Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

Mumbai, Day 2

Posted on May 3, 2023 by patmathews

May 1, 2023

Mumbai is also known as Bombay which was its official name until 1995. It is in the center of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the sixth most populous metropolitan area in the world. It is actually made up of seven islands. During the 18th century, Mumbai was reshaped by a project that undertook reclamation of the area between the seven islands from the sea. It was completed in 1845 which transformed Mumbai into a major seaport on the Arabian Sea. Now Mumbai is one of the world’s top ten centers of commerce in terms of global financial flow.

We had our guide from yesterday and we really enjoyed her knowledge and her support of women. The agency she works for employs only women unless there is an area that they cannot get female guides.

We started our day with a visit to Hindu neighborhoods. We saw many shopkeepers setting up for the day. Hindus do not try to recruit people into the religion. You must be born a Hindu.

In each of the Hindu temples, we saw people preparing the day’s offerings. There is no formal service or leader in the temples. Each person does their own form of honoring the gods.

Here is what one of the areas of offering looks like. It would change every day

You must remove your shoes when going into the temples

In Hinduism and Buddhism, the right facing symbol is called swastika, symbolizing sun, prosperity and good luck. It was appropriated as the left facing symbol of Nazi antisemitism.

Families set up their own offering areas around the water

The water is considered to be a substitute for the holy river Ganges. Each area here has its own crematorium. For those who can afford it, electricity is used for the cremation. If not, traditional wood fire is used.

Here are some other pictures of this area. They have their own outdoor laundry. In an ingenius move, they hang the clothes using intertwined ropes so no clothespins are necessary!

In a contrast between the levels of society here, this 27 story building is owned by the richest man in India. 5 people live there. They have a staff of 600 servants who do not live there. The first 6 floors are the garage for the owner’s 140 cars. There are 5 elevators. One is just for the man… even his wife cannot ride in it. There are 3 swimming pools. One for the husband and wife, one for the 3 kids and one for guests.

In contrast, most of the apartment buildings have put cages around their balconies just to have extra storage.

This statue honors the famous dabbawallas who have delivered lunches by train and bicycle since the 1800s. Between 175,000 and 200,000 lunch boxes are moved each day by 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas and it is estimated that there is only one mistake in 6 million deliveries.

The second part of our day was a visit to the spice market. What an experience! There was every type of spice that you can imagine. Every home has its own recipe for curry and other spices, so people buy the whole spices and have them ground here. Many women were waiting with their bags of spices to be made into their own unique blend.

This is the betel leaf which is supposed to be a stimulant, an antiseptic and a breath freshener, It is widely used here in the treatment of cough, asthma, headache and arthritic joint pain. The betel nut is chewed by people here and it dyes their mouths red. It was thought to be an aphrodesiac.

This woman is picking the stems off of the chilis

We visited a Hari Krishna temple that we explored on a previous trip. That time we had lunch in the restaurant. Hari Krishna is a Hindu sect that tries to raise consciousness and worships the god Krishna. It does try to recruit followers and was successful due to the founder who was an Indian actor, producer and politician. It became popular in the US during the 70’s when the hippies first embraced it.

After touring all day – and it was quite hot – we were ready for a late lunch at Kala Ghoda Cafe. The apricot iced tea was excellent. I had a wonderful roasted vegetable and hummus sandwich and we shared this mango tart for dessert. As the sign indicates, no one could have alcohol!

Our guide needed to be paid in rupees so we had to find a money changer since the ATM we tried yesterday didn’t work. One rupee is about $.82 US so we got a stack of money!

What a wonderful and educational two days in Mumbai. On to Goa tomorrow.

G20 will be here in September – signs are everywhere.

Posted in Asia, Excursions, Food, May, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Mumbai, India – Day 1

Posted on May 1, 2023 by patmathews

April 30, 2023

Before I write about our two days in Mumbai, here are some pictures from the Captain’s cocktail party. We have one during each segment of the world cruise, and we missed the last one because we were on our trip to Botswana.

We have the captain from the beginning of the cruise back on board. And we have a new cruise director, Dottie.

And here is Laura, one of our singers on board entertaining us at the party, and Iliya, one of our dancers showing his stuff in Dubai.

After the cocktail party we had dinner with Marilyn, Charlie, Jeff and Joy.

