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Day 19-20 - Saturday 1 April - Hong Kong to Canberra

So my morning started at 4:44 when I got a couple of smses from Optus welcoming me to Hong Kong. #grunt Of course there was no getting back to sleep after that, what with having to disembark and all. And at 5:30 I got hungry so it was all over. Saw us spinning around at Kai Tak, to have us facing the city. And then the sun rose. We didn't have a single good day of weather the entire trip, and we get a perfect one the day we go home. Doh!!

Hong Kong at dawn

Got ready, and brought some breakfast down the room, but never did get around to download photos (which haven't been downloaded since before Shanghai).

Rex Fortune cruise ship and Hong Kong

Apparently they wanted us out of the room at 8:30 so we did that. But we had different pieces of conflicting information telling us the disembarkation procedure. One said just get off 40 minutes before our car was due (we decided to get a car back into Hong Kong so we didn't have to battle trains and taxis and get all sweaty). Another said wait with the rest of deck 5. I asked at the pursor's office and they said go with the rest of deck 5. But that made no sense because people with earlier cars would then be late. At around 9:20 we went and asked the lady in the theatre and she said we just needed to go get off in about twenty minutes. So that turned out to be quite simple and no queue. I just wish they could have been more organised in their literature. So that was the end of that. We left the ship. Sad times.

In the terminal we just walked out. Noone even looked at our passports (that we'd picked up yesterday afternoon). Then into the baggage hall to get our bags, which was all organised nicely and super simple. They called our car (we ended up being very early) and we did a survey by some local travel type people.

Our car came and we got driven across Hong Kong. And dumped at Kowloon station.

*blink*

When I'd booked the car, I filled out "Hong Kong Station", and the guy who took my booking appended Central. So how they translated that to Kowloon I have no f#$%ing idea. So I was pretty pissed off about that. Thanks Cunard. How to leave a bad taste in our mouth as a parting gift.

Anyway Stu just said we would be ok, so we got out, and checked into our flight and checked our bags at the in-town checkin. We'd been planning to have Tim Ho Wan at Central, but we decided instead to go to the one in Sham Shui Po, and go to the Golden Computer Arcade to pick up a couple of little micro usb cables (I really love the 20cm cables you can get two for $5AUD, and only currently having one is a bit of a pain sometimes when there's multiple devices to charge).

So two trains later we got to Sham Shui Po and walked along Fuk Wing Street until we found Tim Ho Wan. It's a lot like the organised chaos we first experienced at Din Tai Fung in Taipei, so we didn't feel too threatened by the little crowd of people milling around and the procedure to get a seat and order food. We were there primarily for the crispy pork buns (which they call baked bun with bbq pork) and they were every bit as awesome as we were expecting. We also had a few other things which were nice too.

Baked bun with bbq pork - ftw!!!

After lunch we walked back to the Golden Computer Arcade and got our cables.

It was such a beautiful day I couldn't stand the thought of just heading out to the airport - I felt liked we should be looking at the city or something. So I convinced the sweetie that we should get the train to Hong Kong station and just take the ferry over to Tsim Sha Tsui and back. Simple and cheap and we'd get a great view of the whole harbour (and the Queen Mary 2). So we did that. And it was awesome :)

Hong Kong Observation Wheel at Central

Queen Mary 2 at Kai Tak through the Hong Kong Observation Wheel

Central Ferry Pier

Xin Guang First Ferry and Stonecutters Bridge

Kowloon from Central Ferry Pier

Hong Kong from the Star Ferry

Night Star ferry arriving at Central Ferry Pier

Super Star Virgo in Hong Kong

Twinkling Star ferry departing Tsim Sha Tsui

Shining Star ferry and Hong Kong

Hong Kong from Victoria Harbour

Queen Mary 2 at Kai Tak

Then back to the station, one station hop under the harbour to Kowloon, and onto the airport express train. Of course it would have been easier to go straight from Hong Kong since we were right there, but they charge your Octopus card when you go to check in to the flight, and we weren't sure what would happen if we then got on at a station further away.

Quick train trip out to the airport, through security and immigration, and into the Qantas club. I downloaded all my photos since Shanghai and the GPS, and we both had showers and felt much better. Then it was more catching up on the laptop.

USB charging on the Airport Train

Champagne in the Qantas Club at sunset

Sunset over Hong Kong airport

We had the exact same seats on the 747 on the flight back as we did up. One of the two-seater seats right up the back, so the sweetie didn't have anyone next to him.

I was pretty tired so attempted to sleep. And failed. Just lay there with my eyes closed for three or four hours. I didn't have any dinner, just a couple of bread rolls which were a bit awful actually.

Gave up trying to sleep when my legs got restless, so watched Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Which I found to be extremely confusing (maybe it was just that my brain was mush). The kid is asking questions and keeps getting told not to ask questions and it's like well how the heck are *we* meant to understand what's going on? Tried again to sleep after the movie but legs were still restless, so watched Bridget Jones' Baby, which was all a little silly, but that took us up til landing time in Sydney. Breakfast was this little pizza thing, but I'd been starving for a while so my stomach wasn't ready for food (don't ask). Just had the yoghurt and juice.

Rodd Point, Sydney

Parramatta Road, Sydney

About to land at Sydney Airport

In Sydney there was a bit of a queue at the e-tickets, and then a bit of chaos going through the gates due to people having issues getting in the way of people trying to get through. Then picked up our bags and off we went to the domestic terminal.

