Days 37, 38, 39 - Andrew

We had a 10.30pm overnight train to Chennai (aka Madras), so we spent the day at Ashtamudi Villas relaxing. David and I played chess on our nice new board with carved wooden pieces that we bought in Delhi. Megan conquered her fear of falling coconuts and lay in a hammock. I blitzed Trip Advisor with reviews of all the places we'd stayed and eaten at. We took a rickshaw to the station to leave our luggage, found they only accept locked suitcases, took all our packs on another rickshaw to the Wok & Grill, where we were greeted like long lost friends ("and don't forget to write about us on Trip Advisor"). We picked up supplies for breakfast at the next-door supermarket and returned to the railway station. The train arrived on time - like Mussolini, the Communist state government in Kerala seems much better at keeping to timetables than they are in the north - and got varying degrees of sleep as the train headed east to Chennai.

We arrived at 11am, found our hotel after some searching in the back streets and headed out for the shopping malls. The general idea was souvenirs for friends and family but instead - sorry everyone - we discovered a sports shoe store with Nikes for NZ$35. No Laxon (or Johnston) could go past that. The staff seemed a bit stunned as we bought shoes for everyone, plus a few extras. For our last night we went to the Raintree restaurant at the Taj Connemara Hotel, one of the old-style Raj buildings in Chennai. It was a stunning meal, sort of South Indian degustation. David and I had the thali, which is usually rice with a few accompanying bowls of curry. This one had noodles, bread and six different dipping sauces, plus starters, soup and dessert. As for the cocktails, Heather declared her mojito was the best she'd ever tasted, which is really saying something. There was a ritual round-the-table poll of what we enjoyed most about India and what we were looking forward to most about being back home.

The results were

Joanna: The beach at Goa/my room.

Megan: The art and taking photos/seeing my friends again.

Heather: Sharing India with my children/sharing a bed with Andrew (good to hear).

Andrew: Goa, with a highly commended to Kerala and the Himalayas/playing tennis again (Heather seemed slightly offended by this).

David: Travelling in general and having new experiences every day/drinking water straight from the tap.

I'm finishing this off on the plane as we fly back from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur, where we will hopefully we get wifi to post it. Thanks to everyone who stuck with us - especially our most prolific correspondents, Anne and Kaila - we're looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Pictures: Heather at Ashtamudi Villas, Megan and Joanna with jasmine garlands at the Raintree restaurant, family pack shot (you can work out who's who).

Day 36 - Joanna

This morning we had to get up at about 7 because we were being picked up to go on a boat trip to Munroe Island at 7:30. Of course Megan and I were running late because she forgot to set the alarm the night before and as a result we both overslept. Somehow we all made it into the autos on time and headed off to our boat. I can't say how long it took to get there but it was quite a way. At one point we crossed the river on a barge before continuing on land again. We stopped outside a house and met our guide, who showed us the canoe we were going in. One of the auto drivers came with us as he had better English than the boat "driver". I say "driver" because it wasn't so much driving as pushing the canoe forward using a long bamboo stick. They showed us trees and plants along the way and told us the names, but mostly it was quiet as we absorbed the peaceful atmosphere. It was remarkable, we couldn't hear any traffic at all. The canals we travelled along were quite small, and they wound through the villages, so we got a glimpse of what it would be like to live there. It was quite funny though, now and then we would pass under bridges or through tunnels and they were quite short so we would all have to kneel down in the boat and crouch so that we didn't hit our heads. We stopped briefly to have some chai and look at some plants in the gardens. Fun fact: pineapples DO NOT actually grow on trees, contrary to popular belief. They actually grow out of a kind of bush like thing on the ground. We also were shown a brand new canoe that had just been made and our guides explained the process a bit. We hopped back in our canoe and soon after the ride was finished. We thanked the man who took us and got back in the autos. On the way back to our accomodation the drivers took us to see the elephant that lived in a temple in town. It was funny seeing a huge elephant in the middle of civilisation, so that was fun. After that we went back to the villas and wasted the afternoon away. The day drifted, and I think that Megan and I in particular are pretty ready to go home. Two more days....

Day 35 - Heather

We had a very lazy start to our day, reading and relaxing in hammocks. We decided to head into Kollam to do some exploring in the afternoon. Our host very kindly offered to drop us off at the beach. Our first stop was the local fish market, where the day's catch was being sold as the boats returned - there was a variety of fish being sold of varying sizes - we saw a couple of large swordfish. Then it had been suggested by our host that we head down the beach to the local lighthouse. The walk there was pretty grim.  On the beach were were a large number of woven huts/tents where the fishers and their families lived and surrounding these were large piles of stinking rubbish - it was as though the community had decided to dump all their rubbish where these people lived. 

The lighthouse was painted with traditional red and white stripes and was beautifully maintained. Andrew and David climbed to the top and both returned saying that it was very steep and scary. By this time it was very hot and the kids were reluctant to walk any further so we all squashed into an auto rickshaw and headed to the local beach - let's just say it was covered in rubbish and despite there being people there it felt very desolate.  By the time we had walked for about 3 km around Kollam trying to locate a functioning ATM we were all in agreement that Kollam town was grotty.  The redeeming feature of our visit to town was having a yummy dinner at a great restaurant we found (on Tripadvisor - some recommendations are accurate!!)

We were very glad to get back to our beautiful, peaceful lakeside bungalows.

