Page 46 - Willi Distel Diary

Proofread for easier reading. Willi wrote this page in English himself.

[...she set fire] to the upholstery of the carriage, and I burnt my finger putting it out - I felt I was still on earth and not in heaven. As far as Port Said we had beautiful weather, and with time for writing, reading, sport and love, the five days passed very quickly. At Port Said I went ashore with my Spanish friend. Oriental life, which I had not seen before, fascinated me and gave me great pleasure; it was a pity we had to go back on board so early. We passed through the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea. It was very hot there - I had never known such heat before - but dancing and other distractions made me forget it. After the Red Sea we had little wind and nearly everyone was seasick. Colombo was the next port, and I went ashore again. It is a pretty, pleasant town; so many new things - the cabs drawn by the coolies, the buildings, and the [...]

Interesting facts

Gateway to the Suez Canal. Port Said sits at the Mediterranean entrance to the Suez Canal in Egypt. Opened in 1869, the canal let ships pass from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea without sailing around Africa, and it was the standard route between Europe and Australia - the 'Oriental life' Willi saw was his first taste of the East.
The heat of the Red Sea. The Red Sea leg was notorious among passengers on this route for its extreme, sticky heat, made worse in ships that had no air conditioning. Travellers' accounts routinely single it out as the most gruelling part of the whole voyage, exactly as Willi does.
Colombo, a great port of call. Colombo, capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), was then a British colonial port and a major coaling and provisioning stop on the way to Australia. Its harbour, colonial buildings and street life were a memorable highlight for European passengers.
'Coolies' and hand-drawn cabs. The hand-pulled cabs Willi describes were rickshaws, and 'coolie' was the common (now offensive) colonial term for the local labourers who pulled them. Both were part of everyday street life in Asian colonial ports of the period.