Sri Lanka - an easy cruise

After almost 10 months in India and Bangladesh we boarded a plane and made our way to the tropical isle of Sri Lanka. After the huge Indian subcontinent, travelling around an island about the size of one Indian state was an easy cruise.

We headed straight to the beach at Negombo from the airport rather than into the steamy capital of Colombo. Negombo was nice - although the beach was a bit India-style dirty - and we relaxed there for just a few days before heading into the hills, away from the pre-monsoon heat.

Our first stop off the super-cheap, rickety buses was Kandy, a tea-producing, hill station town nestled in a forested valley around a lake. There we stayed in a beautiful old colonial-style house filled with antique furniture and artworks, clusters of family photographs spanning the generations down to our host's great-grandchildren and odd knick-knacks including huge elephant tusks on either side of throne-like chairs, fit for a King. His grandfather was the nominated representative of the Sri Lankan people at the coronation of Edward VII and he had loads of interesting tales that he proudly shared over the lovely cups of tea we enjoyed on the porch overlooking the pretty garden.

The view from the hills surrounding Kandy

During a few chilled out days in Kandy we visited the very holy Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic which purportedly houses one of Buddha's teeth that was rescued from his funeral pyre. Unfortunately, you don't get to see the actual tooth so it was really just another temple visit, not very much different from the many others we'd seen before.

Although it is just a 20 kilometers across the sea from India, Sri Lanka is a very different country. 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhist (Sinhalese) and just 15% are Hindu (Tamil). These two groups fought a vicious war for 25 years where both Buddhists and Hindus committed horrific atrocities. The Hindu Tamil Tigers have the claim to shame of inventing suicide bombing while the Buddhist government brutally persecuted the minority Tamils. If you believe Buddhism to be some sort of unique, peaceful religion, you'd be sad to know that in Sri Lanka militant Buddhist monks wield significant power and, during the war, actively encouraged a military solution to the conflict. One can see AK47 symbols on Buddhist temples here!

The military solution came last year when the government defeated the Tamil Tigers. The actual events that transpired at the end of the war are still shrouded in secrecy but it seems that there were large massacres of civilians as well as militants and much of the northern parts of the country, as we were to discover, is still very much off limits to foreigners.

This bloody recent history was not evident in the lush mountains around Kandy. In fact, Sri Lanka has a much higher standard of living than India and the towns and villages in the south matched or exceeded what you'd find, even in the wealthy Indian state of Kerala. The status of women in Sri Lanka is also considerably better than in India with women far more visible in all lines of business and in most kinds of jobs. Women tourists are also hassled far less.

We jumped onto a series of local buses and made our way to Adam's Peak, the highest climbable mountain in Sri Lanka. This mountain is holy to most religions as it has - what is believed to be - Adam, Shiva or Buddha's (take your pick!) footprint at its apex.

Adam's Peak

Every night at 2am hundreds of Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim pilgrims begin climbing the peak so as to reach the top just around sunrise. We joined them on this surprisingly tough climb made up of over 5000 concrete steps. The view from the top was nice (though once you've been in the Himalayas...) but the sunrise that morning was a bit clouded over. The walk down was hot and sweaty and the cumulative 10 000 steps meant we both walked funny for the next 3 days (a common problem for Adam's Peak climbers)! We couldn't feel too hard core for having completed the mission as our fellow climbers included loads of old timers of over 70 years in age and one guy whose whole left side of his body had been paralysed in a stroke!

Colourful villages seen from the train

Next we hopped onto a train to the village of Ella, spoiling ourselves with first class seats in the special carriage at the back of the train that has giant glass windows all round so you get beautiful 180 degree views of the tea plantations and forests through which the train meanders.

Ella is a tiny village perched higher up in the hills from Kandy and so was cool and quiet, with views of the lush forests surrounding the area. We found a delightful guesthouse which had a verandah that was just made for us to do absolutely nothing but nurse our sore Adam's Peak muscles, contemplate the views and sip a nice cuppa or two (oh, yes, Rejane did move enough to get herself down to the spa for a full body massage, steam bath and hot oil hair treatment). We stayed 10 days! Once our legs had begun to recover we ventured out and did a bit of walking in the surrounding hills, villages and tea plantations. Our favourite mission was to walk along the railway tracks - used as a walking path by locals - and visit the lovely little villages along the way while dodging the train when it came past a couple of times a day. After a morning of walking we'd catch the afternoon train back to Ella just in time to avoid the daily afternoon thunderstorms which we enjoyed, again from our lovely verandah with the pot of wonderful Ceylon tea.

Walking the train tracks in Ella

here comes the train!

