29th Jan 2012

Early morning flight from Mumbai to Chennai with Jet Airways. I have to say this flight for a budget airline was very good and much better than the experiences we have had with the likes of Easyjet, Ryanair or Monarch. From Chennai we flew with Sri Lanka Airways to Columbo and again a very pleasant flight. We did seem to go through a lot of security before we could board the plane. After the usual hand baggage x-ray and searches getting airside we were subjected to another search immediately before entering the plane. It got Savi and myself wondering whether the Tamil Tigers were making a comeback! Arrived in Sri Lanka and lovely welcome from Jason, Ashika and Raju uncle who is to be our driver and guide and whose family we are staying with for the first few days. The journey inland to Kandy took us about 3 hours and is a progressive climb from the coast up into the central mountains of Sri Lanka.


We eventually arrived to great fuss and welcome from Raju's family and Sujit who was the original contact that Savi made when she came to Sri Lanka two years ago prior to Ashika and Jason's Sri Lankan wedding. Ashika had since then returned on her own for a month to fulfil her ambition to do charity work, as she is a nurse in the UK. She said that although she visited a number of charities and hospices, she didn't actually get to do any nursing. However she has shared that the experience was life changing, in that it gave her an opportunity to evaluate what is important in life, and to forge very deep and lasting links with Raja Uncle's family. In fact she is returning in September with Jason for a family wedding! A lovely evening of settling into our new lodgings and then catching up on all the gossip and happenings over a lovely evening meal. Nice to be amongst our Sri Lankan friends again!! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Kandy Sri Lanka

28th January 2012

There is a look of urgency on every traveller's face as s/he traverses across the train station. There are stairs and overpasses linking one platform to another but why take the safe route?


We looked on in horror as we saw a young man jump onto the railway line and run across to the opposite platform in the nick of time before a train came screeching into Navsari railway station. But it seems the tracks are an extension of the social scene, as we saw people jump down from trains waiting in the station, walk across the tracks to gossip, hand things to people in other carriages, or simply decide to change the one they were on for another one! Perhaps they'd got bored with the ones in theirs. The worst bit is the getting on to the train: little old ladies will jab you in the stomach with their bony elbows, young men will thrust their bag into your back and crush you as you try to avoid trapping your leg between the train door and platform, or simply try and jostle you out of the way. But I have a secret weapon: a 6ft burly Goryo ( white man) who can muscle in with the best of them, with a Guji ( Gujerati ) girl desperately hanging on to his shirt tails!


We had always had a reservation in 1st class, which is like a plane journey: plush reclining seats, lots of attentive food sellers coming throughout your journey, and porters to carry your luggage on and off the the train. This was a very different experience: seats? We were not quick enough to nab one, or even floor space, as people sat crosslegged or squatted on every bit of floor space.


Whilst you are waiting at the platform a goods train or an express will race through the station with a cacophonous sounding of its horn. Some of these trains are up to 50 carriages long, the platforms on the stations are equally long to allow access to all parts of the train. Sometimes it feels like you have walked half the way to your destination by the time you've walked along the platform. Whilst we were waiting at a station we saw these beautiful small birds carefully drinking from an open ended vertical pipe. Very clever.


Later that day we packed for the journey to Sri Lanka and then were invited for a beautiful Gujurati style evening meal with the family next door, and then off to the railway station to catch the 11pm train to Mumbai. This was the first leg in our journey to Sri Lanka, and it got us off to a good start because it turned out to be a sleeper carriage. We were in a compartment with six bunks, three above one another on each side. Savi had a bottom bunk and I had to clamber up over existing sleeping people onto a top bunk. Having safely got up onto the bunk you have to spread the newly laundered sheets and settle down to sleep. I have to say it was very comfortable and both Savi and I managed to get about 3-4 hours of sleep. The gentle swaying of the railway carriage reminded me of when I slept on the deck of the ferry from Turkey to Cyprus, somehow it seems very easy to sleep when you are being gently rocked. This is probably why babies always seem to go to sleep when they are on car journeys or being taken for a walk in a pram! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Valsad train journey

27th Jan 2012

Day of bus journey to Bardoli to arrange bank accounts for Savi's brothers and then we visited the museum and ashram devoted to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who was an instrumental player in the fight for Indian independence, and a close confidant to Ghandi. In going around the new dedicated museum it became very clear that Sardar was very influential at that time, and the people of the Gujurat hold him up as one of the founding fathers of the new India.


