CanadaOntarioCollingwood44°30’10” N 80°13’2” W
November 27, 2023 in Canada ⋅ 🌬 0 °C
Thursday November 27-28. Collingwood to Toronto to Dubai.
Our planning for this trip, included, among other things, applying for e-Visas for India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, each of them being very complicated and time consuming. We received the the visas for Sri Lanka and Indonesia on a timely basis but almost to the day that we filed for the India visa, Sept 21st, the Indian government cancelled its processing of all visas to India in retaliation for the Canadian government claiming that India had been part of political interference resulting in the death of Hardeep Sing Nijjar, a noted Sikh separatist, living in British Columbia. We needed these vias to be able to get off the ship for our 5 different ports in India, so we could only wait, with baited breath, hoping that they would resume the processing before we left. They did, but only three days before we boarded the plane for Dubai. We had little choice but to file again and hope they would be approved before we were due to be in India in 6 days.
So after that, the anxiously awaited departure day finally arrived and Swatty picked us and Peter and Heather up at about at 3:30pm, a bit earlier than planned, to avoid a possible snowstorm. Thank heavens, Peter's diligence discovered that, had we not contacted Swatty before, he would’ve picked us up one day late. Good work Peter.
Following an aggressive drive to the airport we checked in and because our package with Regent included Business Class, we were able to relax and enjoy a few drinks and a bit of a snack in the Maple Leaf Lounge while we waited for our boarding announcement. Once on the plane and settled into our pods, we were quite giddy with the luxury of it all, having never flown business class before. The pods allowed us to recline our seats to a fully flat position. Unfortunately, due to some cockpit mechanical issues we were delayed for about 1 ½ hours before takeoff. The service, drinks, and the meals were excellent and the flight, while a bit bumpy at times, was otherwise as smooth as silk. Two of the pictures below, show us flying over Turkey with snow capped mountains and Mount Ararat in the distance at 16,853 ft
Because of our delayed departure, our arrival time was about two hours later than planned, but the transportation from the airport in Dubai to the hotel was efficient. Our hotel, The JW Marriott, is ultra-modern and is the highest twin tower hotel in the world topping out at 72 floors, with 1600 rooms. We were on the 53rd floor with a lovely view over one of the canals.
We had just enough time to have a quick bite to eat before the restaurant closed.
We fell into bed at 12:30am to ready ourselves for our first tour the next day at 8:30 AM.Read more
United Arab EmiratesDubai25°15’55” N 55°17’33” E
November 29, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Wednesday November 29 Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia. It is located at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula and shares land borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia, while also having maritime borders in the Persian Gulf with Qatar and Iran. Abu Dhabi is the country's capital, while Dubai, the most populous city, is an international hub.
The United Arab Emirates is an elective monarchy formed from a federation of seven Emirates, consisting of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain. Each emirate is an absolute monarchy governed by a ruler, and together the rulers form the Federal Supreme Council, the highest executive and legislative body. The Federal Supreme Council elects a president and two vice presidents from among their members; as of 14 May 2023, the president is Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
As of 2023, the UAE has an estimated population of 9.97 million. Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language. The United Arab Emirates' oil and natural gas reserves are the world's sixth and seventh-largest, respectively. Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the country's first president, oversaw the development of the Emirates by investing oil revenues into healthcare, education, and infrastructure. In the 21st century, the UAE has become less reliant on oil and gas and is economically focusing on tourism and business. The UAE is a member of the United Nations, OPEC and the World Trade Organization.
First day in Dubai
Because Dubai is 13 hours ahead of Toronto time, plus the 13-hour flight, our calendar was advanced by one day. Our breakfast this morning was quite rushed because it was served in a large, spread out restaurant with six different food stations. It was confusing just to find what you want to eat, let alone how to find your way back to the table.
Our first stop at the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, the first universal museum in the Arab world, was approximately a 2 hour drive from the hotel. As we left the ultra-modern high rises of Dubai, and headed towards Abu Dhabi, the scenery changed dramatically into great expanses of desert. The highways are straight and smooth, and the speed limit is 140 K for cars but lower for trucks. In previous years, there were so many accidents on the highway due to camels crossing back-and-forth, they erected fences along the entire length. Not just normal fences, but very ornate, which attested to the riches of the Emirates. We saw some domestic white, one hump, dromedary camels in the distance.