Flight to Canberra was in a dash 8. Could *almost* see mum's place but it was directly underneath us. Came in from the north into Canberra.

Lake George

Touchdown at Canberra Airport

Chrissie very nicely picked us up from the airport and took us home. I went and got some supplies, then crashed for a couple of hours, at one point waking up and taking a minute to realise where I was. Stu slept most of the afternoon heh.

Have mostly unpacked and done a load of washing of all the fancy new clothes.

And I've also been fighting with our internet which is completely unusable at the moment, as well as downloading photos, gps etc.

So all in all a pretty good holiday. The cruise was pretty awesome for the most part, with just a few things that really pissed me off. The weather was crappy for almost the entire trip which was a bit sad. I think Nagasaki was the highlight of the ports for me. I loved the fine dining, and the buffets available pretty much all day. I dread to think how much weight I've put on! Cruising is something we'd definitely consider doing again.

Day 18 - Friday 31 March - At Sea

6:00 wakeup. After not getting to bed til after midnight. This is why I keep telling people that staying up late to see shows or whatever is not a good idea - because I just lose sleep and get super tired.

The sea was super calm in the morning.

Calm seas in the Taiwan Strait

Got ready early and finally got some photos of the Queens Room empty.

Bust of Queen Mary in the Queens Room on Queen Mary 2

Queens Room

QM2 logo in the Queens Room

Chandelier in the Queens Room

Got some breakfast and ate it in the room.

Spent some time reading the Maritime Quest info boards around the ship.

At 10:15 I lined up with half the rest of the ship to see the Britannia galley. That was super awesome. It's *huge* !!

Bulk plate trolleys

Meals ready for service

Barista station

Moulds for desserts. I had several things from the Kings Court buffet made in these!

Dessert plating

It was a long conga line of people walking in single file through the galley

Escalators going to deck 3

Hand sanitiser station on deck 3

Before lunch we went up to the library and returned the two library books, then we went to Verandah for lunch.

Had a super nice lunch there. Stu had a pate dish, an onion tart tatin which he really liked, and a prune tart. I had quail which was very nice, a deconstructed beef bourguignon with a beautiful but *huge* steak, and strawberry delice which had a whole bunch of different strawberry elements. Lovely. A really good meal but quite large.

Stu at The Verandah restaurant

Went down and got a copy of our account to make sure we had some spare money for souvenirs, then got a tshirt, a whiskey glass and a die cast model of the ship.

Checked on the jigsaw and found that Gwen from Wales had finished it - yay! So I had time to read more info boards.

Back to the room and did some blogging and then started packing. The super annoying thing is they want bags put out the night before disembarkation. Which is a pain because then you have to cart around your pyjamas and toiletries until you see your bag next - which is some time after disembarkation. I should have taken up the self-checkout where you take your own bag off.

Went down to the pub for drinks and trivia. Another hard night - only 12/20. I think the winner got 15.

Amethyst Pub Duo in the Golden Lion Pub

Entrance to the Golden Lion Pub

Postbox outside the Golden Lion Pub on deck 2

Everyone was at dinner for a change, which was nice.

Stu had chicken liver, vegetable wellington and ice cream. I had cream of chicken soup, lamb shanks, and ice cream. Yum. But I'm so fat right now.

Our dinner table on the final night. Back: Licia, Karen, Stu, Norman, David; Front: Bruce and Maria, Kay

Finished packing, put our bags outside, and went to sleep.

Day 17 - Thursday 30 March - At Sea

Woke up at 5:35. Blerf. Gave up and got up around 6:15. Looked out the balcony to no less than twelve ships in sight.

I had a bread roll that I'd picked up last night, and was all set to go photograph some more of the ship when I realised I couldn't find Stu's random camera. I knew we'd had it at dinner, but couldn't find it in the room. I was wondering if we'd put it down while picking up food last night and left it behind. I asked about it at the Pursor's office, but no sign of it. So I was pretty depressed about it. But then just like that, I found it - where it was supposed to be, just shoved a lot further back so I couldn't see it. Poor Stu - I'd woken him twice when he'd just wanted to have a sleep-in.

I'm sure we had breakfast at some point.

Spent a bit of time on a jigsaw, then went to see Pamela Chen Moore's talk on demystifying oriental cooking. She did two very simple dishes - egg, tomato and spring onion with rice; and garlic, beans and mushrooms. Will have to try them when we get home.

Spent pretty much the entire afternoon doing the jigsaw (started last night, did all but some of the water during the day).

And we did have lunch - at nearly 15:00. Whoops. But they did have pork at the carvery. And for some reason all the offcut bits had been cast aside, so I grabbed a whole heap of them - cause they're the best bits!! And I asked for crackling and got some yayyyyy :)

I ran into Pamela at one point while watching the rehearsals for the night's show, and chatted about a few things. She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't visit her parents for a few hours due to Taipei being cancelled.

Got back to the room and we watched the talk from earlier in the day by a historical consultant.

Pub trivia - only got 6/20 this time :( The winner only got something like eight.

Stu and me in the Golden Lion Pub

Stu in the Golden Lion Pub

Dinner was the last formal night - Roaring 20s. I didn't really have anything appropriate to wear, so fudged it a bit. Plenty of people had some wonderful outfits. And quite a few probably should have stopped wearing their outfits a good twenty or thirty years ago.....

Kay and Norman were back, the South African ladies were gone, and Bruce and Maria were there as well. But still no David and Licia.

