We arrived in Southampton on Monday after a trip that could not have gone more smoothly! We had four bags to check, two of them overweight, and when I explained to the British Airways reception person that we were travelling for four months and that John was teaching and the books are just heavy, blah, blah, blah... she said that since he was a teacher, and since the weight was from books, she would not charge the overweight charge, only the extra bag charge, but could not guarantee the same on the return trip. Take that, Air Canada!!! We were so anxious at that point to end preparations and just get going, and it was lovely to be treated so well by an airline.
After an early arrival at LHR, we were met by our driver and had an hour and 15 minute car ride to Southampton. After check-in we set about trying to stay awake and managed to do that until about 8pm, and have had the usual time adjustment since then.
Southampton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southampton) is an interesting mix of old and new. There are pieces of castle walls surrounding the old part of the city and new buildings and shopping centres that abut those walls. Inside the walls are neat and tidy buildings of flats with lovely gardens and window boxes. Southampton hosts many families on their way to cruises that leave from the docks across from our hotel, and we have seen many of them as we have wandered through the town and shopping areas.
Last night there was a reception for Semester at Sea where we met many of our new shipmates. John and I both came away feeling very positive about those we were able to meet, a couple of whom were on our last voyage. This morning we had an orientation session starting at 8am and met others. We have some large families sailing this time - one couple bringing three children, another with five and another with seven! There are several others who have one or two, so we will have lots of young ones, something we really enjoyed last time. There will be 23 lifelong learners on this trip and 579 students, about 150 fewer than last time, which will be nice. The ship was fairly crowded last time.
Our bags are downstairs waiting to be loaded and we will be shuttled to the ship starting in a couple of hours. (Although there are docks across from our hotel, the dock from which we are leaving is further down.) John and the other faculty and staff are still in orientation meetings - they let family members go after the introductions were made this morning.
So I will sign off for now, and be back on later once we have internet access on the ship. Until later.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
endings... and beginnings!
As written in the header to this blog, we have recently learned that we will again be sailing on the MV Explorer with another group of students and the faculty, staff and crew who will be supporting them in what for many will be the most exciting semester of their lives. I have re-read some of the posts of our first voyage, particularly the last one. I wrote that I would be posting once more after we left the ship. I never did write that last post - could not write it - perhaps because I did not really want the journey to end.
It was hard to summarize the feelings we had leaving the Explorer in May 2009, remembering the places we visited, the people in our shipboard community who became our family, the experiences we shared on and off the ship during that four months. Before we disembarked, we were told by others who had done it before us that it would be difficult to talk about the trip, that we would find it hard to put into words that could be understood by those at home, the things that had become so much a part of us on the trip. And it was true. We could tell the stories, but it was very hard to convey the feelings and the ways we felt changed - the things that were so much more personal than the stories. It is still difficult. It was so much more than a "cruise".
So with this post we continue the voyage that we didn't want to end. Although we have just over six months before we again board the ship that will be our home for close to four months, we know the time will fly by with all there is to do. We have known for just over a week that we will be going, and John has been frantically working on his courses so that materials can be posted online for the students to see. We are coming late to this trip, added to the roster with a few others because enrolment numbers are larger than expected, so the deadlines are looming. This time we have a better idea of what we are moving toward, and we know that the memory of the preparation activities of the next few months will fade quickly once we board the Explorer to continue our voyage and enrich our lives. We hope you come along with us; we hope you find it worthwhile.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
last port -- ft lauderdale!
Ship time 2325 (EDT) our location is...
Latitude: 24 degrees 18.19' N
Longitude: 80 degrees 44.63' W
Course: 58 degrees
For those of you who tried to see us come through the Panama Canal -- I gather everything worked as we were passing through the Miraflores Locks, but later as we were navigating the Gatun Locks, the website was down. I think everyone on the ship had notified family and friends and perhaps this created some strain with the servers. In any case, I hope at least some of you got to see the first part of our passage. It was fascinating for us to observe the operation of the canal. I believe this is the last full voyage to go through the Panama Canal -- the cost for our ship to pass is about $125,000 so future trips will be planned differently, although there is one shorter trip this summer that will involve Panama.
I neglected to mention in my post on May 2, that we had a performance that day by the World Dance classes and their instructor Aniseh Burtner. It was a fantastic performance with dances representing many of the countries we had visited. At the end Aniseh surprised her students and the audience by performing a dance of appreciation to her students and others she has met. It was very moving for all of us who got to see it.
Once through the canal, we entered the Carribean and came up around the west tip of Cuba. We are now between Cuba and Florida and will be arriving in the morning. We will disembark for the last time in Ft Lauderdale and we have had a busy few days leading up to this. On Sunday evening after our Panama Canal transit we had the Ambassador's Ball, which involved a lovely dinner and lively dance. Monday morning John spent a couple of hours sitting in the Student Union passing back papers and exams and letting students know their grades. I started packing in earnest, since we had been told that our bags needed to be ready to be removed from our cabin by noon today, and John came to help with that once he finished meeting with students. We haven't made a lot of purchases, and spent some time getting rid of some of the things we had brought that we no longer need, so this went fairly smoothly. Semester at Sea has this down to a science and provided boxes in public areas marked for unneeded toiletries, office supplies, clothing and food. These items will be passed along to crew members or given to charity in Florida. With all of our things gone, our cabin now feels like more of a hotel room than the home we have had for the last four months. We had our bags ready to go by about 9:00 this morning.
Yesterday afternoon there was a concert by the Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble (MICE) led by our music professor Matthew Burtner (Aniseh's husband). This was followed by an awards ceremony recognizing students who were nominated by each of the professors for outstanding academic work and achievements.
At 10:30 this morning we had a convocation ceremony, complete with Pomp and Circumstance as students and professors walked in procession. We had words from the Executive and Academic Deans, a couple of faculty members, and some students, as well as a performance by the A Capella Choir. Again, a very moving occasion at which we all recognized how short our time on the ship is now. This afternoon there was a reception for faculty, staff and life long learners -- plenty of opportunities over the last couple of days to spend time wrapping things up.
And so we arrive in the morning in Ft Lauderdale, and friends and families will be meeting many of these students. Breakfast will be served very early and I expect the faculty and staff will be off the ship by 10:00 or 10:30. We will be going through customs on arrival, then John and I will head for a hotel for a couple of days before flying back to Calgary on Friday. I plan to do a couple more blog entries, perhaps including some photos, once we get better internet at the hotel. So stay tuned -- a little bit more to come!
Latitude: 24 degrees 18.19' N
Longitude: 80 degrees 44.63' W
Course: 58 degrees
For those of you who tried to see us come through the Panama Canal -- I gather everything worked as we were passing through the Miraflores Locks, but later as we were navigating the Gatun Locks, the website was down. I think everyone on the ship had notified family and friends and perhaps this created some strain with the servers. In any case, I hope at least some of you got to see the first part of our passage. It was fascinating for us to observe the operation of the canal. I believe this is the last full voyage to go through the Panama Canal -- the cost for our ship to pass is about $125,000 so future trips will be planned differently, although there is one shorter trip this summer that will involve Panama.
I neglected to mention in my post on May 2, that we had a performance that day by the World Dance classes and their instructor Aniseh Burtner. It was a fantastic performance with dances representing many of the countries we had visited. At the end Aniseh surprised her students and the audience by performing a dance of appreciation to her students and others she has met. It was very moving for all of us who got to see it.
Once through the canal, we entered the Carribean and came up around the west tip of Cuba. We are now between Cuba and Florida and will be arriving in the morning. We will disembark for the last time in Ft Lauderdale and we have had a busy few days leading up to this. On Sunday evening after our Panama Canal transit we had the Ambassador's Ball, which involved a lovely dinner and lively dance. Monday morning John spent a couple of hours sitting in the Student Union passing back papers and exams and letting students know their grades. I started packing in earnest, since we had been told that our bags needed to be ready to be removed from our cabin by noon today, and John came to help with that once he finished meeting with students. We haven't made a lot of purchases, and spent some time getting rid of some of the things we had brought that we no longer need, so this went fairly smoothly. Semester at Sea has this down to a science and provided boxes in public areas marked for unneeded toiletries, office supplies, clothing and food. These items will be passed along to crew members or given to charity in Florida. With all of our things gone, our cabin now feels like more of a hotel room than the home we have had for the last four months. We had our bags ready to go by about 9:00 this morning.
Yesterday afternoon there was a concert by the Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble (MICE) led by our music professor Matthew Burtner (Aniseh's husband). This was followed by an awards ceremony recognizing students who were nominated by each of the professors for outstanding academic work and achievements.
At 10:30 this morning we had a convocation ceremony, complete with Pomp and Circumstance as students and professors walked in procession. We had words from the Executive and Academic Deans, a couple of faculty members, and some students, as well as a performance by the A Capella Choir. Again, a very moving occasion at which we all recognized how short our time on the ship is now. This afternoon there was a reception for faculty, staff and life long learners -- plenty of opportunities over the last couple of days to spend time wrapping things up.
And so we arrive in the morning in Ft Lauderdale, and friends and families will be meeting many of these students. Breakfast will be served very early and I expect the faculty and staff will be off the ship by 10:00 or 10:30. We will be going through customs on arrival, then John and I will head for a hotel for a couple of days before flying back to Calgary on Friday. I plan to do a couple more blog entries, perhaps including some photos, once we get better internet at the hotel. So stay tuned -- a little bit more to come!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
panama canal schedule...
