Month: April 2019

April 10, 2019 – Aqaba, Jordan

We arrived in Jordan at 7am and were able to meet our driver, Murad at 8 am.

Our first stop today is Petra. The drive was about 1 1/2 hrs. We met our guide outside the entrance. Mahmoud will describe the sites along the way.

Petra was built by the Nabateans and later it was occupied by Romans. These caves we saw along the way are tombs carved out of the surrounding walls. Petra is believed to be settled as early as 9,000 BC but flourished in the 1st Century AD when many of these structures were built.

The further we walked, the narrower the path, and the lower we descended. The path below our feet is not the original path. It is about 15 ft higher. Sediment that was deposited and improvements made in the last few years are responsible for this. On both sides of the path are walls that have water troughs carved. Ceramic pipes were placed in these troughs and then were covered with rock. These troughs provided fresh water to the community of about 20,000 that lived here.

This is the entrance to the Siq. This is a natural splitting of the mountain that resulted in this 1.2 km path.

The original floor look like this.

This photo shows the wall. Chisel marks show where it was carved out. The flat stones cover the water trough that lined the entire length of the pathway to the center of Petra.

This photo shows one of the many damns built recently to keep the Siq dry.

This photo shows the first glimpse of the lowest point of the Siq.

The Treasury or Al Khazna. About 40 m high. The Treasury is crowned by a funerary urn, which according to local legend conceal’s a pharaoh’s treasure. The Treasury was probably constructed in 1st century BC.

The Siq continues past the Treasury and we begin to go back uphill. This tomb represents many we saw. The upper tomb shows the “Stairway to Heaven” that was part of the many tombs found here.

This photo shows the Theater.Carved into the side of the mountain. This can accommodate 4,000 spectators.

This photo shows the crumbled stage in front of the fence. The back wall of the theater was rebuilt by the Romans as is evident by the columns.

These photos show the Royal Tombs which are across from the theater.

After two hours, Mahmoud’s tour was over. We thanked him and he continued to his home at the other end of Petra. We decided to go up to an area that had more tombs and showed a view of the area below.

Inside one of the tombs shows the carbon left by torches used by people who lived here years after the Nabateans.

The ceiling.

I snapped this photo up at the tomb to show an example of all the vendors that we saw along the way. There are hundreds. They are all peddling the same junk they purchased from China.

The Siq was getting very crowded. There were two other ships in the Port of Aqaba. When a ship arrives for only a day, Petra is usually the stop most of the people make. We knew it was going to be very crowded. The walk back was about an hour with no stops. It was noon and we needed to meet our driver at 2. We decided to start back and possibly take some side walks. When we got back to the Treasury, we realized it was much too crowded to do much of anything and decided to walk back out and not do any of the side trips. We sat at the Cave Bar next to the Petra Guest House Hotel at the entrance of Petra and waited for Murad. We were early so we had a drink and waited. Murad showed up and took us to lunch at the Petra Moon Hotel. We enjoyed a buffet of traditional Jordanian food.

The food was delicious. We saw quite a few people from the ship on different tours here. We spent about an hour sampling all of the food and then headed out to our camp in Wadi Rum.

Unfortunately there aren’t many roads in this part of Jordan and we had to go back to Aqaba and then out to Wadi Rum. Along the way we stopped at and old steam powered locomotive. The locomotive still runs and used for tourists.

Our camp was in the middle of the desert. Terri waits outside of the camp as we get our room.

Our “tent” at the Bedouin camp.

We stowed our gear and then met Khalid who took us out on his jeep for a tour of Wadi Rum. It was 5 pm and our two hour tour would end with the view of the sunsetting.

This photo shows where the movie the Martian was filmed. The area at our feet was red sand. Perfect for a movie about the red planet.

Thomas Edward Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia 1917

It was time for the sun to set and we found this private place to view it.

…and so did these folks….

Dinner was served at 8 pm and it was cooked Bedouin style. In the ground. BBQ chicken and lamb and all sorts of great food was served.

This photo shows the dining tent.

