Thursday, December 31, 2009

Day 27 - Every holiday has a worst day ......

Today we had to fly from Manali to Delhi to catch our connecting flight to KL. Problems started at 5.45am! We had asked to pay the account the night before as we had to leave early but all the ATM's in town (the whole 2 of them) were not working, as well as this a power outage at the hotel meant they didn't have any credit card facility. They said not to worry too much as hopefully the credit card would come back online before we left. Sure enough they phoned our room at 9pm to say it was back on so M went down to pay. They said don't worry pay tomorrow, M said but what if it isn't working at 6am, no problem it will be fine they said ..... hmph!

This morning you guessed it, no credit card facility so M walked into town to get cash but the ATM's were still not working  - and we had a plane to catch. Another problem was that the taxi we were using to get to the airport was owned by the hotel and they wouldn't let us leave because we hadn't paid the bill! You can imagine how well K was coping with this John Cleese moment! K was yelling things like "this is not our problem as we wanted to pay last night!" and stormed out the front with luggage in tow trying to hail a taxi - not possible at 6am on New Year's Day! M suggested that we get the cash from an ATM at the airport and give it to the driver to bring back - but this wasn't good enough, the guy at reception decided to come with us just to make sure!

So we headed off, and on the way we stopped at other non working ATM's with the staff member going into the cubicle & staring over M's shoulder at what he was doing! We eventually found a working ATM, paid the money and made it to the airport.

Plane was meant to leave at 8.30am .... at 9.45 they announced the flight was cancelled and there would not be another flight until tomorrow! Apparently a bird had hit the plane and they didn't have any engineers available until one came up from Delhi! Panic for many as so many people were catching international flights in Delhi. Ours wasn't until 11.10pm so we thought we had a chance. We caught a taxi with a Brazilian girl Maike from Germany and started heading down the mountain to Chandigarh to catch a 5.30pm flight to Delhi. Maike had to make a flight to Mumbai at 9.20pm to make her international flight.


We arrived in Chandigarh at 4pm with one 10 minute toilet/food stop for the whole day - only to be told that flights were cancelled due to fog and they couldn't be sure the 5.30pm flight would leave. We decided it was too risky and would continue the 5 hour drive to Delhi. Problem was we had to change taxi and get more money, this all took over half an hour. Maike phoned the airlines and they said the 5.30 flight was going so we raced back to the airport - but once we got their it wasn't - all were cancelled! Panic set in again as we had to get the second taxi back so we could head to Delhi. We had now wasted over an hour and it was doubtful Maika was going to make her flight! We finally made it to Delhi at 10.50pm, 15 minutes before our check in closed and way too late for Maike. To say we were frazzled is an understatment and K does not cope well when things don't go as she has planned! But we were welcomed at check in with flower garlands and a complimentary red spot (which we promptly washed off) - and at least we did make it onto the 5 hour flight to Malaysia!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Day 26 - High above Manali

H had put us in touch with one of his friends from Manali, so we waited for the call to tell us whether the weather conditions for paragliding were suitable.

We eventually headed off around 11:30, which gave us some time to do some well overdue blog updating (via the very flaky internet connection we were able to access). The power here in Manali goes off all the time, so it's difficult to do anything consistently.

We headed off to the paragliding site over the Kullu Valley. We had a 20 minute drive to the meeting point, where we swapped to a jeep to take us up even further, and then another walk up the mountain of about 30 min after that.


Once strapped in to our chutes, the assistants check the wind conditions, and at the right moment you just run towards the takeoff point. The chute then lifts you up and you start to float - it's really quite easy. After that, it's a 15-20 minute glide to the landing point, soaring over the valley.

Once we landed (and soft landings they were too) we headed off for a nice lunch of local trout with H's friend Manas and the paragliding operator.

After a long lunch, a drive through the mountains, a stop at Kullu Castle, and then back to Manali. It was our last full day in Manali (and India), K finally got to do some of that shopping she'd been hanging out to do for some time!