Currently 2145 central time on the ship and our location...
Latitude: 7 degrees 19.25' N
Longitude: 80 degrees 3.67' W
Course: 65 degrees
We will be transiting the Panama Canal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal tomorrow morning and we recently got the schedule for the transit which I will share with you so that you can watch online if you'd like to. John and I plan to be on the deck somewhere, but so will about 800 other people, so not guaranteeing you will be able to see us! As you may know, the locks actually fill with water and raise the ship to move it along the canal to artificial lakes, then another series of locks lower the ship again so that it enters the ocean on the other side at sea level. As one of our professors on board said today, it will be like being on a water bridge that takes us overland.
All times are Central Daylight Time in the schedule below. The following website will allow you to see the ship's passage on the internet http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
9:10am - 10:00am: Transit Miraflores Locks
10:50am - 11:30am: Transit Pedro Miguel Locks
12:45pm: Pass by Gamboa
2:45pm - 5:05pm: Transit Gatun Lock
Latitude: 7 degrees 19.25' N
Longitude: 80 degrees 3.67' W
Course: 65 degrees
We will be transiting the Panama Canal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal tomorrow morning and we recently got the schedule for the transit which I will share with you so that you can watch online if you'd like to. John and I plan to be on the deck somewhere, but so will about 800 other people, so not guaranteeing you will be able to see us! As you may know, the locks actually fill with water and raise the ship to move it along the canal to artificial lakes, then another series of locks lower the ship again so that it enters the ocean on the other side at sea level. As one of our professors on board said today, it will be like being on a water bridge that takes us overland.
All times are Central Daylight Time in the schedule below. The following website will allow you to see the ship's passage on the internet http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
9:10am - 10:00am: Transit Miraflores Locks
10:50am - 11:30am: Transit Pedro Miguel Locks
12:45pm: Pass by Gamboa
2:45pm - 5:05pm: Transit Gatun Lock
Thursday, April 30, 2009
last time to board the ship...
We left Puerto Quetzal (Latitude: 13 degrees 55.65' N, Longitude: 90 degrees 47.24' W) about an hour and a half ago. We will be transiting the Panama Canal in two days. It was quite emotional for many getting on the ship today as we realized this was our last time to board. The next time we get off, we will not be getting back on.
Guatemala was a great experience. Many people went to Antigua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua_Guatemala expecting to stay for the day, and decided to spend the night. Others went for one night, and elected to spend two. Hearing them talk today, I wish we had gone, but we will have to add that to our list of things to do "next time". This often happens -- we are very happy with the things we decide to do, but when we hear others talk about what they did, we think maybe we should have done other things. Obviously, it's impossible to do everything!
I did hike Pacaya Volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya as planned and it could not have been a better day. There are three other volcanos visible approaching Pacaya: the Volcan de Agua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Agua or Vocano of Water, the Volcan de Fuego http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Fuego or Volcano of Fire and Acatenango http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acatenango. Pacaya is quite near Antigua, although we did not go through the city to get there. There were about 25 people on this trip, a mix of students, faculty and family members -- the youngest two were 8 and 13 and I think I was the oldest.
We had a wonderful Guatemalan guide on this trip, Chickie. Our shipboard "daughter", Victoria was on this hike too. I'm not sure I have mentioned in the past that Victoria has an identical twin sister, Stepha
nie; she was also on the hike. I have included a photo -- Victoria is on the left, Stephanie on the right, and Stephanie's boyfriend, Patrick is in the background. Sorry I did not get one with Patrick more in the photo!
I didn't realize until much later that armed security guards had accompanied us from the ship, as they apparently did on all the SAS trips in Guatemala. They were in vehicles that followed the buses. I guess that people in Guatemala realized that if they expected to succeed in tourism, they needed to protect tourists from being robbed and assaulted, and now many of the tourist agencies provide
protection as part of the package.
The bus drove us into the hills near the volcano to the start of the hike. For five quetzales (about 65 US cents) you can "rent" a hiking stick from one of the young Guatemalan boys in the area. Since I usually hike with two poles, and since I had read that it was better to have a hiking stick given the terrain, I rented one from a very persistent young man who introduced himself as Francisco. Our group set out, accompanied by other enterprising young men offering "taxis" (horses or donkeys to take you to the top) as well as by our armed guards (photo of one of the guards and a self-appointed "guide" whose name escapes me at the moment) and climbed for a little more than two hours to reach our destination. It was not an especially difficult hike for me in terms of the climb, although I was the slowest, but then I am used to hiking in the Rockies with people in their 60's and 70's (who are also faster than I am), not university aged people! There was one down slope that was very steep and covered with loose cinders and ash, and I found it difficult, although I think I could have skied it easily ;-) and the areas where we were climbing across solidified lava were challenging.
We were told that although hikes of Pacaya used to go to the cone, earthquakes in the past had changed the mountain so that it was no longer possible to go that way but that we would go toward one of the two additional cones that had been created. The original cone is now where steam escapes from the volcano, and lava can be seen flowing from other cones. When we reached the top of our climb, we did indeed feel heat from the rocks and see lava flowing. Students roasted marshmallows from the heat before we came back down a bit to eat the sack lunches provided by the tour agents. After lunch and just before we started our descent, we noticed that large amounts of lava were starting to flow from one of the lower cones, an amazing sight and one we had not expected to see. Here you can see photos of the smaller lava flow as well as the one we saw just before leaving.
We took just over an hour
to come back down and left to come back to the ship shortly after that. We were all anxious to get back for showers -- I'm sure the ship's gray water contained lots of volcano ash last night! I was falling asleep and went to bed at 7:00pm and didn't wake until 7:30 this morning, although Victoria and Stephanie and some of the others got up this morning for a mountain biking trip! Ahhh youth!
Tomorrow is a study day with the last of the exams on Saturday. John and other faculty are busily grading in order to have everything in on time. The Abassadors Ball is on May 3, the same day as the Panama Canal transit. You can watch us pass through the Panama Canal -- the link is on the right side of this page.
Happy Birthday, Sharla! I know you will be around for many more "big" ones!
Guatemala was a great experience. Many people went to Antigua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua_Guatemala expecting to stay for the day, and decided to spend the night. Others went for one night, and elected to spend two. Hearing them talk today, I wish we had gone, but we will have to add that to our list of things to do "next time". This often happens -- we are very happy with the things we decide to do, but when we hear others talk about what they did, we think maybe we should have done other things. Obviously, it's impossible to do everything!
I did hike Pacaya Volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya as planned and it could not have been a better day. There are three other volcanos visible approaching Pacaya: the Volcan de Agua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Agua or Vocano of Water, the Volcan de Fuego http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Fuego or Volcano of Fire and Acatenango http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acatenango. Pacaya is quite near Antigua, although we did not go through the city to get there. There were about 25 people on this trip, a mix of students, faculty and family members -- the youngest two were 8 and 13 and I think I was the oldest.We had a wonderful Guatemalan guide on this trip, Chickie. Our shipboard "daughter", Victoria was on this hike too. I'm not sure I have mentioned in the past that Victoria has an identical twin sister, Stepha
nie; she was also on the hike. I have included a photo -- Victoria is on the left, Stephanie on the right, and Stephanie's boyfriend, Patrick is in the background. Sorry I did not get one with Patrick more in the photo!I didn't realize until much later that armed security guards had accompanied us from the ship, as they apparently did on all the SAS trips in Guatemala. They were in vehicles that followed the buses. I guess that people in Guatemala realized that if they expected to succeed in tourism, they needed to protect tourists from being robbed and assaulted, and now many of the tourist agencies provide
protection as part of the package.The bus drove us into the hills near the volcano to the start of the hike. For five quetzales (about 65 US cents) you can "rent" a hiking stick from one of the young Guatemalan boys in the area. Since I usually hike with two poles, and since I had read that it was better to have a hiking stick given the terrain, I rented one from a very persistent young man who introduced himself as Francisco. Our group set out, accompanied by other enterprising young men offering "taxis" (horses or donkeys to take you to the top) as well as by our armed guards (photo of one of the guards and a self-appointed "guide" whose name escapes me at the moment) and climbed for a little more than two hours to reach our destination. It was not an especially difficult hike for me in terms of the climb, although I was the slowest, but then I am used to hiking in the Rockies with people in their 60's and 70's (who are also faster than I am), not university aged people! There was one down slope that was very steep and covered with loose cinders and ash, and I found it difficult, although I think I could have skied it easily ;-) and the areas where we were climbing across solidified lava were challenging.
We were told that although hikes of Pacaya used to go to the cone, earthquakes in the past had changed the mountain so that it was no longer possible to go that way but that we would go toward one of the two additional cones that had been created. The original cone is now where steam escapes from the volcano, and lava can be seen flowing from other cones. When we reached the top of our climb, we did indeed feel heat from the rocks and see lava flowing. Students roasted marshmallows from the heat before we came back down a bit to eat the sack lunches provided by the tour agents. After lunch and just before we started our descent, we noticed that large amounts of lava were starting to flow from one of the lower cones, an amazing sight and one we had not expected to see. Here you can see photos of the smaller lava flow as well as the one we saw just before leaving.
