When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language correctly, -- as that a sentence must never end with a particle, -- and perceive how implicitly even the learned obey it, I think: Any fool can make a rule. And every fool will mind it. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)
Hello Travelers! Looks like India is turning out to be quite a beautiful adventure. I am loving all the photos!
I have been crazy busy with work which is a good distraction because I broke up with a guy I've been seeing since August. I allowed myself one day to cry and be sad and eat pizza, buffalo wings and ice cream and then I moved on...sigh Lol. But I have Winston who loves me unconditionally...or until his turkey bacon runs out ha ha ha.
It's been cool in the mornings here and then warm all day. Very much like when we were in La Penita/Guayabitos! Grandma...I have attached pics for you xoxo Love to all Ayn
Hello The Sisterhood! Just a very quick note to send along a few snaps. Have to leave for the airport shortly. Was up at 5:00 am to make Lady Mary a cup of tea and now it's my turn for the shower. Love ot one and all, Cheers, Patrizzio, Favourite Son-in Law, Father, Devoted Husband!
Pics: Cleopatra on the houseboat; her dashingly handsome crew; fountian in our hotel courtyard last night; friendly hallway gecko' jasmine flowers on our bed when we came back for dinner, orchids earlier!
Day 13, Field Report: Monday, November 8th, Kochi-Bangalore-Mysore!
Woke up at 5:04 am although I had the alarm set for 5:15 am. Put the kettle on to boil and took a look at my messages before making Lady Mary a cup of tea and preparing my own brew of Instanto. Mme Coriandre had a quick shower while I finished my last minute packing. When she was out of the bathroom I showered myself. While I was so doing, the early morning cook brought us a fruit drink, almost a smoothie, and pieces of fresh mango, pineapple and watermelon. Shortly after 6:00 am we were ready to go downstairs. Lynne and Peter came out of their room
Just as we were leaving ours so we descended the lovely staircase together. The hotel manager, an extremely pleasant man we’d met the night before, was there and we chatted amicably until Hanife arrived. The cook had also prepared each of us a small bagged lunch, a cheese sandwich with two pieces of fruit, an apple and an orange, one of bartender Dom Jugos’ “limes”!
We were outside the hotel by 6:15 am and Hanife was nowhere to be seen, although the van was parked across the quiet street. We had agreed to meet at 6:30 am so he assumed we wouldn’t be there much before that, if not later! Anyway, a few minutes later, he walked across the park and after our bags were sowed, we waved goodbye to the lovely hotel staff and made for the airport.
The roads were surprisingly quiet for a Monday morning and we were soon speeding along the highway, (First time I had seen road bikers, four, three wearing helmets.), crossing a number of long bridges, noting the flotillas of drifting water hyacinth, (some almost completely choking small backwaters), towards Kottayam, a very large, prosperous looking city, with a massive, and I do mean massive, double tracked, metro train project, supported on gigantic concrete pillars, often towering almost twice as high as SkyTrain. From what we could see, it ran from downtown towards the airport but stopped short of the last bridge we crossed to get to the latter. Found out later that the government simply ran out of money before being able to take the line to the airport.
A representative of Luxe India was waiting for us at the airport and after taking a number of group shots with Hanife, we thanked him for taking such good care of us, tipped him, and wished him well and a safe drive, (13 hours), back to his home in Chennai. The rep made checking at the Indigo counter a breeze and he somehow managed to arrange for them as what had overweight bags, (I’m pretty sure that I was right on th e weight restriction, 15 k for a checked bag, 7 k for carry-on, so I m pleased that I’m finally learning to travel more efficiently. Even so, I know I have brought along more clothes than I need.), to ot have to pay any surcharge. Delighted that it had all gone so smoothly, we thanked the most helpful rep and went through security.
The airport is a fairly small, regional facility so not a very large waiting facility, although most comfortable. I spent the next two hours, or so, working on my backlog of entries and before I knew it, it was time to board. Had an interesting chat with a young man, while lining up to have our boarding passes checked, who is a basketball coach for one of the National teams, an under 16 women’s team, I believe. Our conversation was cut short when he was told by an Indigo staff member, after presenting his boarding pass, that he was in the wrong line-up! A hurried goodbye as he scampered off to correct departure gate! Pretty uneventful flight. Plane was full but reasonable amount of seat space so not uncomfortable at all. I was more than happy to read as I can hardly put down The Narrow Road to the Deep North. I noticed Jugos, in the seat behind us, was having a good snooze, mouth agape, but not drooling!
Only about 50 minutes in the air. No Frills flight, so felt lucky to score a cup of water. My bag was the second to appear on the carrousel but had to wait a bit for rest to arrive. The Sisterhood took the opportunity to visit the loo while their minions waited. Once we’d collected the rest of the baggage, we went outside the terminal and and were met by Luxe India’s Bengalaru, (Bangalore), representative, a Mr. Singh, (“Yes, Sir, I am having a number of relatives in Vancouver, Sir.), and our driver Sunil. Was a pleasant 24 degrees when we landed, although it started to rain fairly heavily once we were on the freeway. Absolutely gorgeous landscaping alongside the divided highway, clusters of small palms with low hedges surrounding them like small ponds and other immaculacy manicured plantings. The city, form what we could see is perhaps the most westernized we have encountered so far. Huge billboards advertising, mainly in English, condo developments, (“enclaves” seems to be a term widely used), from Singapore to New Dehli, and closer. The ring-road is muh like any system we are familiar with back home or in Europe. Although the traffic flow is not nearly as chaotic as that out of Chennai, the steady rain makes things a bit more exciting. Apparently there is a low over the Bay Of Bengal and according to Sunil we are facing a cyclone over the next few days. For now, we don’t mind the rain as we’ll be in the most comfortable Force, our second van of the same make. Again, according to Sunil, Luxe India modified it from a 12 passenger to a 7 passenger so the seats are larger and more comfortable, a bit like captain’s chairs. I’m riding shotgun. Great view but I have to endure the nasty comments from the overly critical, non-stop back seat whiners!
