Thanx Mervyn for that nostalgic "piece" and on a wider spectrum for sending some of us ""down memory lane" on these long vacations taken by East African Goans to Goa in pre-independent Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. (They all got independence from British rule in the early sixties).
These trips - though rough if you were travelling Third Class- had all the "trappings" of a great sea voyage- good food, booze, fantastic music and all the dancing to go with it, and other entertainment. The management of these ships also made it easy on the travellers-mainly civil servants whose Class Fare was dictated by their grades in the government. Hence, many a third class passenger had the option of having meals served on Second Class by paying for the difference,and the same applied to Second Class passengers who may have wanted to have meals served in the First Class dining rooms. The entertainment management also saw to it that they recruited the "cream-de-creme" of musicians in East Africa , Bombay and even "Mother Goa". That included Toronto's late all round musician - Remy DeMello - formerly from Tanzania. And when you got on land, one could'nt forget the very friendly people and attractive Arab gals in Mombasa,Kenya, the gorgeous mulatto Seychellois "cuties" in Mahe (or is it-Victoria) and your pen-ultimate stop in Karachi where I believe many went on a "rampage" going for those great dried Mediterranean fruits- figs, dates , apricots and the likes. A great aspect about these vacations was that many parties were held for families heading for Goa. I presume , it's because of the long absence- four to six months. Another strange aspect I noticed with some families is that one full trunk was loaded with items being taken for relatives and very good friends. That included taking items of one's friends for their relatives. (Remember, there were no luggage "constraints" like modern travel). And finally, remember besides SS "Karanja" and SS "Kampala", there were also the SS "Kenya" and SS "Uganda". I wonder what happened to all these vessels. May be , could someone enlighten us ? Thanx. Tony Barros. Union, New Jersey. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org