Dhaka and Amritsar

It’s been an eventful few weeks since my last blog post.  I’ve been happily pottering about Delhi, exploring its sights, for example the delightful Haus Kaus Village, full of trendy nick-nack shops, groovy cafes ad a bohemian air; the National Railway Museum, home to quietly rusting locos and squealing, exuberant children waving and giggling at us from their ride on the miniature train and finally Lodhi gardens, just a short walk from my hotel, crammed with picnicking families, cricket-playing youths and hundreds and hundreds of enormous eagles wheeling around and swooping on the crows. 

Over the last fortnight however, I haven’t been able to tick anything more off my Delhi to-do list since I got sent to Dhaka.  As the capital of Bangladesh it used to be part of India and then East Pakistan.  Dhaka is a major garment maker, countless factories stitching clothes for the likes of Walmart in the USA, H&M and even designer brands.  Those with slight imperfections are sold off in stores or for next to nothing in garment sales which resemble giant jumble sales. As a result the majority of the population of Dhaka are remarkably well dressed.  Unfortunately the political situation in Dhaka isn’t helping economic growth with wrangling about upcoming elections resulting in violence, petrol bombs and general strikes, and the torching of buses and autorickshaws becoming more frequent during the time we were there.  Luckily we squeezed in a tour of Old Dhaka – like a frenetic old Delhi with more brightly painted cycle rickshaws, before the election schedule was announced and before the cocktail bombs started being regularly thrown.  We saw the pink palace and Lalbahg Fort, causing a stir wherever we went and being met with constant requests to have our photo taken with the locals. I’m guessing they don’t get to meet too many tourists.  Armed with a bagful of clothing seconds and hard-bartered pearls it was back to Delhi, before my weekend away in Amritsar…

Part of the Punjab, Amritsar is home to the Golden Palace, serenely sitting surrounded by its holy waters.  No matter what your religion, the volunteers at the Golden temple offer Langar which translates as free food so after swapping my shoes for a metal token, paddling through the footbath and admiring the beautiful temple I collected my thali plate and sat cross legged on the floor whilst eager volunteers slopped rice, dhal, veg curry and a sweet rice gloop onto my plate, plus the obligatory roti to eat it all with. I wasn’t too keen on the sweet rice but I felt I had to eat it all so as not to offend.  It was all highly efficient, after eating we all filed out in turn to give back our empty plates, trying desperately to avoid squelching through bits of dropped food with our bare feet.  I’d travelled t o Amritsar by train which I was determined would be part of the experience.  And at over 6 hours on the way there and a numbing 9 hours on the way back, it was certainly a long experience. Still there was always plenty out of the window to look at – slums and rubbish dumps seemingly attracted to railway lines like magnets, both with their unique ecosystems involving children, cows, and in the case of the rubbish dumps, tribes of pigs.  Almost as enthralling was watching my fellow passengers, since most Indians wear their hearts on their sleeves there was always some drama unfolding. And eating, in the case of the Shatabdi Express which took me to Amritsar, free food was served at least every twenty minutes or so it seemed.

I was staying at the wonderful Mrs Bhandari’s guesthouse in Amritsar.  Mrs Bhandari must have been an amazing lady, living to the ripe old age of 100 and being the first woman in Amritsar to own and drive an car.  She set up and ran the guesthouse when both of her husbands died at a young age.  She died in 2007 and nothing appeared to have been altered since then, from the  fading excerpts from the Sunday Telegraph on the walls to the teak furniture, dodgy electrics and unique plumbing system. Breakfast was served in the morning sunshine accompanied by the tweeting of birds.  Life was made very easy for me from advice on how much to pay for a tuctuc to being picked up from the station to a hot water bottle magically appearing in my bed!  They even laid on a car to take me to what was the highlight of the weekend – the Flag Ceremony at the Wagah border.  The exaggerated gestures and Monty Pythonesque silly walks of the Border Guards on both sides had been described to me but what came as a surprise was its sheer scale – thousands of spectators singing, dancing, waving flags and chanting in a show of patriotism and one-upmanship directed at the slightly smaller but equally vociferous audience of  Pakistanis beyond the gate.  Indian pop songs gave way to chanting of Hindustan!, delivered by a Bollywood style Indian in a tight white tracksuit and then to the theatrical high kicking of the border guards which had to be seen to be believed.

