SUMMARY Another “Day at Sea”. This one was “same, same, but different” as the people here are fond of saying. No gym time, no lectures, but plenty of eating and drinking. My big excitement was smashing my right thumb (on the cuticle) between our big glass balcony door and the doorframe. It hurt like a sonofabitch (hence the “no gym time”) and continued to throb all day. Definitely put a crimp in my style (not to mention my thumb)! - Karen
DETAIL
Once again, for the third time this trip, it’s the first of the month. Amazing! And as habit dictates we must say “Rabbit, Rabbit” as the first thing we say upon waking (for good luck for the month). Karen wakes up and says it, then she wakes me up and ensures that I say it. Looking at the clock she discovers it’s 3am. Whoops!
It’s not only the first of the month, it’s another “At Sea” day. We’re motoring from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City. We’ll have one more “At Sea” day after this, after Ho Chi Minh City on our way to our final port: Singapore.
Mid-morning the ever cheerful captain comes on the PA to update us on our progress. We’re skirting the coast of Vietnam. It’s just visible to our west which means it’s about 25 nautical miles away. What we can see is the eastern-most point of Vietnam. Our current latitude is equal to Sudan, Columbia and the Philippines. We have another 284 nautical miles to go to our destination. 50 of those will be in the morning, snaking up the Saigon river into the very heart of Ho Chi Minh City. Larger ships can’t do this, so we’re lucky. Less of a bus ride to see the city proper.
It’ll be clear tonight and sunny tomorrow, which will contribute to the heat. The high for the “feels like” temperature will be 106º which isn’t good news. We have a long walking tour excursion starting at 1pm. Ugh. We’ll have good hats, long sleeve shirts and umbrellas.
Being "at sea" the onboard restaurants are our only option, and such, they’re quite full. We have lunch outside and the only table we can find is on the main traffic route for the waiters. At one point a passenger bumps a waiter, causing him to shower Karen with ice water. We’re happy it wasn’t soup or worse.
We spend a leisurely afternoon in our nicely air conditioned cabin. I get caught up on the blog and Karen hangs out on the balcony listening to a book and watching the blue water glide by. At one point, as she’s transitioning from inside to out, she closes the heavy rolling glass door on her thumb. She explains to me how very painful it is. I believe her. Not Karen’s day. (Not sure how well this “rabbit, rabbit” shit is working for us this month.)
We do see one flying fish and later one other. It’s a treat and, other than some birds, is the only sea life we've seen on the ship. The afternoon weather remains idyllic with blue sky and a breeze (created maybe by the motion of the ship). The sun glinting off the water looks like the opening credits to the most recent Top Gun movie.
Each dinner we check what the featured locale is for that day’s menu. Today it’s American food. We’ve heard of that place! Some of the ‘tent pole’ menu items include New England Clam Chowder and Thanksgiving turkey. We look forward to it, thinking perhaps there will be pumpkin pie to boot!
Before dinner we obediently go to the Atlas Bar and have a delightful cocktail. Karen has a French 75 and I have something sweeter than I’d like made with Chivas. What Karen likes about my drink is the wooden stir stick. She hustles over to the bar and absconds with another half dozen. She’s imagining the improvised splint she’ll be wearing on her thumb while she sleeps.
Dinner is pretty good. The turkey is delicious, being labeled as "Butterbal". The clam chowder not so great. There were other tasty American dishes. The dessert was American, including s’mores cheesecake and pecan pie.
The end of our evening was spent in the ship's main entertainment auditorium. It was the second of two shows by a funny illusionist. This time he’s showing us sleight of hand card tricks. The final trick involved carefully shuffling a normal deck of cards very well and then very quickly cutting the deck into many piles. Afterwards he shows us the piles contain, in order, one card, then two cards, then three, etc. up to ten, each pile with exactly the right number of cards. We’re impressed.
Then he shows us that the top card of each pile are the ace of spades, two of spades, all the way up the suit, in order. We’re impressed! Then he shows us the remaining cards, from all these many piles, are the other cards from the other three suits, together, in order. Wow, how does he do this?
Exhausted and entertained we slink off to bed, still pondering the card tricks.
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