Search results

More Zanzibar

Day 89 Apr 5 Zanzibar City We hoped that the visit to Zanzibar would be one of the highlights of this trip. We weren’t disappointed. It is just a few hours by cruise ship from Dar Es Salaam and even less by the local high-speed ferry. It is clearly the destination of many westerners and has...

We didn't think we'd be in Dar Es Salaam on this cruise. We'd expected to be in Mombasa up the coast but, alas, the Silversea powers that be decided that the risk was real in Mombasa, after the recent terrorist incidents in Nairobi, so we were diverted to Dar (as we locals call it!). We liked...

Fast approaching the end as we are now into Segment 7 of 9. It's from Dar Es Salaam to Cape Town, not Mombasa. "Security issues".

Hmmm! :) That and the short tour of Sri Lanka in mid-2022 have crossed my mind but too far away to be definite.

We are just finding it like normal life now. We are 2/3rds through and it has gone in an instant. It will be hard to get back to the routine after we get home June 10 and there will be no one to make the bed, cook or do the washing. And we'll have to pay in restaurants and bars! We've already...

Unfortunately, we didn't. Just not enough time on a cruise but it is a taster to go back. Clearly, a thick wallet is needed.

Day 84 Mar 31 Mahe, Seychelles. Mahe is the big smoke of the Seychelles. However, it is tiny. While the town and surrounding area seemed a bit more urbanized than Praslin with some poor housing, it was still quite attractive. We decided to do a tour here. It started at the impressive but...

That is the nut from the female coco-de-mer which is fertilised by the pollen from the nearby male coco-de-mer. Be grateful I didn't post a picture of the male one! :)

Day 83 Mar 30 Praslin Island, Seychelles In sharp contrast to the Maldives, or what we saw of them, is Praslin Island in the Seychelles. Male in the Maldives ranks up there with Mumbai in population density but Praslin has only 9,000 people. We travelled all over the island and it seems like...

Day 80 Mar 27 Male, Maldives We are off the coast of Africa and the Internet is vaguely working again. I'll try to post something. Here are some shots from our day anchored in Male, The Maldives. The capital, Male, is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and full of motor...

We are struggling with the internet here and have been for days. Connectivity has been atrocious and goes up and down. It looks a bit better tonight so I'll have a shot at posting something from Colombo which is, to me, an unbelievable 5 days ago. In the evening at the end of our stay in...

Day 78 Mar 25 Colombo It was another very hot but a less humid day than the one in Trincomalee. I did my morning walk on the deck as we approached into the smog around the port. However, it wasn’t as bad as Port Klang in Malaysia or Ho Chi Minh City or Shanghai where you could taste it. As...

We were told that there area is slowly recovering though we passed several Buddhist temples being rebuilt after damage in the war.

Day 72 Mar 19 Port Klang, Malaysia The main reason for a stop at Port Klang is that it is the port for Kuala Lumpur, about an hour away. Port Klang town is about 30 minutes from the port and has very few redeeming features apart from a huge shopping centre. Having no desire to traipse into...

After the gardens we got a taxi to the Buddha's Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown for a mooch around. It is a fairly new building but bright and bustling. Apparently there are quite a few of the Buddha's teeth around Asia. We had lunch a the vegetarian restaurant below the Temple which the taxi...

Day 71 Mar 18 Singapore Having been here quite a few times we were a bit perplexed as to how to fill in the day. We decided to escort new cruise friends, a couple who had not been here previously, to the Botanic Gardens especially as one of them was into orchids. In fine, hot weather, we headed...

Now it is time for segment 6, Singapore to Dar Es Saleem. We shouldn't be going there. We were scheduled to end this segment in Mombasa but a few weeks ago it was announced that the disembarkation/embarkation port had been changed to DES from Mombasa. The reason given was "security" and...

Day 70 Mar 17 At sea between HCM City and Singapore. Today we did a bridge tour, something you generally can't do on a plane. To someone like me who is a technology ignoramus it was very interesting. It was explained to us how grey and black waste were dealt with, the fire and alarm systems...

Day 69 Mar 16 Ho Chi Minh City. First thing it was back to the post office to post some post cards and to see if we beat them home. Town was again bustling and no different on a Saturday morning than on a Friday. After some more wandering in the heat we had a couple of pineapple juices (twice...