The plan was to only spend a couple of days in Jodhpur, as apparently the only major sight is it's fort. So my plan was to get accommodation near the train station to make it convenient for booking our onward journey, and for getting the train when the time came.
It turned out that the guidebook gave the wrong location for a guesthouse (that's happened a few times now, and is extremely frustrating, as finding a place in 3rd-world countries with no street name signs is difficult at the best of times), so I spent a very frustrating hour walking up and down the road near the train station looking for a place to stay (the other nearby place that the books recommended was full, the first time we've encountered a full hotel in India). Sarah eventually haggled another hotel down to a good price and we just settled in there (Hotel Sheeva, right across from the train station).
The rest of that afternoon we just checked out the town a bit, getting a lovely tasty local Makhania Lassi from Mishri Lal beside the clock tower. But the city all seemed much more run-down than other Indian towns we've been through, and so I was happy with my decision to leave on a train once we'd checked out the local fort.
Next morning we got a lovely breakfast around the corner from our hotel at Midtown, and then strolled all the way through the bazaars and up the hill to the fort. The entrance fee for the fort includes an audio guide, and this turned out (as both books rightly mentioned), to be a really fantastic guide. Normally I'll avoid guides (human or audio), like the plague, as usually you have to really concentrate to understand their bad English, or else they move along really slowly (waiting for some Epsilon to catch up), or else their commentary is just really boring (seeing as how they have to iterate it 5 times a day, every day). But this audio guide was a revelation - the writing was superbly eloquent, it was interwoven with quotes from current princes and the current Maharaja and the narrator's voice was prefectly clear and a genuine joy to listen to (it ranked up there with Richard Burton on the 'War of the Worlds' album as the most beautiful spoken voice I've ever heard, or as captivating as the posh voice on the Orb's 'Land of Green Ginger'!).
So after our few relaxing hours strolling around the mightily impressive fort we walked to the nearby Jaswant Thanda site. This is a beautiful pillared marble memorial that gives probably the best views of the fort itself (the incredible scale of the walls of the fort are hard to appreciate when your right up against them). From here I took a shortcut back to the clocktower centre (while I had to listen to the Negator trying to dissuade me from any deviation from the map - we were fine!), for another saffron lassi at the cool, buzzy Mishri Lal.
Next it was a stroll to the Umaid Gardens, popping into the small, rather decrepit museum before making our way to one of the local fancy hotels, the Ajit Bhawan. It wasn't a great looking place, but the restaurant looked nice, and the menu was surprisingly cheap. But from here it was a quick rickshaw ride to the really famous local hotel, the Umaid Bhawan Palace.
Here we first visited the small museum, and then tried to get into the hotel itself. Again this is a gated complex, and really you need a reservation. This is because the place is a major tourist attraction in it's own right, but being such a high-class hotel, they don't want scummy backpackers walking around. But I think because it's low-season, and the hotel was very quite we managed to wrangle our way in by simply following behind 2 other tourists.
It really is a very impressive place, although I think the Lonely Planet is right when it suggests that many guests have found it overbearing. It's all dark corridors and huge marble entrances, but the staff were few and far between, which meant we could stroll about at our leisure without getting hassled or asked for our room number!
The restaurant had a 3000 rupee minimum order per person, which was a real pity, as I would have stayed and eaten there otherwise (even from the expensive al-a-carte menu what I wanted to order only amounted to 2000 rupee max). The restaurant was completely empty anyway, and didn't look all that special, so I wasn't too disappointed. Instead we walked back to the Ajit Bhawan and had a great dinner there. I was tempted to get the buffet, but I managed to stick to my no-buffet rule, and I wasn't disappointed!
So after that it was back to our hotel (and some unwelcome guests of the rodent variety!), but up early to catch the train at 5:15am. At the station it turned out that our train was 2 hours late, by far our largest delay so far. Not only that, but when the train arrived it was mayhem in our carriage and people were sitting in our reserved seats.
The occupants of our seats didn't speak any English (or at least acted like they didn't), but another passenger did, and he seemed to be trying to get the people out of our seats, but to no avail - just blank stares and nodding heads. A bit later though everyone just squished up together and made room for us to squeeze in, so it was a fairly comfortable few hours before more passengers disembarked and we eventually had plenty of room on our seats for the rest of the journey to the desert town of Jaisalmer.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Udaipur
We arrived early in Udaipur, about 6:30am, too early it seemed for the pre-paid rickshaw office, which was closed. So we had to haggle with the rickshaw drivers as usual, but it was easy enough. 15 minutes later we had checked out the Panorama Hotel, and we got a lovely room for a great price.
After settling in and having a couple of hours sleep (neither of us slept very well on the overnight train) I went out to explore the town while Sarah relaxed in the fantastically located roof-top restaurant and read her book. That evening we caught the cultural show in the ''. Normally I'd avoid should a 'show' at all costs, but the books recommended it, it was less than an hour long (a major boon!), and it was in a lovely building so I thought I'd give it a go.
It turned out to be a really good show. Each act was short and very professionally done. I think it's important to keep the acts of these shows short, since obviously foreign tourists can't understand the lyrics of the songs, or the meaning of many of the intricate dance moves. So these acts were great in that they were short and of course all the dancers and musicans were mad colourful. The last act was a bit circus-y, an 'auld wan balancing big dishes on her head, but even that dance had a ring of authenticity to it.
Udaipur is a famous tourist destination, and much more understandably so than Jaipur in my opinion. It's centrepiece is a large lake with a couple of small islands, one having a world-famous hotel (The Lake Palace) and the other a temple and old palace. The town is built up on hillsides around the lake, with all the hotels and restaurants trying to build higher and higher to provide views of the lake. It gives the town a kinda crazy, haphazard appearance, but it all works and is very impressive, especially at sunset, and from the great viewpoint of our hotel's restaurant.
The town is also 'famous' for being the setting for the first half of the James Bond movie Octopussy, and therefore many of the restaurants show the movie every night. We watched it our first night, but of the course the DVD was desperately poor quality, and juddered to a halt about 45-minutes before the end (just as you're well and truly into the story).
I was keen to try the restaurant in the famous Lake Palace hotel on the island but our hotel owner told us they no longer accept non-residents at the restaurant. But the town has plenty of other fine restaurants, and that first night we ate really well at the Whistling Teal, where I'd had a great coffee earlier that day.
The next day we rented bicycles (no problem finding the bike hire place here!), and our first stop was the City Palace. This is a very impressive museum set inside the old Royal Palace, and it took a very pleasant couple of hours to stroll around checking out the murals, mosaics, courtyards and artworks. Then back on the bikes we checked out the bus station to see about getting a bus to Jodhpur (there is no train service between the towns).
After riding around a good bit looking for a famous local restaurant (and failing, and then later reading the other guidebook which gave proper directions to the 'fiendishly difficult to find' Natraj), I had a great lunch in Parkview. Poor Sarah was feeling a bit dicky (first time in nearly 2 months in India), so she just picked at my curry after ordering soup.
Then it was back on the bikes and exploring around the surrounding lakes for a couple of hours, as it was lovely day. Then we rode out to try and find another famous hotel to check it out, like I always do with the mad fancy places, but it was a gated resort place that wouldn't let us in without a reservation.
The plan had been to leave the following morning on the bus, but after I'd booked it Sarah reckoned she'd really rather wait another day in Udiapur to allow her tummy recover a bit more. It was a trivial phone call to change the bus booking, and so we had the whole next day to relax. This was spent by Sarah reading her book in bed, while I read in the restaurant, then rented a bike to head out for lunch at Natraj, the place I couldn't find a couple of days earlier.
Again the guidebooks were spot-on in describing a fantastically characterful local eatery. This place had no menu at all, and as soon as I sat at a table (the only one available during the lunch-hour rush), the waiters approached from all sides with trays of thali dishes, chappatis, curd, rice, pakoras, etc. It was certainly one of the best thali's I've had in India I reckon (although the number of times I've said 'this is the best place yet!' to myself just keeps on increasing...). So stuffed after my enormous delicious lunch I explored the town a bit more on the bike, sorted out more money, and headed back to the hotel. I just spent the rest of the afternoon reading and chilling on the roof-top again, and then went for a big stroll that evening to catch the sunset at a hilltop facing the lake (and on the way back I tried to get into the Sunset Terrace bar in another very fancy hotel, but they had a silly cover-charge thing, so I didn't bother).
Next morning Sarah was feeling tip-top again (in fact, she'd been fine the whole previous day too, but it was better to be on the safe side, and it was nice to relax in our lovely hotel for another day anyway). We got a rickshaw to the bus stand and boarded our super-comfy bus (which was the first proper sleeper-class bus I've ever been on, although we didn't have berths we just had normal big seats (3-abreast)). The bus left spot on time and we arrived in Jodhpur an effortless 7 hours later.
After settling in and having a couple of hours sleep (neither of us slept very well on the overnight train) I went out to explore the town while Sarah relaxed in the fantastically located roof-top restaurant and read her book. That evening we caught the cultural show in the ''. Normally I'd avoid should a 'show' at all costs, but the books recommended it, it was less than an hour long (a major boon!), and it was in a lovely building so I thought I'd give it a go.
It turned out to be a really good show. Each act was short and very professionally done. I think it's important to keep the acts of these shows short, since obviously foreign tourists can't understand the lyrics of the songs, or the meaning of many of the intricate dance moves. So these acts were great in that they were short and of course all the dancers and musicans were mad colourful. The last act was a bit circus-y, an 'auld wan balancing big dishes on her head, but even that dance had a ring of authenticity to it.
Udaipur is a famous tourist destination, and much more understandably so than Jaipur in my opinion. It's centrepiece is a large lake with a couple of small islands, one having a world-famous hotel (The Lake Palace) and the other a temple and old palace. The town is built up on hillsides around the lake, with all the hotels and restaurants trying to build higher and higher to provide views of the lake. It gives the town a kinda crazy, haphazard appearance, but it all works and is very impressive, especially at sunset, and from the great viewpoint of our hotel's restaurant.
