OzKiwiJJ

I'm not sure how they're handling immigration for Taipei - I imagine much the same as we've had in Japan and South Korea. Regent Seven Seas Explorer only has about 700 passengers onboard so the experience for those going ashore today would be vastly different to a Royal Princess cruise with over 3600 passengers onboard. On the Diamond cruise we did ship's excursions. They used two gangways - one for excursions and one for self-touring passengers, so there wasn't any priority given to the tour groups, their departures were just spaced out a bit. The only time things got a bit crowded was on re-entry back into Japan after our Busan stop.

Actually that saying is wrong. It should say "No news means there is no bad news" given the media's penchant for mostly reporting the bad things that happen. I guess good news doesn't get ratings.

The meals are amazing. Luckily I'm starting to get my appetite back.😊

Guess what! We've both got Covid! 😪 I had what I thought was just sinusitis or hayfever for a couple of days as it started the morning after we boarded the Regent cruise. But then I started coughing one night so next morning (yesterday) I tested using a RAT. Positive! So I contacted the medical centre and they did a PCR test which confirmed it. Rolf was negative on the RAT but clearly wasn't well. When the nurse came to check on me that evening I suggested he go down for a PCR test, which was positive. So we're in isolation until the 21st. Sadly we're missing Okinawa and Taipei, both of which I really wanted to visit, and Nha Trang where we've been before. We're on antivirals plus other meds to relieve the symptoms. Our travel insurance is going to get hit when we get home. We are able to order meals from any of the restaurants onboard that are open at the time so we have an amazing selection of food to choose from. Neither of us was up to eating much yesterday but I've started to get my appetite back.

When they pad out escargot with mushrooms all you taste is mushroom. It even overpowers the garlic. Not what I want when I order escargot. Princess penny pinching again?

Tue 7th Nov - Nagasaki Today didn't start well. Our cabin toilet decided it wasn't going to flush! After breakfast we had a bit of a chase around deck 14 to find the toilets, then we had to hurry down to our cabin to collect our things, and race to the Princess Theatre. It was a long walk from the ship to the cruise terminal. We had to go through Japan immigration which was much more tedious than in South Korea as they take index fingerprints and photos. The scanning device took ages before it was happy. The queues moved very slowly. Then we had the customs check. Luckily that was faster. Finally we had another long walk to our bus. There weren't many excursions offered here. We didn't want to go to the Peace Museum, nor do another full day excursion, so we just did the Easy Nagasaki trip. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Our tour guide was rather annoying as she would continually repeat words or phrases. It felt like she was treating us like senile idiots! I may be getting old but hopefully I'm still a long way from senility. The first part of the bus trip was fast, so no chance to snap photos out the bus window.The tour offered "Drive through at the Mt. Inasa Lookout is an opportunity to take in wide views of the city". Nope. In reality it was short glimpses of the city as we wound our way up and down the mountain and a short stop in a car park completely surrounded by trees and bushes. No views at all, plus we were told to stay on the bus at this stop. This was the only decent photo I got. On the far side of the carpark was the terminal for the "Slope Car", a monorail-type of transport that goes up to the summit. It holds about 100 passengers. It would have been great if the tour had included a trip on this. After coming back down the mountain we wound our way through the city, past the atomic bomb ground zero, which is now a tree-lined park. Our final stop was the Peace Park. At least we could get out of the bus here! It was a lovely spot with a huge peace statue at one end and a fountain at the other end, plus several smaller memorials scattered through it. It would have been a very peaceful place too but school tours added to cruise ship tours made it very crowded. Peace statue. Autumn colours. Peace fountain. Then we whizzed through the town again, passing the One Pole Torii Gate ' one pole was blown off by the atomic bomb but the other is still standing. The bus did pause here. I was sitting on the other side of the bus but the seats across from us were empty. I had just lined up my photo when a guy from further down the bus decided to stand in the aisle so he could take his photo from the vacant seats. Grrrr! The bus started move again just as he went back to his seat so I missed getting a decent photo. Double grrrr! We were glad to get back to the cruise terminal. The tour had been a big disappointment from a photo opportunity point of view. After lunch we sat on our balcony for a while. We were overlooking the cruise terminal and the city behind it. We had another drumming group farewell. Luckily it started before I had to get showered and dressed. It was a formal night and the Captain's Circle Cocktail Parties. We were invited to the early session at 5pm . I spotted a new "look" in men's formal wear - black pants and a black tshirt with a glittery panel with "Alaska" on it. Oh well, at least it was sparkly! 🤣 The most travelled passengers were from: USA - 2089 days Japan - 948 days USA - 808 days I don't think we'll ever get enough days to be in the top three, we started cruising too late. The breakdown of Captain's Circle levels onboard are: Elites 289 Platinum 494 Ruby 307 Gold 574 First timers 979 The Captain announced some of the changes that the new Sun Princess will have, like azipods, and everyone clapped politely. Then he said that it would not have shower curtains. It will have glass doors. Everybody cheered! 🤣 Tonight was the second formal night so the Gala dinner menu. The escargot had mushrooms added so we both passed on those. My second choice was crispy fried tofu which was seriously yummy. Rolf had a prawn and crab bisque. I had the land and sea main - a perfectly blue piece of fillet steak with a small lobster tail. Rolf managed to wangled no steak and two lobster tails. We both tried the Grand Marnier souffle and came to the conclusion that Princess souffles are no longer worth ordering. The smaller ramekens mean the souffle doesn't rise properly. The best part was the Grand Marnier sauce! Tonight's show was Bravo, one of my favourites. We haven't seen it for years as it has been replaced by Encore on most ships. It was the best show I've ever seen on Princess. The lead Princess singers have strong voices which complement each other and the guest soprano, who was from Sydney, had a glorious voice. There was some wonderful dancing as well. One of the bands was doing ABBA songs in the Atrium so we stopped in Crooners to listen and have a cognac before heading back to our cabin.

