Poolside

 

Again Albina did not go to breakfast and I was able to tke some tea, a roll and some fruit for her to eat in the cabin. Albina was delighted that, due probably to the proximity of Mumbai which we reach tomorrow morning, she is able once again to telephone her friends. Chatting for hours to her friends on the phone is one of the few genuine relaxations that Albina enjoys, along with reading books, and playing solitaire on her phone. Both our telephones now reflect Mumbai time, while in contrast my laptop still shows UK time, namely 05.37 to our 11.07. Albina has still not fully got the picture. She rang a friend in Poland at 10am only to find in Poland it was still just past 5 in the morning. However, this did not stop her from sitting out on our balcony and talking about everything and nothing to do with family and and Polish government misdeeds. In the meantime I attended another excellent talk given by the former ambassador Paul Madden, about the role of geography in diplomacy, at which I did not, for once, fall asleep once.

After lunch I spent an hour lying with Albina sunning ourselves on the balcony and then decided for the first time to try out the pool area. Albina preferred to stay in the cabin. I took up our bath towel only to find this unnecessary. as bath towels are provided by the staff at the pool side. It is a pleasant seclded area with a modest size pool and is dominated by a sculture of two flirting sea lions. The area looked full but actually there were still plenty of empty sun beds. One of the happy characteristics of the Borealis is that although it is full with its 1300 or so passengers it never appears overcrowded, whether in the buffet restaurant, or at the shows (when there are always two sittings), or, indeed, at the pool side. Somehow we all get around without getting in each other's way. I dozed off in the sunface down for an hour or so, the sound of surrounding low voice chatter being interrupted only by the sound of the table tennis match in the corner. The roof of the poolside area was only taken off after we had left Italy, but it had been a popular place to visit. I am not a strong swimmer. I only learned to swim in my late fifties and even then I never practiced it much. Frankly, ever since being a child, I have not been too trusting of water. I last swam four years ago in St Lucia. Still, I did do a single sharp splashy crawl across the width of the pool at a moment when the pool was empty, and thought that to be sufficient for now. I spent a couple of minutes in the hot tub as well. Then I changed for dinner, while Albina was still sleeping. I massaged her all over when she woke up, and that seemed to have given her relief. 

Tmorrow morning we arrive in Mumbai. Here Albina and I split up. I am with a group that is flying in the morning to Delhi and willthen be traansferred by coach to Agra. We will eventually be flown in 3 days' time to Kochi to catch the Borealis just before it departs. In the meantime Albina is booked tomorrow for a tour of colonial Bombay. On the next day she will join a boat tour for the waters around Goa. When the vessel reached Kochi she will be on a tour of the back waters of Kerala Province. At the end of that day we will all meet up again.   

However, here the fun begins. After the security nightmare of Egypt we have the bureacratic nightmare of India. When I go ashore I will have to present to Indian immigration a copy of my passport, along with a signed Indian arrival card, a print out of the Electronic Landing Card and a copy of my Covid passport, showing all my vaccinations. The passport will be taken away along with the arrival card and the Electronic Landing Card will get stamped and returned to me. I must keep it with a photocopy of my passport to present to immingration officials in Kochi when I leave. In the case of Albina she will need to present her passport, signed Indian arrival card and her Electronic Landing Card. Again the first two will be taken from her and the remaining document will be stamped and returned to her. On her next two excursions in Goa and Kochi she will need to present each time the stamped Electronic Landing Card and a separate photocopy of her passport. Easy so far? Well, most of the people on my excursion will also have to present a copy of the Indian Electronic Visa to Immigration. However, because Albina and I actually have a valid Indian visa stamped in our passports we should not need the Indian Electronic Visa. In the meantime our original passports will be returned to the Borealis by Indian Immigration before the departureof the vessel from Mumbai. Welcome to India.