CLYDE'S TRAVEL JOURNAL

MESSINA SICILY

2009-07-01T13:30:00.001-07:00

MESSINA SICILY – 3 May 2009 Sicily, of course, is the football being kicked by the “boot” of Italy on a map of Europe. Messina is the part of Sicily closest to the toe of the boot and is separated from Calabria by the Straits of Messina which are only about 5 miles wide. The area is know for high winds and strong currents. Here is Clyde looking across. We had a brief tour in the morning that took us into some nearby suburbs and ended in the main square by the cathedral. We stopped along the way for a granita for me (a kind of lemon slushie) and a cappuchino for Mary. Messina has had a long string of invaders and conquerors – Greeks, French, Arabs, etc. The main cathedral dates back to the Normans and was mostly reconstructed after an earthquake around 1900 destroyed Messina. The clock tower was a present from the French people after the quake and is the worlds largest mechanical clock they say. See pics below. We included a couple video clip too – A short one showing the inside of the cathedral. I didn't narrate it since a Sunday service was underway in the front of the church. I wanted to show a clip showing the clock striking noon – a lion roars, a rooster crows, Jesus rises from the dead, there is a parade of angels and saints; the cycle of life is illustrated – all part of the clock – and everything moves verrrrry slowly. But the video was too long --- 11 minutes. A crowd of several hundred people had assembled in the piazza to view it.
This fountain was also in the square and was carved by Michelangelos top assistant. This is Messina’s original church and you can see how far below street level it is – the rubble from the earthquake and WWII bombardments raised the overall street level. We had a lunch of Sicilian pizza (not much open on Sunday but there was wine of course) and later stopped for some gelato. Clyde likes espresso flavor. A major claim to fame for Messina is a visit by St Paul in which he brought a letter to the people of Messina from the Virgin Mary. Our Lady of the Letter is honored by a large gilded bronze statue at the entrance to Messina’s harbor.

VENICE AND MURANO

2009-06-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

1 MAY 2009 – VENICE AND MURANO – Mary was on a mission to purchase a Venetian chandelier for our dining room so that was how we spent the day. Clyde enjoyed the Vaporetto ride out there and the island itself is very picturesque.

We had intended to return to one of the glass stores that we visited last time and where Mary spotted the chandelier that had stuck in her memories all this time. As it turns out there are 3 Vaporetto stops on Murano and we got off on the wrong one. No problem though – there is no shortage of great glass shops there.
We went through 4 of them an looked at hundreds of chandeliers until we were starting to get confused about which ones we had liked at which shop and decided that we had seen enough. We settled on a style we liked in the last shop we visited – happily it was also among the least expensive. They did not have exactly what we wanted in stock so they made it and shipped it to us. Since I am writing this after the fact the chandelier has been delivered and hung in our dining room. Assembly effort was significant – it had to be wired and there were about 40 odd pieces to be assembled. The colors and style is very similar to the candelabra below. Here is also a pic of Clyde checking out the furnace in the back of the shop where it was made.

Clyde, of course, continued in his role of good will ambassador to small children. It was interesting to note the trend toward pretty young mothers accompanying these children – hmmmm.

ATHENS

2009-05-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

ATHENS 28 APRIL 2009 --- We took a bus into town with our friend Delores and went out on our own. We did not have an ambitious agenda: Walk to the Parthenon; have a nice lunch; go back to the ship. Well, as it turned out, the walk to the Parthenon was more ambitious than we thought. The Acropolis is a pretty big hill as you can see below. Clyde was the only one not breathing hard when we got to the top. Did I mention that the sun was beating down on us?

But it was worth it. The view from up there was great.

The Parthenon (Temple of Athena), of course, is only one of the structures up there but it is the biggest. It and two other structures are undergoing extensive renovation and you can see where the new marble (white) contrasts with the old (tannish). It was impressive but after seeing what the Egyptians had done thousands of years earlier…… Clyde was philosophical about it though. He said that the ancient Greeks and Romans contributed a lot more to our civilization than those Egyptians in the long run.

It was a bit crowded with school kids. They take them there prior to when the real crush of the tourist season sets later.

There were a lot of miscellaneous pieces of marble lying about. (See Pics)

We walked down a different way and passed the ruins of the old Agora (marketplace) where a lot of wild poppies were blooming. See the mosaic tile floor that was along the path.

We ended up in an area of cafes where the “hipsters” hang out according to our guidebook. Clyde said that sounded right for him. The food was so-so, but the wine was pretty good. Oh and Clyde thought the waitress was very cute.

We walked back to catch the bus through an area of flea markets and shops of all kinds. Mercifully we did not buy anything of significance.

U CAN'T GO BACK TO CONSTANTINOPLE

2009-05-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

ISTANBUL – 26 APR 2009 – I don’t know where we got our ideas about Istanbul. We expected hot, dirty, and loaded with beggars. Were we ever wrong! This is a beautiful city on the same parallel as New York City. The temp was in the 60s and there were tulips in bloom all over the place. It looks quite prosperous (no beggars) and there was very little litter.

There were some fairly aggressive street vendors but they were fairly easy to ignore with our experience with the really tough ones in India and Saigon. As we were bussing into the city we noticed lots of people fishing into the Golden Horn River from the bridge we were crossing and elsewhere. The guide said they were probably fishing for smelt this time of year.

Our tour started with the famous Blue Mosque. The sultan who built it wanted the biggest, most beautiful mosque in the world. While every mosque has at least one minaret, this one has six. The sultan told the architect that he wanted a golden minaret. Since the Arabic word for gold is similar to the one for 6 there was a bit of a mistake. The sultan ended up liking the result. However since 6 minarets was more than the holiest mosque in Mecca there were riots among the people and the sultan paid for the construction of additional minarets in Mecca where there are now 7. It is still an active mosque and very beautiful on the inside.

The faithful wash their faces, hands and feet at these outdoor fawcets before entering for prayers.

The floor of an active mosque is covered in carpeting – here a huge and beautiful one.

Topkapi Palace is also famous as the palace of the sultans of Constantinople for many years – and their large harem (1000 women or so). It turns out that harem is the Turkish word for private and the harem here was the private family quarters.

The women’s quarters was tended to by black eunuchs and white eunuchs served in many other capacities in the palace, some eventually rising to high office. We got a lot of grisly detail about how eunuchs are created (there are several methods varying in severity and effectiveness you will be happy to know). Pashas were the highest officials such as generals. The sultan’s mother had a powerful role in their society – she oversaw a lot of the palace activity and selected candidates for wives with an eye toward assuring lots of princes to be candidates to succeed the sultan (since many kids died early then). Here is a picture of her private courtyard.

There was a system of selecting highly intelligent girls who would be educated by various tutors and then would be brought to the palace as candidates for becoming a wife of the sultan.
The palace is huge and the grounds cover acres. The decoration is elaborate and some is quite beautiful. Here are of few of the ceramic tiles than seem to be everywhere in all kinds of designs.

Clyde especially enjoyed the sultan’s bath room. He imagined himself being bathed by some of the women of the harem.

Here is the Sultan’s private family room where he met with only the closest members of his family.

Here is where the sultan’s heir apparent lived in splendid isolation to protect him from palace intrigues. Many lower ranking wives conspired to eliminate the oldest son so their own son might someday become sultan and they, of course become the sultan’s mother.

We enjoyed visiting the treasury where the crown jewels are on display. . . emeralds as big as eggs and a diamond twice as large as the Hope diamond. Many fancifully decorated crowns, swords, medals, etc. No cameras allowed however. They also had a display of sultan’s garments from the 15 and 1600s which were in remarkably good shape.

We had lunch in a restaurant on the palace grounds overlooking the Bosporus. A selection of Turkish appetizers with an entrée called Sultan’s Delight – veal cubes in a spicy sauce served over pureed roasted eggplant. They had dishes of additional spices to add - mint, crushed red pepper, paprika, and oregano. It was delicious. They also served a drink they called sherbet – pomegranate juice with rosewater – great stuff. Clyde enjoyed the strong Turkish coffee but did not drink the sludge in the bottom of the cup.

Here is the view across the Bosporus to Asia. Istanbul is 60% on the European Continent and 40% on the Asian Continent.

We went to the Saint Sophia mosque. This was built in about 330 BC by the Roman Emperor Constantine as the first legal Catholic church in the Roman Empire. It had the largest unsupported dome in the world for 1000 years until St Peter’s was constructed in Rome. They kept it from collapsing by wrapping chains around the base of the dome – something new then, but still used today. It is now operated as a museum. Clyde inspected some of the Roman ruins outside before we went in.

It was converted to a mosque later after Turkey was converted to Islam. No images (humans, angels, etc) are allowed in mosques and you can see where angels were painted out into abstract forms on the ceiling. The light fixture shown below is an original oil lamp that has been electrified. As is often the case in ancient buildings some of the pieces get recycled from other buildings. The column shown is one of four massive green marble columns that were originally in one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world -- The Greek Temple of Artemis at Epheses. The altar in a mosque must face Mecca. The altar in St Sophia faced Jerusalem so you see it was shifted off center to satisfy the needs of Islam.

This cat is inside St Sophia. It befriended Obama during his visit and is now called “Obama” of course.

We ended the tour with some shopping and a rug-making demonstration in, of course, a rug sales room. Mary said prior to entering “I definitely don’t want a rug”. To show the power of Turkish rug salesmanship, this later changed to “We need that rug for our bedroom in Savannah”. We now have some additional baggage to tote.

But Instanbul is now on our go to again list.

ISRAEL

2009-04-30T04:57:00.000-07:00

ISRAEL – 23 Apr 2009 --- We landed in Ashdod and were signed up for a tour to take us to Masada and then to swim in the Dead Sea.

The port security was evident, but not sure why they needed a telescopic sight.

Out in the countryside we were surprised to see forests. They have had a campaign in Israel to plant trees and the desert is being pushed back as a result. Everywhere you look there are green farm fields and tree-covered hillsides. There is still plenty of desert here, but they are shrinking it. Along the highway they had monuments to the war they had right after independence. Jerusalem was cut off and they attempted to bring convoys of supplies there most of them were destroyed. Some of the remnants have been turned into monuments along the highway.

We stopped at a highway rest stop with restaurants and shops. This camel was there giving tourists camel rides. His owner was using him to rest on while phoning. Security was in evidence here as is was near to Jericho (Palestinian).

We went via Jerusalem. Just stopped on the outskirts for a photo stop, but did not go into the city. The guide pointed out many historic features -- dome of the rock, western wall, etc. Here we are with Clyde overlooking the city.

Masada was originally built by Herod as a Roman fort. Although it was out in the desert near the Dead Sea, it had a palace and a Roman Bath. The walls were covered in stucco and the interiors had frescos. Jewish zealots (about 1000) holed up there to avoid becoming Roman slaves. They held off the roman army for 6 years and finally killed themselves rather than surrender. The Israelis have turned it into a National Park and it is high enough up that you take a cable car to reach it although the hardiest can take the “snake path” up to it. (see pic).

The Romans put the place under siege but the Israelites had enough food and water to last indefinitely while the Romans were living in tents at the base of the mountain with limited food and water. Here is what remains of their main camp.

The Romans built a wall all around the mountain so no reenforcements could get throught, but after a siege of 3 years they finally built a ramp all the way up (that took another 3 years) and attacked with a huge battering ram. There is a movie starring Peter O’Toole about it that we will have to rent when we get home. The Israelis have restored sections of it but were careful to highlight the difference between what is original and what is restored. This is what remains of the ramp.

Clyde enjoyed visiting the former commandant’s quarters and pretending he was on the lookout for Romans.

The Dead Sea was an interesting experience. It is 36% salt while regular sea water is 3% -- so you really can’t sink in it. It is shrinking every year however since less and less fresh water reaches it. This is a picture of a resort that 20 years ago was right on the shore – now they use a tram to take guests to the water.

There is an area with many resort hotels on the Dead Sea and that is where we went to go swimming. This picture is of Mary and our friend Doris floating.

There was sand on the beach up until about 2 feet from the water then there were salt crystals (see pic) and the bottom was covered with salt pebbles. It was like looking into your water softener. It was so buoyant that if you were out deeper than knee deep and were floating you could not stand up. When you pushed a foot down the torque from the effort turned you over. If you wanted to stand up you had to paddle into shallower water first.

EGYPT DAY 4

2009-04-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

EGYPT DAY 4 – EGYPTIAN MUSEUM AND THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA
EGYPTIAN MUSEUM -- None of the stuff that was once in the tombs and temples (furniture, jewelry, pottery, etc.) is there anymore. Anything that wasn’t looted by grave robbers or taken to foreign countries is in the Egyptian Museum. It is a beautiful old rose-colored building of two floors.

