A Perfect End to a Perfect Holiday

We finally docked in Southampton on a very wet and very cold Friday morning at 5.30am, after a very rough crossing (Force 10) across the Bay of Biscay. There was a slight delay in our disembarkation, so we waited in the Crows Nest with our hand luggage until about 11.30am when we were instructed to go ashore.

After collecting our other eight cases we dived through the nothing to declare!!! exit where Nicola and Tom were waiting for us.

After loading our cases Nicola could hardly contain her excitement as she gave us the above Welcome Home card. ----Please read carefully ----. You will then understand there were lots of tears and excitement as we drove out of Southampton Docks back home.

Needless to say this was a perfect end to a perfect holiday and it looks as though Doreen and I have a new project to work on.

Barcelona

24th March – BARCELONA

All day yesterday and last night were quite horrendous we had Force 9-10 winds as we sailed from the foot of Italy north west to Barcelona, the restaurant was empty, but we managed it, the Theatre was empty, but we managed it and then when we went to bed I took two sleeping tablets rather than one. The next morning we had arrived in Barcelona to calm seas. The Captain apologised for the rough crossing saying that he had to go faster because of a person on board who needed to be hospitalised as soon as we arrived in port.

Anyway as I said we did arrive to calm seas and sun in Barcelona. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and Spain’s second largest city. Everywhere you go you see buildings with ornate wrought works of Anonio Gaudi, a local architect, culminating in the surrealistic spires of the yet to be finished Sagrada Familia.

In the morning we took a Highlights of Barcelona excursion visiting a 600 year old Catalan Gothic Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, then we movded on to the Church of Sagrada Familia (mentioned above), which was started in 1884 and they think will be completed in 20 years time, when it will be donated to Barcelona and will become a cathedral. This is a fantastic and ambitious building and we look forward to returning in 20 years time to see it completed!!! (See photograph). Too soon we moved on to the Montjuic Mountain which is a hill overlooking Barcelona where they have constructed the “Spanish Village” combining examples of Andalusian and Castilian architecture, with much needed retail therapy for Doreen.

We left the Spanish Village and travelled through the area around the Olympic Stadium and returned to our ship in time for a quick lunch, before we caught the shuttle bus back into the city.

We walked up a well known street called Las Ramblas where there were many market stalls, selling mainly jewellery, bags, and souvenirs. There were also flower stalls, and stalls selling birds (of all descriptions), fish, terrapins and rabbits, mice, etc. etc. Scattered amongst the stalls were many people dressed in ornate outfits and standing as a statue, which was very clever and interesting. After a pleasant hours walk up Las Ramblas with what seemed like a million other people we made our way back to the harbour and rejoined our ship exhausted, after a very long day. Barcelona we found to be an interesting and exciting city and one we feel we really have to return to again soon.

However, no time to relax after a wash and change we went on to the Terrace Deck to join our final sailaway party (see photos). Like our first sailaway party in Sydney, this was an emotional occasion as we were now embarking on our last leg of our journey back home. We were sad that our holiday was coming to an end but excited that we would soon see our children and everyone back home to show off our 5,000 photographs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ATHENS

21st March – Athens

We have now sailed away from Port Said and have noticed a change in the temperature and weather conditions. We no longer have the hot days and balmy nights..

Today we sailed into Piraeus, one of the largest cities in Greece and the port of Athens. Since ancient times this has been the gateway to many historic sites, as well as many treasures, including the Acropolis, the Corinth Canal and the Temple of Poseidon. We woke up as the ship sailed into the port and the captain announced over the intercom that the weather would be overcast with maybe some showers. How wrong he was!