As we sailed in to Mumbai, there was a rainbow. It was pretty overcast, so it is not a great picture. Still, a nice welcome.They had a rain storm overnight and early in the morning.

Here are a couple of shots as we pulled in to port.

We were greeted by beautiful dancers. One placed a bindi on my forehead.

After quite a process with immigration, we met our guide Husseine. We had a very comfortable air conditioned small bus for the 6 of us, Erin, Mui, Sonia, Boris and the two of us.I guess they want everyone to know we are tourists! But I call us travelers in discovery.

It is a holiday today and tomorrow. Today was Sunday and there was not too much traffic on the streets (at least by Mumbai standards)! So we were able to get to our first destination, Dahravi, fairly quickly. We were met by our guide here, Mustafa. He is a college student who uses what he earns to continue his education.

What to know about Dahravi. Dharavi is a suburb in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It has often been considered to be one of the world’s largest slums. Dharavi has an area of just over .7 square miles and has a population of over 1,000,000. Mumbai has a population of 22 million people and India just surpassed China as the most populated country in the world. People here consider Dahravi a township and Husseine told us that we would re-visit our idea of a slum when we finished touring this area. People here are kind of ashamed that some of the movie Slumdog Millionaire was filmed here because most of their environment is not as depicted in that movie.

We were not supposed to take pictures of the residents and workers as they did their jobs. There were a few exceptions, so I will share the ones I do have. The amazing thing about Dharavi is that everyone works and nothing is wasted. There is virtually no crime and some of the residents choose to live here even though they are millionaires. We felt safer walking here than in Brazil and West Africa. There are over 20,000 small businesses such as apparel, pottery, embroidery, quality leather goods and plastics and $1 billion dollars is generated here every year. One of the main businesses is recycling, not just from the township but using materials from all over Mumbai. We saw workers separating plastics by color. The plastic is then melted down, washed and made into small pellets, dried on the rooftops and then sold to make recycled items such as combs, bottles, etc. They don’t waste anything here. Appliances like refrigerators are taken apart and the parts used for other things or rebuilt. Skilled workers here earn 12-15 dollars a day and the unskilled workers earn 6-8 dollars per day.

There are 18 mosques, 26 temples and 8 churches in this township and people from all religions live and work peacefully together. This seems to be the case in all of Mumbai according to Husseine.

Conditions are quite primitive and most homes do not have running water or toilets.

While we were there, we saw a man cleaning up trash (they do this twice a day). It turned out that there was a wedding procession coming and we got right in with the group – they wanted us to dance down the street with them and we did!

What a fascinating look at a thriving community – yet a slum. We did change our view of what it is like to live and work in the slum.

We then drove to an adjacient island, Bandra, where we stopped for lunch at the Salt Water Cafe in an upscale neighborhood. Many of the Bollywood actors eat their meals here. I don’t think any were there when we were. We had some pasta dishes and the special mango ice cream as it is mango season here.

Next we went to St. Mary’s Catholic Church. There are kiosks outside the church with replicas of houses and body parts. If you want to pray for something, you can purchase the replica as an offering.

We visited the fort and walked up for the view of this spectacular bridge and the bay.

Our last visit was to the old Portuguese area of Mumbai. There are very few of the old homes left but we did see the ones that remain. Many have small chapels outside them. Much of the area has been redeveloped into high rise condos and apartments.

This man was selling ice apples. He had to peel off the outer rind and then we got a section with a covering like on an orange. We peeled that off and ate the fruit. Juicy and not too sweet. None of us had ever heard of these before.

Do you think we were tired after our day?

Here are some scenes on the way back to the ship. The waterfront is under a lot of construction, but at night the area (Marine Drive) is very lit up and is called the “Queen’s Necklace”.

This was our 4th visit to Mumbai and we experienced totally different things. You can see how much wealth has come into the city with all of the construction and many high rises. But lots of poverty still exists. Our butler, Vishant, is from India and he says people can live a very good middle class life here on $500/month.

If you want to read about our previous visits, use the search function on the blog site. I am trying not to repeat information I previously wrote about!

Posted in April, Asia, Excursions, Food, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Fujairah, United Arab Emirates

Posted on April 28, 2023 by patmathews

April 27, 2023

We are into the 5th segment of our Around the World cruise, day 103. New passengers came on in Dubai and this segment will end in Singapore on May 18.

