jollyjoyce Posted March 26, 2018 #626 Share Posted March 26, 2018 As in any foreign country, watch out for pickpockets and the likes. Your post was really good and we have been here loads of times and never felt at risk. Just wonder which country you live in to make the comment about pickpockets !! Aren’t they everywhere ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnoelj Posted March 26, 2018 #627 Share Posted March 26, 2018 Sorry, I made a mistake...."Terima Kasih" (Thank you) in Malay means "I have received your LOVE" (not heart as I had mentioned about) . That is why they still touched their own hearts (to signify love) whenever they say that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twitchly Posted March 26, 2018 #628 Share Posted March 26, 2018 Interesting question about whether pickpockets are everywhere. I think here in the US they skip your pocket and go straight for mugging you instead. Really enjoyed the cultural insights about Malaysia, Gnoelj! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wagnerite Posted March 27, 2018 #629 Share Posted March 27, 2018 :cool: Just wanted to chip in with my thanks to Jim for starting this thread. It’s such a compact way to hear about the trip from several cruisers. I’m especially pleased that Wagnerite seems to be having such a good time.;) I generally have a good time wherever I am. Group travel has its particular problems but we knew what we signed up for and can make our own fun. I’m just sad that my Albanian crew friends left, exactly as I became fluid in eight words of their language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2552phxcrzr Posted March 27, 2018 #630 Share Posted March 27, 2018 I'm a bit worried about Petra as it was one of our must do things and Jordan isn't as easily accessed as a lot of the other places. I guess I'll at least look online and see what is out there as we have some time to decide. Of course if I do cancel, that's $698 back in the onboard credit bank so I'd have to buy quite a bit of wine. In Petra we — and several others — did private tours with Via Jordan if you are looking to find a company online. We were very pleased with the booking experience as well as the tour itself. We got to Petra an hour before the ship’s tours arrived ... would have had longer if we had not opted to walk the Siq to get to the Treasury. The site won’t be totally devoid of people, but there is a significant difference once the groups show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Avery Posted March 27, 2018 Author #631 Share Posted March 27, 2018 h2so4, I just have to ask about the sulfuric acid thing?? Quite the handle...:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Avery Posted March 27, 2018 Author #632 Share Posted March 27, 2018 One small correction to Wagnerite's post. We are not cancelling all excursions, still planning on the 4 day 3 night trip to Taj Mahal. A bit more complicated at this date to try myself. Much easier to schedule a private car for day trips. Not Viking Sun crew's fault, just "bussed out" for now. Stayed onboard today as Lois has a bit of recurrence of the "Coughing Crud" that has been going around, and around, and around......:eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaches Posted March 27, 2018 #633 Share Posted March 27, 2018 One small correction to Wagnerite's post. We are not cancelling all excursions, still planning on the 4 day 3 night trip to Taj Mahal. A bit more complicated at this date to try myself. Much easier to schedule a private car for day trips. Not Viking Sun crew's fault, just "bussed out" for now. Stayed onboard today as Lois has a bit of recurrence of the "Coughing Crud" that has been going around, and around, and around......:eek: Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2552phxcrzr Posted March 27, 2018 #634 Share Posted March 27, 2018 h2so4,I just have to ask about the sulfuric acid thing?? Quite the handle...:cool: It’s just a neumonic that only translates well in Turkish ;p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MMDown Under Posted March 27, 2018 #635 Share Posted March 27, 2018 One small correction to Wagnerite's post. We are not cancelling all excursions, still planning on the 4 day 3 night trip to Taj Mahal. A bit more complicated at this date to try myself. Much easier to schedule a private car for day trips. Not Viking Sun crew's fault, just "bussed out" for now. Stayed onboard today as Lois has a bit of recurrence of the "Coughing Crud" that has been going around, and around, and around......:eek: Sorry to hear that a "cough" is going around the ship. As someone who does not suffer from coughs, I was surprised to pick up a bad "cough", towards the end of my last fourteen day cruise, which took a long time to get better back on land. