MARCH 6, 2008 – somewhere in the So. China sea

We were slugs this morning. Ed’s foot is much better, thankfully. I went down to this morning’s lecture: you can tell they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for programs.
PASTA DEMONSTRATION: This was done by one of the chefs on board. He (of course) makes his pasta from scratch and showed us how to make some (without a machine by the way). But probably the best thing I took away from this was the following: Put your cheese grater (and cheese?) into the fridge or freezer and then grate it. Keeps the cheese from sticking to the grater.
TRIVIA: Well, we were in our top form today. Val has new glasses and the colds Murray and I are nurturing seem to be improving. Patrick, a very skinny but very strong dancer, had the questions. He’s not as skilled at doing this and it showed; the group was kind however.
Well, we did ourselves well at a score of 16, which meant that WE WON! There was discussion about whether this was the 4th or 5th win. Depends: if you’re talking about our current composition of the (now) “Awesome crocks”, it is 4. The prizes today were Princess Cruises caps; something new to cherish.
Ro commented, and she’s absolutely right, that we beat ourselves up worse when we win than when we lose. We were kvetching about an answer we got wrong, and she pointed out that it didn’t matter because we won! I can recall most of those where I convinced the group my answer was correct, only to find I was wrong per the quiz master. We also agree that some of the answers given are not correct but for purposes of the trivia, the correct answer is what the staff member says it is. They have to do this or people would be arguing 24 hrs a day about answers to trivia.
GRIEVING: Ed and I have started this process already because Val and Eric (boo hoo) are getting off in Singapore, as are Ro and Murray. We plan to tell them they can’t disembark until they find an acceptable substitute for the group. We also have to begin to consider different names for the group after Singapore when we will retire “awesome crocks”.
INTERNET CAFÉ: I had lots of email but the signal was sooooo sllllooowww that I quit. I’ll try after the show tonite. It’s sometimes better at that time. Fr. Sean writes (in response to my stories of the tensions on board) “non illegitimus carborundum”—or at least the same idea.
Speaking of which, the rumor mill (so you’ve been warned) says that two guys got into an “encounter” in – you can guess this one – the laundry room and were warned they’d be put off the ship. The story goes that it did happen again, and they were put off the ship in one of the ports. I have no idea if this is true or not but it plays well at the Bijou.
LUNCH: there are some new folks on board and one was at our table, Barry Brown who was a BBC producer for many years and he’ll be lecturing on movies. I told him he’d have a houseful of trivia players for we have frequent movie related questions. This set into play “this would make a good trivia question…” where we bantered with him about various movie oriented questions. As is often the case, there was one “know-it-all and I’m going to show off” at the table. This is usually, but not always a man. And when you have two men at the table like this, well you simply want to groan audibly. Of course, these types would be clueless as to why you were groaning.
PORT TALK: David started out with an apology because someone was upset by something inaccurate he said. This is getting old: his inaccuracies AND the apologies. I was typing the blog before we started and a woman ahead of me turned and said: “Please tell me you aren’t going to be doing that!” the key stroke sounds on this laptop are very soft. Nonetheless, I was willing to respect someone’s wish not to have this distraction, but her tact was sorely wanting. I ran over various retorts in my mind, and was proud that I resisted the temptation to smile broadly and deliver one. At the end, she turned around and said “thank you.” That made it a little better but I wanted to suggest that it wasn’t WHAT she said, but the WAY she said it that was so offensive. Ok, so I’ll let it go now that I’ve ventilated.
LAWYERS MEET: At this time, they have a get together of the lawyers on board. Ed was ambivalent but decided to go. I didn’t hear any earthshaking revelations from him so I guess it was very “lawyerish” where their punch lines are citations from the penal code.
AFTERNOON TRIVIA: Ed, Val and Eric came rushing in at the last minute. We were concerned because 3 others were looking for a group to join. We wouldn’t have minded having them but didn’t want to include them and then have to bump them for our regulars. Eric and Val were already dressed for the Captain’s Circle reception after this. We had far more fun this afternoon than usual; other groups were looking over asking what was so funny. It was a lot of “you had to be there”. We did well: total number of points was 22; we made 19 ½ but the winners (this is amazing considering some of the questions) won with 20 ½ points. They earned their prizes; I never found out what they were as we were running to dress for the Cocktail party.
