TravelStream™ news feed for member lisa_and_paul on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lisa_and_paul en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:56:30 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254573311/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254573311/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254573311/tpod.html Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:56:30 -0400 India 2009

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Delhi, India

Namaste once again.

So the wheel has come full circle and we are back where we started from. Well, not quite, as our hotel in the Tibetan colony was full, so we are staying in a different area, Patel Nagar, a bit more upmarket. Less noodles, more poodles. There aren't really any poodles, but they wouldn't look out of place.

We had a bit of a journey getting here, as we couldn't decide between cheap and maybe not so cheerful at Paharganj, or more expensive but nicer here. We decided on cheap and nasty, but then as we neared the area around the train station, ugly memories reared their heads, and we decided to take the first tuktuk out. Unfortunately, the driver didn't know where our hotel of choice was, and dropped us outside a big expensive hotel which is a local landmark. The big expensive hotel staff then decided to (perhaps accidentally) point us in totally the wrong direction, so that we ended up wandering around a major road junction in the heat of Delhi with our backpacks on. Fortunately a couple of tour agents in a car took pity on us and drove us to our hotel. Unfortunately they got the wrong address and we ended up at yet another hotel. Fortunately the bellboy of that hotel took us to the right hotel, even carrying my backpack, for which we gratefully tipped him.

After our inauspicious start, things gradually improved, and we found a lovely South Indian restaurant around the corner serving delicious dosas. We have found that you get more South Indian restaurants in the north and vice versa.

Yesterday we finally managed to do some sightseeing in Delhi, finally conquering the Red Fort. It was hot, but okay in the shade, and although there were a lot of people, it was possible to get away from the crowds. Some of the audience halls of the fort were beautiful, and having seen the fort and taj in Agra, we could appreciate the marble inlay and carvings more than if we had managed to get in first time around. There were also two museums in there, one full of weapons, and therefore not so interesting to me, and one full of beautiful paintings.

After the Fort we visited the Jain Temple over the road, or, more specifically, the bird hospital. Jains believe in the preservation of all life, although I have to say that they were being a bit optimistic with some of their patients. There were poorly pigeons with broken wings, crows with broken legs, a peacock, parakeets, budgies, and some kites that looked like there was nothing wrong with them that being let loose in the next pen wouldn't solve.

We had dinner at the same South Indian restaurant, Navedyan, and both had a thali, which was probably my favourite in all India, and even better, they just kept bringing more and more food around until we asked them to stop. So many little silver dishes you didn't know which to dip into next...

Today was spent doing some last minute shopping, most importantly some thali dishes so that we can recreate some of our most favourite memories at home. I also bought a tiffin box, so that I will be the envy of my office with my delicious lunch time curries. At least that's the plan.

So we have one more meal to eat, which we have decided should be a blow-out curry, for the sake of old times and Saturday traditions, and then a very early taxi to take to the airport, and then that will be it for another year.

Thanks for sticking with my ramblings, and namaste!!
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Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Hi

This will just be a short entry, as we flew into Bangalore and out again, without much in between.

We tok a bus from the airport, and luckily it dropped us near out hotel, the Ajantha, which was in a little compound off the main road. There was a dining room where we had a decent masala dosa, before going out to visit Crossword, our favourite shop in India, selling books, CDs and DVDs, although this branch also sold toys and sports equipment.

In the evening we had a thali in the dining room, which was okay. Paul had had nicer birthday venues than Bangalore, but as I pointed out, at least he wasn't at work!

We were in the city less than 24 hours, and that was probably enough, and then we got our taxi to the airport for our flight to Delhi.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254570863/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254570863/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254570863/tpod.html Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:27:23 -0400 India 2009

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Kochi, Kerala, India

Namaste, and apologies for the late arrival of this blog.

