Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Port of Call: MUMBAI, INDIA.

Mumbai.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
India.
Maharashtra.
Mumbai.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Mumbai.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Mumbai.

ROUGH GUIDE [tourism]
Mumbai.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Port of Call: COCHIN, INDIA.

Kochi.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
India.
Kerala.
Kochi.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Cochin.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
India.

ROUGH GUIDE [tourism]
Kochi and around.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I guess...

We've finally succumbed to the gentle sounds of the waves and the rush of the winds in the palm trees... not much record keeping these days, but it seems out of touch with the rhythm of ship life.

I'll post something interesting later this week: promise!

Port of Call: SINGAPORE

Singapore.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
Singapore.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Singapore.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Singapore.

ROUGH GUIDE [tourism]
Singapore.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Port of Call: BANGKOK (LAEM CHABANG), THAILAND.

Bangkok.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
Thailand.
Bangkok.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Bangkok.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Bangkok.

ROUGH GUIDE [tourism]
Bangkok.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Port of Call: DA NANG (CHAN MAY), VIETNAM.

Da Nang.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
Vietnam.
Nam Trung Bo.
Da Nang.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Da Nang.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Vietnam.

ROUGH GUIDE [tourism]
Vietnam: The Central Provinces.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Port of Call: HONG KONG, CHINA.

Hong Kong.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
People's Republic of China.
Hong Kong.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Hong Kong.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Hong Kong.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Port of Call: SHANGHAI, CHINA.

I know... I've been a bit behind lately.

Shanghai.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
People's Republic of China.
Shanghai.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Shanghai.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Shanghai.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Port of Call: OSAKA (KYOTO), JAPAN.

This was actually from last Tuesday, but I was so busy having fun I forgot to post it.

Kyoto.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
Japan.
Kyoto.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Kyoto.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Kyoto.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Japan...

I'm still a little down after my whirlwind adventure in Australia...the others have really taken to Tokyo and are full of excitement about Osaka, but all I really know about these places was gleaned off of the Kill Bill movies and Lost in Translation, which I didn't like. Connor promised to smuggle some Sake aboard, though, which I think will make a very nice addition to dinner. =)

I've kept in touch with the folks in Chicago, and since we're not very far from India now, one of them has e-mailed me several links to Bollywood videos on youtube.com to get me ready. Based on those videos, I expect to see everyone dancing and singing at all hours of the day!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Port of Call: YOKOHAMA (TOKYO), JAPAN.

Tokyo.

WIKIPEDIA [general]
Japan.
Tokyo.

EMPORIS [architecture / skylines]
Tokyo.

LONELY PLANET [tourism]
Tokyo.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

So much ocean....

Well another day of just cruising the lovely Pacific Ocean! I think I can cope with that!



I feel slack for not posting here for so long. Noel went home when we got to Sydney so it's just been me chasing the crazy girls since then! Not much time to stop and blog.


It was so awesome taking the others to my home town! (well, not exactly my home town, cos that's over an hour outside of Sydney and pretty boring for overseas visitors! But I pointed out my street on a map!) Noel and I felt so proud as we sailed into Sydney Harbour and pointed out different suburbs and beaches and headlands and landmarks. Tell you what, there were SO many people along the foreshore to see the QE2 and the Queen Mary 2 (which left Sydney the night we arrived). It was amazing! I called my mum and she said it had been all over the news and there were huge traffic jams and crowd problems in the city because thousands and thousands of people came to greet the ships! And there was a fireworks display to greet us, it was so exciting. I love Sydney!

We all partied fairly hard in Sydney and on the 2nd night I surprised everyone with Bridge Climb tickets that I'd arranged. It was the 2nd time Noel and I had done it but it was just as cool. Standing on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is very very cool. You're not allowed to take photos while on the climb but here's a group a few hours before us... approaching the southern pylon...


































And here's me underneath the southern end of the bridge on the way to the BridgeClimb offices...























