MARCH 26, 2008 – TOMORROW DUBAI, UAE

I woke up to Ed’s tap tapping in the bathroom around 8 am. He got dressed and went to exercise. I got ready and saved him a seat at the Commandatore’s culinary demonstration.
TAJ MAHAL OVERLAND TRIP: I’ll divide the remarks into the good and the bad.
GOOD: Didn’t have to think about anything; everything was taken care of. Le Meridien Hotel for the first night was terrific. The Taj was open when they were there.
Those on the non-Princess, independent, tours, had rooms that faced the Taj so you could see it from your hotel room.
Everyone was glad they had done the journey even if it was hectic and had a lot of wait time or travel time.
All universally lauded how awesome (and I use this adjective not in the cliché it has become) the experience was; Many said they knew if they didn’t do it now, they’d never have another opportunity to see it.
BAD: Had to get up much too early. Long lines at the Taj: men and women divided into separate lines and the women’s line was longer. Apparently, these lines were a function of when you went to visit. Those on private arrangements had no problems, the tickets had been purchased in advance and they went right in.
Lots of confusion and change in plans because it was a triple holiday and Nancy Pelosi was in the area. Those on private arrangements had no more problems than what might be expected since their guides adapted their itinerary to reduce the delays and waiting that the Princess tour group experienced. Actual time around the Taj was about 4 hrs max.
Many people were horrified with the lack of sanitary conditions in the areas they went to. Like typical Americans, they comment about why they can’t do things –fill in the blank – and the unspoken part is “like we have in America.”
One guy broke an arm during the journey and one women had some injury to her foot. This is probably not extraordinary in my opinion for a large group of this age range.
Hotel beds the second night were hard as a rock. While the food was good, one person came back with GI problems and is again on isolation, antibiotics, and a liquid diet.
Some busses did not have air conditioning, and the seats were hard and pretty hard to take for the six hours you were riding from Agra to New Delhi for the 2 hr flight to Bombay.
No opportunity to see much of anything in Cochin or Bombay. Tours in other locations along the trip, were not comprehensive. There’s probably much more but I want to move on.
Overall, I still think Ed and I made the right decision though I am glad that the folks who did go are happy with the experience.
COOKING AROUND THE WORLD: He is collecting recipes from attendees; we were given this as homework before he left for his hiatus. So he needs 100 to make a cook book which he will then give each contributor as a thank you. So we’ve been rustling up recipes from various folks. I submitted my recipe for Slumgullion (the kids will know this right away).
The commendatore did 3 recipes from the cookbook and there are two in the handout he gave us. He makes it all look so easy. The dessert was tiramisu which did look simple as he made it. As usual, he forgot one ingredient, and he had problems with something (this time the bottle of Worchestershire sauce: it was new and he couldn’t get all the wrapping off of it and open it. His remark was something along the lines of “why do they always give these to me?”), but he is fun to watch and learn from.
At the end, he had the ship’s chef draw recipes from a basket for a prize; the chef had drawn out 3 recipes written on various types of paper; mine was the 3rd one he pulled out (I know because I wrote it on Lunesta advertisement paper and you could see the blue border from where we were sitting). At this point some woman jumped up and complained that they weren’t picking any recipes on the cards (I never did see any cards to write on but some had them), so they put mine back into the basket and drew cards from then on out. Ed was really pissed at this. The prizes were bouquets of flowers which I didn’t really care about, but I was upset that they didn’t retain the one they had in their hand when this woman jumped up.
TRIVIA: The other two ladies were in the spa today for a beauty event and they recruited the couple I joined with the other day for a threesome at trivia when my group had swelled to 7 (teams are limited to 6 members and I’m glad to hear the staff reiterating the rules each time we meet). They are a very pleasant couple. The dynamics are palpably different. And we won! The prizes today were can covers: one blue and one red for us.
LUNCH: We wound up with Bill and Lea and some other folks and did our rambling discussions principally focused on India and what we saw there. The filth and poverty are astonishing to many and there were many comments about why the government didn’t take care of sewage, trash collection and clean water. I wonder what the Brits did when they were here because there’s no evidence they did any of this either except for themselves.
SEXPIONAGE: This was a special request and Nigel West did not disappoint. He did say that the CIA does not engage in using sex to compromise agents. And he said CIA stands for “Catholics in Action” due to Casey and Al Haig being devout Catholics. I had never heard any of this before. He discussed many projects most of which were new to me, but he also discussed some we knew such as the Profumo affair. You can imagine that this was a full house today. He explained why women are better spies than men as a rule and of course I found this fascinating.
IRAQUI ENDGAME: This was Scott Ritter’s last talk; he leaves the ship tomorrow in Dubai. The room was full which rather surprised me given how some folks are really reacting negatively to him, mostly because they don’t want to believe his data and consider him unpatriotic for saying such things. However, this talk was more respectfully received. Still I’m astonished at how ignorant some folks are about the history of our involvement in Iran and the current situation there. His remarks are too complex to do justice to here, but basically he discussed the tribal issues and the relations with adjacent nations. Fascinating.
TRIVIA: Our two regular ladies, back from the beauty treatments were with us again. Again we had someone in our group with the right answer and the group settles on the wrong answer. This happens to all groups. We came out #2 again. I’m aware of how much more tense the environment is within our group this afternoon compared to this morning. What a difference personalities make in the composition of a group.
SUPPER: A full table tonite: everyone was present. Rod had to avoid arms as we all talked animatedly about Scott Ritter’s lecture and the whole Iraqi situation. We have several diverse views at the table and while that’s a minefield, it was interesting. I think everyone is mature enough to not take anything personally but you never know. While it was fun, I wouldn’t want this level of “differences of opinion” at the table every night.
ENTERTAINMENT: It’s a pianist tonite. I think I’ve heard him practicing all over the ship so I declined; Ed did go.
DUBAI TOMORROW: We are currently in the straits of Hormuz and in Iranian territory. We were all trying to see land as long as the sun was still shining but then the fog came in. 30% of the world’s oil supply goes through here. Traffic lanes are 2 miles across in this area.
Ed said I had to put in the blog that 16% of the world’s cranes are in Dubai. Our tour begins at 7:45 am and ends around noon. The ship doesn’t leave until 8 pm so there’s time to do things in the pm assuming it isn’t all too expensive or hot for our tastes. I have to choose my clothing for tomorrow carefully. Interestingly, sneakers are not allowed. Thank goodness I did bring a pair of black flats with me.

