Sunday 10 April 2016

Sailing from Cochin to Mumbai

Having just returned from the last enrichment lecture on the development of Buddhism from an individual philosophy to an organized religion, I face the prospect of two empty suitcases gaping at me from the bed, and piles of clothes--a few dirty, but mostly fresh and clean from the ship's laundry--piled in various places around my stateroom.  Since I will leave one suitcase at the hotel in Mumbai while I travel to Varanasi, Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, I am carefully dividing the clothes I will need from those that will remain behind.

I have a busy evening planned and have requested a later pickup time for my suitcases than the scheduled 10pm tonight.  There hasn't been any occasion to use the concierge service, which comes as part of the level of stateroom I booked, except for this final day's request.  I'm still glad I spent the small amount of extra money (small when compared to the rest of the trip), because the concierge cabin also comes with early availability on the first day and a better cabin position on the deck.

We are scheduled to dock at 8am and then each departing passenger--many of the 625 are staying with the cruise for another 18 days to Athens--must do another face-to-face meeting with Indian immigration authorities before departing the ship.  I am scheduled in the first group to leave the ship; my car and driver, arranged gratis by Audley Travel, which has arranged my trip through India when I leave Mumbai on the 13th, is meeting me at 9am when I exit the cruise terminal,  He will drive me the 2.5 miles to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, conveniently located in "downtown" Mumbai, directly across from the India Gate (again, remember A Passage to India).

But I must first return to posting additional photos from Cochin (I hope) and evening on the ms Nautica.

Saturday 9April 2016

Cochin  

Ubiquitous Street Vendors

Chinese Fishing Nets and Catch of the Day

Local Street Scenes in Old Cochin

 

 

School Childen at Their Lessons

***

Scenes in "Jewtown"

Spice Market

Weaving Demonstration for Tourists

***
Paradesi Synagogue

At 6pm we pull away from the pier and sail slowly, backwards toward the mouth of the river, where we execute a slow 180-degree turn with the assistance of two hefty tugboats.  We are passing a panorama of great views of the sights of Old Cochin that I visited earlier.  We are just about to reach the famous fishing nets in time for a perfect sunset picture, when we stop dead in the water and the captain announces that we will be here for a while due to a medical emergency.  One tugboat sidles up to the Nautica and there is lots of activity going on between the two ships.  I’m not sure if a passenger is off-loaded or medical equipment is brought on board, but we are soon underway again.  Unfortunately, it is too dark for that one final photograph.  The captain announces that the medical emergency has been resolved as we head out into the Arabian SE for my last day aboard the ms Nautica.