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Published: January 11th 2009
by anna and david Incredible India. I think this is what the ads say. And right they are. What a sensational place. Especially the south.
We spent the first five days in India in Chennai, formerly Madras, with David's brother, Craig. We were completely looked after, having the services of Craig's driver, Selvam, and, after work, Craig, who acted as our tour guide to the best restaurants in town.
For Anna's first visit to India I couldn't think of a better introduction. Chennai is a big city, one of the largest in India, but one which isn't on the tourist trail so it allowed us to settle into the hustle and bustle of India with the help of some local knowledge and without the incessant "hands-out" one can experience in the north. It was fantastic to be able to spend some time with Craig in his home for the last year or so. We arrived at 3am, and were exhausted, having lost time travelling from Bahrain, so slept through most of our first day. When we did wake up, Craig and Selvam took us for a tour of the city, including a drive along the beach and a
walk through the beach markets. We were all amused by some of the fairground type rides available on the beach, somewhat amateurly put together. The little kids ride that was made from small plastic cars nailed onto a piece of board that was manually spun around was priceless! Creative if nothing else.
I enjoyed the high speed merry-go-round which was only stopped by a couple young boys running and jumping onto the empty seats. I couldn't get over the shear quantity of people, everywhere (and I didn't our entire time in India). We spent the first evening at the Raintree hotel overlooking what is a really, really green cityscape. I was really impressed that so many trees had been preserved. It gave the city a really nice, welcoming feel
(really great view from the rooftop bar/restaurant at sunset - excellent place for a few Kingfishers).
On the Sunday, we headed down to Pondicherry, a previously french, seaside colony. We stopped for brekky on the way, giving us the chance to try an egg dosai for breakfast - highly recommended if you get the chance. We also tried to go to Auroville, essentially an international hippy colony boasting a
massive crystal. Unfortunately we weren't able to see the crystal (bummer!) as all the passes for the day had been allocated. We were left to browse the numerous shops catering for the tourists who visit.
On the way home we stopped at Mamallapuram Panch Rathas, a set of carved rocks, some temples, others decorative, that were very impressive. So much patient work! We had dinner at a resort on the way home, and were treated to a tour of the kitchen including a demonstration of naan being made in the tandoor. Yum!
Really great prawns at this place and a great spot in general. I'm surprised Anna didn't mention the Indian wine she tried here. I stuck to the Kingfishers. note: The wine was not notable and David made the right call really.
We passed the rest of our time in Chennai fairly quietly, organising our next leg of travel, shopping for a saree and a few other necessities
(including a prepaid mobile sim that Selvam kindly donated to us), eating the wonderful food (veg and non-veg, a negative distinction I found amusing), etc.
We had our final dinner in Chennai with Craig's colleagues from the office at the Raintree. Nice way to end our time in Chennai. Throughout our time in Chennai it appeared that we were amongst elite company as it seemed whenever we made plans, we had to change them, because the king and or queen of Belgium were where we wanted to go!
Mid November we headed over to the west coast to the state of Kerala, land of seafood, coconuts and tea. We had a lovely day in Kochi exploring the old city and its apparently famous chinese fishing nets, exploring old shops of the jewish quarter, and negotiating the best price on portuguese influenced ceramic drawer knobs at prices MUCH cheaper than I could have got them in Portugal! Yey!
That evening we attended a Kathakali performance, a traditional, local story-telling dance performance, not dissimilar to others I've seen in south-east asia. Think I've seen enough now. The highlight was being taken there 1 hour! early in order to watch the performers apply their make-up. Literally paint drying. Yah. Enough said.
As you can imagine I loved the make-up bit and sitting in a sweaty room with lots of oldies video taping every riveting second! Next day we began
our southern tour proper, heading into the Keralan hills towards Munnar, seat of the once English, and now Indian tea kingdom. However, before we left, Jenny our wonderful tour organiser and host in Kochi personally marched me to a massive store full of fabric to buy a saree for a wedding we were attending. In little time, I had a saree, petticoat and material for a choli (top) to match. Then, it was off to the tailor for rapid fire measurements and across the road for jewellery. It was amazing! I had no idea what was appropriate or what was needed and Jenny was an angel for helping so much!
It was quite a scene. Anna was like a princess being attended to by various staff members wrapping her in colourful fabric. The bangle guy across the road was my favourite - he spent about 20 minutes ordering and reordering the various colours and styles of bangles to match with the saree. I was glad Craig loaned me a kurta which only needed taking up.
