Sabbatical adventures  (Mark and Lizzie)

1.Wonderful Indian Madness – It’s hard to believe that we were in Jodhpur at the beginning of this week. The middle pictures show Lizzie at the bedroom window of our homestay with views directly up to the fort and Mark outside the place sheltering his ears from the noisy Hindu temple which started worship at 5am every morning (we naively thought that Hinduism was similar to Buddhism before coming to India). We spent our last day wandering Jodhpurs’ blue streets, doing a bit of shopping and seeing Jaswany Thada (a memorial ground to the royal family). As we left India we reflected on how bonkers the last 8 weeks had been. It is a completely exhausting and wonderfully mad country. There is constant sound (music, car horns and people), smells (not all pleasant) and colour. Our hosts were warm, greeting us with a flower garland, involving us in their birthday celebrations and feeding us local delicacies. Yet, at the time of leaving, the Indians we met were completely blase about coronavirus,as though India was special and wouldn’t be affected, who can blame them when the press and government release constant positive messages that things are under control.

2.Australian humour. If you’re going to be anywhere in the world during an international disaster it’s nice to be somewhere with a light heart and a good sense of humour. We have certainly laughed out loud to their radio shows this week.

We had hoped to isolate in a campervan up the west coast, but with state guidance requiring 14 days of isolation and concern about not being able to get fuel/food, we’re now holed up in an airbnb in Freemantle, Perth. We have sun and some outdoor space, just a shame we don’t still have our bat and ball.

3.Beer, wine and food to the door. We might not be allowed out of the house but we’re not complaining (very aware that many others are in similar situations). Australia has it’s priorities in order, we were able to get a door to door beer and wine delivery within 1.5hours, unfortunately food took us 48 hours (as we needed prior approval that we were self isolating). Having lived off vegetarian curries for the last 8 weeks it has been refreshing to cook for ourselves and we’re enjoying fresh fruit, veg and meat.

4.Paper accepted and revisions done. Mark was able to sort out internet to his iPad which meant Lizzie was able to finish some changes to a paper she had accepted. Our place doesn’t have wifi, although luckily we changed to three before coming away which allows us to use free international roaming and unlimited UK calls, so if anyone wants a chat just let us know.

5. Creating a trans-continental video for Lizzie’s dads 70th birthday – Ironically Lizzie was going to surprise her dad in Melbourne flying two days after we actually ended up leaving India. We didn’t let a bit of isolation stop celebrations and we created a collaborative video with the help of Mrs Lizzie Grove, with personal messages, cake and spelling out happy birthday, even 4 week old Millie got involved.

1.Holika Dahan – The day before Holi, where locals burn bonfires to celebrate the triumph of good over evil and the beginning of spring. In true Indian style the pyres are erected directly into the road through a newly dug hole and lined with fire crackers. During the day we enjoyed watching the pyres being erected, with cow dug patties at the base for extra fuel (cow dug is used a lot as a fuel and you see circular dung patties drying everywhere). We bought some colourful powder ready for Holi and found a lovely roof top spot for dinner to watch the fireworks over the Palace. After dinner we joined the crowds watching individual street pyres being lit and the local ladies offering the ashes grain, before heading up to the main temple square. As expected the main event was bonkers with loud music, traditional dance with a modern twist, fire crackers down the street up to a huge central fire. We learnt the next day that a lot of the internet was down as the bonfires had burnt through overhead wires in the streets.

2.Holi. One of the main events on the Indian festival Calendar, popularly known as the ‘festival of colours / love / spring’ celebrating the arrival of spring. In Udaipur this meant people in the streets greeting you with ‘happy Holi’ and placing colour on your face and then a hug. We enjoyed joining in with the celebrations by the main temple with music, drumming and a lot of colour. As we tried to walk around more the younger children have water bombs, buckets and water pistols trying to fix the colour by getting you wet, we were less enthused by this bit and re-treated back to our accomodation to join the rest other westerners watching it all unfold from our roof-top restaurant. Turns out the afternoon becomes a rather boozy affair (not for us) as the guest house father was very merry on whisky which he was sharing around. The streets become full of little parties with individual sound systems and people dancing, drinking and taking the local drug Bhang.

3.Rajistan traditional dance and puppet show. A lively evening at Bagore Ki Haveli in Udaipur. We loved the music and watching various dancers and puppeteers. The highlight was a lady twizzeling around with 8 pots on her head whilst standing on the rim of a dish, madness.

