First Day at Sea -

First Day at Sea
We’re here! The difference between a large ship Princess Line vessel and a small 700-passenger ship became very apparent from the get-go. No long lines getting aboard; no waiting at counters to check in. We were met with a glass of the bubbly the minute we stepped aboard. We’re all pleased with our staterooms and immediately stepped outside on our balcony to watch the stores being loaded aboard ----forklifts busy beeping and honking –lining up to put their loads through the hull of the ship. After lunch, we walked from deck to deck to get familiar with our home for the next 30 days -- stopped at the computer room to sign up for our internet accounts. At the end of our last voyage we discovered how to create our blog on a word document and “copy and paste” our adventures with a short upload, rather than creating the document online at $.50 plus per minute.
Today, Saturday, Dennis and Betty played on the electronic Texas Hold’em table. Neither were winners. We made visits to the workout gym; Terry worked out and headed to the whirlpool. Leila, Jerry, Dennis & Shirley started a game of Hand and Foot cards. Late this afternoon Shirley & Leila joined the dance troupe learning Chorus Line for the show at the end of the cruise, Jerry and Dennis look on but weren’t brave enough to join the show. This should be interesting. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.
Good news. The ship provides free wine with lunch and dinner. This was a welcome surprise. We were expecting to buy our wine aboard. Didn’t purchase any wine in Singapore because the import taxes were very high and a simple bottle of Beringer was $35.00-$40.00. Anything really decent was in the $50 price range.
Dinner last night was less than wonderful – we’re waiting for the good news as the crew gets comfortable at their work.
Till Later,
Six BMK Travelers, Betty, Terry, Shirley, Jerry, Leila & Dennis

Singapore

Our “ Worlds Away” travel adventure begins today!
The airplane ride was long and uneventful and Cathay Pacific provided us with an abundance of in-flight movies. We all watched at least 4 first-rate movies and tried to stay awake so we could adjust to the time change faster. After picking up our luggage we worked our way through the airport and met our prearranged pick-up van. Departing the airport, a blast of hot, humid air reminded us that our “Worlds Away” travel adventure brought us half way around the world in 24-hours and left behind was our rainy, cold weather from Bel Marin Keys.
Singapore is a beautiful, clean city. No spitting, no graffiti ($10,000 fine), no littering, no j-walking– or you’re fined $1000 or jailed. An airport sign reminded us that if you bring drugs into Singapore the penalty would be death.
Our first adventure was to experience a Singapore breakfast at a street-café not far from the hotel. We all were anxious to have a cup of coffee and something to start the day. The food offerings were clearly not what we usually have for our breakfast in the USA. No cereal, no fruit, no soy milk or high fiber muffins. Jerry thought Betty and Terry were having Pork balls, but they were actually having chicken buns. About 3 blocks from the hotel is the “Chinatown” of Singapore which wasn’t much different than the Chinatown of San Francisco except there was a Buddhist Museum right in the center of the tourist center. We took a tour and found it quite impressive.
Wednesday we woke up to the news of an earthquake in Sumatra not far from Singapore. According to the news, some residents of Singapore did feel the quake. Not us. Later, we found directions from the Hotel Concierge to the Botanical Gardens via public bus. Our ride took us through the upscale shopping area on Orchard Street claiming to have 10,000 shops. Jerry and Dennis were quite happy to stay on the bus and go straight to the Botanical Gardens. Terry and Betty spent a leisure day by the pool. Later that night we all joined together for our first in-room cocktail hour followed by a cruise on the river.
The electric boat passed many places to dine along the waterfront and into the larger harbor outlining the city skyscrapers. In the background we passed the famed Lion-Fish spouting water. The city was named after this statue meaning Singa-“lion”, and paura-“fish” – or Singapore. The attraction name is now called the Merlion. At the end of the harbor is a new hotel which looks like a freighter ship balanced atop three towers looking about 50 stories high.
Thursday we headed out for the international island play-park of Sentosa, Asia’s favorite playground. A short taxi ride away brought us to a Resorts World destination. On the island are resorts within resorts; world-class shopping; many exclusive hotels, a large casino and many playland-type events to see and do. Today we did something we have never done before – we learned to ride a Segway. If you get a chance, look up Singapore Resort World on the internet to see where we spent a very enjoyable day. While we were on the sky tower above the city we just happened to see our ship arrive and dock in the Singapore harbor. Must be a good omen.
Tomorrow we head off to the Azamara Quest and begin our cruise adventure.
Six BMK Travelers – Shirley, Jerry, Betty, Terry, Leila & Dennis

Shirley, Leila & Betty

Hey - Here's where we will be next week!

