Holiday Updates

It has been embarrassingly long since I last blog post so I apologise if this one becomes a little lengthy- I am only trying to make up for my absence. This time last month Lottie and I were about to set out on our first Indian holiday- two weeks in sunny Kerala with a couple of days in Bangalore on the way- and that made me nervous. For some reason the idea of moving from the Cotswolds to Hyderabad wasn't anywhere near as daunting on embarking on a little tour around the South of India with my partner. I was more than slightly worried that we would miss every train we were meant to be on or, if we did find the right train, I was worried that our tickets wouldn't be valid for some reason. I am happy to say that everything went pretty smoothly- though this can probably be attributed to the kindness of strangers as much as our planning skills.

India is vast. To people here a 16 hour train journey isn't that long at all so the best way to travel over long distances in India seems to be sleeper trains; something neither Lottie or I had ever experienced before. Our host had helped us book 2nd Class AC tickets for the first leg of our journey which turned out to be a far more pleasant than I had expected. Not only were the beds fairly comfy on this train but the company was nice was as well and I had several lengthy chats with various business men and families in the carriage. This friendliness was, however, coupled with some degree of awkwardness regarding what time to pull the upper bunks down to go to bed and, as a poor sleeper, I found myself lying awake in the darkness for an awful long time not quite knowing how to get to sleep at 10pm- especially when the train kept pulling into stations and there was a squeaking noise coming from the hinges on the bunk below. Nevertheless, any lack of sleep was made up for by the provision of idly and chutney for breakfast which I adored and the trip didn't feel nearly as long as I had anticipated it would. 

Our first stop was Bangalore where the lovely Marianne de Nazareth let us invade her house for a few days while we explored the city. With Hyderabad being the only other major city we've spent time in, I couldn't help but compare the two. While I have grown immensely fond of Hyderabad in the two months I've been living here, I will be the one of the first to admit that the roads and traffic here are awful. Begumpet seems to be made purely of concrete and dust with the half constructed overpasses reducing the light considerably and the road at the end of Mayurimarg feels less like a main road and more like a river with a constant flow beeping horns. The roads in Banglore seemed to have a little more order in their chaos which, in India, counts for a lot. There were also trees along side most of the roads which sounds like a mad thing to be shocked at but I was having become accustomed to the sandy grayness here. 

My Great Grandfather, Arthur Henry Martin, lived in Secunderbad and then Banglore for a period of around 10 years one hundred years ago. My Grandfather, having an interest in family history, managed to find the address his late father had lived and worked at in Bangalore and (through the magic of the internet) had got in contact with the present day owners of the property- the de Nazareths. Despite not knowing either of us, and only having conversed with my Grandfather and Father via email, Marianne and her family put us up in their lovely apartment in Richmond Town for a couple of nights which I cannot thank them enough for. One of the first things we did upon arriving was to walk to the see the house on Castle Street that linked our two families (though it is now being converted into a restaurant of some kind). While this was probably a bit odd for Lottie (i.e. standing on the side of a very busy road in the middle of an Indian city taking pictures of a small house that was clearly in the middle of being renovated) it meant a lot to me to be able to imagine that same street one century ago with a relative of mine wandering up and down that street just as I was. This slightly novel family connection was a re-accruing theme throughout out short stay in Banglore as a number of Mariannes old Journalism students came to interview me for various little articles. 

When we weren't sat in a cafe talking about my relatives, Lottie and I visited a number of Parks (including Cabbon Park and the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens) in an attempt to embrace the greener side of the city. We did also spend a fair amount of time traipsing up and down Commercial Street and fell in love with every other shop we saw- simply standing in a overstocked Indian shop seems to cause a temporary lapse in rationality where I suddenly feel that it is necessary to buy as much as I possibly can despite needing nothing.

 After a couple of days, Lottie and I found ourselves once again trying to work out  which platform and which train we needed for the next leg of our trip to Alleppey. On this second sleeper we were had 3rd Class AC places booked. The differences between this and the last train were fairly minimal with the biggest being that the bunks on this one had 3 layers rather then two meaning it was more crowded and basic. For a number of reasons this train ride was not nearly as pleasant as the last and, without more than a few hours sleep between us, Lottie and I were not our usual cheery selves when we got off it at 6am the next morning. The only thing making this early start bearable following such a grim night was watching the sunrise turn the sky a deep shade of purple behind the silhouettes of palm trees.

