Author: walkerjanem

Sunday, December 15, 2024 – Our near perfect visit to India ran into a snag today. Mr. Subhesh picked us up at the hotel alone as Mukesh was not going to accompany us to the airport. The plan was to visit some Krishna temples in Vrindavan. A local guide was to meet us there to show us the temples. We get to the meeting spot and there are 4 guys standing there. A few minutes later, one introduces himself as our guide, and we stand a few more minutes. Then he motions for us to get into a tuktuk.

The three of us ride in the back of the tuktuk, and the guide tells us two or three things about Krishna’s. Most of the time we are riding in silence. We ride over some very rough roads for about 10-15 minutes and stop at what appears to be an intersection with no temples in sight. The guide gets out, and a bit later motions for us to get out. Then he asks Dave if he has 200 rupees (about $2.25) to give to the tuk tuk driver.  As Dave questions him saying everything is suppose to be paid for, I emerge from the tuktuk and immediately feel wetness on my cheek. A woman has come up from behind me and stamped my face with a yellow substance. I am not happy and the lady looks like she has more paint to put on my face and Dave steps between us to protect me. Meanwhile our guide is doing nothing and says, “she’s uneducated” but does nothing. At that point I said I was done and to take us back to our driver and Dave forcibly concurs. So we all hop back in the tuktuk, and in 5 minutes we are back at the parking lot Mr. Subhesh got on the phone with Mukesh and Mukesh spoke to me and I assured him we were OK, as I was not injured, just very uncomfortable with the situation.

In my opinion, this local Vrindavan guide should have explained what we were doing, how far, how long, and how to avoid uneducated women. He just gave us a couple of orders (get in tuk tuk and get out of tuk tuk) and I felt he was keeping us in the dark. We were uncomfortable from the beginning.

The good news is we got back in the car with Mr, Subhesh and he brought us to the airport. He is a very kind man and even gave us hugs as we left. 

I told Dave that if our guide upon arrival would have been like the Vrindavan guide, our trip would have been a whole lot different. We probably would have bailed on day 1. 

So we arrived at the airport about 2:00PM and our flight is not until 11:55PM. We couldn’t check our bags until about 8:00PM, so we hung out in the outer part of the airport where there’s not much to choose from. We did get a sandwich from a coffee vendor.

We landed in Tampa at 11:10 AM and then drove home in our rental car. We were in airports for about 32 hours, and traveling for about 42 hours including our drive (and tuk tuk ride) from Agra to Delhi and Tampa to Englewood.

It was a near fabulous trip with the exception of our last day ☹️.

Saturday, December 14, 2024 – Today is the icing on the cake – we visited the Taj Mahal. It is a UNESCO site and one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

It is indescribable. It is built out of white marble with inlays of precious stones to make flowers and designs. The stones are cut and polished, then inlaid into the marble. The intricate designs are so fine that not even a magnifying glass reveals the breaks between the stones, yet a single 1-inch flower can have 60 pieces. The finished product is so smooth you would think it is painted. But when the sun hits the temple, you can see the glitter and shine. The white marble is from India and is translucent. It is not porous, so it does not stain. To look at it is mesmerizing. I feel so fortunate that we were actually able to visit the grounds and go inside the building. 

It was built by Shah Jahan for his third and favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, which means the Jewel of the Palace. It took 17 years to build the Taj Mahal, starting in 1632, and 5 more years to finish the surrounding grounds. The legend is she asked him to build a monument so beautiful that the world would never forget their love. She died after giving birth to their 13th child. Our guide said they were only married 17 years, and she had a few miscarriages. 

You enter through a huge sandstone gate on the south side which beautifully frames the Taj Mahal. To the north is a gate which provided access from the Yamuna River that flows behind it. There are English gardens on each side and a waterway that leads up to the tomb. 

Everything is symetrical. On the west side, facing east is a mosque (The Shah and his wife were Muslims), and on the east side is an identical building that our guide said was built for symmetry but later used to house to house foreign dignitaries. 

Inside the mausoleum are the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. They are actually buried below ground in a crypt and above the crypt, at ground level, are two raised structures that look like tombs. Unfortunately no photos are allowed. Her tomb is exactly at the center and he is at her side, which is the only asymmetrical element in the whole complex. The tombs are surrounded by a screen made of marble cut to look like latticework.

We have heard that you have to go at 6:00AM and stand in line for hours. Our guide is from Agra, and suggested he pick us up from the hotel at 9:00AM. I’m not sure what time we arrived at the Taj Mahal. We had to take an extended golf cart people mover from the car park to the entrance. Mukesh got out tickets and covers for our shoes that we would have to wear inside. We walked the grounds, took some pictures and walked up to the Taj Mahal. We walked around the tombs and around outside, but never had to wait. We had a beautiful, sunny day with no clouds. 

It was just a phenomenal visit.

We visited a business that makes marble items and insets stones like those marble at Taj Mahal. We saw samples of the stones that are ground down and they are unbelievably tiny. Supposedly all these workers are descendants of the artisans that did the marble work at the Taj Mahal.

But, we had two more sights to visit.  Next we went to the Agra Fort. This is also a UNESCO site. The word fort is misleading. This huge complex is really a fortified palace with royal apartments. A massive was 1.5 miles long and 69 feet high surrounds the fort. It had a water moat with crocodiles and snakes and a dry moat with wild animals to protect the occupants inside.

It was originally a brick fort and used by earlier emporer including Humayun (we visited his tomb in Delhi), his son Akbar, Akbar’s son Jahangir, and Akbar’s grandson Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal).

We saw the Royal bedroom, and on each side was smaller palaces built for two daughters. There were designs carved from red sandstone and marble, but nowhere near as intricate or beautiful as the Taj Mahal.

Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb,who was the third son and not in line to succeed his father, killed his brothers and confined his father to house arrest until his father’s death. While confined, Shah Jahan had clear views of the Taj Mahal containing the tomb of his wife. When Shah Jahan died, he was buried next to his wife at the Taj Mahal. 

The last site we visited was nicknamed the Baby Taj. It’s real name is “Itimad-ud-Daulah’s Tomb. Jahangir’s (Akbar’s son) favorite wife built this small tomb for her father, Mizraim Ghiyas Beg, who was later known as Itimad-ud-Daulah.  Itimad-ud-Daulah was also the grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of emporer Shah Jahan, for whom the Taj Mahal was built. This tomb was built before the Taj Mahal, but included intricate marble inlay. It was very likely the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.

The tombs of Itimad-ud-Daulah, and his wife are in the center. Other relations are entombed in corner rooms.

Mukesh always wants to take our picture. Occasionally we comply.

It is a beautiful building on well maintained grounds, but much smaller than the Taj Mahal.

It is late in the afternoon, I think about 3:30, and we go to lunch.  Mukesh helps me order an Indian entree and gives me a sample of his chickpea dish. Dave played it safe with fried fish. 

At my request we stopped at a souvenir shop to buy a couple of postcards and a book on Agra, Delhi, and Jaipur which Dave and I like to keep in our little library.

We are back at the hotel, reviewing our clothing for our travel to Delhi and long flight home. We are suppose to visit a temple complex on the way to Delhi, but we said goodbye to Mukesh.

Friday, December 13, 2024 – We left Ranthambhore to drive to Agra, which is a 6 hour drive. On the way, our guide, Mukesh said he stops at a cow pen to feed the cows. These are cows that have been let loose by their owners as they no longer produce milk. They have been rounded up and placed in this cow pen. There are ladies there who have bought cow feed from farmers, and then they sell the feed so people can feed the cows. At first, I was kinda like, I’ve lived on a farm, and then I thought why not. Mukesh had already bought the feed from an older lady and he shared some of the cow feed with me. So I fed the cows! 

We continued on our drive and stopped at at Fatehpur Sikri, a city built in red sandstone by Emperor Akbar, and a UNESCO site. The story Mukesh told us was that Abkar did not have an heir. He had three wives, a Christian, a Muslim and a Hindu, and several concubines, but an heir had to be a son from one of his three wives. Akbar sought the advice of a religious man who predicted the birth of a son. Soon, his Hindu wife gave birth to a son and became his favorite wife. Akbar moved his capital from Agra and to Fatehpur Sikri in 1571 and built his compound there in 1574 to be closer to the religious man. Fatehpur Sikri is an enormous compound. The outer area is where he would hold public audiences.

Then you enter into the Royal area and saw where Akbar would meet with his advisors. He sat on top of a platform, and the advisors would meet him up there. 

We saw the treasury where the valuables were kept inside concealed openings 8”x8”, and then very deep all around the room.  The astronomer sat outside the treasury in his own area.

We saw the rooms for the wives. The Muslim wife’s room had a lot of intricate detail carved into the sandstone that made it look like wood.

We saw Akbar’s bedroom. The bed was elevated about 10 feet off the ground and was more than king size! 

Outside his bedroom was a water feature with a platform in the middle where musicians would play for Akbar while he sat on his balcony.

Christian wife had paintings on the wall. This is an example of elephants.

The favorite wife that produced an heir basically had a castle of her own with a summer room and a winter room. Since she was Hindu, she had her own temple.

Mukesh showed us squares on the ground where the king would play a game he called Parchese with his concubines to see which one(s) he would sleep with that night. 

Akbar abandoned the site in 1585, and the city was totally abandoned in 1610. 

Leaving Fatehpur Sikri, we stopped for a quick bite to eat, and ate at their buffet. Mukesh said the food was bland for tourists and had them spice stuff up for him.

Then we proceeded to Agra where we are spending the night and tomorrow we go to the Taj Mahal.

Thursday, December 12, 2024 – We were scheduled to have a morning Safari, but we were so cold when we came back from our evening Safari, we cancelled the morning one. The morning one is colder than the evening one. We never expected it to be so cold (40°) in India and we just did not bring warm enough clothes.
We had a nice leisurely breakfast and relaxed for the morning.

For the afternoon Safari today, we layered on as many clothes as we could, and the hotel will provide blankets (we didn’t know that yesterday).

So we relaxed in the morning, grabbed a quick cheese sandwich with French fries for lunch. The French fries were really good! Then we met our guide and driver at 1:30pm who took us to meet our jeep. The jeep is called a gypsy. They also do tours in a 20 passenger bus called a canter. The jeeps/gypsy is different than other safari vehicles we’ve been in in that it is 2 rows of seats with 3 people in each row. Each jeep has a driver and a naturalist.

After we get in our jeep, on our way driving to the park, we see these kids running and then climbing on top of a bus. We figure it’s school kids hitching a free ride on a city bus. The bus does not stop for them…they run and grab the ladder while the bus is moving!

Unfortunately, we did not see any tigers yesterday or today. But we did see some animals.

The last animal we saw was a sloth bear which is pretty rare.

We also saw antelope but could not get a decent picture.

