Sri Lanka Part 1 - The cultural bit

We have recently returned from a five-day trip to Sri Lanka, a fascinating island just a short hop on a plane from Mumbai.  One could easily spend weeks travelling round Sri Lanka and only touch upon the delights that it has to offer; but sadly I'm rather short of holiday now so we had to both be choosy and pack a lot in to our trip.  Phil - chief of holiday planning in the Earis household - prepared a great itinerary starting in Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle before heading up to the cool hill country and finishing on the idyllic beaches of the south coast.

We flew into Sri Lanka at a rather challenging time; leaving Mumbai at 3am and arriving in Sri Lanka at 530am makes getting a good night's sleep a bit of a struggle.  Undeterred by the early hour and keen to start our sightseeing, we were collected at the airport by our driver, Suddarth, who we had hired to take us round the island for all five days of our visit. Suddarth was clearly used to driving foreigners and seemed delighted that we were comfortable with his driving style, which we found far more moderate that is typical in India.  He was clearly used to driving nervous Europeans who are not used to Asian roads or driving!  Overall, the roads in Sri Lanka were in very good condition and travel is much less bonkers than in India.  Another striking difference between Sri Lanka and India is the lack of litter, Sri Lanka is comparatively very clean which was great to see.

Our first stop was Dambulla, a group of ancient painted cave temples with some of the finest Sinhalese-Buddhist art around (according to my guide book).  The caves are cut out of a granite outcrop that rises 160m above the surrounding countryside which meant that we had a sweaty climb up a hill from the car park (which included a tacky looking golden Buddha statue and temple) to the main attraction.  The caves date from around 100 BC although they were completely restored and re-modelled in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Today, the paintings are vivid and very well kept, although for me, these were not in the same league as Ajanta and Ellora (though maybe I'm being biased towards India!)

The rather un-classy Golden Temple and 30m high Buddha statue 

Our transport for the trip, ably driven by Suddarth and equipped with wifi, much to Phil's delight 

The rock caves - originally a single large cavern but now divided into five separate areas 

The climb to the top...it was a bit hot for me 

One of many, many monkey photos taken by Phil on the trip.  I quite like Sri Lankan monkeys because (i) they are small; and (ii) they don't attack or steal from you.  Two distinct advantages over monkeys in Rajasthan and Simla. 

At the top, where there was a particularly attractive pointy hill in the background.  Another observation about Sri Lanka is that it is very green, with lots of different shades of green wherever you look. 

A reclining Buddha (the favoured position of Buddhas at Dambulla) 

Another reclining Buddha 

Many sitting Buddhas.  A feature of Dambulla is that the same picture / statue was often repeated many times in each cave. 

Girl and statue, gives some idea of scale 

The front of the caves tucked under the rock.

Next we travelled to Sigiriya, the site of a spectacular citadel on a 200m high rock.  Some of the carvings on the rock date back to the third century BC but the citadel itself was constructed in the fifth century AD as the result of a power struggle between two brothers who both wanted to rule the kingdom after their father.  What is left now is awesome.  A huge rock surrounded by gardens, amazing paintings and carvings on the route up, and a ruined city on the top.  The journey up the rock is interesting in itself, along metal staircases screwed into the rock faces, and the whole trip was a lot of fun.

I was apprehensive about visiting Sigiriya owing to its most famous inhabitants...hornets.  Apparently there are lots of nests and its important to be quiet when climbing up the rock so these are not disturbed.  Halfway up, there is a big wire mesh cage for people to gather in case of wasp attacks.  I have few phobias, but wasps are up there right at the top of my list, and I was not happy about the prospect of making some stripy new friends.  I was therefore extremely quiet although, unfortunately, the main danger zone had been colonised by a group of Korean tourists taking *very loud* selfies.  It was stressful and I was not happy, we left the area as soon as possible!

 The water gardens complete with two moats) at the start of the avenue leading up to the rock.

Sigiriya rock, in all its majesty

A friendly cow which presumably didn't have to pay the $30 entrance fee 

The start of the (many) steps 

The famous Sigiriya Damsels, Sri Lanka's most famous sequence of frescoes, painted in the 5th century, the only non-religious paintings to have survived from ancient Sri Lanka. 

