Nepal 2017

February 26 at 10:16pm ·

It is our 5th night in Nepal, and we have hardly stopped. The in country management team have lead us through a series of briefings at the Au Embassy and the volunteer management office. We have meet so many people that our heads are spinning! The level of help we are receiving is brilliant.
We have also had our first 2 Nepali classes; really tough going for me.

The big difference we note between our 2015 visit (just before the earthquake) and now is the dust. The face masks we received in Melbourne are receiving a solid workout. Fortunately our comprehensive medical kits have not been opened as yet.

Yesterday we visited Patan city centre (Kathmandu's southern twin; now a suburb) and it was disappointing to see the destruction of World Heritage buildings (above) but encouraging to see restoration has commenced.

The iconic Boudha Stupa that was completely destroyed in 2015 has been rebuilt and reopened this month (February 2017).

The area around it is again a thriving tourist area with a strong Tibetan presence in shops and a temple.

We spent a few hours out learning how to use public transport in Kathmandu! First up was a Tempo; an over grown tuk tuk!
Although we only had 5 down our side against the standard 6. This does not please drivers as they get paid Rs 15 (about 20c AUD). The roof line is so low that it is hard to see out, and you are constantly in danger of the banging your head on the metal roof.

Maybe it was the big Australians on board, but we needed to stop to top up a tyre along the way;
Time for lunch at Cafe Soma.

Many of the TEMPO drivers are women!

Changing a tyre the old fashioned way! A long time since I have seen this process.

We visited a department store to price a range of thing that we will need in our apartment. I also bought a couple of shirts after using the Trial Room.

Necton, Norfolk

William Dickerson Nelson's mother (Sophia Dickerson) came from Swaffham and his father, Robert from the nearby village of Necton where he was born and buried. Necton was the home of many generations of Nelsons, but I suspect that William grew up in Swaffham which appears to be Robert's adopted village from the time of his marriage until his death.

The church has many features in common with the Swaffham church, however Necton today lacks the vitality of Swaffham and the church is not nearly as well linked into the commercial heart of the village.

The well maintained, or more specifically well mowed grave yard is one common feature.

 

 

It would appear that bell ring was a feature of the congregation, at least at some time in the past!

Today there is more evidence of regular funeral services.


 

Toy Railway

Once Ooty had been established as a desirable Hill Station, it was time to improve access by building a railway. As some gradients were steep the Abt Rack and Pinion system was selected, together with a "narrow gauge"; namely 1M or 3 ft 3 3/8 in.) And the 'X' Class steam rack locomotives were procured from Switzerland; but more of that later.

But firstly, some more of those great signs that Ooty provided. All of these are from the Ooty railway station.

Naturally I think that all Engineering staff should have a rest room.

We were booked to travel by rail from Ooty to Coonoor. When the train arrived there was a scramble by local tourists to full all available seats in the carriages. This was closely followed by our trusty 'Mr P' ejecting those who had claimed our reserved seats. This was followed 5 minutes later by a railway employee examining tickets and then ejecting most other occupants from the reserved seat carriage.

The trip from Ooty to Coonoor used a small diesel loco, which is then replaced by one of the few remaining serviceable 'X' class locos for the balance of the trip to Mettupalayam. I wonder how long they will be able to keep these aged locos operating?

On of the many interesting towns we passed thru was Wellington.
The town has a long association with the military and is currently the Regimental Centre for the Madras Regiment and the Indian Army Staff College.

Like Ooty it also has a deep colonial background.

On the outskirts of Coonoor is a large and aged factory establish by British to produce cordite when it appeared as a replacement for gunpowder in the late 19th C.

Chennai : our final stop.

Our trip through Southern India comes to an end at Chennai, on the Bay of Bengal in eastern India, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai has an estimated population of 8.9 million (2014). The city has a rich pre and post British history and is now on the same dynamic path of growth that's being shared by so much of India.
The chaotic road into this metropolis passed a huge Hyundai plant, and a series of ultra large colleges and Universities. There was a clear emphasis on medical and engineering universities; interesting as these are the areas that Australia puts low emphasis upon!


