Rock the Boat!

Well that was an amazing 4 weeks of traveling around Asia! Sorry I couldn't keep you up to date on everything that was going on! Internet was a tad hard to come by and extremely expensive on the cruise ship. Good news is that I don't get sea sick (a small concern I had when booking a long cruise). On the cruise we stopped in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and Japan. My laptop is currently dying, so I will touch on just a few of my favorite highlights! The Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand was beautiful. All the detail work and upkeep on the palace is incredible. Vietnam had some amazing food that I got to experience and very cool markets with various items. It snowed on the day I climbed The Great Wall of China, which made it a tad slippery but beautiful! The Temple of Heaven in Beijing was also a sight to see. The city of Nagasaki was interesting to learn about, to see how the city has grown since the atomic explosion. The parks and museums had so much information about that day. Of course I will have to have another visit back to China to check out the Terracotta Warriors and explore more of The Great Wall in better weather. Is it bad I'm already planning stuff I want to see when I come back? It was extremely interesting to see how people in Asia live so differently from us.

Luckily I made friends with most of the crew members on the cruise line! I had heard that the clientele of Holland America was mostly retired people, but I didn't know there would be about 10 people around the age of 18-25, we had a special club, called Generation Next. Everyday I was asked at least once if I was a crew member and when I responded that I was a guest on the cruise they were usually in shock. Of course I made friends with a lot of them, then they usually became my grandparent. I was asked once why I didn't have such nice wavy hair like my grandma. In response I just said we were just friends, not related and sorry I don't have wavy hair! So thankfully the crew was closer to my age and I got to hang out with them on and off the ship! Also figured out I would never work in a kitchen on a ship, because those bakers never get off the ship, forget about seeing the sights! So I will pass on that!