27th June 2015

On the limited occasions I have picked up a free wifi signal I have noticed a few people have either tried to contact us or sent messages by using the apps ‘LINE’ ‘VIBER’ and even ‘Skype’. I apologise for not responding directly to you as up-loading the blog has been a major effort using my iPhone especially when a boat load of passengers plus crew are all trying to access free wifi spots.
Shortly we hope to have access to a more reliable wifi and we should be able to communicate with you all eventually, also I should be able to use my laptop and upload some photos as well.
I should have bought a iPad mini before leaving home it would have been so much easier.

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26th June 2015 Istanbul

Our transit from Kusadasi to Istanbul was in flat conditions which meant we were on time to arrive at 1000 on the 25th. I had an uncomfortable night coughing from a chest infection that doesn’t want to leave me but at some un-Godly hour it awoke me and I found we were off a large well lit war memorial somewhere on the Gallipoli Peninsula perhaps at the Dardanelles Strait.
The next time I woke we were approaching Istanbul and what a great sight.
Set out like a crescent around a deep water harbour a sea of white buildings cover the hills in all directions and a vision of domes and minarets sparkled in the sunlight.

‘Istanbul is a true crossroad, the only city on Earth to
span two continents. This meeting place of Europe and Asia, of Christian and Muslim, is one of the great adventures a traveler encounters’.

‘Istanbul has dominated the Straits of Bosphorus for 25 centuries. As Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, it was a metropolis of stunning splendor when the great cities of Europe were mere villages’. ‘Cruise notes’

What a great sight coming into Istanbul trading ships and ferries plying back and forth, small fishing boats working close to the shores.
Even standing well off as we approached our berth we could see it was obviously a busy vibrant city.

We berthed in what they call the new part and most of the main points of interest are across a bridge in the old section. Nancy although still not well was ready to do the tour we had booked on and we left the ship at about 1030 to join our tour and travel to the old section.

I copied and pasted the following from an online brochure we had. Our tour did all of this but not in the same order. It was well organised we were all issued with little radios so wherever our guide was we could hear him ok and when we got lost he could call us. – it was all very crowded with tourists.

‘ A scenic 25-minute drive in your motorcoach takes you across the Galata Bridge into the heart of Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

You'll see the Byzantine Hippodrome, once the heart of Constantinople's political and sporting life, and the scene of games through the history of the Byzantine Empire. Monuments on the site include the Snake Column from Delphi and an Egyptian obelisk taken from the Temple of Karnak at Luxor.

Next, you'll visit Blue Mosque, also known as The Sultan Ahmed Mosque. This 17th century marvel was built to rival and surpass the grandeur and beauty of nearby Hagia Sophia, and is a true study in color. It displays a multitude of domes and semi-domes and graceful minarets on the exterior, and over 20,000 shimmering blue Iznik tiles in more than 50 different tulip designs, and 216 stained
glass windows, on the interior.

Your tour continues to the awe-inspiring Topkapi Palace Museum, a huge walled complex that hugs the Bosphorus. This former palace of silk-clad Ottoman sultans is now a museum displaying an extraordinary collection of art, artifacts, and jewels, including the famed Topkapi Diamond. The windows promise breathtaking views of the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara.

A brief stroll brings you to a restaurant where a traditional Turkish lunch awaits.

 Refreshed from your meal, you'll walk to Hagia Sophia, also known as St. Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom. It was originally built by Constantine the Great, and later rebuilt by Emperor Justinian to be a "queen church" of the new empire. Considered one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, it's rich with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings.

Virtually around the corner is the Underground Cistern, an underground reservoir dating back to the 6th century. This "Underground Palace" prides itself on a roof supported by 336-Corinthian columns and an illuminated interior that's certain to generate a profusion of wonder and conversation.

We also attended a hand made carpet weaving demonstration and sales pitch and although we got close we didn’t make a purchase.

