A Silver Shadow Over The World - December 2023 to May 2024

[Host Jazzbeau]

50 minutes ago, QueSeraSera said:

I had a recurring work assignment in Malaysia for several months each over several years.

Learned a lot, and almost got used to the HHH.

Of course, starting from Richmond helped with that.

My guess is Myster is doing the same thing!

Every winter when we 'snow-birded' to Fairhope AL people used to ask us when we were going to move down.  I reminded them of their late spring–all summer–early fall temps!  As they used to say about [somewhere]:  "it's a great place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there"...

[DavyWavey70]

55 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Every winter when we 'snow-birded' to Fairhope AL people used to ask us when we were going to move down.  I reminded them of their late spring–all summer–early fall temps!  As they used to say about [somewhere]:  "it's a great place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there"...

Try a winter in Wales! 😁

[Tothesunset]

3 hours ago, DavyWavey70 said:

Try a winter in Wales! 😁

Whatever time of year you visit... 

[MrsWaldo]

JP,

 

I do HHH pretty welll. Sydney has been steamy and I often do time in Far North Queensland in our summer. 
 

The tour was quite sapping but I had packed electrolytes thankfully.  Our bus ran out of water…even the guide was cooked 

I enjoyed the sites but did find it was a lot of standing around waiting and listening to the same bit of information continuously

 

[mysty]

Yesterday was our second day in Hong Kong.  We ventured out for an excursion called New Territories - Heritage & Tradition.  The New Territories is one of the three main regions, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula.  It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory and contains about half of the population of Hong Kong.

 

First stop was the Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next was the Man Mo Temple in Tai Po.....

 

 

[DavyWavey70]

On 4/3/2024 at 11:31 PM, MrsWaldo said:

JP,

 

I do HHH pretty welll. Sydney has been steamy and I often do time in Far North Queensland in our summer. 
 

The tour was quite sapping but I had packed electrolytes thankfully.  Our bus ran out of water…even the guide was cooked 

I enjoyed the sites but did find it was a lot of standing around waiting and listening to the same bit of information continuously

 

I Must say, Brisbane in January was a little fatiguing. Lady Elliot Island more so. 42c and 99%.  I know it’s an eco resort but even the ceiling fan looked like it was run on a rubber band. I Couldn’t dry myself out of the shower and most of my sun cream landed on the mat. Thank goodness for a good Welsh Mizzle. 

[Tothesunset]

6 hours ago, mysty said:

Yesterday was our second day in Hong Kong.  We ventured out for an excursion called New Territories - Heritage & Tradition.  The New Territories is one of the three main regions, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula.  It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory and contains about half of the population of Hong Kong.

 

First stop was the Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next was the Man Mo Temple in Tai Po.....

 

 

That makes me feel so homesick as an erstwhile New Territories resident. The best place we ever lived. 😢

[mysty]

52 minutes ago, Tothesunset said:

That makes me feel so homesick as an erstwhile New Territories resident. The best place we ever lived. 😢

Our guide for that tour lives in New Territories.   She was very enthusiastic about life there.  😁

[mysty]

We are currently approaching our pierside location in Shanghai,  China.  We will be called for a face-to-face Immigration contact.   We will be given our passports and a photo copy of our passports.   Immigration will stamp the photocopy and we will return our passports when we get back on the ship.  We need to take the stamped passport photocopy when we leave the ship for excursions and such.  They will be returned to Reception when we leave China on April 10th.

[MrsWaldo]

Have an awesome time.  Do you know how many are doing the side trip to Tibet?

 

 

[mysty]

Last night we received our Silversea jackets.  They look beautiful.   Made by Stormtech.

 

 

 

 

[mysty]

4 minutes ago, MrsWaldo said:

Have an awesome time.  Do you know how many are doing the side trip to Tibet?

 

 

 

I don't know how many are going to Tibet.   Many people had trouble getting Visas for China.

[MrsWaldo]

42 minutes ago, mysty said:

 

I don't know how many are going to Tibet.   Many people had trouble getting Visas for China.

Thanks for that. 
 

The visa issue was one of the many reasons I didn’t stay onboard for the next segment. 
 

