On horseback in Udaipur

Bijli

The main aim of the holiday was to ride through the countryside around Udaipur.We were the guests of Dinesh and Francine Jain, who run Krishna Ranch.

They run short and long rides – anything from two hours to 10 days – from their base in the Aravali mountains. We opted for one half day and one full day, keeping in mind that we hadn’t ridden for more than five years and weren’t sure how the old seat bones would hold up.

Manza

All the horses at the Ranch are Marwaris, a fairly rare ‘hot blood’ breed. They are descended from native Indian Indian ponies crossed with Arabs. They were dying out, which seems strange to us as traditionally ‘hot bloods’ make good riding horses (think Thoroughbreds and Arabs). Marwaris are similar in build and size to Thoroughbreds, but have characteristic inward-turning ears.

Dinesh breeds Marwaris and they’re coming back into fashion thanks largely to tourist operations like Krishna Ranch. Apparently they make good dressage horses because ‘they like to perform’. We witnessed a little of this on one ride with three other people. It was difficult to stop the horses getting too close and Dinesh commented: ‘It’s hard to find Marwaris that want to be at the back!’

Paris (on the left)

We had a good time and would like to return to do some longer trails. Thank you to Dinesh and Francine, but also to Bijli, Manza and Paris, all pictured here.

Xmas Holiday Udaipur

Udaipur Lake

Now we know why Udaipur has a great reputation. After a trouble free journey we arrived in the pleasant city centre Khumba Palace Hotel, interesting and comfortable room, well laid out garden and a roof terrace, under the city palace walls. A big difference between here and Goa is the people who are very proud of both Udaipur and Rajastan and make an effort to keep the place up to scratch. It is a laid back and (relatively) quiet city.
There are three palaces, the famous Lake Palace, which has lost some of its visual charm because of new buildings towering above it, the City Palace and the Monsoon Palace. They were used by the incumbent Maharajas etc. in turn as the seasons changed.
The Whistling Teal restaurant deserves particular mention; excellent food, service and surroundings and sensibly priced.
The Khumba Palace Hotel owners, Dinesh and Francine (his Dutch wife), are charming and professional in all aspects of their business, the hotel, a farm cum ranch and horse riding.
We shipped out of the city next day to the Krishna Ranch for our quietest holiday in India to date. It was like a farm in rural England fifty years back. Contented horses, cows, goats, chickens, small plots for vegetables, roots and an orchard. The camels however would have looked out of place, as would some of the abundance of birds, peafowl, hornbills, parakeets and treepies. There was little in the way of contact with the outside world to disturb us.

More 10x10x10

Saturday night. 11.56pm we have just returned from dinner with friends in Benaulim and had a chat with the four guys working on the little garage flat. No signs of them packing up for the night. we are assured it will be finished soon. We are not holding our breaths.
Other curiosities this week have been:

Buying buttons. On show a shop girl a clear button and asking if they had some the answer came back that ‘no madam! You are not getting! Only in black’. On expressing disappointment, the girl produced a box of clear buttons of the correct size. She said,’But they do not match, they are not right’. On close inspection she was in fact right, they did not exactly match, just fractionally less clear. We decided that we could overlook the very slight discrepancy at least they were not black

A patient is travelling 600 miles or so to consult with Alison. He is totally unable to make an appointment during the two days available and will call when he is here on the off chance that Alison will be able to see him.

Unexpected closure of our clinic room. Friday morning a call from the manager of the building. ‘Tomorrow we are closed for painting’. Our robust response:’You will open for us! We have eight patients with appointments’ Silence. A query from him about the timings. ’9.00am to 7.00pm.’ Silence. Then ‘Yes we will be open. They will paint on Sunday’.

Painters, of course, put the fear of god in us. They paint more than required. Liberally. So at the end of Saturday, we take the needful precautions. While doing so, we ask the manager when the painters will be doing our room. He has no clue, probably some time. He does not know the painters gang leader or the boss. Absolutely no idea, except that the painters are in the building now and will be leaving sometime.

We hope they won’t be around as long as the 10x10x10 crew.

Sign on the off license door. ‘We are closed today due to family function. Will open next week.’ We wanted to add sometime.

Buying light bulbs on Friday. Shop closed. No sign. Saturday. ‘You were closed yesterday’ we said. ‘No, not closed’, they said. Yes – No stuff for a bit. Then ‘Oh yes! we shut at 10 am’.

Life’s always interesting, if a tad frustrating.

Electioneering engineering

Goa’s Chief of Police was sacked recently, because he had used an official car to take him on unofficial business. This happened despite the fact that he had sought and gained the correct permissions for the use of the vehicle. However the government subsequently re-wrote this particular rule and back-dated it to before the ‘crime’ was committed. So despite having made some unusually good progress in the sorting out of corruption, drugs, sex trade etc, and generally being straight and incorruptible, he still had to go.
So although we could guess at the reason for his sacking, for instance getting to close to nailing a politician, the real reason became clear when we read that between the Chief of Police’s going and his replacement’s coming, the government (illegally) moved their ‘own’ policemen into strategically important positions. These policemen include at least two who are being investigated for some serious malfeasance.
This is all part of the charade for the March general election . Long live democracy and we look forward to seeing what action the Indian Government will take with regard to these blatantly illegal actions.
This might sound like a moan, but actually it is all great fun and part of Indian life. We don’t see this kind of thing changing much in the near future despite a current Gandhi like figure, Anna Hazare, causing a few ripples within the Indian middle classes.

