MV Athena

MV Athena: Goddess of Wisdom
Flying by boat was always going to be a challenge. The boats on which we have travelled have chosen us, not the other way about. That is the case with the MV Athena, which is part of the Classical International Cruises fleet, and which visits Australia, specifically Western Australian, in summer months to undertake mainly Asian cruises. Built in 1947, she is the oldest ship currently still in regular service on the world’s oceans and is, with her sleek hydro-dynamic contours, a proper liner, constructed for the rough and tumble of the oceans. Dwarfed by her companions whenever we dock, she is also very small. There are only two hundred passengers plus about that number in crew on her on this cruise. Anyone interested in travelling ‘big’ and experiencing the dubious virtues of economies of scale would be wise to avoid the Athena. For Schumacher was right, small can be, as it is on this ship, beautiful. He could have added fewer too. Given her proportions and modest ambitions, comparisons with the premier league of Cunard, P & O cruise ships would be invidious but are worth making nonetheless. Hard to believe, but the accommodation, service, food and overall atmosphere on this ship equals if not surpasses that on the Queen Mary 2, where luxury is dispensed with a military like precision that is anonymous and friendless. This food is always fresh, inventive, varied and hard to fault. If a meal is below par for a passenger’s personal taste, it is replaced with an alternative. Those interested in attacking their girths steer clear. We especially like the way in which the Chief Chef makes sure his menu complements the geography of the voyage: Italian food when we are in an Italian port, Thai a Thai one.

This is by and large a very happy ship comprising a multi-national crew (much more than that of the passengers) who take enormous efforts and pains to ensure the passengers want for nothing. The entertainment admittedly is more Rock Eisteddfod than Broadway and there are no Intellectual Enrichment Lectures, Jazz Quartets from Julliard, and just (and it is just) occasionally, the Athena becomes a ship of fools (and you wish were back home listening to a CD of Debussy’s La Mer instead of being on the stuff), but providing you can tolerate the occasional outbreaks of tomfoolery (Sexy Belly Competition), the terrible library, the perfunctory bulletins of the Captain, the all too truncated shore excursions, you might just like to consider cruising on the MV Athena. She might have chosen us, but we are glad she did so.

Phuket and Singapore

More Asian assignations
Our next encounter with Asia was Phuket, pronounced forget and probably best forgot. It is Thailand’s version of Bali and attracts countless Australians and Europeans to its once attractive and now spoilt by overdevelopment, beaches. Patong, is ugliness defined. Whatever charms it once possessed (and they must have been myriad) were swept away by the tsunami of capitalism. After hectoring our taxi driver to take us to the authentic Phuket, we eventually arrived at Palai Bay, for lunch at the Phong Phang Seafood Restaurant. Housed in a giant barn, which was open on all sides, it was good as it gets in terms of a view free of Merriots and the food was authentic Thai and of Michelin quality. Pity that we were not able to experience more of the undeveloped Phuket.

Singapore was next, which was hard to digest in four hours, and most of which was spent negotiating the island-city-state’s MRT. When we eventually emerged overground in an area of reminiscent of a set from Metropolis, it was twenty-five minutes walk to our destination, Raffles Hotel. This most archetypal of colonial hotels still looks the part, though like much else in Singapore its priorities now, judging by the presence within its precincts of Cartier and Leica, are now shopping not sleeping. We had set our stomachs sert on eating in the hotel’s Writers’ Room—we had visions of seeing Rudyard Kipling’s fountain pen and Joseph Conrad’s pocket dictionary—only to be turned back by a surly commissionaire—yet another brush with authority. Colin did not meet the dress code! Proof that the ethos of the Queen Mary 2 still dwells on land. In the end, we had to settle for the Hotel’s bakery. We didn’t see Somerset Maugham’s blotting paper but the tea and muffins were very scrumptious. Having downed the last drop of Royal Darjeeling Ftgfop1, it was time to be shipped back to Athena, just in time for afternoon tea.