Small World Photos

Our journey home included a flight on Airlink back to Johannesburg, then we picked up some luggage that we had left at the JNB airport so that we didn't have to carry it to Zimbabwe. We then had a long layover until we took off on a British Airways flight to London Heathrow. Once there we had a long layover so we booked the Sofitel hotel at the airport so that we could get a shower and a nap before heading on to BWI where we would get a car home. It was a long couple of days,

Today we met Thembie and our driver to go to Victoria falls with a subset of our group. Some of the group had gone to additional game drives in Chobe but we decided to just do the falls and then relax. Mark and Heather, another couple from our group came with us. We drove to the falls and stopped at a market by the falls that was run by a high school classmate of Thembie. The market owner provided us with ponchos to use at the falls. We later found that those ponchos were als

Today we departed our hotel in Johannesburg to the airport for a flight to Zimbabwe., We lost a few people from our group but 8 of us continued on. We took a small local airline easyjet to Zimbabwe but the plane was nice, and we were served a meal and full beverage service for a flight that was just under 90 minutes. In Zimbabwe we got a new CEO (head guide) named Thembie., She was local to the area ov Victoria falls and knew the area and lots of people. We checked into our h

We had one finalmorning game drive this morning before a long drive back to Johannesburg where we will spend the night before a smaller group of us will continue on to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls. We were lucky enough to find the leopards again and this time see a baby Leopard Leopard Leopard Leopard Baby Leopard Male Nyala Male Nyala Then our jeep had a flat tire, the second one in as many days and we were right beside a group of Zebra and Giraffe so we got some time to just

We had a couple of drives today, a morning and an afternoon one with lunch in the middle back at camp. We got awake up call early in the morning after the guides had walked through camp to make sure that there were no animals among the tents and then we could walk to the main restaurant area for breakfast. Our morning drive was much better than yesterday, and our guide proved to be an incredible tracker, both visually and be listening to calls. Early in the drive several vehi

Today we drove from Kruger to Karongwe to do additional game drives. We checked into our "tents" which were elevated on platforms, and had wooden floors, full bathrooms, a nice porch and a sizeable bedroom. You really couldn't have asked for more. We had our first game drive that first evening which was pretty disappointing and we were concerned that Karongwe was going to be a disappointment but there were much better drives to come there. We drove with a guide and a driver i

I'm combining all of the photos from Kruger into one blog post because they all run together after the fact. Wildebeaast Crocodile Lion Lion Wildebeast Ostrich Ostrich Helmeted Guineafowl Giraffe Impala Impala Giraffe Impala Helmeted Guineafowl Giraffe Giraffe Giraffe Giraffe Hyena Lion Hyena and baby Lion Hyena Lion Lion Waterbuck Waterbuck Giraffe Wild Dogs Impala Giraffe Egyptian goose Wild Dogs Hippo Vultures Baboon Hippo Baboon Cape Starling Baboon Baboon Elephants Eleph

Today we drove from Johannesburg to Kruger, we had several stops along the way and one of those was a rest area that had quite a few animals in fenced fields beyond the shops and far off into the distance. A bird at the rest area Antelopes Buffalo Ostriches Antelope Zebra When we arrived at Kruger national park we checked into our rooms in a nice little lodge. The rooms were sort of motel style with a door to the outside, they had a bathrom and a large bedroom with a bed surr

We flew overnight to South Africa and were met at the airport by a porter from the hotel who drive us to the hotel. We didn't do much today except meet our group who we would travel with to Kruger tomorrow. We were both tired and not feeling well.

Thankfully Conrad woke up this morning with no fever, a dramatically improved cough and feeling much better. We will continue to rest in the room today and make sure that he's feeling better before we head to the airport for our 11 hour flight to South Africa.We feel like the lack of sleep on the first day (he was up for almost 40 hours) just tired his body out and it couldn't fight the cold, but we're back on track. Our luggage from the cruise which we can't take on the safa

Unfortunately Conrad woke up feeling even worse this morning and with a high fever. We reached out to Steph and she suggested taking the antibiotics that we had with us because it was starting to sound like it was progressing to pneumonia. We have to fly to South Africa tomorrow night and we don't want to leave Singapore if a doctor is needed since they have good healthcare here. We spent the day inside our suite so as not to expose others to whatever he has. He had a small c

We arrived at the Singapore Airport and had a message from the Marina Bay Sands hotel that their representative would meet us just outside of baggage claim and telling us what gate our luggage would be on. Our bags had priority tags on them and unlike the US, they actually honor those tags here. Our bags were first off and within minutes of depaning we were in the car and on our way to the hotel. We are staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel, a famous hotel in Singapore also

We got all of our bags out last night, and had an early start this morning so we went to The Veranda one last time for breakfast. We saw Joy our usual Veranda greeter as well as Ni Lui who was our evening dining room waitress and said goodbye. We had one last breakfast and one last sticky bun and headed off the ship. We collected our luggage and waited for our driver to arrive. Since our flight to Singapore isn't until 11:40 PM we booked at room at the JW Marriott in Mumbai r

We had breakfast and then checked out of the lovely Oberoi Amarvilles hotel. The Oberoi brand was exceptional. They have their own hospitality school and set the standard for service in India. They have a high turnover because other hotels poach their staff to learn more about what they do. We really enjoyed the 2 properties that we stayed at and would stay again in a heartbeat. We took the 4 hour drive back to the Delhi airport and got through security and to our gate in ple

We left the hotel this morning to go visit the Taj Mahal at Sunrise. Same procedure of transferring to the main gate by golf cart from the Oberoi, which was quite convenient. We were the first people to enter the gate so it was possible to get a lot of pictures without the crowds in the way, plus the lighting was very nice. We were able to walk around on our own as well instead of in a group so it was a peaceful morning. Taj Mahal views at Sunrise Taj Mahal views at Sunrise T

We got up early this morning and left the Oberio in Dehli headed for the Oberoi Amarvilles which overlooks the Taj Mahal in Agra. We took a somewhat round about route out of Dehli since it was our only day there and they wanted to show us some of the monuments and landmarks in Dehli and New Dehli before we left. The bus ride was about 4 hours with a short rest area break but overall not too bad. When we arrived at the Oberoi in Agra we were greeted by a handful of hotel staf

After a sea day yesterday we left the ship this morning with some of our luggage, headed for a 4 day overland tour to the Taj Mahal. The ship was docked in Cochi or Kochin India, and we went through another Idian immigrations process in the terminal at the port but it was brief. We met our local tour guides and headed off on a bus to the airport to fly to Dehli. After some discussion at the check in counter between our guides and the airline representatives about whether the

We woke today to bright sunshine and calm seas and the news that all excursions were a go. We had booked a day at a resort called Adaaran Vadoo on one of the tourist islands. We met in the theater as usual to be called for our excursions. The excursions are well organized and almost always on time unless we have trouble getting cleared at a port. Today were were right on time and took a tender ashore to the port where we switched to a larger speed boat which took us to the r