Where in the World is Pat?

Thursday, October 23rd we arrived in the Port of Bitung, Indonesia to huge fan fare despite the pouring rain. Turns out we were the first cruise ship to visit this Port in a long time!

WOW!!! PALAU is the tropical Paradise I have been dreaming about! This is trip just reached a new level of OMG!!

Got to love a place that sells shirts saying " Where the heck is Yap? " Colonia ( population 3,100 ) is the Capital and Harbor town of Yap State ( population 11,600 ) one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. We are in the Pacific Ocean or Philippine Sea just north of the equator, Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Ternate, Indonesia, which is both the name of the city and island, and is part of the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia. It is a port that sees maybe 3 Cruise ships a year. However, they really made an effort to show us the best of what they can offer. It's mainly a Muslim country, and we knew we had to dress discretely, but we knew little else. We didn't have our typical port talk prior, due to a technical issue with the AV equipment. Ben a fellow resident, organized an island tour, with about 8 stops, for 90 of us residents.

Cebu greeted our Ship with a big warm welcome, despite having just been rocked by a major Earthquake, days before our arrival. The Minister of Tourism arrived with a motorcade and she proceeded to chat with the residents and thank us, for all our support.

Today we were Cave explorers! We went to the one of UNESCO newly classified 7 NEW WONDERS OF NATURE - The Puerto Princesa Underground River.

September 30th marks the one year anniversary of when this great adventure for me actually started - when the ship sailed out of Belfast Boatyard.

Any day on a boat for sun and fun is a great day! Today it was a group of 17 for a tour of Honda Bay - we had 3 stops to snorkel, swim and relax. Thanks Holly for arranging it all!!

BORACAY is known as one of the party island of Philippines! There are lots of lovely white sand beaches, resort hotels and tons of water sports. The Bay was like a lake, when the waters aren't being stirred up by Typhoons. Their is an international airport across the Bay in Catalan and lots of ferry and speed boats, ushering visitors in daily.