CAPTAIN’S CIRCLE COCKTAIL PARTY: Many of the staff were present and it is fun to see them. The Captain was in good form as usual. A large turnout was nice to see while they recognized the 3 couples who have accumulated the most cruises/days on Princess ships. Then the Captain drew cards for bottles of champagne. Ben, who accompanied us to the Galapagos, was the host and he mentioned that the 2009 cruise schedule will be out in a few days. This will be fun to see.
DINNER: What a surprise! Dave is wearing a sling with his left arm bandaged. It seems he had an encounter with the cabin door and has an instable fracture of his pinkie finger. He is still going on the Angor Wat trip (they were put on the list when additional space opened up). It may be necessary for him to leave the ship in Singapore and have a pin placed to stabilize the finger.
Bill came without Lea but when he saw the fruit plate with the blueberries Rod adds for Ed, he asked if one could be sent to the suite for Lea. It really is very colorful with cantaloupe, honey dew, watermelon, pineapple, and the blueberries, and it is all delicious.
ENTERTAINMENT: This is a fellow who wrote with Bennie Hill for 7 ½ years. He keeps the audience focused and laughing. Some of the humor is classic Bennie Hill and uses a lot of sight gags. He is genuinely funny and had 4 men come up for a skit; Ed was chosen…again. But then he was wearing that quiet, sedate Oriental shirt with the tiger and dragon on it. It’s too complex to describe here except to say he kept the audience in stitches.
MARCH 5, 2008 – MACAO

We woke at 6 am and we were already inside the shute to the harbor of Hong Kong. This skyline is one of the most gorgeous in the world with buildings stairstepping up the hillsides. The variety of architecture is amazing; each building is unique. The ship docked next to the Star Ferry terminal (for those of you who know Hong Kong) right in the middle of this urban area.
We had ordered room service so that saves us time in the morning. We piled our backpacks with the day’s needs and headed down to the Cabaret Lounge where all the tour groups assembled. All the passengers had been told to carry a copy of their passport; this is all that is needed here.
ON OUR WAY: Eventually, we were herded to our bus for the day; how nice to be in a big metropolis with modern, cool, clean transport. Our guide was a young Chinese lady named Linda. She greeted us, we started on our way and when she asked if we had our passports, we replied no. Uh Oh. For Macao we must have our passports. So the bus backed up, Linda ran to the ship and returned with a crew member with our passports. He was very apologetic, quickly handed out the passports, and again we were on our way. Linda began her spiel and again mentioned our passports and one…man…over on the side said he didn’t have his. You can imagine how this set with the rest of us. We had been asked several times during all this routine if we had our passports and he hadn’t said a thing. So again the routine (this was getting a little like the movie Groundhog Day by this time). Poor Linda (who is on the chunky side anyway) ran back, got the passport and gave it to him. She then double checked about our passports.
We were headed for the New China Ferry Terminal for the hydrofoil to Macao, or Macau as you wish. Inside the door of the terminal, she gave us our ferry tickets, a 2 part small card. If you watched quickly, you saw that the ticket taker had put a small green sticker on your stub; this turns out to be your seat assignment. Since we are a group traveling together, we were all seated together.
IMMIGRATION: Linda had given us a small piece of paper which we were told we could complete during the one hour boat ride to Macao. When we reached immigration, it turns out they needed them right away. So we hurriedly completed the demographic info (next time I’ll consider bringing a rubber stamp), the nice man checked our paperwork, stamped and dated our passport, and returned them.
The ferry has very comfortable seats, a TV running in several areas, a small concession stand, and small, but clean toilets. The ride is so smooth you don’t even realize you’ve left the pier. We saw lots of various types of vessels and islands along the way. During the trip, we again completed the little form; it turns out we would do this 4 times today as we passed through immigration 4 times.
The little form this time was a NCR form so immigration returned the copy to our passport. There are two categories of lines: Hong Kong residents, and Visitors. Later, we saw that the sign for Hong Kong also shows this message on occasion: For seniors, over 65, and disabled persons, so many of our passengers sped to this line.
MACAU: There are 28 (or 32 depending on your source) casinos at this place made of 3 islands joined by huge, modern bridges. Gambling and tourism appear to be the only commerce. You can’t escape the casinos, most of which are now American. The Sands here recouped the initial investment in one year!