We took just over an hour
to come back down and left to come back to the ship shortly after that. We were all anxious to get back for showers -- I'm sure the ship's gray water contained lots of volcano ash last night! I was falling asleep and went to bed at 7:00pm and didn't wake until 7:30 this morning, although Victoria and Stephanie and some of the others got up this morning for a mountain biking trip! Ahhh youth!Tomorrow is a study day with the last of the exams on Saturday. John and other faculty are busily grading in order to have everything in on time. The Abassadors Ball is on May 3, the same day as the Panama Canal transit. You can watch us pass through the Panama Canal -- the link is on the right side of this page.
Happy Birthday, Sharla! I know you will be around for many more "big" ones!
Monday, April 27, 2009
tomorrow, guatemala!
Location at 2145 ship time...
Latitude: 14 degrees 17.8' N
Longitude: 93 degrees 48.3' W
Course: 106 degrees
Just watching "The Reader" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0976051/ on the loop -- I think it may be an illegal copy (seems to be pretty common here -- international waters and all that), but it is an exceptionally good movie. Not sure what it has to do with Guatemala, but excellent nonetheless.
We just had our logistical pre-port for Guatemala where we learned that information being distributed by the State Department concerning this stop is no worse than information being distributed by Australia for travellers to Detroit. Hmmmmm.
It does seem that with a little attention and caution Guatemala, like other ports we have visited, should be safe. John and I don't plan to do a lot there -- we arrive tomorrow morning at 8:00am and can leave the ship soon after that. There are shuttles to nearby beaches and shopping and we may do a bit of that tomorrow. On the 29th I will go off to hike the Pacaya Volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya with a volcanologist and others from SAS. We leave this port on the evening of the 30th.
Today while eating lunch on the back deck we spotted hundreds of small dolphins that were playing in the wake of the ship. They were jumping in and out of the water and keeping up with the ship -- it was quite a show! Some people saw sea turtles off the bow later this afternoon too.
Half of the finals are now over and people are starting to sort things to pack for home. In Tymitz Square, a central location on the ship, there is a huge pile of clothing that will be given away in Guatemala. We understand this will continue and there will be more clothing to give away when we arrive in Florida as people make room in their luggage for their souvenir purchases.
Latitude: 14 degrees 17.8' N
Longitude: 93 degrees 48.3' W
Course: 106 degrees
Just watching "The Reader" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0976051/ on the loop -- I think it may be an illegal copy (seems to be pretty common here -- international waters and all that), but it is an exceptionally good movie. Not sure what it has to do with Guatemala, but excellent nonetheless.
We just had our logistical pre-port for Guatemala where we learned that information being distributed by the State Department concerning this stop is no worse than information being distributed by Australia for travellers to Detroit. Hmmmmm.
It does seem that with a little attention and caution Guatemala, like other ports we have visited, should be safe. John and I don't plan to do a lot there -- we arrive tomorrow morning at 8:00am and can leave the ship soon after that. There are shuttles to nearby beaches and shopping and we may do a bit of that tomorrow. On the 29th I will go off to hike the Pacaya Volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya with a volcanologist and others from SAS. We leave this port on the evening of the 30th.
Today while eating lunch on the back deck we spotted hundreds of small dolphins that were playing in the wake of the ship. They were jumping in and out of the water and keeping up with the ship -- it was quite a show! Some people saw sea turtles off the bow later this afternoon too.
Half of the finals are now over and people are starting to sort things to pack for home. In Tymitz Square, a central location on the ship, there is a huge pile of clothing that will be given away in Guatemala. We understand this will continue and there will be more clothing to give away when we arrive in Florida as people make room in their luggage for their souvenir purchases.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
approaching guatemala...
At 2130 ship time, which is now the same as MDT, our location is...
Latitude: 16 degrees 46.8' N
Longitude: 103 degrees 6.7' W
Course: 105 degrees
We have just had our final cultural pre-port -- the one for Guatemala. It was done by two students who have traveled there on their own and I must say it was one of the best we have had. After looking at their photos, hearing the music and seeing the dance of this country, I am excited to arrive there on Tuesday morning.
We saw today that a public health emergency has been declared in the US because of the flu which seems to have started in Mexico. Just goes to show you don't need to leave home to live with risk! Everyone is healthy on the ship, although we are all wondering what kind of hoops we will be put through on our arrival in Ft Lauderdale given the flu situation. Hope you are all doing lots of handwashing!
It was a beautiful day today with calm seas and lovely blue skies. We talked at dinner about how we are starting to take beautiful sunrises and sunsets for granted.
Latitude: 16 degrees 46.8' N
Longitude: 103 degrees 6.7' W
Course: 105 degrees
We have just had our final cultural pre-port -- the one for Guatemala. It was done by two students who have traveled there on their own and I must say it was one of the best we have had. After looking at their photos, hearing the music and seeing the dance of this country, I am excited to arrive there on Tuesday morning.
We saw today that a public health emergency has been declared in the US because of the flu which seems to have started in Mexico. Just goes to show you don't need to leave home to live with risk! Everyone is healthy on the ship, although we are all wondering what kind of hoops we will be put through on our arrival in Ft Lauderdale given the flu situation. Hope you are all doing lots of handwashing!
It was a beautiful day today with calm seas and lovely blue skies. We talked at dinner about how we are starting to take beautiful sunrises and sunsets for granted.
Friday, April 24, 2009
and on and on...
Location at 2110 on Friday...
Latitude: 20 degrees 15.2' N
Longitude: 121 degrees 11.3' W
Course: 96 degrees
We will advance clocks one hour tonight and will be the same as PDT. Hard to believe we will be in our home time zone MDT in a couple of days when we change clocks on the 26th for Guatemala. John and I both got mixed up last night and moved our clocks forward, only to find this morning we had started our day an hour early! This was the last class day -- tomorrow is the Global Studies final and will be followed by a study day on the 26th and the first finals on the 27th. The biggest amount of John's work is done now, since his finals will be machine graded.
Guatemala actually looks like it will be the riskiest port we have had. We were reading the Department of State information http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1129.html today (you probably should not read this, Mom!) and I was re-thinking my volcano climb. Since it is a SAS trip with a travel agent that has been used many times, I think it will be fine and I am really looking forward to it. We will arrive in Puerto Quetzal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Quetzal on April 28 and my hike on Pacaya Volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya will be on the 29th.
We have had gray days since leaving Hawaii, and today there was lots of excitement in the faculty lounge when we saw a cargo ship and a few rays of sunshine all at the same time -- you could hear the buzz moving through the room. Funny how little it takes to satisfy! We are all hoping for more sun tomorrow. Temperatures have been in the mid 60's and we have not spent much time on the outside decks. It has been good reading weather though and I am enjoying my latest book.
Latitude: 20 degrees 15.2' N
Longitude: 121 degrees 11.3' W
Course: 96 degrees
We will advance clocks one hour tonight and will be the same as PDT. Hard to believe we will be in our home time zone MDT in a couple of days when we change clocks on the 26th for Guatemala. John and I both got mixed up last night and moved our clocks forward, only to find this morning we had started our day an hour early! This was the last class day -- tomorrow is the Global Studies final and will be followed by a study day on the 26th and the first finals on the 27th. The biggest amount of John's work is done now, since his finals will be machine graded.
Guatemala actually looks like it will be the riskiest port we have had. We were reading the Department of State information http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1129.html today (you probably should not read this, Mom!) and I was re-thinking my volcano climb. Since it is a SAS trip with a travel agent that has been used many times, I think it will be fine and I am really looking forward to it. We will arrive in Puerto Quetzal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Quetzal on April 28 and my hike on Pacaya Volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya will be on the 29th.
We have had gray days since leaving Hawaii, and today there was lots of excitement in the faculty lounge when we saw a cargo ship and a few rays of sunshine all at the same time -- you could hear the buzz moving through the room. Funny how little it takes to satisfy! We are all hoping for more sun tomorrow. Temperatures have been in the mid 60's and we have not spent much time on the outside decks. It has been good reading weather though and I am enjoying my latest book.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
moving along...
Only a couple of class days left, and not a lot to report, but I just wanted to let you know where we are at 2300 ship time:
Latitude: 21 degrees 47.2' N
Longitude: 138 degrees 53.6' W
Course: 93 degrees
Things were calmer today than yesterday, and all but a few people seem to be managing. No one even notices any more if someone else walks into them. John has experienced perceived motion while on land since our first port in Spain, to the point that he has not wanted to visit any sites that are very far off the ground. I had this feeling of motion in Honolulu for the first time, though I don't think mine was as severe as John's since it did not affect my confidence in tall buildings. John did some driving in Honolulu and I'm not sure I would have been comfortable behind the wheel myself. We hope this will not last long when we get home.
John has been marking papers and has his exams ready to go. There will be one set of exams before Guatemala and the second set will be after. We're seeing lots of students writing and studying and many professors we don't see at all as they remain in their cabins busily grading. I am starting to think about going through our stuff and getting rid of some things. I just donated our travel books to the field office, and we have some office supplies that we will probably not pack. There are clothes that we will leave as well, some that have been worn out in the laundry and others we just never want to see again!
