Georgetown(Malaysia), Phuket(Thailand), Colombo(Sri
Lanka), Cochin, Mangalore, Goa, Mumbai(India)
Since we
heard the terrible, very bad, disappointing news that Myannmar had to be skipped(unfavorable tides
was the excuse), we started the new itinerary with as much
optimism as we could muster, even though we have already been to all of the new ports before. That’s cruising.
So our first
port was Port Klang for Kuala Lumpur. We split up to do different things. Al took an all day trip to see all the city
sites again; I went to a cave temple and Royal Selangor pewter showroom and
production facility. Both of us had
great close-up photo stops at the Petronas Twin Towers.
The city
sites included exterior visit at the stunning Blue Mosque, white main building
and minarets topped with vivid royal blue diagonal tile roofs. He went on to the Sultan’s Palace, which is
perfectly set on the rise of a hill to show off the brilliant golden dome and
gardens between the palace and the imposing black iron gates down at street
level. The governors of the 5 states of Malaysia take turns being president (no
more sultans), each serving 5-year terms.
The current president has lasted long enough to now be serving his
second term, living again in the gorgeous palace. He drove around Independence Square to see
all the grand British-built Parliament buildings, and the Cricket Grounds and
Club in the middle of it all. There was
a visit to the National Museum, War Memorial and delicious lunch before the
photo op at the Twin Towers. They are
truly magnificent and still the tallest twin skyscrapers in the world. There was a competition to build them between
the Chinese and South Koreans – guess who finished their tower first! Ok, I’ll tell you – the South Koreans
completed construction first by a matter of a few days. But, the towers are not precisely the same
height – one (S. Korea’s) is built on slightly higher ground, so is actually a
few feet shorter. They count it as an
even competition though because of something to do with the spires on top.
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| Parliament Square |
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| Parliament Square |
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| Parliament buildings profile |
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| Nice colonial architecture |
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| Old and New |
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| Photo bomber |
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| Petronas Twin Towers |
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| It's good to be Sultan! |
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| British Polo Club and Grounds on Parliament Square |
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| Blue Mosque |
Royal
Selangor Pewter was more interesting than it might sound. The company originated in Malaysia, is the
largest producer of pewter in the world, and this is their largest production
facility. There are beautiful museum displays, a production line where much is
still done by hand, a small workshop called The School of Hard Knocks where
each of us hammered out our own bowl and initialed it (quite a noisy process),
and an elegant showroom. One of the
displays was a 2-story model of the Twin Towers all made out of shiny beer steins,
minus the handles – very clever, kind of like Legoland but pewter! The showroom had a great selection: cups,
bowls, vases, wine accessories, statues, tea sets and so much more. Some pieces are highly polished like sterling
silver and some are matte. I managed to find a few somethings.
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| Pewter Entrance |
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| Pewter Petronas |
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| Showroom |
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| Showroom |
We were not
alone at Georgetown! There were 7000 Chinese conventioneers in
town along with us, too. On top of that,
it was the first day of a school break, so it was crowded everywhere. We had very long waits for a funicular up
Penang Hill for views, worth it when we got there, but so hot and busy with
families. After, we climbed 165 steps to
Kek Lok Si Temple, a collection of temples high on a hill: one Hindu, 2
branches of Buddhist, all topped with a giant 90-foot statue of a goddess, who,
while I’m fuzzy on the details, used to be a god. It’s a work in progress with more temples
going up all over the area. There’s also
a Tortoise Liberation Pool! On some
occasions as an offering, followers can free tortoises into this pool. There are dozens of varieties, sizes and ages among the population. Very unusual, and definitely the first time
we’ve seen that practice anywhere. We
drove through the former British sector and saw the colonial buildings,
including the lovely Eastern and Oriental Hotel on the waterfront, part of the
Raffles chain. We had tea on the lawn
there in 2011. Lovely!
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| Penang Hill Funicular |
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| Georgetown, Penang from the top |
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| Looking the other way |
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| Flowers at the top |
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| More flowers |
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| At Kek Lok Si |
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| At Kek Lok Si |
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| No releases today |
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| Several temples at Kek Lok Si |
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| More Kek Lok Si - this place is huge! |
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| One of the interiors of one of the temples at...Kek Lok Si |
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| She/he is 90 feet tall! |
Usually when
we are revisiting a port, we choose something we haven’t done before, but at Phuket, we repeated the trip to Phang
Nga Bay which we so enjoyed in 2011.