It is filled with ancient statues, sarcophagi, furniture, jewelry, pots, and decorative items. Most of the second floor is devoted to the items taken from King Tut’s tomb. Since this is the only tomb discovered intact it has provided a wealth of beautiful items and information for historians. They started working on a pharaoh’s tomb as soon as they were crowned and continued until they died – making it more elaborate as time went by. Tut did not reign very long so his tomb was relatively small. Makes you wonder what was in Ramses II’s tomb since he reigned for 67 years. Brian paid the extra fee to go into the “Mummy Room” where about 10 mummies are on display including some famous pharaohs. Ramses II is in there as is Hatshepsut. Mary felt sorry for Hatshepsut as her mummy was described as “the mummy of a fat woman” before it was identified as being her. 3500 years later she is the fat chic pharaoh.

What does a mummy really look like? They are wrapped in brown cloth strips about 6 inches wide that look a lot like Ace bandages. Some also had a few flower garlands (dried and brown of course). Most had their heads exposed. Some had their hands exposed. The skin was dark brown and pulled back from the teeth. The nose was still erect (they put peppercorns in there to keep it that way). The eyes were closed and there was no fat under the skin so the skin was very tight against the bone. Some also had hair. Surprisingly Brian did not find it at all creepy.
We had only a few hours here and would definitely like to go back someday.

GIZA – Although Egypt has some 200 pyramids, these are the most famous. Located just outside Cairo, they can be seen from the city. The biggest is the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and the next biggest is that of his son. They are both about 4500 years old – 25 centuries before Christ! Cheops’ son built one slightly smaller than dad’s but on higher ground so he was able to appear to honor his father but have the most noticeable pyramid (the one with some of the limestone outer covering still intact). You are not allowed to climb on the pyramid but are allowed to go inside. Our guide told us you had to walk bent over; it was hot as the devil in there; and there was no decoration – just plain walls. We decided we would be content staying outside.

There were hawkers everywhere and one became Brian’s new best friend and gave him a traditional head scarf, then took his picture. Naturally he wanted a big tip for this service. There are tourist police here to control the most excessive vendor and camel-driver behavior. Here is a picture of one on camelback.

Go to Egypt and not ride a camel? Not us! You have to lean way back as the camel gets up or you will fall forward over his neck since his back end gets up first and those legs are long. Getting down is the same drill. We got a 5-minute ride and had some great pics taken. Clyde could not decide which camel he wanted to be on. Brian learned to ride like an Egyptian.

This was followed by a great lunch at a nearby hotel and then back to the ship. The Mena House Oberoi Hotel was historic as it was built for Queen Eugenie of France to stay at when she came to open the Suez Canal in 1869(?). Quite a beautiful place and a great meal with great service.

One interesting sidelight. As we listened to our guide Nisham describe the religious beliefs of the early Egyptians we were struck by some similarities to stories in the Old Testament – but remember that the Egyptians were many centuries earlier. Instead of Adam and Eve, they had four original people, two men and two women (brothers and sisters). One of the brothers killed the other ala Cain and Abel. Later the earth was destroyed in a great flood. After you die there is a judgment day where your heart is weighed against a feather of justice to see if you can go to heaven. A heavy heart indicates bad deeds in your life. (I wonder if the expression “heavy hearted” comes from there). And there are other similar themes.

EGYPT DAY 3

2009-04-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

EGYPT DAY 3 – ABU SIMBEL AND CAIRO
We flew from Aswan to Abu Simbel on Egypt Air. Got to sleep in since we did not have to leave for the airport until 0730. Clyde met Feder Bear in the Aswan airport as were leaving for Abu Simbel. Feder is from Canada and his very friendly owner whipped him out of concealment in her carryon upon seeing Clyde.

ABU SIMBEL – This is a complex of two tombs that were carved out a mountain and were going to be flooded as Lake Nasser filled. An international effort was mounted to fund their rescue and relocation. Since these tombs extend far back into the mountain and are heavily decorated with paintings and carvings internally, the engineering effort required to move them was daunting. It took two years to do it. They basically cut the tombs out of the mountain in pieces and reassembled them in a safe area on the shore of Lake Nasser creating two small mountains in the process. This is where it reached 115 f and there was no shade except inside the temples.

The smaller temple is the Temple Hathor dedicated to Queen Nefertari who was the favorite wife of the Great Ramses II. The larger temple is the Great Temple of Ra-Harakthe fronted by 4 colossal statues of Ramses II. (who built both temples.) The interiors of these temples were very lavishly decorated and the colors are still strong after 3500 years.

Clyde enjoyed meeting some security guards here. Unfortunately the picture does not do justice to the Kalashnikovs they had on their laps. He also got to hold the key to one of the temple’s great doors – it had the shape of an Ankh (the symbol of life).

We flew from there to Cairo where we spent the night at the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel.

CAIRO – Clyde enjoyed the view from the cocktail lounge of our hotel where he shared a bottle of wine with us.

Later we went on a dinner cruise on a lavish river boat called the Nile Maxim. A good meal and great traditional entertainment. A whirling dervish and two belly dancers all accompanied by an Egyptian band.
Clyde wondered what was so special about a belly dancer’s belly. Luckily she did not mind his having a close look.

Our friend Linda joined Clyde on deck for a respite from the smoky atmosphere inside. It was about 70 outside and the lights of Cairo were only outdone by the many small party boats cruising up and down with wild displays of multicolored lights flashing in weird patterns.

EGYPT DAY 2

2009-04-27T06:10:00.000-07:00

EGYPT Day 2 – Breakfast was 0530 (ugh). We were on our way to the Luxor airport at 0630 to catch a flight to Aswan.

ASWAN DAM – When this dam was built in the 1960s it provided more than 50% of Egypt’s electricity and also allowed this mostly arid nation to retain a lot of the water that normally ripped through the Nile Valley in the annual summer floods and keep it for irrigation. The day we visited the dam it was a national holiday and many families were picnicking under the trees on top of the dam.

Lake Nasser is the world’s largest manmade lake and stretches some 350 kilometers – about 230 miles – extending through southern Egypt and into Sudan. When they built it vast areas of Nubia were flooded. Egypt and the Sudan collaborated to build new villages for the Nubians on the shores of the lake. See pic.

An even bigger problem was the 27 or so ancient temples and monuments that would be covered by water. We went to see two of them had have been relocated – The temple of Philae and Abu Simbel.

THE TEMPLE OF PHILAE – We had to board small boats to reach the island to which this temple was relocated. It dates from the time of Greco-Roman occupation and you can see that the artwork is much different than that from the earlier periods.
There were vendors onboard the little boat. Clyde bought a Numibian camel bone necklace. Brian bought a traditional Numibian hat. He and our friends Bob and Peter decided they would form a singing group and call themselves the “Nubie Brothers” – thought it had a nice ring to it.

In the temple Mary found a cat. One of the guides said it had recently had 5 kittens. We suspect that this obvious tomcat had not. He approached each person holding a water bottle and mewed loudly. Mary figured out what he wanted. She also provided a drinking fountain for a local lizard. This is also where Cyde learned to "walk like and Egyptian"

This temple had some of its images defaced by Coptic Christians (Egypt was Christian under the Romans then converted to Islam when invaded by Arabs) and you can see the Coptic cross on this column.

ASWAN GRANITE QUARRY – This is the source of most of ancient Egypts granite monuments, sphynxes and sarcophagi. Man was it hot there. They used tools made from meteorites to chisel slots in the outline they wanted then inserted wooden wedges into the slots and wetted them. The swelling of the wood would crack the granite in the desired rough shape. One of these pics shows the slots and the other shows a huge obelisk that cracked during its creation and was left in place – it is 120 feet long. The items quarried there were then moved to their final destinations via barge down the Nile.

Our hotel was in Aswan on Elephantine Island in the Nile. We spent the hottest part of the day there and then went for a felucca ride on the Nile.

These are traditional sailing ships with triangular sails. A fun and relaxing way to see the sights including the Aswan Temple of Mickeydee. One of the sights is the mausoleum of the Agha Kahn on a hilltop overlooking the Nile (see pic). When we sailed past a Nubian village some boys paddled out in a little canoe using their hands as oars, latched onto our sailboat and began to sing. They sang Frere Jacques until they realized we were not French and then switched to Home on the Range. Nubians are noted for their linguistic abilities and these boys were now exception – got a couple of bucks for their efforts. Mary did her "Little Egypt" routine in a Nubian hat she purchased on board.

The hotel had a cocktail lounge on its top floor with a great view of Aswan and the Nile. Brian tried a martini. He said if someone would have blindfolded him and asked him what he was drinking he would not have been able to tell. Lesson learned. Last time he orders a mixed drink in a Muslim country – beer and wine only in future.

EGYPT - DAY 1

2009-04-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

EGYPT -- We had no pirate troubles in our transit through the Gulf of Aden. We did a 4-day overland tour so we saw a lot so this might be kind of long-winded. I am sitting on our balcony writing this as we are sailing past some Greek islands in the Mediterranean with a temp in the low 60s. Egypt was an entirely different temperature scheme with a high of 115 one day (but it was a dry heat – ha, ha).

FIRST DAY – 19 Apr -- Our ship landed at Safaga on the Red Sea where we boarded a motor coach for a 3-hour drive through the desert to Luxor (the Greeks called it Thebes). The desert was quite barren with only an occasional spec of green or a bit of greenery around the occasional village we passed through until we got close to the Nile where everything was a verdant green. The Egyptians are very security conscious since tourism is their most important industry and terrorist attacks on foreign tourists happen every now and then. Our bus had an armed guard on board and there were military checkpoints every 10 miles or so where we stopped. In some stretches the tour busses went in a convoy. The military knew our route and when we had left each checkpoint. They presumably would check up if we didn’t show up at the next checkpoint in a reasonable period of time. In the recent past they would also accompany the convoys with military vehicles, but no more. Every crossroads or bridge crossing had its armed police watchtower and pillbox with Kalashnikovs showing from the openings.

Our guide Hisham was with us for all four days. He was great. Had an excellent grasp of English as well as a good sense of humor. Egypt’s history is long and complex and he helped us put what we were seeing into context. Hisham is an Egyptologist and, like all licensed guides in Egypt ,had to go through thorough training and pass tough tests.

VALLEY OF THE KINGS – The later pharaohs decided that the practice of erecting large pyramids to mark their tombs was simply giving grave robbers an easy way of finding tombs to rob so they constructed elaborate tombs underground in a kind of remote area (62 of them discovered so far). Unlike the pyramids (plain inside), these tombs have elaborate painted hieroglyphics and decorations and carvings on the walls. King Tut’s (Tut Ankh Amun) tomb was discovered here and was the only one discovered that had not been looted. The valley is unremarkable in appearance – just a barren, mountainous desert valley with nothing green.

Some of the tombs are near the valley floor and some are on the mountainsides. We visited the tombs of Ramses II (ruled for 67 years and died at 92 after fathering 200 children) and that of Ramses IV (less famous but the painting in his tombs is very vibrant in color). Considering that these tombs are from 15 centuries before Christ they are in remarkable shape. There has been some vandalism – most of it dating back to the days when the Greeks ruled here and then later by the Coptic Christians, but in general the pictures and hieroglyphs are fairly complete and in strong colors. We were not allowed to use cameras inside, so sorry no pics from there. There is still exploration going on there and Clyde enjoyed watching the digging.

We drove from there to Luxor with a brief photo stop at the Temple of Hatshepsut (ha cheap suit). She was the only female pharaoh and this beautiful temple was built for her by her architect and lover. It is half carved out of the mountainside and half built up. Her son destroyed most of it when he came to power and it has been largely restored. He was sore, it seems, because she sent him off to study for the priesthood when he was a boy instead of letting him take the throne. One of our friends Bob tripped over a rock in the parking lot (who knows why there was a big rock in the middle of an asphalt parking lot ) and Clyde supervised the first aid by the bus driver.

LUXOR – On the way to Luxor we began to see a broad agricultural zone – very green with lots of irrigation. (we occasionally saw a dead cow or donkey floating in an irrigation canal). Most everything is done by hand on little 5-acre plots. There were a few tractors around, but also a lot of donkey carts. Donkeys are an important animal here of transport and hauling loads.

Something that is very popular is doing river cruises on the Nile on floating hotels from Aswan to Luxon. Here is a pic of a typical boat.

