Male, Maldives, Wed, March 20, 2024

We wake today with a view of an island covered in buildings. We have signed up for a snorkeling trip at 11:30AM so we have a leisurely breakfast. We even have time for a trivia game in the Purple Turtle. Yes, you read it right, the “Purple Turtle”, a lounge on the ship!

We join the snorkeling group at 11AM and ride the Tender to shore. This island of Male is a bustling city. Nothing tropical to be seen! Except the heat and humidity! We board the snorkeling boat with about 20 other shipmates and they take us to other, less inhabited islands and the snorkeling begins. The first snorkel is just so so and mostly grey over a mostly dead reef. I opt to not go for the second location which the others say is better. But no one is extremely impressed with the trip. Oh well, we went snorkeling in the Maldives! Still a better day than sitting at home!

We come back to the ship and shower off the salt water. Then it is back to the Tender to check out the city. We walk around several blocks and see what there is to see. It’s a random city. There is a Temple that is photogenic and then we find a store to buy a location magnet for our stateroom wall. Back to the ship happy campers. Most of the photos today are cell phone photos for we brought waterproof cell phone cases. I also shot video on my Go Pro. I don’t know if I’ll put up any video here so check my FaceBook Page!

Here is a web image of what this island looks like from the air!

After dinner in the Buffet, we go to the show in the theatre, an “ABBA” tribute. Entertaining as it is the first time we have watched the Entertainment Crew perform! Then it is off to “Raffles” pub for a solo piano player and singer who is very good.

Goodnight all!

At Sea, Thursday, 3/19/2024

Today is a relaxed day At Sea. We have breakfast in the main restaurant and are served by waiters. All is good. I leave the restaurant for the morning Trivia game and meet old friends for the game. We don’t win and that is reminiscent of old times! Fun stuff!

So Trivia, and a trip to Reception to get my internet working and then Lunch in the restaurant. Elee chooses to do a load of laundry. Then it is off to join the Whist Group and play a round. Several old friends are there and several New Friends abound! Such a warm and welcoming group! Here was my hand on my very first day and Clubs was trump!

After Whist, I have a half hour of down time before my new endeavor, Ukulele Lessons! Robert, I can only hope to jam with your soon! Chords to learn and fun stuff to play with!

Then it is off to dinner with our new found friends, Steve, Sandra and Liz! Our table of 5 represents the USA, Australia and the UK! After dinner is the show which is a Broadway Musical Review by a talented singer! Such fun! Then to a lounge to play a Musical Trivia Game where our team leads to the end only to lose to the other side! But all is in fun and we all leave happy!

Goodnight All!

Columbo, Sri Lanka, Monday, 03/18/2024

Today we wake and have Sri Lankan food for breakfast. I order a Sri Lankan Omelette and I am told it is spicy. I say, “Bring it on”. They make it and I eat it, and the Maitre Dei is amazed. I don’t mention that it is not too spicy and that all they did was add serrano peppers. Not impressed but I don’t tell them. We have a Tuk Tuk ride (pronounced took took) scheduled to pick us up at 10AM. They come early but they wait for us.

We check out of the hotel and they hold our luggage for us. We get in the Tuk Tuk and embark on a 4 hour tour of the city. Our guide, Mumbasa, tells us to call him ‘Rikki’. Rikki takes us around the city to various sights, including Budda Temples, the shopping district, Parlament buildings and famous landmarks. Our cameras are in their happy place!

Rikki takes us inside an historical government building where we see where leaders used to meet and make decisions. There are even manikins depicting a meeting of leaders. So Elee sits down and signs the guest book as if she’s signing a law!

When we’re in the marketplace, we marvel at the selection of vegetables, foods and spices! If we could only have something like this at home! We would shop here always! The selections of normal and out of the ordinary fruits and vegetables is amazing! I hope some of these photos do it proud! There are even dried fish available!

Then it’s back in the Tuk Tuk and off to another temple that doesn’t fail to amaze! We even see a Golden Budda that claims to have Budda’s actual hair attached to it! Not sure my camera catches this, but I’ll try!

After countless places to photograph and countless kilometers of Tuk Tuk riding in the exciting crowded streets, hearing the horns blast and being able to reach out and touch the vehicles next to us (but we don’t! Keep your hands, arms and cameras inside the vehicle at all times!), we arrive at a restaurant for lunch. As we walk inside, we hear familiar voices teasing us, “Don’t seat them here!” But they don’t mean it as they are some of our shipmate friends just having a bit of light humor!

We sit with a couple ladies from the ship (there are dozens of ship tours doing the same thing as we are doing on our own)

We are served Sri Lankan dishes that we can’t describe but are delicious! Ship food will be bland compared to this! Our guide tries to tell us what the dishes are but we don’t really comprehend them. All we know is that I say I want spicy (and get it) and Elee says she only wants medium spicy but she says she got more spice than she wanted (but she doesn’t complain and scoffs it down!)

