Jeanette and I went into Mombasa on the shuttle , looked around for a Tuk tuk…. (those three wheeled vehicles that you see in all the poorer countries), after walking for less than3 minutes. Reason being it was so, so,sooooo very hot and steamy. OMG the thought of walking around in it was unbearable. Anyway we bartered with a young man to take us around the city for an hour for 20USD for the two of us. He wanted 50 to start. We have found in previous places, that they expect to be paid for each passenger….different than at home. There were lots of “security” on the street (but with no guns that I saw). The place was crawling with people,people eking out a living with fruit and vegetable stall(tin shacks), some clothes stalls too but the streets were piled with garbage wherever you looked. It was disgusting! There was nothing worth seeing that I could see….. no redeeming qualities whatsoever. A couple of times while on the tuk tuk, I had some temporary scary thoughts. Once was when he ran out of gas. I thought maybe this is where he demands more money or he wouldn’t take us back to where he had picked us up. No…… but he had to push it a ways to the gas station to fill up. The other time I had the thought that he was take us to god knows where and then would be demanding more money to take us back. “Same same but only different”. We did do an excursion in the afternoon to Haller Park….. previously a quarry turned into a nature park. On the way there our guide pointed out the area that we drove through, describing it as the area that the “capitalist” live in, having their own shops, grocery stores, schools, yadda, yadda. That, I am sure because their own residences are shamefully disgusting. Oh yes, the streets have speed bumps every 100 feet or so. Incredibly annoying and jarring. First animal we saw after arriving at the park, was a hippo named Leo that the guide called. He came from across the pond but not really close. There where was a huge tortoise about 150 yrs old, we saw couple of elands, several oryx (beautiful colouring), water buffalo, herds of giraffes that I/we fed (they have 18 inch tongues)and at 4 pm, the hippos came out of the water and waddled across the field to be fed. Huge,huge, fat bodies on stubby legs….. you got to wonder how they manage to hold themselves up. The water buffalos, Eland’s, oryx’ and monkeys all ate together with them. Very cool! Well I guess Mombasa does have one plus.

Once back to the pier there were men and women selling handcrafts. Beautiful work, wood… giraffes, elephants. Should have bought but I’m not sure we could carrying them in our luggage. Maybe later we’ll get another chance.

I found a hand written note from a few days ago…. notes taken from a lecture previous to arriving in the Seychelles. 
The Seychelles is a nation of 115 islands with a population of only 90,000 most of which are on the island of Mahe.. … the largest. 

El Nina from a few years ago,has affected the health of the coral reefs in the islands. I can attest to their health. So much of the reefs have died. What a shame!

The Seychelles apparently, are referred to as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.  

93% of the islanders are Catholic. So different than the Maldives that are predominantly Muslim. Although you should be modestly clothed everywhere we have been, I didn’t feel that we “watched” like when in the Maldives. According to some “body”, the women of the Seychelles get 6th place ranking in the world. Pretty darn good if you ask me 

If you see “rursettes”(not sure of the spelling) on the menu,it is fruit bars. Yuck! I’ll pass. We did see very large ones of them flying around so I wouldn’t say they are harvesting them to extinction. 

The Coco de Mer palm that Jeanette saw, live between 290-400 years. Maybe that is why they have the worlds largest nuts. The male palm has what looks like a penis and the female counterpart looks like the human female anatomy. Hmmmmm….

In the islands (i was hoping to see them but alas did not) they have rock formations that are called “champions”…. I think. They are flat topped with vegetation. The seas erode the bottoms until they collapse. Would have loved to have seen them. Not enough time. 

The Seychelles are 1000 miles from the coast of Africa, have almost no unemployment, have to import 90% of their food and have the highest GDP of any nation in Africa. 

