I have been a bit slack with maintaining my travel diary – apologies to those of you who have been wondering what has happened!

At Cape Town we boarded the Seabourn Sojourn which was to be our base for the next 70 days. It was a most amazing adventure with many friends from previous cruises on board as well as an opportunity to make new ones.

We left the ship in Durban to fly to Hoedspruit and then drove to Lukimbi Lodge in the Kruger National Park for a three day safari. Our group was only eight people, including our Seabourn escort and we knew five of the six others before we left and quickly bonded into a happy group.

At the end of our time at Lukimbi we had a two hour drive to meet up with the ship in port at Maputo in Mozambique. The crossing from South Africa into Mozambique was very interesting as the passport processing was done using a computer system but the power kept failing every few minutes, always in the middle of a process, which meant it had to start all over again. The process included a fingerprint scan but the equipment was not reliable and my scan was rejected several times and the decision by the operator was that my spirit didn’t want to enter Mozambique so I couldn’t be processed… next in line please! Fortunately a supervisor came to the rescue and we were eventually all processed without the need to pay any extra money – which I suspect was the reason for the failure.

Once on the road again having left the rigors of the border crossing behind us, we were stopped by a police roadblock where an extended conversation occurred between the policewoman and our driver. Once released, our driver explained that she was looking for a “Christmas Present”!

We were not particularly impressed with the town of Maputo as we drove through it on our way to the ship and we got a longer than expected tour because the driver got lost. We tried to help by saying “find the water – the ship will be near that!” but it didn’t help. Once we found the ship there was another very long delay while we went through border control again, in order to leave the country – and this was for only eight people! We were all grateful to get back on board our sanctuary!

Travelling through Mozambique to Maputo was an eye opener.

After leaving the African continent we were to visit Madagascar and Reunion but due to cyclone activity in the area we were unable to stop at either of those places so our next port was Mauritius.

In Mauritius we visited the Grand Bassin Hindu temple and sacred lake and the Seven Coloured Earths,  coloured sand dunes of seven distinct colours.

From Mauritius we had several days at sea before stopping in the Maldives. We had previously visited the Maldives and the best attractions there are the various islands so we elected to stay on board and relax.

Next port was Colombo in Sri Lanka where we did a tour to see the elephants.

Next port was Singapore where we had a major changeover of staff and passengers and then on to Myanmar. We had three days in Myanmar and did forays each day from the ship, which was a challenge because the local infrastructure is not well developed. Myanmar is a most amazing country – very photogenic and the Burmese people are very friendly.

From Myanmar we sailed back to Singapore with a few stops and then around Cambodia and Vietnam, places that we have visited before. We had a day in Halong Bay, Vietnam where the weather was overcast and foggy. We spent the day in a Junk touring around the bay with only our small group on board and had a very pleasant day.

From Halong Bay we went to Hong Kong and then on to the Phillipines. We visited several ports in the Phillipines and were always greeted at the dock with a band, dancers and great celebration.

From the Phillipines we sailed around Borneo, stopping at Kota Kinabulu, Brunei and Kuching and then into Singapore again as our final destination.

An amazing 70 days!!

Winery Tour

We did a day tour to the Stellenbosch wine area which is about a 45 minute drive.  We stopped at two wineries before lunch and then two after.

The first winery was Starke-Conde

Starke-Conde Tasting Area by the water

Footbridge to Tasting Area

Starke-Conde Winery

Next stop was Haute Cabriere Cellar near Franschhoek

Lunch was at Guardian Peak Winery and was fantastic, as was the outlook from our table.

View from our Table at Lunch – Guardian Peak Winery

We had a beautiful Chardonnay with lunch

After lunch we went to the Waterford winery where we did a wine and chocolate tasting, where chocolates were paired with wine

Wine and Chocolate Tasting

The last winery of the day was Ken Forrester where we tried the Chenin Blanc.

On the drive to and from Cape Town we went by one of the area’s Shanty Towns.  It was interesting to note that amongst the rudimentary dwellings there were many satellite dishes

After an amazing day, we slept well that night!

Cape Grace Hotel

Our hotel is in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and the area is bustling with activity.  The hotel has Christmas decorations everywhere and in the lift foyers on each floor is a supply of Christmas cake which makes waiting for a lift very pleasurable.  The hotel has an extensive whisky cellar where we had a whisky tasting and learnt a lot about the taste of peat smoke in whisky!

Cape Grace Hotel

Christmas Tree in Foyer

Display Only This one was not available for eating!

Seals frolicking in the yacht harbour outside our room

On our last day we wandered around the Waterfront and saw our ship arrive around midday

V & A Waterfront Area

Nobel Peace Prize Winners with Table Mountain in the background

Clocktower and Swing Bridge in V & A Waterfront Area

Jazz Band

Saxaphonist

Seabourn Sojourn – our home for the next 70 days as we explore Africa and Asia

We arrived at the Cape Grace hotel in Cape Town 24 hours after leaving our apartment in Canberra.  The hotel, which is in the V&A Waterfront area, is amazing – location, service and accommodation.   As it was 9pm we felt no guilt in having a shower and going to bed straight away.

The next morning we were able to see how magnificent the surroundings were.

It was amazing watching the mist swirling on table mountain. Click to view

We took a day tour doing scenic driving to the Cape of Good Hope.

The scenery is amazing and we saw various wildlife too.  We didn’t spend too much time out of the car as it was extremely windy.

Baboon

We visited Boulders Beach where there is a colony of about 3,000 African Penguins.

We stopped for lunch at the Harbour House restaurant in Kalk Bay.  The restaurant is right on the waters edge and you look down on the waves crashing on the rocks.

Sue and our guide, Colleen

The restaurant sits right over the rocks and sea

The food was excellent and not overly expensive.  There were lots of seals around the pier as fishermen clean their fish there and the seals know that food is always close by.

By around 7pm we couldn’t stay awake any longer so we set the alarm for 11.15pm and went to bed.  We got up just before midnight to see the fireworks – we had an amazing view from one of the hotel balconies.

click here to see video

The final stage of our cruise was on Seabourn Spirit, sister ship to Seabourn Legend.  We had the same cabin number so knew exactly where everything had to be unpacked to.

Despite not having a change of clothes, we did manage to see some of Venice while we were there, although we had been there several times over the last couple of years.

Our Hotel

Gondolas

Customs House

Our hotel was excellent and in a great location.  It was close to a small square that had a couple of restaurants that served excellent food at reasonable prices.

When it came time to board the ship, we were close enough that we were able to walk our bags to the terminal.

Koper

Koper, Slovenia was a quaint town where we walked around for a while and spent some time people watching while relaxing at an outdoor cafe.

Sibenik

On our way into the port of Sibenik inCroatia,  we passed the harbour fortifications of St Nicholas Fortress, built in the 16th Century.

We did a tour to Krka National Park, which is very picturesque.

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a beautiful old town which is suffering from tourist overload.  We have been there three times over the past couple of years and each time it gets busier; possibly Dubrovnik being the set of Game of Thrones contributes to its attractiveness.  This time there were so many people in the town that it was difficult to move in many areas.

Sue’s Birthday

The Raison D’etre for this cruise was to celebrate Sue’s 60th birthday, which was on October 25th.  The chef was going to prepare a menu that Sue had designed but that night was the Chefs Dinner which is a special affair in its own right, so we elected to have the Chefs Dinner menu and the chef prepared our special menu the next night, which extended the birthday celebrations over two days.

When we got back to our suite, our stewardess had decorated the room.

Syracuse

Syracuse is a beautiful town in Sicily.  We walked around the town for a few hours, then stopped to have lunch in an outdoor cafe.

Lunch Spot

From Syracuse we revisited ports that we had visited a few weeks earlier on Seabourn Legend and ended up in Barcelona.  After a night in Barcelona, we flew back to Australia via Singapore although we didn’t stopover there.

Olympia

Katakalon is a Greek port close to the archaeological site of Olympia.  Olympia is where the ancient Greeks gathered every four years for more than a millennium to celebrate the sacred games dedicated to Zeus.  These games were the genesis of the modern day Olympics.  The archeolgical site is where the Olympic Flame is lit every four years for the Olympic Games.

Site where the Olympic Flame is lit in front of the Temple of Hera

Patmos

Patmos is a small Greek Island with a population of around 3,000.   Patmos is a destination for Christian pilgrimage as John is said to have received his Revelation there.

We walked around the town for a while and then relaxed in a quayside bar.

