Gao and Mumbai

Prepared July 22, 2012 at home Kona, Hawaii

April 6, 2012 at sea eastern Indian Ocean enroute to Mormugao, Goa, India:  So Many Lectures, So Little Time

Silver Whisper departed Kochi, India about 11:00pm and sailed northward up the coast of India.  It would be about a 30 hour cruise to Mormugao, the port for the Indian province of Goa, which was our next stop.

J & E used most of the day to complete and post the account of their overland trip to Dien Bien Phu and northwestern Vietnam.   This included using a hand-held portable scanner to scan maps of the little-visited region of northwestern Vietnam and of the battlefield.

Sea days are often enlivened with lectures by notable people, especially authors or academics whose disciplines are of interest to the literate, well maybe semi-literate, cruise audience.   On this cruise, lecturers had included James Bradley, "Flags of Our Fathers", and Bill Bryson, ""A Walk in the Woods", and numerous others.  Usually, J & E had forgone these lectures because they conflicted with bridge, but today two lectures were in the morning, while bridge was in the afternoon. Both lecturers were speaking on interesting topics.  Diana Preston was to speak on the sinking of the Lusitania, based on her book "Willful Murder? - The Sinking of the Lusitania," and Philip Hurst on modern India's geopolitics, "A Tiger with a Bomb: India Facing the Future."  The lectures normally last 45 minutes, are profusely illustrated, and keep one's attention, even in a darkened theater. (Well, for most guests anyway; on occasion, there can be heard light snoring.)  Lectures also can provide background knowledge for the area where we are cruising and going on shore tours, as Mr. Hurst's did on India. 

One additional aspect of the lecture program is that cruisers can invite the lecturers to lunch or dinner, and it gives you an opportunity to raise related topics and ask further questions.  All-in-all, it is a very positive aspect of the cruise experience, and on long cruises with numerous sea days provides for an interesting intellectual experience not often associated with the halcyon life of cruising.

We were again sailing in pirate waters.  All of the Indian Ocean  north of an east west line of latitude from the coast of Mozambique west south of Diego Garcia to the longitude  of Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari),  India is currently considered pirate waters, called the "Extended Risk Zone" by international maritime authorities.  (See Chart)  So even though sailing well within 200 miles of the Indian coast, the ship was blacked out and extra watches and security were in place.  It was, as a minimum, good training for the ship's crew, for the upcoming crossing of the northern Indian Ocean from Mumbai to the United Arab Emirates and on to Safaga, Egypt.

April 7, 2012 in port Mormugao, Goa, India:  India's Christian Enclave

We were docked at Mormugao by 8:00am, but both of us decided not to go on tour (we had been in Goa in 2009 and toured extensively), and the port area of Mormugao has very little to offer.  Mormugao is a major coal port -- need more be said.  We stayed on board and worked on the blog, read, and played cards.  E won again, and it was getting very tiresome for J.

Mormugao from Seaward

Self-Propelled Coal Barges, Mormugao, India

Focusing on the port city of Mormugao does not do justice to Goa.  Goa was a Portuguese colony from the 16th through most of the 20th Century and the Vatican of Asia during that time.  There are three major 16th Century cathedrals and other important historic sites related to Roman Christianity spread in Asia and Africa.  Also, there are the normal number of tourist beaches and resorts.   But not around the port!

N.B. -- If any of you desire to see images of the the catherdrals or the dead saints entombed there, let me know and I will add them to the blog.  They are from a earlier visit in 2009.

That evening, after sailing for Mumbai, the Captain hosted a special Asian dinner for World Cruise guests.  It was, of course, exceptional, adding even more weight to J's ever-expanding waistline and other body parts.  So you can appreciate the meal, we have scanned the menu, but no images.  J was too busy eating to take any pictures.

Captain's Asian Dinner Menu

All this on the last day of Lent, and near the most holy site in Asia!

Bacchus wins again!

When we returned to our room, we found that the Easter Bunny had visited, and we had received an Easter basket with E's annual chocolate rabbit.  Surprising new knowledge, Indian rabbits can swim and climb  aboard cruise ships.  Let's hope the pirates don't find out.  Actually, the basket was from the Officers and Crew of the Silver Whisper.