Stu had mackeral, guinea fowl and ice cream. I had consomme madrilene which was nice but too salty for me, Pamela Chen Moore's salmon for mains (I think I preferred Stu's guinea fowl), and lemon meringue pie which was very nice.

Parade of Chefs in the Britannia Restaurant

Parade of Chefs in the Britannia Restaurant. I think this guy was the head chef

After dinner we *finally* made it to the late night show - Broadway Rocks, which was really good. And went into the Queens Room to get some photos of the ball. Pretty much everyone dancing had obviously had ballroom dancing training. We would have looked a bit dumb if we'd had a go. And also finally got into G32. Turns out G32 is the job number of the ship at the shipyard, so all the bits of the ship had G32 scrawled all over it during construction. Apparently the QE2 had a bar named after the ship's job number as well, so they followed tradition. Just took a few photos then left.

Broadway Rocks show in the Royal Theatre

Roaring Twenties Ball in the Queens Room

G32 Bar

But it meant a very late night - in bed after midnight :(

Day 16 - Wednesday 29 March - Shanghai

Had a broken night's sleep - a lot of coughing :( Our neighbour was also coughing a lot of the night. I was even awake for our arrival in Shanghai at 01:00. Then I turned the GPS off.

It was a lot better organised getting off this time - our guide waited at each stage for the group to catch up so we all just went through as a group.

On the coach at 9:15, set the cameras to China time (need to remember that the ones taken on the ship will be an hour different).

So our first stop of the day was the Shanghai Maglev station. We caught the Maglev out to the airport, and then stayed on the train for the trip back in. It's something like thirty kilometres, and the trip takes seven minutes with a top speed of 431 km/h. It was pretty awesome!!

Shanghai Maglev tracks

Shanghai Maglev

On the Shanghai Maglev - 431 km/h

Pudong International Airport

Shanghai Maglev

Then we went into town and went up the Jin Mao tower. But it was super rushed, only giving us about ten minutes at the top, and of course we had to fit a bathroom stop in there too (and the associated queuing). It was a bit of a murky day, but at least it wasn't raining.

Feoso Zhiguang sundial

Skyscrapers in downtown Shanghai

Shanghai from Jin Mao Tower

Shanghai Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Atrium of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel

Shanghai World Financial Centre Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Oriental Pearl tower from Jin Mao Tower

The Bund from Jin Mao Tower

Jin Mao Tower

Next was a quick photo stop of the Oriental Pearl tv tower.

Oriental Pearl tower

Stu and me and the Oriental Pearl Tower

And finally we went to the Bund to drop off some people that wanted to do their own thing for the afternoon, and they would catch a shuttle bus back to the ship. So as soon as I found out we were doing that I asked if we could have a few minutes to go to the river and get some photos of the skyline. Because the other day it was rainy and horrible. But she said we wouldn't have time. Grunt. I even asked the Cunard guy if he could ask for a few minutes, but when I said I'd already asked, he just said oh well too bad. I was very stabby at this point. So we get to the Bund, and a whole bunch of people slowly get off and mill around talking to her. Several minutes passed. In the end I said stuff this, jumped off the bus and said, can I run up and take a photo. One minute. She wasn't too happy, but let me, so I *ran* up the stairs, got a couple of photos, then ran back. *sigh*

Shanghai Tower, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai World Financial Centre tower

Shanghai buildings and The Bund walkway

The Bund Bull and Shanghai

Shanghai skyline

Monument to the People's Heroes

Back at the ship we had a very late lunch, then did some washing, caught up on blogging etc. Did some work on a jigsaw for a while. Read for a while.

Plaque from Nagasaki at the Purser's Office

Plaque from Busan at the Purser's Office

Doing a jigsaw while watching ships sail down the Yangtze River

Went to the pub for pre-dinner drinks and trivia. Bad night though - only 12/20! I think the winner got 17.

At dinner Kay and Norman and Licia and David weren't there, but Bruce and Maria were. Then we were joined by two ladies from South Africa. It was all very odd.

Stu had tuna sashimi, haddock, and chocolate fondant. I had mushroom feuillete, lamb, and lemon and blackberry tart.

Day 14 - Monday 27 March - Incheon/Seoul

Had a bit of a broken night's sleep on account of not being able to breathe.

At 6:20 the alarm went off to wake up.

Arrival in Incheon was pretty boring. I missed coming under the bridge, but then we docked at a new terminal area in the middle of nowhere (they haven't even built the terminal yet). Downloaded the GPS log since Busan.

Had some breakfast at Kings Court around 8:00.

At 8:45 we went into the Royal Court Theatre to check in to our tour. Where we then had to wait and wait and wait. This time the Korean immigrations had setup laptops in the Queens Room to process everyone. So we had to collect our passports, walk past the temperature sensor, then get our passports stamped. Then we dropped off our passports and got a shore card. They had a truck setup outside with a portable gangway, but it was *very* steep getting up it. We could have really just gone straight off the ship onto the wharf, rather than up and over, but apparently the tides change quite a lot and they were going to have to rearrange things during the day. It was after 10:00 before our coach left the wharf.

So then it was the really long drive into Seoul.

Our first stop was the National Museum. We lasted about five minutes with the crowds and our tour guide before we went off and wandered the place on our own. Sure we probably missed out on hearing about some things in more detail, but we did get a nice long look at all the celadon (a green glazed ceramic), and an amazing exhibition of items recovered in 1975 from a shipwreck.

