En Route To Safaga, Egypt Day 1

This morning we began our day with our daily workout in the Fitness Center. The Center was not very busy as we figure that many of our fellow guests took advantage of the time to sleep a little later. Keith was the first passenger to arrive and a little while later another person who we have known since the beginning of the voyage arrived. A little while later Mary and John arrived along with Anne Marie. Keith spoke with Mary while he worked out on the Elliptical Machine and Anne Marie worked out on the Treadmill.

We enjoyed breakfast back in our room and got ready for today’s activities. Today is the first of three glorious sea days as we travel from Oman to Safaga, Egypt.

Anne Marie attended the Progressive Yoga class, which she enjoyed a great deal. It is a one-hour class. Keith took care of a few errands on the ship.

During the Captain’s morning announcement, Captain Glenn noted that we were cruising at a speed of 21.5 knots per hour and at that point in time we were 165 miles of the coast of Somalia. We will continue to travel at this speed and with five of six engines in use in order to arrive on schedule in Safaga, Egypt. He noted that the sister ship, Crystal Symphony, was in Hong Kong. The Captain’s thought of the day was “If you don’t know where you are going you will end up someplace.”

We attended Rap With The Rabbi, which continues to be a wonderful opportunity to exchange thoughts on a variety of items. As we have mentioned, this year’s session has been well attended and has included many of our fellow guests who are from a variety of faiths, which has positively added to the discussion. The Rabbi is outstanding and we are so very fortunate to be sailing with the Rabbi and his lovely wife. There will be another Rap in a couple of days and then a few days from now there will be a Jewish Seder Dinner.

Destination Lecturer Jay Wolff who presented “The Suez Canal – The Ditch in the Desert”, gave the first lecture that we attended in the morning. He covered the building of the Suez Canal along with the Israel/Egyptian Wars.

Diplomat Tex Harris gave the second lecture and the topic of his presentation was “Iraq’s Future – Iraqi Perspectives – The Critical Factor.” He touched on a variety of items ranging from the history of Iraq, to the Religious Sects within Iraq to the issues of Oil in the Middle East. In his next set of lectures he will move from Iraq to discussions of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the Main Dining Room. At the same time, there was an Asia Luncheon Buffet featuring the various flavors of Asia.

In the afternoon we attended a presentation given by Sports Psychology Expert Stanley Teitelbaum, Ph.D. which was titled “Sports’ Bad Boys: The Scandalous Rise of Steroids.” It was an interesting presentation that covered the issues related to Baseball and steroids starting in the 1990’s a few years after the player strike occurred and when the home run record was broken for home runs in a major league season.

The other day we received an invitation for cocktails at the Captain’s Quarter, which we attended before dinner this evening along with some of our fellow guests. It is always nice to talk with Captain Glenn and to chat with other officers and gusts and we are appreciative of these invitations.

Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant where we dined with a very nice couple who we first sailed with for one leg on last years World Cruise. They are on this segment of the World Cruise having boarded the ship in Mumbai, India. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner

Keith & Anne Marie

We woke early this morning as we do each day on board the ship and each of us enjoyed a nice workout. When Keith arrived at the Fitness Center, Mary was already there which she noted was the second time since the World Cruise began that she was up there before Keith. When Keith asked her when she arrived, she said about two minutes before he did. ☺ A little while later Anne Marie and, fellow passenger, John arrived. There were others working out as well. From our vantage point we could see lots of lights on the shoreline of Oman and a little while after that we could see the beautiful mountains as the sun was rising overhead.

We each enjoyed a very nice workout and went over to the Lido Café to get some coffee before returning to our room. There are several early morning tours so the Lido Café opened early with lots of staff already there when we arrived. We said hello to many familiar faces from the Lido Café such as Lido Deck Stewards Alvin, Clark, and Ross who and we also said hello to several of the staff who during the evening hours work in the Prego and Silk Road Specialty Restaurants.

We wanted to point out something that we continue to be amazed about. Very often we run into someone from the crew that we have not met and yet they know our names. For example, yesterday we were walking along the corridor from our room and we passed another stewardess who we had never met before and she said high Mr. and Mrs. “…….” The same thing happened with Keith when he needed some assistance on a get together we were organizing and a particular person from the staff who we had never met knew Keith’s name. The same thing happened this morning when we first walked into the Lido Café with another member of the crew. We continue to be amazed at the wonderful service and attention to detail shown by the staff, and this is just one of many examples of the tremendous staff on board the ship.

A little while after we got back to the room we enjoyed a very nice breakfast. We spoke with our butler, Alexander, who has been wonderful and we will miss him since he is leaving the ship in a few days to begin his Holiday at home. He will then return to the ship later this summer. He has been outstanding and we will miss him dearly. He is the second longest butler in terms of years of service who is on this ship. If we remember correctly, he has worked on-board Crystal ships for 10+ years. He is very professional in all that he does.

