Sunday 27* passed uneventfully, attended Service in dining saloon in morning Sun was hot but there was a strong head wind Went to bed early with a bad attack of neuralgia Ship passed Stromboli in the darkness & beyond the outline of the volcano silhouetted with the bright moon behind it one could see a dull glow in the water. Messina was also passed in the night

[* There is no note to go with this *]

Mon 29 Awoke to find the sea without a ripple more like a sheet of oil but a wind soon sprang up, nothing happened all day but usual so tire of eating & again eating ad nauseam.

Tue 30th Sea choppy, stiff wind blowing. Nothing happened today except that I asked the steward to open the port hole over my bunk which is about the height of our balcony from the water & lay down to read, one of the other men was doing the same in his bunk on the other side of the cabin, when a wave suddenly came through the port-hole soaked me to the skin also wet the bed through & shot across the cabin & caught my companion 10 feet away soaking him as well, the floor was flooded & the water lopped backwards and forwards as the boat rolled. The rest of the afternoon was spent salvaging the trunks, boots & things on the floor & changing into dry clothes

Wednesday 31st opened dull with a heavy rainstorm at about 7 o'clock. We arrive at Port Said at about 10.30, the ship anchored about 75 yards from the front along which boathouses sheltered small rowing boats & the road or prom & was probably not more than 2ft above the water, the buildings commenced just across the road so that a very fine view of the town was obtained.

Immediately we anchored some enormous barges containing probably 50 tons of coal in each were tied each side of the ship & scores of Arabs wearing only shirts & trousers & rags round their heads commenced shovelling the coal into baskets which held 1 cwt [50 kg] each & carrying it up planks into the ship. The rags in various stages of decay which these men were wearing were probably once white but often what one could imagine to be years of wear had become the same colour as the coal, needless to say they were all barefooted. One man on each barge was in charge & never ceased shouting at the top of his voice at the men & they in turn were all shouting at each other, & between whiles when the foremen saw a man slowing up & whom shouting at did not affect he ran for him with a stick or rope. The narrow space between the barges & the shore was alive with boats, flitting in every direction with Egyptian officials, police, & vendors of fruit, turkish delight, beads, leather work, carpets etc etc & all these were all shouting as loud as they could, in fact it was absolute pandemonium. We waited until 11.30 to go ashore in one of the little boats, having been delayed by Egyptian officials over passports for those permanently leaving the ship but at last a move was made & the passengers started off in the numerous boats waiting, when without a moments warning a tremendous thunderstorm broke out, with a gale of wind & torrential rain, we were just in time to rush into the shelter of the promenade deck but those in the small boats were wet to the skin & the boats had great difficulty in getting the short distance ashore. The China broke from her moorings & slowly drifted across the small distance to the shore until she had actually pushed the coal barges right up to the shore itself sinking the small boats in the way, it was a marvellous sight to see from the shelter of the deck & it lasted about 1½ hours during which the noise of the shouting increased through the efforts of the men to save their boats & of the foremen over the coal heavers to keep them at their work while they were so terrified with the thunder & lightning.

It cleared up about 12.30 & we went ashore & saw many trees in the streets had been broken down, but the town itself is unspeakable in dirt & squalor & every yard one was accosted to buy something or other until we were glad to be back aboard the ship.

Unfortunately we did not start into the canal until 5 o'clock so that it was too dark to see much of it & we were through it by 7.30 in the morning. I got a good sight of arab dhows & many camels which appeared as filthy as the arabs & huts of rags which one saw now & then. We are now passing through the Red sea & so far it is no hotter than it was at Gib[ralter] as although the sun is very strong there is a fresh breeze.

I omitted to say that one man was killed, crushed between the ship & a barge during the storm at Pt Said & a barge of coal was sunk in the canal which accounted for part of our delay in leaving.

