Exploring Chennai

Visited northern India 15 years ago with Christine,nJeff and Amy soelected to stay in southern India Chennai and environs.  Chariot of the Mylapore Temple complex getting painted for the ten day festival.  All the Hindu Gods and Goddesses repaintedin their multi colors forthe parade that starts at 6 in the morniing.  Mencome to prayall day and fast untilevening..Flowere garlands of jasmine perfume the air.   13*58.2N   80*17.74* E   Docking port side with welcoming band rh outside my deck.     Shopping with Lynn in Spencer Plaza--High rise mall 5 stories with interior atrium.  getherAll types of shops jumbled.  Magazine  INDIA tODAY PACKAGED WITH business week and india travel all for 20 ruppees 40cents and inlcluding an asperin tablet!s

  Working Womens Forum 26 years old  granting to women micro loans usiness.   Join in .goups of 6 friends.  peer pressure to repay  Interest rate of 18 % deminishes with good experience. 

Away India

It was a magical place.  The sights sounds honling horns people the students returning to the ship each day in Indan dress,all embracing the magic.   Driving from the city along three lane divided highway IT centers on both sides.shiny buildings with thtched huts at their base. People going to work in starched white shirts  sor pants.or saris.    Many schools colleces and universities, engineering rrcolleges. Motorcycles and tuck-tuckes  three wheeled taxis or motrocycle with framed seats  Rural farm Hindu house has prayer room set  aside for daily prayers..Grandfather portrait with lights next to the tv which is always on. Small vegetable plot in back.  Ride bullock cart  to  tfkor us to drinhe fields.  Cut rice for the harvest.  Farmers wear madras cloth skorts and white shirts.  Peanuts and coconuts. He climbed the trees and thew down green coconuts for us to drink.   All the children go to school and are enticed with breakfast and lunch.  Monsoons are not as steady as they used to be and crops are poor.

Chennai India

Just two days in India and the world looks different.  It is great to be on land and doing some sightseeing, even in a bus with thirty people.  City of Chennai is a sprawling mix of small towns.  The most impotant feature is the long metropolitan beach second only to Rio in the world.  It was an empty stretch of sand in the dat but at night it came alive with people. Famitlies with children. religious groups chanting, cricket games and long lines of stalls selling every kind of foods barbeque, fried dumplngs corn on the cob and on and on.  It is the life of the city but only when the sun goes  d               Religeon is all over the  city fronm  Hindu shrines  buddhist temple Catholic churches .  Every little shop is another dealer in something from saris to computers.  Luck it was Sunday so the bus could get thru..The people live above their shop much like Brazil.  These countries of many small entrepreneus are switch ing rapidly from brooms to cell phones.  I mad several calls from an unbrella stand set up on the dock with three cell phones.  On e dollarr American for three mionutes          .                          

Chennai

The days are long but we do have fun

TRY THE Anything but clothes dance.   You must were somethying but not clothes or anything from yhe ship.  How about hats, momeo sheets glued together, papernapkins  hats or what have you.

Mauritius after the storm

It was quite a night on the edge of cyclone Indlala.  Thg.  Water bottles. remote controlsllyine ship wastossed and thigs wew fl down and we sighted Runionying,   anything not nailed down.  By morning it had calmeddoe north We edged inside hwn  and we sighted Reuni       the on.    Mauritius about 11 am  Wind blowing about 35 knotsfrom trom the north  we edged inside the reef and the large harbor swollowed us up.

Equater almost backMarch21

Long days at sea  made lively by the sea olympics.  Alond day of competionb by the ten "seas"  that  represent the corridors of the ship

continuing at sea

The sea olympics was a wild day on board.   Starting with the flag and cheering contest with each of ten teams marching g  intheir colored T shirts and bandanas.  I was one of three judges a difficult task to choose among the turtles sharks, yellow submarineetc.  The the tug of war. theslippy-slidycontest the ping pong contest, trivial persuit ending with the lip synch contest which was hilariuos,  everything from strip tease to barbie doll.

