March 31, 2005
The Sleep Monster
I meant to post sooner, but, left undisturbed for the day, I blissfully slept until 3 pm. Which, I have to say, is a little unnerving, being as I wasn't fully awake until 4:00, and dinner was at 6:00, with bedtime looming soon. But, after some 30 hours of straight travel, I think I can be excused. My day started in Bangkok at around 8 am, I was in Hong Kong by noon (HK time) and after running past the temperature sensors which showed my body in pretty rainbow colors on big monitors (to ensure I wasn't running a fever as I passed through Hong Kong) I jumped straight on the next plane for my 12 hour flight to LA.
I had a really lovely experience with customs, where they helped me with my luggage and smiled at me and didn't make me pay duty on the beautiful new laptop I bought in Singapore, and then I had 6 grueling hours to spend cooling my heels in the LA airport (and they are NOT designed for long stays). Then a 2 hour flight to Seattle, followed by a 1 hour wait in Seattle, followed by a broken plane, which meant turning the plane around and changing planes again, until finally I arrived in Eugene at just before 1 am , somewhat sleepy. I only slept until 11 the next day, and put in a moderately productive day (ie I read a couple magazines and watched some tv and ate birthday cake and opened my presents) but today, no-one was home to wake me, and I slept undisturbed from 5am (when jet lag finally let go its ugly claws) until 3. So I guess my taxes will have to wait another day.
March 28, 2005
Bangkok
First things first - so far I've not been affected by the earthquake in Indonesia, except that my hotel room swayed around a bit. Thanks to all my time at sea, I didn't even register that my room probably shouldn't be moving at first, and by the time I did, it had mostly stopped. So here are some pictures from my day in Bangkok. We took a taxi to the river, (where we saw the cute little dog), took the local river bus up the river (for 10 baht - about 25 cents), had a nice lunch somewhere, then took a tuk tuk (pictured below) on a wild ride (made wilder when our tuk tuk driver engaged in a little drag racing through traffic with one of his friends) to the Siam Center, where we took the Sky Train one stop the the Government Handicraft Center. It was a fantastic day. Now I just have to face the 17 hour flight home.
March 27, 2005
Asia Unlimited
Wow, so much to write about and no time. Really, how can I fit Vietnam and Thailand all in one post? Well, Vietnam was amazing. I must say I've never thought of it as a tourist destination as such, but it was a fascinating day, beginning with a 2 hour bus ride through the countryside to Ho Chi Minh city. It was full of rice paddies, water buffalo, and little old ladies on bikes... It was one of the few places that really looked like I'd imagined it might. Louie accompanied me, and we had lunch in the local market (really, really yummy soup) though my friends looked a little skeptical. The women who ran the stall brought out a young girl (about 10) to translate, and she was much charmed by Louie. Then the shopping fest began. Imagine shopping in a place where you think about what price something should be, and they quote you something less than a quarter of that. I bought things I didn't even want. We stopped at a place selling dried fruits and sampled everything from chili coated tamarind to sweetend dried beef. Any time you stop longer than 30 seconds at a stall a stool is brought out so you can sit and shop in comfort. I felt a little guilty when I compared notes with other people who'd gone to museums and temples, but really, what could be a more cultural experience than shopping in the local market?
March 22, 2005
Singapore
Had a really amazing day in Singapore, which began with a Chinese dragon dancing outside the ship, and then ran ashore with friends for lunch. We went to a place that I was convinced was called "Mutant Circus" for lunch, but I think was actually called "Newton's Circle" or something in between the two. Anyway, it's booth after booth of fresh local seafood cooked up on the spot, really dodgy looking and fantastically tasty. We ate our weight in Tiger Prawns and noodles and bok choy, then went to the electronics mart where I was in hog heaven for an hour. Thank goodness most of the electronics use the wrong voltage or I would have been very poor indeed. Not that I escaped scot free, but more about that later.
March 21, 2005
Kuala Lumpur
Yay Land
After five excruciatingly long days at sea we are once again on land.
We were supposed to see land yesterday, but circumstances dictated we had to skip a port, so Kuala Lumpur was my first sight of green earth in a while. It was a fantastic day, three crew buses dropped us off right at the base of the towers (pictured here, through the magic of photomerge) which just happened to be home to a really amazing shopping mall. I was hard pressed to leave, but I knew I'd regret spending my three land hours shopping, so I went
along with my friend whose mission it was to find the Hard Rock Cafe. (I know, from one American icon to another, but at least it got me out on the mean streets of Kuala Lumpur, which turn out not to be too terribly mean - at least, not there). It was hot and humid, and actually felt like a foreign country. And then we gave into our baser instincts and returned to the air-conditioned comfort of the mall (it was a REALLY nice mall). We did stop to take pictures of the towers though. By the way, I swear I did not cut and paste the giant
prawn into the second picture.
