Laurel Dauer 3/27/25 Laurel Dauer 3/27/25

Sea Day #1 Atlantic Ocean

March 27, 2025

Tod’s been fighting off a cold, and today was the day he decided to just hang out in the stateroom and get better. I’m kind of surprised we’ve been so healthy up until this point. In anticipation of contracting some sort of upper respiratory infection, I packed an elaborate bunch of over the counter pharmaceuticals so hopefully neither of us will suffer too much.

Tomorrow, the most exotic stop on the trip - Namibia.

Laurel Dauer 3/27/25 Laurel Dauer 3/27/25

Cape Town, South Africa Day #2

March 26, 2025

This day would mark our most anticipated tour and the halfway point in our cruise. Luckily, we woke to beautiful clear skies and great views of famous Table Mountain! We were destined to catch a bus at 9AM for a 2 ½ hour drive north to the Aquila Private Game Reserve. Because all the typical African animals have been hunted to near extinction in South Africa, it’s up to these private reserves to help educate people and hopefully reintroduce them. We knew going in that it wouldn’t be the adventure of the famous Kruger National Park, but that was a flight and several thousand dollars away, so we opted for something more accessible and admittedly a bit tamer.

Our drive began on one of the country’s beautiful motorways and it was at our halfway rest stop when the topography really started to change. The scenery was breathtaking as we wound our way through countless miles of steep verdant mountains with thousands of acres of vineyards. The grapes grown were about half for wine and the rest were table grapes, primarily of the “cotton candy” variety. (If you’ve never tried the cotton candy grape, they are delicious AND developed in Bakersfield, CA!)

It was easy to I see why all these farms and wineries might not want elephants, rhinos, springbok and wildebeest trampling around their vineyards. I guess these creatures are on reserves to stay. As for the rest of the surrounding scenery, as we got closer to the reserve I harkened back to the old Tarzan movies from the Saturday matinees at the Magnolia theater in the 60’s. It seemed that Tarzan was always going to, meeting someone at or avoiding “the escarpment”. As it turns out that was a very true to life depiction of South Africa because we must have passed dozens of massive escarpments on the way. The most famous being of course was Table Mountain.

We arrived at the busy private reserve and had a lovely lunch before being ushered onto our safari vehicles. Again, I’ll let the pictures tell the story, but the incredible memories will stay with us forever.

We reached the ship with not much time to spare before all aboard. We found South Africa absolutely breathtaking, but a somewhat confusing amalgam of cultures. It has certainly had its social challenges over the last 400 years and it didn’t appear to us that they will be solved anytime soon. We loved the time we spent in SA and would recommend the experience to anyone, but we won’t be in a hurry to return.

View of Table Mountain and Lions Head from the rear window of the bus

Male springbok that just got booted from the herd because he lost out to a bigger, tougher guy per the guide

White rhinos - Mom, 3 year old son and 3 month old baby. All wild rhinos are getting caught now, having their tusks cut off and re-released to save them from poaching

Mr. Tough Guy - not nearly as tough as he looks… We actually caught him as he’s about ready to yawn!

Two of the three Mrs. Lions. They are expecting cubs soon from one of them.

You can see the sharp contrast from our pals in Sri Lanka

Baboon. Apparently they wreak a lot of havoc for farmers

Back on the ship to sunset, Table Mountain and Lion’s Head. I don’t see the lion but I’ve determined I’m not very good at recognizing things I should supposedly see! ;)

Laurel Dauer 3/27/25 Laurel Dauer 3/27/25

Cape Town, South Africa

March 25, 2025

We must have pulled into our moorage very early this morning because when we got up at 6:30AM, we were already tied to the dock. We stepped out onto our balcony and could look down to see the “Cape Town Cruise Terminal” sign. The weather was clear but regrettably there were low hanging clouds over what we assumed must be the famous Table Mountain. Although it looked like it would start pouring rain any minute, the forecast on my weather app predicted no precipitation. I thought it must be like San Francisco where most days it looks like it will rain until the clouds burn away.

Our adventure for today was to go in search of South African penguins. I’ve been a huge fan of these little black and white birds my whole life and was thrilled to finally be able to see them in the wild. We boarded another giant bus that was only half full and had a marvelous tour guide, a tiny lady not much younger than me. We never learned her name, so I’ll just refer to her as TG. Off we set through the morning traffic which was absolutely dreadful, but luckily, we were going against the commute. TG said that there is very little public transportation in the city and private taxis, and Uber is prevalent. The typical commute she says is about 2 hours (!).

Soon we were speeding down the freeway as she continued to point out various points of interest. Sadly, the famous Table Mountain was not to be seen today but that was ok because we had 2 days in Cape Town and today was a mission to see penguins. After about half an hour we turned south down the Cape Peninsula where the terminus is the Cape of Good Hope, the point where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet. About halfway down the peninsula, we turned to a place called Boulder’s Beach. The bus parked and we climbed down (and I do mean climb, these buses are so high!) to start our walk to the penguins in a national park. We walked through a bunch of locals selling their wares, like beautiful carvings of African animals and the like. Soon we made it to the park and the first creatures we saw were Hyrex. They are cute little furry creatures that reminded me of prairie dogs except slightly bigger and chubbier. They were scattered all over the sand dunes and would stop, stare and then go about their business. TG said one of their closest relatives was the African Elephant. Wait, What?? I googled it and she was right according to Wikipedia. Somewhere a few million years ago, their genetic paths diverted and so there you go. She said you could see the resemblance which I couldn’t, so I’ll take her word for it.

We continued zig zagging down a path through some white sand dunes and soon, there were the penguins and they certainly did not disappoint! In total we saw 100 or more in various stages of penguiness! Some were nesting, some had little gray babies, some were bickering with each other, some were just wandering around aimlessly, and dozens were in the water bobbing amongst the kelp beds. I was so thrilled I actually got a little choked up! They were everything I had hoped them to be.

The Cape Penguins average about 6 pounds and are about 2 feet tall. They mate for life, so if they lose their mate, they tend to wander around by themselves. When they molt (lose all their feathers to replace with new ones) they’re not waterproof anymore so must just stand on the beach until the new feathers come in. Apparently, they gain a bunch of weight before this, because they can’t go in the water for their usual diet of fish and squid for a full 3 weeks.

They are the most critically endangered penguin according to TG because too many illegal fishermen are catching all their food about 20 miles offshore. But the great news is that within the last week, the government has banned all the fishing that endangers them. I certainly hope so!

I was absolutely besotted with them. We literally could have pulled up a chair and watched them for hours. After a half an hour, reluctantly we headed with the group back to the bus and off we went to a very cute little coastal enclave called Kalk Bay. It was built at the base of a mountainside and was reminiscent of any number of funky little beach towns you see on the California coast. There were lots of Victorian style buildings and charm. We wandered around for a bit shopping in a few bohemian shops and then sat down for iced coffees. Since it is fall, it wasn’t crowded, but you could see it had the capacity to cater to tons of tourists.

We returned to the ship about noon, and decided to eat a quick lunch and take a short break before heading back out. We were going to try to catch the “hop on hop off” bus that circles around the city with narration by earphones in 20+ languages.

Soon we were climbing on the bus, and climbed to the 2nd level which was open air. Because Tod had the sniffles, we sat toward the front where we were sheltered from the wind. Although it was brilliant sunshine, there was a chilly breeze blowing. Off we left the Victoria and Alfred (not Albert) dock area and set out for our city tour. Wow – what a gorgeous city! It had the cold breezes and architecture of San Franciso, dramatic coastline of Big Sur, the beaches of LA and the drama of the mountains of Salt Lake City all rolled into one. This is where we saw the “haves” in that I can’t even dream what some of these houses and apartments must cost to own. We were very impressed but could only imagine how much more beautiful it would have been without the clouds. Yet we wondered how often the wind must blow there considering how a lot of trees were tilting. The residents of these upscale neighborhoods driving the Porsches and Ferraris were all white. Since there were many of these quite populous communities on the ocean, we found it interesting since the white population is 4-7% in this city of 5,000,000.

