Now that we’ve finally arrived in Hawaii, I thought I’d publish a wrap up post of our cruising season.. Though this will be my final blog post for awhile, I will continue to publish a few photos from Hawaii, especially if the sunsets are as spectacular as those we enjoyed last year.
G asked me last week if I would consider doing extended cruising in Southeast Asia again, and I think he was taken aback when I quickly said “No!” (and I might have even added an “Oh hell” before the “no!”). ;-) It isn’t that I haven’t enjoyed every day of this segment of our season, and, if we had not yet visited Southeast Asia, I absolutely would do exactly what we did this year. It’s a “must-see” destination, for sure. But now that we have…
We knew from the beginning that this would be a challenging season. Happily, Europe turned out to be easier than I expected. Sure, the pace was fast, but the beauty of most of the Mediterranean ports is that the tourist sites are located close to the port, and we could start each day on our own schedule. However, the Asian ports were every bit as challenging as I expected, and then some. The travel times to the cities, the early meeting times for the ship’s shore excursions, immigration requirements, currency issues, the size of the cities, the heat and the humidity and the humidity and the heat. It’s one thing to spend 10 or 15 days doing one big city after another; it’s quite another to do it 38 days in a row.
We would love to return to Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore or Hong Kong for a land stay. We especially enjoyed those countries. We are counting on returning to China in the future; if we hadn’t already locked in dates for Hawaii, and if I hadn’t already traveled to China, we might have planned to spend more time there at the end of this cruise. But spending five and a half weeks consecutive weeks cruising these ports again? I don’t want to have to work that hard!
G has been humming Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” a lot lately, as in we traveled around the world this season and did it our way. It’s led me to think…well, yes, about strangling him occasionally, but also about the few regrets I have about how we handled our travels this year. Here are some things I wish I’d done differently:
• Three quick dry short sleeve T-shirts were one too few. They are lightweight enough that I shouldn’t leave home without four.
• Three pairs of shorts were one too many. Since these were quick dry also, I could have gotten by with two pairs, or one pair and a skort.
• In addition to our new iPhones (with their new batteries), and one powerful external battery pack, we really needed piggyback cases with power. Battery management was a constant issue during our long days of sightseeing, taking photos and using the local cellular network for GPS. We made it work by having one of us keep his/her phone in Airplane Mode and saving the external battery for the other phone but we arrived back at the ship nearly every day with exhausted batteries.
• If it weren’t for Hawaii sunsets, I could leave my Nikon camera at home. I haven’t used it yet; every photo has been taken with my iPhone Xs. But when it comes to sunsets, the Nikon is far superior.
• Although we improved over the season, we still try to squeeze too much into a day of sightseeing. Our most enjoyable days were those where we simply wandered around, people watching and taking in the vibe of the cities we visited. I think we’ve finally learned that it’s not about how much we see, but about how much we enjoy what we see that is most important.
• I brought a travel umbrella and used it just one day in Venice. It’s not worth the space, and it’s hard to have a free hand to hold it and take photos while sightseeing. A Tilley hat and waterproof jacket work even better.
• Regardless of how many pairs of reading glasses and reading sunglasses I bring, they won’t be enough. For some reason, these things are short-lived when we travel, and are nearly impossible to replace.
• I recommend using money changers instead of an ATM in Thailand. They assess a national ATM fee on all foreign transactions that results in a poor rate of exchange. While i had issues two times in different countries getting my ATM card to work, I was always able to find another machine where it did.
• However, if visiting only 5 or 6 countries, I would always recommend leaving home with a starter amount of local currency. Money changers and ATMs in the port terminals- if they exist at all- have long lines that cut into sightseeing time in port.
Things that we got right:
• Our packing in general was excellent. I learned how little I really can get by with…provided I bring the proper type of clothing. Quick dry items we can wash out at night and wear the next day are perfect. Sure, we’re tired of these clothes (sick to death of them, in fact), but it’s the only way to move around, and unpack and repack as much as we did.
• It’s easy to get by with just three pairs of shoes/sandals for four months.
• The insulated 22 ounce aluminum water bottle and carrier with a cross-body strap I purchased for the trip saved me. It kept water cold for entire days in the Southeast Asia heat. And it greatly reduced my reliance on plastic water bottles, which is a good thing for the environment.
• A cross body day pack allowed me to keep valuables in front of me and not on my back in pickpocket prone areas (which is just about everywhere) when it was too hot to wear a travel vest or jacket.
• Not being a slave to hair coloring nor paying high prices to have it done on the ship was incredibly freeing. And I never saw a single box of Dark Golden Blonde hair color in Southeast Asia anyway.
• I left behind the valuable jewelry items I usually cruise with (diamond ring, good watch and tennis bracelet) because we’d be moving around so much. I purchased a dressy looking watch for $12 before I left home and wore it or my $9 plastic waterproof watch all the time. No one even noticed.
• I love Thai and Balinese silver jewelry designs. I thought I might buy a ring somewhere along the way, but ended up buying a ring handmade in Thailand before I even left home through Novica.com. Novica is a National Geographic project that offers a marketplace for genuine local handicrafts by artisans around the world. For $40 delivered to my home, I got a ring that I wear everyday in lieu of my diamond. In the end, I saw nothing even remotely as nice in the ports, just the same bags and T-shirts that are offered everywhere.
