JUST CRUISING ALONG…
It was just for the sheer fun of experience of riding the high seas that we decided to take a cruise on Star Libra which would cover four nights and five days. The ship starts from Mumbai and touches Goa and Lakshwadeep. We finally worked out a concessional ticket for Rs 15, 000 per head which was all inclusive of three meals a day and one free trip to Goa and one to Lakshwadeep possible thanks to the senior citizens discount. We were able to get a cheaper fare on account of the third person in our cabin. It would be safer to assume that it would cost Rs 18,000 per person on a twin sharing basis. (Rs 25,000 for the first person and a fifty percent discount for the second) Our cabin was on deck level 6 and we chose a room without a porthole as it cost less.
We took a flight to Mumbai and after enjoying a revisit to the metro we boarded the ship at Indira Docks Ballard Estate. The ship is a luxury liner weighing about 42,000 tons, 216 metres long and 28 metres wide accommodating about 1700 persons or more. We were welcomed by two very tall and voluptuous beauties their faces painted, sprinkled liberally with razzle-dazzle and resplendent costumes, set off with long coloured plumes on top of their heads, making them look like birds of paradise from a different world. They insisted on taking photographs with each family, and we found later that the photographs were displayed in the photo gallery priced at Rs 350 each! We parked our luggage into our miniscule cabin with two beds and an upper berth. It was clean and nicely kept but we were packed like sardines in the confines of that little cabin. We did not mind as we were hardly in the cabin what with those late nights and we being early morning risers …
Some of the magnificent sculptures could not however withstand the onslaught of plunderers and war and many a storne carving was pillaged by the swords of unscrupulous conquerors…………
Namaste. 2008
