A New Adventure

I'm about to begin my THIRD 'ROUND THE WORLD CRUISE! with Holland America Line - Seven Continent Discovery!

Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip

January 6 - April 28, 2012

ms Amsterdam

Lush tropical visits to Tahiti, Samoa, Great Barrier Reef; Vietnam & Thailand, scenic cruising through the ice realm of Antarctica with its eerie floating icebergs, a visit to Pettah Bazaar in Sri Lanka, touring in Mumbai, India, sailing through the Suez Canal for my fourth time, seeing the ruins of Olympia in Greece and Pompeii in Italy, experience the energy in an authentic flamenco dance in Spain before returning to the home port of Ft. Lauderdale.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai has developed from a 3rd world country since the 1970’s due to their rich oil that was discovered there. They have attracted world-wide attention through innovative projects in this desert country of every imaginable sport – golf courses, indoor ski hills, Formula One racing. Tourism has made their properties more valuable. Only 20% of the residents are citizens with the other 80% the work force that has been brought there. The citizens are all worth at least $17million each with many of the the non-citizens living in poverty with some questionable human rights issues.

Since we were in port for two nights, I was able to see quite a bit of the city on the hop on-hop off bus which is very common for touring the major cities around the world. In the evening, I went to the mall near the tallest building in the world for the fountain/light show coordinated to music.

The Taj Mahal

Agra India – home of the 7th Wonder of theWorld – the Taj Mahal
I escorted a tour which flew into Agra India, the home of the Taj Mahal. This was absolutely fabulous! Words cannot explain the majesty of this monument that was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in honor of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. She was pregnant 19 times and bore 14 children. In delivering the last one, she passed away in childbirth.



I escorted our ship's tour which meant leaving the ship early morning in Mumbai then heading for the airport for a chartered flight to a military airport in Agra, India. We were given a red carpet welcome there and went by coach to a hotel for freshening up before our transfer into electric vehicles to visit this wonder of the world. They use electric cars to limit polution to this beautiful structure.
Agra India – home of the 7th Wonder of theWorld – the Taj Mahal
I escorted a tour which flew into Agra India, the home of the Taj Mahal. This was absolutely fabulous! Words cannot explain the majesty of this monument that was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in honor of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. She was pregnant 19 times and bore 14 children. In delivering the last one, she passed away in childbirth. This 7th wonder of the world took 22 years to build. You can view the Taj from any of the 4 sides and it all appears the same.



After this majestic viewing, we continued on to the Agra Fort which is where the royalty resided. When Shah Jahan’s son took over the empire, he imprisoned his father in the fort in a room that overlooked the Taj Mahal.

Mumbai India

This city of 18 million people has some of the richest people in the world, but also has over 10 million people living on the streets. If you’ve seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire, this has some very true depiction of life in India.





One fun place to observe is the Dobi Ghats. This is a laundry service where the men beat the clothing on cement tubs. The women are the ironers that work under the train tracks.

Singapore

The city and country are of the same name, Singapore, Singapore. It is a mixture of many nationalities here and portrays the best true integration I have ever seen. The housing developments consist of an equal percentage of nationality in each building so there is not ever a place that becomes a slum area. Their laws are strictly enforced – you are not allowed to even possess chewing gum as it is such a nuisance. People are all taken care of and fair wages are paid.



We stayed two days here and in the evening I went with friends to the top of this building that looks like a ship is on top for dinner at Ku de Ta Restaurant. There is an infinity swimming pool on the top and in the evening a fountain light show displays on the harbor below.

Hong Kong

This great city is a part of China. It was owned by Great Britain until 1997 and now is a separate “administrative region” so is a little more westernized than the rest of China. It reminds me of New York with it’s never ending night life. McDonalds here offers 24-hour delivery service! We dock right in the downtown harbor and every night there is a sound and light show with the buildings flickering lights in time to music played in a nearby park.

