| Submitted by: Hans & Mirjam Damen, Netherlands |
| Submission Date: 18 August 2006 |
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Ever slept with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck at the same time?
(261205) We have a leisurely (very slow we mean) breakfast under trees in the garden of the Coffee Inn. Travellers’ breakfast (banana pancake) complemented with home-baked brown bread with peanut butter. We visit a spice garden, that once probably started with an occasional guest, but now makes good business from all the visitors (rs 50). They do tell a sound and interesting story about all the plants they’re exploiting. We have lunch at our own apartment (yes we said that we wanted cornflakes, but not really). We visit Thekkady after lunch with another 1000 or so tourists. Its seems that boxing day is the day to visit the park. We stand in line for tickets for 20 minutes (rs 300 for westerners and rs 5 for kids of any nationality) and 10 minutes later we are hustled aboard one of the smaller tourist boats by one of Gandhi’s relations. The official tickets sold out 12 hours before (to touts). No seats left, so Mirjam, Frank and Marit are seated on top of the motor-cover and Hans is pressed between an Indian family. If you are very quiet you might even be able to spot some real wildlife, but with the first suspicion of anything alive 90 Indians jump up and start yelling at the presumed animal. The animals have better things to do then being shouted at on a free afternoon, so the real exotic wildlife spotted this afternoon are only Dutch Homo Sapiens. For the rest we see five mountain-goats, one pig, one salamander, four otters and two stones that are sold to us as two unmoving elephants over one kilometre away. It is so exciting and interesting that Marit falls asleep on top of the boats motor. Playing with the shower on the terrace is more fun and so is dinner once more in Cardamom County with fried potatoes and peas for the kids and the sumptuous buffet for the parents. During dinner Marit has a poetic outburst as she pronounces unprompted “O pretty, pretty palm tree, life is beautiful with thee” (or for the Dutch natives ‘O schone, schone palmboom, het leven is een droom’). After dinner Marit scores a T-shirt with a tiger on it and we take an auto-rickshaw back to the apartment. It’s a good ending to a less brilliant day.
Madurai
(271205). After another breakfast in the Coffee Inn (which gives the slowfoodmovement a whole new meaning) we leave Kumily at ten o’clock. For three quarters of an hour an Indian family of 25 odd persons have been waiting in front of the apartment and they turn out to be our successors. It’s a fast and steep descent out of the mountains and into Tamil Nadu with the road winding between the last parts of the jungle and with every bend in the road populated by tens of monkeys. Once we leave the mountains the road is in very good condition and within three hours we reach Madurai. Hans does a bit of a hotel search along West Perumal Maistry Street. About seven of the hotels we look at are full and we end up in the King Suite of the Supreme Hotel (how much higher can you go) for 2138 rs including taxes and two extra beds. The room is OK; it has a balcony, temple view (50 % interrupted), a bathroom with some mildew and a complementary minibar with frozen cola. After lunch and some Pogo it’s time for some education so we visit the Gandhi museum. It takes some effort but afterwards the kids know that ‘Gandhi was a good guy, that he wanted to be his own boss and that he made his own clothes and his own salt’. The Sri Meenakshi temple reopens at 4 o’clock and as we want to visit it before nightfall, we pass the playground near the Gandhi Museum. A bit stupid, because there are lots of great temples, but not a lot of great playgrounds in India. Sri Meenakshi is Hans’ favourite temple in India. Hans loves the big Temple towers, and the hustle and bustle of the temple. For the kids it’s a bit too overwhelming; too dark and too many people. The temple museum is OK though and also the outside (between the inner and outer wall) is fine, because it’s a good place for running around. We head for one of the Kashmiri shops west of the temple and see the sun setting over the temple from the rooftop. The view and the complementary softdrink is well worth 10 minutes of sales banter later on and as they do not have the perfect Ganesha, we leave …with nothing. As the kids have not been in a cycle rickshaw yet Mirjam takes them back to the hotel in one. To spare the cyclist Hans takes the Ambassador back. 8 years ago we ate at the roof terrace of the hotel we are now staying in, so why change if you found something good. The temperature is very nice with a cooling breeze. The personnel is extremely nice to the kids, who feast on French fires. Mum and dad feast on Indian snacks and beer.
