Travels in Southern India

Bangalore and the Golden Chariot.

We arrived in Bangalore at the uncharitable hour of 1.30, flying in from Hong Kong. However the man from the Paul Hotel, where we were to spend two nights (or one and a half nights), met us and drove us the long and tortuous journey into town. I snoozed trustingly and when we were finally shown to our rather luxurious suite, I snoozed even more. A propitious beginning. I had received a text message from Kathy saying there was a mix up with her flights and that she was arriving 2 hours earlier than expected the following morning. Her tale of woe when she finally arrived was less jolly – a combination of major delays on Qantas, poor service (from Qantas) and rerouting direct to Bangalore meant a rather stressful beginning for her. On the bright side, the transfer for which she would have paid 85 dollars was replaced by a twenty dollar taxi trip.

We spent Sunday after noon exploring the rather dusty and developing (in a haphazard way) environs and then had dinner at the hotel. The next day, after a little more exploring, we went by taxi to the rather luxurious colonial Leela Palace Hotel where we enjoyed a lovely lunch before being bussed to our train, The Golden Chariot, which was to be our home in the next week as we visited the historic sights in the region of Karnataka.

We had taken a triple cabin as we had travelled together before and found it quite easy. The cabin was furnished in classic Indian style (silk bedspreads, wooden panelling etc) but was a trifle cramped for three largish people. Jack got the upper bunk as he has always expressed a preference for hard beds and it certainly fulfilled that requirement as I found out later in our travels when I had to take over that position: Jack fell from his perch, early one morning, landing rather heavily and dramatically on the space on the floor between me and Kathy. Fortunately, he suffered only soft tissue damage to the area around his ribs, but his previous sprightly leap from floor to bunk was now beyond him.

Food on the train was both western and Indian and the service as excellent. We had our own valet to look after the four cabins on our coach and to bring us wake up coffee/ tea in the morning. On our return from day time excursions, he was always standing to attention at our carriage door, turban in place and a cool drink and towel ready for us. We spent every night on the train except the second when we set of for a jungle lodge and safari. Sadly Kathy was stricken with a tummy wog so had to stay on the train bravely accepting the ministrations of our loyal valet.

The lodge was a pleasant break and provided more spacious accommodation. The most exciting moment was when an elephant, somewhat annoyed by our jeep, took it into his head to charge us. However man and technology won the day as we accelerated out of his path. Other wildlife spotting both from the jeep and from the early morning boat ride was without significant success although there was a leopard in a tree a long way from us and about eighth jeep load massed together trying to discern its shape.

One of the constant issues for us was actually understanding the extensive information that all the local guides heaped upon us. Distinguishing place names (Indian) from English as she is spoke in Karnataka posed a major challenge for everyone on the tour. AS a result our learning curve as far as the history or India and the complexities of Hinduism was remarkable shallow. But our knowledge of geography was extended.

We started in Bangalore at the palace of Tipi Sultan, whose dad, the general, in the mid 1880’s overthrew the Maharaja whose family had ruled the region for 24 generations. His rule (Muslim) lasted for 2 generations through 4 wars where the British (pro Maharajas) and the French (prop Tipi) joined in. Tipi, who had introduced some good reforms it seemed to me, was finally defeated after about 40 years and the Maharajas supported by he Brits came back into power.

The train took us then to the very impressive Mysore palace where the son of the Maharaja lives in the back quarters. After the lodge/safari break we returned to Mysore Palace to see it at night illuminated by the most astounding number (96000) of light globes on its exterior. We ate at an old colonial hotel where a sixteen year old dancer performed 4 beautiful dances for us each one interrupted unfortunately by a collapse in the electricity. She soldiered on bravely however. Then the train headed north west for temple time and Ancient Civilisations.

Hassam and Hospet both were the sites of ancient Hindu temples and our guides were astounding enthusiastic if not totally intelligible. Hampi, the site of the former capital in 1336, and dating from much earlier has extensive ruins that have been declared a UNESCO world heritage site. We tramped obediently through all three over the next few days trying to absorb the history and the complexities of the Hindu religion and decipher the guides' explanation. We climbed the 700 step path to the top, although the option of being borne up by palanquin bearers was vey attractive.

After all that culture and heritage, Goa provided a pleasant break. Kathy and I actually took a swim in the Arabian Sea and provided wave jumping lessons for a little Indian girl who was travelling on the Golden Chariot with us.

Then it was our final night on the train and a chance to say goodbye to the fellow travellers. It was an interesting group of people from a variety of backgrounds French, Belgian, Sri Lanka, UK, and the States. And of course a few Indian locals. We enjoyed the cosmopolitan mix: it added an extra dimension to the tour. We exchanged email addresses with a few so may be in contact again.

