South India - October 2019 - Part 1

Here is part one of a diary of our South India holiday. We are traveling with Brenda and Anthony Atkinson on a trip arranged by Trinetra Tours — the wonderful company we traveled with in north India in 2012.

Tuesday 15

• 9:15 PM take-off from Philadelphia for a 12 hour flight to Doha, Qatar in the Persian Gulf. Very full plane with people going everywhere in Africa, India and the Far East.
• Meals on the plane are chicken or vegetarian – no pork (Muslims) or beef (Hindus).
• Video screens show various reminders including “Please stay in your seat when praying”
• Flight info maps always show the direction to Mecca, so you know what direction to face when you are praying in your seat.

Wednesday 16

• Arrived in Doha at 4:15 PM after 12 hour flight plus 7 hour time difference.
• When flying over the Turkish-Syrian border the plane took a big detour to avoid the zone of conflict between the Kurds and the Turks.
• Doha Airport is huge and modern with really interesting design and artwork, including a giant yellow teddy bear that is a major landmark. We were lucky to have access to a very comfortable premium lounge. 
• Took off from Doha at 7:30 for Bangalore. It was already dark. Where did Wednesday go?
• The plane had to make another detour to avoid United Arab Emirates airspace, as they are in a dispute with Qatar at present. 

Thursday 17

• Arrived in Bangalore at 2:30 AM, found our driver, who was holding up a “Mr and Mrs Atkinson” sign, and got to our swanky hotel a bit before 4:00 AM….crashed out immediately
• Got up half an hour before the end of breakfast at 10 AM and met up with Brenda and Anthony, who had arrived at 6:00 AM. 
• Spent the rest of the day loafing around.
• The hotel was modern and zealously guarded. They examined the underside of the car for bombs with a mirror, and put all our bags through a scanner. They want to avoid a recurrence of the Bombay hotel attacks in 2008.
• Sandy went out to find an ATM. Bangalore has the worst imaginable traffic, with drivers turning two or three lane roads into 10 or 12 lanes of honking cars, scooters, bikes and tuk-tuks. Sidewalks are almost impassable with broken concrete, trash, low hanging trees, and dangling electric wires. This made any expedition on foot somewhat hazardous and noisy. 
• We had to enter the local mall through a metal detector and each submit to a wand scanner, females in a curtained off area. The McDonald’s has veggie burgers and spicy burgers on its menu — no beef.

Friday 18

• After a splendid breakfast of western and Indian food, we started our tour of the city. We were surprised that our tour company had provided two cars, each with its own driver and guide, but we went along with it.
• Bangalore is a city of over 10 million, and displays all the contrasts you would expect in a huge city, with both glistening high-rises and grinding poverty.
• We visited several of the main sights, including the extensive and beautiful Botanic Gardens with impressive trees, sculptured tree trunks, beautiful flowers and birds…and monkeys!
• We are re-acquainting ourselves with Indian food, though South India has many of its own specialities including a wide range of fruits and vegetables, and fish. They have a delicious crispy crepe called a dosa, which comes with various fillings, and is accompanied by spicy chutneys and a small bowl of a fiery soup called sambar.
• One really nice feature of Bangalore is the large number of trees, which are encouraged by the mild climate and the regular rainfall, including huge rain-trees from Brazil. 
• The weather is pleasant — mild and not too hot, with occasional heavy showers. We are at the end of the rainy season.

Saturday 19

• Today we drove from Bangalore to Mysore – still in two cars. Hours of driving out of the sprawling city through new suburbs and navigating past interminable construction sites for a new metro-rail system which will mainly be above-ground on raised pillars. Bangalore will have to improve its roads and railways soon or it will choke on its own success.
• After the city, the road took us past fields of rice, sugar cane, and other unidentifiable crops. At one point the road was so congested with trucks (over)loaded with sugar cane that the police directed us along a narrow single-lane country road that soon degenerated into a gravel track.
• In the big city all the signs were in English and the local language, Kannada, plus sometimes Hindi. Out in the country everything is in the strange complex loopy script of Kannada only.

 

