Off we go

1.2.19 Happy 8 year anniversary of moving to Turkey to us!

We had no intention of travelling afar this year but when John’s son asked to come over for a few weeks with his girlfriend, having a house sitter was just too tempting.

As in previous blogs there has been last minute dramas. Our new rescue dog Maisy almost died after she was neutered, no reflection on the vet, a misunderstanding over feeding time and change of operation time meant that she was dreadfully sick and ruptured something inside and lost lots of blood. She was critically ill and the vet didnt know if she would make it.

It was just awful waiting to see if she would recover but thankfully she is absolutely fine. Just so glad we had it done 3 weeks ago or would have had to cancel our trip.

Sadly last week Johns dad was rushed into hospital, he has a large aneurism and renal failure but doctors can’t predict how he will be so we are going to continue with our plans, there is nothing we can do by rushing off to the UK.

The weather this winter in Fethiye has been just horrendous. Yesterday many places were flooded and there has been crazy storms for what feels like forever.

Of course from today the sun is going to shine and will even reach 21 degrees by Wednesday next week.

So, Jack and Lucy are in charge of the house and animals. On their first trip out of our house we came back to find 2 stray dogs at our gate. They’re under strict instructions not to rehome all the waifs and strays by the time we get back.

Our alarms were set for 4.30am, by 2am I was up and making a picnic. Just impossible to sleep when worrying about missing your flight.

Parked at Lykia Resort Hotel at 6am, very efficient. The guy was waiting outside for us and didn’t go to the Lewis Hamilton Speed Academy like the guy we had from the last parking company.

Our flight to Istanbul was at 8am.

We saw Dave and Marian, some ex pat friends at Dalaman airport and again when we arrived in Istanbul.
They are off to Thailand and later to meet up with other friends of ours in Agonda. They were last seen in Duty Free.

To pass the 5 hours in Istanbul we sat for ages playing rummicub with coffee in Mc Donalds while waiting to be able to check in.
Absolute chaos as families of 8 people with overweight bags were in front of us.
Watching them trying to cram excess baggage between their cases would have been amusing if it wasn’t so annoying.
They were hiding shopping under their arms and covering with coats.
I will try this tactic next time I’m smuggling parsnips from the UK.

We boarded our Air Arabia flight on time and apart from their mountains of contraband needing to be stowed overhead and a screaming child behind us it was trouble free.
I expected all of the announcements etc to be in Arabic, but all in English.
Even the prayer on the tv screens before take off had subtitles.

This is the same screen I banged my head on as I slid in an ungainly fashion into Johns kindly donated window seat, via the screen.
They should have a mind your head prayer too.

It all feels real now. I’ve been scarred for life by the Turkish airlines and the credit card palaver before Sri Lanka and never get excited now until the boarding pasd is in my hand.
Added to this paranoia, a friend was unable to check in recently as his passport number was wrong on his Indian visa. He had to reapply and travel and meet his wife and friend in India a couple of days later.
Despite checking and double and triple checking our visa and passport numbers I still breathed a sigh of relief.

Sharja is our first stop, we weren’t even sure where it is, it is near Dubai and google says its the conservative cultural capital.

Alcohol is not permitted there, so no alcohol allowed on the flight.
We did ask at check in about taking alcohol and as a transit passenger it is allowed, however once in the duty free shop we realised we have a cupboard full of booze at home and aren’t likely to want more than the occasional beer, so bought nothing.

Our pre ordered sandwiches arrived shortly after take off and our bottles of water. Marinated halloumi had sounded fab, it never warned me about gherkins and cucumber. Yuk.
Overall we were very impressed with Air Arabia, we had low expectations as a budget airline but it was very comfy.

Sharja airport is a busy little hub. Very old fashioned with an extortionate Costa Coffee and a duty free shop with the alcohol hidden behind a huge pillar.
Interestingly it was cheaper than Istanbul.
People were taking selfies with the alcohol in the background!

We found fabulous hot drinks at a kiosk near our boarding gate with a lovely lady serving who was fascinated by rummicub!
We have jumped an hour ahead which is totally confusing as I can’t synch my fitbit without wifi.
We landed at 7.30pm and next flight is at 10pm to Kochin.
I’m so glad we arranged for our airbnb to pick us up, too tired to be navigating.

It’s been a long day.

Already I’ve been in 2 ‘European’ airport toilets that have soaking wet seats and had to paddle in the cubicle despute there being squat toilets available.Drives me mad but I know there will be far worse to come!!
Couldn’t help wondering if we will all be using squat style holes in the ground after Brexit.

Our Sharja to Kochin flight was a little late taking off, I still have my chicken tikka sandwich as trying to sleep was more important than eating. I’m sure we will find a worthy street dog to eat it today.

I ate too much bread today, 4 rolls from home and the halloumi surprise roll.

Looking forward to some curry.

Kochin airport is very modern and squeaky clean. I hope they’re not luring me into a false sense of security.

