Results tagged “Sleep” from East Asia 2017

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

Hong Kong at dawn

Hong Kong at dawn

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

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.

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.

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

Broadway Rocks show in the Royal Theatre

Broadway Rocks show in the Royal Theatre

Broadway Rocks show in the Royal Theatre

Broadway Rocks show in the Royal Theatre

Broadway Rocks show in the Royal Theatre

Roaring Twenties Ball in the Queens Room

G32 Bar

G32 Bar

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

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 from Jin Mao Tower

Shanghai Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Shanghai Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Atrium of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel

Atrium of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel

Shanghai World Financial Centre Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Oriental Pearl tower from Jin Mao Tower

Oriental Pearl tower from Jin Mao Tower

The Bund from Jin Mao Tower

The Bund from Jin Mao Tower

Jin Mao Tower

Jin Mao Tower

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

Oriental Pearl 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.

Woke up at 6:35 with a coughing fit. But given that we'd put our clocks back an hour overnight, it was actually 5:35. Hurrah. I put my watch back, but again they haven't changed the mobile tower, so the phone and all the cameras are still on Korean time.

Sunrise over the Yellow Sea

I got up and got ready, figuring the ship would be pretty quiet. Wandered around all over the place, but at 7:40 there was already a group in the Queens Room! Still have to find a free time to photograph it.

Flowers in the Grand Lobby, deck 2

Starboard side games corridor and Maritime Quest boards

Commemorative Queen Mary 2 bell on deck 3

Model of the Queen Mary 2 outside the Queens Room

Model of the Queen Mary 2 outside the Queens Room

Model of the Queen Mary 2 outside the Queens Room

Went and got some breakfast, but then ate it back in the room.

Then went down to do a jigsaw for a while.

Doing a jigsaw of York Minster on the Queen Mary 2

At 9:00 I went round the corner to pick up a planetarium show ticket. And found a queue all the way around to the other games corridor. But didn't stress too much as there weren't 450 people there. The queue moved pretty slowly though, and when there was about ten people in front of me the dude's like "that's it, all gone". And I'm going WTF ??? Damned greedy people taking huge batches of tickets. I heard someone saying they used to have a two ticket per person limit. They totally need to do that again. So now I have to queue yet again outside the planetarium later to try and get a seat from someone who's too lazy to turn up to the show. Hate people. HATE.

Got the sweetie some breakfast, then headed back to the room to catch up on blogging etc.

At 12:15 we went to Dr Ingrid Vissor's second talk - Slippery When Wet - mostly about her rescue work trying to save stranded whales.

When it finished we considered seeing if we could wait around and get into the 13:30 planetarium show, but we were bit over people so went and got some lunch (more people though.. urghh). I didn't eat a whole lot, so when we were done it was nearly 13:30, so went back after everyone had gone in. We were lucky enough to be able to get in. Pretty crappy seats down the front, but hey, we didn't have to queue.

Plaque commemorating Queen Mary 2's first visit to Sydney (I was there!)

The Yellow Sea

Came back to the room to continue sorting photos.

At 16:00 we tried to watch The Last Samurai on the ship tv, because it was advertised as starting at 16:00. But it actually started at 15:00 so that was a bust.

So I went down to work on a jigsaw. And ended up finishing it. Whoops.

At 18:40 we went up to the Carinthia Lounge for a pre dinner drink, and at 19:00 went into Kings Court "Smokehouse" for dinner. Kings Court (aft end) does different themed nights as an "alternative" dining with a $17.95USD cover charge. We chose to go on the smokehouse night - American bbq. Stu had Maryland crab cake for starter, blackened salmon (nice) and a beef dish (a bit dry) (you got to choose two dishes for mains), and vanilla cheesecake. I had buffalo chicken wings (quite nice), coconut crusted shrimp (pretty good), bbq ribs (fall off the bone goodness - the way ribs should be done!) and salted caramel and popcorn pudding (ok, but I was quite full and wasn't even really wanting dessert so gave a lot of it to Stu). Quite a decent meal, and we could say we did it.

