Our Adventures in India

GOODBYE INDIA

lily — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:57:42 +0000

We had a rushed but very nice visit with Maya in Kolkata. She was running around much of the time trying to chase medical supplies that were supposed to have been arranged, but in the Indian way `no problem` turned into no stuff. At the end she got or had a Plan B for what they needed and got a long toward seting up a local supply chain that will be left to support the village hospital after they leave. We also had a brief visit with Lily`s dear friend Dipu who had just returned from Australia. Days at the family flat were a whirl of visits with brother Joe`s family, Julie and Grace, and getting through our bucket list of food, shopping, and friends. The overnight train ride from Sealdah Station (one of the busiest in India) to Delhi was on a non-stop high-end express that covered the 1000+ km in i5 hours. Tea, dinner, morning tea and breakfast provided along with fine cotton sheets, bedding, water, etc. Compartment companions were a mom and 2 daughters on the way to vacation in Mauritius, so we passed the time in sleep, conversation and eating Now we are relaxing in Lily`s friend`s house in Noida. Doug all arranged to get the first step of his tooth implant tonight and Lily and PC planning the shop for the few remaining items we need to bring back.
lOOKING FORWARD TO BEING HOME

Kolkata at Last

lily — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:33:08 +0000

We said goodbye to Aurangabad with a `paper dosa lityerally 4 feet in diameter (which wrse could not finish) and took a 3 wheeler to the rail ntation to catch a coach seater for a 2 hour ride to Manmad Junction. There we had 11 hours to watch the sunset cast shadows across the platform, listen to the chatter of birds in the nearby treas and watch the crowds of people waiting, then shoving eachother into the many trains that came before ours. A dinner of vegetable curry, chapati and dal and several cups of coffee later we scrambled on the Howrah Mail, just getting luggage and ourselves on board as the train began to move. As Manmad is a way stop on the route between Mumbai and Kolkata, we had to feel our way down the dark coach corridor past sleeping bodies until finding our compartment. The always efficient Indian Railways had laid out blanket, sheets, pillow and towel for each of us, so we shoved luggage under the seat, made our beds and had a good sleep until next morning. Then two young men who were Gov. of India auditors came into the other two berths and we enjoyed their cp,mâmu and conversation the rest of the way. Lily`s sister Julie met us at the end of the Howrah Station platform and brought us safely to the family home on the other side of the Hoogley River. We will be here until March 8th, when again we climb aboard the train for New Delhi and the last few days in India visiting Lily`s dear friend PC.

Goodbye Aurangabad

lily — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:02:30 +0000

Aurangabad has been wonderful. Our first cave temple visit was to Ajanta — caves cut into a circular cliff valley during a 700 year period beginning in the second century BC during a period when Buddhism was an ascendent religion in India. The second visit was to Ellora, where the World`s largest cut cave is surrounded by other caves for worship, and as monasteries for the monks worship and accommodation. We also saw a fort that for 6 years was the capital of India. Hopefully, some of the pictures got uploaded OK. This afternoon we had a nice visit with Chitra and two members of her family, who we contacted via an email from AnnMcElroy friend of a friend net. Chitra runs an English medium school and has the idea of providing a stay for volunteers from North America who want to come and teach. Nice people and an enjoyable lunch. Tomorrow we are beginning the long train ride to Kolkata.

Cute Girls, not In India

mary — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:28:02 +0000

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 … Continue reading →

How did that beautiful picture get on this site?

martha — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:23:28 +0000

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.

From Aurangabad

lily — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:54:27 +0000

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.

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.