It’s a long drive, but finally aboard longboats, we sped out to the
‘floating’ village for a delicious lunch and a brief look at the little school,
concrete soccer field, and the brilliant white and gold mosque (everyone here
is Muslim – about 250). The original
village really was a collection of boats all strung together, but changed over years to huts built on wooden
stilts; now most rest on concrete pylons, very rustic, some downright
primitive, except for the guy who owns the restaurant. Wow!
His home is large and amazingly elaborate compared to everything else. Clearly, he feeds a lot of tourists. Other residents have small restaurants, are
fishermen or sell souvenirs in dozens of their shops/homes. But
the only access is by boat, and the majority of the villagers (all Muslims) have spent their
entire lives in Pangyi. After lunch we
motored around the small islands – limestone outcroppings that rise up out of
the water. There are dozens of them,
mostly tree-covered, but on the bare rock closer to the water, thick and thin
stalactites drip off the sides, first ones we’ve ever seen outside of a cave. There are
caves at water level, some large enough to paddle into by canoe, and at least
one has an opening all the way through.
In fact, last time our longboat went through it, but the water level is
higher these days, so only canoes were going. We eventually circled the James Bond Island,
featured in “The Man With the Golden Gun” movie. It’s a little more dramatic than the others,
with two halves joined by a beach, a big crack down part of one, and a smaller
separate formation just nearby. Anyway, it’s a little famous so everyone goes
there.
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| Phang Nga Bay |
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| Colors in the rocks |
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| Stalactites |
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| Restaurant on the floating village |
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| Floating village |
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| See-through island |
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| Rude boat blocking our perfect position in front of James Bond Island |
On the way
back to the ship, we made a rest stop at an amazing (repeat - amazing) Gems
Palace. It was immense, and actually was
a fabulous gems museum, gems art gallery and
vast jewelry store. Everyone gets a
‘minder’ after the potty visit, and the route to the exit is one-way only. Even at a fast pace it takes about 15 minutes
to wind all the way through. We were
scheduled for 45 minutes there, but everyone in our group voted for 20 and we
did it! No one got side-tracked,
thankfully.
Day 2: we visited the Big Buddha, an enormous, 150-foot tall (and you know how chubby he is, so very broad as well) white marble seated Buddha on top of a hill overlooking town. A very devoted follower provided most of the funds, but is now accepting donations to complete the underground shrine area. It’s very impressive, and there are great views of the bays and islets around Phuket.
We visited Chalong Temple, the largest and most important on Phuket Island, very extensive grounds with several structures, all the roofs with graceful, upward curving tips, highly colored and lots of gold. One is 3-tiered with dozens of golden Buddhas inside in all his positions; one is the actual worship temple, another is for the monks’ instruction, and a couple more we never understood the purpose of. There was a large, beehive-shaped brick kiln with a low entry door and people inside, lighting off strings of firecrackers for good luck. Our guide had warned us about it so we didn’t think we were in the middle of something! It went nearly continuously. We find the temples are always so elaborate and well-cared for, reflective of the philosophy that, after your needs are met, the rest is shared. When you compare homes with temples, you see it in practice.
We had another great viewpoint from the furthest western point of the island, a high rocky cape. Atop this was a curious shrine, very tiny, within a low circular wall, but surrounded by about 3000 elephant figurines of every size and color.
We had a short visit to a small Chinese Shrine, also extremely ornate, and that was it for Phuket.
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| Big Buddha |
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| Also at the Big Buddha |
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| View from Big Buddha's hilltop |
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| Wat Chalong |
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| Wat Chalong |
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| Wat Chalong |
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| Phrom Thep Cape |
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| Lighthouse at the Cape |
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| Elephant offerings |
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| Chinese Shrine |
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| Tortoise Cakes at the shrine |
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| Chinese Shrine |
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| Hotel villas on Phuket |
The dock at Colombo was in a busy cargo port, but
right next to the Navigator was a really big beautiful yacht, complete with
helipad. Two beautiful ships in
un-beautiful surroundings!