The jeep driver and naturalist at the end of our Safari claimed to see 3 leopards, but none of the six of us in the jeep could spot them ☹️. 

The driver took us back to our hotel, and we enjoyed a hot cup of tea and some cookies in the pool area of our hotel when we returned.

After getting warmed up and rested, we went to dinner.

I enjoyed some vegetarian hot and sour soup, chicken with pepper entree and a lamb entree (it was served buffet style). I have been enjoying some Indian dishes, some not do much. But I like spicy food, so generally if it has chicken or lamb, I’ll try it. Dave is not as adventurous as me, but has found most of the restaurants serve fish and chips. So he will order that if there’s nothing on the buffet that interests him. We also have found a wine we like, so we enjoyed a bottle with dinner. 

I thought I would lose weight in India, but I have been enjoying the food, so I’m sure I put on a few pounds.

Tomorrow we head to Agra.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 – We have a 4 hour drive from Jaipur to Rathambore. We pass some sheep…

And some cows. We have seen many cows in town, on the road, everywhere.

Cows are a sacred animal, but their milk is used. When the cows no longer give milk, they are set loose, but never killed. It is the Hindu religion to feed the cows with the firstfruits, usually bread, every morning. I’m assuming cows and bulls. So even the non producing animals are cared for. We saw people outside the stores feeding the cows.

We arrive at our hotel, The Tigress, and it is very nice.

We were rushed a bit to be ready for our Safari at 1:30, and only had about 20 minutes for lunch. But the restaurant manager was accommodating and made us a cheese sandwich “to go” boxed very nicely with some water and fruit juice.

We did not see any tigers, or many animals. So a few animal photos, plants and views of the landscape. Not positive on plant identifications…

We almost had a better picture of the water buffaloes, but our naturalist guide told us to wait, because he thought he could maneuver them and instead chased them off.

At the end of the Safari, the jeep driver dropped us off at our hotel. Dave and I were frozen to the bone. We were not prepared for it to get so cold when the sun went down. We went to our room and did everything we could to get warm. I was going to take a hot shower, but the water was only “warm”. I guess they don’t have hot water because we asked. After dinner we just crashed under the covers to keep warm.

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 – Unfortunately, Dave and I are both sick!  But we are trudging on. Today is a full day of sightseeing. We start out at 9:00AM. We drive through Jaipur, then old Jaipur. Dave spots some workers on the back of a truck sleeping as they travel to their job. We see three bodies, but the one on the left just has legs showing and the one on the right is totally covered and hard to pick out.

Buildings were originally colored yellow, which can be seen on the back of the buildings. The capital was painted pink (really more of a salmon color) when Prince Albert visited India in the middle of the 19th century. The idea stuck, and by law buildings in the old city must still be painted pink. As a result, Jaipur is commonly referred to as the Pink City. The shops are not chaotic like in new Jaipur or even Delhi. The first stop is a photo stop at the “Palace of Winds”, or Hawa Mahal. It is “Jaipur’s most iconic structure”. It is a five story structure built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Sing as a safe haven for royal women to observe the goings-on of the city. Its prominent feature is its 953 latticed windows that make the palace look like a honeycomb. It was named after the westerly winds that blow through the windows.

In front of the Palace of the winds was a decorative piece made totally our of flower petals, which will die and blow away in a couple of days. Our guide said it was probably for an event to be held here. We saw it just as it was finished.

We continue on into what our guide calls “Ancient Jaipu. We are here to see and tour the “Amber (Amer) Fort and Palace”.

It is a 4 story complex with a maze of halls and rooms, constructed with a mix of red sandstone and white marble, any of which are adorned with intricate mirror work and frescos.

It was began in 1592 by Raja Man Singh and Mira Raja Singh and Sawai Jai Singh continued the construction over 125 years. You can ride an elephant up to the front gate, but our driver drove us up a back way. The elephants are well cared for. They only make 3 trips a day, and then go back to their “elephant village”. The elephants were painted and decorated. 

Some consider using the elephants as abusive. I felt better knowing they were limited to 3 trips, but we were driven to the moon entrance, so really, the elephants are not required.

Inside the palace are elaborate carved decorations, latticework to allow airflow but still provide viewing outside. One area was totally  decorated with tiny mirrors imbedded into the walls and ceiling to reflect the light. It was beautiful.

It is impossible for me to remember all the details and all the rooms. We saw a “squattie pottie” and bathtub which the guide said was for the ladies. 

Leaving the Amber Fort, we drove to the water palace for a photo stop. This palace is located in the middle of a lake with views of mountains in the distance. It must have been a wonderful place to go when it was hot outside, as it gets very hot in the summer.

Next we visited the City Museum which is attached to another palace.

One courtyard had four doors, each decorated for a different season.

Inside the city museum were suppose to be two large silver urns, except one was on loan to a museum in Houston, Texas. Somehow we did not get a picture, so this picture was downloaded from the internet.

The story behind these two urns was the king was invited to a coronation of a king in England, but because of his religion, he needed water from the Ganges River for his long journey. So the two large silver urns filled with Ganges River traveled with him for his use.

Also in the city museum area but different rooms was a textile museum and a weapons museum. Pictures were not allowed in these rooms. 

The weapons room displays the Royal collection of arms and armor, including swords, shields, axes, bows and arrows, daggers, chain armor, fire, arms, and gunpowder containers.

The most interesting things I saw were the pajamas and robe for one of the maharajas. The pajamas were HUGE! The waistband had to be at least 12 feet around. The robe was like a tent. The man had to be massive! I wish I had a picture because it was unbelievable!

The Jantar Mantar is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur, Rajasthan. The monument was completed in 1734. It features the world’s largest stone sundial, and is a UNESCO site. The instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye.

Horoscopes are very important in India, using the time, date and location of birth. Our guide said in arranged marriages the astrological signs are used in making matches.

After visiting the observatory we went to a store that did printed fabrics. I had told Mukhest that I might need a sweatshirt for the Safaris on Wednesday and Thursday, but I don’t think he understood what I was looking for. It was an interesting visit though. A young woman illustrated different stamps in how to produce a finished product on fabric. We entered the store and sat through a demonstration of all the different things they produce and even saw a young man trying on a new suit jacket made for him. If you order something today, they deliver it tomorrow morning!

We were pretty exhausted and returned to the hotel. The hotel is very nice, and there is an Indian wedding going on.

But there were issues…

We went to dinner, and Dave ordered a fried fish dish which turned out to be very nice fried fish with French fries. I ordered hot and sour soup and a chicken entree. After about 30 minutes, I got my soup. After I finished my soup, 10 minutes or more later, Dave got his fish dish, and ate it while it was warm. My chicken entree never came!!! Then, the next morning, the coffee machine was broken and I could not get any coffee! 

The issues were minor overall, and with the wedding going on, I’m sure the staff was very busy.

Tomorrow morning we have a 4 hour drive to Rathambore National Park for our tiger safaris.

Monday, December 9, 2024 – Not a very active day. We drove from Delhi to Jaipur, leaving at 9:00AM and arriving 3:00PM. We made one stop about mid-wat to use the bathroom and grab some snacks. There was a store, and we picked out some flavored popped lotus seeds, and noticed a rat in the store! Yikes!

The bags are sealed, so we felt they were safe. Then we went next door to the restaurant, which had very limited options. We ended up ordering grilled cheese sandwiches. While we were waiting, we saw a mouse run across the floor. Dave and I are eyeing each other…but we ate the grilled cheese. There were other Indian people in the restaurant, so we felt it couldn’t be that bad….

We arrived in Jaipur at 3:00PM. We had a visit to the Galta Ji Temple in our itinerary, which is a monkey temple. We have previously visited monkey temples, and experienced monkeys at Gibraltar. We opted out of visiting the monkey temple because the monkeys can jump on you and they can bite! 

So we decided to check into our hotel, rest a little while and meet up with our guide at 4:15PM. We had quite a welcome! Apparently there is a wedding at the hotel and they thought we were wedding guests when we arrived.

We met our guide at 4:25PM and he took us to an all white marble Hindu temple. On the way, we passed an old, abandoned fort up on a hill.

He is Hindu and has been telling us a lot of information about the Hindu religion. The name of the temple is the BirlaTemple, dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi, two Hindu Gods. This temple, made entirely of white marble, showcases intricate carvings and Hindu scenes. Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi are exquisitely dressed in the front of the temple. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside. There are some stained glass windows with Hindu Gods and Goddesses, too. Our guide says Hindu’s are respectful of all religions and shows us carved figures on the columns outside the temple. All these images are part of the Hindu temple.

The Birla Temple was built by a very wealthy Indian family named Birla. They have built several other temples in other cities as well. 

Very close by are two other Hindu temples which are not as elaborate. Mukesh took us to one of the temples that is dedicated to Ganesha, and looks like an elephant. The elephant was dressed. Each God and Goddess has a conveyance (vehicle) they ride. Ganesha, the elephant, rides a mouse! This temple is much smaller than the Birla Temple.

After visiting the two temples, we returned to the hotel. We stopped in the bar for a glass of wine, but their options were very limited. We ended up sharing one glass of red wine. 

We had dinner in the hotel – it seems our hotels are not close to other options, but we probably would rather eat and get some extra rest anyway.

Tomorrow we tour Jaipur.

Sunday, December 8, 2024: Lots of pictures today!

We are in Delhi and will meet our tour guide at 9:00 AM. Last night was exciting because we could not figure out how to turn the lights off in our room. We were both very tired and tried every switch we could find. Finally we had to call the front desk to ask for help. I was already in my pajamas, so I got in bed and covered up. After what seemed like a long wait – probably 15 minutes – someone came and showed us a panel that we thought was just the clock, and turned our lights out!

This morning we went to breakfast and was not sure what most of the options were. Dave found some cold cuts and cheese which seemed to be okay for him. I found some bacon, pastries and fruit. Then I tried to get coffee. I could not figure out the coffee machine, so I asked for help and thought I watched closely enough that I could get a second cup on my own. Long story short, I still had trouble and ended up dropping whatever was in my cup on the floor making a mess. A kind waitress told me not to worry, and asked what I wanted. She went somewhere (she didn’t use the machine either) and brought me a cup of coffee. Not a good start to the morning.

A little before 9:00, we went to the lobby to check out and meet our guide. He spotted me immediately – I guess I was the only American woman getting off the elevator. His name is Mukesh and I was immediately relieved because he spoke English very well and we could understand him! Our driver is Mr. Subhesh. Our car is a small SUV, but roomy enough for all four of us and our luggage.

As we start driving, Mukesh tells us a little about himself and that he has guided Obama, Nancy Pelosi, several US Senators and he is a tourist guide for the US Embassy. He was suppose to guide Trump, but they did not give him the exact date of Trump’s visit and it ended up he had a conflict. So with those high level clients, I’m feeling much more comfortable with our guide and driver. Mukesh is very personable, knowledgeable, easy to talk to and welcomes questions. 

