Foster has had a terrible cough that really flared up at night. He finally broke down

and went to the doctor after our tour at Reunion Island. He was diagnosed with an

upper respiratory infection, put on 2 antibiotics (he who almost never takes any)

and guarantied overnight. He slept most of the day (missing medical’s morning call)

but was released in the afternoon.

I found out today that our Pop Choir performance would be at 10:00 tomorrow night.

The performance was supposed to be at 4:00 in the afternoon later in the week, but some

of  the people are getting off in Durban so it was pulled up and they couldn’t get a better time slot.

Indian Ocean Islands

On Friday we were in Port Louis, Martinius. We did not take an organized tour, just

took the shuttle to the waterfront.

On Saturday we were at Reunion Island. We took a scenic tour of a part of the island.

It was very nice. It’s a lot like other tropical islands with beautiful mountains and shore

line. We stopped at a vanilla plantation and had a presentation on growing and harvesting

vanilla. It is a long, complicated process requiring a lot of work.

Captain and Son

Leisure Day

After a really busy sea day next day was more restful. There was a future cruise

Presentation which I caught the tail end of, a navigational presentation which I have

heard before and a photography presentation which I did not attend.

I only had choir practice. Joe, our male singer in production show is our director. He is very 

good and everyone really likes him. On a small ship, staff takes on extra duties. There are

not as many cruise director personnel and entertainment helps out in many years. The future

cruise director also is the Princess Circle Hostess. Our current one, Lindsay, who we like

a lot is from South Africa and will be going home when we get to Cape Town. By the way,

the Cole Porter show was great.

Busy Day at Sea

Today was a BUSY day. After a morning walk, breakfast, another short walk, and

a short lounge on the deck to read and watch the ocean go by, things got started. 

While Foster went to the culinary demonstration, I went to line dancing. Since the

afternoon would really be busy, I’m glad I could get my shower in before 

11:30 Port Lecture for next 2 ports

Pub Lunch

1:00 Choir practice (cut short due to rehearsal for afternoon special event)

2:00 Dr. Leavell’s talk on Ethiopia (very interesting and informative)

3:15 ANZAC Day Memorial Service and Concert

ANZAC Day is Australia’s Memorial Day. It was a very nice ceremony and the

concert by Trevor Knight, our horse storyteller, was also good though the

speakers were a bit too loud.

We finally made it back about 4:30. Tonight is a production show of “What a

Swell Party”, music by Cole Porter. We’ve seen it before and it is very good.

The difference in the shows on this ship and the bigger ships is a smaller cast.

On the larger ships, there are 2 male and 2 female singers and they alternate the

songs. Here we have only 1 male and 1 female and they have to do all the songs 4

singers would normally do. Of course there are also fewer dancers.

Lookout

Crossing the Equator

Q&A with Captain

We enjoyed a Q&A with the captain this morning. He qualified for captain at 24 but

did not get appointed until age 37 which is still very young. He is also a lawyer. He recently

spent 14 months ashore after his son was born. His wife and son (now 2) travel with

him. He will be leaving us in Cape Town. His schedule is normally 3 months on and about

2 ½ months off. He has a lot of ongoing training when off ship.

We crossed the equator today and King Neptune delivered punishment to the Pollywogs

(those crossing equator for first time by ship). It is a cute ceremony, but they went easy

on the Pollywogs on this ship. Pasta instead of raw eggs and other messy items thrown

at them; a rubber fish to kiss instead of making them think they kissed a real one.

I had a scheduling conflict today because I wanted to join pop choir and had already missed

First two practices. I had to skip line dancing.               

Small Ships

I knew I preferred sailing on small ships and the Ocean Princess proves it again. Of course

you see the same people and get to know more of them. Then because many of the

itineraries are longer than typical one to two weeks there are different menus. Today

we are having a Sunday Brunch (first time on a cruise) and I just saw the menu and

there must be about 40 to 50 items. I’ve already mentioned the enrichment program.

