Saturday 30 November

 Today's sightseeing started with  the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya. The park dates back to 1371 but the English started the present garden in 1821. During the Second World War the garden served as the headquarters for Earl Mountbatten. We walked for about an hour and a half, there are an amazing variety of species from all over the world. There are trees planted by many people including Mountbatten, Princess Anne and King George(?) & Queen Mary. 

Prince Charles recently visited these gardens while he was at the Commonwealth Conference (Stephen Harper refused to attend).

We had a quick stop at a Batik manufacturer as one of the ladies was interested, and we bought an elephant picture. Then we continued our ascent into the hills, where the British were looking for somewhere cooler to spend the summer. They started to grow tea on the hillsides and before long there were tea plantations everywhere. We stopped at the side of the road and walked uphill onto one and watched the ladies picking. We continued on and stopped to tour a factory and learned all about the process, then we had samples of Ceylon tea.

We continued on to our digs for the night, another colonial hotel even grander than the night before, The Grand Hotel at Nuwara Eliya. We are at 6790 feet and it is cooler up here, we also had some rain showers to make it even more like England. We are surrounded by mountains and tea bushes. The hotel is decorated for Christmas already, which is hard to imagine in this heat. We are meeting fellow travellers for a drink in the Bar (very English) before dinner.

Friday 29 November

After another lovely breakfast before we set off on the road again. First stop was a woodworking shop, we saw samples of the different woods including ebony, coconut, teak, etc., watched the workers, used their toilets and did the obligatory walk through the shop. Some lovely teak furniture for both inside and out, they took custom orders and would ship. Decided not to bother this trip!

Next up was a spice garden tour to see the spices growing and we had a talk (sales pitch) about the spices and their uses. Another look in the gift shop, I bought some whole nutmeg and some balm and oil to mix and rub on my arthritic knee at bedtime - let's see what that does for me : )

Next we reached Kandy, which is an old royal city, at 1640 feet. It is a few degrees cooler here but still very warm. Our hotel (Suisse Hotel) is an old colonial hotel, once owned by a Swiss lady, hence the name, big rooms, solid dark wood furniture and typically old English bar and restaurant. There is a photo of Mountbatten here at the hotel many years ago. At the centre of Kandy is a small artificial lake and the city surrounds it. We had a walk around the shops and market before going into an old palace that has become a temple and the holiest shrine in Sri Lanka - the Temple of the Holy Tooth (contains a relic of a tooth belonging to Budda). Apparently there are only three tooth relics in the world.

Next up was a dance performance, lots of drumming and somewhat similar to dances we saw last year in Indonesia - as Ian says "one you've seen one dance you've seen them all". There were also fire walkers doing their thing.

Thursday 28 November

Lovely start to the day, we all met at 7 for breakfast and didn't finish until 8.

I had the American breakfast which was a fruit platter, freshly squeezed juice, then omelette, bacon, sausage, steak, and grilled tomato, followed by toast, muffins and cake. Best breakfast so far. Ian had the Sri Lankan breakfast which was dal curry, fish curry, string hoppers (vermicelli noodle basket), coconut and hot chilli paste, roti - not for me at 7 in the morning but he enjoyed it.

We set off for our sightseeing at Sigiriya before it got too hot. It is a Unesco site, and is a complex on the base, slopes and summit of a granite peak 1,220 feet high. It is the earliest surviving royal palace in Sri Lanka, complete with water gardens. It dates from the second century. The climb to the top, with stops along the way to catch our breath and rest our knees, took almost two hours. We climbed a combination of narrow steps, mostly high ones, and metal stairs, both straight and spiral. Some of the spiral stairs were previously used in the London Underground in 1938 (so we were told). It was quite a view from the top. Next stop was lunch for a cold beer and some noodles.

The afternoon was spent at Polonnaruwa, which was previously a capital of the Singhalese kings from 11-13th century. This consisted of excavations of temples, dagobas, royal palace and library.

On the drive back we saw an elephant in the wild as we drove past one of the national parks.

We got back to the hotel about 6 and ordered our dinner so it would be ready after we'd all had showers and a rest. It was pretty hot today and the humidity was supposed to be about 70%.

We still seem to be the only guests at the hotel, the staff are very friendly and were waiting for us when we got back, all asking about our day, what we'd done and if we'd enjoyed it. 

