Kusadasi, Turkey

KUSADASI, TURKEY      09 APR 11

Two days in Kusadasi, home of arguably the best preserved ruins around, Ephesus.  This is definitely the thing to do in this port, but having been there before we opted for two lazy days around the town itself which is really an enjoyable tourist destination in itself.  Pedestrian friendly main drag with all kinds of interesting alleys, each lined with non-aggressive and playful vendors.  We’ve “run the gauntlet” in various tourist shopping areas throughout the world but this was actually fun, even though the only things we bought were honey, cheese, beer and a couple of scarves.  The shopkeepers try to engage you in conversation with excellent English, French, German, Italian or whatever language they thought you might speak judging by your appearance only.  Many are actually quite funny and the experience was positive.  Even the signage on the shops was comical.   

We had lunch both days at the same restaurant, Kings Place, a waterfront view with very few customers.  Excellent food, freshly prepared at about 1/2 the price of a lunch in Boston.  To be fair, it is not “season” yet and most places are just opening up and doing the painting and repairing necessary for the upcoming summer.  

On day 1 we walked along the waterfront for about twenty minutes to Pigeon Island, which was actually a peninsular.  A fort commands the harbor from here but it was not open to the public and looked like it hadn’t been used in a hundred years.  There was a very picturesque circumferential walk around the fort which was enjoyable in the lovely weather, low 70’s.  Day 2 found us riding the local jitney or minibus to  Ladies Beach, a rather forlorn and actually quite dirty beach of about 200 yards in length located about twenty feet below the street level which was lined with restaurants.  Again, it is early times seasonally here, so I’m sure if it were July it would have been more customer friendly.

This was my fourth time in Turkey and I always come away with positive feelings.  Lots of history, scenery and, once again, friendly people.  Should the opportunity arise to visit Turkey, do not hesitate to avail yourself.

Joe Wagg

Athens, Greece

Piraeus, Greece

April 10,2011

Piraeus is the busy port for Athens, about 7 miles away. This was the last of the four escorted tours we were responsible for and it lasted more than 7 hours. Again, we had three busses and we decided to put the vision and mobility impaired guests on our bus to assist them without burdening the other guests. The tour was called the best of Athens, and if you have been here, you know about the difficult and slippery surfaces at the Acropolis. People could not stay on the bus, so Joe took a couple of them to a cafe and I went up to the Acropolis. It has been 10 years since we have been here.The view from the top is amazing. Even in early April it is very crowded. The city looks a lot cleaner and there is a new metro. This came about for the 2004 Olympics.

The rest of our tour was a stop at the new archaeologic museum, a lunch and a little panoramic city tour. The restaurant  waiters was like watching the three stooges in action. It was so understaffed and disorganized, some tables got service twice, while others got none. I got up twice to ask for the promised beer and wine with no luck, while Joe was enjoying his beer at a different table. Finally at my insistence Joe went into the kitchen to get more service. 

After our lunch, we needed to walk uphill for about 15 mins to get back to the bus. We knew this would take forever with these folks, so with no help from the guide, we took matters into our own hands and got a taxi to take them back to the bus. So, that my day in Athens.

I find the tours stressful when there is a lot of walking for the elderly, probably more so than Joe as I can see the potential for falls from all my years of being a nurse.

Gina Wagg

ASHDOD

ASHDOD, ISRAEL      6 Apr 11

Ashdod is Israel’s #1 port and the gateway to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, not to mention Massada and the Dead Sea.  Having been to all the aforementioned in November, we opted for a ship’s tour to Jaffa and Tel Aviv.  Jaffa is an old city and Tel Aviv is a big city.  Neither offers anything of real interest unless the tour skipped all the good stuff.  Our tour guide appeared to me to be an elderly homeless person although she did have quite a sense of humor and wit.  Her walking pace on the tour was glacial.  And still, other passengers were always way behind.

O.K., time to talk about ship’s tours.  We generally try to avoid them like the plague.  They are overpriced by 100% and attract the least adventurous of the passengers, many of whom opt to stay on the bus rather than exert  themselves by walking anywhere!  They whine if there are stairs to climb, distances to walk, no restrooms available, no time to shop for junk souvenirs and postcards, can never get back to the bus by the assigned time and always talk over the guide who is giving meeting times and then want to know what time to be back.  Not that they will be on time.

