Bizarre.

Kerala, well, if God lives there...

Dan and I have been fortunate enough to have a long train of visitors over the past 5 months and as they have been close friends and family I happily tagged along to their travels around India.
The most interesting part of all these trips, is which places have garnered the most interest and in which order they are seen.
Everyone wants to first see Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur and Varanasi. This is usually done in 10 days. The second tier of desired destinations are Kerala, Goa & Manali.

The only down side of this is that when the visitors started arriving, I found a few destinations repeating on me.

So when my parents planned their second trip to India, my excitement to see them was slightly tainted by having to see Chinese fishing nets, Kathakali (local dance) and Vasco Da Gama's grave... for the third time. They wanted to go to God's Own Country - Kerala.

My first trip to Kerala was wild. Lior and I found a fabulous rickshaw driver - Rinu (09895167727 / 08907999904) who raced us around town to show us all the usual things (even let us drive his auto) and then took us to a restaurant in the back of a house in the middle of nowhere, I was tentative to say the least. We sat under a coconut tree, drank palm wine and ate the tastiest fish covered in curry powder. I am a fussy eater so I had to put my brave face on to handle this and it was more than worth it. The tastiest dish of 2010. Actually it draws with the french toast and fruit breakfast we had at The Kashi Art Cafe.


The second trip with Dan and his parents was a completely different experience. We were traveling in a little bit more style. The Malabar House in Cochin and The Raheem Residency in Allepey. Both were beautiful and really showed off the high end of travel in Kerala.

When my parents arrived, I packed my bags with a sigh, wishing we were going to Darjeeling or Pondicherry or some other unexplored (by me) destination.
But Kerala would have none of my bullshit. It made me swallow my sigh and realise how little I knew. The place was still fascinating, third time round.
Our guide told us that The Trade Winds get their name from a course along which the winds can be expected to blow in the direction of travel. The winds blow from the Cape up to India, around and back down to the Cape. This is the path the Portuguese used to get to India in the 15th Century.
The highlight of this trip was the Kerala style cooking evening we did at The Marari Beach Lodge (part of CGH Earth, an amazing group dedicated to ecologically responsible travel). The single table restaurant is in the center of a thriving organic garden, filled with every sort of veggie, herb (and snake) one could imagine. We picked our own ingredients and were taught how to crackle mustard seeds and what on earth a gourde is. The food was delicious and we were sent home with a recipe book - which has found a very comfortable home in my kitchen.



When I left, I knew I would probably never go back to God's own country and I was pretty sad to say goodbye. Then again, we have a few people coming to visit us this year...

New bench, I love you

Our new balcony bench. How beautiful is it?
In a city where barker lounges are still cool, a furniture and wood lover needs a little trick to make home, well, home. This is from one of my favourite place in Delhi. It seems to be the 'source of the Nile' (as my dad calls it) for all the antique furniture shops around the world.

Mighty

I have just launched my brand Mighty - Handbags and other awesome things.
The launch event and Pop-up shop is in Cape Town this week.
See flyer!
& blog and website.

www.mighty.withtank.com/

www.mighty-popularcasecentre.blogspot.com

Angelina jolie endorses Lipo-Sculpture in India

When I tore this out of the newspaper this morning, a few things crossed my mind:

1. If Angie is doing it, it must work.
2. Does she really need the cash that bad? Maybe the cost of looking after 6 kids is taking it's toll.
3. Did she even make a buck out of this endorsement?
5. Didn't I see Jennifer Aniston's face on a hair removal cream ad the other day?
4. How do people get away with putting a person's face in their ad without permission.
5. This is India.

DO NOT SPIT

Spitting.
I never thought this topic would be of any interest to me. But, here I am thinking about it. Where does the need to spit come from? Do the plants need watering? Do the roads look too dry? Is there a bad taste in your mouth? Are you just angry? Would I also spit constantly if I didn't think it was un-lady like and gross?

People spit in India. They spit freely, and with surprisingly accurate aim. They spit out the window of their cars, they spit at the bus stop, they spit on do not spit signs, I assume they spit in their homes, possibly in a designated spittoon, they spit next to each others feet, they spit and they spit and they spit as if it were a contest of who could spit the most over a life time.