As it was also New Year's Eve, we also quietly saw in the New Year (with fireworks and cheering from the street as it turned 12), and to bed just after midnight, as we had a 5am start the next day to depart India and head to Kuala Lumpur.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Day 25 - Off to the Himalayan snowfields!


We headed off around 9:30 for a trip up the mountain. We'd been told the previous day that there wasn't enough snow for skiing, but as as we drove up past the ski hire huts there were a lot of people hiring skis anyway!

We made it to "Snow Point" which is where the skiing is meant to start - there was snow, but the cover wasn't great, but it didn't stop people trying to ski - way too dangerous for us, it's no Mount Buller - rocks and trees everywhere, no ski lifts, and cars just parked anywhere along the side of the road. There were people offering horse rides, and for some reason trying to sell us saffron as well - which we hadn't seen anywhere else.


After spending some time walking up the mountain, we headed back down to to the Solang Valley, where we watched the paragliding for a while. However we'd been advised that there was better (and safer) paragliding elsewhere, and we'd arranged for that tomorrow.

Back to the hotel by lunchtime, so lunch in Manali (pizza for K two days in a row!), some shopping, and an uneventful end to the day.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Day 24 - Manali again

Big sleep in today, catching up on all of those early mornings and late nights. Unfortunately M had also picked up a cold somewhere along the way, so the sleep in was very welcome.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the area around Manali - a quick walk through the nature park which led down to the freezing river, then trips to the small villages of Vashisht and Old Manali. Vashisht was very busy, with many people there to see the temple and the hot springs (which the locals were using to shower and clean their dishes!).

After all of that, we spent some time in Manali looking through the markets, followed by a nice dinner (trout for K again!) in our room.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Day 23 - The long drive to Manali

As we had a 10 hour drive in front of us we arranged with the driver to pick us up at 9am. As usual we were ready by 8.45, the driver arrived at 9.15 then came in and had breakfast! We left at 9.45, we never learn when it comes to Indian time! It was a long winding drive through the mountains with lots of beautiful scenery & of course being India always varied sights to marvel at not to mention what felt to us like many near misses on the narrow road, but for them its just the way of driving. We finally got to the lodge H booked us into with a nice large room & headed out for dinner. Manali food is all about the local grown trout which was lovely, we then walked around the town & shops for a while then headed back to our room. Although the hotel seems nice the very loud music coming from the restaurant/bar is not appreciated, especially when you are trying to sleep!

Day 22 - Reception!

More sleeping in today, but as this is the day of the reception (which started at 8pm), we decided sleep was required as part of our preparation, today will be a late night and we head off tomorrow to Manali!

After lunch we went shopping for warm clothes for Manali and shoes for P, H said NOW he felt like he was married as he was handing over money for 2 pairs plus a bag. We all had a lovely coffee and then went home to get P prepared for the big night. She went to a salon for her hair & make up & we headed off in a car load of people to the reception.

Once again it ws the most amazing set up of marquees, stage, dance floor, only problem was noone had told us it was outdoor. K only had short sleeves, no jacket and the temperature was well under 10 degrees with plenty of fog. Luckily H was still home so he brought the jackets with him and we huddled around fires to keep warm. The recpetion was pretty much the same as the other functions heaps of food and drink, lots of crazy dancing, photo taking and cutting of the cake. Another late night.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Day 21 - A well earned rest (and Boxing Day and M's mum's birthday!)

Today was the rest day, so we slept in until quite late, having breakfast around 12:30pm! After that we headed off to see some of the sights of Chandigarh. We visited the Nek Chand Rock Garden, which was quite amazing, especially considering it's made mainly of rocks and junk. As it was the weekend it was also crowded with locals, and K was asked a couple of times if she could be photographed, which could be one of the reasons she likes India so much!

After the Rock Garden we also visited the Lake, which had even more people, with many of them on paddleboats on the lake.

Back to H's place after that for a pleasant evening on the roof with some of H's friends and family, and another late-ish night!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Day 20 - Wedding Day (as well as Christmas Day and K's mum's birthday!)

