https://quiltingjan.smugmug.com/Travel/2018-Travel/World-Cruise-on-Amsterdam/
If you are interested in seeing the Safari photos in particular, you can quickly scroll down through all the photos and you'll come across them...enjoy! A trip of a lifetime that was very much worth it!
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
April 12: At Sea
Another Sea Day, one of 5 in a row until we reach Gambia.
Tonight we will cross the Prime Meridian AND the Equator at 11:23 (or something like that)...00.00.00 Latitude and 00.00.00 Longitude. There will be parties...of course. It'll be hard for me to stay up since I finally got the cough that is going around, so I'm getting sleepy taking the cold pills.
We were sorry to not have another day in Cape Town since we really had no time to see the city itself. Our drive to the Cape of Good Hope was lovely and made us want to see more of that area, but it must wait for another day.
Walvis Bay, Namibia was our next stop in Africa. Chris took a 4x4 ride on the incredible sand dunes that go for miles (photos later). Meanwhile I took the shuttle bus into the small town (very small, but neat homes) to a lagoon that held thousands of flamingos. I've never seen so many (white ones, too...even though they eat the same crustaceans.)
After that, more Sea Days until Luanda, Angola which is a very large city, but we were given admonishments if we went ashore to not photo government buildings, guards, guarded buildings, don't use ATMs or credit cards, use only prime condition dollars, go in groups (yes, one group of 4 still had a mugging that was thwarted by police), not to drink the water or eat anything that had come into touch with their water and to not even wash our hands in their water...and don't even buy their bottled water because it may have been "rebottled." Too many "don'ts" to make us want to go ashore much...but we did, just to a local market stall area where we did find several artists selling their wares, so we bought a small painting. (We usually like to collect tiles from places we visit but we have not seen any in Africa at all, so a small painting will have to do.)
Now we have 5 Sea Days in total to Gambia, and the next day's port in Senegal. Unfortunately our internet is down and probably won't be working until Senegal, so there's no hope of posting anything, let alone any photos I'm behind in until after that.
Sent from my iPad
Tonight we will cross the Prime Meridian AND the Equator at 11:23 (or something like that)...00.00.00 Latitude and 00.00.00 Longitude. There will be parties...of course. It'll be hard for me to stay up since I finally got the cough that is going around, so I'm getting sleepy taking the cold pills.
We were sorry to not have another day in Cape Town since we really had no time to see the city itself. Our drive to the Cape of Good Hope was lovely and made us want to see more of that area, but it must wait for another day.
Walvis Bay, Namibia was our next stop in Africa. Chris took a 4x4 ride on the incredible sand dunes that go for miles (photos later). Meanwhile I took the shuttle bus into the small town (very small, but neat homes) to a lagoon that held thousands of flamingos. I've never seen so many (white ones, too...even though they eat the same crustaceans.)
After that, more Sea Days until Luanda, Angola which is a very large city, but we were given admonishments if we went ashore to not photo government buildings, guards, guarded buildings, don't use ATMs or credit cards, use only prime condition dollars, go in groups (yes, one group of 4 still had a mugging that was thwarted by police), not to drink the water or eat anything that had come into touch with their water and to not even wash our hands in their water...and don't even buy their bottled water because it may have been "rebottled." Too many "don'ts" to make us want to go ashore much...but we did, just to a local market stall area where we did find several artists selling their wares, so we bought a small painting. (We usually like to collect tiles from places we visit but we have not seen any in Africa at all, so a small painting will have to do.)
Now we have 5 Sea Days in total to Gambia, and the next day's port in Senegal. Unfortunately our internet is down and probably won't be working until Senegal, so there's no hope of posting anything, let alone any photos I'm behind in until after that.
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
April 24, 2018: At Sea in the Sargasso Sea (weed)
Musings while we are sailing amongst the seaweed in the Sargasso Sea...where 4 currents keep a circulation of this seaweed that provides shelter and nutrients for various sea animals.