Seems like
we’re always going to temples, and we are!
Well, when you’re in Europe, you visit churches. In Asia, you visit temples. So, once again, we went off to see a temple,
through daunting traffic, not too many obvious laws, lots and lots (lots) of
3-wheeled tuktuks, and much horn honking all along the way (the tuktuks
irritate everybody else on the road). At
Kelanyi Temple (Buddhist), we not only had to remove our shoes to enter the
temple building, we had to take them off before entering the grounds. Good thing we wore socks, although the laundry
team is going to be challenged when they get them! Kelanyi was interesting in a number of ways
(beyond the shoe thing). Worshippers
were carrying little jugs of water to the roofed altar along with their flower
offerings. Both were arranged prettily
along a ledge running all around it, and all sides of the altar were adorned
with a row of elephants, carved and painted gold. There’s a big white stupa on the grounds, with
altars on the NSEW sides, simulating entrances, of which there are none. It is
believed that the gem-studded throne of the last king of Kandy is inside,
but no one knows for sure! It’s just in
‘the chronicles’ so they believe that it’s there. Ok.
So, no entrance there, but we went into the temple itself, very old,
with wonderful frescoes of the life
of Buddha adorning every wall and ceiling of every room. Muted colors, reflecting the age of the
structure, but extremely detailed and preserved – very unexpected.
We had a
fruitless visit to the National Museum because it was swarmed with hundreds of
school children on school field trips.
They were precious in their white shorts/skirts and shirts with colorful
ties. One said he loved me and his
friend said he adored me, but who knows how many 5’9” blue eyed American women
they’ve seen, right? I think they just
wanted their pictures taken. We drove
around the President’s House, Old Parliament, Cinnamon Gardens high-end
residential area, Independence Square, and lots of big universities and
schools. It was slow-going because of
traffic, of course, but also because we stopped often at train crossings for
ancient rusty-looking commuter trains stuffed with passengers, some even riding
outside on steps up into the train.
We stopped
at a very different kind of Hindu temple, very colorful but starting to look more
like the ones in India. There was a
ceremony going on, evidently to give thanks for an answered prayer. A priest was washing a god’s statue with
water and coconut milk over and over, chanting all the while, someone drumming,
a small tray of something burning (they smeared their faces with the ash), a
whole table of incense sticks burning.
The priests were all wearing sarongs to the waist and turbans, no
shirts, and the woman and her young daughter were dressed in highly decorated
and colorful saris. This was an
expensive ceremony: there is a charge for each priest, drummer, offering,
parade, etc. Most interesting. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed.
Finally, we
stopped for dinner in the TAJ Hotel, very beautiful. We didn’t care much for
the food, but it was a pretty room on the top floor overlooking the beach.
Lots of
people on board have been buying gemstones here and in Thailand as
they are both supposed to be places to get great buys. But, like one of our guides said, it’s what people tell themselves, you had to buy your plane/ship ticket to get here! We haven’t done any shopping of that nature,
but some of the stores are incredibly sumptuous, so somebody’s buying.
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| Kelanyi Temple |
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| Altar Carvings |
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| Interior murals |
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| Interior murals |
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| KelanyiTemple Stupa |
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| Tuk Tuks |
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| National Museum of Colombo |
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| My new boyfriends from the Museum |
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| Hindu Temple |
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| Temple figures |
India!
Face-to-face immigration procedures with the authorities took forever,
so everybody left late for excursions.
We went around the small old part of
Cochin, which has a huge natural harbor, and as somewhat of a halfway point,
has been at the center of the spice trade for centuries, linking China with
western civilizations. So things are old
here, and reflect the Portuguese and Dutch rule. Here and there are lovely old Portuguese
mansions, now serving as museums, so we visited one in Mattancherry (I love
saying that). This one was originally
Portuguese but was taken over by the Dutch and everybody took over the Rajahs! We
visited a section called Jewtown, not used in a derogatory way, but because
that’s where all the Jewish traders built their homes and synagogues. We visited the only remaining one and had to take our shoes off to
protect the beautiful blue and white Chinese floor tiles. Many of the crystal oil chandeliers were of
Murano glass. There are only 5 Jewish
people in Cochin now, very old, so they welcome any visitors for their
services. The Christian and Hindu
neighbors help them maintain the synagogue and light the oil lamps for special
holidays.
