Rajasthan Trip 1: Chittorgarh and Udaipur

We travelled further afield last week, taking Friday off work to enjoy a 3 day trip to Rajasthan.  Phil originally planned this weekend as a birthday trip for me in April, though we had to cancel then owing to delay with our move.  Better late than never, we rearranged the trip to take place at the end of August.

We left Bandra Terminus at 1130pm on Thursday evening on our first train ride in India; a 14 hour journey from Mumbai to Chittorgarh.  The station itself was remarkably calm and ordered though this may have been owing to the late hour.  We booked seats in the AC 2-tier coach, which is structured in cabins of six beds on two levels with the corridor running through each one.  We both had upper bunks, which required some athleticism to access and looked rather easy to fall from, but we soon settled comfortably and slept well.  Basic bedding is provided and the motion of the train makes for pleasant sleeping conditions.  The trains move slowly and there are no announcements for the stations, allowing for a good trip but you do have to keep track of time.

Settling down for the evening

I hadn't been looking forward to the toilet facilities, but these weren't too bad in the end, though I'm told that this would be different in a lower class cabin.  I never thought I'd say this, but the Indian toilets can actually be better and more hygienic than the western ones, though standing in a room with a big hole in the floor on a moving train is quite unnerving!  Point to note though - nowhere except smart restaurants, hotels and airports has loo roll in India.  If in doubt, carry your own.

Probably best not to speculate about the May infestation

We'd been looking forward to food on the train in the morning but for some reason it wasn't served.  Apparently we were unlucky, this almost never happens, but we were very hungry when we arrived in Chittorgarh at 1330 after a breakfast of one biscuit that a fellow passenger kindly gave to us.  We had a superb lunch of vegetable samosa, chilli pakora and chapati, all freshly deep fried in a vat of smoking oil.  Ironically, this is probably the healthiest food you can have from the street given that bacteria would have to be very strong to survive that cooking process!

Chittor is a relative new town (100 years) set at the foot of a huge and majestic fort which is much older.  This was one home to more than 30,000 people though the current population in villages inside the fort is now less than 5000.  Phil had arranged for us to stay at a traditional Rajasthan style homestay in a village inside the fort and an autorickshaw was waiting for us at the station to take us up the hill.  The best part of the journey was when we stopped outside a school and seven excitable primary school children piled in!  They were very lively, wearing smart uniforms and seemingly fearless about hanging on to the back of a bumpy rickshaw.  We dropped then off at various points on the way to the village.

The haveli itself was charming, tucked away behind carved wooden doors in the centre of a working village.  This small hotel is the home of a family who run the hotel and offer local tours of the area.  Parvati and Sudhir were great company and had fantastic English (and French) and excellent knowledge of the local area.  The haveli had been renovated a year before with investment from a Swiss couple to ensure that it is now a well-run and supported business, professionally operated.  The rooms were lovely; all built by locals and with local material, but with western comforts which are good to have too.  It's a great life to see local village life in a relaxing environment.

Room at the Padmini Haveli in Chittorgarh

The mischievous and charming Amit

After enjoying some masala tea and meeting our fellow guests (from Ireland), we set out on a tour of the major sights of the fort with our guide, Parvati.  After dropping their (very lively) 6 year-old son off at a relative's house on the way we entered the fort and enjoyed a detailed and informative tour; albeit a very wet one as the monsoon hit hard shortly after we began.  The fort is fascinating and I would highly recommend this.  The only slightly strange aspect was been trailed by groups of Indians (usually men) who like taking photographs of foreigners, particularly with fair hair.  This doesn't feel threatening as such, but is unfamiliar.

 Temple carvings

Many monkeys

Our dinner back at the homestay was excellent; tasty home-cooked Rajasthani food, all vegetarian and fresh from the house kitchen.  We feasted royally, though in the dark as the electricity was off in the heavy storm.

Phil cycled round the fort in the early morning light before returning for a breakfast (bananas and Indian pancakes) where we had our first close encounter with a  monkey.  They are huge, scary and move very quickly!  If they come near and want to take something, the best approach is to let them do it.