We finished a bit late for pub trivia, and had been thinking about seeing the early show, but Stu didn't feel very well (possibly something he ate at lunch), so we just had an early night.

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

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

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village

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

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

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...

Slept in til 06:48 hurrah.

Sunrise over the Korea Strait

I'd gotten a bread roll from King's Court last night, so had that as an early breakfast to keep me going.

After a couple of tries to find a washing machine free I got our washing started. But when I came back near the end to put it in a drier, a little old guy came in from another laundry with a bag of wet washing and put it in the drier I was just about to use. And I'm like DUDE, I was literally about to use that. Buttplug. He didn't care. So I'm standing there feeling completely screwed over with nowhere to do my drying. But someone took their drying out a bit early, and the washing machine beneath it still had a way to go, so I put my drying in there. And then I came back with a book to sit in the corridor outside the laundry so *my* drying wouldn't get stolen. So much drama, so much rage. HATE.

I've been drinking the water out of the taps with no issues (they desalinate most of their water, but also get supplies of fresh water when in port). But this morning the water *stank* of chlorine. urgh.

Did some catching up with the blogging, and then it was about 11:15. I hadn't eaten anything else, and Stu hadn't eaten at all. So we were about to go to the buffet when I said we should go have lunch in Britannia, because we hadn't done that on accounting of always having breakfast so late. So we did that. We got put on a table with a couple from the UK (who owned a summer home in Spain or Portugal) and a couple from Darwin (the dude had grown up in Rhodesia and gotten out before it got really bad there). I was feeling sick and anti social though, so it was a bit of an odd lunch. And Stu's random camera, which I thought I'd charged the battery for, was completely flat. So I must have gotten mixed up and only charged the other battery. Stu had mackeral, a fisherman's pie and rice pudding. I had cream of parsnip soup which was quite nice, some lasagna which was also nice but didn't have any salad so I was feeling like I should have some fibre, so had some tinned fruit.

After lunch I went up to have a look at the bridge viewing area, just behind the bridge on deck 12. While I was looking, the Chief Officer came out and had a sign in Cunard font that said no photos, and if it was placed between the two windows would I have read it. And I'm like, no, you really need the graphic of a camera with a red line through it. They do have one, but it's on the furthest window, so it'd be pretty easy to not even realise you can't take photos there. Then he very sweetly let me take a photo there!! I was so excited :)

Bridge of the Queen Mary 2

Read for a little while in the afternoon and did some more catching up on blogging. The GPS was being a bit bumheadful today and kept losing signal.

I also had a look at some of the "Maritime Quest" info boards.

At 17:00 we put on the talk that we missed in the morning on account of buttplugs being buttplugs in the laundry - What eats sharks for breakfast - by marine biologist Ingrid Vissor. That was very interesting.

Went to the pub around 19:30 for drinks, music and trivia. Only got 15/20 this time.

For dinner Stu had pate de Campagne, vegetable tartlet and bread and butter pudding. I had strawberry and champagne soup, pork loin and cheesecake.

My cold changed from being mostly a cough to being a stuffed up nose. Hurrah.

Slept in til 06:38!

Got ready and watched our arrival into Nagasaki from the top deck. We passed under the Megami Ohashi bridge on the way in, which apparently was built around the same time as the Queen Mary 2, and was built high enough to allow tall ships such as the Queen Mary 2 to pass underneath. Apparently there's only a six metre clearance! Lots of people were on the bridge, and we honked at them a few times :)

Crowds gathered on Magamio Bridge to welcome Queen Mary 2

Megami Ohashi Bridge and Queen Mary 2

Dry docks in Nagasaki bay

Kite flying over Nagasaki bay

Nagasaki

Looking up to Glover Garden

As we were pulling up to the dock on our port side, a little troupe of dancers and a full brass band came out to welcome us. They went for quite a while, it was pretty awesome.

