Dubai tomorrow afternoon

Lazy bones

Ok I’m going to be tacky like some people are: if my answer had been taken, we could’ve won. We all laughed about it. The question was something about what bird made Lundy Island famous? I have no idea where Lundy Island is but as I thought it through I said puffins and it was the answer. I’ve forgotten what bird we put down.

The dancers calling trivia are so cute and fun. The girls are British and the one today has the American “a” down pat. So she pronounces words using “proper English” and then says the word as we would. She’s gotten quite good.

Book listening

I finished the book on White Trash by Nancy Isenberg which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve found I can’t discuss it with just anyone as it causes some uneasiness and heavy push back from some folks. The author has generously documented her assertions including focusing you on certain pages and passages in her citations to help you see the source of the remark.

Next book: I had downloaded the Jews of Kerala (Cochin) before we left and forgot about it. I had planned to listen to it before we reached Cochin. So I’m now ambivalent about that part but fascinated by what the book is enlightening. I thought there was only one group of Jews involved: it turns out there are two: the White Jews and the black Jews. The former came from Spain during the Inquisition (thus they are Sephardic) and many migrated to Israel when it became a state. The result is that there are now only 6 left and there are 6 synagogues but the one we visited is the best and most well known. They did not allow marriage outside of their group and the result is only 3 individuals of “breeding age”. One is a woman who is in her 30s. the elders tried to force her to marry one of the only two available males, both her cousins. She refused. Her job now is to take money as people enter the synagogue we visited. I’m sorry I didn’t notice her more.

The Black Jews came here in the 13^th century and are said to be descendants of Solomon and are black. They have married with local Indians and have a thriving community across the river from Jew town.

So I’m only a little ways into it but very interesting.

Trivia

Well we didn’t pose a threat to anyone and because of time constraints, we didn’t go in the afternoon.

Pacific Princess Harmony Choir

These are all passengers and the staff member who pulls them together for this concert is a real professional. They have had maybe 10+ rehearsals and they gave us a terrific. 45 min. choral experience. Really impressive.

Columbus

Speaker discussed Chris’ voyages (four it turns out) and the difficulties he had. It’s a miracle he made it for any one of them. All the time he thought he was close to Japan or the Spice Islands.

Formal portraits

It was formal night and we did our part in the photo department. Not sure I like the top I had today. We’ll see how I feel after I see the photos.

Dinner

It’s amazing how much fun the 6 of us have. One is a stanch Republican but we chide him gently and he is a good sport. His girlfriend is definitely not and so it is even funnier.

Tonight’s show

Again, I can’t tell how great a job they do with these productions and the athleticism of those dancers is astonishing. All are around the age of my grandchildren and so cute. We area losing one of the men and gaining two in dubai so we will then be back up to the proper number of 3 males and 3 females. The two vocalists have great voices and collaborate beautifully on their pieces.

Yeah! One more hour

Yep, we roll our clocks back yet one more hour tonight so we will be 11 hrs earlier than LA at that point. I love getting extra sleep.

Weather and such

We have been travelling at a minimum of 17 knots which is a pretty good clip for this ship. We often get a strong wind and it makes it hard to open the doors but being outside with that wind is wonderful as the temp has been in the 70s. the ocean has been pretty calm.

Rumor Mill

You know we got extra time in Dubai. Our stop after that will be Aqaba Jordan so we can go to Petra. Then we begin our transit to and through the Suez Canal. Our route after Dubai takes us through areas where pirates are known to be. We’ve been through here several times before and it’s just a another part of the ocean to me.

But the rumor mill is full of conspiracy theories about the delay. My preferred and I’ll be accurate version is:

Ships going through the Suez (like most other canals around the world) get a specific date and time to begin their transit and I’d bet that determined our timing. End of National Inquirer version for today. After we are finished with our transit I’ll tell you what the ninnies are speculating. Sounds like Faux news to me.

On the Arabian Sea

HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!

