Tuesday 19 February 2008
19th Feb - Kochi
So today we had planned as our shopping day...head to the mainland and the city and buy some stuff! headed out for our breaky....to find every shop closed, no rickshaws or taxi...tourists wandering aimlessly. Strike day! hadn't realised all businesses, even private ones, would be closed! found a cafe that WAS open tho trying to be a bit discrete and closed the shutters. At least we had food! looked like there were only a couple open! all of kerala shut today...and no transport. Almost feels like a lot of peer pressure to stay closed, as those that were open were discretely and had said they could hve trouble from locals if they were open. Group of young men gathered round at an intersection makes you think there is something abou india, in these situations that is almost fragile...like problems maybe caused by poverty, infrstructure issues or maybe even government corruption, fueled by some supression, that issu could arise even in this peaceful tourist village by the sea. very very slight sinister feeling tho perhaps i have just read too many books!!! anyways now in our nice cool room, dennis is watching the India vs sri lanka one day-er...india not doing so good! Good chance for me to catch up on my blog anyways! Wow i am ALLLLLLL up to date, i am soooooo good!!!!
18th Feb - Kochi
Rented a motor scooter today and hooned round the island. Breakfast at local bakery...best vege puff! Stopped off at the “dutch palace” which wasn't very dutch at all, tho has very pornographic images of shiva and milkmaids that i'm sure the dutch did appreciate...
Checked out the jewish town nearby and a fw antique stores which were unbelievable! full of REALLY old things like MASSIVE, handpainted wooden doors and big wooden horses, brass and copper fountains...really really old and very expensive! think i prolly could only afford a tile :P
Zoomed around and looked around the locals part of town...no tourists...and then got stuck in the school rush which was a bit nerve racking, and prolly not helped by me that i grabbed den hard each time we got bit close to stuff! poor den, lucky i never did go on that motorbike with him! Really interesting architechture, very portuguese, but badly maintained.
Did some internetting and really a bit of sightseeing but another quiet day. Had some snacks on th promenade. Decided for a bit of a change for our tastebuds and choose an italian restaurant (dry so luckily we'd had a special tea before hand!) and had a Awesome meal...best bruschetta EVER, so good and really proper italian. good choice and funny how we didn't realise we were missing any food until we had that! nice to have something different.
Checked out the jewish town nearby and a fw antique stores which were unbelievable! full of REALLY old things like MASSIVE, handpainted wooden doors and big wooden horses, brass and copper fountains...really really old and very expensive! think i prolly could only afford a tile :P
Zoomed around and looked around the locals part of town...no tourists...and then got stuck in the school rush which was a bit nerve racking, and prolly not helped by me that i grabbed den hard each time we got bit close to stuff! poor den, lucky i never did go on that motorbike with him! Really interesting architechture, very portuguese, but badly maintained.
Did some internetting and really a bit of sightseeing but another quiet day. Had some snacks on th promenade. Decided for a bit of a change for our tastebuds and choose an italian restaurant (dry so luckily we'd had a special tea before hand!) and had a Awesome meal...best bruschetta EVER, so good and really proper italian. good choice and funny how we didn't realise we were missing any food until we had that! nice to have something different.
17th Feb - Kochi
after being rudely awaken by the guy from the front desk checking that we were definetly checking out today...the obvisouly wanted the room asap, i was feeling QUITE murderous. the pillows were also all lumpy, dennis was a sweetie and took the worst one...prolly to shut me up :P
Anyways after a walk off the main roads we found THE perfect place to chill out for 4 days...big light room (v rare in India), WITH aircon and a balcony! Soft bed and nice bathroom. perfect. feeling good about living here for the next 4-5 days so celebrated with a good breaky of fresh baked bread, butter and chai. spent the rest of the day being VERY lazy in our nice cool room, watching the cricket between India and australia, plus a bit of a nap...was knackered! Headed out for a beer (in a tea pot..) and then a big dinner of fish moilee (fish in coconut milk and keralan spices, V good), rice and pappadums.
Anyways after a walk off the main roads we found THE perfect place to chill out for 4 days...big light room (v rare in India), WITH aircon and a balcony! Soft bed and nice bathroom. perfect. feeling good about living here for the next 4-5 days so celebrated with a good breaky of fresh baked bread, butter and chai. spent the rest of the day being VERY lazy in our nice cool room, watching the cricket between India and australia, plus a bit of a nap...was knackered! Headed out for a beer (in a tea pot..) and then a big dinner of fish moilee (fish in coconut milk and keralan spices, V good), rice and pappadums.
16th Feb - Munnar - Kochi
off back to cochi today, so after a FAB breaky (scrambled eggs!) in our nice place (finally a soft bed and lights that work!!!) we headed to the bus stop. ots of tourists on this bus to cochi and met a lovely woman from Israel – Orit. Very interesting and we exchanged addresses...she has convinced us to go there one day and looks like we would have a very good tour guide! she was amrried with a 6 year old boy and was going to try and get a polish passport (her mother was polish) so she can work in europe easily, and travel more easily (she wants to go to morroco and apparnetly Israelis cannot do independent travel there..). Also because if things in Israel do get much worse, her family can leave. tho life there seems to go on as per normal...or normal for them.
Bus trip was a bit tougher this time, driver wasn't quite as confident (or crazy) with the corners and braked heavily just before them. poor den was white by the time we got to the bottom of the valley and my tummy was NOT feeling good.
Finally, THANKFULLY arrived in kochi and lack of accommodation didn't leave us with massive choice but no worries. very busy. Had a good feed (more onion pakora...YUMMMMMMY) and accommodation hunt set for tomoro morning. Disgustingly ate an icecream on the way home!
Bus trip was a bit tougher this time, driver wasn't quite as confident (or crazy) with the corners and braked heavily just before them. poor den was white by the time we got to the bottom of the valley and my tummy was NOT feeling good.