Tomorrow is our last port of call, San Juan, PR. We are looking forward to a short visit there...hoping to see not much change in Old San Juan after the hurricane.
This afternoon is the "Crew Show" where assorted crew members put on a music and dancing show that showcases their homeland's songs and dances. It's always a full house and a big hit, so we'll go an hour early. Several of our Lido dining staff are in it, so we will go to applaud them.
I've been sitting here thinking about all the questions I had about this cruise (or anyone who took a World Cruise) before we came on, and what I've now found my answers are.
The passengers (1200 or so) ranged from a 1-year-old (staff daughter who was on for almost half the cruise...learned to walk, had about 1200 grandparents to help her and keep her amused) and a 10-year-old boy who was on for the whole cruise with his grandparents (who, yes, provided home schooling for him) to at least one 100-year-old that we know of (might be another one or two). Most were like us, in our mid-70's, retired, and love to cruise. A few were people who were still working and had been able to take some time off...but most were retired. Many are Canadians ("Snowbirds at Sea") and from northern US areas using this as their winter retirement home. Many have done world cruises before (most on HAL) and many have signed up for 2019 and 2020 already, both excellent itineraries. There were several very disabled people on board, confined to wheelchairs, but with attentive spouses who made the voyage possible. I have no idea how they managed, but they seemed to all do fine.
Do you have to be wealthy to do it? It seems that yes, you do have to be able to spend $50-60,000 on a vacation (per couple), but many people have downsized their living to apartments and condos (and even full-time RVers) so that traveling is now their big expense that is budgeted for. Our onboard expenses have run about $3,000 which includes 1400 minutes of internet, several hundred dollars in the medical clinic, and some excursions we had not lined up before. We are not heavy drinkers, so that included an 8-bottle wine package and assorted drinks now and then. Our laundry was free since we are 5* Mariners, and our tips were pre-paid by our travel agency, as was our luggage delivery service. We had lined up a number of private tours in ports ahead of time and prepaid some others. Our greatest expenses were our two overland tours to Angkor Wat (4 days) and the safari in the Kruger (4 nights.) Those had been signed up for and paid a long time ago, so went in "last year's budget." (But they were worth it!)
Did we get bored? Never. I never heard of anyone who was bored, nor did we ever feel that at all...in fact there are too many things going on, so you have to be selective as to what is important to you...classes, lectures, fitness, hobbies, reading, etc. There have been several amazing classes that I wish we had started ...drawing and painting...two separate classes, but amazing what people have learned in them! Beginner Bridge, Mah Jong, Chess...book clubs, knitting groups, chorale, fitness classes for all abilities, swimming, cooking, computers,...never ending! The library has been busy every day...(have read lots of books that have been available) this is one ship that still has a well-stocked library, and since it's a World Cruise, they provided a librarian who was excellent.
Food has been varied and excellent (in the Lido...not as much in the Main Dining Room)...our servers have been outstanding, too.. We've all become part of their family for these 4 months and vice versa. They know us and our preferences and choices. "Mam Jan" and "Mr. Chris." Breakfasts are my favorite with difficult choices...steel cut oatmeal, eggs, omelettes, with raisin toast, sticky buns, or "Ensemadas" (Filipino sweet rolls). Lunch was usually a salad or sandwich (egg salad, chicken salad, or tuna salad for me)...or sometimes Chinese food or pizza. Dinner was usually a meat, veggie, and starch (potato or rice) which sticks to our home cooking. They had very good lobster tails, and roast beef...desserts were usually not very good (whew!) Chris had ice cream for the most part.
Evening entertainment was hit and miss...some were good, some very poor. We did not often attend since we had other things we preferred to do...work on videos and photos and read.
The ports were varied...some we loved, but some were lessons in world poverty. Many were ports I would not bother to return to for assorted reasons, others were ones we didn't see enough of. We took private tours, our travel agency tours, and Holland America tours...for the most part, they were all very good...only a few were bummers. In large cities (i.e. Manilla) it was good to have a HAL tour since there was a police escort to get us through the massive traffic jams. Some friends did well just getting local cabbies (after getting recommendations for who to use from the shuttle bus driver.)