Our lunch was a traditional Turkish three-course affair at a very nice hotel. Nancy tried Turkish apple tea and enjoyed it. I have tried both their Turkish tea and Turkish coffee and enjoyed both.

We arrived back at the ship at exactly 1930 the latest time allowable, a very long tiring day, we had all walked everywhere on our tour other than the 20 minute drive from the new to old section in the morning and back in the evening. After two days in bed it was a bit much for Nancy and she was quite exhausted but it was a great day.

A few notes:
Twenty million people live in Istanbul, 78.0 mill in the whole of Turkey
Economy is good but there are now a lot of Syrian refugees that the locals feel are having quite a detrimental affect on the system.
Local currency is Turkish lira – 1tlr = Aud$2.1; €3.08 (euro); US$2.72;
Aud$1.00 = €0.68; Most places accept Euro, the bazaars will accept anything
Traffic was mayhem – public transport is good
By next year they will have the busiest airport in the world.
People are friendly.
Climate is good.

Turkey is a place we would definitely like to revisit.

Friday 26th June
We awoke early in the morning to discover the ship at anchor off ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula. We stood a long way off shore but through binoculars could make out all of the strategic features, sites and monuments.
At 0830 Captain Kent conducted a proper ANZAC service on the open deck attended I would say by every passenger and crew member on the ship including several veterans that were on board. It was a very respectable and moving occasion. Following the service the ship sat at anchor until 1100 and then we continued our journey back through the deep blue Aegean Sea – destination Santorini.

Nancy finally had to pay a visit to the ships doctor and was loaded up with another load of tablets and by evening she was feeling a whole lot better.

25th June 2015 Kusadasi - Turkey

“From the port of Kusadasi on Turkey's Anatolian Coast, one travels into the past. Nearby stand the ruins of ancient Ephesus, a major site of archeological excavation. The city was once a Roman provincial capital and trading center. Ephesus is also home to several of Christendom's holiest sites. St. Paul preached at the Great Theater and the ruins of Ephesus' Basilica cover the tomb of Christ's most beloved disciple, St. John the Apostle.”

“In Kusadasi, whitewashed stone houses rise in tiers behind the market district. The palm-lined esplanade is the center of town life, with thousands of merchants offering wares to rival the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.” – travel brochure

We berthed at Kusadasi just before 0700 24th June but had to be back on board by 1230 to sail at 1300. Not a lot of time to travel to the major archeological and historical sites for which Kusadasi is famous for. Later in the day after sailing I spoke to a couple of people who did a tour, they said it was very good but terribly rushed and they really needed to have had a lot more time.

As it turned out when we arrived back on the ship at Athens Nancy went down with a fever and wasn’t any better today when we arrived at Kusadasi. She didn’t get out of bed all day. After looking after Nancy I went ashore to have a look at the bazaars these are situated about a 300 metres walk from the ship so really handy. Streets and streets of merchants selling everything imaginable but not junk. Coffee houses, restaurants, clothing, hats, leather-ware, hand woven rugs, jewelry, beautiful ceramics and much more including  ‘genuine fake copy watches,’ that means it is made in China but has Swiss workings!!
The place was clean, tidy and civilized the Turks were friendly, spoke good English and looked and dressed like anyone else. Yes they try and get you into their shops but they don’t harass you in an unpleasant way, you do have to barter and if you go about it the right way you can save yourself plenty. I’m not good at bartering so I got my friends wife to do it she was brilliant.

A nice bonus while enjoying a traditional Turkish coffee I finally found a good wifi reception where 2000 other passengers weren’t trying to use it. I managed to get a good text from Lisa and then managed to talk to her on my free phone app ‘LINE’. It was really good to hear her voice and hear everything was going well at home.

Underway again at 1300 we steamed up the Aegean Sea past numerous islands and should berth at Istanbul at 1000 25th back on board 1900. Tomorrow we are booked on a tour so hopefully Nancy will be up to it by then.

