Also Brunch at the Leela Palace yesterday - cheddar cheese and really good pasta!
Simon takes it out on Doug
Mike is hungry - don't get in his way
YES!
Yummy
Hungry people at BBQ Nation
Monday 26 March 2007
I am still alive!
I know its been a while since a blog update, but nothing much has happened in the last fornight. Guess we are all settling into a routine of work out here. Some of the oters flew ome this week for a catch up with English food and friends. I was ill last weekend, and weve been to some nice restaurants, so here are some pictures from BBQ Nation - a really cool BBQ restaurant where there is a proper charcoal BBQ sunk into the table and a guy keeps bringing kebabs which you can marinate yourself.
Also Brunch at the Leela Palace yesterday - cheddar cheese and really good pasta!
Simon takes it out on Doug
Mike is hungry - don't get in his way
YES!
Yummy
Hungry people at BBQ Nation
Also Brunch at the Leela Palace yesterday - cheddar cheese and really good pasta!
Simon takes it out on Doug
Mike is hungry - don't get in his way
YES!
Yummy
Hungry people at BBQ Nation
Monday 12 March 2007
Bombay/Mumbai
Visited Bombay(now Mumbai) this weekend.
Quite a rushed visit, and we had a major delay with the flight on the return home, so quite a tiring weekend!
Was nice to visit a different city though - in parts much cleaner, and the traffic was altogether MUCH improved on Bangalore.
Some really cool sites to see too.
Checked into out (average) hotel on Friday evening late, and work early on Saturday to visit the Gateway of India (massive stone structure built in the 19th Century to commemorate a royal visit) and take a ferry to UNESCO World Heritage site of the Elephantine Caves - a Buddhist temple cut into the hillside of an Island off the coast. Fascinating and really unique place.
Then walked the centre of Mumbai seeing the court buildings, university, parks, cathedral, town hall and an AMAZING Train Station.
Went to a really nice ITALIAN restaurant in the evening and enjoyed Rose Wine, Mozzerella and Tomato Salad and Pasta. HEAVEN! Found out they have a sister restaurant in Bangalore - going there this weekend is a must!
On Sunday rested at the hotel and went to the JW Marriot for Lunch - very nice spread indeed, and chilled out compared to the hecticness of Saturday!
Indiana Jones eat your heart out
Town Hall
Prince of Wales Museum
Ben gets confused?
The University - awesome staircase!
St Thomas' Cathedral
Gateway of India, Docks and the TAJ hotel in the background
Caves again
The Victoria Terminus - HUGE!
Swimming Pool at the JW Marriot (we didn't stay here!)
Smilies!
Quite a rushed visit, and we had a major delay with the flight on the return home, so quite a tiring weekend!
Was nice to visit a different city though - in parts much cleaner, and the traffic was altogether MUCH improved on Bangalore.
Some really cool sites to see too.
Checked into out (average) hotel on Friday evening late, and work early on Saturday to visit the Gateway of India (massive stone structure built in the 19th Century to commemorate a royal visit) and take a ferry to UNESCO World Heritage site of the Elephantine Caves - a Buddhist temple cut into the hillside of an Island off the coast. Fascinating and really unique place.
Then walked the centre of Mumbai seeing the court buildings, university, parks, cathedral, town hall and an AMAZING Train Station.
Went to a really nice ITALIAN restaurant in the evening and enjoyed Rose Wine, Mozzerella and Tomato Salad and Pasta. HEAVEN! Found out they have a sister restaurant in Bangalore - going there this weekend is a must!
On Sunday rested at the hotel and went to the JW Marriot for Lunch - very nice spread indeed, and chilled out compared to the hecticness of Saturday!
Indiana Jones eat your heart out
Town Hall
Prince of Wales Museum
Ben gets confused?
The University - awesome staircase!
St Thomas' Cathedral
Gateway of India, Docks and the TAJ hotel in the background
Caves again
The Victoria Terminus - HUGE!
