So finally after a month of delays tomorrow we will be leaving Chennai IN THE TRUCK!

We have been tested along the way – by the shipping line who decided not to ship the vehicle, by the vessel itself which arrived in Chennai a week behind the revised schedule, by the fascinating people in Indian customs who seem never to have seen a carnet document before (I could say more).

But pride of place (drum roll) has to go to the person(?) at Southampton docks who decided to get into the truck and rifle through our possessions stealing whatever took their fancy. Shirts, T-shirts, shorts, trousers, tracksuits, waterproofs, all Leishia’s cosmetics (that’s a lot!), a multimeter, various tools, our malaria prophylactics (useful in the UK), our penicillin and even a couple of dry towels. This piece of pond life even ripped out a wireless tyre monitoring gauge, took our locking wheel nut socket (both of which are of zero use to him) and unbelievably stole the two AA batteries from the winch remote! He also tried very hard to get into a locked compartment where our main tool kit was stored. Luckily in that endeavour he failed.

(We know it happened at Southampton because the ship’s crew secured the truck with strops which made it impossible to access the rear doors. The left-side strop wouldn’t come off on arrival so the crew left it in place and I took it off myself after the vehicle had cleared Chennai customs. Several of the stolen items were inside that left-side rear door which was inaccessible after the vehicle left Southampton).

So we are not the happiest little bunnies in the world right now. Leishia is much more accepting of of it than am I but it will definitely be good to get moving tomorrow!

…. And never again will I ship a vehicle Ro-Ro!

So our shipping saga continues. If you didn’t know we were in the midst of a shipping saga here is a brief recap – originally we planned to ship Elsie to Mumbai, we were to fly in on October 24th, she was to arrive on the 25th, couple of days to clear customs and we would have been heading off to the Pushkar camel fair. That all fell apart when the shipping company decided to cancel the Mumbai stop, consequently they didn’t load the vehicle and instead back scheduled her to the next vessel (one month later). Had they told us any of that before the ship sailed we would have asked them to load the vehicle anyway and to offload her in Chennai – but they didn’t. We didn’t want to have such a long delay so switched Elsie to the next Chennai vessel due to arrive on November 13th. A three week delay but that meant we would get to see a bit of South India by train hence our “Elsie-less” journey from Mumbai to Goa, Goa to Bangalore and finally Bangalore to Chennai. Unfortunately the 13th has been and gone but the vessel hasn’t. Latest news is it arrives tomorrow (Wednesday 20th) so we are hoping to be on the road on Friday but frankly we’re not holding our breath!

We arrived in Chennai four days ago and are staying in a super hotel (the Ramada in Egmore). This particular Ramada is much like any other except that the staff are exceptional, nothing is too much trouble and they make these cute animals out of towels:

The front desk manager is a lovely lady called Sulekha who seems to solve problems as if she had a magic wand:

The facilities are great too which is fortunate because right now I’m spending about three hours a day in the gym. So as ever even this latest delay brings with it a silver lining, we seem to be the only people using the gym so we get exclusive use of excellent equipment and the steam room and I get a complimentary thirty minute stretch session every morning.

I took this little clip of the view from our window (with thanks to the Black Eyed Peas):

So what does Chennai have to offer? Well we decided to go to the eye hospital which was established in 1819 making it the second oldest in the world after Moorfields in London. There were some fabulous buildings and one operational ward with a few patients recovering from surgery. The ward was spartan to say the least:

We also went to the museum in the eye hospital but unfortunately the power was off so we couldn’t really see the exhibits. Also the curator seems to have stopped curating some time around 1947!

From there we made for the Government museum. Almost the first things we saw were this colony of fruit bats hanging in the trees in the grounds:

and this cannon:

Being a bit of an anorak I decided to look up “The fall of Tranquebar”. Turns out that all that happened to Tranquebar in 1845 was that the Danish sold it to the British so hardly a fall. But then I suppose if the sign had read “Cannon pinched during normal business transaction” it might not have been so interesting.

The most interesting exhibit in the museum seems to have been us – we were there at the same time as a huge party of school children most of whom plucked up the courage to come up to us and ask “What’s your name?” before running off amidst peals of laughter!

