Some Final Thoughts

We are home from our big adventure. Laundry is in process and the rest of the stuff is getting put away. My Roomba robot is vacuuming up 4 months of dust on the floors. The fridge is empty and the cupboards pretty slim so Jim was ready to head to King Soopers and … the car battery is dead.

Good heavens, no one brought our breakfast to the room this morning or made the bed. Speaking of the bed – oh, it felt good to sleep in our own bed. The bed on the ship was really bad and the pillows were feather which neither of us cares for. We asked for a different kind of pillow but our steward said he was all out of them.

Although we are dealing with our usual jet lag and I’m not sure I’m completely coherent, here are some of my basic thoughts about the cruise and the ship.
· It was a great value – a wonderful experience for the price paid. This cruise on Princess was considerably less cost than similar ones on Holland America or Cunard.
· We survived the regular size balcony cabin. Again, I have to look at the value – there was no way we could ever have afforded to do a World Cruise in a full suite so it worked just fine for us. We put the balcony to good use
· I love the small ship. It truly felt like home within a few days and only took a minute or so to get from one place to another. The downfall was that there was only one real show lounge where they had to do all the big lectures, movies and presentations as well as work in rehearsals for the cast.
· We were incredibly lucky with our weather. We had some really rough days at sea but they were all in the early part of the trip where there were many sea days. It was 70 degrees when we did our overland tour to Beijing; the week before when the Tahitian Princess was there it was snowing.
· Our cabin steward kept our cabin clean but his attitude was awful. It did improve towards the end of the cruise. Our laundry would come back a day or two late… just generally poor service. Basically he acted like he hated his job. Here is an email I received from a person reading this blog (I’ve removed their names and cabin number): My wife & I sailed with you on the same voyage between Sydney and Hong Kong. Our cabin was on the same deck (Cabin 60XX) - and our steward was Allan from the Philippines. I believe you had the same steward and consequently, I was interested to read your comments.
Our experience was very similar. Initially, Allan was really surly and almost rude although admittedly, he had occasional good days. He also failed to deliver order forms for Elite canapés on formal nights and on several occasions, he "forgot" to collect our clothing from the laundry.
We were so annoyed that we did consider whether to opt out from paying gratuities via our cabin account. We did not opt out, because Allan did keep the cabin clean and tidy - and opting out would have affected other members of the crew (including the excellent waiters in the restaurant and buffet). Furthermore, I suspect that Princess have cut back on staffing levels, because cabin stewards seem to look after more cabins than a few years ago. However, we did not give any extra gratuity to Allan, who was conspicuous by his absence, when we vacated our cabin at Hong Kong. I am sure he knew our feelings.
· These small ships have no special area or planned activities for children (unless there are more than 25 onboard). There were 3 kids onboard for the entire cruise. Except for the first couple days when I’m sure they were feeling a bit lost, they were well behaved and seemed to settle in perfectly. I bet they are glad to be getting home to their friends now.
· The special “Overland trips” were first class. The hotels were 5 star and all the guides, destinations and food were exceptional.
· Other than the gift of an etched crystal globe commemorating the cruise, nothing was done for the full World Cruise passengers to make them feel special. No special cocktail parties, lunches, dinners, etc. It was pretty much business as usual onboard. This was the most common derogatory remark heard over and over at the end of the cruise. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of the passengers; Princess needs to do better in making this experience feel special.
· I found that a number of the passengers who were on the cruise had survived a serious illness or had been diagnosed with one. I received a similar comment from a friend (and client) that was just on the Holland America South America/ Antarctic Grand Voyage. He said “Wish we had done this cruise 10 years ago -- you have to be fit to see many of the places and to really see & enjoy them. My wife did better than I hoped for, but still missed some good tours.”
· Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! I loved it.

Twenty years from now you will be more
disappointed by the things that you didn’t do
than by the ones that you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream.
Discover.

Mark Twain

The Fat Lady Sang

Oh my god..... it's 5:00 on May 8. The cruise is over. Heading to the airport very soon. Will post more later.

Cannes, France

It is one week prior to the Cannes Film Festival and several mega-yachts have already arrived; we can see them at two of the marinas from where we are anchored. 107 days at sea and this is only our second tender port - you can’t get much luckier than that. Our tenders carry about 100 people comfortably so the ship empties with very little waiting.

