drron29

We do have a wer d sense of humour in Autralia. This is a numberplate from the State of Western Australia which slipped through the regulators. Now look at it the Australian way - upside down.

Thanks so much @Port Power for that it does mean one less worry. I did finally finish the Indonesian Evisa on line today but it was hard. At first wouldn’t accept the upload of my passport. Turns out because of a tiny shadow on the picture I took. But then the original upload of your passport needed to be a Jpg image but the second time they as for it it needed to be a PDF image. Basically took me all afternoon. On our last cruise we transited Bali and the ship did the evisa’s for $US 30 where today online I paid $A52. So much easier to get the ship to do it and slightly cheaper.

i was wondering if I could ask you a quick question @Port Power. When you arrived in Japan did the ship arrange your visa. I have been doing all the paper work for our cruise from Bali this coming Friday. I went to do the Japan Evisa online but it only gives you the option of air arrival. So I emailed their department and they say that arriving by ship is a paper based visa and the crew would hand them out 2 or 3 days before arrival. So did that happen or was it just a case of waiting for the ship to be cleared? Nothing going right. W ent to get a new annual multi trip travel policy and it won't let me proceed past the putting of our ages in. It isn't a case of not insuring the elderly. We have gone through them for the last 3 years and they say they will ensure you until age 100. might have to do it by phone. At the moment just taking a break from the Indonesia evisa process. What a clunky system! Ps just finished this when an automatic update announced itsel. They normally do that at night.

And Barbara Muckermann as well is no longer CEO of SS but President. https://www.royalcaribbeangroup.com/bio/barbara-muckermann/ And by the way today she sent me an email with the warmest personal regards inviting us to cruise with her on the Nova voyage from Tokyo to Singapore in October this year for the Venetian Reunion cruise. Not interested.

Of course we then headed to the food hall of Hankyu. Making red bean buns. Fruit is always expensive in the Department stores though usually excellent quality. Would you may $A22 ( $US15 ) for 1 apple? The prices for some of the strawberries were really eye watering. The other thing I am always staggered by is the price for meat. The price for this meat is for 100Gm. So $A2700 9 $US1800 0 per KG ( 2.2 lbs ). Wonderful name on these bottles.

Then we went to the Hankyu Department store. this was way busier so they had an In door and an Exit door. both doors were policed. A huge craft and pottery floor. Mrsdrron took a fancy to this plate. But at ~ $1000 I became a grinch It is interesting the characters popular in Japan. they do have quite a few Snoopy shops. On the same floor they had their version of a Christmas market which was extremely popular.

And you get a very much better Singapore Sling at any other Raffles Bar than the Long Bar. Strictly Tourists only.

Breakfast in the restaurant at the Hilton was a complete zoo. i remembered why I fell out of love with them. fortunately they always opened 2 other restaurants for the overflow an once their fine dining restaurant as well and we scored a seat there. The other problem was the queue to get in. the quickest time to get to the head of the queue was 25 minutes. We thought we would have real problems being a party of 7 but that meant we were always seated in one of the overflow restaurants. After breakfast we went to a couple of department stores. There are 3 in Osaka station. First we went to the Hanshin department store. From the station you enter their food hall. We think these are very interesting places. Our first stop was at the alcohol section. An amazing array of Rose wines. Rojaan fell in love with this wine. I was interested in how a Dornfelder rose would taste as I really liked the White Rock Dornfelder from Tasmania. So we bought a bottle. I hoped it was worth it as we had to queue for 30 minutes to buy it. So don't let people think the Japanese are not into wine as most were buying champagne. I am happy to say it was a really nice wine. And very reasonable price Now just a bit about prices. We were getting nearly 100 yen for our $A. so you just put a decimal point in front of the last 2 numbers. To get the price in $US you take a third off the $A price. so that bottle was a little over $A17.50 so around $US12. Next were their versions of Christmas cakes. And there were lots of them. And who would think you could make sweet potato into a Christmas dish by itself. these are all sweet potato. We often buy lunch or dinner in a Department store food hall and take it back to our hotel. Attractively packaged. The place was very busy. this was about a third of the line at one cake counter.

The judge addressed the drunk. "You have been brought here for drinking." The drunk said, "Thank you very much, your Honour. Let's start." Everyone in the court started laughing. Banging the gavel, the judge said, "Order!" The drunk said, "Whiskey and soda for me."

They certainly should be planning for the transits towards the end of this year as other cruise lines such as Virgin has done. They could then sell the west African cruises and have definite plans for the Indian Ocean,ME, Asia and Oceania.

Yes she is.

You now are officially on my list of those who make me jealous. I have for many years wanted to see orcas in the wild but everywhere I go am told they were here yesterday or you get a report that they turned up the next day. The worst was taking an Orca spotting cruise from Vancouver Island. i was told as we boarded it was a certainty that day as a pod of 30 was headed our way from the South. Get out into clear water and our driver says the orcas are headed our way and will continue to head north but there are several humpbacks just north of here so who votes for seeing the humpbacks and who wants us to head south. I was outvoted. Naturally the orcas turned south east and we never saw them.

finally one up on you JP. I have actually used a loofah in a shower and in a bath!😁

So today was moving day to Osaka. We were to catch the 1320 shuttle to Kyoto Station. As there were 7 of us we got there early and just as well. All the extra seats in the aisle of the bus were in use and quite a few missed out. We caught a semi rapid train from Kyoto to Osaka station. Crowded. One younger woman gave Mrsdrron a seat but I stood until Shin Osaka. not very comfortable. Not far from the Station to the Hilton. We had an executive room and the family standard rooms. I had booked interconnecting rooms for the family but at checkin said non available as they couldn't find a request. I did have the original email which clearly said interconnecting rooms booked. So they ended up on a high floor with rooms side by side. However I made a travel mistake as the senior rate I booked didn't come with breakfast. We of course got it but elected to eat in the restaurant for a family breakfast. So to our room. typical Japanese touches especially in the bathroom with the shower beside the bath. Lots of construction but no noise. Wasn't sure about the welcome amenity. We then went for a walk around the hotel. A model train set in the lobby for Christmas. Off the lobby there was a baccarat display. then back to the lobby.

Trying to make 2 bookings earlier today and told the SS email system is down.

I have heard the decision has been made. But how long will it take the passengers to be told.

Even worse not so long ago a guest wandered in to Kaiseki at about 7.30 pm in shorts and asked for a table for 8 people. The Matre'd said no. About 10 minutes later the restaurant manager came in and blasted the Maitre'D and said they are coming in half an hour to be seated. I immediately complained to the HD director and from the following day the dress code was enforced.

Almost certainly not. The Silversea Expert committee of travel agents is meeting on the Muse today. Hopefully our agent relates our experiences with similiar SS shenanigans though nothing as ludicrous as this with the Nova.

That's great going to Uluru. It will be hotter at 35C ( 95F) but only a very slight chance of rain. However it is a dry heat with humidity in the low 20% range so should feel better than Darwin at 88F but humidity of nearly 100%.

For the cat lovers. A little unusual art.

Unfortunately very likely to be raining in Darwin when you are there with temperature 31-32C (88-90F ).