Manila, Philippines

We had to cancel the stop of Kolor, Palau, an island country which extended our stay in Manila, Philippines to two days. This was a very welcomed change as many of our crew members are from there. As long as it was arranged in advance, people got to invite family and friends on board the ship to see where they work and live. We had over 1400 visitors in these two days! It was a madhouse but such a great thing for the crew.



The “jitney” parked in front of our ship during our stay was owned by our Executive Chef who is Filipino. These are very common public transportation vehicles all around the country.




I was able to take a tour here to learn more about my co-workers lives. We drove out of the city that took us through horrendous traffic jams. To keep on schedule we had two police on motorcycles “guide” us through all the traffic. At first it was a bit scary as we weaved in and out of it and sometimes were driving on the wrong side of the road, almost playing chicken with oncoming vehicles. We soon gained confidence in their skills and had a great day visiting some local artists homes. These guys truly enjoy their jobs but said they didn’t tell their wives what they do.

Crossing the Equator

According to Greek mythology, King Neptune oversees the Equator, where the weather is always hot. Ships across the globe celebrate such a crossing in merriment and indoctrination for “pollywogs” which are those crossing for the first time. In my travels at sea, I have crossed the equator about 6 times.

Papau New Guinea

This primitive island shows life back as far as 12,000 years ago. As recent as WWII, this island practiced cannibalism. They have traditional Madang (the capital city) costumes which include bamboo frames decorated with cockatoo and parrot feathers. A tour here took us to a cultural center and then to a small village where the local tribe performed for us.

Cairns Australia

Pronounced CANS (no R). This is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef the largest natural reef in the world. When visiting here, be sure to take in Karunda National Park where you see the lifestyles of the aborigines and hear them play the didjeridoo which by the way is said to be the only real known cure for snoring.

Sydney Australia

Sydney harbor is one of the most beautiful in the world and is the largest natural one in the world.. We sail around many islands transiting in, then dock between the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge. There’s so much to see and do in this city including browsing around Darling Harbour, visiting the Blue Mountains, seeing the site of the Sydney Olympics, Bondi Beach and of course touring the Opera House.







On our next sea days, our Lido deck was turned into a “Taste of Australia”. A vineyard was built in our pool, there were wine casks everywhere, our Cruise Director stomped grapes for 3 hours! It’s like we were transported into another place. I wore an “Aussie” hat which is a brimmed hat with corks hung around to bridge to chase away the flies.

Tasmania

Tasmania is an island state of Australia and is located south of Australia on the eastern side. We visited Port Arthur, a former convict settlement with an open air museum of the convict area. They had strict security measures but they were pioneers in the concept rehabilitating the prisoners with teaching and training trades.

New Zealand

Auckland New ZealandThe City of Sails was a 2-day visit for us which was very welcomed after many days at sea. The first evening I enjoyed dinner at a harbor restaurant. This big yellow duck was docked there and they say they are going to take it around the world. Super Bowl Monday (which was Sunday in the US) was our second day in Auckland. We found a pub/sports bar with the game on and even found some cheeseheads to cheer with.


Christchurch New ZealandLittle did we know when we visited this charming city that 11 days later they would experience an earthquake that destroyed 1/3 of the city. While there I visited a private residence within the city that had 100s of species of trees from around the world, some quite odd then visited a farm with a sheep-sheering demonstration. New Zealand is home to many sports enthusiasts. There’s lots of hiking trails around the city and countryside. Their term for the hikers is “trampers”.

Since the quake, our company has donated $5000 to the city of Christchurch on behalf of our ship, the Amsterdam, and we have also collected over $10,000 in donations from our caring passengers whose most recent visit will not be forgotten.


Dunedin, New ZealandThe home of Cadbury Chocolate! I toured the factory which was nothing like (Willie Wonka’s) and of course had to buy some of their goodies.

Oban, New ZealandMost of the time we only hear about New Zealand’s two islands – the North Island and the South Island. We had the chance to visit their third island – Steward Island, the port of Oban. It is a small fishing area that is, as you can see, quite windy.