Back to Ashdod.  Unfortunately, all the must see sights of Israel are a minimum two hour bus ride and that’s without traffic, of which there is plenty.  But to be able to visit Jerusalem, see how it works and watch the interaction (or lack thereof) between the people is well worth the ride.  Likewise Mossada, located on top of a mountain overlooking Jordan and the Dead Sea and on the ride, passing by the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found is pretty nice stuff.  We just did the wrong thing this time.  I would not advise attempting to arrange your own tour on the pier with the cab drivers, which is a common method of avoiding ship’s tours.  The distances are too great and traffic can be unbelievable, jeopardizing your chances of getting back before the ship sails.

An intriguing destination with a very high hassle factor.

SUEZ CANAL

SUEZ CANAL    5 APR 11

This being a two-canal trip, comparisons are in order.  The lush green of Panama as opposed to the dusty brown of Egypt; No locks in Suez, ocean to ocean; both have lakes for holding areas and both are one way at a time.  Here, the ships go through as a convoy, 10-4 rubber ducky style.  Also here people can be found anywhere along the way, usually smiling and waving.  In Panama, there are “viewing stands” at several locations. 

I don’t know what the Egyptian defense budget is but again, 20’ towers with armed guards all along.  There are military bases everywhere along the route.  The west bank of the canal is green and fertile, a result of Nile River irrigation.  The east bank is barren desert.  The majority of homes seen in this area are in a state of construction.  No home seems to be complete and there is a reason for this.  Once the home is complete it is subject to taxes.  By living in an unfinished home, these taxes are avoided.  This should be an insight to how government hasn’t worked.

Towards the northern end of the canal looms a huge, newly built bridge, connecting Africa with Asia, built by the Japanese for Egypt in a token of friendship.  This obviously prior to the economic slowdown.  Has this new bridge affected the ferry traffic at this location?  NO WAY!  As we watched for traffic on the bridge, little could be observed.  A couple of trucks and the occasional car traversing from the populous west side to the barren east side.  Right next to the bridge was a ferry serving the same purpose of getting from one side to the other.  The vehicle lineup for the ferry was at least a mile long with truck after truck bumper to bumper waiting.  I might add that this ferry could only handle one truck at a time so the wait had to be several hours for those in the back of the line.  Obviously the charge for using the bridge is so overbearing that a two hour wait is still economically worthwhile.  Either that or the vehicles are seriously overloaded and unable to meet weight restrictions.

Ashdod tomorrow!

AQABA,JORDAN

Aqaba, Jordan

   If you look out the windows on the ship, all you see is blue water and pretty lights in the distance, but if you look on at the GPS map on your television, you see that the lights are in Eliat, Israel, the tall buildings to the south are in Saudi Arabia and you are in Aqaba Jordan. Aqaba is a duty free port in the southern tip of Jordan. From here tours leave for Petra or Wadi Rum. The city itself is like any other resort town. It was really nice to see paved streets and sidewalks, and families together. You would never know you were in the Middle East until you tried to read a sign, as they were all in Arabic. You also  encounter an occasional young man riding his camel on the sidewalk. I assumed they were Bedouins trying to make money from the tourists. The men never said anything. They waited for you to ask for a ride or a take a picture.

We have been here before in the November and took the fantastic trip to Petra. I was really tempted to go back, but Joe wanted to see Wadi Rum. It is about an hour to get to the visitor center from the ship. We went on one of the tours, but you could probably get there by taxi. The Arabian desert is right outside of the city. After a stop at the very nice visitor’s center, we climbed into the back of beat up pick up trucks 6 persons to a vehicle. The two hour ride through the Wadis <dried up river beds of long ago> with photo stops is very dusty and bumpy but a lot of fun. We saw a few bedouin camps, lots of camels and beautiful rock formations, somewhat like our Southwest only bigger. Before heading back to the ship, we had a final stop at a camp that actually was a motel. I use that word loosely. You can stay in these numbered tent like structures all in a row covered in wool blankets. There were mattresses on the floor and blankets. I bet it gets really cold out there at night. We were offered sweetened tea, sesame cookies and dates. The bathrooms were rundown modern with running water.

After our tour we took the shuttle bus in to town for lunch as I love this type of food. Joe wanted to eat at McDdonalds and use their free WIFI, but I balked. We eventually found an empty restaurant and had a great lunch, but did go back to the yellow arches so we could do some posts.

As of this writing we have now sailed about 25,500 nautical miles. My total estimate for this trip is 32,000 nautical miles. We have 22 more days to go.

Gina Wagg

EGYPT!!!

