Sunday, April 26
Today is our last "sea day" and also our last day at sea. It's always sad when a cruise finishes and this one has been very interesting with ports of call as diverse as poverty-stricken Sihanoukville in Cambodia to the glitz and glamour of Shanghai and the ancient wonder of the Great Wall of China. There have been enticing aromas of eastern spices and foul smells of local fish markets. There has been mayhem as motorbikes dashed and weaved along roads in Vietnam to the peaceful calm of Halong Bay but for us, the thing that has been consistent has been the lovely people we have met in each country. Certainly some have been friendlier than others but all have tried to make us feel welcome in their own way and we are always amazed at how much can be communicated without actual language simply through a smile, nod of the head or a little "charade". Neither Al nor I feel like rushing back to Asia any time soon but we have experienced some wonderful things this trip that we would never want to trade.
As usual, we started our sea day with a sleep-in and leisurely breakfast but, unlike other sea days that we have just lazed our way through, this one required us to pack - the dislike of the task being one of the reasons we cruise in the first place - unpack once, re-pack once!
On last days, everyone rushes around trying to say goodbye to friends made during the cruise and swap email addresses, etc. and, for us, this took until lunchtime. We had arranged to meet another Aussie couple, Alan & Linda, to discuss plans for tomorrow's trip from the port in Kobe to the city of Kyoto - some 75 kms away. They are staying in Kyoto as well and, like us, had done some research before leaving Australia - so we figured we would swap notes. We had lunch with them, chatted to some Canadians afterwards and, before we knew it, it was almost 2 pm. We returned to our stateroom and started the job of fitting all the new purchases into our cases, deciding what could be discarded then just getting down to the job at hand. At the end, we were pleased to find our cases were still below our airline limit that is thankfully 30 kgs each.
We then took the opportunity to go and listen to Michael, a very good singer & guitarist, before meeting friends from Denver for dinner. We actually met Buck & Carol at lunch on our first day aboard but, because we were sitting opposite each other on a table of 10, we didn't get the chance to really meet. Our paths crossed a number of times after that but on the Halong Bay cruise we sat with each other and our friendship really took off. We decided to have dinner together in the specialty restaurant "Canaletto" for our last meal of the cruise and we all had a great night. We are sure we will see each other again before too long be it in their country or ours or maybe on another cruise. The dinner was a lovely end to an interesting cruise.
Buck & Carol from Denver
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