We arrived at Salalah, Oman at around 8:00 AM. We did not select a tour. Last year, we had two stops in Oman. The first one was in Muscat, which was a beautiful city. Unfortunately, the morning we arrived they had a major rainstorm (it only rains there a couple of times each year) and all tours were canceled due to flooding. We hope to visit there another time because the city looked very interesting, with many beautiful buildings. There are many palaces and other buildings to see in that city. We also visited Salalah last year. The tours are limited in this area, and none of them interested us. Many people take the tour called Frankincense Trail, which includes a visit to Job’s Tomb and a chance to tap a frankincense tree Many question whether this is tomb is really the tomb of Job. The tour also includes a chance to go to a market and a chance to see nice views of the Qara Mountains. Again, there are a few other tours. For us, we have tried to do a fair number of tours throughout the World Cruise but it is just not practical to go on a tour in each and every port of call.

There were additional tours that we offered that included an Archaeological Adventure, another one call Salalah of Yesterday and Today, Intimate Oman and the Lost City of Ubar. Many passengers who have not visited this port of call before took tours.

We have taken more tours this year than on last years World Cruise but from time to time we take a break from touring and today was such a day. Unfortunately, this port of call does not allow Crystal to provide a shuttle to the closest town. Crystal can only run a shuttle that takes passengers from the ship about one mile to the entrance of the port where taxis were available. Several passengers had problems trying to negotiate fares as it seemed that the cab drivers wanted fares that were significantly more than what was charged last year. Ultimately some passengers asked for assistance from the cruise ship. The port agent was asked to step in and Captain Glenn also tried to assist. In the end, a prices was arranged for a one way drive or the option of the cab driver waiting one hour after dropping passengers in town to drive them back to the ship.

Instead we decided to take advantage of some quiet time on the ship to actually begin the process of packing. We have a number of items with us that we will not need to wear for the remainder of the World Cruise. Since our daughter and son-in-law are joining us for the last segment of the World Cruise, from Rome to London, we wanted to get a head start on packing so that we don’t have to spend too much time doing this while they are both on board the ship. We also recognize that the last segment of the cruise is fairly port intensive so we will be spending less time on the ship and more time in port.

Oman is an interesting country. Oman’s coastline is both beautiful and one of the most fertile areas in all of Arabia. Oman was ruled for many years by Sultan Said Bin Taimur, (1938-1970) and during that time frame very few people had the opportunity to visit Oman. From what we learned last year, some changes were made in this country after the Sultan was overthrown by his son, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. While still not on a large scale, today over 60,000 travelers visit this country anually and more money is spent by the Majesty of Oman on the people, particularly in the area of education. Salalah is Oman’s second largest city and is home to around 300,000 residents.

Those getting off the ship today were asked to be respectful of the local culture. The Omanis are very conservative people and quite conservative and are strong followers of their religion. They dress very conservatively and most dress in traditional attire. Women were asked to wear loose, long garments, and to ensure that their shoulders and knees were covered. Men were asked to wear long trousers and tops with sleeves.

After our ship arrived in port we took a nice long walk on the promenade deck. During or walk, we ran into many passengers that we have come to know quite well.

We saw one passenger who was on the verandah whose husband has been quarantined as he is sick and as a precautionary method she has been quarantined as well. They thought it was from the lunch they had in India. As a rule of thumb we do not eat off the ship in places that we visit since we truly enjoy the food prepared on the ship and know that the food is of the highest quality and we also know that the preparation of the food is done in a neat and clean environment. We do try to avoid all day tours that involve food and if we were on an all day tour in a country that we had concerns about, we would bring food with us from the ship such as fruit, crackers and something such as a cheese sandwich.

We had been warned that even if the food has been prepared correctly in places such as India there is the risk of microbes that we are not used to. Many passengers did eat off the ship in India so we will hope that very few became ill.

After we finished our walk on the Promenade Deck we went back to our room and took care of the packing that we wanted to accomplish today.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the Main Dining Room, which we had pre-ordered.

In the afternoon, Keith participated in the table tennis tournament. After the competition, Keith played several games with other passengers.

Since the beginning of the year, Crystal has offered a newspaper delivery service. You can order your favorite shoreside newspapers from around the world. The price is the same whether you order a weekday paper or a Sunday paper. Not all papers are available for Sunday. Originally we were going to order a Sunday New York Times but that is available Monday thru Saturday. So, instead we ordered a Sunday Washington Post. We receive it at around 2:00 PM our time, or 6:00 AM East Coast Time. It is essentially a full newspaper. It includes most of the sections that one would find in the newspaper except for say the classifieds, and a few other minor section and not the separate store advertisement sections. But, it does have advertising that would be found in the regular sections of the newspaper; just not the separate store only inserts. We were very impressed with the quality of the print, the timeliness of the paper and having to rely on the internet, the television and the summary papers we get it was nice to get a full edition of the newspaper to get more comprehensive coverage of news.