Entrance of the National Museum of Korea

Gold Crown and Girdle, National Treasure #191 and #192

Gold Crown Ornament, National Treasure #630

Ten Story Pagoda, National Treasure #86

Dragon shaped ewer celadon, National Treasure #61

Ewer celadon

Celadon plate

Objects from the Sinan shipwreck

Coins from the Sinan shipwreck

Then it was off to lunch at a place in the city. There was about fifteen different courses!! It was pretty insane. And I was having fun until I was eating all the green vegetables in a cold "porridge" when I got a huge slice of raw green chili. My mouth exploded. I should have spat it out, but I was on a table full of strangers. So that was super painful (I was in tears) and kinda ruined the rest of the meal. And our tour guide didn't seem to understand that people need to use the bathroom, and so we had to try and find it ourselves when we should have been going out to get back on the coach.

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara. That green chili sunk in with the rest of the vegetables and my mouth exploded when I ate it :(

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara

After lunch it started raining. Yay. We went to Bukchon village next, a line of houses built in the 1930s by a dude who wanted to preserve houses built in traditional Korean style. But it's a residential street and I think the people that live there hate the fact that it's a huge tourist destination.

Sungnyemun Gate

Bukchon Hanok Village

Traditional dress store

Girls in traditional dress

Still raining. We drove past the presidential "blue house" and got one or two photos through foggy and rain-smeared windows.

The Blue House

Then into the royal palace next door. Still raining on and off. Had a decent wander around there which was pretty cool.

Gwanghwamun Gate

Heungnyemun Gate

Geunjeongjeon hall

Inside Geunjeongjeon hall

Courtyard of Geunjeongjeon hall and Bukhansan Mountain

Gargoyle at Geunjeongjeon hall

Covered walkway on west side of Geunjeongjeon hall

Gyeonghoeru pavilion

Bukhansan Mountain

Locals in traditional dress

Decorative roof at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gangnyeongjeon hall

Inside Gangnyeongjeon hall

Locals in traditional dress

Looking towards Gwanghwamun Gate from Heungnyemun Gate

Gargoyle at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Asian women need instructions on how to use the toilets

Girls toilets at Gyeongbokgung Palace

So a reasonably decent tour. Shame about the weather.

Finally a very long drive back to the ship.

Banghwa Bridge

Queen Mary 2 docked at Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal

Incheon Bridge, connecting Yeongjong Island and the mainland of Incheon

Sunset aboard the Queen Mary 2

Queen Mary 2 bell

19:30 the usual pub for drinks/music/trivia (we got 16/20 this time - would have gotten a couple more if we'd joined with the table that marked ours - they knew two that we didn't heh). Really must join ranks with some English people as the questions do tend to be a bit British-centric.

When we got to dinner we found two new people on our table (Bruce and Maria from Sydney). They'd been on board since Sydney and were going all the way to Southampton. But they kept on being at a table by themselves and asked to join someone else. We'd had two seats free since Virginia and Bob got off in Shanghai so that was quite nice. Stu had chicken consomme, Korean chicken and chocolate volcano cake. I had smoked duck, penne, and wasn't going to have dessert because I was so full, but got tempted by the key lime pie heh.

I really feel like we don't belong on this cruise. Bruce and David spent most of the evening talking about travelling business class and comparing airlines, and the sizes of their apartments. Bruce and Maria live in one of the toasters in Circular Quay, and at one point I think I overheard it was 192 square metres (although only heard a snatch of that conversation I could be wrong). Various British couples we've met have summer homes in Europe. We're too young and not rich enough to belong on this cruise...

Day 9 - Wednesday 22 March - Shanghai

Got woken up at 05:54 by a ship's horn blasting. Then at 06:00 the next door neighbours had an alarm go off (we have a double room, and we can hear the neighbours talking through the door). So no hope of getting back to sleep. So got up and looked out, and we were still in the Yangtzee river (we were meant to have docked at 05:00). We didn't end up docking until around 07:00, so was able to watch the whole thing from our balcony, including seeing Quantum of the Seas docking just before us. The terminal is way out on the Yangtzee River, not on the smaller river in the city that for some reason I was expecting to go to.

Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal

Quantum of the Seas in Shanghai

We had breakfast delivered so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds in the buffet. It was a bit average, although it didn't help that I'd let it get a bit cold while watching us dock.

At 9:30 we disembarked. We had to go to the theatre to get allocated a coach group, and then we got off the ship. And walked into a hall of chaos. We were mixed up with people who were leaving the ship for good, so they were all trying to sort out baggage. And suddenly we lost everyone that had the coloured stickers. We did eventually go out the right exit and through a security check, but then outside there was one solitary sign saying where the Cunard tours were going, but after going that direction the signs stopped and everyone was going outside but there were no coaches out there and we had no idea where to go. Eventually I saw someone with a sticker and asked them and she said she was just following her guide, so asked the guide and she said she was looking for the coaches as well!! Gah!! She asked someone though and it turns out they were around the corner. We were almost the last to board our coach, so that was very stressful.

Also, random camera died. It's been a bit funny with the memory card since I dropped it in Hong Kong Disneyland a year ago - the memory card mechanism got a bit screwy, and the door for the memory card and battery always looked like it wasn't sitting flush. Well as I was getting off (after having downloaded the SD card before we got off), it decided it didn't want to work at all - couldn't read the card - reinsert. Fricken sigh.

