Now we are at sea again, having left India behind us. Three ports of call in three days meant things stood a chance of going a little astray, but more of that later.
First came Mumbai, where we had elected to do the city tour. We were fortunanate in our guide, a lady by the name of Venita, older and had a sense of humour (sometimes a bit black). Overall, our impression was of a rather dirty city, even by Indian standards, but still exciting. It was Sunday, so the shops were closed, and the streets relatively empty. This meant we could get around more easily. The Taj Hotel was a stop en route. It is functionning, but all the ground floor of the old building was still boarded up. At the other extreme was the 'hanging gardens'. This is a lovely open space, so called because it is built as the roof of the main town reservoir. The reservoir was built first in the 1800s, but unfortunately next door to the Zoarastrian Parsee funeral site. Their rites are such that the dead receive a funeral service with the last rites, then the bodies are placed on the 'Tower of Silence' to be disposed of by the carnivorous birds. Unfortunately the birds contaminated the water supplies, the city complained, and the Parsees built a cover rather than move their tower. No 'elf an safety in those days!!
We enjoyed our visit, made the more so by Venita.
The next day found us in Goa. Unfortunately, but to our advantage, the cruise ship terminal is being rebuilt, so we had to moor in the commercial port. The advantage was that we had to see quite a lot of Goa to get to where we were going. Apart from the countryside and villages we passed through, the main points of call were three churches, in the old capital ofGoa. One was built by the Italians in the early 1600s, modelled on St Peters in Rome, and is now deconsecrated. The next was the Basillica,The working cathedral, and contained frescos from the 1500s. Adam and Eve featured, but their faces were indian rather than european. The last was also a working church, dedicated to 'Bom Jesus' but very different to the other two. After another drive through the countryside, we reached the modern capital of Goa called Panjin, very much a mixture of ancient and modern. On the way there we stopped at an India government craft facility. Sue very nearly bought an outfit, but failed as the top was not really made for the 'european shaped' lady. Unfortunately they did not have her size in a colour that fitted. It was a pity, as it looked really nice on her. Compared to Mubai, this was avery clean part of the country.
Last stop was Cochin. We were really looking forward to this one as people had told us how lovely it was. However the best laid plans etc.! For a start, the ship was late on the pilot station by 45 minutes. This may not seem much, but with tight schedules it mattered. Next it took longer to moor than had been allowed. Finally, the local Indian authorities decided to be difficult. The end result was that we were one and half hours late in starting our tour. It should have finished with a harbour tour, with us being on board by 7pm. We did not start the harbour bit until 7.10pm, and finally got back to the ship at 8.15pm. We had 20 minutes harbour tour in the dark, with the local biting things having a field day on our bodies. This was certainly not Olsens finest hour.
So now we are heading for Port Klang in Malaysia, for a day out in Kuala Lumpor. This morning is hot and sunny, but with a lot of wind. About 28 knots at 9am local. The day has got of to a good start, as first time Ian has won the daily golf competition (the prize is an Olsen keyring!). Tomorrow, no doubt he will get a low or nil score, as usual. We nearly won the morning quiz as well, getting 19 out of 20 questions right. we actually got them all right, but before the marking started Ina changed one of the answers, as he was unhappy with the one put down. The old one was the correct one, so we came second and no prize. Still, there is always the afternoon quiz to play for. Another lazy day at sea.