We waited until about 10:30 and headed in - a tender ride of about 15 minutes. This put us only a long block from downtown. As this is the center of the French Riviera the beaches stretch in both directions as do the hotels. We walked up the hill to the Muse¢ e de la Castra; a 12th century watchtower and castle ruins. We then walked back down into town and went down the oldest street. Very narrow and lined on both sides with cafes and shops. All of the buildings off the main street (facing the harbor) are very picturesque and everywhere you go there seem to be two types of people - the very rich and then the tourists. We stopped at a couple places and read the menus thinking about having lunch but there is something about spending over $100 Euros for lunch that just doesn’t hit me too well. So we stopped at one and had a drink and then continued on our way. After about 4 hours of walking around we headed back to the ship and had lunch in the buffet just before it closed.

It is only about an hour from here to either Nice or Monte Carlo by train so many of the passengers were heading off to one of them. Cannes is very pretty - built up into the hills that surround the port. It’s easy to see how it became the playground of the rich and famous but I prefer the cities that have some historically significant buildings or ruins to visit or those with more exotic cultures.

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe. We have been here a number of times and have toured, taxied, hopped-on/-off and wandered through many parts of the city. I love the Gaudi houses and apartment buildings, the Sagrada Familia (cathedral) and his Parc Guell. Since I made those the primary stops on other visits, this time we just took the ship shuttle to the Christopher Columbus monument at the bottom of Las Ramblas and walked that area.

Las Ramblas is a pedestrian area lined with shops, restaurants, bars and hotels. It is “the” place to go for tapas and people watching. I didn’t do much picture-taking as it is mostly strolling people (tourists and locals) until we went into the market. As many of you know, I love shooting the stacks of beautiful fruits and vegetables and the fish and meat stalls. Somehow King Soopers just doesn’t have the same atmosphere! I’ve put a few pictures below - you just don’t find this at our local grocery stores and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen pig’s noses for sale anywhere before.
We finally stopped and sat in one of the cafés; I had an ice cream and Jim had a beer and we did about an hour of people watching and then headed slowly back to the shuttle stop and back to the ship.

The final voting for the photo contest was held… Jim took second over all and I didn’t get anything. What’s up with that?? My ego is shattered.

The onboard atmosphere is changing a bit… it’s rather quieter as people realize that the trip is almost over. I’m dreading the packing and the whole disembarkation stuff, but at least we are going home in business so it should be comfortable.

Messina, Italy

We woke up early enough to watch as we came into the harbor on Sicily. Jim spotted Mt. Etna through the clouds… I think I saw it, but then without my contacts it could have just been another cloud. The harbor has a tall column with a golden Madonna at the top that blesses all that enter the port - quite a lovely site with the sun shining on her. After about a 30 minute delay because a ferry was still in our berth we made it into port.

We had nothing planned here because the trip to Taormina didn’t seem worth it with 3 hours of bus ride and one hour to see the town. Also it is a Sunday so most of the local businesses and stores are closed except the souvenir shops which you can always find in any tourist destination.
We headed into town about 10:30 to see the clock tower at noon when all the mechanical scenes start working. Huge crowd by 11:45... Then again, there isn’t much else to see in Messina. Finally the clock struck 12 noon and then the Lion roared, the cock crowed and the religious scenes started moving.

I’m sure this would be a delightful area on any day other than Sunday because there were many local shops, restaurants and bars but only a couple were open so they were packed with waiting lines. It made a nice relaxing day with beautiful weather and nothing really pressing to do. We got back to the ship about 2:00 and had a buffet lunch and then settled down to read until sail away at 4:30.

Our cruise is coming to an end soon and I have mixed feelings; one part of me is ready to go home, and the other just wants to stay on the ship. More thoughts on this later.

Special post for Laurie

This is a special post for my sister Laurie. I just found out that you are reading this. I hope all is well and we will see you soon.

Here is a special picture for you... I wasn't going to post it because it looks silly without Jim in the picture, but he had to move to the front of the gondola to take the picture.

Venice

Good heavens why haven’t I been to Venice before this? It was absolutely magnificent. It is everything I’ve seen in pictures… and more. There was only one drawback to the day; it was May 1st which is a holiday in Italy and most of Europe so Venice was packed with people and some museums, shops and things were closed. None of that affected our day other than we chose not to go to St. Mark’s Square which was wall-to-wall people.