We finished our dinner and headed back to our tent. We needed rest for tomorrow. Breakfast at 6:30 am and then a ride to the Dead Sea at 7 am.…

April 9, 2019 – at Sea

Tomorrow we arrive in Jordan and the remainder of our stops will be in Europe. We have many days at sea to get to Naples and then over a week to get home from Ireland. This part of the trip will go fast and be very busy as the ports are not that far apart.

It was 77 degrees on the deck yesterday but it felt much cooler. Terri had jeans on and I put mine on later in the day. I haven’t had jeans on since we left Detroit back in January.

We have lived in this room together for two months and two weeks and have figured out how not to drive each other crazy. It can be done!

Having a room that opens out onto the deck probably kept us closer to our room but allowed us to spend a lot more time outside more than most passengers. I am sure a majority of the passengers only get fresh air when we dock at a port and they have a tour. I overheard some passengers say that they never see anyone sitting out on their balconies on the floors above us.

We are beginning to forget what we did at some of the ports. We have had to look back at the blog to refresh our memories. I can see why so many people on this cruise do it again and again. It always feels new when you have no memory.

I am looking forward to faster internet. It is difficult to even download the paper each morning. The ship does print the NY Times digest each day and we each have a copy each morning at breakfast. Our heads continually shake back and forth as opinion substitutes for news in every article. I don’t need to hear how global warming is the cause for parents paying bribes to college officials although climate change must be the reason MSU lost to Texas Tech. What else can it be?…

April 8, 2019 – at Sea

Today we moved out of the high risk area for piracy and the water cannons outside of our room were put away. Ian shared a story with us now we are out of danger. 10 years ago on anther ship they were approached by two skiffs coming from Somalia. The ship started evasive action, turned on the water cannons and started the audio blasts. The pirates finally gave up but did try several shots at the ship of their grappling hook. When they arrived in port, CNN was there to do interviews with the passengers.

One more sea day and then we arrive in Jordan. We will be in Jordan overnight and I will be away from the blog. Pictures and stories when we come back. We plan to see Petra, spend the night with the Bedouin in Wadi-Rum, swim in the dead sea and hang out on the beach.

Interesting day at group trivia. What sport is a niblick used in? My answer was golf. Along with a spooner and brassie this was the old name of a club. The team said no and went with cricket. I told Terri I bet it is the club used to get out of a sand trap. The answer? Golf – a club used to get out of a duff! Hamish appears to love phobias. Each game we learn a new phobia. Apiphobia?

Calm seas today. We did see some islands off of Yemen but not much else. The humidity level has dropped and it is very comfortable out on the deck. I think our days sitting out here with shorts on are coming to a close.

Tonight was the Arabian nights gala. We did our best to be in costume.

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April 7, 2019 – at Sea

Today we moved up to 3 star mariners. This a rewards program through Holland America and its parent company Carnival Cruise lines. One star is awarded for completing a cruise. 2 stars for 30 cruise day credits, 3 stars for 75 cruise day credits, 4 stars for 200 cruise day credits, and 5 stars for 500 cruise day credits. One of the nice perks for 4 and 5 star mariners is priority boarding on the ship and ship tenders. It means little on this cruise because most of the passengers are 4 and 5 star mariners. It will mean more if book another cruise.

A note about the internet was given to all passengers. A 500 MB data limit is on the top package. After 500 MB is reached, severe throttling occurs. 500 MB is not very much data. Texting works fine but there are times when my google email app will not even load and web pages the same. This makes blogging difficult. I know other bloggers who wait until they are in port to post on stronger wifi. I choose to upload fewer photos.

For the team trivia buffs: Which pure metal element has the highest melting point? Who was the author of Sleepy Hollow? Which Latvian City is known as the Paris of the Baltic? See how much you don’t know?

The seas were rough today and the wind has picked up some. We have been on this ship so long that it is rare that we feel any motion.

We are in the red sea and it is one of the warmest and saltiest. It contains an algae which turns the water reddish brown. It doesn’t look any different to me. Maybe as we move farther north.

Tomorrow night we set clocks back one hour. We will be seven hours ahead of home.

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April 6, 2019 – at Sea

We received this today. Sounds like fun and we plan to go when we are in Amsterdam.