7.05am ready to go when K got suspicious by the silence. H's room was opposite us at the guest house, repeated banging & calling out finally woke up H!!! Indian time again!

We finally left around 8am for H's grandfather's place again, this time for the dressing of the groom. Of course everyone there was still getting out of bed, while we were fully dressed and ready for the wedding! While we waited for everyone to get up, we took the opportunity to ring home for Christmas - but it sure wasn't very Christmassy where we were!

H came out in his gold suit, and we watched as the turban was folded from a piece of material around the size of a bed sheet, and then carefully wrapped around Harbir's head. Along with his sword he was almost dressed, a few finishing touches to his outfit came from the women, and then some singing and chanting as he was led to the wedding car (decorated with flowers stuck on the outside).

We headed off for breakfast first, to the site of the wedding party. There were huge marquees, a band playing, and an amazing amount of food, we were approached literally every few seconds by someone with a drink, or some food, all of which was very tasty, and we also availed ourselves of the breakfast buffet.

The wedding ceremony was next - we were taken to a Sikh temple a few minutes down the road, and sat cross legged (men on one side, women on the other) as we witnessed the wedding. H and P circled the priest four times, at the end of the fourth lap they were married, then it was back for the wedding party.

As H entered the gardens this time, we were blocked from entering by P's "sisters". They wouldn't let him in until he had paid them enough money!

The wedding party was another food and drink extravaganza! There was music and dancing, all outdoors on a lovely sunny day. We left around 3:30pm as we had to get back to Chandigarh, so we arrived back at H's house around 8pm.

H and P arrived a little while later, and this time it was H's "sisters" who blocked P's entry until she'd paid them enough money!!

K (now an honorary sister) & one of H's "sisters" had the task of undressing P from her wedding regalia & taking down her beautiful, long thick hair & helping her pack to go to the hotel. All this was done with much gossiping about H, it felt quite strange to be having to tell the bride what her husband is like!

After some dinner H and P headed off to a hotel for their first night together, and we headed off for some well earned rest, because all of this eating and drinking is pretty hard work!

Day 19 - The Ring Ceremony

Today we were still getting used to "Indian" time, that translates to mean when ever you are told a time double it, subtact 15 & then mulitply by 3! The first ceremony was Shagun which is a type of blessing, then the bride arrived for the Ring Ceremony. Food & drink is served continually & then lunch is served after, Indians eat a lot! Puneet was dressed beautifully she is very pretty & petite. The action is very slow & everything takes a long time, photos are as big a deal as the ceremony - K's mother would fit in well here. We are taken very good care of however H's brother told us at the end of the day that he is continually hassled by people telling him that we hadn't eaten enough & checking that we were being taken care of well, & often by people he didn't know - we are the only westerners at the wedding.


It all finished about 3 & the guys headed off for a sleep as they party every night & we headed off to finish our sightseeing of Amritsar. We took a cycle rickshaw to Ram Bagh Park to see the Maharajah Ranjit Singh panorama, a very interesting exhibition with great 3D displays & sound effects.

We thought we would probably be in for an early night but wrong again! We were collected & taken to another party this time at H's 86 year old grandfathers house in the village of Verka. There was lots of singing,dancing & of course food. As per usual the boys had taken over the rooftop for their bar. H has a cousin called Bunny whose brother is called Sunny, Bunny is always in trouble from his mother for his partying ways! There was some type of procession where a woman came out with a massive headress with multiple candles on it & the women conga line behind her. They then decided it was K's turn so she got to lead the procession, they are very inclusive. Another late night, H ws very firm when we went to bed that we must be ready & dresssed for the wedding by 7.15am, we joked that this was Indian time but he said no for tomorrow it is Aussie time, you must be ready!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Day 18 - The Golden Temple and much much more!


Another early start -  up at 5am to get the 5:45am bus to Amritsar. The trip would have been fine, except there was a very loud video playing for the 3 1/2 hour trip, and the bus had the loudest horn you've ever heard, which in true Indian style the driver used incessantly!