It took us 1 ½ hour to do the loop and although we did have a stop at the base of the Table Mountain tramway, it was closed due to winds. Sometimes it’s hard to remember it is the beginning of Autumn here.

Very satisfied with our couple of tours and since we had an overnight in the city, we decided to take the time to visit the Victoria and Alfred dock area before we headed back on board. It was a lovely place, peppered with the usual waterfront type restaurants and shops. It was nice to see a few natives selling some of their wares in the upscale shops. One artist I really liked was selling beautiful things that he had made from recycled flip-flops. We found a large pharmacy and picked up a few things and then headed back to the ship and dinner. If we had been 50 something rather than 70 something, we probably would have sat outside at one of the trendy restaurants, drank wine, ate a great meal and watched the world go by. We didn’t because we weren’t but still we were happy return to our room and process another incredible day.

Nesting area, note hyrex scampering by

Joe Cool showing off his feathers to a molting friend to his right

View of downtown from the base Table Mountain tramway stop

Shimansky is a huge jeweler and diamond dealer. They had a diamond museum we’d have liked to see but so little time…

This is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. We would have liked to go here too.

Laurel Dauer 3/24/25 Laurel Dauer 3/24/25

Sea Day #6 Indian Ocean

March 24, 2025

It was another great sea day. We’re definitely feeling the chillier weather now and we even ran into some fog today. It’s actually probably not unlike what is happening off the coast of San Francisco now.

There was lots of hub-bub on the ship today because most of the Australians and New Zealanders are getting off in Cape Town. Our waiter tonight said that about 400 people are getting off and only about 50 are boarding. He said it will be like a “ghost ship”. We say WOO HOO!

So as a little aside ship gossip: apparently a bunch of people on our hippo tour were really mad that they didn’t take us to see the crocs! Also that the “tour guide” didn’t function as one. Anyway, we got a 25% refund! We were just happy to see the hippos but then again Tod did miss seeing at least one of the 2000…. I guess it pays to complain!

Laurel Dauer 3/24/25 Laurel Dauer 3/24/25

Sea Day #5 Indian Ocean

March 23, 2025

It was great to have a break today. There’s not much to report except we notice the temperature dropping and had to put on long pants today for the first time!

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Durban, South Africa

March 22, 2025

In sharp contrast to the coal dust of yesterday, we woke up to a lovely view of the Durban waterfront, cloudless skies and the beautiful new Nelson Mandela cruise terminal. In terms of our shore excursions, I had booked us to visit “Monkeyland”, a monkey sanctuary in the forest that was advertised to “foster greater understanding of monkeys”. Considering our experience in Malaysia, I reasoned that perhaps we just needed a monkey attitude adjustment.

So early in the morning, off we went on another beautiful new and spacious bus for a ride through the city and north up the coast and inland to Monkeyland. Unlike yesterday, we had a very sweet and licensed (at least she wore a uniform) tour guide who jumped right in and jabbered for the entire hour and a half it took to get there. The problem was that although her English was perfect, she spoke really fast and the inflections in her narration made her difficult to understand.

Case in point, in American English one would respond to a question where one didn’t know the answer with the response, “I don’t KNOW” with the emphasis on the know. In South African English, she would have responded “I DON’T know” with the emphasis on the don’t. Anyway, she did her best, but I think all of us Americans only caught about half of what she was saying.

What I did understand was that we were in the province of Kwa-Zulu-Natal. What was interesting is that not only is there a regular provincial governor but also a Zulu king and they rule together in a coalition. This all started in the ‘90s at the end of Apartheid. A way I thought about it was it would be as if the Governor of Arizona and the Chief of the Navajo Nation (which lies almost exclusively in Arizona) co-governed the State. She went on at length about how deeply Zulu traditions lie in the province and described some of them, with us only understanding about 50%.

Regardless, I gleaned that Durban has a population of 3,000,000 and is the 3rd largest city in South Africa, behind Johannesburg and Cape Town, but they are all very similar in size. It has the world’s largest population of Indians outside of India, which is a result of the “imported labor” that occurred in the 1800’s. The city has beautiful high rises and some well-maintained colonial buildings, yet it also has its share of run-down areas. Tod and I both remarked it reminded us of Oakland, CA. They had a stunning soccer stadium that was erected for the 2010 World Cup and a breathtaking shoreline of extensive sandy beaches. I heard someone say it was akin to the Miami of South Africa, and we concurred.

Driving through the rolling hills with the lush green fields was not unlike driving through rural England until you looked closer and saw instead of grass, the fields were all sugarcane. Sprinkled amongst them we saw lots of macadamia nut orchards. Like Richards Bay, we saw pretty little farms and then some that weren’t as well kept. On the coast side there were considerable “upscale” neighborhoods as she described them with huge houses in gated communities. However, close to Durban the neighborhoods were not unlike nice ones you’d see in the UK or Europe.

We continued for about an hour and then we turned onto a local road. This is where we saw our first “township” which is typically an underdeveloped area with minimal if any infrastructure Historically, townships were where non-whites were forced to live during the Apartheid era but now it appeared to be more like we would call an expansive homeless encampment. I’m not sure if this one was a historical one or more recent, but regardless, it was obviously where very poor people lived. It was I guess about 5,000 people living in hovels 50 some miles from Durban proper. It was our first real glimpse at abject poverty as opposed to just observing the typical “haves and have nots” that you would find in any city in the US.

After a bumpy ride on the backroads, we arrived at the entrance to Monkeyland. At this point we were ushered off our bus and directed to 9 passenger “safari vehicles” that were 4 x 4’s and road so high off the ground we had to board via a platform. Off we went about 2 miles up to the sanctuary that was high in the forest.

There we met our local guide who gave us tons of monkey information before we entered the fenced area for our one hour walk. He explained the difference between “old world monkeys” and “new world monkeys” of which I had zero knowledge, and the discovered the difference is huge. This sanctuary is dedicated to the rescue of any kind of monkey or lemur. They come from primarily zoos or people who have tried to raise them and as a result they were imprinted and could not be released into the wild. He emphasized that this was NOT a breeding program and that they are therefore all neutered. Phew! He referred to the sanctuary as basically a retirement home for the primates.

Our walk turned into more of a forest climb for about a mile, carefully dodging roots, mud and giant hanging vines ala Tarzan. This was clearly not the jungles one normally thinks about in Africa, but a picturesque woodland. It gave us a new and different perspective on the African landscape that we had yet to experience. Having the monkeys and lemurs climbing above us with their background noises really gave us the African experience we had always hoped to encounter. It also unquestionably renewed our positive attitude about monkeys.

Back on the bus we retraced our route back and we were on the ocean side on the return. We passed through the resort town of Ballito known for its large pods of bottlenose dolphins and an excellent surf spot. The next 50 or so km we passed miles and miles of gorgeous beaches.

We got back to the ship around 2PM and since sail away wasn’t until 10:30PM that night, we decided to venture out into the community to pick up a few items. There were numerous warnings from the ship crew about how “dangerous” it was to go into Durban, but no one ever defined what the “danger” was. For heaven’s sake, we have both worked dozens of years in downtown Seattle, then Frankfurt and most recently Oakland and consequently have become reasonably savvy to urban threats. In addition, the people in Durban aren’t packing guns. We had no jewelry with us save my gold wedding band and small pearl stud earrings. If anyone mugged us, they wouldn’t get much. So, I looked up a shopping center that was about 6 miles away, showed it to the tour guide and asked if we’d be OK taking an Uber there and back. She said we’d be absolutely fine, so I hailed a ride to take us to the Southway Shopping Mall where they had a large “Checkers” grocery store and a pharmacy along with many other shops. Our driver came within 2 minutes and my only boo boo was to indicate our pickup point to be on the opposite side of the street from where we were standing because I was thinking in terms of right-hand drive. Hopping in a nice Kia, off we swept down the freeway to our destination. We did see dozens of cranes at the port and an enormous sugar processing and storage area. Shortly we arrived at the mall and easily found everything we needed including an ATM we felt secure in using. I was afraid we would completely stick out like the tourists we were but all the 3 stores we went to asked us for our number for their frequent buyer programs at check out. They all looked completely aghast when we said that no, we weren’t members. The last lady at the pharmacy offered to sign us up then and there but we had to tell her that we were just visitors. She asked from where, and we gave our stock answer that everyone understands (San Franciso) and by the look on her face we could tell they don’t get a lot of tourists at that mall.