March 14, 2005
Darwin
This has to be quick, since my friend Sarah is breathing down my neck, and wants me to help her carry 18 tons of chocolate easter eggs back to the ship for the teen center. I'll probably get arrested in Woolworth's, as they will no doubt suspect us of shoplifting, so my next post will likely be from a sweltering Australian jail.
Otherwise, we leave Australia today, after half a day in Darwin, which, at any rate , is suffering from cyclones. 4 sea days to follow. Sigh.
Here's Sarah - in a guest post
******
Hello everyone, I am Sarah, Susie's psychotic canadian friend. We have spent the past 2 days drunk with our Italian posse. Ciao and an appreciation of baaaad wine is all weve learned from them so far. Oz is great Susie is great I'm great and TIM TAM"S are FABULOUS! Cheers from Oz and remember....the bear's can smell.....Signing off now ciao from Australia and Susie's webpage!
March 10, 2005
As Close as I'm going to Get to the Great Barrier Reef
Apparently there's some immigration law that allows crew to disembark in Brisbane, but not in Cid Harbor or Cairns. Though word has just come through that if we promise to be very good and not rape and pillage, the "working seamen" can go ashore tomorrow between the hours of 11 and 4. As a result, today was a very relaxing day, involving a nice lie in (disturbed only by my cabin steward knocking every few minutes to see if maybe I had left yet), lunch with wine (since I didn't have to work today) and sun up on the decks. Even Louie joined me for a little while, after we managed to borrow a pair of swimming trunks for him.
Tim Tams
The problem with traveling the world is that you discover yummy things that you can't find anywhere else. This contract's food has been Tim Tams. I'm not sure I can really do justice to their choclately cookie goodness, but they come in lots of flavors. My current favorite is either Tia Maria or Chocolate Chili.
Anyway, not much to tell about today - another sea day, followed by two port days in which no crew is going to be allowed off the ship, so look for more exciting odes to Tim Tams. The sun is finally out, so I might go work on my tan tomorrow, which has suffered sorely in the rain.
March 08, 2005
Brisbane
Brisbane wins the prize for best breakfast. Free range eggs and yummy bacon. This contract has become the breakfast contract. I don't know what I'm going to do when we get to Asia and I'm denied my daily ritual of cooked breakfast and the hunt for coffee. But by then I'll only have four days left, and I'm sure there will be other compensations. And now that we're heading north, I can finally bring all the summer clothes I brought out of mothballs.
March 06, 2005
Sydney
I wanted to post this from my cabin, as we're parked just close enough to a hotspot that I can intermittently access the web from here, but at $12 an hour, I want better than intermittent. I FOUND my coffee today. Filter coffee may be difficult to come by here, but when it's here, they get it absolutely right. No lukewarm, see-through, golden brown water here, but good solid black coffee that could almost have come from my mother's coffee pot. I asked for the mega-size but it came in a smallish tea cup. Still, what a cup. Meanwhile, Louie joined me for my adventures today, and he was so stunned at seeing the light of day twice in one contract that he needed a beer after his photo shoot at the Opera House.
March 04, 2005
Melbourne
Spent a nice quiet day ashore today. A friend of mine that I met some twenty years ago (yikes) recently moved down here with her husband, so they came and picked me up from the ship and we went for (yay) breakfast. I continued my (futile) search for filter coffee - now I just do it out of stubbornness, but settled for two cups of "long black" instead (which I guess is sort of like an americano), so I was nice and jittery by the time we got back to their house and I met their new Xbox. My last experience with TV based computer games was my Atari (aside from an ill advised interlude with Nintendo in a hotel one day) so I must say the Xbox is quite a leap forward. My character kept muttering at me for running him around and not getting anywhere, and my friend kept accidentally shooting her husband. It was a very entertaining afternoon.
March 02, 2005
Kangaroos!
I finally managed to get both a fantastic breakfast ashore here in Hobart, AND I got to go pet kangaroos and koalas. Those pictures are going to have to wait a couple days. Meanwhile here's one from Fjordlands, and one from my porthole on the Tasman sea . I think it gets the idea across.
