Early start again – 5:30am rise to get in the Minibus ride down the Mountain to Coimabatore to take the State 'Express' Bus to Cochin. We set of in the dark and were able to see sunrise over the edge of the mountain range which was astounding, the sun rose as a large orange glow which soon became too bright to look at directly, however has it rose the colours in the valleys below changed from dark black through blues, oranges, and the then to green where visible and white where clouds filled the valleys. We got the driver to stop a couple of times to take pictures but they will never do the view any justice. A slight incident on the way down the switch back road woke every one up when we hit a local stray dog (they are everywhere in India and often run blindly in the roads) The driver Skidded to a halt and there was a lot of yelping and whining and a horrible scraping sound from under the vehicle. It turned out the dog had bounced of the front of the vehicle and ran behind us barking at the minibus the scraping sound was just the dislodged number plate, so with that re-affixed and the dog long since ran off, we carried on down the mountain. After about 2 hours and with a number of people feeling a little travel sick we stopped in a village to get breakfast in a very busy restaurant and then continued on to Coimabatore. We got on the Bus at around 11am and set of for the drive to Cochin. At first everything was fine and we thought it was just a posh bus as it had a large screen at the front showing a movie however once the movie had finished there was some kind of televised debate interspersed with really whiny Indian music video's and hears where the problem began as the driver who was sat in a separated area wanted to listen to the audio track so he turned the volume up so loud that you couldn't hear any thing else in the back of the coach, all you could do was lip read. Twice the request went to the front to turn it down but at the start of the next track it just went up again. Really annoying. On the journey the only thing to do was to look out the window as talking was out. For some reason the Indians like their specialist hospitals and two that caught my eye in the way back were the 'Hospital for Piles' and the 'Ganga Hospital'. The first appeared to be on the 5th floor of a building (I hope the lift worked) and the second I can only guess how they treat you! Also on the way back we passed a paddy field and initially all I saw was a load of men on the side watching the a cloud of water move up the field. It turned out they were buffalo racing. This is where they change the plough to a sort of skiff plate and set the buffalo off charging up the paddy field, the 'driver' then stands on the skiff and sort of water skis between the buffalo.
We arrived in Cochin at around 6pm the traffic was horrendous apparently due to a load of VIP's and the Indian President being in town so loads of roads had been shut or made one way. The other bad news coming in was that one of the Political Parties was arranging a Bandh for the next day. A Bandh is essentially a General Strike and tend to be enforced by bands of supporters roaming the streets with rocks and sticks. Initially it appeared the the party didn't really have the support to shut the whole state down. Michael the Guide had already made confirmed arrangement for those of us traveling the next day and I was due to leave at around 10am however at about Midnight Michael got a call to say they would only be able to transport us at 5:30am to get to the Airport before things got too hairy on the roads. Not good news when you've just polished off a couple of beers and a whiskey an we expecting to be up at 9:30 and now you need to be up at 5! (early again). So packing the bags at 1am then into bed for 4 hours slightly tipsy I was awoke by Les shouting at me to get up at 5:20am oops – a very quick shower and dashed down to meet the others.
My Map
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Ooty
Ooty is a Hill Station high in the Nilgiris Mountains at about 2200 metres above sea level. The climate is very cool and when it rained the climate is not to dissimilar to Manchester in Autumn.
The village was 'discovered' by a man called John Sullivan and the name of the village was changed from Udhagamandalam to Ootacamund, With the arrival of a large number of the upper crust British due to the 'pleasant' climate developed. Many of the British remained in Ooty after Indian Independence and were stoically British in their outlook and the place gained the nickname 'Snooty Ooty'. The Ooty Club has a claim to fame that this is the place that Snooker was allegedly invented, and still insists on full formal wear to be worn after 7pm each evening.
The centre of the town is known as Charing Cross but most of the British have now left and the place is a typical Indian Town full of tourists and locals. A small supermarket just off Charing Cross still stocks everything an Ex-pat Brit could want including imported Heinz Soup all the way from Wigan!
We went to a local coffee shop/cafe for tea and had fantastic pizzas cooked in a wood fired oven (They are speciality of the place, and not just because we didn't want Indian food)
We took auto's back to the chalets we were staying in which looked and felt like they had not been renovated since the '50's. They were actually full of charm and very very typically British both in style and fixtures and fittings right down to the carpet in my room that had defiantly been replanted from somewhere else as there were odd gaps as my room was obviously bigger that original. (Job for you here Dad!)
The next day we left (early again) to drive up to a tea plantation, I say up but it was actually up, down, up, along narrow mountain roads surrounded by tea plantations and amazing views. Arriving at the tea plantation we were taken on a tour of the production plant which took the green leaves from being picked to been dried, curled, chopped and ground to what we know as tea.
Walking down through the plantation we were then led to the 'gift shop' where we sampled the 3 types of tea they produce here, Black Tea (it was full of Milk and tasted of sugar) Chocolate Tea (it was full of Milk and an tasted of Sugar) and Green Tea (which had NO Milk but still tasted of sugar) This is apparently the way Indians like their tea, sorry sugar with tea. Pam (one of the tour group) decided that there was definitely a missed opportunity to set up a typical English Tea Shop here and sell Scones and Cream and a nice cuppa, Michael the tour guide strongly agreed, I would have liked to have bought some of the Tea but the smallest pack it was available in was 500g polythene unmarked bags, hmm... I think Singapore Customs may be a little suspicious of that so I declined.
Driving back to Ooty we stopped at Conoor one of the Nilgiri Blue Mountain Railway Stations. Unfortunately due to the extreme rains of the last Monsoon season the Train is not running as there are may land slides and the track is missing or covered in about 30 places. The central section of the line is very very steep and a special cog and rack system is used in the centre of the track, because of this the originally Steam Trains are still used as the Diesel's can't be converted.
We asked around on the platform as initially the Steam Loco's couldn't be seen, an old man just pointed across the tracks and said 'shed' so we jumped down onto the tracks and crossed over and found the Loco Shed behind a small rise. It was like the Marie Celeste all the tools were out and the loco's were in various stages of maintenance, but not a sole was about, so we spent a good 15 mins climbing up on the footplates and down in the inspection pits taking loads of photo's. Excellent fun! Coming out of the shed and back to the station we found the Assistant Station Master who willingly allowed us into the control room to take photos of all the equipment and plans - despite the large imposing 'No Admittance' sign over the door. (Geoff Edge would have been drooling!) Driving back to Ooty we kept been diverted onto small back roads as the main roads were still been repaired due to landslides and we drove through some fascinating little villages and hamlets, past large colonial 'villas', tiny villages, one room low houses and at one point stopped to watch a local cricket match in a field only to discover we were blocking the view of the sizeable crowd watching, much to their displeasure. ( It was a cup match and the trophy table was beautifully laid out in the centre of the crowd)
Back in Ooty it was time to visit the Cinema and we watched a Tamil film which was fairly easy to follow despite not understanding the language however it went on and on and on. The cinema was a real flea pit type of place, we had the 'slightly' better seats which basically meant they once had velour on them but didn't any more and were very hard.
After a return to the Coffee Shop we returned to the chalets and stayed a Second night in Ooty then got up early (again) at 5:30am to drive down back to Cochin.
The village was 'discovered' by a man called John Sullivan and the name of the village was changed from Udhagamandalam to Ootacamund, With the arrival of a large number of the upper crust British due to the 'pleasant' climate developed. Many of the British remained in Ooty after Indian Independence and were stoically British in their outlook and the place gained the nickname 'Snooty Ooty'. The Ooty Club has a claim to fame that this is the place that Snooker was allegedly invented, and still insists on full formal wear to be worn after 7pm each evening.
The centre of the town is known as Charing Cross but most of the British have now left and the place is a typical Indian Town full of tourists and locals. A small supermarket just off Charing Cross still stocks everything an Ex-pat Brit could want including imported Heinz Soup all the way from Wigan!
We went to a local coffee shop/cafe for tea and had fantastic pizzas cooked in a wood fired oven (They are speciality of the place, and not just because we didn't want Indian food)
We took auto's back to the chalets we were staying in which looked and felt like they had not been renovated since the '50's. They were actually full of charm and very very typically British both in style and fixtures and fittings right down to the carpet in my room that had defiantly been replanted from somewhere else as there were odd gaps as my room was obviously bigger that original. (Job for you here Dad!)
The next day we left (early again) to drive up to a tea plantation, I say up but it was actually up, down, up, along narrow mountain roads surrounded by tea plantations and amazing views. Arriving at the tea plantation we were taken on a tour of the production plant which took the green leaves from being picked to been dried, curled, chopped and ground to what we know as tea.
Walking down through the plantation we were then led to the 'gift shop' where we sampled the 3 types of tea they produce here, Black Tea (it was full of Milk and tasted of sugar) Chocolate Tea (it was full of Milk and an tasted of Sugar) and Green Tea (which had NO Milk but still tasted of sugar) This is apparently the way Indians like their tea, sorry sugar with tea. Pam (one of the tour group) decided that there was definitely a missed opportunity to set up a typical English Tea Shop here and sell Scones and Cream and a nice cuppa, Michael the tour guide strongly agreed, I would have liked to have bought some of the Tea but the smallest pack it was available in was 500g polythene unmarked bags, hmm... I think Singapore Customs may be a little suspicious of that so I declined.
Driving back to Ooty we stopped at Conoor one of the Nilgiri Blue Mountain Railway Stations. Unfortunately due to the extreme rains of the last Monsoon season the Train is not running as there are may land slides and the track is missing or covered in about 30 places. The central section of the line is very very steep and a special cog and rack system is used in the centre of the track, because of this the originally Steam Trains are still used as the Diesel's can't be converted.
We asked around on the platform as initially the Steam Loco's couldn't be seen, an old man just pointed across the tracks and said 'shed' so we jumped down onto the tracks and crossed over and found the Loco Shed behind a small rise. It was like the Marie Celeste all the tools were out and the loco's were in various stages of maintenance, but not a sole was about, so we spent a good 15 mins climbing up on the footplates and down in the inspection pits taking loads of photo's. Excellent fun! Coming out of the shed and back to the station we found the Assistant Station Master who willingly allowed us into the control room to take photos of all the equipment and plans - despite the large imposing 'No Admittance' sign over the door. (Geoff Edge would have been drooling!) Driving back to Ooty we kept been diverted onto small back roads as the main roads were still been repaired due to landslides and we drove through some fascinating little villages and hamlets, past large colonial 'villas', tiny villages, one room low houses and at one point stopped to watch a local cricket match in a field only to discover we were blocking the view of the sizeable crowd watching, much to their displeasure. ( It was a cup match and the trophy table was beautifully laid out in the centre of the crowd)
Back in Ooty it was time to visit the Cinema and we watched a Tamil film which was fairly easy to follow despite not understanding the language however it went on and on and on. The cinema was a real flea pit type of place, we had the 'slightly' better seats which basically meant they once had velour on them but didn't any more and were very hard.
After a return to the Coffee Shop we returned to the chalets and stayed a Second night in Ooty then got up early (again) at 5:30am to drive down back to Cochin.
Jungle Retreat – Xmas Day
Christmas Day started early with a hangover; well it is Christmas Day! We were on the road again at 8:30 to drive up to another Temple high on the Hill overlooking Mysore. When we got there it was packed, looks like everyone one else in Mysore had the same idea as us. A short walk around the outside of the temple then back into the Mini-bus back halfway down to find the largest stone carved Bull I've ever seen, It's a Hindu shrine and was fairly busy but nat as bad as the Temple at the top. Whilst here we had a glass of the Sugar Cane juice laced with Ginger and Lime, and an excellent hangover cure it is. The Sugar Cane stalls are every where in India and they make the Juice by passing the Cane repeatedly through mangles to extract the juice. A long Drive through then took us back out of Karnataka and back into Tamil Nadu to the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary where we stayed at the Jungle Retreat. This is a fantastic place in the middle of nowhere at the end of dirt track and surrounded by an electrified fence to keep the wild elephants and tigers out! We chilled out with a buffet lunch and Gin & Tonic's and rested for the afternoon until just before dusk when we took Jeeps out in to the park to see the wildlife. This is a place you do not get out of the vehicle, we were sternly told - despite passing many people who were, much to the worry of the Guide who regularly stopped the jeep to have words. We did actually see some Elephants and Langur Monkeys and then we drove down to an Elephant Rescue Centre where they look after retired working elephants. It was interesting to watch the elephants being washed in the river however then we were taken up to the 'feeding station' which most of us found rather uncomfortable with, as the elephants were all chained and it felt more like a zoo. It was starting to get dark we returned to the Jeeps and were taken on a long tour through the bush area to try and find more wildlife as usual our tally of 'wildlife'; 1 local bus, 2 Maruti Suzuki cars, 5 jeeps (doing the same as us), and 2 slightly tipsy guys walking around a minivan down near the river smoking something, The Guide went really balistic at these guys as he said later the waters edge is where many animals go to drink and therefore a lot of tigers go looking for tea!
Back to the Retreat we returned for the evening meal which was a fantastic spread including Turkey and all the trimmings! We sat around in the bar are chatting and putting the world to rights until around Midnight and staggering back through the bushes (remembering to stay on the lit paths to avoid and of the snakes that are allegedly around the area).
The following morning I opted to forgo the dawn village walk (5am) and slept in until 10am, bliss!
The breakfast was available until 11am so I wandered down and had a great breakfast of, Bacon, Fried Eggs, Beef Sausages and fried Tom's...mmmmm. We relaxed and chilled out and stayed for Lunch and then set off to Ooty at around 2:30pm.
Certainly a different way to spend Christmas, and not a snow flake to be seen.
Back to the Retreat we returned for the evening meal which was a fantastic spread including Turkey and all the trimmings! We sat around in the bar are chatting and putting the world to rights until around Midnight and staggering back through the bushes (remembering to stay on the lit paths to avoid and of the snakes that are allegedly around the area).