Here are some pictures as we left Dubai. It isn’t as colorful as the Hong Kong harbor, but it is still pretty.

Norm took some pictures of the huge aquarium tank in the Dubai Mall. It is hard to see the beautiful sea life because of the blue, but here is one of them. The mall facing area is huge (like everything in that mall). We didn’t go into the actual aquarium.

We sailed into Fujairah for a 9 AM arrival. It is our 4th time here so we planned to take the shuttle into the mall and do some shopping. Here are some pictures of our sail in.

You can see that the landscape is much like the other countries in this area with a city immediately in front of massive rocky areas. It is amazing to see that they have cleared these mountains to create the city areas. Our first visit here was in 2015 and there is much more expansion since then.

Fujairah is the 7th largest city in the UAE and is the only city on the UAE’s east coast. The city has a population of about 97,500. The main mosque is the Sheikh Zayed Mosque which is visible from many locations in the center of the city. It can hold 28,000 worshippers! We visited it in the past.

It is still pretty hot here but was breezy so it didn’t seem as bad as some other days.

We were able to get a Pandora charm at the mall and Norm bought a pair of shoes. Interestingly, in the Dubai Mall he couldn’t find what he was looking for and the shopkeepers told him that he wouldn’t find his size. At this mall, he found a pair in the Under Armour store! The mall is MUCH smaller than the Dubai mall and it didn’t take us long to go through the whole thing. There is Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks as well as many stores that are familiar in the US.

We relaxed in the afternoon and had dinner in Toscana. As we were seaated in the back of the restaurant, we caught the last of the sunset.

We now have 2 sea days before we reach Mumbai, India. We received information about the conditions in India and Sri Lanka and the public/religious holidays that will occur while we will be visiting. In Mumbai, the State Foundation Celebrations will take place and many sites would be closed or extremely crowded if open. We have private tours with friends in all of the ports in India so we will see how it goes. In Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Full Moon Poya Public holiday will take place and it will be two days off for the public so all public offices, schools and most businesses will be closed.

Many of the upcoming ports are not well established for tourism, like the ports in west Africa. English competency varies greatly and there is no formal guiding qualification so most of the guides will be locals that are happy to share their knowledge. Most buses won’t have air conditioning or be very modern and rest rooms are far from our standards. This is what it means to be a traveler, not a tourist!

Posted in April, Middle East, World Cruise #4 | Leave a comment

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Posted on April 26, 2023 by patmathews

April 25 and 26, 2023

The night before we sailed into Dubai was the last night in the casino for one of our dealers, Jeannette, and the casino manager, Tony. I will miss them both. Here are pictures of Jeannette and one of a group of the “usual suspects” in the casino. The casino and the boutiques have to be closed when we are in port.

We arrived in Dubai about 1 PM on Tuesday, April 25. Here are some pictures of the pilot arriving and of the sights when we arrived at the port. The tall building is the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. We have visited it twice before so won’t go up this time. Note the pollution in the air – it is almost always this way, but we did have a pretty nice view on our first visit in 2015.

The pilot arriving to guide us into the port

We had an Around the World special event this afternoon and evening – a vintage evening at Al Maha Desert Dune. To our surprise we were picked up in 4 wheel drive vehicles – only 4 to a vehicle. So that meant they needed 110 vehicles to bring all of the guests and the members of the staff who attended to the event. What a convoy that made on the highway! Only in Dubai. It took about an hour to reach the desert area and all of the vehicles had to let some air out of the tires as we drove through sand. These same vehicles are used for the dune climbing which we have done in the past, so they are equipped with roll bars, etc. As we entered into the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, we spotted impalas and a large group of white oryx.

We first enjoyed a private falcon show at a sundowner site where we were treated to champagne and wine along with delicious dates, nuts, dried apricots and fresh strawberries. Stunning show and scenery. Peregrine falcons are the fastest members of the animal kingdom with a speed of 230 miles an hour. Their eyesight is what enables them to catch their prey. In the show, the trainer had a piece of meat in a pouch on a rope. He swung the rope and the falcon dove for it. He did this many times. When he finally allowed the falcon to grab the pouch, the falcon would not release the pouch until it got its meat. Very fascinating to watch. These days, the falcons have a GPS attached so that they don’t get lost. They are fed 20% of their weight when they come back from one of their flights. And they let them rest for 3 days. Imagine eating 20% of OUR body weight!