Finally, THANKFULLY arrived in kochi and lack of accommodation didn't leave us with massive choice but no worries. very busy. Had a good feed (more onion pakora...YUMMMMMMY) and accommodation hunt set for tomoro morning. Disgustingly ate an icecream on the way home!
15th Feb - Munnar
We decided to completely let go and splurge by having night in a much more expensive place up in the tea hills. Ooooo i had such a good time!!! arrived and our room wasn't quite ready so we sat out on our lil proch and were brought some masala chai, YUM. in a themos jug, no less! so yum. lots of indian mags in english...almost the equivalent of an indian Time magazine, so interesting to see a bit of political and social pieces. Den managed to get the a couple of the guys to teach him how to use a motorbike and then go off for ride, so he was so happy. despite his 20 minutes of experience i decided NOT to double with him and to stay with my books and mags for an hour! lovely! Had a chat with a manager type thing of the sister homestay, about all sorts of social issues, mostly between guys and girls. his opinions seemed to be that despite being happily married with a lil girl, that the segregation of men and women and arranged marriages and not ebing allowed girlfriends etc, was not healthy for society. interesting to hear his point of view. Also about the communist party, apparently elections are every 5 years and it does seem to alternate between right and left wing. he seemed to be a bit anti as its not good for industry, he thought that it held Kerala back a bit.
So den came back all very happy and we headed into town for some food. Also for a bit of a shop, i got some Munnar grown black tea and an indian womans magazine in english of course...kinda like cosmo. Amazed if there really are tat many liberated indian women...where are they?? deifnetly is of the minority. Also got some classic indian mouth freshner (wuith seeds etc, i tried some its AWFUL. den quite liked it. i had to spit it out!) and some snuff! a v small packet for my scrap book, strange, never seen it sold before!!
Back at the hilltop homestay we we served a ice cold kingfisher outside and then went and watched a cooking demo. Almost more interesting to watch some of the other guests trying to take everything in. dinner time and it was GOOOOOOD. yum. Sat with a older british couple who were very interesting thnk goodness. The husband (dave) was a musician and even had a guitalaelee (half guitar, half ukalaelee) and was very very good so a nice night tho den drunk far too much kingfisher!
So den came back all very happy and we headed into town for some food. Also for a bit of a shop, i got some Munnar grown black tea and an indian womans magazine in english of course...kinda like cosmo. Amazed if there really are tat many liberated indian women...where are they?? deifnetly is of the minority. Also got some classic indian mouth freshner (wuith seeds etc, i tried some its AWFUL. den quite liked it. i had to spit it out!) and some snuff! a v small packet for my scrap book, strange, never seen it sold before!!
Back at the hilltop homestay we we served a ice cold kingfisher outside and then went and watched a cooking demo. Almost more interesting to watch some of the other guests trying to take everything in. dinner time and it was GOOOOOOD. yum. Sat with a older british couple who were very interesting thnk goodness. The husband (dave) was a musician and even had a guitalaelee (half guitar, half ukalaelee) and was very very good so a nice night tho den drunk far too much kingfisher!
14th Feb - Munnar
Neither of us realised it was valentines day til we arrived back for the day getting ready for bed! no advertising for it here, tho you get a tiny bit of it on tele, so that was quite refreshing, so possibly not v romantic :P
den was really keen to find a scooter or motorbike to ride round the hills but we really struggled to find anything so we gave up and took a rickshaw to a view point. and christ then did we walk. bout 6km ...luckily most of it was downhill and we had a few crisp breaks. the scenary was awesome, all the tea is chopped off the top so everything the same height its so beautiful! met a tea picker on our way, they seem to be always women, and they basically just use secuters (sp???) with a bag attached to one end. they have to lift massvie bags of the tea so its quite ahrd work but sounded like there was quite a lo of gossiping going on! so with no english she showd us how they cut it and den asked her for a picture which she happily obliged with the most loveliest smile. Den gave her 5 rupees and her and her bemused workmate just giggled and laughed as we walked off! we later found out that they only get paid 70 rupees a day so spose it was a bit of a bonus! TATA is the tea company and seems that they are starting to take over India – cars, tea, phones, trucks, buses plus all these other random unrelated things. The tea women apparently get quite god hours, 10-4 with 1 hour lunch and TATA also run the local schools and provide a special school and post-school work for disabled children of the tea workers. So perhaps they are better employers than most in india...or that the communist state government as something to do with workers rights...
anyways the waterfall was nothing amazing but lovely to stick our hot feet in the COOOLLLLD water. yum. then we had a monumentous climb back up...personally i blame the altitude for the struggle. (we're about 1000 metres). once i'd got my breath back (the cursing didn't help...) we caught the local bus back.
Dinner was an interesting affair, it took at least 1.5 hours to get our dinner! I'd almost passed out even tho we are getting used to indian relaxed service, and then inhaled my food once it arrived. Even den (who you'd think is used to me) was amazed with how much i managed to put away and then got scared and moved the food away...
den was really keen to find a scooter or motorbike to ride round the hills but we really struggled to find anything so we gave up and took a rickshaw to a view point. and christ then did we walk. bout 6km ...luckily most of it was downhill and we had a few crisp breaks. the scenary was awesome, all the tea is chopped off the top so everything the same height its so beautiful! met a tea picker on our way, they seem to be always women, and they basically just use secuters (sp???) with a bag attached to one end. they have to lift massvie bags of the tea so its quite ahrd work but sounded like there was quite a lo of gossiping going on! so with no english she showd us how they cut it and den asked her for a picture which she happily obliged with the most loveliest smile. Den gave her 5 rupees and her and her bemused workmate just giggled and laughed as we walked off! we later found out that they only get paid 70 rupees a day so spose it was a bit of a bonus! TATA is the tea company and seems that they are starting to take over India – cars, tea, phones, trucks, buses plus all these other random unrelated things. The tea women apparently get quite god hours, 10-4 with 1 hour lunch and TATA also run the local schools and provide a special school and post-school work for disabled children of the tea workers. So perhaps they are better employers than most in india...or that the communist state government as something to do with workers rights...
anyways the waterfall was nothing amazing but lovely to stick our hot feet in the COOOLLLLD water. yum. then we had a monumentous climb back up...personally i blame the altitude for the struggle. (we're about 1000 metres). once i'd got my breath back (the cursing didn't help...) we caught the local bus back.