 The frescoes originally covered an area 140m long by 40m high though only 21 now survive out of an original total of 500.

The route along the rock next to the "Mirror Wall" with lots of medieval graffiti 

My Korean friends... 

The final stage of the staircase from the Lion Platform up the rock 

Two parallel staircases, which provides some comfort of a back up if one falls off 

The ruined city on top of the rock 

Boy and ruins.  You can see it's cloudy and it did rain a bit on our visit.  Sri Lanka has a very funny ecosystem with the rainy season at different times in different parts of the (small) island. 

View of the avenue from the top 

Beautiful hilly landscape viewed from the top of the rock.  I can see why they built a city here (probably for defence not the view, but the view is still pretty good). 

We saw an elephant being washed in a river on our way back to our accommodation!

After a night in a friendly local guesthouse, we set off early the next morning for the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, one of two great ruined capitals of Sri Lanka.  The heyday of the city was in the 12th century although it was abandoned within a century as its inhabitants moved south after an invasion from southern Indian.  Polonnaruwa was abandoned to the jungle for seven centuries but has since been restored and is now an extensive site being explored by hoards of western tourists on a daily basis. We started our visit at the small museum which is worth exploring for the scale model of the site and pictures of "before" and "after" restoration for various parts of the city.  Parts of the ruins did not look good before they had been spruced up a bit!

Polonnaruwa is definitely worth a visit and, for those with time on their hands, I'd suggest hiring bikes and making a day of it.  We were stretched for time and so dashed round between the main sites in the car a couple of hours, which was enough to see everything but not quite the absorbing, atmospheric experience of wandering around at leisure.  The other big ruined city is Anuradhapura in the north which looks equally impressive for those on a longer trip.

There are a lot of dogs and cute puppies in Sri Lanka, most of which look to be the generic breed that I call "Indian Stray" that we see here in Mumbai.  They were generally pretty friendly except the odd one that chased Phil whilst running. 

Ruins of the Royal Palace (I think)...it originally had seven stories 

A pretty bird.  I know nothing about birds, but the ones in Sri Lanka were colourful 

Ruins of the Council Chambers 

 Royal Baths

A fierce defensive animal of some kind 

Grooming mother-son monkeys.  Phil took about 50 pictures of these two. 

 Some kind of circular temple / shrine.  There was a group of Korean tourist holding a religious ceremony in it.

Buddha 

Again, I can't quite remember, but I think this might have been the Temple of the Tooth. 

A huge stone tablet upon which the history of the ruling dynasty was carved. 

Big Stupa number 1 

This ruined building used to be covered in frescoes and is in the monastery area  

Big stupa number 2 - With white limescale covering

Very well preserved big Buddha statues (of which there are lot in Sri Lanka...) 

The Lotus Pool

If you like history, culture and things made out of rock, I would wholehearted recommend a week in Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle.  Europe has cottoned on to this, there were many European tourists, including lots of British people, wherever we went and big coach tours were common.  In India, we are generally some of the only white faces in a large group of domestic tourists, but in Sri Lanka there were white tourists everywhere.  This is good and bad.  The sites are much more foreigner-friendly, with organised ticket systems, good toilets, less craziness, but it does feel much less local and the prices have been increased to match.  Entry to Sigiriya was around £20 and Polonnaruwa £16 which would be unheard of in India.  Only the Taj Mahal is more than £3 to get in and that's for tourists, locals can enter most places for less than 10p. One great advantage over India though is that everything is much closer together and transport is easy - you can see an awful lot with not much travel in a short period of time.

So we finished our cultural focus in 1.5 days and headed for the hills.  Suddarth our driver was extremely sceptical about our itinerary and assured us that it would take 10 hours to drive between Polonnaruwa to Ella in the hills (it took 4...) so we had plenty of time to stop for lunch and explore sites on the way.

Back in Bombay

We're back!  After a month's hiatus I am blogging again as our Indian adventures continue.  The last month has been busy, including a visit to Mumbai from the Linford family and a two week holiday in the UK seeing friends and family.  We arrived back in Mumbai on Sunday and after a week settling back in at home and work, life has returned to normal in India.