We have been moving at nearly full speed the entire day. Lots of container ships in the area.

The Canadians were absent from trivia today so it was up to the four of us. In what country was Red Bull created? What does the nautical term POSH mean?

I realized that how loud someone speaks is inversely proportional to how important what they have to say is.

Not too many passengers on this ship can see their toes.

The more of this world I see the more I realize that freedom and capitalism have improved the lives of millions of people. So free that they now can look at the system that gave them so much with complete ignorance and disgust. Some serious travel around the planet would change that.

We ran into Bill today and we decided to have dinner together in the dining room. Bill took a side trip to the Taj Mahal and it was nice hearing about it. We felt it was too much travel time with not enough to see. Bill said it was worth going. I’m not sure we will ever get back to India.

The entertainment was a second show of Dukebox. We passed, played a game of scrabble and then went back to the room for a few episodes of Seinfeld. The humor is timeless.

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April 5, 2019 – at Sea

Today we will be cruising along the coast of Oman and then Yemen. Tomorrow afternoon we will make the turn toward the Red Sea. It is in this narrow channel where danger lurks. This is heavily used shipping channel and there are lots of ships that pirates can choose from if they so desire.

A woman was on the treadmill to the right of me this morning and she kept looking over at my screen and then flipping the channels of hers to try to find Fox News. Little did she know she was on the dreaded treadmill number 4. She obviously just got on the ship in India and doesn’t know about treadmill number 4 lacking Fox News.

Team trivia is not only difficult because of the questions, it is also difficult because of Hamish and his pronunciation of words. Even when corrected, his pronunciation doesn’t change. Roman numeral for 400? Good luck!

We have noticed many ships in this area. I imagine they follow a route that is monitored by the by the protecting maritime force.

We had dinner in the Lido and were watching some whales coming up for air. By the the size of the blast of air that we saw, I would guess that they are on the small side.

The internet is worse than ever. I got locked out of one of my bank accounts because of suspected fraud. Most of it is caused by the slow speed and the impatient user. I won’t have cell phone connection until we reach Jordan on Wednesday. I have experiment using google hangouts to make wifi calls and I did have success today. I will be calling the bank later when they open.

The evening entertainment was Helen Wilding. She is from the UK and is an accomplished actress, and singer. She opened up with a medley of tunes from the sound of music. She sounded just like Julie Andrews. Following this was a medley of Gershwin hits. Well done. Ave Maria was done well. Her cover of “At Last” was weak. She did “When You Wish Upon a Star” with some visuals aids of stars moving on a screen that children would love. Her final number was a compilation of herself singing harmony for a youtube channel that she created. Not my cup of tea. I give her an 8.…

April 4, 2019 – Muscat, Oman

We arrived in the capital of Oman, Muscat, at 8 am. We had no tour scheduled and we are going to see the sites on our own.

A short bus ride took us to customs. A quick baggage scan was done, and then back on the bus. We were dropped off on the Mutrah Corniche. This is a 3 kilometer promenade along the water.

The Souk, or Bazaar in non-Arabic countries, was not far from here but it doesn’t open until 9 am. Time for a walk to Riyam Park which is about 1.5 kilometers away.

Our walk was along the waterfront and was extremely clean and well maintained. The sidewalks were made of marble with an etched pattern.

The area around the promenade was meticulously manicured and watered. Very little rain here so everything has the be watered. The water comes from the ocean and must be desalinated before it can be used.

What a difference from India. The waterfront in India looked just like this photo of the Muscat waterfront but the Indian waterfront had mounds of trash everywhere. None here.

I don’t think I have been anywhere that looked as pristine as this. Maybe Disney World.

Our goal was the giant incense burner monument.

The path up was not open and we learned later that this monument is closed for a few months. We headed back to the promenade to a watchtower that would afford more views.

These watchtowers are found all over Muscat. Some are inside forts, others, such as this one, are mounted high up on a hill.

It was getting very warm and we knew that as more people got off of the ship the city would become very crowded. Another ship, the MSC Splendida was already in port. I learned later that this ship had 3500 passengers on it. It was definitely time to get to the Souk.