We left Kumarakom on the 25th, taking a bus to Kottayam, and then a local train to Ernakulum, the land based part of Kochi, before taking an auto rickshaw to Fort Kochi, which is the island based and nicer part of Kochi. Actually that's probably unfair on Ernakulum, as we only saw it on our taxi rides through, and it may have its own charms.

Anyway we arrived in Fort Kochi and got dropped at the Vasco Homestay, where Vasco da Gama is supposed to have died, and which we thought we had booked into, only it turned out we had made a mistake and booked instead into the Vasco da Gama Inn, where other people may well have died, but not Vasco da Gama. It was very nice anyway, but a little pricey, and we spent the afternoon looking for somewhere a bit more homely. We found a lovely homestay overlooking a local cricket/football pitch, with a family with a newborn baby, and booked into their lovely balcony room for the following day.

Other pressing business involved finding a yoga class. There seemed to be loads advertised, but when we enquired all the yoga teachers were on vacation for the week. Eventually we followed some signs painted on lamp-posts and found the Shanti Yoga School, run by Sajee, and arranged to attend the following day at 4.00.

Just before 8 o'clock we found our way to the Kathakali Centre to see an Indian classical music concert. Kathakali is Keralan theatre, but the centre also stages music concerts every night. That first night the instruments were veena (a bit like a sitar) and tabla, and sadly it was only attended by five people, which was a real shame, as the musicians were excellent.

The second day we moved into our new homestay and had breakfast at a small restaurant around the corner called Mita. They were so nice, and the food so good, that we arranged to eat our dinner there, and pre-ordered so that they could have it ready when we arrived.

For lunch we had a delicioius vegetarian thali at a place called New Ananda Bhavan, full of locals, and exceedingly cheap at 35 ruppes, about 40p.

In the afternoon we had our first oga class, which was great. There were just three of us, plus the teacher's dog, who sniffed around for the first few minutes, but then went to sleep for the full two hours plus that the class lasted.

Dinner at Mita was great, fresh fish curry and aloo palak (palak is spinach), and we went to bed very happy.

On Sunday morning we were woken up by the sound of mass being celebrated at the Basilica church, which is enormous, and very near our guesthouse. We had a complimentary breakfast on the verandah, listening to the chanting, watching the kids playing cricket, and enjoying our Keralan breakfast of appams (rice pancakes) with coconut milk. We went over to the church after breakfast, but it was standing room only. We visited another one instead, an older one where was Vasco da Gama was buried (but later exhumed and sent back to Portugal), but again it was packed, so we just watched for a while and then wandered off to visit the market and the fishing nets.

Fort Kochi is famous for its Chinese nets, which are big nets raised by pulleys with big stones attached. There was a lot of up and down activity, but no fish being caught, it was just for the tourists. But there were lots of stalls selling fish, and you could buy some and then have it taken to a local restaurant and cooked. We didn't do that, but Paul had his photo taken with a rather nice tuna.

The afternoon was yoga again, and then a sitar concert at the Kathakali Centre, and then dinner at MIta's, which was grilled pomfret, a small white fish, with rice and vegetables.

Monday started early, as we went to the 7.30 yoga class, finishing at 10.20, and shooting straight back to the guesthouse for a quick shower before attending a cooking class called Cook and Eat. A more accurate name would have been Look and Eat, as we didn't actually cook anything. The woman who ran the class dictated recipes to us, which we had to write down, while a man in the kitchen cooked everything. That was in between taking numerous phone calls. We were allowed to roll out a chappatti each, but not to knead it or measure out the quantity, so I don't feel I learned very much. The food was nice, and we ate it all, but it was kind of an expensive meal at 500 rupees each and no choice of menu.

In the afternoon we went to the Kathakali to see the theatre this time. The first hour you can see the actors (all men) putting on make-up. One was green, one black and one yellow. Real Kathakali goes on for hours, so this was just a short 90 minute extract, and we were given a synopsis, as well as an explanation of some of the movements, which all have meanings. There is no talking, but there are drums and singing (in Malayalam), and it was quite easy to follow, as a lot of the movements of hands and face were very expressive of emotion and universal. We also attended the classical concert afterwards, which was flute and tabla, and then went to Mita for dinner of white snapper fillets.

