July, 2001
Volume 4, Issue 5
So much has happened and so many places visited since the November, 2000, newsletter!! We have, however, recovered from the "collapse" anticipated in that letter and are looking ahead for more – more visitors and more travel.
Where to begin? We did make the Christmas trip to Atlanta and that included several days at a posh spa nearby, the Chateau Elan, using a gift certificate several of the "kids" had given us as a wedding present the year before. It was unseasonably cold with snow, but we had a great time. We played cards by the fire, soaked in the hot tub, and just relaxed in our theme room in the spa building. We were in the very posh, somewhat sensuous Gatsby Room. The only downside to the spa rooms is the restaurant shows calories on their menu and serve only the kinds of foods that fit into that mold. I mean no bacon or sausage in the house??? Fortunately, by day two we found a breakfast buffet at the main lodge nearby.
Of course, the BIG news is Elizabeth Grace Routon! As you may recall, we first learned that Bill and Lara were expecting via the internet while in Tibet. Thus it is fitting that we learned of EG’s birth via email while we were in the middle of the Atlantic. Helen and I got to meet EG at seven weeks and she actually is adorable, to use Helen’s expression. More important, though, mother and daughter are doing wonderfully well and father is getting used to sleep deprivation.
Since the last report, we have spent more time at sea than many sailors! First, three and a half weeks on the Rotterdam last year and then three and a half months on the Seabourn Sun "inaugural world cruise". The ship was actually making her 13th world cruise. They had just changed her name. And then during the "inaugural" they announced they had sold the ship and 2002 would be her last world cruise. So we have to go so we can say we were on every world cruise, from the first to the last!
Like most of the new ships, I found the Rotterdam to be much like a very good, five star hotel. The décor of the public rooms is quite posh; wall coverings are lovely and the rooms are filled with art, both fine oils and sculpture. Even the minimum staterooms are good sized and nicely decorated. The ship has many nice features from an outstanding gym to small nooks where you can hear a string ensemble after dinner or sing along in the piano bar. In short, many nice features. But for me, she is just too big, holds too many people. This in turn affects dining, the shows, lectures, and other items important to me. I’d say great for a short cruise, but not for the world cruise.
But the short cruise (3½ weeks) was super. It was Helen’s first trip to Turkey and we made the most of it. With the help of an API (aka Virtuoso) courtesy tour, I showed Helen the Greek/Roman city of Ephesus. There’s the paving stone which was the first billboard and gave the sailors directions to the bordello, the main street which was paved in marble, the theater seating 25,000 (the required minimum 10% of the population), the hospital, the fabulous façade of the library, and Helen even sat on one of the "thrones" in what was the communal toilet where men and women socialized and did their business in more ways than one. The only problem with Ephesus as a ruin is too many tourists. If you haven’t been there, it is a must. (Ephesus is also where St. Paul was run out of town by the merchants whose sales of religious icons and medals were hurt by Paul’s preaching.)
For only having about 29 hours in town, we covered Istanbul like a blanket. Fortunately, I had managed to contact our guide from the 1993 visit. He couldn’t help us but he has a friend who is also a professional guide. For a modest fee, Daoud Salman met us both days at the ship and toured us ’til we dropped. We toured the Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, the Mosque of Suleyman, the mosaic museum, the underground cistern, the Roman hippodrome, some Byzantine churches, the city walls, the old hotel to which passengers from the Orient Express were carried in sedan chairs, and the Military Museum so Helen could see the Jannissary Band concert. We even managed to squeeze in dinner with Selcuk, my guide from 1993. I won’t go into details here but many of you know that Istanbul and Turkey are among my favorites in the whole world. If you’d like more detail, let me know and I’ll send you a back issue of RRR covering my trip in 1993.
