Day 79 - Friday March 17 at sea day 2

Sea Day 2 photos

position at 8:00am: N9 10.01 latitude E85 48.45 longitude
(about 920 miles E of Cochin, India, our next port on Mar 19)
temperature: 82F, 84% humidity, sunny
distance since FLL: 25,656 miles

The Bay of Bengal has been calm. It was pleasant on deck this morning with a slight breeze that moderated the warm humid feeling that hung about. Breakfast at LaVeranda and they had chocolate croissants as expected. Debbie took two and asked the worker behind the counter if it would be possible to get a bowl of raspberries or strawberries. He told her "it does not look good for raspberries." She laughed and said she would be happy with strawberries. He held up a finger and then opened a refrigerator below the counter and offered her blueberries and strawberries. Uh, no blueberries. He said not to worry, go sit down and I will bring you just strawberries. He did. Debbie did her exercise classes both morning and afternoon. Aerobic fat burner, abs/backs and buns on the fitball and total body toning. It was the day of 1000 power squats. Debbie was in pain by day's end. On deck 11 at lunch, they served curry and tandoori dishes. Since we were eating at Latitudes with their new Taj Mahal menu this evening, we opted to eat lunch in Compass Rose. Debbie had chicken fingers in sauce and rice and Clay ate the veal schnitzel sandwich. We both had the peanut butter ice cream and Debbie had hot fudge on hers.

After lunch, we watched a DVD movie, The Village. We ordered a bowl of popcorn and Clay got a bowl of peanuts too. It meant that we skipped napping. After the last set of 100 power squats Debbie came back to the cabin and per Jacquie's advice took a long hot bath. Unfortunately, the rusty colored water that we have suffered since leaving Myanmar remains. They drained the pool and scrubbed down the brown sides on the first sea evening. Debbie also did laundry that night and all our whites are now champagne-colored. She figured the brown water wouldn't hurt her and made her bubble bath and soaked in it. She left the nasty mess in the drained tub because she just figured that was not something she would be responsible for this time out. Clay saw it as he was dressing for dinner and she could hear him in the bathroom swearing to himself. When he came out and asked her what the hell she had done in the tub, she was already laughing. She reminded him about the water and he said he hadn't realized it was that bad and he couldn't believe she got in a brown tub of water. Hey, people pay big money for that kind of exotic treatment and so did we!

Tonight was Informal again and our Taj Mahal dinner reservation at 7:30pm. Latitudes had been transformed into India. As Linette, an Indian waitress said "you can smell India" and indeed you could. We were welcomed by Abigail with what she said was a traditional welcome. She waved a tray with a flame in front of our faces in a circle and then put a red dot on each of our foreheads. She assured us they would wash right off and they did. Linette said the room was decorated like for a big wedding and that the dishes were the type of things that would be served on a special occassion, too. They had cinammon sticks on the tables and a small bowl burning some kind of oil on each table. Whatever it was, we both had completely stuffed sinuses by the end of the meal. We were unable to get a menu to take with us and hopefully the photo will be clear enough to show what was served at the meal. Everything was very spicy. We eat at Indian restaurants at home and like most Indian food, though we do have our favorites. We like some of the dishes more than others here, or maybe some were just better than others. The fried spicy lamb meatball and the fried spicy potato balls served as appetizers for example should have been served hot and were not very tasty cold (room temperature) though the royal shrimp served with them was very good and very hot and fresh. We both loved the Mulligatawny soup, which Linette proudly told us is the national soup of Indian. The main dish in the foil packet is a chicken breast with a sweetish sauce and raisins. We were both looking forward to dessert and were not disappointed. Clay got his kulfi and Debbie got her gulab jamon. The whole thing was a nice change of pace.