We joined our coach for what should have been a half hour drive into Athens. This turned out to be 1.1/2 hours due to demonstrations being held in the city following a strike by the refuse collectors, which meant the streets of Athens looked very similar to the streets of Cochin (not what we had expected). When we finally arrived at the Acropolis the heavens opened whilst we stood listening to the tour guide explaining this history of the Acropolis. (She mentioned the fact that the Greeks want their Marbles back). We then walked in the rain through the narrow back streets of Athens down to the shopping area known as The Plaka. This put a smile on Doreen’s face as we spent an hour wandering through the Plaka. After a further half an hour walk (in the rain) we arrived at our restaurant “Ancient Tastes”, where we had food cooked to traditional recipes as described by ancient writers and as eaten by the population of Ancient Greece. We were served with wine and told to eat the food with our fingers as the Ancient Greeks would have done. This turned out to be good fun and a pleasant break from the rain.

After the meal we rejoined our coach for a drive past various places of interest in Athens (still in the rain) before joining the rush hour traffic out of Athens and back to our ship in Piraeus. All in all not the best excursion we have had on our world trip, but we now have a flavour of what Athens has to offer.

We returned to our ship as the sun came back out and later we watched a beautiful sunset as the ship left the Port of Piraeus and set course for our last destination – Barcelona, where we hope the weather will be a little better.

EGYPT

Hello everyone.
For the past 5 days we have been at sea – now I say sea, but really I mean seas. We have sailed out of Mumbai into The Arabian Sea (have left the Indian Ocean earlier), then we went into the Gulf of Aden. Having passed Aden we then swung a right into The Red Sea, where we sailed for a couple of days and then into Sharm el Sheikh. The weather for these five days has been perfect, glorious in fact, (what we expected for the whole cruise, but regrettably did not get). However, it has now been too hot for sunbathing for longer than an hour. There is plenty of entertainment around the ship during the day, I still go to the Arts and Crafts Class in the morning, while Geoffrey is going to the Gym for his exercise.

18th March - Sharm el Sheikh

This is situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Desert. The brochure says that the prime reason for the ship’s call there is to visit the Monastery of St. Catherine . We, however, decided not to do this as it was a three hour drive to the Monastery and a three hour drive back. It made it a very long day. Instead we decided to go to the Golden Sands of the Na’ama Bay and relax for the day. Na’ama Bay is becoming a leading tourist resort and is often referred as “the capital of the Egyptian Riviera”. We enjoyed the day relaxing and using the facilities of a deluxe hotel beach resort (Nicola please note it was the Marriott – could be a good use for your points). The trip included the return transportation, admission and use of the swimming pool and private beach. During our time here we had a one hour trip in a glass bottomed boat, which had to be accessed along a narrow 20 metre long floating walkway, needless to say Doreen did not enjoy this experience (see photo). The boat took us over the coral reef and we admired the amazing underwater world beneath us. We saw unique and wonderful corals of all shapes and sizes as well as a multitude of rainbow coloured schools of fish, which presented a panorama of unsurpassed beauty. Many of the people on this trip said that this reef was better than The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We cannot confirm this as we were unable to see The Great Barrier Reef this year because of the weather.

The rest of the day was spent laying under a sun umbrella on the beach, RELAXING.

Tomorrow the ship transcends the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal.

19th March – SUEZ CANAL and CAIRO

Geoffrey and Doreen parted company for this day with Doreen staying with the ship and travelling through the canal and Geoffrey getting up at 3.00am to join the 20 hour expedition by coach to the Pyramids, Sphinx, and a visit to necropolis of Sakkara.

The Suez Canal is 89 nautical miles in length, at its narrowest point 300 metres wide. It runs from The Red Sea into the Small or Little Bitter Lake, then into the Great Bitter Lakes, where it is possible for ships to pass each other, on to Port Said. There is a relatively new bridge construction across the Suez Canal, called the Suez Canal Bridge (or the Mubarak Peace Bridge or the Japanese Peace Bridge. The bridge is 3.9k long and was funded by the Egyptians (60%) and Japanese (40%). It took us all day to travel the length of the Suez Canal, at sometimes quite boring, but at other times very interesting, this was because of the varied landscape – the desert on one side but a quite cultivated town on the other.