Our small ship was able to go through the waterway to the cruise port so we were able to see much of the skyline and buildings early in the morning and again in the evening as we left the port. What a sight!

We boarded the shuttle boat at about 9:30 without any wait - the short ride was about 15 minutes and it dropped us off fairly near St. Mark’s Square. We started off in that direction, but as the crowds grew heavier and heavier I decided not to deal with them and we headed off in the opposite direction. For us it was the perfect choice. We wandered along the sidewalks and along the canals crossing the bridges and taking whatever turns we wanted. Every block brought new wonders; I couldn’t stop taking pictures. We saw houses, shops, cafes - all the parts of real life in Venice rather than the stalls selling stuff for tourists.

At about noon we happened upon a couple gondoliers who ask if we wanted a ride. Why not, it is something I wanted to do anyway. Even though they are only used for tourists these days I just had to do it. Not cheap… but worth it. We had about a 40 minute ride through the small canals. Our guide pointed out several buildings and told us about them; Casanova’s house, several Doges houses, Marco Polo’s house. Now whether or not they are all true I don’t know… but it was a great time.

At about 2:00 we came out from between the buildings and realized we were back at the sea. Except it didn’t seem quite right. After studying our little map for quite a while we realized we were all the way across the island. We headed back in the direction we needed to go and eventually reached the place to catch the shuttle back to the ship.

I have heard all the stories: Venice is sinking - it looked fine to me. It stinks… I didn’t smell anything bad at all. It wasn’t even musty smelling. The buildings are falling into ruin… it seems to me they are doing everything possible to restore and save them. Many are 600 years old. I can’t imagine how they have stood for this many years in the water without crumbling away.
I’m tired and sore but what a day it was. This is now my number one “have to go back to” city. I need several days here with no time constraints (and no holiday). It’s quite expensive, but I’ll figure a way to do it.

The picture below gives you an idea of how crowded San Marco was.

Athens, Greece

Note from Sue: Since I have visited this area before I asked Jim to write this one so you get his impressions.
Arriving in Piraeus, the port city near Athens, we were planning on meeting our friend, Joyce. However a few days ago, through e-mail, she said she had received an appointment at the embassy for the same day we were going to be there. To change the date of the appointment could be very difficult and it could take several hours. We all decided getting together at a later date , whether Greece or Colorado, would be the thing to do. Since we have been to most of the historic sites in Athens we decided to go to the Plaka, which is a shopping area but it is in the old part of the city, just below the Acropolis. Outside the port terminal it seems all of the taxi drivers speak English and all are competing for your business. The prices quoted were all the same so we picked one and we’re off to the Plaka.

The temperature is rising and the sky is clearing; it is turning into a beautiful day. Time for some real coffee. We find an outdoor café and have coffee which comes with two small sweet rolls, very good. Near this café are some ruins that we could not identify but are great for some photos. For the next couple of hours we just roam this area, very narrow streets - up stairs - at the base of the Acropolis - down stairs - dead ends - looking in some of the shops - and taking lots of pictures. There are many ancient ruins throughout this area just mixed in with the newer buildings. Sue finds a fur shop. This may take a while. I am offered a chair and she heads up to the second floor with a sales lady. The owner of the shop comes to sit with me. He speaks very good English and soon asks if I smoke. When he hears I do smoke he is very happy and we light up. He is very happy, saying no Americans smoke anymore and explaining that since he enjoys smoking, he enjoys being with people who smoke; he says we should have a drink. Out comes a plastic bottle of homemade Raki from his uncle. After about 20 minutes of chatting, smoking and drinking, Sue comes down with a coat so she has a drink too! A deal is made and after more hugs and air kisses we depart.

Heading away from the Acropolis soon we lose our bearings and are lost, but still taking lots of pictures, especially when we find the meat and fish market. After a bit see some taxis. None of the drivers speak any English and we do not speak any Greek and since we have gone through this before (barely getting to our destination) we decided to look for the Metro. Half a block away is a Metro station. Having used the Metro the last time we were in Athens and luckily not having to change trains, we made it back to the port easily and for much less cost than the taxi.