Day 34 - Andrew

Catching the 10.30am boat to Kollam was a little more challenging than we expected. None of the rickshaw drivers seemed to understand "boat" or "Kollam" and the one who did took us to be wrong boat jetty. Fortunately the boatman there knew where we needed to go and led us there himself. The boat was full of other Western - or possibly Russian - tourists. Once we started moving we were allowed to go up onto the top deck, which had a much better view. We headed out from the town centre along a fairly narrow canal and then turned right onto a much wider canal, as if we were joining the motorway. A sign said Kollam 82km, with an arrow, just like a road sign. After that it was hard to understand the logic of where we were going or whether we were on the main drag or not. Sometimes we veered off down narrow canals where two boats could pass comfortably on the calm green waters but you wouldn't want a third. Sometimes the canals opened into large blue-grey lakes. Since we weren't doing the navigation, so we could just sit back and enjoy the view. At the beginning there were dozens of large house boats, some built like miniature cruise ships but in the style of a modernised Chinese junk. We also passed a lot of beautifully painted, well-kept but modest houses, which - as regular followers of this blog will know - is not a common sight in India. Was prawn farming more lucrative than we thought? Could they be weekend baches for rich people from the city? Or, most likely, had they been done up to hire out to strange rich Westerners, who liked living in country cottages when they could afford a mansion?

The boat stopped for lunch at a small restaurant, which served thalis and not much else. Being good cheapskate Kiwis, we had brought our own lunch, including a pineapple which Heather attempted to cut using my 30-year-old pocket knife with a loose blade. We decided to finish the pineapple on the boat. We beat the Russians to the chairs in the shade and enjoyed the afternoon ride. Towards the end we passed some kind of mining operation which seemed to be discharging its pollutants straight back into the canal and a series of villages which also seemed to use the canal as a rubbish dump. As the kids have pointed out in previous posts, you get a lot of this. And despite reading the excellent "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" (great non-fiction book about life in a Mumbai airport slum, thanks Andrew Stone) I'm still none the wiser. Excel to say that a lot of other villages didn't do this, so it's not inevitable.

We came out onto Lake Ashtamudi, which looks like it has islands everywhere. As far as I can see, it's actually all mainland but the lake is like a series of fingers which creates the illusion. The boat dropped us off at Ashtamudi Villas, which is at the water's edge. It has a beautiful green garden, full of palm trees and string hammocks, with brick bungalows behind. Feeling very tired after our day on the boat, we showered, ate and went to bed.

Pictures, from top (no one else believes in captions but I do); Our boat in Alleppy, Megan at the front, typical canal view, boats at our lunch stop, sunset and church on Lake Ashtamudi.

 

Day 32- Megan

They day started after waking up on our overnight train, after a kind of restful night- on the plus side no one had to share a bed. We arrived at Ernakullem train station half an hour early :0 madness!! (Slow clap for India) then we caught a ferry to Cochin where we arrived at a cute Homestay, and were greeted by the mosquitoes immediately after arriving. After lathering ourselves in mosquito repellent we headed out to this cute little cafe called the Teapot. The cafe had an extensive range of teas and was decorated with art, china tea cabinets and our table was fake tree branches balancing a circular plate of glass. After our rooms were ready a rest and shower were in order after travelling on a night train, before going along the waterfront to look at the Chinese fishing nets, which were huge but didn't have much catch due to it being the wrong season. We each got turns pulling in the nets using a cantilever system, and to take photos- but of course nothing's free in India so we had to give a small donation, which judging from the amount of fish they caught didn't seem too unreasonable. One of the highlights from looking round Cochin was all the cool street art and European style alleyways. There are lots of arty places in India which has opened my eyes to different styles of art and has inspired me for my year ahead, hopefully I am going to paint and use my photos for my art. 

Dad found a place for us to eat dinner, which was supposedly rated number 2 on Tripadviser in Cochin. Don't always trust Tripadviser, it can be misleading. The best food we usually eat is rates 6th or 7th purely because people rate places on atmosphere and wifi, not food. In India good food is essential and comes before wifi and atmosphere, we know this due to how many times each of us has been sick. Anyway this place was packed with tourists expecting great food when the place was pretty average and the food was boring and cold.. Yuck. So we went to the art cafe for desert since no one ate much and it was great (I originally suggested this place for dinner but got turned down, parents learnt their lesson - always listen to Megan).

Day 33 - Heather

Another early morning - we were woken by the Muslim prayer call at 5.40 am.  However this morning we needed to be up at 6 am for our bike ride.  Our guide met us with the bikes at 6.30 am and we set off heading south along coastal roads towards Alleppey.  It was a really pleasant time of day to be riding and we soon got into the swing of things avoiding potholes, staying out of the way of scooters, rickshaws, buses and trucks and using our bike bells to let others know we were there.  In the early morning the many Catholic Churches enroute were having morning mass which was broadcast via loudspeakers and we passed fish auctions on the side of the road where the mornings catch was being sold.

We were soon into the backwaters area where we were surrounded by large areas of water with strips of land running through them.  We stopped at an old villa,which was built in the style of a monastery, for a breakfast of fresh fruit, muesli, puri, potato curry, toast and homemade banana jam. Feeling completely stuffed we set off again. At one point we left our bikes and hopped into a large canoe for a trip out onto one of the lake areas where the locals fished from and cultivated prawns. Our boatman took us to his house and demonstrated his Chinese fishing net and showed us his catch from that morning which consisted of 2 large crabs.  Then it was back on our bikes for the last part of the ride - by this time it was midday and very warm - we were all glad to get to the end of our journey as our bottoms were feeling a little saddle sore. We had covered 40 km so felt pleased with ourselves and felt ready to hop in the car for the rest of the journey to Alleppey.

We are staying in another very nice homestay.  Alleppey is a big noisy town which is the starting point for many of the backwater trips. After the laid back pace of Goa and Cochin it feels very chaotic. We will be glad to head off tomorrow via boat to Kollam.

