Southeast Asia Trip - Day 4

Viking Venus was "swaying" all night but I mostly slept alright until I woke up unexpectedly at 0330.  Fortunately, I was able to fall back to sleep relatively easily.  While transiting, our ship moved into a new time zone (clocks "fell backwards") and I woke up for real at the “new” 0600.  As usual, I spent time reading, doing puzzles, etc. Along the way, I watched the rather big waves that were visible through my balcony window - we were still on the fringes of Typhoon Fengshen.  The good news, though, was that we were approaching Hainan Island, which I assumed would provide some cover from the wind and waves.  With this hope in mind, I went to breakfast (meats, beans, roll, croissants, potatoes) at the World Cafe (0700).  While there, I met some new people (Valerie & Richard and Cheryl, who were part of a group of eight friends on a cruise together) and watched tanker ships that were paralleling our course.  The Captain made an announcement that we had to keep to a strict schedule in order to transit through Qiongzhou Strait (AKA Hainan Channel).  Fortunately, the sea conditions began to improve almost immediately after he was finished talking and land came into sight.  Back in my room, I changed into workout gear and headed to the gym, where I biked for 20 minutes (7 miles) and enjoyed some good views out of the windows there.  Next, I returned to my stateroom and got ready for my meeting with the cruise coordinator, Wes.  This meeting, scheduled for 0900, had initially been planned for me to sign up for a new Viking Cruise to India in 2027.  Unfortunately, this was sold out and I had to "settle" for a British Isles cruise during the same timeframe. After saying goodbye to Wes, I visited Guest Services to set up another tour (Bayeux Tapestry).  Once again, I returned to my room and did more reading, completed some cruise customer satisfaction surveys, watched the Port Talk Briefing for Hong Kong (just to see if I’d missed anything) and watched an enrichment video about Trade in Southeast Asia.  At 1215, I went to lunch (meatloaf, veggies, meat & cheese, red wine) at the World Cafe.  I should mention that I encountered many seasick people everywhere I went - there were also that apparently had respiratory illnesses that they were trying to share with me (SMH).  Throughout the day, I attempted to do some birding on the Sun Deck - I even used binoculars but never saw a single bird.  That ends a pretty long streak (over 80 days)...  Instead, I watched lots of fishing boats, channel markers and activities in the cities on both sides (Hainan Island and Mainland China) of the Qiongzhou Strait.  Overall, we had a relatively easy day in Chinese territorial waters. At 1330, I took a Bayeaux Tapestry Tour with Tom Maca, the Ship’s Historian.  On each deck, there was a 10X blow up of a section (about 20 total) of the 230 foot embroidery - the Historian gave background on the overall story and guided us through all the panels.  This tour was very interesting!  I later returned to my room (once again) and spent time resting, watching movies and keeping up with social media.  Departing my stateroom again (1530), I took a Galley Tour; our guide was Chef Love.  We visited the kitchens for the Chef’s Table and Manfredi’s - we also met some of the Sous Chefs and learned about shipboard culinary management.  Afterwards, I tried some ginger candy (it is supposed to help people with nausea) - it tasted OK.  Before dinner, I walked some more on the Sun Deck.  By then, we'd started to exit the Qiongzhou Strait and the wind, drizzle, swells had resumed.  The wind farms we passed as the land receded in the distance seemed appropriately placed... During another visit to my room, I saw that I had a message from Guest Services - they helped me fix the schedule for my first day in Halong Bay (with suggestions for resolving issues on the second day) and it made me feel better than I had yesterday.  Next, I watched the Port Talk (live) for Halong Bay.  When this ended (1800), I made my way The Restaurant, a place I'd learned required "smart casual" dress but didn't require a reservation.  As I entered, one of the servers asked “is your wife feeling better?”  After I responded that it would have been a surprise if I arrived without a wife but found one on the ship, the server responded that I had "one of those familiar faces."  This is NOT the first time I've heard that so I smiled and sat down at the table they provided (empty seat across from me).  For dinner, I had a good Caesar salad, red-wine chicken casserole and baked Alaska (capped off with beer).  Meanwhile, the sea state picked up significantly... Finished with dinner (1845), I walked around the ship (attempting to finish my step goal).  Along the way, I enjoying some beautiful orchestral covers of pop songs in The Atrium.  My final stop at the room (1930) gave me time to read up (in my travel books) on the upcoming port visit (Ha Long Bay).  I also watched movies and did some blogging before finally going to bed at 2045.  Today was a very relaxing day but I'm excited about waking up in Vietnam tomorrow!