The ship is decorated for this fun day and most passengers are in the flow wearing green. Patooey on those who are not.

Halfway through

Today marks exactly half way through this trip. I don’t want to think about it. This is like a summer camp for adults and the personnel are our counselors.

Dubai

This was the presentation that told us about this fascinating city. This will be our 3 trip here and it has changed considerably we are led to expect. Since we have more time, they have added a trip to Abu dhabi to the shore excursions but it is 1 ½ hrs each way and there are only 2 major sites they’ll see. So we’ll probably do the hop on hop off bus. I’m holding our first tour as a secret until we’ve done it.

Recent advances in technology

Interesting and he covered aerospace, medicine, autos, and such. We knew much of it but learned some new touches. Very interesting.

Fun lunch

We got into a discussion at lunch about some of the exotic fruits we’ve encountered on this trip. So I asked the server if he had durian, jackfruit, and mangosteen he could bring out so we could all try them. We knew they had been on board at some point. So he brought us a plate with a sampling and most did try them. The durian is the most controversial of course. It is a seasonal, large spikey fruit, found in SE Asia. It stinks much like the plant that smells like dead bodies. But people love it. Our waiter said it can increase your blood pressure (something interesting to check out).

Well some tried it by holding their noses but no one would go out of their way for it. It has a satisfying umami: custard like consistency. But the smell is ever present and very noxious.

Waking Ned Devine

One of my favorite Irish movies began on the TV at 11 am when we were at Trivia. I forgot about it afterwards and so missed it again. It is so funny. Finnian’s Rainbow is being shown in the Cabaret Lounge this pm. Not sure if I’ve ever seen it but here I am typing this instead of watching it. Ha.

We all talked about this crazy movie at dinner. Two people just saw it for the first time today so it was fresh in their minds.

Trivia

The winning team was the Irish team. The Trivia was all things Irish today. Well we weren’t awful.

Dinner

I was so looking forward to corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. No such luck. There was a boiled beef brisket and Irish lamb stew combo but I got Fettucini Alfredo instead. But I haven’t forgotten and I’ll have to find it somewhere.

Champagne waterfall

They had this in the atrium and were passing out mimosas and champagne. Oscar was in his leprechaun costume and so we had our picts taken with it. Then we visited with some of the other passengers while authentic Irish music played in the background. One lady who had taken Irish dancing classes (and probably had more champagne than she should) was doing her version of Irish dancing. It was fun anyway.

St. Patrick’s Day Party

This was upstairs in the Pacific Lounge. They do a good job of getting people involved with games that arenon-threatening. It was decorated for St. Patrick’s of course. One of the male dancers asked me to dance. I told him he’d have to teach me. He said it would be simple (it was). He is so darling. About a head taller than me, blond, muscular (I posted pics of the lifts these guys do!), 26, from the Ukraine with a sister 16. He’s danced on one of the Holland America ships too. They are all so adorable.

I may have mentioned that we have a couple with their 18 yr old son who has Down’s syndrome. He is always dressed to fit the event and his parents involve him in everything. They are soooo good with him. Well the staff have also adopted him so they make sure he’s in every contest and event. They all dance with him. He rarely sits out a dance. Very touching and speaks well for everyone involved. A really special part of this trip.

Leaving Mumbai

I’ll spare you

The details of the am wake up with the ship’s motors unfurling the mooring ropes.

It was pitch dark and hazy outside so I wasn’t able to do a panorama of the harbor. But I did get a spectacular photo of the sunrise off the promenade deck which is going to be one of my favorites.

Room service

Arrived at 6:30: I had been up for over an hour by then but was washed and almost dressed. Watched some TV to catch up a little.

Immigration check

We had to do the same routine as Cochin. Not quite sure of why but the security in India is among the tightest in the world…at least is you go by the hurdles you are put through.

Everyone is nice however and it didn’t take long. Ed got our tour tickets and we headed out as we thought there might be some vendors out there. Alas there were none but we were allowed to board the nice, comfortable, air conditioned bus and wait until our tour left.

