Continue reading →

Here is a picture. We are working on this whole posting thing. Hopefully the  picture loads. We are in Whistler deffenetly not India. -16 degrees! We skied our buns of and are driving back tomorrow. We give up with the picture.

Kate and mary

Did Mike put the picture up for us? It looks like Munnar.

Glad to read Doug & Lilly’s new adventures. Seems a million years ago that the 5 of us were touring about.

Last full day in Hydrabad we took a local bus (Rs. 26) to the famous Charminar market and from there by auto to the Golkanda walled town and fort. It was one of the longest standing sultanates in India and an awe inspiring architecture of stone Islamic arches, indoor and outdoor spaces, formal gardens and corridors all integrated with the rocky hill on which it is located. We climbed to the top and spectacular views of modern Hydrabad in stages, taking rest in patches of shade; then came down to a reward of samosa, chicken patty, coffee and icecream. Another 3-wheeler ride back to Charminar where we found shops for thread (to fix my pack), pearls and stones, and chrochet hooks.
The next day after breakfast of oopma, uttapam and coffee we goofed around and then caught the Devagiri Express to Aurangabad. AC-2 tier is much more comfortable than 3 tier, headroom to sit, more under-seat space to store luggage and 2 less co-travelers in the compartment. So we snoozed, read, and gazed at India go by until a few minutes before Aurangabad, then piled luggage near the doors for a quick exit since the train was stopping only briefly before moving on to Mumbai.
Don`t believe everything you see on the Internet!!|! The Great Punjab did have great reviews, and ranked 15 out of 50+ hotels in Aurangabad according to one URL. So we checked in after mid-night to find unkempt rooms, no towels or sheets, but at least very nice staff. Fortunately, Lily had chatted with a nice fellow on the platform, he helped us out of the station and recommended other hotels. So this morning we took a walk toward town passing shops, fruit carts, and lots of students on the way to University some of whom stopped to chat. Down the road we found the Classic Hotel, much cleaner, sheets and towels, free-WiFi (not working yet, but the hotel owner has plugged us into his LAN) and equally nice staff. We will stay here until departing for Kolkata. Tomorrow and day after we have signed up for tours to Ajanta and Ellora cave temples. These are supposed to be incredible, so we are quite excited. More when the quirks of Indian internet allow.

We are now in Hydrabad in the hotel where we stayed with Lily’s sister years ago. It had been split and converted into one nice one and one semi-crummy one. We got confused and stayed one night in the crummy one before switching over, no harm done. The bigger adventure is that Doug did it again, got the train time wrong and arrived at the station 45 minutes after it left. Every Indian Railway stationmaster is the sultan of his realm, so we went directly there for help. Despite our last minute plea to jump queue, he was very nice and got us lower and middle bunks on an AC 3-tier that left 3 hours later. 3-tier bunk/seat heights are just low enough so it is impossible to sit unless you are a dwarf, but still we slept well and had great conversations with a coal mining engineer and his wife who were returning home from a cousin’s hindu wedding. Despite an obstruction on the track we got into Secundrabad early afternoon, just 6 hours after we would have on the Rajdhani. Yesterday we goofed off, checking out places for chocolate tea, buying some gifts and a name stamp for Lily’s calligraphy, eating VERY good briyani, oopma, uttapam and snacks, watching the ever interesting swirl of Indian news and cricket on TV and getting a good nights sleep. Today we go to Charminar market, the incredilble Golkanda Fort city and the closest church we can find for Ash Wednesday. Tomorrow we are off mid day for Aurangabad, reaching there just before midnight. More later. Best to all.

It is quiet and peaceful now in Nava Spoorthe Kendra!!  Mary, Martha and Deirdre said farewell late last night and sped off in the Tourism South van to the airport leaving us to wave goodbye under the street lights.  We very much enjoyed all our adventures together.

We had a relaxed day today, sleeping in late, breakfast of spicy black dhal and chapathi, going to Mass at Holy Ghost [thought of you Mary/Deidre/Martha while jostling in the crowd trying to get into and out of the Church at the same time between Masses!!].  Then some quiet time reading with a cup of tea.

