Explore More UK - Spring 2021

COLUMN
BACK ON BOARD
with Karine
Executive Vice President of Viking, Karine Hagen, recalls
her recent time on board Viking Star and Viking Jupiter
Clockwise, from
above: Karine
catching up
with the crew of
Viking Jupiter;
Karine serving
Norwegian dish
pølse og lompe
In February, I was fortunate
to bring Finse and Charlie with
me on board Viking Star and
Viking Jupiter for a ten-day
work trip in Kristiansand, where
two of our six ocean vessels were
in warm layup awaiting the restart
of operations. After almost a year
of COVID confinement, I admit
I was secretly looking forward
to delicious prepared meals, and
having my bed properly made
by someone else, but I quickly
discovered that what I had
missed more, much more, than
the luxury of service, or the
comfort of the ships, was human
contact. Being on board, protected
by our health protocol of daily,
simple, non-invasive saliva
PCR testing, gave me a sense
of freedom I had not felt on land
for an entire year.
While our ships have been in
warm layup, our crew has been
busy, keeping them shipshape
and ready to restart at short
notice. Having ships on standby
hopefully only happens once in
their lifetime (and once in ours!),
and as hard as this year has been
on the world, we must try to find
some silver linings.
A silver lining for me – being on
board – was getting to know some
of our crew much better. Heartfelt
conversations about their families,
lives and homes, their childhoods
and growing up in different
parts of the world, allowed
my mind to travel the world,
without moving my body an
inch.
I travelled with video
technician Mahesh, to his
family’s modest mango farm
PHOTOS: © VIKING
in the village of Madhavamala, in
southern India, where his bride is
waiting to meet him for the first
time when he returns home next
month.
He shared with me pictures
of his new family home, and
the Hindu housewarming ritual
of having a cow be the first to
enter the home, ideally “doing its
business inside” as Mahesh said
politely, to bring good luck to the
marriage. Hotel manager Sujith
joined our conversation and said
that in his home town in India, the
cow has to enter backwards for
the luck to really last!
Within minutes of my mind in
southern India, I was transported
to the tropical island of Carabo in
the Philippines, talking with Hilda
about her childhood growing up
on this tiny exotic island with no
electricity, apart from the night
light from the moon and the
fireflies; where their toys were
found in nature; and where she
would hang off the outrigger
on the island canoe – used to
go grocery shopping on the
neighbouring, larger island
– to learn how to swim in the
crystal-clear waters, with an
empty gallon and old rope tied
around her waist as a life vest.
A childhood that was bereft of
material surplus, but absolute
paradise to Hilda and all of us
listening, and a place that is now
top of my travel bucket list after
seeing her eyes shine with delight
in describing her privileged
upbringing and recalling stories
from her childrhood. I wasn’t
actually travelling anywhere
physically but in a matter of
minutes my mind had travelled
around the world.
To fear another person for no
reason, but the air between us,
is a strange mindset we have
all had to live with throughout
the duration of this pandemic.
And I think it has become clear
to many of us, after having
been by ourselves for such a
long time,that human contact is
Clockwise,
from top left:
Celebrating
Valentine’s Day
with Viking
umbrellas on
Viking Star;
Finse and Charlie
make some new
friends; Hilda
encounters snow
for the first time
and tries on
expedition gear;
Carabo Island, in
the Philippines
68 VIKING.COM | SPRING 2021
SPRING 2021 | VIKING.COM 69