Latitude: 21 degrees 47.2' N
Longitude: 138 degrees 53.6' W
Course: 93 degrees
Things were calmer today than yesterday, and all but a few people seem to be managing. No one even notices any more if someone else walks into them. John has experienced perceived motion while on land since our first port in Spain, to the point that he has not wanted to visit any sites that are very far off the ground. I had this feeling of motion in Honolulu for the first time, though I don't think mine was as severe as John's since it did not affect my confidence in tall buildings. John did some driving in Honolulu and I'm not sure I would have been comfortable behind the wheel myself. We hope this will not last long when we get home.
John has been marking papers and has his exams ready to go. There will be one set of exams before Guatemala and the second set will be after. We're seeing lots of students writing and studying and many professors we don't see at all as they remain in their cabins busily grading. I am starting to think about going through our stuff and getting rid of some things. I just donated our travel books to the field office, and we have some office supplies that we will probably not pack. There are clothes that we will leave as well, some that have been worn out in the laundry and others we just never want to see again!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
leaving honolulu...
We have spent a lovely couple of days in Honolulu (Latitude: 21 degrees 18.5' N; Longitude: 157 degrees 52.0 W) with Clark. We left the port about an hour and a half ago, and have had rather rough sailing since. The only articles I can find about ship movement that are comprehensive are also very complicated and technical but I will provide the links anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacentric_height and http://www.seasickness.org/sea-sickness-on-a-cruise.html. Basically there is side to side movement called rolling, and front to back movement called pitching. These combine in various ways depending on currents and weather (it made me sort of sick just reading them -- or maybe it's our present movement), and can be offset a bit by stabilizers in the vessel. This ship does have stabilizers, but we have been told by some of the crew that sometimes the stabilizers are not used in order to allow us to move faster and save fuel. We were rolling quite a bit a few minutes ago and several things in the cabin went flying; I heard things falling above us as well in the Union. John has slept through this as usual, and it has calmed a bit now anyway. I was just starting this blog and threw my computer across the floor to catch other things, then had to re-boot and start over to make everything work again. We are moving at over 20 knots which is faster than we normally go, but the movement is not as bad now.
We arrived in Honolulu at 6:00am on Sunday, April 19th, and after an hour or so of misunderstandings around communication with various devices, we connected with Clark to learn that he was outside the terminal building. Security around ships in the US is about the same as with planes, so he could not get into the terminal area because the ship had not cleared. This took a couple of hours then John and I went down and were able to bring him on board since we had provided identifying information for him several days prior and his name went on a visitor manifest. I regret in all the confusion that I never got a photo of Clark on the ship -- what a blunder! He did manage to find a place to take a photo of John and me on the deck of the ship from the shore, but I don't have a copy of that photo yet. In any case it was wonderful to see him!
We had booked rooms at the Ilikai in Waikiki http://www.ilikaihotel.com/, where John has stayed a few times over the years and the family has stayed once before. We had been told in Global Studies the other day that Hawaii is really suffering from the current economic situation since they are so dependent on tourism. Many individuals have cancelled vacation plans recently, and several conferences have cancelled for the next two years which will have a large impact on the state. We found the Ilikai to have much lower service levels than we had experienced on previous trips, which was disappointing, but Clark found an article online late today [Article no longer available] that indicated there had been a foreclosure only last week -- no wonder no one is interested in giving good service! It is sad news indeed.
We did have a good visit in spite of the hotel issues. Clark and I had a long walk along Waikiki yesterday so that he could take some pictures, and today we rented a car and drove north through the center of the island to the north shore then back again. We didn't do the long route around because we were concerned about time, but we felt we had seen the best parts. Above all it was nice to have some time together. We had seen many of the other Oahu sights around Pearl Harbor and so on during our visit a few years ago.
On ship time was 6:00pm so John and I had to return the rental car and head toward the ship around 4:00pm, and Clark's flight was to leave at 9:00pm. He is planning to sleep on the plane and arrive on time for work in the morning. John is teaching in the morning too -- I am the only one who gets to sleep late!
This visit served to remind us how little time we have left on the ship. We will be in Guatemala in 7 days and during that time we have the last four teaching days of the semester, two study days and an exam day. We are in Guatemala for three days, then finish the semester after that with another study day and an exam day. It's hard to believe we are so close to being finished and heading home.
Current location, 2250 ship time...
Latitude: 21 degrees 24.3' N
Longitude: 157 degrees 1.9' W
Course: 69 degrees
We advance clocks one hour tonight, making our time 5 hours behind EDT, 4 hours behind CDT, 3 hours behind MDT and 2 hours behind PDT.
We arrived in Honolulu at 6:00am on Sunday, April 19th, and after an hour or so of misunderstandings around communication with various devices, we connected with Clark to learn that he was outside the terminal building. Security around ships in the US is about the same as with planes, so he could not get into the terminal area because the ship had not cleared. This took a couple of hours then John and I went down and were able to bring him on board since we had provided identifying information for him several days prior and his name went on a visitor manifest. I regret in all the confusion that I never got a photo of Clark on the ship -- what a blunder! He did manage to find a place to take a photo of John and me on the deck of the ship from the shore, but I don't have a copy of that photo yet. In any case it was wonderful to see him!
We had booked rooms at the Ilikai in Waikiki http://www.ilikaihotel.com/, where John has stayed a few times over the years and the family has stayed once before. We had been told in Global Studies the other day that Hawaii is really suffering from the current economic situation since they are so dependent on tourism. Many individuals have cancelled vacation plans recently, and several conferences have cancelled for the next two years which will have a large impact on the state. We found the Ilikai to have much lower service levels than we had experienced on previous trips, which was disappointing, but Clark found an article online late today [Article no longer available] that indicated there had been a foreclosure only last week -- no wonder no one is interested in giving good service! It is sad news indeed.
We did have a good visit in spite of the hotel issues. Clark and I had a long walk along Waikiki yesterday so that he could take some pictures, and today we rented a car and drove north through the center of the island to the north shore then back again. We didn't do the long route around because we were concerned about time, but we felt we had seen the best parts. Above all it was nice to have some time together. We had seen many of the other Oahu sights around Pearl Harbor and so on during our visit a few years ago.On ship time was 6:00pm so John and I had to return the rental car and head toward the ship around 4:00pm, and Clark's flight was to leave at 9:00pm. He is planning to sleep on the plane and arrive on time for work in the morning. John is teaching in the morning too -- I am the only one who gets to sleep late!
This visit served to remind us how little time we have left on the ship. We will be in Guatemala in 7 days and during that time we have the last four teaching days of the semester, two study days and an exam day. We are in Guatemala for three days, then finish the semester after that with another study day and an exam day. It's hard to believe we are so close to being finished and heading home.
Current location, 2250 ship time...
Latitude: 21 degrees 24.3' N
Longitude: 157 degrees 1.9' W
Course: 69 degrees
We advance clocks one hour tonight, making our time 5 hours behind EDT, 4 hours behind CDT, 3 hours behind MDT and 2 hours behind PDT.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
albatross, rainbows and sunset...
Ship time is currently 2310 although we will be advancing one hour tonight. Our current location...
Latitude: 27 degrees 25.09' N
Longitude: 178 degrees 29.90' WEST! (we crossed the date line around 1830 at about 28 degrees latitude)
Course: 121 degrees
We will be passing south of Midway Island http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Atoll or http://www.midwayisland.com/ shortly -- Latitude there is 28 degrees 12' N and Longitude is 177 degrees 21' W.
Today has been a very exciting day at sea. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and we have albatrosses following in our wake waiting to see what the boat churns up in the way of food. These are smaller birds than were seen by some near South Africa, but are still quite large with a wingspan of seven feet. There are two types, Laysan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laysan_Albatross and black-footed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-footed_Albatross, and we have seen both. There were a dozen or so off the stern today and this is one of the many times I wished I had invested in a better camera for this trip, but I did get a bit of video below.
A little later this afternoon I was in our cabin looking out the window and could see nearby a storm with some interesting clouds. I went to the port side deck near us to have a closer look and take some photos, and as I watched, rainbows began to appear. The photo is not nearly as beautiful as the sight was, but maybe you can get the idea. There was a double rainbow that changed as the ship moved through. At one point the bottom one arced all the way across the sky, but I could not capture it on our camera.
Once the rainbows faded I walked to the starboard side of the ship where I knew I could see the sunset. A fellow traveller was there with her camera and mentioned that she was still trying to see a "green flash" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash at one of our sunsets. I had never heard of this phenomenon and asked her about it. She gave me a brief explanation. Later she and I were at another event where someone else on the ship said that she had seen the green flash tonight. I guess I will have to look for it now!
Latitude: 27 degrees 25.09' N
Longitude: 178 degrees 29.90' WEST! (we crossed the date line around 1830 at about 28 degrees latitude)
Course: 121 degrees
We will be passing south of Midway Island http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Atoll or http://www.midwayisland.com/ shortly -- Latitude there is 28 degrees 12' N and Longitude is 177 degrees 21' W.
Today has been a very exciting day at sea. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and we have albatrosses following in our wake waiting to see what the boat churns up in the way of food. These are smaller birds than were seen by some near South Africa, but are still quite large with a wingspan of seven feet. There are two types, Laysan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laysan_Albatross and black-footed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-footed_Albatross, and we have seen both. There were a dozen or so off the stern today and this is one of the many times I wished I had invested in a better camera for this trip, but I did get a bit of video below.