Dinner was an interesting affair, it took at least 1.5 hours to get our dinner! I'd almost passed out even tho we are getting used to indian relaxed service, and then inhaled my food once it arrived. Even den (who you'd think is used to me) was amazed with how much i managed to put away and then got scared and moved the food away...
13th Feb - Kumily - Munnar
So today we needed to ish to munnar. bus to go in the afternoon so after breaky we did a wander and did some interneting...not very exciting. bus trip was another nice easy one, the seats are SOOO small tho, a seat clearly made for 2 people really would only seat 1.5 people...no wonder those big americans hire taxis all the time..
Esay to find the bus this time, the ticket collecter (there is always the bus driver who you never see and tciket collector who has a real knack for remembering who is new on the bus and hasn't paid...plus he doesn't get bus sick!) seemed to be finding any whitey's and pointing them in direction of his munnar bus. brought some snacks and braved the local bus stop toilet...which are never QUITE as bad i expect, you pay 2 rupees, and they are all “squatters” but soemhow that makes it much cleaner and i'm quite grateful for no western toilets in public places. found some LOVELY cupcake for about 20p for 6, YUM. like opa cake but in a lil cupcake. went down a treat. Bus usually starts off with all seats taken but after driving for about 40 mins we had passed several local bus stops and school was out so it got completely JAM packed. like sardines. den had a good conversation with a couple of kids and got their addresses so we can send them some stamps. they're so polite and lovely but still ask such personal questions about salary and stuff! which is kinda funny for a child to think about that sort of thing anyways. well we think it is. he was 14 and the school they went to was obvisouly quite good. mum was a teacher and they had a bit of land and dad worked in mumbai. They only saw him about once every 1 or 2 months, which i thought was quite sad. He played cricket of course and basketball, table tennis and football. And of coruse he wanted to be a software engineer, he said he would like to work in germany one day which was interesting! one of his friends was a bit appalled that dennis couldn't speak any other language at all – he could speak malayam (kerala's language), english, some hindu and spanish... DOES make you feel a bit stupid! but they were lovely kids, so polite and confident.
Apparently girls play handball!
the ride was a long one and by the ime we arriveed in tea country the sun was setting and we only got a very short look at the tea fields, SO beautiful and much much more than kumily. was prolly just as well that the sun set as the bus driver was a MANIAC round the corners and probably it was better that i couldn't see wtf he was doing! so we arrived in munnar somewhat a bit dishevilled but found our accommodation ok which seems a good choice for 2 nights. the owner had a great hand drawn map for us which was pretty good. had some eats at a food court type thing...another example of massive over-employment which i always find weird, but really good (surprisingly good!) fried rice and mushroom masala! found a movie channel and watched some american tele, great stuff!
Esay to find the bus this time, the ticket collecter (there is always the bus driver who you never see and tciket collector who has a real knack for remembering who is new on the bus and hasn't paid...plus he doesn't get bus sick!) seemed to be finding any whitey's and pointing them in direction of his munnar bus. brought some snacks and braved the local bus stop toilet...which are never QUITE as bad i expect, you pay 2 rupees, and they are all “squatters” but soemhow that makes it much cleaner and i'm quite grateful for no western toilets in public places. found some LOVELY cupcake for about 20p for 6, YUM. like opa cake but in a lil cupcake. went down a treat. Bus usually starts off with all seats taken but after driving for about 40 mins we had passed several local bus stops and school was out so it got completely JAM packed. like sardines. den had a good conversation with a couple of kids and got their addresses so we can send them some stamps. they're so polite and lovely but still ask such personal questions about salary and stuff! which is kinda funny for a child to think about that sort of thing anyways. well we think it is. he was 14 and the school they went to was obvisouly quite good. mum was a teacher and they had a bit of land and dad worked in mumbai. They only saw him about once every 1 or 2 months, which i thought was quite sad. He played cricket of course and basketball, table tennis and football. And of coruse he wanted to be a software engineer, he said he would like to work in germany one day which was interesting! one of his friends was a bit appalled that dennis couldn't speak any other language at all – he could speak malayam (kerala's language), english, some hindu and spanish... DOES make you feel a bit stupid! but they were lovely kids, so polite and confident.
Apparently girls play handball!
the ride was a long one and by the ime we arriveed in tea country the sun was setting and we only got a very short look at the tea fields, SO beautiful and much much more than kumily. was prolly just as well that the sun set as the bus driver was a MANIAC round the corners and probably it was better that i couldn't see wtf he was doing! so we arrived in munnar somewhat a bit dishevilled but found our accommodation ok which seems a good choice for 2 nights. the owner had a great hand drawn map for us which was pretty good. had some eats at a food court type thing...another example of massive over-employment which i always find weird, but really good (surprisingly good!) fried rice and mushroom masala! found a movie channel and watched some american tele, great stuff!
12th feb - Kumily
woke up and after some lovely homemade brown bread from the homestay next door, the coffee inn, we walked a couple of kms to the periyar national park. of course lots more extra charges for foreigners and the peaceful forrest noise poluuted by more auto rickshaws.
