India
India
Click on the map link to the left of the country name to see our route
Currency - Rupee,
Exchange rate as of September 2006 £1stg=87 INR .
Population - 1.027 Billion, Time - GMT+5.5hours, Capital City - Delhi
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Day 344 - Sunday 17th September 2006 - Colin's Account Well at long last we are back on the road again and after becoming very comfortable in Thailand it has been a bit of a culture shock. A last anecdote from the land of smiles as we headed off this morning was to be found on a new massage shop. The sign on the door said 'open' and below someone had written 'finally'. Sadly it seems to have been too late for the owner, who was fast asleep in reception, snoring her head off. Needless to say there were no customers. Having become at last comfortable with flying, which used to make me very nervous, I was once again holding the arm rests in a near death grip as the take off was awful and the overhead lockers and TV screens vibrated like a, well they vibrated a lot! Anyway we landed in safely in Chennai - everyone seems to call it Madras so I will in future - without further mishap. We waited ages for our luggage and when the postal sacks started coming out we thought (hoped) that we had lost them, but they did eventually arrive. There are supposed to be ATM's in Madras, but not wanting to repeat our experience on arrival in Japan, I changed some Thai Baht up at the airport. As we came out of the airport it was like stepping back into a 60's movie. Many of the cars are old Ambassadors, which we stopped making decades ago in the UK. We have decided to get back to travelling properly on a budget and therefore avoided the taxis and auto rickshaws, who were asking the princely sum of 300 Rupees for the 16km journey into the city. Instead we walked the half kilometre to the train station and made it into town for 6 Rupees each. The train was completely mad. It was so full that people were hanging off the outside and at each station more and more people got on. With our rucksacks on we were wedged tight amid a sea of humanity, unable to move or even see what train station we were at. Finally a couple who had a seat got up to leave and we were waved at to sit down by the departing pair. Eventually arriving at Egmore station, we immediately found a budget hotel at 399 Rupees per night. The room is large and fairly clean with a TV and twin fans that resemble aeroplane propellers. The bathroom is pretty disgusting with a thick layer of dust in the bath and a shower that trickles at best. Sam was looking forwards to a bath, but not that much. Nearly everyone smiles at us and one small boy took a huge intake of breath when he saw us and just stared and stared. Not that that is unusual, everyone does it and we haven't seen any other westerners at all. A policeman stopped the traffic on a busy road and walked us across, much to the locals amusement. Sam was tired and so I went for a stroll, ending up in a bar full of Indian men knocking back brandy and water, which they squirted from little plastic water pouches. I was brought a beer which was some type of Kingfisher lager, but a supercharged version that only admitted to being super strong and above 6° proof. Luckily I have many months experience of Thailand's dastardly Chang beer, so I was unfazed. The sheer variety of colours, the squalor, buildings, people and smells is incredible. We have become soft over the last few months and will need to toughen up again, but perhaps I am being too harsh on ourselves as we have already been in the thick of it all day. Nearly everyone we've met speaks some English and many of them speak good English, far more so than in Thailand and their mentality is also much closer to our own. Most signs, notices and timetables are in English, even one sad one at the train station, which read. 'Feeling suicidal, terrible job?, depressed?, failed marriage? - don't jump, call us instead on 246 99675'. Anyway, I'm off for some food and it will, of course, be a Madras in Madras! Day 345 - Monday 18th September 2006 - Sam's Account Rats. I've got Delhi Belly already.
Wonderful. Hey ho, nothing for it but to stay in bed, let it take it's
course and remain within 2 metres of a loo. Amazingly, I did actually manage
to get washed, dressed, packed and bundled into an Auto-rickshaw to then be
bustled by Colin in to a better mid-range hotel room to ease my suffering.
At least the room and bathroom are hygienic and I have a hope in hell of
actually getting better in a clean(er) environment. Colin says... I didn't do much other than wander around soaking up the atmosphere. I bought an Indian SIM card for my mobile, which required 2 forms to be filled out, 2 passport size photo's, a photocopy of my passport and my visa details, not very bureaucratic then! We have moved hotel to the Triplicaine area of Madras and we also took a rickshaw to the temple of Kapaleeswarar in the Mylore district before Sam faded for the day. The temple is quite impressive with over a thousand brightly coloured porcelain statuettes and figurines on its pyramid shaped roof. We were slightly accosted by ladies who wanted to weave flower necklaces in our hair and around our necks and a guide who decided he would guide us without asking. I am getting better at auto-rickshaw bargaining, now I have an idea of what it should actually cost. Just like in Thailand they often want to take you to your destination for almost nothing if only you'll stop and look at a shop or two on the way. Sam watched episodes of Sex and the City on the laptop while I organised a take away, to be delivered to the room. It comprised of several vegetable dishes and breads together with the first meat I have eaten in a few days. Half a Tandoori chicken which was easily the best I have ever had. Day 346 - Tuesday 19th September 2006 - Colin's Account I was eaten alive by Mosquito's last night, somewhere in the region of 30 bites. Our hotel room in the Triplicaine area, though much better than our first nights accommodation, has a grill above the balcony door that has no glass, so there is nothing to stop the mozzie's coming in. Luckily southern India is a low risk Malaria area and they don't particularly affect me in terms of itching. Breakfast ordered at a local vegetarian restaurant (most are) was called Mini Tiffin, a throw back to old colonial days and nothing to do with the Tiffin indulged in by Sid James in the Carry on movie! It was composed of several curry sauces and bread filled with spiced potato's, a type of cumin rice ball, coffee and a couple of other dishes I can't describe. Including Sam's breakfast the bill was less than £1. We decided to head off to one of the film studio's on the outskirts of Madras, which rivals Bollywood in Bombay for its output of films. The half an hours drive in an auto rickshaw was worth it in itself, as we weaved in and out of traffic and down tiny side streets competing with cows, oxen, people, motorbikes and other rickshaws for every inch of spare space. They do actually have road regulations here. There are signs everywhere reminding you to wear your helmet, not talk on your mobile while driving and to wear your seatbelt. There are even signs advising you that 'Speed thrills, but also kills'. No one takes the slightest bit of notice of any of them! The AVM film studio issues you with a pass and just lets you roam around at will. If you are lucky you may even be invited to be an extra in the latest production. We weren't, but we did see them shooting several scenes, which mostly comprised of one actor wearing a green mask having a fight with another actor against the side of a car. None of the actors took any notice of the director shouting action until he literally screamed it. As we wandered around we came across another set, which had been shot in a market. There were still stalls overflowing with vegetables that were starting to rot in the heat. Our next stop was Fort St George, the original colonial fort built by the East India company and now housing the regions administration. The Fort museum is full of artefacts dating back to the time of the Raj, including guns, porcelain, portraits, costumes, medals, stamps and money together with a large statue of Lord Cornwallis. We then walked up to George town and in particular Parry's corner which is the centre of the area. It is a total immersion experience with hundreds of market stalls and street hawkers. Boys struggle to halt the oxen at traffic lights and ladies in colourful sari's sell gooseberries, apples and pomegranates. Cows roam along the side streets, stopping at their very own version of 'drive throughs' where they tuck in to piles of hay dotted along the street. At least I haven't been offered any grass today, by a passing cyclist, unlike the last two days! Day 347 - Wednesday 20th September 2006 - Sam's Account
As I was feeling a little better today I actually enjoyed our 2.5 hour bus
ride to Mamallapuram. It is fascinating watching everyone on the bus and all