Catching the ride back was as easy as coming and we collapsed on our bed about 4PM to rest up before dinner. We’re certainly looking forward to a couple of restful sea days before we arrive in Cape Town on the 25th for our next adventures!

Our guide explaining about the area. The electric wires are actually to keep other animals out because the monkeys and lemurs don’t want to leave. They get 2 feedings a day of fruit, nuts and chicken that is left on platforms for them to help themselves so they have no motivation to get out.

These howler monkeys scared the heck out of us. They say they can be heard for over a mile and I don’t doubt it!

Laurel Dauer 3/23/25 Laurel Dauer 3/23/25

Richards Bay, South Africa

March 21, 2025

We awoke today with a bit of trepidation, considering all the things we were warned about that could go wrong. Happily, the harbor pilot arrived by helicopter with no incident and huge lines causing a backlog with the immigration people didn’t materialize. Our day started out great, that is until we opened the curtains. We were met with the view of “thousands of tons” of coal per Tod the engineer. We were moored next to a coal loading area where dozens of trucks, railroad cars and heavy equipment were either loading or unloading ungodly amounts of coal. The prevailing wind seemed favorable to us until we walked down the gangway, and the dust kicked up in our faces. This was giving the odor of the tuna processing plant in the Seychelles a run for its money as to being unpleasant. Luckily, we had been wearing masks on all our excursions to fend off coughers, so we had them handy to put on as we searched for our bus to take us to Lake St. Lucia and the iSimangaliso wetlands, about 1 ½ hour ride up the coast to the north of us. The weather was stellar with bright sunshine through the dust and about 78F.

The bus was the nicest we’d had since we started our trip, with blasting AC and tons of leg room. We headed toward the back, took our places and prepared for our drive. Our “tour guide” was more like some guy that said something occasionally as opposed to the running commentary we’d had in past excursions. He didn’t really give us too much information about the area, but I did learn a few things between him and Wikipedia. The bajillion tons of coal that was being loaded was going to Europe. We passed countless miles of fields of super tall, thin “gum” (eucalyptus) trees originally brought over from Australia. They are grown now as a crop, live for about 6-10 years until they are cut and destined for a paper mill nearby. Other crops include sugar cane, cashews, avocados, bananas and pineapple. The main spoken language is Zulu by far (80%) although all the signs were in English. In this province called KwaZulu-Natal, the population is 85% black African, 9% Indian, White 4% and the rest is everyone else. These percentages pretty much reflect the entire country. *

It was a fascinating drive with our driver certainly not sparing the horses. The freeways were beautiful and in great condition. The landscape was very flat and many of the plants scattered along the highway were ones we would commonly find in California. I spotted 3 stunning South African ostriches that were jet black with their contrasting coveted white wing feathers grazing with about 5 horses in a pasture. For me this generated a “we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment. Then the guy confirmed my response by pointing to a small ridge and said casually that you could often see elephants up there. Everyone gasped, jumped to attention and pulled out their cameras in anticipation, but alas, no pachyderm sightings today as the driver continued bombing down the road at easily 80mph.

We turned off the freeway in about an hour to a local road that gave us a closer glimpse as to how the real locals lived. There were pleasant little homes and farms and some that were of the poorer variety but certainly nothing like the 3rd world types of houses we saw in Malaysia. High unemployment in the area necessitated people to sell fruits, vegetables and handmade items by the side of the road.

Soon we arrived at the embarkation point, and our dock and vessel were hidden behind 10-foot-high reeds. Everything appeared sturdy enough, but we did have a slight concern while boarding when we were instructed to write our names and indicate our “next of kin” contact information on a clipboard. We raised our eyebrows but no one else seemed concerned so we scratched each other’s names on the sheet and went to secure places near the front of the boat. Our skipper announced that not only was this home to the largest collection of hippos in SA, but there were also 2000 Nile crocodiles. Tod immediately whispered to me “but how do they KNOW there are 2000?” to which I rolled my eyes and shrugged. In addition, the skipper said, we were entering an estuary (where the fresh water of the river is met by sea water) so there was a regular influx of sharks with the tides. We looked at each other and gulped.

After a contingent of Americans from some land-based tour boarded, the engines started. The skipper gave a short “safety briefing” by pointing to some randomly scattered life preservers Tod estimated to be from the ‘80s stuffed at various spots and not nearly enough for all on board. He demonstrated how to put them over your head and how to tie them on. He then told us that the water was only a couple of meters deep so if anyone went overboard, just be sure to grab your cell phone and take a selfie because it was the last one you’d ever take. HARDEE HAR HAR! Everyone kind of looked at each with a nervous ‘heh, heh, heh’ and we puttered at a slow speed out into a wide channel lined on both sides with the giant reeds and palm trees. We both agreed it looked very similar to a scene straight out of the film “The African Queen”.

Before coming on the trip Tod had read that remarkably hippos kill more people in Africa annually than any other animal. Apparently, they come out of the water at night to graze and people who accidentally encounter them in the dark invariably experience a negative outcome.

Our 2-hour cruise was a fabulous and unforgettable experience! We didn’t see even one of the reported 2000 Nile crocodiles, but the 30 plus hippos we did see made up for it. We made it back to the ship without incident and I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

*It is impossible to set foot in South Africa for any length of time (or any country for that matter) without hearing a political opinion. Tod and I have currently given up politics and our abstinence will undoubtably extend far into the future. We have determined, to borrow from the film “Casablanca”, that our political opinions don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. ;)

Only a partial view of what we woke up to

Typical Zulu house. Most have the round outer houses which have spiritual significance.

Selling handmade baskets by the side of the road

View of the surrounding countryside. Most houses have these green rain catchment barrels

Mama and baby

We’re going to be mistaken for these guys if we don’t stop eating so much! lol

Laurel Dauer 3/20/25 Laurel Dauer 3/20/25

Sea Day #5 Indian Ocean

March 20, 2025

We woke up to another beautiful day, but I did hear some pattering of rain last night. The seas are calm again and I kind of miss the gentle rocking. Again, we were back down to the promenade deck where I spent a lot of time educating myself on the fine points of my iPhone 16 camera. I’m going to be taking a ton of pictures in the next few days, and I definitely want to make the most of its features. It just doesn’t seem that long ago I thought my 3 MP (megapixel) camera was the be all end all and now we’re up to 48 MP from a phone? Wow – what’s next? Portable x-rays? HAHA

We dock at Richards Bay, South Africa (SA) tomorrow and apparently, they are very fussy about a lot of things. Normally, when we stop at a port, the harbor pilot (the local guy that knows the harbor like the back of his hand) comes on a tugboat about a mile out to guide our captain into his designated dock at the port. It’s fun to watch the tug pull up and with perfect timing, the guy jumps on our ship. This process is repeated in reverse when we leave a port. Anyway, for some unknown reason (per the staff) SA requires the harbor pilot to arrive by helicopter. That means a huge undertaking for the staff because they must clear the entire bow or stern (whatever they are directed) and must prepare all emergency procedures in case there were to be a helicopter crash or mishap. I can’t say it gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling but not much we can do about it, so we’ll just relax (well, hopefully) as the “big bird” approaches tomorrow.

The next nit-picky issue is that every single person on this vessel, including all staff and even people not planning to go ashore must clear customs. We’ve never had to do this at any other port and have heard that this can cause a huge bottle neck and lots of hot tempers as people wait in line to get off. Again, it’s out of our control so no worries from us. It’s a first world problem, as the saying goes.

Off to Lake Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetlands cruise tomorrow. It is home to the largest concentration of hippos in SA (800) along with 2,000 Nile crocodiles. Needless to say, all things considered, it should be an interesting day!

