January 15, 2015 -- In Madurai

Rob will be covering all the temple/palace stuff we did in Madurai, but I have to send you a few pictures that interested me.

We checked into the hotel in Madurai, and could actually see something of the temple we came to photograph from our bedroom window, but Rob thought if we could get up to the roof he would have a better view.

I was skeptical that we would be allowed to do that, but Rob enquired of a guy from Housekeeping, who said, “Yes, of course Sir, next floor”, and pointed to the stairs.  So we walked up.  There was a spa in the process of being built up there, and a utility room, but all the other rooms were a construction site, with all kinds of safety hazards all over the floor and no windows (in the top floor of this lovely hotel- completely unguarded and open to anyone who might stumble on it (though you really wouldn’t want to stumble IN it).  We were the only 2 up there, BTW.

The streets of Madurai were teeming with holiday-minded people because of Pongal.  Aside from shopping for new clothes, going to Temple is a very important part of the festival, so of course we saw line-ups of supplicants waiting for a chance to get inside the temple to give thanks and also lots of “pilgrims” from outside the city (dressed alike in dhotis (sarongs), jewellery and no shirt (men only in these groups) who have come for the same reason.

Outside AND inside the temple gates were plenty of vendors selling fruit and flowers to offer the gods.  One man came in front of the temple gate next to me, touched the ground in supplication, and put a mark of turmeric on his forehead, then  suddenly SMASHED a coconut from shoulder height (which he produced from nowhere) onto the pavement next to me.  Then sauntered away.  I pictured myself in emerg. getting a huge piece of coconut shell pulled out of my calf.  Maybe a regular occurrence here .  No, luckily it didn’t happen to me.

The vending carts offered slightly different treats to the things we see in the north.  There was a guy selling what looked like peeled banana hunks, but was NOT.   Both the seller and a shopper said it was pulabulamy (that is phonetic, folks) which I hoped to find described on Google.  Google does not know what the heck I’m talking about, so if you know anybody from Tamil Nadu, please ask them what this fruit is.

Coconut – very important here, and being sold by vendors as pieces of mature coconut meat, or as a whole young coconut with the top lopped off to sup the milk and then scoop out the soft custardy unformed coconut.

Coconut Custard

Coconut Wala

Bananas – VERY important here , and a countless variety of them in the stalls – all with their own flavour  -  Hanging in great “hands” or still upside down on their stalks.  Bright yellow – sometimes green.

I said that every family had to lay in sugar cane for making Pongal confections.  Well, the market too was selling all kinds of sweets – including the giant blocks of something transparent with nuts and rose petals?  embedded in them.  From the web, I deduce it is a kind of halwa called Bombay mahim halwa,  made from sugar, ghee, fine ground seminola and then cooked until transparent.

Even with all the hubbub on the streets of shoppers, vendors, pilgrims – a real crush of people – shopkeepers were still able to enjoy a lovely cup of tea, thanks to the young delivery fellow who had a tea urn on the back of his bicycle.

I include a picture of a great family we talked to while waiting outside the palace for The Light show to begin.   We SORT OF talked to them.  It was evident that there was some English spoken and understood.  The two gals on the your left in the photo are twins, and it was evident that the family is mighty proud to have a set of twins.  This family wanted to interact with me, or Rob and me.  But, it started when the little boy standing on your right in the photo came running up to me, all delight and smiles, rubbing his hands through HIS hair and pointing to mine.  He was just fascinated by blond hair (don’t say it!) and I guess he and maybe all of them had never seen hair that colour. That kid could not get enough of my hair!!!  The Dad later said, “Everyone here has black hair,”  which reminded me that this truly is NOT a cosmopolitan country yet.  Anyhow, the little boy was sooooooo cute and I couldn’t help flirting with him, so finally approached the family who were getting a real kick out of the interaction between their little son and me.  That was when they told me about the twins etc. and asked to take a snap (as they say here) with moi, so I took their picture too. 

I have so many pictures of the street markets in Madurai.  Mostly I am intrigued by the strange fruits, vegetables or confections.  Or the COLOUR of those same things catches my eye.  Or the  good nature and industry of these vendors (like the tea delivery guy) doing jobs their fathers did and THEIR fathers before them. 

