india

Well, here we are in India, been here for two weeks and have tried to send messages to Mark to put on the web page but twice now I have lost the message after over an hours work. The infrastructure here is overtaxed, consequently email is painfully slow. Takes up to 15 mins to get a message.

We have completed our first trip and are back at the coast in a very comfy hotel next to the beach and good surf to play in, feel at home now. But this was not the case when we first arrived flying into Frankfurt airport a shining stainless steel and glass building the epitomy of clean Europe and the thought running through my mind whether I really wanted to embark on yhis foolhardy venture. This feeling was heightened when we entered the departure lounge to see a sea of brown faces all on their way to Tamil Nadu. The arrival in Madras was heightened further when we left the terminal in pouring rain to be surrounded by folks without shoes all puddling around in wet trying to help us, humanity to the horizon. What a shock! Brown faces lungees and flip flops seems quite normal, it is surprising how comfortable you quickly become. Yet still cautious, folks are very helpful all trying to make a buck but my sense is that there is little maliciousness.

Our stay in Madras was pleasant, mainly because we were staying at a good hotel trying to get up on the learning curve. Unfortunately we went to the world heritage site to the south of Madras, a series of temples careved out of solid stone and missed seeing the fort which has a good museum of raj stuff. We did see hte church inside the fort which is a part of England, could be in a village in hte Cotswold, plaques on the wall comemorating the lives of third generation Brits in India. Would have been nice to spend more time there.

Our trip to Kerala was excellent, flew on Jetair, first class service and flew into the airport over a coconut fringed, white sand beach. Looked very enticing. Made our way to Kovalum about half hour to the south , settled into the hotel on the beach and immediately found the beach next door, empty with a pineapple seller and a young lad who found a boogie board for me to hire. Had a great afternoon and the next day as we waited for the rest of the bunch to arrive. In the meantime I picked up an ear infection and made my first visit to see an Indian doctor who straightened this up, a very surreal experience as he peered into my ear with a flashlight and an even more surreal experience as I tried to pay for his services, him refusing to say what the fee was simply asking me to pay what it was worth. Of course the conversation went around and around, quite a normal occurence we are finding.

There are nine in our group plus the leader who is a young New Zealand girl on her first trip solo. Four are from the UK, four from Canada and a biologist from Louisianna. And we have seen an amazing amount of stuff on the trip. If this is typical of Explore then good things lie ahead. However we have just heard that our fourth trip has been cancelled and we are casting around to see what to do. Will deal with that later, but our leader has been very helpful faxing back to the UK to sort out the options.

We have spent time among thew backwaters by the coast and up in the mountains so the experience has been varied. The most enjoyable was the day and night was on the house boat [converted wooden freighters used normally to ship sand, rice, coir and almost everything that comes from the land here]. The folks that thought this idea up were quite smart since they have hit upon the typical needs of westerners in a manner that seems so untypical. The boats have two bedrooms [some more] each with their own bath and a very pleasant lounge area at the front where we sat and drank beer as we put putted down the waterways attended by a crew of three who went out of their way to show us life in the backwaters, even to see rope made as a cottage industry. This is a trip that is a repeat for the west van neighbours, so bloody civilised an culturally informative. As part of this we also stayed overnight with a family in a small village of 15000 people, all rice farmers and associatedv activities. A nice experience reinforced for me to see the form of the village created by the functions there in an almost pure manner.

Our trip up into the mountains, about 6500 ft altitude, introduced us to rubber and tea plantations. The tea stuff was particulerly impressive for me cos I managed to talk my way into the regional office of the tata tea co to chat to the director or ops an Indian guy, Syrian Christian called John Thomas. The name reminded me of an old rugby song but he reminded me that St Thomas came to Kerala in 190 AD and he good trace his roots readily. The tea plantations stretch over valley upon valley and appear like a velvet carpet with routes through for the pickers. Tata is a conclomerate here who are into many industries, Mercedes trucks under licence for one, but John pointed out to me that Tata have just aquired Tetley teas in Canada to extend there vertically integrated operation.

