Sunshine and still cold ..

Yesterday I went off to my work in the archives, and SF to working one-on-one with students who need extra attention.  CW and her friend LO showed up about 9 am (they are staying near Picture Palace).  We got to work and cleared out an area that we had hoped the office staff would take care of after our last visit, but, alas, no ... this will help us really get down to work today.  The big area of unprocessed materials on our agenda for this visit is Board meeting materials ... hope we can make big inroads on these over the next week.

Our brains were fried by 3:30 pm .. and the weather was decent, though bits of snow still around .. so SF and I took a short walk up past Tafton as far as Edgehill.  Part of that path is now paved with rock & concrete, enough so that motorcycles can make it up to the first set of steps beyond Abergeldie.  An alpana design was worked in where the path branches down to Woodstock Villa.

Friday morning woke up to cold, but clear skies and sunshine. It is clear enough that the snows might be visible, but no gumption to get up to the top of the hill to see!  I did take a quick after breakfast walk up to the gym, and was serenaded by a whistling thrush.

View of Witches Hill & Tehri hills

 Roofs of the Quad buildings:

 Oak trees near the ramp just below the gym:

Sunshine!

After such a cold, snowy, miserable day yesterday, we woke this morning to clear skies and sunshine! There was still a dusting of snow on the trees from New Tehri Road on up .. but that will melt as the sun hits it.

Looking east to the Tehri hills just as the sun is starting to hit them.

 Witches Hill with the first rays of sunshine

 Back of the Quad buildings outside of the dining room

I am also fortified by a good breakfast with sauteed spinach (such a treat to get a geen vegetable!), suji uppama,, omelet, yogurt, hot tea, grapes (the school kitchen is very careful to clean fruit well as they don't want the whole school sick).

Cold .. and snow!

Yesterday was chilly, but I was able to take a short walk up Edgehill path.  Here are a few photos from that walk, especially for those who don't know the terrain:

In the afternoon it started spitting out a bit of snow .. and we woke up this morning to about 3 inches of wet stuff.  The start of classes has been delayed for an hour, so I am in the alumni office by myself (since our guest suite is just on the next floor up).

Cold!

Today's high for Mussoorie is supposed to be 47 F, low 36; tomorrow high of 37, low of 30 with precipitation.  Landaur is at least 500 feet higher in elevation, so a few degrees colder.  I knew it was going to be cold .. but I forget the intensity of it.  I've told friends in the US that it is sort of like living in a Scottish Castle .. thick stone walls that hold on to the cold, and drafty single-paned windows.

In bed we are warm with heavy razais (quilts) and I even brought the old eiderdown with me (which I will leave here for someone to use). Going into our suite's bathroom at night feels like going into an outhouse, and it is hard to feel motivated to take a shower or even a quick wash off with a washcloth, but we do have a hot water heater which we turn on for morning and evening use.

The sun is shining into my office window and I have a small electric space heater at my feet, so am comfortable (with long johns, cords, several layers of sweaters, down vest, shawl)....

There are various types of heaters in staff apartments, offices and classrooms.  Most of the staff apartments and some classrooms have bukharis, which burn wood. Below is a picture of one under repair outside of the school kitchen:

Our suite has two electric heaters, which we greatly appreciate (even hot running SF has been sitting near the heater!)

This stove runs off of a natural gas cylinder (the windows are drafty enough so one does not need to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning):

Here are some electric ones:

Delhi - Landaur

Saturday 23 February

We didn’t get to bed until midnight, and had to get up by 5 to be taken to the train at 6 am … so of course I woke up at 4.  Deepak was right on time and we were taken to the New Delhi train station .. only to run into heavy traffic right near the entrance to the station, which added about 15 minutes to the trip.  But we got to the platform just as the train pulled into the station, found our seats, and were well settled by the time the train left.  We were in an ‘executive class’ car with reclining seats and slightly ok bathrooms (for Indian train bathrooms). In this class they serve a rolling breakfast … one at a time between stations – choice of zeera lassi or lime juice; a pot of hot water and tea bag/sugar/creamer; corn flakes or choco-flakes with warm milk; choice of veg or non-veg breakfast [I had aloo paratha with dahi, SF had non-veg omelet]; choice of banana or apple; another round of hot water & tea fixings. Train arrived in Dehra about half hour late, but were met at the train by our driver.   We stopped at President Hotel to use the nice clean facilities and to have lunch [chicken tikka and roti] before heading up the hill.  