Keith

En Route To Salalah, Oman Day 2

NOTE: Pictures From Today's Buffet Luncheon Featuring Indian Specialties

We enjoyed another wonderful day on board the Crystal Serenity Cruise Ship as we sailed to the first port of call in the Middle East of this World Cruise. Tomorrow, we will arrive in Salalah, Oman. We first visited this port of call on last years World Cruise.

We enjoyed another nice sleep last evening and had the added benefit of setting our clocks back one additional hour. Keith awoke first and went to the Fitness Center and when he arrived two other guests were already working out. He had not seen them before so as was the case yesterday morning we suspect that some passengers were up early due to jetlag from their travels to India. Anne Marie arrived to the center about thirty minutes later at the same time as fellow passenger Mary. We enjoyed a wonderful workout and by the time we finished our workout the Fitness Center was quite busy with many passengers working out. This always happens when we turn the clocks back one hour as many people wake up early and during the first few days of each segment.

After our workout we enjoyed a very nice breakfast in our room.

During Captain Glenn’s morning announcement he noted that we were cruising at 19.4 knots per hour with four of the six engines in use. Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “It is not what you wear but who is wearing it that counts.”

There were many activities on the schedule throughout the morning, afternoon and evening hours since today was a sea day.

Yesterday, Anne Marie enjoyed Yoga so much that she attended a Yoga class as 8:00 AM this morning. Once again, she attended the progressive yoga session. While Anne Marie was in Yoga, Keith took care of some errands around the ship.

Keith attended Rap with the Rabbi and Anne Marie arrived a little while later. We continue to enjoy these sessions. The topics have been wonderful and it’s been a great way to share and to listen to a variety of opinions on a diverse set of subjects. Not only those of the Jewish faith but guests from other faiths attended today’s session. On a related note, last evening we signed up for the Passover Sedar dinner, which will be held on April 19. We attended the Sedar last year and it was wonderful.

After the Rap with the Rabbi we attended a presentation given by destination lecturer Dr. Jay Wolff. The title of his presentation was “King Tut and the Mummy’s Curse.” Once again, Dr Wolff hit a “home run” with another interesting presentation.

Afterwards Keith attended a presentation given by retired Brigadier General Nick Halley. The topic of his presentation was “Leadership Under Fire!” We first had the opportunity to listen to this presenter during last years World Cruise. While Keith was at this presentation, Anne Marie went to needlepoint.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the dining room, At the same time there was a special luncheon buffet on the Lido Deck featuring many Indian specialties. We posted a couple of pictures of the food but there were lots of items featured throughout the buffet area that are not shown in these pictures. After lunch we attended a presentation given by Maritime Expert Brian Cudahy. The topic of this presentation was “The Golden Age of the Great Ocean Liners.” It was a very interesting presentation, and the presenter touches on many of the passenger cruise ships and cruise lines through the late 1950’s.

Later in the afternoon we attended a Cruise Critic get-together with our fellow passengers who post on Cruise Critic. Many of those who we have traveled with since the beginning of the World Cruise attended along with some who boarded this segment of the cruise. We had the get together at the afternoon tea. A few of our fellow passengers were unable to attend since they play Bridge at this time of the afternoon. This will be our last “official” get together of the World Cruise but we know that we will all see each other from time to time.

This evening we had dinner at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant with the Rabbi and his lovely wife. We always look forward to having dinner with the two of them as they are such delightful people to converse with and we are very blessed to know them.

After dinner we went to see West End Singing Star Jacqui Scott perform. She is a wonderful singer. We greatly enjoyed her performance this evening as we did when we saw her perform on last years World Cruise.

Keith & Anne

En Route To Salalah, Oman Day 1

We enjoyed another good sleep last evening. We are now sailing towards Salalah, Oman. The seas have been relatively calm. We also enjoyed getting another 30 minutes of sleep since we set the clocks back before we went to sleep last evening. This evening we will set the clocks back another hour, which is great news. As we’ve mentioned, the direction that the ship has sailed for the entire World Cruise has provided us with the advantage of setting the clocks back from time to time which is much easier than when you have to set the clocks forward.

We awoke early and enjoyed a wonderful workout in the Fitness Center. When Keith arrived at the Fitness Center there were three passengers finishing up their workout. Keith had not seen them before, so we suspect that they had flown into Mumbai the day of or the day before the cruise and were still jetlagged. Anne Marie arrived a little while after Keith and we each enjoyed a great workout. Keith spoke with Mary after she arrived and heard all about the one-day trip that Crystal offered to the Taj Mahal. Another regular, John, was also working out.