4.Palaces. Udaipur is known as the city of lakes, but it also had many Palaces. We had a lovely morning wandering around the beautiful city palace, but even better the following day we hopped on a boat to the garden palace at Jagmandir Island. A Canadian couple had given us a tip that the ride is cheaper if you go before 13:00 and you can spend all day there getting the sun-set boat back. This palace is truly relaxing, no traffic, just one restaurant / bar and lots of places for us to sit, read and contemplate the corona situation. We learnt that the James Bond film Octapussy was set around this island and so watch it on the bus journey the following day. It’s very dated, sexist and terrible acting, but nice to see so much of Udaipur.

5. Jodhpur Fort. There is no denying that the red sandstone fort in Jodhpur is fantastic. It towers above the city and provides wonderful views of the city walls and the blue houses below. It has been carefully restored under the trust set up by the current king and has a brilliant audio guide to take you around. You can see a fantastic collection of palanquins (a covered person carrier) including one used in England to transport the then Jodhpur queen between her Royals Royce and English venues. We learnt that riding Jodhpurs are so called as they were adapted from traditional clothing of the Jodhpur polo riders and admired by the victorians.

6.Wandering the lanes of the blue city of Jodhpur. Jodhpur has a lovely feel, it’s a haven of narrow winding lanes, with lots of normal life going on and some beautiful areas of restoration. We can certainly see why it’s known as the ‘blue city’ with numerous houses a lovely blue colour. It’s not agreed why the houses are blue, whether it be for caste reasons or to defend against termites, but either way it looks impressive from the fort when you get a panoramic vista of the city. We’re going to have a final day wandering and shopping before leaving tomorrow.

1. Dharavi slum tour. We were in two minds about going on this tour, but good reviews convinced us to go with reality tours and we were glad we did. Reality tours are a social enterprise where the guides live in the slum and 80% of the ticket cost goes back into their NGO to support education, employment and empowerment of women. Our preconceptions of a slum were certainly changed, pretty important given that 60% of Mumbai’s population are reported to live in slums.

Dhavari is the biggest reported slum in India with a population of over 1 million. It was the site for shooting slumdog millionaire, something they don’t talk about. However, apparently as of 2014 it’s strictly not a slum as the housing is now legally recognised by the government and formal infrastructure (water and sanitation) are now present. It was remarkable that despite very cramped living conditions (most houses are 10ft x 10ft for an average of 6 people, essentially one room and no running water, just public baths), there is no real smell and lots of micro-industry. Dhavari plays a big part in plastic recycling, we saw sorting of numerous items and turning into small plastic pellets. There were tanneries, pottery areas and popadom making. Apparently industry from the slum itself turns over almost $700million per year. There is now a drive from the government to re-house people in new apartment blocks to improve living conditions, but the locals are resisting as many are 4th generation there and reportedly like the community and location (next to two major train stations and on prime real estate in Mumbai).

2.Walking around the architecture of Mumbai. We walked tens of thousands of steps around Mumbai’s streets enjoying the varied architecture and food. Many buildings (including the UNESCO railway building, post office and gateway to India) remain from the colonial era, but there is also a nice blend of Indo-Saracenic architecture and art-deco buildings. Indeed Mumbai has the second largest number of art-deco building in the world which we enjoyed along Marine drive (second to Miami).

3.Cricket and Cinema in Mumbai. The two most prominent activities in Mumbai are filming (mainly music videos) and cricket. We enjoyed watching both. There is no doubt about it, cricket is the national sport and they play it everywhere!We had a nice interlude to walking around the city to join the locals in watching 6 overs of a 20:20. Mark got invited to join in with a street cricket match, but we had a date with the cinema. Cinema is big in Mumbai,it’s home of Bollywood and many of the cinemas are in beautiful art-deco buildings. We had wanted to watch a Bollywood blockbuster,but they were all in Hindi so we settled for The Oscar winning “Parasite”, which we both enjoyed. We enjoyed an intermission and saw that the cinema is no exemption to the Indians love of their mobile phone.

