Can`t seem to download pics becasue I don`t read Japanese! WIll try again another time!

Puetro Princesa

April 14
We arrived early and docked just as the sun went down on the 13th. We spent some time watching the dock workers unload the “John Oliver” off our stern. It reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie! There were all these old crates and they used two rope slings to lift everything off. The men wore flip flops, no hard hats and were throwing 50lb bags of onions along the line and then onto the back of a truck. One bag accidentally went into the water so they had to jump in and get it. I don’t think we’d see this kind of action at home! They pulled everything from a large truck to crates of eggs off that boat. It was another world!The people at this port were pretty excited to see the ms Volendam and had a huge welcome party for us. Puerto Princesa is trying to become a major tourist destination in the Philippines. The mayor is quite the go getter and is well known because he’s really cleaned up the area both environmentally and in regards to personal safety. There were a lot of guards at the dock as well as in the stores in town. It really was lovely and I’d happily travel there again. Blair and I did a little sightseeing by three wheeled taxi and enjoyed their amazing city market. We also had the most beautiful sunset of the trip as we sailed away.

Hello from Japan!

We arrived in Japan　today after an amazing trip to Shanghai, Beijing and Dalien. We saw the great wall, the Forbidden City and much more. I`ll try to download my updates. If they don`t work I`ll try again in Kobe.
All is well with both of us and we`re having an wonderful time!
Blair and Kelly

Kotakinabalu, Malaysia

Sunday, April 12
The Lok Kawi Wildlife Park was a wonderful way to start our day in this lovely little Malaysian town. The park has an elephant recovery program and is designed to bring people closer to nature. Their motto is "take nothing but photos, leave nothing but foot prints". They've done a great job and we enjoyed watching all the animals. The three baby elephants were particularly fun to watch and the very proud keeper was happy to tell us about them. Two females and one little male to raise this group to 12. All have the same father and were really cute!
It was probably the hottest day this far so when the rain came we were all happy to see it! We needed to cool down. We went downtown and checked out some of the markets. There was a Sunday street market, a Phillipino craft market and a huge mall. We wandered through it all and thoroughly enjoyed the different colors, smells, wares and people. I don't know which I liked more because they were all worth visiting.
The Malaysian people have been very welcoming and seem happy to see us. They've had dancers and greeters at the boat in each port. I think it's a pretty big deal for some of these small towns to suddenly have over 1400 tourists descend and spend their money!
Pictures are below.
Kelly

Kotakinabalu pics

Heritage Village

Philippine Craft Market

Meat Market!

These veggies look good!

Our welcoming committee!

Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

Some of the great animals we saw at the park!

Hello to everyone!

That's it for now. We hope everyone is well and had a great Easter! We spent ours in Malaysia at the zoo! I'll add pictures and comments next time. Good luck to everyone doing the Sun Run this week-end.
Take care.
Love Blair and Kelly

Unification Palace

Looking at history! Upstairs was certainly nicer than down!

Saigon

Ho Chi Minh City

Friday, April 10th
I decided to take a ship's tour in Vietnam because I was worried we wouldn't have enough time to see everything. We're often docked a bit of a distance away from the cities we're visiting. In Vietnam, we had an almost two hour drive before we reached the city. I've since learned that we're more than capable of getting where we want to go on our own, but I guess I had to learn this the hard way! Anyways, we got the bus around 8am and spent a very long day doing the "Colonial Saigon" tour. We started at the city zoo and botanical gardens then went onto the Unification Palace. We saw Notre Dame Cathedral, the post office and the city museum. The guide provided a lot of history and it was interesting hearing from some-one living in a communist country. I would have liked to spend more time there and think this might be one of the places we'll have to visit again. I hope you like the pictures I've added to the blog. Traffic here was probably the craziest yet if you could believe it!!!