Istanbul

We had an interesting arrival in Istanbul. We were watching out our balcony door and on the TV (bow camera) as we entered the port. We were on the great side of the ship and could see the Blue Mosque, St. Sophia, Topkapi Palace and many other interesting buildings through the morning fog. As we got closer to the pier I thought it looked like we should be turning more to come up alongside the dock (but then what do I know??) Suddenly the Captain came over the speakers “All Personnel, BRACE, BRACE, BRACE”. He had the propellers in full reverse and the bow thruster going… the engines were really roaring and the ship was bouncing and shaking. He got it stopped with only feet to spare! A really great save. He came on the speaker again in a little while and said we had gotten caught in an unpredicted current. All’s well than ends well.

This is one of the ports we have been really looking forward to; we met our friend Kagan who was our guide for 4 days a year and half ago. I had told him we were looking forward to some Turkish coffee so that was our first stop. Then we met his whole family for brunch at a restaurant overlooking the water on the Asian side of the city where they live. We had met Lala, his wife, for only 5 minutes on our previous trip and it was really fun to finally meet his two daughters. We also met her sister- and brother-in-law (Lala’s sister). Sadly we didn’t know about this in advance so we had already eaten breakfast and couldn’t begin to even taste all the wonderful looking foods on the buffet.

After brunch we headed to a shopping mall; no, I haven’t suddenly become a shopper but I wanted to get a special lens for my new camera. But… we couldn’t find a store that carried Sony lenses. We drove through many of the modern neighborhoods - the Asian side is mostly residential. Very lovely homes. Then we headed back across the bridge to the Europe side. We visited a very small church that we hadn’t been to before and took many pictures. Then we wandered down the main shopping street on our way to visit the watch tower. I got my box of Turkish Delight and Jim got the little coffee pot for brewing Turkish coffee. These are all modern shops with very few touristy things, but they are in historic buildings and it is a pedestrian only area so it was a nice walk. At the watch tower the line for the entrance was quite long so I decided that I didn’t want to wait… we would put it on our list for the next visit.
This is a city that is very high on my come back list - maybe even number 1 on the list. It is just fascinating and I want to have a chance to wander around the streets of the old city with no time constraints.

As I think Kagan is the best guide I’ve ever had anywhere I am particularly happy to hear that his business in really doing well. He has expanded and now has a few guides that work for him and owns his own transportation vans of several sizes. This is probably the only city in Europe right now that isn’t impacted by the economy… the prices are still fairly low so it is getting all the business!

Ashdod, Israel

I had expected our tour here to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be one of the highlights of the trip. When we left in January this port was still questionable with the attacks from Gaza but as things have settled down we were able to make the port.

This has to be the most miserable shore excursion I’ve ever been on…most people I talked to agreed. For the second time we were on the bus with the screaming toddler and to add to that the mother lost her at one of the churches. Our guide was extremely poor; we had radios and earpieces so we could hear his explanations without him having to shout. Mostly he forgot to raise his microphone to his mouth when he was talking so we didn’t hear much… except one time when he was shouting “we must find the baby, we must find the baby”. He wouldn’t hold our group sign in the air so we could find him; since he was fairly short this was a real problem as everywhere we went was absolutely packed wall-to-wall with people. Occasionally, we would hear things like “ok, we are moving on, follow me” Except no one could see him to follow him. I don’t think I got any useable photos the entire day with everything so filled with people. Ok, I’ve bitched, now a little about what we saw…. Or tried to see.

From the port we traveled about an hour through the countryside and mountains. It was quite beautiful, green with farmlands throughout. As we got closer to Jerusalem we began to see more and more houses; all fairly new and much like those you find in the U.S. The houses became much more dense and then it turned into a big city with everything you would expect - big apartment complexes, businesses, government buildings and schools and universities.
Our first stop was at the Mount of Olives overlook where we could see the Old City - this is where we were headed. Then we stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was very small and had the ancient olive trees surrounded by flowers. Next to the garden was the Church of all Nations. Back to the bus for a short ride and then we were at the Western or Wailing Wall. Men and women had to enter the area in front of the wall via different portals. This is where you write your prayer on a slip of paper and put it into the wall. From here we entered the old city using the Jaffe gate; an arched tunnel. We then walked part of the Via Dolorosa passing three of the Stations of the Cross (V, VI, and VII). All along the way the sides of the walkway were lined with shops and vendors. It probably would have been fun to browse here a bit, but there was no time as we all had to continually make our way through the hoards of people. This walk was all up hill with many steps; at the top, most people were moving quite slowly. At the end of our walk was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is believed to be the site of Christ’s crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection. This church is shared by many different religions and denominations. There were a number of very steep stone steps that were difficult for many of the people in the group. It was impossible to get anywhere near the actual holy sites, but our guide did allow 10 minutes for anyone wanting to pray. Then we retraced our steps through all the shops (downhill this time) back to the bus for the short ride to lunch.

