Alexandria, Egypt - April 26th

We docked yesterday in Alexandria and Hilary and Ricardo went on the long bus ride to Cairo and to the Pyramids. Once again, the tourist count was waaaay down and they said the only buses in the usual parking area there were the ones from Silver Seas.  Carl and I went on the ship shuttle bus into town in Alexandria and then walked to the new Library of Alexandria.  It is a rather modern looking building (Norwegian team won the competition for the design) with touches of local flavor such as what appear to be hieroglyphics but are just meaningless symbols.  Once inside, after paying a very modest ticket fee, we were entitled to take a guided tour. These tours run every 45 minutes and they ask your nationality so they know what language in which to schedule the tour. 

We were with one other couple from the ship and we had an excellent guide who spoke perfect English and was knowledgeable and interesting. 

As we entered the area overlooking the main reading room we were almost stunned at the WOW! Factor.  I don’t think the pictures I took did it justice.  The building is on 9 levels (slanted) and has many exhibition halls, a planetarium, and lecture facilities.  It also has a printing press which can print, collate and bind a book in minutes.  There are art works and memorabilia of earlier printing systems and a vast level of computer interaction for anyone in the world, and connecting with the library is free.

The traffic in Alexandria is just about the worst we have seen and life as a pedestrian is beyond hazardous.  This was the first port where our shuttle bus could not run on a schedule because even allowing extra time for the trip, it was always behind. One of the reasons for the horrible traffic may well be that cars double park any and everywhere, goods for sale are laid out well into the street and people weave in and out of the traffic because this is the only way they can cross or move up the block. 

Last night we had our Arabian dress up dinner.  Picture of Carl will be attached, I hope.  Lately the ship’s internet has not wanted to send any of my pictures.  I am going to try today to send the second set of Safaga photos as well as those from Petra.  (Ed Note: Added to Petra posting.)

 And so, we are down to our final two sea days, then one day in Sorrento and c’est fini.  I will try and write one more time after our farewell dinner.  Thanks to all who have had the patience and kindness to follow our travels.  We will bore you even more with verbal tales when next we meet.

Love and kisses,

ME

Crossing the Suez Canal - April 25th

Photos sent by Hilary via IPad

A convoy of 28 boats, we are first!!!!

Hilary


Breakfast in the Suez Canal... and my
handsome partner for breakfast.

Ricardo

Mom and Dad with convoy behind them

Petra, Jordan - April 23rd

Yesterday we took the long drive (two hours this time, and no Carl) to Petra from the port of Aqaba in Jordan.  At one point, on a clear day, you can see four countries.  Yesterday we mostly saw Israel on the other bank of the Red Sea.

There is an ancient Petra and a new Petra and our destination was the former.  It is a former city from at least two thousand years ago and the route to the principal surviving building, The Treasury, was long and winding and full of gorgeous sites of the cavern around us.  Frankly, the photos do not do it justice. 

The rock faces, with all the changing colors, looked sometimes like striated wood.  I do have a photo or two of the Temple but I enjoyed the scenery almost more than the history. 

The trek is all downhill until, of course, you have to come back and it is a pretty tiring trip back up.  All told it is about three miles long. Hilary and Ricardo were very sweet and stuck to me to make sure I didn’t trip or expire.  There were carriages or horses available to rent, but the ride on those looked rather risky in itself. There will be a photo of one of them, but no one we know was in that particular carriage. The poor horses have to pull a cart with three people (some of generous size) over many areas of the stones from the original time. 

Ed Note: Apologies - could not rotate.  Will keep trying.

It was hard for me to walk on them because they are so uneven. Fortunately, they are only in a few of the areas of the trail. I considered it a badge of honor to have made it all the way down and back.  By the time we reached the hotel for lunch, my face must have been as red as the proverbial beet.  I was offered a fan which I used vociferously (or can you only say that about some other type of activity?) and gratefully.  A couple of Diet Pepsi drinks, a lovely lunch and then a nap on the way back and all was well.

Our guide on this trip was himself born a Bedouin.  Of course, he is still a Bedouin but he has left the life style.  He returns to the camp two months a year to help his family with the chores of the tribe but his mother considers him “lost”.  He was able to tell us a great deal about their life and about the newer customs as well.  Jordan now sends mobile classrooms into the desert to teach the children.  The teachers are paid almost four times the normal salary to compensate for time spent where there is no electricity or any of the other accoutrements of modern living.  Then when they leave, usually the parents of each student give them a sizeable cash gift (instead of goats or camels because they know they cannot be kept in the city) and so there is almost a lottery for teachers who WANT to teach the Bedouin children, at least for a while. Our guide felt that the entire Bedouin society will  die out now because of the exposure the children are now receiving through these teachers and lessons to the modern world.  “How’re you going to keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paris?”