Days 28,29,30&31- David

The beach we were staying at was nothing you'd find in NZ. The thousands of tourists on the long curved bay lined themselves up on the masses of wooden loungers, trying to get the best angle of the sun for tanning. As soon as the beach ended, open front restaurants began, lined up side by side with their "Coco-Huts" accomodation behind. In the water there were a few bits of rubbish here and there but it could have been a lot worse so I'm glad we're staying at this beach which is supposed to be one of the best for families like us in Goa. The beach had very nice western restaurants and not too many people came up to you and hassle you to come in their shop. I sorta got the feeling that the South is more relaxed and chill than the North. I think that 4 nights here is just what we need after 4 weeks of trains, buses, some really bad hotels, rubbish and hassle. I'm not going to describe every day because it would take to long and every day was pretty similar. So instead I'll just describe one average day in detail.

Dad, Mum and I awoke to the dawn chorus of crows (not so nice) and decided it was time for running/swimming/breakfast. Dad joined me in the water to cool off while mum watched us from over her mug of ginger lemon honey tea. After a satisfying breakfast (they do really good muesli with fresh fruit and curd, which tasted like back home) the sisters arrived and ate their fill. We got into our togs and headed down towards the beach (which is a 10 metre walk) to sunbathe, swim and read. At tenish some of us went down to the book store to exchange books while Mum Megan and I bought little gifts for friends at a cute little shop, also stopping off to buy mango and papaya (which we devoured later in the day). We did nothing except those described activities until lunch, home made chicken burgers and fries for some, fresh fruit salad for others. After lunch we sunbathed, swam and read on the beach, sometimes getting a drink of it got too hot. At around 4 we retired to our rooms and lay down in the hammocks, had a snooze/read and had showers. At sevenish we had mock tails/cocktails by the beach and headed out to a very nice small European restaurant run by a really friendly British guy (they actually had a tiki on the wall which we asked about; a kiwi couple had their wedding reception there 4 years ago so they gave it to him as a gift). We all agree that Ourem 88 (this place) had the best European food we had in India. We even had desert as they did crême brûlée (my favourite) and chocolate foundant which was truly delicious. Then it was time to spread out the mosquito nets in the cute little huts and go to bed.

On day 31 we caught an overnight train to Cochin, Kerala, which actually came in on time and got there early!

Days 26&27 - Andrew

A quiet day as David was feeling sick again. (Yes, he's pretty over it too.) We dropped a planned visit to Old Goa in the afternoon, to the girls' delight. Who needs 17th century ruins when you can watch movies in the hotel all afternoon? I wandered round and took some photos. That evening we had dinner at the Black Sheep Bistro, which is like a slice of Ponsonby Rd dropped into India - superb European-style food at ridiculously cheap prices. I can feel a Trip Advisor review coming on...

This morning we took two local buses to get to Palolem Beach, our home for the next four nights. By Goan standards this beach is relatively unspoilt, which means from a Kiwi point of view it is lined with wall-to-wall accommodation and restaurants, full of European tourists who've flown out to escape the northern winter for a few weeks. After weeks on the road and often off the beaten track, it feels like Tourist City. But the beach is beautiful, the water is just cool enough to take the edge off the 30 degree heat and the food and drinks are great. Plus Joanna and I walked to the book exchange and got new books and Megan discovered cheap Magnums at the local dairy. There may not be much to say for a few days.

Here are some pictures of Panaji/Panjim.

Day 24 & 25 - Heather

This morning the air was crisp and the sky clear and we were able to see Udaipur without haze. It is a truly stunning place with the lake and its palaces around the shoreline and on the lake.  The streets are narrow and windy and it is a constant challenge to keep out of the way of the rickshaws, scooters, cows, donkeys and cars that try to make their way through the narrow streets - makes for some fairly spectacular traffic jams. 

We headed out in search of coffee this morning and were very happy to find a cafe run by Greek woman who made great coffee. Then it was time for a browse around the shops - some successful shopping was done which included one shop keeper insisting on dressing some of us!! (Photo below). 

Lunch included cake (in honour of Joanna's birthday).  In the late afternoon we made our way through the narrow alley ways to a guest house run by a lovely Indian couple called Robin and Mary. Andrew and I had booked a cooking lesson with Mary. We had a great time in Mary's kitchen learning to make mutter paneer, aloo gobi, dahl, fried rice, chappati and paratha. The kids enjoyed the views from the rooftop while we cooked then joined us for dinner. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

This morning was a very early start as our 7 am flight meant a 4.45 am wake up. We are now in Mumbai airport waiting for our flight to Goa. We are looking forward to the warmer temperatures of the South. Our flight from Udaipur was our first Indian transport that left on time and got in early!! 

Andrew continues: Try to ignore the weirdo in the turban below. I know I am. We got into Goa that afternoon and were immediately struck by how green and lush it felt compared with the North. Also less hectic - not exactly quiet, but more laid back by Indian standards. We had an hours drive from the airport to Panaji (or Panjim - no one seems to be able to decide what this town is called). It's full of colourful old Portuguese buildings, so just walking around the streets is interesting, especially in the evening.

Day 23 - Joanna

I woke up at about 7:30 on the 3rd of January, mainly because we had some very noisy people in the room next door, but also because IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY! Mum and Megan wished me happy birthday and Megan went downstairs to fetch Dad and David (and my presents) while of course I went on Facebook to see how many embarrassing photos of me people had put up. When the whole family had gathered I received my presents. I actually got a MacBook Air from Mum and Dad but they couldn't really bring that to India so they got me some other little things, like a ring that I had pointed out to mum, some turquoise earrings and a cushion cover from Jaisalmer. Megan got me pretty silver earrings and a $25 Victoria's Secret "voucher" (she wrote on a piece of scrap paper and told me that I had to keep it in order to redeem it) for when we stopped over in Kuala Lumpur on the way home. David got me a black skirt with patterns on it in the colours of the peacock (I picked it) and a cute leather bag (which I also selected). Once that was done we showered and headed out in search of a place to eat breakfast. Unfortunately Megan and I still didn't have our appetites back so we had very particular taste, but eventually we found a place that suited all of us.