We were supposed to make two stops in Israel. This was just when things were starting to boil again; cooler heads prevailed and we were diverted to Rhodes and Cyprus on our way to Alexandria, Egypt. Rhodes this time became interesting (versus my last time here) because of our scheduled stop later in Malta. You’ve probably heard of the Knights of Malta and maybe the Knights Templar. All sort of the same bunch. Earlier these Knights were known as the Hospitallers of St. John and ran hostels for Christians in Jerusalem until the Muslims took over the town about 1300. They then moved to Rhodes. Once in control of Rhodes, they built a navy to try and protect Christian ships and attack Turkish ships – and this they did from 1309 until 1522. Now the Turks were not too happy with this and in 1522 the Ottoman Sultan, Suleyman the Magnificent, came to Rhodes with 400 ships and 140,000 men. For six months the Knights held out. Suleyman was about to give up when someone traitorously told him the island was almost out of supplies. So he stayed and shortly the Knights had to surrender. Suleyman was so impressed with their courage, he made a big mistake. He not only let them go but loaned them ships to go back to Europe. Only thing, they stopped at Malta, rebuilt their navy and started raiding Turkish ships again. This did not please Suleyman – at least not much. So in 1565 Suleyman set siege to Malta. For four months he tried but finally had to give up when reinforcements arrived. Apparently bravery is big on Malta as the entire population was decorated for bravery in World War II.
Another "rock" on this trip was Gibraltar. This may have been Helen’s favorite because of some of the local "citizens", the famous apes of Gibraltar. Did you know that Winston Churchill made the apes members of the British Army during WW II so they could be supplied with rations? Supposed to be true. In fact, they are still fed by the authorities. Of course, this also keeps the apes on top of the rock and out of town. They do run totally free – sometimes with the glasses or camera of an unsuspecting tourist. I guess they must know the traditional tale that Gib will remain British as long as the apes are there.
And then came the world cruise. It was the second for Helen and my fifth so many of the stops were repeats. Of course, one of the advantages of the repeats is you can do different things. Maybe the most memorable was attending the opera in Sydney with our friends Wil and Heather Lee. I had obtained the tickets via the internet in December and did we have good seats! Fourth row! We could see all the expressions on the faces of the performers. The opera was Il Trovatore, the singers truly outstanding, and the opera house all it is reported to be.
Unfortunately, we hit rain all the way up the east coast of Australia – from Sydney to Cairns (pronounced Cans). The most disappointing result was wiping out our planned snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns. The weather did break long enough for us to take in the aborigine center outside of Cairns and the cable car over of the rain forest. The aborigine center had some interesting shows, and then they tried to teach Helen (and others) how to hunt game aborigine style with the boomerang and sling spear. Helen might have problem with game, but she did miss my head with the boomerang and her foot with the sling spear. On Hamilton Island, we (sob) had one of the great disappointments of the trip. I had been telling people of the magnificent crème brulee we had last year at a harborside restaurant. This year we caught the first boat from the ship, headed directly there, found the restaurant, and with pleasant anticipation we ordered. Response? "We don’t make that anymore." Oh well, we can skip Hamilton in the future.
Many of you know how much I love to snorkel – and Helen is learning to love it, too. (I get her ready to love it by giving her a workout in the ship’s pool. First, I pry her fingers off the ladder rail, then… Seriously, she is doing wonderfully well, especially for someone who was terrified of the water and learned to swim for the first time last year.) Well, would you believe we were in Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Rarotonga, Tonga, the Great Barrier Reef, and didn’t get good snorkeling until we got to Papua New Guinea? Oh we tried. We took a ship’s snorkeling tour on Moorea only to find too strong a current and heavy rain. On Bora Bora you needed a boat and none were available because it was Sunday. On Rarotonga (in the Cook Islands) we were told by the port lecturer that there was no snorkeling – she was totally wrong but then it was too late. In Tonga, too little time and a rainy looking day. I mean, how many people could hit six south seas islands plus Australia and see a dozen fish? (Not counting the ones in the dining room.) But Papua New Guinea did help to ease the disappointment. It was a secluded cove and while the fish were small, the coral was the best I’ve seen anywhere – live coral wafting in the currents like flowers in the wind. (And Helen let go of my hand and went some on her own. I am very proud of her.)
New to Helen but a repeat for me were the Philippines. Two stops: Cebu in the south and Manila in the north left us with both good and sad memories. Oh, we had fun. There was the horse carriage ride through the old town in Manila, a visit to the Tao temple in Beverly Hills (a very posh area in Cebu), successful souvenir and shoe shopping in Cebu (two pair of nice heels for under $20), and my perennial favorite of San Miguel beer, peanuts, and listening to the string ensemble in the lobby of the Manila Hotel. But the poverty – especially in an old American colony – touches you. It is worse than many of the third world, Asian countries. Worse perhaps not for what it is now, but for what appears to be its future. In many of the countries, the people are poor but you can see progress in the making, hope for the future. You do not get this feeling in Manila – and Manila is probably better than much of the country. What you do feel is the gulf between the rich and privileged and the rest. Per a speaker on the ship, some 60 families control almost all of the wealth and the government. Until this oligarchy is willing to change, there is little hope for the people. There is some reason for optimism, but for now, the corruption that was finely honed by the Marcos continues. The Filipinos are such warm and friendly people. It is sad that the US left them to this.