Employment

In addition to the driver and the tour guide, there were two other younger men who were with the tour. One gave out water once and the other guided us back to the bus another time. None of us are quite sure what their real job was but this is a way that they make money from tips. At least they aren’t begging.

This excess of personnel is seen everywhere and it begins with immigration where there were so many excess personnel sitting o the side visiting. One who was down by the shore excursion desk was so bored he was reduced to reading the shore excursions for ports we had already visited.

But the metal detector routine is a laugh. You put your back pack on the machine and walk through the archway still wearing your jackets and such. The red lights go off and they wave you through anyway! The ship has it's own metal detector that would do a federal prison proud.

And we were off…

Mumbai has changed visually since we were last here 8 yrs ago. They had those horrible terrorist attacks in 2008 and they are still very much aware of them. The Taj hotel is a fortress with camo almost tank like police vehicles around it.

I saw only one person sleeping on a sidewalk; only one person tried to beg from us. Vendors were assertive but not aggressive and oppressive as they have been in the past.

I saw only two cows on the streets though we were told they were now banned in the cities. They have numerous no honking zones and the rule is ignored so they are installing lights and will be sending out tickets (they say).

The old rickety tuk tuks are now clean new looking vehicles. In Mumbia they look more like cars. In Cochin they were more redolent of the older rickshaw/cum tuk tuks of old but still newer and cleaner. One photo I got today was of a man washing down his car/taxi.

I love India

There are people who won’t go off the ship in India because they don’t want to be confronted by the poverty, trash and such. I think they have their heads in the sand and are missing a grand opportunity to learn about a different culture and people, appreciate how good we have it by comparison, and be thankful. It is a young society, active, colorful (everyone’s clothing looks so clean no matter their circumstances). Everything is fascinating.

We drove out of the port area through many detantes where the local gendarmes come on and we have to show our yellow India visitor’s card before the bus was allowed to move on.

Sign:

At gate of the port (I got a photo) saying “do not pay bribes”.

Guns

Very rare in India and only by certain police officers so one man had a rifle at the port gate.

Marina drive

We drove along this long beachside road admiring the beautiful Ali Haji mosque way out on the water. At high tide, there is no way to get there. At low tide (when we passed) there is a causeway over there. Low tide exposes many birds and much trash on the beach. They are not for swimming but some people go wading. Old wooden boats were seen everywhere looking like a ghost of centuries past.

Ghandi house

Actually it was a friend’s house who let him use it. We have been here before. They show his bedroom and have wonderful dioramas of events of his life. A large library is here. Last time we were here they were selling textiles to make money to support it but not this time.

Prince of Wales Museum

We hadn’t been inside before. It is an old ornate building from the 1900s Built to honor King George and Queen Mary. The Gate ofIndia was also built for them.

It contains much old history and archeological finds. Collections of the Tata family which owned (owns?) it and so lots of jewelry, porcelains, original art works, etc.

A school group was touring and the teacher got them together for a group photo. They were probably 7,8 yrs old, boys and girls in their little uniforms and caps. So cute. So when she began to set up the photo, I snuck up behind her and made rabbit ears. The kids burst out in howls. The second time she figured it out and high fived me. When the last shot was taken, I was doing ant antennae. Ed then took a shot of teachers with the kids. Such fun.

Taj Hotel and Gate of India

We wanted to go into the hotel and have lunch. We have done that in 2010 and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it was not to be today as the time was an issue. We also opted not to walk several blocks around to go into the Gate of India area. First of all, it has very tight security there now, there are vendors there we didn’t want to deal with, and we’d been closer to it in the past.

Shopping

This was a big bust though I did look at some tunics and a few stores with fabrics, saris, furniture and such. We were back on the bus before time. Ed wanted to go across the street and eat something as it was late and Ed is led from restaurant to restaurant by his nose and stomach. But I told him I wouldn’t eat if he did. These were not like the better hotels where I would not be concerned about picking up Deli Belly and he didn’t need to be doing that either. Plus going across these roads is a maze and not our skill.