The trip to the Pyramids started with breakfast at 3.00am after which we boarded the ship’s tenders for the 3 mile trip to the quayside. Here we were met by armed soldiers and police, who escorted us to our eleven coaches for an exciting, if not, hair raising 2.1/2 hour drive to Cairo with the convoy weaving in and out of the rush hour traffic at high speed, whilst police were stopping all other traffic along the way. We felt like Royalty. On arriving in the centre of Cairo we had a second breakfast in a five star hotel, overlooking the Pyramids.

After breakfast we drove a mile into the desert to the Pyramids and Sphinx and provided you could ignore the thousands of other people and the persistent street traders the experience fully lived up to Geoffrey’s expectations and he spent an extremely pleasant hour and a half wandering around taking in the atmosphere of the Pyramids and the vast desert beyond. Too soon we had to rejoin the coach to drive the 40 kilometres south of Cairo to view the stepped Pyramid of Sakkara, which pre-dates the Pyramids in Cairo, by some 200 years. Although interesting they did not have the grandeur of the 148 metre high Pyramids in Cairo. We visited various tombs and artefacts in the area before returning to our hotel in Cairo for a well earned luncheon.

After lunch we visited the mandatory shopping area for some retail therapy for the ladies on board, this did however involve a visit to the Papyrus Institute, where we were introduced to the process of paper making from reeds and art discovered by the Ancient Egyptians. We then rejoined our armed escort for an even more exciting journey back to Port Said and our ship.

INDIA

10th March – COCHIN

Today we visited Cochin, the first of two cities in India. We must confess that when booking our cruise excursions, we were not looking forward to these two stops. However, both cities were full of surprises and vast contrasts between the rich and the poor, an experience that we are glad we had.

Cochin is a relatively small city in the south of India and after boarding our air-conditioned coaches???? (i.e. they left the windows open) in temperatures up to 36degrees, hot and very humid, we drove round the narrow streets of the city with the driver having his hand permanently on the horn (as is the norm in India). We passed many of the local houses – ranging from the relatively smart bungalow type houses to corrugated shacks, and everywhere you looked there was rubbish lying around. However, also everywhere you went there were women sweeping up the dust and the rubbish from in front of their houses. So how come Cochin looked such a tip.

After a tour of the town we drove to the beach area where we saw the fishermen fishing, using Chinese fishing nets. These are huge contraptions used to scoop the fish out of the sea – see photograph. Geoffrey was invited by the locals to help them lift the net out of the water.

We visited the synagogue and Dutch Palace, after which we walked along a main shopping market area, where I am afraid Doreen could not resist and kept disappearing inside shops and having to be rescued by Geoffrey from the persistent sales people. After running the gauntlet of street salesmen we went to the boatyard to board a small cruise boat for a 1.1/2hour interesting cruise around the harbour. Here we saw the local fishermen landing their catch, women preparing shrimps/prawns on the quayside, the site of the new container terminal, past the high rise financial centre before returning to the luxury of a proper air-conditioned cruise ship.

12th March – MUMBAI

By contrast Mumbai was a huge city of 24 million people. Again full of contrasts. This time we boarded a proper air-conditioned coach for our tour of the city and our first stop was the famous Taj Mahal Hotel and Gateway of India (which unfortunately was under repair and clad in scaffolding). We then drove around various landmarks again with the driver’s hand permanently on the horn as he drove amongst the thousands of yellow and black cabs. We stopped at Gandhi’s home, which is now a museum housing interesting artefacts of his life. We then visited the Dhobi Ghat where local people come to wash their clothes in open air troughs (despite the advent of modern washing machines). This was an unbelievable sight, with thousands of people washing clothes in the traditional way and laying out the clothes on roofs, on lines and anywhere they could dry them. On route to this we passed a slum area of ramshackled corrugated shacks with young children running beside the coach begging for money (a very disturbing sight).

The trip ended with a brief visit to the Prince of Wales Museum before returning to our ship.