Most of the spitting seems to happen while chewing paan. I have had paan. The non tobacco kind, and it is pretty nice. Sweet. And it keeps the mouth occupied, maybe preventing bad conversation. But to my surprise, I am not a spitter of paan, I am a swollower. I just could not bring myself to do it. I could not publicly spit. Because, I am a lady.

Sam on the other hand is not a lady. He freely spat his paan all over the place for my photographing pleasure.

What is paan made of? Find out here.

The suicide cow

The cool cool mountains

So, I finally caught up with my cool. It had traveled pretty far (about a 30 hour drive North from Delhi). But I think I have it back now. I often see it trying to sneak out the back door when it thinks I'm not looking, but I'm keeping a pretty tight leash on it.
I roped my brother Sam into coming with me on the 'cool quest'. He was an excellent choice, being pretty cool himself.

We flew up to Leh, Ladahk in the Himalayas. As the plane approaches, the landscape rises into peaks of snow, then the pilot magically navigates his was down to the airstrip, almost nicking the wings on the mountains. Hair raising.
Leh is nicknamed Little Tibet. It is mostly a Bhuddist community and is filled with prayer bells, prayer flags, monestaries and palaces. The goods for sale in Leh are a trans bunny's dream. All the clothes look like they came straight off a sunrise set.

We then drove to Pangong Lake.
When the temperature is 45 degrees in Delhi, there is snow on these massive, majestic, magical mountains. This place is breath taking (and not only because of the altitude). Every moment, the terrain changes and even though the air is thin, it is crisp and fresh.


We travelled over a pass which is 5360 meters above sea level and both promptly almost passed out. (Kilimanjaro is 5900 meters.) Walking to the toilet was like running a marathon.



Pangong Lake is certainly the most magnificent place I have seen. The water is bluer than blue.



We stayed over night in tents next to the lake. The gate made it look like a tent camp from hell, but it was pretty decent and the food was amazing. We even got to taste the local butter tea and home brewed beer with a local family. The beer was great, but one sip of the butter tea was enough to pile on 5 kilos and make me throw up.

Mix colour with a heap of amazing...

DIR 69.

Being on your own in Delhi with nothing to do is the best way to discover new things.

One Wednesday morning, while losing myself in wondering around, I noticed a small display cabinet at the bottom of a tiny staircase. What had caught my eye was one of the most unique, exciting, outrageous handbags that had ever caught my eye.
My heart skipped a beat.
Trying to control the pace of my breathing I walked up the staircase and entered an explosion of perfectly matched vibrant patterns and colour. I knew I was in trouble.

Every bag and piece of clothing looked like something I imagine coming out of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Amazing, beautiful, wild.
I tried on everything that fit me.

Tanu, (the owner and designer) puts together material, patterns and colour in a way that is truly cool, and when putting on one of her garments, you feel like you are meeting a new friend - a friend who is going to show you that you’ve never really had fun before right now.

If you love colour and personality in your wardrobe this is the place for you.
If you’re a ‘charcoal is the new black’ kinda gal, you need to visit DIR 69 and get educated.

DIR 69 can be found in Hauz Khas village. If you walk past The Living Room on your right you will almost get to the end of the road and on your left there is a colourful sign and the tiny staircase.

cutting key craft

Keys are still cut by hand in Gurgaon.

Frolicking birdies

Taken in Stellenbosch while on holiday.

Indian-Loreal Hair treatment

Kristin and I arrived at the salon/ parlor I had previously been to, looking for Indian head massages - only to to find it closed. So we ventured into the one next door. The entrance looked pretty fancy so we excitedly climbed the stairs. Only to find a grimy, dingy room filled with 20 employees and no customers. I asked, wide eyed, for 2 Indian head massages and we were told that we were both in dire need of an India-Loreal hair treatment. Throwing caution down the sink we dropped our heads into the basins.
After our wash we were placed on chairs where the entire staff could keep an eye on us. They positioned themselves along the side of the room as if they were in front of a TV or maybe in this case, a freak show. I asked if we could move to another corner. Our entourage came with us.
It took 2 of them a good half an hour to remove the birds nest they created on Kristin's head.
But our hair looked pretty good after.
Indian-Loreal Hair Treatment - Because we're worth it!

