Weather Better - Heading Home

19th Aug. This is a totally off the cuff effort as I haven't been able to to use my computer for a few days now. Its got a problem most likely related to moisture, but still working with some funny tricks up its sleeve. Anyway, reading between the lines you should deduce that it rained rather a lot up in them thar 'ills.

By the time I reached that famous hill station 4 days ago, I was feeling like death. The never ending rain, which only ceased yesterday, and the constantly enveloping clouds made Shimla a very uncomfortable place to exist in. Everything was getting damper and damper, including the bedding. It was definitely one of the worst periods I have ever had to endure in India.

On the third day I started to get a bit better and decided on an eating day since there was little else to do. You might find it hard to imagine, but I kicked off with a breakfast of sausages, eggs and chips. The restaurant is a few shops from the Domino Pizza emporium. By now my constantly waterlogged feet were just about dissolving, and the computer couldn't put up with it either.

When I left yesterday it was a dry and sunny day, which is also the case here in Delhi today. A far cry from 5 days ago when it was wrapped in a yellowish warm mist and raining hard. Lots of places flooded up the NW at that time.

The trip is all but over now and by tomorrow morning I hope to be in Helsinki and onto Munich. Cheers Derek

On The Way to Delhi

The Ajanta Caves

Aug 10. With the end of the Alleppey boat races, the mad dash north to Delhi began. On the way stopping at Jalgaon so that I can see the Ajanta caves. The overnight to Mangalore was more or less on time and the same can be said for Mangalore to Mumbai along the fairly new Konkan rail route which follows the coast. In the morning some 200 km south of Mumbai the monsoon clouds blackened the skies and it was lashing down all the way. I think the train pulled into the terminus to the east of the city of Mumbai at about 10.30. I decided then to take an earlier train, heading for Varanasi, which started at 12.15.

To the east and south east of Mumbai, all trains have to climb up the hills called the Western Ghats and if there is a lot of rain all these routes can be badly affected. I suppose I was lucky as there was only one place that caused a really serious delay, although all the way from Mumbai train was steadily loosing time. All the way up the train passed gorges with raging torrents and over swollen rivers. About a kilometre before a station near the top of the Ghats we stopped for perhaps an hour. Judging from the water flooding over half of the tracks in that station I think they had logistical nightmare getting all the trains through this small junction just below the central plain of India. By this time I was getting concerned about finding a hotel in Jalgaon so late in the evening. This is almost always a problem. But it was resolved with a simple mobile phone call to the Hotel Plaza in Jalgaon, using the number given in my guide book and the phone of one of my very kind India travelling companions who would be arriving home in Varanasi somewhat later. So three and a half hours late, at just after 10.30pm, I had booked into the hotel close to the station and was looking forward to my first shower since the previous morning.
Jalgaon is not a particularly pretty place. For a sizeable city it seems a bit backward with a very low level of English and restaurants that cater entirely for Indians. I say this is a bit odd because many tourists pass through on the way to Ajanta, just as I have. Anyway, as planned, I went to Ajanta in the morning and then continued to Delhi on the train that same evening.

Aug 16. As you can see there has been quite a jump in time. Arrived here in Shimla yesterday feeling horribly ill. It’s a very bad cold that’s been brewing up for days and the type of cold that I usually get at the beginning after a week or so in India. This time felt very healthy all way until reaching Delhi. Anyway, I think I was very lucky to find a room yesterday. The 15th is India’s Independence Day and a national holiday. It appears that the whole of middle class Delhi has moved here for a few days, pushing up prices and reducing available rooms to a minimum. Once again at the Hotel Classic where I stayed 2 yrs ago and he remembered my face. Without going into too much detail, this had a decisive effect on his choice of guest for the room.
So now in cloudy and rainy Shimla and then later this week back to Delhi to fly home. Its been a difficult week or so, since leaving Kerala. The absence of good internet conections has made this particular blog a bit of a marathon. However, hopefully its ok now. Cheers Derek

Shimla

Kottayam to Alleppey (Alappuzha)

Fri Aug 8. After yesterday’s successful skirmish in Alleppey I thought that things couldn’t go as easy today, but the very loose plan worked perfectly. Getting up at a reasonable time I was out of Cochin on the ferry to Ernakulam at 11am. On the long walk along the waterfront I could see the faint spider like outlines of the Chinese fishing nets in the distance, and the leafy tropical shore of Fort Cochin. These are the sort of times when I bid my farewells to the places that will always remain among my special memories.

A rickshaw carried me the rest of the way to Ernakulam Town railway station, with no fuss about the cost of the fare. An express train took me to Kottayam in one and a half hours and then another stress free rickshaw took me to the ferry jetty. Just two minutes from the jetty are a couple of fairly new hotels which would have cost at least a 1000Rs a night in Cochin, but here in this sleepiest backwater of the Backwaters it is less than half that price. So I am staying at the Comfort Inn and eating at the hotel restaurant next door. So now in a perfect position ready for the masses who are already invading Alappuzha, for the 56th Nehru Trophy Boat Race. As planned a while ago, I will be getting on the 7.15 ferry to Alappuzha and then, by 10.30 I should have stowed my bag in the left luggage room at the railway station, and then it’s off to the races. One small piece of information about Kottayam is that here in 1952 Pandit Nehru, the first PM of India, took the trip down the Backwater to Alappuzha and suggested holding this annual event.

During that evening at the Kottayam jetty I was just looking around when a well dressed guy standing by his car gave me some useful information. I had already asked about the ferry time at the hotel, but this very well spoken informant gave me a time 15 minutes after 7, instead of 7am. Not really thinking about it too much, for various reasons, I believed him. The next morning at 7.05 I was told at a tea shack that the ferry had left and the next at 11.30. It’s not hard to imagine how I felt. I knew that for some reason of his own, this misinformation was meant to prevent me from getting the govt run ferry. ‘Govt’ is the key word here, I think from what I learned about this very affordable service, it was probably the reason for the deceit because there are elements who want it cancelled so that the privateers can take it over, given the background of a fast expanding tourist industry in Kerala.

