September 16, 2025

Today splurged to beat the heat and cover some ground in Shanghai!

We hired a luxury car with driver and private guide & started at Yu Gardens; they say you haven't been to Shanghai unless you see! The guide made heat and experience worthwhile. She brought us portable personal fans to carry and that along with our umbrellas it greatly helped. The luxury car with driver picking up and dropping off at entries, in blissful cool was WOW! Guide got us through w good stories and quickly thru crowds and directed best pics.

Next was the water village of Zhujiajiao, one of the best preserved ancient towns. It's a little over an hour outside the city of Shanghai and was established 1700 years ago. There are 36 stone bridges and numerous rivers connecting area. There are tons of shop and restaurants down the narrow streets that line the river, and many house stay accommodations, but no hotels allowed in old town. A monk raised the funds for the first bridge to be built to help out the people who lived in the area.

Then we traded a trip to top of the Shanghai Tower, for a new art installation area we heard about night before on Food Tour. It is called the Oil Drums and it is literally inside old oil tanks - very interesting space, with modern art collection that was very coolly lit.

Our final stop was a visit to The Fake Markets. I wasn't looking for anything particular, just wanted to see what it was all about with a local. There are several around town - this one we went underground, into a parking garage and then was escorted up an elevator, by one of secret vendors. He lead us to closed off room, with all the handbag knock offs. Then negotiations started!

LEVUKA, FIJI

By Patricia Patrick • December 11, 2025
LEVUKA was our last port in FIJI and it is a town that seems frozen in time back to its whaling history of 1900's. Beach Street is the main drag with boardwalks connecting wooden one & two story structures, that even have the old horse tie post out front,(nowadays - park your car) but still, the place feels very old and stuck. The merchandise in the shops is very basic and limited. We all had Fiji dollars to use up - they are changing their printed money in January - so we can't keep to use next time around. So most of us hit the liquor and grocery stores, but even there, it was challenging to find items. Christmas merchandise is pretty non existence. Candy is from Easter and Halloween!

LELEUVIA ISLAND RESORT, FIJI

By Patricia Patrick • December 8, 2025
Today was a real treat. We had a whole gorgeous island in Fiji all to ourselves. Leleuvia Island is a tiny coral cay known for its impossibly clear water, white sand beaches and quiet. It is home to fewer than 50 staff and no permanent population - just a sand fringed eco resort surrounded by reef and lagoon. We were suppose to be heading to Wallis & Futuna, but their dock was damaged in a storm and we need a last minute substitution and this island and our next port in Fiji were just added to the itinerary. Also we were in a nasty storm at sea last evening ( luckily only the 2nd I can remember in the 1.5 years to date) and through the night, with large swells, that had our boat rocking. So to wake to sunshine and calm seas was a blessing. Below are some of the fantastic drone shots our fellow passenger is kind enough to share.

SAVUSAVU, FIJI - Sailing

By Patricia Patrick • December 7, 2025
Any day sailing is a good day, even when the weather doesn't cooperate! Today, a small group of us got a private catamaran experience. We caught wind for part of the trip but also had two small rain squalls too. We still had a lovely adventure, good food and conversation and a nice hour snorkeling at a sand cay off of Sail Rock (shown below) , a landmark and the opening scene for SURVIVOR Australia Seasons 2 thru 5, over the last few years.