Summer fling ...

After a very very long hot Delhi summer, our family escaped for a week to the beautiful teardrop island of Sri Lanka. We spent two nights in Colombo and five in Thalpe, about 15 minutes from Galle.

I have been to Sri Lanka before and remember then being surprised about how different it was to India - so close yet so far. A lot less people, a lovely sea breeze and supermarkets with aisles are my main take-aways from Colombo. I fell in love with Paradise Road, a homewares store with beautiful crockery, pottery and tableware. I bought a teapot, milk jug, serving platters and some linen - all really lovely and nowhere near the price of Oz. A trip back may be necessary to stock up on more plates and things......

Next stop was Thalpe. We took the new highway from Colombo to Galle - WOW. It is amazing, about six months old and smooth as silk to drive on. 400 Sri Lankan ruppees ($A3) gets you through the toll gates and then it is one hour of the smoothest driving I've experienced in this part of the world.

In Thalpe we checked into Apa Villa and couldn't have been happier with it. We had Saffron Suite 7 and it was perfect for us who were travelling with a toddler. There was a bedroom, bathroom, sitting room and covered deck, where we ate breakfast, dinner, enjoyed the view and hunted for hermit crabs.  It was super chilled at Apa, they had a beautiful pool right on the ocean and lovely staff. You couldn't swim in the ocean, as it was very rocky and rough, but I loved just looking at it and breathing in the fresh ocean air.

 

In addition to just chilling at our villa, reading books and eating seafood, we had a couple of trips into Galle Fort and checked out some shops and eateries. We had a great lunch at the Galle Fort Hotel, bought some cool replica Air Ceylon pictures and checked out the lighthouse. It is a cute old town and lots of shops to look through and spend a few dollars at.

We also visited Apa's sister property in the countryside. This is a stunning garden setting and very relaxing. The head gardener showed us all around and we tried to spot an elusive monkey - without any luck.

Other than that we did very little - we swam, slept and chilled. Even our toddler got swept up in the relaxed vibe and had a good sleep in every morning!

 

We'll be back ........ 

Hot hot hot ...

What a terrible blogger I have become.... nothing from me for months. The reason for that is not too much has been happening beside heat. Delhi has been in the grip of a serious summer, it has been over 43 degrees for as long as I can remember. I am eternally thankful to the people that invented air conditioning, and can't even imagine what living through heat like this would be like without it. Even though so many people in this place do.

There has been a lot of 'goings' from Delhi. The minute the school closes up, the aeroplanes take off and the tumbleweed rolls in (not quite in a city of 20 million people). Some very special people have taken off this summer and won't be coming back to Delhi shores, thankfully a lot will be.

I'v been working part-time which has allowed for some long weekends. On one of these recently we managed to scrap in a little trip to Oman and Dubai to see some very good friends. In Muscat we stayed at the Shangri-La Hotel and just swam, ate Aussie beef (in many states) and relaxed in the heat looking at the Arabian Sea. It was a few days of just relaxing.

View from Shangri-La

 

Soph and Tom meet the locals

We then drove to Dubai (via Shobha - a must see!) with our mates and had one day checking out the malls of Dubai. I need to pencil in a trip back as didn't get around to seeing nearly enough stuff but importantly I saw Dubai's new Waitrose, Jones the Grocer, Nespresso store and a butcher. Another highlight was Milk and Honey - a gorgeous little grocer that stocked amazing olives, Carmen's museli bars, Natural Confectionary company lollies and quite delicious cupcakes. Dubai's malls blew my mind after Delhi and have a feeling that place hasn't stopped growing yet! Cate - pencil me back into the spare bedroom soon!

Otherwise, today is Sophie's 2nd birthday so there has been plenty of cake, balloons and Charlie and Lola episodes (her absolute favourite). Can't believe she is 2! Where has the time gone......

Here's to another day of 44 degrees......

Pondicherry holiday

At the end of April we packed the family up and headed south to Tamil Nadu and the city of Chennai. Chennai was just a pit stop before heading down the highway to Pondicherry. The road to Pondi was fairly good but our driver was a complete lunatic! As a result Sophie threw up all over the backseat, herself and her parents.Her father, for some odd reason, had brought along a plastic bag - genius - so an easy clean up and we continued on our way.

