I have been MIA for more than a month. Not exactly missing in action, but enjoying a fabulous cruise, and writing a new romance novel titled CHRISTMAS BABIES. I will share with you some highlights and pictures from my 4-week cruise, and hopefully I will publish my Christmas novella tonight.
Ready to cruise on a Princess ship? We flew to Rome. A Princess representative received us at the airport and a big bus drove us to Civitavecchia, a port at 9o minutes from Rome, where we boarded our floating and very comfortable home.
The next morning we disembarked and took a land tour of the old city of Naples on a double-deck public bus. After a day at sea, we arrived at Santorini, Greece. A beautiful town built on a rocky island.
Heading south, we reached Port-Said, Egypt a day later, at 9 pm, and waited till 2 am for the permit to enter the Suez Canal that was engineered by Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French diplomat. It took 10 years and 30,000 people on slave labor to dig the magnificent canal. The Suez Canal was inaugurated in November 1869. We spent 24 hrs cruising the canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. In the next three days, we visited two resorts, Sharm El Sheikh in the Sinai Peninsula and Safaga from where a convoy of 15 tourist buses and a locale police motorcade headed to the Temples of Luxor and Karnak.
After 6 days in the Arabian Sea, we arrived at Dubai, a very modern Arab Emirate city, and the next day at the Sultanate of Oman, a small extremely wealthy oil country.
From there the ship sailed full-speed to India. We docked in Mumbai, drove to the airport and flew to New Delhi to fulfill many passengers’ wish of visiting the Taj Mahal and a few Indu temples and forts. We caught back with our ship in Cochin, a port in South India, and sailed to Phuket, an island in Thailand which was reconstructed after being recently destroyed by the Tsunami.
Our fabulous trip ended in Singapore. Princess Cruise gave us a tour of the lovely Orchid Gardens and the modern city where you get a $500 fine if you throw a paper in the street and you’re not allowed to chew or possess gum! A fourteen hour flight to London followed by a 10 hour flight to Miami brought us home exhausted, jet lagged and delighted with our fantastic memories and pictures.
I hope you’ll enjoy my pictures and the armchair trip.
 A view of Naples with the Vesuvuis Volcano that destryed Pompeii years ago. |
 Castel del Ovo |
 The Cathderal built on the model of St. Perter’s in Rome |
 A view from Santorini |
 Checking transportations: cable, donkey, or your own feet? |
 No cars in the narrow streets |
 EGYPT: 100 cargo ships cross the Suez Canal daily. |
 The fertile valley of the Nile on left and the arid desert of the Sinai Peninsula on the right. |
 The old city of Suez on the Red Sea at the end of the Suez Canal |
 EGYPT: resort at Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea, Sinai side. |
 EGYPT: Safaga another resort on the Red Sea |
 Egyptian Folkloric dance |
 DUBAI. First sight from the ship. Notice the tallest building in the world. |
 Dubai: another famous building |
 OMAN: in front of the Sultan’s palace |
 INDIA: The Taj Mahal, a famous mausoleum erected by a king for his beloved queen. They were married 19 years. She gave him14 kids and died delivering the last one. |
 On the terrace of the Taj Mahal. It’s all marble. |
 Another view of the Taj Mahal. |
 INDIA: More of the Taj Mahal |
 INDIA: A Fortress in Agra |
 INDIA: A temple in New Delhi |
 THAILAND: the island of Phucket |
 THAILAND: rubbing the elephant god for good luck |
 THAILAND: so many magnificent temples |
 SINGAPORE: on the river |
 SINGAPORE: Amazing architecture |
 SINGAPORE: in the orchid garden |
 JORDAN: Petra. We walked 4 miles between the rocky mountains |
 JORDAN: Petra, soldiers garding the passage. |
 JORDAN: Petra the treasury built in the rock |
Mona Risk 