The bee went cruising

It was an early start to a long, and I mean lo0o0o0o0o0ong day. I had to wake up early and catch my flight to Mumbai. Things were pretty nice till the flight landed. Then as soon as we came out of the airport the heat struck me. OMFG… how do people live in such sultry humid hot conditions, was bad... real bad.

In spite of me constantly telling my colleagues, they insisted that we opt for the Black n yellow taxi rather than the prepaid cool cab I suggested.
BIG MISTAKE which they later (much later) suggested was a wrong move. Any ride of that quality in that kind of heat would leave you sore. Wonder how andy, anjali or GINA for that matter of fact travel during such times…….
The long taxi ride took us to the convention center where we had 4 hours of presentations to go through before we could head on for what we all assembled there to do. THE CRUISE.

Presentations were not bad. But some people left me wondering as to how high profile marketing guys can be so0o0o0o0o0o boring and dull… thank god the hall was air conditioned or wud have been impossible to get a quick nap in between all the noise….

The clock struck 4. We all headed out to our buses (managing 300 people …I was thankful that I was the guest) after the long queue and 3 sec checks we finally entered the Cruise which was pleasantly nice……. The Superstar LIBRA.

I couldn’t wait to get in had never been on one before, for starters it much bigger than I thought it would be (Much lesser babes than I thought I would run into …. L sadly)


Everything was stacked up pretty nicely, the interiors were nice, the decors, the staff courteous... although it took most of the guys some time to understand their English……. Most of them were from Singapore and Korea…….

The room although smaller than I thought it would be …… (the stateroom seaside) was nice . Just great for two, would be a killer thing if u are with a loved one ……. Nice beds and all, with a beautiful view thanks to the typical round look out window. The holy place was small, in fact if you r thinking of havin a hot shower with your girl on this cool cruise ……… naaaaaa………….. it aint happening. One person can barely stand let alone two. Everything that they gave was minimized in volume, all the shampoos soaps shower gels etc were in the gel form … dint mind that as it has been ages since I moved on to shower gels form soaps ……. Though my roomy wasn’t too fond of it …..

Then came the time to explore the ship a little, 10 floors (decks as they call it) in all…………….. My room was in deck 2. # 02224.
Deck 5, 9 & 10 were the happening places………… with the casino and other joints like a small shop... a bar …….. Show arenas…………… in deck 5…

Deck 9 and 10 having the pool, Jacuzzi... health club etc……. I missed out to book for a massage at the spa ……… but the guys did sign me up for the Las Vegas topless cabaret (900 big ones) … funny that it was called that cuz all the artists were from Brazil…. Newes …… the show was scheduled for midnight ……… and was almost amusing to see the guys lining up from 11:00 pm to get front row seats ……… I kept telling them they aint gonna find no erotic dancing ………… but isn’t it human to hope against hope…….. so when the show was over most of them were disappointed……… I liked it ….. Cuz I knew it would be artistic rather than erotic………

Much before that we had our usual awards ceremony, which again is nothing but guys sitting and waiting for dancers to shake dere booty in between the awards…….

I spent most of my time alone. Not really wanting to get into official banter ……… had my two best buds giving company. Bacardi and coke ….. And I was doing just fine with them ……..

It was almost 1 in the night when we were thru with all the shows ……. We hit the casino then, I am not much of a gambler, after seeing my friends loose sum money at black jack ….. I went on for deck 9 ……. And spend time with my I-pod and pack of milds………. Was almost 3 by the time I hit the sack………

Woke up at 8 …. Sun already up ……… went to grab sum grub ……… food was nice ….. Loads of breads... I love breads… all kinds of them ……. After a quick break fast I hit the pool and the Jacuzzi…. Even that was tuff to keep me cool in the sun. So I was off to my room by 10……. Spent some time with the tube... it was then I realized that the night before was the world cup final …….. Not that I am into cricket …….. but I am usually more aware of what’s happening around me… always good to strike up a conversation when in company of someone ………

Couple of hours of that then a quick lunch …….. Again the food was fabulous. Was almost 1:00 so went settled my bills and was ready to disembark by 2:00 It was then I realized how good they are with managing people…

There were really cup of things which anyone would appreciate. They were excellently staffed. You would never long to run into one of them if you are stuck up … they managed the crowds even with their language problem very efficiently …. Quite diff to us … our off guys struggled to manage 300 odd people ….
Be it the way they handled the crowd coming to settle their bills or the way they managed the crowd the day before during the mandatory emergency drill.

By the time I came out, I was looking forward to heading back home and a good rest as I had to travel to vizag the very next day for my friend’s marriage.

The flight back was ok, although I wasn’t thrilled to about the 10 minute weather turbulence, or the way the pilot took off from the runway just as he was about to land. Was a major communications mess up there… kingfisher is loosing its touch I guess. The flight to Mumbai wasn’t great either; it was an hour late with no communication to the passengers. Sad, now even kf standards are going down.

All in all the experience was hectic, tiring and almost satisfactory. Almost cuz I thought would have been great if this trip was the 2 days cruise where I could have actually relaxed, or would have been with my boys or with my girl. But then since I don’t have a girl and all my buddies are busy working ……… guess this is as good as it gets as of now.

No regrets though, after all that is one thing I can strike off from my things to do before I die list. Thee bee went cruising.