We’re currently at sea for 6 consecutive days. I am managing to get some reading in

between various presentations.

After Church Service this morning I went to line dancing at 10:15 and special lecture

“The Triumph of the Horse” at 11:00.  Foster attended a presentation by this storyteller

yesterday and really enjoyed it. 

After Brunch we attended Dr. Leavell’s presentation on Muhammad and then I watched

the presentation I missed yesterday. Most afternoons we have a special cocktail event but

we seldom make it.

We don’t attend a lot of the evening shows, but tonight is a “production” show Motor City

so we will attend.

Sailing the Arabian Sea

I knew I preferred sailing on small ships and the Ocean Princess proves it again. Of course

you see the same people and get to know more of them. Then because many of the

itineraries are longer than typical one to two weeks there are different menus. Today

we are having a Sunday Brunch (first time on a cruise) and I just saw the menu and

there must be about 40 to 50 items. I’ve already mentioned the enrichment program.

We’re currently at sea for 6 consecutive days. I am managing to get some reading in

between various presentations.

After Church Service this morning I went to line dancing at 10:15 and special lecture

“The Triumph of the Horse” at 11:00.  Foster attended a presentation by this storyteller

yesterday and really enjoyed it. 

After Brunch we attended Dr. Leavell’s presentation on Muhammad and then I watched

the presentation I missed yesterday. Most afternoons we have a special cocktail event but

we seldom make it.

We don’t attend a lot of the evening shows, but tonight is a “production” show Motor City

so we will attend.

Dubai

Riding around Dubai was quite an experience. The city was built during the last 30

years and there are many skyscrapers with very interesting architecture.  It is such a

contrast to Mumbai and many other cities because most everything is so new and clean.

In 1979 the World trade Center was built in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately itwas

very hazy and we can’t get the view we would like. You probably noted this on the

pictures. We saw the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, the Burj Al Arab Hotel

and the Jumeirah Mosque.

There is a seaplane that offers a tour over the city and I would love to have taken it,

but for the amount of money it costs, I want a clear day.

I had a bit of difficulty with the terminal Wi Fi. It was really slow the first day but was

much better the second. When I signed onto my blog, the access information was in

Arabic. Finally someone at the information desk got it translated for me and fortunately

It stayed translated for the second day because no one was at the desk, and I was able

to post a lot of pictures.

I wanted to go to the Dubai Mall just to see it, but shuttle buses only ran the first day and

I didn’t want to take a taxi. I’m still not comfortable going far away from the ship on my own.

Scenes from Dubai

Most Luxurious Hotel in World

Tallest Building in World

Mosque in Dubai

Scenes from Oman

Foster in Oman

Abihya (Burka) or...

Linda Dressed for Oman

Mumbai Outdoor Laundry

Muscat, Oman

Our days at sea continue to be interesting. We’ve had presentations on Hinduism

which I would need many more to begin to understand and Islam which because they

have only one God is much easier to understand. We’ve also had presentations on

Shrines, Temples, and Tombs or India, Great Temples Complexes of Asia, life in the

Harem, and our ports of call. 

Our stop in Muscat, Oman was very interesting. Most of the men wear the white robes

called dashikas or something. Most of the women wear the black burkas, a few with face

covered, a few with all but eyes covered. Some of the burkas are decorated with jewels.

We saw many shops with beautifully decorated burkas. I almost bought a traditional

outfit (NOT burka) but I was concerned about alterations getting done in a timely manner

since we only had a couple more hours in port. Our Princess Circle Hostess had found a

nice shop and she thought they could do alterations quickly –like 20 minutes- but I was a

little concerned. Also, they didn’t take credit cards; Foster would have had to go to a money

changer to get money and I wasn’t sure what kind of rate we would get. I’m hoping I

will have another opportunity in Dubai and at a good price.