Cannakale

Cannakale is across the Dardanelles from Gallipoli.  We did a full day tour of Gallipoli with a very knowledgable guide.  The experience was very moving and a major highlight.

The “Sphinx”

Anzac Cove

Lone Pine Memorial

Anzac Commemorative Site

Lone Pine Cemetery

Istanbul

We overnighted in Istanbul so had plenty of time to sample the city.  The first day we did a full day tour which included the Blue Mosque, Haga Sofia, Topkapi Palace and the Spice Market.  The second day we visited the Grand Bazaar and walked through the Spice Market again.

Blue Mosque

While we were in the Blue Mosque we came across this young man.  He is dressed in a sünnet costume – sünnet is the Turkish circumcision ritual and is a very open and celebrated affair, performed when a boy is about 10 years old.

Circumcision Outfit

Spice Market

On the way back to our ship, we could see our ship alongside one of the larger cruise ships – an amazing comparison.

Kusadasi

Kusadasi was another port that we had recently visited so didn’t take any tours.  We spent some of the day wandering around the shops and checking out the leatherwear.

In the evening we went to Ephesus which is an ancient Greek City for a classical music  open air concert.  The concert was held in front of the old amphitheater and was amazing. Unfortunately the light was not conducive to capturing decent images of the event but it was an amazing thing to do.

Athens

Our cruise ended in Athens where we disembarked and flew to Venice to wait three days for the next leg of our cruise on Seabourn Spirit.  Sadly when we arrived in Venice, our luggage didn’t, and about 50 other people’s luggage didn’t make it either.  We were stranded with only the clothes that we were wearing.  Our bags didn’t turn up until more than 48 hours later, 9.30pm on the night before we were due to board the cruise so the clothes we were wearing almost marched themselves to the laundry!

After we left La Coruna, we got caught up in a frenzy of port visits that left little time to maintain this blog, so apologies for the lack of substance.

We stopped at many interesting places and some we don’t need to revisit!  The highlight of this segment of the cruise was a visit to Gallipoli, which included laying a wreath at Lone Pine.

 Marseilles

We were docked about 1.5Km from the centre of the old town which was an easy walk – or would have been if we had turned right off the ship instead of left.  We were slow getting off the ship and by the time we did, the tourist information person who was meant to be available pierside had disappeared so we went the wrong way.  At least we got a decent number of steps up to counteract the indulgences on board.

Setting for The Count of Monte Christo

Marseilles Cathedral

Notre-Dame de la Garde

Reflective Shelter at Old Port

 Cannes

We walked around the old part of town which involved some significant hill climbing and then made our way down to the centre of the town to meet up with Alex for lunch.

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo was a showcase of yachting extravagance.  Although our ship was the largest vessel in port, there were private yachts that came close.

We did a hop on hop off bus tour that took us around the key sights of Monte Carlo which gave us an overview of the town.

Casino

Our Yacht

Yachting Mecca

Monaco

Livorno

Livorno is a town on the Tuscanny coast that serves as the gateway to Pisa and Florence.  Having been to both of those places before, we elected to go to Lucca, about an hour away from the port.  Lucca is a quaint old city famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls.

Naples

The ship was offering tours to Pompei and Sorrento but as we had been to both recently, so we elected for a hop on hop off bus tour around Naples.  We didn’t bother getting off as it was very crowded and we might not be able to get back on a bus for some time.  The traffic around Naples was very bad and we spent a fair amount of our bus journey stationary.

There were major excavations going on around the port which added to the congestion but also had a major impact on pedestrian traffic.

We headed back into France from Barcelona to Port Vendres.  Port Vendres is a very quaint town and easy to walk around.  Again, the small boat was a major advantage as we were able to dock right in the town.  We caught a motor train to Collioure which is another very quaint town about 5Km away.

Seville

Seville. We sailed up the Guadalquivir River to Seville and moored the boat in the middle of the town.   One of the perks of being on a small ship.  This was a fantastic location as we could just step off the boat and walk around. We were lucky to have a full day and night in the town so managed to see some of the night time sights as well.

Seville was the host city for the Ibero-American Exposition in 1929, a World Fair.  The buildings were built to remain after the event and present impressive sights around the city.

Malaga

Next stop in Spain was Malaga, another nice town to walk around.

Barcelona

We were in Barcelona a few months ago for eight days and will return at the end of our next cruise a month later so we didn’t do much of the tourist thing here.   On our last visit we had found a local restaurant in the Gracia district where we were staying, so we walked along the Rambla and Passeig de Gracia to the Gracia district to have lunch.  The restaurant does not really cater for tourists and food ordering was accomplished by pointing and extensive referral to Google Translate!

The most striking thing about Barcelona is the influence of Gaudi and his architecture, the La Sagrada Familia.  This cathedral began construction in 1882 and is expected to be finished in 2026.

Lisbon

We were hoping to be docked in the town centre but unfortunately another cruise ship beat us to the prime spot, so we we were docked a few kilometres out of town and had to be shuttled into the main town area.

We had visited Lisbon 18 months ago, so didn’t have a burning need to see anything in particular, although we did want to visit Comercio Square, as we missed that last time.  We just wandered around the town for a bit and headed back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon.

Comercio Square

Portimao

On our last visit to Portugal we were scheduled to visit Portimao, but due to a dock workers labour dispute we were unable to visit.

A Coruna (or La Coruna) is most famous as the gateway to Santiago de Compostella , a significant christian pilgrimage site.  We had previously visited there so took the opportunity to walk around the town itself and have lunch.  We walked a total of about 11Km, stopping for coffee at a small cafe and then lunch in the old part of town.

The most picturesque parts were the harbour and the centre plaza in the old part of town.

Fort in Harbour

Harbourfront

A very old lighthouse – built by the Romans in the first Century

The beachfront

Plaza

Old Church

Plaza

Harbour

While we were walking around, it threatened to rain several times and we did catch a few drops but not enough to get wet or be of concern.

Harbour and Stormy Looking Clouds

There was a street off the plaza that was full of little restaurants and we had lunch at one of them.

Our Lunch Spot

We deliberated over the menu for a while, attempting to translate from Spanish and then the owner gave us a menu in English which was much easier to use!  We ended up with a seafood platter and a nice bottle of Albarino wine, both of which were delicious.

Seafood Platter

In Gijon we docked in the port and had a 20 minute shuttle bus ride into town.

We left the ship at 10am and as it was Saturday, there was little traffic and few people.  We wandered around the old part of town admired the view and caught the shuttle back to the ship.

The marina was the most picturesque part of our visit but there were some interesting old buildings and fortifications too.

St Jean de Luz is on the border between France and Spain.  We tendered ashore to a beautiful harbour and quaint town

Harbour

We did our usual practice of just wandering around the town, taking in the atmosphere.

Fishing Net Repair

Old Church and where we had lunch

We decided to have lunch in town and chose a small place that did pizza that was overlooked by the church bell tower… not quite the cuisine you should choose in a small French town but it was what we felt like.  The food was excellent and we also had the house Rose which was quite acceptable.

Lunch Spot

We sailed up the Gironde river for about six hours to arrive in Bordeaux around 2am (not that we were awake to confirm the time).  We berthed right in the town which was very convenient, with only a short walk into the major attractions.

Seabourn Legend Downtown

The ship overnighted in Bordeaux so we had plenty of time for sightseeing.  We took an organised tour in the first morning, that drove around the town showing the sights and then headed to a Chateau for a winery tour and tasting.

Winery

Apart from making wine, the Chateau had a great collection of old French motor cars

One of the Chateau’s Motor Collection

After getting back to the ship, we had lunch and then set out on foot to explore the town.  Bordeaux has undergone a major revitalisation project, cleaning up old buildings and reinvigorating the riverfront as a community asset and the result is a most pleasant and picturesque town.

Basilica St Michael Bell Tower

Basilica St Michael and Bell Tower

St Eloi or Great Bell Gate

Medieval Cailhau City Gate

Bordeaux Cathedral

Rampant Horses – stolen in WW2 and only recently returned

Grand Bordeaux Hotel

Refreshment and People Watching Stop

Rue St Catherine Shopping Mall

Napoleon Bridge

At the end of the afternoon it started to cloud over and it was obvious a thunderstorm was coming.

Storm Approaching

Stormy Weather

Storm Clouds Gather

We just made it back to the ship before it started to pour.  After dinner we set out to capture some of the night lights.

While the storm had passed it was still raging not far away.