A little later this afternoon I was in our cabin looking out the window and could see nearby a storm with some interesting clouds. I went to the port side deck near us to have a closer look and take some photos, and as I watched, rainbows began to appear. The photo is not nearly as beautiful as the sight was, but maybe you can get the idea. There was a double rainbow that changed as the ship moved through. At one point the bottom one arced all the way across the sky, but I could not capture it on our camera.
Tonight my friend Maggie Thomas performed with several of the drama students in the play "The Persians" by Aeschylus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persians. When I had talked with her earlier today Maggie seemed quite anxious about whether they were ready to perform, but I was quite impressed tonight with all the performances. An action-packed day -- time for bed!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
tulips in yokohama, beauty on the ship...
Current ship time is just after midnight on Wednesday, April 15 and our location is...Latitude: 30 degrees 41.21' N
Longitude:175 degrees 24.30' E
Course: 122 degrees
As you can see, we still have not crossed the date line, but the ship date is set as if we had. Seas have calmed considerably and we are steadily making our way to Hawaii.
I was organizing photos and want to share some from Yokohama of these beautiful tulips. We had a dinner tonight in the "special" dining room with our shipboard family, so we also have a photo from that event. It was great to have a break from the usual ship food and to be able to dress up for dinner, but the best part was having time to catch up with everyone and exchange stories of our experiences since we last got together. I am so happy that John and I have had an opportunity to get to know Jane, Monica, Sarah and Victoria and enrich our own journey by sharing parts of theirs. The tulips are 
very lovely, but they don't hold a candle to the beauty of these four young women.
very lovely, but they don't hold a candle to the beauty of these four young women.
Monday, April 13, 2009
rockin' and rollin'
Ship time is April 12, 2230 hours. Our current location...
Latitude: 33 degrees 21.63' N
Longitude: 161 degrees 50.84' E
Course: 103 degrees
As you can see, we have not reached the International Date Line yet, but we have changed the date nonetheless. We have had very heavy seas today, and they seem worse tonight. We have been told that this rough weather will likely last through tomorrow morning, and that we should make sure things are secured in our cabins. Since dinner I have been very queasy, so I will keep this short and go to bed shortly and hopefully find some relief. John is sleeping through it as usual.
If you check the website http://www.oceanweather.com/data/ and click on Western Region under North Pacific on the left side of the page, you can get some information about the weather. I don't know whether I feel better or worse since I located this page, but it does not look like it will last lots longer (ever the optimist!).
Latitude: 33 degrees 21.63' N
Longitude: 161 degrees 50.84' E
Course: 103 degrees
As you can see, we have not reached the International Date Line yet, but we have changed the date nonetheless. We have had very heavy seas today, and they seem worse tonight. We have been told that this rough weather will likely last through tomorrow morning, and that we should make sure things are secured in our cabins. Since dinner I have been very queasy, so I will keep this short and go to bed shortly and hopefully find some relief. John is sleeping through it as usual.
If you check the website http://www.oceanweather.com/data/ and click on Western Region under North Pacific on the left side of the page, you can get some information about the weather. I don't know whether I feel better or worse since I located this page, but it does not look like it will last lots longer (ever the optimist!).
Sunday, April 12, 2009
time and location...
It is 2210 ship time on Easter Sunday, April 12 (the first of two Easters) as I start this...
Latitude: 34 degrees 20.28' N
Longitude: 155 degrees 3.05' E
Course: 100 degrees
The International Date Line is at 180 degrees longitude and we will reach it in a few hours. Currently we are 15 hours ahead of EDT, 16 hours ahead of CDT, 17 hours ahead of MDT, 18 hours ahead of PDT. Once we cross the date line, we will be behind everyone -- 9 hours behind EDT, 8 hours behind CDT, 7 hours behind MDT, 6 hours behind PDT, until April 15 when we advance another hour closer to each time zone. We are definitely moving closer to home!
Seas coming out of Yokohama were quite calm, and although there is a fair bit more motion today, it is either not as bad as the Atlantic crossing, or we have become better sailors. I did see a few seasick patches behind people's ears today, but not many. The constant rocking and the time changes of the last couple of days caused me to be very sleepy today, but I will be happy if it does not get any worse than this.
We have a Dean's Memo that comes out each day we are at sea, and it usually contains an article called "From the Crow's Nest" with some interesting facts about sea travel, birds, geography and so on. Yesterday's explained the concept of a "great circle", the shortest distance between two points on a sphere's surface. This explains why sometimes the shortest distance requires moving in a direction that is not intuitive. There is a website http://gc.kls2.com/ where you can enter the airport codes for Yokohama and Honolulu (YOK-HNL) in the first box and see the route we are taking. For those of you who like to explore these things there are other variables you can play with on that page as well.
Now that we have several days at sea and the trip is drawing to a close, students are very involved in writing papers and preparing for exams. Professors are marking assignments and putting the exams together. There are only 10 class days left and the remaining days are study days or exam days. The two stops we have left are only two days each, and people are starting to anticipate and talk about how they think they will feel at the end of the journey.
Latitude: 34 degrees 20.28' N
Longitude: 155 degrees 3.05' E
Course: 100 degrees
The International Date Line is at 180 degrees longitude and we will reach it in a few hours. Currently we are 15 hours ahead of EDT, 16 hours ahead of CDT, 17 hours ahead of MDT, 18 hours ahead of PDT. Once we cross the date line, we will be behind everyone -- 9 hours behind EDT, 8 hours behind CDT, 7 hours behind MDT, 6 hours behind PDT, until April 15 when we advance another hour closer to each time zone. We are definitely moving closer to home!
Seas coming out of Yokohama were quite calm, and although there is a fair bit more motion today, it is either not as bad as the Atlantic crossing, or we have become better sailors. I did see a few seasick patches behind people's ears today, but not many. The constant rocking and the time changes of the last couple of days caused me to be very sleepy today, but I will be happy if it does not get any worse than this.
We have a Dean's Memo that comes out each day we are at sea, and it usually contains an article called "From the Crow's Nest" with some interesting facts about sea travel, birds, geography and so on. Yesterday's explained the concept of a "great circle", the shortest distance between two points on a sphere's surface. This explains why sometimes the shortest distance requires moving in a direction that is not intuitive. There is a website http://gc.kls2.com/ where you can enter the airport codes for Yokohama and Honolulu (YOK-HNL) in the first box and see the route we are taking. For those of you who like to explore these things there are other variables you can play with on that page as well.
Now that we have several days at sea and the trip is drawing to a close, students are very involved in writing papers and preparing for exams. Professors are marking assignments and putting the exams together. There are only 10 class days left and the remaining days are study days or exam days. The two stops we have left are only two days each, and people are starting to anticipate and talk about how they think they will feel at the end of the journey.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
yokohama...
We arrived this morning in Yokohama and were greeted by about 40 people, some of whom were our own students who had travelled independently from Kobe. The fellow in red in the photo walked up and down the pathway waving his US and Japanese flags and shouting "Welcome to Yokohama". Those are three of our students standing to his left.
I expected Yokohama to be much more industrial, but the port area is quite nice and John and I got off the ship to find a place to have coffee. In the end we decided not to spend the short time we have here looking for the area where I was born. Research I have done had shown that the nearby town, called Irumagawa, is now called Sayama, in the Saitama Prefecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama,_Saitama. The base is now Iruma Air Base in Iruma, Saitama, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iruma,_Saitama and is run by the Japanese. Other sites I had found indicated it would be impossible to get on the base. I also spoke to our interport lecturer, a professor at university near here, and she was familiar with the area. She thought it would not be hard to get to, but wasn't sure that we would see anything there. She was born near there in 1952, a couple of years after I was. I enjoyed very much talking with her on the ship.
So, John and I decided to get a hotel in the area to have a bit of a break from the ship. We have a good view of the bay from our hotel room and can see the Explorer below. We also found that there were a couple of giant -- HUGE -- spiders in the port area below. There was fire and lots of noise, and we decided this was some sort of Japanese monster movie being filmed. However I did a search and found the following website http://pinktentacle.com/2009/04/giant-robot-spider-in-yokohama-pics-video/ that has a film of these mechanical spiders and explains that they will be used in celebrating the 150 year anniversary of the opening of Yokohama as a port. The place looks a fair bit different than it did even 60 years ago, right Mom?
We will be leaving tomorrow evening for the long sail to Hawaii. Great news -- Clark will be meeting us in Honolulu! It will be wonderful to see him on the 19th and 20th while we are in port there.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
cherry blossom time!
When we got back to the ship after our Beijing trip we had one day in Shanghai (location Longitude: 31 degrees 14.85' N, Longitude: 121 degrees 29.55' E) before we left for Kobe, Japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe. John had a field trip for his classes that last day (Friday, April 3), and I took a long walk downtown from the port. I was tired from Beijing and didn't feel any great need or desire to do more than that. The port area in Shanghai is nicer than most, so walking was perfect. We left for Kobe that evening and took two days to get here, so arrived yesterday (Monday, April 6, although it was still Sunday for most of you). So our current Kobe location is Latitude: 34 degrees 40.81' N, Longitude: 135 degrees 12.21'E, although we are sailing in about half an hour.
Our shipboard daughter Monica's birthday is today so we celebrated on the way to Kobe since everyone had plans in port. It was a fun celebration with our shipboard family. Our next get together will be a "special occasion dinner" on April 14 when we can go to a room attached to the cafeteria and be dressed up and waited on and have champagne. I think we are all looking forward to that for a change to the routine!