4.Vineyards.Nashik is a beautiful Hindu pilgrimage town in itself, but the surrounding area is the biggest wine region in India. We decided to spend three lovely days in a homestay so we could enjoy both. As a wine region it’s much higher than Mumbai (in fact it used to be a hill station) so the weather was so much nicer (fresh and not muggy). A thirty minute tuk-tuk ride out of Nasik on dirt tracks we arrived at Soma vineyard. We decided to walk between three vineyards closely situated to each other. Soma vineyard is a new boutique vineyard set up by a wealthy Indian man and only started bottling in 2014. We had a tour and tasting before moving on to the smarter York tasting rooms. We ended in the vibrant Sula vineyard which dominates the indian wine market (60% market share, in fact the main variety seen on restaurant wine lists, if they have one). Unsurprisingly indian wine tastes are sweeter than ours and they deliberately produce wines for both western (early harvest) and Indian palates (late harvest grapes). Soma has even developed a sweet Zinfandel red with added honey. Our opinion of the wines were that the sparklings were nice, rose surprisingly good (we are normally not keen) and Chenin Blanc fruity and fresh. Unfortunately the Sauvignon Blanc was lacklustre and overly metallic and the reds aren’t worth drinking (yet).

5.Caves. We hiked around caves in Nashik and Ellora, with over 34 caves cut into a hillside at Ellora there is a lot to see. These caves were chipped out over 5 centuries (beginning in 700AD) by Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monks. The most impressive structure is the ‘Kailasa’ Hindu temple in Ellora which is the wolds largest monolithic sculpture – carved from a solid rock face.

6.Bustling city stop overs. Although not strictly a highlight,more an experience we were glad to leave, the non-touristy cities of Aurangabad and Ahmedabad gave us a true insight into city life.Crowded,bustling,noisey and polluted.The Lonely planet says you can ‘chew the air it’s so polluted’ and the International air quality index would agree with Ahmedabad having the second worst air quality in India (next to New Dehli).Ahmedabad is the first place in India we have felt unsafe.It’s a crazy place with no pavements,we had to cross a 6 lane carriageway to get to a bus stop located in the central reservation,it’s no wonder on average 3 pedestrians die here a day from RTAs.To escape the bustle of both cities we headed for yummy vegetarian restaurants and enjoyed some delicious food.We were befriended by our table-neighbours in Aurangabad who let us share their chat puri.In Ahmedabad we relaxed in the oasis of calm of the heritage MG hotel and the highlight was matka kulfi,a creamy milk dessert.

1. Beach hopping by moped. We joined the rest of India and hired a moped to scoot between beaches. Luckily, unlike the rest of Indians, Mark wore his helmet, as the police were out doing spot fines (although helmets for the main driver a now compulsory in a lot of states, from the driving we’ve seen Indians aren’t too bothered by following road rules or indeed enforcing them). We’ve only been in the quieter south Goa, but even here the beaches have a very different feel. We were glad we weren’t staying on the party beach of Palolem. We had a beautiful hut overlooking Agonda bay, then moved to a cottage with a wonderful Terrance at Colomb bay and the a lovely homestay apartment in quiet Galgibaga. We also enjoyed dinner at busy hippy Patnem and lunch at the lovely and serene Talpona beach. We’d throughly recommend Galgigbaga or Talpona for a relaxing Goan getaway.

2.Activities on the beach. It’s been a tough week, bat and ball took a new level this week, we reached a total of 104 passes at a 4 strides, before Mark’s bat snapped with all the effort. The waves are fantastic for body boarding and we both enjoyed the ride to shore. Once you’re beyond the waves the water was lovely for some long swims. From the shore we were able to watch dolphins jumping and playing. We had wanted to windsurf but apparently there wasn’t enough wind, so the backgammon rivalry continued instead.

3.Seafood. Apart from swimming the best thing of being by the sea is the fish,yum! We enjoyed fish every night with tandoori kingfish, whole snapper, lemon fish and mackerel, and the local speciality ‘Goan style’ calamari and prawn Sukkha. We’ve seen a number of outrigger style fishing boats on the beach and saw the local women selling the daily catch Canacona’s fish market.

4.Sunsets. It’s lovely to be back on the west coast to see beautiful sunsets. In contrast to lively Varkala the beaches in Goa are more serene with a number of people meditating in the lotus position watching the sun go down – I’m not sure how much they appreciated our bat and ball activity.

5.Marine drive and Chowpatty in Mumbai. We enjoyed an evening stroll along Marine drive, probably the most popular spot to watch the sunset in Mumbai. It’s lined by posh business high risers and art-deco apartment blocks. It was interesting to see the tetrapods in action (formal of costal erosion defence) having read about them in this week’s book. We ended the night with the locals eating some spicy street food on Chowpatty beach. We needed to share a milkshake near our accommodation to settle our stomachs.

1. Boulders – We enjoyed walking, cycling and scrambling around The spectacular granite boulders at Hampi. We had thought they might have been created by plate tectonics, but I’m pleased to here there is no fault lines here (particular on the anniversary week of the Christchurch earthquake). These were created from gigantic granite monoliths (a craton, no less, a new word for me) which over millions of years of erosion have cracked, split and eventually metamorphed into these spectacular boulders.