He tells us the original name of Delhi was Dilli, but the British changed it to Delhi.

Even though it’s Sunday, traffic is atrocious. Our guide says it is much lighter than normal because it’s Sunday.

We drove to Old Delhi, also known as Shahjahanabad.  It was founded as a walled city by Shah Jahan in 1648 when he decided to move the capital from Agra to Mughal India. It remained the capital of Mughal India until 1857 when the British Empire took over. Google says Mughals is also spelled Mogul or Moghul, and is the Indo-Persian form of Mongol. Here we visited the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India. It was built by Shah Jahan between 1644 and 1656. It is still an active mosque and can hold 20,000 people. 

Next we took a rickshaw ride. One guy on a bicycle hauled Dave and I around Old Delhi. We ride through narrow alleys which are lined with shops, called Chandni Chowk market. Most are closed because it’s Sunday, but a few are open. We spotted a couple of monkeys near the roofline of a couple of buildings. Vendors are selling street food and everything else.

We stop for a short walking tour and Mukesh points out a wholesale flower market, shops selling “popped lotus seeds” which looks like popcorn, nuts and spices. We stop in one shop selling spices and not only do they have every kind of spice, the make spice mixtures and they package it so tourists can buy it and bring it home. I bought a mixture that’s suppose to be good on potatoes.

We walked back to our rickshaws and were taken back to our starting point which was near the mosque.

Our next stop is the memorial to Mahatma Ghandi which is the spot where he was cremated. Mahatma Ghandi is called the father of the nation. So this is where we began to connect more with Mukesh. In the 1940’s, the Muslims demanded a separate homeland. In 1947, Britain granted independence with Hindus staying in India and Muslims moving to Pakistan. Apparently Ghandi allowed Muslims to stay in India instead of moving to Pakistani. This is probably what caused Ghandi to be assassinated. Mukesh said Muslims have many wives and therefore have multiplied more rapidly than the Hindus (Mukesh is Hindu) and now want to change the rules so everyone has to conform to the Islam religion because they are becoming the majority. More on this when we reach our last stop today. Whether you agree with Ghandi or not, it is interesting to me how one man can make such an impact on the world. 

We had photo “drive-bys” to see the Parliament House, the President’s House, and the India Gate.

The India Gate is a war memorial to the Indian soldiers who died in WWI. Another memorial is nearby honoring soldiers who died in a later war.

Next we visited Humayun’s Tomb. It was the first garden tomb in India and declared a UNESCO site, commissioned by his wife in 1558. There are many other tombs at this site, I believe over 100. The surrounding gardens are very peaceful and it was interesting to look at the tombs. Tombs of women had one design or symbol and the men had what our guide called a pencil box. One tomb had no design because apparently it was an eunuch. 

After visiting Humayun’s tomb, it was about 2:00, so we had a lunch break. It was a restaurant mainly for foreign tourists. Dave had chicken fingers that came with French fries. I had chicken and vegetable lasagna which was more like a chicken stew with some pasta, not resembling lasagna at all. But it was tasty, which was the important thing, 

Our last stop was Qutub Minar, another UNESCO site. It is 239 feet tall, making it the tallest minaret in the world built of bricks. It has 5 distinct storey.  The first storey was built by the viceroy Aibak as a victory tower in the late 1100’s. The next three stories were added by his son-in-law and successor but the tower was struck my lightening in 1368AD which knocked off the top storey. The last two stores were added by a Sultan of Delhi (1351-1388) and has some white marble and sandstone as opposed to the red sandstone in the earlier storey’s. 

There are many other ruins on the site of Qutub Minar. Mukesh pointed out the original mosque built here used materials from destroying Hindu temples. He pointed out carved bells on some of the pillars which are representative of the bell rung in Hindu temples. The columns used in the mosque also have carved figures which would not be in a mosque because there can be no representations of human figures in a mosque. We saw this in Istanbul in the Haggai Sophia which used to be a church but was converted to a mosque. All the human figures has been covered with Islamic writings. The mosque was started in 1193 by the same viceroy Aibak.

In this same complex, is an unusual iron pillar. The pillar weighs over 14,300 lbs and was erected around 402AD. It is a curiosity because it is iron and never rusts. There is an inscription on the pillar in Sanskrit, which indicates it is a Hindu relic.

After visiting Qutub Minar, we were driven to our hotel, Lalit Hotel in Delhi.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dave had a salmon kabob and I had lamb rogan josh. We had the same bottle of wine that we had last night. Last night it cost $75, tonight it cost $35!

Saturday, December 7: Leaving the port was hair raising. Out transfer to the airport scheduled for 7:30AM and we have a 1:00PM flight.

Getting out of the port was frustrating. We had to go through the usual routine of showing our paper, meeting the immigration officer face to face, having our hand luggage screened, picking up our luggage (which has become pretty easy to spots with our houndstooth London Fog purchase from the humane society thrift store), finding our correct bus among a mass confusion of buses and finally getting seated. Then our bus could not leave because of the mass of buses in front of us. We probably sat for 20 minutes just waiting for other buses to get out of our way. Finally we are driving to the port exit where a man in a uniform boards the bus to check our stamped paper. Unfortunately, one woman left her paper in her luggage that was loaded under the bus 🤯. I did not have kind thoughts for her. The bus has to back up, park, and they have to unload luggage until they find her bag. She finds it and gets back on the bus. Now there are several cars and buses and taxis in front of us, and butting in front of us, and no one is moving. An hour later….we finally get to the front of the line, the man enters the bus to check our papers, and our bus attendant tells him all the papers are checked, and he believes her and we are finally off to the airport. I would hate to see what my blood pressure was as we sat there for an hour. Although we were told it would take two hours to get to the airport, which is why I was freaking out, it only took about 40 minutes once we were out of the gate. 

On our drive to the airport, we see this water truck out the window. One man is sitting on top, and the other man on the ground is brushing his teeth!

The Mumbai airport seems pretty normal, our only issue is understanding the announcements. Indian English is different  from American English. Just as it is getting close to boarding time, gate gets changed, and thankfully Allison brings it to our attention. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t have noticed. 

We walk to the new gate, and they are making announcements we can’t understand. We can tell boarding has started, but I cant tell when it is our turn. Dave finally says that’s us, and we board.

Our seats are near the back of the plane – good for when we need to use the restroom! Of course we cannot take off right away, so we sit and wait on the plane. I think we finally left about 40 minutes late, but the pilot picked up a few minutes as we landed about 3:30 instead of 3:00. 

We get our luggage and I emailed the Radisson Blu to see if they have a shuttle. They said they’d send a salon car for us. They did, but there was a lot of back and forth on WhatsApp trying to locate one another. I was having a hard time understanding Indian-English, and so was Dave. Finally I asked a guy sitting on a bench if he would translate for us, and he must have directed the driver because he came walking up the sidewalk. It was a good ride from the airport to the hotel, a lot further that what we thought. It is crazy how they drive! It is truly unbelievable. It is amazing there aren’t more accidents. Finally we arrive at the hotel about 5:00PM. They scanned our luggage before we entered the hotel, Dave and I had to walk through an airport like scanner, plus, a woman wanded me and a man wanded Dave! This was just to get into the hotel!!! 

After we get our luggage and try to reorganize a bit, we decide to try to find some food. The first place we went to is called New York deli, and it was a huge buffet with everything except American food. We said we were looking for something lighter, so the hostess wanted to walk us to the Asian restaurant. Actually she insisted, but turned us over to another guide. She took us to the Asian restaurant, and it looked good, but we wanted to see if there were other options. So they walked us to the bar. The bar guy really tried to keep us there even though we didn’t like his menu. We told him we were going back to the Asian food, and he said we could order the Asian food in the bar and they’d bring it. We kept saying mom, so finally he turned us over to someone who walked us back to the Asian restaurant. We had a nice meal, but it was crazy like they didn’t want us walking around alone.

I had some won tons and lamb chops, Dave had Chicken Kung Pao, but aI didn’t get a picture of his food.

We also had a bottle of Indian wine that was very good!

There is a big Christmas tree in the lobby of the Radisson Blu.

After our long day traveling, we are ready for bed! 

Itinerary

12/7/2024 – Fly from Mumbai (Bombay) to Delhi

12/8/2024 – Delhi Sightseeing

12/9/2024 – Delhi to Jaipur

12/10/2024 – Jaipur sightseeing

12/11/2024 – Jaipur to Ranthambhore National Park

12/12/2024 – Ranthambhore National Park

12/13/2024 – Ranthambhore National Park to Fatehpur Sikri to Agra

12/14/2024 – Agra sightseeing

12/15/2024 – Agra to Vrindavan to Delhi late flight home

12/16/2024 – Arrive Tampa

Hotels:

**Radisson Blu, Delhi Airport**
07-08 December 2024 (1 night)

** The Lalit, Delhi **

08–09 December 2024 (1 night)

Room Type: Deluxe Room

** The Lalit, Jaipur **

09–11 December 2024 (2 nights)

Room Type: Deluxe Room

** The Tigress, Ranthambore **

11–13 December 2024 (2 nights)

Room Type: Royal Luxury Suite

** Courtyard by Marriott, Agra **

13–15 December 2024 (2 nights)

Room Type: Deluxe Room

Friday, December 6, 2024 – Last evening I went to the Production Show, “On Broadway”, which was very good. They sang many song from the famous musical shows, so I enjoyed it very much. Dave went to the casino to rescue some of our unrefundable onboard credits. But he is still coughing and did not go to dinner with me to spare fellow diners from his germs.

We are in Mumbai today and overnight, but we disembark very early Saturday morning. Dave is feeling better, but still coughing, so I was on my own again today. As we leave the ship, we have ladies in costume dining and dancing for us again today. 

Then we go through the ridiculous immigration process, which I won’t repeat, but the same as yesterday.

We met our lady guide, and I believe there’s only 18 in our group today, which I think would be a more manageable size. We are going to have a lot of photo stops today.

Mumbai, Bombay, etc, etc…again, not only Mumbai, but streets, train stations, etc. have multiple names, and multiple reasons I guess. But it seems both names for many of these are still used and as a tourist, using an old name or new name will get you to your destination.

Our first stop is the Gateway of India, which is in a massive plaza filled with people. The Gateway of India is an arch-monument completed in 1924 on the waterfront.  It was erected to commemorate the landing of George V his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911. He was the first British monarch to visit India. After its construction, the Gateway was used as a symbolic ceremonial entrance to India for important government personnel. The Gateway is also the monument from where the last British troops left in 1948, following Indian independence a year earlier. 

The next stop was the Rajabai clock tower on the campus of Bombay University. A wealthy broker that founder the Bombay Stock Exchange contributed to the cost of building the tower with the condition it be named after his mother, Rajabai. She was blind and a staunch follower of the Jain religion, so she was suppose to consume her evening meal before evening. The bell on the clock tower allowed her to know when evening was approaching without anyone’s help. I like it when the guide tells these little stories about places we visit.

