Marvellous Mangos

It's mango season!  I have been waiting for this for months, and it is finally here, so we are making the most of the glut of this glorious fruit that has arrived in Mumbai.

Despite being the national fruit, mangos are available for two months only, from the start of April until the monsoon hits Mumbai at the beginning of June.  This is true for the whole of India; mangos can be found at other times, but they are a pale imitation of the rich, golden fruits that are currently available in Mumbai.

Carts like this can be seen all over Mumbai, transporting piles of ripe mangos ready for me to eat!

 

There are many varieties of mango, though the favoured type in Mumbai is the Alphonso mango, known at the King of mangos.  I have heard mixed views about whether this mango is truly superior of not, some believe that it's qualities are over-hyped, but it is certainly the symbol of mango season in Mumbai.

 

A box of fresh Alphonsos - they are typically sold in boxes of 12

 

Other, cheaper mangos are also available and I'm told that the popularity of different types of mango varies across the country. Some mangos are used for juice, some for aamras (a delicious mango pulp / milk / sugar combo), some for icecream or smoothies and some simply for eating as they are.  There are certain types of mango that are so lush and juicy that the suggested eating technique is to cut of the top and suck the flesh off the stone without removing the skin.

 

We have been munching on mangos since they arrived a couple of weeks' ago, in which time prices have plummeting and the fruit has grown softer and sweeter.  At the end of last week, Sagar bought a dozen mangos for 500 rupees (£5) and I ate mango at every meal until they were gone.  I intend for this to continue until the monsoon hits and the mangos go away.

 



Taking the local train

When living in Britain, I travelled on a commuter train between Cambridge and London several times a week, which perhaps makes it yet more surprising that, ten months after arriving, we had not taken a local train in Mumbai.

Local trains in Mumbai are a different beast from the long distance chuggers that I have written about in previous blog posts.  The Mumbai local train network is famous for being chronically overcrowded and hence often dangerous; several people die on local trains every day in Mumbai.  This is usually a result of hanging out of doors or on the roof and falling off.  Below is a picture of what trains look like at a peak times on the rail network.

Travelling by train in Mumbai

 

Travelling on a local train was, though, an experience on our to-do list (honestly, it was an experience on Philip's to do list) and we decided that 730am on Easter Sunday was as good a time as any.

 

We travelled from our local station, Bandra, down to Churchgate in South Mumbai, for the princely sum of 10 rupees a ticket.  We travelled in standard class and went together in the mixed carriage (there are also Ladies' only carriages) which was fine for the time of day.  The train was moderately busy by English standards, not so by Indian standards, and we had plenty of room standing up.

 

The journey took about 25 minutes and the train doors are simply open spaces.  This is good for getting a breeze though the carriage but not so good for sensitive noses when travelling through less-than-fragrant areas.  Getting on and off trains seems to happen only when the train is still moving, but they don't move quickly, so this doesn't seem to be too dangerous at quiet times of day.

 

Bandra Station - It looks nicer outside than in...

Holding on tightly 

People crowded around the open door whilst in motion 

Our tickets - 10 rupees a pop

 

The experience was better and easier than I had expected, I would do it again at quiet times of day, though will be sticking to the car at other times.

 

Phil however felt that he had found his feet and decided to try the trains again later in the week, on Election Day in Mumbai when Sagar was on holiday.  I was working from home as my office was shut - Phil had a meeting in the south at 3pm.  When Phil returned home at 5pm he was looking rather sheepish.  Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to work out where to buy a ticket on the way back and a (supposedly) friendly local had told him to get on the train and not worry about the ticket.  Phil duly took his advice, but was stopped at Bandra and fined 250 rupees for his omission, more than the cost of a taxi!  Oh dear.  It was a learning experience and we'll know for next time.



 

Easter in Mumbai

This year, Easter arrived before we had noticed it coming, partly because we had friends visiting for two weeks beforehand, as we do not have a regular connection to the church calendar through bell ringing, and further because we didn't have the usual two month build-up period of Easter Egg adverts and supermarket offers to remind us that Easter is on its way.  We live in an area of Mumbai with a large Catholic community (arising from Portuguese colonisation) so there were some signs that Easter was approaching, but nothing like what we are used to in the UK.