their goings on as well as watching the chaotic Indian life go by outside. Switched to a larger room this morning complete with balcony, ooh luxury! After a breakfast of poached eggs on toast, not curry for once, whose yolks are much paler yellow than we are used too we headed off for a bit of culture. The Shore temple, situated on the beach, dates back to the 6th century AD and is fortunately protected from the sea by a new wall. I say fortunately because at a restaurant 100m along the coast there is a plaque on the wall showing the height that the Tsunami waves reached. It is at second floor level a good 7 feet above my head and next to it is a picture of how the restaurant used to look. Following our visit to the Shore temple we wandered through the village which is liberally dotted with temples, pillars and rock carvings. One area on a hill still bears the marks of ancient masons who split (or tried) to split huge rocks for building. They used to chisel out square holes along the rock and then fill them with wooden pegs which they then soaked with water. The idea was that the expanding wood would cause the rock to crack. Often, as we saw, this didn't work and it must have been hugely frustrating for the masons as some of these large rocks have more than a hundred carefully chiselled square holes at least five inches in depth, all for nothing in the end. The kings temple high on a hill was built from their more successful attempts, but had no roof. The student who explained this to us said that they had roofs made of palm fronds. It seems strange that they could build the walls and include magnificent carvings, but a roof defeated them. The sea here has very strong rip tides and swimming is very dangerous, but as the local toilet outlet is here you wouldn't want to swim anyway. Sam reckons it smells, but then she has the nose of a bloodhound (although not the size I hasten to add). To be fair though, further along the coast it is pristine. Then it was off to the hotel pool, which is only the second time I have ever been in a pool that uses a different system to chlorination to keep it clean. I must say I wish more pools were maintained this way (whatever way that is) as there is no smell, no sore eyes, no dry skin and is an altogether nicer experience. Dinner was more curry, this time a chicken Kadai, yet another dish that I've never heard of, but excellent anyway. The town is fairly empty at the moment as the peak tourist season is November to January. In some ways this is good news as we have our choice of accommodation and restaurants, to say nothing of quieter attractions to visit. On the bad side we have to put up with most of the touts, taxi drivers, orphanage owners and other assorted people targeting pretty much just us. We also looked in to buying some Malaria tablets at a pharmacy. The level of risk here in the south is low, but further north it is not. The Pharmacist promptly gave us some Primaquine tablets, which I had never heard of so I decided to do some research on the internet first. It appears that it is only really suitable to control Malaria if you have actually developed it. Worse, you must have a test for some Glucose-6 deficiency beforehand. If you don't and you have the deficiency it can cause your red blood cells to explode, not a very good idea!! They went in the bin. Our local called Moonrakers, run by three Indian brothers, apparently after the smugglers in the south west of England invited us in for a Gin and Tonic. After some sad news received today and the fact that we had thought only Kingfisher beer was available, we accepted. We also saw our first Indian equivalent of the Thai lady boys. Three of them dressed in Sari's came in to our bar, although they didn't stay long. One of them even flounced out in a huff, throwing his sash over his shoulder as he went, hilarious! Day 349 - Friday 22nd September 2006 - Sam's Account
Lazy day today. Can't be bothered to move on. Oh dear it seems as though the
travel bug has at last been extinguished by a very strong antibiotic called
"travel overload". Day 350 - Saturday 23rd September 2006 - Colin's Account Today we are off to Pondicherry, which together with a few other towns, dotted around India, forms the Union of Pondicherry. Pondicherry itself, surrounded by the region of Tamil Nadu, is essentially an old French colonial town. One of the few that they managed to retain, at least for a while, in the face of the advancing British. A two hour bus journey in the usual ancient bus, where again we had to pay for our luggage and we arrived. A rickshaw driver approached us and after some negotiation he agreed to take us to our chosen guesthouse 2km away. We followed him round the back of a parked bus and saw to our surprise that it was an original rickshaw and not an auto-rickshaw. In other words it was man powered not petrol powered. With both of us and our luggage on board, he was soon puffing and panting away down the road as bikes, cars and lorries swerved around us. At least we overtook the oxen! Arriving at our guest house he informed us that it was an Ashram run guest house. This in short means no drinking, no smoking and a 10pm curfew. You are also not allowed to spend any time in your room between approximately 9am and 6pm. After checking that this was indeed the case we decided it was not for us and so he took us to a small family run villa a couple of hundred metres away. Run by an Indian lady and her French husband we were soon settled and went out to explore. After carrying our bags up to our room, the rickshaw driver politely asked if we would like to buy some 'Ganja', when I said no thanks he then asked Sam as well just to make sure! The street names are all in French, for example our Villa is on Rue Labourdonnais. There is a 'Hotel de Ville', the wine is drinkable and the police all wear red kepi's. After hiring a moped, some type of ancient Vespa, we headed for Goubert market in the centre of town. The market is a labyrinthine mass of alleyways ranging from small wooden shops where the floors are coated to a depth of 6 inches with shallots and onions to ladies in colourful sari's with carefully balanced piles of tomatoes, apples or curry leaves displayed on a small mat. After the noise and chaos we escaped to the hotel Aristo for lunch, which has a rooftop garden overlooking the market. After enquiring if I would like some 'special tea', i.e. beer, which again arrived in a teapot, we headed for the petrol station. Petrol here is surprisingly expensive compared to Thailand at 47Rs(53p) per litre. Compared to the UK it may sound cheap, but comparatively it is not. To add to that you have to have oil added to the petrol each time. This reminds me of the two stroke motorbikes we had when I was fifteen or sixteen, but our bikes have long since had a separate reservoir that you only fill up occasionally. Pondicherry is a seaside town and no different from its UK equivalent in that respect. Full of Indian tourists, ice cream vendors and balloon sellers. Dinner was an excellent curry at La Terrace near the beach, but it was obviously too near the Ashram for their comfort as there was no 'special tea' here to be had. Day 351 - Sunday 24th September 2006 - Sam's Account
Having looked around Pondy (as the locals call it) yesterday, we headed out
of town on our little Vespa today to Auroville.
They are building the town in the shape of a galaxy and yet, the Indian
government is STILL giving them taxpayers money. They are all living the
life of riley whilst outside the campus local Indians are homeless, still
recovering from the Tsunami and many of them so poor they can't afford to
eat. Shouldn't the government get their priorities right? Day 352 - Monday 25th September 2006 - Colin's Account Bit of a major disaster today, although I hasten to add that we are both fine. We had planned to take the train over to the other side of India on our way to Ooty. Unfortunately there are no trains unless we go back to Madras first. This we don't want to do so I went to the bus station on the moped, weaving in and out of the chaotic traffic with the best of them. In fact when you are moving at the same speed it's not really all that difficult and I am also getting good at using the horn. I booked our 9 hour bus journey departing tonight and then headed back to check out of our hotel. We have a day to kill and after dropping our moped off we headed to the post office for Sam to send a parcel home, comprising of yep, yet more clothes. I swear that she can't have any more than one item of anything left! We then found a bar next to the 'Chambre de Commerce', situated in an old colonial building with columns and a beamed ceiling. It had certainly seen better days, but the company was quite amusing. One group of Indian men wanted their photo taken with me, another was bemoaning the fact that his wife didn't let him out so he had just nipped in for a 'swift one'. Yet another had lived in Dublin for three years and had come back here with the intention of retiring, but had decided after a month to go back. He had a perfect Dublin accent complete with every other word being an expletive. We headed back to collect our bags from the hotel and then the disaster struck. The monsoon is nearly upon us and a brief taste of what's to come had left water 6 inches deep on the road. Our rickshaw was parked outside the villa and there is a steep, short ramp descending to the road. I was carrying both our rucksacks and had safely passed Sam hers as she sat in the cab when I slipped. In addition to my own weight, I had some 18kg still on my back and fairly deep water swirling around my feet. Not wanting to land on my back and completely soak myself and the contents of my rucksack, I grabbed the edge of the rickshaw to steady myself. In fact I was holding my full weight plus rucksack on my left hand. I managed to avoid getting wet, but then found my little finger pouring with blood. To put not too fine a point on it, I had done some considerable damage to my finger. There was a huge gash some 2 cm long either side and about half a centimetre deep. There was no way I was going anywhere, but to the hospital. I am sorry to have to yet again unfavourably compare our NHS, but it is a fact. I arrived at the Indhra Ghandi general hospital, gave my name and age and within one minute was seeing a nurse who gave me a tetanus jab. I was then immediately ushered in to see a doctor who examined my finger and sent me for an X-ray to check for any bone damage. After 10 minutes it was announced there was no bone damage and I was put on an operating table to have it stitched up. This is where my only complaint comes in, in that sew my finger up they did, with 5 huge stitches and NO anaesthetic!! Boy did it hurt. The doctor said there was a fair chance that I had cut the tendon at the tip of my finger and so I should come and see the specialist in the morning. Total cost, nothing. Total time elapsed 45 minutes. Speed and quality of service, excellent. I admit to two large whiskies, a pain killer and bed. Sam will pick up the rest of the story tomorrow. Day 353 - Tuesday 26th September 2006 - Sam's Account We went back to the hospital at 11 am as suggested to see the plastic surgeon. Skinny bodies were lying everywhere on the floor, just camping out as we could gather. We had to queue for a slip for half an hour and then queue to see the doctor. The doctor saw us very quickly and recommended that Colin had an operation because his tendon had been severed. He sent us up to the operating theatre with an assurance that he would be up in 20 minutes to carry out the operation.
