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Published: November 16th 2008
I know that I have been in India for 6 weeks and haven't gotten around to do the whole group email.. blog.. this is what I am up to thing yet. The only excuse that I have is that I have been far too busy 'doing' things and organising photos to sit down and write about them. I am on holiday so better late than never.. and as you will find out (if you didn't know already) I just babble as if I was talking to you, go off on a tangent and forget about what I was talking about in the first place.. so you probably will be no more clear of what I have been up to!!! Anyway, Cochin or Kochi is quite a nice place to stop and write and catch up with the admin of life... (admin never stops!) oh! for those of you not in the know everywhere in India has 2 names... the Colonial name from the British rule and the Indian name. Everyone is supposed to now use the Indian name but people use either or sometimes both which makes things very confusing but on the plus side makes you feel like you have
visited twice as many places! So here we are in Kochi, we decided after 6 weeks of roughing it in 300 - 500 Rupee (£3.75 - £6.25) a night places to splash out, on a suite in a colonial house for 1500R (although we managed to haggle them down to 1200R (£15) and throw in breakfast, the tourist season hasn't kicked off yet so a bit of haggling easily gets you a better price, it's brilliant) I am sitting here at my colonial desk looking out my colonial window on to the quiet colonial street below (nothing is happening out there by the way) and I have just been told that it is Portuguese colonial so I can no longer talk as I write with a posh English accent I need to do so in a Portuguese one... hmmmm (Helda - help!)
Blog Number One - The First 2 Weeks.
Bangalore -Bengaluru
After 2 weeks of being a LTLs (Lady that Lunches) and enjoying the life of the retired around London, we were (after about 2 years in the planning) off to Heathrow to start our year long adventure. Mike's Mum and sister drove us out and
the lovely Elizabeth Gardiner girl superstar joined us and waved us goodbye from Heathrow terminal 5. The flight was hell, it was full, I had a headache and a guy sitting behind me with long legs that was kneeing me in the back all night, hopefully not a sign of the times ahead! We arrived in Bangalore - Bengaluru at 6am and for once in my life I had a driver with a sign with my name on it waiting to drive us off to our hotel (god bless Aslam - The driver for my friend Donald, who we will be staying with the rest off the time we are in Bangalore). We spent 24 hours in 5 star luxury at the Taj Regency hotel as Casa McGregor was fully booked for the night. We did nothing but eat and sleep for the next few hours, then I went for a spa treatment which was the most amazing I think I have ever had in my life (and probably the most expensive) I had 3 hours of spa bliss, steamed, spa'd, had a shower that was the size of a large pizza tray! (as in the shower head not the
cubical) had a foot treatment, soak and massage, a body stretch (where the girl literally walked over me and was amazing), body scrub, body wrap, head massage, steam and cool shower followed by a full body and facial massage. It really was the most blissful afternoon ever. So then was ready for dinner and totally exhausted went to bed.
Next day we were whisked away from our 5 star life and off to Donald's apartment (Casa McGregor) altho when one has 2 drivers I think you can still retain the 5 star lifestyle title. Donald being Mr. Popularity had a full house from the night before, his mum & hubby Cyrille and friends Carole & Jayne were visiting him and leaving that evening so we all went out for lunch and a bit of a sight seeing tour and a shopping journey down commercial road. That evening we went to Olive Beach for dinner, which was an amazing resturant that Donald claims he doesn't eat at much, yet as he walks in the man at the door smiles at him and says 'welcome back Mr. McGregor' hmmmm. The food was that good we were back there the next day
for the Sunday all you can eat buffet that includes oysters, prawns and lobster tails, and the most amazing desert table ever. Not to mention non stop cocktails and to finish it all off the discovery of the Choctini YUM!