 We arrived at the school by 4 pm and the key to our guest room was ready for us.  We are in #1, which was for a time Mrs. Biswas’s apartment .. large 1 bedroom apartment with full kitchen, dining and office areas, larger hot water geyser and newer water filter. 

There were a lot of students in the Quad area as some sort of basketball tournament was underway .. we were inadvertently serenaded by junior high kids as they sang while they played on the playground equipment!

We were so tired when we got here that we went down for a quick supper at 5:30 pm, then were in bed and asleep by 7 pm.

Kerala Day 6

Friday 22 February

"Pick up from houseboat and transfer to Kochi airport for flight to Delhi."

 

We were picked up near Allepy from the houseboat and drove to Kochi.  Along the way we stopped at a small Kerala Folklore Museum, run by a private family. The museum was packed full of all kinds of objects from fossils; 7^th century Buddhist artifacts; carved wooden doorways, furniture, ceilings, statues from this part of the country; musical instruments; household objects; etc. etc.  

We got near the airport about noon, 4 hours before our flight, but decided to just go ahead and go into the airport and let our driver – a kind young man with amazing driving skills – go.  At the airport we were able to get a lunch of masala dosa and coffee.  The flight left a little late, and went via Mumbai, so two take-offs and landings. We had a bit of confusion at the airport in Delhi as Deepak wasn’t there to meet us  - but found another rep. from Uday.  He got us right to the car .. and then we got stuck in traffic.  The usual 45 minute drive from the airport to the YWCA took 2 ½ hours, which was frustrating for the driver and for us! When we got to the Y we were able to retrieve our stored luggage, do a bit of organizing for the next day, and to bed!

Kerala Day 5

Thursday 21 February

“Morning transfer to houseboat.”

We were picked up from the backwater resort on time, but their card reader wasn’t working when we check out, so had to use cash .. further deleting our cash supply. The driver took us to a nearby ATM, and SF was able to use one of her cards as for some reasons neither of my cards worked. We stopped in a nearby Bakery Shop (ubiquitous in Kerala) and had a cup of coffee and some snacks, then were taken to board the houseboat.  This boat was nice but not overly fancy .. two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen in the back, and an open sitting/dining area in the front. Two men ran the boat, taking turns steering us across Vembanad Lake and through some narrower backwater passages.  There were lots of other houseboats out – some small and some quite large and elegant; and we saw a half-dozen species of water birds (which we still need to identify and name). One of the men did the cooking and served us huge and tasty meals that included a lot if fish, coconut, and bananas. It was very relaxing just to sit and watch the scenery.  They tied up for the night near Alleppy, in an area with lots of other houseboats, and we went to bed around 9 pm.

Kerala Day 4

20 February

"Day at Leisure at Resort"

Spent most of day sitting on balcony watching the waterway ..

 Load of rice straw.

 "Taxi boat" that drives back and forth a number of times per day

 Water lillies

Early morning view

Kerala Day 3

“Morning visit spice plantation. Later drive to Kumarakom.  On arrival check into hotel X”

The drive from Kumily to Kumarakom took us through some of the same route we had taken yesterday, but headed off a bit south and towards the coast.  We really appreciated the skill of our driver on the mountain roads, today with heavier traffic.   

The spice plantation was very interesting.  It is one that grows spices and herbs for Auryavedic medicines – we saw cardamom plants; pepper vines; cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg trees along with a lot of other local medicinal plants. 

Cardamom plants

Pepper vine

Cardamom in flower

Fig tree

Our driver encouraged us to stop at a small bird sanctuary near to our hotel – and we did but only for a bit as it was hot and mid-afternoon, not a good time for birdwatching.  Did hear about 5 or 6 different bird songs. Checked into our hotel which has ‘resort’ in the name – but it is rather disappointing as it has no amenities besides a small odd restaurant (we were hoping for a cold beer and some good South Indian food), but we are facing a ‘backwater’ area and can watch boats and birds, get caught up on rest, hydration and laundry as we will be here a second night.