Lunch was a buffet in a very nice 5star hotel (neither of us can remember the name). It was a bit rushed as they were feeding all 12 bus-loads of us. Luckily for us our bus was one of the first ones which gave us a good head start on the food and for the restrooms. The women’s room had three stalls… let’s see, each bus had about 38 people - probably at least half of them women; times 12 buses… it was still a very long line when we were leaving.

After that we headed to Bethlehem. At the Palestine border our guide had to get off the bus as he isn’t allowed across the border. We went through 2 checkpoints and then another guide boarded the bus for our tour of the Church of the Nativity. This part of the trip was actually quite nice; there weren’t nearly the numbers of people. There was a service going on as we entered the church which made it even more interesting and all the lights were on… I may have gotten a couple good shots here. We went down steps in an area under the alter; a silver star in marble marks the place where it is believed Christ was born. Although this is a very small area and there were quite a few people, we were able to see this.

Back on the bus… then a 40 minute stop at a typical tourist trap for shopping. Finally, people finished buying their stuff and we headed back to the border… through 2 checkpoints again and our original guide got back on and we returned to the port.

Port Said, Egypt

Many of the people on the ship went to Cairo to see the pyramids and sphinx; about 10 bus-loads. Their tour meeting time was 5:30 am. Since we have already visited them, we got to relax and have our regular room service breakfast. At about 10:30 we decided to head out and see a bit of the city.

We walked around for about an hour looking in shop windows and past a beautiful mosque before returning to the port. Back at the port we hired one of the horse and carriages for an hour tour - we should have done that to start. It really is just a city, but our driver, Muhammad, did a good job telling us about most of the major buildings… his English was broken, but we got most of it. The area I liked best was in the oldest part of the city where all the streets were a giant bazaar. It was just the type market that I love to visit, but no vehicles were allowed in that area and we decided not to take a taxi back from the port.

Here is a picture of the Star Clipper sailing ship that we followed through the Suez Canal.

Suez Canal

Our day in the Suez Canal actually started at about 1:00 in the morning when we were awakened by the sound of the anchor being dropped. We were at our place to wait for the morning transit. Jim got up about 5:00, but I went back to sleep - at 6 he called me and said we were starting to move toward the canal.

The southern entrance to the canal is the city of Suez. The city was really big - it seemed to stretch for several miles after we started through the canal. There were industrial areas, apartment buildings, houses, mosques… just about anything you could think of. The canal doesn’t have locks like the Panama Canal; it is just a canal that links the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. It was built in the early 1900’s. We were lucky to be on the port side of the ship as I thought there was much more interesting scenery on that side. Our side was green and had villages, farms and houses; the other side was desert.

All along the canal were guard posts with armed soldiers in towers and fortifications on the ground. We could see a highway not far from the canal that had the same guard posts. We must have passed at least 25 of these in the 100 (or so) miles of the canal. The soldiers were all friendly and waved and whistled at the ship as we passed. We followed one of the Star Clippers four-masted ships all the way… it’s too bad her sails were not up. It was fascinating seeing the way people actually live and the many little boats they were using for fishing or just local transportation in the canal. One of the unique things we have only seen in Egypt are the pigeon houses; they look like giant bee hives. They breed the pigeons to eat.

We arrived in Port Said about 4:30 in the afternoon and docked right behind Star Clipper. It was funny watching all the vendors scrambling to get their stalls set up as we were about an hour early. More about Port Said in the next segment!

Safaga, Egypt

Our tour started at 6:30 in the morning; it is a 3 ½ bus ride to Luxor.Not many options at this port… you either went on the 4 day overland or the 15 hour tour to Luxor or stayed on the ship. Since we have already been to the Pyramids and Cairo we didn’t do the overland.

