wonderful Mahansar Castle, Rajasthan

19.2.08
In Mahansar today and staying at the old Castle of Mr and Mrs Singh.
This place is such fun, the ladies of the trip have been giggling away and trying out how to share the experience with those back home. Impossible really you have to be here to believe it was what we came to.... see what you think of the pictures

Here is a view from my window of inside the palace and some of my room- I feel like a Maharani!

one of inside my room and one of some of us at the Castle with Mr Singh

on the road...

18.2.08

First day out of Delhi with my next tour group- it is always exciting setting out.
Spent yesterday sightseeing Delhi, the Crafts Museum was wonderful as ever, out the back the government supports crafts people from across the country coming for 1 month to sell their wares. All craftspeople accepted are recognized masters of their craft and authenticated as being the producers of the items for sale.

You are never sure who is going to be there but are always assured of it being worth your while to look.

Yesterday was a beauty, a gentleman from Kutch had wonderful woollen shawls- there are photos of the one I purchased- gorgeous,

There were people from Orissa- cotton and silk weavers, and some from Chattisgarh mouth watering work. I don’t have a photo I am sorry but let me describe what stays in my mind. A sari length of fabric- silk a bit textured like a shiny raw silk in a beautiful silver grey and soft gold colour. The fabric was firm enough you could cut it to make a shirt and trousers if you so desired although when I have bought saris to cut up I have felt a bit wrong they are such a beautiful and complete garment in themselves.
I woke up this morning silk drooling over the fabric and wish I had bought it. The starting price the lady said was 3500 rp- for 6 metres [ that is about $110 Australian or the most amazing fabric I am sure you would pay $60 or $80 Australian per metre for]. The piece was all hand loom and the makers of the fabric would have been the ones I put the money in the hands of at the Craft Museum [ not a middle man]
I am not a great shopper and so usually happy to look it is not often I ever think oh I should have bought that one. But it was soooooooo lovely… oh well we have contact info for that village too, and it is not far from where we will be in December- I will have to go and visit!

Kunal works for us in our Delhi office and he originally comes from Orissa so has been helping us research textile leads in the area. He was very helpful making contacts with these people and I look forward to visiting their village in December when we head to Orissa to work on a tour itinerary.

It is always exciting researching a new location, keeping your eye out for contacts where ever you are, and then when you see samples of local produts your mouth starts to water.
Next will be the more challenging aspect of following up all the leads, finding suitable accommodation and turning it into a do-able itinerary!
Luckily Parveen is patient with me and persistant like I am and we keep ‘discussing’ things sometimes vigorously until we are both happy.
Once you have it all sorted to your liking you start to pray that things don’t change and the promises made come true. India can be a bit challenging sometimes- people don’t say NO, rather they will say yes and hope you don’t want them to follow through, a bit hard for me with my Australian is it yes or no thinking and hard to pick up the nuances of what is or not being said to us. Parveen’s we will do the absolute best we can, hope and be pleased if it is true attitude is good to try and emulate rather than getting in a knot and disappointed when things change.

Nearly crossing the border into Rajasthan,.. The first camels are turning up by the road, ohh I love rajasthan!

Bye Fiona

isn't life unexpected sometimes?

I am in Pushkar and was just walking up through the back alley ways towards my hotel and was struck at how surpriseing things can be sometimes.
it was just over 4 years ago I was in Pushkar for the first time,
4 and a HALF YEARS AGO I HAD NEVER REALISTICALY THOUGHT i WOULD EVER GET TO India [ sorry about the capitals- just a typo not shouting]

and here I am putting in a few days with Shakti Project and planning to start looking for a property just outside of town to make this place my principle place of residence... amazing really.

I now have a mobile coonestion for my computer so i can email where ever I can get mobile phone coverage- not bad for someone often called a Luddite? huh?

Finally the weather is warming up a little and wedding season is starting- which means loud drumming, brassbands in the streets at all hours and lots of fireworks going off. all exciting but noisy!

Pushkar

The world is the same over- Sunday afternoon, here it is the family camel parked on the front lawn getting a brush down, back home it would be the family car getting a wash!


