Archive for February, 2007

We’ve arrived

Singapore

It’s been four days since we left Singapore but what a super time we had. As it was so hot and humid we decided it would be best to look around the Botanical Gardens in the morning, a good move it was too. Fantastic Orchids there, wonderful gardens and a Swan Lake Gazebo with real and sculptured swans. See Photo of Sue there.

As it was Chinese New Year on the following day we decided on a trip to China Town where all the celebrations for the Year of the Golden Pig were in full swing, very busy markets and lots of noise and people.

Some where on route we stopped to buy anew charger for the digital camera and of course Singapore being the home of new technology the shop keeper took one look at my video camera and exclaimed “ That belongs in a Museum, why don’t you give ti to your Grandchildren?” I was a little put out but when he showed us the latest Sanyo miniature video camera we had to have one and what a great little gadget it is too. More evidence to bore everyone with when we get back?

We finished the day at Raffles for a legendary Singapore Sling, see photo and this wa had in the Long Bar. Somewhat disappointing as they serve peanuts in their shells witih drink and the floors are littered with hundreds of empty shells, this couple with rather loud and to our mind unsuitable piped music left us with an impression that Raffles is living off it’s past. A sort of ersatz type of experience!

By the time we got back to the ship we were both exhausted having been on the go all day and were glad of a refreshing bath. Before the ship sailed the cabaret that evening took on an ethnic flavour and among the entertainers was a snake charmer with dancing cobra and a giant python. When he asked for volunteers JB was first up to embrace the golden snake. Much to Susan’s disgust. See the picture.

Since then another experience on board. Last week one of the guest lecturers was an old BBC Chum, peter Dorling who I hadn’t seen for nearly 40 years and by a strange coincidence yet another old friend of mine turned up on board as a guest lecturer this week, song writer Bill Martin who has made millions as a very successful writer of songs like Congratulations, Puppet on a String and DIVORCE for Billy Connelly. Small world isn’t it. See the photo of us together.

I’m thinking I should apply to do some of this lecturing, it’s not that difficult and I think I could be more interesting than some of the speakers we’ve heard.

That’s it for now, only a few more days at sea for us now as we leave the ship on Sunday to start our OZ leg. Sue has caught an awful bug which is going round the ship and which has laid her low and she has lost her voice too! A trip to the ship’s doctor is called for to get her fit for her camel excursion on Wednesday next. JB too is under par with an attack of upset tummy, good way to lose the recently gained weight!

Don’t forget to write to us.

Unfortunately we were unable to post this in Broome as the tidal conditions made us very late in port so all our trips were somewhat curtailed and the internet café had closed by the time we got back so all this will have to be posted in Perth when we arrive on Sunday.

Broome was very hot, 38 degrees, and humid. JB went off on his little light Cessna aircraft trip which was excellent, he was in the air for 3 hours altogether with a short stop at Cape Leveque, a holiday camping resort of about 8 houses with a dirt landing strip. The scenery was outstanding though all the passengers were somewhat alarmed at the number of thunderstorms in the air and the number of lightening strikes which could be seen, luckily none hit the Cessna. See picture

While he was doing that Susan went off on the Camel Safari, lots of fun as they paraded along the beach but again very hot and somewhat smelly. See picture.

When all arrived back at the ship, Broome was more or less closed for the day so that was it, a BBQ on board and some entertainment by local musicians then it was time for the last leg of our trip this time to Freemantle. Nice to get a phone call from Julie with all the UK news before we went to sleep.

After nearly four weeks of fun on board we have had enough now and are ready to more on to see more of Australia. Cruising is great for about three weeks but after that the novelty wears off and it’s time to get back to the real world on land.

More later…

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Wednesday February 7 2007, Port Victoria, Seychelles

While JB was off exploring the island’s capital and the local Cable and Wireless Internet access to send all this, Susan went off on a huge catamaran to explore the St Anne’s Nature Reserve. Crossing turquoise seas to a deserted island for a swim on a coral beach was followed by a fantastic adventure under the sea on a semi-submersible to view the coral and tropical fish. Then snorkelling from the cat over the coral reef was an experience not to be missed

Picture to go in of Susan on the beach

It’s a pretty little island, the most northerly of the Seychelles and a big contract to Africa, unemployment is a lot lower, 6%, and it shows. There is much more prosperity, the streets are clean, the houses well kept and the people happy and friendly.
In the afternoon we visited the local botanical gardens famous for the coco de mer trees and nuts. These are rumoured to have magical aphrodisiac powers, (JB still reserving judgment) and the other major attraction is the giant Aldabran Tortoise. There was a pen of them and apart from eating their main occupation seemed to be to procreate. Perhaps they had been eating too many of the coco de mer nuts because the males were at it all the time chasing the females round the pen and making a good deal of noise as they went about it!

