The End

And so to our final blog entry. We moved into our new home in Buderim on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on 12th January. Daisy stayed with her grandparents for a couple of days to let Lea and I unpack.


The house has three bedrooms and a study. Daisy has her own room and there's a spare should we have any visitors. The beach is less than 15 mins away and the sea breeze keeps the house pleasantly cool. Nothing needs to be done to the house meaning we could move straight in.


We'll be in our new home for many years as there's plenty of scope for extension and the town has plenty of great facilities for families. The snap below was taken at the petting enclosure at the Australia Day fete on 26th January. Daisy loves animals and this was a real treat for her.


Leanne is back home amongst her friends and family, and Daisy and I have had no hesitation in calling Australia home too.


And finally I would like to mention the family member who has accompanied us for a few months of our trip. In mid-June 2007 Daisy will become a big sister.
So after all of the adventures that 2006 brought, 2007 looks to be no less memorable. I think however we should leave that story for another time... 

Home

And so, in Early November 2006 we arrived in Australia.


Lea's sister Nicole was there to meet us and drive us up to Highfields where we spent a few months with her parents. Leanne began working at local hospitals and I prepared to start my own business. Daisy was able to sleep in her own bed and Leanne was able to spend time with her parents for the first time in many years. We bought a car and a house and after an Australian-style family Christmas we prepared to move to our new home... 

Singapore

It would be hard to impress upon you the culture shock that we encountered on arriving in Singapore.
Whereas Delhi had been a congested, polluted city where things never quite worked properly, Singapore was ordered, clean and efficient. It would be unfair of me at this stage not to concede that Singapore is far more wealthy than most countries, and so one would expect there to be some fairly significant differences.

We stayed in Singapore thanks to a 'stop-over' package that Singapore Airlines offer. If you're passing through Singapore on their airline, then they offer discounted hotel rates, free or discounted entry to a number of attractions and a free shuttle bus that circuits the city. It's a deal we heartily recommend if you're passing through that neck of the woods.

Where Delhi airport had offered rows of tattty chairs with a few trinket, coffee and liquor stores, Singapore's Changi Airport has shops and services of every description, including a free hotel and showers where weary travellers can freshen up.
After clearing customs, we headed straight for MacDonald's. Hardly a cultural highpoint, but we'd only eaten meat in the very best Indian restaurants and so it was good to be able to eat such foods without worry.
After breakfast we went to the airline's desk where they stuck a sticker on each of us and we waited for the bus to arrive. We'd booked into the cheapest hotel on offer and the service simply blew us away.
We were early (it was only 9am I think) and they only had a twin room available. However, they said we could have a free cup of coffee in the restaurant whilst we waited for a double room to be made available. The restaurant manager was happy to let Daisy eat as much watermelon as she liked and although there were no baby change rooms, they gave us the use of a conference room to change a particularly messy nappy. In India we struggled and often failed to get what we'd expected from hotels, but here we were being offered service without having to ask. In India we'd always have to tip and it was often greeted with the complaint that the tip was not sufficient, even when we knew we were being generous.
The service we recieved this day cost the hotel almost nothing (two coffees, a glass of milk and a slice of watermelon) yet we were immediately revived.

In hindsight, our hotel room was quite ordinary but to our eyes it was paradise. Showers that worked, TV that worked, [expensive] internet that worked and tap water that we could drink. Yes! Drink! That is drink straight from the tap and not have to sterilise or boil or anything.

After a short freshen-up we went down to the lobby to meet the airline representative who booked us into breakfast with the apes at the Singapore Zoo and helped us plan a basic agenda.

I can't remember the order in which we did things, so what follows isn't necessarily in chronological order.


We made our way around Singapore by using a combination of the free shuttle-bus and the cost-effective metro system. We revisted Raffles as we had a voucher for a half-price Singapore Sling.
We had a voucher for a free boat trip on a traditional riverboat which we used at twilight one day. The photo below was taken from one of these boat, of one of these boats. The tall building that's directly above the boat in the photo is our hotel.


We also spent some time just looking around the city, and it's when you do this that you start to realise just how expensive things are here. Whilst electronics (we bought a new camera!) are relatively cheap, food and drink are very costly indeed. Most people live in municipal housing and we were told stories of people trying to move to Singapore but finding themselves unable to maintian their original lifestyle because of the high cost of living. Another local told us that the cleanliness and order of the city come at the cost of some liberties. He was in his 20's and found the rules too restrictive and the costs too high.
We were having a great time, yet I image that if we were to spend the same amount of time here as we did in Bangalore, we would start to experience some of these negative aspects too.

