Whirled Travels

Greetings and Swasdi-khub! (Greetings in Thai!) It is Saturday, Apr 27th, 2024! We approach the port of Phuket, Thailand – our home for the next two days! As we pull up to the dock,...

Salam sejahtera! (Remember what this means?) Today is April 25th, 2024. The sun is up and cutting through the haze as we approach Penang, Malaysia. Our tour today is to visit Penang’s George Town...

Salam sejahtera! (Greetings! in Malay) It’s a beautiful April 24th, 2024, morning when the sun breaks through the low clouds on the horizon. Insignia pulls up to the dock. There is a beautiful, elevated...

Greetings! Today is April 22nd, 2024, and we arrive in Singapore by air from our land tour in Cambodia. You may recall this photo, as we wave goodbye to our land tour guide, Chon,...

Swasdi! (Thai for “hello”, pronounced “so-wah-dee”) and Suostei! (Khmer for “hello”, pronounced “so-stay”) On April 19th, 2024, we leave the ship in Bangkok, Thailand, for a three-day land tour into Cambodia! As you can...

Swasdi! (Greetings in Thai!) It’s April 18th, 2024, and when we wake up we are sailing up the Chao Phraya River to the Thai city of Bangkok!  The sky is blue, but a little...

Greetings! Xin chao! Today is April 15th, 2024. (For those who have forgotten, yes, this is for 2024. I’m a year behind in finishing these blogs!) Once again, we get to overnight at another...

Hello! Xin chàu one more time! Today is April 14th, 2024, and we sail through calm waters on our approach to Nha Trang, Vietnam. The city appears on the shoreline. Haze from the humidity...

Hello! Xin chàu once again! Today is April 12th, 2024, and we awake to smooth waters heading into Hue via the port of Chan May Bay. Once again, we are overnighting at port, and...

Hello! Xin chàu! (pronounced “sin-chow”) and Bonjour! ( I think you know this one) Yes, in case you didn’t know, the Vietnamese speak French! It’s April 10th, 2024, and we are sailing into Ha...

Wènhòu! Greetings! On 7 April, 2024, we glide up the channel toward the dock at Hong Kong. It is foggy and visibility is limited to about 1 mile. We enter a harbor, but there...

[Before we reached Dubai I knew it would take a while before I could return to finish the blog for the Oceania Asia cruise that we completed in May of this year. Please accept...

Wènhòu! Greetings! It’s 3 Apr, 2024, and we are winding our way up the river to Shanghai! Low scudding clouds obscure the tops of anything over ten stories tall! After threading our way up...

Greetings! My last “Aisatsu”! We made our way to Fukuoka, Japan, on 1 April, 2024. It was partly cloudy, but the clouds were burning off! After a short ride into the harbor we found...

Aisatsu! Greetings! We’re back in Japan for a few days! On 31 March, 2024, we glide into Nagasaki harbor. The clouds are low and fully obscuring the sky. Closer to port these five figures...

Insa! Greetings! We arrived in Busan, South Korea, on 30 March, 2024, under bright blue skies with light cloud cover! The view on the right from our veranda after docking is interesting! The low...

Aisatsu! Greetings! 29 March, 2024, is a gloomy morning as Insignia approach Hiroshima, Japan. 29 March, 2024, is also Good Friday before Easter! Insignia has the Grand Hall decorated when we wander out! People...

Aratamete go aisatsu! Greetings once again! We have a beautiful morning – the most beautiful weather that we’ve had in a while – when we approached Kobe, Japan, on 29 March, 2024! Our dock...

Aratemete go aisatsu! Greetings once again! We arrive in Shimizu, Japan, early in the morning on 26 March, 2024! The sun tries to break through the clouds on the horizon. The ship arrives at...

Aisatsu! Greetings! Ohayo gozaimasu! Good morning! Early morning on 24 March, 2024, we approached Tokyo, Japan, under a hazy dawn. The factories on the shore are barely visible. We see our home dock for...