Richard’s Bay is that little dip above Durban

Laurel Dauer 3/20/25 Laurel Dauer 3/20/25

Sea Day #4 - Indian Ocean

March 19, 2025

We woke up to sunshine and much calmer seas. We’re getting a routine going on these sea days. Since I’m not a morning person and Tod is raring to go at about 6 AM, he kindly runs up to the Buffet (called the Lido) which is right above us, first thing. He takes our large thermal mugs and gets himself some coffee (which he reports is very good) and me a big portion of orange juice, leaves it at my bedside while I snooze, and heads to the Crow’s Nest to listen to his book. Then, about an hour later when I am fully awake, he comes back down, grabs a tray and runs up again to the Lido to get us a couple bowls of oatmeal, brown sugar and almonds. There is so much food available that we have learned we must pace ourselves, or our clothes won’t fit by the time we’re done!

Since cruise buffets don’t provide trays, yet you can take food anywhere on the ship, I wanted to find a solution to sitting amongst a bunch of yakky people first thing in the morning. Before we left, I got a tip on a YouTube video to get a couple of cheap, small cafeteria type trays (on Amazon) along with a package of disposable shower hats and bring them on a cruise. Then you can run up to the Lido with your tray, take what you want and cover the plates with the shower caps, so people don’t cough on your meal as you return to your room. Yes, we could use room service but for breakfast that would mean having to put the order in the night before. Since we’re not sure when we’ll be up, it’s just much easier this way.

Regarding the food on the ship, I would say it was fine. There are hits and misses so it averages out to fine. There is plenty of variety and tons of fresh fruit and veg which is important to us. They make all their bread and pastries which are delicious and so fresh. It must be a challenge to please such a diverse group of palates. Lunch is usually a Cobb salad on our balcony and dinner is where we spend most of our calories. We have a set mealtime at 7:30PM in the dining room at a table for two by the windows. Four courses are the norm, but of course everything is small portions ;).

The promenade deck was back open, and we spent a very pleasant day, me knitting with headphones and music and Tod with his book or computer games. It’s so relaxing!

Tonight was “Orange Night”, a celebration of being Dutch with special drinks and Dutch snacks after dinner. They encourage you to wear something orange and to party hearty. I’m sure it was lots of fun, but not our type of scene. We came back to our room to find out we would gain another hour of sleep. These 25-hour days are awesome!

Tod at our usual spot on the promenade deck

Laurel Dauer 3/18/25 Laurel Dauer 3/18/25

Sea Day #3 - Indian Ocean

March 18, 2025

It was sunny but not too hot (77F and windy) when we woke this morning after gaining an hour of sleep. Because of the rough seas, they closed the entire 3rd floor promenade deck where we usually like to park on sea days. We spent some time wandering around the ship because we had to get out of our stateroom for our steward “Desmon” to come in and tidy up. The seas seem to have calmed a bit which makes walking around easier, but no wearing flip flops today if I want to remain upright.

We had to put on long pants because the AC on the ship tends to be a bit on the chilly side. We made our way up to the “Crows Nest” on the 10th floor which is at the very front (bow) of the ship. There you can lounge and watch the view, play cards or board games of which there are tons, do crafts, play bridge or just get a latté from the barista and chill. We haven’t lingered that many places on the ship, but the Crows Nest it is a pleasant place to pass some time if you must get out of your stateroom.

Tod remarks we must be in shipping lanes because occasionally we’ll see some monster freighter 2 or 3 miles in the distance.

As an aside, it appears a lot of people do the ATW frequently. Our waiter told us he knew most of the people he serves are from previous cruises. One old guy is on his 35th ATW cruise. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying myself, but 35 times? Maybe he has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).

Another lazy sea day tomorrow. We’re headed for some rain according to Captain Frank.

Note on our bed when we came back from dinner on the 17th

Where we are today. We are the blue arrow.

Laurel Dauer 3/18/25 Laurel Dauer 3/18/25

La Réunion

March 17, 2025

This morning, we awoke to cloudy skies and the huge volcanic bluffs of the island of La Réunion. It was quite an impressive sight as we could see commuters bustling on a perimeter freeway which we assumed led them to their point of employment. After our usual bowls of oatmeal and with our passports in hand, that we were required to carry, we made our way to the gangway.

We passed through French customs, if you could call it that. Basically, a guy and a woman dressed in uniforms under an awning were glancing at everyone’s opened passport and waved them through. We found our bus and since we were at the back of the group boarding, figured (correctly) that our preferred spots in the back would be taken. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, but more on that later. We took a pair of available seats and soon we were on our way. There were a couple of empty seats up front the tour guide noted so Tod jumped up and sat there giving us both a bit more room.

She introduced herself as Simona and started in on the obligatory history of our destination. It is young in terms of geological age, only about 3 million years old. There are no indigenous peoples, and it first was occupied by the Arabs in the 1600’s. Following the requisite conflicts between the usual suspects, it ended up in French hands. At first the cash crop was coffee, but the plants proved to be too delicate for all the winds that blow through, so they turned to producing sugarcane. Because they were short on manpower, she said they needed to “import workers” (a nice way to say indentured slaves) from Africa, India and China. In 1946 it became a protectorate of France and has been governed by them ever since. Saint-Denis (pronounced Sant DenEE) the city of which we were passing, is the largest town on the island and although is considered by some to be the capital, the true capital is Paris. We were now in what is considered Europe. The currency is the Euro, they drive on the right and all the street signs and roads are straight out of France. People drive Renaults and Citroëns (French made cars) with a few Kia’s thrown in but no Chinese cars here. All signs are in French and it is the spoken language. Tod said it was like someone dropped France on one of the Hawaiian Islands.

As far as size goes, it is 25% larger than Mauritius and pretty much round with 3 massive, towering volcanoes (calderas to be exact) in the center. The population is just under 1,000,000 and the race of the inhabitants in my observation went from very white to very black with every shade of brown in-between all appearing to live in harmony. The climate is tropical and sadly, they just bore the brunt of Cyclone Jude, which slammed into the island on February 28. We saw the effects with massive amounts of debris and downed vegetation, so we couldn’t get a perfect impression of the island because they were still cleaning up the mess. All that were left of flags on poles were limp hanging strings and many of the palm trees were now just sticks.

Simona said there were just a few nice beaches on the island and they were all on the west side. The east coast beaches were essentially forbidden, not just because of the enormous number of sharks that gobble up dumb tourists every year, but also because of the currents that will certainly do you in if the sharks don’t get there first. (my phraseology, not hers!)

Anyway, we only had one slight concern as we started our journey up to the mountains and that was Simona mentioned the driver was “brand new” and had “never” driven this route before. She was going on a bit about him in a mildly derogatory way as he navigated the traffic with the big grin of a 20-year-old. Obviously, he had no comprehension of English. I searched around for my seatbelt and secured it tightly and hoped that Tod, who was about 5 rows in front of me was doing the same.

We left the main road and began our climb up the valley to one of the 3 central calderas. Soon the highway narrowed to one lane, and she explained that this was the “most expensive road” in all of France because it was constantly being washed or rained out. She also said that all the volcanos had roads leading to them, but this was by far the best. During our ascent, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. I mean Grand Canyon or Yosemite level grandeur. I don’t think I could ever describe it with adequate justice, so I won’t even try. The photos will only give you a taste of the magnificence but will never be able to capture the size and drama of the cliffs. Tod and I both concurred that it had to be in the top 5 of the most amazing scenery we’d ever seen in our lives.

But back to the drive which, if our time in Mauritius was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, this was Space Mountain on steroids. There were at least 10 steep switch backs where the road was essentially parallel to itself except for the curve, which the bus couldn’t negotiate because he couldn’t turn that tightly. Therefore, it was turn as far as he could until he almost hit the brick wall, turn the wheel the opposite direction, reverse for about 20 feet and then put in forward to complete the turn. Oh, and did I mention it was only one lane? Cars would line up in either direction. Distracted by the beautiful surroundings and grateful we weren’t in the rear seats we just gave it up and stared out the window for our trip to Hell Bourg, the tiny town that was our destination to explore and have lunch.

We were all relieved to reach the little settlement and we had time to explore a bit and visit a few souvenir shops before heading for lunch. And shock of all shocks, I found postcards AND stamps AND a mailbox! My concern however was that when I deposited the cards in the post box, it made a very hollow “thunk”. I thought, they probably only pick up once a week if that, but we’ll see!

