Monday 28th November - a couple of sea days on the Voyager

So what have we been doing?  Lie ins have been in order, and Peter has been running his classes.  We've listened to the Entertainments Manager Jack Clarkson one evening (he's really good), and sat on deck in the afternoons and evenings. We've spent hours looking out to sea and searching the waves for signs of life, but all we've seen so far are a few flying fish.

We eat in the Bistro each night and have begun to get to know some of the "very good looking waiters" (as described repeatedly in one of the daily activities).  One of the surprises is that they are generally older than they look, and have a multitude of talents.  Mark Louis sits behind the buffet counters, he keeps a big bowl aside for when Peter comes in just so that Peter can have a extra large helping of whichever soup they are serving.  He he makes flowers from napkins, one of which was presented to me last night.  Awwwwwww. Anyone who knows Peter will know he doesn't really like desserts, and is only happy with a bowl full of icecream.  One of the waiters goes downstairs from the Bistro to the main restuarant every night, just to get Peter two scoops of vanilla icecream. We are very well looked after here.

So our next stop after these two days is Port Blair in India.  We don't have a tour, so we'll just be going out for a walk around.  If it's anything like last time we went out for a walk, it'll probably be full of surprises. 

Tuesday 29th November, Port Blair, India.

India has never caught my imagination as a tourist destination, and never been on my bucket list, even the The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel couldn't entice me.  Now that we are here, India is everything I expected it to be - busy and full of colour, but also squalid and littered with rubbish.

Immigration procedures here in Port Blair were not quite as bad as they had been in Chennai, but there were still a few hoops that they wanted us to jump through to get off the ship.  Once off, Peter and I had decided to walk.  The area didn't look like it had much to offer, and I was hoping to see some of the local wildlife.  As we approached the exit gate, we bumped into Raoul (the Shorex guy), who grinned and asked if we had our hard hats ready?

And he wasn't joking.  As we walked out of the gates of the port, the tuk tuk drivers came at us in a wave of bodies.  And boy are those guys persistent!  No. No. No! We repeated again and again, but they kept asking.  One driver must have kerb crawled (well it would have been kerb crawling if there had been a kerb), for a good 5 minutes as we kept repeating "No! Go away!" to him.

We reached a stretch of road where we were given a little peace (which means the tuk tuk drivers only stopped every 5 mins or so, rather than every 10 secs), and we walked along in the heat, looking, photographing, and getting a feel of the place.

A roadside garage.  All makes and models of vehicle fixed here. 

I think this is a long tailed shrike.  He was perched above a load of rusty  waste oil drums.

 The photographs have been selected to show the best of the area, but in truth the beaches were covered in rubbish, and it was piled in heaps at the side of the road, looking and smelling disgusting.
Even the photographs showing it are disgusting, so I couldn't bring myself to post one.  Suffice to say it was easily equal to the rubbish surrounding the slums in Chennai.

It took a while before we came to a stretch along the coastline that wasn't covered in floating debris and plastic bottles.

This white throated kingisher was beautiful.  Even the rusty old boat it was perched on had charm

The cows wander freely, and yes, the cars, motorbikes, and tuk tuks just drive carefully around them.

Tumble drying indian style.  This washing has been hung out by the local launderette, and included the towels and sheets for the nearby hotels. 

This is the launderette. It seems all that washing has been done by hand. 

Eventually we reached the city centre.  Using Maps.me (an excellent app and highly recommended), we worked out that it was only a little way to reach the bay opposite Ross Island.  The path ran alongside an open sewer at one point, but we walked on, thinking that we would get a tuk tuk back from the bay on the other side.

A very much respected and revered man.  

The streets were full of noise and colour.  An amazing place.  