Luxor is in southern Egypt on the “upper” Nile. The Nile here is beautiful with all sorts of boat traffic including the traditional sailboats – “feluccas”. The two most famous landmarks are the Luxor Temple and the Karnack Temple. We arrived in Luxor about 2 PM where we checked into our hotel and had lunch. Egyptian beer “Stella” is pretty good. Wisely they left us in the hotel (Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel) through the hottest part of the day and we started touring again about 5 PM. Mary used the down time for a bit of shopping. Clyde suffered the heat in the Valley of the Kings and stayed in the hotel all evening.

We drove to the temple of Luxor and arrived about dusk. This temple has huge sandstone pillars that once held up the roof that are so large that it takes 20 people joining hands to encircle one. There is an avenue of Sphinxes leading from there to the Temple of Karnack. There are probably 50 of them on each side of the avenue and, based on the spacing of the ones discovered so far, Egyptologists believe that there were originally many more (a total of 1200 if my memory is good.) Lit up at dusk, this avenue was very impressive (though you can see my photo is less than impressive). Egypt plans to remove the modern building that were built on top of this ancient avenue and restore it – it only extends about a ¼ mile now. The Luxor temple complex covers at least a city block – it is huge.

After nightfall we went to the Karnack temple. (it covers acres) to see the sound and light show. You stand in pitch black for a while waiting then suddenly some features are illuminated and a deep, booming pharaoh-like voice begins to tell you about what went on here; what the main features are; and how they came to be put into place (many pharaohs added their own additions and improvements). The changing lights lead you through the complex with stops, narration and projected images of pharaohs and gods; and you end up in some bleachers overlooking a lake. At the far side of the lake are some buildings which they use as a projection screen to show various ancient images. Very interesting. We had dinner at 8 PM and crashed.

MAN OMAN

2009-04-15T05:01:00.000-07:00

14 April 2009 – Salalah, Oman. This is a place where we never would have expected to be able to visit. In fact we had heard of Oman but never heard of Salalah. Oman is on the Indian Ocean just south of the Straits of Hormuz. It runs along the coast between there and the Gulf of Aden and is an absolute monarchy. The current King, Sheik Qaboos (pronounced Caboose) has led a renaissance since 1970 when he overthrew his backward, reclusive father in a bloodless coup. The country was very backward compared to its neighbors in the 1960s. People were leaving the country in droves and the remaining ones, having seen what was going on in neighboring states, were clamoring for the King to do something to help the people. Communist rebels had sprung up aided by South Yemen. Most of the people, being Muslim, did not support the communists and instead supported Qaboos, who had been educated in England, to take over. You can see the results everywhere and the people still talk of being in the midst of a renaissance.

It is a sandy, dusty, fairly arid place, but with surprisingly big patches of green. You will see banana plantations and guava and papaya trees. They have a monsoon every summer that comes in from the Indian Ocean giving them 3-4 months of gentle rain. They have some oil and natural gas that they are now exploiting. One of the things that makes them special, and has since ancient times, is that they are almost alone in their production of frankincense. It is the dried resin of a tree that grows only here and to a much smaller extent in Yemen and Somalia. They tap the trees and collect the dried sap which looks like large brown sugar crystals. This is the stuff that they burn during ceremonies at church. In ancient times it was highly prized for its ability to cover up other odors and made the local Arabs rich. It is still used for that purpose but is also an ingredient in perfumes. Here is a picture of one of the trees.

Our tour stopped outside the King's Palace for a photo op. Clyde waited for an audience but Sheik Qaboos did not show. The great panoramic shot at the head of this post is courtesty of friend and table-mate Bob Williams.

We took a tour and one of the stops was a souk (shopping area) where many of the stores were selling frankincense and perfumes. Each of them had a pot outside with a lump of burning charcoal and a lump of frankincense sending up clouds of fumes into the still morning air. It was pretty intense with perhaps 15 of these things working in a small area. Clyde enjoyed looking at the curved Arab knives and meeting Ashok the Indian merchant.

We stopped at the King’s Palace where we were able to photograph the exterior. Clyde waited by the door for a while hoping for an audience but Sheik Qaboos was not available.

They have an extensive archeological excavation underway along the coast where the original city lays buried under sand. We visited the great museum they have established there and saw artifacts they have uncovered there, some of which date back to the Bronze, Iron and Stone (10th century BC) Ages.

On the way back to the ship someone on the bus spotted a herd of camels along the shore. A shout went up asking for a photo op. The guide and the driver conferred. The bus stopped, then turned into an open field clunking over some rocks, made it to a dirt road, crossed the main highway and then went down another dirt road in pursuit of the camels. We stopped about 50 yards from them and they were moving slowly away. We got off the bus in hot pursuit and got a few pics. Never went off-roading in a full-sized air-conditioned motor coach before.

Here is a picture of clyde with our guide (Mohammed of course.)

We were staying in Salalah tonight pretty late to optimize our run through Pirate Alley. We will be headed south along the coast of South Yemen into the Gulf of Aden then turning towards the Red Sea and passing between Somalia and Yemen. We have had anti-pirate drills and the Captain has been consulting with the Royal Navy to help insure a safe passage. Our timing for this could have been better considering recent piratical events ;-)

THE PALM JAMIRAH

2009-04-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

The famous palm resort and residential island is complete but a lot of construction is still going on to complete hotels, shops and restaurants. Here is a shot of one of the arms of the palm with villas and beaches.

Brian and Clyde visited the Atlantis Hotel there and visited their aquarium.

DUBAI VISIT

2009-04-12T23:33:00.000-07:00

11 April 2009 DUBAI --- An Arab Las Vegas? Not sure what we expected to see here, but we were completely surprised. Dubai is one of the 7 states of the United Arab Emirates and is the second largest. Population is about 1.2 million, but only 17% are natives – the rest are foreigners.

The first thing you notice is that everything is clean and neat – like Singapore. The next thing you notice is the skyline of skyscrapers including one under construction that will be the tallest building in the world when completed.
They do have oil wealth here, but some pretty wise leaders realized that won’t last forever and have invested in trying to make Dubai a tourism center, a financial and business center, and a trade center. They have invested heavily in infrastructure. On our tour we drove down a 12-lane expressway and passed the partially completed stations of a new mass transit light rail system. No poverty or beggars here. They also pride themselves as being one of the safest cities in the world. It is expected here that both men and women will cover their knees and shoulders in public, but we saw plenty of exceptions.

Traditional Arab dress was visible but not close to the majority of what you saw. Beachwear was what you would see anywhere, but perhaps a bit more conservative (no string bikinis).

You have all read or heard about the artificial islands they are building – mostly for hotels and vacation homes. On our tour we visited the one shaped like a palm tree – Palm Jamirah. The trunk of the palm tree is about 3 miles long and has a monorail that runs up and down it. Some of the arms of the palm have villas built which appear to be occupied. The trunk has hotels and shops -- mostly under construction. The Queen Elizabeth II is moored in Dubai. The plan is to fully restore it and moor it at the Palm Jamirah to be the anchor? hotel for a hotel and retail area. At the crest of the palm tree there is an Atlantis Hotel very much like the one in Nassau. Brian and Clyde went inside and visited the very impressive aquarium with such a large central tank that they had a whale shark as one of the occupants. While he was doing this Mary and our friend Doris stayed behind at one of the huge upscale malls that seem to be everywhere. They had a nice lunch and Mary had a $17 pedicure. Dubai wants to be a big shopping destination and they have two shopping festivals here each year. Their airport gets millions of passengers each year.

We joined up later to visit the world-famous (we had never heard of it) gold souk. A souk is a market and this place is amazing. Imagine maybe four square blocks of streets with stores that sold only gold and jewelry. They did not bother with anything less than 18K and most of what was offered was 22 or 24k – and talk about exotic stuff. Most of it was fashioned for Arab tastes and ran to ornate gold bracelets, belts and necklaces – some with precious stones. Most of the gold was a much darker color that you would see in gold jewelry in the US. Clyde was very impressed. The ladies were not all that hot to visit this souk but then it was hard to get them out of it. We had to grab a cab to be sure of making it back before the ship sailed.

Most things buildings and attractions were quite new, but they have gone out of their way to preserve some of the old buildings and markets. Some of the new things have been built in the old style too giving it a Disney-esque feel in some areas.

They had beautiful beaches here with white sand and blue water. This is that land of indoor ski slopes and malls with ice rinks. There are golf courses, fountains, lawns and flower beds that beautify the place.

The place had a boom town feel. Construction was going on like mad – there were cranes everywhere. Much of the architecture was futuristic and fanciful and there are so many tourist attractions and activities it had a definite Las Vegas fee.
Despite this being a Muslim country, the leaders are very practical and you can get a drink at the hotels. They even had a duty-free shop at our cruise terminal where we bought some good wine at reasonable prices. They have even established some “free zones” where businesses are not subject to any of the normal business restrictions usually imposed by the government.

All-in-all though I would just as soon go to Las Vegas and save the airfare.
Next three days at sea and then Oman. After that we go towards the Horn of Africa and “Pirate Alley”.

AGRA FORT

2009-04-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

This huge fort was build of red sandstone here in Agra by the Mogul rulers. The king that build the Taj lived here and was later imprisoned here for the rest of his life by a power-hungry son.

There are lots of monkeys in India and this was no exception. There were monkeys on the ground that the visitors were feeding. You could sit on a wall and they would approach -- adults and babies too.

Within the grounds of the red fort the king's residence was of white marble. He was later imprisoned there for the rest of his life by a power-hungry son.

The king, from his prison window, could see the Taj Mahal he built for his wife and where he would ultimately be interred.

TAJ MAHAL

2009-04-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

Brian wants to make it clear that the large bulge under his shirt is not all stomach. He wears a pouch under his shirt for passports and money when there are pickpockets about.

The Taj is so symmetrical that this building, which had no use, was built flanking the right side of the Taj because there is an identical mosque on the left side.

This huge building is a red sandstone structure that is simply the entranceway to the Taj grounds.

Mary is always interested in footwear. Here is what she wore over her shoes in the Taj.

This is the first view you get of the Taj going through the entryway.

INDIA STREET SCENES

2009-04-08T04:02:00.001-07:00

It is not eacy to capture shots from a moving bus and it seemed that the most interesting ones escaped me (camel carts and more) but here are some that give a bit of the flavor.

The first one shows the back end of an ox cart and some small taxis in one of the nicer parts of Mumbai's slums

Here are some tuk-tuks in Agra. They really make the "tuk-tuk" sound.

Here are some cows bathing in a pond surrounded by trash.

Some produce stands in Agra.

He is one of the bovines that roam the streets in Agra. Note the necklace.

THE INDIA EXPERIENCE

2009-04-08T03:47:00.001-07:00

7 April 2009 – INDIA We had so many experiences and impressions that I hardly know where to start.

We got up at 0545 so we could leave the ship on our tour at 0700. As we were leaving the harbor we passed by an Indian Navy aircraft carrier. I did not look like anything I would care to ride on. I seemed to be in sad shape. The bus ride to the airport took about an hour and went through the slummiest part of Mumbai (Formerly Bombay – a Portugese name for the city). We shared the road with oxcarts, tuk-tuks, small taxis, cows and handcarts. The handcarts were sturdy two-wheeled carts that were about 2 feet wide and about ten feet long with the wheels about 2/3’s of the way forward so the man pushing it has leverage if he wants to lift something heavy.

Some of the taller buildings had their sewer pipes that ran vertically down the middle of the building with branches going left and right on each floor looking like a heavy vine. Most of the buildings had started out white but were now stained with back mould. They had some pretty good roads, some of which were expressways of a sort. Traffic was chaotic (no surprise) and bigger vehicles often straddled two lanes as they went along. Although everything looked pretty filthy and trash-strewn, we did see a garbage truck at work and several people working to sweep up and pick up trash – something we had not seen in the Andaman Islands.

The airport was quite modern in appearance and clean inside. In the men’s room there was no soap or way to dry your hands, but there was a man there offering squirts of hand soap and wads of TP. We learned early on that you always carry some tissue with you when visiting the facilities in foreign countries. We were warned that the security was going to be extra tight in light of the fairly recent bombings – no liquids allowed, etc. However when we showed our guide the two large bottles of sunscreen and the hand sanitizer we had in our carry-on bag he said that would be okay (and it was). Security was a bit different that in the US. They separated the crowd into a line for men and one for women. In addition to going through the metal detector every person was wanded and then patted down. We had 130 people from the ship on the tour and were on a charter flight of Indigo Airlines. (Brian joked that it was Indian for “In They Go” accompanied by a diving aircraft hand gesture). It turned out to be a clean, well-maintained A-320 aircraft with pretty stews and excellent service. We were, of course, late taking off.