First we drove through some of the downtown areas which are composed of the old, mostly Portugese, and the new (on reclaimed land) areas. There is a statue of a woman with child (Mary with Jesus?) that is a local symbol so the tour guide stopped for a photo op. As it turns out, we passed this same sight numerous times during the day! Each time you stop, people sluggishly get out with their cameras, cross the busy streets, take several (perfect from the behavior of the camera holder) shots, then wait for the busy traffic to allow them to come across to the bus again. This gets old pretty quick. (do I sound annoyed?)
We went past the primarily Portugese structures, most painted a unique color of pink (which we are told the Chinese don’t like), then into the wealthy areas where mansions on postage stamp sized lots are clinging to the sides of the hills. From almost all locations, you can see the lighthouse which is symbolic of the city. On this journey, we went to a famous (sorry, I don’t recall the name) Buddhist temple set on a hillside with many levels. There were some pretty sights, much incense, and as much exercise as you’d like.
ST.PAUL’S: This Catholic church has become symbolic of the hand of God protecting the locals. The façade is made of stone, but the rest of the church was made of wood. During a typhoon shortly after the church was completed, the wooden part of the church caught on fire. The light from this fire served as a beacon for Macaoans to go to safety on higher ground. In recognition of this important part of their history, they leave the façade as a reminder. The façade reminded both Ed and I of Ephesis.
There are numerous steps leading up to this façade, similar to the Spanish Steps in Rome. At the bottom of these steps is the (supposedly) best place to buy almond cookies, which of course, we did. Next door was a place that sold Portugese wine so Ed got a bottle (for us later in the cabin?)
Near St. Paul’s is a museum with high stone walls that looks like a fortress. We didn’t go in but the grounds are lovely. Our bus had parked on a tiny side street as it couldn’t get close to the Cathedral site, so we walked through some older areas of the city to reach it.
LUNCH: This was a special treat. They have a tower here that is the 10th tallest in the world, but which has the longest bungy jump in the world (just in case you are looking to set a record). At the 60th floor, there is a restaurant which makes a 360 degree turn in one hour. Even though there was lots of smog, this was still an interesting site. The buffet extended all the way around the core and included curries, sushi, and other usual dishes.
I started off with the curries. While I’m rather indifferent to curry as a rule, these were delicious. However, the spices triggered a severe asthmatic spasm and I had to give up on them while trying to stop coughing. Later I heard some other folks which the same problem (though their coughing didn’t rival mine). We had some time to walk around below where there were a few nondescript shops.
GAMBLERS: We had some gamblers on board who kept pushing to have some time to gamble, so rather than take us to another historic, local site (which I would have much preferred), they took us to the new MGM Grand Casino for ONE HOUR! Ed and I walked around and took photos of those things we were allowed to photograph, and eventually we exhausted all the possibilities and returned to the bus to wait for the high rollers to return. It turns out that one man won the equivalent of $2K USD on a $60 investment. Folks teased him that he owed us all a drink-which of course never happened and in the meantime, the majority of us were whiling away the time while the handful played the slots.
Now it was time to return to the ferry where we again endured the immigration routine (we’re beginning to look like veterans at this by now) and onto the ferry. All was the same on the ferry boat except that the small concession stand was closed. I’m always grateful for my Treo at times like this when I can entertain myself with Solataire, Monopoly (not my favorite), Scrabble, or video poker to waste time. At the Hong Kong end we again vaulted past immigration and out to wait for the bus to return us to the ship. This took about 20 min. and we then wound our way through the busy streets; by this time it was after 5 pm. We had to be onboard by 7:30pm and we had a lot of folks who wanted to shop.
The bus made it past the security gate onto the pier where we drove down a narrow road, around the U turn of the bend, and onto the other side where our ship was berthed. The pier security stopped our bus about 20 yards from our ship because another (as it turns out, a local gambling ship) was drawing into the pier and throwing it’s lines to be secured. This went on for probably 30 minutes over all during which time the cacophony of complaints and directions from the shoppers on our bus grew ever louder. Thank God the driver either didn’t speak English or refused to listen because the door remained firmly shut. At the first opportunity, the bus moved up and disgorged us into the terminal; the ship was only a few feet away, but we were required to amble through the warren of high end shops before we could enter the gangway. Along the way, young folks were snatching our passports back from us so the ship could have them again. Later there was an announcement asking a couple from “Cabin number XXXX” to return their passports to the purser’s desk.