When we got to Kobe yesterday, after the usual diplomatic briefing (where we learned to our shock that 7 Eleven in Japan is actually a bank as well as a convenience store), we had the most elaborate immigration and customs procedure yet -- it required that all 1000 people on the ship collect passports and forms from the purser and have a face to face meeting with immigration people who took photos and fingerprints and who used dogs to check backpacks, etc. Needless to say it took a fair bit of time. People who had SAS port trips planned went first and then the rest of us, faculty and staff before students. John and I went through then came back on the ship for lunch before heading out for the nearby light rail train into Kobe. We walked around the city a bit then returned to the ship. It's hard to believe this city was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1995 that killed over 4000 people and left more than 200,000 homeless. (It is now 2300 ship time and engines have just started up and we are starting to move.)
Today we had a trip to Kyoto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto with a group from the ship and enjoyed peak cherry blossom time. The trees are very beautiful right now and the weather was perfect with very blue skies and moderate temperatures. The day was packed with visits to structures and gardens. It took about an hour and a half on a bus to get to Kyoto from Kobe, and we went first with our guide Rumi to Nijo Castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijo_Castle where we toured the palaces and observed the art in the rooms. We then walked through the garden and enjoyed the cherry trees in bloom.
Our second stop in Kyoto was the Kinkaku-ji Temple or Rokuan-ji Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Pavilion Temple because of the fact that the top two levels of the building are covered in gold leaf. We did not go into the temple, but did enjoy the beautiful pond, garden and cherry trees. There was a gray heron in the pond, and a good sized turtle sunning himself on a rock. We had box lunches from the ship which we stopped to eat in Muruayama park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruyama_Park (be sure to see the "Information about Muruayama park" link on this site for some nice photos). The views were very nice and we enjoyed our lunch and the birds in the area.
After lunch we went to a Shinto shrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto_shrine known as Heian Jingu Shrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_Jing%C5%AB. The garden there is also beautiful with cherry blossoms. Our final stop was at the Buddhist Kiyomizu-dera Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera. John and I were both feeling "templed-out" by that time and did not make the climb to the top of the hill to visit this one, although people reported that it was beautiful. We headed back to the ship and Rumi taught us a Japanese folk song "Sakura, Sakura" about the cherry blossoms which we sang on the way back. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_(folk_song) and note the link to the melody on that page.
As mentioned above, we are now on our way to Yokohama and should be there the morning of April 9. As most of you reading this know, I was born in Japan. John and I are going to try to find the former Air Force Base where I was born after we reach Yokohama. From what I have found out this may not be that easy to do, but some of the travel people who are working with SAS will do what they can to help.
Our shipboard daughter Monica's birthday is today so we celebrated on the way to Kobe since everyone had plans in port. It was a fun celebration with our shipboard family. Our next get together will be a "special occasion dinner" on April 14 when we can go to a room attached to the cafeteria and be dressed up and waited on and have champagne. I think we are all looking forward to that for a change to the routine!When we got to Kobe yesterday, after the usual diplomatic briefing (where we learned to our shock that 7 Eleven in Japan is actually a bank as well as a convenience store), we had the most elaborate immigration and customs procedure yet -- it required that all 1000 people on the ship collect passports and forms from the purser and have a face to face meeting with immigration people who took photos and fingerprints and who used dogs to check backpacks, etc. Needless to say it took a fair bit of time. People who had SAS port trips planned went first and then the rest of us, faculty and staff before students. John and I went through then came back on the ship for lunch before heading out for the nearby light rail train into Kobe. We walked around the city a bit then returned to the ship. It's hard to believe this city was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1995 that killed over 4000 people and left more than 200,000 homeless. (It is now 2300 ship time and engines have just started up and we are starting to move.)
Today we had a trip to Kyoto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto with a group from the ship and enjoyed peak cherry blossom time. The trees are very beautiful right now and the weather was perfect with very blue skies and moderate temperatures. The day was packed with visits to structures and gardens. It took about an hour and a half on a bus to get to Kyoto from Kobe, and we went first with our guide Rumi to Nijo Castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijo_Castle where we toured the palaces and observed the art in the rooms. We then walked through the garden and enjoyed the cherry trees in bloom.
Our second stop in Kyoto was the Kinkaku-ji Temple or Rokuan-ji Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Pavilion Temple because of the fact that the top two levels of the building are covered in gold leaf. We did not go into the temple, but did enjoy the beautiful pond, garden and cherry trees. There was a gray heron in the pond, and a good sized turtle sunning himself on a rock. We had box lunches from the ship which we stopped to eat in Muruayama park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruyama_Park (be sure to see the "Information about Muruayama park" link on this site for some nice photos). The views were very nice and we enjoyed our lunch and the birds in the area.
After lunch we went to a Shinto shrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto_shrine known as Heian Jingu Shrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_Jing%C5%AB. The garden there is also beautiful with cherry blossoms. Our final stop was at the Buddhist Kiyomizu-dera Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera. John and I were both feeling "templed-out" by that time and did not make the climb to the top of the hill to visit this one, although people reported that it was beautiful. We headed back to the ship and Rumi taught us a Japanese folk song "Sakura, Sakura" about the cherry blossoms which we sang on the way back. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_(folk_song) and note the link to the melody on that page.
As mentioned above, we are now on our way to Yokohama and should be there the morning of April 9. As most of you reading this know, I was born in Japan. John and I are going to try to find the former Air Force Base where I was born after we reach Yokohama. From what I have found out this may not be that easy to do, but some of the travel people who are working with SAS will do what they can to help.
Monday, April 6, 2009
beijing continued...
On Wednesday, April 1, we went to the Great Wall and to Olympic venues, and I wrote about those trips on that date. There were a couple of other highlights on Wednesday that I want to mention. One is that in the elevator in the hotel that morning, there were a number of young girls that were high school age. As they chatted, my roommate asked them where they were from and it turned out that they were from Canmore, Alberta! One of the fun things about travel is realizing how small the world can be. I talked with them for awhile -- they were thrilled to meet someone from so close to home, and so was I. While our group had walked around the day before, the Chinese people were quite taken with the people in our group who had very blonde (and usually long) hair. Some of the older women would approach and stroke the hair and want to have their picture taken with these people. They also liked being photographed with very tall people. The girls from Canmore were blonde and tall, so we warned them that this would likely happen to them too. I never saw them again while we were there -- they had said they were on a school trip.
Also of note on Wednesday was that our trip leader, one of the academics from Semester at Sea, approached our guide privately and told him that she understood that he might not be able to respond, but she wanted to know if he felt he could comment on the events in Tiananmen Square twenty years ago. He replied that he would comment, but that he could not do it publicly or on the microphone on the bus. He then spoke quietly to those of us within earshot and discussed the fact that he was quite young when the events took place and that the local news showed only a group of students killing a policeman and reported something over 200 people killed when rioting took place. As he got older and more curious he found ways to get information (many internet sites are blocked in China) that had been distributed to the rest of the world by journalists who were present and who managed to get other stories and pictures out. He recognizes that the Chinese people did not get the whole story, but stops short of saying his government was wrong to stop the students. He points out the number of changes that took place after the events of 1989, and of course he is not wrong.
Our last day in Beijing was Thursday, April 2. During the four days we were there Spring had come to Beijing. Leaves had opened on the willow trees, and forsythia was in bloom. We continued our heavy schedule after breakfast, visiting the YongHeGong Lama Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonghe_Temple or http://www.kinabaloo.com/yonghegong.html. It is a temple and monastery of Tibetan Buddhism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Buddhism and apparently if you arrive at the right time (we did not), you can see 130 monks meditating. Any other time many other visitors can be seen meditating, praying, lighting incense or just wandering around looking. There are several buildings and each hall contains several gold Buddhas and other relics. One contains an 18 meter tall gold painted Buddha made from a single white sandalwood tree.
After another great lunch at a local restaurant, we went to see the Summer Palace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace where we had a walk around the grounds and a
dragon boat ride on Kunming Lake. We never cease to be amazed at ourselves when we jump at the chance for a boat ride after all the time we spend on the ship! It was quite windy and cool that day, and we enjoyed watching old men flying kites on the Seventeen-Arch Bridge.
Following our visit to the Summer Palace it was time to make our way to the airport for our flight to Shanghai where we would join the ship which had sailed from Hong Kong in our absence. In the bus 0ur trip leader asked Andy if he could give the students some information on the Cultural Revolution in China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution and he did spend some time discussing this with the students. We aren't sure why, but he also had decided to share the information about Tiananmen Square that he had discussed with some of us the previous day. After the discussion our trip leader asked the students to respect the fact that Andy would not be able to publicly address these issues and to make sure the conversation about it stayed on the bus. I believe this willingness of our guide to share his thoughts, his clear love for his city and his country, and his dedication to making sure we had an exceptional experience in China made the differencebetween our trip and the ones that others had in Beijing. I wish everyone could have felt what we did as we came back. Andy's final gift to us was a song -- the only American song, he said, that he knew all the words. This may come under the category of "you had to be there", but we were very moved by his efforts. I could not record the whole thing, but hope you enjoy the attached short video.