The airport in Agra was a small part of an Indian Air Force Base. Our plane was one of only two commercial aircraft present there and the other one had dust covers over the engine inlets. Nearby there were several aircraft that looked like USAF C-141’s but I was sure they were the Soviet copies since Russia was the primary supplier of military hardware to India for years. A guard with an automatic rifle guarded the taxiway that led back out to the runway and we encountered about a dozen military in the hundred yards from the plane to the terminal and then out to the busses. As we boarded the bus we each had a garland of flowers put around our neck – daisies and roses – very fragrant.

We took busses from there to a Sheraton Hotel where we stopped for lunch. As we arrived we each got a traditional red dot painted on our forehead that we wore for the rest of the day. Not sure what the significance was. The picture of Clyde above was taken with the doorman. Lunch was buffet style and excellent. You had your choice of Western-style or Indian dishes. We went Indian and it was the best we had ever had – chicken tikka masala, a curried cauliflower dish, some sort of dumplings in a spicy sauce, and this lentil soup-like dish that was absolutely terrific (I had two helpings) and, of course, naan bread. Everything was quite spicy, but great. The hotel was very 5-star so we had no worries about eating the food. Mary, naturally, found time to shop in the hotel prior to reboarding the bus and bought some beautiful raw silk material (for a future dress) and some silk scarves.

Then off to the Taj Mahal by bus. We didn’t take Clyde into the Taj, since it was a mausoleum and wombats might not be welcome there. So he got to stay on the air-conditioned bus. Agra seemed quite a bit more clean and livable and less crowded than Mumbai. Very colorful buildings, signs, and women’s saris. Even the cattle in the streets were decorated with at least a multi-color beaded necklace. Agra is surrounded by rural areas where farming is the main activity and Agra is where the rural people come to purchase things, go to the doctor, etc. In addition to the types of vehicles that we say in Mumbai, we also saw some carts drawn by camels and saw several camels being led or tied under trees. Sidewalks here, as in most of the 3rd world, are for business or sleeping so most of the pedestrian traffic impinges on the street traffic from place to place.

The Indian government had discovered that local pollution was causing significant damage to the white marble of the Taj so they took some drastic measures to arrest it. Agra used to be a metal-working center, but the government has closed the foundries and moved them elsewhere. They also don’t allow internal combustion-powered vehicles in the vicinity of the Taj. So when our bus was about a mile away we had to transfer to battery-powered mini bussed that took us to within about a quarter mile of the entrance. We were besieged with vendors. We had opportunities to buy postcards, refrigerator magnets, whips, peacock-feather fans, carved elephants, sandals – you name it. These were the most pushy and persistent vendors we had yet encountered. You can imagine how much opportunity they had with us in the quarter-mile walk to and from the entrance of the Taj. The Taj itself met all of our expectations.

It is on extensive grounds and there are several red sandstone structures on the grounds with it. You enter through a large one that is big enough to be a monument all by itself. The inner grounds are nicely landscaped with lawns, fountains and trees. The lawn was being tended by women in saris crouched down doing the edging by hand. No matter how many Taj pictures you have seen, seeing it in person is worth the trip. It seems to almost float on the horizon. You are asked to remove your shoes before entering, but our tour guide provided slip-on booties for us that were also okay. The interior is cool and well-ventilated. The burial chamber where the King that build the Taj is buried with his favorite wife is in the center of the building and their graves are surrounded with a white marble fence with an open lattice-work pattern that is inlaid with floral designs of semi-precious stone that are level with the marble surface – sort of like marquetry in furniture. The burial chamber is surrounded by other rooms that the crowd (and there was a crowd) flows through in a circular pattern. Each of the rooms has a high, intricately carved ceiling. In fact, most of the interior surfaces that did not have inlays, were carved in relief.

The brief story of the Taj is that it was build by a Mogul king in the 1666 to house his favorite wife. She died in the delivery of their 14th child. He hired an architect from Persia and gave him a blank check, requiring only that it be made of white marble, be totally symmetrical and be large and beautiful. The king lived in the Agra Fort. Later his power-hungry son besieged the fort and imprisoned the king for the rest of his life there. BTW Moguls were Moslem invaders that ruled India for several centuries until the British took over. That is why the Taj has verses from the Koran inlaid into its exterior.

As we were leaving the entrance we were beset by bicycle rickshaw drivers who, for a fee, wanted to take us back to where the mini busses would pick us up. They were apparently closer to the entrance than was allowed because a burly policeman came up on bicycle. He yelled at them and, when they didn’t depart immediately, gave each one a vigorous whack on the butt with a large bamboo cane he was carrying. They did not retreat very far we noticed despite the caning. Money is for survival here not just comfort or luxuries.

We went from there to the Agra Fort and saw where the king had been imprisoned. We went by way of the hotel where Mary and some others that were feeling the heat or had a shopping itch got off while the rest of us went on to the fort. It is a huge structure of mostly red sandstone surrounded by a moat that stretches 2 kilometers. The king’s residence was in white marble and has beautiful gardens. Looking from his prison quarters there you can see the Taj about 2 miles distant across the river. One of the sights along the way was an open lot with bee-hive shaped mounds about 4 feet tall built of these brown discs. The discs are made of dried straw and manure and a sold for cooking fuel.

After our stop at the Fort they took us back to the hotel for high tea -- like another meal with both sweets and more substantial fare like puff pastry filled with mushrooms and lentils. The return plane trip was uneventful, but our nighttime drive through Mumbai created some additional impressions. Driving through the city at 9:30 at night highlights things that you might not notice in the daytime.
Commuter trains here have used an innovative approach to deal with crowding. They have removed the doors! So you see the crowded trains rocketing along with people standing in the open doorways. This creates more room and eliminates those pesky delays when the doors are opening and closing. Seeing the passengers backlit with the train’s interior lights really brought this out. Made you wonder how often someone fell out.

The streets were teeming with foot traffic and many small businesses were open. Restaurants and food vendors were doing a brisk business. Most homes had no screens, curtains or shades so you could see how they were decorated and see people as they went about their activities. Nice-looking modern air conditioned high-rise apartments stood next to beat-up moldering low-rise apartments with night air cooling.

The make-shift sidewalk living arrangements of the poorest people also became evident. Some simply curled up on the pavement with their sandals under their heads. Others covered up with a sheet. Still others made a make-shift lean-to by attaching one edge of a sheet to a wall and the other edge to the sidewalk. Although India’s economy has been growing rapidly it is hard to see them overcoming their poverty unless they can overcome some of the cultural issues that hold them back (like controlling the growth of their population).

We were hot, tired, and dirty when we got back to the ship at 9:45 that night. Several of the ships staff had set up a little greeting for us in the terminal – cold cloths and ice water. It was like coming home and we were glad to be there. A room service pizza, some salad and we were out like a light. I didn’t wake up until 1000 the following morning.

Am sitting on our balcony watching the blue ocean passing by and the occasional flying fish. A great way to blog! Two more days until we get to Dubai.

ANDAMAN ISLAND ADVENTURE

2009-04-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

2 April 2009 Andaman Islands – These islands (54 they say) are in the Indian Ocean and belong to India. They are volcanic in origin rather than coral islands so are quite hilly. We did not take Clyde or our camera ashore since we were headed to the beach and did not want to leave anything valuable on the beach while we were snorkeling. Actually that was not a real concern because the tour we were on took us to an island within a Marine Park and our tour was the only people on the island. However we have no pics to post this time. But our experience was worth jotting down.

The port where the ship docked was secured behind a tall set of gates. Outside the gates were throngs of Tuk-Tuk drivers ( perhaps 50) vying for customers among the ship’s passengers that were brave enough to go out on their own. We saw a few go out and angry disputes break out among the drivers and the potential customers felt threatened enough by being part of this animated tug of war that they retreated back inside the gates. As our bus tried to get out those same gates it took several minutes for the Tuk-Tuks to give way enough for our bus to get out – the ones closest to the gates did not want to give up their prime spots I suppose. Only 4 cruise ships come here each year, so this is a rare economic opportunity.
Then our bus wound its way through the town of Port Blair dodging cows pedestrians, Tuk-Tuks, etc ---occasionally having to back and fill a few times to make it around a switchback that was too tight to make the turn in one swing.

At one point we pulled off to the side of the road and sat for a while. The tour guide explained that they had had some problems with the bus and were taking a mechanic along just in case. A few minutes later he hopped on and we were off again. We were on the bus for about an hour going through villages and past farm fields. We also saw some of the devastation they suffered in the Tsunami that hit here a few years ago. There were big, low-lying areas that still had trapped seawater covering former farm fields.

Lots of coconut and betel nut trees and many nutmeg trees as well along the way and lots of small fields of various kinds of vegetables. Although we did not get an impression of prosperity here (just the opposite) the guide pointed out to us that we would not see any beggars or homeless people or need to worry about pickpockets as everyone here had a way to make a living honestly. Shockingly we were not even approached by any souvenir vendors so maybe what he said was true. Cows were everywhere -- wandering in the streets, picking through mounds of garbage, staked out in fields. Also many goats. Most businesses were open air with a sort of garage door in front they opened when they were open for business. Most buildings looked neglected and there was trash everywhere.

We arrived at a dock where we boarded an old wooden vessel that reminded us of the African Queen and it putted off at a stately 2-3 knots out into the Ghandi Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary is made up of several islands and access to these islands is carefully controlled to try to preserve the coral and other marine life. We putted past several idyllic little islands with broad white sand beaches. When we finally arrived at the island where we were going to land someone in the boat said “Where is the beach?”.

We moored the big boat offshore at a mooring buoy and climbed into little outboards to go ashore. There was a flat area near the water that had a couple of palm-thatched shelters to provide shade and a couple of ramshackle changing huts. Nothing there that we would call a beach – no sand to lay on for instance. Someone said it looked like Gilligan’s Island but not as nice. They provided masks and snorkels (no fins) that were pretty grimy looking. Mary would not put one near her face. I decided that maybe the salt water would clean them up enough to avoid leprosy so I gave it a try. I’m sure she will be watching me for several days for symptoms of dysentery, etc ;-)

The water was quite warm and fairly clear. There was a good variety of colorful fish and some squid, so I spent about 90 minutes snorkeling. The coral was in pretty rough shape but looked like it was making a comeback. I guess it had been damaged in the Tsunami.

Lunch was an adventure. They provided a box lunch of a sandwich, a muffin, a box of orange juice, a green banana, and a tangerine. This did not come from the ship and after seeing conditions on the island and, not knowing the provenance of the sandwich and muffin, the only things we tried were the fruit (which we could peel) and the juice. The banana, though green outside, was perfectly ripe and absolutely the best banana I have ever tasted. They did provide plenty of bottled water to drink.

Other impressions. There were a lot of schools so apparently a good emphasis on education. Guide said 90% of kids go to school. Many drivers training businesses as well. Lots of noise, bright colors, smells, stray animals, confusion and trash. It was in the 90s and the humidity was in the 80s. Not a place where we would be wanting to buy a timeshare or rush back to visit again. Did not really get much chance to interact with the locals, so don’t really know what they are like. Lots of people in uniforms – police, army, guards. They had a modern airport /military base with jet flights daily to India. This was built by the Japanese in WWII. And, of course, chaotic traffic with many of the same characteristics as traffic in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Next stop Mumbai – after four days at sea. We are in the Bay of Bengal which is part of the Indian Ocean and will round the southern tip of India and go up into the Arabian Sea to Mumbai which is on India’s west coast.

APRIL FOOL'S DAY

2009-04-01T20:59:00.001-07:00

Always eager for a celebration, our dining table decided to go to Sabatini’s – one of the two special occasion restaurants on board—to celebrate Doreen’s birthday and the anniversary of our engagement. We started with some wine in one of the ship’s bars. Doreen (from Toronto) is seated in the pink Chinese style dress. Cathy (seated) and Peter (standing) are from England.

At dinner (many courses) and more wine (of course) with (from the left) Bob and Diane from Florida, Joan from Toronto and Delores from Philadelphia. Clyde was resplendent in his formal outfit (tie).

MALAYSIA VS LAZY DAY

2009-03-31T02:30:00.000-07:00

We opted to do little more than our laundry today while docked in Malaysia. A 90 minute each way bus ride to Kuala Lumpur just didn't sound worth it. Are we getting jaded? Of course getting a chance to be in the ship's laundromat when it was not jammed with crabby people was a treat.

SINGAPORE ESCAPE

2009-03-31T02:29:00.001-07:00

MARY IS ALWAYS GETTING CLYDE OUT OF SCRAPES

SINGAPORE

2009-03-31T02:27:00.001-07:00

30 March 2009 – Singapore – Wow were we ever impressed with Singapore. Not a very democratic place but the leaders get A+ for urban planning.