Other repeat stops for both of us were Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mumbai (Bombay). These are "every year" ports but are great stops – well, maybe not Mumbai. Mumbai, though, may be the most interesting. You see some of the infamous Indian poverty, the sacred cattle wandering the streets, the ubiquitous black and yellow taxis, street vendors and some beggars, and men pulling heavy carts as if they were oxen. You also see a slowly emerging middle class as they stream from the commuter trains to their offices. There is hope and hopelessness side by side. How will this city of some 15 million and the larger country evolve as their lack of birth control will shortly make them the most populous country in the world? My feeling? It is a race – and I’m not sure they will win, especially since many of the brightest and best go elsewhere after college.
After we had our excellent Indian beer and freshly made potato chips at the luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel, we had an adventurous ride back to the ship by horse and carriage. The driver spoke no English so was going on the instructions given by the starter with whom I had negotiated the trip. We went further and further into the non-tourist part of the city (as our sailing time got closer and closer!). The narrow streets teemed with people in the early evening. There were naked light bulbs hanging from the ceiling in the apartments on both sides of the street. The "working girls" were standing in the doorways in the red light district – some with children at their side – while the men seemed to pay little attention as they passed to join groups who were talking or watching TV in open fronted cafes. And everywhere people, people, people with apparently little to do but to be together in the heat. Much different than in the better districts near the ship where few people were on the street, most apparently home with their families for dinner. While our driver made me nervous – will we get to the ship in time, and where is he taking us – I wouldn’t have missed this view of India for anything.
A country that has much further to go than India but where progress can be seen is Vietnam. A fascinating place and a great place to visit. On my visit from the QE2 in 1999, I only had a part day in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) since it was an hour’s excursion from where we had to anchor at the mouth of the river. The Sun, being a smaller ship, was able to sail up the river and dock right in the city.
Some things are the same as in 1999: the unimaginative and propaganda loaded city tour, the excellent shopping, the interesting museum and delightful water puppet shows, the bustle and enterprise of the people, and the heavy traffic of two-wheeled vehicles – and here I saw a significant change. Two years ago the two-wheeled vehicles were primarily bicycles under human power. Today’s prosperity is shown by the dramatic increase in motor bikes and motorcycles. Also, the motorbikes stacked with T-shirts chasing the tour busses were gone – replaced by shops. The pedicabs are still there but the price, while very reasonable, is no longer a couple dollars for a half day. Small items but indicative of an improving economy.
We actually made two stops in Vietnam this trip. One in Saigon and one further north in Da Nang. Quite different. In both places we had courtesy (read free) tours thanks to Virtuoso. From Da Nang we visited first a small village and then the small city of Hoi An. Especially in the village, the people were warm and friendly – little English but lots of smiles and invitations to visit their homes. A quiet country world with a woman cultivating her field by hand, the twenty foot square "super market", the lady washing her bed mats in the creek, and the children who followed us, children to whom our visit was a special event – and not just because some of the people had some candy to give. A very basic and hard life to be sure but the people did not appear to be hungry or unhappy – and not a TV in sight. Hoi An, in contrast, was small but busy. Pedicabs took us on our tour. There was the 400 year old covered bridge built by the Japanese during an almost forgotten occupation, fishing nets ready to be lowered into the water, temples, and people carrying goods in baskets hanging from the ends of a pole carried over their shoulder. All sights from now or a hundred years ago – but in the hotel there is a sign advertising internet access and email.
Another country new to both of us was Sri Lanka – previously Ceylon, the country famous for British tea plantations. For the tourists, it appears that elephants are now the thing. At least, we were greeted at the dock by a big and fancily dressed elephant plus some scantily clad dancers. (Helen went to see the elephant, on the other hand I…) With some new friends, we hired a van and driver for the day. While most of the day involved elephants (See Helen’s Corner for more), we did see a bit of the countryside, the traffic, and the capital, Colombo. As most of you are aware, Sri Lanka is a country with "troubles" in the form of the Tamil rebels in the north part of the country. The Tamil area is only a short ferry ride from southern India from where the British brought the Tamils to work on the plantations. Last year the fighting was bad enough that the QE2 bypassed the Colombo stop. Things have been a bit quieter this year, I guess, and supposedly all is under control unless you go north or east. (and west is the ocean and there is little to the south!) But Colombo tells a different story. It is a bit eerie to see sandbagged bunkers all around town and all manned by fully armed troops with other troops obviously on armed patrol. We didn’t feel unsafe, but I don’t think I’ll move there – and not just because of the traffic.