Mon 6th Nov - Busan, South Korea I woke up feeling tired unfortunately. Not a good start to a full day of touring. I perked up a bit after breakfast and a strong cup of tea. Of course we had to go through South Korea immigration but it was quick so the lines flowed smoothly. Our first stop was the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (Dragon Palace Temple), about a 40 minute drive from the cruise terminal. Most Buddhist temples are in the mountains but this was by the sea. There wre 108 steps to get down to it but luckily there was also a road. It was a steep slope but easier than crowded stairs. Leading up to the stairs/road down to the temple itself was an avenue of statues. Japanese zodiac statues on one side. This is the statue for my Dragon zodiac sign. On the other side there were other various statues. Part of the temple complex. Buddha There were plenty of dragons around the complex. The way we are holding our fingers in this photo is a tradition in South Korea symbolizing hearts. To cleanse yourself of sins you bow to the baby Buddha, pour three ladles of water over him, them bow again. Statue by the sea. A lovely area with what I think were various memorials. Our next stop was lunch at the Blue Kitchen at Marina. It was on the 4th floor of the building. There were separate dining rooms for each tour group and a huge buffet area with multiple cuisines. We mostly had Korean dishes. The food was excellent. During lunch we noticed one of the dining rooms had a Regent sign on it. Explorer, the ship we are going on later this week, had arrived at the cruise terminal after we left on our excursion. We then went for a walk around Dongbaek (Camellia) Island, where the APEC conference was held in 2005. Up until then the island had been closed to the public for defence reasons. It now has a lovely, fairly flat path around it with plenty of seats if you want a rest. At the outermost point of the island there is a small lighthouse and great views of the bays either side. One has a lovely beach which is very popular with locals and tourists. And there are some very large apartment buildings on both sides. This area, Marine City, is the most popular and most expensive residential area in Busan. To my amusement our group, number 5, ended up walking alongside the Regent group number 5 around the island. The guides appeared to be good friends. Our guide, Sunny, is on the left. She was one of the best tour guides we've ever had. We travelled back to the port area where we first went to a park where there was duty free store which had yummy dried mandarin slices dipped in either white chocolate, dark chocolate or yogurt. Much to my surprise I liked the while chocolate ones best - the dark chocolate, which I normally preferred, overpowered the mandarin flavour a bit too much. There was also another elegant dragon statue. Next we visited the fish market which is quite different to the one we saw in Kanazawa. There were some very big crabs. Some very large flat fish, possibly flounder - these weren't the biggest we saw. I'm not sure what these are. Clams? Plus eels, baby octopus, and lots of other fish and shellfish. Then we crossed the road to another big general market area with lots of small alleys full of shops selling all sorts of things. However they weren't things we wanted to buy, and we were feeling very tired by then, so we wandered off and had a coffee then joined our tour group again. Luckily this was our last stop and it was a quick trip back to the cruise terminal where we got a close look at Regent Seven Seas Explorer. She looked quite small compared with Diamond Princess even though Diamond isn't considered a very large ship these days. We had our pre dinner cocktail in Crooners again, with a different pianist this time. He was excellent. We both started with the seafood vol-au-vent for dinner. The pastry was a bit too dry but the filling was delicious. I had lamb cutlets for dinner and they had proper British mint sauce. 😊 Rolf chose seafood orecchiette. I had the Princess Love Boat Dream dessert. It wasn't as good as ones I'd had on Coral Princess last year. Rolf had a huge banana split but he said it was mostly ice cream and cream. We ended up chatting to our waiters after our meal so didn't go for an after dinner drink. We were getting very tired after our full day out.