2. Cycling around Ancient temples – We hired some pretty old, gearless mountain bikes to spend a lovely day cycling around some of Hampi’s multitude of temples. Unfortunately a combination of being out all day, 36 degree heat and our Indian Ayoverdic 50+ suncream being under-par, meant we both caught too much sun. We’re now on to a different brand of 60+ cream containing zinc and covering up in the heat of the day.

3. Coracle ride – Apparently coracle (round boat) originates from the welsh word for boat and are a traditional method of transporting people or animals across rivers. We had a rather dizzy ride, although turns out when Mark was at the helm that it can be rowed in a straight line rather smoothly.

4. Bat and ball on Goan beaches – To continue Lizzies ball skills education we’re playing daily bat and ball in between reading, swimming and dodging cows on the beach. It’s a hard life in Goa.

5. Sleeper trains – We’ve taken two sleeper trains this week (Mysore to Hosapete and Hosapete to Margao). Not necessarily on time (in fact the second incurred a 3 hr delay), but comfortable and always interesting. We’ve found it’s a perfect opportunity to watch a film, read our book and catch up on our diaries, as long as our cabin neighbours don’t want to talk too much.

1. Sri Aurobindo Ashram New Guest House. We loved this little haven so much we extended our stay until Wednesday. Basic room, but perfectly formed with box mosquito nets and a lovely balcony with a beach view. We’d throughly recommend it if you’re staying in Pondicherry. They also do bike hire, so we were able to cycle around all the associated Ashram sites and enjoy a morning swimming at the Pondicherry swimming center (apparently Indians aren’t big fans of swimming).

2. Bangalore Flower market – A bustling and colourful experience. We wandered around lanes full of bags of flowers and stumbled across this bustling square with flower auctions and large Leis / flower spirals made up for Hindu worship. Lizzie even gained a free rose from one of the sellers (makes for a cheap valentines).

3.Microbreweries – Since 2010 Bangalore has become the microbrewery capital of India and is now home to over 50 microbreweries. We enjoyed two (Toit and Arbor) which made a refreshing change from Kingfisher extra strong served elsewhere. Even better the beer was served in a glass, rather than the funny ceramic mugs they give you in Kerala (to try and hide the fact they’re serving alcohol).

4. Street Food – Feeling pretty good on only 1.5 episodes of a dodgy tummy we decided to head to VV Puram for a street food dinner. Cheap and tasty. The stuffed dosa and Roti with curry were a hit, the spicy hair ball and salty biscuits we’d give a miss next time.

5. Mysore Palace – Claimed to be the second most visited palace in India, secondary to the Taj Mahal (even though technically that’s a mausoleum) and still home to the Wadiyar dynasty. We enjoyed a wonder round accompanied by a down-loaded, free Indian tour guide. The desire for colour extends to the interior of the palace.

6. 1001 steps above Mysore – Early morning hike up champundi hill, see Bull stone carving, views over Mysore and temple at the top. Mark enjoyed a coconut refreshment having lost our bananas to the thieving monkeys and Lizzie posed for photos with lots of children.

1. Chinese fishing nets – a famous site in Fort Kochi and beautiful to see at sunset, chatting to the fishermen whilst the nets are in action (Mark found a fellow Arsenal fan in an Indian fisherman). Even more interesting is a bit further down the road where the fishing boats bring on their days catch and everyone gathers to have a nosey and grab some fish before it gets transported off. Certainly a highlight for us was to indulge in a fish platter with a chilled glass of Indian Sauvignon Blanc from the Karnataka region.

2. Hindu festivals – The Hindus certainly like festivals and with over 33million gods there’s a lot to celebrate.This week we spent two nights at the Shiva temple in Ernakulam to enjoy the Ulsavam festival. Just a 6p ferry ride from Fort Kochi. We experience loud drumming, kathakali dancing, singing, Indian classical music, fire crackers and elephants parading. We thought this was something fairly unique until we entered Tamil Nadu and visited three other temples and noticed they seem to have parades or celebrations each day.

3.Auyverdic massage – perhaps not quite a highlight, but certainly an experience. We both bared all in front of our Indian masseurs, got lathered in warm “medicated” oils and had a massage (lots of breast fondling involved), not for the prudish. A nice massage, but rather grim room with lots of mosquitoes made it difficult to fully relax.