So what's going on?  A few things...

Our apartment block is being renovated, including full re-painting of all exteriors which is rather exciting.  Very wonky wooden scaffolding surrounds our building and we frequently see workmen swinging deftly past the windows. Our pigeon netting had to come down so we have lots of feathered (and messy) friends on our balcony.  Here's a picture of two woodmen sanding down the existing paint in the parking area (by hand...) prior to applying a new coat.

Everything on the ground floor is covered in dust, it looks like the aftermath of a volcanic eruption.

A cheerful sander

We also have to decide for how much longer we'll be staying in India.  It looks like this will be for a year longer than originally planned, until June 2016, but this is yet to be confirmed.  On top of that, my office location is moving in April so we need to decide whether to move apartment to be closer to the new location further north in Mumbai.  Again, we think it's unlikely that we'll move, but it's another thing for us to think about.

Phil is keeping busy with his environmental projects and making contacts and plans around the city. We're also busy planning our next set of travel plans in India, making a fresh start for the New Year.  We have plans to travel to Goa, Madhya Pradesh. Gurujat and Delhi in the next three months and are busy making sure that we don't lose momentum in our quest to see as much of the country as possible.

In the shorter term, it's the annual Mumbai half and full marathon on Sunday 18 January for which Phil has done considerably more training than me!  In light of this impending race, we went to the National Park in Boravali for a 11k run this morning though it was a little hot for me as we didn't start until 10am.  There was some excitement on the way back as we almost ran of petrol (which would have been rather problematic on the Western Express Highway in Mumbai) but found a petrol station in the nick of time.

We went to the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) today to pick up our running goodie bag (which intriguingly contains 12 sachets of shampoo...) and race timing chip at the "Expo" which, as you would expect, also includes lots of stands with sponsors and sporty retailers selling things.  The main attraction was a man attempting to break the world record for the longest period of time / distance covered on a treadmill without a break (I'm not sure about the fine detail).  We saw him 23 minutes in and he seemed to be doing alright then but with a very long way to go...

The marathon has a new feature this year where every runner can choose a personalised message / slogan which will then be displayed on a screen when they run through a certain timing point.  This message can be anything but, when put on the spot, Phil chose "Keep Going".  Really.  I would have expected a bit more imagination, especially from Phil!

As we were in the area, we had lunch at a nearby hotel which was also hosting the Indian Wine Consumer Choice Awards for which we had registered to be judges.  This turned out to be a very well organised tasting session where we sampled over 30 wines in total, including sparkling, viognier, red blends, merlot and shiraz.  There were over 100 wines being tested overall, so not all wines came to us, but it was a good selection and a fun afternoon meeting new people. Thankfully they had spittoons (not guaranteed in India) and were actively encouraging spitting out the wine when judging.  This suited us well, we're off alcohol until after the race next week, although looking around we could see that not everyone was sticking to this!

Me judging, sitting next to a friendly restaurant owner

The view down the table 

Phil enjoying his viognier 

All the wines on offer, covered up to stop anyone peeking

We liked several of the wines on offer, the standard of Indian wine is noticeably increasing over time, although there were a couple of undrinkable clangers too.  We were sure that they must be off but the organisers didn't seem sure...

We're now relaxing back at home with Phil watching the football (we are lucky/unlucky enough to get three back-to-back Premiership matches on the TV on a Saturday evening) and eating a vegetable biriyani which caused trouble yesterday.  Phil had a craving for biriyani last night so ordered a takeaway from a local restaurant at 1730 in the hope that this would arrive within an hour.  At 1900, we gave up on this so reordered a biriyani from a different restaurant that was supposed to arrive within 45 minutes.  At 2045 we sadly gave up on that and had a rather meagre Friday night dinner of cheese on toast.  And, yes, the biriyani (second one) finally turned up at 2115, more than two hours after we'd ordered it. Phil is now enjoying his biriyani, just a little later than expected!

