Day 53 – March 9 - At Sea on the way to Manila, Philippines

As expected, it was announced that we would not be going to Sandakan, Malaysia and instead proceeding directly to Manila.  We will arrive in Manila a day early and stay there overnight.  While some of the passengers were very disappointed, Jan and Fred were actually glad.  We will get to see some of the city of Manila as well as visit Corregidor.

Duplicate bridge was not a happy game as Jan made several stupid mistakes!  Ann is hanging in with her though.

I missed this paragraph when uploading - so editing to add.

Tonight the Balinese crew presented "The Kecak Dance", a mythological story from the Balinese culture.  They had great costumes that apparently had been brought aboard at Bali.  They altered the story a bit with some English asides during part of the story so to have a little fun at our expense!   What a talented group and a special treat for us.

We had dinner at Signatures with a couple we met at one of the LCT gatherings, Nancy and Bob.  He and Fred are opposite in politics but enjoy talking with each other and are very civilized about it.  Nancy and Jan enjoyed their conversation as well.  The food was very good tonight and we decided to make it a foursome for another dinner before they leave in Beijing.