travel writing

Actually this should really be called CJ's Granny's Disney California Adventure because CJ and her parents have annual passes to the Disneyland parks and CJ knows just what she wants to see and do. But I am so out of touch with the newer Disney characters and films that for me this was a great chance to catch up on the Disney culture, especially as seen from a child's perspective.

We planned to spend most of the day in the California Adventure Park but it only opened at 10 am and CJ, her Dad and I were on the parking lot shuttle heading to the park shortly before 9:30.

CJ had two special plans for the day - see Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, and seeing  "Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage"  - for the 4 th time!

Disneyland opened earlier than California Adventure so we decided to start our day by visiting Pixie Hollow in Fantasy land where CJ could visit Tinker Bell and the other fairies.

Because it was so early the wait in the line up was only 10 minutes. The path wound through a water feature and we noticed hundreds of pennies thrown into the water. Each penny represents a wish.  I wonder how many of those wishes ever materialize? 

CJ wanted a penny to throw but neither her dad or I had any loose change.  The next thing we knew the man just ahead of us held out three cents to CJ for her to throw into the water and make a wish. She thanked him with a shy smile and  went ahead and made her wishes.

While we waited we got into a discussion with a family with two young girls who were behind us in line, about who the Disney fairies are. Thegirls came up with 4 names of those they thought  are Tinker Bell's closest friends. They were  Fawn, Silvermist, Rosetta and Iridessa.

Finally we had edged forward enough that we were next to enter Pixie Hollow. The first fairy CJ met was Silvermist. I had absolutely no idea what story  she came from and realized I should have done my homework befoe I visited the Park.  Fortunately it did not seem to matter too much to CJ.

Next we came upon Tinker Bell and her male companion whose name I learned was Terence. CJ had her photo taken with both of them. Alas I had never heard Terence either. So I really needed my laptop!

After CJ was satisfied that those were the only fairies she was going to meet that day,  we walked back down Main Street and headed across the centre concourse to begin our California Adventure.

One minute she is racing round  the house because Thomas the train has to beat Gordon, the really BIG engine, to the station.  The next minute her hands are waving as she sings the names of the 50 states of the US, in perfect alphabetical order. But her favorite activity is playing princess, and Cinderella is her most favorite princess of all.

So for a little princess living  half an hour away from Anaheim, what better 5 year birthday treat could you imagine than taking her to Disneyland for a Princess makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Cinderella's Castle, and the chance to meet some of the other Princesses?

As usual the household was buzzing by 6 am as I made my coffee and CJ got her own breakfast together.

The plan was that we were to leave for Disneyland by just after 7:30 for the 9 am appointment at the boutique.

Getting one baby, one 5 year old and three adults organized always takes longer than anticipated, even if you think you have fully prepared things like diaper bags and changes of clothes, the night before. 

But a very excited CJ quickly dressed herself in her pale blue Cinderella dress, tiara and all,  and we made it to the Bibbidi Bobbidi reception desk just on the stroke of 9.

Post-Cruise Stop-over in Bangkok, Thailand after the Southeast Asia Ballroom Dance Cruise

"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster" - well, ok, not quite. With apologies to Tim Rice, I have been humming and singing that song intermittently whenever our stop-over in the city Bangkok came up in conversation. I couldn't believe that those lines went over everyone's head - no one had heard the song. Maybe it was my off -key singing voice.

 I had a two-night stay in Bangkok planned for after the South-East Asia cruise and was looking forward to seeing what I remembered of the city from my previous visits as a medical consultant.

Sunday, November 22nd, Bangkok 

The Diamond Princess arrived in the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand  around 7 am. It is a good hour's drive from there to the city.

Helene, Jean, Raoul and I met in the Savoy Restaurant where we waited to be allowed to disembark. Amazingly the promised transport arranged by our hotel actually arrived and drove us to the Citadines Hotel,one of a chain of small suite business hotels in the city.

Our rooms, which we had booked through Orbitz, were quite reasonable - about 79 USD a night but we were about  three-quarters of an hour away from the prime hotel locations on the banks of the Chao Phraya river. On my last two-week working visit to Bangkok I stayed at the Sheraton where I had a gorgeous view of the river.