And that’s it – back in Delhi for a couple of weeks… so much to see, so little time.  More in my next post….

Delhi Old and New

Happily for me, my second weekend in Delhi fell on Diwali, which meant many firecrackers and candles but also an extra day off!  Determined to see a bit more of the city, Saturday saw me setting off once again by foot along the long tree-lined avenues of New Delhi in search of the Mahatma Ghandi museum.  A tranquil place, the museum is based in the house where Ghandi lived out his last years and in fact he was assassinated in its garden in 1948, a series of stone footprints leading to the memorial marking the spot where he died.  Ghandi’s wish was for an India with no class system, he probably turns in his grave frequently since the contrast between rich and poor in India is more marked than ever; three bedroomed apartments in the fashionable satellite suburbs of New Delhi boasting price-tags well in excess of a million dollars, rubbing shoulders with vast quantities of people with nowhere to live at all.

Sunday saw my initiation into Old Delhi, which was predictably noisy, trafficy and bustling – I took a cycle rickshaw to the Red Fort piloted by a strong young man who weaved in and out of the traffic with ease, in fact at times he got up quite a speed leaving me clinging on for dear life as we bounced over potholes, scattering pedestrians in our wake.  The Red Fort is predictably fort-like, but what fascinated me more was the Jain Temple opposite housing the bird hospital, in all 5,000 birds in various stages of ill-health, mainly pigeons but also a fair amount of budgies, parakeets and even two huge black kites.  They are brought into the hospital after traffic collisions or other accidents befall them and nursed back to health before being released again – though to be honest, a fair few looked to my untrained eyes to be a lost cause.  There was even one tiny baby bird nestling in some cotton wool next to the guy on reception, who fed it with a bottle every few hours….

My last destination of the weekend was Humayan’s tomb – on the way passing a Rajhastani camel trotting happily amidst the traffic – the tomb was built in the 16^th Century by the wife of the second Mughal emperor.  It was a delight and a revelation, being a smaller version of the Taj Mahal set in lovely peaceful gardens – in fact it is said that it was the inspiration for the Taj Mahal, and was great for a wander around without the frenetic bustle of the Taj.  There’s much more of Delhi to be discovered, but I will have to leave that for another weekend…

A week in Delhi

Mid October 2013 sees me touching down at Indira Ghandi International airport, Delhi.  To say that Delhi is a contrast to Chennai is a bit like comparing somehwre like Accrington  with London.  From what I’ve seen of Delhi so far – it has pavements, traffic which flows (after a fashion), plenty of greenery, fabulous Lutyens-designed buildings, and luckily for me, beautiful weather.  I’m staying in the Taj Mahal – no, not the actual Taj Mahal but one of the Delhi branches of the Taj group of hotels.  It is set in beautiful gardens, with a very grand lobby and I’m being looked after well – enjoying my breakfast gluten-free muesli with carrot, apple and beetroot juice, and coconut water.  There is a great market within walking distance of the hotel with shops, funky bars, restaurants and cafes, including a cute coffee shop at the top floor of a building attached to a bookshop – I can see I will be spending quite a bit of time there…Delhi far from being the frightening place it is portrayed is fine for wandering about during the daytime, on my first Sunday here I walked to India gate which is the National Monument of India and very much on the tourist trail.  Even though there are plenty of Westerners about, I was still a source of amusement, especially to the younger women, so much giggling ensued I thought maybe someone had pinned a notice on my back.  The women here are more likely than not seen in Western clothing, but when they wear saris the colours are vibrant, much more so than in South India and the people here meet your gaze far more than the diffident South Indian people.

India is gearing up to Diwali, which is pretty much like Christmas with more colour.  Everywhere is decorated with flower petals and candles, and everyone here is in a frenzy of gift buying, partying and setting off fireworks.  There’s the usual sparklers and rockets, but also Catherine wheels which with a casual indifference to health and safety are laid flat on the ground and lit, where they skid about in ever-increasing circles.  It’s even more fun to jump over them when they come near….

