Around the World 2025

The first thing you think of when you hear Nagasaki is, of course, the atomic bomb that was dropped on the city on August 9, 1945. The bomb exploded 500 meters over the city at 11:02 AM, killing between 60,000 and 80,000 people. In the context of a war in which some 80 million people died, that’s not a lot. But when you read the stories of the survivors you realize that those millions of deaths are each a tragedy. You’d like to think that we’d learn from these stories and say “never again.” Looking around at the world today one has to wonder, though.

We began our day with a trip to the Atomic Bomb Museum. It’s difficult to say you “enjoyed” such a place, but it was very interesting. The artifacts on display and the stories shared made a historical event feel close and personal.

Just outside the museum is the Peace Park. This has sculptures that various countries contributed as their versions of a vision for peace. We happened to be there at 11:02, at which time bells are rung to commemorate the nuclear attack. The excursion we were on would have taken us back to the ship, but we decided we’d like to walk back and see some of the city.

The walk was about 5 km, so it was a pretty good hike. We saw cherry trees in bloom, the local soccer stadium, and the Uragami River that runs through the city. The weather was threatening rain, but we only had a few drops. We were back to the ship by about 1:30, at which point we grabbed some lunch. We gave the boysfree time while Liz and I went back out into the city. We walked up to the Hamamachi Arcade, which was very cool. It’s a shopping area that consists of pedestrian streets covered with a roof. The streets were clearly once used for vehicle traffic but have been turned into walkways, and very successfully. The rain came as we headed back, but we were prepared with raincoats and it was not a problem.

As we were gearing up to leave we saw a school band assembling on the dock. They serenaded us with songs as we pulled away and even had a banner reading “See You Again in Nagasaki.” It was amazing. Czytaj więcej

Despite the challenges presented in the previous footprint, we had an around the world event to attend on Saturday evening in Bali. This was billed as a “lavish evening of Indonesian culture,” and it did not disappoint. The venue was the GWK (Garuda Wisnu Kencana) Cultural Park, a nearly 150-acre open space containing an enormous statue of Vishnu riding his mount Garuda. The statue is some 250 feet tall and sits on a pedestal that brings the total height to nearly 400 feet. It’s quite impressive. Parenthetically, while looking up these statistics I also discovered that Iron Maiden played at the GWK park in 2011. This makes both Maiden and the park even cooler. Up the Irons!

We were bused to the event in a convoy with police escorts to help guide us through the traffic. This worked well until we were on the final 2-lane stretch of road that was gridlocked in both directions. We crept along, watching motorbikes and pedestrians pass us by, until we finally reached the turn-in for the park. We debussed and walked inside past what seemed to be an endless line of Balinese women in native garb and makeup. We caught glimpses of the statue, which just became increasingly impressive as we got closer. The park is set in what I suppose is an old quarry, because there are symmetric blocks of square-cut stone going straight up for perhaps fifty feet in regular ranks. It makes for an interesting local as you feel like you are in some gargantuan maze.

We took a slew of photos of all the statuary and were then presented with a wonderful Balinese musical drum, music and dance show. This continued through the buffet dinner. After dinner we enjoyed a concert by a local band playing covers ranging from “Country Roads” to “I Will Survive” to “The Final Countdown.” They even had fireworks. And they got me to dance, which, as Liz will attest, is not a common occurrence.

This did not top the Namibia ATW event; I’m not sure anything could. But it was very impressive and very well done. Sadly we were once again without Thomas, who had suffered a relapse of his stomach trouble and stayed behind for a meal of steamed rice from room service. Czytaj więcej