MUMBAI/BOMBAY and TAJ MAHAL, INDIA

MUMBAI/BOMBAY, INDIA
On our way to the airport in Mumbai to fly to the Taj Mahal we drove through the absolutely worst slums I've ever seen! I couldn't ever imagine such squalor! It was very early morning, and we were traveling pretty fast in the bus so most of my pictures are blurred, but you can see the kind of hovel (if they were lucky enough to have one!) they live in ... just tar paper, tarps, rags, cardboard, whatever, and filth and garbage everywhere. We saw naked men and children trying to bathe from buckets of water, or puddles on the side of the street; people just urinating whenever they needed to go; bodies sleeping on concrete or asphalt, on piles of rubble, some might have had a blanket to lay on or cover up with .... I can't describe the poverty! Women were walking towards a muddy creek carrying dirty plastic bottles and jugs to get water, probably for cooking. There were small open fires where they were trying to cook something. Dogs, goats and cows roam freely in the streets, scavenging for food in the garbage everywhere. There doesn't seem to be a plan for housing or commercial areas, and there are entire blocks of these lean-to shelters next to shop buildings that were a little sturdier, but unpainted or stucco falling off, next to more modern office buildings. In general there doesn't seem to be any pride of ownership or money or desire for repairs.

The next day we were driven through other parts of the city that looked a little better, but still with great contrasts in architecture and maintenance. There didn’t appear to be any neighborhoods with homes and gardens, just lots of apartment buildings in various stages of disrepair. Of course there are many interesting places, but almost everything we saw was just plain neglected. The only place that I could see that got any attention was the Taj Mahal. We drove by Chowpatty Beach on Marine Drive, stopped at Ghandi’s house, the Price of Wales Museum, drove past Victoria terminus, stopped briefly at the Dhobi Ghats the most incredible outdoor laundry where only men do the washing, beating the clothes on the concrete, then hanging them on lines where the whites sparkle in the sun! The women work below these cubicles doing the ironing using old fashioned irons heated on charcoal coals. The finished laundry is delivered by bicycle!

Traffic is unbelievable! Our tour guide said that their roads are very democratic in that they’re shared by animals, bicycles, horse driven carts, motorbikes, cars and buses. The divider is imaginary, and stoplights are for decoration only! It’s amazing that we lived through some of our drives!! We could reach out and touch drivers in the next car.
Security is especially visible since the attacks in November last year. We walked past the Leopold Cafe (located on the street behind the hotel) where the terrorists had coffee just before they bombed the Taj Mahal Hotel. We had lunch at the Taj Mahal Hotel near the Gate of India, and it's been completely rebuilt and there's no trace of the wreckage ... But we had to go through 3 different security checks before we got into the lobby!
The whole city was hot, smelly, filthy, overcrowded, poor -- I don't think we'll ever come back.


TAJ MAHAL and AGRA
The Taj Mahal was breathtaking! It was completed in 1631 and it took 20,000 workers 22 years to build as a love memorial to the Empress of India by her husband after her death in giving birth to their 14th child …. It is a ‘Dream in White Marble’ with millions of semiprecious stones inlaid into it in beautiful floral patterns. We kept pinching ourselves to confirm that we were really at this Wonder of the World! We also visited The Agra Fort, made of red sandstone, which Shah Jahan enlarged and updated while the Taj was being built, incorporating marble and inlays. He was later imprisoned here by his son, and watched the completion of the Taj Mahal from his bedroom window. What a tragic love story! Near the entry, monkeys are fed regularly by their keepers, but roam freely in one area of the outer gardens of the Agra palace.

Before our visit to the Taj we were treated to a wonderful Indian buffet luncheon -- but unfortunately most of the delicious smelling dishes were too spicy for us to eat! However, we thoroughly enjoyed experiencing these wonderful examples of India’s history and culture.

COCHIN, INDIA

COCHIN, INDIA

The mysterious sub continent of India …. Our first impression was not the best.
We found it to be hot, dirty, crowded, smelly and poor, with beggars and vendors swarming all over us every time we stepped out of our cab! Very depressing!

At the southwest tip on the Arabian Sea, it is one of the most densely populated areas of India. It has a very good port, has a naval base and shipbuilding industry and is the primary training center for the Indian Navy.

After being greeted at the gangway by a band and group of male dancers, we hired a taxi for four hours and had him drive us to the various places of interest (the air conditioning, of course, didn't work!). His English was not very good but he seemed to know exactly where he should take us. The trip, however, was quite exciting, as they drive on “the proper side of the street” and there don’t appear to be many rules of the road -- lots of motorbikes, cars, buses, pedestrians and goats! We saw several churches (St. Francis Church and Santa Cruz Basilica and small local churches) which were having services because it was Sunday morning, the ancient Chinese fishing nets which date back to the days of Kublai Khan, a filthy beach where only men and one small girl about 6 years old were bathing, the old Dutch cemetery, the Children’s Park, the old Jewish quarter, goats freely roaming the streets and overgrown lots, and lots and lots of handicrafts shops … the merchandise was all the same and we thought it was pretty high priced for the quality. We enjoyed browsing through a spice shop, trying to identify all the unusual herbs and spices on display.