I've finished another day so it will be up shortly.

I just realised I had one ready to post, and time to post it - working out and inserting the photos takes a while to do after I've finished writing the text.

Sun 5th Nov - Sakaiminato Another early start but at least I'd slept well again. We had to have a very quick breakfast as our tour meeting time was 8am, the earliest of all our tours. There was a passport check as we left the terminal but it was very quick. Our first stop was Tottori Flower Park. This was about 40 minutes drive from the cruise terminal so we got to see some of the countryside and smaller villages along the way. Lots of rice paddies, of course, plus other vegetable cultivation. We also saw a few fields with fairly large solar arrays. The flower park was very pretty. There were paths winding through the hills and valleys all through the park but they have created an above ground circle track, about 1km in length. This was covered from above and had a nice springy wooden floor which my feet really appreciated. We got great views from this walkway. The mountain in the background of this photo is Mt Daisen. At one point there was a hill covered with a blaze of red salvia. It looked stunning. The area covered was too big to fit in one photo though. At another point there was a waterfall coming down over one side of the walkway. That made for interesting photos. And at another point we cut through the hillside in a tunnel. The sides of the tunnel have been left in the raw excavation state revealing some interesting fossils embedded in the sedimentary rock. As we came down from the circle walk we passed some lovely lilies which are a speciality of the park. There was a big dome in the centre of the park, allowing tropical species to be grown so we headed there once we'd done the full circle. I guess Christmas is getting close as we passed a display of holly bushes. The dome had some beautiful orchids, some in a display at the entrance, others tucked in a wall. Nashi pears are a speciality of the region and there was a soft serve ice cream stand selling a pear flavour. I usually don't like soft serve but this was more like a gelato with a beautiful fresh pear flavour. After leaving the flower park I was able to snap a picture of the lovely river running alongside the road. They use a slightly different method to stop bits of rock falling off the hillside. It looked quite picturesque. Our next stop was at the Castle of Sweets. The owner liked castles so much he built his sweet store in the shape of a castle. The ground floor is the shop, with lots of things to taste. Many used a chestnut paste as a filling. There were also very tasty rice crackers which were bigger and had a different texture than Australian ones, and a yummy clam soup concentrate. The next floor was a restaurant, and at the top there was a viewing gallery. On one side of the castle there was another building with the factory where the sweets were made and there were big windows through to the shop. At the entrance to the castle there was a lovely waterfall and koi pond. Kitaro Road has 100 small bronze statues of characters created by local cartoonist Shigeru Mizuki. Buses ate allowed to drive through a short section of this street but not stop. We spotted a few of the statues. When the bus turned around at Sakaiminato Station we saw a big poster showing all of the characters in Mizuki's cartoons. On the way to and from this area we passed lots of docked fishing boats including squid fishing boats with many lights to attract the squid. Back at the cruise terminal we had to do a departure passport check as we are going to South Korea tomorrow. It was fairly quick but once we had done this we could not go back off the ship. We were farewelled by a Japanese band of drummers, flautists and singers. We went to Crooners for our pre-dinner cocktail where our favourite crooner was entertaining. Tonight's dinner was the Chef's Dinner with a French influence. We both ordered the same things: a seafood bisque appetiser, then duck in orange sauce. The leg meat of the duck was lovely but the duck breast had a much denser texture than I'm used too. It wasn't all that nice. We finished with floating islands - poached meringue "islands" in a creme anglaise, drizzled with caramel sauce and scattered with toasted almonds. Very yummy. After dinner we had a quick cognac in Crooners before retiring. Tomorrow was going to be a full day.

