MissTtravels

Huge day.

Today we saw in the wild the following:

A leopard

Elephants

Spotted deer

Langurs

A serpent eagle

We are staying inside the Bandipur Nature Reserve in the Western Ghats area of Karnatka state. The resort is called Windflower, and the rooms are absolutely beautiful.

Today we were taken by local guides inside the tiger reserve. Unfortunately we did not see tigers. It was so beautiful driving around in clean, cool air in an amazing forest. Hopefully the following pictures will speak for themselves.

A very full day.

We came outside to find some monkeys on the play equipment!

We set off in our van to visit a tea plantation. We learned a lot about how tea grows and how it is picked. Also about how the different parts of the tree are used.

Then we went to the factory where they process the tea. I have been drinking tea all my life and have never really known about this.

Tea is picked, then withered, then crushed, then dried, then sieved, then fermented. Smells amazing at every stage.

All so interesting. Then we got to try tastes of different teas: black, green, spiced (chai), peach and honey, and various others.

Next we went to the train station in Coonoor, and caught a little old train up to Ooty, the highest of the hill stations. Really fun.

We passed beautiful little hill towns with brightly painted houses.

Arriving in Ooty we had lunch in a hotel and then visited the local botanic garden.

I managed to get hold of a piece of the local embroidery, quite by accident. I think my eyes must be really tuned into textile stuff.

The local tribe is called the Toda, and they have been doing black, red and white embroidery for centuries.

I really like being able to buy pieces from the people who made them.

Back the guesthouse for dinner and bed. Lovely and cool up here after the heat of Cochin.

A day of travelling. Up early to catch to the train to Coimbatore. About 4 hours travelling through tropical farmland and a few towns.

Reaching Coimbatore, which must have the longest railway station platform in the world (we walked miles), we picked up our van and went off for lunch. We had a thali, a South Indian dish with rice and lots of little pots of sauces and vegetables.

Back on the road we twisted and wound our way up to Coonoor. We are staying here for two nights. The road was quite spectacular, with forest and tea plantations along the way. Also monkeys. We are now in a protected biosphere area, where animals are allowed to roam free. There are wild elephants, a kind of bison, and big cats. We have been warned not to go outside in the dark!

Coonoor and Ooty were hill stations established by the British because the climate is cool here in the summer.

First day travelling with my new group. Again, we are eight women with a female guide! This time, I am far and away the oldest (by at least 20 years). Age range of the others 25-45, at a guess. Aussie, English, German and Chinese.

We set off on foot and then caught a local bus to tour the city of Cochin. The city is set on 9 islands, and we are on the one which was once fortified by the Portuguese. Cochin was subsequently occupied by the Dutch and then British, so a mix of architectural styles.

We first visited Mattancherry Palace, or the Portuguese Palace, which was built in the 16th century to appease the local Hindu rulers. Amazing teak ceilings and beautiful wall murals.

As we were leaving we came across the beginnings of a Hindu festival (they have 10000 of these in Kerala in a year) with elephants. A bit distressing to see them used in this way.

Next we visited the Jewish Quarter to see the Cochin Synagogue, the oldest in the Commonwealth. Originally built by settlers from Europe in the 16th century, it is still in use. There were up to 20000 Jews in Cochin at times, but many who were here after Independence moved to Israel in 1948. The Synagogue still has services for visitors.

I have never been in a synagogue before.

Next we went to the Cathedral of Santa Cruz, but could not go in as there was a wedding going on. We visited the church of St Francis, which had an interesting history, having first been built by the Portuguese and then becoming Protestant under the Dutch, and Anglican under the British.

It’s great claim to fame is that it was the original grave site of the explorer Vasco da Gama, who died here in 1524. His remains were later exhumed and returned to Portugal.

After the churches, we went down to the seafront to witness a peculiarly Kochi thing. They have these huge frames which enable fisherman to drop large nets into the channel using a weighted cantilever system, and then easily lift them back out again. Seems to work well, but they did not catch much. Fascinating.

We spent a bit of time trawling around the shops in the Jewish area, but there was nothing exceptional and it was mostly overpriced tourist stuff.

Back to the hotel for a nana nap…

About we went off in our tuk tuks (they are actually called “autos” or “metros” but everyone says tuk tuk) to see a dance performance. We saw traditional Kathakali dance. It is a weird combination of eye movement, mime, hand gestures, dance, singing, and drumming. The performances tell traditional Hindu stories about kings and gods. All the performers are men. The costumes and make-up are part of the ritual. Apparently the traditional performances can go for up to 9 hours, but ours was only about two.

