Memorable Quotes from 2015 travels

"I knew I shouldn't have left the money in the room with the door unlocked, even though we were only gone a couple hours."  stated by one of our 6 other OAT guests after missing $500
the second night of our trip at the Lodge on the Crocodile River in Kruger National Park, S. Africa.

"Happy Days!", said JB, our guide, after he interrupted our OAT tour dinner at the Sable Sands Lodge in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, and careened through the veld off road to find us our first lion sighting - a black bearded male, resting under a bush.  JB and Thompson, our guides, tracked the lion with large flashlights in pitch black night to this unlikely spot.  The lion eventually yawned.  JB said, "now he will get up and leave", which he did a minute later.  We were able to follow slowly along side this majestic, regal lion as he made his way back to the main track to continue marking his territory.

"I know it was Capt Vancouver, not Capt Cook", said David Case to his crack Trivia Team members in answer to the 13th question:  "Who named the Sandwich Islands?"  Since David is FROM the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii, the rest of the team reluctantly changed their answer from the obvious Capt Cook.  Needless to say, David bought everyone a round of drinks after the contest.

"Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy"

These were the words of a new song written on stage and in front of the audience in the Insignia Lounge by  Darren Williams, a talented singer and entertainer.  He said he would write a song using someone's name, just call out the name.  David called out Dorothy.  He accepted the challenge, but could not think of anything that rhymed with Dorothy, thus, the words above.  It was a very catchy tune which everyone sang to me for a few days after the show.  Actually, no one remembered the tune, but the words were easy.

"What do you mean, you don't have your passports?"  said by our tour guide assigned to get 11 guests on a plane to Xian, China to see the Xian Terra Cotta Warriors on an overnight excursion.  As we left the Insignia Lounge with our bus number which was our official pass to leave the ship and go on the tour, the Destinations representative handed each of us our passports.  However, she told us that we were not to show it to anyone.  If we showed it to someone, they might stamp it and then we couldn't go in or out of China again.  So when we got to the airport, the representative asked for our passports to give to the ticket agent before letting us board the plane.  Every one of us said we did not have our passports.  The agent was totally shocked.  She called her agency.  We said we needed to talk to the ship.  After 10 minutes or so, we talked to Marina who warned us not to show anyone the passports.  She appologized and said that  of course we should show them for this purpose.  We all decided that we would be good at the Liar's Club night, which was coming up soon.

"I'll be damned if I accept a tow back to shore, I came this far, I can surely make it", said I returning by kayak from a normally 20 minute paddle from the island to shore in the Kingdom of Tonga, but which was taking 45 minutes to this point in drizzly, gray skies and blowing winds.  The kayak only went to the right pushed by the wind and current.  All my stroke and power had to be on the left to compensate.

"May we present you with our olive oil and balsamic vinegar menu selection?"  Fabio, the head waiter of the Toscana specialty restaurant asked after rolling up a trolley filled with about 8 different selections of each specialty oil or vinegar which will be used for dipping bread.  Next the bread was placed on the table.  Hand made, thin, Bread sticks, whole wheat or white fresh baguettes, puff balls skewered on a stick, lavosh flat bread or cracker.  This was our downfall and reason I gained 8 pounds on the trip.

July, 2015, World Cruise: Coffee and Tea

I have to preface this entry by stating that the best coffee in the world is 100% Kona coffee.  Mike and Mary MacCheyne's coffee, MnM Kona coffee is very reasonable and they are expert coffee farmers, doing it all themselves to assure quality control.  Order it direct at www.mnmkonacoffee.com. Gourmet estate coffee at a reasonable price.

Whenever we visited a coffee growing country, we bought some local coffee.  It started in Viet Nam at a large gift shop/rest stop.  This was called "weazle coffee".  We couldn't read the rest of the label so we assumed it was the coffee we had heard about where the small weazle ate the coffee cherry and pooped it out and then they gathered the beans and processed them as specialty coffee.  This coffee was about $10 per pound, however, so we were not sure if it was the famous one or not, or even if it just has the trade name weazel coffee.

Weasel coffee and Luwak coffee.  The "weazel" sure looks like a squirrel to me.  Luwak shows an actual civit which we saw at this coffee store in Bali

After our Bali tour of the island, we begged our guide to take us to buy the genuine Luwak coffee.  We wntered through lush garden walkways to the rear of the property to see the civits in cages.  A lovely lady and her assistant prepared a cup of the coffee for about $8.00 a cup.  David had a cup of medium roast and pronounced it smooth, velvety and delicious.  I was already in the gift shop comparing sizes and prices.  The shop also sold high end souvenirs.  We ended up buying two bags of 200g of coffee for about $125.00.  It is sold by the gram, but roughly 1 lb of coffee would be over $150.00 at this outlet.