Dhoby Wat

This is the enormous and world famous laundry of Mumbai. Look it up for a fun and astonishing story. There is a slum adjacent and so we have many pics of all of that. A train goes nearby and Ed got a good shot of people hanging out the doors as the train sped by.

In between we travelled many streets and saw the old Victoria terminal (railroad station now called by a different name) with incredible architecture. Same for the University of Mumbai and the commons area where a cricket game was in progress. There are horse race tracks as well.

The views as you go along the streets cannot be adequately described in narrative nor even pictures. You really must experience the sounds, smells, sights, tastes, and feeling of this rapidly changing and dynamic country.

We are stuck with

A 500 rupee and a 1000 rupee bill which the Prime Minister Modi decided to ban to expose money laundering. I’ve tried multiple times to exchange them and without any luck. Today there was a very long time with lots of police around. When I asked I was told it was people exchanging those bills. You must be an Indian citizen and it must be done by March 31. No luck for us. There is a guy on board who likes to buy old money so I may accost him and see what happens with this and that Hong Kong dollars that we can’t use.

Trivia

Ed didn’t go but I did and joined a nice group of folks. One of that team is a strong willed and strongly opinionated lady. There was a question about Greenland and I proposed an answer (which it turned out was correct) and she whisked around to me and said “We own Greenland.” Equally as forcefully, eyes almost bulging, I retorted: No “we” don’t. Denmark does. She seemed taken aback but when the answer I gave proved to be right (Danish is the second national language) she seemed to settle down.

We lost by one point which seems to be my fate in trivia.

Dinner

Francis and Randy and the others are back from their overland trip to the Taj Mahal and it was fun to hear all their tales about the plane process, train ride, busses, and the rickshaw ride (one lady fell out I’m told). Some of the stories of tacky behavior by self absorbed people were familiar and discouraging too.

Violinist

A pretty Korean girl on an electric violin, very talented, from Australia. At the end she revealed a surprise: she is newly married to the theatre guy we heard the other night and her parents are also travelling on board to Dubai. Some interesting music I had not heard before.

St. Paddy’s Day tomorrow

Have all my green out and ready to go.

Mumbai tomorrow

A good night’s sleep

What a relief. I think that heat just drains you.

Caught up a little on the scandals/news in US. More of the same.

Spice trade

The speaker discussed the importance of spices and how the search for them drove navigational discoveries by the Portuguese, Dutch and British. Also how and why it was dominated by the Arabs prior to these navigational findings. As an example, nutmeg requires the type of climate present in those Islands (now Indonesia). You can take plants back to your home country but they won’t grow. It was true of a lot of them.

Trivia

Just 4 of us. We missed by two points this time. As usual we had the right answer in some cases and chose a different option but we had our victories among ourselves.

The dancers get stuck with calling these trivias. On large ships, all they are required to do is to dance. On smaller ships like this one, they have multiple tasks. They are all non-Americans among a largely American passenger population so the pronunciations cause some anxiety as some of the passengers are really not nice to them. They are good about spelling the words out for us (hach for “h” causes some amusement). But these are so delightful. Ages are around 18 to early 30s.

T-shirt seen on ship

“I don’t need to use Google; my wife knows everything”

Cold weather ahead?

The ship’s boutiques are selling jackets. Makes on wonder with 90+ weather outside.

Dubai

We just got notice that we have another night in Dubai. We arrive at 1 pm on one day, have all of the next day, and leave around 2 pm the next day. We then have about 6 days at sea. Yippee on all counts.

Lunch

Ed nixed the English pub luncheon but we had a nice visit with a very adventurous, and bright couple in the dining room. One of my least favorite passengers was at the same table (complains all the time about something) but she was isolated on the other sider regaling another poor couple. Not very Christian thoughts on my part but honest nonetheless. We try  to turn all her complaints around into positives but I doubt she gets it.