We met a number of different travellers in our time in Ella and got to know all the little restaurants and tea stalls in town. Another difference between Sri Lanka and India is that Sri Lanka only has a handful of traditional food dishes. The main one is known simply as Rice & Curry which is delicious and consists of (wait for it) rice and a mix of up to 10 veggie curries and one meat curry. The curries are not as rich and saucy as the Indian curries but were a nice change... although after a few weeks it did get a little boring. Perhaps due to the war (we don't really know why) there isn't much of a street food or eating out culture and sometimes just getting a chai could be a challenge. One favourite meal was the Muslim-made Kottu roti which consists of stir fried meat and veg to which a chopped up roti is added, this is all diced up rapidly with two giant knives making the famous sharp clanging, chop-chop-chop sounds heard when walking by. As with India, one has to be fast to avoid the dolop of salt or chilli powder on your fresh fruit and the sugar on your avo! I mean, SUGAR ON YOUR AVO!!!!! (Ja-sis, that definitely qualifies as the most unpleasant surprise to one's taste buds when you're not expecting it!)

On the train back to Kandy

After our long chill in Ella, we caught the train and a couple of buses to the town of Dambulla where we visited the famous caves with giant carved Buddhas inside. We stayed in a beautiful homestay/guesthouse called Little Dream out in the rural paddy fields near the lake and once again got stuck for a week...

Sleeping Buddha in Dambulla cave

We used Little Dream as our base from which to explore the historical sights scattered in the region. One of the most famous is Sigiriya ("Lion's Rock"), a giant stone amidst landscaped water gardens with the ruins of an ancient temple at the top. This giant complex dates back to the 5th century and was occupied as either the nation's capital or as a temple until the 14th century when it was abandoned. Although the buildings are mostly ruins now, there are still beautiful paintings in the rock's caves and the view from the top was great.

Sigiriya - gardens below and temple ruins on top

Sigiriya cave paintings

the steps up to Sigiriya temple - lion paws on either side

View from the top of Sigiriya onto gardens below

During our time in Dambulla, we decided to explore the area around the lake. What was supposed to be a quick stroll around the lake turned into a 5 hour mission when we got lost in the forest! After about 2 hours we were getting peckish and walked in the direction of what we thought was the main road for a snack. This just got us deeper into the forest with little water and no food. After another hour or so, walking aimlessly, getting hungrier and running out of water, we were very pleasantly surprised to stumble upon ancient ruins that had not been referred to in any guide books. Although the ruins themselves were nothing of the scale of Sigiriya, wandering among them deep in the cool forest was wonderful. We subsequently found out that these were the ruins of a monastery complex called Kaludiya Pokuna and dated back to the 9th century when a wealthy man gave 23 containers of gold to provide food for the monks "as long as the sun and the moon last." There was certainly no food there now, a fact our grumbling bellies could attest to, but we were given some water by the caretaker of the ruins who lives all by himself the forest. The information about the ancient, wealthy benefactor along with other very detailed instructions are all engraved on cave walls which, amidst the overgrown forests, gave us a bit of an Indiana Jones feeling of adventure! We enjoyed this mission so much that we returned with a travel buddy a few days later and discovered a stream and rock pool where we swam while having our skin exfoliated by nibbling little fish.

Wandering in the forests

Indiana Jones and The Forest Stupa

The girls getting exfoliated

We missioned off to other forest ruins in the area called Ritigala which involved busing and then walking for about 12km, the last stretch of which was through the forest along a road just swarming with beautiful white butterflies. These ruins, scattered all through the forest were made from giant stone slabs, linked by winding stone paths.

Butterflies everywhere - on the way to Ritigala

Ritigala ruins

We finally left our friendly Little Dream family and headed north to Anuradhapura where we visited the oldest tree in the world called the Sri Maha Bodhi which was planted in 288BC. It is now incorporated into a temple where Sri Lankans pay homage to the sacred tree.

Oldest tree in the world

The city of Anuradhapura was founded 3000 years ago and the ruins extend over 16 square km. We spent a scorching day wandering around these extensive stone ruins, visiting ancient baths, temples, giant stupas, castles and monastries... All pretty amazing, but by this stage of our trip we were completely templed-out and unfortunately the knee-high ruins of Sri Lanka just don't compare to the epic sights of India... it was time for something different...

Giant stupa in Anuradhapura

Stone baths in Anuradhapura ruins

We decided to head towards Jaffna, the main Tamil city, which had been off limits during the war. After a bit of searching we found a bus and headed north on the road. The further north we headed, the road and the surrounding towns became increasingly dilapidated and bombed out buildings became the norm with military posts almost after every 100m. After 2 hours or so on the bus we arrived at a large military complex where the soldiers spotted us and hauled us off the bus demanding to see our Ministry of Defense permit which we didn't have (apparently no-one has ever managed to get one of these). Despite the government's claims, the road to Jaffna is certainly NOT open to tourists - and the rumours that they have atrocities to hide will continue until it is.

So, more hot, rickety buses until we eventually arrived exhausted in Trincomalee, the scene of heavy fighting during the war but now a steamy, dilapidated coastal town. We spent a horrible sweaty night there at a dirty hotel on the beach before heading straight out to the first decent place we could find. Just 6km north we found the village of Uppuveli where we splashed out on a nice Italian guest house. This north eastern coast seemed like a different country to the southern half of Sri Lanka... dirty, bombed out buildings, military everywhere and added to all that, it got hammered by the 2004 Tsunami, like much of the Sri Lankan south and east coasts. Click here to get a sense of the destructive power of the Tsunami which killed over 250,000 people (not for the faint hearted!).