25th June 2015 Kusadasi - Turkey

“From the port of Kusadasi on Turkey's Anatolian Coast, one travels into the past. Nearby stand the ruins of ancient Ephesus, a major site of archeological excavation. The city was once a Roman provincial capital and trading center. Ephesus is also home to several of Christendom's holiest sites. St. Paul preached at the Great Theater and the ruins of Ephesus' Basilica cover the tomb of Christ's most beloved disciple, St. John the Apostle.”

“In Kusadasi, whitewashed stone houses rise in tiers behind the market district. The palm-lined esplanade is the center of town life, with thousands of merchants offering wares to rival the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.”

We berthed at Kusadasi just before 0700 24th June but had to be back on board by 1230 to sail at 1300. Not a lot of time to travel to the major archeological and historical sites for which Kusadasi is famous for. Later in the day after sailing I spoke to a couple of people who did a tour, they said it was very good but terribly rushed and they would like to have had a lot more time.

As it turned out when we arrived back on the ship at Athens Nancy went down with a fever and wasn’t any better today when we arrived at Kusadasi. She didn’t get out of bed all day. After looking after Nancy I went ashore to have a look at the bazaars these are situated about a 300 metres walk from the ship so really handy. Streets and streets of merchants selling everything imaginable but not junk. Coffee houses, restaurants, clothing, hats, leather-ware, hand woven rugs, jewelry, beautiful ceramics and much more including  ‘genuine fake copy watches,’ that means it is made in China but has Swiss workings!!
The place was clean, tidy and civilized the Turks were friendly, spoke good English and looked and dressed like anyone else. Yes they try and get you into their shops but they don’t harass you in an unpleasant way, you do have to barter and if you go about it the right way you can save yourself plenty. I’m not good at bartering so I got my friends wife to do it she was brilliant.

A nice bonus while enjoying a traditional Turkish coffee I finally found a good wifi reception where 2000 other passengers weren’t trying to use it. I managed to get a good text from Lisa and then managed to talk to her on my free phone app ‘LINE’. It was really good to hear her voice and hear everything was going well at home.

Underway again at 1300 we steam up the Aegean Sea past numerous islands and should berth at Istanbul at 1000 25th back on board 1900. Tomorrow we are booked on a tour so hopefully Nancy will be up to it by then.

20th June 2015
Departing Muscat at 1700 on the 13th we had 5 full days at sea travelling back down the Arabian Sea through roughish conditions again and a heavy haze that made the sea and sky blend into one colour so there was little to see and no horizon.
Past Oman around the bottom end of Yemen, through the Gulf of Aden and up into the Red Sea towards Aqaba with Saudi Arabia on our starboard and Egypt to port. On the 18th we turned up into the Gulf of Aqaba, today Aqaba is the only sea-port in Jordan.
Aqaba was originally called Elath the home of the Edomites and in Roman times was a trading centre for goods coming from as far afield as China for entry into markets in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It is a Muslim country, the first language is Arabic but most people speak very good English and they are considered to be an accommodating mob. Jordan doesn’t have any oil and relies on tourism and an export trade of Phosphate.

19th
Up at 0530 we had an early coach to catch for our tour out to Petra the Lost City. Thought to have been established as early as 6,000BC this great wonder of the world was only discovered by Europeans in the early 1800’s. Other tours were heading out to Wadi Rum a desert reserve where TE Lawrence found his destiny as Lawrence of Arabia and is now home to the Bedouin.

It took almost two hours to reach Petra most of the time on a four-lane highway. We passed through interesting but barren looking ranges where Bedouins were camped in their traditional goat hair tents, people tended goat herds and camels and donkeys grazed. We also passed through several bleak looking towns and I have never seen so many fuel tankers on a highway in my life.