La La La

This movie was shown in the Cabaret Lounge this afternoon. I left after 15 min. I’m sure we’ll see it resurrected as a play soon. But Ed stayed. I knew he would. Once a movie has started he’ll stay regardless but this is his type of movie.

Trivia

OMG we won. And with only 3 of us. And we were sure we were bombing. So few answers (2?) were we sure of. But we discussed the answers and quickly came to agreement and moved on in our uncertainty. Well son of a gun: we won with 15 right!

We played with a woman we usually have in the afternoon but I have had some dislike of working with her as she will insist on certain answers and always says “ if you had taken my answer we would have won.” She was gracious today and it was really a team effort with no egos enforced. The only comment she made was that one of her answers was right and we should have put that one down. As usual, we ignored the remark.

But when it came time to claim our “prize” I had heard that they got little keychain flashlights on board recently. She really wanted one so I took the lead and told the staff that we didn’t want any more champagne and could we have something else a flashlight if he had them. Well he brought us 3 and so she got her wish. I felt good about that. I was tempted to ask him for a full 6 (to give to our usual players  who are now on the overland to the Taj Mahal) but I didn’t. Ha

So the next day when our buddies return we have great plans for telling them how good we did without them. Ha.

Casual pics

I took my one size fits all saloon girl design T shirt for the casual pics this evening. Daisu is the photographer tonight, a very calm, shy man from Japan. It was so cute to see him getting into these shots and laughing at the results.

Dinner

Italian theme and Oscar the matre de made a special pasta dish from his region of Italy. He is such a delight. He buys all these costumes to fit the ports we are in and wears them around to each table. So funny

Bravo

Was the name of the big dance and sing production number tonight. I tell you these kids (none over 30) are amazing dancers and so athletic yet the girls are such tiny little things. And one of the male dancers left for medical reasons and they are simply filling in as if it was meant to be one less dancer.

On to Mumbai

So much to tell

And I’m sure I won’t remember half of it.

Cochin

To me India is always a vibrant, richly colored place of bright smiles, different fragrances and odors, visual delights too unique to do justice through words, and so much more.

Oh No! It’s only 4 am

But whatever awakened me, I was stuck. So I went outside on the balcony in the pitch dark and saw tiny lights in a circle all around the area I could see seemingly spaced at equal intervals on the horizon. Were they buoys? Other ships? Fishing nets? I never knew.

Then the noise began

As the men began to prepare the front of the ship for mooring. It’s still dark but I can hear the cadence of the different languages (Tagalog? English for sure) interspersed with quiet laughter.

We berthed long before sunrise and at least 20 min before the 6 am predicted time of mooring.

Our immigration face to face

We were scheduled for 7:30 am but as we have found each time, they were ready for our group around 7:10. So we gathered our passports (including India visa: mine is a 10 yr visa in my previous passport so I am carrying both of them), our immigration form, and cruise card.

There were 5 immigration officers, all very efficient: not much hob nobbing here. I had brought the 500 and 1000 rupee bills along from previous visits. In the interim, Mr. Modi, the Prime Minister, has banned these bills in an attempt to expose the black market profits. I had been following it in the news when it happened but felt helpless to do anything about it from the US as we had no place to exchange our bills. So I presented them to the immigration official and asked him if there was a way to exchange them. Basically he said “tough luck” as did the bank van outside doing money changing. So I suppose these bills, along with the two Hong Kong bills will have to have a special home at some point with someone who loves old currency.

So our passports were again surrendered (they’ll give them to the ship), our cruise card was scanned (to show we had appeared before the immigration officers) and we were given a biz card sized card that says we are OK, plus a photo copy of our photo on a land pass (not what it’s called but I’ve already forgotten it’s name) which the officer had signed and given to me.

At the end of the day this last document had to be surrendered to ship’s staff. Not sure what we’ll do in Mumbai day after tomorrow but I’ll keep you up to date.