And it was raining. And the coach windows were steaming up.

The tour we had was "Free time in three sites" which was described as they give you a map and you have time to explore three different parts of Shanghai. Except the map they gave us was a general tourist map of a huge area of Shanghai. No actual detail of any of the places we went to. So that map was completely useless.

Our first stop was in the financial district, and they gave us an hour and a quarter from 10:45 to 12:00. Which might have been enough to go up either the World Financial Centre, Jin Mao tower or the Shanghai Tower, as they are right next to each other, but Stu wanted to go see the Oriental Pearl Tower. But that's a fifteen minute walk away, twenty to twentyfive if you take a wrong turn or want to stop and take photos. So it was about 11:15 by the time we got there. Which isn't enough time to go up it. Well, it might have been, but only if there were no queues, but you can't tell that from the outside. So we didn't go up it. Instead we went to Starbucks. Yay. Did I mention it was raining? I wanted to go to the bathroom, so found one downstairs, but there were was no toilet paper. I knew this was a possibility, so had brought tissues. But they were in my bag upstairs at Starbucks where Stu was waiting, weren't they. Fricken sigh.

Looking across to the Bund from Mingzhu Roundabout

Disney Store

Mingzhu Roundabout

Oriental Pearl Tower

Walked back along the sky bridge thingie back to the coach.

Shanghai World Financial Centre, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower and other Shanghai buildings

Our second stop was in the "Old Town" which is a mega tourist trap. Old buildings are all shops and tea houses and I would have enjoyed it except we hadn't had much for breakfast so I was starving and low blood sugar which meant even trying to find something to eat was too hard (no English subtitles pretty much anywhere so there's all this random food you have no idea what it is). Eventually we found a popular dumpling place and had some xiao long bao. Felt infinitely better after that, so we went to the Yu Gardens to have a wander around. Even though it's not very big it's like a little rabbit warren of passages and gates and completely disorienting with a new view through every turn. Would have enjoyed it more if we didn't need to be back at the meeting spot in time for our departure. We got toffee fruit on a stick on the way out which was a bit of fun.

Me and Stu having dumplings for lunch at Yu Garden

Bridge in Shanghai Old City

Yu Garden

Stu with fruit on a stick at Yu Garden

Fangbang Middle Road

Our third stop was at the Bund. In the rain. I didn't even get my big camera out for the last two stops (I took Stu's random camera which he's barely ever used since he uses his phone). Got some pics of the city from the Bund, then wandered most of the way down and back. Would have been sooo much nicer without the rain.

Me and Stu in the rain in Shanghai

Monument to the People's Heroes

The Bund

Shanghai skyscrapers

The Bund

The Bund Bull

The Bund

Then back to the coach by 16:20 (actually we left a bit early because everyone was tired and over the rain and just wanted to get back to the ship).

Scooter raincoats

Getting back onto the ship was a lot easier than getting off it. Just walked straight in and through security and had our passport photocopies scanned on the gangway and straight back onto the ship.

Quantum of the Seas departing Shanghai

Looking towards the five Queens Grill suites, and The Verandah restaurant on deck 8

View of deck 6 and 7 from deck 8 while berthed in Shanghai

Terrace pool in the evening

Chilled out in the room for a while then went to the pub and had a drink and played the trivia again. We got 17/20 this time, but again a table got 20/20.

For dinner Stu had Indonesian chicken salad, cod with oxtail sauce (weird right?) and rocky road (which was a chocolate mousse not rocky road). I had cream of chicken soup which was lovely, steak which was nice enough but a huge meal - much bigger than they normally serve, and creme brulee which sadly hadn't been blow torched so was just liquid on top.

Then crashed into bed.

Day 8 - Tuesday 21 March - At Sea

Woke up at 06:00 by Stu's alarm set last week when we had to get up to go to the airport. Grunt. Didn't get back to sleep after that.

View of the East China Sea and sky from our balcony

GPS and battery attached to our balcony. This is where the GPS sat for much of the trip.

Watched part of a talk by Pamela Chen Moore, a Taiwanese lady who'd lived in England for half her life, as a replay on tv.

Then went to breakfast relatively early.

After breakfast I did a wander around the back decks on deck 6 and 8, and then had a good long wander through deck 3.

View off the stern of the Queen Mary 2

Deck 6 spa and stern of ship

Deck 8 aft end

View of deck 6 and 7 from deck 8

Terrace Pool on deck 8

Clarendon Fine Art Gallery

Chart Room

Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar

Commemorative Queen Mary 2 bell above the Grand Lobby

The Grand Lobby

At 10:00 I went to the port info talk on Incheon/Seoul.

Planetarium Dome in Illuminations Theatre

Then I wandered around some more and ended up back at the jigsaw I started yesterday. Not much had been done since I left it, so I stayed to work on it. And ended up finishing it. Whoops.

Lower Royal Court Theatre

Seating in the Royal Court Theatre

It was about 14:00 by this point, so collected the sweetie and we went to have lunch.

After lunch we headed up to the library and I borrowed a couple of books.

Came back to the room and read for a while.

Around 16:00 I went out for another wander - this time up to the Commodore club. It was practically deserted due to an event which had just finished and cleared out. Would be a lovely spot for an afternoon drink, although they don't allow jeans :/

Commodore Club seating

View of the bow from the Commodore Club

Model of the Queen Mary 2 in the Commodore Club

Then walked around deck 9, which is where all the big expensive staterooms are. They even have fancier doors heh.