Then it is back to our hotel and Rikki waits for us to get our luggage. He then takes us to our ship, but there is a miscalculation and we end up walking most of a mile (with our bags) to actually get to the ship. But we get there, a little worse for wear and check back onto the ship. Home for a while.

We head to a bar and get cool drinks to offset the 37 degree Celcius (100 degrees F) temperatures of the day. We meet old friends again in the Botanical Bar and visit a while before we all agree we need showers after being out in the heat of the day! So we head our separate ways and agree that anyone that wants to go back into town for dinner will meet in the bar at 6PM.

So Elee and I go to our room and I take a nap while Elee showers. Then I take my shower. I feel invigorated! I tell Elee I plan to go into town for dinner. She thinks about it and says she’ll join us. So we all meet in the bar and we head into town to a restaurant someone has spotted called the ‘Lighthouse Gallery’.

Dinner is fabulous (at least to me!) but a couple people claim it is ‘too spicy’. I end up inhaling a friends soup as it is to die for delicious! It seems I am the only one to truly enjoy the spicy foods. But the cold local beer (kept cold by a bucket of ice brought to us) calms the spicy tones just enough and we all enjoy.

Our taxi takes us back to the ship and we resume our normal activities like bar games. I also step out on deck and get a few shots of the “Lotus Tower” that can be seen from the ship as it changes colors! I join a group with a friend and play a card game called ‘Up or Down’. Fun night. I get eliminated halfway through but it is all fun!

Goodnight all!

Trip to Sri Lanka, Sunday, Mar 13, 2024

We wake on our last day in India and have Indian food for breakfast, cooked by our hosts. They are good cooks and the food is amazing, even if we don’t know what it is! Some kind of crepe pancake and vegetable filling. Indian coffee is very rich and tasty!

We have 4-5 hours before our ride to the airport shows up, so we take a walk through the slums (or so it seems) to a park called, “Deer Park”. We pass a lot of vegetable vendors on the way. It is a nice stroll though extensive parklands that many people are enjoying. We eventually come to a lake and stroll along it until we come to an old fort. We find our way to the entrance and decide not to spend our remaining Rupees to get in. We find several places where we can point our cameras through fences and take random shots.

We stroll instead through another slum like area (not ever did we feel threatened!) and take photos of how the people live. We pass by some old ruins of a small castle and water tank collection systems which are interestingly backdrops for models posing! At the end of the road several children were enthralled with us and posed for photos, which they then insisted on seeing in the back of our cameras! After giving each child his or her own ‘high five’, we move on. Well, that was fun!

As we walk away from the children, WHAM! A water balloon hits me from behind! It doesn’t hurt at all, it is just surprising! I turn around and can see no one laughing. smirking, scowling or any other guilty looks. Not even any threatening looks anywhere so I relax. It appears it was just someone having fun with a couple of tourists! In the heat and humidity, it was actually a bit refreshing!

We make our way back towards our AirBNB, but not before stopping to try some local Street Vendor Food. “How do you know what street vendor to buy food from?”, you ask. Well, it’s simple. Look for the vendors that have lines and throngs of local workers in line and it’s a safe bet the food is okay! We find one that actually has its own Tandoori Oven. It’s fun to watch the guy ‘slapping’ the bread down inside the walls of the oven! We don’t get food there because it would take a very long time with the crowd. We walk on and I find another vendor with not so long a line (but we can see the actual cooking of the food, which is another telltale sign) and I buy a Paranta filled Roti wrap bread and it is delicious! Spicy and delicious! Okay, mark that off the bucket list, ‘eating street food in India’!

Back at our AirBNB, we kick back and pack up. Soon, our driver arrives and we are off to the airport. We arrive at the airport with 3 hours to spare and we get through security where they literally empty out our bags and camera gear to inspect. They take my corkscrew that I forgot I had in my bag. I know that’s not allowed. But they also take my TSA corkscrew which every other country allows! Sheesh, what a nightmare to try and pack the bags back!

But we survive security and still have over 2 hours to boarding. We find an Irish Pub and get some pub food. I get a pint of a fairly decent Indian beer and Elee gets a Chenin Blanc wine which turns out to be really good! The ‘Grande Nachos’ that I get are somewhat bland, spice-wise, So I ask for extra salsa and a supply of Jalapenos and it brings it up to par. Finished with that, there is still 45 minutes left, so another beer and glass of wine are in the works!

We walk seemingly forever to the end of the Terminal to find our gate and we board the plane. This time, we are in Row 26 of 28 Rows and we settle in for the 3 hour flight to Columbo, Sri Lanka. Turns out a lot of Passengers from our ship are on the plane, returning from the Ship’s Tour of the Taj Mahal! We even met a few at the Taj yesterday. The flight is uneventful and we arrive in Columbo. Getting through Customs is a breeze and we just walk out.

We arrange for a taxi to our hotel for 6000 Sri Lankan Rupees (different than Indian Rupees), about $20 US Dollars. The ride takes most of an hour and we get to the hotel just short of Midnight. With no aspirations of getting a meal (we did get a meal on the plane), we turn in for the night.