Kingdom of Tonga coffee and Huatulco, Mexico coffee

The rest of the coffees we purchased were less than $10.00 per bag.  We bought the Tongan coffee at the pier where merchants set up tents to sell to the cruise ships.

The Cafe Huatulco in Mexico was sold at a coffee cafe in the middle of the town square near the cruise pier.  It was a local cafe, not necessarily for tourists.  The young beautiful woman poured us each a cup to taste when she saw our interest in buying her coffee.  As with every freshly prepared, fresh roasted coffee, it was delicious.  She had medium or dark roast, beans or ground.  We never buy ground coffee.  You have no idea what the size, shape or color of the beans were, freshness, or even if it is all from the same farm.  Lots of defects can be masked by buying ground coffee.

We talked about where the coffee was grown and how, whether they had the coffee berry borer beetle, etc.  Soon her mother joined us.  She is the owner of the large coffee farm in the green mountains we saw as we drove back from our tour.  I think she said they had 700 acres at an elevation about 3,000 ft.  The language barrier prevented us from learning much more.  It was delicous coffee.  We decided to buy a pound, and also saw this bag of chocolate chunks which is a drink or even a candy.  We went to pay and it was only $10 for both!  

Guatamala and Nicaraguan coffee 

David went to the El Barretal coffee farm in Guatamala while I went to the Rosario beach.  His ride there was over an hour.  The farm was at 4,000 ft.  The hacienda held musical instruments like guitars and ukuleles like they played music a lot.  They had 200 acres.  The processing equipment was for large quantities, but much older models.  The beans were dried on a big patio by the house with no hoshidana roof if it rained.  There was a gas fired drier and a 200 lb coffee roaster.

Kilambe coffee beans from Nicaragua were purchased also at one of the stands set up for our cruise ship by the port.

Costa Rican coffee beans, and Panamanian coffee

We purchased the Costa Rican coffee at the bird park gift shop.  Our gift shop brought on board Panamanian souvenirs.  We bought this bag of coffee beans there.  We never got off the ship in Panama.

David bought this coffee in Cartegena when at a coffee shop with Jerry and Marion, the bridge instructors.

Tea

In Asia, we were able to purchase some tea.

This is 8 treasure chrysanthemum tea.  Unlike the other teas, I can read the box.  The ingredients are rock sugar, Jujube (red date), Longan, green tea, chrysanthemum, goji berries, raisin, Tremella.  It is from Zhangzhou, fujian, China.  food.TENFU.com, TCRM@tenfu.com.  When Bonnie Godfred and I were in China in 2000 I bought some of this tea.  It comes in individual packets.  You can brew three cups from one packet.  The rock sugar is probably what makes it taste so good, but it is very special.  I think this cost $7.  Flavia bought it for me.  When I asked in a tea store, I never got an answer, but she knew where and how to buy it.  She got a box for herself.

These cannisters we bought in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from the merchants at the pier.  The red is oolong tea, best quality.  The blue is alishantra mountain oolong tea.

The top box is ginger tea.  There are 20 packets of brown sugar squares infused with ginger.  It is very strong and one square makes a lot of tea.    That was the best instruction I was able to get from the tea seller at the market where we bought it somewhere in Asia.  I think it was about $15.00.  At home, it makes one whole tea pot of tea, about 5 cups.  It is quite delicious with brown sugar and the sharp tang of fresh ginger flavor.  When I cleaned the teapot there were chopped up pieces of fresh dried ginger in the bottom.  This is really nice ginger tea!

The bottom box is litchi tea made from green tea and lychee.  At our tea tasting in Xiamin, this was the most popular green tea which almost everyone bought.  But it was about $20.00.

I also bought a small bag of green tea which is delicious but I have no recollection where I got it and can't read the bag at all.  But the color of the bag is green, so it must be green tea (right?)

We have to confess that in New Zealand, in Picton, we had that delicious lunch of blue green lipped mussels with a glass of New Zealand wine.  So we bought a bottle of wine at the store on the corner.  New Zealand white sauvignon blanc wine is delicious.  We savored it for quite awhile.

Tasting notes of the various coffees and teas are to come.

July 10, 2015, Kailua Kona, HI

We traveled by airplane 26,250 miles.  We traveled by ship 32,592 miles, or 28,322 nautical miles in over 109 days.  This is a total of 58,842 miles traveled by plane and ship since December 31, 2014.

Home!

Our front door

From below

Side and below

Always a beautiful sunset

We went to the condo swimming pool right away

We have now cancelled the Jan 2016 voyage which would complete the section of the cruise we missed.  We have cancelled the July to Sept cruise Miami to Miami which is similar to the first part of the world cruise that left July, 2015 which some of our fellow passengers continued on in order to circle the world, ending in Singapore.

We intend to cruise the Circle of S. America from Sept 29 to December 11 on the Insignia.

