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| The Maharajas Express Luxury Train* in India. |
“Fascinating Fact of the Day About Ireland”
“Even though legend says that St. Patrick cleared Ireland of snakes, the truth is that these slithering creatures were never able to make it from Britain to the island.”
*Please excuse the quality of today’s photos. They were taken from the train’s website and aren’t clear when enlarged.
With our hesitancy to book future travels due to my recent health fiasco, the nature of our travels had changed dramatically. At one point since we arrived in Ireland, we had no idea where we’d go in December 2019 after leaving Minnesota, Nevada, and Arizona to see family.
After days of research and planning, as of late yesterday, we’re booked until May 2, 2020, almost a year out but also have a few cruises beyond that date which we may or may not take.
We have moveable deposits on all of our remaining cruises with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Lines. We have a Euro 731, US $900 deposit, paid for a cruise we’d booked from Lisbon to Cape Town on November 2020. At the time we booked that cruise, we had no idea about my heart issues.
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| One of several lounges on the train. |
When we went through immigration in South Africa on May 11, 2019, we were classified as “undesirables” since we overstayed our visas by the three months we had to stay in SA while I recovered, unable to fly during that time. This classification would prevent us from returning to South Africa for 5 years. Subsequently, we’ ll miss this particular cruise.
We were provided with documentation to allow us to apply for a waiver that could potentially allow us to return sooner. Immediately after we arrived in Ireland, we put together the detailed packet required to apply for the waiver and sent it via email as required.
Yesterday, I called to see how our file was progressing and was directed to another email address for a status update which I did, attaching all the relevant documents once again. I was told we’d hear back in 24 to 48 hours. But, I doubt we’ll hear by then, based on history in dealing with governmental processes in South Africa.
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| One of several dining venues. |
If we don’t hear by the time the final payment is due in July 2020, we’ll have no choice but to cancel the cruise, losing a portion of the deposit and not able to return to Marloth Park South Africa until May 2024.
In the interim, we’re proceeding as if this isn’t an issue, leaving a gap in time for the Africa cruise and the three months we’ll have spent in Marloth Park. We have a year to hear from immigration.
In order to get “back on track,” we decided to proceed with events we’ve longed to do. Yesterday morning, we booked the first of these exciting venues on the Maharajas Express, the India equivalent of the Orient Express. We couldn’t be more excited.
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| On one of many included excursions, close to the Taj Mahal. |
We’ve talked about visiting India at some point but neither of us has been interested in experiencing the massive population as shown below:
“The population of India 2019: Looking into the latest UN data, the approximate population of India is 1,350,438,098. The population of India is rising at an alarming rate and this is why the country is known as the second most populous country in the world after China.”
This is a big chunk of the world’s population as shown below:
“The current world population is 7.7 billion as of June 2019 according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometers. Thus, India possesses 17.7% of the world’s population.”
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| One of many dining carriages. |
Based on our plans for India, we’ll be able to avoid some of the traffic and commotion in the larger cities, although we’ll visit some of them along the way. No doubt, the crowds, and traffic are all part of the experience in India.
We plan to spend two months in the country, from traveling to different locations we’re considering now. But, as mentioned above, one of the most exciting elements of our time in India is starting on February 2, 2020, with a six-night excursion on the Maharajas Express from Mumbai to Dehli, stopping at outstanding points of interest along the way.
In the past several days, we spent hours researching pricing, accommodation, amenities, and routes and decided on the Maharajas Express’ Heritage of India which provides us with the most exciting and comprehensive experiences.
See you soon!
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| Elephants crossing the road in Kruger National Park. That vehicle stopped too close to them putting themselves at risk. For more details, please click here. |