Day 72 – 3/27 – Port Blair, India

Port Blair belongs to india, but it is a long way from Mumbai. We’ll have 4 sea days between Port Blair and Mumbai, so that’s about 1500 to 2000 miles. The port is in the Andaman Islands, and archipelago east of India and Northwest of Malaysia.

One of the points that our port lecturer made about India is while it is largely Hindu, they tolerate all religions…to the point that the government does not interfere in any activities that are rooted in a religion. The lecturer belonged to a religious group that disposed of their dead by putting them on top of a specific structure, where the bodies are devoured by vultures completely in about a half hour. (You have to admit this is probably the most environmental friendly system you’ve heard of yet…complete biological recycling.)

When India was a British Colony, the Andaman Islands were used as a prison colony. There are some 700 separate islands in the chain. Some are uninhabited and some have primitive people.

We did a tour on our own. This was adequate. We first went to the old prison. It was for political prisoners, and had 700 individual solitary cells…each only 7-1/2 by 13-1/2 feet. They fed prisoners out of rusty kettles to help them die sooner!

We went to a Hindu temple, but it was not particularly old, nor big. We went to the shopping area, which also was mostly ordinary.

I think we have been spoiled by the last 7 ports, all of which have been quite interesting.

The main task for the trip was to endure the heat and humidity.

Our cabin steward went on shore. He thought it was great. He bought some things, had some beers, and found a place to swim.

Some other guests went to beaches to swim. We only found one person who went into the water, even given the heat and humidity. One said they saw on a website that “it was not recommended” to go into the water. Another said their guide pointed out a nearby island that was well known for all of its snakes. She thought these snakes might swim. Others reacted to the high number of dogs and cows on the beach, and even though none were in the water at that time, she figured high tide to wash some unwanted items into the water.