Fortunately there was lots of explanation and commentary. You would need to know a lot more about it to fully appreciate it.

We went to a local restaurant for a fish curry dinner. The fish is cooked inside a banana leaf. Yummy.

Update on Day 19:

Last night we had dinner at Moti Mohal Delux, the restaurant where they supposedly invented butter chicken. It was walking distance from our hotel in South Delhi.

Exceptional.

Day 20 began with packing up and checking out, as the textile tour was ending and we were going our separate ways.

We spent the morning at the Indian National Craft Centre. There were exhibits covering painting, sculpture, textiles and many other kind of crafts. It was a perfect way to finish off.

Some samples:

It was all set in beautiful gardens with calm music playing. Lovely.

I did serious amounts of shopping.

We had a delicious modern Indian lunch in the cafe, our last meal mostly together.

I left the group at the next stop (pashmina shopping) and got a taxi to the airport.

My flight to Cochin in southern India was uneventful. Arrived a little late.

I was picked up by the people from my next tour, and had a long car ride to the hotel.

Cochin is warm and tropical. My biggest impression from driving in last night deliriously tired is that Cochin has a lot of Christian churches, which I have not seen in other parts of India.

More later….

Relaxing with a chai before going out for our final group dinner.

Today we packed up early and headed for the train station, leaving behind our beloved Khandela Haveli.

We got a porter to move our mountain of bags into position to get on to the train for Delhi. Absolutely chaotic, but we made it.

Really comfortable train journey. “Executive Class.” About 3 hours. Mostly spent dozing.

We were served an incredible huge breakfast.

Getting off the train at Delhi Cantonment station, we secured a female porter, who miraculously got us to our minibus unscathed. Again, chaos reigned. SO many people and vehicles everywhere. Traffic is tediously slow.

We proceeded to an unexpected pleasure. Sunita took us to visit Qutub Minar, a 13th century tower and mosque complex built by the first Moghul (Afghan) ruler of Delhi. It was built on the site of a much earlier Hindu temple, part of which remains. Both are exquisitely beautiful. Really stunning.

The tower is climbed by 376 steps, but is now closed. Approximately 5 storeys tall.

The minar is set in park-like gardens. In the middle of the chaos that is Delhi. So often around the world, conquering heroes have chosen to destroy something old and beautiful to assert their own authority. This is such a case.

Later we had a really yummy lunch in a cool modern restaurant before arriving at our last hotel for this tour.

We are off to dinner shortly. Delhi weather is cooler than it was 2 weeks ago, but the air feels cleaner.

A bit behind on blogging but here I go catching up.

Yesterday we travelled to the village of Bagru, outside Jaipur, to meet a leading exponent of the art of block printing. Suraj Narayan is internationally famous for his natural dyes and original designs. We looked at his museum, and thoroughly enjoyed watching his team at work.

Of course, we had to stop in the shop. Many more metres of fabric were added to the stash. Syrah’s family made us chai, to finish off a lovely morning.

A side note:

in India you often see people shaping cow pats to use as fuel. Suraj uses lots of boiling processes to make his dyes and treat his fabric, so he has big piles of cow dung drying in the sun. I love how you can see the handprints in them.

In the afternoon, back in Jaipur, we visited the City Palace, where the Maharajas of Rajasthan still live. The part that is open to the public is amazing.

We had lunch there in a cute cafe.

Totally amazing building. Very lavish and highly decorated. Also amazing that they still live there. When not off playing polo or at one of their other homes!

Excellent displays of weapons, showing centuries of military ingenuity, and of textiles, showing they wore on their bodies and kept in their home.

Dinner in the hotel again.

A day of wonders.

In the morning we were driven out of town to the original capital of Rajastan, a town called Amer. Along with thousands of other tourists, we exchanged our bus for some 4x4s, and were driven up the steep incline to the Amer Fort.

The scale of the place is incredible. Built inside a 10m high wall, on the crest of a hill, it was clearly an excellent defensive position. The spaces and palaces inside are also amazing.

Stunning place. It took a couple of hours to see it. I don’t know whether it is the thing itself or the incredible location that is most amazing.

However, I felt harassed by the hundreds of hawkers selling souvenirs. Really irritating. First time I have noticed this in India. There is a real skill in ignoring them.