Went to the purser's office and bought 300 RMB, to save us having to look for an ATM tomorrow.

At 17:00 I went and saw Sully, which I quite enjoyed, even though I'm sure much of it has been dramatised and may not have actually happened the way they showed it..

Came back to the room and started charging devices and batteries.

I'm actually a little apprehensive about going to Shanghai tomorrow. We've been to three different Chinese territories, but this is the first time to China proper. They like Australians right?

Dinner was great as always. Stu had Thai seafood salad, aubergine gratin and cappacino cheesecake. I had lamb koftas, roast beef which was wonderful and tender, and creme brulee.

Group photo taken on Bob and Virginia's last night. Back: Bob and Virginia from Tweed Heads, Norman from the UK, Stuart and Karen. Front: Kay from the UK, David and Licia from Perth

Day 6 - Sunday 19 March - At Sea

I slept pretty well from 01:00 to 06:00. Then I woke up and saw that the GPS had stopped recording. So got up and hung it over the edge for like ten minutes trying to get a satellite but couldn't. In the end I left it tied up outside in the hopes that it would start again and tried to get more sleep. And failed (to get more sleep). Being hungry certainly didn't help. Eventually the GPS did start up again (it's now hooked up outside in a snaplock baggie), and I checked that the breakfast buffet was open til 11:00, so dozed for a bit.

At about 09:30, after I'd gotten ready, I went down to ConneXions to pick up a ticket for the day's planetarium show. There was three different desks on either side and in the middle labelled as ConneXions, but noone around. In the end I asked a passing crew member. Turns out the middle desk has a plastic stand filled with tickets, and you just go and take them for the time slot you'd prefer. Simple, once you know how.

Once Stu was ready, we headed up to Kings Court for breakfast. Again, another huge buffet with all sorts of tempting things, but I was pretty restrained.

Breakfast at Kings Court

After breakfast (it was 11:00 by now) we went to see the Port Lecturer, Graham Howell, talk about Nagasaki and the tours the ship does there. They'd already done talks on Shanghai and Busan before we boarded, but they're recorded and you can watch them later on the room tv.

Queen Mary 2 life ring on deck 7

Deck 7 promenade

After we were back at our room they had the 12:00 update. But they don't play it in the rooms, just some of the public spaces. We tried to find the channel they were showing it on, but the tv is a bit dumb and doesn't let you just scroll through the channels. And the guide for what each channel is only appears after you go to the channel, and then it's lost again if you scroll round the end. Don't know if there's a printed guide anywhere, might have to make one myself. We never did find the announcement channel, but found a few that *might* have had it, if we'd found it in time.

Stu on our balcony

At around 13:30 we headed up to Kings Court for lunch. It was going to be a fairly small lunch until I tasted some of Stu's Spanish pork dish and went and got a little dish for myself heh.

At 14:30 we went to the day's planetarium show - Search for Life, narrated by Harrison Ford. A planetarium at sea is certainly a novelty!

Stu outside the Illuminations Theatre

Illuminations Theatre showing the planetarium dome in place

After the show we headed up the library on deck 8 forward to have a look. We got the impression that the half dozen seats facing forward out the windows get filled very quickly and stay filled all day. I was quite amused by all the books on the Titanic :)

Stu in the Queen Mary 2 library on deck 8

Books on the Titanic in the Queen Mary 2 library

Came back to the room and watched Graham Howell's talk on Busan.

Then we had a snooze. Because we were tired.

View of the South China Sea from our balcony

When I woke up I made up a little tv guide. And we watched a documentary on the construction of the ship.

Then we got ready for dinner - the first of the "formal" nights, where I wore my $8 Vinnies dress, yayy Vinnies! We went and had a drink first in the Golden Lion pub ($15USD for two pints of beer - pretty good value actually!).

Dinner was lovely again. Stu had an empanada, sea bass, and souffle, and I had mushroom consomme, beef bourguignon, and strawberry and frangelico parfait. Licia tried to talk us into going to the Beatles show, but we just wanted to go to bed. Note to self: don't take uncomfortable shoes off during dinner - it just makes them a lot more uncomfortable trying to stuff them back in again at the end of dinner...

Deck 5 corridor

Day 5 - Hong Kong to Queen Mary 2

Woke up at 05:30 and couldn't get back to sleep - doh! Eventually got up and did GPS/blog/photos.

Headed down to the street and went to a few different places to pick up coffee in a can, fruit and bakery bits. Ate those in the hotel.

After breakfast I left Stu to wake up and headed down to the waterfront. Our hotel was near the midlevels escalator and once on the overpasses (these ones are all outdoors) it was easy enough to get all the way to the Central piers without crossing roads. Walked all the way to the water and could *just* see the Queen Mary 2 berthed at Kai Tak through all the gloom. I chose not to go on the ferris wheel because, well, what would be the point.

Hong Kong Observation Wheel at Central

Queen Mary 2 at Kai Tak through the gloom

Victoria Harbour

On the way back I went past a couple of old Hong Kong buildings I'd never actually stopped to take photos of before, then took the street route back to the hotel.