Just in case we decide to move here.

The Souk reminded us of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Shop after shop. Jewelry, antiques, household goods, clothing, Chinese Rolex watches. You name it. It’s here.

We made a few purchases and headed back out. Two things we wanted to see were the Grand Mosque and the Opera House. They were on opposite sides of town and over 10 kilometers away. We were approached by a taxi driver and started negotiations. $60 USD. We offered $40 and he balked so we walked. A few yards away he called us back. He had a driver that would do it for $40.

The Grand Mosque was our first stop. Little chance we were getting inside because it closes at 11 am for visitors but the outside was still beautiful.

The next stop was the Opera House. The Sultan loves opera and he had this built less than 10 years ago. It looks like a good tour for the DCCB.

Everything about this hall was superb.

Our driver, Sami, gave us a bonus stop at the Sultan’s Palace (at least one of them). He has been Sultan of Oman since 1970.

All of the buildings above are part of the Sultan’s Palace.

Sami dropped us off back near the Souk. It was absolutely packed with people. We wanted to hike up to a Fort nearby. Why not? 95 degrees and 350 steps.

The fort was interesting only for the views. There wasn’t much to see inside. Here one can see both of the Sultan’s ships.

It was 3:30 and we decided we had enough. All aboard was 5:30 and we did have a bus to catch.

Evening entertainment was two cellists from Poland. They called themselves Celli. Both were classical trained cellists and they performed with the house band. They opened up with Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in d minor. They made it through the fugal section and then broke into some Bach inspired rock and roll with the house band. They did an arrangement of Vivaldi’s Winter from the Four Seasons. The pair introduced themselves and then spoke a bit about opera and how every single opera ever written is the same and it contains the following four items. An Overture, two lovers, someone who does not want them together, and a death.

“We’ve decided to save everyone 4 hours of their life and to do that we have written a little opera”. The pair explained that the overture is just some noise being played while the audience waits for everyone that is late. “You are all here, so we don’t need that”. They described a happy male figure and then played a happy sounding minuet stolen from a famous opera. He was happy because of the woman he had just met. The woman’s mother appeared and they played an excerpt from Carmen. Someone is killed! Another excerpt. I recognized every excerpt and couldn’t help but laugh. Exceptional playing by both. They did selections from Mama Mia and then finished with a montage of pop music.

It was nice to hear some great musicians play.

We received this in our room after the concert. looks like the pitrates in the area may be trying to starve us into submission. Little do they know that we have been on 17 meals a day for 70 days and can outlast anyone!

Terri thinks people on the ship will start hoarding food when the chef cuts back to 15 meals a day.…

April 3, 2019 – at Sea

Another day at sea!

Today I was on the “liberal” treadmill. This one treadmill skips from channel 30 to channel 32. Fox News is channel 31. Probably a victim of some legislation banning the channel because the treadmill isn’t sustainable or green enough. It does show MSNBC, CNN and BBC. It is tough to do an aggressive workout while watching comedy. I did my run with the travel channel.

Ian did his tour information this morning. It looks like Muscat will be an easy port with a bus that takes us to the Souk/Bazaar. He said that we will all be amazed how clean Oman is. After India, this will be a treat.

More work outside our room again and we weren’t able to sit on the deck outside our room. Terri was back on the phone working for another fruit basket but the offer was another room on the 6th floor that had a private balcony. We had no interest and toughed it out watching “Hunter Killer” on tv.

What surface is broom ball played on? Curling came to mind so my guess was ice. “No” said Janet. Curling is a Canadian game so I felt I had to default to her. I said maybe it was a slang term for curling. “No” was her response. I said maybe it was another game played on ice. “No”. I convinced Debbie, who is our scribe to put down ice. Some of the guesses were clay, grass and cement. The answer? Ice! It was also a gamed that began in Canada.

Tonight’s entertainment on the Main Stage was Dukebox – Dukes of Music. Paul and Matt are from the West End of London and draw their experience from the theatrical world. This was very apparent when they came onstage with the “look at me, I’m wonderful” attitude.

