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What We Learned in Singapore, Java, and Bali – and Merry Christmas 2023!
When our Mideast trip went ‘poof’ for obvious reasons, we thought we’d head somewhere warm and relax instead. A cruise to Singapore, Java, and Bali? Sounds good, right? It was beyond good, but it wasn’t the warmth and relaxation that stuck with us. Oh sure, we left our footprints in warm sand on distant beaches, and swam laps in delightful swimming pools. And yet…. We also toured temples, mosques, historical sites, and oodles of museums, and all that learning changed us somehow. The cultural richness of Southeast Asia intrigues us – did you know that ALL the world’s religions originated from here? – and now that we have returned home…
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Singapore/Indonesia: A Sudden Travel Pivot
We were THIS close to embarking on our latest bucket-list travel adventure to Israel, Istanbul, Jordan, and Dubai. I bet you can guess what happened next. When I clicked on CNN one early October morning, there it was, the huge black word – WAR – and an ominous photo of flame-trailed red missiles shooting across the dark Tel Aviv night sky. We had booked three late-November nights in Tel Aviv, but I didn’t wonder for a moment: I knew what the stark headline and missiles meant for our latest adventure. As I set to work on the necessary cancellations and tucked our half-finished lectures back in their cases, I wondered…
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GREENLAND AND ALL THE REST: ICEBERGS, INUITS, AND A SPECIAL GUEST
Never saw an iceberg before, but now that I have….I wouldn’t blame the iceberg either, for that Titanic thing. Icebergs do what they do and will for the foreseeable future at least until all the glaciers, the iceberg parents, melt away due to global warming. (Don’t think so? Science for the doubters, right here/click here.) So we are thrilled we saw some of the monsters while cruising through Greenland’s Prince Christian Sound, then down the infamous Iceberg Alley between Greenland and Newfoundland. We saw icebergs doing what icebergs do, just living their best lives, floating and melting and sometimes crashing into ships. (Not our ship – yay. Thank you modern…
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ICELAND: Savage Landscapes, Storytellers, Literary Riches, and the Blue Lagoon
Our van driver steered into ferocious battering winds, clutching the wheel to stay centered in the lane. Icy sheets of rain slashed at the windows, and we stared through driving sleet at miles of lava rock, stretching away into the distance. The storm transformed black barren fields into blurry nightmare hellscapes, and I wondered: How do people survive in such a land? And this is their summer? When one of us inquired about the bad weather, Elias our driver/guide shrugged and smiled. “This is pretty good, actually.” While prepping for this trip I read repeated warnings about the vagaries of Icelandic weather. Be prepared for anything, especially at the tail end…
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ICELAND: Land of Fire and Ice, but What Lurks Underneath?
Iceland reminds me of a truth I understood long ago: Never underestimate what lurks behind a calm, quiet face. That smiling person in the corner? She may be the angriest person in the room. That grumpy gruff person over there? Might be the kindest. And that woman in the corner, who seems distracted? Or so it seems. She may propose the winning solution, or destroy everything in an instant. You just never know with people, islands, or icebergs, based on the visible. Iceland’s like that. On its surface, Iceland’s soaking warm sulphur pools and jagged rifts of stiff black lava stone look calm, a land of dramatic beauty and eye-popping…
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REGAL PRINCESS: Quiet Cruise to Nowhere, Two Letters, and a Yokohama Flashback
So I’ve been referring to our little cruise as the ‘Cruise to Nowhere’ but that’s just wrong. The island of Eleuthera is NOT nowhere, and it’s not just the island where Princess Cruises plops their passengers for an idyllic day in the sun, for lounging, snorkeling, and feasting. Ok the Princess part of the island IS all that, but Princess only owns 40 acres of Eleuthera, the longest of the Bahama chain at 110 miles. This gorgeous island paradise is known for its magnificent beaches, aqua-marine waters, Bahama charm, and laid-back vibe. We hopped off to explore the Princess acreage and its pristine sandy beaches, and by cruise ship standards, the resort…
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Key West Christmas Greetings from Padre and the Blonde!