Looking rather uneasy about the whole thing, Colin agreed to have the
operation and soon he was being stripped off and put into a green operating
gown. He was administered a local anaesthetic and the surgeon had to cut
open the rest of his finger to retrieve the end of the tendon and then sew
both the tendon and the rest of his finger back up. The surgeon was really
excellent, very reassuring. His English was impeccable and he was evidently
extremely experienced. Colin's hand was bound and plastered preventing him
from moving his fingers or wrist at all. The actual plaster looks huge
considering the injury was just to his little finger, but this had been done
on purpose to stop him from doing very much as the repair job is very
delicate. He has to keep the plaster on for 3 weeks and he is in
considerable pain. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and unfortunately
he had a very high temperature, I spent the night wetting towels with cold
water to place on his head and neck. God knows if that helps but you feel so
useless if you don't do anything. Last night was very uncomfortable. My pain killers are not up to the job and I slept very little while my little finger made it's agony more than apparent. My goal for today is to get some stronger pain killers and get out of this guesthouse. Normally it would be fine, but I need a bit more comfort at the moment. We walked around for a while trying to get some breakfast, preferably not Indian, as I can't face it today. I really just wanted a good cup of tea, but today it was awful with burnt milk and sugar. We headed for a 'posh' hotel which although 10 times the cost of our guesthouse was definitely worth it. A real bed, real sheets, air con, clean, cable TV, big towels, normal soap, mood lighting instead of strip lights and no mosquito's, need I go on....
Day 355 -
Thursday 28th September 2006 -
Sam's Account Today we rebooked our bus tickets to Coimbatore, which is on the other side of India. Unfortunately, being a Friday, the public buses are full. There are numerous private buses available for a similar cost, so we wandered along the street visiting each different bus company, but all were full. In resignation we booked our tickets for tomorrow night instead. Tomorrow will also mark exactly one year since my last day at French Property News and with it the last day I worked. We still needed to find another hotel, but again many were full. I finally found one on the internet and we were soon checked in. This hotel, the Anna Malai is all open plan with glass lift's and a doorman in traditional Indian livery. The bar is called the court of Bacchus, but as they don't have any wine it's a bit odd. There is a rooftop pool which has a great view of the city and looks very inviting. Sadly I will not be able to go swimming for quite some time. Sam had an afternoon snack, which turned out to be full of MSG and a tomato soup that at best bore only a fleeting relationship to that fruit. She also won't allow me to carry my main rucksack, so I am loafing along with 2 small daypacks and my guitar, which I can't now play, while Sam struggles along with 30kg or so. Perhaps I should 'do' my other hand in and then she'd carry me as well! The waiters, reception staff and housekeeping are driving us mad. It seems that in every plush hotel in India they feel that they have to be constantly intruding on you or they are not doing their job. You can't top up your own drink or pour the milk in your own tea. They constantly ring or knock on your door asking when you're checking out, if you want any laundry done, or fresh towels. If you dare to have room service they knock every few minutes to see if you've finished so they can take the tray away. If you don't open the door they just let themselves in and will not take no for an answer. Even the do not disturb sign is ineffectual. In the business centre, I was on the internet and three men came in to conduct an interview. As it was in English it was interesting to hear how alike they are to us. All the usual questions, for example what are your 5 key qualities etc, were asked. The interviewee was hopeless and kept talking about his success in his current job, until finally the interviewer said 'I mean you personally, are you a good motivator for example'. Mind you he did then move his keys from one side of the desk to the other and ask the hapless chap how he would depict that pictographically! At that point I started to feel sorry for him. Day 357 - Saturday 30th September 2006 - Sam's Account
We hung around all day in the hotel waiting for our bus to Coimbatore at
9pm. In view of the non-eventful day let me copy some of an article I read
in a local women's magazine that Colin bought for me. This is a snippet of
an article entitled "Equal Rights - Equal Work" from "RITZ, Chennai's
Fashion and Family Magazine" and I thought it was quite funny, It reminds me
just how lucky I am. Well if getting out of Pondicherry was akin to Hotel California, at least getting out of Coimbatore was easy. It took us all of 15 minutes. Arriving dishevelled and tired just before 6am, after nine hours on the bus, we refreshed ourselves with a cup of hot, spicy Masala tea and I immediately found another bus heading for Ooty, leaving straight away. It's another 4 hours away up, in the mountains, but we may as well bite the bullet as that's where we're heading. We were lucky to have got on when we did, at an obscure bus station, as a few minutes later we arrived at the central bus station, where within moments the bus was full to capacity. The journey started off smoothly, apart from the incessant hooting and soon we were in the foothills of the Western Ghats making the long and twisty climb up to 2219m above sea level. The road deteriorated badly and the bumping was so bad that my injured finger started hurting again in sympathy with the suspension, which had long passed its sell by date. Ooty used to be the summer refuge of the Madras parliament during the days of the Raj and it was easy to see why. As the metres increased we started to see jumpers and even coats appearing. You may laugh, but our blood is now so thin that I suspect even an English autumn would send us running for the thermals. Of course the sun is blisteringly hot during the day, but at night it drops to 0°C very quickly. Ooty is a little like a corner of southern England in many ways with green grass and thousands of flowers in a multitude of colours. There is a festival this weekend and finding a room proved very difficult. Our Rickshaw driver, who had agreed a mere 20rs to take us to one of our chosen hotels, spent the next 40 minutes ferrying us around numerous hotels and then following me in to reception while I checked the availability. Of course it was so he would get his commission, but the only one that had rooms available I wouldn't have parked my dog in, if I had one. Finally fed up, I rang a guesthouse by a lake that we had down as choice 2, despite the fact that he assured me that it was a) full and b) dirty. Of course it was neither and although very basic was friendly and clean. The reason for his reticence soon became apparent as they don't pay commission. I found out that the rickshaw drivers usually demand 20%, but on a running basis, therefore if you stay a week they get 20% of every night you stay. Obviously it would be us who had to pay this in increased room charges. Anyway Ooty is great, full of numerous shops and a large vibrant market. We have a view overlooking a lake and there are lots of different treks available. The festival is somewhat obscure, but involves people who love machines and books and are vegetarians!! We saw ample proof as car after car, together with rickshaws and lorries drove around bedecked in garlands of flowers, banana leaves and occasionally even fairy lights. Just as in Kunming in China, I can feel that the air is thinner and my breath is harder to catch. What is strange is that Sam doesn't notice it at this altitude and yet when we get up to 3000+ metres above sea level, I am able to scramble up mountainsides without a care in the world and it is everyone else that suffers.
Day 359 - Monday 2nd October 2006 -
Sam's Account Day 360 - Tuesday 3rd October 2006 - Colin's Account We decided to follow a route around the lake today, a walk of 6km or so. Before long we came upon the Boathouse, which offers pedalo's, motorboats and bumper cars along with a mini train that runs up one side of the lake. There are a lot of horses trotting around with paying customers on their backs, often with the owner jogging along behind. We saw one small boy, evidently being taken for a ride by the owner, glance at us in abject terror as his horse thundered down the road at a full gallop. Not much to report from the walk except that it was in most parts a quiet country lane with small, neat villa's lining the road. One turn off led to a public school and another to a finishing school. Funny that, I thought they were all in Switzerland. Lunch was Masala Dosa's and tea in in a local cafe, excellent value at 58Rs for the two of us. I also managed to hunt down a birthday card for my daughters birthday, no mean feat. We saw quite a few goats milling around the town, competing with the cows for scraps. One pair were actually perched on top of a cart and were eating the advertising posters stuck on the side of a shop. I am getting very fed up with people asking me what has happened to my hand. Sometimes people even pull up in their cars to ask, even the postman in his mail truck stopped to ask! It is running at at least a dozen enquiries per day and I am considering getting cards printed up in several languages and charging 1rupee a go.
