Tasmania to Tokyo – Hong Kong – Day 52 can be found here.
Today’s Chronicles can be found here.
We decide to tempt fate this morning and show up at La Terrazza after 9 am. It’s every bit as busy as we expected, and yet service is impeccable. I’m guessing that they didn’t have a lot of new staff come on in Hong Kong, and it seems the current crew is coming together nicely.
Interestingly, it appears that they have the ability to open a hidden door between La Terrazza and Silver Note if they need excess capacity. First time I’ve ever seen that happen.
On the subject of firsts, it’s also the first time since Australia that the sea state has been worth remarking upon – we are at a healthy 3 1/2 metres, which means that the view out our balcony looks something like this:
Or for those who prefer video:
It looks worse than it is. We took a round of preventative Bonine (Meclizine) yesterday, and that seems to have staved off any potential ill effects.
We are also pleased to discover that Reception now stocks Meclizine instead of Dramamine, so that should offer a better option for guests as it’s less prone to make you drowsy or interfere with other medications. (Bonine / Meclizine was available only at the Boutique when we were aboard the Silver Wind in 2025.)
Usual routine this morning – reading / writing / homework, followed by lunch at our respective haunts. Then off to SALT Lab for today’s cooking class – beef stir fry on a pineapple bun.
The pineapple bun is so-named for the grid shape marked on top, and not because of any pineapple-based ingredients.
The beef is coated in corn starch and baking soda, and we add in the oyster sauce, soy, sugar and rice wine vinegar. Then mix to coat.
We then stir fry it with the ginger, as well as the remainder of the soy, rice wine vinegar and the oyster sauce. Later, we add the spring onions and garlic and glass noodles.
The end result:
And the recipe:
It’s funny – all these years I’ve been using a store-bought stir fry sauce, when in reality I could have made my own with just a few simple ingredients.
We have to wait a while for the buns to bake – and I then tear into ours without remembering to take any photos. Thankfully some of our fellow passengers are kind enough to let me photograph theirs:
Back up to Dolce Vita for our usual afternoon routine, though this is interrupted by some of the guests putting their bare feet up on the couches so that they can better enjoy their extra-loud political TikToks.
Frequent readers of my missives will know that phone speakers in public is chief among my pettest of peeves – but one of the servers has already attempted to get the genetleman to stand down without success, so I decide to take our gripe to Reception.
But before I ask, my wife is thankfully able to convince him to silence his squawk box. Laura does note that they will be happy to deal with this in the future – which is good to know, because the way it’s phrased in the Chronicles sounds like a request as opposed to a firm and fixed rule.
This is perhaps the clearest indication that we will be ready to leave when the time comes – the minor, meaningless annoyances have grown larger in our minds’ eye to the point where they can damper an afternoon. A bit of absence will help to make our hearts grow fonder for the next time we board a Silversea cruise.
But not today, as it’s time for Bingo with Assistant Cruise Director Nina. We are glad to hear that guests are still expected to make various animal noises when certain numbers come up – “B22, two little ducks!” – or when they get close to covering the board. Better still – our daughter wins one of the rounds.
Time for trivia – we correct identify the material that makes up tofu (soy bean curd) and the four days of the week that start with T (Tuesday, Thursday, today, tomorrow), but learn that Wellington is the second most populated city in New Zealand and that the first credit card was Diner’s Club in the 1950s. The podium remains a distant dream.
Back to SALT Kitchen for dinner. Tonight’s menu:
My son and I start with the kushikatsu feast:
And then I move on to the tonkatsu chicken:
You can say that’s a lot of fried food – and you’d be right. But it’s also delicious.
For dessert, the kids have the matcha mille feuille:
And my wife and I have the white chocolate cheesecake:
Also very, very tasty. Close call as to what’s best, but I think the cheesecake wins by a narrow margin.
And – time for bed. The swell should slacken in the night as we approach Kaohsiung, Taiwan.