Everyone seems to be out on the street in this wonderful mayhem.  Why would anyone want to stay inside  making beds or playing cribbage when such a world awaited outside. 

In a week we fly home. There will be no hustle and bustle outside 17 Rebecca.  No night markets, no cows, parantha griddles, firecrackers, temple chanting or chai walas will I find on our street.  They will be missed.

Hansi

January 22, 2015 -- The Drive to Madurai

Rob will have filled you in on the Madurai experience – i.e. looking for and photographing the temple and palace which good old Uncle Linny photographed in 1858 in Madurai (like we did in Tanjore in October). So I will fill in the cracks.

We left Periyar by car/driver on Jan. 15 and had a lovely drive to Madurai.  Our driver was able to give us some points of interest along the way – notably rubber plantations, tea gardens and tea factory, spice gardens, and brickyards and was quite willing to yank the wheel over and stop on a dime (er… rupee) so that we could take pictures. 

The rubber trees are planted in rows.  Each tree has a tap, with a half- coconut shell to catch the rubber sap.  Above each tap/shell a little awning has been attached to the tree to keep out rain.  Many, many rubber plantations and thousands of trees did we see.

Tea is also grown in this neck of the woods (like we saw in Assam 2004).  The tea bushes have enough space all around each to leave room for pickers, thus  creating a beautiful pattern from a distance.  This was a very lush area.

Kerala, but specifically the area we were now driving through, grows and is notable for SPICES.  Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, curry leaf – just to name a few – so you can imagine all the shops and “spice garden tours” offered along the way.  Our driver thought we should stop at one, (Kick back! Kick back!) and though we said we were NOT shopping (having bought spice in Kochi on our first pass) we agreed to take a spice garden tour.  Well, the tour was really not of a garden of many spice trees, but rather a walk down through a grouping of one-of-a-kind spice trees while the “guide” told us what each was and what medicinal properties it had.  Can’t remember what that “tour” cost us, but I suppose we got as much from that as seeing a huge spread of trees.  We agreed to go inside the shop afterwards, only because they grow coffee too, and we were in need of some more ground filter coffee, which turned out to be NOT BAD, but we prefer the roast blend we have been buying here at Barista.

Bird-wise, we saw again and again on phone lines, the magnificent Indian Roller (which we spotted in Chennai last Fall).  They seem to prefer open fields.

Indian Roller

Now, in the North we see many brick factories sporting tall chimneys as we drive to work -- and they are all over the Punjab.  However, the method of making brick seems to be different in Kerala. 

We kept seeing smoke in the distance -- like someone’s field or house was on fire -- but as we would approach the source of the smoke, it would turn out to be a brick structure (not well made) covered with a thatched roof, and with an opening – full of more bricks being “baked “ by a wood fire inside (we surmise).  Each of these kilns that we passed basically looked like a house on fire -- belching smoke from every crevice.

Brick Kiln

Brick Making

Again and again, we saw cars, trucks, houses adorned with a sprig of some kind of herb or dried leafy plant ( tied to the bumper, or over the door jamb).  We finally deduced from the driver that this was like a good luck charm, but did not know that it was directly related to Pongal, an important, 4 -day holiday/celebration which was beginning that very day.  I believe that plant was Neem, according to Google.

In every tiny town that we came to, there were piles of long sugar cane, with the leaves still attached – being sold at market.  We passed bicyclers, motorcyclists, car and truck drivers – all carrying home several stalks of sugar cane, and it turns out that this too was related to Pongal, as it is customary to make traditional Pongal sweets at this time.   Pongal is celebrated slightly differently in each State of India, but in Tamil Nadu it is a four-day-long event, with the second day being the biggest.  It celebrates the harvest, and honours animals.  It is a time for buying new clothes and discarding old ones, and believe me, the shops in Madurai were doing a box office business!  We saw people bathing their cows, already prettied up with painted horns.  Google Pongal.  There is too much to write here, but we did see rangolis in front of homes, temples, on signage (also mentioned by Google).