(281205, holy innocents day). As it is Hans Birthday, Mirjam and kids get out early for a surprise, described by Marit as: “We cannot tell you, because it is a secret, but we are going to get you a birthday cake”. Some time later they return with an excellent personalised pink birthday cake, one candle and a jasmine garland. Breakfast is cake and juice and vitamin pills. The Thiruparakundram temple is situated some 5 kilometres from the centre of Madurai. They started the temple in caves in the cliffs and later build a hall in front of it. It is not so busy as we are there and as a non-Hindu you get to see everything for 20 rs. Even the inner sanctum is shown and a the temple has a water-feature were you can feed the fish with parboiled rice. It’s supposed to be good for your Karma. Back in Madurai we have lunch in the Royal Retreat Hotel after which we drive to Trichy.
Trichirapully
Three hours later we are in Trichy. We head straight for Jenneys residency, where jenny no longer resides. The hotel has been taken over by the Breeze hotel from Chennai and is now called (guess what) Breeze Residency. We get a lovely two room suite with breakfast and two extra beds for 3000 rs (talked down from 4300 rs). The kids watch the Crazy Japanese on Pogo and Hans does some shopping. We celebrate Hans Birthday with roomservice (Fish and Chips and Tandoori) and a couple of Kingfishers. Not a bad way to end a birthday.
(291205) The breakfast buffet in the Residency is not only good, the kids once more get a goody bag, that puts McD to shame . As Gandhi lives nearby, we let him sleep in at home and so around 11 o’clock we go to South Tourism to pay Faith for the car. The office is some distance outside Trichy and obvious business is going well as they are building a new office / home. Well, it’s well earned, as we are very content with the service. The Sri Ranganatashwari temple is nearby and we visit this temple that looks more as a city. People live nowadays within the outer three walls, but what remains in the four inner walls is still very impressive. For a small fee they let you climb up a roof for a fine view over the roofs of the temple, the inner sanctum cannot be visited by non Hindu’s. We have an excellent thali for lunch at the “Banana Leave” restaurant (rs 30). The restaurant also does interesting French fries, all about the same size and stacked on the plate in a neat tower. The Rock Fort temple is the distinguishing landmark of the town, as it stands some 90 metres above it. We drive halfway up the hill and walk the rest (no other possibility by the way). The kids have really gotten into temple visits, as it gives them the possibility to around run a bit without the risk of getting hit by a car. By this time they are also no longer intimidated by the vast amounts of Indians who at times they dare to inch them in order to reprove them with a raised index finger (“No pinching (gnignigni)”). The temple as such is not very interesting, but the views over the city and surrounding countryside are great. At the bottom of the temple is the city’s main shopping district. Mirjam buys three sarees. She needs saree-lessons, and we have a lot of fun as she wriggles herself into a changing room with two Indian ladies and about seven of them shouting encouragement from outside. Meanwhile Marit and Frank are entertained by other shop attendants with balloons. We buy Marit a small gold Ganesha ring a few shops further down the road and ice-cream and Coke for the whole family. We’ve still not finished shopping and drive to the Government controlled Poompubar Shopping Emporium. After having searched for two weeks for the perfect Ganesha statue, we now find four of them. We go for the compromise and buy two: one of the dancing and one of the flute-playing variety. We also stock up on small souvenirs and give-aways and Gandhi buys Hans a small wooden elephant statue for his birthday. Dinner is the same as yesterday, with excellent fish and chips and the usual hot stuff for mum and dad.