Key West is so not Seattle in December. We’ve got to keep our wits about us, since the wind-whipped backyard palm tree keeps flinging coconuts down on our pool deck. And don’t worry, Christmas won’t really be late (above pic), even though Christmas porch decorations here lean more toward Margaritaville than Bedford Falls. Christmas won’t be as late as our Ireland trip posts, at least there’s that. Ireland was one of our best trips EVER and I have plenty to say about what we experienced there, as usual – the full story will slowly show up here by and by. We did take many incredible photographs, and below we’ve included…
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London: Royalty and Rebellions, London Walks, Beheadings, and all that Cultural Loot
King George III stole the show. British royals also stole a few countries, an entire Greek temple, Padre’s Irish ancestral homelands, and India’s massive Koh-i-Noor diamond, inset on one of the crowns displayed with the Crown Jewels. So plenty of thievery here on the Sceptered Isle, but King George’s heist was a masterpiece of musical theater. I’ll never forget how the mad King pouted his way onstage, commanding us to sing along as he snapped, “NO don’t change the subject…’cuz you’re my favorite subject….forever, and ever and ever….” Well maybe not forever. In addition to our cheap third row (oh wow!) seats to Hamilton, we ran from a clown brandishing a…
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Tahiti and Moorea: Manta Rays, Sharks, and the Lure of Distant Islands
The old man misled us about Tahiti, pretty much his entire life. I know my dad didn’t do it intentionally, but mislead he did, and guess what? I planned an entire cruise based on what I thought was true, when in fact things didn’t go that way at all. That said, I’m more than ok with how things turned out. We strolled Tahiti’s black sand beaches and snorkeled with lemon sharks off Moorea, and now we’ve added a few more tropical island destinations to the travel bucket list. Turns out that cruise ships do sometimes stop on Dad’s WWII islands – you know, the ones he actually visited. Turns out he…
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New Zealand’s North Island: Rotorua or Hades? Shire or Sheep Farm? And Is Auckland Shut or Open?
We were young and stupid. Little did we know that life cost money, so we said ‘sure’ when offered a spot in a 1991 Auckland teacher exchange program. Almost-newlyweds with a blended family of typical teenagers (lots of scowls and secrets), we barely paid the bills as it was. I mean, Why NOT take a somewhat impromptu trip to New Zealand, way Down Under? We kicked off our married life with a magical two-week Ireland honeymoon, so it figures that we signed on for our next grand adventure as soon as we could manage it (or not), despite the restrictions of our demanding mid-career lives. Seems we’re not the folks…
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New Zealand’s South Island: Welcome to Middle Earth! Earthquakes, Albatrosses, and Breathtaking Landscapes Everywhere
Eleanor Catton had me at the ball gowns lined with gold sewn into their hems. The 1861 discovery of gold set off a frenzy of fortune seekers stampeding south, way south, to New Zealand’s wild and empty Otago Peninsula, our next cruise stop. Catton brings this era to riveting life in her 848-page historical novel, The Luminaries, and even though Padre grumbled about hauling my ‘book brick’ his suffering was worth it, at least to me. I adore long reads that hold up, and it will go to a lucky Golden Princess passenger soon, hopefully one with lots of luggage space left. In Catton’s historical mystery novel I learned what 1860s life…
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Tasmania and Sydney, Australia: Unzoos and Zoos, Manly, and the Golden Princess – Finally!
Funny what comes to mind when people heard we were visiting Tasmania. No one thought we were talking about Tanzania, thank goodness (they all had excellent geography teachers, I’m sure), but everyone asked if we would see Tasmanian devils while here. Puzzled, our new Tassie friends asked us why Americans inevitably ask about the devils, and we laughed – it’s the cartoon, of course! Tassies are not familiar with the cartoon devil, so just goes to show you how mind-penetrating those Saturday morning cartoons can be. Americans of a certain age (our age) grew up with that rambunctious, whirling dervish the Tasmanian Devil, so that’s what we think of when…
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Hobart, Tasmania: MONA, New Friends, Death, and Life: What’s Not to Like?
I knew Padre could sleep anywhere but didn’t know he could snore away, tucked inside MONA’s big white egg with me while a pulsing, hallucinatory light show closed in from all sides. The thing was on the ‘hard’ setting, even. I guess the guy really likes his sleep. Padre finally made it to Tasmania’s famous MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), a long-time travel goal, and he was so not asleep before we entered the egg. You better not be, or you’ll fall into a deep dark pool or be lost forever in the labyrinth of Escher-inspired staircases and dark stone passageways throughout the museum’s subterranean levels. Is it…
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Hawaii’s Kona Coast: Stellar Snorkeling, Thrifty Condo Living, and Friends Everywhere We Look
I love the Kevin Bacon game, where you link any two people in the world in six connections or less. We never expected to play Six Degrees of Separation in Waimea, Hawaii, a foodie mashup of art galleries and paniolo cowboy culture tucked up in the misty green foothills on the north end of the Hawaii’s Big Island. But play we did, and who needs six links anyway? We did it in one link (twice!) all in the same marvelous meal at Merriman’s, one of the Big Island’s best restaurants. But first, we had to escape the Costco parking lot. In terms of natural beauty, The Kona Coast is absolutely…
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Why Key West? Rentals We Have Loved and Lost, and Other KW How-Tos
We used to find a Key West rental the easy way. Click around on VRBO dreaming for a while, pick the perfect place, contact the owner, send a small deposit. Done. Uh, no. Not any more. We’ve watched the rental market change dramatically since 2006, and now it’s more like 1) stalk renters who rave about a place, then follow them home to snag the address (we’ve done that); 2) sell all our worldly goods to pay enormous deposits a year in advance (may do that soon); or 3) bake cookies for the neighbors so they’ll invite you back (I always do that. Just ask the neighbors). People often ask…
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Happy New Year! 2019 Resolutions for Later-Life Travelers
Swim More Laps With Geese, Resolution #3, takes some explanation, so let’s back up and start with the easy ones: Resolution #5: Attend More Dachshund Parades (and other fun stuff) After I sat on the curb watching pooches parade from Whitehead to Duval (a very short parade, of course), I kept smiling for hours. Dachshunds are so…….short, and cute, and hey – if they can regally parade down the street, anyone can! They give the smallest, shortest of us plenty of hope, and we sure can use some of that in the year 2019. And let’s not forget all those interlopers: the Chihuahua Flash Mob, the take-charge boxers, the pampered…
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A Key West Christmas: BELIEVE!