After the show and our sunset pictures, we got back into our vehicles and traveled a s short distance to the next site where we were greeted with the customary Arabic Bakhoor welcome with an Al Ayyala dance at the camp site. At both sites, the sand was covered with Persian rugs and there were cushions to sit on.

We had middle eastern appetizers at our tables and a buffet dinner under the stars. It was catered by the Al Maha Luxury Resort and Spa which is owned by the same people as Emirates Airlines. Drinks and food were plentiful and those who ate meat had all types of fresh grilled kebabs.

During and after dinner we were entertained with a traditional show of Tanoura dancing, live music of Oud and Tabla players, belly dancers and the skills of henna artists.

The lights were so red that all the pictures looked like this! With our new cruise director, Dottie.

My henna got smudged when it was drying by a friend wanting to give me a high five! But it is still unique.

Ray, our current (and much loved ) cruise director, is leaving tomorrrow on his vacation and will re-join us for the end of the cruise festivities on the last leg of the cruise which starts in Tokyo. He did the transition to Dottie at this event.

It was a really fun night. We got back to the ship about 11 PM after a very fast drive!

Today was our second day in Dubai. Since we had been here many times before, we decided to take the shuttle bus to the Dubai Mall. This mall is quite unbelievable, almost all US stores are there and as many new ones that we never heard of. There are 1600 stores and restaurants. The city is growing all the time and it is spotlessly clean. The mall was quite empty when we arrived at about 9:20 AM but very crowded by the time we left. The mall is attached to the Burj Khalifa. There is a large aquarium and an ice skating rink as part of the mall. We could update and back up our devices fast (free wi-fi in the whole mall) and I had a wonderful manicure and pedicure. We bought some items we needed, some cosmetics that I ran out of and we got a lot of steps in too. We had a leisurely lunch and went back to the ship around 4, we sail at 7 so I had time to do my posting.

Tomorrow we visit our last port in the middle east, Fujairah.

Posted in April, Excursions, Food, Middle East, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Muscat, Oman

Posted on April 24, 2023 by patmathews

April 24, 2023 – Day 100!

Yesterday was the second concert called “Sing Out Loud” by a group of 70 passengers who have been rehearsing on sea days. After the first concert, Norm joined the group. They sang 8 songs and sounded just terrific!

We have been to Muscat twice before. I alway look on my previous blog posts to see what we have explored and we try to do something different unless we really loved something and want to do it again.

Muscat is the capital and most populated city in Oman and it is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. The total population is about 1.4 million. As early as the the first centuury AD it was an important trading port between the west and the east. Since the ascension of Qaboos bin Said as Sultan of Oman in 1970, Muscat has experienced rapid infrastructural development that has led to the growth of a vibrant economy and a multi-ethnic society.

We were planning to go to the Mutrah Souq to shop and when we got off the ship, the hop-on hop-off bus was right at the port, so we went on it for the two hour round trip and ended at the Souq where we did some shopping.

The city’s landscape consists of mostly low-lying white buildings which seem to be built right onto the rock cliffs. I was amazed at the amount of work it must have taken to build here.

Ramadan was over on Friday but there are 3 days of celebration that follow the fasting days so we weren’t sure what might be closed for the holiday. The shop right at the pier was closed but almost all of the Souq shops were open.

Here is the scene as we sailed in.

The city is clean and beautifully landscaped. There are all of the American fast food places and car dealerships alongside of local shops and businesses. The fort that is in the previous picture is the Mutrah fort that was built in the 17th century.

We didn’t get off the bus until the end of the trip. We saw most of the important sites and some of the ones we had visited before. It seems like there are mosques on every corner of the city. The nation is Islamic but there are also some Catholics and Protestants here. The country is very peaceful.

This lookout tower we saw when we sailed in is the Mabkhara which symbolizes Oman’s generated wealth from crude oil decades ago. The economy is still dominated by trade in petroleum, liquified natural gas and porting.

We passed the Al Alam Palace in Old Muscat which is the ceremonial palace of Sultan Qaboos.

And the large yacht is his – the small one is his old one!

The Royal Opera House is the leading arts and culture organization in the Sultanate of Oman.

There are beautiful sculptures all along the route and along the corniche, which is the walkway along the sea.

The original city was surrounded by walls, some of which still remain. Here are some of the gates into and out of the city.

