Good afternoon on this beautiful Saturday afternoon.
 
It is September 10th and we are just about two weeks out from leaving for our "Around the World in 76 Days" trip.  Gary is in his office preparing for a public forum on Electoral Reform and I am doing things like looking for books for my kindle and googling photographic opportunities in Dubai and Cochin.  Go high and find the fishing nets respectively for those searches.  

People raise their eyebrows when we say where we are off to this year.  And it is a bit odd how this trip got put together.  When we were in Australia in 2015 we both thought, as we do most places we travel to, we must come back and spend more time here.  We thought about taking a cruise from Vancouver to Sydney, the train across to Perth and spending time in Western Australia  But then Myanmar has been on my bucket list for forever I think, the weather (meaning a degree or so cooler) is best there in late November and maybe it is a bit of it's now or never.  So Myanmar  became the central part of the trip.  We just had to figure out how to get there via Australia.

  Second, as I read more history, drove along the southern coast of Australia and visited Australian museums filled with the dire stories of the sea voyage and difficult early years of the British emigrants I got interested in coming to Australia following somewhat the same route as the early ships...although not around the tip of Africa and definitely not in a ship remotely comparable to the sailing ships in 1850.  I think it possible, however, by about October 16, the sixth sea day in a row between Petra, Jordan and Dubai, I might feel that I have been travelling east to Australia for two months aboard a clipper ship.

That is why we are cruising east from Southampton to Perth, Australia aboard the Emerald Princess.  We were careful to apply the British concept of POSH to our stateroom selection. While today the term "posh" might mean elegant or expensive the story goes that passengers on ships travelling between England and India used to have POSH written against their bookings, standing for "Port Out, Starboard Home" (indicating the more desirable cabins on the shady side of the ship).
 
Now that we have our cabin selection I thought I would look up the origin of POSH.  Apparently the story about cabin selection did not make its appearance until the 1930's, by which time the term posh had already been in use over 20 years.  So there you are...the Oxford English Dictionary researchers have found no supporting evidence for this explanation of the origins of posh.  But we're ok...we went with Port Out and have our stateroom on the shady side...should be very posh don't you think?

                                                 -30- (as Garth would write)

Good afternoon again  from a very soggy Saturday afternoon September 17.  Success I have cleaned up my office,  downloaded about 15 books, have clothes laundered, folded and ready to go.  There is clearly something very wrong...I am never this organized for a trip.  I think the 2 1/2 months has me somewhat focussed.  Three weeks you can survive with very little...hmm not so sure about this trip.  And I do have a few seasons to travel through.
 
What am I expecting will be the highlights of this trip?  The Emerald Princess cruises south and east from Southampton stopping in Rome, Naples and Messina, Sicily--all of which we have been to before.  After this point the "new" begins for us...through the Suez Canal, a stop in Petra Jordan, eastward through the Red Sea, onto Dubai and then Cochin in India.  Most of our traveller friends say Petra, Jordan will be the highlight for us.  So we have booked a private tour there with Memphis Tours. [
 
 

So I am thinking... new vistas, middle east  history to refresh (good thing we have read many books with our book club) and Somali pirates to dodge.  Should be interesting.

Many of the south east Asian ports we have visited before...Ko Samui, Bangkok and Singapore ...but we haven't had breakfast with the orangutuns at the Zoo in Singapore. Dan and Barb highly recommend that so why not. We might stay aboard in Bangkok...why...well it is a huge polluted city we have visited before, we don't need to buy any more Thai silk and the ship docks two hours from the city. We'll see, as my mother used to say.

I think we will be very happy to arrive in Fremantle, the port for Perth, after 41 days aboard the Emerald Princess.  it will be a crash down to reality when we stow our gear into our "roomy" campervan named Deuce (named for the number of people it handles not from "deuces wild" I hope), turn on the GPS and get out Juanita and Jim's Camper Atlas of Western Australia.  Just like them we plan to head inland  to Kalgoorlie, then south to Esperance and back along the coast to Perth.  It will give us a taste of Western Australia in 10 days.[


And then it is onto Myanmar for the last 20 days of our trip.  We spend a couple days in Rangoon (Yangon) and then begin our cruise aboard Pandow II up the Irrawaddy River stopping in places with names like Danabyu, Prome (Pyay),Pagan and Yandabo.  We disembark 14 days later at Mandalay.  On the advice of others we added on four days for a stay on Inle Lake...a shallow lake dotted with stilt houses, Buddhist temples and floating gardens.  it sounds like a photographer's heaven.
   

 
 Juanita, Jim and Lenore from our book club have spent time in Myanmar.  This year we read George Orwell's Burmese Days first published in 1934. an interesting read which has not much positive to say about colonialism in Burma.  I have also brought along on my Kindle Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace which I read years ago to sop up the many "sea days" enroute to Perth.  A third book about WW II in Burma and the role elephants and an unlikely hero J.H. Williams played is Vicki Constantin Croke's The Elephant Company, published in 2014.  By November 20th I should be well prepared for Myanmar.



Friday September 23rd
Hi again...you will think..."My God, she's never going to get going." And I am sort of feeling that too...seems like we have been leaving for a long time!

I am lining up my pills in a row and trying to decide one or two cameras! After last trip when my camera unexpectedly stopped I will probably opt for 2. I mean it just may have a thing about Australia and I know the replacement one doesn't.

This morning I spent with Gill. So what do you do in Burnaby on a wet, drizzly Friday...why get pedicures of course. So here I am sitting relaxed with my feet dunked in hot water when I hear the woman next me say..."Cut them short I am not home until December". So where is she going...why on a cruise from Southampton on the Emerald Princess to visit brothers in Australia...and low and behold she and her husband are on the same flight to Gatwick. And finally to top it off her name is Doreen Hazel...but she uses Hazel. Our husbands have different names, fortunately...a Gary and a John. So now we will know at least two people for 41 days!

When I got home there was a call from Princess Cruise about our stateroom. Great I thought they are giving us a courtesy upgrade to a suite. Ah no not quite, like the airlines they have oversold and are looking for passengers to give up their cruise! Their starting point was a 51 day cruise to anywhere. Not sure I could take that long...and then we would have to reschedule Petra, flights, Cochin etc etc.

Amazing though that 4 days out they are looking for passengers to make a decision to not go. Gary, of course, got into the negotiating mode and said well the negotiating table was laid, so who knows perhaps we could have negotiated around the world, a suite and the newest Princess ship built.

So one thing we know we will be sailing out of Southampton at capacity! Good thing we have booked some private tours along the way.

September 25th

Really we are going tomorrow...actually have things picked out to pack.  Easy for Gary...3 blue pants, 3 blue shorts, 4 blue short sleeved shirts and 3 blue long sleeved shirts...and gym strip!  I'll have to let you know if I do the roll it all into a carry on or not!  I am dithering about adding beige along with black...thinking about heat.

My cousin Lois and husband Larry had us over for dinner tonight so our fridge could be pitched out tomorrow morning.  We had a farewell/bon voyage glass of wine...we are going in opposite directions...they are off to China October 13 and we are flying eastward tomorrow.
   
It is a gorgeous fall dawn and day September 26.  Just downloaded the last books including Val's recommendation Christopher Hitchens "and yet...".  Directed to "On the Limits of Self Improvement:  Parts I, II and III.  Should be time on our "luxurious reading break" Val.  

Gill will pick us up shortly and we leave for the airport....So off we go.  Fingers crossed our all our connections work as planned and our good health comes along for the trip.  Great anticipation for what new experiences we will have and new people we will meet.  Hope you'll join me from time to time on this trip.



Doreen