Seychelles and Mauritius

I've been slack, I'm really into the holiday moodand finding time to do my blog is getting harder. Anyway we stopped at Seychelles, Port Victoria. What a lovely day. We spent the day travelling around a national marine park. We got off our boat and climbed aboard a small boat and travelled to the marine park.

Firstly we took a ride in a semi submerseable which was quite boring as it was fairly cloudy underwater and you couldn't see much.
Next we did some snorkelling which was fantastic. I had a 2 metre Moray eel swim under me and I started to follow it till common sense took over.

I saw plenty of sea life and have added a few photos

We then travelled across to an island that was inhabited by Tortoises

After that it was back to the ship, such a loverly day.

The next port was Port Louis, Mauritius.
The day started off badly as our tour guide was supposed to show at 0830 but by 0930 she hadn't showed so we got back on ship to drop off our gear but as soon as we got back onboard I recieved a call from the guide. She had been in a car crash and had to report to police but the tour was back on.
We headed to the north of the island and went underwater scooter riding. It was a fantastic experience.

Everthing after pailed into insignificance.

Anyway we are still having a great time, hope you like the pictures. Next stop Africa.

Welcome to Dubai

We have now departed Dubai, it is an amazing place that also deserves more time as there was so much we missed.
We stayed overnight so we were able to go on a 4wd night safari into the desert. The 4wd drive was unbelievable it was like a roller coaster on sand. I'm thankful the driver was very experienced as he did things I didn't no you could do in a car let alone pull it off without flipping.

We stopped in the desert for a photo shoot the scenery was magnificient.

We then went to a camel farm to feed some camels and we did a camel ride, or should I say Karen did the camel ride, I took photos.

Then it was of to a desert BBQ and show which was a lot of fun. Karen and I had henna tatoos and we both tried the Shiska pipe, we had apple and aniseed flavoured. We then watched show with a twirling Dirvish and a belly dancer.

The Sisha pipe

And the belly dancer

We headed back to the boat and drove through town and past the worlds tallest building. The following photos are from the city drive the next morning showing 2 Dubai landmarks.

The next morning we went for a drive and checked out a recreated Arabian town and the museum then headed to the Gold Souk, thankfully Karen did'nt find any jewelry she like but she did find a belly dancer outfit she liked.

We went back to the ship and I headed off to bed as I now have a sinus infection but we now have 4 days before we reach the Port of Mahe in the Sechelles and I should be better by then.

See you then

Well it's been awhile since I did an update but Iv'e decided to combine Cochin and Mumbai because Cochin was a big disappointment and not a place I would recommend it as a place to visit.
I'm sorry but when you go to a town in India I don't expect a tour that talks all about the occupation by the Portuguese, Dutch and British and all you really see is buildings and churches of the aforementioned. The highlight of the day was sitting in a restaurant above the throng people watching whilst have a fantastic lunch.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you a photo of our cruise ship the Ocean Princess

We did walk along the beach a came across some Chinese fishing nets.

We left Cochin and sailed into Mumbai this is definitely a far more interesting town and deserves more than just a day. Unfortunately most of the places we shown we were not allowed to photograph as to westerners it does not show India in a could light.
We started the day by heading to the Gate of India which is next door to the Taj Mahal Hotel this area was location of the unfortunate terrorist attack a couple of years ago. The Taj Mahal Hotel is a beautiful hotel and the story goes that an Indian tried to enter a British Hotel during British rule and was refused entry. This man then vowed to build a bigger and better hotel and this was his result. The British hotel now lies derelict.

We went to the Crawford Markets was like any other market until we went into the meat section and this was one place we could not take photos. It was disgusting and very surreal. When we walked in the door the first thing you noticed was the hundreds of ravens in the rafters. There was no refrigeration and the placed was caked in over a 100 years of congealed blood and dirt and bird droppings. The butchers wore ordinary street clothes and no rubber gloves. All scraps were thrown into the aisles and swept into piles, hence all the ravens. It was quite sickening.
Anyway we headed to Gandhi's residence next and whilst walking along the road I noticed no one walking on the footpath so I hopped onto the footpath only to go about 5 paces when someone chucked some form of liquid out of the window narrowly missing. I went back to walking on the road. Anyway we quite enjoyed Gandhi's residence.