Initiated myself into the world of the Delhi market after work today with a visit to Sarojani market.  It reminded me a bit of the old Birmingham Bull Ring market, although with about a hundred times as many people milling about, and

it was a refreshing change to be able to browse a bit without being hassled to within an inch of your life!  There were some great bargains to be had, with so much competition here the prices are really cheap….

Delhi seems to be a fascinating mix of old and new, Costa coffee (yippee!!!) and McDonalds (not so yippee) nestling against bazaars selling all manner of things.

There are cows wandering across manicured lawns and monkeys clambering over grandiose marble balustrades.  I’ve only seen a fraction of it so far, and I absolutely love it…..

Museum musings...

This weekend, I decided to try out a Chennai attraction I've been saving for a rainy day - the Government Museum.  Now I'd heard it wasn't exactly the Tate Modern, but thought I would go along and see for myself.  The museum itself like much of Chennai is an imposing building which must have been lovely in its day, but has been left to slowly crumble away.  There are several buildings, one housing a children's museum (presumably a museum for children rather than a museum containing children...), one with rather dubious art, one with a rather random collection of exhibitions about subjects as diverse as printing, dyeing, paper making, Landrovers and bits of machinery the relevance of which was lost on me.  However the tour de force of the place was the Natural History section.  Think the NatHist museum in London circa 1950, having had no upkeep ever since.  Pickled snakes and frogs. Old bones with no labels. Dark dingy cabinets with Victorian-style lettering announcing the exhibits and housing a veritable chamber of horrors - stuffed creatures of every description, their glass eyes skewiff, fur and feathers moth-eaten, covered in a thick layer of dust, half-fallen off their perches and yellow with age.  Hmmm.........think I should have stayed by the pool!

Getting away from it all

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, so to test out this theory a few of us decided to escape Chennai for the weekend, and made for Pondicherry, a French town around three hours' drive south.  It takes an age to get out of the city, and on the way we stopped at the Madras Crocodile Bank, a conservation centre for crocs and alligators, to be honest I was expecting it to be a bit dire but in fact it was a pleasant little place, teeming with reptiles and information about reptiles.  Although it had to be said once we had seen a couple of crocodiles, we had more or less seen them all. 

On we went to Mamallapuram, a historic site with temples and carvings from 6th-9th Centuries, pleasant enough to wander around the old relics but what made it all the nicer was our discovery of a seedy little bar, cold beers were very welcome being as it was such a hot day.....  Finally our car and our splendid driver Chandru made it to Pondicherry and our home for the night, the Hotel Atithi.  The hotel was centrally located, being a mere 5 minutes walk from the French Quarter which is all wide streets, hardly any traffic (compared to Chennai) and quite a laid-back atmosphere.  We discovered a pleasant French bakery with decent cappuchino and a nice line in cakes, then wandered down to the beachfront, lots of people strolling and lots of people selling stuff, very atmospheric.

Evening was spent at a very congenial French/Indian restaurant where we had the luxury of ordering a nice bottle of white wine - Indian wine, no less.  Pondicherry is a little enclave where the licencing laws are somewhat more relaxed than Chennai - not too relaxed, however, as we discovered bars close at 10.30pm - reminiscent of the UK in the 1980s.....good thing there are such things as minibars!

So that was Pondicherry.. and it was lovely to get away.  Pity the aftermath of the minibar precluded too much sightseeing on Sunday morning, but that is c'est la vie.  The weekend did have one more treat in store for us, however.  This was in the form of a trip to the theatre attached to the town museum, quiet a grand place.  The event was an Abba Tribute band.... In fact they didn't look a bit like Abba, they kept forgetting the words, and sometimes even the tune, the person on the lights couldn't really get the hang of things and kept plunging the singers into complete darkness, meaning the acts kept on tripping over microphone wires and the like...but it was a great evening, if very surreal.

At home in Chennai

So, at which point did Chennai begin to feel like home? I'm not quite sure.  But it's definitely taken on an air of familiarity, I no longer notice the noise, the smell - well Ok perhaps occasionally -  even the traffic seems almost normal now.  In consequence I'm noticing much more around me, beautiful old buildings, exotic trees, colourful fruits, tiny roadside temples -  things I probably would have walked past two weeks ago as my senses were being assailed by the hubbub all around me.

