Travel

6 December 2016

After spending one week in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, we left for Kochi in the state of Kerala on 6 December. Our friend, Dilip, was kind enough to drop us at the airport where we took an Air Asia flight. A driver, Mr Ajit, was waiting for us on arrival and he took us to our hotel, South Regency, in the middle of Kochi (also known as Cochin or Ernakulam).

We were a bit tired so we just walked a bit around, had a nice dinner at the hotel and slept early.

7 December 2016

This was a very intense day. We started by visiting the Dutch Palace, then went to Jew Town to indulge in some light shopping and to visit the historic Jew synagogue there. At lunchtime, we had some nice sandwiches, burgers and salads at Café Crafters. We then visited St Francis Church where Vasco da Gama, the famous explorer, was initially buried before his remains were transferred to Portugal. Near the church were some beautiful colonial houses designed in a Dutch style.

We walked to the seafront where we finally discovered the famous Chinese nets still used by local fishermen. We spent a lot of time watching them manipulating the nets and catching quite a lot of fish.

In the afternoon, we went to the Kerala Folklore Museum where we discovered Kerala art, especially masks worn by performers during plays. We were also quite amused to see small replicas of boys’ genital organs offered to Gods by aspiring parents wishing to have boys around 1000 BC (i.e. 3000 years ago).

8 December 2016

We left Kochi in the morning to drive towards Munnar. On the way, we visited an ayurvedic spice garden and bought a few ayurvedic oils. We reached our hotel, The Munnar Queen, early afternoon.

Close to the hotel was a small theater where we attended a Kathakali show. This typical Kerala classical performance only features male actors, some of whom dress up as women, with large costumes and heavy makeup (not unlike Chinese opera as a matter of fact). The story was about a princess, her father the king as well as a villain. The exaggerated eye and body movements were fascinating. The live music being performed as well as the singing were also of very high standard.

At the end of the play, Christina and I posed with the performers and we were very happy.

After the performance, Kyan and Anya returned to the hotel while Christina and I tried a Kerala Abhyanga full-body warm oil massage.

9 December 2016

Munnar is well known for its beautiful tea plantations which are often featured in Indian movies. We were lucky to have an excellent weather on that day and we managed to capture beautiful photos. The kids convinced Christina and I that we should enact a typical Indian movie dance scene which we did with a lot of pleasure.

We visited the Munnar tea museum, tasted tea there and had lunch which we had brought from the hotel. We then relaxed at Hydel Park, a nice and tranquil garden full of beautiful flowers and with a beautiful view of the Munnar tea plantations in the background. Later, the driver brought us to the Pothamedu viewpoint where the whole of the Munnar valley could be admired.

In the evening, we attended a Kalaripayattu show, a Kerala martial art which dates from the 3rd century BC. We were amazed by the skills, the strength and the agility of the performers and we quickly realised that Kalaripayattu is as complex as Japanese Karate or Chinese Kung fu. Kyan was specially delighted and couldn’t wait to have his photo taken with the performers while putting on a menacing look (his words…).

Munnar was really an important milestone in our trip.

10 December 2016

In Thekkady, we stayed at Spice Grove hotel, surrounded by a cardamom and pepper garden. During the day, we rode elephants.

Christina and I wanted to have a drink and we had spotted a beer and wine parlour attached to the hotel. But when we got there, we were quite surprised to see that it was more like a tavern with only men drinking. We quickly returned to the hotel where we had a very heavy dinner. However something didn’t agree with my stomach and I was a bit sick.

11 and 12 December 2016

We checked in at a house boat called Ayodhya at noon. Our skipper, Vishal, and our cook, Vinod, welcomed us with a nice cocktail and, after setting sail, we had a wonderful lunch on board. We tasted typical Kerala food including the very well known Karimeen fish, fried to perfection.

Anya got very lucky and managed to catch three small fish on her first fishing attempt. Kyan tried to emulate her but couldn’t. We sailed across the Kerala backwaters to a small village where we bought two big scampis (langoustines) to have for dinner. Vinod fried Anya’s three fish and she was delighted to share them with all of us.

We greatly enjoyed the scenery, the birds and the beautiful sunset. Everyone felt very relaxed after ten intense days in South India.

Vishal took us to another small village where we docked for the night as regulations do not allow boats to stay in the middle of the backwaters at night. We slept well as the boathouse had quite adequate facilities including air conditioning.

The next morning, we had a substantial breakfast and sailed back to where our driver, Mr Ajit, picked us up to drive back to Kochi. There, we did some shopping in Jew town as we knew that we were going to leave the western coast the next day to go to the east of India.