2 hours from our start point, we were sitting on the pier in the bay, enjoying the view and the sea breeze.  A couple of passengers from the ship walked past, asking if we were going across to Ross Island as they went. Since it was something I had read up about and sort of wanted to do, Peter agreed and we made our way to the ferry point.  But we didn't have tickets, we should have got them from a hut about 5 mins away and the ferry was about to leave! Amazingly, the ferry crew arranged for someone to come from the ticket booth with our tickets, (I think there may have been something funny going on cos the $5 we gave them seemed to be shared out between the three guys on the gate). In a couple of minutes a guy in a brown uniform hurried up the pier with the tickets and we were able to climb into the riverboat and set off.

Ross Island was used by the British as a penal colony back in the day.  It sort of reminded us of Isle De Salut, only not quite as memorable.   The deer, ground squirrels and peacocks added to the colour of the place, and not only that, it was only litter free area we'd seen here.

It's like something out of Lord or the Rings.  We loved the way the trees have taken over the old buildings. 

Remnants of the luxury lifestyle of the British wardens, which included tennis courts and a swimming pool, 

It's a palm squirrel

We caught the ferry back a couple of hours later, agreed a price of $2 with a tuk tuk driver for the crazy ride back to port, (but paid him $5 anyway) and arrived back on the ship just after 2.30pm.  Too late for lunch, but that gave us an excuse to dive into afternoon tea, which we normally miss.

All in all a good day out.  I still don't think of India as a holiday destination, but I really loved the opportunity to see new wildlife and a little of the culture.

Tomorrow is a sea day and a chance to rest the feet. After that we have Thailand and Malaysia, now those countries do peak my interest.  I am really looking  forward to them. 

Saturday 26th November - A difficult day in Chennai, India,

We thought we'd be pottering around the city today, but Raoul from the Shorex team came to us yesterday afternoon to let us know we were both on tour, except Peter was to go to the Mahabalipuram temple, and I would be doing the city tour.  I was quite happy about that, city tours tend to be quite easy, as most of the time we are sat on the bus whilst the guide tells the passengers loads of stuff about the city, its history and its culture.

The ship was a little late into port, and there there was the immigration procedures to get through.  It was easier to visit Russia! There is a different process for the different states of India, and the one for Chennai must be designed as a deterrent to visiting.  The amount of hoops to jump through and paperwork required is ridiculous.  We'd already completed a Security Clearance questionaire back in the UK in order to get a visa to visit India.  Now, to visit Chennai, we had to complete 3 documents each, including a shore pass, and a customs declaration regarding our electrical equipment.  Thankfully, the ship admin was excellent, they did most of the filling in for us, and we received printed documents that we only needed to add our electrical items to and sign. Once we docked into port, we had to do a face to face with various Indian immigration officials, whilst they stamped our documentation and passports (3 times at 3 different desks).  Again, the ships admin set up was brilliant.  They managed to get all the passengers and crew through the process in the quickest of time and with the minimum of fuss.  I have to give them 5 stars for that.

Peter's tour set off in the morning, and mine was due to start a little after an early lunch.  And we still had one more immigration hoop to jump through once we had got off the ship and onto the bus, as the port officials boarded and took the details of each shore pass.  What a palava!

So now our tour began.  Remember the bit where I said that city tours were easy?  Forget that!  My problem was that the guide was absolutely hopeless.  We could forgive her the thick Indian accent, the fact that she didn't tell us anything useful or interesting and spoke quietly meaning most of us couldn't hear her.  But she didn't take any care or responsibility for the passengers at all, never once checking that everyone was keeping up and relying entirely on me to keep track.  Most of the time we coped, but our last stop involved walking through an extremely busy area of the city - and to be honest, the only way we knew where she'd gone was by following the passenger in front and hoping. It got worse when we got inside the Hindu temple, and we found that we'd lost two.  Our guide knew that two guys hadn't come in with us, but she didn't tell me, nor had she told them where to meet us later or how long we'd be.  I spent a good half hour carrying the dread that we'd lost passengers in this incredible and somewhat intimidating bustle. Fortunately they had the sense to wait at the bus collection point so all was well in the end.

