Day 96 – April 21 – Madras, India

 While the itinerary says,  Chennai, no one could get off this morning as it was all aboard at 8:00am.  Some of the Indian crew had been given shore leave to visit their families in this area.  For the first time in 26 years of Jamie’s sailing, the Indian officials insisted on a face to face DEPARTURE inspection.  That meant all of us including the crew had to personally appear before them again.   It was supposed to start at 8:00am according to the official instructions, but they didn’t show up until almost 9:00am.  Then in went very quickly as all we did was go back to the theatre with our passports and departure cards, given them to an official, who stamped our passports and gave them back.

We finally left the port about 11:00am and Jan thinks everyone on board the ship was very glad to be gone from the filthy port.  The beautiful white Voyager needs a major cleaning and the crew will be busy for days getting rid of all the black dust that has infiltrated every where.   We enjoyed the excursions and the area has much to offer, but the port facilities are terrible for a cruise ship.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the calm Bay of Bengal, an area that is known for its bad storms, none of which we saw.

Day 95 – April 20 – Madras, India

Today we did a long excursion to Mahabalipuram, Kalakshetra and Dakshinacnitra…7.5 hours!  We first drove along the coast and beach through a fishermen’s village.  It was hard to see just how poor these people are.  They homes are little more than grass and cardboard shacks except where the government has built rows of cement housing that look like prison barracks.  There is no running water in any of the dwellings.  There is a common well with hand pump on each row of housing and a toilet and bathing facilities very so often.  Regardless, of what we think, there was a lively community there with children playing, men coming out of the dwellings dressed in shirt and tie on their way to work.  They still fish from very small boats for small fish that they sell.

We then drove to Kalakshetra, a unique institution where they teach performance arts such as classical dance (like we had seen the night before), music, painting, drama and other fine arts.  While the school had just started its summer break, there were four young women who were still on campus.  They were post-graduate students.  They were not in full costume but in just bright dance outfits.  They performed two dances of the classical temple dances and it was very interesting to see their facial expressions, hand positions, feet and legs all moving in such a beautiful way.  The theatre was open air, but they had lots of fans going so it wasn’t too bad, but we could tell we were in for a very, very hot day.

Then we had a two hour drive along the Coromandel Coast to the temples of Mahabalipuram.  This complex was built by a Hindu King in the 7^th century.  This area is covered in large granite boulders and these were used as the material for the temples.  The first area we visited, the “Rathas” or chariot temples, was where five different boulders had been carved into monuments.  Each boulder was carved in a different style, but all had very intricate carvings from the Hindu mythology with people, animals and gods all depicted in some part of a story.  Then we saw a very large bas relief (they said it was the world’s largest bas relief) that had different sections.  Two of them were divided by a clef in the boulder that represented the sacred river Ganges and was called the Descent of the Ganges and the other side “Arjuna’s Penance”.  Both sides were intricately carved and very beautiful.  On the other side, there were more carvings but they had been covered with a roof sometime, probably in the 14^th century.

The last stop was at the Shore Temple, which was built on a cliff overlooking the Bay of Bengal.  This monument was built in a different style.  Instead of being carved from a single boulder, it was built of granite blacks, that were then carved into the various figures.  It was about a 300-400 meter walk and Fred decided he had had enough of the heat so stayed on the bus.

This is a very busy tourist area and we encountered the pesky vendors that inhabit so many of the Asian tourist areas.  Jan found the best way to handle them was to just ignore them and not even look at them or their wares.  Once they knew she was not going to buy, they left her alone.  It was also very, very hot.  We took our umbrellas and it helped to give us more shade than just our hats.

On the way back to Chennai (Madras), we stopped at the Taj Fisherman’s Cove Resort for lunch.  This is a beautiful resort with lovely gardens.  We had lunch in a separate air-conditioned pavilion.  It was served buffet style and features southern Indian cuisine, again.  There were various curries and rice dishes and they were all good.  The food was not near as spicy as the dinner at the Sheridan the night before.

