Sailing to Manama Bahrain

April 9

Throughout the day today we continued on our north westerly heading and will maintain the same course thru the night.

This morning we had a port talk on Dubai. We’ll be there for two days and have booked a tour for the first day, on day two we will wing it. There is another sea day before Bahrain, we are getting tired of sea days as there is not much to do. One between ports is welcome but three is a lot. Today at trivia a helicopter circled the ship for a while. We don’t know where it was from, could have been from Pakistan or maybe security watching for Somalia pirates. Whatever, it doesn’t take much to excite us these days. We had two Scholarships at Sea lectures, one with the astronomer and the last one with Leslie Iwerks, the documentary filmmaker. I enjoy her films but prefer to watch them on TV as the seats in the Cabaret Lounge are too uncomfortable. The evening show was Mel Mellers Magical Showtime, he was more of a comic than a magician and it was very entertaining.

April 10

At 2:00 a.m. this morning the ship entered the Gulf of Oman and at 5:00 we commenced setting various courses throughout the Straits of Hormus, this is the section of water separating Iran, United Arab Emirates and Oman. We will continue to transit the straits through the day. Our ship has increased security in the area, not the safest place to be sailing through. We sat on the balcony half the day watching for pirates. Actually we did have 3 armed Iranian boats charge the ship and harass us for awhile. I’m sure it was just to remind us we were in their territory. It is hot but not humid any longer. During lunch we had 5 unmarked boats speed around the boat, two of them headed towards a tanker sailing next to us but swerved to miss it. During afternoon trivia one boat with about 6 guys came along side, taking pictures. They were within 10 feet of the ship, we were hoping that they did not attach a bomb.

Iranian Patrol Boat

 

Today we had 2 Scholarship at Sea lectures, one by the astronomer and one by the documentary filmmaker. We of course returned to trivia, with high hopes, Betty ate fish for dinner as she thinks it is brain food. It didn’t work! Like Richard always says, it’s not us, it is just the wrong questions.

We watched the movie Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise instead of going to the evening show. (A typical man's movie, I sure wouldn’t pay to see it.)

Tonight we will continue the same course until the early morning when we will alter onto a south westerly heading and start to make our way towards the buoyed channel. Around 5:00 a.m. we are expected to to enter the channel for our approach to Manama and we will follow the channel to our dock at Khalifa Bin Salman port. Hopefully we will make it without incident!

Happy Easter to Everyone

April 8                           Happy Easter!

April 8                     Happy Easter to everyone!!

Early this morning we altered our course to a north westerly heading as we transit the Arabian Sea. Went to breakfast this morning, then to trivia. Betty wanted to go to Easter Brunch at noon so I finally gave in.  We sat with a new couple and had a 2 hour conversation with them, it was very enjoyable. It was Formal Night, at least there was a theme this time. We actually had a traditional Easter dinner with ham and rack of lamb, although with the Italian chef’s twist. This will be our last formal night as we are skipping the last one and will start packing two of our suitcases for shipment home.

All Chocolate Easter Display in the Pacific Princess Atrium

Mumbai, India (Bombay)

April 7,  Holy Saturday

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city of India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million people.

The ship arrived at 7:00 a.m. and immigration official boarded to conduct a full passenger face to passport inspection between 7:00 and 8:30 a.m. No sleeping in today for some passengers. The dock we are at is the Navy Pier and it is the pits, Princess must have gotten a good deal on price. Almost don’t want to leave the ship but of course we did.

India Greeters

We ended up leaving at 9:00 and took the shuttle bus to the green gate. This brought us to the dock where we docked on our last world cruise. Betty asked another couple, John and Maureen, if they wanted to join us and split the cost of a taxi since we both were headed to the Taj Mahal Hotel. The cab drivers here are a pain, they get you inside the cab and then want to take you all over the city for an additional price. We told him no several times and he finally gave up and took us where we wanted to go.

