DAYS 4 and 5 on the DIAMOND PRINCESS

The past two days on the Diamond Princess have been frustrating, yet mostly enjoyable.

• Still trying to get visas for Viet Nam.
• Shower water is too hot, and have had difficulty getting it fixed.  Ah, but the repairman finally showed up.  Fixed.
• Am sleeping and eating well.
• 
  Been to several karaoke sessions.  My blogs show us singing.  
• We will be on this ship for almost a month, and I want to see if I can improve from hopelessly mediocre to presentable.
• I don't mention  much the other person traveling with me to protect her privacy.  But when she sings well, I'll sneak them in.

• 
  About our TV. 
• Smallish
• Saved a lot of movies.
•  But haven't even watched one. 
•  There is a huge assortment.
• Regular stations are limited.

• 
  Mind you, the ship must have around 50 activities per day, three or four individuals and groups performing here and there throughout the day and night, the usual two theater shows/night and more.
• We have usually ended the night at Skywalkers at midnight,
• This is most unusual for us to go out to eat and participate external to 15 Craigside for karaoke and night clubbing.  But heck, everything is free, and more we drink, the more we justify the Premiere Package cost.
• The internet was terrific, until today.  Very slow.  But I trust things will pick up.

We usually sleep in and miss breakfast.  Lunch is a huge buffet, always with a ramen bar.  There is usually a soba bar during the evenings.

We tend to go for pre-dinner drinks.  Here, some kimono ladies doing something.

One of our lunches.

Beef curry.

Corn on the cob.

Part of my meal with a Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon and hot tea.

For pre-dinner drink, went to Crooner's Bar for some singing,  Had a Milky Way on rocks.

Pedometer shows I walked only 2005 on Day 4, but I was not wearing it until mid-afternoon.

Lunch on Day 5 ended with ice cream.

Spent most of the day working with staff trying to get a visa Viet Nam.  Most frustrating, for their government apparently only accept debit cards, and we don't carry them.  Drinks before dinner.  I had cold sake, mostly because this is the only bar I've ever seen on a cruise ship listing various sakes.

Had a nice dinner in the International Dining Room.  Started with tofu, tako sunomono and a fabulous wild Porcinini mushroom tartlet with acreamy veal sauce plus truffle oil.  Duckhorn Chardonnay and Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon,.

Soup of roasted corn and sweet potato chowder.

Main entré of Japanese pork curry.

We then went to Club Fusion for ABBA and karaoke.

Then on to Skywalkers Night Club for a final drink.  Walked 4730 steps.

I've been closely watching what is happening to once Typhoon Koto, now a still powerful tropical storm.  It is doing some strange things:

• Movement has been slowing down to only 3 MPH, with a track that shows landfall closer to Ho Chi Minh City
• At 0800 on December 4, the eye of Koto will be skirting Vietnam and heading for Ho Chi Minh City.

• The problem is that the Diamond Princess will be getting close to that spot, and we are scheduled to be off the coast of Ho Chi Minh City at 7AM on December 5, just about when Koto now plans to be.
• It will all depend on the track movement speed.
• Today is December 1, so who knows how strong this tropical storm will be then, and where the eye will be.
• Worse, there is a tropical depression south of Ho Chi Minh, and heading for a conjunction with Tropical Storm Koto.

• 
  As this article indicates:
• This tropical depression is moving in an unusual direction, east-northeast, at 10 MPH.
• What is particularly notable is that this is only the second ocean storm since 2001 to move in that direction.  Usually all storms in this region move west, as Koto is doing.
• Captain Salvatore Macera yesterday warned that rougher waters will soon come.

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