Immigration wasn’t much fun, you have to sit in front of the Officer. My heart stopped when he asked what happened to my passport. ‘Washing machine’ I said with an apolgetic grin. He was not happy and consulted with 2 other officers, eventually I was let in with orders to look after it properly. It’s definitely a bit splodgy but you can read it. He was particularly concerned about a slightly blurred stamp from Vietnam in 2014.

Jude and his son from Fort Kochi Cukoo nest (their spelling not mine ) were waiting for us. His son drove the 45km whike Jude pointed out places of interest which I’m sure will be fab in the daylight.

The only impression of our room before falling asleep is that its very green.

It’s so clean, you could eat your dinner off the mat.

Onwards to Allaphuza, Alleppey

4.2.19

Woke up this morning with fingers like sausages and think I may have been bitten on one as it’s especially large. I’ve only got drowsy making antihistamines with me so will get some others later if no better.

Our neighbour started slamming her washing around at 7.30am this morning, much more civilised.

We’ve not noticed the crows or the mosque since the first morning, drowned out by the fan I think.

We loved our time in Fort Cochin and Jude at Cukoos Nest Homestay was the perfect host.

Fort Cochin is a small place and 2 days was just the right amount of time to explore and today we move on.

We allowed more than enough time to get to Ernakulam Junction station, it took about 30 minutes by a very scary Uber ride. No reflection on our very good driver, it’s just nuts on the road. The fare for this white knuckle ride was just £1.90 and he was very happy with a 50p tip.

We are currently in a cafe by the station, I’m buzzing after a fab double espresso. John isn’t so impressed with his passionfruit and E numbers squash. (we don’t hear much about E numbers anymore do we?)

I’ve checked online and our train is currently running 16 minutes late.

I’m very excited as I love a train journey and looking forward to exploring the Allepey backwaters.

The train arrived a few minutes late, knowing where to stand for your allocated seat was confusing but between a lady who has travelled in India before and the information desk we were just right to get on and find our seat.

After all the worry about not being able to complete bookings online and paying 12Goasia 9 times the cost we could have just turned up. No one even checked our carefully printed out ticket.

We arrived in Alleppey about 30 minutes late.

Our accomodation is 1.6km from the station. A very enterprising taxi driver said 400 rupees, bearing in mind we paid 180 for the long drive to the station this morning. We declined!

We had to go to a counter to prebook a tuktuk, pay 1 rupee which turned out to be a service charge and the 5 minute journey cost just 50 rupees payable to the driver.

We met our host at Abrus Holidays. He seems very nice and helpful and the room is spacious and clean.

I asked about dress code here and whether it was ok to wear shorts, yes, fine, it’s a tourist area.. Felt so liberating to be in shorts and a vest top and off ee went.

We were starving and made our way to Indian Coffee House near the beach on his recommendation.

John wanted biriyani but they didnt have any rice, so he had normal curry with chapatis. I decided to play safe with chicken cutlets and chips. However I think my chicken and mash balls in breadcrumbs were probably spicier than the curry, but thoroughly enjoyable.

We walked further along the beach area which has been ruined by the construction of a massive flyover. It’s not finished yet but is a real eyesore and will be noisy right near beach clubs and holiday resorts. These sound grand but are basically a bit more upmarket places to stay that still come out to the road where there are piles of old metal and all a bit unkempt.

It’s a huge beach area but we won’t be spending any time on there, it’s very hot sand, no sunbeds and no shade.

There are several beach bars and restaurants along there, Dreamers caught our eye as they had a board outside and included duck and pad thai.

We looked at the menu and said we would be back this evening.

We turned up back to the streets just after and John saw a sign for a billiard venue.

As it was our darts and pool night back home he thought it would be fun to go and visit and have a game and a photo for the team. According to Google maps it was a 30 minute walk.

So off we went, 6km and over an hour later, past endless little shops of no interest to us, crazy traffic junctions and endless bibbing of horns we found it.

Of course all this time I’m in shorts, in no way was this an area where tourists would stray. The kids were all coming out of school and had seemingly never seen foreigners before let alone anyone parading around the streets half dressed.

Raiban Shopping complex didn’t bear any resemblance to any shopping complex we have seen before. I wasn’t hanging around to take photos, so here is one from Google to give an idea.

We crossed over the road and followed the waterway road all the way back. It wasn’t as bad going that way, less traffic and people.

We stopped at a stall and bought some grapes and the sweetest oranges we have ever tasted.

By the time we got back it was time to think about eating again. But only after coffee.

I take my travelling element everywhere. It heats a cup of water in seconds. But makes vile coffee if you heat the whole drink.

The last place had a kettle, so without thinking I put the tea and coffee in our (rinsed) cups.

Armed with element to explain I went downstairs and asked the lady sweeping in the garden if she had a cup to heat some water in. It was a flat no! Not sure she approved of my shorts either.

A bit of faffing and we had our coffee, changed into a beliw tge knee resoectable dress and walked back down to the beach to Dreamers.

We received a warm welcome and our table was waiting upstairs.

We crossed the wobbly floor to our cosy corner table.