So what are our impressions of India. Firstly the surplus of manpower, guys seem to be everywhere, hanging around or selling stuff. Overwhelming. The other is a voyage along any road where every conceivable form of transportation is fighting its way to its destination, all hooting, not to say get out of my way but that I am coming through. Traffic three or more abreast, an impressive sight especially when you are amongst it in the tricycle. And perhaps the lack of maintenance on almost every thing, sidewalks that no one walks on because they are too dangerous. And we are beginning not to see the garbage now.

So we press on to our next destination. Goa we will miss cos the train connections just do not work for us in the time we have. Instead we will take the fast train to Bombay, air con third class. Or at least that is the plan. As you know nothing is for sure here unless you have done it.

Dear All: This comes with many apologies for not writing to your personally. We have more or less given up. Kerala as a province must have the worst email connections anywhere. The equipment looks good but the phone lines are so slow that it generally takes 20 min plus to access one of your messages. I tried to read a Mary Hunter message this morning and after 30 minutes, it still had not come through. So, to date we have not read all of your messages but thank you for them, we should be able to do better in Bombay nest Wednesday and Thursday. The tour has been great so far. Kerala is a beautiful and scenically varied state.. we have had all sorts of great experiences, particularily as our group was small - 9 poeple only, with a young and enthusiastic guide who was doing the trip for the first time too. We still love the curries, the people are so kind and helpful. I have sent most of my clothes home and have 'gone native. Luckily for me, I have been able to disuade Gary from doing the same. He is into aerivudic (spelling is wrong) massage. He is also into Beer - I am drinking lashings of lime sodas. No cider here and I just cant learn to like beer. We are currently spending 5 days in Kovalam, Thompson Holidays from the UK does run tours here starting early November. Until then we have the wonderful surf beaches to ourselves and a terrific room for a nominal cost. I hope the rest of the tour is as good. Thank you all for your messages. They are extremely important. Keeps in touch..... please and bear with us in our slow responses.

Lots of love, Mary

We are in Delhi about to go off on our next stage of the trip into Rajastan. Yes, we got here by train but only just since on the afternoon of the evening we were about to travel our train ticket was not reserved, "not to worry" the agent said "we will just pay the man". well the reservation did turn up and we boarded the Trivandrum to Delhi and beyond Express, "the fastest train in India" found our berth in third class which comprised one bed cum seat over the other in a compartment of a hundred or so and as the train drew out of the station our meal was ordered "would you like veg or non veg" the man said in Malayalam, a language we now know fluently. It all appeared on a tray just like aeroplane food.

And of we rushed into the night, climbing into our berth just like the rest. Apart from a minor disturbance where the train was stopped by a group of women who were standing on the standing [they were moved off by the police and as the train moved off we were all warned not to stand by the gate and keep all doors closed we trvelled through the next day into the evening after getting early morning tea, breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner, all with the veg non veg option. These Indians sure know how to travel by train. We all got on like a house on fire, all listening to a Sikh who expressed his opinion on everything to everyone as the train rushed through the countryside.

We arrived, two hours late at a place outside of Bombay or Mumbai as we Indianophiles know it called Panvel, at about ten in the evening and learned that it was two hours by train into the city. A taxi we thought only to find that there were none, but we were soon taken aside put into a tuk tuk and driven to the edge of the city where we were put into a taxi and got to our hotel, a 900rupee fare in total. We discovered that we were in the middle of the Divali festival, the Hindu celebration of the lights, in effect New Years Eve.

Our next day in Mumbai was spent with a happy taxi driver who drove us around seeing stuff. This seems to be the best way of "visiting" and our guy was very helpful where we saw amongst a lot the city ghats where guys, hundreds upon hundreds of them rent a washing trough and do washing like any other entrepreneur. The amazing thing is how the stuff gets back to the rightful owner but we were assured that there is never a problem. Apparently the same scene is played out with the tiffen boxws which are wonderful stainless steel cans that carry lunch and are delivered to folks at their workplace, delivered by bike.

Perhaps the best part of the day was the visit to Ghandis house near to the Colaba area which contained the story of his life, it seemed to follow the film quite closely. The house was a wonderful two story affair, probably built by the british with lots of airy balconies on the second floor. The other place we enjoyed was the museum that had a lot of photographs of early bombay when the land between all of the islands was reclaimed, the railways built along with all of the rest of the infrstructure and the major buildings. A bit of the Raj story that I came to see. The end of the day ended up at the Taj Hotel and the Gateway to India built to commemorate George V visit to india in 1911 when he held the Delhi Durbar to signify the joining together of all India, ironicxally to be partitioned 35 years later. Our meal that night was out of the lonely planet at the Delhi Durbar, yet another one, there must be one in every city around the world. It was a graet meal out of the Muglai tradition and as luck would have it we were the only westerners there. Went home feeling content after a good day.

