Tag: Andhra Pradesh

India and Sri Lanka, 29 January to 26 February 2011, placeholder and links

We needed a long and complete break after the loss of Phillie, Janie’s twin, in December. But this holiday was a long and ambitious one by any measure.

We were planning it at very short notice, by our standards, of course, but fortune smiled upon us in that planning. The Central Plains of India; Chhattisgarh and Orissa (Odisha) can be quite politically volatile, Foreign Office advice yo-yos between “no problem” and “only go if need be”, due to Naxalite/Maoist activity. But what a fascinating tribal part of India it is.

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Anyway, it was a safe time to go at that time and the plan, through Steppes East who were excellent on this one, was to use the family of the Maharajah of Kanker as our guides in that region. This was a great idea; Jolly Deo, the Maharajkumar, was the perfect host and guide. We learnt lots and had fun along the way.

I long ago posted the weirdest story from that trip; the day I was press-ganged into being a live cricket commentator, which was published on King Cricket a few months after the event.

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We were also fortunate in the Sri Lanka leg of the trip; an opportunity to have a large villa in Galle Old Town all to ourselves for the price of a hotel room came up, by virtue of the villa only recently coming back onto the holiday market following a long-term family stay. I suppose our experience there was a bit like a cross between AirBnB (except without making life hell for the neighbours) and Lastminute.com.

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In short, there were loads of adventures to write up from this holiday – pages and pages and pages of the stuff….

…and they are all up there now – pretty much one posting per day.  The posting for the first day of the holiday can be seen by clicking here or below:

Journey From London To Hyderabad, 29 & 30 January 2011

Here are links to the photo albums, which I divided up into six short albums, one for each “leg” of the trip:

001 30 Jan 2011 Club Room at The Taj Krishna, Hyderabad P1000935

001 1 Feb 2011 Evening Drinks On Arrival At Kanker Palace P1010030

001 4 Feb 2011 On The Road To Jagdalpur P2040015

001 8 Feb 2011 On The Road Towards Rayagada P1010584

001 12 Feb 2011 Ekambareswarar Temple, Kanchipuram P1010792

001 14 Feb 2011 Cricket On The Western Ramparts Of Galle Fort P1010867

If you are really keen to explore my hand-written notes, just to make sure I have written them up properly, here they are in pdf form and good luck to you:

Here is the Steppes East itinerary, also available for download – at least you’ll be able to read this one: Itinerary-Wormleighton.

Finally, there are photo albums on flickr of the pictures that didn’t make the cut for the main albums – there are some gems in there nonetheless for picture lovers:

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P1010244

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From Gateway In Andhra Pradesh To Fisherman’s Cove In Tamil Nadu, 11 February 2011

Rose early at Gateway. Packed grub arrived (chicken sandwiches). So did Jolly & Abhichek on time, as we were for a flight.

We got to the airport right time for check-in to start, in theory. In practice, check-in open half an hour late.

Much haggling over excess baggage with nice check-in man and horrible female enforcer who increases the amount from nine hundred and ninety six to one thousand and sixty rupees. We’ll get by.

After the flight from Visag to Chennai and a drive…

Arrive at Fishermans Cove thanks to driver Muhtu and less so Wing Commander “Chamindavass” (Senuwasen).

Check in and orient ourselves at Fishermans Cove.

Here is a rather weird promo video about the place – worth 18 minutes if you like or are intrigued by this sort of thing:

Following a light pasta lunch – carbonara Daisy & mushroom asparagus Ged – have a stroll around looking at facilities, cottages et cetera. Arrange to eat at seafood restaurant.

Clean up and skeeter up (navigating two power cuts) and then go to lobby to back up photographs etc. Decline invitation to cocktail party.

Ask for our table to be held for half an hour but we are bounced to a rear table – oh well. We start with prawns and Daisy moves onto prawns well I try parrot fish. Minuscule potato and veggies (remedied) but risk the ice cream yummy.

I flake but Daisy endures another power cut and invasion of the power police who blame the toothbrush! Not funny.

Onukudelli Market, Goodbye Jeypore, Orissa, Then On To Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, 10 February 2011

The main album of 65 photographs for Orissa can be seen through the link below:

001 8 Feb 2011 On The Road Towards Rayagada P1010584

Up & out at six – Jolly has taught the Hello Jeypore staff to make packed brunches for us (chicken sandwiches).

Lovely drive to Onukudelli market.

We find a suitable spot to see the Bonda women come down to market. Lots of photos. Not too many tourists.

Once Daisy gets bored with that, she starts to play with the local urchins. Skipping and racing with the children. Also chatted with one young bow and arrow man against the best advice, but no one seemed aggressive or rude towards us.

Sooner be playing with the other kids?

Then down into the market stopping at school to shed the last of our pens. Some confusion over the pens here, as the principal thought I was trying to sell them rather than donate them . Huge thank yous when the staff realised that the offer was a gift.

We see Gadaba and Didayi women down there and perhaps a little more rudeness, but still not much. Bitterly disappointed with the lack of rudeness – not – we head back to Jeypore.

Gadaba women
Didayi woman

We draw money and buy some flowers, glimpsing at the local movie house showing some Chinese movie. Then on to visit Rajesh and Shobha Toshniwal. She excitedly shows Daisy her arts and crafts wares – a mixture of commissioned work based on tribals and tribal antiquities.

Meanwhile we take Rajesh’s coffee (he is Karaput’s “King Coffee”) and Shobha’s commissioned some samosas for us (veg but not Join – she is Jain).

Daisy buys a choker, a belt, a hairclip and an artwork.

Late – we dash back to the Hello Jeypore to pack and say “goodbye Jeypore”.

Long drive to Visakhapatnam, with comedy cattle in Orissa and race for a pre-dark peepee stop.

Amazingly – roads improve one in Andhra Pradesh – we get to Gateway before eight, despite Jolly and Abhishek not knowing the exact location and Cheten the fixer not fixing!

We have a huge double room suite. The dining room lacks ambience but does have chicken satay, lamb biryani, black daal, spag bol and Suma wine.

A further 120+ pictures from Orissa (unlabelled) can be seen in an additional album, though the link below:

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A Visit To Lal Bahadur Stadium, As Reported In A King Cricket Piece, 31 January 2011

This report for King Cricket relates to a small part of our India & Sri Lanka trip, which I shall write up more comprehensively eventually, for which the Ogblog placeholder and links can be found by clicking here or below:

India and Sri Lanka, 29 January to 26 February 2011, placeholder and links

Here is a link to the King Cricket piece, which relates to just one of the many places we visited in Hyderabad on 31 January:

Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad match preview

King Cricket published the piece on 18 April 2011. Just in case the above link goes duff, I have also scraped the report to here.

Frankly, some of the comments are better than my report – it is worth reading for them. King Cricket can be like that.

Not much used by 2011, Lal Bahadur Stadium