So then it’s off to a quick breakfast.

I’m ready to get off the ship and see the vendors outside the ship. I had seen their tents at dawn and they were ready for us along with the long line of taxis, tour busses, and tuk tuks. The latter are those ubiquitous little 3 wheel scooter type conveyances that are designed to carry two people comfortably but usually cram 4 or more into them.

Well Ed has a very different idea of time than others do. So it was an hour before he joined me outside with the vendors. I was not happy as the ground is very uneven and treacherous with my vision, I can’t really make out the products, and it was so hot and humid that by this time the sweat was dripping into my eyes.

We looked into a few tents with the usual: I had to buy as I was their first customer of the day, best price for you, blahblahblah. Their prices were unbelievable. Each wanted me to promise to come back to his tent.

Tour

We had to get onto the tour bus at around 9 am, and this wonderfully airconditioned, clean, comfortable, neat motorcoach was like a  womb. Eventually 32 souls congregated with their canes, bags, and other necessaries and we were off.

Ed and I have done this tour before but we enjoyed it even more this time. Not in any order:

We walked through the neighborhood and were told about the architecture and history of buildings many of which are now many of which are now hotels (sounds like How-tles).

We saw goats wandering freely and bleeting to each other. Traffic whizzed by us at astonishing speeds. We saw ladies in colorful saris and other types of local dress. Less men wore the skirt (don’t know local name). We saw muslims as well.

Despite the trash everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, we also saw ladies diligently sweeping up leaves (go figure).

Chinese fishing nets

Yes they are still here and the fish market right next to them was very busy (and very smelly). They were working the nets but much of the fish for sale had to come from farther out: shrimp (Ed remarked on their size: very large. Birds everywhere: many crows and some herons.

Dutch Palace

This area has been under many regimes in it’s history: Moguls, Portugese (thus the large number of Christians especially Catholics), Dutch, British of course. The architecture reflects all of this.

So this building started out as the palace of the local king or raj, who never married but had a harem on site. The ceiling reflect Portugese influence with teak, stained and polished ceilings with great designs. The walls all have murals depicting the lives of the Hindu gods and Buddha is on the wall too.

As we left, I recalled that my up (too) close and personal encounter with a snake charmer occurred here when I walked up on this scene inadvertently. Didn’t take me long to get away from that! But today, no snake charmer.

Synagogue

Oldest synagogue in India. It is quite lovely with much history and is located in Jew town (not perjorative term here). There are over 1000 hand painted tiles on the floor, all different. They remined me of Delft tiles. Thus we had to wear socks to go in.

St. Francis Church

The oldest church building in India built by the Portugese Catholics. It has changed hands many times through the years and is not actually Anglican. Vasco de Gama was reported to have been buried here when he died of malaria but many years later, his sons removed his remains back to Portugal.

Then we wandered the streets for a little while looking at the wares but didn’t buy anything except sodas. Well Ed had an ice cream was wasn’t smart. The little vendor was hardly a 5 star hotel standard.

Back to the ship

I did return to one stall where they had been very kind to me in the morning, offering me a chair to sit in the shade while I waited for Ed. Their prices had come down remarkably and I got a two piece outfit, colors not quite perfectly matched but it’ll do, and off we went but not before one of the other vendors confronted me saying that I had promised to buy from him!

Getting back onto the ship

At the gate are numerous Indian police. You have to present cruise card, landing card (?), and the photocopy they stamped this am.

You go a little further along the pier and the ship’s personnel check your cruise card. Yet a little further yet, and the ship’s personnel bring you very cold wet cloths to refresh your face and hands (much appreciated and we’ve come to look forward to it in these hot climates). And then there is very cold water for you to drink. (The busses also provide water ad lib). And by this time, you have now reached yet one more Indian officer and you must present the magical paper with your photo and the stamp before you  then go up the gangway. At the end of that, you cruise card is scanned, you and your belongings go through the metal detector and scanner, and on the other side you surrender that magical piece of paper.

