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The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part One

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October 29 (Thursday, Day 1, Flying to Mumbai, India) -

We left our house at 9:30 AM for KCI. Security was no problem and we had a little bit of time to spend in the Admirals Club. We got on the plane for Chicago and were happy to have the middle seat empty between us. We got to Chicago and now had a 5-hour layover. We spent 2 hours in the Admirals Club and Snookums took a shower right before we left and went to O’Hare’s Terminal 5 for our Air India flight.

Our Air India 777, viewed from the O'Hare Admiral's Club

More after the jump . . . We learned that for the non-US flights, Terminal 5 is used. Terminal 5 is actually less commercial than KCI and very dumpy! We spent another 2 hours patiently waiting for the on-time flight. There’s nothing like a scheduled 5-hour layover PRIOR to two more 8-hour flights. . .

We got on the plane and were happy to have the middle seat empty once again. Yippee! Snookums’s entertainment system didn’t work so Filbert changed seats with her so that she could watch movies. None of the overhead reading lights worked in the middle section of the plane so when Snookums wanted to read, she used Filbert’s flashlight. Chicken curry was served and it was quite spicy and Filbert enjoyed it. Snookums ate the low cal meal that was special ordered for Filbert (which he didn’t want since he was looking forward to regular food for the first time in about 2 months) and was very happy with the broiled chicken and white rice entrée.

Arriving at Frankfurt Airport. Gotta love European airports.

After all of the entertainment system problems (including the airplane having to reboot the entire system for some reason) Snookums watched “Bride Wars”. We also got a breakfast of a pastry and a croissant about 2 hours prior to landing in Frankfurt. We landed 45 minutes late which meant our 1.5-hour Frankfurt layover was no longer very long.

October 30 (Friday, Day 2, Flying to Mumbai, India) -

We had time for a quick bathroom break while we walked to the gate. The Frankfurt airport is being renovated so the women’s room was kind of a temporary thing with two stalls. Snookums waited in line and couldn’t get her empty water bottle under the faucet to refill it so she had to buy one. A bottle of water (.75 liter) cost $7.31!! The price one must pay to stay hydrated.

We lucked out again and had the middle seat empty between us. All of the entertainment systems worked as well as all the overhead lights. The meal was chicken curry (again) and this time both of us had it. The snack that was served about 2 hours prior to landing was a cucumber sandwich. The big news of this flight was that Filbert actually slept for 2 or 3 hours. He has never been able to sleep on planes before but the 51-pound weight loss must have had something to do with it. He was very excited to get in some shuteye and wake up feeling rather refreshed.

We landed on time (10:30 PM) and cleared Immigrations, the H1N1 check (which consisted of turning in a piece of paper that the guy didn’t look at) and Customs. We paid for a pre-paid taxi to take us to the Intercontinental Marine Drive in Mumbai and got ready for our adventure in India.

We had the name, address and phone number of the hotel for him. Considering it’s one of the top 5 hotels in all of Mumbai and is located on the main drag of Mumbai, we didn’t think we would have difficulty getting delivered there. Wrong! Our driver stopped several times to get directions from other drivers. We finally saw the hotel before he did. He was going to let us out about 3 blocks away but we had him drive to the hotel. Our taxi pulled up and security guards immediately did a bomb check. We got out and had to go through security in the hotel, too. (And we had to go through that check every time we entered the hotel.) Our room was ready (which was good, since it was now 1 AM!) and since we used points for it we were NOT given an upgrade. But, it was a very nice room and would have even been a nice room in the US. We showered and went to bed around 2 AM. It was a 29-hour day for us, door-to-door.

By the way, two years ago we landed in Delhi, India around the same time of night and were amazed by the traffic and chaos. Mumbai, though, was kind of sleepy and even during the day, cars drove in the correct lane and didn’t crowd the streets in order to make a 3-lane road into a 7-lane road. 3 lanes meant that 3 cars drove side by side and that’s it. Tuk tuks (3 wheeled “taxis” that spew diesel fumes) are not allowed in downtown Mumbai so we never saw any of those at all. And, we only saw 3 cows (ox?) and they were being used for pulling carts. So, Mumbai was like paradise compared to Delhi. The difference was astounding. We had read that Mumbai is very cosmopolitan and that people that live in Mumbai look down upon people that live in other parts of India and now we can see why that is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a place we need to visit again, but it’s quite tolerable!

