Petra: one of the great wonders of the world

The Treasury

The Jordanian port of Aqaba is not new to us: we visited this unique place (Jordan’s only seaport) in 2016.  A visit to Petra was available then too, but I was 17 kg heavier and feeling very out of shape.  In other words, I didn’t feel confident of attacking a Petra tour – over seven kilometres of walking required in high temperatures.  And that was in spring, three weeks earlier than this year’s visit.

Still feeling little confidence, I booked a tour this time and am so pleased I did.  Even though I’m running on three cylinders today.  Hazel and Deb had organised a private tour and one of their friends had cancelled so I took her place.  The 22-seater coach (different from our expected four-person car) turned up at 7 am and we were soon on our way. 

Our guide

The 35-year-old English speaking guide looked like a body-builder and he probably was, as he later told us that fitness training was his main occupation.  We also had a non-communicative but careful driver.

Outskirts of Aqaba

On the way, we passed sand mines, through arid mountainous deserts, villages and towns with boxy houses and lonely Bedouin camps. 

Boxy houses

A village

Plus, heaps of goats.  The Bedouin camps are now accompanied by utilities and large standard looking grey and black airy canvases, open to the elements.  In this dry, hot land it is hard to imagine the landscape covered with snow, but so it is in six months’ time.  We could see Israel and are apparently very close to Syria in this southern area of Jordan.

Entrance to Petra

We stopped along the way for the obligatory souvenir shopping – how I detest that – and arrived at Petra some time before 11 am.  But on the drive home, we stopped at even more souvenir shops.

We walked as a group, 3.5 kilometres down through a narrow earthquake-formed gorge or “Siq” to The Treasury, paying great attention to the ground we were walking on since it varied from sand, loose gravel, small boulders set as cobblestones by the Romans to concreted pebbles.  We needed to avoid the donkey carts travelling both ways as we walked through the As Siq.

Map of Petra valley

We were “let loose” when we entered the area of the Great Sacrifice (700 steps up a cliff face), the Royal Tombs and Roman Theatre, and walked back individually, each at our own pace. 

Burial mounds

These Roman soldiers must have been hot

Just as well.  A fit golfer in our group attested to no problems whatsoever, but that wasn’t the experience of most of us.  I was extremely hot and bothered but did not give in to the temptation to take a cart or ride a horse.  Hazel and Deb found it hard going, although they both did amazingly well, Hazel with two ski poles.  They hired a cart for the final uphill section.  I was pleased I had extra water, sun cream, an umbrella and a hat.

Hazel, Deb and Margaret

My Mother's Kitchen

Chicken and rice upside down meal

We gathered as a group at 2 pm and followed the guide to a restaurant called My Mother’s Kitchen.  We climbed some stairs, then more stairs and finally to the restaurant on the roof.  None of us felt like eating, but we did manage to do so, leaving the majority of the food for the poor.  The rice and chicken dish was accompanied by a very tart mint juice, reminding me of a much stronger version of the drink my mother often made in the 1950s. 

Jordanian salad

I did need to mix sugar with it to make it drinkable and most refreshing.

I enjoyed the meal but was too hot and bothered to feel hungry

The tour guide tried to talk us into taking a side tour to the Wadi Rum desert for 30 dinars extra, but although some were keen, others simply wished to return to the ship after a very strenuous day.  As it was, it was not until 6:30 pm until we returned.

Tombs carved into the cliff face

Camel ride, anyone?

I had arranged to have dinner with John, Gene and Nancy at 6 pm to celebrate Independence Day, but I was an hour late, needing a hot shower to soothe my aching limbs first.

Missed ports, making friends and lazy sea days

Neither John nor I left the ship either at Colombo (Sri Lanka) or Muscat (Oman).  “Working ports” rather than cruise terminals are generally not set up for passengers who use wheelchairs – certainly not for those who can’t climb the steps of a shuttle bus.  I had intended to walk around the city of Colombo, but on the day, John was forced to stay in bed as a precaution due to a temporary skin problem, so I stopped in with him.

Those who did go ashore said that the roadways and footpaths were certainly not wheelchair friendly.  Many cruisers hired a tuk-tuk for an hour or three and found that a good experience.  However, Sri Lanka’s decades of conflict is certainly reflected in the country’s paucity of tourist services or citizens’ amenities.  Other cruisers booked tours with varying opinions as to their value.  These tours were to watch elephants feeding or to see a tea plantation, but mostly included a six-hour drive, rather tiring for most.

I had booked a tour to a Mosque and the Suq (market) in Muscat, the capital of Oman, but at the last moment cancelled the tour due to not feeling well.  That has been my only off-day so far.  Neither have I caught John’s cold and bad cough.  The latter is certainly going around the ship.  John is having difficulty getting rid of his cough and spent four days of self-imposed isolation in the cabin last week.