The Cenotaph

Former Legislative Assembly Building

Packed up and checked out, then took the three trains from Central -> North Point -> ?? -> Kowloon Bay. In hindsight maybe taking the trains was not a great idea. So many damned sick people :(

At Kowloon Bay we had to negotiate another poorly signposted shopping centre to find the taxis to Kai Tak (we weren't going to take a mini bus like we did last time!). Even though Kowloon Bay is the closest MTR station to Kai Tak, the taxi driver didn't understand "Kai Tak ..... cruise terminal" .. What's with that? In the end Stu showed him a map and then it was ok. Although the meter said 49.2HKD at the end he charged us 60 ?

Anyways. At the terminal there were heaps of people arriving. Cunard had their bag drop right there in the lower hall, so once your Cunard luggage label is attached you just give your bag to them and they send it through the xray machines to be delivered to the ship. So that was pretty handy.

Then we headed inside and upstairs. To a hall of chaos. There were people queuing so we lined up with them, but there were also people just wandering through. It was all very confusing. Turn out our queue was the right one, and they gave us a Hong Kong arrivals card (for when we get back to Hong Kong in two weeks) and a "wellness" form asking us if we were sick. They also gave us a number (07, seemingly at random) and told us to take a seat and go up when our number was called. So we did that but we couldn't hear the announcements very well so we weren't really sure what was going on. We'd arrived at 12:45 (our boarding time was 13:00), but they didn't call number seven until 14:00 :(

Crowds waiting at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Queen Mary 2 from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

So we joined another queue, which was to check in, have our photo taken and get our onboard cards. Then it was off to security, and then immigration, both of which were quick.

Then it was onto the ship!!

Stu on the gangway boarding Queen Mary 2

Oddly, there were half a dozen staff standing around, but you walk past them to the "Grand Lobby" and then you're left to your own devices. There were no offers to show us where to go which I thought was a little odd. Fortunately I had a reasonable idea of where we had to go based on looking at lots of deck plans and photos. So we headed to our room.

Entrance threshold of the Queen Mary 2 on deck 3

The Grand Lobby

The room is actually relatively spacious. There's the two single beds pushed together to make a king, a couch, desk, pretty decent sized wardrobe and drawers, and the bathroom, which is on the small side. There's two UK and two US power outlets on the desk with another two US outlets on top of the fridge part. At first I didn't think there was a shaver outlet in the bathroom for my nightlight. It turns out there is (under the bathroom light), but it only works when the light is on, which kinda defeats the purpose of the nightlight. We have a balcony, but it's an in-hull balcony on deck 5, so you can't really see the view if you're seated on the deck chairs. But it is quite sheltered.

Room 5.127 sign

Our stateroom aboard the Queen Mary 2

Our bed on the Queen Mary 2

Desk area of our stateroom

Couch in our stateroom

Huge wardrobe in our stateroom

Bathroom in our stateroom

View of Hong Kong from our balcony

Deck chair on our balcony

Deck chairs and table on our balcony

In our room was a welcome small bottle of bubbly - basically enough for a glass each. So we sat and enjoyed that.

Welcome glasses of champagne in our stateroom

Welcome bottle of champagne in our stateroom

Me and Stu enjoying champagne in our stateroom

Then went up to Kings Court for a very late spot of lunch. Basically the Kings Court has buffet food going pretty much all day, so you can eat whenever you want which is pretty handy.

After lunch I went to the Pursor's office to ask about the Behind the Scenes Tour. Sadly they're not offering it this trip which is a bit sad-making, but at least I won't be disappointed if I can't get a ticket for it (there's only 16 tickets and usually only one tour per entire cruise).

Britannia Restaurant from the top level

Britannia Restaurant

The Grand Lobby

While I was doing that, Stu got unpacked and went and found the laundry. When I got back we took our clothes to the laundry, and got that going just after 16:00. Then I unpacked. It's going to be nice not having to rummage around my suitcase for two weeks. Just before 17:00 our washing finished so we moved it to a dryer.

At 17:00 was the emergency drill, where we all had to take our life jackets to our mustering area on level 7 and have the talk about what to do in an emergency. And that's where we had our first introduction to argumentative and complaining people. And I thought I was bad... hrmmm....

Me at the emergency drill

After the drill I dragged the sweetie all the way up to level 13 to have a look around the top deck, then down to the lookout on deck 11, before heading back to the room.

The Lookout on deck 13

Stu next to the Queen Mary 2 sign, deck 12

Hydrant from New York and lamp post from the UK, deck 12

Kai Tak cruise terminal from the Queen Mary 2

View aft on starboard side of observation deck, deck 11

Bow from observation deck, deck 11

Deck 11 Observation Deck

We chilled out for a while before getting ready for dinner. We were going to have a drink somewhere first before dinner, but our house alarm had been going off so Stu was trying to sort it out with Kit and Ben and Chris. Most likely a huntsman set it off, but they couldn't find one. So that, as well as having to dress up, was stressing me out no end.

View of Hong Kong from our balcony

So a bit before 20:30 we headed down for dinner. We are on table 1, right in the very back corner of the lower floor. We are on a table with six others - two couples from Australia (Bob and Virginia from Tweed Heads who'd come all the way from Sydney and are getting off in Shanghai, and Licia and David from Perth), and a couple from England (Kay and Norman). David said the chaos in the terminal was the worst he'd ever seen on a cruise.

Our dinner table for two weeks - table 1 in the Britannia Restaurant

Lower level of the Britannia Restaurant

For dinner Stu had a parfait of duck, salmon, and a pear tart tatin. I had a fried goats cheese dish which was very tasty, roast lamb which was amazingly tender and a white chocolate panna cotta which I liked. Overall a lovely meal to start the trip. We chatted for a bit after dinner, then headed back to the room.