A guide took us from the coach drop, a five minute walk from the Lost City entrance and a down-hill hike on into the lost city through a very narrow steep sided gorge of about 1-1½ miles, the guide warned us we had an overall hike of 5-7 miles there and back to see a lot of the old city. It was great going on the way in and the temperature was only about 35°C. At the site and after a lot of photo taking Nancy and another lady sensibly and slowly made their way back to the starting point. The ladies husband and I pressed on down the valley to see some more major sites one being a Roman amphitheatre carved out of the hillside rock, this amphitheatre had a capacity of 3,000 people – so clever. The other was to climb a thousand steps up to a huge temple also carved out of the rock face – amazing. From here the view of the valley was superb and then back down onto the valley floor it was time to trudge back, up-hill, the sun was now well overhead with little shade and probably up around 40°+C, I can assure you the walk back was quite testing. Underfoot is rocky uneven ground, not the most comfortable for walking on. Locals hurtle up and down the narrow gorge in small donkey carts ferrying unwitting people down to the site for a substantial fee and then doubling the fee to take them back up, others were offering camel rides and horses to do the same. We were warned off the horse carts due to the uneven ground and the fact the drivers go like maniacs to try and get as many trips in as they can, they bounce all over the place and several people have been injured in the past by carts turning over. I really couldn’t see any of us on a camel or a donkey either.

The Lost City is an amazing place they even reticulated water by cutting a channel into the rock on each side of the gorge a closed channel on one side for drinking water and an open channel on the other side for other uses. The water was channelled for several kilometres to dams in the base of the valley where it also formed a substantial oasis. The city shows Roman and Greek influences in its architecture and is a must see bucket list thing to do. - Google it for in depth information. Temperature in Aqaba was 43°C-45°C and at Petra it started off at 35°C but by the time we came out it was probably up around 40°C – 40+.
It was the start of Ramadan and we had been warned it was a punishable offence to eat, drink, smoke or chew gum in public during daylight hours, fortunately lunch was provided at an air-conditioned hotel for us tourists, the food was great and the air-conditioning superb.

We departed Aqaba around 10.00pm to retrace our track down the Gulf of Aqaba then turn northward again up the Gulf of Suez for a days steaming to the canal. Our transit through Suez was scheduled to start about 1.00am on Sunday morning.
 

15th June

Heading south again our next port of call was Muscat (Mina Qaboos). Oman’s capital that was once a major trading centre controlled by the Portuguese.

An ancient city of white buildings with a back drop of grey craggy mountains has been carved out of the hills to make this old trading port. Rugged grey rocky mountains sweep down to the sea with not a skerrick of green to be seen.

Old 16th century forts protect the harbour and the palace of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said who has been in power since 1970.

Berthing at a container wharf we weren’t allowed to walk along the dock so shuttle buses had been organised to transfer us into the city. We stepped out into 40C heat to board our shuttle and drove 4kl drive into the city. We weren’t doing an organised shore excursion so we paid a kings ransom and boarded a hop on hop off double decker bus and listened to a very good running commentary in English for about two hours as we circumnavigated Mina Qaboos in air-conditioned comfort.

With everything white the city looks clean and tidy there is a blend of old and new but Mina Qaboos appeared to be more conservative and traditional than Dubai with its biggest of everything and there is a height limit to buildings that is something in the order of 4-5 stories. New buildings seem to be more of the traditional type than exotic shapes and apparently you have a choice of building colour – white or cream. The whole place is surrounded by high rugged rocky ridges and it is obvious that an enormous amount of excavation has gone on over the years to make room for buildings etc and continues to this day as everywhere we went machines were hacking away at the rock making road cuttings or building sites.

Back at the city drop off point we spent a bit of time wandering through an old souk but prices were high and we really didn’t want to buy anything. By this time it was getting pretty hot so we headed back to the ship and air-conditioning.

Tallest building in the world Dubai

10^th June 2015

During the last couple of days the cyclone we were trying to avoid decided to chase us, once again we had to change course as the wind increased substantially, huge seas started to flog us around and the ship’s became quite wild.