Our hotel is near the beach which runs north towards the river estuary, port and the old colonial centre. The sea front includes Fort St. George, built in 1644 and now a museum showcasing the city and its roots as a British military garrison and East India Company trading outpost, when it was called Madras. The name Madras is still in use in places and the international airport code is MAA.

Many of the old British buildings along the beach front have been taken over by similar Indian government roles; great location for the staff. A British Royal Navy mast with crows nest is clearly recognisable at the Naval Offices.

I caught a glimpse of the recognisable style and layout of a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery located near the sea front and close to Madras University. India made significant contributions to the Allies in WW1 and 2, and there are 8 CWGC cemeteries in Chennai varying in size from 1 to 860 casualties; the smallest are adjuncts to various Christian Denomination churches.

In the centre of old Madras stands a formal statue of King George V, right next to where major earthworks are underway for the new Chennai Metro. The statue was crafted by an Indian working from a photograph, and funded by locals. When King George saw a photo of the statue he said it was a better likness than other statues that he had sat for on multiple occasions.

In Chennai as in so many other towns throughout India you will see gold statues of local politicians. Some lessons have been well learnt.

The group of photos to the left is of Tuk Tuk drivers washing their clothes and proudly washing their vehicles on Sunday morning. One had strung a line between two poles in the medium strip (in front of a white Christian church) and was laying out the balance on the concrete barrier's top. One driver proudly showed me how clean his single cylinder, two stroke engine was after his attention.

Living and washing on the streets is a common sight and must be tough, however many of the people we saw and met appeared cheerful! The 3 young girls (left) broke away from their work to "act the goat" and pose for photos.

The very proud mother in the photo to the left, was taking her baby to the temple for the first time, dressed in a very warm way, we thought, for a 30 degree day.

We visited St Thomas's church on a Sunday when an English Mass was underway; one of 9 Masses on a Sunday (not all in English) and there are also multiple services during the week. The singing and liturgy had a Pentecostal overtone.

There is a legend that St Thomas visited Madras in the First Century. There is no direct evidence of this, however Roman traders did visit the Indian coast in the first few centuries AD, and it is probably that some were Christian.

The Beach is wide and long. We were told that in the evenings local people flood to the beaches, the small kiosks open, and a festive atmosphere prevails. However our guide, always protective, warned against joining in, saying they were "not good people"!

The Mylapore Temple is a real gem, with masses of colourful figures. It's history is paraphrased in the photo to the left. It is another typical Dravidian architectured structure to compare with the great example in Tricky. Again there were many happy family groups, with many smiling faces wishing to engage with us.

Central Tamil Nadu

Monday and we crossed back into Tamil Nadu. Last time we crossed into TN we were stared at to check if we were on the list of Maoist activists. Today they wished to look into Lenore and my back packs to see if we were carrying "black money" across the border. The drive thru TN was punctuated by many stops to find an ATM with money in it. We eventually found one!

We saw many interesting things including men and women washing clothes in a river and missing cows on the road! Kodhai the 'woman god'.

The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple or Thiruvarangam is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha, a reclining form of Hindu deity, Vishnu located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli (Trichy).

The temple has an imposing tower over the entrance gate and two large concentric rectangular enclosures around its perimeter. The entrance to the inner sanctum is through multiple columned halls.

The architecture is Dravidian characterised by the highly decorated and colorful pyramids.

There are many examples of superb stone carving including this row of figures dominated by horses. The detail is both precise and dramatic; e.g. Swords being thrust through flesh.

Our tour through Southern India continued on Tuesday (Day 2 Tricky) starting by the river bank. Trichy is located on the second most holy river for Hindus after the Ganges. An elephant blesses both of us. The photo of the elephant with its handler shows the handler pocketing one of the notes that we had placed in the elephants trunk to initiate the blessing. The photo at the bottom includes our trusty driver/guide ("Mr P") and the owner of the tour company, Padmini.

The middle photo on the left is one the 50 priests who work the riverside. Priests work on a completely free enterprise "fee for service" basis, and most services are booked by mobile phones these days. The next step must be a mobile phone app!

Once again today we saw many long queues outside banks and ATMs. Obtaining money here remains chaotic with the 2000 rupees (about AUD 40) per day limit remaining in place. Many ATMs remain empty due to lack of supply of the new notes, or the ATMs have not been modified to dispense the new notes.