Summary

Our brief visit has given us an insight into the life of India, a country of one billion people, growing at the rate of 20 million people per year. Despite the poverty we saw everyone we came in contact with, whether street traders, tour guides, the master of our cruise boat were all well educated and extremely polite and interesting to talk to. One thing Doreen wants to add is that she still doesn’t know whether or not she got a bargain, because everything one bought you had to barter for, and although you felt you did well you are never really sure, but it was good fun nonetheless.

PHOTOS MALAYSIA

Managed to download a few photos.

Top Left is Doreen in Butterfly Farm, Penang.

Top Right is Geoffrey and the Petrona Towers, Kuala Lumpur

Middle Left War Memorial Kuala Lumpur

Middle Right Geoffrey drinking a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar, Raffles Hotel

Bottom Doreen and Geoffrey at the Merlion, Singapore

PENANG

6th March – Penang

SORRY STILL NO PHOTOS. WE WILL TRY AGAIN AFTER MUMBAI.

As we ate breakfast we watched out the window as our ship dropped anchor offshore Georgetown, the main town of the small island of Penang. Today’s trip was to drive round the island, which is only some 40 kilometres by 20 kilometres.

The day did not start very promisingly as we had to catch the ship’s tender for a ten minute trip ashore (needless to say Doreen did not enjoy the experience, especially as the young cadet piloting the tender had four attempts to berth alongside a very wide pontoon).

However, our coach and tour guide were waiting and we took a trip around Georgetown, where he pointed out all the old colonial buildings, some of which have been converted for odd usages (see photo and spot the change). We then visited yet another Buddhist Temple (this one Thai), which houses the fourth largest reclining Buddha in the world (108 feet long). The across the road yet another temple, this one Burmese. However, both of these temples were interesting in their own right.

We then left Georgetown and took the coast road to the north of the island, where we visited our second (and best) Butterfly Farm of our holiday. Doreen loves butterflies and was in her element in here. The butterflies where all shapes and sizes, the largest being 5-6 inches wingspan and the colours were out of this world. Geoffrey had made the mistake of wearing a bright yellow shirt (and Doreen a lime green top) and soon became very popular with the butterflies.

We then drove south, down the island up over the mountain pass, along an extremely narrow, windy road, stopping at a local spice market, where we learnt about the homeopathic uses of various spices and oils. After purchasing various potions for rheumatism and back pain etc (and tiger balm), we proceeded down the mountain to a traditional Malay village, built on stilts.

After another very nice buffet Malay lunch we then were taken to the biggest shopping mall in town (Georgetown), where Doreen had seven floors of retail therapy, before she had to face the 10 minute tender journey back to our ship. Surprise, surprise I must report that Doreen did not spend any “Ringgits” except for a bottle of sliced ginger (that Valetia introduced us to in Hong Kong).

We now have a four day cruise across the Indian Ocean to Cochin and Mumbai.

KUALA LUMPUR

5th March KUALA LUMPUR

SORRY, STILL NO PHOTOS!!!!!

This morning we sailed into Port Kelang to a purpose built cruise terminal, before joining our coach for a 1.1/2hour drive into Kuala Lumpur. The weather was extremely hot and humid and we were drinking copious amounts of water throughout the day. Our first stop was the National Museum where we saw examples of Malaysian life from the remote jungle kampongs to the splendour of the Sultan’s court. From here we drove to the National Monument (see picture) dedicated to World War II soldiers situated within the Lake Gardens Park with impressive brass sculptures and one of the largest free standing sculptures in the world.

After the calm and the tranquillity of the Lake Garden Park we drove into the traffic jams in the centre of Kuala Lumpur to view the famous Petrona Twin Towers, before stopping at a five star hotel for a traditional Malay buffet luncheon (very nice).