Anyhow, were were only in town for a few days and were having a very good time indeed.

Probably the highlight of the trip was the trip to the Zoo. We were only going for breakfast but ended up staying the day. There are no cages here and animals are kept from visitors and each other by natural defences such as bushes and troughs with fences hidden in them.
We went to the polar bear feeding display where you can go right up to the glass and be face to face with these massive creatures.


Breakfast with the apes was lovely with a good spread of food and plenty of opportunity to have your photo taken with the Chimpanzee.


Perhaps if we'd come directly to Singapore from Britain we would have thought it merely nice, but coming from India was quite a different story. We don't need to go back again any time soon, but we'd thoroughly recommend spending a couple of days there if you're passing through. 

Our Indian Holiday

And so we began our Indian Holiday. This will be the only blog entry regarding our holiday for various reasons. One was that our camera broke less than half way through so we're light on photos of the second half. Another reason is that the photos we would have taken would have been of us in front of various temples and forts -- the kind of stuff that's good for a while but there's probably enough photos of the Taj Mahal in cyberspace. The final reason is that the holiday was too long and much much harder than we'd imagined.

We started in Delhi where we saw some temples, mosques, forts and Ghandi's tomb (photo above). Delhi was hot, humid and dirty and we were glad to get on the train to Shimha. I can't understate how tiring a 12 hour train journey is with a tired, bored one year old girl.

Anyhow, to Shimla and to one of the highlights of the Journey. Despite Delhi being hot as Hades, Shimla is in the foothills of the Himalaya and is much cooler. Our hotel had no heating and the electric heaters they offered barely functioned, if at all. After getting wet in a rain shower we spent a very cold first night in our hotel.


But aside from the temperature, Shimla is a charming, interesting town. It was the Summer capital of the British Raj and is the very definition of faded glory. The place abounds with delapidated tudor-style houses and our hotel was a well maintained/restored manor house.
We travelled there and back on a very narrow-gauge railway, also known as the 'toy train.' It takes 3-4 times longer than going by car but it's very picturesque.


After 3 nights in Shimla we spent the night in Delhi and then set off on our jouney via the Taj Mahal in Agra, and out into Rajastan for nearly two weeks.
The Taj Mahal is a beautiful buiding with a beautiful love story to go along with it and it was the thing I most looked forward to seeing. I'm glad I've seen it but I've no need to return. Partly because I think there's better many better sights and partly because it's located in India, and the rest of our holiday has served to ensure that neither of us wish to return for a very long time.
This is probably due to us spending a lot of time in Rajastan which is the poorest state in India. The infrastructure is atrocious and not remotely suited to family travel.
It's also due to us finding that so many things in India just don't work. Whist much of this can be (quite reasonably) put down to lower levels of education and funding than western countries, many things were needlessly bad. People constantly underestimate how long things will take. This is fine for the most part, but when our travel agent (who knows full well how long journeys in India take) had allowed 4 hours for a journey that ended up taking over 12, it spoils the day's holiday somewhat.
The photo above shows a very common scene that irked me every time I saw it. The cow is highly sacred to Hindis, but so many choke to death on the vast piles of plastic waste that litters much of the countryside or are hit by vehicles.
India's litter problem is beyond my wildest imaginings. Whilst refuse collection costs money, there is little attempt to even try to tackle the problem. Towns, cities, trains, shopping malls and other public places are frequently devoid of rubbish bins leaving everybody to just drop their waste as they go. Hotels would simply drop their rubbish over the wall where it would attract low caste members and cows (who would then choke on the plastic).

I could go on for a very very long time as I've not touched upon the bureaucracy and the organised begging. But I won't. I'll finish up by talking about another wonderful town.
Udaipur demonstrates to the rest of Rajastan and India how to harness [western] tourism without becoming a Hindi Disneyland.
We stayed in one of the many hotels that overlook the lake, which contains a beautiful palace that seems to float on the water's surface.
By this point our camera had broken so I've no photos but Google knows of plenty.



So that's all that I have to say on our Indian holiday. I hope that Leanne will find the time to add some comments to supplement this entry.

I don't suppose that Daisy will remember her time in India but I hope that our many stories and photos will inspire her to take off on travels of her own.

So that's it for India, but our travels aren't over yet. Next stop Singapore and a world so vastly removed from the one we'd just left that we truly discovered the meaning of 'culture shock.' 

