Cruise of The Year (4th Installment)

Sunday 3rd June is a long day at sea but as usual there are plenty to do on board. For a change, Ainul whilst away a great deal of her time to see what's on offer at the duty free shops on board. As is the practice with all the cruises we have been on, there are always a great display of semi luxury goods such as watches, jewelry ,clothes, household ornaments and decor and even paintings and these are all sold at affordable prices and with very good selections to choose from. In the absence of real shopping offshore to which indulgence we have hardly any time to do so ( thank goodness for that as far as I am concerned ) the onboard is a substitute of sort to Ainul.

At the same time, with the spare time that we have we take the opportunity to wash and iron our clothes at the ship’s Laundromat area which happens to be on deck ten, five decks below us. As expected there are a lot of people doing the same but lucky for us we are there earlier. As a matter of fact, I make it a point to be in the room just after my morning prayers. Thus we delay our breakfast but none the less we have a very good breakfast everyday. The strange thing is I find that I can enjoy drinking milk - something that never happens before since I suffer milk intolerance all my life. It all begins after I regularly begin my breakfast meal with the cereals and wheat bread and butter. May be the milk here is the real stuff as compared to what we have in our shops here.

This is the day we both explore the ship a lot more. Instead of playing visual reality golf which is on fixed time and opens only in the afternoons, to which we reckon we cannot find the time to do it this morning, after some search we finally locate the golf area which is on deck 16 aft adjacent to the private balconies of the executive suites. I decide to play off alone at first since Ainul says she might not be able to play the game. After observing my game, Ainul finally joins in to play the nine hole putting game. I am showy at first since for Ainul it was a long time ago when we were up in Tennessee at a plateau lodge when Farah, Farahat and Farazil joined us then when she last played. But that’s a long time ago. When finally Ainul decides to join in to play with me, she surprises the onlookers who happen to be some Japanese men with her ‘hole-in-one’ putts on two separate occasions. One of the Japanese says to me, "are you sure you should continue to play with her ?" That makes the day for Ainul ! Somehow I find this putting circuit is more challenging than the ones at the Grand’s and the Sun’s Princesses. How we wish Sabri is here to join in the fun. But with Sabri we can always expect reluctance to participate if there are many people around, especially strangers !

The night’s dress code is formal which means that we have to be in full suit and preferably in black tie. The whole ship looks transformed to very formal looks and everyone is busy with portrait photos etc. The dinner menu for the night is Italian and for the first time both of us really enjoy the pasta ‘fetucilli’ entrée. At our dinner table we have an American family for company. The husband is English whilst his wife is American and they have two girls, the elder of whom is thirteen and the younger girl nine years old. They have been cruising quite a bit themselves and they tell us about the other cruise ships that they have been on. Amongst these are the Disney Cruise ship which they say is equally big and just as elegantly decorated. The musical shows on board takes you back through all the famous Disney's musical productions of past and present, whilst the cruise itself will be along the Caribbean islands and Disney’s own made islands. They fully recommend that we try the Disney’s to which we really feel attracted and may be keep it in view for the future. Of course we are thinking more for our grandchildren’s pleasure.

We enjoy another beautiful show that night with the Emerald Princess Singers and Dances show called "The Boogie Shoes," which is a contemporary rock show that takes a fun and whimsical look at shoes. The fast pace production uses some of the latest multi media technology and some great shoe memories. Even if one feels tired and sleepy after a whole day activities, it is hard to fall asleep at these nightly shows at the Princess theatre, because they are simply very entertaining and really make the day for us every time. Of course as usual after the show, we make our rounds at all the other goings-on and join in the fun as well. At this juncture, it is noteworthy to recall that on every cruise there is always a karaoke competition for the passengers and like in the past cruises I decide to participate. The way it’s done this time is to hold six heats for the specific nights that the contest is conducted and a winner is picked from each heat to enter the final which takes place towards the end of the cruise. I am in the first heat and got selected for the final. Hence tonight we take a peep at the winner of the fourth heat. So far I feel confident that I will come out winner when the time comes.

Monday morning the 4th of June at 0700 hrs we reach Mykonos, Greece, the famed island of the rich and famous. The neighbouring side of Mykonos is the island of Delos which according to Greek mythology Mykonos was the birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis which explains why the island shines like a diamond in a sapphire sea. With a population of 10,042,000 of its 51,1246 square miles which is said to be the size of Alabama, it is a Presidential Parliamentary Republic with Greek as its language and Athens its capital. Although the rocky soil at Mykonos looks austere, its cube-shaped white houses have a characteristic charm, contrasting as they do with the dazzling blue of the sky and the sea. Mykonos belongs to the island group known as the Cyclades, since they form a rough circle around the sacred island of Delos, one of the religious centres of ancient Greece.

Following the Fourth Crusade, the islands fell under the control of the Venetian Republic and served as outposts of Venice, until the Turkish navy captured them, beginning in the 16th century. Signs of the Venetian presence are still visible, including a surprising number of Catholic chapels alongside the more traditional reek Orthodox churches. The Turks allowed much autonomy to the islands, and Italian remained the official language until 1830.

There was always a danger of invasion by pirates, so the town and harbour are compactly built for defense. The delightful harbour sets off the arcades of the 18th century town hall and the tiny chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas.