We never met John and Maureen before, they are from Australia and are a very fun couple. They were more than happy to tag along since they had been to Mumbai several times. I wanted to go to the Café Mondegar and Betty wanted to go to the Cottage Industries government store. We found the café but it was too early for beer, so we tried to find the store. We walked down the shopping street that was filled with vendors selling everything imaginable. Talk about being hassled! You never make the mistake in places like this of actually picking something up because then you own it. Going the other direction we found the Cottage Industries store and had to get to the other side of the very busy street. We made it across safely, not a easy task since the traffic in India is a nightmare. After all that the store didn’t open for another hour so we headed to the Café Mondegar. I was wearing my Mondegar T-shirt I purchased 4 years ago. The owners noticed it right away and got a kick out of me wearing it. Then I spotted the waiter that waited on us back in 2008. He remembered me and asked where my friend was, I told him he was back home in the USA. Proof that a big tip pays off. I had an ice cold Kingfisher beer. Brought back memories of me and my friend Bill Hosford sitting there drinking all day while Shirley and Betty would go shopping. After one beer only, we left to go shop!

Café Mondegar

We took our life in our hands and crossed the street again to the Cottage Industries store. These stores are government run, the products locally made and of better quality then on the street. We bought a few small items, could have bought much more but couldn’t fit it into our luggage. When done we decided to go have lunch at the Taj Mahal Hotel. After going through security screening we checked out the menu at the two restaurants but the prices were ridiculous. Then I suggest that we go back to the Café Mondegar where it would be a lot cheaper. John and Maureen were willing, so off we went again, through the throngs of cab drivers and vendors. Once there we were seated by my friend, and the four of us ended staying there for several hours and drank many Kingfishers. (I think Bill finally met his match, it is hard to outdrink an Aussie.)

We then left to find a taxi back to the ship. John and Maureen both wanted to go directly to the ship and not have to wait for the shuttle bus. I went up to a cab and asked the driver how much to take us back inside the port to our ship and he said $5.00. I told him we must go directly, no stops to his uncle’s stores. Once on the way he  put on the meter, I told him it was $5.00 he said okay again. Then he tried to drop us off at the green gate where the shuttle comes to. I told him no, we wanted to go inside the port to our ship at the naval pier. He makes a u-turn and heads off until he reaches another gate, he gets out of the car and goes into an office and comes out with a permit to enter the port. He then says the fee to enter was $10.00, he shows me the paper but I could not read it. I said okay figuring I would worry about it later. We enter the port and we can’t see the ship anywhere, he shouts outside the window every so often asking for directions. Now we have driven by the yellow gate and the blue gate. He stops at the red gate and talks with a security guard and a military officer, they did not seem amused with him being in the port. We had to show our shore cards that were issued to us by India.

Maureen, Betty and John in back of taxi

I don’t know why they are smiling

After driving around another 5 minutes, poor John, after so many beers, had to go to so bad we had to have the driver stop. He disappeared behind a big fuel tank and came back smiling. Finally we spotted the ship. Of course when we got out of the cab he tried to charge us $40.00. I gave him $20.00 which was more than I should have, but you have to feel sorry for these poor people.

Once back to the terminal, which was more like a abandoned warehouse, some vendors had set up shop and I bought Betty a silver elephant necklace. We got back on board around 4:00 and took well needed showers, although the weather was not as hot and humid as we thought it would be. It was a very enjoyable day. We decided to go to the show, which was a stand up comic named Tom Briscoe, creator of So…I got fired from that job! He was very entertaining. We returned to the cabin and fell asleep around 10:00, missing the sail away from Mumbai.

After leaving the Mumbai harbor and dropping off the pilot we set a westerly heading leaving Mumbai and the Indian coast behind.

