Mormugao (Goa), India - Feb 06, 2013

Wow, we can’t believe that we are now in India, Goa is about two thirds down the west coast of India and we are here on a beautiful sunny day with the temperature coming in at about 28 degrees celsius. The Portuguese ruled Goa for 450 years and left the shores in 1961 so it is impossible to miss the influence all around - from the sizable Christian population to the Portuguese architecture. Our organized tour with Zutshi Travel (organized through our travel agent) with a private car, driver and guide picked us up at the port for a very pleasant day of touring. We began with stopping at a 26 klm stretch of white sandy beaches for a stroll and photo stop. Goa is famous for its beaches with many resorts catering mainly to Europeans and British at the this time of year. As mentioned the landscape of Goa is dotted with many heritage houses, villas and mansions reminiscent of the Portuguese era as well as some unique examples of a clever blend of the Indian and Portuguese styles, we stopped to visit one of these 350 year old homes called the Braganza House, the resident guide was a descendant of the original family some 16 generations ago - unfortunately no pictures were allowed to be taken inside the house. We then continued to family run Spice Plantation, a great tour as you could not only visit the plantation but also ride a elephant or have an elephant wash - this is where you ride the elephant into the river and he draws water into his trunk and then washes you and himself, no we did not participate in this part of the excursion as I believe we will have other chances to have an elephant ride later on this voyage. The half hour walking tour covered a good section of this planation where black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, chillies, coriander, cashew and the betel nut palm are grown. The tour concluded with a demonstration of a tree climber, climbing up on these tall trees and jumping from tree to tree plucking off the betel nut fruits. Lunch was served at the Spice Plantation, buffet style and was delicious. We then toured around some more driving through many small villages including old Goa stopping a few times for pictures and some retail therapy. A great day here in Goa and a great introduction to India. Some memories of our day...

At Sea - Feb 03-05, 2013

Settling into sea life during our crossing to India was nice and calm, giving us a great chance to rid of the jet lag. This is our first time in these waters where we exited out of the Persian Gulf and into the Iranian Sea and with this entry into the Iranian Sea we were presented with a curtain black out notice in our stateroom, apparently we are Pirate waters. We have no fewer than 12 fire hoses mounted around the Promenade Deck with 2 security guards stationed 24 hours a day on either side of the ship. We are required to have our heavy curtains closed from dawn to dusk and all outside ship lights are also out during this time so to not look like a Cruise Ship. Over kill, yah I would say but I guess we on erring on the side of caution as I pointed out we have never been in these waters, so perhaps we have to run on the edge of caution. This really has not effected us it just looks a bit strange, we will remain at this heightened caution level until we leave the west coast of India. Our ship life is a bit different than we are used to as this ship calls Rotterdam its home port. There are many Dutch guests on board in fact so many that all announcements are in both English and Dutch also many of the seminars offered are in presented in English and then later in Dutch. I believe the count is approximately 400 Dutch, 200 Canadian, 400 Americans with the balance of about 300 other. So we are learning some Dutch during this adventure. Now that we are closed to land our internet is improving so we are almost caught up with this blog. Today was Mormugao (Goa) and this upload will be posted shortly and then we should be good for an update from each port shortly after our visit.

Abu Dhabi - Feb 02, 2013

Abu Dhabi (Father of Deer) is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates. It lies in the emirate with the same name of the largest of the seven member emirate. The city is called the richest city in the world due to its impressive architecture and the wealth displayed. It is a deeply Islamic city with over 400 mosques of which the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the most important. It features the worlds biggest carpet and biggest chandelier. Abu Dhabi has a multi-cultural society similar to Dubai and was established in 1760 when the Baniyas tribe found water on the island. People of the Arabian Peninsula have long looked at the rest of the world and wondered at the lack of respect for water. In the arid climate, it is the most precious resource and people are painfully aware that without it, there is no life. Oil has brought prosperity, but water is the only true treasure. Our day in Abu Dhabi was also enjoyed on the Big Bus company, hop on hop off experience, here there was one, two and half hour loop (there were two loops in Dubai) where we hopped off at the Emirates Hotel - a former palace and hopped off again the the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, beautiful and simply amazing. BTW - if you ever wondered what happened to our former fast cat ferries, they are here in the same port where we docked, all three of them are sitting here fading and rusting out - I only hope that they were stripped for some useful parts but it doesn’t really look like it. Some pictures of the day...

