Phuket Thailand

Cel got up before the alarm at 6 as our tour time was 7:15.  Down early as we did not want to be on the last bus.  Our guide was quite good and told us that Phuket Island is now 90% owned by foreigners.  The population of Phuket town is 400,000.  We took an hour and a half drive to the Phang-nga Bay.  From there we boarded an open boat that took us first too Koh Panyi Island which is a traditional Muslim fishing village built on stilts.  We walked through the shops to the school where the soccer field is concrete, hard on the knees.  We then walked to the the back of the village.  Most of the homes are one room with a mattress on the middle of the floor.  Eating happens outside on the front porch.  We saw a couple of women with some gibbon monkeys and I am not sure of their purpose of having the monkeys.  We also saw some well fed cats, the advantage of living in a fishing village.  The houses are all crammed together with potted plants providing gardens and lots of singing birds in bamboo cages.  Beautiful birds.  A rather intimate living place with people just opening their doors as they are dressing.  We then returned to the boat to travel to James Bond Island so named after the movie "Man With The Golden Gun".  After the movie came out in 1974, about 5000 tourists a day travelled to the island.  It became such a popular destination for tourists that not only did they give it its unofficial new name of James Bond Island, they also built a shopping centre on the beach!  Thankfully we did not land but rather circled the island twice getting a great view of nail island, a pinnacle of limestone a short distance offshore from James Bond Shopping Centre.
The limestone islands and cliffs are truly spectacular, adorned with stalactites and stalagmites that you normally only see inside caves,    not on the exterior of islands.  The rock colours and formations were stunning.  The other interesting site was all the different types of boats on the water especailly the long tailed fishing and tour boats.  A big thing to do in the islands is to canoe or sea kayak.  There are numerous companies offering services.  We then went through a sea cave along with many canoeists and I was surprised to see no crashes given the number of vessels in the cave.   After our boat ride it was a Thai buffet lunch.  Gotta love Thai food and beer and then back to the ship after the obligatory shopping stop.  It would appear that the new hated tourist in this part of the world is the Russians which does not seem too surprising given our experience with toothpick man.  Next stop India.

Singapore

Singapore marks the beginning of the final segment of our cruise and that is sad.  I am starting this segment with an epic summer cold.  Lungs and nose are producing astonishing amounts of liquids but the Cel is convinced that this is my tactic to avoid the smells of India.  Despite my ill health I simply had to go ashore and see something of Singapore.  We arrived at 7 am but could not get off the ship until almost 8. A  quick breakfast and we were off.  Marcel was worried that with all the kleenex stuffed in my pockets that I would drop some leaving us open to a $1000 fine and $2000 and community service for a second offense.  So Cia  was very careful.
After getting cash from the ATM and buying a$20 tourist SMRT pass ($10 is refunded.)  The subways are immaculate, no food or drink allowed and chewing gum will cost you $100 fine as well.  Our first stop was the Botanic Gardens.  The gardens open from 5am to midnight.  The garden was begun in 1822 by Sir Stanford Raffles.  It closed in 1829 and was reopened 30 years later.  The current garden is 74 hectares and has components such as swan lake, the ginger garden, the cactus garden, the bonsai garden, an evolution garden that takes you back to pre dinosaur time.  The highlight is the tropical orchid collection.  It is stunning in diversity and layout and is said to be the largest in the world.  There are over 1000 species and 2000 hybrids in the garden, even one named after former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien.  We spent most of the day walking the gardens in the 30 plus heat.  We had some iced lemon tea at the refreshment bar that was delicious.  
After the Botanic Garden we took the SMRT to the Singapore Flyer, a gigantic ferris wheel that can accommodate up to 784 people, with room for 27 in each capsule.  We lucked out and managed to have a capsule to ourselves.  It was wonderful to be able to walk around the compartment and see the city below from all vantage points.  Normally, the cost of renting a private capsule is $1000.  One complete rotation of the Flyer takes 30 minutes and you get a great view of the city, its unique buildings and the formula one track.  This is one city I would love to come back to as there was so much more to see that we just did not have time for as we had to be back on board by 4:30.   After setting sail for our next port of call, Phuket, the cumulus clouds that had been building all day produced a number of spectacular thunderstorms throughout the night and early morning.

