Well, what do we think so far?
Kerala was just as it says on the tin- quiet, undeveloped and beautiful. Except for the dawn & dusk calls to prayer from the mosques, & the party type singing & chanting from the Hindu temples ( & the roar of the surf ), it really was serene. The people at Neeleshwar were just lovely, gentle & sincere, & the whole concept is excellent. Don’t go for a riotous time, but do go for a complete wind down, yoga, cookery & Ayerverdic treatments! And the cruise on the backwaters – really a huge inlet from the Arabian Sea – was idyllic. It’s drawback? It doesn’t prepare you for India!!
The driving at first we thought was terrible, but just as in Sorrento last year, you start to see a pattern, and it’s not kamikaze! The noise is ridiculous, the constant movement remarkable, the margins for error less than 5cms, but it seems to work.
And it looks as though music is very similar the whole world over. The 4 piece band could have been straight from a ceilidh – a fiddle, a whistle/flute, a hand held drum ( can’t spell bodhran?), but no pipes! The sounds were different though.
And then Mumbai. Well, the hotel is one of the best that we’ve ever been to, except for 1 thing–it’s in Mumbai! We’ve been out this morning for a tour, & some of the architecture is stunning. Mostly from the British colonial days, but incorporating Arabic, Indian & Asian influences. The Victoria Terminal is a bigger version of St Pancras station, although not matching it’s current splendour, but even on a holiday, it’s just a seething mass of people. The juxtaposition of poverty with untold wealth is disturbing-we saw the worlds biggest “house” today, & we’re sorry that we forgot our Apples for photos, but it has 3 helipads, 600 servants etc etc & is 28 storeys high. It’s disgusting, and slap bang in the middle of a rundown area!
We’re going out again tomorrow to look around some more – the markets etc- & it is fascinating, but….
Tonight we’ll be on the top of the hotel for a NYE party, & I’ll pretend that I’m in Sydney. Only joking!
It’s just so hard to describe it accurately.
It’s evident just how much the Indians love their cricket though – never seen so much cricket being played all the time, in lovely whites, with formal umpires etc. I’m playing the old fast bowler card a lot, bit like rugby and the chasse at home!
We’ll put some pictures up as and when, but they don’t really capture it all.
We wish you all a happy, healthy & prosperous 2014!