Have a lovely time, hope the weather and seagods are kind

[Tothesunset]

I invoked the wrath of the Shanghai police when we visited 10 years ago. 

 

Walking along the Bund there was a statue of Mao affixed to the plinth of which was a small plaque written in Chinese characters with a small-type translation (I assumed) underneath. So I strolled over to look at it which provoked high-pitched whistling, everyone - the locals at least - stood still and a Chinese copper came running towards (at?) me furiously blowing his whistle. I was given a good old dressing down (actually he was shouting in Chinese so for all I know he might have been giving me his favourite pulled pork recipe). 

 

Apparently, I had commited the offence of approaching the statue. But how else to read the plaque? 

 

Top tip for Mysty. Take binoculars. 

[turtlemichael]

50 minutes ago, Tothesunset said:

the locals at least - stood still and a Chinese copper came running towards (at?) me furiously blowing his whistle. I was given a good old dressing down (actually he was shouting in Chinese so for all I know he might have been giving me his favourite pulled pork recipe). 

 

Apparently, I had commited the offence of approaching the statue. But how else to read the plaque? 

 

Top tip for Mysty. Take binoculars. 

That was his one job and you were maybe his highlight of the day. Petty bureaucracy is similar everywhere, just more so in China! Let's hope his boss appreciated his efforts.

[Tothesunset]

2 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

That was his one job and you were maybe his highlight of the day. Petty bureaucracy is similar everywhere, just more so in China! Let's hope his boss appreciated his efforts.

He may well be recounting the same story on the Chinese site Tourist Critic. 

[JoGay]

16 hours ago, mysty said:

 

I don't know how many are going to Tibet.   Many people had trouble getting Visas for China.

I think there are about 20 people who are going.

[mysty]

Today was our second day in Shanghai.   Rainy and cool.   We had no excursions booked.   This is our 3rd visit here.  Tonight is another World Cruise Event.   It will be dinner at the Pearl Tower. 

 

[lincslady]

I was going to ask if you had seen a Chinese acrobatic show, Mysty, but no doubt as you have been there before you will have done so already.  I found them almost unbelievable.

 

My favourite ship, Seabourn Sojourn, is with you in Shanghai, I see.  I imagine the weather is getting a bit more amenable now?

[mysty]

58 minutes ago, lincslady said:

I was going to ask if you had seen a Chinese acrobatic show, Mysty, but no doubt as you have been there before you will have done so already.  I found them almost unbelievable.

 

My favourite ship, Seabourn Sojourn, is with you in Shanghai, I see.  I imagine the weather is getting a bit more amenable now?

 

We have seen the acrobatic show before.  However,  we had booked it again.  It was canceled by the shore agent.   It was a spectacular show!

[lincslady]

That is a shame.  I hope the dinner at the Pearl Tower is great - I am not sure I could cope with moving round the scenery at that height!  But the views will be  fantastic.

[mysty]

15 hours ago, lincslady said:

That is a shame.  I hope the dinner at the Pearl Tower is great - I am not sure I could cope with moving round the scenery at that height!  But the views will be  fantastic.

 

The venue was spectacular for dinner last night.  The restaurant revolved 360 degrees over the course of 2 hours.  We saw a beautiful sunset over Shanghai.   Photos to follow.  And there is an early show tonight featuring Chinese Acrobats.  😁

[mysty]

Photos from the dinner at the Oriental Pearl last night.....

 

 

 

 

Dinner - first an amuse bouche.....Taco with Canadian Lobster....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mysty]

Yesterday the excursion was Highlights of Shanghai and Lunch.

 

White Jade Buddha Temple.  No photos allowed inside.

 

 

 

Yu Garden

 

 

 

 

 

Market

 

 

 

Shanghai Tower

 

 

 

Silver Shadow is on the left.

[mysty]

We've been informed that the tour that included the Forbidden City in Beijing has had to be changed.  Unfortunately,  Silversea was not able to get tickets to that venue.  There is an exhibit on display and the tickets sold out quickly.  It is an 11.5 hour excursion with 3.5 hours of bus ride each way.  I am bowing out and Myster is going.