So let me take you on a typical day.  Hotel room is very comfortable,the view out of my window is uninspiring, the side of another building, but it's good to see what the weather is up to - mostly it's cloudy, but sometimes the sun shines in the morning, though it has invariably disappeared by afternoon.  It has noticeably cooled down in the past week or so, with temperatures hovering around 30 -33 degrees, which has started to feel quite cool.  My journey to work is by auto-rickshaw, or tuk-tuk,, we have our regular driver called Lashmi who is a hoot, he has a wicked sense of humour. We weave terrifyingly through the traffic narrowly avoiding cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians and animals, horn constantly sounding.  Some tuk tuks don't have a proper horn, so they have to make do with a comedy rubber hooter.

Work then takes up the next 8 hours, we start at 8.30.  i won't dwell on the work side, as that's really not why I'm here.  It gets done...if there is a birthday, arrival or departure (which seems to be a couple of times every week) someone sends out for samosas with tamarind or coriander dip - deep fried heaven!  I try to walk home as often as possible, the journey takes about 15 minutes.  The first road I walk down is quite peaceful, birds tweeting and only the odd bit of traffic honking, then it's a left turn into goat street - well that's what I call it - lots of pavement dwellers here, horses, goats and dogs all scratching out a living.  Today I walked past at least 40 women all filling their brightly coloured water containers from the communal tank.  After goat street it's across the bridge, the water in the river is jet black and smells like an open sewer (which is what it is!) then a right turn along a very busy street, this is probably the trickiest part of the route as there is rubbish piled on the side of the road so to avoid the traffic you need to do a bit of rubbish-dump hiking.  I now realise all my recycling efforts in the UK were a bit like proverbially pissing in the wind, when you see what's dumped on the side of the roadway here. You can forget about walking on the pavement in Chennai, they were nice once probably but they just fall away at regular intervals or you have to divert to avoid a sleeping person, or a barrow selling fruit, so its easier just to walk in the road.  Almost 'home' now just one more road to cross which is an art I have perfected over the weeks, it involves having eyes in the back of your head!

There are precious few sights to see in Chennai, I took in other one over the weekend by going to Myalapore which houses Chennai's largest temple.  Adorned with elaborate carvings, it was a nice enough place to wander around, although I did create an incident by wandering into the courtyard with my shoes on, thinking the footwear only needed to be divested actually inside the temple.  I also made a second trip to the beach, which is excellent for people watching, at one end there is a fishmarket with the beach being given over to boats and nets. An array of fish including seer fish and lady fish - Chennai does have lovely seafood. Shame about the flies.

On the food front I can't complain.  You can get pretty much everything at the hotel, though my search for strawberries to accompany the wimbledon final was thwarted, and I had to make do with a rather plasticy piece of 'strawberry' cheesecake.   I asked for a Pimms and lemonade and got Pimms (at least I think that's what it was), bitter lemon and soda water...interesting! There is a buffet at the hotel a couple of evenings a week, nice western and indian food plus alcohol included which really is the only way to have a drink, Tamil Nadu is a dry state so alcohol is only served in the big hotels here, not in the restaurants, and a glass of wine is just less than £10!  The local Kingfisher beer is slightly cheaper, around £3 a small bottle, but is evil, varying proof and some foul additive that lingers in the head way past morning.  So to compensate I've got into cocktails...well it would be rude not to and they are quite reasonable....There is a lovely restaurant on the roof at the hotel which is my very favourite place. There is a lovely breeze up there, and you're up at the level of the huge eagles that soar on the thermals above the city.  The food is good too - Mediterranean/Lebanese.  Unfortunately last night we were caught out when it started to rain...real monsoon rain, and howling winds, so we had to retire indoors.

Apart from eating there is always shopping.  Spencer plaza is close to our hotel, where you can pick up practically anything and barter a price.  Express Mall is a touch more upmarket, and has a cinema too.  Phoenix is the newest addition, and has most of your big brand stores.  Last night we rang the changes and set off after work for a big department store in a shopping area of the city called Ty Naga. What we found was a massive ornate building reminiscent of a cross between TKMmaxx and Wilkinson's ...and then some!  Its philosophy was pile it high, sell it cheap and as a consequence it was very crowded, a fascinating snapshot of life.  When it came to pay, it took no less than ten people to sell me my purchase...one pair to take the goods and issue a receipt, one pair to take my money, one pair to put my goods in a bag, and the final pair to stand around grinning and to stamp my receipt.  It's the ultimate in job creation.

