April 23, A Day of Sun and Culture

Today is another day at sea. We are headed to Tahiti, and we will land tomorrow at Pape’ete, Tahiti. Today, Doug took advantage of the time that we had at sea without any commitments, to rest and continue to recover from his upper respiratory problem. We took a walk and went to the gym this morning to shake some of the cobwebs loose from our systems. After the gym, we lounged by the pool deck for a while; Patrise actually tested the water, I did not.

(Patrise on the pool deck, reading a book before stepping into the pool.)

(The sea is very calm today, the sun is out, and the temperature is beginning to to climb.)

Patrise enjoyed sitting in Trivia events throughout the day, while I mostly stayed in the room. We had lunch and dinner together and spent a lot of time reading and talking, until mid-afternoon. At 2:30, we went to the Royal Theater to see the crew’s culture show. For this cruise, the crew members from countries with the most representatives put together a show consisting of dances from their respective countries, or which conveyed popular stories or myths from their countries. The three countries that were presented were Indonesia, China, and the Philippines. Here are some photos from their respective dances.

(Awaiting the start of the Crew's Culture Show. Seated in the Royal Theater.)

(Ship's Cruise Director, "Steve from Canada". That's how he always introduces himself. He explains how the show was created.)

(A crew member from the Philippines served as the MC.)

The Indonesian dance told an origin myth about the forces of good and evil separating two lovers.

(Indonesian crew members begin their dance)

(Indonesian crew members are chanting, while in the background [upper left of photo] a crew member calls out the story. What he says is all in an Indonesian dialect, so we did not understand the details of the story. It was fascinating to watch nonetheless.)

(Indonesian crew members dance)

(Indonesian crew members dance)

(Indonesian crew members dance)

The Chinese dance also allegedly told an ancient story of two lovers, but Patrise and I thought the dance moves and the music were Chinese hip hop.

(Opening of the Chinese dance)

(Chinese dance had a lot of moves akin to modern hip hop styles, including some twerking [not seen here obviously.])

(Closing of Chinese dance)

The Filippino dancers presented two cultural dances, the second one being a popular stick dance. It reminded me of when I was young and you would see young girls skip ropes, especially double Dutch. I get the feeling that skipping rope in the U.S. has become a lost art. The first Filippino dance was done to a 3/4 rhythm and resembled a collective waltz in some ways.

(Philippino first dance)

(Philippino first dance)

(Philippino first dance)

(Philippino first dance)

(Philippino second dance, the stick dance, is a national favorite.)

(More photos of the Philippino second dance.)

(Philippino second dance, the stick dance, is a national favorite and was also the crowd's favorite dance of the whole show.)

We have gotten into the habit of visiting the Concierge Lounge each day around 4:30 for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Since we are the only people of color visiting this lounge, the staff knows us well and they look forward to seeing us every day.

We enjoyed dinner at Le Grande for a change and called it quits for the day.

We went to bed dreaming about Tahiti!