This island city is off the southern top of the Malay Peninsula just one degree north of the equator but has so much greenery and so many trees (more than 4 million) that it seems much cooler than you would expect. Building codes require that buildings along the street have an overhang to shield people from the sun and rain as they walk. 80 percent of the people here own their own homes – many in condos built by the government. So public housing here is not just for the poor, but people here don’t rent public housing, they buy it. The only way you can tell the public from the private condo buildings is that people who live in the public condos can hang their laundry out.

They have a terrific subway that goes everywhere and housing is allocated so rich, poor and middle income have an equal chance to be close to the subway. All the buildings look fresh and new since there is a requirement that all buildings be painted every 5 years. Cars are discouraged – there are a limited number of permits issued each year and they are auctioned off to the highest bidder – typically adding $10K to the cost of buying a car. Car prices are artificially raised as well. They have an island nearby that is designated for recreation and has beaches, picnic areas, sports facilities, etc that you can reach by bridge or aerial tram.
They are one of the world’s busiest ports and refine perhaps half of the world’s oil – all of this on islands away from their main residential and business island. A very prosperous place.

Drug offenses here carry the death penalty. Littering, spitting on the sidewalk and other minor offenses carry a stiff fine. The only thing that carries a duty in this free port is smoking materials. Bringing any amount in without declaring it carries a $10000 fine! Thus Singapore is a beautiful, nearly crime free place, with no litter, no slums, no homeless, not much smoking, little pollution and no beggars. Not what we are used to seeing in this part off the world – or anywhere else for that matter.

They are 77 percent Chinese descent, 14% Malayan, 7 % Indian and 2 other and pride themselves on being Singaporean and on living with harmony between races and religions. Their first elected President was of Chinese extraction, but the current one is Indian. Of course it is the Prime Minister who wields the real power and he is elected by the ruling party. There are only currently 2 opposition members in their parliament, so the Prime Minister is very powerful indeed. But their leaders have apparently used their power wisely and with long-term prosperity and quality of life a primary goals.

We toured the orchid garden in their botanical park. Probably the most beautiful garden we have ever seen. We rode down Orchard Road (their upscale shopping area) and past Raffles Hotel and then on into Chinatown. We got off the tour there and spent the afternoon having lunch (Chili crabs – a local specialty of whole crab in a sweet-hot sauce that has scrambled egg mixed in. Man were we a mess afterwards – the sauce splatters as you are picking the crab apart.) and shopping. We took the subway to Orchard Road. Mary needed some cotton trousers for Egypt and India and most of the stores here have only “size Asian” as Mary calls it – too tiny for American bods.

Singapore is very livable despite year round temps in the 90s. We would be interested in coming back and spending a few more days here. Oh and did I mention that everyone here speaks at least a little English?

Next stop Andaman Islands (owned by India)

SINGAPORT ORCHID GARDEN

2009-03-31T02:23:00.001-07:00

THAI KING'S PALACE

2009-03-31T01:38:00.001-07:00

THE MOST VISITED SITE IN THAILAND. MOST OF THE GROUNDS ARE DEVOTED TO TEMPLES AND SHRINES. WE COULD NOT VISIT THE RESIDENTIAL PORTION.

STATUE OF DOCTOR WHO TAUGHT BUDDHA HERBAL MEDECINE, MASSAGE AND YOGA

HE IS ONE OF MORE THAN A DOZEN ALONG THE BASE OF THE BUILDING THAT HOUSES THE ASHES OF ALL FORMER KINGS

RIDEM CLYDE!!!

HERE IS ONE OF THE GUARDIANS OF THE EMERALD BUDDHA

CLYDE HAD A NARROW ESCAPE HERE

THESE BOYS ARE ATTENDING A SORT OF MONK SUMMER CAMP

BANGKOK CONTRASTS

2009-03-31T01:33:00.001-07:00

THIS IS THE TUK TUK -- COMMON TRANSPORT IN CAMBODIA AND THAILAND. SOME PASSENGERS FROM OUR SHIP WERE ON ONE WHEN IT OVERTURNED IN CAMBODIA -- LUCKILY ESCAPED WITH A FEW SCRAPES AND SORE JOINTS.

SHOE REPAIR OPERATION ON THE SIDEWALK

Bangkok has lots of modern building but lots of people live the old way in slums or along canals

CAMBODIAN HOME

2009-03-31T01:02:00.001-07:00

We visited a typical Cambodian home and Clyde was a hit as usual.

CLYDE VISIT CAMBODIAN SCHOOL

2009-03-31T00:59:00.001-07:00

Several kids wanted to adopt Clyde, but Mary convinced them that Clyde was her "baby".

MOTORCYCLE SAFETY CAMBODIAN STYLE

2009-03-31T00:55:00.000-07:00

CAMBODIAN TEMPLE

2009-03-28T04:22:00.000-07:00

This a nun feeding the monkeys on the grounds. They were very gentle. Mary here is proving she has no fear of snakes.

The guide was unable to tell us how this fountain fit into Buddhist symbology Below a giant stands in the way of the Prince Siddarta on his way to becoming the Buddha.

Visited a Buddhist temple here. Very serene and beautiful.

THAILAND

2009-03-27T23:37:00.001-07:00

27 March 2009 – Bangkok Thailand – We had to moor about 70 miles away and it took about 2 hours each way by bus to get there. Along the way there (on a modern toll road) we stopped at a rest area. They had KFC and McDs (Ronald statue out front was doing Thai hand-clasped bow) but the sidewalks featured vendors making all kinds of Thai specialties – the smells and sights were marvelous. There was a bit of a traffic jam in the ladies room Mary reports. Only one of the stalls had a Western-style toilet. The rest were Asian style and few women (other than Mary )on our bus were willing to experiment.

Along the way we learned that tapioca is a major export of Thailand along with rice and tiger prawns. We never knew where or what it came from. It turns out that it is the same as cassava and is a tall (10ft) spindly tree-like shrub. They harvest and process the roots which are tubers that are about 3 inches in diameter and look a bit like sweet potatoes. They pull up the plants to harvest the roots; cut up the stalks and then plant the pieces of stalk to generate another crop. The tubers are dried and processed into chips, flour or pellets and are used in all kinds of products.

The city of Bangkok was much more modern than we were expecting --- but still retains plenty of old-fashioned Asian backstreets, and strange sights to Western eyes.
They are building a new high-speed rail link between downtown and the new airport which is 15 miles out. They have a subway and commuter rail but not extensive. There is a big Chinatown area where it seemed every second shop was selling gold.
We stopped at a Temple and toured a building that was a replica of the original monastery where Buddha lived long ago in India. 5 floors with a spiral staircase – Buddhas galore on every floor.
Then on to the grounds of the King’s Palace – the most visited and important spot in Thailand. There is a residential compound there, but the part open to the public is an area of many buildings devoted to Buddhism and royal rituals. The “Emerald Buddha” is enshrined in one large, ornate building. It is actually a bluish jade and is considered the most important Buddha statue in Thailand. The king himself comes 4 times a year and, in an elaborate ceremony, washes the Buddha and dresses it in attire appropriate for the season. In another building is a throne where new kings are crowned. Another structure houses the ashes of former kings. BTW “The King and I” is based on at true story and the current monarchs are Anna’s descendants. Words fail me to describe the ornate and exotic nature of the buildings and statues here – I will provide some pics instead.

We walked from there through a sea of vendors (post cards, fans, umbrellas, purses, etc.) to a riverboat and had a boat tour of the city’s major rivers and one of the large canals. Bangkok is quite Venice-like and is cris-crossed with canals. Many people live either along (or floating on) the canals and we saw a real slice of a different life while cruising past. There are a lot of houses (mostly pretty humble) on stilts because the land under them (which the homeowner owns) has been eroded away by the river or canal current. Bit by bit these houses are being put behind seawalls and having dirt put back under them. Most people have running water but sewage disposal is generally into the canal for the people that live along them. We saw kids swimming in them too ;-<>

CAMBODIA

2009-03-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

25 Mar 2009 -- Sihanoukville, Cambodia – We docked here too far from Pnom Pen to go there on a tour. This is a port city and beach town and we didn’t expect to see much of interest, but were pleasantly surprised. The port itself was of interest. They had a large fishing fleet of small wooden boats with gasoline engines that make a loud “putt putt” sound. Most of them went out at night and returned early in the morning with fresh fish for the market. As we left the port dozens were leaving at the same time and hundreds were already out dotting the horizon. In fact, all the time we have been in Southeast Asian waters we have rarely been in a place where there was not at least one little fishing boat on the horizon.

We visited the “Lower” Buddhist temple there (the upper temple was further uphill). A tranquil, tree-shaded place with a temple building in the center and several exotic shrines on the grounds. There was a motel-like building where the monks lived and, back in the woods, some humble wooden buildings where some nuns lived. We found out that boys can become monks for as little as a few months as part of their growth toward adulthood and Cambodian parents are very proud of them when they choose to do that. Older/career monks are respected as holy men and wise counselors. People will come to the temple not only to pray, but to seek spiritual guidance or to get advice on how to bring luck to their homes. On the wooded areas of the extensive grounds there were many monkeys. We visited a nun who was feeding them fruit. The monkeys were very gentle and orderly about taking the fruit – just the opposite of what you might expect. Mary also spotted a cat which, despite a skinny and generally unhealthy appearance, seemed fairly energetic and playful. Nuns, we found out, come to the temple to live so as to advance themselves on the path toward Nirvana. Nuns wear white and monks wear orange robes. Both are shaved bald and you could not easily distinguish between the men and the women with the color coding.

The tour also took us to a typical Cambodian home out in the country and we were allowed to tour it. We felt a little uncomfortable doing this, but rationalized it by the idea that the tour company was surely paying this family – and they clearly could use it – and we did come on this trip partially to see how other people lived. It was a two-story building that housed 4 generations of the family of 20. The men of the family are fishermen. The ground floor had a concrete floor. It contained several small sleeping rooms with straw mats and hammocks and also contained the kitchen. The kitchen was simple with a gas burner, a stone grinder for making rice flour, and a single water tap. Several woks hung on the wall. There was no refrigerator – marketing is done every morning. The front porch area was partially devoted to a small store not much larger than a card table in area in which they sold cigarettes, chewing gum and a few other odds and ends. It also housed a TV, stereo, and VCR – so they had electricity. We had to remove our shoes to enter the upstairs area. On the porch was a leather couch and a framed set of family pictures. Among the pics was a European-looking couple. The guide told us that the people in the house knew them and that they were captured and killed by the Khmer Rouge (who killed about 1 million during their reign of terror). There was a large living room with two shrines – one for Buddha and one for ancestors. Joss sticks are burned and offerings are made on special days or when help is being requested (safe return from fishing, etc.). There was a shadow box on the wall that contained a number of simple mementos including some small koala bears given them by an Aussie visitor. Clyde made acquaintance with several of the kids.
We then visited a local elementary school and took a tour. The kids were very friendly and some had a few words of English. Many made a bid to become Clyde’s new parent. Mary made the issue clear to them with protective, baby-cuddling gestures. This is a poor country that is making a comeback after years of war and devastation. The Khmer Rouge made a point of killing off intellectuals. This country primary school was built using materials and funds donated by Japanese and the actual design and build was done by Aussies. We met the Principal, who was nice, but no-nonsense. We all made donations to help them continue their work and one person on our group had the forethought to bring along a bag of school books to donate. Primary education is mandatory and free. Some students take private English lessons at night for which their parents pay. This is a tourist area and English is a big economic plus for those who can speak some.

In the city of Sihanoukville there is a central market – a large, dark, rabbit-warren of a place. A long central aisle and many narrow side aisles. All sorts of things on sale – clothing, food, flowers, hardware, etc. The further we went down the central aisle into the interior the more “exotic” the smell became. So much so that we turned back after we went in about 100 yards or so. We bought some flowers to brighten our cabin. The city itself has many western touches – English language signs for restaurants and hotels. While we were waiting in the bus for others to finish their shopping we amused ourselves by watching the swirl of motorbike traffic out the window. Helmets? You gotta be kidding? One small motorbike had a family of 5 aboard. Dad driving with one hand while clutching an infant to his chest with the other. Mom on the back and two young children sandwiched between. Then one young man had a 1 ft square, 4 foot long block of ice strapped crosswise to the back of his motorbike – look out pedestrians! Another man was driving with one hand on the handlebars and the other cradled a bundle of 20 or so 12 ft lengths of plastic pipe.

Our final stop was a 5-star beach resort called Sokha Beach. It was lovely. The beach was beautiful white sand. The water was clean and a light green in color and was very warm – at least 90. We had a half-our swim and a half-hour to dry off. Near the beach there was a folk band and dancers in a tree-shaded plaza in native dress doing native dances. There was also a foot massage concession under the trees nearby.