Once again my philosophy that everything is possible in India was justified when the tea stall owner had an idea. Being the day of the snake boat races there were a lot of companies attending, promoting their various products. The one leaving from Kottayam half an hour later was to be a boat hired by AMAR toothpaste, on which of course room was found for me and my bag.
Problem solved.

So it was that AMAR dropped me off very near the start of the 1.4 km course. I must admit that I wasn’t sorry to be back on dry land as the 15 or so AMAR employees were becoming increasingly drunk on that small overcrowded launch with its badly beaten drums and dancing toothpaste boxes. One of the culprits for the state inebriation was a stop at a Toddy Parlour. Toddy is a white milk like drink made from coconut which I think is more intoxicating than they chose to believe and after having a glass of this surprisingly refreshing, slightly bitter, drink I could easily see how easy it must be to imbibe more than one intends.

The day was a hot one but I felt that I would have to find one of the prime spots I had seen two days earlier and stay put. When the racing finally began I was already feeling somewhat exhausted from the sun. Each race consisted of 4 boats of mainly two types; 50 and 100 seaters. Like any other large sporting event, a commentator gave a constant update on the progress of the boats while the crowds roared encouragement.

The sight of 4 of the larger boats ripping through the water neck and neck, amid clouds of spray from 400 hard thrashing paddles, was indeed awesome. The heavy wood on wood thuds of the rhythm beaters standing near the middle of these long sleek vessels and the long practiced chants from the crew made it all an incredulous sight to see. The last final ended and it was time to get to the railway station and onwards head north to Mangalore, through Goa and to Mumbai. The day at the wacky races will be another of those memorable times of this trip around India.

A Wacky Day at the Races

The bus ride to Alleppey wasn’t so much the adventure I had expected it to be. Two busses from here in Cochin saw me there in 2 hours. And then about the cheapest and nicest breakfast I’d had in a while at the bus station in Alleppey.


The reason for such an early start was to be able to do a bit of recognisance so that I could find a good spot to watch the Nehru Cup Race on Saturday. Not only did I manage that but also I managed to have a particularly enlightening and enjoyable day. A lot of things happened which would take too much time to write about but there are a couple of things to tell.

I soon found the finishing point of the race where some large stands have been erected. I followed the race route back to the start and it was there that a guy had just parked his motorbike. I got chatting to him and found out that he was an army officer going to his home about half a km behind the starting point. He invited me to go with him and without much to do till I would have to leave and return to Cochin, I accepted. To cut a long story short his home was only a little distance from the training camp of one of the racing crews and I had some lunch with them. Not exactly small crews here; about 115 men per boat.
After that I was taken back to the starting point in a perilously small wooden canoe, a decision made in a moment of madness. Couldn’t help worrying about my cameras, no problem getting to the side. Then I watched some of the crews doing practice runs and the antics going on amongst all the other craft that were cruising up and down the backwaters. It was all pretty noisy but quite a scene and there was even a floating car promotion accompanied by a bunch of drummers.

That’s all for now. This is another shorty because I need to get to bed soon and I don’t think I’ll have many opportunities for any blogs for a few days now.
cheers derek

Paradise Found Again

waterfront of Ernakulam

Since my arrival in Cochin I have settled very quickly into a not exactly unpleasant rhythm of life here. I think every time I come here it becomes the natural place to settle back and reconstruct my battered and sapped brain. Even for all the new developments in Fort Cochin it is still the peaceful hideout that it has always been, and will be I hope for the foreseeable future. As you can imagine, my travel plans have changed a little to allow a little more time than I originally intended ; the trip to Kovolam has been well and truly cancelled and I’ll be heading towards Alleppey for the Nehru Cup boat race on Friday.

Lets get down to the mundane everyday problems. Yesterday, the batteries in my camera suddenly violently discharged causing the camera to get very hot. No harm to the camera thankfully but when I put them in the battery charger, the charger went incredibly hot and ceased to function. So today I went over the water to Ernakulam on a quest for another charger. After a few disappointing trys I did in fact find just what I wanted in rather a flashy airconditioned Nikon establishment. But for a fast charger I think the price wasn’t bad. I also got another small bargain tripod to replace the one I lost in Mysore.



The walk back to the jetty took me along the waterfront lined with boats, ice-cream parlours, shopping malls and masses of mobile phone shops, not to mention the occasional requisite beggar. The day’s excurssion went by pretty seamlessly with a stop off for dinner at the waterside restaurant I was in last night after the show at Greenix complex.

Applying Kathakali makeup

Even since I was here last, two years ago, there are many changes: new plush hotels, restaurants, business meeting complexes and the inevitable higher prices. One such development I went to last night is the Greenix Village complex. It seems to be encompassing everything including a cultural program and facilities for business functions such as conferences. Last night, and every night, there was a three hour showcase of traditional Kerala dancing, Kathakali story play (miming to drum beats) and a spectacular display of an ancient local form of martial arts (Kalarippayattu) in which swords or long spears are flashed around at incredible speeds. As you might see a band of majorettes twiddling batons between their fingers, these guys do the same thing with a five foot long spears.

There will, connections permitting, be a few movies about this State of culture but I have included a quicky about facial expressions used in Kathakali performances so that if I manage to upload the real thing you might get some idea what this well publicised art form is all about.

Kathakali facial expressions

As you can see, life gets tedious here in Cochin. Had to get myself a new wad today. Looks great but only lasts about 10 or 12 days. (10,000 Rs about 160 Euro)