The weather has been extremely hot since Singapore and that is another reason we’ve felt lazy.  I have made use of my new swimming costume in the hot tub: luxurious.

We’ve met lots of people – friends of friends we knew beforehand – as well as others by chance.  We’ve found kindred spirits in a well-travelled American couple now living in Florida but hailing from Buffalo and Detroit originally.  We spend hours and hours discussing books, travel, politics and human rights.  Last night we joined them for a restaurant meal to celebrate their Independence Day.

We’ve also read heaps of books – mostly on Kindle, but also borrowed from the ship’s library.  The best books appear to be donated by guests – too hard to carry home no doubt.

My legs and back are stiff today – I spent the day at Petra, Jordan.  That's a tale for another day.

Singapore: a fleeting visit

John and Marg with Stanley the bear in Singapore

The city state of Singapore has a reputation amongst us Aussies of a clean, efficiently managed but rigidly ruled city, and thus we knew what to expect.  John had never visited and Margaret was last here in 1971 on her way back from her first visit to the UK and Europe.  Although it was then, and still is a shopping mecca, much else has changed particularly with high rise development and public transport.

Due to his busy medical schedule in the previous three months, John had not been able to do his usual detailed research, so we were relying on what friends had told us and the shipboard destination talk.  We realised there was so much to see and resigned ourselves to having no more than a slight taste, given our short time in port.

A neighbouring much larger ship berthed at Marina Bay Pier

The Sea Princess schedule gave us eight hours, but we knew the port authorities would take their time allowing us on-shore.  Singapore is very well-known for that.  The queue to exit the ship snaked almost twice around the large atrium on Level 7, but it moved fast.  Moving through customs was a different matter for most passengers – some waited 75 minutes – but we were lucky to be ushered through a “mobility impaired” shorter queue along with ship’s crew lucky enough to get a shore pass.

Indian gardeners along the walkway to train - no English

We walked to the previously mentioned SMRT where we queued for help to obtain rail tickets, a return from Marina Bay Pier to Orchard Road was a mere $3.30 Singapore dollar, with the latter being roughly equivalent to AUD.  Great value.  The station platforms are fenced off, something I’ve only seen previously at Atlanta Airport.  The trains stop with doors opening only at the barrier openings – thus preventing accidents or those tempting fate.  I’m sure this is the way of the future.

We caught a redline train to Orchard Road where I bought a swimming costume, having forgotten to pack mine.  I used it in the hot tub yesterday – beautiful.  The underground shopping areas were very busy, as were the streets above.  

Margaret at Orchard Road station

Johnny the dog at Orchard Road

An outsized avocardo at Orchard Road

Marina Bay Sands

The obligatory icecream at Orchard Road - a very humid day

We didn’t stay long, just an hour or so, before catching the SMRT to Bayfront, changing to the Circle Line at Marina Bay.

John said we walked about 14 km that day – fortunately with breaks for me to rest.  It was certainly hot and humid, 31C and about 90% humidity.  A bit different from Sydney this month.  We were back on board before 4:00pm after a satisfying day.

Definitely a place to visit for a week or more.

Some more photos of Gardens at the Bay below.

Singapore: Wheelchair accessibility

John Moxon aboard the SMRT

We’ve decided to plan a holiday in Singapore – fly and stay – since it is impressively accessible.  The trains are wonderful and the stations are plentiful.  The downside of course is the weather.  Being right on the equator, it is hot and oppressively humid.  Despite that, we walked approximately 14 km, according to John’s wheelchair distance monitor.

Driverless train

The SMRT – the driverless underground train system – is wonderfully accessible, as you can see in these photos.  We didn’t try out the buses.  Many of the stations have huge underground shopping arcades and there are adequate lifts to reach these and street level.

We occasionally had to take a longer route to find the barrier-free access, including at street crossings.  At Orchard Road, pedestrians are encouraged to use the underpass – only accessible by escalator or stairs – so we had to walk an extra block to find a street crossing.

Easy access and egress - no ramp required

The Gardens by the Bay – a must see attraction – are also fully wheelchair accessible.  We wandered vast distances in this park and there is much to see.  There are boardwalks and lifts to all features where needed.

Photos of these coming.

We are yet to check out – on another holiday – the access to the many museums, old and new but are confident the Singaporeans have done their best.

Maybe some of our wheelie friend readers can comment?

Komodo Island: Meeting the dragons

Komodo dragon

After six days at sea – since leaving Brisbane – we arrived at Komodo Island which is just 200 miles east of Bali.  It is a volcanic island, one of 17,508 islands which make up the Republic of Indonesia.  It is re-known for the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on earth.  There are about 2000 people living on Komodo, most of them descendants of nomadic Bajau and Bugis fisherman and/or of felons who were placed on the island by the Sultanate of Bima.  The convicts were left to fend for themselves and many did not survive.