Discovering the South of Incredible India over three weeks

• Our first week in South India: Chennai, Bangalore, Mysore, Masinagudi and Bylakuppe
• Our second week in South India: Kochi, Munnar, Thekkady and Allepey (this post)
• Our third week in South India: Pondicherry, Mahabalipuram and back to Chennai

28 and 29 November

We had been thinking of visiting India for a few years now but we didn’t know where to start. A few months ago, we came across an Emirates advert for reduced-priced tickets for the end of 2016 to various destinations in the world including a number of Indian cities. The most affordable ticket from Mauritius was to Chennai and, on a hunch, we bought four tickets for ourselves and our two kids. Interestingly, when we went to the Emirates office to purchase the tickets, the lady there asked us how long we would like to stay in India and it’s only then that we decided for a little more than three weeks, that is from 28 November to 21 December 2016. Three weeks is quite long but we felt that this was the time needed to really discover the places we would visit. And we had had some prior experience of spending three weeks abroad: in the USA in 2011 and, last year, in France (part 1 and part 2).

We decided to concentrate on the south of India for this trip, leaving the north for another trip in a few years. We did extensive research using TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet mainly and, after a few days, we realised that, even though we could organise everything ourselves, it would be better to use the service of a local travel agent. Fortunately, one of my cousins knew someone very reliable in Delhi running an agency called Merrygo Travels. We contacted the director and he organised our trip based on our multiple and quite complex set of requirements.

We left Mauritius on 28 November and, after transiting in Dubai, arrived in Chennai on the next day. Naturally, we were all overwhelmed by the typical Indian atmosphere (and scent!), the more than heavy traffic (and the car horns!) and the air pollution (as we couldn’t see the blue sky with which we are so accustomed in Mauritius). After thirty minutes, we were delighted to arrive in a very good hotel, the Quality Inn Sabari in T Nagar, very close to the shopping areas including Pondy Bazaar.

30 November 2016

The next morning, after having a copious breakfast, we took an auto-rickshaw to go to the Kapaleeshwarar Temple with its beautiful and intricate sculptures. From there we walked to the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple which, in our opinion, was nothing special. We then took another auto to San Thome Basilica which we found quite interesting, especially the attached museum. In all three places, there were a lot of devout people and we quickly understood that religion holds a very important role in India.

After lunch, we walked through a fishermen area to the seafront. We noticed that some of the houses were made of straw and quite decrepit.

1 December 2016

The next morning, we took a 6am Shatabdi Express to Bangalore which we reached around noon. Dilip, a good friend who previously was our colleague at the University of Mauritius, took us around Bangalore to a guest house he had arranged for us at PES University. After lunch with his family, we did some light shopping as Avinash was in dire need of some T-shirts. It turned out to be much warmer than expected at this period in South India and we hadn’t brought enough short sleeves.

2 December 2016

We woke up very early and took a Toyota Innova (which seems to be THE standard car for families travelling across India) and, after some hours, reached Mysore. We visited the palace of Tipu Sultan which was quite magnificent, both the gardens and the interior of the palace (where photography was unfortunately not allowed). From there, we visited the Mysore Zoo which was also quite interesting with a lot of animals which we had never seen before. After lunch in a mall in Mysore, we drove through Bandipur National Park, a tiger reserve, to reach the Wild Breeze Resort in Masinagudi around 5pm.

At 7pm, we left for a night safari in the forest where we were lucky to see wild animals such as elephants, a bear, boars and deer. In the middle of the safari, while rain had started falling, our 4×4 got stuck in a muddy slope. The four people accompanying us took about 30 minutes to finally find a way to dislodge the car from the muck and, as you can imagine, it was a scary but so memorable experience for the four of us. We then drove to the center of the forest, switched off the car and experienced being in pitch dark wild, while rain was still slowly pouring down.

We got back to our lodge after one hour and had a substantial briyani there. We slept very well.

3 December 2016

We did a morning safari in a very cold and misty weather. We had to wake up at 5am and this was tough. One thing we found quite interesting was the inhabitants doing their morning chores: women going to the river to wash clothes, men bringing their cattle to graze, etc. We also saw some animals: deer, peacocks, boars, monkeys, etc.

We returned to Mysore and visited the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore. We were amazed by the gardens and the magnificence of the buildings. The interior of the palace was magnificent, especially the majestic terrace where we could imagine the Maharaja addressing the crowd. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside. After visiting the palace, we checked in at the Ruchi The Prince hotel where we had a good night of sleep, surely dreaming about wild elephants and tigers chasing us through the forest…

4 December 2016

From Mysore, we traveled to Bylakuppe, a Tibetan village about 80km away. When the Tibetans were exiled, a large number settled in India, including, of course, in Dharamsala, where the Central Tibetan Administration resides as well as in Bylakuppe which hosts various monasteries and study centers, the most well-known being the Namdroling Monastery of Nyingma also known as the Golden Temple, which we visited.