Hi everyone, sorry I've been absent fot the last few days, it's been hectic! Plus we only get one internet connection PER CABIN so have to share. But I'm making lots of notes so will get around to posting more of our adventures eventually albeit later than I'd hoped for a Live(ish). We're at Kochi at the moment but cancelled our excursion here as I woke up with a stinking headache. Luckily it wasn't a migraine though. My sinuses have been clogging up for the past couple of days too.

Nearly AU $24. Currently 96.89 Yen to the dollar.

Unfortunately there wasn't as much autumn colour as I'd been hoping for. It's been unseasonably warm in Japan over the last few weeks.

Sat 4th Nov - Kanazawa Another early start but another good night's sleep for me so I'm good to go. I took a peek out on the balcony first thing and was greeted by a lovely early morning sky as we made our way to the wharf. We managed to find a table for breakfast and fortified ourselves for the slightly longer half day excursion ahead. I decided to try using my smaller cross-body bag for my wallet, passport and phone, and put all my other stuff in a lightweight backpack. That also allowed me to take my lightweight extendable walking stick which helps me balance on uneven ground. I could have done with it yesterday but forgot to take it. Again there were four buses. They switched the itinerary around for our bus. Not that it really mattered as being a Saturday of a holiday weekend everywhere we went was crowded with locals. Our first stop was the Omicho Market. It's huge - we only saw a small corner of it. Although it's primarily a fish market as well as the seafood shops there were also fruit and vegetable shops, meat shops that we didn't get to see, general produce shops, flower shops, even a clothing store. Plus restaurants and snack shops. The seafood was the freshest I've ever seen. Squid Salmon Prawns More fish Sashimi Fruit and vegetables Flowers Our next stop was Kanazawa Castle Park. The original castle buildings had been destroyed by fire but the entrance and a couple of the buildings have been restored using traditional building methods. The whole park was quite extensive. The top of the hill, which once had many of the castle buildings on it, is now forest. We only had to cross the road to get to Kenrokuen Gardens, ranked as one of the top three gardens in Japan. We'd been there before but in late spring so it was interesting to see it in autumn even without the foliage at it's best. I managed to snap a shot of the Kotojitori Lantern and Nijibashi (Rainbow) Bridge in between people posing on it. During our rambles through the gardens I did get a few autumn foliage photos. This fountain operates from the force of gravity - it's below the level of the lake and the water has enough pressure to produce a decent-sized waterfall. Before heading down to the bus we shared a snack of grilled miso-coated dumplings. Just as well as our tour ended up running very late so we didn't get back to the ship until 2pm. The Horizon Court was chocka, we ended up having to get a table right at the back. After lunch we had a well-needed rest. Again we went to the Wheelhouse Bar for our pre-dinner cocktail. There was a different entertainer this time and it wasn't quite our style of music. It was Italian night in the MDR. We both had the melon and proscuitto, followed by veal scallopine in marsala sauce. I think they just waved the marsala bottle over the gravy as it was very bland. We finished with the fanciest tiramisu I've ever seen, encased in chocolate squares, very elegant. It was a very good tiramisu too. During dinner the Captain came through our MDR chatting to everyone dining there. I've never seen that before! After dinner we had a quick Baileys in the Wheelhouse Bar before going to the show. Just as we were leaving for the theatre a jazz quartet started playing with the pianist from last night in the quartet. We lingered for a song. Luckily the theatre wasn't very full. We went to the show "Born to be Wild" tonight. This was the first Princess Theatre show since the new Premier perk of reserved seats came into play. They put blue covers on a couple of rows of seats - too far forward for us luckily. They released unused seats five minutes before the show started. In fact there were very few people seated in those rows. "Born to be Wild" is the show starring the pink Cadillac. We'd seen this show some years ago but the big screen technology which provided the background "set" was much more advanced. It showed some spectacular Route 66 scenery among other things. It was a very high energy show, mostly American rock but they snuck in one Beatles number as well. When we left the theatre there were big queues waiting for the forward lifts so we went to cut through the Wheelhouse Bar. Big mistake! The jazz quartet were still playing so we enjoyed another Baileys while we listened to the rest of their set. Oh dear, it's late and we have an even earlier start in the morning. Oops!