That's all from my blog for now, am looking forward to a weekend in Pondicherry this weekend followed by an Indian Abba night - watch this space!

Another week in Chennai

Another week has slipped by so thought I'd better update this blog.  Since my last post the weather has definitely warmed up and over the weekend there were a couple of pretty impressive thunderstorms - both at a quarter to 7 on the dot!  Went on a bit of a wander on Saturday lunchtime, I can honestly say it was the hottest walk I think I have ever been on, although quite why we chose the hottest part of the day to wander in I'm not sure!  I can tell you about the never-ending traffic weaving around - how vehicles don't collide I'll never know - I can tell you about the peeling paintwork, the goats wandering around, the dirt and litter everywhere, the pavements disappearing into enormous holes - but what I can't really describe is the sheer volume of unrelenting noise, coupled with the variety of none-too-pleasant smells...it could only be India.

Speaking of walking, I decided to walk home from work last week, I was assured it would only take 20 minutes or so.  Now as you can imagine from the above description, walking is not a relaxing activity in Chennai, but it's nice after a day at the office to stretch those legs so off I went.  The first part of the walk takes you over the river which really has to be seen to be believed.  One big rubbish dump with an aroma to boot.  That first walk I ended up getting really lost, ending up in a street of bazaars that seemed to specialise in tyres and car parts...but it was interesting to discover a bit more of this city.

I've been stocking up on snacks for work today in the wonderful 'Big Bazaar' which sells literally everything. I can recommend the chilli fried chick peas.  Finished off with dinner at a veggie restaurant called Dhosa for a lovely pancakey type rice thing whose name escapes me, served with sambar and gorgeous coconut chutney.  Here if you order any kind of takeaway it invariably comes wrapped in a banana leaf and with little bags of coriander and coconut chutney.

Finally I must tell you about our Chennai cinema experience.  For 120Rs (about £1.20) you get comfy, plush, enormous seats, aircon, a movie theatre that was so upholstered inside it resembled a padded cell, almost more adverts than film and - lots of noise! Phones were going off, babies crying, people popping out for snacks etc but to be fair most were watching the film, shrieking with laughter at both funny and not-so-funny bits, cheering, booing....it was marvellous!

More to report after the weekend, your India correspondent has to confess to spending a fair amount of the last weekend lounging by the pool, such was the weather.  I almost believed I was on holiday, that was until Monday came around...

And so to India

And so, after an overnight flight on the very comfy Emirites Airlines , I arrived in Chennai.  My first impressions of India were very much as I had expected - it was hot, muggy, dilapidated, and teeming with people.  What I hadn't quite expected was the scale of the traffic - endless streams of cars, tuk-tuks, motorbikes and lorries all weaving around each other at high speed, honking wildly. The only way to cross the road is to hang on to a local!  To be fair, Chennai is pretty run-down - old colonial buildings just crumbling away, but since I was expecting hundreds of homeless people living on the street, not as poverty-stricken as I'd imagined.  Add to that I had expected to be pursued by a gaggle of people every time I ventured out, but by and large I'm ignored, apart from the tuk-tuk drivers plying their trade.

Riding in a tuk-tuk is an experience in itself as I found out on my first day at work.  The office is only around 10 minutes drive from the hotel - that's 10 minutes if you drive like a demon!!

The hotel is lovely, the staff really cannot do enough for us, and it's still a novelty having my laundry done for me...I could get used to this.... There are three restaurants on site, the main Club House restaurant has a fixed price buffet with unlimited alcohol twice weekly; there's a south Indian restaurant, and a mediteranean restaurant on the roof with good views of the city, a lovely place for a beer ;).  So far I've tested them all out, plus the one in the sister hotel across the road, and have also bravely eaten fresh samosas and vahda from the roadside - its mostly vegetarian food here and the curries are spicy.  You have to be careful when ordering vahda, since put the stress on the wrong syllable and you end up asking for a smell!! I've grown a bit partial to curries for breakfast, and the fresh fruit especially the mango is to die for.  The coffee is OK, and the masala tea a bit of an acquired taste - milky tea with cinammon, cardamon and ginger.