Snorkeling on Pigeon Island

The Uppuveli beach was ok, and we did some nice snorkeling at nearby Pigeon Island. We were still feeling the itch to see what was going on in the forbidden north, so we snuck onto some buses heading to Kokkilai Lagoon and even made it onto a boat heading for the island in the lagoon before, sadly, the military got us again. This is a beautiful area with huge tourist potential once all the bloody military stuff gets sorted out.

On Kokkilai Lagoon before the military turned us back

We made some lovely friends along the way and were invited to a lunch of rice and curry by a local Muslim family who treated us like royalty.

Our friendly family who treated us to lunch, near the Kokkilai Lagoon

The Trincomalee heat got too much for us so we headed south again, first to the nice seaside village of Kalkuddah and then on to the surfing village called Arugambay. We found ourselves a beautiful beach hut on stilts overlooking the beach and chilled for a week or so watching surfers and suicide-sunbathers (no matter how red and sore, they never give up!) and enjoying the large amounts of the local Arak spirits at a Full Moon Party that we and some friends managed to instigate...

Is that a tsunami coming?

Arugambay

Who's a lucky boy then?

After a fun week at Arugambay we headed back to Ella village where we met friends from Cape Town and a very long earth worm! We spent two night catching up on news from home and another day walking the train tracks before heading to the southern coastal town of Galle.

Big earthworm in Ella

Our last beach in SriLanka, Unawatuna

We spent a couple of nights in Galle, an old colonial British town with charming guest houses and restaurants which is fast becoming an "in destination" for foreigners with money to invest in property. We did a daytrip Unawatuna, a lovely beach spot where we relaxed for a day before heading to Colombo airport...

We had intended to spend 10 weeks in Sri Lanka, but after 6 weeks we decided that we needed something completely different - so we jumped on a plane and headed to...

(to be continued)

Meeting the Family

As Dave has been promoted to Editor-in Chief, a position in which he will be charged with setting up and running centres of excellence that will produce unique, original and compelling content for this blog, Rejane will start to write the blog content in the first person. Dave's promotion has come as the well-deserved reward for having mastered the art of driving a motorbike on Indian roads. To demonstrate the level of intellectual ability required for this task, a sample multiple choice question has been prepared for anyone thinking of attempting this task anytime in the future.

Instructions - Before attempting the test, please note the following in the diagram below, from top to bottom:

• the arrows pointing in the direction of the traffic flowing south
• below that, the location of Lane#4, followed by Lane#3
• next, the position of the Solid Concrete Barrier/Divider shaded in, in the middle of the diagram, with Gap#1 and Gap#2 in the Barrier/Divider
  
• then Lane#2 appears, followed by Lane#1
  
• next, the position of Vehicle X
• finally, the direction of traffic flowing north
  

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION:
Vehicle X wants to travel south. What are his "legal" (i.e. permitted by police) options... does he:

A. Enter the highway immediately towards Gap#1 in the solid concrete divider, without looking to determine whether or not there is any traffic coming towards him on the highway, as he has right of way.

B. Enter the highway immediately against the direction of the traffic flowing north, aiming for Gap#2 in the concrete barrier/ divider, without looking as he has right of way and because Gap#2 is closer than Gap#1.

C. After departing from Gap#1 or Gap#2 he should then join Lane#3 or Lane#4 immediately and without looking as he has right of way (nose in front rule).

D. Enter the highway immediately, as he has right of way, turning directly into Lane#1, against the traffic that is traveling in a northerly direction and then continue in Lane#1 on his journey traveling south until reaching his destination 10kms away.

E. Enter the highway immediately, as he has right of way, turning directly into Lane#2, against the traffic that is traveling in a northerly direction and then continue in Lane#2 on his journey traveling south until reaching his destination 10kms away.
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**ANSWER: AT BOTTOM OF PAGE/POST

Although many of you may have some difficulty with passing this test, not Danger Dave, oh no, he passed with flying colours: A clean Indian driving record, with not even an itsy bitsy scratch to speak of by the time we delivered our faithful vehicle back to Lalli Singh in Delhi on 9 March, after 8 exhilarating motorbiking months and 13,000 km. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself here...lots still to tell before that day.

After the 11 glorious days in Hampi we headed to Goa. We had no idea where to start, Goa was developing a reputation for being filled with package tourists and the chilled out, bohemian, backpacker vibe was reportedly now a thing of its past. We wanted to try the beaches in northern Goa as we had seen some of the southern ones when we first arrived in June last year and hadn't been impressed. We headed to Anjuna first but the hotels on the beach were quite expensive and the restaurants were definitely catering to a rather well-to-do class of (Russian) tourist. We decided to try Arambol next but alas, those halcyon days were indeed over, Goa had gotten itself all grown up with the hotels and restaurants out of our budget range and the package tourist vibe not to our taste.