During the late ’60s and early ‘70s, Mykonos was famed as a haunt for the rich. The nightlife on Mykonos - then and now- was a glittering whirl of coloured lights, music, and parties. But there is another side to Mykonos - the neighboring island of Delos. In classical mythology, Delos was the birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. Travelers to Delos can stroll among the island’s vast ruins, which include three temples consecrated to the Sun God - Kelios. Thanks to its proximity to the mainland, Mykonos was one of the first Greek islands to become an international travel destinations. Because we have to be back at the ship by 1400 hrs, we cannot plan an elaborate visit there as much as we would have liked given that we have never been to Greece before as compared to the former France and Italy. Anyway we are quite satisfied with our limited exploits. The view of Mykonos from our ship is simply magnificent. All the buildings are built all the way to the hill top which makes the city look very unique indeed and sightly enough to justify it as the home of Apollo of old.

That night after a sumptuous dinner of lobster tails which I myself have a double serving, something which is allowed on any of the menu for all meals - a luxury which can be very costly indeed if we were in a normal restaurant - and the equally delicious desserts, we are ready to enjoy the rest of what the ship has to offer for the night. It is "Magic Show" at the Princess Theatre and "Dreamgirls" at the Movies Under the Stars. We also disco at the Skywakers Nightclub on deck 18th Aft. We also take a look at the contest for the Pop Star heat 5 of 6, whose winner for the night will qualify for the final Pop Star towards the end of the cruise. Since I myself have got through mine in the first heat for same, I content myself to just watch and wait for the outcome of all the six heats to see just who are the rest of my contestants. I cannot fail to note though that almost all the contestants seem to have musical backgrounds of their own such as composers and music writers and even owning and perfom in their own bands. I take note of one guy who is English about my age who enters again and again to try to qualify for the final and he used to be a lecturer of engineering at one of the twinning colleges in Subang Jaya. He sings quite well but fails to qualify in all the past five heats. Each time we meet I encourage him to try again for the sixth time. Ainul says he is gay since he has an ear ring and always with his male friend everywhere we see him on board. I cannot see anything like that though since they are both over sixties. In any case on looking back, that must have been the impression that people must have concluded of the late Din’s and I very close relationship then when we occasional hold hands when we walk together. But we were never gays ! Anyway, we cannot run away from the common saying " Looks are Deceiving", which is a double-edged concepts of life’s occurrences. I have always uphold the principle of never form an early opinion of others without knowing the facts first hand. That way, we will not fall into the trap of the gossips !

The one thing that we have not done on this cruise is to lie on the deck chairs to enjoy the sea breeze and the open view of the open sea and the coastal backdrops. Each time we want to do this, we find that it is too chilly to do it despite the availability of the warm blankets at our convenience. May be this time we just got distracted from doing so since there are other things to indulge ourselves in. For a fact though, we spend more time at the food outlets of the Horizon and the Caribe this time, where we enjoy the occasions to talk with the other people on board. For instance, we meet this young girl from Chile, who tells us that her country is very beautiful and has a lot of exotic places of interest to see. Although her people enjoy hot chili in their food, she does not take any chili herself. Another couple from Ontario Canada who originate from Taipei is going on a one year tour of the world having made enough money at their work place. They have been on the European train hop-on-off tickets all over Europe but find the whole thing very tiring indeed and prefer the cruise to all the rest they have experienced. We also converse with an eighty plus old lady who looks prim and proper , very wealthy and well taken care of by her slightly younger sister. They are from Peru and they say we should visit their beautiful country with the rich forests and stunning mountains and of course special foods of their own. There are a lot of Canadian and American Chinese and some American Filipinos too that we get to chit chat at these food outlets. The most disappointing conclusion we make is that ninety percent of them do not know our country. When we mention Malaysia, they think of Singapore or Indonesia. It is not sup rising. We cannot see any TV advertisement of our MAS or that of our Tourism Board anywhere we go both on and off-ship. It is such a disappointment indeed, which makes us wonder, just what has our people done with all those good money to attract the tourist to our country. Thailand’s Visit The Year display is seen everywhere but not that of ours when this is also our Visit of the Year do for the world. The "best" impression that we hear of ours is our taxi drivers who are great cheats and this comes from those crew members whose ship happen to stop at Port Klang for half a day to refuel etc. They would rather remain onboard ship rather than go to the nearest town or to our city to avoid being cheated by our taxi operators. They must have heard of terrible stories of these cheating to such an extend that our country now become infamous for this.

It is about time, something is done very seriously and drastically to eradicate all these taxi bad hats once and for all. As it is, there is not much deterrence from the offenders since the compound punishments only involve minimum fines of sorts and days lay off from driving. By right their licences should be withdrawn for life. After all it is our country’s reputation is at stake here. We should emulate what China has done with their taxi operators who are not only well versed with the roads, they are equally well-mannered , keep their vehicles clean and shiny and they stick to the tabulated charges of the routes that they ply on. If China can do it, we cannot see why we cannot do the same when in comparison to numbers we are nothing compared to them. We need dedicated and honest supervisory officers to enforce good operatives for all our transport amenities and most of all we need to put the serious message to these people that they should not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs for their own selfish needs. These bad rubbish has to be eliminated forthwith ! Izzat and his friends have done tremendous job in the cities to try to attract the tourist to shop and visit other places of interest but these efforts will come to nothing if people do not know where Malaysia is in the first place. Right now we are not expanding our horizon to tap new and fresh visitors from South America and Eastern European countries. And there should be more media advertisements through travel agencies world wide. It is about time our tourist industry be given a wake up call. May be an overhauling needs to be done by our governing authorities. It is sad, sad, sad !

(TO BE CONTINUED )