Posts for March, 2026

Again today we arrived in port at dawn, this time the port of Phuket in Thailand. The similarity to yesterday continued after docking as todays excursion was also to an area named Phang Nga Bay, which is also renowned for its limestone pinnacles standing in the ocean and often surrounded by mangrove forests. This bay is also the home of James Bond Island which was featured in the movie The Man With The Golden Gun. The local name of the island in question is Khao Phing Kan

There was no organized excursion today as the ship was scheduled to depart the port of Phuket at noon, so I stayed on board all morning and used it as an opportunity to "get organized". Nina however, went ashore to do some shopping at a small local shopping area and to do her daily walk in the port area rather than be constrained to the very small walking track on the ship.

We are on our way to Sri Lanka and will be at sea for the next few days. The noteable feature of todays travel was the very calm and glassy sea. Reminded Nina and I of a water skiing morning at Lake Macquarie. The second noteable event of the day was at dinner. Our table gave us a view east over the stern of the ship with a fine view of the moon and the lunar eclipse that started around sun set.

Today we are still traveling west towards Sri Lanka. A bit more activity today as Nina decided to get a pedicure. We finally took some photos of the calm and glassy sea. After dinner tonight we noticed another lunar phenominon a Red or Blood Moon. Some research suggests this effect occurs near a lunar eclipse and is the result of the sun's light being scattered by the Earths atmosphere.

We arrived in Colombo this morning and docked in the midst of the very busy container and general cargo port. There was a sign implying that we were in a Cruise ship port but it was really only a token effort. The other aspect of the port that we noticed immediately was the worn nature of a lot of the port infrastructure and many of the docked ships.

Towards the end of todays bus ride Nina saw the road sign shown in the first photo below, and decided that it was a very good single image summary of her perception of Sri Lanka. The country seems to be a mix of the old and the new and this is shown very well in the range of vehicles from late model electric cars to animal drawn carts.

We docked in Cochin this morning just after dawn so got a good view of the port area during the docking operation. It was clear that the passenger terminal was an after thought in what is a very large and busy cargo port. Like Colombo yesterday the air was thick with dust or pollution and visibility was restricted.

Again we docked this morning just after dawn so got a good view of the port area of Mangalore, and again it seemed clear that the passenger terminal was an after thought as it was in an area that seemed primarily provided for loading fertilizer and coal. On first impression it seemed that the air of Mangalore was even more polluted by smog and dust than Cochin. This imression was re-enforced during the tour.

Today we were in the city of Goa which in the 1500s and 1600s Goa was part of the Portuguese Empire in India, and as usual there are a range of excursion for passengers. Back when we made our choices of shore excursions a day at a beach side resort seemed like a good change from temples but to me, today, it seemed less attractive so I abandoned Nina and left her to experience the beach resort by herself. As a result the brief report below is based on hear-say and the photos.

What can I say, Mumbai (or as it was called for a long period Bombay) is an amazing, extra ordinary place that is not entirely pleasant or uplifting. During our short visit no sight did a better job of capturing the contradictions of this city than the open air laundry called Dhobi Ghat. This 125 year old establishment is reputed to be the largest open air laundry in the world. For 18 to 20 hours each day, over 7,000 people flog, scrub, dye and bleach clothes on concrete wash pens, dry them on ropes, neatly press them and transport the garments to different parts of the city. Over 100,000 pieces of clothing are washed each day. And as you can see from some of the photos below all of this takes place within a short distance of modern up market high rise apartment buildings. click here for wikipedia link.

Nina and I had no planned excursions today so we decided we would spend some time exploring the area of Mumbia around the dock and in order to have an objective Nina decided she needed a supermarket in order to buy some muesli. After some google research we narrowed down to a likely establishment; a shop that had an name in English and that was part of a chain of shops with the same name. Amazingly after a taxi ride to the center of the local "town" and a 2 km walk we found the shop and acquired the necessary supplies.

