Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry

On Sunday, we returned from another long weekend (I do honestly work five days a week...), this time in the south-east of India, in Tamil Nadu.  In contrast to our trip to Coonoor in the hills two weeks ago, we stayed on the coast for some sun, sea and sand in two well known but contrasting towns; Mahabalipuram (don't ask me to pronounce it) and Pondicherry.

Mahabalipuram is a bit like a mini-Hampi, with a 7th century temple (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and various other impressive rocks and carvings.  We arrived in the town on Friday afternoon, having flown into Chennai, and picked up a cheerful guide who showed us around the major sites.  His tour wasn't heavy on historical content, but he was very enthusiastic about taking pictures of us standing together against various old bits of rock.  He also though turned out to be rather unfit and nearly collapsed on Philip whilst walking up a hill, and then proceeded to drink all our water to recover.  All good fun and I hope that he uses his 500 rupee fee for some good quality heart tablets.

The monuments in the town are impressive and in very good condition.  My favourite site was Krishna's butter ball; a giant bolder perched on a slope which defies gravity by holding its position.  It was a busy day owing to the Public Holiday for the first day of the Ganpati festival (the one where statues of Ganesh (with an elephant's head) are immersed in the sea) with lots of other locals enjoying a day trip out.

A tough looking fish lady.  Not to be messed with. 

Not particularly relevant, but I like this goat picture before.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but "mutton" in India tends to be goat. 

Visiting the Shore Temple 

The Shore Temple - It's small but perfectly proportioned

Posing in front of the five rathas.  These were carved from a single huge bit of rock from the top down, and represent five brothers.

Next obligatory pose in front of the elephant.  This was a particularly popular posing place.  We had to elbow a few others out of the way to get this shot. 

Children riding the UNESCO World Heritage bull 

The lighthouse - a rather appealing British construction built in 1900. 

The butter ball, complete with people trying to push it over 

Good balancing 

Checking for fleas

We met a few friendly locals including a chap who lives partly in Exeter as a stonemason at the cathedral.  We had a good walk and conversation with him, although his invitation to try his grandmother's chai did sadly and inevitably lead to being taken hostage in his stone carving workshop where we were offered a "very good price".  We extricated ourselves (and our wallets) in one piece and finished the day with a tasty fresh fish supper in a local cafe close to the beach.  There is a fairly active European traveller population in the town, which means that there were lots of cheap but tasty dining options from which to choose.

 Catching fish

Eating fish

On Saturday morning, we were brave and caught the bus to Pondicherry, which was predictably busy and somewhat hair raising, but we made it to Pondy in one piece.  We stayed in a lovely heritage hotel, converted from an old French colonial building, which was a haven of peace in the bustling town beyond.

Bus proof

Pondicherry is an interesting mix of old French colonial streets, with plenty of Gallic charm, and normal, crazy India with its noise, heat and dust.  The French did, though, leave a lot in Pondicherry in the form of beautiful old houses, impressive churches, French street signs and parks in the French Quarter of the city.  Wandering around the French quarter, you can't quite bring yourself to believe that you are in France (the large canal / open sewer running through the city is particularly off-putting), but it is charming and was remarkably quiet for India.  The seafront too feels spacious and calm (albeit very hot) and we spent a pleasant afternoon exploring Pondy.

The best bit, of course, is the food as Pondicherry is packed with bakeries and charming cafes serving authentic French fodder.  Within a couple of hours of arriving, we found a lovely little courtyard cafe for a fresh salad lunch before moving to the next cafe for a nutella crepe (though no Orangina, sadly). What's more, you can get a real beef steak!!

Well, theoretically, you can get a real beef steak. Having carefully identified a restaurant for dinner with plenty of beef on the menu, we were only told at the point of ordering that they had run out.  Phil was rather disappointed!  He will have to make do with a bit of buffalo back in Mumbai instead.