On arrival we weren't quite sure what to do next as our accommodation had been arranged for us as part of the wedding preparations. A couple of phone calls later we had been provided with the details of our hotel, an army owned rest house with quite a nice large room.

Once we'd settled in we headed off to towards the famed Golden Temple, the holy temple of the Sikhs. Once we'd been dropped off we followed the swarm of pilgrims towards the temple. On the way, we visited Jallianwala Bagh, a park which was captured in the film "Gandhi" as it was the site where peacefully protesting Indians were killed by gunfire by the British in 1919.

After this, we headed to the Golden Temple. First we had to check in our shoes, then we obtained a scarf to cover our heads. Then we washed our feet in a small pool as we entered. We walked around the outside of the moat which separated the outer walls and buildings from the two story golden marble temple. On our way around we passed the dining hall, where anyone can get a meal prepared by volunteers, so we decided to join in. First we were given a dish by one person, a spoon by another, then a bowl. We followed the crowds in and sat cross legged along witht the hundreds of others filing in. As we sat, people came by with chapatis, and various types of vegetarian dishes. We ate along with everyone else, and when we finished we took our plates back to be washed. They feed 50 - 60,000 people every single day of the year for free 24/7.

We continued our walk around the outside of the temple, and joined the queue of hundreds of people lined up to enter the golden temple itself. After about 30 minutes we made it in, and climbed up onto the quieter second level for a view of the surroundings.

We headed back to our hotel to arrange a trip to the border with Pakistan (about 30km from Amritsar) to see the border closing ceremony. However what should have taken about 15 minutes ended up taking about an hour, as we were caught up in the infamous Amritsar traffic, further complicated by some sort of procession that was winding its way out of the old city!

We eventually managed to get a taxi to take us to the border. On arrival we walked up to the gate, which was due to open at 4pm. The crowd was huge, and as the gate started opening there was quite a crush. Once through, people started running so they could get the best positions to watch the ceremony. We had to pass two security checks on the way through, with men and women separated into different queues.

We reached the stand area and being foreigners, we were told to take the VIP entrance. We ended up in the stand closest to the border, with the locals had to take stands further back. There were people waving Indian flags, and there was an MC who got the crowd chanting patriotically. We could see the border gates, and on the other side a similar setup for the Pakistanis attending the ceremony from their side.

One strange site was to see the Delhi-Lahore bus come through just before the border closed, the crowd cheered and waved, while the people on the bus (who must have felt like royalty) waved back.

Eventually the closing ceremony commenced - the Indian soldiers marched up and down, with a strange marching style which made it look like they were trying to kick themselves in the head (Ministry of Silly Walks style). While all this was happening there were yelling contests between the soldiers on each side, seeing who could yell for the longest, as the crowd cheered for their side. On the Indian side the chant was "Hindustan Hindustan!" and on the other side "Pakistan Pakistan!". It is well worth looking it up on youtube as the whole thing is hilarious!


Finally after much marching, yelling, and chanting, the Indian and Pakistan flags were lowered, the soldiers on each side saluted and shook hands, the gates closed, and everyone headed home. There were 1000's there & this happens every single night.

Back in Amritsar, after a short visit to the market, we dined at Crystal Restaurant. The interesting thing there was that there were two Crystal restaurants side by side (apparently a family rift, so there is a wall down the middle). As we alighted from our rickshaw, doormen on both sides tried to persuade us to go in. We chose the one on the right, and as we had a very nice meal we think it was the right choice!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Day 17 - The ceremonies begin ....

We were woken around 9:30 (!) by someone banging on the door of the house. If H hadn't woken us up we'd have wasted most of the morning!

We headed over for a yummy Indian breakfast of parathas, and after brekkie K tried on the two dresses that had been made for her. For those of you who've heard the story of these dresses, you'll be pleased to know they both looked very nice indeed, and all of K's panic over how she'd look was an overreaction (of course!). Some adjustments needed to be made, so we went to visit the dressmaker for some final refinement.

