Day 62 - Northeast on the East China Sea

This will probably be the last entry I will be able to upload for the next 3-4 days.  We are on our way to Japan and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Japan blocks the satellite frequencies that the ship needs for Internet connections.

We are resting today to recover from all the activities of the last 3 days and prepare for touring Japan.  We will be in Hiroshima and Osaka during the next few days, before moving on to Seoul, South Korea.

I did a load of laundry this morning, then went to a short lecture on pearls.  They had a contest to see who could identify the fake pearls out of 3 necklaces on display.  Of all the entries they picked one out of the box for a prize.  I picked the correct fake pearls but did not win the raffle.

As usual on a sea day, there were 2 lectures on the activity list.  We went to Dr. Elovitz's  lecture this afternoon called "The Thirst for Water (not Oil) & Looming Flashpoints."  North America consumes more water per person than any other area of the world.  In the U.S., we consume an average of 570 liters (150 gallons) per person per day, while the average consumption per person for the entire world is only 100 liters.  I  wonder what it would take to reduce our consumption down to that level.

Sandra Bowern gave a lecture on "The Historical Culture of Japan" this morning.  We woke up late and didn't make it on time so we watched the replay of it on TV this afternoon.  She illustrated her talk through Japanese art, touching on samurai, kabuki theater, sumo wrestlers, geisha, courtesans, poetry, and the art itself.  I wish I wasn't so tired, I would have appreciated her talk more if I wasn't dosing.  Ray's eyes were closing too.  When I finish this I think I am going to join him in an afternoon nap.

We have plans to meet 2 other couples for dinner tonight.  These are people we met in Auckland at the beginning of the cruse who are also getting off in Beijing.  We have seen them sporadically through these 2 months, but this will be the first time we've spent planned time together.  It should be fun.

Day 61 - Goodbye Shanghai

MagLev Train Approching Station

MagLev Train

This was our third day in Shanghai port.   We weren't scheduled to sail until 1:30 pm, so we had time for one more short tour.  They offered a ride on the MagLev train this morning so we signed up.  For anyone who doesn't know, MagLev stands for magnetic levitation.  There are only 3 trains of this type in the world, one in Germany, one in Japan, and this one in Shanghai, China.  


It was about a 45 minute ride from the ship to Longyang Road station.  The train only travels a short line, between this station and the Shanghai Pudong Airport.   It is an 8 minute ride each way to cover the 30.5 km (18.95 m) run and reaches a top speed of 431 km/hr (268 mph).   There are 2 tracks, with a train running every 15 minutes each way.  When the train on the other track passed us, several people tried to take a photo, but it went so fast there was no chance.  The train left the station at 10:15 and it took us about 3 minutes to reach to maximum speed and another 3 minutes to decelerate.

After this round-trip thrill ride,  we got back on the bus for a trip to the Jin Mao Building again.  We visited this tower on our first day in Shanghai, but it was included in today's tour as a ride on the fastest train combined with a ride on the fastest elevator.  I don't think I mentioned the other day that it takes 45 seconds to travel to the observation deck on the 88th floor. 

We came to the tower from a different direction this time so we got to see a different part of the city.  I liked this sundial sculpture that is located in the center of a roundabout.

We hesitated about going up in the tower again because it was another foggy day, but finally decided it was better than sitting in the bus for 45 minutes waiting for the rest of the group.   We had a nicer day yesterday, but of course, no tours left the ground that day.

Jin Mao Building

Our ship left the pier on time this afternoon, but we did an unusual maneuver getting out.  The captain actually backed the ship down the Huanpu River for the first mile before turning the ship around.  I guess there wasn't enough room for him to turn the ship around until we got that far down river.   We had 2 tug boats following us down the river until we got to the wider Yangtze river.   I understand that it will take until about 8pm to get to the mouth of the Yangtze and back into the East China Sea. 

Tomorrow we have a day of rest - a day at sea.  We are both tired out from the past few days so we are ordering dinner in the room tonight.  We'd like to go to the show, but I'm not sure we're going to make it.  After dinner and a bottle of wine we are probably just going to fall soundly to sleep.

