Holi cow it's hot!

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I woke up at 0930 after a good 9 hours sleep. My earplugs were still intact, and I'd only briefly heard Molly Brown once. It was quite light in the tent though so I don't know if it was this or the snoring that stirred me but I soon fell back to sleep and didn't even hear my room buddy shower and leave. I felt so refreshed, and hopefully that may have been the last of the Jetlag on its way out.



I managed to catch the end of the breakfast buffet, where only Raghu was dining so I joined him and was offered a cup of Masala tea. He told me it was very gingery which made me think of Reuben and I resolved to call it a Reuben brew from now. It was really nice and the most popular sort of tea in India. The breakfast had a nice choice of pancakes, toast, eggs and banana bread which made. A welcome change from curry. Raghu asked where I was from and we chatted about the military and I explained although from Yorkshire was now living near Cardiff. He said he'd been to Cardiff many years ago on a boarding school exchange. He also said that his family used to be big polo players but him not so much now. He did say his cousins still play for Jaipur Royal polo team and one had even been invited to the royal wedding in 2012 as he had become good friends with William through playing polo. I don't know if this is true but it made for a good story nevertheless and something different from the usual breakfast chat!



In the lobby we met with the rest of the group and had a short walk to the Raj Mahal, translated meaning Kings Palace. I'd always bantered with our friends Gaz and Ali that when they went to Hawaii they took loads of pictures of WW2 bunkers, we'd nicknamed it Bunkertastic! This trip it seemed was becoming templetastic. I'd never realised there were so many in India, and never realised they were so old. When my grandma had given me her birth certificate and baptism records, I'd found the church she had been christened in in the then garrison town of Meerut was the oldest church in northern India. I was quite impressed! Actually now I learn that Hinduism has been around so long, it doesn't have a founding date or name. Given that only around 1-2% of India's population is Christian, it may well have been the oldest church as there's a good chance it may also have been the only church as well, and compared to these ruins, which were built in 1539AD, suddenly that church seemed brand spankers by comparison.



It had lovely architecture non the less and I got some good photos. I took a few selfies (hate that word) and thought my god what a wonky face I've got, but later realised the nose bit was missing on one side of my sunglasses so not as wonky as I thought! There were men on the highest roof, seemingly cleaning it, with no harnesses or anything, just clambering around like monkeys waving at us. Speaking of monkeys, there was a little boy in the courtyard who looked so cute. He had his head shaved and it was all yellow, where I later learned was the done thing for boys who had turned a year old. Their head is then rubbed with turmeric-I'm not sure exactly why so will need to look this up-good old Google)

We looked at some old paintings that have remained on the walls for hundreds of years and there was a story of Lord Rama which unfortunately went on forever, and I can't recall now.



After this we had the choice of going for a nature walk or free time around the markets. It was so hot and I think everyone felt a bit too cultured so people went their own ways for the rest of the day. A few of us had a walk around the markets and I bought some trinkets and gifts and also quite an ugly pot at first appearance. Imagine a flower with petals but more ugly metal version when you unscrew the middle and peel back the petals, it contains the colours used for Holi, and I just liked it for some reason, despite its initial unattractive appearance. (Sorry Daryl, more tat for the bookshelf back home)

Back at the hotel, we relaxed around the poor for an hour or so, before showering and heading back out. 8 of us had opted to do the cooking class in a local house. I'd done something similar in Thailand and it had been brilliant, so I was really looking forward to this (let's face it, where me and food is concerned, can I be anything other than excited?!)



We were picked up by a tuk tuk and taken to a house where we were welcomed by 2 women. We removed our shoes as they led us through to a side room containing a hob attached to a calor gas bottle and ingredients spared out on the floor.

For the next 2 and a half hours, we watched and helped make 8 different Indian dishes, accompanied by a cup of Reuben (masala) chai. We had egg plant curry, rice, chapatis, poppadom and tomato relish. We sat around shelling peas and chatted and it was really good food and really good fun. It tasted wonderful, and I tried to ignore just how much oil everything had been deep fried in. I definitely need a detox when I get home, no wonder there is such a high incidence of heart disease in the Asian population. As I was getting a henna tattoo on my hand, I got my phone out to take a picture. The womans young son who had been popping in and out all evening to pinch the peas, was enthralled by the screen and I videoed him pulling faces at himself. He was so cute and so funny, he was only about 3 years old. Before long his elder brother crashed in and budged him out of the way to pull his own faces and they had a bit of rough and tumble to see who could hog the screen. The Indian version of Reuben and Caleb I thought-children alike all around the world, as a couple of days earlier I'd got a Whatsapp Gareth had sent of the boys play fighting, and these two here were just as funny.

Back to the hotel, we just had time to send a few more messages before we were once again without wifi, and when I turned my phone on I had a couple of days worth of texts from Daryl come through which was great to read. In the group we've slowly started finding each other on facebook and sharing all our wonderful photographs. Some people here have great cameras, so I will definitely be getting copies of some of theirs.

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Comments

[mum]

whats cooking
looking forward to the meal you can now cook for us with your new found skills!!! take care chuck mum xxxxxxx