We made a photo stop at Victoria Station. I have not seen the movie “Slum Dog Millionaire”, but apparently one scene is filmed here. Victoria Station (also known as Victoria Terminus, VT), was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus …see his statue above) in 2017. Not sure why they chose the name Chhatrapati Shivaji, but he was a 17th century warrior king and Maharaj means great king, emporer. Confession – my photo is not very good.

Our next stop is to see Dabbawallas ( with white hats) responsible for lunchbox delivery. The lunchboxes are picked up from homes in the morning and then using trains or bicycles taken to a sorting place. Then they are put back on the train and dropped off at the appropriate station where another Dabbawallas meets the train and delivers the lunches. The empty boxes are picked up and returned in a similar manner to the homes. This system started in the late 1800’s where migrants were moving to Bombay. They were used to eating their own home cooked meals, but left early in the morning. So this meal delivery system was developed so they would have their own home cooked meal for lunch.

We walked to the Churchgate train station and boarded a train.

There are certain cars for ladies only.

We used a train car with no restrictions. It was interesting to get a little ride, but fortunately due to the time of day, and a holiday in Mumbai, the train was not very crowded. The doors on the train cars did not close, but at least we got a nice breeze.

We exited at Mahalaxmi station to see Dhabi Ghat.

Dhabi Ghat, the city’s 140 year old, open air laundromat. It is a chaotic scene as 100,000 articles of clothing are washed, sorted, ironed and hung out to dry each day by 7,000 workers. The guide told me it takes 3 or 4 days to get your clothes back, but you can pay for faster service.Hospitals and hotels use their services as well as people. It was recognized by Guinness Book of World Records in 2011 for most people washing clothes in a single location. Bollywood producers have used the location to make movies. I had to take multiple pictures of this – it is unbelievable!

While waiting for our bus, I spotted the lady cashing a box on her head.

And another lady with a basket on her head.

I did see a couple of cows, which really seems out of place in an urban location, but was not quick enough to snap a photo. Our guide said lots of times you see cows outside temples.

Traffic is unbelievable. There are no lines to designate lanes, and there are cars, buses and motorbikes cutting in and out of traffic. It is crazy to watch. Probably no a surprise that there’s a lot of honking going on. More surprising is the cars do not show signs of collisions or crashes. Pretty much all the cars had good bodies.

We drove by a golf course on the way to Mahatma Ghandi’s house.

A representation of his bedroom was in one room.

One room was filled with photographs, as well as photographs lining all the walls. One room was filmed with dioramas of Mahatma Ghandi’s life.

Several rooms were filled with books and it appears to be a place for research. 

Our last stop was the requisite stop at a shop. The problem was all the merchandise was high end and I don’t think anyone is going to drop big bucks at a 10 minute stop. Other Celebrity tours stopped, too. It would make more sense to stop at a souvenir shop where it would be more likely for someone to buy something.

We had to get our packing done, but we managed to go to one lounge and listen to some music. Tomorrow we fly to Delhi, so this is the last post for the cruise portion of our trip.

Thursday, December 5, 2024 -We are in Goa, India today. Dave seems to have picked up a bug so I’m on my own. That means my photos won’t be as good as when he’s with me. 

This is our view as we are docking.

Our group leaves the ship about 7:45AM and of course we need to go through immigration. First someone who looks like a soldier checks my stamped paper – I think this is kind of an arrival card. Then a face to face with an immigration officer in a booth, then documentation checked as we leave the building. Thinking we were done, but oh no… someone who looks like a soldier walked through the bus before we leave the terminal and checks that stamped paper – arrival card. Finally, we are on our way to our first stop.

We get off bus in kinda a sketchy area that looks like a homeless camp.

We  continue walking, and fortunately Dave is not with me, because crossing streets is an adventure, and he is very cautious when he crosses a street. It felt like you just step out in front of traffic (mostly motor bikes but some cars and buses too) and they either stop, swerve around you at the last minute, or hit you. The good news is I didn’t get hit. We arrive at our first sight which is actually three churches. We are visiting during the 18th Exposition of the Sacred Relics of St. Francis Xavier (April 7, 1506 – December 3, 1552). He was elevated to the status of a saint, and one of the reasons was his body did not disintegrate after his death. Our guide said it remained “fresh”. Normally his body is kept in a silver casket in the “Basilica of the Born Jesus”, but when they have the Expositions, which are held every 10 years, St. Francis Xavier’s relics are put on display. The last Exposition was in November 2014 to January 2015. It seems the dates are in conjunction with his death on December 3, 1552. There are two other buildings that look attached in my photo, but one is a cathedral and the other is a church. 

The Cathedral is Se Cathedral and the main altar is dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria. On the right side of the main altar is a Chapel of the Cross of Miracles, where a vision of Christ is said to have appeared in 1619. It also houses a baptismal font made in 1532 which was used by St. Francis Xavier in order to baptise several Goan converts. I would guess St. Francis Xavier’s relics are on display in the Cathedral. Our guide said the line to see the relics is at least 2 hours long, so we did not see the relics. 

The church is The Church of St. Francis of Assisi, built in 1661 by the Portuguese Franciscan friars.

We could not go into either the church or the cathedral. But we could go into the Basilica of the Born Jesus. Unfortunately photos inside were not allowed. Our guide could not guide us inside, so we were all kind of on our own. It was built between 1594 and 1605. The altar is covered in gold and is very large.

Walking out of the church and into the courtyard is a Nativity Scene. 

I realize it is December, and we have been seeing Christmas decorations everywhere, but I think I need to be home to really feel the Christmas Spirit. 

After walking through the church, I walked down towards a market. Apparently the Catholics and Hindus are both celebrating, so it is a large market. It reminds me of a carnival. They are selling all kinds of things, including shoes! Lots of booths with edibles like nuts and sweet treats that are not familiar to me. I saw a Hindu temple, but did not get a picture.

Walking back to our bus, a bull was laying on a cement island in an intersection. I saw him blink, so I know he was alive. 

We get back on the bus and drive to Panaji or Panjim. Goa is one of 28 states in India and was under Portuguese rule until 1961. Panaji or Panjim is the capital of Goa. Portuguese influences are still strong in architecture, colorful buildings and tiles. Exiting the bus, the first little square we enter is in an area known as Fountainhas, and we are face to face with  St. Sebastian’s Chapel, built in 1818.

We keep walking through the area known as Fountainhas, which has a very European atmosphere, into the area known as Panaji or Panjim. I don’t know why there are two names….maybe I missed something the guide said. But Cochin is also known as Kochi.  On the way we pass a lady carrying a basket on her head! 

We stop at a main street area and our guide gives us free time to wander and shop. At one end of the street is the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church. In 1609, a small chapel was replaced by the present day large church. I tried to walk up to the church but they wouldn’t let me because I was wearing shorts. 

I walked down the street in the other direction, and saw stores with a huge supply of cashew nuts – like 20 50lb bags of nuts! And a lady selling fruit from her blanket on the street. But they would not let me take pictures. I did see a few interesting things and I took a few pictures.

While waiting to reboard the bus back to the ship, I saw a cement marker. I just thought it was an interesting way to mark a gas line.

We passed a statue of Abbe Faria, a catholic priest who was a pioneer of hypnotism. He was born in Goa.

We also walked near Adil Shah’s Palace. The Palace is Panaji´s oldest surviving building, originally built by the Muslim ruler Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur around 1500. I think our guide said it was the oldest building in Goa.

I did not think our tour was very good today, so Dave didn’t miss much. Since he is under the weather, we will probably rest up in our stateroom, hoping he feels better for our Mumbai tour tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 4, 2024 – Sea Day today so we really did not do much! Late morning we had a wine tasting. Dave goes with me, but is not something he would choose.

There was a seafood buffet for lunch, and yes, I ate all of this!

This afternoon we were invited to a senior officers party called “mix and mixology”. We have never been to this type event before. They showed us how to prepare 3 different cocktails, and then served us samples. The first one was a Manhattan and the last one was a Mai Tai- but I didn’t catch the name of the second one. Met the people sitting next to us – Easton and Carla – from Jamacia but moved to Canada. Had a great conversation with Easton while Dave was busy on his phone.

After the Officers event, we went to listen to music in the lounges until dinner time. Tonight was lobster night.

Tomorrow we have a short port call in Goa, India. We have an early shore excursion, meeting at 7:30AM. The ship leaves Goa for Mumbai at 2:00PM.

Tuesday, December 3, 2024 – Today we have a private tour  “Backwaters of Alapuzha onboard Houseboat” with Lijo of Muziris Heritage India Experiences. Allison, Geoffrey, Robert and Natalie will be on the same tour.

There has been an aircraft carrier docked in back of our ship, yesterday and this morning. Don’t know whose it is – maybe India? It was gone when we returned from our tour this afternoon.

We have to go through the ridiculous immigration routine again-show our stamped paper as we enter the immigration building, then face to face with immigration officers, the. Show our stamped paper to exit the immigration building. 

We find our tour right away and he directs us to the bus. When everyone has boarded, our guide boards the bus and informs us it is a 2.5 hour bus ride to get to the riverboats. So it’s 2.5 hour bus ride, 2.5 hours on the houseboat and 2.5 hours back to the ship. If we knew that before we booked, we would not have booked this tour. 

Arriving to where the riverboats are, we have to walk through mud to get to our boat. It is a 4 bedroom boat with en-suite bathrooms…without toilet paper or hand towels. The rooms look pretty nice, given the lack of important amenities in the bathrooms. People can spend the night, and sometimes people spend more than one night. However, the air conditioning is only turned on from 9:00PM until 6:00AM – and it is warm. 

We board our boat about 10:30 AM. We are on a river and the guide said there are 2500 houseboats on this river, all used for tourism. I believe it is the Pamba River. No one lives full time on a riverboat. Going down the river is pleasant, but nothing exciting.

Dave saw a kid swimming across the river, but I missed him because I was checking out the kitchen and trying to find a cooler place on the boat. I was successful, because just in back of where the captain sits is some padded furniture, and a table with padded seats. The real plus is there is a fan which makes it much more comfortable. I went back to get Dave, but by the time we returned, the sofas were taken so we sat at the table with padded seats, and under the fan. 

Lunch was served about 12:00 and of course there was rice, a chicken curry dish, river fish, and some vegetable dishes.

The food was OK, but the river fish had so many bones tgat it was hard to eat. We were offered coffee, tea and pineapple chunks after lunch. I thought the food was good, but Dave had more trouble finding stuff he could eat.

We disembarked about 1:00PM and headed back to the ship, arriving about 2:30PM.

I am putting in some random photos I took while we were driving to show why I used the word chaotic to describe my initial reaction to India.