I am in Pushkar for a few days before my next tour.


Left Delhi at 5.30 in the morning...just like an unruly child when asleep seemed vulnerable andmore loveable somehow.





I was surprised to see

so many sleeping on the street or huddled around small fires. It was very cold.

I am in Pushkar to brain storm with Ramsingh of the Shakti Project for a few days www.streetchildren.co.in .

we are going to try making yummy jam- and sell it in some of the hotels. the only jam you get in India is red and sweet- can't decide on the variety, so perhaps it will be a goer and give some much needed funds to run the project.

It could slao be the start of a small enterprise- we will try and get some of the parents involved who will be able to earn a wage... really re-inforcing the idea of not begging if parents do this.

should be a good idea.

any other small enterprise ideas out there?

when you look at the size of things needed it is huge, one thing to get the kids off the street and into school, we need to help them find something to do after that to earn income. there families beg because they have so few skills. and in this rapidly changing world they are getting left further and further behind.

elephant rides

Fresh coffee, growing in a spice garden, can you see the young ladies hands, she is on her honeymoon and has lovely henna patterns all over her hands.

Parveen and I on an elephant ride through a Spice Plantation- she [ the elephant] is so gorgeous!

5.2.08

Back down by the beach, steamy and beautiful with breezes from the Arabian Sea, we are on a narrow spit of land between the ocean and the backwaters, palm trees abound and all is cruisy. The last few days have been up in the Cardamom Hills, so interesting yesterday we visited a Spice garden and were shown around by a most informative young man, we saw cardamom, vanilla, coffee, nutmeg, pepper, tea, many medicinal herbs- Auyvedic Natural Healing is very big here.
Rubber and teak plantations abound- I love growing things and gardens this- was a delightful mountain paradise.
Today we checked out a local art gallery- some interesting things and had a Keralean Mixed plate for lunch in a local diner- all these different bowls of food on your plate that keep get filled up until your eyes start to bulge!
Fish curry- coconut based, a fresh beetroot salad, spicy Sambar- veg stew, pickle, curd and a very tasty deep fried and salted hot chilli rounded the meal out with poppadom and rice and a sweet mung dhal, great stuff.

I am fascinated by the blokes here- I had to quickly explain this one to Parveen ! he was wandering why I am always eyeing off the guys legs- I have my nice guy; really it is not the men that catch my eye rather the ritual they seem to go through with their dhotis- leave it long, pull it up and tie, then loosen it, drop it, then pick it up and flap it around and so on and so on… like peacocks showing their tails off kind of…

Office day to-day- sitting on the veranda by the sea, scratching out lists of prices locations, timings, details, details and details is the back bone of trying to get our tours to run smoothly.

I love the research- oh and we had an elephant ride through a spice plantation as well- that was magical- they have such leathery skin and hair like rubber spikes sticking out over the top of their head- gorgeous animals, I fed our girl a pineapple and she screwed the top off then crushed it in her mouth to drink the juice before chewing up the rest
Ooh here comes Parveen -back to facts and figures… I think we will have to take an evening stroll along the beach as the sun sets behind the sea- just to gage if it will be good for our clients! That is.

I think the boat attendant thought I was crazy photographing ladies legs, just liked their clothes

I know the picture is not so good but the are real wild elephants! and we got to see them.

1.2.08

Before leaving Kochi we had a lime soda in a café down by the water and were treated to the antics of a pod of dolphins cruising up the river mouth into the incoming tide of the Arabian Sea catching fish for dinner- glorious creatures.
Then we had dinner at the hotel we have settled on for our tour groups- a comfortable place with a lovely roof top restaurant and evening performances of Indian Classical dance.
What a treat! Three performers Mother, Daughter and Grand-daughter making up a very talented family. Grandmother was a mature woman with such an expressive face, in Bharat Natrayan- Indian Classical Dance the ladies use facial expression as part of the performance so there are striking flashing eyes, amidst the dance movement and stylised hand gestures which for the initiated tell a vivid story in themselves.
Daughter, a young woman in her prime was full of grace, and the joy of dance and her daughter, young and yet to grow into her body and full gracefulness is already obviously going to be the flower of her family.

