Asia Cruise 30 Jan - 14 Feb

Lunar Celebration near Merlion Park

Spent a few days in my favorite city, Singapore, before the cruise. It was my fourth visit in the last 12 months. The Gardens by the Bay was spectacular as usual, the Garden Rhapsody night show had an operatic music theme this time. The Cloud Forest Dome at the Gardens is always gorgeous and the Flower Dome also had a beautiful Chinese New Year display. Chinese New Year is only 4 days away so there was a lot of New Year decorations for a planned celebration on the Bay on Feb 2. It was a first visit for Liz, Kevin, Mary, and mom so we visited the Botanic and Orchid Gardens and Merlion Park.  I finally made it to the Liao Fan Hawker Chan in Chinatown to have their $4 SGD Soy Chicken Rice dish. This is supposedly the cheapest Michelin rated restaurant in the world. We stayed at the Hilton on Orchard Road this time and the area is a huge upgrade from the Hilton Garden Inn Serangoon. We were near the Ion Mall that provided us with infinitely more eating and shopping options than Little India. One tour that I would not recommend is the Viator full day tour into Johore Bahru. I wanted to check off Malaysia as a country visited and I thought this would be an easy way to accomplish that. The immigration process both ways was miserable even with a private guide that did not require us to leave the van. At least an hour plus wait for both Singapore exit and Malaysia entry both ways was not fun. Johore Bahru is also not the Kuala Lumpur Malaysia that we would like to have seen as our guide explained. The highlight was the Malay Cultural Village where we were able to make a batik painting.

Cloud Forest Dome Gardens By the Bay

The 12 day Asia cruise on the Diamond Princess visited Phu My/Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka, Shimizu, and ending in Yokohama. This was my 5th voyage on the Diamond and the third visit to many of the cities in the past 3 years so I didn't expect a lot of novelty. What I also didn't expect was the Diamond to just come out of dry dock and have so many system problems. The AC in the cabins didn't work properly for the first 8 days where many cabins were extremely hot or cold while at the extreme temperature settings. There were also leaks around the ship primarily in the Santa Fe dining room and in the bathrooms outside the restaurant for most of the cruise. There were towels and buckets in the dining room to catch the leaks and the restrooms had noisy fans to dry the carpet. For long time cruisers, Princess also made changes to the coffee card plan where unused drinks cannot be transferred to future cruises. Also the daily charges to our credit card were a surprise instead of the one time charge at the end of the cruise on prior cruises. Evening entertainment did not compare to what we saw on the Majestic, however, The Secret Silk premiere was the most innovative show yet, produced by directors and song writers that did Wicked and Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Bravo also brought a standing ovation as it mixed Opera with pop music.

Chiufen Shopping Area

The Vietnam cities were never great tourist attractions so we opted for private tours this time. We did see the Rex Hotel, Tet Flower Road, Glac Lam Pagoda, Notre Dame Cathedral, and Independence Palace in Ho Chi Minh City. We were in Nha Trang on the Tet Lunar New Year holiday so many places were closed and guides were twice as expensive as normal.
We planned to visit Hong Kong Disney while at the city but were convinced to skip it by the travel guide at the terminal. He said that Disney would be overcrowded due to families visiting from China for the New Year holiday so we decided to take the free shuttle to the Plaza Hollywood mall and visited the Nan Lian Garden and the Chi Lin Nunnery. Tried to wait for New Year Dim Sum but it was too crowded so we ate at a less busy restaurant.

Osaka Castle Park

Taipei was the only port where weather affected our plans. We've been on the Best of Taipei excursion before so we went to the hillside, old, shopping village of Chiufen. Very interesting, quaint town with steep stairs everywhere and hundreds of small stalls. Would be very scenic if we had better weather but we had a great time walking the winding streets and paths. We were told that we needed local currency but other passengers said vendors took USD.
We met a Goodwill Guide in Osaka and visited Osaka Castle Park, Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, and the famous Dontonbori shopping area. The Osaka Castle is also a museum and has a top floor viewing platform. The Shinto shrine is like every other and Dontonbori was a hustle and bustle of activity with the famous Gilco sign as a symbol of Osaka.
We did a ship excursion in Shimizu that was all too similar to the free tour in Osaka. Sunpu Castle Park had some winter cherry blossoms but the castle has been long destroyed.  We couldn't see Mount Fuji from Miho Beach Pine Forest but the sky cleared just before we got back to the ship. Just like that, the cruise was over as we prepped for the 9 hour wait at Narita.

Sedona, AZ Jan 7-11

Mather Point Grand Canyon

It's been over 30 years since we've been to Sedona so we've forgotten how stunning the geological formations around the city are. We visited the South Rim of  the Grand Canyon on our way to Sedona and we had wonderful weather and loved having the park to ourselves. The park was not affected by the Government shutdown thanks to the state of Arizona, which maintained all park services. The Grand Canyon is actually pretty Daisy friendly since there are so many paved paths at the major lookouts. We entered from the south from Williams, crossed east along the Desert View Scenic Drive, then exited south to Flagstaff. Mather Point, Yavapai Point, and the Watchtower at Desert View all offered beautiful vistas of the snow covered Canyon.It was nice to see the Canyon in a different season than our last trip two years ago.

Oak Creek from Slide Rock State Park

The next day we drove down to Sedona along the Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Drive, Hwy 89A. It's a spectacular drop of 4500 feet to the canyon floor. At the bottom of the canyon we passed the parking lot for the West Fork Trail, which is a moderate hike that we have to do next time. Further down the canyon we stopped at Slide Rock State Park which is surrounded by beautiful cliffs and provides walking access to Oak Creek and its rock bed. It was here that we realized that Arizona State Parks and any use of National Forest land in Red Rock canyon charges a day use parking fee. We spent the rest of the day at four trail areas in Red Rock Canyon including the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Yavapai Vista, and the Bell Rock/Courthouse Butte Loop.

Day 3 was our attempt to reach Devil's Bridge. The overall round trip hike is just over 4 miles if you don't have a high clearance 4WD. It's a flat walk from the parking area to the trail head along a sometimes rugged dirt road or you can take a more scenic route along the Chuckwagon Trail. A 4WD vehicle will eliminate this part of the hike. From the trail head, a 3/4 mile moderate incline takes you to the base of the bridge. From here, there are two sets of steep stairs, the second requiring the use of hands and feet. Unfortunately Karen stopped at this point. At the top of the stairs you are rewarded with a fabulous view and are at the same level as the top of the arch that is the bridge that you can walk across. People say it's wider than it looks, about 5 feet, but it looked like a balance beam to me so I did not attempt to cross it. Everyone else up there did. Total elevation gain from the trail head is about 650 feet.

Cathedral Rock

Post Devil's Bridge we visited Crescent Moon State Park for a nice view of the Cathedral Rock Butte. However, the $10 view is only marginally better than the one from a free lookout a mile up the road. We took a chance at Montezuma's Castle and Well National Monuments on our way to visit friends in Prescott, however, both monuments were closed due to the Government shut down.