Baroda

Last weekend, we got back on the travelling wagon with a weekend in Baroda, Gujarat.  Baroda is a short hop from Mumbai by plane and we booked our visit to coincide with the Baroda half marathon.  Unfortunately, the half marathon didn't happen (we're not sure why, but it never opened for entries!) but we enjoyed a touristy couple of days in Gujarat nevertheless.

The trip started well as I had a great conversation with an elderly Indian man sitting next to me on the flight who turned out to be a wealthy industrialist who's travelled extensively in India and abroad.  He highly recommends Bhutan and Myanmar as nearby travel destinations so they've gone on our list as travel options for the future...

Baroda feels like a much smaller and less crowded city than Mumbai and is pleasantly cool in December.  On Saturday, we hired a car and driver and drove 50km out of Baroda to Champaner and Pavagadh, the major tourist spots of the area.

Champaner is an abandoned 15th century walled city with several amazing mosques (Jama Masjid) dotted around its ruins.  Champaner sits at the foot of Pavagadh, a monolithic 800m hill which looks like a large piece of rock has landed from space in the midst of otherwise perfectly flat surroundings.  Pavagadh too was inhabited in the past and is covered in temples and other rocky structures in various stages of decay; although now exists as a popular hill station and pilgrimage spot for the locals.

We had hired a local driver who was lovely, helpful and very reliable.  This is not always the case and makes the day a lot easier.  We started by driving halfway up Pavagadh (after a short detour to tick off a local stepwell, Phil's choice not mine...) then walked up the rest of the hill, most of which was on stone steps lined with locals selling their wares.  This was a hot process although the cooling breeze at the top of the hill made up for it. It was slow going owing to the large volume of people climbing up to the peak, most of whom were visiting the temple on top of the hill.

We took the adventurous route down by riding on the cable car. This was a far cry from the slick modern cable car that we travelled on in Hong Kong and looked very steep and rickety.  We decided to risk the journey on the basis that thousands of other people use it every day and seem to escape unscathed.  We made it out alive and it was a much faster way to travel down the mountain.

Champaner itself contained several mosques in very good condition and in a similar style to those we had seen in Ahmedabad, with open halls and lots of pillars.  I was a little perturbed when Phil insisted on us walking for ages down a narrow village track with no one else around but it was worth it to see the magnificant mosque at the end of the road (though I'll admit to being a little disgruntled that he was right after moaning heavily after being taken on a wild goose chase!).

The helical stepwell. Phil assumes me that it would look better if less full of water.

One of the many mosques in Champaner 

Climbing up Pavagadh 

Holy cow 

The view from the cable car 

Amazing arches halfway up Pavagadh 

 Another Jama Masjid

...and another 

...and another

Back in Baroda, we saw the Laxmi Palace which is the biggest privately owned residence in India.  Built in the 19th century over a period of 18 years, the rooms open the public were opulent and beautifully kept, and a fusion between Indian and European styles.  The highlight for me was the magnificent Darbar hall.  This has a mosaic floor which took many Italian artists (I think they said 20 people) two years to complete.  The ceiling is beautiful with a complex geometric pattern appealing to my mathematical side; and the front of the hall has several huge stained glass windows akin to those seen in fine churches in Europe.  This is the first time that I've seen European stained glass showing images from Hindu mythology, an unusual mix which worked rather well.

We enjoyed the audio tour which was typically florid in its style and very complimentary about the royal family which owns the palace!  Going round opulent palaces is definitely near the top of my favourite things to do in India.  Phil's more into his forts and stepwells but the palaces are where it's at for me.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace but here are a few from the grounds.

The Darbar Hall.  This picture doesn't show the stained glass but you can see the awesome ceiling.

View from the main entrance standing at the front of the palace grounds, just before the start of the palace's 18 hole golf course. 

Carved facade and screens - Indian-style architecture 

Listening to the audio tour whilst being towered over by a stuffed baby elephant 

Italian-style courtyard 

The back entrance.  The palace has it's own stepwell in the ground which was closed to the public.  Phil tried to have sneeky peek anyway and got told off by a security guard!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxmi_Vilas_Palace,_Vadodara

We'd enjoyed a mammoth Gujarati thali lunch (one of my favourite Indian meals, with a sad lack of availability in the UK, something that needs resolving) so enjoyed a sleepy afternoon and evening.