Jan 30 - Feb 01, 2013: Welcome to the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Have had very bad internet connections until about now, not great but seems to be getting a bit better, will get up to date shortly... hopefully the first instalment uploads successfully. After a fortunate non eventful drive from Vancouver to Seatac Airport, well with the exception of course of explaining to the customs officer about what the heck we were doing in a rental car with Washington State plates on it - an interesting conversation, we boarded the direct Emirates Air flight to Dubai for the 14 and a half hour Emirates experience. Emirates is a wonderful airlines with excellent staff, food and inflight entertainment. We were very well taken care of and would choose this airline again given a choice of airline carriers. With little sleep we floated through the airport with our prearranged Marhaba guide - recommended if you have never been here before, the service escorts you through customs making sure that all the necessary details are attended to. The guide then releases you to a driver that to our surprise took us in a full size SUV vehicle to our hotel - our car was supposed to be just a standard size, so another pleasant surprise. Wow, we are now in Dubai, what an amazing city - and imagine only a few weeks ago we were just celebrating New Years with no plans of doing something like this. Skiing, Snowboarding, Ice Skating, Dune Safaris, Sand Boarding, well the skies the limit as far as what there is available to do here and for any of the shoppers our there you are also in shopping mecca here in Dubai. After a very pleasant night’s sleep at the Sheraton Four Points hotel we embarked the MS Rotterdam to unpack, have lunch and then take off to be picked up by the Arabian Adventures company for an evening of Dune 4X4ing, Camel riding, a traditional dinner in the desert and a fabulous belly dancing show with the finale of switching off all the lights for star gazing in this incredible desert landscape, a great remedy for jet lag. Day two in Dubai took us on the Big Bus, hop on hop off for a day of touring around this amazing city, this tour basically covers it all from the old markets (Souks) to the malls with the ski hills and ice skating rinks to the tallest building in the world to the huge Palm Development. Everything here is of huge scale, walking anywhere is next to impossible believe me we tried after a half hour you realize you really were not getting anywhere, taxis are relatively cheap so we just waved one down. A bit of history on Dubai, The earliest recorded mention of Dubai is in 1095 AD, in the Arabic book Mojam Ma Ostojam men Asmae Al belaad wal Mawadhea, which refers to “Dubai” as a vast place. Later, in 1587 AD, the Venetian pearl merchant Gaspero Balbi mentions the Dubai as one of the places where Venetians worked, diving for pearls. In the early 18th century the Al Abu Falasa lineage of the Bani Yas clan established itself in Dubai, which was a dependent of the settlement of Abu Dhabi until 1833. In 1833, the Al Maktoum dynasty of the Bani Yas tribe left the settlement of Abu Dhabi and took over the town of Dubai and was constantly at odds with the emirate of Abu Dhabi. In 1835, Dubai and the rest of the Trucial States signed a maritime truce with Britain and a “Perpetual Maritime Truce” about two decades later. Dubai came under the protection of the United Kingdom by the Exclusive Agreement of 1892. Its location made Dubai a chief port for trade and exports throughout the early and mid 20th century. On December 2, 1971, Dubai, together with Abu Dhabi and five other emirates formed the United Arab Emirates after the former protector Britain left the Persian Gulf. In 1973, Dubai joined the other emirates to adopt a single uniform currency: the United Arab Emirates dirham. Some pictures of our time here in Dubai.