Transpacific Journey

September - November 2019
Starting in TN and going to San Diego CA, Hawaii, and cruising over to and down the coast of Southeast Asia. Finishing it up with a flight to Beijing to visit the Great Wall of China. Coming back to Los Angeles CA for a week hefore heading home. Read more
  • 43footprints
  • 7countries
  • 36days
  • 268photos
  • 3videos
  • 77.8kkilometers
  • 57.2kkilometers
  • Day 12

    Oahu.

    October 11, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The big island! Landed in Honolulu which puts one in the mind of any big city, until you travel OUT of the city. We rented a car (terry picked the corvette 😎) and decided to drive the perimeter of the island. What did we find you ask? Abandoned cars galore, a huge feral chicken issue, and endless beauty! Yes, I did say feral chickens. Story goes a hurricane blew a ton of chicken coops onto the island and the chickens have been taking over ever since. I first noticed them at Home Depot, then on the highway, and don’t forget chickens on the beach!! lol. It was quite comical. But there is such a huge homeless issue there I’d say they may be utilized for dinner more that we know.
    Abandoned cars everywhere, all vandalized and most of them inhabited by the homeless. This story goes that people come to the island and can’t afford the cost of living, and when they can’t afford the cost to ship their vehicle elsewhere they just abandon them. There is also no scrap yard on the island. It’s strange.
    Shrimp trucks!!! We stopped at “Nigo’s at pier 38” as well as “Giovanni’s shrimp truck”. Both delicious!!! We had to follow the food with an authentic shaved ice from the famous Matomotos (they call to “shave ice, omitting the D”, but that sounds weird to me. It’s a Hawaiian thing to add sweetened condensed milk to the top of the ice after the flavor is on. So we got it that way, and it was Delicious!!!!
    I also HAD to stop at the authentic Waialua Sugar Mill and Coffee plantation. Very quaint but super cool! I got to see coffee trees as well a caco plants. The coffee beans are the red seeds from these trees.
    Mermaid Caves are a must see as well as North Shore. So this is a place where one day isn’t nearly enough!!
    I totally didn’t mention visiting Pearl Harbor as well as driving into the diamond head crater through a tunnel. Super cool!!!
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  • Day 15

    International date line and lobsters

    October 14, 2019, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Lots of days at sea. Some of the activities are kind of neat, some not so much. Plenty of time spent in the pool, jacuzzi, and reading on our balcony. It’s kind of difficult to keep up with all the time changes. The ship crossed the international date line yesterday, what that means is we are now a day (and some hours) ahead of Eastern time zone. I’m typing this on Wednesday afternoon and it’s still Tuesday afternoon in TN. One of the people at our dinner table had a birthday on October 14th. Since we went from the 13th to the 15tb when we crossed the line, that poor fellow didn’t get a birthday. What he still got was birthday cake though, that made up for it. :-). Tonight is dress up night in the dining room so I get to feast on Lobster again! (My reward for wearing nice clothes). Lol. I attended a lecture today on Astronomy which was very interesting. There are so many advanced apps now that make stargazing super interesting!
    I will be purchasing 24 hours of internet again this week to plan what we will be doing in Guam and Malaysia. I also need to book the tour of the Great Wall of China for when we are in Beijing. I suppose this post won’t be read until I have internet anyway. So until then!!! 🙃
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  • Day 18

    Real life murder mystery

    October 17, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Pretty melodramatic title eh? With a boat full of geriatrics, one must wonder “how many will die on the trip?”. I inquired and they do, in fact, have a morgue on the ship. As well as a jail. Lol I was unaware of how many people have been murdered as have taken their lives on cruises! The stories are quite interesting.
    We were awakened about 6am by a ship wide alert for “all Available medical staff report to station 8733”. I immediately through “that’s not a station, that a room!”. Obviously something bad happenedand the person couldn’t make it to the medical facilities down below. I ALSO thought “hey, that’s a few doors down from our room!”. No more was spoken of this event, but upon investigating, the male individual did indeed die. (I sooooo want the details!”. I never thought of it before, but that room becomes a crime scene until authorities can investigate, and that wouldn’t happen until we were at our next port nearly a week later. Until then, we walk by the pseudo crime scene on our to and fro, wondering “what happened”.
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  • Day 20

    Cruising to Guam

    October 19, 2019 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Almost to Guam! I have been reading, soaking up the rays during the times on not in the pool, and of course watching the ice carving demonstrations. Lol. The demonstration its self was a 20min times event. Apparently a carving normally takes several hours. I suppose that’s why his completed work looked more like a hot mess the anything recognizable. I’ve been trying to decide what to do in Guan the half a day we are there. During my research I did find out we will be crossing the deepest part of ocean in the world around 5am or so. It’s called “The Martiania Trench” and is where all the deep sea explorations the place. Cool huh?! It’s a wee 36,000 feet deep. Also, Guam is considered (since it’s a US territory) “Where America’s day begins”. An entire day ahead of USA. I’ll be able to see Sunday morning when everyone at home is still experiencing Saturday morning. Until then!!!

    (Ps, I also attached a picture of a double rainbow outside our balcony 🌈)
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  • Day 21

    Quick pics from Guam

    October 20, 2019 in Guam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We rented a car and drove Guam today. Gorgeous! It’s like an impoverished chilled out Hawaii. Not only did they also have chickens everywhere but cows on leashes in yards and random packs of wild dogs. Serene private beaches! I’m downloading some pics before I lose service and I’ll update with a more detailed post when I have service next. Next stop, Malaysia!
    Spoiler alert: WORLDS BIGGEST K-MART! 🤘🏼
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  • Day 24

    Philippine islands

    October 23, 2019, Philippine Sea ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Today we are passing through a large number of islands, big and small (I heard over 7,000?!), as well as fishing boats, shipping boats, etc. The Very pretty! The water is so still and blue. Its two days before we arrive at Kota Kinabalu Malaysia. The weather has amazing, a warm 89 degrees and sunny. Though i attempted nighttime swimming, I wouldn’t recommend it. I froze in the water and even more when I got out of the water. I was determined to watch an evening movie (The Legend of Tarzan) from the pool. I toughed it out but it took a warm shower and 30min or so time warm back up.
    Lots of people on ship are from these islands and are homesick while passing through them all.
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  • Day 25

    Entering the South China Sea

    October 24, 2019, South China Sea ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    We traveled all the way through the Philippine Islands, through the Balabec Straight (spelling check when I get internet ;) and into the South China Sea. Right at sunset! It’s beautiful!! We will be arriving in Malaysia in about 8-9 hours!Read more

  • Day 26

    Kota Kinabalu Malysia Sabah

    October 25, 2019 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    We went to the zoological park where they had the endangered Boreno elephants as well as a multitude of other native animals. It was cool. After that we went to a cultural village to tour types of houses, etc. very cool but so very hot and humid. They were selling traditional snacks here that included live sago worms, etc.Read more

  • Day 27

    Ship galley tour

    October 26, 2019, South China Sea ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Pumping out more than 28,000 meals a day, the main kitchen (galley) is huge! They actually have 4 kitchens on board but we toured the biggest one. It’s incredible how huge it actually is! I’m attaching some pictures.Read more