The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Forty-one

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 8 (Saturday, Day 53, Noumea, New Caledonia - Continued) -

We stayed in the water for probably an hour before Snookums got cold. We got out and warmed up and got back in and saw more of the same (but it was awesome!). We took the water taxi back at 12:30 and decided that it was the best snorkeling ever. The water was clear, the fish and coral were beautiful and there were no other snorkelers around. (Well, there were other people snorkeling, but we rarely encountered them since the snorkel area was so large and only about 20 people were snorkeling.) It was great.

Check out snorkeling pictures after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Forty

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 8 (Saturday, Day 53, Noumea, New Caledonia - Continued) -

One of the first things we saw was a black sea snake. All of a sudden this "ribbon" that was about 2 inches wide floated up (vertically) to the water surface and took a quick breath of air. Then it floated back down (also vertically) and crawled under some coral. We had never seen a sea snake before and this one certainly took us by surprise. We saw several more during our snorkels and later found out that New Caledonia is famous for its sea snakes since there are so many varieties of them and a lot of them there.

Sea Snake!

Snake on the way down

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-nine

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 6 (Thursday, Day 51, Cruising Coral Sea) -

Flowers on the Amsterdam

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-eight

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 5 (Wednesday, Day 50, Sydney, Australia) - Continued

We hustled back to the ship for a 15-minute lunch before packing up our cold weather gear and walking to the other side of the Sydney Cove for Ocean Dreaming to pick us up for our whale watching tour. The 115-foot, three-deck catamaran picked us up and away we went. The seas were a little choppy but the wind was fierce and we were both glad to have taken seasick pills. One guy didn't and his full bag of vomit was overflowing and then being blown by the wind! Filbert was using his camera so he only had one hand to hang on with while it was all Snookums could do to keep steady using two hands. It was very rocky and very windy and everyone really hung on. No one was in any danger of falling overboard, although we were surprised that no one ever fell down on the deck. Anyway, we got out to the ocean and since the boat had some kind of tracking equipment, it knew where to go.

Sure enough, we found ourselves watching a pod of four humpback whales. We learned that whales surface and then go back down for 5-10 minutes before re-surfacing so we just stayed in that spot for about 45 minutes and watched the whales. These whales seemed to stay submerged for about 8 minutes or so. They weren't too active when they surfaced and just used their blowholes and did some fluke up dives to go back down. We saw a lot of their backs, but that was about it. The captain wanted to find a pod of whales that had been more active and breaching earlier in the day so we went to another spot.

Whale 1

More after the jump:

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-seven

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 4 (Tuesday, Day 49, Sydney, Australia) -

Filbert woke up around 5 AM to watch our arrival into Sydney Cove. Snookums woke up at 6 AM when the port lecturer started narrating our progress. We docked and once again we had the great view of the Sydney Opera House while the other side of the ship looked at the port terminal. We continue to be lucky.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 3 (Monday, Day 48, Cruising Tasman Sea) -

We woke up in time to go to the golf putting for Dam Dollars and Filbert won two while Snookums got the standard one. After spending time on the computers, we took a tour of the Penthouse Suite since Gary wanted to see it. (We could easily arrange it since we have ready access to a concierge in the Neptune Suite.) It really wasn't very impressive. Unlike the penthouse suite that we got to use for two hours on a Regent Seven Seas Mariner cruise as we were docking in San Francisco, this was a poorly designed one. It had a single bedroom in it and did not offer a sofa bed so only two people could sleep in it. It had two televisions and a full-size Jacuzzi tub, a small shower, two toilets, a bidet, a dining room table for 8 and a sofa. It only had one balcony.

Photos after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-five

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 2 (Sunday, Day 47, Melbourne, Australia) -

Arriving at Melbourne

Filbert woke up around 6 AM to watch the docking process which turned out to be quite boring. We were behind schedule and were supposed to dock at 8 AM. We ended up being all done around 9:15 AM. In the meantime, the ship sailed through the bay which was wide open and "boring". We got off the ship as soon as it cleared customs and immigration and bought an all-day Sunday public transportation ticket for around $1.65.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-four

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 29 (Wednesday, Day 43, Fremantle, Australia - Continued) -

Last post, we were in the kangaroo feeding areat--but weren't quite done feeding kangaroos:

The adventurers attract a mob

Look out below!

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-three

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 29 (Wednesday, Day 43, Fremantle, Australia - Continued) -

We were half-way through our walk through Perth, Australia's Caversham Wildlife Park when we hit our blog system's 10-picture -per-post limit. So, we had just visited a cockatoo and a rather sickly looking Tasmanian Devil, working out way towards the kangaroo feeding area. On the way, there were more animals out and about:

Peacock in full display

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-two

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 28 (Tuesday, Day 42, At sea) -

We lost another hour last night and Filbert decided to wake up for the 5:23 sunrise. Unfortunately, the ship had forgotten about the lost hour and the sun didn't really come up until 6:23. He was up anyway and took photos during the rainstorm. By the time Snookums woke up at 7:30, it was bright and sunny.