The last stop was at the Madras Craft Foundation Art’s Village.  An American who married an Indian has been buying homes from the four southern states of India, moving them and reconstructing them in this village.  The idea is to have a place where the traditional housing and traditional crafts can be preserved.  So many village have few people left in them to maintain the traditional homes because they have moved to the large cities.  So here is a place where they can be maintained and craftsmen can continue to practice their arts.  It would have been a great place to visit if we had not already been hot and tired!

Back on ship, it was showers for both of us and then a quiet evening with dinner from all the canapés that Rajib brought us.

Day 94 – April 19 – Madras, India

We sailed into Chennai (Madras) this morning and found a very dirty port.  They had put us at a dock just across from where they were loading coal or charcoal, they said both at different times.  There was black dust everywhere and the dock itself was covered in oily, black residue.  The ship had put down plastic over all of the carpets on Deck 4 where everyone would be going in and out and on Deck 11 where we went on and off the pool deck.  While that helped, the stairs going up from Deck 4 to Deck 5 got very dirty.

The Indian officials planned to conduct a face to face immigration inspection in the morning.  The Captain got us in early but the officials would not come except at the appointed time, so we sat for more than an hour waiting on them.  The other new thing was we had to declare any electronics we were taking on shore with us even though we were returning every day to the ship.  So we had to list our cameras, cell phones or anything that might possibly be considered electronic.   When Jan took her customs declaration down, it had one of the cameras on it.  The official, who was very officious, get asking her if she didn’t have more to declare and took his time stamping his approval.  All she was taking ashore was a purse…what did he think she had in it?

We had decided not to do an afternoon tour and that was a good thing because immigration took a long time.  So we relaxed until it was time to go to our evening excursion, Southern Spice Dinner.

We got on the first bus of eight buses.  They broke the group into two sections with each going to a different hotel.  We went to the Sheridan and the other went to a Taj hotel.  It was about a 30 minute drive through the evening rush hour.

We thought we had seen dirty cities and a lot of poverty before, but there is nothing like what we saw in Chennai.  Because of the proximity to the port, everything in that area is covered in a black, oily covering.  Immediately outside of the port are the historic buildings from the British era.  In the dark we could not see very much of them.  After the historic area, there is a very long beach that is a popular gathering spot for the local population in the evenings.  It was packed with families and lots of little food carts.  Apparently, no one enters the water for various reasons.  We were told that very few Indians know how the swim and that most Indian women do not like to wear bathing suits swim at the beach.   That didn’t seem to matter to the people out enjoying the bright moon light and the cooler (relatively speaking) night air.

We arrived at the Sheridan and were shown to the Dakshin Restaurant, a restaurant specializing in the cuisine of Southern India.  The executive chef greeted us and we were told that he had started this kind of specialty restaurant over 20 years ago.  It was a fixed menu rather than a buffet which was nice for a change.  We also had entertainment. 

First, the meal…our plate was a silver, round platter covered with a banana leaf.  On the plate were three small round containers.  Everything was served from large dishes onto our individual plates.  Here is what we had.  Mini flavoured dosa (a crisp bread), Nandu Puttu (crab meat tossed with onions, ginger and green chillies), Kozhi Sukka Varuval (chicken morsels simered in coconut milk with cashew paste and spicies), Veinchina Mamsam (lamb morsels tossed with browned onions, coriander and spices) Tomato Pappu (Lentils cooked with tomatoes, onions and chillies tempered with garlic and mustard), Urulai Roast (baby potatoes tossed with onion and ground spices), Kai Stew (vegetable mélange simmered in coconut milk with onions ginger and green chilli), Veechu Paratha (layered bread of refined flour), Apam (lack pancakes of a fermented rice batter), Idiappam (steamed rice vermicelli), Lemon Sadham (lemoned flavoured rice) and Thayir Sadam (curd and rice, tempered with mustard, red chillies and curry leaves).

