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!!
Thursday, October 23rd we arrived in the Port of Bitung, Indonesia to huge fan fare despite the pouring rain. Turns out we were the first cruise ship to visit this Port in a long time!
WOW!!! PALAU is the tropical Paradise I have been dreaming about! This is trip just reached a new level of OMG!!
Got to love a place that sells shirts saying " Where the heck is Yap? " Colonia ( population 3,100 ) is the Capital and Harbor town of Yap State ( population 11,600 ) one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. We are in the Pacific Ocean or Philippine Sea just north of the equator, Papua New Guinea and Australia.