Goodbye Bangalore

So I've left work, and now it's time to leave Bangalore. Here's Lea and Daisy getting some last minute groceries from our local (and amusingly named) supermarket.



We took time for one last swim in the pool of our apartment complex...


...and went out for dinner with Jyothi and her husband. Daisy's wearing the dress that Joythi bought her. It's really quite spectacular and a very generous gift.


Whilst Daisy and I stayed home to guide the packers, Lea went out for a last lunch with the ladies. Whist she had a fabulous time, I know she's looking forward to getting back to a more normal existence.


So now we're unemployed and homeless. Time to jump on a jetplane for the next stage of this whirlwind adventure!

Last day at Dell

On Friday 13th October 2006 I had my last day at Dell. I'd lasted just over six years but the time had well and truly come to leave.
The chaps and chapesses of Dell Bangalore gave us some lovely gifts and a spectacular pineapple cake.


Whilst it's always sad to say adieu, I was ready to go. My (Indian) colleagues were lovely people but the office drove me crazy. Full of noise and no privacy, it was an assault on the senses. Such is the way of India, I suppose.


As well as the cake, they gave us a framed floral painting (which Leanne liked very much) and a small cuddly dog in a tartan bag (which Daisy liked very much).


I handed in my laptop and headed for the door. As is the way with Dell, my security pass, computer logins and email addresses would all be cancelled close after my departure. 

Grandma's Visit!

It's been significantly more than one week since our last blog, so this blog entry is long overdue. The trouble with leaving it so long to is that one tends to forget the details.
This blog entry will be particularly difficult as it concerns my mother's visit to India & I was at work for most of her sighseeing. However I shall do my best and hope that any missing details can be filled into the comments section.

Grandma (as she shall henceforth be known) visited on the beginning of October for a long weekend. During her time in Bangalore she got to see all sorts of things.
Her tour kicked off at Bangalore Palace. Keen blog watchers will remember that we visited earlier on in our stay, so this time Lea was able to look at things in more detail. Sadly I wasn't around that day so I really can't tell you much more about it.

Here's a snap of Grandma, Daisy and a (late) Elephant in the Palace's entrance.


On one of their (many) shopping trips they witnessed an electric box explode. Now, Indian electrics are the very definition of dodgy with many people simply clipping cables onto the overhead wires and running them into their home. When this box exploded, the nearby men all went in closer to investigate and one chap decided to fix the problem. No safety gear; just a screwdriver and a complete lack of fear. Somehow nobody was killed or even injured.


Later on in her stay, we decided to venture out to the Banjan tree. This tree is located a few miles away from Bangalore and took about an hour to get to.
The tree has spread over several acres and has paths running through it and a temple in the middle. It's also chock-full of monkeys who were happy to come up to us and grab the food we'd brought. Poor Leanne had a plastic bag of food over her wrist and couldn't get it off quick enough when one of the feral primates went for her. Luckily the bag tore and she got away, but it was quite exciting to watch!



Throughout our stay we'd avoided buying food from roadside stalls, but there was a chap at the banyan tree selling corn cooked on a charcoal fire. We saw no reason for it to contain any bugs so decided to take the plunge. It was lovely and we survived without any upset stomachs.


Sadly that's most of what I can remember. All too soon, Grandma was on a plane back to England, but she'd managed to pack an amazing amount into just a few days. It's a trip I know she'll not forget. 

Many updates coming soon

This is a temporary post and will be brought down once we get to Australia and update the blog properly.
We've left India and are now in Singapore. It's frighteningly expensive but a very welcome change from India.

Anyhow. That's it for now. More posts in the next week or so.

Blogs coming in a week or so

We've not been blogging recently because we can't get an internet connection for our laptop. Plus, the we suspect that surges in the local power supply have knocked out the batteries in our camera and laptop.
Once we get to Singapore, we'll have wireless internet in our room and we'll add some updates there. Check back on 8th November and we may have added some updates.

Mysore Palace Lights -- 2nd October

Night fell as we arrived at Mysore Palace. The crowds were making their way back from across the city to the palace grounds to see the lights be turned on at 7pm. Above is a photo of some of the dancers from the procession earlier in the day making their way to the palace. As dusk fell, the anticipation built and it was the perfect time get some photos.
The photo below shows the front of the palace which is where the kings and maharajahs would have sat and watched processions and celebrations over the years. It's quite a grand building, and the best bit is yet to come!


