THE CRUISE TO THE TOTAL ECLIPSE CONTINUES

Nothing much has changed since my reportage yesterday of the Iran, Ukraine and Gaza Strip Wars, the uncontrolled wildfire in British Columbia and weather.

To continue our Azamara Journey cruise, I last stopped after lunch on Day 1. The good news is that all is well on this ship.  Dinner was okay, late night dancing fine and I had a terrific night of great sleep.

Dinner was at the Windows Cafe buffet, and we coincidentally sat at the same table as lunch.  A whole section of sushi, with a Heineken and chardonnay.

Went for after dinner drinks in The Den, where Jose was on the keys,  Then onto the show for the evening in the Cabaret Lounge, where Vinyl Records was the feature.

The time was around 11PM, and the only place open was the Living Room for late night dancing.  Shore Thing, a band from the Philippines played loud and fine.  Like the music.  Did some dancing.

Chatted with leader, and they promised to play Anak tomorrow night.  I featured this song in one of my postings a few years ago.

My song #4 is Freddie Aguilar's Anak.  Aguilar was studying to be an electrical engineer when he left home at the age of 18 to pursue an entertainment career.  After five years of gambling and travails, in 1978 he wrote his first song, Anak (a more recent version) in remorse and apology to his parents.  It is the best selling Filipino song in history and reached #1 in Japan.  Billboard reported that the song was the #2 hit for the world in the 1980's.  

In 2013, when he was 60, his third wife was 16 year old  Jovie Gatdula Albao.  He passed away last year at the age of 72.

-

WE HAVE BOARDED THE AZAMARA JOURNEY, AND ARE ON OUR WAY TO THE COMING TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

There is not much military activity diirectly related to the War with Iran today, but:

• Iran insists that the U.S. agrees to all concessions before opening the Strait of Hormuz.
• No serious peace talks are occurring.
• The Houthis continue to cause problems with Saudi Arabia.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally rejected the U.S. proposal for the Gaza Strip.

In other news:

• Todd Blanche was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as U.S. attorney general.
• Typhoon Dolphin made landfall over Okinawa at 101 MPH, causing damage, but, at this time, no known deaths.  Next, on to Zhejiang. While not threatening Hong Kong, this storm was deemed responsible for the record high temperature today of just about 98.5 F.

• 
  As we are expecting to stop through Vancouver after our cruise ship docks in Montreal, I asked Google AI whether the latest British Columbia wild fire is also impacting this city:

Yes, there are some active wildfires and smoke in British Columbia, including a small local fire in Metro Vancouver's Belcarra Regional Park, but most large out-of-control blazes are further away in the southern interior and other parts of the province. 

So on to our solar adventure.  The 5-minute taxi ride from hotel to the Azamara Journey, as arranged for by the Hilton, was troublesome.  Bill of $40.  Recall that the fare from the airport must have been around $250.  Here is a facebook entry complaining about this problem. Not coming back to Iceland again.

All the info Azamara sent us indicated that we could check in at noon.  We got there at 12:30 and there was a long line because the door into the facility had just opened.  Was unprepared for gusty winds and 50 F temperature.  Kind of a poor start to our cruise.

The Journey was launched in 2000 and has had a checkered ownership.

• First owner , Pullmanteur Cruises, went bankrupt.
• Royal Caribbean and Oceania somehow became involved.
• Renamed the Journey in 2008.
• Now owned by an equity firm that lists a whole bunch of companies in the corporation, including Margaritaville at Sea and Walgreens.
• 694 passengers and 407 crew.
• The relatively small size allows it to sail up the Chao Phraya River all the way to Bangkok.  Almost all cruise ships need to be docked at Laem Chabang port, which is 36 miles away.

Bad omen?  Looming disaster to come?  Nah, for we had a decent lunch, and all our luggage was succesfully transferred to our cabin, which is decent.  Some photos.

Got a lot electronics with us.

A big positive is that on almost all the cruises I've been on, internet connection was a pain, requiring info tech staff assistance.  My computer linked flawlessly in seconds.  All by myself.  But this internet service will cost us more than $500, mostly to send out this blog.  I'll continue reporting on our 18-day cruise tomorrow.

I'll close with some introductory remarks for new viewers.  Readership of this blog site goes up when I'm traveling.  Three days ago, broke an all-time record by reaching 241,179 viewers that day.  Generally, this viral peak drops considerably over the next few days.  However, during this period, many new to this site don't know much about what this blog is all about, or me.

Began at the end of April of 2008, and has been posted daily, with a few exceptions, when in China, and on train trips in Canada.

• There are two sites.
• The original, which has more than 6200 postings.
• A newer version, which started in October of 2020.  Why this second one?  I ran out of labels in the original, so just in parallel began publishing #2 to better link with the world wide web.
• They are identical.

• 
  About me, the blogger.  I, Patrick Takahashi:
• Was born and grew up in Honolulu, mostly Kakaako, very much the seed around which Honolulu eventually grew.
• I suffer from magnificent obsessions, which led to my matriculation at Stanford, U.S. Senate staffer responsible for the Matsunaga Hydrogen Act, and through my academic career, worked on laser fusion at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence for the NASA Ames Research Center.  27-year career at the University of Hawaii, where I directed the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, which became the national lead for the National Science Foundation in marine bioproducts, U.S. Department of Energy on hydrogen and U.S. Interior Department on marine minerals.
• 
  Now in my 27th year of retirement, during which time I wrote Simple Solutions books on Planet Earth and Humanity, plus Simple Solution Essays, a compilation of some my articles in the Huffington Post.  Here are some of my more relevant illusions.

