It was funny sailing into Darwin Port; I got up about 5.30 so that I
wouldn’t miss anything. I was surprised
at my emotions, I thought that I didn’t like Darwin but the intensity of my
feeling surprised me. Guess when you
think of it I have spent over 30 years of my life there with John and the
children and have many fantastic memories and seen a lot of changes. OK, enough of that mushy stuff!
Most of the passengers had disembarked by 8am. I was impressed how professional everything
was. The Darwin Port Association had
locals providing information, the Princess had shuttle busses waiting and it
seems that happens in most Ports for a cost of $14 for the day. I hadn’t seen Forts Hill Wharf and it is very
impressive.
Tonya picked me up and I spent a nice day home and of course did my
washing. Tonya dropped me off about 1520 and due to a bus being delayed we
sailed out of Darwin at 1610. It was a
fantastic sight watching Darwin disappear and the sun setting. It was amazing how any jelly fish were in the
water and they were all heading towards Darwin!!
We were told that we are only allowed to bring on board, one bottle of
wine or 6 cans of beer per person and definitely no spirits. It seems the
experienced travellers ignore this rule in Darwin; they bought on ‘heaps’.
It is tradition to have a ‘sail-a-way’ party and the group of travellers
I have teamed up have found a quiet place tucked away at the rear of the boat
and we had our own farewell party.
We now have 4 days at sea until we reach Singapore. We cross the equator just before we reach
Singapore. Not sure if we have a special
event to recognise the first time crossing the equator. The people at my table just smile when I ask
them what happens.
Wednesday 23 May 0700 Timor Sea – We have travelled 2756Nm from Sydney and we have to
travel 1741Nm to our next Port of Singapore.
Temperature on desk is 27.2 degrees.
Sea conditions – Small wavelets of 1.2 metres. Spent the day eating, playing trivia,
drinking coffee and playing with wooden horses and did I mention eating.
Thursday 24 May 0700 Lombok Sea – We have travelled 3199 Nm from Sydney and we
have to travel 1239 Nm to our next Port
of Singapore. Temperature on desk is
28.7 degrees. Sea conditions – Small
wavelets of 1.2 m. Travelling 18 knots. Spent the day eating, reading, drinking
coffee, eating ice cream, horse racing, playing trivia and did I mention
eating.
Friday 25 May 0700 – Java Sea Sorry, I was sitting in the spa and forgot to
look at the TV in the cabin.
This was a formal night in the dining room and once again everyone looked
fantastic although not a ‘over the top’.
We had lobster on the menu which is our reward for dressing up. The
weather is getting warmer now as we get closer to the Equator. People are lying out in the sun for hours on
end and spending more time in the pools.
Then ice cream stand is doing a great trade, it would be a kid’s dream,
free icecream.
Saturday 26 May 0700. Karimata Straits. We have travelled 4102 Nm from Sydney and we have to travel 346 Nm to our next Port of Singapore. Heading 306.5 Temperature on desk is 29.2
degrees. Sea conditions – Small wavelets
of 1.2 meters. Speeding 17.8 knots.
We all gathered on Deck 14 around the large swimming pool (the 1700
passengers and 800 crew) and King Neptune and
Queen Neptune DD arrived with their entourage along with ‘poly wogs’ who
are Equator Virgins which were made up of 4 prisoners from the passengers and
all the crew members who had not crossed the Equator. After a few speeches the action began with
the Captain being thrown into the pool and then eggs, paint and flour were
thrown over the ‘poly wogs’. It was
controlled mayhem as I understand that it took the crew days to clean up after
a previous trip. I was disappointed that
the passengers were not allowed to be involved but I guess things cannot be
controlled. A ‘crossing the Equator’
certificate was sent to our cabins that night.
One more thing crossed off my ‘bucket list’.
Tomorrow – Singapore.
Sunday 27 May – 0700. Malacca Straits Arrived in Singapore. Departed 5pm.
What a beautiful city to sail into, I was up early and up on the deck to
watch the ship sail in. We docked in a
brand new terminal which had only been opened the day before and we were the
second ship to dock. The terminal was
huge and we had to walk ages to get outside of it.
The whole disembarkation system is very impressive. The Singapore Immigration people come on
board in Darwin and we had to hand in our passports prior to Darwin, the
process is done during the trip and all we have to take when we leave the ship
is our ship card and a photo ID card which is my Driver’s licence. That’s all.
It feels odd not taking the passport, though I never seem to have mine
as it always seems to being processed.
