Special Celebrations on board

Dinner in the Crown Grill

Special celebration to celebrate Roger and Merrilyn's wedding anniversary. A lovely meal with especially special people.

Tasting plate dessert

Our cabin

Mini suite on deck 10.

Our suite had a 3 seat lounge which would, if needed, converts to a single bed. It had a bath in the bathroom.

Last Sea Day 14th September 2018

One day before Sydney...last minute activities.

Yesterday the ship docked in Brisbane, really a pretty poor cruise ship wharf with makeshift infrastructure alongside a working grain facility. Dusty, a long distance from the city of Brisbane, a $20 return and nearly one hour each way shuttle bus into the city. Not for us as we have been into Brisbane before from a cruise ship and also stayed in Brisbane on previous occasions, so a day on the ship suited us. 600 passengers disembarked and 600 embarked for the last 2 day's sailing to Sydney. A lot of younger passengers, some families but a large contingent of travel agents enjoying what this newest and largest Princess ship to visit Australia. It is interesting the change of the atmosphere from sedate to more upbeat and vibrant. Someone asked me if there was a disco on board! 

We are about to start packing our suitcases, arrange our shipboard account, fill out our nominations of crew members who we think went out of their way. Well, it is hard to reduce the numbers of crew who have been extra helpful. They are always smiling, a lot remember our names, choice of food and alcohol. Wonderful service by these hard working crew members who work for months away from their families and homes. Princess does a great service in training and choosing their workers. 

Through Torres Straits and past Cape York

Four sea days from Darwin to Brisbane allowed us to involve ourselves with ship board activities. Lots of socializing, entertainment and relaxing.

VIEW Club Australia get together.

Anniverary celebrations in Crown Grill

Around top of Cape York.

Darwin 8th September 2018

G'day from the Top End

Surprisingly our day in Darwin was not as hot as we have experienced previously. We hired a Kia Carnival 8 seater car from Hertz Car Rentals for 6 of us to visit various attractions in around Darwin. As have all visited Darwin before there were a couple of places new to us and a few revisits. 

Paryp Markets was our first stop where we walked around the multi cultural stalls of foods, organic fruits and unusual items for sale. Crocadile skulls, baramundi items, belts and man bags made from inner tubes, fresh water pearls and all types of crafts. The best mango smoothies were purchased and consumed, yum.

Beautiful locally grown flowers.

Back in the car and off to visit Berry Springs. When we arrived the car park was only half full but there were families still arriving with their foam noodles and blow-up floatie water toys ready to swim and float along the natural waterway. The waterway looked very inviting. 

From Berry Springs we drove to Humpty Doo Hotel. Surprising for us, we saw 5 Princess Tour Buses parked out side the pub. Hmmmm, lucky for us our timing worked out well as the buses were in the process of re-loading. Yipee. Our lunch there was not crowded with our fellow shipboard passengers. Just when we were about to leave another Princess Tour bus pulled up, ready to disgorge the throng of tourists ready to savour a drink and chips in this iconic outback pub. It is all about luck and timing.

Back to Darwin, we drove around East Point where the Military Museum is now situated before dropping off the car and returning to the ship.

   

Sangeang Volcano, Indonesia

Thursday 6th September 2018

Bonus sail past of an active volcano....through an unfortunate situation. Normaly we would not have seen this volcano in day light if the ship had sailed past as it would have been during the night but our day was made more interesting by this sight. 

The volcano was 1.5 kms away from us on the port side of the ship as we sailed between the larger island of Java and this smoking mountain. I was surprised to see some stilted huts along the shore line at the base of this volitile island. There were what looked like crops growing at the rear of the huts and small fishing boats anchored nearby. 

the last major eruption was in 2014 when the ash had spread 150-200 kms away over the Kimberleys in Western Australia and Darwin in Northern Territory.  Flights in and out of Darwin were suspended for the duration.  

The ship's course then took us past Komodo Island where to famous dragons reside.

From there we sailed at 19.2 knots, with the hope of increased speed at night when the ocean's current will flow with the direction of the Majestic Princess. 

 

Sangeang Volcano

Yacht sailing past the straight between the volcano and main island.

At Sea...a medical evacuation wed 5th Sept.

Wednesday 5th Sept...emergency re-direction

Half way through our sea day the Captain made an announcement that he was re-directing the ship to meet up with a boat from Saryba, Java, which would collect one of our passengers who needed more intense medical care than Majestic Princess could perform. 

The ship had been sailing south from Singapore but changed course to sail west to be closer to the coast-line in order to roundaue which the pilot from Java. About 2 hours later the ship had almost stopped, but the engines were keeping the ship in a stationary position about 12 kms off the coastline in what we realized was, deeper water. The depth of the water became more shallow any closer to the coast.  For what was intended to be a 2 hour wait turned out to be nearly four hours before the pilot boat sped out to meet us and took on our passenger. We later heard the passenger's (not sure if male of female) health had improved and stabilized in ICU on Java. 