Easter started for us with a gift from one of my work colleagues, who was born and brought up in Bandra, of a home-made traditional Easter sweet, made from almond paste and cashew nuts.  Chocolate is not associated with Easter in India (for obvious reasons, it hit 40 degrees in Mumbai this weekend) but sweet goodies seem to play a big part in all festivals, irrespective of the religion in question.

A traditional Indian Easter sweet

This is the first year that we haven't spent the long Easter weekend with family. On Easter Sunday, we would usually go to church before enjoying lunch at home so we decided to head south for the Easter Sunday service at the Afghan Church in South Mumbai.  We travelled down on a local train (separate blog post to follow about this experience) and arrived on time for the service due to start at 830am.

Although we arrived on time, none of the rest of the congregation had done the same, although the vicar did walk in at about the time that the service was due to start.  The service started 10 minutes late and was pretty similar to an equivalent service in the UK, though with the slightly comical edge of a clergyman who spoke incredibly quickly, to the point where it felt like a challenge to read / speak quickly enough at the points when the congregation is supposed to join in.  The congregation trickled in over time and was up to about 40 people when the service finished.  We were warmly welcomed and invited to join for post-service refreshment (this turned out to be lamb stew with white bread, not my usual 930am on a Sunday food on a hot day!). 

Once we had spent a pleasant few minutes chatting, we moved on to visit the Prince of Wales museum, housed in an impressive domed building close to the Taj Hotel and Gateway of India.  This is proper museum (it has exhibitions twinned with the British Museum), with well-presented exhibits and working audio guides.  We spent an interesting couple of hours exploring the exhibits although the museum wasn't air-conditioned, so I spent a significant proportion of the time looking for big stand-up fans and standing in front of them.  It was seriously hot.

Looking down at the main entrance hall from inside the dome

A tourist group approaching the main entrance

The Prince of Wales museum in beautiful grounds 

 

Overall, the Prince of Wales museum is well worth a visit and provides a decent overview of the history of Indian art and culture, as well as an interesting photographic timeline of the history of Mumbai.  It also has a museum shop full of lovely stuff; although at prices which simply make me look at things and decide to buy them elsewhere.

 

By the time we had finished at the museum I was hot, sweaty, and consequentially a bit grumpy and in need of a peaceful lunch in an air-conditioned environment.  The Woodside Inn at the top of Colaba Causeway did an excellent job of fulfilling this requirement, getting me back on my feet to explore Chor Bazaar in the afternoon.  Phil doesn't seem to have problem coping with the heat, something of which I'm a little bit jealous at this time of year.

 

Chor Bazaar is an area in South Mumbai full of shops selling everything and anything, the Indian equivalent of a permanent car boot sale or antiques fair, depending on the quality of the goods that you are looking for.  Several expats have recommended this area as a great place to pick up quirky items at low prices, although its also one of the best places in the city to get completely ripped off (there is strong competition for this accolade).  We were told on no account to ever pay more than half the asking price, however much we think that we want the item on offer.

 

Walking down Mutton Street - Some of the smells lived up to the name 

Piles and piles of stuff 

Spanner anyone?!

We spent a while wondering around and looking in various cavernous shops but the range of goods for sale is over-whelming.  We will go again when we know what we what (and what we are willing to spend...).  The area is fascinating though a fun to wander around, whether or not you want or intend to buy anything.

Sweltering by this point, we headed back up north (in a taxi this time) to shower, relax and Skype family later in the day. 

A big, juicy steak

Since moving to India ten months ago, we have enjoyed a mainly vegetarian diet and have welcomed this change in lifestyle.  Vegetables are cheap, fresh and plentiful and there is a huge variety of tasty vegetarian food served in restaurants in India.  Unlike most of the rest of the world, the majority of India's population is vegetarian (and many of these are vegan) and hence vegetarians, and vegetarian food, comes first.

I am an advocate of the health and environmental benefits of vegetarian food, although there are occasions when our carnivorous roots fight back and we crave meat.  Specifically, red meat.

