rloke

Notre Dame Saigon was nearby but did not have time to visit. It is still under repairs...

After the museum visit, a short stop at the historical post office.

The next stop was at the Vietnam History Museum. A quite comprehensive narrative from a couple hundred thousand years to the recent dynasties such as the Nguyen dynasty. Many stone sculptures and statues and quite a number of pottery pieces...definitely some influences from China...

We arrived at Ho Chi Minh City at around noon and docked at the industrial park. I believe it was a bit further away from the city center perhaps and in any case, traffic is usually heavy going into the city center. The first stop of our tour, "Highlights of Saigon", was the Independence Palace and it took almost an hour plus to arrive at our destination. The Palace has strong French architectural designs and is immense in size. There were official rooms where dignitaries met, offices, boardrooms, bedroom for the president and a bunker in which the top military officials discussed strategies during the war, safely, while air raids were taking place.

We then proceeded to the Vinh Thanh area to visit a local market and a mat weaving store… After that, we drove over to a nearby “heritage house” where refreshments (fruits and tea) were served.

At Nha Trang Vietnam, we took the “Life on the river” tour. Driving to the river pier, we passed by the vast public beach and it does look amazing. Saw many tourists lounging on the beach but no swimming as it was red-flagged and we did see some high waves. After walking through some narrow alleys, we arrived at the pier to board the boat. The whale shrine temple in the middle of the river…the legend was that a whale saved a king… The visit to the pottery making place and wooden bridge was cancelled as flooding occurred last week that swept half the bridge away. The boat ride ended near the wooden bridge at a local high-end coffee cafe and restaurant and the prices there were indeed quite high…coffee, drinks including fresh coconut and various local food items can be purchased here.

To cap off the tour, we had a lovely bicycle ride along the Keelung River.

Our next stop was the Independence/Freedom square and the President’s memorial…it is a couple blocks away from the market and not on the itinerary, but since we were slightly ahead of schedule, the guide decided to give us a bit of free time to take a quick look…enroute, the guide got everyone bubble tea to enjoy…

After the early lunch, we headed over to the newly reopened Nanmen (South Gate) market where some locals still utilize to procure daily staples of meat and vegetables… The guide then enthusiastically brought us to a stall to introduce the thousand year old egg to those that had never seen nor eaten them before… Besides raw meat and vegetables, there were also many stalls that sells cured meats and sausages, dried food such as dried shiitake mushroom and also cooked food. Taiwanese appear to love hotpot and this stall sells the popular egg wrapper dumplings… There is also a small food court in the market…and there was a long queue for this “knife shaved noodles” stall…

After the temple visit, we had an early lunch (around 11:30am) at a local popular Michelin recommended beef noodle restaurant… Shared plate of appetizer consisting of soy marinated egg, fried and marinated bean curd, pig ear and tripe… The beef noodle…

“Taipei through the eyes of a local” was our tour at Keelung. Our first stop was at the Longshan (Dragon mountain) temple where the guide showed us how the locals pray and get guidance from the gods…the temple’s architecture is typical Chinese style with intricate and very detailed designs… With an elaborate waterfall structure on one side and a lovely koi pond on the other side…

And that concluded our Japanese ports adventure…next stop would be Keelung (Taipei)… I could have missed the Okinawa farewell party…so a photo of the Kōchi farewell party would have to do for our Japan farewell sailaway…

Before heading back to the port, we were given some free time to do some shopping along Kokusai Street. As per our guide, popular items include black/brown sugar, sea salt and sweet potato tart. The famous sweet potato tart shop built to look like the Shiru castle… The purple sweet potato tart…

After the castle tour, we headed to the bingata studio. Bingata is the traditional stencilled dyeing technique. We were given the opportunity to make a coaster with a sparrow design. Starting to brush on the various colors available… The instructions for finishing off the process at home…

Our Bingata Experience tour in Naha Okinawa started with a short visit to the Shiru Castle. The Shiru castle main building was destroyed by fire and is currently under reconstruction and is scheduled to be completed by autumn 2026. This castle definitely has some Chinese architecture influence and does not look like the usual Japanese castle.

Thanks @DaveFr

We love the Conrad. Location is great for us. Definitely an easy walk to Ginza and Tsujiki. And being next to Yurikamome station was a bonus for us as we had intended to use it for transfer to the cruise terminal instead of taxi. But there are also many good hotels in the area as well.

Another Kochi delicacy…the irresistible candied sweet potato sticks…imo kenpi

As far as I know, yes. After all, the sign with the red up arrow does say “entrance”.

Before heading back to the port, we stopped by the Hirome Market, which is just a block away from the castle, to have a quick lunch of Kochi’s favourite delicacies… The katsuo no tataki (seared bonito)… And the fantastic gyoza. The gyoza wrapper was very thin and fried perfectly…juicy fillings and crispy skin…perfect combo.

The Kochi Castle…

After the tour to the caves, we took the complimentary shuttle to the Kochi city central area. The shuttle stopped at the Harimayabashi bus terminal. From there, it was a short walk (15-20 minutes) to the Kochi Castle. Along the way, we stopped by the automaton clock that plays the Yosakoi melody on the hour. Across the street from it, is the famous Harimaya Bridge…

The entrance to the caves… Some beautiful, nicely and subtly illuminated limestone formations…

At Kochi, we did the Ryugado Caves tour. The walk through the caves was quite challenging due to some narrow passages and rather low ceiling. The stairs leading up to the cave entrance… …but thankfully we did not have to use these as there was an escalator to the right of the stairs…😅

Thanks…so far so good…