To experience beauty in what ever form is a true gift to the heart, and a blessing of the physical world.

Kerala , has signs all over saying God’s Own Country- it feels that way, and so relaxing a blessed break from the very busy schedule I have been keeping of late.

3.2.08

Yesterday we visited the Vijnana Kala Vedi Cultural Centre http://www.vijnanakalavedi.org/ – what a great place, nestled in a small village famed for all the elephants at its local temple is a centre of learning. We were visiting to organize details for future tours and I can hardly wait to get back as I will be able to participate as well.
The village is peaceful, a few minutes walk and you are in rice fields and elephants wandering past are a common site. This part of India is a true gardeners delight, every house has mango, banana, jackfruit, guava, cocnut palms, teak, cashew nuts, curry leaf plants, many betal nut palms[ parts of this plant are utilized in the elaborate make-up of Kathakali performances] and all types of exotic flowers- so abundant.

To- day we are in the Cardamon Hills, the weather is cooler and the gardens continue, we drove through rubber, teak, then tea and coffee plantations and now there is also cardamom and pepper thrown into the mix. Today we are off to visit spice plantations so I am sure we will find more.

Last evening we took a boat cruise in the National Park- Periyar Tiger Reserve http://www.ktdc.com/ and saw wild elephants coming down to the waterside to graze and drink- absolutely wow!

In the night I heard many strange noises- local elephants and monkeys – they sometimes like to talk most of the night!
I have a series of pics I took sitting on the boat watching the ladies board- what a stunning array of saris and outfits – a visual feast!

been unconnected, a few updates

30 January, 2008

Last week when we were in Agra [home of the Taj Mahal] we went to a different Tomb- a long story as to why but the moral of the story is don’t get so pleased with yourself you don’t check up on all the details! As you usually would]

This is the tomb of the grandfather of the famed Mumtaz, beloved wife of Shah Jehan who built the Taj Mahal in memory of her.
The stone work was amazing in the tomb, inspiring for dynamic quilt patterns, they had used a variety of different types of stone which easily resembled fine floral prints. Then there were beautiful painted panels throughout, I am not really a classic quilt person but boy one of those American style I think Baltimore?? With all the floral motifs inspired by these designs would be stunning.

Truly such a visually stimulating place.

This week we left Delhi wearing two jumpers and still freezing to fly to South India, Kerala and tropical warmth.
We have started in Fort Kochin, with the famous Chinese fishing nets just round the corner, scooping fresh fish from the Arabian Sea.
We have hard a very busy day in the office putting final touches on some tours we are planning- 34 degrees- lovely for lazing around a touch warm for checking millions of hotels, making maps of interesting sites, checking restaurants and attractions.
Still some highlights of the day included the Spice market- if you buy in bulk red chillies are much cheaper and we saw one guy leave with a truck load – Really!
Then a ginger factory- the smell of the huge courtyard where it is laid out to dry was amazing- I can’t wait to get another lung full of it and upstairs was a Pickles Gallery- yes Indian Pickles it is a women’s co-operative and they have wonderful pickles and flavoured teas. For our cooking tour we can spend the morning with them learning about pickle making- yum, loved the mango…and the garlic…and the …they were all good!

We came to the Mattaryam Palace, not huge and grand like we are used to in Rajasthan, more European in size [ it was built by the Dutch 500 years ago!]
Inside there are the remains of some absolutely gorgeous murals depicting scenes of the Ramayana. Really mouth watering paintings…all warm reds and earth tones, full of life and the antics of the Gods. The paintings are so full you need to work through them by just picking a small detail to consider, to see the skill of story telling and painting and then step back and get a whammy of the full scene.

The evening and early morning see lively fish auctions down at the nets so I am off to take a look before we head on to the Rice Boats of the Kerala Backwaters, and a night on the waters…another bust day in the office. This one though will give Parveen and I time to sit at the computer writing notes and polishing itineraries, costing, ticking off to do lists- all necessary fun of a business.
See ya
Fiona