Kerala

After a couple of days back in Bangalore we headed off on a bit if a family holiday to Kerala. This post has ended up quite long, but bear with me, most of it is photos! We did go for a week, so I guess it is not surprising. 

First stop, Alleppey. We flew into Kochi airport on Tuesday night and got a taxi to Alleppey, about a 2hr journey. Slightly more than we had anticipated! So dinner ended up as a masala omelet from a roadside stall. I have to say, one of the best omelets I've had for a long time!

We finally reached our very nice homestay at about 11pm. For some reason the owner had decided when we didn't arrive at 12noon we were not going to show so didn't clean the room where they had been been having some work done! So about an hour later Ben & I finally got into our room!

The following day we boarded our houseboat and set sail to pick up Jo and Andrew from their hotel, thought we should, seeing as we had hijacked this bit of their India trip! 

I think we would all recommend the houseboat thing to anyone, it was really nice to just do nothing and not feel like you are missing out on sightseeing or things to do in a place, because the backwaters that you float through are the sights! We did stop at a village to visit a church and a carving workshop and stop to buy prawns, but apart from that we pretty much ate, and sat and watched the world go buy :-)

Pottering along the backwaters in good company with lots of other houseboats to look at

Chillin' out and enjoying the ride

Excellent food - we've never had prawns so big!

The view of the paddy fields the other side of the bank when we stopped to buy our prawns

Lovely sunset

After checking out of the houseboat we went our separate ways from Jo and Andrew and headed to Thekkady, in the foothills of the Western Ghats. It was about a 4 hour journey, but nicely broken up with a chai stop, where they showed us how they harvest rubber at the plantation behind the cafe and when we were almost there we stopped at a spice garden. This was kind of the shop and showcase (basically a few of each plant to show people what the spices look like) for a spice plantation and had a very good tour. Not that I can remember what half the trees looked like or which spices we saw! I did learn that cinnamon is the bark of the Indian bay tree, and that nutmeg and mace come from the same tree. Nutmeg is the seed and mace is the stringy covering of the seed! 

Rubber being harvested

 

Tamarind (left) and pepper (right)

After checking in to our lovely homestay and relaxing for an hour or so we headed out to see 2 performances put on for the tourists. We were a bit early as it turned out so had a little tour of the town (which really didn't take long!). The first was Kalaripayattu, which is a Keralan marshal art, it involved various swords, flails and metal bars as well as some impressive acrobatics.

The last stunt in the Kalaripayattu performance - look carefully and you can see a guy jumping through the middle of the 2 hoops!

This was followed by a demonstration and performance of Kathakali, which is a traditional Keralan dance. It wasn't really what we were expecting to be honest! I would say it is a bit more like a mime than dance, but pretty impressive none the less. It heavily based on face movements (which I would never be able to do!) and hand movements. It was really good and interesting, although I have to say; about 1/2 an hour too long!

The Kathakali performance

The next morning we checked in the Bamboo Grove, a kind of resort at the Periyar National Park, run by the State Government. The park (also a tiger reserve) straddles the boarder between Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the Cardamon Hills, which are part of the Western Ghats mountain range. 

The website made it sound like the resort was in the national park, so we were expecting a bit of a drive into the park and to be surrounded by it. We were slightly disappointed to find it was outside the park, and infact, only about a 100m walk from the town. It was quite a nice resort anyway, and the food was very good.

We had a package deal which included a nature walk, a tribal dance show and a boat trip the following morning. We saw a reasonable amount of wildlife really, but unfortunately no tigers. Although that's not surprising really, Periyar has 46 tigers in an area of 950 sq km. It was a good couple of days though. The boat trip was the highlight for me I think, stunning views across lake Periyar with some lovely early morning light.

A giant Indian squirrel we spotted on our nature walk

One of many huge spiders we saw around the place

The tribal dance show - thanks to Jane's quick finger pointing they got an unwilling addition to the group!

 Early morning boat trip to try and catch some glimpses of more animals

A monitor lizard and a wild boar

 Not sure what the bird on the left is, but the one on the right is a snake necked bird

And then on to the next stop; Munnar. Munnar is a hill station in the Kannan Devan Hills, which are part of the Western Ghats, and South India's largest tea growing area. We now have a rather ridiculous number of photos of tea! I will try not too get too carried away with them here! 

On the way to the hotel we stopped at the tea museum, which was interesting. There was a bit of a museum, a film, a talk about tea (although we escaped half way through that, I see what you mean about the guy's rant about green tea Jo!), a bit of a run through the manufacturing process (right up my street!) and of course, a shop!