On Tuesday we got up early again to make the 7.30 yoga class, after which all three students and teacher sat down to Keralan breakfast together of idlis (soft rice cakes), dosas, rice, coconut curd, sambal and more. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting various business done, before going back at 4.00 for another yoga class, which went on for over three hours, so that we did nearly 6 hours of yoga that day, and felt brilliant afterwards. Paul is now a master of the headstand.

In the evening we went for our final meal at Mita. The chef had cooked us something special, and we had given him free reign, trusting him to cook us something really good, which he did. There was a starter of chappattis, rolled with spinach, lentils and onion, and then the main course of prawn curry and rice steamed in banana leaves.

We popped in again today for a last Keralan breakfast of idlis with sambal and coconut chutney, and then took a taxi to the airport.



That's it for the Kerala part of the trip. Veendum kanam!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254029794/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254029794/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1254029794/tpod.html Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:05:49 -0400 India 2009

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Kumarakom, Kerala, India

Suprabhatam!!

We finally managed to drag ourselves away from Varkala, and took a morning train on Wednesday to Kottayam, and from there a bus to Kumarakom. The primary reason was to visit the bird sanctuary there, and also to get away from the tourist hassle for a while and see some of rural Kerala.

We stayed in a small guesthouse called Moolepura, which was run by various generations of one family, and it was really more like a homestay. In the morning we were woken up at about 5.30 by either the rain, or one of the children, or just the sound of the household getting geared up for the day.

The first night we arrived we set out to go and find somewhere to eat. But there is only one main road through the village, and no pavement, so that walking up it in the dark wasn't something we were keen to do. Luckily there was a small shack about 100 metres up the road where they made chickpea curry and chappattis, and that was more than enough, finished off with a bar of chocolate from the kiosk over the road. We ate there both nights we were there, partly because there was nowhere else safe to walk to after dark, partly because the food was good and very cheap (I think the first night we both ate for 30 rupees, about 36 pence), and also because it was fun to sit on a plastic chair at one of two tables with some local people and see how happy they were to see us enjoying their food. The second night we were given another dish. They didn't speak any English, so we didn't know what it was, but I think it was more mollusc than vegetable, so probably freshwater mussels or snails. Whatever it was, it was delicious, fried with onions and coconut.

The full day that we were there we woke up bright and early, excited at the prospect of going to the bird sanctuary (at least I was), only to find that it was chucking it down. So much for getting in at dawn. Fortunately it stopped raining by about 7.30, and we walked over there then.

The bird sanctuary was a few hectares of jungley and marshy ground, overlooking a lake, and we assumed there would be some sort of hides. We followed the footpath around, saw lots of lizards and also a hornbill, and heard a lot of birds but didn't see so many because of the thick undergrowth. We came to a clearing and watched the houseboats on the lake for a few minutes, which was a mistake because it gave one of the park staff a chance to latch on to us. He started beckoning and then leading us on down the path. I thought this must be (a) because he thought we were so dumb we might get lost, (b) because he thought we might damage something, or (c) because he was an expert who would be able to give us some information about the birds.

The answer turned out to be (d) none of the above. He marched along the path, swinging his stick, turning around to yell at us to keep up, so that any birds in the vicinity were long gone by the time we got there. When I wanted to stop to look through the binoculars or look in our bird book he got very fidgety and kept asking if we were tired or something. The things he showed us consisted of two turtles, which he managed to scare away before we got there, a bridge which hadn't been built, a lookout tower which hadn't been built, and a tree on the other side of the waterway with several birds roosting in it. When I asked if the birds were darters or cormorants, he shrugged as if I was mad for wanting to know more than that they were birds, and then he wanted to know why I didn't take a photo. As they were barely visible to the naked eye they wouldn't have come out. With the aid of the binoculars and book we managed to ascertain that there were both darters and cormorants in the tree, darters having long snaky necks and small heads.