Wednesday 27 November

This morning we set off to do our Anuradhapura sights. Anuradhapura was the royal capital from 380 BC to AD 1000. We visited several Buddist temples (as against Hindi ones we did in India), some of the sites were Unesco World Heritage sites. We had to remove our shoes and wear temple socks again. At the first temple we were walking on sand and fine grit so I put shower caps over my socks (I had seen some people do this last week), and it was better!

We headed on to Dambulla for lunch and then visited five caves containing statues and paintings of Buddah. We've had lots of talks on the bus explaining the Buddist beliefs and philosophy, our tour leader is Buddist from Nepal so he is very knowledgable on this topic. 

We then headed to our hotel for the next two nights, which is Green Paradise Eco Hotel. It is in a lovely setting with lots of trees and loads of birds twittering away. Great room - we are being spoiled since leaving India, and free wifi again : ) Went for dinner tonight and found out we were the only guests at the hotel tonight so special service. Had to order our breakfast tonight as there aren't enough of us to do a buffet.

Tuesday 26 November

First impressions of Sri Lanka are good, as our tour manager said "you will notice everything is nicer than India here". The roads are good, everywhere is cleaner, and we no longer have continuous horn blowing when on the roads.

Our first hotel (last night) was a bungalow with bedroom, bathroom and sitting room, and a lovely porch, loads of space - I nearly lost Ian. Pity we weren't there long enough to enjoy it all.

Up early this morning as we had an early start. We set off at 7:30 to go to Muthurajawela Nature Reserve, a protected wetland, where we took a one and a half hour boat trip along the canal (Dutch built) and into a lagoon. Didn't see monkeys and crocodiles but did see birds, it was a nice sunny morning.

We continued on and made our lunch stop at a place near the beach, then had a little walk, Ian had a paddle and said the water in the Indian Ocean was very warm.

We carried on to our hotel near Anuradhapura, which is in a beautiful setting. Gardens and trees everywhere, bungalows again with a sitting area in the bedroom this time. Free wifi in the lobby or bar two nights in a row, this is a bonus. We mostly had to pay in India, where they claim to be an up and coming IT place but the wifi was never cheap.

We are now having some rain and thunder, apparently this can happen late afternoon. God job they provide umbrellas so we can get to the restaurant (via the garden) for dinner. I wonder what Sri Lankan food will be like.

Monday 25 November

We did our Chennai (Madras) sightseeing this morning. First up was a drive along the marina to see the beach, which was quite deep. Nice buildings for part of it then gradually we came to the part the fishermen use. The men were tending their nets etc. and the women were selling the fish, apparently this is done in the late afternoon too. A bit smelly here, some of the previous days catch was laying around on the edge of the beach . . Yuk!

Next up was ABT (another bloody temple), the Kapaleswara Shiva temple, nice inside, multiple shrines etc. but the floor paving stone floor was often wet, with either overnight rain puddles or water they threw on it to keep the dust down, our temple socks and feet were really yucky by the time we left.

We watched the guys in the market making flower garlands for weddings and functions. Very intricate work and a lovely aroma. Next up was St. Thomas Basillica, where his tomb is.

The traffic in Chennai is always busy, some roads are blocked off, lots of traffic cops around. They are building a metro, overhead rail system, so lots of areas cordoned off for construction. They have been working on it for three years and have two more to go. It will even go out to the airport about 15 km away, Toronto could learn from this!

We passed a wedding party on the street, they are like a parade with the groom on a horse heading to the brides house, there is a band playing and everyone (all men) are dancing. They all had the same patterned turbans on and looked very colourful.

We then headed back to the hotel for showers and a late lunch before going to the airport for our flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. We said our goodbyes to four fellow travellers who are flying home tonight. 

Brand new airport terminal, apparently the roof leaks! Definite lack of shops, nothing to do but wait, and we can't even get a beer - life is tough sometimes. Our flight is at 9pm and is only supposed to take 1 hour 10 mins., we are here 3 hours before takeoff because it is in International flight this leg. Our hotel is a resort not far from the airport, I have a feeling we will be ready for our beds when we arrive.

Sunday 24 November

Our stop in Chennai is for two days so today we are sightseeing out of town. We set off on a two hour drive to Kanchipuram. The town has 150 active temples and is one of the seven holiest cities in India. We visited the Kailashanatha and Vaikuntaperumal Vishnu temples, both 8th century, which were pretty impressive. Being Sunday, there were lots of Indian tourists around, these were the busiest we've been in. Another two hour drive took us to Mahabalipuram, a port/beach city, where we had a fish lunch before doing some more sightseeing, consisting of two more temples. Last stop was a temple built next to a beach on the Bay of Bengal. It had started to rain at this point so out came the umbrellas. We think it was the last fragments of the cyclone Helen. It was just after 7 when we got back to the hotel so we arranged our last dinner with the full group at 8. Four people are leaving tomorrow and the remaining 5 of us are going on to Sri Lanka, plus we meet one more person there for our last week.