Lunch was outdoors at a rustic restaurant with an extremely jolly staff and good, local cooking – primarily curries and rice. Soon we all piled into the bus for our trip down the way we came. The only problem was that our young driver appeared flummoxed by the fact the AC wasn’t working. Of course, the moaners in the crowd came out whining and complaining but with the open windows and being so used to being hot and sweaty, I just put my air pods in, listened to music and enjoyed (not counting the terrifying curves part) the drive down.

After safely arriving to a 2-lane road again, we sped off for a stop at a vanilla plantation. It was interesting but almost more importantly, someone showed our driver the AC button and how to turn it on while we were there. Back in the bus with the cold air now blasting we stopped briefly to take a picture of a Hindu temple. Then it was on to Saint-Denis where we had about a half hour to wander around before our ride back to the ship. We both remarked it was very reminiscent of the French Quarter in New Orleans sans all the restaurants and bars.

Back to the ship, I had to hand it to our little driver whatever his name was. Despite the AC lesson which I’m sure he will never forget, he really did a stellar job for his first time considering the circumstances.

In at about 5PM and anxious to change out of our sweaty duds, the captain came over the loudspeaker in our room (which is very rare) to give us an “important safety message”. YIKES – apparently what he had warned us about in days prior regarding residual wind and waves of cyclone Jude were about to be experienced as headed toward the bottom of Madagascar. We could expect high winds and swells up to 20 feet, and it should continue for several days. He basically told the crew to follow “heavy weather procedures” (whatever they were) and warned all us passengers to be extremely cautious while wandering around the ship. I wondered why there would be residuals of a cyclone that was 2 weeks ago, but I guess it’s expected. We made it down to dinner OK which is on Deck 3 and didn’t experience quite the pitching as we did in our cabin our Deck 8. Returning from our meal, on our walk down the long hallway from the elevator to our room we looked like a couple of pinballs bouncing from wall to wall. It didn’t appear to bother either of us and we actually quite enjoyed being heavily rocked to sleep after another amazing day.

La Réunion will always hold a very special place in our hearts and given the chance, we would go back and spend a few weeks to explore more in a second, except for the fact it’s on the other side of the world from California!

Our small town destination was in Cirque de Salazie, the top right of the 3 calderas.

500 foot cliffs that are covered with waterfalls after a rain

We saw more of these waterfalls than I could count

Vanilla plantation - they are orchids and don’t like direct sun hence the green mesh

Bye La Réunion! À bientôt! (about all I remember from 10th grade French ;)

Laurel Dauer 3/18/25 Laurel Dauer 3/18/25

Mauritius

March 16, 2025

We woke up docked in beautiful Port Louis, Mauritius to glorious sunshine. I had a friend tell me “You’re going to so many places I’ve never heard of!”. This is true, they are fairly unknown to most Americans. I knew most of the destinations by name but maybe because I’m a huge fan of the parade of nations at every Olympics. There are always tiny contingents from places like Mauritius, the Maldives or La Réunion (our next port) proudly waving their flags. Typically, they only have a couple of participants – usually swimmers or badminton players but I have always admired their gumption just to show up and participate.

Off we went at 9:00 for a 5-hour tour titled “the Colors of Mauritius”. We climbed on a slightly smaller than your average bus, headed to our spots in the back, fastened our seatbelts and geared up for another adventure. The weather was perfect being in the low 80s and not too humid. Tod remarked that we are going further south to cooler climes as the Southern Hemisphere is approaching its autumn. Our first impressions were of a very contemporary city with short but modern high rises. We immediately jumped on their M1 road which is equivalent to the interstate at home. It was in beautiful condition, and we sped past many car dealerships including Jaguar, BMW, Volvo, many Chinese dealers and the like. Also, there were 2 or 3 absolutely huge indoor shopping malls, one of which the tour guide described as “the largest in the country”.

She was a very nice woman named Pamela, around 30ish and spoke excellent English with a slight French accent. She described the history of the country which, like the Seychelles had no indigenous people. Pretty much the same story as before: First came the Dutch who brought all kinds of non-native species like pine trees, sugar cane, monkeys and mongoose (mongeese?). Then came the French and then the British and between them they killed the native dodo bird and tortoises to extinction. So, as a result, the current Island is far from what it was in the early 1700’s. It achieved independence from the Brits in 1968 and just celebrated their Independence Day on March 12, so their colorful flags were flying everywhere. It is 790 square miles, slightly larger than Maui only round.

About 50% of the population is Hindu, 30% Christian, 17% Muslim and 3% Chinese (assumingely Buddhist). Everyone apparently gets along swimmingly. She said that education was not mandatory until the 1980’s so there is a lot of illiteracy remaining unfortunately. However, we saw no evidence of homelessness, 3rd world type housing and never did see a piece of trash. I suppose it exists; we just didn’t see it. The kids in school are taught everything in English except of course, French which is the preferred spoken language. They also speak Creole, and they are taught how to write that dialect. The prevalent race appeared to lean much more Indian than African.

Our first stop was a model ship factory but since it was Sunday, the place where they created the ships was closed. There was, of course a massive souvenir shop with many of the ships which were beautifully intricate. There were other typical touristy things including plenty of dodo birds in every shape and size and POSTCARDS! No stamps of course, “it’s Sunday!”. Another offering of note was a huge area with perfectly folded t-shirts (kind of like the old J Crew) which I assumed were of standard tourist variety. Upon closer inspection I saw that they were Gucci, Prada, Christian Dior, Givenchy etc. Later I asked Pamela if the t-shirts were knock offs. She looked very puzzled and said she didn’t understand what a knock off was. I tried my best to describe, which didn’t work, and she shrugged and said, “well they are all made in Mauritius if that’s what you mean”. With that reply, she essentially answered my question.

Next stop was the biggest lake on the island which is turning into a mud puddle because they are having a terrible drought. Even Cyclone Jude brought no rain, only wind. She remarked that the climate on the island is really changing. On we went to a lookout over an ancient dormant volcano surrounded by a beautiful park area that is used by locals for jogging. It also gave us a great view of distant volcanos that dot the island. Back to the bus we continued on to a massive Hindu shrine, temple and holy lake. There were 2 enormous statues of the Hindu gods Shiva and Durga with a lion. Pamela, who we assumed was Hindu went into detail about all the shrines to Hindu gods we would soon be seeing. Each statue was made in India, shipped over and were 120 feet tall. Behind them we would find the temple and the holy lake which I will describe.

As the story goes, in a nutshell some guy in the 1800s came to the island and studied to be a Hindu priest. After his studies he became very holy and sailed to India to the holy Ganges River and got some water and brought it back and poured it in this lake making it holy also. Now it is the site of an annual pilgrimage of followers of Shiva and the other gods at the end of February. Five hundred thousand (!) devotees walk 40 to 50 Km to get some of the holy water and walk it back to their own temples as an offering. It’s quite the event as you can imagine. It takes 4 to 5 days to do and they are only allowed to eat fruits and vegetables and drink water. We stopped next at the lake and the temple and took off our shoes and went into get blessed by the priest who painted red on our foreheads. It was crowded with worshipers, people gathering water and making offerings to the gods. It is obviously a very holy place to Hindus and it was a fascinating experience.

Next stops included waterfalls, tortoise area and nursery (the indigenous ones are extinct so they are introducing the breed from the Seychelles) and an interesting volcanic area where the earth is “7 Colors”. To get to these places we had to drive to the center of the island to a huge national park. We also saw an area where the native forests, including ebony trees (that grow 1 mm per year - no wonder it’s so expensive!) are located.

Soon we started to navigate on a tiny, narrow “C” type road that had no shoulder at all just lined with jungle and bamboo. Cars were stopping right on the road (well, maybe pulling over 6 inches) putting their emergency blinkers on, throwing doors open wide on both sides and out would jump an entire family with baskets. Then they would dive into the bushes or just wander aimlessly around the extremely busy road. We were all terrified that these seemingly oblivious people of all ages, shapes and sizes would turn into human bowling pins as the giant tour buses barreled down the road. Pamela explained that it is peak Chinese guava season, and it was traditional for families to come out and gather as many as they can. The bush are an invasive species that grow everywhere and were brought over from Brazil (go figure). Anyway, they are apparently much-loved, quite sour and are eaten with salt and chilies. We were swerving in and out of the cars and people like a slalom course at 25 to 30 mph. We must have seen at least 50 cars and hundreds of people. But the most exciting part of the drive was yet to come.