Sailing to Mumbai ( Bombay)

April 4

Today is the first of 3 sea days, this one is needed to recover. Throughout the morning we maintained a south-south-easterly course and in the afternoon we altered our Course to a southerly course as we sailed along the coast of Sri Lanka. Nothing is really scheduled for today. We played trivia twice with Richard and Irene, did average. The highlight was when 2 whales floated by on the surface of the ocean. I actually spotted them before the Officer in Charge announced it. Today was Mexican Day for lunch, Betty and I ate too much, but it is good.

April 5     Holy Thursday

Early this morning we cleared the coast of Sri Lanka and set a North Westerly heading through the Lakshadweep Sea. Around noon we will again be sailing along the Indian coast and will follow a North-north-westerly heading the rest of the day and night. The ship has not had ESPN and claims it is because of the satellite location until we get near Egypt. I think that the real reason is because they did not pay the premium for getting the final of the NCAA basketball tournament and for the Masters Golf  tournament. This a real bummer as we want to watch Tiger hopefully win.

Today we had two Scholarship at Sea lectures, one by Astronomer David Dodge on Asteroids and the other by Documentary Filmmaker Leslie Iwerks on Creating the Impossible…Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic. We did trivia twice with the same results, our goal is to never win. I don’t think that will be a problem! Again we skipped the evening show and watched the movie “ Iron Lady” with Meryl Streep which we found rather depressing.

April 6    Good Friday

Throughout the night and continuing today we will continue on a north-north-westerly course along the southwest coast of India.  Today we had two Scholarship at Sea lectures, follow-ups to the two we had yesterday, titled ‘From Myths to Mega Pixels’ and ‘The Pixar Story’. We went to trivia and of course we continue our losing streak. Tonight’s show time is Game Show Night with Passenger Feud which we will gladly skip.

Late in the night we will alter our course onto a more northern heading as we continue to Mumbai, India.

Chennai, India (Madras)

April 3

As we entered the outer harbor at 6:45, we stepped on the balcony as many little boats came to greet us. Unfortunately the smell of Chennai also greeted us, it was like walking into a sewer. This is the most disgusting place we have ever been to, I can’t believe we came back. We booked a tour today and had to meet for the tour at 8:45, we went to the lounge at 8:40 got our sticker and sat down. After waiting for a while we found out they sent the people down early. Betty inquired and they told us to go to the dock only to find that our tour bus left. Luckily there was another bus that we just made. The last time we were here the dock was covered with a black oily substance. (So bad that the ship had to replace the carpeting at the gangway, it was totally ruined.)  Today found out  India buys coal from Australia and it used to be shipped to this dock. They have since changed ports for the shipments.

Finally on our way, we headed to the Monuments of Mahabalipuram which was 35 miles south of Chennai. Parts of the city seemed cleaner, but that changed once we got out of the governmental area.

Traffic was terrible as it usually is, but there was a large Hindu festival and the traffic was at a standstill. It was interesting to see all the people following ox carts pulling religious icons to the temple. People were carrying food and flowers as offerings to be put on the carts. The children were having a good time, begging us to take their pictures as we went by.

We drove south, passing the dedicated IT corridor which is 35 miles long and includes many call centers. This is where your calls go when you call Sears or many other businesses. We also drove along Marina Beach which is the country’s longest urban beach. The renowned monk Swami Vivekananda stayed here in 1897. At the far end was a fisherman’s shanty town. Unbelievable that  people live like this. They had a tsunami here in 2004 and it was totally destroyed. The government made a law that no permanent structures can be rebuilt, so they live in make shift housing.

We arrived at the Mahabalipuram which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this city dates back to the 7th century and is home to several intricate historic monuments, including temples with multi-tiered roofs, elaborate relief sculptures, and other awe-inspiring examples of Dravidian architecture. Once off the bus we were attacked by vendors trying to sell ‘genuine handmade’ artifacts. One attached himself to me and I couldn’t get rid of him until we entered a secure section. Once inside there were five Rathas dating back to the 7th century, they are temple models that have been carved from a single piece of sandstone, many featured Buddhists designs. It was amazing, also very hot! luckily it was not humid, but it was hot!