Margaret on tender

Sea Princess anchored around 6:00 am this morning and will be leaving at 4:00 pm.  Those of us who were able – no wheelchair users - or those who were not scared off by the Destination Talk the other day went ashore by tender on either a Princess tour or a private tour.  Going ashore independently is forbidden – humans can be food for these large lizards too and people have been killed or badly injured.  The lizards can run short distances at 15-20 miles per hour and have no predators.  Certainly not humans.  They can swim and climb as well. And they are venomous

Entrance to Komodo National Park

The island is very dry – it has good rain only in January.  Most seedlings we saw on the dusty tracks were shrivelled and brown.  The houses are raised off the ground, not surprisingly.  The Komodo National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage site - was established in 1980 to ensure the Komodo dragons were protected.  The long-time inhabitants (about 300 people in 1930) did not kill these dangerous animals because they believed the Dragons were the reincarnation of their ancestors.

We met our group’s English-speaking ranger and guides after a long walk along a concrete pier. Each guide – front and back of the group had a long two-pronged stick to fend off the dragons.  Any woman having their periods had to notify the guide.  That didn’t affect our group!  All the women were well into retirement!  That’s the nature of our 106-day cruise.  It’s a rare cruiser who isn’t retired.

A baby Komodo dragon

We saw our first Komodo dragon on the beach and using John’s Canon, I was able to film it walking through a sunny patch.  They are hard to see in the shade.  This lizard was about two metres long – a mid-sized dragon.  As directed, we stayed well away, behind the guide.

The dragons eat their young, so the babies instinctively know to climb trees when they hatch, or burrow into the soft insides of fallen palm tree trunks.  Sometimes eagles swoop and take away the baby dragons from the trees.  One must feel sorry for the young Komodo Dragons!  I suppose it’s the only way to keep the population down, since the adults have no predators.   Each adult needs to eat 40 kg at a time, about once a month.

At the top of the hill with our guide

After being given a bottle of water or soft drink – the temperature was about 30C and it was about 10:30 am – our group of about 20 walked for about 2.5 kms along a gravelly, dusty track through shade and sun, not seeing much wildlife.  It was too hot and late in the morning.  We were rather disappointed. We saw a wild boar and some deer and a few birds.

No, I wasn't really that close

Look at those claws!

Back to the Sea Princess 14 June 2018

But all was not lost.  We came upon three large dragons at a shady water-hole and were able to take some good photos.  Here are some of mine.

We found out later that one group was chased – the guide said: “No photos – Run!”

They sure did.

Winding down: a few days at sea

It’s now Day 8 of our Sea Princess cruise and at last we are starting to relax and unwind from our busy-ness of the first half of 2018… I was definitely looking forward to six days straight at sea after Brisbane.  And we’ve left winter behind. All the woollens have been packed away, probably until we reach Iceland. The past two days have been 30C with totally clear skies and brilliant sunshine.  Many people sunbaking, seemingly without worrying about skin cancer. Not us, however.  We were just as pleased to sit in the shade and watch, listen to rock music and chat to many friendly couples – Kiwis, Aussies, Scots, English, Dutch and Italian – residents of New Zealand and Australia all.

Yesterday, we rounded the tip of Cape York and turned west, passing about 100 miles north of Darwin, on our way to Kokodo Island (Indonesia).

Our only port so far has been Brisbane where we met daughter Karen and grand-daughter Amaris (on study vac from Queensland University) for a three-hour lunch at an Italian restaurant just near the port. Amaris is son Ray’s daughter. Ray, Tiffany, Ken and Lysandra (Karen’s daughter) were working, and the others are all down south.

It’s been great having friends on board – Hazel and Deb from Computer Pals, Val from our village (our next-door neighbour in fact) and Computer Pals, Laine (Loraine Melier) from school all those years ago, Sue & Barry, Margaret & Robert, Diane & Paul, and Lynda & Rob (Kiwis) from our 2016 cruise. And we keep bumping into others who were on the 2016 Sea Princess World Cruise.

About accessibility: as we expected, the furniture had to be slightly re-arranged so that John’s wheelchair could be positioned beside the bed.  Although not perfect, the bathroom is usable for John, as is the room itself.  Storage space is adequate for our gear – even for John’s significant medical and equipment supplies.  The disability rooms, of which there are never enough, are larger than other suites.

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary so we invited our friends Hazel, Deb and Val from Computer Pals to join us for “Anytime dining” in the Traviata Restaurant.  anniversary, and awoke to balloons and a big sign on our cabin door yesterday morning.  And during the meal we were presented with a small cake which we duly shared five ways.  It was delicious, and very naughty considering Hazel, Deb and I are all on diets!

Generally, John and I “dine” in the Bistro most evenings but it was nice to enjoy a restaurant meal for a change.  Unlike 2016, we informed the ship about our