drron29

The next day was a sea day. Lunch at Kaiseki. Then dinner in Indochine. Our wecome cocktail. And my red wine. For mains Rojaan had the beef Char Sui and I the chilli glazed ribs. Both good. l

Dinner in Atlantide. We both had the mushroom and cheese turnover and then I had the modern Nicoise salad. Rojaan then had the black cod and I the rib eye. And for dessert I had the chocolate blueberry Mille Feiulle and she the pavlova.

Back to the muse for a late lunch of pizza. Shared a half diavolo,half funghi pizza. Then a few views from the ship. Then the sail away.

Back to the Muse.

And outside we go.

We now headed to the Cham Museum. And now into the museum.

We haven’t but our best friends took their 4 teenagers to Antarctica on the Explorer. They all regard us as their grandparents. They all thoroughly enjoyed it. So go for it.

Though as I have posted in the Starlink thread a laptop will work better than an iPad or iPhone. Rojaan’s android phone and my laptop work much better with the internet than my iPhone. Today for example I went to a Starbucks in Ubud to download a replacement app. On board my iPhone won’t connect to the App Store.

It's my way of getting out of paying for more cloud storage.😉 I blame my 2 Scots grandmothers.

These were done on a sea day. They were there when I originally posted but now that post is missing it’s pictures for me as well. The internet was very flaky as I guess nearly everyone was on. Unfortunately you get very little time to edit. PS I just went back to see what that post’s pictures were and they are all showing now. I have been told before that my computer can do things that no other computer can do!

Simplest way for me to show you was to take photos of them all. Desk. Right hand side of bed. next to lounge on balcony side. and bathroom.

As thesaying goes with a slight change -people have destroyed what they came to enjoy.

We visited Da Nang in 1999. We had a private tour from Saigon to Hanoi with different guides in Saigon, Hoi An, Da Nang, hue and Hanoi. In Da Nang we were taken to a narrow street with marble statues being Carved by hand. Marble dust was everywhere. You could only buy Marble items there. Now on a new wide road there are gaudy establishments selling a whole range of "hand made" crafts that are obviously mass produced in factories.

A butterfly stopped long enough for me to get a photo. Then back on the bus to Da Nang to visit a marble workshop/tourist trap. Woodchips.

There were some security people who did need to warn some that they should not climb over the ruins. Usually they were the influencer type. Now though time to walk back to the bus passing the restaurant and souvenir shop.

Quite a few tourists but not totally crowded. It was also quite humid. After crossing the creek more ruins.

I really didn't know what to expect. It was a reasonably long walk from the ticket office through the jungle before we first set eyes on the ruins. A lot of restoration has been done over the years. if there is cement it is restoration and if nothing between the bricks it is original we were told.

We were approaching our first destination the My son ruins. Finally the destination.

Some observations from the Muse. Today I saw the ultimate lounge hog behaviour. A woman on Deck 11 as I began my walk put her bag and a pair of shoes on a double lounge on the port side. When I went around she had walked to the starboard side and put her book and glasses on a double lounge. Then went back to the pool and brought back 4 pool towels. Yesterday as I was going to pick up our passports a couple at the gate asked if they could change their excursion for the day. But when we were queued for Immigration the couple in front of us asked if they needed their passports. Had been a few announcements about the need for taking your passports on any excursions or leaving the ship. Then at breakfast at the Arts cafe a fellow called a crew member over berating her as no one had come and taken their orders. Then said he wanted a fruit platter but not one from the cabinet but one that was freshly cut up. Sometimes I just worry about my fellow travellers.

And you can do as we do book door to door and ask for the air, transfer and hotels to be taken out. A bit dearer than port to port but then a better cancellation policy. Airline travel is still not back to normal so not all problems are due to Silversea. BA in her Q&A 2 weeks ago on the Muse told us of the many problems that they have had since Covid including hotels cancelling long term contracts they had with SS and airlines reducing the discount for group bookings. On top of that frequent cancellations. However SS air has been folded into RCL air but she said that for 3-4 weeks there would still be problems with the intergration. But the RCL air is fully automated whereas SS air was still all manual.

Those pumps are cost cutting being excused as being to save the environment. I am sure SS never dumped the used plastic containers over the side.

Not a problem.

Just a couple of observations. November is one of the better months to do this cruise December or January slightly better. April to September the temp can be 95-105F and humidity >90%. Some mobility challenged people can still do the tours. I have a muscular dystrophy and basically I have to walk as much as I can to keep as much muscle bulk as I can. On the previous sector of this cruise was a fellow in his 40s with exactly the same condition as I but much more severe. He didn't miss excursions even one with ~ 300 stairs. On the ship he never used the elevators. He became my hero. But if you use a frame or wheelchair it is going to be more difficult. But in virtually every building we went to there was an elevator though often hidden and you needed to ask. For example i went to the wooden temple in Pattaya. At least 2 on the excursion were on crutches but here is the elevator going up.