Cruise tip: take the SMRT to get around in Singapore.  If you will disembark or embark a cruise in Singapore, plan to spend a few extra days here as there is so much to see.  The cruise ship terminal has great access to the city and the SMRT station is right next tot the terminal.

Princess sea term definition : Brass Monkey
In the days of sailing warships, the most common weapon was a cannon.  It was obviously useful to keep a supply of cannon balls next to the cannon, so to stop them from rolling All over the place they would be stacked pyramid fashion on a brass retainer about 1-2 inches high, known as a brass monkey.  In very cold weather, the brass retainer would contract more quickly than the cast iron cannon balls and eventually the cannon balls would actually fall off the monkey and so we arrive at the expression "cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey."

Vietnam Cambodia and Thailand

These are countries that we never imagined visiting, and they are a striking contrast to what we have seen to date.  The first thing we noticed was the amount of debris and garbage scattered along the roadways.  The wiring systems are positively amazing.  Hundreds of wires span the distance between poles and large coils of excess wire and a rat's nest of connections adorn each pole.  The countries are also similar in terms of the level of poverty and smog, and heat, and humidity.
The other common and very remarkable feature of these countries is the amazing number of scooters and small motorcycles on the roads.  I lost count of how many families of four we saw riding one scooter.  In Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon in the old days) they have 33 road fatalities a day.  Our bus swerved twice to avoid bodies strewn on the road from scooter accidents.
Each country is relying on tourism to grow, especially in Cambodia where, around Angkor Wat, in the last five years many new five star hotels have sprung up with full facilities, huge guest rooms and great buffet meals at a fraction of the cost of similar amenities in North America and Europe.  Just don't drink the water.  
The most fascinating aspect of Vietnam and Cambodia was listening to the history of each country, particularly the number of wars that have occurred throughout the past 100 years and the impact these conflicts have had on the countries.  Even Thailand has been warring with Cambodia as recently as last April but supposedly they are currently friends again.  The most developed country is Thailand and annually they have 10 million tourists that just come for one day alone, not including other tourists for longer durations.  In both Cambodia and Thailand we got a sense from our tour guides of high dissatisfaction with their governments.  All of the countries operate on bribes in one form or the other.   
The sites we saw were one of a kind like the laquer factory in Hanoi and the Temple of the Sun Goddess.  Angkor Wat is a spectacular set of ruins that goes on and on and on.  By the end of the day I was templed out but an interesting one was Ta Prhom temple where the trees growing around and on and even into the temple walls looked as it they were designed as part of the site.  Angkor Wat is a spectacular place where one can easily spend a few days but be sure to bring deet and lots of it. The highlight in Bangkok was the Royal Palace with many of the buildings covered in 24karat gold, which helps to explain why the king is worth 33 billion.  This overland trip has been stimulating and thought provoking with a view of the world that we never thought we would see.  Next stop Singapore. 

Cruise tip:  In Angkor Wat US dollars are the currency but just make sure that they are not torn or looking old or else they will return them to you and ask for replacements.

Princess sea definition: Limey (looking for verification from our British friends)
The reason British sailors are known as Limeys stems from the 18th and 19th century when the navies of the world were providing their crews with fresh citrus fruit rich in vitamin C to prevent scurvy.  Whilst most navies opted for lemons, the British opted for limes, because although they are lower in vitamin C , they were cheaper and more readily available from British Caribbean territories.  British ships subsequently became known as lime juicers and their crews Limeys.