So as you can tell, my escorting duties were quite stressful today, which spoilt my enjoyment of the tour and the visit to the Hindu temple in particular. A bit of a shame, because that was the one place that I really wanted to see. Anyway, here are the pictures:

Not surprisingly, our guide didn't point out the slums that we passed.  What a terrible place to live. 

Reeaaddy........ Steeaaddy..........  The traffic was quite manic, although here you can see all the drivers on their best behaviour.

We visited St Mary's, which is the oldest protestant church in the city and was built within the British colonial fort. 

A drive by of the Ghandi sculpture.  This is on the front of the Marina Beach - extensive sands which were covered with toursists going for a swim.  Indian tourists that is. 

We did visit a couple of museums, but the best part of the tour for me was when we got off the bus and started to make our way through the madness of the city towards the temple. 

There was so much noise and colour.  The locals were either staring at us, (the noveltyof all these white people), trying to sell us something or trying to run us over. 

These flower garlands are hand made and probably take a very long time to complete, we were able to watch some of the men in their craft.  The garlands are sold to the passers by give them to the Hindu priests as offerings to the Gods

We weren't allowed to take photographs of any of the insides of the temple areas or the altars, but we were allowed to photograph the elaborat roofs. Quite stunningly beautiful. (By now I know we've lost a couple of passengers, so it sort of took the shine off the moment as I was taking these).

After the temple we visited the Basilica, which is where the body of the disciple Thomas is buried.  This was of particular interest to few of our more devoted passengers, who were absolutely delighted to have been able to visit his tomb.

So, an eventful day out.  I'm really glad I got to see the Hindu temple.  It's just a shame that it was a holy day and absolutely packed, so that we never got a chance to see inside the altars, as well as the missing passengers raising my stress levels.

Next we have a couple of sea days, so I can relax and recover.

Friday 25th November - Peter's Early Christmas Present

Seaday mean a lie in, a leisurely breakfast and maybe taking part in the entertainments programme going on around the ship.  Today I went and sat in on Robin's talk about dolphin's and whales in the area, which I quite enjoyed. 

In the afternoon, Peter had his first class, which ended up with a very respectable 30 passengers sat in the Explorer Lounge painting the Stilt Fisherman of Koggala. They did really well, I was dead impressed.

In the evening Peter and I just happened to be walking past the ship's shop and noticed that they had a load of Seckonda watches on sale outside.  His last watch had finally given up working, and he needed a new one, which we'd agreed I'd get him as a Christmas present.  Looking through the display, we didn't like any of the half price watches, but since we'd started looking, we had to keep going and went inside to see what else they had.  Peter ended up doing what every woman does when she's looking for a new pair of shoes.  He really liked the first watch that he looked at, but we ended up dismantling the shop's window display looking at every other example they had before he decided he wanted the first one after all. The shop staff were brilliantly patient with us, and he is now sporting a very handsome Fossil watch which I love.

We're in port tomorrow, Chennai in India.  India has never caught my imagination so I don't know what to expect.  Peter and I are on different tours, so it'll be interesting to compare notes at the end of the day.

Thursday 24th November - Galle, Sri Lanka

Today we woke outside the little port of Galle (pronounced gorl).  The ship was anchored in the bay as intended and the passengers were taken ashore by tender. (i.e. ferried across in the lifeboats).  As is often the case, the swell of the sea caused problems and passengers trying to get on the tenders were faced by a bucking lifeboat.  Well....... that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but there was certainly a fair amount of rise and fall, and it meant that getting the passengers across for the tours took a little longer than usual.

Due to a couple of timing problems on our part, Peter and I missed boarding two of the tenders before they sailed across to the port, and in the end didn't get onto dry land until about 11.30.  We'd decided that once there, we'd walk up to a nearby fort, have a wander round and then come back.