Our pad thai and duck was lovely, with a side of garlic naan, my new obsession, a very pleasant evening.

We have a very busy day and appropriate clothing planned for tomorrow.

Onwards to Munnar

10.2.19

Poor John didn’t get much sleep. There has been drumming and parades all day, a Christian festival of some sort.

We saw a large group walking with decorative umbrellas and trucks done up like Christmas and flashing neon all over the place. It couldn’t look less religious!

Seems the partying continued until midnight and then he was woken up by our hosts returning at 2am. I slept through everything.

We sat for the last time having coffee and watching the monkeys and buffalo from our balcony.

Feel really sad leaving Thekaddy, I think it’s my favourite place so far.

Our taxi arrived at 8am. So glad we didn’t do this journey by bus, the main road is closed as it’s being widened and the road we are on is like a UK country B road. Definitely not suited to crazy Indian buses.

Some of the houses are stunning, like millionaire’s homes. The taxi driver Uni explained it’s because of the cardamon plantations.

Uni speaks perfect English and we chatted about traffic laws. They are very strict, heavy fines are imposed and accident rates are very low. Helmets are compulsory and maximum 2 people on a bike but because it is Sunday and no one is checking we saw many without helmets and 4 people on a scooter!

We stopped to see Indias 2nd biggest dam, 4th largest in Asia.

Nearby was a toddy shop, we’ve not been brave enough to venture inside one before, Uni was having his breakfast in there so we went to investigate.

The alcholic drink is home made from coconuts and they all seemed happy drinking it!

Next we saw some of the terrible damage caused by landslides and flooding last September.

This is where the bus station once was, you can see some of the foundations.

Uni’s house was also destroyed, they had 6 days with no food or electricity, he was very choked up as he told us about it. He is in the process of having a new house built. Many people lost their lives.

We stopped again, mountain views and selfies. Uni showed us various traveller selfies he has taken in the same spot!

He showed us a cashew tree and explained the long process to get an edible nut. No wonder they’re so expensive.

The 3 and a half hour trip flew by and we were so happy to have such a fabulous driver.

Taxis are the way forward, no lugging cases to bus stations and trying to interpret malayalam alphabet. It was wonderful and great value at 3000 rupees (£30) and 2 hours quicker than by bus.

The scenery around Munnar is beautiful.

JJs cottage where we are staying is a far cry from the lovely Wild Windows. It comes highly recommended on Lonely Planet but we won’t be in the room much anyway. The place we originally booked on Booking. com cancelled with no explanation 3 weeks after booking, by which time there wasn’t a huge choice left.

The staff do seem lovely though and we are happy to have a laundry service.

Everyone said the weather is cool up here so we have both packed too many things for cold weather. I also packed too many shorts and vest tops which are not needed at all unless you enjoy being made to feel like the town hooker.

It was very hot while we had lunch, so hot we sat inside.

It was extremely noisy when we arrived, the Munnar marathon was on. John wasn’t disappointed to have missed the half marathon as it’s a high altitude one.

After a very nice lunch, (curry is now a lunchtime meal since I discovered paneer masala) we ventured into town.

Lonely Planet describe Munnar as a scruffy, traffic clogged admistration centre. I think they’re being overly kind. It’s horrible.

I asked at the District Tourism Office about trips but was all a bit vague and need a minimum of 3 people and no one else has booked yet. We could take pot luck and call in there tomorrow at 9, but only have 2 full days here so not taking the chance that we can’t go.

So we asked in a couple of places and got prices, then a tuk tuk driver accosted us and cut the price but said half the places aren’t worth going to.

We decided to get an independent opinion from where we are staying. When we finally got away from thectuk tuk driver it was raining.

Then the heavens opened and we sheltered for 20 minutes by a building with a few others, in fear of getting splashed as the pot holes overflowed and formed a mini stream.

We got a tuk tuk for the very short journey back to the pinkest house in Munnar.

We have arranged 2 full day trips through JJ’s. A tuk tuk tomorrow at 8am for the day to the Top point area, (1000 rupees) and the same driver for Tuesday at 9am by taxi to the Chinnar area.(1800 rupees).

There are entrance fees, National Park fees, elephant riding fees (but not likely to do this) etc on top, but amazing value. Virtually the same trips the DTPC were offering, but a little dearer because the driver is exclusively ours.

We would have liked to have visited Eravikulam National Park but the rare almost tame Nilgiri tahr mountain goats are breeding so the park is closed. We’re assuming they have candlelight and soft music too.

We sat in our room drinking coffee waiting for the rain to stop.

Visted the nearby Ali Baba and the 41 dishes for dinner, decided it was time to try something different and ordered dingri mattar, peas and mushroom in a spiced sauce, or gravy as they always call it.

They have run out of chicken biriyani. Oh no!! John ordered chicken rice with a vegetable kadai curry on the side. It was all just about ok once you go over the saltiness. We shall be back to our lunchtime venue for tomorrows dinner.

Looking forward to our tuk tuk tour tomorrow.

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 🙂