Saturday, 23 December – At leisure in and around Thekkady

First thing in the morning, and Bethan relaxes in bed with a good book. She is getting very used to treating hotel rooms as home and is starting to get clear views about what she likes and dislikes about various ones. She is getting a very different set of childhood experiences from the ones I had - she is living on continent three already!



The cottages of the Taj Garden Retreat are set amongst lush gardens where spice, coffee and rubber grow.



Each building houses two "cottages", one upstairs and one down, each with a balcony onto the garden.



This turkey had managed to avoid the Christmas cull and was hanging around in the garden and drinking from the bowls of flowers.

No guide today, so between our reading of guidebooks and suggestions from our driver we kept ourselves entertained. Sreelish had evidently been asking around in town and came up with a couple of good suggestions.



In the morning we drove about 15km back on the route we came in and visited the Connemara Tea Factory. Surrounded by the tea plantations most of the processes and machines in this factory were straight out of 1900, or perhaps earlier. Many of the machines were driven by belts stretched along the factory.



We saw the whole progress of a tea leaf on its 20 hour journey through the process, from wilting to chopping, fermenting, drying and then its separation into many grades according to the fineness of the leaves.



I think this is the first factory Bethan has visited and the nice thing was that the process was completely understandable. The noise from the machines was impressive.

Again no photographs, but we took lots of the surrounding tea bushes instead. They must be worried that we will take these 100 year old processes and start tea production back in the UK. Roll on climate change!



In addition to the earlier christmas turkey I found this poinsettia in a hedge. How much would one this size cost at Sainsburys?


On our return to Kumily Sreelish had heard about a new born elephant (well, six or seven days old) so we gave Bethan a few “ahh” moments by visiting it. The owners were doing a brisk trade in collecting viewing fees.



After lunch Anne and I took it in turns to go for an ayurdervic massage at “Mayura” a recommended by Lonely Planet as well as people we met. For 750Rs each we got “the works” for 90 minutes and came away very relaxed and oily, despite the steam bath. This was my first experience of being shut into a steam cabinet, and you do start groping around for the emergency escape mechanism, especially when your masseur (a him for me, a her for Anne) left the room for a while.

The massages at the ayurdevic centre at the Taj were about twice the money and half the time, so go to the many independent specialists in the town – there are loads of them advertised.



In the early evening we went to a display of Kalarippayat, the Keralan version of Kung Fu. It took place in a pit, 45 feet long by 25 wide, with an audience of around fifty. About six “warriors” too turns to show various techniques off.

Whenever I have seen photographs of it you always seem to see two guys with swords leaping in the air on a beach, legs spread wide, apparently inviting a more conventional type of attack on the groin. When this form of combat was shown quite early on we thought the show was not going to be up to much, but there was much more as people fought with swords, spears and knives as well as bits of cloth and bare hands.



The show ended in one of them leaping through blazing hoops. Bethan was dead impressed.

Pizza at Chrissie’s café in By-pass Road. Pretty good. It is odd that, unlike most holidays when I want to eat the local fare, because we eat Indian at home, and I get Indian in the office, I now see trips like this as a chance to catch up on my pizza and pasta!

Friday, 22 December – Around Thekkady

I can recommend the breakfast buffet at the Taj Garden Retreat – loads of stuff and excellent as well. The notes in the herb garden are also amusing.



In the morning Rajesh and Sreelish took us on a tour of nearby spice farm. Rajesh, who had grown up locally knew his way around all the plants. Above Bethan gets to grips with cardomom - a major local crop.



Whilst we have been to other spice farms in Goa this one was impressively lush, with all the plants growing in a wonderfully mixed multi-culture. The above Robusta coffee beans diappointingly have no smell until roasted.



Pepper vines grow up anything vertical available.



Rubber trees provide the high canopy......



....and we followed the production of rubber through to the sheets that are then bought and sold and go to the factories.



We were warned off picking any of the vanilla pods due to the high value to the farm.



Jungle fowl were scrabbling around amongst the leaf litter.

From memory the other spices and plants seen included allspice, nutmeg, Aribica coffee, pineapples, ginger and turmeric - but I am sure you can only stand so many pictures of spice plants!



We then went on an excellent ride on elephant through the spice farm.



We had free time until a boat trip in the early evening. We popped into a café cum shop for a light lunch in Kumily. We then persuaded Bethan to have a “holiday sleep” for a couple of hours, which recharged all our batteries.