I’ve always been a Christmas person. My folks loved Christmas too, and I have treasured memories of all those family Christmases long ago: Sitting in the pew at Christmas Eve candlelight service, Mom’s gorgeous table groaning with turkey and all the fixins, the tree with treasured ornaments, some I still hang on my own tree 60 years later. Over time, things change, of course. For several years I took over the family dinner duties, and have oodles of photos of our extended family, smiling round my Christmas table, so many in fact that I finally put them all in a photo book (you’re all in there somewhere, family – trust…
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St. Lucia and Grenada: Whales, Revolutions, and No Bananas for You!
So which is it: An idyllic paradise, or the modern-day legacy of a colonial past? Is it a picturesque Old World British village set in a lush tropical paradise, or the former site of bloody revolution, executions, and brutal slavery? Is it a romantic Loveboat, or the place where relationships go to die? That old saying ‘there are two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle’ applies to our Caribbean trip so far. Take that last contrast, for instance, on full display in the ship elevator the other day. When the door shut after an elderly couple got off, another passenger asked the rest of…
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Antigua and Barbados, Afoot and Afloat
There’s a first and a last time for everything. The last time I leaped off the back of a sailboat in snorkel gear was, let’s see….25 years ago? This time it was only a short drop, but if I managed it, my string of life leaps off cliffs, diving boards, and boats galore was not over yet, not by a long shot. But I had to do more than leap. I also had to survive our Captain’s Challenge (which is advertised as an activity for ‘intrepid swimmers’): Swim through deep ocean seas to Hell’s Gate rock formation, clamber inside its coral-encrusted limestone cave, climb up to the top of the…
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Tokyo: Monsoon Rains, Trains, Blossoms, and Brains
So I cheated. The photo above is not Tokyo, but it could have been a couple of weeks ago. The Japanese adore all things cherry blossom, and although the delicate pink blooms only hang around for a week, Tokyo dwellers go all out. Office workers pour out of skyscrapers to frolic under the blossoms at elaborate picnic parties, we hear. We witnessed this firsthand farther north in Hakodate, where I took the picture above, smack in the middle of 600 blooming cherry trees – lucky us. And lots more cherry blossom pictures in my next post (I threw one in here to help us imagine what Tokyo might have looked…
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Kamchatka, Russia: May the 4th Be With You. Twice!