October 31 (Friday, Day 3, Mumbai, India) -

We ate the $12 hotel breakfast buffet. Besides the normal Western breakfast foods, there were at least 10 dishes of Indian foods and we had to try them all. These includes minced lamb with peas, chicken in a yellow sauce, potatoes and peas in a rice dosa (kind of like a burrito), lentil broth, mashed chickpeas covered in some kind of breading, cheese donut (a donut with parmesan cheese sprinkled on it – it wasn’t sweet), etc., etc.

Towards the end of the meal a woman asked if we were going on a cruise and we said “yes” and then realized that both couples were going on Voyager. I still don’t know why she thought that two Caucasians eating breakfast in the Intercontinental restaurant were Regent cruisers, but it all worked out. They are Chuck and Janet and live in northern Minnesota and also have a house in the Hill Country of Texas.

After breakfast we went back to our room. Snookums was starting to feel a little “iffy” in the stomach but was ok. We decided to walk around. Snookums wanted to see the tiffin wallahs at Churchgate Station so we made that our destination. (A tiffin is a metal layered container that holds food.) Tiffin wallahs are uneducated Indians that collect lunches from the suburban homes and deliver them to the workers in the city. Three layers of tiffin wallahs are used – those that collect the lunches in the suburbs, those that sort the lunches and those that deliver the lunches in the city. There are around 5,000 tiffin wallahs and each one is responsible for about 40 lunches and there is only one mistake in every 6,000,000 deliveries. Each tiffin wallah makes $40 - $80 per month.

After seeing two of them (we were kind of early), we kept walking and just wandered around Mumbai. Mumbai is much, much nicer than Delhi or Hyderabad but it is still India though. We had sidewalks 95% of the time which was not the case at all in Delhi. There weren’t as many beggars, either, and no one harassed us for money or to buy anything. We saw many games of cricket being played on Oval Maiden which is a very, very, very large grassy oval in the middle of Mumbai. It was around 95 degrees and a little humid but bearable, especially in the shade. Even Filbert didn’t sweat that much due to his 51-pound weight loss.

Cricket, anyone?

We got back to the hotel around 3 PM, showered and took naps. (Snookums also cleaned Filbert’s shoe since he stepped in dog poop at some point during our walk.) Dinner was room service – pasta for Snookums and Indian food for Filbert. We went to bed fairly early and ended up waking up around 4:30 AM. Jet lag!

November 1 (Saturday, Day 4, Mumbai, India) -

We woke up at 4:30 AM and read the paper and watched tv. We had lots of channels and half were Hindi and the other half were English. Filbert had his instant oatmeal for breakfast and Snookums’s stomach was still kind of “iffy” so she didn’t eat anything. We decided to walk to the Gateway of India and saw the Taj Mahal Hotel across from it. The Taj Mahal Hotel doesn’t look that pretty and we couldn’t see any damage from the terrorist attack earlier this year. George W. Bush stayed at the Taj Mahal yesterday for some business dinner he attended. We didn’t see any sign of him.

Gateway of India

The Taj Mahal Hotel

Along the way we stumbled across the “Festival of India.” It was a blocked-off street with a lot of small booths--sort of like a Santa-Cali-Gon or any other arts-and-community-festival type event almost everywhere.

Festival of India

Snookums wanted a Diet Coke (we only ever saw sugared soft drinks for sale at the little stands we passed) and when we saw a McDonald’s we went in. Our large Diet Coke cost around $.80 which is very expensive. Vegetarian burgers were only $.40 each. We don’t know if all sodas cost $.80 or if Diet Coke was more expensive. Anyway, we kept walking after a very short break.

We stopped for ice cream a block from the hotel since we read a review saying it was the best ice cream in the world. (Snookums’s stomach was finally “healed” by now.) We each had a scoop for $.40 each. The shop was very clean and very modern and was quite nice (and had great A/C). However, only ice cream scoops were sold – no sundaes, no shakes – just scoops. They need to modify the menu to make more money!

The Dome

The Intercontinental’s outdoor rooftop lounge, the Dome, is mentioned in many travel guides as THE place to go to watch sunset. In addition to a view to the west over the Arabian Sea, it also has a commanding view of the Mumbai waterfront, called the Queen's Necklace. We were there when it opened--actually, we were the first two in the door--so we got good seats. Filbert had a glass of Yellow Tail wine (an inexpensive Australian wine that cost a lot in Mumbai) and ordered calamari. While we were there, Chuck and Janet came and we joined them at their table. The sunset was pretty.

The view of the Queen's Necklace at sunset

Sunset from The Dome

We went to the Italian restaurant in the hotel for dinner and Chuck and Janet showed up a few minutes later so we asked them to join us. Each of us ended up ordering pizza, which wound up being quite good, actually.

Next: Boarding the Seven Seas Voyager!