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| Toilet Control Panel |
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| Perfect Toilet |
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| Basic Toilet |
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| Chef's Dinner Dessert |
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| UN Memorial Cemetery Korea |
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| Fill er Up |
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| Mount Fuji |
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| Tokyo Harbour |
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| A-Bomb Dome Hiroshima |
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| Blossoms |
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| Fish Market Busan |
Pacific Princess
Friday, 16 March 2012
Pictures
Thursday, 15 March 2012
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
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
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
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.
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.
Monday, 12 March 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
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
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
Friday, 2 March 2012
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.
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.
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