You could look around and see the signs that this area was beginning a comeback. Clyde learned the Cambodian greeting bow. Hands clasped in front in a prayer attitude and bow with nose touching finger tips. Even though he has no fingertips he got quite good at it and was a hit with the locals when one of their busses pulled alongside ours at a traffic signal.

CYCLO TRAVEL IN SAIGON

2009-03-27T22:10:00.001-07:00

This man powered travel can be scary in Saigon traffiic but a great way to sight see. Clyde enjoyed people's reactions when he waved to them. Here is a pic of our friend Delores enjoying the ride. And of course Clyde with our drivers.

SAIGON STREET SCENES

2009-03-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Lots of outdoor activity here. Here is someone getting a haircut. Also an outdoor cafe where people were sitting in the shade having a tea. Street vendors selling food were everywhere.

WELCOME TO VIETNAM

2009-03-24T01:21:00.000-07:00

24 Mar 2009 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) -- We only had a brief stop here, but it was very interesting. We opted for a 2 hour city tour via “cyclo”. A cyclo is a tricycle where the passenger sits in front and the driver sits on a bicycle seat in back and pedals.

Luckily Saigon is very flat, because it was very hot (90’s) and we perhaps weigh a bit more than the average Vietnamese ;-)

Mary and Clyde shared one and Brian had one to himself. Saigon traffic is mostly motor scooters and motor cycles (4 million) and quite confusing with all kinds of vehicles zipping this way and that in and out. One local hair-raising custom is to cut diagonally through oncoming traffic if you are going to drive your scooter up onto the left-hand sidewalk (where driving is apparently okay at times) or into an alley. There are a few traffic signals (mostly ignored) and no stop signs in evidence. Our cyclos apparently did not have to obey any rules in particular, but did stay mostly on the right side of the road, except when turning left into a one=way street where they often executed the diagonal into oncoming traffic maneuver. When we get back, we’ll post a short cycle-eye video to give you a better idea of what it was like. We don’t mind saying that it was a bit scary at first. We got a good tour of the old part of Saigon. The drivers had no English but pointed out local important sights to us. Luckily Brian had a simple map and was able to understand what a few of them were.

This is a vibrant, bustling city and very different from others we visited. Most business was conducted in an open-air setting and there were street vendors selling everything from soup to clothing to haircuts. Some of the cargo loaded on small vehicles was eye-boggling. We passed by the old Presidential Palace (now a reunification museum) and the old American Embassy (now the American Consulate). Pollution was not bad – not in the same league as China. There are a few nice new hotels -- Sheraton and Renaissance. Unlike China we saw no beggars here – but plenty of pesky street vendors selling post cards, fans, “Polo” shirts, coolie hats and mandarin outfits.

After our two-hour ride in the blazing sun we were hot and tired. We went to the Rex Hotel and had lunch on their rooftop restaurant. Nice breeze, good service, good view and decent food. Brian had a local beer “333” or “Ba Ba Ba”.

By the time we finished it was time to catch the shuttle bus back to the ship. A very pretty young Vietnamese woman in traditional dress was the hostess on the shuttle bus. Clyde made her acquaintance, but forgot to get her name.

The port lecturer on board our ship told us that while Vietnam is communist, it has a market-driven economy. Families during the war were encouraged to have lots of kids, but now the target number is 2 per family --- and if a gov’t employee has 3, they can be fired. Early on after the war they tried collectivization of everything. As a result, no one was willing to work and they did not have enough food to feed their people. The first year after they went back to people owning their own property, they had a rice surplus and are now Asia’s number 3 rice exporter. The local currency is the Dong and the exchange rate is 17,000 to one US dollar. He advised us not to exchange currency unless we had a wheel barrow since US dollar is widely accepted. Most street vendors sell stuff for “one dollah”. Anything more than that is negotiable.

Next stop Cambodia

CHINA

2009-03-23T21:43:00.001-07:00

20 Mar 2009 CHINA – I am afraid that this one will be quite long winded since we saw so much of interest (at least to us). We took an “overland” trip. Our ship docked in Shanghai where we just had a few hours to stimulate the local economy before running off to the airport. What a modern, bustling city filled with skyscrapers – including the world’s first tallest and fifth tallest. We only saw the port area and part of the city on our way to the “silk exposition center” where we purchased some silk comforters and saw how they were made. They had a group of people there who started with cocoons and created the silk fillers for the comforters – a lot of hand work – and quite fascinating. The traffic was helter skelter and there were lots of traffic jams and considerable air pollution. We flew to Beijing that afternoon.

We stayed at Beijing’s Great Wall Sheraton for 3 nights and had a lot of great Chinese meals. Beijing is amazingly polluted. You see the sun through a thick haze and our throats were scratchy all the while we were there. They are making some efforts to reduce pollution, but Beijing is growing so rapidly that it will be a challenge just to avoid it getting worse. Drivers, for instance, have to leave their cars home one day a week depending on what number their license plate ends in. They have a solid public transport infrastructure, but still traffic is heavy everywhere. The city is full of skyscrapers and high-rise apartment buildings and most of the old low-rise neighborhoods (Hutongs) have been torn down.

One night we went to Beijing’s most famous Beijing Duck restaurant. It is in an area that they renovated prior to the Olympics trying to preserve the style of a previous period – say 1930’s. It was very nice but had that unreal sanitized Disney quality about it. They had some sort of a promotion going on at the restaurant in conjunction with the local Chinese opera and a locally famous opera singer made the rounds of our tables while paparazzi and videographers captured it all. Clyde introduced himself and the singer held him for awhile. It would be interesting to see if he ended up on any of their news programs or in the newspaper. The food was outstanding with course after course. Most of the main courses were some kind of duck and the final course was Beijing Duck carved at table side – best we’ve ever had.

Our first day of touring there we went first to Tiananmen Square. It is HUGE (can accommodate 500,000 people)! Bordered by Mao’s Tomb, the Great Hall of the People (their congress meets there and it also has a banquet hall that will seat 10,000), and their national museum. Mao was not available for viewing that day – perhaps he was in for refurbishing. There is a large monument in the center honoring China’s war dead going all the way back to the Opium Wars. Free enterprise has taken hold here – there were lots of souvenir (Mao watches on which his arm waves, Olympic hats for $1, “Rolex” watches, “Gucci” bags, etc.) vendors in the square and some were quite persistent. Clyde had to have the Mao watch. Despite our being Yankee Imperialists Dogs we felt quite welcome and Clyde made the acquaintance of a very cute little girl there. Even the stern guards there smiled when Clyde waved to them. It was handy to know a few words of Chinese supplied by our guide “Bu” – No and “Ni Hao” Hello. Bu was especially handy with the vendors. Clyde used Ni Hao with a lot of kids and adults while waving one arm – always got a big smile.

Later we spent a couple of hours in the Forbidden City which is also in the heart of Beijing not far from Tiananmen. This is the former home of China’s emperors from the 1400s on. Forbidden City because anyone entering without permission was beheaded or worse. It covers many acres and has many buildings and all of it is surrounded by high walls and a moat. All of the buildings are wooden with tile roofs and are very ornate. Most have burned down and been rebuilt numerous times. The ends of each roof are decorated with upright ceramic animals and gods – the more of them there are, the more important the building (see photo). There are public areas of the city where the emperor received visitors, participated in ceremonies and met with his officials. Then there is the private area where the emperor lived with his empress, his thousands of concubines, his children and his many servants (eunuchs). Other than in a small formal garden, there are no trees in the Forbidden City since they might hide assassins. Food tasters were employed and the floors of the city had 15 layers of stone and dirt to foil anyone trying to tunnel in. If you see the movie “The Last Emperor”, it shows many shots of the Forbidden City. The main buildings have names such as “Hall of Supreme Harmony”.
Next came the “Temple of Heaven”. It also covers many acres and has many interesting features. Heaven was thought to be round back then and the earth square. The structures when you enter the temple grounds are rectangular and painted in red and yellow (colors of the earth and the emperor). The structures further in are round and blue (the celestial color).This is a Taoist temple that was only used twice a year when the Emperor came to pray for a good harvest in the spring and later in the year when he came to pray to the supreme being. He was accompanied only by his sons and top officials – no women allowed. Animal sacrifices were offered.
The following day we went north by bus about 90 minutes to a section of the Great Wall. This amazing structure was built by hand over steep terrain and stretches some 4000 miles. We climbed a section of it and it was quite steep – and pretty awe inspiring. Clyde met another cute little girl there – Jen Jen (see pic). After a great Chinese lunch, with many courses served family style at round tables with lazy susans in the middle, we went to one of the tombs of the Ming emperors. There are a number of above ground buildings similar to those at the Forbidden City and the emperor was actually buried in an underground palace made of marble which in under a hill which was originally surrounded by a moat and appeared to cover several acres. The actual tomb has not been excavated. The tombs of all the Ming emperors (13 if memory serves) are in the same general area but miles apart. At one time there was a special road from the Forbidden City that ran to this area and only used to transport the dead emperors. A 1 Km section of the road has been preserved and is lined with granite statues of animals and men. The statues date back to the 1400s. On our way to the Great Wall we stopped at the main Olympic venue and saw (the exterior) the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest. Clyde posed with our great tour guide Liu Yi (louie).
That was a very full day and we got up the next morning at 0500 to fly to Hong Kong. None of us had any energy left when we got to Hong Kong that afternoon so we took it very easy. Hong Kong is also loaded with high-rise apartment buildings and skyscrapers and their skyline is very impressive. Our ship was docked in Kowloon near the Star Ferry terminal and our balcony had an amazing view of Hong Kong Island across the harbor. We sailed away at night right past the Hong Kong waterfront and most of the buildings had some kind of multi-colored lighting that changed in interesting patterns. This combined with laser lights and many searchlights beaming from the tops of the tallest buildings made this the most spectacular sail-away we have ever had.

Next stop Vietnam.

MING EMPEROR TOMBS

2009-03-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

The road between the Forbidden City and the tombs of the Ming emperors is lined with granite statues of animals and people of various professions. We were surpised to find a Clyde look-alike memorialized there. Clyde was also amused by some of the signs.

GREAT WALL

2009-03-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

The cute little Chinese girl that Clyde met here was actually visiting from Canada. Whodathunkit? Here name is Jen Jen and she introduced Clyde to her Pooh Bear. Clyde climbed all the way to the highest point you can see on the right side of this photo. His calves ached a bit the next day. It was very steep and fairly crowded.

FORBIDDEN CITY

2009-03-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

The roofs of the buildings have little ceramic statues of Gods and animals. The more of them, the more important the building. One looked quite familiar to us. Also, as you can see, much is forbidden in the Forbidden City.

TIANAMEN SQUARE BUDDY

2009-03-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Clyde has a way of meeting cute kids. This one in the world's largest square. Neither she nor her parents spoke English and none of us spoke Chinese -- so Clyde did not get her name despite some funny efforts to do so. We were also surprised that someone resembling Clyde was memorialized in an heroic sculpture there. There is also a pic here of the 3 of us in front of Mao's Tomb -- he was not on display that day.

DUCK OPERA

2009-03-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

We visited a famous old Beijing Duck restaurant. They were haveing a promotion with the Beijing Opera that night. Here is Clyde with a well-know (not to us) opera star. He also is seen here supervising the chef carving the duck near our table.

BEIJING OLYMPICS

2009-03-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

We got a brief stop at the Olympic venue. Here is Clyde viewing the "water cube' which was the scene of all the smimming and diving events. Our great guide Liu Yi (Louie) is show with Clyde in front of the "Bird's Nest" -- the stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies were held. Lui Yi was one of the best guide we have ever had. His command of English was excellent; he provided great insights into the places we visited as well as into what daily life was like for the people of Beijing -- and he kept the tour highly organized.

HONG KONG HARBOR

2009-03-22T04:20:00.000-07:00

HERE IS THE GLORIOUS VIEW FROM OUR CABIN WINDOW WHERE WE WERE MOORED IN KOWLOON. LOOKING AT HONG KONG ISLAND SKYLINE IN DISTANCE AND STAR FERRY TERMINAL IN FOREGROUND.

HIROSHIMA JAPAN

2009-03-13T20:09:00.001-07:00

14 Mar 2009 – HIROSHIMA, JAPAN -- We had a tour this morning that went to a famous garden around a lake in the heart of Hiroshima – amazing the level of detail they put into these gardens – very pretty and restful even in the drizzle. Then we went on to the peace museum that commemorates the A-bombing of Aug 5, 1945. There are few traces of that devastation in Hiroshima now (the entire city of 300,000 was leveled), but they have kept the remains of one building that was near ground zero as a monument and created the peace museum and several peace monuments nearby. The museum houses before and after pictures; pictures of the mushroom cloud and a number of artifacts (some grisly) from the attack. This is now the spiritual center of the world-wide anti-nuclear weapon movement. Very sobering and thought provoking. Outside the museum we got interviewed by some sixth graders who were studying English and using this to practice. Amazing how friendly and accommodating everyone we met was.

