Merle's Story & more.

Merle and James at the Commodore's Gala Reception.

Good Day!

It is always amazing the wonderful tales people have to tell! Merle joined us at Brisbane in Australia and is travelling back to Southampton. From there after visiting friends in England Merle will take a Cunard Ship to America to visit other cruising friends that she met on a Princess Cruise and do some touring in the USA before returning home to Oz. What a great trip Merle is enjoying.


Here is Merle's story.........


After chatting with James about travelling he suggested I should write about some of my adventures.

My first cruise was in 1965 when my friend and I decided to try a short cruise between Melbourne and Perth with a view of maybe going to England if we liked it. We chose Oriana and loved it so much that we booked the following year to England also aboard Oriana.

We stayed in the UK working and travelling. One of the highlights of our two years was a trip to Ireland where we hired a horse and gypsy caravan from Belfast and went to the Giant’s Causeway and back. We had a wonderful time as the newspapers printed our story with the headlines “Australian girls take to the Road” and people came out to greet us and invited us into their homes.

When I returned to Australia I sailed on the Chusan. We travelled via the Panama Canal over Christmas and New Year taking six weeks. This was a fabulous cruise and it turns out the present Commodore of Arcadia was also on the Chusan at the same time.
Two years later I married and returned to the UK sailing on the Chusan as far as South Africa and touring there for about 3 months before sailing on the Himalaya to Southampton. I spent another two years working and touring Europe and then had my first child in London.

We decided to pack everything into the transit van we had bought to travel Europe in and drive home to Australia via Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, West Pakistan, India and Nepal. The van was shipped from Madras to Penang and we drove up to Bangkok and then onto Singapore from where we shipped the van to Sydney.

There were a number of couples doing the same trip and we met up from time to time and all ended up on the same ship with our vehicles. There were some moments when we wondered what was happening. In Pakistan and India we met lots of tanks and had to get off the road to let them pass. We later discovered that we had been in the middle of a war zone, the 7 day India-Pakistan War but we survived and did not see a single shot fired.

Whilst in Bangkok there was a coup and the army was all out in force and they overthrew the Government. Once again we had no problem being in the midst of it but the media reports at home were saying that it was far worse than it actually was.

Since retiring I have taken to sea again and have done some wonderful cruises. The Cherry Blossom cruise was spectacular and all the trees were in full bloom in Japan, such a wonderful sight. The Waterways of Russia too was a superb cruise.

We are now having a wonderful time on board Arcadia on its Grand Voyage.

Fellow cruiser
Merle

Many thanks for that Merle and I wish you many more happy years of cruising.


Meet Roy and Kath Sensier - Grand Voyagers on Arcadia.

Here is their Highlights to Date:

Superb ship and crew – full credit to the Commodore.

First class entertainment every evening in the Palladium theatre – credit particularly due to the Headliners Theatre Co. Excellent speakers during the daytime.

Thoroughly enjoying the award winning chef’s ‘waist expansion programme’

We have enjoyed all our shore excursions, but the following stand out for the reasons mentioned:
Whilst in Singapore we met our daughter Carol and friend Ruth. They had flown out from the UK especially to meet us on arrival. Carol was born in Singapore in 1962 and this was her first opportunity to re-visit our three homes in which we had lived during the three years that we were in Singapore. Incredibly, each of the three houses were still standing and well looked after. We all had a superb day and evening in Singapore.

o Nagasaki–To stand in the Peace Memorial Park, near Ground Zero and recall the terrible event of 1945–a very moving experience.

o Vietnam – Traffic congestion at its worst –in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh cities.

o Cambodia-Visiting a local school in Sihanoukville and being overwhelmed by the gratitude shown by the children and teachers for our small gifts of writing pads and pencils.

o Entering the many beautiful harbours. Sydney and Hong Kong in particular come to mind.

o By visiting both Mumbai and Dubai we witnessed the two extremes of life-abject poverty and unbelievable wealth.

A Grand Voyage in all respects.

With all our love and best wishes to our family, relations and friends.
Kath and Roy Sensier


Thanks for that Kath and Roy and best wishes to you and all your family back home who I know read this blog on a regular basis. It has been a great pleasure to meet you both.

Meet Ruth Hayward. I met Ruth and her husband one day on Deck 11 above the Crows Nest - Ruth said to me your the blog man! So we got chatting (as you do) and here is Ruth's Story.......................................

Singapore Revisited.

Having lived in Singapore for five years as a child I had long harboured a wish to return and visit my former home, which held for me happy memories of a carefree life in a warm and sunny climate. In March last year I saw that ‘Arcadia’ was due to call at Singapore and decided that by joining this trip I could combine a nostalgic few days in the Lion City with a repeat of my journey back to Britain 50 years ago.

Flying out to Singapore four days before joining ‘Arcadia’ on March 21st I was able to visit my old home and spent an afternoon there taking photos of house and garden and showing the present family black and white versions taken in the 1950’s. In walking around the city I could also identify a number of familiar places that still remained, tucked away amongst the more recent skyscrapers. It was quite an emotional time!

For the journey home in 1958 I travelled on a previous P & O ship ‘Arcadia’, leaving Singapore on December 10th and arriving in Tilbury, London on the 29th having spent a memorable Christmas on board. That voyage was via Colombo, Aden, Suez, Malta & Gibraltar; there were no organised excursions but I can remember watching an elephant display ashore and visiting a camel market where the smell was unforgettable! My most vivid recollection however is of the transit of the Suez Canal. I sat near the front of the ship for the most of the day it took to reach Port Said and I am looking forward to repeating that experience on April 7th – Something that has remained with me for over 50 years.

Ruth Hayward

Thank you for your story Ruth and best wishes to you and yours.

It is always fascinating to know why people wish to visit places and the significance of their own personal journey which was can deliver on the Arcadia. It is not just a case of travelling from A to B - much MORE than that.......more than a Cruise, more than a Grand Voyage.

Bye for now,

James.

Everything apart from friendship yields only momentary pleasures.