See you in the morning!

The Taj Mahal, Saturday, March 16, 2024

Okay, this was a stressful day! First we awaken at 1AM after only a couple hours sleep. We have a 3 hour ride this morning and we want to arrive at our destination before sunrise. We go outside to wait for our driver about 1:45AM. 2AM comes and there is no driver here. Elee checks her WhatsApp and sees the driver is due at 2:30AM. Whew, that’s a relief! Could have used every extra half hour sleep, but oh well.

2:30AM comes and there is still no driver. 3AM and still no driver. We are being told he is outside of our gated area and can’t get through the gates. But there is a set of gates right here where we stand and they are wide open. What gives? Finally, after many calls to the Tour Office, the driver, Sarinda, shows at 3:30AM, sticking to his story of not being able to get through the gates, as he finishes buttoning his shirt. We get on the road only to have him needing gas. Really prepared I’d say he is. NOT!

But at least we’re on the road. After most of 3 hours on the road, we see sunrise starting to light up the sky and Sarinda says we are still 25 minutes away. This is not good. We wanted to photograph the Taj Mahal at sunrise. Sarinda stops to pick up our guide, Israr, as Sarinda is only the driver. By the time we get in, the ball of the sun is in the sky and sunrise has waned. A bit peeved to say the least, at least we are finally here after trying to get here for years. Okay, 3rd time’s a charm!

The Taj Mahal is everything you have heard and a lot more! It is a magical sight in the early morning light, even if it is not sunrise. With it’s reflecting pools and gardens abounding, it is near impossible to take your eyes (and camera lenses) away from the grandeur! Our cameras drag us all over the place and scoff at us when we try to take them away from our eyes! The gentleman posing in from of the Taj is Israr, our Guide! Israr points out some of the fine detail in the marble walls and inlaid precious stones.

We even get to go inside the Taj. But the signs strictly prohibit photos and there are several armed guards watching like hawks for cameras shooting so we decide it is not in our best interest. Our cameras pout but we console them by convincing them that the best shots are outside! There are several buildings outside the Taj and we do our best to photograph them all. Israr helps us find the good camera angles and even takes a few shots of us! He is a good guide!

Cameras finally satiated, we give them a rest and go to breakfast at an Indian restaurant. Elee has ‘Stuffed Parantha with Yogurt’ and I have ‘Puri Bhaji’. Both are really delicious!

After breakfast, Sarinda and Israr take us to a factory where they cut precious stones by hand and inlay them into marble tabletops. The inlays are representative of some of the details in the marble at the Taj Mahal! Beautiful furniture but way out of our budget! Not to even consider how would we transport them home!

Then we go to the ‘Agra Fort’, itself a huge feat of engineering. Built as a fortress to protect the area, it is expansive. The Taj Mahal seems so far off in the distance from here. We have walked far today.

It is now time for lunch, paid for by the Tour. Again, we go to yet another Indian restaurant and have some more fabulous Indian food!

Now it is time to head back to Delhi, almost a 4 hour drive. Sarinda drops off Israr in Agra and we stop at the Tour Office. They question Elee privately as to what happened with Sarinda in the morning. Elee explains to them Sarinda’s shortcomings picking us up and it is agreed by all parties that Sarinda did not get stuck outside the gates, but likely overslept and missed our pick up time. This is a big deal to us because we missed the ultra valuable photos at sunrise.

We get on the road back to Delhi and it is a quiet ride. Sarinda doesn’t speak English and we don’t speak Hindi. We manage to communicate using Google Translate. Sarinda seems to know he is about to get a bad review. Israr tried backing up Sarinda’s story but that was just one employee to another trying to help him out.

On the highway, we see signs on the backs of many trucks that we have been seeing. They say, “Blow Horn” on “Please Horn”. We don’t get exactly what they mean but we assume it wants us to sound the horn prior to passing them? Also some other fun vehicles! Along with those we see smokestacks that help tell the story of the smog conditions in India as they are severe! Notice the brown skies at the horizon around the Taj Mahal!

Sarinda happily volunteers to bring us to an ATM machine as we need local cash. He finds some and a few of them nix our attempts to withdraw cash. At one machine we are successful and we get half of what we want, but more than enough to pay our rent tonight at our AirBNB. He then finds a wine store for us where we don’t get wine, but we get some hard cider and beer to finish off our evening! Then, back at the AirBNB, we kick back in our room while our hosts cook dinner for us! Homecooked Indian food and all we know is that chicken is involved. We are excited to try it! The kitchen is right out our room door and the place smells fantastic!

True to the odiferous kitchen the meal is fabulous with Roti and another form of toasted bread, Dhal sauce and Chicken in a red sauce that we never find out the name of due to the language barrier. Toss in a plate of white rice! Add some salted cucumber slices and a glass of Indian Beer and dinner is grand!

Time to turn in and get this Blog written! Good night all!