We returned to the ship to cool off and have a late lunch, after which Stela and I ventured off in a ‘tuk tuk’ (a 3-wheeled mini car seating 2 passengers) to a lovely hotel on the ocean, the Taj Malabar where we relaxed in the gardens, admired a beautiful Mumbai registered private yacht moored there and enjoyed a local beer and gin and tonic made with local gin (no ice cubes, thank you!!).

Although we didn’t get to the nearest city, we could see high rise buildings on the distant skyline. We also saw many western style hotels along the shore as we sailed away on our way to Mumbai/Bombay. So much for our introduction to India!

PHUKET, THAILAND

PHUKET, THAILAND
We chose to spend our day in Phuket visiting the Siam Elephant Safari compound. On our way there we were treated to a panoramic view of the island giving us an idea of the many beautiful beaches that attract so many visitors to this paradise. As we drove through the town we were surprised by the number of small alters to Buddha we saw everywhere at the sides of the road in front of shops, vendor’s stalls and restaurants -- even our bus driver had a tiny Buddha with small offerings of nuts and flowers on a shelf beside him! Transportation was about equally divided between cars and motorbikes and the streets were quite clean. How this young man delivered his cargo of stuffed animals without a mishap is a mystery!

But back to our adventure! When we arrived our first activity was a short trek through the jungle of rubber trees to see how the trees are tapped, the liquid latex collected in cups and then processed into sheets of flexible rubber that is sold to manufacturers for various products like tires, shoes, household items etc. Much to our surprise, rubber trees look nothing like our potted rubber plants, but look more like tall birch trees.

Next we were introduced to several monkeys in various stages in their training. They demonstrated their physical fitness routine by doing pushups and sit ups, scrambling up poles and ropes to bunches of coconuts they were to pick -- it was interesting to see them use their front and back feet to spin the coconut until it was loose and they could push it down. They also rode a bicycle, took bills from us and gave us a gift in return, dove into a pool to retrieve an object (monkeys don’t like the water) and even correctly selected a number we called out from several lying face down on the ground!

The gods must have decided that we were enjoying ourselves too much and again sent torrential rains to dampen (rather soak!!) our ride on the ox driven carts. No photos of this one!
Preparation of a curried chicken cashew rice stir fry was demonstrated and then served as our lunch. Then, the highlight of our day -- the elephant ride! Each elephant had a metal seat for two people with a single loose seat belt for security. We climbed up a high platform to load and we were off! Our elephant was 35 years old and had freckled pink areas on its ears and trunk. He lumbered slowly through the jungle, up and down various trails and we rocked back and forth and slid forward and back as he moved. Our ‘driver’ joined our cries of, “Oh my God!” whenever we felt that we were going to slide forward off of our seat all the way to his ears! What a fun experience!

We were sorry that we didn’t have enough time to travel to the other side of the island to relax on the beach at one of the 5-star hotels, but certainly wouldn’t have missed our unique excursion! However, we did have time to shop at the stalls on the pier before boarding the ship.

So ends our South East Asia chapter.

SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE

NOTE: We’ve just passed the halfway point of our Grand Voyage, and have traveled approximately 20,000 land miles! Pictures are large files and difficult to upload, so I’ll add them to past entries as reception conditions improve.
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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE

What a city! It may be a “fine” city (they fine people for everything -- spitting on the sidewalk, littering, chewing gum, underage smoking etc. etc., with lots of rules) but we loved it! I’ve never been to a city like it -- the first impression is that it’s sparkling clean and everything is well maintained, with all the silver white, glass and steel modern skyscrapers reflecting the sun. We didn’t see any slums, or any policemen -- they don’t wear uniforms so are virtually invisible. The people were well dressed, friendly and looked happy -- and their English was good!

On the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore is an island country, the smallest in southeast Asia, with the highest standard of living in Asia. 83% of the people live in government constructed housing and half of them use public transportation which keeps the pollution levels below the world health organization standards. It truly is a first world (and first class) country surrounded by third world countries.

The symbol of Singapore is the Merlion (Lion City) -- the head of a lion and the body of a fish and symbolizes commerce. We didn’t see the large concrete Merlion that greets visitors in the harbor because it had just been struck by lightning and the top of its head had been damaged so was covered with a tarp. They speak English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil, often mixed together as “Singlish.”

It is a city originally planned by Governor Raffles, who first arrived there in 1819, laid out in an orderly fashion, with defined ethnic neighborhoods -- there is an Arab town, Chinatown and Little India, the British administration area and low income subsidized housing as well as the larger homes of the affluent residents. Ten per cent of the land has been set aside for parks, and most of the streets are beautifully canopied by old growth trees. The city/country has been reclaiming land for several years so there are no natural beaches -- their recreation area is Sentosa Island, a small island accessible by gondolas (the world’s longest traveling over water), by monorail or by bridge and offers beaches, an amusement park, golf course, flower gardens and resort hotels. The island was brightly lit and alive with young people in the evening when we stopped in for a brief visit.