Photos from China

Clearing snow from the wall

View of the Great Wall of China

Bird Market in Hong Kong

Descending the Wall

Tien'anmen Square

Forbidden City

Temple of Heaven

The Big Underpants in Beijing

Symphony of Lights

Goldfish Market

The Sacred Way

Hong Kong

After another delayed flight, customs, and an hour-long bus ride back to the ship we were on board by 4 pm.  On the ride home we drove past the location of the new Disney Resort, over the replica bridge of the Golden Gate Bridge and listened to our guide give us commentary on Hong Kong.  He went on for a bit about Apple, noting that their products are made in China where they pay workers minimum wage, a whopping $4an hour.
Our dinner table mates had arranged for us all to take a Hong Kong Harbour dinner  cruise during the symphony of lights.  Our table mates are comprised of two Americans, two Australians and two Brits, and they are all great fun.  We somehow always  manage to be the last to leave the restaurant every evening and the conversation and laughs are virtually continuous.  
We took the Metro to get to the north shore of Hong Kong island where we boarded the boat.  We were booked into the VIP room, a private room that let on to the private balcony that occupied the entire bow of the boat, which is where we watched the Symphony of Light show.  This is a must-see in Hong Kong and even though the smog was bad, the show was nevertheless spectacular.  After finishing dinner and drinks we took a taxi back to where the shuttle bus to the ship was waiting to take us back home.  Hong Kong is amazing at night with massive buildings lighting up the sky. Part of the city looks like a giant billboard with all the companies names lighting up the sky.
The next day we headed out to explore the city.  After taking the shuttle bus to the central district on Hong  Kong Island, we caught the Star Ferry to Kowloon.  Cia joined a tai chi class on the waterfront outside the museum of art.  After that we walked along the avenue of the stars where we saw the handprints for Jackie Chan and a statute of Bruce Lee and a bunch of other Chinese movie stars whose names we did not recognize.  Then we walked the entire length of Nathan Street, the 3-kilometer long main shopping street in Kowloon.  Their were plenty of Rolex shops, jewelry stores, high-end fashion stores and tailors. We walked by the goldfish market that had bags and bags of goldfish for sale, then by a regular street market, then the flower market which had the most amazing orchids and bonsai plants for sale and roses that were individually wrapped.  The final market we went to was the bird market where hundreds of singing birds were for sale in cages. The songs were beautiful but it did not seem right to see these creatures fluttering around in such small cages.  There were also pairs of love birds, parrots and numerous macaws for sale.
In the interests of saving time, we decided to take the subway back to the Star Ferry Terminal.  The subway system is amazingly clean and the stations are massive.  They have maps so you can figure your optimum way out of the stations.  We then took the ferry across again and made our way to the tram station to go up Victoria Peak, passing by the occupy Hong Kong movement that had pitched their camp in the sheltered, shady concourse beneath the HSBC bank.  The camp's unkempt slovenly appearance was in stark contrast to the gleaming steel and glass towers surrounding it.  
Even though it was smoggy, we decided to go up to the top of Victoria Peak just to enjoy the funicular train.  It was worth it.  At the top it was windy and cool but the smog was beginning to clear up somewhat so we paid the extra fee to go to the sky terrace.  While the building itself is very interesting to see from the outside, the fee to go to this terrace on its roof is not really worth it because the traditional, free public terrace outside the tram station building gives essentially the same view.  After stopping for a Starbucks beverage and free wi-fi we took the tram back down.  On our walk from the tram station back to the pier we encountered  a lovely urban park that was a beautiful oasis of rocks, trees and fountains midst the skyscrapers.  We also stopped at the apple store where they had just launched the new Apple iPad 3.  Looking around the glitzy, glamorous store, we were reminded how our guide Bill commented on the low salary of Apple factory workers.  We got back to the ship and enjoyed a lovely sail away party watching the skyline of Hong Kong slowly recede as we partook of a few glasses of cheap, but free, champagne.  A pleasant way to cap off a brief but very pleasant visit to this interesting, vibrant city.

Cruise tip:  plan your day and take the subway/bus/ferry system.  The cost is reasonable and English is spoken throughout.

Sea terms as provided by Princess:  Sucking the Monkey  
During the American War of Independence, British seamen  persuaded West Indian women, who came aboard the naval ships to sell coconuts, to empty the coconuts first and refill them with rum.  When the rum was then extracted using a straw, this was known as "sucking the monkey".  The resulting drunkenness supposedly remained a mystery to the ships' officers for many years.

