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I’ve been slack with blogging about personal stuff. It’s one item I’ve had to drop in priority since moving to Pune to run training. Every night we’ve been out (we do have to eat and drink!) so I haven’t had a chance to write about all the interesting stuff we’ve been doing. Now that this batch of trainees is finished, my plan is to definitely catch up on it.

For our most most recent training outing we did a (literal) one day trip to Mumbai. It started off early with a scheduled 6am bus ride that took about an hour to get going as we waited for the bus to finally arrive at our office. After which it took almost four and a half hours to finally get to Mumbai. For some people, a Bollywood movie made the journey go a little faster. For others, like myself, it ended up as a futile attempt to recover lost sleep.

After driving through lots of buildings, we made our way into the heart of Mumbai where we stuffed ourselves for lunch before heading off to the Gate of India. The Gate welcomes people as they arrive into port at Mumbai and sits just opposite from the original magnificent Taj hotel. It’s lit up at night and is buzzing with plenty of people and hawkers trying to sell items to the tourists that visit. It’s also the place of port to catch a ferry to the island holding the World Heritage Site Elephanta Caves.

The ferry ride to Elephanata Island is a very moderate pace, taking about an hour to cover apparently 20km. Tacked on the end of the four hour bus ride and some people were understandably irritated. I found the ride very calming, with the best possible view of the Mumbai horizon that slowly fades into a hazed blanket of dust and pollution. We passed shipping boats, other ferries, a number of small islands and even the nuclear power plant that feeds the city the energy it needs to survive. Oddly enough I didn’t notice much wildlife and was expecting at least many seagulls or birds flying around. I think most people found the ferry ride back extremely memorable with the haze turning the sun into a blazing sphere descending into the horizon over very still water.

Elephanta Caves, I’ll admit probably wasn’t worth the 5+ travelling time. If you’re based in Mumbai I could highly recommend them and definitely get a guide since the stories behind the broken statues are generally much more interesting than the the remains ruined by the Portuguese a while back.

With time whittled away with stops in between, we managed to also briefly visit Colaba Causeway (apparently the shopping/market street of Mumbai), the Victoria Terminus (one of the train stations) and the spectacular Marine Parade (an arc highlighted with all the buildings) at night time.

As normal, the other pictures are available here.

As I see more and more of the country, I’m constantly amazed by how different all the parts are, yet still share enough to uniquely tie it all together. Pune has exactly the same sort of rickshaws as I’ve seen in other parts of the country, the only difference is that they actually use the meter most of the time and when you do have to haggle, it’s much less exhausting. They’ve even modified some vans into a rickshaw-like look that act as mini-buses driving along pre determined routes.

Our digs in Pune are, for India, very nice. I’m staying in a house with the other two trainers with each room having a nice little balcony to sit and relax on. It’s very close to the office and catching a rickshaw from there has been relatively easy. Most trips in a rickshaw are only about ten or fifteen minutes to other major places like ABC Farms and MG Road.

Pune is home to plenty of Universities so that means plenty of bars and restaurants at very reasonable prices. It also means a much more relaxed and younger crowd when you do go out.

The weather has been grand since getting here. Not a spot of rain. It also means everything is especially dusty and dry. I definitely prefer dusty and dry over wet and humid.

We’re seeing more and more of Pune as the days go by and its refreshingly not as manic as Bangalore.

I would have written this post a while back but unfortunately between a server transfer and some library upgrades, my photo gallery wasn’t working and I think the photos from this trip are really something. Probably three weekends ago now, I had the pleasure of staying in Ooty, one of the famous hill stations of India. Hill stations show yet another side to the ever complex Indian landscape, this time full of mountains, lush green trees and a refuge from the heat (at least in summer). The British first developed this particular hill station after taking it over. One of their legacies, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway is now a World Heritage site. An hour long train journey winds through some of the hills and despite its tiny one metre gauge and overcrowded carriage seating, offers some of the nicest and most varied scenic views of the area.

Ooty is also famous for its vast number of tea plantations and many of them offer a tour of their operating facilities and very cheap tea. I highly recommend trying all the teas on offer. Chai is absolutely divine here and the tea plantation we went to offered another sweet Chocolate infused tea.

Getting to Ooty ended up nightmarish with a 13 hour bus ride up in almost torrential rain for the last four hours. The path leading up to this hill station was horrible with so many pot holes and sharp curves meaning a snails pace with the less than ideal weather conditions. Contrasting this with the return journey to Bangalore that only took about 7 hours back. We also stopped fewer times and I think the conscious effort to get back much quicker meant we also stopped for less time when we did.

Lake Ooty also offers a different experience though its water are brackish and appear blue green from the algae that seems to float all around. We didn’t notice that many birds and doubted the existence of plenty of fish given the rubbish and state of the water, though the surrounding trees helped to make it feel like a much nicer place.

I would have to highly recommend visiting Ooty, or any of the hill stations, if you visit India. They’re not only a great escape from the hustle and bustle of many of the other cities and offer just that extra different perspective to India you just don’t get to see that often. Check out the rest of the photos here.

For every batch of students we train, we take them for a day trip outside of the city. Instead of Mysore this time, we went on an arranged trek to Savandurga, one of the amazing hills that surround Mysore. The day started off a little bit later than expected, with the first of our buses apparently ending up in an accident resulting in a rather long wait for the second to be dispatched. The result, a group outing breakfast to one of the darshinis (stand up eating places) and a round of masala dosas kicking off the day.

We stopped to pick up our companion guides for the day, one of them including the national rock climbing champion who told us some amazing stories about her early days of training. Apparently the sturdy rock climbing equipment of today wasn’t available in India and the result was either using no equipment or a sturdy rope harness system with an anchor person. We all found her stories pretty amazing.

We picked up our packaged lunch consisting of rice and vadas wrapped in banana leaves and newspapers. We also picked up two litres of water each that ended up being a wise move as the day was completely exhausting for everyone.

Our first stop at the hill was a temple at the base where we anointed ourselves with some coloured powder and picked up two more travelling companions (starting to feel like Dr Who a little bit) in the form of two dogs. Both dogs followed us for the entire trek and really seemed like old hands at the path, with one of them later following us up the mountain as well.

The trek was relatively easy with a well defined path and thin enough brush to push past. A few slippery spots and grassy knolls later found us at a point where our guides set up some equipment for abseiling. Everyone tried it out, even to the small protests of the few and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We continued to trek to the lake (or rather apparently a dam) built to the other side where we ravenously consumed the packed lunch we’d carried down. The final parts of our trip saw us return to the bus to top up on our low water supplies before heading back to scale the mountain and finish the day off with some rock climbing.

A great and exhausting day that, even though we all ended up a bit sweaty and smelly, slept especially well that night. Check out the photos here.