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Published: January 19th 2008
Happy New Year everyone.
We published our last blog as we were about to leave Jodphur. In that blog we told you about Penny and Brian who had driven to India from the UK with their three dogs. On our last night in Jodphur we met another English couple who had done the same thing, also in a Land Rover. This pair were on their way to New Zealand by car and boat, a journey they reckoned would take about 18 months. This was their third such trip; they had spent a couple of years driving around Africa and another couple of years driving around South America. Not bad for a couple in their seventies - it makes us feel as though we are not trying hard enough. Still its encouraging to see older people still having an adventurous spirit.
From Jodphur we took the overnight, twenty hour, train journey to Jalgoan, which is a medium sized industrial town in Maharashta, about 200 miles east of Mumbai. We stopped here to visit the Buddhist and Hindu caves at Ajanta and Ellora. Both sets of caves are world heritage sites under the auspices of UNESCO. The Ajanta caves date from about 200BC to 650AD. A Buddhist community lived at Ajanta for several hundred years. Each cave consists of a Buddhist temple carved into the rock face. The walls of some caves are covered in intricate paintings telling the life of the Buddha and other events in Buddhist mythology. Unfortunately many of the paintings have deteriorated quite badly and apparently attempts at restoration have made them worse. Still, they are well worth a visit.
The Ellora caves were quite spectacular. Again these consist of a number of temples carved out of the rock face. Of these the most imposing is the Kailasanatha Temple. This temple is some 90 feet high. It is difficult to describe this temple in a way that does it justice. The scale of the place is the first thing that hits you. The sculptures are equally impressive, from large figures of Shiva and other Hindu deities, to some rather smaller, intricate (and very interesting) wall carvings from the Karma Sutra.
The Ellora caves are located near the town of Arrangabad, so we paid the town a quick visit on our way home from the caves. Arrangabad has a muslim tomb which was built as a replica to the Taj Mahal. It is not quite as elegant as the original, in particular the minarets are thicker which gives them a clumsy apperance. Also, it is constructed from bricks and mortar, not marble (the first couple of feet are in marble but we guess the money must have run out after that) so it is not as well preserved as the Taj Mahal. Nonetheless an attractive monument which is not really noted in any of the guide books.
Walking into the replica Taj Mahal we were immediately besieged by a group of teenage Muslim boys, who all wanted their photo taken with Dee (I started posing to join the photo but they were not interested). Dee ended up with her arms around two boys having her photo snapped like she was a film star. And then she wondered why some Muslim women in black veils started tutting about her to our guide (apparently her top was too low, although only her neck was in view) - really she is such a tart at times.
The only other site to visit in Arrangabad is a medieval water wheel. This is not paticularly exciting but our driver insisted on taking us. Inside this site we were again besieged by another group of teenage boys who were on a school trip. They pretty much mobed us, getting Dee and I to pose for photos, shaking hands and wanting to know all about us. We couldnt shake them off and as we left the site and tried to cross the road the resulting scrummage stopped the traffic. To escape we had to jump into the moving car as our driver pulled away. Made us feel a bit like a couple of bollywood stars (maybe thats who they thought we were).
One more thing worth mentioning about our stay in Jalgoan was the slightly eccentric hotel owner, who kept knocking on our door every half an hour or so to check we were ok and that we liked the room. As we didnt keep the door locked he would just burst in a bit like an Indian Basil Fawlty. Of course, as Dee was usually flouncing about half undressed she had to keep dashing to the bathroom. (Such a tart!).
From Jalgoan we took the night train to Mumbai. Hardly anyone we have met on our travels has had a good word to say about Mumbai, which we find odd because we loved it. We found late night bars, music clubs, art galleries and real coffee bars.