Got to the main part of the park...you can't just wander round by yourself (there ARE apparently tigers and definetly elephants) and so really only option is the boat ride. these are at scheduled times so had just missed the boat, and plus its so popular (mostly indian tourists!) that you need to book like at least an hour in advance. Decided to mish to town and check out a spice plantation, so went and moved into our tree hut and had a snack of our new fav crisps...kurekurme or something, YUM. like curried twisties! The spice garden was almost just that, not excactly a plantation but bits and pieces here and there. we ad a tour with a young girl, about 17 or so who definetly didn't hide her disdain of north indian tourists...apaprently they pick everything and then throw it away and they don't listen and retain any information. quite funny hearing her take on them, she wasn't impressed at all! we seemed to be accepted tho and asked the right questions. Despite the north vs. south she really knew her stuff and told us about (and showed us) pepper, cocca, vanilla pods, corriander, several types of basil, jack fruit (which is the biggest fruit in the world), pods that make toddy a sweet drink that is also made into an alcoholic drink (she didn't seem to approve of that either!), coffee beans, rose apples (v yummy and only grown for personal consumption), pineapples, bananas and probably a whole lot more i'm forgetting. we also saw a flower that only blooms ever 12 years! you'd think you'd get a whole good flower for that but not so...so puny lil thing that looks like a weed. and they use it for ornimental use only! didn't really see the point there but oh well. got her address to send her some new zealand coins as she collects them. oh and also got some sugar substitue! from a flower that is like 1000 time sweeter than sugar and with no calories and cholestoral. sounds like a bit of me, so hoepfully i can get it into NZ! is called stevia.
Went back to the park and got our boat ride which wasn't amazing (didn't see many animals, only deer and wild boar) but was very pretty on the lake. The lake is man made for a damn so there is dead tree trunk poking out everywhere and the banks are very grassy so it looks quite prehistoric, which was quite cool. for the rest not sure what all the fuss was about.
Headed to a local joint for dinner and both order thali (a mixture of dishes) and defintely were NOT allowed to order anything else WITH the thali...jsut cos you don't do that...the waiter wouldn't let us! but anyways was MORE than enough for dinner and very nice. Getting used to eat off those metal bowls and plates...its kinda prison-like but efficient. Also still not really eating (ok not at all) rice and curry saucey stuff in my fingers...gott have a spoon. I'm bnot a great eater with my fingers anyways...i like my utensils thanks very much!Den popped to the drugstore for cream (for his pinkness) and i had a good nosy at all the fairness cream and hair blackner and then all these herbals pastes for your face. give lewins a run for their money perhaps mum?
Got to the main part of the park...you can't just wander round by yourself (there ARE apparently tigers and definetly elephants) and so really only option is the boat ride. these are at scheduled times so had just missed the boat, and plus its so popular (mostly indian tourists!) that you need to book like at least an hour in advance. Decided to mish to town and check out a spice plantation, so went and moved into our tree hut and had a snack of our new fav crisps...kurekurme or something, YUM. like curried twisties! The spice garden was almost just that, not excactly a plantation but bits and pieces here and there. we ad a tour with a young girl, about 17 or so who definetly didn't hide her disdain of north indian tourists...apaprently they pick everything and then throw it away and they don't listen and retain any information. quite funny hearing her take on them, she wasn't impressed at all! we seemed to be accepted tho and asked the right questions. Despite the north vs. south she really knew her stuff and told us about (and showed us) pepper, cocca, vanilla pods, corriander, several types of basil, jack fruit (which is the biggest fruit in the world), pods that make toddy a sweet drink that is also made into an alcoholic drink (she didn't seem to approve of that either!), coffee beans, rose apples (v yummy and only grown for personal consumption), pineapples, bananas and probably a whole lot more i'm forgetting. we also saw a flower that only blooms ever 12 years! you'd think you'd get a whole good flower for that but not so...so puny lil thing that looks like a weed. and they use it for ornimental use only! didn't really see the point there but oh well. got her address to send her some new zealand coins as she collects them. oh and also got some sugar substitue! from a flower that is like 1000 time sweeter than sugar and with no calories and cholestoral. sounds like a bit of me, so hoepfully i can get it into NZ! is called stevia.
Went back to the park and got our boat ride which wasn't amazing (didn't see many animals, only deer and wild boar) but was very pretty on the lake. The lake is man made for a damn so there is dead tree trunk poking out everywhere and the banks are very grassy so it looks quite prehistoric, which was quite cool. for the rest not sure what all the fuss was about.
Headed to a local joint for dinner and both order thali (a mixture of dishes) and defintely were NOT allowed to order anything else WITH the thali...jsut cos you don't do that...the waiter wouldn't let us! but anyways was MORE than enough for dinner and very nice. Getting used to eat off those metal bowls and plates...its kinda prison-like but efficient. Also still not really eating (ok not at all) rice and curry saucey stuff in my fingers...gott have a spoon. I'm bnot a great eater with my fingers anyways...i like my utensils thanks very much!Den popped to the drugstore for cream (for his pinkness) and i had a good nosy at all the fairness cream and hair blackner and then all these herbals pastes for your face. give lewins a run for their money perhaps mum?
11th feb - Varkala - Kumily
Heading to kumily today so mished to the train station and took a train to kottayam and then onto our bus to kumily...4.5 hours on a local bus! but was actually alright...the scenary was amazing and the definite coolness once we got more up into the mountains was lovely. saw tea plantations as we got closer in, which look so cool! they trim the tops of the tea so all the bushes are the same height. some plantations are really tickety-boo and all lined up nicely too, across the hills which makes it look very picturesque.
got another hut at a nice family homestay and booked a tree hut for the next night...so den very excited. ( am too...but perhaps less so...) the tree hut does over look the periyar park tho which is a plus. Dinner just down the road overlooking the park also. Got beer which is a bit funy as most of these places don't have licenses...so to avoid detection they serve an entire kingfisher in a teapot and you drink it out of coffee mugs that usually have a cheesy motif on the outside (“mom is the best” or “visit beautiful cornwall”)...good indian ingeunity and very funny to see what looks like people drinking tea with their dinner at 7pm :P
Nice home cooked curry and more pappadams, yum! dennis tried chicken biriyani which is fragrant fried rice with chicken inside.
got another hut at a nice family homestay and booked a tree hut for the next night...so den very excited. ( am too...but perhaps less so...) the tree hut does over look the periyar park tho which is a plus. Dinner just down the road overlooking the park also. Got beer which is a bit funy as most of these places don't have licenses...so to avoid detection they serve an entire kingfisher in a teapot and you drink it out of coffee mugs that usually have a cheesy motif on the outside (“mom is the best” or “visit beautiful cornwall”)...good indian ingeunity and very funny to see what looks like people drinking tea with their dinner at 7pm :P
Nice home cooked curry and more pappadams, yum! dennis tried chicken biriyani which is fragrant fried rice with chicken inside.
