shark b8

well, what with time zones and international travel - we woke up in Shanghai on Wednesday morning, quite a while ago it seems like, and now we're back home in Hawaii....Wednesday afternoon. Thanks so much for coming along, we've got a few more trips in our back pocket so maybe we'll crank this up again in the not-too-distant future. Aloha.

Shanghai. We were here 5-6 years ago and I’m reminded all over again of the colorfully lit party boats and floating restaurants, which parade endlessly up and down the river, with the amazing skyline as a backdrop. From lib 04-10-2024 15-15-11.mov

Dammit.

In Nagasaki we attended a dinner with geisha as servers, and they also danced and played traditional music. (They invited any guests to come up and try dancing and drum-beating - I usually think this sort of tourist participation is a bit embarrassing and tacky, wish they wouldn’t do it. If that makes me the skunk at the garden party, so be it) vcompress_118.mov

day 3.

I’d hazard a guess that we’ve eaten more seaweed and “things with tentacles” in the last few weeks than we usually do at home. 😳

A fish market in Yeosu. We were pretty sure we were approaching a fish market when still a few blocks away, if you know what I mean. vcompress_117.mov

Also in Yeosu, a skyway transported us over the city and harbor area. In this case our timing was great, as there were lots of cherry trees in full bloom.

Travel being a series of hits and misses - another case where I think the Seabourn people could have described a shore excursion better. Same as before, this Yeosu palace was undergoing complete restoration, inside a massive warehouse-type building. We all had to wear hard hats, and after an uphill driveway and many flights of stairs, we arrived at a viewing platform which contained renderings on easels, showing what the palace will eventually look like. This viewing platform looked out on……a solid roof. That’s it. The crew on site were very anxious to tell people not to take pictures of the roof, although nobody really wanted to.

At several of the major Korean sites we visited, there were a surprising number of people in obvious historical, traditional dress. I wondered if we happened to be there on a holiday or something like that, I asked but with the language difficulty I wasn’t sure of the answer. Anyway, lots of these impossibly adorable little girls, strutting their stuff in beautiful finery. Heartbreakers, 20 years from now.

the monitor in the train car was fun. This first one is the train equivalent of the airline “fasten your seat belt and put up your tray tables” speech - they’re identifying what you can and can’t do . (one guide explained to us that the crossed hands/arms means “don’t do that”). The second one was about unagi, I hope. From lib 04-06-2024 18-30-31.mov From lib 04-06-2024 18-32-18.mov

(Besides, I’m afraid I must report that the countryside going by, for the 2½ hour trip between Busan & Seoul, is not….picturesque. The most interesting thing might be the mile-after-mile of enormous apartment buildings) vcompress_116.mov

Back on the bullet train. And the ball game again. (hey folks, it’s DODGERS/GIANTS!) From lib 04-06-2024 17-44-04.mov From lib 04-06-2024 17-44-58.mov

In Seoul it looked like our guide might be taking us to this place for lunch. uh oh. But then we ended up at second-pic place. Now yer talkin’.

Yeah, and they look like they’re about 14” in diameter.