Shanghai to Beijing

Nee-how (that's a phonetic spelling of how to say hello in Chinese (Mandarin)).   You must be sure to pronounce this greeting as two syllables, prolonging the second syllable somewhat.  If you slur the syllables together to say something like neow it means (apparently) that you want to pee.   
We arrived in Shanghai (population about 23 million) amid fog and pollution.  On the sea 46 miles outside of Shanghai you could already smell the smog.  Shanghai is called the Paris of Asia but the influences have been international and are reflected in the architecture of the French, British, Russian, and American concessions (districts).
We left Shanghai at noon to catch a 3 pm flight to Beijing.  Initially, we were told the flight was delayed until 3:30 due to "weather" (read smog).  We knew we were in for a longer delay when they began serving dinner on board before we left the tarmac. Finally at 5:40 we were off to "fog" bound, chilly Beijing.
The  next morning we awoke to a winter wonderland.  It was the first big snow of the winter in Beijing.  Just what two Canucks  wanted to see, especially after hearing about how winter bypassed Calgary this year.  We put on our many layers of clothing and began the tour, which started at The Sacred Way and the Ming Tombs.  The area was reminiscent in some ways of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.  After a quick lunch with beer included, as it is considered a soda in China, we went to the Great Wall and began climbing and climbing and climbing up steep paths and uneven stone stairs.  It is magnificent and our guide kept telling us how rare it was to be seeing it in the snow.  One challenge was that the snow shovelers could not keep the steps clear so Cia can now say she slid down a section of the Great Wall of China (without crying).
Day two was spent seeing Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Both entities are massive.  The square is immediately south of the Forbidden City.  Both sites are well worth visiting.  We saw the corner where the young student played chicken with a Chinese tank.  Our guide told us that no one knows what happened to that brave young man, but all are sure that at best he is still in prison and at worst that he was summarily executed.  Curiously, according to our guide, the rebellion of 1989 was an expression of the outrage of the public with political corruption.  Interestingly, the common catchphrase in today's China is "we work it out." Whatever is needed or desired can be worked out provided that the proper people are paid or bribed.
Perhaps the most interesting part of our visit to Beijing was learning more about life in China from our guide, Tom, who was born in 1960 and so witnessed the remarkable evolution of the country.  He was a young child during the cultural revolution and his parents, who were intellectuals, were sent to the country to work as labourers on farms, in order to be re-educated.  All books and music were removed from their house and Tom and his brother were left in the city for two years with visits to their parents only happening once a year for twenty days.  Many of his parents' friends committed suicide during this time period. The only book Tom was permitted to read was Mao's red book and children were to pray to the god Mao twice a day.  This is significantly different today where the only place we saw a major picture of Mao was in Tian'anmen Square.  Mao is now considered merely a historical figure. 
The management of the one child system is maintain by severe penalties.  If you have a second child and work for the government you will lose your job.  You can have a second child but the financial cost is high and your child cannot be registered.  But China is now realizing the long term impact of this decision as the country ages, and it will be interesting to see how they will address the problem.  Since parents are allowed only one child, the pressures placed on that child to succeed are immense and this has produced an extremely high suicide rate among youth.  Moreover, in China children are required to care for their parents as they age and if they do not they are taken to court and often sued.
Many of the rich Chinese will move their wives and children to places like Vancouver but the men run their businesses in China visiting the families once a year,  many of these men end up wanting to keep the wives in Canada as they enjoy their mistresses in China.  
Generally, China is expensive to its populace.  To get a car license in Beijing costs almost $10,000 US or58,300 Yuan.  When a child is to be married the dowry for the daughter is a car, for the son, a house/apartment.  Prices in Beijing for an apartment run from 1 to 6 million Yuan.  The salaries in  Beijing average between 6,000 and 20,000 per month.  In terms of smart phones Samsung has three times the market share to Apple in China.  All skyscrapers in Beijing were built in the last twenty years and the stadium known as the "Bird's Nest," built for the 2008 Olympics cost over 4 billion Yuan and has not been used since because it is too expensive to rent.  All media is controlled by the government in China and a 21st century landmark building to house the government Television Centre cost 4 billion Yuan to build.  Unfortunately, it is still not complete because some officials got too excited about the opening party and set off some fireworks which caused a massive fire. The locals now derisively call the building the "big underpants " due to its unique design and waste of money.   Needless to say those involved in the fireworks decision are now in jail. 
Next stop Hong Kong which is now an administrative district of China.  Apart from operating a military and foreign affairs, Hong Kong may keep its current administrative system in place until 50 years from 1997, when it must revert to all of mainland China's government rules and regulations. 

Cruise tip: when taking a taxi in China make sure that the driver turns on the meter before you start, if they do not, get out.

