Author: Linda

Fifty shades of green

11.2.19

I slept so badly last night, first time since we arrived in India. Between 12.30am and 4am my brain was trying to put the world to rights and at 4.30am there was the most horrendous squeal from a dog, it made my blood run cold. It lasted about 5 seconds and then I was listening to see if I heard more crying and was prepared to go and murder whoever had hurt it. Didn’t hear another sound although it’s played on my mind a lot.

I’m ashamed to admit the tuk tuk drivers name went in one ear and out the other when he arrived at 8am. I’m sure it began with a P so let’s call him Mr P.

We drove firstly to the Top Station with a few photo opportunities on the way. The roads are so potholed it took us about an hour and a half to reach our destination.

Once you get beyond this scruffy town it really is breathtaking.

We reached the Top Station and Mr P waited while we walked to the very end, where Kerala State finishes and Tamil Nadu State starts.

We had only been walking a couple of minutes when we met this intimidating beast.

It kept making a beeline for us and we went right to the edge behind some motor bikes. Everytime we braved it again it would walk back towards us. Some very kind locals tried throwing small sticks towards it, then another chased it away.

Next we met some darling puppies and their mum, this one was adorable.

John fell in love with a little goat.

By this time we had forgotten why we were here. Oh yeah.. Hill station.. It’s very high, and very in the clouds.

see

No idea why anyone would camp, way too cold. Maybe a Fosters would warm us up.

Onwards to one of several dams along this 8km lake.

Our next stop was Echo Point where loads of tourists were shouting very loudly and the echo was certainly impressive.

After Echo Point was Mattupetty Dam, where we heard there was a 98% chance of seeing elephants. At one point we went for a stroll along the lake, but then realising there was no one else walking there and seeing a warning elephant crossing sign I insisted we turned back.

Mr P had told us to take our time so we stopped for tea and coffee at a little roadside stall. Both drinks were like gnats pee and then they tried to overcharge us for drinks we couldn’t even drink.

Our next stop was the flower garden, actually it’s the poorest collection of plants ever and didn’t warrant the small entrance fee or the additional charge to use the loo.

We were starving by this time so Mr P took us back to the outskirts of town where we had fabulous food in a place that reminded me of some of the older, scruffier kebab places in Turkey. John absolutely loved it and they kept bringing more and more.

We both tried tapioca, it’s a staple food here. We saw the trees in the spice garden, they originated from Brazil and now widely grown here. It was delicious with a hint of cinnamon, with cashews and dried fruit.

We were then driven to another view point, near the High Range Members Club and other posh establishments, absolutely gorgeous views.

Felt a bit guilty as Mr P drove us over horrendous potholes on a back road into town to book a Kathakali show. We’ve been undecided about going, it’s famous in Kerala. It was already just gone 4pm and the show was at 5pm.

Just too much after a rubbish nights sleep and 8 hours in what sounds like and feels like a ghost train carriage.

We apologised profusely and came back to the room and will see him again at 9am tomorrow.

We are glad tomorrows trip is by taxi but totally realise today’s would have been too tough going for a cars suspension.

Just watched a Kathakali video.

Think we had a lucky escape.

We had a late dinner at Kurnji restaurant just nearby where we had a fabulous lunch on our first day. It’s always busy, great value and a bit chaotic but we love it.

Another great day of incredible scenery and looking forward to tomorrows trip.

More of fabulous Munnar

12.2.19

Feeling refreshed and raring to go this morning and John has been for a run.

He had good news yesterday that his dad is going to be sent home at the weekend as they have stabilised his kidney function.

Mr P, who I now know is called Palini collected us promptly at 9am. Our first stop was the tea museum.

After a lot of kerfuffle they managed to get the projector and sound working at the same time!

The film was called New Roads, Old Mountains and followed the history of Munnar right back to British explorers surveying the hills, tribal groups, transformation of the hills with tea plants, development of the railway, history of plantation owners to the current Kanan Devan Hills Plantation. Over 80% of the company is now owned by the workers themselves, they receive housing, health care, community initiatives and real work and activity projects for the differently abled.

The plantations only cover 30% of the Munnar hills so that wildlife is protected.

Next we went upstairs for what we thought was a talk about tea production but was in fact a very hard to understand lecture about the benefits of drinking green tea. I must admit it has inspired me to give it a go and I fancy buying a green tea bottle with built in strainer before we head back home.

We continued our journey past elephant mountain.

We passed Evranakulam wildlife park, it isn’t breeding season, it’s birthing season which makes much more sense than being closed for breeding!

Onwards through huge tea plantations. It all has a much better meaning since the video and knowing the workers are co owners is just great.

We’ve seen so many of these brown jeeps, they transport plantation workers.

From here we drove to some waterfalls

Next we were entering Chinnar National Park area, through a sandalwood forest.

Time for lunch, we stopped in a buzzing little town Maryoor, at a place recommended by Palini

Another thali for John, no banana leaf today. I had very tasty chicken noodles.

We drove on to the Chinnar National Park ticket office (615 rupees each. We had a choice of a culture walk or waterfall walk. We opted for culture.

