The Journey(s) of Ian

From Fremantle to Phuket  via the Indian Ocean, the Sunda Straights, Port Klang, and Penang. Fremantle harbour, from the stern of the 'Athena'. Another cruise ship in port.      Herman Melville’s character Ishmael told of how he felt the sea to exert a strange and compelling fascination upon himself. How for hours, while supposedly searching for whale, aloft his ship’s crows nest, he would gaze happily and contentedly, free of worldly cares out onto the ocean. Such a claim might seem strange to those who have never journeyed onto the ocean, but to those who have, most will have found, that even the most tortured soul or worldly mien will find a measure of solace and respite upon the ocean’s watery embrace. Myself, having completed a goodly number, though not enough to boast of, ocean voyages, I can only echo the fascination of Melville’s protagonist with that which covers three quarters of the Earth’s surface. Me on the rear deck, saying goodb...

Eleven days at sea: Fremantle to Singapore, via Penang, Phuket, and Langkawi. As regular readers of my blog will know I travelled from Fremantle to Singapore on a freighter way back in 2006. This was an experience, rough and ready, but fun. Now, three years later I have traveled a similar route, but this time on the opposite end of the comfort scale, this time I travelled on a ship from one of the world’s premier cruise lines: the Princess line, and the ship -- the Sun Princess. The specs: The Sun Princess was manufactured in 1995, it displaces 77,000 tonnes (making it twice the size of my freighter) is 260m long, 30m wide, and has 13 decks. (Interestingly enough, there is no number 13 on the ship, this means that there is a deck 12 with a deck 14 immediately above, but no deck numbered 13, nor do cabin numbers contain the ill-omened 13. The baleful 13 is totally skipped. This seems a little archaic to me, hopefully it is a nautical tradition and n...