Pictures

Toilet Control Panel

Perfect Toilet



Basic Toilet



Chef's Dinner Dessert

UN Memorial Cemetery Korea

Fill er Up

Mount Fuji

Tokyo Harbour

A-Bomb Dome Hiroshima

Blossoms

Fish Market Busan

Busan, South Korea

We arrived in Busan at 10am and were pleased to discover that the ship had Internet service again.  Throughout Japan we had no Internet.  Once the ship was able to connect with the satellite again,  learned that shortly after we left, Tokyo experienced an earthquake of magnitude 6.3.  Happily no damage was reported. 
In Busan the ship provided a free shuttle to the Jagalchi Market which is a fish market that covers several city blocks.  We were astonished with the number and varieties of fish for sale, some of which were still alive, barely swimming in a tub of water with multitudes of their fellows.  I watched a store keeper beat back an octopus that was trying to escape its tub of water.  We saw eels, crabs, anchovies, stingrays, wormlike creatures and many more types of seafood.  If you get hungry, some of the stalls were cooking the fish for 
immediate consumption.  No fish for dinner for me tonight.  From the fish market we took the excellent subway to the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea.  Over 2,300 soldiers from 16 countries are buried here.  As you enter two Korean soldiers salute you and in the Memorial Hall you can watch a film that talks about the war and the UN participation.  A poignant area is a semi circular Wall of  Remembrance that lists all the names of UN troops who perished (40,896).  The soldiers are buried by country with memorials present by each country.  Canada's is a statute of a soldier helping children.  The whole site is very interesting.  From here we walked to the Busan Museum, an interesting museum showing  the history of Busan from earliest time to the present.  Every time we passed an attendant in the museum they bowed so there was lots a bowing happening and no opportunity skip an exhibit hall without being impolite.  After leaving the museum we took the subway to return to the bus stop to catch the shuttle back to the ship.  An interesting and diverse day.

Cruise tip: The Busan subway is a great way to get around town and inexpensive.  4000 Won (about $4) for a full day pass.   Signage is in English and Korean

Hiroshima

Today was a very moving day; a day that made vivid the horror of war and of nuclear bombs in particular.  We went by streetcar to the Peace Memorial Park which is located at ground zero.  We began by observing the dome, the remains of a building that was very nearly directly beneath the detonation of the A bomb.  The starkness of the remains sends a shiver down one's spine.  In contrast to the desperate sadness one feels when walking through the WWII cemeteries in Europe, walking at the hypocenter of the blast brings emotions of dread and horror.  It is a creepy sensation walking in the sunshine and imagining a sudden flash of brilliance and heat and immediate devastation for as far as you can see.  You cannot walk around the A-bomb dome without taking as much time as necessary to try to imagine what happened here and to try and come to some kind of terms with how it could possibly have occurred.  And in the end, you walk on, recognizing that the whole nightmare is really quite inconceivable.  
We wandered through the park passing numerous memorials and then spent a few hours in the museum.  The exhibits are absorbing.  The bomb was detonated at a height of 600 meters in order to yield maximum destruction.  There are exhibits explaining how the bomb works, including the physics of nuclear fission.  A section of the museum was devoted to exhibiting the letters that prompted the development of the bomb, the reasons for choosing Japan as the ultimate target and the rationale behind selecting Hiroshima as the primary target.  Other sections of the museum were devoted to showing the effects of the detonation, which included some very graphic images of victims.  Further exhibits provided the necessary balance by explaining how Japan's imperialistic and war-mongering cruelty, and stubborn clutching to the idea of empire provoked the attack.  The remarkable thing about this excellent museum, however, was the pervasive plea that was built upon with every successive exhibit, for world peace and complete global nuclear disarmament.  Overall, the museum provides an extremely balanced account of the war and the events leading up to 8:15am August 6, 1945 as well as an account of the human impact of the bomb.  The photos and the displays are graphic and compelling.  
The current population  of Hiroshima is 1.1 million and the city seems to move slower than the frenetic pace of Tokyo.  Today Cia experienced a traditional Japanese toilet and much prefers the western deluxe version.  She has decided that she is too old for low level squats.   We spent the bulk of our day in the Peace Park and then walked past Hiroshima  Castle.  While making our way to the Shukkeien Gardens we noticed a large group of people, mostly young, loitering around a building.  We wondered whether it was a ticket outlet for a concert, or whether some politician or other celebrity was expected to emerge from  the building because we also saw someone with a TV type video camera.  We eventually gathered enough nerve to approach a young fellow of about 16 years of age (since we had been told that the best chances of finding someone who spoke English was among the youth) and ask him what everyone was waiting for.  He tried deciphering our English phrase and eventually told us that no one was waiting for anything, that this was a high school.  Suitably mortified, we moved on to the Shukkeien Gardens where the cherry trees were in bloom.  Magnificent.  The rest of the garden was in the early throes of spring growth with buds just barely emerging.  It would be a glorious place in the summer and autumn. We wandered through the garden for about an hour before it was time to return to the ship and leave for Busan, South Korea.