Linda with Indian Ladies

Mumbai

Mumbai is a very dirty city. We did not see a “new, modern” area of town, but

interspersed among all the old dirty buildings would be a clean one and a few

new ones. We had a morning tour of the city and it was very interesting. We visited

or viewed the Gateway of India, Taj Mahal Hotel, Victoria Terminal Station,  Gandhi

Museum, Prince of Wales museum, Kamala Nehru park and hanging gardens, Jain

Temple and the Gobi Ghat (outdoor laundry). 

One of our guest lecturers told us about two unusual occupations for men. One is

the Gobi Ghat and another is Tiffin Wallahs who deliver lunches from wives to working

husbands. If I understand our guide correctly the Gobi Ghat wash about 1,000,000 pieces

a week and the Tiffin Wallah deliver about 200,000 lunches daily and are paid about $15 a

month. They ride in the baggage car of the train. (I wonder what their fare is). I don’t

know what the Gobi Ghat are paid. 

We were hoping to see cows roaming the streets, but I only saw a couple down an alley

we passed.

A very pleasant part of the tour was seeing so many beautiful saris. When we were

walking in the lovely park I saw someone taking a picture of a lady by some flowers.

She looked very nice and I was wishing Foster were near to get a picture. When they

finished, they came to me and asked if they could have a picture with me (Deb had

told us that many people liked to have pictures with tourists). Of course I said yes and

I did manage to locate Foster in time to get my picture made with them. We also

got a nice picture of another family. We hope to get Wi Fi access in Dubai and if we

do I will try to upload more pictures.

Sea Day 3

A typical day at sea: 

Up at 6:30 (sometimes I make it earlier)

Walk for over an hour

Breakfast

Walk about 20 minutes

Planned to read in spare 45 minutes but instead downloaded yesterday’s pictures

and started this post.

 A conflict on the first activity of the day (10:15). I’m going to line dancing and Foster is

going to the Mumbai port lecture. Of course he would not be line dancing. 

3:00 and all is well.

Line dancing was fun as always. We had a special guest today – Lewis. He is the

Captain’s son 2 year old.  The young 40ish captain is from Wales and his wife is from

Finland. I managed a few minutes on deck for reading and  spoke with the watchman

on duty. While reading I remembered I forgot the book club meeting at 11:00. I think today

was only to get the book (The Confession by John Grisham) which I read earlier this

year. Had a light lunch and before we knew it, it was time for our afternoon lectures. 

Dr. Leavell delivered another good educational presentation on Hinduism. A lot

of interesting information but I would certainly hate to be quizzed. 

Special Interest Lecturer Deb gave an interesting presentation on Mumbai from

slums to Bollywood.

 I got over an hour of reading in before dinner and after dinner attended the

early evening’s entertainment and took an after dinner stroll on deck. I don’t

often attend many shows except production ones  but we are having some early

performances and I have taken in a couple.

 Days at sea are BUSY. It seems we need to be in port to get some rest.

Rickshaw Ride

Male

Wednesday continued with unusual happenings as the captain interrupted us for

the second time at dinner to request blood for a medical emergency. Not good for

someone. 

Today we did a walking tour of Male (Maldive Islands). This island is almost

100% Muslim.  It was nice but very hot. We went to a Mosque, shoes off,

shoulders covered. We did not go into the praying area, only viewed it.

Our guide said they prayed 5 times a day but I have not seen anyone stop to pray

here or in any other places that has a large Muslim population. At a graveyard

he explained about tombstones, round top women, pointed top men and height

based on age.

College at Sea

We found out when we got on the ship that our internet time was only going to be

half of what we expected. So now we about 10 minutes each per day.

This morning I tried to download a picture which always uses a lot of time. This

time before it finished downloading I lost connection to the server. When I logged

out I had used 9 minutes and had nothing to show for it. So don’t expect many

pictures. Hopefully, we’ll find free or reasonably priced Wi Fi at some ports.

Cutting and pasting text doesn’t take nearly as long (nothing fast on satellite).

The ship’s photographer told me about a free program I can download that

can reduce size of picture file. I’ll try to do it early tomorrow when few people

should be using internet. 