 View from the roof of our haveli

View from the bike

Inquisitive cow

Monkey behind barbed wire, where it belongs in my opinion

We travelled to Udaipur by car in Parvati and Sudhir's newly renovated Ambassador; they were very proud that this was manufactured by Hindustan Motors.  This was spacious and Parvati kindly bought us a fresh flower garland on the way so we looked like proper tourists!  The journey to Udaipur was fairly easy (good roads compared with Mumbai!) and we were in the city by early afternoon.

 Car Indian-style

Udaipur is the City of Lakes.  Ruled by a long dynasty of kings, it is structured around seven man-made lakes and adorned with several superb palaces.  The James Bond film Octopussy was set here and we were lucky enough to be staying in the hotel contained in the white marble "Lake Palace" built in the 18th century as a "party palace" for one of the princes who had been told that he couldn't hold a party in one of his father's other palaces, so built his own.  This was the palace of the ladies in Octopussy and has been a hotel since 1971.  It has been preserved in its original condition where possible and is really spectacular in every way.  You can only access it by private boat, so even the journey is special.

Palace view from the jetty.  The lake was particularly high in the monsoon

Lily pond courtyard

Room with a "lake view"

Our time at the hotel consistent of swimming, a heritage tour of the hotel (finishing in the bar!), a wonderful sunset, watching traditional dancers in the courtyard, and wonderful Indian (and other) food.  For the record, Phil managed to get a good deal on this hotel first time round.  I've checked the rates for Christmas time and at $3500 a night we won't be coming back then (sorry Mum)!

Panoramic sunset

 View from the hotel entrance at sunset

After relaxing on Sunday morning, we headed back into the town to visit the huge and imposing City Palace (the royal family now lives in only a small part of this building) and spent a touristy afternoon visiting a temple, a local cafe, wandering round the old town, and climbing up a big hill overlooking the city.  We managed to get back to the car pick up point just before the heavens opened and avoided getting soaked on the way to the airport. 

 The City Palace

 View over Udaipur from the hill

The sites were great to see, although walking round Udaipur is tiring; not physically, but in terms of the number of touts you have to fend off.  It is important to stay calm and patient when you really just want to pin a sign to your back which says "I don't want an auto, I don't want to buy what you are offering and I would rather not have another photograph with you".  Saying that, there is no point getting worked up as the only person who will get frustrated is you.  I try to always keep in mind the motivations and needs of others for foreigners to buy things but cannot say that I always succeed.  The view that everyone is trying to sell you something is wrong though; some people really do just want to stop you for a photo or a friendly chat.

Our slightly delayed flight landed at Mumbai at 1100 and we had a quick journey home after a fab weekend.  We will certainly be returning to Rajasthan in the future (next trip planned for Christmas!).

Into the Hills

On Sunday, we went on a day trip to Lonavala, a town 100km from Mumbai set in the hills of Maharashtra.  Although only a two hour drive from Mumbai, the hills are lush and verdant and a fresh and pleasant contrast from the city.

Lonavala itself is a popular weekend destination for Mumbaikers although its accessibility has led to it becoming a built up and crowded town.  A quick drive around the town revealed that it is packed with hotels and tourist-geared sweet shops and its generally quite commercial and grubby; we wouldn't rush back to stay for the weekend.  Lonavala seems to pride itself on its Chikki, an Indian version of a seaside rock / fudge hybrid, which was being sold in every other shop at least.  We didn't partake but Sagar vouched for its tastiness.

Autos in Lonavala

Saying that, the surrounding landscape is spectacular and even the drive to the town, along the Mumbai-Pune expressway, has incredible views.  This is particularly good in the monsoon as there are many waterfalls and an attractive mist over the hills.  Of course, there is always to danger of getting caught in torrential rain, but we were lucky not to on our visit.

View from the hill

Once we'd passed through Lonavala, we drove east to Karla (on Sagar's recommendation) to a popular spot for visitors; a big hill with impressive 2nd century BC Buddhist caves caved out of rock at the top.  We parked part-way up the hill and walked the rest (along with many other Indians out for a Sunday trip to the countryside).  These caves are the largest early Buddhist caves in India and still has the original woodwork which is quite amazing.  The air in the hills is noticeable fresher and the temperature lower than in the city; it's easy to see why many people choose to travel here.
 