Day 60 - Shanghai and Zhujaijaio

Water Town of Zhujaijaio

Today has been a really good day!

We had to get up early this morning to join an 8am tour.  This one was called "Ancient Water Town of Zhujaijaio," and was one of the best tours we have been on.  The guide was really good.  He talked about the Shanghai area for the first half of the 1.5 hour drive out of Shanghai, then let us enjoy the countryside once we were out of the city.  During our walking tour of the town he stopped to explain the town's history and the merchandise in the shops.  He also made sure no one got left behind in the winding streets and gave us hits on where to meet him if we did get lost.  (No one did.)

Only Covered Bridge in Zhujaijaio

Largest Bridge in Zhujaijaio

The town is built around man-made canals.  Our guide explained that, just like we build railroads and highways today, for this culture, water travel was important.  They dug out these canals to tie them to the rivers and built their homes and  shops along the canals.  It looks like a small, Chinese version of Venice.  There are only a few towns like this left and the Chinese government is encouraging the people to preserve this town as a tourist attraction.   They may have modern conveniences inside, but have to get permission for any external changes. 

We walked past all the shops where vendors sold food, household goods, crafts, and tourist souvenirs.  Our guide took us into a Chinese Traditional Medicine Museum and explained how the Chinese doctors would diagnose ailments and prepare herbal medicines, and how the patient would use the medicines at home.  He said that every Chinese city still has a place to get traditional medicine. 

We also visited the ancient post office.  Originally, this was only used by nobility, but now it is a full post office for the local residents.  This also had a museum upstairs and he explained how the postal system worked in ancient times when few people could read or write.  They would dictate their message to a person at the post office and the message would be read to the recipient by someone working at the receiving post office.

Chinese Canal Boat

"Gondolier" steering our boat

After walking around town for about an hour, we had a half hour on our own for shopping.  Despite the language difference, bargaining with the vendors is not a problem.  Each one has a calculator.  You pick something and they enter the price into the calculator and show it to you.  You can then take the calculator and enter a lower price.  They will then counter with another number.  In this way you can almost always get the price down.  I bought a lovely little wooden fruit basket that is cleverly designed to fold flat, making it easy to pack in my suitcase.


The last event in our tour of the town was a boat ride on the canals.  The boats are something like the gondolas in Venice, but wider so that passengers sit on benches facing each other.  The boats are also easier to get in and out of.  They are steered from the back with a long paddle, just like to gondolas are.  No singing though.


We were surprised at how much the outskirts of Shanghai has been built up.  Factories and high-rise condos have been built far out of the city and many more are under construction.  Our guide said that many people are coming into Shanghai from the provinces, and it is obvious why.  The work is here.

Pearl TV Tower at night

Both last night and tonight the upstairs restaurant opened early with a Mediterranean buffet because there were evening tours to see Chinese Acrobats perform.  We had tickets for tonight's show.  It was a little over a half hour bus ride into the city to get to the show.  Our guide led us to really great center seats.  The show was simply fantastic - sort of like a Cirque de Soleil.   Our guide said that the troupe we saw are the best in China and are celebrities here. It it very hard to explain what we saw in just a few words, but these are very talented acrobats.  In addition to the physical feats, the finale was a show of motorbikes zooming around inside a globe.  They started with one and added another every few minutes until there were 7 bikes all running inside the globe.   It was crazy good!  Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.

Shanghai Night Skyline

To top off a wonderful day, it was a clear night.  When we got back to the ship we headed up to the 12th deck to take photos of the Shanghai skyline Our ship is docked across the river from the main city so we have a great view.   We made it just in time too.  At 10pm chimes rang from somewhere and all the lights began to go off.  We have been very lucky!

Day 59 - Shanghai, China

We arrived in Shanghai this morning to a city engulfed in fog.  We can see to the other side of the river and the first few blocks of the city, but beyond that is just haze.  Internet access is sporadic, going in and out, so I don't know how long it will take me to post this or other posts while in China.

Old Soviet Union Consulate, now museum

China immigration wasn't too bad.  They called us by tour again and we were in the 4th group off the ship.  Our tour today was a simple tour of the city called "Shanghai Old & New." 