The following morning I opted to forgo the dawn village walk (5am) and slept in until 10am, bliss!
The breakfast was available until 11am so I wandered down and had a great breakfast of, Bacon, Fried Eggs, Beef Sausages and fried Tom's...mmmmm. We relaxed and chilled out and stayed for Lunch and then set off to Ooty at around 2:30pm.
Certainly a different way to spend Christmas, and not a snow flake to be seen.
Mysore
We left Mallamapuram and took a Minibus to Chennai (Madras) and caught and overnight train from here to Mysore. Luckily this time we traveled AC3 and not General Class as I last did to Trivandrum. In Mysore we visited the beautiful Mysore Palace which unfortunately you are unable to take in your camera so much so you have to go through 2 x-ray bag checks to search for cameras. We had a guide here who was very good and explained many small details about the Palace and it's history. It had been built for a total cost of 50,000 Pounds and is now considered priceless. Many of the fixtures and fittings were produced in the UK , the steel columns in the central hall had been cast in Glasgow and the floor tiles had been manufactured in Ironbridge, There are amazing paintings on the walls of around the palace depicting the annual parade which takes place in the city which is lead by the Raj on an Elephant into the palace. Many of them contain clever little references to the designers and builders of the Palaces by including them in the crowd scenes.
After the palace visit we took a drive out to a former Minibus Driver for Intrepid who now cooks a traditional meal for the tours as due to health reasons he is unable drive. We had a amazing meal of Biriyani and an Aubergine Curry. The Biriyani had taken 4 hours to prepare and needs constant care and attention throughout to ensure it works out just right.
Following the meal we traveled out to anther Temple which is no longer in use but had some fantastic carvings. Unfortunately I think we were all getting a bit 'Temple'd out' and the Guide was fairly bossy, he would have done well working for Neil (my old boss at BT) he loved his Testing for Understanding questions after every carving! Slowly virtually everyone drifted away to just take pictures, plus the place was over run with school children (again) who we teased and got in trouble because they were making too much noise. Finally as we were waiting to leave a group of local kids came asking the usual, 'Hi what is your name?... One Pen?' So you tell them your name and that you don't have a pen but I gave once of them a 1pence coin which amused them for about 5 mins then he came and asked how much it was worth, I told him about 50 paise, (Rs. 0.5) and he promptly went and 'sold' it to an older teenager for Rs.1, they start young in India!
After the Temple we returned to Mysore and took a walk around the Market Area and took many Photos however it seemed a little lest 'local' than the market we visited in Pondicherry.
In the Morning we took our Minibus to the local highpoint which has a Hindu Temple however as it was Christmas Day?!? it was packed so we didn't join the queue to go into the temple on the way down the hill we stopped at the apparently largest 'carved rock' bull in the world, it was huge about 2.5 times as high as me and that was with the bull sat down. However the best thing was the sugar cane juice with lime and ginger we had there which went a long way to clearing my head from the previous Christmas Eve drink or 2 we had the night before.
After the palace visit we took a drive out to a former Minibus Driver for Intrepid who now cooks a traditional meal for the tours as due to health reasons he is unable drive. We had a amazing meal of Biriyani and an Aubergine Curry. The Biriyani had taken 4 hours to prepare and needs constant care and attention throughout to ensure it works out just right.
Following the meal we traveled out to anther Temple which is no longer in use but had some fantastic carvings. Unfortunately I think we were all getting a bit 'Temple'd out' and the Guide was fairly bossy, he would have done well working for Neil (my old boss at BT) he loved his Testing for Understanding questions after every carving! Slowly virtually everyone drifted away to just take pictures, plus the place was over run with school children (again) who we teased and got in trouble because they were making too much noise. Finally as we were waiting to leave a group of local kids came asking the usual, 'Hi what is your name?... One Pen?' So you tell them your name and that you don't have a pen but I gave once of them a 1pence coin which amused them for about 5 mins then he came and asked how much it was worth, I told him about 50 paise, (Rs. 0.5) and he promptly went and 'sold' it to an older teenager for Rs.1, they start young in India!
After the Temple we returned to Mysore and took a walk around the Market Area and took many Photos however it seemed a little lest 'local' than the market we visited in Pondicherry.
In the Morning we took our Minibus to the local highpoint which has a Hindu Temple however as it was Christmas Day?!? it was packed so we didn't join the queue to go into the temple on the way down the hill we stopped at the apparently largest 'carved rock' bull in the world, it was huge about 2.5 times as high as me and that was with the bull sat down. However the best thing was the sugar cane juice with lime and ginger we had there which went a long way to clearing my head from the previous Christmas Eve drink or 2 we had the night before.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Mallampuram
We took the mini-bus up the coast to Mallampuram which is as a UNESCO World heritige site, the hotel is located on the main street and was increadibly dust when we arrived due to the fact that they were resurfacing it during the night and a man was using a compressor to air blow the dust away before laying the new tarmac. We checked in to the hotel and went of in search of a restaurant and found – Moonrakers which for some odd reason (in the middle of southern India) was basing it's self on the contra-band smugglers of Southern England! The food was good and we retired back to the room to avail ourselves of the Wifi – first of this trip.
The next day we took bikes out to ride out to the various UNESCO sites which are built in the Neolithic style ( the temples were literally carved out of a single rick down in to the rock and ground rather than by building up. The Second Temple had been built by placing stones in the traditional style of building and was on the coast. Amazingly this survived the tsunami that swept though the coast in 2004. The other stone work we visited was the bas-relief carvings depicting the Hindu gods and stories.
The next day we took bikes out to ride out to the various UNESCO sites which are built in the Neolithic style ( the temples were literally carved out of a single rick down in to the rock and ground rather than by building up. The Second Temple had been built by placing stones in the traditional style of building and was on the coast. Amazingly this survived the tsunami that swept though the coast in 2004. The other stone work we visited was the bas-relief carvings depicting the Hindu gods and stories.
Auroville
Auroville is an experimental community that was started in the Late '60's by 'the Mother' who was the main follower of a /guru called Sri Aurobindo. The place was intended to develop into a community of 10,000 people of all nationalities however now the population stands at around 1,700. The ethos behind the place is that there is no religions as such practiced but that concentration is the true path. Slightly weird to follow. There are only very small areas that visitors are aloud to see and you have to watch an 'instructional video' before you can walk to the viewing area to see the central sphere called the Matri Mandir. This massive ball has a meditation area inside and apparently it has the largest glass crystal in the world at the centre, an opening at the top and computer controlled mirrors concentrate the suns light down onto the crystal to illuminate it inside, however visitors ar not aloud any where near it. The community is entirely self supporting with their own food production centres, schools and health care. all the buildings are arranged around the central Mandir is the swirling patten of the universe and are surrounded by landscaped gardens that are maintained by the inhabitants. It was all a little weird, whilst not been a 'cult' (it has been supported by the UN since inception) it is very particular about who is able to join the community and does not accept applications from 'credit card hippies' or those looking for an escape, you have to be interviewed and show that you wish to follow the values and ethos of the place before you can join the community.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Pondicherry
After another early start we took the Train from Madurai to Villapuram which took about 6 hours and then a Minibus for the next hour into Pondicherry. We went for a typically French meal at a restaurant in town (Pondicherry used to be French until just after the main part of India became independent from Britain then the Indians also took over this and all the other French enclaves but the area still retains a largely French feel complete with food and architecture and there are lots of French Ex-pats who live here) Dumping the bags we headed out in Auto's to a restaurant about 5mins ride from the hotel which served French and Indian food, The meal I had was excellent - French Onion Soup followed by Hashe Frites (Steak and Chips!) The steak was excellent and judging by the number of French people there who were eating the beef I figured this was the best way to go! Some of the party had the prawns - which were defiantly not good and the head waiter took them back and canceled the cost; that must be the Indian in him, I would be surprised if that would happen in France, you'd probbably get kicked out for insulting the chef :P
The next morning we went out to a patisserie and had espresso, pain-aux-chocolat and croissants in true French style and they were excellent. The rest of the morning we were free to roam. Les and I went in search of the unusual whilst most of the rest of the group opted for the Museum. We walked up the cost of the Bay of Bengal and stopped outside the Government House and what appeared to be the French Embassy (The EU Flag and French Tri-colour flying from the building sort of gave it away. Oppposite the Embassy was the French WW-I memorial to the fallen Indo-French soldiers which was well looked after. Walking further up the road we wandered into an very local area with small houses and flats very much in the French Med. style but with an Indian twist. Opposite on apartment block we came across a boules pitch which was been used by a group of locals to play a form of marbles which seemed to be crossed with the game of boules and was being taken very seriously. we sort of u turned in the maze of rue's and avenue's and found ourselves back in the centre of the town and stumbled on the central market, first in the fish market which seemed to be entirely run by women who were gutting fish and selling prawns by the bucket load. Wandering through we entered the veg area and then at the rear was the flower area.
In an attempt to get a better photo angle we spotted some stairs going up and we found ourselves up on the roof area able to look down in to the market and got some really good shots from up there. We had to be back at the hotel for 2pm so we headed back and remembering that Michael the tour guide had said that it was an Alcohol Tax Free haven called in at one of the many 'Wine Shops' on the way back and I got a bottle of Signature Whiskey (Indian made Whiskey - but not bad either) for about Rs.500/6.5 pounds which is about 25% less than in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. Climbing back in to the same bus as the previous night we took the drive up to Mamallapuram via Auroville ( more to come..)
The next morning we went out to a patisserie and had espresso, pain-aux-chocolat and croissants in true French style and they were excellent. The rest of the morning we were free to roam. Les and I went in search of the unusual whilst most of the rest of the group opted for the Museum. We walked up the cost of the Bay of Bengal and stopped outside the Government House and what appeared to be the French Embassy (The EU Flag and French Tri-colour flying from the building sort of gave it away. Oppposite the Embassy was the French WW-I memorial to the fallen Indo-French soldiers which was well looked after. Walking further up the road we wandered into an very local area with small houses and flats very much in the French Med. style but with an Indian twist. Opposite on apartment block we came across a boules pitch which was been used by a group of locals to play a form of marbles which seemed to be crossed with the game of boules and was being taken very seriously. we sort of u turned in the maze of rue's and avenue's and found ourselves back in the centre of the town and stumbled on the central market, first in the fish market which seemed to be entirely run by women who were gutting fish and selling prawns by the bucket load. Wandering through we entered the veg area and then at the rear was the flower area.
In an attempt to get a better photo angle we spotted some stairs going up and we found ourselves up on the roof area able to look down in to the market and got some really good shots from up there. We had to be back at the hotel for 2pm so we headed back and remembering that Michael the tour guide had said that it was an Alcohol Tax Free haven called in at one of the many 'Wine Shops' on the way back and I got a bottle of Signature Whiskey (Indian made Whiskey - but not bad either) for about Rs.500/6.5 pounds which is about 25% less than in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. Climbing back in to the same bus as the previous night we took the drive up to Mamallapuram via Auroville ( more to come..)
Madurai
We checked into our hotel in the town centre after a little drama when one of the autos went missing on the way from the bus stop to the hotel, Michael the tour guide went balistic at the other auto drivers to find out where the 4th one had gone and eventually after about 30 minutes he turned up, it turned out he had not listened to the instructions from his boss and just driven off and must have followed the wrong auto in front of him!
We met up for lunch and then again for 3pm were we walked down to the huge temple complex in the centre of the town. It is really is huge and you enter through one of the cardinal gates each of which is below massive towers which are made up of hundreds of brightly painted statues, each in some way representing figures and stories from the Hindu scriptures. Once through the unusually very tight security (for India); and having left your shoes out side you can enter the main part of the temple, however there is a part that is so holy that only Hindu's may enter and we were not aloud to enter the inner sanctum. The rest of the temple is full of statues and beautiful paintings on the ceilings again representing Hindu gods and beliefs. The temple was very crowded and after awhile I was glad to get out of there and just sit and people watch. In the evening Les and I went in search of Internet and found a Cybercafe where we could use our own laptops – but they only had one spare connection so we shared it and split the cost.
We met up for lunch and then again for 3pm were we walked down to the huge temple complex in the centre of the town. It is really is huge and you enter through one of the cardinal gates each of which is below massive towers which are made up of hundreds of brightly painted statues, each in some way representing figures and stories from the Hindu scriptures. Once through the unusually very tight security (for India); and having left your shoes out side you can enter the main part of the temple, however there is a part that is so holy that only Hindu's may enter and we were not aloud to enter the inner sanctum. The rest of the temple is full of statues and beautiful paintings on the ceilings again representing Hindu gods and beliefs. The temple was very crowded and after awhile I was glad to get out of there and just sit and people watch. In the evening Les and I went in search of Internet and found a Cybercafe where we could use our own laptops – but they only had one spare connection so we shared it and split the cost.