Here's Kristin back in Delhi after a month long trip up to Dharamsala.

Nat & Mike come to India

My amazing, creative, crazy, wonderful friends managed to fit themselves in my bag when I left Cape Town. They really like India.

Beauty in the Gurgaon beast.

This is the view from my desk.
And if you look a little closer...Nice.

Passing the time

I have slowly been teaching myself to read in the car to pass the time on my commute to work. The roads and traffic are so bad that car sickness is a hard beast to tame. I was pretty damn impressed this lady was not vomiting over her husbands shoulder. Maybe she's had more practice than me.

Beautiful Design where you wouldn't expect it

Sleeping on the job or the only place to sleep?

Here is a really interesting article with a lot of details regarding the laws and usage of cycle Rickshaws.

Said things

'Just do one thing.'
This is normally used when you are being requested to do a million things.

'Too much of work.'
In Delhi, there really is way too much of work. People work 6-7 days a week and 9 - 12 hours a day. In my opinion, it's either because people are hugely driven or because things are so disorganised that the work load is doubled.

'Namaste Madam Gi'
'Gi' is the Hindi word for 'Sir'. The above sentence translates to 'Hello Madam Sir'. It's weird being a woman man...

'What are you saying?'
This is used as an outraged statement when I ask questions about Indian history or Bollywood stars or the Epics. I'm considered 'uneducated' for not knowing these things. Then I ask if they know who Shaka Zulu is and prove my point.

Pairidaéza...!

The old Iranian language Avestan had a noun pairidaēza-, “a wall enclosing a garden or orchard,”
Along came the Greeks and then the English, they tinkered around a bit and we have the word Paradise.
The origin of this word is beautifully demonstrated by Samode Bagh.
It is a tented hotel in a walled garden. Along with a pool, old buildings with bats, camels, peacocks, horses, trees, green grass, delicious food, shady outdoor day beds...
it's a little piece of pairidaēza in the Rajasthani desert.















































Our journey started on Friday... 7 of us and driver, sardined into a Toyota Innova for a 5 hour drive into the desert.
I once again had to deal with my destiny of sitting in the middle. We even came up with a genius idea of how to fit in better... by spooning.














During our toilet-paper-free toilet stop (what's new?) there was a really long wait, so a desperate mother expertly aimed her sons pee into the basin next to me. I only noticed this half way through my hand washing. Thank goodness for Hygienic Hand Gel! My only real regret is being too polite and not having the guts to take a photo.

That evening we dined at Samode Palace which lit up and broke into song as we walked between horses and camels, into a shower of leaves and up stairs of flowers. Wel Come.













































On day one, Emilia and I walked up 376 stairs in the mid day heat, to the fort. I helped a woman carrying a million sticks on her head unstick her load from the surrounding thorns. A lady under an umbrella sold us flower garlands for a fortune and a guide adopted us on the way down. Our guide showed us the highlights of the local village.




































A family who has been making bangles for generations showed us how they use tree resin to make Indian bangles. Seeing the energy and knowledge put into making something that seems simple was awesome enough to get me to purchase an armful. Good marketing tactics.
































We then went on a sunset camel ride.






































Our beautiful ride took a dark turn when we went past a very disturbing site. A family was trying to get their male buffalo to mate with their female buffalo. The female was pretty much being set up for rape. Her front and back legs were tied together and she was again tied with the side of her face pressed against a tree - she was freaking out. Luckily the male did not seem that interested in her and then we turned the corner and I don't know how the story ends.

Rob and Dan met Ram on their village walk about. Ram organised a dune party for us. It was more of a dune get together, but wonderful none the less. We sat on a hill, under the moon, drinking and singing, with Dan playing his guitar in the background.










































Thanks Rob and Emilia for 'lending' some photos to a camera-less girl.

This blog post is dedicatred to my Finch (fiance) who took me on this beautiful holiday. Thank you Spoon!