The trip to Munnar was eventful not least because of all the fruits, spice and rubber plantations we saw along the way, but the
disturbing highlight was probably the helmet-less idiot on a motorbike riding toward us who over took a bus on a blind corner and ended up in the bushes on the wrong side of the road after hitting our car and flying through the air. It was very scary, but the guy, miraculously, was alright. The car wasn't so brill, so I have no idea how, but we were able to continue our trip.
The guy stupidly chose to overtake a bus uphill on a blind corner but with us coming towards him he made a good call to make it to the side of of our lane rather than duck back into the bus. He nearly made it with the help of our driver stopping as fast as he could but the corner of our car came too fast and meant the bike rider bailed out. Thankfully there weren't any telegraph poles otherwise it could have been very ugly.
Munnar was stunning. Acres of rolling hills, covered in velvety looking tea trees surrounded by mist. Something like nothing I had seen before and capable of instilling an immediate sense of peace.
We stayed at a place amongst the tea 
Indian Elephants
In the wild at Periyar Tiger Reserveplantations with a great vista and a cooking lesson thrown in - I also managed to see the second half of the league world cup game before people in Sydney. The tea plantations look like a lattice of bonzai trees for miles. Very cool. We could have stayed for a week. We were sorry we were only there a night.
I was pleased our agenda the next day involved driving through more of it, with a couple of stops to admire some goats on a bare rocky outcrop designated a national park,
(we, or Anna more like it, were more interesting than the goats to some of the local tourists. We were asked to pose a couple of times with the whole family), admire a dam ... although David shooting balloons was rather more interesting - 1/3 ain't bad -
(to be fair I was using two different rifles so once I had a sighter with the first I nailed it. I've still got it), and visit the tea museum. Given I had no idea how the lovely stuff was made, this was really interesting, even the rather self promoting video by the Tata company.
We spent a
night in Thakkady / Periyar (depending on whether you use the Indian or English name - Indians use both) before a day of hiking and bamboo rafting in the Periyar Tiger Reserve. It was very cool. Given it was daylight, and to some relief given we were on foot, we weren't treated to seeing ay tigers, but we did see different types of monkeys, bison (including a dead one killed by a tiger the night before), wild boar and elephants, and had a lovely time floating over the dam on our bamboo rafts.
We were treated to the 5 spices remedy for everything over a candlelight dinner of very tasty sardines on arrival. The following evening we had a few drinks - wrapped in napkins ... because then, of course, nobody realises you're drinking alcohol! -
with a bloke we met on our safari and what was probably the worst meal of the trip. At least he showed us a hotel bar which was an old hunting cabin which was a nice place for a drink.
Finally the highlight of southern india - House boating on the Kerala backwaters. I had read so many different reports about this
experience that I was quite nervous, but it was simply superb! For 24 hours, we relaxed and watched the world go by. A world where people live on small banks between canals and rice paddies, using boats to get to and from and go about their daily lives. It was so peaceful, the food was great, and it was super to see, quite literally sometimes, through the backdoor of Indian life. We even had crayfish, bought from a fisherman who pulled up alongside our boat, for dinner. Sensational.
This was definitely the highlight. Shame we couldn't spend a few more days out there. We had an entire houseboat, fully equipped with private bathroom, and 3 guys tending to us. One the driver, one the chef and one on standby I think. The chef was brilliant, especially the fresh lobsters, and the beers were cold. They arranged some of the local fermented coconut drink for us to try, called a toddy. I think it needs some work to get export ready. We also took a small canoe in the evening around the smaller canals and watched as people settled in for the evening. Overall, the views were spectacular. A highly recommended This is the life
David chills on the houseboat experience.
Back in Kochi, we picked up our tailored wedding kit and spent a morning being twisted and moulded
(and oiled) by some ayurvedic masseuses. This was a very strange experience, not to mention amusing when the "steam bath" was accounted for. I wish I had got a photo of the box they put you in sitting on a plastic chair, and feeding in steam
(it was like those old steam boxes you see in the cartoons. The whole diagnosis by the doctor was also quite amusing. I've got strong finger nails but need to lose some weight - apparently blind freddy could be an ayurvedic doctor). A little bit spooky. We recovered by spending an afternoon relaxing by the pool of one of the hotels in Fort Kochi before heading off for Mumbai.
Southern India rocked. Here I could understand how people could want to escape to India.
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Pennyfarthing
Richard Dugdale
Very interesting blog and sums up India perfectly. What a remarkable place.