Day 361 - Wednesday 4th October 2006 -
Sam's Account
One old lady with long grey hair have me a big hug when she saw her photo
and asked me to promise to send her a copy - we'll need to send them a fair
few. Day 362 - Thursday 5th October 2006 - Colin's Account Phew, what a day. We are on the move again and are leaving Ooty and Tamil Nadu for Kerala. Our landlady turned out to be quite rude in the end, insisting that we had ordered two bottles of mineral water which we hadn't. As the bill came to 2600Rs and the water was 30rs, we thought she was making a bit of a fuss. Especially as we surely had the worst room in the guesthouse. The walls were an exact replica of the walls in the Khmer Rouge S21 prison camp in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the hot water was definately not on for four hours in the morning as promised. More like one hour, if we were lucky. We decided to take the little train that runs from Ooty down to Mettupalayam, a drop of some 2000m in altitude. I am reduced to wearing shorts at the moment, so I am looking forwards to an increase in temperature as we descend. The journey up to Ooty takes 5.30 hours, going down is a mere 3.30 hours for the 46km trip. Although long winded the views are definately worth it as we chug along behind the steam engine that is pulling us or rather ensuring that we don't go too fast downhill. At times the gradient is as much as 1 in 12. We are crammed in like sardines and stop at several tiny stations with names like Wellington, Forest View and Hill Top. Finally arriving in Mettupalayam, we have to wait an hour before the express to Coimbatore, which will then go on to Madras. The people we befriended on our trek, plus four Danish women are sort of travelling with us and David, a Welshman had his wallet stolen at the station. We had unreserved seating on the train and crammed onto some wooden bench seats with two Indian families. We assumed David, his wife and friend had missed the train while he made his report to the police, but when we arrived in Coimbatore we found them on the platform. It appears that they had managed to leap on to the mail coach just as the train was pulling out. We knew there would be no trains going to Ernakulum in Kerala for at least 12 hours and rather than spend the night in a train station a few of us headed off to see if we could find an alternative. I found a travel agents nearby and although shut there was a mobile phone number on a board in the window. Using my trusty mobile and Indian Sim card, I rang the owner and persuaded him to come and open up. He arrived three minutes later on his motorbike and I soon negotiated a bus to take the eleven of us to Ernakulam. He made a couple of phone calls and we were soon booked on a private coach leaving at 11pm. The cost was 180Rs each for the 6 hour journey, plus 20Rs per person as his fee. As usual, food while travelling is what you can find and this time it was the Indian version of KFC. Called CFC, it was anything but fast food, but was all freshly made to order. The coach was the most comfortable we have been on so far in India, although as usual the suspension had seen better days. Every time we went over a bump it was like being on a fairground ride. There were a lot of Police around and a fairly lengthy stop at the Kerala border checkpoint, which is apparently a communist controlled region. We managed to sleep a bit, but we still have a fair way to go. Day 363 - Friday 6th October 2006 - Sam's Account
Arriving in Ernakulam at 5am it was pelting with torrential rain. We had
managed to catch an hour or two's sleep during the night and wearily heaved
all our luggage onto our backs and stepped off the bus into the dark, wet
morning. The bus had dropped us at a little street corner in the middle of
nowhere. The rest of the crowd that were with us were quite indecisive as to
what they should do, so we said our "cheerio's" and hopped into an
auto-rickshaw leaving them to debate between them the best way to get to
Cochin (re-named Kochi). Arriving at the bus depot we headed straight for
the ticket office to ask for buses to Alleppey (re-named Alappuzha), the
clerk behind the counter rushed from his booth and waved at us to follow
him. Sure enough a bus was literally about to leave as he bundled us on
board. We paid the conductor 100 rupees for the hour and a half journey for
us both and we settled into the seats, unsuccessfully trying to nod off. I love our new guesthouse, situated near the banks of a canal in a quiet part of town. It really gives itself to lounging around with solid wooden antique furniture, covered walkways supported by columns and the best tea ever. There are doors of all shapes and sizes everywhere you look complete with unusual locks and bolts. Our room alone has five doors. The rain has been falling heavily for two days and so it has been an ideal retreat, but we have to brave the weather to go and find a houseboat to rent. It has always been a dream of mine to cruise the Kerala backwaters, drifting lazily along canals and lakes in a houseboat ,while your own chef prepares delicious food and the captain and pilot take care of everything else. The first boat we saw was going at 8000Rs for two days, after some hard negotiating, but we still thought the boat overpriced. We went to see another company who has offered us a boat at 7500Rs. It is bigger and has DVD player, music system etc for those evenings when you are moored up. We can't see the boat until tomorrow so will make a decision then. There is an Indian gentleman who has been staying at our guesthouse for several months. He actually left India and moved to Sweden when he was two years old and has come back to look at business opportunities in Kerala. His English is, of course, very good as you would expect from a Scandinavian. His Indian or rather Tamil is non-existent which causes him a problem from time to time. Everyone speaks to him in the local lingo and when he replies in English they think he is being a snob. All higher caste people speak English, often as pretty much their first language, whereas those of a lower caste do not. We have had some experience of this in talking to doctors etc, who all speak excellent English and manual workers who hardly understand a word. We took a rickshaw to a 'posh' hotel bar, where Sam actually felt comfortable having a drink and organised our first batch of Indian photo's. After the usual offer of 'grass' from the rickshaw driver, he said he would wait for us. We told him no and thought no more of it. An hour or so later we rushed across the road in the rain to an Internet cafe only to find him suddenly along side us. We pointed to the internet cafe and dashed inside. Half an hour later we had just managed to finish uploading the pictures in time for closing when our rickshaw man appeared again. Facing the inevitable we hopped in for the ride back to our guesthouse. Along the way he asked me if I wanted to drive. I certainly did, but unfortunately I can't pull the clutch in with my bandaged hand so had to decline. He also gave us his life history from a wife 13 years his junior to his two children. In the end the cost was exactly the same and he didn't charge us for waiting. It just shows how much they overcharge tourists in the first place, but we gave him a 20Rs tip anyway and he drove off with a wave and a big smile. Day 365 - Sunday 8th October 2006 - Sam's Account
The weather has turned and thankfully we have glorious sunshine again.
Having visited the house boat, which was our second option, we gave them the
green light and they took us off, in a car no less, to buy a few extra
provisions. The first stop was the wine shop, where we bought some blue
riband gin and beers followed by a hunt for tonic water. Being Sunday, we
couldn't find any in the local shops and had to go to the Royal Park Hotel
Bar (where we had been the night before for a couple of toots) to buy the
required tonic. Needless to say we paid over the odds, but hey, it was an
important commodity for the trip! YEAR TWO OF OUR TRAVELS !!! Day 366 - Monday 9th October 2006 - Colin's Account Woke up to the sound of birds and a view of the river through our bedroom window. I could hear the sounds coming from the galley, where our chef was busy making Masala tea and whipping up our breakfast of curried eggs, noodle cakes, fruit and toast. We have decided to treat ourselves to one extra day and so I rang the owner, Raj, to see if it was possible. With a 'no problem Mr Colin' we were all set and on our way once more. We stopped at a small village where we bought some huge, very fresh Tiger prawns for lunch, they were 800Rs a kilo. The sea is only a short walk away and we strolled over to have a look at the beach and the fisherman throwing their nets into the surf. They then haul them straight out again and hopefully among the leaves and mud are some fish, but not the time that we watched them. The beach also appears to double as the local toilet in one or two places, so you have to watch your step. I told our chef not to curry the prawns, but to lightly cook them in a little garlic and butter. He agreed, but when they arrived he had bread-crumbed them and overcooked them. Never mind, not only has all the food been excellent, but the portions have been vast as well. Okra, beetroot, cocoanut, beans, lentils, green banana, potato's, carrots and numerous herbs and spices have all been made into a superb range of vegetable dishes, supplemented by fish at lunch and chicken in the evening. We stopped at another village for additional supplies and visited a 500 year old Christian church. The locals, under the watchful eye of the vicar, were busy preparing the church and grounds for a ten day religious festival. The sound system was stacked 6 feet high and groups of men were high up cleaning the many murals and frescoes all painted in vegetable dyes. This all came from the vicar himself who came over to greet us and give us the grand tour. The ever changing scenery remains beautiful as we drift along rivers, small canals and lakes without a care in the world. Well actually there is one care, we have run out of beer and the chef's first attempt at buying some met with failure as the shop apparently had none. I say apparently as he appears to be a bit of a 'chancer' and I think he wanted us to go to another shop, which was down the river and 3km away from the shore so that we couldn't get it ourselves and he could charge extra. In a nutshell beer is 44Rs per bottle and he wanted me to pay 75Rs. When I pointed this out he told me it was a cooling fee. A) there is very little ice left, B) they don't charge a cooling fee for the soft drinks we bought with us and C) we have spent thousands of rupee's on this boat and as far as I'm concerned the ice is mine anyway. A quick call to Raj, who spoke to the captain, soon sorted it out and within minutes the chef and pilot were dispatched to the off license at a cost to me of 44Rs per bottle, plus rickshaw fare of 15Rs. The captain is a sensitive chap and was quite upset about the whole affair, but we soon sorted it out and upon the return of the others, I presented them each with a bottle of beer which they carried off to their den, beaming all the way. We also found ourselves inundated with bats later in the evening. They flew in and out of our lounge area and up and down the corridors, swerving to avoid all obstacles including Sam who had curled up into the smallest possible size. We eventually twigged that they were after our bananas, which were on top of a cupboard. When I took them down and moved them to the kitchen, I could see several with bites taken out of them. After a few minutes of flying round and round the lampshade they finally realised that the free dinner had disappeared and so shortly after did they. Day 367 - Tuesday 10th October 2006 - Sam's Account