Only too soon we rejoined the traffic jams and fought our way to the base of the KL Tower for panoramic views over the city. At this point Doreen looked up the tower and decided she would do some retail therapy around the base and let Geoff go up the tower for photos. The lift to the top took 58 seconds but the views were spectacular. See photos. For comparison the CN Tower, Toronto, is 553 metres and the KL Tower is 421 metres.

Our day concluded with a brief stop at the entrance to the Grand Palace where Doreen made friends with the guard on duty. After a brief stop at yet another local craft centre we drove back to our air-conditioned ship!!! All in all a very unexpected, interesting and enjoyable day.

Singapore

Tuesday, 4th March – Singapore

SO SORRY FOLKS, WE ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE SHIP'S INTERNET CONNECTION AND JUST CANNOT DOWNLOAD PHOTOS. WE WILL SEND THEM AS SOON AS THE CONNECTION IS BETTER.

This morning we arrived in Singapore (container port) to start a hectic three days of visits to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. The weather was raining yet again, but we joined our tour for a trip up to Mount Faber for views over a misty and overcast city. From here we visited both the Indian and China Town markets, both interesting in their own way. At lunchtime we visited the Malay Heritage Centre learning about the Malay culture in Singapore, followed by a traditional Malay lunch.

The highlight of the day was a “must do” trip to the Raffles Hotel where after a look round the hotel we adjourned to the Long Bar for a Singapore Sling (very nice) and peanuts. After this we journeyed to the Botanical Gardens where we saw some of the most beautiful hybrid orchids, some only found in Singapore. This brightened up our day that had started so miserably. (However, Geoffrey did his best to lose Doreen – we had one minute to get back to the coach, he went one way and left Doreen stranded in the middle of the orchid garden). After help from our courier Doreen was eventually found and we joined the coach ten minutes late.

Although we had a pleasant trip round Singapore we feel we just did not see it at its best. On our return trip we must take Pat or Valetia to show us the true Singapore.

BANGKOK

2nd March – BANKOK

Three days (4 nights) at sea, cruising from Hong Kong to Bangkok – hectic days of activities (Geoffrey joined the Gym Club and Doreen started and Arts and Craft course), plus others. Of these nights the dress code was two formal, one semi formal and one casual, so Doreen had fun choosing what outfits she was going to wear. The evening entertainment continued with the high standard that we have had previously, with cabaret performances by The Batchelors and a vocalist Dennis Walker and an excellent performance of Las Vegas by the Aurora Theatre Company.

Geoff received good news from Costain that the Felixstowe final account has been settled (Dave the bottle of Bollinger was very much appreciated). In our travels we have seen many major port developments, especially in Brisbane and Bangkok (including lots of small river works opportunities in Sydney harbour) - and Geoff took photos of them all!!!! Geoffrey is volunteering to market these opportunities still further if required (Dave please note).

On the 2nd March we entered Laem Chabang, a major port just south of Bangkok, where we joined our coach for a 2.1/2 hour drive into Bangkok city. The countryside was not too inspiring, but gave us an insight into the contrast between the rich and poor of Thailand. The journey was well worth it as we drove in to the centre of the city to see one of the 620 temples in Bangkok called the Wat Trimitr, which housed a 5.1/2 ton solid gold Buddha. This involved us fighting our way from the coach to the temple past hundreds of tourists and locals. Inside the temple the monks were eating (we were warned in advance that ladies are not allowed to come into contact with the monks, which was difficult as we pushed our way through the crowds). After seeing the magnificent Buddha image we then had the added problem of fighting our way back to the coach via the very, very, very persistent street traders, who were offering all sorts of souvenirs.

After a short journey in the coach we arrived in the hustle and bustle of china town to visit the Grand Palace. This Palace covers an area of 218,000 square metres and is surrounded by four walls, 1900 metres in length. In the grounds we experienced the grandeur of an ancient Siamese Court, where old Kings and Queens used to reside, with several buildings all topped by glittering spires and soaring finials. In the centre of the complex is the Emerald Buddha Temple. The buildings and decorations were absolutely breathtaking.