We had our own personal guide for our 2 hour stroll. It was nicer than Periyar (no Russians for a start ) as he took the time to point out different trees.

We saw 2 burial tombs and a wall painting, both 5000 years B. C. Unfortunately some paintings are very hard to see now as washed out by the rain.

We heard lots of birds, saw a chipmunk, lizards, and a large black and white squirrel. Not masses of wildlife but worth the trip for the views and trees.

On our way back we stopped and saw brown sugar being made from cane.

Palini brought us back to Munnar via the scenic route. We saw numerous plantations, sugar cane, bananas, cocoa, tapioca, sweet corn and figs.

We asked him to drop us off in town as we need internet to pay some bills back home. Weirdly our Airtel mobile internet doesn’t work anywhere outside of Munnar main town.

Walking back from town was a nightmare in the dark, its such a short walk it doesn’t warrant a tuk tuk but there’s no pavement, no streetlights and pot holes everywhere.

We stopped and booked a taxi for tomorrow morning.We are heading to the train station at Ernakulam. It is another 3 and a half hour trip, then we have a 4 hour train journey to Kozhikode in the north of Kerala.

We got back to JJs and collected our laundry.

14 pieces went in. 15 came back but 2 weren’t ours and they couldn’t find what was missing and we have no idea what it might be.

We ate in Kurunji again, excellent as usual.

It’s going to be a long day tomorrow, just hope it all goes smoothly.

Off to Kozhikode

13.2.19

Our driver was outside 15 minutes early. We’ve noticed that Indian time is total opposite to Turkish time.

Went to pay our room bill, our lovely JJ cottage man wasn’t there today, we said goodbye last night.

It was a different man. He gave me a card and asked me to recommend them. I said we only had 2 issues, the wifi is terrible, at this point he totally talked over me and said it’s fine. I said it isn’t and that I was unable to upload my photos for my blog,

We even had to go into town to pay our Turkish bills. John said there aren’t enough plug sockets, just 2, and they are unreliable. He wasn’t interested and no point arguing with him. We are disappointed after all the rave reviews and Lonely Planet recommendation. His attitude was awful!

It was sad saying goodbye to the gorgeous, very vocal kitten, they do love her there and she is well fed.

After an issue with rear seat belts which the driver maintained we didn’t need and 2 stops to get them usable we set off at 8am on our drive to Ernakulam Junction Station.

Our train isn’t until 1pm but we could need a couple of hours to work out where we should get on it.

We have no idea what to expect from Kozhikode.

The itinerary planning all got a bit confused. Because getting to and from Munnar involves such long journeys we were going to leave it out.

There wasn’t anywhere else in South Kerala that we fancied so we were going to go from Periyar to Khozikode and spend more days up there and visit Wayanad National Parks, waterfalls and beaches etc from there.

We then decided to include Delhi in our trip and managed to book a flight out of Kozhikode and back into Cochin for our flight home.

Later I realised I had made a big mistake as Wayanad is a long way from Kozhikode and to stay in Wayanad made a very complicated long journey from Periyar.

The guide books all gave Munnar as one of the top places in Kerala to see and I just kept coming back to needing to see Munnar. John is so easy going and just goes where he is told.

So, we went to Munnar and now have to stay in Kozhikode as we have Delhi flights booked from there. I’m sure it will be fine and seems more than enough to see there for a full day.

We survived the very bendy journey to the station and arrived with just over an hour to spare. After a much needed double espresso John sorted it like a pro from the handwritten board on the station wall, we know which carriage area to stand by and are on platform 3 with 30 minutes to spare.

So much easier now we understand the seating procedure and with prebooked 2nd class tickets, not the horrible general ones they gave us in Kollam. That was a crazy experience!

The train was 20 minutes late arriving, Indian time doesn’t seem to relate to trains.

We found our seats, an Indian mum was asleep opposite on her bunk, with her husband asleep on the top. They had a small child each.

We were obviously very quiet and considerate and both watched our tablets, with headphones . I’m thoroughly enjoying catching up with Back In Time For School and had time for 3 episodes.

When the family woke they had twin daughters. They had almost completely taken over the carriage, we had to scrunch in and not much room for our feet with their bags and shoes everywhere.

So much stuff, including a huge water barrel, a large blue picnic basket, 2 large suitcases, smaller bags, a rucksack of toys and dvds for the girls, a laptop and of course cuddly toys.

They proceeded to put cartoon dvds on very loudly on the laptop. Great. Thanks.

By the time we arrived at 5pm it was an hour late and we were more than ready to get off.

It was chaos getting a tuk tuk, a weird system where you have to go right down the end of the car park and take a tuk tuk in turns. Except you don’t, everyone took full advantage of us struggling with luggage and barged past us, same struggling to get on and off the train, even without luggage its the same at counter queues, the same in shops, same in toilet queues. We’ve also had many times when staff have ignored us and served locals first.

The lack of manners and consideration is starting to wear me down, and don’t get me started on the snorting loudly and spitting. It’s really disgusting. Even right near when you’re eating. They don’t spit inside restaurants, just the snot sound. Yuk.