We visited the Souq and bought some nuts. Ray tried to locate his favorite shop and we walked all around to find it. We found out from one of the other vendors that it closed when the owner died. It didn’t seem as crowded as on our previous visit, probably due to the holiday.

Here are some other pictures of the sights.

It was a hot but fun day and gave us a good overview of the current city and we didn’t have to do too much walking in the heat. Next we spend two days in Dubai, tomorrow is a special Around the World event and on Wednesday we will spend time in the Dubai Mall.

Posted in April, Middle East, World Cruise #4 | 3 Comments

Salalah, Oman

Posted on April 23, 2023 by patmathews

April 22, 2023. (Day 98)

This was our 4th visit to Salalah, and this time we booked a private tour with Boris and Sonia. We were told that we needed to wear masks here, and it was curious that all of the guides waiting with the buses didn’t have masks on but we were checked as we left the ship. You have to take a shuttle to the port gate here, and we knew our guide would be waiting in a green jeep. The shuttle passed right by even though we wanted to stop at the jeep and we went into an adjoining area which meant we had to walk back to the jeep. Once we reached our guide, he told us that you only need masks in the port area and we didn’t see another person with a mask on for the whole day!

The day was totally different from anything we did on previous visits. Good thing we had a jeep because some of the roads were very crude dirt roads with many switchbacks (they call the one we were on the most the “snake road”.) You can see why! Our guide, Naseeb, was a great driver.

The landscape is very rocky with some plants. There are many frankincense trees. The use of frankincense is mostly in church services but Naseem said it is also good for stomach ailments and for clearing the lungs of smokers. Who knew? During monsoon season, it is much greener than now, but there still seems to be enough vegetation for the animals that we saw all over the place. Camels, donkeys, goats and cattle roam and chomp anywhere they want and are often in the road. Sometimes they came right up to our jeep, and Naseeb was prepared with some snacks for the camels. Apparently they find their way back home every evening. He told us there are brown, black and white camels. We saw mostly brown ones but did spot one white one.

We went to so many scenic areas and the “secret” beaches. Here are some of them.

We went to one area with three blow holes and the sound of the sea before they “blow” is thunderous.

Naseeb bought us some fruit from these vendors

Norm waiting for the eruption of the sea

We saw so many beautiful beaches and they were mostly deserted. In one or two places we saw people camping in small tents. Naseeb said they do get tourists from all over the world.

Next our trip took us way up into the mountains on the way to Yemen. Naseeb asked if we had our passports. We did not, as the ship keeps them all most of the time so that when the authorities from each country we visit comes on board, they can stamp them all at once. There are a few countries that require a face to face inspection (South Africa was one) but once we show our passports they are collected again. So we were wondering if we would have gone to Yemen?! But no, we had to stop at a checkpoint and when Naseeb told the military guard we didn’t have passports, he just said not to go into Yemen. Apparently Oman and Yemen have a very friendly relationship. Prices are less in Yemen so many Omanis go there to shop.

Naseeb was taking many pictures and videos of us. He had an ipad in the jeep with lots of picctures of previous guests and he asked us if he could use ours. Some of these pictures were ones that he took.

We stopped at a roadside stand and waited while Naseeb purchased snacks for us. This delicious Omani specialty is called fatheera. it is a flaky pastry stuffed with cheese. Some had honey and some just the cheese. We all loved it.

Our last stop before a late lunch was at the Fazayah beach. The part we went to was very private and you could change clothes right out in the open. I had my bathing suit on already. Sonia and I had a nice swim. Naseeb had snorkel equipment that I started with but there was nothing in the water to see just off the beach. The water was too rough to swim out by the rocks so we just enjoyed jumping the waves. Well, except for the one that knocked me down! No one got a picture of that!

The homes here are huge. They tend to have large families. The women mostly stay at home with the children but they are allowed to have jobs if they wish. We only saw one woman as a guide when we were on the pier. We saw three boys in traditional garb going to homes for treats to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The population of Oman is about 2 million wiht 300,000 living in Salalah. Sometimes we saw isolated villages with homes being built. The people are very friendly. Even the military guards smiled and waved.

Our last stop was at a restaurant near the port called the Oasis Club. Naseeb knows the owner so we were allowed in – it is a private club and very fun for families. There is ping pong, pool and many other game tables and children and adults were playing all of the games. The food seemed very American – Norm and Boris had fish and chips (the best ever, they declared) and Sonia and I had vegetable and shrimp stir fry.