I never realized that deserts could have big rock mountains as well as stretches of sand.  My geography preparation was poor.
Today, Carl and Hilary have gone snorkeling.  Ricardo and I are enjoying doing nothing. Tomorrow we are transiting the Suez Canal.  Pirate time seems to be over.

Love and kisses to all,

ME

HILARY AND RICARDO, MY BIRTHDAY AND LUXOR!!!

The big events of April 21^st are hereby included:

Hilary and Ricardo were awaiting our arrival as the ship docked in SAFAGA, which is about three and a half hours away from Luxor.  We left immediately on the bus trip (Carl with a pillow, some Xanax and the back seat of the bus to himself) and made the long trek to see our first sight, the Temple of Luxor. 

It was, as advertised, quite compelling, enormous and VERY old.  I am going to include photos of it,

some of the row of sphinx statues which used to stretch three kilometers to the funeral palace of Ramses III,








some views of the Temple of Karnak (I could not help but think of Johnny Carson every time I heard the name)

and one of Hilary, Ricardo and Carl at that second site. 

There is also one of the view from our hotel, overlooking the Nile.  It was  Hilton Resort, just redone totally and it was BEAUTIFUL.  I think one of the charms was the lack of other guests.  It was as though we (the group from the ship) had the place to ourselves.  Food was great, service impeccable and the pool area (infinity pools for both bathing and as decorative touches) inviting.  If I didn’t have to travel so far to get there, I would go again.

At lunch, after the AM of travel and touring the first temple, I was surprised with a birthday chorus and small (delicious) cake and singing in Arabic and English.  Fellow tourists grouped around as I blew out my candle. There was also a lovely decoration and birthday wishes awaiting me in our room.  I told all the other guests that I was inviting them all to a dinner cruise on the Nile.  Of course, that was part of the tour anyway, so I felt OK in promising it.  The food on the cruise was not so hot and the Egyptian wine was pretty poor! But the evening was most enjoyable and a very comfortable temperature.  There was even comic relief at the end as they had a real problem getting the boat to line up with the small docking area at the hotel.  First they overshot the area, then they only had one guy trying to pull the boat backwards, and in the end, we all left on a gangplank thankful we had not seriously imbibed. I have one photo of the last minutes of the tug of war between the ship and our lone (finally aided by a second person)  dock hand. (Ed Note: Couldn't find that photo).  By the way, we now all know what the men wear under their long robes.  It appears to have been white boxers!  And so to bed.

The next morning we went to the Valley of the Kings after a ferry ride across the Nile.  It was  hot, but not too crowded and the two tombs we entered (Hilary and Ricardo went on to see the Tomb of King Tutenkhamen  (spelling?) but Carl and I walked back to the bus.  The still visible colors inside the tombs are quite extraordinary.  We had a guide with a doctorate in Egyptology who had a tendency to try and explain each and every cartouche and decoration.  The guides were not allowed to lecture inside so she tried to explain to us how to look for each and every symbol and understand what each meant.  I was just happy to see the pretty colors!

There was a visit then to the Temple of Karnak and some shorter stops at other sites which are already blending into one OLD place.  After a lovely lunch at the hotel, we boarded the bus back to the ship.  Mercifully, the guide did not repeat her three hour lecture of the first bus trip, but she was not exactly silent.  Guides seem to have the habit of repeating themselves in case we didn’t get something the first three times. The countryside area through which we passed was filled with donkeys, wheat fields and black robed women.  Our guide announced that she was not going to talk about politics but by the end of the trip we knew she did not support the revolution, she thought it was totally brought about by the middle class of the cities, she thought the poorer people of the country were very happy with their old ways (including female circumcision) and that it was a good thing for the government to control much of the economy. We heard about the disappearance of any police force during the height of the crisis and how glad she was to see them back again.  We learned that there are severe gasoline shortages and saw lines (very long) of cars and tractors which she said sometimes involved parking overnight. Many were pushing their vehicles as the line moved forward slowly.

