Next we had several days at sea where we went “full speed ahead” as we transited the pirate waters near the Gulf of Aden.  This is what we were on the lookout for.  The ship goes to extra measures through this area including wrapping us up in concertina wire.  Fortunately we made it through the area into the Suez Canal with no incidents.

Our next stop was Safaga, Egypt which is the gateway into Luxor, the home of the Valley of the Kings & Queens, King Tut’s Tomb, Karnak’s Temple.  Since I have been there in the past I chose to spend the day at a resort, by a pool.

Sharm el Shiek, Egypt is an area developed for tourism with beautiful resorts and fabulous diving and snorkeling.  Note the sign on the Hard Rock café!

“Authentic Egyptian Restaurant Bar”

Going through the Suez Canal is a full day transit and quite different than the Panama Canal as there are no locks.  Traffic flows in one direction so you have to be in position on time or lose your spot which could cause a days delay in arriving at your next destination.  The west side of the Canal is irrigated and has much life including some beautiful resorts.  The east side however is just miles and miles of desert sand.

A regular item in their diet in this region is pigeon.  The cone shaped buildings are the pigeon raising farms.

MUMBAI INDIA

MUMBAI (BOMBAY) INDIA

17 million people live in this most populous city in India although it is difficult to take a census as at least half the people live on the streets. Cows are allowed here and they can roam freely except when within the city limits they have to be tethered. This is another great city for having custom made clothes. The first morning my friends Barbara, Linda & I went to a tailor and selected some new clothes to be made during our two day stay. Then we did some short touring to the Gateway to India with lunch at the famous Taj Hotel then headed back to the ship for work (yes, I still have a job to do). We went out again that evening for a wonderful, traditional Indian dinner and an evening out.

The next morning I went on tour to Elephanta Caves. It involved a one-hour boat ride to and island, climbing 120 slab steps with monkeys, goats, stray dogs and cows all along the way to greet us.

When traveling on a cruise like this, we all get caught up in the look of the locals so there is an evening where the ship comes alive with vibrant colors and flavors of India which we call Maharajah and Maharani Formal Night.

EASTER SUNDAY

This religious holiday is celebrated on all our ships. We have a protestant minister, catholic priest and a rabbi sailing on the long cruises. The Protestants & Catholics got together Sunday morning for a sunrise service at 6am. It was quite beautiful being at sea for that event.

EGYPT

We made two stops in Egypt. The first one was Safaga which is the gateway into Luxor. Tours travel by a bus caravan, escorted by security forces, to cross the desert as Luxor is 137 miles inland from the port. Once there, there are many ancient sites to visit including King Tut’s Tomb and Karnak’s Temple – some of you may remember the Johnny Carson show where he would give an answer and place a card on his forehead and say “Karnak says….” then he would tell the question.

On another theme night on the ship, we were Egyptians with 1001 Arabian Nights as the theme. My friend, Tom, who is a group leader for a large travel agency and is on board every year with me, went on a magic carpet ride!

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA

This was my first time to this country as it had been closed to tourism for several years due to a civil war. But now they welcome tourists with open arms – along with some dancers on the pier.

My tour took us via chartered luxury train through the countryside, passing the local trains that were overcrowded with people riding on the top, hanging out the windows, wherever they could find a space to hang on. Our destination was the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage which housed not only baby elephants (the smallest ones in the photos are about 3 years old) but injured or sick elephants. They have a feeding time when the babies without mothers are fed by bottle.


Popular souvenirs are products made from elephant dung. Don’t worry, none of those souvenirs are coming home with me.

PHUKETT, THAILAND

One of our stops was at a cave where hundreds of monkeys were at the entrance, getting well fed with bananas from the tourists. Inside were many religious artifacts.

Phuket is a tropical paradise with many beautiful beaches and resorts. I went on a tour to the location of Roger Moore’s The Man with the Golden Gun, locally referred to as the James Bond Island. These limestone islands have caves in and underneath and canoeing is very popular here.

We made a stop at Koh Panyi water village where 400 houses are built on stilts and connected by wooden walkways. Population of the village is 2000! They even have a school, hospital and sports court.

SINGAPORE

Although I’ve been to Singapore several times, I still love our stop there. It is an island country, the name of the city is Singapore and the name of the country is Singapore. It has the highest standard of living in Asia. Over 35,000 people commute over the border daily from Malaysia as Singapore has many jobs and not enough people to do them. They truly have mastered integration – any new housing complexes have to have equal percentages of nationalities, alleviating any slum development.

One of our sister ships, the Zaandam, was in port with us the first day. My long time ship friend (since 1996 in my Celebrity days) Debbie Buchanan happened to be on board. We are both Future Cruise Consultants with Holland America so we never work on the same ship together. Her youngest son skates for Disney on Ice and they were performing in Singapore that day. Several of us, some from each ship, went to the performance that day and had a wonderful time. We got to go backstage after and meet some of the performers.