October 10, 2025

Cebu greeted our Ship with a big warm welcome, despite having just been rocked by a major Earthquake, days before our arrival. The Minister of Tourism arrived with a motorcade and she proceeded to chat with the residents and thank us, for all our support.

Our residents rallied to contribute in a variety of ways i.e. cash donations, volunteer work, prayers and spending lots of dollars in Port, to support the local economy. I went to a local college and volunteered my time, with several other residents,  to help with emergency provisions any way we could. Our Ship's Purser was able to procure a truck load of food staples and we were able to sort them into care packages, for the affected families.

Above some photos of our volunteer groups. Some cut tarps and rolled into useable bundles. We packed bags with water, bug repellent, blankets and sanitary products. We chatted with the local college students who organized things in their main building. World Central Kitchen, had volunteers on site to coordinate food efforts. We formed a large human chain to get all the organized supplies off the 2nd floor, down to the waiting trucks. It felt good to help in any way they needed!


Afterwards we went to the Mega Mall near the Port and did some shopping and was so excited to find our favorite dumpling restaurant to have a great dinner. We thought we had said goodbye to DIN TAI FUNG in Taiwan, but Hooray, they have tons of locations!

WAT BANG KUNG & TRAIN MARKET - Bangkok ,Thailand

By Pat Patrick • July 21, 2026
Wat Bang Kung Temple was a quick stop along the way to the Train Markets . What makes this unique is the Temple is completely enclosed by roots of four giant trees (a banyan, bodhi and others). From the outside, it looks like nature has swallowed the building. Inside the chapel is a golden Buddha image, that locals still visit to pray. It was quite active during our short visit there. The Temple dates back over 250 years and survived the Burmese invasion.

BANGKOK, Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

By Pat Patrick • July 21, 2026
We picked Sunday, hoping for less traffic, to explore two famous Markets. First we traveled about 1.5 hours to the Floating Markets at Damnoen Saduak . We hired a driver with a van for the day, to take the group of us. Below is some of the interesting architecture along the way.

BANGKOK, TALAD NOI Neighborhood, THAILAND

By Pat Patrick • July 21, 2026
I was looking for a neighborhood to walk around in Bangkok , hoping to escape all the thousands of people and shady sex elements, that were all over the area ( Nana, Sukhumvit ), unfortunately where we booked our hotel, for supposed transit connivence. Shame on me for trusting others recommendations and not doing more research on my own, lesson learned! Thankfully Talad or Talat Noi provided that escape for me, for one night. Sadly we didn't make it there till after sunset, when a lot was closed. But I still enjoyed the quiet and chatting with Sherrie, as we explored the neighborhood's knooks and crannies.