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The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Sixteen

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October 8 (Wednesday, Day 22, Shanghai, China) - Continued

We showered and got ready for our sailaway dinner that we were hosting on our verandah. The day before Snookums talked to the concierge about having all eight of us from our dinner table eat on our verandah at 8:00 since we were sailing at 9:00. She was told that was no problem so this morning each person came by our cabin and wrote their dinner choices on the menu. Then Snookums took them to the concierge. We started getting phone calls and knocks on the door from various staff around 5 PM. We knew that we needed another table and four chairs on the verandah and our steward brought them from another cabin's verandah. But we didn't expect another steward to come and set the tables with linens, glassware and all of the silverware, but that's what happened!

Pudong New District at night

Shanghai at night

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fifteen

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October 8 (Wednesday, Day 22, Shanghai, China) -

Shanghai skyline

We took the shuttle to downtown and today we had a plan. We decided to walk to Yu Garden. Filbert navigated and Snookums followed. We stopped at an electronics mart department store and Filbert found a 10-pack DVD-R for 80 yuan. He bargained down to 55 ($7.90) which he thought was a great deal.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fourteen

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October 7 (Tuesday, Day 21, Shanghai, China - 6.96 yuan to the dollar) -

We entered the Huangpu River around 4:30 AM. Snookums woke up at 6 AM and decided that Filbert needed to wake up, too. (He wasn't too happy about this, but he survived.) Our ship was navigating its way through lots and lots of river traffic. There were barges and very small fishing boats and huge container ships and some Chinese military ships.

Chinese warship

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirteen

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October 4 (Saturday, Day 18, Kobe, Japan) -

We took our time getting ready to see Kobe today since we were still feeling the effects of all the walking yesterday. The city offered a free shuttle to Motomachi Station so we decided to take it and then walk around. Our first stop was Daimaru Department Store and its food hall. For once though, we just looked and didn't buy anything!

(In preparing this, Filbert notices a definite dearth of photographs from Day 2 in Kobe. Sorry about that.)

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twelve

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October 3 (Friday, Day 17, Kobe, Japan, continued) -

We hopped back on our Kobe hop on/hop off tour bus again and rode until Snookums decided she needed a bathroom so we got off near a department store and saw another bride and groom, in Western wedding attire, being photographed. First stop, toilet. Second stop, food hall! We were given samples of what looked like a "normal" salad and it was since the woman then showed us the bottle of Italian salad dressing that she was having us try. The one sample we get and it's "American"! Snookums bought a circular cake that we had seen for sale at all of the bakeries. It looked like a really long roll of paper towels on a horizontal rotisserie. The cake was made of many, many layers and it ended up being coffee flavored. She managed to choke it down. Filbert bought a crab puff thingie. By now it was time to catch the tram to see the sunset so that was our destination.

We got of the hop on/hop off bus and walked to the Shin-Kobe Ropeway that would take us to the Nunobiki Herb Park. There were not many people there and we got the 6-person tram to ourselves.

The Shin-Kobe Ropeway

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eleven

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October 3 (Friday, Day 17, Kobe, Japan, continued) -

After our lunch we caught Kobe's hop on/hop off bus and rode it to a stop that was close to Sorakuen Garden which is Kobe's premier Japanese garden. We were disappointed to find out that the chrysanthemum show wasn't starting for another 3 weeks, but we did see a few blooming mums and the structures for the rest of them.

The garden's pond

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Ten

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Hi, everyone! It's been a long time since our last post--we've been busy! Port day after port day, with precious few of the days both Snookums and Filbert really like--SEA DAYS!!! But finally, we're through the really intense stretch of port days, and have some time to catch up on posts. So here's what we've been up to:

October 2 (Thursday, Day 16, At sea) -

We woke up around 7:30 and realized that the sun was peeking through the curtains. Sure enough, it was bright and sunny and HOT!!! It was around 75 degrees F so we decided to take advantage of our verandah and ordered room service.

Room service on the verandah

More after the jump . . .

Again from tireless West Coast Simian Correspondent Bill (who seems to be bucking for a promotion to Chief Top-Dog West Coast Simian Correspondent!), this from the UK's Daily Mail:

The two-year-old chimp has been helping keeper China York care for the 21-day-old cubs at The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS) in South Carolina.

Awwwwwww pictures at the link.

And yes, more trip journal entries are on the way . . .

Our West Coast Simian Correspondent Bill reports that Entertainment Weekly has a story on that most famous of simians--Cheeta:

Cheeta is used to having his photo taken, and over the course of a long afternoon, with the temperature hovering around 100 degrees, he poses without complaint. For the photographer's benefit, he sits at a small dining table, eating a peanut-butter sandwich and a bowl of corn chips. (Long ago, he enjoyed cigars and beer, but since developing diabetes in recent years, he's been on a healthier regimen.)

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Nine

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October 1 (Wednesday, Day 15, Miyako, Japan) -

A female Taiko drum group, a Taiko drum group made up of 2nd graders and a bunch of city officials greeted us when we docked at Miyako.

The welcome ceremony