As we got closer to Abu Dhabi, the landscape turned decidedly greener. The king of Abu Dhabi had a vision of a green city and ordered that tens of thousands of trees be planted all of which needed to be watered. This required constructing massive desalinization plants to irrigate the trees because there is no rain, virtually none, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi all year round.
The drive was quite pleasant. Because of strict traffic surveillance and stiff penalties for drivers who break the rules, everybody drives courteously and safely. There is very little horn honking.
Everything in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is over the top, seemingly without limits in extravagance. They have a number of large theme parks just outside Abu Dhabi, one of which has a roller coaster ride that reaches 240km/hr. There is a Warner Brothers Theme Park and a racehorse track. They also have a Formula One racetrack, thanks largely to the encouragement of the German Formula One race driver Michael Schumacher, who, in return for his involvement now has a 7 million residence in the Jumeirah Beaches.
They even have camel races, and we wish that we had the chance to see one of the races. Even though we didn’t, the spectacle is so interesting, here is some information about the races.
-Camel racing is a huge sporting event. UAE has 15 camel racetracks situated throughout the country. The name of the one in Abu Dhabi is Al Wathba
- Winners of the camel race can win cars and cash rewards up to 1 million USD.
-Ancient camel racing that was practiced by the Bedouins used small boys as jockeys. These boys were flown in from Pakistan or India but as time went on Human Rights groups pressured against this practice as it was regarded as a form of child labor. Since the year 2005, robots, that are equipped with whips, are used to control the camels. The camel owner follows on a 4x4 vehicle, controlling their camel with the help of the robot jockey and voicing out commands through the speaker attached to the robot. The whip is controlled by the owner with the help of a remote control.
-Racing camels are worth anywhere between $750,000 USD to $1,635,000 USD, with the highest recorded sale of a racing camel going at $9,530,000 USD.
Other Interesting facts about Dubai/UAE
-40% of the population of Dubai Is of Indian descent.
-there is 0% interest rate.
-there is 0% income tax.
-education and medical treatments are free.
-there is mandatory four year conscription for men because the King feels it is important for them to realize what others had given before them and it also gives them four years of additional education to help them learn good English.
-there are 200 islands in Abu Dhabi
-alcohol consumption is OK for tourists and non-Muslims
-the mandatory retirement age is 60 years of age
-bus stops on all the streets are air-conditioned
-The incredible wealth of the emirates began in the 1960s but when oil supplies started to diminish, they realized they had to replace that revenue with something else and turned to tourism and commerce. Today, oil accounts for only one percent of their GDP.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( born 15 July 1949) is an Emirati politician and royal, is the current ruler of Dubai, serving as the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defense of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A billionaire, Mohammed generates most of his income from real estate and is described as one of the world's most prominent real estate developers. However, one source of information noted that there is a "blurred line" between the assets of the government of Dubai and those of the ruling Al Maktoum family. Land which is owned by him is managed as an asset of the state. He oversaw the growth of Dubai into a global city, as well as the launch of a number of government-owned enterprises including Emirates Airline, DP World, and the Jumeirah Group. Mohammed has overseen the development of certain projects in Dubai, such as the Palm Islands and the Burj Al Arab hotel, as well as Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
-And check this out. He also has 26 children from different wives
The Louvre in Abu Dhabi was made possible by cooperation with the Louvre in Paris, and they have been given the opportunity to display art, statues, and artefacts until 2030. The building itself is expansive, with a grey, lace like, multi layered dome covering the roof.
The building is surrounded by the ocean with large exhibition rooms linked together by glass windows, overlooking the bright and shiny water areas.
It is quite incredible to see the wide variety of items dating back 5000 or 6000 years BC up to art and crafts from the modern age. They even have a children’s museum which is a very interactive section that allows the children to get involved in hands-on digital experiences.
Following our visit, we had a short bus ride to the ocean resort Conrad Hotel with magnificent beaches and swimming pools where we had lunch.
After lunch we headed back to Dubai for a visit to the world famous Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. While the dress code was relaxed for men, it was more rigid for women who were required to wear head scarves, no white or risque clothing and no short sleeve shirts.