The following day Ben and I went on a guided trek up to the top of one of the nearby mountains, along the top and then down into Munnar. Meanwhile Jane and Dennis had a more leisurely start and then went to explore Munnar where we met up with them (by chance) for lunch. In the late afternoon we headed out for a tea plantation walk organised by our hotel. I have to say, the guy really didn't make any sense, but it was a nice walk and it ended sitting on some rocks in the middle of some tea watching the sunset which was lovely. It would have been perfectly topped off with a glass of cold white wine before dinner, but unfortunately alcohol is hard to come by in Munnar! 

Sieving the different grades of tea and one of the silly poses for our trekking guide!

Tea!

Watching the sunset over the tea bushes

So, another early start the next day and off to Kochi for our last stop before heading back to Bangalore. Kochi is about a 4 1/2hr drive from Munnar, so that took up quite a lot of the day. However, we managed a quick whiz around the Synagogue and the Dutch palace on the way to the hotel before going to see the Chinese fishing nets before it got dark (just!).

The cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, one of the sights of Fort Kochi

The photos make it look a little more idyllic than it actually is, actually the beach is pretty dirty and it was really cloudy and about to rain! The nets are pretty cool though and there is lots of exciting looking fish for sale along the beach.

One final early start to fly back to Bangalore so Ben could go to work for the afternoon. 

A weekend in Jaipur with Ben

So, after all the excitement of Delhi, Jaipur is a little calmer. Touristy, but it has plenty of sights to draw the tourists.

Saturday morning we hired a car and driver for the day and headed for Amber (or Amer), about 10km North of Jaipur. It is beautifully located in a deep valley with hills around that they built big walls and forts on for when it used to be the capital of Rajasthan. The 3rd Raj moved the capital to Jaipur because he wanted to build an observatory (Jantar Mantar) and the hills in Amber made it difficult there. We spent the morning at the palace with a very good guide, it was really beautiful, I can certainly recommend it!

Amber palace viewed from the lake below

 Enjoying the view into the valley from the palace

Elephants on their way up to the palace (Beth, this is how we are going to get up to the palace next time!)

Outside the entrance to the private Maharaja's palaces

 The mirrored winter palace

The afternoon was a whistlestop tour of the city palace, which I have to say wasn't nearly as interesting as the Amber palace and then on to Jantar Mantar, the observatory. We got a guide for this one and I was glad we had as the signs telling you what all the instruments were didn't make a huge amount of sense. It was fascinating and right up our street, amazing that the big sundial is accurate to 2 seconds! Definitely a place to save for the end of the day (or the morning) it is pretty exposed and the sun was HOT.

The biggest sundial

Instrument for determining which star sign the sun is in

 After a well earned rest back at the hotel we headed out to Chokhi Dhani, an ethnic Rajasthani village. It was a little strange, a bit like a fairground, but with a number of different restaurants in a resort part that I think you could stay in. In the main part there were lots of little stages with dancers, traditional music and the like as well as camel and elephant rides and a handicraft bazaar. It was slightly Disneylike, but quite fun.

Proper Nann bread cooking at the restaurant, Ben & I join a band (slightly against our will!) and a dancer

The following day we visited the Hawa Mahal, or palace of wind, in the city. It is so called because the numerous small holes and windows on both sides, and the thin building, allowed a nice cool breeze to flow cooling the occupants. The windows also allowed the women of the court to watch parades and celebrations without being seen. It was a big no no to let people see your women by all accounts!

Hawa Mahal from the street side

Next we headed back toward Amber and went to the Tiger fort (Locally, Nahargarh fort). It was quite nice inside and had a nice rooftop cafe along with stunning views down over Jaipur. Next we moved further along the hilltop to the Jaigarh fort (previously Amber fort which was the fortification part of the palace we went to the day before). This time we got lovely views over the Amber palace as well as a little look at the worlds largest cannon on wheels and a nice little wander around the walls.

It was a pretty big cannon!

Lovely view down on the Amber palace and surrounding valleys from Jaigarh fort

From there we hurried back to Jaipur and to the airport to head back to Bangalore.
So, back to real life for a day or two in Bangalore before our next adventure to Kerala. I shall tell you about that in the next installment!

Love to you all,
xKathryn

Delhi with Jane & Dennis

Ok, so keeping the blog up to date with all our adventures with Jane and Dennis didn't happen quite as I anticipated! They left last Monday and I'm only just getting to the first installment, it turns out that planning lots of trips and going on already planned ones is really quite time consuming!

Anyway, I will start at the beginning. Jane and Dennis flew to Delhi arriving on the 26th November and I flew up to meet them. As I expected, Delhi was a bit of a shock to the system! They were pretty exhausted and a little shell shocked when I met them at the hotel. Their attempt at a wander around the area in the morning had resulted in only a very speedy walk around the block. Delhi is not a place you can wander around! They were pro's by the end though!