Thunderstorm

Night Time next to the Water Mirror

Promenade

Napoleon Bridge by Night

Old City Gate

Bordeaux by Night – Medieval Cailhau City Gate

Water Mirror

Old City Gate

The next day we had a slow start and headed out about 10am.  We wandered around for a while and stopped for a coffee in a street cafe.  However, as we had skipped breakfast the coffee stop morphed into brunch.

Brunch Spot

After brunch we made our way back to the ship to prepare for sail away.  As we left another thunderstorm was developing and followed us along the river, eventually catching up and dumping heavy rain and hail stones on us, as well as giving a great display of lightning and thunder.

Storm Brewing

St Helier, Jersey

We visited St Helier in Jersey.  Jersey was occupied by the Germans during the second world war, along with the other Channel Islands.

We had to anchor quite a way offshore and tender in which took around 30 minutes each way.  While in St Helier we took a bus tour of some of the sights and visited the underground tunnels of the German Occupation

Tunnel Complex converted to an underground hospital

German coastal fortifications

La Rochelle, France

La Rochelle is a French port with a beautiful historic old town.  We tendered ashore and caught a shuttle bus for a 20 minute ride into the old town area.

Bridge Spans

We spent an hour and a half wandering around and taking in the sights.

Market

Fish Stall

Private Courtyard

Marina

Harbour

Market Place

We arrived at St Malo early in the morning just as the sun was rising.  The weather was perfect with a light breeze and temperature about 20C.

Rising sun reflects off windows as we arrive

We had a leisurely breakfast and then caught a tender to shore, where we walked around for a few hours, including walking the length of the defensive wall around the city.

Rampart – the wall goes around the entire city

Seafood restaurant

We boarded Seabourn Legend a bit after midday and quickly settled into our temporary new home.

From the ship we had a great view of the Walkie Talkie building, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

At about 4.15pm we cast off from HMS Belfast, where we were docked and headed to the open Tower Bridge with the ship’s PA system blaring out “Rule Brittania”.  It was an amazing feeling to be sailing under the Tower Bridge and see the rush hour traffic banked up as far as the eye could see.

The trip down the river was interesting particularly when we passed through the Thames Barrier, a flood mitigation system.

We flew with Singapore Airlines from Sydney to London via a short stopover in Singapore.  The first leg was in a Boeing 777  and the second leg was in an A380.  Service was definitely “first class” and I think I have found a new favourite airline. We arrived into Heathrow at 7am and were escorted quickly through immigration and customs to our limo with a transfer to our hotel, all thanks to our travel agent – well done Eve!!  

To ensure that we had a room available early in the morning, we had paid for an extra night so we were soon in our room, having a shower to freshen up.

After a leisurely breakfast, we caught up with an old friend and her son (who is also our godson) and spent the rest of the day chatting with them.

By 7pm we were totally wrecked and fell asleep.  Unfortunately a couple of hours later, an air conditioning maintenance person came knocking, to fix our aircon… although inconvenient, it did mean that for the rest of our stay we were comfortable.

The next day we caught up with our friends and had Dim Sum lunch and then wandered around the Tower of London precinct and waited for our cruise ship to pass through the Tower of London Bridge.

In the moat around the Tower of London there are thousands of ceramic poppies stuck in the ground.  These poppies are in memory of the fallen in the First World War.

The old and the new! Some friends of ours were on the Seabourn Legend and disembarking the next day so once the ship had docked, we took the opportunity to catch up with them for an hour. Seabourn Legend tied up alongside HMS Belfast, in the Thames River.

After leaving the Falklands we headed north to Montevideo, Uruguay. Due to some Argentinian political issues, ships cannot dock in Buenos Aires if their previous port is the Falkland Islands, due to the objection of the British occupation of the disputed territory. So we stopped in Montevideo prior to Buenos Aires and then again after Buenos Aires, giving us two separate days in Montevideo. We spent one of them doing a walking tour of Montevideo and the other travelling to the nearby resort town of Punte del Este.

On the way into our docking location we passed by a ship wrecking yard… or was it just the result of a pilot mistake in the dark?

Casapueblo, the house of Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, at Whale Point on the way to Punte del Este

La Barra wavy bridge

Fishing boats at Punta del Este

Beach sculpture

Street scenes in Montevideo

On our return to the ship we were entertained by local dancers doing the tango

After Uruguay, our next stop was Rio de Janeiro. We found Rio a little unsettling. We were continuously being urged to be vigilant with respect to personal security and the prevalence of pick pockets and violent crime.

While we were in Rio we took a tour to Petropolis, a popular winter holiday spot.

Before leaving Rio a local dance group came onboard and provided an amazing demonstration of Carnivale dancing and costumes.

The next port after Rio was Armação dos Búzios where we left the ship for an overland adventure to Iguassu Falls. A small group of 10 of us caught a bus to Rio airport and then flew to Iguassu which is inland from Rio and on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

We arrived in Iguassu in the evening and transferred by bus to our hotel which was a majestic old hotel on the Brazilian side with a fantastic view to the falls.  

The next day we spent wandering around the Argentinian side of the falls getting a good close-up view of the mighty falls.

The following day we took a walk along the Brazilian side of the falls, which allowed us to go right to the bottom of the falls, which was spectacular.

Our visit to Iguassu was an amazing experience and the falls were more spectacular than either Niagra Falls or Victoria Falls, both of which we have previously visited.

From Iguassu we flew to Salvador where we stayed overnight in a 16^th century convent. This was a magnificent old building but we didn’t have a lot of time to appreciate it.  The next morning we took a walking tour of Salvador, finishing up at the wharf where we boarded the boat in time for lunch on board.

From Salvador we sailed North up the East coast of Brazil and into the Amazon River. The most amazing thing about the Amazon was its size – the river was far wider than we expected and it was amazing how our ship was dwarfed by the waterway.

We stopped at a couple of towns on the way where we experienced some of the Amazon wilderness and jungle. We continued upstream for a total of about 1,600 Kms to Manaus, which was our turn around point.

The ship spent three nights in Manaus so we took the opportunity to spend two nights ashore at a jungle lodge to experience the Amazonian environment. This included trekking through rainforest, hunting at night to spot alligators and fishing for piranha.

A sloth and a colourful lizard

This is the view outside our jungle lodge accommodation

Manaus is famous for its opera house

The highlight of our journey back along the Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean was a stop at Parintins where we were entertained by a local performance of Garantido.

 For lots more photos click here and select the area of interest.   

We arrived in Ushuaia late afternoon after a delay in docking due to our berth being occupied by another ship that was delayed in leaving.

Ushuaia is regarded as the most southern city in the world or as the sign says – the End of the World!

End Of The World

It was a quiet day as it was a Sunday and many shops were closed so we had a quick walk around and headed back to the ship.

The view of the mountains from the ship was impressive.

We departed at 11pm and headed South across the Drake Passage.  Fortunately the Drake was unusually calm and we had a very smooth passage.

The day crossing the passage was spent exchanging boots so we had a comfortable fit and doing our bio-security check to make sure all our clothing and equipment was free from anything that may contaminate the pristine Antarctic environment.

The next five days were spent in the Antarctic doing scenic cruising and zodiac landings.  Cruising through the narrow channels was spectacular with amazing icebergs all around

To get an idea of scale, you can see a seal and penguins at the bottom of the iceberg.

Amazing lighting early morning and at sunset.

The “Golden Hour” Light

Sue took this photo of a seal through the dining room window while we were having dinner.

Another pic where you can get a sense of the size of the iceberg from the people in boats at the bottom.

Cruising around Neko Harbour in a rubber zodiac, pushing our way through brash ice, we saw an avalanche.

Close up view of the end of a glacier.

Then we saw penguins…

Zodiac Landing at Penguin Colony

Gentoo Penguins

We saw several large colonies of Gentoo Penguins.

The penguins all had chicks and as we headed further south, they were younger as the breeding cycle starts later there.

Penguin and Chick

Chicks

Chicks Cooling Down

We also saw some penguins tending eggs.

Penguin with Egg

If the penguins get too hot, they lay flat on the ice to cool down

The penguins spend their time between hunting for food and feeding their chicks.  They use the same pathway to and from the rookery to the water, and these are known as Penguin Highways.

Penguin Highway

We had a rare sighting of a leucistic gentoo penguin – they have reduced melanin and are almost completely white.  The one in the photo below is walking past some gents who are cooling down on their bellys.

Leucistic Penguin

We also had numerous whale sightings, many of them very close to the ship.

and witnessed a rare phenomena of “bubble feeding” where the whales create a net of bubbles to trap the fish before catching them.

