Anne and I had expected this tour, of part of the world we had not previously seen, to provide plenty of sun for her and grand photo ops for me, it hasn’t been that way. The sun has at least; shone for the past few days, whilst we have been at sea, to such an extent that even Anne is peeling. But the crap weather ashore has meant that photo ops have been severely limited.
We had arrived at Male, capital of the Maldives in good weather, but of course 2hrs late, meaning we would not now disembark untill about 10 AM and were still expected to be back on the ship by 3PM. People already less than happy when they set off for shore by Tender, reacted badly to find on arrival that it was a religious holiday again and everything was closed or would be closed at 11.30 AM, wonderful.
Now the Maldives are made up of about 2000 magical coral islands grouped together in atolls, only ten percent of them are inhabited. Most have white sands, coral reefs, coconut trees and coves, populated by millions of fish, snorkeling havens, idyllic and everything you could dream of for escaping to……
A.O. Male. Maldives
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
Male from the sea
.
Except Male of course, this has an airport with the runway sticking out to the sea, and banks, banks and more banks, factories, traffic, oh, and banks. All the roads have sleeping policemen built in every few yards. We asked a taxi driver to take us for a tour, and as he passed over each hump the floor of the cab lifted as it scraped on the road. He never once went over 20MPH and still managed to complete the tour in 20 minutes. The thing of most note, he asked us to look at, the man made beach, everything else was closed. Anne dashed into a shop got her magnet and then we were done.
Islam is the only permitted religion here, so religious holidays tend to be observed. Any working boats had been taken up by the tours booked in advance from the ship, so we called it a day and made our way back to Artemis.
Now had the ship stayed a night in Cape town all the subsequent woes of Sunday and Holiday landings would have been averted, as well as providing us passengers with sufficient time to have a better look at the lovely city, The dissent and unrest generated would have been avoided and P & O would have reaped the benefit in the future. Especially as a number of other large cruise companies will be operating out of Southampton from this year on. Unfortunately they didn’t and will, I fear, pay the price.
Cruising is definitely changing, driven by the Americans, bigger ships are coming, with cheaper smaller cabins, more entertainment facilities on board, everything chargeable and the major dollar earner the Casino, given Vegas style pride of place, meaning you will pass through it to get to other parts of the ship. Good luck to them they can keep it.
It is just after lunch on Sunday Jan the 7th, the captain has been on the tanoy, It seems we are still fighting the current and will be late at our next port, how late he can’t tell us yet. Also Bangkok because of the recent bombings has been removed from the itinerary and we won’t be visiting, however this means two days instead of one in Singapore for the ship and an overnight stay in Vietnam, they are both improvements. But as we leave the ship in Singapore won’t do us much good.
Lousy weather, no sunbathing, so we have packed our cases and dispatched four of them to the hold, to be picked up when the ship gets back to Southampton,
Kuala Lumpur some time tomorrow, we have a long tour booked, depends on what time we get in, whether we go or not.
9. Am on the 9th, we should be tied up at the terminal in KL. But that is at least two hours away, the humidity is high, so high my lenses have still not cleared after an hours exposure to the air.
At least the Norovirus seems to have been contained and all the restaurants are open and working, makes for a more comfortable experience in these humid conditions, the air conditioning in the main restaurant is patchy to say the least.
11.30 Ashore at last, long walk in the humidity to the coach, the ship leaves at 7pm meaning our tour has been cut back a bit, we have a 90 minute ride each way to KL. Plus a booked lunch, leaving us about 3.5 hours for the city, not enough of course but the best we are going to get.
The ride in is bumpy, the new road has been carved from mango swamps, and unsurprisingly is prone to shrinkage and sinking, high rise social housing seems to be the order of the day, built by the government and rented cheaply to the lower earners, after twenty years if they are still sound (they too suffer from shrinkage) they are offered at very cheap prices to the tenants. If not sound, the tenants are eventually re-housed, the apartments demolished and rebuilt for the current, generation of low earners to rent.
The Chinese inhabit the road running into the city; these are low rise livers, the shops, restaurants, stalls, businesses and homes, no different to so many Chinese quarters, in countless cities around the world.
