February 1st 2010
Emma’s Birthday!
Another sea day! The problem with this itinerary is that we have all of these wonderful sea days at the start of our trip, and once we reach Phuket we will constantly be going ashore. Apparently there was a storm overnight, but unfortunately we slept through it. We are yet to see any motion at all, quite disappointing. Bob was very late for breakfast, and then we arranged to meet him in the Winter Garden as we wanted to check e-mails and the reception isn’t great in our cabin, but he never showed up. Brian saw a whale, so there was a lot of excitement, and poor Bob missed that too. We stopped by the Concierge to find out about booking dinner one night at the Chef’s Galley, and found out that it was fully booked until Hong Kong, so the lesson learned is book as soon as you board!
The ball theme tonight is ‘A night of the Raj’, I had thought of buying some sari material in Cochin, but in our rush to get back to the ship, didn’t do so, so as usual I’ll be there in one of my usual black dresses! We decided that I could go as a Colonial. I sort of look like one already.
We met Bob in the chart room for drinks before dinner, as I had wanted to listen to the harpist, and have an early dinner so we could eat with our tablemates. Sitting in the chart room was fantastic. Everyone was in their formal clothes, and looked very elegant – I was in my element. We headed off to dinner and got there before Shirley who had delayed her arrival at dinner due to the electrical storm. The menu tonight was fantastic – choice of chateaubriand, grilled lobster, duck flamed in Cointreau, or Thai shrimp curry. For old time’s sake I chose the chateaubriand, which was as good as any I have eaten. Our tablemates turned out to be wonderful company, and we had a great time with them. I just wish they would get into the habit of eating later! We worked on photos of Cochin in the cabin after dinner, waiting for Bob to finish his dinner, He finally arrived, and pointed out to us that we had missed the Cunard World Club party. In all my years of sailing I have never missed one so I was mortified. Then I realized that instead of drinking Pol Acker, I was sitting in the Chart Room drinking the real thing, that it was a wise choice to miss it!
We watched the end of the Raj Ball, and headed to G32, which was almost deserted. We sat and listened to the music for a while, and danced, and gradually people trickled in, but even by the time we left at 12:30 there were very few people there. Still it was fun dancing (they played whiter Shade of Pale and Ferry Cross the Mersey, so I was in my element), and people watching. There were very interesting interchanges going on, but as Brian had to send some e-mails we retreated to the cabin. The internet was still not working, so we headed to the back of the ship, looking for phosphorescence in the wake, and watching the full moon, and finally got to bed at 2:00.
Happy Birthday Emma! Wish you were with us!
January 31st 2010
A Day in Cochin
We got up at 6 to watch us sail into Cochin. We had planned to disembark at 8:30, but due to the usual delays in getting everyone organized, we only got ashore at 9:15. It was 95 degrees and very humid, so we decided to forgo our original plan of taking a taxi to Fort Cochin and then walking around the old city for the rest of the day, and we decided to hire a taxi for the whole day. We had initially wanted to get a Tuk Tuk, but they said they could only seat 2 people, so we were left with a regular taxi, and a wonderful driver, who spoke no English. Through much gesticulation we were able to let him know that Brian wanted to but a shirt. The shop he took us to was actually a tailor; so Brian ordered 2 shirts to be made, and off we set to sight see! We started at the Palace, which gave a fascinating insight into the Cochin Royal Family, and then we saw the Basilica of Santa Cruz, St Francis Church (where Vasco da Gama was buried for a few years, he died in Cochin), the Dutch Cemetery, and then spent a lot of time watching the Chinese Fishing nets in action. We decided to stop for lunch was at the Brunton Boatyard hotel where we sat out by the water having the most wonderful curry meal (curried prawns for me!), watching dolphins in the water in front of us. In the afternoon we went to the Paradesi Synagogue, and picked up Brian’s shirts, with a lot of shopping interspersed of course. Bob finally found his perfect ruby earring from India, and we got back to the ship only a few minutes after we were meant to be on board.
We headed straight to the Terrace Bar for fluid replacement and I tried again to upload my You Tube video, thinking that the internet would work better in port, but again it failed to upload alas. I will have to wait for Hong Kong. We watched us sail out of Cochin from our balcony, and it was an amazing sight. The shoreline was filled with people waving and shouting, and we gave a lot of whistle blows, which were a huge crowd pleaser, both on ship and on shore.
As usual, when we got to dinner our table mates were just finishing dessert. They stayed a while to chat with us, and had interesting stories to tell. Two of our table mates have been on several world cruises on the QM2 and QE2, so unlike our segment being something we have saved up for and planned for years, the world voyage seems to be an annual outing for them. I could handle a lifestyle like that!
Dinner was excellent as usual – snails, sole, and crepes Suzette!
January 30th 2010
3rd Sea Day in a Row – What a Treat!
We seem to be developing a nice routine. Brian has been banned from the gym because they didn’t like his shoes, so he is waiting in the cabin in the mornings until I eventually wake up, and then we head to the King’s Court for breakfast, where we meet up with Bob. Then somehow the rest of the morning vanishes, and it is lunchtime. So we head to the pub, and then because the boys are still hungry, go to the Boardwalk Café for fries. After that it’s back to the cabin to read/sleep on the balcony after checking out what’s new at the gift shop. There are several enrichment talks going on, but we keep on missing them, and we haven’t even got to tea yet.
The ship is as beautiful as ever, and the service wonderful. I am feeling very pampered! There is an interesting mix of passengers, a lot of Europeans and Japanese, but I have heard that there are quite a few South Africans on board too although we haven’t met any yet. The dress code has been a bit lax; some rather revealing outfits during the day, and even on formal nights there are several people in jeans and shorts around the ship. Our table in the dining room looks out onto the Promenade Deck, so we get a constant passing show of what is being worn, or in some cases, what not to wear. There have been many gentlemen in white dinner jackets, which does seem appropriate as we are in the tropics. Not very many kilts though, which is a shame!
January 29th 2010
Another perfect day at sea.
The sea continues to be very flat, it’s hard to realize that we are on a ship at all, there is no motion. Bob made it to breakfast, and then we took him on a tour of the ship, the bridge-viewing window was open so we watched the bridge goings on for a while. When we got to the pool, Bob decided he needed a drink, so we had one, and then continued with the tour. We later interrupted the tour to hear the Priest on the ship do a talk, which also wasn’t very good, but he is very funny and I enjoyed it anyway. We finished off the tour at the Boardwalk Café, had something to eat, and returned to our cabin where Bob fell asleep on the balcony, and on awakening declared that he was hungry, so Brian and he headed off to the King’s Court for more food.
We went to the show this evening, the first one we have actually been to. It was a singer/comedian named David Copperfield (not the REAL one!), who was OK, but not a good as the comedian on our last trip. When we got to dinner our tablemates were on dessert, but were quite chatty and Tony was telling tales of living near London during the war, which was very interesting. We had a great time. I had had an exhausting day doing nothing, so retired to bed after dinner.