We took loads of photos within the museum and then went into the adjacent house and gardens that used to be used by Sardar as a retreat where he could rest and relax in his home environment. It was lovely and peaceful, and as I sat on the "itchko" (a simple outside swinging seat) I found myself thinking that quite possibly this is the very seat that perhaps both Sardar and Ghandi may well have sat back in the late 40's at the time of transition from British rule to Indian independence.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Valsad & Navsari

25th & 26 January

One early start to the day seems to demand a late, lazy one. Hung around waiting for my friend from the UK with her family: not able to meet up so did emails, FaceTime ( for those of you like me thought it was a film with Arnie S, it,s like Skype)! There is a sizzle of excitement in the air, with vendors fluttering the orange white and green Indian flag from every availAble face. The eating places are stringing fairy lights, and the roundabout near the Medan ( open ground) already has bright colourful orange white and green lights vying with the sun, as it climbs higher and higher in the blue sky to dispel the chill morning air. The two young men in the Cyber Cafe barely look up from their war games now, as we go in and download The Times, read our emails eagerly, and put on another blog, which some of you have commented on reading and enjoying! enjoying! On the 26th Jan. it was India National Independence Day, and on the evening we went along to the local parade ground and watched a concert of sorts, which involved a traditional Indian music group with tabla and other drums supported by electronic organ/pianos. This group supported various solo and group singers, and then a magician/juggler/sword swallower performed, and then a very interesting woman did a dance that involved balancing a pot on cloth support on her head which held the ingredients to make a cup of "chai". The interesting bit was that the cloth was doused in fuel, and for about 10 mins she danced with huge flames on her head and around the pot. At the end of the performance she emptied the contents into cups and presented them to dignitaries in the audience, who in place confirmed the fact that she had made "garum chai". I only have a video of this amazing woman so until I get it working you will just have to imagine the scene. A great night !!

Location:Navsari: Independence Day

Test blog to see if video working

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

23 Jan 2012

Early start in hired Maruti van as it was the only choice that we had because of the dammed Non Resident (NRI) Indians who arrive in droves from all over the world to escape the cold weather in their country, or to marry off their spoilt offspring, keeping the tailors and caterers too busy to serve the (RI) Resident Indians - and of course to hire every car in the vicinity( wait - I am one of that loathed species - the NRI.) On reflection, we DO add something to the economy! It was not a good choice: the ride was anything but comfortable, but the driver was ready to go on the hunt for those elusive Kingfishers that Geoff has been desperate to locate.


We sought them here in Navsari round and round Mota Taraw ( Big Lake) and down back alleys; we sought them in Bardoli, 25 kilometres away, even at pain of being chained at the railings of Sardarji Patel's (the great freedom fighter- but more about him later) Museum.


Nor were they in the verdant swaying sugar cane fields of my home village Umrakh with cattle wagons full of cut canes on their way to the sugar factory - to no avail.


Meanwhile we visited my phoie ( father's sister,) in Babin. Geoff did his respectful asking for an elder's blessing by touching her feet, and became a hero with her all over again, and also with my cousin's wife who was visiting from America with her grandson!


We met up with my cousin and family from America (another NRI) in Umrakh at their house which is directly opposite ours. I came in 2010 with my younger brother Jagdish (Jack ), bhabhi (sister-in-law ) Manju and my niece Lisa to their son's absolutely incredible 6 day wedding celebrations with about 2000 other guests from all over the globe. We met people we hadn't seen since we were knee high, and had to pretend to remember sometimes, when they reminded us of how they used to play with us !


As you can imagine, the house was once the grandest, biggest house in its time, where my grandfather and great uncles lived with their extended families before the great uncles went to live in South Africa.


It has been locked up and empty since my Mum died in 1997, and will need a lot of TLC, but we are loath to part with it: it evokes for me and my brothers such strong feelings of nostalgia and belonging. That is the legacy of people who migrate: to belong to two worlds, not belonging to what they left, but unable to let go.


This photograph is of the cattle sheds opposite our house, which are used by those D...... d NRIs to park their hire cars.