The town is also 'famous' for being the setting for the first half of the James Bond movie Octopussy, and therefore many of the restaurants show the movie every night. We watched it our first night, but of the course the DVD was desperately poor quality, and juddered to a halt about 45-minutes before the end (just as you're well and truly into the story).
I was keen to try the restaurant in the famous Lake Palace hotel on the island but our hotel owner told us they no longer accept non-residents at the restaurant. But the town has plenty of other fine restaurants, and that first night we ate really well at the Whistling Teal, where I'd had a great coffee earlier that day.
The next day we rented bicycles (no problem finding the bike hire place here!), and our first stop was the City Palace. This is a very impressive museum set inside the old Royal Palace, and it took a very pleasant couple of hours to stroll around checking out the murals, mosaics, courtyards and artworks. Then back on the bikes we checked out the bus station to see about getting a bus to Jodhpur (there is no train service between the towns).
After riding around a good bit looking for a famous local restaurant (and failing, and then later reading the other guidebook which gave proper directions to the 'fiendishly difficult to find' Natraj), I had a great lunch in Parkview. Poor Sarah was feeling a bit dicky (first time in nearly 2 months in India), so she just picked at my curry after ordering soup.
Then it was back on the bikes and exploring around the surrounding lakes for a couple of hours, as it was lovely day. Then we rode out to try and find another famous hotel to check it out, like I always do with the mad fancy places, but it was a gated resort place that wouldn't let us in without a reservation.
The plan had been to leave the following morning on the bus, but after I'd booked it Sarah reckoned she'd really rather wait another day in Udiapur to allow her tummy recover a bit more. It was a trivial phone call to change the bus booking, and so we had the whole next day to relax. This was spent by Sarah reading her book in bed, while I read in the restaurant, then rented a bike to head out for lunch at Natraj, the place I couldn't find a couple of days earlier.
Again the guidebooks were spot-on in describing a fantastically characterful local eatery. This place had no menu at all, and as soon as I sat at a table (the only one available during the lunch-hour rush), the waiters approached from all sides with trays of thali dishes, chappatis, curd, rice, pakoras, etc. It was certainly one of the best thali's I've had in India I reckon (although the number of times I've said 'this is the best place yet!' to myself just keeps on increasing...). So stuffed after my enormous delicious lunch I explored the town a bit more on the bike, sorted out more money, and headed back to the hotel. I just spent the rest of the afternoon reading and chilling on the roof-top again, and then went for a big stroll that evening to catch the sunset at a hilltop facing the lake (and on the way back I tried to get into the Sunset Terrace bar in another very fancy hotel, but they had a silly cover-charge thing, so I didn't bother).
Next morning Sarah was feeling tip-top again (in fact, she'd been fine the whole previous day too, but it was better to be on the safe side, and it was nice to relax in our lovely hotel for another day anyway). We got a rickshaw to the bus stand and boarded our super-comfy bus (which was the first proper sleeper-class bus I've ever been on, although we didn't have berths we just had normal big seats (3-abreast)). The bus left spot on time and we arrived in Jodhpur an effortless 7 hours later.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Jaipur, the Pink City
It was a quick and easy 2-hour train journey to Jaipur, spent chatting to a friendly sari shop owner. Sarah initially thought we could walk to the accommodation area, but after a few minutes she realised the scale on the map and we got a rickshaw to a recommended hotel (the driver was a really genuinely nice guy, with good English and no scamming!). As usual we ended up staying at a cheaper place just down the road (not in the guidebooks of course), and it was another lovely spot (Meena Hotel, just down from the Evergreen).
I really wanted to hire bicycles to explore the city, as it's a bit too spread out to explore easily on foot. But in 3 days we never managed to find a place that hired bikes out, and that was after asking numerous hotels and 2 tourist offices - it seems all tourists are lazy bums who must get rickshaws everywhere.
Our first day we did the walking tour mentioned in the Lonely Planet, which took in some of the main sights, although we didn't 'do' any of the museums as it was getting a bit late in the afternoon.
The following day was a late start, but after a delicious lassi (a cool yogurt drink) at the famous local Lassiwalla, we didn't really get up to much really. We checked out the Hawa Mahal and looked at the observatory while avoiding the rain (we didn't bother paying the entrance fee as you could see all of the instruments from the gift shop!), and just using the Internet and having a few drinks that night in 'Bouncers' after a great dinner of Lal Maas in the fancy Niro's.
Our last day in Jaipur was the most frustrating (we had the whole day as our train to Udaipur was at 10:35pm). After a great start of lunch at Handi (sister restaurant to the next-door, and more expensive, Copper Chimney, and even better I thought), I spent hours walking around trying to find a bike-hire place, but again to no avail (the Rough Guide mentioned a place, giving the address, but the street wasn't marked on their map. I later found the street marked on the Lonely Planet map, and we had been really close - d'oh!). After I eventually gave up in frustration we got a local bus a couple of kilometers to the base of the monkey temple, and climbed up there. It had great views of the city, and lots of cheeky monkeys of course, and at least we felt we'd achieved something with the day.
All-in-all, I wasn't that impressed with Jaipur really. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but it's always listed as a highlight of Rajasthan, and Rajasthan is always listed as a highlight of India. But for me it was too spread out to explore easily (a bike would have helped enormously of course), and the architectural sights weren't that impressive. As for it being 'The Pink City', I didn't get much impression of that either - mostly it just seemed the usual grubby Indian city to me. But for all that, the restaurants were great!
Anyway, after the Monkey Temple, it was another local bus to the centre, back to the internet place where Sarah had left her MP3 player (they still had it luckily), and then a coffee place to read the papers and relax for a bit. Having so much time to spare we walked to the train station, but on arriving discovered the train was 45 minutes delayed. But it pulled out after only10 minutes and made up time on the way and we arrived in Udaipur pretty much on time.
The train was frustrating for me though, as I couldn't get to sleep for ages. Firstly there was confusion over the sleeping berths for some reason, with the seats numbers being overridden with chalk, but the ticket inspector guy sorted all that out.
Although it was a sleeper carriage, and everyone went straight to bed, I had a young kid and his dad next to me and they continued talking until 2am. They seemed to take no notice of the fact that everyone else was trying to sleep, as they talked loudly, normally and continuously. If I had been anywhere in the West I would have quickly told them to shut the hell up, but the fact was I was in India. Here, as in many 3rd-world countries, local people seem to be completely surrounded by noise their entire lives, and so seem to be able to sleep under any noise conditions. So I reckoned these 2 had no concept of respecting other people's desire to peace and quiet as they slept, as nobody but me in that carriage actually needed peace and quiet to sleep.
So instead of getting really mad and shouting at them to shut up, I tried to meditate on the cultural differences of India and tell myself that my increasing anger was just being self-created - but alas, to no avail - I still couldn't sleep and was slowly been driven demented! They eventually shut up and went to sleep at 2am, and after a bit longer I drifted off. I suppose I could have tried asking them nicely to be quiet, but I doubted that they'd understand, and I would have just frustrated myself even more trying to explain why I had a problem.
So at 7am or so the train pulled into Udaipur. It was the last stop for the train, so I stayed 'in bed' (sleeper class is just a comfy bunk really) right until the train stopped, and then we just hopped off and started the usual rigmarole to sort out somewhere to stay.
I really wanted to hire bicycles to explore the city, as it's a bit too spread out to explore easily on foot. But in 3 days we never managed to find a place that hired bikes out, and that was after asking numerous hotels and 2 tourist offices - it seems all tourists are lazy bums who must get rickshaws everywhere.
Our first day we did the walking tour mentioned in the Lonely Planet, which took in some of the main sights, although we didn't 'do' any of the museums as it was getting a bit late in the afternoon.
The following day was a late start, but after a delicious lassi (a cool yogurt drink) at the famous local Lassiwalla, we didn't really get up to much really. We checked out the Hawa Mahal and looked at the observatory while avoiding the rain (we didn't bother paying the entrance fee as you could see all of the instruments from the gift shop!), and just using the Internet and having a few drinks that night in 'Bouncers' after a great dinner of Lal Maas in the fancy Niro's.
Our last day in Jaipur was the most frustrating (we had the whole day as our train to Udaipur was at 10:35pm). After a great start of lunch at Handi (sister restaurant to the next-door, and more expensive, Copper Chimney, and even better I thought), I spent hours walking around trying to find a bike-hire place, but again to no avail (the Rough Guide mentioned a place, giving the address, but the street wasn't marked on their map. I later found the street marked on the Lonely Planet map, and we had been really close - d'oh!). After I eventually gave up in frustration we got a local bus a couple of kilometers to the base of the monkey temple, and climbed up there. It had great views of the city, and lots of cheeky monkeys of course, and at least we felt we'd achieved something with the day.
All-in-all, I wasn't that impressed with Jaipur really. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but it's always listed as a highlight of Rajasthan, and Rajasthan is always listed as a highlight of India. But for me it was too spread out to explore easily (a bike would have helped enormously of course), and the architectural sights weren't that impressive. As for it being 'The Pink City', I didn't get much impression of that either - mostly it just seemed the usual grubby Indian city to me. But for all that, the restaurants were great!
Anyway, after the Monkey Temple, it was another local bus to the centre, back to the internet place where Sarah had left her MP3 player (they still had it luckily), and then a coffee place to read the papers and relax for a bit. Having so much time to spare we walked to the train station, but on arriving discovered the train was 45 minutes delayed. But it pulled out after only10 minutes and made up time on the way and we arrived in Udaipur pretty much on time.
The train was frustrating for me though, as I couldn't get to sleep for ages. Firstly there was confusion over the sleeping berths for some reason, with the seats numbers being overridden with chalk, but the ticket inspector guy sorted all that out.
Although it was a sleeper carriage, and everyone went straight to bed, I had a young kid and his dad next to me and they continued talking until 2am. They seemed to take no notice of the fact that everyone else was trying to sleep, as they talked loudly, normally and continuously. If I had been anywhere in the West I would have quickly told them to shut the hell up, but the fact was I was in India. Here, as in many 3rd-world countries, local people seem to be completely surrounded by noise their entire lives, and so seem to be able to sleep under any noise conditions. So I reckoned these 2 had no concept of respecting other people's desire to peace and quiet as they slept, as nobody but me in that carriage actually needed peace and quiet to sleep.