The remainder of Thur Nov 1st was spent passing through the Gulf of Suez at the head of the Red Sea, both banks were visible a few miles away, they were mountainous something like the hilly coast of Wales with hills rising to the clouds in the background but no vestage of life of any sort was visible they appeared to be bare rock except where great drifts of sand appeared. As the sun set the colour of the hills changed from brown & yellow to red then blue grey when they were swallowed up in the darkness. The temperature has been pleasant all day with a moderately cool breeze tonight

Fri Nov 2nd Passed uneventfully we passed 3 Submarines (Dutch) accompanied with a warship, temperature was much higher but we had a pleasant head wind

Sunday 4th Nov we were travelling along the coast of Arabia which was only a few miles away. At 4 o'clock we arrived at Aden & anchored about ½ mile from the shore. As at Pt Said the boat was soon surrounded with small boats offering their wares, such as baskets, ostrich feathers, cigarettes, sharks jaws many of these vendors came on board. Some of them were Jews dressed as one sees in biblical pictures & some were Arabs & other African negroes, when anyone bought anything a rope was thrown up & basket pulled up it with the purchase in it. There were no men here diving for money as at Pt Said on account of the sharks. We got ashore about 5 & took a ford car to the water tanks in the hills a few miles away, it was driven by a jet black arab, the tanks are supposed to have been built by the Queen of Sheba to catch the rain which only comes about once a year.

[http://adenairways.com/tawila.htm]

Water is the most precious thing in the town & is very expensive as it has to be distilled from the sea & we saw very many camels pulling water carts for drinking purposes On the ride we passed several native villages, some built of stone, some of sticks & matting, no glass in the windows, but shutters through with you could not see. We saw many women wrapped up from head to foot with faces covered all over with cloth, bright green or red just like masks, the negroes & arabs were dressed in every style & colour one could conceive from a pair of shorts only upwards. We saw scores of little children who cheered as the motors passed, many of them stark naked, water men carrying water in skins. We also passed the Camel market which was arrived at through a very long tunnel cut through the rock & very dimly lighted by oil lamp in the roof. Aden itself is built on a point of Arabia in the crater of an extinct volcano. There is no soil & practically no rainfall, no grass & practically no plant growth of any sort. The only tree was an immense [BLANK] near the tanks where there were also a few shrubs which appeared to exist with difficulty. The dust is everywhere & smells like the pit heaps in the black country, the roads & hills (except of course in the town itself) are exactly like the roads through a mining district but the mounds being crater walls are higher. It is garrisoned by the British & we saw a number of native as well as Sikh soldiers. We took coal on board here. The coolies being half naked negroes who did as much shouting as the Arabs at Port Said. We arrived back on the ship after dark, the air was much cooler the ship was still surrounded with the small native boats with goods for sale but these were now lit up with lamps, the coaling of the ship was also going on with the help of big electric lights, the picture was most weird & interesting but unfortunately impossible to photograph

Mon 5th It is much cooler now that we are out of the Red sea & we shall see no more land until we arrive in Bombay[Mumbai] on Friday.

On Friday 9th Nov we arrived on Bombay & tied up at about 8 o'clock in the morning, the boat was immediately besieged with barelegged & barefooted police, baggage mean[men] only wearing a shirt & an apology for trousers, inspectors etc etc & it took about 2 hours to get free. The variety in dress passes description. Took a ramshackle garry(?), which is a cab drawn by a delapidated horse, the car itself being more like a big pram & duly arrived at the hotel. Later I called on Cooks & engaged a "boy" named Nabbin who took my dirty clothes to wash helped me to unpack, got my bath ready, helped me to undress for it and meanwhile laid out my dress clothes & assisted again in putting them on. I had dinner in the grill room & found another lonesome man & spent the evening chatting with him. He is out on much the same trip & we were able to compare notes[.] I don't know his name but he is obviously from Lancashire There was a jazy band & dancing going on until nearly 12 o'clock. This is the first night which I have slept under a mosquito net in a bed like a meat safe, the fan one was already used to on the ship but although it is now fairly cool compared with day time, the perspiration drips off with the exercise of undressing

Sat 10th Had a preliminary look round & called on a few people, in the afternoon went a walk with my Manchester friend through some of the bazaars, imagine a narrow street, unpaved, without footpaths, both sides with tall balconied buildings apparently in varous stages of decay & the lower storey divided into tiny shops about 6 or 8 feet wide, about 3 feet [1 m] off the ground, no windows, but entirely open & inside several men who do not appear to be wanting for customers, the road itself being full of people in every possible type of dress or undress & mixed with it all holy oxen nosing amongst the rubbish in the road, bullock carts & hand carts pushing their way through also antique cabs called "garris" & to crown all motorcars adding their noise to all of these bazaars & everything under the sun can be bought[.] Strolled out again in the evening & coming back one had to pick one's way on the footpath to avoid treading on men sleeping in the open with sometimes a sheet over them.