We children had such happy times playing in the gardens at the back, making dens and climbing the huge tree that grew in the middle of the garden: giving shade and sharing its produce of loofas that grew on every branch, dangling like caterpillar cocoons. That tree has withered and died, and the weeds and probably snakes have claimed the land, but it is time to sort things out - this not just a holiday for us. Where are those Kingfishers? My cousin understood our Kingfisher quest perfectly, and gave us directions where they can be found in abundance, and so we set off in our trusty Maruti van. We thundered past trucks and lorries, braving the manic traffic of Surat, the biggest and most industrial city around here. After many false sightings: of being wrongly directed by nonchalant young men who would die rather than admit to not knowing something and traffic police who brandished their batons at us threateningly at being interrupted in their megalomanic duty, we turned up a wide avenue with trees lining each side. It looks very hopeful we told each other, look at the bougainvilla and beautiful rose bushes: we are bound to find them here. This tale has a happy ending folks, in that we did find our Kingfishers, all 20 of them, which is the allowance for one liquor license that any foreigner (or that awful species NRI) is allowed in the dry state of Gujarat.


And those Kingfisher beers? Absolutely delicious, even luke -warm,because as luck would have it, the fridge has stopped working! Do let us know how you are doing folks, as we love being in touch with both our worlds! Savi and Geoff - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bardoli Dist & The hunt for Kingfishers

22nd Jan 2012

Late morning rise, then did a few small jobs such as removing the weeds and small trees that are starting to grow around the edges of the back corridor/path of the house. Couldn't have done it without my trusty "Leatherman". I knew it would come in useful !! Then walked into town to visit local tailor, Internet cafe, more snacks. On an open park area (I would say green, but it was totally brown) there were at least eight separate games of cricket underway. It was interesting because although the actual pitches between the wickets were separate the fielders were all intermixed, and so a ball could be hit and cut across about three different wickets with the fielders having to know whether it was their ball !! Returned to pick up sari blouse, and then evening meal at local restaurant of butter panneer, aloo sak, raita, roti etc. Finished off with variety of flavours of ice cream including; vanilla, pistachio, aloo( ginger), jumrukh (tangy plum). All very nice, and for the total price of 330 rupees. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Navsari

21 January 2012

Lie in and lazy start after the excitement of yesterday. I managed to find the Pizza place that I had been to and liked . I thought we needed "bland" to recover from yesterday's rich wedding feast, and it turned out to be good choice, with a Pizza Hut style unlimited salad bar, pizza and garlic bread and a rich chocolate brownie with ice cream thrown in. All for just over £2 each. The pizza and the garlic bread were baked to perfection and the salad bar had some lovely tasty Indian twists such as sprouted mung beans with fresh shredded cabbage with tangy green mango pieces. We then braved the "Mota" (Big) Bazaar which has shops and stalls crammed into every nook and cranny selling everything you could possibly need in this life, and even the afterlife at the mandir, and next to it, at the mosque. Lovely little steel plates (Thalia) were adorned with the Om sign with fruit, nuts and little pewter statues of your favourite god or goddess which were offered to the deities with Agni (eternal flame) in clay pots. The murmured prayers of the devotees were drowned by the cacophony of sounds from the incessant blaring of vehicle horns, the extolling, wheedling voices of the vendors and the shouting of customers above all this, haggling for the best prices. It feels overwhelming loud and unbearable if you are not used to this, or tired and just want to get a bottle of vim and get home to scrub your marble floor. We didn't need to do this, and on the whole it was exhilarating walking along, tasting the bits of jack fruit, pineapple and any number things. to "taste then buy". I bought some jackfruit, which is so pungent that the aroma pervades everywhere, and "ponk" which is green, very young Juvar, a type of barley which tastes divine hulled and warmed through, eaten with savoury "sev", which is like a fried vermicelli, and a coriander chutney. I love all the tropical fruit here, as the pineapple, melons and papaya are just so juicy and tasty. I also had my absolute must, which is the water and young creamy flesh of a green coconut I only have it at every opportunity because it's good for clearing out my kidneys - honest! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Navsari

19th Jan 2012

After late breakfast all packed and checked out of hotel, then off to Bombay Gate to get a ferry to Elephanta caves. The trip out on the ferry was very interesting, but on boarding you could be forgiven for wondering whether you would safely make it to the end of the journey. Well if an Italian cruise ship can sink by getting too close to the land then one of these boats could surely sink from crashing into one another!