The access to the mosque was via a long, underground tunnel, more like an underground mall, that sold every type of replica and souvenir imaginable.The mosque covers an area of 30 acres, not including the extensive landscaping, and is the largest mosque in the country. It has 82 domes reaching as high as 350 feet. The main prayer hall accommodates 7000 people and two other smaller prayer halls each hold 1500 people. The large Carpet Hall has a carpet considered to be the world's largest carpet made by Iran's Carpet Company and designed by Iranian artist Ali Khaliqi. This carpet measures 60,570 sq ft, and was made by 1,200-1,300 carpet knotters. It weighs 35 tons, contains 2,200,000 knots, and took two years to make. The total capacity of the mosque is 41,000 people and as might be expected for Dubai, the mosque claims to be the largest marble mosaic in the world.
The trip back to the hotel was very long due to extensive traffic,
As we got closer to Dubai the highway turned into six lanes for the express lane +3 lanes for the collector lane going each way so there was a massive amount of traffic. We arrived back as tired travellers after the 12 hour outing, and with very little appetite. However, we took advantage of another of the 12 Restaurants in the hotel, to have a glass of wine and a light dinner. Before packing it in for the night, Lee and I went up to the 68th floor to check out the fine dining restaurant with 360° views of the city and then up one additional floor to The Vault, which is a bar and cigar room with 360° views as well .Read more
United Arab EmiratesDubai25°15’55” N 55°17’33” E
November 30, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Our day started out particularly well as we all received, with great relief, our e-visas for India on our cell phones.
Today's tour started at 9:30am with a visit to the old section of Dubai to browse through Arabic-style Souks. Souks are groups of stalls and stores arranged by commodity selling everything from A to Z.
Along the way, we saw an estimated 50, very rustic, blue painted ships, if you could call them ships. They carry mostly used articles from Dubai to Iran, for resale, taking approx. 6 hrs. They look so old and dilapitated and are stacked so high, you would think that a sneeze would blow them over.
At the Spice Souk they sold an abundance of spices, dried fruits and nuts, in a wonderfully fragrant and lively setting. The Gold Souk is devoted solely to jewelers, and although gold is the prominent precious metal, platinum, silver, and diamond jewelry are also sold. And then there is the Textile Souk, and the Perfume Souk, all with countless stalls.
We started off in the Spice Souk and had a great presentation about the variety of spices that they sold. One of the things they demonstrated was how menthol can be used to help clear the nasal passages. They put one small crystal on a burning coal and came around the store, waving their hand over the rising fumes. It just about knocked your head off, all of this from just one crystal, but it sure cleared the nostrils. During our free time roaming through the maze of stores and cubicles, Lee, in her glory of the barganing process, beat up several of the vendors and ended up with a lovely pair of pants and some cute leather shoes. We finally returned to the first spice store and purchased some saffron, hibiscus leaves (to make tea ) and some colourful ceramic bowls.
Back to the hotel, to freshen up and get ready for a sunset dinner cruise with stunning views of Dubai lit up at night.Read more
United Arab EmiratesDubaiAsh ShindaghahMīnā’ Rāshid25°16’32” N 55°16’54” E
December 1, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Tour of Dubai and board our ship, Navigator at 6:00pm
For our first tour, we drove approximately 45 minutes to the Palm Island Resort. Along the way, we saw the Museum of the Future, a landmark devoted to innovative and futuristic ideologies. Located in the financial district of Dubai, the museum is a torus-shaped building (torus is a donut shape rotated in a certain way, on a certain axis) with windows in the form of a poem about the future, written by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai. The Museum takes you on a journey to the year 2071. With seven floors in total, the museum dedicates five of its floors to exhibits based on different themes. The tree-shaped Palm Jumeirah Island is known for glitzy hotels, posh apartment towers and upmarket global restaurants. Food trucks offering snacks like shawarma dot the Palm Jumeirah Boardwalk, popular for its views of the Dubai coastline and the iconic, ship and sail shaped Burj Al Arab hotel. From the air, this man-made commercial and residential complex looks like the trunk of a palm tree with branches reaching out on either side. The trunk is 1 kilometer long and there are 17 branches. There are 11 km of walking trails and two enormous hotels one of which is a virtual model of Atlantis in the Bahamas. It has 1530 rooms but no casino. During the drive-through, the symmetry was not at all noticeable and turned out to be not very exciting, However as pictured from above, it is remarkably creative.
