Have to catch up on a few days.

Cochin to Mumbai.

We had a sea day between Cochin and Mumbai. About 200 had left the ship in Cochin to travel overland to see the Taj Mahal and were to rejoin the ship in Mumbai. Our Trivia partners all went so we had to soldier on without them.

The day at sea between Cochin and Mumbai was rough with a huge swell. On deck it was hot, windy and wet but still better than staying indoors in the freezing air-conditioning.

We arrived in Mumbai and after going through Indian Immigration we were finally allowed ashore at about 10.30am.Mumbai hasn't seemed to have changed since our last visit. It's still dirty, crowded and crumbling.

We had invited our new friends, Colin and Sandra White (Colin had done a series of lectures on economics and finance on board) to accompany us so we hired two taxis to ferry us around. We did the usual things - the Hanging Gardens, Gandhi's house and Museum, the Jain Temple, Taj Mahal Hotel, etc, etc. All the same as the last time we were here. Our driver did his usual thing, too. Took us to the shops where he gets a reward for supplying customers. I did buy a pashmina - well, who knows what it's really made of but it does feel soft and fine and it does go through a wedding ring!

Later, we spotted the Pizza Restaurant near Chowpatti(?) Beach where we used to eat last time we were in Mumbai so that made us feel at home.

As it was almost time to return to the ship, we asked our driver to take us to a shop where we could buy alcohol and of course he knew of a place. It was a tiny and dark ramshackle hut about three paces wide and two deep with a blackened glass display case as a counter. Behind the counter sat two equally dark and aged men with straggly beards who were dressed in grimy shirts and dhottis. In the display case we could make out an odd bottle or two which looked as though they'd been there since Alan lived in Mumbai as a small boy. It was obviously a high class establishment.

We asked for beer and from a rusty box-shaped object which turned out to be a frig, one man extracted a dozen enormous cans of Kingfisher beer. (Well, the captain's decree was that we could bring on board a 6 pack each. He didn't put a size restriction on them.)

Some of the cans were frozen and couldn't stand up on their swollen bases so, of course, we rejected them. After scrounging around in the over-efficient ice box he finally managed to find a dozen that seemed intact. I thought we might risk taking a bottle of wine on so asked to see some. The friendly and enthusiastic salesman produced a fine 2011 Indian Shiraz which looked as though it was eating through the bottle from the inside. We promptly declined it and settled for just the beer.

As we headed back to the taxi I plunged ankle deep into a pool of mud and god knows what else, at the same time copping a large splat of roof drippings on my head. Much later, I discovered that it was actually bird droppings and I'd been wearing it for several hours.

Back at the dock we shopped a bit in the stalls that were scattered about the terminal. I bought a string of elephants with bells on their feet to hang over the new baby's cradle but nothing else. Upstairs there was a duty free shop with a queue of passengers winding out the door and along the walkway. I commented on the queue to someone who was heading in that direction. He said he was on his third trip to the duty free.

We successfully carried our beer booty on board and stashed it in our cabin before charging back ashore again. The queue had grown even longer but undeterred we pushed our way into the shop and found a couple of bottles that we needed - a Jacobs Creek white and a large bottle of Kahlua. The latter isn't exactly a wine but I thought I'd chance it anyway. The mood of the queue was quite convivial so the hour's wait to pay for our goodies passed reasonably quickly.

There was no trouble getting back on board with our new purchases but we decided against a further foray, mainly because the storage space in the cabin seems to be shrinking. We need to speed up our drinking.

We were due to sail for Dubai at 8.30pm and all souls were present on board in time. All, that is, except the Indian pilot who failed to appear. We were unable to leave without his guidance so we sat and waited and waited as the time ticked by. Remember that we're already running behind time due to the non-functioning fourth engine.

Eventually, he arrived and we set sail at about 10.30 that night.

The end result is that the trip we'd planned to take to Abu Dhabi had to be cancelled as we're now not due to arrive in Dubai until 10pm instead of 2pm. Princess Cruises, in their generosity, have given everyone a further $100 credit. Not many people are happy with that as an alternative. So now it's no Casablanca, no Muscat and no Abu Dhabi.

Bah, humbug.