After cruising for quite a few days ever so slightly above the equator, we cut north and traveled for days staying about 12 miles off the coast of India finally arriving in Mumbai's harbour this morning around 10 am. I wanted to give a few more details about the whole pirate thing. We will be in prime pirate territory for the next two weeks and had our pirate drill the other day. Essentially we can now recognize the ship's signal for "PIRATES" and we know what to do..."proceed to your cabin, close the drapes, portholes, balconies, but keep your cabin hall door open to hear announcements of what to do next." In the meantime, 24 hours a day, we have one officer on each side of the ship with binoculars scanning for strange boats and scoping them out. The officers rotate around the ship with others who keep us safe. I think I heard the Captain say that incidents have dramatically decreased and there were only four last month...that seems like four too many to me! We've already had some small fishing boats approach but they were turned away, apparently.
A party of 75 folks left the ship around noon today for a three day trip to New Delhi and Agra to see the Taj Mahal and more than 1000 other passengers left the ship for excursions. The Taj Mahal people will rejoin us in Dubai in a few days. Not too many of us are left onboard right now.
Speaking of Dubai...in the desert. Hot. Very hot. Expensive. Very. We scored a coup in the excursion department! Again, because of Jeff's connections. There was an advertised Dubai tour, priced at $299.00 per person for a limited number of folks to ride a catamaran to Palm Jumeirah and the Jumeirah Beach Residence development, then be served proper tea at the uber exclusive Burj Al Arab Hotel at the Dubai Marina. You cannot even walk into this hotel to look...at anything...without reservations of some sort. And, having tea starts at $80.00 per person! We were invited as part of a very small group to book this tour at $50. per person and signed up right away before any minds changed. I can't think of a better way to see a desert than from a boat on cool water! This will happen on June 10th, Monday. Our only dilemma is what to wear that will work for both catamaran and exclusive Arab hotel tea....
We also booked crew tours for Aqaba and Ashdod, then put in our requests to escort in the rest of the upcoming ports. We are hopeful for the best tours with discounts for me. I think one that I am most excited about is a ride on the Nile River in a wooden felucca, lunch, then a tour of Valley of the Kings. Whew...that should shock my bucket list! Can you imagine?
Istanbul? As far as we know, it's still a "go" for us, but if the US State Dept. issues any statement about restricting travel there, it will not happen...and the same goes for Egypt and any other port. We are reminded though that we sail as Australians, who are pretty much accepted anywhere.
Off to do laundry in my little local laundry room...small, stacked machines, free, and user-friendly. :-)
Later...found laundry dryer to be in use, but a huge pile of whites set on ironing board making ironing somewhat difficult...why people don't finish the task and think of the next person in situations like this is beyond me. I'll take some old bags down and bag the stuff and hang it on the doorknob ...and hope it's not the Captain's whites! Went back and took out the colored things dried in the dryer so I could move my stuff around...then met the Captain's right hand man on the way back...who greeted me then asked what I was doing...I said, "laundry" and smiled and walked into my room...I hope that ends that! I'm the only passenger in this area and that's why I get the inquisition so often.
Topic change...we have Anzac Cruising coming up on June 25th. The choir will participate in a memorial celebration at dawn. I haven't seen many of those, mostly because I generally sleep through dawns. Anyway, we are learning a hymn and will brush up on some national anthems and other hymns to sing too. And then it's only three days until Civitavecchia and time for us to disembark and begin our Italian Adventure. The days continue to fly by!
Quote: "In America there are two classes of travel - first class, and with children."...Robert Benchley
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