3/30 - Nose Be, Madagascar

Nosy Be is an island just off the northwest coast of Madagascar and means "big island" in the Malagasy language. The island was called Assada during the early colonial era of the 17th century. Nosy Be is Madagascar's largest and busiest tourist resort. The volcanic island has an area of about 120 square miles (300 sq km) and reaches a peak on Mont Passot at 1079 feet (329 m). It is located about 5 miles (8 km) off the coast of Madagascar.¹

We were here on our world cruise in 2006. At that time, we rented a little boat with another couple and went to Nosy Komba, which is a little bit southeast of Nosy Be. We had a great tour of the island, enjoyed feeding the lemurs, huge tortoises, and saw lots of large geckos. This time, we opted to just stay on the ship. Nosy Be is a tender port and we are not big tender fans, especially in 95°, extremely humid, weather - 150 of your closest sweaty new "friends" (and I use that term very loosely) crammed into an enclosed tender bouncing our way to shore. And you should hear the whining if they get a little wet! If the Amsterdam goes down, we're thinkin' twice before getting in the danged tender.  I wonder if we've been on this ship a little too long...

Entering Harbor

Local boat

Locals selling from boat to ship

Victoria town

¹ Holland America Explorer

3/28 - Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles

The Seychelles is a group of about 115 islands that lie 990m (1600 km) off the coast of east Africa. The three central islands - Mahé, Praslin and La Digue - are granite, while the outlying islands are coral atolls. Unlike most similar islands, the Seychelles are not volcanic - they seem to be the peaks of a huge underwater plateau that fell off the edge of India about 65 million years ago. The islands are rich in vegetation, but most of it is either coconut palms or casuarinas. The Seychelles is home to the extremely rare giant cocoa de mer palm.¹

Victoria, on the island of Mahé, is one of the smallest capital cities in the world and the only major port in the Seychelles. It is also the only town in the country - every other settlement is a village. The courthouse and main post office in the center of town have been untouched since colonial times, but the streets emanating from the center have been rebuilt over the past 20 years, giving the town a unique character.

We stopped here on our 2006 world cruise. At that time we did a "Spice Route" tour and traveled to various spice plantations, which was quite fun but we didn't really get to see much of Victoria. This time, we enjoyed walking around the town, visiting the little shops and their large fresh fish, fruit, and vegetable market, Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market.

Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market

Entering Harbor

Fountain in round-about

Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market

Clock Tower

Hindu Temple

¹ Holland America Explorer

3/24 - Colombo, Sri Lanka

Colombo, the largest city of Sri Lanka, is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo remains the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. Its large harbor and position along the East-West sea trade routes enticed the Greeks, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Chinese traders who visited regularly over the centuries. Muslims of various ethnicities began to settle in Colombo around the 8th century AD, mostly because of this trade business. In the 15th century, the Portuguese established a foothold in the area and were granted authority over the coast line in exchange for guarding the coast against invaders. However, they soon expelled the Muslims from Colombo, building a fort there in 1517. The Dutch signed a treaty in 1638 with the King of Kandy, assuring Dutch assistance in the King's war against the Portuguese in exchange for a monopoly of the trade goods. However, in 1656 the Dutch refused to return control to the King, eventually assuming control of the area's valuable cinnamon lands. The British captured Colombo in 1796, beginning an era of British colonialism that ended in 1948 when Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) gained independence from Britain. Modern-day Colombo is a rich mix of the old and the new with plenty to enjoy.¹

The berth we were originally scheduled to be in was occupied by an Iranian Naval ship and we were moved much farther from the heart of the city (and the Iranian Naval ship). It was much too far to walk to town in 90° humid weather, so we rented a taxi with another couple we met through AAA. The taxi driver took us all around the city, showing us the sights, making photo stops, and, of course, allowing us to collect our little bucket of sand from the beach. Probably not a place we will return to, but it was yet another great day!

Banyan tree

Buddhist temple on Beira Lake

Cobra and snake charmer

Buddhist temple

Rodney on front deck of ship

Hindu temple

¹ Holland America Explorer

3/21 - Phuket, Thailand

Dubbed 'Pearl of the South' by the tourist industry, Phuket is Thailand's largest, most populous and most visited island. A whirl of color and cosmopolitanism, Thailand's only island province revolves around and thrives on tourism, but still retains a spark of the real Thailand. Phuket is more about doing things - or doing nothing at all - than it is about sightseeing.¹ Given that it was 94° with 90% humidity, along with the fact that we'd been to Thailand before, we opted for the 'doing nothing at all', just enjoyed the view from the comforts of our room.

Beach resorts

Beach resorts

Beach resorts

View from our verandah

 ¹ Holland America Explorer