After our workout, we enjoyed another wonderful breakfast. This is the first of two consecutive sea days as we sail to our next port of call. After breakfast, Anne Marie attended Progressive Yoga while Keith ran some errands on the ship.. On the last segment, the Yoga instructor who was on the full World Cruise last year joined the ship. She is a very interesting person and we are glad to have her back with us for the remainder of the World Cruise. Anne Marie enjoyed the Yoga session.

During the Captain’s Morning Announcement he noted that the outside temperature was 82 degrees Fahrenheit and that the weather looks very promising for the next couple of days, or more. The captain always mentions the location of the sister ship, the Crystal Symphony, noting that today the ship is at sea on its way to Hong Kong. Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “You can’t strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.”

We attended a couple of lectures in the morning. Destination Lecturer Dr Jay Wolff gave the first lecture. The topic of his presentation was “The Exodus From Egypt.”. It was quite an interesting presentation and Dr. Wolff continues to amaze the audience with the ability to tell a story while sharing a good deal of information.

Diplomat Tex Harris gave the second presentation. The topic of his presentation was “New Leaders and Old Problems”. Mr. Harris mainly outline the challenges in Iraq and mainly touched on three different options.

Between these two presentations Anne Marie attended the needlepoint handout where she receive another nice needlepoint kit from the Crystal Activities Hostess.

We then enjoyed a nice lunch in the Main Dining Room. After lunch we took a nice long walk on the Promenade Deck.

This evening we attended the Captain’s welcome reception. We had a wonderful time and it was so nice to see everyone dressed up in their formal attire. During the reception we learned that there are a total of 673 passengers on board the ship with a crew of 650. That is a ratio of almost 1 crew member per passenger. Wow!

This evening was the Captain’s Gala Dinner. There were lots of wonderful choices on the menu.

Appetizers included a choice of four items. Caviar accompanied by traditional items such as sour cream, chopped eggs, onions and melba toast and buckwheat blinis, truffled chicken liver parfait, baked oysters and tropical fruits.

Soup and Salads included several choices such as cappuccino of wild forest mushrooms, clear oxtail soup, and a captain’s salad.

There was a nice Pasta Special of handmade goat cheese ravioli, and a nice Salad Entrée of beef tenderloin salad.

The Main Fares include four choices. They were Lobster, Halibut Fillet, Chateaubriand, or Stuffed, Marinated Bakes Quail.

There were many nice side orders to choose from.

For the Sweet Finale there were a couple of special desserts including “Sugar Mill” which was butterscotch pudding with citrus shortbread and “Harlequin” which was chocolate melt cake a la mode, dark and white chocolate mousses bomb, and bittersweet chocolate sabayon. Yes, no calories. ☺

There were also two sugar-free desserts and there were seven classic desserts to choose from.

For those who wanted to end their meal with some cheese from the cheese trolley there was a choice of triple cream blue, blue opal brie, le brin, langres, caprice des dieux and manchega cheeses to choose from. Each evening the dining room offers several different cheeses to choose from.

We always eat in the Main Dining Room for the first formal night and then on some of the other formal nights we will either eat in the Main Dining Room or one of the Specialty Restaurants.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal in the Main Dining Room. Formal nights are always quite elegant throughout the ship, and this evening was no exception.

After dinner, we stopped by the second seating of the Captain's reception to say hello to our fellow passengers who eat in the late seating.

Keith & Anne Marie


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Mumbai, India Day 2

NOTE: The first picture is an example of the many cabs that are available in Mumbai. There are around 50,000 cabs in this city. Many of these cabs are quite old, but they are kept up in great condition.

The second picture is one of the shops set up at the pier.

This morning marks the conclusion of segment six of our World Cruise adventure. During this segment, we sailed from Singapore to Mumbai India. We sailed a total distance of 3,345 nautical miles or the equivalent of 3,846 land miles. We have had the opportunity to visit a very diverse set of ports in a very short timeframe. It is amazing to think that we began this segment in Singapore where one will receive a fine should they litter the streets and everything is safe and clean and housing is provided for every citizen. This is a sharp contrast to where we ended the segment in Mumbai, where almost one-third of those people live here are in poverty and portions of the city are in disarray. We will carry with us memories of the places we have visited which will last a lifetime.

We want to note that while we saw a vast amount of poverty in Mumbai there are some very nice places in this city as well. This include a variety of historical buildings that have very traditional and worldly architecture and there are new building, both residential condominiums & apartments and office buildings that appeared to be quite nice. While eating off the ship does not interest us, some of our fellow passengers had nice experiences in some of the restaurants and some offered service of a much higher standard than one would find in the USA.

At the same time there is clearly an emerging economy in India and one that many of us are very familiar with given the outsourcing that is taking place from USA and European companies over to India. This is doing wonders to expand the middle class in man parts of India.