At four Rajesh got us onto one of the smaller boats doing the evening tour of Periyar Lake. Given that the reserve is excitingly titled a “tiger sanctuary” we had been warned that there is often a lack of wildlife around the lake. Highlight of the first half hour were some turtles on the shore, which I suspect the guides may have nailed there in order to avoid complete disappointment.



However, later we did see wild ox, deer, guar and wild boar as well as cormorants and snake birds– so we did have something to photograph.



Just none of the big stuff like wild elephants and tigers! We’ll have to go to Kabini on a long weekend from Bangalore as they are more often seen there.

However, we caught up on wildlife that evening when we closely viewed the world’s grumpiest family feeding at the Taj’s buffet. Not a please or thank you in site, terrible treatment of the staff and, to cap it all, the mother managed to intercept my pasta on its 5 yard journey from chef to table and get it loaded onto her already heaving plate through intimidation of the waiter. Words were spoken and I was so pleased when Anne managed to make sure her order was done “in order” and India’s Addams family were kept waiting for a few minutes – to their evident disgust.

Thursday, 21 December – Backwaters to Thekkady

The sun rose over more mud diggers plying their trade in the middle of the lake.



A slightly earlier start to the day was made with breakfast served whilst we were underway at 8.00am, heading back to Alappuzha.



We circled through the boat yards there and saw the many boats in various stages of construction.



The wickerwork superstructure frames only last a few monsoon seasons before they need replacement. This leads to a lot of work for the boat yards.



Luckily they are made out of locally grown organic materials so it must be one of the few 'green' shipbuilding industries. There are efforts to increase the sustainability and ecofriendliness of the boats and many of them now have solar panels for electricity during the day.



We then said our goodbyes to Debu, George and Joseph and return to Sreelish and the car on the dockside.



One last look back at our home for three days.

We had been wanting to go on a rice boat in the Keralan backwaters for years – I can remember seeing holiday programmes in the UK over ten years ago and feeling disappointed that we didn’t do it when we visited Goa.

It is a unique experience and it was great to have three nights on the boat – so many people we speak to only managed one. It is one of the best ways we have found to do absolutely nothing for a while.



In the car we popped into Alappuzha - Asia’s Frithville – and topped up on supplies. In particular, since we were headed for a Taj hotel we loaded up on beer to avoid the excessive charges we saw at the Malibar in Cochin. We saw the above reminder of home on the back of a local bus.

We then headed off inland for the four hour drive to Thekkady, up in the Western Ghat mountains. On this trip there is a fantastic contrast in the landscapes you pass through and the way the population uses them

First we passed across the coastal plain with its backwaters, rice boats and duck farms. After about half an hour of complete flatness the land slowly began to undulate and around the point they could count as small hills we entered an hour or so of rubber plantations.

Everywhere you could see the diagonal cuts on the trees and the cups they drain into. Interspersed with these were occasional groves of banana and coconut.

As the hills became higher we then crossed a line where rubber stopped and for several miles pineapples took over. Beyond that for a while coffee plants were sheltered by bananas and coconuts. On the steepest slopes of the Ghats nature did seem to just about take over with the local version of jungle, but mankind seemed to be making use of most corners of land.

As we got up to the top of first range tea plantations took over. These look wonderful, like carefully trimmed topiary. You can see the routes the pickers make pushing between the bushes, and they all have level tops at precisely the same height – the convenient height for pinching out the green shoots. It looks as if the hillsides are covered in rows and rows of yew hedges.

We took no photos on this trip – the mountains were hazy, so we planned for better weather on the way back.

Average speed up these twisting turning roads was around 35 or 40 kilometres per hour. One reason for the slow progress was the many coaches, cars and vans carrying pilgrims clogging up the roads and peeing all over the place. We were there during the 41 days each year when people (actually it is men only) can visit the Sabarimala Temple, up at the top of the mountains. Orange dhotis and pooja marks on foreheads were everywhere, and broken down cars from a number of southern states littered the roads.

We went over the top of the passes and then down a bit to Kumily, the main town near Thekkady and the Periyar nature reserve. There we checked into Taj Garden Retreat. I must admit to have confused this with the one in Kumarakrom and the picture of the cottages around a lake that I have previously blogged.