Fortunately we now have a following sea and conditions have in improved somewhat. According to the captain we are now three hours behind schedule for our arrival in Dubai where three hundred passengers get off and three hundred plus get on. As I write this, the sky is getting lighter and it hasn’t rained for several hours. We are getting closer to the Persian Gulf and as things settle down the seas are gradually flattening off. We are currently travelling at 20.9 knots, temperature is 31C, with a relative humidity of 75%. Apparently the barometer trend is steady and as such I would think we are not out of the woods yet but wave heights are down to 3.5 mtres. Our position would roughly be in line with Muscat (Oman) one our port side and the boarder of Pakistan and Iran on the other, not that we can see anything as we are many kilometres from the coast. 

Update 

Getting WiFi access has been a nightmare. We have spent a day in Dubai very interesting very hot I will write about it later as far as photos are concerned if I don't eventually have some success in uploading them I will bombard you with heaps when we get back.

Next stop Muscat

Dubai

Sunday 7^th June 2015

Colombo, Sri Lanka – we went on a tour of the city highlights and unfortunately didn’t get access to any free WiFi spots consequently I was unable to upload the blog or make contact with anyone.

Entering Colombo port at daylight we were greeted by a scene of maritime activity from merchant ships either entering or leaving this very busy port to a large array of anchored vessels presumably waiting for a pilot to take them into the harbour confines. Spread out amongst the mass of shipping like water fleas on a pond were dozens of small runabouts either fishing, going fishing or returning from fishing and amongst all this was the ever present harbour security boats zooming around us like circling sharks.

These small but very fast patrol boats are totally painted matt black, the crew who all appeared to be armed with automatic weapons were all dressed in black combat uniforms including helmets and at the front and back was a mounted high calibre machine gun also manned by a person dressed for combat.

There didn’t appear to be a dedicated cruise terminal in the port and Sea Princess eventually berthed at an empty container wharf reminiscent of the choice conditions we present to the larger cruise ships that venture into the Port of Brisbane. However it was interesting watching the hive of activity in this very busy port.  

I haven’t been to India to witness squalid condition other than in photos and film and didn’t see anything like that during our Colombo city tour, Admittedly many buildings look a bit scruffy in places but there is quite a mix of modern buildings, large modern hotels and well known brand name shops. We saw a lot of grand old buildings compliments of the colonial days and earlier. Gold coloured statues particularly of Buddha, seemed to be all the rage and we visited a very ornate and colourfully decorated temple where removal of shoes and hats was a requirement.

Tooktook’s the three wheeler motorised rickshaws were every where and is a very cheap way to get around.

People seemed to be very friendly and even groups of youngsters would stand and wave in a friendly manner to the bus as we passed.

We saw the obligatory snake charmer with flute, cane basket and slithering cobra but gave him a wide berth especially when the cobra decided to make a bid for freedom.

Nancy purchased two blue sapphires while in Colombo!!!!!   

Our next port of call is Dubai where we are scheduled to arrive Thursday morning 11^th June.

8^th June 2015

They take this piracy thing seriously, boat speed has been increased to 19.5knots and they have a lookout posted in each quarter of the ship 24/7. At night the lights are turned off on the promenade deck from dark until daybreak to give the lookouts better night vision. 

Boat action is a little wobbly as we travel across the Arabian Sea we have constant rain squalls, wind and poor visibility with very sloppy seas (moderate seas officially) and we are deviating around what started as a monsoon and has now developed into a cyclone. I don’t think the conditions are troubling anyone though as we all have our sea legs now. It certainly hasn’t stopped us eating or going to the various shows and functions.

One new act that came on-board in Colombo was a vocalist called Peter Howarth, he was lead singer with the Hollies and a West End star. It was a top show last night.

Tonight we have been invited to a casual cocktail party with the captain to celebrate 50 years, should be interesting.

Air temp is 30°C

Water Temp is 30.4°C

Relative humidity 70%