One of the many excursions on the Maharajas Express train includes a visit to the Taj Mahal. (Not our photo).

“Fascinating Fact of the Day About Ireland”
“Abortion is illegal in Ireland unless keeping the child would put the mother’s life at
risk.”

There’s no doubt we’re tentative about booking into the future, especially when there is no certainty about my health going forward. To date, we haven’t booked anything where we’d lose the entire cost of the venue, just deposits.

Even paying deposits is risky. After we’ve paid out so much in medical bills, our insurance company refuses to pay and to lose so much for prepaid travel events we couldn’t attend, flights we had to cancel, and bookings we had to forgo, it’s not surprising we’re cautious.

The unexpected cardiac bypass surgery could easily put a quick end to our travels, which neither of us wanted to stop. Instead, we strive to continue living life to the fullest.  

None of us knows how much time we have on this earth, and yes, my situation may mean I have less time than many. But, it’s no reason to stop living. What would we do if we lived in a condo in the US? Stay home and do nothing? 

The travels we have ahead will require some days at the airport, waiting in a long queue to board a ship and lots of walking. Would it be a lot less active if we lived in the US (or some other country)? Besides, being active is the number one prescription for improving one’s health after cardiac bypass surgery.

Walking? Yep. I’m on it every day, keeping track of my fitness watch to ensure I get in enough steps each day. It’s not easy to do, walking around the house all day.  Right now, I have a timer set to walk every 30-minutes.


I shake it up every few days.  Sometimes, it’s for long periods or several times a day, once every hour.  On some days, I do half or more of the walking at one time.  Why don’t I walk outside?  It’s cold, windy and it rains a lot.  Also, there are no sidewalks on the very narrow winding roads. The driveway to the road is rocky and uneven. It defeats the purpose to risk injury.

Walking around the house at a good clip is not that bad.  I have a route I vary every few minutes rather than stick to one path. Boredom is the biggest problem.  My cheap South African-purchased smartphone doesn’t have enough memory to add a podcast app which would help tremendously.  

At one point, I added an SD card, but it couldn’t store any data. It’s the phone.  Nothing I can do about that until we purchase new phones in the US when we arrive in November, a mere four months from now.  

We’ve already selected the phones we’d like but won’t order them until closer to the time of our arrival in the US. In four months, newer models could hit the market, and prices may change.

In preparing the itinerary we’ve included today, we didn’t include the cruise we’ve booked to Cape Town, South Africa, long before my illness, based on hearing from immigration as to our “undesirable” status after overstaying for three months my recovery. As mentioned a few days ago, we’ve applied, re-applied, and called several times, requesting a response. None yet. We’ll continue trying.

Also, as mentioned, we have a few more cruises we’ve booked and may not take. These are not shown in the itinerary.  We’re able to move the deposits at any time with no losses. Having chosen a few costly cruises, considering our budget, we won’t be cruising as often as we had in the early part of our travels.

Cruises are highlighted in the itinerary in turquoise. We’ll be taking the cruises listed on the itinerary. Everything we do in life is subject to good health. For some oddball reason, I wrongfully thought that saying “health providing” in dozens, if not hundreds of other posts, as if provided some insurance, nothing terrible would happen. It did happen anyway. I am done saying that!

After further research and comments from kindly readers who’ve been to India, it appears we can stay up to 180 days. That’s great! We didn’t want to deal with more immigration problems.

Gotta go! My timer just went off for my next round of walking.  

Enjoy your day!

Photo from one year ago today, July 1, 2018:

One year ago today, we attended the Honorary Ranger’s Annual Fair in Marloth Park.  Artist’s renditions of wildlife along with an array of skulls, horns, and tusks. For more photos, please click here.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we hesitated over spending so much on this cruise, especially after the cost of the Maharajas Train on which we’ll embark on February 3, 2020.  

We have two months to travel while in India while we look forward to this upcoming cruise embarking on April 3, 2020, ending in London on May 2, 2020, 29 nights later.

We’ve yet to decide where we’ll go when we arrive in London. We have plenty of time for that, a little over 10 months. We may plan to stay around Europe for a few months. With the Schengen visa restrictions, we can only remain in most European countries for 90 out of 180 days.

There are several countries that aren’t part of Schengen. For more details on Schengen visas, please visit this site.