We went back to the guest house briefly and then the girls headed out for a special birthday treat. Eyebrow threading. The woman was very nice, she did mums pretty quickly, and then it was my turn. I was looking pretty bushy, and as I sat down I could almost hear her thoughts. "Aaaaaah now this is a REAL challenge...." A bit of pain and a LOT of loose eyebrow hair later Megan hopped in the chair. She'd never had hers done professionally before so she was a bit stressed. "Is it going to hurt? Do I hold my eye shut now? No? Oh okay, sorry." We walked back, both me and Megan with watery eyes and swollen eyelids, but looking much tidier I thought. We picked up the boys and headed out for "lunch" which was actually cake and really good iced coffee at a cute new cafe we found. Unfortunately the power went out before Mum and Dad could get their cappuccinos and we had to leave, as we had other plans.

We got back and I quickly changed into a pair of jeans, because next up was horse riding. Mum and Megan weren't coming, they were going to find an art class instead. Dad, David and I got an auto to a guest house where we were greeted by a nice woman whose name I never caught. We were then taken by car with her to the outskirts of town, and when we hopped out we were promptly welcomed by the woman's three dogs, two black Labradors and one enormous black and white Great Dane. Dad signed a few papers and explained our riding abilities to the woman as they finished getting our horses ready. David was put at the front on the biggest (but dumbest) horse, right next to the guide, who was travelling on foot. Dad was second on a bay mare, and I was at the back on a pretty little chestnut mare. She was actually gorgeous, her only fault was that I think she was blind in her right eye, there was something VERY wrong with it. The woman told me that she put me at the back so that if I wanted to fall back a bit I could, and then trot and canter to catch up again. Then we were off, and it was really fun.

For the first hour or so we went through villages and stuff, and I felt like a celebrity. All the children would yell and wave, and go to find their friends so that they could follow us down the street. I had the liveliest horse, and she didn't like to be left behind. I tried a few times to fall back like the woman said but she got very stressed, pulling and snorting. When I would loosen my hold on her just a little bit she leapt forward like a racehorse and ended up cantering very quickly back to the others. Eventually I gave up and just walked with the others. Later on we headed into the countryside and things got a bit rough. We were going through thorny bushes, down pretty steep, rocky slopes. At this point we were really glad we didn't bring Mum and Megan. Things were pretty quiet out there so when I heard a quiet thundering noise I turned in the saddle and got a bit of a shock when I saw the woman galloping up behind us on a black gelding. Our horses got a bit skittish, they didn't like to be overtaken. She offered to take me on an alternative route for a trot and a canter but I had to politely decline. We were about three hours in and I hadn't ridden for about six months before that, so my legs were pretty sore.

She laughed when I told her this and fell in behind me, deciding to ride back with us. At this point the horse were speeding up, dads was bouncing slightly as he tried to hold it back from a trot. The woman explained to me that they knew we were almost back and they wanted their food. The horses we were riding were Mewari horses, an Indian breed, and she told me that they were hot blooded and a bit harder to handle than most breeds used for pleasure riding. "Your Dad and your brother are doing very well" she said. "These horses are not really beginner horses." By the time we returned Dad and David were very relieved to get off, Dad because his horse was almost dancing in the spot it was so excited for its dinner, and David because he had VERY sore legs. We met their friendly 3 month old filly Aisha and admired her father from afar, a huge black stallion pacing restlessly in a pen faaaar away from the mares.

By this time it was getting dark so we went back in the car, got a few recommendations for dinner from the woman as we paid, then caught an auto back to the guest house. Mum and Megan were waiting for us, and they proudly displayed their miniature paintings, then promptly told us that we smelled bad. We showered and changed for dinner, then went to a nice rooftop resteraunt called Masala and had delicious indian food while admiring the view over the lake. It got a bit stressful when Megan choked on a chicken bone but she was okay, although I think she gave the owner a heart attack when she started coughing and gagging in front of him. We finished dinner at ten, and we were all still really tired so we decided to put off cake until the next day and walked back to the guest house, getting straight into bed.

Days 21&22- Megan

 The start of 2015 was a bitterly cold. We had to catch a bus at 8:30 so we were awake before every one else in town. We arrived in jodpur at 2:30, and were bombarded by beggars and tuktuk drivers. The place basically looked like a large rubbish dump and when I say that I don't just mean you could see a lot of rubbish because that is the norm in India but there were large piles and fields of rubbish all round the outter city. Once we reached our guest house in the nicer old city we went up for lunch which after not getting lunch for nearly an hour and a half we were expecting something great... It wasn't great it was disgusting. Let's just say we won't be rating that guest house well on Trip Advisor Then it was time to go zip lining at the jodpur fort! Dad, david and I were very nervous because all of us have never been zip lining before but we didn't need to worry because our guides were great and it was a very safely run operation. The course had six zip lines with crazy views over the fort and lakes, each zipline leading us on to the next. If you haven't been ziplinging before, I would definitely recommend it, I myself am not the most outgoing adventurous person but one of my New Years resolutions was to do something that scares me (even if it is the smallest thing) everyday and I have no regrets so far :) unfortunately to end this day on a not so pleasant note me and Joanna had very upset tummies that night and I'm not going to go into detail because trust me you don't want the know but let's just say there was not much sleep that night and we are very thankful for such a caring mum who looked after us and stayed up nearly all night just checking we were alright.

The next day we caught the bus at 7:40 to Udaipur, I still was not feeling that well so spent most of the ride sleeping on mum. We arrived at 2:30 and were taken to our hotel where we ate. Then me and Joanna rested while the others went exploring round town, looking for nice places to eat and shop. (Not much else happened after that because we were so tired and regaining our strength from the following night, to prepare ourselves for Joanna's birthday the following day).

