Only one week to go and you will all be racing around like headless chickens. We have spied a few Xmas trees but it really doesn’t seem like Xmas at all.
We are in a gorgeous place called Kochi – a small place in Kerala (for Indian standards) where the Portugese, Dutch then English lived. It feels as though we have stepped back in time with these old English homes and eating places called “teapot”. My best cup of tea since home!!! We are relaxing after our hilarious Xmas shopping this morning. (We were meant to visit the elephant camp so set the alarm and no taxi arrived. We went fishing with the locals at 6am instead pulling up their Chinese fishing nets with them)We all drew a name out of a hat and armed with 300Rs ( $10) tried to find an Indian present without letting on to each other. Great fun testing our bargaining skills out and we all have big grins on our faces having secrets. We have bribed each other to keep our mouths shut for a fish dinner on Xmas day for anyone who succeeds. This will really test me out as have already almost blurted it out a couple of times. Tom the stirrer is loving winding us all up. He has just walked in – the last of us to return with his present. We are in the south of India and it is so different to the North. A lot more civilized, less chaos, people more educated, no cows lying on the roads or in the shops as it is predominantly Christian, Churches rather than Hindu shrines. It’s been a nice change but are all missing the craziness of the North. They still have the rubbish, dogs and horns on very local buses. We have been travelling on these machines as never seem to be organized in time to score the comfy AC buses (there are a few) and also Marty thinks it’s good for us to be with the locals. Our last two buses were classics. No windows, babies and bags on our laps, 3 people to a seat and drivers that thought they were on a race track not a crazy Indian road. We counted 3 cars that passed us on our last bus - a 200km (6 hours) trip. The horn blasted constantly and we spent more time on the opposite side of the road.
No one has written on the blog since the desert days in Rajasthan. We have been totally immersed in life here in India. Jodhpur with the coolest Mehrangarh fort (we had an audio tour which we loved),great local market and the best street omelets yet. Udaipur – eat your heart out James Bond!!!! We watched octopussy(filmed here), stayed in a palace overlooking Lake Pichola,enjoyed the lake palace during the most amazing lightning and thunder storm, wandered the narrow streets and Tom and I spoilt ourselves and went to a great cooking class. It was so much fun and we will have to have a few Indian meals at home with everyone testing our skills out. Pushkar was our last stop in Rajasthan and we had managed to get there during the annual camel fair. Initially thinking we wouldn’t go because of the amount of people and losing our kids to the camel drivers. But everyone keen and we all wished we had been there for the total 10 days rather than the 4 we had. It was truly head spinning stuff and one of our favorite times. A gorgeous place surrounding a holy lake and where around 200,000 people (camel drivers and their families,Sadus,worshipers,musicians,snake charmers, magic people, traders and they say about 50,000 camels, horses(with pointed ears)and cattle. On the last night of the fair all the devotees chant in processions and wash in the dirty waters and set candles onto the lake. This lasts all night and we didn’t get much sleep!!! Kids found the hilarious Indian fair rides and had a blast racing around enjoying them all. One was this crazy cone shaped wooden contraption that you stood on the top of and they rode cars and motorbikes around the wood. They hung out of the windows catching money, steering with one foot and accelerator on the other, touching each others vehicles when they felt like it. I was screaming!!!It rained on the day after the festival and the streets were just mud that oozed between our toes and splattered up our clothes!!! We had a great day with a French family and all enjoyed finding another family to hang out with – swimming in a pool, shopping eating street food, and running jumping and harassing the locals around the Ghats.
We headed onto Madhya Pradesh (centre of India) to a small area called Mandu where we had read that they had some great Afghani Architecture. Wow this area is full of palaces, tombs and mosques built around the 1300’s to 1500’s. The buildings were just so symmetrical and impressive and are sure we loved it so much because we were on push bikes hooning through the country side stopping when we wanted and also had the places to ourselves where we ran, jumped and climbed over everything we could. We found totally by chance an amazing freezer in this classic local eating place in a village that contained 2 litre tubs of delicious ice cream. We got a tin plate, 6 forks, unwrapped the cardboard surrounding the ice-cream and devoured it. There was no chat otherwise you missed out on your share!! We went back for a second helping – Max also finding a 2 litre coke bottle and making Ice cream sodas.