The canals which irrigated the fields were quite dirty and the small “homes” lining them were more than modest and all had sugar cane or reeds drying on the rooftops.   In the early part of the drive, the guide spoke about the Bedouin tribes but we did not really see any.  Yesterday, in Jordan, on the way to Petra we did see the tents and herds of goats and camels.  More on that in my Petra post.

Love and kisses,

ME

Muscat, Oman - April 15th

PIRATES AND SMUGGLERS!!! They have been at the top of the conversational menu for the last couple of days.  We have had an additional briefing by the captain who explained that we will be entering an area  where we are constantly monitored by various patrols and sail in a “guided transit” system of several ships at a time but not a convoy.   So, here we are on the first of our five sea days before reaching Safaga, Egypt, approaching the area of greatest concern regarding pirates. Precautions include: the pool deck is shut down after dark and many interior lights which shine out are dimmed.  All curtained areas have the drapes drawn and even in our cabins we are asked to keep them closed and not turn on our outside veranda light.  No one really seems to be too worried as the pirates are mostly after  commercial vessels and would probably not be interested in a ship with over 600 people to hold hostage, half if whom, as spoiled passengers, would be demanding champagne, canapés and regular dinner service. Also, our vessel is probably too tall for the smaller ships, sent out by the mother ship, to board with their short ladders.  Additionally, the captain says we can probably outrun them.  So, I feel very  protected.

Now, the smugglers are another topic of conversation.  As we were anchored in the Omani port of Khasab,  just before Muscat, I kept seeing all these smaller speed boats passing into shore in groups of two or three, with only two darkly clad men in each.  I assumed this was some kind of security.  Hah!  The captain told me, as we dined with a small group of other World Cruise guests, that they were smugglers from Iran.  They come over with GOATS (why I do not know) and take back the cigarettes and other things which they cannot get in Iran.  We were anchored just past the Strait of Hormuz and this is the shortest distance between Iran and Oman.  So there I was merrily waving to them and happy when several waved back not realizing what I was seeing.  Wasn’t that friendly for smugglers?

Muscat was a place which was decidedly different from our earlier stops in UAE.  Here, tradition and modernity blended well and it was charmingly NOT high rise or filled with gee gaws.  The old town, the official capital, has only about 600 residents, making it the smallest capital in the world in terms of population. 

I am including a picture if one of the forts at the entrance to the harbor,

a couple of a local family

(you can see a bit how the mother and father are dressed) 

photos of what is a large statue of a replica of an incense burner (incense is one of their biggest products),

a photo of the Sultan’s palace entrance,

and one looking down on the old town. (Ed Note:  Not sure I got these placed correctly - please advise!)  We went to the Souk but bought only “genuine fake copy Gucci” dark glasses for Carl.  There were beautiful materials and shawls etc., but I think I have enough souvenirs already.  I did look for a gold bangle for my collection but they would not bargain at all, which was surprising.  So, I got firm and said no thanks.

Our dinner in the officers’ mess was most enjoyable.  The captain hosts about six couples with a meal which is much more elaborate than the officers themselves get, but which is in their own dining room. I did not take my camera, but if Norman, the hotel director, forwards me any of the photos he took, I’ll include one eventually.
We had an Irish flute player entertaining us last night and tonight there is a classical pianist.  It’s hard to stay up until 10:00 PM for these concerts, so we don’t always do so, but I’ll try again tonight.

There will not be much to report in the next few days, unless I get some forwarded pictures to pass along.  Also, the internet connection has been worse than usual, so I think I will send my next report from Egypt

Much love and kisses to all.

ME

Dubai - April 12th

We are in Dubai for a second day, after a stop in Fujairah.  Both of these are in the United Arab Emirates.  I have finally learned how to spell Emirates.  Fujairah was a waste of time and Dubai is a bit of a disappointment.  Now, to be honest, we have not gone into any of the famous buildings which are said to be luxurious (if gaudy) beyond description.  But, the city itself is full of tall buildings, homes behind elaborate gates, look alike apartment buildings and town houses and a great deal of dust and sand.  The most interesting thing which happened to us yesterday was getting caught, just as we were returning to the ship from our helicopter ride, in a sand storm.  The wind came up very suddenly and combined with the stinging sand, I needed help getting back on the ship!

