Sue & Scott’s travels: March 15 to May 18, 2018
3/20/18
We left Sarasota at 2:30 AM Thursday driving to ORLANDO to catch our flight to Dallas, then a short layover and caught our 16 hour flight to Hong-Kong. Got to the gorgeous Intercontinental Hotel and they upgraded us to a room with a view of the harbor and Hong KongIsland! It was magical! We upgraded ourselves to the Concierge Club so we made dinner out of the wonderful hors de oeuvres and many drinks later watched the Laser Light show and went to bed.Sunday had an unbelievable breakfast and headed out to the Chapel across the street for Mass, but when we got there, there was a sign on the dorm..No Church..CLOSED!!! Yikes, I know that the POPE was making a deal with the Chinese govt. so that THEY would decide who the Bishops were, NOT the Vatican! BAD MISTAKE....but I wasn’t expecting closed churches!!!! .so we just did some window shopping of all the high end shops and from what we saw, they were ALL HIGH END!!!
Got on the Celebrity Millennium and that night watched the sail out for Taiwan.....gorgeous, millions of lights from what seems like a million high rises...and I do mean HIGHRISES.....seems like the shortest ones are at least 50 stories!!Hong Kong is a very interesting city.
Arrived in Taiwan After a very welcome SEA DAY to catch up on some sleep and Trivia.....didn’t do so well, played with a dentist who didn’t even know that the man who invented the cotton Candy Machine was a DENTIST! HELLO!!! Anyhoo, got to Taiwan and Scott had organized a private tour with 6 of us and off we went to the Geo Park and saw the most incredible rock formations I have ever seen....see attached (if I don’t screw it up). After 30 minutes a huge downpour came so we got back in the van and went up the mountains to the cutest little town...old gold mining town that is now an artist colony with quaint winding streets. Had an interesting lunch (I opted for only white rice) in an ancient tiny restaurant in the side of a cliff overlooking the ,mountains and ocean!
Then saw the Golden Waterfalls, gorgeous, then another very cool rock formation area on the ocean...very nice day in Taiwan.
We are now on our way to Nagasaki, Japan....hope they don’t nuke us!
Xox..s
Pictures hopefully will be attached or sent on separate email
3/21/18
Hi...Me again,
It’s been very rough seas... The Captains party was even cancelled tonite! At cocktail hour tonite on deck 11, there were spray waves that went across the windows! YIKERS! And the Trivia gal got sick half way thru and had to run to the Restroom! She should have given everyone a prize!!
Our flight was rough from Dallas...I expected it to go WEST to Asia, but instead it went due North thru Alaskaover the Artic Circle , over to Russia and down Thru CHINA!! I guess I have to study the Curvature of the earth better!!
met an older guy tonite traveling alone, he said he usually takes one of his daughters on the cruises with him, and I asked “ So where do your daughters take YOU?”....he didn’t miss a beat and said...”To the CLEANERS”!!!! LOL!!!
Tomorrow Nagasaki then the next 3days in South Korea and the DMZ, so we have 4 chances to get nuked!!! Wish us luck! Hopefully NOT Sayonara!!
Will send the pics when we are on land....too much time to do it on the ship.
Xox..s
Hi All,
I forgot to show you some pics of NagasakiPEACEPARK where the bomb dropped....it was quite lush with trees as you can see!! I was shocked!
Thought nothing would ever grow on such a site! And the huge bronze statue to PEACE looked like Cochise!! Kind of weird.
It was a clean city and getting around on electric street cars was easy peasy and lots of smiles from the local women...men, not so much! the PP was up on a huge hill, and you got on an escalator that also turned into a moving sidewalk every so often....cool engineering!
there was a very old man in the PEACEPARK telling about that day for him, as he worked right at the site which was a prison. His boss sent him across town to do something he didn’t want to do, but he Survived, so he will always be grateful to the boss he didn’t like!!
Yesterday we were in Busan, South Korea which is the second largest city in South Korea....beautiful!! Thousands of huge white high rises and mountains everywhere...... mountains in every place we have been so far.....gorgeous topography. We walked about 4 miles to a gorgeous park on a hill....thank God they had escalators also! The infrastructure that we have seen in all these countries so far put ours to shame...sad. Gorgeous new bridges and highways.....teams of Men and women planting flowers all over the street, and other teams of people scraping off gum and tar from the SIDEWALKS!!!
We are now pulling into Jeju Island, SK thru the skinniest opening in the sea wall I’ve ever seen....Captain Alex really had to suck it in!!
Tomorrow we go to Seoul and to the DMZ...wish us luck! If you don’t hear from us, send Dennis Rodman!!
Xox..s
Hello from Foggy InchonSouth Korea!!!