As Colin had decided to extend our cruise by one day, this was our last full
day on the house boat. Having sorted out the dreaded "out of beer situation"
yesterday, we settled in for more cruising and stopped off at a little
village where the Captain took us to see an old snake boat. Our Captain, who
used to be an oarsman in the snake boat explained that 135 people are on
just one snake boat, which is over 40 metres long, including five men who
steer, four men who drum to keep the rhythm and the remainder who row. The
snake boat is used for an annual competition on the second Saturday in
August. The winning boat takes home the Nehru Trophy as well as 3 lakh's
(300,000 rupees). This equates to 2222 rupees per person or £25, quite a lot
here. The course is 3 kilometres long and the best time so far has been 4
minutes and 40 seconds. Our Captain has enormous hands, arms, shoulders and
upper torso; so although he is too old to row now, his mottled grey hair
being evidence of this, (he didn't admit his age!) it's evident he used to
be incredibly fit and strong. Day 368 - Wednesday 11th October 2006 - Colin's Account A last breakfast and a quick spin around the lake and it was time to moor up and say goodbye to our houseboat and crew. It was within some considerable sadness that we waved cheerio as our rickshaw drove off and soon after dropped us at Raj's office to settle up our account. We agreed to split the difference on the extra discount I wanted for taking the boat for three days instead of two (apparently we are his first customers ever to take the boat for more than two days). Raj ran me down to the ATM on the back of his bike and then showed me where the private hospital was for me to go and get my stitches out later. The general hospital is not a good place to go at the moment as there is an epidemic of Chikungunya fever. It is carried by mosquito's (what else!!) and affects mainly rural areas and especially those that are dirty with a lot of rubbish. It is the first epidemic for 32 years and the doctors are worried that it has mutated. It can kill people, but normally only the elderly. The Indian government has started a big clean up campaign to help stamp it out again. Anyway, upon seeing where the hospital was, a nurse beckoned me over, asked what the problem was and then said they would take out the stitches straight away. You have to register with admissions, but Raj was off at once to do that for me. I was walked through casualty, where there were quite a few groaning people lying around and in to a small room. The duty doctor looked at my finger, but didn't seem particularly interested and passed me on to a nurse who soon had the stitches out. Two of the eleven stitches they removed hurt like hell coming out, but my finger seems to be in one piece although it is still completely useless. I have to keep the cast on for six more days, but I can see its going to be months before I can really use it again. I had avoided private hospitals so far due to the fact that you have to pay for them, but having had the bill I need not have worried. The admission fee was 20rs, the consultation fee 30rs and the actual suture removal and new dressing was only 13.5rs. Total bill less than £1 and in any case Raj paid it and wouldn't let me pay him back. The rest of the day was spent lounging at our brilliant guest house, apart from a few phone calls and internet stuff later in the evening. Day 369 - Thursday 12th October 2006 - Sam's Account
We decided to leave our beloved Alleppey backwaters today. Neither of us
really wanted to leave as we had had such a wonderful time here. Believe it
or not I've caught a cold. So sneezing nineteen to the dozen, thick headed
and feverish, I reluctantly donned my rucksack and we headed off to the bus
station. A "speed" bus for Thompompady was in fact ready for the off on our
arrival at the chaotic station and we clambered aboard. Having stored our
rucksacks at the back of the bus, paid our fares (20 each for ourselves and
15 each for the bags) we settled into the plastic seats to be swayed, swung
and bumped all over the place until our arrival at our destination. Day 370 - Friday 13th October 2006 - Colin's Account Today will be a bit of a jobs day. We have to take the ferry over to Ernakulam to buy our train tickets to Margao in Goa, a town only a few kilometres from the place we spent our first holiday together almost six years ago. The port, called Customs, already had a ferry waiting and the journey took 20 minutes and cost only 2.5rs each. There were a couple of huge dredgers and oil tankers sitting in the harbour as we pulled into the main boat jetty and a short rickshaw ride later we were filling in our train ticket request forms. A sleeper ticket for the 17 hour journey is only 309rs, although air-con costs 800rs. Fortunately we are used to the heat (as you would expect) so we don't need it. I was somewhat concerned when the clerk sent us over to the supervisors office after we had bought the tickets and I was equally concerned that our seat numbers were 120 & 121 and our carriage number was 419. I've never heard of a train that long! All was soon made clear by a smiling supervisor who explained that there was a waiting list for the actual beds and as luck would have it he had two left which he allotted to us (more unintentional queue jumping it would appear) and wrote them on the ticket. Coach S3 beds 36 & 37 sounds more like it. Lunch was Pizza hut for a change as Sam fancied some western food. I was tempted by the seek kebab pizza, but in the end went for the ubiquitous pepperoni. The ferry was already in port when we arrived and we managed to get on quickly and get a seat by virtue of the fact that they have a separate ladies queue for tickets, which was very short. The men's queue in contrast was quite long. The final job for the day was getting a haircut and finding a small barbers shop I was soon in the chair. The old boy cutting my hair was lightning fast and even when not actually cutting my hair the scissors were still going 'nineteen to the dozen' in mid air. He finished off with a cut throat razor and the bill was only 40rs. Sam pronounced it the best haircut I'd had in a long time. Day 371 - Saturday 14th October 2006 - Sam's Account
We had planned to go and wash elephants today and then catch the train up
the coast to Goa. Unfortunately, however, there were no bunks left on the
train so we will be heading off tomorrow. So, what to do? The town which
evidently used to only be a very small fishing village can be covered in
less than half a day and we have already seen most of it. Hey ho, nothing
for it but to allow ourselves be taken control of by the infamous
auto-rickshaw touts. Day 372 - Sunday 15th October 2006 - Colin's Account Today is going to be a very long day! Up at 5.45am to get ready for our taxi, we blearily eyed left our hotel and settled in to the ample backseats of our Ambassador cab. The hotel reception was much amused that we had insisted on this ancient form of transport as they had laid on a much more modern vehicle and the truth is that the Ambassador, a stalwart of Indian cabbies, has not graced the Queen's highways of jolly old England for 40 years or more. In India it is alive and well and you just have to have at least one ride in one. The dashboard is spartan, to say the least, but there is loads of headroom and legroom to say nothing of the boot , which took all our luggage with ease. The reason for our very early departure is because we are off to the Elephant training camp some 65km distant. Our driver, a distinguished gentleman called Milton, is obviously very proud of his taxi and of the fact that he was carrying some westerners as passengers. As we traversed the often potholed roads of Kerala he imperiously hooted every one out of the way, even trying it on with buses. We soon arrived at the banks of the river where the Elephants have their daily bath and in moments were helping the Mahouts (Elephant trainers/riders) in their task. The elephants lay on their sides in shallow water, whilst they are scrubbed with the husks of cocoanuts. Once one side is finished they are cajoled to turn over with shouted commands and occasionally a prod from a small stick, but it is evident that they love their trainers and that their trainers love them. Then the Elephants have to have to kneel or raise a foot to make sure they are clean all over. There were six Elephants being washed, two fully grown and the rest of varying ages down to one and a half years old. This is a daily event and evidently a hot spot for tourists as, besides ourselves, there were six other westerners and one Indian family whose seven year old daughter was terrified of them. After about an hour of fun and splashing around we headed back to their home for breakfast, that is the Elephants breakfast; our was to come