We saw the
Chinese fishing nets along the waterfront, a sign of Eastern influence in the
area, then visited St. Francis Catholic Church, oldest European church in
India, where Vasco de Gama was once buried.
He’s gone to Lisbon now, though, so that’s just a factoid they tell
you. All these places are about 400
years old –pretty long time to survive the heat and humidity of India. The new part of Cochin is all business,
banking and shopping for gold, gems, and designer clothing; not interested, so
we went back to the ship.
Cochin is in
the state of Kerala. According to our guide,
it is the wealthiest state in India, almost everyone being of the middle class,
boasting good schools and medical services, a lower population, and improved
city services like trash pick-up. We
noticed a difference from 2011.
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| Chinese Fishing Net -- still in use |
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| There are about 5 total |
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| Spice Shop |
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| Gate at the Synagogue |
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| Indo - Portuguese Museum |
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| St. Francis Church - no Vasco de Gama anynorre |
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| Spice Grower's mansion |
In Mangalore we
visited a very large Hindu temple, everything painted a dull gold this time, no
other colors except the black and white marble floors throughout, and a dark
red paint on the unadorned parts of the temples. There are several temples within the grounds, the
main one containing a number of small shrine areas all throughout it. These temples are always active places;
people offering, praying, burning incense, ringing bells. Here there were also some modern wedding
venues, which can hold as many as 1500 guests.
We visited
St. Aloysius Catholic Church, which is at the heart of a large Jesuit school
complex, from elementary through university.
The church is about 200 years old, every square inch of the interior
painted in 2 years by one priest. It’s a
combination of frescoes and oil paintings, in a style very similar to the
artwork in Italian churches. It was
really beautiful and quite an achievement!
Alas, no interior pictures allowed.
Later, we
visited a 200 year old Mangalorean home, still owned and lived in by
descendents of the original owners. They
were definitely progressive (not to mention wealthy) since all six bedrooms had
their own bathroom. It wasn’t
especially fancy, but contained some of the original furnishings, and very
beautiful neat and tended gardens in front.
Juice and cookies on the porch were very welcome!
Cashew nuts
are grown here and around the state of Goa (next stop), and a lot processing
goes on here. Each cashew apple has one
cashew nut on top, so it takes a lot of fruit to yield a lot of cashews. The process includes drying in the sun,
steaming in big wood burning ovens, removing the outer shell, shaving off the
skin, sorting, roasting, flavoring, and packaging. Also, a flash cleaning at the end kills all
the germs (whew! The facility is a bit grimy, to put it politely.). Removing the outer shells and shaving the
skin are done by hand, one nut at a time, mostly by women – they work
incredibly fast as they are paid by weight.
There’s a day care at the plant and they all go feed their children at lunch
time – tiffin. We saw the kids, happy
and noisy and friendly. We have a new
respect for that can of cashews we pick up so casually at the grocery!
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| At the Temple of Lord Gokarnath |
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| Gopuram (entrance) of theTemple |
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| Another temple |
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| Gopuram of theTemple |
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| Cashew Fruits |
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| Drying lots of cashews |
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| Lots more cashews |
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| Cutting and peeling |
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| Home and garden of Mangalorean home |
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| St. Aloysius Church |
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| Delivery truck |
Portuguese
Old Town Goa is mostly unpopulated
now, since they moved the region’s capitol to Panjim, but many of the 60
Catholic churches that the Portuguese built starting 400 years ago still remain. Most are museums now, some have fallen into
great disrepair or even ruin, but we visited 2 enormous ones that are World
Heritage Monuments. The Basilica of Bom
Jesus is constructed of red basalt, has 8 interior side altars in addition to the
main altar, all highly gilded and ornate.
Above one of the side altars resides a glass-sided casket with the
uncorrupted remains of St. Francis Xavier.
Just across a huge square sits Se Cathedral dedicated to St.
Catherine. Although equally cavernous,
it contrasts greatly with its bright white exterior and rather unornamented
interior. The Portuguese king at the
time decided that, ok, yes - I’ll build another church for you but won’t be
able to cough up as much for the decoration.