Sugar Cane Transport

Sugar Cane Transport

You all may be getting sick of all these pictures, but everything seems new and fascinating to us.  This is a whole other world.

More in the next installment.

Hansi

January 22, 2015 -- Madurai: South Gopurum

Hi all

I've gotten some responses to my Madurai photographs and clarifications from cousins Barbara and Janet which I'll pass along.
 

Barbara:

"Also a comment about the absence of people in Linny pics, for instance in the Causeway shot: it's because his long exposure caused them to disappear, except for "ghosts" of folks who stood on one spot for a long time while his shutter was open. You can spot them on the Linny print if you know what you're looking for. Same thing would be true for long exposures today." Still not so many folks as there are today!
 

Janet:

"Was also particularly pleased with the two photos you took inside Trimul Naik's choultry, but please note that you've inadvertently paired your view of the central nave with Linny's view of the side aisle (Phot 107), and your view of the side aisle with Linny's view of the central nave (Phot 116)." Egads - if that's my only error, Linny will just have to give me a pass!
 

I decided to pass along some shots of the South Gopurum so you all can appreciate the incredible amount of carving and painting in this temple complex. This detail is matched throughout - I can only imagine how many artists and craftsmen were involved nor how long it took to complete. Hard to tell from Linny's photographs whether the painting was as elaborate back then or whether it had faded or ? In any case, all of the temples in the South are painted with these same colour schemes. Enjoy.

 

January 22, 2015 -- More of Uncle Linnaeus Tripe's Madurai

Photos: No 21 as it is now. Detail, base of one of the pillars on the left side of the Gopurum. Dancing girl now almost buried because the roadway has been raised by more than a meter. The other show interior shots packed with vendors. Also a solitary pillar (like a lampost).

Photo 21

Photo 21

January 22, 2015 -- Uncle Linnaeus Tripe's Madurai

Hi all

 

We are back in the apartment in Mohali after a fairly epic tour of Jim Corbett National Park, the state of Kerala and, lastly, Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Hansi has written (or will write) about much of the journey so I'm focusing on the adventure in Madurai, home of the Meenakshi Temple Complex and Madurai Palace.
 

I have quite a few photos so I'll send several e-mails with a brief overview of each 'batch', beginning with this one.
 

As you will doubtless recall, my great, great, great, gr. . . etc. Uncle Linnaeus Tripe, a Captain in the East India Company, journeyed to Tamil Nadu in 1858 taking photographs as the official photographer to the Madras (now Chennai) Government. Two of the cities he visited were Tanjore (which I wrote about last time) and Madura. In particular, he photographed the great temple of Meenakshi in Madura along with the Madura Palace (aka Thirumalai Naickar Mahal). Since we were in the neighbourhood anyway, we decided to take a side trip to Madurai to try to capture some "then versus now" photographs and visit Uncle Linny's old stomping grounds.
 

As with Tanjore, the fact that I, a Tripe, was re-visiting the same grounds as another Tripe had, only 156 years later, is just amazing. And, to be standing in close to the same spot as he must have stood, gazing at the same scene (well, sort of) is a unique experience - I am so glad to have had the chance to do this and only wish all of us Tripe descendants could have been there together.
 

The Temple complex is, in a word, awesome! The sheer size (city blocks long on each side), complexity of the carving and art work and architecture are a tad overwhelming. If you add the crowds of people (the Pongal festival was in full swing, look up Pongal on Google) filling the narrow side streets in addition to the vendors spilling out onto the sidewalks and streets - it was both a bazaar and bizarre atmosphere. We walked to/from the temple complex on the day we arrived (Thursday, January 15 after lunch) and just drank in the hubbub. It was about a 25 minute walk to the complex and, if you add in all of the walking around the perimeter, we were nackered by the time we got back to the Hotel. It was good to stretch our legs after the drive from Pariyar, though.

