September 14, 2025
Our first view of Shanghai at night, it's magical!
We traveled to Shanghai via their Bullet train - it took about 4.5 hours and was not as nice as the Japanese trains. The amazing thing was so many of the passengers order fast food delivery via apps and had it delivered to their train cars in the 2 to 3 minutes we were in each of the maybe 4 stops, along the route. KFC, Burger King, McDonald's everywhere! The Chinese also lack social skills, they hardly ever make eye contact, have no concept of standing in line and waiting, and they will climb right over you without a word. We missed Japan!!
We lucked into a VIP upgrade for seating on the upper deck of the river cruise we did tonight. Was such a great way to admire the skyline!!
Monday April 6th is another travel day for us on our destination to remote Raja Ampat . We started the day at 5am to make our 7am flight from Denpasar, Bali to Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in South Sulawesi for our brief layover to connect with our flight onto Sorong, Indonesia.
Easter turned out to be a travel day for Bosco and I as we were extremely limited in when we could be seen by the Australian Border Control to disembark from the Ship, for a scuba diving adventure in Raja Ampat that I have had reserved, for over 18 months! We flew from Perth to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Easter afternoon.
I have been really excited to get to Fremantle / Perth for my first time. I have had a few friends live here over the years and I have a second cousin, James Murphy, who I have only ever spoken too briefly, over the last 35 years and that I would love to meet in person. Jim is the older brother of Paul who I met up with in Melbourne a few weeks ago.