Alleppey is a small fishing and tourist town right on the Kerala coast, and while there aren't many landmarks it did have the most beautiful beaches (if you looked past the heaps of rubbish here and there) that we were able to walk to from our quaint little hostel. Highlights of the week we spent here, however, were not formed on the beaches but rather on the backwaters. Early in the week we decided to splash out on a House Boat for the 24 hours allowing us to laze and read as we went gliding through vast fishing communities and rows of brightly coloured houses. This was thoroughly relaxing and I did enjoy the chats we had with local kids when we pulled up for meals but it didn't compare to experiencing the backwaters on an early morning 4 hour kayak tour. Watching the sun finishing to rise again, but this time from the back of a little yellow kayak sitting on the backwaters themselves felt more than slightly surreal. Samson, our tour guide, took us down the equivalent of little mazes of back roads meaning we got to see far more of the local lifestyle and a lot more close up. The sights made the exercise more than enjoyable and, even if the locals laughed as us when we crashed into piles of weeds or the occasional bridge, I would do it again in a heartbeat.  On our last day we arranged to have an Auto driver take us on an informal tour of the town to see anything we had missed. He took us to various little rug makers, coconut oil factories, uninhabited islands in the backwaters and weavers' workshops which were really interesting but we had to piece together what went on at each of these locations due to language barriers and the fact that many of these places were empty. This day was topped off by the the Auto driver letting us sit in the boot of the Auto which was far more exciting than it sounds. We probably looked like idiots but it made us happy to chuckle along with the drivers of all the motorbikes and cars overtaking us as we waved and wore stupid grins.  

The View from the Hotel Balcony 

Our next stop was Cochin (or Kochi) which, I have to admit, was more my cup of tea. Staying in the old part of the town, Fort Cochin, meant that we were within walking distance of a odd mix and match of landmarks. Due to strong Portuguese, Dutch and English influences on  the city as well as a maintenance of  Indian tradition we could be walking down one road feeling like we were back in Alleppey and then turn a corner and find ourselves in some Portuguese shopping street , 'Jew Town' or staring at a line of massive Chinese Fishing nets.  Lottie and I visited some of the landmarks (Spice Markets, Museums, Dutch Palaces, Cemeteries,  and Synagogues) on hired bicycles on one day and then filled in the gaps with a lovely Auto driver the following day who took us to see some sights that were unmarked on the tourist maps. For example, he took us to a rather un-interesting looking house that stood opposite a Hindi Temple and was clearly undergoing some major construction work, guided us around to the back garden (over a few piles of lumber and a small river of cement) and there, stood before us, was a full grown elephant attached by the back foot to a stump in the ground. One the one hand it was amazing to see an elephant so close that we could almost touch it. It felt a bit surreal and very 'how I imaged India' but it was also horrible at the same time. These conditions were clearly not ideal for keeping any animal let alone one as beautiful and large as that Temple Elephant and it felt wrong to think of it being dressed up so flamboyantly for festivals but then having to live in such a degrading manner. 

Prince's Street

Drying field next to the communal washing hall 

The cherry on the top to this trip was seeing some of the other Project Trust volunteers who are working in Ongole having not seen them since we left the Guest House in Hyderabad 6 weeks before. Much to my parent's horror we rented 4 scooters between the six of us and spent two days driving around the town (completely lost half of the time but loving it) taking photos and negotiating the traffic. I was the worst driver by a long way with no one wanting to ride on the back of mine, however, I would like to think that, by the time we gave them back on the second day, Molly wasn't completely fearing for her life as I drove her and a large parcel to the post office and I am proud of that. By the time the trip was up my confidence had definitely grown. I didn't feel completely clueless working out Cochin airport with Lottie and we did both get back to Devnar in one piece so I think we can count this holiday as a success overall.

Having been away for two weeks I think we thought we would be welcomed back to the school by hundreds of students running up to us and shouting our names. This, however, wasn't quite the case. We did have enthusiastic greeting from those who were at the school but only a few students were there making the school feel hollow and kind of spooky. To make up for this, we did have a greeting we weren't expecting.
In our absence a family of rats had made themselves at home in our room and the LKG classroom opposite ours. This meant that the week following our return seemed to be a never-ending battle between myself and the rats who liked to hide in the grate behind our broken fridge and under my pillow while Lottie uttered words of encouragement from the bed or corner. Now we have managed to restrict their invasions to only the bathroom- the door to which we now always lock- and I can live with that while we wait for new mesh to be put over the window. Chatting about rats is probably not the best way to end what was meant to be a nice (but late) update about my traveling but that seems to be the path this post has taken so for that I apologise... I hope my next post is a little less rushed and more punctual!