We flew to Delhi and over the past two days have been trying to adjust to the dichotomy here of old delhi and new delhi. The first part we saw was New Delhi where the hotel is, a community of wide treed boulevards, bungalows and the Rajpath an enormous celebratory way between Delhi Gate,the war memorial to the first world war dead and the parliament buildings. All of this was designed by Lutyens and for a minute or two I thought I was in Welwyn Garden City, the Englishness of it all is so impressive. Saw Inhira Ghandis home and Nehrus, real treats to Indiaphiles.

However the visit to Old Delhi was a contrast, tight alleys and housing conditions that I have never seen in my life before. All of this was overlayered by the continual barrage of tuk tuk drivers telling us where we should really be going, since they could not understand why we would be walking and young kids begging for money. Gosh it is so difficult to stay calm and not shout "chalbag" at them. Patience is a neceeity here!

And so tomrrow we move on with the group, 18 in all, one of two Explore trips into Rajastan travelling seperatly. Our group seems to be the colonials and the Yanks, some six from Aussie and a handful of Brits. It looks promising since a lot hinges on who you are travelling with. But right now I will get back to the hotel for my early morning swim, stuff up on the included buffet breakfast then wander some more, getting money [a major excercise here if you rely on atms] visiting Gandis memorial, drinking lots of water, bracing for the tuk tuks and the evening meal which is a group affair. Not before the happy hour in the hotel which is the first oasis we have found in India.

It is mid afternoon here in Pushkar, the streets outside are absolutely jammed with people all milling about. The village has swollen to about a quarter of a million people who are here to celebrate a Hindu religious festival , others to buy camels and then the "foreigners" The people range from hairy holy men to tribal village women and red faced folks who are here to watch it all and buy bargains in the stalls and bargains they are. It is interesting that today I asked Mary how she would describe the place and she did so sensually; colurs, noise, dust, heat while for me it was events such as the rajastani folk festival last night which was perhaps some of the best music I have heard in a while and reminded me of the Vancouver folk festival this year when we saw the rajastani players, I am expecting them to appear on stage tonight, lets hope.

Well we are about two thirds through our second tour and are enjoying but we find that the tourist pressure on the place a bit of a downer mainly due to the pervasiveness of folk wanting money or to buy stuff, it all makes Kerala so much more delightful. But then this is Rajastan the land of magnificent fortified towns, beautifully dressed women and of course fine music. The food we find less spectacular, not quite up to the standard of the stuff in Van. Buffets seem to be the thing and as a consequence less good we find. The group is about 18 strong and all in there own way rather bizarre which may be a characteristic of Explore groups. There are 4 Aussie women who are buying their way through the land, two single Americans one of which drinks only orange pop for breakfast and wears cut offs {think he hates the food except for chicken tikka which i guess is the nearest to barby chick he can get] the other buying chess sets at every avaiable opportunity and of course there are the poseurs. Not sure where we fit in but I feel sure we are there amongst them, but all in all they are good fun and a pleasure to travel with. Our leader is a great girl from England who was sent out at the 11th hour cos the previous leader had to return to UK. She is doing a great job which says something for the Explore back up and the quality of their resource material which she has to rely on. We miss the fine detail that we would otherwise have had.

Part of the trip was the camel safari, 3 days and 2 nights on camels walking and occasionally trotting across the desert [ really sand and scrub with some tree cover, not like the Sahara version] We are supported by vehicles which supply the tents and guys who make the food as well as bring our bags which makes it a bit unreal, I would have happy for us to carry the stuff with us on extra camels and set up camp ourselves but guess that to be a bit optimistic with our crew some of whom have 3 bags each plus hand luggage. The support crew is led by a guy who refers to himself as the major, wears white including jodhpurs and lounges about on a mat with hand held out clasping a cigarette waiting for one of the boys to light it. But then this is India where everyone has a part and knows how to play it.