• We stopped at a shack in the countryside where they process sugar cane into jaggery - unrefined sugar blocks used in Indian cooking. They squeeze the sugar cane to release the juice, which is then boiled down in a huge vat until it is semi-solid. The fire is stoked with dried sugar cane fiber from the squeezing process, and the ash from the fire is used as fertilizer — nothing is wasted. It Is hard, back-breaking work, especially on a hot day. The semi-solid boiled sugar is dyed orange and poured into wooden molds to create square blocks of jaggery that are sold in the market.
• There are many ponds and muddy patches with water birds – ibises, herons, cormorants and kingfishers.
• On the way we also visited an extraordinary ancient temple of Kesava made of intricately carved soapstone with wonderfully expressive statues of gods, goddesses, people, animals and birds, all telling traditional stories for people who could not read.
• We eventually reached the well-ordered city of Mysore, once the home of a dynasty of Maharajas who were some of the richest people in the world. They owned a local goldmine, and a silk factory built specially for the Maharani. Our hotel was over 100 years old and modestly restored, which means early 20^thcentury “luxury”, a slightly damp feeling, antiquated plumbing, WiFi, antique furniture and many, many uniformed flunkies. It was charming, if a little in need of further updating.
• Problem solved — our tour company had made a mistake and had confused Brenda and Anthony Atkinson with another family called Atkinson who are doing a tour of South India at about the same time as us. Somehow their driver and car had been assigned to us — hence the two vehicles. From now on we will have only one car and driver.
• At 6 PM we met our delightful and educated guide for an evening walk round the city, where she introduced us to some of the complex history, the Maharaja’s palace, and a very old coffee house with delicious coffee made with added chicory and sweetened milk. Our enthusiastic guide was a young Muslim woman who has a degree in engineering, has started her own fashion business, but is, in the opinion of her mother, already on the shelf at 23 years old. Her mother is anxious to find her a suitable husband, but has a divergent view of suitable characteristics from her daughter. We had a long and interesting conversation over our coffee and masala chai.
• When trying to cross the chaotic and crowded streets safely we are advised to “walk like a cow”, oblivious to the risks.
• We were pleasantly surprised by the hotel restaurant where we had dinner: the food was excellent with many imaginative vegetarian dishes, and the prices were ridiculously low — $22 for two with drinks and tips.
• Sunday 20
• A day for the sights of Mysore, with an interesting guide.   
• First, up the local mountain to visit a huge granite statue of Nandi —the bull ridden by the god Shiva and very popular with Hindus. The statue is in immaculate condition and looks almost new, although it is over 350 years old. There was a great view over the city.
• Next, to the Mysore Palace, which is apparently the most visited monument in India. The $1.00 entrance fee helps. The palace is a bizarre and gigantic structure that has a lot in common with a Victorian railway station. Not surprising as it was designed by a British architect in the 1890’s. The palace was full of art depicting a famous annual parade held in Mysore with thousands of participants including the Maharajah sitting on an elephant in a 350 kilo pure gold howdah, also on display. There was a portrait gallery of many of the well-fed Maharajahs and their consorts — they were a miserable looking lot, despite their unimaginable wealth.

• There are still active elephant stables at the palace, and we could see several of the female elephants at a distance.
• Next, we drove out of town to see the fort where the British fought and killed Tipu Sultan in 1799. He was an upstart who had ousted the Maharajah for a while and had formed an alliance with Napoleon. Our guide gave us a detailed account of the complex history of alliances, betrayals, kidnappings, murder and battles — too many names, dates, and facts to remember.
• Our last stop of the day was at the grave of Tipu Sultan, who is still a hero to local Muslims. His grave is quite impressive with a miniature replica of the Taj Mahal built over his tomb.
• It was a long day, but not over yet. In the evening we went on a guided walk round the well-organized market which had sections devoted to beautifully arranged fruit of many varieties and  a separate section devoted to bananas, which come in many shapes, sizes and flavors. Also eco-friendly banana leaf plates and cups. There are also sections for flower garlands, and for vegetables. The final stop of the night was back at the palace, which is lit up every Sunday night with 68,000 old-style light bulbs. It is an astounding sight — Disney on steroids.

Monday 21

• We drove from Mysore to the old British hill station of Ooty. The name is an anglicized abbreviation of a long and complicated Tamil name.    
• The journey there was wonderful as much of it was in a large national park completely protected from hunting or forestry. We saw many lovely birds, large herds of spotted deer, and, best of all, a beautiful brown elephant munching contentedly a few yards from the road. Tigers also inhabit the forest, preying on the deer, but we saw no sign of them.
• The final approach to Ooty was up a steep twisting road with 36 hairpin bends, thoughtfully numbered so you can keep track of your progress. Unfortunately it started to rain heavily so we could not see much, though we did spot quite a lot of elephant droppings on the road.
• Ooty is a typically chaotic Indian town, but with brightly colored houses, and small fields of vegetables everywhere. One of the main industries is growing vegetables, especially carrots, cabbages and other cool weather crops.
• Our hotel is at the top of the town, with impressive views. We were slightly perturbed to see several large buses of school children arrive soon after we did. It is a holiday week here, with Diwali next Sunday, and the 200 children were on a school trip and staying one night at the hotel — 4 to a room. However, we were upgraded to two huge suites on the top floor of the hotel, well separated from the other rooms. Our suites have a large bedroom, an even larger living room with fireplace, tables and chairs, a walk-in closet, 2 TV sets, and a large bathroom. We rattle around.
• The downpour stopped at about 4 PM and we went for a walk to a famous award-winning government rose garden run by the Indian Department of Agriculture, with over 3000 varieties of roses. The roses were a bit sad looking after the beating they had taken from the rain, but it is nevertheless worth a visit with well laid out terraces on the steep hillside.

Part 2             Photos