We met many nice people during our stay in Mumbai. The people who we interacted with appeared to be well spoken, highly educated, and showed a lot of pride. There are many nice traditions in this country, particularly those in the middle, upper middle and upper classes.

Clearly, every country has a difference in culture. For example, in India to get things done does require negotiation and sometime giving something of value to obtain a particular service whether from private or even government run institutions. That is the way of life for these people just as many of us in the USA have our own culture that differs from other places around the world.

There are many wonderful areas in India and like any large country there are the good points along with the points not so good.

India does have challenges. They are divided into many states where there are many dialects. The language of one area cannot be understood by another area, so English is a critical language to bridge the communication gap amongst its diverse population.

The other challenge is the poverty that exists here. It is not isolated to Mumbai and because of the sheer volume of those who live in this country it is more of a problem. We now understand why people get concerned when they here the estimates for population growth in a city like Mumbai which is already overcrowded and has lots of issues to deal with.

We are glad that we had the opportunity to see two ports of call in India.

Today the new segment (segment 7) of the World Cruise got underway.

This afternoon new passengers embarked the cruise ship. As part of this segment we will sail from Mumbai, India to Civitavecchia, (gateway port for Rom) Italy. We will stop in Salalah, Oman, Safaga, Egypt; Alexandria, Egypt; Agios Nikolaos (Crete), Greece, and Catania and Naples, Italy. At the same time we will enjoy eight sea days including our transit thru the Suez Canal.

We slept very well last evening and we woke early this morning. We began our day by working out in the Fitness Center. Yes, Keith was the first to arrive at the Fitness Center and Anne Marie arrived a short time later. We enjoyed an excellent workout. The only passengers working out while we were there was the two of us plus John. Keith spoke with John for a few minutes and after our workout we saw John and his lovely wife Linda at the Lido Café. They are both such wonderful people and we are so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to sail with them on both this years and last years World Cruise. Since Mary was on yesterdays all day tour of the Taj Mahal she was not up at the Fitness Center while we were there but as we were retuning to our room we ran into her. We spent a few minutes talking with her and we told her about our day in Mumbai yesterday and she told us about her tour of the Taj Mahal. Her tour sounded wonderful and hopefully one day we will have the opportunity to visit this city.

We then went back to our room to enjoy a great breakfast.

Like many of our fellow passengers, we decided not to go into town today. We felt that we had a nice overview of Mumbai yesterday and really saw no point going out on our own. Some passengers were going back to places such as the Taj Mahal hotel to pick up clothing items that they had ordered that were custom made for them. As was the case in Hong Kong, you can order certain items in these shops that will be made for you overnight and will be available sometime the next day.

We decided to spend part of the morning walking around the pier. We visited some of the shops that were set up in the pier area that sold a variety of items.

The cruise ship called The World was also in port having arrived here late yesterday so we walked over to that ship. We last saw this ship during our stay in Rio, Brazil last year. This is the ship that sold condominium apartments. Passengers sailing on this ship include those who own their respective apartments, those who rent from owners and also those who book directly through the cruise line operator to stay in units that have not been sold. This ship sails around the world and usually will spend several days in a particular port of call rather than just one day or an overnight. We tried to walk over to the ship, but couldn’t find a direct way over there and we were leery about the area that we would need to walk through in order to navigate our way over to the ship.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the dining room. We sat at our regular table that we eat at in the evening. We were given complimentary flutes of champagne to toast the continuation of our world cruise adventure.

This afternoon we also enjoyed a very nice walk on the Promenade Deck of the ship. We could see many ships in the harbor and we had a nice view of the Cruise Ship; The World. We also could see many buildings that were afar.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Main Dining Room. Afterwards, we attended the Welcome Aboard Show and enjoyed all of the dancing and singing that was part of the show. We also saw a very nice couple who we met on this ship in 2005, and who were also on the full World Cruise this year, who surprised most of us by booking the last two segments of this years world cruise.

This evening we set our clocks back thirty minutes which will be the last time during this cruise where clocks are adjusted in thirty minute increments.

We are glad that we have had the opportunity to visit Mumbai. This is certainly quite a unique city of the world. Our hearts go out to the less fortunate individuals who live here and in other parts of the world where each day is a struggle to just survive for many people.

This next segment of the cruise will bring many ports that we had the opportunity to visit during last years World Cruise. Other than visiting the two ports in Hawaii, up until now all of the ports of call that we visited were new to us, with the exception of Hong Kong which Keith had previously visited on business. On this next we will see for the first time are Crete, Greece, which is also a maiden voyage for Crystal Cruises. We will also dock in an area in Sicily that is a different port from the one that we docked in last year. Most other ports we will visit for the second time, with the exception of Naples and Civitavecchia, (gateway port to Rome), Italy which we have visited numerous times. We look forward to seeing all of these ports and continuing our World Cruise Adventure.