The next part of the tour was really exciting. We visited the tallest building in the world called the Burj Khalifa that is 2,722 ft high (compared to the CN Tower at 1,815 feet. It is also three times the height of the Eiffel Tower.) with a 360° observation deck at 1,921 ft on the 124th floor. On March 28th, 2011 a French man, Alain Robert, nicknamed Spiderman, climbed up the outside of the Burj using a safety harness.
It’s a multi-use building that has restaurants, a hotel, residential apartments, office space and obviously is a tourist attraction with its observation decks.
Aside from holding the world record for being the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa holds six other world records. The Burj Khalifa is also the tallest freestanding structure in the world, has the highest number of stories in the world, has the highest occupied floor in the world, has the highest outdoor observation deck in the world, has the elevator with longest travel distance in the world, and has the tallest service elevator in the world. The elevator was particularly smooth and at 32 feet per second, it only took one minute to get to the top.
The view from the observation deck was spectacular. It is so high, you’re looking down on virtually every building and can see for miles, beyond which is just desert. We had the usual overpriced tourist pictures taken, but we’ve come this far, so we thought we deserved it. And to finish up the description of the Burj, here is a bit of useless trivia. If you weighed the total amount of concrete used in the construction, it would equal the weight of 100,000 elephants!
The access to the tower involved a lot of walking through the Dubai Mall which has 1200 of the most modern high end name brand stores in the world. It was bright and sparkling clean. We did not get a chance to see the other famous mall in Dubai, with the ski hill in it, but it is also spectacular, so to give an additional flavour of Dubai, a description of it follows. Called the Ski Dubai Mall, it features an indoor ski resort featuring an 85-metre-high indoor mountain (equivalent to a 25-story building) with 5 slopes of varying steepness and difficulty, including a 400-metre-long run, the world's first indoor black diamond run. A chairlift and a tow lift carry skiers and snowboarders up the mountain. And it is all inside!
After the Burj Khalifa, the tour continued back to board the ship, but Lee and I felt we had enough time to add two more attractions before we headed back. We ate our deluxe sandwich (that we made at the breakfast buffet from our hotel) and caught the 2:00pm performance of the Dubai Fountain, which is just outside the Dubai Mall. The fountain is contained within a 30-acre lake which is 900 feet long. There are over 1000 different “water expressions” and at any moment there can be up to 22,000 gallons of water in the air rising as high as 500 feet, all programmed to some very entertaining music. In the daytime it was exciting to watch but at night, with 6,600 lights, it would be fantastic.
Following that we took a taxi to the Magical Gardens, about a 1/2 hour drive that surprisingly cost only about $10:00. This was something that Lee had heard about and really wanted to see and it paid off in spades. Once again, remembering you were in Dubai, what else would you expect but the world’s largest garden, featuring over 150 million flowers covering 18 acres of land. There is even a life-size Air Emarites A380 double-decker airplane( yup, worlds largest passenger plane) covered in 500,000 flowers and living plants. There were lush, colourful, and imaginative garden areas, multiple levels, huge flower-covered elephants, teddy bears, horses, and quaint village houses. At the centre of it all was a Smurf Village, with blue-coloured Smurfs, in every imaginable gesture and position. The flowers were intensely colourful and covered imaginitive arches, hearts and circles. Sadly, we had to go back to the ship which cut our time short at the garden. After our taxi back to the port , I think we were the only people at the check in counter in the terminal as they were just about to close up shop so our check in, once they found a customs official, was very quick. Once on board, we had about an hour to unpack and get ourselves semi organized before going to the welcome cocktail party on the pool deck and catch up with Peter and Heather. Our afternoon was far more enjoyable than theirs because, in part, their bus was late leaving the Burj and they were stuck in traffic for over an hour.