Carved Ivory Fish

Carved Temple

Ivory Ladies on Black Lacquer Cabinet

This is not a real old city.  It was built up in the late 1800's to provide the British, and later the French, a trading port with China.  Many of the original buildings have been demolished so new high-rises could be built, but they have preserved a few sections.  The tour bus took us through the British section, called the Bund, and across to the French section.  We made 3 stops on the tour. The first was at the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts.  They had a beautiful collection of jade carvings, wood carvings, needlepoint and embroidery.  Of course, they also had a gift shop. 


The second stop was to go up to the observation deck on the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Building.  The building is very impressive. We took some photos but the haze prevented us from getting any really good pictures of the city.

Looking Down Center of Jin Mao Building from Observation Deck

Our third stop was at the base of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.  This was just a photo stop. We decided it wasn't worth getting out of the bus. We got pictures of the tower and other buildings both from the bus and from the ship.

Oriental Pearl TV Tower

Since we are going to be visiting several ports in China and spending more than one day in each, we thought it would be good to get some local currency.  The ship's crew said there would be a place to exchange currency in the terminal, but we couldn't find it.  After dropping of our cameras & stuff back in the room, we went out again and started asking officials in the terminal where the currency exchange was.  They directed us out of the terminal and to a bank a little ways down the street.  When we got there  we were happy to find an English speaking agent.  She told us the ATM's would not accept credit cards but we could exchange U.S. currency for yuan. All we needed were 9 forms, 3 of which needed to be signed and only one that had an English translation. Plus, they made a copy of Ray's passport.  It took about 15 minutes to get through the paperwork.

I decided to be brave at dinner tonight and order the "Destination Dish" of the day.  This was a prawn dish with noodles and vegetables.  It was very good as long as I was careful.  The first bite set my tongue on fire, but I figured out the culprit green bits to bypass and then enjoyed the dinner.

We will be here 3 days, giving us time for 2 more tours tomorrow and another the last day. 

Day 58 - East China Sea

No photos today.  We are sailing west on the East China Sea, on our way to Shanghai, China.  It's been nice and calm since we left Japan.  The ship should reach the pier about 8:30 am tomorrow. I'm hoping to wake up around sunrise to see the scenery on the way up the river.

Today we got to listen to 2 lectures after breakfast.  The first was Sandra Bowern's talk on "Modern China."  She explained China's recent history from the early 1900's when the last emperor abdicated to the present.  I am familiar with most of the leaders she talked about, even though I can't always spell their names.  The details of their rule were mostly unfamiliar and eye=opening.

The second lecture was by Dr. Mark Elovitz.  It was a follow up on the one he gave a few days ago.  This one was titles. The Chindian Rivalry: Will the Dragon Devour the Elephant or get Stomped?"  In this lecture he talked about the importance of the Indian Ocean, the Bab el Mandeb (Suez Canal), the Strait of Hormuz, and the Strait of Malacca in terms of ships importing resources to China.  He also discussed several border disputes between China and India that we were unaware of.  The picture he painted of the potential future conflicts was pretty scary.

I rounded off the afternoon by going to another art auction.  They really do have some wonderful works of art on the ship.  I enjoy looking at them and hearing the stories behind them.  Plus every time I attend an auction I get a free small print.

We considered going to the show tonight, but once we got back to the room after dinner, decided to settle in.  That's one negative on this ship.  We like to eat early, which means getting to the restaurant when it opens at 6:30 pm.  Even taking our time, we are done by 8 pm, but the shows don't start until 9:30 pm.  Since we do not like sitting at the bar, we wind up with over an hour free time before they open the theater doors.  Once we get back to our room, we rarely feel like going out again. 

Day 57 - Naha (Okinawa), Japan

The seas were really rough last night after leaving Taiwan.  Ray got seasick pretty quickly so I went to dinner by myself.  I would have sat with other people, but there were so few people in the restaurant that they just put me at a table by myself.   I brought a basket of bread back for Ray to get something in his stomach.

It was tough sleeping with the rocking, rolling, and occasional shudder of the ship. By morning it calmed down a little and we managed a few hours sleep.  Ray was still sick so I had breakfast by myself too.  It was too late to go to the restaurant downstairs so I went up to the buffet.  All the waiters we know kept asking me about Ray.  The crew here is so nice.