Cruise tip:  Hiroshima's public transit is excellent and if you are armed with a good map you will have no problem making your way around.  Do not expect to meet a lot of English speakers, however.  

Tokyo

Cia loves the toilets in Japan and would like to have one at home but heard that they cost about $4000.  Cia, could spend most of the day there.  You can make flushing noises by pressing a button if you are being a little loud.  The seats are heated and you have your choice of a bidet or bum spray upon completion.  I hope to blog the photo of the controls soon.  These facilities give whole new meaning to going to the reading room.  Oh right...this blog is supposed to be about Tokyo, not Toto.  
Tokyo is a massive city and a population that, if you include the suburbs, numbers 35-39 million people.  It is a concrete jungle with buildings of all shapes and sizes everywhere.  The apartments are miniscule.  As we sailed in at 7am the sky was crystal clear and Mount Fuji was in majestic, iconic form.  Unfortunately, those conditions did not persist as we began our excursion to the mountain and Hakone National Park.  As the ship docked, we were treated to a delightful performance by Japanese drummers.  The windows on our balcony vibrated.
One of the difficulties in Japan is exchanging money, the banks do not accept most foreign ATM cards so no luck in Tokyo.  We will try in Hiroshima, thank goodness for Darlene's Christmas present of leftover Yen.   
After going through immigration formalities ( fingerprints and mug shots), we boarded the motor coach and left Tokyo at 8:30 am.  We spent the next three hours in gridlock as there was a traffic accident on the highway.  It made Deerfoot at rush hour seem like a racetrack.  As we waited the clouds moved in on Mount Fuji and we did not see it in it's glory again.  However the wait was instructive as we learned that July and August are the months during which people generally climb Mt. Fuji, and even there it is gridlock  with 5000 people climbing each day and 300,000 climbing over the two months.  We also learned to count to 20 in Japanese and basic terms like thank you (arigatou) and yes (hai).  
When we finally arrived at the national park,  we took the Hakone rope way, a cable car, to Owakudani, the valley of great boiling, a desolate looking land that spews volcanic steam and fumes.  Stay out of the clouds as they reek of a very strong sulphur.  A popular purchase here is eggs that have been cooked in the hot spring waters and turn black.  It is said that those who eat the eggs will add 7 years to their lives. We passed on the extra years as we were told the eggs had a vile sulphur taste; but many people bought the eggs for 500 yen (about $6.) 
Next we travelled to Lake Ashi where we stopped for a lovely lunch at the Hotel Daihakone.  After lunch, the hotel manager and waiters lined up along the sidewalk to wave and bow to us as our bus departed.  A short drive brought us to the Hakone scenic cruise tour, where we boarded a boat dressed up as a three-masted galleon for the thirty-minute crossing to the opposite side of the lake.  The lake is said to be protected by a dragon with 9 heads.  We did not even see one of them.  The temperature when we were crossing the lake was a balmy 4 degrees with a cold, cold wind.  We met our bus at the shore and watched the scenery during the 3-hour drive back to Tokyo.  In the suburbs we saw numerous small patches of agricultural land, several acres in size, interspersed among multi-storey apartment buildings and factories and retail outlets and office buildings. As we got nearer Tokyo centre we were amazed by the road system which consisted of several layers of elevated roadways winding beneath the elevated highway on which we were traveling, when we were not stuck in gridlock.  Tokyo is an amazing city and it goes on and on.  Sailing away was a beautiful site.  As we passed beneath the rainbow bridge, the skyline nearly surrounded us.  Everywhere we looked was the red glow of aircraft warning lights atop the towers, bridges and hundreds of skyscrapers.