When we returned, it was almost time for the first ceremony of the wedding, called Mahia. In this, H was seated while various women (including K!) took turns to rub a golden scrub on his face, arms and legs. While this was happening, the women (not including K!) sang a song. While all this happened, the men sat back and watched, took photos, or worked on getting the music going. K wore one of the outfits during this, as all of the women were in their regular dress, but the men just wore regular clothes.


After Harbir had been well and truly goldenised, some sweet yellow rice was served, after which we headed downstairs for lunch.

The afternoon was then spent sorting out further things for the wedding - a trip to the tailor so M could get some shirts made, followed by the beauty parlour where M had a hair trim and Harbir appeared to have a full on beauty treatment! We left Harbir there once M's haircut was done, and headed back to the house.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Day 16 - Off to see Harbir!

A very early start as our flight was scheduled for 8:10am. The Goa to Mumbai leg went smoothly, but the next leg to Chandigarh was delayed. We finally boarded the plane an hour late, only to then sit on the tarmac for at least another hour, before we finally took off.

On arrival in Chandigarh we were met by Harbir (henceforth to be known as "H") and his cousin Bunny (I don't think that's his real name, or even if I've spelt it correctly), and driven back to H's house in Sector 33 (Chandigarh is a planned city and it's divided into around 50 or so sectors, each of which is like a suburb with its own facilities such as markets, schools, etc.).

There we met more of H's family, including his mum, and more cousins and uncles. We were shown to our room, which happened to be on the third floor of an empty house two doors down - we have the whole house to ourselves, though only the ground floor was fully furnished, the other floors pretty much used for bedrooms but all have ensuites.

After we settled in, we headed back to Harbir's house for a snack. Harbir(from now on known as "H") lives in a 2 bedroom single story house with a large roof area for entertaining. After we then headed out to Sector 17, which was like a "shopping sector", with all sorts of shops spread out over a fairly large area. We were driven there by one of the drivers that had also been engaged for the wedding preparations, who waited for us while we browsed a few shops and K bought stuff (surprise surprise).


On our return, we were invited onto the open rooftop of that house where there was a fire, and a very generous selection of (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) beverages! We settled in there for the evening, as various friends and family drifted in and out for a drink and a chat. During the evening food was also brought up, courtesy of the cooks who were in attendance as part of the wedding preparations.

We had to pull the pin some time around midnight, as we'd had a pretty long (though not particularly strenuous) day!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Day 15 - Last full day in Goa


We had received a little too much sun over the last few days, so we decided to make today pretty low key and try to stay out of the sun if we could. This meant we didn't move much further than 20 metres from our hotel room for most of the day. The day went something like room, breakfast, room, pool (under some large umbrellas), lunch, room, pool, room.

As you can tell this could have become quite monotonous, M lasted until about 4:30pm, when he was able to convince K that the sun had gone down far enough to allow some beach walking. So we headed down to the beach and had a nice long walk as the sun was going down, past the hordes of people who had also decided this was the best time of the day.

We completed our walk not long after the sun disappeared over the horizon, and got ready for dinner. After dinner down the road some distance, we decided to walk back to our hotel via the short beach path. This should have been straightforward, but we it was so dark that we almost missed the path to our hotel. There was some backtracking required, but it did end up being quicker.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Day 14 - Groundhog Day?

Today we had no firm plans, so after breakfast we headed to the beach ...... hopefully you get the idea!

Very few Indian girls swim, & if they do they do it fully clothed, but they guys are happy to swim in their jocks & some in their jeans. The girls tend to just stand around & look at the water, but interestingly many are not adverse to coming down to breakfast in their PJ's.

There are many human sights in Goa we have not seen anywhere else! 95% of the people at our hotel/resort are young Indian couples - fairly sure they are all honeymooners with spoon feeding each other & holding hands.

That evening we finally found a restaurant that served some decently spicy food - it seems most places in Goa only serve up bland, westernised versions of what you would normally expect to be quite tasty dishes. The food we've had at the beach shacks has been the worst, they know their target market and don't want to scare them off!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Day 13 - When in Goa ....