Morning showers

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-one

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 26 (Sunday, Day 40, At sea) -

Snookums woke up and decided to work out and then went to the mandatory Australian passport check by 10:30 AM while she was still all sweaty. Filbert had woken up and showered in the meantime and also went to the passport check. Since we skipped breakfast, we were ready for lunch around noon and decided to enjoy the poolside special “Around the World” feast. Filbert enjoyed some Chinese, German and Indian foods while Snookums stuck to the Indian curries.

At sea again

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 25 (Saturday, Day 39, Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia - Continued)

Filbert bought a terribly overpriced 600 ml Bintang beer for $4 (it would have cost $1 if we would have had rupiah but by now we decided that U.S. dollars would work just fine and didn’t bother using the one ATM that we eventually found) so that was the tip. We ate lunch at the restaurant across from the Wayan’s store.

We ordered beer, pork/chicken/fish with Balinese spicy sauce and rice, nasi goreng (stir fried noodles, shrimp, chicken and vegetables – kind of like fried rice with a fried egg on top) and chicken satay. While waiting for the food a lady selling Balinese fabrics came by. Snookums started touching the fabric and Filbert decided he wanted shirts made out of them so we ended up buying three pieces of fabric for $40. She wanted $70 and we later found out we probably could have gotten them for $10 total! As our tablemate, Gary, says "It’s foreign aid".

Foreign aid

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-nine

(Remember to click"read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 25 (Saturday, Day 39, Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia - Continued)

While returning to the Padang Bai beach in the canoe, Snookums noticed that one of the passengers in the tender looked like Charlotte so she yelled. Sure enough, Charlotte and Gary were on the tender that was getting ready to unload at the pier right when we were ready to "dock" on the beach. Filbert took Gary's picture and Gary leaned out of the tender and took our picture in the dugout canoe.

Gary's photo of the adventurers

More after the jump . . .

Here in Noumea, New Calidonia, we're sitting on the veranda (on the side of the ship facing the dock) and can get somebody's "Linksys" wireless network, so what the heck? We'll steal some bandwidth. Arr, maties! We be pirates of the cyber-seas! Avast ye! And again, Arr!!!!

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-eight

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 25 (Saturday, Day 39, Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia - Continued)

We rode for about 20 minutes to the snorkel site, Tanjung Jepun. Snookums put on her wetsuit even though the water was probably 85 degrees and we jumped in. The water was crystal clear and there were colorful fish and coral everywhere. Our “captain” also played snorkel guide and took us to see two submerged buddha statues and pointed out trumpet fish and other fish to us. Too soon it was time to get back in the canoe and return to the pier. The Amsterdam was anchored between the snorkel site and the pier so we got to see it, too, from a different vantage.

Snorkeling pictures 1-10

The first one's a tease . . . more after the jump!

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-seven

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 24 (Friday, Day 38, At sea) -

We woke up and saw a bird sitting on the partition separating the verandahs. It was there at least 15 minutes before it decided to fly off. It was overcast but the seas were calm. Many of the days at sea have been overcast and drizzly but the days at port have all been wonderful so no one is complaining.

Special guest bird, on the divider between verandas

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 22 (Wednesday, Day 36, Singapore - Continued)

We left off the story in Singapore's Chinatown, where we had just had lunch, and were continuing on.

We left lunch and after walking about 1-1/2 blocks, we ran into Yvan and Alice, our Canadian tablemates. It is a very small world. They also hadn’t seen anyone from the ship in their wanderings and thought it was strange. We told them how to take the subway back to the ship and continued walking around.

We just can't get away from those mad Canadians!

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-five

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 21 (Tuesday, Day 35, At sea) -

Today we lost an hour for the first time on this cruise so our night was short. And, to make it worse, Filbert set the alarm for 8 AM in order to wake up to watch the Denver Broncos on ESPN Sunday night football. Denver ended up losing big time so he got up early for nothing. While Filbert watched the game, Snookums mended the hem of his T-shirt. The laundry mark stickers are sometimes put on the hem stitching and when they are removed, the stitching breaks. We have told them numerous times (and write it on the laundry form every time) to please put the stickers on the fabric and not on the stitching, but they just don’t get it!

We went to the guest talent show since Yvan, our Canadian tablemate, was in it. It was the best guest talent show ever and everyone that saw it echoed that opinion. Yvan sang “Edelweiss” and was part of a barbershop quartet (which he had never done before this cruise) and was part of the HAL Chorale. The cruise director, Bruce, is a Julliard graduate and decided to start a choir, so the choir rehearsed on most sea days and then performed two songs for the guest talent show. Other performers included a cowboy poet, an Irish comedian, an elderly female singer who was fantastic, a banjo playing male singer and a ukulele-playing female singer. Of all the acts, there was only one that was so-so (a male singer) and the rest were really outstanding.