So after spending just 2 days in northern Goa we decided to give the southern beaches one more try. We were hesitant because we had seen the very littered and unattractive southern beaches when we arrived in June but that was during the Monsoon season and we'd been assured by other trusty travelers that the beaches were very different now. We tried Gokarna first which is just over the southern most point of Goa and immediately decided to stay.

Gokarna was completely different from what we had experienced in June. The water had receded from their Monsoonal levels so you could actually see the beach, the rubbish had been cleared up and pretty bamboo and banana leaf huts had been erected for cheap but cheerful accommodation and restaurant venues. From our first day we met some cool travelers that set the tone for long, lazy afternoon lunches, warm ocean dips and afternoon strolls around the area.

Our beach-side home in Gokarna

Om Beach

Om Beach, where we lodged and spent most of our time hanging out, is so named because it resembles the holy "Om (Aum) Symbol". The symbol, when written in Hindi, looks like the number 3 written backwards. We settled in for a week of indulgence marred only by the groups of Indian men that irritatingly take weekend trips to the beach just to stare at foreigners in bikinis. India really needs to sort out its conservative attitudes towards women and normalise its male/female relations or Indian men might explode with frustration.

Paradise Beach

When we could drag ourselves away from our hangout on Om Beach we took 30 minute strolls to Paradise Beach (so named because, well, it resembles Paradise).

Hanging on Paradise beach - read a little, snooze a little, have a spot of lunch...

Whiling away the hours turning coconut shells into very useful mixing bowels

Kudlee Beach

Kudlee Beach was another one of our afternoon stroll destinations from Om Beach (no idea what it resembles or is named after). After a wonderful week or so, it suddenly dawned on us that we had only a couple of weeks left before our Indian visas were to expire and we'd literally have to haul ass to get through the rest of our must-dos before 17 March.

The first stop was 1200kms away (3 hard days of traveling on the bike) on the find-the-family mission. My grandmother was born in Gujarat. Her father was one of 4 brothers of which 2 left India in the early 1900's. Contact with Indian family had eventually been broken as the old people had all long passed on, making this a bit of a mission in the dark. We had no information about my Indian family except a photograph of a young woman and a child with a letter written in Gujarati that we could not read. On arrival in the town of Baruch in Gujarat, our hotel manager kindly translated the letter and offered to help us find the area (there was no house number just a street name). We decided to go the very next morning not knowing what kind of people they'd be or how they would receive us. We arrived in the area mentioned in the letter and started to ask some ladies standing in front of a corner store if anyone recognised the people in the photograph when a young woman walked up to us and exclaimed: "What are you doing with my picture?"! I responded: "I am your cousin from South Africa!"

Baruch - the street that the family home is in

The young woman immediately embraced me and introduced herself as Aaisha. She took us straight to the family home where we met her mother and 2 of her 8 sisters.

Aaisha in front of their house - where my grandmother was born

Although Aaisha was the only one in the family who spoke any English, we managed to communicate and immediately started trying to work out the family tree while her mom prepared tea, snacks and later a lavish lunch that we enjoyed when her husband returned home from his job as a rickshaw driver.

Tea and snacks and working out the family tree

My apprehension about how we'd be received was completely unfounded and we had a lovely time chatting about the family back in South Africa and being taken around to the homes of the extended family in the area.

Meeting the rest of the family

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we spontaneously decided to invite everyone to dinner at our hotel that night.

Dinner with the family, Rejane with all the ladies and children

Although we thoroughly enjoyed the reunion and promised to keep the revived family connection alive, time was tight and we had to scoot off the following day for a whistle-stop tour of Rajastan. Rajastan is a well traveled part of India, part of the "Golden Delhi-Jaipur-Agra Triangle" that forms the most visited area in India. We had enough time for only a couple of nights in 3 Rajastani cities: Udaipur, Jaipur and Pushkar.

In Udaipur the main attractions are the "floating" palaces (actually just islands that look like they're floating) that have been converted to luxury hotels charging the equivalent of about R10000 a night, incredible in a country where a 3 year university degree costs R3000 in total and thus a one night stay would see 3 kids through university.

The Floating Palace in Udaipur, now a fancy hotel

The majestic City Palace

In the lavish gardens of the floating palace

More than the majesty of Udaipur's palaces, we were pleasantly surprised to bump into some friends we'd made in Hampi, which was a lovely breather amidst our now frenetic and increasingly exhausting traveling pace.

Next stop was Pushkar which we were not very impressed with. We'd hit our temple-viewing saturation point and the markets were nothing we hadn't seen before.

The Pushkar marketplace

Our last stop was Jaipur which is a surprisingly attractive city with buildings all gaily painted pink and the women all beautifully adorned in saris, in all the colours of the rainbow. Sadly we'd left the camera in the hotel room and with no more time to spare, we couldn't go back for any pics :-(


Leaving Rajastan behind, Agra was next on the must-do-before-you-leave-India list. And, yes, we got the obligatory Taj Mahal pics.