Right after we went through the small city of Safaga, we were into the mountains; big, dry desert mountains with no vegetation and few signs of life - but the highway was good. We wound around through the mountains for about a two hours and then were into the valley. Slowly it turned from desert to the green Nile valley. Once the farmlands started, it was beautiful and extremely interesting. The farmers still use donkeys and work the fields by hand; great photos!
Luxor is a huge modern city and our first stop was at the ancient ruins of Karnak Temple. So much to see and only an hour to see it, but in the 102 degree heat 1 hour turned out to be just fine! Huge columns (134 of them) and statues… all the stuff I love. The ram-headed sphinxes were wonderful. After Karnak we had lunch at the Sonesta St. George. It was a very nice buffet lunch overlooking the hotel pool with the Nile in the distance. All along the Nile in this area were the huge Nile River cruise boats - wow, they look really nice, but there were so many of them I’m wondering if the river doesn’t look a bit like the freeway at rush hour.

After lunch we went to the Valley of the Kings. This is where the Pharaohs decided to be buried after the pyramids… people kept digging into the pyramids and stealing the treasures - just digging hidden tombs into the mountains seemed a better idea. It must have worked as they have only discovered 67 tombs so far. Our entrance ticket allowed us to visit any two tombs except for Tut’s tomb. Luckily they had a little tram that took you up the hill from the entrance. Our guide told us about 4 of the tombs and then we had our hour. We chose one easy one and one a bit more difficult. They only allow 10 minutes inside the tombs and they really keep the lines of people moving - aaack, no pictures allowed! The original paint colors are still brilliant - it was amazing. Apparently one guy (not on our tour) took a picture with his cellphone and they immediately took it away from him. As we exited the tomb, he was still there arguing with the guards to get it back.

Next we went to the Temple of Luxor. That was my favorite of all the stops on this trip. More columns and statues. There was a row of human headed sphinxes. More rooms many areas where the original paint colors could still be seen.

We also had quick photo stops at the Collosi of Memnon and Queen Hatshepsut’s Tomb and then it was time to start the long drive back to the ship. The Sonesta had provided boxed snacks for our dinner. It was 10:00 when we finally got back to the ship and probably close to 11 before we got through security and back to our cabin. We had a couple cocktails on the balcony and watched as we sailed away from port. Then I hit the bed and slept like the dead until 7:00 in the morning.

I would like to spend a week at Luxor sometime in the coolest month and really take some time to see the area… then do a Nile river cruise on one of the luxury cruise boats.

At Sea

Today is April 18 and we are well over half way through the Red Sea. Yesterday we were talking with a fellow passenger when the subject of “Pirates” came up. She thought that half of the passengers were relieved and half were disappointed. We were in the half that were disappointed, not to the extreme of being hijacked and taken to Somalia, of course, but just for the unusual type of adventure some encounter may have provided and the possibility of some great photos! Speaking of photos, we were on our balcony just as we were leaving the Gulf of Aden and a Canadian military helicopter flew over the ship and then right down our port side. Our cameras were through the closed balcony door and at the other end of the cabin - no photos - we waved to the man in the open door of the helicopter and he waved back.

Heading almost due north now, the temperature is getting cooler, which is half relief and half disappointment. Tomorrow morning we will be docking in Safaga Egypt at 6:00 a.m. The forecast temperature there is 86 degrees. It will be a long day as our trip to The Valley of the Kings is scheduled for 15 hours.

That’s all for now as we need to get things ready for tomorrow - it will be an alarm clock morning.

Note from Sue: I've been having some pain problems for the last couple days and finally asked Jim to get the computer out and type this one.

Gulf of Aden

Nothing to report except a lovely day at sea. We saw many ships in the eastbound shipping lane. There is a pretty large distance between the east and west bound lanes so they are pretty far off on the horizon. We only saw one military ship and it was in the eastbound lane. I had to use my really long lens to get this picture. (you can see a tanker in the background - the military ship was passing it)

Salalah, Oman and entering the Gulf of Aden

lI don’t have much to report on Salalah as we decided not to find a car and guide to explore. It was about 97 degrees and 50% humidity… I thought it was a good place to stay in the cool ship. Different people gave different impressions of the port - some said nothing to see except Jobs Tomb which was interesting. Others that hired private cars had a great day seeing the tomb, many beautiful beaches, the city and then a ride up into the mountains overlooking the sea. They said they saw about 100 camels along the roads. Hmmm, I probably missed some good photo ops. We stayed in port until 10:00pm as the Captain had been given the location that the ship should be at at10:00 this morning. In order to maintain a fast speed and be at the right place at the right time… he delayed our departure.