That was really the extent of our unsolicited "tour", and then he hurried us back along the path and had the gall to ask for a tip. I could think of many tips to share with him, but Paul more diplomatically handed him 10 rupees and we made our way out of the sanctuary. I was absolutely furious that he not only ruined our visit, but then demanded money for it, and I was all ready to report him to the sanctuary authorities, but then we decided that there was probably no point. But if anyone is considering going there, make sure that you don't get lumbered with a guide, unless of course you just want to see some rusting rivets and the spreading ripples in the wake of a disappearing turtle.

Apart from that experience, it was nice to be out of the towns, eating real Keralan food in small restaurants, appams, which are a sort of aerated pancake made out of rice flour, idlis, which are small cakes made out of rice which are used to soak up sambal, and other things which I'm not sure of the name.

Well that's all about Kumarakom, and the next blog will be coming from Kochi.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1253702238/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1253702238/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1253702238/tpod.html Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:50:45 -0400 India 2009

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Varkala, Kerala, India

Namaste, or, as we say in Kerala, Suprabhatham!

As you can see, our plan to leave Varkala was foiled, due to us finding a place just around the corner from our guesthouse called Silver Estate, which has one of the most talented cooks we have yet to come across in India. So our last evening stretched into two more days, then another three more days, and then another four more days, so that our original two day stay ended up at closer to two weeks.

There isn't much to write about the last 10 days, apart from that our daily routine consisted of getting up and having coffee, having a museli and fruit brunch in a cafe overlooking the dolphin-encrusted sea, a two to three hour yoga session on the roof of the Silver Estate guesthouse, back to our room for a shower, and then a delicious meal in a very friendly, if rather reggae-heavy, ambience.

All of the food there was good, but the vegetable biriyani deserves a special mention. It came as a mound of yellow rice which, when you dug in your spoon, broke open to reveal fresh vegetables -- carrots, broccoli, mushroom, paneer cheese, cashew nuts, whatever was available -- in a curry sauce. It was a meal in itself, but of course we ate many other things with it.

We had a really great time in Varkala. We learned a lot about yoga, which Paul was doing for the first time, and good on him for doing it every day straight for over a week. We spent a lot of time sittting outside our hut watching a pair of coucal (jungle cuckoos) building a nest. We watched kites and dolphins and fishing boats under a palm tree inhabited by a chameleon. We also met a lot of lovely people, both Indian and foreign, so that it became harder and harder to leave, but we managed it eventually, and the next blog should be with you tomorrow or the day after, from Kumarakom, where we are hoping to see lots of flapping things.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1252844136/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1252844136/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1252844136/tpod.html Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:30:12 -0400 India 2009

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Varkala, Kerala, India

Namaste from the seaside!!

We arrived in Varkala a couple of days ago. It is a small resort town set on high cliffs above a picturesque but not very swimming friendly beach. Most of the hotels and restaurants are set along one strip, which makes for convenience, but not exactly comfort, as the frequent invitations to go into shops becomes a bit wearing at times, and saying you will come back later is not such a good idea when there aren't so many visitors, and you will be seen, and it will be remembered...

Our hotel is lovely. We are renting a small hut in a huge palm tree filled garden. There are hardly any other tourists there, and it is off the main drag, so very, very quiet at night. And all for the gargantuan sum of 400 rupees a night, or a fiver.

The food is also not so good along the strip, with a predominance of western food and tourist friendly Indian food, but the snacks are great, and the views over the sea are sensational. This afternoon we spent a couple of hours sitting in a cafe overlooking the sea, watching the dolphins playing, and the Brahminy kites and fish eagles. The kites are amazing. They swoop down to catch a fish, and then nibble at it, holding it in their talons, while flying on to the next catch.