sighted land, an island south of India

Lat 7.1S  Long 72.24E  The sea is calm and we are continuing study days alternating  A and B.  Most days I start with coffee on deck then 15 minutes of spinning bicyle riding followed by breakfast.  the best meal  cereal with yogu rt eggs any one of three ways on alternayting days and more coffee.    Global studies a required course talks about the places we have been and where we are going.  All in geographic or historical context.  Also touching on poltics and the sustainable planet. Local speakers come on board between ports to give their views of the contempoary scene.   Then some work on the computer, mostly frustrating.   Lunch outside on the afterdeck with either friend faculty os students.   A large plate of lettuce is the centerpiece plus mixed beans rice fritta or fish.  It doesnot sound too good but it really is.  Fresh fruit which I usually save for later..Two classes in the afternoon followed by an hour of pilates a  metting of the life long learners (which is really a cocktail Hour)  I have given it up for the voyage.  We have show and tell after each port but most LL are pretty dull.  One is collecting masks at each port and they are interestng.   Followed by supper, much like lunch.  But you never get too hungry because you dont do too much.   Evenings have an entertainment a film some bridge or whatever.  We lose an hour every other day so the nights are short.

Time Change

 

Tring to one of the shrinesonite we advance the clocks one half hour for India.  Do you know why they do it that way?     The sea was calm as we crossed the equator today.  Bright sunshine and very hot.  5 oclock cocktailparty on the seventh deck for Marys birthday.  It was memorabls to sit out with a dozen friends and cross the equator.     The we had a class in making paper doves in oragami to bring to  one of the shrines in India.  Everyone is excited to get to land after 8 days at sea.   Manyclasses are having exams as we are about at the halfway point  .   I have been comparing guide books and found a restaurant that all three said is the best in Chennai--I will put together a party one night,

Good morning

It is 6 am after another time change.  The only way to get on line.  Sorry I wont be in N.Y. when you are.  How about summer plans maye=be after camp.

After Mauritius

Itwas a great visit to this distant island capped by the brightly colored fis swimming in the Indian Ocean.   Blue Bay was a beautiful lagoon circled bt palm trees.  We entered the water in a glass bottomed boat and floated over giant corals then snorkeled among brightly colored fish.

Happy Birthday

At Sea March 12  Happy Birthday to you and  island  this is independence day.  We have two more day at sea.  This is reputed tobe the most turbulant area of the sea and it is.  Overslept to the crashing of the waves.  I am lokking forward to this port a very unusual place with  island widw wifi free and an import export zone .

continuing Saturday

We are stii rocking and rolling

March 10

New method of blogg post  will be quick and easy.

WednesdayMarch7 Just retuned from tour of the Cape Flats area between Cape Town an d the Peninsula. Area o f sand dunes and scrub vegetaiotn mostly the Australianacacia trees. A small demonstration site is set aside by Cape Flats Nature Preserve to educate peoples of the area to importance of native shrubs and plants to the area. This is the most heavily settled area now housing over 250,000 peoplein 10 by10 tin shacks. Another 1000 arrive eachday. The government provides water and sewer and they movein. There are no jobs and little transport . Business spring up from hairdressers to tire repair shops and the people live on hope. They are destroying the dunes and when winter comes the wind and sea will flood all this area. The Nature Preserve employs some women in the reforestation programs. Some schools are being built but it a race against Hivaids. At the other extreme we touredthe Kirstenbosch B otanicalG ardens one of the most beautiful in the world. The gardens and planting are extenssive but it was difficult to leave the other images.

Saturday,March10 atsea. Rocking and rolling one hand for th e shipthe waves are not very big but the rollers are huge. The Captain just announced the elevators are shut down and the outsihde deckens are closed. It is a day of no classes so all the students are sleeping in to catch up from river rafting, bungee jumping and wine tasting, none of which I did. Theglasses in the bar arte jingling like wind chimes. Stillin the commercial harbor of Capetown waiting for refueling. This huge basin ceould hold fifty freighters but is quite empty. Not much commercial shipping. Trip to Cape Nature Preserve a small plot of about 10 acres being reclaimed from the acacia trees. Local women are employed rushto clear the bldrerush and plant seedling of native species. It is a small starrrt toward microemployment. School chil dren are brought in study reclaiming the land around thr factories. Further down the peninsula the Cape Flats are bulldozed to provide more area f or the 1000 people a dayt arriving from the farms. Four privveys back to back are erected a from nd connected with electricity. From overhead wires. Then the squatters erect their tin sheds around. 10 to a group with no space between. On and on for several miles They become etabllished villages providing whatever they need for each eryother. Transprt is by jitney busses the look they would breakdown from the load . PreprimaysEducationis as far a.s it goes