Today we had no firm plans, so after breakfast we headed to the beach to explore in the opposite direction to the way we went a couple of days ago.

We walked past what seemed to be hundreds of shacks and thousands of beach chairs, regularly approached by people asking if we wanted to sit on a lounge for free, though one guy tried to charge us 100Rs when he thought we weren't going to buy anything!


We eventually selected a shack that was well frequented, and proceeded to settle in with our books and ipods for pretty much the rest of the day, taking advantage of the service to buy drinks and lunch while we were there, though we were kept busy fending off the incessant approaches from people trying to sell us dresses, t-shirts, towels, stone carvings, henna, DVDs, ice creams, massages, peanuts, or fruit!

In the afternoon as the sun was setting we decided we'd had enough, and slowly walked back along the beach to our hotel.

Day 12 - I fought the law, and the law won

Today we decided to put our pre-trip motorcycle riding lesson to good use and hired a scooter. Pretty easy to ride, but we did have to contend with the traffic. However once we got away from the main road and the traffic snarls there, we did OK, as the roads we generally took to get around were only lightly travelled.

First destination was Panaji, the capital of Goa, after a couple of wrong turns we made it into town, successfully navigating the one way streets (sometimes in the wrong direction!) to get to the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception - which was of course closed when we got there.

Next step was Old Goa, which was the old capital until it was abandoned in 1835. The main sights here were the churches, which included the largest church in Asia, Se Cathedral, and the Basilica of Bom Jesus, which holds the remains of St Francis Xavier.


All of this had taken up most of the day, so we started to head back to Calangute. After only about five minutes we were pulled over by the police who then asked for M's license (which he didn't have on him). A "friendly" (under cover/whispered) lecture from another policeman ensued, where M was informed that the bike would have to be impounded until the next day, to be picked up when we presented our documents at the police station. However, we could avoid this if we paid a "fine" of minimum 500Rs. M decided that the most expedient course of action was to pay the fine, so 500Rs later we were on our way. Crime & corruption appears prevalent in the Goan police force!

We eventually made it back to the hotel in one piece, and spent the rest of the day relaxing!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Day 11 - It's astonishing how many people don't have mirrors in their rooms!

No need for alarms here, the music from the restaurant/bar cranked up just after 8am. We had already been waken up by a 5am text - yes we know it was 10.30am in Melbourne and we should have turned off the
message reminder sound... but too late!

Hopped in a taxi for the famed Anjuna Wednesday flea market, like all markets incredibly repetitive, how does everyone get a sale when they are selling the same stuff? And like Indian markets very pushy, however managed to spend a little money. M did well to play the annoyed husband part when K was haggling, but was he acting?? Beautiful view from the beach though, once we'd passed all the market stalls.


Walking along the beach from near our hotel, we found that the beach is covered in shacks that serve you food and drink very cheaply either at table and chairs or on the sun lounges. The beach was not only covered in these huts but also with people who should never, ever, ever, ever wear bikinis or speedos - it's not fair on the rest of us. We were really suprised with all the retired English whales (oops typo, people). We had a lovely walk the length of the beach, it was very hot but ok in the shallows, stopping for cheap G&T's (Pepsis for M though) along the way.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Day 10 - The dreaded boring day arrives!

Yep, today's  the 5am start with the 6pm finish for a what should have been 1 hour flight! However our time at the airport went much better than we expected as M had used the free internet over the past 2 days to download a number of programmes that we enjoy, just hope we didn't blow the download limit at the hotels! Between eating, wandering, reading & watching TV shows on our laptop the time was quite painless.

We arrived at our Goan resort about 6pm with a nice spacious room, about time after tripping over each other & luggage for the last week. Nice to be able to unpack & setlle in for 6 nights, the only downside being our room is right next to the resturant/bar - read that to mean constant loud 70/80's music.

