Mumbai on the 19th of November 2010, the gateway to the sub-continent, with notorious planning they set foot in the country so well known for its contribution to the ablutions process, oh yes, we all know the date, yes its 'World Toilet Day' look it up in your oxford concise diary and make a note in your own. It's been mooted that big things will be happening in 2011 so mark the 19.11.11 now!! Did you know the Indians refer to their little small room as the 'London' apparently a mark of respect back in the days when the Raj became a little over bearing. The phrase 'built like a brick London house' just doesn't have the same ring.
The team's personal health guru filled them with all sorts of acidophilus, billions of them in each spoonful and the London is not something that's needed in a rush. Phewee
The Team experience a technical hiccup at international transfer and have to make their own way from the international to the domestic terminal, oh la la what a road but a great full scale assault on the senses in juxtaposition with Heathrow's terminal 5. The Pigmy taxi isn't quite up to the famous five and its luggage and the bags are roped onto the bare roof. The report back was the road was so rough that all film footage was unwatchable.
They scramble onto a Spice Jet flight to Kochi in the State of Kerala . Now try to imagine a Sleaazy Jet flight amalgamated with intense heat, pot holed runway, smells of curry, lots of mobile phone ring tones, shouting, ligtening and thunder storms, running low on fuel, redirecting to a closer airport, no communication, a solitary bottle of water, not enough seats and lots of smiles.
With a total travel time of 20 hours the team finally camp down for a good nights sleep at their home from home at Cherai Beach Kerala.
Cherai Beach 19th November 2010
Sleep was broken by the Arabian Sea lapping on the Malabar Coast, coconuts were harvested and breakfast taken al fresco. The beach was explored and fishermen chatted to. Early afternoon a small pod of Dolphins welcomed the Team. Sunset arrived at 6 and the Team let the Arabian Sea lap them to sleep.
A week spent exploring the beach with some gentle swims and treks along to the village some more sightings of Dolphins and keeping an eye on day to day life of the villagers.
A reconnaissance trip to the town brought Billy developing his pigeon English and sign language. The equivalent to a Southern Electric engineering team was spotted connecting a new shop with a new overhead power line. A and B were rather shocked by the techniques adopted firstly the guy who pulled the short straw climbed the electrical pole he used lashed on pieces of wood the size of piece of kindling to have foot holds while he climbed bare foot . Once up a mate from the other side of a road as busy as any towns high street threw a rope up to the guy amongst a spaghetti nest of live wires, keep in mind the road is still open and traffic is coming along frequently . With the rope they connect to the heavy duty electrical wire and the guy in the spaghetti nest hauls the cable which is laying on the road with a number of heavy vehicles driving over during the process once up he strips the ends and then wraps these ends around bare live cables. The photo shows the spaghetti nest.
Cherai Beach Kochi
21st November 2010
I could not sleep that night because we had a big monsoon that lasted most of the night and went into mum and dads bed to sleep dad and myself were still awake at 3 o'clock in the morning. Last night we went to the main hotel which we all thought was OK. On the way back we walked to the centre and past it to a little family restaurant but we had had our fill all ready. The track to our house was wet, muddy and cold. Lots of cars went past us and a police cars filled with maybe 4 police men in it. Next day at At 10 o'clock in the morning we all went to the next village in a rickshaw to buy some things from the supermarket, bakery and the fruit shop. When we got back Beaky, Ollie and me went to the beach to play in the sea and collect shells that look like drills.
Extract from Billy's iphone diary.
The chimes of bicycle bells filled the early morning air and later the ubiquitous car bus and lorry horn copied the melodious bells but sadly not resemble them . Driving techniques are a far cry from Europeans.
Some craft time created a bottle fish from a used lemon soda bottle
Tally Ho to Cherai Town
First ride in a Rickshaw
Throughout the site there is a guess what series
Guess what this is below:#1
A prize exist for highest score from each country quiz email MAMBO your (yes that's you reading this folks) to win the prize.
What is the link between a man a plan a canal panama and this below?
MAMBO
മ്അമ്ബ്ഒ
Malayalam
Answers on an email please, a special prize for this one!!!!!
Some clues, Malayalam is the official language of Kerala and the answer envolves one of the longest ones known! Malayalam also has 50 characters in its alphabet, think ourselves lucky as it used to have 900, just imagine nursery school and your abcs learning rhyme.
Agent Olsas and Tiger shell
The Shell
I bout thee shells the tiger shell is vereree preshe to me because the shell is a nice one
Extract from Agent O's iphone diary
Looking at this shell you would think it resembled a leopad but in fact if you turn it over it resembles the face of a Tiger an Indian Tiger at that.
I say! show me the way to my Elephant! ----
Agent-B's 11th birthday sunset
With the arrival of Nannary MAMBO morphs into MAMBON, sounds like a French gourmande's delicacy
Giant Bill
Fort Kochi 3rd December 2010
Kochi Home stay
3rd December to 6 December 2010
Was a nice small place out of the town but within walking distance of shops which were not tourist places so it was lower prices than places that are very tourist centres. Sithara is right next to a nice restaurant called dal roti which had just re-opened after a change of chief chef. We ate in dal roti on our second night of staying at Sithara home stay the first night we ate at Sithara with the food cooked by Harry John Bernard's house. We met a man called Aju who is a rickshaw driver who we met on our second day going to the Dutch Palace. Beaky & Ollie wanted a henna or mahandi done on there arms so we asked Aju if he knew anyone who did henna and he said that his wife did henna. So the next day we went to his wife's house to get henna done in intricate swirls, hedgehogs, elephants, flowers, seahorses & trees. There house is a small flat on the top floor above a merchant that sells rice in 1kg bags to 250kg which some of the men carry on there heads across the road and onto lorries Aju's house is opposite the Jain temple with as many as 4 self standing temples. There bed rooms had no ceiling at all but just the roof with a few holes in it.
