Hard to post now as it is taking a while for everything to load. The original thread is so long it is quicker to start a new thread.

Sailing in to Petropovslovk (spelling?) Siberia was remarkable. Absolutely spectacular scenery with three snow capped volcanic mountains on a perfectly sunny day with zero wind and mirroring water. Pretty spectacular. The town was poor with not much to do. Seeing how these people live and the local market etc was very interesting though.

We had a nice cab experience. A cab driver who spoke NO English took us to an area with Dacha's (country houses). He motioned for us to stay in the car and he went inside and talked to some people sitting in the garden having lunch. They invited us in and spoke "Russian" to us with abandon of course we could not understand a word. The only English word one of them knew was "fantastic". They started picking rasberries and all types of products and giving them to us. Big smiles all around and lots of pictures and laughing. Then they picked carrots and gave us a whole bunch. What we are supposed to do with all these products was not quite clear. It was a lot of fun and such a great experience with the locals.

Sometimes cab rides work and sometimes they dont. This one turned out to be a great one.

We now have two days at sea on our way to Japan. I have had rack of lamb three nights in a row - ah am I a happy camper. Tobias is the chef on the Mariner and he has such a great personality. We always enjoy having him as the chef. Tonight it is DOVER SOLE. Life is GOOD.

ATTENTION ROARERS:

I have been in constant touch with Tiffany and we are still working on trying to confirm 2005 pricings. Rovos rail came back and said they were going up but would limit the increase for our group to 5% so at least that locks it in. We are still working with Singita It is looking more promising with Singita. I was concerned as it is a property that is always full to capacity does not have to negotiate so we may not have had success here. However, they are considering it and we may get some compromise here. That would be wonderful. WE are also working with the charter airlines to try to set pricing. It is just a slow process. Dont worry though I am on top of it.

Also I have set up a trip and Ken and I are going to South Africa to check all this out in OCTOBER of this year so by the time we go on MINT I will have pictures, information and full details and first hand knowledge of the trip. I just did not feel that comfortable taking everyone without knowing how it was all going to work.

I dont have all the details yet as it has been hard to organize all this on board but it is certain that we are going, we will see Singita, Victoria Falls and will also check a couple of the camps in Botswana. We are going to rush around and see as many properties as we possibly can while we are there. Most of the ones that the original planning group researched, Leopard Hills etc. I have become so enthusiastic about the ROAR trip and more and more interested in South Africa that if all goes well on this "checking it out trip" I may start actually selling South African safaris in addition to cruises. All because you started this PETLOVER. Amazing how things develop sometimes.

Okay off to a lecture now. Cant read all the posts it takes to long and people are waiting for the computer so I apologize if I dont respond to any questions.

Ngaire