So far, no one I know of has gotten sick from eating the food!

Same difficult immigration procedures, but fewer people had arrived with us, so it didn’t take too long to at least get in the building.

We went to the show in the theater, “Hollywood Cabaret”, which we enjoyed. Four vocalists from the entertainment cast sang hit songs from musicals and movies.

Then dinner and bed. 

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is our last sea day and we are invited to a wine tasting in the morning (!) and an officers party in the afternoon. 

Monday, December 2, 2024:

We have a ships tour today, but the immigration into India is unbelievable! We had a face to face interview with Indian officials on the ship. Today,we had to go thru immigration again. Not only face to face with officials in their booths, but after that, and before we left the building, we had to show all our documents again! India really has a intense immigration policy! Finally through immigration, we join our bus for our cultural tour of Kochi. 

My initial impression of India, in one word, is chaos. Cochin, India is known by two names. Cochin or Kochi. It sounds like they are moving to call the town Kochi which is more Indian. Cochin is the more European spelling.

We get on our bus for our ships tour, and as we drive, it seems that they build a building, and then never paint it or clean it. So almost all the buildings are covered with streaks of dirt. Dave says it looks like no maintenance. We do not see any houses with manicured front lawns. If there is open space, it is dirt. 

According to our guide, southern India, Kochi, has more freedom than some of the northern states. It sounds like everyone receives an education. Kochi is in the souther part of India. He says girls are not educated in the north and there are more arranged marriages. In the south, like Kochi, it is more welcoming. He said he is Hindu and his wife is Portuguese which is more accepted in Kochi than in the northern India states. 

Our guide is Indian, and he speaks very fast. It is hard to follow what he is saying. It is raining, due to a cyclone a little north of where we are. He says the first people to visit this area were Arabs. 

Originally the top three sources of income were Fishing, tourism and farming. But farming has been replaced by technology. 

There are 28 states in India, and thousands (!) of different languages. In Kerala, where Kochi is located, 50% of the population is Christian. This surprised me, but we are seeing lots of Catholic Churches, more than any other kind of church, temple or synagogue.

Our first stop is the Mattancherry Palace, a former Dutch palace built in the 16th century. It was built around 1545 C.E. by the Portuguese and is currently a museum which houses a collection of decorative Hindu murals, royal palanquins, antique weapons and more. Royal palanquins are carriages which are carried on shoulders of men using poles, and maybe on elephants…but not sure.

Next we visited the16th-century Church of St. Francis, one of the oldest European churches in the country. Originally the burial place of Vasco da Gama. But after fourteen years, his remains were moved to Lisbon. Vasco da Gamma discovered the sea route from Europe to India. The church, originally built by the Portuguese, was a Catholic Church. When the Dutch came to Cochin, they converted the church to a Protestant Church. Then the British came and converted it to an Anglican church, according to our guide.

We visited the Chinese fishing nets which are still in use, and a big tourist attraction. The Chinese fishing nets – Cheenavala in Malayalam – is believed to have been introduced in Kochi by Chinese explorer Zheng He, from the court of the Kubla Khan. The fishing net established itself on the Kochi shores between 1350 and 1450 AD. The Chinese nets, made of teak wood and bamboo poles, work on the principle of balance. Each structure, about 10m high, is fixed on the beach and has a cantilever with an attached net that is  spread over an area of about 20 meters.  Counterweights, usually stones about 30 cm in diameter, tied to ropes of different lengths, facilitate the working of the nets. Often, lights are attached to the teak posts and are suspended above the net to attract fish. 

Each fishing net is operated by more than four fishermen and is made in such a way that the weight of a man walking on the main plank is enough to cause the equipment to be pulled down into the sea. Fishing is usually done in the morning and early evening. The net is descended into the water for a short time and then raised delicately by pulling on the ropes. The slow rhythm and balancing of the net is spellbinding to a first-time viewer.

Then we went to the Paradesi Synagogue, the oldest active synagogue in what was the British Empire. It was built in 1568 for a flourishing Jewish community. The floor tiles are 18th century porcelain hand painted blue willow patterned tiles bought from Canton, China. Each tile is painted using vegetable dye (before the invention of commercial paints) so no tile is exactly identical to the other.  There are 1,100 tiles in all.

The Clock Tower was constructed in 1760 by a well known Jewish businessman Ezekiel Rahabi. The clock tower, about 45 feet high, has four faces with numerals in Latin, Hebrew, Malayalam and one side blank. The dial facing the Maharaja’s pace has Malayalam numerical, the one facing the Synagogue is Hebrew and the third one Roman. Thus it helps the Maharaja, the local people, the Jews and the traders to keep time.

Then our guide took us to a store that sold spices and souvenirs for some free time , giving us the opportunity to shop. In 2013, then Prince Charles and Camilla visited this shop.

We were disappointed in this tour. Besides not being able to understand the guide, I felt he did not cover all the places described in the description of the tour. I admit we got a late start because of all the immigration requirements, and because of the rain. 

Arriving back at the port, the immigration rigmarole is obnoxious as earlier. We need to show our stamped paper as we enter the building. Then we have a face to face with the immigration officer in a booth. Then to exit the building we have to show our stamped paper again. 

In the evening, the show did not look that interesting, so we listened to some music in one of the lounges. 

Tomorrow we have a private tour on a riverboat, and our fellow cruisers from the safari, Allison, Geoffrey, Robert and Natalie will be on the same tour.

Sunday, December 1, 2024 – Our port is Colombo, Sri Lanka. It seems we are docked pretty far out from the city. I hope this panoramic picture will post.

We have a walking tour in the morning, and it is the first day we finally see the sun! Kinda hazy, but not lugging rain gear today.

As yesterday, the ship is not docked and not cleared according to the scheduled times. Since we are on a ships excursion, we wait for our number to be called, and we are group 1 today, so we should be called as soon as the ship is cleared. Finally we are called and we walk to the exit. Unfortunately, the gang plank is not open, and we have to wait in line with lots of other people tying to get off the ship. I hope India is not as bad about clearing the ship as Sri Lanka has been. 

After about 15 minutes among a mass of people trying to get off the ship, we are allowed to exit. Since our ship is docked so far from the city, we took a bus out of the port area.

Our walk starts through the markets. The markets are open, even though it is Sunday, but our guide, Mark Forbes, says they are not as busy as they would be on a weekday. First we walk through the vegetable markets and there are all kinds of fresh vegetables. Since we are early, we can see how the vendors are setting up their stalls. We see a Tuk Tuk filled with papayas. Vendors are preparing their fruits and vegetables cutting away outer leaves of cabbage for example. Some are weighing onions and other vegetables by hand and by sight to price them accordingly. It is obvious these people have been doing this for a long time. The food seems cheap by US standards. For example, the pineapples were $1.

We walk down the street to the next group of stalls which are selling spices.

Then to the textiles markets, and bag (purse and backpacks) markets, etc. Each type of product is grouped together rather than having purses and textiles mixed in with the vegetables. 

We pass temples – Hindu I think…

Mark called this temple the pomegranate temple, but it is a mosque.

We see a lot of couples getting their pictures taken, dressed in traditional clothing.

We come to a canal, and crossing the canal you enter where the fort used to be, but is no longer. No remnants of the fort, either. This is entering the colonial part of town.

Mark is very interested in the older, colonial part of town. At one point, all the buildings had been deserted and were in shambles, but the area is gentrifying and new, modern businesses are filling the old, remodeled buildings. 

Mark takes us to the Grand Oriental Hotel. It was originally built with 20 rooms in 1837. The British were governing at the time, and budgeted £20,000 to build the hotel. The actual cost was only £1,868, because labor was so cheap. There was much trade going on at the time, and the hotel grew to 168 rooms. Before you could rent a room, you had to send your financial statement to the hotel manager. If your wealth was not sufficient, the manager would send a rejection letter that you could not rent a room. Today, the hotel has scaled back the number of available rooms, and the rest of the hotel has been boarded up. It is very nice inside and we are taken to the first floor for tea and cookies. Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, is well known for their tea.

Leaving the hotel, we walked by more buildings in various states of repair.

Mark spent a lot of time explaining this emblem, which apparently shows the history of the city. The translation is from my translator app, and is French.

The emblem was on a building that used to be the HSBC building. I have seen HSBC on so many buildings in our travels, knowing it was a banking institution, but Mark said the initials stand for “Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation”. Sounds good to me!

Mark takes us inside one restored colonial building, the Central Point Building, which contains the Economic History Museum (Currency Museum) features the development of currency in Sri Lanka. However Mark brought us here to see the longest chandelier in Asis, which hangs in the circular atrium, down seven floors. Mark said it hangs down 50 feet.

Mark points out the first Colombo lighthouse, which looks like it is built in the middle of the business district. Colombo is reclaiming land, and whike the shoreline was here at one time, there have been two more lighthouses build as the land is reclaimed and the shoreline moves out. 

Our last stop is where the Dutch Hospital was located. The buildings have been repurposed and had a high end crab restaurant, Ministry of Crab, as well as some smaller restaurants and souvenir shop. 

Inside the souvenir shop prices were very good with t-shirts about $9…but none that I liked in my size.

Mark gave us some free time here, and then we boarded a bus back to take us back to the ship. On the drive back, Mark notes the port area is big and active. It is owned by the Chinese.

Colombo is a city I could see revisiting, whereas yesterdays port of Hambantota was not appealing to revisit. Colombo has many of the government buildings with the city, 

We were invited watch sail away from the helipad, which is always nice. The crew passes out champagne and it’s just a fun event. Anyway, I enjoy it – Dave not so much.

Interesting view from helipad…

After leaving the helipad, we picked up our passports as we need to carry them ashore in India. Very efficient distribution of passports! No lines!

We spent a quiet evening. The show in the theater was a violinist, and we were not interested, so we spent some time in a lounge listening to a woman playing an electric guitar. After dinner, she was playing at the bar on the back of the ship, which is right below our balcony. So we sat on our balcony and listened to her.

Tomorrow afternoon we arrive in our first port in India, Cochin, or Kochi.

Saturday November 30, 2024 – I am having trouble accessing the internet, but finally got on to my site. The ports we are visiting starting today are new for us. We have been to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. 

Our port today is Hambantota, Sri Lanka and we booked a private tour to Yala National Park. Lots of pictures today! Yala is home to the leopard, but also many other species of wildlife. It is a strict nature preserve as well as a national park. It was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1900 and a national park in 1938. Its most famous residents are leopards, elephants, sloth bears, Sambals, jackals, spotted dear, peacocks and crocodiles.

We docked about 8:00AM and waited in line until 9:00AM for the ship to be cleared so we could disembark. Hambantota was struck by the 2004 tsunami which was devastating. So there are no buildings or facilities where the ship is docked. It was all wiped out by the tsunami and never rebuilt. We have to take a shuttle bus from the ship to the port gate.