Cruise tip:  when  traveling in Japan in early March do not forget your mitts and toques and, regardless of when you might travel here, be sure to check out the toilets.

Guam

After passing over the Marianas Trench, the deepest point of the ocean (over 33,000 feet in depth) at about 2 AM, our ship arrived later in the morning at Guam.  Naturally, we had to clear customs aboard the ship before being permitted ashore.  This did not take very long since there were a large number of immigration officials likely due to the fact that, because Guam is a US territory, most people are employed by the government if not the military.  About 40% of the island of Guam is occupied by US military bases.  
The weather is again hot and tropically humid.  We will not complain about the temperature, however, but rather enjoy the heat as it is apparently snowing in Tokyo, our next port of call.  
Gasoline prices are $5.29 for premium and $4.79 for regular per gallon, which helps to account for the high costs of taxis.  So we took the option of the the free shuttle to the nearest town which was about a 35-minute drive away.  There were long queues to board the infrequent buses.  This provided us with the incomparable delight of observing a fellow passsenger, who we refer to as Toothpick Man.  Toothpick man is a corpulent fellow, slightly unkempt and consistently scowling, who is never without his toothpicks.  Regardless of the social setting, toothpick man always  has  his toothpick present.  While he does store these utensils in trouser and shirt pockets, it is particularly de rigeur to tuck the soggy twig behind one's ear for ready access in case of emergency (that is when it is not, as is more customary, waggling around and protruding from the corner of his mouth.) The Cel watched in fascination as toothpick man used a single toothpick that he pulled out from behind his ear to firstly clean his ears, then teeth, then fingernails, then another round in and about his mouth and teeth.  All the while his wife (who was immortalized in the taxiomy lesson as a Fashionista) was wiping greasy sweat from the back of his neck and his back with her handkerchief and then plucking the back of toothpick man's shirt from his sticky skin and 'fanning' the shirt like a bellows to cool her beloved.  The Cel mused whether or not he would reward her with a toothpick of her own, or, joy of joys, perhaps the very one that he had been using to such great purpose.  But toothpick man remained largely oblivious finding her ministrations but one of her expected duties.  The scene was so repellant and gross that the people in front of us in line were compelled to make conversation with us so that they could turn around to avoid watching the spectacle.  Finally we were saved by the bus that took toothpick man and his minion away, while we waited for the next bus.  
During the drive into town we could see the surf pounding against the reefs which surround the shores of Guam. We were dropped off at the Hyatt Regency and went to information.   They were mainly selling tickets to a shuttle bus for $10 a ticket.  We later learned from fellow passengers that these buses were always full and required one to wait for several buses before getting one that was going in the right direction and was not already overflowing with people.  We did hear where free wifi was so we went to the Outrigger Resort to test.  It worked but not effectively enough to have Facetime discussions with family or to download Macleans magazines. At least Facebook allowed for a quick chat.  
We basically walked the entire shuttle route stopping at Kmart to puchase new runners for Cia because, we noted while she was sliding in the mud in Dravuni that the tread on the soles of her shoes was virtually worn away.  The town we were in is comprised of high end resorts that cater to predominantly Japenese tourists, and a number of high end stores like Prada, Tiffany's and Gucci.  The rest of the town is more in keeping  with a military  base island with numerous  tattoo palours, massage parlours, exotic dancing and karoke bars.  After a short period of time we we ready to go.  We decided that if we were ever to go again we would bring snorkeling gear and head for one of the beaches .  So we returned to the bus stop and there was chaos with about 100 passengers awaiting the bus and no organization.  So our 2:15 bus which we had targeted to get on, filled before we could board and departed.  We finally managed to squeeze aboard the 3 pm bus and got back to the ship at 3:35, just in time to take in the brief show by a local group who demonstrated Marianas Island cultural song and dance.  It was a combination of Hawaiian hula dancing and Maori body slapping.  
At 4:30 the ship was scheduled to leave and a coast guard gunship and a police boat joined the tugboat that escorted us out of the harbour.  The next highlight will be a scenic cruise around Iwa Jima.

Cruise tip: in Guam, rent a car from Budget.  They will deliver the car to the port and will pick it up there as well.  The island is not very big and the north coast is off limits but the coastal drive is said to be nice.  Alternately, if your cruise stops  in Guam, just stay on the ship. 