I probably would have gone shopping a few blocks away, but Ed’s foot was bothering him so he hobbled to the gangway.
DINNER: was open seating tonite. We wound up at our usual table with the usual staff, but Ed and I were alone until we spotted Val and Eric entering the room. I waved and made a fool of myself and they came to join us. What a busy day they had! They found an optometrist who checked their eyes and made new glasses on the spot for them both. Val’s have all the gizmos including graduated powers and Photogray and she only paid about $270 Australian. Such a deal it was that Eric decided to get himself a pair of reading glasses. This was done for them in about 5 hrs!
Along the way, they were routed into tailor’s shops and various ruses were tried on these sharpies without any luck and eventually Eric had two shirts tailor made on the spot. The salesman asked him to buy 6 at a reduced price and Eric said he wouldn’t live long enough to outlast 6 shirts (Eric is 81). In addition to all this, they decided to take the ferry and see some sights in Hong Kong. When they went to get on the ferry, they were waved through as senior citizens (for whom the ride is free). Of course Eric had some story about how they waved Val through and allowed her to take her son along as well. Then they wanted to take the bus around but only had $50 bill, so instead they took a taxi. With the change they got from the taxi, they eventually were able to ride the bus and the view was spectacular they said. They made it to Stanley Market where Val got some apparel for shamefully low prices.
While they were at the table with us, Dorothy and her husband dropped by (these are table mates of theirs) and we had as much fun with her and Ian as Eric and Val provide us.
SAIL AWAY PARTY: The ship had an outlandish buffet and sail-away party planned but Lea and Bill had invited us to their suite to see the harbor during the sail away. This suite wraps around the rear and starboard side of the ship. It is a lovely area and the patio has room for several chaise lounges and a table with chairs. They had invited several other couples and Fr. Austin, who as usual was full of his jokes. We knew about half of the folks there.
When we first came, Lea showed me the gifts she had gotten in Hong Kong including cute paintings of the names of her grandchildren which she will frame and give them to them for gifts. They were darling.
HONG KONG HARBOR AT NIGHT: Words won’t do justice to this skyline description. All this different architecture is lit up in different ways and colors. Furthermore, the design changes regularly. The office lights are also on patterns in some instances. Occasionally, a laser beam or two of various colors would go forth from one or more of the buildings. One could almost imagine music to accompany this light show.
It turns out that several of us have an irrepressible affection for the little tug boats that aid the ship. The one last night has “salvage” in it’s name and we remarked on how we wished that weren’t in the name. Still, we seemed unable to ignore the work of the tug as it pulled the ship a little and then released lines to be retracted into the ship.
Despite the fierce wind off the back of the ship, we had a fun time watching the lights and visiting with the various folks in attendance. When we left you could still see lights along the way but the colored and laser light shows weren’t to be seen any longer.
NINNIES: There are always people who delight in complaining and being the perfect critics and along the way taking every imperfect event as a personal insult. The cluck clucking about the passport ordeal this morning was the beginning and in one form or another, it never died down all day. I only share my complaints with Ed and then return to my Treo games while the malcontents blather on. And then you have the folks who never have a silent thought: whatever comes into their minds is immediately onto their lips and is broadcast at a decibel level that assures no peace for the other riders on the bus. And when you have a couple with a very thick North Carolina accent competing for these honors with one with a different accent, you’re near screaming, which of course would only add to the din and the offenders would be totally oblivious to the reason for the outburst. So we conserve our energy and try to tune out the babblers.
FUTURE TRIPS: In our mailbox tonite were the instructions for our Angor Wat trip. We get off in Saigon but not until 12:30 pm (the ship docks at 7 am: if it isn’t able to make the pier directly adjacent to Saigon, we’ll need to berth about an hour’s drive away from the city - which is where we were last trip). There are so many going, that there are two flights. The times are a little different and one group will miss one of the sites. I hope that we will be on the longer trek since we signed up very early for this excursion. So you won’t hear from us for a few days from March 8-10th.
PHOTOS FROM TODAY: I downloaded all the photos to the external hard drive so I’ll need to reduce their size and put them on the C drive to upload for you on the blog site.