368 IN AFRICA 



many people hung up in Bombay and Calcutta 

 vainly trying to get away, but the boats were 

 booked full for two or more voyages ahead. 



One of the peculiarities of Indian travel has been 

 the fact that most tourists plan to be in India dur- 

 ing December, January and February. Hence they 

 arrive in bunches, and try to get away in a bunch, 

 which is impossible owing to the limited capacity of 

 the steamships. This year the swarms of tourists 

 have been so great that many of them could not get 

 out of the country until late in March and along in 

 April. 



The Americans have become the great travelers 

 of the world. In India there are two American 

 tourists for one of all other nationalities. The ho- 

 tel registers bristle with U. S. A. addresses and the 

 shops and hotels regard the American trade as be- 

 ing the most profitable. One desirable result of the 

 American tendency to fare afield has been the 

 steady improvement in hotel and railway accommo- 

 dations in the Far East. 



[We said good-by to India without much regret; 

 in fact, we were elated to secure accommodations on 

 a small Indo-China boat that made the run to 

 Penang and Singapore in about eight days. No 

 berths could be secured on the ships that go by the 

 way of Burma. Those ships were booked full for 

 several trips ahead. So we settled down comfort- 

 ably on the good ship Lai Sang and droned lazily 

 down through the Bay of Bengal. There were ac- 

 commodations for only twelve first-class passen- 