Gujarati thali - food of the gods

Sunday started early for Phil, at 430am, when he met with a local running group to tick off a 30km run before I woke up.  The good run thing about running in India is that, probably because the conditions are non-ideal and it requires a lot of determination and commitment, those who do run are very enthusiastic and do everything they can to welcome you.  Phil was picked up at 430am from our hotel by a fellow runner who took him to the meeting point on his motorbike!  Phil is trying to get lots of training miles in now for the Mumbai Marathon in January (I am unfortunately showing less commitment to the half marathon, in favour of getting plenty of sleep) and a weekend away is no excuse to slack on his training plan.

Later that morning, we explored the central park in Baroda which a beautiful big green area including a zoo, museum, running track and lots of space to walk and relax.  We need this in Mumbai but land is too scarce and valuable here.  We explored the museum (well I did, Phil had sore legs so mainly sat down on a bench reading on his tablet!) and had a look round the zoo.

The zoo had an impressive array of animals although all were in cages which looked smaller than ideal.  It had several tigers which were pacing menacingly around their cages looking beautiful but deadly.  Although all the animals in the zoo were behind bars, these seemed to be pretty wide bars with very little between the public and hungry animals with big teeth.  The tiger area had a short wire fence to keep the public a metre or so away from the tigers but it would still be very easy for an enthusiastic toddler to walk forward and stick their arm through the cage. I tried not to think too hard about this.

Inside Baroda's central park 

The park has a train track and miniature train transporting happy locals around the interior perimeter.

Inside the museum, a Victorian red brick edifice which is decaying but still impressive. 

Tony the tiger 

The outside of the museum

After all this activity, we had a relaxing afternoon in the comfort of affluent India with a bit of shopping and watching a film at the local mall.  We saw Exodus in 3D (several weeks before it comes out the UK, unusually...) or rather, I saw it, and I'm fairly sure that Phil was asleep behind his 3D glasses for most of the film.  He had a good excuse following the 430am start time, so I didn't wake him up this time.

We have a couple more trips to Gujarat booked in the New Year to explore more of this fascinating state.

A stark reminder that we are not Indian

This blog post was supposed to be about a 10k / half marathon run by me and Phil in our local area this morning.  We registered for this event several weeks ago and Phil in particular has been looking forward to the run as a good opportunity to beat his half marathon PB and run the distance in under 1h30 minutes.

Phil picked up our running bibs on Friday morning and we were looking forward to the run until receiving a phone call from the race organiser on Friday evening.

Apparently, they had decided that foreigners could no longer participate in the race as this would be "security risk".  We were told that our participation would turn this local run into an "International Event" which therefore warranted greater levels of police security, external approvals and costs which the organisers were not able to provide.

This has never happened to us before and is very disappointing and saddening.  India is willing to provide visas which allow us to be resident in the country and for me to work, thus providing many new jobs and paying a bucket load of tax to the Indian government.  We had paid 750 rupees each to enter (this is a lot in India, more than a day's pay for the average Indian) and we have participated in many other running events in India in the past with no problems at all.

This is the first time in my life when I have felt discriminated again because of my race, and it's not a nice feeling.  I accept things like having to pay 20 times more than Indians for museum entry as a foreigner tax, but barring me from running in my local area is too much.  I was boiling angry for a while after the phone call although have mellowed a bit now as there is not much you can about some of the restrictions placed on non-Indians within India, except to push ahead and hope that these bureaucratic barriers will lift over time.  We must also keep in mind that many of our friends and colleagues are very supportive and inclusive and are just as embarrassed by these restrictions as we are incredulous and that things are changing, albeit slowly.

Growing up in the UK, I took it for granted that those in my class at school; white, black, Asian; had an equal chance to succeed.  Realistically, I know that opportunities are still not equal but at least the laws of the UK attempt to level the playing field.  Everyone is welcome at a Parkrun, irrespective of their place of birth or colour.

Anyway, my rant is over and I'm sure that we'll enter and enjoy many more races in India in the future.

