8th June

Mumbai Partly Cloudy Temp 33c

We docked about 7am and the terminal was on our side, with the notice on the side “Incredible India” It felt hot and humid. Mumbai is a port city which is the most populated and richest city in India and is the second most populated city in the world. The initial city was made up of seven islands that were fishing colonies. The harbour is a natural deep water harbour sheltered by one of these islands. There were more ships here than in Singapore. If you wish to walk out to the town you first have to take a complimentary shuttle bus to the Green Gate.  At the gate you have to beat off the taxis drivers who all want to take you on a tour of the City and of course to their brother’s shop. Points of interest in Mumbai are the Gandhi Museum, Bebulinath Temple, Elephant Caves, the Gateway to India, Doby Gat where they do the laundryfor the hotel around town and the Prince of Wales museum. As we have been to Mumbai on a number of occasions and it is not our favourite city we just went into the terminal to use the WiFi ($3 per hour) and to look at the stalls which were setup inside. In the afternoon Bev, Ian and Betty went to the Movies to see “This is 40” they lasted about 15 minutes and said I would not have lasted 2 minutes.  The language was really bad and the story line was almost pornographic. Why they show such films on board is beyond me. At 5pm we went to the Interdenominational Church Service led again by Herman Ruyters who will be leaving us in Dubai which is a pity because he puts his message across very clearly.

Showtime for us was Al Brown a comedian from the UK. He told his jokes as stories and was very entertaining. He will be on again before Dubai so we may see him again. From 9pm onwards the Dawn Princess Orchestra played for dancing outside on deck 12 near the swimming pool. We went up there for a while but not many dancers turned up because I think they were all tired from touring hot Mumbai, we did not stay long either.Those Candy Crush addicts among you may be interested to know Betty has downloaded a new game called Farm Heroes. It’s a good game to play on your iPad while waiting for a show to start in the Princess Theatre. You have to get there early to get a seat.