April 17, 2024

Bye-bye Hong Kong and hello Vietnam.   Fifty-one years ago, I got my first invitation to Vietnam.  Fortunately, about a month before I was scheduled to go, the President announced the war was winding down and no new troops were expected to be deployed there, too close for comfort.

We left Hong Kong about 11:00 PM and arrived two days later in Halong Bay, Viet Nam at 2:00 PM.

Back in Hong Kong, Kim found this display of lighted eggs.  For a price, you can walk around them.  If you touch them or talk to them, they will change color. 

She also found me this amazing Hum Bao, it was a great lunch. 

When we left Hong Kong, we learned the ship was full of guests.  This is a first for this entire trip.  It shows too.  Venues fill faster, they don’t respect my table privilege at the pool.  But as you will see soon, they’re no smarter.  As Kim is already organizing for packing up, she asks me why all these people would join the cruise with only a little over two weeks left.  Thinking to myself, that she answered her own question within her question, I reminded her that the majority of cruisers go on 7-day cruises.  Very few extend to 10 or more days.  For those that joined us in Hong Kong, this is a 17-day cruise.  I realize now that an event takes on different aspects depending on the “glasses” one is looking through.

I’m reminded of the day the two lady shoppers were so upset that there was no shopping at a stop, or Dr. Joe asked why do they make us pay so much and take us to crappy ports like this?  Kim spent the day exploring in both of those ports and had a ball. She was wearing much better glasses than the others.

I must give a shout out to our fantastic friend Shelia on her Birthday!

Well friends, I must confess that I was getting frustrated with the Pool Chronicles part of my posts.  Stuff just wasn’t happening, this is too much work, I thought to myself, I’m letting down my readers by not having any material.  Then, like magic it started rolling in, in less than five minutes, I was given three entries to my Chronicles.  I now accept that the second half of the title really says it all, you can’t make any of this up.  It shows up without warning.  If you don’t catch it, you don’t get a second chance.  So, I accept that I cannot control any of it, I can only keep my radar on high alert and wait for it. 

And now yet another episode of Pool Chronicles, you can’t make this shit up.

A lady is looking at the pool grill, pictured, and asks a server “So, does this mean the grill is closed?”  Again, I wasn’t chosen to answer that one.   Once a week, the head chief, Carl, brings a hot plate and a pan to the pool deck and cooks us something simple and always delicious. 

Today was Garlic Grilled Shrimp, pictured.  When we were close enough to see, the lady in front of me turned away and was saying as she left, “I can’t eat those things, they’re looking at me”. Her loss because they were the best. 

While I was eating my shrimp, a lady walks between my chair and the rail, temporarily blocking my view of these amazing limestone Islands, and exclaims “oh my, how did all these things get here, do they just pop up?”  She left just as quickly and probably missed my response which was yep, that’s it, just like teenage acne. I guess she slept through her geology class that day.  Moments later, the couple sitting at the next table were talking about the weather and how it was cloudy and foggy, when he spouts out “clearly it rains here a lot”.  Coincidently, he was right, but his methodology is questionable. 

And so, now for to answer you have all been waiting for.  Do beer goggles actually work?  The answer is a definite YES.  Clearly, what a person sees is different from what another sees because of the lenses we choose to use.  If you choose adventure, you will see adventure.  If you are blinded by anger, there is nothing that anyone can do to make your feelings change.  It’s entirely up to us to choose the glasses we want to see the world with.  Choose positive and happy lenses.

More later, maybe.

P.S. 

The specialty drink at the new Solis restaruant. How do they do that?

Coast Guard evacuation.

Yummy apple tart desert.

I was having trouble downloading pictures in Hong Kong.   So, tonight I show you what I wanted to show you then.