After dinner was the talent show at 9:30pm. We did not have to wait long after dinner to be seated for this. It was interesting. There were about 8 passengers that performed. Most sang. The rabbi for the cruise was first up playing harmonica. He did 2 songs and was very good. He said he started playing at the age of 5. Oddly, 3 of the performers read aloud from works they had written in Dana Logan's writing workshops onboard. One read a poem about his visit to the Hanoi Hilton and then sang just like Willie Nelson. One read a story about meeting his wife on a bus on St. Patrick's Day and one read something that we have apparently blocked. Dr. Lloyd Tinkle, our premier resident character for this and apparently several successive World Cruises, played the Sheik again with his harem and played Arabic-style jazz on the piano. He is an absolute gas. He said that Jamie had agreed to be his eunuch and you could tell that was an unscripted line. Jamie recovered nicely after the roars of laughter and said, when I grow old I want to be Dr. Lloyd Tinkle. We got out of the show about 11:30pm.

The real news for the day was waiting for us in our cabin when we returned from our dinner at Latitudes. There were several envelopes. One contained an itinerary for our Agra trip out of Mumbai. We will post that in a future entry. Another contained an entry card required to go ashore in Mumbai where we each have to have a face-to-face meeting with customs officials before the ship can be cleared in Mumbai. We had to sign the cards and return them to the reception desk tomorrow. The accompanying letter and info in the newsletter sound like we are required to have cards like this at each port. In Goa, we must present a photo ID and receive an entry card from an official at the bottom of the gangway. And, also the same thing but without the photo ID in Cochin. There was also a Seven Seas Society invitation for a Saturday evening cocktail party. And lastly, and most interestingly, there was a letter from the Captain telling us that we would not be going to Tripoli, Libya next segment. This was the BIG NEWS. He stated that he had just been informed that Libya would not grant visas for us to enter their country. He said after looking at other possibilities he had decided to substitute Kusadasi, Turkey. It is sort of a disappointment not to go to Libya. But, it is also not totally unexpected since several cruises on other lines last year were unable to get visas for Americans to visit Libya. It probably would have been more of a surprise to learn that we were actually going to keep Tripoli on the schedule. While Kusadasi is a great port as it allows you to visit Ephesus which is a world-class site, we were there in 1999 as part of a Instanbul-Athens cruise, so are not sure it is worth visiting twice. We will wait to see what else the tour desk offers here. The letter states that the original itinerary resumes after Siracusa, Sicily. The other disappointment was in the itinerary for the Agra trip. This is a very expensive side trip, $1995 each for one night. After all the time wasted in handling air travel complications and standing around waiting that we did for the Angkor Wat trip, we had been waiting and hoping this would not be a repeat of that experience. And after all, it is only one flight each way and by chartered air, so we had high hopes for making the most of this very expensive couple of days. The flights themselves are only 2 hours, but the first day is an almost complete loss. We will not really have any time for sightseeing in either Mumbai or Agra during that day. We are scheduled to dock at 8am, and are to meet in the Constellation Theater at 11am for an 11:30am transfer to the airport for a flight at 1:45pm. Lunch will be served on the privately chartered jet plane. We are scheduled to land at 3:45pm and go directly to the Taj Mahal with arrival at the hotel at 6:30pm for 7:30pm dinner. The hotel is still the Oberoi Amarvilas, so that is some good news. The original material had stated that another hotel was a possibility (one supposes it still is!). There is no entertainment or anything planned for the evening other than the buffet of Indian & Continental dishes served in the Ballroom. We have the option of leaving the next morning at 5:45am for a sunrise return visit to the Taj Mahal, which we plan to do. Back to the hotel at 6:30am for a buffet breakfast in the Bellevue Restaurant, which faces the Taj Mahal. Then at 8:30am, until buffet lunch is served at 11:30am, there are 4 choices for additional optional tours if you do not want to just stay at the hotel. The choices are Agra Fort, Itmad-ud-Daulah, Fatehpur Sikri and shopping at Kohinoor. We have eliminated Kohinoor shopping and Fatehpur Sikri. We eliminated Fatehpur Sikri because the guidebooks say that it is an hour's drive one way and to allow at least 3 hours there. Since this is only a 3 hour window of opportunity, we will chose one of the 2 closer and smaller sites, but have not decided which one yet. There are merits to both and we would really like to do all 4 but it is just not possible on this visit. Oh, also we were offered, before dinner, the chance to upgrade to Business Class Air seating for $99 each roundtrip. We let the window close on that opportunity.
Thus ends St. Patrick's Day at sea.

Sea Day 2 photos