I have had a couple of wonderful ayurvedic massages and back treatments here, including one where they made a kind of pool out of paste on the small of my back and filled it with hot oils. I had an ayurvedic massage in Trivandrum as well, but that was rubbish, just basting me with rancid oil like a chicken, so that I refused to pay for it, but the ones in Varkala were great. It's strange, as you would think you would get a better service away from the touristy areas, but that doesn't seem to be so.

Anyway, we are going to have one more evening here, maybe try and find some fish to eat that hasn't been sat on a slab outside a restaurant for the last week, and then move on tomorrow up the coast to Kollam. It's only half an hour by train, so not too strenuous a journey.

Hope all is well at home.
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Trivandrum, Kerala, India

Namaste from Kerala proper, God's own country as they call it here. I'm not sure what the folk in Yorkshire will have to say about that, but still...

We arrived in Trivandrum on Tuesday. First impressions were: wow, palm trees, and where has the smell of garbage gone? We arrived by overnight train, which wasn't the most comfortable one we have been on, but it was okay and we got there in one piece.

We took a prepaid tuktuk from the station, but for some reason there was a bit of a mix-up and we ended up at some newspaper office. We managed to convince the driver that that wasn't the correct destination, and we found the hotel we had booked.

Our hotel was very nice, up a quiet back street, and complete with budgies, rabbits and cats, with a big garden where we could do some washing and hang it to dry. Our room was huge, and had not one, not two, but three fans, and it wasn't even that hot at night!

The food in Trivandrum was lovely. We ate several meals at small plastic tablecloth places, including the first place we tried where we were handed the menu and had various dishes pointed out. We thought they were recommendations, but it turned out that was what we were getting. We had a thali with vegetable curry, enough rice for a family of four, fish curry and fried fish. The cost was something less than 50 pence each.

We also ate in a couple of restaurants that were slightly posher, and each time the food was delicious, whether fish, fowl or vegetable. It is different to the food we had in the north, with more rice, less bread, and more coconut, less oil.

We enjoyed exploring the backstreets of the city, where there seemed to be more bookshops and print shops than anything else. We also went to a coffee shop near the station that is built in the shape of a big tower, and inside a big spiral ramp with booths all along the outside of the tower, so that instead of going up the stairs you just walk up the ramp.

But the highlight of Trivandrum was the zoo. For the princely sum of 10 rupees (about 12 pence) we had a fabulous day. Most of the animals were local, so very used to the climate and very active. There were big Himalayan black bears lounging about in the mud, peacocks flashing their tails, deer bounding around, monkeys leering at us, but the highlight was probably feeding time chez les jackals. A zookeeper brought in a big plate of raw meat. Immediately the air was filled with crows and pariah kites, circling the pen. One of the jackals, not the biggest, but definitely the meanest looking, took up his station next to the meat and wolfed the lot, except for the bits that the birds managed to grab from above, while the rest of the jackals just looked on hungrily.

So next stop Varkala and the seaside!!
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Udagamandalam, Tamil Nadu, India

Namaste!!

We finally arrived in Ooty, after a minibus ride which turned out to be a day trip for a load of Indian tourists, so that we stopped for an hour at a silk shop while one of the women spent lots of money, and then had a breakneck drive through two national parks (we saw langurs, spotted deer, and two adult elephants with a baby, but obviously couldn't stop or slow down as we were making up for time spent at the silk shop), and then a steep ascent through 36 hair pin bends, stopping once more at a tea shop, as tea is one of the main crops of the area.

When we finally arrived at Ooty we were stunned at how cold it was. It was on with the arctic base layers and thick socks, and sleeping under blankets and quilts.

We decided to do some trekking the next day but one, to give our bodies a chance to get used to the 2000 m altitude. However the weather just got worse and worse. We ended up staying four nights as we couldn't book an earlier train down, and by the end it was pretty much raining all the time, so that we didn't get to trek at all.

