February 25th, Chennai, India

Now it's time to bring you up to date again after our stop in Chennai, India, formerly known as Madras.  it is a very dirty city.  Do not laugh if I tell you that we got off and took the ship shuttle to THE MALL.  It is a good way to see the city as you drive through and then you are at a very clean and modern place when you get there.  I would not want to have walked one single step in any of the areas through which we drove.
In the evening, back on the ship, before sailing, they had a show of Indian dancing. It was supposed to be about fifteen minutes long and after about 40 minutes, people (starting with Carl) started to get up and head for the buffet line.  Fortunately, we were sitting pretty much out of the line of sight of the performers, so no diplomatic incidents occurred.
Amy and Ron seem to be getting the hang of life on THE SILVER WHISPER and now enjoy four meals a day and several cocktail hours.  Ron is not following your cocktail of the day strategy, Larry, but is relatively happy with some of the more exotic choices.  He does go back to beer regularly. He and Carl have been testing what is supposedly VASS ALE and a couple of times found it wanting.  Amy and Ron came with me to the Mall but Cal demurred....no surprise.
My tooth is holding .  Or at least my half tooth, but I still want to go to a dentist in Singapore.
About the dancing.  We have had four distinct versions of local dancing.  In Rio it was show girl types and carnival atmosphere and costumes.  In Africa, it was ...O yes.  I didn't see that one.  In Madagascar it had some frenetic dancing accompanied by a drummer and a front male dancer who moved constantly for over an hour.  These groups performed during the tour I took there, and later there was a group at the dock.  They were in motion for over an hour and a half!  The fourth group was the Indian one with all women and beautiful costumes.  Their dance told a story but it was hard to listen to the music for so long.  It was rather piercing after a while.
We are now on our way to the Andaman Islands.  Never heard of them. I gather it used to have a British jail for Indian rebels. 
Now, in a new attempt to blog, I will hope to keep this in draft form (while using the ship's computer, but on AOL) and then go back to the room and add some fine photos for your delight! 
Love and kisses to all,
ME

OK It's later and now I am attaching photos. One is of Amy and me at the mall in front of a shop full of saris and another is of a shrine from the bus window!