But the interesting thing to us is that 2 such huge churches are in such
close proximity and that the small area of Old Goa is so dense with churches.
Some houses from the colonial Portuguese period are of a style called
Indo-Portuguese, an adaptation to the climate – big, 2- stories with wrap-around
porches, wooden shutters and doors, and carved trim contrasting with white or
colored plaster walls. We visited one
of them in Panjim; high ceilings with lacy stenciled borders, original ornately
carved wooden chests, beds, tables, and chairs.
This family still had large sets of 200 year old blue (and red) and
white Chinese porcelain dishes imported by their ancestors. The courtyard was paved with mosaics of
broken china swept from the holds of the merchant ships from the Far East. There we enjoyed lovely samosas and other
snacks served off their beautiful dining table.
Lastly, we
visited the busy local market piled with every kind vegetable, fruit, fish,
flowers, spices and more. We think
everybody in town was doing their shopping there! The vendors sit on the tables in the middle
of their goods – one man was even stretched out across his table, sleeping in
the middle of all the action! We
observed some signs posted that you won’t see in US supermarkets (see
below)! It was colorful and almost too
real for us!
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| Basilica of Bom Jesus |
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| Basilica |
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| Side Altar with St. Francis Xavier's coffin |
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| St. Francis' Coffin |
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| Se Cathedral of St. Catherine |
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| Se Cathedral |
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| Interior of Se Cathedral |
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| Goan House |
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| Living Room of Goan House |
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| Vendor at the Market |
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| At the market |
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| At the market |
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| In the market |
Immigrations process was very lengthy and strict to enter Mumbai, but eventually we left for Elephanta Island Caves. On the way, we passed the Taj Mahal Hotel which is right at the waterfront across from the grand Gateway to India monument (and the site of a deadly terrorist attack in about 2007). The hotel is impressive and imposing, with large pointed domes at all four corners. The arch was originally built in 1911 out of ‘cardboard’ for King George V and Queen Mary to pass through after their ship landed at Bombay, the first English monarchs to visit India. But the Indians liked it so much and were so proud of it that they rebuilt it in stone to be permanent. We were able to see it quite closely since we boarded a little ferry boat there for our trip to Elephanta. The bay of Mumbai is a large and rounded and full of tankers waiting to off load oil at pipeline outlets. The city (23 million +, they think!) spreads out all along the bay, but unfortunately the smog was very heavy and we couldn’t make anything out. At the island we rode a little tram (our guide called it a ‘toy train’) down an incredibly long jetty to the get to the base of the mountain. There was a collection of souvenir vendors, many dogs and monkeys, and numerous cows that wander … wherever they want! No problem with cows, of course, just with the land mines they leave – watch your step! The monkeys were no problem this time – no one got bitten or harassed. Indian monkeys have better manners than Malaysian ones! After 120 steps we reached the caves. They were hand-hewn hundreds of years ago at the wish of a devotee of Shiva who had been searching for the perfect place to construct a temple in his honor. There are several rooms with extensive murals carved into the rock, as well as statues depicting various aspects of his qualities and characteristics as a deity. Large carved pillars form parts of the entrances and are scattered throughout the inside. It’s a pretty remarkable feat, and worth the effort to come. Unfortunately, the Portuguese who discovered the caves didn’t know their significance, and used the carved figures for target practice. Faces, hands, arms, feet, etc. have been shot off. One of the figures is missing its torso and legs, but more on that later. We learned a lot about Shiva and enjoyed the visit a lot. Bish, our butler from Kolcutta, told us there are other very large cave temples like Elephanta in the interior of India.
Waiting for the train, a bull that had been standing motionless in the middle of our group, abruptly decided to investigate the trash bin directly behind Al, so he scrambled out of the way, narrowly avoiding a horn in his … side! Although still heavy, the smog had dissipated slightly, so we could see a little of the Mumbai skyline on our return trip.
