Photos - Betty Wins Bingo

Hi
Well, the evening took a positive turn....

Betty won $210 at Bingo. We went to dinner and hit the casino.

Betty (again) won at 21 -- and Jerry won at 21 -- and Dennis won at 21.

All in all, it was a "lucky" night.

Our Dance number was a success (see Shirley on left side of photo).

Now, good night, and we'll see you soon.

Six BMK Travelers

Goodbye - Show & Final Sea Day

Broadway Show and Final Day Aboard -- Goodbye – 1400 hrs
We’ve gone to our final rehearsal for the Talent Show tonight. Shirley ,Leila & Dennis have all decided what we will wear for our performance clothes, and Terry and Jerry will be taking photos. Just finished packing our suitcase and we all will put them outside our cabin door after dinner. Betty is getting anxious for the final Bingo game at 5:00 p.m. Lots of people usually attend the last Bingo game – we’re all hoping to win the big pot of money. Following Bingo on to the casino to spend the final chips collected during the cruise.
Terry gave the head chef a suggestion on a better way to prepare hash brown potatoes, and was happy to find the head chef took his suggestion this morning.
Tonight after the show, and just before I go to bed, I will post a few photos (if I get a chance). This will be our last Blog for the “Worlds Away” cruise. It’s been fun to share our travels with all our friends and we appreciate any and all who responded with a note in return.
We’ll be home soon to tell more “sea stories”.

Six BMK Travelers – Betty, Terry – Shirley & Jerry – and Dennis & Leila

Pyramids of Egypt

Pyramids of Egypt
We woke up early this morning and began a 12 hour tour of Alexandria & Cairo Egypt.
The pyramids were our main destination and were about 2-1/2 hours away from our Port town of Alexandria, the second-largest city in Egypt and named after Alexander the Great, it’s founder. Our tour took us through Alexandria into the main city of Cairo and on to the Great Pyramids. We all agreed we thought the pyramids were far into the Sahara Desert. Yes, they are in the Sahara Desert, but the desert begins at the edge of the city of Cairo. While you drive through the city you soon find yourself crossing the Nile River right to the edge of the Great Sahara desert and suddenly you see the three great pyramids (the last standing ancient wonder of the world) on the horizon of the City of Cairo. It’s quite a sight!
After the pyramid stop, our tour took us to lunch on a small boat on the Nile River, the longest river in the World! Wow, 2 big GREATS in one day. The sailboat was manned by one person maneuvering from the stern to the bow to either set the sail or steer the boat. Jerry said we had camel “kabobs” for lunch but Terry thought they might be something else. Some of us refrained from the meat portion of the meal.
A stop at the local bazar -- more local color!
A great, busy, and wonderful day!
Tomorrow is our “show”. Dennis has been singing the song “One” from Chorus Line, and Leila and Shirley are practicing their dance steps. It’s all great fun!
Our last stop Athens is coming toooooo….soon. We’ll soon be back in the Keys.
Six BMK Travelers.

Suez Canal

Suez Canal Passage
The Suez Canal is 100 miles long and connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea and provides a shortcut for ships operating between European ports and ports located in Southern Asia and Africa – we began our transit this morning at 0600. Our narrator told us many facts about the canal history during the day and we stopped our activities, periodically, to jump up and see the Canal highlights as we passed. Many dredge rigs were positioned throughout the canal and you could see where they pump sand up onto the shore. This appears to be a continuous process of widening and deepening the canal as there no locks. They told us that the water level in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea are the same. Today 7.5% of the world’s sea trade is carried via the canal. The cost of our ship to transit the canal was $250,000. Terry was a bit concerned that there were almost no power plants. Eventually, though, we did see a rather big one.
One of the fun things is that Leila and Shirley have been practicing to dance in a troupe that’s doing Chorus Line. The show will be on the last sea day, day after tomorrow. Too bad you all will miss it!!!! As a bonus, Dennis will be in a group that will be singing “One” that the ladies will be dancing to.
Betty has been working out in the gym for about 2 ½ hours each day. One of these pictures will show you why.
Tomorrow we’re off to the Pyramids. No, we won’t be going by ship.

Dubai Yacht Club

Dubai Yacht Club
Shirley has made up her mind! When (and if) she is Commodore she is going to have her Installation Dinner at the Dubai Yacht Club. Members can bring their boats, but you must pay your own way to Dubai. See the photos of the YC and the outside bar area in the shape of the bow of a boat. The Golf Club is adjacent to the YC for all those interested in both activities. YC fashions were featured by Ralph Laurent at the Dubai Mall. See photos.
Leila celebrated her Birthday aboard ship today. Shirley, Leila & Betty were playing Mah Jongg in the afternoon and just as Leila “got Mah Jongg” with a concealed hand, Jerry walked in with a plate of chocolate covered strawberries for all to enjoy. Lucky to have friends who remember your Birthday!

