As I sit down to write some postings on Mumbai it is 4.30pm local time on Monday 3rd February and we have been waiting since 2.00pm for the ship to be cleared and leave Mumbia. A desperate Captain is no doubt marching up and down the bridge but there is absolutely nothing he can do. The remorseless bureaucracy that is India grinds on in its own inimitable way and who do we have to blame – well us (The British of course) who gave India bureaucracy. At this rate it is going to take longer to get clearance to leave than it was to get clearance to enter yesterday which also took over two hours with a face to face immigration interview followed by a security check to leave the cruise terminal and another to leave the port through the “Green Gate”.
You will be pleased to learn that we did slip our moorings at 6.00pm some 4 hours later than planned and the reason? A member of the crew had decided to ‘jump ship’! This happened once before on my Round South America voyage in 2012 when a member of the crew jumped ship in New Orleans, not a good thing to do as far as the USA is concerned and all crew leave was stopped until we left American waters after Key West and Galveston.
We wait to see what happens when we try to dock and get clearance in Cochin on Wednesday 5th February.
There is a reason of course and one which I should have recognised earlier from my visit to India last year on my Round Africa voyage and that is that the India remains on high alert following the terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal hotel in 2008(?) and the attack on the bus carrying the Indian cricket team. Everywhere you go security is tight as I commented in my Blog last year with the underside of cars wishing to draw up at hotels being checked with mirrors as well as being required to open bonnets and boots for inspection but as they say “better safe then sorry”.
Despite these delays it has not spoilt, for me at least, a second visit in just under a year to this vibrant and cosmopolitan city of some 13 million people; 3 million of whom commute into the city every day but more about that in a later posting. I shall try not to repeat my thoughts from last year but to bring a fresh perspective on ‘life in Mumbai’ but for those who want to read more then here is the link to my Round Africa Blog: http://terry-indianocean.blogspot.co.uk/
When I saw that we were staying overnight in Mumbai I had thought I would not bother to get off the ship but I pretty soon realised that although I had seen a good deal of Mumbai last year there were things that I still wanted to see and experience such as a view from the seaward side of the India Gate, the Victoria Terminus Station at the height of the rush hour and just a chance to walk the streets passing the sacred cows waiting for Hindus to do their good deed for the day by paying a few rupees to feed them on their way to work and to see the Ashok Leyland double decker busses that must be more than half-a-century old loaded – and often overloaded with commuters.
So welcome back to the sights, sounds, smells and chaos – although organised – that is India or more particularly Mumbai.
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