Favorite ports? Australia and New Zealand hands down. Worst? West Africa countries.
The Polynesian islands were more crowded than we expected, so less interesting for us. Favorite sights? Angkor Wat in Cambodia...well-worth our visit, though very hot and lots of walking. The safari was also a favorite...we found that 4 days (6 game drives) worked out fine...saw The Big 5 and lots of animal interactions one doesn't get to see in a zoo.
The ship was very comfortable (we've sailed on her before) and we are happy that we upgraded our cabin to a verandah (which we used quite a bit)...which also included more space in the cabin itself. We found our little "hang out areas" for different times of day...Crow's Nest and Library were our favorites, but there were a few nooks here and there I found to read or knit in.
Yes, I had to go to the infirmary a few times...assorted reasons, but the medical service was adequate for what I needed. (Minor problems.) They did have several people along the way have to leave for medical reasons, and we heard there were a few deaths, but that's to be expected on a trip like this. Most people say it is a reminder to always carry medical evacuation insurance when sailing in areas like this...I would not have wanted to have to leave the ship to go to a hospital in Angola or some of the outer islands in the Pacific.
Would we go again? Possibly...4 months is a long time to be away from family and friends as we found out. I think we'd prefer to do the little bit shorter trips of 2 months or so. But, we've learned to never say never....after all we said only a few years ago "We'll never do a World Cruise."
I shall try to post this today and perhaps upload some photos tomorrow in San Juan...otherwise they'll have to wait until we are home this coming weekend.
Thanks for traveling along!
Jan
Sent from my iPad
Tomorrow is our last port of call, San Juan, PR. We are looking forward to a short visit there...hoping to see not much change in Old San Juan after the hurricane.
This afternoon is the "Crew Show" where assorted crew members put on a music and dancing show that showcases their homeland's songs and dances. It's always a full house and a big hit, so we'll go an hour early. Several of our Lido dining staff are in it, so we will go to applaud them.
I've been sitting here thinking about all the questions I had about this cruise (or anyone who took a World Cruise) before we came on, and what I've now found my answers are.
The passengers (1200 or so) ranged from a 1-year-old (staff daughter who was on for almost half the cruise...learned to walk, had about 1200 grandparents to help her and keep her amused) and a 10-year-old boy who was on for the whole cruise with his grandparents (who, yes, provided home schooling for him) to at least one 100-year-old that we know of (might be another one or two). Most were like us, in our mid-70's, retired, and love to cruise. A few were people who were still working and had been able to take some time off...but most were retired. Many are Canadians ("Snowbirds at Sea") and from northern US areas using this as their winter retirement home. Many have done world cruises before (most on HAL) and many have signed up for 2019 and 2020 already, both excellent itineraries. There were several very disabled people on board, confined to wheelchairs, but with attentive spouses who made the voyage possible. I have no idea how they managed, but they seemed to all do fine.
Do you have to be wealthy to do it? It seems that yes, you do have to be able to spend $50-60,000 on a vacation (per couple), but many people have downsized their living to apartments and condos (and even full-time RVers) so that traveling is now their big expense that is budgeted for. Our onboard expenses have run about $3,000 which includes 1400 minutes of internet, several hundred dollars in the medical clinic, and some excursions we had not lined up before. We are not heavy drinkers, so that included an 8-bottle wine package and assorted drinks now and then. Our laundry was free since we are 5* Mariners, and our tips were pre-paid by our travel agency, as was our luggage delivery service. We had lined up a number of private tours in ports ahead of time and prepaid some others. Our greatest expenses were our two overland tours to Angkor Wat (4 days) and the safari in the Kruger (4 nights.) Those had been signed up for and paid a long time ago, so went in "last year's budget." (But they were worth it!)