We are dropped off at the gate and meet our jeep driver for our safari. He said his name which sounded like “E”. It is interesting because we will be with E in his jeep all day. I was expecting to be bused to the park and meet our jeep driver there. Safari jeeps generally seat 6 people in three rows of 2, and each row back is elevated, like theater seating. Dave and I took the back row. The other two couples are people we have hooked up with through our roll call on Cruise Critic. Allison and Geoffrey are from near London in the UK, and Natalie and Robert are from Kaiserslautern in Germany. Both couples were very nice and we enjoyed spending the day with them. 

The drive from the port gate to Yala National Park took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. We drove past many rice fields and some small villages.

All the people were very friendly and would smile and wave to us as we drove by. The houses we saw were not nice homes – actually, we did not see any nice homes. The yards are mostly dirt, with no grass. Maybe some weeds. There are feral dogs all over the place. They lay in the roads and are not afraid of cars. I am amazed we did not see dead dogs everywhere. The jeep drivers just steer around them, but some slowly saunter out of the way. We also saw cows everywhere, including in the road, sometimes across the road blocking traffic. 

Finally we arrived at the park and we have two drives – one in the morning, then a lunch break, and one in the afternoon.

As we disembark the ship, it is raining. When we get to the jeep, it has a top, and canvas roll downs on the sides, which E rolls down to protect us from the rain. We all put on our rain gear as we do get a few drops in our seats on our drive to Yala National Park.

First we stop for a bathroom break, and it stops raining! We are very excited, we roll up the canvas, and are fortunate that we have no more rain today! A little confused with this sign in the bathroom.

The park looks lush and green. The road are red dirt and VERY bumpy. Obviously muddy from the rain that just stopped.

We start our bumpy, bumpy drive (fortunately the seats are well padded) and see some animals as we drive.

We stopped for lunch at a facility that must be used by all the private tour guides. It was not fancy. The bathrooms were located in a nearby building and were mostly western toilets (not squatty potties). Clean, but BYOT (bring your own tissues). The place where we had lunch was also functional but not fancy. It was a buffet lunch, and apparently homemade food brought to this building. 

The lunch buildings are right next to the Indian Ocean, so we could visit the beach. After my past experience with the Indian Ocean, I am cautious. There are very big, strong waves. This is one time I did not attempt to get my toes wet. 

After lunch we drove around the park some more.

There are a lot of peacocks and peahens in the park and I was hoping we’d get a picture of the peacock with his tail feathers fanned out.

Unfortunately, we did not see any leopards ☹️.

We were all anxious to meet the boarding times for the ship, and E was very accommodating to make sure we were back at the port at a time that was comfortable for all of us. 

After leaving E and the jeep behind, we took the shuttle from to port gate back to the ship, showered, and just finished in time for the show in the theater. 

Not my favorite type of show…a vocalist. It was Monique Montez. She was OK. After the show we went to dinner, got an obnoxiously chocolate dessert to take to our room, and planned for an early morning in Colombo, Sri Lanka tomorrow.

Thursday November 28 to Friday November 29, 2024 Two sea days in a row, which we needed to get rested up from 4 port days in a row. Not much to blog about. No pictures!

The Elton John tribute band we listened to on Wednesday evening was called “This One’s For You”. What’s interesting is Thursday evening entertainment was titled “The Piano Men” and the performer, Deryn Trainer, also played Elton John. He also played Billy Joel songs. Some of the Elton John songs were the same on both nights. We enjoyed Deryn Trainer’s “The Piano Men” more than “This One’s For You”.

We have figured out we need to go to the early show at 7:00, as soon as the show lets out we go to out restaurant and get a pager to wait for our table. Then we are able to see the evening shows and have dinner! 

We have gone to the presentations on the ports for Sri Lanka and India, which have been interesting and informative. We have not gone to any of the loyalty parties to meet the Captain and have a cocktail at 10:30AM for two reasons – we have been to them many times before, and who wants a cocktail at 10:30 AM? 

We have been visiting some of the lounges to hear the music, and Dave has his favorite performers. Some are just not that great. 

We spent over an hour in the computer room trying to print out an email with our detailed itinerary from our India tour company, but the printer just would not work (neither before or after Dave took it apart 😂😂😂). Dave went to Guest Relations and they said they’d print it for us. Yea! 

We had to have a face to face meeting with Indian immigration as did everyone on the ship. This was a good thing actually because otherwise entering India would have been a nightmare if they had to process everyone once we got to the first port. The process was scheduled over two days on the ship with each deck having an assigned time to appear. So it’s obvious if it was done after we reached the first port in India, it would have taken all day. It took us 35 minutes waiting in line,and less than 5 minutes with the immigration officer. They were taking finger prints, but I was exempted and so was Dave. Dave said it’s because we have Global Entry which does speed up the immigration process when we re-enter the USA. I didn’t realize it would help us in India.  

Friday evening we went to the production show in the theater. The title was Elysium, with a story about good and evil. Was not similar to the movie of the same name. Lots of singing, dancing and a little acrobatic activity (which I love to watch). Basic them was good wins out over evil.

Nice dinner – Dave had filet Mignon and I had lobster ravioli.

It has been very cloudy and some rain on these two sea days. The captain said there is some weather system that is over Sri Lanka and India which could mean rain and we should be prepared when we go off the ship. So far we have managed not to get drenched. We are hoping it rains in Delhi as they are having major smog issues right now. Maybe some rain would clear the air. 

Saturday is our first port in Sri Lanka and we are going to Yala National Park. Hoping for decent weather!

Wednesday, November 27, 2024 – We have a ship tour today, which is supposed to be 7 hours long, called, “ The Best of Phuket”. We met in the theater to get our bus number at 7:30 AM. Phuket is a tender port which means we have to wait for a “tender”, or a boat, to transfer us from our ship which is anchored, to the shore. We get called, we get on the tender, and then walk a very long pier to get to the shore. Then we walk a long way along the shore to meet our tour guide, and follow him a couple of blocks to get to our bus. Our guide today speaks pretty good English, but does have an accent. One thing he has trouble with is swords with the letter “h”. So fish becomes “fiss” . But he is personable and trying to communicate with us. We get on the bus, and like most tour guides on long bus rides, he shares information about Thailand. One thing he tells us how to great people, and he is very particular about how we pronounce Thai words, while he mispronounces English words. Just kinda funny. 

Our first stop is Promthep, which is Phuket’s southernmost point. We are brought here for the views, but while it is not rainy, it is very overcast. This spot is very popular for its sunsets, but we visit in the morning – so no sunset photos for us.

As soon as we arrive, Dave and I realize we were here in 2018. There’s a shrine dedicated to Brahma, the Hindu god of creation that is noted for its many carved elephants. The elephant is the symbol of longevity. Devotees leave figures as gifts for either requesting a wish or for being granted one. The number of gifts compared to 2018 has increased tremendously, and the size of the gifts are much bigger, too.

There is a lighthouse here, called the “Golden Jubilee Lighthouse”.

The next stop was Wat Chalong,Phuket’s most sacred Buddhist temple. There are several buildings, including a chapel which is restricted to monks.

While we were there, a huge explosion of firecrackers happened next to where we were standing. Our guide said the fireworks were supposed to to scare off the devil, and represented someone whose request was answered.

We walked to another building that had many Buddha statues. Supposedly the third floor of the building had relics of Buddha, but we ran out of time and didn’t make it there. The Buddhas in this building were made by monks. 

Our next stop was old town Phuket which was a shopping area. There were many stores and our guide said this area was mixture of Chinese and European culture.

We cruised through a few stores, but did not see anything on which to spend our money. Our meeting spot was by a huge gold dragon! 

Then we drove to a tourist trap. It was a huge store with all kinds of cheap souvenirs, t-shirts, some edibles, etc. At the end was a room called a Thai Museum. Dave and I are very focused on our weight limits for our flight from Mumbai to Delhi, so we literally just walked through the place to get to the exit. We reboarded the bus, waiting for the free time to end, and move to the next stop. Unfortunately, all of the sudden the A/C stopped, and the bus quit running. The bus had broken down. So we waited, sitting outside in the heat, 40 minutes for a new bus. Miscellaneous photos outside tourist trap taken to remember waiting for a replacement bus 😂.

By this time everyone was very hungry, so we were drivento our lunch spot. It was called Cafe 2, and was a beachfront restaurant. The food was served family style. We had white rice, fried rice, a vegetable dish, fish fillet in tamarind sauce, cashew chicken, a shrimp dish, and fried seaweed. I actually liked the fried seaweed the best! We had some fresh fruit for dessert. We were given water to drink, but Dave and I are cautious about drinking local water, so we got two beers. 

Some of the tanks had horseshoe crabs. I had never heard of eating horseshoe crabs, but I googled it and they are edible.

Our last stop was a Cashew Nut Factory and Shop. We saw how the fruit is grown on trees. When ripe, it is separated from the fruit as what looked like a large seed. Then the seed is split and the cashew is pried it. Then the cashew is roasted before it is edible. Cashew nuts are a very labor intensive process and it is amazing they don’t cost a lot more. 

They flavored the cashew nuts with every flavor from salt, which we are familiar with, to chocolate, coffee, garlic, etc. there were at least a dozen samples with all the different flavors.

Finally our tour was over and we boarded the bus to head back to the port. Our guide tried to teach us more of the Thai language, telling us about the alphabet and counting numbers. He also tried to teach us a few songs. He gets an A for effort to try to entertain us on the long driving portions. By the time we got back to the port, it was 5:00PM, and we had been gone over 9 hours. 

We headed back to the room, rested a little, took showers and went tothe early show! This time we were going to make the show. It was a Elton John tribute trio of 3 guys. We like Elton John, so we enjoyed the show. We went to Blu for dinner about 8:00, but still had to take a pager. We finally were seated about 9:00. Dave had a shrimp cocktail, Ceasar salad and Red Snapper for his entree. I had a blue cheese soufflé and green Thai chicken curry for my entree. Yes, I’m still eating Thai/Asian food. 

Out time goes back 1.5 hours tonight! Yes, a half hour correction! That puts us on Mumbai time, so no more time changes.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we have 2 sea days in a row. Good chance to rest up!

Tuesday, November 26, 2024 – Apparently we are going to the restaurant for dinner at the busiest time. Yesterday evening we went to dinner only to find out we had to take a pager to wait for a table. By the time we got our table and food, we missed the evening show again!

I should have posted this picture yesterday.

Today we had a ships excursion to Penang Hill. It is about 2,500 feet above sea level. 

The excursion did not start out on a good note. Our guide is a Chinese lady who is difficult to understand, and she speaks very fast. We rode the bus for about 30 minutes to the entrance to Penang Hill, and she spoke non-stop. Dave and I had no idea what she was rambling about. Then we get to the entrance to Penang Hill, and we have to wait about an hour, much of the time standing and having no clue what she was saying, to take a 10 minute funicular ride to the plaza at the top. 