Friday/Saturday 22/23 November

Our drive today was one and a half hours to Alleppy, known as "Venice of the East" (not sure by who), which is on the Vembanad Lake. It is a maze of canals and bridges. We boarded the houseboat, ours were single storey, by going on someone else's boat and going over 2x8 gangplanks until we reached ours (3rd one). Our group had two boats, which had 3 double rooms each, plus a sitting area so we could relax and watch the villages as we sailed by. We had coconut drinks first, then after a while they served us lunch (fish, rice, curried veggies). Then another rest before docking at a village so we could take a walk and have a look around. Ian was invited to steer the boat for a while, he was singing the Gilligan the tune but he didn't crash! It was peaceful, slowly sailing along again until close to dinner time when we docked for the night while the chef made us a dinner of chicken, rice, dal and veggies and a desert. The boats aren't licensed, so we did the usual beer run before boarding and the crew put the drinks on ice for us. The bugs started to come out in the evening so we all retired early to our cabins were the fans and air conditioning had been turned on.

Next morning we were all up early and the crew were ready with tea and coffee while we all waited for a lovely breakfast of omelettes, banana and coconut pancakes, toast and fruit salad. We left the boat about 8 and headed to the airport for our flight to Chennai, on the eastern coast of the tip of India. We had samosas and coffee at the airport for an early lunch. Air India flight of about 1 hour 15 minutes was on time and we checked into the hotel about 2:30. Found out this town only had clouds when cyclone Helen passed through 2 days ago a bit further north.

Catching up on a bit of laundry as we are here for two nights, hope it dries! Meeting at 5:30 to go for a walk and check out the neighbourhood. Went into an Indian 'pub' with the guide - a bit of a dive to say the least : ). We caused a bit of a stir, I guess they don't get many westeners in there, just had the one beer then back to hotel to get ready for dinner.

Thursday 21 November

After breakfast we headed to the airport for our flight to Cochin at 11:45. Traffic heavy again. Only a one-hour flight on SpiceJet. Once we arrived at Cochin, in the state of Kerala, we had a one and a half hour drive to the sights in the old port. We are on the west coast, where the Arabian Sea joins the backwaters of Kerala. The Chinese were here approximately 1350, then the Portuguese arrived about 1500, then the Dutch about 1650 and finally the British about 1800. Our sightseeing started with St. Francis Church built by Portuguese friars in 1510. The ceiling looks like an upside down boat, and the church had fabric fans on a rope system hanging from above, which were pulled backwards and forwards by people outside to keep the congregation cool.

Next we took a walk by the water to see the Chinese fishing nets in action. They are made of bamboo and teak poles and are lowered into the water and pulled up a short time later to empty them of fish. The incoming tide brings in the fish.

Next was the Dutch Palace, which had beautiful murals. We then visited the Jewish Synagogue, visited mostly by tourists as there are only 7 Jewish people left living here. We finished off by going into a spice shop but we weren't allowed to just browse and buy, they were always hovering, pushing you to buy so we left! 

Next stop was our hotel, we were pleased to hear it was full and we had been upgraded to Le Meridien. Plush rooms and we don't leave until about 10:30 tomorrow so we will have time to enjoy it.

We've just got back from a lovely buffet dinner. All sorts on the menu, we all ate lots. Beef tenderloin, first beef we've had in India, was superb. Too many desserts to try them all. 

Tomorrow we go on the houseboat from about noon until the following morning, there definitely won't be wi-fi there.

Wednesday 20 November

 We had a great breakfast this morning, funny how they vary so much between hotels. Tried a bowl of 'breakfast dessert' the waiter suggested we have. Was a yellow coloured grain, a bit like semolina, with a real lemony tang. It was delicious, I asked for seconds.

Set off at 8 on our 4 hour drive to Bangalore. Good road but once we got into the suburbs of the city the traffic was pretty bad, beep beep crawl crawl. Bangalore is a tech city with lots of businesses and schooling, they call it the Indian Silicon Valley. We checked into the hotel and had a little rest before going for lunch. We had three new group members join us, a couple from Connecticut and a woman from Michigan. They will be travelling with us to the end of the tour in Sri Lanka.

