Page 22
3 Days at Sea En Route to Medang, Papua New Guinea
(part 1 of 2)
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On our first of three days at sea Donna
and I concentrated on booking our tours for the coming weeks. This segment,
which ends in Singapore, is perhaps the most exotic and exciting of
the trip (there are 5 segments). During this segment we now have plans
for overnight stays off the ship in Kyoto Japan, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
City (Saigon) in Vietnam and Siam Reap (Angkor Wat) in Cambodia. The
weather has not been very accommodating. Before Numea it was very cold
and nasty. When we got to Numea the weather turned suddenly hot and
humid. Now it has been windy, hot and humid with much cloudiness and
rain. The weather should improve soon. You can see from the number of
pictures and the length of the commentary that I was getting a little
bored with the poor weather.
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| Donna taking in some
book time on the balcony after a stint at the gym. Every cabin on the
ship has it's own private balcony. Pretty cool. |
This is Roger the guy in charge of
the tour office. He's terrific. He can arrange anything. He's got a big
job on this ship and he is up to it. Here's a guy who works under a lot
of pressure. He's a real asset to Radisson. |
Here is Peter. He lives in Florida.
He was the first person on the ship to give me a compliment about my web
site. I'm desperate for compliments and in return I promised him a place
on the site. I pay my debts! |
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| Donna at the bar again. |
My gal. Donna is on a new kick. She's
trying to survive on a strict diet of apples and bananas. |
And her associate in crime Verlin.He
specializes in bananas and Cosmopolitans. |
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| Life at sea is for
the most part pretty relaxed (boring), even though the cruise staff has
scheduled activities for every interest nearly 24 hours a day. Here we
were presented with an ice carving demonstration. |
The stands were packed |
I think it must have been this particular
carver's rooky season because there were many major league scouts and
some syndicated critics present for his first game. As you can see from
the body language, they weren't easy on the kid. |
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| Donna with our friend
Judy. |
Loren, Judy's husband in one of his
more lucid moments. |
Kevin and Susan enjoying
a Jacuzzi. They are from Salsalito, California where there is a state
law mandating a laid back attitude. They told me the state recently passed
legislation requiring a Jacuzzi a day. |
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| The ship
is fitted with stabilizers limiting much of the ship's rolling which,
in turn limits greatly the number of people who become seasick. There
is however no way to limit the pitching. Once in a while the pitching
of the ship and the sloshing of the pool's water get into sync. This results
in some periodic water displays. About ten minutes after these pictures
were taken the water was catapulted to a height of about 25 feet soaking
everyone in the vicinity. I don't think it was a record but when the Captain
and the 1st Officer came to investigate and almost got soaked, the pool
was closed. Actually, except for the fact that it was extremely dangerous
to be in the pool, it was really cool to watch. |
Donna is attempting to renegotiate
here lifetime ban from Bingo with the Commissioner. He is concerned that
she may not be off the bingo enhancing steroids and insists on checking
with her "bingo anonymous" councilor. Screening results only
uncovered vodka, fish and vegetables. Her lawyers convince the commish
she's clean and she is re-instated. |
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| You can tell from her
expression that she has regressed from her 12 step bingo program badly. |
The commish was not swayed by her
demands for a win. He is clearly incorruptible. |
After 3 consecutive losses, she obviously
has not had an adequate amount of therapy. |
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| To compensate for her
suffering (and her unfulfilled bingo habit) she orders a T-bone at the
most expensive restaurant on the ship. Here she shows unquestionably good
manners by not sucking on the bone. |
The night is ended with
a wonderful show featuring music from the early to mid 1900's. |
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| The ensemble is quite
talented. |
The female singers have their eye
on an unattached passenger....So they think!!! |
Here the Bingo Commissioner
takes on his alter ego. This must be his secret life. |
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| The lead singers going
through some standards. |
The finale brought most
of the audience to their feet and ended a wonderful night. |
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