I would just like to add that the weather was sunny, hot – very, very, hot and humid, with temperatures of 96 degrees.

After spending two hours walking around the Grand Palace we had a very enjoyable Thai lunch in a four star hotel. We then went to the obligatory souvenir shop before our 2.1/2 hour drive back to the ship. Throughout the journey our excellent tour guide gave us some interesting information about Thailand, including the true story behind the film “The King and I”.

We are now on the high seas again with one day at sea before we have three consecutive days ashore at Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang, which we will report on at a later date.

Hong Kong Photos

Hi everyone,

As we were unable to download all the photos from Hong Kong, we are having another go now.

Hong Kong

HONG KONG 26th/27th February

What a tremendous two days we have had in Hong Kong, from the time we arrived, watching Hong Kong emerge out of the fog as the ship made its way into port to the time we left at midnight with the lights of Hong Kong passing our cabin window.

The ship entered the port at about 1.00pm on the 26th after a very choppy night on the South China Sea. As we sailed into Hong Kong, with Hong Kong Island on the port side (left) and Kowloon on the starboard side (right), the view was non-existent, but as we went further and further in the first of the high rise accommodation on the outskirts of the city emerged out of the mist. These buildings were 50-60 floors in height and too numerous to count. As we progressed the accommodation blocks were dwarfed by the tower blocks in the financial centre of the city and the views coming out of the fog were amazing. When we arrived in the centre of Victoria Harbour the ship did a 180 degree turn (amongst hundreds of small boats, ferries, tugs) to berth at Ocean Terminal on the Kowloon side, directly opposite the financial centre on Hong Kong Island. As luck would have it our cabin, which is on the starboard side, had views directly across Victoria Harbour (absolutely magnificent).

Immediately after berthing we left the ship, down the gangway straight into a very large shopping mall, one of the biggest in Hong Kong (Doreen was in heaven). We then walked to the end of Nathan Road, which is the longest road in Kowloon and has shops from one end to the other. We spent the next three hours exploring the shops, during this time we were constantly accosted by salesmen offering to make you a suit and encouraging you to step inside their shops. As we were only exploring the city we resisted their persistent sales approach and returned to the ship empty handed.

The highlight of our day was meeting Valetia (Nicola’s best friend and bridesmaid), who we had arranged to meet in Central MTR Station, Hong Kong Island. This proved to be a challenge as we chose to take the ferry across Victoria Harbour and walk through the rush hour of Hong Kong. However, we did meet Valetia and she took us to a famous Hong Kong restaurant, called Yung Kee Restaurant and had a lovely meal consisting of soup, preserved eggs and sliced ginger (one hundred day old duck eggs which were black). This was followed by a platter of goose, pork and chicken, prawns with mixed local vegetables all washed down with copious amounts of jasmine tea. Finally we had custard tarts and herb jelly. All in all the company and the meal was excellent.

Doreen had previously asked Valetia to take her to a night market, so after leaving the restaurant we went to the underground station and caught a train to Mong Kok to the ladies market. En route Geoffrey had his first lesson in reading Chinese and can now recognise the word “Please”. We came out of the station, turned a corner and could not believe our eyes. As far as you could see down the street was market stalls as high as 15 feet draped in every type of clothing, bags, nick nacks that you can imagine. Under the watchful eye of Valetia Doreen dived in looking and buying (with Valetia bargaining) several items. After one and a half hours of intense retail therapy much enjoyed by all, we decided to call it a day and jumped in to a taxi with Valetia back to our ship. Thanks to Valetia we saw some of the local sights of Hong Kong and were sorry to say goodbye to her.

