16 November 2012

Camel Ride

We are half way through our holiday but have seen only a tiny portion of India. 

On Wednesday we went on an excursion from Jaisalmer town into the desert. We rode a camel. One poor beast had to carry both of us. We climbed on while the camel was sitting down and then had to hang on for dear life as it got up. 

The transformation from sitting camel to standing camel is a complicated process and possibly involves five or six dimensions. And all the time you are sitting up and enjoying the ride across the scrubland there is the ugly prospect that the camel must sit down again before you can get off!

In fact, we dismounted on a sand dune and had half an hour to explore before the return voyage at sunset. So we went through the sitting/standing and standing/sitting maneuvres twice. By the end we were more or less under control. 

There were lots of tracks in the sand that we first attributed to birds. In fact, the pedestrian was a large beetle. We observed the track-making with our own eyes and even photographed it. 

There were birds about. We spotted two species of bulbul as well as the ubiquitous doves. There were even some feral peafowl. 

The camel ride was followed by a cultural show and dinner. Both were uninspiring. The band was technically fine but the style of music didn't appeal. Nor did their frequent requests for tips. The dancers were very young and didn't have a wide repertoire, but their costumes were very colourful. The food was easily the most disappointing we've had all holiday. 

The following day we moved on to Jodhpur, the 2nd largest city in Rajasthan. Yes, the silly trousers do come from here.

India's awful traffic finally caught up with us and our car was shunted from behind. Our driver, who has impressed us with the safety of his driving, was not at fault. It was the other driver who was to blame. Luckily there is no damage that will hold up our tour. 

14 November 2012

After Delhi

After Delhi, we went  to Jaipur by train. The trip took took about 5 hours and our carriage was one that's used as a sleeper at night. No privacy at all if you did want to sleep! Along the corridor the bunks are set along the train - two high and in the other part, three high. The bottom and middle seats fold down to make benches to sit on in the day. As with everything in India, it wasn't very clean and the windows were filthy. We could see enough to see the countryside and villages go by.

When we reached Jaipur we were met by a driver and car to be taken to the hotel. On the way, the driver stopped the car and said "There's my boss." His boss got out of another car and came over and presented me with a lovely flower arrangement with roses and ferns in it. As you can imagine, I was very surprised! 

We then went to our hotel for the night - what an amazing place! It was built in the 1940s as a house (haveli) and recently converted into a hotel. It is tradtionally decorated with many colours and decorations and is absolutely stunning!. The colours all seem to fit, even though they ought to clash. No-one would contemplate that mix in NZ. 

The next day we moved on to Mandawa with our permanent driver for the trip. On the way we passed through Sekhawati region which is semi-desert and saw some other traditional homes (rich people's) later on. We saw many farms - some poor and some obviously richer, The poor farmers live in hovels and the better off live in brick boxes plastered with concrete. There are often many people from the same family living under one roof. Our guide around Mandawa is obviouslly from a better off farm as there are 40 people living there and they have 6 kitchens. Mind you, their kitchens are very primitive compared to those we are used to. The Hotel we stayed in at Mandawa looked very flash from the outside and was quite good inside except for the lack of hot water! Even in the tropics a cold shower isn't all that nice,

Many of the people we meet who work in hotels and as guides have never been to school but in spite of that have taught themselves to read and write and speak good English.

The next day we travelled on to Bikaner where we only stayed one night. We met a lovely Indian couple who were visiting from Mumbai (Bombay). Smitha is a biology and chemistry teacher and her husband is a corporate banker. they are very keen to keep in touch with us. We also had dinner with a man who had spoken to us at Delhi station. Shiv owns a tour business and wanted to know about how were are travelling etc. He appeared the next morning just before we were leaving for Jaisalmer and took us to a nearby textile warehouse and insisted on buying me a sari. He wanted to buy a kurta for Bill but we couldn't find one big enough. We both keep wondering if he has a hidden agenda, so will forget to email him when we return to Jaipur, where he says he'll be at that time.

Before dinner with Shiv, we went to a temple in Deshnok. Those of you who are squeamish - BRACE YOURSELVES!! The temple is dedicated to rats, yes rats! You have to take your shoes off before you go in, though some tourists wore socks or a kind of soft shoe made of calico. Inside, there are hundreds of rats running around and sometimes they run over people's feet. They don't look particularly healthy even though they are well fed. Apparently they are fed on a lot of sugar and milk and that's the reason why.