The atmosphere was quite different from the other parts of India. We felt we had been transported to Tibet (apart from the excruciating heat…) Bylakuppe was, as a matter of fact, a bonus in our trip, carefully arranged by our good friend Dilip. Thanks to him (and his driver, Manju), we discovered places such as Mysore, Masinagudi and Bylakuppe, which we had not initially planned for.

5 December 2016

We spent our last day in Bangalore exploring the city. We started with the Art of Living in the morning, which was quite beautiful, then went to PES University to meet with some of Dilip’s colleagues. We then drove through the IT center of the city, had lunch, went to school to fetch Dilip’s son and niece and had tea at his place where we learnt that the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa, had just passed away.

In the afternoon, we walked in the city, visited a few temples, ate typical Bengaluru ice-cream and bought some books. We then returned to Dilip’s place to have dinner and we left after thanking him, his wife and his mum for everything they had done for us.

On the next day, we left for Kochi for the 2nd part of our journey in the South of India.

Discovering the South of Incredible India over three weeks

• Our first week in South India: Chennai, Bangalore, Mysore, Masinagudi and Bylakuppe (this post)
• Our second week in South India: Kochi, Munnar, Thekkady and Allepey
• Our third week in South India: Pondicherry, Mahabalipuram and back to Chennai

We had a very nice three-week holiday in France in May and the beginning of June. The main reason why we had to go in France was to participate in my sister’s wedding celebrations in Toulouse but we also travelled extensively in the south east of France towards Narbonne, Carcassone and Perpignan. Driving to Perpignan from Toulouse was a fantastic experience for all of us.

Wedding of Juju and Stéphane

The wedding took place on 30 May. After lunch, we went to the official ceremony at the Municipality of Castanet-Tolosan where the friendly Deputy Mayor made a nice speech on the importance of marriage. Then we went to Fiac to participate in the wedding celebrations. The setting was fantastic, the food was great and we had a lot of fun till the next morning.

Relaxing after the wedding

The next day, as you can easily imagine, we were all a bit knackered. Of course, the obvious remedy was some more beer and a very nice brunch à la française. By coincidence, Mother’s day was also being celebrated and the kids had some very nice and elaborate surprise gifts which they had prepared in Mauritius.

Les Grands Buffets, Carcassonne and at the newly married

On 1st June, we travelled to Narbonne, about 100 km from Toulouse, for lunch at Les Grands Buffets, a French gastronomic restaurant. After an excellent meal, we visited Carcassonne, a medieval town with beautiful castles and historical features. On returning to Toulouse, we promptly went to have dinner at the newly weds’ place.

Discovering beautiful Toulouse

We really discovered the beautiful centre of Toulouse, la ville rose, on 2nd June, when we explored la Place Wilson, the Capitolium or Place du Capitole, la Basilique Saint Sernin and ended the evening with a nice picnic on the banks of the Garonne in a warm feisty ambiance.

Aeroscopia, Airbus and relaxing at Castanet-Tolosan

A visit to Airbus is a must in Toulouse and this is what we did the next day. We had a guided tour of the factory where we saw the insides of an A380 (no photos allowed though). Before that, we visited the new museum called Aeroscopia, where we walked through the historic supersonic Concorde, the more recent A380 as well as some older planes, including fighters. Back to Castanet-Tolosan, we chilled out in the very warm swimming pool until dinner.

Driving to and discovering Perpignan

On 4th and 5th June, we had planned a trip to Perpignan, where Christina had to present a paper at a university conference. After a 2-hour trip, we reached la ville fleurie, settled in a nice little hotel and wandered through the colourful streets and parks of the town. We were able to enjoy the sights at the Castillet, visited the Palais des Rois de Majorque and sampled the tasty Catalan cuisine.

Going to Albi and having a Mauritian dinner at Castanet

On our last day in the south of France, we visited the bustling market of Albi and its Cathédrale Sainte Cécile before yet another nice meal in a typical French restaurant. To top it all, back in Castanet-Tolosan, we prepared a Mauritian dinner as a special thank you for the whole family.

Back to Paris by train

On 7th June, we bid good-bye to Chérina, Stéphane, Yves and Ghislaine and took the Intercités train for Paris. We enjoyed the bucolic landscapes and the names of the towns and villages such as Cahors, Souillac, Brive-la-Gaillarde, etc. We reached Paris in time for a barbecue dinner party organised by a friend of our uncle.

Last day in Paris and back to Mauritius

We took some time to wander again through the streets of Paris on our last day, completed some last-minute shopping and had a nice spicy lunch in Matchuk’s favourite Thai restaurant. We hugged Angela and Maya before heading for Paris CDG to catch our Emirates flight through Dubai. This three-week trip was truly memorable for us!