Naha, Japan

The ship didn't get to Naha until 1pm. We had a tour scheduled for 2:15, "Okinawa Preferral Museum & Shopping," but decided to skip it.  The tour choices here didn't really interest us and we still have 2 more interesting ports in Japan later in the cruise.   Ray needed time to settle his stomach and I needed some sleep more than a military museum and shopping.

We still had to go through Japanese immigration.  They called passengers by tour so people could get to their tour buses on time.  After all the tours they called everyone else.  I think we may have been the only people left on the ship, at least the only ones not still in our room.  We walked around the ship and saw no one but crew.

Voyager Lobby

Immigration was more involved than prior ports.  We picked up our shore passport form (already filled out for us) from the crew first, then got in line.  Japanese agents took our temperature, then sent us to one of the agents at a table in the front of the theater.  There we handed in immigration and import forms (saying we weren't bringing anything into the country that isn't allowed) and they fingerprinted our index fingers, stamped the shore pass and sent us on our way. The shore pass was only needed for going off the ship and had to be handed in before we left port, so we just handed them in again before dinner.

This is the first time I walked around the ship with my good camera, so I finally got some photos of things I like on the ship.  There are 2 photos I'd like to share.  First, in the center of the main lobby, at the foot of the stairs, there is a lovely sculpture of a sailing ship.  I took this photo from the floor above.

Chocolate Voyage Map

In the lobby on the floor below the main lobby, just outside the restaurant, the chiefs have created a chocolate map, showing where this ship has traveled on the current around the world tour.  They started in Rome and I believe the world tour finishes either there or in London. There are a few passengers on board for the entire voyage.  Each time we get to another segment of the cruise, the chiefs add a few more things to the map that represent the areas we will be visiting.  This last photo is a close-up of the current additions. 


There were children performing the Lion dance with accompanying drums on the pier as we left port.  We were at dinner so we couldn't get a photo of them.   Our next day of sailing promises to be smoother.

Day 56 - Taipei, Taiwan

Voyager in the rain at Keelung

For our second day in Taiwan, we had an early tour scheduled - "The Best of Taipei."   Ray decided his feet hurt too much from yesterday's walking, so he stayed on the ship and I went without him.  It has been raining all night and it continued to drizzle off and on all day.  I understand yesterday's nice weather was unusual for this area.  I'm very glad we took the tour to Yeliu Geopark yesterday, as it would not have been pleasant in the rain.




The bus left about 8:45 am for the hour drive to Taipei.  Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, so it is a much more modern city than Keelung.  Many companies that have their factories in China have their headquarter buildings in Taipei.

Guard at the Martyr's Shrine

Changing of the Guard

 Our first stop was to the Martyr's Shrine.  This is a monument dedicated to military, police, and firemen who have given their lives in service to Taiwan.  There are 2 guards stationed at the outer gate and 2 at the inner gate.  These guards are similar to other monument guards in that they are required to stay motionless for the hour they are on duty.  Every hour there is a changing of the guard ceremony.  The inner guard is changed on the hour and the outer guard is changes 15 minutes later.  Our guide gave us the option of following him in to the inner area or staying by the outer gate.  I decided to stay by the outer gate and was glad I did.  As people moved in to watch the inner gate changing of the guard, I was able to establish myself in a great position to video the outer guard change, without anyone in my way.

Taipei 101

Our next stop was to the National Palace Museum.  This is wonderful, modern museum containing priceless and beautiful objects from China's history, dating back thousands of years.  Our guide was very good.  He took us through highlights of the first 2 floors, not only showing us significant pottery and porcelain, but explaining the significance of the colors and designs.   We only had an hour for exploring and 20 minutes in the gift shop, but it was filled well.  This museum is considered on of the top museums in the world and I can see why.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but I've included a link above.

The last stop was at the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.  There wasn't too much to see here, just a statue of  Sun Yat-sen and another changing of the guard.  There was a great view of the Taipei 101 building from the courtyard however.  This was the world's tallest building from 2004 to 2010.  A building in Dubai is now taller.