So instead of getting really mad and shouting at them to shut up, I tried to meditate on the cultural differences of India and tell myself that my increasing anger was just being self-created - but alas, to no avail - I still couldn't sleep and was slowly been driven demented! They eventually shut up and went to sleep at 2am, and after a bit longer I drifted off. I suppose I could have tried asking them nicely to be quiet, but I doubted that they'd understand, and I would have just frustrated myself even more trying to explain why I had a problem.
So at 7am or so the train pulled into Udaipur. It was the last stop for the train, so I stayed 'in bed' (sleeper class is just a comfy bunk really) right until the train stopped, and then we just hopped off and started the usual rigmarole to sort out somewhere to stay.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sawai Madhopur - gateway to Ranthambore
Sawai Madhopur is a very basic Indian town really, and the vast majority of tourists seem to stay a bit outside the town, on the road to the national park in expensive resort hotels. Obviously that didn't much appeal to me, so on walking out of the train station I popped into the first decent looking hotel I saw and managed to negotiate a great price for a lovely room.
This was a stroke of luck as our guidebooks gave no map of the town and strolling around a strange town looking for a hotel with no map is no fun. This way we didn't have to lug our rucksacks around town, we didn't have to haggle with a rickshaw driver and we were right in the centre of town and beside the train station for when we moved on.
So settled in there the next priority was to check out getting on a tour of the park. I checked in our hotel and then at the tourist office in the train station, and both told me it would be no problem getting a tour the next morning by just arriving at the official booking office. So 5:30am the next morning we get a rickshaw to the booking office, and after queuing up with the local touts who buy tickets for the guests at the resorts, I manage to book a jeep safari leaving in an hour. The guidebooks both said that 6-seater jeep safaris are much more expensive and much more difficult to get than the 20-seater canter trucks, but things must have changed recently as I had no problem at all getting a jeep, and it was only marginally more expensive than a truck (or again, it was just our timing in coming towards the end of the season).
So after a bite of breakfast we headed off in our very comfy, open and modern jeep (which was incredibly quiet too, unlike the huge canters that are really buses!). We stopped off at one of the luxury resorts to pick up the other 4 tourists, a Canadian family of 4. This was their 3rd safari trip in Ranthambore, and they were very keen to see a tiger, which the park is famous for. I think they said everyone else at their hotel had spotted tigers the day before, but they hadn't.
The safari was 3-hours long, and was through beautiful scenery, but although our driver certainly seemed very keen to find a tiger (waiting for long stretches at specific locations, and circumnavigating the same route 3 times, much to the annoyance of the Canadian wife!), we never spotted a tiger. I didn't mind in the slightest really, as I never thought you'd have much chance of spotting one, and anyway I really enjoyed the park and the other wildlife we saw, such as small crocodiles, lots of deer and antelope, lots of birds and a huge stripey hyena that ran right across the road in front of us before we'd even picked up the Canadians.
On the way back from the safari myself and Sarah hopped out of the jeep to explore the huge fortress that overlooks the entrance to the park. I had planned on exploring the fort for a couple of hours before heading back to the booking office to try and book another safari for the afternoon (the park has 8 zones, so I wanted to try a different zone to see a bit more of the park).
The fortress is pretty impressive in itself, but really it's location is just fantastic, as it's built on the edge of high cliffs. At the top we found a lovely secluded spot to sit, have a bite to eat and just soak up the view of the lakes in the park. The fort also has a famous Hindu temple, and it happened to be a holy day for that temple, so lots of local pilgrims were visiting (as well as hundreds of monkeys, more than I've ever seen in one place before).
To get back to the booking office we had to hop into an extremely crowded jeep with all the pilgrims (I counted 20 people in the 8-seater jeep, all very 'African'), and they dropped us off at the office on their way back to the town. Again I had no trouble booking a jeep, and in fact we ended up sharing with the same Canadian family again.
So after a lovely lunch across the road from the booking office, we hopped into another jeep, picked up the Canadians again at their hotel and went off looking for tigers again. This time, amazingly, we got lucky and actually managed to spot 2 wild tigers.
It wasn't a great sighting though I have to say, as the tigers (they were 2 young adults) were quite a distance away. Our guide reckoned they were waiting in a cave for their mother who was out hunting. He pointed out the tigers to me at first, but all I could make out was a very faint orangey smudge. Eventually I managed to borrow a pair of binoculars from the jeep beside us (they were very reluctant to give them away), and with them I could just about make out unmistakable tiger-ness markings, but no discernible body parts!
I was standing up on the back seat of the jeep, and the other people in our jeep kept moving, so I couldn't keep the powerful binoculars steady, but I was sure I was looking at a tiger. We all stayed staring at the distance smudges for what seemed like ages, but our guide kept telling us to wait until the tigers moved. And the amazing thing was that once a tiger did move, just by turning it's head, lying down or sitting up, or even just shaking it's head, what had been a smudge suddenly became discernible as a real live tiger, as clear as day. It was really weird how your vision seemed to adjust, but by the time we left we had all gotten what we considered a good view of at least one of the tigers - and by that stage there were about 10 jeeps and trucks all crowding around trying to see (we were lucky to have been the third vehicle at the scene).
So after that we spent some more time looking for tigers, but to no avail, although again the landscapes were beautiful. We then dropped off the lovely Canadian family (who incidentally had discovered after their 3rd safari that their hotel was charging them literally double the real safari price, and so the father, who needless to say was a tad peeved, booked their 4th and successful safari directly himself. How many other tourists never get to find out just how much they are being ripped off though...?).
We had to walk back to the town from the booking office, as there were no rickshaws or taxis. Literally everyone else on the safaris was staying at the resorts and got dropped off on the way back to the booking office. It was a nice walk though and after booking train tickets for the next day to Jaipur we got another really tasty dinner at the Asha Hotel.
This was a stroke of luck as our guidebooks gave no map of the town and strolling around a strange town looking for a hotel with no map is no fun. This way we didn't have to lug our rucksacks around town, we didn't have to haggle with a rickshaw driver and we were right in the centre of town and beside the train station for when we moved on.
So settled in there the next priority was to check out getting on a tour of the park. I checked in our hotel and then at the tourist office in the train station, and both told me it would be no problem getting a tour the next morning by just arriving at the official booking office. So 5:30am the next morning we get a rickshaw to the booking office, and after queuing up with the local touts who buy tickets for the guests at the resorts, I manage to book a jeep safari leaving in an hour. The guidebooks both said that 6-seater jeep safaris are much more expensive and much more difficult to get than the 20-seater canter trucks, but things must have changed recently as I had no problem at all getting a jeep, and it was only marginally more expensive than a truck (or again, it was just our timing in coming towards the end of the season).
So after a bite of breakfast we headed off in our very comfy, open and modern jeep (which was incredibly quiet too, unlike the huge canters that are really buses!). We stopped off at one of the luxury resorts to pick up the other 4 tourists, a Canadian family of 4. This was their 3rd safari trip in Ranthambore, and they were very keen to see a tiger, which the park is famous for. I think they said everyone else at their hotel had spotted tigers the day before, but they hadn't.
The safari was 3-hours long, and was through beautiful scenery, but although our driver certainly seemed very keen to find a tiger (waiting for long stretches at specific locations, and circumnavigating the same route 3 times, much to the annoyance of the Canadian wife!), we never spotted a tiger. I didn't mind in the slightest really, as I never thought you'd have much chance of spotting one, and anyway I really enjoyed the park and the other wildlife we saw, such as small crocodiles, lots of deer and antelope, lots of birds and a huge stripey hyena that ran right across the road in front of us before we'd even picked up the Canadians.
On the way back from the safari myself and Sarah hopped out of the jeep to explore the huge fortress that overlooks the entrance to the park. I had planned on exploring the fort for a couple of hours before heading back to the booking office to try and book another safari for the afternoon (the park has 8 zones, so I wanted to try a different zone to see a bit more of the park).
The fortress is pretty impressive in itself, but really it's location is just fantastic, as it's built on the edge of high cliffs. At the top we found a lovely secluded spot to sit, have a bite to eat and just soak up the view of the lakes in the park. The fort also has a famous Hindu temple, and it happened to be a holy day for that temple, so lots of local pilgrims were visiting (as well as hundreds of monkeys, more than I've ever seen in one place before).
To get back to the booking office we had to hop into an extremely crowded jeep with all the pilgrims (I counted 20 people in the 8-seater jeep, all very 'African'), and they dropped us off at the office on their way back to the town. Again I had no trouble booking a jeep, and in fact we ended up sharing with the same Canadian family again.
So after a lovely lunch across the road from the booking office, we hopped into another jeep, picked up the Canadians again at their hotel and went off looking for tigers again. This time, amazingly, we got lucky and actually managed to spot 2 wild tigers.
It wasn't a great sighting though I have to say, as the tigers (they were 2 young adults) were quite a distance away. Our guide reckoned they were waiting in a cave for their mother who was out hunting. He pointed out the tigers to me at first, but all I could make out was a very faint orangey smudge. Eventually I managed to borrow a pair of binoculars from the jeep beside us (they were very reluctant to give them away), and with them I could just about make out unmistakable tiger-ness markings, but no discernible body parts!
I was standing up on the back seat of the jeep, and the other people in our jeep kept moving, so I couldn't keep the powerful binoculars steady, but I was sure I was looking at a tiger. We all stayed staring at the distance smudges for what seemed like ages, but our guide kept telling us to wait until the tigers moved. And the amazing thing was that once a tiger did move, just by turning it's head, lying down or sitting up, or even just shaking it's head, what had been a smudge suddenly became discernible as a real live tiger, as clear as day. It was really weird how your vision seemed to adjust, but by the time we left we had all gotten what we considered a good view of at least one of the tigers - and by that stage there were about 10 jeeps and trucks all crowding around trying to see (we were lucky to have been the third vehicle at the scene).
