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.

Random Thoughts

• Our Cabin steward has developed a new personality; he is happy and cheerful. Is he (or his boss) reading this blog?
• The Princess Captain’s Circle (past passenger) benefits seem to be the best of any of the cruise lines we have been on. The free laundry and many free internet minutes have been wonderful on this cruise. Toting a bag of dirty laundry to the launderette doesn’t look like fun to me.
• The little 9x6 inch computer I bought for this trip has been wonderful. The WiFi onboard is very good in most all locations including our cabin and the computer is small and light enough to just drop in my bag to carry ashore. A drawback is that it’s awfully tiny to look at my photos, but then I’m used to my 21” monitor at home for that.
• The ocean is endlessly fascinating. From glass-smooth to crashing waves I love to watch it. “Sea-critters” are fun to look for; one afternoon we sat on the balcony watching about a half dozen birds for an hour. They would fly along side our balcony working their way up higher and closer to the bow. All of a sudden they would come diving down to water level trying to catch a flying fish. We actually did see a couple of these birds catch a fish, then it would fly away from the ship and land in the water. We presumed they were eating the fish and then they would rejoin the hunt. Considering the length of this cruise, we haven’t seen a lot of “critters”. Early on there were some whales and we’ve seen dolphins about 5 times and flying fish almost every day.
• Trivia became less fun when one team started bringing books to challenge the answers. Good heavens these are games - if you win you get a little green voucher. You can cash in the vouchers for things like a tote bag or a baseball cap. Wow that’s something to get all worked up about.
• I’ve received a number of emails lately asking if we are still enjoying it and if we would do another one. Yup, we are still enjoying it and YES, if I another one came along at a good enough price I’d do it without question.
• I’m going to get questions about who would I recommend do a world cruise. The answer is anyone that has the time and money and wants to experience many different countries and cultures in one cruise - the caveat would be that you would have to be comfortable with many sea days.
  

Port Blair, Andaman Islands

The Andaman Islands are a territory of India along with the Nicobar Islands. Originally this was a penal colony.

I’m not too sure what to say about this port except that it was quite undesirable; hot, humid, dirty, smelly… pretty bad all the way around. One woman commented that she hadn’t seen anywhere with so much trash except Egypt - from what I saw she was right. We had planned to take a tuktuk and do a short tour of the area and a visit to the bazaar but we talked to a number of people who were returning to the ship and decided to skip it. There was no bazaar or local market like we like to visit - people said there was a street with some shops. There didn’t seem to be any local handcrafts, what they were selling were mass-produced items (probably from China). There are supposed to be some nice resorts here, but they must be located some distance from Port Blair.

It should have been a clue when the Captain was talking the previous evening in his regular announcement - he said we will dock at about 10:00 and expect to have clearance by 10:30 and you can go ashore… and at 11:00 you’ll be back onboard. He wasn’t kidding.

Now we are on a four sea-day stretch before Mumbai.

Singapore and Port Kelang

Monday, April 30 - Singapore. We had no tour booked here and since we missed shopping in Hong Kong with our late arrival back from our Great Wall tour we decided to just wing this port. We were docked at the Harbour Front Cruise Centre which had two large malls attached. We got off the ship and browsed around a bit and met one of the ship’s photographers. We all decided to take a taxi into the city to visit Lim Sim Centre - the electronics shopping area. We bought a couple more portable hard drives and then I decided to look at the new camera I’ve had my eye on… bargain -bargain- bargain… it did end up following me home. It was less than US price, but I still wonder if I could have gotten it for less. Then it was back to the ship.

The next day we were docked in Port Kelang, Malaysia. We choose not to do one of the tours into Kaula Lampor and instead did a tour that included a stop at a traditional house and stops at a Mosque and Palace and little India. The house was quite large as the family uses it for a bed and breakfast at times. The surrounding yard area was entirely turned into a tropical garden filled with orchids - great photos, but the temp was over 90 and the humidity about the same… way too much for me! If it were a bit cooler or maybe less humid I would have loved to spend a week there. The Mosque and Palace were just quick photo stops but we had a little time for shopping in Little India - I actually made a couple purchases there!

Now we have two sea days until Andaman Island for my back to recover a bit… and to study my new camera!

At Sea

Another lazy Sunday at sea… The special Sunday Brunch Buffet in the main dining room is wonderful and then the rest of the day is usually spent napping and reading. They did do a preview of the DVD created from our trip to the Great Wall; the videographer onboard is great. The video is a combination of information given by the guides and then just wonderful shots of the places we visited backed by music.

On Thursday evening we went to a special cocktail party for those passengers that went on the Great Wall tour and spent about 20 minutes talking with the Captain. I was curious about the special plans they might have for when we go through the Gulf of Aden. What he could tell me was that he is going to be briefed by the Royal Navy when we are in Singapore and that all passengers will receive a briefing and participate in a drill. Ok… enough on that (I guess my old career isn’t really gone).