Easter Basket and Orchid

The Orchid was our "house plant;" it traveled most of the voyage with us.

April 8, 2012 in port Mumbai, India:  A Day at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya


We were not participating in an organized tour of Mumbai and intended to spend the day at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Western India Museum, and still normally referred to by its original English name (Prince of Wales Museum).  (Interestingly, the city's English name, "Bombay," seems to have been largely replaced in the local English vernacular by the new Indian name, "Mumbai."  But, it is easy to see why the Museum's new Indian name has not really caught on.)

We did not go ashore until about 10:00am, because the Museum was a short taxi ride from the pier, and we did not want to find ourselves outside a locked museum and the subject of unwanted attention by Mumbai's street people.  Walking up the pier, we passed the INS Viratt (R22) one of the Indian Navy's aircraft carriers.  (It was formerly the HMS Hermes.)  Then, we passed row-on-row of newly-imported Japanese and Korean trucks and buses until we reached Green Gate and the taxi stand.  Gone are the days of the yellow and black Ambassador taxis with their Sikh drivers who took you where they wanted to go.  In new Mumbai, the taxi is a new, clean Marrudi/Suzuki, with a driver who takes you to your requested destination at a prearranged price and even offers to return for you at your convenience.  See, change does happen.

After a short drive through the old Imperial Bombay section of Mumbai, best known to Western tourists for the Gate of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel, we arrived at the Museum to purchase our ticket.  In the long- cherished tradition of Indian bureaucracy, it was not "a" ticket but three tickets, and the lines were so complex that if it were not for the help of a retired Indian Army Sepoy (now museum guard), J & E likely would still be in line (probably the wrong one!).

Museum Tickets -- General Admission, Camera Pass, Audio Tour

Note:  Convenient string to attach Camera Pass to camera.  Provided WITH ticket!

The Museum is sited in a large garden near the Gate of India, and the garden (The Crescent) is still maintained as originally designed.  The building itself, designed by George Wittet, is considered a model of the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture typical of British India in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.  At the core of the collection are the donations of Indian miniatures by Seth Mavji in 1915, the Major Art collections of Sirs Ratan Tata and Sir Dorab Tata, and the antiquities collection of Sir Akbar Haydari in the 1920s and '30s.  The Museum's collections contain over 50,000 pieces of art and artifacts.

Needless to say, we had to limit our viewing to a small number of even the items currently on display.  We chose those from the 42 items which were described in some detail in the Audio Guide.  Since J had his Camera Pass (with string), he was allowed to image some of the interior and art works.

Central Hall, Key Gallery

Hindu Statuary, Key Gallery

Ivory Box, Mughal Tradition, 1903

J & E spent most of their time in the Miniature Painting Gallery.  The Museum's collection of miniature paintings is one of the best we have ever seen.  It encompasses most of the Indian schools of miniature painting from the 14th to the early 19th Century, including numerous examples from the Sultanate and Mughal periods.  No imaging was allowed in this Gallery even if you had a chitty (with string).  But you can view some of the Museum's finest miniatures and other items at www.themuseummumbai.org.  The web site   also will give you access to many other galleries of the Museum's collection.

About three hours into viewing the collections, and long before we had finished the 42 Curator's Choice items on the audio tour, we were suffering severe museum fatigue,  Also, the Museum's main spaces are not air conditioned, so it was getting very hot.  A stop at the museum shop for J's de rigueur t-shirt (Gate of India with stamp), and we returned to our waiting taxi.    The taxi was both on time and in the place where the driver said it would be, so with a short drive by the Gate of India and the Taj (accompanied by numerous attempts to entice us to visit tourist shops), we returned to the port and Silver Whisper.  Then, it was lunch and a long nap.  Culture is very tiring.

Across the Bay of Bengal and on to Cochin

Prepared July 16, 2012, at home Kona, Hawaii, USA

April 2 to April 4, 2012 at sea Bay of Bengal and eastern Indian Ocean:  Lazy Sea Days

After departing Penang Island, we cruised northwest up the Straits of Malacca and around the northern tip of Sumatra, then turned west southwest across the Bay of Bengal around the southern tip of Ceylon and into the western Indian Ocean.  Taking a northern course, we passed west of the southern tip of the Indian Peninsula (Cape Coromin) and reached Kochi, formerly known as Cochin after three days at sea.

