April 7, Holy Saturday
Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city of India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million people.
The ship arrived at 7:00 a.m. and immigration official boarded to conduct a full passenger face to passport inspection between 7:00 and 8:30 a.m. No sleeping in today for some passengers. The dock we are at is the Navy Pier and it is the pits, Princess must have gotten a good deal on price. Almost don’t want to leave the ship but of course we did.
India Greeters
We ended up leaving at 9:00 and took the shuttle bus to the green gate. This brought us to the dock where we docked on our last world cruise. Betty asked another couple, John and Maureen, if they wanted to join us and split the cost of a taxi since we both were headed to the Taj Mahal Hotel. The cab drivers here are a pain, they get you inside the cab and then want to take you all over the city for an additional price. We told him no several times and he finally gave up and took us where we wanted to go.
We never met John and Maureen before, they are from Australia and are a very fun couple. They were more than happy to tag along since they had been to Mumbai several times. I wanted to go to the Café Mondegar and Betty wanted to go to the Cottage Industries government store. We found the café but it was too early for beer, so we tried to find the store. We walked down the shopping street that was filled with vendors selling everything imaginable. Talk about being hassled! You never make the mistake in places like this of actually picking something up because then you own it. Going the other direction we found the Cottage Industries store and had to get to the other side of the very busy street. We made it across safely, not a easy task since the traffic in India is a nightmare. After all that the store didn’t open for another hour so we headed to the Café Mondegar. I was wearing my Mondegar T-shirt I purchased 4 years ago. The owners noticed it right away and got a kick out of me wearing it. Then I spotted the waiter that waited on us back in 2008. He remembered me and asked where my friend was, I told him he was back home in the USA. Proof that a big tip pays off. I had an ice cold Kingfisher beer. Brought back memories of me and my friend Bill Hosford sitting there drinking all day while Shirley and Betty would go shopping. After one beer only, we left to go shop!
Café Mondegar
We took our life in our hands and crossed the street again to the Cottage Industries store. These stores are government run, the products locally made and of better quality then on the street. We bought a few small items, could have bought much more but couldn’t fit it into our luggage. When done we decided to go have lunch at the Taj Mahal Hotel. After going through security screening we checked out the menu at the two restaurants but the prices were ridiculous. Then I suggest that we go back to the Café Mondegar where it would be a lot cheaper. John and Maureen were willing, so off we went again, through the throngs of cab drivers and vendors. Once there we were seated by my friend, and the four of us ended staying there for several hours and drank many Kingfishers. (I think Bill finally met his match, it is hard to outdrink an Aussie.)
We then left to find a taxi back to the ship. John and Maureen both wanted to go directly to the ship and not have to wait for the shuttle bus. I went up to a cab and asked the driver how much to take us back inside the port to our ship and he said $5.00. I told him we must go directly, no stops to his uncle’s stores. Once on the way he put on the meter, I told him it was $5.00 he said okay again. Then he tried to drop us off at the green gate where the shuttle comes to. I told him no, we wanted to go inside the port to our ship at the naval pier. He makes a u-turn and heads off until he reaches another gate, he gets out of the car and goes into an office and comes out with a permit to enter the port. He then says the fee to enter was $10.00, he shows me the paper but I could not read it. I said okay figuring I would worry about it later. We enter the port and we can’t see the ship anywhere, he shouts outside the window every so often asking for directions. Now we have driven by the yellow gate and the blue gate. He stops at the red gate and talks with a security guard and a military officer, they did not seem amused with him being in the port. We had to show our shore cards that were issued to us by India.
Maureen, Betty and John in back of taxi
I don’t know why they are smiling
After driving around another 5 minutes, poor John, after so many beers, had to go to so bad we had to have the driver stop. He disappeared behind a big fuel tank and came back smiling. Finally we spotted the ship. Of course when we got out of the cab he tried to charge us $40.00. I gave him $20.00 which was more than I should have, but you have to feel sorry for these poor people.
Once back to the terminal, which was more like a abandoned warehouse, some vendors had set up shop and I bought Betty a silver elephant necklace. We got back on board around 4:00 and took well needed showers, although the weather was not as hot and humid as we thought it would be. It was a very enjoyable day. We decided to go to the show, which was a stand up comic named Tom Briscoe, creator of So…I got fired from that job! He was very entertaining. We returned to the cabin and fell asleep around 10:00, missing the sail away from Mumbai.
After leaving the Mumbai harbor and dropping off the pilot we set a westerly heading leaving Mumbai and the Indian coast behind.