Day 20 - Andrew

One of the good things about not being able to sleep in the desert is you are up bright and early to see the dawn. We walked up the sand dunes, took photos and warmed our hands on the hot chai from the fire. After breakfast it was back on the camels and a shorter ride back to the road, where our driver took us at light speed back to Jaisalmer and our hotel. It was a great trip and I found the camel riding a lot easier than expected, probably because they were being led. Sleeping under stars on the hard desert sand was another story. The kids were fine but Heather and I reluctantly admitted we might be getting a bit old for this.

We cleaned up, enjoyed lunch on the rooftop and caught up on sleep in the afternoon, especially David  who unfortunately had the runs again. We had dinner at the First Gate restaurant, looking out at the floodlit fort and the house band doing solos on their nose flutes. After that our New Year's Eve was "a bit lame", as Megan put it in one of her more charitable moments. Everyone was tired and not exactly party fit, so we wished each other a happy 2015 and turned in early, ready for the early bus tomorrow. 

Day 19 - Joanna

This morning we got up at 8 to pack our gear for the overnight camel safari we were going on later that afternoon. We were checked out by 9:15 and we put our packs into the hotel storage, keeping only our day packs, which held necessities such as warmer pants, jackets, toothbrushes, toilet paper, and a few blocks of chocolate. Then David and I went and hung out on the roof for a few hours while Mum, Dad and Megan went on some secret business (perhaps present shopping for a girl with fading pink hair whose birthday is in three days?). I wasted a lot of the hotels wifi while David went on Dad's iPad and started mucking round on photo booth, much to my irritation. The others returned to collect David and I, and we headed out to 1st Gate for lunch, a very nice rooftop resteraunt just down the road from our hotel. The time came for our camel safari guide to pick us up, and we all piled into his Jeep. Joining us was a lovely American woman named Samantha, who we learned was working in Vietnam as an English teacher. We made a few stops on the way to the beginning of the safari, first at a ghost towns ruins, and then at a local gypsy village. They delighted in showing us their homes and did henna patterns on me and Megan's hands. We moved on and continued driving out into the desert. Eventually we stopped pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There were a few houses nearby, but other than that it was just us and the camels we could see a hundred metres ahead. We left our day packs in the car, grabbed cameras and drinkbottles and waved goodbye to our driver, who we would see later that evening at the little camp.

We cautiously approached the camels and I watched as David was helped climb aboard his assigned mount by one of the men who would be leading the camels. A younger boy waved me towards a camel and gestured for me to hop on. They were sitting/lying down (I don't know how you would describe it) so I swung my leg over fairly easily. "Hold tight" the boy said to me and I quickly grabbed the handle in front of me that was part of the rather comfy saddle. Then he began pulling on the camel's lead, coaxing it to its feet. Suddenly it lurched upward, but only the front half! I went flying backwards but held tight and tried to lean forward with it. That backfired when it stood up on its back legs too, and I had to quickly shift my weight. Then I was suddenly very high up. Everyone else made it up okay, and we headed off. I discovered that it was a lot like horse riding and relaxed after a few minutes, enjoying the view of the desert, and the dunes in the distance. They didn't tell us the names of the camels so we decided to do that ourselves. Here are the names that we chose.

Mine - Saskia

David's - Sandy

Megan's - Bob

Dad's - Fred

Mum's - Sore Thighs

Megan was having an interesting time because Dad's camel was behind her and the camel didn't like not being in front, so he kept pushing forward and coming right up beside Megan, giving her a fright every time she turned her head. David was also warned that his camel was the jumping camel and he was advised to hold tight, just in case. We stopped briefly for firewood along the way but other than that it was a smooth journey. We arrived at our camp on the edge of the sand dunes in time to have a hot cup of chai and watch the sun set from the dunes. All was well, until we went down to the jeep to get our warmer clothes. I was just approaching the car, David right behind me, when he suddenly yells "SNAKE!" I immediately looked to where he was pointing and sure enough, a 1.5 metre long, yellow, red, black and white snake was slithering slowly towards the car. I'm not entirely sure about the colours, I didn't really stick around to double check. We all ran back up the hill slightly and made enough noise to attract our guides. They approached with a large stick and proceeded to hit it until it was dead, which was a relief, I never would have been able to sleep if they left it alive.

We were all a bit freaked out after that, especially since Mum had said that there wouldn't be any snakes in the desert. We asked the guide though and he said that was the first snake he had seen in the two years he had been doing the safari. Lucky us. We made a fire as it got dark to scare away any of its friends and sat around, just chatting with Samantha while the guides made dinner. They joined us after dinner and after we had shared the chocolate around they offered to play the water drum and dinner plates and sing a song or two. That was nice, until they asked us to sing some songs. We sang the Maori verse of the national anthem and Samantha sang the American national anthem. Then me and Megan attempted to do the cup song, playing the rhythm on the water drum and singing along, but it was quite difficult and we gave up after a while. Soon after we decided to go to bed, some of us going for a nice wee in the bushes before retiring to our mats on the sand, under the stars. We had two very thick blankets to keep us warm, and the guide was so cute, he tucked each of us in so that we were cocooned in the blankets. The moon was very bright but eventually everyone dropped off to sleep, for a while at least. I woke up later in the night to a weird snuffling noise nearby. Turns out there was a stray dog sniffing my head. When in India I guess...

Extra update from Andrew

The secret shopping trip referred to by Joanna included a trip to a fabric shop. This was more fun than it sounds. Megan and Heather got the shopkeeper to bring out every cushion cover, bedspread and wall hanging he had, we all had masala chai and there was enthusiastic but pretty half-hearted bargaining on both sides as the prices were pretty good. 

Day 18- David

Before I start my post we (the Laxons) would like to thank the people who have been commenting on our blog. We also know that some people are not able to comment due to strange technological reasons.