Cruise half way complete

It is hard to believe that we are almost half way through our journey so we thought we would do a synopsis of some quick facts.
3 continents reached
10 countries visited
7 new beers tested
32 days at sea 
16,272 nautical miles traveled.
1 time across the equator
5 different  currencies required. 
76 miles walked on the ship's outdoor track
30,246 kilometers travelled
408 photos taken and deleted
2151 photos saved so far

Number of days having a good time - all of them

Cairns

The shipped arrived at 7 am today which means we got on land by 8am and headed straight for the marina.  Our goal today was to snorkel in the great barrier reef.  Went into a boat booking office and used the last of our Australian dollars to take a catamaran to Green Island.  Since we had our own snorkel gear we opted for the included glass bottom boat tour.  We arrived at Green Island by ten and, since our tour was for 11:45 we went for a walk around the island on an interpretive boardwalk.  It took about forty minutes to walk almost completely around the island.  
The glass bottom boat tour was great, The Cel saw a sea turtle come up for air and we saw giant clams, lots of huge fish and very colourful smaller fish.  Near the end of the tour they do fish feedings which draw a lot of fish to the boat.  When we told the skipper we were snorkeling he recommended swimming to the left of the sea grasses and said that we might see some turtles.  So off to the beach  to commence snorkeling, Marcel with excitement, me with trepidation .  The water was so warm that even when you got to that one critical spot it was no issue.  It was warmer than a bathtub. It was also so shallow that there was lots of time to get comfortable with snorkeling.  I wished I had spit more into my goggles at the beginning as it became fogged up as the swimming continued. The first bit was in sand and then through the sea grasses which was cool as there was lots of fish and small coral.  It was in the sea grasses that we came upon an agressive colourful fish.  It came charging at my mask twice and then bit Marcel on the toe.  Makes me want to eat fish for dinner.  It will be great tucker (while in Aussie land we have been watching some of the episodes of Bush Tucker Man that the Cel downloaded from the internet last fall.) Past the sea grass we came upon the larger coral.  It was fantastic; a variety of colors and shapes including stag horn coral (even blue in colour).  For a time we followed schools of hundreds of tiny neon tetras that flashed in the sun like tiny diamonds.  They led us to the bigger coral outcroppings.  Throughout our swim we would see little cave-like openings in the sandy sea floor or in the coral and see all manner of fish dart into them as we approached.   Saw lots of sea cucumbers but the highlights were seeing the blue clams which were phosphorescent royal blue with white rims.  They would suddenly close as we would draw near them.  Then if you floated above them you could watch them gently open and close as they continued their careful filtration of the sea.  Perhaps the most startling and interesting highlight was  the sea turtle that Marcel found.  As we got closer it just burrowed deeper behind the coral .  Fantastic.  Its shell was at least two feet in size.  By this time Cia was getting really tired so we swam back to the beach.  The Cel was swimming like a fish and I was struggling like a beluga so I beached myself on land and The Cel headed out again. As soon as he did he got stung by something but continued to the coral  but was unable to find the sea turtle again but he still had a great time exploring the coral some more.  
Then we went to the resort on the island to shower and change and then we returned to the boat for the 15 mile trip back to the mainland.  We had $9.80 in coin left and went to the bar on board to see  if we could get one beer and some chips.  The bartender counted out our money and said we could have two beers so we asked for recommends and ended up with Toohey's Extra Dry, which the Cel highly recommends! We then told him to keep the .80 cents as we did not want to take it home and he said he could not take tips so gave us  two biscuits.  A great lunch.  
The average temperature in Cairns this time of year is 38.9 degrees and when the sun was out it was definitely hot.  The Cel swam in a t shirt to prevent burning his  back while snorkeling.  Cia didn't put enough sun screen on the back of her legs so the next day she is sitting on pillows until the burn settles down.  That part of her body has not seen sun for years.

Cruise tip: there is no need to pre-book snorkeling trips to the great barrier reef because lots of tour operators go out to the various islands every day; but be there by 8:30 in the morning.  We took Big Cat Adventures who were very good.  Look at options as the price for a full day is often the same as a half day.  It is worth bringing your own snorkel gear and you do not really need the flippers.