Saturday, December 8, 2012

Sunset over Picchola Lake

Udaipur, traditionally the 'white city', suits leisurely predinner drinks. Just off to the left are the two islands where the rich holiday (Taj hotel) and the tourists play at being mega rich in the beautiful gardens of Jagmandir (a mere £200000 or so to hire for a private party).

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Hampi to Bidar (in about 48 hours)

Hampi is as well known for it's magical landscape of (submarine?) volcano created boulders as the majestic and extensive remains of the palaces and temples of Vijayanagar, the 15th century capital. Having enjoyed both, we're heading North to see some slightly later Muslim architecture.

Inspired by a friend's request to see the countryside and take some trains we're taking a long route round. Not wanting to be held hostage by the specifics of the Indian railway timetable, we drove from Hampi to Bellary and then on to Guntakal the next day.

Leaving Hampi on a well surfaced but narrow country road we looped between hills made of slabs of granite and stacked rocks, and irrigation canals for about an hour - with late afternoon sun giving everything an agreeable glow. Odd patches of sugar cane grow amongst endless tiered paddy fields, before we started to see more and more cotton. I was surprised to see too small fields of knee high chilli plants and miniature sunflowers.

Out of the hills (although not the cotton), the landscape flattened as we went past cement and power plants, arriving at Bellary just before sunset with a great view of the fort towering over the city. The area is most famous for mining and questions over propriety and process of various licences.

I assume for reasons of space, Bellary Fort doesn't feature in any of our UK bought guidebooks, though it's well known in Karnataka and features on wikipedia. Dry stone walls supplement sheer cliff faces and boulder-tunnels across the main route up the hill, before you reach the turreted perimeter wall. Inside there's a further wall and elegantly arched gatehouse to the interior.

After a few hours exploring and debating defensive tactics, we retreated from the midday heat to the nearest purveyors of cold drinks: Jeffs's pet shoppe. Some nice fish tanks.

The drive to Guntakal (in Andhra Pradesh) was less remarkable, though cheerfully punctuated by more sunflowers, failed attempts to photograph be-pompomed tractors and the odd bit of road under resurfacing work. The town itself seems to be principally notable or having a thirty foot statue of Hanuman.

And today we are on a train, back in Karnataka. No palm trees but very flat - odd cotton fields but lots of scrub and small acacia trees.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Bonfire

On the beach... after dolphin watching at sunset. Pretty enthusiastic about the North Karnataka coast at the moment.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Chaiyya Chaiyya - Ooty toy train

So on Thursday me and Sarah Higgins* took our lives in our hands and did this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_2gW3zwMMQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sadly Shahrukh Khan wasn't there. But it did (fortunately) get significantly warmer as we went down the mountains.




* former housemate and train geek.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Rachel at Rachol

We stopped by this pretty 17th century Jesuit seminary briefly yesterday. It stands on a hill in an old fortified village, although only one gate and a moat remains. The garden is still beautifully landscaped, and it also has the village post office on site.

(Monsoon in) Goa

Despite having had a lovely time in the pool (in the sun) and exploring the hills in the south of Goa (pictures to follow) our last trip to the beach ended under a tree sheltering from the rain.

Monday, September 3, 2012

My new favourite kitchen toy

Magically peels, spirals and cores a pineapple with less effort than opening a bottle of wine....

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Onion pakoras for breakfast...

... with idly, chutney and sambar. Tom looks cheerful after ten hours sleep.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Party food

For our first reception in the house: (l-r from top) potato and paneer rolls in bread crumbs, chilli chicken, rice balls with vegetables and onion pakodas. Pakodas / pakoras / sort of bhajis... 

Obligatory sunset shot...

... from across the river.

Perfect finish to a busy day touring.

Quality veg fare on the train

Excellent dal, excellent paneer, chappattis still hot and delicious; slightly dubious level of cooperation from rocking train.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Healthy eating: banana and five juices as a starter...

Getting to grips with the modern interpretation of traditional eating patterns. Juices were oddly sweet, after that more like standard south Indian fare.

Saturday, June 23, 2012


Despite the relatively short distance (300km or so) I flew. Although the heat of May had subsided in B, I was expecting humidity. And blue sky.

Circling the airport, we took a loop out over the ocean, a neat pattern of tankers either resting or like us waiting for further instructions. Smaller fishing boats made a bright mosaic on the beach. A striking number of blue rooves and warehouses I haven't noticed elsewhere studded the city as we came back round.

The drive from the airport was grimly familiar from other cities - roads narrowed by work on their own expansion and ugly concrete flyovers under construction, but not yet reducing the pressure of traffic (although at one, a neat wicket of green - looked like astroturf - in the nook beneath the rise provided a space for two boys practicing their cricket).

Towards the ocean, down a medium size street - part retail part domestic - we passed a wedding party, with an arch with the couple's names which has become familiar (my favourites always those made with hundreds of gerberas and other flowers).

This one was more cheerfully signposted by a band with drums and the groom (looking mildly overwhelmed) on an even more bewildered looking horse. Jains said the taxi driver. Horse, music, clothes. Jains are rich. Gold business, diamond business...

Then we reached the coast - some of the most affected by the 2004 tsunami. Marina Beach, 13km of lovely golden sand, had about 200 recorded casualties, mostly children. Still there are blocks of concrete council-style square blocks - weathered but unbroken. Perhaps more recent. And endless fishstalls, the proprietors of smaller ones carefully holding umbrellas over handfuls of prawns or little fish.