So after that we spent some more time looking for tigers, but to no avail, although again the landscapes were beautiful. We then dropped off the lovely Canadian family (who incidentally had discovered after their 3rd safari that their hotel was charging them literally double the real safari price, and so the father, who needless to say was a tad peeved, booked their 4th and successful safari directly himself. How many other tourists never get to find out just how much they are being ripped off though...?).
We had to walk back to the town from the booking office, as there were no rickshaws or taxis. Literally everyone else on the safaris was staying at the resorts and got dropped off on the way back to the booking office. It was a nice walk though and after booking train tickets for the next day to Jaipur we got another really tasty dinner at the Asha Hotel.
Detour to Sawai Madhopur
Although I've loved all our Indian train journeys so far, they were all 2nd class air-conditioned, whereas all we could get for this trip was 'Sleeper' class which is more crowded and has no air-conditioning (this route North of Goa is one of the busiest in India). In fact I was quite looking forward to a more 'real' Indian train experience, as far more local people travel 'Sleeper' class than the a/c classes.
And it turned out to be a great trip. One advantage of sleeper-class is that there is no glass in the windows - the a/c classes, of course, must have windows, but they are heavily tinted, which reduces the visibility of the passing landscapes. At this time of year the weather is still very pleasant and so a/c isn't really necessary, and so the whole trip during the day was fine. I didn't really notice the extra people in the carriage either, so all-in-all I reckon sleeper-class was a great choice (and about a third of the price).
After a pretty good sleep (you don't get bedding including and I didn't really wrap up properly), we had the whole morning to travel up to Jaipur. On the way I was reading the guidebook when I realised that the train was most probably going to pass by a town next to Ranthambore National Park. This was a place I wanted to visit, but hadn't realised the train would pass through here on the way to Jaipur. I quickly made up my mind to hop off the train at Sawai Mahopur and check out the nearby park.
And it turned out to be a great trip. One advantage of sleeper-class is that there is no glass in the windows - the a/c classes, of course, must have windows, but they are heavily tinted, which reduces the visibility of the passing landscapes. At this time of year the weather is still very pleasant and so a/c isn't really necessary, and so the whole trip during the day was fine. I didn't really notice the extra people in the carriage either, so all-in-all I reckon sleeper-class was a great choice (and about a third of the price).
After a pretty good sleep (you don't get bedding including and I didn't really wrap up properly), we had the whole morning to travel up to Jaipur. On the way I was reading the guidebook when I realised that the train was most probably going to pass by a town next to Ranthambore National Park. This was a place I wanted to visit, but hadn't realised the train would pass through here on the way to Jaipur. I quickly made up my mind to hop off the train at Sawai Mahopur and check out the nearby park.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Panjim
The local buses depart Palolem just up a short road from the beach, and when we got there the local boys tell us the bus will leave in about 20 minutes - which as usual was just enough time to pop across the road to a miniscule local hole-in-wall that served up a really tasty dal and bread breakfast for 10 Rupees.
The bus pottered up to Canaconda where we waited for 5 minutes before continuing up the road to Margao, where we had to change to another bus for Panjim. All-in-all it took about 2.5 hours to get Panjim, but only because the buses kept picking up and dropping off people.
At the bus station in Panjim I had to use a bit of guesswork to decide which direction to walk to the accommodation, but luckily I guessed right and within 5 minutes we crossed a footbridge and were in the Fontainhas district.
The guidebooks both highly recommended a Portuguese restaurant that happened to be exactly where we were, so we had lunch there (feijoas of course, just like back in Brazil), before Sarah strolled around looking for a place to stay. The first few places were all relatively expensive, but as usual if you just use the places mentioned in the guidebook as a 'guide' and check out the places beside them, you inevitably find a cheaper, better option. Such was how Sarah found the Relax hotel, a great little spot that was just around the corner. It turned out we were the only guests there for our two nights, and the owners didn't even live there, so we had the whole house to ourselves both days.
That afternoon we strolled about (the LP had a walking tour in it, so we did that), and it really is a lovely little town with a lot of character. That evening we strolled down tothe main square to check out a local parade, which although similar to many we've seen in South America was a lot more colourful and the dancing much more coordinated. The parade was quite slow moving though, so after a bit we headed off for dinner at another recommended place, Viva Panjim, which was a real gem. It's a really homely place with a friendly lady owner, and in fact we went back the next night too.
The following day I rented another scooter, and after checking out the promenade and the Media centre on the waterfront of the town I drove the 10km to Old Goa.
This is a very impressive collection of old Portuguese and older ruins, churches and cathedrals, and having the scooter to scoot about the spread-out site was fantastic.
Then it was back to Panjim, for lunch at the fancy Pan-e-shari hotel before heading off North to check out some more of Goa's famous beaches.
First stop was Calangute, and what a shock that was! I thought the beaches of Kerala weren't that great really, but they were idyllic paradises compared to the mayhem on Calagute. Basically it's just the worst example of a Benidorm I could ever imagine - I've never been to Benidorm, and I never want to go, but this was how I imagine it to be. Basically it was hordes of people, about half-and-half Indians and foreign tourists, all lounging out on row after row of sun loungers in front of fairly grotty looking bars. All the foreign tourists seemed very pasty (or burnt), overweight, tattooed and drinking lager.
The beach itself was pretty clean, although driving around would reveal rubbish tips not very far away. The beach was also just dead-straight for miles and miles, so it didn't have any sense of being contained. Access to the beach was via a series of perpendicular streets that were lined with bars, restaurants and shops selling all the usual junk.
All-in-all I thought it was all a bit of a nightmare, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for all the idiot tourists who were presumably paying through the nose for resort accommodation that must have been a good distance from the beach (I didn't see any beach shacks on the beach at all, just bars and resturants), and then have to share a boring beach with millions of other tourists on a beach covered with sun loungers. If those same people had investigated Goa just a little bit (by reading any guidebook maybe), they could have seen that just an hour in a taxi would have taken them to a truly idyllic beach where everything was a fraction of the cost. Of course, it's just the fear and paranoia of the unknown and pure laziness I suppose, so I guess they get what they ask for.
Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was spent just cruising up the coast from beach to beach, and in fairness the further north I went the better the beaches seemed to become. Apparently one of the best unspoilt beaches in Goa is Arambol, but unfortunately I didn't have time to head all the way up there, only getting as far as Vagator. But I must say I was really delighteed to have stayed as long as I did on Palolem beach, as from what I could see in passing through, it was by far the best beach that I saw in Goa.
So after watching the paragliders over Vagator for a bit it was a straight run back to Panjim, after one more beach stop at Candolim to check out the huge shipwreck literally only a couple of hundred metres off the coast. Again the timing was just about right, getting back just as it got dark, and after a quick shower back at the hotel it was dinner at Viva Panjim again.
Next morning was an early local bus back to Margao, then a rickshaw to the station to catch the train for our 27 hour journey up to Jaipur in Rajasthan.
The bus pottered up to Canaconda where we waited for 5 minutes before continuing up the road to Margao, where we had to change to another bus for Panjim. All-in-all it took about 2.5 hours to get Panjim, but only because the buses kept picking up and dropping off people.
At the bus station in Panjim I had to use a bit of guesswork to decide which direction to walk to the accommodation, but luckily I guessed right and within 5 minutes we crossed a footbridge and were in the Fontainhas district.
The guidebooks both highly recommended a Portuguese restaurant that happened to be exactly where we were, so we had lunch there (feijoas of course, just like back in Brazil), before Sarah strolled around looking for a place to stay. The first few places were all relatively expensive, but as usual if you just use the places mentioned in the guidebook as a 'guide' and check out the places beside them, you inevitably find a cheaper, better option. Such was how Sarah found the Relax hotel, a great little spot that was just around the corner. It turned out we were the only guests there for our two nights, and the owners didn't even live there, so we had the whole house to ourselves both days.
That afternoon we strolled about (the LP had a walking tour in it, so we did that), and it really is a lovely little town with a lot of character. That evening we strolled down tothe main square to check out a local parade, which although similar to many we've seen in South America was a lot more colourful and the dancing much more coordinated. The parade was quite slow moving though, so after a bit we headed off for dinner at another recommended place, Viva Panjim, which was a real gem. It's a really homely place with a friendly lady owner, and in fact we went back the next night too.
The following day I rented another scooter, and after checking out the promenade and the Media centre on the waterfront of the town I drove the 10km to Old Goa.
This is a very impressive collection of old Portuguese and older ruins, churches and cathedrals, and having the scooter to scoot about the spread-out site was fantastic.
Then it was back to Panjim, for lunch at the fancy Pan-e-shari hotel before heading off North to check out some more of Goa's famous beaches.
First stop was Calangute, and what a shock that was! I thought the beaches of Kerala weren't that great really, but they were idyllic paradises compared to the mayhem on Calagute. Basically it's just the worst example of a Benidorm I could ever imagine - I've never been to Benidorm, and I never want to go, but this was how I imagine it to be. Basically it was hordes of people, about half-and-half Indians and foreign tourists, all lounging out on row after row of sun loungers in front of fairly grotty looking bars. All the foreign tourists seemed very pasty (or burnt), overweight, tattooed and drinking lager.
The beach itself was pretty clean, although driving around would reveal rubbish tips not very far away. The beach was also just dead-straight for miles and miles, so it didn't have any sense of being contained. Access to the beach was via a series of perpendicular streets that were lined with bars, restaurants and shops selling all the usual junk.
All-in-all I thought it was all a bit of a nightmare, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for all the idiot tourists who were presumably paying through the nose for resort accommodation that must have been a good distance from the beach (I didn't see any beach shacks on the beach at all, just bars and resturants), and then have to share a boring beach with millions of other tourists on a beach covered with sun loungers. If those same people had investigated Goa just a little bit (by reading any guidebook maybe), they could have seen that just an hour in a taxi would have taken them to a truly idyllic beach where everything was a fraction of the cost. Of course, it's just the fear and paranoia of the unknown and pure laziness I suppose, so I guess they get what they ask for.
Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was spent just cruising up the coast from beach to beach, and in fairness the further north I went the better the beaches seemed to become. Apparently one of the best unspoilt beaches in Goa is Arambol, but unfortunately I didn't have time to head all the way up there, only getting as far as Vagator. But I must say I was really delighteed to have stayed as long as I did on Palolem beach, as from what I could see in passing through, it was by far the best beach that I saw in Goa.
So after watching the paragliders over Vagator for a bit it was a straight run back to Panjim, after one more beach stop at Candolim to check out the huge shipwreck literally only a couple of hundred metres off the coast. Again the timing was just about right, getting back just as it got dark, and after a quick shower back at the hotel it was dinner at Viva Panjim again.
Next morning was an early local bus back to Margao, then a rickshaw to the station to catch the train for our 27 hour journey up to Jaipur in Rajasthan.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Exploring South Goa a bit
The long day exploring with the scooter turned out to be a really fantastic day. The bike I got was in great condition, so I was easily able to overtake most other traffic, not that there was much, and the bike had no problem with the few hills since the roads were in great condition (they're were even plenty of helpful signposts along the way).
It was a frustrating search for the petrol station at the start of the day (they never give you petrol when you rent a bike, and the guy who gave me the bike gave me crappy directions), but once fuelled up it was easy to find Agonda beach. Agonda is another stunning stretch of beach, much less developed than Palolem, with the same restrictions on concrete development, but with the shacks and huts far more spaced out. I actually thought Palolem was a tad nicer though, due to it's beautiful line of tall palm trees, but during the real high season I'm sure Agonda is a hell of a lot more peaceful.
So after a quick swim and a lovely curry breakfast it was back on the scooter to move on up the coast. The road from Agonda was just stunning, and I had to stop and take a couple of videos before we arrived just up the coast at Kola beach. Kola is only very briefly mentioned in one of our guidebooks, although it lists it as a top-five hidden beach. It turned out to be simply THE most idyllic beach I've ever seen! It's at the end of a pretty bad stretch of road and it's actually two small crescent beaches, connected with the usual little rocky outcrop.
One of those beaches (the more stunningly scenic one), is actually private with just one accommodation option that is owned and run by a package company (so we couldn't even buy a drink there). The first tiny beach also has very little development, mainly the Blue Lagoon Resort, and the prices for luxury tents (R900) and huts (Rs700) where very reasonable really (our ensuite hut with mozzy net on Palolem was just Rs200 a night though). When I come to Goa again (not 'if' of course), I like the idea of spending a few days here first, and then maybe moving on to Palolem or Agonda which have a lot more life, and choice of restaurants.
So after that quick pit stop it back on the bike and up to Cabo da Rama, which is an old fort build on a headland. There wasn't a lot to see here, just the remains of the fort's ramparts, although it did give good views out to sea and distant beaches. There was a lovely looking walk to a smaller headland further out, but Sarah had gone back to the bike due to the heat and she'd taken the water, so I didn't bother to hike out to check it out.
Back on the bike and up to the big town of Margao to try and book train tickets up to Rajastan. I knew this was going to be difficult, as the stretch from Goa up North is one of the most oversubscribed routes in India, and from checking online I could see that all the comfy class seats were already long gone. Anyway, after the usual stressful waiting in line, and then checking at the enquiry counter it turns out that we can waitlisted for 'sleeper' class seats. These are not air-conditioned and you aren't provided with bedding and is more cramped than what we've had before, but it was all that was available, so of course I took it. Luckily it means we can bypass Mumbai completely and get a single train all the way up to Jaipur. I didn't fancy spending time and effort getting accommodation in Mumbai, as the guidebooks say it's a messy and expensive city, and anyway I want to get up to Nepal fairly quickly to catch the Spring season there.
So much relieved to have our train tickets sorted (being 'waitlisted' doesn't guarantee a seat, and I'm still a bit confused by the Tatkal system, but both the ticket lady and a friendly guy in the queue both told us we had excellent chances as we were numbers 1 and 2), we just about had enough time to check out a couple of more beaches and so I headed back to the coast towards Benaulim.
I got a wee bit lost on the way though, and actually ended up at Varca beach. This is almost entirely run by big concrete resorts though, so after not even seening the beach itself I set off to find Benaulim, which is just up the coast. This was a nice beach, although just dead straight for as far as the eye can see, so in that regard not as pretty as the gently curving Palolem.
By this stage is getting late and I thought I'd have to drive in the dark for a bit, but it turned out that I'd timed things just about perfectly and we arrived back in Palolem just as the sun was setting. I missed the actual sunset itself, as I did every evening until the very last night - to see it set over the sea (as opposed to over a small headland), you have to swim out a couple of hundred meters and time it properly.
With the train tickets sorted out we knew exactly how much time we had left, and so decided to spend one more day lazing around on Palolem beach just doing nothing at all but swim, read, eat and drink. That left us two full days to explore around the state capital of Panjim, and the following morning we made our way there by local bus.
It was a frustrating search for the petrol station at the start of the day (they never give you petrol when you rent a bike, and the guy who gave me the bike gave me crappy directions), but once fuelled up it was easy to find Agonda beach. Agonda is another stunning stretch of beach, much less developed than Palolem, with the same restrictions on concrete development, but with the shacks and huts far more spaced out. I actually thought Palolem was a tad nicer though, due to it's beautiful line of tall palm trees, but during the real high season I'm sure Agonda is a hell of a lot more peaceful.
So after a quick swim and a lovely curry breakfast it was back on the scooter to move on up the coast. The road from Agonda was just stunning, and I had to stop and take a couple of videos before we arrived just up the coast at Kola beach. Kola is only very briefly mentioned in one of our guidebooks, although it lists it as a top-five hidden beach. It turned out to be simply THE most idyllic beach I've ever seen! It's at the end of a pretty bad stretch of road and it's actually two small crescent beaches, connected with the usual little rocky outcrop.
One of those beaches (the more stunningly scenic one), is actually private with just one accommodation option that is owned and run by a package company (so we couldn't even buy a drink there). The first tiny beach also has very little development, mainly the Blue Lagoon Resort, and the prices for luxury tents (R900) and huts (Rs700) where very reasonable really (our ensuite hut with mozzy net on Palolem was just Rs200 a night though). When I come to Goa again (not 'if' of course), I like the idea of spending a few days here first, and then maybe moving on to Palolem or Agonda which have a lot more life, and choice of restaurants.
So after that quick pit stop it back on the bike and up to Cabo da Rama, which is an old fort build on a headland. There wasn't a lot to see here, just the remains of the fort's ramparts, although it did give good views out to sea and distant beaches. There was a lovely looking walk to a smaller headland further out, but Sarah had gone back to the bike due to the heat and she'd taken the water, so I didn't bother to hike out to check it out.
Back on the bike and up to the big town of Margao to try and book train tickets up to Rajastan. I knew this was going to be difficult, as the stretch from Goa up North is one of the most oversubscribed routes in India, and from checking online I could see that all the comfy class seats were already long gone. Anyway, after the usual stressful waiting in line, and then checking at the enquiry counter it turns out that we can waitlisted for 'sleeper' class seats. These are not air-conditioned and you aren't provided with bedding and is more cramped than what we've had before, but it was all that was available, so of course I took it. Luckily it means we can bypass Mumbai completely and get a single train all the way up to Jaipur. I didn't fancy spending time and effort getting accommodation in Mumbai, as the guidebooks say it's a messy and expensive city, and anyway I want to get up to Nepal fairly quickly to catch the Spring season there.
So much relieved to have our train tickets sorted (being 'waitlisted' doesn't guarantee a seat, and I'm still a bit confused by the Tatkal system, but both the ticket lady and a friendly guy in the queue both told us we had excellent chances as we were numbers 1 and 2), we just about had enough time to check out a couple of more beaches and so I headed back to the coast towards Benaulim.
I got a wee bit lost on the way though, and actually ended up at Varca beach. This is almost entirely run by big concrete resorts though, so after not even seening the beach itself I set off to find Benaulim, which is just up the coast. This was a nice beach, although just dead straight for as far as the eye can see, so in that regard not as pretty as the gently curving Palolem.
By this stage is getting late and I thought I'd have to drive in the dark for a bit, but it turned out that I'd timed things just about perfectly and we arrived back in Palolem just as the sun was setting. I missed the actual sunset itself, as I did every evening until the very last night - to see it set over the sea (as opposed to over a small headland), you have to swim out a couple of hundred meters and time it properly.
With the train tickets sorted out we knew exactly how much time we had left, and so decided to spend one more day lazing around on Palolem beach just doing nothing at all but swim, read, eat and drink. That left us two full days to explore around the state capital of Panjim, and the following morning we made our way there by local bus.
Beaches of Goa - Palolem
Well, the ' luxurious Rajdhani Express' actually turned out to be exactly the same as all the other trains we've gotten in India, but of course they've all been great and so this was no different.
It was a late start (about 22:30 I think), so we both just got onboard, made our beds and pretty much went straight to sleep. Because this train was an Express it meant it made far fewer stops, and resulted in us overshooting our intended destination of Palolem. So when we arrived at Margao we needed to get local transport to backtrack south a little.
At first I was making my way to the pre-paid taxi rank to get a rickshaw to the bus station, when a couple of motorbike taxi touts approached us. I haven't seen too many of these guys in India, but I've used them quite a lot in Asia before, so I decided to give them a go (and they're much more fun than a taxi or rickshaw for short trips anyway). Sure enough the boys leave us on the side a fairly non-descript road telling us that buses to Palolem stop there, and after checking with a nearby traffic cop it turns out they weren't lying.
So a few minutes later the local bus arrives, and we luckily get seats and off we go to Palolem beach (the bus wasn't direct in fact, but the transfer at Chaudi was literally instantaneous, as usual!).
I was unsure about what to expect from the Goan beaches after the experiences of Kerala (which I thought weren't great). But immediately on arriving on Palolem beach it was clear that the Goan's have a much better idea of how to manage an idyllic beach. The locals have managed (by fighting hard apparently) to prevent any large-scale developments anywhere on the beach. It has resulted in only shacks and huts being built right on the beach, the tallest of which are only two stories, and none of which reach even half-way as high as the unbroken line of palm trees that lie just behind them.