We arrived in the Maldives this morning and anchored in protected waters near the city of Malé. The first views of the Maldives was a bit disorienting. We know that we are in the middle of a large ocean and yet as we approach the Maldives we see little bits of low lying land that appear to be only a few feet higher than the water, as well as patches of light blue ocean indicating shallow water. The city of Malé has many multi story buildings that look like they are either growing out of the ocean or maybe sitting on a very long barge rather than land. There are a number of other islands near to Malé one connected by a very spectacular Chinese Friendship Bridge, another one is the site of the countries international airport.

This morning we caught an 8:30am lifeboat ride into Malé with a plan to do some shopping. Within the first 10 minutes we figured out that we had timed things badly as shops did not open until 10:30-11:00. On the other hand the early start meant that the first part of the day was comfortable as the days heat had not fully started and the low morning sun meant the narrow streets lined with multi-story buildings were in shade.

Nothing to say, a day relaxing while the ship makes way towards the Seychelles.

Today was a special day for two reasons. It is St Patricks day so the drinkers and party animals onboard were out in their greens looking to down more than a few. A little more significantly just after breakfast the ship crossed the equator and as many will know there is a specific ceremony to be held in conjunction with that event. Here is a link to a wikipedia article on the line-crossing ceremony

Another day at sea. I have not previously mentioned that on our days at sea the ship organizes presentations on topics generally related to a port we stop at. Todays presentation was about the war between the British and descendants of South Africas Dutch Settlers, there were two such wars and here are links to a wikipedia entry for each. First Boer War, and Second Boer War

Today was a very short visit to the Island of Mahé which is the largest of the 115 islands that make up the Seychelle Archapeligo and the country of Seychelles. As the first few photos below show we arrived in the port of Victoria at sunrise to find a mountainous island that was a spectacular contrast to the Maldives of a few days ago. A quick look around the port revealed that fishing is a major commercial activity. See photo 2 for the ocean fishing ship that passed by while we were docking.

Nothing to say, just making our way to the Comoros.

This morning we anchored in the Harbor of a town called Hell-Ville which is on an Island called Nosy Be in the country of Madagascar. The name of the island, Nosy Be means big island in Malagasy, one of the two local languages, the other being French. The port is small and does not have docking facilities for a ship the size of the Sirena so once again we used some of the ships life boats to transport people to shore. As you will see from the photos below there was a welcome party on the wharf giving a demonstration of local dancing.

The Comoros and the swimming deck in the rain.

Just a couple of pictures to record the mood.

Not even a photo today, just cruising down the Madgascar Channel off the coast of West Africa.

Another day at sea. In todays single photo you might be able makeout the slightly darker line on the horizon, that is the land of East Africa.

This morning at around 7:00 we docked in the city of Maputo, in the country of Mozambique. The first impressions of the city were formed by the dock area, the array of docked fishing boats in image number 1, the Maputo-Katembe Bridge and its grounded companion ship the Volopas shown in the 3rd and 2nd last photo and the Mozambique Naval Ship in the last photo which was also in the process of docking when we arrived. So what was that impression? It was of a modern city that was somewhat run-down. The city tour that occupied most of our day expanded on that impression.

Today we docked in the town of Richards Bay in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It has an impressive harbour from which is shipped large quantities of coal and aluminum. In 2009 it had the worlds largest coal export facility, interestingly a crown now held by Newcastle NSW. Unfortunately, and I am surprised by this, we did not provide any photos of the port or city. I guess that is because we were both too captivated by the images we collected from the days visit to the Hluhluwe Game Reserve.

Today we were in the city of Durban in the province of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. The first impression of the city from the ship as we docked was that it looked like a modern prosperous place. It is a large port, the busiest in sub-Saharan Africa, with a newish Cruise Ship Terminal named after Nelson Mandela, with a lot of grandious buildings and many highrise buildings in the city. However once on our bus for the journey to Tala Game Reserve we saw a bit more of the underside of the city such as large numbers of makeshift and delapidated vendor stalls lining most streets and almost every open space, including a bridge to nowwhere.

Nothing to say - a day at sea.

We were at sea all day to day only arriving into the port of Cape Town as sun set. The sunset was glorious and left a wonderful red/orange after glow on the horizon. As we approached the port we had some great views of the mountains behond the city which include the well known Table Mountain and The Lions Head.