In the International dinning room for

a meet and greet with Cruise Critic.

The seas whilst we sailed were mostly slight, making the ship's movement hardly

noticeable.

I found shopping in Nha Trang better.

Power Lines in HCMC. I know they would not

pass inspection in Australia!

Photo of the map room in the basement of the
Presidential Palace of maps used in 1975 before
the surrender of South Vietnam.
We tried to do some shopping in the market
in HCMC but I found that the aisles were
very close and cluttered, even taking out the
equation of 6 or more people hanging off my
arms trying to get my attention and
possible sale! Paul managed to get his
polo shirts before I gave up and headed
outside. I am amazed with my lack of shopping
skills as I had always enjoyed the haggling in
other Asian countries.

We are outside the front of the Presidential
Palace in HCMC
The temp. on the day we were there was
around 30c and skies were clear and sunny.

Phu My

Phu My is a two hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City. Our tour took us into the city where we visited the Presidential Palace, Notre Damn Cathedral and Post Office. We drove through China Town and noticed several small shops packed with Christmas decorations. China Town is painted in dominant colours of red and gold.

Most of the road into HCMC had been under repair. I don't know how long the road builders had been working on it but it appeared to be over many months.

We arrived at the Formula 1 Building in Singapore
to discover the Singapore Marathon event had used the same building. It was chaos for everyone leaving their suitcases and collecting shuttle buses to the ship. Lucky it wasn't raining!
The shuttle buses took 45mins to arrive at the ship. The Diamond Princess sailed late. The broadcast from the Captain explained the ship had to take on the maxium fuel at Singapore for the voyage and the bunkering would delay the ship 2 hours. It is taking us a while to get used to the lay out of the ship. I am continually going the wrong way!

Ready to fly out to Singapore tomorrow

We are now packed and ready to fly out to Singapore tomorrow. I am mentally reviewing what I have packed and hopefully haven't missed anything. It will be 35 degrees when we catch the plane so we have both changed our travelling clobber from jeans to shorts, here's hoping the weather when we disembark in Sydney will be warm as well. Dog food shopping for our dog Gracie is done and we are hoping she will not miss us too much.....she will just have to get used to it considering our planned absence next year. I think Holly the beagle grand-dog will keep her distracted.
Hopefully my next post will be from Diamond Princess.