So we ignored all the tuk tuk drivers and headed off, but it soon turned out we'd underestimated the walk and, realising we didn't have the time to complete our plan, finally agreed to get into one of the tuk tuks that kept pulling up alongside hoping for a fare.  I remembered what I'd been told by the Sri Lankan lawyer from Candi yesterday, and offered the tuk tuk driver $1 as a fare to the fort.  He tried to get a little more out of us, but capitulated very easily to the $1 and we climbed aboard.

So Peter and I have been driven around in various taxis in various cities all over the place.  And we've often described it as mad.  I remember the lunatics in Athens, and the race car taxi driver in the Canaries, and a few more - but I don't think any of them can compete with what we've seen in Sri Lanka. In Colombo we observed how it was quite normal for two road lanes to accommodate three lanes of traffic, and for cars, tuk tuks, bikes, buses and wagon drivers to all dip and dive into these three lanes quite erratically.  Today however, we were treated to even more pandemonium.  Anyone crossing the road or walking nearby seemed to be taking their lives into their own hands.  Time and again it seemed that the vehicles around us were going to hit us or each other, or the pedestrians and stalls at the side of the road.  When our driver wanted to turn onto a busy road, he did just that.  He didn't wait for oncoming traffic to stop, he just drove in front of it.........

But he got us to the fort undamaged, and we enjoyed a pleasant walk along the the walls. Me being me, I looked out for the wildlife, and I'm very pleased with my photos.

I think this is a young bengal monitor lizard - it's also know as a land monitor lizard or a common Indian monitor. 

Red-wattled Lapwing

And this kingfisher, which has a stunningly beautiful turquoise blue back is a white throated kingfisher.

I also managed to get a few pictures of the fort and it's surroundings.

Cattle grazing up on the fort walls, who'd have thunk it? I suppose it saves mowing the grass. 

The views from the walls were quite lovely

Interesting shapes left behind

And more lovely views 

We'd agreed with the driver that he would take us back to the port and he'd been keeping a beady eye on us as we walked along, not wanting to lose out on his investment.  Our drive back was as bonkers as before, but this time we stopped to get a few photos of the mayhem.  This did mean joining the mayhem and trying to cross the road.  You have to be quick!

As we reached the port, the driver started talking about how other tuk tuk drivers were getting 35-40 dollars out of their passengers. Peter and I had already agreed that we'd give him $5 dollars as the fare (despite agreeing $2 with him), because we didn't have anything smaller.  At the port entrance he started begging us for more, which was demeaning and embarrassing.  I'm sorry about that, because it spoilt what had been a very pleasant morning.  I handed him the $5 dollars and then left.

That may seem a little harsh, but we'd learnt yesterday that the average fare of the tuk tuk driver is less than $1, and $5 was well over what we'd agreed.

We'd got back in time for the last tender back to the ship, and spent the rest of the day enjoying the cruising experience.  On the top deck, I joined many other passengers on whale watch as the area is known for blue whales apparently.  Sadly, no whales, but we did get another downpour.

Tomorrow is a sea day and Peter will run his first art class. We have no idea what to expect because the ship isn't full - fingers crossed it won't be too busy.

Wednesday 23rd November - Colombo, Sri Lanka

When you've been awake thirty odd hours straight, you'd think a twelve hour nap would be easy.  Not so! Both Peter and I woke a little after midnight and it took me a little while to settle again.  A fitful night really, but we did sleep most of the night, until the alarm went off at 7 this morning.

So, a leisurely breakfast in the Bistro, where many of the staff recognised us and welcomed us back with big smiles, (they are a lovely crew on this ship).  We'd decided to go for a walk through Colombo this morning.  I have to admit, the city did look a little intimidating.  It had taken the bus almost 10 minutes to drive through the port area to bring us here and we didn't know how long it would take to walk out.  Colombo port is one of the biggest in the area and a very busy commercial dock.

The area looks pretty rough and squalid too and I planned to stay close to Peter. However, the little walk we planned didn't go quite the way we expected.