Before we talk more about Mumbai a slight diversion. We noticed that many of the fellow travellers we have met in India were reading Shantaram. This is a novel set in Mumbai and is based around the life of the author, Gregory David Roberts. More than one person has told us that reading this book was the reason they wanted to visit India. In the early eighties, Roberts was serving a twenty year prison sentance in Australia for armed robbery. He escaped from prison and managed to get to Mumbai on a forged passport. He spent several years living there before he was recaptured. While in Mumbai he lived in the slums and set up a health clinic as well as getting involved with the local mafia. The book is well worth reading. The author has a genuine affection for Indian people and gives a great feel for life in Mumbai. Much of the book is set around the Colaba causeway area, which is where many of the tourist hotels are located.
We arrived in Mumbai at about 6am and looking around for breakfast the only place open was Leopolds. This is the place where many of the central characters in Shantaram meet. Sadly, the place seems to be trading on its fame in the book - it was full of memorabilia and stockpiles of the novel - so we didnt go back. Still, there were plenty of other places where we could find some late night bar action. On our first night we went to 'Not Just Jazz by the Bay', a live music club located on Marine Drive. India generally is not a late night country. In most places everything shuts down quite early; we have even known fellow hotel guests to be shut out of their hotel by about 10.30pm. It was great therefore to find a place where we could party late into the night. However, the first hour or so in the club was a bit surreal. Because we were in a tropical climate, the approach of christmas had largly passed us by. We had barely settled into our first drink when to our surprise they started playing christmas music. Here we were in a rock club in a tropical location, with the Arabian sea lapping at the shore less than 100 feet away, and we were listening to Johnny Mathis singing 'When a Child is Born'. Things improved when the band came on - about four hours of heavy rock covers and we came out with our ears ringing.
Mumbai also has a good modern art scene. We bought a copy of Time Out Mumbai which featured an art show which the police had visited the day before to insist that entrance was for over eighteens only. We thought we must see this. The show was actually a bit tame - a few suggestive male and female nudes but nothing to get too excited about. Maybe Mumbai is not as cosmopolitan as it tries to make out if it is really this easily offended. However, the quality of the painting was excellent.
We spent a few days exploring the city, taking evening strolls with the local crowds promenading down Marine Drive, watching the sun set over the Arabian Sea. We also explored a bit further out, taking the suburban commuter trains into the suburbs. This was an experience. We boarded the train at Churchgate. After about three stops the train was jammed full. We didnt know when our stop would come up but the people sitting around us were very keen to help. Suddenly we were told 'your stop next, you must make a move now'. We could see why. There was an army of people between us and the door (nearly all men because there are women only coaches for ladies that wish to avoid the crush). When the doors opened there was an equally large army pushing to get on the train. There is no concept on Indian trains of letting the passengers off the train first. Its like two large rugby scrums locking heads and pushing. (Dee was actually pretty good at getting through. Being relatively petite her elbows are at just the the right height for clearing men out of the way). It was great fun and highly recommended as a way of seeing the city (also the fares a really cheap - the return 30 minute journey cost about 15p each).
After so long on the road in India it was also great to find some real coffee. Finding decent coffee in India is a challenge. It usually comes up very sweet and milky (Indian people have a very sweet tooth and the idea of coffee or tea without mounds of suger is anathema to them). Much of the time it comes up as tea. So it was a pleasant suprise to find coffee houses that sold a decent expresso and chocolate brownies. We try to keep to local food as much as possible, mainly because it is so good but also because we want to feel as though we are experiencing India properly. However, it is nice sometimes to indulge in a western style treat.
The architecture of the Colaba area gives it the feel of an English seaside town, albeit larger and noisier. The buildings are set back along pleasant tree lined avenues. The area could however do with a bit of a makeover as some of the hotels look a bit shabby on the outside. The area is also home to some of the largest rats you will see anywhere on the planet. They scurry along alleyways and the gutters in broad daylight with a 'come over here if you think you are hard enough' glint in their eyes. The size of small cats, and clearly very bold, they are not to be tangled with.