Next morning we were up at 6.00am to be ready at 7.50am for boarding our coach for a 9 hour excursion around town, including a trip to The Peak, with stunning views over Hong Kong, across Hong Kong Island to Stanley Village and Market, where Doreen used her new found negotiation skills to buy more bargains. Whilst touring around the island Geoffrey was absolutely amazed at the number of building sites, where the scaffolding was totally constructed of bamboo, even of buildings 45 stories high. Back in the coach to Aberdeen via a Jade factory (more retail therapy), down to the harbour, where we boarded a Sampan for a 30 minute trip around Aberdeen harbour, Jumbos, the Chinese floating restaurants and many boats where the boat people live and trade. We then walked along the foreshore to the Yacht Club, a very high class club, where we were served a traditional Dim Sum luncheon. After an interesting !! lunch we returned across the island for a cruise up and down Victoria Harbour in a traditional Chinese Junk. Exhausted, we returned to the ship, just in time for our evening meal, followed by the Aurora Theatre Company’s performance of Carnaby Street, a 1960s theme.

At 11.00pm the ship cast off and we watched from our balcony as the harbour went by, illuminated in its full glory (with laser display). On reflection Hong Kong has come a very close second to Sydney on cities that must be experienced. Although the pace of life and the number of people would be too much for us!!

THIS IS JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN AND ARE HAVING TROUBLE DOWNLOADING PHOTOGRAPHS. WILL SEND MORE LATER

Cruising Cairns to Hong Kong

Wednesday, 20th – Tuesday, 26th February (At Sea)

This is our longest time at sea – six days. Geoffrey is getting a little bit restless, but I am finding it quite relaxing, except for the rough sea times. Don’t like those very much.

Today we had a bridge tour – No I don’t mean the card game, I mean a tour of the Bridge with the Captain. This captain, however, is getting off the ship in Hong Kong and we are getting a new one – let’s hope he is as good. Anyway, just to give you a rough idea of what we have been doing.

The first few mornings on board we used to go and breakfast at the Orangery, which was self-service, but now we go to the Medina, which is waiter service. We find this much nicer. After breakfast we scan the days events to see what there is we want to do. For example, I have been to the Napkin Folding demonstration, which was quite interesting. Also I have been to a class on Diet and Fluid retention (my ankles are like balloons) – I didn’t enjoy this as the Spa were just trying to sell one of their little machines (little in size, but not in price £400). We have been to some of the Port Excursion talks, but these are also recorded and shown on the television, so some we watch on the tv – these are very helpful as they give you ideas about your next Port of Call. Geoffrey has been to presentations by Colonel Bob Stewart (the first British UN Commander in Bosnia) and also one by the Captain on how he got to where he is. He found both of these very interesting. Most days at 2.00pm there is a quiz called Scattergories, which I go to (teamed up with a couple on our dinner table) and we have won this a couple of times, but we are up against some teachers – so not that easy to win.

Now the evenings. We dine at 6.30pm at the same table and dinner companions (see photo). On the table we are all retired (a banker, a plumber and ex-hotel owners) so the evening conversations are always interesting and varied. Then after dinner at 8.30pm there is the first of the evening entertainments. We have had The Aurora Theatre Company perform Oh Boy and Rave On – both excellent. Also we have had two comedians – one not very good at all but the other was quite funny (he used to appear on Tiswas on tv with Chris Tarrant) and finally we have had two singers one male and one female, Tim Beveridge (from New Zealand) singing Frank Sinatra type songs and Diane Cousins, a very powerful Welsh singer who puts a lot of humour into her act and presents a very entertaining performance. After the main show we usually walk around the ship and go for an evening drink in one of the many bars. However, a couple of evenings we have had two shows on. Each evening, as you regular cruisers will know, they have a different category of dress on ship from Smart Casual/Semi Formal/ and Formal, which is evening dress and dinner jackets for the men. See photos.

The rest of our free time we just sit around on the Lido Deck, Promenade Deck or one of the many lounges people watching. We have decided that there are many different types of cruisers: the sun worshipers, who spend every available minute lying the sun (you can tell these by the burnt, leathery skin), the sloaths, who are either eating or sleeping on the loungers in the shade getting fatter by the day, the readers and puzzlers, who are always seen in their favourite spot on the ship with their noses in books or puzzles, the must do everything, who spend all day running around the ship with the itinerary clutched in their hands to make sure they attend every activity without missing any meals, of course. Then of course there are the “Mrs. Buckets” , you know the type. Now we don’t come under any of these. We are slowly progressing from the sunworshipers/readers and puzzlers and starting to join the activities (see picture napkin folding).