Now we are posting to say that we will try to blog as we can during the rest of the trip if all of you would like us to do so.

Tonight we go to the crowded main station in Bangalore where we will push bags through the chaos of others rushing to find their platform, fending off “bearers” trying to carry our luggage for way too many rupees, then finding a bench hopefully at the right position to be next to our assigned coach when it comes to a stop.  There we will sit people watching, trying to guess who is from where, where they are going and why, also watching two wheel carts pushed by straining coolies stacked with cargo destined for stations along the way.

So we will try to blog from Hydrabad to describe Golkanda [the sultan's walled fort-city], Charminar [market of 4 minarets] and other experiences there before we take another train trip to Aurangabad.

Safe journey and thanks again to the crazy canucks + Martha

LD

We spent a relaxing last day strolling through the botanical gardens of Bangalore. It was sunny, of course, but mild with a gentle breeze. The flower gardens were pretty with roses & marigolds ect. but the trees were magnificent with bright purple, yellow & pink & red blossoms on the top of the trees like in a rain forest. The many birds were noisy & busily flying everywhere. A pair of Brahmin kites (like eagles with white heads but chestnut brown bodies) seemed to be following us as we strolled.

Fr. George chose a lovely restaurant with a variety of foods & many tourists. Even the lamb burger was too spicy for Martha Ann but she did enjoy apple pie & ice cream.

In the afternoon we spent more than our last rupees at a market outside the art museum. Lily is going back for more tomorrow. The museum was excellent with a wide variety of modern paintings & sculptures. I almost bought a painting for Mark but really couldn’t fit it in my bag.

We’ve enjoyed doing the blog. Thank you for all the comments esp. Kate. We are putting together a slide show but don’t hold your breath.

To all those travelers/seekers we would recommend India esp if you have the Lily & Doug to plan & explain the culture & help bargain at the markets. The Redemptorists priests were very gracious in sharing their time & making us feel welcome. Martha Ann especially wants to thank the cook who made some non-spicy dishes. It has been pleasure to experience the loving, prayerful community.

We hope Doug & Lily will continue to enjoy thier trip & keep us up to date with this blog.

Signing off from India,

Mary & Martha Ann

We have arrived back in Bengaluru and have 2 days before we leave. Most of us are “templed out” – we have visited wonderful temples carved out of huge rocks near Pondicherry, and we have seen the great temple of Meenshaki, and the largest temple where we walked on hot rocks. But we needed a shopping break last night in Chennai – great fun for Mary, Deirdre and me. The challenge will be closing the suitcases. “You didn’t need to tell me.” A few days back Mary and I met a women project leader from Sweden – here to work with her university social work students and local students on an empowerment project. We introduced ourselves and Mary said we were sisters. I added my usual comment “I’m the prettier one” and she quickly replied “You didn’t need to tell me.” We do not have wifi here and the computers do not have a flash drive so no more px.s till we are home, or have a better connection.

We arrived at this magnificent hotel where we werre greeted by a cool wet towel & a cold drink. The pool & garden is lovely with many colorful flowers & green parrots flying everywhere. We just had our third swim. Dee is teaching us a new way to swim using little movement. The room had all the amenities without asking. the breakfast included western food & all the nummy Indian things. The hotel shop included many soft pashim scarfs. After dinner last night we all decided to help Dee buy one. By the end I was driving off with the sales clerk in the middle of the night to an ATM because we had spent all our cash. We are, this am still pleaswed with our purchases.

Our van has a short circuit so we are temporarily delated for todays trek to Pondicherry. We’re enjoying the break.

Sunday late morning till the heat of the day we explored the Birhadeeswara temple with the huge Nandi bull. The setting was lovely but the road/floor of granite blocks were popping hot. Our bare feet were not happy. The inner HIndu temples were open so we could go inside. The Brahman blessed us with the white powder which our guide earlier had said is baked cow dung.