Kevin and Linda in Kerala

November 29:  Kerala is in the south of India, over 2,000 km from our tour of Rajasthan.  We flew down there from Udaipur the same day Sue and Brian left to return to NZ.

We landed in Cochin, which was an interesting combination of scenery and history, quite lush and laid back but a humid 33 C. We liked it. Now high in the Western Ghats (5,000 feet above sea level) with New Zeland-like temps and lovely accommodation set up among the treetops.

There's a nationwide strike action against Mr Modi so no driver today but we have have been for a forest walk to look at cardamon and coffee plantings and had a massage, so all is not lost. Luckily the excellent restaurant is operating.

We are surrounded by 23,000 ha of tea plantations which are very scenic.

The scary guys in photos are Kathakali dancers getting their makeup, and the other two are of our current accommodation.

Kathakali dancers preparing

The Kathakali performance was very good; it was all in mime along with strangled singing from the narrator and horrible roars from the demon who was eventually dispatched by the village hero in the green makeup.

Fort Cochin had amazing Chinese cantilevered dip nets that I failed to get a decent picture of - also container ships going past about 20 metres from the beach. Both activities are possible due to the very sharp drop off.

Are expecting our driver to return to work in a couple of hours and hope the air is clear enough to get some good photos of the tea plantations when we leave for Thekkady.  Linda says she can hear a whistling thrush. They sound just like a person whistling cheerfully, quite uncanny.

Spotted walking in the woods!

Now in Kumily, near Thekkady.  The elephants were viewed from about 50 metres and we were in a boat on Lake Periyar.  Also saw sambar deer, wild dogs, wild boar, buffalo and quite a variety of different birds.  Like the tiger in Ranthambhore, all the big animals were very relaxed.  We were lucky to see so many animals but the lake level was low creating a grass margin as a good food supply right next to the boat.  Rode, fed and washed a tame elephant as well.

The Internet here is very good - about 140 mbs. Good hotels in nice leafy surrounds. Off house boating today after about four hours downhill travel.

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Udaipur

24 November:  Our last stop in India is at Udaipur, a city of about 700,000 people in the south of Rajasthan.  It is named after Maharana (king) Udai Singh who founded it in 1553 and moved his capital here.  He had previously been exiled at Kumbharghal, our previous stop in the Aravali mountains.  The mountainous surroundings helped to protect Udaipur from the muslim Moghuls who controlled much of India.

Our hotel, the Jagat Niwas Palace, is in the old city and right on the lake edge.  It is a beautiful little hotel, one of the nicest we have stayed in, so a great way to finish our tour.

We had to travel by tuk-tuk through the narrow streets to the hotel.

Our rooms had these comfy window seats, looking out on the water.

Our hotel was on the water's edge.  Here seen from the tour boat.

The main nearby attraction was the City Palace, which today houses a museum and a hotel as well as the local royal family.  It is also on the edge of the lake and runs along it for about 2 kilometers, so is a very large building.

At the gates to the city palace

The life-size elephant statue at the gates.

Inside the walls are decorated with colourful frescoes.

The towering walls of the palace.

Horses and silver carriage once used by the Maharana.

Statue of warhorse disguised to look like an elephant (note the leather trunk!)

The picture above shows how the Maharana's army attached leather "trunks" to their horses to confuse the Moghuls' battle-elephants, who were supposed to think the horses might be baby elephants and therefore avoid attacking or hurting them!

The lake in front of our hotel, Lake Pichola, is one of seven man-made lakes created to provide water for Udaipur, by storing the water from the rainy season to give a year round supply.

Lake Pichola, with the Taj Palace (now a luxury hotel) in the foreground.

Tea and cookies in the hotel restaurant, looking out at Lake Pichola.

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Big Fat Indian Wedding Season

It is the wedding season in India, and hundreds of weddings are planned or are going on.  Nobody chooses to get married while "the gods are sleeping", so most weddings are during this auspicious time of year.  Kuldeep told us that at least 70% of Indian weddings are still arranged marriages.  The traditional wedding follows an established path, and can last over many days.  We first encountered one when visiting Fatephur Sikri, where we investigated loud music and drums.  This was quite a small wedding by Indian standards, but everyone involved was dancing around the groom, who was on a small horse.  They were all having a great time!

Part of the band

The mobile loud (ear-splitting) music machine, adding to the sound of the live band above.

The groom arrives on a horse.  He must appear solemn at all times.

When we stayed at the Bal Samand Hotel in its huge grounds we learned that most of their income came from big weddings held there, rather than the hotel.  We are now at our last stop here in Udaipur, where there appears to be a steady succession of huge weddings going on.  Every day at the city palace huge wedding venue structures are being assembled or torn down, and on our boat outing on lake Pichola we visited the island of Jagmandir, where preparations for another grand wedding were underway.  The whole island is transformed into a large party venue, with everything outdoors because it never rains of course!

Elephants on the edge of the island, and wedding colours.

Beautiful fresh flowers everywhere

Assembling a golden tree.

Pavilions and a large stage with powerful sound systems beyond.

After sunset the whole island lit up, with searchlights and music we could hear from 1 km away.

Kuldeep explained that this was not a particularly large wedding, but probably cost in the order of one million dollars (NZ).  We were told several times that big weddings hire entertainers like Jennifer Lopez or Cirque du Soleil to perform for multi-million dollar fees.  The most extreme weddings cost hundreds of millions of dollars!

It seems a bit crazy to spend so much on weddings when there are so many other ways the money could be spent to improve life in India.  Indians do like to party, though.

