Singapore to Mombasa...plus
Indian Ocean
Colombo, Sri Lanka
We've spent time in Colombo a few years back, on a three week tour of the country. For this half day + full 2nd day, we escorted a city tour -- reasonably interesting but terribly hot (the tour started at 1:30 and Scott got the duty of standing outside the bus to direct passengers. The ambient heat plus the heat from 8 buses (and their exhaust)... did not make for a lovely time. The aircon on board was refreshing if somewhat inadequate.
A high point was the Sri Lanka national museum. We only had about 45 minutes there, would have liked to have spent more time. Alas the building was unairconditioned, so offered no relief from the scorcher.
The second day we decided to visit old haunts and score a good, classic Sri Lankan meal for lunch. We walked to the port gate -- no small feat as they were building the "road" we were walking on between ship and the city! We were carrying a geeky little GPS with us, and it proved invaluable for finding our way back to the completely undocumented gate when we returned from lunch, but had the unexpected plus of allowing us to "prove" to taxi drivers that no, it's not 10km to where we want to go -- more like 3. They didn't like this extra "ammunition" we were carrying, but found the displays fascinating.
After the minor shopping spree (socks; 2 tee shirts... exciting stuff!) we hailed a tuk-tuk back to the "Fort" area, where the ship was docked. Wandering around we stumbled on the very hotel we'd stayed at during our first visit. As we went looking for lunch we passed a place we recognized -- we'd eaten there before. Two chicken bryiani plates; enormous platters of rice, a sweet (and green, inexplicably) coconut relish, fiery sambal, and spicy curry sauce accompanied the dish. Came with a hard-boiled egg... Kathy wasn't willing to risk it but Scott found it a tasty accompaniment.
Maldives
We sailed overnight to Male, Maldives. Male is the capital city of the Maldives, it's a bit shabby, "concrete jungle". We've been here a couple of times before and may not even get off the ship. This afternoon however, we head to an uninhabited island (save for several hundred cruise ship passengers...) for snorkeling and a little time in the sun. The local authorities collected a "landing" fee of about US$20 each, and since we were only there for about 2 hours, it was a bit of an expensive island visit. Lovely though. No camera tho... no photos.
Three Days at Sea... "Arggh mateys!"
"We will conduct a Passenger Pirate Prevention Plan Drill at 1015hrs 22nd February", says a one page note delivered to cabins entitled "Indian Ocean Transit". It ends "Your safety is of paramount importance" and is signed by the Captain.
Damn straight :) Pirates are bad for business. The barbed-wire has been placed along Deck 5 aft (one of the few places that are practical for "unplanned visitors" to climb up the side of the ship). This scheduled muster drill puts us in the center of the ship -- ostensibly safer should bullets fly. Nobody expects this to happen, but disaster planning isn't for likely-scenarios, it's for the possibility of unlikely ones.
In addition to the barbed wire and muster drill, the ship sets up water cannons, maintains radio-silence, runs with minimal side-lighting. Probably a few other measures we're not privy to.
Seychelles Islands
One and a half days, three islands: Praslin, La Dige, and Mahe. Each has its own personalities; we been to all the previous year. We stayed on board during the morning of Praslin, spent a couple of hours on idyllic little La Dige (the island is about 2 1/2km from end to end). Kathy caught some tropical breezes and a little snorkeling; Scott caught some photos on a walk up the coastline.
For Mahe, during our previous visit we'd taken a catameran tour which was excellent, but it was expensive and we couldn't get on as escorts -- but there was a full day island tour which brought us almost completely around the island (it was a net of about 70km). Some really fantastic views, insights into Seychellois life, and a outstanding Creole meal.
Mauritius
After another two days at sea, we arrived to Mauritius. Last year's visit brought torrential rains (it's monsoon season...). This time the weather was more cooperative.
Mauritius is a bit like Singapore -- ethnically-diverse, verdant, hot and humid -- but while it's quite modern in places, it doesn't go for "faux modern" like S'pore seems to. New stuff is modern and shiny, old stuff is, well, old and has character. Singapore has botox and plastic surgery, Mauritius has a few stretch marks & wrinkles.
We had most of 3 full days this trip. One was sort of "sacrificial" (internet cafe to update this site and take care of business back home; haircut for Kathy...). On the other two days we alternately escorted tours: Kathy got a rum-punch-flowing beach day, Scott had a game park visit and "walk with lions". Kind of cool (the lion part) but seemed a bit staged: come round the next corner? Queue the zebra! Nonetheless it was fun... and free. And provided some great photo ops.
Réunion reunion
When we visited Réunion island last year, we skipped the various tours and just heade to St. Denis, the nearest (and biggest city). Interesting enough; it's a French posession so it looks like a French city but with an island heart.
This year, we escorted the "Salazie" tour which brought us into the mountains of Réunion. Rugged, misty & mysterious with loads of romantic waterfalls. Quite the change from St. Denis.
Madagascar, Hold the Lemurs
Have to admit, we were ("are"( fairly naive about Madagascar. It's the 4th largest island in the world ("Australia is a contenent", yeah, we knew that) with arid and rain forest parts, a French influence but very much "native" culture -- and the part we visited (from Tulear) was primative and beautiful. Our pictures were just awesome, we've put them up separately <<HERE>> as a slideshow.
Kathy served as Ship's Escort, a role that is often tedious, but doesn't usually require coordination of fleets of 4wd cars, multiple passengers collapsing from the heat 30 minutes walk on soft sand with no cell phone service.
The tour seemed straight forward enough: roads are rough (there's an understatement) so passengers are put 4 per four-wheel-drive vehicle, for a 90+ minute drive with a couple of stops along the way for stretch breaks. Kathy (unbeknownst to her) has the car with aircon too... "your's didn't have AC?". "Um,. no". Our's reached 45c (113F) inside, with "natural" aircon -- open windows.
The destination of this trip was a boabab preserve -- these are funky trees some 1000+ plus years old. Australia's got them too but we'd never seen them. All very interesting but it was so hot 4 passengers collapsed - by the time we arrived it was nearly noon -- "high noon". The trip had the 2nd highest exertion rating, and numerous warnings about its difficulty... nonetheless several folks who probably shouldn't have sign up did. It was tough on the two of us, and we know from living around the desert.
The escort responsibility had officially fallen to Scott, but Kathy felt is was sort of her turn, so she put on her badge and grabbed the clipboard -- and as a result ended up back on the trail with these "fallen comerades" (as the rest of us went back to the Tour Center to get them help). Everything turned out fine but it was a bit nerve-wracking. I imagine you lose "escort points" if a passenger expires on your "watch".
Madagascar -- at least the part we visited -- is not well touristed. It is really poor; shacks made from sticks with dirt floors. But a lot of smiles. Maybe it's because they're fundamentally happy, maybe because 100 white people in 4WDs driving through their "neighborhoods" seemed as absurd to them as it seems to some of us.
After South Africa, we'll return to another part of Madagascar which promises to me less arid, more rain forest like. Madagascar is a hugh place and we look forward to seeing more of it.