We were so Tired.

Shower was the first order of business. Drink more water. Rest a few minutes and cool off a little.

Heat rash

After every trip in a hot environment we both wind up with heat rash ob our back. Jeesh.

Trivia

91people are on a trip to the taj Mahal so we joined other left overs and we had fun. Again this team missed the winning number by ONE! Yeech.

Dinner

Only one other couple but we had such fun. They didn’t get their India visas in time so they can’t leave the ship. So we got the news of what the ship was like as several others chose simply not to go ashore. Many people are unwilling to be exposed to the trash or poor people and beggars. We did have a few beggars today but they were inoffensive; the vendors are much more aggressive. However, Mombai is the worst in terms of poverty being so in your face and they are often very aggressive.

I usually order a fruit plate for dessert, so Francis, our Indian waiter, brought it with Durian, that awful stinky fruit. There was a little waft of that odor, but the consistency of like a custard and many folks absolutely love it. I can pass but could see how folks could love it.

Entertainment

An Aussie [BF1] fellow who has done a lot of musical theatre. Pleasant and enjoyable senough but his voice and style are not remarkable. Still a fun evening.

So I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep!

---

 [BF1]

Cochin India early in the morning

Wanna get rid of Mom?

There was a funny discussion at the table about wanting to get away from people and the topic of parents came up. The suggestion was made to have all kids put some money together and send mom on an around the world cruise. We have many older folks, some with significant disabilities, who are travelling alone on this voyage.

In fact I guess I’m a little amazed at how many, some younger who haven’t had a vacation in years, travelling alone. The cost by the way, is 1 ½ times the cost of a person sharing with another in a cabin.

Ed is in withdrawal

We are now about 12 hours earlier than the US and thus his favorite TV shows are not available to us at a good time for watching. It’s almost funny to observe as he seems so lost (though I am enjoying the comparative silence) as he tries programs he’d otherwise never see.

A half hour. Really??

So tomorrow we are in Cochin, India and we turn our clocks back one half hour. Yes, really. So strange.

Immigration tomorrow

Unlike some other times, the Indian Immigration folks did not board at a previous port so our time for appearing before them is 7:30 am. We don’t meet with our tour until 9:15 am. Luck of the draw I guess.

Woke up today around 7

And piddled with email and FB for a while then managed to make my errands including visiting lost and found to retrieve a jacket left yesterday during trivia and which I didn’t miss until this morning. At two times, I have to be careful I don’t become a frequent flyer.

Destination lecture

Was on Mumbai this morning. It brought back memories of some of the sights and the changes since I was last here. Some of the strong recommendations for those who have never visited here:

Closed toed shoes: you don’t want to get cut or pick up nasties from the street.

NEVER eat or drink anything unless it is at a 5 star hotel. No street vendors, nothing. You’ll be very sorry we can promise you.

Don’t make eye contact unless you really want to buy. Then pay and move on quickly or you’ll have swarms of people accosting you for the rest of the day.

Carry temple socks for the many temples require barefeet or with socks.

Captain Cook: part 2

Did not know that he also explored the coast of Alaska and Kamchatka Island trying to find the NorthWest passage. However, he met his demise in Hawaii when he returned to reprovision and do reparis to the ship. So sad. So close.

Trivia

We were one of 3 teams that tied. We all got the first tie breaker right. The next question was: at what age did the dancer calling the questions this am, start dancing. It was age 3 much younger than others we have known here.

What is also amusing is that the gals have learned the long a sound of American English so they will often pronounce the words as they know them (they are English, one from Liverpool). They are getting pretty good too!

Lunch

Much discussion of favorite cities to visit, best things to do (Dubai this time), changes we have seen as we revisit different ports, “prizes” on board (lots of champagne which folks are trading for a sbetter class apparently, at the bars)

Shopping on board

I haven’t really discussed this very much but I think they suspect cold weather is in our future as the sales today featured several heavier jackets! This is especially funny because Cochin is scheduled to be over 90 degrees Fahrenheit!