Still, our time in Ooty wasn't completely wasted, and I think we made the most of all that the town had to offer in the way of amusements. These included Wax World, which is, obviously, a waxwork museum. The waxworks were actually quite good, but there were only 12 of them, so that didn't take up too much time. They included Gandhi, Nehru, Mother Teresa, several other ex prime ministers and, bizarrely, a man holding his own severed arm who had just come off his motorbike, as a warning against drink driving. There was also supposed to be an art gallery and museum there, but this seemed to consist of an old television, an old record player and an old tape recorder, so not really worthy of the title.

The second of Ooty's great attractions that we visited was the Thread Garden, which is a big room or hangar filled with plants made out of canvas shapes wound around with thread. Seen close up, these are quite impressive and beautiful. Unfortunately, in the Thread Garden you can't get close, and the lighting is rubbish, so that is just looks like a room of dusty plants with posters boasting about how great it is.

Lastly, but not leastly, we visited Jolly World, which promised to "synch us into a world of fun". It is an amusement park which doesn't contain any amusements. All the rides were closed or broken. The bouncy castle shaped like the Titanic was deflated. The science exhibition was full of rubbish. The 3D cinema was closed. The go-karts were death traps. There were a few rickety swings, but even they didn't seem particularly safe. In fact the only things really flourishing were the cafe and plant shop, and the cafe was full of broken arcade games.

I should perhaps mention that Wax World cost 20 rupees (25 pence), Threadbare World 10 rupees and Jolly World 5 rupees, so you can't expect much I suppose. There was also a boating lake, but it was always too rainy to try that, especially as the approach to it was filled with stalls selling tat and carrots.

The food wasn't great in Ooty either, although we did manage to find a few nice restaurants, particularly a very busy place called Sanjay, where we had some delicious thalis served on banana leaves. Oh, and they make chocolate there, so we tested quite a bit of that.

That's all for our sojourn in the hills; next stop Coimbatore.

PS I almost forgot our other major gripe with Ooty, which was the rats. We saw one dead rat the size of a small dog, and then I saw a live one of similar dimensions running alonside the market, so that we had to jump in a tuktuk, as if Paul had seen it he would have been running for the hills, if we weren't already in the hills!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1252313210/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1252313210/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1252313210/tpod.html Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:01:14 -0400 India 2009

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Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Namaste from Coimbatore!

We had an eventful escape from Ooty by miniature train. It is a beautiful journey, starting off in tea plantations wreathed in cloud and mist, and then descending into steamy jungle with big bright flowers and colourful villages. The train was full of holidaying Indians who cheered and clapped every time we went through a tunnel.

The journey down takes about 3 and a half hours. About two and a half hours in, while passing through a narrow cutting, we ground to a halt, and all the people in the carriage became very excited, shouting "hathi, hathi", which, as anyone who has seen The Jungle Book will know, means "elephant". Sure enough, we looked out of the window and there was a huge elephant just standing on the line looking at the train. The train staff and the guards went up to him with intent, but nobody seemed to know what to do, and we just had to wait for him to move off the line in his own good time. This took about 40 minutes, during which time the elephant presented his face, then his backside, then his side, and finally his face again to our view, and most of the people had got out of the train for a better look, only to be chased back on by those in authority, who seemed more likely to use their guns on unruly passengers than the elephant.

Finally he decided to move, and stood by the side of the track as we moved off. We arrived in the village of Mettupalayam more or less on time, and then took our onward train to Coimbatore an hour later, unfortunately having to stand for the 45 minute journey, but at least it made it easier to get off as we were near the door.

In Coimbatore we could walk from the station to the hotel we had booked (New Vijaya, named and shamed), and we were 15 minutes ahead of schedule. This did not stop them telling us we had to pay twice the price as all the cheap rooms were full. I pointed out that there was a piece of paper recording my reservation under the glass of the desk, but this made no difference, and we left in high dudgeon to try another hotel over the road.