10th feb - Varkala
Yes i have screwed up my dates, this is now correct...but really can't be bothered chnaging them atm! sorry peeps!
Got up earlier today (8!!!) to have breakfast with the french couple who we leaving today. Walked to the other end of the cliff since josephs le routard book said the last plac had a great traditional kerelan breaky...and it sure did!! I got the wheat puttu which comes out a roll of wheat stuff with coconut, its warm like porridge and with a thicker consistency. its served with milk and honey and banana...and was great! BUT too big to finish, you could have one between 2 people! much nicer than a curry type dish for breaky (still can't REALLY get my head round that...). taste very similar to flapjacks that you get in the uk.
said goodbye to our new french friends and now have somewhere to stay in Rouen, which is very sweet.
Since den was still teletubby-ish (also possibly due to the big dinner last night...) we had a laxing day in the shade on our deck reading and chilling out. Somewhat tried to have a healthier lunch of sandwich and salad...go arn. A small swim and we HAD to go back to the funky art cafe for dinner so after a shop at all the tibetan shops (which seemed slightly pointless as we go there for real in a couple of months..). seems there are a lot of tibetan refugees in varkala as a settlement is not tooooo far away and they make more money out at the coast. apparently 55 hours to get back home and most of them can't go back. theres still more coming too, very sad really. I wonder how we will find it.
Fish was even better, blue marlin tonight and stuck to the easier kerelan spices...so good and so full!
Got up earlier today (8!!!) to have breakfast with the french couple who we leaving today. Walked to the other end of the cliff since josephs le routard book said the last plac had a great traditional kerelan breaky...and it sure did!! I got the wheat puttu which comes out a roll of wheat stuff with coconut, its warm like porridge and with a thicker consistency. its served with milk and honey and banana...and was great! BUT too big to finish, you could have one between 2 people! much nicer than a curry type dish for breaky (still can't REALLY get my head round that...). taste very similar to flapjacks that you get in the uk.
said goodbye to our new french friends and now have somewhere to stay in Rouen, which is very sweet.
Since den was still teletubby-ish (also possibly due to the big dinner last night...) we had a laxing day in the shade on our deck reading and chilling out. Somewhat tried to have a healthier lunch of sandwich and salad...go arn. A small swim and we HAD to go back to the funky art cafe for dinner so after a shop at all the tibetan shops (which seemed slightly pointless as we go there for real in a couple of months..). seems there are a lot of tibetan refugees in varkala as a settlement is not tooooo far away and they make more money out at the coast. apparently 55 hours to get back home and most of them can't go back. theres still more coming too, very sad really. I wonder how we will find it.
Fish was even better, blue marlin tonight and stuck to the easier kerelan spices...so good and so full!
9th Feb - Varkala
Ahhhhh sleep in (tho really kinda feel like a SOFT bed would be nice round about now...) and breaky in our new fav cafe (on account of te pakora of coruse) and off down to the beach for some sun and surf. sand was burning hot so den got us a nice umbrella. sea was calling, so jumped in and did more exercise than we were barginning for...those were some big waves! Life guard on duty...but seems they have more of a “preventative” method than lifegaurds we are used too...which means blowing on whistles when swimmers get beyond their hips and waving big red flags...so we soon found THAT out. apparently the big surf and MASSIE undertow was a result of a small erth quake and tsunami in indonesia??? so perhaps they were more vigilant than normal...tho think it is quite a military operation. not really surprised for communist kerala. Anyways spent a few lovely hours chilling out in our tiny spot of shade, taking small life threatning dips when it got too hot.
Headed back when it was a bit too much and discovered we were a tad sunburnt...was grateful for our cold shower. Den was a bit like PO teletubby...the red one...
Headed to the funky art cafe for dinner and got 2 fish in banana leaves, on was with coconut milk and kerala spices, which was devine. The other was with green curry and tasted LOVELY...but so hot it brought tears to my eyes! had to declare myself defeated over that one! an ice cool kingfisher on hand at least :P
watched a “bollywood dancing” which turned out to be a troop of local kids from a dancing school. some of them were just soooo cute and there were a couple who were really talented, so we had a good time watching them. So cute!
Headed back when it was a bit too much and discovered we were a tad sunburnt...was grateful for our cold shower. Den was a bit like PO teletubby...the red one...
Headed to the funky art cafe for dinner and got 2 fish in banana leaves, on was with coconut milk and kerala spices, which was devine. The other was with green curry and tasted LOVELY...but so hot it brought tears to my eyes! had to declare myself defeated over that one! an ice cool kingfisher on hand at least :P
watched a “bollywood dancing” which turned out to be a troop of local kids from a dancing school. some of them were just soooo cute and there were a couple who were really talented, so we had a good time watching them. So cute!
9th Feb - Alleppey - Varkala
onto varkala...was a bit of a long bus ride and we were a bit silly not to train it there but oh well. so much to see out of the bus window, i love llooking at all the people and their shops and what theyre doing. drove along the coast for a while too, white-ish sands with palm trees and loooong waterways streching to the sea...heaven! seems they have a prob with erosion on this coast as there was often a large hand made stone wall between the houses and the sea...perhaps flooding too?
Arrived in varkala and to our lil hut. Not really a typical beach place but tall red cliffs, with sand and surf below and then all along the top of the cliff are the restaurants and cafes and accoommodation and shops. So lovely to wander along the top, with the ocean expanding out below. we stopped off at sunrise cafe which was next to our hut place and had oohhhh the nicest onion pakora and garlic naan! went for a walk and the sea is SOOO nice and warm and checked out some of the shops. Realised we had eaten too much for our late lunch...whoops :P so no dinner and early to bed for us!