Thanjavur
(301205) The trip from Trichy to Thanjavur only takes 1,5 hours, and finding a hotel is also not difficult at all. We end up in the Oriental Towers, the first one we visit. We get two interconnected rooms for 2590 rs, a 20 % discount after some haggling with the staff and a phone call to the boss. We even get more discount and via some strange accounting procedure by the time we leave next day. We have an excellent lunch in the bit musty ‘western’ restaurant of the hotel; pasta for the kids and another thali for you know who. We visit an art village to the south of the centre. We found it on a free map in the hotel. Art village is definitely to broad a term for a couple of houses, but there are some artisans there. The really interesting ones are casting bronze and it ism fascinating to watch the whole process. We visit the Palace Museum, which is great, because you can climb the tower via small stairs that you have to find in another corner on every new floor. Students are helping to clean old bronze statues in the courtyard of the museum and Frank amuses himself and the students by trying to recreate all poses of the statues. At the end of the afternoon the Brihadiswara temple is a good place for running and crying “ayappah”. Ayappa’s is our term for the pilgrims that visit the sacred places of the South during this time of the year. They are clad in black, they drive around in white ambassadors packed very full at great speed and run through temples calling “ayappah”. Having seen this our kids really like the concept and started imitating them. We were a bit afraid that this might be viewed as sacrilegious, but even the real ayappa’s told us they found it amusing and didn’t mind it at all. Frank is offered a small oil (ghee) lamp by a vendor and promptly burns himself trying to light it. It is just a first degree burn, so some cool water solves it . At night we order fish and chips and something nice for mum and dad. This is a good place to note that although mum worries a lot about the kids not eating enough, they did not loose any weight in India and the vitamin pills took care of the rest of the potential hazards in the food department. Everybody has an excellent night of sleep.
Chidambaram
(311205) New Years Eve and Pondicherry is today’s destination. On the way over we visit the Airotasvara temple in Dharasuram and the Brihabeswara temple in Gangakudacholaduram. Are we not temple tired by now? No we are not and this is also the case for the kids. Both temples are nice, quiet and peacefull, the weather is fine, the lawns surrounding the temples soft and running around temples becomes more and more fun. You cannot scream Ayappa in a church in Europe, can you? Marit teases Indian teenagers to pinch her, just to be able to tell them ‘no pinching!’. We take it easy and reach Chidambaram around 1400 hours, where we take lunch in the restaurant of the Saradharam hotel (opposite the bus station). They serve an excellent thali. From the office Gandhi has heard that most hotels in Pondicherry are full for New Years Eve and a couple of phone calls confirms this. We decide to stay in Chidambaram and check into the last free room of the Saradharam hotel. The three bed room with aircon and one extra mattress on the ground costs 1125 Rs. We relax a bit and Hans burns a couple of backup CD-ROMS with pictures in a local photo store. The Nataraja temple is closed for the afternoon but opens again at 1645. There is fierce competition between the two shoe guardians in the front of the temple. They see the fun in the bidding contest we start, but we end up splitting the commerce over both of them. Taking pictures is forbidden in the temple, but it is a very friendly place with priests eager to explain what’s happening without asking for the usual fee. The kids are now running full Ayappa speed around the compound and it’s a bit difficult to keep up with them. Frank hurts his toe, but the first aid kit is enough to deal with it. Sun is setting and a 1800 hours a fire ceremony is performed before the statue of Shiva. All kinds of candles and oil lamps are taken and waved in front of Shiva, while meanwhile all bells in the temple are ringed . An interesting and certainly ear shattering experience. It’s a bit too late when we have dinner in the restaurant of the hotel, so Frank falls asleep at the table. The snack food is OK though. Some interesting insects crawl over the floor of the room , we put both kids in a single bed and don’t use the mattress on the ground. We are waken up at 2400 hours by some fireworks, but the bus station opposite the hotel makes a lot more noise. Happy New Year everyone!
Pondicherry
(010106, New Year) The breakfast in the cafeteria of the Saradharam was very good, with probably one of the best chais we ever had in India. Gandhi has washed his Ambassador extra well because of the new year and at half past ten we drive to Pondicherry. We arrive there two hours later and first try two of the Ashram guesthouses. Very unfriendly welcome. T’s no problem that you have no vacancies, but could you please tell in a friendly way (and let me use the toilet). Some other observations about the Aurovillains. They have not taken over Pondicherry (fortunately), but do put a distinctive stamp on it. We don’t really like it / them. Unfriendly or uninterested behaviour in their shops. They try to take on a ‘Fair Trade’ image, but when asked they are just working for themselves. Bit negative, yeah maybe, but that’s the impression they left.