It turned out that it does take quite a long time to get out of the port, but it wasn't obvious at first.  We walked out of a gate a few minutes after getting off the ship and thought that was it.  Nope!  A good 10 minutes later, when we walked up some stairs to get off the road the into the city, we were asked to show our cruise cards again.

First impressions of the city is that it's big, busy, and like all cities, full of "helpful" characters who are really only looking for tips.  We'd decided to head towards the lake in the centre of the city, and then perhaps make our way to visit one of the Budhist Temples, and we followed our little Voyager issued paper map accordingly.  The first thing that caught my eye were the bats.  They were really quite big.  I'll have to work out what type they are later.

Indian flying fox bats, also known as giant fruit bats.  There were loads hanging in the trees of the noisy busy city centre.  Amazing really. 

Moving on, we were crossing the road, and one of the locals said good morning and commented about the heat and the sun and the fact that I was trying to cover up a little to avoid burning.  He started talk more, and explained he was from Candi (somewhere in middle of Sri Lanka I think), and worked as a lawyer in a bank.  He asked where we were from, how had we travelled, how long were we in Sri Lanka etc etc, explaing the best place to buy stuff, and that mostly the Sri Lankans, as Budhists, were helpful and wouldn't try to cheat you.  He seemed amazed that we didn't know that we'd arrived during a major holy and commercial event in Sri Lanka, and didn't know that Sri Lanka was the one of the best places in the world to get gemstones.  Not from the small shops in the city or near the port, because they would charge too much - but we should go to this place he knew, and that there was a 50% discount due to the holiday and that I could get a birth stone for nearly nothing and so on and so on.  Before we knew it he had hailed down a tuk tuk, agreed a price of $1 to get us there, and pushed us in.

A little bemused by what had just happened and the fact we had just agreed to visit this place - Peter and I sat in the back of the tuk tuk and thought about where we were going.  We decided we'd enjoy the ride and get the tuk tuk driver to turn round as soon as we got there.  But then I thought I'd have just have a very quick look.  You never know, if the gems where as cheap as the guy had said, we  may just pick up a little momento of our visit to Sri Lanka and this particular cruise.

One blue topaz later,(if you say "gullible" slowly, it sounds like oranges), Peter and I were in the back of a car driven by one of the employees.  He'd been tasked to take us to the ship and take payment for the stone on my visa card. (I'm still wondering if the guy on the street was plant?) Chamith (the employee driving us around) was then going to give us a lift back into town - to one of the Budhist Temples there.

But Chamith couldn't be more helpful. He decided he would take us on little tour as we drove towards the temple, and started pointing out various buildings, such as the presidential palace,

The Presidential Palace.  The current president has decided to live somewhere smaller and saved his people several million rupees.  The Sri Lankans are very happy about that.

museums and such, even stopping so that we could take photographs.  When we got to the temple, we said thank you, we'll walk back from here, but he seemed worried about us, saying that it would take an hour to walk back.  So he came into the temple with us, showing us the different rooms and then explaining different things.

Galboda Gnanissara Thera, The lead monk at the Gangaramaya Temple.  He became a monk at seven and is now well into his seventies and is very much revered.

The temple is now a bustling complex including a library and a museum as well as a massive and bemusing collection of gifts, trinkets and donations. 

The much loved elephant Ganga lived his life in the temple.  His remains have been preserved in memorial.

One of the smaller buildings in the temple complex housed this amazing image of the Budha.  The photo can't show the WOW factor of the place.  You'll have to visit. 

The temple is the largest and most important in the city, and busloads of people from the surrounding rural areas come to visit, pray and recieve blessings.  Chamith showed us the how to "water the tree" to worship, and then arranged for us to recieve the blessings from the monk. (We were the only passengers from the ship that recieved the blessings, so now we feel quite honoured.)