Pamela announced that they would be turning off the air-conditioning for about 20 minutes so if we were hot, we should open the windows. Tod turned to me and said, “you know what that means”, and I said yeah, steep hills. Soon we started to climb, and then we began the “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” segment of the trip. I have never seen so many hairpin turns concentrated in one place in my life. And when I say hairpin, I mean almost 180 degrees. Frequently, the bus would just stop, the gears would grind as the driver would try to shift down and when he finally would succeed, we’d lurch forward to approach another turn. Tod gulped nervously and said, “you know that driver is only about 16…”. I told him to stop stressing, that he was at least 17 in my opinion, and we climbed on. Not soon enough we reached the high point, and we could close the windows again and the air-conditioning would be turned on. With relief we sat back and enjoyed the trip back to the ship about 1 ½ hours late. Regardless, we were very impressed with the island and its people and would gladly recommend visiting it to anyone who happens to find themselves off the coast of Madagascar.

Tomorrow, La Réunion.

The dried up lake, the shore used to be by the fence

Shiva, the supreme lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe in Hinduism. Note how big he is by referencing the people below

After our temple blessings at the sacred lake

Bridal Veil Falls. (Aside for any Washington State University fans, this is where Tod got his first “Go Cougs!” from some guy).

7 Colored Earths. Note colorful Mauritius flag

I’m checking out the tortoises with the baby nursery in the foreground.

The famous Chinese guavas worth risking your life for!

Big Toot and Little Toot - I wonder if he thinks he was made for bigger things? HAHA - Reference “Little Golden Book” for children circa 1955

Laurel Dauer 3/15/25 Laurel Dauer 3/15/25

Sea Day #2 The Indian Ocean

Not much to report today except it’s “Formal Night “ which means you have to dress up if you want to eat at a served table. Otherwise it’s the buffet for you. Not many participants, I think these nights are going the way of postcards.

We’ll wake up in Mauritius tomorrow- home of the ill fated dodo bird :(

Laurel Dauer 3/14/25 Laurel Dauer 3/14/25

Sea Day #1- The Indian Ocean

March 14, 2025

Today is our first taste of cloudy and somewhat “cooler” weather (if you call 80F cool). It’s really a nice relief from all the heat and humidity. We were as hot in the Seychelles as we were in Malaysia until we went up to the beautiful mountains where it was lovely.

The Captain comes on the loudspeaker every day at noon on sea days to give us a report on things like our location, sea depth (2 miles currently) and the weather. Everyone’s ears pricked up when he started describing tropical cyclone “Jude” which is currently located between Mozambique and Madagascar. Our route to the African continent apparently will take us through the residuals of it in a few days and swells of 30 feet may cause an “unavoidable rolling motion”. D’ja think?? Yikes! Tod was listening to his book, so he didn’t hear the announcement. All I could do was laugh as I pictured us plowing through 3 story waves. At the end of his message, the Captain said anyone that wanted a printout of his report today could go to guest services and get one.

Making sure I didn’t mis-hear him (he’s Dutch with an accent and he mumbles to boot) I dashed downstairs to get a copy of the report. As it turns out he said 13-foot waves. WHEW! Waves 1 ½ stories I can handle (I think). Being from the PNW (Pacific Northwest) I’ve been in a few rough seas in my time. I’ve only gotten seasick once in my life, and that was on Tod’s parents 26-foot boat crossing the Straight of Juan de Fuca in the ‘70s.

When you set off on a cruise halfway around the world you anticipate these things and accept them as part of the experience. Everyone seems so good natured on this ship with none of the usual moaning about this or that you can hear on shorter cruises it should be fun. In fact, I didn’t even hear anyone complain about the fish smell that infused the entire ship for hours yesterday except for one waiter last night who said it made him feel a little queasy.

Another sea day tomorrow!

Laurel Dauer 3/14/25 Laurel Dauer 3/14/25

The Seychelles

March 13, 2025

Today we arrived for our visit to the main island of the Seychelles called Mahé, home to the capital of the country called Victoria. I’ve been so confused because our last stop was in Malé in the Maldives, and I thought someone messed up and kept posting the wrong destination. I have it figured out now! Anyway, a little background on the Seychelles is that the country is an archipelago (group of islands) of 155 stretching over 1 million square kilometers. It is off the coast of Africa and although it’s the continent’s smallest country and has the lowest population of about 115,000 it has the most prosperous GDP. Victoria ranks as the world’s smallest capital with a population of ~24,000 people. It was discovered first by pirates in the 1700’s followed by the French and then the Brits kicked them out and it finally it became its own country in the 1970’s. It’s truly a melting pot of every race and religion. There are 3 official languages: English, French and Creole. The literacy rate is an amazing 99%, clearly the highest in Africa. What I found particularly interesting is that it wasn’t inhabited by any humans until the pirates came. I was trying to think of any place that I’ve ever visited that hadn’t had an indigenous people and I can’t come up with one. I might add here that I forgot to mention that people have been living on the Maldives our previous port for over 4000 years.

Today was different for us because we were scheduled to dock at 10AM so there was no “big reveal” of our destination when we opened our curtains in the morning as we’ve had in our previous stops. Instead, we could watch the docking on this enchanting island. It, along with several others nearby rise out the ocean with amazing greenery and mountains. They are not volcanic like Hawaii though, they’re made from granite with massive edifices. Luckily our stateroom is on the on the port side of the ship where we could watch the docking. Our first impression was that if Oahu in Hawaii had a teeny tiny baby this was it.

We had a shore excursion scheduled at 1:30PM to take a 3-hour tour around this petite island and so we figured we had time to disembark and wander around a bit at the dockside until the tour departed. That is, until we got closer to the dock, and it hit us smack in the face – the smell. Who knew we would moor right next to the IOT (Indian Ocean Tuna) factory, one of the largest tuna processing plants in the world. With the heat and humidity, the odor was so strong and pervasive that the only thing I can compare it to is when we once encountered a dead whale on a Pacific Coast beach years ago. We shut the door to our balcony quickly, hoping to avoid the smell. No such luck, the stench followed us and then started coming in through the air conditioning. Blarg – we knew that we better eat some lunch before our adventure, but with that smell, it was going to be a challenge. I looked around for something to mask the smell while we ate, so I grabbed a spray can of natural citronella insect repellant and sprayed around the room, and it gave us a little relief. The strong smell was to permeate the entire ship until we sailed away at 10PM. Yuk!

Back to our adventure, we gathered our accoutrements, that is hats, cooling cloths, ID’s, water bottles etc. and were happy to head down to the bus that hopefully would take us away from this torment. Sure enough, within just a few minutes we were on our little 20 passenger tour bus escaping the reeking factory. I’ll elaborate on the tour in the pictures below.

But, just to follow up on my postcard search the tour guide told us that the post office was closed and would be gone soon as would the cash. All communication would be electronic as would the currency. Even your driver’s license would be virtual. I immediately wondered about what if some baddie got hold of the country’s internet, they might be in a bit of trouble. But I guess this is the future.

Regardless of the smell (only in the dock area) and the electronics our final judgement of the Seychelles was definitely 5 out of 5 stars. If anyone wants to make the trek for an exotic vacation, we think a stay on an island here would be an absolute dream.

Pulling into Victoria, island of Mahé, the Seychelles

Our first stop was the 200 year old botanical garden with the amazing Coco de Mer tree that only grows in the Seychelles and is extremely valuable and protected.

Tod with one of the pods that can grow to almost 30 pounds. The reason they don’t grow anywhere else is that the pods sink, instead of floating like regular coconuts.

Tod and a coco de mer planted by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1956. It has become a tradition for every visiting head of state to plant one when they visit.

See if you can spot all the hanging fruit bats in the tree. They are the only mammal indigenous to the islands. They just suck the juice from the fruit and drop the rest and they eat bugs too. They’re also known as “flying foxes” and are the largest bats in the world.