Unfortunately the audience didn’t agree with what these two thought of themselves as I heard many negative comments when the show was over. I doubt of these two are leads in the musicals they have been in. Their arrogance was quite apparent and they really had trouble delivering.

The pair did some Sinatra, Elvis, Beatles, and David Bowie. I was unimpressed with all of it. The one tune I thought they did a great job of was a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The harmony here was very good and continuing down this path may have saved them. I give them a 6.…

April 2, 2019 – at Sea

Today we experienced our first “Pirate Ready” drill. The crew manned the water cannons outside of our room. Passengers were to be out of the rooms and away from windows.

The cruise to Oman should be without incident. When we leave Oman and cruise around the horn of Africa we will be in the area of highest risk. The ship has been sailing with lights off during the night and all window shades are required to be shut.

We took on some new passengers in India and have noticed that many do not have the signature “triple spare” tire look. They should blend right in after a few weeks of muffins and ice cream.

Team trivia is definitely taking a turn for the better. Debbie and Fred can usually kick in a few correct answers from previous games they have played on other cruises. The Canadians, Brian and Janet usually take the art and literature category. Terri and I are best at science and math. The occasional music question goes my way as long as it doesn’t involve words to songs. Today I answered the Coltrane question correctly. The mammal with the highest blood pressure? Lindsay will know this one.

We did dinner in the Lido today. Its not as nice as the dining room but it is very quick. It is generally the same food served in the dining room but it is served cafeteria style.

We turned the clocks back a few more times. We are only 8 hours ahead of home. 70 days has gone by very quickly and we are starting to talk about places we would like to return to. New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore get a yes.

We are past the hottest weather we will have on this trip. It is already noticeably cooler and less humid. The Captain does his usually announcement of location and weather at 12:25 pm and he gave us some temperatures of ports we will be stopping at over the next 40 days. Oslo is 36 today. Tough to take after days close to 100.

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April 1, 2019 – Mumbai, India

Our second day in Mumbai and we have no tours planned. We decided we would visit the Churchgate train station to experience the 5 million users it has daily and also observe the Dabbawala in action. This is the lunch delivery system that uses trains and bicycles to deliver hot lunches through Mumbai. 11:30 is the time the delivery starts. We did a walk in front of the Arabian Sea first. It was a beautiful but very hot day. We walked to the end and then headed to the train station.

We were a bit early so we took some seats and watched the trains come in. We noticed that the first few cars were for women only. I initially thought it was a cultural thing and then I came across this sign.

I had to look up Eve teasing. From Wikipedia “Eve teasing refers to the temptress nature of Eve, placing responsibility on the woman as a tease. Teasing the girls, passing comment on them, harassing them, troubling them purposely is called ‘eve teasing.’ “.

This is a picture of the inside of the train station. Nothing here suggested to me that Eve teasing is a problem but after reading about it I think otherwise.

The Dabbawala have been doing lunchbox delivery for over 100 years. A Bollywood Movie called “lunchbox” is based on them.

We met an Indian tour guide at the station who asked if we were waiting to see them. Of course we were. He said that they don’t speak the local language, they have very little education and they can’t read or write. They use a color coded system and then a building address to get them to the correct location. “There are a lot of lazy people in India” he said. When they see a lone person in India “We ask, ‘What do you do’, response: ‘Nothing’. ‘Come, you carry box’. “

I couldn’t help laugh. Lots on the web about the Dabbawala.

Almost lunch time. A man carries what are obviously individual lunch bags that individuals use over and over.

Outside of the station, bags are further distributed and placed on bicycles to be taken to offices.

Delivery men with white hat.

The impressive part of the system is the huge volume done without computers or written records. This system has been studied by Fortune 500 companies.

We stopped in a restaurant for lunch. Why not Chicago style pizza when visiting Mumbai?

We walked back to the ship and were exhausted from the heat. All aboard was 5 pm.

We had dinner in the dining room and sat with Pat and Elmer. Both were Boeing employees and have been retired since 1991. They had taken the side trip to the Taj Mahal and we enjoyed talking about that.

Early night for us. We received this before we retired for the evening.

I was expecting something like this as we travel in this area.…