Welcoming committee at Nagasaki

Welcoming committee at Nagasaki

Breakfast was a little more relaxed as we didn't have to rush for any tours. As it was a cruise terminal, they have it setup inside to deal with the cruise ships. There was quite a lot of people, but it all flowed fairly quickly. In the terminal they were also setup with an information stand giving out maps, a place selling the all day tram tickets (500 yen), and an ATM. So we were all set for the day really quickly. We didn't go on a tour in Nagasaki. We'd originally tried to get on one, but it was booked out and we were put on a wait list. So I did a bunch of my own research and decided we could have a better day doing things ourselves. So when a spot came up on the tour I didn't bother to accept it.

So after getting off the ship we headed for the nearest station on the blue line and took a tram up to Hamaguchi-Machi station to look at the peace memorial hall.

Queen Mary 2 at Nagasaki

Nagasaki manhole cover

Pool above the Memorial Hall and Nagasaki History and Folklore Museum

Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

Paper crane I made and added to the collection

Then next door to the Atomic Bomb museum. Not a very big museum but problematic with flow because there's tv screens with lots of information but take quite a while to cycle through so people bunch up watching them and don't keep moving. And of course there were several Cunard tour groups passing through, so the place was quite cramped. But very interesting and focussing on the effects of the bomb in Nagasaki followed by a hall on the current state of nuclear weapons in the world.

Spiral entrance to the Atomic Bomb Museum

Paper cranes in the Atomic Bomb Museum

Wall clock found in a house near Sanno Shinto Shrine, about 800 metres from the hypocentre

Molten beads of stained glass from Urakami Cathedral

Our legs were hurting quite a bit at this point so we stopped in the cafe for a bit.

Instructions on how to use the toilet

Then we headed down the hill to the hypocentre. I've now been to both hypocentres for both nuclear blasts.

Sadako Sasaki statue

Canal where people tried to find water to relieve their burns

Hypocenter Cenotaph

Sun directly overhead the hypocenter

Wall remnant of Urakami Cathedral

And then up the hill to the peace park, which is in the location of a former prison that was reduced to its foundations in the blast.

Nagasaki Peace Statue through the Fountain of Peace

Fountain of Peace

Fountain of Peace

Remnants of the prison blocks

Paper cranes in Nagasaki Peace Park

Nagasaki Peace Statue

Took a red line tram back into town (Kokaido-Mae) to have a look at the Megane-bashi "spectacles" bridge. And we continued to wander down the channel looking at all the stone bridges across it.

Tram we took at Kokaido-mea tram station

Megane Bridge (Spectacles Bridge)

People crossing the Nakashima River

Then at random we wandered into this covered-street shopping area. We were just looking at the map when some locals asked if we needed help. We didn't really as we were just looking at it, but then we asked if there was any local Nagasaki dishes that they could recommend. She said we should try the "turkish rice" at a famous nearby cafe - the Olympic Cafe. So she took us there to show us where it was. Turns out it's just a pork katsudon on flavoured rice, with spaghetti and a bit of cabbage on the side. We also ordered a "cheeseburger" which was just a hamburger patty topped with cheese, also on the same rice and spaghetti. Quite an odd meal, but quite nice. It seems the cafe is quite famous for its 120cm high dessert towers. Amazing to see. But we were too full from lunch to attempt to eat one (and it was 15:00 by this point). We never would have even gone in there if it hadn't been for the local telling us where to go. As is the case in Japan, many restaurants are hidden away at the top of tiny little staircases, so if you didn't know they were there, you'd never think to go.

After lunch we continued walking south and went and had a good long wander around Dejima, which for a couple of hundred years was the only place which could do any western trade with Japan. Interesting stuff, and lots and lots of buildings with different things in them.

Dejima island next to the Nakashima River from the Dejima bridge

Old Dejima Seminary

Local Japanese guy who posed for me

Scale model of Dejima Dutch trading post

Scale model of Dejima Dutch trading post

Next we took a blue line tram to Takara-machi and hiked the kilometre to the base of the Inasa ropeway. I'd have done this earlier in the day if the weather had been better, but since it was grey all day I decided we could do this is as the last thing while it was still daylight, then hang around and wait til it got dark. Because apparently this was once voted the third best night view after Hong Kong and Monaco.