Waterfall and flowers for pooja

Sultry statues

2200 year-old cave

As on our previous trips, we were the only foreigners to be seen and were stopped by several Indians requesting photographs with us. All very friendly but quite strange for us too!

Other interesting experiences included meeting a family who seemed very cheerful and were keen for us to be photographed with their six month old son.  We later saw the family placing the son on the back of a decorated goat, which Sagar later informed us would be sacrificed and eaten on the top of the hill! This appeared to be some kind of celebration or festival for the child and apparently meeting foreigners on such a day is auspicious, hence the desire for a photograph!

Ceremonial goat riding pre-sacrifice

After we'd enjoyed lunch at a popular roadside restuarant, Phil caught a taxi from Lonavala to Pune for a work trip whilst Sagar and I made our way back to Mumbai.  The 100km return journey took 3.5 hours owing to the heavy traffic coming back into Mumbai.

Rakhi

This is just a quick one to say that it is Rakhi today, a rather nice Hindu festival that I'm quite taken with.  It is described on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raksha_Bandhan

Rakhi is a special occasion to mark the bond between and brother and sister.  The ritual involves a sister tying a bracelet around the wrist of a brother to celebrate their emotional bonding and the sister prays for the brother's long life, whilst the brother recognises his lifelong vow to protect his sister.  In return, the brother gives the sister a gift (usually money).  This ritual is supposed to strengthen the bond between brother and sister.


Sagar had a new bracelet this morning which his sister had sent from their village 350km away.  This clearly meant a lot to him and the bond of family and his relationship with his sister is very important.

If any of our opposite siblings would like a bracelet / gift then you have four hours to get in touch!

Teeth, hair and money

I'm afraid that I have become a medical tourist.

If there is one thing about India which is extremely good, it is healthcare.  Private healthcare is of an excellent quality, very good value relative to the UK and available at your convenience.  If you want something done, this can usually be arranged immediately for a reasonable cost (based on my limited experience).

Whilst clearly one would not hope to need to make significant use of medical facilities, I have decided that now is the time to revisit the orthodontist. I had 3+ years of treatment as a teenager, involving taking out a few teeth and various kinds of braces, and whilst this largely sorted my teeth out, they have partly slipped back now and I've decided it's now or never in terms of getting them sorted for good.

As a teenager, I remember making appointments a long way in advance and many trips to the hospital and sitting in the waiting room for my appointment.  Not so here.  On Saturday morning I had my initial consultation in the morning, had a couple of high-tech x-rays done directly afterwards, returned to the dentist for moulds to be taken, and had the braces fitted two hours later.  Technology seems to have progressed a bit since I last had this done although I'm currently enduring the first few days where you can't chew anything (lots of icecream is required) but it will be well worth it in the end.  The cost is much less than the UK with many more check-ups to make sure that things are proceeding as planned; and the dentist is only 5 minutes from our apartment.  The treatment should be finished in a year or so with relatively little inconvenience (with any luck!).  The list of things that I'm not allowed to eat are all pretty bad for you anyway, so this will probably do me some good.

Second, we decided that Saturday would also be the day for us to find a hairdresser. Phil had done a little bit or research through discussing with Sagar who recommended that Phil could get a decent cut for 100 rupees, but that the man cutting hair for 35 rupees at the side of the road was best avoided.  Phil was tempted by the latter option but eventually saw sense and went for the 100 rupee place instead, which seemed fine.  He sadly declined the offer for a head message (a staple of the Indian hairdressing experience) but promises me that he will try this next time).

I went slightly more upmarket and went to a smart salon charging the princely rate of 800 rupees (~£8.50) which was pretty decent, though I'm not convinced that my hairdresser had much experience.  He took lots of time and care, but also informed me that he had just moved back to Mumbai from the UK where he had studied Computer Science, but couldn't find a job in India so had moved into hairdressing.  Eek!  The cut isn't a disaster but I might look around for next time.