After checking in went for a walk to find somewhere to eat - and this is where we got our first glimpse of what this part of Goa is like - old English people, and restaurants serving beef wellington and chip buttes alongside the chicken vindaloo ... we wondered to ourselves, what does this all mean, this isn't what we were expecting? I guess we'll find out tomorrow!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Day 9 - You can never have too much culture, but you can have too much heat


Bit of a late start today as we were waiting for travel agents to open to try & change our ridiculous flight booking for the following day. We had an hours flight up the coast - the equivalent of Melbourne - Sydney. However things don't work like that in India, way too straight forward! Instead they decided we needed a 5am start & they would take us to Adelaide (Bangalore) & make us wait for 6 hours for the connecting flight to Sydney (Goa) - great sense of humour theses Indian airlines! However the price to change flights was financially crazy so we were stuck.


We headed out to potter around Cochin. As we'd seen most of the area yesterday, we decided to catch the ferry to the unispiring Ernakulam, only to walk around the block, try to visit the gardens only to find they don't open until 3pm, decide Cochin was better, and get on the next ferry back.

In the evening we attended a Culture Show, that was kind of interesting with some of the huge costumes & characters. It could ideally could have been an half an hour shorter, but it was interesting, energetic and colourful, and overall was worth doing.

Day 8 - The heat gets to K and she goes native.

Woke up to the beautiful scenery of Kerala through the large bedroom window on our houseboat. The second day without hot water was a bit of a worry for K but the very helpful staff brought a huge bucket of boiling water and a jug, it actually felt luxurious! Another huge meal for breakfast and an hour sailing back to port we were very sad to see the end of the boat trip (although M was starting to pace the deck, as he'd been cooped up for too long!). Our car took us the hours drive to Fort Cochin and we checked into our next homestay with a very helpful host. More private than our last homestay where everytime you left your room they were standing out the door trying to be friendly.

The main sights of Fort Cochin were quite close so we headed off to walk around however it was very humid and the heat started to make a mess of K. We stopped for lunch and then headed to a shop for K to buy a cool "ethnic/Indian skirt" and ditch those hot shorts. We walked around the foreshore where the locals tried to sell us fish that they would cook on the spot. We then hired a tuk tuk, but unfortunately we had inadvertently jumped queue and another driver came over and got violent with our driver, shoving and grabbing him, pulling on his brake and refusing to allow him to take us. We saw his point but didn't want to go to him either as he obviously had a horrid temper. We decided to get out and leave them to it. We started walking, planning to pick up another driver further along the way. A few minutes later the original driver stopped and picked us up, which turned out to be a bad choice on our behalf,as he turned out to be another pushy driver, demanding shop stops, and asking and pleading for extra money continually.
After taking in the afternoon sights we headed back to our room and spent some time getting our neglected blog up to date!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Day 7 - More boating, but this time in style!


Before breakfast we took a walk to Alleppey beach, which was a nice looking beach, quite undeveloped, but with lots of local couples and groups walking along the water's edge. After breakfast back at the homestay, we were given a tour of the new homestay belonging to the owners of our current homestay, that was due to open the next day. From the looks of it there was more than a day's work left to do - but there was a lot of activity from the horde of builders on the site, hopefully they made the deadline!
We were picked up around 11-ish and taken to our houseboat which we were to cruise on for the next day or so. The boat was very nice, with a seating area and dining table at the front, and a nice bedroom with a view of the water.
The trip was very enjoyable, slowly cruising the lake and canals around Alleppey - along with the hundreds of other houseboats doing pretty much the same thing!

The service was fantastic - coconut juice on arrival, and huge Kerala style lunch and dinner, some walking (where M tried to climb a coconut tree and failed dismally) and a short canoe trip, and then to sleep looking out the window over the water.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Day 6 - Relaxation on the backwaters of Kerala

We took the tourist boat from Kollam to Alleppey -  a lazy 8 hour journey along the backwaters of Kerala, which in some points seemed to be separated from the ocean by only 100m or so of sand. The trip was very relaxing, we started on the benches on the lower level of the boat, but as soon as we left port we climbed up onto the shaded roof and pretty much stayed there for the whole journey. We had nice lunch and afternoon tea stops, and saw all sorts of interesting scenes. Rows of chinese style fishing nets, locals going about their daily lives both on and off the water, waving back at children as we passed, it was a relaxing and peaceful day. We had left in the morning about 10:30am and arrived in Alleppey around 6:30pm. We were picked up at the ferry station by someone from our homestay.