 Woke up this morning (in a proper bed in an actual room) to the sound of the Muslim payer call. The prayer call sounds five times a day and if you are strictly Muslim you are supposed to face Mecca and pray. There are quite a lot of Muslims here as we are only 100ks from the Pakistan border. You can even see a few Pakistan flags flying from the roofs of the neighbouring buildings when you're up on the rooftop restaurant. Anyway, we had breakfast looking out at the Jaisalmer Fort. I now know why mum loves Jaisalmer. The golden stone that makes up most of the buildings makes the whole place look wonderful, and I started to wonder if I was in India or somewhere in the Middle East. We basically blobbed all morning, using the hotel's free wifi to catch up with the outside world via social media. I found out about the missing AirAsia flight and wondered about the wisdom of mum choosing to fly Malaysian Airlines. I would say that it's probably nothing, but that just seems to jinx it sooo... We had a late lunch waited till around 3 until we went into the fort because that was when the masses of Indian tourists went on their camel safaris. Unfortunately Megan had an "upset stomach" and may be sick (I'm not allowed to say any more) so she couldn't come. As we entered the fort, we discovered that all the Indian tourists had been replaced by a huge group of Jain men gathered in prayer. We had to walk straight through their group to get to the city palace (now a museum). We got a few looks but otherwise passed through. One advantage of them being here was that the normally busy roads were at a standstill because they were occupying the main square. We went into the city palace and discovered more about Jaisalmer's rich history. We wanted to go to the Jain temple but it was closed from three onwards today (maybe due to the huge group of Jain men?) so we headed back. We ate out at Killa Corner (Hindi for Fort Corner) and returned to have an early night so we could be energised for the Camel Safari tomorrow.

Day 16 & 17- Heather

Today was a long travel day with a 12 hour train journey to Jaisalmer, the morning was spent preparing for our journey by buying food from the yummy bakery down the road. We arrived at the station with half an hour to spare only to discover as per usual  our train was late by 1 & 1/2 hours.  Our time was spent trying to dodge the pigeons that were nesting in the rafters of the station and firing unpleasant surprises on people below.  After being the recipients of 2 direct hits we found a safe spot - finally onto the train and our journey began. The train was a sleeper and was relatively empty so we were all able to sleep later in the journey. The weird thing was that there was no food being sold on the train so our bakery supplies had to be carefully rationed - eventually someone came around taking dinner orders by this time Andrew was really hungry (!!) so ordered a dinner - he is now wondering about the wisdom of his decision as he has spent the last few hours experiencing eggy burps!!!...time will tell

We arrived in Jaisalmer at 1am - managed to get a lift to our accomodation - unfortunately the message re our arrival hadn't been passed on and there was no room at the inn.

So we spent the rest of the night sleeping on thin mattresses with heavy blankets on the roof top restaurant - the kids took it in their stride and it was magical to wake this morning to a sunrise over the Jaisalmer fort. 

Jaisalmer is probably one of my favourite places in India - I am writing this sitting in the rooftop restaurant in the late afternoon sun with the fort stretched out before me - it is like a scene out of Arabian nights if you can discount the sounds of the pigs forraging in the vacant lot next door!!

We are all looking forward to an early night in a comfortable bed ( we now have 2 comfortable rooms) so we can do some more exploring tomorrow.

Day 15- Megan

It was an early morning for dad, Joanna and I after Christmas night movies, as we wanted to get to Amber fort before the big crowds. Mum and David decided to give the early morning for adventure a miss and met us at the old city at midday because David was still recovering. So our taxi driver took us out to Amber fort, and we were mesmerised. Now I'm sure you're all thinking but there are so many forts in India I'm sure the Laxons would get a bit bored... Oh no.. This fort was stunning and more like an outdoor palace. There was a huge amount of elephants taking tourists up to the gate, which made it even more exciting for photos. When we got inside there were constant photo oppertunities from vast views of the lake, to majestically structured archways and my favourite... The jewel detailing of the walls, which is Rajasthan's specialty. I got very excited and ended up getting lost for a few minutes because Joanna and dad would move on while I was taking photos. (It is important to get the right lighting and angle, then after you've done that you need to pull out your phone to take a few pictures for Instagram and the blog). 

After exploring all the tunnels and arch ways, Joanna decided it was time to leave as the boredom was sinking in. We went to meet mum and david- david was feeling much better, you can tell when he's recovered because he goes back to annoying us again. Anyway we decided to visit the city palace, which was more recently built in the 17th century it was also very beautiful but didn't have the great views like Amber fort. We saw the biggest piece of silver in the world which the king would use to carry his water in when he visited England so he didn't have to drink their dirty water- we thought this was a little ironic since indian water is quite dirty, however in the 17th century Britain's water was probably of a worse standard. Then we visited the textiles museum and the weapons museum- there was one weapon which looked like an ordinary dagger but when you stabbed the opponent you could split the dagger into two, in order to split the person in two( imagine garden shears then you will get the general idea) 

After our sightseeing dad took us on a "walk" ( more like a hike) through the old city to the indian coffee  house which was a very cute place, where our lunch came to a total of about $7 nz dollars... Not bad. After an exhausting morning dad and us girls decided to go back and relax and mum and david decided to stay in town and check out the observetry. Then we headed out to nibs cafe for dinner which is famous for their chocolate deserts. 