When we got back to the cabin that night the phone rang and it was a dinner invitation from the Captain for last night (Saturday). It was really a nice surprise because they don’t do the formal Captain’s Tables on Princess - the Captain actually asks whomever he wants for whatever night. Pretty cool!!! Anyway, we had a great dinner with Captain Kent and two other couples and now we feel really special.

Bangkok, Thailand

[Jim's tour]

March 27th I awoke prior to the alarm clock, and we watched the sun come up and our arrival in Thailand. We were being escorted by a small ship with a manned 50 caliber machinegun on its bow.

Arriving in Bangkok the traffic is horrendous - 11,000,000 people. As usual our driver handles it with ease only this time I noticed and our guide pointed out no horns honking. I don’t recall hearing 1 horn for the entire 8 hour tour. This was very unusual from our latest tours. About this time our guide informed us that we would not be seeing the Golden Buddha. Great! I was looking forward to seeing 5 ½ tons of solid gold in the shape of one of the world’s largest statues of the Buddha. She explained that a new temple was being built for it on the same site. A quick drive-by of this location and we could see it was almost finished. Driving through the Chinatown district we see at least a million flowers for sale. The sidewalks are crammed with umbrellas - underneath are small tables covered with flowers.

Wat Pra Keo - known as the Royal Chapel of the Emerald Buddha, this is one of Buddhism’s most magnificent monasteries and one of the most celebrated sites in all Thailand. Although it was about 95 degrees and 95% humidity it was being celebrated in abundance today. This is one of those places you have to see to believe. At the heart of the monastery is a chapel containing a Buddha carved from a single piece of emerald-green jasper, perched atop a gilded pedestal. To enter the chapel - no shorts - legs covered to within 5 inches of the ground ( they supplied tie-on skirts and shawls for those who were not covered enough ) - no hat - shoulders covered - and shoes removed. No pictures in the chapel. We could take pictures through a doorway from outside the entrance. I didn’t know if I would like digital cameras at first but after a few years using different ones they are great. I can set mine to an ISO of 3200, which I did and got a fairly good shot of Buddha and then entered the chapel. Next was the Grand Palace - we could not enter the palace. The king does not live here anymore but it is used for royal ceremonies and state occasions. The Wat and palace take up about a 2 city block area and armed guards are posted throughout. It is very difficult to describe this place in text. We spent about 2 hours here and just skimmed the surface.

From there a short walk down the street and through a market to the river where we boarded a boat for our river cruise. Our boat was about 8 feet wide and 30 feet long - inboard engine. Some of the other boats on the river looked familiar - our guide said they were called the James Bond boats. One of the Bond movies was filmed here. These boats are about 20 feet long and narrow. What makes them different is the way they are steered and propelled. The engine, which most of the ones I saw were 4 cylinder turbocharged gas fueled, is mounted on a pivot near the stern above the hull. A long pipe is mounted forward that the driver holds for steering and throttle then behind the engine is a long shaft that terminates at the prop. Very fast - I had to shield my camera as we were splashed a couple of times. Heading south on the river we slowed and turned around at Wat Arun. Our guide gave us another history lesson - we took pictures and then we head north. Bangkok is hailed as the “Venice of the East” so up river about a ½ mile we turn into one of the canals. Our guide and her assistant start passing out pieces of bread and stating that it is not for us, although it smells very good and I getting hungry as it is about 1 o’clock now. Soon she says we are going to feed the catfish, but we can not feed them in front of the temple that is now on our left. As soon as we pass the temple she says “Now” and we all tear our bread into bits and through them in the water. The catfish are hungry - in about two seconds they are swarming on the bread. Turning around we head back to the river and continue north to the dock of the hotel where we have lunch.

Back on the bus we are heading for our last stop - the dreaded shopping, at least in my opinion. We pull into a parking lot that is gated and guarded and about the size of half a basketball court. There are marked places for about 30 cars - all full and in the middle 5 places for busses - all full. Pulling up to the door we exit the bus and are warmly greeted at the door which next to it is a uniformed guard with an AK-47. Inside we are individually assigned a personal shopping assistant. First I am led through the jewelry making factory of about 40 workers. On to the store. I’d guess about 15,000 sq. ft. it could easily be more. Sue always says “Diamonds and Gold” - that’s what I tell my personal assistant. Diamond aren’t big in Thailand so this department was small but that means not many choices. Couldn’t find anything that I thought she might like but out of curiosity I pointed to a piece I estimated at 3 to 4 hundred dollars. How much? For the forth time he tells me how cheap the labor is in Thailand and announces 2 thousand something. NO! Again he says labor is cheap while I look around to see at least 100 employees in this store and recall about 30 in the parking lot trying to keep traffic flowing ( most busses had to leave to be called back by guides when needed ). I thank him and ask “where is the exit”. He points. Now I am entering the cheap area - T-shirts trinkets etc.- evidently I was not the only one that did not care for the prices in the big store - I could not even see the floor. It took me 5 minutes to go 30 feet it was so crowded. I spent about 30 minutes outside till the rest of the group was finished shopping then the bus was called. Traveling a different route we arrived back at the port in about 2 hours. Overall a good day - some of it could be eliminated, but for $100 I didn’t expect it to be perfect.