Bubble Net Feeding

We also saw seals on icebergs as they floated past.

Our itinerary and activities were governed by the weather and the Captain did an excellent job of finding pleasant conditions.  Unfortunately due to weather conditions we were unable to land in the areas where we would see species of penguins other than Gentoos.  Most of the time the air temperature during the day was above freezing although the wind made a huge difference when it came up.

We did have some snow early in the trip with enough to make a snowman on deck and it also snowed on our first day ashore

After departing the Antarctic we had to cross the Drake Passage again and head to the Falkland Islands.  This time the Drake Passage lived up to its reputation and we had 100Km/h winds and 10 metre waves to deal with!  The boat handled the rough weather  well and the worst of the storm was at night so we slept (on and off) through it.

Our journey in Antarctica took us to several landmarks and our most Southern Point Reached was 65°07’ South.

To see all of our photos from Antarctica click here to open a new window

Saturday 25 Jan 2014

We woke up early in the morning with the intention of watching the ship sail in.  The ship was due at 7am so we set the alarm for 6am to be sure we wouldn’t miss it.  Unfortunately when we went out on to our terrace at 6am we saw that the ship had already arrived.

We went back to bed but attempting to get back to sleep proved fruitless.  We got up and went to breakfast and finished off our re-packing and had a leisurely morning.

At midday we had a van collect us and Peter and Lyn with our 10 pieces of luggage to take us to the cruise terminal.  While the van was large – about a 10 seater – it had little room for luggage so there was a lot of grunting and heaving trying to manipulate the luggage into seats.  This is our half!

Our first speed bump was at the check in where we discovered that Australian passport holders (and a few others) needed to pay a Reciprocity Fee for entry to Argentina; and this needed to be paid before we could embark and it could only be done online.  Fortunately there was an Internet Café in the terminal building and we were able to process our payment there but it could have been much worse!

The rest of the check in process went smoothly and we were bussed from the terminal to the dock where we boarded the ship.  We were shown where our emergency muster point was and then we went to the Colonnade restaurant at the back of the ship for lunch.  Several of the staff were the same people who looked after us on our last cruise and remembered us.

Our cabins were released for occupation at 2pm so we headed there to unpack. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting unpacked and getting our cabin set up the way we wanted, as it is going to be home for the next 10 weeks.

At about 5pm the ship departed and there was the usual sail away party around the pool.

We enjoyed a Corona listening to the band and chatting with people and by then it was almost dinner time so we stayed on the pool deck (after a quick dash to get a warm top) as we were comfortable there.  It was a Surf and Turf night so we had a filet steak with a Nigerian prawn – which are almost as big as lobster tails!

After dinner Peter and Lyn suggested we go to the Observation Bar for a nightcap.  Chris the barman is very efficient so by the time we left, after a couple of hours, we thought we were in heavy seas but apparently we weren’t… maybe the Baileys on ice by the tumbler full  did it??

Sunday 26 Jan 2014

A slow start to the morning due to a late night the night before.  Our first engagement was an Australia Day function in the Observation Bar where they served Bloody Marys and Mimosas – neither particularly Australian but apparently having either of these drinks in the morning is OK because of the fruit or vegetable overtones.  They also made sausage rolls, Anzac biscuits, crumbed prawns and mini pavlovas which was a very nice touch.  There are 60+ Australians on board out of a total of about 400 and the second largest national contingent behind the US.

After the Australia Day party we had to dash to the Club Lounge to participate in the first day of the Trivia Contest.

We had a light lunch in the colonnade restaurant at the back of the ship.  3pm was an introduction to our expedition team and then immediately after that was the first in a series of photographic tutorials by our on board professional photography coaches.

When we got back to our room Guest Services called to invite us to the formal dinner in the evening with the Cruise Director… the only problem was that a jacket, and preferably Dinner Suit/Tuxedo, was required and not realizing that tonight was a formal night, Sue had put my jacket and Dinner Suit into the laundry.  I told them I had nothing to wear, but would be happy to accept if Guest Services could spring my clothes out of the laundry.  Within an hour I had my clothes and was able to attend.

The dinner was fantastic – for the appetiser, I had a polenta dish and Sue had a potato cake with caviar and for main I had lobster and Sue had rack of lamb.  Desert was Grand Marnier soufflé.  Our resolve to only take the stairs during the cruise might have to be supplemented with some additional exercise because we are going to be in trouble if we continue in this vein!

When we finished dinner, the evening show by a musician/comedian was about to start so we decided to go and see that.  We are glad that we did because it was an amazing display of skill, particularly on the piano but with brass instruments as well – and the odd hosepipe and any other tube he could lay his hands on!

Monday 27 Jan 2014

Today we arrived into Puerto Montt.  We anchored offshore and tendered into the town.  Eight of us had got together and hired our own private tour, independent of the ship and we were lucky enough to get a head start on the main contingent from the boat.  We headed out of town to the Lake District to the Petrohue National Park and waterfall.  On the way we saw the volcano in the distance on the edge of the lake, with its top covered in snow.

The waterfall was very picturesque and there was a large amount of water flowing

As we were leaving several buses of tourists arrived so our timing was perfect. We then headed to Puerto Varras for lunch.  After lunch we stopped at a vantage point to view the volcano again and see some Llamas.

Then we returned to Puerto Montt to a lookout overlooking the town and then back to the ship.

In the evening there was a local folkloric show by Chilean dancers and singers which was entertaining. Part of the show was to pull people out of the audience and dance with them.

We were feeling a bit worn out from the day’s sightseeing so we decided to get room service and have dinner on our balcony.  The night was balmy, the sea dead calm and the food excellent.

For more pics click here to open a new window

Thu 23 Jan 2014

We stayed at the hotel at aContraluz in Valparaiso.  The hotel is a boutique hotel which was originally two homes.

It is set high up on a hill and has magnificent views across the city and the bay.

Some of the walls have been demolished to make the space larger and some of the wall framework timbers have been left in place which gives a rustic look.

After a late breakfast we set out to explore Valparaiso on foot.  One of the advantages of the hotel is its commanding position and view.   Unfortunately this is also a disadvantage because it means to get back to the hotel you have a significant climb.  This is one of the streets back to where our hotel is.  Our terrace can be seen at the top right of the photo with a market umbrella.

The most striking thing that we saw on our walk was the prolific street art – and its quality.

For more street art click here to open a new page.

We descended quite a way down the hillside in our wanderings and were mindful that we had to climb back up again.  At this vantage point we could see that there was still a long way to go down if we wanted to but agreed that discretion is the better part of valour and elected to explore laterally instead.

While street art was probably the most catching thing we saw, there were plenty of  other  interesting things to see.

When we returned to the hotel our friends Peter and Lyn, who are also going to be on the cruise, had just arrived so we organized to have drinks on our terrace before going out to dinner.

While we were having drinks, the concierge telephoned to say that a water main had burst in the area that the restaurant we planned to have dinner in was located and they had to cancel all reservations for the night.  Over to Plan B.  The problem was that we didn’t really even have a Plan A, let alone a Plan B so I went looking for my old Army Training Pamphlet, “Managing Dinner Reservations – A Senior Officers Guide”.  Unfortunately Sue didn’t have the foresight to pack that publication in our luggage and I hadn’t got around to converting it to Kindle, so we were in a bit of a quandry until Sue suggested that we get the concierge to sort it out.  We poured another wine and wondered whether tonight’s dinner was going to be the cheese and cold meats selection that was in the kitchen for tomorrows breakfast buffet.  It wasn’t long before we got the word that all restaurants in the area were affected so we settled for the nibbles plate option.  The staff at the hotel did a great job accommodating our change in plans. In spite of a lack of a restaurant we had a very pleasant evening sitting on the terrace enjoying several Chilean wines.

Fri 24 Jan 2014

We were pleased to see breakfast this morning after the night before!  Another beautiful day with hot sun and a cool breeze.  We went for another walk around the town and found some more street art and saw a few significant buildings.

Tribunales de Justicia

Chilean Navy HQ

We caught an ascensior (funicular) down to the flat part of town by the water for 100 pesos each.

and then wandered for a while until we came to the trolley bus terminus.  We got on a trolley bus and rode it to the other terminus and back to the centre of town which cost us 250 pesos each way per person.

From the middle of town we caught an ascensior up the hill to Concepcion.

Unfortunately the ascensior does not go all the way to the hotel but it does cover a significant number of stairs so it was well worth the 300 pesos each it cost us!