We found a Grand Circle Foundation tour of Cuba which ends the day before this cruise in Miami, allowing us to see the latin part of the world.  We have the Rosetta Stone Latin America Spanish program and I am using it already because I will have to do it twice in order to retain just a little bit of it.  It is very well done I think.

Recently we heard of a Hawaiian resident special offer on a Paul Gauguin cruise to Tahiti stopping at many of the ports we did.  This was the most fun part for me and I wanted to go back, so we booked the cruise and airfare and are leaving Jan 23rd for the one week cruise.  Our friends and neighbors Bill and Gabriella will also be going, and then our friends Sharron and Bill Fisherman from Alaska and Oahu booked it as well.  Happy Days!  This should be a fun time in the sun.

July 8,9, 2015, Wednesday, Thursday. HOME!

We woke early enough to see the Miami skyline all lit up as we pulled into port.

We have traveled by airplane 26,250 miles.  We traveled by ship 32,592 miles, or 28,322 nautical miles over 109 days.  This is a total of 58,842 miles traveled since December 31, 2014!

  I posted a short movie on Facebook showing a building readerboard with GOOD MORNING

MIAMI streaming on its face.  We finished our last minute packing and headed for a quick breakfast, joining Bob and Connie for the last time.  It is bitter sweet saying goodbye to all the friends we have met and yet finally coming home.

Getting our bags and customs.  I was told I couldn't take this photo

People still getting off the ship.  600+ people had to debark

On the Big Bus watching the busses heading to the airport

Three passengers took forever to show up for the face to face with customs agents which delayed everyone getting off the ship.  We identified our bags and the luggage free agents gave us our new correct address tags and took all the world cruiser bags efficiently.  Then we gave our large carry ons to the Big Bus, the Hop on Hop Off bus for Miami.  This company has a hop on hop off bus in: Abu Dhabi, Budapest, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, London, Miami, Muscat, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Shanghai, Vienna, and Washington DC.  It usually costs about $50.00 but the guides are pretty good and it is very convenient.  

We first went on the city loop taking us to Coconut Grove and Coral Gables, then little Havana where there are still cigar factories.

Freedom Bldg

Bus view

Natural swimming pool

Cigar factory

Cuban Art

The next loop was the uptown loop.  Wynwood shopping area, midtown, historic Overtown, the original black area of Miami, and the design district.  There was a unique area where the buildings-were purposely   painted in graphic designs, attracting tourists to the art district.

This was a painting

Nice designs

I think this is a Marriott

The last loop was the Beach Loop.  We crossed the bay on the MacArthur Causeway to South Beach and the art deco buildings along Ocean Drive.  We finally got out on Ocean Dr. and had lunch at the Front Porch Cafe.  We ordered a salad.  It came in a huge bowl brimming with lettuce and toppings.  Back to the States and super size me.  Across the street I saw two handsome buff young men walking in tiny speedo suits.  This town even comes with eye candy.  I talked to my brother for awhile.  He said that these men may not be what I think.  He is busy seeing his kids.  He goes to Boston this weekend to see U2 again with Marlene who loves U2.

Our last glimpse of the ship

We made it back to the station and caught the last shuttle to the airport which is provided with our tour.  Silvia drove us directly to the hotel since we were the only passengers.  Four different Marriott hotels are on one campus.  We could stay at the Marriott or the Residence Inn for $189.00, or the Courtyard for $99.00.  I went swimming in the warm pool and then we had yet another huge meal of salad and a delicious cuban sandwich.  It is made of sweet bread shaped like a hoagie with pork, ham, pickles, mustard and mayo, then cooked in something that flattens it making the top and bottom toasted.  The movie Chef featured the characters driving a food truck making Cuban sandwiches.  We watched the second week Veto show of Big Brother 17 and then went to bed.

Thursday

We woke early.  We were probably pretty anxious to get these flights over and get home!  We got the 5:30am shuttle to the airport.  Our flights were all first class.  First to Houston, then to LAX, then to Kona - all on United.  Yesterday United computers went down worldwide and flights were cancelled for two hours.  Some of our friends departing yesterday were delayed.  Sue and Gene even had to spend the night somewhere.  Today our flights were on time.  Bill and Gabriella picked us up in Kona.  Home at last!

We traveled by airplane 26,250 miles.  We traveled by ship 32,592 miles, or 28,322 nautical miles over 109 days.  This is a total of 58,842 miles traveled since December 31, 2014

July 5, 6, 7, 2015, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday en route to Miami

Three sea days in a row because we had a storm system that required us to take a different course which was longer and therefore we could not land in Key West.  Someday we will get to Keywest.  One of our friends lives there near the port and was going to practically walk home from there.  I don't know what she did.  So we headed directly to Miami.