Ellora caves in Maharashtra was our next stop. These temples are carved out of rock – a mixture of Buddist, Hindu and Jain along a 2 km escarpment built around 600 to 1000 AD. We were in awe at these huge temples all carved from the top down, very intricate and taking 150 years to complete. It was so hot that we wilted after 3-4 hours leaving Marty to devour the history and temples while we found some shade.
We had our favorite train ride leaving Aurangabad (city near Ellora caves) at 5.30am and arriving in Goa 6am the following morning. 2 trains and lots of great platform action that we all love and are now missing in the south. Had a great guy Ed – hippy English guy who lives and plays music in Goa in our compartment. Max entertained us all and got totally out of control by the time these He-She’s (that’s what we call these guys dressed as women who march through the train demanding money) visited us. He mimicked them up and down the carriage much to the delight of everyone. We were doubled over with tears running down our cheeks. The he–she’s strut and clap their hands in a weird way. Max will have to give you a demonstration when we get home as he’s good!!!!
Goa was 4 days of beach and sun and nothing like the India we have experienced elsewhere. At first we hated it and of course by the 4th day had totally relaxed and didn’t want to leave and hit the chaos of reality. People fly here from Europe and stay anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months not moving from the beach. A great overnight bus to Hampi from here. A place that reminded us a bit of the marble rocks in Australia but on a huger scale. An area of ruins from the 1300’s scattered over heaps of giant boulders, palm and coconut groves, rice paddy fields and banana plantations. The colors spectacular and we loved exploring the rocks. (The temples had second place beside these) Met a mum and daughter from Wellington here and Georgie loved hanging out with Izzy and I also enjoyed Pip’s (mum) company. We went shopping in the bazaar while Marty and the boys wrote postcards in the street!!! Didn’t buy a lot but the girls all had a blast.
Bangalore and the cricket were next on the itinerary. Our only set date we have had and it was soooo worth it. A hell night bus ride to get here – 5 hours in the middle of the night in a dusty street in the wops with a broken down bus. It took a while to get us on another as there were 6 of us and all full. I was starting to lose it by the end!!! The Cricket match- We spent from 11am until crashing at 2 am in our beds yelling and cheering the Black caps on for their 4th one dayer. What a buzz to be surrounded by thousands of mad, crazy and passionate Indian cricket lovers (of course mainly men) cheering NZ on. We had decorated Marty’s sheet using shoe polish and hung it over the balcony and painted our faces with eyeliner. We were hoarse by the end as totally outnumbered. We were hoping to be the Kiwi’s lucky charm and such a bummer we lost. The Black caps so very disappointed at the end of the match.
Have just visited Ooty. An old English hill station with the hills covered in tea plantations at 2200ms and it was so cold. We were wrapped in all our clothes during the 2 nights here and just froze. A great place to explore visiting a tribal museum that was totally hands on and a tea factory. The highlight and reason for visiting was the diesel/steam train that winds its way up and down from Ooty to the plains below. We rode the diesel train ¼ of the way down (Coonor) the first day and loved it so much that decided to do the whole trip the next day with the added bonus of the steam train connecting to the carriages at Coonor. Beautiful scenery and a real buzz puffing our way down steep gradients with steam billowing around us.
Still not sure where we will be eating Xmas dinner – possibly Varkala on the coast a few hours from here. We will be thinking of everyone at home and missing the kiwi BBQ’s and you all.
Will wind our way back up, flying out of Goa on the 11th to connect with our flights home. It’s not far away and all looking forward to it.
Lots of love and Xmas hugs – the Dobbe tribe.
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