We then drove across town to the red-light district where I was not allowed to take photos. So heres a couple of pics of cows.

We then went to an open air laundry where thousands of items are sent to be laundered. I don't now how clean the items would be after witnessing one man pee where he was standing.

We then traveled to the Dharvi slums this was a fascinating walk through an area about 1.8km square containing over a million people. It is an area full of hundreds of work shops, each no bigger than 3m wide and 6m deep and no ventilation. The recycling of aluminium, paint cans and plastics was particularly interesting in that the melt all these items in these work shops on open fires with no personal safety equipment. Consequentially theses workers have a life expectancy of 45 years.
Anyway this bloq has turned out quite long and I don't wish to bore you to much but we saw a lot more than I've mentioned. As I've said definitely worth a re-visit.
Next stop Dubai.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Whilst on the way to Colombo, Sri Lanka we had a Pirate drill, so when they sounded the alarm all passengers had to go back to there cabins and sit on the floor in the hallway whilst the crew manned their stations. The captain took went to great pains to reasure us that there is nothing to worry about and then told us we were entering a pirate area of the sea and then again from Dubai to Seychelles where we sail 360km from the coast of Somalia.

Anyway life on the sea is pretty laid back. The day is spent playing table tennis, water volleyball, exercising. Karen heads off to learn line dancing and swing. There are heaps of other activities so we are certainly not board. Evenings are made up of going to dinner and a show, then sitting on deck socializing with the passengers and crew.

Well we made Colombo and headed off on our city tour. The first thing I noticed was the Police presence at least 1 or 2 cops every 1/2 km in the city and oh my god the traffic is the worst I have seen in Asia all I can say is the only rule they obey is stopping at traffic lights.

We did the usual temple tours.

Then we headed to the local market which we walked through it was so packed you could hardly move, but a least one Sri Lankan was enjoying himself because Karen said that a man had grabbed her on the bum 3 times. Then I saw him grab another female member on our tour so I grabbed him and started giving him a piece of my mind. I don't think he understood what I was saying but he must of got the gist as he ran off at a great rate of knots.

We continued with our tour and went for lunch. We were with 4 other people but I was the only one with Sri Lanka rupee so I paid for lunch which cost $21.00 or 10 pound for the poms. Unfortunately as it was traditional food Karen just had rice. Anyway we had lunch and headed to a couple of other places then back to the ship as everybody was tired from the heat. I must say Colombo is not a town I would put on my list as a place to return too. I have heard of lovely places in the hills but the traffic conditions really do put you off.

Today is a sail day and we land in Cochin India tomorrow. We had some excitement at breakfast today as an alarm went off and the next thing we knew the crew disappeared we all sat there for 5 mins then the captain came on and said there was a fire in engineering and wait for further. Thankfully he came back 5 minutes later and said the fire had been extinguished and things were back to normal.

We landed in Myanmar, 30km from Yangon and it was a 90 minute drive into the city. In Myanmar you drive on the right hand side of the road but it didn't seem to matter if you owned a left or right hand drive car.

Anyway our first stop was a hotel, the Sutton I think, no idea why we stopped as all we got was a hotel that was built in 1910 by the British, but it was a great opportunity to go to the loo and the toilets were lovely. Then it was off to Independence Square for a photo shoot of the town hall and Buddhist Pagoda.

Then we went to a most amazing Buddhist Temple complex we have ever seen (next to Angor Wat).

I've noticed in the Asian countries that they must consider a fat white man lucky because I seem to get a lot of requests to have my picture taken holding there babies.

From here we went to see the reclining Buddha another magnificent temple.

We then proceeded to Scots Market for lunch and shopping. By this stage I need another toilet stop, so I was taken to a pay toilet where I had an uncomfortable moment, in that whilst I had a pee an old lady was mopping the floor around me. We also took the opportunity to get a photo of us and our very beautiful Burmese guide.

I threw this next photo in because I couldn't believe the cable mess and satellite dishes.

Anyway from here we had a police escort back to the ship to make sure we got back in time. Next port Colombo, Sri Lanka.