This time our hotel was just off one of the main streets running through the city, called Sukhumvit. It is described as a "sprawling artery which runs through Central Bangkok. Between Soi 1 and Soi 33 is the visitor region as there are hotels ranging from low priced to luxury 5 star, along the road and in adjoining streets.Judging by the shops and restaurants nearby to our hotel area, Sukhumvit 11, it looked like a Little India area.

My room had a kitchenette area. The furnishing was simple but clean. The only flaw as I discovered later the next morning was that the shower obstinately refused to bring forth any warm water at all. So I shivered through a quick wash and rinse and gave up on the idea of washing my hair hoping that the next shower would be warmer.     

After we had dropped off our bags,washed up and sorted out the tour arrangements for the evening  - we were going on a river boat dinner cruise - we set off  to explore the area.

At a bank a couple of blocks away the others changed some US dollars for baht. I had already got some in Vancouver so did not need to worry about that.
 

For more pictures click the "read more" link. If there is not a picture of you in this collection that means  I did not get a good one to post.  If you have a great picture of yourself or anyone else to post here please email it to me and I will add it to the collage.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands)

By around 8 am we were docked at the pier in St. Thomas, one of the three main islands (with St. Croix and St. John) that comprise the US Virgin Islands. Once part of the Dutch West Indies the islands were taken over by America after the first world war and the islanders are now American citizens.  Charlotte Amalie is the capital and main port.

We had decided not to book any excursions - a decision that  actually worked out fine.  However Joelle, who used to livd in St. Thomas , told us that we should really get out and see around the island as it is quite beautiful. We had every intention of doing so and  went  ashore early to do a bit of shopping and then get a cab to do some sight-seeing.  But the heavens decided otherwise. We had just finished our  shopping when It  began to pour - a heavy pounding rain - and within minutes we were  all soaked through to the skin. So, shivering despite the soggy warmth,  we splashed back to the ship and did not get up to the mountain to see the reputedly famous views. We decided to relax for the rest of the afternoon, read  and make the best of our free time.

By six thirty we were dancing in the Club Savoia. The music alternated between the band and  Wendy's music when the band is on break, which gives a lot of dance variety. Then to our frustration the cruise staff came out to play games such as bingo and took over the floor. That meant we had to move to Club Verde and its much smaller floor until dinner time.

Because we were in an upgraded cabin, a mini-suite,  we were given an invitation to have dinner in the Club Ristorante so at 8:30 when the group went off to dinner in the Michaelangelo Restaurant,  Mike, Amanda and I went up to Club Ristorante on deck for our special invitation dinner. It was the best meal we had on the ship

We had a nice sized table for three and the service was as good one would expect in a better level restaurant. Although I tend not to drink much wine on these dance cruises (I don't want to fall over during a quickstep or Viennese waltz, right?) we decided a good bottle of wine would complement this special occasion nicely.

We chose a bottle of Elena Walch 2008 Gewurtztraminer from Alto Adige, Italy.  I was quite intrigued at the idea of an Italian Gewurtztraminer as I associate the varietal more with Germany or the Alsace region of France , as well as our Okanagan region in BC now of course. But later, when I did some research I remembered that the varietal was actually named after the Italian town of Tramin - the full name in German, Gewurtztraminer,  meaning spicy Traminer. And the Trentino Alto Adige region is in the North East part of Italy, bordering on Austria; German is as commonly spoken there as Italian.

 Monday, December 28, 2009  Sea days - Dancing from Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas

Today is the first of two days at sea and we have 2 hour dance workshops scheduled on both days; These will be on the 4 most common social dances  - rumba and foxtrot, and  waltz and chacha . On the return two days at sea, Wendy has scheduled bolero (one of my favorites), salsa (not my favorite), tango and swing. We were asked to be at Club Verde by 10  am.

As far as our cabin goes it is very comfortable and well designed, with adequate storage space  so that we are not tripping over each other's stuff.  The balcony has two long pool chairs and a table.  It has the best view of any office I have worked in except maybe my "office" on the Pacific Princess, traveling between Honolulu and Tahiti. 

 Since my introduction earlier this year to the delights of cruise ship ballroom dancing with great dance hosts and delightful fellow dance enthusiasts (West Coast Ballroom Dancing and Wine Tasting Cruise) I have traveled to New York for theatre and fine dining (New York, New York), dance-cruised from New York to New Brunswick (Labour Weekend Getaway), from Honolulu to Tahiti (South Pacific Ballroom Dance Cruise) and most recently from Beijing to Bangkok (South-East Asia Ballroom Dance Cruise).