Now we got that out of the way; Pondicherry is a friendly place and fun to spent a couple of days. We ended up in the Executive inn, a lovely small suite-hotel at 1-A Perumal Koi Street
Pondicherry – 605001 (www.executiveinn.biz). It’s situated about 400 metres from the sea to the north of the boulevard. The suites are not very big, but are well appointed and very clean. You get two rooms and four beds. An absolute bargain at rs 1200 + tax. Staff are friendly and helpful. It has a small restaurant in the cellar, good breakfast, but not a joyous location for a nice dinner. After checking in we have lunch at the newly opened Pizza Hut on Lal Bahabur street. Staff needs a bit more training on their tea-making but the pizzas are good. In the afternoon we visit the botanical gardens, just like so many Indian families. The park has a train ride, a playground and attempt at a Japanese garden and lots of shady trees. It also has a couple of stands that inspire Frank and Marit to sing songs for a growing Indian audience and their somewhat perplexed parents. Frank has a lot of success with the Dutch version of Prince’s “Seastar and coffee’. Later on some Indian kids also do a performance of their own, so it is an afternoon well spent and great for Indo/Dutch cultural relations.
At night the Boulevard is closed of for traffic and we walk the length of it with literally tens of thousands Indians celebrating the new year. We try to eat at Satsanga’s, but the atmosphere is spoilt by some rowdy drunk western and Indian guests that started celebrating new year early afternoon (or late last night). We have to move to the Rendez Vous restaurant, because all the other candidates around are closed for the new-year. It wasn’t so good nine years ago and it is still a bit of a tourist trap. Nothing wrong with the French Fries, but try to avoid it. We take a Rickshaw through the masses back to our lovely hotel where we decide to stay and not do another move until our last day in India.
(020106) Breakfast at the hotel and a breakthrough. Frank drinks Indian Chai and loves it. He also likes the Puri, as long as he does not have to eat the curries that come with it. We cover everybody in factor 30 and 60 and drive South to Paradise beach. After having paid an entry fee to something (carpark?, government boat departure tax? Whatever), we find out that you need a boat to reach the beach. As it is a Monday there are no other tourists, so we have to rent a whole boat for a price that is ridiculous by Indian and western standards, We drive back North to find another beach. After having been sent away from two places run by (how amazing) the Aurovillains, we finally find Quiet beach. We walk through a beach resort to get to the beach that has no facilities, but the kids are having a good time. After a couple of hours soaking up the sun we have lunch at the resort and leisurely head back to Pondi. In the afternoon we visit the paper-factory run by you know who, where the head of production gives us a short tour, and where the shopkeepers are not unfriendly (just uninterested).
At 1800 hours we walk down to the new Promenade hotel, near Gandhi’s statue, right on the boulevard. It is part of the ‘Hidesign’ group and under German management, so everything is whole, functioning and clean and they have excellent draft beer. Meal service only starts at half past seven, but the snackmenu is extensive, and easily makes up for a real meal. We read the kids from the comic books we bought in Ooty and they draw some pictures for the staff . We love the food, we love the cocktails, the friendly personnel and the atmosphere.
(030106)Another day at the beach somewhere north of Pondicherry. This time the beach has a coconut-vendor for facilities. We open the first Lost Sandal Beach Museum in India and are able to get quite a collection together in a short period. Lunch (well cake) is at a French bakery on Ambour Salai (near Higginbottams). After a siesta we do some souvenir shopping and we go back to the Botanical Gardens for a couple of hours playing and another train ride. Dinner at the Promenade is once again very good, but we have to wait a long time to get our last item, an order of spicy chicken. In the end we cancel it and ask for the bill. Within one minutes the manager and the chief cook turn up to offer their excuses, free drinks and four pieces of mouth-watering chocolate cake. What a good way to make up for a small mistake; we love the place even more.
Pondicherry to Chennai
(040106) After breakfast and packing up we drive in the direction of Chennai. As we fly back in the very early morning of the middle of the night we booked a room in the Hotel Mars, a couple of Kilometres from Chennai Airport. It’s average but the room is adequate for 1199 rs, the food is lousy. The kids get some sleep, the parents don’t. the flight back is uneventful, Lufthansa got my email and got everything right this time.
On the way to Chennai we stop at Mahabalipuram. We have one more thali at the Mammalla Heritage hotel. We walk around the sights and it’s great to see how free the kids move around compared to their explainable timid behaviour 3,5 weeks before. Walking around the place with our kids once more sort of finishes up not only the circle we made through South India, but also one we started almost ten years before during our honeymoon. It was absolutely fabulous to be back in India. It was great to have the kids with us. We all loved it. We cannot wait to go back .
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