Sun 11. Went a walk this morning & saw men being shaved by the roadside, others having a hair cut, in fact anywhere & everywhere the people squat on the footpath & lay out goods for sale or read to to their audience or go to sleep. In the afternoon went a drive to Malabar Hill, the best residential quarter, passsed the Parsee's Towers of Silence.

Mon. 12th morning & afternoon was out with P.D. Dadina in a garry making calls[.] Strange to find oneself sitting in a bazaar in an openfronted shop about a foot or two from the road talking business to a barefooted native while watching the motley crowd pass including the ever present oxen waggons.

Tue. 13 spent several hours walking about or riding in garris, found that when I was introduced to anyone it was in the name of Sperrynwalla the last part of which means fellow[.] The Parsees seem the most gentlemanly & as they wear trousers & shoes they look more eyeable than most of the Hindus & Moham[m]edons

Nothing special has happened during the last few days being occupied in making calls. One of the Hindu rites appears to be that of throwing food in the sea as a sort of sacrafice & having emptied the papers in which the food was carried they throw the paper in as well[.] I watched one lot from the hotel lounge, who drove up in a garry & first threw two coconuts into the sea which were promptly fished out again by a boy in a boat but this did not seem to spoil the sacrifice, then followed other things & finally the paper.

Sunday 18th Nov. Have not been out today but spent it reading & waiting in my room, being continually interrupted by "boys" or "bearers" coming in to ask me if I want a servant as I sacked the first last night for being a humbug. Apparently the news is around in a minute & they swarm around the place like flies, I hope I may get a reliable & honest one next time.

Some of the business men in the bazaars are a strange lot in our eyes, one man in a big way I saw was sitting at his desk on an office chair but instead of sitting like a Christian he was crosslegged on the chair, barefooted, his shoes being on the floor & with a dhoti or cloth in place of trousers & of course chewing betel nut which appears to be chopped up nut wrapped in a green leaf with lime[?] paXXted[?] on it & also some other stuff like red paint, the teeth go black & the mouth red & the expectoration all about the road looks like blood. There are men all about the streets selling it & the tray they carry with the various ingrediants looks like a small painters shop. While talking to this same man Naranjse[?] by name another Hindu walked in carrying a white flower like a daisy & touched him with it on both sides of the forehead & then walked across the road & did the same to another man[.] The man who was with me was a Parsi & no-one seemed to notice the action at all but the conversation went on as if no-one had come up at all, the daisy man might have been a shadow for all the notice taken of it. I took a motor drive to Malaban hill passing the Hindu burial ground where their dead are buried & also the Parsi building where the birds eat the dead, it sounds horrible but it is done in a very reverential way.

The variety in clothing is extraordinary, very few are alike, & no matter how strange & bizarre a person appears, no one trouble[s] to look at him. All the lower classes are barefooted & the next stage is to have sandals afterwards shoes, labourers or collies only wear a loin cloth & in fact even the well dressed wear dhotis, which is a sort of muslin sheet flapping in the wind in place of trousers, many wear shirts with their dhoties, some coats as well, some have no hats, some have a towel or cloth round their head, some men wear their hair in a bun, some shave it all off, others shave all but a bit in the middle which grows long & is tied in a knot[.] Women working in the street & labo[u]ring on buildings mostly have a very tiny blouse & a loin cloth, nothing more except numberless bangles more rings hanging down to the mouth with ornamnets attached, big silver rings on there toes (how they keep on I cant imagine) & often ankle bracelets, some like big galvanised iron chains[.] Beggars are everywhere from naked little children saying "salaam Xhib[?] to every sort of diseased cripple or sometimes a bunch of men or women with painted faces, red, yellow or blue who are professional beggars.