The journey out took just over an hour and it was very interesting with us travelling across the harbour where we passed what looked to be either a prison, or perhaps some secret military complex.



Then further on we saw navy boats, huge oil tankers, rusty bulk cargo vessels and even complex rescue/support vessels. It was very interesting to watch the tugs providing support to the huge tankers.



















The last photos show tugs just pushing the oil tanker against the side of the jetty. I assume this is to stop the boat moving with the tide whilst it's offloading oil via the booms. When we arrived at the island with the Elephanta caves we took a short train journey on a rackety old diesel engine loco that felt like it might slip off the rails any minute.



Then climbed up a mass of steps past hundreds of hawkers and tourist sellers eventually arriving at the World Heritage Site of the Elephanta Caves. These were certainly worth the effort of getting there with huge rock carvings of lots of different gods.















After returning back to Bombay Gate we walked back to our hotel where we picked up our luggage and made our way to Mumbai Central railway station and the "Flying Ranee" express to Navsari. On the platform we had chai and then a freshly prepared omelette sandwich whilst waiting for the train. It eventually crept into the station and stopped exactly on it's mark so that the coaches aligned with the named locations on the platform. Tried to send a short video but have not been successful posting videos (it should take you to youtube) so you will just have to make do with still photos. Eventually got our heavy luggage up onto the overhead storage area and settled in for the 5 hour journey. Nice journey with lots of chai and vegetable cutlet sandwiches. Only problem was knowing when to get off. As you pull into each station it is pretty dark and the signs indicating which station are not easy to spot. We got talking to a family close by and they were travelling to Navsari also. The husband kept rushing to the open corridors to try and get a better view and identify the station. Unlike in the UK the train arrived exactly at it's scheduled time of 21:40. No taxi's at the station so we ended up having to take two tut tut's to Dani's house. All settled in and ready for a good nights sleep. Savi and Geoff - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Navsari

20 January 2012

Disembarking into the unseasonably cold night air at Navsari station I felt an immediate sense of being on familiar ground. Geoff and I set off in 2 different rickshaws, perched next to our suitcases, with him reminding me again, with a sterner voice and gaze to make sure that I didn't lose him, as he had no idea at all where we were going. He was playing safe though, by taking the bag with the keys to the house with him! My rickshawwala was a friendly chap who interrogated me in the usual Indian way: where had we come from; did we have children; what job we did etc. As I got ready to deal with what would be to Western sensibilities personal questions like what did I earn, what properties we owned etc, I realised suddenly that I must be tired, or getting the early signs of Dementia. I had been answering his perfectly colloquial Gujarati questions in Hindi! That's my India, a mere 4 hour slow train journey and you need to switch languages: although most educated people do speak the national language Hindi, and a great many English as well as their Marta Bhlanguage other tongue). We arrived in tandem, despite Geoff's fears that I would leave him wandering round the city in his rickshaw, at the Radha Madhav complex where I had stayed in 2000 with Dani at her brother's house the last time I came to India. Behind the imposing gates a wizened old man perched on his sentry's chair muffled from head to toe in what looked like a coarse horse blanket. His limbs cracking like snapping firewood, the rheumatic eyes peered at me suspiciously as I told him who I was. Then he seemed to decide who I was quite independently of what I'd said: so now poor Dani's brother is lumbered with another sister in addition to the 5 he already has! It was all go the next morning for, wait for it: a wedding! The Yoga Gals' (from Nuffield Health Club) nickname for me is "Wedding Queen" because they think I go to so many of them, but actually compared to other Indians I lag far behind. This was moreover, it was explained to us again and again, not a PROPER wedding, only a CIVIL one with only around 600 guests ( and 2 additions from the UK) as a marriage certificate was needed with all other proof, of priests conducting the ceremony, including the couple going around Agni ((holy fire as immortal witness) to start the immigration process for the girl to join her spouse in Canada. The Real wedding, which they kept tying to make us promise to come to, was going to be next January, with over 2000 guests. I felt embarrassed to be given the seat of honour next to the Mandap ( wedding Dias) but was able to really enjoy the wedding ceremony chanted in Sanskrit (like Latin is for Roman Catholics) by no less than 3 priests.

