SS Malolo

Day 1 - After waving your grand farewells to loved ones, the SS Malolo casts off from her moorings and heads-out through the Golden Gate across the vast Pacific Ocean toward Japan.    

Day 13 - Finally, we arrive in our first port-of-call. Yokohama was laid low by the great earthquake of 1923.  If the weather gods are kind, the glorious cone of Fujiyama will be seen from many miles out at sea.  Commodore Perry's historic anchorage site will be passed just before we enter the harbor.

Day 14 - For exotic splendor and lavish beauty, the tombs of the Shoguns at Nikko are not surpassed anywhere.  It is impossible to describe the beauty of the place!

Day 17 - Tokyo suffered severely in spots from the disaster of 1923, but large areas of the city escaped with little damage. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, having well over two million inhabitants.  It is a place which ranks well with other great capitals of the world. Tokyo is decidedly modern Japan. The Imperial Hotel is one of the most intriguing and artistic buildings of the world. It, as well as all the hotel's furnishings, were designed by Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright of Chicago for the Japanese government.

Day 18 - Kobe is a city of merchants and shipping; a very busy place and one which seems to have felt the influence of western commercialism more than any other city in Japan

Day 19 - Nara, Japan, is a place of genuine antiquity, peace, and loveliness. Founded in 710 AD as Japan's capital, it continued as such until the year 784. Six hundred tame deer roam at will through Nara Park which contains 1,250 acres. the largest of the three gigantic bronze Buddhas is found here. At the clarion of a bugler, the deer rush into an assemblage begging to be hand-fed by visitors. 

Day 25 - Arrive in the harbor at Chinwangtao, China, to catch a special train to Peiping which has been arranged for us by the good people of American Express. Peiping was founded more than 3,000 years ago and it has been the capital of the Chinese most of that period. the population is estimated to be at 1,331,880 composed mostly of Chinese, Mongolians, and Manchus.

Day 30 - Arrive Shanghai, one of the many "Paris of the East". The Bund which skirts the Whangpoo riverfront presents to arriving ships a surprising imitation of a Western metropolis.  Mexican silver dollars are Shanghai's most common tender for any of you who are going shopping. 

Day 34 - Hong Kong has a fascination about it which is as compelling as it is baffling to describe. While it has been a British colony since it was ceded to Great Britain in 1841, the Chinese far outnumber the whites, and the resulting city life grown from the unusual mixture is certainly like no other city in the Orient.

Day 38 - The Philippines were discovered and named by the bold Spaniard Magellan back in 1521, on that famed circumnavigating voyage that stirred the world. Magellan did not complete the voyage for he was killed in the island of Cebu, not far from where he landed. Be mesmerized by the drill exercise by prisoners at Bilibid Prison. 

Day 42 - Twisting, winding, looping, the Saigon River connects that city with the sea.  Saigon is the Administrative Capital of French Indo-China, of which there are five provinces:  Annam, Cambodia, Laos, Tongking, and Indo-China. Saigon is the natural gateway through which one passes into the vast hinter-land of jungle and tribes-folk, which is all that remains of that civilization except smothered ruins. 

Day 45 - The Kingdom of Siam is especially friendly towards the United States. With a population of over three-quarters of a million, the capital and chief port of Siam is situated about 25 miles upstream from the bar in the delta of the Menam River.

Day 47 - Singapore is at the cross-roads of the world.  Nearly everyone who circumnavigates must pass that way.  It is the world's chief rubber and tin shipping centre. Ships of every flag and of every type will be found in its harbor and men of every race can be seen on its streets.

Day 49 - Neptune and his cronies hijack the Malolo searching for virgin travelers who have yet to traverse the Equator. Beware!  This band of misfits will order you to appear before their court where they will be initiated into the mysteries of his Empire. Resistance is futile, as you risk being given as food to the monsters of the deep as a warning to all other land-lubbers entering his domain.

Day 50 - Tandjong Priok is the port for Batavia, Java. Little gets into the newspapers about the Dutch East Indies. Based on square miles, the Netherland Indies are probably the richest colonial empire in the world. Java is like a great garden from end to end except where the volcanic ranges raise their heights into the cloud-stuffed skies.   

Day 57 - Fremantle is the seaport of Perth, itself a short distance up the Swan River, being the capital of the state of West Australia. Fremantle's splendid bathing beaches will catch our eye and the scenery up the river and round about is especially note-worthy.

Day 62 - Melbourne is the finest city on the continent. It prides itself on agricultural and artistic achievement. It was founded less than one hundred years ago; yet is today one of the world's largest cities. No doubt every visitor leaves Melbourne with a totally different idea of Australians than he had when he arrived. 

Day 66 - The fame of Sydney's harbor is known to every mariner. It has no equal, for size and beauty, although Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro run a close rivalry.  Its shoreline is actually hundreds of miles long, her narrow, deep bays are enough for quite large craft to navigate.  The inhabitants of Sydney seem to take life rather more leisurely than we Americans do. Men and women go in for outdoor sports more than any other people we encounter on the cruise.  

Day 72 - "Last, loneliest, loveliest' city of the British Empire as Kipling fondly called it. New Zealand's two long, main islands stretch north and south over an enormous distance. We highly suggest you book early for the tour to Rotorua for a picturesque travel to Whakarewarewa where you will inspect the thermal sights and a Maori model Pa (village).

Day 78 - The Fiji Islands are now under the mandate of Australia. Suva is the principal city and the capital. Nearly 250 islands compose the group, but only 80 are inhabited. About 4,000 Europeans live among the 85,000 native Fijians, and over 60,000 labor-immigrants from India. Fiji possesses perhaps the most healthful tropical climate in the world.

Day 79 - Pago Pago is the name of an American naval base in the island of Tuituila of the Samoan Group.  Nature has made it a natural naval base, for it is a volcano crater in which a break has occurred on one side. The jagged peak of "Rainmaker" dominates the harbor over whose top the ever-changing cloud effects are magnificent. Robert Louis Stevenson died at Apia nearby.

Day 84 - Hilo is the largest city on the largest island of Hawaii. Its sugar export is enormous for the island. Its highest point is Mauna Loa, often reaching into the realm of snow with its base in coral waters.   

Day 85 - Most visitors are surprised to find the streets and business section of this city not unlike Los Angeles or Santa Barbara. It is practically an American town. Take note of Diamond Head Crater near Waikiki Beach as we near our arrival into port.  It is probably the most beautiful beach in the world, behind which rises the Punch Bowl, another extinct crater. Our time here will pass all too quickly and we shall no doubt leave with regrets. 

Day 90 - We finally arrive home after three months at sea, calling on nineteen ports in fourteen countries.  No doubt, you have made many friendships, not only on board, but also from foreign lands. We hope you have enjoyed your journey.