South India - week 1

So I finally managed to update my blog yesterday with the first week of the trip.  Now to start on the rest but I think I will keep this briefer you will be pleased to know!!

We arrived in Kerela state and wow – what a difference! Its like a beach resort I guess but in India of course! We arrived on a Sunday so it was quiet everywhere but was well needed after the loudness of the north.  Our Hotel was cute, but the beds were like sleeping on the floor! Soooo uncomfortable and we had to stay there for 2 nights!!

All the hotels have hot water problems and out of the 14 days I have been here and probably 2 showers a day most of the time, I think I have had about 3 or 4 hot showers L

Kochi is a lovely seaside town.  You walk around without being hassled and people are just going about their day.  Its beautiful as well with the famous Chinese fishing nets that we saw at sunset.

The next day we walked around and saw all the local sights but the synagogue was closed :-( 

We had the afternoon free to do some wandering around and I picked up a couple of nice tops, a bag that has already broken and a “coral” necklace whose dye came off on my neck!!!  I only spent about £10 on all of it though J

That evening we went to watch the traditional Kathakali dancing – it was an interesting experience!!

I've tried to upload some photos of it - but its not working so i'll move on and hopefully get them on to facebook or something.

The introduction to what it all meant was quite interesting however before that we spent an hour watching them put on their traditional make up – it was cool to see it but me and some of the other girls got the giggles as we were a bit bored after a while and then got told off as its part of the performance!  So the explanation of the difference movements was really cool as its done a lot on freaky eye face and mouth movements, but then once they were in full costume we watched an hour and a half and it was a tad long for something you didn’t really understand what was going on.  Yes I know I sound so uncultured!!

After that we drove up to the Mountains – the Nilgiri Hills or Blue Mountains – it was beautiful and scenic – but again a long drive!  We got there quite late so all we did was have dinner and a campfire that they did for us (very strange!) however it was amazing how much cooler it was in the mountains – I actually needed my fleece in the evening.  The hotel was amazing though as we had a huge antique double bed (thank god I knew Kelly for a week and a half by then lol!) that was about 4 feet off the ground

again - tried to upload a photo and its not working.  very annoying.  i'll carry on!

The next day we visited the tea plantations and got to see the process and taste some different teas.  After that we took the scenic blue mountain railway up to Ooty – it was only 2 hours late arriving at the station J  Unfrotuatnely because it was late I think it went a little faster than normal so we got some good sights but it wasn’t good for photos.

Getting really annoyed now as none of my photos will upload :-(  What i'll do instead is leave in a note that i put when I typed this about what is SUPPOSED to be there as a photo and you will have to imagine an amazing thing or wait till i can post an album!!

Unfortuantely because the train was so late we arrived at the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary late in the day – we were supposed to get there to do an afternoon safari at 4 or 5 but instead it was 6 pm – not too bad but the sun sets really quickly.  We got to see plenty of deer and then some slightly tame elephants being bathed in the river in the daylight and then we spent ages searching after the sun had gone down for the other animals…..we were lucky!!!  We saw wild elephants and baby elephants right by the road eating – it was such an amazing sight.  I didn’t take any photos as I didn’t want to use the flash and scare them and didn’t think they would come out without it – but I have my amazing memories!!  We also managed to sort of see Sloth Bears and some more deer.  It was a great experience.

So our accommodation at the sanctuary was basic – we did have a western bathroom – however it didn’t look like it had been cleaned in months – trust this place to be one of the only places with hot water but it was soooo gross I couldn’t bring myself to use it – a baby wipe wash it was too be!  Then before going to bed I found a cricket on the curtains – I had to try and capture that in a jug and put it outside.  I got into bed – another hard one and found an ant on my manky pillow and the sheets look so gross I decided to get the sleep sheet out and use my fleece for a pillow……..the next morning we were greeted with an enourmous cockroach!!!  I was quite pleased to get out of there – you never know – my trip might be shorter than we all think if I find I have to pay more for my accommodation!!!

Photo of wildlife sanctuary

The next day we travelled to Mysore and visited the palace which was amazingly beautiful and definitely one of the best sights we have seen.  Over a couple of days we saw some good sights and a fantastic local market.  One of the evenings our guide Bani wanted to take us to an Indian discotecque – we were expecting an interesting experience but didn’t bargain for a completely empty club where we were the only customers! 

Photo of disco

Next we had our sleeper train – the thing I really wasn’t looking forward to.  I have to say that it works to expect the worst and then you can’t be disappointed – it was actually fine!!!

The train was really quite clean (well apart from my sheets when I got them out so out came my sleep sheet again!)  We had the open berth carriages where you have 2 rows opposite each other with 3 bunks and then another bunk at the other side with 2 bunks.  Its like in a U shape.  You don’t have privacy really but it was ok!!  We stayed up till quite late and then the beds were actually a lot more comfy than some of the hotels we had stayed in!  I got a reasonably good nights sleep so was pleasantly surprised.  We were told  you can’t smoke on the train so didn’t at first then our guide said that as white people we can open the door of the train and stand by it and smoke out of it (whilst the train is in motion!) me and laura considered it and then the guard saw us, told us we can’t smoke there or in the carriage, but we can smoke in the toilet!!!!!!  We decided not too, but then 30 minutes later decided to give it a go – the smoke actually made the toilet smell a hell of a lot less so apart from suffocating have only smoking a bit of the cig it was ok!!!

Photos of train

Now we are up to date, yesterday we traveled down from Chennai to Mamallapuram, another seaside town which is relatively quiet.  It was Diwali so a great day to come!  Our guide organized us to visit a local village to have lunch with a family – it was great as not part of the internary but when we mentioned it and we were up for it – he sorted it out.  It was actually friends of his as he is from Chennai and they were affected by the Tsumani as they are really near the ocean.  In Mysore we decided to all go out (well most of us) to get saris to wear on Diwali. It was great, we all sat on their floor and had banana leaves with a thali style meal – the only problem was it was soooo spicy and they made a chicken dish  and the bit they served me was pink so I coujldn’t eat it!!!

Photos of village

After that we had our afternoon free so spent it in the hotel pool!  Fantastic!!!  The beds here are amazingly comfortable too however still no hot water!!!  The cold shower in the day is fine, but in the morning – not so good!!!

Tody we had a 2 hour cycle ride to visit some more…..wait for it…….temples!!!!  I actually preferred the cycling to the sighseeing but it was still good.  We got back pretty early so now I’m bathing myself in 35 degree heat by the pool.  Now I’ve finished typing this I’m going for a dip and then following by uploading this and some pics to the blog.  Tomorrow we have a 7.30am departure from here for a very long bus ride………………..