Atrium Buffet

Day 5 of five sea days. The ship did a beautiful lunch buffet in the Atrium.

Jimbo's Truck Stop Diner

Our cruise director Jamie (Jimbo) and the staff hosted a truck stop dinner. It is a chance for everyone to dress down and let their hair down. Comfort food is served......meatloaf, mashed potato's, pizza, ribs and apple pie and we danced to work off some of the calories. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Cochin, India

After 4 days at sea, it felt good to arrive in Cochin. Due to the problem with the pod, we are missing the ports of Mumbai and Abu Dhabi. Our day in Cochin was great. We hired a taxi and went to see the fishing nets and all the fresh fish that had just been caught. We then went to Jewtown, which is a series of streets with many shops. It is so colorful to see all the clothes, jewelery and handicrafts lined up, shop after shop. It was back to the ship for lunch and a quick nap and then we went by bus and boat to the ship's event at an island. It was decorated beautifully and there were performances by the locals and lots of food. Although it was hot, there was a nice ocean breeze and open bar. Upon our return to the ship, the staff was waiting on the dock with cold towels and water and welcomed us back. The ship left almost 2 hours late as they were working to repair the damage to the pod. We have 5 days at sea and then when we reach Dubai on the 31st, they will continue the repairs.

March 24

This is our 4th day at sea on our way to Cochin, India. We passed by Sri Lanka in the middle of the night. It is a rainy, steamy day. We will arrive in Cochin around 7/8 a.m. and two engineers will come onboard to assess the pod situation. Hopefully it can be fixed easily. We should know more tomorrow night or the next day. In the meantime, I celebrated my birthday yesterday and had a wonderful day. Mimosa's with my needlepoint group, balloons waiting in the cabin at lunchtime, and cake and champagne from the Captain at 4 pm. At 5:45 there was a Sundowner party at the bow of the ship. No green flash. Dinner with friends and off to the casino. Mike and I promptly lost our budgeted money at the black jack table. Our group headed aft to drown our sorrows outside with a glass of wine. It was a wonderful birthday!

Phuket, Thailand

We were about 4 hours delayed arriving in Phuket. We had a tour of the island scheduled and left about 1:00 pm. Just as we got on the bus it started to pour rain, so we were glad we were in the air conditioned bus. We had a picturesque drive around the island passing villages, local markets and beaches. We stopped for shopping (of course) and were surprised at how big and plentiful the store was. A quick cup of coffee after shopping and then back to the ship. We departed around 6 pm and learned later that evening that a fishing line had wrapped itself around one of the pods and our speed is permanently reduced to 14 knots. The Captain and another officer worked for over an hour to remove the line. It caused some damage to the seals which need to be replaced. We will miss a port or two, probably in India, and they are looking into repairing it as soon as possible. The Captain assured us that we have plenty of fuel, food and ice. It will give us extra sea days, which we love, so there won't be a lot of pictures, but will keep everyone posted on the situation.

Singapore

This was our 3rd visit to Singapore and it wasn't raining. We had another car and guide, so we headed our about 8:30 and visited Little India, Arab Street and Chinatown. We had been to Chinatown before, but we also visited the oldest Chinese Temple in Singapore. Since it was before 10:00a.m., the markets were not crowded and we had access to all the stalls. After a couple of hours shopping, we headed to the famous Raffles Hotel. It is a beautiful, classy hotel that is famous for the Singapore Sling cocktail. Of course we had to have one. We went to the Long Bar and ordered the Sling and on every table is a big box of peanuts that you eat and throw the shells on the floor. We went through the shops.....Tiffany, Harry Winston, Louis Vuitton, etc. and bought a small magnet in the Raffles store. The lobby is majestic and the hotel has lots of history. We are on our way to Penang in Malaysia.

Saigon, Vietnam

Saigon's character is very French. However, it is extremely frenetic.....traffic, vendors, markets, and more traffic. There are very few cars, as it is mostly motor bikes. Trying to cross a street is a very big challenge, as the parade of motor bikes never seems to stop. We had a busy 2 days in Saigon. Our first evening we were taken by our Virtuoso hosts, to Reunification Hall, the former Presidential Palace, for a dinner and folkloric show. The tables were set so beautifully and the performers were wonderful. The sword swallower was a bit hard to watch. The children were very cute and mingled with us after their dance.
Day 2 was a car and guide and we went to Chinatown, a market place, a Pagoda, where our guide made an offering in our name, which will hang for 2 weeks. We also drove by the former embassy, which is now the consulate, and the hotel where the last helicopter took off from the roof at the end of the war.