India

THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA

Chinai

It has been said that India is less a country than a continent, and it holds as many variations in religion, language, customs, art and cuisine as it does in Topography. India is bordered at the top with the Himalayan Mountains, but also has deserts and rice paddies. The country has 5 major nations, is 1/3 the size of the U.S. and has over 4 times the population of the U. S. It is an agriculture country growing, rice, tea, cotton, sugarcane and potatoes. They export milk, cashews, coconuts and spices. There are 300 million cows which are sacred, they even have a home for old cows, they are never eaten or killed.

Religion is 83% Hindu, 12% Islam with some Christians and Jews. When we entered temples or mosques we removed our shoes. We were told to keep shoulders, thighs and midriff covered and ladies had to cover their heads.

The Indians do outside what we do inside, cooking, sleeping and washing clothes. We will post some pictures showing some of the poorest dwellings. Many of these dwellings were across from the Marina Beach which is 7.5 miles long. Some of the poor lived on the beach. In this area we saw the signs of Tsunami, the deterioration of the buildings was still evident. In 2004, over 1,000 people were killed.

We were warned about the excessive heat, traffic, beggars and the hassles. When we disembarked, the dock had some icky black substance that stuck to our feet and tracked into the bus. Those who visited temples, removed their shoes, then found themselves walking through residue. They had to throw their socks away. Our neighbor said he got up in the middle of the night to clean his shoes because the smell was so bad.

We were still unprepared for the culture shock. The traffic was unbelievable , we marveled that there were not more accidents. We spent most of our time in the air conditioned coach on our tour. We stopped only once for some shopping. This was in an upscale store where we were met at the door and followed all through the store. The tour busses that drove closer to the temples for a visit ended up being delayed by traffic. One bus tried to go close to a church, found the street barricaded and were stuck there for an hour. Things that stood out were the decay of the buildings, trash everywhere, dirt sidewalks and lack of maintenance everywhere. The port was the dirtiest we have visited and was most unorganized. Due to poor planning the busses were unable to leave the port, with vehicles trying to go all directions with continual horn honking. (See the jammed up busses in a posted picture.

3-16-08 Mumbai, India, Population 18 million formerly Bombay

We were up at 5:30 and ready to go through the immigration procedure at 6:30. The procedure was efficient unlike Chinai. Also different from Chinai, the deck was clean even though it appeared to lack paint and maintenance.

We were standing on our deck waiting to be called for our tour when we saw the ambulance pull up. A passenger a few cabins from us had died. He is the second death since departure and younger than most of us. The average age on ship is 75. He was very heavy and diabetic. He was cremated in Mumbai and his wife picked up the ashes and continued the cruise.

Our tour was the highlights of Mumbai, starting with city’s most famous landmark the Gateway of India archway, built in 1911. See the picture that is posted. Tourists were walking around in a large area. A little boy with a snotty nose and filthy, 4 or 5 years old attached himself to Jack’s trousers, pointing at his mouth. You feel like crying for them, but we had been warned that if we give to one we will soon have a crowd around us. When our bus stopped anywhere, the beggars and people peddling approached even in traffic. Our tour director told us some of the children were abandoned. They sometimes leave girl babies on the street. Fifty percent of the population, 18 million, are below the poverty level. The population is more than that of our three largest cities in the United States combined.

We visited the Prince of Wales Museum, but the most interesting was a museum which is a memorial to the famous leader of non-violent cooperation, Mahatma Gandhi., There were dioramas of the pivotal points of Gandhi’s life. We will post an example picture. Another colorful photo opportunity was the dhobi ghats, where laundry from all over Mumbai is brought to be soaped soaked, boiled and beaten. It looked like the way they were beating the clothing, the buttons and any trim would be ruined. The workers stand in the water in tubs and hit the clothing with sticks or beat on the sides of the tubs. (See picture)

The Victoria Terminus railway station is a conglomeration of domes, spires and columns. The first train in India left from this station in 1853; now, half a million commuters pass through the station every day.

Our tour bus continued on to the Hanging Gardens which was adjacent to seven towers called The Towers of Silence. According to our tour guide and other information we read, when the people die, they are placed in the towers for the vultures to devour. The bones are usually picked clean in 4 to 5 hours, the bones are ground and returned to the earth, body fluids are drained into filters so they can be reused. However; this is not happening as much today because of a shortage of vultures. The vultures were eating animals which had consumed pesticides and are dying off.

Day 2 at Mumbai (Bombay)

Paul Phelps a friend and the two of us walked to the gate to find a cab. Both guys had trouble folding their long legs into the small Fiat cab. We asked to be taken to the Crawford Market, but the driver suggested another. He took us through parts of town that were not pretty. Some shacks with piles of trash were sandwiched between shops. We didn’t like any place he showed us, so he took us to Crawford Market and didn’t charge us more, only $5.00.

Crawford Market goes for many blocks and has everything imaginable, even monkeys. We didn’t go to the pet area as we were told it could be very disturbing. This market was next to the Thieves Market. It is joked that what is for sale there has been stolen. Upon arriving at the market, we were assigned a guide who could take us where we could find what we were interested in. He also helped us cross the street which was quite a challenge. We found a nice place for shirts , drugstore and a place to buy decorative pillow covers.

We’ve had multiple notes since we left reminding us to turn our clocks back an hour, but we were surprised that the last two time changes have been in 30 minute increments. Today as we leave India for Oman we set our clock back 30 minutes. We are now 13 hours ahead of central time in the U.S.

We have included a picture of a cooking demonstration which was presented on a sea day. The last two demos have been on Indian cooking and mostly vegetarian. We have many new recipes to take home and try.