• Tilley hats. We wore them every day in Southeast Asia. For sun or rain protection, they’re the best.
• We didn’t do the 28-night repositioning cruise from Rome to Singapore. Changing our plans at the last minute, as crazy as that was to go through, was the best thing we did. We are simply not repetitive sea days people. We loved the two cruises we did instead, and spending time in Dubai was a most memorable way to celebrate our 35th anniversary.
• Princess’ On Your Own excursions worked very well for us. We are extremely independent and don’t generally like doing tours with others, even independently arranged small group tours. We simply need the assurance that we can safely get to and from the distant large cities from the port, and then we enjoy exploring on our own.
Thank you so much for again following along as we travel our way through life. I just looked at the statistics for my blog for the first time this season and I’m always amazed that so many people are traveling vicariously with us (I should keep an eye on those post views while I’m traveling to keep me motivated on those evenings when I’m typing in my sleep!). I appreciate your patience with my typing and grammatical errors. The amount of time I dedicate to editing while traveling is very short indeed; I use our time at home to re-read, be embarrassed by my most blatant goofs and make corrections. Thank you, too, to those people who email with encouraging words while during the season. You have no idea how much your emails mean!
When we get to Hawaii, we generally give each other much more space than we do when traveling internationally. It makes sense; we are frequently apart running errands and doing things at home, because we are so easily connected by technology, and Hawaii is much the same. People might think that traveling the world with your best friend is all hearts and flowers, and much of it is, of course, but let’s face it- we’ve been living in 160 square feet for nearly three months. We know by now how to make that work, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. When one of us goes into the bathroom to wash hands or brush teeth and the other one has forgotten he/she has socks or underwear soaking in the sink, “I’m so thrilled to be able to travel with you, my dearest!” are not the first words that spring to mind. In fact, these are the most commonly used phrases between us this year:
• Don’t stand between me and the toilet right now.
• Don’t go in there for awhile. (Just to be clear, that’s not one of mine.)
• Can’t you do your thinking sitting on the bed instead of the middle of the room or in the bathroom? (That one is.)
• Smell this T-shirt. Can I wear it another day?
• But I got ready first last time. It’s your turn.
• I told you to close the door to keep the humidity in the bathroom!! I’m blow drying my hair out here.
• Cough. Cough. Sniffle. Sniffle. Sneeze. Sneeze. Where did you put the (insert one): Sudafed, Guafenesin, Dextramethorphan, Tylenol?
• Before you go in to shower, ask me if I have to use the bathroom. If I do, and I hear that water running…well, just ask me, ok?
• Just once I’d like to have a few square inches of clear space on the vanity to set something. Just one damn time.
• Does that music really enhance our dining experience? (Heard Every.Single.Day., in response to Princess’ truly horrific playlists in the dining rooms and buffet.)
• Hurry up and finish eating so we can go to lunch.
• Do you have the (insert one): Ringgits, Dongs, Bhats, Rupiahs, Won, Yen, Dirhams, Euros, Pounds, Kunas, or Dollars (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, US) we need today?
• But I gave you the passport copies/ landing cards/ excursion tickets to hold on to.
• Turn the TV down a notch. Another notch. Another notch. Another notch.
• Turn the AC up a notch. Another notch. Another notch. Another notch.
• Haven’t we already watched that Alaskan Bush Wilderness Testosterone show ten times? I don’t care if it’s a different episode; they’re all the same. Let’s watch a romantic comedy. Or football. ;-)
• I’m on hold with room service to change out minibar items. Still on hold. Still on hold. Still on hold.
• Who used my last clean washcloth?
• Question: What excursion do you want to do tomorrow? Answer: Where are we tomorrow?
• Just take a picture of it and we’ll figure out later what it is.
• I really don’t need to see another (insert one) cathedral, mosque, temple, shrine, monument, statue, market, museum.
But, lest I’ve painted too realistic a picture, every day also includes, as it has for years: I love you, I appreciate you, thank you for making today possible.
We don’t often take time to really think about what we’ve done and seen since we left home nearly three months ago. We simply stay focused on the next day and maybe one day after that. But sitting on Chaweng Beach in Ko Samui earlier this cruise, we did spend some time reflecting. G thinks that time has passed in a blur; I feel quite the opposite, like we’ve been gone for a year. If told that our climbing the bell towers in Pisa and Messina occurred last season, I’d be in complete agreement.
We talked about the diversity of our experiences this year, and they have been quite remarkable, from every perspective. We’ve seen huge wealth and poverty and everything in between. We’ve been bitterly cold and sweaty hot and had near-constant humidity at both extremes. We’ve visited the colonizers and the colonized and pondered the effects of colonization on both. We now realize that these Southeast Asia countries are not all the same. We’ve learned about several major religions and wondered at the way everyone thinks theirs is the “right” one (be honest…no one knows for sure). We’ve climbed the Acropolis and gone to the top of the world’s tallest building.
And we’ve had the time of our lives.
Life is good. :-)