Keith & Anne Marie

Mumbai, India

NOTE:

Photo 1 is a Beggar with carrying baby.

Photo 2 is the outside of the Taj Mahal Hoel.

Photo 3 is a Shanti.

Photo 4 is one of three synagogues that we visited during our tour of Mumbai.

Today we visited our second port of call in India; Mumbai (Bombay), India. The ship will stay in this city overnight. Tomorrow morning this sixth segment of the World Cruise will end. With the conclusion of this segment, some passengers will depart the ship in the morning while new guests will be joining the ship starting at 12:00 Noon.

Mumbai is a heavily populated city and the standard of living for its residents varies widely. There are some who live a very lavish lifestyle and are reaping the benefits of the emerging economy in India. Others are less fortunate but live a comfortable life while many others live in poverty. For those who live in poverty it is well below what most of us think of. For many of those in poverty they literally live on the streets and sidewalks. Over the years many people have moved to Mumbai from the countryside hoping to find a better way of life only to quickly learn that live is not any better for them. With high growth expected to continue over the first half of this century and limited space, Mumbai will continue to be very challenged in the foreseeable future.

We have to say that during our visit we saw some of the worst living conditions that we have ever witnessed first hand given the magnitude of the people living in poverty. It is estimated that of the 18 million people living in this city, that five million people live in poverty. In addition to people living in boxes, we saw people sleeping on tables as well as sleeping on sidewalks. Unlike homeless people in various cities around the world, we are talking about an enormous number of people essentially living in filth. In addition to seeing so many people living on the street, there are many more who live in shanties that looked like they were falling apart.

During our drive around the city we saw both parts of Mumbai. We did see many nice areas with beautiful buildings, both traditional and modern, and we saw many other areas that looked like the remnants from a war. Everywhere we looked there were people begging, but far worse than we have ever seen in all of our travels. More on this in a moment.

Mumbai offers those visiting this city much to see. There are a variety of attractions which include;

Gateway to India. This is the most recognizable remnant of the British Raj. The Gateway was completed by the British in 1924 and was the final departure point when the British left Indian soil in 1947.

Elephant Island Cave. In 1987, this site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mani Bhavan Gandhi Musueum. Mahatma Gandhi lived in this home from 1917 to 1934. It contains a library of Ghandhi related works.

Marine Drive. This drive was build in 1920 and is recommended as a nice place to take a long walk in order to get a good perspective of Mumbai.

Jain Temple. This is a nice temple to visit to get a nice introduction to Jainism and Hinduism.

Taj Mahal Hotel. One of many impressive hotels situated in the city of Mumbai. This hotel was build just over a century ago. It is a well-known place to stay or to just visit while in Mumbai. It is also home to an impressive array of stores.

Due to low tides, we docked in Mumbai prior to 3:00 AM this morning. We woke early and worked out in the Fitness Center and then we enjoyed a nice breakfast in our room.

Before we went ashore, each passenger on board the ship had to attend a mandatory Indian immigration inspection. This inspection was very orderly. For those of us on tours, we were asked to show up for this inspection at a specified time based on the starting time of our respective tour. All other passengers were asked to show up at a specified time based on the first letter of their last name. When we finished breakfast we went over to the inspection area at around 6:25 AM and we were given our passport along with a landing card to take with us to the front of the room to show one of the Indian inspection agents. There was somewhere between 12-15 inspection agents and there were no lines so we each immediately walked up to an available agent who looked at our passport and stamped the yellow landing card. As we left the lounge, we turned in our returned our passport and kept the yellow card. Those passengers leaving the ship tomorrow morning in Mumbai, along with those passengers going to the Taj Mahal today or those passengers who needed their passport to exchange money in port could hold onto their passports. We preferred to return our passport as we didn’t want to take a chance of losing it or having it stolen while we were off the ship.

All in all the process took about two or three minutes. Our hats off to both Crystal and to the Inspection Agents for handling this so efficiently.

The tour that we booked for today was called Mumbai’s Jewish Heritage. Crystal always provides an escort or more than one escort for each tour depending on the size of the group. The escort keeps count of those on the tour to make sure we don’t leave anyone behind, ensures that the tour follows the tour itinerary, acts as the Crystal Representative should any issues arrive, carries a ships medical kit should someone need assistance and provides feedback to the Crystal Shore Excursion Staff about the tour. The Rabbi and his lovely wife escorted those on our tour today, which was wonderful.

When we boarded the tour bus our tour guide stressed several items to us. She noted that each time we got off the bus in many areas that we would be confronted with beggars of all ages, including children and also women with babies. She warned us that under no circumstances were we to give them money, talk with them or buy anything from them. It was not too long after that when we realized she had given us great advice.

Our tour began with a chance to see the Gateway of India. The site was built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary. As soon as we got off the tour bus we were swarmed by beggars and our tour guide had to gently tap one of them to get them to leave the tour group alone. She also told us that at times one may need to yell at them to tell them to get away from us.