 

Cousin Janet is the guru of Linny's travels and provided me with copies of his photographs, a map of the temple and palace complexes and a written thumb-nail sketch of each photo! Without them we would have been completely lost and this venture would not have been the success that it was. So, a huge THANK YOU. (By the way, the Ade family Aunty Marion, Uncle Harry, Barbara and Janet have done extensive 'Tripe' research over the years - documenting the Tripe family back to Devon, England a few hundred years ago.)
 

We decided to circumnavigate the complex on Thursday afternoon to get shots of the exterior and the Gopurums (aka towers) along with the temple entrance on the East side. Linny's photographs show a deserted countryside and interior shots devoid of humanity - either he had the countryside cleared or the population simply "wasn't" (I'm sure it's the latter). Today, the complex is surrounded by narrow streets and shops and humanity. To add to the photographer's problems, some of the interior is also filled with shops so duplicating Linny's shots isn't possible. In any case, we did pretty well on the exteriors. Oh, by the way, the temperature was a very pleasant 30C . . . it was 16C and overcast here in Mohali yesterday and we don't like it so much (I know, I know - it's -4C in TO so stop your complaining, Rob).

Photos: Map, Complex plan, Nos 17, 18 and 20 from Plan

 

 

January 11-14, 2015 -- Periyar

Car trip from Alleppey to Thekkady about 5 hr. and uneventful, but we passed many tea gardens (where it is grown) and rubber plantations along the way.  We had to stop for a tea and pee break mid-morning – The Roof  Garden Family Restaurant –  "break  fast and lunch”  - Murinjapuzha.  On the building itself read Kizhakkethalackal.  Was this the town, was the other name the town?  Was one the proprietor?  In Kerala, the language is Malayalam (there may be three others) and in Madurai, Tamil but in both States, the names are Whacky long by our standards and hard to get our tongues around.

Aside from our hotel costs, we paid a daily park entry fee even though our resort was inside the park, and even if we didn’t go out.  Like our daily usage fees with Parks Canada.  Of course, hike and boat ride were extras. 

This place claims to have many tigers in the reserve, and I hope that is true.  But,  we were not led to believe  we would see one and we did not.  We did see wild elephants down by the water way out into our boat cruise, and we did see Gaur (like a big water buffalo (don’t think Rob got a good picture) deer and wild boars on that boat ride.  BTW, coming back into the park after dark by auto rickshaw (returning from Traditional Kerala Tribal dancing) (Don’t ask!) we saw a huge family of wild boar, shuffling along in the darkness keeping just ahead of us and our rickshaws lights - giant boar and sows, many little bristly piglets, all hustling eerily and almost silently  through the underbrush.  Tails up.

We were lucky enough to spot a Malabar Parakeet – only found in this area of India, (no good picture, the Indian Golden Oriole and the Malabar Trogan WITH Mrs. Trogan.  What a bird!  We also saw -maybe 4 times - the Malabar Giant Squirrel.  He is very colourful (I don’t think Rob’s pictures show just how colourful he is) and VERY large with   a l  o  n  g bushy tail.  Despite his size, he was HARD to spot and moved quickly,high up, through the trees.

Also here were two different monkeys.  The Bonnet macaque looks a lot like the one up North (Rhesus Macaque)  but he has his hair parted in the middle – even the babies - like some religious sect I see in St. Catharines.  This kind (like the Northern cousins) are cheeky, found in large numbers, will approach to steal food and can be a pest (like come in through your window is you leave it open.  No, we didn’t do that, but a couple from New Jersey did, and found Mr. Monkey on their bed. 

The other is the Nilgiri Langur – a black langur with an indistinct goldenish ruff. around his head.  This one does not seem to hang out in large numbers, and is much shyer of humans.  Their tails seem to hang down 6 feet.  Must Google that!



Nilgiri Langur

During the day, from before 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., people flocked in huge numbers from outside the park gates (maybe 3 km down the park road) in tuk tuks, cabs, tour buses, private cars – all to take the boat cruises which left from the dock behind our resort.  Birding in this area was marred by the smell of exhaust fumes as car after car after car sped past in both directions, then clattering over funny culvert covers made from a collection of old spoons, by the sound of them.  About .5 km from our resort was where all these vehicles had to park (NO VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT), so then all the people IN these vehicles had to get out and walk to the dock – happily LAUGHING, CALLING to each other, TALKING TO EACH OTHER AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS – all things to be expected of happy revelers out for a nice boat cruise.  But not so great for two people (us) trying to sneak up on elusive, exotic birds.