We finally got a tuk tuk and arrived at Nexstay Towers around 5.30pm. This is the most expensive per night of all the places we’ve booked. Not keen on bigger hotels but it was the best for central location and proximity to the airport.

No ‘Hi, welcome’, just a form pushed at us and a demand for payment up front, the first time this has happened. Losing the will to live, very tired, need a wee, and confusion over booking. coms pre payment that wasn’t taken, fed up with attitude and very pissed off now.

John went in search of cashpoints and paid the room bill.

After a wee and a coffee I felt better and the room is nice, shame it’s right on the main road with mad traffic and incessant beeping. I wonder how many replacement horns each car has in its lifetime.

We wandered along the road and back again to a very basic looking little place with lots of marinated meat and the chef in the window, there were lots of people eating.

Guess what John had… and I had butter chicken. Both superb and rounded off with fabulous pineapple juice virtually next door.

We have better than usual WiFi so enjoyed an evening of Spotify and rummicub.

Then the fun started. The (one) bathroom towel looked like it had been used to clean the floor. As John pulled back the duvet there was a large stain on the sheet, none of the bedding smelled fresh and after removing the duvet cover we discovered how disgusting the duvet was.

John took everything down to reception and they rang housekeeping, it was 10.30pm. 2 young lads brought just a towel and a sheet and went back for pillowcases.

When we started putting the next sheet on it had 3 holes in it and the towel was as bad as the previous one. Another sheet and towel came, when the lad started putting it on….more holes, off he went again and changed the sheet.

We decided the duvet wasn’t being replaced but to be honest it’s pretty hot anyway.

Just as we got undressed a replacement brand new duvet arrived. Like a tv sitcom really.

Finally got into bed at 11.30pm.

No hope of sleeping with a child from a nearby room running up and down the hallway screeching and the clunky sound of their door bolts incessantly opened and closed. By 12.45am it was quiet.

Well apart from maniacs driving at full pelt with their horns going.

First impressions of Kozhikode..arrrggghhhhh but with good food.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

A day in Kozhikode

14.2.19

Off we went to explore this city.

One of the highest rated things to do here is S.M. Street. Originally it was all sweet meats but now it’s a fairly long street with some small alleys and roads from it, although the stench of urine makes some difficult to explore.

No longer just sweets, mainly clothes, shoes, bags, fabric, decorative jewellery and the inevitable shops selling plastic items.

From there we walked to Kozhikode beach. Once again google maps took us down little alleyways, but this time there was a way out at the other end.

The beach is impressive but a backdrop of rubbish and building materials massively lets it down.

We saw a crazy dog chasing a jet ski, super cute and we called him over when it stopped. He was so excited and leapt all over us, leaving us very soggy and sandy. He followed us for a while and had a great time with John throwing sticks for him.

I paddled in the Arabian Sea, it was incredibly warm.

Kozhikide is the hottest place we’ve been to so far, we were warned by our driver in Munnar that it would be very hot.

Again, the beach is only really used in the evening by locals who stand at the waters edge in the evenings and use the little stalls to buy snacks or take picnics, so nowhere shady to sit for a while or have a drink.

Our little dog got set upon by a pack further along, we felt guilty as he had followed us into their territory but he was having none of it and saw them all off in the other direction. Thankfully it meant we didnt have to keep him.

We headed for Focus Mall, voted the best locally. The air conditioning was much needed, as was a break from the incessant traffic horns, just heavenly.

John had planned to take me for dinner at a Paragon group restaurant as it’s Valentines Day but we will have to go to bed very early as we have a 7am flight to Delhi tomorrow.

As luck would have it M Grill is part of Paragon and had a restaurant in the food court and we were starving.

The menu was fabulous, many of the usual Keralan dishes, but also dishes from across the world, even shepherds pie!

I chose the shrimp pasta, John had tenderloin steak and we chose a couple of mocktails. It was all perfect.

We then went into a clothes store that was like an Indian Primark / LC Waikiki. Spent ages in there, so many beautiful Indian clothes and some more western items. I bought 2 t shirts, and 2 lovely tops and a red Valentines t shirt for John.

They don’t provide bags but for 5 rupees you can buy a bag made of a stiff paper/cotton material, a much more environmentally friendly idea than paying to get plastic.

We decided to make our way back to the hotel as nothing else really to see. Its just a huge sprawling town, incredibly noisy and grubby.

We passed some very sad areas, this one particularly, it’s dreadful that this poverty still exists and worlds apart from the luxury food and shopping 20 minutes walk away.

Really makes you think and count your blessings.

Near the hotel is a supermarket, quite a rarity, so we went in search of ice cream. The staff were very smily and welcoming, we were clearly the first foreigners ever to shop there.

We seemed to be the only foreigners in the entire city and felt eyes on us the entire time. The staring is relentless and goes on for far too long!

We bought a 400g tub of Carte D’Or creme brulee ice cream, suggested serving size 54g.

Of course we scoffed the lot while playing rummikub back in our air conditioned room.

No it isn’t sugar free, but it is Valentines Day. And we walked nearly 13km today.

I was a little worried by the date stamp on the ice cream. December 2018, and it was very frosty all the way through but John maintained it was fine and that it was the date it was made. It didn’t stop us enjoying it.