During these longer at-sea passages, cruise passengers mainly focused on various on-board activities -- bridge, lectures, entertainment, and, of course, eating.  But, any type of unusual sighting at sea creates a great deal of interest.  These sighting events usually involve fauna (air- or seaborne) or other ships.  Both fauna and ships engender a great deal of speculation by the passengers.  Regretfully, on this cruise, we seemed to sight more unusual purpose-built ships than we did fauna.   So, there are no pictures of whales or albatrosses!

Oil Exploration Support Ship -- Bay of Bengal

On the evening of April 4, as we rounded Cape Coromin, Captain Corsaro, held an all-passenger security meeting to discuss precautions to minimize the threat of piracy while we were cruising in the Indian Ocean.  The major impact on passengers was the need to darken ship, thereby keeping the stateroom drapes closed from sunset to sunup.  Of course, the ship took other actions, but these were not discussed with the passengers.  However, the passengers spent a good deal of time and effort speculating on what they might or might not be.

April 5, 2012 in port Kochi (Cochin), Kerala, India:  Welcome to the New India -- Watch Out for the Goat!

Silver Whisper docked at the cruise ship terminal on Willingdon Island about 9:00am.  Since this was our third visit to Kochi in the last six years, we did not really want to return to the same tourist spots.  Instead, we hired a private car to take us to the Le Meridian Hotel in the Kundannoor District of Kochi to make other Starwood hotel reservations.  We did not leave the ship immediately, but waited for the ship's tours to set off before disembarking.  J & E are not fond of queues, especially consisting of cruise passengers in a hurry to get to the front seat on the tour bus.

Tour Buses at the Ready, Kochi Port

Our driver/guide met us on the pier with a new white Toyota, and we were off through the port area, over the causeway and into the streets of Kochi to the hotel.   Kochi's metropolitan population is approximately 2 million, and the city seems to be built around innumerable water features.  This is a nice way of saying that the city is situated in a very large coastal swamp.  However, the traffic wasn't impossible, so we accomplished our mission at the Le Meridian very quickly and had a tea in the hotel's lounge, while the hotel manager confirmed reservations.

The minimum car hire was for four hours, so our driver/guide suggested that we see some sites that we had not visited earlier.  Since he was a Roman Catholic, our tour was an introduction to the history of Christianity in southern India.  Our first stop was St. Francis C.S.I. church in Fort Kochi.

St. Francis C.S.I. Church, Fort Kochi, Kochi, Kerala, India

St. Francis (originally St. Bartholome) is the oldest European church in India, and
Fort Kochi is the oldest European settlement, established by the Portuguese in 1503.

St. Francis has served the denomination of the imperial power of the moment.  It has been Roman Catholic, Dutch Reform, Anglican, and is currently Church of Southern India (C.S.I.).  The building dates to 1779, but it has been rebuilt and renovated many times.

Interior, St. Francis C.S. I.

Altar, St. Francis C.S.I.

Baptismal Font, St. Francis C.S.I.

There are numerous tombs inside the church and on the church grounds.  The church grounds include the Dutch Cemetery that records Dutch possession of Kochi for 200 years until it ended in 1795 when Kochi became a British possession.  Probably the most famous person  originally buried in the church was the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, European discoverer of the sea route to India.  He died at Kochi in 1524, on Christmas eve, of malaria and was buried in the church until his remains were repatriated to Portugal in 1539.    His gravestone is part of the interior floor of the church.

Vasco da Gama's Gravestone, St. Francis C.S.I

To preserve the early gravestones of other Portuguese and Dutch imperial functionaries, they now line the interior walls of the church, with the Portuguese notables' gravestones along the north wall of the church, and the Dutch on the south wall.  We guessed that the more recent occupants of the church did not want the Catholic and Protestant spirits to have an opportunity to squabble over theology, so they separated them.

Portuguese (North Wall) and Dutch (South Wall) Gravestones, St. Francis C.S.I.