This morning we are entering the Gulf of Aden. (It is 8:00 am as I write this) The Royal Navy has directed us to a certain location where we will apparently be part of a convoy of ships through the gulf. Right now there is nothing to report except that there are crew standing watch on all open decks and the bridge wings. The sonic device is mounted on the wing and we did see (and hear) them test it a couple days ago… although they just did a split second chirp with it - it was really a loud piercing tone.

Tahitian Princess went through this area 6 days ago with similar procedures and my friend emailed me that there was nothing exciting. They rarely even saw any other ships, even those that were supposed to be in the convoy. She said they did see a couple military ships, but they did not have an escort.

I’m sure the events of the last couple days have those in charge watching everything carefully. We are turning the TV to CNN or Fox quite often to get updates.

I’ll add reports if there is anything of interest!

At Sea & Happy Birthday to me

We are in the Arabian Gulf heading toward Salalah, Oman. The heightened security and watches are already in effect for the piracy threat although the area in which most of the attacks took place isn’t until after Salalah. They are utilizing all of the crew to stand watch in four hour blocks on all open decks and also on the bridge wings.

Our ‘Anti Piracy’ exercise was this morning; a five second blast on the bells and whistle and then the announcement Code Papa Code Papa. All passengers had to return to their cabins and stand in the open doorway until they were marked off by crewmembers and then remain in the cabins for further instructions. All of the crew also participated in their various assigned special duties. The entire drill was completed in less than a half hour and everyone went back to their regular activities. We have all been following the stories on CNN of the American Captain that was held by the pirates and were much relieved to see that he was finally rescued. Captain Kent, in some of his announcements, has mentioned different things about the piracy issue; my favorite comment was that these guys are not like Johnny Depp.

Happy Birthday to me! I made it another year so I guess I’ll go for another one. After the world cruise what can I do that is bigger and better??

We finally have some waves today - not rough or even moderate seas, but at least it feels like we are at sea. The whole last segment was so smooth we could have been on land except that we went 6400 miles. We have gone about 26,000 nautical miles since we left Fort Lauderdale.

Dubai, UAE

Money, Money, Money. That pretty well sums up Dubai. It is really something to see - an architect’s dream world. Twenty percent of all the tower cranes in the world are in the UAE with the most in Dubai. It has 47 shopping malls with the two biggest in the world; one includes the indoor ski hill. Our guide said that is all there is to do for the rich Arabs and others that live there. They live in their huge palaces and mansions and go shopping during the day. I think I saw more Rolls Royces, Bugates, Bentleys and any other exotic and luxury cars than anywhere.

Our tour started with Tea at the Burj Al Arab Hotel. That is the huge hotel shaped like a sail that has come to be the symbol of Dubai. We were able to take pictures throughout the parts of the hotel that we saw. Sadly I didn’t get to see any rooms; I had thought the Tea would be the last stop of the tour and I had taken my travel agent IATAN certification card hoping that I could get a tour… no such luck. Anyway, it is pretty spectacular; the cheapest small suite goes for about $2000 a night (as our guided said “without breakfast!”). There was a row of white Rolls’ parked outside to cater to the guests needs… no doubt, shopping. Tea was just tea… finger sandwiches, scones and sweets. I did love every drop of the two cups of coffee (remember, I’ve been drinking ship coffee for over two months). If you were to book this tea on your own it costs about $150 a person… not even the little paper thin piece of gold on my sweet would make it worth that, but as part of the tour it was quite an experience. We were under a dress code for this tour, long pants, no jeans and covered shoulders, no t-shirts- ok that’s fine, everyone dressed accordingly. But, obviously if you can afford to stay there no code applies; there were many very skimpily dressed women and men in shorts that were obviously guests in the hotel.

The other part of the tour was a boat ride that we thought would take us out through the islands of “The World”… nope, we cruised along and just as we could start to see those manmade islands starting to show above the waves we turned around and started back. Why would we want just a boat ride when we have all been onboard a ship for this length of time??? Everyone was a bit put out.

The best part of the tour was just driving around through the city and looking at the buildings. They are spectacular. Our driver got us to one location quite close to the tallest building in the world for photos… it took me three shots to get it all in top to bottom from that distance. It is TALL!

You can tell this wasn’t my favorite tour but I’ve wanted to see that hotel for about 8 years, now I can mark it off the list; been there - done that.