The beach itself was spotlessly clean too and curves gently along it's 2km length, terminating at both ends in rocky headlands covered in forest. It really is a fantastic beach, and certainly ranks up there among the best I've ever seen. It is quite developed though, as the restaurants and huts cover almost the entire length of beach, but due to the lack of concrete and building height it really doesn't seem that developed at all.
Also, I think we timed our arrival really well (not that any thought went into it), as there really weren't many tourists around at all (it's still high-season, but right towards the end, and the Mumbai bombings probably have 'helped' in that regard too I suppose). That meant we had no trouble getting cheap-as-chips accommodation right on the beach itself, and everyday feeling like we had large swathes of beach just to ourselves. We stayed at Janisha, which is just a collection of shacks with a lovely restaurant where we ate regularly. They provided a few sun chairs and umbrellas in front, nestling amongst the many small outrigger fishing boats that would be parked up on the sand during the day. On the two occasions I managed to get out of bed early enough, I got to see those same fishermen unloading and sorting their nightly catches as I walked past them into the sea for my morning swim.
So the original plan was to settle in Palolem and then quickly rent a scooter and check out some of the other beaches in Goa to find the best place to settle down for a bit (I was also kinda waiting to see if a mate of mine, Emmet, would be able to fly over to Goa to meet up, as he was working in Bangalore for a couple of weeks - turned out his work went a bit pear-shaped and he couldn't make it). But I just relaxed so much, and so quickly, on Palolem that it was three days before I'd even walked the full length of the beach itself (Palolem actually bleeds over a headland into Patnem beach, which bleeds over another headland into Rajbag beach, so in total it's a few kilometers long).
On the fifth day on the beach I got word that Emmet wouldn't be making it, and so the following day I finally rented that scooter to check out the region a bit.
It was a late start (about 22:30 I think), so we both just got onboard, made our beds and pretty much went straight to sleep. Because this train was an Express it meant it made far fewer stops, and resulted in us overshooting our intended destination of Palolem. So when we arrived at Margao we needed to get local transport to backtrack south a little.
At first I was making my way to the pre-paid taxi rank to get a rickshaw to the bus station, when a couple of motorbike taxi touts approached us. I haven't seen too many of these guys in India, but I've used them quite a lot in Asia before, so I decided to give them a go (and they're much more fun than a taxi or rickshaw for short trips anyway). Sure enough the boys leave us on the side a fairly non-descript road telling us that buses to Palolem stop there, and after checking with a nearby traffic cop it turns out they weren't lying.
So a few minutes later the local bus arrives, and we luckily get seats and off we go to Palolem beach (the bus wasn't direct in fact, but the transfer at Chaudi was literally instantaneous, as usual!).
I was unsure about what to expect from the Goan beaches after the experiences of Kerala (which I thought weren't great). But immediately on arriving on Palolem beach it was clear that the Goan's have a much better idea of how to manage an idyllic beach. The locals have managed (by fighting hard apparently) to prevent any large-scale developments anywhere on the beach. It has resulted in only shacks and huts being built right on the beach, the tallest of which are only two stories, and none of which reach even half-way as high as the unbroken line of palm trees that lie just behind them.
The beach itself was spotlessly clean too and curves gently along it's 2km length, terminating at both ends in rocky headlands covered in forest. It really is a fantastic beach, and certainly ranks up there among the best I've ever seen. It is quite developed though, as the restaurants and huts cover almost the entire length of beach, but due to the lack of concrete and building height it really doesn't seem that developed at all.
Also, I think we timed our arrival really well (not that any thought went into it), as there really weren't many tourists around at all (it's still high-season, but right towards the end, and the Mumbai bombings probably have 'helped' in that regard too I suppose). That meant we had no trouble getting cheap-as-chips accommodation right on the beach itself, and everyday feeling like we had large swathes of beach just to ourselves. We stayed at Janisha, which is just a collection of shacks with a lovely restaurant where we ate regularly. They provided a few sun chairs and umbrellas in front, nestling amongst the many small outrigger fishing boats that would be parked up on the sand during the day. On the two occasions I managed to get out of bed early enough, I got to see those same fishermen unloading and sorting their nightly catches as I walked past them into the sea for my morning swim.
So the original plan was to settle in Palolem and then quickly rent a scooter and check out some of the other beaches in Goa to find the best place to settle down for a bit (I was also kinda waiting to see if a mate of mine, Emmet, would be able to fly over to Goa to meet up, as he was working in Bangalore for a couple of weeks - turned out his work went a bit pear-shaped and he couldn't make it). But I just relaxed so much, and so quickly, on Palolem that it was three days before I'd even walked the full length of the beach itself (Palolem actually bleeds over a headland into Patnem beach, which bleeds over another headland into Rajbag beach, so in total it's a few kilometers long).
On the fifth day on the beach I got word that Emmet wouldn't be making it, and so the following day I finally rented that scooter to check out the region a bit.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Cochin
Seeing as how this train journey was only 4 hours, and during daylight, I just booked us seats in the normal seating class (which has no air conditioning, but of course was super-cheap). After a bit of a panic trying to work out where our carriage was (the trains are generally huge and you have no idea which direction to start walking), we finally find the right one and settle in.
The journey was through some lovely landscapes of rice paddy fields, palm tree forests and backwater canals, and we arrived in Cochin pretty much on time. It was a bit of an ordeal trying to work out how to get a bus into the town centre (the bus destinations were all written in Hindi script), so we just got a rickshaw and asked him to drop us at the ferry terminal. He dropped us at the wrong terminal of course, so it was a bit of a stressful hike to get to where we wanted to go as it was seriously hot and humid. But thankfully the second place I tried turned out to be nice and the cheapest yet (about 3 Euro a night!).
So that first day was just strolling about and checking out the local part of town, the only things of note being the small but good Durbar Hall Art Gallery and finding yet another great local restaurant (upstairs in delicious air-con at Bimbi's).
That evening we finally got to see 'Slumdog Millionaire', which probably makes us the last people in the world to have seen it (I think literally every time I read an English-language newspaper here there is some mention of the 'Slumdog' movie, either slating it for painting India in a bad light, or singing the praises of the actors and producers). We made sure that it was the English version, but of course they didn't subtitle the Hindi parts of the movie, but it wasn't hard to get the jist of things really. I must say it was kinda cool to see all the images of India and recognising lots of them (like the trains, the litter everywhere, the stinking, rotten waterways and the general colour of everything). I thought the movie was good, but a bit surprised to think it won 'Best Picture'.
Our cinema was typically Indian though apparently, with about 6 mobile phones going off (and people answering them and talking!), and a fair bit of cheering and shouting from below us in the stalls (we were up in the balcony). Apparently during Bollywood movies the crowds can get very raucous, so it's just par for the course, and certainly didn't disturb the movie for me.
Next day (after brekkie at the local Indian Coffee House), we got the ferry across to Cochin's main tourist attraction, the area of Fort Cochin. The ferry stops were a bit unclear, so we ended up getting off at Jew Town and exploring from there. It's a lovely area of higgledy-piggledy spice and antique shops (one of which has a fantastically spectacular Snake boat, which really belongs in a National Museum!), and after the synagogue and the Mattancherry Palace (with it's impressive murals), we strolled to the Jain temple and then into the town centre. We popped into the Santa Cruz Cathedral that has fantastic interior decoration and then a nice modern cafe for lunch before checking out the mad Chinese fishing nets. Also strolled about the Brunton Boatyard hotel, which was all nicely fancy (and the restaurant had one of the most expensive menus I've seen in India, although the decor was decidedly plain, and there was no view to speak of).
Then we hopped on a bus back to the town to get to the train station to book our onward journey. This turned out to be the first real headache I've had to endure in India, as the trains I wanted to book (which I'd checked first online), were all full. It was stressful because the ticket queues have people crowding around you and you feel forced to make a decision immediately. But there were lots of options of various trains, various destinations and various seating options, and I couldn't understand the guy's English at the enquiry-desk, and people were constantly pushing past me, so it was just hectic.
In the end I had to book an expensive overnight train 2 days in advance. It means we don't get to see any scenery (travel only at night), but at least we arrive at a reasonable hour (10am). It gave us two more full days in Cochin, which is more than I wanted, but it's certainly not the worst place to be stuck for a day or two.
Next day I picking up my camera, which I'd left into a repair place to investigate getting fixed. It turned out there were 2 problems, the first was trivial to fix (the camera wasn't powering-up into photo-taking mode), but the second would require an expensive new shutter, so I skipped that expense hoping the camera will kinda work well enough - which it seems to be. Then we hopped on a bus to a nearby town to see a palace.
We had to walk a couple of kilometers from the town to the palace, but it was cooler today thank god. The palace was pretty good, with an interesting cage they used to kill people in (apparently picked alive by birds whilst hanging in the cage from the limb of a tree!), and nice big executioner's knives. After a nice thali lunch there and a stroll around the small deer park and dusty heritage museum we hopped on a bus back to town (that of course pulled up as we exitted the palace grounds). But we needed to get another bus to take us back to our hotel-area (after quite a bit of bewildered walking about the bus station asking people 'Excuse me, but where am I?', as as usual there were no street signs, or even a sign to name the bus station we were standing in).
So then it was catching up on the Internet for a couple of hours before dinner in Sealord's. Here again I seemed to taste 'the best curry yet!', as the prawn curry really was delicious, and the exposed roof top setting presented a very welcome cooling breeze.
Next morning was a late start as we had the whole day at our leisure. First was a rickshaw to the train station to leave our rucksacks in left-luggage. Then down the road to another branch of Bimbi's for a fantastic lunchtime thali, then a spot of Internet and then hopped on a bus back to the Fort Cochin area to wile away the afternoon in cafes and sitting on the sea front by the fishing nets.
Then a ferry back to the 'mainland', a stroll to the train station and our 4th overnight train in India, this time on the luxurious Rajdhani Express.