However, this one is very nice as well, with cottage on concrete stilts scattered amongst the trees, coffee and spice plants. As is traditional, first thing we had to do was get a bed made up for Bethan – will no one ever follow through this request we make every time we book!.

In the evening we briefly met up with Rajesh our guide for the following day. Bethan and I then played chess in the bar; we watched an Indian classical dancing display and then dined on an excellent buffet for only 450 Rs. What with that and 100 Rs for a beer the pricing structure in Thekkady is evidently completely different from that at the Taj Malabar!

Wednesday, 20 December – More Cruising the Backwaters!

Woke to the gentle sound of muddiggers preparing for a long day of diving for piles of gloop from the bed of the waterways. This needs to be done do remove the silt washed in from the monsoon and it gets used for reclaiming land. I have to say it is one job I do not aspire to, but it makes for some good pictures.



We seemed to be on the route to the local school. The end of breakfast was regularly interrupted by children asking “your good name” and then asking for “one pen” – we ran out of all forms of stationary and had to buy some more later.



Some childern go to school along the riverbanks - others are ferried across the water.

Iddli appam for breakfast. This seems to be rice flour put through a sieve so it looks like worms. Rather yummy actually.



Once we set sail we were soon at Thottappally Spillway. This is one of the barriers that hold the backwaters in and the Arabian Sea out. We parked up and then walked down to the beach where we watched the fisherman casting their weighted nets.



Returning to the boat we then headed up National Waterway No. 3 which runs back up through Alappuzha to Cochin and beyond. In a way this large waterway was not photogenic as the narrower routes of the day before, but there was more life occurring on the banks.

We started getting the hang of snapping the passing boats.

Sometimes you wonder whether you are being intrusive as you watch (and photograph) the way people’s lives revolve around the waterways – but then you can’t resist and get on with snapping away, albeit as discretely as possible. At least the many people waving at us made feel we were not being too intrusive.

As we approached Alappuzha we came upon several duck farms, including this amazing ‘duckherder’ with maybe over a thousand ducks being driven in front of him.



We motored past Alappuzha and returned to Vembanad Lake, where we had had our first lunch. Lots of other boats returning to the pickup point after taking people on one day trips - it was great to spend three days!

After a looping short detour out of the lake and back again we anchored up maybe 300m from the shore.

There we watched the sun go down over the 6km width of the lake, the last bit slightly compromised by cloud. Then Debu served up yet another excellent meal whilst the lizards around the lights ate well again. I can thoroughly recommend the catering on the “Lakes and Lagoons” company’s boats!

Tuesday, 19 December – Cruising the Backwaters

We awoke to this view. Evidently thinking we may have starved overnight Debu served up a huge breakfast – omelette and then appam and a sweet sambar, accompanied by huge amounts of toast



Bethan got into the swing of doing nothing. Anne and I were happy to mainly sit back and watch the world slip by, cameras poised. I can imagine that this hobby loses interest after a while if you are seven.

However, Bethan does appreciate time when she is left alone and not bothered much so, apart form getting into waving at the locals (she would make good royalty) Bethan happily disappeared into colouring, writing, reading “Black Beauty”, the occasional DVD (with headphones) and playing Narnia on her Gameboy. Occasional bouts of chess or Top Trumps made sure she got some human interaction over during the trip.



So, basically we spent the day continuing to cruise.



We stopped off to see one of the local village’s snake boats (a racing craft built for 100). Above is our boat moored up during a stop.



We then visited a the Cathedral and town centre in Chambakulam, including a wood carving shop that was doing an international trade in religious statues. However, the tourist bits are mercifully short allowing us to get back to the busy business of doing very little.



This area of Kerala has a strong Christian community. Above Madonna halps unload a lorryload of rocks.



Many houses have Christmas stars, although this was one of the largest we saw.



One of the advantages of having one of the smaller one-bedroomed boats is that you can go down some of the smaller backwaters, and this was the day when we went through some beautiful small waterways, some with rice paddies, some through villages. The big multi-bedroomed boats had to stick to the larger waterways.

We had to practice the art of photographing fast moving other rivercraft - rapidly changing focus and moving from window to window.



All life is centred around the water. As Anne punned, below is a river bank.



Often we saw vehicles being ferried across the river on lashed canoes.



We anchored up in a less cute location than the night before, partly because it was within broadcasting distance of the local temple’s speakers – but luckily they were quiet during the sleeping hours.