Away from these domestic concerns, by far the biggest issue and news item in India at the moment is the decline of the rupee. This has fallen against the dollar by 16% since May, and seems to be plummeting further every day, as the controls put in place by the government and RBI appear to have the opposite effect to stabilising the currency.  This a little inconvenient given that I'm been paid locally on a fixed exchange rate, so I hope that the rate comes back again in the next two years!  More worrying still is that the government decided last week to restrict the amount of money that residents can take out of India in a year.  Again, I'm very hoping that this will not apply to us or that the Indian bank changes it's mind soon.  The decision has clearly backfired and the rupee has shot down further as many people are trying to get their money out as quickly as possible.

Interesting times...

Frustration

India can be frustrating.  Wonderful, but immensely frustrating.  We had a fairly easy first few weeks but now that we are looking after ourselves, we are beginning to understand what it means to live in India.  I'm not trying to say that life is hard for us - it isn't - but there are challenges here.  It requires immense amounts of patience (which neither of us have, but are working on) and a good deal of ingenuity and willingness to think of creative solutions to apparently unassailable problems.  There is no doubt that this is the learning experience that we were looking for; the important bit is working out how to cope with this positively.

The following things have caused headaches and large numbers of phone calls over the last week.


1)  Car insurance (10+ phone calls and a car inspection)
2)  Tata Sky TV package (arrgggghhhh - see below.  Still unresolved)
3)  Changing a light bulb at the entrance to our apartment (driver managed to collapse whole light fitting in 10 second unsupervised period)
4)  Paying a mobile phone bill (eventually dispatched driver to sort this out after online payment and direct debit failure)
5)  Fixing a blocked drain (solved with four men and a bucket)
6)  Fixing a washing machine which doesn't drain (currently unresolved)
7)  The wireless connection.  Not in the last week, but still scarred in our memories.
8)  Applying for a credit card and savings accounts (unfathomable amounts of documentation and money in current account required).
9)  Organising regular pest control for our apartment (required as standard in India)

Tata Sky has been particularly special.  Ostensibly simple and very good value (all channels we want for 400 rupees a month) but we made the mistake of trying to use a box left here by the previous tenants rather than starting the whole process from scratch.  Here is an example one of my many  conversations with Tata Sky:

Tata Sky 1:  Hello, this is Tata Sky.  How can I help you?
Me:  Hello.  I have just moved into a new apartment.  I am a new customer to Tata Sky and would like someone to come round to install a box, which we already have, at our apartment.
Tata Sky 1:  What is your ID number?
Me:  I am a new customer, I do not have an ID number.
Tata Sky 1:  It is on the box.
Me:  There is no ID number on the box, please can you tell me how to get a new ID number, or send someone round to look at the box?
Tata Sky 1:  What is your ID number?
Me:  I do not have one.  Please tell me how to get one?
Tata Sky 1:  What is your ID number?
Me:  Please can you transfer me to someone who speaks English?

[Long pause, being transferred...]

Tata Sky 2:  [Long stream of Hindi / Marathi words]
Me:  Do you speak English?
Tata Sky 2:  [Long stream of Hindi / Marathi words]
Me:  Do you speak English?

[Long pause, being transferred...]

Tata Sky Automated Voice:  Please enter your 10 digit ID number to continue.
Me:  [Suppressed scream]
Philip:  [Laughs hysterically]

Tata Sky has eventually being progressed by abandoning the existing box and starting from scratch, with our Hindi/Marathi speaking driver ably handling the phone calls (with close supervision to ensure no accidental upgrades to include Marathi movie channels).

I've often heard people in the UK complain about UK companies having call centres in India.  STOP COMPLAINING.  These people are the cream of the call centre crop; the remainder seem to work for the Indian companies we are dealing with now.  I'm sure that many of the people we've spoken to are fine speaking in languages other than English; but any claim that many make that they speak English is not true!

There are already a few key rules which we have made for ourselves and are trying to abide by.  They are as follows:

1)  Wherever possible, operate online (if this is automated and processed automatically) rather than the phone if possible.  There is no language barrier and you get things in writing, plus an operator cannot cut you off if they don't know the answer to your questions (standard behaviour).  The exception to this is "booking complaints" online.  This seems to be a method to document one's frustrations in writing, but don't expect a response or any follow up action!

