A hotch potch of events.

My little stint in Madurai is rapidly drawing to a close and I find myself looking at the city and particularly my drive to work each morning as I did in the first couple of weeks , trying  to capture as much as possible of this crazy chaotic city. I am going to start with this banana shop which I just love and have spent the whole 8 weeks so far failing miserably to get a decent photo until today that is .

So colourful and beautiful smelling  unlike the next shot .

I pass this walkway every day and have to hold my nose because I think every man in Madurai uses it as his public toilet , caught one in the act . Probably not necessary that photo but they literally do it anywhere there is a kerb or a wall and if you can't be bothered standing , squatting will do .

And one very full bus .

Traffic policeman doing a wonderful job !

Followed him up the road for ages today and wee Kumar was getting very frustrated by it all.

So when I got to the orphanage this morning I got the girls all dressed for school with their shoes on this time. 

Saradah the older girl in the different uniform goes to the government school and the younger ones  a seventh day Adventist school.meant to ask why today but forgot.

I let Saradah use the I pad for games and she sneakily took these .this feisty little monkey is on the point of walking , so I hope it happens before next Friday. I want t bring her home I really really do .

This is Jana with the cleft palate. You can't see it but she has to be fed with a quaich like cup . It has a pointy wee spout that you slip into the corner or her mouth and she manages fine .

Here she is again. She is the quietest wee soul and so patient as she waits to be fed. She will be operated on when she is older.

Here's Ancy again fully recovered and getting a good set of cheeks on her.

 This is the wee prem baby. When I arrived he was a scrap of  a child and look at him now . His whole face lights up when you talk to him. I want him as well.

And she is thriving as well. All the babies in the baby room apart from wee Ancy are much more alert and wanting to be up more , but it isn't easy or safe to take them through to the big room as they are likely to get a bash so unfortunately there is a bit of crying that goes on in this room. As often as I thnk I can get away with it I sneak through and have a cuddle and a fix of small baby smell.

Today Elizabeth confirmed the purchase of 10 new high sided cots with more of the donated money. They can't come soon enough as several of the middle room babies stand and lean over the low sided cots now. It's almost unbearable to watch. Infact the wee one that's almost walking in the previous picture fell out her cot with such an almighty clatter. Add to that the fact that two of the cots are away getting fixed so there are two to a cot for some . It all gets a bit out of hand on occasions.

This was rather a bizarre sight to behold on my drive through this run down area on my way home 

Pith helmets and all. Mounted police is my guess.

And I walked past this colourful praying place. I think this was done because yesterday was a holy day for Hindus . Everyone hesds for the temple and is also supposed to stay up all night

Infact Anitha went last night to the Menakshee temple in town in the evening and queued for 1 1/2 hrs.to get in to pray. I would have loved to have gone to watch .

It is very hot and humid here so when I came back I opened the door for a through draft and this is the view that met me as I went onto the balcony.

They were really enjoying the next door neighbours plants.

So here endeth another busy day.  I am hoping for a better sleep tonight. 4 hrs. Is not enough !

Night night .

Sunday in Kumily.

We were both tired so thought a good sleep was on the cards  but between a group of Lions Club members having a bit of fun at their guest house and the temples belting out chants and music from the early hours not much sleep was had . Anyway that didn't deter us from an early start and a good breakfast.

Our dining room ! We had fried egg , toast pineapple jam and a good strong cup of coffee before heading off to 

Entry fee £1 

It was a fascinating tour , so here is my own tour for you to see.

Our guide who really knew his stuff.

Peppercorns. They grow on a vine a wrap themselves round any tree but in this case it's palm trees.

Cinnamon bark.

Figs .

Ah and these at the base of the leaf by the stalk are cloves .

Cocoa pods and below the cocoa flower which looks so delicate

Can't remember the name but it's so colourful.

And this is a mixed spice tree. Our guide tore a leaf off and it had such an aromatic smell.

Nothing exciting here , just the view .

This rather fuzzy shot is natural sweetener . He gave us a leaf to eat and it tasted just like sweetex.

And this is / was a flying ant nest .

Another pretty flower.

I can't find my picture of cardamom , but it grows close to the ground and they look like green berries.

For every forty tons of cardamom seeds picked the actual weight at the end of the drying process is only 2 tons.which is why it is so expensive to buy.

The seeds are payed out on racks on the right here and a fire is lit underneath.

That's the fire pit with a hole going up to the drying racks. The seeds are left to dry for days.

We spent a good hour and a half wandering , tasting leaves and smelling smells before going to the wee shop and coming away with yet more presents for home . My case is going to be very heavy !

Courtesy of Cheryl's son we got back to the guest house, packed our bags and were wondering if we could face wandering around with them on our backs when Cheryl asked her son if a friend in a shop would keep them while we wandered. That was a huge relief as it was pretty hot.

The shops up here are lovely , all the young girls reading this would have spent a fortune ( in Indian terms anyway). They would also find the young men very good looking too . There are some very good looking people in this area.

A landmark that you wouldn't forget.it certainly helped me keep my bearings.

There was obviously some celebration going on in this church , and the music was boring out just for a change.