Me on our balcony with view of Hong Kong

I was pretty tired and just wanted to collapse, but I also wanted to watch the departure at 23:30. I ran into Bob on the level 11 lookout and we hung around and eventually went up to 13. They were running a bit late and we didn't actually depart til 00:05. The lights of Hong Kong had gone out, but we sailed to the east not past the city anyway. Collapsed into bed at nearly 01:00.

Preparing to depart Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Departing Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Tsat Tsz Mui from the Queen Mary 2

Sai Wan Shan from Queen Mary 2

Day 3 - Thursday 16 March - Macau

Woke up at 05:00 but mostly got back to sleep til around 06:00. Got up and spent ages getting caught up with blogging and photos.

Stu woke up sick :( Too many people in this part of the world and too many of them sick. It was inevitable I guess...

We thought we'd get Maccas for breakfast, on account of it should be a lot cheaper than the big buffet breakfast, and that Stu could then have it in the room without him needing to get up and ready first. So I went down to get some. Except I was running very low on cash so tried to pay on credit card. Except McDonalds in the Galaxy Macau do not take credit cards. What century is this guys???? So reluctantly I went and got another 500 MOP out at the ATM (minimum withdrawal at those ATMs is 500) and bought breakfast. And at 134 MOP it wasn't really any cheaper that the buffet *sigh*.

After we got ready we took one of the hotel shuttle buses over to the peninsula. Wandered up past the Lisboa up to Senado Square. Sat around there for a little while and had a guy from Seattle chat to us for a bit.

Macau across Nam Van Lake

Grand Lisboa Macau

Casino Lisboa

Mammoth tusk carving in the lobby of the Grand Lisboa, Macau

Lobby of the Grand Lisboa, Macau

Portuguese pavement of a flamingo

Historic buildings and fountain in Senado Square

Trees growing out of the side of buildings in Senado Square

Senado Square

Then wandered up the square past all the shoe shops and jerky shops, evenutally stopping at Starbucks for a pitstop.

St Dominic's Church

Interior of St Dominic's Church

Eventually made it up to the ruins of St Paul's.

Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral

View south from St Paul's Cathedral

Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral

Then continued up to the fortress. There's signs all around the place pointing where everything is, but they dried up at the bottom of the fortress and we ended up turning left instead of right and did a very long wander around the base of the fortress. Which was fine because it had a nice view and there wasn't many people and it was quiet. Oh yes, Stu got a migraine just as we were leaving the hotel so all the people and noises were a bit stressful.

Flowers in a tree next to the Macau fortress

Finally made it to the top of the fortress which was pretty cool.

View north-west from Macau fortress

View to Guia Lighthouse from the Macau fortress

South wall of the Macau fortress

Canon seemingly taking aim at the Grand Lisboa

Panorama view south and west from Macau fortress

Macau museum

Took the escalators down off the hill then wandered back down the way we'd come. We had seen a 26A on the way up, and thought there'd be a bus stop along Av de Almeida Ribeiro, but we never saw one.

Ended up down at Nam Van Lake so I left Stu to sit for a while and went on a pretty long walk to take photos of bridges and the Kun Iam Statue.

Hotel Lisboa

Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge

Macau Tower

Macau over Nam Van Lake

Tree roots along Av. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen

MGM Grand Macau

Lion outside the MGM Grand Macau

Kun Iam Statue

Went and collected the sweetie and headed back to the Star World Casino for a bus back to our hotel.

Sai Van Bridge

Galaxy Hotel

When we got back we went downstairs and had a swim in the heated pool. We didn't go in the rapids thingie because frankly it was just too far to walk (my feet were killing me). So we just stayed in the heated pool which was right downstairs from us and that was very nice.

Rooftop heated pool of the Galaxy Hotel

Next we thought we'd get dinner from the Tastes of Asia food court downstairs. But these guys, as well as not taking credit card, don't even take cash!!! You have to use one of their stoopid card systems. I did what any person who was so tired and hungry would do - I lost it. What sort of place doesn't even take cash?? Might be ok if you're local and have the cards they want, but it's really not very friendly for tourists. I had 250MOP in cash that I needed to spend before the next day. And I didn't want to go get a card because you always lose leftover money on those things (it's the principle of the thing). We looked at a couple of the nearby restaurants, but 250MOP might have gotten me a bottle of wine or one dish, but nothing else. And I really didn't feel like walking all the way over to Taipa. So we had KFC. Because they took my damned money and they were right there. But I could barely stomach it. It was all very upsetting.

After dinner I went (by myself, *sigh*) back to the peninsula to take photos of the casinos at night. The Lisboa is a bit insane.

Wynn's Casino by night

Hotel Lisboa by night

Wynn's Casino by night

Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge by night

Macau buildings by night

Grand Lisboa by night

Hotel Lisboa by night

Grand Lisboa by night

Casino Lisboa by night

Hotel Lisboa by night

The shuttle bus back from there dumps you right at the very southern end of the Galaxy resort, but I didn't want to walk through the shops again, and you can't walk over to the Parisian or the Venetian without walking All The Way Around the streets and front entrances (another couple of kilometre walk) so I didn't bother going to see them either. Oh well. Guess I'm never going to see those at night. Just walked around the outside of our hotel. At least it was peace and quiet. Collapsed into bed about 21:30.

The Parisian by night