Day 12 - Joanna

We got up at 7 on Monday in order to catch the 8:30 train back to Delhi. It was a freezing morning in Jagadhri so we had hot chai on the platform while we were waiting for the train. It was half an hour late due to the thick fog, and the actual journey was much slower than it should have been because of bad visibility. We arrived in Delhi at around 2 o'clock and walked back to Hotel City Star, our "safe haven". We were quickly reminded why we preferred the quieter cities and towns to the bustling, blaring streets of Delhi. There was no food on the train so we headed to Connaught Place in search of some decent lunch. By the time we found a cafe that served kind of average food it was almost 4 o'clock. We considered finishing up our Christmas shopping but all agreed that we weren't up for it so we headed back to the hotel to chill for a few hours. At 7 we went and caught the metro to the airport because we were meeting our family friends the Bayldons. We got some dinner at the airport while we waited outside as they queued for visas. Unfortunately it took several hours, so us kids passed the time by singing Christmas carols while everyone within earshot stared at us like we had gone crazy. We also prepared a welcome rap/Christmas carol for the Bayldons and performed it when they eventually arrived. We attempted to all catch the metro back together but failed miserably when the doors shut with half of us in the train and half out, the result being that our families were split in half. We dropped the Bayldons off at their hotel, which was remarkably close to the train station and then walked back to our hotel, making the most of the nice showers before dropping into bed at midnight.

Day 14 (Christmas Day) - Andrew

Quite a start to Christmas Day. At 3.48am my phone rang. A contact in NZ wanted to tell me about a story for the Herald. Seconds later David announced he was feeling sick. Fairly non-stop vomiting and diarrhoea followed for the next two hours. We got some drugs into him after 6am and everyone managed to sleep for a few hours, more or less. We exchanged presents (it's quite challenging to buy for people when you're all shopping at the same bazaar but we did well) and had breakfast. Sightseeing was considered inappropriate for Christmas Day so the girls and I found some chocolate treats for lunch and we blobbed in front of TV movies and had drinks and read our books on the rooftop terrace. It was all a bit subdued - especially for poor old David - but we had a great Christmas dinner at a rooftop restaurant round the corner, decorated in strings of flashing lights so the Westerners would feel at home. It did the trick for us for a few hours. You can see the effect it had on most of the family.

Day 13- David

Woke at 4:50 this morning so we could catch the 6 o'clock train to Jaipur. When we left Dehli, the visibility was about 100 meters due to heavy fog. Fortunately this only delayed the train by 1 and a quarter hours. We arrived at Jaipur at quater to 12 went to hotel and had lunch on the rooftop restaurant. Mum set up the Christmas decorations in our room then we headed out to the pink city to do some last minute Christmas shopping. As this was our first time in Rajasthan, we were amazed by all the fabrics with mirrors sown into them. There were also heaps and heaps of shoes. We did our shopping (I cannot spend too long on this topic for a few reasons) and went for dinner at a very nice place that served Baskin Robbins ice cream which we ate for dessert. We went to bed nice and early so we wouldn't be too tired for Cristmas (so exciting). I had a weird feeling in my stomach before I went to sleep, probably nothing...

Day 11- Heather

Managed to have a bit of a sleep in this morning before a busy and interesting day.  Our day started with morning tea with Shikuntala  and Nikkil (Avinash's mother and brother)- then it was a quick walk to Christian hospital where we joined the hospital staff for their Christmas staff lunch. It was a lovely opportunity for me to catch up with some of the staff and their families that I knew from my previous visits. One young man came up to me and said that he remembered me teaching his class a Christmas song for the St Thomas school Christmas programme - he said he was in year 3 at the time.....!!

We were then invited as guests of honour to the Sunday school Christmas play - the play was in Hindi but we had no problem following the story line!!  Kids are the same the world over with the littlest waving to their parents, the shepherds nearly had a fight on stage because one of them got their lines wrong and one kid was so nervous he interrupted the narrator because he was so keen to say his lines and get off the stage.  It was brilliant....afterwards Megan and Joanna were in hot demand for photos , David, Andrew and I even made it into a few. 

In the evening we went out to dinner with Kamala and David Singh, Shenu and Vishal (their daughter and son-in-law) to a local restaurant. After which they took us to a local sweet vendor where we had the yummiest galab jamans. The night concluded with tea at Vishals's parents place. We have all eaten so much in the last 3 days we think we might pop...The good news is (I'm sure you are all wondering about this!!)  that so far our stomachs are holding up fine. 

 

Day 10 - Andrew

We went to the Mamraj's church this morning. It's a modern Catholic church in the basement of Abrianna's school, St. Anne's Convent School. Most of the service was in English, so we could follow it quite easily and everyone made us feel very welcome. To my untrained Protestant eye, it seemed like a regular Catholic service in NZ except a bit more colourful - Jesus was dressed in yellow and red, instead of white, and the altar was surrounded by flashing lights. Afterwards we had a quick tour around the school with the Mamraj's friends, who are also from Kerala in the south, like Ambily, and all three families went to lunch at a Punjabi restaurant.

(Anne - you wanted more about the food - this is for you...) The place wasn't much to look at from the road and it was steel trays on plain Formica tables but the food was sensational. We had shahi paneer (cottage cheese in tomato-based gravy) and a channa dahl, made with chick peas, served with kulcha, which are like paranthas, only crispier and with more flavour. To any diehard meat-eaters who are thinking "That sounds really boring", you have to try it to appreciate how good vegetarian food can be in India. Avinash told us the food was typical of Amritsar, which is further north, near the Pakistan border. Everyone had a great time laughing about my bad Hindi pronunciation, which has become a running joke. 

After lunch we said goodbye to Avinash, Ambily and Abrianna, who had made us feel incredibly welcome in their home. Their friend Sanjay drove us the two hours to Jagadhri, home of St Thomas' school and Jagadhri Christian Hospital, where Heather used to work. We checked into yet another Soviet-style small town hotel, with huge rooms, mindless bureaucracy and Basil Fawlty-like dedication to customer service. As Jagadhri is not much of a tourist destination either and the whole place was shrouded in cold and fog, we felt a bit down at this point (full details censored). Everyone cheered up when we went to dinner with Cecil Harrison, the hospital superintendent, his wife Nayana and their three kids. More wonderful food, including tandoori chicken with the vegetarian dishes and our first Indian desserts - Dahl and carrot halva and galab jamen. We are going to have to find a gym at this rate.