Six BMK Travelers

Terry on Entering the Red Sea

Terry’s Take on Entering the Red Sea
To an audience of about 40 people, Terry gave a power point presentation on a subject he knows well – power plants! The Rotary / service Club has met several times since we’ve sailed and talked him into sharing his knowledge with his fellow Rotarians. He was surprised that the only discussion about Nuclear waste came from a Frenchman who was totally satisfied with the way France was dealing with the waste. The majority of the attendees were in our age group and understood the role electricity plays in our quality of life. And Terry’s on a roll ….here’s what he has to say!
Well, we are entering the Red Sea, but it still looks blue to me. I wonder if this is where they first discovered red / green color blindness. We dropped off our two security guards; they boarded their “gun ship” and headed for their next assignment with their backpacks. If this stuff keeps up this would be a good business for Kevin and some of his friends to enter when they retire from the Navy. We will work on a business plan when I get back.
My thought is that we buy a couple of subs and then sell insurance against getting boarded by the pirates. The policies would take effect three months after the initial payment date. That would give us sufficient time to find and take out all the “mother” ships that supply the smaller boats used to actually attack the cargo ships. With the profits from the initial business we could buy an aircraft carrier and then bomb the villages where the pirates live. We would want good news coverage as we want our customers to perceive the problem to still be serious so they would keep buying the insurance. Once we have our steady income from the premiums and our costs of operations has been reduced to a minimum we package the business up and sell it to Goldman Sachs. They will then do an IPO and offer it to the pirates as a secure place to put the original ransom money they collected before our original security business came along. At this point you may think I am crazy, but hang in there.
The new pirate business owners now employ some of the poor stupid pirates to continue trying to attack cargo ships; this will keep up the facade that the pirates are still a threat. They also now employ the almost as stupid pirates to become the security force protecting the cargo ships. This will solve several of the country’s problems: population control while raising the average IQ, income for the poor, gain the respect of other countries, ….. This is a win-win for everyone. J
OK, we are having a good time; we still have several more days at sea before we go through the Suez Canal on Thursday. Today is Monday April 26, 2010; we are presently ten hours ahead of California time; it is 4:30 am in CA and 2:30 pm here in the Red Sea. We arrive in Athens on May 3rd in the morning after a one day sail from Alexandria, Egypt where we have scheduled a tour of the Pyramids and lunch on the Nile.
Betty has been working out every day; I have been working out as time permits between naps and meals. I have also been reading e-mails but the ships system does not let me send using my MS Outlook, so I can only send using “Yahoo.” So far everything I have read can wait until we get back so you will have to be content reading the blog we post on a regular basis. We will have about twenty-two hours of travel time by the time we get home. We gain ten hours and with “airport time” and customs we should be pretty well wiped out by the time we hit SFO and get the van to drive home.

Paid Gun(s) Arrive

Gunboat Escort Arrives
This morning while playing cards, our gunboat escort arrived alongside our ship about 11:00 a.m. There appeared to be a half a dozen rather young men (at least from our perspective) on a boat about the size of the Eaglet. There was a big 20 caliber machine gun on the front of the boat and who knows what under cover. Two of these sharpshooters with bulging back packs boarded our ship and are still aboard keeping watch, mostly from the stern of our ship. After a while, we transferred fuel to their boat so that they can make it through the Gulf of Aden. Our ship arrived at the transit corridor with 3 other vessels cruising at 18 knots in order to transit together along with our paid protectors. We’re feeling very safe and the gals continued to play Mah Jongg all afternoon. Tonight is “dark night” -- all curtains pulled tight, balcony lights off, and no strolling along Deck 5 – the open air deck where they have all the fire hoses at ready.
Yesterday Terry & Dennis toured the control room of the ship. Not the bridge or the engine room, but rather the area where all the systems are viewed on screens and monitored by ship personnel.
Continuing on our journey…
Six BMK Travelers
4/25