Later we popped out for a last pineapple juice and John had 2 battered fried bananas.

In bed at 8pm alarm set for 3.15am. Ola taxi (like Uber) booked for 4am. A bit nerve wracking as they will confirm 10 minutes before the journey.

Fell asleep almost instantly with headphones and a tv programme to drown out traffic and noisy guests.

2 reasons to visit Kozhikode :

1. To eat at M Grill.

2. To get a flight out of there.

Off to Delhi

15.2.19

The alarm went off at 3. 15am and thankfully we had both slept well.

Nervously waited for our Ola taxi confirmation but all was well.

While waiting outside, Nexstays’ night manager apologised about all the issues. They have had problems with their laundry and have many new untrained staff at the hotel. Was good to leave on a happy note.

Our driver turned up on time much to our relief. The hotel could have arranged a transfer but it was 300 rupees more. Doesn’t sound a lot but 300 goes a long way here.

Ola was 827 rupees.

Google maps said the journey would take 50 minutes. They’ve obviously never met Kripalal. We didn’t feel unsafe though, his very frequent over taking was done with breathtaking accuracy!

Check in hadn’t opened but we were approached by a friendly ground crew lady who tried 2 different machines to check us in. Neither worked but she got a good selfie with us and explained that they are encouraged to interact with passengers!

Had a lovely fresh filter coffee. The food photos looked lovely. Paneer Masala and a chapati was cheaper than in most restaurants. (Dalaman airport take note) But 5am was a bit early.

Poor John is suffering with a bad tummy, maybe the ice cream or the fried bananas. Luckily we are 20 minutes delayed despite what the board says.

We missed our call for rows 1 to 7 and I was panicking but he emerged from the loo looking slightly better. He is coughing and sneezing too.

It was a tiny little plane with propellers.

It’s only just over an hour to Bangalore then about an hour and a half wait before our flight to Delhi.

The waiting time flew by, a couple of chicken puffs and a delicious Lavazza coffee helped.

It’s very noticable here that the women are dressed casually in jeans and tops with their hair down. In Kerala almost every woman was wearing traditional long dresses over trousers, or saris with their hair tied back or in a bun.

Time to board 🙂

A normal sized plane and no propellers this time but a weird ramp.

The flight to Delhi was a simple and pleasant 2 and a half hours. For a budget airline Indigo is fab, plenty of leg room, clean and comfy.

From March 2019 they are going to be offering direct flights from Istanbul.

We landed on time and by 2pm we were outside waiting for an Uber. The taxi company inside the airport quoted 8000 rupees, the Government one outside 4,400 rupees plus tolls which he said are about 1000 rupees.

Ubers quote 2400 plus tolls. Hope this is correct….

The traffic was horrendous, 5 or 6 lanes being made out of 2 or 3, of course the incessant beeping. Most cars have loads of dents and scratches including our Uber.

It was super scary!

After 45 minutes we joined a faster road. I checked google maps and it said 5 hours 1 minute to go. Felt tempted to ask the driver to turn back and get a flight home ! My nerves aren’t up to that.

Redid google maps and unticked the avoid tolls option and it changed to 2 hours 40 minutes. Thank goodness for that!

The roads became large and clear for miles and miles. Once we reached the outskirts of Agra it was pandemonium again.

I’m not sure why I thought the area would be affluent around the Taj. It’s incredibly scruffy and run down and so noisy.

Our hostel instructions said that Tangaj gate is the closest and no cars allowed. Paid our driver, 3100 with tolls and airport pick up fee. Remarkable, no way I would drive anywhere near here for double that.

Google took us down a narrow alley, little children playing down there were shouting no, no!

The locals are obviously used to it and told us the right way to get to Joeys hostel. 2 backpackers were having the same problem!

A warm welcome at Joeys. It’s definitely not the prettiest place, it’s very busy but everyone seems happy to be here.

Our room is nice enough although right by the stairs on the ground floor so we will have everyone in the communal area just outside our door.

We made it!! By 6.15pm we were on the roof terrace for THAT view. The whole reason for booking Joeys.

John still isn’t feeling good, his tummy is better but the cold is getting worse. We were a bit scared to go out in the dark here until we know how safe it is and know our way around.

We ordered from the hostel menu. We thought chicken soup might help the poorly soldier. What came was garlic soup with a hint of chicken. If nothing else it will keep the vampires away.

We were so down with the kids in the communal area, one of the staff joined us to play rummicub.

Fell asleep pretty early considering the noise, 15 hours travelling certainly took its toll.

So excited to see Agra properly tomorrow. Just hope John is up to enjoying it.

Wow, just wow :)

16.2.19

We got up in time to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal from Joeys roof terrace but sadly the sun didn’t rise and it was very chilly up there. Sat enjoying the silence and watching the monkeys playing.

Breakfast is ‘served’ on the large table outside our room. I say served..

There was a a kettle of hot water, a toaster, a few bags of bread for toasting, a huge jar of peanut butter, butter, hard boiked eggs cornflakes, chocoflakes and bananas.

Crockery is a hit and miss hotchpotch and mismatched saucers serve as plates. I’m glad I have my own cup with me as I really couldn’t have used one of theirs.