Also of note on Wednesday was that our trip leader, one of the academics from Semester at Sea, approached our guide privately and told him that she understood that he might not be able to respond, but she wanted to know if he felt he could comment on the events in Tiananmen Square twenty years ago. He replied that he would comment, but that he could not do it publicly or on the microphone on the bus. He then spoke quietly to those of us within earshot and discussed the fact that he was quite young when the events took place and that the local news showed only a group of students killing a policeman and reported something over 200 people killed when rioting took place. As he got older and more curious he found ways to get information (many internet sites are blocked in China) that had been distributed to the rest of the world by journalists who were present and who managed to get other stories and pictures out. He recognizes that the Chinese people did not get the whole story, but stops short of saying his government was wrong to stop the students. He points out the number of changes that took place after the events of 1989, and of course he is not wrong.
Our last day in Beijing was Thursday, April 2. During the four days we were there Spring had come to Beijing. Leaves had opened on the willow trees, and forsythia was in bloom. We continued our heavy schedule after breakfast, visiting the YongHeGong Lama Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonghe_Temple or http://www.kinabaloo.com/yonghegong.html. It is a temple and monastery of Tibetan Buddhism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Buddhism and apparently if you arrive at the right time (we did not), you can see 130 monks meditating. Any other time many other visitors can be seen meditating, praying, lighting incense or just wandering around looking. There are several buildings and each hall contains several gold Buddhas and other relics. One contains an 18 meter tall gold painted Buddha made from a single white sandalwood tree.
After another great lunch at a local restaurant, we went to see the Summer Palace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace where we had a walk around the grounds and a
dragon boat ride on Kunming Lake. We never cease to be amazed at ourselves when we jump at the chance for a boat ride after all the time we spend on the ship! It was quite windy and cool that day, and we enjoyed watching old men flying kites on the Seventeen-Arch Bridge.Following our visit to the Summer Palace it was time to make our way to the airport for our flight to Shanghai where we would join the ship which had sailed from Hong Kong in our absence. In the bus 0ur trip leader asked Andy if he could give the students some information on the Cultural Revolution in China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution and he did spend some time discussing this with the students. We aren't sure why, but he also had decided to share the information about Tiananmen Square that he had discussed with some of us the previous day. After the discussion our trip leader asked the students to respect the fact that Andy would not be able to publicly address these issues and to make sure the conversation about it stayed on the bus. I believe this willingness of our guide to share his thoughts, his clear love for his city and his country, and his dedication to making sure we had an exceptional experience in China made the differencebetween our trip and the ones that others had in Beijing. I wish everyone could have felt what we did as we came back. Andy's final gift to us was a song -- the only American song, he said, that he knew all the words. This may come under the category of "you had to be there", but we were very moved by his efforts. I could not record the whole thing, but hope you enjoy the attached short video.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
back in beijing...
We continue to make our way to Kobe, Japan with our current location at 2105 Sunday night ship time...
Latitude: 32 degrees 33.63' N
Longitude: 133 degrees 41.33' E
Course: 60 degrees
A group of 38 of us (2 faculty, 1 staff, 2 "tagalongs" [me and one other], 2 tagalong teenagers, and 31 students) left for Beijing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing by first boarding a bus to the airport in Hong Kong at 6:00am on Monday, March 30, and catching an Air China flight. Going from Hong Kong to anywhere in China is considered an international flight, so we had to clear customs in addition to the usual security checks and so on. The Hong Kong airport is quite nice, with free internet and lots of shops and food places. I had the impression that most things run on time -- our three hour flight did and the experience was very pleasant. We even got breakfast, something that does not happen on North American flights any more! The airport in Beijing is pretty spectacular too.
We were met in Beijing by our tour guide, Andy, who we later learned is 29 years old and who has a University degree in English. We went first to a nice restaurant for lunch and sampled some of the local dishes. It was a good meal and we went then to the Temple of Heaven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven, a Taoist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism structure built in the 15th and 16th centuries. On our
walk to the main building, we passed many people of all ages, engaged in leisure activities: games, playing musical instruments, dancing, singing. One young couple was having wedding photographs shot. The attached video is one of the larger group activities we witnessed. After an hour or so walking around the grounds, we returned to the bus and went to our hotel for check-in. My roommate was our assistant librarian on the ship, a young woman from Alabama.
Later that evening we went out for a Peking duck dinner. We had duck in all ways you can imagine and it was very good, although I found that I was quite tired from the traveling and earlier activities of the day. We returned to the hotel and I think most of us had an early night.
On Tuesday morning we were up fairly early for a buffet breakfast in the hotel since we were to be back on the bus by 9:00am. The hotel was full of tourists from all over, and we all sat at very large round tables with people we didn't know. People seemed very intent on eating breakfast and there was little talking going on. It was all very efficient and we made it to the bus in good time.
Our first visit on this day was to Tiananmen Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square. This year is the 20th anniversary of what much of the world calls the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and what the Chinese call the Tiananmen Square Event or the June Fourth Incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
ki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989. Our guide spoke of the structure of the Square, and of the fact that it is the largest city square in the world, but said nothing of the "Event", something that many of us found disturbing, but not surprising. It was quite cool outside on this day and a number of the students bought hats (see photo) from the street vendors at the Square. These vendors were selling all kinds of junk and chased around after us trying to bargain with us. We are all getting pretty good at saying no (since this has happened everywhere we have travelled), but they did not give up easily -- perhaps because so many bought hats. Mao watches with waving hands were popular items too, even though these students are too young to have any memory of Chairman Mao waving in front of the cameras.
From Tiananmen Square, we went to the Forbidden City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City, walking in through the Meridian Gate. We used electronic headsets with technology that could detect where you were and deliver the appropriate dialogue, which made it very convenient for everyone to move through this massive site at his or her own pace. We spent a little more than two hours there, but you could easily spend days seeing everything. It was sobering to see military training exercises among buildings called "The Hall of Supreme Harmony" and "The Hall of Earthly Tranquility". The movie "The Last Emperor" had run on the loop on the cabin tv's the week before so the area inside the walls looked very familiar. I am happy to have had the experience of being there and seeing it first hand -- it is a magnificent place.
After lunch at another nice restaurant, we were treated to trishaw (variation on the rickshaw where, instead of a two wheeled seat being pulled by a person walking or running ahead, the unit is attached to a cycle so that the whole thing has three wheels) rides through Hutong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutong lanes and a visit to one of the courtyard homes. Our group visited a family who had eight people in three generations living together with the courtyard in the center. We had an opportunity to talk to the woman who was in the middle generation and to see the kitchen, a couple of bedrooms, and her artist husband's work area. After a little more than an hour in this area, we went to the Bell Tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Gulou_and_Zhonglou and walked up some steep and deep stairs to the top where we could see the huge bronze bell contained in it. It was quite cold and windy by that time, so we didn't stay long and went downstairs to a tea shop where we had a tea tasting with pomp and ceremony. It was a lovely place to get warm!
Once at the hotel, we were on our own for the evening, and my roommate and one of the students and I decided to go in search of western food. The only place we could find within walking distance was MacDonalds, which I never eat at home, but which I found was absolutely perfect that evening!
Latitude: 32 degrees 33.63' N
Longitude: 133 degrees 41.33' E
Course: 60 degrees
A group of 38 of us (2 faculty, 1 staff, 2 "tagalongs" [me and one other], 2 tagalong teenagers, and 31 students) left for Beijing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing by first boarding a bus to the airport in Hong Kong at 6:00am on Monday, March 30, and catching an Air China flight. Going from Hong Kong to anywhere in China is considered an international flight, so we had to clear customs in addition to the usual security checks and so on. The Hong Kong airport is quite nice, with free internet and lots of shops and food places. I had the impression that most things run on time -- our three hour flight did and the experience was very pleasant. We even got breakfast, something that does not happen on North American flights any more! The airport in Beijing is pretty spectacular too.
We were met in Beijing by our tour guide, Andy, who we later learned is 29 years old and who has a University degree in English. We went first to a nice restaurant for lunch and sampled some of the local dishes. It was a good meal and we went then to the Temple of Heaven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven, a Taoist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism structure built in the 15th and 16th centuries. On our
walk to the main building, we passed many people of all ages, engaged in leisure activities: games, playing musical instruments, dancing, singing. One young couple was having wedding photographs shot. The attached video is one of the larger group activities we witnessed. After an hour or so walking around the grounds, we returned to the bus and went to our hotel for check-in. My roommate was our assistant librarian on the ship, a young woman from Alabama.
Later that evening we went out for a Peking duck dinner. We had duck in all ways you can imagine and it was very good, although I found that I was quite tired from the traveling and earlier activities of the day. We returned to the hotel and I think most of us had an early night.
On Tuesday morning we were up fairly early for a buffet breakfast in the hotel since we were to be back on the bus by 9:00am. The hotel was full of tourists from all over, and we all sat at very large round tables with people we didn't know. People seemed very intent on eating breakfast and there was little talking going on. It was all very efficient and we made it to the bus in good time.