What a perfect day to get to live twice: Star Wars Day! On a cruise ship crossing the international dateline, for us that means late-night parties, cakes, balloon drops, and two daily schedules, both for May 4th (not making that up – check out the picture). Even though I’ve been planning this cruise itinerary for months, I didn’t really get the fact that we would do some Groundhog-type time travel and repeat a day of our lives, only with cruise amenities and Star Wars cupcakes. So what did we do, with our extra day on earth? Same old, same old (writing, reading, failing to avoid the buffets, attending science presentations).…
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Japan: Kyoto, Shimizu, and the Two-Heart-Attack Train Challenge
We don’t back down from travel challenges, but our race through Yokohama’s sprawling train station had me longing for the rocker and remote, just for a moment. The morning started on a high note, with our entrance to Yokohama Harbor and our last morning with the Diamond Princess (thanks Shari for the ‘view’ tip, and the detailed instructions – it helped, trust me!). We hoped to disembark by 7:30 AM at the latest, catch a taxi to Yokohama station, locate the ticket office to buy our Narita Airport Express tickets, then find the Promised Land – platform 10 – all by 8:26 AM to make our noon flight. Hey, old…
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Hong Kong: No New Husbands Here, but a Great City Nevertheless
Hong Kong more than lived up to expectations, and I didn’t have to find a new husband there, thank goodness. Our wonderful tour guide Mandy would have helped me if things had come to that, I’m sure; she was simply the best. (Mandy and her sister Apple make up the much-in-demand tour company, The Hong Kong Getaway.) So Mandy started the new-husband thing as we taxied under Hong Kong Harbor, then traversed switchbacks all the way to the top of Victoria Peak. She described the various neighborhoods as we passed through each one, and informed the ladies in our small group (myself and Judy) that if we were looking for…
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Vietnam and Malaysia: Chaotic Scooter Culture, Vibrant Markets, and Rickety River Bridges
Let it be known that we did not die when we rode, perched in the front baskets of trishaw bicycles, through the middle – and I mean the middle – of Central Saigon traffic. I thought I might be a goner when my driver stuck his bike – I mean he stuck ME, since I was on the front of the bike – into the middle of an intersection, where waves of scooters revved, impatiently waiting to zoom across from three different directions. I closed my eyes and braced for impact, but they must have stopped for me, or I wouldn’t be writing this now, would I? Millions of small…
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Australia Easter: Convicts, Conquests, and Light in the Darkness
I’m having my own Sunrise Service here at sea, waiting for the sun’s rays to peek over the horizon any minute – I’m sure the captain up on the bridge is on the lookout as well. Padre plans to check out the passenger-led service later this morning, but you know Padres. They assess the ministering, just like teachers critique the teaching when they become the students. So I’m staying here to do my own Easter thing, and I’m sure I’ll hear all about it later. Padre has great fun attending the various offerings on board – yesterday, he went to one on men’s mental health (seriously) but he came back…
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Sydney, Australia: The Bus to Bondi Beach and Beyond
Sydney Touring Day 3 An almost free bus tour – sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? It was true, though; approximately $14 U.S. for transportation costs, and the tip was up to us, for an excellent three-hour tour. Our tour guide Martin drove the big rig as he narrated our ride out of Sydney proper to beaches, lookouts, ocean cliffs, far-flung Eastern suburbs, and more incredible views, which seem to be absolutely everywhere. I wonder if Sydneysiders yawn about all this gorgeousness after awhile; I really hope not. We began the day in Hyde Park, part of the City’s green parkland corridor running right through the heart of…
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Sydney, Australia: Ferries, Free Walking Tours, and Flinder’s Cat
The Harbor City just might steal this Seattle girl’s heart, and trust me the Emerald City is no slouch when it comes to scenic beauty. Back home, I’d still be bundled in the puffer coat and wool socks right now, but here I’m rocking my Judy Dench Best Exotic Marigold Hotel linen pants (Goodwill, $1) and clutching the sunscreen bottle closely (don’t leave home without it, our hotel attendant admonished us first thing). This just might be my favorite cruise port yet; what’s not to like? Just steps from our hotel’s front door, the Sydney Opera House’s white sails and the Harbor Bridge hover over little ferryboats puttering back and…
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Waikiki: Three Days On the Quiet End, and a Trip Down Memory Lane
It was one of those 1970’s low-ceilinged lounge cabarets; murky dark, smoky, packed. My teacher buddies kept calling for more rounds of syrupy-sweet Chi Chis with umbrellas, and sure – why not? So what if I was pregnant at the time? Hey, this was 1979; no one cared about that yet. Bad lounge singers marched out in cop/construction worker/cowboy/Indian chief outfits to belt out a brand new song we’d never heard before: Y – – -M – – -C – – -A- – -!!!! We rose to our tipsy feet, cheering them on – more Chi Chi’s, please! That bad behavior happened on my first visit to Waikiki almost 40…
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Oahu: How to Take Great Photos in Paradise, No Experience Required
Update: When visited Honolulu in 2019, arriving by cruise ship this time, we took this same photo tour and it was wonderful! See 2019 photos and info here. If you want to go right to the most exciting part of this post, check out the info about our first encounter with an automated Japanese toilet, which we’re still giggling about..…too much information on that later. We think the newfangled toilet discovery is just the first of many oddities (odd to us, anyway) that we’ll discover now that our two-month journey is finally underway. One problem, though – we did a bang-up job getting ready for this trip, but because we…
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Russia by Cruise Ship: Tours, Kitsch, and Safety Questions
After a once-in-a-lifetime visit to St. Petersburg last year, I was surprised that so many Americans asked me if I felt safe there. Sure I did, except in their subway, where I kept my eye on a clever Russian supposedly reading a book, who was also slyly eying Padre’s pocket. Thievery is rampant in the St. Petersburg subway, our guide warned us. But did I feel safe in Russia everywhere else? Absolutely. St. Petersburg’s travel industry adores tourists, especially our cash. I guarantee that your tour bus will stop at least once at an elaborate souvenir store filled with glowing shelves of tourist kitsch, all just for you, and you’ll…
