After breakfast we head out for a walk along the promenade by the Arabian Sea. We soon realise that this is a mistake - we are in a different neighbourhood to the pleasant ones we saw nearer the city. The air is fetid, the shoreline is littered with rotting detritus and in front of us a man is having a poo.
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| Fishing fleet |
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| Man in red T shirt with his trousers down. |
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| Shanty town |
We head back down the street to find the nice shops we have been promised. It is a tangle of stalls and small shops, offering fish which is already attracting flies, chickens in small hutches waiting to be slaughtered, and heaps of dusty fruit and vegetables. Mangy cats, and maimed and diseased people wander through the crowds begging. It is so awful that I find it stressful. Photos don't seem to capture the abjectness of it all. At least we find a handy little liquor store!
Finally we make our way back to the hotel to try and sort out our room. The second room is tiny as well - just as little more room around the double bed. We refuse it. Unfortunately the balcony and swimming pool is out of action due to a wedding, so we go down to reception and sit and glare.
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| Rikke insisted she be allowed to use the pool, so they pinned up the garlands as she lay on her lounger. I wasn't so game as to have these Indian men ogling my misshapen body!! |
Finally we are offered a very lovely room - let down again by basic maintenance: No plug in the cracked basin, out of date biscuits, tea bags not replaced, and why don't they let the women do the cleaning???? These men have no idea.
Then we get an email from Kirsty to say we will be denied entry to our cruise because we spent two hours in transit in Hong Kong. Then we receive another email saying our booking is cancelled because of an order from the Cruise Association, and we will get a refund.
We have rest and reassess our plans, watch some TV and await Saree night!
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