Not much is going on, either, on the ship.  Sit to be fit, art class, origami class, Bingo, trivia, and of course, dining.  We are ready to get home.  These sea days didn't seem as much fun as others.  We are beginning to realize we have to say goodbye to our friends who will all be going different ways.

They gave us our bags  so we could start packing.  I thought this was too early.  but then I started thinking about it and realized I had to turn in the laundry right away, and had to see where things would go and how, and eventually we finished 5 minutes before 10:00pm when the bags were to be outside the room.  Luggage Free ships four 50lb. bags home for us so we don't have to worry about them at the airport.  We got the information and the luggage tags, but ours have my brother David's address on it.  Luggage free picked up the bags there so they want to deliver them back to there.  The concierge contacted them and we had new tags after we got off the ship.

Monday

One of the activities was a question and answer about the ship.  The Captain, the Personnel officer, and the General Manager appeared to explain how they got their jobs, how long they have worked and answer questions.  The Captain said it cost $132,000 to go through the Panama Canal.  Port fees depend on what services we require.  Usually it is like $5.00 per passenger.  but if we are bunkering (taking on fuel), or getting supplies which require stevedores or other services, it is more.  He said it will probably cost $80,000 in the port of Miami where just about everyone is getting off the ship and new passengers will embark.  They will be resupplied as well.  The Personnel Director said the service personnel are the ones who split the tips.  They also get a salary.  You can distinguish them by complimenting them on the comment card.  The crew have two mess halls and delicious meals with many choices much like us.  They ususally work 10 hour days. Right now there are staff from 38 different countries.  The GM said a ship is like managing a luxury hotel.  A big difference is that if you need three more waiters for a special event, or you run out of something, you can't just call and get them right away.  The supplies are ordered 2 months in advance to be loaded into the stores.  there is one person in charge of the supplies who also has assistants.  We watched one day while the ship was supplied through a door next to the pier from containers using fork lifts.  It took all day long to put the pallets into the ship.  

The winners of the second photo contest were announced in the afternoon.  

Here is one entered by a friend, that I really liked.

Later in the afternoon the Captain announced that we would have a helicopter pick up a passenger tomorrow morning.  After dinner he announced that the Coast Guard could come now.  The ship changed its course to be into the prevailing winds.

Coast Guard rescue helicopter

A huge helicopter pulled up along the port side, which is our side of the ship.  We watched it hover to maintain the same speed as the ship.  Then a lighted rope came down.  Then an orange suited person with a helmet and straps and backpack came down on a rope.  The copter moved off and hovered for awhile.  Then a big basket was lowered.  Soon it came back to the copter with someone in it.  It had lots of dark orange bolsters and was like a cage.  I thought they were done, but then they let down another lighted rope.  This time a smaller stretcher built like a smaller cage, was lifted off the boat and smoothly pushed into the hold of the copter.  But still another lighted red rope came down and soon the original rescuer was hoisted back into the copter, holding onto the rope somehow.  After this, it left.  I don't know why there were two airlifted cages, one large and one just the size of a person.  I am wondering if the first was the loved one and luggage, the second one the patient.  We found out that a nurse accompanied the patient.  A chef, only 42 years old, had a heart attack.  He was the one who carved the ice carvings and made beautiful fruit and vegetable decorations for the buffets.

We got our final Cruise comment questionnaire to fill out.  We got another customs form to fill out.  We didn't go to the final show, the opera singer Alberto Sanchez, so we could pack.  We missed the final farewell and salute from the crew.  This is a very special time where they have all the crew march in and come onstage.  It is very impressive and emotional when we saw it before.  I forgot about it, and regret not going.

Betty Jean Wylie, the Canadian author, and Tammy and Andy Heath, our cruise directors

Tuesday

Calmer seas greeted us.  The main activity was the ship building contest.  There were not as many entries at all.  Harold's 10 yr old grandson had a cute entry he made himself and he sat on the ship in the pool himself.

The winning boat made of empty water bottles

This boat carried a bathing beauty which got it a lot of crowd appeal

I learned how to make a paper frog.  Jack teaches origami to kids.  It is a wonderful hobby.

Origami frog.  Flick it's tail and it hops!

Goodbye to Becky and Alan Rubin our trivia team members and friends

 Wednesday

Our last breakfast

Roy, one of our favorite waiters.  He is from the Philippines

I picked up my art projects:

We said goodbye to Mary Grace and Kadek, our cabin stewards who took excellent care of us throughout the whole cruise.  Mary Grace rocks.  Literally.  She is an amazing dancer.  One evening when the ship was particularly gnarly, we asked how she was doing and she said "I'm drunk!"
 We will miss having our beds made every day, clean towels twice a day if we want, and a turn down and chocolates in the evening after dinner.  Mary Grace's husband did our laundry.

Kadek, Mary Grace, our cabin stewards, from Philippines

The End