INDIA

India is HUGE,  In every sense of the word it is huge.  Geographically it is almost a continent, culturally it has so many, peoples, again so many, so diverse. It is so beautiful, so ugly, so rich, so poor.  How can anyone begin to experience India in five days?  Five months, five years wouldn’t be enough.

So Audrey and I, with Maggie and George explored just a tiny part of India.  This trip had been set up by M & G before they left Canada, and it was wonderful to be invited to share it.  We went to the Hills! We escaped the heat, the dirt, the crowds, the exhaustion, and went to the hills to the great tea-plantations in the mountains.  We were driven in an air-conditioned car by Alex who was our driver for the full five days  We went to a bungalo, built in 1910, by, a Brit of course, we were waited on by three servants, Lovidar, the cook, Stella, his wife, who waited table and made our beds, and another older man who also served at table and did the gardening!  We could have turned the clock back one hundred years, and were living the life of the Sahib and Memsahib.  But I think I am jumping ahead too fast..  Let me tell it all from the beginning, from when we walked down the gang-plank from the ship.

We docked at Chennai on March 11th.  Once we were given clearance to disembark we, Audrey and I and Maggie and George found a taxi.  Not a simple matter. First we had to choose a driver, then we had to negotiate the fare to the airport.  Then we discovered that our chosen driver did not in fact have a car nearby, so then we had to select another driver and the whole negotiation started again, but this time we put the whereabouts of his car as the first thing we needed to know.  Finally we were off, through the streets of Cochin.  There we saw our first sight of areas of obvious poverty – tiny shacks all crowded on top of each other – and a lot of litter everywhere – and of course people. There are a lot of people everywhere in India.  At the airport we caught our flight to Cochin on Kingfisher Airlines, on a propeller plane, to which we walked and then climbed up a stairway. The clock seemed to be turning back already.  The flight was fine, just over an hour, and we climbed down the stairs from the plane, collected our baggage (we had to book stuff in, because the airline didn’t allow ANY liquid to be brought into the cabin at all, so all our sunscreens and other lotions had to be booked in!) We were met by our driver, Alex, and a fine large air-conditioned Toyota car, which was to be ours for the nexct five days. We were then driven out of the city and started climbing along ever smaller roads for about two hours until we turned on to a dirt track which led us  to a most remarkable place; Hornbill Camp, Thattekkad. If that sounds exotic, let me tell you it was.  It is part of a group of Eco Lodges, Camps and Resorts, whose aim is to promote eco-tourism. From their brochure (which I look forward to sharing with you) I quote:  Hornbill camp is a perfect hideway for a nature lover.  The tented cottage allows youi to relax on the banks of the Periyar river and and enjoy the spectacular views of the Salim Ali’s bird sanctuary.  George is a bird watcher, lioke you Josh and Lin, which is why we were spending the first day here.  What nthe brochure didn’t say was how beautififul is is.  I fell in love again.I hope the pictures give you some idea. What the brochure also didn’t say was how hot and humid it was!!  But there were fans in the tents and by staying in the shade we survived – more than survived!  The food and service was wonderful, George enjoyed his special walk in the sanctuary and we enjoyed the beauty, taking lots of pictures, some of which follow.

There are more photos, but I have lots more to cover the rest of this fabulous holiday.

When we left Hornbill Camp, again with Alex in car, we then reaaly starteds to climb and climb and climb and  hairpin bend followed hairpin bend.  Finally in another couple of hours we came to Munnar, a town in the hill-country (more of which later) and then in another 20 minutes, driving through the tea plantations we came to ‘the bungalow’. Again it was the beauty of the place that affected me first.  By this time we were really high in the hills, mountains were all around us, the vivid green of the tea bushes covered the lower ground and the bungalow had been built in 1910, with big airy rooms, and dark wood floors, and lots of windows, and Stellar and Lovidor at the door to welcome us, show us around and make us a pot of tea.  And it was cooler – bliss!  More love at first sight. Pictures will say it better than words!

 

We spent three blissful days here.  Day one, we just explored, walked along the tracks through the tea bushes, day two Alex drove us into Munnar, where we bought this and that and were constantly overwhelmed by the friendliness and cheerfulness of the people.  Yes, it was chaotic, and dirty by N.American standards, but it felt a happy place.

It reminded me of how we felt about Eldoret in Kenya, David.  You would have loved it.  The only thing that irritated me a bit about that day was that Alex who drove us there, acted like a guard dog.  He kept wanting us to get back in the car to be driven half a block, escorted us across the roads, and hovered when  we went into a shop.  But of course he was just doing what he saw as his job and he is a dear man.  Pictures from Munar follow.

When I first asked the girl if I could gtake her picture, she giggled and ran back into the shop, but then she relented. Isn’t she beautiful?

I hope you are clever and can blow that last picture up because on the pedestal there is a statue of Gandhi under an umbrella!

On the third day Alex drove us all around the area. I bought some beads from a youing woman sitting by the side of the road.

We went to a market by a river, we saw a hydroelectic dam – everywhere there were people, dogs, litter – India.

 

 

 

We finally had to leave the bungalow and say goodbye to Stella and Lovidar. Although we had only been there so few days – we felt sad.

So off we went again back down, down, through Munnar, around all the hairpin bends, back into the heat and humidity.  A treat for us was that we saw monkeys in the trees at the side of the road and a mother and baby posed on a big stone.

We had another fabulous treat awaiting us. We went on an Indian ‘houseboat’.  We went onto a lake, and then through canals where we could see the houses on the banks, women washing their clothes in the water – they really do slap them on rocks – and eat the fabulous Indian food that the cook provided for us!  The breeze as we moved through the water kept us cool enough, but we had to tie up at the bank for the night and for a couple of hours, oh boy did we sweat!!  And all the bugs SWARMED onto the boat despite the fact that mosquito nets had been lowered. Immediately we were transformed into sweating, sweating bodies.  Yes the two `sweatings `are deliberate!  But we were saved by what else – modern technology!  At 8p^m the àirconditioning came on in the cabins, so we retired early!  My thoughts went out to all the happy people we had seen living along the banks.  No airconditioning for them. Pictures:

The last picture is of George on shore, buy local prawns.  DELICIOUS!!

Well, the next morning it was back to meet the ship at Cochin.  We wew able to spend a couple of final hours driving around and having our last on shore Indian meal.  That night we sailed and are now sailing the Indian Ocean, not all that far from MAURITIUS.

So it`s good-bye from me till the next blog.  I send lots of love to you all.  Wish you could be here to share this with me.

Lots and lots of love

Liz, Mum, Granny