Another sunset! Yawn.



Very few bugs to bother us. More excellent Keralan fare from Debu, the highlight being Pineapple Pollichathu – excellent poured over rice. Bethan seems to have negotiated papads and chapattis with every evening meal.

Paradise if you are seven.

Monday, 18 December – Cochin to the Backwaters

We didn’t need to start until 11.00am, so a slow get up, breakfast, swim and then sorted out roaming on our Indian phones. Sreelish picked us up and we headed south to Alappuzha (or Alleppy as it used to be called) for a drive of about an hour.



We stopped off for supplies in the main town where one of noisiest temple festivals we have heard to date was going on.



We then drove to the east of the town and the back waters. We double took when we saw the first boat, thinking we had been conned, but it turned out it was just to take us out to our houseboat, which was well up to our imaginations.

Home for three days is about 40 metres long and around 5 metres. At the front sits the driver, an open air lounge for us behind (picture above), an air conditioned bedroom and bathroom at the centre, then a kitchen and then a crew area.



The crew looking after the three of us for the trip comprised Joseph the captain, George the engineer and Debu who is in charge of catering.

As is traditional we had the debate about where Bethan should sleep, but managed to arrange for a mattress to be moved into the floor of our cabin at night.



The entries for the next few days will be short as nothing much happens – but we do it in style! We sit in our armchairs watching the backwaters slip by. Above, people wait at a water-bus-stop.



Debu’s cooking is excellent – Kerelan fare with loads of coconuts in most dishes it seems. Portions are huge; there are regular extra snacks and few opportunities for exercise!




Today’s exercise was a ten minute stroll through a waterside village called Pulinkunnu and then over its nearby bridge.



We then watched the sun go down – perhaps at the end of this holiday we’ll be bored of the sunsets.



...but you just keep on taking more photos!



Our anchorage place seemed very buggy – no mosquitoes due to burning coils and incense, but lots of other winged wildlife. They mainly gathered around the light in the ceiling. This we discovered was surrounded by lizards that lived in the wickerwork structure who exist for the moment the light goes on (several ringed below). They stuffed themselves.



We were early to bed to escape the insects. There was one slight interruption in the night when the window was rattled on its catches by someone in a dugout evidently thinking of a bit of opportunist thieving. I banged the window and peered through the glass at them and they paddled off into the darkness.

What with cameras, GameBoys and computers some of these tourist boats have more on them than an average local family could earn a year, so I can understand the motivation.

Sunday, 17 December – Cochin

A 9.30 start and breakfast with excellent Masalla Dosas and a view over to Fort Cochin.



At reception we were met by our guide for the morning, Shagzil Kahn, who I can definitely say is the best guide we have met in India to date – he had all the answers to our questions and has guided previously for the American Ambassador and the Singaporean President. He was just back from the Saga HQ in Folkestone where he was being briefed about a planned series of “Grand Tours” through India for the UK’s crinklies.

We headed off to Fort Cochin with Shagzil and Sreelish, and learned the confusing and bloody history of the Portuguese, then the Dutch and then the British in Cochin. We saw the church where Vasco de Gama was briefly buried before being returned to Portugal. Near the church we also ran into this snake charmer.



Apart from the three cobras he also had a small python that Bethan managed to hold with no qualms at all.



The biggest photo opportunity in Cochin is the Chinese fishing nets. These apparently ramshackle structures are carefully counterweighted and can be raised and lowered by a team of around five. We saw them elsewhere around Cochin, but the top spots must be in Fort Cochin as you also get help (and money) from passing tourists.



We were enlisted as part of the labour force.....




These fishermen also volunteer to take your picture as part of your 20 Rupee fee.



From Fort Cochin we then made our way down to Matancherry (pictured below). Also known as “Jew Town” there has been a history of Judaism here since 587BC when many Jews fled here. There are several synagogues, the one we saw with beautiful Chinese tiles on the floor (no pictures allowed), but these traditions now seem destined to end. When Israel was created the majority of the Jewish population upped stick to the Promised Land and there are now only 13 old and infirm Jews left in town. It seems a great shame after such a long and continuous history in India.