After the tour we set off in search of a Sushi restaurant. Brian had promised Mary (who loves sushi) that they would go to a genuine Japanese sushi restaurant while here. We asked for advice at the information center near the ship and two of the employees took us to one a couple of miles away in their own private car - they were Hiroko and Sachiko. They not only took us to the huge shopping center where it was located, but took us inside; found the restaurant on the second floor and had the hostess seat us. Then we were on our own in a total Japanese immersion experience (no English spoken). It was one of those places where there is a little conveyor belt that snakes around the place with little dishes with an assortment of sushi dishes. You take what you want as they move past and pay according to the number of dishes stacked up at the end. If you want a drink or a special dish of some kind you press a buzzer and a waitress comes. Right in the middle of the meal it occurred to Brian that they might not take credit cards – they are not nearly as widely accepted as in the US. Sure enough – they did not. Brian jumped up and used his Japanese skills to find an ATM in another part of the shopping center and was able then to relax during the rest of the meal. This was not a top quality sushi meal but it was a great experience. BTW the Japanese word for ATM is ATM (I tried all sorts of other Japanese/English combinations before that one worked).
We bought some fresh flowers for our cabin and also brought some small flowering plants back for the women who were so nice to take us to the sushi restaurant – they were tickled and we took their picture with Clyde who was sampling the free sake in the information center.

Next stop is Inchon, Korea.

CLYDE SAMPLES SAKE

2009-03-13T20:07:00.001-07:00

Clyde liked the sake in the information hut near our ship. He said it tasted especially good because it was free.

HIROSHIMA SUSHI

2009-03-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Clyde was fascinated by the sushi conveyor at this restaurant as you can see from the pile of dishes

MEDITATION

2009-03-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Clyde loved this quiet garden in central Hiroshima.

HIROKO AND SACHIKO

2009-03-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hiroko (middle) and Sachiko are the ladies from the information booth that drove us to a sushi restaurant in their personal car. We brought them back some flowers later and introduced them to Clyde.

OSAKA AND KYOTO

2009-03-13T19:55:00.001-07:00

13 Mar 2009 – Osaka and Kyoto Japan – Now that we are back north of the equator things are much cooler. Temp is about 50 for the high. Brian is enjoying using his limited Japanese – amazing how much you forget it 45 years (also amazing how much you remember). Brian was here for a year in 1966-67 with the Air Force and took a couple of semesters of conversational Japanese while there. Overall impression this time is one of much greater prosperity than in the 60s and things are much cleaner. Before Japanese were very fastidious about their personal cleanliness and their homes, but were total litterbugs in public. Not so now. We toured several famous shrines and temples (Buddhist and Shinto) and had a traditional Japanese lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful garden that we walked through after lunch. The Rioanji temple was built in the 1500s and has a famous stone garden – an enclosed garden with raked gravel and a few “islands” of large rocks and moss-covered mounds. The temple is on some acreage and every square inch is full of manicured gardens surrounding a large pond in the center with a resident stork. Mary had fun souvenir shopping and Brian had a delicious ice cream cone with two flavors of ice cream – green tea and cherry blossom. The tour lasted from 0800-1830. We were so tired that Mary even skipped dinner --- had a shower and crashed. She said she was “shrined out”. Brian had them send a sandwich up to our cabin and crashed soon after that. After all we have a tour of Hiroshima tomorrow morning.
Clyde enjoyed the spiritual side of things and meditated at several Buddhist temples. He was disappointed in the Shinto religion however. It is an animistic religion and has many deities from the natural world. Since Wombats are not native to Japan, he did not qualify to be a deity :-(

HEAVY WORK

2009-03-13T19:50:00.001-07:00

Legend has it that if this stone feels light, then your wishes will be granted. Clyde said it felt light to him. Mary thought it was heavy.

CONTEMPLATIVE CLYDE

2009-03-13T19:47:00.001-07:00

It is early spring here and Clyde chose to contemplate this beautiful garden from the branches of a plum tree.

CLYDE MAKES TOFU

2009-03-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

We had a great traditional Japanese lunch including a little cooker that let you make your own tofu.

PURE CLYDE

2009-03-13T19:43:00.001-07:00

Before entering a shrine you should stop and do a purifying ritual -- wash hands, drink a bit, then wash the handle of the cup. Clyde is now pure

ICHIKA

2009-03-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Clyde met Ichika and her mom near the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine in Kyoto. She was a bit surprised about both he and his big white-faced friends. After photo she did not want to turn loose of Clyde.

ZEN STONE GARDEN

2009-03-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

At Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto -- built 15th century. Supposed to be ocean, sea and mountains in minature.

GUAM

2009-03-13T02:22:00.000-07:00

8 Mar 2009 --- GUAM– We had an afternoon at the beach planned, bu…..t our computer died (no lights at all) the day before and since it was a Sunday there was no hope of getting it repaired we spent the half day we had there shopping. We went to K-Mart first (yeah they have one) – no luck. Then a cab driver took us to a computer place and we bought the notebook computer I am typing this on. We also picked up some essentials that we ran out of or wore out. One thing striking about Guam is how many Japanese tourists they get (85% of their tourists). The tourist hotel area has its signs in Japanese and (to a far lesser extent) English. I wonder who really won WW II. We had a very nice cab driver,
Ador – who spent most of the afternoon with us.

WHERE YA GONNA GO WHEN THE VOLCANO BLOWS?

2009-03-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

5 March 2009 – Rabaul, New Britain Island, New Guinea -- We pulled into the harbor early this morning and the first thing I noticed after I got up was a bad smell. I opened the curtains, but could not see a source for it --- kind of like hydrogen sulfide. The town outside the window looked a bit bedraggled. Rabaul was hit with a volcanic eruption in 1994 that covered it with 6 feet of volcanic ash. Some of the buildings are still standing, but Rabaul has been mostly abandoned and a new provincial capital declared about 10 miles away.

When we went up to breakfast we discovered the source of the smell – Mt Vulcan only a couple miles away across the harbor belching big plumes of gray smoke from its top and small plumes of steam from its sides. Apparently there had been a significant ash fall overnight and they had plowed the streets to get it off the road. There were piles of gray ash along the roadsides much like there would be piles of snow at home after the roads had been plowed.

We went on a three-hour tour that was oriented towards Rabaul’s role in WW II. They have a huge protected harbor called Blue Lagoon that was used by the Japanese as a communications and resupply base and held hundreds of Jap ships at that time. This is where the famous “Tokyo Express” originated that resupplied the islands in the area that were fighting against the Allies. We visited a cave that was created by the Japanese to hide barges from bombardment and it still had the hulls of several barges in it. Mary was relieved to find that the darting shapes flitting in and out were swallows – not bats. We also visited a WW II museum with all sorts of salvaged military hardware and interesting photos. One of our stops was a memorial garden for Aussie and Indian troops that had been killed in WWII action in the area. It was beautifully landscaped and cared for (unlike anything else we saw on the island) and it was very affecting reading the ages and the brief inscriptions on the markers for these young men that died fighting for their countries.

We felt like visiting royalty. Everywhere we went in our little Toyota minibus people would wave, smile and call out greetings. It was the rare person who, upon seeing us, did not wave. Naturally, we obligingly waved all morning til our arms were falling off. At one point where we were going slowly and Brian had his hand out the window, a local man came up and briefly touched it palm to palm --- his was very rough presumably from hard labor. There is not much industry here – coconut plantations and related processing plants. The people are mostly subsistence farmers and fishermen, sometimes supplementing with jobs or by stripping the hulls of coconuts by hand and selling the resulting materials to the coconut processing plants. Everyone has a plot of banana trees and that is a staple of the local diet. Many foods are cooked with coconut milk – coconuts are everywhere. Homes were simple frame buildings usually covered with woven palm mats. People seemed very poor but surprisingly friendly and happy. We saw a lot of churches in a variety of denominations and encountered a loud demonstration by perhaps 150 well-dressed people in support of World Prayer Day. They gave us a rousing blessing as we passed.

The people of New Guinea have over 700 languages and they often use pidgin English to bridge language gaps. No McDonalds here! They are in the process of building a Ramada Hotel though and that will be, we think, their first modern hotel. The area is supposed to be great for snorkeling and scuba, but we did not get a chance to try it.

It was lush, green, and hot – but we were not bothered by bugs (a surprise). Most of the roads were very rough and coated with ash so as part of our ride we got a full body massage and a free coating of pumice everywhere.

Brian did see a golf course and took some snaps for his golfing buddies with the spouting volcano in the background.

We only stayed until 2 PM and we sailed out past the volcano on our way to Guam.

NEW GUINEA FRIENDS FOR CLYDE

2009-03-06T20:58:00.001-08:00

Clyde enjoyed meeting our tour guide Cammy and two school kids -- Anessa and Suwana who were outside the WW II Japanese tunnel collecting for their school/schooling.

ASHFALL

2009-03-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

Rabaul had had an "ashfall" during the night before we arrive. You can see it here plowed up like snow would be back home. Everything was very dusty!

ACTIVE VOLCANO

2009-03-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

This is Mt Vulcan on New Britain Island in New Guinea. This baby wiped out Rabaul in 1994 and was actively belching all day while we were moored only a couple of miles away at Rabaul.

CAIRNS & THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

2009-03-03T20:13:00.001-08:00

2 March 2009 – Cairns (pronounced cans) Australia -- This is where most people come when they want to visit the Great Barrier Reef. It is a small city and fairly low rise with green mountains and mangroves around that reminded us of the Virgin Islands. Cairns has several nice hotels and a number of shaded esplanades kind of like cities on the Costa del Sol in Spain. Some of the hotels had casinos, but Brian did not check them out. The main business district is a combination of beach tourist shops, jewelry shops and high-end (think Gucci) clothing and accessory shops.

We, of course, went on a tour to the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is so far off shore that it took us 90 minutes on a high-speed catamaran to reach it. It was pretty bouncy on the way out there and quite a few people got either queasy or sick. Mary took Clyde outside to get some air and they stayed there the whole trip out. We arrived at a floating platform that is permanently anchored over the reef and were there for 4 hours.

The reef was everything we had hoped and more. An amazing profusion of corals of every shape and color as well as many types of colorful fish – including several types we had never seen before. Snorkeling was great!! They also had a glass-bottomed boat you could go out on and an underwater observation platform. As always Clyde made some friends (see pics).

Next stop Rabaul, New Guinea.

NO MAL DE MER HERE

2009-03-03T20:12:00.001-08:00

Despite the rocky ride Mary was enjoying herself on the catamaran ride out to the reef.

MAL DE MER

2009-03-03T20:10:00.001-08:00

We had no idea that wombats could get seasick. They crew said throw the sickness bag overboard after use -- biodegradable bag and the fish (disgustingly) like the contents for lunch.

CLYDE'S NEW FRIENDS

2009-03-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

John is from Nebraska and a truly nice guy. He has been on the cruise since the beginning, but this is Clyde's first opportunity for a photo with him. Their photo is on the floating island near the Great Barrier Reef.

Clyde met Emily in a jewely store in Cairns where Mary was doing her bit to stimulate the local economy. If you look closelyyou will note that Clyde was modeling a few pieces of jewelry.

WOMBATS SNORKEL - WHO KNEW?

2009-03-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

Clyde getting ready to explore Great Barrier Reef. Note that he is also wearing sea bands against seasickness.

DELORES A LONG WAY FROM HOME

2009-03-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

Here is our friend and table-mate Delores outside of Brisbane at the Koala Sanctuary.

3 TRAVELERS FAR FROM HOME

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BRISBANE CITY CATS

2009-02-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

Something unique to Brisbane are these catamarans that are part of their bus system. You can use a bus transfer to move from bus to catamaran. They have smaller feeder boats they call "kitty cats"

TIE ME KANGAROO DOWN SPORT

2009-02-28T18:07:00.001-08:00

AUSSIE BEER

2009-02-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

Aussies love their beer. Clyde tried the "XXXX Heavy" -- "not bad" he says.

CLYDE WOMBAT LORE

2009-02-28T18:02:00.001-08:00

Clyde found quite a few errors and omissions in this description of Wombats.