Wow – that was a lot of dishes but the amount they served us was a small portion.  Some of the items, such as the Tomato Pappu were like dips to be used with the various breads.  We also had several different kinds of sauces to be used with the breads as well.  The Kozhi Azadu (chicken), Tomato Pappu (lentils) and the Kai Stew (vegetables) were served in the small containers.  Everything else was on our plates.

Most of the dishes were spicy but nothing was too hot, at least for Jan.  Fred thought it all tasted about the same…lots of red chilies, but Jan thought each dish had a different flavor.  Desert was Indian ice cream, which had a very strange consistency and a strong cardamom flavor.

Our entertainment was two dancers in the classical Bharatanatyam temple dance style.  They were elaborated costumed in bright colors with lots of gold nose rings, earrings, and toe rings.  The two dancers danced for almost two hours alternating between the two of them and sometimes together.  This dance style was almost lost but was revived in the mid -1990’s and now is a popular style for special occasions.  They told us that both of these girls had started dancing when they were six and had been dancing for 11 years. 

This dance style is very active with not only the feet involved in specific positions, but also facial expressions, eye movements, and finger movements – sometimes different positions for each hand.  It was very interesting to watch and we enjoyed seeing this dance form.  The only probably was we were right in front of the stage and the music was a bit load and after two hours began to sound the same. 

We sat with Pepper and Jim and another couple and we enjoyed the evening a lot.  We did take some Zantac when we got back to the ship, but it was just a precaution and we did not have any problems with our tummies after the dinner.

Day 93 – April 18 – At sea on way to Madras, India

It is hard to believe we are even at sea.  The Bay of Bengal is as smooth as glass with no waves and only an occasional wind to stir the ocean just a bit.  We had our usual day at sea.  Tonight we had dinner at Signatures and it was very, very good.  Sylvester, Roxanne, Gilroy and Adriana all gave us exceptional service.  Adriana helped us select our wines.  With Fred enjoying lamb, he stayed with the red, but Jan was having beef so Adriana had her try a heavier red that was just right.   We left Signatures feeling very good and not over-stuffed.

Day 92 – April 17 – At sea on the way to Madras, India

Finally a day at sea.  There have not been very many on this segment.  Jan took time to call home and got to talk to Zach for a few minutes before her bridge class.  Lunch was on the deck after several good lectures.  Dr. Mark Elovitz, whom we met on the Mariner when we sailed around South America in 2010, is now on board and gave a very interesting lecture on the Middle East which Fred attended.  Jan went to the Horizon Lounge for a demonstration of Indian cooking from one of the chefs on board.

Lunch was on the deck but it was very hot.

We went up to the Observation Lounge for sail away.  We were sailing due west and the sun was right in front of the ship.   There was a cloud bank in front of the ship but you could see that the Captain was turning just a bit to go to the far side where it was not raining.  We decided that dinner would be at La Veranda where they still have the pasta menu we like so much.  When we walked out on the pool deck, there was a beautiful full moon just coming up.

Abigail found us the best seat on the back deck outside where we had a wonderful dinner in the moonlight.  It was so pretty with the moon shining on the water and the warm breezes from the Indian Ocean around us.  Violin, the wine sommelier, had us try a very nice Valpolicella instead of the chianti and we enjoyed it very much.  Mirjana, Veronica, and Daniel provided us excellent service and we had a great evening.

Day 91 – April 16 – Phuket, Thailand

We could not dock in Phuket City as planned as the taxi drivers are blocking the entrance to the port in a dispute with the bus drivers.  We had been told of the problem a couple of days ago.  So we had to go to the other side of the Island and anchor in Patong Bay and tender in.  The beaches all along this Bay are very beautiful.

We actually did a tour today.  We took the Spectacular Phang Nga Bay tour of 8 hours.  We started out with a drive over the hills back to the Phuket City side of the island then about one hour through the north of Phuket Island over the bridge to the Phang-Nga National Park.  Most of this park is limestone islands know as karst formations.  They are covered in green hanging flora and have strange and interesting limestone formations where the water is dissolving the rock.