However, the most exciting activity on the whole ship is the launderette. Here you find people that are very friendly at the dinner and lunch tables turning true to form as they fight amongst themselves for the use of the washing machines, tumble dryers and ironing boards. Not a place for the fainthearted, so Geoffrey sends Doreen into battle. We did hear a story of two couples who were thrown of the ship for fighting in the launderette (but so far not on this cruise), but we do have twenty one days to go.

Brisbane to Cairns

S

Sunday, 17th February
The weather was certainly quite rough last night as the Captain had to put out the stabilisers. Then it was OK, but the ship was certainly rolling beforehand. Since being on board we have been to the Orangery, a self service restaurant for breakfast. This morning we decided to treat ourselves to a “silver service” breakfast in the Medina Restaurant, a much nicer experience. Today was basically our day of leisure with visits to the computer room to register our computer, to the Orangery for a light lunch, and the afternoon was spent lazing around the Terrace Pool. Although there was no sun, there was a nice cooling breeze and it was very pleasantly warm and relaxing. We then returned to our cabins to prepare ourselves for our first formal evening. Geoffrey in his tuxedo and Doreen in her Ann Balon. We shook hands and spoke to our captain on arrival sitting down to another five course dinner. The show this evening was a new production called Happy Holidays, and involved the 15 young ships company to entertain us with a fast moving song and dance variety show, which was well received by everyone. We then adjourned to the bar to have a drink with Tony and Barbara (cousins to our friends Carol and Richard), who seem a very nice couple.

Monday, 18th February
As advised by the Captain last night the weather had deteriorated further and all excursions for the day were cancelled, including our planned trip to the Great Barrier Reef, which was very disappointing. However, we were able to take a tender ashore to Hamilton Island, which is a newly developed island with hotels, marinas and some very expensive apartments. As it was raining very heavily we decided to hire a “golf buggy”, which everybody uses to get around the island and braved the weather going up and down the steep hills to explore all four corners of the small island. After a pleasant four hours ashore we returned to the ship a little wet and guess what, !!!! prepared ourselves for our evening meal. Entertainment tonight was a comedian called Ian “Sludge” Lees, who turned out to be very funny (and clean).

Tuesday, 19th February
We awoke to find the ship at anchor off Yorkeys Knob (near Cairns), and pleased to say the weather, although overcast, was at least dry and the sea calm. We had a quick breakfast before boarding the small ships tender (lifeboat) for the 3 mile trip to Yorkeys Knob, where coaches were waiting to take us up to Karunda. Firstly, we were to visit a Butterfly Sanctuary, which was filled with hundreds of highly coloured tropical butterflies – they were absolutely beautiful, and after a walk through the obligatory shops and craft market we boarded the start of a 17 ½ kilometre cable car ride, which was split into three legs. The first to Baron Falls, which after heavy rain over the last few weeks was in full flood and absolutely spectacular. The second leg of the cable car was over the top of the rainforest with spectacular views of basket ferns, stag horn ferns and other epiphytes clinging high on the many native trees and despite Doreen being petrified of heights she had to admire the lushness of the vegetation. The final leg took us higher into the rain forest before we dropped down through thick cloud to Carabonica at the base of the mountain, where our coach was waiting to take us back to the dockside. We then boarded the ship’s tender for a twenty minute ride back to the ship. Now it is that time again to get ready to go down for dinner.

Tonight we realised that we are leaving Australia for the last time on this trip, we feel very sad as we have only scratched the surface of what New Zealand and Australia have to offer and I am sure time and money permitting we will revisit these countries again in the future.

Speak to you again soon.