Swimming Pool at the JW Marriot (we didn't stay here!)
Smilies!
Thursday 8 March 2007
Flood!
The Cause
The Stairs
Yesterday evening we got back from work going out shopping to discover that one of the houses we are staying in (thankfully not mine!) was flooded! Adam had actually been in the house and not noticed for a good 20mins.
It happened in Ben's room, and thankfully he is quite tidy, so there wasnt much on the floor, but the water was gushing out of the wall where one of pipes that feeds out boilers had blown clean away. It covered his floor, the landing, cascaded down and off the stairs, soaked the wall of Mike's room and the lounge floor.
All in all a nightmare!
It took the housing authority a good 30 mins to turn the water off after they had been notified, because they could not find the off switch! Cue much shouting and mobile phoning, and a big ladder, and lots of scratching heads, Mike looking worried and doing some mopping, Ben looking resigned, Anisha barricading her room against the torrent, Adam looking confused as to why he hadn't noticed, and me recording the event in full on my camera (shouts of: "Tom have you got this bit yet?" and even Ben:"Tom they've turned the lights on in the shower now, you might get a better picture")
Anyway, enjoy the pictures!
Video of the action!
Anisha Barricades herself in
Mike Mops
How many people does it take?
The Stairs dripping
Ben looks glum... but he has a Diet Coke, so its not all bad!
Waterfall City
Mike looks worried
Tuesday 6 March 2007
Monday 5 March 2007
Fringe Ford
This weekend Doug, Simon, Ben, Adam and Myself decided to head out of Bangalore for the weekend.
We left on Friday after work (6pm). I had bought a new hat specifically for the adventure. Ben had also prepared himself for the jungle experience - he had a crate of diet coke with him.
The Journey to our destination of fringe ford (www.fringeford.com) was likely to take between 6-7 hours, so we expected to arrive sometime after midnight.
After taking an hour to get to the outskirts of the centre of town, we stopped at a petrol station, Velo our driver got out, and we were left for 15 mins before he returned to inform us that we didn't have the required documentation to cross the Karnatakan-Kerala State Boundary, so we turned around and headed back to a meeting point, where we waited another 40 minutes or so for the paper to arrive.
Basically we wasted a good 2 1/2 hours in Bangalore before departing, and so we eventually arrived at Fringe Ford at 4.20am on Saturday morning! We did see a wild elephant on the road though.
Doug, Me and Adam relaxing
Me and the View
Sppider (about size of my hand)
Praying Mantis
We got up at 10 to the sound of the wild, and geese. The view was really spectacular, the little house complex opened out onto a grass ledge with spectacular views of the surrounding Wyanad and Tholpaty reserve forest and mountain range. Really nice, and very tempting to just sit there and look at the view all day. Breakfast was delicious, sitting at a table on the edge of the drop-off with the view straight ahead. Rice pancakes, honey, toast, freshly made omlettes.
We didn't do too much in the morning, we read a little bit, Ben washed his chocolate bars and we went for a short walk along the property's main road. It was actually a really nice walk, and we saw some good wildlife. Ben tried to reason with a goose before getting attacked by it(see video), and we also saw all manner of insects (loads of funnel web spiders, praying mantis, hopping spiders, birds, and cool plants).
Me, Ben, Doug and Adam set off for a trek
View
At the top of the watchtower hill
After another delicious meal at lunch time, we trekked up the mountainside for 45mins - a really quite steep climb - to the watchtower. Which offered a spectacular 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. It was tiring to reach, but a cooling breeze and a wonderful, if hazy, panorama was a just reward. Coming down was easier, and we had a chilled out evening. I beat Ben at chess, but lost to him at Connect 4.
(For those interested current scores.