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunbrookgal Posted March 28, 2018 #636 Share Posted March 28, 2018 Thank you for your opinion, we do appreciate it, but we also are exploring the world and sometimes things go wrong . Viking to their credit, after learning of our problems made every effort to keep us safe and comfortable ASAP. I know they’ve learned from this adventure . I’m sure it won’t happen again. (y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wagnerite Posted March 28, 2018 #637 Share Posted March 28, 2018 OK. I feel like included excursions are like Hampton Inn breakfast. If they were wonderful, they wouldn’t be included. That said, don’t include them if they’re worthless. Yesterday we took included in KL and it was fine. Photo ops, commentary and a museum. I’m still trying to work out the last weeks of the cruise. I have to find great food in Mumbai and Goa. Indian crew members can probably help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Avery Posted March 30, 2018 Author #638 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Cruising the Andaman Sea then Bay of Bengal heading to India. We don't have much to say about Phuket as the window there was just a few hours. I guess these "drive by" ports add to the port count for marketing but they don't allow any real time to see a place. Same basic time as the Darwin stop. Actually glad to be moving on from Asia. Many spectacular things seen and done there but glad to leave the heat/humidity behind for a bit. Yes, I know it will be hot in India as well. Probably won't feel pleasant till we get to London.:eek: We are taking the overland to Taj Mahal so have fingers crossed all goes according to plan. No cancelled flights! There are two Taj overlands. 6 day/5 night from Chennai and our trip 4 day/3 night from Cochin. We will miss the port of Goa and two sea days hopefully rejoining the ship in Mumbai. DW is still fighting off the "coughing crud" for the second time. Not sure why the ship cannot get over this persistent cough that seems to be going round, and round, and round. The Dr says she is not contagious. Ok, where did she catch it? Possibly something to do with modern sealed air conditioning systems? No fresh air circulation? Who knows? Anyway we are still enjoying seeing the world and will be immersed in India for 4 days. Reports are that Viking uses nice hotels and the transfers work fairly well. I hope Eaches is going as her pictures of KL were spectacular. Eaches, we need you to photo document India. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaches Posted March 30, 2018 #639 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Cruising the Andaman Sea then Bay of Bengal heading to India. We don't have much to say about Phuket as the window there was just a few hours. I guess these "drive by" ports add to the port count for marketing but they don't allow any real time to see a place. Same basic time as the Darwin stop. Actually glad to be moving on from Asia. Many spectacular things seen and done there but glad to leave the heat/humidity behind for a bit. Yes, I know it will be hot in India as well. Probably won't feel pleasant till we get to London.:eek: We are taking the overland to Taj Mahal so have fingers crossed all goes according to plan. No cancelled flights! There are two Taj overlands. 6 day/5 night from Chennai and our trip 4 day/3 night from Cochin. We will miss the port of Goa and two sea days hopefully rejoining the ship in Mumbai. DW is still fighting off the "coughing crud" for the second time. Not sure why the ship cannot get over this persistent cough that seems to be going round, and round, and round. The Dr says she is not contagious. Ok, where did she catch it? Possibly something to do with modern sealed air conditioning systems? No fresh air circulation? Who knows? Anyway we are still enjoying seeing the world and will be immersed in India for 4 days. Reports are that Viking uses nice hotels and the transfers work fairly well. I hope Eaches is going as her pictures of KL were spectacular. Eaches, we need you to photo document India. :cool: We are doing the same tour and hopefully will be able to add a little additional color to Jim’s Great review. The only thing that I could add about the crud is -I wonder if a flu shot last fall would have helped with limiting the crud . I had both the flu shot and a brief bout of the crud . It only effected me for a short time. As you know we did the previous shore excursion and the hotels Viking uses are either 4 or 5 stars . The 6 day shore excursion had their meeting last night .It seems from the reports that Viking is not assuming anything and have staffed the tour correctly. I just hope they do the same for the shorter land excursion out of Cochin. We’ll see. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted March 30, 2018 #640 Share Posted March 30, 2018 OK. I feel like included excursions are like Hampton Inn breakfast. If they were wonderful, they wouldn’t be included. That said, don’t include them if they’re worthless. Yesterday we took included in KL and it was fine. Photo ops, commentary and a museum. I’m still trying to work out the last weeks of the cruise. I have to find great food in Mumbai and Goa. Indian crew members can probably help. That's a really good way to put it -- especially relevant since we have recently decided to upgrade to Garden Inn over Hampton because of the breakfast. And it shouldn't be too much to expect the included excursions to be of Garden Inn quality, since that is still way below a full Hilton buffet plus menu breakfast (but good enough if included). