Bienvenue sur le site du Yacht Club de Monaco
Alain Giese in India
Le %s
Alain Giese has arrived in Bombay last Thursday, the 25th March, after 6 weeks aboard the oceanographic schooner Tara. From Djibouti to Bombay, Alain has joined the Tara Oceans scientific expedition and has had stopovers in Abu Dhabi and Muscat, making sure the yacht runs well for these 6 weeks of scientific sampling. A very satisfied man who’s just had the opportunity to get back in touch with his Captain skills, Alain is claiming high his pride to have brought in his name and of the Yacht Club de Monaco’s his modest contribution aimed at bringing awareness to the public on the marine issues at stake. Alain took great care to carefully achieve his mission as second to Captain Hervé Bourmaud. He has tried, with his usual good mood and sense of humour, to make life onboard the schooner as pleasant as possible against all weather conditions in this demanding part of the ocean.
He is sharing with us his first impressions after a well-deserved rest
“Bombay... Gateway to India...
20 Million people are living this city: The city of dreams… Over 2,000 people arrive every day consequently rising the numbers of an already overcrowded city, with people sleeping in the streets, jobs are invented along as survival is key, one becomes or remains poorer… even after being a movie star! Really, once out of the claws of Bombay nobody remains unchanged.
Museums, monuments, colourful Indian temples with carved elephants’ heads and smoke from surrounding incense, followers scatter rice grains… Rituals are dating from a few millennia. You are standing in a constant contrast of magical, spiritual as well as materialist India.
Kitsch Hindus, fundamentalist Muslims, bearded and head turbans Sikhs, Christians, Jews and Buddhists… Here, every religion is interlaced. Beggars of all sorts, sacred cows at every corner are contrasting with the ultramodern airport. This human kaleidoscope makes me feel dizzy and inquisitive. I am wondering what is going through their head?
The infamous Taj Mahal Hotel has covered all the signs of what happened there; restaurant and luxurious bars where Bombay’s personalities are mixing with wealthy tourists are a showcase of luxury of this fabulous country.
The Royal Bombay Yacht Club, a quaint building where once you have introduced yourself you can then enter the long exterior corridor before you step up a Victorian staircase; decorated with faded Beken photos… All seems to have stopped in a long gone era.
1842, the club is founded: the English are at the height of their colonial leadership with Opium flooding from China and Indigo pigments exported to Europe, a perfect position for masters to savour a glass of Whisky whilst discussing the latest victory of America in Cowes.
At the RBYC everything is set in this colonial spirit defining the Indian trading post. The Commodore, Manager of the Club, shakes your hand and leaves you with a feeling of such an era.
Your room at the Club has a great view over the bay, the great Indian Ocean horizon and the Taj Mahal Hotel. Your own private living room will allow you to rest after a well enjoyable bath in an antique Victorian bathtub. Finally, tea will be served by the most discreet Indian waiter offering you at the same time the sincerest smile to finish off this moment of immense tranquillity.
Tomorrow we will be in Delhi... !”
Alain Giese for the Yacht Club de Monaco.