Anyone who has read The Life of Pi will be questioning whether we visited the zoo.  Well...there is no zoo and the site of the zoo in the film, the Botantical Gardens, is currently been renovated so we didn't bother going to see it (it's rated 23 of 24 on tripadvisor, where 24 doesn't have any reviews...). So we are left to imagine what a zoo would be like if it existed in Pondicherry.  We saw plenty of street dogs and an elephant outside a temple, so we didn't do too badly.

We packed away croissants, quiche and an apple pastry before leaving the town at lunchtime on Sunday, making the most of the bakeries before leaving.

Street signs in French and Tamil

 A relatively peaceful French avenue

A lovely soup and salad lunch at La Maison Rose 

Phil entertaining himself with photography whilst waiting for his crepe 

The aforementioned crepe 

A beautifully kept church in the French Quarter

 On the outside.  It has an excuse for looking good as it's been rebuilt three times since the mid 19th century.

A long lunch break... 

Fresh morning croissants 

Another pretty church with blue skies to match

My final memorable experience of the weekend was at the airport where I made the somewhat rash decision to have a manicure at the airport spa given that we had time to spare and £8 for a manicure sounded ok to me.  This was a big error.  The 45 minute manicure lasted 20 minutes in which time my carefully grown nails (well, long for me) had been cut down short and jagged with no paint and, frankly, looked terrible.  It's a rare occurrence but I did, this time, refuse to pay, and I'm sure that I have a below average level of fussiness about my nails.  This is a lesson to all - never go to the spa at Chennai airport!  I am letting them grow back again and will be visiting the Taj spa instead in future.

Human Pyramids / The Dahi Handi festival

Only in India could you have a festival which consists of people creating huge human pyramids with the aim of hitting a clay pot full of yogurt or buttermilk (dahi) with a stick.

There is a religious basis to the festival; it is based on the legend of the child god Lord Krishna who used to make human pyramids with friends to steal butter. I'm not quite sure what the moral of the story is, or if their is one at all, but it's a lot of fun and is a particularly popular festival in Mumbai.

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

Although the pot traditionally contains dahi, the main attraction these days is the prize money on offer for the teams that manage to smash the pots.  Political parties and others put up fairly large cash prizes and lots of teams train for months to perfect their pyramids.

This is, though, a sport for the brave.  Last year, several people died falling off the pyramids and many more were hospitalised.  This year, a height limit of 20 feet has been imposed and people must be at least 12 years of age to compete.  Based on what I saw on Monday, both these requirements were ignored, but the Tuesdays papers reported that there were zero fatalities from the festivities.

I was at work on Monday (no holiday for this festival sadly) but Phil picked me up at 7pm and we went to watch our local pyramid competition on Hill Road.  As expected, it was loud, chaotic and exciting with a large crowd of people and pyramids springing up along the street.  There is serious skill and strength in the pyramids and strategy is important.  We didn't see a pot being broken, but a six person high pyramid is impressive enough.

Phil chatted to several locals and was invited to join a pyramid but he politely declined which was a relief.

Here are a few pictures of our experience:

Phil bonding with a local team 

 An unbroken dahi handi

 The little boy on the top (a very small 12 year-old) had a helmet and, strangely, a life jacket.  I assume to protect him in case he landed in a puddle of water...

This picture shows the climbing action up the side of the pyramid

The wobbly bit...standing up at the top 

Standing tall

Visitors - The Hall family and the return of the Butlers

Over the last few weeks we've been fortunate to welcome two sets of visitors; the Hall family and my parents (who were brave enough for a return visit).

Robin, Dorothy, Matthew and Arthur came for the weekend at the end of July, and we had such a lovely time that we forgot to take any photos!  What a missed opportunity.  As proof that they did come to India, here is a family picture at the Taj Mahal, which the Hall family visited after staying with us in Mumbai.

