S Africa - Taipei Taiwan #2

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S Africa - Taipei Taiwan #2 Traveler
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Day 40
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 11:47 AM
☀️ 86 °F
Altitude: 75 ft
Philippines Irahuan 9.799383, 118.6935379°47’58” N 118°41’37” E
Puerto Princesa, Philippines (85)
January 15 on the Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F
DIY Tour by Judy and Glenn

After breakfast, we watched the wonderful procession with marching bands and dancers. Lots of the philipino workers were on deck 6 cheering.

We walked off and grabbed a taxi for 4 hours! John took us to the Crocodile Farm, butterfly farm and cultural center, Bakers Hill and a final stop at the beach.

I held a boa snake. We watched Carol fly a kite in the M and B beach. Then we ordered at Jollybee drive thru (Philippine chicken restaurant) and Mc Donald’s BigMac for me.Read more
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Day 41
Thursday, January 16, 2025 at 10:51 AM
🌬 81 °F
Altitude: Sea level
Philippines Manoc-Manoc 11.93968, 121.9393311°56’23” N 121°56’22” E
Bora Cay, Philippines (86)
January 16 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌬 81 °F
Tours by Scott
We took a tender to Bora Cay. Drove around island
Swam in ocean
Restaurant where we picked out the live fish for the kitchen to prepare for us. Delicious.
Drove to a beach that had 65+ kite surfers.
Stopped by the grocery store again to get postcards and goodies for the stewards.
Our tuk-tuk driver took us to his humble home.Read more
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Day 42
Friday, January 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM
☁️ 77 °F
Altitude: Sea level
Philippines Manila South Harbor 14.578213, 120.96791214°34’42” N 120°58’4” E
Manila, Philippines (87)
January 17 on the Philippines ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F
Arrived into port at 7:00 - sunrise
Hubert helped us off at 8 with Scott and Carol and luggage. Alex, Laura and Wayne (group of 7) connected with Jaime’s transportation.

Park, much like Central Park
National Museum
Santiago Fort
Cathedral
Robinson Mall for lunch and grocery

We had Raymond as a driver fir the day. It was exhausting when I pulled up the routing he took from the Mall back to the port. Normally 1/2 hour or 45 minutes at best, but his routing was excruciating. It took us 2 hours. Uncalled for!

Picture shows the mall bottom left hand corner. He went around. And this was in standstill traffic with lots of motorcycles, jeepneys and people. I don’t know WHAT he was thinking!!!

Back on board and praying for Scott and Carol to make it to the airport for their 11:45pm back to Chicago via Doha.Read more
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Day 43
Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
🌬 81 °F
Altitude: 46 ft
Philippines Yapak 11.952203, 121.9299711°57’8” N 121°55’48” E
Boracay, Philippines (88)
January 18 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌬 81 °F
A tender trip to Boracay

Helmet Dive

Exciting and so feel blessed to do this! Fed the little fishes. Worth the whole 20 minutes for this excursion. Would do it again!

Walked to market and enjoyed a Magnum ice cream bar. Then purchased pj bottoms for Glenn and wooden pens.

Enjoyed playing Rummy-cub with Darla and Rick.Read more
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Day 44
Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 8:06 AM
☀️ 81 °F
Altitude: Sea level
Philippines Taguem River 11.990538, 120.21188411°59’26” N 120°12’43” E
Coron, Phillipines (89)
January 19 on the Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F
Our 45th Wedding Anniversary in Coron, Philippines 🇵🇭

Another Darla excursion

We floated through a cave along with kayakers and other swimmers. Fun fun fun

Then we snorkled over some corals.

Lunch on a private beach!

More snorkeling. Witness a huge turtle swimming. Then another stop maneuvering slippery steps to a freshwater lake. Reminded me of the Chile lake with Boerckels and Orcutts back in the 90’s.

Dinner at Cagneys with Wayne and Laura, plus Darla and Rick.

Perfect day. Started off with sunrise as we slowly docked into Coron. Then we had to switch outriggersRead more
TravelerHappy Anniversary! 😘
1/19/25Reply
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Day 46
Tuesday, January 21, 2025 at 9:04 AM
☁️ 68 °F
Altitude: 56 ft
Taiwan Gui Shan 22.675366, 120.29441322°40’31” N 120°17’40” E
Sea Day & Kaohsiung, Taiwan (90/91)
January 21 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F
Another tour by Darla

Tour to lotus pond, several temples and Hello Market.

Then arrive out to the country side to Moon World. The landscape represents the moon.

Made it back to NCL SKY at 2:38! All aboard was 2:30pmRead more
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Day 47
Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at 1:02 PM
☁️ 72 °F
Altitude: 673 ft
Japan Banna Dake 24.372562, 124.16255824°22’21” N 124°9’45” E
Ishigaki, Japan (92)
January 22 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F
Another DIY tour by Darla. Rick and Darla plus Glenn and me. Wayne and Laura decided to stay on board.

We took a taxi to the caves. Nice. One room we named as the “organ room”. Beautiful!

Then another taxi to Don Quito store. Prices were cheap. We purchased some items for the gkids. It was loud music and lots of sounds and noise. We sat out in the parking lot and ate lunch -s as moles of corney dogs, pepper chips and cornbread type of pastry.

We then took the city bus back to terminal to grab the shuttle bus to NCL SKY.

Tonight will be the dinner with the officers.Read more
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Day 49
Friday, January 24, 2025 at 8:01 AM
🌬 66 °F
Altitude: Sea level
Japan Tomari Gyokō 26.225737, 127.67475326°13’33” N 127°40’29” E
Sea Day & Naha, Japan (93/94)
January 24 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 66 °F
Relaxing Sea Day w
The lunch with Rick and Darla and Laura and Wayne. Dinner at Gadneys. Latitudes party and LCR.