According to visa regulations listed on many sites for India e-visa, a traveler from the US and many other countries may only stay for 60 days. We’ll be in India for 63 days. If necessary, we’ll apply for an extension through the Indian Embassy through the consulate in San Francisco, the location we must use as residents of Nevada.

However, at the governmental e-visa site for India, the following is clearly stated as follows:

“Stay:
Continuous stay during each visit shall not exceed 90 days for countries except the USA, UK, Canada, and Japan. For the USA, UK, Canada, and Japan, continuous stay during each visit shall not exceed 180 days.

 

Cruise Fare $19,998.00  
E-Check Discount ($633.53)       
Past-Passenger Discount ($800.00)            
Grand Total: $18,564.47   
Total Deposit Paid: $483.50    
Total Balance Due: $18,080.97  Final payment due July 24, 2019 

Tips/Amenities Included: 
Jessica Lyman: $300.00 Onboard Credit 
Thomas Lyman: $300.00 Onboard Credit 

We justified this expensive cruise based on the fact that we have three cruises we’ve booked with deposits we can transfer to later cruises, most likely to 2022, giving up plenty of time to recover the considerable expense.  

In the interim, we’ll wait and see if we can sail on the cruise from Lisbon to Cape Town on November 10, 2020, on Azamara, which visits many ports on the western side of Africa, a very rare cruise.  

We’re waiting to determine if the five-year ban from returning to South Africa is lifted for medical reasons.  We applied for the waiver almost seven weeks ago and have inquired several times to no avail. They don’t respond to our inquiries by phone or email.  

On Friday, we inquired again and will do so every Friday until we get an update. If we don’t receive the waiver, we’ll lose part of the deposit we paid and miss this exciting itinerary and plan when and if we’ll get back to Marloth Park.  When and if we do, we won’t stay longer than 90 days in South Africa.

Today, we’ve added photos and information about dining options on the Mumbai cruise with Viking, including the complimentary specialty restaurants. Please see below for details.

21770
29 nights departing April 3, 2020, on Viking Cruises Viking Sun
Brochure Balcony $9,999 Our Balcony $9,999 You Save 0%	Brochure Suite $16,749 Our Suite $15,999 You Save 4%
Prices include select shore excursions and unlimited internet. Book select categories by June 30 and pay a reduced deposit of $250 per person.
Promotions may not be combinable with all fares. ___________________________________________________________ Dining options on Viking Sun:

	“The Restaurant Cuisine: Continental Dress Code: Elegant casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: No Hours Breakfast: 8:00am – 10:00am Lunch: Noon – 2:30pm Dinner: 6:00pm – 10:00pm
	The Chef’s Table Cuisine: Continental Dress Code: Elegant casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: Yes Hours Dinner: 6:30pm – 10:30pm
	Manfredi’s Italian Restaurant Cuisine: Italian Dress Code: Elegant casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: Yes Hours Dinner: 6:30pm – 10:30pm
	World Cafe Cuisine: Variety Dress Code: Elegant casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: Yes Hours Breakfast: 7:30am – 10:00am Lunch: 11:30am – 2:00pm Dinner: 6:30pm – 10:30pm
	Viking Deli Cuisine: Scandinavian Dress Code: Casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: No Hours Check onboard for hours
	Aquavit Terrace Cuisine: Al fresco options Dress Code: Casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: No Hours Check onboard for hours
	The Kitchen Table Cuisine: Cooking school and restaurant Dress Code: Casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: No Hours Check onboard for hours
	Mamsen’s Cuisine: Norwegian breakfast and lunch Dress Code: Casual Surcharge: No Reservations Required: No Hours Check onboard for hours
In addition to the restaurants mentioned above, the Viking Sun also features afternoon high tea in the Wintergarden, a pool grill, and 24-hour room service. “

Last night, our dinner for guests was canceled due to an unexpected illness of one of our guests.  We’re hoping she will recover soon.  We ended up thoroughly enjoying the dinner we planned and spent a quiet evening at “home.” 

Tomorrow, we’ll be back with our new itinerary. Please stop back to see it!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, June 30, 2018:

The particular “dazzle” of zebras visiting that morning was all female except for a youngster. For more photos, please click here.