Dubai Mall - Fashion Update & Burj Khalifa

Dubai Mall – Fashion Update & Burj Khalifa
All six of the BMK Travelers caught a taxi from the ship to the largest mall in the World.
Inside the Dubai Mall is an aquarium, the world’s third largest indoor ski dome, entrance to top class hotels, outdoor water show area like Las Vegas, and an entrance to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Many, many other shops from the top fashion designers lined the vast hallway walkways. The most striking difference were the storefronts showing fashionable burkas, the black cover-all wear of the United Arab Emirates’ ladies.
Dubai offers facilities of the highest international standards combining an exceptional blend of modern city and timeless desert.
Here’s a photo of Dubai from atop the Burj Khalifa – We were only allowed to floor 124.
Six BMK Travelers
4/24

Shipboard Anti-Pirate Measures

Shipboard Anti-Pirate Measures
Captain Smith held an informational update today in the lounge to tell us what measures are being taken to insure safe passage from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea through the area called, in the shipping world, the transit zone.
When the ship was docked in Dubai, the head of the safe passage system came aboard to give our Captain details and methods to put in place to assure the maximum amount of safety to the passengers. They also exchanged telephone numbers and the Captain will call him several times a day to tell him where our ship is located to arrange for the proper escort.
When vessels approach the transit zone, similar ships transiting at the same speed, gather together at Point B and will be escorted by the Military vessels through to Point A. First will be the ships going 5-6 knots, then the ships going 8-10 knots, etc. which are the most vulnerable. Ships in our category going 18 knots will be last and are least likely to be boarded because of our fast speed.
At least 10,000 small fishing boats will be passed between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea and the Captain showed photos of the difference between fishing boats and gun boats – namely, the gun boats have ladders. He assured us that fish cannot climb ladders. The Services desk has received over 200 calls from passengers regarding sightings of small boats. Captain Smith asked the passengers to keep an eye out, but not to Cry Wolf.
Azamara Cruises has hired a private gun boat (costing what a crew member would need to purchase a house), to follow the ship through the transit zone. While transiting, we will have our ship dark and will have our cabin curtains drawn for a minimum of light.
Maximum precautions are being taken. The Ocean Princess that had docked in front of our ship decided not to go to Alexandria Egypt because of the pirates. However, we have a very young Captain – 36 years old and likes adventure in his life. We’re scheduled for transit Sunday evening; Sunday morning California time.
By the way…the current ocean water temp is 91 degrees. We’d jump over and swim but we’re afraid of the pirates and the sharks. Right!!
(Maggie, Maria, Rosie and Dianne…Leila is taking our Mah Jongg money! )
Bye for now; turning out the lights.
Six BMK Travelers

Dubai Dune Dinner - Keep Discovering

Dubai – Keep Discovering

When we signed up for the “Dune Dinner” tour we didn’t know the term “Keep Discovering” was in store for the group. The Dinner, although an experience, was small in comparison to the 4-wheel drive among the sand dunes. There were 14 autos in our caravan, each carrying 4 passengers. After driving about 45 minutes out of town we turned off onto the desert dunes. Wow! We felt like we were out of control about 75 percent of the time, -- up and down the dunes, slipping, sliding twisting, turning, kicking up sand. After 5 minutes we stopped and each driver got out of his car and took most of the air out of all 4 tires. Left about 9# of air in each tire until they “squatted” down into the sand; took off again. Several times the caravan stopped to let the cars cool off. Some heated faster than others (Chevy). The driver explained about all the items on the cars for safety. We assumed it was for the people, but later come to find out all the items were for the car. Roll bars were installed in all the vehicles and the driver explained that if we rolled, we would not break our necks, but didn’t assure us we would still be alive. Of course, he was kidding (I hope). Here in Dubai each driver needs to have a desert dune driver’s license to be part of a commercial company offering dune tours. We drove up and down the dunes for about an hour and then arrived at our open air dinner area.
Up and over a dune we spotted an encampment which was to be our restaurant stop for the evening. They re-created an experience area of another type. Upon first arrival we saw tables set up Arabian-style (low) with large cushioned seating in groups of 7 surrounding a raised platform covered in rugs. Three camels were on the perimeter which you could ride; henna hand painting for the ladies; dune-boarding on one side of the encampment; after-dinner Hoota smoking; Arabian coffee and tea on another area. In other words, not only were we to have dinner, but would enjoy the camp events including belly dancing for entertainment. While we were eating dinner, our drivers were filling up our car tires from the compressor carried in each vehicle. Now that’s a party!
Lots of fun! Keep Discovering!
Six BMK Travelers
4/22