While standing and waiting, we were able to read plaques on the wall with information on Penang Hill. The area is made up of a range of ten hills. 

In 1786, the founder of Penang, Captain Francis Light, took possession of Penang Island for England. Georgetown started as the East India Company’s trading port. Since the East India company needed naval and military operations to protect its monopoly of the spice trade, Penang Hill provided a strategic lookout point to oversee the port and monitor vessels that approached the island. 

One of the hills is called flagstaff hill because when the British governed the island, the British flag was raised on the flagstaff to signal an incoming mail vessel and to monitor approaching vessels.

Penang Hill is the oldest and only hill station with a funicular railway in Malaysia. It was completed on 1923 (over 100 years ago). The journey used to take 30 minutes but in 2010, newer and faster trains were installed, and the journey now takes only 5 minutes.

Finally we reach the top of Penang Hill. The plan is to do a guided nature walk along a one mile trail through the rain forest on top of Penang Hill. Because we were a fairly large group, our guide split us into two groups. One group would walk faster and go with a park guide, and she would walk with the slower people.

Dave and I chose to go with the park guide walking at a faster pace, mainly because we felt our guide was a disaster. Our park guide was very good and actually allowed us to enjoy the excursion. 

Our guide pointed out various species of plants and bugs. The first thing we saw was a caterpillar.

Apparently this particular caterpillar turns into a poisonous butterfly called a “Wood Nymph”.

Next we saw a vampire crab – in real life and in a photo to see it in a larger size. 

We saw a spider which is hard to pick out in the photo…I tried to point it out with an arrow. Our guide showed us a picture of the spider and said it was a “Spiny Orb-weaver”. 

We walked on to what they called “The Habitat” which was a circular walkway several flights up that gave you great views. Unfortunately, it was very foggy, so our views were not as great as they would have been if there were clear skies. 

Our good guide pointed out a fig tree full of little figs.

A Fig tree with a ton of little figs.

She also pointed out some specimen jars of creatures in the rain forest.

At this point we were able to take a golf cart ride back to the plaza which was the meeting point for our train ride down. Before the ride started, we spotted a huge squirrel. A gentleman told us they can be 32 inches long! The squirrel was a big dude!

I’ve posted some of the views from on top, but because of the clouds and fog, they are what they are ☹️.

The ride down was pretty quick. Interestingly, the driver was on the left side and drove on the left side. All the other vehicles we’ve seen the driver is on the right side but drives on the left. Back at the plaza meeting point, we had some time left so Dave and I decided to get a drink and sit down for awhile, which we did.

Everyone on our tour showed up on time and we headed to the train station. We spotted a monkey who was jumping through the trees. We did not get a picture from his front – I guess he was camera shy.

We did not have to wait quite as long for the train ride down – probably about 20 minutes. Of course our Chinese guide rambled on the whole way back to the ship. We were glad to get off the bus and back to our stateroom.

Actually we have pretty much lucked out with rain so far. After we did our city walk yesterday and got back to the ship, it started pouring rain. This morning when we first got to Penang Hill, it was misty, but not pouring rain. Our guide said the rain forest was living up to its name! But the mist cleared up.  After we got back to the ship, it rained.

We got back to our stateroom, showered and went to the lounge for pre-dinner drinks and music. Then to Blu for dinner about 6:30, which is early for us. This time we were early enough we didn’t need to get pagers. Dave had a spring roll and I had panzelella salad for appetizers. We both had shrimp with Black squid ink pasta for the entree. We had wine for desert 😁.

Tomorrow we will be in Phuket, Thailand. We have been here before, but I cannot find my notes! Hopefully we will be seeing different things.


Monday, November 25, 2024 – We are docked in Georgetown which is a city on Penang Island in Malaysia. The ship will overnight here. We have been here before, so we opted for a walking tour this morning. What were we thinking? The good news is that it is not raining, but the “Feels like” temperature is 100°. Our guide is a third generation Malaysian, because his grandfather immigrated from India to work in Malaysia. He had a very long name but said we could call him Radu. A lot of the information he gave us was a repeat of what Chris told us yesterday. Malaysia is very mixed culturally with, native Malays, Chinese, Indian, and European, our guide said there are not a lot of mixed marriages, but when a Chinese person married an Indian person, their children are called “Chindian”! 

Radu said their legal system and government is based on Englands because they were governed by the English before they became independent. So there are two kinds of laws – common laws which are for most people and Sharia law for the Islamic population. He said normally there isn’t any conflict because when a non-Islamic person marries an Islamic person, they have to convert. If they don’t convert, there are legal issues for example in child custody cases. 

Francis Light, a British Royal Navy Officer, (1740-1794) was the founder of Georgetown and the colony of Penang in 1786. Georgetown was named after the English King, King George III. He died in 1794 from malaria.

The first sight was a clock tower in honor of queen Victoria who was longest reigning English queen at the time. It was built to commemorate the her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It is 60 feet from the sidewalk to the clock representing one foot for each year of Queen Victoria’s reign. When this was built, people didn’t have watches, so it was very useful to people to let them know the time.

Next we walked past Fort Cornwallis. It is the largest standing fort in Malaysia, built for the British military. It was used for administration and not defense. Originally surrounded by a moat, it was filled in in the 1920’s because of Malaria. They are rebuilding the most, but the process is very slow as they keep finding artifacts.

The British built a cricket field next to the fort, but cricket never caught on as a sport in Malaysia. Today, the most popular sport is Soccer and although Malaysia does not have a national team, the residents pick a team from another country and root for them. Apparently a lot of people in Penang

root for Brazil. 

Radu pointed out all the different churches. With all the different cultures residing side by side, they still have their own churches.

The first church we saw was St. George’s Church is a 19th-century Anglican church completed in 1818. It originally had a flat roof, but was changed to a gable roof due to the tropical climate (I assume all the rain). 

We walked to the Town Hall, a British-built administrative building. 

Completed in the 1880s, the Town Hall is the city’s oldest municipal building. The building was used for the 1999 remake of the film, “Anna and the King”. 

More room was needed, so the City Hall was built next door in 1903.

We walked by several more churches…

The Kapitan Keling Mosque was built in the 19th century by Indian Muslim traders.

The Sri Mahamariamman Temple is Penang’s oldest Hindu temple and is filled with fascinating sculptures of gods and goddesses.

Temple of the Goddess of Mercy is a Mahayana Buddhist temple  built in 1728, making it the oldest Buddhist temple in Penang. It is a focal point for Chinese festivals.

Radu said historically the policemen were also the firemen, it wasn’t two different occupations.

The Yap Temple is a Taoist temple – I believe.

Next to the temple is a more modern building where Chinese immigrants were housed until they could find a job and get settled.

We passed by, but did not enter the Snake Temple….thank goodness! The temple is well-known for being a refuge of resident snakes, said to be reincarnated disciples of a Monk. The temple was constructed in the 1805. When the temple was completed, snakes coming from pit viper species appeared by themselves. The temple is filled with the smoke of burning incense and a variety of pit vipers. The vipers are believed to be rendered harmless by the sacred smoke, but as a safety precaution, the snakes have been de-venomed while still retaining their fangs. Other species of snakes are also found in the temple. Visitors are warned against picking up the reptiles and placing them on their bodies to take pictures.

By this time we were very, very hot and ready to get back to the ship. The heat really wore us out. We are going to rest up and see what the rest of the day brings.

Sunday, November 24, 2024 – We docked at Port Kelang which is about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur. Our tour is called “Destination Highlight: Historical Reminiscence” and we had the perfect guide, Chris, who said he was a historian. Much of what I’m writing has come from Chris, so not sure of accuracy, but he was very interesting and we enjoyed his tour. For example, Chris said we had to dock in the industrial area because a US Aircraft Carrier was in our spot at the passenger cruise port. Dave enjoys watching the big cranes to load cargo on the ships, so Dave was glad this is where the ship is docked. 

The tour’s first stop was a photo op at the King’s Palace, Istana Negara.

It is billed as the Malaysian equivalent to Buckingham Palace. It is a beautiful building in a beautiful setting. The building itself has golden domes and Islamic-style architecture.

Members of the Royal Malaysian Regiment are stationed at the main entrance with two guard posts on each side of the arch entry way.Members of the cavalry are in full dress uniform.

We just missed the changing of the guard, but Dave managed to snap a picture of 3 horses as they were leaving.

Chris told us there are 14 states in Malaysia with 9 kings, each representing a state, and 5 governors, each representing the other 5 states.

The 9 kings meet and decide who will be the next king. The term is 5 years, and then the 9 kings meet again to choose who will be the next king. One king was a bachelor at the beginning of his term, and became involved with a Russian beauty Queen. The people were uncomfortable with the Russian wife, so his term was ended in less than 5 years. It sounded like the Russian woman was unhappy that she no longer had such a high position, and after one year of marriage they divorced. However, she was pregnant, and bore possibly a prince. Chris did not elaborate with any further details.

Our next stop was the National Museum. There are 4 galleries. The first gallery is the early history including the earths formation and the various stone tools used by early man. 

The second gallery is about the formation of the Malay Kingdoms, but focuses on the “Malay Melaka Sultanate” which was the golden period in the history on the Malay-Islamic civilization in this region.

This Royal Throne has been used during the installation of His Royal Highness Sultan Iskandar Shah (the 30th Sultan of Perak) in 1918. Since then it was used during the installation of His Royal Highness Sultan Abdul Aziz Al-Mustasim Billah Shah in 1938, His Royal Highness Sultan Yussuff Izzudin Shah in 1948 and his Royal Highness Sultan Idris Iskandar Al-Mutawakkil Allalahi Shah II in 1963 in Iskandariah Palace, Kuala Kangsar, Perak. I must admit, it kinda looks. Like a bed, but it’s too short to be a bed.

The third gallery, where we spent most of our time, covers the Colonial Era, which Chris guided us through with his extensive knowledge. Malaysia was at different times colonized by Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese. The various countries were initially interested in Malaysia because of spices. Later, tin was mined. Rubber trees were stolen from Brazil and grew well in Malaysia resulting in large amounts of rubber being produced. At one time, 30% of the UK’s revenue came from Malaysian rubber. Malaysia also produces 660,000 barrels of petroleum a day, compared to Saudi Arabia who produces 11 million barrels a day.

The fourth gallery highlights the achievements of the country after independence.

Next we saw the British headquarters which was a series of buildings for when Malaysia was part of the British empire.  One huge building was for all the official duties and was the tallest building in the world in 1897.

The British had other buildings including a church, and a cricket field. This location was the site where the British Flag was lowered for the last time on August 31, 1957 and the Malaysian Flag raised for the first time as Malaysia became an independent country. 

Our last stop was the Petronas twin towers which were the world from 1998 to 2004.