The last day in Sydney the girls and I just hung out with Noel, had a really nice lunch together and then Noel took us back to the ship and said his goodbyes to everyone. We didn't drop in at home with him because I didn't want the girls to think we were going home and then get all upset. Tali was a bit cranky that Daddy wasn't coming back on the boat but Bea didn't seem to mind. They've both been pretty fine since then and Tali just keeps telling the others that Daddy's gone back to work. Poor Daddy.


Anyway. I was so excited to go to Brisbane because I've been dying to go visit my friend who lives a couple of hours outside Brissie. I hired a car and took the girls to visit her for the day. She has three kids and we just had a lovely relaxing day at her house. It was so great for Tali and Bea to play with some kids who don't get around with armfuls of expensive gadgets and toys and fancy clothing. That's actually been close to my favourite day so far. I felt so relaxed and at home.


The Barrier Reef was fun of course. We just hung out on the beach most of the day. I was too scared to take the girls on a little boat without Noel there to help, they probably would've tried to jump in with the fishies. But we saw lots of little fishies and crabs and even a starfish which Tali thought was fabulous.


Going north of Australia has been awesome. I've decided I LOVE the tropics. Hot and beautiful and just so alive somehow.

Papua New Guinea is totally gorgeous. Gemma and Julie and I took the girls on a walk near a kind of mountainy area. It was a few hours' walking and we got food from a market before we went and had a beautiful picnic lunch near a little stream in the shadow of a volcano. It reminded me of the landscape in the show "Lost". The walk back was very slow going because the girls were so tired and Gemma and Julie disappeared (ahem!) on me. But I managed to hold off the overtired tantrums for long enough to get back to the ship, tuck the crashed-out girls into bed and order room service and a massage. Now that was a nice end to the day.


The last few days I've actually made some really good progress with my Handy Dandy Notebook. I've been working on a couple of characters based on some of the more eccentric passengers here. Three monologues are done for a girl I've called Therese, based on a single girl I met once in the Funnell Bar - she seemed lonely and had a few strneg things to say but doesn't seem to want to be friends. Anyway she intrigued me and I've made up this girl with a fairly good story behind her and I think I might even have enough ideas to write a play about her. So far it's just the monologues.

And the other one is based on a lovely old lady I met named Elizabeth. She's told me and the girls so many stories over the last month or so and I've written some of them down as monologues. I read a couple of them to her yesterday and she was so pleased. She said she wants to see me in a film one day and then said "you'd better hurry up though, I've only got a couple more film-watching years left!". She's a funny old thing.


Anyway right now, Amber and Meridith and I (and the girls obviously) are off for a swim and a sunbake. It's a hard life...

Saturday, March 03, 2007


Well, it finally happened: I saw a koala -- actually, quite a few -- and got to hold one!! I was obsessed with koalas for a couple years in elementary school and made lots of elaborate plans to visit Australia. And here I am! In Brisbane, Gemma, Julie, Amber and I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which offers "koala hugs" in addition to much looking at wildlife. I kind of felt bad for the koala I was hugging, though; there were a lot of tourists hugging and it seemed kind of overwhelming. It's hard enough for me to tell how other humans with similar upbringings to me are ever feeling, though -- so I definitely don't trust my analysis of koala feelings. The staff also explained that individual koalas can only cuddle for 30 minutes a day and get every fourth day off (union rules!), which was reassuring. And I even saw a couple koalas deliberately climbing on staff! I was excited to learn more about them, too -- my pre-Wikipedia second-grade obsession didn't lead me to learn that they sleep 22 hours a day (wild!).
The koala sanctuary was a fun experience, and I found it worthwhile -- koalas are really, really, really cute -- but I think at our next stop I'll return to my habit of trying to avoid the more touristy activities.

In other news, the reason I haven't been blogging much lately is that my laptop's hard drive finally gave out last week -- which seriously hindered my website-making projects. Fortunately, I was able to find other computers to borrow, and in Sydney I got a new hard drive -- I've been installing Linux for the first time (as a replacement for the OS I lost when the hard drive died), which is exciting. It's finally working well enough for me to use the internet. Rock. I am so technically accomplished. :)