Skipping the temples without much hesitation (heading south for more) I was sad to miss the originally Portuguese San Thome Cathedral, with the tomb of St Thomas the Apostle who is said to have brought Christianity to India in the first century.

The roads and shops in Tamil Nadu are singularly absent in English signs and writing (even more true of Hindi) - the easiest protest for Southern identity against a government 2000+km and arguably a whole culture away.

The local politicians though, are very much in evidence...


Sunday, May 27, 2012

IPL T20 5

Chinnaswamy
The Chinnaswamy Stadium, home of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, is a short walk from our house. In cheerful echoes of our last flat, close to the Oval, we can occassionally hear the crowds (or music, or fireworks...). We've also taken the opportunity to go to several matches over the last few weeks. My evenings at home, with away matches on the tv, have often been punctuated by shrieks of delight, and texting my brother to compare notes on run rates and which batsman needs to sort himself out and start running.

The Indian Premier League's fifth season is just coming to a close. Much hyped, the league has more or less successfully survived complaints about the format (twenty20 as opposed to test cricket), disrupting the international schedule and elevating cricket players to the same overpaid celebrity as the premier league at home. To say nothing of the second season's swift relocation to South Africa following security concerns about the Indian general election.

Our local team, much to my disgust, lost their chance to go to the playoffs by losing abysmally to the Deccan Chargers, who had spent much of the short season languishing at the bottom of the table.

Tonight another south Indian team, the Chennai Super Kings, take on the Kolkata Knight Riders in the final. My allegiances are torn, as CSK took 'our' slot (albeit which we failed to claim). I'm quite sad about the gaps in TV scheduling it will leave, although watching the England team take on the West Indies may help in the short term.

Then in the autumn England will be touring here... fingers crossed for a match in Bangalore!
A real fan.

** With thanks to Thomas for technical advice, support and explanation. A short guide to cricket available on request; pre-tested on several Americans.

Friday, May 25, 2012

A good way to spend a Saturday morning

Tom on a hill to the South of B.
Hoping both to understand more about the local geography, and to meet some other people, yesterday we joined the Bangalore Mountaineering Club on a day trip to the south of the city. We met the minibus at a local mall at 7.30 (it had been light for an hour so this was technically civilised), along with six other nice young men, and stopped for a breakfast of idly vada (steamed rice cake and lentil doughnut) and coffee on the way. I've very happily adapted to rice, chutney and sambar (spicy soup) for breakfast, especially accompanied by sweet milky coffee.

We stopped not far out of the city, and had a short but fairly steep walk up the hill, around boulders and informal quarrying sites, to a tiny Shiva temple at the top. Much to our dismay, having had to stop several times for admiring the view, and catching breath, there were several motorbikes which the locals had used to come for their morning worship. The temple looked much like the dry-stone shelters on the top of British hills, but with a standing stone rather than wet walkers in the centre.


I was surprised how much cooler the breeze seemed to be than in the city, although we'd probably only climbed a hundred metres, if that. The opposite hillside had very visible scars from mining, and reminded me a little of the side of Ingleborough, with open white gashes, and a well established rock road for the trucks to rumble down. After we'd had idlis again for lunch, we had a surprise dessert of mangos, enthusiastically lobbed across a small pond by some boys who were cheerfully sitting around at the other side. They were small but sweet, but I need a lot of practice to successfully suck out the juice without either getting too many of the fibres or smearing it across my face. On the way down I also snacked on some tamarind leaves - apparently good for energy - which were sweet and almost lemony.



Monday, April 16, 2012

Official duties - and formal wear

This years Queen's Birthday Party (UK national day) are the official ones. As well as an appearance by the Indian hockey team, this saw Tom and I in the line out for official welcoming duties. Attendees were mostly business folk (one pop up poster advertised the imminent opening of Marks and Spencers on MG Road, the main road near me) with the few other diplomats based here and other friends of the office. 


Sadly the only photos I have are official ones, so please follow this link for a picture of me in a saree

Monday, March 12, 2012

Touring part 1: Dubare elephant camp

A relatively comfortable coach ride away, past Mysore, we spent the weekend at a state owned jungle/eco lodge. The Kodagu (formerly/Coorg in English) area has become famous for coffee plantations, but this spot on the river has a long tradition of (catching and) training elephants. Not having previously left the city, it was nice to have a complete change of scenery, this is the view from the veranda of our room:


An afternoon safari drive (perhaps inevitably) didn't include a tiger sighting, although there's thought to be five or eight in the park. We saw a few deer - spotted, jokes welcome, as here - and the smaller barking deer. Also several Malabar Giant Squirrels, which were perhaps the size of domestic cats and some wild elephants, including the baby below.

The camp specialises in their 'elephant interaction' programme - feeding, washing and elelphant rides, with about 20 domestic elephants and their trainers, mahoots. This is Tom feeding one, and another relaxing in the water... sadly they do have shackled feet, and carry chains around with them, but they seemed fairly cheerful (in so far as I could tell) and were incredibly tolerant of the daily round of tourists.



Sunday, March 11, 2012

Wedding

Namrata makes an entrance
The start of the ceremony... 




followed by showering blessing (confetti, foam, money
and rice which was distributed amongst the guests)










Friends and colleagues watching and chatting
Namrata and Suresh waiting to greet their guests (Namrata changed from red to a traditional 9 yards sari half way through)


Me and Paul waiting to leave amidst the fabulous flowers
(lots and lots of gerberas - see flickr for more photos!),
clutching our pink party bags with coconuts*

*New outfit #3, defintely my favourite although I wasn't really concentrating on showing it off.