The next day we traveled on to Jaisalmer. What a long trip - the speed limit is 80kmph and our driver, Satish, is very good and never breaks the speed limit. We stopped once to visit a small lake where there are a lot of birds and then once for lunch. By the time we reached Jaisalmer, we were very tired but the sight of the hotel was cheering. It is only five years old and very nicely set up with lots of carvings and is made of the local sandstone. The front of it is completely carved in traditional Indian style. As soon as we arrived, the head guy, Krishna, offered us chai and suggested we went up to the roof to sign the register, drink chai and watch the sunset over the desert. Absolutely lovely. We also had dinner up there in the candle-lit dark. 

KL Last Day

Our flight to Delhi was scheduled for 7pm and the hotel advised a 4pm taxi so lots of time for an outing. 

We chose to visit some regenerating rainforest near the city. The big attraction is a 'canopy walk' amongst the treetops. 

Before entering the forest we admired a pond where 3 arapaima flopped around in very opaque water. 

The first part of the walk through the trees was a fairly broad track frequented by mountain bikers and joggers, who all seemed quite unaffected by the humidity or the gradient. It wasn't steep but we found reasons to pause now and then. 

We had been warned that when we turned right at a trail junction the path to the canopy walk would be steep - and it was. No worse than many bush walks in NZ but adding tropical heat and humidity made it a tiring 500 metres. 

We had a good rest before stepping out onto the swaying walkway. We would have rested longer but the attendant warned that it looked like rain and he might have to close the gate. It wasn't too bad. The sides were almost shoulder high and major cables provided hand holds on each side. 

There are three platforms along the way, providing the relative security of a wooden floor attached to a solid tree. We admired the views and took photos. An Australian couple caught us up, chatted and moved ahead. A few raindrops bore out the attendant's prediction. 

Safely down on the other side we congratulated each other on our intrepid courage and looked doubtfully at the sky. A school party came across the walkway behind us, whooping and ignoring the rain. 

We let them all pass before setting off. This proved to be a poor choice because the boys stopped in a bunch a short way down the trail and we had to pick a way past them. One of the teachers solicitously advised us to "Be careful". 

Going down was not such hard work but the wet trail was slippery and care was required. We had intended to lunch at the park cafe but instead chose to return to our hotel. 

The information office telephoned for a taxi and we seemed all set. We got off to a bad start with the taxi driver. He wanted 70 ringgit when we only paid 40 for the outward journey. He settled grumpily for 50. 

The return route did not seem familiar and the journey was taking a lot longer. We got rather anxious. Eventually we ended up at Sunway Resort, despite having shown the driver the name and address of the Sunway Putra Hotel. He finally got the message that we were in the wrong place and frantically asked other taxi drivers for assistance. Finally he found someone to give him directions and off we drove again. 

The delay was serious. We had to get back to the hotel to pick ip our luggage and set off for the airport  if we were too late we could miss our plane. In the event we had 10 minutes to spare. No lunch. No raid on the adjacent shopping mall for $6 T-shirts. But we did find our bags and our pre-booked taxi and we did catch our plane to Delhi

09 November 2012

KL Day 2

We took a whole day bus trip to Melaka (Malacca). Half the time - 2 hours each way - was spent driving on motorways with not much to look at except palm oil plantations. The guide grew up on a rubber plantation and talked more about rubber than palm oil, but I only spotted two small plantings of rubber trees. Whatever Sime Darby does, it uses a lot of palm oil. 

Malacca was not terribly interesting once we got there. It had periods of occupation by the Portuguese, Dutch and British, who all built churches. 

Much more colourful were the lavishly decorated trishaws (tricycle rickshaws) almost hidden under plastic flowers. At least some have sound systems for the entertainment of their clients. One very pink example had fitted a boom box that thumped out rock music loud enough to hear all over town. 

Maylasia is proud of its many cultures that, they insist, live harmoniously together. The tour lunch was Chinese and very good it was, too. It's rather sad when the lunch is the highlight of the tour. 

In the afternoon we had a little explore of Jonkers St. It has a couple of small temples and some interesting shops. In one of the latter we tried a durian puff. Durians are a large, prickly fruit with a strange, unpleasant smell. Many people think the taste is a delicacy so we popped them in our mouths and ate. Eve described the taste as very concentrated mango "with a touch of poo". I liked mine. 

The oil palms were even less exciting on the return journey. 

The hotel advertised a Japanese buffet that evening so we took advantage of the 30% discount offered to hotel residents. The buffet tables were thronged by locals; families and groups of youngsters. It's obviously very popular. 

We joined the scrum and pillaged the offerings for sushi, tempura and other dishes with no names. I was puzzled by the lack of regular boiled rice. Apparently the locals simply prefer fried rice or noodles and customer demand trumps authenticity. 

