Our Adventures in India

The unplanned adventure

lily — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:49:31 +0000

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.

After the dance

lily — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:51:18 +0000

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

last day for us

mary — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:05:22 +0000

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

The Homeward Stretch

martha — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:22:49 +0000

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.

Roughing it in India

mary — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:42:16 +0000

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.

On Sunday we walk on hot coals

mary — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:24:59 +0000

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.

Reflections while waiting for the mechanic

lily — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:43:50 +0000

Down from the hills now for several days in the rice fields and palm trees of the Dravidian South. The moist heat replaces cool days and cooler nights, fresh mountain air and very windy single+ lane roads that are negociated only with horn toots to warn oncoming buses, trucks and various smaller vehicles. Some pay attention, some not much to the excitement of first India travellers. Glistening green tea and spice plantations carpeting the steep slopes gave way to farm lands now dotted with the industry that typifies new India. Meenakshi Temple is a colorful example of the classical trunctuated Dravidian temple, with restoration giving brightly painted features to stone carved hindu gods. Tanjore’s world heritage site temple is magnificant in untouched red stone and boasts one of the largest “nandi” bulls in South. We are now stalled in Tanjore with a guffutzt-ed alternator crippling the van. All going well, since Tempo’s are ubiquitous throughout India, a replacement should be available. Cheers to Mary, Deidre and Martha for willingness to great enthusiastic consumption of Indian food, and adaptivity to “indian time”, chaotic crowds and traffic, queues that are not lines and the techniques of shopping when one’s easy identifidation as a foreigner ups the asking proce by 4 times or more. Side bar — on the Kerala backwater cruise a brief island stop for prawns resulted in a quoted price in excess of the fish market at Granville Island!!
PS you can follow us to Pondicherry/Auroville [the Aurobindu collective], Chennai [fabulous Government Museum], and Bangalore with Google and/or Wiki.
DOUG not Lily

festivals OUr Lady of Lourdes

mary — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:44:50 +0000

Yesterday we came to Trichy for the fort & temple but also went to OUr lady of Lourdes church. It was the feast day so there was a huge clebration with 21 priest & thousands of people processing with floats. We got caught for an hour in a traffic jam of bikes & motor cycles & tucktucks. I will try to post pictures.

Mary

More elephants

mary — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:53:28 +0000

The last post was Martha Ann being blessed

by the temple elephant. This px is Mary, Doug

and Lili enjoying a morning ride. (This is

actually Martha Ann writing cuz Mary got

frustrated with trying to post and I need to stay

near a bathroom this morning, again.

elephants galore

mary — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:35:15 +0000