later. They were fed football sized lumps of what looks like mud, but is composed of wheat amongst other things (sorry our cabbies English failed at this point). It is obviously some sort of a power pill for Elephants as even the largest was happy after two or three of these. A quick tour around a smelly mini zoo, complete with a 'tiny' baby Elephant being bottle fed, completed the tour. We also saw some vicious monkeys, a cobra, wild cat, crocodiles and Kites. Breakfast was my old favourite of Masala Dosa, which came with a cup of hot water to drink and then soon after we were deposited at Ernakulam junction railway station. Leaving our bags at left luggage we went for a stroll to kill the couple of hours until our train was due. Walking along the road we bumped into Dr Krishna Moorthy, a professor of Philosophy at Mysore university. As we had time to spare and he was keen we agreed to visit a local temple with him and discuss the basic principles of Hinduism over tea in a local cafe. Apart from a drunken cleaner at one temple who insisted that Sam and I weren't allowed in, despite permission from the 'priest', it went very smoothly with both of us fielding questions and debating the three main Hindu gods (and our own) together with their various incarnations. As we had had a lively debate, he offered to send us the six holy scrolls of the original Hindu yogi's translated from their original Sanskrit into English. The postage would cost 1200rs by airmail and 200rs by land mail. Ever aware to a scam, I suggested that he write to us when the translation was finished and we would forward the 200rs. I don't know and, perhaps never will, if he was a trickster, but probably not as he offered to send us the translations first and then rely on our goodwill to send him the 200 rupees. At last back at the train station, we hopped onto our carriage as soon as the train steamed in and immediately found someone asleep on Sam's bed. Turfing him out, we settled down to 16 hours of laborious travel. True we have a bed each, but unlike in Thailand, there are no sheets, no pillows, no blanket, no curtains and no bar either if truth be known. There is an endless procession of waiters bearing biryani's, chapati's, vegetable curry's, cakes, water, chai (tea) and coffee, so we won't go hungry or thirsty. The windows are open so there is a breeze to counteract the stifling heat and we have our books as well. Being on the bottom bunk, which is not yet folded down in to a bed, I have a lot of visitors coming to sit down with me, namely people who have unreserved seats and are attempting to escape the wooden benches of that class of travel. This is no problem and I chat to quite a few of them while Sam is reading, but as the evening wears on the conductor comes striding along the corridor with his manifest and shoo's them away. As I write we have left Kerala behind and entered the region of Karnataka. In five hours or so we shall also be leaving Karnataka, as we continue to head north finally entering Goa our final destination on this leg of the journey. Day 373 - Monday 16th October 2006 - Sam's Account
Unsurprisingly we didn't catch many Zeds last night. The sleeper train
pulled into Margao station at 6.30am and after our 16 hour journey we were
in no frame of mind to sort out buses and headed straight for the
auto-rickshaws. After some hard bargaining, which did not amount to much of
a discount, we were off to Palm Grove Cottages in Benaulim, 6 km's away. Day 374 Tuesday 17th October 2006 - Colin's Account Happy Birthday Deyna!! This day last year I was raging about the Russian/Mongolian border crossing on the Trans-Siberian train and their jamming of mobile phone signals, which stopped me contacting my daughter on her birthday for more than the briefest instant. Armed with Skype, my trusty mobile and a train journey already concluded, I do not intend to be caught out again. Goa and the area we are staying in, is much as we remember with tree lined country lanes and a beach of perfect white sand that stretches for miles. The beach huts that we remember for their wonderful seafood and jumbo prawns in garlic are all gone, but this is only temporary as the government makes the owners knock them all down at the end of the tourist season only to be resurrected on the 14th of December, when it starts again. If they don't then they are given a 'helping hand', courtesy of a squad of Police armed with hammers and machete's. In some ways it is more relaxed here than other regions, but the bureaucracy is not. Our hotel had huge forms to fill in for both of us and although hiring a motorbike is easy, you need to make sure that you have one where the number plates are yellow lettering on a black background. This denotes that it is a tourist bike, a necessity if you are going to use any of the main highways where there might be Police checkpoints. The problem is that a lot of rental companies haven't yet changed their plates over. Once out of Goa it doesn't matter, but getting out of Goa without being stopped is easier said than done. We intend to drive to Hampi in Karnataka state, a distance of about 400km and so our moped will not be good enough. We found an Enfield to hire which looked and sounded great, but it was 400rs per day and they don't have petrol gauges, so in the end we settled for a cheaper, but brand new Honda Pulsar. Chatting to a very cool looking Indian complete with dark sunglasses, we found that he is from Kashmir, but spends six months of the year in Goa during the tourist season, where he has a carpet/souvenir shop. He insists that Kashmir is very beautiful and not dangerous. I'm sure he's right on the first point, but I have doubts about the second so we won't be visiting just yet. He did give me a map of Hampi, complete with all the ruined temples though. The internet here is all franchised. Set up with little orange booths on a network linked to 'head office' so we can't find anywhere to plug in our laptops. Luckily I can still use Skype on their system and so managed to call my daughter without problem. As Sam was tired, I ate in the restaurant on my own and struck up a conversation with a South African and his French girlfriend. An interesting couple they are 'doing' the world in chunks. This year it is seven weeks in Asia and I gave them the low down on Thailand, which they are travelling to soon. Everyone seems very mobile these days and they have lived in London and Holland. What was amusing is that after their holiday they are going back to either Leeds or Cornwall to live. I can't think of two more opposite choices, but I wish them luck. They also told me that despite their being no alcohol available in Hampi, due to religion in that area. The temple priests who are supposed to wash their tame Elephant in the river every evening (a tourist spectacle), often don't, because they are too drunk! Day 375 - Wednesday 18th October 2006 - Sam's Account
Today was quite tiring, we drove to Hubli some 255km away, on our rented
150cc Pulsar motorbike. We drove into Margao to fill the tank first; there
are no petrol stations along the coast, only enterprising individuals who'll
sell you a litre or two heftily marked up and doctored. Day 374 Thursday 19th October 2006 - Colin's Account I had forgotten about the accursed service in the better hotels in India, but was rudely reminded by a very loud telephone call at 7.20am, where I was asked if I would like a cup of tea. Foolishly I agreed, forgetting in my half awake state that they would be knocking on the door in a few minutes, insisting they come in and pour the tea, then 10 minutes later return to collect the tray, rats! Apparently they have a business centre and conference room. We never found the business centre and the conference room, although supposed to seat 20 in luxury around an oval table and contain all the latest audio-visual equipment, is in fact a completely empty and dingy room. The only evidence that it was indeed the conference room was the dusty sign on the door, suspended by a single screw. Hopping back on the bike, we headed out of town with numerous stops for directions. Soon we were on the right road and a sign told us that we had 161km to go. The sun is beating down mercilessly and top speed on these roads is 70kmh, if you're lucky. Our petrol is lasting amazingly well as we have now covered over 300km and the gauge has only just come off full. Lunch was in the town of Kokol, where the two 'dirty faces' (Sam and I) had a Vegetable Biryani and an unknown dish, a Mutton Maharkal. I love ordering things I've never heard of and often find that it is superb. Today was no exception and as usual we were goldfish in a bowl with not another woman or Westerner in sight ,although there was a bit of other entertainment from a couple of Indians with flashing mobile phones that played Sitar music. The bike, despite being new and with only 3000km on the clock is playing up a bit. Over 6000rpm, it misfires. It wouldn't surprise me if the air intake is clogged up from all the dust, rather like us. 4pm seems to be the time the lorries get on the go and after having the road practically to ourselves for hours, we were soon playing 'chicken' again as we weaved in and out. Every so often there are humps in the road and there is not always a warning signpost, so it is lucky I have my glasses on or Sam in pillion position would find it more like an ejector seat. Well 426km completed and we've made it to Hampi, the ruins and temples look great, but we will explore tomorrow. For now we need a shower and our chosen hotel has that luxury of luxuries, 24hour hot water. The hotel is almost empty, but won't be tomorrow. They offered us a room for one night only and said we'd have to check out at 8am, despite the check out time on the wall saying 12 noon. I pointed this out in fairly strong terms and the somewhat arrogant desk clerk soon capitulated. The food in this hotel is awful. Day 375 Friday 20th October 2006 - Sam's Account Yup, Colin's right the food is really awful. Having saved myself last night for a tasty brekkie this morning, I was heartily disappointed with the extremely stale cornflakes and soggy, limp toast. To cheer me up Colin zoomed off on the bike to get some bananas. I ended up with some tasty banana butties for brekkie. Pleased to check out, we drove the 4km to Hampi Bazaar and with relative