After eating we wanted un-Japanese coffee. We went downstairs to the coffee shop and were served excellent coffee. It was chased down by a staggering bill - 24 ringgit (over $10) after residents' discount. 

08 November 2012

Kuala Lumpur Day One


The young man on the travel desk was very helpful. He accepted our reservation for the evening cultural tour, recommended the historical tour of Malacca and marked on our free map where to get the hop-on hop-off bus. 

In other cities we have found these very useful to orient ourselves and see the major sights. This one was not so  good. The seats were much too close together and seriously uncomfortable for someone with Heritage-length legs. 

The commentary was not very well synchronised with what we were looking at (or was I just looking on the wrong direction?). But we did get a smattering of history and see some big buildings. 

We went most of the way round the circuit before hopping off to visit the Butterfly Park. It wasn't as well stocked as I remember from my visit several years ago, but it was very nice all the same. 

Two things happened while we were there. One of the many prayer hours came round and we heard the call - from two separate mosques. The irreverent picture of competing muezzins sprang to mind. "Worship at Abdul's. One extra prayer free.". I will no doubt be struck with a lightening bolt. 

The second event was rain. It started gently, faded away and then came back harder. And our waterproofs were back at the hotel. Luckily the gift shop stocked umbrellas for just such an emergency. And then the rain faded away again. 

We grabbed a taxi for the short journey to the Bird Park. It's not as big or as good as Singapore's bird park, but it is well worth the entrance fee. My camera was working overtime since many of the birds are in walk-through aviaries and are not seen through  bars. 

Sore feet and the threat of more rain persuaded us to ignore the bus and take a taxi back to the hotel. 

The evening cultural tour took us to a night market in Chinatown. You will not be surprised to learn that the Rolex watches and Gucci bags are not authentic. Several touts tried hard to entice us into their DVD shops and only desisted when told them we had no tv and read books instead. 

Eve did want a new handbag and entered into negotiations. Eventually we decided that we didn't like that bag. The stallholder's final offer was about 40% of the initial asking price. This was vital intelligence when Eve  bargained for a bag she really liked. First ask 270 ringgit (about $110). Eve's counter offer 20 ringgit. "you give me heart attack." the final bargain was struck at 125 for a bag Louis Vuitton has unknowingly donated his name to. 

All this nearly made us late for the bus to a theatre restaurant where we piled our plates high before being entertained by dances from various cultures within Malaysia. And very colourful they were, too. We decided that the compere was the most colourful of all - overdone makeup and camp as a row of tents. Nothing very wrong with that, but the pest talked too much and detracted from the dancing. 

Since this was all for the tourists we had to have some audience participation. I got shoulder tapped to have a go with a blowpipe. Yes, please. Long ago I read they were easy to aim and you simply have a puff. That's truly all there is to it. I got two balloons with one dart. 

Finally everyone who wished could go on stage and learn a simple traditional dance. We both went and made fools of ourselves. 

07 November 2012

Kuala Lumpur

KL

A stopover packed with memories. After a late evening arrival, which our bodies felt was well into the night, getting to the hotel luckily was as simple as we planned it. The airport to city express train was as easy to use as the airport claimed. At the central railway station there was a counter for taxi companies and we prepaid the fare requested. 

The first surprise was a hotel porter apparently operating without a hotel. We had to get a lift to the lobby on the 9th floor for reception and the other trappings of hoteldom. 

And what a hotel. Squads of uniformed flunkies. Had we come to the right place?  I am famously economical when booking accommodation. Did I miss a zero or two in the tariff. Indeed not. It must have been low season. The bounties of the hotel were heaped even higher when we were informed we had an upgrade to a "Crest" room. 

We were too tired to really take it in at the time. In the morning we took stock: an enormous room with a bathroom on the same scale, including his and hers matching basins; complimentary wi-fi; and Chinese style porcelain teapot with dinky cups to match. The latter was spoiled a little by a miserly supply of indifferent quality tea to brew in it. 

The hotel's claim to 5 stars was supported by a breakfast I have never seen surpassed:- tropical fruits and juices, breads, cereals, a noodle bar, a vegetarian counter that ranged from intriguing Asian dishes to a chef delivering cook-to-order omelettes, and more hot dishes than we could believe. Our favourite was nasi lemak; coconut rice with cucumber, hard boiled egg, roasted peanuts and tiny pieces of salty fish. Trust me, the combination works. And throughout the dining room waiters and waitresses dispensed tea and coffee and pounced on any used dish, all with a style the Ritz would be happy to call its own.