We left Mumbai on 20th December and headed south to Kerala. We spent Christmas and New Year at a small homestay close to the beach and the backwaters, about 10 km North of Alleppey. The place called itself the 'Secret Beach Resort'. We were quite lucky to find anywhere to stay, most places were fully booked. However, this place had just opened and so was not in any of the guide books. We guessed we were the first guests because the paint in our room was still tacky when we arrived.
The secret beach was about 200 yards from our room. The beach is just like those seen on postcards of tropical beaches with 100 feet of golden sand, fringed by coconut palms, stretching as far as the eye could see in either direction. There was not a tourist development in sight. The only other people on the beach were the local fishermen and the few guests at our homestay (which was not many as there were only seven rooms). We had found a tropical paradise for Christmas! The next few days were spent lounging on the beach, and chilling in the evenings with the other guests. The guy who run the homestay was a bit of a party animal so there was a ready supply of beers to help get into the Christmas spirit. We were also introduced to Kerala's cuisine. This is quite different to the food in Northern India. Difficult to describe but essentially very spicey and coconut with just about everything. The South Indian cuisine also includes lots of great spiced pancake style dishes. Our favorite is the Masala Dosa, a large crispy pancake filled with potato and spices. Much of the Kerala diet however revolves around fish, which being vegetarians we couldnt eat. Still, the local veggie food is very good.
The Christian religion is very strong in Kerala so Christmas is taken very seriously. Many houses had fir trees and lights which looked slightly odd amongst the coconut trees. On Christmas day, walking to the beach, we were invited into a house to see the nativity crib that the children had made. We were sat down and made to feel like guests of honour while the children entertained us with singing and dancing. After the beach we joined the homestay owner's family for a traditional Kerala christmas meal and then hang around with the family while the guys got drunk - some things are the same the world over.
The homestay had a good feel about it, There was a lounge area where guests could mingle and chat over a drink. A few other English people passed through - they were the ones that staked themselves out on the beach in skin tight speedos for a slow roasting on their first day, turned lobster red and spent the next few days complaining about their sunburn - ah the English abroad. By New Years day there was a European mix. We spent New Years eve drinking beer and playing a Swedish board game. We were pitched against couples from Germany, Sweden and Italy but England came out on top! We may be crap at just about every world sport but give us some beer and dice and we are unbeatable.
As Alleppey is the centre for backwater cruises we just had to take a boat trip. We chose the eco friendly (and cheap) option of a canoe trip. The backwaters are nice but very busy, mainly with houseboats taking tourists for an overnight trip. Walking around Alleppey you are constantly hassled by houseboat owners wanting to sell you a stay on their boat. All this activity is making the waters crowded and apparently quite polluted.
One less than idylic feature of the secret beach became apparent a couple of days into our stay. Many of the fishermen live near the beach in basic houses that have no internal plumbing so they use the beach for their morning constitutional. Another couple staying at the homestay went for an early morning walk along the beach, only to find a row of fishermen squating at the waters edge. Once the fishermen have finished, they go forward a few steps to enjoy nature's salt water bidet. The tide does wash most things away so the beach looks ok, but after that we didnt feel like swimming in the water. However, while visitors may find this unpleasant, the locals will have been using the beach in this way for centuries and maybe this is the price to pay for enjoying a beach that is almost untouched by tourism.
A noticable feature about Kerala in general is the number of communist flags flying over public buildings. Kerala state has a democratically elected communist government. However, it appears communist in name only as free enterprise flourishes here. This is one of the wealthiest parts of India with a highly educated population and 100% literacy. Although not strictly socialist, the state probably pours more money then other Indian states into social spending, with good results given the relative wealth of the population.