The Captain just announced about the earthquake and tsunami warning. He said

we were not to be concerned because of the deep water we are in. We should not be

concerned because of the depth of the water. However, we will have to wait

to see if any ports we are scheduled to visit are affected. 

We had a presentation today on the great Temples of Asia. Just seeing the pictures

makes me want to visit. We did visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. 

Dr. Leavell’s presentation today on Hinduism was very interesting. I feel like I’m back

in college and trying to cram a lot of information into a small brain in a short amount

of time.

This morning we had a “Pirate Drill”  and a port lecture on Male (Maldive Islands).

This afternoon another outstanding lecture by Dr. Leavell on early European exploration

to Asia. I finally managed a little reading. Of course, I’m doing a lot of walking early in

the morning and short walks after meals. I only got started on morning walks today

because I have been getting up VERY early (4:30 AM) to watch Masters. I was very

happy they not only had it on ship’s ESPN but that satellite didn’t go down.

At Sea Day 1 Continued

Being at sea means being busy. This afternoon we attended two presentations and I

attended line dancing. We will be doing a lot of both throughout this trip. As I mentioned

earlier, one of our speakers is from Furman. His name is James Leavell. Today’s topic was

about 13^th century Chinese exploration. It was very interesting even though he drowned

his computer and had to do the presentation without visuals.  He concluded that if

Chinese had continued exploration to western world (their east), the world would be

different today

Enjoyed production show Stardust after dinner.

Pirates Not Allowed

I debated about publishing the following, but I’m supposed to be

sharing my experiences so here goes. 

Another first today. Several years ago while on a business trip in

Oklahoma City, I went to my first tornado drill (tried to go outside

since I had only done fire drills before-dummy).  

I did not think we would be in the piracy area but we will be for

about two weeks.  Today I attended my first Piracy briefing. It was

very enlightening.  The Captain gave an excellent presentation

and answered questions well. He recently spent 16 months on a

sabbatical and did investigation of pirate attacks or suspected

attacks so he is well qualified to sail this area.  No problems are expected.

We are not armed but do have 3 machines that emit a sound beam if a

Vessel comes within a certain distance and does not leave when advised

to do so. Our best defense is our speed. No ship traveling over 16 knots

has ever been boarded and we will be cruising about 18 ½ knots

(Normal cruise speed 18 knots) and this additional speed is more than

the number indicates by making it much more difficult for boarding.

A sidelight of all this is that we now get an overnight in Dubai because

of our increased speed

Easter Sunday

We took a rickshaw through Georgetown in Penang, Malaysia with

stops at a Clan House which had lots of Chinese carvings and

at a mansion previously owned by a Chinese Kapitan. Very nice.

Afterwards, tea at a hotel. It was a nice way to see the city. It is

very hot so we’re glad we had an early morning tour.

Attended Easter mass before dinner

Linda and Malaysian home visit hostess

Malaysia

Today we had tea with a family named Mismun in a village called

Kanjong Darat.They had a huge beautifully landscaped garden

with bridges, little ponds, lots of orchids. The home is similar to a B and B,

very large. The hostess was an elderly little Muslim lady. She was very

friendly and had prepared an excellent selection of items fried bananas,

potatoes, tapioca wrappedin banana leaves,  2 kinds of cake.

We had to remove our shoes and the floor was tile. She greeted

us with both hands grasping our hands. Everyone seemed to

really enjoy it.

 Afterwards we stopped for a walk through Little India and photo stops

at the Blue Mosque and the Sultan’s Palace. 

We're on the Ship

This is the first time we have taken a bus from the cruise terminal to the

ship. My first impression is how quiet it is.  How different from the large

ships. I hope it stays this way. It would be nice to have a sea day right away

but we will be in port the next two days. We like our cabin. The extra space

is really nice. Tonight we had a full moon and my aft after dinner walk on deck

was lovely. One of our guest lecturers is retired from Furman. I’m looking

forward to meeting him. The enrichment program looks really good.