Bombay - Part I Laundry

The Laundry Here I am in the laundry room writing the Blog, which brings up a real story of the “laundry” in Bombay. For a small amount of money the local “laundry washer” takes your clothes to the local outdoor laundry. This is a mighty strange place. The water is only changed once a day, but he uses many, many soaps, lie,and cleaners then beats the clothes against the rocks and the clothes do come out really, really white. The tour guide said they also are prone to being returned with holes. She pointed out “stone washed” jeans. Who knows, maybe it’s where our jeans get the stone-washed look?? Every stop the bus makes is met with the locals selling their wares to the tourists. Still hot, hot. We return to the ship after each trip to our oasis. Six BMK Travelers 4/19

Cochin Photos

Here's 2 photos from Cochin

Cochin

Cochin, India
It was a special day to observe an otherwise very poor city. Today was a religious holiday and many of the residents dressed in their traditional India dress clothes. Some of the men wore long skirts tied at their waist. If they were not in the church area they picked up the bottom of the skirt and tied it around their waist, making a skirt above the knee. The women wore beautiful, colorful saris; children were dressed either like their fathers or like their mothers. Quite a contrast – driving through the poor, poor city seeing beautiful ly dressed people walking amongst the goats, scooters, trash, tuk tuk taxies, hawkers, and sacred skinny cows. We went through a spice market, many carpet/trinket stores, helped some fisherman lower a big fishing net, visited an old palace, and drove through streets that were barely wide enough for the van we were in. Playing chicken was the rule of the day. We saw several driving schools, but we don’t think they had any business. We saw no internet assistance centers. The temp was above 90 and the humidity had to be about 100%. We gave up about noon and spent the afternoon on the ship. Betty, Leila and Shirley played mah jongg . Jerry and Dennis took naps and Terry went to the hot tub! Tonight we’re having an outdoor India buffet. We’re hoping we don’t see goat as an entrée. We’ll let you know.
Six BMK Travelers
4/15 – We all paid our Taxes!

At Sea

At Sea
We’re into our “at sea” routine. At lunch today during the Captain’s lunchtime location announcement, he told us the sea temperature and the air temperature were the same – 86 degrees, and the depth of the sea was 13,000 feet. He assured us we wouldn’t go aground at our current location.
We have substituted early morning dog walking with early morning cards. This afternoon Shirley, Betty & Leila played the game of Mah Jongg, followed by Line Dance lessons with the fellows. The laundry room is one of the most popular places aboard ship, and Terry found his place in line early this morning at 6:45.
Inside each stateroom was a letter regarding pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden and what precautions the company has in place in the event we should encounter a hostile environment. Our ship class is not typically targeted by pirates and we have more security staff than the ships being targeted. We will be transiting a designated route which is called the “Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor” and these waters are actively monitored and patrolled by international naval vessels. If all else fails, we will notify all our friends to wire ransom money to Azamara Cruise Line, Room 7098, 7090, and 7086.
Six BMK Travelers
4/14

Phuket - Hot, Hot, Hot

Phuket – Hot, Hot, Hot!!
Phuket is situated off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea and is Thailand’s largest island 30 miles wide. Our ship arrived at 0700 in the morning amid a beautiful sunrise. I snapped a photo of a local fisherman motoring through the sunrise reflection, which is now on my computer as my screensaver.
Jerry negotiated with a private driver to takes us to see the local sites of the city. Phuket has magnificent white-sand beaches and one of Southeast Asia’s most fashionable beach resorts, complete with street vendors, coffeehouses, bars, and restaurants. Our 30 minute drive to get to Patong Beach was through windy roads amid local residents on small scooters. It was Sunday and many looked as though they were on their way to Church, quite properly dressed, sometimes four to a scooter. A poor area, to be sure. Like many an island paradise, the tourists never see how the local residents live. Instead, they arrive at their luxury beach and hotel accommodations to spend their vacation in a far-off paradise. I think Phuket is one of those places.
Anyone want an elephant ride? We didn’t, but we did feed the performing elephant bananas. Shirley received a juicy kiss on the cheek from the meandering trunk of the elephant. Want to see a monkey show?? We didn’t, but we did see one of the monkeys. It was just too hot to sit on an elephant or watch a 30 minute monkey show. On to the next stop on our tour; a very beautiful Buddhist Temple, a jewelry mart, a local food and merchandise mart, and a walk on the beautiful fine, white sand beach. As enjoyable as this journey was, we were anxious to get back to the ship and our air-conditioned environment.
Tonight we had an Asian buffet and our first poolside dance party.
Six BMK Travelers , 4/13