Stu under at tori at Mt Inasa

Our cable car at the Nagasaki Ropeway

Lookout building on Mt Inasa

View of Nagasaki from Mt Inasa

Queen Mary 2 from Mt Inasa

Nagasaki Harbour Bridge

So after getting our daytime photos, we sat in the foyer for a bit and had a drink and waited an hour or so for it to get dark. The problem with this place is it's tiny. And lots of people want to come and see the third best night view in the world. And most people that go there aren't satisfied with having a look and taking a few photos and then moving on. No, most of them are setup with with tripods and are there for the long haul and will. not. budge. I was getting so pissed off that I couldn't get anywhere near the fence to take a few photos. I actually leaned on a few of them at one point. Eventually after ages I was able to get some photos but it was a very frustrating experience. I think a bunch of them were waiting for the Queen Mary 2 to depart, but that was two and a half hours away.

Transmission towers on Mt Inasa

Crowds at Mt Inasa (that wouldn't MOVE)

View of Nagasaki from Mt Inasa by night

Queen Mary 2 from Mt Inasa by night

Nagasaki Harbour Bridge from Mt Inasa by night

So about 19:15 we headed back. We were able to get on a cable car fairly quickly which was good. Walked back to the tram, then two trams back to the ship (blue line to Tsuki-Machi, and a green line to Ouratenshudoshita, although it took so long to arrive we could have walked the two stops quicker heh).

Tunnel of Light

So it was a pretty full-on day (over 20000 steps!), but we got to do the things that we wanted to do, and at our own pace.

Stu went aboard first so I could get a definitive location on our room. Then I went on board. Getting through the terminal was super easy - just handed in my photocopied passport with the entry card stuck on it, and through I went. Slight queue at ship-board security.

Queen Mary 2 docked at Nagasaki International Cruise Ship Terminal by night

Looking into the Purser's Office on deck 2

Stu on our balcony showing the location of our room

Oura Church by night

Even though we'd (just) made it back to the ship by 20:30, we really didn't feel like dressing up for dinner, so we just grabbed a light dinner in the Kings Court. I wasn't going to have any dessert but they had a white chocolate fountain! So dipped a chocolate cake ball in that. Also took a bread roll and some butter for breakfast.

White chocolate fountain in Kings Court

I went up to deck 13 to watch the departure. Nagasaki's big suspension bridge is not lit up like Busan's, so it was a little boring heh.

Back in the room I heard something loud outside so went to see what it was. It was the pilot's boat, so watched it come alongside, and watched two guys jump off the Queen Mary 2 onto it. That was pretty cool.

Pilot boat which came to pick up the harbour pilot

Then it was wash hair and go to bed, after setting *everything* up to charge.

06:11 wakeup. They put the ships clocks forward an hour overnight, but not the internal mobile tower's time, so it was still on the old time. I changed my watch, but not the cameras.

Starboard side games corridor on the Queen Mary 2

Put some washing on just before 09:00, then went down to ConneXions to get tickets for the Planetarium show (got there right on nine and just walked up to the desk where a dude had just setup and got a ticket). Went and got some breakfast. Saved some space for eggs benedict but Stu took the last one of the batch - doh!

Went back to get the washing but I was a few minutes late (on account of being at breakfast). Someone had taken our washing out to put theirs in, but when I went through everything there was an unpaired sock. Great. So that meant we missed a talk on China because I had to wait around for *their* cycle to finish so I could retrieve the sock. But as he was taking stuff out there were *three* socks and a tshirt in with his load!! What a retard. One sock I could *maybe* understand but *three* ??? And a tshirt??? Buttplug.

At 11:00 we went and saw the third talk by Pamela Chen Moore - in the theatre for once heh.

Had a small plate of fries for lunch. As you do. Hrmm.

Dockwise Forte - semi-submersible heavy transport vessel

Went and worked on one of the jigsaws for a while before going to a Planetarium show - Cosmic Collisions, narrated by Robert Redford.

Then had some afternoon tea. Well Stu had afternoon tea, I had a late lunch of lamb (it was 15:00). My eating patterns are all over the place on this trip.