MARCH 25, 2008 – STILL IN ARABIAN SEA

We woke around 8 am and took our time getting ready. I tried once again to upload the blog and was able to do that, plus sending out a few emails from the lap top. I did have some problems with uploading some photos, so I finally quite after cleaning out some of the older photos and uploading 4 new ones.
PORT TALK: DUBAI: This was given by Stefan Ovelgoenne, a German national who lives and works in Dubai for German entities. He did a nice job but you had to listen very carefully to block out the accent. He is 6’7” and that is unexpected as well. We have some idea of what to expect; all flash without regard to cost. Thankfully, we are on a tour that has high tea in the hotel where they charge you $100 just to go in and sit in the lobby. No, our cost isn’t nearly that much. I should have Ed write up the visits in Dubai since this has been one of the high points for him.
TRIVIA: We were all present; changed some correct answers to the wrong answer. We wouldn’t have won in any event. It was a tough one. We came out #3 or #4, I never got it straight.
We have seen dolphins several times in the past few days. Today many were very close to the ship and you could see fish jumping out of the water as well, trying to escape the dolphins I presume. The Pacific Lounge where we have trivia is a great location for observing their play.
LUNCH: One of the ladies at the table is a UC Berkeley graduate and she saw the UCLA lanyard I use for my cruise card. So we had a long discussion about UCs. They also discussed the arrangements they made to see the Taj through a Bombay travel agent which turned out extremely well. So Ed asked for the details.
HOLLYWOOD’S MASTER OF SUSPENSE: this is Barry’s last lecture for us; we lose him at Dubai. He discussed the life of Alfred Hitchcock and illustrated points with the movie clips he selects with great care. I’ll miss his lectures; I’m not that much of a movie buff but his lectures were so interesting.
OUR ENERGY FUTURE: this lecture was given by Ralph Nansen, a fellow passenger and rocket engineer, author, and internationally recognized authority on solar power satellites. He is the husband in the couple who sailed around the Pacific for six years. They are both very pleasant people. Ed was excited by this lecture and it was clear he wouldn’t be leaving it early for trivia.
TRIVIA: Boo Hoo: only 4 of us: Ed and Elizabeth (who forgot as we later found out). We didn’t do bad all things considered; I think we were #3 overall. We gave it our best. It is funny to see when our logic helps us with the correct answer when we don’t have a clue, and when it leads us astray. The prizes this afternoon were luggage tags.
FORMAL NIGHT: I wore my blue, sequined, brazen hussy dress with the gorgeous blue topaz jewelry Ed got me. I got many nice remarks about the dress. We avoided the formal night photos but Ilana caught us at the table. She’s one of our favorite staff members. Ed loves formal nights because lobster and giant prawns are on the menu.
ENTERTAINMENT: A ventriloquist. We decided to pass.
ANOTHER 30 MINUTES! We are now on Islamabad, Pakistan time. Tomorrow night we turn back another hour before we reach Dubai. Yippee!