There was a small hall hidden away at the back of the grounds which we stumbled across. Inside was a photographic exhibition and all the photographs had been taken by a ten year old boy, Vishwak Shenon, who was there with his mother. Here he is:

We also went to the beach, I had heard it was several miles long so had high hopes that it might be good for running – sadly not, there doesn’t seem to be anywhere in Chennai that would be good for outdoor running. If you watched the recent Rick Stein India series this was the beach he came to to see the fishermen, it isn’t as glamorous as he managed to make it seem but it is interesting. The day we were there it was packed with people but there were solitary spots:

If you are a “Foreigner” the rickshaw drivers will always try to take you to a craft market or “government store” primarily because they get a small kickback for taking you and a big one if you buy something. Now and again we take the bait mostly because we quite enjoying cruising around the city in an open air rickshaw! We spent several hours one day tripping around and looking at Kashmiri carpets many of which seem to be a) massively overpriced and b) Chinese. Buying a carpet here is not for the faint hearted!

We also went to Fort St. George which was the original fortified base established around 1653 by the East India Company. The fort housed the best museum we’ve seen yet and this fascinating sign:

which pointed the way to this once grand house:

Today I went for a stroll around the local area. From outside it all looks pretty dire:

but once inside I soon realised that whilst some of the common areas are a bit grim the people keep their own little piece of the world as clean and tidy as they can. They are also all really friendly and want to talk to you, make you chai and have their picture taken! Here are a few shots I took:

 I love that spice grinder! satellite dish!

Anyway “moving on” here are a few signs we’ve spotted around Chennai:

A few days ago we reluctantly said goodbye to Palolem, took a TukTuk to the local train station and bought our tickets to Goa station. Our seats (ha) were in General Class and were great value, 45 rupees for a 45 minute journey – at that price Plymouth to London would cost about £3.50!

It wasn’t clear which platform the train was going from so we were reassured when we realised that there was only one platform. Reassured that is until people started to climb down from the platform and wander across the tracks to wait at the further track. Turns out they were catching the Cochin train from the other non-existent platform!

Our train came in on time and alongside the platform so no need for Leishia to manage a five foot drop in a pencil skirt! We boarded the train and I was immediately befriended by an old chap who proudly told me that he was seventy five and only had three teeth!

 Quite a moustache!

From Goa we were catching the overnight sleeper to Bangalore; last time we took a sleeper we were in class 2AC which I concluded must stand for “twice as cold”. This time we were in the same class but although the AC was running the fan wasn’t which made for a very pleasant journey.

We only had three days in Bangalore and they were pretty full. The first evening we met up with a local couple, Tautik and Rohini, who had travelled all around India in 2007. We first made contact a couple of years ago after I saw their slideshow, here it is:

Tautik and Rohini were a truly vibrant couple with a real love of travel. We spent a super evening together talking about their trip and our plans and I think by the end of the evening they were ready to get their rucksacks out and get on the road again. Quite late on in the conversation Tautik casually mentioned that he was a runner and had run a 75k ultra the day before! We talked about running then!

On Monday we went to the Bangalore office of our shipping agent. We spent a couple of hours finalising the import documentation for Elsie, hopefully everything is now in place for a smooth process in Chennai. We shall see.

Tuesday was fun, Murthy one of my old work colleagues now lives in Bangalore (his home town) and I had told him several years ago that one day we would make it to Bangalore. Murthy collected us from our apartment and we spent the afternoon and evening at his house. His wife Sandie cooked some spectacular dishes and we sat around all day chatting. Strangely enough the last time we saw them was at their apartment in Chicago when we did much the same thing!

 Leishia and Sandie

 Leishia and Murthy – smoking!

After dinner Sandie presented Leishia with a beautiful sari, picture quality is poor but there will be others during the trip for sure:

I felt as if I were going home with a different wife!

The rest of our time in Bangalore was all about sight seeing, first port of call was Bangalore Palace (the old Maharajah still lives there):

It’s a fascinating old building in the middle of the city but is in need of a huge dose of TLC as witnessed by what was once a wonderful conservatory:

and this beautiful lodge:

The best part of the visit was undoubtedly the audio tour, it’s just a shame that the place is in such bad repair, the original furniture is nowhere to be seen and the estate has been encroached on by badly built eyesores.

After the palace we took a TukTuk to Lalbagh botanical gardens, along the way we passed this happy chap:

Lalbagh is a real oasis in what has become an increasingly crowded city.

We were on our way out of the park when we came across this little gem:

What I want to know is what they do with it when it’s full!

And on the subject of strange sights, it seems you can buy anything in India:

Time to stop I think!

Well who would have thought a week by an idyllic beach could fly by so quickly?

This was our little piece of paradise:

 Ours was the hut with the white curtains

The beach is wonderful but one morning I counted forty-seven dogs and thirteen cows on it. I wondered how the cows found food on the beach then one evening we discovered that they don’t, they go to the local restaurants. This one visits this particular establishment three times a day – and they feed him three times a day!

