Vietnam/Singapore/Kelang

Vietnam:as we were there only last year we opted not to go to Ho Chi Min city:instead we spent a day at a small town called Ba Ria. There's a lot of Christian influence here and the poverty is blatantly obvious. There's a lot of japanese and Korean investment here improving roads and bringing industries.
Singapore is just the same still booming. Great to have Iddly,Vadai and Masala Dosai after weeks of ships food. The MRT,and buses for transport are great.
Malaysia:didnt want to go to KL;so we decided a tour to Kelang:its obviously greatly prospered in the last few years and they say only 10% of the population is under the poverty line. We now have few lazy days at sea before Mumbai on 1st dec.

Manila/Hongkong

Manila is a booming city but the poverty is obvious as our guide told us 40% are under the poverty line.
City is buzzing with people and can see the American Influence. Over 80% are catholics.Lot of history of Spanish,japanese and American rule here. Old Spanish Quarters is well preserved and of great importance to the Phillippinos. They have a Golf Course in the middle of the city: you have to cross the main thoroughfare to reach the 5th hole from 4th: Only city which has road sign"Beware Golfers"! The threatened rain never came so we had a nice day.
HongKong: Very modern with high umber of tall and very tall buildings both for offices and living apartments.Lovely crossing over from Kowloon where we docked to HK Island where all the Financial Institutions function. Met Avneesh who took us for some Cakes over his Lunch break from work. Did the Big Bus tour of the Island and Kowloon. Amazed to see a big Mosque in the middle of Busy city with throngs of Muslims celebrating end of Ramadan. Witnessed a fantastic sound and light show at the Promenade where the have handprints of Chinese show business stars called the Avenue of stars.Tired by the end of the day with a lot of walking around, But vey enjoyable trip. Now two days at sea before Vietnam.

Great Barrier Reef

8th of November was an early morning start:It was an awful day with rain and wind but we were told it's an ok day for our trip to the Famous reef.We had a catamaron with 240 passengers taking us to the Pontoon at Hardy Reef(we were picked up from where the ship was anchored near Hayman Island.Not a ride I expected lot ofpeople were sick and I felt the jerks going up and down the sea with huge waves:lasting an hour! Anyway it calmed for a mile before the Pontoon and we got off still in the rain to view the Barrier Reef corals and sea life inside a half submerged submarine for ten minutes and through the Viewing Chamber in the Pontoon itself: Lack of sun didnt help to see the various colours of the corals but we made the best of a bad day.Coming back through the Whitsunday passage to Hamilton Island was even worse lasting an hour and a half!!Lot of us felt worse and complained to the Tour operators. The captain gave some lame excuse but after a day of constant barrage of complaints,they acknowledged that they should have warned us about the bad weather and given us the choice to go or not:so they were going to give us back half of the fare we paid for the trip!!
Next day we anchored near Yorkes Knob near Cairns and we had a fiasco with Tender boats to take us to the Shore!! We couldnt go till after midday and so missed the trip to Cairns. Anyway we took the tour to Yorkes knob,visiting the Kuranda village and saw the Aboriginies with their spear throwing,boomerangs and traditional dancing.Travelled in the old WWII Army ducks through the rainforest and the lake and got back around 1730 for us to set off the long voyage through the narrow Reef past the Northeast edge of Australia,south of Papua New Guinea towards Manila.
We now have five lazy days at sea to chill out enjoy the warm weather.
Edwina Currie and her husband(an Ex Flying Squad Policeman) are both on board giving talks about their professional life.Les Dennis the comedian on board too:but his first show was disappointing!

Australia

Rain welcomes us to Sydney!! But, we managed to get around although couldnt do justice for the nine hours we were there because of this inclement weather. We managed to go around the Opera house ,walk around the Botanical gardens and see the Famous Harbour Bridge and The Rocks,the designer shopping area. This has to be one of the best Harbour cities in the world. We got on the hop on/off bus to go around the city to see the sites.
Next day we were given Luncheon reception by the Managing Director of P&O,Carol Marlow.In the evening ex Aussie cricketers Neil Harvey,Alan Davidson, Bob Simpson,Brian Booth and Frank Mission gave us their stories in Cricket in their haydays! We missed Richie Benaud because he was in when we were out sight seeing!!
Brisbane was fantastic! Temp 25c Warm and lovely.Easy to walk around and we were impressed with the blend of old and new Buildings. Walked through the Goodwill Bridge,where you could hire Bikes to around if one likes,over the Brisbane river and walked along the south bank with Maritime Museum,Memorial Park and the different pools for families and children,and the Nepalese Pagoda built in 1988 for the Expo.Also saw the Performing arts Theatre and then walked back the Victoria Bridge to the city: Buzzing with christmas shoppers. Saw few cathedrals and churches and were picked up by the courtesy bus in time for our 45 minutes ride back to the ship.

NewZealand

We were quite impressed with NewZealand,visiting Auckland,their City of Sails:one sailboat for every eight people!Had a fantastic city tour in the morning and decided to walk around ourselves after lunch.Had an interesting visit to the Museum learning about the Maori people and the integration into the society:They have both Maori and English as their official language,eventhough the maoris only make up 16%of popualtion(4.1million). Very impressed with the lush green city with truly multiethnic city,which apparently is the 5th largest in the world. Saw few daredevil divers off the Sky Tower who paid $40 for the pleasure!Visited Albert Park where Queen Vivtoria's staue was installed in 1899.
The next city was Tarunga:docked at  Mounganui named after the mountain. smaller than Auckland but full of thriving Kiwi and Avocado Plantations. Lot of cattle and sheep farms as well and they are also developing this place as an important seaport.Visited the famous Wai-o-Tapo hot springs and went around the smelly place around 3km of different  chemical springs. Saw the sprouting Lady Knox geyser and visited the impressive Rotoura lake which was originally a large volcanic crater. They have developed this as a fanyastic holiday resort.
The last city on our trip was the capital city of Wellington: Impressed again with the greenery and the cleaniless and the blend of old and new buildings.Te Papa Museum was an interesting place to learn the history of the country and its an easy city to walk around.
The ship is providing us with various activities and entertainment and things are still very enjoyable.
Gossip: Pam was told by a lady at the Laundrette that a shirt she ironed and left in a hanger near the door disappeared when she went away to hwe cabin to pick up some more clothes to wash?unbelievable:people pay so much to get on the cruise and you wouldnt expect such behaviour, but again a young Australian coule who boarded on at Auckland told us that they know of some one stealing an expensive dress from a Laundrette in another ship to wear at the formal dinner:when confronted by the owner of the dress,she apparently cooly said:'Prove it'?? We do see lot of strange behaviour in this world cruise!1