2)  When you keep hitting brick walls, ask for advice and if possible ask someone Indian to help you out.  It often requires understanding of the system (and not being foreign) to sort things out.

3)  Be very very persistent.  If someone tells you that they cannot help you and that you should go elsewhere, be sceptical and willing to keep badgering them to find a solution.  Almost anything is possible, but you may need to try many different options to get there!  If you stop chasing people every day, the chance of something being followed up proactively is small.

4)  Delegate heavily and envoke helping of housekeeper or driver wherever possible.  They can find quick solutions to problems that will keep you busy for days.  This was also reduce stress and demands on your time considerably.

5)  Find sanctuary.  If something is frustrating you, don't get cross but instead do something relaxing and enjoyable to make yourself feel better. 

6)  Join online mailing lists (good ones) to seek the help and comfort of others.  Many people are very friendly and have been through the same process as you, and are only too willing to pass on their knowledge.

7)  Learn that everything takes time.  Breathe deeply and tell yourself that it will all be sorted eventually.

8)  Try to stay within the system and keep things simple.  Anything slightly unusual (i.e. a Tata Sky connection when you already have a box) is likely to cause carnage.

9)  A relatively small amount of money can solve any problem pretty quickly. Just accept that this is a foreigner tax.

10)  Most importantly, laugh about it and don't let it get to you!  It's not a disaster if you miss someone of the Ashes as you still have no television after 20 conversations with Tata Sky.  Keep things in perspective and all will be well.  Remember all the brilliant things about living in India that outweigh the frustrating ones.

A weekend in Hyderabad

I'm taking the opportunity of a mid-week Public Holiday (Independence Day) and waking up a little too early in the morning to get up-to-date with my blog.  A big advantage of a Public Holiday is that no-one knocks on the door before 0730 (on a normal day, this includes the paper man, car wash man, driver and cleaning lady) so it's a rare chance for a lie-in!

Last weekend we went to Hyderabad; a city conveniently positioned in the centre of India and the state capital of Andhra Pradesh (for now).  With a population of approximately eight million people, Hyderabad is the fourth most populous city in India.  Wikipedia gives a bit more background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad,_India

Hyderabad is unusual in that it continued to be ruled by monarchs, the Nizams of Hyderabad, throughout British occupation; rule that ended only when the state of Hyderabad was brought into the Indian Union by force in 1948.  The last Nizam of Hyderabad (ruling from 1911 to 1948) was the richest man in the world throughout his reign which is excellent from a tourist perspective, as Hyderabad is adorned with incredible palaces and interesting things to see.  It's worth reading about the Nizams too, a fascinating family:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizam_of_Hyderabad

I arrived in Hyderabad at lunchtime on Friday to join Phil following a work visit.  My first impressions of Indigo airlines were very positive (long may that continue!), I've now found a very convenient taxi firm where everything can be done online (Meru cabs, I recommend to anyone coming to India) and the length of time from leaving our apartment to being through security at the airports was under 30 minutes.  This bodes well for future holidays!

My first impressions of Hyderabad were of a more ordered, clean and less frenetic city that Bombay, although this is all relative in India.  The streets were adorned with huge posters of the leader of one of the main political parties, the BJP, as we found that the leader (Gujurat premier Narendra Modi) was visiting Hyderabad that weekend.  Our hotel was pleasant and located on Hussain Sagar; a large lake which is visually appealing but I became less keen on when reading a plaque which said that large amounts of Hyderabad's sewage gets dumped in it every day...

View over the lake from the terrace of the hotel restaurant

There is a large status of Buddha standing in the middle of the lake.  This is made from white granite, weighs 400 tonnes and took 200 men two years to construct in the late 1980s. The story takes a interesting turn as, when the statue was first taken out onto the lake to be erected, the boat carrying it sank!  It took two years to recover the statue but it eventually took its place in 1992, and very nice it looks too.

Once Phil had finished with work at the end of Friday, we headed out to start out sightseeing.  Transport is a little more ad hoc in India, and we attempted to negotiate fixed rates with several auto drivers before finding one who would take us anywhere.  In the end though, we found a reliable man who spoke a little English and earned himself a decent income for two days by agreeing to take us around the city.