We were back at the ship before 2 pm.  Tonight is the "meet your neighbors in the hall" night, so we'll get to find out who moved into the rooms around us in Hong Kong.   We sail for Naha (Okinawa), Japan tonight so I probably won't be able to post again until the next day.  As I said yesterday, Japan blocks the satellite channels we need to get internet.

Day 55 - Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan

Keelong Harbour

Our ship arrived in Taiwan at 8am this morning.  I was out on the balcony taking video of the harbor, as usual.  After breakfast, everyone on the ship had to go through immigration, regardless of whether they planned to go ashore.  They processed all the people with morning tours first, then called everyone else by deck. Our tour wasn't scheduled to leave until this afternoon, so we went down when they called for deck 7.  It was a simple process - we picked up our passports and a copy of our passport photo page, signed an immigration form that the ship's crew already had filled out for us, and brought these to an immigration agent in the terminal.  She checked our passports and stamped the passport and copy.  They we handed the passports back to the ship crew member and kept the copy to show as we get off and on the ship later.    Each port has it's own process. 

Lion Dance in Keelung Port, Taiwan

People with morning tours got to see a "lion dance" show as they exited the terminal.  Since we weren't going out yet, we watched a little of it from the deck.  It was similar to the dance I saw in Vietnam.

Happy Buddha

We left on our tour about 1:30 pm with a very amusing guide, Aidan.  He had a little trouble translating numbers and we had fun helping him remember the right English words for the stories he told, but he was a good guide.  The tour went to 2 sites, Zongzheng Park and Yeliu Geopark.

Zongzheng Park is a combination Buddhist temple and mini amusement park.  The entrance is marked by a large Happy Buddha.  I was told the small figures on the Buddha represent the priests who serve him.

Above and behind the Buddha is the temple. On the other side of the temple is a white 25 meter high statue of the Goddess of Mercy.   Buddhists call her Guanyin.  This goddess is found protecting every waterway in Asia.  She is the one who looks out for fishermen.

Buddhist Lady of Mercy, Keelung Harbor

The odd thing about this park was that there were children driving kiddy-cars  around the Lady's statue.  It appeared that they rented them there.   There were also several "statues" that appeared to be cartoon characters catering to children.

Mushroom Formations

After leaving the temple we drove to Yeliu Park.  This is a wonderful cape on Taiwan Island that has been transformed by wind and water into fantastic rock formations.  The whole cape is about 1,700 meters long, but we did not walk the entire distance.  We had an hour and a half to walk around the nearest formations. 

Ray & I next to the "Queen's Head"

Fairy Slipper formation

"Lobster" rock

The tour was rated difficult because of all the walking over uneven surfaces, so we were unsure how we'd do.   It was worth the effort.  We were really tired out by the time we got back to the ship, but we did OK.   We will be staying in port tonight and have an easier tour tomorrow morning.

Day 54 - South China Sea

The sail away from Hong Kong last night was lovely.  They really do like to light up the buildings along the harbor.  We are lucky that we came to see this now because they are building a new cruise ship terminal where the old airport was, further down the harbor.  Passengers will still be able to see the buildings sailing in and out, but they won't have a view of the laser light show like we did. 

Hong Kong Pier & Shopping Mall where we docked

Hong Kong Sky-line

Hong Kong Ferry Terminal

 

"Junk" Tour Boat

 We have another sea day today, on our way to Taiwan.  For a sea day, it was pretty busy.  We got our tour tickets and a revised itinerary last night and there were quite a few changes.   We were supposed to be in most ports 2 days but the captain received info that, due to the way the currents are predicted to be, we need to leave Osaka at 4 AM on the second day instead of in the afternoon.  That means any tours scheduled for day 2 were re-booked for day 1.  People who had tours scheduled on both days had to decide which one they want and turn in the other tickets.


The other change was to the difficulty level for several tours.  We had tickets for 2 tours that were listed as level 1 (easy) but have been corrected to level 3 (difficult). These are for tomorrow and the next day in Taiwan.  We decided to try the one for tomorrow, but exchanged the second tour for something easier.