Last night the decks on level five were “closed for security reasons”. Probably the upper decks were closed too. The lights outside our stateroom were off, others were told to not have the lights on their balconies on & there was no “communication” according to my “Marine Traffic” app so as to not show where we were located. Do you think there was a possibility of pirates in the area??? Thankfully there were no issues. Interesting though!
Tonight we have another Captain’s cocktail party for previous guests of Oceania. Free drinks again! We have a new captain on board so we’ll have an opportunity to meet him. He is much “drier” than the last. 
Nothing much else is happening today besides needlepoint get-together and the guest lecturer (who is quite fabulous), cuz we are still at sea. Oh and don’t forget the eating. I’m sure I will have gained all I had lost. 
I forgot to mention that during our first day in the Seychelles while snorkelling, one of the guests on our excursion, suffered a heart attack and died.  
The last couple of days the air temperature and sea temperature have both been 28C. The air though has been laden with humidity….. a bit uncomfortable. I have been hiding out in the shade enjoying the breeze on the shady side of deck 5 cuz I think I over did it with the heat that last day in Praslin. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll be able to handle the temperature on my excursion while in Kenya. 

We docked on the island of Mahe…… the capital city is Victoria. Jeanette thought we should twin with our city of Victoria, Canada.. This is paradise. Right near where we were docked though,there was a tuna fish plant (yellow fin tuna). Oh my did it ever stink but heh…. it’s the “smell of money”. Anyway this country is absolutely worth returning to. They speak English, French and Creole so language is not an issue. We did get out on our scheduled excursion although we had arrived late….. by about 3 hours. It was a trip out on a catamaran where we first went on a glass hulled boat and then went snorkelling. We saw quite a lot of beautifully coloured fish…. several different coloured parrot fish, tiny fluorescent turquoise blue ones(cannot remember the names of any of the others), lots of black and white striped ones, blue bodied ones with bright yellow “beaks” and fin and tails, thin all yellow ones with very pointy noses and only a couple of longish multi-coloured with fluorescent turquoise ones. It was amazing. Both J and i previously had bought full-faced masks with snorkel included. They worked well especially if there was any chop in the water. There were quite a number of others that had brought along masks that were very similar. The weather was hot and sunny but just as we were coming back…… after we were basically all dried off, the skies opened. It was like someone emptied buckets onto us. We could not have been more wet…… kind of reminded me of the deluge we experienced at Boca da Valera on the Amazon . I had thought I would like to go to the Apple Store to find a replacement iPad after returning from our excursion but that pouring rain did not let up at all. Oh well….. i guess I’ll be writing using my iPhone. 
Next day, November 23rd, we were in Praslin, also in the Seychelles. In the morning I just walked toward the town…. away from jetty. This place is lovely but OMG …. talk about sweat! It was dripping off my nose,into my eyes…. unbelievable! On the way back I ran into Faye from TO. We were both on another snorkelling excursion at about 1. Jeanette had taken a walking tour in the morning (it was pouring again when they all left) of the tropical forest park …. to see the worlds largest “nut”. It is a palm that produces a Coco de Mer I think it’s called…. that weights like 26 kgs. No glass bottomed boat for me this time but still another catamaran. We anchored off Coco Island ….. the most beautiful island “nature reserve park”. We did not go on land but just snorkelled again amazing! Saw what the natives said were blue mackerel but I wouldn’t say they were mackerel…. toooo wide in the body but beeeeautiful! Also a strange one that when you looked at them from above, between the tail and the body was what looked like an 4-petalled bright orange appliquéd flower. At first I thought maybe it was a “tracking device” but others saw similar ones. Another strange thing that occurred to me as well as many others on the boat, a intermittent prickly sensation on different parts of our skin. We were told they were tiny jellyfish. They were so small you could not see them…. we all thought it was just our imaginations. 
Last evening we were invited to another “solo travellers” dinner in the Grand Dining Room (with 2 of the entertainers). That always includes unlimited wine. Oh my we are treated very well but Oceania. (Two nights previously we had dinner with Lisa-Jean and Samantha Ivey, the guest singer that was leaving the next day). The lead singer Lisa-Jean last night, was telling us that when they were travelling in the Red Sea between Yemen and Somalia (before we got on board) that they were approached by a boat with fresh fruit for the ship. It also included a number of men that had plenty of arms with them that stayed on board….. to provide protection for the ship from pirates…. until they neared Dubai. Then they left. 