I was a total pig and had 6 slices of toast because the salted butter was divine. In any case they’re only saucer sized slices.

It was nice chatting to people over the chaos. Some had been to the Taj already, it opens at sunrise and closes at sunset. They said it was very busy, so assuming it would get worse as the day went on we finished breakfast and set off early.

Right outside our entrance are these beauties.

The narrow streets weren’t as seedy as they felt in the dark although I did change and put my handbag under my jacket after seeing a couple of kids looking intently at Johns pockets.

We are staying literally minutes from the West Gate. The hassle at the gate to buy souvenirs, have a guide etc is just mad. Some of the sellers are just children. You literally daren’t make eye contact or stop and look at anything for a second.

The queue was short, we were surprised at how relatively quiet it was.

And then THE moment…

It brought a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. Just incredible. Made all the journey to get here worthwhile.

You have to wear paper fabric overshoes to go inside the mausoleum.

A man was advising tourists where to stand and get the best photos near where we got the shoes. I was quite pleased with his archway suggestions and then he took several of the reflection of it in my eyeball.

Impressive, even if my mascara is terribly blobby.

We weren’t allowed to take photographs inside the mausoleum. Although we did see people flouting the rules, we behaved ourselves and this is from Google.

‘The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan, the builder. Wikipedia‘

Then we visited the museum building and afterwards spent ages watching the many chipmunks.

We took so many photos, the sun was trying very hard to break through and blue sky would have been fabulous, it did get clearer and better as the morning went on but not totally blue.

It’s a really hard place to leave, you just have this never ending ‘just one more photo’ feeling.

Feeling sad to leave we made our way to the Agra Fort. It’s only a 30 minute walk away, but the tuk tuks, rickshaws and electric tuk tuks were relentlessly persistent.

We love to walk but this and the noise made it a bit unpleasant. Once again Google maps took us some of the way along tiny roads and we saw how hard life is here.

We were pretty hungry by this time and when we reached the Fort there were a few stalls selling food, but we were hassled relentlessly by magnet and souvenir sellers, food vendors, beggars, children asking for money etc, the food and cleanliness of the surroundings all looked a bit scary so we settled on 2 bags of crisps and a bottle of water that they tried to overcharge for and after dodging a few more beggars we got our tickets to Agra Fort.

‘Agra Fort is a historical fort in the city of Agra in India. It was the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, when the capital was shifted from Agra to Delhi. Before capture by the British, the last Indian rulers to have occupied it were the Marathas. Wikipedia

Architectural style: Islamic architecture
UNESCO World Heritage Site inscription: 1983
Owners: Lodi dynasty (1504–1526), Mughal Empire (1556–1785, 1526–1540)
Function: Fortification, Monument.

Agra Fort is the place where Shah Jahan was imprisoned for eight years by his son Aurangzeb.’

It was another place which was impossible not to keep photographing.

In many ways it’s more interesting than the Taj Mahal, but lacks the romantic story and not quite so wow.

There were so many sections of it and different rooms to go into, just wow at every turn.

And loads of chipmunks.

Another favourite photo of the day is this one :

Feeling the need for coffee and a beer for John, #2 on TripAdvisor El Classico fitted the bill for both of us and has excellent reviews.

A 45 minute walk along a much quieter road, the worst thing here was loads of horses and carriages, grossly overloaded, super skinny horses, some were limping, cruel beyond belief.

Worse was to come, Google took us down tiny streets again, 3 of the tiniest donkeys we have ever seen came running round a corner, laden with loads of house bricks, pregnant dogs and puppies everywhere, all terrified and know nothing about affection.

Saw more men urinating in the street, an outdoor urinal, and even a small boy having a poo onto a piece of cardboard balanced across a water gully.

The last part of the walk was along a tourist police controlled area with ‘no honking’ requests and was surrounded by a nature walk. Lovely.

There were some reasonable looking eateries but John said having dragged him this far we should keep going.

El Classico is next to a car park, it is a football themed bar. No beer, no licence, although they could get us some, at double the normal price, and the coffee machine is broken.

Settled for 2 Pineapple juices, which was in fact from a carton and 2 chicken, cheese and mushroom burgers which sounded lush.

They were the weirdest ever with sort of chicken rissoles in a by now soggy bun, mayo, cucumber, tomato, mushroom, loads of cheese, something that looked a bit like sage and onion stuffing but was spicy, sweetcorn and peas.

I couldnt attempt to get into mine and asked for a knife. A waiter came out with a huge carving knife on a tray and proceeded to push my bun down with his hands and carve it in half.

Just hope he wasn’t peeing in an alleyway just before, or worse having a poo on a bit of cardboard.

To top it off the chips were hard but the street dogs liked them.

When they asked how our food was, interesting was the only word we could think of.

I am absolutely not using Google maps in walking mode anymore.

The road way back to Joeys hostel via the main roads was just fine and uneventful.

John has had a little nap while I’ve typed up todays adventures.

Oh, and we have seen protesters, at the airport yesterday when we arrived, and 2 lots in town today. It follows a suicide bomber killing 40 people in Kashmir yesterday, it seems one was local to here. How very sad for all concerned.