That first afternoon we had a very good lunch and then, after a bit of effort getting there, a visit to the Red Fort (we are slightly lacking in good pictures at the red fort, but see a previous post from when Ben & I went in August). Then to Connaught place, the middle of the business and commercial centre of New Delhi, for a few much deserved G&Ts! We finished the day with a fairly hair raising auto rickshaw ride back to our hotel. They certainly drive a lot faster in Delhi than they do in Bangalore, and this guy wasn't helped by the fact that he couldn't find our hotel. Angry auto drivers are quite scary!

The following day we went for a slightly more relaxed mode of transport and hired a car and driver for the day. First stop - India gate. This is Delhi's main war memorial and a bit reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe, very impressive and beautiful. I was somehow expecting it to be in the middle of a roundabout, but it wasn't. Well, I suppose it was off to the side of what was once a roundabout, but pretty much all the traffic was stopped to all ways in to the roundabout. It was nice to be able to wander without the fear of being run over (except for the odd tour bus that seemed to be allowed in!). The other canopy you can see in the background is in the middle of the traffic free roundabout and apparently used to have a statue of George V in it until them moved him off to join other British relics in a park somewhere else.

Us all at India gate

Next, Humayan's tomb, the first garden tomb in India so they say which is really stunning. On to the Lotus Flower temple, I'm really pleased we got to visit here as when Ben and I came to Delhi before there was a 2 hour queue to go in as it was some special celebration, needless to say we decided catching our flight was more important!

It is a Baha'i house of worship; which, we have now learnt is a world faith whose purpose is to unite all races and people. I'm still not really quite sure of the basis of the religion, but they go in for striking architecture and simplicity on a big scale. People of all religions are welcome inside to pray and reflect, as long as you do it in silence (and I have to say, I have never seen so many Indians in one place and it been so quiet!). It was lovely, I'd recommend a visit. 

Finally, on to the Qutb Minar complex, (the minar being only the tower really). This time I got an audio tour, which meant I now know a little more about it, but not sure it's worth having the audio guide. There is too much pretending to be the people who built different bits of it and Oooing and Ahhhing over how beautiful it is and not a great deal of information. And, it seems to boil down to the fact that they don't really know why they built the tower! But, one guy built a mosque next to it, and then the next 2 guys after him made extensions to the mosque and included a college. The 3rd guy even tired to build a tower twice as big as the Qutb minar, but it never got further than the base. 

Quitb Minar as the sun was setting

Me and Dennis at the Quitb Minar complex

The following day we visited the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India. It is very close to Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and busiest markets in Delhi and the thing to do is to get a bicycle rickshaw from outside the red fort to mosque and then through the market to the spice market and back. That's what we did and it was great fun!

The very impressive Jama Masjid

 The view from the tower you can pay a bit extra to climb and me and Jane sporting our lovely gowns for the occasion. I guess it was to cover our arms as I had a long skirt on and Jane trousers. We were in good company wearing them anyway.

Dennis and in his rickshaw

The spice market was amazing. It is a wholesale market, so for once nobody is trying to sell you anything. You do need to be a bit careful not to get clonked with boxes, hit by carts, kick a dog or step in a puddle of unidentifiable brown liquid!

A dried chili stall and Jane trying to filter the air a little (sorry about the picture Jane!). The spices in the air caught in the back of your throat a bit. Everyone was doing quite a lot of coughing, even those that worked there! 

After all that excitement, we heading back to our hotel to pick up a different car for the drive to Jaipur. It should be a 4 1/2 hour drive to Jaipur. However, the driver couldn't find our hotel (turns out there are 8 hotels in Delhi called the Pearl!) so he was an hour late, and then we meet with the most amazing traffic jam en route!

Amazing, not because it was a very long stationary jam on a 3 lane road, but because of the reaction of everyone stuck in the queue. Now, I've lived here long enough to know that patience is not the strong point of Indian drivers, if you can find any way round the queue then that is what you do, even if it only gains you a foot. So I wasn't surprised when we started to come off the side of the road and head along the gravel strip at the side of the road. I was a little more shocked when we headed cross country diagonally away from the road following a stream of traffic across a field. To be fair, this started as a dirt track. But it ended up as a big semi circle across a number of fields, a bit of military area across a ditch and 2 barbed wire fences to get back to the road, where I'm sure we ended up further back in the queue than if we had stayed on the road!

It was all good fun though, and we eventually met Ben (who was a little worse for wear having HAD to drink a couple of large strong Kingfishers while waiting for us!) just before the kitchen shut :-)

Ok, I think I am going to stop there and continue on another entry or you will all be asleep! Next entry, Jaipur.