The Taj at sunset

While it is, admittedly, a very attractive building designed and constructed with precision symmetry, it is nothing but a tomb that cost the equivalent of US$2 billion to build. You walk in (without your shoes), circle around 2 coffins (an area with a circumference of about 10meters) and you walk out again. The romantic story of Shah Jahan being so heartbroken at his wife's Mumtaz's death that led to the building of the tomb notwithstanding, we couldn't help but speculate how far US$2 billion would go towards alleviating the sheer squalor of the living conditions just metres outside the walls of the monument. Shah Jahan also had a few thousand concubines to console him while mourning...




Video: The Gardens at the Taj

After Agra, it was straight to Delhi to deliver the bike back to Lalli and to catch a train to our last must-do stop at Varanassi. Varanassi is one of the holiest places in India, situated on the banks of the Ganga (Ganges) River. It is considered to be the most auspicious place in the world for Hindus to die and to be cremated. If you die in Varanassi you supposedly skip the endless cycle of re-incarnations and go straight to "heaven". The waters of the river are said to cleanse one of all bad karma past, present and future.

Washing off all that bad karma

Varanassi is a busy place with lots of activity from sunrise to well past sunset when thousands arrive for the daily ceremonies. Sunrise pujas (ceremonies) are performed with chanting and bell ringing reaching a crescendo as the sun pops over the horizon with scores of people arriving all day for a bath, even brushing their teeth and drinking the holy water. The atmosphere is festive throughout the day with tea, samoosas, fresh chappatis and other snacks on sale. After sunrise the large funeral pyres that will burn all day are are built and scores of bodies are cremated, giving the air a distinct smell of braaied meat with the sight of burning bodies and the sound of exploding skulls not for the faint-hearted. Ashes and charred remains are sent down the river along with the whole bodies of children under 10 years old and pregnant women who are never cremated.

The Indian government recently put 18000 scavenger turtles into the river to clear the dead bodies on the river bed and restrictions are increasingly tightened on factories that dump industrial waste although little seems to have been done to provide more appropriate places for people to use as latrines other than the banks of the river...



Video: Daily activity on the river




Video: A sunset paddle down the holy river




Video: Fires burning during the nightly funeral pyres along the shore


After that wonderful, overwhelming assault on all the senses, it was straight back to Delhi where we met up briefly with our good friend Glynnis from South Africa before boarding our flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.


And so, it was Namaste and Salaam to India...


**ANSWER TO MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION: ALL OF THE ABOVE ( :-o)

Unpainted Speed Bumps

Besides the unrivaled views you get from traveling India on a motorbike, there is the added excitement of the unpainted speed bumps on the national and state highways. While many of the roads in the mountains are too curvy for speeds above 30kms/hr, further south, where the weather and landscapes are not as harsh, the roads are smoother and straighter and can comfortably accommodate speeds around 60-75kms/hr. While this may get you to your destination faster, the many unpainted speed bumps can give your already pulverised bottom a hard whack and leave you with (not altogether mild) sensations of whiplash. After cruising on our delightfully smooth trip from its beginning in mid-June to early in December, we were to discover that, in this region, these unpainted speed bumps are a feature of more than just the road networks... Having spent 6 wonderful weeks in Bangladesh (a definite trip highlight) we were hit with our first large and momentum-slowing speed bump when we were inexplicably turned away by the Indian Embassy in Dhaka when applying for our visa renewal. We decided to head for Kathmandu to try our luck there. The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu is well organised and processes scores of foreign visas daily. We submitted our application for a 6 month visa and decided to check out the city and Kathmandu valley while holding thumbs furiously.

One of the many temples in Kathmandu

Kathmandu is filled with fascinating temples and ruins. Just walking the city streets, you constantly stumble over ancient temples at every turn. The Durbar square, in the centre of the city, which has been the site for royal palaces, housing several different dynasties, is thought to date back to the 10th century. It has now been declared a world heritage site. But interesting or not, we decided we needed some fresh air and off to the valley we went.

Another old temple

We explored the villages of Nargakot, Dhulikhel and Namabuddha in the Kathmandu Valley. These villages, connected by beautiful, indigenous forests are largely inhabited by small farmers - a lovely rejuvenating way to spend a few days. Dave was most interested in the small tractors used here that would suit small South African farmers. They cost the equivalent of about R5000 and would be fantastic for the small farmers in South Africa who have only large tractors costing hundreds of thousands of Rands to choose from. This access to equipment and skills reminded us, once again, of the significantly more fortunate position the Asian farmers are in relative to our own small farmers back home (these mini-tractors are also strong water pumps, can mill maize/wheat and can be used as electricity generators).

Hiking from Nagakot to Dhulikel

The terraced farmlands around the Kathmandu Valley

The mini-tractor Dave would love to import into South Africa

In between exploring the beautiful forests of the Kathmandu Valley we sought out hotels with spectacular mountain views where sunrise over the Himalayas comes with your morning tea in bed.

The Himalayas from our bedroom window in Nargakot

Although it is largely a Hindu country, Nepal is dotted with many modern and well built Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. With many financial supporters worldwide, the monasteries are large and well maintained. In Namabuddha we stayed in a monastery where the rooms are comfortable (single beds only) and the vegetarian food bland with a few western spiritual tourists padding solemnly and quietly around the beautifully sculptured gardens.