The National Orchid Garden is stunning! It’s the world’s largest collection of orchids. I never realized there were so many sizes, shapes and colors! The Vanda Miss Joaquim hybrid orchid was selected as the national flower of Singapore in 1981. We thoroughly enjoyed admiring these beautiful gardens! However, our stops in Arab Town to see the mosque, and in Chinatown to see the temple, were marred by a heavy tropical downpour so we were disappointed that we couldn’t explore them further. When it rains in the tropics, it really rains, flooding the streets almost instantly!!

My goal to see the fabled Raffles Hotel was finally realized! It is much larger than I had imagined, with extremely high ceilings and wide verandahs, walkways and atriums. The uniformed doorman alone was worth the trip! We had lunch in the deli and then went upstairs to the famous ‘Long Bar’ for our long anticipated Singapore Slings. What a treat! They pour Gordon’s gin, and are the world’s largest consumer at 55 bottles/day …



Other memorable images of Singapore were the three wheeled cyclo taxis, the prickly ‘durian fruit’ (or eyeball) shaped convention center buildings, the signs warning of the fines for disobeying rules, the fan-shaped travelers’ palms which supposedly grow east to west and collect water at the tips of their leaves, and the eastern style rest rooms. A great city I’d love to come back to visit!

NHA TRANG, VIETNAM and KEMAMAN, MALAYSIA

NHA TRANG, VIETNAM and KEMAMAN, MALAYSIA

Another third world country! They are working very hard to become an international tourist destination -- many Vietnamese tourists and backpackers have already discovered the miles of beautiful beaches and excellent scuba diving. There is a lovely resort, Vinpearl, on an island across the bay which, surprisingly, is reached by a high gondola or water taxis.

There are all kinds of hotels ranging from large 5-star hotels down to small family run rooms. It’s basically a very poor country with few cars but hundreds of motorbikes. Most of the families had a few chickens, vegetable and small rice gardens and possibly a cow or pig. They were pretty much self sustaining. We saw very few dogs and cats.

Our first impression of the people was not very favorable. A long line of beautifully dressed young ladies holding bouquets of flowers stood at the bottom of the gangway to greet us, but there wasn’t a single smile! They didn’t seem happy to be there, and barely tolerated us standing to take pictures with them. The vendors at the stalls set up for our souvenir shopping were not very friendly, unlike most of the other ports, and were very hard, tough bargainers.
But the day was not a loss. We took a tour through the countryside -- which turned out to be an extension of the village. We visited a family who made mats and the entire family including grandparents and children were all involved. They worked on the dirt floor, spinning the straw, cutting it into lengths which were dyed different colors, threading the branch used as a shuttle, by hand, piece by piece, and weaving it into fabric.

Our stop at the kindergarden was delightful. The children are 3 to 5 years old and attend for 3 years. They stay for the whole day, getting lunch and a nap, and have classrooms equipped with musical instruments, ballet barres, and tables and chairs for art and general instruction. Outside beside the playground, is a small garden which teaches them how to attend to growing rice and other vegetables.

The local market had many interesting fruits and vegetables that were difficult to identify, but food was plentiful. The meat and fish markets, however, were displayed uncovered and unrefrigerated, in the open air…

After viewing a typical pagoda with its buddhas and tiny plates of offerings of flowers, fruit or nuts, we were invited to go through a typical family home. Their homes and temples have three doors -- the center one is used for special festivals and events, the left door is for guests and the right is for the family. Inside they had shrines to their ancestors (grandparents are revered) and a small sitting room for guests -- with a TV! Passing through to the living quarters we found a single large kitchen with a dirt floor and two small charcoal burners for cooking. The adjoining open room held a dining table and there were two alcoves with beds covered with mosquito nets. There were no mattresses, just straw mats, because of the heat and humidity. Again, there were few smiles, but they seemed comfortable with us going through their home.

Vietnam is a narrow ‘S’-shaped country in the South China Sea just west of China, and has miles of coastline. The interior is very rugged and covered in dense jungle with few roads, so rivers are important for transportation. A railroad connects the towns and villages along the coast. There is some oil now, but fishing and agriculture are the main occupations of this poor country. Multicolored fishing boats can be seen everywhere, along with single passenger round boats.




KEMAMAN, MALAYSIA
The acrid smell of crude oil woke us even before the ship was docked and we saw the oil rigs busy at work in the harbor. It was not a pretty pier, but the people tried to make us feel welcome by putting on a dance show at the pier, and inviting us to participate with them. The people here appeared to be better off than in Vietnam, and seemed to be happier, but it’s still a third world country.

We drove into the village and shopped at a small local market for souvenirs and handicrafts but there was little to choose from. There were many more cars here than in Vietnam.

This was once the home of the giant leatherback sea turtle -- they can grow up to 2000 lbs. and it doesn’t have a hard shell and can’t pull its appendages inside for protection -- but their eggs became such a delicacy that the species was declared extinct in the area in 2004. A Turtle Sanctuary and conservation center has been established to try to lure them back to nest here again.

We were caught in a tropical downpour and high winds, got soaked to the skin, and had to hurry back to the ship, so our impressions of this part of Malaysia are not the best. Most of the development and beaches are on the other side of the country.