Korea China
March 30
Today we took a detour from our Japan visit and headed over to Busan,
South Korea, the second largest city in the country at 3.2 million, almost all
living in high-rise apartment buildings.
South Korea is on a peninsula, shared with North Korea, however, because north and south are a war, with a fragile peace fire, South Korea considers itself an island and can only fly out to other countries.
The sail-in was spectacular. A
modern city and well laid out. Arrival
was 11am so we attended art class first, then we had a noon excursion that
planned to cover a lot of ground.
Our guide told us we needed to enter the freeway using a
cloverleaf. We are used to this in the
US but nothing like the one we used, way up in the air.
We arrived at the APEC building.
This was built especially for the APEC meeting of world heads in 2005
but sadly has not be used for this purpose since. APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation. APEC membership includes
Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong
Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New
Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Philippines; the Russian Federation;
Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States of America, and Vietnam.
The next stop was a very nice buffet restaurant serving local and
international food.
The third stop was yet another temple “Haedong Yonggungsa Temple”
The last two stops were the fish market, and
the International Market. By now it was Saturday evening and the place was heaving. What an atmosphere.
We did not get back to the ship until 7:30pm and the ship cast off as
soon as we had boarded.
The people in South Korea are quiet different than Japan. They are quite pushy and don’t seem to have
concern over others; a stark contrast to the Japanese polite and reserved.
March 31
Easter Sunday started with Merry attending an Easter service at 7am. This was led by an episcopal priest and a roman catholic priest, both retired. Excursions started at 8:15. We have now returned to Japan to visit Nagasaki, the second city to receive the Atom bomb.
Again, we visited the Atomic Museum. Thankfully this museum was quiet and not crowded allowing time to see and understand all the exhibits.
This clock stopped at
the time of detonation.
The museum was
followed by a visit to the Peace Park. A very general rain came over as
we absorbed the message. This seemed
fitting for the solemn visit. Nagasaki was bombed three days after
Hiroshima. The Japanese are not angry or resentful. What they do
want is for the world to remember what happened here and it be the LAST Atomic bomb
to ever be used in the world.
This statue reminds
us of the blast from above, peace from the left hand, and meditation in the leg,
which is the Budas and the left leg symbolizing strength,
These are the
foundations of the building directly below the blast.
The survivors begged for water, only to be killed by the radiation in the water. This fountain preserves that memory.
Our guide told of a
poor man who was visiting Hiroshima on business and was badly injured by the
bomb. He immediately returned home to Nagasaki only to be badly injured
by the second bomb. He lived in pain into his 90’s.
Finally, the Cherry Blossoms
are out!!
We had the afternoon
back at the ship to reflect on our experiences and watch the movie Oppenheimer
on our room TV.
A submarine sent us a
toot as it passed by.
The school band sent
us off with a wonderful tribute to our visit.
Very touching.
April 1
Today was our last day in Japan having visited Seven ports.
Today’s visit was Fukuoka ( foo-koo-oaka)
We had a short panoramic excursion in the morning, introducing the city
at the southern part of Japan. Being far from Tokyo, it is a much more
laid back, cosmopolitan, modern city and more economical to live in. At
1.5 million, they call it a small city and there is much to like.
The Cherry Blossoms are
finally looking spectacular!!
And the Tulips.
Our only stop was the Fukuoka Tower. Total height of 750 ft, we visited the observation level at 400 ft, giving us a great view of the city.
We had a relaxed lunch back it the ship then headed back out, taking the
shuttle bus back to the city center to explore on our own. We found a
very large department shop, eight stories high, with a connecting bridge to the
department store over the other side of the street. Everything was
name-brand and very expensive. We saved a lot of money by buying
nothing.
We got one of the last shuttles back to the shop before the sale away,
time to register out with passport control and say さようならSayōnara.
We really enjoyed Japan and hope to back again someday. 
April 2
At last, we have a sea day having visited seven ports in seven
days. Don’t feel sorry for us, we are
having a fabulous time.
There have been some minor itinerary changes – one changed port, one
eliminated port and some arrival time changes [which changes booked
excursions], so we spent some time at destination services, making revisions.
Our next country is China and this requires some planning. The Chinese government requires it hard to
get a visa if traveling alone in China. No
visa is needed if taking approved ship excursions. Merry has an old visa in an old passport
which is still valid [we think] but we do not, so we will stick to approved
excursions. About 65 passengers will not be allowed to leave
the ship in China for lack of visa or approved excursion. The rules are quite fluid so we will see how
it plays out.
From my experience in the past, China blocks internet access, so it is
unknown how this will affect us. We did
have a time change last night. One hour
back so an extra hours sleep. This
brings us in line with the China time zone.
April 3
We started up the mouth of the Yangtze River, the window to China, and
after two hours we tied up in the city center of Shanghai at 10am.
The view from our stateroom was stunning.
It took over an hour to get clearance to start processing the
passengers through passport control.
When it was our turn we stood in a long zig-zag line for 45 minutes and
finally we got the magic stamp that allowed us to go ashore. A two-week temporary visa.
We took the city shuttle bus to the far end of the Bund, which is
basically the promenade. Older Shanghai, Victorian buildings on
one side of the river, and New Shanghai, created only 38 years ago has outrageously
tall and exotic buildings on the other side, many disappearing into the clouds.
Shanghai only has two hundred years of history as compared to China
has over 2,500 years of history.