In the evening we had dinner at the restaurant that we were booked into last night and luckily we were successful.  We had great pizzas and some wine.  When we went to pay, Peter used his credit card – we aren’t sure whether there was a problem with the machine or whether we were paying for all the customers in the restaurant because the card got swiped about 10 times!

The plan for tomorrow is to get up early and watch the Seabourn Quest come into port; it should dock just below our terrace so we should have a good view.  Watch out for pix of the arrival in the next day or two, depending on how good our Internet connection is on board the ship.

Monday 20 Jan 2014

We arrived in Santiago at 11am after an uneventful flight but little sleep.  Getting into Chile requires paying a “reciprocity fee” which is the cost of a visa and is the equivalent of what Chileans have to pay when they enter another country.  It seems that there are only four or five countries that charge Chileans so not everyone has to pay.  However, it is a drawn out process involving gruff looks, dot matrix printers, some heavy stamping and stapling of documents to a page in your passport.  You also get a slip of paper inside your passbook which can easily come out and that piece of paper is crucial to you getting out of the country without having to pay again.

We went to our hotel, the Aubrey, and were able to check in straight away.  The Aubrey is a grand old house that has been renovated and converted into a boutique hotel.

We were very tired from the trip so had a nap for a couple of hours and then went downstairs to the bar to have a drink and seek out some food.  In the bar we met up with the hotel co-owner who is an Australian.  We had a Pisco Sour, which is a traditional Chilean drink, and then ordered a glass of wine and tapas.  The tapas were excellent and just what we felt like.

Tuesday 21 Jan 2014

The next day we were picked up by our guide and taken on a tour of Santiago.

We visited the Centro Market and the Fish Market

Then we walked around the centre of the old part of the city for an hour or so, saw the Presidential Palace and Palace Guards.

We visited the cathedral

We decided to have lunch at a Chilean restaurant that serves food in a traditional Chilean manner.  We ordered three dishes to share and a salad but the food we received could have fed six.

After lunch we drove around Santiago, including to the top of San Cristobal Hill.  The vista from the top of the hill is amazing and you can see snow covered mountains in the distance.

Once we got back to our hotel in the late afternoon we decided another nap was necessary as jet lag cut in so we had a repeat of the previous night: nap, wine and tapas.

Wednesday 22 Jan 2014

The next morning we checked out and were picked up by our guide at 9am for our transfer to Valparaiso and touring en route.  First stop was a winery in the Casa Blanca region where we had a tasting.  Unlike what we are accustomed to, tasting is done with full glasses and tasting four wines means four glasses of wine.  Even sharing that between two meant an unusual morning tea break!

We stopped at Isla Negra, a popular local attraction and home of  Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.  We were going to visit the museum but the line to get in was so long we abandoned the idea and did a quick walk around the outside.

From there we headed to a small fishing village where we had lunch.  We had Chilean sea bass which was very nice.  The serving sizes were what we are getting accustomed to in Chile – enough for a small family with left overs for school lunches. The restaurant was right on the water and the ambience was fantastic.

After lunch we drove in to Valparaiso.  Valparaiso is built on very steep hills and our guide wanted to show us around some of the steeper areas as he didn’t think we would get back there on our own by walking.

The streets are very narrow and steep and buses couldn’t negotiate them so Valparaiso has a shared taxi system where the taxis act like buses, running a set route.  The person on the left of the image is waiting for the taxi coming up the hill.

One of the places we went to see is the cemetery.  The cemetery seems to be a lot more cheerful than what I am used to and most graves and mausoleums were decorated with flags, tinsel and flowers.  Interestingly a lot of the flags were for the football teams they supported rather than national flags.

The mausoleums are many levels high and there are dozens of blocks of them throughout the cemetery.

We finally made it to our hotel, the Alcontraluz.  We have a room at the top of the hotel with a private terrace overlooking the bay, city and hillside which is a magnificent view. We will get an excellent view of our ship doing in on Saturday morning.

Venice

We arrived into Venice early in the morning and stood out on deck to see the sights of this magnificent spectacle unfold as we cruised in.  Unfortunately it was overcast so the photos are not as spectacular as the event was in reality.

On the way through the canals to the cruise terminal we came across the Seabourn Spirit again which was docked at a smaller terminal some distance from where we were going to dock.  The Spirit is the ship that we are going to celebrate Sue’s 60th birthday on in October next year.

Seabourn Spirit

After docking at the main cruise terminal we set off to wander around Venice.  We started by taking a water bus called the Vaporetto to St Marks Square.  The Vaporetto provides a good vantage point to get some images of Venice from the water.

As we had recently been to Venice and the weather was inclement, we decided to just wander around.  Even though it was not peak tourist time there were still hordes of people around and getting in to shops to have a look was almost impossible.  Unfortunately the weather deteriorated and it started to rain which caused a proliferation of umbrellas which exacerbated the difficulty in moving around.

Although the rain was not heavy it was enough to make things unpleasant.  It also meant that we didn’t get a lot of opportunity for photos due to a lack of enthusiasm, dampness and poor lighting.  We started to walk back towards the ship and we didn’t have to go too far from St Marks Square before the crowds thinned out and it was very pleasant wandering the narrow alleys.

It was an interesting walk back to the ship because you never get a decent sight line to work out which direction you are heading.  Fortunately I had a map on my iPhone that when combined with the phone’s GPS capabilities meant that we were able to accurately weave our way around the streets to get back to the ship.

Although we didn’t get to have a really good look around Venice and take great photos, we are coming back next year as part of Sue’s birthday cruise so hopefully we will be able to get better conditions then.

The next day was disembarkation day and despite having been on board the ship for 55 days, we would have been happy to stay on board for a little longer!  We had a room service breakfast and then left the ship at 8am to catch a flight to Amsterdam where we were going to stay for six nights.

Our time on the Seabourn Quest was the most fantastic journey we have had.  We visited many amazing places and made some lovely friends that we are sure to catch up with again.  Many of the things we did were on our bucket list but we never expected that we would ever get to see them.

For these and more photos of Venice click here to open a new window.

30 April/1 May Croatia

As we sailed into Dubrovnik we had a magnificent view of the walled city.

Dubrovnik is rated as one of the best medieval walled cities in the world and is beautifully preserved. Dubrovnik was damaged during the siege by Serb-Montenegrin forces following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 when the city was shelled on several occasions with the loss of 114 lives. The artillery attacks on Dubrovnik damaged 56% of its buildings to some degree but the damage has since been repaired, with repairs being done in the original style.

We went ashore and wandered around the old city and then walked the entire length of the city walls that surround it.  The walk was quite challenging as it was a fair distance with lot of ups and downs, so we certainly got a decent workout as well as amazing views.

While we were in Dubrovnik, another Seabourn ship, the Spirit, was also visiting.  The Spirit is half the size of the Quest with only about 200 guests.

For more pictures of Dubrovnik click here to open a new window

Zadar

Overnight we sailed to Zadar.

The Quest is a relatively small cruise ship (but not as small as the Spirit above) so we were able to dock at the edge of town and it was fascinating to watch the ship manoeuvre itself in without any assistance.

Zadar is another beautiful Croatian town with some magnificent churches, Roman architecture and remnants of Roman urban development.

We wandered around the town for a while soaking up the atmosphere and had a coffee in a cafe in one of the squares.

27 April

Kusadasi, Turkey

We arrived at Kusadasi to find that the bicycle tour/race that disrupted traffic for us in Bodrum had travelled to Kusadasi and extensive traffic diversions were in place around the town.  It was only a problem on the way back to the ship and our bus driver was able to get us close enough to the ship that it didn’t really matter.

We took a tour from the port to Ephesus, an ancient well preserved classical city of the Eastern Mediterranean.  It was once the trade centre of the ancient world as a Greek City, then a religious centre of early Christianity as a Roman City.  Ephesus had a population of 250,000 in the First Century BC.

Today Ephesus is a well preserved archeological site and a major tourist attraction.  As large as it is, only about 15% has been excavated so far.

An interesting sight… ancient public toilets

Toilets. Slaves used to sit on the toilet prior to it being used so it was warm for the next person

A sign on the ground pointing to a brothel.  Apparently intending customers must match or exceed the foot imprint although I am not confident of the veracity of that claim.  The brothel was across from the library and there was a tunnel between the two that allowed for discreet access.

This is a sign indicating the direction to a brothel

Terrace Houses, once inhabited by wealthy Ephesians from the First Century BC to the Seventh Century AD, are being excavated and reassembled; several are open for viewing.  The area is covered to assist in preservation and protection while excavations continue.