Then we returned to the tour bus and as soon as we left the secure area, the vendors were back and so was the one that latched onto me. Because I wouldn’t buy anything he said he hated Americans, they are rich and would not give him money. At that point I wasn’t too crazy about him either. Back on the bus we headed to Arjuna’s Penance where giant carvings depict Indian fables. It was 88 foot long, up close you could view the Indian deities Arjuna, Krishna and animals including elephants. Truly amazing.

Next we drove to the spectacular 8th century Shore Temple which was built during the reign of King Narsimha-Varman II and is pyramid shaped. It sat right on the Bay of Bengal. (This entire complex was used as ‘test’ site. Hindu temples were previously built using wood. They then started experimenting with stone, carving the structures out of one solid piece. The picture below shows the final effort, when they discovered how to build using blocks of stone.)

Driving back to the port we first stopped at a Radisson Resort for a beverage and a snack. The ice cold drink was very welcome. We then drove the same route back, the bus driver nearly rear-ended someone but we made it back safely although 2 hours late. Then we had to go through Indian security and immigration, then ship security. Good thing Betty didn’t have to be frisked.

The security here was over the top. We had to fill out many forms, have pictures take and fill out custom forms if you were taking a camera or computer ashore. At the sights they charged a fee to use your video camera, but not for a still camera.

Back on board, we cleaned up and waited for the sail-away, then headed to the buffet for dinner. We were hungry as we did not eat much all day. After dinner, we skipped the show and sat on our balcony as the sun was down and it was cool and breezy. The sky was clear and thousands of stars appeared.

Tonight we will sail a south-south-easterly to our next port Mumbai, India.

Sailing to Chennai, India

We both have lost 20 pounds so far on this cruise!!!

April 1

During the day we passed between Nicobar Island and Ten Degree Channel making our entry into the Bay of Bengal. Throughout the day we will maintain a West-North-West heading as we steam through the Bay of Bengal towards Chennai. About the only activity we did today was eat. We just laid around, it was a lazy day, we skipped all the lectures and the port talk on Chennai.

Tonight is formal night, as before, nothing special. Next Sunday is formal night again, Easter, so maybe they will do something different. The last one is at the end of the month which we will probably miss as we will start packing our luggage that will shipped home. We skipped the show tonight and instead watched a Scholarship at Sea lecture by Leslie Iwerks who is the granddaughter of the creator of Mickey Mouse. She made a document on her grandfather UB Iwerks and was nominated for a Academy Award. Without UB there would have never been a Mickey Mouse. Born in 1919, he and Walt Disney formed the Iwerks-Disney Company which never got off the ground. Then they invested in ‘Laff a gram Company’, but then filed bankruptcy. Walt Disney moved to California and Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Studio. Walt convinced UB to come to California and he took the offer, becoming the highest paid employee of Disney, even paid more than Walt. He created the Oswald cartoon which was stolen from Disney. That is when Walt and UB created Mickey Mouse and the rest is history.

Overnight we will continue to sail across the Bay of Bengal to Chennai, India

April 2

This morning we had a “Pirate Safety Drill”, the crew and all passengers were exercised in anti-piracy protocols. I think they  should just issue us rifles but that is not an option. Then we had to have a face-to-face passport examination with two officials from India. No wonder the visa was so expensive, they joined the ship in Thailand and cruised to India. We then attended a port lecture on Mumbai by our port lecturer Debbie. Lunch in the buffet today was a Italian Trattoria Luncheon, which is always good as the chefs are from Italy. We always eat too much on Italian and Mexican Days.

This afternoon we had another Scholarship at Sea lecture by astronomer David Dodge called “ How Venus Changed The Earth”. Betty went and was disappointed as he talked about Captain Cook’s explorations in the south seas.  (I’m still trying to figure out what this had to do with Venus.) Today our trivia partners Richard & Irene were feeling better so we played twice today and did average. It was only the 4 of us in the morning and a new passenger joined our team this afternoon, Johan from Belgium now living in Vegas. (Note to Bill: I asked if he was familiar with feather bowling in Belgium, he said he’d never heard of it!  Told him to take a drive to Detroit.)