We boarded one of the tourist boats with our bus of 29 having a boat just to itself.  Our guide, Jennifer, was very, very funny and a good guide.  Our first stop was along side one of the island where a shallow cave has formed from the weathering.  Inside the cave you could see some very old cave paintings.  They were brown and color and a little hard to see.

The next stop was a cave where an arch had been cut and of course we sailed through it.  There were several large boats there as well that were day trips out of Phuket for canoeists.  We saw several parties of canoeists paddling along the sides of the islands and exploring some of the shallow caves and interesting limestone formations.

Kao Ping-Gan Island was the next destination.  It is famous because part of the James Bond thriller, The Man with the Golden Gun, was filmed here.  We could not land on the island because there is not a proper jetty so we just sailed around it enjoying the views.

The final stop in the National Park was on the Island of Koh Panyee, a small island inhabited chiefly by Museum fishermen originally from Indonesia.  When the National Park was established, they could no longer fish commercially in the waters around their homes so it has become a tourist attraction.  There were many restaurants, hundreds of shops and small stores as well as the homes.  Almost all of these buildings were built on stilts with only a very small part of the island having any room for buildings.  One of the interesting things was the soccer courts.  Apparently, they young men of the island are very good at soccer and have even won some tournaments.  So the government has built a new soccer court on silts with special drainage for when it rains.   It was an interesting stop and we found some nice shirts for both us…as if we needed any more souvenirs.

Back on land we had a very nice buffet lunch of Thai food at the Phang Nga Bay Resort, a small hotel at the jetty area where we boarded the boat.

On the drive back, we stopped at a tourist trap where they showed how to tap a rubber plant.  They also had some elephants there which we did not see but others in the groups said was a very sad site and they felt the elephants were being abused.  

We saw an accident right in front of the bus when we had crossed back over to the mainland.  Our bus stopped right away to block traffic from hitting the young woman laying in the road and the others that were trying to help.  The other bus behind us also stopped and both guides and drivers got out to help.  Apparently, the young woman had fallen off the motorbike and had a very bloody head and face.  An emergency vehicle got there very quickly and they picked her up and took her away.  With all the motorbikes and how they drive, it is a wonder that we didn’t see more accidents.

The final stop was at a large pearl and souvenir shop but we only had 20 minutes since we had to drive back over the island to where the ship was anchored.  We had about 600 baht left and Jan found a white elephant for just that amount!

Back on board we decided to open one of the bottles of champagne we have for the sail away and watched from our balcony.  Rajib brought us three kinds of canapés and that was what we had for dinner.

Day 90 – April 15 – Penang, Malaysia

Today we decided to take the shuttle into the shopping area in Penang just to get off the ship for a while.  We took the 11:00am shuttle which left us at the Trader’s Hotel which is connected to three large shopping malls.  While it was late morning, a lot of the shops were just opening and it really was a local’s mall.  In all three, there were floors of electronics, i.e. cameras, computers, and phones.  One of things that stood out was the number of sock stores, whole stores selling nothing but socks.

The shopping malls were connected on the upper floors by passage ways so you didn’t have to go out in the heat or try and cross the busy streets.  The signage was good so we explored a bit of all three.  We really didn’t find a restaurant that appealed to us so decided to go back to the hotel and have lunch there.

Jan ordered the Malaysian Satay and Fred ordered a Malaysian dish I can’t pronounce of spell!  They were both huge plates of food and we shared some of each others.  The satay had 6 sticks of beef and chicken each.  They were marinated in different spices that were spicy but not hot.  They were served with a delicious peanut sauce that had other spices in it as well.  There were also cubes of cucumber, onion and a cold rice cube.  Fred’s plate had a huge pile of fried rice with eggs and vegetables, a chicken satay, a beef satay, two fried prawns in the shell, and a chicken leg.  Needless to say, we did not finish our plates!

We got back to the ship feeling very full but happy we had lunch off the ship for a change.

Again, we skipped dinner after the big lunch.