Periyer National Park
This is one of the few National Game reserves in India and actually comprises over 770 sq. Km of the surrounding hills. Allegedly there are tiger and leopard's sill roaming freely in the park but these are rarely seen by visitors. So to ensure we got the best visit to the park we were up at 6am to be first in there. The park opened at 8am but we could get tickets before that at the park gates and then be first in line to cross the lake to take the ranger guided tour on a short walk around the park. The first challenge on arriving at the visitor centre s to put on the leech socks. This is because the floor of the wooded areas are teeming with tiny leeches (apparently of the same kind as medical leeches but I was quite happy to put on the canvas over socks which you wear in between your shoes and normal socks and which extend up to just below your knees. Next we had to go down to the lake edge and await the bamboo raft across the lake which only took 5 people at a time. Due to a serious boating accident about 2 months ago on this lake when a large number of people had drowned we had to wear these ridiculous buoyancy aids however they could not be secured to you properly as the straps were not correctly fitted – They were actually more of a hindrance than a 'safe' thing to wear should you have fallen in but the Ranger's were just going through the motions of the new regulations. (About 3 months ago a large number of people were on one of the viewing boats that used to ply the lake when somebody spotted a rare animal an they all rushed to the same side to look, the boat listed then took on water and sank, unfortunately many of the people on the boat could not swim and drowned). The boats are no longer plying the lake but the bamboo raft is still used to transport people across the lake. Once we were all across 3 rangers took us up a path into the woodland, they were very knowledgeable about the flora, fauna and wildlife we came across however what stuck me most was that apart from the heat I could have been at Middlewood – many of the trees and plants in the forest were similar to that at Middlewood, the only difference was the fact that it was monkeys swinging from the tree tops and not Scouts! We actually came across very little wildlife in the short walk we did around the park and though it was interesting and the Park Rangers were very knowledgeable about every thing we asked, I felt it was a little tame. We left the park round 11 am and headed back to a little restaurant near the hotel which did the most amazing espresso coffee and a potato tomato and cheese fry dish – with no spices, the service took ages but it was well worth the wait. The afternoon was free and in the evening was an optional martial arts display which I declined, fighting not been my idea of fun. I took the time instead to do a load of washing and internet updates.
The following morning we again were up early to take auto's to the bus station and then a 4 hour local state bus ride down the mountain to the town of Madurai
The following morning we again were up early to take auto's to the bus station and then a 4 hour local state bus ride down the mountain to the town of Madurai
Periyer National Park
This is one of the few National Game reserves in India and actually comprises over 770 sq. Km of the surrounding hills. Allegedly there are tiger and leopard's sill roaming freely in the park but these are rarely seen by visitors. So to ensure we got the best visit to the park we were up at 6am to be first in there. The park opened at 8am but we could get tickets before that at the park gates and then be first in line to cross the lake to take the ranger guided tour on a short walk around the park. The first challenge on arriving at the visitor centre s to put on the leech socks. This is because the floor of the wooded areas are teeming with tiny leeches (apparently of the same kind as medical leeches but I was quite happy to put on the canvas over socks which you wear in between your shoes and normal socks and which extend up to just below your knees. Next we had to go down to the lake edge and await the bamboo raft across the lake which only took 5 people at a time. Due to a serious boating accident about 2 months ago on this lake when a large number of people had drowned we had to wear these ridiculous buoyancy aids however they could not be secured to you properly as the straps were not correctly fitted – They were actually more of a hindrance than a 'safe' thing to wear should you have fallen in but the Ranger's were just going through the motions of the new regulations. (About 3 months ago a large number of people were on one of the viewing boats that used to ply the lake when somebody spotted a rare animal an they all rushed to the same side to look, the boat listed then took on water and sank, unfortunately many of the people on the boat could not swim and drowned). The boats are no longer plying the lake but the bamboo raft is still used to transport people across the lake. Once we were all across 3 rangers took us up a path into the woodland, they were very knowledgeable about the flora, fauna and wildlife we came across however what stuck me most was that apart from the heat I could have been at Middlewood – many of the trees and plants in the forest were similar to that at Middlewood, the only difference was the fact that it was monkeys swinging from the tree tops and not Scouts! We actually came across very little wildlife in the short walk we did around the park and though it was interesting and the Park Rangers were very knowledgeable about every thing we asked, I felt it was a little tame. We left the park round 11 am and headed back to a little restaurant near the hotel which did the most amazing espresso coffee and a potato tomato and cheese fry dish – with no spices, the service took ages but it was well worth the wait. The afternoon was free and in the evening was an optional martial arts display which I declined, fighting not been my idea of fun. I took the time instead to do a load of washing and internet updates.
The following morning we again were up early to take auto's to the bus station and then a 4 hour local state bus ride down the mountain to the town of Madurai
The following morning we again were up early to take auto's to the bus station and then a 4 hour local state bus ride down the mountain to the town of Madurai
The trip to Periyer
After leaving the Home stay we took a boat back out onto the waterways of the Backwaters and traveled down beautiful canals and through large open 'lakes' of water, passing though areas of wide open paddy field and then dense forest areas where many of the people lived in houses which butted right up to the canals. life just carried on as normal with barges of goods and supplies passing us often loaded to the gunnel's so that barely an inch of the boat stood proud of the water line. After about an hour or so we pulled into the shore of one of the lakes and stopped at a 'Toddy Shop' These little shacks are spread all over the Backwaters are like little bar/cafes that support the field workers with Toddy and food. Toddy is an alcoholic drink which is made from the liquid found only in the flower of the Coconut tree. The liquor is removed very early in the morning by slicing the flower head and immediately starts to ferment. By 10am they reckon the liquid is 3-4% and head a taste of Quantre-Tres (Liquor 43, a Spanish Banana liquor), By early evening the alcohol content is approaching that of a strong wine but the taste is that of foul eggs! They also served us with freshly caught (literally out the back door of the kitchen) freshwater king prawns or languestines deep fried in a spicy flavoring. We continued along the canals for about another hour and then transferred to 2 Taverna's, these are 7 seater SUV type vehicles which have all the looks but very little grunt. The Taverna's took us up to Peri yer National Park. On the way we climbed and climbed up into the mountains the scenery changed and we stopped part way at first a rubber tree plantation where they still draw the rubber from the trees then at Mr Abraham's Spice Garden (as featured on Monty Don's Around the World in 80 Gardens) We spent a hour or so wandering the garden sampling the various spices and plants which grow here from black pepper to super hot chillies (I refrained, however those that did try them were speechless for about 30 minutes and cried!) to bananas and custard apples and passion fruit. Following the tour we had an evening meal in Mr Abraham's house of produce all grown on the site, whilst it was nice I was not feeling 100% for some reason and only ate a little, some days you just don't fancy the big meals that seem to get presented to you on these organised tours.
We were now in tea county and the landscape was dominated by what appears to be fields of privet hedges, in fact we did stop at a church at the top of one hill to have a look around and I plucked a tea leaf from the tip of a bush and crushed it and it smelt just like privet!
We arrived late in Kumily the small town at the entrance to the park and checked into the Hotel for the night. I comprised a series of separate buildings each with about 4-6 rooms accessible from a series of pathways around the rear of the blocks. The room we had was OK but a little dark as the whole thing was constructed from dark wood and had very small windows however we did have a nice balcony which overlooked the rest of the complex.
We were now in tea county and the landscape was dominated by what appears to be fields of privet hedges, in fact we did stop at a church at the top of one hill to have a look around and I plucked a tea leaf from the tip of a bush and crushed it and it smelt just like privet!
We arrived late in Kumily the small town at the entrance to the park and checked into the Hotel for the night. I comprised a series of separate buildings each with about 4-6 rooms accessible from a series of pathways around the rear of the blocks. The room we had was OK but a little dark as the whole thing was constructed from dark wood and had very small windows however we did have a nice balcony which overlooked the rest of the complex.
Things that go bump!?!
A strange thing happened to me last night...
We went to bed at around Midnight after sitting and chatting to the owns son in law about all things Indian nothing weird and with no alcohol drunk I must add.
the room was warm and slightly muggy but nothing out of the ordinary and I soon fell asleep. However I was awoken after about an hour by hearing someone at the door quietly calling 'Helena!'. I actually got up and went to the door but no one was out side so I just assumed it was someone talking in their sleep and nodded of my self. After a couple of hours or so I awoke again with a sense that Les had got up, I turned over to see a strange black figure stood between our beds, at first I thought 'what is Les doing?' but then I noticed that Les was still in bed as he turned over still asleep.. The temperature in the room had changed dramatically and the figure just turned round as thigh it had noticed I was awake and then turned back walked to the end of the beds then over to the door and just disappeared, the door did not open or close and the room became as muggy as it had been before. I cannot explain any more or less what I experienced but I lay there for another couple of hours until it became light trying to comprehend what had occurred. I have no explanation for it apart from it was extremely 'real' and really freaked me out. The figure I saw was all in black and appeared to conical in dress almost like a burka (which doesn't fit with the family style as they are Christian) Needless to say I can only say what I saw and felt and whilst at the time i felt no fear, it certainly shook me somewhat. I must have dosed off again because I was awoken at 8:3 0to be told breakfast was ready, I could only stomach a tea that morning and didn't say what had happened until we had left the house and were on the boat.
Just to let you all know I am still of sound mind, definitely have not been smoking any 'wacky baccie' nor had I had a drink fro nearly 24 hours- perhaps that's the problem!?!
We went to bed at around Midnight after sitting and chatting to the owns son in law about all things Indian nothing weird and with no alcohol drunk I must add.
the room was warm and slightly muggy but nothing out of the ordinary and I soon fell asleep. However I was awoken after about an hour by hearing someone at the door quietly calling 'Helena!'. I actually got up and went to the door but no one was out side so I just assumed it was someone talking in their sleep and nodded of my self. After a couple of hours or so I awoke again with a sense that Les had got up, I turned over to see a strange black figure stood between our beds, at first I thought 'what is Les doing?' but then I noticed that Les was still in bed as he turned over still asleep.. The temperature in the room had changed dramatically and the figure just turned round as thigh it had noticed I was awake and then turned back walked to the end of the beds then over to the door and just disappeared, the door did not open or close and the room became as muggy as it had been before. I cannot explain any more or less what I experienced but I lay there for another couple of hours until it became light trying to comprehend what had occurred. I have no explanation for it apart from it was extremely 'real' and really freaked me out. The figure I saw was all in black and appeared to conical in dress almost like a burka (which doesn't fit with the family style as they are Christian) Needless to say I can only say what I saw and felt and whilst at the time i felt no fear, it certainly shook me somewhat. I must have dosed off again because I was awoken at 8:3 0to be told breakfast was ready, I could only stomach a tea that morning and didn't say what had happened until we had left the house and were on the boat.
Just to let you all know I am still of sound mind, definitely have not been smoking any 'wacky baccie' nor had I had a drink fro nearly 24 hours- perhaps that's the problem!?!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Backwater's Homestay
We rose the next morning early to have breakfast and to meet to get a local bus down to where we boarded a boat to take us out into the Backwaters of Kelrla. The bus took about 2 hours to get don to the drop off point and being a local bus it was crammed in and I ended up stat on the back row squashed between about 8 other Indian guys.
After offloading the bags we walked a short way up to board the launch that would take us to our home stay. The launch was about 50 feet long and could probably accommodate about 50 people although we were lucky that we had it to ourselves. The boat wended its way through the myriad of canals and waterways that crisscross this huge area of man made lakes and islands. The pace of life here is defiantly much slower than anywhere else we had been. I can only describe the area as probably being similar to that of the Norfolk broads with large man made islands created to farm and live on however the area has a much greater population the The Broads. Also plying the waterways are water taxis and water buses, small delivery boats, dugout canoes and huge houseboats built completely from wood some of which are huge with double decks complete with huge air-conditioned rooms and viewing balconies. After and hour or so we reached 'Mr Thomas' House' where we were to stay the night. Mr Thomas actually has three buildings on his land; His own house, The home stay lodging which we shared with his brother-in-law Philip and an other house he his having built to the rear of the property. The house we were to stay in was a very modern 2 story 'cottage' strangely English in its design but with a stone floor on the ground level and coir matting flooring through-out the upper floor, slightly uncomfortable on the feet as you have to remove your shoes in the house.
After a home cooked lunch we spent the afternoon chilling on the veranda, and in the early evening we were taken for a walk of the 'island' by Mr Tomas' son who was extremely knowledgeable on the history of all aspects of the area, both the people, lifestyle and agriculture of the region. The walk took us down the banks of the island (which has a perimeter path of over 20km) then into the centre where the paddy fields are located. These can be flooded and drained by a massive network of dykes and land drains and enable the fields to be rice cropped twice a year. The rice grown here is a local variety of locally grown rice and is only distributed to the Kerla region and not exported beyond. All the Backwaters are actually below sea level and the regulation of water into and out of the area is controlled by sluice gates and dykes. This does mean that in the monsoon seasons there can be widespread flooding of the islands however the people have learned to live with this an berms and dykes are improved and repaired each year to try to avert this issue. On reaching the far side of the island we climbed into a large open boat and were punted back round to the home stay whilst the boat guys sung traditional songs that had been sung by the people who used to work the fields in years gone by. Mr Matthew explained that many of these songs had been virtually lost and he had made it his mission to document many of these to preserve them for future generations. The cadence of many of these songs was similar to those of the Afro-Caribbean cotton workers songs sung as a call and respond style abate in the Malayalam language. By the time we got back to the house it had already gone dark and as our boat had no lights we had to skirt the edge of the canal to avoid the water taxis which kept hurtling by on the open canals using just a small torch light waved at the rear of the canoe to alert them to our presence! After tea we again sat around the veranda chatting and trying to get a copy of a film to work on the large screen TV that was in the lounge. Unfortunately the film was on my laptop but in a format the TV could not read so we tried in vain to convert the file format to a format that the owners laptop could read which in turn could be connected to the TV but to no avail and we gave up to just chat after about 3 hours of trying!
After offloading the bags we walked a short way up to board the launch that would take us to our home stay. The launch was about 50 feet long and could probably accommodate about 50 people although we were lucky that we had it to ourselves. The boat wended its way through the myriad of canals and waterways that crisscross this huge area of man made lakes and islands. The pace of life here is defiantly much slower than anywhere else we had been. I can only describe the area as probably being similar to that of the Norfolk broads with large man made islands created to farm and live on however the area has a much greater population the The Broads. Also plying the waterways are water taxis and water buses, small delivery boats, dugout canoes and huge houseboats built completely from wood some of which are huge with double decks complete with huge air-conditioned rooms and viewing balconies. After and hour or so we reached 'Mr Thomas' House' where we were to stay the night. Mr Thomas actually has three buildings on his land; His own house, The home stay lodging which we shared with his brother-in-law Philip and an other house he his having built to the rear of the property. The house we were to stay in was a very modern 2 story 'cottage' strangely English in its design but with a stone floor on the ground level and coir matting flooring through-out the upper floor, slightly uncomfortable on the feet as you have to remove your shoes in the house.