View from our carriage

On Friday early evening we made it to Golconda Fort; a marvellous and enormous 12th fort stationed high above the city.  This was stunning and we enjoyed a pleasant time exploring and learning about the security system there.  The building has amazing acoustics; anyone clapping their hands at the main entrance can be heard at the main watchtower a long way away owing to the echoes. A local movie was also been shot whilst we were going round. Anyone visiting Hyderabad should definitely come here.

The spectacular Golconda Fort

Another feature of our visit was the many Indian tourists who wanted to speak to us and have photographs with us, something we haven't seen in Bombay.  We were the only white tourists around and groups of teenage boys in particular seemed to want to have their photos taken with Philip.  I'm not quite sure what conclusion to draw from that...

Philip and some of his fans

On Saturday, our itinerary included the Sagar Jung museum (housing lots of the treasures of the Nizam's and related wealthy families), the Charminnah (Gateway to the city), Chowmahallah Palace (actually four palaces belonging to the Nizams), Laad Bazaar (famous for bangles and pearls) and the Birla temple, all of which were well worth visiting.  We travelled around with our auto man who was generally very good.  His favourite pastime was sleeping in his autos between journeys and he did get a little tired and grumpy towards the end of the day, but was perked up by an extra 100 rupees to keep him sweet.

View up Laad Bazaar to Charminnah

Chowmahalla (actually four palaces; "Chaar" means four, "mahalla" means palaces)

Nizam's entrance hall (one of them)

Something that we have learnt about Indian tourist attractions is that they have two prices, which are strictly enforced.  First, there is the local price (typically 5 to 10 rupees), then there is the foreigner price (typically 100 to 150 rupees).  The absolute price charged to foreigners is not extreme (less than £2) but it does feel strange to be overcharged (relatively) as part of the 3% of the population paying tax in India.  The fact that we live here and pay tax is irrelevant; we are not Indian and therefore must pay for that according to the Indian system.  There is no point getting worked up about this, and ultimately I'm pleased that prices are such that they allow lots of people to visit these places, but this disparity does stand out to me more as a resident than it would as a tourist in India.  Essentially, many aspects of life here include a foreigner tax (implicit or explicit) and it is something to accept.  This applies in multiple arenas, and we have recently heard about a group of expats campaigning to stop Indian hospitals vastly overcharging foreigners who are living here.  Foreigner = rich in India, where in practice that is not always the case.

Pricing disparity

We also tried to visit the Faluknama Palace (now a luxury hotel) for a drink or afternoon tea, but this was fully booked for a private function sadly.  One good reason to go back to Hyderabad is to see this though from what we've read online.

In the evening, we had a Hyderabadi feast at the Paradise restaurant, including the famous Dum Biryani which was superb.  Another Hyderabadi speciality is Haleem, though this is served only during Ramadan (written Ramzan here) which we just missed, having arrived on the day of the Eid festival. Hyderabad has a much higher Muslim population than many other Indian cities.

Ladies out for a walk.  Hyderabad has a high proportion of Muslims (~50%) relative to the overall Indian population

Food Paradise

On Sunday we explored a large and well-kept local park at the north end of the lake and enjoyed the opportunity to walk (even in the heat!) and try out a basic but fun mini golf course.  The park was surprisingly empty but nicely kept.  When walking to and from the park, we were stopped by a couple of locals just to chat, as they were fascinated to see Europeans walking around on the streets (a path by the lake, perfectly safe and accessible, dirt aside).  On the whole, we found local people to be friendly, curious and keen to welcome us to their city.

Park Life

Mini Golf Indian Style

The journey back to the airports was more crazy than expected as we had a wild taxi driver who took the opportunity of a non-congested road to drive at scary speeds with some suspect under and over-taking, but we live to tell the tale (as, we hope, do the other drivers and pedestrians on the road) so all is well.