Did we get bored? Never. I never heard of anyone who was bored, nor did we ever feel that at all...in fact there are too many things going on, so you have to be selective as to what is important to you...classes, lectures, fitness, hobbies, reading, etc. There have been several amazing classes that I wish we had started ...drawing and painting...two separate classes, but amazing what people have learned in them! Beginner Bridge, Mah Jong, Chess...book clubs, knitting groups, chorale, fitness classes for all abilities, swimming, cooking, computers,...never ending! The library has been busy every day...(have read lots of books that have been available) this is one ship that still has a well-stocked library, and since it's a World Cruise, they provided a librarian who was excellent.
Food has been varied and excellent (in the Lido...not as much in the Main Dining Room)...our servers have been outstanding, too.. We've all become part of their family for these 4 months and vice versa. They know us and our preferences and choices. "Mam Jan" and "Mr. Chris." Breakfasts are my favorite with difficult choices...steel cut oatmeal, eggs, omelettes, with raisin toast, sticky buns, or "Ensemadas" (Filipino sweet rolls). Lunch was usually a salad or sandwich (egg salad, chicken salad, or tuna salad for me)...or sometimes Chinese food or pizza. Dinner was usually a meat, veggie, and starch (potato or rice) which sticks to our home cooking. They had very good lobster tails, and roast beef...desserts were usually not very good (whew!) Chris had ice cream for the most part.
Evening entertainment was hit and miss...some were good, some very poor. We did not often attend since we had other things we preferred to do...work on videos and photos and read.
The ports were varied...some we loved, but some were lessons in world poverty. Many were ports I would not bother to return to for assorted reasons, others were ones we didn't see enough of. We took private tours, our travel agency tours, and Holland America tours...for the most part, they were all very good...only a few were bummers. In large cities (i.e. Manilla) it was good to have a HAL tour since there was a police escort to get us through the massive traffic jams. Some friends did well just getting local cabbies (after getting recommendations for who to use from the shuttle bus driver.)
Favorite ports? Australia and New Zealand hands down. Worst? West Africa countries.
The Polynesian islands were more crowded than we expected, so less interesting for us. Favorite sights? Angkor Wat in Cambodia...well-worth our visit, though very hot and lots of walking. The safari was also a favorite...we found that 4 days (6 game drives) worked out fine...saw The Big 5 and lots of animal interactions one doesn't get to see in a zoo.
The ship was very comfortable (we've sailed on her before) and we are happy that we upgraded our cabin to a verandah (which we used quite a bit)...which also included more space in the cabin itself. We found our little "hang out areas" for different times of day...Crow's Nest and Library were our favorites, but there were a few nooks here and there I found to read or knit in.
Yes, I had to go to the infirmary a few times...assorted reasons, but the medical service was adequate for what I needed. (Minor problems.) They did have several people along the way have to leave for medical reasons, and we heard there were a few deaths, but that's to be expected on a trip like this. Most people say it is a reminder to always carry medical evacuation insurance when sailing in areas like this...I would not have wanted to have to leave the ship to go to a hospital in Angola or some of the outer islands in the Pacific.
Would we go again? Possibly...4 months is a long time to be away from family and friends as we found out. I think we'd prefer to do the little bit shorter trips of 2 months or so. But, we've learned to never say never....after all we said only a few years ago "We'll never do a World Cruise."
I shall try to post this today and perhaps upload some photos tomorrow in San Juan...otherwise they'll have to wait until we are home this coming weekend.
Thanks for traveling along!
Jan
Sent from my iPad
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Siem Reap Photos...didn't post...sorry!
Sorry, but I see that my photos didn't post for some of Siem Reap, but we don't have a lot of internet now or in the future, so I'll just have to see what I can do. Hopefully I'll be able to post them within the next week or so...but these west coast of Africa countries are not well-developed.