Good news…. the agent in Cochin has found my ipad. Problem is that I will not be able to get it back until after I arrive home. The sister company…. Seven Seas Regent will be picking it up…… transporting it to Singapore where it will be sent to Oceania head office in Miami. I know…. it would have been great if they could have. 

We are somewhere in the Indian Ocean miles/kilometres from anywhere. (the distance from the Maldives to the Seychelles is over 1100 nautical miles). Yesterday we had the “kissing of the fish” and other silliness related to crossing of the equator. We actually didn’t cross it until around dinner time (God forbid that we should have our dinner interrupted). There was a little bump when we went over it….. lol! As the cruise director said…..people check their toilets to see the change of direction when flushing but that in the case of being on a cruise ship” the toilets still just suck”…. another lol!The captain informed us that we were travelling in the area of high seas piracy but that he didn’t expect any trouble seeing as we were 500 plus nautical miles from the coast. In any case if there was trouble that we should stay low to the floor and stay away from the windows and balconies. Last evening we also had the captains party for previous guests of Oceania where there was lots of appies and the drinks were flowing freely. One thing that was mentioned was that there are…….out of 650 passengers,167 from Canada and 280 from the US. The majority of the rest were from Britain, Australia and New Zealand but that there were many other countries represented between the passengers and staff. Our captain lives in Odessa and will be leaving us in the Seychelles. Also the guest lecturer Hanne will be leaving us there too. 

We have had strong winds and have been bucking the current for most of time since leaving the Maldives. On account of that we will be approx. 3 hours late arriving in the Seychelles tomorrow.  Apparently we will not be disappointed in the Seychelles unlike the Maldives. 

I think I am all caught up now. 

Port city is Vasco da Gama 
It cost our guide 9 lex rupees (whatever that means…. he was going to calculate it for us later but forgot) for this brand new Toyota car with A/C. We were his first paying passengers. He was very proud. Our driver is a chef that will be soon working for MSC cruises. 

A number of yellow and black tuk-tuks unlike Mumbai that didn’t seem to have any.  

Our driver Sushant (means very silent….. oops that’s a misnomer. He was great!)has lots of goals set for himself before he gets married…. to have his life all settled. And to see the world. 

There was one roundabout that went around a hydro pole. India generally keeps moving because they use lots of “round-abouts”

The whole area was covered in tropical vegetation…. could be quite nice even though it was a little on the dirty side. Sushant says they are working to clean it up. 

Jeanette spent money shopping for clothing. I didn’t! I spent it on jewelry! Aren’t you all surprised???

Below is what I wrote down while going to the Elephnta Caves but unfortunately I have nothing else on Mumbai …. that I can find other than the pictures that I posted to Facebook (with comments below each picture).

The Elephanta Caves were started 1500 years ago and took 2 centuries to complete.  

Made from volcanic ash that had turned to basalt 

First started by the Hindus, then the Buddhists and finally by the Jains ….up until 1180 AD. 

Theres are lots of macaque monkeys… (red long faced with no facial hair). They are also not very big. They are quick to steal any food they see even if you put into your pack. They will steal the pack.

The Hindus carved out these Caves making statues into the walls, of their god Shiva… the destroyer. I wrote down somewhere what the type of cave these were but cannot find it but that they were not naturally made caves but ones that had been chizzled out of the rock. 

We noticed that there were quite a number of men chipping rock by hand…. making paving stones and whatnot…..and women in their saris carrying the rocks to and from the wherever, on their heads. Someone asked why they don’t do it with machinery. We were told that they keep doing it this way because they need to keep all those people employed. 

Here I’m going strictly on memory on Mumbai. It’s air was polluted and the traffic congested but not nearly as bad as Delhi’s. I wouldn’t mind returning to Delhi and other places in India one day but I wouldn’t care to ever return to Mumbai. There really isn’t anything that is particularly “attractive”. Somethings were “interesting” besides the Elephanta Caves though…. the one billion dollar home belonging to the Tata family, the snake that was attached by the workers at the Hanging Gardens (really just unkept gardens over a water reservoir) and Dhobi Ghat where they do the city’s laundry. That was pretty amazing. 