It was an excellent welcoming party following which we went to the Compass Rose restaurant for a lovely first dinner on-board. The entertainment that night was by an Adele tribute artist, and it was lively and most enjoyable.Read more
United Arab EmiratesDubai25°15’55” N 55°17’33” E
December 2, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Sailing from Dubai to Mumbai 10;30am
After a particularly busy day yesterday we were happy to look forward to three days at sea so off to a slow start with a relaxed breakfast at 10:00am. On this segment, we are headed from Dubai to Mumbai, a distance of 1200 km across the Arabian Sea travelling at 18 knots. Outdoor temperature 27°, ocean depth, 10,000 feet. This is the second time that we have been on this ship, The Regent Seven Seas Navigator. The first time was our trip to the Amazon, once again, with Peter and Heather. The ship was refurbished in October 2023 and many of the areas are brighter than they used to be, which is lovely. She holds 496 passengers in 248 suites, and has a crew of 365 which gives a guest to staff ratio of 1.27.
Our full trip from Dubai to Singapore is 4076 km. To put this in perspective, the distance from Vancouver to Halifax is 4400 km. We end up in Singapore on December 22 and head back to Toronto from there and arrive just in time for Christmas on December 23.
We had a fairly relaxing day. We started out attending a 10:00am lecture on the history of Mumbai.
-the city was originally called Mumbai, then changed to Bombay and then in 1995 changed back to Mumbai again.
-Four Hundred years ago the East India Co. the largest company in the world at that time, was formed to trade spices to the rest of the world.
- 1639 East India set up a trading centre in Madras- the tip of India.
-They employed Indian troops called Sepoy to help gain more territory and control of land.
During the afternoon, we each went our separate ways. I had a bit of a snooze before which I dictated for an hour or so for this blog, Lee worked on her blog for last year’s trip to the Baltic.
This evening, the captain introduced the crew to us in the Navigator Lounge at 6 o’clock, after which we went to the Compas Rose Dining room and had another lovely dinner.
The show this evening featured a British artist, Suzanne Godfrey, who played upbeat songs from Henri Mancini and others on flutes, piccolos and penny whistles. This was a real treat for us as we saw Suzanne twice on our Baltic cruise last year in the Viking Jupiter. You can’t imagine the upbeat music she can play on her flutes and higher pitched piccolos. Following that Peter and Heather retired and Lee and I went off in search of finding a bar that offered dancing. At the first one there were only a few people, and it didn’t seem to be an option. After that we went to the Galileo Lounge where there was more of a rock band but unfortunately, we missed their last performance by about five minutes. One of the servers was a pretty, young, and perky lady, Wiranya, who poured the wine at our table for dinner. We had a long discussion with her and found out that she was from Bangkok. Since Lee and I have been there before I said, just for fun, “Oh, Patpong Street” which is one one of the world's most notorious red-light districts, to which she replied, “naughty boy”. We got a big kick out of that and I’m still giggling.
Off to bed at 12:05 with calm seas.Read more
United Arab EmiratesDubai25°15’55” N 55°17’33” E December 3, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
The seas continued so calm overnight, we didn’t think we were even moving. The lecture this morning was on the history of Goa where we visit in 4 days. The lecturer is reasonably good, but I think he considers himself funnier than he actually is.
This evening we had the Navigator’s Shipwide “Block Party”. This is an extremely fun event which we enjoyed on our trip to the Amazon. At the stroke of 6:00pm, the communication system announced the beginning of the party. We were encouraged to take a glass from our suite and step out into the corridor to meet our neighbors. Members of the ships staff were there to pour wine and serve hors d’oeuvres while the ship’s captain and key officers ran the lengths of the corridors on all decks to greet passengers over the course of about 45 minutes. After that, we went to the Compass Rose dining room for another excellent dinner. The entertainment that night was the singer, Becky Porter, who put on another upbeat performance .
No good pictures for today.Read more
United Arab EmiratesDubai25°4’27” N 55°11’19” E
December 4, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Not so calm, overnight as our flat seas turned into about 8 foot waves resulting in lots of rock ‘n’ roll. The walking deck was closed in the morning because of the unsteadiness, the wind, and the spray so Lee went to the fitness centre instead. Peter was not feeling too well from the motion, but recovered a bit and joined us for breakfast.
The lecture this morning was on the history of Sri Lanka, where we visit in 4 days.