We decided to venture out for food in the evening. Johns garlic soup yesterday put him off eating at Joeys again. We opted for Joneys, just 140 metres away.

People were lighting candles at the crossroads on a large marble plinth to commemorate those who lost their lives in Kashmir.

Joneys was nice, friendly people, nice decor and the tiniest kitchen you have ever seen. Still full from the interesting burger I just had some garlic naan, curd and honey and a mango lassie. John had room for a biriyani. Of course.

It was all lovely and they deserve all the amazing comments in their guest book.

Tomorrow we go to Delhi. I asked staff in Joneys if it was as noisy as here. Worse they said, but they have sidewalks.

Great. We will enjoy that 🙂

Onwards to Delhi

17.2.19

Breakfast was served.

After gorging on salted butter again we went up on the roof top to get just one more photo.

We said our goodbyes and were advised by Joeys that a tuk tuk to the train will be 100 rupees.

Of course the driver we found wanted 100 each, so we said no and of course it became 100 for both. He asked where we were going and what time our train is and sure enough a guy was waiting to offer us a taxi as soon as we arrived at the station.

We had wanted to go by train both ways originally but it was difficult to book an exact train to Agra in case our flight was delayed, everything you read online says trains have to be booked in advance but our experience in Kollam a few days ago was that we bought a ticket at the counter, not sure I would risk it on a busy tourist route though.

Our train is at 10.25am from Agra Cannt station. Currently on the platform, early of course to make sure we are in the right carriage area.

It’s so simple at this station, an electronic board at the entrance to tell you what platform to be on and carriage numbers all along the platform so it was easy to find B5 waiting area.

This train is a 3 tier sleeper, it’s the Kerala express to New Delhi and originally departed from Trivandrum 2 days ago! Just crazy.

Just our luck we will be sharing a carriage with these people.

Well, luckily they were on a different train.

Amazingly ours was just a couple of minutes late and we found a family spread out in our seats with their child sleeping. We sat in the seats the other side of the aisle and the ticket man was ok with it and we were happy too.

The poverty and living conditions along the way are heartbreaking.

We arrived in New Delhi at 1.45pm and waited 10 minutes for an Ola taxi. I could see him on the app going round in circles. Google maps said it was only a 4 minute walk but John said no to struggling with cases.

What a nightmare. Our driver had to negotiate through the main bazaar road, battling with tuk tuks, rickshaws, street dogs, beggars, sunglasses stalls and scooters.

Then he was asking us for directions to The Hotel Dollar Inn, so we told him to stop and said we would walk. We then had to walk the now 3 minute walk amongst the mayhem and constant hassle from tuk tuk drivers – back the way we came!

Google then said turn left. There were no left turns, so we asked some guys outside a restaurant and they said down the small alley by the ATM. We looked, there was no alley. We asked at the nearby shoe shop, yes down there.

No way!!!! John went to see how far up it was and came back and said the place looked ok. The shoe shop man said to ask them to carry the luggage. I began walking along there to ask, got freaked out by the workmen staring at me, began to cry and went back to John.

He went off and came back with a lad who helped carry our bags.

I asked if I could see our room before committing ourselves and actually it was clean and nice.

The guy on reception then did some calculations and added service tax to the amount confirmed by Booking.com. I refused because he was wrong to add it but more because of the state of outside! He told me to ring booking. com so I said to John lets go, and he gave us a discount which made it what it should have been.

I’m seriously fed up of this now, any opportunity to get extra, it does my head in, on top of the journey, the hassle, the staring, the spitting, the old ladies begging the dropping litter, it’s relentless.

I even had a quick look at flights from Delhi to home, but it’s not really an option. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

We went off for a stroll, surprisingly without luggage the drivers left us alone and very little hassle from the bazaar. I found myself relaxed and enjoying the buzz of it all.

We stopped for a late lunch, a great toastie, John had eggs, beans, chips and ham. Followed by curd and honey, all very tasty.

We are very happy to see that the street dogs are friendly, not so scared, well fed, some had coats on and we even saw a dog on a lead!

We enjoyed browsing the shops and getting ideas for places we must see over the next 2 days. We could do a one day tour with a driver but we fancy buying an unlimited metro ticket and exploring that way. Endless traffic mayhem and beeping isn’t exciting us.

We went back to the room to unpack and discovered no hot water. A guy came, they did something upstairs, that didn’t work, so we’ve had to move rooms to 2 floors higher.

Unfortunately we hear the elevator remix of ‘I just called to say I love you’ on a regular basis now and have a very noisy neighbour who had a very lengthy conversation with a woman on a very loud speaker.

We ate at the Drunkyard Cafe a very short walk up the main street from us. It was very busy and the food was well worth waiting for.

A couple of guys we spoke to earlier warned us against going too far up near the railway station at night as there have been muggings up there by people who get drunk and carry knives, so we are lucky to have eateries nearby.

The centre of the road is strewn with rubbish, we like to think they’re expecting a street cleaner but more likely this was all hiding under all the traffic earlier.

Feeling more positive.

Night night.