Cows are sacred in India and I've been told that the sale of beef is illegal in Bombay (I'm not convinced by this rumour as it's served in high-end hotels).  We have though recently made the happy discovery that buffalo meat is available and sold at our local butchers, Joseph's in Bandra.

Succulent slabs of buffalo steak are sold at the princely sum of £5 a kilo, with a minimum sale of 1kg.  I got back from work last week to find Phil ready to fry two hearty steaks for dinner - the red meat cravings had clearly hit him that day!

Here is the end result.  Cooked in butter, generously seasoned.  Meaty heaven.

Buffalo steak with buttery mash, green beans (hari pali) and chutney

Rajasthan Holiday Part 2 - Ranthambhore and Agra

Following our two night stay, we travelled south from Jaipur on a two hour train journey to Ranthambhore. Travelling by train is a quintessential part of the Indian tourist experience, so we'd reserved six tickets in Sleeper class (mid-range, open windows but you do get a reserved seat).

The journey was one of two halves, with David, Cecilia and Alf focused on perking up a sick Alf with electrolyte solution, whilst Henry, Phil and I sat on the upper bunks reading and playing the 2048 game.  It was pretty hot and the train station and train were rather crowded, but we settled in and enjoyed the journey once we'd found our seats (and cleared lots of other people off them!).

Henry ready to board the train 

Tackling the 2048 game, prior to David's 2048 addiction developing later in the holiday

Ranthambhore is a national park covering over 1000 sq km and is famous for its tiger population; there are currently over 50 in the park.  The size of the tiger population in India is miserable; there are only 2000 left in the wild, but they are now heavily protected and there is hope that numbers will increase.  A sighting of a tiger is never guaranteed, but I had been reliably informed that the chance of seeing a tiger at Ranthambhore was better than almost anywhere else in India.

We went on two safaris, in a private jeep on the afternoon that we arrived, and in a large canter (seating about twenty people) early the next morning.  We saw antelope, spotted deer, peacocks, a crocodile, many monkeys and even three sloth bears (there are only 20 in the whole park) but, sadly, we did not see a tiger. The closest that we got to a tiger was this:

A tiger footprint which had been circled by the national park rangers who track the tigers

The lack of tiger sighting was clearly disappointing for all, particularly since plague was now dissipating through the group (Alf, Cecilia and Henry were all feeling under the weather) but I still thoroughly enjoyed the safari experience owing to the wonderful landscape of the park.  Ranthambhore is full of sheer craggy cliffs and knarled creeping trees, and we still saw plenty of other birds and wildlife.  We didn't see a tiger this time, but this gives us a good excuse to book a trip to another tiger park in the near future. 

The watering hole in zone 6 of Ranthambhore 

Another jeep similar to the one we were travelling in 

Colourful birds 

A hot and pensive Alfie  

Two crocodiles 

Monkey mums

From Ranthambhore, we travelled to Agra, again by (a hot and crowded) train.  The main reason for going to Agra was, of course, for the Taj Mahal but there is a lot to see in Agra aside from the Taj itself.  Several hundred years ago, Agra was a great capital ruled by the Mughal kings and hence there are various impressive monuments scattered across the otherwise uninspiring city.

Whereas for the first three nights of our trip we had been staying in independent Indian-style bed and breakfast accommodation, in Agra we moved to a large western chain hotel, the Radisson, and everyone was more than ready for the comfort and air-conditioned environment by this stage.  I relished having a hot, powerful shower - it's amazing how quickly you get dusty and dry when this facility is not available.

On our first evening in Agra, we ate in the hotel and were prepared to retire for an early night before the hotel manager persuaded Phil, David and I to attend the Radisson's special Taj Mahal presentation, including a model of the Taj with four different lighting settings.  He was particularly proud of this and keen that we had a group photograph with every lighting option.  David, Phil and I were the only people in the presentation which started with the presenter interrogating us regarding what we each felt was the true definition of love. Eek!  It would have been a bit easy if he'd just asked for a composition of Magic Blocks instead.  Only in India.