Our first visit on this day was to Tiananmen Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square. This year is the 20th anniversary of what much of the world calls the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and what the Chinese call the Tiananmen Square Event or the June Fourth Incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
ki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989. Our guide spoke of the structure of the Square, and of the fact that it is the largest city square in the world, but said nothing of the "Event", something that many of us found disturbing, but not surprising. It was quite cool outside on this day and a number of the students bought hats (see photo) from the street vendors at the Square. These vendors were selling all kinds of junk and chased around after us trying to bargain with us. We are all getting pretty good at saying no (since this has happened everywhere we have travelled), but they did not give up easily -- perhaps because so many bought hats. Mao watches with waving hands were popular items too, even though these students are too young to have any memory of Chairman Mao waving in front of the cameras.From Tiananmen Square, we went to the Forbidden City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City, walking in through the Meridian Gate. We used electronic headsets with technology that could detect where you were and deliver the appropriate dialogue, which made it very convenient for everyone to move through this massive site at his or her own pace. We spent a little more than two hours there, but you could easily spend days seeing everything. It was sobering to see military training exercises among buildings called "The Hall of Supreme Harmony" and "The Hall of Earthly Tranquility". The movie "The Last Emperor" had run on the loop on the cabin tv's the week before so the area inside the walls looked very familiar. I am happy to have had the experience of being there and seeing it first hand -- it is a magnificent place.
After lunch at another nice restaurant, we were treated to trishaw (variation on the rickshaw where, instead of a two wheeled seat being pulled by a person walking or running ahead, the unit is attached to a cycle so that the whole thing has three wheels) rides through Hutong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutong lanes and a visit to one of the courtyard homes. Our group visited a family who had eight people in three generations living together with the courtyard in the center. We had an opportunity to talk to the woman who was in the middle generation and to see the kitchen, a couple of bedrooms, and her artist husband's work area. After a little more than an hour in this area, we went to the Bell Tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Gulou_and_Zhonglou and walked up some steep and deep stairs to the top where we could see the huge bronze bell contained in it. It was quite cold and windy by that time, so we didn't stay long and went downstairs to a tea shop where we had a tea tasting with pomp and ceremony. It was a lovely place to get warm!
Once at the hotel, we were on our own for the evening, and my roommate and one of the students and I decided to go in search of western food. The only place we could find within walking distance was MacDonalds, which I never eat at home, but which I found was absolutely perfect that evening!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
backtracking... hong kong
Current location at 2320 ship's time...
Latitude: 30 degrees 57.56' N
Longitude: 128 degrees 19.75' E
Course: 90 degrees
We are making our way to Kobe, Japan from Shanghai, and will advance our clocks one hour tonight. This makes us 13 hours ahead of EDT, 14 hours ahead of CDT, 15 hours ahead of MDT, and 16 hours ahead of PDT. After Japan we will cross the International Date Line, experiencing April 12 (Easter Sunday) twice, and then we will be behind all of you.
Going back a week, we arrived in Hong Kong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong on March 29 at our usual arrival time of 8:00am. If you have been reading, you have already seen the Google Earth photo that I posted, which shows our ship docked in Hong Kong at the Ocean Terminal and attached by a walkway to the Harbour City shopping mall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_City_(Hong_Kong). We had our diplomatic briefing shortly after arrival, and for the first time the consulate officials were very positive and talked about how safe we would be in Hong Kong and China. One of the speakers had a niece on the ship -- perhaps that was why, but in fact it is quite safe, clean and orderly.
I only had one day in Hong Kong, and John and I used it to take a City Orientation tour. The day was cloudy and chilly, although not raining. (Temperatures were in the 50's, but our previous stops had been so hot that this seemed cold to us.) We got on a bus with several of our fellow travellers and left the terminal heading to Hong Kong Island via an underground tunnel. We had a guide who was very good and who entertained us throughout the trip. Once on the other side of Victoria Harbour, we got into sampan boats to tour the harbour. The harbour is surrounded by high rises that house some of the 7 million people that live here. It used to be that the harbour was filled with boats on which people lived as well, but these numbers have dropped in recent years and we were told that now only about 100 people live on the boats. And although there are lots of junk boats, there are a fair number of upscale cabin cruisers and speedboats too.
From the harbour we went to The Peak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Peak, http://www.thepeak.com.hk/en/home.asp where in spite of the clouds and fog we had beautiful views of buildings and the harbour, including one of the MV Explorer. There we ate the box lunches that had been provided by the ship's kitchen crew, and wandered around before heading down on the funicular tram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular.
At the bottom we made our way to St John's (Anglican) Cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s_Cathedral,_Hong_Kong. It was undergoing construction and we saw scaffolding made of bamboo. Our guide told us that in some construction projects they have tried to move to steel scaffolding, but that so many of the construction workers are used to the bamboo that the accident rate increased and many projects are still using bamboo. Construction is very tidy -- where it is taking place the building is wrapped in green cloth of some kind which is held in place by the bamboo. We also saw legislative and court buildings in this area.
We walked around the Cathedral area then went into a shopping district to look around, although not much was open on Sunday afternoon. There is an HSBC bank in this area where a number of Filipino domestic workers gather to socialize on Sundays -- we saw thousands gathered there.
We went on to the Man Mo Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Mo_Temple built to worship Man, the god of literature, and Mo, the god of war. There was a nearby coffee shop where many of us went for a hot drink after this visit then headed back to the ship. John and I went out that night to a restaurant in the attached mall, a nice change from ship food.
Tomorrow I will update on the Beijing trip, which I found excellent, but which I am learning left others disappointed. There were several different trips and I expect that our guide made the difference for us.
Latitude: 30 degrees 57.56' N
Longitude: 128 degrees 19.75' E
Course: 90 degrees
We are making our way to Kobe, Japan from Shanghai, and will advance our clocks one hour tonight. This makes us 13 hours ahead of EDT, 14 hours ahead of CDT, 15 hours ahead of MDT, and 16 hours ahead of PDT. After Japan we will cross the International Date Line, experiencing April 12 (Easter Sunday) twice, and then we will be behind all of you.
Going back a week, we arrived in Hong Kong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong on March 29 at our usual arrival time of 8:00am. If you have been reading, you have already seen the Google Earth photo that I posted, which shows our ship docked in Hong Kong at the Ocean Terminal and attached by a walkway to the Harbour City shopping mall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_City_(Hong_Kong). We had our diplomatic briefing shortly after arrival, and for the first time the consulate officials were very positive and talked about how safe we would be in Hong Kong and China. One of the speakers had a niece on the ship -- perhaps that was why, but in fact it is quite safe, clean and orderly.
I only had one day in Hong Kong, and John and I used it to take a City Orientation tour. The day was cloudy and chilly, although not raining. (Temperatures were in the 50's, but our previous stops had been so hot that this seemed cold to us.) We got on a bus with several of our fellow travellers and left the terminal heading to Hong Kong Island via an underground tunnel. We had a guide who was very good and who entertained us throughout the trip. Once on the other side of Victoria Harbour, we got into sampan boats to tour the harbour. The harbour is surrounded by high rises that house some of the 7 million people that live here. It used to be that the harbour was filled with boats on which people lived as well, but these numbers have dropped in recent years and we were told that now only about 100 people live on the boats. And although there are lots of junk boats, there are a fair number of upscale cabin cruisers and speedboats too.
From the harbour we went to The Peak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Peak, http://www.thepeak.com.hk/en/home.asp where in spite of the clouds and fog we had beautiful views of buildings and the harbour, including one of the MV Explorer. There we ate the box lunches that had been provided by the ship's kitchen crew, and wandered around before heading down on the funicular tram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular.
At the bottom we made our way to St John's (Anglican) Cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s_Cathedral,_Hong_Kong. It was undergoing construction and we saw scaffolding made of bamboo. Our guide told us that in some construction projects they have tried to move to steel scaffolding, but that so many of the construction workers are used to the bamboo that the accident rate increased and many projects are still using bamboo. Construction is very tidy -- where it is taking place the building is wrapped in green cloth of some kind which is held in place by the bamboo. We also saw legislative and court buildings in this area.
We walked around the Cathedral area then went into a shopping district to look around, although not much was open on Sunday afternoon. There is an HSBC bank in this area where a number of Filipino domestic workers gather to socialize on Sundays -- we saw thousands gathered there.
We went on to the Man Mo Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Mo_Temple built to worship Man, the god of literature, and Mo, the god of war. There was a nearby coffee shop where many of us went for a hot drink after this visit then headed back to the ship. John and I went out that night to a restaurant in the attached mall, a nice change from ship food.
Tomorrow I will update on the Beijing trip, which I found excellent, but which I am learning left others disappointed. There were several different trips and I expect that our guide made the difference for us.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
warning: self-indulgent posting ahead...
Here is a photo of me at the top of the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutianyu. I had to take the picture myself, because I was the only one on our trip who made it all the way to the top! I had a great time doing the hike and felt wonderful afterward. Now I am in training for climbing a live volcano in Guatemala in a few weeks!I am tired tonight so heading off to bed soon. We leave Beijing tomorrow, but for me this has been one of the best days of the trip. In addition to the Wall, we went to Olympic Green, the site of many of the venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics#Venues. The weather, which has been quite cool and very windy, cooperated, and you can see we had a lovely blue sky with sun and no wind. Our guide, Andy, has been unbelievably good and the trip leader and her husband and I went for dinner with him tonight. I want to say more about him in the blog, but will do so at another time. I also will go back and write about Hong Kong and the rest of our stay in Beijing later -- there is much to say.
News from John: he slept through a life boat drill last night as the ship left for Shanghai, and the 150 people that were left on the ship (most came to Beijing) had a nice dinner with the captain. I think he is probably lucky to have been able to participate in the dinner after missing the drill!
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