On Wednesday we were pulled up on the highway by soldiers with automatic rifles around their necks, searching cars for "black money". According to news reports they seized many billions yesterday. Fortunately in this case the appearance of a couple of western tourists in the car led to as being waved through.

Kerala Backwaters

 

Noel packed and ready to board the houseboat. Our trip specification said "1 bedroom houseboat"; The company supplied their standard 3 bedroom boat with a 3 person crew! Captain, cook and guide, although in reality they all seemed to swap roles. We were certainly not short of space!

The rivers (38 of them) are the lifeblood of the area. Fishing, washing both clothes and people, water supply for crops as well as transportation of goods and people made the Backwaters essential for life! The first part of our tour was down the main artery that drain a large lake, flowing towards the ocean!

 

{Photo left} Lenore is entering the lounge / diner from the hallway that ran the length of the boat. Kitchen, A/C compressors and stand-by AC power generator were at the rear. Flushing toilets, A/C, hot showers and large comfortable beds as well as ceiling fans made the houseboats quite luxurious.

 

Our Captain Alexander used an umbrella as a sun shade.

Thousands of ducks being farmed by two men in boats.

From their small boats they use calls and a long thin pole to direct lead ducks.

The evening before we saw a smaller group of ducks being led home by a single farmer. They crossed the main channel (about 200M wide) in front of our boat and then swam a kM or more up one side of the river. The farmer provided gentle guidance to the lead duck.

We were travelling at the end of the rice season, and it appeared to be fully harvested. In some areas the grains were being dried, bagged and transported to places where it could be loaded onto trucks. In a number of places the stubble was being burnt causing significant haze.

They certainly try to maximise the load onto boats and trucks.

{Photo left} This was the "red team" loading 2 trucks. Near by the blue team was at work.

In the lower or downstream areas new rice had recently been planted.

{Photo left}And in the middle area of the main channel, we saw huge areas of flooded fields. This photo shows one of the places where the river bank can be opened to allow water to flow into the lower fields. At one location we saw a pump removing water from a newly planted field.

The Christian Church and the Catholic denomination has a significant presence in Kerala. Catholic Schools are literally everywhere especially in the Backwaters.

[According to 2011 Census of India figures, 54.73% of Kerala's residents are Hindus, 26.56% are Muslims, 18.38% are Christians, and the remaining 0.32% follows other religion or no religion. Various tribal people in Kerala have retained various religious beliefs of their ancestors.]

We pulled to the river side in the evening (as the sun was setting) and we were soon joined by 2 other company boats to share a 240Vac outlet; saves running the noisy generators.

Over night it rained quite heavily leaving pools in the burnt rice fields.

 

A day in Ooty

The area that is known as Ooty came under the rule of the East India Company at the end of the 18th century. It developed 19th century as a prime Hill Station with a distinctive English character.
The economy today is based on tourism and agriculture, along with the manufacture of medicines and photographic film.

We visited the Botanical Gardens immediately after after arriving in town.

The following full day in Ooty started at the Municipal Market. You can not see in the photo in one of the butcher shops that the meat is covered with many flies; you will just have to take my word!

Everyone we encountered in the market was friendly and helpful. We bought some bananas and white grapes. Lenore also bought some children's cloths.

The rich soil, temperate climate and abundant rain fall means that the area is perfect for tea growing on the hills, and vegetables on the flats (potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, onions all thrive.




These days everyone knows how to pose including the store keeper (top photo). Similarly the man on his foot sowing machine. In contrast, the young lady in the store immediately turned away.

1. In the tea factory. We had the production methods for green, black and white tea explained to us.




2. Some local infrastructure has a birds nest look.







3. This pigeon was getting a good feed from one of the open bags in this store. The shop keeper appeared not to mind. Possibly she took pity as the pigeon had a misaligned beek!

Doddabetta is the highest peak in the area, and is about 10 km from Ooty. It overlooked our hotel which in turn was a few kM out of town. We felt very cool at the top, and the street vendors were doing a great trade selling warm caps to local tourists.

Although the hills are almost exclusively covered with eucalyptus, these timber getters were harvesting