Picture of tortoise to go in

We’ll leave this subject and report on an occurrence the night before. I suppose it’s an occupational hazard with a Saga Cruise but during the night, before we arrived, one of the passengers turned up her toes for good. It seems her husband had been buried on the Island some years before and by some kind of strange poetic justice she died as we arrived so will be able to be buried alongside him. Judging by the state of a few of the more elderly ones we see lying out on the promenade deck, (the living dead as we call them) this lady won’t be the last.

A couple of days after leaving the Seychelles we crossed the Equator. Sue and JB being “Pollywogs” what is people who have never done it before by sea we had to undergo the full ceremony to be initiated my Neptune.

All the passenger assembled on the rear deck, Neptune arrived with his entourage of mermaids, judges and the Captain in a giant hat and epaulettes. He adjudicated and decided as we were all guilty of not paying due homage to Neptune we were guilty and had to be punished. This consisted of having to kiss a giant dead salmon after which we were doused in a sort of cold fish soup, to the cheers of the onlookers. It was disgusting, Susan tried to be nice to the fish saying something like “Nice Fishy” but to no avail, it was opened up and rubbed in her face. We both had to have two showers and a bath to get over it and remove the fish smell. Mind you they did give us a very nice cocktail before the ceremony. Lots of fun and plenty of laughs from our new found friends , many of whom had been there before.

Equator pics to go in

Yesterday evening, Friday February 9 we went to a fabulous show dedicated to the music of Benny Goodman. The clarinettist, Kenny Martin, had managed to obtain many of Benny Goodman’ scores from the 1939 Carnegie Hall concert and together with the house musicians they did a great job which had us all jumping.

One last thing worth a mention is the stars. Very day the ship publishes a “star chart” showing the stars that can be seen in relation to the ship’s position and direction. You can go up on the foredeck where it is pitch black and gaze with winder at the heavens, it is a wonderful sight and makes us both feel very insignificant.

That’s it for now, if you are reading this please do give us feedback or email Johnny@johnnybeerling.com with your comments, it’s nice to know what you all make of it.

Next stop the Maldives, on Sunday.

We were unable to file cope there due to time pressures and the arrival of the President of Shri Lanka which caused the closure of most of Male.

While Sue looked around those shops which were open Jb went off on a wonderful underwater tour of the local reef by submarine. This was spectacular and he saw many interesting fish, turtles, eels and octopus.

In the afternoon the Captain obtained permission to take the ship to a tropical island, Kudobandros. Just like a Bounty Bar advert, white coral sands under beautiful palm trees. Almost the entire crew were involved in setting up a huge open air BBQ and free drunks too. We snorkelled and ate all afternoon before sailing off in tot eh sunet for Singapore.

Pictures of beach and Island to insert

A few days at sea faced us as we sailed to Singapore but as we explained earliern there was no bordom, in fact too many things to do.

Highlights were a “Jazz Lunch” with a huge buffet and jazz to dance to and Valentines Day where we had the most wonderful celebration we have ever had, or are likely to have.

JB had painted a home made card for Susan, complete with poem and written a special longer poem too in a bigger event where passengers were invited to write romantic poems, all of which were published in a special booklet distributed to everyone.

In the evening the Captain hosted a formal farewell Valentine cocktail party, more free champagne, for everyone primarily to say good bye to those passengers getting off in Singapore. There was then a special Valentine Dinner, with dedicated menu’s among the dishes on offer, “First Date”, Crab, caviar and smoked salmon; “Love Potion”, Cream of asparagus soup with nutmeg, “Match Made in Heaven”, fillet of beef on a crouton with fois gras, and for dessert similarly named delicacies. This was an outstanding meal and while we were eating, because it was approaching Chinese New Year, a number of the waiters came in procession as a Chinese dragon.

The dinner was followed by a Valentine Ball, where the entire crew, led by the Captain opened proceedings with a set dance, then the passengers took turns to dance with members of both sexes of the ship’s crew. Susan drew the best straw as on her Dance Card she had the Captain for the opening waltz. That made her evening even if he was no better at dancing than JB! Dancing went on till nearly midnight and after that we went to star gaze before falling into bed at 1 am.
What a wonderful Valentine’s Day, I doubt we’ll ever do anything like that ever again.