The Theatre, with seating for 25,000 people 

The Temple of Hadrian

The Library of Celsus.  Jim and Sue with Audio guides around our necks. The Library was one of the largest in the Roman Empire and was built to house 12,000 scrolls.  It was completed in 120AD

There are a lot of cats at Ephesus

The Agora market place

for more pictures click here to open a new window

Bodrum, 26 April

We spent a day in Bodrum Turkey.  There was a very big bicycle race happening in town so the shuttle bus that was meant to run from the ship to the town centre couldn’t operate.  In its place, a ferry service was set up from the ship to the castle at the other end of the town, which was most fortuitous as the castle was the main attraction that we wanted to visit.

Next to the castle is a marina with many yachts.

After spending time exploring the castle we strolled through the streets into the town centre to browse through the shops

Bodrum Street

and then caught up with some friends and had lunch together in an al fresco cafe.

Karen, Geoff, Mary, Kel, Sue and Jim

After a bit more browsing in the shops admiring the “Genuine Fake” watches and handbags that proliferate throughout the area, we headed back to the ship.

Later, after sunset I took some more photos of the castle lit up with floodlights.

April 23-24

We docked at Ashdod in Israel and disembarked for another overnight trip off the ship.

Our first activity was a drive to the Dead Sea and a visit to the Masada fortress, built by King Herod.

Part of the fort at Masada

Masada is the site of the “last stand” by Jews resisting the Romans. In 66 AD, at the beginning of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire, a group of Jewish extremists overcame the Roman garrison of Masada and settled there. In AD 72 there were 960 people concentrated at Masada, representing the last bastion of resistance to the Romans. The Romans besieged the fortress with 15,000 troops and eventually breached the fort. When they entered the fort they found that the Jewish rebels had set fire to all the buildings except the food storerooms and had committed mass suicide, declaring death to be preferable to slavery.

Walking around the archeological site, you can see how easily defended the fort would have been – although repelling 15,000 troops is a big ask!

Cable Car to Masada – the Romans had to walk!

Our next stop was at Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

The cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered

From the Dead Sea we drove to Jerusalem where we first visited Vad Yashem, the Holocaust Museum which was a very moving and disturbing experience.

Vad Yashem

After the Vad Yashem we went to the Old City and walked around the four quarters.

The most spectacular part of this activity was seeing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and walking around inside.

After walking around the Old City we checked into our hotel, which was a nice boutique hotel. The location was a “happening place” and we had a balcony that overlooked the street where several Al Fresco dining areas were set up.

The view looking down from our hotel room in Jerusalem

After dinner we did a night drive to the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem and then visited the Wailing Wall. The area is segregated into different sections for men and women. A couple of us put on the traditional head dress and entered the mens section to see it up close and touch the wall.

The Wailing Wall

The next day we set off for the border between Israel and Lebanon to visit Rosh Hanikara, an interesting limestone grotto.

Next stop was Montfort Castle, built by the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. Montfort Castle is located in a nature reserve and when we visited there were busloads of school children having a picnic and excursion.

Montfort Castle

Montfort Castle

After Montfort Castle we went to Acre to visit the Crusader City. The city has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Acre Crusader City. Stairs were built so that horses could climb them

Recent archeological work discovered a tunnel that allowed secret access from the city to the docks area by the sea.

Tunnel providing access from the city to the sea

At the end of our visit to Acre we headed to Haifa to rejoin our ship.

For lots more photos click here to open a new window.

Cairo, Egypt, 21 April

We docked at Sohkna in Egypt which is a three hour drive to Cairo.

As in most of our excursions, the scenery on the drive was almost as interesting as the destination.

Apartments in Cairo

Watermelon Street Stall Cairo

The purpose of our tour was to visit the Pyramids of Giza and to see the Sphinx.

Sphinx and Pyramids

Due to the recent political upheaval in Egypt and concern about the security situation in Egypt, tourist numbers are down to about 10% of what they used to be and this was apparent as we walked around the pyramids; there were not a lot of people and I was able to get many photos without unwanted extra models!

This is the bus parking area overlooking the pyramids and usually swarming with tourists (and hawkers).

Current Security Situation in Egypt Has Reduced Tourist Numbers Dramatically

The weather continued to be kind to us and temperature was in the mid twenties celsius – absolutely perfect.  There were a few scattered clouds and they served to provide some interesting character to the lighting of the scenery.  I was concerned that seeing the pyramids may be an anticlimax, but I was not disappointed.

Sue and Pyramid

Camel Driver

After seeing the magnificent sites we went to a river boat on the Nile where we had lunch while cruising along the river before starting our three hour return bus ride to the ship.

Lunch on A Boat Cruising the Nile

For lots more photos of our visit to Cairo and Luxor, click here to open a new window.

Petra, 19 April

We arrived in Aqaba Jordan on 19 April and the weather continued to be fantastic.  Temperatures started out on the low 20s and climbed to a very comfortable high 20s by midday.   Petra is a an ancient city in Southern Jordan carved into solid rock by and dating back to 300BC. The archeological site is amazing and there were hundreds of tourists there.

Walking into the archeological site

Shortly after starting out on the walk is the Obelisk Tomb

Obelisk Tomb

 Entrance to the ancient city, the As Siq, is along a 1,200 metre long deep and narrow gorge with cliffs of about 80 metres.

Along the length of the As Siq is an aqueduct that brought water into the city.

Aqueduct

An unusual rock formation looks like a large fish

At the end of the As Siq is a bustling open area and the first sight you see is the amazing Al Khazneh or Treasury, carved out of the rock.

The Treasury

Hundreds of people swarmed around the area as well as persistent hawkers and  Camel Drivers trying to sell camel rides.

All along the street are tombs carved into the rock.

The Theatre was built in the 1^st Century AD and is carved into solid rock, except towards the front on either side where part of it is freestanding. It was initially built to seat 3,000 people and later expanded to 7,000.

Theatre

Elevated and on one side of the mountain are the Royal Tombs: Urn, Corinthian and Palace Tombs

Urn Tomb

Corinthian and Palace Tombs

For more photos of Petra, click here to see them in a new window.

Luxor 17 April

We docked at Safaga in Egypt and then travelled by bus for three hours to Luxor, the site of the ancient city of Thebes where the Temples of Luxor and Karnak are located. The area is also where the Theban Necropolis is located home of the tomb of Tutenkhamun, amongst many others.

We were concerned about the security situation in Egypt but from researching news reports it seems that the main problem was in Cairo, which I guess explains some of the strict security measures we encountered.

The three hour drive was interesting in its own right and we saw some interesting sights. Here a donkey cart is being used in conjunction with a mobile phone – old meets new.

Old and New. Donkey and Cell Phone

Here are some colourful street stalls

It was interesting to note that no matter how impoverished a dwelling appeared, it still had a satellite TV dish – or several.

Satellite Dish on every building – completed or not!

Our trip to Luxor was spread over two days. The first day we visited the Luxor and Karnak Temples.

Columns at Luxor Temple Dwarf Humans

The scale of the constructions throughout the area was amazing and in their pristine state must have been awe inspiring – which of course was the intention!

We stayed overnight at a hotel in Luxor overlooking the Nile.  This is the view from our hotel window.

The next day we went to see Agamemnon and the Habu Temple and crossed the Nile to the West Bank to the Necropolis and visited the tombs in the Valley of the Nobles.  The area is still an active archeological site and there were lots of people working it.

Valley of The Nobles. Archeological excavation is ongoing

Habu Temple Luxor

We didn’t go to the Valley of the Kings due to time constraints and as no cameras are allowed past the entry point, there wouldnt have been any photo opportunities.  However, I did take a photo from our hotel in the early morning, albeit at some distance.

Valley of the Kings

For lots more photos of Luxor click here to open a new window.  The link also has photos of our visit to Cairo and the pyramids of Giza.

Oman 9-12 April

Adjacent to Dubai is the Sultanate of Oman, a 1,700 km coastal plain at the southeast tip of the Arabian Peninsula lying on the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. It is also bordered by Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

We visited three places in Oman: Khasab, Muscat and Salalah.

Khasab

Khasab’s most significant attribute is it is located at the Straits of Hormuz which has been a strategically important waterway for centuries. It is a choke point for sea traffic entering and leaving the Persian Gulf and onwards to the Suez Canal. It has only recently been opened to tourism as it was previously a restricted military area. The rugged scenery makes it an interesting place to visit but tourism is just developing so on some of our tour we had to use our imagination a bit.  The most notable attraction Was Khasab Castle

Muscat

Sailing into Muscat, the capital of Oman, the first thing you see is Mutrah Fort which overlooks the port and its approaches.  

We visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque which is an amazing building showcasing intricate workmanship and beauty. 

From the Mosque we headed some distance out of town to a fish market. By the tie we got there it was getting towards midday and there was not much activity and most of the fish had gone.

From the fish market we spent some time at Nakhal Fort which is an interesting shape as it was built around the existing rock formation.

From the fort we stopped briefly at an oasis before heading back into the city area and had lunch at a local eatery rather than a western restaurant. The food was very nice but the staff took a while to rustle up cutlery for us all, as the local custom is to eat with your fingers, rolling curries and wet dish food with rice into balls and eating it.

Salalah

Salalah is famous for Frankincense, a resin which is burnt as incense to give off a fragrant smell. On arrival in Salalah we boarded our minibus and headed for the mountains where we had a picnic lunch. We were all a but dubious about it but it was a delightful spread in a shady area in the mountains and we had the added attraction of being watched by camels.

After our picnic lunch we went to the archeological site, commonly referred to as the Queen of Sheeba Palace, which is actually the ruins of Samhuram, an ancient port dating back to 3,000BC and perched on a hill overlooking a lagoon.

From Samhuram we stopped briefly on a cliff top overlooking a fishing village.

A large rock on the top of the cliff looked a bit like a komodo dragon.

Finally we headed back into town to see the outside of the Sultan’s palace and visit the souk for a quick bit of browsing and investigation of frankincense.

For more pictures click here to open a new window.

Dubai 7-8 April

We arrived in Dubai to very hazy, overcast skies and very poor visibility. There had been a large sandstorm the day before and there was a lot of dust in the air.

We went on a tour of the city that took us first to a beach and then on to the Dubai Museum, located in the Al Fahidi Fort. The fort was built in 1787 and is the oldest existing building in Dubai.

Just as we were leaving the museum, it started to rain; because of the amount of dust in the air we ended up with mud splashes all over us.

From the museum we took a water taxi ride across the creek to the spice and gold souks. Because it was raining and windy, the boat ride was not very pleasant, which is a shame because it would have been a highlight otherwise.

The souk was the usual Middle Eastern hustle and bustle and the smell of the spices was amazing.

On our second day in Dubai we went to the Dubai Mall and wandered around the shops – there are 1,200 shops there so there was no shortage of things to see.

It was interesting to cruise through the supermarket to see what was on offer and we picked up some coffee and a Bodum coffee plunger so that we had an emergency coffee capability for the future.

The mall is huge and contains a large waterfall as well as a huge aquarium

I bought some traditional Arabian clothes – a dishdasha and headdress but for what reason, I am not sure.

For more pictures click here to open a new window

India 31 March to 3 April

From Phuket we set out across the bay of Bengal to Cochin in the south of India.

Arriving in Cochin a small group of eleven of us were picked up in a bus and taken to the Cochin Airport where we caught a flight to New Delhi via Hyderabad. As it was quite late in the afternoon by the time we arrived in New Delhi we went to our hotel, Le Meridian, to relax until dinner time. Dinner was a buffet of an amazing array of Indian food which tasted as good as it looked.

The next day after breakfast we drove to Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal. The drive took us about four hours and was mainly on a new highway but we passed through some small villages en route.

After checking into our hotel, ITC Mughal Agra, we set out to explore the town. First stop was the Taj Mahal which is breathtaking. The temperature was high – around 37C/100F which made the activity very tiring, particularly as the grounds are huge.  You have to walk a fair way from the ticket office/entry area to get to the gate of the Taj Mahal

And once through the gate you get your first view of the monument

After taking hundreds of photos we went to the Agra Fort, also called the Red Fort because of its rusty red colour. The Fort, dating back to 1566, is another large and impressive monument that takes a long time to get around.

From the Red Fort we visited the Tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah also called the “Baby Taj” because of its similarity to the Taj Mahal, although it predates the real Taj Mahal.

After spending time at the Baby Taj, we headed back to our Hotel for a cool drink, shower and dinner.

The next morning we were on the bus at 0530 heading to the Taj Mahal again to see the sun rise on it. It was much more pleasant wandering around the grounds in the cool of the morning rather than the blistering heat we had endured the day before. After many photos (again) we went back to the hotel for breakfast and checked out at 7.30 am so that we could get on the road to Jaipur.

The rising sun created a completely different lighting effect from the previous midday sun.  This shot is taken from the same position as the one above.

While I was taking photos I saw lots of people holding their hands in a funny way and having their photo taken – once I realised what they were doing I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity!

About an hour out of Agra we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, a 16^th century town that was abandoned due to lack of water. Another monument with a large campus and fascinating sights but we could only afford to spend an hour there, and then it was back on the road to Jaipur, a drive that took us about four hours.

On the drive to Jaipur we came across a few interesting sights.

Occupational Health and Safety at Work

Tuk-Tuks, the ubiquitous taxis 

Cows Rule

Cow pats are dried, stacked and used for fuel

cow pats drying on a pipe

Street Procession for an unidentified religious festival

Mobile Disco Machine supporting the procession

Street Markets

Street Markets

Street Markets

On arrival in Jaipur, we did a city tour which included the Observatory and then the City Palace. It was hot and the group was tired from the early start and long drive so we were glad when our guide said it was time to go to the hotel. Our hotel in Jaipur was the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, an old palace converted to a hotel which was beautiful. All three of the hotels we stayed in were worthy of several nights due to their opulanece and facilities and it was unfortunate that all we had time for was to sleep in them.

The next morning we headed to the Amber Fort and it was another early start at 7am to ensure that we were at the head of the queue for the elephant ride to the summit where the fort is located, as we needed to be sure we completed our tour of the fort in time to get to the airport.

The Amber Fort is a very popular attraction and the usual way to get there from the tourist bus car park is by elephant but the queue to get a ride can get very long later in the day.

After the Amber fort we headed to the airport where we caught a flight to Mumbai and then a bus ride to our ship.

As we drove through Mumbai we saw the stark contrast between the very rich and the very poor.  This is the fishing village in Mumbai which is probably a step up from the slums of Mumbai.

There are lots more photos… click here to open a new window to see them.  I haven’t done much sorting or applied captions yet but that will come… if you are an “early clicker”, please bear with us 🙂

Phuket, Tuesday 26 March 2013

The ship spent one day in Phuket and we went on a tour in the morning to Siam Niramit, Village of the Four Regions which is essentially a cultural centre which showcased Thailand’s cultures and cuisines.

Getting off the bus we were greeted by dancers, pounding drums and crashing cymbals and a special performance by two elephants, one of whom danced and the other spun a hoop around its trunk!!  The dancing elephant also did a bow and crossed one of its legs when I went to photograph it!

Dancing Elephant

The centre offered samples of various Thai food and there were displays of traditional costumes, dances and replicas of the life in a Thai village

Serene garden setting

Costumes

Dancers

There were elephant rides for those adventurous enough.  We were all given a parasol to provide some shade and to take away as a souvenir.

For more photos click here to open a new window.

Bangkok 19-20 March 2013

The ship docked about a two and a half hour drive from Bangkok so our tour spent a large part of our day driving on a highway.

Our first stop was to the Royal Palace at Bang Pa-In. There were not a lot of people there when we arrived and the grounds are huge so it felt very serene compared to our earlier journey to Angkor Wat. The gardens and grounds are beautiful and the architecture very interesting. Although it was hot there was plenty of shade and a light breeze which made it very pleasant.

From the Royal Palace we went to a restaurant for a Thai buffet lunch which was a fantastic array of food. The fish curry was excellent and had plenty of spice (as did most of the other dishes) which was a great change from the non spicy food that we have had so far on the ship.

After lunch we visited Wat Logayasutharam. As well as a huge reclining stone Buddha, the temple has a magnificent Pagoda and dozens of Buddha statues. The statues were all dressed in orange robes and were a spectacular sight.

Our last visit was to the ruins of Wat Mahathat (The Temple of the Great Relic) from the Ayutthaya era.

The main attraction here is the head of a statue of the Buddha that rests in the climbing roots and vines of a tree.

There are many other interesting statues at these ruins as well

We elected to not go into Bangkok on the second day of our port visit as it was a five hour round trip before we did anything.  Instead we stayed on the ship and spent the day relaxing.