I have teamed up with a lady who is my age and she is really nice and we
have begun to “hang around together’ which is nice as this is a huge ship and a
lot of couples. It would be easy to hide in your cabin with free 24 hour room
service.
Yvonne and I were found having breakfast with the Oranutans in the
Singapore Zoo. There were about 80 of us
leaving the ship and we had a lovely man as our tour guide. The trip was nice, travelling through the
city. It is incredible to hear that when
John and I were first there in 1970 a heap of the island had not been reclaimed
and so much of the island id not exist.
It is a beautiful city and so clean.
We were checked to make sure that we didn’t have any gum and the smokers
were charged a duty fee to bring cigarettes into the country.
We arrived at the Zoo and walked straight through to the Ah Meng
Restaurant and sat down to a huge western/Asian buffet breakfast (great another
meal) and after a few minutes the guests of honour came down and joined
us. There were 4 large monkeys and a
couple of babies. They were well
behaved. The Oranutans have free access
around the zoo and can be seen up in trees all around the areas. It is a lovely zoo and I hoped that we could
have seen the elephant show that John and I had seen when we were there last
but unfortunately we had to leave before it started. We saw some great sights and them we
travelled back to the ship. Passengers asked
to be dropped off at Orchard Road and the Chinese section of Singapore. I went straight back to the ship and had
lunch at about 1500hrs. Lovely day. We went to the back of Deck 11 for the
Sail-a-way party. Spent a quiet night eating and drinking!!
Monday 28 May – 0700. Malacca Straits Arrived in Port Kelang. Malaysia. Departed
7pm.
The ship sailed into port and docked in one of the busiest ports in the
world. It used to be the busiest but has
been over taken by Shanghai. The walk to the Terminal was very long and a lot
of the older passengers found it very difficult. We were allocated our busses and proceeded to
drive into Kelang, the traffic is very well behaved and was only busy a couple
of times. We had morning tea in a
‘typical’ Malay home and this was nice, not a truly normal house I would think,
the yard was full of beautiful orchids and many fruit trees, the house itself
was very big. We spent about an hour
there and then travelled on to see the Blue Mosque which is the biggest Mosque
in the Southern Hemisphere with room for 25,000 men praying. Unfortunately we arrived just before ‘Call to
Prayer’ and could only see it from a distance.
I would have loved to see inside but not this time.
 |
Blue Mosque |
We then travelled back into Kelang and spent a little time in Little
India which was a street in the Indian section of town. I bought a lovely tunic top which when tried
on back on the ship was the right size around the hips but too tight around the
shoulders. I thought that I would have
to call Yvonne to help me out of it as it was really tight and wouldn’t
budge. I also bought some bindi’s. What is a bindi, you ask? Well during a Trivia session a few days ago,
the question was – Where on a women can you find a Bindi? It is a decorative item that is worn on the
forehead. Great day again.Tuesday 29 May – 0800. Malacca Straits. Arrived in Penang. Malaysia. Departed 4pm.
Penang was a nice mixture between old and new. I didn’t really recognise it. John and I and Christopher had been there
almost 40 years ago with his sister Pat and her then husband Ron with their
daughter Tina. The only area I
remembered was a flea market that we had visited. The tour Yvonne and I went on first went to a
‘wet’ market, which was similar to all markets in Asia, a combination of fruit,
vegetables and fish, this one was cleaner and did not smell. We then went to a flea market (the one I had
been to before), we then stopped at another group of shops and I bought a great
shirt and also an exquisite batik shirt.
Our next stop was to visit a Museum and the tour guide gave us 20 minutes
and we should be back on the bus by then.
Yvonne needed to go to the toilet and as all women know there is always
a cue so we had to wait for ages. By the
time we finished there we looked around for a few minutes and then went out to
the bus area to find our bus missing. I
wasn’t impressed as my backpack was still on the bus and my credit cards etc.
were in it. We ended up going back on
another bus and fortunately I found my bag which had been collected by one of
the passengers. We were not impressed as
they did not wait for us and it was disappointing that the other passengers did
not say something. We have made a complaint;
it would be terrible if it had been on the longer 13 hour trips and we would
have found our way home.
I had taken 310 ringgits into Malaysia and only spent 80 ringgits. I really liked Penang and our tour guide said
that there were a lot of Aussie expats living there. You can buy a 4 room apartment for $300,000
AUS. We sailed out of the port at 4pm
and headed out to sea again. Oh dear, another ‘sail-away’ party.Tonight’s theme in the dining room was French. I had escargot, French onion soup and glaze orange duck. Yum.
The ship increased its speed as the Captain was trying to outrun a
storm. It was fantastic, the wave size
increased and the ship started to rock and roll. Loved it.