The barbershop quartet

The HAL Chorale

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-four

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 20 (Monday, Day 34, Ko Samui, Thailand) - Continued

In our last post, we began our snorkel swim off Coral Island, Thailand. We continue . . .

Snookums and friendly fish

The water was very murky and it seemed like visibility was about 5 feet but the water was warm so that made it nice. We swam towards the coral and found 100s of yellow and black striped fish. They were very friendly and swam right in front of our faces. It was pretty neat. We didn't see any other kind of fish and the coral was kind of hard to see, but it was still a great snorkel. We climbed on the boat for the return to Coral Island. (After Filbert got on the longtail boat, his feet slipped out from under him and he went completely down on his back on the little deck of the boat but he immediately quipped "What did the judges score me?" and we all knew he was fine.)

More snorkel pictures and the rest of the post, after the jump:

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-three

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 20 (Monday, Day 34, Ko Samui, Thailand) -

We booked a snorkel tour and got on the tender for the 25 minute ride to the town. Then we got in a 9-passenger van for the ride to the location of the longtail boats that would then take us to Koh Tan. Ko Samui is Thailand's third largest island and is known for its beaches and booming tourism trade and is the second most popular island destination in Thailand, second only to Phuket. Around 45,000 people live on Ko Samui.

Tender

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-two

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 17 (Friday, Day 31, At sea) -

We ordered room service and ate breakfast on the verandah. The sea was as smooth as glass but we still didn't see any sea life and haven't really seen any since Day Two of this cruise. Around noon it started getting dark and little whitecaps started forming.

Ah, back at sea

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-one

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 16 (Thursday, Day 30, Phu My [Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon], Vietnam) -

The Mekong Delta

In celebration of our 4th anniversary, we bought a shore excursion. We decided we should go to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, population 7,000,000). It was about 70 miles or 2 hours from the port so we bought a roundtrip transfer.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

Happy Halloween to everyone back home!

October 14 (Tuesday, Day 28, Da Nang, Vietnam - 16,500 dong to the dollar) -

We docked and took the free shuttle to downtown Da Nang (population 750,000). We didn't bother getting Vietnamese currency since we were told that U.S. currency was okay. Gary served here in the Navy so we walked around with him and Charlotte. We walked to the local two-story market.

Han Market

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Nineteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 13 (Monday, Day 27, Cruising South China Sea) -

We used today as a catch up day after spending two days in Hong Kong. Lots of reading, napping, computing and listening to short wave radio was done. A small flock of seabirds (one person on the ship called them petrels) circled the ship, swooping to snatch flying fish being scared out of the water by the ship.

A short picture study of petrels at sea, after the jump:

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eighteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 12 (Sunday, Day 26, Hong Kong) - Continued

We were in the middle of our stroll through the flower market, bird market, and fish market of Hong Kong when we were so rudely interrupted by the 10-picture-per-post limit that Filbert has set in his blog hosting software. So, let's continue . . .

Filbert had a short conversation with this bird

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Seventeen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 11 (Saturday, Day 25, Hong Kong - 7.75 HKD to the dollar) - Continued

We got to the 120-year old Peak Tram around 10 AM and got right on. The Peak Tram is a double reversible funicular railway that is almost a mile long that goes up 1300 feet above seal level. We had great views from the top of Victoria Peak and also decided to walk around the peak on the 1.75-mile trail.

At Victoria Peak

The Amsterdam at Hong Kong

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Sixteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 8 (Wednesday, Day 22, Shanghai, China) - Continued

We showered and got ready for our sailaway dinner that we were hosting on our verandah. The day before Snookums talked to the concierge about having all eight of us from our dinner table eat on our verandah at 8:00 since we were sailing at 9:00. She was told that was no problem so this morning each person came by our cabin and wrote their dinner choices on the menu. Then Snookums took them to the concierge. We started getting phone calls and knocks on the door from various staff around 5 PM. We knew that we needed another table and four chairs on the verandah and our steward brought them from another cabin's verandah. But we didn't expect another steward to come and set the tables with linens, glassware and all of the silverware, but that's what happened!

Pudong New District at night

Shanghai at night

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fifteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 8 (Wednesday, Day 22, Shanghai, China) -

Shanghai skyline

We took the shuttle to downtown and today we had a plan. We decided to walk to Yu Garden. Filbert navigated and Snookums followed. We stopped at an electronics mart department store and Filbert found a 10-pack DVD-R for 80 yuan. He bargained down to 55 ($7.90) which he thought was a great deal.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fourteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 7 (Tuesday, Day 21, Shanghai, China - 6.96 yuan to the dollar) -

We entered the Huangpu River around 4:30 AM. Snookums woke up at 6 AM and decided that Filbert needed to wake up, too. (He wasn't too happy about this, but he survived.) Our ship was navigating its way through lots and lots of river traffic. There were barges and very small fishing boats and huge container ships and some Chinese military ships.

Chinese warship

More after the jump . . .