This hotel is very open, there are no doors or windows at the entrance, the lounge is entirely open & extends onto a very large balcony which is very pleasant after sundown, birds & sometimes bats can often be seen flying in the hotel. Ants are everywhere, on the floors & in the bedrooms & even on the tables, cockroaches are also plentiful

Sunday 25 Nov. had a very quiet day, saw the usual conjurer & snake charmer from the hotel balcony but the show consisted more of begging than anything else, on this occasion as he did not collect sufficient money he put his mongoose & snake away & cleared off without letting the mongoose kill the snake which I saw a few days ago. In the evening went a stroll along the shore promenade which was crowded with all sorts of people, parsies away out on the shore facing the setting sun, bowing & bending presumably praying, Mohomedans on their rags in the middle of the road kneeling & prostrating themselves, a tight rope walker on the sands[?] performing to the noise of a drum & the inevitable vendors of betel nuts, fruit, kites, paper windmills for the children like we have at home. I saw a stall in the street this morning just like our ice cream carts in appearance (but selling betel nuts) & in place of standing at the stall, the man was sitting crosslegged on top of it.

Engaged a new "boy" today his name is Waniswami[?] he says he is called Sammy. He brings a cup of tea at 7, gets the bath ready, cleans the boots, puts my socks & boots on helps me on with all the other clothes etc etc, I suppose he is a rogue like all the natives but I understand that without a servant on the train one cannot leave the compartment for fear of having luggage stolen, a case of setting a thief to watch a thief possibly

Visited the museum here but found the people more interesting than the exhibts Saw two women dressed in full varicolored skirts & cloths covering the face which were removed to look at anything, one or more heavy silver rings on each toe, joined up with thick silver chains, several thick silver bracelets round the ankles, & bracelets of metal & stone or something similar from the waist to the top of the arm, ornaments through their noses & the clatter of all these things as they walked on the stone floors with bare feet was like a bag of stones being shaken up. One woman I saw on the street had a white plated garment from head to foot with holes for the eyes with net in the holes & not even places for arms to come through

Tue 27th spent as usual making calls & trying to arrange for a berth on boat to Karachi on Sat 7[.] Cooks could not manage it so went to B. I. [British India Steam Navigation Co] office direct & managed to secure a 2nd Class cabin to myself with use of 1st class saloon. Boat leaves on Sat 7 9 a.m. & arrives Karachi 9a.m Monday[.] Native shops have a peculiar way of naming their shops; have today bought two more cotton suits from a Mohamedan shop called E.R. Cheap Jack & Co, he wanted 45R ea but came down to 30R, one gets used to refusing to pay the price asked, even with garri drivers as well as bazar shopkeepers.

Wed 29th One misses song birds here, the only sound I have heard is the caw of crows which are everywhere, they perch on the window, which are of course always open & impudently stay until you get up to chase them away

I saw one today in the main road perch upon a large basket which a woman was carrying on her head & actually tilted it onto the ground

Thursday 29th Nov. I have spent most of the last 3 days in the bagons[?] which consist of miles of narrow unpaved, apparently undrained streets without footpaths, lined on both sides with open shops, many only about 6ft wide, standing about 3 feet above the ground, presumably to keep the water out during the monsoon when 90 in [2.3m] of rain falls in 10 weeks (our rainfall being about 30 in [0.75m] in a year) so that many streets are under water. In some cases there are two or 3 stone steps up to the floor level, sometimes only an empty box to step on, where the footing is insecure a rope or chain hangs to pull one up by. The dealer sits in the front on a sort of mattress crosslegged in front of a desk, at the side & before him are chairs & just room to pass. The sides & all vacant spaces, sometimes the floor as well are covered with goods. Each trade is mainly concentrated in a particular district, dealers in the same trade lining the road both sides. After having taken a seat the argument begins, voices are raised, other callers come in & ignoring the fact that a discussion is on, begin another conversation, each shouting louder to make themselves heard. Meanwhile to this is added the noise of the passers by, beggars, itinerant salesmen, bullock cart drivers trying to get through the throng of people & I sit there wondering what it is all about. Then a lull occurs I ask how matters stand & the position is explained to me, questions as to the price are asked etc & usually an order may be placed, in which case it is promptly used on the next call opposite or next door as a further argument to obtain another order. It is all very queer & highly amusing[.] I have been offered various drinks (of course teetotal) which I have endeavoured to gracefully decline[.] The smell in some of these bazars can only be equalled by a cow house in a not too cleanly condition. One meets every imaginable type of Indian in the bazars but very few white men but the dealers in their way are not at all bad fellows.