Next stop Singapore on Friday 16th where we say goodbye to some of our new found friends and we hope to post all this.

Once again if you are reading it, we’d love to have feedback to johnny@johnnybeerling.com
Because we have no idea of how many of our friends and relatives are checking on our progress, we just hope we are not making you all too jealous.

Dressed for a formal dinner night, about once per week

JB on the Bridge

Fining our Ship, the Saga Ruby in CapeTown

Another day another blog

Spot the Camel! Our Table Waiters

Another day, another Blog..

Sunday February 3 and we were in Mombasa, Kenya, along side the dock at the unearthly hour of 6 am, not that we chose to crawl out at that time but there were Kenyan drummers on the dockside to welcome us a little later when we walked down the gangplank.

JB had not been to Kenya since 1957 when he was but slip of a lad who came here from Aden for a spot of R&R, nowadays he’s about 3 stone heavier though that seemed to be about the only change. The poverty is in evidence everywhere and Sue got very upset at the state of the poor trading people who were trying to sell rich tourists their wares. In fact although she was inclined to bargain when buying anything she always ended up buying more than she wanted out of sympathy for the seller who always pleaded “poverty and many children to feed!”

In order to see as much as possible we booked on one of the Saga organised tours, a so called “Panoramic” but the panorama was not up to much. There was a Hindu temple which was impressive if you’ve not seen one before. A stop at Jesus Fort, dating back to the 1500’s and a view of the markets and the shanty towns, all too dangerous to let us out. On top of that it was Sunday so nearly all the shops were closed. Many of the local Christian population were at worship in the open air ( not that they had a lot to be thankful for) and in the large parkland many families were out picnics onde the shade of large trees, watched by one or two scruffy camels! By contrast we were taken to the Nyali Beach Hotel for coffee and this was on a beautiful coral beach where again a couple of camels were taking a bath, (see picture of Sue, somewhat masked by the photographers thumb.) JB found a business centre where he could do the internet access and then it was back to the ship for a late lunch.

Again we noticed the large differential between the way the locals live a few hundred metres outside the hotel grounds and the life style of the affluent tourists staying there. It’s quite upsetting when you realise how big the gulf is between “us” and “them”, yet the problems of poverty, hunger, education and aids will never be cured by a few tourists buying souvenirs. One realises what an impossible task the various helping charities have set themselves in trying to improve things and we can only admire them for trying. If you stop too think about it, and we did, it’s just overwhelming and made us feel somewhat humble and over privileged.

Sailed away to in the direction of Seychelles at 5.30, much food for thought.

Comoros Islands

Comoros Islands

Today is Friday February 2 and we awoke to find ourselves moored off Mayotte in the Comoros Islands. At breakfast it was already 34 degrees and humid so we awaited the tender boats to take us ashore with some enthusiasm.

This soon evaporated when landed to find this French Protectorate dirty and very unattractive. By 10 am it was nearly 40 degrees and a warm drizzle did nothing to cool us, it was much more developed than we hoped with cars and lorries everywhere along with much dirt and general scruffiness. We found a Post Office, very French with long queues, to buy stamps for our postcards.
JB found an internet place where he could get 1 hour for 5€ so he was happy to sort though 147 emails received in a week. Why is there so much junk in my mail box offering to sell me stuff to make parts of my body bigger. Have they been peeping ? Sue decided to go off on an excursion organised by the ship around the inner sections of the Island. As there was no air conditioning or interpreter on the little bus JB chickened out and made his way back to the Saga Ruby for a BBQ lunch and a rest….

More from Sue on her return
We drove at some speed round the north of the island and yes there was a guide, a very attractive young man who explained all about the ylang ylang ( no it does not have a doubtful meaning!) and had lived for some time in Paris. Why on earth anyone would want to return to Mayotte from Paris is beyond me.

I have never seen such extreme poverty at close hand, the inhabitants live in tiny corrugated shacks, animals roam around the streets and there is rubbish everywhere. He explained that people have no environmental conscience so everywhere is littered with debris. We stopped briefly at a couple of viewpoints and yes the views were pretty but the litter of cans and paper was very off-putting.

We drove to a very scruffy beach bar where I was relieved to see that all the drinks were in cans. The sand was dark volcanic and I was not tempted to have a swim.
So that’s Mayotte, I don’t suppose we’ll ever come this way again and I for one will not be sorry!

At Last some pictures




Here are a few to amuse you

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