Friday, December 30, 2005

having one of those days

I'm feeling a little frustrated and a little stressed out at the moment!! I know, I know, it's kind of weird being stressed out when you've been on holiday for almost a year but the pressure is on.....we've got less than 3 weeks left and we want to make sure we make the most of it before heading back to reality! It also probably doesn't help that the Keralan coast is not that fantastic and we are SURROUNDED by tourists looking like they haven't seen the sun in a year who've come straight off their charter flights on their 2 week holiday over christmas and new years. I'm not being a travel snob but it's not the travelling experience that we're after on our final few weeks.

Although, we had an awesome time cruising around the keralan backwaters in our funky houseboat for a couple of days. We went straight from Munnar down to Allepy to organise a houseboat which was a bit of a hassle - peak time, prices all hiked up 3 fold, loads of tourists and about 250 boats (un)available. Found a boat by luck due to a cancellation - a 2 bedroom wooden and palm leaf woven cocoon all to ourselves and with 3 staff to cook, drive and clean for us it was all very luxurious! All we had to do was laze on the lounges and cushions and watch the coconut fields, rice paddies and village life unfold (ie: women washing/doing the laundry/bathing etc and men sitting around having chai/fishing). We also hired a small narrow boat and sat on cane chairs like we were out on an safari while a guy navigated us around little canals with a bamboo pole. He claimed that Paul McCartney and Heather Mills hired his boat last year which was an entertaining romantic thought but yeah, took it with a pinch of salt.

Then from Allepy to Cochin - tourist ville central. It's fairly interesting.....the chinese fishing nets where you can buy fresh fish and have it cooked as you like in the little stalls along the seaside, the portugese and dutch architecture, the jewish quarter, the spice market.....it's all good but just too hectic for us.

So we're going to head out of here tomorrow, escape the crowds and go north via Calicut where we will spend NY, then to Wayanard Wildlife Sanctuary.....headin' inland where hopefully there will be less ppl!! A few days hiking and wildlife spotting there before heading to Mysore, Bangalore, Hampi and up to Mumbai avoiding the Goan coastline. That's the best plan we've come up with for the moment so fingers crossed it'll be awesome!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

a Very Munnar Christmas!

I was so homesick the first time I ever had xmas away from my family! I missed mum getting stressed out about the food, chilling out with dad, sis and lil' bro on the sofas while watching dvds with the a/c on to keep us cool from the 40deg heat outside, then rushing off to our extended family xmas gathering with all my titos, titas, nanay, cousins, cousin-in-laws and all my little nephews and lil' niece. The titos would sit around drinking chivas, the titas and nanay havin a goss and experimenting with 'midori and lemonade' (hardcore), the little ones running around like crazy, and my cousins and I having a laugh, drinking and eating till our stomachs hurt. Then we'd all have kris kringle, something we've been doing for years now and which always reminds me of a funny little incident with our cheeky nanay (something to do with picking out names from the hat...wink, wink....we know!!!!).

After the excitement of opening our gifts we'd watch all the little ones rip open their presents. I always love watching this! Then, we'd continue throughout the night into early morning, with nanay and the mums keeping the enormous buffet topped up in between competitions on the karaoke machine. After the dads have sobered up, we'd head home in the early early morning, drift off to sleep and on xmas morning open presents with mum, dad, bro, sis and partners underneath our xmas tree before having breakkie and lounging around for the rest of the day.

This xmas instead of our usual party of 50 or so there's 3 of us - dave, myself and lops - up in the tea and spice plantations of Munnar. Our cottage sits on the highest peak and overlooks the plantations below. We've decorated our little hut and we've set a budget of 100 rupees (that's 3 bucks!!) to buy each other presents. I bought dave a skipping rope. Then we're going to head to a xmas do here with a huge indian curry buffet, bonfire, games and bollywood disco! Hopefully get to win a couple of games.

Happy holidays everyone and a very merry xmas to all!!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

you haven't been to India until.....


They say that you haven't been to South America until you've been robbed or mugged. They also say that you haven't been to India until you've had a severe attack of the runs, dehydration and vomiting.

