NOTE: The first picture is an example of the many cabs that are available in Mumbai. There are around 50,000 cabs in this city. Many of these cabs are quite old, but they are kept up in great condition.
The second picture is one of the shops set up at the pier.
This morning marks the conclusion of segment six of our World Cruise adventure. During this segment, we sailed from Singapore to Mumbai India. We sailed a total distance of 3,345 nautical miles or the equivalent of 3,846 land miles. We have had the opportunity to visit a very diverse set of ports in a very short timeframe. It is amazing to think that we began this segment in Singapore where one will receive a fine should they litter the streets and everything is safe and clean and housing is provided for every citizen. This is a sharp contrast to where we ended the segment in Mumbai, where almost one-third of those people live here are in poverty and portions of the city are in disarray. We will carry with us memories of the places we have visited which will last a lifetime.
We want to note that while we saw a vast amount of poverty in Mumbai there are some very nice places in this city as well. This include a variety of historical buildings that have very traditional and worldly architecture and there are new building, both residential condominiums & apartments and office buildings that appeared to be quite nice. While eating off the ship does not interest us, some of our fellow passengers had nice experiences in some of the restaurants and some offered service of a much higher standard than one would find in the USA.
At the same time there is clearly an emerging economy in India and one that many of us are very familiar with given the outsourcing that is taking place from USA and European companies over to India. This is doing wonders to expand the middle class in man parts of India.
We met many nice people during our stay in Mumbai. The people who we interacted with appeared to be well spoken, highly educated, and showed a lot of pride. There are many nice traditions in this country, particularly those in the middle, upper middle and upper classes.
Clearly, every country has a difference in culture. For example, in India to get things done does require negotiation and sometime giving something of value to obtain a particular service whether from private or even government run institutions. That is the way of life for these people just as many of us in the USA have our own culture that differs from other places around the world.
There are many wonderful areas in India and like any large country there are the good points along with the points not so good.
India does have challenges. They are divided into many states where there are many dialects. The language of one area cannot be understood by another area, so English is a critical language to bridge the communication gap amongst its diverse population.
The other challenge is the poverty that exists here. It is not isolated to Mumbai and because of the sheer volume of those who live in this country it is more of a problem. We now understand why people get concerned when they here the estimates for population growth in a city like Mumbai which is already overcrowded and has lots of issues to deal with.
We are glad that we had the opportunity to see two ports of call in India.
Today the new segment (segment 7) of the World Cruise got underway.
This afternoon new passengers embarked the cruise ship. As part of this segment we will sail from Mumbai, India to Civitavecchia, (gateway port for Rom) Italy. We will stop in Salalah, Oman, Safaga, Egypt; Alexandria, Egypt; Agios Nikolaos (Crete), Greece, and Catania and Naples, Italy. At the same time we will enjoy eight sea days including our transit thru the Suez Canal.
We slept very well last evening and we woke early this morning. We began our day by working out in the Fitness Center. Yes, Keith was the first to arrive at the Fitness Center and Anne Marie arrived a short time later. We enjoyed an excellent workout. The only passengers working out while we were there was the two of us plus John. Keith spoke with John for a few minutes and after our workout we saw John and his lovely wife Linda at the Lido Café. They are both such wonderful people and we are so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to sail with them on both this years and last years World Cruise. Since Mary was on yesterdays all day tour of the Taj Mahal she was not up at the Fitness Center while we were there but as we were retuning to our room we ran into her. We spent a few minutes talking with her and we told her about our day in Mumbai yesterday and she told us about her tour of the Taj Mahal. Her tour sounded wonderful and hopefully one day we will have the opportunity to visit this city.
We then went back to our room to enjoy a great breakfast.
Like many of our fellow passengers, we decided not to go into town today. We felt that we had a nice overview of Mumbai yesterday and really saw no point going out on our own. Some passengers were going back to places such as the Taj Mahal hotel to pick up clothing items that they had ordered that were custom made for them. As was the case in Hong Kong, you can order certain items in these shops that will be made for you overnight and will be available sometime the next day.
We decided to spend part of the morning walking around the pier. We visited some of the shops that were set up in the pier area that sold a variety of items.
The cruise ship called The World was also in port having arrived here late yesterday so we walked over to that ship. We last saw this ship during our stay in Rio, Brazil last year. This is the ship that sold condominium apartments. Passengers sailing on this ship include those who own their respective apartments, those who rent from owners and also those who book directly through the cruise line operator to stay in units that have not been sold. This ship sails around the world and usually will spend several days in a particular port of call rather than just one day or an overnight. We tried to walk over to the ship, but couldn’t find a direct way over there and we were leery about the area that we would need to walk through in order to navigate our way over to the ship.
We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the dining room. We sat at our regular table that we eat at in the evening. We were given complimentary flutes of champagne to toast the continuation of our world cruise adventure.
This afternoon we also enjoyed a very nice walk on the Promenade Deck of the ship. We could see many ships in the harbor and we had a nice view of the Cruise Ship; The World. We also could see many buildings that were afar.
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Main Dining Room. Afterwards, we attended the Welcome Aboard Show and enjoyed all of the dancing and singing that was part of the show. We also saw a very nice couple who we met on this ship in 2005, and who were also on the full World Cruise this year, who surprised most of us by booking the last two segments of this years world cruise.
This evening we set our clocks back thirty minutes which will be the last time during this cruise where clocks are adjusted in thirty minute increments.
We are glad that we have had the opportunity to visit Mumbai. This is certainly quite a unique city of the world. Our hearts go out to the less fortunate individuals who live here and in other parts of the world where each day is a struggle to just survive for many people.
This next segment of the cruise will bring many ports that we had the opportunity to visit during last years World Cruise. Other than visiting the two ports in Hawaii, up until now all of the ports of call that we visited were new to us, with the exception of Hong Kong which Keith had previously visited on business. On this next we will see for the first time are Crete, Greece, which is also a maiden voyage for Crystal Cruises. We will also dock in an area in Sicily that is a different port from the one that we docked in last year. Most other ports we will visit for the second time, with the exception of Naples and Civitavecchia, (gateway port to Rome), Italy which we have visited numerous times. We look forward to seeing all of these ports and continuing our World Cruise Adventure.
Keith & Anne Marie