The Tibetan Buddhist monastery complex in Namabuddha

Then it was back to Kathmandu to find out about our visas and negotiate our next (albeit smaller) unexpected speed bump. We'd been issued with new visas for India but only for 3 months. Because a 3 month visa would only take us to mid-March, we decided to book tickets to fly to Sri Lanka for what would be the remaining 2.5 months of our traveling year. Whew! That one didn’t leave too much whiplash but we needed to get going. The 3 month reduction in our time in India meant we had to start cutting out large areas that we’d plan to visit. Just as we were reconciling ourselves to the change in plans there was one more speed bump in the road: a nationwide strike or ‘bandha’ had been declared by the Nepalese Maoist party which completely shut down the entire country…and REALLY shut it down. No motorized transport of any kind – public or private, no schools, government offices, companies, shops or restaurants were to operate for 3 days. So we were stuck in Kathmandu for another 3 days twiddling our thumbs, searching for food with other starving tourists and hanging out in the streets with the kids playing cricket. It became a treasure hunt with other tourists to see who could find any hidden restaurants or street vendors that might be open and serving food… “Around the corner, down the little alleyway, find the freshly painted red fence and knock twice…”

Filling up when you can!

"Score! I found the dessert!"

Although the strike slowed us down when we'd already lost a significant amount of time, we symphathised with the position of the Maoist party. After a tumultuous period in the country's political history, they were trying to assert themselves in a government where the respect for democratic processes was still rather less than optimal.

No rubbish collection during the strike

After the 3 day strike we made our plans to head back to India after seeing a little bit of the Pokhara valley in the west and experiencing some good views of Everest. Only because climbing Everest would take just a little longer than our Nepali visa would allow, we decided to see Sagarmatha (the Nepali name for Everest which means Goddess of the Sky) in a quicker (and slightly more relaxing) way on a 60 minute mountain flight tour. We were lucky with the weather and the views in flight were clear and spectacular. Everyone is allowed a visit to the flight deck – I won’t even try to describe the views from there, my writing abilities just don’t stretch that far. Sagarmatha was beautiful and graceful in her trademark white silk scarf – a plume of cloud that forms at the apex of the peak when winds reach over 80kms an hour and form icicles in the cold air.

Sagamartha, her silk scarf billowing in the wind

Next we took a bus ride west to see Pokhara, the second biggest city in Nepal, this would be our last stop in Nepal. Pokhara is a laidback town, surrounding a pretty lake. We even managed to find some roast chicken and pudding for Xmas dinner while watching a live performance of traditional Nepali dance and music.

The lake in Pokhara

After Pokhara, that was it for Nepal and we headed straight back to India. We arrived back in Darjeeling the following day. It was lovely to see our friends again from the Hotel Tranquility, who had so kindly been taking care of our bike while we were away. Because we'd been moving from place to place for so many months, it was wonderful to return to a familiar place where we were warmly welcomed by so many friends, knew the best breakfast spot (Sonam's Kitchen) and the cafes with the fastest internet. But it was freezing... FREEZING! We'd long discarded the warm clothes we'd had in the North and with all the speed bumps we were now in Darjeeling a lot later than we'd originally intended. Only gnawing hunger drove us out to find dinner before rushing back to the hotel and our 5 blankets. It just got unbearable and while we would have liked to spend new year's eve with our friends there, we decided to just get to the South quickly! The snow was thickening on the hills when we left and with chattering teeth we gratefully bordered the train to Kolkata (Calcutta) and welcomed in the new year in our warm sleeper carriage.

Our favourite spot for delicious street food in Kolkata

Kolkata was another familiar city to us and we spent the 2 days we had to wait for the train to Chennai revisiting our favourite street food spots and meeting up with our friend Mishrah, who you'd remember from our very first blog.

Hanging out with Mishrah

The Botanical Gardens in Kolkata are well maintained and filled with families over the weekends. Its most fascinating feature is the massive banyan tree in the centre of the gardens which, with a circumference of 420 metres, is the world largest. We learnt that banyan trees have branches that grow into the ground like tree trunks so that what looks like a forest of trees is really just one tree with hundreds of branches. It is an awesome sight and the pictures, that can show only small sections, do it little justice.

This 'forest of tree trunks' are all branches of the same banyan tree!

A small part of the massive tree from a distance - yes, it's all one tree!

After 2 days we boarded the train to Chennai in Tamil Nadu that would take us to the heart of South India where the landscape, food and culture seems as different from the North as if we'd gone to another country altogether. Because there was some political upheaval in the state between Kolkata and Chennai, our bike, which we'd loaded into cargo, wasn't due to arrive for another few days. We decided not to let this slow us down again and left the busy and fairly uninteresting city of Chennai for the coastal town of Mamalapuram, just 60 kms south. Although it is mainly a tourist resort town today, Mamlapuram was a major port a thousand years ago with a stone carving tradition that has survived since the 5th century. The old stone carved ruins are as fascinating as the contemporary idols still hand carved carved today for the many temples around the area.