Gandhiji and his followers at Hyderabad Airport

Fruit Salad

After two weeks of eating out in restaurants where ordering fresh fruit is either not an option or more than a little precarious, I've been looking forward to purchasing some of the delicious looking local fruit that you see everywhere in India on roadside stalls.  All fruit and veg needs to be sterilised (and usually peeled) before eating, so we needed to wait until the necessary utensils had arrived in our shipment to allow us to do this (bananas excepted).

Phil was housebound for most of yesterday supervising a carpenter hanging our mirrors and pictures.  He asked our driver to go and buy some fruit, providing 250 rupees (~£2.75) and the remit to get "a selection of fruits, preferably including papaya".  Sagar returned with the following:

• One papaya
• One melon
• One mango
• One apple
• One pear
• Two peaches
• Two plums
• One sweet lime
• One orange
• Four grapes (? we were surprised too)
• One kiwi fruit

 Giant fruit salad

This was all very nice and well intended, although Phil went away with work this morning and I will fly to Hyderabad to join him on Friday, so I have a two day window in which to get through this fruit mountain.  Oh, and we have five more bananas in the fridge. Mental note:  In future specify exact fruit to be purchased when instructing driver, or significant restrict rupee allowance for fruit purchase.

Owing to the need to start the fruit comsumption as soon as possible to maximise my chances of working through this, I spent a pre-work hour this morning dunking fruit in disinfected filtered water, rinsing, peeling, chopping and sorting into tupperware containers.

 This morning's work station

And was it worth it?  Yes, indeed.  The ripe, juicy fruit is deliciously sweet and the mango (all now snaffled) in particular was wonderful.  Mangoes are not even in season here, so I can't wait to see how these taste when they are.  Papaya too is wonderful stuff.  A slightly acquired taste and with a peculiar smell but I've grown to love it and could eat it all day.

Given the amount that I've got through today, completion by Friday morning should be no problem, and if not I will find a happy home in India.

On a separate point, I've never liked wasting food (or anything really), but morally it hits me much harder in India.  You see people who genuinely have absolutely nothing here every day, so chucking anything when it could go somewhere useful is much harder.  Just walking along a typical street is a daily reminder of how lucky we are.

Just to destroy any illusion that we are being super healthy out here with all the fruit, here are the sizzler platters that we enjoyed for dinner on Monday.

 Weird expression - not quite sure what was going on here.  This is the veg sizzler platter at Yoko Sizzler

And in close up

More gym sessions required...

Shipping

After four weeks on the high seas and 14 days being inspected at customs, our shipment from the UK was delivered safely to our apartment yesterday morning.  There was a little delay in delivery as the customs officials decided that they needed my old passport in my maiden name, which I had fortunately kept but was unfortunately packed in the shipment.  This appeared to have been found and it is fantastic to have our furniture back again; lying full length on a sofa feels much better than sitting on one of our two plastic chairs.

The delivery and unpacking went smoothly and watching ten men carrying two sofas, a heavy table and numerous other large items up seven narrow flights of stairs was rather impressive.  There were few casualties (a couple of pictures frames, couple of lampshades), no confiscations (the handbells made it through unscathed!) and no major upsets.  The period in which we thought that the screws to assemble the dining table had been lost was a bit unfortunate, but they were eventually found and all was well.  One thing we've learnt is that removals companies pack *everything*.  I was a little surprised to find the jam jars that we'd put out for recycling in Cambridge before leaving, but they seem to have made it to Mumbai.

Here are some before, during and after pictures.  We also now have wireless internet access too, thanks to a super human effort including two more technicians and a middle man, but at least it's working!

 

 Arrival!

Sofa reaching the end of its seven flight of stairs journey

 Sofa through the door

In situ

Many boxes

Mattress arrival

Two men in a bed

After unpacking (admittedly would look better in daytime and without blue screen, I will get told off for poor photography)

Having received all our furniture, we've been doing some cleaning to get everything looking shipshape.  Our cleaning lady, Veronica, has now started too which is a big help.  The task that Phil attempted himself was window cleaning, although this took a rather unfortunate turn as he managed to lock himself out on a small balcony.  I received a plaintive phone call at work asking for assistance, so dispatching our driver back to the apartment with my keys to let him in.  This caused a lot of amusement all round!