Pray what was Geoff doing as I developed my understanding of wedding rituals? Apparently he'd been invited to someone's house nearby, where half a dozen men sat drinking beer and whiskey! Exhausted and absolutely stuffed full of beautiful wedding food we headed back to Navsari on the Mumbai to Rajasthan highway which became worse than the M25 at rush hour. That's when a 2 wheeler rickshaw scooter taxi comes into its own: Geoff and I just prayed and clung to the rails as our intrepid driver sneaked around lorries, braved big trucks as he cut across them, depositing us safe but shaken outside the house. A G & T with lime and soda has never tasted so good or been so needed! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad lower cadre

Location:Movwa village 1 hour from Navsari

18th Jan 2012

We are safely in Mumbai at 4 am (local time ie 5 and a half hours ahead of GMT). It had been a lovely start to our holiday to call in at Emma,s and watch Geoff's grand daughters transform themselves instantly into princesses with the donning of bracelets from their Aunty Jo from her recent visit to Bangladesh, and Nanima's (maternal grandmother ie me) old necklaces and beaded Indian bags. At 23month Ray kept out of it all, playing games on Geoff's iPhone! My nieces and nephew, in the absence of Jagdish my brother and sister -in-law Manju, (in Tenerife celebrating their anniversary) provided a lovely meal and looked after us really well as we were boarding from Heathrow, near their house. There are advantages and disadvantages to living so near an airport dear brother! I was reminded of how wonderfully ying &yang mine and Geoff,s relationship is at the check in desk at Heathrow. I had packed and repacked my suitcase discarding essentials like Fairy Liquid and dettol wipes, gifts such as tank tops and woollen scarves for relatives in India (when the temperature falls below 30c)! Geoff was his usual organised conformist self, having no trouble with his 23 kg allowance for 54 days, even putting in some of my stuff in his as I attempted to push the boundaries in my usual way. His suitcase was .5 kg under, mine .5 over so all was well except when the check in clerk said:"you know don,t you that we allow 5kg over on each bag ?" Where were those tank tops? Mumbai is a lovely temperature at this time of year - in the high 20,s and really exciting and buzzing. We ,ve walked to India Gate





where I remember boarding a P&O liner to bring us to the UK in 1958. I remember wondering if it was an island: it was so huge and that nothing could harm us on that voyage of 28 days. Recent news of those poor people on the cruise ship reminds us that that is not always the case. I still miss the one and only doll I ever owned, which was thrown overboard by my naughty little brother because he wanted to see if she could swim - but at least we all arrived safely! Geoff and I went round The Mumbai Museum, which was very impressive with artefacts and paintings from thousands of years ago. The audio tapes were well done, available in about 30 languages!





We then had a lovely lunch at Leopoldo,s cafe, which you may remember was bombed . It,s as if nothing happened - it,s restored, and buzzing with the voices of visitors from all over the globe. As Geoff is a much better negotiator than me (shameful for an Indian to admit that I can,t haggle) I walked away when he started asking for the price of these huge balloons that everyone kept pestering us to buy on our way back to the hotel. After 15 minutes I walked back to where he was, to see him urgently gesturing for me to follow him as he wanted to find the man he had done a deal with. We looked everywhere, but like the Scarlet Pimpernel he had vanished. Another balloon seller had told Geoff to look at the SIZE of those balloons - yes you,ve guessed it, he'd paid what was over the odds for what turned out to be a pack of ordinary ones! THEN we had a whole pack of balloon sellers who wanted to do a deal with us to exchange the small balloons for the big one at a BEST price of course! We could only admire the enterprise of people here, either doing scams like this, or squatting on the pavement with a coal brazier roasting peanuts to sell, or bottles of cold water out of tin buckets. There seem to be less beggars around - but who needs to beg when you can dupe a foreigner!


It,s a hard life, but it,s time for us to get dressed up now to have cocktails at the Taj Mahal Hotel, another building which has recovered well after the bombing.


People here tell us that the way to beat these terrorists is to not let them win by stopping doing what you want to do in life. On that note I will finish. I have taken advantage of the fact that there is free wifi at this hotel, by prattling on, so hope you've not fallen asleep! It will be more difficult to get access as easily in the Gujarat, but we will pick up emails every few days from internet chafes so please tell us all your news: we do miss our families and friends, and love to keep in touch as we travel about. Hoping that you and your loved ones are happy and well, Love to you all, Savi and Geoff - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Mumbai