We're a month from starting on the next third of the journey. This upcoming trip will take us from Istanbul Turkey to Singapore on board the Oceania Nautica ship. The sail will be forty days and will cover the same bodies of water on which my father sailed in 1928 and will stop at many of the sights he visited and photographed.
The difference in our two journeys is that in the 1920's ships were the primary means of transportation between countries and thus my father was able to hop onto a variety of different vessels, and be more specific in his port to port requirements.
In the 21st century there are very few ships that follow these routes, and certainly fewer which allow one to debark and enjoy land excursions for any length of time. So on this journey while we cover the same bodies of water, we will miss many of the ports he saw, and we will see others he never planned to visit.
But on the whole as we sit on our ship sailing through the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aden,the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca I will be able to imagine my father doing exactly the same thing.
This leg of the journey, like last year's trip to India has me very excited since it is taking me far out of my realm of knowledge. Every day will be filled with new sights, smells, people and experiences. If it weren't for those letters of 1928, I might never have seen any of this.
