Random thoughts from the sea
Day 49, Grand Asia 2018 Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018, Darwin, Australia: Some ports I visited last year were hazy in my memory until I stepped ashore. Others didn’t even look familiar the second time. I remembered Darwin down to the smallest details. It’s a small city, with a central business
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Day 47, Grand Asia 2018 Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, Komodo Island, Indonesia: I have a confession to make. I have been misleading fellow passengers all day about seeing Komodo Dragons. When asked if I planned to go ashore after our noon arrival, I say, “No, I was here last year.”
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Day 46, Grand Asia 2018 Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, Bali, Indonesia: Tourists don’t come to Denpasar, our driver said. The capital of Bali, with its 1 million people, is a big city with crazy traffic but no popular tourist sites. The tourists migrate to Ubud’s art markets, the temples throughout
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Day 45, Grand Asia 2018 Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, At Sea: Not all food adventures on this cruise take place on shore. Tonight I joined about 60 other passengers for a seven-course Balinese dinner paired with wines in the Pinnacle Grill. Chef Heinz Von Holsten boarded the Amsterdam along with
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Day 44, Grand Asia 2018 Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, Semarang, Indonesia: For passengers, Semarang is the portal for Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the Southern Hemisphere. For many of the Amsterdam’s Indonesian crew, it is home, or at least as close a cruise ships sail. It’s an opportunity for
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Day 43, Grand Asia 2018 Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, At Sea: I’ve written before about how I discovered a love of watercolor during last year’s Grand Asia cruise. Our instructor Jack encouraged us to paint what we wanted, to use all the supplies we needed and to paint all day.
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Day 42, Grand Asia 2018 Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018, Singapore: The first thunderclap hit just as I arrived via elevator at the top of the 138-foot Cloud Mountain inside a 2-acre glass enclosure. People screamed. It felt like we were inside a giant thunderstorm. As I worked my way down
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Day 41, Grand Asia 2018 Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, Singapore: Another port, another food adventure. This is the beauty of having visited many of these places before. I’m free from the obligation to take the “Best of” tour. Instead, I am looking for experiences. They seem to revolve around food.
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Day 38, Grand Asia 2018 Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, Nha Trang, Vietnam: If there was a day for me to wake up with a scratchy throat, this was it, I guess. I had booked an independent tour with some fellow passengers from our Cruise Critic roll call. But the forecast
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Day 36, Grand Asia 2018 Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, Hong Kong: I keep thinking this cruise can’t get any better, and then it does. Our berth in Hong Kong is at Kai Tak, the site of the old Hong Kong airport turned into a cruise port on Kowloon. It’s not
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