The monk who gave us the blessings- sruprisingly, he spoke English and explained the process .  He also got a torch out and highlighted the Budha's in the foreground, explaining that there was something like 24kg of ruby stone between them.

Chamith then drove us to the Memorial of Independence (from the British in 1948),

Colombo Independence Memorial.

and when he found out that Peter was an artist, he took us to see some the work of the locals.  I have to say, if you are in the city, and you feel that you'd like something special, then the paintings here are really quite brilliant.  If it wasn't for the fact that I'd already been talked into spending so much money, I could easily have bought one of these instead.  You have to go to the street behind the national museum, if only to look.  Those paintings were awesome.

Chamith seemed happy to keep us out for longer and wanted to take us somewhere for lunch, but we needed to get back to the ship. Because he'd been so nice, I ended up giving him $10 dollars at the end of the journey (partly to cover his "tip" to the guards at the port gates).  I think that would be nearly a days pay to him.

We decided that we'd stay on board in the afternoon, as the heat was exhausting.  In the evening we met the lecturers and the other crafter, and even later still, Peter had to stand and do his little intro piece as part of the Welcome Show to the passengers. We ended the day on the front deck talking to one of the lecturers until well gone midnight.  When we finally got to bed, we both agreed (gullible shopper moment notwithstanding), it had been a wonderful day.

We get to do our own thing tomorrow in Galle (pronounced gorl), so we can have a lie in in the morning.  Wonderful, just wonderful. 

Tuesday 22nd November - Arrival

The plane landed at around 1pm Sri Lankan time, which is 6.30 am British time. We couldn't sleep on the flight, which means that so far we've been up 24hrs, and looking in the mirror is not a good idea.

Baggage collection, immigration, being welcomed by the Voyager team and the bus trip to the port took another hour or so.  Walking out of the air conditioned airport into the Sri Lankan heat was like walking into an oven, and our first impressions of the Colombo is that is it a very big city - a mixture of squalor and high rise banks and hotels.

Our aim was to stay awake as long as possible so our body clocks could quickly adapt to Asian time, so we had tea, unpacked, cleaned up and then went to sit on the deck to drink more tea before an early dinner.  As we arrived at the teas station it had started to rain, and we thought the young lass singing on the pool deck was maybe singing to herself.  No so, a few hardened tourists had taken the sheltered tables around the deck to enjoy a drink outside.  We joined them, watching the rain and listening to the singer.

Monsoon season in South West Sri Lanka starts in December,  but no one told the clouds above us.  The rain steadily increased to "chucking it down in buckets" and the lightning started.

And it was absolutely awesome! I don't ever remember lightning anything like it before.  As well as lighting up the sky in great sheets, it forked down to the city with the loudest ear deafening cracks I've heard,  The rain soaked the decks and started to threaten the safety of sound system electrics, but the singer just moved further back into her stage and carried on.

Peter and I loved it. Half an hour that we will carry forward in our memories for a very long time.

The storm quietened just a little, and the singer finished and it was time for dinner.  We sat in the Bistro watching the strobe lighting of the storm flash and flicker outside, congratulating ourselves on the fact we felt pretty awake. 15 minutes later, we looked at each other with blurry eyes and declared we couldn't keep them open any longer so we were off too bed.

Tomorrow we spend our first proper day in Sri Lanka.  We've not got any tours, so we'll probably just take a walk into town.  I think I would be excited if I wasn't so tired.

The start. All excitement and patience!

It's 7.15 pm and me and Peter are sat in Heathrow airport, waiting for news of our flight gate.  It's a 10 and a half hour flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Our journey here was OK, except for the horrendous rain and surface water that's had Peter tensely gripping the steering wheel most of the way down.  The queue to offload the luggage was verrrrrry long, and when got there, it turned out that only one of us had a seat reserved.  Thankfully, the check in guy at Sri Lanka airlines sorted it out for us, and we are now sitting together during the flight.  Whether that stays a good thing remains to be seen.

Next post, Colombo.