Running with cows

Last weekend, we discovered the Aarey Colony, an area of farmland tucked away at the heart of the northern suburbs of Mumbai. The Aarey Colony is a group of dairy farms and looks like a typical Indian village, only in the middle of one of the busiest most crowded cities in the world.

We were taken to this area by a 10.55km running race early last Sunday morning.  I am very glad that we've discovered the Aarey Colony, it is quiet, green, leafy and not packed full with cars and horns blaring.  This made it perfect for a running event, although the hills were less good.  Phil didn't tell me that the course was really hilly when he signed me up...

We had a first at the race - Phil won!  I was second woman after an impressively fast young French girl who beat all the other men except Phil.

 A green haven in a busy city.

This almost looks like Britaim...

Foreigner lady

My blogging has lulled recently and I've been given firm instructions by Phil that I must continue to blog about the everyday things that I might otherwise forget about.

In the canteen at work, there is a team serving food throughout the day, including a small smiley elderly man who is usually out of sight, I assume cleaning or washing up in the kitchen.  He is very friendly (not the sharpest, but very happy) and always chats to me and greets me with great enthusiasm when we meet.

His name for me illustrates the difference between what is politically correct in Britain and India.

Foreigner Lady.

"Hello, foreigner lady.  How are you, foreigner lady? Where have you been foreigner lady?"

He says this with pure innocence and no comprehension that singling me out as a foreigner might be isolating.  Can you imagine referring to someone as "Indian man" in Britian?! In this case, I find the lack of inhibition around the language used refreshing rather than unfriendly.  One day he'll learn my name, but not yet.

 

Our first Indian wine festival

On Saturday, we spent a relaxing afternoon at the Bandra Wine Festival, conveniently located within easy staggering distance from our apartment and a great opportunity to learn more about local wine.

Wine making (and drinking) is on the up in India and most of this happens around Nashik, a city three hours from Mumbai with a Californian climate well suited to wine-grape cultivation.  We have been to Nashik before although, up to now, the only way to try new Indian wines has been a buy a bottle, so it takes a while to try the full range of what's on offer.  The wine festival presented the perfect opportunity to rectify this omission.

The Bandra Wine Festival has been going for several years and the organisation was slick and smooth.  The entrance fee was surprisingly inexpensive too - for £4.50 each we could enter the festival and were 10 tokens to taste local wine, 4 to taste international wine, 8 vouchers for cheese tasting, a wristband and several other types of ticket.  The most challenging part was keep track of all the bits of paper, which became harder as the number of wines we tried progressed!

We thoroughly enjoyed trying wines from many different producers.  The quality was variable, from pretty good to novelty (pineapple wine anyone?) to unpleasant, and we bought a few good bottles to take home.  So far, we have struggled to find Indian reds that we like but this changed on Saturday and we'll know which brands to go for in future.

The drinking mentality at the wine festival differed from what we saw in California or in the UK at similar events. The primary objective for lots of people seemed to be get drunk rather than taste the wines, though certainly not for everyone, and we heard requests like "give me your strongest / best wine" frequently while at the bar.  Saying that, many of the wine producers were passionate about their produce and keen to raise awareness both in India and internationally.  Wine is increasingly understood and valued in India.

The mix of people attending the festival was cosmopolitan - everyone was speaking English as a first language (most of the people there were Indian) which reflects the affluence of the attendees. We were stuck by the predominance of the rich elite at the festival; at a similar event in the UK (a beer festival) you would get a much bigger mix of people from across different social classes.

The food at the festival was great too with lots of local good start-ups selling their wares.  We found some lovely home-made cakes and jams and end up bringing lots of these home too!

The covers were required as amazingly it rained (the first since 2010!) 

Lots of seating, it could have been a pub garden 

 More fancy wine display

One of Philip's favourite reds 

More vino stands

The highlight of my day though was not wine-related.  On the way to the festival driving up from South Mumbai, we passed a broken down autorickshaw being pushed along by another autorickshaw.  There were no tow ropes used though, instead the driver of the working autorickshaw was pushing the second with his foot whilst moving at high speed.  Genius!

Breakdown cover - Mumbai style