We've got the Black and White and the Roaring 20s gala night on our QE cruise next year. Notice of these coincided with a serious online sale of my favourite evening kaftan brand so I treated mysrlf to a black and white kaftan. Now all I have to do is find or make a headband. Amazon seem to have some nice ones.

I'll see you onboard. We're doing that cruise Brisbane to Sydney.

Because it's a smaller ship we embark at the Tokyo cruise terminal. Then it's: Shimizu Kobe Kochi Sea day Okinawa Taipei Sea day Sea day Nha Trang HCMC HCMC Sea day Laem Chabang Laem Chabang disembarkation and transfer to Bangkok We stay three nights in Bangkok before flying home. The sea days are nicely spaced so we get a regular break from sightseeing but, of course, in reality that's just because of the distances between some of the ports.

Internet is only AU $27 per day if you buy single days. If you get a package it's $20 a day. All prices on Princess on Australia/NZ cruise are AUD and there are no extra gratuities.

We're currently cruising Japan on Princess. Although we've previously done some land travel in Japan, and also done a repositioning cruise from Sydney to Yokohama, this cruise visits ports on the Western side of Honshu Island, most if which we've never been to. It's really great seeing the different ports. Each one has it's specialities. However as much as I'd recommend Japan cruising I'd probably go for the longer cruise if the port stops are good. I haven't tried either cruise line so can't base a recommendation on that.

Yes, probably. When is your Diamond cruise?

They do have rice crackers there but we didn't get a chance to try them. They had really nice ones in Sakaiminato though. The Remy Martin XO is US $20 on this cruise. Plus limit is $15 so $5 extra plus gratuity. Hennessy XO is $26. Last year in Aus Remy Martin XO was originally $20 so $4 extra, then went up to $25 when the limit changed to $22 so only $3 extra.

Fri 3rd Nov - Sakata Yay! I finally slept well! Armed with my secret supply of teabags we headed up to the buffet for breakfast. The challenge this morning was finding a table. We found one eventually, thank goodness. We did another half day excursion. This time there were four buses doing the same excursion but I think they switched the itinerary around on a couple of them as we never felt crowded at any of the stops. This one started by a visit to an historic rice warehouse complex. They've preserved the whole row of warehouses but only two are in use - one is a museum, the other is a shop. First we walked down a long path between the back of the warehouses and a row of old Japanese selkova trees which were put there to shelter the warehouses from the strong winds that Sakata gets regularly. At the end of the path there was a small Shinto shrine. The museum was in the end warehouse (the shop was at the other end). It was very interesting, showing how the rice arrived at the warehouse where it was inspected for quality. There were also a couple of displays showing a farmhouse, with one area for husking and preparing the rice, and the other are for family living. There were samples of different types of rice grains showing the raw form and the polished result. There were so many types of rice but at least I recognised one of the ones in this set of four. You need to zoom in on the photo to read the names. It was not a type of rice I'd typically associate with Japan or anywhere else in Asia. Bales of rice were often carried by women. They could carry up to 300kgs at once. Our next stop was the Homma Museum of Art where we enjoyed going through the beautiful Kakabuen Garden (Garden of the Dancing Crane) but, again, the weather has been too warm for us to see it in its best autumn foliage. Then we went through the Seienkaku pavilion which overlooked the garden from most of the rooms. The rooms were very traditional with tatami mat floors and beautiful wood ceilings. One of the rooms had a beautiful Japanese painting of cranes and the local mountain, which was mostly hidden in haze while we were there. Our final stop was at the Ken Domon Museum of Photography. Ken Domon donated all his works to his hometown of Sakata. There were some stunning photographs covering much of 20th century Japan. Some were heartbreaking, especially those of Hiroshima. From there we returned to the ship and headed up to the Horizon Court for lunch. It was a very warm day, not a day for soups. I would have loved some chilled soba noodles but Princess didn't have them on offer. Squeezy bus seats and a slightly too heavy crossbody bag are playing havoc with my back so I had a rest after lunch. As the ship departed we were entertained by a local folk dance group. Here they are just about to begin their dance. We went to the Wheelhouse Bar for our predinner cocktail. There was a very good pianist playing. We had a real mix of cuisines for dinner. We both had the beef tataki, although it was more like carpaccio - tataki is usually cut a little thicker - but it was really nice. Then we had gazpacho which, unfortunately, had a little bit of fresh coriander in it (not traditional in the recipes I have) but luckily it wasn't enough to affect me (I have a dietary intolerance to fresh coriander and Vietnamese mint). I had turkey for my main and Rolf had crab cakes. We finished with a pecan butterscotch tart accompanied by a Tokay. We dropped into Crooners for a cognac after dinner. There was a great pianist/vocalist playing. He was perfect for Crooners.