At 15:30 we went to the port talk on Hong Kong. Even though we'll be off the cruise it was interesting to see the sorts of tours they have and what sort of destinations they go to, versus what we've done ourselves.

Hong Kong port talk in the Illuminations Theatre

Afterwards spent a couple of hours with a jigsaw, finishing it a bit before 18:00.

Saw the sun for the second time this holiday, so got some photos of it setting.

Sunset over the Korea Strait from Queen Mary 2

Me at sunset on the Queen Mary 2 (one of only two sunsets seen aboard!)

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

Sunset over the Korea Strait from Queen Mary 2

In the evening we had the "meet the captain" welcome drinks party in the Queens Room all in our formal gear. I wore Chrissie's dress to this one. We didn't end up meeting the captain because half the ship was there and the line to meet him they reckoned was about half an hour long. So we didn't bother with that. Had a couple of glasses of bubbly though, but didn't end up talking to anyone else.

Reception with the Captain on Queen Mary 2

Me at the reception with the Captain on Queen Mary 2

Reception with the Captain on Queen Mary 2

For dinner Stu had chicken liver pate, lamb curry and ice cream. I had pumpkin soup which was very nice, a chicken dish which wasn't too bad, and a small creme brulee.

Pablo, our sommelier

Carmello, one of our waiters

Katerina from Riga, one of our waiters

Stu and Me at dinner

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

Oriental Pearl Tower

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

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

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

The Bund

The Bund Bull

The Bund

The Bund

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.

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

Woke up at 06:00. Blerf.

Got ready and downloaded photos, blogged etc. Had breakfast around 09:45.

After breakfast Stu started up some washing, and I did a wander all around deck 7, including the Princess and Queens Grill which are normally off limits to plebs like me, but they didn't mind me going in to take some photos while noone was in there.

Deck 7 promenade, starbooard side looking aft

Bow end of the deck 7 promenade

Spare propellers at bow of deck 7

The very front of the state rooms and public areas and bridge of the Queen Mary 2

Deck 7 promenade

Three laps around the ship on deck 7 is just over a mile long, two laps is just over a kilometre

Deck 7 aft

Deck 6 pool

Deck 7 promenade, starboard side

Inflatable life boats on deck 7

Deck chairs on deck 7, unfolded and with cushions

Looking aft at around deck 9 from the starboard side scenic lift

Princess Grill restaurant

Princess Grill restaurant

Princess Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Came back to the room and we watched the port info on Shanghai while our washing dried.

Current position of the Queen Mary 2 on our stateroom tv

View forward from our balcony

We had lunch in the smaller aft Kings Court which doesn't have as much choice as the big one, but it did have pizza.

Took another walk around deck 7, this time with the sweetie.

Me with the spare propellors

The Grand Lobby

Flowers in the Grand Lobby

Me in the Grand Lobby

We also had a look at the games area. It's mostly people playing Mahjong, but also scrabble and rummy tiles. There's a corridor for games on both port and starboard sides. On one side there was a jigsaw nearing completion, while the table on the other side was empty.

Left there, and I tried to get an audio headset thingie for all the "Maritime Quest" info boards around the ship, but apparently they don't have them at the moment. ?? Something to do with them being out of date?? Some lame excuse anyway.

So I went back to the jigsaw and helped them finish it. Then around the other side someone had started a new jigsaw. So I helped with that until 16:45, so I could then join the sweetie to watch Passengers. It wasn't too bad, just a bit of Hollywood fluff really.

Illuminations Theatre

Illuminations Theatre showing the planetarium dome retracted

Back in the room afterwards I brought the GPS inside and download all its tracks since departing Hong Kong.

Then it was time to get ready. We headed to the pub again, this time in time for the pre-dinner trivia. We didn't officially play, but if we had we'd have gotten 18/20. There was one table that got 20 though, oh well. Collected some questions for our next trivia night. Not that I want to run another damned trivia night, but some people can't help themselves but win it!!

Then into dinner. Stu had the parsnip soup, guinea fowl and toffee pudding. I had prawn cocktail (very small serving), sole (not bad, my alternative choice after I found out the steak dianne was using minute steaks), and the toffee pudding.

And finally into bed.