Dorothy, Arthur, Matthew and Robin

We beat the monsoon during their visit (which tried its best to derail us) and visited several sites in South Mumbai, including the Gandhi museum, the Gateway and we had tea at the Taj, as well as exploring the local area (Bandra Fort, Mount Mary and a good Indian massage).  Matthew and Arthur were undeterred by the heat and put our treadmill through its paces, whilst Robin rang his first handbell peal for several years to notch up the Cambridge University Guild's first peal in India.

http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=345060

Two weeks later, we met up with my parents for a long weekend in Goa (yes, another long weekend...) at the end of their holiday exploring Delhi, Agra and Kolkata.  My father's view of India hadn't changed much, it was still dirty, but they seemed to have enjoyed the trip overall.  The weekend coincided with my Dad's birthday (Saturday) and my Mum's (Sunday) which gave the perfect excuse for a celebratory spa treatment on Sunday (me and Mum) and a few beers on every other day (for all).

We spent the weekend relaxing, including lots of swimming, table tennis, walking on the beach / visiting local sites and visiting the Taj spa.  Mum and I had a facial on her birthday and I was rather indulgent and had a pedicure too.  Phil also had a spa treatment which was a waste of time as he went for the deep tissue massage and asked for this to be as hard as possible.  He could hardly walk afterwards and didn't enjoy it very much!  The hotel ran yoga classes which I joined one morning and found challenging but fun.  Apparently I'm quite bendy which bodes well for more yoga in the future (my next project...)

A relatively sunny day in the monsoon 

An appropriate sign for a couple with a combined age of 108

We were treated to cake on my Dad's birthday by the Taj staff who secretly decorated my parents' room with towel sculptures, rose petals and a cake.  This brought back memories of our hotel lifestyle over a year ago.

More pictures to follow...

The Nilgiri Hills

I write this post sitting on the lawns of an old colonial hotel in Coonoor; a hill station and once outpost of the British Raj surrounded by tea plantations in Tamil Nadu.  The air is fresh and clear, the climate akin to a perfect English Summer's day, the landscape gloriously verdant and rolling, and the drink of choice is tea.  Unsurprisingly given these attributes, a trip to the Nilgiri hills has been high on my priority list for some time, and it has not disappointed me.

Relaxing with a brew while Phil is out running

The view from my table.

Shortly after uploading the photographs above, Phil returned from his run which led to an inevitable urgency to go inside for breakfast, and we're now back in Mumbai which feels like a world away from Coonoor.

It was Indian Independence Day on Friday (and a day off work) and we travelled to the Nilgiri Hills for a long weekend in a cool(er) climate.  It's a two hour flight from Mumbai to Coimbatore, where we stayed on Thursday night, before driving up into the hills on Friday morning.

A South Indian breakfast at our hotel room in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to get us into the southern vibe

The biggest hill station in the Nilgiris is Ooty, which sits 8000ft above sea level and is famous for the narrow gauge steam train which meanders from the base of the hill up to the town.  We decided not to stay in Ooty itself on the basis that Coonoor looked quieter and less spoiled by mass tourism, but went to have a look on Friday with the plan to catch the 2pm steam train back down the mountain from Ooty to Coonoor.  Unfortunately, the waiting list for the train didn't go down quite fast enough so we missed out on this journey, a good reason to return in future!

In Ooty, we visited a tea factory and tea museum, which was full of tourists ignoring the interesting exhibits and buying lots of tea.  I loved watching the tea making process; from the collection and drying of the leafs, then the CTC (Crush, Turn & Curl) process, followed by some spinning, heating, general oxidising and, finally, packaging and drinking.  The process in itself is very simple and fairly old fashioned - I've learned a lot about tea over the weekend.

Huge trays of tea leaves,handpicked and currently being dried by fans underneath the trays 

The CTC machinery

We drove up to Doddabetta Peak, the highest peak in the Nilgiris, though underestimated the extreme nature of the traffic on Independence Day in an area with narrow roads and a large number of buses and oversized tourist vehicles.  We couldn't see much from the peak but it was all very jolly with families enjoying a trip out to celebrate the holiday.  After a visit to the Rose Garden, Lake (artificial) and a super-size biryani lunch, our driver hurtled back down the winding roads to drop us at our hotel in Coonoor.

One of the thousands of roses in the pretty garden, with an amazing range of names that I had no idea had been given to roses! 

