored in the waterway and there had no lights on them. I can only guess that people were living on them. I never did see the end of the lights of China along this riverway until we went to tonite’s show.
DINNER: Just Ed and I. We saw Dave and Twyla run onto the ship from the tour bus; Lea and Bill were simply tired. The dining room was pretty empty actually. Between 130 and 150 people took the overland tour to Beijing; they will rejoin the ship in Hong Kong in 3 more days.
ENTERTAINMENT: A young Japanese woman who is a classical pianist. She’s very good and even included a classical piece written by another Japanese woman about the city of Nara, and one she herself had written. Both were very interesting and quite good.
MARCH 1, 2008 – ON THE WAY TO SHANGHAI

Ed was up early getting dressed. We have a mandatory life boat exercise this morning before 10 am. While he went to breakfast, I got ready and then looked for, but missed him, in the buffet so I sat with Val and Eric and a French speaking lady. All totally enjoyable people. I came back to the room to get things in order and wait for the seven short and one long blast to tell us to get our life jackets and make our way to the Cabaret Lounge.
LIFE JACKET EXERCISE: No one really enjoys this but we’ve been really lucky since we haven’t had to do it since we left Ft. Lauderdale. People were unusually cooperative today and it went along without much fuss.
WEATHER: Last night was a rodeo ride again. I feel really sorry for the poor staff who have cabins at the far front of the ship. And it’s cold. 48 degrees Fahrenheit at noon. Some folks are complaining that they can’t get heat in their room. Ours has not been a problem; Ed adjusts the temp with some regularity and I howl “foul” when I have heat stroke symptoms. It’s been pretty much overcast all day long. The sea is more light green than blue and occasionally we see what is probably see weed floating by. There are lots of fishing vessels seen with regularity and what we’ve decided are flag markers for the boundaries of fishing nets.
TRIVIA: the Crocks were bright eyed today but it didn’t mean we won. Eric lays back to snooze and Val taps him for answers now and then. Once she tapped him and when she didn’t like the answer he gave, she gave him a light tap as if to say, “go back to sleep.” The questions today were developed by a fellow passenger and they all dealt with things you’d see on the ship. Beware of such situations. No one is ever happy. None of us enjoyed it not even those who won. And since they won Princess clocks (which we already had) we could afford to be generous in our congratulations.
LUNCH: We joined a new couple and Bill and Lea and enjoyed discussing the port talks (we need to either stop going, or stop discussing them or both as Ed goes ballistic talking about the errors the speaker makes.
PORT TALK: SHANGHAI: Pretty pictures but the verbiage that went along with them could or could not have been accurate. I did manage to finish one of my needlepoint projects while attending (I started to say “listening”).
INTERNET AND LIBRARY: I had tried to access my email earlier without any success, but with ample amounts of frustration…and I wasn’t alone. I still had to try several terminals before I found one that would cooperate and dispatched my inbox contents pretty quickly by comparison anyway. I caught up on the world news and checked out the ever-increasing supply of paperbacks up there for the exchange.
TRIVIA: Only 4 of us; This is Val and Eric’s happy hour. I asked if there was a boobie prize today since we did so poorly. We weren’t the lowest score by a long shot but we didn’t give the winners much competition either.
TONITE’S ENTERTAINMENT: I’ll get this out of the way right now: Ed likes comedy and juggling so he’ll go. I won’t. Jim asked us what we thought of the hypnotist last night. Told him we didn’t go. He and another fellow were talking about how truly awful that guy was.
DINNER: The menu was Indian themed tonite. There were several interesting dishes that were new to me at least. The best was a banana fried with coconut and accompanied by a yoghurt sauce of some kind. Really good. Most of us had the lamb dish.