Dinner at Prime 7 where Don opened with a gigantic shrimp coctail and Martini. The meal was totally enjoyable. The unfortunate blue hue in the pictures comes from the lighting in the dining room.
The entertainment tonight was 'World Rhythms", music from around the world, put on by the Navigator Production Company.Read more
IndiaMaharashtraMumbai19°4’43” N 72°52’41” E
December 5, 2023 in India ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C
The population of metropolitan Mumbai is 23 million people. Mumbai was originally composed of seven islands, but a major reclamation occurred in 1845, which transformed Mumbai into a single island and a major seaport on the Arabian Sea. It is now the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India.
The process of getting off the ship and onto the tour bus was quite something. The easiest part was presenting our room key to the ship’s security staff to let them know that we were leaving the ship. After that we needed to go through customs, show them our India Visa, plus our original passport, plus a photocopy of our passport so they could see that the pictures matched. When we finally boarded the bus and reached the final control gate, an official boarded the bus, and we all had to hold up a copy of our visa again, so he could be sure that we all had the necessary clearance.
The initial impressions of Mumbai were pretty well what we expected., starting with a very messy construction site beside the pier. Unbelievable traffic jams, thousands of taxis (little black and orange Hyundai Santos), an equal number of scooters, and thousands of people walking and sitting along the side of the streets and sidewalks……. and the litter! food packages, bottles, garbage, plastic bags human and dog feces everywhere! It seems they have little regard for waste. It is hard to explain because the problem is so complicated. Half of the population of Mumbai is considered to be slums. Visually (and confirmed by internet research) there are no clean, let alone many public toilettes, and nowhere to put garbage. So what else can the people do? Notwithstanding that, they are a very clean people clothing wise and inside houses, (partly because they throw the filth into the streets and parks.) One critic presented this argument to justify the situation. “All of Mumbai is a shit-hole, so what difference do a few more piddling drops make? Also, where are the clean, airy public restrooms that our civic authorities are supposed to provide? Women, in particular, are hard-pressed in this matter.”
It should be said that our tours in Mumbai protected us from the worst of the above-described filth. But what we did see was litter and extreme disregard for cleanliness and the environment everywhere. Add to that, all the major buildings, except for the most recent, looked dingy perhaps because of the soot from air pollution. We drove past hundreds and hundreds of rag tag, small shops with corrugated sheets of metal for the roof held in place by rocks and chunks of concrete. But it is their way of doing commerce, and it works. It’s hard to imagine how they can make a living from these little booths, and for those who are selling food, how they manage the freshness, so people don’t get sick.
We knew or suspected all of that but it did not deter us from wanting to experience the conditions and the complexity of the problem. It is an eye opening experience, that emphasizes how lucky we are to live in Canada!
They are a happy people, not too bothersome when trying to sell souvenirs, and given the dirty look of the surroundings, as said previously, they are remarkably clean and colorful.
Today’s tour was a “Tour of the Highlights of Mumbai. “
Our first stop was the Krishna Consciousness Temple. People come and go to pray, and it seems to take various forms. Some prostrate themselves on the cold marble floors, others seem to sit on benches and on the floor along walls, some swinging back-and-forth. I tried to look up the Krishna beliefs, and I think even Wikipedia is confused about that.
Our next stop was the Dhobi Ghat, claimed to be the world's largest outdoor laundry with row upon row of open-air concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone. For 18 to 20 hours each day, over 7,000 workers flog, scrub, dye, and bleach 100,000 garments per day dry them on ropes, neatly press them and somehow get the garments back to the owners. We could only imagine what happens if it rains.
We visited Mani Bhavan, a museum and historical building dedicated to the life of Gandhi, Mani Bhavan was the focal point of Gandhi's political activities in Mumbai between 1917 and 1934. The museum displays hundreds of letters and pictures of Gandhi with world leaders during his lifetime including quite a diplomatic letter he sent to Hitler, dated July 23rd, 1939, before the start of World War 11 which in part, reads,” it is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?”
Sadly, the British intercepted the letter and it never reached Hitler.
For the last stop of the day, we visited Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum which documents the history of India from prehistoric to modern times. Just pronouncing its name takes up a bit of history!
