Travel Blogging XX

Dateline: Bangkok, Thailand. Further thoughts on the journey just ending. One of the things that makes an ocean cruise fun is if you have nice tablemates for supper. We had two excellent sets of folks with whom to share supper. Our first set on the cruise to Shanghai included folks who were out in this part of the world visiting their son who does IT work for the State Department, based out of Bangkok, and a retired sales manager and his wife from Minnesota. This set for the return cruise included a farm couple from Alberta and an executive couple from Mississippi. Have supper with other folks for a couple of weeks and you start to feel like family.

Of the stops we made on this trip, the two in Vietnam looked and felt the most like we expect Asia to feel. Hong Kong and Singapore are just big modern cities, and to some extent Bangkok and Taipei are the same. Naha in Okinawa is a lower-rise version of a modern city too. Vietnam has that "other" feeling about it. Not bad, mind you, just really different.

If you are going cruising, you need to know about a non-prescription product called Bonine, the chemical name is meclizine hydrochloride. The other DrC and I take it before and during the cruise, one tablet each per day in the evening, and we experience no sea sickness. In simple terms, it works. And if you experience really rough seas, take more than one per day. It makes you a little drowsier than otherwise, but that isn't bad when you are trying to sleep in a strange bed. And no, I don't get paid to plug the product.

Our captain on the cruise just ended was interesting, an Italian who often described the Ocean Princess as "your home away from home, our beautiful white lady." I don't know if he loves his ship but it certainly seems that way. Captains move from ship to ship, they go home on leave and return to another ship as another captain has taken over their former command. He announced with pride that he had received his assignment for the next year and would spend it all aboard the Ocean Princess. She has an amazing itinerary over the next year, essentially around the world.

This class of ship, carrying 600+ passengers, was designed and built for Renaissance, a firm no longer in business. Princess bought 3 of the ships, Oceana has 3 more and Azamara has two. Much smaller than most modern ships, they nevertheless have some of the biggest and best libraries at sea. This is particularly useful for ships that cruise long legs with multiple sea days, reading is a major thing passengers do on sea days. I read several books in the last 30 days, perhaps as many as 10. I really like to find a well-equipped library on a cruise ship, and the Ocean Princess and her sister the Pacific Princess do very well in that regard. I fear I have just told you more than you want to know about the former Renaissance R-ships.