Once the passenger was safely disembarked and the pilot boat had moved off, the ship headed south again with all engines at full speed to make up for the lost time spent with the medical emergency. A new course had been set to enable the ship to still arrive in Darwin at the original time. This course will take us past an erupting volcano and Komodo Island.  

Pilot boat which came out to collect the unwell passenger.

Map of ship whist we waited for pilot.

Singapore 3rd September 2018

Easy day using local transportation.

Once again DH Paul choose not to get off the ship. He had sprained his foot earlier on the cruise and was still suffering some pain from the sprain. So 7 of us, led by Anne and John, headed off the ship to explore Singapore using local transport. Firstly a bus to nearby Marina Bay Resort which overlooked the gardens by the bay. I am glad Paul did not join us as we had a small walk from the bus stop to the hotel and I don't think he would have managed. Once at the hotel we caught the lift in Tower One to the 57th floor. Here we managed to overlook all of Singapore and the bay of many ships at anchor. On the top floor is a restaurant where we enjoyed a coffee and took in the grand view. A spectacular view at that!.

Pool in top of Sands Marina Bay

View from near Merlion of ship shaped hotel.

Bum Boat to Clarkey Quay.

Pagoda Street, Chinatown.

Chinatown MRT station.

From there we returned to the ground floor to walk through the shop area, with its grand canal and gondolas, to catch a 'gunboat' to Clarke Quay, past Merlion and many old heritage buildings left over from the English Colonization.  Then we alighted to walk over the waterway to ride the escalators 3 floors below ground level at Clarke Quary Station to catch a train one stop on to China Town. Once there we went up to street level into one of the main streets of China Town, Pagoda Street to enjoy a Chinese style lunch and of course, local beer. Some enjoyed alittle shopping whilst there before returning to the staion to catch two trains to Marina South Station, the last and closest station to the Cruise Terminal. 

Surprising for me, the heat in Singapore was not unbearably humid and hot, which made walking around bearable. 

Phu My port - Long Khanh Countryside

Long Khanh Countryside - Thi's Home

Ist September 2018

As we have already visited Ho Chi Min City, Vung Tau, Nui Dat and other sights in and around this port, the guide we have previously had, suggested a trip to her village in the countryside. it is located in an area which played a strong defensive role for Saigon during the Vietnam War.

Once collected we were driven through and past orchards, rubber and coffee plantations to visit a local fruit and food market. Thi pointed out various tropical fruits, vegetables, live poultry and fish. I couldn't get over how everyone wanted to say hello and wave to us. Many requested I take their photos!. When wandering around the street we had to be mindful of the many scooters and motorbikes driving along beside us. We were always looking behind and in front of us, listening for the beeps closer to us.  Thi bought some fruits for us to try at the visit to her sister's house and walk around the garden. dragon fruit, rambutan, lychees, jackfruit, custard apple and more. I tell you now after our visit to Vietnam that night I found myself very regular! (not diarrea though).

The street where all the stalls selling fresh produce. Watch out for motor scooters!

Hello! Lots of smiles, waves and good wishes from locals.

Hmmm..not sure about buying meat like this. There was a 'blowie' on the meat!

Live fish, frogs, crabs, squid and cockles.

Colourful display of vegetables.

Live chooks, ducks, rabbits and more.

Scooters everywhere!

We had local made coffee made with condensed milk, at a cafe nearby. I was a bit concerned by the ice which was used in the drink. (was it boiled?, safe to drink for 'outsiders'...Bali Belly comes to mind) but luck or better sanitation, we had no after effects. It was yummy anyway.

Vietnamese style coffee

Thi's sister's front gate

Her sister had 20 guard dogs to alert them for people stealing from them. They were all chained to various shelters scattered around the maybe 3 acre block where the house was situated in the middle with the fruit trees to side and front and pig sheds at rear. Thi explaned her sister and bro-in-law slept outside the house in three sided garage.

Pineapples planted in various areas around garden. Also different fruit trees alongside each other.

Clean piggery with around a dozen pigs at different stages of life. All the fruit and meat is sold at the markets to supplement their income.

Next stop took us to Thi's family home. A two story house built and completed about 12 months ago. Thi was very proud to show off her family house which she and her other siblings had helped to pay for. Thi lives in an apartment in H.C.M City but returns home for some weekends and Chinese New Year to be with her family. A couple of siblings and their families live there permanently during the week. Two of her sisters and brother cooked our banquet for lunch....wow, we could not eat it all and most of it, I assume, would have been eaten later that day after we left. 