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

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

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

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 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 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

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

Slept through til 07:11 which was nice. Definitely a good comfortable bed.

We went down to Festiva again for breakfast.

Then we packed ourselves up and checked out around 10:45. Went outside and hopped on a shuttle bus to the Taipa ferry terminal. At the terminal we went in (it was 11:15) and got tickets for the 11:30 ferry. A very quick trip through immigration and pretty much straight onto the ferry.

Our ferry back to Hong Kong

The ferry trip was pretty grey. We passed between Lantau Island and Cheung Chau. And then we were back in Hong Kong!

Hong Kong from the ferry

Getting through immigration was nice and simple, but getting out of the ferry terminal was not. You end up in the middle of a shopping centre with no clear exit. Even when we found a way outside, you end up on Connaught Road with no way to cross it! This city is really not very pedestrian friendly, unless you happen to know your way around shopping centres and know where all the internal overpasses are. Mind you the city is not very car-friendly either, as all the little streets turn into car parks for most of the day. I don't know how people stand it. Anyway, after battling our way along narrow footpaths, and giving up and walking along the road for half of it, we ended up at the hotel.

The room is small but adequate (bed is tiny haha). They nicely provide an android phone for local calls and data, although it's locked down so you can't just tether your own devices to it (well maybe you could if you looked hard enough). But it was useful for maps and browsing.

Our room in the Butterfly Hotel

View from our hotel room

After we'd settled in we headed out for a late lunch. As is tradition we went to Dim Sum Square for crispy pork buns!! (and other things too). There was a small queue outside waiting to get in. One of these days the restaurant is going to move again to somewhere much bigger..

Happy hour, save water, drink beer! Sign outside a pub on Wellington St

Crispy pork buns at Dim Sum Square

After lunch we hopped on a train to Causeway Bay to go see a movie. Our Octopus cards still had a bit of money on them, and it was kinda cool to know exactly what we had to do to get there, even knowing which direction to go without looking at a map. Of course at the other end it's a different story, because once again we had to negotiate shopping centres. In the end I found a concierge desk and asked where to go.

The movie we saw was Martin Scorcese's "Silence" about Portuguese Jesuit priests in Japan in the 17th century. I found it difficult to watch mainly because I don't know what I'd do if I was tortured for my faith. They also had a scene shot in Macau, where we'd been literally yesterday.  That was pretty surreal.  A good, but quite long movie.

After the movie we took a train back to Sheung Wan. Picked up beer and chips at a 7-Eleven for dinner, because we're classy like that. Washed hair and in bed by 21:00.

Stu and Karen at Times Square in Causeway Bay

Times Square, Hong Kong

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

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

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

After getting to bed at midnight local time, 03:00 our time, I woke up at 04:00 with hurty and that kept me awake for an hour. But got back to sleep and slept through til 08:00. The bed is very comfortable although the pillows are super squishy. On the desk there's a couple of multi-style power outlets which take all our devices without needing adapters. Stu has an outlet by his bed but I don't. There's a multi-style shaver outlet in the bathroom too which lets me put a nightlight in there. The nightstands also have little nightlights underneath them so you can see the ground if you need to get up when it's dark. Quite handy. Somewhat annoyingly the carpet is mostly brown except for these big dark brown butterflies which makes it look like there's something there that you need to not trip over heh. There's a little room with an ice machine and a drinks and snacks vending machine.

Also, our room is "city view" which is north-facing towards the peninsula. Except. Just north of here are a whole stack of apartments taking up most of the horizon, so you can only see about three buildings of the city. We'd probably have been better off with a view of the rest of the hotel complex. Also the glass is about five layers thick and highly reflective on both sides, so all lights get reflected back and forth which really kills photos. Oh well.

View of Taipa from our room at the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

Panorama of our view towards Taipa from our room at the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

After getting up at 08:00 I downloaded the previous day's photos and GPS track and wrote up a blog entry. We were ready by 9:30 then headed downstairs to one of the restaurants in the complex that's attached to the hotel. We didn't have breakfast included with our room, so it was 160 MOP each extra (plus an extra service charge hrmm). But we did fill up on lots of nice food which means we can skip lunch.