Thu 2nd Nov - Aomori We had an early start today and I still hadn't had a decent night's sleep. So I was a tad grumpy when we headed up to the Horizon Court for breakfast. I was even grumpier when I discovered they'd run out of Twinings English Breakfast teabags so I had to have Lipton instead which is not a tea I particularly like. We'd chosen to do a half day Highlights of Aomori tour so after breakfast we headed off to the Princess Theatre to join our tour group. Rolf discovered that the tour stickers don't stick well on wool so lost his before we'd even sat down. He had to get another which stayed on OK on his tshirt. I'd put mine on my polo shirt collar where it stayed OK. There were two bus loads doing this tour but we didn't feel over-crowded at either of the stops. The first place we visited was the Nebuta Museum WA-RASSE. Every year Aomori has a Nebuta Festival. Huge Nebuta floats are created by Nebuta Masters. The frames are made from wood and wire, lights are added, then it is covered with fine quality washi paper and painted. The scenes are often of demons or gods. They are paraded through the streets, and are accompanied by musicians, and Haneto Dancers which is a style of dance involving a lot of jumping. We saw a short video of this year's festival and it looked very exciting and happy. The best floats are taken to the museum to be put on display until next year. These are some of them: This shows how they are constructed. New floats are made every year. The old ones are burnt. As we walked back to our bus we got a great view of Diamond Princess framed between a low bridge and a huge overpass bridge. We had a pleasant drive through the town to the hills on the outskirts. Aomori gets some heavy snowfalls during winter and our guide told us how some of the houses had special roofs with channels down the middle for the melted snow to run off. I didn't spot any of these though but did spot some steeply pitched roofs. Some houses have heated pads in front to make snow removal easier. Our second stop was at the Buddhist Seiryu-ji Temple, a complex of several structures nestled into the hillside including a five story pagoda and a huge Buddha bronze statue which is the tallest seated Buddha statue in Japan. This vermillion hall is Kobo-Daishi-do, a shrine. The five story pagoda with a part of the Bouki-tei rock garden in front of it. The Buddha statue. We spent about an hour at the temple, enjoying the tranquility of the location as we walked up the hill to the Buddha statue. Although there wasn't a lot of autumn colour around we did see some nice examples of it. Back at the ship, we dropped our jackets and backpack in our cabin and headed up to the Horizon Court for lunch. This is one of the most interesting Princess buffets I've ever seen with plenty of Japanese choices as well as the usual dishes from other cuisines. Also I have acquired a secret supply of Twinings English Breakfast teabags so I was able to enjoy a decent cup of tea with my lunch. The fresh air and disturbed nights caught up with me so we headed back to the cabin for a rest. It was too cold to sit on the balcony though. I tried to have a nap but didn't succeed. I'm rarely able to sleep during the day unfortunately. We went up to Skywalkers for our pre-dinner cocktail. Today there was three types of sushi on offer. I tried two of them and they were really good. Things were very quiet in our section of the MDR when we arrived. Our table was set with red wine Riedel glasses and after reminding Ana Joy that we still had some gruner veltliner left the white wine Riedel glasses were produced. We are very happy wine drinkers ... as long as we buy bottled wines! We needed a red to match some of our dinner choices so ordered a light Cote de Nuits pinot noir. I had tofu for my appetiser. It was in a light broth with lots of bonito flakes so the pinot noir worked well with it. I switched back to the white wine with my main, a clam and prawn stew with fennel and tomato. Rolf had hot smoked salmon with potato salad followed by stroganoff on noodles, so just had the pinot noir. After a while some more couples joined our section. We had a lovely younger UK couple sitting next to us who were well travelled but they usually prefer a much more active style of travelling like cycling through Vietnam. We're too old for that now but it sounded fascinating. We ended up chatting far too late so went straight back to our cabin afterwards. We're being very boring on this cruise so far 🤣.

So pleased you had a great trip.

There are only two sea days on this cruise - the first day which was lovely and warm, and the last day where we'll have the packing chore to do.