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaches Posted March 30, 2018 #641 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Cruising the Andaman Sea then Bay of Bengal heading to India. We don't have much to say about Phuket as the window there was just a few hours. I guess these "drive by" ports add to the port count for marketing but they don't allow any real time to see a place. Same basic time as the Darwin stop. Actually glad to be moving on from Asia. Many spectacular things seen and done there but glad to leave the heat/humidity behind for a bit. Yes, I know it will be hot in India as well. Probably won't feel pleasant till we get to London.:eek: We are taking the overland to Taj Mahal so have fingers crossed all goes according to plan. No cancelled flights! There are two Taj overlands. 6 day/5 night from Chennai and our trip 4 day/3 night from Cochin. We will miss the port of Goa and two sea days hopefully rejoining the ship in Mumbai. DW is still fighting off the "coughing crud" for the second time. Not sure why the ship cannot get over this persistent cough that seems to be going round, and round, and round. The Dr says she is not contagious. Ok, where did she catch it? Possibly something to do with modern sealed air conditioning systems? No fresh air circulation? Who knows? Anyway we are still enjoying seeing the world and will be immersed in India for 4 days. Reports are that Viking uses nice hotels and the transfers work fairly well. I hope Eaches is going as her pictures of KL were spectacular. Eaches, we need you to photo document India. :cool: Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Avery Posted March 30, 2018 Author #642 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Another great job Eaches. Are you going on one of the Taj trips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaches Posted March 30, 2018 #643 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Another great job Eaches. Are you going on one of the Taj trips? The shorter one. It will be interesting to get reports from the other tour to find out which was better ! Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Avery Posted March 30, 2018 Author #644 Share Posted March 30, 2018 The shorter one. It will be interesting to get reports from the other tour to find out which was better ! Sent from my iPhone using Forums We are on that one too.😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Avery Posted March 30, 2018 Author #645 Share Posted March 30, 2018 We are doing the same tour and hopefully will be able to add a little additional color to Jim’s Great review. The only thing that I could add about the crud is -I wonder if a flu shot last fall would have helped with limiting the crud . I had both the flu shot and a brief bout of the crud . It only effected me for a short time. As you know we did the previous shore excursion and the hotels Viking uses are either 4 or 5 stars . The 6 day shore excursion had their meeting last night .It seems from the reports that Viking is not assuming anything and have staffed the tour correctly. I just hope they do the same for the shorter land excursion out of Cochin. We’ll see. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Missed this post earlier. Yes, we both had our flu shots last fall. No idea about the persistent "crud". Wish it would go away.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nippy Sweetie Posted March 30, 2018 #646 Share Posted March 30, 2018 'Crud' - great word. I haven't heard it for years! Hope it clears up soon. So unfair to be ill on such a wonderful trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaches Posted March 30, 2018 #647 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Missed this post earlier. Yes, we both had our flu shots last fall. No idea about the persistent "crud". Wish it would go away.. Jim , All I can say is “ I hope you both feel better Soon ! Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lackcreativity Posted March 30, 2018 #648 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Missed this post earlier. Yes, we both had our flu shots last fall. No idea about the persistent "crud". Wish it would go away.. I realize it is no consolation, but the "crud" is pretty persistent in our area too, and we are not on any ship! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaches Posted March 30, 2018 #649 Share Posted March 30, 2018 I realize it is no consolation, but the "crud" is pretty persistent in our area too, and we are not on any ship! Well if the crud is widespread, you might as well join us in India. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lackcreativity Posted March 30, 2018 #650 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Well if the crud is widespread, you might as well join us in India. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Would love to, but the travel budget is committed to final payment on Russia and the Baltic Sea, April 2019. Fingers crossed that current political issues settle down before our three days in St. Petersburg. I'll just keep following your fabulous photos. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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