Extract from Agent B's iphone diary
Guess what #2: these things are for on the trunks seen at a Jain Temple.
Kerala Fort Kochi like many parts of India is like a massive pot of curry with live yoghurt dropped in the middle. Peace goes hand in hand with an orchestra of car horns. Affluence holds poverties hand, tranquillity shakes the hand which is being hassled by the hawkers hand, rotten stench pinches jasmines nose, intensive sunshine beats through the monsoon clouds.
Kochi is an old port settled and fought over by a fair few European states giving the city an unusual mix of architecture, Indian student architects visit to get a wide spectrum of influences. Throughout is a warmth and friendliness that is different to England and takes a while to get use to.
This is Bazaar road old Cochi , wharves and warehouses but never intended for large lorries.
Agent B incognito
LOOK NO C NO SPEAK NO
Ginger tea drinkers
Ginger tea drinkers
Video of The Thali Eaters
This was the first restaurant that we went into in Fort Kochi thankfully the Acidophilus was well entrenched and we escape without after effects A single vegetarian eat as much as you want meal around about 30 pence.
Agent O with Brian Wilds Indian brother he walked talked and looked very similar.
Agents O's fan club.
Look closely at this post box on the bottom right you can see a heavy weight padlock stopping thieves stealing envelopes but look to the top and notice the whole thing is just hooked onto the top of the railing. If you haven't received a postcard from MAMBO team this is the reason why!!!!!!!!!!
Next door is the bicycle shop selling very low tech solid bike
Agent A is pictured with his new Hero bicycle being readied for shipment. Who needs Kevlar.Agent M with Aju's wife who is applying Mehendi to her arm.
Agent B is entertaining the troops at Aju's house
Extract from Monique's written diary during her stay in Kochi.
Aju was very trusting and his rather worn out rickshaw was put to hard tasks with the MAMBON team installed and him self totalling 7 we toured the sights of Fort Kochi. With one agent needing to be in the front seat seating beside Aju either Agent A or B took the controls and weaved the rickshaw through the back streets. Surprisingly all the Agents in the back didn't turn into Margarets too shell shocked !
Alappuzha 6th December 2010
An overnight trip on a converted rice carrying vessel
MAMBON experienced some fine cooking thouh the fridge and cooking equipment was cause for some excitement along with a temple festival that blared music out till late and started at 4.30 am apparently the locals have to endure 43 days of it!!!!!Oh and a
cockroach in the bedroom!
cockroach in the bedroom!
Here is a snippet of it just to remind Agent N when she is tucked up inside her double glazed home
Agent M guiding the stealth ship on her way.
Memsahibs M and N
I say where is my tonic !
Guess what Ollie is doing # 3
Guess what # 4
First mate any natives about?
Guess what # 5
Guess what is being read by who on the roof of the rice boat # 6
Agents Captaining the stealth ship
Guess where these children are going # 7
Agent B pilots the Indian Queen back to Port
Munnar 7th December 2010
The Indian Sweeny Todd
Guess how many children going to school # 8
Guess what # 9
Monkey on the road side on the road up to Munnar a windy road with some good recent landslides and pot holes changing scenery into rain forest and spice scented and cooler.
Guess what #10
Ladies Day on the Slopes
Banana leaves used for our walk back in the rain caused a stir amongst the local.
Banana leaf hat modelled by Agent M.
Agent N checking the Organic Tea leaf quality.
This is the way to go through the High Range Hills.
Guess what spice this is # 14
Coconuts and grilled corn up high on the road to Periyar jacussi.
Periyar 13th December 2010
Tiger and Elephant national park
Video of Agent O having an Elephant shower.
Huge flying fox bats.
Video of monkeys marauding inside Wilderness hotel
The Teams stay in OK yar Periyar was curtailed by a day as Faithful Frances the teams driver had been called by HQ saying that he wouldn't be able to drive the following day because if he scabbed the Kerala state taxi unions one day strike he was liable for a brick through the windscreen and a possible punch up. Francis a dependable guy who hail maryed past every cross and church while driving some 500 miles only put a foot wrong once after a Christian salute and glance at the Virgin Mary very nearly ended in a pile up. Thankfully the higher force was with him.
Glastonburyasia a massive religious festival that men walked for miles to reach camping along the way with only a small knap sack.
Agent B studying hard
The BOM team trek throuh the jungle on Elephant called KANNAN a very gently fellow about 14 years old
Ollie Jacques fruit
Varkala 15 th December 2010
Varkala Beach
MBO with their new Indian outfits
carumbaBhasker and Aku at Marine Palace very kindly took us on a tour to some sights south of Varkala fishing villages Fort Anjencho an Elephant Parade
Guess # 15 can you work out what these men are doing?
These Elephants can go a little crazy wazy with all the noise so the Elephant Squad lurks in the background as photo below
Guess# 16 Can you guess what Aku and Billy have
made?
Audrey and Agent M Marine Palace
Aku teaching the team how to climb a coconut tree bare foot
Aku and Agent M
These boatmen dived for sand going under for 45 seconds filling a cane bucket with sand and then bringing up to the surface and loading it into the boat as you can see one of the boats has been filled on the starboard side and now they will start on the port to balance the boat.
This restaurant has served meals to people from 43 countries
mambos last night in Marine palace with Shashi and Ben
Thiruvananthapuram 27th December 2010
4.15 am double rickshaw ride through the back streets of Thiruvananthapuram to the airport we had been given a price of 900 rupees from the guest house owner to take a taxi which we felt was rather not in keeping so we flagged a very kindly rickshaw driver who agreed to arrive with a fellow rickshaw and take us with baggage to the airport
NAMASTE INDIA