Sightseeing for the afternoon was Tipu Sultans Palace and then a walk in the Lal Bagh (botanical gardens) laid out by Tipu Sultan in the 18th century. It consists of 240 acres, a tree Queen Elizabeth planted in 1961, and a smaller replica of Kew Gardens and the Crystal Palace.

Afterwards, we had a walk in a shopping district before taking tuk tuks back to the hotel. No bargains for us, only cheap beer for our before dinner drinks.

Tuesday 19 November

Started with a 3 and a half hour drive through the countryside to reach our destination of Mysore. Very lush and prosperous, crops were castor oil, sugar cane, rice, corn, coconut trees and date palms. Saw all the kids walking or biking to school in their uniforms. Also saw a woman and a goat in a tuk tuk, guess she was taking it to market.

Arrived at the Mysore hotel about 11:30 a.m. and they let us check-in, bit more luxurious. Had a break and lunch before heading out to the Maharaja's Palace,  one of the largest in India. Quite the place, built in 1897 after the old wooden palace burned down. We toured through it in our temple socks, only allowed photos outside unfortunately. The royal family lives in one half and the other half is open to the public for 60 cents, but foreigners have to pay almost $5 . . . Shame on them!

Next we went up to a viewpoint overlooking the city and to see the largest bull (Nando), carved from a single piece of granite. We told the guide we wanted "no more bull" but I don't think he got it!

We then went shopping for a while, we wanted to find some nice cotton (or silk) blouses, but no such luck. Everything is in the local styles, such as tunics but they were all too small for us (don't know why, we've seen larger Indian women here). We found a place next to the hotel were they would make items in 4 hours but were $43 for a blouse - too expensive, we can get cheaper at home. I guess all the nice stuff at home, that is made in India is all exported.

Back to the hotel for a cold beer and a shower before dinner out by the pool tonight.

Monday 18 November

Our breakfast was a battle with a bus load of Spanish tourists this morning. They don't seem to understand the 'queue' concept. Anyway, I patiently waited and got my omelette. We set off on a half hour drive to Belur, where there is a 12 century temple complex. The complete temple and all the very intricate carvings were done with soapstone, which is soft when quarried but hardens with time. It looks like metal when aged. We had to remove our shoes and wear our 'temple socks' while visiting the site. Our socks are getting grungy! It was interesting when a procession of musicians and pilgrims came from the temple to go to another building. Group of older, maybe high school, girls were there in their uniforms and also another group of young women who we noticed were taking our photos. When we started to take theirs, they laughed. 

Next stop was another complex at Halebid, another half-hour away. Again, it was a star shaped base with 32 points. There was a big statue of Nandi (the bull), the mount of Lord Shiva, guarding the temple.

After we were done we returned to the hotel for a quiet beer and lunch and we had the afternoon off to revitalize. We are meeting at 7 tonight to watch a performance by a magician before dinner. Wonder what an Indian Magician will get up to. : )

Sunday 17 November

Today is a travel day, and we are headed to Hassan. We left about 8 and soon discovered the road was full of loads of trucks, and some motorbikes, a few cars and buses. Roads are narrow so a lot of honking going on, to warn the guy in front that you are going to overtake or the pedestrians, dogs and cows to get out of the way. At best the roads were ok, but lots of portions were really bumpy due to potholes or where the asphalt had simply disappeared. Our driver earned his pay today, he is very careful and taking care of us. At one point a buffalo was spooked and ran at us, I thought it was going to head-butt our minibus, luckily the driver swerved out of its way - lucky escape.

The cows wander around wherever they feel like, scavenging for food, often eating garbage. Ian laughed, he saw one this afternoon go up to a storefront and eat bananas that were hung up for sale.

The countryside is quite green, lots of crops growing, the villagers are often busy working. Some are even employed as road workers and they are filling large bowls with crushed rock and dumping it in the potholes, bet they don't get paid much. 

We finally arrived at our digs for the next two nights. We are out of town, staying at a resort where there are lots of little cottages set in nice grounds. Big rooms, nice bathroom, screened in terrace area in every unit. It is a bit cooler here, think we are higher up - my ears popped on the journey.

Saturday 16 November

We are at the same hotel tonight so no packing required this morning - that is always a treat. We set off about 8 for our visit to Hampi, one of the most extensive historical sites in the world. Capital of the largest of all southern India Kingdoms for more than 200 years from the Early 14th century.

We made many short drives and stops throughout the day, visiting lots of temples and the king and the (2) queens palaces. All the structures are intricately carved. 