The hotel over the road (Raja Hotel, named and shamed) had cheap rooms, but unfortunately the room we were given had no shower, although it did boast cable TV and a leaking toilet. The final straw came when a huge cockroach ran across the floor. When we asked to change we were told there were no more rooms.

So we went out and found another hotel, with shower and clean, cheaper than that one, and checked in there. We went back to the Raja and asked for our money back, which they finally and reluctantly gave, and we moved into the Ruby Palace, had a nice meal at a vegetarian restaurant, and had a good night's sleep.

We are now spending the day in Coimbatore, relaxing while we wait for our overnight train to Trivandrum in the far south. My next blog will be from there in a day or two. Hope all well with you.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1251887384/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1251887384/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa_and_paul/5/1251887384/tpod.html Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:45:04 -0400 India 2009

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Mysore, Karnataka, India

Namaste!!

We flew from Ahmedabad to Bangalore on Sunday morning. We found some very cheap tickets with Go Air, and it worked out cheaper than travelling by train, as well as taking a lot less time. From Bangalore we took a bus to Mysore, which was about three hours or so.

On arrival in Mysore we took a tuktuk to the hotel we had booked, which was called Hotel Palace Plaza. Palace it was not, but it was the only one we could find to prebook, and at about 15 pounds a night it was much more than we were used to. So we just booked in for one night, and then went to look for somewhere better. The bathroom was grim, and the smell from the public toilet over the road was appalling.

We found another hotel, the Dasaprakash, which was about a third of the price, and much cleaner, though more basic. We did have a slight mishap with a leaking toilet, but managed to change our room without too much trouble.

The best thing about Mysore was the palace. We visited that on Monday morning. The original palace was burnt down at the end of the 19th century, and it was redesigned and rebuilt by an eccentric English architect. It combines Hindu temples and deities, Islamic arches, and high gothic Victoriana in fantastic vaulted rooms with turquoise and blue and gold tiles, stained glass and columns.

Being foreigners, we had to pay ten times as much as the Indian tourists, but then the silver lining came when we got a free audio guide, which was very informative and meant we got a lot more out of our visit.

On Tuesday morning we took a pre-arranged tuktuk up Chamundi Hill. There is an enormous temple at the top, and it is supposed to be one of the eight holiest hills in India. It didn't specify its exact ranking, but in the top eight anyway. We didn't go into the temple as it was absolutely packed with Indian pilgrims and tourists, and it seemed more relaxing to stand and watch the baby monkeys playing with the garlands and offerings, and the adult monkeys fighting over bits of food.

We walked down about 300 steps (we didn't count, that is on the authority of the signs at the top) to where there was a giant bull, Nandi, who is the "vehicle" of one of the gods, although I can't remember which. It is a huge statue in black, apparently covered in ghee.

At the Nandi bull statue we had a nice sugarcane juice and met our driver who took us back to town. Unfortunately the trip didn't go without a hitch, as despite our "no shopping" instructions, we somehow ended up in a silk sari shop. He misled us by telling us it was a museum, and it was only when we were surrounded by smarmy salesmen that we realised what was happening. We exited double quick, to the disgruntlement of the driver, who drove the rest of the way in silence and without his previous care vis a vis potholes.

The worst thing about Mysore was the touts and tuktuk drivers. It was difficult to walk in the streets without being asked every five steps where we were going and if we wanted to go to the spice market. We did venture into the fruit and veg market at one point, but found it impossible to look at anything without immediately being escorted to something we didn't want to look at.

The food in Mysore was very good, and it seems to be much cheaper in the south. A lot of the dishes are the same, but with a southern twist. They use a lot of coconut here, and a lot of fresh chilli.

Anyway that's all for now, although I'm sure I've forgotten loads. I'll be catching up again in a couple of days.
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