Turnover day

We just docked in Dubai; end of segment 3 and the beginning of seg 4. Less than a month to go… I don’t want to go back to real life! Who will cook? Who will make the bed? I’ll report on Dubai after we return.

I won the Segment 3 photo contest with a shot taken earlier in the cruise in Callao, Peru. Now I’m ahead… then again, Jim didn’t enter one this time. The category was architecture, buildings and towns. The next category is open and artistic… should make for interesting entries.

They are beginning to make noticable preparations onboard for our transit of the Gulf of Aden. Yesterday they ran a test of the ‘anti-pirate drenching system’. It is a setup of firehoses connected to some mounted nozzles on deck 5 (the open deck). They also will behaving crew members standing watch on all open decks… that also started yesterday. They are going to use all crewmembers for these watch positions in 2 or 4 hour blocks. Yesterday the one we saw was an attendant in the buffet. He was wearing the Orange security vest (and looked a bit uncomfortable or bewildered). I had a report from my friend on Tahitian Princess about the procedures they had in place; much like ours. She also reported that nothing interesting has happened so far except for some military ships and aircraft.

We are docked two berths away from QE2, Costa is between. I am happy I have this last chance to say goodbye to her and was particularly happy that the red funnel is still in place. I’ve taken a number of pictures of her.

John Maxtone Graham - Hi John, I hope you get the google alert on this. I wanted you to read the part about QE2. We miss you and Mary!
Sue

Mumbai, India

Fascinating. That’s the only way I can sum up our day in Mumbai - I can’t say I really liked it or I’d want to return, but it was certainly fascinating. It reminds me of New York City burned out on drugs. It is a solid mass of people; slums intermixed with very nice buildings.

Our tour was called Temples and Shrines. It was an all day tour and included lunch at a local hotel and the obligatory shopping stop. There were only 20 of us on the tour and the bus was a 36 passenger one so we had plenty of room again. Our first stop was across from the Taj Mahal hotel (one of the hotels bombed by the terrorists last November), although we didn’t have time to go into the hotel I was able to get some pictures from the outside.

After that quick photo stop we headed for the temples; we actually got to see a great deal of Mumbai and a couple suburbs as the temples were fairly far apart. You weren’t allowed to take photos in most of the temples so the best parts are only in my memory, but I did get some shots of the outsides. At the Hare Krishna temple we were allowed to take photos on the interior so it was a lot more fun for me. Our guide was excellent - she explained much about the different religions in India, including Hindu, Jain, and Muslim, Buddhist, Christian and several others. I found it very interesting watching the rituals performed by the people praying in the different temples.

Perhaps the actual ride through the city was more interesting than the temples… It would have to be seen to be understood. Every inch of useable land is being used either as a shop/stall or a dwelling. People (and some cows) are everywhere; sidewalks and streets are packed, there are no crosswalks so people just weave between the moving cars to cross the streets and roadways. The roads were completely filled with cars, taxis, motorcycles, trucks and buses - They don’t allow TukTuks in Mumbai proper, but when they were added to the mix in the suburbs it was unbelievable. When our guide said that it was slightly better than usual because it was a bank holiday and many people were off work we just all kind of sat there with dumb grins on our faces. Our driver did a great job… two traffic cop fines and only one car hit us.

The women in their brightly colored saris or Punjabis all look beautiful; even in the worst of the slums the women were all wearing the beautiful colors. I purchased a beautiful Sari and a Punjabi. Before our return to the ship, the tour bus took us to the ‘recommended’ store for shopping… not what I was looking for - I wanted to go to the real shops and stalls across the street so after a few minutes of watching people dodge their way through the cars we decided to give it a try. I’m writing this so you can tell we made it. This was the kind of market I enjoy, it was a mixture of clothing, hard goods, soft goods and even some produce. They didn’t seem willing to bargain but I was able to get them to knock off the odd couple dollars on both purchases. Now we have four days at sea prior to Dubai.
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Right after I wrote the report above the movie Slum Dog Millionaire came on the TV. (They had shown this academy award winning movie in the lounge just prior to Mumbai, but I don’t like sitting in those chairs so we didn’t go.) We decided to watch it. I’m glad we saw it after our trip into Mumbai as I don’t think I would have really understood how accurate it is. The only scene that isn’t accurate (our guide told us this) is the one where the Indian movie star is mobbed by fans. She says they do not do this in India. Everything else is exactly as we saw Mumbai.