From the church, we were driven to the park at the tip of Fort Kochi.  Our guide wanted to show us the Chinese Fishing Nets.  The local story is that when the Portuguese saw the Chinese in Macao using these nets, they brought the design to Kochi and built the nets along the coast near the fort.  Will the theft of intellectual property never cease!

The fish nets work using the balanced fulcrum principle, like a teeter totter, with the seaward nets balanced by landward stones.  There were probably many more in the past, but now there are about 6 in the immediate Fort Kochi Park area, which seem to provide some fresh fish, but more entertainment for visitors to the park.

Chinese Fishing Nets



Catching Fish -- It Really Works!
Fish in bottom of center net.

Fresh Fish Anyone?

Fort Kochi, and the surrounding area, is also a free range zoo, typical of Indian settlements from village to  mega cities.  The Fort Kochi peninsula seemed to specialize in goats, who spent most of their time caging food from tourists.  But there was no shortage of other beasts ranging about.

"Got a Hershey Bar?  I'm Tired of Coconuts."

The Fort Kochi area has many 17th, 18th and 19th Century Residences built by the Portuguese, Dutch and the Raj, during their 450 year sojourn in southern India.  Many of those buildings are architecturally interesting, and a number of them have been preserved by converting them to boutique hotels or guest houses for tourist.

Dutch Trader's Residence Converted to Boutique Hotel

(Note the restored Ambassador parked in front.  Who would of thought! )

The Splendor of the Raj.  It is Good to be the Raj.

As we were leaving Fort Kochi, we saw the return to port of an Indian Navy patrol ship.  Kochi is a major Indian naval base, and headquarters for the Indian navy's Indian Ocean Fleet.  It was reported while we were in India that an Indian naval unit had engaged a pirate vessel and sunk it. Seems that the Indian navy learned law of the sea from the old Royal Navy, not the U.S. Navy and NATO, who are too busy filling out forms and consulting lawyers to deal directly with treats to freedom of the sea.  Maybe the USN could engage the pirates with paperwork and lawyers and bore them to death!

Indian Navy INS Sharada (P55) Returning to Port

Our tour's next stop was the Santa Cruz Basilica, the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Alleppey, part of the city of Kochi.  Regretfully, there was a diocese conference underway, and the Basilica was closed to tourists.

Santa Cruz Basilica

Our next stop was the residence of the Bishop of Alleppey, which dates in part to the 1500s.  Although the residence is off limits to the general public, the grounds are not.  The grounds of the residence where used as a botanical garden by the Portuguese, so many interesting and economically important species can be found among the plantings.

Bishop of Alleppey's Residence

(If you can't be the Raj, maybe try Bishop)

Pepper Tree

(This may or may not be pepper.  J didn't make notes.)

After visiting the Bishop's garden, it was back to the Silver Whisper and lunch on the pool deck, then a nap and a lazy afternoon of reading and playing "Spite and Malice."  Eloise won, as usual.

Before dinner, the Cruise Director, Fernando, arranged for a dance troop from the local Katakali school to perform.  Katakali, or "story play," is a form of folk dance that evolved from earlier Sanskrit dances  originally associated with Hindu temples.  These dances are now known only in Southern India, which did not suffer the tender mercies of Islamic (Mogul) invasion.

Katakali dance takes the form of a drama, think opera, with the content delivered in face and hand expression, masks and colorful costumes which define the characters.  The dramas seem to concentrate on four universal themes -- love, death, truth, and power.   Many of the plays have their origins in the Ramayana. From the western audience's perspective, the makeup, masks and costumes, are truly spectacular.  If you are interested in the Katakali dances go to this web site www.kathakalischool.com.

Katakali Dancer in Costume

 Elaborate Dance Costume

Kathakali Dancers Presenting Play

(Regretfully, No English Captions)

Curtain Call, Everyone Namastes

After a much edited and shortened one-hour performance (Westerners' attention span is not up to four and five-hour dance performances, no matter how colorful the costumes or loud the music), we left the theater and returned to our suite to watch a movie.  At 10:30pm, we sailed for Mormugao, India, the port for Goa.