A day around Delhi

18. 2.19

We were awake til gone midnight with the idiot in the next room on his phone, people upstairs moving furniture and the ‘I just called to say I love you’ remix from the lift.

At 6.20am I politely asked the people across the hall to be quiet as they had been banging the door, talking very loudly +and their child was running around shrieking outside our door.

Went back to sleep and neither of us woke until nearly 10am. We obviously needed it.

We explored day trips with drivers yesterday but you’re at the mercy of where they get the best commission, their time keeping and Delhi traffic.

We’ve spent enough time in cars to last a life time recently.

So we made our own itinerary, with the help of a great blog that we found, we bought a one day metro ticket for 200 rupees each and set off.

The metro is spotlessly clean, and relatively simple to work out.

Our first stop Chandi Chowk. Apparently full of fab eateries, just in time for brunch and the Paranthe Wali Gali street, legendary for deep fried paratha bread.

The reality was extreme poverty, women and children sitting along the street, one child playing happily with a broken dolls head will stay in my mind.

It was crazy, noisy chaos and our map couldn’t find Paranthe Wali Gali and we could hear a protest going on.

Someone told us that Old Delhi is pretty much closed today with protesters.

We got back on the metro to Patel Chowk. A 20 minute walk along big clean wide roads brought us to Gurudwala Bangla Sahib Sikh Temple Complex.

It was every bit as fabulous as we had read about.

We were directed to the Foreign Tourist Area where we had to remove shoes and were given scarves to cover our hair.

Our guide explained about the Sikh ideals and gave us a tour inside the temple.

We were shown their holy book which is removed each morning and returned to its ornate resting place each evening.

Then we were shown the eating area, kitchens and foodstore. Everyone is welcome to have a meal there regardless of their faith.

At the end of our tour we asked if we could eat there and were taken back and shown what to do. Chapatis have to be received with both hands, as taking one looks like you’re grabbing. We were given a metal tray and dahl and potato curry were brought along.

The cooking and food serving is done by volunteers. The food was delicious. You can have as much as you like. An old man next to me had taken plastic bags to take some home for his tea.

From there we walked to Rajiv Chowk metro as it was slightly nearer and walked along the huge Parliament Road where there are huge banks, Police Headquarters etc and went past Nandos and other western venues to a market area where we were told clothes are great value and better quality than our bazaar street. There were some lovely things but nowhere to risk trying anything on.

A couple of guys told us we must go into the Government Tourist Office nearby even though we protested that we have maps and know where we are going. They hovered and watched so we went in just to keep them happy. Once inside we were greeted like long lost friends and encouraged to sit down. No idea what it was all about but we left pretty sharpish.

We then got another metro, changed lines to Khan Market to go to Lodhi Gardens, about 20 minutes walk from the metro.

This area was very smart, with designer shops on small streets, and chain brands including Accessorize, Body Shop, L’Occitane and even M & S.

We saw many Europeans, Asians and wealthy looking Indians here and shortly after we were walking along another huge road, with imposing houses and some Embassies along it.

Lodhi Garden was superb.

Apologies for so many photos, I have loads more!

More info here

https://www.inditales.com/lodhi-garden-walk-new-delhi/

From here we decided to make our way back to our base in Bazaar Street, and did go slightly
wrong with where we got off the metro. But easily sorted by changing lines and we were soon back in the chaos.

We had dinner nearby, once again we saw a desert called Hello to the Queen on the menu. We googled it. Vanilla ice cream, biscuit crumbs, banana, caramel. Not sugar free but we have walked 14km so we deserve it.

It was ok, no caramel, pieces of cheap biscuit, but the ice cream, banana and chocolate sauce was good.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the other places on our list.

We thoroughly enjoyed today, so glad we didn’t give up on Delhi and have seen what else it has to offer.

We realise just how huge Delhi is, we covered just a very small part of the yellow metro line today.

Really looking forward to more escapades here tomorrow.

More Delhi travels

19.2.19

We were up and about a bit earlier this morning, first stop the metro to buy more one day tickets and receive 50 rupees each deposit on yesterdays.

We ventured off to the Lotus Temple, which is a Bahai temple set in beautiful gardens. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside.

From there we got off at INA station to go to Dilli Haat handicraft and food market which is right by the metro exit.

We did it in this order because we read about all the food stalls and that there is almost a stall for every states cuisine across India.

Never mind the handicrafts, we cut straight through to the food!

We we very pleased to opt for Odishas food, a state in the east of India.

Really tasty and excelllent espresso coffee too.

We started a tradition of buying xmas decorations from places we’ve visited a few years ago so we had to buy this. He will look fab next to our kangaroo with his xmas hat.

To seek revenge on our Turkish neighbour and his noisy windchimes we bought these cute elephants.

The crafts there were fabulous, free from hassle,tuk tuks and beggars. Really well worth a visit.

Our next stop involved quite a long walk after Green Park station that ended with getting lost inside a gated community where some building work was going on, some birds were having lunch and a stunning temple and tomb buildings sat on the side of the road.

Back on track we found Hauz Khas which is what we had been looking for. Fabulous architecture, very similar to yesterdays tombs and very popular with young posers getting fodder for their Instagram accounts, having a sneaky fag, or a romantic smooch.

