The sea day after we left Ho Chi Minh City turned out to be extremely rough - everyone was saying it was the worst seas they've yet experienced, and a lot of people who have never been seasick were having a hard time. I didn't get sick, but it was not fun for me either. Nonetheless we all turned up for rehearsal around 3pm, and got about 15 minutes into the rehearsal before the show was called off. In those few minutes the guest violinist had ran to the nearest toilet half a dozen times to throw up, poor guy. He was really trying to make it through, but he was in bad shape. As a result the show was called off - the cruise director figured not many guests would be feeling up to coming to a show anyway because the rocking was so bad. So I had my second night off this cruise, which brings the total number of working days this contract down to 9, unless you count those 20 minutes as a work day - ha ha.
The next day we arrived in Danang, the port city where most American troops landed during the war here, and the location of China Beach, where they spent all their leisure hours. There was boat drill scheduled for that day, but thanks to the cruise director and safety officer being really nice to me, I was allowed to escort a tour instead, to nearby Hoi An. It was an "on your own" tour, which is perfect for me. We had about four hours in this really gorgeous, charming little town. There is a neat covered Japanese bridge, a big river, numerous Chinese temples, and great food. I had such a great day wandering around - shopping, eating, and taking pictures. I tried one of the local specialties, "white rose cake", which is basically little dumplings that lie open to resemble flowers, with some kind of meat in the middle. They were really good - I even did ok with the chopsticks and dipping them in the spicy sauce they came with. I also tried the local black tea, and had yet another amazing mango drink....basically pure mange pulp. Wow. Anyway enough about food - lets just say it was an exceptional day. That night the show was a singer - Gregg Arthur, who did a lot of crooner stuff, mostly Sinatra and Tony Bennet, etc. Great song choices, but some charts were written weird for the horns. Gregg has a fantastic voice, though. After the show I went out with most of the band and others, and had a great talk with one of the girl singers in the cast. It was fun hanging out with everyone until pretty late.
Today we had a morning rehearsal for the violinist's show (rescheduled) and then we arrived in Halong Bay in the afternoon. I went out with a big group of people to a favorite restaurant of theirs. Wow, did they have great food. Afterwards I couldn't resist trying another version of mango shake - they are just too good here!!! Gregg Arthur the singer from last night was with us, and he shocked us all by picking up the bill for the entire lunch and sneaking off. We didn't believe it at first - there were at least 15 of us there, and we had a lot of food and drinks. I need to find a way to thank him later. After lunch I wandered a bit, on the beach and in the market. I bought myself a cheap little suitcase so I can bring home all the stuff I've been buying....which is really a ridiculous amount of stuff. Yikes. Tonight we stay overnight in Halong Bay, and I'll probably hop on a tour tomorrow.
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