We walked the full length of the bund and ended up back at the ship for
a well-earned rest. We had done this walk back in 2016 (Caroline
remembers it) and it all seemed pretty much the same. We had an early dinner in our stateroom as our
excursion started at 6:30 pm.
As the daylight faded, the downtown buildings started to come alive with
lights. Such extravagance. Our tour was
a night tour of the city, focusing on these wonderful dancing lights.
We stopped at the Jin Mao Tower and ascended
to the 88th floor 1,115 ft high. Then went on to the French Quarter and People Square, which is the City Center. Our
guide told us some basic facts about communism.
Children starting at age seven are flooded with information about communism. How it is the only way to a successful
career. However, as a communist, one
gives up a lot of rights. They are not
allowed to leave the country and must follow all the party's strict rules. We heard about the one-child rule which was
in effect for several generations. Now
the country has a large aging population with not enough working-age citizens. The
one-child policy has been lifted, but young couples no longer want more than one
child, if any at all.
April 4
This morning the sky was clear and the tops
of the buildings were clearer. Today is
a national holiday so the streets were very quiet in the morning but became crowded
later in the day. We had an early tour
starting at 8am for eight hours. We visited:
Yuyuan Old Town. The original settlement buildings have
been well preserved.
Shanghai Museum
Family-style lunch at the Shanghai Grand
Theater, 8th-floor dining room. Lunch
was a selection of several different items:
including chicken in fried steak-like portions that were very good, rice
of course, noodles with sauce, chicken in a very good batter with green onions
in about half-inch pieces, and an assortment of fried but not to our taste
Not liked by our Western tastebuds. They served bananas very small and one found
its way into Rod’s bag and appeared today in a banana shake for my (Merry
speaking) lunch – I believe I forgot to tell you that on bad experiences
I remembered to bring a glass.
The bus took us down Nanjing Road, the biggest shopping street to yet another [Jade Buddha] Temple.
Ending in the center of New Shanghai in the
shadow of the skyscrapers, and a walked along the promenade on the new
side.
We made it “home” 4 at pm and relaxed before
dinner. After dinner, we went on the top
deck to take a last look at the city lights.
April 5
Today we left Shanghai is 11:30 am so we took
a walk around the lovely park area all around the cruise terminal and continued along much of the riverside. We pushed off right on time and made the two-hour journey to the mouth of the Yangtze River mouth and out into the Yellow Sea.
We spent the rest of the day absorbing the
wonderful trip to Shanghai and preparing for our next visit to Hong Kong, Great Britain owned this city, under a 99-year lease, ending in 1997, so it is a city of great interest to me. It is now owned by China with all that
is involved.
April 6
Today is a full sea day with the usual sea day activities like lectures, art classes, trivia, string quartet, piano bar, and of
course the big show in the evening. The ship's route nervously passed between Taiwan and China in the Taiwan Strait,
thankfully with no sign of problems.
Tokyo was the most northerly point of our
cruise and while the weather was mild, and had occasional rain, we look forward
to warmer weather.
April 7
China has a total population of 1.4 billion while little Hong Kong
has a population of 9 million in a very small area. The city is where Eastern and Western
civilizations meet. It is very Western,
International, and cosmopolitan. Hong
Kong was owned by Great Britain under a 99-year lease which expired in 1998 and
is now part of China but it retains much of its own identity and is not
communist. It has its own passport and
China residents need a visa to visit Hong Kong, and visa-versa. They drive on the left and have their own
currency the Hong Kong Dollar which has a slightly different exchange rate to
the China Dollar.
We took a night tour sky starting at 6.40pm of this vertical city. The tallest building
is the ICC tower but we were taken to the Sky 100 tower, 1,289 ft above the
street level.
The city is accented with shiny new skyscrapers, but as we drove
through the streets, many older 10-plus-story apartment buildings are over 60 years old, no elevators, and in poor condition, typically 300-350 sq
ft units for the many low-income families.
Our second stop was a crowded night market. The pictures tell the story.
April 8
Today is the end of the segment and we look
forward to a new group of guests joining the ship. This is a busy day for the crew and that
means fewer activities. Our destination
is Singapore with many stops in Vietnam and Thailand on the way.
In the morning, we had some time to spare so we took a walk on the Sky garden on top of the cruise terminal. This terminal is built on the old airport runway which became outdated and dangerous due to the mountains and tall buildings. In the afternoon, our tour was of the city. Our ship is moored in an area called Kowloon which is the main city center. Laid out by the British, it is not laid out in a grid system and navigation looks very hectic. We traveled through the city center and used a tunnel to visit Hong Kong Island which is the location of the original settlers, and now is the financial district. The original antique double decker trans still run and are a local favorite.
The low-income residents tend to buy food daily and the streets are filled with local food markets. We visited a dry market, filled with dried foods and herbal medicine. We also visited the fruit market and meat market.
We stopped at a pastry shop and were provided an egg custard tart [which reminded me of how my mother made them in England], and local tea in a very crowded cafe.
We traveled back to the ship and relaxed before dinner. At 9 pm, the ship slipped away from her berth and quietly and without ceremony, cruised out of the large natural harbor passing the endless rows of skyscrapers all twinkling with lights.
No elaborate light displays like in Shanghai, but the sheer number of buildings overwhelms the senses. We enjoyed every minute of our time. Hong Kong is like New York City on steroids, all compressed into a very small space containing nine million people. We will treasure our time in Hong Kong.
This concludes this portion of the blog. Please save the blog address and refresh it
each week or so to reveal our latest adventures.
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