Stone carvings in Mamalapuram

While the ruins and temples in Mamalapuram were interesting, the beach was pretty uninspiring so, as soon as our bike arrived, we left to pick it up in Chennai and start our exploration of the south in earnest. Our first stop was the old French colonial town of Puducherry (Pondicherry) where it is common to hear French spoken around you while enjoying your breakfast of fresh croissants in quaint old heritage buildings. It is a well maintained and clean town but after filling up with croissants and visiting the museums, it has little else to delay a traveler except for a trip, 10kms south, to the now fairly well known town of Auroville. Although Aurovillians are said to dislike this fact: the town, that was founded in 1968 by the "Mother", has become a de rigueur stop on the South India travel circuit.

The Matri Mandir temple at Auroville - a place for 'concetration' only open to Aurovillians

A new way of living along eco-friendly principles, forsaking the world of politics and the money economy was envisioned by the "Mother" a French national who is considered the spiritual successor of Sri Aurobindo Ghose, a leading spiritual figure in his lifetime (1872-1950). It is now inhabited by over 2000 people, of which about a third are Indian and the rest mostly European. The aim is to grow the township to around 50 000 like minded inhabitants. We were most interested in finding out about the technologies they employ that convert solar energy into steam that powers the cooking stoves. When we visited the township we were also fascinated at the claim that no money was used in financial transactions, no talking was allowed at meals and politics is specifically forbidden as a topic of discussion. We tried to find a guesthouse to stay for a few days and explore this new age experiment in living but the some 200 guesthouses were fully booked and would be for months. Living and volunteering on Auroville's many farms and various community centres has become very popular indeed.

In retrospect, we were probably quite likely to make some faux pas breaking a sacred rule like talking at dinner or bringing up a forbidden political topic for discussion! So we happily headed south west to check out some of Tamil Nadu's many temples. The first of which was the awesome temple complex in Trinivanumalai, that is said to have been built over a period of a thousand years. The temples are busy with long queues of devotees making pujas (offerings) to their gods and getting blessings from elephants, considered to be the incarnation of the elephant-headed god, Ganesh. This is a rather entertaining process where the elephant takes the money out of your hand and taps you on the head for your blessing.

The temple complex in Trinivanumalai

Lord Ganesh in his temple

With blessings duly received we hit the road towards the Western Ghats enjoying the typical Indian rice meals served in the local restaurants. A mound of rice is served on a banana leaf plate with a range of mouthwateringly delicious curries of lentils, coconut milk, chickpeas, beans, carrots, potatoes and pickle that has to be eaten with your hands - you are rarely offered cutlery of any kind. The rice and curry sauces keep coming until you submit with a swollen belly - all for a total sum of about R6 (for an extra R2 you can get a piece of fresh fish cooked in a masala batter).

Our first stop on the Western Ghats was Udhagamandalam, a hill station town with a Dravidian tongue twisting name, that the locals have mercifully shortened to "Ooty". The Western Ghats are a mountain range that form the border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala and are thought to be the fault line along which the Indian subcontinent broke away from Africa millions of years ago when it began to drift towards Asia.

A typical South Indian 'rice meal' served on a banana leaf plate (curry still to be poured over the rice)

Being an elevated hill station town, Ooty was cool and refreshing after the sweaty bike rides on the plains around Tamil Nadu. Our next stop was to the very badly run, albeit beautiful nature reserve, the Indira Ghandi Anamalai Wildlife Sanctuary. There we met other tourists frustrated by the government run resort where the employees are rather annoyed by any guests arriving and making them open the guest rooms or actually cook any food in the restaurant. So we cut that visit down to just one night and headed to our last stop in the Western Ghats, Kodanaikal.

A view of the Ooty hill station town

View from the bike of the Kodanaikal valley

Before leaving Tamil Nadu for good, we decided to fit in one more temple site at Madurai. Although similar in architecture to the temple at Trinivanumalai, the temple in Madurai differed spectacularly in the colour added to the figures on the buildings. Madurai's splendid temples and architecture was admired as far back as 300BCE by visiting Europeans and they still come to admire it today, in their droves.

The colourful temple at Madurai

From Madurai we crossed the state border to Kerala. Our first stop was Kumily where we enjoyed novel elephant rides and very educational tours of the spice, tea and fruit plantations around the area. Indian elephants are tame and gentle with a look in their big eyes more like that of a Saint Bernhard pet than anything like their wild African cousins. We saw: a tea factory in action, what coffee beans look like when they're ready for picking, that turmeric spice is ground from the stem of the plant and that almond oil is good for reducing black marks under the eyes.

Riding a big friendly giant

Catching falling oranges on a small fruit and spice plantation in Kumily

Picking coffee beans

A traditional bamboo hut in the forest at Kumily

After all that education, we were ready to cool off at the beach. We headed straight for the Keralan coast to Varkala where the beaches have (clean) black sand and coconut-laden palm trees line the red cliffs that plunge into a warm and gentle sea. Nothing to do but watch the fisherman haul in fresh fish for your dinner while resting in between hours of body-surfing fun.