The final tourist halt was the Dutch Palace – a palace built for the local raja by the Dutch for his help in the bloody overthrow of the Portuguese. The paintings on the wall were spectacular (no pictures allowed again!) even though they were not all finished. Since we had Bethan with us Shagzil did not think it proper that we saw the ladies’ bedchamber where apparently a reclining Krishna is keeping eight cowgirls very happy – as a Hindi god it must come in useful having six arms!

We asked Shagzil to recommend a place for lunch. He took us to Sri Krishna in Fort Cochin. For 151 Rupees we had a thali meal for five and there was loads of it. Compare that with 225 Rupees for a beer in the Taj! In disgust on the way back to our hotel we bought we bought two bottles of Sandpiper beer for 45 Rupees and smuggled them back to our room – we are rebels!



Bethan caught up on some much needed sleep for an hour and then it was time for a sunset cruise in the harbour. Cochin had originally developed around a port directly off the beach, but the Arabian Sea during the monsoon meant that was sometimes difficult. A storm in 1341 created a shallow inland harbour and some shelter.

However the harbour as seen today was the idea of a British engineer, Robert Bristow, in the 1920’s who raised funding for dredgers to deepen the access. Cochin is now very spread out with the different parts being reached by bridge or ferry. Willingdon Island, the long island formed from the dredgings (and now home to the Taj Malabar - above right) was named after the Lord who stumped up the cash.



The sunset was spectacular (aided by the red filter setting on my camera I must admit) and again the Chinese fishing nets were the centre of attention. Our boat was amongst several vying for best angle as the sun went down.



After the large (and cheap) lunch in Fort Cochin we went for dinner in the coffee shop. Our main criticism of the Taj Malabar would be the range of restaurants and the way they cater for vegetarian – probably the worst range we have run across in India. The place does seem to mainly cater for Brits and Americans, so their focus may be different from other places, but it is still surprising to find in India.

The Rice Boat, the best known of the restaurants, seems to be exclusively fish. The outside BBQ, which looked very nice, is apparently nearly all meat. The Thai restaurant looked lovely, but had no people and no atmosphere, so we didn’t go.

So, coffee shop it was.

Saturday, 16 December – Bangalore to Cochin

This will be a first – a holiday blogged whilst we are actually on it! My tabletPC has come with us, mainly as a way to back up the photos we plan to take, but since several of the hotels have internet connections we should also be able to update both our blogs as we go – saves all that tiresome ‘backblogging’ in the New Year!

So, sixteen days in Southern Kerala to finish the year off. We have done well for holidays this year – a week in Lyme Regis, two in Skiathos and now this one in Kerala. Christmas is one of the best times to travel in India – we will have to work out what we do in summer 2007.

The journey to Cochin on Air India continued our series of good experiences on internal Indian flights – Air India got in only about 30 minutes late on the 40 minute flight, and they had phoned to warn us about the delay. Bethan seems in love with Indian food on planes and polished the whole lot off again – where does she put it (the answer at the moment is ‘legs’ I think)?

At Cochin airport we were met by a very keen, but very new tour rep as well as our driver for the holiday “Sreelish” (at least that is what it sounds like to me). We rapidly realised that he knew a lot more English that the rep, but since he hadn’t gone to college to learn it he kept his mouth shut until he had disappeared.

The only function of the temporary rep it seemed was to check us into the Taj Malabar. As is now traditional, despite having repeatedly mentioned that we needed an extra bed made up in the room for Bethan, yet again we discovered it was not there. India seems insistent that Bethan should sleep with us, but once again, after several reminders, we prevailed.



In the couple of hours before we went out in the evening we had a quick swim in the “infinity pool” – the first of two on this holiday. Amusingly Bethan was at first rather disappointed that infinity was actually an illusion and that pool and sea were not actually joined.



That evening we were booked in for a Kathakali performance in nearby Ernakulum, the modern centre of Cochin. This is the famous Keralan art form combining dance and the stories of the epic Hindu legends. In line with the length of these epics the traditional form is held in temples, starts at 8pm and then goes on until dawn. Luckily we were booked in for just a taster.



Firstly we watched whilst one of the performers (playing Sri Krishna I believe) applied his makeup and then put on the lavish costume. Then another performer showed us the basic ‘moves’ – this mainly seems to involve wriggling your eyes around until it is uncomfortable for the audience (OK, I am over simplifying the art form slightly).