First Day at Sea -

First Day at Sea
We’re here! The difference between a large ship Princess Line vessel and a small 700-passenger ship became very apparent from the get-go. No long lines getting aboard; no waiting at counters to check in. We were met with a glass of the bubbly the minute we stepped aboard. We’re all pleased with our staterooms and immediately stepped outside on our balcony to watch the stores being loaded aboard ----forklifts busy beeping and honking –lining up to put their loads through the hull of the ship. After lunch, we walked from deck to deck to get familiar with our home for the next 30 days -- stopped at the computer room to sign up for our internet accounts. At the end of our last voyage we discovered how to create our blog on a word document and “copy and paste” our adventures with a short upload, rather than creating the document online at $.50 plus per minute.
Today, Saturday, Dennis and Betty played on the electronic Texas Hold’em table. Neither were winners. We made visits to the workout gym; Terry worked out and headed to the whirlpool. Leila, Jerry, Dennis & Shirley started a game of Hand and Foot cards. Late this afternoon Shirley & Leila joined the dance troupe learning Chorus Line for the show at the end of the cruise, Jerry and Dennis look on but weren’t brave enough to join the show. This should be interesting. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.
Good news. The ship provides free wine with lunch and dinner. This was a welcome surprise. We were expecting to buy our wine aboard. Didn’t purchase any wine in Singapore because the import taxes were very high and a simple bottle of Beringer was $35.00-$40.00. Anything really decent was in the $50 price range.
Dinner last night was less than wonderful – we’re waiting for the good news as the crew gets comfortable at their work.
Till Later,
Six BMK Travelers, Betty, Terry, Shirley, Jerry, Leila & Dennis

Singapore

Our “ Worlds Away” travel adventure begins today!
The airplane ride was long and uneventful and Cathay Pacific provided us with an abundance of in-flight movies. We all watched at least 4 first-rate movies and tried to stay awake so we could adjust to the time change faster. After picking up our luggage we worked our way through the airport and met our prearranged pick-up van. Departing the airport, a blast of hot, humid air reminded us that our “Worlds Away” travel adventure brought us half way around the world in 24-hours and left behind was our rainy, cold weather from Bel Marin Keys.
Singapore is a beautiful, clean city. No spitting, no graffiti ($10,000 fine), no littering, no j-walking– or you’re fined $1000 or jailed. An airport sign reminded us that if you bring drugs into Singapore the penalty would be death.
Our first adventure was to experience a Singapore breakfast at a street-café not far from the hotel. We all were anxious to have a cup of coffee and something to start the day. The food offerings were clearly not what we usually have for our breakfast in the USA. No cereal, no fruit, no soy milk or high fiber muffins. Jerry thought Betty and Terry were having Pork balls, but they were actually having chicken buns. About 3 blocks from the hotel is the “Chinatown” of Singapore which wasn’t much different than the Chinatown of San Francisco except there was a Buddhist Museum right in the center of the tourist center. We took a tour and found it quite impressive.
Wednesday we woke up to the news of an earthquake in Sumatra not far from Singapore. According to the news, some residents of Singapore did feel the quake. Not us. Later, we found directions from the Hotel Concierge to the Botanical Gardens via public bus. Our ride took us through the upscale shopping area on Orchard Street claiming to have 10,000 shops. Jerry and Dennis were quite happy to stay on the bus and go straight to the Botanical Gardens. Terry and Betty spent a leisure day by the pool. Later that night we all joined together for our first in-room cocktail hour followed by a cruise on the river.
The electric boat passed many places to dine along the waterfront and into the larger harbor outlining the city skyscrapers. In the background we passed the famed Lion-Fish spouting water. The city was named after this statue meaning Singa-“lion”, and paura-“fish” – or Singapore. The attraction name is now called the Merlion. At the end of the harbor is a new hotel which looks like a freighter ship balanced atop three towers looking about 50 stories high.
Thursday we headed out for the international island play-park of Sentosa, Asia’s favorite playground. A short taxi ride away brought us to a Resorts World destination. On the island are resorts within resorts; world-class shopping; many exclusive hotels, a large casino and many playland-type events to see and do. Today we did something we have never done before – we learned to ride a Segway. If you get a chance, look up Singapore Resort World on the internet to see where we spent a very enjoyable day. While we were on the sky tower above the city we just happened to see our ship arrive and dock in the Singapore harbor. Must be a good omen.
Tomorrow we head off to the Azamara Quest and begin our cruise adventure.
Six BMK Travelers – Shirley, Jerry, Betty, Terry, Leila & Dennis

Shirley, Leila & Betty

Hey - Here's where we will be next week!

"World's Away" Cruise

In 5 days we will begin our "Worlds Away" adventure.

We'll spend a few days in Singapore before we board the Azamara Quest and begin our cruise.

Join us on our adventure....

Leila, Dennis
Shirley, Jerry
Betty, Terry