The journey was through some lovely landscapes of rice paddy fields, palm tree forests and backwater canals, and we arrived in Cochin pretty much on time. It was a bit of an ordeal trying to work out how to get a bus into the town centre (the bus destinations were all written in Hindi script), so we just got a rickshaw and asked him to drop us at the ferry terminal. He dropped us at the wrong terminal of course, so it was a bit of a stressful hike to get to where we wanted to go as it was seriously hot and humid. But thankfully the second place I tried turned out to be nice and the cheapest yet (about 3 Euro a night!).
So that first day was just strolling about and checking out the local part of town, the only things of note being the small but good Durbar Hall Art Gallery and finding yet another great local restaurant (upstairs in delicious air-con at Bimbi's).
That evening we finally got to see 'Slumdog Millionaire', which probably makes us the last people in the world to have seen it (I think literally every time I read an English-language newspaper here there is some mention of the 'Slumdog' movie, either slating it for painting India in a bad light, or singing the praises of the actors and producers). We made sure that it was the English version, but of course they didn't subtitle the Hindi parts of the movie, but it wasn't hard to get the jist of things really. I must say it was kinda cool to see all the images of India and recognising lots of them (like the trains, the litter everywhere, the stinking, rotten waterways and the general colour of everything). I thought the movie was good, but a bit surprised to think it won 'Best Picture'.
Our cinema was typically Indian though apparently, with about 6 mobile phones going off (and people answering them and talking!), and a fair bit of cheering and shouting from below us in the stalls (we were up in the balcony). Apparently during Bollywood movies the crowds can get very raucous, so it's just par for the course, and certainly didn't disturb the movie for me.
Next day (after brekkie at the local Indian Coffee House), we got the ferry across to Cochin's main tourist attraction, the area of Fort Cochin. The ferry stops were a bit unclear, so we ended up getting off at Jew Town and exploring from there. It's a lovely area of higgledy-piggledy spice and antique shops (one of which has a fantastically spectacular Snake boat, which really belongs in a National Museum!), and after the synagogue and the Mattancherry Palace (with it's impressive murals), we strolled to the Jain temple and then into the town centre. We popped into the Santa Cruz Cathedral that has fantastic interior decoration and then a nice modern cafe for lunch before checking out the mad Chinese fishing nets. Also strolled about the Brunton Boatyard hotel, which was all nicely fancy (and the restaurant had one of the most expensive menus I've seen in India, although the decor was decidedly plain, and there was no view to speak of).
Then we hopped on a bus back to the town to get to the train station to book our onward journey. This turned out to be the first real headache I've had to endure in India, as the trains I wanted to book (which I'd checked first online), were all full. It was stressful because the ticket queues have people crowding around you and you feel forced to make a decision immediately. But there were lots of options of various trains, various destinations and various seating options, and I couldn't understand the guy's English at the enquiry-desk, and people were constantly pushing past me, so it was just hectic.
In the end I had to book an expensive overnight train 2 days in advance. It means we don't get to see any scenery (travel only at night), but at least we arrive at a reasonable hour (10am). It gave us two more full days in Cochin, which is more than I wanted, but it's certainly not the worst place to be stuck for a day or two.
Next day I picking up my camera, which I'd left into a repair place to investigate getting fixed. It turned out there were 2 problems, the first was trivial to fix (the camera wasn't powering-up into photo-taking mode), but the second would require an expensive new shutter, so I skipped that expense hoping the camera will kinda work well enough - which it seems to be. Then we hopped on a bus to a nearby town to see a palace.
We had to walk a couple of kilometers from the town to the palace, but it was cooler today thank god. The palace was pretty good, with an interesting cage they used to kill people in (apparently picked alive by birds whilst hanging in the cage from the limb of a tree!), and nice big executioner's knives. After a nice thali lunch there and a stroll around the small deer park and dusty heritage museum we hopped on a bus back to town (that of course pulled up as we exitted the palace grounds). But we needed to get another bus to take us back to our hotel-area (after quite a bit of bewildered walking about the bus station asking people 'Excuse me, but where am I?', as as usual there were no street signs, or even a sign to name the bus station we were standing in).
So then it was catching up on the Internet for a couple of hours before dinner in Sealord's. Here again I seemed to taste 'the best curry yet!', as the prawn curry really was delicious, and the exposed roof top setting presented a very welcome cooling breeze.
Next morning was a late start as we had the whole day at our leisure. First was a rickshaw to the train station to leave our rucksacks in left-luggage. Then down the road to another branch of Bimbi's for a fantastic lunchtime thali, then a spot of Internet and then hopped on a bus back to the Fort Cochin area to wile away the afternoon in cafes and sitting on the sea front by the fishing nets.
Then a ferry back to the 'mainland', a stroll to the train station and our 4th overnight train in India, this time on the luxurious Rajdhani Express.
Trivandrum
We knew the price we'd paid to get to Varkala from the train station, so we weren't going to pay any more for the return, but of course these taxi guys know they have a captive audience. After refusing 3 guys we eventually got a reasonable guy (who probably risked irking the cartel because we'd walked a fair bit from where he might get spotted!). Anyway, he only drives less than half the distance before pulling over in front of a parked bus and tells us that the bus is going our way (to Trivandrum). Of course we don't trust this guy (he's a taxi-driver for god's sake!), so Sarah asks a bus conductor guy. He confirms the bus is going our way, and than another local guy tells us it's leaving in 45 minutes, but then changes his mind and says it's going in 20 minutes.
Sarah says she feels bad about the whole thing and we should just keep going to the bus station as we'd originally agreed, but I think all will be OK. Turns out my intuition was right, and in fact the bus leaves a bit early, and so off we go to Trivandrum. Of course the rickshaw driver had tried to get the full fare we originally agreed, but he'd not even driven half the distance to the agreed destination, so I only gave him 60% of the original fare. He kicked up a bit of a cheeky fuss, which I had no problem ignoring, although Sarah still seems to find these situations confusing!
Sarah says she feels bad about the whole thing and we should just keep going to the bus station as we'd originally agreed, but I think all will be OK. Turns out my intuition was right, and in fact the bus leaves a bit early, and so off we go to Trivandrum. Of course the rickshaw driver had tried to get the full fare we originally agreed, but he'd not even driven half the distance to the agreed destination, so I only gave him 60% of the original fare. He kicked up a bit of a cheeky fuss, which I had no problem ignoring, although Sarah still seems to find these situations confusing!
Anyway, as we arrive in Trivandrum the train station is right in front of us, and we pass my first intended hostel, only 200 metres away. It turns out to one of the nicest places in India so far, and still cheap as chips, the Greenland Lodging.
The whole episode of the journey from Varkala to Trivandrum just seemed to encapsulate just how easy and effortless travelling has been for us in India so far - everything just seems to work like clockwork. In fact, I mentioned this to Roland, and he agreed that he'd experienced much the same, and then we both mentioned it to a Canadian guy, and he reiterated exactly the same thing, so it doesn't seem to be just me and Sarah getting really lucky all the time.
The whole episode of the journey from Varkala to Trivandrum just seemed to encapsulate just how easy and effortless travelling has been for us in India so far - everything just seems to work like clockwork. In fact, I mentioned this to Roland, and he agreed that he'd experienced much the same, and then we both mentioned it to a Canadian guy, and he reiterated exactly the same thing, so it doesn't seem to be just me and Sarah getting really lucky all the time.
Interestingly both the Canadian guy and Roland both said they were really in two minds about travelling in India independently, and both only did it thinking if things didn't work out they'd jump onto an organised package tour thing. Obviously a tour never even occured to me (the very thought kinda makes me sick in fact!), but both the guys said just how relieved they were that they hadn't gone the tour route. It always pays to fight the Epsilonic fear and paranoia that we all suffer from to some degree, and I was delighted to see these guys getting the payoff from fighting it!
So, having arrived nice and early in Trivandrum we had a shower and strolled out for some lunch. We went around the corner to probably the coolest restaurant building of the trip so far - the local Indian Coffee House. The building is circular and the tables all curve along the inner wall as the aisle slopes it's way up the building. Great food here too, and just ridiculously cheap (the Indian Coffee House is a local Indian chain and I've been to a few now, all bloody good!).
Then we caught a rickshaw to the north of the town to visit a museum and art gallery set nicely in a public park. Both where impressive, especially the Napier museum with a really cool, huge old wooden chariot used in Hindu processions, called a 'rath'.
Ignoring the zoo (been on too many safaris to bother with zoos now!), we had to walk all the way back to the town center due to a huge public demonstration. Apparently they are very common here, as Trivandrum is the state capital, but it was actually pretty cool to be walking along with thousands of demonstrators, even if we had no clue what they were demonstrating about.
That evening I booked train tickets for our next destination, the town of Cochin, and we went to a restaurant beside our hotel. It turned out to be another absolute gem of a place, Arya Niwas, busy with locals and yet more really fantastic food.
The next day I'd kinda planned as a day trip to the nearby beaches of Kovalam. The guidebooks say this town has been completely overrun by package tourists and large hotels, so I didn't want to stay there, just check it out. But first we checked out the area beside the bus station that has an old palace and a famous temple (but like most Hindu temples, non-Hindus aren't allowed in - or as I so eloquently put it to the guard, 'Oh, you don't welcome guests into your temples? Oh, I thought the Muslims were supposed to be the unfriendly ones!' - but I don't think he knew what I was on about. But for the record Muslims do allow non-Muslims guests into their mosques, so long as they're not women of course). Anyway, the Puttan Malika palace was pretty good as the obligitory guide thankfully ran through the place pretty quick (the solid crystal throne was interesting).
As usual it was easy to catch a bus to Kovalam, and it drops you at the gate of the fanciest hotel in the whole area, the Leela Hotel. So naturally I had to check it out, and it really is a very fancy gaff indeed, and one of the rare hotels where the photos on the Internet actually reflect what a place is really like. From here we strolled down to the first of the 4 beaches in the area, and after getting chased off the Leela's exclusive patch of beach (well, we weren't chased, they just asked if we were residents, at which we had to sheepishly wander off), we strolled along the beachfront.