We then visited the Knesseth Eliahod Synagogue. This Synagogue was built in 1884. When we arrived here a service was just finishing up.

We then continued our tour where we passed by the David Sasson Library. This very large and impressive library was built in 1847 and was built by the same family that built the Knesseth Eliahod Synagogue.

Our next visit was to the Magen David Synagogue, which was built in 1861. The size of this synagogue is immense and it is the largest synagogue in all of Asia.

We then had the opportunity to visit our third synagogue of the day called the Magen Hassidin Synagogue. This synagogue was constructed in 1904 and has the largest congregation of Jews in Mumbai. We learned that almost all of the Jewish marriages and bar mitzvahs take place at this synagogue.

During our tour we learned that after World War II there were about 20,000 Jewish people in Mumbai. Today, there are only about 5,000 Jews living in all of India, of which, approximately 4,000 Jewish people live in Mumbai. There are nine synagogues in Mumbai.

We also had the opportunity to observe the local laundry also called the dhobi ghats. It is hard to imagine but each day laundry is washed in this area from all over Mumbai where it is soaped, soaked, boiled, beaten and thrashed and the next day the laundry is delivered to its owner. Approximately, 10,000 men work there and the operation is open seven days a week from daylight to dusk. It is all done outdoors.

We also learned that there is another business, which employs about 5,000 people. This involves the delivery of hot lunches from ones home to the office they work at in Mumbai. The way it works is either someone at your home or someone else makes the lunch for you and then it is picked up later in the morning from one of these men. In turn, it is transported by train but is handled on average by about fifteen different men as they consolidate the deliveries between various train stations until it ready for pickup at the closest train station. You can either pick up the lunch or for a slightly higher cost have it delivered to your office so that you can eat lunch at around 1:00 PM.

Before we got back to the ship, we stopped by a couple of markets for shopping and we also dropped off some fellow passengers who wanted to visit the Taj Mahal Hotel.

During some of our stops, we were told not to take anything off the bus except for our cameras. Every stop we made, we encountered many beggars. Some would try to touch you to catch you off guard. We have encountered gypsies over the years and other beggars but we have never experienced anything like this.

When we got back to the ship, we enjoyed a nice lunch that we had pre-ordered this morning.

We decided to go over to the Taj Mahal Hotel to see the hotel and to see the shops inside it. We were warned about the cab drivers so it took us awhile to negotiate with the cab drivers. We just wanted a cab to take us from the pier over to the hotel, one way, with no side trips to other stores. We were quoted a variety of prices. While there were several taxicab drivers at the pier, we soon learned that our best bet was to walk a few minutes out of the pier to what is known as the Green Gate where other taxis would be available. The drivers outside the gate were easier to negotiate with.

We quickly settled on a price that we knew was fair and we were driven to the hotel. Our driver wanted to wait for us but we truly didn’t know how long we would be so we told him not to wait for us. During our time at the hotel we saw several passengers from the ship. Some had been there to shop, while others were there to eat lunch while others were there to eat and shop.

There were several places where you could order men’s custom shirts, dinner jackets, tuxedos, suits and other clothing while there were other places where one could order women’s dresses, full length gowns, tops, pants and other custom items. There were other places featuring clothing ready for purchase in a variety of sizes while also offering the opportunity to make custom fit items. There were other stores featuring an assortment of other items from shoes to shawls, along with jewelry stores. We walked aruod around for about an hour and one half. One of the hotel doormen helped get us get a taxicab and this time around we had a very easy time in negotiating our fare and we had a very nice driver who did not try to play games with us about going shopping elsewhere. On our way back to the ship he pointed out some sites along the way. On a related note, before our tour ended our tour guide had pointed out the streets we would take to get from the Taj Mahal Hotel back to the cruise ship and she said to be alert so we didn’t end up taking a four hour drive with stops at many stores. The game here is that the drivers can make money from storeowners by getting you to look at their stores. This was also the case in our last stop in Cochin, India.

When we got out of the taxicab, we were once again confronted with several people begging. It is all so very sad. We then walked around the cruise ship terminal area to look at some of the items being sold there. We also noticed that there is another ship in port, which we believe is the Silversea Whisper. The Whisper carries approximately 350 passengers.

Much of what we were told about Mumbai was true. There really are some very interesting areas to see along with several beautiful areas of the city. We saw many buildings with very traditional looking architecture. Some people who live here are doing very well and are living a wonderful standard of life. Those people make relatively good money, have good jobs, live in nice places, dress well, and live the good life.

We met many nice people in the stores, and as part of today’s tour. They were very polite, well educated, and nice to talk with.

