After India...London

Jon and I made it safely to London to meet our friends, Neisha, Pete and Jasmin waiting to pick us us. It was a welcome ride back to Neisha's house where I would be staying for seven weeks and Jon would spend the night and the better part of a day.
Jon was excited about visiting some of his old haunts in London and we made quite the rounds going from place to place, eventually joined by Jasmin.
Here he is outside Kings Cross Station which is close to where he lived, and outside his University, SOAS.

India 31 The Journey Continues

We left Hubli at 4:30 in the afternoon and was scheduled to arrive in Mumbai approximately 7:30 the next morning. Next was a taxi that would take us to the airport where we would catch out 1:30pm flight to London. Perfect plan but it was not to be.
It was monsoon season and we saw who was the real boss. By 7am the next morning we were a few stops from our final destination and being me, I began to panic although I did not say anything. There was good reason to panic because the train tracks were flooded as we got closer to Mumbai and the train was standing still for long periods of time.
We got to talking to an Indian man who was heading the same route as us and eventually at 10:30am, with the train at a complete standstill for almost half an hour, we going this man, grabbed our bags, folded our pants and made our way off the train. There was some water on the tracks but nothing prepared us for the water that was halfway to our knee when we left the station at that point. We eventually made it though, got an Auto and was safely on our way to the airport. Or so we thought. There was immense flooding on the roads and our driver had to change his route to get us to the airport.
Fortunately for us, the rains caused a 30min delay to our flight so we made it in good time and said our final farewells to Danny by phone before boarding our flight to India.

India 30 The Train To Mumbai

This train trip was my fourth overnight train in less than a week and it was the longest of all the train journeys. In that one week, I have spent more time and travelled more time on trains than the whole of my life before. For me it was quite the adventure and I was half hoping we could sit on top of the train like you see in many Indian films.
This was not to be mainly because of safety and also because of the monsoon which was making its presence felt since we were in Hubli.
This particular train trip was of special significance to me. The first was I finished reading the highly acclaimed book "Train To Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh. It is an amazing book and it gripped me the moment I began.
The second occurred because we had a few hours of daylight when we began the journey and Jon and I spent a fair amount of time looking out an open door and marvelling at the green farm land and towering mountains as we made our way from Hubli to Mumbai. I have never seen such greenery with rice paddies being watched over by the great mountain peaks. Here are just a few of the pictures.

India 29 Farewell

As the saying goes, "all good things come to an end" and so it was with our time in India. I had an amazing time meeting new people and making friends and spending quality time with them.
The day finally came when we had to pack and make our way to the train. All this with the monsoon staking its claim to the land and we had to make our way through the rain to the station.
It was a bitter-sweet moment for me. I was leaving India after two weeks but I was on my way to London where I am now. I was content with the extent of my trip and happy with the results of being there.
I met some amazing people and made wonderful friends whom I will remember for years to come. Here are some pictures of Jon, Danny and I as we await the train to Mumbai.

India 28 Hubli

As previously mentioned, we stayed with Danny's parents in Hubli and had a great time with them. Jon knew them from a few years ago but for me, it was the first time meeting them.
I had heard a lot from Jon about Danny's sister and her family and I got to meet them as well. The most fun we had was with the children, Blessie, Levi and Leo. Spending time with them and having so much fun brought back so may memories of my years with he youth group at my church and my Sunday School classes.Thank you guys for a wonderful time of fun.
In the pics with Jon and I are the three children as well as Danny's sister and her husband Beckam and his father as well as Danny's father.

India 27 Food, Food and More Food

Many people have bad memories of food in India but these are usually "soft belly" people who are mainly white and are not used to highly flavored food.
This is not the case with Jon and me. He has years of experience with Indian food and I grew up on spicy food, thanks to my father and my Indian heritage.

Our hosts in India treated us to a wide assortment of local food and I had the time of my life sampling things that I can't remember. The biggest part of this was in Hubli when we stayed with the Madapur family. We woke up in the morning to the most amazing tea and breakfast, enough food for 20, even though our number was less than half that. Lunch was being prepared while we played in the living room with the plastic ball and one night for dinner, Danny's sister made the most amazing Biryani I have ever tasted and I ate till I wanted to burst.