Night Safari

We went on a night safari last night at the Singapore Zoo. I do not liked zoos
because I don't like seeing animals confined. This wasn't so bad. I was
disappointed there weren't more exotic animals., but we did see lions, a
tiger and leopards. It was very dark (NIGHT safari) so we could not take
pictures.

Foster and Linda at Botanical Gardens

Orchid Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Singapore Botanical Gardens

Today started our rainy but it cleared around 10:00 AM. After some shopping
we went to the Botanical Gardens. They are beautiful. Since we are near the
equator, it is very hot and humid (today was right on) and the gardens are very
 much like a rain forest. Of course, you don't see as many flower in a rain forest.
A highlight of the gardens is the Orchid Garden. A charge of $5 applied, but
for seniors $1. Definitely a bargain.Since we are not yet restricted on internet
time, I will share several pictures.  Later I will much more selective with pictures.
We have photgraphed many brides and grooms on our trips and added another
today.

Little India

Singapore Flyer

Singapore Day 3

Today we took the Singapore Airlines hop-on, hop-off bus. At $6 (Singapore,
less than $5 US), it is the best deal. We only hopped off twice, at Little India and
at the Singapore Flyer. The bazaar in Little India had a wonderful spice smell.
There were garlands all along the street. I would have liked to purchase a
sari, but I would have needed someone to dress me. We had our first
misadventure in a shopping mall when I went to the rest room and Foster
went missing. He was buying a watch band while I was trying to find him.
I walked up to our bus stop looking for him. When I walked back he finally
appeared with his new watch band. I miss not having cell phones We've
talked about getting 2-way radios for our cruises. Maybe it's time..

The view from the Singapore Flyer was very nice. We were told it would be
really nice at sunset. We saw lots of interesting buildings, unusual architecture
all along the tour.

Rain, rain,rain

We were planning to a bus tour on Monday but it was pouring rain early 
so we decided to wait until another day. Of course it cleared up. We walked
around the area and found locations where we can purchase items we
need. We quickly learned we should have packed more items because things
are much more expensive here. The concierge told us where we can get toiletries
at a decent price, but  we still will have to pay much more for vitamins.
We're planning on doing the hop on, hop off bus today. Not raining now,
but it's unpredictable so we;ll take our chances today.

Yesterday afternoon, we took the underground to Raffles. We walked around
outside but only residents are allowed in lobby. We did find the Long Bar
but just peaped in, didn't purchase $21 singapore sling.

Breakfast and afternoon cocktails and h'ourdeves are more than 
sufficient for food. Already time to cut back and walk, walk, walk.

Gift from housekeeper Oliver

A new item for my Christmas tree dolls and pets collection.

Singapore At Last

After some 33 hours from leaving home, we finally arrived in Singapore.
Needless to say, our bodies are all out of whack. On the leg from Houston
to Moscow we originally had someone in the seat between us but before we
left he had to get up for something and I noticed the row ahead of us was
empty. Since it was close .to departure time, I told him to claim it quickly
before someone else did.  So I managed to get my head down and sleep a
little. On the leg from Moscow to Singapore no such luck. Foster slept a little
But he's just as discombobulated as I am. We were able to check into our hotel
when we arrived around 7:30 AM. After a quick shower we went to  the executive
lounge for coffee. Later we tried to nap. I was not successful, but Foster managed
a few winks.

I went out around lunch time to walk around. Since we're near the equator,
it's very warm and humid, although not as hot as I thought it might be.
I was shocked at the number of people out.It was like being at a sporting event.

The lovely Charlotte

Charlotte Chan, one of our lovely flight attendants was very helpful. She gave us
a lot of information on things to do in Singapore.

Seen in Moscow

After some 10+ hours and a few little naps, we stopped in Moscow. As we were
walking to our gate after waiting in the transit passenger line some 30 minutes,
we passed this. Had to have a picture.