On New Years day we moved 60km North to Fort Cochin. This is a harbour town with a strong European influence, Dutch, Portugese and British. Parts of the town have the feel of an English country village, with cottages and church bordering a green where local boys play cricket. The town also has one of the oldest Jewish communities in India, dating back to AD388. One source claims an earlier Jewish settlement in Fort Cochin back to 587BC. Also of interest are the large Chinese fishing nets along the harbour front. These huge nets are submerged at high tide. Any fish caught are taken straight to a nearby stall, where you can select your fish and have it cooked in a local restaurant.
We spent two days exploring Fort Cochin. While the town has a lot of charm, we were slightly dissappointed because it seems to have been sanitised for western visitors. It was full of tourists who seemed to outnumber the locals. The restauarants had western rather than Indian menus and the few Indian dishes that were available were quite bland. However, the restaurants did at least sell beer, although only under the counter. The licence fees are very high so to avoid paying it the restaurants dont sell beer openly. If you want a beer you have to ask for a 'special' or in one case a 'black tea' because the beer is served in a tea pot in case the police are watching.
After Fort Cochin we moved to Munnar, our present location. Munnar is Kerala's hill station. This small, bustling town is located 5000 feet up in the Western Ghats. While the town itself is quite noisy the countryside around it is stunning. We are staying in Old Munnar which is about 2km from the main town and much quiter (apart from a nearby Hindu temple that starts playing loud music at 6am every morning). We look out onto rolling hills covered in tea plantations. The whole area is owned by the Tata tea company and the mountains are covered with tea plants. The leaves from the tea plants are trimmed every couple of weeks so the mountains have the appearance of a vast emerald green privet hedge.
We have spent a few days painting and walking in the mountains taking in the wonderful views. We took a different route each day and just started walking, covering up to 25km in a day. Every so often we would come across a tea pickers village, with a few small cottages, a shop, school and a couple of hammer and sickle flags fluttering over the village hall. The local communist parties (there are in fact two, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Marxist Communist Party) are clearly very influencial.
Religion is also very important in this part of the world, as in every part of the country. In India, religion is woven into the fabric of everyday life to a much greater extent than it is in the UK. One consequence of this is that it is very common to see businesses named after deities, so in the Hindu parts of the country shops maybe named after Ganeshi (the pot bellied elephant god who is the clearer of obstacles) and we have seen autorickshaws called Shiva. In Kerala there is the same phenomenon, with the difference that this is a strong Christian area so the businesses are given Christian names, such as the hallelluia autorickshaw. Our favorite example of this so far was a small roadside car repair business in Munnar which had been named the 'Infant Jesus Radiator Works'.
We leave Munnar tommorrow, when we take a train to Goa. There we will meet Paul and Marie (brother and sister in law) who are visiting for a couple of weeks. We only have about four weeks left in India, so we are going to spend most of that time in Goa, then spend another few days in Mumbai before flying to Bangkok in mid February.
We have had a few requests for photos on the site. Unfortunately neither of us are competent enough at techie things to work out how to do this. Sorry to dissappoint but if we do figure it out we will give you something to look at.
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Jon and Vicky
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Hit Me With Your Lathi Stick!
Hey David and Dee, It's Jon and Vicky! We spent a pleasant Boxing Day wandering the streets of Alleppey being asked "What's Your Name? Where Are You From?How are you liking it?" We've been back in Noddy Holder Land almost a week now getting reacquainted with India Pale Ale and the Fish Man (complete with straw hat and the cry of "cockles, mussels,whelks"). We put Paul Weller on the jukebox in your honour!! We loved Mumbai and visited Leopold's, Not Jazz By The Bay, La Pizzeria plus the Gateway, Crawford Market, VT and Chowpatty Beach and all the usual suspects. We didn't stay at the place you recommended in the end, plumping for Bentley on Marine Drive (we think you'd love it there, 950 rupees a night with breakfast included , email us if you want contact numbers) Have a great time in Goa. Try to get up to Arambol if you can, there's a fab Clash/Pistols/Stones covers band that play Coco Loco every Sunday night, we think you'd luv 'em!! Peace n luv and stuff xx