2 hours later we arrived at the Dune Hotel, a lovely villa based eco hotel about 15km north of Pondi. Dunes was cool. We were shown to our villa that had its own pool and immediately relaxed. The only way to get around the Dune is on bicycles which was lovely and gave a very relaxed Rottnest vibe to the place.

On the Sunday morning we ventured into Pondi city and had a little wander around.... on the way in to town I did let my mind wander to french baguettes and wide boulevardes however we were obviously still in India so the French influence was limited to some older style french buildings damaged by years of heat and monsoon rains, but it still had some charm.  It was also crazy crazy hot so after about 90 minutes of walking we called it a day and headed back to the private pool and a nimbu pane.

The weather in Pondicherry suited alot of lazing, reading, sleeping and swimming so we stuck to these core activities and we were fine. One of the nicest things was sitting outside on our little deck, getting room service sharing a bottle of wine and staring at the many many stars that we hadn't seen for awhile......... 

ANZAC Day in Delhi

Today was ANZAC Day, a day when Australians and New Zealanders stop to remember those fellow countrymen who fought, and are currently fighting, in wars around the globe. I have been to the ANZAC Day Dawn Service in Perth, Australia, Gallipoli in Turkey and now in New Delhi, India.

The Australian and New Zealand High Commissions in New Delhi join forces every year to commemorate this occasion, taking turns who hosts - this year was the Aussies turn.

So with the alarm set for 4.45am, we woke up, quickly showered and headed to the Delhi War Cemetery. Unfortunately it was so damn early, and not being awake properly, I forgot to take my phone which had our GPS/map..... so we only had some 'old-fashioned' printed directions. It didn't go well and we were convinced we were lost. So at about 5.25am we cracked it and headed for home. Thankfully, regaining composure, we U-turned and tried again. This time we successfully found the ceremony and luckily hadn't missed too much.

The Delhi War Cemetery is really lovely! Surrounded by Indian Army facilities it is in a very quiet little spot which is obviously perfect, by rare, in this city. It is beautifully kept and the morning was lovely and cool. The views from the cemetery obviously didn't rival those of Perth or Gallipoli but it made up for it with its calm and peaceful ambiance. The really lovely part of the day was the number of Aussies and Kiwis that had crawled out of bed at this very early hour to honour the fallen.

There were speeches from the Australians, New Zealanders and Turkish, then wreaths were laid by many different countries including Fiji, USA, UK, and the Indian Armies. Finally they played 'the last post' on the bugle - a must on ANZAC Day.

Our 'nearly 2' year old came with us and enjoyed the bugle and managed to maintain silence for 2 minutes - a miracle!

Following the ceremony we walked around to look at the war graves and saw Australian, New Zealand and UK graves along with many others - all of them so very young.

Then it was time for breakkie. Everyone formed a convoy for the Aussie High Comm where a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, baked beans etc..... was put on, which either fuelled the work day for some and footy time for others!

All in all, well worth it and a really nice experience.

Holi Moli

Holi - an amazing day in the Indian calendar - a festival of colour. This country loves good festival but this day seems to be embraced by most and puts a smile on everyones face (until of course the joy of the good party wears off). Holi signals the end of winter and the start of summer - hurrah! From now on all we have to look forward to is watching the mercury climb!

Last year I was pretty new to the scene up here and didn't think an eight month old would really dig getting covered in coloured dye..... wind forward 12 months and we are all over it. We had a great day with some friends in the morning throwing colour, then chilled out in the afternoon with other mates over a couple of drinks listening to the chaos of Holi swirl around us on the streets.

Sophie getting Dad with colours!

 

now Mum's turn....

Napisan required?

 

 

Some locals enjoying the festival.

 

Happy Holi x

One year in ... time for some Hope.

Our family has ticked over one year in this incredible city. We have visited some amazing places but probably one that will be with me for a long time was the Hope Projects walk around Nizamuddin. (I have put in a link to the Hope Project at the bottom of the post. They are an interesting bunch so make sure you have a read.)
We were supposed to meet our guide outside Nizamuddin Police Station at 5.30pm, but like most things here, you never leave the meeting point before waiting at least 15 minutes and making at least 3 phone calls.