Pattaya Beach

Bangkok, Thailand

Tuesday, April 7th

Our visit to Bangkok was fascinating! The trip into town from our port was a couple of hours long and the traffic was wild! They've got large freeways and a good road system, but once you hit town, you enter the motorcycle/crazycar zone! I'm glad I wasn't driving! We worked our way into the center of things and went on an amazing tour of the Royal Palace. We joined up with two other couples for our visit and were lucky enough to take advantage of the guide one couple had organized. Once inside the grounds we saw an ornate, and what seemed like a never ending display of temples, murals, statues and glittering gold buildings. My eyes got tired and my brain was full! It was an incredible sight as I'm sure anyone who's seen it would agree.

We got caught in a storm on the way out of town and it was fascinating watching all the motorcyclists slip on theri colorful rain ponchos and just keep riding! Those people are crazy!

Politics here are on edge these days so we were lucky to head out of town just before the protests really got going. We missed the action in Bangkok and again in Pattaya but have been watching it on the news. I'm glad we left the countrywhen we did! Pattaya was fairly quiet on Wednesday when we were there. We saw them gearing up for the meetings/protests but didn't get into any difficulties. Blair and I actually enjoyed a relaxing foot massage before we left town.

Kemaman, Malaysia

April 5th, Sunday

We awoke to rain so were a little slow getting moving! There didn't seem to be much to do in port so we took our time before getting off the boat and catching a free shuttle into the little fishing town of Cukai. We were dropped off at a "wet market" where the locals had set up a wonderful welcome and a stage for dancing. There wasn't that much to see but here are a couple pictures from our visit.

I really enjoy the comments some of you have added. Please let me know how you are and what's happening at home. I've been checking our email and we'd love to hear from everyone.

Take care and we'll post again soon. Kelly

Singapore

Blair and I played the tourist in Singapore. The cable car was only a short walk from the boat so We went to Mt. Faber to see the view and then went back across to Sentosa Island. The island seems to be a man made resort with numerous beaches and tourist attractions. We arrived onto a hill and took the "luge" down to the waterlevel. We walked along a very clean and organized beach area before taking the free bus back to the chairlift and the cable car. It wasn't very busy but families were starting toar rive for a day of activities. It seemed a little strange because you had these incredibly clean beaches but when looked out to the harbour you could see hundreds of boats and a huge amount of industry. I wonder how clean the water was. A little bit of heaven in the city?Once we got back on the mainland we took a taxi to "Little India"! Driving through the city was wonderful becausethere were lots of trees and parks and it wasn't too crowded with buildings. There always seemed to be a bit of aview. We'd been advised to check out a store called Mustafa's so we were dropped off there. It's open 24/7 and is a site to behold. Absolutely huge!! You go downstairs in one block and come up in another. There were several stories and the stuff was just packed into tiny little aisles. I've never seen anything quite likeit! The colors, sounds and smells were amazing. We were there on Saturday but were told that Sunday is the busy day. I wonder! There were people everywhere.

Crossing the Equator

April 3rd, Friday

There was a King Neptune Ceremony on the boat when we crossed the Equator. The king and his mermaid queen decided onthe fate of the polywog crew. Everyone had to "kiss the fish" before they were treated with colored slime and theneither thrown in the drink or left to survive on dry land. I think I'd much rather have gone for a swim! We allrecieved certificates for crossing the equator and the crew assured us that by honoring Neptune we would have safe passage and smooth waters. We shall see!!

Komodo Island

Blair and friend on gorgeous Komodo Island, Indonesia!

Whitsunday pics

Here are the pics of Hamiliton Island in the Whitsunday group - Great Barrier Reef!

Darwin Australia

Blair got a little "caught up" sight seeing in Darwin!!

What an incredibly tough city! Did you know they were blown to bits during the second world war? Even more bombs than Pearl Harbour! Once they rebuilt they were knocked down again by Cyclone Tracy in I think 1974. It's a great little city. Very friendly, very charming and very hot!!

This is a picture of the Parliament buiding in the main part of town!

Cairns picture

Beautiful Keranda Railway just outside of Cairns! We spent 2 1/2 hours going up on this train and then another couple hours coming down on a skyrail

Incredible rainforest and beautiful waterfalls. I highly recommend it for anyone going to this great city!