Our helicopter ride made it back just in time, with no hint at what was about to occur.  The group from the ship scheduled for an hour after us had their flight cancelled.  But, they have the fun now of being picked up from near the ship.  It is almost an hour drive to the helipad (located near the Dubai Atlantis Hotel, which is a replica if the one in the Bahamas).  I didn’t go for the look of it in either place.  During the drive we got to see a great deal of the city and so cancelled our bus tour for today.  I was tempted to go out on the ship shuttle to the Dubai Mall which is supposed to be extremely upscale.  I have resisted the temptation.

The pictures are mostly from the helicopter ride…Carl,

views of what is called THE PALM, (a palm shaped development),

the famous hotel built like a ship,

a poor shot of the tallest building in the world (I consider they cheated because it is mostly skinny)

and a picture of a number of houses each with their own swimming pool near a golf course.  I wonder if that is where they play the Dubai Open!

I am beginning to get excited about Hilary and Ricardo’s arrival.  We will be at sea (after two more stops) for five days and then they will join us. 

Love and kisses,

ME

Goa and Bombay - April 7th & 8th

I hope all had a lovely Easter. We had Mass here on the ship and even received a chocolate bunny in our rooms with a small Easter basket. It has been wonderful having Father Alan Jupin aboard for this segment of the voyage.  We have had daily Mass and he has dined (or breakfasted) with us a few times.  He is  a retired priest out of Albany. NY. 


Carl and Father Alan Jupin

I am trying to send a picture of him, with Carl, outside of Bom Jesu  in Goa, where St Francis Xavier is buried. 






His body is still intact, although an arm and a toe are missing for diverse reasons! It seems that when the stories of his preservation drifted back to Rome, despite several times of reburial, they asked for proof and had the arm sent to check out the claim. 

St. Francis Xavier

The toe was BITTEN OFF by a lady who thought it must be a fake body.  I’m not sure when that incident occurred, but the glass covered coffin is now placed so high up that it is really difficult to see anything.  I think you can make out some of his head in the photo I am sending. 

There is also a photo of an area called the laundry, in Bombay. Unlike our laundry on the ship, it is outdoors.  The explanation goes that before the era of washing machines, everyone in the city sent their laundry to be done this way.  It was picked up at your home and returned a week later.  Apparently the system is still used by some.

There is also a photo (a poor one from the inside of the bus and it reflects the flash badly) of the front of the Taj Mahal Hotel where the terrorists caused such mayhem. 

Finally, there should be a photo of just a bit if Carl, again through the bus window, showing a large monument referred to as the Gateway.  It was built to honor the king and queen when they came to India to be crowned as emperor and empress. Our tour of Bombay was a brief one (that’s all Carl would agree to) but showed us quite a bit.  Many of the women wore gorgeous saris, even in the poorer neighborhoods. There were beautiful old Victorian buildings housing the university and some government offices as well. As it was a Sunday, the traffic was light and we got good views with minimal hold ups. There was a lovely long drive by the by called Marine Drive and we passed many, many games of crikquet (spelling?) being played.

Now we are at sea for two days until we reach the United Arab Emerites.  (once again, I am unsure of the spelling) We have no plans to do any touring there and our next adventure will be in Dubai when we take a helicopter overview of the city.  We’ve already had to submit our weight!  Stay tuned.

Much love,

ME

Carl and I supervising the ship's docking

From Cochin to Murmagao/Goa India - April 5h

We have sailed from Cochin to Murmagao/Goa India and are about to go out to see THE HURCHES OF GOA.  St. Francis Xavier is buried here and his remains are supposedly uncorrupted.  I’ll let you know.

In Cochin, we took a late afternoon cruise and saw a lovely sunset, colorful fishing boats and the Chinese style fishing nets still in use here. 

I have tried to include photos of these as well as one if people attending Holy Thursday Mass and listening to a loud speaker as the church was so full they could not fit in to sit. 

The fishermen are almost all Catholic (Kerala Province or State is 20% Christian, the highest of any area in India). Then we went to a lovely old hotel (I cannot imagine what you would do there after a two night stay because the area around it is very poor)  and had a very Indian dinner.  Of course, that means I did not eat much as once again, the spices were too much for me. 

We were entertained before dinner with some Kalakhali (spelling?) dancing.  It is a mime type presentation if a story set to drum and cymbal with chanting throughout.  One performance is probably enough. 

We were told these could go on for hours but half an hour was quite sufficient.