It was great lying in bed being rocked to sleep.
Wednesday 30 May 0700. Indian Ocean We have travelled 5172 Nm from Sydney and we have to travel 1923 Nm to our next Port of Mumbai. Heading 306.5 Temperature on desk is 28.7
degrees. Sea conditions – sight
swell. Speeding 20.3 knots. Tonight’s
theme in the dining room was Italian. The Chef cooked pasta in the centre of
the room and everyone had some. The
waiters dressed up in Italian costumes.
Good fun.
Thursday 31 May 0700. Indian Ocean. We have travelled 5598 Nm from Sydney and we have to travel 2133 Nm to our next Port of Mumbai. Heading 272.3 Temperature on desk is 28.8
degrees. Sea conditions –. Speeding 17.7 knots. Wind speed across the deck 48.6.
I was sitting in my bed this morning about 7am when the phone rang and a
voice told me to evacuate my room and go down to my designated muster area
which is 3 decks down. I quickly grabbed
a sarong and threw on some undies and took off down the back stairs, straight
into strong winds and some light rain. I
went into the muster room and found only a few people there. I went to find someone in authority and
couldn’t find anyone, so I rang reception to be told that a fire alarm had been
set off by mistake and that it was OK to return to our cabins.
1000 hours found us all locked in our cabins as the ship practiced Piracy
drill. It seems that we are now entering
pirate seas and the ship has to be prepared.
It seems that there are special screens that they erect to stop pirates
from entering the ships side and as the ship is so high this also provides
security. There is a huge water gun at
the rear of the ship which is also used to repel rebels. The passengers have to stay in their cabins
and the ones lucky enough to have balconies have to close them. People like me who live in caves in the
middle of the ship are OK. The whole
exercise only took a few minutes.
I am now a horse owner. We have
formed a syndicate of 12 and bought a wooden race horse for $140 to be run in
the Princess Melbourne Cup. We have to
name it, carry it around for the next 2 days to protect it from sabotage. I am the jockey and we have the chance to win
$900. Lot of fun as everyone seems to
enjoy getting involved.
Friday 1 June 0700. Lakshadweep Sea.
We have travelled 6040 Nm from
Sydney and we have to travel 1053 Nm to
our next Port of Mumbai. Heading 269.4
Temperature on desk is 27 degrees.
Speeding 19.9 knots. Wind speed
22.7 knots across the deck.
Indian immigration had come aboard the ship in Penang and we had to line
up this morning for about 1½ hours to have 3 bits of paper stamped. There are a lot of unhappy people on
board. We were told that we would not be
able to board the ship without an Indian visa and it seemed that 50 people had
done so and initially they were told that they would have to leave the ship in
Penang and meet it again in Dubai but in the end nothing happened to the
passengers who refused to get the visa.
A lot of people paid out $110 with no intention of leaving the ship.
I must admit I was disappointed when I found out that we were not going
to see the Taj Mahal as the ship is docking too far away. Oh well, it gives me a reason to come back to
India.
We had a tropical night tonight theme for dinner and we had a party on
the top deck though the sea was a little rough still. We had a conga line
dancing around the deck over 300 people.
The entertainment staff does a great job, the music was aimed at our age
group. Most of the waiters are from
Thailand and as the evening drew to an end they started to dance and boy did
they have rhythm!!
Saturday 2 June 0700 We have travelled 6523 Nm from Sydney
and we have to travel 533 Nm to our next
Port of Mumbai. Heading 349.5
Temperature on desk is 28.7 degrees.
Speeding 19.9 knots. Wind speed
20 knots across the deck.
The ship is just like being at a scout jamboree with rumours flying
around with great speed and very little accuracy. So far it seems that we have had 5 people
die, a troop of trained Gurka’s to keep the pirates away to mention just a few.
Princess Melbourne Cup Race. What a great activity. The entertainment crew had decorated an area in the Vista Lounge for the owners of the horses and we were plied with free champagne. The owners came along dressed in hats, long dresses and the men in shirts and ties and we even had a Sheik. The horses had been decorated and all had racing history which had to be read out. Our horse was ridden by Dodgie Doidge. Unfortunately we didn’t win but I know that we will be buying a horse on the next section where we will be running Royal Ascot.
Sunday 3 June 0700 Arabia Sea We have travelled 6978.9 Nm from Sydney and we have to travel 27 Nm to
our next Port of Mumbai. Heading 324.1
Temperature on desk is 29.1 degrees.
Speeding 19.9 knots. Wind speed
21.7 knots across the deck.
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