After a home cooked lunch we spent the afternoon chilling on the veranda, and in the early evening we were taken for a walk of the 'island' by Mr Tomas' son who was extremely knowledgeable on the history of all aspects of the area, both the people, lifestyle and agriculture of the region. The walk took us down the banks of the island (which has a perimeter path of over 20km) then into the centre where the paddy fields are located. These can be flooded and drained by a massive network of dykes and land drains and enable the fields to be rice cropped twice a year. The rice grown here is a local variety of locally grown rice and is only distributed to the Kerla region and not exported beyond. All the Backwaters are actually below sea level and the regulation of water into and out of the area is controlled by sluice gates and dykes. This does mean that in the monsoon seasons there can be widespread flooding of the islands however the people have learned to live with this an berms and dykes are improved and repaired each year to try to avert this issue. On reaching the far side of the island we climbed into a large open boat and were punted back round to the home stay whilst the boat guys sung traditional songs that had been sung by the people who used to work the fields in years gone by. Mr Matthew explained that many of these songs had been virtually lost and he had made it his mission to document many of these to preserve them for future generations. The cadence of many of these songs was similar to those of the Afro-Caribbean cotton workers songs sung as a call and respond style abate in the Malayalam language. By the time we got back to the house it had already gone dark and as our boat had no lights we had to skirt the edge of the canal to avoid the water taxis which kept hurtling by on the open canals using just a small torch light waved at the rear of the canoe to alert them to our presence! After tea we again sat around the veranda chatting and trying to get a copy of a film to work on the large screen TV that was in the lounge. Unfortunately the film was on my laptop but in a format the TV could not read so we tried in vain to convert the file format to a format that the owners laptop could read which in turn could be connected to the TV but to no avail and we gave up to just chat after about 3 hours of trying!
Tour 2 - Cochin
Today was the first day in Cochin proper with the tour group. We met last night for a meal and welcome meeting in the hotel restaurant and then retired fairly early. My room partner for the trip is a guy from Los Angeles called Less who works in the Movie Industry, and we seem to have hit it off ok. This morning we had a 'free' morning so we took our time and rose late for breakfast and then took a walk around to the local internet cafe to get our internet fix. The hotel is charging an exorbitant Rs120/ £1.80 and hour for wifi!, the internet shop at the back is Rs10/hour, work that one out?!?! Anyway part of the reason for going there was to try a usb keyboard on my Asus as the built-in keyboard has stopped working on certain keys. Anyway the internet cafe didn't have the right keyboards to try it with but we were directed to an area called Computer Bazaar where we were assured we would be able to get a keyboard to do the job. So off we set looking for a whole area of computer shops to find the 'Computer Bazaar' 'is' as single shop. Anyway the guy was really helpful as they are here and aloud us to try a number of keyboards which worked until I found a nice small lightweight one which actually has the same footprint as my laptop but is almost a full size keyboard and is actually easier to use than the laptop keyboard. I also ended up buying a memory stick for my laptop as my portable hard-drive is becoming a little flaky as well so I spent just over £10 on computer bits – big expense!
We wandered back to the hotel and les wanted some silver so we called in a smalls silver shop and looked at various pieces and eventually he bought a couple of 'coins' which he says can be used for medicinal purposes if needed. something to do with the electrolysis – apparently passing about 27v through pure silver in water produces a liquid which is very good for the body and has excellent heath properties so that is why he bought them.
We were due to meet the rest of the tour group at 1:45 so we went down to get some lunch from the restaurant at about 1 in true Indian style at 1:38 we were still waiting on the food and following various treats we eventually got the food at 1:42 so we wolfed it down and dashed apologetically to meet the rest of the party – not like me to be on the last minute! we had to be on time as we had to make a ferry across the bay and they usually for India run to a strict timetable. The ferry took us across to Cochin popper which is much more laid back than Ernackulm which is the area where our hotel is. This is like the old town an we first of all walked around the old synagogue, This is apparently the oldest synagogue in India and built in around th 1400 however the Jewish community has been here since much earlier that that from there we walked around to the 'Dutch Palace' which was actually built buy the Portuguese but remodeled buy the Dutch after they ransacked it, and continued to be called that after the British came and went. The 'palace' is now a museum which whilst very small was fairly interesting as Indian museums go, Unfortunately it was over-run with hundreds of cruise ship visitors all identifiable because they were all/looked/acted 70+ and were all sporting the regulation red 'lifesaver' from the ship, so we fairly quickly left there and took auto's to St Francis' church which is on the far side of the peninsula. This is considered to be the oldest European built Christian Church in India and was the place where Vasco de Gama was interred however apparently his son came and took his body back to Portugal, but the tomb rail is still there and the plaque states 'Here lay...' not 'Here lies...'. The church has also been through a few different associations, it started off as Catholic Christianity, then became Protestant with the Dutch influence, the became Anglican with the rise of the British, and so follows the South Asian Church, so there is a strange mix of Christian ideologies; on the rear wall of the church behind the alter is the Roman Catholic style creed on on panel and on the other panel is the Protestant Lord's Prayer.
Following visiting the church we walked over to the head of the peninsular where there are Chinese fishing nets. These were introduced by the Chinese (who according to Kerlans took away the Kerlan martial Arts and developed them into Chinese martial arts).
the fishing nets are like huge pioneering project set out on wooden jetties into the sea. the allow a net that is strung between 4 outriggers to be lowered into the water horizontally almost like a huge table cloth but lying just under the surface of the water, bait is thrown onto the cloth and then they await the fish. once sufficient are over the net it is rased and the fish a trapped and then poured into trays on the jetties. At the time we had arrived the tide had turned and the nets were not been used the current been too fast however the offshore fishing boats had just returned and the beach-side auction of marlin,tuna, red snapper, and multitude of other fish was being conducted with the usual fish market fever you find the world over.
Next up on our tour of Cochin was to visit a traditional arts centre to watch some traditional dancing. Not really my cup of tea and I could have quite happily just watched the first 15minutes where the explained all the intricate moves. The dances are performed by men who take on both the female and male roles. and the man dressed as a female firt came on stage to demo the 'moves'. Many of these involved very exaggerated eye movements whilst the head stayed completely still. This combined with the almost day-glo orange colour of the face and the garish multi-coloured costume made for an slightly un-nerving experience. After the demo we sat through a 'story' enacted by two dancers and three musicians. This went on for almost 45 minutes and got rather boring to be honest and I think I actually nodded off at one point. Anyway following the dancing we went to really good restaurant and had an excellent meal sat on a jetty of the peninsular for all of around Rs.200/ £3 and caught the last ferry boat back to Ernakulum just in time to get last orders at the hotel bar.
We wandered back to the hotel and les wanted some silver so we called in a smalls silver shop and looked at various pieces and eventually he bought a couple of 'coins' which he says can be used for medicinal purposes if needed. something to do with the electrolysis – apparently passing about 27v through pure silver in water produces a liquid which is very good for the body and has excellent heath properties so that is why he bought them.
We were due to meet the rest of the tour group at 1:45 so we went down to get some lunch from the restaurant at about 1 in true Indian style at 1:38 we were still waiting on the food and following various treats we eventually got the food at 1:42 so we wolfed it down and dashed apologetically to meet the rest of the party – not like me to be on the last minute! we had to be on time as we had to make a ferry across the bay and they usually for India run to a strict timetable. The ferry took us across to Cochin popper which is much more laid back than Ernackulm which is the area where our hotel is. This is like the old town an we first of all walked around the old synagogue, This is apparently the oldest synagogue in India and built in around th 1400 however the Jewish community has been here since much earlier that that from there we walked around to the 'Dutch Palace' which was actually built buy the Portuguese but remodeled buy the Dutch after they ransacked it, and continued to be called that after the British came and went. The 'palace' is now a museum which whilst very small was fairly interesting as Indian museums go, Unfortunately it was over-run with hundreds of cruise ship visitors all identifiable because they were all/looked/acted 70+ and were all sporting the regulation red 'lifesaver' from the ship, so we fairly quickly left there and took auto's to St Francis' church which is on the far side of the peninsula. This is considered to be the oldest European built Christian Church in India and was the place where Vasco de Gama was interred however apparently his son came and took his body back to Portugal, but the tomb rail is still there and the plaque states 'Here lay...' not 'Here lies...'. The church has also been through a few different associations, it started off as Catholic Christianity, then became Protestant with the Dutch influence, the became Anglican with the rise of the British, and so follows the South Asian Church, so there is a strange mix of Christian ideologies; on the rear wall of the church behind the alter is the Roman Catholic style creed on on panel and on the other panel is the Protestant Lord's Prayer.
Following visiting the church we walked over to the head of the peninsular where there are Chinese fishing nets. These were introduced by the Chinese (who according to Kerlans took away the Kerlan martial Arts and developed them into Chinese martial arts).
the fishing nets are like huge pioneering project set out on wooden jetties into the sea. the allow a net that is strung between 4 outriggers to be lowered into the water horizontally almost like a huge table cloth but lying just under the surface of the water, bait is thrown onto the cloth and then they await the fish. once sufficient are over the net it is rased and the fish a trapped and then poured into trays on the jetties. At the time we had arrived the tide had turned and the nets were not been used the current been too fast however the offshore fishing boats had just returned and the beach-side auction of marlin,tuna, red snapper, and multitude of other fish was being conducted with the usual fish market fever you find the world over.
Next up on our tour of Cochin was to visit a traditional arts centre to watch some traditional dancing. Not really my cup of tea and I could have quite happily just watched the first 15minutes where the explained all the intricate moves. The dances are performed by men who take on both the female and male roles. and the man dressed as a female firt came on stage to demo the 'moves'. Many of these involved very exaggerated eye movements whilst the head stayed completely still. This combined with the almost day-glo orange colour of the face and the garish multi-coloured costume made for an slightly un-nerving experience. After the demo we sat through a 'story' enacted by two dancers and three musicians. This went on for almost 45 minutes and got rather boring to be honest and I think I actually nodded off at one point. Anyway following the dancing we went to really good restaurant and had an excellent meal sat on a jetty of the peninsular for all of around Rs.200/ £3 and caught the last ferry boat back to Ernakulum just in time to get last orders at the hotel bar.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tummy Trouble in Trivandrum
My time in Trivandrum didn't go too well, My stomach upset got worse and I eventually took my self off to the local hospital for some proper medicine. At the Hospital I was worryingly 'admitted' however this was only a registration fee and I was taken to see a Surgeon who checked me over and proscribed a load of antibiotics and some tablets to repopulate my stomach with good bacteria. (medical Yakult I think) . So I spent most of my time in Trivandrum feeling very low and week. I did manage to take a bus out to Kovalam Beach one day which is about 15km down on the coast and is a an apparently popular tourist destination the beach front is lined with cafes and bars and I rented a beach lounger for the day and slept most of it on there, taking the bus back at a round 7pm to Trivandrum. The bus driver was definitely on a mission to be back in Trivandrum in record time or so it semed and drove like a bat out of hell to get back, so much so that when I got back to Trivandrum I actually felt travel sick something which normally doesn't affect me.
Trivandrum didn't seem to be a very interesting place each time I ventured out there was very little to see plus the heat was intense, perhaps it was because I was feeling rather ill as well, anyway, Tuesday morning I rose early and traveled up to Cochin to start my second tour with Intrepid, this time I had a seat reservation and it made the 4 hour journey a little nicer than the last.
Trivandrum didn't seem to be a very interesting place each time I ventured out there was very little to see plus the heat was intense, perhaps it was because I was feeling rather ill as well, anyway, Tuesday morning I rose early and traveled up to Cochin to start my second tour with Intrepid, this time I had a seat reservation and it made the 4 hour journey a little nicer than the last.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Trivandrum
The train didn't actually go all the way to Trivandrum, for reasons I could not fathom out it terminated at a small station about 8km outside the City and a large posse of autos were waiting to take people into the town. The driver I got started at Rs250 but I got him down to 100 and he sort of agreed to it, the fact I had to direct him by following my map in the Rough Guide once we were in the town proper meant he wasn't getting no more either! The hotel here is very basic – well what do you expect for Rs330/ £4.70 a night! Signing in was a mammoth job with 3 huge registration books to be completed all with virtually the same info then I had to sign the 'rules of the house' about what I can and cannot do in the hotel; which ran to 2 pages! Finally I got the room key – it was the 3rd floor and I was shattered and still feeling fairly ill. I was that bad that I had to stop at each floor get get my breath back and collapsed on the bed when I got to the room.
Monday afternoon I managed to walk out for some cash and a bit to eat but I felt even worse now on the way back to the hotel, extremely weak and very stiff, the same happened on
Tuesday I managed to get out to the restaurant next door, had half a dosa and some lime tea and then came back to bed. In the evening I thought it about time I go and see a chemist. I asked around and got directed up a side road to one where when I explained my symptoms to the guy on the counter he told me I should see the 'doctor' and took me into a kiosk at the back of the shop where another man listened again and then wrote down a list of things I needed to get. It turned out that this was an Ayurvedic chemist and he 'proscribed' 2 different types of tablets and an oil to apply externally; this was the hardest stuff to deal with , and I haven't used it yet as his instructions were to 'gently warm it over a candle on a teaspoon or some tinfoil'; now I'm not sure if he is as worldly wise as the rest of us, but I'm sure certain other 'products' get heated over candles and they are not legal! So not wanting to give the hotel any reason to kick me out I have refrained from used the oil. One lot of the tablets is for muscle ache and that seems to work and I have no Idea what the others do apart from they taste awful and won't come out of the blister pack without breaking up.