Here again the locals seem to have deliberately uprooted all the trees, as none of the beaches provided any natural shade, so it was a tad tricky for me to have my swims, but I still managed a few during the day. But anyway the beaches weren't all that great really, I think I still rate every beach I get to now in relation to the beaches I went to 10 years ago on my first big trip. Back then all the beaches in Malaysia and Thailand seemed spotlessly clean, with nobody around, with very little concrete developments (just shacks and simple huts) and lots of shady palm trees to hide under, but maybe that's just a case of rose-tinted nostalga glasses.
So, having arrived nice and early in Trivandrum we had a shower and strolled out for some lunch. We went around the corner to probably the coolest restaurant building of the trip so far - the local Indian Coffee House. The building is circular and the tables all curve along the inner wall as the aisle slopes it's way up the building. Great food here too, and just ridiculously cheap (the Indian Coffee House is a local Indian chain and I've been to a few now, all bloody good!).
Then we caught a rickshaw to the north of the town to visit a museum and art gallery set nicely in a public park. Both where impressive, especially the Napier museum with a really cool, huge old wooden chariot used in Hindu processions, called a 'rath'.
Ignoring the zoo (been on too many safaris to bother with zoos now!), we had to walk all the way back to the town center due to a huge public demonstration. Apparently they are very common here, as Trivandrum is the state capital, but it was actually pretty cool to be walking along with thousands of demonstrators, even if we had no clue what they were demonstrating about.
That evening I booked train tickets for our next destination, the town of Cochin, and we went to a restaurant beside our hotel. It turned out to be another absolute gem of a place, Arya Niwas, busy with locals and yet more really fantastic food.
The next day I'd kinda planned as a day trip to the nearby beaches of Kovalam. The guidebooks say this town has been completely overrun by package tourists and large hotels, so I didn't want to stay there, just check it out. But first we checked out the area beside the bus station that has an old palace and a famous temple (but like most Hindu temples, non-Hindus aren't allowed in - or as I so eloquently put it to the guard, 'Oh, you don't welcome guests into your temples? Oh, I thought the Muslims were supposed to be the unfriendly ones!' - but I don't think he knew what I was on about. But for the record Muslims do allow non-Muslims guests into their mosques, so long as they're not women of course). Anyway, the Puttan Malika palace was pretty good as the obligitory guide thankfully ran through the place pretty quick (the solid crystal throne was interesting).
As usual it was easy to catch a bus to Kovalam, and it drops you at the gate of the fanciest hotel in the whole area, the Leela Hotel. So naturally I had to check it out, and it really is a very fancy gaff indeed, and one of the rare hotels where the photos on the Internet actually reflect what a place is really like. From here we strolled down to the first of the 4 beaches in the area, and after getting chased off the Leela's exclusive patch of beach (well, we weren't chased, they just asked if we were residents, at which we had to sheepishly wander off), we strolled along the beachfront.
Here again the locals seem to have deliberately uprooted all the trees, as none of the beaches provided any natural shade, so it was a tad tricky for me to have my swims, but I still managed a few during the day. But anyway the beaches weren't all that great really, I think I still rate every beach I get to now in relation to the beaches I went to 10 years ago on my first big trip. Back then all the beaches in Malaysia and Thailand seemed spotlessly clean, with nobody around, with very little concrete developments (just shacks and simple huts) and lots of shady palm trees to hide under, but maybe that's just a case of rose-tinted nostalga glasses.
We stayed the whole day checking out the beaches anyway (and watching a big group of fishermen hauling in a huge fishing net), and had a beer watching the setting sun before running back to catch a bus (for some reason I thought the last bus back was at 5:30pm), which as usual seemed to be waiting just for us, as it pulled off as soon as we boarded. I didn't think Kovalam was much worse than Varkala really, in fact both seemed pretty similar to me, and neither were particularly brilliant.
Dinner that evening was back to the great Arya Niwas before an early night and an early rise the next morning to stroll across the road to the train station for the 4 hour train journey North to Cochin.
Dinner that evening was back to the great Arya Niwas before an early night and an early rise the next morning to stroll across the road to the train station for the 4 hour train journey North to Cochin.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Kerala beaches - 1st stop Varkala
Well, we had to come to the beaches in Kerala as apparently they're famous, so the first stop was Varkala.
It was an easy 2 hour bus ride, yet again our bus leaving within minutes of us arriving at the station. Sarah met a German girl, Iris, on the bus who was going our way so when we arrived we haggled fiercely with a autorickshaw-wallah to take us to the beach. But in this case to no avail (seems to be a price-fixing thing going on), so eventually we got a ride to a recommended hotel near the beach, Bamboo Village. It turned out to be a lovely place, clean and cheap, and so I didn't need to scout out anywhere else.
The beach at Varkala is actually at the base of a large, long, shear, red rock cliff, at the top of which are most of the restaurants and hotels and shops and stuff. We arrived just before sunset, but the sun disappears into dense cloud (or pollution, I don't know which), well before it hits the horizon. But it's definitely a lovely setting, although along many places along the cliff the locals seem to just throw rubbish, which of course piles up into very unsightly heaps (in fact, the rubbish everywhere is probably worse in India than anywhere else I've seen in the world - and the small canals in many of the towns and cities seem practically guaranteed to be incredibly foul-smelling open sewers).
So the next day was beach day proper, for me anyway. Unfortunately there was practically no natural shade anywhere on the beach - in fact, I could only find one small spot that was up a slope a bit, and had a fair bit of rubbish strewn around. Sarah didn't fancy it much, so she just went back to a hammock at our hotel to read, while I stayed huddled under my palm-tree shade. You could rent expensive umbrellas and chairs on the beach, but they were very flimsy affairs, and after getting burnt under a similarly ineffective one in Thailand I didn't fancy risking that again! But swimming in the sea was gorgeous, although in reality the water was probably a bit too warm, so it lacked a bracing refreshment from the heat.
The temperature has been increasing as we've moved South, and it was here that we really started to feel it, although it got even hotter later. Anyway, the next day we had a free cooking lesson - one of the restaurants basically lets you into the kitchen and the chef explains everything as he cooks your order for you. He was brilliant, really friendly and patient and had good English. The curries he cooked up were great too (vegetable kadai (a Keralan dish), and a local fish curry, and also how to make a paratha). It took a good hour to prepare our order, as he was explaining everything, and I did a bit of chopping and stuff.
Sarah had also found a 2 hour cooking course, but that cost a fair few bob, and basically I thought we'd learnt a lot in the free lesson, enough to keep us going anyway without overloading.
Although it was kinda tempting to stay another day in Varkala, the beach really wasn't that great (the lack of proper shade for me being a real problem), so we decided to move on the next day to Trivandrum, further south.
Sarah did a yoga class from 8am until 9:30am - I wasn't interested really, as I've tried bikram yoga and didn't like it much. I could start another rant here about how I reckon exercise is only ever worthwhile if you actually enjoy the activity itself (which is why gyms don't work (nobody I know actually 'enjoys' the gym)), but anyway, I won't! So when Sarah got back and had a quick shower we checked-out and strolled out looking for a autorickshaw.
It was an easy 2 hour bus ride, yet again our bus leaving within minutes of us arriving at the station. Sarah met a German girl, Iris, on the bus who was going our way so when we arrived we haggled fiercely with a autorickshaw-wallah to take us to the beach. But in this case to no avail (seems to be a price-fixing thing going on), so eventually we got a ride to a recommended hotel near the beach, Bamboo Village. It turned out to be a lovely place, clean and cheap, and so I didn't need to scout out anywhere else.
The beach at Varkala is actually at the base of a large, long, shear, red rock cliff, at the top of which are most of the restaurants and hotels and shops and stuff. We arrived just before sunset, but the sun disappears into dense cloud (or pollution, I don't know which), well before it hits the horizon. But it's definitely a lovely setting, although along many places along the cliff the locals seem to just throw rubbish, which of course piles up into very unsightly heaps (in fact, the rubbish everywhere is probably worse in India than anywhere else I've seen in the world - and the small canals in many of the towns and cities seem practically guaranteed to be incredibly foul-smelling open sewers).
So the next day was beach day proper, for me anyway. Unfortunately there was practically no natural shade anywhere on the beach - in fact, I could only find one small spot that was up a slope a bit, and had a fair bit of rubbish strewn around. Sarah didn't fancy it much, so she just went back to a hammock at our hotel to read, while I stayed huddled under my palm-tree shade. You could rent expensive umbrellas and chairs on the beach, but they were very flimsy affairs, and after getting burnt under a similarly ineffective one in Thailand I didn't fancy risking that again! But swimming in the sea was gorgeous, although in reality the water was probably a bit too warm, so it lacked a bracing refreshment from the heat.
The temperature has been increasing as we've moved South, and it was here that we really started to feel it, although it got even hotter later. Anyway, the next day we had a free cooking lesson - one of the restaurants basically lets you into the kitchen and the chef explains everything as he cooks your order for you. He was brilliant, really friendly and patient and had good English. The curries he cooked up were great too (vegetable kadai (a Keralan dish), and a local fish curry, and also how to make a paratha). It took a good hour to prepare our order, as he was explaining everything, and I did a bit of chopping and stuff.
Sarah had also found a 2 hour cooking course, but that cost a fair few bob, and basically I thought we'd learnt a lot in the free lesson, enough to keep us going anyway without overloading.
Although it was kinda tempting to stay another day in Varkala, the beach really wasn't that great (the lack of proper shade for me being a real problem), so we decided to move on the next day to Trivandrum, further south.
Sarah did a yoga class from 8am until 9:30am - I wasn't interested really, as I've tried bikram yoga and didn't like it much. I could start another rant here about how I reckon exercise is only ever worthwhile if you actually enjoy the activity itself (which is why gyms don't work (nobody I know actually 'enjoys' the gym)), but anyway, I won't! So when Sarah got back and had a quick shower we checked-out and strolled out looking for a autorickshaw.
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