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Timmer's 2017 44 Day Cruise from Hong Kong to Vancouver

Btimmer

By Btimmer,
in Holland America Line

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Btimmer "Live from...." Rare

Btimmer

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Most of us had a wonderful day in Seoul visiting the Imperial Palace, the restored river near city hall, a gorgeous Buddhist temple, and a folk village. We also enjoyed a wonderful Korean lunch. Unfortunately our GD got sick, so the day wasn't so enjoyable for her.

 

For me a highlight was seeing all the Korean people who dressed in traditional costumes at the Palace. They were super colorful.

 

For those new to the thread, my more detailed daily blog is at http://www.timmer2017asia.blogspot.com

 

 

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Btimmer "Live from...." Rare

Btimmer

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We're on the smoke smelly bus to the wall. Unfortunately our guide had a family emergency, and the replacement guide speaks no English so there's no commentary on this 2.5 hour drive.

 

The freeways are totally modern but totally empty of vehicles. The port area is very modern and apparently a big stop for Costa and Royal Caribbean. The area for miles around the port is under construction with high rises.

 

It's really hazy with visibility less than a mile. I'll post more on the drive back.

 

 

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Btimmer "Live from...." Rare

Btimmer

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What are you using as your portable Wi-Fi device? Does this enable you to bypass HAL's?

 

 

I use a device called GlocalMe (available at Amazon). The device is the size of a cell phone. Data costs around 5-7€ per gigabyte of data per country. Yes I don't use HAL's WIFI at all. I've used this device all over the world for a year and as long as we are near a cell tower, we have internet access. I don't recommend it for heavy audio or video use, but for email and FB updates it's marvelous.

 

HTH

 

 

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Btimmer "Live from...." Rare

Btimmer

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Are you on a HAL tour or a Cruise Critic tour to the wall? If CC which tour company? Was it a day trip?

 

 

We were on a private tour (Tour Beijing I believe was the agency), but I'll have to verify that as I didn't organize the tour.

 

Yes it was a day tour from 9am to 8pm. It's 3 hours to the wall if traffic is good. One of the best parts is that no other Tours were there until a crew bus came near the end of our tour.

 

 

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Btimmer "Live from...." Rare

Btimmer

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We had another splendid day on a walking tour of Tianjin. We were met by our English speaking guide, Kathryn, and whisked by van to the bullet train station about 20 minutes away. She bought our RT tickets and rode this super fast and clean train to the heart of the city of Tianjin. To save some time our guide acquired three taxis and saved us some walking. We toured the waterfront and a couple shopping districts including a cool food mall with all sorts of local delicacies. She then put us back in 3 taxis to get us back to the train station. At this bridge the taxi driver said get out, which we did with some trepidation as we had no clue where the train station was. A local could not help us, but soon our guide showed up. Apparently all three taxi drivers dropped off our group at three different locations! Back on the bullet train, we were whisked back to the original train station near the port. She found a very nice local Chinese restaurant where we had a late lunch and were back in the ship by 3:45pm. It was a good day touring.

 

Now for the bad news. About 6 HAL excursion buses headed for a day trip to Beijing this morning were stopped for over an hour with a highway closure and had to return to the ship. There were some sad faces in that group as we passed them as they came back into the terminal while we were departing.

 

When I update my blog I'll have more details. That may be a day or two when we reach Japan.

 

Tim

 

 

 

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Btimmer "Live from...." Rare

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After a very rough day at sea we just arrived in Yokohama for our turn around day. My blog for the past two days will be updated shortly. We're looking forward to meeting the newly embarking passengers!

 

 

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Btimmer "Live from...." Rare

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It's been a very wet day in Yokohama, but we enjoyed our walking tour with Tours by Locals. The clams and noodles in Chinatown were terrific! We're waiting for the muster drill to start in about an hour; then we'll sail for Osaka.

 

 

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