Paradise

What more can I say...

After bodysurfing for 3 hours: "well really, it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it..."

Waiting for breakfast to be served at our hotel in Varkala

Having spent a few glorious days working hard at those body-surfing skills, we reluctantly left Varkala for the Keralan backwaters. We were well rewarded for our sacrifice by the serene beauty and interesting life of the villages that dot the area. The backwaters are made up of water from 38 rivers that pool into 5 lakes, connected by numerous canals. This is the setting of Arundhati Roy's book "The God of Small Things". We found a delightful and amazingly well preserved guesthouse in a hundred year old colonial heritage home. We took some time to enjoy the luxury of the our room and the beautiful garden before organising to explore the backwaters by canoe.

Our beautiful heritage homestay in Allepey

Kids off to their waterside school

Quiet life on the Backwaters

A typical Backwaters' homestead

Exploring the small canals by canoe

Our Backwaters guide with his wife outside their home

At the northern most point of the Backwaters lies the entertaining town of Fort Cochin. An important European trading town in the 16^th century, it has well preserved old buildings (and some not so well preserved) that tell the tale of a past with a vibrant Jewish community, trade with the Far East and Dutch architectural influence. The museums relay a fascinating history of a royal dynasty of matriarchal control where the eldest woman in the family had absolute control over the property and the line of monarchs was passed to their sister's children. Women covered their bodies only from the waist down, a practice that was to continue into the 19^th century until it was changed through European puritanical custom.

The photogenic seaside area in Fort Cochin is lined with Chinese fishing nets, said to have been brought by traders from the court of Kublai Khan, and are still used today in exactly the same way they were then. In the evenings we were entertained with Kathakali plays, traditional Keralan theatre that involves elaborate costumes and make up sessions that take hours are done on stage for the audience before the show begins. No words are spoken between the actors who interact instead with a complicated series of facial and body gestures to tell the story.

Video: Chinese fishing nets

The 2-hour long make-up session in preparation for the evening's theatre performance

Video: A scene from a Kathakali play

Satisfied that we’d fully explored Fort Cochin, we headed north towards the popular backpacker town of Hampi, with a short stop on the way at Mysore. Mysore takes first prize for the loveliest Indian city we’ve experienced. The roads are large, well laid out boulevards with little of the lung choking pollution and traffic jams we’ve come to expect from Indian cities. Its markets are vibrant and colourful and a pleasure to explore. The city is dominated by the beautiful and opulent Wadiya palace that descendants of the royal family still lay claim to. As museums and monuments go in India, it is perfectly preserved with no flash photography allowed to spoil the many intricate paintings and there are audio guides (nogal!) available for foreigners with a level of quality and quantity of information comparable to that of any major European museum.

The opulent Wadiya palace

Video: The very busy flower and spice market

Next stop, and the place where we’ve written this blog, was Hampi, a town of many contrasts. Semi desert hills covered in mounds of giant boulders, like stones that have been dropped off at a building site, incongruously form the backdrop to water logged rice paddies and a large fresh water lake and reservoir. Hampi town reached its peak between the 14^th and 16^th centuries when its inhabitants constructed buildings and laid infrastructure said to rival that of Rome. 2600 temples were built in its heyday from a government tax budget that spent 50% on the army, a whopping 25% on temples and only 25% on the general well-being of the population. Few temples remain intact but the exhausting number of ruins provide much archeological entertainment for tourists who can bear the swelteringly hot days touring around the town.

On arrival in Hampi we were shocked to learn that the bridge had collapsed and the only way to cross to the river was in a woven bamboo basket – motorbike and all. We were doubtful that our 250kg bike would make it in this makeshift vessel and when our turn came to cross, we were further alarmed by the boatman loading yet another bike onto the flimsy looking vessel and then 6 more people!

Video: River crossing in a woven bamboo basket

Whew! made it!

Chilling out in Hampi

Hampi’s chilled out vibe, backpacker filled restaurants and fresh water lake that provides the perfect antidote to the afternoon heat, has proven very hard to leave and the days have easily, and very pleasurably, just been slipping away. We hope to drag ourselves away tomorrow after 11 glorious days. Most nights have been spent socialising into the early hours with only one early wake up day for the pilgrimage to Hanuman Temple, the birthplace of the Monkey God, to see the sunrise. The temple is inhabited by very naughty monkeys that are very entertaining – especially when trying to search you for any bananas you may have hidden in your pockets. The only protection from which are the temple dogs that the monkey in the picture below is hoping Dave will protect it from.

Stone chariot sculpture (Hampi)

The Lotus Mahal - a mixture of Hindu and Muslim architecture

The Ugra Narasimha, a representation of Lord Vishnu - the biggest idol in Hampi

Another one of the 2600 ruins and temples in Hampi

Sunrise over Hampi town at Hanuman temple

"Can't get this monkey off my lap.."

Hanging out at the lake

Sunset at the lake with the girls

Cooling off in the fresh water

Cool banana!

Next stop Goa...