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| Main Entrance |
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| West Entrance |
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| Shiva |
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| Wall Mural |
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| Interior Columns |
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| Interior Sculptures |
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| West Entrance |
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| West Entrance |
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| Free Roamer |
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| Nice Indian Monkeys |
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| Gateway of India |
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| Taj Mahal Hotel |
Immigrations process was very lengthy and strict to enter Mumbai, but eventually we left for
Elephanta Island Caves. On the way, we
passed the Taj Mahal Hotel which is right at the waterfront across from the
grand Gateway to India monument (and the site of a deadly terrorist attack in about 2007). The
hotel is impressive and imposing, with large pointed domes at all four
corners. The arch was originally built in
1911 out of ‘cardboard’ for King George V and Queen Mary to pass through after their
ship landed at Bombay, the first English monarchs to visit India. But the Indians liked it so much and were so
proud of it that they rebuilt it in stone to be permanent. We were able to see it quite closely since we
boarded a little ferry boat there for our trip to Elephanta. The bay of Mumbai is a large and rounded and
full of tankers waiting to off load oil at pipeline outlets. The city (23 million +, they think!) spreads
out all along the bay, but unfortunately the smog was very heavy and we couldn’t
make anything out. At the island we rode
a little tram (our guide called it a ‘toy train’) down an incredibly long jetty
to the get to the base of the mountain.
There was a collection of souvenir vendors, many dogs and monkeys, and
numerous cows that wander … wherever they want!
No problem with cows, of course, just with the land mines they leave –
watch your step! The monkeys were no
problem this time – no one got bitten or harassed. Indian
monkeys have better manners than Malaysian ones! After 120 steps we reached the
caves. They were hand-hewn hundreds of years ago at the wish of a devotee of
Shiva who had been searching for the perfect place to construct a temple in his
honor. There are several rooms with extensive murals
carved into the rock, as well as statues depicting various aspects of his
qualities and characteristics as a deity.
Large carved pillars form parts of the entrances and are scattered throughout
the inside. It’s a pretty remarkable feat,
and worth the effort to come. Unfortunately,
the Portuguese who discovered the caves didn’t know their significance, and
used the carved figures for target practice.
Faces, hands, arms, feet, etc.
have been shot off. One of the figures
is missing its torso and legs, but more on that later. We learned a lot about Shiva and enjoyed the
visit a lot. Bish, our butler from Calcutta, told us there are other very large cave temples like Elephanta in the interior of India.
Waiting for the train, a bull that had been standing
motionless in the middle of our group, abruptly decided to investigate the
trash bin directly behind Al, so he scrambled out of the way, narrowly avoiding
a horn in his … side! Although still
heavy, the smog had dissipated slightly, so we could see a little of the Mumbai
skyline on our return trip.
We have seen a lot of Mumbai before, but on the second day, we
decided to get out there again in all the noise, smells, crowds, colors and
chaos. It’s a multi-sensory experience,
all right! We can’t imagine ever driving
ourselves around. Our guide says you
need 3 things to drive there: good luck,
a good horn, and good brakes. We would
add courage to that list, no question.
Wow.
We passed by a wooded area where the Parsi sect is allowed to
lay their dead out – they don’t bury them.
Last time we were here, vultures were allowed to consume the bodies, but
all the vultures died from eating bodies that had residual medications in
them. Nowadays they use solar
panels! We visited a Hari Krishna temple where the
faithful were praying their repetitive chant Hari Krishna, Hari Krishna, Hari
Krishna, etc. etc. We looked out over
the huge outdoor laundry, Dhobi Ghat, where clothes are washed in outdoor vats
and hung to dry on rack after rack after rack in the sun. Don’t know how they get things so white! We
went to the house where Gandhi lived whenever he was in Bombay and saw spinning wheels on which he spun thread for
his home made cloth, excellent miniature dioramas of important moments in his
life, his humble letter to Hitler asking
him not to go to war. We passed by many
grand buildings left from the British rule of India, grandest of all being the
Queen Victoria Railway Station. Last
stop was the Prince of Wales museum, another British leftover, and lo and
behold - in the sculpture gallery was the bottom half of the Shiva statue from
Elephanta Cave Temple! Loved the Mughal
miniatures; the artists used a single hair to paint them – beautiful!
We finally called it quits and congratulated ourselves on
surviving India! But we feel things have
improved there in 6 years. Since tourism
has grown, the city has been cleaned up a lot, facilities have improved, the
desperately poor are off the streets, at least in the areas we saw - vast
accomplishments, considering the numbers.