It’s hard to capture everything – it was such a great day and gave us an entirely new view of this beautiful country and its people.

Back on the ship we had a middle eastern dinner going on in the terrace and we went rather late and enjoyed some of the local specialties, but no fatheera, unfortunately. I am so glad we got to taste that. Maybe we can get some at. our next port in Muscat, Oman on Monday.

Posted in April, Excursions, Food, Middle East, World Cruise #4 | 4 Comments

At Sea in the Indian Ocean

Posted on April 20, 2023 by patmathews

April 19, 20 and 21, 2023

Yesterday (April 19) we had the official announcement that we would not be going to our port in Yangon, Myanmar. We already kenw that because they are at a level 4 (red) advisory due to the unrest there. Oceania didn’t officially announce it until they had a new itinerary to announce. We have been to Myanmar three times and had some memorable land tours of both Bagan and Mandalay, so it is not disappointing to us and for safety reasons it is the right move. So now we will be going to new ports of Port Blair, India; Sabang, Indonesia; Langkawi, Malaysia and spending an additional day in Phuket, Thailand. the three added ports are all new to us and I know nothing about any of them, so I will need to do some research before May 9. We were also supposed to have an around the world event in Myanmar and we have heard that they are trying to arrange something in another location. We will see what might be added.

These ports will all be in our 5th segment of the world cruise. The 4th segment ends on April 26 in Dubai.

Last evening we were invited to dinner with our two female singers, Abby and Laura. Laura happens to be from New Jersey – Hackettstown to be exact, which is not far from where I grew up. Marilyn and Charlie were with us and Laura decided to ask us to make it a formal night. Marilyn got pictures but I don’t have them yet, so here is one of Marilyn and Charlie at the Oceania cocktail party before dinner. It was fun to get to know these women better – Abby is 22 and Laura is 27 so we are old enough to be their grandparents!

Today (April 20) we had another Around the World brunch. It is always just fabulous, as artistic as it is delicious. Of course we started with mimosas (me) and bloody marys (Norm). Here are some pictures which really don’t do it justice.

Tomorrow we have another sea day and on Saturday we arrive at Salalah, Oman.

Posted in April, At Sea, Food, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Mahe and La Digue, Seychelles

Posted on April 19, 2023 by patmathews

April 17 and 18, 2023

When we were here in 2015, I wrote that I thought it was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. It is still a very beautiful place. We docked in Mahe on April 17 at 2 PM and stayed there until 4:30 AM on April 18 when the ship moved to La Digue and was at anchor there for the day. I don’t quite know why they do it that way, but it was the same last visit.

Mahe is the largest island of Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Victoria is the capital. It was originally largely a plantation owned by the Frichot family. In 1977 France-Albert Rene staged a coup and forced all the Frichots out of Seychelles and into prison. Some were held in jails for several months and then told to leave Seychelles for their own safety upon release.

We had a wonderful opportunity to have lunch with our guest pianist, Panos Karan. Our friends Marilyn and Charlie invited us to join him and them. He is a remarkable talent and also heads a group called Keys of Change which supports young musicians and has created music schools around the world. (keysofchange.org) It was good to hear about his work. What he was most interested in is Adam’s marathon experiences. He has always wanted to run Boston and New York but hasn’t done it yet. He is leaving the ship tomorrow and will run the London Marathon on Sunday. Not surprisingly, with all the delicious food available on the dining room lunch menu, he had a huge bowl of pasta with Bolognese sauce!

Our tour today was a coral cruise to Sainte Anne Marine National Park. We boarded a very large catamaran, Le Cerf, and sailed out to the marine park. They call it a coral cruise but sadly, most of the coral is dead due to overheating and climate change. Once at the park, half of the group boarded a semi submersible boat where we saw mostly sergeant major fish (they are the black and white striped ones).

After both groups were back on the catamaran we spent the rest of the afternoon snorkeling. The water was quite cloudy due to early monsoon rains and my underwater pictures are not too good, but it was a pleasant time and the water was very warm.

On the way back to the dock, the crew entertained us with singing and dancing. Oh to be 20 again and as agile as they are.

The huge house on the hill belongs to the Sheik of Abu Dhabi.

We asked the crew who owned the huge yacht – they said: “a Russian guy”.