Me and one of my tortoise pals. They encourage you to stoke their heads because they love it! Talk about a petting zoo.

Downtown Victoria - An exact replica of Little Ben of which the original is located in London

Clothing store in a colonial building downtown with mannequins outside on the second floor. Some are facing the street and some are facing the wall. Kind of creepy…

Granite mountain, native hawk and the jungle

Cinnamon tree (white bark). Oil comes from the leaves and spice comes from the bark.

The dynamic duo in front of the jungle. We’ve never seen such dense and mature foliage. Some of the trees were absolutely massive and hundreds of years old.

Another deserted beach. Still driving on the left. Did I mention how clean the island was? I don’t think we ever saw a piece of trash.

View of some neighboring islands with a massive yacht dead center in the water. Apparently it belongs to some Sheikh. Seychelles are BFF’s with Abu Dhabai. There is a palace on one of the mountains.

Laurel Dauer 3/12/25 Laurel Dauer 3/12/25

Sea Day #2 - Arabian Sea

March 12, 2025

We crossed the equator last night and have the certificates to prove it! I’m enjoying watching the water go counterclockwise down the drain. Another lazy day but we passed an absolutely massive pod of dolphins that went on for at least a mile. It was crazy beautiful and helped me with my stressing about all the garbage I’ve been seeing floating by. As they said in Jurassic Park – Life will find a way!

Admittedly, I’m a little nervous being so close to Somalia and their pirates. Tod says I’m overreacting to worry and that they only attack cargo ships. But I clearly remember Leon Klinghoffer (Google it if you don’t know the name) and I will rest easier when we get further away. Actually, when I first booked this cruise, we were supposed to go up through the Suez Canal, but our route was changed due to the current situation in the Middle East.

It looks like we’re heading into some rain this evening. Maybe the ship will finally rock a bit?

Tomorrow we arrive at Victoria, the Seychelles.

Laurel Dauer 3/12/25 Laurel Dauer 3/12/25

Sea Day #1 – Arabian Sea

March 11, 2025

Another calm and restful day as we head to the Seychelle Islands. Not much to report except we’re starting to see a disturbing amount of trash in the ocean. Ugh. As I sat looking out at the sea, some object of trash floated by about every couple of minutes.

We cross the equator about midnight tonight. I wonder if we’ll feel a speed bump? ;)

Laurel Dauer 3/12/25 Laurel Dauer 3/12/25

Malé, the Maldives

March 10, 2025

The Maldives is another one of those destinations that we had to research before we embarked on our trip. About all I knew is that it’s in the middle of nowhere and has a bunch of islands where celebrities come to escape to exclusive resorts and stay in overwater bungalows. It turns out that is all true but there is so much more to learn. It’s a strict Muslim country with 99% of the population following Islam. In addition, Malé the capital, is a 3.5 square mile island with an elevation of 4 feet above sea level, with 225,000 people jammed on it. It’s one of the most remote, flattest and densely populated places on earth.

When I looked at the offerings for shore excursions, they were astronomically expensive and were primarily aimed towards snorkeling and seashore activities. Since our beach days are behind us, it didn’t make much sense to spend a crazy amount of money, so we decided to spend the day just checking out the city. That is, if we could find a place to stand. HAHA – It must be “rear ends and elbows” there as Tod would say.

We were happy that the lady from the hospital responded to Tod’s email but as we figured, she couldn’t offer any solutions other than selling him a new pair. Disappointed, but not completely out of options, we boarded a “tender boat” (a motorized lifeboat they use to ferry people to and from the town since the ship is anchored in the harbor) with high hopes of getting some help.

Before we disembarked, we were schooled a bit on the local culture. No alcohol on the island and since it was Ramadan, don’t expect to find anything to eat because everyone was fasting. The correct greeting was “Ramadan Mubarak” and between that and keeping a low profile, meaning don’t be typical loud Americans, we should be fine.

Getting to town only took about 15 minutes on the boat and we immediately plopped down in the shade on a crumbling wall (funny, there seem to be a lot of those) and I pulled up Google maps and entered “hearing aid repair near me”. Eureka, I got a hit! Soon we were navigating the “streets” of Malé to find the indicated address.

Believe me, walking through this city is not for the faint of heart. Between the 2-foot-wide sidewalks (and those were the wide ones), missing street bricks, traffic driving on the left, delivery trucks, cars, other pedestrians and about a bajillion scooters we picked our way to the center of town. There were so many obstacles I could constantly hear my Mom with her squeaky voice in my ear saying, “Keep your wits about you!”. No vehicles ever stop at the crosswalks, they just veer around you. If you stop, stunned in the middle of the street because a scooter is coming straight toward you, you’re toast. If you keep walking, they will just swerve around you. I guess we learned a thing or two in Sri Lanka.

After a hair raising 20 minutes of picking our way, we found ourselves at our destination. A pleasant gentleman on the street directed us up one flight to the clinic. Slowly and cautiously opening the door and absolutely unsure what we would find, we were met with an incredibly frigid (or maybe it just felt that way after our hot and perilous journey) blast of air-conditioning. Entering the small reception area and waiting room, Tod approached the ladies behind the desk, dressed in chadors* with a friendly “Ramadan Mubarak!” at which they smiled weakly and responded in kind. He then went on to explain his situation to the one that obviously spoke better English. She took his devices and asked us to take a seat in a long line of chairs where a woman and her son were also waiting and she took the hearing aids to the back.

Tod without his hearing aids on started chattering loudly “isn’t this awesome?” and I instinctively made the “zip your lips” gesture to him remembering the advice to keep a low profile. Why do Americans seem so loud anyway? They don’t ever seem that way at home, but I digress. He nodded that he understood, and we sat in silence for about 10 minutes until the clinic door opened and in walked a man and his wife, dressed in a full niqab**. I instinctively gave her a smile but not sure of the response because all we could see were her eyes and she was wearing glasses to boot. The man spoke incredibly softly to the receptionist, they remained for a few minutes and left. Not too much later, the English-speaking receptionist returned and said that they had tried several things but unfortunately, they weren’t familiar with the brand, and they just couldn’t get them to work. Thanking her profusely, we offered to pay, but she said, “no charge” and off we were back to the heat and the chaos of Malé.

One good thing I can say about the town is that it is virtually impossible to get lost because it’s so tiny. Per usual, I wanted to find some postcards before we headed back to the ship and some food. We saw that the next street over would give us a direct shot back to the dock. We assumed, correctly, that we would find at least one souvenir stand nearer the dock area.

A friendly man on the street ushered us into a small shop with none of the annoyance and hard sell that you can find in other countries. Feeling like pros at this we said, “Ramadan Mubarak!” to the staff who met us with big grins and the same words as a response. Although on first glance I could see no postcards, so I thought, here we go again and I meekly asked if they had any. Oddly enough, the lady went to a pile of paper and pulled out 2 Maldives postcards. I smiled broadly and said, “That’s great! Do you sell stamps too?”. A man sitting at a desk who appeared to be the owner gave me a look of consternation and said he was very sorry but there were no longer stamps in the Maldives and soon mail would be eliminated altogether. WHAT?? Everything now is electric he replied. Tod hissed under his breath, but how will they get their Amazon? I elbowed him in the ribs and headed off to find a few souvenirs and a top that caught my eye. As I was paying, she handed me the postcards and said, “these are complimentary!”. HAHA – she was undoubtably glad to get rid of those relics from the past.

We safely fought all the obstacles back to the dock and before we knew it we were back in familiar territory on the ship. The few hours we were in Malé could easily be described as an “out of body” experience. It’s definitely something we will laugh about for many years.

On to the Arabian Sea as we sail to our next stop, Victoria, capital of the Seychelles.

*chador = a long, flowing cloak typically worn by Muslim women covering the body and the hair but leaving the face exposed.

** niqab = is a long garment worn by some Muslim women to cover their entire body and face, excluding their eyes.

Malé from the air (I downloaded from the internet)

Probably the most open spot on the island

Tod with the Zuiderdam in the background

So called King coconuts native to Sri Lanka. They’re supposed to be not as sweet but much more nourishing than the other ones. Their juice is supposed to be the ultimate hydration because of electrolytes very similar to body fluids. I really wanted to try, but because of Ramadan didn’t get a chance.

