May 13, 2024
8/1/23 Enter Life at Sea by Miray
I tempered my disappointment with Storylines.com when I saw an advertisement for another Residential Cruise Ship proposing a sail date of November 1, 2023! Enter
Life at Sea
by Miray, a Turkish company that was buying a 15-year-old cruise ship and retrofitting it in dry dock for continual 3-year world sailings, that was basically the same itinerary and concept as
Storylines. Miray
had paid a deposit to Aida Cruises of Germany
to take possession of their Aura
ship in September 2023, when it would finish its charters, and then drydock the ship and renovate it to a Residential Cruise ship ( remove casino and children areas and convert to business center and lounges). They advertised that we would sail out of Istanbul, as
Miray’s MV Lara, on November 1, 2023.
In August 2023, I signed a typical cruise contract and paid a deposit. I investigated renting out my shore house in Ocean City and opted instead to sell it in October, with the thought it would be easier than managing from afar and I most likely would not be in a hurry to return. I also negotiated the sale of my car to a family member, who offered to drive me to airport in November and do the transfer then, Easy Peasy!
All through September and October I was busy downsizing my possessions; getting a bunch of medical precautions and a significant number of vaccines and prescriptions in place; procuring a time-consuming Chinese visa in NYC; securing an appointment for a 10 year renewal on my passport and ultimately preparing myself for departure. I shipped four 40# boxes, full of dry goods, provisions and clothes to the port for pickup and bought my airline ticket to travel w/ 2 suitcases and a carryon. I opted to meet the ship on November 15, 2023 in the Bahamas, after it did the trans-Atlantic crossing from Istanbul, to have a couple more weeks of family time.
In late October,
Miray
advised us that the transfer of ownership was taking longer than expected and we would be delayed but hold tight, all was good. Fellow passengers who were already enroute to Istanbul or had nowhere to live come November 1, traveled to Istanbul, and were put up by
Miray
in a hotel where they were given 3 meals a day, plus excursions, while they waited. We were all patient and trusting. Then SHOCKINGLY on November 19th,
Miray
advised us the trip was CANCELLED!! A Greek company had bought the ship;
Miray
claimed their investors pulled their support due to unrest in Middle East and they lost the purchase of the Aura! In late November, I got settlement paperwork from
Miray
for a full refund and paid to have my four boxes returned to me from the port. The News outlets had a field day with our devastation and Saturday Night Live even did a bit about it in weekend update with Colin Jost!
On Saturday August 29, 2026 we achieved another historic milestone on this circumnavigation of the World , we cruised into Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The land encompassed by Hong Kong is confusing. It includes part of the southern coast of mainland China, just below Shenzhen, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories . Looking at a map helps, but the rules changed so many times! I asked my buddy Chat several times, to tell me if what I was looking at was the Hong Kong that the British had owned for years. The answer was never straight forward!
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck!
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.