Get together with Senior staff.

We are sometimes invited to these gatherings in the Library probably because of the cabin we have. It’s an opportunity to talk one on one with the staff in a smaller gathering. Tonight I found out about the salinity measurements from one of the officers. Periodically they take water samples from the side of the ship and measure the salinity just as we sometimes do specific gravity on urine in the clinics. In this case, it tells them something about the ship’s displacement in the water. Out at sea, the water is more dense and thus the ship rides higher. Near ports and especially in rivers, the density is less and the ship rides lower. This can be important to consider along with the tides to determine if your ship is OK to transit.

The chef was also there with his delights and I talked with him about toubuleh which is very hard to make on board. It’s OK for a few people but especially difficult to cut up that much parsley for 800 people.

Be lucky you don’t have this problem

There is a passenger travelling alone on this cruise. Nice looking, well enough financially, very bright, fun to be with. In other words, a really good catch.It turns out that several years ago on a cruise this person met someone of the opposite sex and in the intervening years has done a few favors for this person. Chocolate covered strawberries are being delivered to the cabin each evening.

Now it turns out that the pursuer has booked a cabin on the next leg of this journey. And not just any cabin but the one next to the pursued.

Well this is not good and so it will be interesting to see how this all works out. Our very own soap opera right here in (river) sea city.

Night view

It is a little after8 pm and I looked outside. We are surrounded by lights on the horizon at what look like equal distances. I looked on the ship’s channel and we are 87 nautical miles from Cochin going NW and between the coast and surrounding land as if through a strait. So cool.

Approaching the tip of India

Current position

We are now about 5 degrees above the equator and sailing by Sri Lanka. Many of us are remarking on how many ships we are seeing now, almost all tanker looking.

The days are almost exactly 12 night, 12 hrs day. Last night I went onto the balcony after 10 and there was a wonderful moonglow over the ship and ocean. So I started searching for the moon. It was directly above us and absolutely clear and full. There were a few clouds but they were small and in the front, not above. Such a view.

Church services

Still the same nice pastor. He talked today about keeping promises. The thought I brought away from today’s sermon is that God doesn’t have a contract with us or visa versa: it is a covenant.

I goofed

I misread the patter and I thought there was a destination lecture right after church but it was the future cruise director telling about how the cabins are placed, how to get a good one, strategies to get a good price, etc. So I stayed for most of it.

Captain Cook

The first of three lectures today. What a remarkable man in remarkable times. Many sailors still rely on his navigational charts.

Majority rules

I went up for this game late last night and sat with some people who I had never sat with before. This is a silly game with no good answers. Teams can one person to as many as you want. “winning” means you guessed the same answer as most of the other players. The questions can be provocative but one simple example is to name the best fruit. The most common answer was bananas so if your group said that you earned a point.

Indian buffet

They did their usual amazing display of culinary talent. All of the servers and greeters were dressed in Indian attire. There was a separate area where the executive chef (who is from Sri Lanka) prepared a dish with samples of some wonderful foods. That was so good; I could have done two.

The Accountant

This movie was shown in the Cabaret Lounge this afternoon. It stars Ben Affleck and isn’t really my type of movie: too much fast driving, curves, gun shots, and movie is shot in dark environments—for ambiance I suppose. But the parts relating to autism I thought were interesting and gave me food for thought.

Trivia

Didn’t win either time but had fun with team mates, and isn’t that the whole purpose of it.

Dinner

Well we closed down the dining room as usual. The food is universally good and they work very hard to make everything perfect. Our waiter who just came on board told us this evening that he and his wife are expecting their first baby after he finishes this contract in October. It was really sweet to see his face when he told us this.

Entertainment

Probably not going to see the jugglers…

Portraits

Tonight was casual portraits. We beginning to feel like models…well maybe not quite.