The performance itself involved music of the ‘bim-bam-ting’ variety and was about a demoness who fell in live with Sri Krishnam (SK), who was in the form of a prince (SK has the green face like all noble characters). The demoness transforms into a beautiful woman, but SK fails to fall in love with her. Then she ties to embrace him and SK, being of noble character, gets upset and angry about this. Finally she employs her demonly powers (mainly it seems by putting on a fake beard) and tries to force herself on SK who, as you do, cuts off her ears, nose and breast. So, all in all, more straightforward than Eastenders really.



Back to the hotel. Bethan was really tired after several late nights at the end of school, so pizza and beer in the room (good pizza for India actually!). We railed at the cost of the beer. You can get them for around 90 Rupees in the Grand Ashok in Bangalore and here Taj charge you 225!

And so to bed.

Going to School

One of the nice surprises we have had in coming to India is that we have actually been able to allow Bethan more independence. In particular, rather than the way we needed in Otford to escort her across the High Street she is now able to head off in the morning with her friends from the street to get the bus to school.

Above is the typical morning scene with Bethan, Chala and Stephen very slowly making their way to the pick-up point.

Just to prove how (relatively) bad the weather has been this week, Bethan claims the had to stay inside because it rained! Boy, winter is tough. She has also worn her fleece to school twice!

Saturday at the Bangalore Turf Club

On Saturday we went racing - the first time I have ever done this. Via the OWC we had tickets for the members balcony at the Bangalore Turf Club, a visible legacy of the Raj, although it seems also now popular with local punters (or railbirds as they are called).



Interestingly the BTC was front page news in the Times of India that day. The previous evening a leading horse had been pulled up and, suspecting race fixing, 2000 railbirds ripped up seats and stoned the weigh-in room. Police in helmets with big sticks were in evidence when we arrived, but there was no repeat performance on Saturday.

For our 750 Rupees all food and drink were free, so it proved quite good value. Cameron and Susan were there - Bethan was round at their place playing with Pheobe. I proved myself a lousy punter and my 100Rupee bets on 7 races were pretty much money written off - if there is a next time perhaps I'll drop to the 10 Rupee lower limit.



The afternoon nicely continued the earlier horsey theme of the week. On Tuesday Anne went riding and, according to Tara from Taunton, the instructor, somersaulted off her horse when it started to buck after being spooked by a monkey. Luckily nothing broken, only bruises. Nasty animals I say, horses and monkeys both.



…...And continuing the turf theme, in the evening we went to a party at Debbie and Simon's, just south of MG Road. The party was up on their fourth floor roof terrace, complete with a lawn in the sky. All the usual suspect present and a good pre-Christmas time was had by all. I had fun photographing the disco ball whilst we all tried to get the lads running the music to TURN IT DOWN! Indians do like twiddling their knobs - which leads on to another story worth blogging, but not now.

Sunday at home sorting stuff - and probably the worst day's weather we've yet seen in Bangalore - grey and blustery. Even tried to rain once - actually had jeans on as the cut-off trousers might have been a little chilly. Does your heart bleed?

The Grand Ashok’s Christmas tree

Dropping Barry back at the Grand Ashok the other day I saw they were decorating the conifer on their front lawn. This was being done by three guys draping bags of cotton wool over the branches.

They were working on the lower section when we were there, but I want to know how they got up to the top, and how many died in the process?

Foggy Bangalore

In LA everyone used to say “Ah, foggy London” whenever you said where you were from. I think they had got this impression from watching too many BBC Dickens adaptations on Masterpiece Theatre. They seemed quite upset when we denied it was.

Well, now it is “winter” in Bangalore we are actually getting up to some fog as you can see from these shots out of our back window. Don’t fret for us though. It is still quite warm and after 30 minutes or so normal service is resumed – see below.

Magic carpet buying

On a mad spontaneous whim, whilst actually looking for a chess set, last weekend we talked ourselves into buying two more Kashmiri carpets. Although we don’t think the quality is quite as good as the one we got in Goa, the price was much better and, as always, the process of buying them was good fun.

At one point the whole of the shop floor was covered bay about 30 carpets with three guys happily pulling out more. Tea was had, and Bethan wants to go back to work there as she claims to like rolling carpets up.

We ended up with two six by four carpets which are the first bits of colour we have got for our bedroom, which has been looking a bit stark until now. As always, Bethan had to do a photo shoot for the staff.



