The Giving Tree

Wow! What a day. I think I love Thaipai. I had such a wonderful day that I am going to have a hard time keeping this post to a reasonable length.  To start off, our tour director was wonderful, had a good sense of humor and did a great job interjecting some interesting trivia into our visit. I really felt like I came away with a good sense of the people and their traditions.  One of the stops was a temple. Now many of you are well aware that I don't go out of my way to visit temples while visiting other countries. I think the architecture is interesting and the artwork is often so beautiful but I neither want to support other religions nor offend our one true God. I am so glad that I visited this one though as I received some interesting insight and met a very wonderful couple. I'll tell you about them both! Our tour guide, Eva, walked us through the beliefs of many of the Taiwan people regarding religion. Many believe that there...

I have no idea how to pronounce that...Kaohsiung. Their language is so melodious. I have discovered why so many Asians cannot pronounce many of our words properly. They don't have some of our letters in their language. If you grew up your whole life and never learned to speak with the letter 'J" for example, how difficult would that be to speak it in another language? Probably impossible. Mystery solved! We are greeted by a city that looks very clean and cared for with beautiful architecture. Our bus tour takes us to a bridge that they seen quite proud of. What is very odd though is that the streets are practically empty of people. There are almost no pedestrians walking around and hardly any street traffic either. I question whether their government told everyone to stay indoors to avoid the tourists. I know that sounds crazy but I can't tell you how odd it felt here. We went to a park surrounding a lake that also contained a temple as well as ...

Today was a day at sea and pretty uneventful. We relaxed, swam in the pool, and ate food... Lots of it. It was formal night, so we got dressed up and spent a lovely evening enjoying each other's company.  I told John that one of my favorite parts of the cruise was simply spending time with him, 24/7! His preference would be 20/7. He said that he would simply want a few hours to himself. 🤔 What? I guess that was a better equation than I thought he'd offer.  There is not a lot to tell you about today, but I do have a quick story to tell you about John's key card. He was in the sauna quite a few days ago and had left his key card along with his phone on the counter right outside the sauna. Sauna are bad for electronics! When he came out, he grabbed up his belongings and went on his way. He later found that his key card was not working at all. We decided it would be best to go to reception and get a new one. Before we left, I took a quick peek to make sure nothing ...

Happy, Palm Sunday Eve! This a Manila's black Jesus. I'll tell you more about Him later in this post. I thought it was important though to put Him from front and center before we got started!  Today was a study in contrast! Our adventure began with a bus tour on the legends and traditions of Manila. We were treated to a lengthy and narrated view of many of the older districts of Manila. Here are many of the places we drove by and/or through... Museums The Lechon district The oldest Chinatown (in the world?) Chinese cemetery St. John the Baptist Parish The Shrine of the Black Jesus (Don't get excited, I'll explain this further) A street (many streets) full of vendors selling everything! The Intramuros Monuments & Statues honoring much of their history A KFC and Shakey's Pizza (shout out to Grandpa Paul and his days as a pizza man!)

This post is dedicated solely to our dinner at La Dame! This is the only restaurant on the ship that you have to pay for as it is quite elevated. Much more so than the other restaurants which are very impressive in their own right.  The experience started off with them leaving me a voicemail in the morning requesting that I review the menu and make my choices early so that the chef could prepare my selections special as to avoid any of my many dietary restrictions. This was impressive. I did have to use Google translator to figure out how to even read the menu though as the categories were listed in French and I was not familiar with how to even navigate it. 😬 Research done and decisions made, I gave them to the staff, which came to our room to get my selections. Wow, I didn't even have to go to them!  This restaurant serves caviar, escargot, lobster, etc. and all the French foods that John and I don't necessarily enjoy. Nonetheless, we are looking forward to the experience!...

Today, we are in Coron. We opted for a swim/ snorkel excursion as the hike we were previously planned to go on might have frustrated john as I'll remind you that everyone on the ship is 65+and not in to physical health. Our pace might have been a little above walking but I couldn't be sure! We get on the boat and discover that we do have shade! Yay!!!

This is the beautiful view that we get to wake up to! How amazing. God is so good to remind us each and every morning that the light will once again push back the darkness and overtake all of existence with his infinite glory!

Yesterday afternoon was pleasant, John sat by the pool, I read my book while doing laundry. It is so nice having laundry facilities on board the ship. I got the first load (John's super sweaty and stinky workout clothes) done with no issues. Next load, my clothes. Wouldn't you know it, the washer breaks and my clothes get locked in the machine mid cycle.😾 I tell the staff and they notify the ship repairmen. I check throughout the day, and it seems they are busy with other more important tasks as my clothes are still in washing machine jail! I check every few hours and the machine finally decides to randomly release them early in the evening.  I hang them up and determine to let them repair the machine and test it out on others before I trust it enough to put mine back in for a re-wash... As they don't smell right.  I did test out the gluten free pizza and it was passable. the crust was pretty tough and hard to cut or chew but the flavors of the sauce and meat were really q...

We boarded the bus and are on our way to the ship! There was a little confusion on the bus situation but it all got sorted. Driving through Bali, we notice so many of the same sights that we see in other countries. We drive past the local Home Depot...

 This was our last full day in Bali and we opted to just relax. I found a nice place to read in the shade, ordered a strawberry & rose mocktail along with a sparkling water to lessen the sweetness and make it last longer. What an indulgence to just read and have nothing pressing to do or chores calling your name, making you feel guilty for being simply lazy. I am currently reading A Voice In The Wind, by Francine Rivers. I have read a few of her books before and really love them. 

So much to share since yesterday's post! After our lengthy and relaxed breakfast, we decided to get massages. John called a local place with excellent reviews. Ria, the lady that answered the phone, immediately asked us to communicate via "what's app".  I luckily had this as a result of our need to communicate to the scuba folks in Thailand last year. Ria promptly sent the pricing menu and we made our selections. To our great surprise, we didn't have to go anywhere, they were coming to us! Yay! 30 minutes later, we were meeting Swati and Darmi. They were joyful and so sweet. Here they are!