Before I begin telling you about our day, I must relay one more thing we saw yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City. As we were on the bus making the drive to the city, we passed a brightly colored, ornate red and gold vehicle that was like a flat bed truck but the bed was enclosed. Our guide Rose told us this was a Buddhist funeral transport, kind of like one of our hearses. It was followed by a small bus containing friends, family and neighbors of the deceased and was en route to a crematorium. According to Buddhist belief, the deceased must be cremated within 24 hours of death. Men seated in the cab of the truck were tossing small slips of papers out the window, which we could only imagine contained information about the deceased.
It reminded me of the funeral truck we had seen on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, a plain flat bed truck carrying a casket and decorated with tropical flowers. The flat bed was loaded with friends and family, legs dangling off the sides, singing as it drove along. I think coming upon these sorts of practices and traditions is one of my very favorite parts of travel (not the death part, but you know what I mean).
So, back to today…
I started this day in the way that I seem to start at least one day every season: with a trip to the Medical Center. I will ‘fess up and tell you that since our final day in Dubai I’ve been dealing with a cold that had gone into something else. When I told you I crashed during those first two days back on the Sapphire Princess, I really crashed. I was at that messy part of a cold, and spent most of my days in the cabin so as not to spread germs but also to sleep. I believed I was getting over it, and then it moved into my sinuses and lungs. I think G was tired of hearing that deep cough that I limited to the cabin but mostly at night, interrupting his sleep. I was also tired of literally dragging myself through these days of sightseeing and then crashing on our sea days. I am now medicated with an antibiotic and assorted decongestants and sprays that should have have me feeling at my best again shortly. I don’t think it helps that we go from high heat and humidity to cold air conditioning several times every day. We aren’t used to either of those at home.
But feeling my best again is a good thing, because when I counted the number of port days in a row between sea days last week, I had forgotten that the three-night cruise, with Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore again is really FOUR port days in a row. We had talked about getting off the ship for those three days and staying in a hotel in Singapore, traveling with just a backpack and leaving everything else in our cabin. In fact, I even had a fully cancellable hotel booked in Singapore, but we made the decision last turnaround day to simply stay on the ship for that three day cruise. We still have two more turnaround days in Singapore, and will get to a few of the sights that are important to us. We also might make the day the ship is in back in Kuala Lumpur into a quasi-sea day, which is sorely needed about now. Might.
It was 11am when I took my first antibiotic, and I couldn’t eat for an hour afterward. Since my previous food had been last night’s dinner, I was starved, which, as I’ve said before, is a good feeling on a cruise ship. The British Pub Lunch was offered today in the Savoy Dining Room, and I accompanied G and had two pieces of fish and some fries, because when I’m that hungry I make poor food choices.
G filled me in on this morning’s backstage tour while we were at lunch. He met several members of the cast and was told that Princess offers about 40 production shows across its 17 ships. The cast on this ship rotates together between the Sapphire Princess, the Diamond Princess and the Caribbean Princess. I think we had known that from when we were on the Caribbean Princess a few years ago and talked with some cast members who were about to rotate. That’s a nice contract, with the Diamond usually in Asia and the Sapphire in Europe and Asia and the Caribbean Princess in the Caribbean and Europe, this cast gets to see a lot of the world.
With my afternoon being filled with mostly rest and reading, I’ll take time today to talk a bit about my recent misadventures and foibles. I seem to accumulate a list of these each season, far more easily than I do at home. In fact, it’s inevitable that, while I am at home packing to be away for several months, I wonder what will happen this year. It started quite benignly, with a pair of my reader sunglasses getting broken on our very first cruise. This happens Every. Single. Year. as they get thrown into day bags and the two small purses I use on the ship. We did buy some super glue at a tiny market in Civitavecchia and I attempted to glue them back together, but, always, that lasted about two days. Luckily, I have one more pair, because they are nearly impossible to find overseas.