We had a lunch stop at a small hotel, tried the stuffed potato paratha and some vegetable pakoras, and cold beer of course. It was warmer than yesterday, so we stopped at a store to buy cold beer on the way back to the hotel (for our before dinner drinks). The guys were happy as they couldn't get beer yesterday, everywhere was 'dry' due to a Muslim holiday, even the hotel. Our tour manager tried to get them to serve beer to us in a teapot but they said they couldn't (big fine I think).

Friday 15 November

Had a local guide today for our visit to the Jain temples at Badami. These were sculpted out of solid rock during the 5th and 6th centuries are quite impressive.

It was a nice morning, sunny but not scorching, with a bit of a breeze. We are quite the novelty to the locals and they often stand and stare, sometimes if they aren't too shy they ask if they can take a photo of us with them. They are using their cell phone and you have to stand patiently while each person gets their shot. Two teenage girls did this to me in Goa and five guys did it to Ian today, thought it was the blonde hair but might be the shorts too : )  Really, I didn't think Ian's legs were that great!

Next we went to Patadakkal temples, a Unesco site.

We had lunch, Paratha and dal dip at a roadside place. If we were on our own I never would have gone in here but our leader said there wasn't a lot of choice. It turned out to be one of the better breads so far, very tasty. Made from scratch when we ordered it and all for 17 cents. 

Next stop was Aihole for more temples. Then about 3 hours, mostly on the highway, to Hospet where we checked into our hotel for two nights. Quite a nice hotel, even has wifi - can't be bad.

Thursday 14 November

Basically today was a travelling day. We drove from Goa to Badami, which was about 250km, slow going on some of these roads. There are speed bumps every once in a while to avoid accidents. The driver had to almost stop to get over them or we were all thrown from our seats! It was about 5 when we got to the hotel. We had dinner in the garden. Hotel is quite basic but it's clean. Only two hotels here and we are in the best one so no complaints.

Wednesday 13 November

Great breakfast this morning, lots of choice on the buffet plus eggs cooked as you like them. Ian had the Indian breakfast.

Sightseeing today was old Goa where there are 3 church/basilica's built around 1500/1600 by the Portuguese who colonized this area. Next onto Panjim the capital of Goa, had a visit to the indoor market. Lots of fresh produce, flower garlands, and some merchandise vendors, locals shop here daily. Then for a nice lunch, I had spring rolls which were very hot, I still have a runny nose an hour later. They came with a hot sauce that I didn't even eat!

We then returned to hotel to relax for the afternoon. Lots of choices - swimming pool, walk on beach, paddle in the Arabian Sea, take in the sun on a lounger - haven't decided which to do yet.

We are having a BBQ dinner tonight, I'm hoping for some nice fresh fish.

Tuesday 12 November

Set off about 9 to do our Mumbai sightseeing. About an hours drive to get into the part of the city where our stops were to be. First stop was the dhobi ghats, which is the largest outdoor laundry facility in the world. The guys wash thousands of items every day, mostly from hotels, hospitals, businesses, and sometimes folks living in an apartment block would send items from their whole building. Everything labelled with number/alpha marks on the labels, or a piece of coloured cotton threaded through it. The guys were beating the items on stone sinks and they would be hung to dry in the sunshine. Apparently, the guys can remove stains the housewives washing machines can't.

Next up we saw the tiffin wallas. These are a network of guys collecting tiffins (kind of like a cylinder shaped metal lunchbox, with 2 or 3 tiers of home cooked food their wife or mother had prepared. These are picked up from their homes and delivered to a central area, then delivered to the places the husbands work. 4 or 5 guys could be involved in the delivery of each tiffin. They are marked with an alpha-numerical character to indicate where they had to go. Some of the delivery guys are illiterate but the manage this job with extreme accuracy. The even pickup the empty boxes after lunch and return them back to the wives for washing ready for the next day.

We saw the cricket pitches, like parks, in front of some government offices, a lot of fancy building the British built during the 1800's, which have all been renamed since our last visit to Indian names instead of their older English name (like Queen Victoria Railway Terminus). Also had a walk around the India Gate, which was built for King George's visit to the city, and the British left through here in 1947 (?) when India gained its independence. We then went to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to use their toilets - it was definitely the best loo in India!

Then it was off to the airport for a one-hour flight south to Goa. Then almost an hour drive to our resort hotel, right on the beach. Much better digs than the last place, will find it easy to stay the 2 nights planned for here. Stopped at a booze shop for supplies. Pint bottles of Kingfisher beer for about a dollar each. Fit perfectly in the fridge in our room.