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
March 12: Siem Reap, Cambodia Photos Day 1 Temple Ta Prohm
I'll post a few photos from the 3 days we visited Siem Reap, Cambodia and some of the major temples in that area, including Angkor Wat, the most famous of them. However, we felt some of the others were also extremely interesting. All of them are about 1000 years old and still show amazing detail in the intricate carvings, not to mention the buildings themselves. Below are photos from our first day's visit to Ta Prohm Temple, the one that most people recognize from the movies. The jungle continues to take over the buildings, but they've found that if they kill the trees/roots, the buildings will collapse and if they leave the trees/roots they will collapse…so it's left as is…for how long, nobody knows. Note the vaulted ceilings they built…that still remain in many cases. Also note the intricate carvings everywhere.
A typical fishing boat in Viet Nam
Thursday, April 5, 2018
April 5, Cape Town, South Africa
Wow...too much to cover! Today we spent the 3rd day in Cape Town driving with a guide to the Cape of Good Hope...beautiful drive! Fog was coming and going the whole time, but it was one of the most beautiful drives we've ever done. We even walked up to the lighthouse at the end, an accomplishment for me.
Two days ago we flew to Cape Town from our safari into the Kruger National Park area of South Africa. We left our ship in Maputo, Mozambique, one of the poorest countries we've visited...and were disappointed to see used clothing that had been donated by charities for the poor being SOLD to the poor by some middlemen who got it first...they are SO poor and apparently have a very corrupt government that doesn't help. Very sad. After about a 3 1/2 hour drive we arrived at our lodge in the park...actually we had passed the gates about 45 minutes before our lodge and began seeing animals from then on. We settled into our room, had lunch, and got prepared for our 4 PM game drive in our park vehicle...7 of us in a 3-row "jeep" kind of vehicle. I rode shotgun since it was a VERY high step to get into them. Without boring you completely, our days continued with game drives from 4-8 in the evenings and 5:30-8:30 ish in the mornings. The middle of the day was free for us to nap, read, visit, go over photos, and enjoy the wilds around us (we saw a giraffe from our back deck pruning some trees). Meals were very good...all buffet...9 AM breakfast, 1 PM lunch, 8 PM dinner. Monkeys were a problem with some of the meals, but they had a man stationed with a sling shot during most of them...that kept them at bay.
Our game drives were very successful...saw all the "Big 5"...including a leopard relaxing in a tree. My favorite things were observing behaviors you don't see in zoos or wild animal parks...favorite was a male elephant (who we had seen each day previously by himself) being happily greeted by his mate who came running to meet up with him and hold each other's trunks! Amazing. Also, young female lions just cuddling up to each other, grooming each other, and just lazing around like a pile of big cats do. We never seemed to bother the animals at all...even when they passed by us within feet of our vehicle. At night, once the sun set, the guides used spotlights to try to find animals, but only once did it really pay off when we saw some female lions on the hunt. The rest of the time we saw them during daylight. Animals seen: Cape Buffalo, White Rhino, Lion, Leopard, Elephant, (all the Big 5), then cheetah with 2 cubs (just walking down the road), a gazillion impalas, Kudu (plus we had their meat one night..delicious!), hyena, wart hogs, jackal, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, and heaven knows what i've forgotten. I'm hoping that photos can be posted sometime in the future in one of our last ports in Africa...it's taking awhile to get through them. All I can say, is that it really was quite an adventure. However, we also saw that doing it in a private lodge makes a difference...they have access to their own roads that go into the bush. Whenever we went out on the park roads, there were traffic jams with animals. Also, our vehicles took fewer people. Our accommodations were fine: a large BR with large Bath, including outdoor shower (fun!) and a dressing area and private deck. We had a long walk to our rooms along a raised walkway...sometimes the monkeys would be playing along the way. We had no mosquito problems at all. (We were on the shoulder season between wet and dry.).
Yesterday Archbishop Desmond Tutu came on board and received an honor, but we weren't able to see him (VERY crowded)...people said he didn't really speak, but seemed like he still had an active sense of humor.
It's still very foggy around the area, so I don't know what Sailaway is going to be like tonight...might be very nice...or not.
Another Sea Day tomorrow and then Wallis Bay, Namibia the following day...no plans at this time.
We are now, we feel, on the way home...just about 3 weeks remaining. What a trip it has been! Hopefully some photos to follow in a few days.
