A la Colthard
It had to happen. But before I tell you what it was I will review the restaurants of the cruise.
The cruise ship has 3 restaurants: a formal one on the 4th deck (above):
La Terrazza on the that serves lighter fare on the 7th deck;
and The Grill in the open air by the small pool.
The cuisine and service at each is impeccable.
Wine, which is included, is always well chosen, normally a red and white from a particular country.
In the formal restaurant the maitre D Sergio presides from behind his computer at a lectern and allocates the table and turns away 10 year olds for not observing the dress code.
Bob Tickler finds his officiousness typical of cruise life. He is flanked by his team of subordinate waiters who escort the ladies to the table. Sometimes they links arms. Orders are always taken from the ladies first and they receive precedence in service too.
It’s this formality that not only attracts an elderly clientele but ensures their return. They refer to the ship as “She” whereas for Bob Tickler and I it’s either ‘it’ or ‘the boat.’
We are both more settled, unlike the seas beneath us that sent the boat rolling and listing through the night. I would like to know how the courting couples managed !!!! Mind, Bob Tickler was more Captain Queasy than Captain Queeg!!!!
Yesterday morning we went on a tour of Saigon. Our guide from the south explained he referred to the city always as Saigon not Ho Chi Minh.
In the main square an elderly immobile passenger left the coach with his wife but fell behind the group and did not return to the coach. Unbelievably he had boarded a different tour bus. You might have thought the two buses were in contact. Bob, of course, revelled as the coach passengers divided on the issue as to whether they should proceed without the couple or not.
The guide was a bit of joker, laughing incessantly at his own humour. When Bob in John Humphries-style grilled him as to whether the country was united he launched a diatribe against the north Vietnamese for stealing all the jobs. I can only admire a country that had been almost permanently occupied, after unification had wars with Cambodia and China, had to deal with emigration of the largely middle class boat people, has no real industry – its main exports are rice and coffee and tourism accounts for 20% of the economy – but is one of the most powerful of the emerging economies.
As to romance there a number of couples who are married but not to one another. Cruising is an obvious vacation for courting couples. It makes me feel young in years and at heart. Perhaps if Ollie pops his clogs I might take to the dance floor and rumba with some silvery-haired liver-spotted American billionaire, but not yet!!!!