 If you have been following me on Facebook  you know that i lost my ipad. Consequently from here on in will be done using this phone. Grrrr!

Well the Maldives surprisingly enough, were a big disappointment for most people…… not at all what I/we were expecting. The entire island is TOTALLY built up with maybe 10 storey buildings….. streets are so narrow (almost can’t get any sunlight through) with nowhere to walk & its dirty. The streets were crawling with people ……probably 98% men….. all looking at you…… kind of creepy actually!  
Apparently there was an artificial beach that we didn’t find…. of course we didn’t really have the time before it got dark (who would want to be out there in the dark). By the time we were off the tender it was about 4:30 already. Anyway if you use the beach, you have to be fully clothed. Like thats going to happen!!! The places that you can swim and snorkel and such, are privately owned atolls so very costly to visit party because you have to have a private boat take you. One guy was trying to sell us a ride at well over 100US$…. each. We should have booked a snorkelling excursion earlier than when we booked the rest but…. they were already sold out by that time. 
I don’t know what is going on…..can’t send & am losing stuff i wrote. This the second time i gave written this. Am frustrated but will persist. 
We did walk along the shore past the vegetable market where there were quite a number of very colourful live-aboard fish boats tied up. We walked out to the breakwater path….. peered over it into the water. There were quite a large number of manta rays swimming. So very cool! That was the best part of this place. 
On November the19th, we will be crossing the equator so there will be a midday party on board. We’ll see how many will kiss the fish. 

Today already at 8am it was 38 C. Who knows how high it will get?!?!

No photos of the port or will have cameras confiscated. 

Fujairah means agriculture….. only place in UAE there is agriculture. 

Different climate…. 120 mm rain per year…. because of Hagar MTS to rear of the city. Crops are tomatoes squash onion cucumber carrots. 

Fujairah Fort from 15th century

Lots mountains so industry of rock crushing and cement …… used in construction in Dubai and Abu Dhabi 

Largest oil bunkering port after Singapore….. 2.7 m barrels/ day…. 362 km pipelines. Bring oil from Abu Dhabi to Arabian Sea…. so help Fujairah. OMG you have no idea how huge this tank farm is it goes on for miles and miles. It’s hard to say how any deep they are too. 

Local Mosque 6 minirats 

They have confessionals in mosques. 

Fujairah supplies water to other emriates 

Sharjah 3rd largest state and religious centre. 

Only 25% educated in this emirate. Used to have gambling but the local citzens gambled all their money so then it was totally banned. 

55C-140 F temp in summer so excellent for growing dates. 

65% of locals are diabetics partly from eating too much sugar …….from dates. 

Dates so says our guide, are good for sex. 

Dowery to woman’s side in UAE
Prison system is like 3 star residence. 

Sharia law (UAE) is different than Islamic law (Saudi Arabia……eg. stealing calls for hand to be cut off). 

Shia… only listen to the iman, 

Sunni…UAE no protest, educated, follow Koran. More open for women. 

Shia don’t believe in Mohammed

75000 Dirham $25,000 US for rent per year for 1 bedroom, kitchen & living room 

Muscat (sounds like moo-scat), Oman. Nov 9/17
Greeted our guide…. can’t say his name…… in totally different head gear. Speaks English but was very hard to understand. 

Surrounded by UAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Omanian Sea

Temps 20-45 C. Today 33c

The present ruler has no children or brothers… all alone…. peace broker between US and Iran. 

Oh my this is a beautiful country compared to what we have seen. Drive through windy roads (Colleen and Pam.. not sure if you could take this)… along sea shore, lots of flowers along the boulevards…. rugged mountains…. beautiful!

So nice to get out on the waters see thousands of dolphins…… some flying up into the air and some spinning. Very cool! Wish we could swim with them. 

We stopped the boat to go snorkelling….. lots of little fishes….yellow and black striped, some all dark blue with bright yellow tails, some all yellow with dark fringes, etc. Some people saw cuttlefish, others turtles. I didn’t. Certainly wished I had a “go-pro”. Hopefully Richard from Van will email pictures. 