After breakfast we had a wander around the ground floor of the complex, looking at the shops and even going into the Apple store.

Model of the Galaxy Hotel complex, Macau

11am sound and light water show in the Diamond Lobby of the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

Came back and got ourselves ready, the headed out to Coloane. There's a bus (26A) which leaves right outside the hotel to go down to Coloane for 4 MOP each (actually 3.60 but they don't give change - you just drop coins in the slot by the driver when you get on for the price indicated on the electronic readout. I guess it'd mean if you lived at one end of the run and only wanted to go a short way you'd still need to pay the full fare for the whole length of the trip. If you lived at the end of the run you pay less).

Front entrance of the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

At Coloane we hopped off the bus and then just wandered. We came across Lord Stow's quite quickly, so went into the "garden" and ordered three of their famous Portugese egg tarts as well as some drinks. The tarts were indeed quite good.

Lord Stow's famous egg tarts

Then we just wandered up and down the water front looking across to China, at the St Francis Xavier church and a couple of temples.

Largo do Matadouro street sign

Stu looking at the view across the water to China

Coloane waterfront

Portuguese pavement of a ship

Chapel of St Francis Xavier

Eduardo Marques Square

Lion outside Tin Hau temple

Tin Hau temple

Tin Hau temple

Inside the Chapel of St Frances Xavier

Then hopped on another bus back to the hotel (5 MOP each on the way back).

Except I didn't go all the way back to the hotel. I hopped off outside the Parisian and had a look at the Eiffel Tower and then inside the lobby. Wow. Epic. I thought I might see how much it was to go up the tower, so started following the signs. I got led on a very long walk through all the shops which was super annoying. When as it turned out, the lift just off the lobby would have taken me straight up. The price was 100 MOP to go up ($20) but because it was such a grey and murky day I didn't bother.

Eiffel Tower outside the Parisian Hotel

The Parisian Hotel

Lobby of the Parisian Hotel

Lobby of the Parisian Hotel

I tried to find a way through the hotel over to the Venetian but it was all too hard so just walked around the outside. The Venetian is also pretty insane, but so big I had trouble finding the canal. I think it follows the path of the shops, but by this time I was a bit over it and just wanted to get back. I tried to find a way to the western lobby so I wouldn't have to walk all the way back outside and around but they certainly don't make it easy. In the end I had to walk through the casino to get there.

St Mark's Campanile outside The Venetian Hotel

Rialto Bridge outside The Venetian Hotel

The Venetian Hotel

Lobby of The Venetian Hotel

Lobby of The Venetian Hotel

Lobby of The Venetian Hotel

San Luca Canal, The Venetian Hotel

The Great Hall in The Venetian Hotel

The Great Hall in The Venetian Hotel

Came back to the hotel and chilled out for a while (at this point I'm up to 13000 steps!).

Then we went downstairs and had a wander around the rooftop resort area with all the pools. There's a bit of a wind-tunnel between the buildings which makes it super windy in places. I'm not sure there'll be any time to go for a swim though.

Pool on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

Gardens on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

The Galaxy Hotel

Water rapids course on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

Wave pool and beach on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

Then we went across the road to wander through the old Taipa village. We ended up at a place called Corto for dinner and had their suckling pig stuffed with rice. It was nice, but the skin was a little burnt in places. I guess that's just the way it's done, but I didn't like the burnt bits. The rice was awesome though - lovely flavours and quite smokey. We also had a cabbage dish flavoured with fish which was quite nice.

R. Gov. Tamagnini Barbosa streetscape

Baked Stuffed Suckling Pig w/Rice Portuguese Style at Corto Portuguese Restaurant

Stopped in at a 7-Eleven on the way back to pick up some snacks (so I have something to eat in the mornings in the several hours I have to wait for breakfast) then back to the hotel.

Galaxy Hotel entrance by night

It was about 19:30 at this point and I'd really wanted to go for a wander around the area at night to see the casinos all lit up, but I was just too exhausted, so collapsed into bed early (like 20:30 early).