It’s good that I had the super glue though; I needed it to repair the black clutch purse I use on formal nights. It started to come apart about a month into our adventure, and a healthy shot of glue put it back together…except for the flap part, which chose to come apart about a week later. I returned to the super glue, but found it totally glued shut, and was unable to remove the lid. No matter; the tube was small enough and thin enough that I thought that if I simply bent it in half, first one way and then the other, I’d be able to open it enough for one final use. It worked well, in fact a bit too well. It squirted super glue willy-nilly onto the vanity in our cabin, missing the screen of G’s new iPhone, which was plugged in and charging, by millimeters. Luckily, it leaked onto some port guides we had stacked on the vanity, and didn’t damage the counter at all. And in picking up and tossing those port guides, I was very careful to not get glue on my finger tips. Wearing hard contacts, glue residue on my finger tips would have been disastrous…
…and it was, couple of days later. While I managed to avoid the glue while throwing out the port guides, I did get a paper cut on my left thumb. Since we are visiting all sorts of germ-ridden destinations, I thought it best to keep a bandaid on it for a day. That worked well, until I removed the bandaid at the end of the day. Now, I didn’t pack just any bandaids in the first aid kit. I packed Bandaid Brand heavy duty band aids, with an adhesive that is second to none. And it left behind a huge amount of that adhesive on my thumbprint, which I transferred to my right hard contact when I was removing it a few minutes later. A huge amount. I immediately held it under the hottest water the faucet would give, then tried to wipe it off with a washcloth, and managed only to smear it even more on the contact. The next day I resorted to my spare right contact, with which I could see fairly well, and continued to soak that original contact in hot water every time I went into the bathroom. I tried it again after a week and it was improved but not great. However, yesterday I was finally able to wear it again. Disaster averted! Next challenge?
Well, I came across it just this morning. I pulled out my large suitcase to retrieve some padding I use to adjust my orthotic for “that foot” as I need to. After yesterday in HCMC, it needed an adjustment. It was then I discovered that one of the double wheels on the bottom of the suitcase had lost its bolt somewhere between the Changi Airport in Singapore and our cabin. I used my iPhone flashlight to check under the bed, but it’s nowhere to be found. I am hoping that, if I take it to Guest Services, someone on the ship’s crew can repair it. Because it is rolling nowhere in its current condition and we have at least two more flights and one more hotel to go before we return home.
And then there’s one of the three quick dry T-shirts I brought on these cruises. Somewhere on the Norwegian Spirit cruise I rubbed up against something and got a large stain across the middle front of the shirt that refuses to budge. Every time I send it to the ship’s laundry, it comes back with one of those ‘Sorry!’ slips indicating the stain is unbudge-able. It wasn’t helped by the curry I apparently spilled down the shirt when I fell asleep while eating on the Dubai to Singapore flight. Naturally, I could purchase souvenir T-shirts in any of these ports (yesterday at Ben Thranh Market they were three for $5). But at this point it’s the principle of the challenge.
I wear the shirt in ports where the stains are covered by my daypack and water bottle…then send it to the ship’s laundry where it is returned with a “Sorry” slip. One of these times they’re going to include a comment like, “Haven’t you gotten the message yet?” And it’s been a valuable learning experience for me. Three short sleeved T-shirts might be one too few on an itinerary like Southeast Asia, where nothing can be worn more than once before being laundered.
And, once again, back to my day.
The weather was sunny and hot and humid, with a strong following wind, which is the kind that might make the ship occasionally bumpy but never rolling or pitching. We started getting ready for dinner a little early, because we were going to the 7pm Captains Circle party immediately afterward and it was photo time again. We were honored to be this cruise’s Most Traveled Guests and invited new friends Myra and Larry from Tennessee to join us. They had just become Platinum level cruisers this cruise. They had been on for the last cruise, too, and weren’t automatically upgraded to Platinum status. This often happens when a level change occurs between back to back cruises, and we advised them to check with the Captains Circle host about the upgrade, and they received their internet perk and pins today, plus their first invitation to the Platinum and Elite Captains Circle party. We wanted to celebrate with them!
We skipped tonight’s entertainment afterward. We would never have gotten seats for the 8pm show, and, with a 6:45am meeting time for tomorrow’s excursion (help me!), knew that we needed an early bedtime. Hopefully the meds I’ve taken so far plus the rest I got today will go a long way toward ridding me of this crud.