Arrived in varkala and to our lil hut. Not really a typical beach place but tall red cliffs, with sand and surf below and then all along the top of the cliff are the restaurants and cafes and accoommodation and shops. So lovely to wander along the top, with the ocean expanding out below. we stopped off at sunrise cafe which was next to our hut place and had oohhhh the nicest onion pakora and garlic naan! went for a walk and the sea is SOOO nice and warm and checked out some of the shops. Realised we had eaten too much for our late lunch...whoops :P so no dinner and early to bed for us!
8th Feb - Alleppey
Jumped on board our boat at 11am, with our driver and our gummy cook. he was missing his four front teeth...ironically there was a phamplet for dental work on board...do you think they used him as motivation of how NOT to end up?? we set off down the waterways and watched the backyardds of the locals as we went past...people washing in the waterways and doing their laundry. But so tranquil...yes heaps of ther tourists doing the same thing but i rather enjoyd looking at the large 3-7 bedroomed boats which made our lil 1 bedroom so puny...some were just so huge! nihal (the gummy cook) served us up lunch of fish they had picked up at the markets, YUM! cooked in a cury crust type thing. and then some rice and coconut with cabbage which was SOOO good. some pappadums (YUM my fav!) and chutneys of coruse, plus a few other curry dishes i didn't know what they were but oooo they were good. anyways (i go on about food a lot don't i) filled the gap way too much so everyone had a nap afterwards! a guy in a canoe siddled up wondering if we wanted to buy prawns. not a massive praw fan and den was still a bit cautious over some dodgy ones he'd had so gave it a miss this time, but talk about fresh!
Once we'd all recovered and woken up, our driver took us off down some bigger waterways past massive rice fields and poorer locals who seemed to have their little shacks in between 2 massive waterways on only perhaps 2-3 metres wide worth of land.
for afternoon tea we were served up a chai and some fried bananas...still hadn't recovered from lunch but of coruse managed to get it down :P
Dinner was more fish and currys and even better than lunch.
We moored up and me and den had a few good games of last card before i discovered possibly the biggest cochroaches ever in our lil room. Den was too slow (and possibly not VERY keen...kinda like killing a fast mouse on your wall...) with his jandle, but the driver was a pro...1 damp rag and a deadly flick...and presto...bait for his fishing line! they were quite amused at how i managed to get as far away as possible. few more incidents of this variety but seemed cochroach free for bedtime. still i tucked the mozzie net in sooo tight. Not a great night sleep cos it was SOOO hot but served up a good chai and breaky helped us get on our merry way off the boat and onto the next thing.
Once we'd all recovered and woken up, our driver took us off down some bigger waterways past massive rice fields and poorer locals who seemed to have their little shacks in between 2 massive waterways on only perhaps 2-3 metres wide worth of land.
for afternoon tea we were served up a chai and some fried bananas...still hadn't recovered from lunch but of coruse managed to get it down :P
Dinner was more fish and currys and even better than lunch.
We moored up and me and den had a few good games of last card before i discovered possibly the biggest cochroaches ever in our lil room. Den was too slow (and possibly not VERY keen...kinda like killing a fast mouse on your wall...) with his jandle, but the driver was a pro...1 damp rag and a deadly flick...and presto...bait for his fishing line! they were quite amused at how i managed to get as far away as possible. few more incidents of this variety but seemed cochroach free for bedtime. still i tucked the mozzie net in sooo tight. Not a great night sleep cos it was SOOO hot but served up a good chai and breaky helped us get on our merry way off the boat and onto the next thing.
7th Feb Kochi - Alleppey
Headed out early this morning (aafter our complimentary continental breakfast of coruse) and rickshawed our way to enarkulum. from there and atfer ton of confusion over different bus stations we caught a bus to alleppey.
Found a hotel through one of the touts who approach the bus and it turned out to be a good thing, they were so friendly and the place was perfect for us...plus nice and cheap. we went to the indian coffee house for lunch which seems to be bit of a fav with locals and so of coruse lots of stares but alos lots of friendly smiles, especially from a couple of lil kids. tried a masala dosa which seems to be pretty staple down here. like a pancke with tomato curry sauce stuff and other veges lilke potatoes, served with a couple of dipping curry sauces thing. plus my first “real” indian coffee (as opposed to a commercial chain type one)...which was strong and full of suga and milk...so really as they say, not too different from the tea!!
After some too-ing and fro-ing our accommodation hosts found us a boat to view so we mished out and had a look. found 1 aussie and 1 brit on it, completely stoned so thought it seemed relatively relaxing and decided to go for that one! pickup tomorrow at 11.
chilled out and spoke to a guy from oxford (botley!) who had done south china before he did india, he was pretty well travelled and made us a great map of some of his fav places in south china! score!
Found a hotel through one of the touts who approach the bus and it turned out to be a good thing, they were so friendly and the place was perfect for us...plus nice and cheap. we went to the indian coffee house for lunch which seems to be bit of a fav with locals and so of coruse lots of stares but alos lots of friendly smiles, especially from a couple of lil kids. tried a masala dosa which seems to be pretty staple down here. like a pancke with tomato curry sauce stuff and other veges lilke potatoes, served with a couple of dipping curry sauces thing. plus my first “real” indian coffee (as opposed to a commercial chain type one)...which was strong and full of suga and milk...so really as they say, not too different from the tea!!
After some too-ing and fro-ing our accommodation hosts found us a boat to view so we mished out and had a look. found 1 aussie and 1 brit on it, completely stoned so thought it seemed relatively relaxing and decided to go for that one! pickup tomorrow at 11.
chilled out and spoke to a guy from oxford (botley!) who had done south china before he did india, he was pretty well travelled and made us a great map of some of his fav places in south china! score!