Today I managed to get up and get breakfast and then walked up into the heart of the town, I'm glad I brought my brolly as the heat is intense down here, and many people use them to shelter from the sun so you don't look a twit walking round with a brolly up in the sun!
Just up from where I had breakfast I spotted a barbers and had a full hair cut and beard trim for about 50p, I feel better for that but my bowels are still not good so I returned to the hotel for the safety of my 'own' loo!
Monday afternoon I managed to walk out for some cash and a bit to eat but I felt even worse now on the way back to the hotel, extremely weak and very stiff, the same happened on
Tuesday I managed to get out to the restaurant next door, had half a dosa and some lime tea and then came back to bed. In the evening I thought it about time I go and see a chemist. I asked around and got directed up a side road to one where when I explained my symptoms to the guy on the counter he told me I should see the 'doctor' and took me into a kiosk at the back of the shop where another man listened again and then wrote down a list of things I needed to get. It turned out that this was an Ayurvedic chemist and he 'proscribed' 2 different types of tablets and an oil to apply externally; this was the hardest stuff to deal with , and I haven't used it yet as his instructions were to 'gently warm it over a candle on a teaspoon or some tinfoil'; now I'm not sure if he is as worldly wise as the rest of us, but I'm sure certain other 'products' get heated over candles and they are not legal! So not wanting to give the hotel any reason to kick me out I have refrained from used the oil. One lot of the tablets is for muscle ache and that seems to work and I have no Idea what the others do apart from they taste awful and won't come out of the blister pack without breaking up.
Today I managed to get up and get breakfast and then walked up into the heart of the town, I'm glad I brought my brolly as the heat is intense down here, and many people use them to shelter from the sun so you don't look a twit walking round with a brolly up in the sun!
Just up from where I had breakfast I spotted a barbers and had a full hair cut and beard trim for about 50p, I feel better for that but my bowels are still not good so I returned to the hotel for the safety of my 'own' loo!
The Train to Trivandrum
I had already decided I was going to move on from Bangalore and had booked a ticket on an overnight train to Trivandrum. Unfortunately I only got as far as Wait List-2 on the booking so my ticket was canceled (and I got a refund) I tried to 'persuade' the Ticket inspector to let me have a seat but he was not for having it; my only option was to book for the next train or go General Class. So with 15 minutes to go I dashed across 4 platforms fought my way to the front of the ticket booth to find out that you can't book advance tickets; 'because it's Sunday' only tickets for trains leaving now?!? so I paid for a General Class ticket for the same train I had missed out on the AC berth and spent a grueling 17hours in a carriage with 200 other people and slept on the floor as it was the only space i could get. Never again.
Bangalore Day 4
Today I walked to the Leela Palace hotel, where I had stayed when I had been in town with work, now sadly slightly out of my price bracket (so was lunch there this time too!) Instead I bought a book from the bookshop in the attached shopping mall and then got a bus back to town. I had notices today that I had started to feel a little achy and stiff so on the return to the centre I stopped at a supermarket and grabbed some fruit, thinking perhaps I'm low on vitamins. I got a watermelon some oranges and for some reason I bought 2 bananas, why I'll never know as I know they give me indigestion; and these were no exception – horrendous indigestion for about 5 hours. After that I got diarrhoea, the hot and cold flushes and this continued through Saturday and Sunday.
Bangalore Day 3
Today I went to the Museum of Science and Technology, hmm I think it probably was excellent when it was built in the early 70's/80's the displays were extremely dated but after years of school kids hammering every button and prodding and pulling every exhibit it was looking very tired. And today was no exception the place was full of school kids. I managed to get a floor ahead of most of them then doubled back after and got a bit of peace, but the exhibits were still poor, probably due to funding, or lack of. On my way out of the museum a large group of about 80 primary school children had been sat down in rows on the service road outside, whilst the class prefects read out questions based on the museum for the others to answer, completely oblivious to the fact that no vehicles could get in or out of the museum!
Bangalore Day 2
After a good sleep and a read of the Rough Guide I decided to make the most of my time here and see some of the sights. I had seen there was an excellent typical local restaurant and a large gardens to the south so I decided to make it my mission to go to the garden first and then have a meal. I walked in the general direction south picking up road signs to to the area I needed every now and again and was amazed by the traffic congestion in this city – some of the roads were horrendously choked, and even though it was blatantly obvious that nothing was moving at all people continued to blare their horns. Eventually I fell upon Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Set in 240 acres they were an excellent place to get out of the heat and noise. For some reason most of the specialist gardens were closed, Bonsai, Cacti, Rose gardens to name but a few with no real explanation why. The Gardens were generally well looked after though and busy – lots of couples were here, 'courting' as the usual Indian rules of decorum seemed to be ignored.
After the park, I left and went back up the road to the Marvali Tiffin Rooms. On entry you pay a fixed fee for '1 meal' (Rs.120/ £1.80) then the man gives you a receipt you go up a flight of stairs and enter a room of bench seats a bit like a large bus waiting room. Suddenly a little man appears at a door and starts pointing at people and shouting something; by the time it gets to me I realise he asking 'how many people?' I hold up 1 finger and he seems satisfied, then he thinks for a moment and again points at various people including me, then disappears through the door again, every one starts to get up so I follow and we are taken into another room with lots of plastic tables and chairs. I grab one and sit down and wait. The waiters are all bare footed and wear lunghis (similar to a sarong) Initially you are given a steel tray and a steel cup of water, then over the course of the next 40 minutes or so over 12 different courses of food are brought out to you with out asking. Each is served from a stainless steel bucket and the waiters just go around dolloping more and more onto you until you say no! Finally a paan is left by your plate to 'enjoy' on the way out. To be hones I was stuffed at the end of the meal and the flavours were excellent, but I did pass on the paan (a concoction of floral and menthol 'things' wrapped in betel leaf; I've had one before and they're awful)After the meal I grabbed an auto back to the hotel – I was too stuffed to walk the 4km back! On the way back the auto rode up onto a flyover, which is quite normal however I noticed that we (and all the other traffic) were on the 'wrong side' of the road, Never mind I thought at least there's a central divider. Then suddenly all the traffic stopped, halfway along the flyover there was a gap in the divider and all the traffic was taking it in turns to swap to the other side. Only in India!
Bangalore
The train down to Bangalore worked out okay, again it was overnight train so after the usual seat swapping session I settled in for the long haul. In the morning the scenery had changed again becoming more greener again than Pune. Bangalore is known as the Garden City due to the number of gardens both public and private that are all over the city. Unfortunately my train only took me to station on the out-skirts of the city, however a quick check at the ticket desk there got me a Rs14 (10p) ticket on the next train to Bangalore Central. Whilst waiting on the platform I noticed an ancient 'arm scale' weighing machine. It had been manufactured in 1887 by a firm in Middleton, Manchester! I'm trying to recall the name of the company; Jepson/Jameson/Johnson? I really wanted to get a photo of it however there were 2 rather likely lads hanging round near me and I couldn't work out if the were casing my bags or just doing the common staring thing that some people here think is quite normal. Eventually the train pulled in and i jumped on the first carriage that stopped next to me which turned out to be 2AC, the lads didn't follow – they went down to the scrum for General Class. As it turned out, I should have done the same with the ticket I had bought, but it was only 2 stops and 40 mins. down the line, nobody checked, so I got away with it.
On arriving at Bangalore Central I was fairly lost as to which way to go to get off the platform and out of the Station, the signage was poor, and as usual there were what seemed like thousands of people everywhere. After asking a number of people for 'the Exit' and getting complete blank looks, a young lad (called Malcolm) told me in very good English to follow him, in fact it turned out he had worked for in Leicester on one of the systems I had used in BT – small world again! As it happens he was great, along with his girlfriend who was waiting for him at the station they showed me the way over to the Bus Stand and got me onto to right bus for my hotel. I had booked into the Church Street Inn which is right in the centre of the City. One off the bus I tried to get my bearings with my map and asked a couple of people which direction I needed to walk. Unbeknown to me I had been dropped about halfway along MG Road which runs parallel to Church Street and the 2 people I asked pointed the opposite way down MG road. After walking about 2 km the wrong way I realised things were not right , the easy thing would be to jump in an auto which are parked up at every corner however they come at a price, a city tour and a visit to their favorite stores – not what I wanted (I have discovered the best deals are to be had by hailing an auto which is passing, they're less likely to take you on a wild goose chase). Eventually I hailed one and he dropped me as it happens right outside the hotel however I didn't see the entrance until I rang to hotel to confirm where they were. The guy on the phone surprised me when he said I was looking at him, it turned out the hotel entrance was through the back of a book shop! The room was good although as I later found out noisy but did have A/C, TV and free Wifi!
After a quick shower I went out to eat, had a beer and then returned to the hotel to get some sleep.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Pune and Sangam
I arrived at Sangam by way of Auto, from the station just in time for tea. Sangam is one of the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts 4 International Centre's Located around the world, The others are in London, Switzerland and Mexico. I joined the other Guiders for the evening meal which was very Western by the standards I had been used to for the last 15 days , a bit of a reverse culture shock! On chatting to the other Ladies here it turns out that they are are all here on a 10 day programme of working with local people, at an old peoples home to build a new garden for them, and at a Deaf and Dumb School to paint up the School Rooms. The event is an 'international' one however of the 50 or so participants all bar 2 are from the UK. Even more strange is that one of them knows Kyle, and Cath who I used to work with (from Swansea!) It's definitely a Small world,
After a good nights sleep (and finding out there's a 'Wine Shop' just down the road that sells Kingfisher) I was up at 8 for the 8:30 breakfast. It's all very Guide Camp with Grace before every meal, 'servers' and 'clearer's' and food going one way round the table and dirty plates the other, slightly regimented and quaint but it doesn't take you long to get the hang of it.
I have to be very careful here as many of them have threatened to read this; Might I say some are slightly eccentric; in the best possible way :), however they are all lovely Ladies and really getting into the swing of things jumping in auto's to go off the the cinema or walking down the road to the sweet shop/Internet cafe/wine shop at night. During the day they are out at their relative projects and get back around 4ish. So during the day apart from a number of staff I have the place to myself,
The first day I stayed on site it was nice to just relax and do nothing after15 days on the go. (Have I really only got another 6.5 months left!) On Wednesday I went out into town to meet up with Janaki, Janaki is the wife of Abhijit Tuljarpulkar who was the manager of the offshore training team when we first came out to Pune. From this first visit we became good friends as Janaki became the local Personal Shopper! Times have moved on an Abhi is now working for another firm and unfortunately he is currently away in the States. However I still met up with Janaki, Rudra (their Son) and Janaki's Brother who chaperoned her. So armed with most important info ever; how to calculate Auto fares from the meter (I've been trying to find this out for the last 5 years – it's the meter rate times 7 plus 3; if only I'd known earlier it would have saved me a fortune!) After lunch with Janaki I went to do a bit of window shopping around MG Road, This is one of the main shopping areas in town, the other being Laxshmi Road. after a while of buying nothing, I decided to head over to the Taj Blue Diamond for a Steak. The Taj does the best steaks in town and this was no exception, yes it was a bit of a splash out but I enjoyed it all the same. The Taj is having a fair bit of renovation and all the reception and bar is closed but the Coffee Shop is still open and has at last got rid of the awful wrought iron chairs and the naff musak! The Security at all the big hotels has been beefed up since the Mumbai Bombings and you now have to go through airport style checks to get in – some had them before but the actually use them now!
I left the Taj unfortunately around rush hour and couldn't get an Auto for love nor money, well I could but at double or treble the normal fare, so I walked back to Sangam. This seemed to surprise the staff there, the fact that I had actually walked that distance not that there was any problem areas. It took me about an hour to walk back but it was nice to just observe what was going on.
On the Wednesday I had offered to do some work for Sangam so I was asked if paint the front gates. No problem I thought however I didn't count on the Gate-Man who Guards the front entrance. If I painted a bit white it should have been purple if I painted purple it should white and If I missed a bit he made sure I knew. To cap it all he kept talking to me constantly in Maharti (The local language) to which I have no idea whatsoever he was trying to tell me apart from every so often he looked at me expecting a fluent response 'Tikha' I replied which is 'OK' in Hindi. I still don't know what I agreed to but I've managed to escape from Pune with out any livestock or a new wife.
Thursday I came down with a cold so I laid low for the day sleeping most of it, in the evening a visit to the wine shop to procure a medical bottle of Whiskey did the trick and by Friday it was on the way out.
Friday day I went back to to the painting but this time armed with a second brush, the second the guard opened his mouth i produced the spare brush and shoved it in his hand. He got the idea and I kept pointing out bits he'd missed and took great glee in chiding him when he dripped white paint on the already painted purple bit. Friday evening I took an auto out to Hinjawadi and Infosys where I used to work and met up with a load of the guys from there. Unfortunately as I am no longer an actual BT employee I was not aloud to even pass through the outer gates of Infosys, so I had to wait for them in the Bar next door – a hardship I could just about bear with. It was great to see everyone again and chat with them all, The had also clubbed together and got me a nice big diary for 2010 to record my travels in, which I will use from January to take notes in. They are a lovely bunch of people, after a quick meal and a couple of drinks we had to depart as they all had cabs arranged to take them home (Infosys pays for transport to and from the office as public transport is not practical here) Leena the manager has her own car so she gave me and a couple of the guys a lift.
Saturday I chilled out again at the Centre just reading and relaxing and then Sunday after finishing the painting of the gates I joined the Guiders for their Campfire in the evening. I joined in with my usual gusto and got them moving to Father Abraham and then did Cum-Bye-Yah with Taps at the end. After the camp fire I wrote out the words – twice for people to take away.