A great stop was Dubai. I’d been there several times, but this was the best. We were there for two days. On the first day I took Helen to the small but excellent museum and some other sights I had seen before. As we dragged ourselves back to the dock, the tourist board people urged us to go to the cultural center that night. It seems there was a month long festival going on in Dubai and there was to be a big party that night. Normally the anticipated crowds would send me the other direction, but we were tourists, right? So, we had a shower, quick dinner and with another couple took a taxi to the center. It was great! There were examples of the various Bedouin camps from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the area complete with camels, falcons, etc. There was local music (it’s better than Japanese at least) and dancing with and without swords. There were food booths, vendor stalls, children’s rides, open air restaurants with men smoking water pipes. They even had ice cream and popcorn! (Did you ever order popcorn and ask for butter on it when the vendor spoke no English? But it worked.) There were people to watch and the kids with their eyes so big, all smiling and welcoming. And the best part? There were not more than a dozen of us who were not locals; this was real, not something staged for tourists.
The second day was souk, boat, and try luxury for the day. (They have one hotel where the cheapest suite – they have no rooms – is $10,000 per day and you cannot even get into the hotel unless you are a resident guest!) But the souks! First, a fish and vegetable market where there were baskets and baskets of fish – each basket with only one kind and some sooo fresh they were still flopping. And the veggies! Beautiful and fresh, almost art-like in the displays. Each little stall had its own proprietor vying for attention. One took a special interest in us and was plying us with free bananas. You almost wanted to buy something – but buy groceries when you are on an all you can eat cruise??? Next was the gold souk. Gold to the right, gold to the left, ahead of you and behind as far as you could see – so much gold it became blinding. This went on for blocks (hundreds of meters if the word "blocks" isn’t one of your words). Finally the spice souk where spices we buy in small tins they sell from large, opened sacks. And then for a boat ride on the "creek" as they call the river dividing the city. The contrast of the dhows (boats) with the ship architecture of hundreds of years ago and the architecture of the very modern buildings towering above is not to be soon forgotten. Thanks to a modern day sheik, Dubai in the past 30 years – only 30 years – has gone from a sleepy pearl diving port to become the Singapore of the middle east. A city where taxis are Mercedes and there aren’t any old cars – they send those elsewhere. Oh yes, the oil revenue has helped but the big factors have been a free and open market economy, the rule of law in contracts, and a welcoming of foreign capital. Much of the shipping and trade in the area and all the way to India is now handled from Dubai. And Dubai has the only duty free shopping so good that the airlines deliberately allow extra ground time on fueling stops. Go and visit. You’ll like it.
A stark contrast to the modern and wealthy city of Dubai is the southern part of Jordan where we docked at Aqaba to make the trip to the lost city of Petra. Here we saw the real Bedouin life. The government has built villages for them, but they will only stay in the village part of the year. The rest of the time they live as they have for hundreds of years: in the open with their flocks. We saw one flock of over 200 sheep being moved, presumably to better pasture. In front of the column was a man on a donkey. Bringing up the rear was a woman walking. A dog or two completed the picture – and it was a picture from the past as they worked their way across the barren desert.
The lost city of Petra is another of the world’s "must sees". Petra was a prosperous Nubian city from several hundred BC until it was ceded to the Romans in 112 AD. (The Romans could not take it by force because the access was too difficult. The Nubian king struck a deal. They would leave the city alone until he died and then the Romans could have it.) It was a Christian city in maybe the fourth century but gradually deteriorated after the trade routes shifted. By about the 12th century, the city "disappeared" to the western world. Only the Bedouins knew it was there, and the Bedouins weren’t talking. In the 19th century a western archeologist fooled some Bedouins into taking him into the valley and the city was "found". You walk into Petra through a narrow gorge of colored sandstone. You can ride a horse part way or take a horse cart. However, the path is very rough, still partially paved with stones two millenia old, and the carts have no springs – instead, you "spring" a lot! The gorge as you reach the valley is only a dozen feet wide and is bound by cliffs so high the sun doesn’t reach the ground. You step out into the valley and all you can see is the front of the most famous tomb there: the Treasury. It may look like something from an Indiana Jones movie – and for good reason. It was in the movie. Inside the valley, you see tombs with elaborate facades carved into the sandstone walls. Tombs for the dead and caves for the living. A fascinating look at a long lost civilization.