There were 2 great lectures today.  Sandra Bowern gave a talk on "Imperial China" at 10 am.  We were exchanging tickets and doing laundry this morning, so we watched this on on TV later in the day.  She gave an excellent overview of the history of the Chinese dynasties through the last emperor, who abdicated in the early 1900's.

The second talk was given by a new lecturer, Dr. Mark Elovitz.  It was part of a "World Affairs Hot Spot Series" he will be giving over the next few weeks.  Today's was titled "Whose Lunch Is China Eating As It Rises Peacefully?"   The main point was that China's current plan is to stay out of everyone else's politics and religious issues while gobbling up all the resources it needs to grow.  It is making deals with countries all over the world to import oil, natural gas, minerals, etc.  to grow it's production of all kinds of things, both for internal consumption and export.  China is pursuing a path of increasing it's world power through economic policies instead of war.

Ray Solaire, Cruise Director & Performer

Tonight was formal night, so we got all dressed up for dinner.  We went upstairs to the Italian restaurant instead of the main dining room.  The main dining room is always very busy on the first night out of a new cruise segment - all the newbies want to go there.  After dinner we actually made it to the show.  Our cruise director is a very talented man and he was the show tonight.  He has a wonderful singing voice, does ventriloquism with a bunch of cute puppets, and tells jokes in between.  We really enjoyed the show.  

Although I will continue to write these blogs daily, you may not see them posted daily between now and March 14th.  We have been told that satellite internet  signals may be restricted in Japan, and that there may be interference in Shanghai.  I will still write my thoughts for each day and post them when I can.

Day 53 - Hong Kong Day 2

Today is passenger change day.  We have new neighbors on either side of our suite.  While the crew worked to get the ship ready for the new passengers this morning, we took a "Panoramic Tour of Hong King."   It was another foggy day, so our photos are not as good as we hoped, but we enjoyed the bus ride.  Our guide had a great sense of humor and used it well as he told us about Hong Kong and it's history.

The first destination was to Victoria Peak.  The observation point is not at the very top, but our guide assured us that the view is better from the lower vantage.  There is a tram that visitors can take up to the top, but that wasn't included in our tour.  As you can see from this photo Ray took, it probably wouldn't have made any difference. The haze obscured all but the closest buildings.

Next, the bus drove us to Repulse Bay. This is the area where the really wealthy residents live.  It has a lovely beach but the main reason this location is so desirable has to do with the principles of Feng Shui.  The literal translation of this term is wind-water.  This bay is sheltered from the wind by the hills.  Dragon spirits are supposed to be carried on the wind and stopped by water.

One of the prominent buildings here was designed with a hole in the center.  Our guide said that there are 2 theories for this.  One is Feng Shui, allowing the dragon spirit to get through to the water.  The other theory is that it was designed this way for structural reasons.  Since none of the other buildings in the area have this feature, your guess is as good as mine.


When we left the beach we drove to the far end of Hong Kong to where he new airport has been built.  Our guide pointed out where a local amusement park, Hong Kong Disneyland, a fishing boat village, and various buildings and neighborhoods along the way.  It was difficult to get photos of any of this from a moving bus.  We got a brief glimpse of the airport and saw where a new railroad terminal is being constructed for a rail line from Hong Kong to Beijing.  Our guide said this will be a 20 hour train ride. 


We finally stopped at the base of the" Ngong Ping 360" cable car ride.  This takes tourists up to the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha, also referred to as the Big Buddha.  Of course, the tour didn't include this either.  The photo here is all we saw of it.  I think this was more a bio-break stop than anything else. 

From there we drove back to the ship, noting several nice bridges along the way.  Overall, this tour lived up to it's description as "panoramic" and got us out of the way of the crew for a few hours, but wasn't anything exciting.

We had lunch on the ship, then headed back out to the mall this afternoon to see what we could find.  This was a nice walk and we got lost in the maze of halls for awhile, but didn't buy anything.  All we accomplished was to tire ourselves out.  I think we are going to order a light dinner into our room again tonight. 


Our ship sails away from Hong Kong at 10pm tonight.  I would like to share one last photo from here - a junk we saw traveling back and forth across the bay this morning during breakfast.