As I said earlier the ladies were a wonderful bunch of people from all over the UK and Denmark. The staff were great too and one of them Emma has taken my details to pass on to a Scouter in Brisbane who she says will be able to point me in the right direction when I get to Oz. (Which apparently will also be Australia Day!)
Finally it's time to move on again and now I'm on the train to Bangalore for a couple of days.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
25 Hours to Pune!
Time to leave Delhi and head on down to Pune. I managed to get a berth on the the Sleeper train to Pune; The Goa Express. Two guesses where it goes to. Ruby (our Tour Leader) sorted an Auto to get me to the Station which was on the far side of town and it took me a good 40 minutes to get over there, however I was in good time and found my seat and on the train. Packed as usual with loads of people seeing each other off and saying their goodbye's I managed to squeeze my bags under my seat and was about to settle in for the long haul when a young girl came to ask me if I would swap seats. Not sure why, and fearing I was being fleeced for my seat I was a little reticent. Then a man nearby explained that she wanted to swap as her husband was in a berth further down the carriage and she wanted to swap to be with him. It turns out that this is standard practice and nearly half the train was playing musical chairs to be with friends or relatives. (Just because you book at the same time doesn't guarantee you'll be sat next to each other on Indian Rail it seems. So I dragged out my bags and fought my way down to the seat at the end. Whilst getting down there another couple were pleading with a Frenchman to do the same when was even more confused as he spoke very little English never mind Hindi, so I did my good turn for the day and translated from Hinglish to French and and back again, and It seemed to work, all were very happy and with the Franco-Indian issue resolved I strapped my bags in and set in for the night ahead. Luckily I had bought some sandwiches along with me so this solved tea time only breakfast and lunch to brave from the 'Pantry Car'. Indian Trains whilst basic in build are quite up to date and have a power socket in each compartment so I was able to play on my laptop most of the night to while away the hours. The train may be designated an Express but it only trundles along at about 70mph and seemed to stop about every 2 hours or so. I slept a little through the night, the trains rock around quite a lot and jolt suddenly every now and again but not too badly.
Morning came and I only really fancied the Chai tea that was brought around every 10minutes by the Pantry Staff, and only 5 Rupees a cup not bad value too. By 11 ish the chap came around asking for Lunch orders and I opted for the Veg Biryani which arrived in a takeaway Tray just like from the Indian back home abate with the words Meals-on-Wheels emblazoned across the lid, were they trying to tell me something?
As usual it is quite in order to just walk to the end of the carriage and ope the door to see whats going on outside even whilst the train is in motion, there are no automatic locks.
the temperature change was now noticeable and also the landscape, it was still generally flat land as far as the eye could see with the occasional hill popping out in the distance but the colour of the landscape had changed from a generally dustiness to darker soil and lots of greenery with fields growing mostly sugar cane. At one crossing a line of nearly 30 ox carts were waiting for the train to pass at a level crossing and the fields were full of people working the land.
Finally the train pulled into Pune and I called at the ATM and them took an Auto out to Sangam.
Morning came and I only really fancied the Chai tea that was brought around every 10minutes by the Pantry Staff, and only 5 Rupees a cup not bad value too. By 11 ish the chap came around asking for Lunch orders and I opted for the Veg Biryani which arrived in a takeaway Tray just like from the Indian back home abate with the words Meals-on-Wheels emblazoned across the lid, were they trying to tell me something?
As usual it is quite in order to just walk to the end of the carriage and ope the door to see whats going on outside even whilst the train is in motion, there are no automatic locks.
the temperature change was now noticeable and also the landscape, it was still generally flat land as far as the eye could see with the occasional hill popping out in the distance but the colour of the landscape had changed from a generally dustiness to darker soil and lots of greenery with fields growing mostly sugar cane. At one crossing a line of nearly 30 ox carts were waiting for the train to pass at a level crossing and the fields were full of people working the land.
Finally the train pulled into Pune and I called at the ATM and them took an Auto out to Sangam.
Pushkar to Delhi
As we were not getting our Train back to Delhi until 2:30 there was a little time left for shopping and food in Pushkar and a little lunch. Then we took a jeep and Ambassador car over the pass to Amjer to get the train back to Delhi. The terrain in this area is similar to Northern Spain, rugged read and orange rock. The train we are taking from here back to Delhi is an Day Express. On broading the train we found that the seating is arranged Airline style with 3 and 2 either side of the aisle. Within minutes of setting off the carradge attendant came round with a free litre bottle of water each then 30 mins later with afternoon tea , this set the trend for the rest of the journey we we force fed soup, drinks, and evening meal, and more drinks. Infact after every stop the attendant came around and dropped food or drinks infront of you - and this wasn't even 1st class! In some respects Virgin has a lot to live upto!
Back in Delhi we took cars back to the Hotel Swati where we had started from 15 days ago and dropped into bed shattered and full!
Back in Delhi we took cars back to the Hotel Swati where we had started from 15 days ago and dropped into bed shattered and full!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
More Pics
I've uploaded a few more Pic's but the connection is fairly slow here and I don't have much time available for interneting!
Pushkar
In the morning we were allowed a late start 10am!! Although we had awoken earlier – first to the call to prayer at 5am then to our own alarm we had forgotten to turn off at 7am and finally at 8am to the sound of a cat been castrated – well that's what the 'music' sounded like. Apparently it was a party political address as local elections are taking place soon. Breakfast was again being served in the main hall and then we went out to meet the Jeeps to take us to Pushkar about a 2 hour drive on varying roads from good tarmac to sand to gravel. Before we left we had a walk around the grounds which had been transformed overnight of a wedding which was to take place that day. Over 1000 people we due to arrive to take part in the celebrations and a number had arrived already, food was being served and we were offered some of the sweet sugary toffee and a spicy ball people were eating, I declined it as it looked very rich and I though not a good idea just before 2 hours of bouncing around in a jeep.
We arrived a Pushkar around 12:30 and dropped our bags in the hotel in a single room before going out to explore the town. It seems to be a single street town packed full of traders and shops which cater to the tourist trade. Pushkar exists because of the 'lake' on which it sits which is considered to be on of the most holy places in India, there is less of a begging culture here which is nice but this is the first place we have seen so many western tourists especially a large number of Israeli visitors with many signs in Hebrew, Hindi and English. On the road into the town from the hotel we passed the Jewish House which had an Army emplacement with guns behind sandbags around it. I assume an unfortunate result of the Mumbai Bombings last year. After a visit to the only ATM in town we split up and a couple of us went for Lunch in a roof top restaurant then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Camel Ride.
We left our main bags at the hotel and just took a day sack out to the front to meet our steeds for the night; 7 camels, one of which pulled a cart for our bags. We climbed aboard and set off through the town and down past the 'lake'. Because of the shortage of rains over the last couple of years the lake is actually a small pond at the bottom of a large bowel and did not resemble anything too great but is revered by many. On through the town and my camel (Johny) decided he needed a drink before we continued and stopped at one of the many water troughs around the town. 3 times the guy tried to move him on but the camel stayed to drink his fill. This now meant we had to catch up with the others so he set off at a quick trot up the main drag me bouncing around on the top at the same time trying to duck under the various wires, ropes and sheets covering the main street. Finally we left to town and headed out over open land which was littered with rubbish, this area was the land used by the Pushkar Camel Fair which we had missed by about a couple of weeks (apparently a good job as prices go up 10 fold for everything!). We carried on for another half a mile or so then stopped for chai and biscuits (brought by a man on a motorbike) Then continued through onto an open plain to watch the sunset. Off again for about another 40 minutes and we stopped at our 'camp' 4 over sized Niger tents had been erected complete with beds, although that was it; it seems we had beat the tractor that was bringing the bedding, sheets and toilet tent, eventually they came and a fire was lit and we waited for dinner, and waited, and waited, after what seemed like ages and as it got colder and colder, very cold! the food finally arrived – apparently the truck got stuck in the sand. So after eating the meal we all retired to bed at 8, there was little wood left and the cold was biting. I slept ok – I had my Sleeping blanket and a thick blanket they provided and we were up at about 7.45. A quick breakfast of toast jam, chai and fruit and we remounted the camels for the ride back to the hotel, which is where we are staying the night before returning to Delhi tomorrow.
We arrived a Pushkar around 12:30 and dropped our bags in the hotel in a single room before going out to explore the town. It seems to be a single street town packed full of traders and shops which cater to the tourist trade. Pushkar exists because of the 'lake' on which it sits which is considered to be on of the most holy places in India, there is less of a begging culture here which is nice but this is the first place we have seen so many western tourists especially a large number of Israeli visitors with many signs in Hebrew, Hindi and English. On the road into the town from the hotel we passed the Jewish House which had an Army emplacement with guns behind sandbags around it. I assume an unfortunate result of the Mumbai Bombings last year. After a visit to the only ATM in town we split up and a couple of us went for Lunch in a roof top restaurant then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Camel Ride.
We left our main bags at the hotel and just took a day sack out to the front to meet our steeds for the night; 7 camels, one of which pulled a cart for our bags. We climbed aboard and set off through the town and down past the 'lake'. Because of the shortage of rains over the last couple of years the lake is actually a small pond at the bottom of a large bowel and did not resemble anything too great but is revered by many. On through the town and my camel (Johny) decided he needed a drink before we continued and stopped at one of the many water troughs around the town. 3 times the guy tried to move him on but the camel stayed to drink his fill. This now meant we had to catch up with the others so he set off at a quick trot up the main drag me bouncing around on the top at the same time trying to duck under the various wires, ropes and sheets covering the main street. Finally we left to town and headed out over open land which was littered with rubbish, this area was the land used by the Pushkar Camel Fair which we had missed by about a couple of weeks (apparently a good job as prices go up 10 fold for everything!). We carried on for another half a mile or so then stopped for chai and biscuits (brought by a man on a motorbike) Then continued through onto an open plain to watch the sunset. Off again for about another 40 minutes and we stopped at our 'camp' 4 over sized Niger tents had been erected complete with beds, although that was it; it seems we had beat the tractor that was bringing the bedding, sheets and toilet tent, eventually they came and a fire was lit and we waited for dinner, and waited, and waited, after what seemed like ages and as it got colder and colder, very cold! the food finally arrived – apparently the truck got stuck in the sand. So after eating the meal we all retired to bed at 8, there was little wood left and the cold was biting. I slept ok – I had my Sleeping blanket and a thick blanket they provided and we were up at about 7.45. A quick breakfast of toast jam, chai and fruit and we remounted the camels for the ride back to the hotel, which is where we are staying the night before returning to Delhi tomorrow.
Roopangarh Fort, Kishangarh
This morning we were up again early at around 7 to pack and travel over to Kishangarh. We took Auto's to the bus station and again took a local state bus for about 1.5hours south of Jaipur where we got off the bus and awaited jeeps. The main highways are in general good (during the day!) although the imposition of a contraflow section did not stop the bus driver from cutting through the cones to overtake a line of trucks, against the flow of oncoming vehicles, hmm.
The landscape is very flat and dusty with scrub and fields disappearing to the horizon. The place where we caught the jeeps from is also the heart of the marble trading area and along the roads there were hundreds of marble wholesalers. If it wasn't for the fact they all only sold marble it was like being in a huge Travis Perkins. Many of the men out here wear bright colourful turbans and these are worn with pride by the men here. The jeeps that took us out to the fort were reminiscent of American ones although they are made by Mahindra, the rear seats are higher than the front two and they bounce along at a fair pace on the dusty roads. Suddenly out of the haze I spotted the fort above a small town. As we drove in the roads got smaller and narrower with the usual chaotic Indian life going on. Men sat out side stalls selling chai, women and small children buying provisions and pigs roaming free in the alleys. After a couple of three point turns in the tight lanes we entered to fort gates and climbed out. Porters appeared from nowhere to carry our bags and we walked up the slope to a small courtyard where we were presented with garlands of flowers and rose petals were thrown over us. We entered into the main building and Ruby went to collect the keys and sort our rooms and we sat on splendid couches and drank cool drinks. The fort is the home of the local Maharajah and like many of their palaces it has now been converted to a hotel. There are 23 rooms each with its own style and design, some are small and have only a single bed others are huge rooms maybe 30ft square. climbing the outside stairs we were taken to our room passing through a grand main hall beautifully adorned with pictures of the Maharajah, his family and ancestors. high around the walls was a ladies gallery where previously the women would have watched the proceedings of the day. Passing though here we went out onto a huge veranda complete with a full size tennis court and steps leading up to the ruins of the original Fort. eventually we entered our room which was huge, the two single beds and couch seemed lost with in it. Leaving our bags we returned to the main area to find the others and see their rooms, only to find Greg and Michelle had an even bigger room complete with a window seat over looking the town. Jo and Jackie had a room on a lower level but was equally as big complete with a large rocking crib and massive balcony. One of the staff then took us to see 'The Queen's Room' which apparently Sting had used in the past, this was amazing, a large open room complete with side rooms and a gallery to go out onto a private balcony and the longest bathroom ever, the toilet was nearly 40ft from the bath! We took lunch on the veranda in the shade of pakhoras, fries, toasted sandwiches and chai tea and then took a tour of the whole Fort including the secret passage entrances, underground water chambers and many of the bedrooms each with its own style of decoration. This truly is the most memorable hotel/palace/place I have stayed in.
After a short rest we ventured out into the local village with a local guide. He took us down what he referred to as 'The High Street'; a long narrow lane with the usual shops selling every thing from corrugated sheet to foodstuffs to silverware and barber shops. Amongst the shops we were shown ladies making the bangles found throughout India from a form of clay they coloured and heated over a charcoal fire then rolled and formed into bangles with simple wooden rollers.
The children were starting to come home from school and we started to get mobbed by them everywhere we went “hello how are you, one photo!” they would all call and pester. This continued throughout the walk around the village and they were lovely and cheeky with it but it was nice not to pestered like you get in the cities where all they do is demand money.