What I have seen so far is very beautiful. …. not what I was expecting. Eileen did say though that it was gorgeous. She was so right. 

28 desalination plants. There is very little rain. 

1 million barrels of oil per day. 

We will be going to see 1-2 century tombs and camel market

86% of area of UAE is Abu Dhabi……has 90% of the oil, is the commercial centre +capital, is the richest in the world. Abu Dhabi means “father of deer” because where deer are means there is water,

Dubai is only 4% area of UAE

Al Ain to where we were going, means “place of the water springs”. It is an oasis. 

Camels can survive for 6-7 days without water, two weeks no food….why they are called the ships of desert.

There is only is 354 days in Arabic calendar…11 days less than our calendar. That’s why Rammaden is different every year. 

The rope worn around the neck on the men that is like a tie contains perfume to sniff to camouflage stench of camels.

Camel rope on head translated means  “control” in Arabic. They put it around the legs of the camels when the stopped for the night or a rest or for eating is so that the camels cannot walk great distances in their search for food.  It is also worn to remember their history.

Dubai is free zone…no tax, no customs….in order to attract more ships with container goods.

64 mega ships can be docked in Dubai

Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia no tax or customs between each other.  Sheikh Rachid implemented this idea. 

We saw a “cool” building … panels opens as it gets shaded from sun and closes as the sun hits the building …..very cool!

Only son, husband, father, brother, father in law are the only men allowed to see woman without covering….others cannot.

Natives (local citizens) cannot live in apartment….only houses because apts cannot provide privacy for women.

Only 3% of population is native….rest are foreigners.

Use drip system for irrigation of trees. There is lots of greenery along the highways….also parks.

Sheikha (mother) Fatima……have separate room in her house to discuss important issues with widows.

Abu Dhabi has been ruled by Zayed since 1971.  He is revered.

1968 Abu Dhabi joined Dubai to become UAE …in ’71 they were joined by other 5 emirates

Abu Dhabi pays for poor Fujairah’s infrastructure because of their strategic location

30% of the “supreme council” is women. Women are also in the police, military, pilots, etc. 

Recycle water from washing is used to irrigate….separate from waste. 

It wasn’t until 1973 that Saudi Arabia was formed.
Hili Park Tombs….from 3 thousand years ago…..are in the process of being reconstructed. The people of this time ( the Bronze and Iron Age) believed in the afterlife……they believed that men were reborn as fetus’

White camels are from Saudi Arabia. Tall and thin camels more valuable  because they can run faster……as much as 65 km/hr. 

There is always a leader and follower in camel herds……for control.

Lots of trees along the highway planted to prevent the highways from being covered by sand.

Competition amongst Bedouin date palm growers…..first prize $300,000, 2nd is ?….. and so forth. 

Falcons are very important to the local citizens. They go to hospital once a month at $75 a visit, fir a checkup. The falcons have pedicures etc. If they are taken on flight, the owner has to pay for seat ….falcons have their own passport. Kennel stays for falcons in hospital. $75/day. 20,000- 100,000$ to buy.

Ghaf trees ….from cineria family eaten by camels….type of antibiotics for camels. They also protect the roads from sandstorms.

Date palms are started not from seed but from the growth beside the female parent trees.. the sand storm winds in March or April pollinate naturally

Al Ain is really quite lovely…..beautiful grounds, wide boulevard ….max 6 story buildings unlike Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

We stopped by a camel market. There were hundreds and hundreds ….. probably a thousand.  Camels are worth between $1500-3700 each. 

Foreigners can get license to buy alcohol but must buy it from one of only two locations in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Muslims cannot get a license to buy alcohol but are allowed to go to a licensed hotel and pay the price but they cannot drink and drive….just like at home.

The head and face coverings are not dictated by their religion but by the custom of their tribe. What makes it interesting is that in Canada, the politically correct give us the nonsense that the Muslims must have their religious freedom allowing them to  cover their faces.

Men wear white robes because they are exposed to the heat more than women whereas women go only from inside a tent or building to another tent or building so they don’t need the white robes.