Tbilisi Open Air Ethnographic Museum

 

Tbilisi has an Open Air Ethnographic Museum with old houses demonstrating the old ways of living. This picture overlooks the museum from our delicious Georgian food lunch spot.

Chronicles of Georgia, Jvari Monastery, & Mtskheta

 

The Chronicles of Georgia are massive with a height of 30-35 meters (98-114 feet). It's like an 8 or 9 story building. It's big. After that, we visited the 6th-century Jvari Monastery with it's overlook of the original capital in Mtskheta. We finished the day in Mtskheta and had a nice lunch by the river. All of these sites are about 25 km north of old town Tbilisi.

Diamond Bridge - Dashbashi Georgia

 

Kass Land is an amusement park seemingly in the middle nowhere. It's a 2-hour drive west of Tbilisi. Why is it out there? Well, they built this scary cool glass bridge with a diamond shaped coffee house of glass in the middle. The coffee was in regular cardboard cups, so that was a missed opportunity to serve them in double-walled glass coffee mugs. Otherwise, there was plenty of glass here.

Tbilisi MoMA & National Gallery

 

This is the Apple of Love at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Tbilisi Georgia. It's really called the Zurab Tsereteli MoMA because he's the only featured artist. Fortunately he made a lot of interesting paintings and sculptures in the museum and around the city. He made the massive Chronicles of Georgia which will be another post.

Georgian Museum of Fine Arts

 

The Georgian Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi is a cool looking building. It has a mirrored glass exterior and a glass central staircase. If that freaks you out then be sure to take an elevator instead of appearing to float on nothing while taking the stairs.

Old Town Tbilisi & Mother of Georgia

My work had me in Tbilisi for a few weeks, so I brought my wife and we explored the city on the weekends. Here's a day that started in the scenic Old Town at Liberty Square. There's ruins of the old wall along the perimeter of old town.

Vesak Colombo Sri Lanka

 

A great aspect of living near Gangaramaya Temple is that the Buddhist events are a short walk away. This weekend was the celebration of Vesak. The streets near us were filled with festive lights and displays.

Bentota Sri Lanka

 

Bentota is about 2 hours south of Colombo in Sri Lanka. It's a perfect spot for a 3-day weekend. We explored Bawa gardens and houses, went kayaking through the mangroves, and enjoyed the sunsets on the Indian Ocean.

Hong Kong

 

Our sixth and final port of the cruise was in Hong Kong. The nice thing about this port was docking in the middle of the city for easy access to things around the cruise terminal. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. It's an interesting city with a separate operating framework from mainland China. For example, they still use the Hong Kong Dollar.

Ha Long Bay Vietnam - Day 2

 

We had an included excursion for the second day which would have been on a tour boat. It turns out that it would have taken the same route as the boat that took us kayaking. We canceled that and went to town on our own instead, which was much better than wasting a day on a repeated experience. Fortunately we figured this out on our own, because Viking didn't do anything to ensure we weren't wasting our time with our excursion bookings and the information they provide about them was severely lacking.

Ha Long Bay Vietnam - Day 1

 

Our fifth port with the cruise was the absolutely amazing Hạ Long Bay Vietnam. I couldn't get enough of the scenary with these islets. There's so many pictures here that I'll break this up into two posts. 

Da Nang Vietnam

The fourth port of our two week cruise had us in Da Nang Vietnam. It was just a one day included excursion but it was a really good one. It included a museum with old stone statues, a huge store with new marble statues, the huge Lady Buddha statue in the Monkey Mountains (distant pic above), back to the My Khe Beach (pic above), and some pictures of the Dragon Bridge before heading back to the cruise ship. It was a great day! 

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam

 

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was a wonderful city to visit for three days. One of our booked excursions was canceled, which thankfully gave us a free day to explore on our own and visit the fine arts museum. You get a different perspective and feeling about a place through their art and this city's art museum was a really good one.

Sihanoukville Cambodia

 

The second port of our cruise from Bangkok to Hong Kong was in Sihanoukville Cambodia. We were disappointed with the cruise's Bangkok excursion, but the two days and excursions in Cambodia were much better.

Bangkok Thailand

 

We started in Bangkok for a two week cruise to Hong Kong. The cruise didn't start until Monday, so we took the weekend to explore Bangkok on our own. We also visited with some friends from previous embassies who are now working in Bangkok. I think we barely scratched the surface of this big city.

Viking Cruise Fails

TL;DR Don't expect Viking Cruises to keep you in the cabin you booked back in December for an April cruise even if you checked-in online to your cabin before boarding. If you pick a cabin based on the location and potential view from your balcony, then that doesn't matter. If you don't receive the email informing you of this last-minute change, then don't worry, someone will get back to you after the cruise is done to address your perception of a problem.

Colombo Hindu Temples

 

Here's some pictures of two nearby Hindu temples in Colombo. We've seen all kinds of cathedrals, churches, mosques, and temples around the world, so it's interesting to finally see some Hindu temples. I hadn't experienced this before now. Sri Lanka is an amazing country with all of the major religions living together.

Ramble On - Robert Plant with Saving Grace

 Another great version of the song which inspired the name of this blog.

The Farm Resorts Dickoya Sri Lanka

 

Sri Lanka can be hot and humid like any tropical island nation, but the tea country is another story. What a wonderful story it is in the cooler mountains. We spent the latest long weekend having a driver take us about 4-5 hours away to higher elevations. The Farm Resorts is a quiet refuge with comfortable rooms, amazing views, and a delicious little restaurant. It was a great break from the humid seaside city of Colombo.

Dambulla Village Tour & Temples

 

The Dambulla Village Tour is an immersive cultural experience in Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle, highlighting traditional rural life. The tour features a scenic bullock cart ride (cart drawn by oxen), a traditional catamaran boat trip, chena cultivation visits (slash-and-burn cultivation), and a home-cooked Sri Lankan lunch. (Google)