The port of Inchon, gateway to Seoul, was closed yesterday so we didn’t get in until 2:30, so it was too late to go to the DMZ, so we did Seoul, which was an hours drive from the port and sunny instead of foggy. The guide too us to a 7000 room RoyalPalace from 1450, impressive but nothing fabulous. On the back side of the pLace is the Blue House where the President of South Korea lives....like our White House only BLUE! Then driver thru downtown Seoul, and even though it was a late Sunday afternoon, traffic was bumper to bumper! Went to a very cute “ancient” neighborhood...very small lanes, curvy on steep hills to walk up, walled in small houses with pagoda roofs....very nice...WiFI throughout the hood, even had a toilet...WESTERN TOILETS even...down a little walkway for the tourists!,,,,,YEAH!! First rule of travel...NEVER PASS UP A TOILET!! Then to an adorable little shopping are with nice tiny shops.....charming. Then to a Buddhist Temple, where there were lots of people praying....they do up and down kneeling and bending over like Muslims, and even tough the monk was chanting,everyone was doing something different! I’ll try to attach a picture of the 3 HUGE Golden Buddha’s...... who am I kidding, SCOTT will attach them! Scott just told me no pics will be coming until we leave Beijing since they do not allow GOOGLE in their country!
We were supposed to sail out last night about midnight, so we got up this morning thinking how smooth it was, and was SHOCKED an hour later when we looked at the other side of the ship to see that we were still in port!! Thought maybe my 3 Bellini breakfast was playing tricks on my vision! We are still socked in....its almost noon and just as foggy as ever, but hopefully the port will re open soon to get to Beijing day after tomorrow.....we have already lost almost one full day seeing Beijing....RATS, but nothing we can do about it.
Other tidbits...... walking thru the fish market the other day in Jeju Is,and, a beautiful resort island, and the fish market was very clean....smelly but clean, Anyhoo, looking into all the fish tanks at the strange fish and one was 99% covered, so I was peeking into the little opening and out flew a damn EEL!!!! I think they heard me scream in Seoul! Cleanup on aisle 3 !!!!
Gotta get to Trivia....more later.....days later.....hope everyone is great!!
Xox..s
3/30/18
Hello again and again from the South China Sea...or Yellow Sea.
Because of the heavy fog, we had to stay in port in Seoul....but Seoul was GREAT!! We missed one day in Beijing and Beijing was FABULOUS!!! the Great Wall of China wasn’t Great..,,it was AWESOME!!! OMG!! I am still pinching myself! The drive from the port was over 3 hours to downtown, where we had to drop off a couple at our hotel because they didn’t want to go to the Wall....go figure. Anyway, another hour drive. To the entrance, and a long walk up a steep hill to get on the Cable Car up to the Wall...SCARY RIDE...straight up the mountain but definitely worth it!! Steep big steps uneven steps to gate on the Wall, and it was so steep, I got kind of dizzy...I could only walk a little of it, but Scott walked a lot more...... just putting my feet on it and take some pictures was truly worth it!!!! Pictures to follow after we get to Australia. went to the Marriott and had dinner and drinks and a SUITE, and a lovely breakfast....thanks again Gill for telling us to doConcierge!!
The next day we went to A park where all the old people exercise...they were swinging on monkey bars, bending over double touching the ground, really doing everything imaginable for exercise!! then we walked the Tiananmen Square, then onto The Forbidden City and Gardens....These places are so HUGE that we walked 5 MILES!!!! Then another Chinese lunch....I think they just call it FOOD here. ...then picked up the other couple and took the 3 hour trip back to the ship!
Beijing was so clean and beautiful it was SHOCKING! All NEW huge skyscrapers...everything is new from 1980 when China opened up to foreigners....before that our guide said there were no foreigners allowed in!! The city went on forever...it has over 20 million, and every car is new and clean!! Lots of Mercedes and Audi’s, VWs and BMWs...... there are scooters and bikes, but not many in the downtown area, but in other areas, they are everywhere.
Our fabulous tour guide spoke perfect English, Mandarain, Mongolian, Spanish and some others!, She was super!! We did a rickshaw ride in the old town....it was pretty much a slum with tiny homes and NEW CARS parked, almost all with 18 x 18 boards covering the wheels so that the peeing dogs didn’t mess up the tires, so the drivers remove these stinking dirty boards every time they want to drive....EEEWWWWW!! we also went into one of these homes.....kitchen from the Flintstones practically...UGH...I was the only one who didn’t drink the tea they served...HELLO!!! PETRI DISH!! our guide told us not to drink the water out of the tap, or brush our teeth with it, even at our 5 star hotel!, so why she took us to drink tea somewhere was beyond me. However MAO had taken all this mans property...he was sweet and kind, and the tour company pays him for opening up his home to strangers!
On the drive back to the ship, the heavy fog, smog, had lifted, and we saw HUGE new cities everywhere for all 3 hours that we didn’t see on the way in. They are even building the 5th tallest building in the world in a new city by the port! No one OWNS any property here....all leases for 99 yrs. or less....and no putting toilet paper in the toilet except in new hotels..ICK!