Sat 1st Dec. Got up at 7 & let my boy pack, had a cup of tea & finally got away in a taxi after having shaken off the innumberable staff who appeared on all sides when one leaves & arrived at Victoria dock at 9.15 & got on board the Chakla bound for Karachi. She is only a small boat of under 2000 tons & carries 12 saloon passengers & innumerable steerage who are lying all over the decks provided for them, they are an interesting crowd to look at through the wire work separating them from us but probably closer examination might not be devoid of drawback The sea is smooth, a pleasant breeze blowing & we have just finished dinner & already all seem to know one another, number being small.

[Chakla (1) 1914 1941 bombed and sunk Tobruk. 3,081t]

Sunday 2nd At 6 o'clock this morning[?] the boat stopped a mile or so from the shore at Porbander noted for its stone quarries & a dhow came alongside with native passengers & some got off. The same thing occurred about lunch time at Dwarka, a holy hindu city where many more passengers were exchanged. At 4 o'clock we stopped off Cutch Mandvi where a fleet of about 9 dhows came out & tied up alongside the vessel loaded with natives, they were large boats & very cleverly handled. The sea was running rather high & the dhows rose & fell like corks & it was interesting to see the natives climb ropes into the rigging running up with hands & toes in order to furl & unfurl the sails. Many of the natives were wet through & the luggage swamped due to the waves but all got safely off including women & tiny brown children. The sea got choppy towards night which was chilly but the next day broke fine & sunny. We arrived at Karachi at 10 am. & drove off to the Carlton Hotel. The docks are 4 or 5 miles from the town, the road leading through swamp & desert sand. The City of K. is not very large compared with Bombay & is situated on the edge of the Sind desert & is the most dusty place I have ever seen[.] Trees do not thrive here & those that are here are so coated with dust that they look quite dead[.] In Bombay all the carts were drawn by bullocks, here most are drawn by camels, the remainder by bullocks, besides cows strolling about the streets one sees goats as well & in addition to cows, kites (a sort of vulture) are seen everywhere. This hotel is like a series of disconnected summer bungalows, my room opens from a balcony through a French window, at the back is a small room with an iron bath, a tap & a tin, the idea being that you stand in the bath & throw the water over you, this room also opens on to another verandah, which the bath "boy" uses to bring the water in a skin bottle as the tap does not run

Tue 4th. Have spent all day in a garri, the outstanding feature is the dust which is terrible, how anyone could live here I dont know. Vegetation hardly grows, one sees sometimes an attempt at a garden but it has to be watered all the time & the beds are sunk down so that no water runs away. Am glad to say I shall leave here on Thursday as a breath of clean air would be worth a king's ransom[.] The temperature here is very different to Bombay, while it is still hot in the sun, it gets much cooler immediately the sun is down & a blanket is welcome at night

Thur 6th. A Mr Kishen Chand took me a motor run to a seaside promenade called Clifton, an ostentateous looking promenade overlooking bare & ugly sands, but the best they have, had I been staying longer he would have arranged for me to have a camel ride but unfortunately I did not come across him in time. Left Karachi at 7 p.m & have just arrived in Lahore & find myself billeted in a tent in the grounds, it is quite cool here at night & an overcoat is welcome so I am expecting to find it somewhat cold in the tent. The journey here was terribly dusty, everything was coated thickly with it & in the morning they came and swept it out of the carriage. The views were monotonous, sand & sand everywhere as far as the eye could reach & cultivation only where the land was irrigated[.] Flocks of goats, sheep, cow & camels were often to be seen & many native villages, many of them only mud huts. Meals were obtained in a dining car on the train, which one entered at one stop & left at another, the "boy" meanwhile taking charge of the carriage & watching the luggage.

Sat 8/12/23 Spent all morning driving in another type of pony cart called a "tanga" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanga_%28carriage%29]

The streets in the English quarter are very broad & lined with trees but the native quarter is narrow & dirty & noisy like in Bombay or any other town. It is extremely difficult to find anyone in the native quarter but I have been again fortunate in finding an Indian to whom I had an introduction who is showing me round. Almost all the business houses I have seen up to the present in each town are native & I have found great courtesy & kindness shown by practically everyone of them. I had a good sleep last night, the bed being very comfortable, the only thing that disturbed me for a time being some animal climbing up & running about on the top of the tent, I expect it was a cat.

Sunday 9th Went a walk in the Lawence Gardens [Jinnah Garden]