Banquet of Vietnamese Food

Thi's family home.

Next day Vietnam celebrated its National Holiday, so a lot of the roads were lined with red and gold flags, representing the blood and a gold star with 5 points. Each point symbolizing farmers, workers, soldiers, and two others I can't remember. I will check it out later on.

Nha Trang, Vietnam 31st Aug 2018

Nha Trang Tour

Sunshine! Since leaving Shanghai. Today we tendered off the ship. Fortunately for our group, we are all Elite and secured a seat on the first tender. This is the first time I have used the Majestic's own tender boats and found them to be larger and easier transport. As we were the first to be seated in the boat we were in a good position to watch other passengers transfer. I was surprised to see people lowered down the ship's stairs on a wheelchair lift to the landing point alongside the tender. It was from there the wheelchair user stood and transferred themselves to the tender, then folded wheelchair placed inside with them. I am not sure how they managed once getting to the wharf as we needed to negotiate about 7-8 concrete steps to the top.  

There were 9 of us (DH Paul, elected to stay on board) who joined Ahn's tour with phamtours@yahoo.com

We were picked up in a 16 seat van and enjoyed this tailor-made excursion, exploring the "true" Vietnamese countryside, farms, towns and village life. 

Firstly the van drove alone the esplanade and foreshore of the resort style coastline. Tall buildings, hotels and office blocks lined one side of the road, overlooking the road to beautifully manicured gardens which lead down to a wide expanse of sandy beach. We drove on to follow a river along for a short distance before stopping at a concrete flight of stairs, leading to a small fishing boat on this river. After a bit of maneuvering we all managed to seat ourselves comfortably on the boat and move-off up river. As the boat started to move lots of small flying fish jumped out of the water from the bow of the boat......quite surprising to witness. We motored up river, past fishermen, waterside houses and past small islands which seemed to have coconut plantations growing on them. A short time later we arrived at a long rickety wooded, one lane bridge which connected a larger island in the river to the mainland. There we saw many motor scooters/bikes traversing from either side of the bridge. There were gaps of about 5 cms in he wooden planks which made the platform of the bridge, so when a bike rode along it made a 'thunk' sound on each gap. Now you can image the ca-thunk, ca-thunk sound we heard as we approached and alighted onto the bridge. We also had to watch out for the zooming motor bikes as they traversed the bridge! We were told it cost about 5 cents to use. 

To be continued...ship's wifi is running sooooooo slow.

Ooops...photo is out of order. But this is a pic of noodle making we saw later in the morning

Nha Trang's wide sandy beaches

                                               All abord our little run about.

                                             riverside houses and local fishermen

            Karthump Karthump...as the two wheeled traffic transverses the wooden bridge

           Wooden bridge constructed yearly after rainy season. Toll of 5 cents to cross.

A short walk from the bridge to see two sisters weaving sleeping mats and table mats in an area in front of their home. The site is probably used for family living quarters when their day's work is finished. I only wish we were able to but some of their craft to bring home but with Australia's bio security laws, their would need to be forfeited at the border when entering Australia.

The two sisters weave just four mats a day from rushes which grow in the surrounding areas. These will be taken to the local markets and traded for food and other essentials.

Our next stop brought us to a short walk up a narrow way to the Pagoda Orphanage. It shelters and cares for around 120 abandoned, orphaned or street children ranging from several months to 9 years of age. They are cared by a group of Buddhist nuns and volunteers.

When we were there we saw several class rooms like this with some of the children.

On our next stop we saw rice paper making, one of the most typical foods from rice steamed and processed into round pieces and dried on bamboo brackets in the sun. Another cottage industry where members of a family work. The street we stopped at housed several such industries.

Bamboo brackets with the rice paper ready to be dried.

Another cottage industry, but appeared to be bigger than the previous industries, was a rice noodle factory.

Bamboo brackets with the noodle sheets drying before shreding into noodles.

Shredder.

On the last stop before lunch we saw conical hat making in the front area of this family's house. Granma, daughter, grand daughter were all there making these hats.

Working to even the rushes which form the conical hats.

Lunch alongside a river under the shade of trees and veranda.

This Traditional Vietnamese house managed to survive the War. (?)

After lunch we were taken to the Pongar Temples which were built by the Cham Dynasty. Most of us elected to stay in tye van whilst a couple of two decided to explore with the many Chinese Tourists there.

The last stop just happened to be my favourite stop.....Dam Market. We had a short time there to shop. I would have loved to wander around longer but time was getting short for our drop off at the port.

A great day in Nha Trang and countryside. I would heartily recommend phamtours@yahoo.com USD60 each for tours, a/c van, local guide, admin fees and Lunch.

PS we ran out of time to tour the embroidery factory.