The Taj Mahal model in its moonlight setting, with the presenter

At 7am the next morning, we set off to see the real Taj Mahal.  We were staying within walking distance and, as expected, the streets were lined with people selling tourist tat and offering transport to the big attraction.  The final 500m before the Taj Mahal has though been closed to traffic in an attempt to protect it from the pollution of Agra, which made for a fairly peaceful walk.

I'll admit that I was expecting to be underwhelmed by the Taj Mahal, and that whatever it has once been would now have been destroyed by mass tourism, but I'm happy to admit that I was mistaken.  The Taj Mahal is astonishing and truly beautiful; it shimmered in the early morning light and the scale and precision of the building is incredible.  It took 22,000 workers over 20 years to build and the main mausoleum is built from white marble inlaid with intricate marble designs.  Anyone can read the amazing statistics online, but this doesn't prepare you for the real thing.  My top tips to anyone planning a visit are to go early and miss the crowds and heat.  We had finished our trip by 9am and it was already getting uncomfortably hot.

The glorious Taj Mahal, monument to love.

Team Pipe

Team Earis minus one

You can see some of the black marble inlay in this picture

One of the other buildings in the Taj complex

One of the four towers surrounding the Taj, each angled 2 degrees off vertical to give the impression of being straight when viewed from a distance

Behind the Taj, getting a bit hot now...

As you can see, the crowds were fairly light at 8am...

There's much more to see in Agra than the Taj Mahal and, after breakfast, we set our to explore some of the other key sites; Agra Fort and the "Baby Taj".  These are all very interesting and we had a fun day being transported around Agra by a local guide called Vicky.  Vicky is a very cheeky 14 year-old with excellent English who knows how to lead a tour and make a sale.

The great fort

David gets pounced on by a television crew wanting his opinion on Agra tourism

More fort focus

Boys at the fort with the Tak Mahal in the background

Baby Taj, the inspiration for the Taj Mahal

Taken from inside the Baby Taj

Baby Taj at an angle

The Taj Mahal viewed from across the river

Our cheeky 14 year-old tour guide

The next day, we travelled from Agra back to Jaipur by car and took a short de-tour to see an impressive stepwell on the route.  I'll admit that I didn't have high hopes for this beforehand - Phil's description of "a stepwell, along a track 10km off the main road, which hasn't made it into the guide book" didn't really sell it to me - but it was pretty good in the end and had some super geometric patterns.  I will be more open to the idea of visiting stepwells in the future - not something I thought I'd be saying at the start of our trip...

Top stepwell focus.

Stepwell.  Just look at those patterns.

 



Rajasthan Holiday Part 1 - Jaipur

The Pipe family arrived on my birthday and stayed with us for two weeks, which meant that they had plenty of time to explore other parts of India.  They were happy for us to arrange a trip away from Mumbai to see "authentic India" (a brave move), preferably incorporating the Taj Mahal in Agra.  After much deliberation we settled on a six day tour round an inverted version of The Golden Triangle; including Jaipur, a tiger safari in Ranthambhore and finally travelling to Agra to see the Taj.

Our first stop was Jaipur where we spent two nights and an action-packed day exploring the sites of the city. We stayed in a charming homestay in a traditional Rajasthani house, run by the family who have owned the property for over 50 years.  As is traditional, the house was set around a central courtyard with wide balconies running round the property, all designed to make the space as cool as possible in the hot summer months.  The family were friendly and welcoming and I soon relaxed into holiday-mode, supping masala chai happily on the balcony.

Our base in Jaipur

Central courtyard...yet to be decorated by Alf (see later)

We had one day in Jaipur in which to cover the key sites; The Amber Fort, several miles to the north of the city, and The Pink City, the old fort in the city itself.

We started early and ventured out to negotiate a fee with the local autorickshaw drivers for the trip to the Amber Fort...there are no meters in Rajasthan so lots of bargaining was necessary!  Henry and Alfie seemed to really enjoy the autorickshaws and this easy mode of travel was one of the highlights of their trip.

The Amber Fort is, like so many forts in Rajasthan, astonishing in its scale and opulence.  Unfortunately, the elephants that you can usually hire to travel up to the fort were resting for a festival, but we hired a guide who steered us ably around the area (he did try to permanently borrow David's hat, but was otherwise a good guy).