The homestay was in an old building, with a lovely older couple there to greet us, they were almost too eager to help!

We travelled back into town for dinner, and ended up wandering the streets for an hour looking for a restaurant - which is what happens when you have the map upside down!

After dinner back to our homestay and a pleasant evening's rest.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Day 5 - Movie star mobbing.

Arrived at the train station to get to Kollam - only problem was it was the longest train we have ever seen and no conductors or staff to help us find out where. We asked a couple of other westerners if they knew what was going on, but they had the same problem - no help there! We eventually found the a/c section and just picked a vacant seat. They were quite private, two tier (upper and lower) with a bench seat each and a litle curtain, a nice way to travel. It was the first station and the train goes all the way to Delhi so it gets busier further up the line, we were only going for 90 minutes or so. Train is a much better way to travel than the bus. Another very nice hotel for a cheap price. We went to the beach which is one of the most dangerous beaches we have seen - the steepness and the way the ocean chewed up the waves and dumped with such turbulence was quite scary, although M's wayward sandal was luckily rescued with much risk to life and limb!

On the walk back to town we ran into school children who had just come off the bus and were on the way home, talk about feel like movie stars! We were mobbed and mauled for about 10 minutes, they wanted photos taken, or to shake our hand, and to know our names - it got quite hectic for a while there!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Day 4 - It's what you do next that counts!

Headed to the airport to fly from Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram (also known as Trivandrum for obvious reasons). At the escalators there was a huge advertising sign showing Tiger Woods studying a shot he has put into a creek with the caption "It's what you do next that counts". Unfortunately being an Indian aiprort we weren't allowed to take a photo (though we did ask) as we thought it was hilariously apt.

There was a huge line for security and after queueing for a while a kind man pointed out that there were separate men's and women's queues - so K ran off to the other side. Unfortunately M was carrying 2 bottles of duty free (no, not for us!) and only at the very last minute did they inform us we coudn't take it through (we should have known though). Huge dash back to the check in counter, jumping all queues running flat out between floors we checked it in and made the flight.

Once we checked into our lovely hotel in Trivandrum we had lunch at the wonderful indoor/outdoor restaurant on the top floor. After lunch we walked for a while, then caught an auto-rickshaw to the zoo. Lots of locals there, though we felt sorry for some of the animals, especially the poor tigers that just continually paced the same short route inside their concrete cells.

After the zoo, further walking around town, and back to the hotel for a buffet dinner on the rooftop again, looking out over the palm trees towards the ocean.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Day 3 - My sore feet are sore from walking around Mysore, where I saw the Mysore Palace!


Headed off to the Bangalore railway station, bit of a problem knowing where to find our bus - the bus terminal was huge! With some helpful directions we found the bus, M was game enough to head off to the loo - but K took one look at the outside and decided she could wait for a better offer. 3 and 1/2 bumpy head banging hours later (they love/hate their speed bumps - in Mexico we learnt to beware the "topes") we arrived and started walking to the massive Maraharaja's Palace, situated within huge grounds and populated by plenty of Indian tourists. The main palace was amazing (once we managed to enter it, since the entrance was the opposite side from the bus station, so we had to walk all the way around the outside of the palace wall). The residential area of the palace was not quite as grand however, though there were some good bits, such as a huge sword and weapon collection.

After lunch we took in the rest of Mysore's sights, including a visit to the market which had a good variety of fruit, food, spice and incense stalls, after which we headed back to the bus station. Same confusion, which bus to take? We eventually found and chose a bus, to be told by the bus driver it was the same bus we took on the way there, unbelievable when they leave every 20 minutes! Shocking bus ride back (4 1/2hrs) we took the back seat and K laid down only to be tipped off by one of those speed bumps - more war wounds. We headed straight to dinner and fell into bed.