Suddenly, and just after 7pm, the lights came on, and it's quite the spectacle. Not only the front of the palace, but all the wall surrounding the gardens and all the temples and gates were lit up.
The first of the photos below was taken looking away from the palace at the main gate, and the one below it is the front of the palace taken from an angle.



We'd wanted to see this the last time we were in Mysore, but it was not to be. We were very glad that we got to see it this time around.
The Christmas lights of Highfields will never seem as spectacular after today! 

The Mysore Elephant Parade -- 2nd October

On the way down from Chamundi Hill, there's a Bull carved from a single piece of rock. There's a few of these around, but this one was pretty good... not that Daisy and I know too much as we stayed in the car with Raj whilst Leanne and Jyohti ran up to see it.


We dropped out of the hill into Mysore and into the throng. There were people everywhere, all tying to get to the best vantage point to see the elephant parade. The photo above shows coaches packed with people inside and on top. We felt very lucky to be in an airconditioned vehicle, even if Jyohti was always complaining that she could walk quicker.

Raj took us to a large roundabout close to the palace where we would get a good vantage point. We quickly realised that whilst there was no agression in the crowd, the sheer volume of people meant that crowding, pushing and uncontrolled surges were not uncommon. The police were there waving their sticks at people's heads, trying to get them to sit down but after getting caught in a couple of (quite terrifying) surges, we knew that we needed to find an alternative place to sit. In amongst the crowds, some enterprising folk had parked their small horse-drawn carts and were charging for people to it in and on them. We gladly paid 1,000 rupees (about £12) for the five of us (Leanne, Daisy, Jyothi, Raj and me) to take a seat. From the roof of the cart we were not only protected from the surging crowd, but were also able to see over the heads of the crowd. The carts were fairly rickety affairs and occasionally the horse would shift a little causing the cart to pitch backwards or forwards, but it was quite safe. As time wore on, the crowds deepened and people were going to great lengths to find a good vantage point. The photo below is of one of the trees to our right.


Most of the trees, signposts, radio masts, and so on were filled with men. After some time, the town rocked to the sound of cannon and the parade officially began! The elephants came at the start and at the end with about 20-30 floats in between. The elephants were exactly what you would imagine to see in India. Draped with bright fabrics and bejeweled spectactularly, they were the highlight of the day.


About half way through the parade, the heavens opened. I ducked down into the cart with Daisy, but everybody else sat up on the roof watching the procession. Raj made a rain hat out of a handkerchief and Leanne and Jyothi sheltered themselves somehow. The rain was warm and brief and it took us no time at all to dry out.
At one point, one of the trees nearby decided that it had too many people in its branches and promptly collapsed. Everybody in the vicinity ran to see what had happened. We stayed perched on our cart, but despite the mass of people running to the scene of the incident, there seemed to be no casualties.

Well, after all the floats and elephants had passed we made our way back to the car and headed towards the palace to see the last sight on our tour...
 

I am not a number

The next part of the story of our trip to Mysore and the posts about Grandma Alison's visit to Bangalore will be along shortly. In the meantime here's some Breaking News!


Today was my last day with Dell. I joined Dell on 11th September 2000 and finished on Friday 13th October 2006. I came to India to help kick-start a team of web developers and I'm pleased to say that it was a success. It was such a success that they called short our time here... although we're really not complaining too much.
I couldn't have asked to have worked with a better group of people for the past few months. They have been generous, courteous, hardworking and diligent. The world needs more people like them. They also bought a fabulous cake to say thanks for the time I've spent with them. It's hard to see how big it was from the photos above, but I'd guess at it being about 40cm or 16" along each edge. It had the sweetest pineapple flavour imaginable and had I not had a rather healthy lunch beforehand, I'm sure I'd have managed to finish my second slice.


They'd also bought a few gifts for us. They presented me with a lovely painting of a marigold... or perhaps it was a lilly... or a rose? I'm clueless when it comes to flowers (except the Daisy of course!) but it's a nice painting that Leanne's already found a place for in our house. All we have to do now is find a house! They also bought Daisy the ideal gift. Daisy loves her handbag and she loves dogs. The team gifted her with a dog in a bag and you can see her playing with it in the photo below.


She had the attention of everyone in the office as she walked around the desks. She also carried her new toy dog with her everywhere she went. We were very proud that she showed how much she loved her toy in front of the people who gave it to her.

So, that's it. If you've not got around to asking me for a cheap Dell system, then it's too late now. We're unemployed and come Wednesday we'll be homeless too. On the other hand, we've no debts whatsoever and no bosses telling us what to do. There's no going back now. Exciting times lie ahead!