Just got back from the cruise to the Bahamas. From the unusually cold climates of Washington DC metro, to the warm receptive climes of Nassau, it was a nice and pleasant journey. We were out on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the 'Majesty of the Seas', supposedly not so great ship. But for a person on his first ever cruise, it was great enough. It was a corporate affair, only select team of people were invited on this most, if not all, expenses paid trip.
The company was good enough, to allow some of us to take an extra day off, and reach earlier than required and spend some time around Miami. We did, and most of it was at the restaurant/bar in South Beach, called Mango's. Fun place, good to decent food, and the crowd around me were drowning in 'Mojitos'. Then a freak bet, got me all pumped up and soon, thanks to help of another friend and colleague, i was on the bar, dancing with the bar girl. Soon the cameras were out, and i have created enough evidence, that will require me to pay 'sush' money for the rest of my life.
More time, later that night was spent at another bar, simply called 'bed', and was quickly used in sentences to create the desired effect, of doing fancy things in 'bed'. Soon people were tired of drinking in a horizontal and vertical position, and wanted to try this out by adding a few fancy jerks and hip shakes. The next stop was Mansion, nice dance place, if i am not mistaken, my first trip to a disco place. It felt kind of weird to experience this after all this years. I was not to be cowed down by this moment of discovery and soon was rocking the place down. One problem with the 'people of the night', i found out is that, they get quickly tired of one place and want to see what else is available, that could give this kind of experience. And so out we were, to find the another spot for dancing. Many were tired by now, but few were brave enough to admit the same. The few, who were brave, did make their quiet exits at appropriate places. The quest was on to see who could last the most, and stand up right. Well, finally biology, chemistry and the laws of physics did catch up, and we were in a cab, speeding to our real bed in the hotel room.
The next morning was cruise day and started of drap, with the required meeting. But soon, all boring things do give way to opportunities for fun, and we were on our way to the ship. The days and night on the ship itself was no less or more exciting than this first day and night out. The main reason was, it was more easier to lose people on the ship, and a time was likely to be wasted attempting to find them. The cruise and the ship itself was nothing great. It is impressive, but it is not the be all, end all thing in life. People can easily have more fun on land. The quest to be on a ship on the high seas is quickly lost after about the first few hours aboard it. The expanse of water all around you and all the way to the horizon on all sides, does seem impressive, and it is, but still, it doesn't create the impact, you quite expect.
What i liked most about the trip was, the fact, that we were captive to everything on the ship, meaning most if not all forms of communication to the outside world was cutoff, and so no emails, no phones, no newspaper, no internet etc.. It meant we had find fun things to do with the people around us. I was also amazed at my ability to make a few spontaneous friends on the dance floors. The spirit of the room, music and people around were good enough for me to do crazy dance sequences.
Food and drinks (the nonalcoholic kind), were another thing to talk about. No, no, before you get any ideas. The food was not great or anything to rave about. But food is served free, or rather should i say, is worked into the cost of the trip. And i always used have this tendency to feed on free food, till i can eat no more. But this trip, gave me a new confidence that i can stop way before my stomach is ready to burst. I still need to weigh myself, but i do know that there were no distress calls from the captain of the ship.
And then the most important being my friends and colleagues on the ship. It was them that made this trip very memorable. I made some new friends and developed on some existing relationships, got to know some more people, and got to know more about some people. Because many of us didn't have a choice, we had to endure the company sometimes and that helped in some cases. I had to spend more than the casual 'hello , how are you, bye for now' conversation, and had to dispense with more words and thoughts, than would normally have done at first meetings with people. And also because we couldn't get out, unless we jumped and swam a long way, we had to meet people over and over again, as you went in circles around the ship.
Oh, i also got to engage in my other favorite pastime, photography. I've wasted almost a 6 rolls of film on various things. And since i still use the traditional auto-SLR, i have to wait till they are developed too see the images i have captured. I am sure to post atleast a few to my blog and more to my flickr album.
Have to sign out now, this had to be long, and i still havent captured all my thoughts and impressions, fresh as they still are. But i do have to stop this literary explosion for the moment and create and collect more impressions and thoughts.