There are two shopping malls near the hotel - Spencer Plaza which has lots of clothes and handicrafts - and its de rigeur to barter.  The clothes are all handmade so don't come with any sizes indicated - most Indian ladies are a lot slimmer than I so many items I couldn't even get over my head! But here's the clever bit - they always have plenty of material left in the seams so if something's a bit too small, off to the tailor you go and in twenty minutes and for around 50p he will take it out or up for you, add sleves or whatever.  The second mall is Express Plaza, this is where you can find all the Western outlets like M&S, Body Shop, Lush and so on. There is also decent cappuchino to be found, as well as a fab supermarket stocking everything and anything, and a state of the art cinema.

By Friday I was feeling I hadn't had the chance to see that much of Chennai apart from the bit that was within walking distance of the hotel - it gets dark around 7pm and although its a fairly safe city, its not wise to be wandering around after dark.  Apart from anything else it would be easy to fall down the huge random holes in the pavements! So I booked onto a walking trail run by an excellent company called Storytrails, around the traditional bazaars. To say it was fascinating was an understatement - the bustling bazaars are a wealth of exotic vegetables, spices, chillis, coconut oil, ghee, tea, coffee, rice and lentils.  Motorised rickshaws vie with men with barrows, cows, and all sorts of pedestrian tarfficc.

Saturday saw a trip to the beach - Chennai has an enormous city beach, araound 14km in length and all human life is there.  Apart from stalls set up on the sand selling all manner of wares; there are horses, dogs, fairground rides, fish sellers and hundreds of people!  Sari-clad ladies splashing around in the huge breakers, sopping wet, and kids having a whale of a time.  Rather soberingly, around 400 people were killed on Marina beach during the tsunami.

So those are my first impressions of Chennai....I'm slowly acclimatising to the heat - mid to late thirties in the daytime, late twenties at night, but what really strikes one is the damp atmosphere - we've had no rain to speak of since I've been here, but the humidity is very high.  There is a very nice hotel pool however, so I am coping.. There are chipmunks and mongooses - or is it mongeese? - huge eagles soaring around, mynah birds and exotic sounding cuckoos in the  garden at work, where I eat my lunch.  But its already starting to feel less foreign and a bit more like home....

First Stop Dubai

And so the adventure began with a lovely business-class flight to Dubai, I only wish I hadn't discovered late on in the flight that that I had a massage setting on my seat...and when the lights went out there were little blue lights on the airplane ceiling in the shape of the constellations...

So - Dubai. What can I say?  My first impressions were a big, dusty building site....which I think pretty much sums it up.  It was hot, and dry, I was met by my lovely friend Mel who took me to the Jetty Bar http://royalmirage.oneandonlyresorts.com/cuisine/barsandclubs/jettylounge.aspx for mezze and cocktails on the beach, very civilised but very bizarre when you consider that it is illegal to drink in Dubai, unless you are in a bar or at home.  So that means you cannot travel from bar to home under the influence of alcohol, so woe betide getting in a taxi if you've had a few.  So we restricted ourselves to a couple of mojitos each and very nice they were too.

The next day saw us exploring Dubai - the Palm, Atlantis hotel - an ostentatious confection of a building - and the malls - shopping centres are shopping centres the world over but in Dubai they are massively extravagant with oversized fish tanks and the like, not my sort of thing at all and all rather grotesque.  Now this may have been slightly appealing if the shops had been offering bargains, but everything appeared to be overpriced, so I couldn't see a single reason to buy a thing. 

Mel lives in a lovely villa+pool on the edge of the city, when I say edge, Dubai just stops dead and then there is desert, roads just cease to be and instantly there is sand a scrub.  But since there is no shortage of space and it appears no shortage of money, Dubai is expanding at a rate of knots so Sports City, where Mel and Adam live, is currently on the edge of Dubai but in a few years time will no doubt be swallowed up in the relentless rush of development.  However they are very fortunate in that their garden backs in to the golf course, so they have a lovely open aspect, so my Dubai afternoon was spent chilling round the pool and meeting some of Mel's lovely friends, before it was off to the airport, India was calling....