12:50 pm (India Standard Time)
Happy New Year! After a late breakfast (actually I would not have needed anything, because canapés and doughnuts at midnight have satiated very well after a rich, festive dinner and counteracted the hangover) we are again in line for entry formalities. The yellow shore leave card for Mumbai must finally be stamped by the authorities before we are even allowed to set foot on land. Armed with the same and our copy of the ID card, we join the queue 10 minutes before it starts – just as it should be for good Germans. The stamping takes place from 13:00 – 16:00 o’clock.
Just then a female officer (at least she looked like one in her uniform and with walkie talkie) walks past us and speaks into her radio that it will take “at least another 20 minutes”. I hope she means docking and not this stampede. Somehow, lateness doesn’t matter so much here, even though arrival at port was scheduled for 12:00 according to the itinerary announced before the trip. It is, after all, a vacation.
01:00 pm
She meant the docking… Unfortunately, this is also linked to the stamping of the yellow cards, because the officials are not yet on board.
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