Wed 28th Bombay (Mumbai)..........Bombay, a city of contrasts! We took a bus tour to 4 very different kinds of temples, which were located far from each other, so we saw a lot of the city also.Ones first impression is of overcrowding. There are 16,600000 inhabitants and it seemed that they were all out on the streets with us. Either walking, riding motor scooters, or in one of the 15000 taxicabs. All these, interspersed with an occasional sacred cow! I would just...

Mar 25 &26, Cochin, India................Our first taste of India. We moored in a bay across from the City of Cochin, originally founded by the Portuguese. In the morning we hired a Tuk Tuk, a motorised tricycle, and the driver gave us a tour of the narrow streets of Ernakulum, with stops at several shops and a large street market. All very interesting and prices are very low, but being a Sunday, all the town shops were closed in the morning.After lunch on bo...

Sun Mar 18......Thailand.We docked at a container port at Laem Chabang, which is about a 45 minute bus ride from the nearest town of Pattaya. It is also a 2 1/2 hour ride from Bangkok, so we said "no way." Pattaya is a somewhat sleazy holiday town, quite cheap shopping, and a nice beach, but too hot to take advantage of it. We wandered around, then had a very nice long lunch in the Marriot at an outside terrace bar near their pool.There were a couple of...

Sat March 10.........ShanghaiWe were docked in a container port about an hours drive from the city, so a bus tour was necessary to see anything. First appearances were not promising. We passed literally hundreds of high rise apartment buildings were the people were living. Most of them, we were told, are one room apartments with a rental of approx. $30/month, paid to the government. Later on, nearer the city centre, were better quality, more expensive places, own...

Thursday Mar 1.........Raboul, Papua New Guinea.Raboul used to be the Capital but was devastated by a volcanic eruption some 10 years ago and there is not much left of it. The volcano is still active and looks very spectacular with smoke and fire issuing from the crater. Otherwise not much to see. The people are very poor and quite primitive, but very friendly and everyone turned out to see us arrive and try to sell us something, trinkets, wood carvings etc.It wa...