Finally our guide arrived and we started weaving our way through the streets of Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin is a primarily Muslim area and a rabbit warren, god knows where we walked, it was incredible.

Nizamuddin is full of beautiful little kids playing cricket and running up and down the small alleyways. There are attar shops that sell lovely little perfumes and chook shops with chickens close to their doom.

It is overwhelming and can feel like you have stepped back in time.

Mosques are aplenty and we arrived around prayer time so rivers of men where winding their way to worship, however we were certainly not welcome to go anywhere near the inside of the mosques.

As the sun set and we could no longer see what we were stepping in or on we hit the real market area. There were flower garlands, incense and the lingering smell of shoes...... always means its never long before you too will have your bare soles on the ground.

So remove our shoes we did and moved in to listen to the Sufi singers. The Sufi music is quite calming and relaxing and watching so many people hit the square to listen to it is quite lovely - men, women, kids, the elderly - everyone! It is busy but quite beautiful.

Since I have arrived here I have learnt that there is often something else going on under the surface at the same time as everything else. I was really confronted when I realised that the music was also used to calm a number of mentally disturbed people whose family bring them here in the belief that the music will cure them.

It's full on..... woman and men thrashing, swaying and beating themselves to the beat of the music. They also wail and moan which accompanies the melodic musicians. I have never experienced anything quite like it.

I couldn't stay there for too long and we moved on past the passage of beggars to the well of sacred water (although I think I am glad it was dark). We asked our guide, a resident of Nizamuddin, whether he believed the sacred water could cure you. His response - 'no, if you're sick you go to the doctor' - righteo then.

The final stop was HQ of the Hope Project which was lovely and we saw the resting place of the founder..... below. Lots of very cute kittens were keeping the tomb warm, so cute!

Of course no trip to Nizamuddin is complete without a good old kebab so off we went to a street food vendor doing a roaring trade in meat products. I won't say I wasn't nervous but I jumped in, enjoyed and ....... no unpleasant lasting results.

End result - a definite Delhi experience with a great organisation.

For more information on the Hope Project here. 

Taj Mahal - you might have heard of it?

My first trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra was back in 2004, I really can't believe it was 7 odd years ago.... and I don't feel that much older.

Back then I caught the train that left at 6 am which was efficient and good, this time I couldn't get a ticket on the train so drove, leaving at 6am. I braced myself as there are horror stories of the road trip taking hours and hours and hours....... thankfully leaving at this early hour on this particular morning was a breeze (with a pillow and iPod in the back of  perfectly comfortable car!). After only 3 hours we arrived in cold, foggy, smoggy Agra.

Agra must be very grateful for the Taj otherwise not many people would be visiting, it's not the prettiest place on the planet but it does have one of the prettiest buildings.

My sister and I got dropped off at the carpark and you get the choice whether to go by electric car or by camel to see her. I left the choice to my sister and the next minute we are in a tray on the back of a camel.

'Romantic' mode of transport

Got to love a good old grumpy smelly camel! Soon Rob and I were at the entrance to the main event. I had to take a picture of the 'cattle lanes', apparently in place to stop people jumping the queue - very effective as an average sized person can barely fit through!

 

Do not overtake!

But all that fades into insignificance when you see this ....

 

No matter how many times I see this building on a postcard it really doesn't compare to the real thing and postcards can't provide you with the 'Princess Diana' moment!

Fact for the day: clever things built the Taj so the minarets all lean slightly out in case there is an earthquake they fall outwards.

 

I can also highly recommend a visit and perhaps lunch at the new Oberoi in Agra - views are amazing!

Then it was time for the drive back..... slightly more hairy that the drive down there and also took two hours longer. The drive back was hairy, who would have thought a truck driving along with a truckload of bricks loosely piled on the back, not tied down would fall off at random intervals and come crashing onto the road. Of course you didn't want to be in the car that might decide to overtake at just the the wrong moment. Thankfully it didn't happen to us, I then decided to match the rest of the trip back to my iPod soundtrack and hope for the best. It helped.