Safaga, Egypt       02 APR 11

A very emotional moment today.  A few days ago the captain came over the intercom to announce yet another itinerary change.  It seems that our rapid progress through the pirate area had put us way ahead of schedule.  Combined with the U. S. state department’s easing of the travel rules to Egypt, he announced, we would be calling at Safaga, Egypt for tours to Karnak/Luxor and Valley of the Kings.  An amazing piece of work to put that together in two days time, arranging tours, pier space, immigration formalities, etc. etc.  So here we are, the first ship to call here since the January uprising.

I’m sitting in the back seat of a bus heading to the Valley of the Kings.  Our tour guide, May, is speaking of her experience during the uprising.  She cannot complete her story due to her emotions.  A brief respite of quiet interrupts her dialogue several times.  This is her first day of work in the tourism industry since January.  She resides in Cairo and is VERY proud to be an Egyptian!  She had no axe to grind with Mubarak, but now, after the fact, she is angry with him.  She traveled to Tahrir Square during the last days of the unrest.  She spoke of the long lines to get through security and, here’s what got me, the overwhelming “smell of freedom”.  What commenced as a small gathering of unhappy students swelled into a celebration of millions.  History was made and this lovely lady was there.  She admits it will be a long road to the kind of government they are hoping for but the first steps have been taken.  I wished her health, wealth and a stable, secular government.

The tour itself was an 11 hour tour with 45 minutes in the Valley of the Kings and 45 minutes in Karnak, and an hour and a half cruising the Nile and having lunch, kind of ridiculous if you hadn’t been there before.  The problem is that the westbound road from Safaga to Qena, gateway to Luxor, is littered with “checkpoints” complete with armed guards every 5 kilometers.  Busses must slow down to almost a stop to cross the speed bumps, losing valuable momentum each time they stop.  There are towers, maybe twenty feet high, containing guards armed with machine guns.  But this is not new!  It was this way in November when we were last here.  I’m not sure what the hell they’re protecting us from, but it is really absurd.  One thing we did notice was that the trash that seemed to be everywhere was no longer visible.

Happy with our surprise visit to Egypt, we can only hope the people end up with what they so richly deserve.   

RED SEA

MUSINGS FROM THE RED SEA

31 MAR 11

Over the next few days, I will have lots of time to reflect on the past three months and the final month ahead.  There is no question that this has been an “experience” and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  The positives outweigh the negatives by a huge amount.  I started a list of things I miss from home in early January.  Here’s the list in the order that I wrote them:

POPCORN

DRIVING

HD TV

FAST INTERNET

APOLLO CLUB

CHIPOTLE

CELERY

CELLPHONE

For some unknown reason, there has been no celery on the ship.  First thing I do when I get home is to run over to Whole Foods and buy a big stalk of celery, that is, after I make a batch of popcorn!

Of course I miss family. I really would have liked to have gone with Jeff’s Skeptours group cruise in March.  I would love to have gone to the concerts my two grandchildren are participating in and go to lunch at Luigi’s with my sister.  But I guess it ends there.  I’m really at home on a ship.

We have been averaging 23 nautical miles per hour since we left Salalah.  While this is not fuel efficient, the captain tells us the local pirates could not keep up with that speed.  There is 24 hour watch by security on the decks.  A mysterious wooden box has appeared on each side of the Promenade deck.  Its contents remain unknown but you can be sure there is some sort of security device inside.  I feel safe.

I’ve dropped out of HAL Chorale.  The amount of effort was not commensurate with the rewards.  My singing is now limited to the shower (pity the next door neighbors).  Part of the problem was the other male singers.  Their pomposity was only exceeded by their lack of pitch.  Particularly the fellow with the electronic pitch pipe who could find the note on his pitch pipe but never with his voice.  Then there was the poor (in my opinion) first performance.  Too many screamers and not enough singers.

Formal nights are always themed with the dining rooms decorated accordingly.  Many passengers then dress in the theme of the evening and seem to really enjoy doing it.  For example, last night was “Celebration Night”, celebrating all birthdays, anniversaries and the like that everyone will have during the course of the entire cruise.  Every place setting in the dining room had large party hats and helium filled balloons.  The amazing part is that a majority of the diners actually wore the silly things.  Folks were dressed in everything from tuxedoes to bed sheets wrapped around a large body with a weaved Omani cap. .  I could not help but think that this is just expensive adult day care. 

I’ve lost six of my ten pounds but the last four are a struggle. The food has been excellent and I can’t stay away from the ice cream bar at lunch.  We have six sea days between our last port and Fort Lauderdale.  I plan to devote myself to reaching my goal in that time frame.

Joe Wagg