Memories From a 154-Day World Cruise

By GEORGINA CRUZ
Special to North Palm Beach Life

                    When a 154-day world cruise is nearing completion, panic sets in at the prospect of the impending reentry into the real world. But when my husband Humberto and I resigned ourselves that all good things come to an end and began packing, marvelous memories flooded every corner of our minds. During the first half of the voyage on Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Mariner, as we traveled from Miami to Indonesia, we experienced cultural highlights during a stay at the Four Seasons Bali Jimbaran Bay, built as a Balinese village in a forest; enjoyed wildlife encounters with kangaroos and koalas in Australia, and met unforgettable people in Hawaii and French Polynesia.

                    We wrote about those experiences of the first half of the voyage for North Palm Beach Life Blog. Now those memories join many additional ones from the second half of the circumnavigation back to Miami, when we had more memorable moments with wildlife, enjoyed cultural experiences and tastes of the high life. As the saying goes, “you can’t have too much of a good thing!” Here are some highlights: 

·        Wildlife encounters – We will never forget feeding watermelon slices to pachyderms at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary near Phuket in Thailand, a facility where elephants that were forced to give rides to tourists and play tricks for them, or have been otherwise abused, are able to retire in peace. After we fed them, we were able to pet them, see them enjoy a mud bath and learn interesting facts about them like they eat from 330 to 440 pounds of food each per day. Other animal encounters included seeing lemurs in Lemuria Park in Madagascar – the lemurs approached us and seemed as curious about us as we were about them; feeding white cedar branches to giant Aldabra tortoises in the Botanical Gardens in Victoria, Seychelles, and hearing hippos grunt and see camouflaged Nile crocodiles during a sightseeing cruise in the St. Lucia Estuary near Richards Bay, South Africa.

·        High life moments – A high tea at the iconic, pink Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel with its Table Mountain backdrop in Cape Town was a delicious taste of the high life. We were seated at a table at the hotel’s veranda gallery with views of the garden where John Lennon meditated, and enjoyed flutes of Moet & Chandon along with tiered trays of savories including salmon mousse sandwiches and sweets including scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. We washed the treats down with delectable hibiscus tea (one of 60 varieties available) and had our choice of cakes and cupcakes displayed on the Windsor Table, so named in honor of the British royal family whose many members, including Queen Elizabeth II, have stayed at the hotel – Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 21st birthday there. Another taste of the high life was also in Cape Town, where one of Regent’s three exclusive world cruise events took place at Crossley & Webb, a vintage luxury automobile company where we enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, a gourmet three-course dinner with African specialties like biltong, a popular air-dried, cured meat, and South African wines as well as entertainment by a local band and choir, virtuoso violinist and jazz quartet.

·        Cultural experiences – While in Laem Chabang, Thailand, we visited a Suphattaland, a farm where in addition to sipping water right out of coconuts we tasted exotic fruits including durian (it tastes sort of like a creamy avocado) right off the trees. While in Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Canary Islands we enjoyed a walking tour to see its traditional flower-bedecked balconies and a tasting of local cheeses, ham, olives and wine as well as a concert by a violin player. Other cultural opportunities included a visit to a Vietnamese home-studio while in Saigon. The family displayed colorful puppets and played some musical instruments we had never seen like the bamboo flute (operated by energetic clapping on to hollowed bamboos) and the T’rung, an instrument that looks like an inverted marimba and sounded like a harp. While in Samoa we were treated to an outdoor performance by a local troupe that included a fire dance –during a downpour! The troupe was not going to let rain stop them from entertaining us. Still other lovely and inspiring cultural experiences were performances by folkloric groups on board the Mariner’s own Constellation Theater, including a Vietnamese show featuring a lovely umbrella dance.

                    World cruises, the lines may state, last 100-plus days – in our case, 154. But the memories tend to last a lifetime. And the best antidote to the panic on reentry we have found, is to book another circumnavigation. We have done so already and are counting the days to a 96-day Caribbean cruise/South America circumnavigation/Antarctica voyage, again on the Mariner, setting sail from Miami on Jan. 4.

Cannot wait!        

Georgina Cruz is a freelance travel writer based in Vero Beach.