As expected we have done very little apart from read and run. Some time towards the end of the week Leishia actually took to waking up early and running along the beach, she said she wanted to get her heart rate up, I said I knew other ways she might achieve that!

Apart from reading and running we spent the week supporting the local economy, we took a short boat trip, two crew and two of us, here’s the crew:

supposedly to see dolphins which I am assured these were:

somewhat distant but there were a lot of them, just very difficult to photograph with my Box Brownie. We also saw a couple of monkeys (not swimming though), this is going to be a bit like the “cat in the scrapyard” picture but trust me they really are there:

We frequented the local laundry, very different to the one we saw in Mumbai:

 Baldo and Area

and the local restaurants, Larry the lobster probably wishes we hadn’t:

 Larry looking worried

 Larry and lemon rice

We found a very kind tailor who turned the collar on my favourite shirt which means it should last me another twenty years. He also made Leishia a couple of dresses. For a moment I thought we were back in China.

 Nasir, dressmaker to the Gods

We also had a massage. I am used to deep tissue massages and I quite like them. For some reason we were talked into an Ayurvedic massage which, based on a sample size of one, I don’t like. I will definitely try it again just in case my first experience was an extreme outlier but being repeatedly smacked with a wet cloth drenched in old cooking oil didn’t do much for me!

On the subject of massages I frequented the local barber (which seems to be the only business in Palolem with an operational AC unit). The barber did a good job for the princely sum of 150 rupees (about £1.50) and then offered a head massage for another 150 rupees. Well I had the time and the money and some previous experience of such things so I accepted. It turned out to be a very odd head massage. He basically strapped a 240 volt motor to the back of his hand and with a big pad on the front of his hand proceeded to shake my teeth out. At one point he stopped shaking my teeth out and stuck his finger in my ear, deep in my ear! Then he did the same thing with the other ear. Then he shook my teeth a bit more. Then it was over. I think it was actually a jaw realignment process.

Not content with new collars, dresses, haircuts and massages Leishia booked us in for a pedicure (I swear we have kept the economy running here entirely with our own efforts this week). The pedicure was fine right up to the point when Leishia decided I should have my ears threaded. Wonderful. The girl who did the threading was the sweetest little thing but didn’t seem to have any problem at all inflicting what is basically a medieval torture technique. Anyway I survived and now I have babies ears.

We were lucky enough to be here during the Diwali celebrations, the primary celebration on the beach seemed to be blessing the boats. each family blesses their own boat in a small ceremony, they light candles and if you happen to be around at the right moment they give you a sweet 🙂

 The boat was named after the little boy

There were as ever a couple of hilarious incidents this week. The first was when one of the local beach dogs took a shine to Leishia. After a short courtship ritual the dog, clearly thinking he had made a sufficient impression, decided to mark his territory. Leishia avoided the waterfall with just inches to spare.

The second was also furnished by Leishia. We were walking along the beach and I said “They’re playing cricket over there”. She responded “Yes, there are two games”. “Where’s the second?” I asked. Proudly she pointed at the second set of stumps and said “There!”. Kept me amused for the rest of the day!

So that was this week. This evening we are taking the sleeper train to Bangalore, we are in class 2AC, the same class we were in on the sleeper down from Mumbai. There are six beds arranged as bunks with strategically placed curtains. Each little cabin has aircon and a fan the combination of which is ferocious. I concluded that 2AC stands for “Twice as cold”. The cold actually kept us awake which didn’t really matter because the chai sellers did a fair job of keeping us awake too! What joy 🙂

So if you are wondering about the lack of updates the reason is that choosing between blogging and reading hasn’t been taxing! We are in Palolem in southern Goa and the beach is terrific, I have a video of it but the internet here is as slow as the pace of life so that will have to wait.

We’ve been lazing around since we arrived in fact the most exciting event of the last few days has been today’s cricket match so that shows how unexciting everything else has been!  That said Leishia did meet some of the locals last night on our way to dinner:

which was terrific, prawns and crab:

and by the time we left the tide was in so the last few steps on to the beach were fun:

This morning we met a few more locals:

and chanced upon probably the best house in the village:

(The swastika is very common here as a Hindu symbol of good luck, rather than what it came to represent after the Austrian corporal hijacked it in the Summer of 1920). 

I spent the rest of the day watching India beat Australia to win the series 3-2 which the locals took as a Diwali gift. Fantastic match. Leishia had chai and cake, that girl knows how to spoil herself!

The chai and cake girl is insisting that I put something in this blog about me losing our room keys on the beach – so now I have!

Oh, and my questionable boat trip negotiating skills.

But I’m not going to say anything about her paying ten times more than she thought for my new shirt. Those pesky decimal points. Not such a bargain after all then!