Also, we were not allowed outside the hotel gates after 5, which also meant we could not walk down to the water’s edge (the resort sits right on the water) after 5, because this would then be considered INSIDE the PARK – which was closed after 5 p.m.  That really limited our birdwatching/viewing, because once all the (noisy) visitors from outside the park had left, the resort grounds would have been ideal - peaceful, quiet and full of birds. 

Anyway, we made the most of it. .

Hansi

January 8-11, 2015 -- Alleppey Beach Resort

After leaving the Lemon Tree, we were at the Alleppey Beach Resort for three nights.  It was only 17 km south of the Lemon Tree, and had we known that, and known what the Alleppey Beach Resort would be like, we would have stayed put and moved on to Periyar Tiger Preserve from there.  Anyhoo…

I had specifically booked the Beach Resort to be ON the beach, (you know, sand, waves, frolicking) and we were.  It was probably a three- star if a person were to be generous – A three-star OK in Canada but dodgey here.  

We weren’t the ONLY people in the place, but almost.  I think there were two male staff (the waiter – who knows – maybe he was the cook too) and the Manager on the front desk,. plus two women – maybe Mom and Daughter – who cleaned the room and toted the luggage.

The Manager did not seem to have anything written down about our arrival – and kept asking me to check my reservation  (saved on the iPhone) because there were two places with similar names.  I asked repeatedly, Are you not expecting a Robert Tripe today, and he would repeat for US to check our reservation.  This was the place where (in Chandigarh) we had to deposit 50% of Rs12000 into the ICICI bank.– bank account number but no name - before the place would confirm my reservation.

The waiter did not pick up his feet when he walked, so shuffled /dragged his feet along the corridor from the kitchen to the dining room at every meal  - an eerie sound in an almost-vacant place - making me think of Igor from Frankenstein. Very creepy.  But I think the thing that set the tone for the whole stay was that I found not one, but two stewed flies in my first meal there. 

Bird-wise, right on the beach  (the Indian Ocean) as we were, we saw MANY crows  (very raucous) but little else.  We were lucky enough to see a pair of Lesser Goldenback woodpeckers right out back, and the Coucal, which has been elusive so far on this India trip, began to flaunt himself at every opportunity – in our yard, on our wall, as if to say – “Ah come on, don’t give up.  Take my picture!”  So we did.  Rob also managed to spot and snap a Koel – a VERY loud bird with an ascending shrill call – that just CANNOT be found in the trees.  Turns out he is black like a crow with red eyes.  So, nothing much to see, but impressive to hear.

Southern Coucal

Asian Koel

The sandy beach was mostly deserted in either direction except for fishing boats, pulled up on shore . Rob and I had some fun in the waves, walked up and down the beach, and had fun watching little Sanderlings and Greenshanks foraging in the surf.  These birds  all run down to the water’s edge on a retreating wave, peck away in the sand for little tasty treats, then run up the beach again as another wave washes up and tries to lick at their feet.  Up and back, up and back – AND they seem to know when it is going to be a big wave or a small wave because they do NOT run all the way back to the water’s edge when the next wave is going to be big as they seem to know they wouldn’t have time to get out of its path, I guess.  

Hansi catches a wave

The ghost crabs ran up and down the beach and would shoot into a hole in the sand if scared.  Some were quite large and some the size of skittering insects.

We did see a new bird, the Western Reef Egret at this location.

Ghost crabs

One day, we decided to get away from the food at Alleppey, so walked down the beach road to another restaurant.  Unfortunately, the food items we ordered were not great, but they had a rocking crib/cradle as well as highchairs for visiting babies.  I thought this was a GREAT idea.

Cassia Restaurant cradle

We hired a cab to drive us to Periyar on Jan. 11^th – about another 4-1/2 hours.

Hansi