From the harbor at Aqaba you can see Elat in Israel and the shores of Saudi Arabia. In a matter of but an hour or so cruising , Israel ends and the Sanai desert of Egypt begins. And our next stops were in Egypt. Sharm El Sheik, Port Suez, and Port Said. Unfortunately, I again listened to the port lecturer and decided the water of the Red Sea was too cold for snorkeling in March. Others went and said it was great. However, Helen did get to ride a camel across the desert. Of course, the Egyptians running the operation rode in SUVs, probably laughing at the silly Americans who would pay to ride a camel! From Port Suez, Virtuoso again hosted us to an outing and took us to the pyramids at Giza and to the famous museum in Cairo. Again, I’d been there but it was new for Helen. And she did it all, even crawling into the center of one of the pyramids. (Very narrow and low tunnel – even she had to hunch over to get through.) The time in the museum was much too short, but we’ll be back there later this year and it was a good introduction. Dawn had us moving into the southern end of the Suez Canal and by evening we reached Port Said on the Mediterranean – next stop, Rome.
Rome is a great city – especially if you like to walk. We had two days in Rome. On the first day, Virtuoso (again) hosted a full day of sightseeing plus a wonderful lunch at the Hilton overlooking the city. This was a very full day. First was the Forum which was downtown Rome two millenia ago. A most interesting sight was a modern building several stories high that had been built on a several stories high Roman ruin. Now, this is recycling. Then back to the icon of Rome, the Coliseum (properly called the Circus Maximus), where you can feel history (however, a great deal of repair will be needed before NFL football can be played there). A short walk away is the Church of St. Peter in Chains with Michelangelo’s statue of Moses. (All this in one morning!) The afternoon was reserved for a fast visit to the Vatican Museum followed by a tour of St. Peter’s. Too fast, but we did get to see some of the fabulous tapestries, a few of the paintings, and, for most but not me, the crown jewel – the Sistene Chapel. Since I was last there, the restoration has been completed, the scaffolding gone, and even more people trying to see the ceiling. By "misunderstanding" the ban on pictures (I thought it was only video), I did get a few good color shots of the ceiling and the front wall. In due time, you will be able to see them on the RRR web site. The picture ban is part of a deal with the Japanese – yes, Japanese – firm that put up much of the money for the restoration. They got exclusive rights so they can sell pictures and video. Somehow kind of a sad commentary on the Vatican.
But were we done for the day? NO! After checking into our hotel and collapsing for a bit, it was off to walk the ancient streets. To the Trevi Fountain and up 4,000 Spanish Steps (well, it seemed like 4,000). A rest over dinner and then walking with an incentive. What was the incentive? To get to my bed! But by morning, we were ready and off again. This time to the Pantheon, a large, domed building from the first century AD. Lovely inside and with a delightful piazza outside. And almost hidden in the centuries old buildings was a touch of American culture – a McDonald’s. This whole area was the Rome of the Romans. And the area is alive today. Ladies talking from the windows of their upstairs apartments to their neighbors across the way, flower boxes, stores – even furniture stores, sidewalk cafes in little nooks, vegetable and flower markets on the cobblestones, and all in streets so narrow even the mini buses almost scrape the walls. You turn a corner and there is another piazza with statuary – more often than not by Bernini. As Helen found, there is far more Bernini than Michelangelo in Rome. Lunch was in the Piazza Navona by a Bernini masterpiece, the Four Rivers, while watching the locals and the tourists enjoying the sun. A very special two days.
So what’s next? Well, not a lot of rest (surprised?). In August we will see a few of you as we make our first trip to Alaska. In October we’ll be off to Egypt. I’m sure by November we will be eager to see Elizabeth Grace, the holidays somewhere, and then a gala black tie event at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco on January 8th as a prelude to sailing once more around the world on the Seabourn Sun. Very, very busy I’m afraid. I’ll try to get off a short update letter after Egypt, but just in case that should fail, let us be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and a wonderful 2002.
Again I say, until next time, may a loving God walk with us and with each of you.
Amen.