In a traffic jam at the moment, “a horrible signal”, according to Sunil, a major intersection of a number of national highways leading into the city. Onto a service road, at the moment, bumpy as many of the roads in Tamil Nadu, I assume to try and side-step the bottle-neck. Sunil just pointed out a Lithium, the only eclectic car in India. Looks a bit like a tuk-tuk on streoids or a slightly elongated Smart Car, carrying two adults and two children. Rain has not really let up so going is perhaps slower than it might ordinarily be.
About 1:45 pm, Sunil stopped at Kamat, traditional vegetarian restaurant, where we were served a wide variety of dishes, (scoops of lentils; diced cucumber and onion in yogurt; spinach mixed with a variety of spice leaves), a large, deep-fried, banana-like pepper stuffed with something delicious, (“mida” a powdered seed of some sort, if I understand Sunil correctly, but I’ve no idea what family it belongs to.), and a cake-like square made from brown rice, with mango pickle and coconut chutney condimentii, everthing dished onto the large banana leaf placed in front of each of us, together with corn roti and a mixed seed, (6-7), papad, a mini-papadum, I think. Plain rice for them as anted such. I scored most of Cora Lee’s pepper and all of Lynne’s so I declined.
Peter and I had coffee with milk, a tasty cocncotion of the type we first had, on the street, in Madurai, and the meal is served with glasses of buttermilk. Curd, with sugar if one so desires, for dessert, as well as a dish of tasty ice-cream garnished with diced, fresh fruit. Sunil ate with us and bill, for 5 was about $5 per person. We all had more than enough and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the experience. To tell you the truth, Dear Reader, it was refreshing to be the only Westerners in the place, surrounded by people eating with their fingers, my preferable style, anywhere! Back to the bus, thanking the very pleasant, helpful hostess who had earlier assured Mme Coriandre that wheat was not used in any of the dishes.
Back in the Navigator’s seat again and first city, Channapatna, we drove through, after lunch, is famous for its wooden toys. We saw much evidence of large, colourful rocking-horses at many of the roadside stands and shops. Also passed a government sari factory and earlier on a government cocoon factory so silk is an important industy in Kanataka, Now about 65 km from Mysore, and have been, except for a few short connecting detours, on well-paved, four lane divided highways ever since leaving the airport. Next city, of note, was Mandya, The Sugar City, with seven cane processing mills. I asked Sunil if we could substitute three temples for one sugar mill but he wouldn’t bite!
Entered Mysore, proper, just after 4:00 pm and will meet our guide at the temple we are to visit before going to our hotel, another Radisson Blu, unfortunately. I say “unfortunate” as although this is an extremely comfortable chain, it lacks the charm of the ones we’ve adored in Pondicherry and Cochin, per esempio. Perhaps there will be an Elliptizer so that will make me happy. At any rate, rain has let up so nothing more than a few drops. Trust it holds off until after our tour.
Near the bottom of the Chamundi Hills, (1065 meters above sea level), on the close outskirts of Mysore, we stopped to pickup our guide, Ashoka, for the tour here. We drove to the top of the hill where we disembarked to visit the Chamundeshwari Temple. "The temple was named after Chamundeshwari or Durga, the fierce form of Shakti, a tutelary deity held in reverence for centuries by Mysore Maharajas, embodying the active feminine energy of Shiva identified here as Tripura Sundari or Parvati." The temple grounds are filled with all manner of stalls and booths, most of the vendors selling offerings to be presented to Parvati inside the temple. Smaller than all of the temples we have visited, to date, it is, nonetheless, extremely impressive. Monkeys abound, having become habituated to being fed, mainly bananas, by the pilgrims who flock here. Numerous cows roam the grounds as well and one must pay particular attention to where on steps, particularly after leaving one's shoes in the appointed holding place, for a modest 10 rupees, in order to enter the temple with bare feet. The silver plated doors, leading to the temple, were like nothing we had seen before, so were more than arresting. For the rest, we have already become somewhat familiar with temple rites and architecture so much of what we saw was much more understandable than it had been.
Given the size, the visit was accomplished fairly quickly, without giving it short shrift, however. Peter wished to return to take another look at the inner shrine and after we had done so Ashoka insisted we make another complete, clockwise circle of the inner courtyard, as this is the prescribed direction one takes. We could have taken a short-cut, so to speak, but the saving would have been trivial and violated the understood order. Had we had to do the same in Madurai, at XXX, we would have needed at least half an hour to accomplish the walk. Here it took but less than a few minutes.
Back outside to enjoy the monkeys scampering over the lower statues of the temple or else begging for food, sometimes very aggressively, on the large open area adjacent to the temple itself. back to our van to be driven a short distance to alight, once more to view Nandi!
No comments:
Post a Comment