Thursday 5^th February 2015 – Day at Sea.

 

Happy birthday Don.

 

We had another relaxing day at sea. Went to hear Helen give a lecture on the defence of India in Napoleonic times, had brunch and then went to the cinema on board to watch “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” starring Judy Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy. It’s set in India and is a really good film.

 

It was yet another formal night so we ate in the restaurant. We have found a Chilean un-oaked Chardonnay which was very nice and at $34-50 quite cheap!

 

There was a “Night of the Raj Ball” in the evening. We had a look in and there were a surprising number of passengers strutting their stuff in fancy dress. We didn’t join in!

 

 

Friday 6^th February 2015 – Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 

Our “Ceylon Tea Experience” was certainly that! It involved a two hour drive each way in traffic just as chaotic as in Cochin…a large junction with three (official) lanes of traffic converging from five different directions all at once on to one policeman, with a whistle, standing in the middle of the road, was our favourite!

 

We did notice that no matter how “free” the driving is, we never saw a single vehicle with a dent or even scrapes.

 

We did about six miles on a toll motorway – with hardly any traffic! – And the last few miles was actually an “off-road” experience where we bumped along over dried mud!

 

Because of the civil war in Sri Lanka (Tamil Tigers, and all that) only finished in 2009 we were warned that tour guides were inexperienced and may not have much grasp of the English language - but they would make up for it with their enthusiasm… Our guide was in his 70’s, couldn’t speak conversational English and had obviously missed out when the enthusiasm was being handed out. It eventually became quite an art deciphering what he was in fact saying (that is when he bothered to speak at all!)

 

The sights and aromas of the tea factory were fascinating and the cup of fresh tea served on the lawn outside the plantation bungalow (massive house!) was picturesque and thirst quenching.

 

At the “sail away” party we stood chatting with Dr Rami Seth (one of the lecturers) and then decided to dine in the restaurant. Our sommelier told us that several of the red wines (including our favourite) were out of stock… We are sure it is purely coincidence that it is all the wines priced at less than $40 dollars that have run out. We said we would leave it for now but, not to be outdone, he returned shortly having “found” a South African Pinotage at only $35-80.

 

 

Saturday 7^th February 2015 – Day at Sea.

 

Our three lovely “Solace” security men left us at 2-30am by small boat off the coast of Sri Lanka as we are apparently no longer in the piracy danger zone. Nesta was chatting to one of them yesterday and he has four days off and then flies out to accompany a Super Yacht through the Suez Canal, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Not a bad life… (As long as there’s no pirates!)

 

After listening to a Jackie Stewart Q&A session we went for brunch and found there was a “Ploughman’s Station” – all that you can imagine that could be served as a “ploughman’s” – brilliant!

 

Choir practice was at 2pm – to learn our 4^th song…We still aren’t very good and the performance is only two days away… Heigh-ho

 

We went to Helen’s next lecture about the lifetime experiences of a Battle of Britain pilot who not only survived, but won a DSO and bar and a DFC. The fact that he was also Helen’s father merely added to the interest.

 

We then managed to skype Dave, Rebecca and Martin… although the Wi-Fi is expensive it’s worth it! (Ellie and Fi – we’ll try you tomorrow).

 

On Voyages of Discovery whenever you were invited to dine at the Captain’s table the commemorative photograph was delivered to your cabin. As we hadn’t received ours we enquired, to be told that the group photo of this ship’s dinner would cost us $25. Strangely we didn’t buy one!

 

In the evening, we tidied our stateroom and Jerry (our steward) found us an extra chair because we had invited Helen and Mike up to our balcony to sample the wine which we bought in Italy. We then headed for the “Chef’s Galley” for some fresh pasta – delicious. Here they bought a bottle of Malbec which was much nicer (and probably more expensive) than the one we had at the beginning of the trip. All in all it was a lovely evening and another brilliant day.

 

 

Sunday 8^th February – Day at Sea.

 

We attended Rami’s final lecture – he made us laugh again - and then it was on to the church service with the Deputy Captain.

 

Another relaxing sea day and as the Captain said on his noon update “We are skirting the bottom end of the Bay of Bengal in the North Eastern part of the Indian Ocean and are totally surrounded by – absolutely nothing…except beautiful sea”!

 

In the afternoon, Ian went to see the film “12 years a slave” whilst Nesta went to the latest choir rehearsal.

 

The bad news is we seem to be missing out on free wine!! (Yes, difficult to believe isn’t it?). Tonight is a formal night and we should have received invitations for a cocktail party but they were not forthcoming. Several people complained (not Nesta!) and were told several different reasons/excuses for the non-appearance of the invites. The final one was “it is your cabin steward’s fault for not delivering them”. Strange coincidence that lots of different cabin stewards forgot to deliver the invites at the same time! Why can’t people just say “sorry, we got it wrong”?

 

After dinner in the restaurant we went to the show – more acrobats doing a similar show as previously – and then at 11-30pm our time skyped Eloise and Fiona – meaning we had seen and talked to all the children this weekend.

 

We also received presents from the World Voyage Club…a hat for Ian and a rather nice beach bag for Nesta. Very nice – but doesn’t make up for missing the free wine!!

 

Well – another sea day tomorrow followed by four different ports in four days! You need stamina to be on a world cruise…