Advertisement
Published: June 10th 2010
Friday, 4th June, Langkawi, Malaysia.
After 2 hectic days in Singapore and KL we decided to give Langkawi a miss as it bwas again, stinking hot and we were knackered, but we awoke to see our ship surrounded by some beautiful islands in a lovely cove

so around 12 midday we decided to take a short bus trip into the village and find an internet café. It was a nice surprise to find a smallish village with duty free shops, small markets and an internet café. The café cost us 2 ringits (about one Aussie dollar ) for one hour. The equivalent time on the ship would have cost
us around $54 AUD
Although it was extremely hot and steamy we wandered around the stalls and saw some great merchandise and the people were so friendly, not at all pushy like other places. We picked up a few trinkets and returned to the ship after a very pleasant interlude.
Tuesday, June 8th, Cochin, India.
After three very unseaworthy days at sea in some very nasty weather we arrived in India. The three sea days were not very nice for Lyn as she suffered from sea sickness on the first day, but after I gave her some Avamine tablets she came good.
We arrived in Cochin during the first week of their Monsoon season and had visions of it bucketing down but fortunately that didn’t happen. We set off on our guided tour after lunch and all I can really say was that it was most definitely an experience. With India now being seen as one of the Power houses of world business I was stunned at the level of poverty and squallor. We toured the Old Fort Cochin, and saw the Maharaja’s palace, the Dutch palace etc and it was all very interesting, but I could not get over the absolute sqallor of the place. Quite steamy weatherwise, but another Bali, but on a much larger scale. On the plus side the people were extremely friendly and helpful. Another day at sea then Mumbai.
Thursday, June 10th, Mumbai, India.
We awoke at 7am to see us in the city of Mumbai (old name Bombay). The first thing I saw was the old British Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes docked in the harbour as a floating Museum. This was the Carrier that was to be sold to the Australian Navy but was stopped at the outbreak of the Falklands War in 1984. The Harbour is amazing, with literally hundreds of ships waiting to enter. The view of the skyline was quite impressive as well. We were not doing our tour until 1.20pm to off to the laundry we go to do the washing whilst everyone else is off on tour. After that we had to do a ‘face to face’ interview with the Indian Immigration authorities. Have never known such a paranoid mob like the Indians. Armed soldiers on the rooftops and on the harbour landing site, surly money changers and anal public servants, still, that’s the Indians for you.
Off we go on our air conditioned coach dead on 1.20pm annd into what was described as Indias most important financial and business city, a ‘World ‘A’ class city’ alongside London, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, etc, etc. Well, Big it certainly is with a population in the city of over 14 million souls, hot and bloody humid it certainly was, but talk about noisy and chaotic. I can honestly say that I have been to many of the worlds largest and busiest cities but Mumbai is in a class of it’s own. We were absolutely gob smacked a the frenetic, kamakazi style demolition derby attitude of the drivers on the streets that seemed like an explosion of millions of ants. Traffic rules were absolutely non existent, pedestrians ans bike riders took their lives in their hands on the road, beggars in the form of little children running alongside buses in speeding traffic dodging motorbikes and taxis, pedestrian crossings and traffic lights meant nothing at all
While watching this amazing traffic situation I swore I would never again criticise the roads, traffic or pedestrians in Aussie again. We drive like absolute angels in comparison. Amongst all this chaos we were able to see some of the magnificent buildings that this wonderful city possesses. The old English colonial buildings are still intact and in use and are magnificent In their grandeur. The Railway Station is by far the most magnificent and the largest I have ever seen and we were told that over 4 million passengers a day use the rail system but even these sights paled in comparison to the absolute masses of people and traffic that whizzed around them. It would be impossible to fully describe the sight of so many people rushing around. Absolutely amazing.
Our first stop was the Ghandi Museum which was a small house that Ghandi lived in whilst in Bombay. A small dilapidated house of some three stories in a very run down area, we first had to negotiate the traffic by crossing a busy roadway and wasn’t that an experience. You literally took your life in your hands. Linda clung onto my hand like a limpet. Once inside the house it was amazing the feeling that you got. We spent a magic 30 minutes inside this place and saw the room where he spent most of his time, the bed and stool he used, the spinning wheel and many of his worldly goods spread around the floor. There were many photos and articles as well as historical documents relating to this great man. I could have spent many more hours here, it was fantastic. Outside we were once again accosted by the street sellers plying their goods and they were kjust as aggressive as those in Bali.
Off we went again, this time to the main Dhoby area of Mumbai, this is the public washing area for clothes where hundreds of people wash their clothes in stone tubs and then beat them on rocks. An amazing sight. Unfortunately this was where Linda saw something that upset her. One of the main probems in Mumbai is the amount of poverty here and the movie ‘Slumdog millionaire’ gives a good demonstration of how the poor live in the slums of Mumbai. A by product of this is the professional beggars that line almost every street. These beggars usually take the form of Mothers and young girls of around 7 or 8 years of age carrying small 1 and 2 year old children on their hips begging for money. They can be really aggressive and the sight of these little ones really got to Linda. Of course that is exactly what they are meant to do.
After a tour of the city we then went to the Prince of wales museum which again was well worth it. Many of the exhibits were from the 300 years to 400 years BC era and it was a fantastic presentation (but bloody hot and humid inside). The most amazing thing for us though was the insight into the caste system still in use in India. It was blindingly obvious that at trhe very top of the tree were the Brahmans, the millionaires who lived in palatial homes alongside the lower castes in the middle class flats and the low caste slum dwellers who were literally living in cardboard, wood and tin hovels, the rolls Royces, Porsch’s and Mercedes driving alongside the cows and carts, scooters and pushbikes of the poorer and the slum dwellers begging and sleeping on the streets. This is the business and financial capital city of one the the emerging international powerhouses of the world we are told, but it was extremely difficult to believe that when we say the vast chasm between the rich and the devastatingly poor of Mumbai. The contrasts were so blindingly obvious.
After a really good and interesting day we returned to our home away from home truly knackered, but after a good shower and a meal we are ready to tackle our next port of call in 2 days time which is Muscat in Oman but I don‘t think we will ever forget the sites we saw in this weird and wonderful city.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.287s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 12; qc: 50; dbt: 0.099s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
hey sarge, are you trying to convince yourself that you are having a good time?