Steve and Cathy's Blog

Another quiet day, although that is our choice.  There is plenty to do on this cruise ship every day, and many people take advantage of the activities available.  Except for Cathy’s Coffee Chat and Needlepoint activity, we don’t really.  I’m not at all certain why that is, but we still fill the days happily.

The one event for this day that stands out is an anniversary party that we attend tonight in Horizons.  Mike and J (Michael and Jalayne Wheatley) are celebrating their 33rd anniversary.  They are the people featured in the photo at the beginning of this post. The party starts at 10:15pm.  For Cathy and Steve, staying up until 10:15pm is a major, major undertaking.  Only because we are so fond of them … and have already committed to going … do we attend.  In addition to the late hour, we also must turn the clocks ahead by an hour.  And Steve has an appointment with Sho the personal trailer at 6:30 tomorrow.

Not much else to talk about, so I will switch topics to how we have divided up the responsibilities of traveling together.  Cathy is the scheduler and paperwork person.  As you can imagine, on a voyage that goes to as many countries as this one, the paperwork is considerable.  While much of the visa work was done last fall, there is still additional official paperwork that must be filled out.  Oceania provides the government forms, Cathy makes sure we do fill them out and turn them in on time.  Then she makes sure that we have all out excursion tickets and paperwork with us at the proper time.  It’s like I am traveling with my own mini-travel agent.  Its a critical responsibility.  No paperwork?  No tour.

My job is to record this trip.  Obviously, both of us contribute to these posts.  I will write the draft, and Cathy will edit it and add her comments and additions.  When you see something in brackets especially,[ ] know that those remarks are from her.  I also take all the photographs, edit them and file them.  The Facebook posts of photographs are on my page.  We both agreed that we would work to record this trip adequately.  Yes, we will have many wonderful memories, but relying on our memories at this stage of our lives would be foolish.  And of course we want to share our experiences with whomever would want to go along for the ride.  If you are reading this, we are both honored and delighted that you are along with us.

I mention the paperwork responsibility today because the Currents publication that the ship puts out has an urgent plea.  A visa application for Myanmar was due a couple of days ago.  The Myanmar government wants this application filled out by every passenger, and it must include two passport photos.  Months prior to this trip, Oceania advised us to bring extra photos with us, and no doubt warned us that there would be additional forms to fill out as we traveled.  And yet there are still those who, less than thirty-six hours before our arrival in Myanmar, have not complied.  These are educated adults.  You have to wonder.

Well, another day at sea, in this case the Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world.  Late tomorrow afternoon, we arrive in Myanmar.