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I am taking a trip across the South China Sea, and this is the small ship that I am on.
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Things were going smoothly. I would relax out on the deck during the day.
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I was sitting in the lounge one day when this gal, who works in the beauty shop on the ship, stopped and asked me if I would be willing to be in her show later on that day. She was showing ladies different ways to fix your hair. I said sure. Here she is starting on my hair.
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It looked pretty good when she finished.
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This was taken during her presentation.
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I looked so dang good, I decided to dress up for dinner. This is one of my table mates.
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Remember I said that things were going smoothly? Well, at 3:00 am, the captain came over the loud speaker and told all of the passengers that a cyclone was heading our way, and he was going to have to turn the ship immediately. He didn't want us to be alarmed if the ship leaned over QUITE A BIT! My cabin was the last place I wanted to be, so I barreled it for the top deck.
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Whoa! He was right. That was quite a tilt the ship made. Out of all the passengers, there were about 20 of us brave souls that spent several hours up on that deck. I actually thought it was fun.
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This guy was hilarious. The wind was just holding him up like this! Unbelievable.
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Eventually they closed the doors so no one could go outside. Bummer!
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This was a sad sight. The land form in the distance is Vietnam. We were supposed to go there, but due to the high winds, the ship couldn't get into the port. There were so many Vietnam vets aboard, and it had taken many of them all of these years to want to go back for a visit. Now they couldn't!
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It's finally morning, and we were allowed to go back outside if we wanted to. I leaned over to get a shot when we hit this huge wave. I'm glad I had my camera strap around my neck!
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See the pretty plant with the BARF BAG in the middle of it! Not only were most of the passengers sick, a lot of staff was, too. Since I stayed outside most of the time, I think that had something to do with the fact that I DIDN'T get sick. I drank in that fresh air.
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The bags were on all of the staircases.
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The crew covered up the swimming pools to keep the water from flying out everywhere.
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Even with the net over the pool, look how high the water was going up.
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I knew I had bounced around a lot the night before, but it wasn't until the next day I saw the bruise I got.
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It was funny, the next morning it was pretty much the same people from last night that were out of the deck. The captain came out, and we told him "thanks for the E-ticket ride." He was such a nice guy. He even put his cap on my head for the picture. BTW....you know that nice hair-do I had earlier? GONE!
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Land ho!!! The Philippines are coming into view.
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All of a sudden, it seems like there were hundreds of these little fishing boats around us.
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Especially those of you who have cruised, you will recognize this boat as the pilot boat. The captain does not take the ship into the harbor. The Filipino pilot does this. The same thing happens in reverse. The pilot will guide the ship out of the harbor, get back on his little tug, and the ship's captain once again takes over. It's fun to watch.
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Now we are beginning to see the water villages. The are all on stilts.
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Manilla is in the background as we head into port.
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This is the captain guiding us next to the pier.
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Some of the people waiting by the ship were family members. Some of the crew finished their rotation, and were being picked up by their family.
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It seemed like out of nowhere, there was this little band to greet us.
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I'm thinking this guy wished he was still in bed!
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It DID feel good to have my feet on solid ground!
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This was an unscheduled day, so many people just went for a walk. Some took a taxi to look around.
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A few took a ride like this.
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Except for the main highway along the harbor, most of the streets were narrow and very crowded.
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Some people had a great time in these pedi-cabs.
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This bus on the right is called a Jeepney, and they are very popular with the tourists.
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Our bus got up close so that I could take this picture of some of our group riding in the jeepney.
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We stopped at a mall, but I wasn't really interested in spending much time there. I preferred to ride around to get a feel for the city.
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This was one of the prettier carts that I saw.
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There were many stands around like this where you could get a bit to eat. But not me!
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Either he just let a customer off, or he is going to get one. Very unique taxi.
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This one was so pretty I wondered if it was ever used.
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I've mentioned several times that it doesn't matter what country you go to, you will always see a Coke sign.
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This is the very beautiful Mandarin Oriental hotel. I took a photo of it because my parents had stayed there. I remember getting post cards from here.
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Right around the corner was the Makati Hard Rock Cafe, so I had to go in. I always like to see them. Most of the time the insides look very much alike, but the outsides vary a lot.
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They had this little table to let you know what was available to eat. The menu, however, works just fine for me.
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One thing I did notice about this Hard Rock was the many religions paintings on the wall. I don't believe I've seen that before.
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This cute little thing was my waiter.
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Check out that spoon............yum!
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Heading back on to the ship after a very wet, but enjoyable day visiting Manilla.
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