Excursions

I just got the 168-page brochure that describes excursions available on my world cruise next year. It is intimidating. I can about wrap my head around riding a really big boat around the world. That makes sense. But this brochure reminds me that, well, we'll actually being Going To Places. And that there are a lot of things to do in each of those places.

168 pages. And very few pictures, mostly just text, and not particularly large print either.

Sometimes the excursions are about what you would expect -- going out for an evening at a Tango Show in Buenos Aires, for instance, will cost me $79 including transportation,  not unreasonable. If I knew how to ride a horse, I could spend $339 for a private polo lesson. And for $39 I could spend half a day "In Evita's Footsteps".

But then there's the six-day tour of China that departs from a port in Indonesia and catches up with the ship again in Hong Kong. It includes the Great Wall, the army of terra cotta men, The Forbidden City in Beijing, the Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 652, and a cruise down the Li River -- "—limestone spires rising above a smooth river at one of China’s most aesthetic destinations. The river is like a green silk belt, and the hills are like turquoise jade hairpins." Cost? A mere $5000, if I can find someone to double up with, which, as it turns out, I can, because I've been in correspondence with a woman in Florida who is also taking the cruise and wants to do that excursion.

Of course, I could just stay on the boat and watch the world arrive one port at a time and depart one port at a time. But how you gonna keep me down on the boat after I've seen this honkin' big excursion brochure? And can I really end up spending as much on excursions as I'm spending on the cruise?

Dang!