Moving on down we say the local cooperative oil mills where the villagers can bring their mustard and sesame seeds to crush for the oils. We then left the High Street and turned onto a small dusty lane to see how the rest of the village lived, every where we went people came out to greet us and they were genuinely please to meet us and asked us to come into their homes and yards. We say ladies sewing fabrics, men making clay pots, a lady making beedies (the traditional cigarettes here that are formed from tobacco rolled into a single leaf and tied with a small piece of cotton – for the record I had to try one (when in Rome...) and they weren't too bad – from there we walked to a small drinks stall and this is where we really got mobbed by the kids. arranging them into a group for a photo took ages and more kept jumping in. Then when I bent down to show them the picture they were all over me fighting to see it. The lovely thing is they were genuinely happy and you did not feel wary of them. Our guide then walked us around to a small cottage factory where they were making braids and necklaces. One lady was using a tiny drill bit mounted in a huge upright drill to make holes in tiny stones by hand using her finger to feel when the drill bit had passed through the stone. In another room a woman was tending to 4 powered weaving looms producing braiding with silver and gold and black coloured cottons. This strangely reminded me of a time at school when we did a project on the weaving industry of Lancashire. After this we walked on further and were taken to an artists house. This artist painted beautiful intricate pictures of Hindu gods, and scenes from ancient festivals and parades, the art work was extremely intricate and detailed, however what was unbelievable was the materials he used to paint on; old postcards & court documents from the 18 and 1900's. He also used silks and newer papers but he claimed that most people preferred them done on the old documents. He took us into a back windowless room which was stacked with piles of old court documents, locks, medical books, Vedic scripts, stamps and swords. Some of the scrolls and papers he claimed were over 300 years old. It was an incredible mini-museum to the written word in India. The court documents were mostly affidavits of land transfers and had ornate 'stamps' in green or blue at the top detailing the issuing court and the price; Three Anna's. Anna's were are an old monetary value with 1 Anna =6.25 Paise, 100 Paise= 1Rupee; a bit like Pounds ,Shillings and Pence but they are not now in circulation and rarely are the Paise seen, and considering one Pound is now worth about 67 Rupees worth very little!
Finally we returned to the Fort and took some pictures of the sunset over the town, the Tennis court had been laid out with chairs around huge wok like burners with log fires sat in them and we sipped a few cold beers and chatted to other guest there. ruby our guide had arranged for us to 'be dressed for dinner' and we took it in turns to go to our rooms to be dressed up in typical Rajasthani Coultar, Pyjamas and turban whilst the ladies were fitted out in Saree's. Dinner was served in the main hall of the Palace, I felt rather odd with our table all dressed up and the rest of the other 30 or so hotel guests in western clothes looking on at us.
The landscape is very flat and dusty with scrub and fields disappearing to the horizon. The place where we caught the jeeps from is also the heart of the marble trading area and along the roads there were hundreds of marble wholesalers. If it wasn't for the fact they all only sold marble it was like being in a huge Travis Perkins. Many of the men out here wear bright colourful turbans and these are worn with pride by the men here. The jeeps that took us out to the fort were reminiscent of American ones although they are made by Mahindra, the rear seats are higher than the front two and they bounce along at a fair pace on the dusty roads. Suddenly out of the haze I spotted the fort above a small town. As we drove in the roads got smaller and narrower with the usual chaotic Indian life going on. Men sat out side stalls selling chai, women and small children buying provisions and pigs roaming free in the alleys. After a couple of three point turns in the tight lanes we entered to fort gates and climbed out. Porters appeared from nowhere to carry our bags and we walked up the slope to a small courtyard where we were presented with garlands of flowers and rose petals were thrown over us. We entered into the main building and Ruby went to collect the keys and sort our rooms and we sat on splendid couches and drank cool drinks. The fort is the home of the local Maharajah and like many of their palaces it has now been converted to a hotel. There are 23 rooms each with its own style and design, some are small and have only a single bed others are huge rooms maybe 30ft square. climbing the outside stairs we were taken to our room passing through a grand main hall beautifully adorned with pictures of the Maharajah, his family and ancestors. high around the walls was a ladies gallery where previously the women would have watched the proceedings of the day. Passing though here we went out onto a huge veranda complete with a full size tennis court and steps leading up to the ruins of the original Fort. eventually we entered our room which was huge, the two single beds and couch seemed lost with in it. Leaving our bags we returned to the main area to find the others and see their rooms, only to find Greg and Michelle had an even bigger room complete with a window seat over looking the town. Jo and Jackie had a room on a lower level but was equally as big complete with a large rocking crib and massive balcony. One of the staff then took us to see 'The Queen's Room' which apparently Sting had used in the past, this was amazing, a large open room complete with side rooms and a gallery to go out onto a private balcony and the longest bathroom ever, the toilet was nearly 40ft from the bath! We took lunch on the veranda in the shade of pakhoras, fries, toasted sandwiches and chai tea and then took a tour of the whole Fort including the secret passage entrances, underground water chambers and many of the bedrooms each with its own style of decoration. This truly is the most memorable hotel/palace/place I have stayed in.
After a short rest we ventured out into the local village with a local guide. He took us down what he referred to as 'The High Street'; a long narrow lane with the usual shops selling every thing from corrugated sheet to foodstuffs to silverware and barber shops. Amongst the shops we were shown ladies making the bangles found throughout India from a form of clay they coloured and heated over a charcoal fire then rolled and formed into bangles with simple wooden rollers.
The children were starting to come home from school and we started to get mobbed by them everywhere we went “hello how are you, one photo!” they would all call and pester. This continued throughout the walk around the village and they were lovely and cheeky with it but it was nice not to pestered like you get in the cities where all they do is demand money.
Moving on down we say the local cooperative oil mills where the villagers can bring their mustard and sesame seeds to crush for the oils. We then left the High Street and turned onto a small dusty lane to see how the rest of the village lived, every where we went people came out to greet us and they were genuinely please to meet us and asked us to come into their homes and yards. We say ladies sewing fabrics, men making clay pots, a lady making beedies (the traditional cigarettes here that are formed from tobacco rolled into a single leaf and tied with a small piece of cotton – for the record I had to try one (when in Rome...) and they weren't too bad – from there we walked to a small drinks stall and this is where we really got mobbed by the kids. arranging them into a group for a photo took ages and more kept jumping in. Then when I bent down to show them the picture they were all over me fighting to see it. The lovely thing is they were genuinely happy and you did not feel wary of them. Our guide then walked us around to a small cottage factory where they were making braids and necklaces. One lady was using a tiny drill bit mounted in a huge upright drill to make holes in tiny stones by hand using her finger to feel when the drill bit had passed through the stone. In another room a woman was tending to 4 powered weaving looms producing braiding with silver and gold and black coloured cottons. This strangely reminded me of a time at school when we did a project on the weaving industry of Lancashire. After this we walked on further and were taken to an artists house. This artist painted beautiful intricate pictures of Hindu gods, and scenes from ancient festivals and parades, the art work was extremely intricate and detailed, however what was unbelievable was the materials he used to paint on; old postcards & court documents from the 18 and 1900's. He also used silks and newer papers but he claimed that most people preferred them done on the old documents. He took us into a back windowless room which was stacked with piles of old court documents, locks, medical books, Vedic scripts, stamps and swords. Some of the scrolls and papers he claimed were over 300 years old. It was an incredible mini-museum to the written word in India. The court documents were mostly affidavits of land transfers and had ornate 'stamps' in green or blue at the top detailing the issuing court and the price; Three Anna's. Anna's were are an old monetary value with 1 Anna =6.25 Paise, 100 Paise= 1Rupee; a bit like Pounds ,Shillings and Pence but they are not now in circulation and rarely are the Paise seen, and considering one Pound is now worth about 67 Rupees worth very little!
Finally we returned to the Fort and took some pictures of the sunset over the town, the Tennis court had been laid out with chairs around huge wok like burners with log fires sat in them and we sipped a few cold beers and chatted to other guest there. ruby our guide had arranged for us to 'be dressed for dinner' and we took it in turns to go to our rooms to be dressed up in typical Rajasthani Coultar, Pyjamas and turban whilst the ladies were fitted out in Saree's. Dinner was served in the main hall of the Palace, I felt rather odd with our table all dressed up and the rest of the other 30 or so hotel guests in western clothes looking on at us.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Picures Uploaded!
I've stared to upload some pictures but it's taking ages so here's some for starters.
If your reading this from the actual blog (and not on Facebook!) then you can return to them from the Flickr link on the right of the page.
If your reading this from the actual blog (and not on Facebook!) then you can return to them from the Flickr link on the right of the page.
Jaipur
Today we took the bus from Agra to Jaipur. This was the 'state' bus service and although it was a little tatty the run was very good - and the roads are a lot safer during the day. The bus advertised that it was A/C but the actually meant you just open the windows!.
Travelling out of Agra we passed over the plains of Utter Pradesh and into Rajestan however it wasn't until the last couple of miles that we started to climb up to Jaipur. It definitely feels cooler up here.
We checked into a Guesthouse which is really good - its a bit out of the town centre so is quiet which is nice and a good Internet connection so I'm trying to upload a load of photos as I type this!
After lunch at a nice restaurant in town we took cyclo-rickshaws into 'the Pink City' - this is the oldest part of the town and is quite literally all painted a dirty pink colour. It is massive, an endless maze of shops selling everything under the sun and more, major thoroughfares cross through it but there are hundreds of mall lanes and alleys which are teaming with people. Not been a shopaholic, myself and Jared wandered the streets just taking in the sights. Down one small lane we found a small opening in a wall through it sat on the floor were 3 or 4 men bent over tiny grinding wheels where they were shaping semi-precious stones for I assume wholesaling to jewelers. When they tried to flog us a small speck of what looked like a blue pebble for 1000Rs. we decided it was best not to take photos and left. Eventually we made our way back to the point where we had been dropped off so we decided to take an Auto-rickshaw back to hotel. This took nearly 30 Min's and was deafening with every man and his dog super glued to their flipping horns!
Travelling out of Agra we passed over the plains of Utter Pradesh and into Rajestan however it wasn't until the last couple of miles that we started to climb up to Jaipur. It definitely feels cooler up here.
We checked into a Guesthouse which is really good - its a bit out of the town centre so is quiet which is nice and a good Internet connection so I'm trying to upload a load of photos as I type this!
After lunch at a nice restaurant in town we took cyclo-rickshaws into 'the Pink City' - this is the oldest part of the town and is quite literally all painted a dirty pink colour. It is massive, an endless maze of shops selling everything under the sun and more, major thoroughfares cross through it but there are hundreds of mall lanes and alleys which are teaming with people. Not been a shopaholic, myself and Jared wandered the streets just taking in the sights. Down one small lane we found a small opening in a wall through it sat on the floor were 3 or 4 men bent over tiny grinding wheels where they were shaping semi-precious stones for I assume wholesaling to jewelers. When they tried to flog us a small speck of what looked like a blue pebble for 1000Rs. we decided it was best not to take photos and left. Eventually we made our way back to the point where we had been dropped off so we decided to take an Auto-rickshaw back to hotel. This took nearly 30 Min's and was deafening with every man and his dog super glued to their flipping horns!
Agra
After a couple of hours of well needed rest our day in Agra began with lunch in a restaurant which was run by a Finnish lady who had moved out to Agra. The restaurant was used to raise profits for an NGO she runs helping local people. The food was really good – and they served beer in large coffee mugs. Then we took a 'magic bus' (7seater minibus) to The Red Fort. This was a beautiful fort build by a Mogul king and is now still used by the Indian army so only 20% is on public display. The carvings and stonework within is extraordinary and we had a Guide who explained all about the Muslim King and his Hindu Wife. He wanted to bring all the Religions together so the carvings around the fort reflect all different faiths combined. Unfortunately many previous visitors to the fort thought it fit to scribe their names on the walls and it really detracted from the place – a real shame. The guide we had told us many things about the fort and it's occupants – mostly date after date after date, so I really couldn't tell you much more on the history – go read up on it! After this we took our Magic bus around to the Taj Mahal, our ticket to the Fort entitled us to entry on the same day. The Taj is stunning an it really does take your breath away, How the stone stays so white and clean in a ll the smog and with all the people is incredible. We arrived at around 4pm and stayed till just before dust. With the ticket we got a free bottle of water and shoe covers to wear when on the 'second level' This is where the mausoleum is and to be honest it's not worth joining the 2nd queue to go in to it, It is dark, the tombs are surrounded by a 6ft high lattice fence and you cannot take photos however it is worth going up to take some snaps from outside. Finally tired out we headed out to a small hotel where our guide was waiting with all our bags (you can take very little into the Taj with you) Our evening meal was at a very good Indian/Chinese restaurant in town. The food was excellent, however I did leave my bag and have to get our mini bus to stop whilst I ran back for it, The good side to it was we got to see a Wedding procession complete with horse drawn carriage, a band, dancers and torches parade down a road (so everyone wasn't to bothered!) I'm writing this on the State Bus to Jaipur not a bad bus and the good thing is you can't see where you are going AND its daylight the roads are much safer!
NH2 - The road of Hell!