The traffic thickens as you approach the city hemmed in by an imposing mix of colonial buildings of many influences, both Eastern and European and vast modern office blocks and skyscrapers, looming over the business centre. Here is one of the highest building in the world the Petronis Twin towers, with its sky bridge joining the two at the top; the fourth highest viewing tower is also here. We jumped a lift and rode to the top, stupendous views across the city and out to the hills in the distance. From here can be seen the marvellous mix of building styles that reflect KL’s colourful past. A headset with a full commentary is available in the ticket price for those who have the time, unfortunately we didn’t, so down again and off to a hotel for lunch
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
The Twin Towers
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
The View from the Top
What a lunch, KL was long under Dutch control and is of course part of Malaysia, from this mix comes, Satay’s subtle, delicate and delicious, a million miles from those available at home, served alongside Chinese and European dishes. We gulped them down and were soon on the move again.
Visits to a museum, a demonstration of local Batik cloth printing and a war memorial followed, topped by the beautiful Independence Square. Here the Sultans Palace stands and is still used on important occasions. Of Indian design with a working clock it glows a soft pink even under the cloudy sky that accompanied us. Cars and mopeds buzz around it like angry wasps, but its timeless calm transcends all this, a remarkable building.
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
The Palace Clock
Across the road is the square itself, originally just a cricket ground, which sits there still, a green manicured oasis with a wicket marked out in the middle ready to go, bet the ball swings in that humidity, if you can get a grip on it that is.
A black and white timbered building alongside it could easily be a club house straight from the Home Counties, flower beds, a water fountain, and the Cathedral, all conspire to make this a must visit spot
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
The Fountain
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
The Cricket Ground and Club
Here also, present day east met west, a class of young Muslim women chattered to us and happily posed for photos, whilst a young European man tattooed and wearing a Mohican's Haircut scowled and muttered at the cameras, an interesting absurdity, that amused this traveller.
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
The Last of the Mohicans
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
Class is Out
A.O.Kuala Lumpar
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.
Time caught up with us, this is a place to return to, and we boarded our bus and headed back for our last night on board.
Anne’s birthday was two days away, but as a surprise I arranged for our dinner table to be decorated with balloons and streamers, at the end of the meal, waiters gathered, produced the cake I had ordered and sang happy birthday to her. She enjoyed it in the company of dinner companions, who amidst the chaos that has been this cruise have become friends. We adjourned to the lounge for a few drinks, said goodbye to many, although half the passengers are leaving the ship tomorrow with us.
So what is my overriding memory of this trip, well, anger really, angry skies, angry seas, and most of all angry passengers, the average age on this trip is around the mid sixties, these people have seen it all, a lot of them are very successful and are by and large, slow to rise, this time they did. They reacted to being treated like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed bullshit, they reacted to the bad planning the constant lateness and on days that we were early, the damn places been shut for whatever reason. P and O should have known and planned for this. The general impression is that P an O under the auspices of the new owners Carnival are cutting corners and lowering standards. One night and an extra day spent in Cape Town would have avoided all these problems, but it would have cost and that I believe is the answer, bottom line for the new American masters
The Captain most certainly didn’t help, only venturing from his bridge to the Captains Dinner. Most cruise ship Captains circulate amongst the passengers on a regular if not daily basis, this one’s refusal to do so, served to fire the resentment and increased the feeling that he didn’t want to know.
So will we go again? Not without studying the itinerary much closer, more overnight stops are crucial on long voyages, but Anne loves the life so I expect like most wimps I will give in.
To add insult to injury it rained for the three days we were in Singapore, good job we had a lovely hotel, and a good friend to meet us there, Witty is a native Singaporean an attractive young lady with an infectious giggle, a delight to be with. Hopefully she will visit us this year. The flight home was a typical BA. Cram em in job, lasting 14 hours.
On arriving home. It was still raining and blowing a gale, the back garden fence had blown over and the felt blown from the roof of the garden shed.
Happy Days
1 comment:
Well... casino's. Naturally. My own personal opinion of American taste is not actually printable. A great travelog again though Cliff. My best to Anne. I'm just about to post one new pic to my bog...have a peak. Chance
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