Good thing we changed our Polo restaurant reservation to 7:30 because we didn’t get back until 6:30.

Here’s a shot of how hit and miss these storms are.

Lovely sky!

After dinner, there was a deck party because the ship was docked. They are always a good time – and our attention was mostly on the Boston Marathon app since we were tracking our son, Adam, who was running. He finished at the same time as the deck party (we are currently 8 hours ahead of Boston time) and our friends were all cheering for him as we shared his progress and finish.

Congratulations, Adam!!

Day 2 (Adam’s 40th birthday!)

We started out after breakfast for our tour – Coco Island snorkeling adventure. We weren’t sure when we would have another snorkeling opportunity so booked it for both days here in these lovely islands. La Digue is the third most populated island of the Seychelles and the fourth largest by land area. The first inhabitants arrived from France in 1798. The people here are mostly Catholic.

We had the same catamaran as yesterday – they followed us here – but some different and equally terrific crew. The coral here is also mostly dead and it is said that the French colonists manufactured coral lime and are responsible for the decline of the coral reefs. Here the water was much clearer and we saw many fish and a friendly sea turtle. The pictures are still not great, but they give you an idea of the underwater views. Those fish move fast!

We had a long time for snorkeling, then sailed around the beautiful islands before returning to dock to board our tender back to the ship in time for lunch. But first we did get a chance to FaceTime with Adam for his birthday. Internet is still spotty but better than the past few days.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the spa deck and in the thermal pool. Very relaxing. We were invited for dinner with Cella, the Oceania Club ambassador and Dottie, our incoming cruise director. Joining us were Dennis and Cle – we know them from previous cruises.

Our entertainer tonight was Becky Porter who does an Adele show and she sounds pretty much like Adele. We both enjoyed her singing and her off beat sense of humor. Looking forward to her next show when she will do her own favorites.

We have three days at sea in the Indian Ocean and then the Arabian Sea before our next port of Salalah, Oman, on Saturday.

Posted in Africa, April, Excursions, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Nosy Be, Madagascar

Posted on April 16, 2023 by patmathews

April 15, 2023

We stayed in port a few extra hours last night due to a medical emergency on board, but we still made it to Nosy Be on time. Nosy Be is an island off the northwest coast of Madagascar and is the largest and busiest tourist resort. Nosy Be means “ big island” in the Malagasy language. The French colonized the island from 1840 founding an outpost named Hell-Ville (from French Admiral de Hell).

Here are a few photos from our approach to our tendering spot.

Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island. The population of Nosy Be is about 110,000.

The Insignia lounge, where we go to wait for either tender tickets or our tour tickets, was as busy as I have ever seen it, and our tour was one of the last to be called, about 45 minutes late. It is complicated on a tendering day because there are only a limited number of seats in the lifeboats (used for tendering) and the destinations team needs to also coordinate with the tour companies on shore to be sure they are ready for us.

Happily, our tour was picked up in the boat we would take to get to our destination, the Lokobe Natural Reserve. That meant that we didn’t have to take the tender ashore to get in another boat. There were three guides on the boat with us and they split us into three groups when we arrived at the reserve. Out guide was Marcellin, and there were also local people on shore that helped with guiding us on our hike through the rain forest.

The tour description didn’t say that there would be a “wet” landing onto the beach before hiking through the forest, so we had to take off our shoes and socks to wade through the water. I do have the right water shoes but they were on the ship. Then, there was another small water channel which we had to go onto a smaller boat to cross. The group after us was very crowded on that small boat and we thought it might tip over. I don’t know if anyone got a video, but I did get this picture.

It was good that we had guides because many of the creatures we saw were very well camouflaged. We saw chameleons, lemurs and snakes and we probably missed as many as we saw!

The lemurs stayed in the trees. When we were here 8 years ago, we went to a lemur area where we could feed them and they came right on your shoulders. This was a natural reserve and rain forest so the lemurs stayed well away from us. There are about 20 species of lemur. They are less active during the day. Their diet consists of mostly fruit.

We saw many chameleons. The birds are the main threat for them so they have many methods of avoiding detection. Their colors change to blend in with their surroundings and they may look like the bark of a tree with the head pointing down like the one we saw. Their eyes rotate 360 degrees in their heads so they are good at detection, but with their eyes wide open, it is easier for birds to see them. If they point down, the birds cannot easily see their eyes! Some were so small that we would have missed them entirely.