We took rickshaws to the railway station in Varanasi however on arrival we found we only had 4 seats reserved for the trip to Agra, Ruby the tour leader was unable to obtain any others from the guard so she oped for Plan B – this involved cancelling all the train tickets and getting a car for the journey. Initially this sounded ok but on arrival the vehicle could only take bags for 4 people and just seat 7 so we insisted on a second one and we ended up 4 in one and 3 in the other. All seemed ok at this point as we set off into the night for the 12hr drive. The National Highway 2 connects Varanasi and Agra and is for the most part a well made dual carriageway road. However Indian driving standards are somewhat crap not to put a too finer point on it. I think the final count was over 350miles was at least 8 crashed lorries (one of which still had bodies in), 4 over-turned trailers, 1 burnt out rickshaw, 1 car on its roof (lights still on and the wheels spinning – but we didn't see it go over) and for the last 100 miles or so, thick fog with 50yds visibility; not that that stopped our driver tailgating the one in front by about 10ft at 50mph.I had to keep talking at him to keep him awake. I spoke at him 'cos he didn't speak English apart from 'Okay' and a thumbs up. I'll swear he fell asleep at the wheel a couple of times – I think I dozed for about 1 hour. Finally we arrived in Agra and even though the ladies in the front car had a map with the location of the hotel the driver refused to listen to them and drove around and around the town until he found the hotel. Once here we're having breakfast and re-living the journey and counting our blessings. If you ever come to India avoid at all costs a night road trip on NH2 – The road of Hell!!!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Viranasi
Varanasi is a largish town on the banks of the Ganges and is considered to be one of the most holy places in the Hindu Religion. The town in located only on side of the river and is said to be one of the oldest cities in the world. We landed on the Ghats which are the stepped banks of the Ganges and waked about 500 yds up in to the town to the Hotel. Here we showered and changed before going for a walk down the Ghats to see life at the waters edge. People come here to bathe and wash in the waters and also to die. In the Hindu faith if you are cremated on the banks of the Ganges you are released to Nirvana, so there are two areas known as 'the burning ghats' where people are cremated on wooden pyres 24 hours a day. the ashes are then washed into the River. A fire has been burning here for thousands of years and never goes out as it is used as the source for lighting each of the pyres. It was rather strange to stand and watch the cremations which are constantly being started one after the other and never stop. Later we left and took cyclo-rickshaws up to the heart of the old city where tiny ginnels and alleys intersect and cross full of shops and stalls selling every thing from cheeses to bangles to bike parts to bricks . In a small shop hidden away from the noise we were given a long introduction to the production of cloths linens and silks. This was all too much for me (clothes shopping arg!). Two hours went by whist the ladies of the group tried on various garments and arranged to have them sent on by post to the last hotel for collection (60GBP for a silk scarf – no thank you!). By this time we were well and truly goosed and need of food so we headed to a small restaurant hidden away down a small archway which served amazing Falafel olives and hummus with hot pitta breads all for about 2GBP with a drink!
The next morning we arose early 5am!! to go and see the morning rituals being performed at dawn on the river. To do this we took a small boat out and onto the river and sailed down to watch the people doing the dawn ritual of bathing in the river. As we set out in the dawn mist is resembled a scene from Harry Potter – hundreds of small rowing boats gliding along flat calm water into the mist with the huge temples and stone Ghats rising out the mist. Very eerie, however when we got to the the bathing areas it seemed there were more boats of onlookers than people bathing and I felt it was all a little voyeuristic. We left the boats and headed up into the town to find The Bread of Life Bakery – renowned in Varanasi as the bes breakfast in town and it was! We split up then as the rest of the day was free until later Greg and I headed out to find a Bar and had to take a rickshaw out to the far end of the town to one of the 5* hotels to get a drink. Very nice, very smart but so clinical and removed from the real city.
In the evening we took a boat ride down the river again to watch the evening ceremony which was much more interesting that the morning. On the way down we lit small candles and floated them down the river. at the ceremony priest performed a ritual that has not changed for over 2000 years and involves vadic chants and symbolism of the 5 elements; earth, wind, water, fire, and soil. The ceremony lasts for over 1 hour and is well worth seeing. On there return we were acompanied by a sitar and tabla duo who played traditional music as we sailed back up the ganges.
The next morning we arose early 5am!! to go and see the morning rituals being performed at dawn on the river. To do this we took a small boat out and onto the river and sailed down to watch the people doing the dawn ritual of bathing in the river. As we set out in the dawn mist is resembled a scene from Harry Potter – hundreds of small rowing boats gliding along flat calm water into the mist with the huge temples and stone Ghats rising out the mist. Very eerie, however when we got to the the bathing areas it seemed there were more boats of onlookers than people bathing and I felt it was all a little voyeuristic. We left the boats and headed up into the town to find The Bread of Life Bakery – renowned in Varanasi as the bes breakfast in town and it was! We split up then as the rest of the day was free until later Greg and I headed out to find a Bar and had to take a rickshaw out to the far end of the town to one of the 5* hotels to get a drink. Very nice, very smart but so clinical and removed from the real city.
In the evening we took a boat ride down the river again to watch the evening ceremony which was much more interesting that the morning. On the way down we lit small candles and floated them down the river. at the ceremony priest performed a ritual that has not changed for over 2000 years and involves vadic chants and symbolism of the 5 elements; earth, wind, water, fire, and soil. The ceremony lasts for over 1 hour and is well worth seeing. On there return we were acompanied by a sitar and tabla duo who played traditional music as we sailed back up the ganges.
Mizapur to Viranasi
Finally we pulled into our destination station of Mirzapur where we had only 2 minutes to offload before the train would set off again with a loud blare of it's horn.
Our transport from here was a short ride in classic white Ambassador cars; this time with all the bags stuffed in the 2 boots but with the lids bouncing open as they could not close them. We stopped at a very nice little hotel and took 2 rooms here between us to shower and freshen up before we had a breakfast of tea, toast and omelette's. Back into the cars we took a short ride to our transport for the next two days – 3 25ft wooden sailing boats. One of the boats was the kitchen and the other 2 were to be our ours to lounge on. Each boat had 2 men to sail or row them and the cook boat had the chef, his assistant and 'the boss'. We were soon underway out in the middle of the Ganges, it is a wide low flowing river and initially we were able to use the wind to help us along. However after rounding a bend the boat men had to resort to rowing. In fact they had to row nearly half the 80 mile journey as there was either no wind or it was a head wind. After about 1 hour the 3 boats rafted up in the middle of the river and lunch was served, fresh sliced vegetables, rice and 3 different spiced vegetable dishes followed by chai tea. This was to become the standard for the rest of the main meals on the boats. The food was simple but really good – tasty and loads of it. We continued down the river watching the world go by, very peaceful and quiet especially after the noise and bustle of Delhi. Every now and again we would glimpse a fresh water dolphin come up for air. These dolphins are now quite rare and apparently are blind relying on echolocation to find their prey. Around 5pm we pulled into a sandbank at the side of the river and a campsite was setup, we were given chai and biscuits on a large rug whilst the crew erected the tents. (Oh if only Scout Camp were like this!) Dinner was served on the rug as just as the sun had gone down, so a Tilly lamp was hung from one of the oars to provide some light for us to see – using a head torch was suicide, as you were instantly bombarded by small moths which live on the sand banks., By 9 we had all gone to bed although sleeping in the heavy dark canvas tents was hard as it was so warm. (It wasn't until the second night we discovered air vents around the tents which improved things!)
Day 2 I gave up and got up at around 6 as it was too warm in the tent. Breakfast was served on the shore and was Tea, Toast, Jam and porridge. We cleared the camp and set off down the river again slowly watching the world go by, People fishing, Buffalo bathing, people washing cloths, children swimming and the occasional dolphin jumping out of the water. The heat started to build and we had to stay under the cover on the boat as it was just too hot to sit out in without burning. Initially we had wondered why we had 3 small boats instead of on larger one. We found the reason was the many floating pontoon bridges which span the river. These allow the bridges to rise and fall with water level in the river which can increase by at least 30 feet in the rainy season. to break the journey up (and allow us to str5ech our legs we left the boats at one point an walked up into a small village. Cows were being fed on the small streets and their dung collected to add to chaff then dried to make fire blocks. Children in spotless uniforms were going to school, a man was having his beard trimmed by a barber under a large tree. In the village we found a rundown cemetery from the British Raj era, large ornate columns and stones marked the graves of colonels and brigadiers and their families from a long forgotten era. Above the village there stood a large fort built in the Mogul times then used by the British and now used by the Indian Police as a training centre as such we could not visit it. After a quick cold drink at a small shop we rejoined our boats and continued down the river towards Varanasi.
The second night was spent on a sand bank in the middle of the river. This time with all the air vents open in the tents! I awoke around 6:30 to the gentle sound of rain on the tent – rain?!? RAIN!! yep even here it rains however it was only a light shower and had cleared in 10 minutes leaving pock-marks in the sand. Underway again we headed off downstream and finally had lunch on the boats before reaching Varanasi .
Our transport from here was a short ride in classic white Ambassador cars; this time with all the bags stuffed in the 2 boots but with the lids bouncing open as they could not close them. We stopped at a very nice little hotel and took 2 rooms here between us to shower and freshen up before we had a breakfast of tea, toast and omelette's. Back into the cars we took a short ride to our transport for the next two days – 3 25ft wooden sailing boats. One of the boats was the kitchen and the other 2 were to be our ours to lounge on. Each boat had 2 men to sail or row them and the cook boat had the chef, his assistant and 'the boss'. We were soon underway out in the middle of the Ganges, it is a wide low flowing river and initially we were able to use the wind to help us along. However after rounding a bend the boat men had to resort to rowing. In fact they had to row nearly half the 80 mile journey as there was either no wind or it was a head wind. After about 1 hour the 3 boats rafted up in the middle of the river and lunch was served, fresh sliced vegetables, rice and 3 different spiced vegetable dishes followed by chai tea. This was to become the standard for the rest of the main meals on the boats. The food was simple but really good – tasty and loads of it. We continued down the river watching the world go by, very peaceful and quiet especially after the noise and bustle of Delhi. Every now and again we would glimpse a fresh water dolphin come up for air. These dolphins are now quite rare and apparently are blind relying on echolocation to find their prey. Around 5pm we pulled into a sandbank at the side of the river and a campsite was setup, we were given chai and biscuits on a large rug whilst the crew erected the tents. (Oh if only Scout Camp were like this!) Dinner was served on the rug as just as the sun had gone down, so a Tilly lamp was hung from one of the oars to provide some light for us to see – using a head torch was suicide, as you were instantly bombarded by small moths which live on the sand banks., By 9 we had all gone to bed although sleeping in the heavy dark canvas tents was hard as it was so warm. (It wasn't until the second night we discovered air vents around the tents which improved things!)
Day 2 I gave up and got up at around 6 as it was too warm in the tent. Breakfast was served on the shore and was Tea, Toast, Jam and porridge. We cleared the camp and set off down the river again slowly watching the world go by, People fishing, Buffalo bathing, people washing cloths, children swimming and the occasional dolphin jumping out of the water. The heat started to build and we had to stay under the cover on the boat as it was just too hot to sit out in without burning. Initially we had wondered why we had 3 small boats instead of on larger one. We found the reason was the many floating pontoon bridges which span the river. These allow the bridges to rise and fall with water level in the river which can increase by at least 30 feet in the rainy season. to break the journey up (and allow us to str5ech our legs we left the boats at one point an walked up into a small village. Cows were being fed on the small streets and their dung collected to add to chaff then dried to make fire blocks. Children in spotless uniforms were going to school, a man was having his beard trimmed by a barber under a large tree. In the village we found a rundown cemetery from the British Raj era, large ornate columns and stones marked the graves of colonels and brigadiers and their families from a long forgotten era. Above the village there stood a large fort built in the Mogul times then used by the British and now used by the Indian Police as a training centre as such we could not visit it. After a quick cold drink at a small shop we rejoined our boats and continued down the river towards Varanasi.
The second night was spent on a sand bank in the middle of the river. This time with all the air vents open in the tents! I awoke around 6:30 to the gentle sound of rain on the tent – rain?!? RAIN!! yep even here it rains however it was only a light shower and had cleared in 10 minutes leaving pock-marks in the sand. Underway again we headed off downstream and finally had lunch on the boats before reaching Varanasi .
Leaving Delhi
We left the hotel this evening after having a very Indian meal at Pizza Hut – yes I know – but everyone fancied Pizza. After cramming 7 of us into 2 taxi's and piling bags on the roof rack and tying them on with apiece of sizal string somehow they made it to the Train station. We arrived there about 1 hour early and went to find our train.
It was huge over 25 carriages long so it took nearly 15 minutes to find our AC3 carriage. The we had to find our seats/bunks . Each carriage in AC3 seats 64 people. 3 facing 3 seats and also a row of bunks down one side which are 2 high. We managed to swap with a few people and got 4 of us together the other 3 were in the next carriage up. The bunks weren't too bad and surprisingly the train ride was very smooth. Early in the journey there were people constantly coming through with water and food from the Pantry Car. Amusingly the food was all labeled as 'Meals-on-Wheels'; not the same sort as we get back home though. Soon after, things quietened down as people bedded down for the night. Even though we were in an AC section (Air Conditioned) it was still warm and difficult to sleep. At around 5am we pulled in to a station and stayed there for ages, by this point I had given up trying to sleep and wandered down to the end of the train to watch out of the window, what surprised me was the door was still open and you could happily lean out of the door to see where we were hurtling along to.
It was huge over 25 carriages long so it took nearly 15 minutes to find our AC3 carriage. The we had to find our seats/bunks . Each carriage in AC3 seats 64 people. 3 facing 3 seats and also a row of bunks down one side which are 2 high. We managed to swap with a few people and got 4 of us together the other 3 were in the next carriage up. The bunks weren't too bad and surprisingly the train ride was very smooth. Early in the journey there were people constantly coming through with water and food from the Pantry Car. Amusingly the food was all labeled as 'Meals-on-Wheels'; not the same sort as we get back home though. Soon after, things quietened down as people bedded down for the night. Even though we were in an AC section (Air Conditioned) it was still warm and difficult to sleep. At around 5am we pulled in to a station and stayed there for ages, by this point I had given up trying to sleep and wandered down to the end of the train to watch out of the window, what surprised me was the door was still open and you could happily lean out of the door to see where we were hurtling along to.
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