Sunday 10 February 2008
6th Feb - Cherai Beach
Woke up reasonably early today after a hot (tho i'm not complaining, its SOOOOO nice and warm here!!!) night on hard bed. took the ferry over to vypeen island and then the local bus (rickshaw people wanted 250 rps, bus 2rps each) to cherai beach. possibly the funniest part of the day when den remarked on someone having very bad "asparagus veins"...he meant varicose veins. Haha! still makes me laugh. after walking in sun for like an hour and hardly anywhere to stay, had to end up forking out a fair bundle for a small resort crappy thing, but oh well! ou win some you loose some. had a lovely day spent on the beach sunbathing and a couple of swims. massive cross current and rips so was good exercise getting into the water. one serious dump and spent a lot of time later getting sand from places it should be....
discovering the food in the south is far different from the north, no (authentic anyway!) tandoori food which we both love and the attempt at masala today was something out of a packet! bit disappointing but looking forward to some fish. and missing my onion pakoras already! as the sun set we walked along the beach to he main pat where a lot of indian tourist had gathered to paddle. really nice to watch the families and the women enjoyed the paddling...there were a lot of shrieks and laughter so despite being all in full sarees they don't mind getting a bit wet and a couple even fell right over! a van load of nuns pulled up, young and old and they all had a great time some hitching their habit to their knees to have a really good wade. not much choice in terms of food, so had some bready snacks followed by a much wanted icecream, yum!
discovering the food in the south is far different from the north, no (authentic anyway!) tandoori food which we both love and the attempt at masala today was something out of a packet! bit disappointing but looking forward to some fish. and missing my onion pakoras already! as the sun set we walked along the beach to he main pat where a lot of indian tourist had gathered to paddle. really nice to watch the families and the women enjoyed the paddling...there were a lot of shrieks and laughter so despite being all in full sarees they don't mind getting a bit wet and a couple even fell right over! a van load of nuns pulled up, young and old and they all had a great time some hitching their habit to their knees to have a really good wade. not much choice in terms of food, so had some bready snacks followed by a much wanted icecream, yum!
5th feb - Delhi - Cochin
a nothing day today, flew to kochi, which was a 3 hour flight and delayed, so had spent a good 3 hours in delhi domestic departure terminal. which is nothing to sing about, tho v clean and tidy, was packed.
arrived kochi and drove to fort kochi. got in late had dinner and then den got delhi belly! poor den.
arrived kochi and drove to fort kochi. got in late had dinner and then den got delhi belly! poor den.
4th feb - Varanasi to Delhi
Quiet day today and caught a flight out to delhi in the evening. arrived delhi airport, great airport, so many things to keep the touts away from hassling the tourists, very easy. turns out the accommodtion we had booked was closed for renovation, despite talking to a bloke 3 days before! randomm but was in a good spot and easy to find a place. headed into town to our previous delhi accommodation and treated ourselves to a meal there which was fantastic and LOVELY COLD kingfisher (non-existent in holy varanasi) and pappaums with THE best mango chutney and raita (my FAV combo) with garlic naan and chicke tikka, oone of my fav indian foods. so we had a damn good feed and returned back to our v strange hotel nice and full.
3rd feb - varanasi
Got up before dawn tody (for real) and took an early morning boat ride along the Ganges which apparently is a must-do. wasn't massively impressed (things where i have to get up while its dark have to be REALLY good) and was kind of overshadowed by the massive row den had (he's my money man) with the boat dude. They seem to try and do this thing where you arrange a price for 2 of you and then afterwards they try nd say it was for only 1. v annoying. so den refused to pay him any more at which point the man (stupidly i thought) shoved den back the money. so no our problem, took the money and went back to our hotel. aha but the saga doesn't end there, apparently the boat dude then regretted this impulsive attempt at a guilt trip and hung round our hotel...as did his rower and someone who i think was his wife! so den had another fight with him. we happened to e moving hotels that day anyways siince our one was full and we couldn't gt an extra night. approached on our way out an indian guy with good english who wanted to know what had happened (honestly it really did go on and on) he seemed to think the boat dude was a bit of a nut job and we went about our merry way. a piss off though and leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth, even though you do nothing wrong. think just all of that stuff and the touts and beggars etc etc leaves you feeling a bit negative. in light of this we stopped by at a market (btw new hotel VERY nice and no hint of militarianism) and got sonme peas in their pods and sat down along the ghats and ate them. some little kids came up trying their usual thing so gave them a pea pod each and they all seemed very happy with this...and the goats and THEIR kids munhced up the pods VERY happily as well. had a chat with a 15 y/o guy with very good english. he did think i was far too old to not be married and have children. tho i spose 25 sounds old to any 15 year old, women in varanasi tend to be married at 17...men at 22. though there seemed to be no problem with den being almost 30 and not married! in most places i have been referring to den as my husband tho (NOT IN A BUNNY BOILER WAY!!) and you tend to get more respect and less questions. funnily enough den wasn't too sure about this at first :P but is seeing the merits in it now. moved ourselves and our peas to some higher steps and watched some young guys play cricket. if you hit it into the water, you're out! and then you have to grovel at one of the bathers to go and get it for you.
