Phu My, Vietnam

We landed at the port of Phu My but there's not much there so we took a tour to Vung Tau which is a resort town. It has a nice waterfront walk, Buddhist temples and a huge hilltop statue of Christ. 

  There a lot of Catholics because of early French settlement. 

One interesting sight was seeing a lot of people gleaning shrimp from a muddy shrimp farm pond after the commercial harvest was done. A very muddy process.

Communist signs a billboards are everywhere but capitalism reigns. Street peddlers are everywhere and they are very persistent in following you around with their goods. They even followed the tour bus from one stop to the next by riding on their motor bikes.

The weather was hot and muggy and back at the ship, the air conditioning was broken for three or four hours and it makes us realize how much we depend on it for comfort.

Da Nang, Vietnam

In the morning we took a tour to the city of Hoi An. We visited a silk factory where the do the whole process from silk worm to weaving and embroidering pictures in silk. Everywhere we went there were agressive street peddlers. There were some beggars but they were quite passive. Dad got tired on the long walk and hired a bicycle cab to get back to the bus.

In the afternoon I took the shuttle bus into Da Nang for a look-around. They have a nice riverfront park and walkway. The motorbike and bicycle cab drivers were continuously offering rides. One motorbike driver followed me as I walked by the river and kept offering a tour of the city. He was friendly and non-threatening but VERY persistent.

Hong Kong and Beijing China

The ship docked in Hong Kong and I took an overnight tour to Beijing and the Great Wall. It was a great trip. I could have used a week to see more. Shanghai and Hong Kong are masses of high-rise buildings but in Beijing the center of town has been zoned for low buildings only so it is much nicer. 

I climbed the Great Wall for as much time as I had. It is really an amazing experience to actually be at and walk around on this wall that seemed almost like something that is only an old legend.

Shanghai, China

They had to sail our huge ship about 10 miles up a narrow, crowded river to get to our dock in downtown Shanghai. We took a tour of the city and got a ride on the maglev train. This is a train that floats on a magnetic field and goes about 250 miles per hour. There are only about six of these in the world.

Shanghai is packed with high rise office buildings and even more high rise condos. The river is packed with boat traffic. Most of these are cargo boats that are also the family home of the owners.

Next, we have two days at sea then Hong Kong, Bejing and the Great Wall.

Kobe/Osaka, Japan

Here we are in Kobe. We had a bus tour around Kobe then we took the train to Osaka for a look-around. Kobe and Osaka are really one big city. There are lots of people, cars, and bicycles. Bikes are parked by the thousands with only minimal locking. There are some nice parks, shrines, and temples mixed in among the masses of tall buildings. There is a big bowling center with a sign that says " You can do it".

After our day ashore there was a program of local musicians in the theater on the ship

Miyako, Japan

Another impressive Taiko drum welcome awaited us at Miyako. There were two school groups of drummers. On was high school girls who were outstanding. The other was actually kindergarteners who did quite a good job considering that the drums were bigger than they were. 

We toured to two different beach areas with dramatic rock formations and pine trees. The area is a national park except for a few waterfront towns.

When it was time to leave a different group of drummers arrived to give us a send-off. Unfortunately, after a beautiful sunny day it started to rain just before the drumming was to start. They played anyway, in the pouring rain. Then, just as we were pulling away from the dock the sunset broke through on the horizon and we had a brilliant yellow/red sun shinning and rain coming down and the drummers drumming all at the same time. I am told there was a great rainbow behind the ship but I didn't see it.

Aomori, Japan

The boat was greeted by an impressive drum concert as we docked in Aomori. We didn't have an organized tour there so we just walked into town and looked around. We found an interesting temple and a large shopping street and interesting sights in general around a Japanese small town.

Back at the dock there were many workers cleaning and painting the ship. Then the drummers played again as we pulled away from the dock.