The Amber Fort viewed from the road across the lake 

Henry models the sunglasses-turban combo look outside the fort 

Doorway separating two parts of the fort - the intricacy of the decoration is amazing

The doorway close-up...the bright colours are typical of Rajasthani palaces 

More zoom on the palace 

Posing for a group photo / sitting in the shade for a rest.  It was VERY hot (probably 40ish). 

Part of the palace of mirrors.  On reflection, this was my favourite part of the fort. 

 Looking happy (in the shade)

Looking out from the front of the fort.  Note the walls climbing up the hill in the background...there are fort walls all around the area.

Following the tour, our guide took us down to the village below the fort where we were, as expected, taken to a handicrafts shop full of tat.  Once we had extricated ourselves from the shop, we were taken to the main attraction of the villages, elephants rides, which was a must for Henry and Alfie.  

The queue looked a little long, so Cecilia and I went to look at a block printing museum up the road, but I'm told that the boys had an excellent time.  David, Henry and Alfie shared an elephant whilst Phil acted as chief photographer, although his photography was unfortunately curtailed by a gang of locals who appeared to want to keep a monopoly on taking photos of foreigners on elephants.  Phil stated trying to take some snaps but was surrounded and firmly removed from the area to make sure that David would have to buy photos from the villagers if he wanted any at all!  These photos were an exorbitant price but the boys eventually managed to negotiate down to a reasonable level and keep the photos to remember the experience.

The boys find a friend... 

...and some more

The rather excellent block-printing museum, where we saw demonstrations of traditional block printing and wooden block carving, in a quiet, cool environment.  If you look closely, we can be seen enjoying ginger lemon sodas whilst waiting for the boys under the parasol.

After a cooling drink, we travelled back into Jaipur to see the Pink City, including the Hawas Mahal (Palace of the Winds), City Palace and Jantar Mantar.

 

Our trusty steed 

The Jantar Mantar - a series or giant astronomical instruments.  A sun-dial lover's playground. 

A very big gnomon 

The front facade of the Palace of the Winds 

 Part of the beautiful palace, where the women used to watch the world go by without the men being able to see in from outside.

Looking into the City Palace.  We had a casualty by this point.  Alf was feeling under the weather and fell asleep at the cafe table. 

In the central courtyard of the City Palace.  The highlight of the display in the centre of the courtyard was two giant silver urns, each with a capacity of over 14,000 litres, which were used by the Maharajah to carry Ganges water to the UK for the coronation of Edward VII in 1901.  He didn't trust British water so he took his own Indian water instead! 

Sheltering from the sun in a doorway.  The 200 rupees that I spent on the floppy hat I'm wearing in this picture was a very good investment. 

David and Henry

After a long and hot day, we headed back to the homestay for a relaxing evening (dispatching David and Phil to pick up some refreshing cold beer on the way back) and home-cooked vegetarian food prepared by our hosts.  Unfortunately, it was all a bit much for Alf who vomited spectacularly over the courtyard when we arrived, which then deteriorated into 24 hours of a distinctly unsettled constitution.

Alf drinking electrolyte solution (with great reluctance!).  Cecilia wasn't feeling much better than Alf by this point either...

Needless to say, with Alfie and Cecilia both under the weather, the Pipe family did not have a great night, but Phil and David managed a morning run and detour to a local barbers.

I'm told that this establishment smelt unsavory but it was an authentic experience at least.

We left Jaipur that morning to travel by train to Ranthambhore, but returned to Jaipur several days later at the end of our trip.  For our final night, we stayed in a luxury Taj hotel (a converted Maharajah's palace) and spent the day swimming and playing table tennis, pool, chess, cricket as a relaxing end to the holiday. 

At the Jai Mahal Palace, playing chess with pieces that were almost as big as the boys. 

Our hotel

All in all, we found Jaipur to be an excellent mini-break location and most worthy of its place in The Golden Triangle.  There are many more forts around the city which we did not have time to see, so we may well be back in the future!