2nd feb - varanasi
today we walked the whole length of the ghats, which well was a reasonable walk. there is the burning ghat like i mentioned aboive and then also a main ghat where people tend to congregate and stalls are and people arre trying to sell you everything from a massage to a boat. there re of coruse (being a holy city) cows everywhere...and heeps of them too, and my favourite though are the goats and the kids (as in goat babies, not the children!) they are soooo cute. poor den had to take many photos of the lil things and put up with a lot of cooing.
so once we got to the far ghat, we took a boat at the way back and decided to stop on the other side of the river. really dens notion but turned out to be a bit of a good one. the other side is basically a huge long and wide beach, anyways so you get on there and looks like a bloody desert. you can tell i thought this was a heap of fun, but den then found a yellow shack thing and being the mn he is just wandered on inside. turns out was a babas house...baba is a holy man. so i got invited in to sit round the fire and have some coffee the baba was making. thought it was all very quiet and that the man wasn't reeeeeaallly teaching anything (he did bash on his drum into a mobile phone which was quite random i thought) but i got a business card (of a holyman! mobile number included, spose if i ever wanted some dr bashing over the phone..) and turns out he has taken a vow of silence for 12 years! at least no need for small talk. so had some coffee in disposal able cup (terracott ones they just throght out the door onto the sand) and had some photos and saw his photo album...apparently he used to be a singer or something. bit odd. but really unique and now i have THE best business card for my scrapbook. spent forever finding lunch and ended up eating round about 5pm! things are never served v quickly here either :P had a quiet night in.
so once we got to the far ghat, we took a boat at the way back and decided to stop on the other side of the river. really dens notion but turned out to be a bit of a good one. the other side is basically a huge long and wide beach, anyways so you get on there and looks like a bloody desert. you can tell i thought this was a heap of fun, but den then found a yellow shack thing and being the mn he is just wandered on inside. turns out was a babas house...baba is a holy man. so i got invited in to sit round the fire and have some coffee the baba was making. thought it was all very quiet and that the man wasn't reeeeeaallly teaching anything (he did bash on his drum into a mobile phone which was quite random i thought) but i got a business card (of a holyman! mobile number included, spose if i ever wanted some dr bashing over the phone..) and turns out he has taken a vow of silence for 12 years! at least no need for small talk. so had some coffee in disposal able cup (terracott ones they just throght out the door onto the sand) and had some photos and saw his photo album...apparently he used to be a singer or something. bit odd. but really unique and now i have THE best business card for my scrapbook. spent forever finding lunch and ended up eating round about 5pm! things are never served v quickly here either :P had a quiet night in.
1st feb (actually bout the 6th now so been a bit of slacker...)
So arrived in varansi after another clasic over night train ride. i'd been sick wif a bout of delhi belly a few hours before we were due to leave so you can imagine just how happy (not) i was to be on some public transpot. we were in a 3 tier set this time whicj obivosuly means..3 bunks high. thankfully i had one of the bottom bunks and den squeezed himself into a middle one. really struggled a bit with sometimes the lack of respect given by our fellow indian passengers (well to be fair i prolly wasn't at my most tolerant). one guy insisted on playing music OUT LOUD to himself on his mobile, then one bloke came to catch to his friends in our berth and sat on my feet. luckyily they all ended this before i got too wound up! anyways got a bit of kip, not as bad snorers this time! but still...never my fav place to sleep i think! tho i do really like the warmth of the trains!
So we arrived in varanasi and our accommodation had arranged to pick us up because apparently the touts are so bad here. after another harrowing rickshaw ride (i have takken to closing my eyes...) and then a seemingly endless walk throuh narrow streets that even the rickshaws can't go down we reached our hotel. great place to stay, spotlessly clean but run with suuch military pprecision that left me thinking perhaps they had forgotten that infact people staying here were paying guests and not their naughty nieces and nephhews. taken a bit far! anyways, loved the cleanliness! had a blacony overloolking the ghats too which was amazing...th burning ghats...marnikarnika is next door to us tho so soemtimes a bit smokey when the wind changes.... marnikarnika is a holy cremation site and is a really big deal to be cremated there. to die in varanasi means you are free from the cycle of rebirth. the bodies get doused in the river after being praded in gold coverings etc through the streets. the lowest of varanasis societies are the prye makers, they cart the wood and have a knack of organising it so that is burns efficiently. wood is weighed as it is so expensive and different ypes are the most expensive. sandlewood is the best to go for apparently. So watched these cremations for a while...not particulary pleasent, of course, but really is a different way of viewing death here, its vry out in the open and i gues in turn there really is closure of sorts. seems a bit more healthy that our tendency to supress these things sometimes. only stightly disturbed, worst part was a touts pick up line...”you want to see burning bodies? look dead bodies burning. “
nice. thanks for that.
walked along the ghats and there are locals everywhere washing themseles and their clothes and children. people are dipping their hands in and praying. there are monks and women monks too i think...they become a bit androdogenous..
the touts here are terrible, worse that agra. really no means nothing and i wanted to ask them what part of no don;t they understand but they just won't leave you alone. gets very frustrating.
So we arrived in varanasi and our accommodation had arranged to pick us up because apparently the touts are so bad here. after another harrowing rickshaw ride (i have takken to closing my eyes...) and then a seemingly endless walk throuh narrow streets that even the rickshaws can't go down we reached our hotel. great place to stay, spotlessly clean but run with suuch military pprecision that left me thinking perhaps they had forgotten that infact people staying here were paying guests and not their naughty nieces and nephhews. taken a bit far! anyways, loved the cleanliness! had a blacony overloolking the ghats too which was amazing...th burning ghats...marnikarnika is next door to us tho so soemtimes a bit smokey when the wind changes.... marnikarnika is a holy cremation site and is a really big deal to be cremated there. to die in varanasi means you are free from the cycle of rebirth. the bodies get doused in the river after being praded in gold coverings etc through the streets. the lowest of varanasis societies are the prye makers, they cart the wood and have a knack of organising it so that is burns efficiently. wood is weighed as it is so expensive and different ypes are the most expensive. sandlewood is the best to go for apparently. So watched these cremations for a while...not particulary pleasent, of course, but really is a different way of viewing death here, its vry out in the open and i gues in turn there really is closure of sorts. seems a bit more healthy that our tendency to supress these things sometimes. only stightly disturbed, worst part was a touts pick up line...”you want to see burning bodies? look dead bodies burning. “
nice. thanks for that.
walked along the ghats and there are locals everywhere washing themseles and their clothes and children. people are dipping their hands in and praying. there are monks and women monks too i think...they become a bit androdogenous..
the touts here are terrible, worse that agra. really no means nothing and i wanted to ask them what part of no don;t they understand but they just won't leave you alone. gets very frustrating.
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