Civility on a four-month cruise … it hasn’t been a geriatric Lord of the Flies but …😳
I read with interest the news articles about Life at Sea Cruises launching a three-year around-the-world tour. The adventurer in me said...
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Oh, the places I will go …
I am a writer who loves to travel. As a professional journalist for 40 years, I went to a lot of bad places but not a lot of nice ones. Now that I have the time and the means to see the parts of the Earth I have not seen, I am going to go as far afield as I can, as often as I can.
I have been single since my husband died in 2014. And I am not young - I qualify for a lot of senior’s discounts. But that just means now is the time I must do this.
Sometimes I will travel alone, and sometimes I will travel with friends. And I write this blog not to offer advice or tips, but merely as a record of my journeys - one that I can enjoy in later years when my travelling is curtailed by age. Hopefully others will enjoy coming along for the ride.
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Colombo temples, a chaotic market, and a cold beer help me forget the close call in Penang
I needed to have a good day after the near debacle of Penang - and Sri Lanka brought one. it ended happily with Jane and beer at an old...
Penang was going great … until it really wasn’t
I have not spent a lot of days of this trip entirely on my own. So when I had the opportunity to go solo in Penang, another great...
I eat Singapore noodles in Singapore, and climb 272 steps to a cave temple in Kuala Lumpur
It does a disservice to both places to lump the extraordinary cities of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur together. But here goes. The city...
I officially became a senior citizen in Thailand - my 65th b-day spent 40 feet in the air
When I learned we were going to Thailand (we were told in January that it would be a late addition to the itinerary because we were not...
Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Ho Chi Minh - so much capitalism in a state that waged war to be communist
The Americans waged war for a decade to keep Vietnam out of the hands of the communists, losing more than 58,000 young lives in the...
Hong Kong - a brief walking tour leaves me hungry for more - despite excellent dim sum
If there is one place on this voyage - so far - that I felt cheated for time, it was Hong Kong. What an extraordinary mix of traditions,...
Nagasaki makes me question my beliefs about WWII … but not about the atrocities of nuclear weapons
The thing that most startled me about our visit to Nagasaki is that many Japanese believe the atomic bomb which levelled this city in...
Tokyo: Cherry blossoms, art, old stuff, and a rainy walk through the Emperor’s gardens
The cherries bloom for about 10 days in Tokyo. And our visit to this amazing city fell at the peak of blossom season. I cannot tell you...
Kyoto, Osaka, and Mount Fuji: Kimonos, cherry blossoms, a castle, a shrine, and a ferris wheel
My limited knowledge of the Shogun era of Japanese history was gained, almost exclusively, by reading James Clavell. And I have no idea...
Japan brings geriatric spelunking, monkeys, and taiko drumming I will never forget
The words geriatric spelunking kept running through my head as we trekked two caves in Japan - first on Ishigaki Island at the...
In Taiwan I do the tourist thing from yellow rocks by the sea, to balls in a mountain village
You cannot see a country in a day. One of my fellow travellers says being on a cruise ship is a bit like a ordering a tasting menu. We...
Two days in Manila - I get lost in a slum, experience local fish, and wander a Spanish Fort
Arriving in Manila by ship is a spectacular experience. For many hours you traverse between hilly turquoise islands, many of which...
A sharing of cultures in Papua New Guineau village - then an earthquake
World travellers on this ship warned that Papua New Guinea was a backwater where there was not much to see or do. I guess they are people...
It was top of my life-experience list - snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef
This is a small post about a big experience. One of the things I wanted to do most when I booked this trip around the world was snorkel...
A forced change of plans leads to a great but soggy walk along the Australian shore
On my first day in Australia I decided to do a walk about - the old-white-lady-colonial version of the spiritual quest the aboriginal...
We stroll through New Zealand’s past at the Auckland Museum, then sail up NZ’s fabulous east coast
I was really excited about going to Auckland - my first time ever in New Zealand and, well, I had heard good things. And the Auckland...
A canoe ride to swim in a Fijian waterfall, then a ceremony by locals that left me thinking
There is a great scene in the first season of the White Lotus in which the Hawaiians perform what are billed as traditional dances for...
A Samoan High Chief takes us in an extraordinary tour of his incredibly beautiful island
There is a strange feeling that comes over me when I am in a place I am not likely to ever visit again. Samoa, one of the most lush and...
What life is like for a solo traveller (me) on sea days as we head west on the MSC Poesia
We crossed the international date line and the equator this week ... all within a 12-hour stretch ... And the four days at sea between...
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