"World's Away" Cruise

In 5 days we will begin our "Worlds Away" adventure.

We'll spend a few days in Singapore before we board the Azamara Quest and begin our cruise.

Join us on our adventure....

Leila, Dennis
Shirley, Jerry
Betty, Terry

Heading Home

Today, our last day at sea brought a little more onboard adventure. About 7:15 a.m. we awoke to the drawers in the staterooms coming open, the clothes swinging in the closet and what Dennis calls, "a scraping sound from the bottom of the ship". Yes, we went slightly aground while making a turn from the Buenos Aries channel back into the Atlantic. It seems the pilot we took on thought that when he turned the front of the ship, he forgot there was something following in the back. The captain said if he had his way the pilot would be strung up on the yardarm. We're about 4 hours late for our arrival in Rio, but for us it doesn't matter.

We have now danced from the Pacific to the Atlantic; eaten every imaginable type of food and have seen lots of shows, won lots of prizes, and basically had an all around good time.
This; however, will be our last Blog -- we're departing from the ship and will be busy packing and making arrangements to move to the hotel in Rio.

To one and all -- Have a Very Merry Christmas -- we'll be home to help you bring in the New Year.

This blog has been a great experience for us -- we hope all of you will Blog us on your next vacation.

Adios
The Six BMK Travelers

PS Good Luck to Charles tomorrow.

Montevideo and Buenos Aries

Montevideo, Uruguay -- big bbq country. At the center town plaza we strolled into a large area like a food court, which was a converted train station imported from England. Inside were different vendors who each had a big wood fire making charcoal with a big huge grill. As the burning wood turned to charcoal the chute was opened to let the coals go under the grill. The meats were kidney, brain, blood sausage, pork, chicken, beef - all different cuts -- all placed on the grill ready for the coals. The big meal of the day was lunch, and this place fed probably 2,000 people who all ate mostly meat with a few french fries. In fact, it's not unusual for a meat dish to be eaten twice a day. Didn't notice any lettuce. And we were afraid to try it.
Instead we ordered our newly acquired drink of choice (for the boys) - Crystal Beer. As we were drinking our beer we took a look at the menu. Four of the choices (right in a row) were: rabbit, otter, boar, and one we can't remember but equally unusual. Next YC dinner meeting, maybe we should find a recipe for otter, -- I understand there may be otters in the lagoon now.

Buenos Aries, Argentina -- Very large town of 13 million, (perhaps a city) most who live in apartments downtown. This city has no cars in the downtown streets. We were given a map and we took a walking tour. Pedestrians clearly had the right of way even when there were cars. Florida street is the Chen-zee-le-zay, Paris, of Buenos Aries. We walked for 3 hours on the same street stopping to window shop and purchase items we couldn't do without. The temperature was 86 degrees with 99.9% humidity. In fact, it started to sprinkle when we started back to the ship. A few minutes later there was a full blown, very windy, thunderstorm. The ship stopped accepting passengers and closed the gangway. The sternthrusters were keeping the ship against the dock in case the lines parted for a 1/2 hour. People couldn't get off or on. The storm passed; passengers boarded; we departed for Rio about 7:30; an hour late.

Nice day today at sea. Nothing exciting happening. We're watching a professional Tango couple dance the Argentenian Tango.

More tomorrow, our last day on the ship.
BMK Travellers

The Hypnotist

Two nights ago after dinner we went to see a hypnotist show. We laughed so hard we decided to go see the show the following night. Three of us, Leila, Shirley & Shawn decided we wanted to volunteer to be hypnotised. We went up on the stage with about 20 others. Shawn was asked to sit down, Leila & Shirley were quickly "gone" - meaning he has us focus on a bright white light and (just like the movies) told us to concentrate on his words. During this time he would walk behind each of us and before we knew it, we were laying on the floor. This is a very strange sensation. Soon Shirley was invited to go back to her seat (we think because he ran out of chairs). Leila stayed. He woke me up and told me to sit in a chair, I said, " I don't think I'm hypnotized because I hear everything you say". (this is what I've been told). He tapped me on the head and said, "sleep". I almost fell over, and out. Throughout the next 1/2 hour I cried, I laughed, I milked a cow, (fed some milk to the imaginery cat) was drunk acting, after pretending to drink Vodka, which I spit out, ate an ice cream cone, and I don't even eat ice cream, went to a very hot beach and put on suntan lotion, ...and on and on and on ... everyone was laughing so hard. Shawn may have some on his video camera. I'm not sure if I want to see it or not. L.

Today we're going walking in Montevideo.
Weather warming up. Should be 80 today.

The six BMK Travelers