Monday, October 13. Serampur/Serampore
We went ashore at Serampur at 10 am. This was the old Danish enclave. Serampore was part of Danish India from 1755 to 1845, under the Danish name Frederiksnagore. Denmark's presence in the area left a significant cultural and architectural legacy, with several colonial-era buildings remaining today. Among the most prominent are St Olav's Church, Serampore College, Danish Government House and the Denmark Tavern (which has been restored and reopened as a hotel and restaurant). Serampore was sold to Britain in 1845 and subsequently integrated into British India, with its original Bengali name officially restored.
We visited the church there which had had a new roof paid for by Danish citizens in the last 10 years or so: this was quite plain, but still very large in scale. Then we visited the law courts which seemed out of a different century if not two different centuries, with the lawyers sitting at dusty benches with type writers and their clients preparing both criminal and civil offences. Then onto the museum which was in the Danish town hall, this also have been restored in the present century. Finally we reached the Tavern which has now been turned into a hotel of a very high standard and very reasonable rates with views over the Hoogley. We had a coffee in paper cups. Chris was complete exhausted again by the time she got back to the ship manage to eat some lunch before retiring to the cabin for a snooze though.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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| Boys using magnets to harvest coins thrown into the Ganges | |||
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Most of us had a foot massage and some of the ladies had a henna tattoo on their arms. Jo's was particularly beautiful but it seemed to have disappeared too quickly for her liking. At 5:30 pm there was a sari dressing up for the ladies and the men in their own Indian attire. This followed by a dancing session which we abstained from and went out onto the deck. Meanwhile during the day David had emailed Pandaw head office in Vietnam about his problem with the purser and by lunchtime had received a reply which basically said like it or lump it. We were told that the purser would contact us but he did not and we discovered later that this was his first trip with Pandaw although he’d been in the hotel industry for many years. The long and the short of it was David swore he would never travel on Pandaw again.
We had dinner with Robin and Totu, but I had no appetite yet again and will be glad to get on the road and have different food in the coming weeks. And at some stage it was announced that we would now be allowed off the boat at 2 pm this seemingly after Diane and Steve had also had a go at the purser. what a way to run a company. And when we got back to the cabin, we discovered some very inferior free gifts so the company had obviously been nickel and diming
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Tuesday, October 14, Calcutta,
We started the day with an hours packing before we went to breakfast about 8:30 am and then spent the morning reading on deck and finishing the packing. We had finally been told that we could have lunch on board and would be taken off by coach with four others at 2 pm. The lunch turned out to be a very unhealthy - fish and chips that were mainly batter with an imagined layer of fish in it covered by crisps. There was a soup and salad before this. So finally we left the ship and had a 20 minute drive to the hotel where we were greeted royally like long lost friends and then shown up to the presidential suite, an upgrade this was really over the top - with its own dining room, various washrooms, pantries and sitting room with access to a balcony the whole length of the building
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