KOALA CUDDLE

2009-02-28T18:01:00.001-08:00

BRISANE

2009-02-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

27 Feb 2009 Brisbane – A modern city with a laid back attitude. Quite a bit further north than Sydney and therefore warmer and is the entryway to Australia’s Sunshine Coast. We took a tour to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Mary got to hold a Koala in the “Koala Cuddling Area”. There were lots of other native animals there and we fed a few wallabies (who were apparently well fed since they showed little interest) and got up close to an emu (heard that peculiar base drum sound they make). They had dozens of Koalas in a variety of settings – little ones in their “kindergarten” and some older ones in their “retirement home” and some up in a natural setting. Our visit to the Koala center was cut short because our ship was late arriving in Brisbane (unusually strong current). We had arrived at the sanctuary by bus, but left by riverboat that moved slowly down the Brisbane River toward the city. There were lots of expensive homes along the river and the guide said that there were plenty of crocodiles in it. We also passed an area where there were dozens of fruit bats hanging from the trees (not Mary’s favorite part of the visit).

We were dropped off in the city center. Had a nice lunch and then Mary and our friend Delores did a bit of shopping while Brian had a coffee, read the local newspapers and people watched.

We have 2 days at sea before we arrive at Cairns for our visit to the Great Barrier Reef. There have been lots of interesting lectures aboard on the days at sea. For instance, there are three about the Great Barrier Reef on the sea days before we get to Cairns. One of the lecturers is John Maxtone-Graham. He is a very distinguished Englishman who appears to be in his late 70’s. He has written several books on ocean liner travel and is a terrific speaker. He has given lectures on liner travel, the Titanic disaster, the various Princes of Wales --- and all of them have been excellent. Mary’s father was an ocean liner buff and an English history buff. In fact we know he had at least one of Maxtone-Graham’s books. We often remark on how much he would have enjoyed meeting and talking with him.

PARTING COMPANY

2009-02-25T16:40:00.000-08:00

The great part of cruising is the wonderful people you meet and we were very lucky in our tablemates. The sad part is eventually saying goodbye. Some at our table were not going all the way to Rome so departed the ship in Sydney. Jane, Judith and Rodney we will miss you. We hope you will stay in touch and follow Clyde's further adventures on his blog. Bon Voyage!

SYDNEY AUSTRALLIA

2009-02-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

25 Feb 2009 – In Sydney Australia. We docked directly opposite the famous Sydney Opera House in downtown. This is a city of 4 million and the harbor is full of hustle and bustle – ferries and sightseeing boats coming and going continuously. The city actually has two main harbor areas – Circle Quay where we docked and Darling Harbor. Both areas are full of restaurants, museums, shops and other attractions with a constant stream of pedestrians.

We took a hop-on hop-off boat tour of the harbor – there are lots of stops other than the two we mentioned – beaches at Shark Island and others, their amusement park Luna Pier, the Sydney Zoo, and the fort in the middle of the harbor built in the 1800s to protect against the Russians.

We got a good look at the Harbour Bridge. This is also a famous local landmark akin to what the Golden Gate is to San Francisco. Paul Hogan the actor used to earn a living painting it and tourists (for about $200) can walk across the bridge on the top of the structure.

Clyde, as always, made some new friends. Ina the pretty waitress in the Japanese restaurant in Darling Harbour where we had lunch; Indrek Ott a crewman on the harbor tour boat; and some aboriginal street musicians. See pics.

Mary had the itch to visit a local antique mall and did that while Brian pottered around in Darling Harbour visiting the Maritime Museum and nearby parks.

We had dinner at a sidewalk restaurant near the Opera House and had fun watching the constant and diverse parade of people going by. We pulled out of Sydney at 1000 PM and are now headed to Brisbane and should arrive tomorrow.

SYDNEY HARBOUR

2009-02-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

2009-02-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

Could not resist a photo op from our ship.

CLYDE'S FRIEND INDREK

2009-02-25T16:33:00.000-08:00

Clyde's friend Indrek Ott was a crewman on the boat that took us on a harbor tour of Sydney. He advised us that it was good luck to throw the boquet that Mary had bought overboard.

CLYDE REMEMBERS THE OUTBACK

2009-02-25T16:31:00.001-08:00

Clyde hung out with these street musicians for awhile remembering his roots in the bush and his fondness for digereedo music.

CLYDE WITH INA

2009-02-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

Our apologies to the beautiful Ina, our waitress in a Japanese restaurant in
Darling Harbour in Sydney. I should have used the flash so you could see her better.

KOALA ENCOUNTER

2009-02-23T23:56:00.001-08:00

Ever wanted to pet a koala?

CLYCE WATCHES TASMANIAN DEVIL DINNER

2009-02-23T23:51:00.000-08:00

Here is how Tasmanian Devil's share a dinner of kangaroo leg. Lots of sound effects too.

CLYDE MEETS COUNTRY COUSIN

2009-02-23T23:50:00.001-08:00

He thinks country wombats are nice but not very stylish.

WALLABY ADVENTURES

2009-02-23T23:47:00.001-08:00

NARROW ESCAPE

2009-02-23T23:43:00.003-08:00

Clyde and friend Honey Bear narrowly escaped the jaws of a Tasmanian Devil

BURNIE TASMANIA

2009-02-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

23 Feb 2009 WOMBAT REUNION – We were in Tasmania yesterday and took a tour to a wildlife sanctuary. They take in wild animals that have been found injured/abandoned. They place was very well run and had a broad assortment of critters. Clyde met and interacted with two wombats -- one baby and one adult and also a koala bear and some wallabies. Mary got to pet a baby wombat and a koala bear and got to hold a baby wallaby in her arms. We witnessed the feeding of a group of Tasmanian Devils – lots of snarling and tug of war over a wallaby leg that was thrown into the pen. We also got to get into an enclosure with several wallabies and feed them, pet them, etc. On the way there and back we drove through the countryside which was mostly devoted to farms. Surprisingly they had some fields devoted to opium poppies (for medicinal use) and some growing pyrethrum daisies (for insecticides) as well as more conventional fields of potatoes, grain, etc. It was an overcast day but still it was a quite pretty there. Rolling hills with river valleys – the hills were golden brown (think California in the summer) and the soil was a chocolate brown. The towns in the countryside reminded us of the US 20+ years ago.

Our ship docked at Burnie – a mainly industrial town on the north coast of Tasmania. The people were very friendly and we enjoyed shopping and wandering around. The town provided shuttle bus service from the dock to the heart of town. On the way, our driver jokingly pointed out the “American Embassy” – it had golden arches. Surprisingly Burnie had a Target store and was dotted with small discount stores similar to Big Lots – one was named Chicken Feed. Apparently Bernie, in the past, had two industrial plants that were big polluters (paper pulp and titanium paint additives) – think dead fish in the ocean and beaches not fit for swimming. The plants are now closed and the locals seemed very environmentally conscious. Beaches are pretty now. Our ship docked next to a huge pile of wood chips awaiting shipment to Japan. The Japanese convert the chips into paper pulp and some of it comes back to Burnie to be used by the local paper factory.

On our tour we passed through a town on the coast named “Penguin”. It was named for the large colony of small penguins that roost on the beach there. The town is dotted with penguin statues and many of the local businesses were named penguin something and had signs to match. Sadly we did not see a single live penguin – apparently they are out to sea feeding during the day.

Today we are at sea on our way to Sydney Australia. BTW Tasmania is a state of Australia and is a large island off the southeast coast about 500 miles away from the mainland.

AUCKLAND

2009-02-18T17:16:00.001-08:00

18 Feb 2008 – Departing Auckland New Zealand 9:30 PM. Went on a wine tour today. Brian found a fellow over the internet and he was great – www.finewinetours.co.nz. He’s been doing this for 8 years and has published a popular NZ wine guide. Clyde, Mary and Brian were the only guests on the tour today. Phil picked us up at the ship, took us to three wineries, a great lunch and to see some of the sights. He also provided cheese and his own homemade tomato relish along the way. Since NZ has a fairly cool climate, they are better known for their whites than their reds. We had lots of great Marlboro Sauvignon Blanc but Clyde did not care for the reds very much – found them harsh and tannic. They did have some Reislings that were very fruity tasting and drier than any we had ever tasted – we liked them. We were able to bring a few bottles aboard for future consumption. Things are very reasonable here with $1 US == $2 NZ. Our wine tour was $75 US all inclusive.

Countryside was very pretty rolling hills. Reminded us of a cross between Oregon (lots of fruit stands and some drizzle) with California (green hills and brown hills) plus something exotic thrown in that is hard to pin down. We also got a look at a kiwi fruit orchard. It consisted of vines trained on tall trellises so that it creates a shady canopy about 5 feet above the ground and the kiwi fruits hang down – not in clusters like grapes, but quite thickly. The harbor area is a happening place – lots of trendy restaurants and bars. The people are very friendly and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Auckland is a modern interesting city – reminded us a bit of Toronto. They have a large tower in the center of the city that is a major landmark – something like the Tokyo Tower or the Seattle Space Needle, but with an interesting twist – they have a setup where you can be hooked to a static line and jump off a platform 197 meters up the tower on a static line and plunge to the ground. Brian got a bit of footage of people doing so. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant that Phil had recommended. It was full of Chinese patrons (a good sign) and quite good. They also had several tanks full of the biggest lobsters we have ever seen. (see pic)

We will be cruising along the east coast of NZs North Island until about noon tomorrow and then we will turn southwest toward Tasmania.

LOST AT SEA

2009-02-18T17:15:00.001-08:00

17 Feb 2009 – Lost at sea. We went to bed on 15 Feb and woke up the next day on 17 Feb. We had crossed the international dateline in the night, thus never experienced 16 Feb this year. Too bad it was not a birthday ;-)

WINE GUIDE PHIL

2009-02-18T17:13:00.001-08:00

Phil did a great job for us including giving us his tomato relish recipe. Here he and Clyde are enjoying the view of the Murawai black sand beach.

WINERY VISITS

2009-02-18T17:08:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pics from the wineries we visited. clyde made friends wherever he went.

CLYDE VS GIANT LOBSTERS

2009-02-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

Clyde very impressed with these giant specimens at a Chinese restaurant in Auckland.

VALENTINES DAY AT SEA

2009-02-18T17:03:00.000-08:00

It was formal night and we all went to the Steakhouse on board to celebrate.

CLYDE'S TAHITI TAXI DRIVER PITOT

2009-02-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

Clyde is always making new friends

CLYDE RELAXING AROUND THE POOL ON SEA DAY

2009-02-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

Roratonga and Tahiti Beach Pics

2009-02-13T12:27:00.000-08:00

TAHITI BEACH SCENE

2009-02-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

Clyde very much enjoyed going to the beach here. Water was warm and the scenery exotic. He also enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Le Meredien Hotel just down the beach though he was shocked at the prices. All in all he likes the beaches at St John USVI better.

CRUISING AROUND PITCAIRN ISLAND

2009-02-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

CRUISING OFF PITCAIN ISLAND – Everyone has seen some version of the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” or read the books. This island is where Fletcher Christian and the mutineers took the Bounty, beached it and burned it. They settled down here with some Tahitian women and their descendants live here to this day. The population is only 46 people and it is owned by Britain. They speak English and a patois of Tahitian and 18th century English. It is very remote. They get resupplied every 3 months by ship from New Zealand.

We stopped briefly to pick up some islanders who came aboard to offer some of their handicrafts for sale give us a bit or narration while we sailed around the island. It is a small mountainous island and very green. It is known as a particularly difficult island to land a ship on. We saw a few small beaches and some of the cliffs were pocked with large sea-level caves. They get cruise ships here with some regularity Dec thru March each year, but not much else throughout the year. There is no airstrip. They do have satellite communications with the rest of the world. The also have a pretty good website – check out the part of the website that has their stamps – unusually interesting in that they tell the history of the island – even some events that would not make the front page of a small town newspaper.

Clyde thought that while clearly a laid-back lifestyle, living on Pitcairn Island was not for him.

ANCHORED AT PITCAIRN

2009-02-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

We anchored briefly to allow islanders aboard. Saga Rose also in port. No real harbor here. Notoriously difficult place to land.

CLYDE CRUISES PITCAIRN

2009-02-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

Luckily we rent clockwise around the island and we could see it well from our starboard side balcony.

PITCAIRN ISLANDERS COMING ABOARD

2009-02-07T13:54:00.001-08:00

They had Pitcairn Island made goods for sale while we cruised in a circle around the island.

EASTER ISLAND PORT SECURITY

2009-02-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

Pretty laid back here. This was take from our balcony. Look closely and you can see legs sticking out the side where the occupant is lying down.

MOA TOPKNOT

2009-02-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

Some of the statues had reddish hat-like things on their heads. Theory is that these were meant to look like hairdos. This picture will give you a feeling for their size.