The chess set is also very nice

Bizarre bazaar

On Saturday 25 November we went along to the OWC’s Christmas Bazaar in the grounds of Bangalore’s Catholic cathedral. Up to that point the thought of Christmas had not really crossed my mind. When we were in LA the weather was all wrong, but at least everyone was going on about it. Here you lack both cultural and climatic clues.



Well, Christmas is evidently very much up and running, but I have just not noticed it creeping up. The sun beat down (unseasonably bright actually), Santa gave out presents, children dressed up as angels and wise men sang, people bought all kinds of stuff they will probably regret later (or the people they give it to will anyway) and lots of money was raised for the OWC charities.



Bethan had a great time. For 20 Rupees a time she made cards, stuck cloves in oranges, made wreaths and generally did Christmas stuff as well as ‘hanging out’ with Hope, Pheobe etc.

Not a minced pie to be found, but the samosas were pretty good.

The Kerela Itinerary

No, not a bad book by Robert Ludlum, but a blow by blow account of the trip we plan over Christmas and New Year. Thanks to our travel agent Ravi Shankar (not the Ravi Shankar) for putting all this together:

December 16: Bangalore to Cochin: Arrive at Cochin airport where you will be met by our Tour executive and transfer to The Taj Malabar Hotel. In the evening experience the traditional art form of Kerala – Kath Kali.

December 17 : Cochin: After breakfast move to old part of Cochin where you will be visiting the Dutch Palace, Jewish synagogue, St. Francis Church, Santa Cruz Basilica and Chinese fishing nets. Also the antique and curio shops and spice souks on Market Road (Jew Town). In the evening enjoy the sunset cruise.

December 18: Cochin to Alleppey: After breakfast proceed to Alleppey and check in to the exclusive house boat by 12.30. Have lunch on the house boat, and then cruise through the narrow canals and lakes. Boat will be docked on the water by 18.00 with overnight stays on the house boat with dinner.

December 19 and 20: House Boat: In the morning after breakfast, cruise through the lakes & narrow canals. Leisure & relax in comfort at your exclusive house boat. Overnight stays on the house boat.

December 21: Alleppey to Thekkady: After breakfast check out from the houseboat by 09.30, and proceed to Thekkady. Check into the Taj Garden Retreat. Tea and cardamom plantations welcome you. Here you will find sprawling tea, coffee, and rubber and eucalypts plantations side by side with natural grasslands and pine forests. And also you can find wide world of the wildlife in Thekkady.

December 22: Thekkady: After breakfast proceed to see and enjoy the natural and wildlife heritage of Thekkady and a boat ride on the splendid Periyar Lake is the best way to experience the sanctuary.

December 23: Thekkady: Leisure & relax in comfort at your resort.

December 24: Thekkady to Alleppey: In the morning after breakfast check out from the resort and proceed to Alleppey to see and enjoy the wonderful beach resort, The Beach at Pollethai.

December 25, 26, 27, 28, 29: Pollathai: Leisure & relaxation in comfort at your resort.



December 30: Pollathai To Kovalam: After breakfast check out from the hotel and proceed to Trivandrum. Check in to the Taj Green Cove. An afternoon of leisure and relaxation in comfort at your hotel.December 31: Kovalam: After breakfast proceed to city sight seeing where you can see the Sree Padmabha Swami Temple form the 11th Century, Napier Museum, Sree Chitra Art Gallery, with its collections of the paintings of Raja Ravivarma, Zoological park, Kuthira Malika Museum and Priyadarshini Planetarium.

January 1: Kovalam: After breakfast proceed to Kanyakumari which is the southern most tip of India and the meeting point of the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The sightseeing includes Vivekananda Rock Memorial, 133 feet Thiruvalluvar Statue, Kanyakumari Temple, Gandhi Memorial and Kamaraj Memorial. It is the only place in India where sunset and sunrise can be seen from one point. On the way the other famous sightseeing not to be missed is Padmanabhapuram palace, a well-preserved wooden palace with extraordinary murals, exquisite floral carvings and the black glossy floorings.

January 2: Trivandrum to Bangalore: Departure transfer to Trivandrum airport.

Images sourced from all over the web. Soon we'll have our own pictures!

Read'em and weep

After the wet weather of a few weeks ago, things have finally settled down. Can't quite work out what the "20% precipitation means though".

We do get a bit of fog at night, but I am trying to cope.