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| Ashore.........Gangway...........Midship.----- any takers? |
Being someone new in cruising, everything was full of excitement. You met people from all over the world and thanks to our goverment for making us learn how to speak and write in English! Without this language, you will get lost and feel unwanted and that will ruin your vacation. You really need this language to communicate with everybody, may it be the guests or the crew!
There were about two thousand guests and were taken care of by 920 crew representing over 58 Nationalities. Every 15 staterooms will be taken care of by a steward who will introduced themselves to the guests and will try their very best to fulfill your needs in whatever way they can. In our case, our steward was Rhoderick and he is a Filipino. A very jovial young man and very helpful too. Every night, the steward will cheer us with towel foldings .... there will be bats, elephant, mouse, swans, monkey, lobster and so many more. He felt so happy when we appreciate his work of art! Rooms were cleaned twice daily. Fresh towels were changed daily...... what a life we had!
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| Rhoderick |
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| Rhodericks towel foldings.....very creative! |
Some of the crew we met came from Asia. They can be easily identified by their National flags printed on their name tag. Those who came from Indonesia, somehow rather tried their very best to speak our Malay language which 5 Asian countries shared.... Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and Southern Thailand! The crew will only work for 9 months a year. After that they will go back to their family or home country and will be called back for the next voyage of the same or different route. Why was there no Malaysians in the crew? Do they not know or simply love the comfort zone in our country and under the armpits of their parents? hahahahhahha...
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| A crew from Indonesia. |
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| Mr Edgar , the supervisor at the Japanese Restaurant |
All of the crew whom we met were so friendly, lively and always smiling. All of them speak English. Helpful? Of cause! As Muslim, we have to take precautions especially when food is concern. We were very lucky when our needs were listened. The supervisor of The Windows, Mr Abercio Matute from Hondurus, knew of our concerned and quickly took charge. We were made to write our recipes and create a menu for every dinner. Eventhough, the real taste of our kind of food is not totally there but the thought counts..... Then as many nights passed by, the chef managed to cook almost perfect meals for us! Yummeyh! And again, in order to get things done like this, language is the weapon!
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| Mr Abercio Matute. |
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| Specially prepared food for the 10 of us....... |
Language is the most important tools of communication. English is the world language. All of the tour guides including the French, in our excursions speaks English. I managed to write in point forms of the facts and stories told by them so I can write in my blog. See how important language is! Make sure our children and grandchildren take this seriously. Learn or left out!
I have the habit of reading whenever I go for vacations. In this trip I read the latest Dan Brown novel, "Inferno" which I bought at KLIA just before we left for Amsterdam. On the last trip to Buenos Aires/Cape Town, I finished "Long Road to Freedom" The Autobiography of Nelson Mendela. I love reading novels by Sydney Sheldon, Prahmoedya Ananta Toer, light novels from Danielle Steel and few others. Reading broaden up your knowledge and open up ones mind. Because of this gift, I would like to say Thank You Malaysia for the second language!
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| Our new friends from Canada.... |
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| Crews entertaining us with cold towels and cold drinks. |
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| Lining up to hop on the transfer to the ship. |
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| My traveling companions...Malaysia Boleh!!!! |
Next, see you in TOULON (France), our first port of call!