At the same time, in sheer magnitude, this is the largest amount of poverty that we have ever seen. As we said, parts of the city looked like it had been ravaged by war. Millions of people living in one city in such poor conditions is difficult to imagine but this is the reality of this city. A good portion of the city was chaotic.

We will likely be haunted by memories of what we saw today for quite some time. We saw families living on the street, young children looking very dirty and begging along with women holding little babies (much more intense than say the Gypsies in Europe) who were also begging. Words cannot adequately describe what we witnessed today. To think that so many people who live in India continue to move here from various locations around the country for the better life, only to settle here and not find any work is truly amazing. This city has too many people at this very moment and the numbers are projected to continue to increase.

Today, we are reminded of how diverse this world is. We are also reminded of how fortunate so many of us are. Yes, those in Mumbai who are in the middle, upper middle and upper classes do have a lot of opportunity and overtime will likely do very well, live comfortably and continue to improve their overall standard of living as part of the emerging economy within India. At the same time, so many of those living in he slums of Mumbai have little to no chance of success and that is a very sad fact of life.

We are glad that we had the opportunity to visit this city. However, this is one city that we would not want to visit as part of a land vacation given what we encountered today. We are very lucky that we can visit a city like this knowing that we don’t have to live here.

This evening we reflected over what we have seen today during dinner. Some of our fellow passengers are eating in town this evening, but not us. We enjoyed a nice dinner in the Main Dining Room and talked between ourselves about what we had witnessed today.

Keith & Anne Marie

En Route To Mumbain

NOTE:

First picture is Anne Marie with Deck Steward Clark.

Second picture is Anne Marie with Bar Steward Brian.

Third picture is Anne Marie & Keith.


This morning we woke early and began our day with a nice workout in the Fitness Center. Keith worked out on his favorite Elliptical Machine and Anne Marie enjoyed a nice workout on the Treadmill. As he does on most days, Keith enjoyed a nice conversation with Mary. John was also working out along with just a couple of other people. There were far fewer guests working out today as there have been on any day of this segment of the World Cruise. This might be because some were up later than usual attending last evenings party, the NCAA Basketball Final (more on that in a moment) and some will be packing today as this segment comes to a conclusion the day after tomorrow.

After our workout, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in our room. We learned from our butler that instead of him going on holiday at the end of this segment of the World Cruise that he will be staying on for another seven days or so of the next cruise segment. We are happy that he will be on board for an additional week as he is wonderful. We greatly appreciate all that he does for us.

Today, we have a full day at sea as we cruise to Mumbai, India. Since today is a sea day there were lots of activities taking place throughout the ship.

Captain Glenn noted during his morning announcement that if we followed the arrival schedule for Mumbai that we due to the tides that we would only have one foot of water underneath the keel of the ship, so instead the plan is for the Pilot to come on board tomorrow morning at 2:00 AM and for our ship to dock by 3:00 AM. Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “To the world you maybe one person, but to the one person you maybe the world.” Another wonderful thought of the day that we can all relate to.

Keith played table tennis with several people this morning, including the Jazz Piano Player who has been on this segment of the cruise. He also had the opportunity to play against a passenger on this segment of the cruise who is 81 years “young” and has to be the best player Keith has ever played against. It was like playing against Forest Gump. The man was amazing.

Crystal made special arrangements to get the feed of the NCAA Basketball Final for the guests to watch. The game was available for viewing in the Hollywood Theatre, which is a room mainly used to show movies and to host some of the lectures. Coffee, Danish and Juice were available. It’s not everyday that one can watch the NCAA Finals between 6:30 AM and 9:00 AM as we could. ☺ We also could watch the game in our room which we did as we ate our breakfast. Congratulations to Kansas for winning the game and congratulation to both Kansas and to Memphis for making it to the championship game and for making it an exciting game to watch.

Later in the morning, destination lecturer Dr. Wolff presented “Gandhi.” His presentation covered Mohandas K. Gandhi. As usual, Dr. Wolff gave another outstanding presentation. All of Dr. Wolff’s presentations have been wonderful.

We also attended a presentation given by author, professor and television personality, Dr. Harm de Blij. The topic of his presentation was “Failed States, Hot Spots and WMD’s: Strategies for the Future.” He covered a variety of areas around the world and then spent the last portion of the presentation talking about India, the potential of continued improved relationships with the USA, and the challenges that India has with many of its neighbors.

At noon we enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the Main Dining Room. At the same time, there was an American Classic Buffet lunch being served in the Lido Café. Once again, we sat at a table where we were served by the Senior Waiter and Waiter who we have in the evening.

This evening is the last Formal night of this segment of the World Cruise. Before dinner, we attended the Captain’s Farewell Reception. We sat with several of our fellow passengers who we sit with at each of these receptions.

After this reception, we ate dinner by ourselves at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, with wonderful service.

We are looking forward to tomorrow when we have the opportunity to see first hand Mumbai.

Keith & Anne Marie