The fortified towns are absolutely spectacular as are the havelis, the merchant houses, in fact all are not describable in a manner which I could undertake. I found them breath taking and I was absolutely gob smacked by the palace in Jodhpur built in the thirties as a new home to entertain overseas guest. A building 700 ft by 400ft , four storeys tall with a massive dome all designed by Lanchester, lucas and Lodge the british architects that I remember as a kid. Imagine the fees on that. The building is still occupied by the family and the other half a luxury hotel run by his own foundation.

Our travel by bus each day is always a big topic of discussion of the group. Road behaviour is not imaginable where everyone controls the road and then give up at the last moment. Chicken I guess it is called. Mary is of the view that vehicles can have bald tyres, poor clutch and broken suspension but it is imperative that the horn works so that it can produce 200 hundred beeps per minute. Apparently the bus driver tells us that it is the law for every vehicle to blow their horn when they are about to overtake, a soft noise intown and loud one in the country. And of course the roads are full of trucks busses, cars, scooters, bikes , pedestrians, taxis of every description, cows camels and so on.

And so I brace myself to go outside again, everyone around me are complaining about the slowness of hotmail on the machines, apparently Yahoo is the system that works here as the young lad who runs the place darts around trying to placate every one as I type offline and then have him get it all on line. Outside the street is jampacked, tonight is full moon and folks are getting ready to celebrate with a dip in the ghats at five in the morning . But we will be on our way the next fort.....its beginning to get much like France where all of the cathedrals start to look alike....

Gary.

This is our last day in India, the others in the Rajastan group have gone their various ways and our mind turns to Indonesia. Returning to Delhi is a bit like returning to a place that you know well, it seems familiar but of course not really. The cultural gap is absolutely enormous and I believe it impossible to be at home here. What the Raj must have felt during their time here is unimaginable, yet many stayed for generations.For example there was a wedding in the hotel last night, lots of people and celebration, fun and by eleven oclock it seemed all over but at four this morning there were amazing noises of folks shouting in Hindi outside of our room, it went on until nine and the amazing thing was is that it came from the rooms not the corridor. There must have been dozens of men in every room along the corridor chatting at triple volume. What was it about?

I asked the folks on the trip to give me one word to describe India. They said....diverse, schizophrenic, experience, squalor, frustrating, awesome [that nasty word] cacophony, chaos, teeming, disfunctional, unfulfilled, untapped, colourful, eyeopening, vibrant, smells, friendly, cheap, inventive, and multifarious. They are all essentially negative, interesting I think, must have been due to a bad day on the bus.

But when asked what they thought was the most impresive thing they had experienced things turned a little more toward the positve,

• the simplicity of the desert people.
• chicken and chips.
• being on the camel in the desert.
• care of people toward animals particularly their camels.
• The view of Jaiselmer as we approached it from the desert.
• the Sikh temple in Delhi.
• the people, their stoicism, gentleness and friendliness.
• what the Amber Fort was when it it was first built and that it has been allowed to decay.
• the majesty of the forts and palaces and the simple repititions of everyday life.

But not a perceptive view I thought. But there are many questions:

How is it that a muslim church can be built in the boulevard of one of Lutyens most beautiful roads in New Delhi so that every one has to walk into the road and into the traffic to pass by.

Why are there so many staff in restaurants, especially hotels yet it takes so long to get food.

How did the road culture develop to the point where every one overtakes every one else and at the last minute the weakest capitulate, usually the guys on bikes or in small cars, but everyone stops for an animal.

When will the rain come.

Why must you pay for beer separately from the main meal in small restaurants, in cash, yet everyone acknowledges that the law is being broken. In one case the beer appeared as another rogan josht.

Why are there so many people sitting around, usually men yet there is so much pollution in the city streets.

Why is it that women in saris who dig the ditches.

Does the dowry reinforce the caste system, even though folks say that the caste system is on the wane.

Why are boys the ones who go to school in Rajastan and the girls remain illiterate.

Is infanticide of girl children in the villages practised widely.

And the list goes on, but it is a truly an amazing country which will remain with me for a long time. Perhaps the sense of the place can be felt by the sign we saw in a wildlife park in Kerala.." take nothing from here except nourishment for the soul, consolation for the heart and information for the mind".

Tomorrow Bangkok.