We skipped the dining room, just got a sandwich and ate on our balcony. It has been one beautiful day, we sat out for over 6 hours and I am actually writing this on the balcony. It is 6:40 and the sun just set. We are sailing west so we had no direct sun all day. Decided to skip the show tonight. It was Dorothy Bishop, not sure what she does, but she was a finalist on America’s Got Talent. Apparently just not enough if she is performing on cruise ships.

We set our clocks back 1/2 hour tonight, India wants to be different I guess. Tonight we continue to steam a West-North-West heading and early in the morning we will alter our course onto a south westerly heading, embark a pilot and enter the dredged channel between the buoys, passing the break water and enter the harbor basin where we will make our way to our berth in Chennai.

Phuket, Thailand

March 31

During our approach this morning we passed numerous small islands before entering the channel and navigating the shallow waters of the harbor. The ship then maneuvered into the turning basin and docked at 7:00 a.m. We were up very early as we booked a tour, Betty just had to ride an elephant as it was on her bucket list. I was not too keen on the idea. Apparently a lot of people wanted to do this as we had 8 bus loads of passengers and crew throughout the day. Our tour bus left at 7:30 and we drove from the south end of the island to the north end, passing through Phuket Town on our way. 

Upon arrival at Island Safari Park we first were given a ride in cart powered by oxen, a bumpy ride hard on the back and butt.

After the ride we were taken to a hut and shown how to prepare a Thai Papaya salad. Betty did this as she is the cook in this family. She had to mash various ingredients like rice, chilies, yellow papaya, green beans, tomato and rice wine. It came out absolutely perfect and it was delicious and very spicy, good thing she didn’t listen to me and put in 2 chilies.

 

After finishing our little meal we had a chance to sit atop a Water Buffalo. The buffalo are still used all over Thailand and Vietnam in the rice paddies. We never thought we’d ever do this but we did, not sure I’d do it again.

 

He didn’t seem to happy when I got on, could it be my weight?

We then had a demonstration on how rubber is made. It is sort of like collecting maple syrup. The trees are tapped at night due to the heat of the day. The rubber is white as it oozes out. Once collected they take the latex, remove the impurities and add formic acid to it, turning it into a jelly form. It is then put thru a rolling machine and hung on bamboo poles to dry for 4 to 7days.

  

Now it was time to ride the elephants, Betty was really excited and I was not so sure this was going to be fun. Well was I wrong, this was a thrill of a lifetime. We had a blast riding and feeding our elephant bananas. Whenever the driver would say the word  word ‘banana’ the trunk would come back and we would have to fill it. Our elephant seemed to have a mind of her own, the others would follow each other on a path where as ours would walk through the mud and over the hills. She didn’t like to be in the back so she pushed her way to the front of the group. Our driver told us she did not get along with one of the other elephants so he had to keep them separated or they would fight. We rode for about 45 minutes through the jungle and it wasn’t touristy at all. Once off the elephant we then went to a Elephant Show where Betty had a Elephant Massage. (This was a young elephant and she was very gentle. I even got an elephant kiss and she whistled in my ear.)

We then left the park and were taken to the Wang Talang International Lapidary Store where they tried to sell us jewelry. Upstairs they had a craft store where we bought a Christmas ornament. Then it was back to the ship, where a market was set up on the pier. The good thing was they sold big bottles of beer for $3.00 US. It must have been the most profitable stand there.

Dinner was a new experience for us. We never go to the dining room on port days, but when we went to the buffet, it was closed, instead the Bistro was open. We’ve never taken advantage of the Bistro before, it was a nice alternative. 

After sail-away we headed on a north-westerly course throughout the night through the Andaman Sea to our next port which is Chennai, India.