Bags collected, 

water and supplies bought we headed to the bus and to do that you leave Kerela and go through the barrier to Tamil Nadu.

The bus left within 5 mins which was great and I did the usual asking the driver to be safe . I was met once again with vigorous head shaking and laughing.

Well can I tell you that 5 mins. Into the journey we were certainly not laughing . 

He was a complete idiot and several times even had the Indians wincing. 

20 miles an hour , that was a joke , he came careering round crazy bends. Tjere is a huge drop over that barrier. I tried to distract myself with the baby beside me but it was no good . 

We got to the straight road and still no improvement. After many requests to slow up, and then 

We hit this car , fortunately it was only a prang but there was a huge argument.

That's our driver standing in the brown uniform on the right .

I think the Lorry driver (Blue long skirt ) started to pull out , the white car put on the brakes and because our big bus was too close and too fast we crunched right into him.

The bus driver said not a word and got no blame whatsoever. We moved off leaving the other parties to battle it out .

This of course meant that the driver was behind schedule so he went even faster and had several near misses. So we decided to get off at the next big station which very fortunately for us was only 15 mins away.

The buses are so regular that we hopped off the one and onto the next. Our seats were further back the bus this time so we couldn't see what was going on up front but we were rumbled about a fair bit .

This driver was better but really I will be happy to never see the inside of one of those buses ever again.We both felt so relieved to got back In one piece .

On the subject of the roads , actually our bump and a motor cycle accident in The city are the only accidents I have seen in the 8 weeks which seems unbelievable .

So that ends my last weekend trip away before the 8 th. March when Phil arrives  but I am sure there will be lots more to write about before then.

Saturday in Kumily.

This was a very last minute destination for Christelle and myself thanks to the organisational skills of Anitha. We wanted to explore some more of the area but not have to venture too far away. So we chose Kumily which is on the border of The Tamil Nadu District which is where I am in Madurai and Kerela which stretches to the West of Madurai and takes in a pretty coastline as well as Lakes , tiger country and jungle . I only wish I had more time to explore .As soon as the decision was made to go Anitha contacted Cheryl (whom she has never met but had heard glowing reports about ) and got us booked into her guest house . My instructions were to phone her when we set off on the bus and 4hrs. later we would be met off the bus at the other end .I kind of guessed that we would be pretty easy to spot getting off a local bus  in the middle of nowhere .

Oh goodness I really wasn't looking forward to 4 hrs. on this . I am a nervous passenger with my family so you can imagine the fear I had of this .

Blinking gear stick , but what you can't see is the ground under the stick .. I could .

Our seats were right up the front which I wasn't sure about but at least I could ask the driver to slow down if necessary. They find this hilarious and am in two minds whether to say anything or not as it means his eyes have to leave the road to speak to me !

Our conductor. 4 hrs.travel 80p. thank you. The only stipulation was that we had to endure loud blaring Indian music from his music centre on board for the whole journey ... Not one break . Our ears were ringing at the end of it . Infact I took video of it but I can't put it on here . Maybe I will try Facebook .

Interesting advertising !

and these were our co - passengers , grumpy fat snoring men . As you can see the music sent them to sleep .

Here are a few sights en route .

You don't see much water around here so this was a surprise .

I think they were marigolds growing in between new palm trees .

Watermelon

So after a hairy trek up into the hills again we reached Kumily in one piece thank goodness and Cheryl's husband was there to collect us.We hopped into his car and got back to their house .

Our balcony , forgot to take photos of inside but it was pretty basic ,clean and perfect for one nights stay. As time was short for the visits we had planned , we dumped the bags , gave Cheryl our itinerary and within 20 mins we had booked tickets and a plan for the day. Starting with lunch here but it wasn't very tasty.

Christelle and Cheryl. 

As soon as lunch was had we headed straight for the Elephant Junction.

My view from the top of an elephant .

At one point on the treck I could hear music and searched around to see this guy collecting peppercorns half way up a tree whilst listening to music !

Then it was back down the hill for a bath.

I let Christelle have the honours of a shower !

A tasty bit of pumpkin for being a good girl.

A very pretty lily.

So then it was back to the guest house ( bearing in mind that we were taxied around by Cheryl's husband ) all as part of the service ,for a cup of their own grown coffee and it was rather good.

Once again a quick about turn and out to do some shopping just for a change. This time as it is a spice growing area it was yes , mostly spice and oil shops. Amazing , I could have spent  hours wandering and if only I could let you smell the smells there were, I just love it .

The guide book says you should visit the martial arts demonstration followed by a story telling and facial expression demonstration , so that's what we did.

The martial arts arena . We really didn't enjoy it but all the Indian men did .

We were stuck in a corner and kind of had to stay.

Then it was round the corner to this odd but quite interesting display.

Men doing these demonstrations and as you can see dressed as a women .

He was telling an old kerelan folk tale .

And this guy specialised in traditional Kerelan facial expressions. This was quite interesting and at times funny to watch.

A huge amount of time and effort went into dressing and putting his make up on.

We left a bit early as we were tired and hungry , found the "western style " hotel in town had a bite to eat , and that was Saturday.

Sunday to follow soon.