Another early flight and this time to Hobart Tasmania. I'm heading south to board the Diamond Princess for a quick cruise up to Sydney. Very nice to leave on Monday and be home in Newcastle by Friday!

One of the best parts of the jobs is bumping into friends along the way. Working on ships means you end up having great friends in far away places who would other wise be very difficult to see unless on holiday etc. I recently bumped into a mate who I worked with on Disney Cruise Line all the way back in 2012 during my first weeks of cruising life. Another catch up in New Zealand with a good friend and amazing artist Rachel Walker (www.walkerillo.com check it out!). Whilst onboard my first Regent Seven Seas cruise I bumped into a previous student of mine from a London Performing arts college!

Fingers crossed for more catch ups and hang outs along the way on the next series of cruises and travel! For now it's time to catch up on sleep after this ungodly hour departure to Hobart! Goodnight haha!!

I'm sitting at the Crown Plaza Danang... That might seem like a strange place to go whe in an amazing new city. However the Crown Plaza sits right on the beach, has free wifi, a great spa, great food and more pools than I've ever seen before!

The hotel is huge and has everything you could want. I'm onboard the Azamara Quest at the moment and we have an overnight here in Danang. Only a couple more nights left for me onboard before I head off to Numea to find the Voyager of the Seas for a very short 2 night cruise, I don't think I'll even unpack! Vietnam is amazing, and I still can't get over how cheap everything is. Sam and I sat all day at a bar using wifi, eating and drinking for hours and hours...the total bill? $16US... Unbelievable. My show is tomorrow night onboard and im looking forward to playing again with the Quest orchestra.

Just a short blog from me today, almost time to head back to the ship for a little afternoon nap and recharge before seeing a show onboard tonight and exploring more of Danang tomorrow!

Bye for now...Ash.

I'm currently in Singapore waiting to board the Azamara Quest. I've treated myself and girlfriend Samantha to a night at te Marina Bay Sands hotel. I couldn't come to Singapore and not jump in that amazing pool!

We board the Azamara Quest today which will take us from Singapore to Borneo first for Christmas Day spent with Orangutangs and then onwards to Brunei,The Phillipines, Vietnam, China and finally finishing in Hong Kong. Weather here in Singapore has been cloudy but hot. Great weather for relaxing on the roof of this amazing hotel. The Azamara Quest is a smaller ship comparatively to some I've been on lately. It holds about 600 passengers so everything is scaled down, but from all I've heard from people who have cruised before, it is amazing! A smaller ship means we can get into ports that the larger ones can't, so we'll find ourselves closer to the action!

Prior to Singapore I was performing on the Celebrity Millennium in Vietnam and enroute to Hong Kong.

Vietnam, in particular HaLong Bay was incredible. It was my first time there and I was blown away by it. Amazing scenery, friendly locals and loads to see and do. We took a little lunch cruise through HaLong Bay that took us around the bay and eventually to an Island where we trekked into a hidden cave there. The cave was enormous and photos can't do it justice...but here's a couple!

Once we left Vietnam we set sail to Hong Kong for an overnight before Samantha and I flew to Singapore. In Hong Kong I went to my favourite (and also the world's biggest) music store, Tom Lee. It's was totally worth the long walk to find it, they had everything...

After the music store we had some delicious dim sum and headed back to the ship in a food coma from lunch.

For now that's it from me. More blogs and photos to come on this next three week adventure throughout Asia performing onboard the Azamara Quest. Merry Xmas to everyone and a happy New Year! See you in 2025!!

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Ash.

Fiji Time!

I'm at Sydney Airport with my girlfriend Samantha getting ready to head to Fiji to board the Celebrity Century. I've just come from the Celebrity Millennium cruise in Asia and had an amazing time. My job is performing shows onboard cruise ships, generally for up to one or two weeks. It's a lot of travel but the reward is seeing so many different places, cruise ships, airports haha and of course all the people you meet along the way.

Before I boarded the Celebrity Millenium I had a day in Bangkok and made the most of it with a couple of good friends from the Disney Fantasy cruise ship. We wandered the whole day around Bangkok, very hot but still not too bad walking around.

Here's a few photos from the trip! Time to head to the gate to meet this Fiji Airways flight to Suva!! FIJI TIME!!

Myself, Sarah and Evan Peltier the crew for one night in Bangkok...

Coming in to land at Bangkok

And a video of me eating noodles the wrong way...