A bumpy ride back to town.

On the way down we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant, and had excellent North Indian food.

We visited the Anokhi Museum, which is dedicated to the preservation of the block printing techniques used on fabric here. Really lovely museum, beautifully curated. Added greatly to our knowledge. There were also live demonstrations of block carving and printing.

Sadly the museum also had an excellent shop.

Back down in Jaipur, we went retail raiding on the jeweller recommended by Sunita. A glorious experience with much purchasing.

Later we went to more jewellers and other shops in the main bazaar, and had loads of fun. Literally shopped till we dropped.

We started out a bit later today. We are leaving Lucknow on a night flight so had to pack and check out.

We visited another of Lucknow’s architectural marvels, the Bara Imambara. It is a huge complex of buildings built in 1784 as a famine relief project. The local Nawab of the time kept the project going over time by paying the poorer workers to build during the day, and paying the richer ones to tear it down at night.

Quite magnificent. The meeting hall, built as a memorial to the assassinated grandsons of the Prophet Mohammed, contains the grave of the Nawab. It is also the largest room in an ancient monument in Asia.

The style of architecture is called Indo Saracen because it contains elements of local and Persian design.

There were thousands of tourists.

We had a picnic lunch in a park, sitting on the steps of another mausoleum. Sunita decided we needed to try the best local biryani, so she got us takeaway. It comes from a little stall called Idree’s. It was good, but I am beginning to understand the difference between mutton and lamb.

We were running out of time, because we thought our flight was at 7.30.

We did a quick raid on a shop in the Chowk section of Lucknow to buy some examples of Chikan Kari embroidery. As usual, we trashed the place. This is the local way: sit on the floor and bring out piece after piece to show.

This is what it looks like:

We then got back in the Spice Bus, and started our trip to the airport. Total chaos. We arrived very late, having been delayed by traffic and the bus overheating, to find that our flight to Jaipur was delayed anyway!

I have wanted to come to Jaipur ever since seeing “The Best Exotic Mangold Hotel“ years ago.

We arrived at a normal modern airport, and drove through a clean and modern city centre. Spice Bus number three.

I was about to be very disappointed (hoping for faded grandeur of Old India) when we arrived at our hotel in the old quarter: a restored mansion every bit as pretty as the Marigold. Absolutely gorgeous. My room is on the ground floor and is certainly the prettiest hotel room I have ever had.

A later start.

We drove west out of Lucknow to a village called Mohaan to see people working on traditional Chikan Kari (pronounced “chicken curry” ) embroidery. It is a small agricultural village which relies on seasonal crops such as mangoes. Along the way we passed through a pottery village.

First we visited a house where women were working on some linen garments designed by our tour leader Sunita.

The designs are stamped on to the made-up garment using a block-printing technique, and then embroidered by hand using traditional stitches.

Chikan Kari is also done on silk or cotton for saris.

We then visited a house where a man was hand-beading a sari. His daughter was helping. Apparently it is traditional for embroidery involving gold or silver thread to be done only by men who are Moslems.

Really beautiful fine work. It was being done on a polyester sari, which seems a bit of a waste.

They were working with the sari stretched on a large frame, seated on the floor and with very poor lighting. The beads are gathered on a very fine punch, and the thread is run along underneath. Apparently they earn about $60 for the completed sari, and it takes about 4 days to complete.

The village ladies then made us lunch, which was pakoras cooked over an open fire. We sat outside on the roof. Really fun and delicious.

We were a big sensation in the village. All the little kids came to get photos taken, and just to watch us.

It was a nice change also to see the animals in the village being so well looked after. They were being fed and watered rather than being allowed to wander around randomly, which is what you generally see here. We saw chickens, goats, water buffalo and dogs. Many of the animals had healthy looking babies. The goats were wearing clothes!

Apparently the money coming into the village from the embroidery work is really helping the economy. The kids all go to school, they eat well and new things are being built.

On the way back Lucknow, we stopped for tea at a beautiful hotel Clark’s Inn. Clearly a hangover from the Raj, it is a gorgeous space and a real contrast to where we had been in the morning.

We had a bit of a break in the afternoon. We had planned to do a bit more shopping, but the traffic was terrible.

In the evening we went to another posh hotel, the Taj Mahal Lucknow. We had a lovely dinner featuring Uttar Pradesh local cuisine.

Really beautiful venue. Great food.