Monday and Donald is off to work and Mike and I are left alone to explore the city and see everything that Bangalore has to offer... Well not exactly alone as we have Donald's driver to take us everywhere (I love the life of one with a driver!) We spent the day shopping on MG road, looking at bookstores and Indian shops and did Donald's groceries at expat deli's, it was all very civilized. Spent the next two days reading Sanjeev Bhaskar's book on India by the pool and just chilling out in the 35 degree heat (loving every second of it!), getting acquainted with the characters on the India soaps (who come straight for the Joey Tribiani school of acting and actually make the actors in Hollyoaks look like academy award nominees!) and eating in fabulous restaurants.
Thursday and Friday were holidays due to the Dusshera festival, where on the Thursday anything mechanical gets taken off to
temple and gets blessed, so people were blessing their cars, carts, tuk tuks, tractors, you name it! Blessing the vehicles involves them being decorate with leaves and flowers and getting paint splattered on them so it brought a load of colour and excitement to the streets! After a morning by the pool with Sanjeev we went off on our errands for the day. The Friday involved everything Educational getting blessed so books, computers you name it were being blessed. After a week of being bums we thought we better get out and see the sights of Bangalore so we went off to the Palace, which was nice enough but a little tatty and ramshackle, had a whole heap of dead animal bits like elephants feet as stools and trunks as walking sticks which was really grouse. But other than that was ok and the gardens were also quite nice. We also went to the Botanical Gardens that were really busy with locals as it was a holiday. Mike was stopped a couple of times to have his photo taken by locals, which he enjoyed posing for, such a show-off!
The next day was day 2 of the cricket test
in the second test between Australia and India. We got tickets for 400R (£5) for the day. We sat with a father and daughter who's name was Trisha she was 8 and was just lovely, another young boy who was 10 and on his own named Aslam and Geoff, an Australian Hawthorn supporter (but I didn't hold that against him) I spent most of the day talking to Trisha who was the most intelligent child I have ever met while Mike slept most of the day. She was top of her class and wants to be a Doctor when she finishes school, she plays cricket for her state team and she spends 2 days a week teaching street kids to read, write and do maths, a very amazing little girl. We all shared food and stories and watched the game, Australia batted most of the day and declared after lunch and then we watched India bat for the afternoon session. It was a great day, towards the very end the heavens opened and it poured for about 20 minutes before clearing to sunshine again (love rain everywhere else in the world but London!) Met up with Donald and his colleague
Angela for cocktails and a meal then went out to an Indian nightclub... it was very amusing, practically hard house pumping music and 99% male so was very glad we had the boys with us!
Sunday brought us a sleep in and another all you can eat buffet (loving the expat lifestyle) we went to another posh hotel called the Oberoi although the buffet was not as good as the Olive beach one we still left very full and a little bit tipsy! The next few days pretty much just involved lazing around by the pool and chilling out while we had the opportunity before hitting the road, eating in nice restaurants and catching up with Donald. Had a girly night with Angela which involved a night in the spa and having another massage which again was lovely. Went shopping in the Indian version of TKMax where I got a pair of Diesel jeans reduced from 350 to 200R because the zipper was broken (got the zipper fixed the next day down commercial road for 40R - so I got a pair of Diesel jeans for £3! nice!) Carole and Jayne returned from their trip in Kerala for a
few hours before flying out back to London, so we all went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and watch all the Indian Hindus dancing away to American pop music and eat beef burgers. We had a day to get all organised and ready for the journey ahead... So that was it for our first 2 weeks in India. Living the expat life with Donald was great and thanks Donald for having us, we had a brilliant time and staying with you was 'fine' ;-) Very much looking forward to returning the favour one day....
I think that is enough babble for one email/blog so I will fill you in on the next two weeks later... next stop Madras - Chennai. I hope everyone is well and those in England aren't freezing too much in the cold! Let me know how your all doing and hope you are all well. Love and miss you all loads. Write soon! Tracy xx
For those of you not on facebook... here are links to my photos that I have posted
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77968&l=bb30f&id=528670733
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78137&l=7c6f0&id=528670733
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78148&l=f9389&id=528670733
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78175&l=50a9e&id=528670733
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Karen
non-member comment
Very evocative!
I feel like I'm with you there, T. Glad you're having a fabulous time. My love to Mike. Can't wait to read the next instalment.