This highlights the importance of careful thought when selecting a bunch of roses as a gift; the recipient could have read this sign.

The "Jennifer" rose. Sadly we couldn't find a Philip rose although wikipedia tells me that a "Philippe" rose exists, and that's close enough for me.

Coonoor is the second largest hill station in The Nilgiris and is famous for its tea plantations.  We stayed in a hotel which used to be a vicarage; and now sits next to the quaint church in a picturesque corner of Coonoor.  The hotel is the first time I have been in India and could have easily believed that I was in an English country garden in summer.  The hotel's history in itself is interesting; it was converted into a club / hotel in the late 19th century although Indians were not admitted unless they were royalty or similarly esteemed, a worryingly familiar story which doesn't give me great pride in my country...

Our hotel in Coonoor in the heart of India

We were expecting a wet and misty weekend in the monsoon but discovered that Ooty and Coonoor, despite being only 20km apart, have different weather patterns and only Ooty gets the early monsoon.  Coonoor will be dry(ish) until October.

We spent Saturday exploring the Coonoor area including Sims Park, a beautifully kept botanical garden in the town.  We went for a long walk visiting a tea plantation, local village, temple complete with impish children and a popular view point called Lambs Rock.  Our walk was around 20km in total and very peaceful until the last few kilometres when we hit the wall of traffic stuck on the narrow road between Coonoor and Lambs Rock which was clearly not wide enough for large tourist vehicles on both sides of the road.  We strolled past the gridlocked traffic, much to the amusement of the car passengers who found it unfathomable that anyone could have walked to the view point.  On this occasion, walking was a lot quicker than travelling there and back by car!  We were back at the hotel in good time to catch the first session of the cricket, not a popular topic of conversation in India at the moment...

Beautiful 

Part of Sims Park although it's really much nicer and more impressive than this photo suggests 

Highfield Tea Factory, where we had another factory tour 

More hills - we couldn't get enough of them 

We stumbled across a group of children playing with tyres and sticks near a temple.  They were very friendly and taken with Philip as he gave them a tutorial on Google Maps on his tablet. 

The ladies of the family came out and kindly fed us sweet tea and bread for lunch!  This girl, Gayatri, is around 17 and was charming, with good English.  She wants to study maths. 

Tea pickers 

Looking out over Lambs Rock 

 A group of boys were playing cricket outside a children's home and invited us in to bat and bowl.  Phil is showing off his silky bowling skills above...

..and I did a respectable job batting below

My legs were pretty achey by the end of the day as Phil and I went for an early morning run, not usually a successful joint activity as we have different ambient speeds...Phil is convinced that I'm not trying when I'm running at a speed comfortable for me so I always end up going too fast and getting tired out which happened again here, not helped by running up a massive hill at the start of the route!  On Sunday morning, I elected to read my book with a cup of tea in the sunshine instead.

Having a short break to admire the view

On Sunday, we visited a tea plantation called Tranquilitea which produces gourmet tea and runs tea tasting sessions. We were originally told that these sessions were fully booked for the weekend, but I kept calling and the owner kindly fitted us in on Sunday.  This was amazing.  The plantation is perched on top of the highest peak in Coonoor and is very peaceful.  We had a thorough and fascinating tea tutorial and enjoyed tasting a range of the teas produced by the plantation.  I cannot recommend this experience highly enough.  Anyone interested in tea should stay at Tranquilitea if possible and try to book the tea tasting session in advance if not.
 

Loving my tea at Tranquilitea

The teas lined up ready to taste.  We were tutored in the difference between flavour and body; and I now know my Silver Tips from my Pekoe, Green and Oolong. 

Afterwards, we explored Lower Coonoor which is more like a typical Indian town; not the cleanest but full of life and quirky things to see.  Phil needed fuel after a long morning run and a 100 rupee (less than £1) thali at a local pure veg restaurant did the trick.

Lower Coonoor - Bustling and more typically Indian than the hills

Phil's monster lunch.  I had the mini thali which I think was a children's meal as it was all non-spicy and rice based, which suited me fine.