Catan Ben 4, Me 2, Doug 1, Adam 1, Mike 1
Chess Me 1
Connect 4 Doug 2, Ben 1)
Sunset on Saturday
Jungle walk
Main road into the complex
Funnel Web Spider
Me and the Mountains
The same fantastic view at breakfast time, and we spent to the morning trekking out to a local waterfall, and enjoying a refreshing swim/shower.
We saw a lot of elephant droppings over the weekend, but no elephants came calling on us - better luck next time I hope.
View
Lunch
View from the house
Breakfast time view
Breakfast
Breakfast
Ben's nemesis
Waterfall fun
Sunset on Sunday drive
It was nice to get out of the city, and we are off to Mumbai(Bombay) at the weekend, so some more updates soon.
Video to follow tomorrow hopefully.
We left on Friday after work (6pm). I had bought a new hat specifically for the adventure. Ben had also prepared himself for the jungle experience - he had a crate of diet coke with him.
The Journey to our destination of fringe ford (www.fringeford.com) was likely to take between 6-7 hours, so we expected to arrive sometime after midnight.
After taking an hour to get to the outskirts of the centre of town, we stopped at a petrol station, Velo our driver got out, and we were left for 15 mins before he returned to inform us that we didn't have the required documentation to cross the Karnatakan-Kerala State Boundary, so we turned around and headed back to a meeting point, where we waited another 40 minutes or so for the paper to arrive.
Basically we wasted a good 2 1/2 hours in Bangalore before departing, and so we eventually arrived at Fringe Ford at 4.20am on Saturday morning! We did see a wild elephant on the road though.
Doug, Me and Adam relaxing
Me and the View
Sppider (about size of my hand)
Praying Mantis
We got up at 10 to the sound of the wild, and geese. The view was really spectacular, the little house complex opened out onto a grass ledge with spectacular views of the surrounding Wyanad and Tholpaty reserve forest and mountain range. Really nice, and very tempting to just sit there and look at the view all day. Breakfast was delicious, sitting at a table on the edge of the drop-off with the view straight ahead. Rice pancakes, honey, toast, freshly made omlettes.
We didn't do too much in the morning, we read a little bit, Ben washed his chocolate bars and we went for a short walk along the property's main road. It was actually a really nice walk, and we saw some good wildlife. Ben tried to reason with a goose before getting attacked by it(see video), and we also saw all manner of insects (loads of funnel web spiders, praying mantis, hopping spiders, birds, and cool plants).
Me, Ben, Doug and Adam set off for a trek
View
At the top of the watchtower hill
After another delicious meal at lunch time, we trekked up the mountainside for 45mins - a really quite steep climb - to the watchtower. Which offered a spectacular 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. It was tiring to reach, but a cooling breeze and a wonderful, if hazy, panorama was a just reward. Coming down was easier, and we had a chilled out evening. I beat Ben at chess, but lost to him at Connect 4.
(For those interested current scores.
Catan Ben 4, Me 2, Doug 1, Adam 1, Mike 1
Chess Me 1
Connect 4 Doug 2, Ben 1)
Sunset on Saturday
Jungle walk
Main road into the complex
Funnel Web Spider
Me and the Mountains
The same fantastic view at breakfast time, and we spent to the morning trekking out to a local waterfall, and enjoying a refreshing swim/shower.
We saw a lot of elephant droppings over the weekend, but no elephants came calling on us - better luck next time I hope.
View
Lunch
View from the house
Breakfast time view
Breakfast
Breakfast
Ben's nemesis
View from table
Trekking
Contemplation
Reading
From top of Watchtower
From top of Watchtower
Reading a great book
The House
Waterfall fun
We drove back after another fantastic lunch, and it was really nice to see the sights of Kerala, the rice fields, tea and banana plantations, and the settlements, houses, people, fishermen and cattle of India. Really felt like we saw some of the real India.
Paddy Fields and Banana plantations of Kerala
Sunset on Sunday drive
It was nice to get out of the city, and we are off to Mumbai(Bombay) at the weekend, so some more updates soon.
Video to follow tomorrow hopefully.
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