ease found the guest house of our choice; Sudha Guest House at 250 rupees per night. It has a roof top restaurant and being at the end of our little street is relatively quiet. The room is very basic, but they did give us towels and sheets and we do have a sit down toilet. Soon we were off exploring and our first stop was Virupaksha Temple. Leaving our flip flops outside we ventured into the first gate, which being 50 metres high is the second tallest in India, and were greeted by a fully grown, brightly painted elephant. For 1 rupee the elephant took the coin with her trunk and gave it to her Mahout and then proceeded to "bless" me by placing her enormous trunk softly on my head. I loved it! The temple was OK too, but the most fascinating thing is the history of Hampi. For 230 years, from 1336 until 1565, Hampi was the Capital and one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history. Hampi had half a million people living here and was the biggest , most influential trade centre for Southern India during it's hay day. More than 21 kings ruled during this time and each in turn continued the construction of this amazing place, which includes numerous temples, markets, bazaars along with the royal centre. Hampi's demise was due to a cartel of 5 jealous Muslim kings from the surrounding Indian states. Recognising the increased importance Hampi had bestowed on itself, they ransacked the city, destroying as much as they could and stealing all the valuables. So what? I hear you say, that sort of thing used to happen all the time, more heritage and history blah, blah, blah. NO, I have to admit this place is quite special. Not only because the archaeological remains lay over approximately 50km², but this living and breathing history, which is partly inhabited once again, is all set in the most atmospheric geography. Imagine the Australian outback; the devils marbles, in the red centre to be precise. OK, now add loads of water, a wide meandering river and a waterfall would be a start. Add the buffalo, birds, cows and other myriads of wildlife. Then add an enormous archaeological site, a few large handfuls of history, religion, commerce and karma sutra... and you're almost there. I won't detail all the temples we saw today it would be meaningless to you, the essence of this place is the atmosphere. I will tell you, however, that we took a Coracle down the river. A Coracle, just in case you're not sure, is a round boat. Hugely impractical if you ask me and quite casse geule as the French would say, but fun nonetheless. The only down side to Hampi is that there are loads of beggars here and annoying touts selling total rubbish. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva only know why they don't at least try and sell you something useful like water, sun cream, hats, parasol-brolly's, beer.... At least this element of Hampi is very much restricted to one small area. Unfortunately, the touts would not in fact be allowed to sell beer or anything alcoholic for that matter as consumption of unclean food and drink is not allowed within this sacred site. This therefore means it is impossible to eat meat; not that many Indians eat meat anyway, but we were enjoying an occasional fix of Tandoori chicken. The veggie food is astoundingly good and even "Mr Steak A Day Col" is loving the veggie food and not missing his red meat. Yet... Dinner was in Ravi Rose's Roof Restaurant which had been recommended to us by Chandra, our guide for the afternoon. The meal was good and the clientele interesting. Let's just say they looked as though they had got to the stage of the munchies! We were offered a Bhang Lassie, which is a totally lethal concoction of marijuana in the guise of an Indian milkshake. Having politely declined, we were offered a stock of beer for the duration of our stay here in Hampi - for a price of course. Having carefully calculated the required amount we would require, we were asked to pay in advance and drink it in the "den". Colin checked out the den and decided that there was no way we would be reduced to such extremes just for a cold beer so we paid all the money up front and said we'd drink it from a tea pot in the restaurant! P.S. It is 9.45pm and one of the roaming cows, who has not nodded off to sleep yet, sounds as though she wants to come into our room! (we are on the ground floor I hasten to add) These cows honestly do get absolutely everywhere. I think I should shoo her away. You never know, with Colin's beef deficiency since our arrival in India, he may 'sleep' gnaw her leg!! Day 376 Saturday 21st October 2006 - Colin's Account The big idea for today was to visit the Royal Centre near Hampi Bazaar in the morning and then, when things cooled down a bit, to take a big boat over the river with our bike to the Hanuman (Monkey temple), park at the bottom and climb the 600 steps to the top in time for sunset, but this did not happen. We actually spent several hours sorting out some chores to do with our house in France and then headed off for some Indian cooking lessons, followed by a drive around the countryside. To be fair the cooking lessons were planned, but the rest was not. Arriving at Lakshima's house, which also contains numerous relatives all living together, we settled down in a couple of plastic chairs to learn how to make authentic vegetable curry, Raitha, spinach Samosa's, a classic curry sauce, Chapati's, Nan and Masala Dosa's, my favourite Indian breakfast item. I made copious notes as, although I can make a fair curry, it never tastes really authentic. For that you should go to my friend Kevin, who makes a mean curry. However I now know the secret, put in loads of oil, ghee and salt and you are half way there. Perhaps I exaggerate, but we now know why quite a few of the ladies (and some men) are quite large and it isn't copious amounts of beer! I won't take you through all the recipes and instructions (although for a small 'consideration' I might; needs must you know'), but suffice it to say that the vegetable curry was very good and the raitha excellent (curds or natural yogurt for us, plus onion, tomato & cucumber). Fresh coriander, garam Masala and turmeric were used in generous quantities and less enticingly so were oil, ghee and salt. The flour to make chapati's is exactly the same as for nan bread and samosa's. The only thing we lack is a chapati pan, but a well seasoned wok will suffice. Anyway we ate the results, presented on a banana leaf, while sitting on the floor of Lakshima's kitchen. Her two children aged four and two were fascinated by us and the two year old girl escaped with a handful of nan bread, while her four year old brother went for the more sophisticated cashew nuts and then politely shook our hands. Feeling too full to go for a walk we hopped on the motorbike for a cruise around the countryside. Once out of Hampi, where tourists are two a penny, we started getting waved at by every child in every village as we cruised by. Grown men shouted hello and women with huge baskets on their heads laughed and called out after us. Stopping near the river crossing point we had planned to take, we saw that the big boat was in fact just a slightly larger Coracle and would be a pretty hair-raising experience. None the less, as we watched, they managed to squeeze on three motorbikes, two bicycles and six people, before the two paddlers cast off again for the far bank. I have to pay for any damage to our bike any I think that having to fish it out from the bottom of a river might count, so I am going to probably pass on this one. Anyway it should all be pointless, as above all these goings on is a perfectly good concrete and steel suspension bridge. Great except that it is almost, but not quite finished and sits forlorn and abandoned, I guess through lack of money. It is currently home to numerous monkeys who bounce on the steel cables and hang off the central towers. The local children, who are obviously poorer than poor, tug at our sleeves asking for 5 rupees, chocolates, school pens or whatever else they can get. One kid, who only came up to my knee, even asked for a cigarette, but I was assured that it was for his dad who I saw was hanging back a dozen yards or so, looking hopeful. Then a monkey ran past and we were forgotten as they chased it away with sticks and stones. Fancying a 'sundowner', we headed for the restaurant that has laid in a few beers for us. However it seems that he hasn't yet done so, despite being paid the money up front. He asked us to come back at 8pm, so we walked around enjoying the Diwali festival that is on for three days, all over India. I don't know the exact reason for this festival; but it involves a lot of fireworks and constant firecrackers being thrown around, even by tiny children. If someone shouts duck or move, then on this of all days you obey without question. Flowers hanging on doors, cars and bikes, together with chalked symbols on the ground are much in evidence, but sadly on our way home, much later, we saw the roaming gangs of cows eating all the flowers. Our beer never did turn up and although I had prepared for the possible sting operation, by remembering the name of the General Secretary of Karnataka, that we met in Hubli, it wasn't necessary to name drop. My Rupees were returned without question and we nipped off to another restaurant for dinner washed down with a mere lime and soda. Day 377 Sunday 22nd October 2006 - Sam's Account Hopefully will update this day soon Day 378 Monday 23rd October 2006 - Colin's Account We are leaving Hampi today to return to Goa and decided to set off early to avoid too much sun. So at 7.10am the owner of our guest house waved us off and we cruised through the streets which were already full of locals setting up shop for the day. We made good progress (for India) and at 11.10, after 180km and 4 hours, we were back in Hubli. We have decided to try the other route back to Goa, which is shorter by some 80km, but with a worse road. As if they are not bad enough already! Stopped in nearby Dharwad for lunch and seeing that there were no hotels to speak off we made the decision to go all the way back to Goa in one day. The Goa road via Londa is, or should be a national disgrace. The 56km to Londa took over two hours and that was the good bit. The next 25km were ridiculous and took two hours by themselves. This competition