Surrounding the complex were several high end boutiques and really expensive roof top bars and restaurants.

We worked out that if we hurried we could just about fit in the last thing on our list and got a tuk tuk back to Green Park station. We went from yellow line, to violet line to blue line like locals and from our last stop Akshardam station it was a short walk to Akshardam Temple.

What a drama. You are not allowed to take anything inside except a clear water bottle or ladies purse. Adamant I wasn’t leaving my mobile phone I hid it in my pants and got through the bag search but lost my nerve when we saw there was a full security search later on, so it was either not go in or leave our bags at the locker room.

I almost felt sick and had separation anxiety watching my bag and phone being replaced with a metal disc!

The queues were horrendous, several lines separated by metal barriers with officials putting rope barriers across. Every time they opened a section it was like watching a herd of wild animals running and pushing until they reached the next queue, security scan.

It took almost an hour to get through both.

The Hindu temple opened in 2005, and is the 3rd largest in the world.

It’s certainly impressive but the queuing and leaving your bags ruined it for us. No idea why that level of security is necessary.

These images are from Google.

I did manage to take this one from the metro station of it lit up as we were leaving.

Back to our Old Delhi area and time for dinner at a cafe not far from our hotel.

The noise in the hotel is worse than ever tonight. Mr Arguing on his phone til all hours has been replaced by a group of very loud men in and out, in and out and a load of glass bottles and very loud tv. Great.

John reported them to the night guy at 11.30pm, he did speak to them, but it’s made no difference, if anything it’s worse. I had to watch tv on my tablet with the volume up high with headphones until 1.30am to try and drown out their noise.

Booking. Com have been great, I sent the photos of the rubble alleyway, reported the fact that the double rooms are not on the ground floor, that the stated kitchenette, tea making facilities, soundproofing, hairdryer, iron, bathrobe and seating area don’t exist. I also sent noise recording clips and within 2 hours 25 euro have been credited to my bank account.

It doesn’t compensate, but they have promised to update the room details and hopefully others won’t be fooled into booking here.

Can’t wait to checkout of this place!

Back to Kerala

20.2.19

We were woken at 6.15am by door slammers. John went back to sleep and missed the 8am earthquake. The hotel swayed for a few seconds, a little scary, but thankfully just a 4.0 magnitude.

It was fabulous to leave Hotel Dollar Inn. We literally have nothing good to say about it.

We decided to get an Ola to the airport and after negotiating rubble, rickshaws, tuk tuks, handcarts, and beggars made our way up Bazar Road to a large hotel as a landmark for the driver.

We gave a young lad that came up to us begging a tshirt John bought and has never worn, he looked it all over critically, obviously not a Primark fan-, he was umming and ahhing, as wanted money, but when I offered to have it back he decided it was ok.

Time now 11am. 50 million tuk tuk drivers asked if we wanted one while we waited.

We waited, and watched the phone screen seeing the ETA go from 9 minutes, to 14, to 8 and back to 14. Rang the driver, he said we would have to meet him at the station. We cancelled him as main reason we didn’t go to the station was the issue of Johns homemade bag strap and getting across the crazy main road.

Tried Uber, same problem, made our way to station via beggars, people trying to sell battery packs for phones and so on. No sign of uber, various phone calls, made our way to where it looked like he was on map, no sign. Gave up.

Starting to rain, grabbed a tuk tuk. Literally stuck in traffic with nothing moving for ages. Time now, 11.45am.

Check in time 12.30pm. ‘How long will it take?’ About an hour.

Anyway, thank goodness we didn’t go by car as the tuk tuk was able to weave in and out of the tiniest gaps and he got us there, somehow, by 12.25pm!

Self check in and bag drop were simple, lovely guy on desk wished me a happy birthday for a couple of weeks time, his is 4 days before mine. I really love Indigo, such a friendly efficient company.

Had KFC burgers for lunch and boarded on time.

Landed in Cochin on time at 5.30pm. 33 degrees and sunny.

Alfa Inn is very near the airport, but they offer a free shuttle and had messaged this morning to tell me to ring when we arrived.

Rang, ‘manager 30 minutes, not here, get taxi, no English’

We negotiated the big main road and were at Alfa 10 minutes later, the young guy got a telling off from manager who had been outside having tea and had said to call him if any tourists ring.

Why is it always us?

I asked if the room is quiet, yes, he promised. I explained about Delhi and he said North Indian people always big problem in hotels.

Our room is massive, huge soft comfy bed, rummicub table and great wifi.

We went out locally to a place called The Food Court. Had an amazing chicken tikka, but John was out of luck, no biriyanis.

My best tip for Delhi….

Stay in New Delhi outside of the crazy Old Delhi bazaar area, just do it as a visit. We fancied being in the midst of it all but had no idea just how mad it would be.

We’ve been so lucky with the weather in Delhi, 20 degrees was perfect for our sightseeing, so glad we were then as rain for next few days.

Had a great few days and so glad we made the trip up there, have seen some incredible sights and some incredibly heartbreaking sights.

Time to sleeeeeeeep 🙂