Now as I write, I am sitting in the Conte di Savoia 1932 lounge of the Costa Fortuna cruise ship, presently at port in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The Costa ships are modelled on the Italian steam ships that once plied the Atlantic Ocean between Italy and the Americas. The derivation of the names for the lounges and bars on the Fortuna is a homage to these older liners. So the Savoia lounge is named for the steamship Conte di Savoia that was built in Trieste and made her maiden voyage to new York in November 1932.

The Fortuna was built in 2003 and has a passenger capacity of around 3470. The ship is 890 feet long and  cruises at 20  knots with maximum speed of 22 knots. Most importantly, she has  beautiful wood  dance floors of which the Savoia floor is the best. 

 Looking out the windows, at green hills shrouded in the mist of a fine but steady rain, I feel right at home. It was pouring in Vancouver the day I left to fly to Toronto. There I spent two nights with my daughter before flying down to Fort Lauderdale to embark on a 7 night cruise in the Eastern Caribbean with the Dancers at Sea group.

For the last few years I have spent New Year's Eve quietly, with a small group of friends or family, enjoying  food,  wine and conversation. But this year,  in my new incarnation as an "at-sea dancer" I am closing out the year and the decade, at sea with a New Year's Eve dance party on board ship. So as well as my daughter and my older son who are accompanying me on this trip, I will be partying with about 40 old and new friends.

 I heard that Costa Fortuna has a great dance floor, and is a real party ship, so I  plan to dance myself out of my comfort zone and party the year away.   Here is how my plan is going so far.

We are nearing the end of this 16 night cruise from Beijing to Bangkok. Singapore is the last stop before we disembark in Bangkok.  I spent a week in Singapore in September 2005 when the International Association for Pediatric Laboratory Medicine had its triennial meeting there. Although much of the time was spent at the conference - really,  we did get to tour a bit. I visited the Botanical gardens, and a group of us made the mandatory trek to Raffles Hotel to sit in the bar and drink a Singapore Sling. Actually I sipped someone else's Singaproe Sling just to taste it and then had white wine instead.

I also spent some time shopping and found some terrific tops in a regular department store on Orchard Street. They actually became my most often worn tops for casual and for dance wear. So this visit  I really want to see if I can get back to the same store.

Friday, November 20th, Singapore
 

From the South China Sea, the Diamond Princess entered the Singapore Strait around 3 am and was docked at the pier around 7 am. Although the weather was cloudy it was hot, hot, hot. The noonday temperature was 29 C - maybe not that hot for many people but way too warm for hot-blooded me.

For Singapore, there were 6 of us in the "Weinstein and Women" gang that signed up for the river cruise and Singapore sampler excursion, Carol and Jeane having joined the original group of  four, Raoul, Joan, Bernie and me. 

I am sure the other guys are wondering just how Raoul does it - getting to explore exotic locales with 5 women trotting quietly and obediently - (not!) after him. But actually as I am sure he will tell you, the reality is that despite, or perhaps, because, he is an organizer and map-reader extraordinaire, he spends a lot of time "herding cats" so to speak - as we rush ahead, fall behind or dash off in various directions to shop and to washrooms, while, gentleman as he is, he waits patiently till the group is together again - and usually will have some newly thought up highly relevant joke to share.

Thursday November 19th: At Dinner in the Savoy Dining Room

Missing a picture of Bernie - if anyone has additional photos to post please email them to me.

Thursday November 19, The second to last day of just cruising at sea and the third formal night for dinner

We were quite tired after the long bus rides yesterday and the humid weather did not help. We decided to go the breakfast in the room route before heading up to the Wheelhouse lounge for 9 am.

Greg was doing a hustle workshop first. Then instead of the planned West Coast Swing class by Brian, they decided that Greg would review some of the things he had taught, and on the next sea day, Brian would do the WCS class and review his lessons with us.

I was quite pleased that Greg reviewed that chacha pattern - I think I got the swivel parts - although I did not always feel the lead into that step but the "da da", swivel, swivel timing had me confused and it is a really cool move. Anyway by the end of the review I think I had the timing right on it. Now I need to have a chance to put it into practice.

Also when Carrie does it she really gets down low for that sexy swivel and it looks great - I don't think I can get down that low - need to do more lunges and squats in the gym when I get back, instead of whining about my quads when Cale makes me work on those moves.