The snakes here are mostly nocturnal. There are more than 80 species of snakes here but none are poisonous. Marcellin said that the only really dangerous ones are sea snakes and we won’t be doing any swimming!

The ones we saw were this black snake and this boa constrictor. The black one was not moving but when it heard us, the boa moved slowly. Boas can reach 22 feet long. I have these pictures of the snakes but we couldn’t see how long the boa really was.

The lemurs were up in the trees so you don’t see them well in my pictures – mostly you just see the tails. I did get this shot of one in a tree trunk.

There is a tree that has sap like a sort of rubber that they can use on their boats. We saw many of the wooden canoe like boats and also the sailboats on our trip to Lokota.

The hike was challenging at times, pretty muddy (it’s a rain forest after all), but we did well and learned so much about Madagascar and its beauty.

At the end of the hike, we arrived at a different beach where local women welcomed us with singing and dancing. They gave anyone who tipped them a necklace made of flowers. And we always tip them.

There were also lots of adorable children. The facepainting that the women do is a tradition. Some just use the white powder to protect from the sun and others are more ornate.

The local people prepared some fruit and snacks for us and there was beer and soft drinks. They had the type of tablecloths that I bought last time along with many craft items.

We added to our mask collection with this one featuring lemurs and chameleons.

On our way back from the tour we saw this downpour under one of the large clouds.

And back at the ship We saw this entrepreneur selling fruit to our friends before they got out of the tender.

It was a hot and steamy humid day so we had a very late lunch when we returned (3:30) and relaxed in our room in the late afternoon. We watched “A Man Called Otto”. I had read the book it was based on – “A Man Called Ove” and enjoyed it. We both liked the movie and the lead performance by Tom Hanks.

We had a snack for dinner and I went to the evening show which was Panos Karan, an amazing pianist, who played classical music from around the world. We both attended his first show. He ended this one with the entire “Rhapsody in Blue.” Really wonderful.

Posted in Africa, April, Excursions, World Cruise #4 | 3 Comments

Mayotte, Comoros

Posted on April 14, 2023 by patmathews

April 14, 2023

I can’t believe it but we have reached the halfway point in our Around the World cruise. Tonight there will be a “Halfway There” party in Horizons. Yes, it is day 90 and kind of hard to believe that we are at that point already.

Today we anchored at Mayotte, Comoros. It’s a place that we haven’t visited before and actually never heard of! Unfortunately our tour was cancelled and we know that others were too. Apparently the tour operators here never answered phone calls to confirm the tours. Some of the tours did take place, but since we didn’t have one, we chose to just go ashore and explore.

Mayotte is an overseas department and region of France. It is part of the Comoros archipelago. It is located in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeastern Africa, between Northwestern Madagascar and Northeastern Mozambique. French is the official language here and is spoken by an increasing part of the population but there are native languages still spoken too. 95% of the population is Muslim and most of the women dress in the conservative Muslim clothing. It is still Ramadan so we weren’t sure what might be open. The town was not at all crowded so that might be why.

Here are some pictures as we sailed toward the main city, Mamoudzou. We didn’t arrive until around 11. It is a tender port so we had lunch here and took a tender to shore around 12:30.

Once on shore, we were greeted by these people who were singing in their native language. The island is very lush and green and there are beaches but not near where we docked.

The day was hot and humid. I did get some shots of the ferry that runs constantly between the main island and the smaller island nearby.

We were on a mission to back up our phones since we haven’t had fast enough wifi since March 4! We first stopped into a cell phone provider (Orange) and the employee put their password in for us. It wasn’t fast enough. We then found a supermarket to purchase a couple of things we needed and went on to the tourist bureau where we again tried to do our back up. Norm was successful, but I was not, probably because of all the pictures on my phone. I will try again in Dubai next week. I am quite sure I will find fast wifi there.

There were two local markets that had mostly childrens clothes and some for adults, but nothing we wanted to buy. And they only took euros anyway – we didn’t have any.

I don’t know how or where I took this picture, but I think he is quite cute so I am including it!

Tomorrow we head to Madagascar where we do have a tour. We saw the lemurs last time we were here so I am not sure we will see them again. I am sure it will still be pretty hot!

Posted in Africa, April, World Cruise #4 | Leave a comment