• 

• Geoengineering of Climate Change
• What About Hydrogen?
• Why Do We Spend So Much on National Security?
• The Dawn of the Blue Revolution
• The Ultimate Ocean Ranch
• Is There An Option More Promising Than The Plug-In Electric Vehicle?
• America, Don't Copy...Build Something Better
• The Blue Revolution
• Extraterrestrial Intelligence?
• What Is The Best Biofuel?
• The Carbon Dioxide Credit Program?
• The Future of Sustainable Aviation
• The 10% Solution to Peace
• The Sustainable Expo for 2020
• The Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami:  The Aftermath
• Star Power for Humanity

I should add that I've made more than a dozen global odysseys, and you can read how those two-month trips went by reading past postings.  How to find them?  Explore.  For example, I typed into the SEARCH Box Ultimate Global Adventure, and found:  AROUND THE WORLD IN 51 DAYS.  This is a trip I took in 2013.  I specialize in these, and in 2015 compared the best ones, by others.  This graphic is of the first one.

So tomorrow, the first full day on our Azamara Journey.

-

FINAL DAY IN REYKJAVIK AND ON TO THE AZAMARA JOURNEY

Never gets fully dark at night in Reykjavik in early August.

• 16-hours of daylight.
• Sun sets at 10:30PM or so
• Sung rises at 4:30AM or so.
• Daily highs around 55 F, with lows in the mid-40s.
• According to Google AI:

Reykjavík is widely recognized as one of the safest capitals in the world. It frequently tops global safety rankings, such as the Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection report, which has named Reykjavík the world's safest city. Violent crime is exceedingly rare, and the city boasts a high level of social trust, low property crime, and a relaxed community atmosphere compared to most major global capitals. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

• 
  However:

Traditional outright taxi scams are not common in Reykjavík, but recent changes to Iceland's taxi laws have led to a rise in complaints regarding inflated fares, unmetered overcharging, and opportunistic drivers targeting tourists—especially for airport or late-night trips. [1, 2, 3]

• Our tour guide warned us to be careful about pickpockets.

While Iceland remains one of the safest countries in the world, the ⁠U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik and local authorities have issued alerts regarding organized criminal rings explicitly targeting crowded tourist areas. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Haven't said much about the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica.

• As the total eclipse date of August 12 approaches, hotels in Reykjavik have more than doubled in price.  In addition, I signed up for an Executive room to have access to their executive club, which then comes with free breakfast and cocktails/appetizers from 5PM-7PM.  Thus, this is a costly three-night stay.
• The free buffet breakfast is nothing like what they have in the Orient, but is better than hotel clubs in the USA, Canada and Europe.
• 
  The executive club serves adequate appetizers and drinks.
• However, Johnny Walker Red Label Whiskey is an indicator of the lower quality.
• But a nice two-hour period to unwind.  They serve a good soup with assorted sandwiches, and other appetizers.  Real fusion sushi, egg rolls and the like.  Then a dessert tray at the end.  Second night.

• Third night.
• Appetizers.
  
  

Cauliflower cream soup. Not bad, but not as good as the previous night soups, tomato and potato.

Meal and view

Geo-heath site.  All these buildings are heated by geo-steam.

Noticed that bikes were not that common.  Hopp aqua-colored rental scooters are prominent.

Also, personal scooters.  They look like they're moving faster, but it turns out that the maximum legal speed for both is 15.5 miles per hour, but Hopp limits speeds to 9 MPH in certain urban areas, like here.  They cost about a dollar to unlock, plus 36 cents/minute.  So a 10-minute ride would cost $4.53.

While I was watching all this scooter stuff, noticed that we could see a Celebrity Cruise Line ship docked in one of the closer piers.  To the right in the background,

Then we saw a Viking ship departing on their total eclipse cruise.

Of course, we kept our eye on the American Embassy to help protect it from invasion.

We realize that this is one of the safest American Embassies in the world.  However, if we sit here three hours during cocktail time, we want to be responsible, so have amused ourselves by looking for intrigue.

Noticed too, that cities and places have really long names.  Even longer and more difficult to pronounce than Hawaiian locations that baffle tourists.  For example, from where we sit.

For the record, Fjarskiptastofa is the Electronic Communications Office of Iceland.  Other examples from Google AI:

Kirkjubæjarklaustur: A well-known historic village in southern Iceland whose name means "Church farm cloister" (19 letters).  There are also some short ones, like Vik.
Landmannalaugar: A famous mountainous highland area meaning "The people of the land's pools" (15 letters).
Hvannadalshnjúkur: The highest peak in the country, meaning "Angelica valley peak" (17 letters). [1, 2, 3]

Long Street and Road Names

Jófríðarstaðavegur: A long residential and arterial road located in Hafnarfjörður (19 letters).
Bræðraborgarstígur: A historic street in downtown Reykjavík meaning "Brothers' castle path" (18 letters).
Vatnsleysustrandarvegur: A rural coastal highway in the southwestern Reykjanes region (23 letters). [1, 2]

We soon taxi to the Azamara Journey, awaiting our arrival at the Skarfabakki Harbour.

The Puffin is the unofficial mascot of Iceland.

-