After that it was just to sit around and feel fat but it was all worth it since I won't be having home cooked Indian food for quite some time. For me, the spicier the food, the better I enjoy.

India 26 Hubli: Working For His Dinner

Much to the dismay of our host family, Jon grabbed a broom and started helping with the clean-up after the lot of us had been playing all sorts of games in the living room. I guess its difficult to hold back when you are so used to working for your dinner year in and year out. I had no problem enjoying the luxury of being looked after and the tremendous hospitality of the Madapur family.
The main reason for the clean-up was the fact that we were treating the living room like an open playground or a beach. The monsoon had begun and was at Hubli and we had no choice but to amuse ourselves inside the house.The most fun we had was having two teams and hitting a big plastic ball from one side of ther room to the other and another using the same ball and playing Piggy In The Middle. I have not had so much fun with kids since I taught Sunday School in Trinidad and I loved every minute of it.
I am still amazed that the senior Madapurs had no problem with us turning their new living room into a playground and I somehow got the idea that with three young grandchildren living across the street, they were used to this sort of thing.
Thank you Danny and and many thanks to your parents and the kids for a wonderful time in Hubli...and I haven't started on the food yet.

India 25 Hyderabad Fancy Dinner

After a long and enjoyable ( I must say) day at the amazing Golkonda Fort, we retired to a Hotel for a fancy dinner. It was buffet style and we all had more than our fill (isn't that what we do at buffets) in addition to some special service form one of the waiters.
From the looks of things, these pictures seem to sugest that we had to do more than pay for our dinner. It seems we had to sing and dance for our dinner as well but we had a great time anyhow. Heres the proof!

India 24 Golkonda Fort Hyderabad. More pics

I took more pictures at Golkonda Fort than almost any other aspect of the trip so here are some more of those pictures.

India 23 Golkonda Fort, Hyderabad

You may or may not know that one of my fascinations is with old buildings, chief among them, Castles and Forts. Whenever I see or read about one of these I can't help but be amazed at the workmanship that went into making it what it was. Consequently, one of the highlights of of our visit to Hyderabad (for me at least) was the day (most of it at least) we spent viewing the remains of the still imposing Golkonda Fort.
"The city and fortress are built on a granite hill that is 120 meters high and is surrounded by massive crenellated ramparts. The beginnings of the fort date to the 1143, when the Hindu Kakatiya dynasty ruled the area. The Kakatiya dynasty were followed by the state of Warangal, which was later conquered by the Islamic Bahmani Sultanate. The fort became the capital of a major province in the Sultanate and after its collapse the capital of the Qutb Shahi kings. The fort finally fell into ruins after a siege and its fall to Mughal emperor Aurangazeb."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golconda_Fort)
I can't exactly describe the feeling of being in the same place that kings and emperors, soldiers and builders, freemen and slaves, all lived and died, fought and ruled and left their stamp on the land. Here are some pictures that show some aspects of the fort and the scope of it.

India 22 Hyderabad. Eat Street

One of the highlights of our time in Hyderabad was a night out at Eat Street We spent the better part of the evening hanging out and observing the food stalls that offered a wide variety of the local fare and sampling at least one of the drinks that was quite delicious. At least, the one we all had was very good but I had to spit out another one Sharmil bought.
Eat Street is situated on one side of a massive lake that unfortunately, is very polluted. That did not stop the thousands of locals and our group, from enjoying the benefits of being out at night, mingling and having fun. Here are just a few highlights of that night.

India 21 The Journey Continues: Hyderabad

The second leg of our journey led us to Hyderabad, the capital city of the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. As with any Indian city, there is so much to see and experience that you have to have loads of time to do this and in our case, we had precious little time.
This time was used to spend with Sheldon and Vasanti Samuel and their two children Rohit and Monisha. There was also Ginger, the cute, lovable, playful family puppy, as well as Sharmil, a family friend who stays there. Sheldon was the pastor of the church in Chennai when Jon worked and lived there a few years ago and he reserved a few days of the trip to spend with them and visit the new church Sheldon and his family has started in Hyderabad.
The family lives in a comfortable house and there was ample room for us to stay as well as a terrace at the top of the house, like most Indian houses. That was actually my favorite part of the house. Here are the family and friends.