Sent from my iPad
Two days ago we flew to Cape Town from our safari into the Kruger National Park area of South Africa. We left our ship in Maputo, Mozambique, one of the poorest countries we've visited...and were disappointed to see used clothing that had been donated by charities for the poor being SOLD to the poor by some middlemen who got it first...they are SO poor and apparently have a very corrupt government that doesn't help. Very sad. After about a 3 1/2 hour drive we arrived at our lodge in the park...actually we had passed the gates about 45 minutes before our lodge and began seeing animals from then on. We settled into our room, had lunch, and got prepared for our 4 PM game drive in our park vehicle...7 of us in a 3-row "jeep" kind of vehicle. I rode shotgun since it was a VERY high step to get into them. Without boring you completely, our days continued with game drives from 4-8 in the evenings and 5:30-8:30 ish in the mornings. The middle of the day was free for us to nap, read, visit, go over photos, and enjoy the wilds around us (we saw a giraffe from our back deck pruning some trees). Meals were very good...all buffet...9 AM breakfast, 1 PM lunch, 8 PM dinner. Monkeys were a problem with some of the meals, but they had a man stationed with a sling shot during most of them...that kept them at bay.
Our game drives were very successful...saw all the "Big 5"...including a leopard relaxing in a tree. My favorite things were observing behaviors you don't see in zoos or wild animal parks...favorite was a male elephant (who we had seen each day previously by himself) being happily greeted by his mate who came running to meet up with him and hold each other's trunks! Amazing. Also, young female lions just cuddling up to each other, grooming each other, and just lazing around like a pile of big cats do. We never seemed to bother the animals at all...even when they passed by us within feet of our vehicle. At night, once the sun set, the guides used spotlights to try to find animals, but only once did it really pay off when we saw some female lions on the hunt. The rest of the time we saw them during daylight. Animals seen: Cape Buffalo, White Rhino, Lion, Leopard, Elephant, (all the Big 5), then cheetah with 2 cubs (just walking down the road), a gazillion impalas, Kudu (plus we had their meat one night..delicious!), hyena, wart hogs, jackal, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, and heaven knows what i've forgotten. I'm hoping that photos can be posted sometime in the future in one of our last ports in Africa...it's taking awhile to get through them. All I can say, is that it really was quite an adventure. However, we also saw that doing it in a private lodge makes a difference...they have access to their own roads that go into the bush. Whenever we went out on the park roads, there were traffic jams with animals. Also, our vehicles took fewer people. Our accommodations were fine: a large BR with large Bath, including outdoor shower (fun!) and a dressing area and private deck. We had a long walk to our rooms along a raised walkway...sometimes the monkeys would be playing along the way. We had no mosquito problems at all. (We were on the shoulder season between wet and dry.).
Yesterday Archbishop Desmond Tutu came on board and received an honor, but we weren't able to see him (VERY crowded)...people said he didn't really speak, but seemed like he still had an active sense of humor.
It's still very foggy around the area, so I don't know what Sailaway is going to be like tonight...might be very nice...or not.
Another Sea Day tomorrow and then Wallis Bay, Namibia the following day...no plans at this time.
We are now, we feel, on the way home...just about 3 weeks remaining. What a trip it has been! Hopefully some photos to follow in a few days.
Sent from my iPad
Saturday, March 24, 2018
March 14: Siem Reap Day 3, Bakong and Bayon Temples
Our last day in Siem Reap was busy with visits to 2 temples as well as to a well/pump we provided for a small village about 45 minutes from Siem Reap. We were able to visit the nearby school (150 students) and meet the elder of the group of homes that will benefit from the ease of having a well and pump nearby. Otherwise, they were getting all their water from a nearby pond. The young girl at the entrance to the schoolroom was too young to go to school, but her sibling was in that class so she frequently stayed by the door. One of my favorite temples was Bayon in the Angkor Thom complex…you can see the overview with all the many faces on the towers…still beautiful!
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