They were designed by American architects and engineers because Americans were the only ones who knew how to build skyscrapers at the time. The reason Malaysian built the towers was for recognition. If I understood Chris correctly, one of the towers was financed and owned by the Japanese, and the second tower by the Koreans. Dave and I visited the Petronas towers when we were previously in Kuala Lumpur, but we have not gone up in the towers. The towers have a large shopping mall covering several floors, and a big food court which is why we were brought here. So we have eaten lunch in the Petronas Towers two different times.

After leaving the Petronas Towers we headed back to the ship. One last note about Chris…he sang to us! Fortunately for him, he has a good voice!

We showered and went to dinner with plans to go to the evening show. Unfortunately, we had to wait for a table, and by the time we got our food, it was too late for the show.

That’s OK. Tomorrow is Penang, Malaysia.

Saturday November 23, 2024 – Last evening we decided to eat dinner at Tim Ho Wan, an Asian restaurant that is in the Marina Bay Sands complex. We decided to order a couple of dishes and share. We ordered Baked BBQ Pork Buns, Abalone and Shrimp dumplings (with a dusting of caviar) and for the entree, Sweet and Sour Spanish Pork with Peach and Ginger, and white rice. The Baked BBQ Pork Buns were great! The Sweet and Sour Spanish Pork was OK, but the ginger was in chunks, which is not a flavor we enjoy. We missed soy sauce, and shame on us because we should have asked for it but didn’t. I really did not like the Abalone and shrimp dumplings at all. Another thing I’ve noticed in Singapore is that napkins are not provided. We were given bamboo wipes, and when checking out discovered we paid 40 cents for them, whether we used them or not! All the eating establishments we visited added a 10% service charge to the bill. From what I’ve read, this is not to be considered a tip. 

The mall is decorated for Christmas, and while photos don’t do it Justice, I loved all the lights and decorations.

I still like Singapore a lot. It is an expensive city, but you can find less expensive food at the Hawker markets like Lau Pa Sat where we had lunch yesterday. The people were friendly and helpful. People on the elevators would greet you, people would offer directions, etc. It is a very clean city and we felt very safe, although we did not venture outside the Hotel complex after dark. The taxi’s were metered and reasonable, and taxi drivers would talk to you. Alcohol is expensive – not only the $31 USD Singapore Sling, but we had a glass of wine at Spago and it was about $27 USD for just a house wine. 

After dinner, we went to another light show. This one was water and lights timed to music. 

This morning we packed up everything to move to the ship. I loved our hotel room. When you entered the room, the drapes would automatically open. They must have automatically closed when we left the room, too! I took pictures of the tea service which I thought was elegant, even though we did not partake of the tea.

I loved the coffee machine and cartons of milk that were provided, so I could have my morning coffee with milk. Our balcony looked towards the Gardens on the Bay and we enjoyed the views. Since our room faced east, the morning colors from sunrise were beautiful. 

The bathroom was interesting. When we first arrived, we had trouble finding the water closet, but discovered it behind a door next to the shower. Believe me, it was not obvious. When you opened the door to the water closet, the toilet lid would go up, and the seat would heat. When you were finished, the toilet would flush automatically. Then, as you left the room, the toilet lid would close. It was a Japanese toilet with a control panel that was too complicated for me, but would do all sorts of things. Enough said! 

We checked out about 10:30AM, got a taxi and boarded our ship at the Marina Bay Cruise Terminal which we could see from our hotel room. 

Spent the afternoon waiting for our luggage to be delivered and then unpacking. 

We got a nice surprise from our travel agent, chocolate covered strawberries! 

For dinner we went to Blu, which is the restaurant for Aqua Class staterooms. It is less crowded than the main dining room and has some healthier options. Generally we can also order items from the main dining room menu, but we didn’t try tonight, so we will see if that is still the case. Dave had a blue cheese soufflé and filet mignon, and I had vichyssoise and filet mignon for dinner. No dessert – watching those calories!

After dinner we went back to our stateroom to watch the sail away, which was about 30 minutes late.

Then we went to the show in the theatre to see Stephen Barry. He was a contestant on Irelands Got Talent. He has quite a range in his singing voice, and threw in some comedy which made his show entertaining. After the show, on the way back to our room, we saw the grand staircase had been decorated for Christmas!

That’s it for today…tomorrow we dock in Malaysia.  

Friday, November 22, 2024 -Our second day in Singapore….Lots of pictures today! I like Singapore, even though we did not do a lot of touristy things. This morning we swam in the infinity pool on the 57th floor of the hotel. The pool is huge, but not deep – only about 4 foot deep. It was a little cool, but not icy cold thank goodness! It was just very refreshing. We spent some time in the loungers.

Trying to show how big the pool is – it is huge!

Loungers in the middle of the pool

On the opposite side from the pool are loungers and a couple of jacuzzi’s! Just a very relaxing area which is reserved for hotel guests only. We have to show our room key for access to everything except the restaurants. We walked to the sky observeration deck which has nice views over the city. There are signs describing the various buildings and sights.

This is a view from the observation deck looking back towards the pool….maybe you can make out some of the loungers.

We went back to our room and rested for a bit and then walked to Lau Pa Sat. It was about a 25 or 30 minute walk from the hotel – so not too bad of a walk. It is a Singapore landmark, also called Telok Ayer Market. It is a hawker center, which is basically like a food court. All the different stalls offer variations of Asian food…no burgers or hot dogs! We walked around and then decided to join the longest line figuring it was the best food.  I got a plate of 2 vegetables (white rice and broccoli) and 2 meat (chicken prepared 2 ways…but looked pretty similar) for 6 Singapore dollars which is about $4.50USD. Not beautiful to look at, so no picture, but decent lunch. Needless to say, the place was packed with locals, workers and tourists. One odd thing we are finding is that most of these stalls do not serve beverages. You have to hunt around to find a place that sells beverages and they usually don’t sell food – only beverages. I have also noted that most of the Asians eating lunch don’t have a beverage. It may be because a lot of what they are eating is a form of noodle soup, and the soup may serve as their beverage. Just guessing on my part – I really don’t know why. Maybe just a cultural difference?

After our lunch, our plan was to go to the Raffles Hotel where the Singapore Sling was invented. Silly me, I thought Lau Pa Sat was close to the Raffles Hotel, but it wasn’t – totally opposite direction. So, another 25 or 30 minute walk.

When we got there, all us tourists looking for a Singapore Sling are directed around the outside of the hotel, and up some stairs where the infamous “Long Bar” has been relocated. They sell 600 -800 Singapore Slings a day, and for every 25 Singapore Slings served, they plant a tree in Indonesia. I know this because it is imprinted on the coaster that comes with the drink! We had to wait in line about 35 minutes before we were able to get a seat in the bar. Our Singapore Sling cost $41 Singapore dollars, which is about $31 USD. Pretty pricey, but when in Singapore, a touristy thing to do. But we also had a bag of free  peanuts- which were hard and not appetizing at all.

We finished our drink with intentions of walking back to our hotel. The line waiting to get into the “Long Bar” for a Singapore Sling was much longer when we were leaving than when we arrived. As we headed to the street, we are hearing thunder and of course, then it started to rain. We waited about 30 minutes, but the rain never let up. So we were lucky to grab a taxi and get back to our hotel. 

We walked in the mall a little, and then went back to our room to chill.

Got organized to check out of hotel tomorrow and embark the ship. We can see where it will dock from our balcony.

Not sure where we will eat dinner tonight…

Thursday, November 21, 2024 – Part 2: The Marina Bay Sands complex is huge! There are lots and lots of shops, all very high end. We will be window shopping. We made it up to the top floor, 57, where the infinity pool is located.

Unfortunately, the pool was closed because of lightening in the vicinity. There are restaurants on the top floor, and we chose Spago for lunch. The views were very nice! I forgot to get a picture before we started eating, so I snapped this one of Dave mid-meal that he doesn’t know about. Shhhh!

After lunch, we went back to the room and took a nap. We only had a few hours sleep on the plane with our 36 hours of travel. Then we watched the light show at the Gardens on the Bay from our room. There was accompanying music, but we could barely hear it. Here are some pictures, but of course pictures really can’t capture how pretty the lights were and their movement to the music.

New challenge – cannot get the descriptions of the pictures to post, and inserting the pictures has been a bit challenging. Hopefully I will get it all figured out before the end of the trip!

After watching the light show, we went to the food court in the mall for a light dinner. The food court is all Asian food, and while there’s some English descriptions, we didn’t recognize the names of the food. We ended up getting a dish with noodles and meat from a stall that looked similar to the Chinese food in our malls. Then we had to go to a different stall to get drinks. I will try to get a picture of the food court, but didn’t take one tonight.

Thursday, November 21, 2024 – Part 1: This is just a quick update, because we finally arrived in Singapore. After about 36 hours, we have finally arrived in Singapore. We had an 11 hour layover in San Francisco, which was awful because the temperature in the airport, and the United Lounge was so cold. I was drinking hot tea and had several bowls of hot soup trying to deal with the cold temperatures. Even Dave was cold, and he usually keeps the house “cool” to me. Anyway, we arrived in Singapore about 8:00AM which I think is 13 hours ahead of Englewood. Admittedly, my brain is a little fuzzy after our many hours traveling. We are staying at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which has 3 towers. We arrived around 9:00AM, and we knew our room would not be ready. But they said they would page us when our room was available, and by 11:00 AM, we got the message. We are very pleased with our room. There are several light shows each night, and we can watch 2 of them from our room.

I took a video, but couldn’t get it to load ☹️, but these are two views from our room. I will try to get some pictures of the light shows later.

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Itinerary –

11/19/2024 Fly Tampa to Singapore, leaving on Tuesday and arriving Thursday. Besides a long layover in San Francisco, we “lose” Wednesday.

11/21 -11/23/2923 Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore

11/23/2024 Embark Celebrity Millennium, Aqua Class stateroom 1140 Singapore – depart 8 PM

11/24/2024 Kuala Lumpur (Port Kelang) Malaysia – 10 AM – 5 PM

11/25/2024 Penang, Malaysia 8 AM (overnight)

11/26/2024 Penang, Malaysia depart 5 PM

11/27/2024 Phuket,Thailand 7 AM – 7PM

11/28/2024 Sea Day (Thanksgiving)

11/29/2024 Sea Day

11/30/2024 Hambantota, Sri Lanka 8 AM – 7 PM

12/1/2024 Columbo, Sri Lanka 7 AM – 4:30 PM

12/2/2024 Cochin, India 2 PM (overnight)

12/3/2024 Cochin, India depart 7 PM

12/4/2024 Sea Day

12/5/2024 Goa (Mormugao), India 7 AM – 2:30 PM

12/6/2024 Bombay (Mumbai), India 6:30 AM (overnight)

12/7/2024 Bombay (Mumbai), India – Disembark; 1 PM flight to Delhi