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Fine weather and furballs

Every day of our trip has been fine and sunny with a very occasional breeze. The days start off cool (below 20°C), they are pleasant morning and afternoon (25°C), and sometimes a bit hot (30°C+) at mid day. 

The pollution had been the main factor that has varied. It was appalling in Delhi and Agra.  For example, in Agra, we got up early to see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Only after the sun had been up for a couple of hours did it start casting shadows.

The pollution remained bad in Bharatpur, Jaipur, Pushkar and beyond.  Only in the past week in the Arivali Hills and Udaipur has the sky been relatively clear.

For the first couple of weeks our hacking coughs made us sound like cats with furballs. We are fortunately recovering now the air is cleaner.

Sue

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Rum in the Dunes

Wed 16: Today we pressed further west, far from the crowds into the desert close to Pakistan.  There is a strong military presence here because of the ongoing tensions between the two countries.  India has the BSF (Border Security Force) whose personnel guard the full length of the border.  We saw several fighter jets cruise by overhead.

An Indian air force fighter patrolling near the border.

We saw a few groups waiting for the wind to lift their paragliders into the air.

We expected this remote area to be quite empty, but in fact found it is a popular tourist destination for Indians and there are a few big hotels and quite a number of tourist tent settlements out here.  Apparently Indians like to get away from it all too.

Comfortable tents for tourists

Our mission was to ride camels into the sandy desert to watch the sun go down.  As experienced camel riders this no longer presented a challenge to us.

Sue prepares to put her camel into first gear.

The trickiest moments are when your camel gets up and sits down.

Ready for action!

My camel boy instantly recognised my innate camel-riding talent and handed me the reins.  The told me my camel's name was Michael Jackson, and we plodded off after the rest of the party.  Linda's was called Bob Marley.

Heading into the dunes as the sun goes down.

Sue's camel and camel "boy".

We found a comfy looking dune and settled down to admire the sunset.  Kuldeep produced some rum and some coke which was shared around, and on cue four roving musicians wandered up and sat down to entertain us.

These roaming musicians were great.

Enjoying some drinks and camel music with Kuldeep.

John shows his cobra dance skills, to the great amusement of the locals.

Ms Begg lets her hair down after a bit of rum.

The sun went down and it was time to let the camels go home, so we mounted up one last time and set off back.  My camel man was in a hurry, or perhaps he decided I was getting too comfortable, because he started trotting and repeating "Michael Jackson" over and over, which had the effect of making my camel break into a bit of a gallop.  I worked out how to use my stirrups to avoid jarring my spine and arrived back at the van at speed but with my dignity intact.

(video to come...)

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West to Jaisalmer

Tues 15: The land steadily got drier and the vegetation hardier and more sparse as we drove west.  Further west before the Pakistan border it turns into sandy desert.  Jaisalmer is known as the Golden City because of the yellowish colour of the local stone.

Feeding the fish as part of his morning prayers.

Close up of the catfish.  Don't look if this sort of thing gives you nightmares.

Fixing a small problem with the outer wall.  Lucky its not serious!

 As in many of these old cities there is a large fort above the town.  Jaisalmer is unusual in that the fort contains part of the town, including shops and houses.  They call it a "living fort".

Sue and Kevin high on the fort, looking over Jaisalmer

One of the highlights of Jaisalmer are the old "havelis" (houses) built by wealthy merchants.  We visited a narrow street of them in the town where one man had built five in a row for his sons.  They are like small palaces, finely decorated and faced with detailed hand-carved stone facades.

Havelis in Jaisalmer 

Ceiling decoration in one of the havelis.

Incredibly detailed stonework balcony with screens

Helen poses for the cameras

Don't litter! 

Close-up of haveli stonework

 We were shown into one haveli where our host tried to interest us in fabrics and antiques he has for sale.  The haveli are expensive to restore or maintain, and this is one way of financing that work.  There were all sorts of interesting things on offer, but we were not buying.

For sale in the haveli.

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Lakhs, crores and arabs

India uses it's own numbering system as well as the familiar western system of thousands, millions, and billions.  They write the same number of ones and zeroes to represent say one million, but they put the commas in different places!

• One thousand is the same for India and us, i.e. "1,000".
• The indian "lakh" is one hundred thousand, written "1,00,000".
• The indian "crore" is one hundred lakhs, written "1,00,00,000".
• The indian "arab" is one hundred crores, written "1,00,00,00,000".

To convert these indian units back to a more familiar form you would just move the commas to the usual places, so a crore becomes ten million, and an arab one billion.

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Bikaner

Sunday 13: We are heading west, out towards Pakistan and into increasing arid lands.  Bikaner (b-kan-eer) was a stopover on the way to Jaisalmer, to break the long journey.  We stayed here just one night, in another palace partly converted to a hotel, and visited the local historic Junagarh Fort in the morning before setting out for Jaisalmer.

Meeting our local guide for the day

For most days we went sight-seeing we were joined by a "local guide" who was there to provide a more in-depth tour than Kuldeep might.  Kuldeep later explained that they were obliged to employ these guides even if they were not very good!  In practice we found most of them good, a few excellent, and one was essentially useless!

Inside the palace, surrounded by intricate hand-carved stonework.

This family seemed to be getting a blessing from the priest behind (pink shirt).

Fantastic fine hand-carved marble screens to shield the women from men's eyes below.

Light chain curtain to let people through while keeping pigeons out.

One of the many treasures on display in the museum in the fort.

The cloud room, designed to evoke the rains during the hot season.

The cloud room (above) also contained a water feature on one wall which provided the sound of running water and also cooled the room.

Jewelled decoration in the maharajah's audience room.

Detailed carved walnut door frame.

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