On to Kerala

We flew from Bangalore to Cochin that day, a flight of about 1 hour. At the airport, ladies were screened separately for security purposes, passing through their own channel. We had planned to travel by taxi to our hotel the Poovath, but the transfer we had cancelled turned up anyway so we accepted that. The next day the transfer folk picked us up at the hotel for the long and bumpy 4-5 hour ride to Munnar. En route we visited the Cochin Palace which is under repair, but still is a good example of how the Maharajas lived. Inside we saw the gold crown presented to the Maharaja by Vasca da Gama in exchange for access to trade routes.


Thence a four hour drive to our timeshare, Club Mahindra, 22 bumpy kilometres from Munnar, set in the idyllic highlands, complete with misty mountains and sculptured tea plantations in all directions.

Visit to the Spice Plantation

On our first afternoon, we were besieged by a variety of taxi owners and negotiated a visit to a spice plantation where we learned a lot about the various spices. Although we determined to retain this info, below is a synopsis of all we could think of when we got back to our rather large and comfortable 2 bedroom apartment, which overlooked wonderful green tea plantations cascading down the slopes of the hills.

Some Notes:

Pepper grows on a climbing vine. Green peppercorns can only be pickled. Normally peppercorns ripen to red on the vine, at which stage they are picked... If allowed to dry in the sun, they become black peppercorns. If the black peppercorn is skinned, the inside is ground for white pepper.

Lemon grass mixed with aloe vera makes good mosquito repellent.

Nutmeg mixed with honey is good for sleeping but is not to be used to excess or you don’t wake up.

Chilli is hottest if it is red and small.

Chennidad

Our second day was a long trip through villages and national parks on both sides of the Kerala/ Tamil Nadu border. Our final destination was a crocodile farm and dam. As the major reason for this excursion was to see wildlife, we wandered somewhat disconsolately along the top of the dam hoping to see animals coming down to drink at the water. Seeing goats and their herders wandering through the possible wild animal terrain and then a jogger dispelled this wish for us and we were beginning to think the long journey rather pointless. However on out return as night fell we saw wild boar, deer and elephants tramping one after the other through the jungle. And to cap it off, our drive was blocked by a large male elephant staring rather malevolently from the side of the road. In retrospect we found the day a worth while one.

We hadn’t really fulfilled our plans for shopping so on the next day we went to Munnar on the afternoon, driven by our driver of the day, Franklin. Munnar is a great town – not at all touristy: the major wares are the local produce: tea, coffee, spices, chocolate. We found some shawls and I bought a sari although I have no idea why. I guess it completed the pair as I had bought another silk one earlier. I guess they will go with my other Indian outfits – white and black dotis decorated with gold sequins. Sometimes I surprise even myself

We went to an exhibition of traditional Indian drama – a very noisy affair but quite interesting: my concerns that my coughing would be a problem were unfounded as the noise accompanying the performance was deafening. We had dinner in one of the local hotel, which boasted selling wine with its meals,

We enjoyed our peaceful week in Munnar. Kathy and I rode an elephant, and fed it whole pineapples as a thank you. They have amazingly tough mouths and tongues and seem to have an enviable ability to deal with roughage – pineapples, whole pm leaves – everything is processed with amazing rapidity.

The day before our departure, we were informed that there would be a general strike in the area and all roads would be blocked. We had to contact our tour company rapidly and bring forward our departure to 4 am – not a happy hour. It was a bit of a strain for our driver too – he had driven the four long hours up from Cochin arriving at midnight and then had top drive us back. We were able to sleep on the way but Jack, fearing the driver would follow our lead and drop off at the wheel sat tensely next to him driving every bump and turn in his mind, willing him to stay awake. But we made it safely to Allepey, stopping on the way to buy some fish at a very dodgy market and also to continue our mission to buy silk stuff again. At Allepey, we boarded our houseboat for a very relaxing trip on the Allepey backwaters. With a crew of 3 and our own private bedrooms, we were waited on hand and foot. A very pleasant experience.

We finished our Indian holiday back at Fort Cochin which turned out to be much more vibrant than we had at first thought. Lots of markets and some interesting sites gave us ample opportunity to spend a couple of lovely days. There were lots of shops selling a variety of Indian products. We bought four carpets to be sent to France as well as a variety of bits and pieces. Probably more than we needed but there you are.

We flew from Cochin back to Bangalore and thence to Hong Kong where we spent about a week before setting off to Vietnam.