Well, feels like I've been to India and back at least a dozen times in the past 24 hours. Ironically, after 2 months of eating and drinking everything from the streets without any problems, I got food poisoning from THE fanciest and poshest restaurant in Pondicherry!! It would've been OK if I got sick from the food on the streets...at least it would have only cost me 5 rupees (15 cents)!!

In the height of my paranoia I thought I was coming down with meningococcal disease so we asked the hotel to call the doctor. He was the cutest man ever. He came bumbling in, all grey haired and rotund with a huge white streak of ash painted across his forehead. He'd just been to the temple to offer puja to his sri baba. "Do you know him? Here is Sri Baba", he says showing us a picture on his round silver key ring. Really surprising. I didn't expect a picture of a bloke who looked like a throwback from the 70s with an enormous round afro. Anyway, he was fab and confirmed that all I had was food poisoning and that I didn't have a serious, life-threatening disease.

So, now I really don't feel like eating anything or drinking any wine. A whole week in Pondi and I can't indulge. Bugger!

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

wine, seafood and the south


Aaaaahh! Smell and feel that air! Sticky, hot and humid. Noice.

We're in the south now. Couldn't handle the cold of the north any longer so we jumped on the next flight out of Varanasi (scary, dodgy domestic airline via delhi) arriving late in Chennai for a night before driving down to Pondicherry (a french/indian seaside village) the following morning, a few hours south for some fresh air (well, not as polluted), wine and seafood.

It's rainy season though and luckily the cyclone heading this way decided to head further south. Still, it's back to wearing shorts....well, for Dave at least. Even though ppl say it's more relaxed in the south than the north (and easier for women), you still get stared/gawked at by the men (eeew!) so I'm sticking to my trousers and long sleeves. Have yet to find a salwar kemeez that I like. Luckily there is a FabIndia store down here as well as a boutique from Auroville with great western/indian fusion garments so will check it out.

Plans for the week in Pondicherry: A bit of western comfort including, but not limited to...

* Having a glass(es) of wine! Being a french colony there is plenty of wine and french cuisine available and at very low taxes.

* Eating lots of seafood

* Check out Auroville, a village 10kms out of here based on the concept of human unity

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

I love you

I'm cringing with embarassment......

We just gave a quick call to Adam and Nicole to congratulate them on the birth of their baby son and it all went really well apart from the last bit when I had to pass the phone onto Dave and instead of saying "Love to you both" I ended up saying "Love you!" to which Nicole replied awkwardly that she loved me too. Doh. Am hoping she was still delirious from child birth to forget.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Goodmorning sunshine

Just watched sunrise over the Himalayan range from the rooftop of the Rhaniket Inn snuggled in a blanket and sipping mugs of steaming chai. I can see Nepal on the right, the pass into Tibet and the 4th highest peak in the world......

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The lunatic driver and his guru

Still in Uttar Ranchal and luvvin it even though it's freezing. We met 2 american girls during our rafting trip down the ganga river that we got along really well with. The following day all four of us decided to go for a mammoth walk together in search of a temple up in the mountains behind Rishikesh. One of the guys at Red Chilli Adventures drew a little map for us but we ended up getting lost anyway (turn left when you get to the tree...??!). We only had a litre of water between us and 4 Parle-G biscuits but occasionally we'd walk through someone's house or bump into someone herding cattle so they'd fill us up with masala chai while we tried to figure out where we were.

Finally we found the village and the temple but by then the sun was setting and we had no way of getting back into town apart from walking back in the dark. Luckily a guy had just driven his guru up to the temple and was heading back down so we ran over and begged for a lift. All four of us, cramped in the back of his ambassador, were scared shitless for the next hour by the lunatic driver who thought he was in a formula one race and amused by his barefoot grey-haired guru dressed in orange who kept singing and clapping along to the blaring music completely oblivious to the threat of careening off the mountain. Had to cut conversations short with the race car driver who would continually turn around and have a chat, offer cigarettes/food/etc or hack outside the window and generally not focus on driving the car. So, whilst I was able to appreciate the view and the sunset, most of the time I kept repeating slogans off the side of the road - "Life is Precious", "Speed thrills but kills", etc - hoping he'd catch on and slow down.

Anyway, we made it back down alive. Dave said that he wasn't worried cos who'd ever heard of a car nose diving off a mountain with a guru in it?