Day 52 - Hong Kong

Our arrival in Hong Kong this morning was shrouded in mist and fog.  I woke up and went out on the balcony at 7AM as we were coming into the harbor.  At first I thought it was just overcast because it was drizzling, but the fog never completely went away.  Later on, when we were on tour, our guide said the wind is blowing the smog here from China. 

After breakfast we went out of the ship to shop because we heard there was a good shopping mall on the dock.  That was an understatement.  Immediately upon exiting the ship we found ourselves in a full scale, high-end mall with 3 floors of stores.  We explored for about an hour and almost got lost in there.  They had a lot of clothing  and jewelry stores that we bypassed.  We checked out a few camera stores but they didn't carry anything we are in the market for.  Finally, we did find a nice medium size suitcase at a good price.  We'll need the extra so we can fit the souvenirs we've gotten along the way plus the ones we'll probably get over the next few weeks.

Altar to Tin Hau, goddess of the sea

Our tour for the day, "Living Traditions of Hong Kong," met at 1:20pm.  Regent had people with signs stationed through the mall at each place we had to turn to get to the buses so we wouldn't get lost on the way out.  We went in small buses with 2 seats on one side and 1 on the other.  Each bus was limited to 14 people so the guide could manage to keep track of us in the city.  Our first stop was at the historic Tin Hau Temple on Causeway Bay, built in the early 18th century.  Tin Hau is the Taoist goddess of the sea.  There are over 70 temples in Hong Kong devoted to this goddess, since Hong Kong was originally a fishing village.  All the Tin Hau temples were originally built facing the water, but land reclamation projects around Hong Kong have pushed most of them further inland.  Unlike the Taoist temple I visited in Foshan yesterday, this one still had many active worshipers, as evidenced by the food and incense offerings.  To either side of the main altar were smaller alters to the general god who protects the people and the judge god who settles disputes and judges crimes.

Hong Kong "Ding Ding"

The bus dropped us off in the city next so we could board the city tram, referred to by locals as the "Ding Ding"  because of it's sound.  This was a fun ride on a double-decker streetcar.

When we go off we walked uphill to a local cafe for tea or coffee and a pastry.  They served the tea English style, with milk.  It was stronger, black tea than I usually associate with China.  I think it had more of the British influence. 

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Hong Kong Light Show

From there we walked further uphill to visit the local "Wet Market."  A "Wet Market" is where locals buy their food each day.  People in Asia tend not to have large refrigerators.  They live in very small apartments and don't have room for anything large.  Our guide said her apartment is 450 square feet.  These apartments are in high-rise buildings in the city and the markets are storefronts at street level below the apartments.  People shop for their food fresh each day, often twice a day so they don't have to store much in their apartments.  The fruit and vegetables looked wonderful, but there were a lot of strange items that I did not recognize or, in some cases, wished I didn't.  Our guide told us that they waste nothing.  They eat anything that moves and every part of them.  After the "Wet Market" we re-boarded the bus and went to the oldest Chinese section of town where more exotic and expensive delicacies are sold.   Again, interesting but probably more information that we really needed or wanted to know in some cases.

This Building was decorated with Flower lights all night

Traffic was reasonable so we were able to return to the ship earlier than scheduled.  This was good because it allowed us to have dinner in the ship's restaurant and be back in our room before 8pm.  The time was important because the skyscrapers on Hong Kong island put on a light show at 8pm every night.  Our ship was positioned on the dock across Victoria Harbor from the island so we had a great view of the show.  It lasts about 15 minutes and was very nice.  I understand that it is choreographed to music that can be heard at the ferry terminal and some other places, but we couldn't hear it from where we were.

Tomorrow is another transition day.  Lots of passengers are getting off the ship and going home in the morning. New passengers will be boarding tomorrow afternoon.  We will go out on another tour in the morning to get out of the way for a few hours.

Day 51 - Huang Pu & Foshan, China

We arrived at our first port in China this morning.  Huang Pu is about 20 miles from Canton and about an hour and a half from Foshan.   We were signed up for a full day in Foshan, so we ordered breakfast in our room again.  Ray didn't sleep well last night and felt sick after breakfast, so I went on the tour without him.