standard trial bike course, for it is no longer a proper road, goes by the misleading name of National highway 4A and is without doubt the worst road I have ever seen. There is no tarmac left, huge ruts and potholes; rubble and large stones strewn everywhere, all coated with a thick red dust that obscures your vision and is flung up by the countless lorries that caused the damage in the first place. On two occasions we saw people getting out of normal cars and having to walk a few dozen metres while the driver, now with a few extra inches of clearance, tried to get over one of the trenches in the road. In fact if you have any sort of car with even moderately low suspension then to all intents and purposes there is no longer any direct road to Goa from Central Karnataka. All these roads were evidently laid and tarmacked once upon a time, but the government department responsible seems to think that once done it lasts for ever. Either that or they have no money these days for this sort of thing. Near the border the road improved dramatically and we followed at fairly high speed close behind an Indian motorcyclist and his wife. He obviously knew the road well and so he was soon descending from the mountains weaving in an around occasional pot holes and hair pin bends with me in tow. After about half an hour of this he waved us along side and asked where we were going. We said to Ponda and then on to Margao and he said he would be happy to show us a shortcut and with that we were off again. Sure enough some miles later we turned off on to a dirt track, which soon joined a country lane in excellent condition! About 10km later at a small village where he lived, he stopped and gave us final directions. It appears we have managed to skip Ponda entirely and the lorries and only have 52km to go until Margao. We wearily drove into Margao at about 6.45, after 340km and nearly 12 hours on the road. We are much dirtier than last time, almost unrecognisable in fact. We found a decent hotel with hot showers and then went out for a well earned meal. The numb bum syndrome and the atrocious roads here make travelling by bike over long distances a bit impractical. Sam, in particular, was in a lot of pain today from the drive and hated it. Next time I guess we'll get the bus or even better the train. Day 379 Tuesday 24th October 2006 - Sam's Account Hopefully will update this day soon Day 380 Wednesday 25th October 2006 - Colin's Account I had agreed with Saby to meet him at the rental shop at 9am, where I am going to swap my bike for a Royal Enfield Bullet. Just like the Ambassador car, this bike has not been seen in the UK for many a year, but they still make them here and it looks and sounds great. It's only 74000RS for a brand new one, but how on earth would I get it home? I don't really fancy a 9,000km drive, taking in Siberia on the way. Saby still hadn't turned up by 10.10, but I'd organised the Enfield with the other company on the site as per the original plan as he doesn't have any Enfield's. One of the owners told me that Saby had finally found Sam's driving license and that the money I'd paid for the 2nd week for the Pulsar would be given directly to him by Saby, so far so good. As the Enfield was not quite ready, I took a scooter and agreed to come back at midday, but I took the Pulsar keys with me as well. At midday Saby was there in a very bad mood and wanted to know why I had taken the keys and that I'd therefore had two bikes. I pointed out that it was he who hadn't shown up that morning and also that I was responsible for his bike until I gave it back to him and I wasn't going to leave it parked on the road with the keys in it. He passed the license back with bad grace and then tried to charge me 150rs for the cost of cleaning the bike. This struck me as odd as when I'd hired it he'd asked me to come back in 30 minutes so he could have a 'boy' wash it first. I also pointed out to him that even if I did pay for washing he would only be paying someone 20 or 30rs and not 150rs. He agreed and slouched off, defeated. Spent the rest of the day on the beach and in a nearby beach shack, which served great fresh Kingfish. The sea here is not clear like on Koh Tao and I felt uncomfortable venturing in too far when I couldn't see a thing, but there don't appear to be any rocks although the breakers are quite strong as we'd remembered from last time we were here. I drove into Margao in the evening for a few things and realising that my headlight wasn't working and just managed to make it home before it was totally dark outside. Day 381 Thursday 26th October 2006 - Sam's Account Hopefully will update this day soon Day 382 Friday 27th October 2006 - Colin's Account We are spending the next week or so relaxing in Goa on the beach and I'm also busy writing so there won't be a journal for about 10 days. If we do decide to go anywhere or do anything interesting then I'll send it up to the site. In the meantime I happened to be reading a copy of the Hindu today and noticed the following advert for call centre staff in the situations vacant column: Bungalore's funkiest call centre ORIGIN operates Bungalore's most colourful, lively and state of the art international call centre. All agents have flat screen monitors, head sets and a management that treats them with respect and dignity at all times. Plasma TV's are on call centre floor so you can watch cricket while you work. Colin's Account - Goa Update The fans are finally driving us mad (I mean the ones that spin not admirers). Every night they whir above our heads stirring the air in the otherwise oppressive heat and humidity, allowing us to sleep, although fitfully at best. If the fan is off then you eventually drown in your own sweat, so there is little choice. The air whispering across your skin tricks you into thinking it's the crawling of a thousand bugs and mosquito's. I am plagued by constant phantom itches and feel certain that some bloodsucking insect is just about to make a meal of me, but no more, for that way lies paranoia and that is why we have checked into a decent hotel with air con for a few days as a treat. It's also why I'm lying in a HOT bath with a glass of wine listening to some good music. I haven't even seen a bath for months, let alone have one and I certainly haven't had a decent hot bath in over a year, it's wonderful! Off to see a Blues band tonight at a Jazz bar in Cavelossim. Apparently they have a jam session as well and so long as I can avoid bar chords and using my little finger too much I may join in. Colin's Account - Goa Update 2 The band were good and the Indian owner Chris has invited me back tomorrow evening to jam with them. So with my guitar strapped to my back, I hopped on to the trusty old Enfield and headed back to the Jazz Inn. I only managed to play three songs before my finger gave out, but it was great fun. After a month of curries I was tempted by Chris's menu, which featured a beef and mushroom pie. It tasted pretty good, but there wasn't a hint of flaky pastry and it was in fact a giant Samosa. Goa is full of Russians, with menu's in Russian at the beach shacks and crates of vodka stacked in corners. They have been coming on package tours for the last three years and it has been quite a shock to the locals who have had to try and translate their menus and, of course, find a vodka supplier! I went sea fishing today with Iyron, a local Goan man and actually caught 23 fish. Mainly rock fish, but the odd silver fish and red snapper too. None were over 9 inches long and so I threw them all back. Naturally there were a couple of large ones that got away! Day 392 Monday 6th November 2006 - Colin's Account We are leaving Goa today and heading for Mumbai. After our last train journey from Kerala to Goa, we have decided to spend a little more on some better seats and have booked two tier aircon train tickets for the 12 hour journey. Day 393 Tuesday 7th November 2006 - Colin's Account Mumbai is hot and sticky, the thermometer outside the train station reads 36.4°C. Finding a hotel has been a nightmare. I rang 13 different hotels without luck, but eventually found somewhere half decent and well situated. Mumbai is less dirty than the rest of India, so far and the streets are actually mostly clear of rubbish. The taxi's, which are all ancient, run on natural gas and the auto-rickshaws are banned from the city centre so the pollution is much less than Bangkok. Despite choosing a fairly decent hotel we have noticed that our bedroom and no doubt others as well, is the local Cockroach meeting point. Lovely! A few hair-raising journeys around the city in cabs soon proved that it was very much still India. At one point our taxi driver went into the back of another cab breaking his back light. The other cabby hopped out for a look, exchanged a shrug with our cab driver and then calmly drove off again without a word. Obviously this is not a rare occurrence. Day 394 Wednesday 8th November 2006 - Colin & Sam's Account Well everyone, I'm afraid this is the end (for now)! By the time you read this we will be back in the UK. We will soon be leaving India and are coming back early mainly due to a business opportunity. We have had a fantastic time exploring the world, seeing different cultures, trying new foods and new experiences. It would also be fair to say that after over a year of travel we have become a bit jaded. It has become increasingly difficult to get excited about each new place and the constant travelling. We have stayed in hundreds of different hotel's and guesthouses, been to more than a dozen countries and covered tens of thousands of miles by train, plane, bus ,car, boat, rickshaw, motorbike, bicycle, elephant, horse and foot. We have been scuba diving with sharks, climbed glaciers, skydived, lazed around in tropical paradises, travelled the Outback, drunk Yak Butter Tea with Tibetans, crossed Siberia, motor biked around Thailand & India, climbed mountains, ridden horses across the Mongolian plains, been gold prospecting, flown in helicopters and wandered the tunnels beneath the demilitarised zone of the two Korea's. It is 'Au Revoir' rather than goodbye as we fully intend to go back and finish the bits we haven't yet done, but that's a story for another day. Thanks for all your support and interest. Colin & Sam.
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