Leaving Malé. I forgot to mention that they got hit pretty hard in the Tsunami. Not so much with the wave but rising water that killed dozens.

A couple of the “exclusive” islands but the jury is out as far as I’m concerned. Float planes circled the skies like big mosquitoes. I wouldn’t find that very relaxing or private!

Laurel Dauer 3/12/25 Laurel Dauer 3/12/25

Sea Day – Laccadive Sea

March 9, 2025

We are on our way to the Maldives (pronounced Mahldeevs), a huge chain of islands and their capital of Malé, today via the Laccadive Sea. I sure don’t remember that from 4th grade geography. Regardless, it’s another beautiful day here on the Zuiderdam. The days are consistently in the mid 80’s F. with a pleasant breeze as we scoot along to our next destination. But I guess it had to happen – this has been a nearly perfect trip so far and today we had our first calamity.

Tod’s banging on keyboards in rock bands for the last 60 years finally caught up with him, and last year he had to break down and get hearing aids. Of course, he brought them and all the corresponding paraphernalia on the trip. They require a modicum of maintenance which he would admit he slacks upon sometimes. This morning, he reported that the left one was no longer functioning. We did our due diligence by going to every website and video we could find on the subject to see if we could fix it ourselves. Sadly, that failed so I suggested contacting the local hospital in Malé via email to see if they had any suggestions. It would be our next port stop, and we had nothing in particular planned for our day there. Tod found their email address and fired off an inquiry to see if they could recommend anyone that could assist. We’d wait until tomorrow to hear back.

Other than that, it’s been a wonderfully lazy day. Hanging out on the promenade deck on the lounge chairs has become our favored location to spend sea days. It’s very peaceful, nothing like what happens on the pool deck which tends to have group events in the bright sunshine all day. Plus, up there is a smoking area with several bars and the commensurate activities that go along with that. Nothing against it mind you, we might have been up there with them a few decades back. Now, since we’ve given up those habits, I guess you could call us the “elder statesman”. We prefer the peace of staring at the passing seas in the shade as we listen to books or music without any periphery action.

We’ll see if we get any response to the email tomorrow morning. On to Malé!

Laurel Dauer 3/11/25 Laurel Dauer 3/11/25

Sri Lanka

March 8, 2025

We had done a fair amount of research with You Tube about Sri Lanka, so we felt somewhat prepared for our 2.5 hour bus ride to the center of the island and the Millennial Elephant Foundation. Tod opened the curtains of our stateroom to reveal that we had docked at the industrial area of the port of Colombo, and we gazed out to dozens of cranes and a yellow brown haze. Huge, shiny high rises were far in the hazy distance. He stepped out on our balcony and made a horrible face and immediately came back in. The heat, humidity and the horrible smell followed him in. The smog must have been a mix of coal smoke, vehicle exhaust and who knows what else. It reminded me of LA in the 60’s (lol) only hotter and more humid. Soon after, we heard loud drumming and stepped out to see a local troop performing their cultural dance with beautiful, colorful native costumes by the gangway. Too bad we couldn’t linger and watch, but we had a bus to catch.

At 9:00AM we boarded another beautiful, air-conditioned bus and headed for our usual spots in the back. We had found that in addition to having great visibility and no rush to get off, the rear seats are about a foot elevated above the rest of the seats on the bus. Therefore, we could dangle our legs a bit between the seats in front of us, relieving our backs on long drives. Shortly before the bus was scheduled to depart a big, tall white-haired guy going about 280 pounds and I’m guessing in his late 70’s boarded with I assumed his wife and friend and came straight to the back where we were sitting, gave us a sour look, sighed and turned around. We really weren’t paying too much attention with our noses in our phones but soon the tour guide came back to us and said that this gentleman had a “bad knee” and needed us to move. We gaped at each other, and I thought to myself, oh geez – is this going to turn into a battle of the maladies? Tod was about to get up and I grabbed him and told the guide that yes, we’d be glad move. Remaining in the back seats I scooted over to the window on my right side and signaled to Tod to scoot to the one on his left side, and I said happily, “Sure, he can have the middle seat!”. The tour guide said OK and back came the big guy. He was not happy, grunted something to Tod (which he couldn’t understand) in an Aussie or NZ accent and plopped down in the center seat. Off we went on our Asian elephant adventure.

Getting out of the dock area was an experience in itself, due to the fact there was a huge amount construction going on. It’s not like they routed us to a decent road around the construction because I don’t think there was one. I signaled to Tod to put on his seatbelt, as we jolted and bounced about a mile until we made it to the flat asphalt.

One thing of note that I haven’t mentioned before is the Asian dog. At least that’s what I call them. We saw them in Malaysia, Thailand and now here in Sri Lanka. They wander around and are seemingly well fed and are always very slow moving, usually looking for a place to plop down for a snooze. The males have their, “well, you know”, and most of the females look like they have been nursing a litter of pups somewhere. They all look alike and seem to vary only in their coloring however the tan color is the most prevalent. I’d say they’re similar to a coyote in size and coat, yet they are not wild, clearly an eons old mix of domesticated dog. Anyway, the reason I brought this up is that they were wandering around the construction site seemingly oblivious to all the heavy equipment. They’d lay in the dirt and when a huge front-end loader would barrel toward them, they’d look up, yawn and slowly walk to another, safer place to drop down to continue their nap.

Back on a decent road, well kind of anyway, our guide, again in perfect English started to explain about Sri Lanka. Soon we would be on the “Kandy Road”, a major A1 Road on the island that led to the town of the same name. Kandy is one of the holiest sites in Buddhism and has a shrine with a tooth of Buddha (obviously rare). It has played a huge role in the politics of the country for centuries, in that who controls Kandy, controls the rest of the country.

He explained that the English had colonized the Island in Victorian times, and it used to be called Ceylon. I can remember that from 4th grade geography. The name got changed to Sri Lanka in the ‘70s long after the Brits left. Although we could see the remains of their influence with some signs in English, it didn’t seem to be as dominant as it was in Malaysia and Singapore. Top commodities grown on the island are tea, rice, rubber, coconuts, pineapples and cashews.

We barreled on for 2 ½ hours with our fearless driver who navigated the chaos that is the Kandy Road with ease. Tod was brave and looked more than I did. Having been in a head-on collision in my life, I tightened my seatbelt and spent the drive looking to my right out the window - I simply couldn’t bear looking straight ahead.

The highway was about as wide as a back country road in the US or as a so called “B” road in the UK and Europe. It had to accommodate: Big rig trucks, multiple types of delivery trucks, scooters, motorbikes, government buses, public buses, tour buses, tuk tuks (covered 3 wheeled vehicles used as cabs and called that because of the sound they make) personal vehicles, bicycles along with pedestrians of all shapes and sizes including moms with a kid on one hand and an umbrella in the other. Dozens of roadside vendors complicated matters narrowing the road even more. Tod described to me that in towns everyone appeared to follow the stop lights and street signs, yet on the open road the center dividing line seemed only like a suggestion. Lane direction appeared optional and everyone was all over the place. Passing he said was basically “at will” and if you wanted to pass someone, you just did it despite who or what was coming toward you. Yikes – I very happily spent the trip gazing at the sights to my right. I even spotted a little monkey climbing a telephone wire. I’m assuming it was a rhesus, but I haven’t researched it. I’ve kind of been off monkeys lately.

After our long drive that rivaled any thrill ride Universal Studios could dream up, we arrived at the Millenium Elephant Foundation in one piece. Deep in a jungle, it is privately sponsored and has 3 missions. First is to protect and harbor the Asian elephant from abuse, second is to educate people about the creatures and lastly is to produce paper products from their poop (no joke).

I’ll let my photos below tell basically the rest of the story, but it was a fabulous experience that we will not soon forget!

An equally exciting drive led us safely back to the ship by 5:00PM and we wondered, how can these days get any better??

Sea day tomorrow as we navigate to our next stop, Malé, capital of the Maldives, one of the most densely populated places on earth.