Building Under Construction, designed with Feng Shui

At first I thought it was overcast today, but our guide surprised me by thanking us for bringing sunshine.  I didn't see the sun all day.  What I thought were clouds was actually pollution haze.  I didn't think we'd see that this far south.  If this is what southern China is like, I'm afraid of what we'll see in Beijing.

Foshan Zumiao

The bus ride to Foshan was uneventful.  It reminded me of driving through New York City.  There were a continual line of high-rise apartment and office buildings, many still under construction.  Circles are considered harmonious in China, as this new building shows.  Holes are sometimes designed into buildings to allow dragon spirits to have a path from the mountains to the sea.

Our first stop was at Foshan Zumiao. This is a Taoist "ancestral" temple complex.  At least this is what the guide called it.  From her explanation, I think when they say "ancestral", they mean historic site.   This was an interesting place, with various small buildings and courtyards.   In one courtyard, women in their 70's were performing Tai Chi exercises.   When they were done they greeted us with a friendly smile and an English "hello".

Kung Fu Demonstration

In one inner courtyard we stopped to watch young men perform a Kung Fu demonstration. I'm sure none of them were more than high school age.   There were about a dozen young men demonstrating various skills and it was all very impressive.

After the Kung Fu show our guide led us to another, open courtyard where we watched some young acrobats dressed in dragon costumes (2 boys in each dragon), dance and perform acrobatic stunts.   At the end of the first part they came close to the crowd so children could pet them and adults could offer "tips" in exchange for good luck items.  I placed $5 in a dragons mouth and received a good luck bell in return.

For the second part of the show one of the dragons performed acrobatics on the pedestals at one side of the courtyard.  Note that the dragon is made up of 2 guys, one for the head and one for the rear.  They must just from pedestal to pedestal in sync, with the costume in place, sometimes doing flips. Amazing stuff.


Next stop was at a folk art store where they showed us how they teach children Chinese writing with a brush dipped in water (no ink).  The paper is backed with something that makes it turn black with each water-brush stroke.  We were given a little shopping time there.

We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, but almost wish we hadn't.  They brought out lots of food, but only the vegetables, soup and rice were edible.  They served pork, duck, chicken and beef, all of which had lots of fat on it.  The chicken and a shrimp dish were undercooked and the fish had tiny bones in it.  Needless to say, there was a lot of food left in the family-style serving dishes when we left our table.

Entrance to Pottery Workshops

Our last stop was at a pottery artist community, with lots of little shops in historic buildings.  The pottery was lovely, each shop showing the products of the artist/shopkeeper, but none of the shops took U.S. currency or credit cards.  Very few of the people on the tour had a chance to get any local currency, so the browsing after the tour of the shops was short.

Although all the stops were interesting, there was way too much time at each one.  We seemed to have 15-30 minutes left at each place after we had seen everything but before the meet time the guide had set.   The only place that accepted U.S. currency or credit cards was the folk art store, and they were obviously not used to handling credit cards. Each transaction took over 5 minutes, and that was with our guide standing there assisting.   The tour was scheduled for 8 hours, but it could have been completed in under 7.

Some Interesting Pottery Art

After the long day we had another surprise waiting for us back at the ship.  When we left the ship this morning we had to submit a stamped copy of our passport to immigration officers and they took our picture.  On the way back we had to hand them the same copy so they could verify that the same person returned as left the ship.  It wasn't a problem when we left this morning because the tour groups were staggered so everyone didn't leave at the same time.  However, it seems like all the tours returned to the pier around the same time.  There was a long line to get to the 5 Chinese immigration officers one at a time.  The Regent staff must have expected this, because they had music playing and a number of crew members standing along the lines, clapping and dancing to the music to entertain us as we waited.  I videoed this of course.  There were a lot of people upset at the wait, but I was in no rush and I enjoyed the crew's efforts to lift our spirits.  I saw a few stateroom attendants who I knew and I thanked them for being there for us.

Ray was doing a little better when I got back, but still wasn't 100%.  I ordered chef salads to the room for dinner so he could have more recuperation time.  We sail for Hong Kong tonight and he really wants to see that city.