It is a journey of four days time from Salalah, Oman to the port of Aqaba, Jordan our next destination. To some that may seem like much too long, but I enjoy it. I like to think of Nautica as an ocean liner, not a cruise ship. This is the way people traveled around the world until air travel came along and made us impatient to get to where we want and do it as quickly as possible. Much is lost in the process. It really is the journey, not the destination that is most important, at least I think so. I am spending much time reclining in a deck chair on the deck five promenade looking out at the sea and thinking. Most of the time there is only the sea, the sky and the ... read more

The first thing that struck me about Mumbai was the heat. It was already near 90 when we arrived in early morning. Add to that the humidity and smog and the result is stifling, almost suffocating heat. It got to over 40 degrees C. yesterday. That is about 110 degrees F. The city is huge and spread over a what used to be several islands, now all connected into one large land mass. The harbor was jammed with cargo ships and military vessels. The Indian navy maintains a large base just next to where Nautica docked. We are at the “Green Gate”; the navy next door at “Lions Gate.” I joined four other folks for a private tour of the city. We crammed ourselves into a very small van and took off with an Indian tour ... read more

I won’t be able to say I’ve set foot on Sri Lanka but I can say that I have seen it. The island once known as Ceylon appeared off the starboard side low on the horizon this morning at dawn as I was taking my walk on deck nine. Nautica is about 20 miles off shore so I couldn’t see much detail, but I could see hills back in the morning mist. Later today a storm moved in. We are now in fairly heavy seas with whitecaps stirred up by the wind. The lunch crowd in the café was much reduced with a good number of passengers holed up in their staterooms either seasick or afraid of trying to negotiate the tilting decks and corridors. I find this part of a cruise exciting and am a ... read more

We arrived at Phuket Island at 8am this morning. It was another beautiful sunrise. The port here is much quieter than the others we have entered so far. There were a few small fishing craft, a couple military vessels and some smaller freighters, but nothing like the crowded bustling ports of Bangkok, Saigon or Singapore. This is a resort island and it reminds me somewhat of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We are told that the island hosts thousands of mostly European tourists in the winter. There are beautiful villas and hotels peaking through the forest on the hillsides all around the harbor. The royal family of Denmark apparently maintains a villa here. The locals have set up shops all along the main roads selling everything imaginable. The beaches are supposed to be spectacular, but we will not ... read more

The name Singapore comes from the Sanskrit word “singa” which means lion, and “pur” which is a word for city or town. So Singapore is literally the lion city even though no lions ever lived here. The first settlers apparently mistook the local tigers for lions. At any rate Singapore today is a thriving city state located on 63 islands at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is an independent nation and has 5 million people. The port is huge and simply jammed with ships. Bill and I traveled around the city on a beautiful new subway system that is easy to use, clean, air-conditioned and state of the art. The air conditioning was a godsend since it was very hot and humid all day. We are less than 100 miles from the equator. ... read more