My Top Five Jobs - Number 1

For those of you who have been reading this blog for any length of time you would know my number 1 job was working with Renaissance Cruises between 1992 and 1996. The places I saw and the things I did with the people I met was unforgettable.

Waiting on a cruise ship is like being a sports athlete. All you do is wait on tables everyday. You don't have to worry about rent , laundry , food , drink , transportation , or bad weather like scraping snow off your windshield in the winter. All you do is get paid to make people happy who are already happy. They are all on vacation.

Looking back at what seems like a long time ago it was the best thing I ever did. I met my wife who worked on the ship. I dare say had I not met her I would probably have remained on the ship.

Nothing has compared to that yet on land. The cruise line company named Renaissance Cruises went belly up during 9/11 and became something different afterwards so to look it up and send you to a web site is not possible. It was a small ship of 114 passengers. Small is better in my opinion when choosing a cruise ship to work for.

Well that is it for my top 5.

5. Where I work now.
4. Palisades Restaurant in Jasper.
3. Hotel Eden au Lac in Montreux Switzerland.
2. Terrace on the Green in Brampton Ontario.
1. Renaissance Cruises from 1992-1996.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I had fun writing about them.

Dubai - 1994

Only one overnight did I spend in Dubai while I was on the ships but that one night out a whole bunch of us went to where the bars and nightlife were.

You'd think we were in a western country not in a country where we think only dessert and camels exist. High rise office buildings , plush hotels , and so many westerners from Europe and North America you felt right at home when you walked around.

Very clean and friendly the service wherever you went was impeccable and there were no signs of poverty anywhere.

Many of us got back to the ship very late and we were in rough shape to get up for breakfast the next day. In fact the pool deck waiter never made it up for 5 AM as he was puking all over the place.

I did a lot of bar hopping that night but I will say that I saw who is probably the greatest Joe Cocker impersonator ever in one of the bars. He was so good in fact that he not only had his voice but looked exactly like him. I swore it was him until someone straightened me out.

Nowadays Dubai is one of the places on Earth where business is booming with construction cranes everywhere. Hotel work is abundant and they are always looking for foreigners to work there. The only thing about that though is you are paid in the local currency so when you did come back to North America the exchange would hurt quite a lot.

I am a bit beyond having an adventure but turn back the clock 25 years and I might want to check it out and see what it is like by working there.

Right now I will just settle for an action packed overnight on a ship , that's good enough for me.

Komodo Indonesia

While I was working on the cruise ship and doing 10 day cruises between Singapore and Bali I had the once in a life time opportunity to go ashore by tender to the island of Komodo.

What was so special about this was this island was inhabited by the Komodo Dragon. We would get a walking tour once ashore to the place or pit where the locales use to feed the dragons.

The leader with his stick to ward off any attacking Komodo would lead us through some open area. As we were walking and staying close together ,we could see in the distance a Komodo or two. Naturally if you were to stray from the pack you might set yourself up to be easy prey for this dragon which is probably the closest thing to a dinosaur you will ever see. Their eyesight isn't great but their sense of smell is quite something. If you had an open wound the smell of it would attract the Komodo. In fact , I heard of one time when a woman was on her time of the month and a Komodo came pretty close because it could pick up a scent.

Well when we got to the look out point where the Komodos were being fed it was quite a bizarre set up. We had to walk through an open area to a viewing area located right in the middle of a few Komodos who were just lazing around after having ate so much. Now if they wanted to attack us it would not have been a problem since the only separation we had from the Komodos was a fence that if you could imagine was just a couple of pieces of wood held up by a post. Not much protection from a predator that can run faster than any human.

Luckily , they were well fed by the deer the locales use to throw into the pit. Now a deer can out run a Komodo over a long distance but the Komodos were smart. They use to chase after the deer till they got to the beach area then the deer would run into the water. Then the Komodo would just sit down on the beach and wait for the deer to tire then when it had to come ashore the Komodo would easily catch up with it and have it for his lunch. Smart Komodo!

I took the tour twice to see these prehistoric creatures but what I hear now , is because the Komodo was getting too lazy and use to letting the locales feed them , they have stopped feeding them altogether. What this means is that walk through the open area to visit the Komodo might not be as safe as it was when I took the tour some years ago.

I am glad it was the way it was back then as I am not sure I would want to take the tour now with those Komodo dragons being a bit more hungry.