Along the way to our various stops, given the filth we had been seeing, we were surprised to see enormous tracks of green land called gymkhanas, that are used for sports, primarily cricket. There is even a golf course and a racehorse track in the middle of the city.
It was a long day, and we didn’t get back to the ship until about 2 o’clock. Don was tired and had a nap. We had originally signed up for a 7:30pm harbour cruise to see the lights of Mumbai, but Lee did the sensible thing and turned our tickets in. It was just going to be too much. We rallied and had a lovely dinner in the Compass Rose. A word about the table settings in Compass Rose. The tables are always set with the most beautiful charger plates by Versace. If the girls purses were larger, I think some would have gone missing. Don remembered a great Dover Sole experience on our last trip on the Navigator, ordered it again and marveled for the second time how quickly and easily our server deboned the fish.
Off to see the flutist, Suzanne Godfrey again, and so to bed.Read more
IndiaMaharashtraMumbai19°4’43” N 72°52’41” E
December 6, 2023 in India ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Our tour today was a five-hour tour to Elephanta Caves on Elephanta Island requiring a one hour boat trip starting at the Chaitya Bhoomi pier.
Today was a public holiday to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, affectionately known as Babasaheb, born on April 14, 1891. His life's work was dedicated to the pursuit of justice, equality, and the uplifting of the oppressed sections of society. The Mahaparinirvan Diwas holiday, marks the day when Dr. Ambedkar passed away in 1956, leaving behind a profound impact on the socio-political landscape of India. Babasaheb fought against caste-based discrimination, untouchability, and social inequalities. He advocated for the rights of the Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) and worked towards creating a society where every individual could live with dignity.
Well, did we ever get a glimpse of what Mumbai is really like today. The population of Mumbai is about 23 million people and I think we saw half of them today at the pier. The traffic for our bus ride was unreal just to get to the port. We made our way through masses of people towards The Gateway of India, an arch-monument completed in 1924 on the waterfront of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of George V for his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911. He was the first British monarch to visit India.
The process of getting on the boat was an adventure in itself as we had to walk through three or four bobbing and seesawing relics of boats to get to our relic of a boat, which was tied up on the outside. The noise of the people talking and shouting was deafening. The ride in our boat however was quite calm, which is fortunate because Lee forgot her wristbands. The air quality must have been about the worst that it could be, and the visibility was probably under a kilometer. It looked like fog, but it was pollution.
Once we reached Elephanta Island, the next part of the adventure began with a small steam driven trolley ride that took us to the start of the path to the caves. The pathway to the caves was a 10ft wide cobblestone path. Along the way, vendor stalls sold souvenirs, trinkets bracelets, shawls etc. There was a stall with a bicycle powered shredder ,selling sugar cane, beside which was a very contented and undisturbed cow. There were lots of monkeys ready to pilfer, with lightning speed, any food or water bottles they could grab from you and they were quite amusing. One pair was actually amusing themselves and they weren’t very discrete about it!
The island is known for enormous caves carved out of the rock island about the mid-5th to 6th centuries AD. They were named Elefante—which morphed to Elephanta—by the colonial Portuguese who found elephant statues on the caves. When the island was ceded to the Portuguese by the kings of Ahmadabad in the 16th century, it ceased to be a place of worship, and the caves and sculptures were damaged by Portuguese soldiers. The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the caves were started by British India officials in 1909. The monuments were restored in the 1970s.
The largest cave measures 39 metres from the front entrance to the back, inside which there are 15 murals carved into the sides of the cave. They constitute one of the greatest examples of Indian art as well as one of the most significant collections for the cult of Shiva. Shiva is one of the most important of the many Hindu gods, 33 or more, depending on who is counting.
The 7-metre-high masterpiece “Sadashiva” dominates the entrance to Cave 1. The sculpture represents three aspects of Shiva: the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer.
We returned to mainland later in the afternoon and were happy to have a clean ship waiting for us after mingling with the masses of holidaying Indians.
That night we joined Bill and Marie, two doctors, who now live in Florida, for dinner, and then went to the show. This time the show was about the life and songs of the singer Queen ( Freddy Mercury). It was performed by one of the singers from the Regent entertainment group and he did a remarkable job.Read more
IndiaMaharashtraMumbai19°4’43” N 72°52’41” E
December 6, 2023 in India ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