Last night we attended a Seder Dinner with the small contingent of Jewish people on the ship.  A rabbi came aboard at the same time as the priest and Father Alan told us at Mass that we were invited to attend and so many of us did.  The rabbi had said they really needed a few more participants to make it more festive, so we became honorary Jews.  I did not think to take my camera because I thought of it more as a religious service, but it turned out to be only partly so. The rabbi’s wife told me (with a wink and a nod) that the wine was much better than they would usually have because the ship had no kosher wine.

Happy Easter to all.

Love, ME

At Sea - April 3rd

One of the things about which I have forgotten to tell you is our dinner down in the laundry. Yes, you read that correctly.  We (Carl me and Andrea) were invited to join the captain and the Hotel and Social Directors of the ship, with three other couples of the World Cruise contingent down in the laundry.  The laundry is way down in the bowels of the ship, as you would imagine.  It runs 24 hours a day and is manned by a group of Chinese men.  We entered into the small area to find it had been decorated with Chinese lanterns, fans and other decorations and were greeted by the working staff, who speak no English, I was told.  Only the crew chief is somewhat fluent and he transmits the orders to the rest. They shook hands with each of us (bowing of course) and then left the area.  We were served by some of the usual waiters but also one of the few of the “upstairs” crew who is Chinese.  Her name is Dan and she has served us coffee and a sweet roll more mornings than I can count, up in the Observation Lounge, which is on Deck 10 and forward on the ship.  This was a very different Dan.  She looked GORGEOUS in perfect makeup and a Chinese gown. Those if the family who have been on the ship will perhaps remember her.  You would never have recognized her.  The meal was not tooooo Chinese which was good for me, and was enjoyed by all.

I am going to try and insert a couple of pictures directly here into this document.  Unfortunately, none are of Dan, but you can see us and some of the decorations. 

This is of the captain, Carl and Andrea. 

And this is me telling someone what to do, as usual.

Kelly, you must let me know if this goes through this way. 
Love and kisses,
ME

(Ed Note: The photos came through within the doc attached to the e-mail, but they would not copy to the blog - please resend photos separately. 
PPS: Finally - posted as of 16 Apr 2012!)    

Penang, Malaysia - April 1st

The rickshaw ride turned out to be another pedicab ride.  They were more decorated than those in Vietnam but the Vietnamese were better drivers.  They took a group of close to 50 of us World Cruisers to a famous English hotel (originally) called the Eastern and Oriental. 

We had tea and champagne (Silver Sea tea time is better and you can always ask for champagne) but they also had some lovely dancers representing the three cultures common to Malaysia;  Indian, Chinese and Malay.  Once back on the ship I was delighted to be able to get a very amateur video of the pilot leaving the ship as we sailed away.  Kelly, dare I try and send a video for the blog?  (Ed Note:  Yes - let's try!)

I took a photo of Carl as we prepared to leave on the ride.  Then he took one of me at the hotel, seated, overlooking the bay.  We are now at sea for two days and the internet is running extremely slowly, so I am going to wait another day to try and post this if I go on later and it is still so slow.






Love and kisses,

ME

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - March 31st

Hello from us as we sail away from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. 

We BOTH went on an tour today and got to see a few of the sights including their war memorial which is really impressive.  The statue there is much larger than the Iwo Jima statue near Arlington, and the entire area around is beautifully staged.

We also went to the top of their telecommunications tower, which used to be one of the highest in the world. 

I am not quite sure where it ranks now, but it gave a lovely overall view of the city, even on a slightly gray day.  Nowhere did we see a slum or badly rundown area, even during the hour drive into town. 

The majority of the women wear a head scarf and they are almost all black.  I did get a picture of a group of school girls who were most happy to pose, so I guess they had no problems with being photographed and they did have colored scarves



Tomorrow is Penang, Malaysia where we will take a rickshaw to tea in town.  I’ll try and get some photos and add to this report.

On our way to Kuala Lumpur the ship passed through the Singapore straits.  I guess that when we went into Singapore for our stop there, I missed seeing the humongous amount if ship traffic, as it was during the night.  This time, as we passed by the city,  you could see it in the distance quite clearly and we were surrounded by vessels of all sizes.  That included a couple of small war ships which were not marked but were obviously from different nations.  The ship traffic lasted for several hours and was fun to watch.

I was thrilled to speak with Robby last night (Kirstan was taking a well deserved extra rest) and hear that all is going well with mother and daughter. Hilary is there lending a hand and so I know I will get lots of details once she and Ricardo join us in three weeks.

Love and kisses,

ME