Location: Shanghai, China After touring the city yesterday, I decided to do something different: Dumpling Revolution! Yep, we are going to learn how to make Chinese dumplings. Our guide and chef took us to what I'd call a "farmer's market". We left the center city because the chef did not want us to see a … Continue reading Shanghai Dumplings

En route to Hong Kong, China. Arrives on 11-Mar. I've had several requests for monkey pictures, but so far, I've missed the opportunities for photographs. However, for this cruise leg the guest lecturer is Steve McCurry, professional photographer who perhaps is best known for the "Afghan Girl" picture that was on the cover of National … Continue reading Emergency Monkey Post

Location: Shanghai, China On our first night in Shanghai many of us ate on the ship, but sat outside (which was very chilly). At night buildings on both sides of the river light up like Las Vegas on crack. There was a running commentary of "wait-wait-wait, look at that building now!" The engineer in me … Continue reading Shanghai: Day 1

Location: Shanghai, China Across the River After two days crossing the East China Sea we arrived outside of Shanghai to solid fog. For the first time on this world cruise, we could not enter our port and had to wait several hours before the pilot allowed us to proceed. The constraint was both ways, for … Continue reading Shanghai Arrival

Location: Tokyo, Japan I'm in Tokyo, and it's raining again. But as opposed to the rain in Kyoto (and Taipei), there is not much wind. So, it's wet but not so bad. I signed up for a day-long bus tour in Tokyo, and our starting point is the Imperial Palace. But there are two things … Continue reading Tokyo