Day 9- David

Chundering to Chandigarh:

The 7 hour bus ride to Chandigarh was very windy and unpleasant. Joanna vomited 7 times and I vomited 3 times before going to sleep. So it can be easily presumed that when the bus, one and a half hours late, rolled into Chandigarh we were all very keen to get off and get driven to Avinash’s family's home. We got into bed, completely exhausted, and went to sleep immediately. We woke in the morning and had a lovely traditional North Indian breakfast of stuffed parantha (onions and patatoes) while talking to their parrot, Chikoo. We then went out to explore Chandigarh. Chandigarh is a very different place compared other parts of India because it is India's only planned city. The city is divided into around 70 sectors, each with it's own set of shops and park. We wanted to visit the lake which is the one of 3 main tourist attractions in Chandigarh, along with the Rose Garden and Rock Garden. Unfortunately the lake was closed because some birds had died of bird flu there, causing the Indian authorities to disinfect the area around the lake in fear of bird flu spreading to people. We didn't visit the Rock garden or Rose Garden because it was so foggy and cold. So instead Avinash lead us to Abrianna's second home, Elante Shopping Mall. It was very interesting looking around the mall because if it weren't for all the Indian shoppers, you could have been anywhere in the world. All the models on the posters were either pakeha or they were Indian with so much make up on to make them look white. The brands were the same as brands we have in NZ too, Clarks, Addias, Zara, The Body Shop, Puma, Cathy, ect. The even had a Hamleys Toy Shop which we spent a bit of time in. Then it was a hurried KFC lunch (which was very nice with the Indian spices in it). We had to get Àbrianna (Avinash's daughter) from Sector 35 to Sector 7 for the national under 17 basketball team selection. If she gets in, she will go on a nearly two week long training camp. Abrianna is very good at basketball, she practices for two hours everyday after school so I think she should get in. After we dropped her off at the sports complex, Avinash took us to his workplace, an Apple service and repair company, of which he is in charge of. I got to see the inside of an iPhone 4S, as well as a MacBook Air. It was now time to pick up Abrianna from basketball selection. Unfortunately, she didn't get in the team because she is only 14 and everyone else was older than her. We went back to their apartment with all the Christmas lights turned on. We had a very nice dinner of shahi panner, a tasty (and slightly spicy) chicken dish.after that we jumped into bed and went to sleep.

Day 8– Megan

I awoke to another early morning, freezing because as per usual Joanna stole all the blankets.... Then we headed off to to St. Paul's school to say goodbye to Mrs and Mrs Singh and take a few final photos of the campus. Our tiny taxi arrived at our hotel midday and it took us up a steep windy road... And by steep I mean the wheels were skidding in first gear! I seem to be always writing when we have near death driving experiences. Anyway when we reached our destination it was time to search for western food which McCleod Ganj has a lot of, so we settled for a cute Tibetan cafe where the tables were low and we could sit on little cushions. I have a cold at the moment so I have found out my new love of lemon honey ginger tea, which fills you up and clears the sinuses. 

After lunch we did some shopping for friends and family (what we bought will not be named as the recipients of the gifts may be reading this) then we went back to the hotel and mum got very excited about the nice laundromat down the road where we could do our washing... Maybe a bit too excited. 

"And don't forget it's washed and dried in one hour and the man does it". Then it was time to eat again- this time Italian followed by dessert.  

McLeod Ganj is very mesmerising, like a piece of Tibet perched on the snowy mountain tops of India. There are many Tibetan people living here in exile, due to Tibet being under Chinese rule since 1950, when they came and invaded and destroyed all their temples and banned all practice of Buddhist religion. McLeod Ganj is also the home of the Dali lama, whose temple we visited today, to find out more about where Buddhism originated from - (it originated from India and was then spread north up to Tibet and through many more Asian countries) and the political situation with Tibet and China. After going to the museum, Joanna and I decided we wanted to buy "Free Tibet" shirts. They were not hard to find and seemed to be sold everywhere. Now we are sitting in a cafe passing time, wasting the cafe's wifi and waiting for our bus to Chandigarh, where we will meet mum's friend Avinash and his family. 

Day 7- Heather

Woke this morning firmly wedged between Megan and Joanna. We had decided to all share the bed in an attempt to stay as warm as possible.  Needless to say I ended up in the middle with very little room for movement. It was freezing last night but we managed to stay warm. There is fresh snow on the mountains surrounding Palampur. It is warm during the day but the temperature starts dropping from 3 pm onwards.  We walked to St Paul's school where Mr and Mrs Singh (the principal and his wife) gave us a tour of the school (which included a lovely new block of 17 classrooms) - the location is beautiful with pine trees scattered throughout the grounds and a backdrop of snow covered mountains. We visited the boys hostel, which has undergone iimprovements since I visited last year.

There are currently 20 boys in the hostel between the ages of 10 and 17 years. Eighteen of the boys are sponsored through the Church of North India's PDS model.

After making arrangements to come back after school finished we headed to the bazaar to check out the shawl shop...

The evening was spent at the boys hostel. The boys were very shy to start with but soon warmed up and wanted to talk to David in particular. Andrew put his journalist skills to work, using Mrs Singh as an interpreter, and interviewed some of the boys about their backgrounds and how it was for them coming to school in Palampur. Many of the boys come from very poor backgrounds and it is a struggle for them to keep up with their study as their schooling prior to coming to St Paul's has not always been very good. It was very evident that Mrs Singh runs the hostel in a firm but very caring way.

Now it is time for the mother daughter sandwich in the bed again... sigh..