A good afternoon nap.

Friday was a DIY tour with Darla.

Traditional Japanese lunch

Japanese gardenRead more
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Day 50
Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 8:58 AM
🌬 70 °F
Altitude: 16 ft
Japan Hirara-kō 24.814258, 125.2812224°48’51” N 125°16’52” E
Miyako-jima, Japan (96)
January 25 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 70 °F
We walked off, heading to the sleepy city. It’s a Saturday and not much open,

We walked 3 miles, stopped and talked with friends. You know when you’ve been traveling a lot when you stop taking photos.

We explored shore and temple then back to the ship.

We are leaving earlier than scheduled because of a monsoon heading in the direction.

Tonight, we have been invited to have dinner with officers because of our 14 week trip with NCL. Sweet. Looking forward to the dinner, but not packing up.

I’ve loved 9308 for the past 98 days. This has been such a blessing of a trip. The people we have met, the places we have traveled and the experiences we have encountered!

More later!Read more
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Day 51
Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
☁️ 61 °F
Altitude: 115 ft
Taiwan Tianliao He 25.131353, 121.74637625°7’53” N 121°44’47” E
Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan (97)
January 26 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F
Another DIY Tour by Darla

We had to clear immigration-everyone off of the ship. We left around noon and followed Darla’s print out.

Over to Keelung Tower, to the sitting Buddha, to onion pancake from the street vender.

Night market, fried ice cream and another temple. Rain!

TiredRead more
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Day 52
Monday, January 27, 2025
⛅ 54 °F
Altitude: 13 ft
Taiwan Tianliao He 25.131558, 121.74368325°7’54” N 121°44’37” E
Taipei, Taiwan (98)
January 27 in Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F
We disembarked from NCL SKY today. Sad and happy day. We made new friends and rekindled old friendship.

Hubert was our concierge. He was amazing to help us get off the SKY by taking us through the back doors and thru the maze of backstage corridors. He’s from Nicaragua.

Aktor is a waiter that worked on the NCL Star in 2017 when “we were a drift at sea” experience. He also served in 2020 our Covid cruise that was stuck in the Indian Ocean, then he worked in 2022 when we were aboard the NCL Spirit that went New Zealand. It was so fun to have him on this recent cruise from NYC to Taipei, Taiwan. Such a wonderful man. He brought us Diet Coke numerous times.

We got a taxi van with 2 other solos down to Caesar Park Hotel.

Un-young Wang took the train to come and meet us. She is a retired avant missionary living in Taiwan. We enjoyed our meal together and loved hearing her story.Read more
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Day 53
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 9:07 AM
⛅ 54 °F
Altitude: 177 ft
Taiwan Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport 25.077152, 121.23215525°4’38” N 121°13’56” E
TPE - NRT (Tokyo, Japan)
January 28 in Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F
We took the shuttle to the airport. After checking our 4 large and heavy bags, we were informed that we had privileges to use the Air China lounge.

Wow, what a special “cherry on top of the sundae” grand experience to end this magnificent trip. Unbelievable! Thank you Lord!

Long road home,
TPE-NRT (Tokyo, Japan)
NRT-YVR (Vancouver, Canada)
YVR-DFW (Dallas)
DFW-CMI (Campaign,Illinois)Read more
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Day 53
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 4:39 PM
🌬 54 °F
Altitude: Sea level
Philippine Sea 33.610462, 138.64195333°36’38” N 138°38’31” E
Tokyo, Japan Lounge #2
January 28, Philippine Sea ⋅ 🌬 54 °F
We had a 3 hour flight to Tokyo.

Mt Fuji from a distance as the sun was setting

Another lounge. Only there for 1 hour. But no complaints.
.
TravelerBeautiful sunset with Mt Fuji!!
1/28/25Reply
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Day 53
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 10:17 AM
☀️ 37 °F
Altitude: 43 ft
Canada Vancouver International Airport 49.196764, -123.17694249°11’48” N 123°10’37” W
Vancouver, BC lounge #3
January 28 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 37 °F
We stopped by another lounge. Feeling tired, but pressing through.

Japan airlines was very good. Interesting, they didn’t turn the cabin lights until several hours into the flight. We sat together and no one next to us. Nearly home or at least to see the grandkids.Read more
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Day 54
Wednesday, January 29, 2025 at 7:55 AM
🌧 54 °F
Altitude: 558 ft
United States Randall Park 32.803139, -96.75374632°48’11” N 96°45’13” W
Lounge #4 DFW
January 29 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 54 °F
Had a good nights sleep.
Glenn repacked to leave 2 suitcases in granddaddy’s garage.

We borrowed the Mercer’s van to drive to see dad for 45 minutes. Had a good visit then to visit Cindy and Chuck Mercer.

We checked into DFW with our other luggage. And since we were able to fly yesterday and have access to the lounges, we asked if the continuation flight would have access to the clubs. Yep, sure did. And it’s the cherry on top!

Then I got complementary upgrade to first class on the flight from DFW to Champagne Illinois.

Ellen has the guest room ready for us!

In conclusion, Random thoughts -/-this Epic cruise was more than I expected. We Traveled through 25 different countries, 55+ ports of call, 14 different worship services, many many new friends and rekindled some old friendships plus meeting new crew members, enjoying the entertainment and delicious foods, having speciality dining meals, visiting zoos, aquarium, safari, snorkeling, canoeing, long walks, learning new cultures, mosques, temples, cathedrals, caves, sunsets countless hours of early morning sunrises and cruise stitches project

Incredible thankfulness to have this opportunity to travel and experience new cultures, customs and religion.Read more
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Trip end
January 29, 2025