4.Temples, Temples, Temples – We’ve entered into Tamil Nadu and the sacred heart of India, it boasts some of the oldest and largest Hindu temples. We had a bustling walk around Meenakshi Amman temple and a Zen-like walk around Sri Ranganathar swampy temple with a buzz of ‘ohmmmm’ in the background. Our favourite was a lovely evening walk up the steps to the rock fort temple, where we were able to watch the sunset over Trichy whilst sitting with the locals on a rock. Controversially it seems that most temples have their own temple elephant (or 7), these appear trained to take money from a worshiper, bless them by placing their trunk on your head and then handing the money over. We’re told that the temple elephants get treated really well and whilst they are completely mesmerising, we felt an overwhelming sadness at seeing these beautiful animals here rather than with their family in the wild (as per last week).

5. Pondicherry – Ahhh thanks French colonialism. Pondicherry and the neighbouring Auroville provide complete escapism from the bustle of India. There are beautiful colonial buildings, traffic free sections (with no horns) and French patisserie – bliss. We spent our first two nights in a beautiful yellow colonial guest house and enjoyed G&T (thanks air India) on the roof-top. We like it so much that we’ve decided to stay and checked in to a beach-side Ashram. With no mandatory check-out, only £8 (for 2)/night and daily meditation, who knows how long we’ll be here.

6.Gandhi – What a man! Peaceful politician, who campaigned for equality (both in caste and between the sexes) as well as Indian independence. We knew very little about him, including his involvement in creating the Indian flag, until we explored the Gandhi museum in Madurai.

1. Spices – We’re loving the flavours of South Indian food, full of taste and not too spicy (although we have found my spice threshold).Intrigued as to where the spices all come from we went on a wonderful spice garden tour – who knew that green,black,red and white pepper all come from the same plant? That cardamon is from the route of a palm, or that vanilla grows as an epiphyte, interesting stuff!

2. Cooking – Having seen the spices growing we wanted to get in on the cooking action. We joined Mrs Sheril in her home to cook up a feast (okra curry,chicken masala,pineapple and coconut curry,Kerala chips,parotta,rice and popadoms). We learnt that curries seem to start with the same basic oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves, a LOT of oil is used in cooking and it’s all such hard work.The meal was delicious.

3. Animals – We had a wonderful 4 days in Kumily (we extended as we were enjoying it so much, helped by the roof top pool, if you’re ever in Kumily I’d recommend Chrissies guest house). The guest house was surrounded by forest and we were able to see black monkeys (Langur), giant squirrel (Malabar),fruit bats and numerous species of birds from our terrace. We also had a lovely day in the Periyar national park hiking, swimming and bamboo rafting and we were lucky to see wild Asian elephants and Bison.

4. Tea – Ah the lovely British institution.Munnar is one of the highest hill top stations and surrounded by luscious green tea plantations.We went on a visit to the Lockhart tea factory, the museum was completely random full of British artefacts and nothing to do with tea, but the factory tour was great watching the processing in action – just like inside the factory but with no regard for health and safety. We sampled the white and black tea at the end and decided it was distinctly average so decided not to buy. Turns out the area doesn’t supply any of our home tea bags.

5. Trekking – With the cooler weather in Kumily and Munnar we’ve been able to enjoy some lovely treks in the national park and up high in Munnar for some great views.Turns out Indian guides are very knowledgable but don’t actively volunteer their knowledge. They also like to rest (on one they slept for 1.5hrs at midday whilst we swam and the other read the paper).

1. Varkala red cliffs and beach. Indian beaches are lively (bells, whistles and machete waving ladies with coconuts) and the Arabian sea is warm but rough.We enjoyed a coconut and early morning, midday and sunset swims.

2.Yoga. Morning roof top yoga over looking the sea – what a way to start the day ‘breath deeply, and completely’ “You don’t have to be good at yoga, yoga is good for you”

3.Food – Delicious!So much for loosing weight here, we’re loving the flavours and even the spice -byriani,curry,Roti,Dosa.We’re even getting used to curry for breakfast, although a Masala omelette or fruit is most welcome.

5.Sunsets,lush sunsets from the beach in Varkala,from our homestay veranda overlooking the backwaters and from the public bus around tea plantations.

6.Public transport – local bus, tuk-tuk, train and ferry-boat, all with a natural breeze (no windows),and amazingly cheap (56p for a 1.5hr ferry kotyama or £1.53 for 3rd class train from Varkala to Allepey),puts British transport to shame.Mark even managed to buy a Murakami book he’d wanted on the train, bonus.