Just before we left Bangkok, some Thai dancers came aboard and put on a show of traditional Thai dancing.

For more pictures click here to open a new window.

Cambodia 15-17 March

On our second day in Ho Chi Minh City we joined with 14 other passengers and left the ship with a small bag each and headed to the airport to catch a flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Siem Reap is the site of the Angkor complex which is home to Angkor Wat and many other temples dating back to the 12^th Century.

We arrived in Siem Reap after lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing in our very modern and comfortable hotel and then went to a local restaurant for dinner.

First thing next morning we got on our bus for a tour of temples. Being a small group meant that we could be flexible with timings so if more or less time was needed anywhere it was easy to adjust our program as we went along. The temperature and humidity were hard to bear but the temples were all fascinating.

Ta Prohm, made famous for appearing in the film, Tomb Raider.

Banta Srei, late 10th century

Around midday we took a break for lunch at a restaurant in a little village. It was a new building built in traditional style and is being established as a Home Stay accommodation to Angkor tourists. Lunch was very nice and we had the place to ourselves.  In the background was a boy playing a , a Cambodian wooden xylophone in the shape of a boat.

Ankgor Thom, Bayon Temple

you cannot escape the gaze of Buddha

Angkor Wat, the most spectacular and largest of the temples

View of the gate to Angkor Wat

We got back to our hotel just after 4pm but it felt much later as we had walked miles and climbed lots of stairs.

After a shower and a snooze we went to Koulen restaurant for a buffet dinner and traditional Apsara dance show.  The restaurant is huge and we estimated that there were about 1,500 people there!  At the end of the dance show, people rushed up to be on stage and have their photo taken with the dancers.

Apsara dancers

The next morning we flew from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and did a short drive around the capital, stopping at the Royal Palace at Bang Pa-In and a museum.

We had a very nice lunch at a restaurant in Phnom Penh and then had a four hour drive to Sihanoukville, the port where the Quest was waiting for us (well, waiting may be overstating it a bit – if we hadn’t arrived by sailing time it would have left without us!!)

As we left we had a magnificent sunset.

For more photos click here to open a new window.

Thursday 14 March

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in the morning of 14 March after sailing up the river. We disembarked and took a tour with a small group in a bus.

We drove to the Mekong Delta and on the way it was amazing to see the number of motor scooters and the way that they flow along the road is like a body of water, avoiding obstacles such as cars and people.

We transferred from our bus to a boat tour that took us along the Mekong River.

The river is a combination of bustling highway, market place and residential access. We went past the floating market but commerce had finished for the day so there wasn’t a lot of activity to be seen although there were plenty of boats around.

It was interesting to see that the boats have their engine and propeller drive train mounted on a tilt mechanism that allows them to be lifted out of the water to avoid fouling with weeds or shallows.

From the boat we took a side excursion of a sampan ride along a canal.

The boats were not at all comfortable and after a short while, we ran out of water depth because the tide was running out and the sampan had to be pushed in several parts!

At one stage we passed by a man having his lunch and while we didn’t understand what he was saying, he was talking loudly to our boat driver and I suspect that it wasn’t complimentary as she ignored him.

We were very glad to get back to our boat to the relative comfort of its seats and then it was another cruise along the river to return to our bus and then the ship.

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Today we are in Da Nang, Vietnam.

We went on a tour to Hoi An, about 45 minutes from the dock.  Hoi An, on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is a 16th Century town that has been well preserved and is a living museum.

Our first stop on the way was to see the fishing fleet

Fishing Boats

The round cup looking things on the beach are boats that the sailors use to row out to the boats – they look like coracles from early Anglo Saxon history.

Fishing Fleet

From the fishing boats we travelled along the coast a few kilometres and stopped at China Beach, famous from the days of the war in the 70s known in Vietnam as the American War.

From China Beach we went to Marble Mountain to see the marble carvings.  There was a huge array of large and exquisite marble carvings on offer – but too large and heavy for our luggage!

Marble Carvings

Marble Mountain Showroom

On the side of Marble Mountain are several Pagodas

Pagoda on Marble Mountain

After browsing the statues we moved on to a silk works where silk is made and woven into products.  We saw the silkworms feeding and some silk cocoons as well as the silk being spun and wound onto bobbins.

Silk being stored on wooden reels

The silk works also had many silk items for sale and it was an amazing array of colour. Here is an embroiderer working on a scene.

Silk Embriodery

Next stop was Hoi An.  This is an amazingly well preserved ancient town that was fascinating.  It is a very popular tourist destination and there were people everywhere but with some patience I managed to get some pictures without too many crowds!

Hoi An Street

The Japanese Covered Bridge was built in the early 1600s

Japanese Covered Bridge

We wandered around the town browsing the sights

Fruit Vendor

We had lunch and then stopped at the vegetable market village where green produce is grown for the area.

From there we drove back to the ship arriving mid afternoon.

Just before sailing away from Da Nang, a dance troupe came on board to put on a show for us which comprised traditional dancing and singing.

Da Nang Farewell Dancers

There was also some “street theatre” in the show but unfortunately I missed the introduction so didn’t really comprehend the action although it was colourful.

Dancer/Street Theatre

For lots more photos click here and a new window will open.

Today is the day we join our cruise ship.  We were up early and watched the Seabourn Quest glide into Hong Kong.  It was very hazy and smoky so it was hard to see it at first when it came around the bend in the harbour but still very exciting.  I took a time-lapse video of the arrival which is very hazy but you can see it on Youtube here if you are interested.

After breakfast we caught the cable tram to Victoria Peak to see the view but it was hazy and not as impressive as I remember it from years ago.

After doing Victoria Peak we decided to check out the Mid Level Escalator, an outdoor escalator that travels about 900 metres and makes getting up the steep inclines from the Central area a bit easier for pedestrian traffic.

The escalator is actually a series of escalators.  Unfortunately the lower few escalators were going down as it was around the end of the morning commute into Central so we had to walk up the stairs until we found the start of the “up” escalator.  Once we got to the end we started walking down the stairs but by the time we got to the sections that would have given us a free ride down, it had changed direction and was now coming up!  Oh well, the exercise was good for us!

On the escalator route we go to see some of a less touristy part of the city – it is a lot for the senses to comprehend.

Just after midday we checked out of our hotel and had a car take us to Ocean Terminal to join our ship.  Baggage check-in was quick and uneventful and we were soon on board the Quest having lunch in the Colonnade, sitting on the deck looking out over the harbour to Hong Kong Island.

After lunch we did some window shopping in Harbour City immediately adjacent to the cruise terminal and I collected some optical sunglasses that I had asked to be made the day before.  Amazing and efficient service – less than 24 hours and I had new sunglasses made.  The company is Whittle Optical and the proprietor is Stanley Tsang in case you ever need that service (he is 19-20 Ground Floor Star House, Salisbury Road, right opposite the Star Ferry Terminal – ph 2317 1070).

In the evening, from the ship, we watched the Hong Kong Symphony of Light which is a nightly light show which was spectacular.  We had seen some of it the night before from our hotel on Hong Kong Island but the show is best observed from the Kowloon side of the harbour.  Unfortunately my photo doesn’t do it justice because I didn’t have a tripod to allow longer exposures – I had to leave some gadgets out of this trip and the tripod didn’t make the cut!

For more Hong Kong photos go to here (opens in a new window)

We arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday evening to spend a couple of days prior to boarding the Seabourn Quest on Saturday.

We spent today, Friday, walking to the ferry terminal on Hong Kong Island and catching the ferry to Kowloon and browsing in the shops there.

We had a Dim Sum lunch in Kowloon in a restaurant with views of Hong Kong Island across the harbour. We were given a multi choice menu with boxes to be ticked, so we ticked quite a few – we didn’t fully appreciate how much food that would result in! It was a magnificent lunch but we were very replete by the end of it… just as well we did a lot of walking today!

On the ferry trip back to Hong Kong Island I took a couple of photos which can be seen at Smugmug.  One that I particularly like is of a Tall Ship passing by a modern cruise liner docked at Ocean Terminal – which incidentally is where we board the Quest tomorrow.

The old and the new

On the 9th of March we will start out on a 55 day cruise with Seabourn from Hong Kong to Venice on the latest Seabourn ship, the Quest

The Quest is a relatively small ship with a complement of 335 crew and carries up to 450 passengers. Technical details of the ship are here.

Seabourn Quest

Our itinerary takes us around South East Asia to India and then through the Middle East, traversing the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea and ending up in Venice.

Quest itinerary Hong Kong to Venice