Today is a sea day, and tomorrow is Shanghai and then off we go to stay with our friends, Gill and Steve in Brisbane after a day long tour in Shanghai and an 11 hour flight to Sydney and then an hour one to Brisbane!
Hope all is well with everyone.
Xox..s
3/3/18
LOUSY UPDATE!!!
The port of shanghai was closed due to fog, so we anchored in the China Sea last night, and we are now inching our way to the re opened port, but we will miss our flight to Brisbane, Celebrity will take care of the flights since we booked thru Choice Air..... but Scott is horribly ill either with a bad bug or Noro Virus, he is quarantined in the cabin...had to have a wheelchair to go to the infirmary.... poor guy....luckily he is almost never sick ....so we will be staying in a hotel that Celebrity booked for us.....they didn’t tell me that, so I booked a Marriott by the airport...hope they can cancel ours!
One lesson I learned today.....know how to do things that Scott always takes care of and I just go along for the ride!!
More later....hopefully it’s better news
4/3/18
。。。Another update!!!! Scott is doing fine now...thanks for all your prayers and good wishes!!! We hadn’t thought about it being the tea in that mans house, but maybe it was...that or bad Crepes Suzette’s they fixed him the last nite of the cruise!
This has been some cruise....Celebrity changed everyone e Flight reservation and Celebrity hired buses to take everyone to hotels at their expense, as we all missed our flights due to the fog and INTENSE IMMIGRATION! Geesh...our country should be one tenth as strick! They put us up in the Whyndam Royal Shanghai...OMG was it GORGEOUS!!! All 3 Chinese hotels we stayed ..Hong Kong, Beijing, then Shanghai all got progressively more impressive in their beauty!! Never stayed in nicer hotels!
Yesterday Celebrity hired busses to take us to the airport to catch our flights to Sydney and then to our friends in Brisbane....well...our plane was late taking off...the crew showed up late and then just as soon as we were ready to take off, someone had a medical emergency and had to be off loaded and have their luggage taken off also, so we got in a little later...not much, but there was no gate to take us, so the plane went to the perimeter to off load us down stairs, but we had to wait for busses to pick us up to take us to the terminal!
Needless to say we missed our connection to Brisbane and had Qantas call Steve and Gillian to tell them we would be on the next plane....they pick us up at the gate, and while waiting to get the baggage, my name was announced over the loud speaker, and one huge bag didn’t make it to Brisbane....it’s 8:00 tonite and still hasn’t been delivered....not the worst part of this day.... here goes...... our cruise out of Sydney to NewZealand has been CANCELLED!!! One damn AZIPOD isn’t working!! We were all going to fly back to Sydney to get on the 11 day cruise, so now poor Steve and Gill are stuck with us til we pick up the next one , Sydney to Seattle!! Thank God they LIKE us!! At least for now!! Luggage just came...YEAH!!
Brisbane is a BEAUTIFUL city...S and G live on the 31st floor overlooking the gorgeous river and bridge...spectacular! Walked around their area and got some drinks and a late lunch, and tomorrow starts the planning that Gill and Scott will do for the next 15 Days!! Probably rent an SUV and drive down to Sydney stopping along the way..... Traveling is ENLIGHTENING!! And FUN!!!
Off to bed, Bbeen up 36 hours,!
Just a few pics to update this blog....one from Tianaman Squrae right before going into the Forbidden City under the MAO picture...his eyes follow you like the Mona Lisa! The smoggy one will be Shanghai and the Third one is my fav!
4/6/18
Hello mates!!!
We are having a ball in GORGEOUS Brisbane, Australia,,....it’s a combo of all the best of Seattle, Chicago, SINGAPORE even!!! If any of you ever get the Chance to come here DO NOT HESITATE and stay downtown!! We took the City Kat (katamaran ferry) taxi yesterday, from one end of the river practically to the other, about 1 1/2 hrs and saw beautiful buildings and homes!! It’s really an impressive city! Also walked around the Expo site...pools, temples, gardens, etc....unbelievably pretty and clean as a whistle!
4/8/18
Just sendin* some pics Scott and Steve on the balcony.
Everything is so expensive here, the butcher puts your meat in a gorgeous shopping bag!
Eating. A little schnitzel and $23.00 beers!
View of their apt. Bldg from the City Kat ferry we took.
View from Mt. Coot-tha overlooking Brisbane!
Their granddaughter Emily!
Met the whole family!! SUPER NICE!
Leaving for our 10 day road trip on Weds.
Hope all is well!
4/9/18
Just a few more pics.....we went to a zoo today to see the platypus, one of only two egg laying MAMMALS!!! Though no good pics of them .....the koalas....DARLING...... and fed and petted kangaroos.....saw two sleeping Tasmanians Devils....a HUGE wombat sun in g himself right side up....it was a quaint little zoo!