10x10x10

Back in November the jewelry shop on the ground floor of our building was closed for refurbishment. After seven days we were surprised that despite 4 men working eight hour days, nothing much seemed to have happened. Like many Indian shops, it is basically a garage space, no windows, no doors, nothing but a concrete 10x10x10ft cube. What, we wondered, was taking so long?
Talking with the owner we gathered that he was expecting the work to be finished for the Christmas rush. New electrics, fitted cabinets, fancy wall coverings, a new roller shutter and a metal fascia to disguise the same were the order of the day. OK, so if everything has to be constructed on site in either cramped conditions or out on the street, it will take some time.
Three weeks later, in conversation with the owner, we gathered that he would be re-opening on 4th January. Without trying to be superior, we pointed out that in the UK, to avoid prolonged closure and resultant loss of business, most of the work would have been done off-site, a team would have arrived with all the stuff in van and they would have completed in a couple of days. He shook his head sadly and said ‘Not possible in India, nothing would fit and all the new stuff would have to be re-worked. This is the only way’.
It’s now 40 days from the start and counting. The four men have been working eleven hour days for the last week, including Sunday and the job still seems far from completion. Maybe they are constructing an underground tunnel to the owner’s house so that he can avoid the increasingly difficult Margao traffic. We can’t believe this is a simple refurbishment job.

Christmas greetings

Christmas Greetings to all our readers.

What? No snow?

We still are not used to warm weather at Christmas. Santa Claus looks so uncomfortable in the heat and carols have been a little tiresome already. When we rule the world Christmas carols will be banned before Christmas Eve, and then only the Kings College Cambridge Choir variety allowed.

We are heading up north for a holiday, into rural Rajasthan, to look at palaces and ride horses. It will be cooler but less Christmassy, with few Christians.

We wish you all the best of health and prosperity for the New Year.

Martin and Alison

Liberation Day – bah!

Monday was a holiday to celebrate the heroic Indian Army kicking out a couple of hundred Portuguese soldiers and the administrators in less than ten days from this Cornwall-sized state of Goa. The Portuguese (often mispelt here as Protugese) had been in Goa for 450 years, not doing much good, but not doing much harm either. They were a thorn in the foot of the Indian government.

There are still many who think that this ‘liberation’ was ‘not a good thing’. A friend’s response to Martin’s question ‘Are you celebrating Liberation Day?’ was simply ‘Bah!’

Half Marathon tortoises

One of the things that has cut down on blog time has been The Goa River Half Marathon. We only bothered to think about doing it last year, but this year we knuckled down and got on with 12 hours or more training per week. This went according to plan apart from starting a non-incapacitating knee problem for Alison and a missed 10 mile run for Martin when he was suffering from something akin to gout, but probably just a small foot muscle problem.
The great day dawned (for us) at 4.30am when our faithful taxi driver collected us and delivered us in good time to the start point at Baina Beach. The event was well organised (makes a change) and bang on six we left and head off north with a setting full moon on the left and a rising sun on the right. Having cleared the city of Vasco da Gama it was a pleasant run along the banks of the Mandovi. As we passed the one third mark (7 ks) on the out-and-back course the Kenyan front runners were hurtling homewards. Slightly dispiriting; we did feel like tortoises.
We both completed in about 2 1/2 hours, Alison coming around sixth in her class and Martin having beaten half the field and lost to the other half.

We’ll be there next year if we can fix Alison’s knee.

Double coconut ceremony

As mentioned in the previous blog the roads have been a nightmarish mess. Usually there is at least one serviceable road out of Margoa centre at any one time, but not for a year. Electrics, sewerage and running repairs, total lack of planning, slow working practices, poor quality materials and application, and an inability to complete anything are the cause. The blame falls squarely on the politicians.

This does not stop one of them complaining bitterly that another is busy trying to take all the credit for overseeing the farce. What credit, we ask ourselves. If it was us we’d be trying to distance ourselves!

We’ve read recently that a new bit of road has been recently opened near the airport. It needed two separate coconut ceremonies to get it open because two politicians both felt that this achievement was down to them.

Iffy and St F Xavier

Actually it’s IFFI International Film Festival of India. This annual filmfest usually opens in Panjim but this year our beloved Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat, persuaded the organisers to open in Margao, his constituency. The festival is usually a mess and so it was this year but with the added fun of Diggy blowing his own trumpet and yapping on about ‘beautiful’ Margao and having his pic taken with a film star.

You have probably gathered that in our opinion Margao is an unholy mess. Bad roads (they’ve been digging up most main roads for well over a year now); very little parking; poor traffic policing, low grade modern housing, derelict old buildings, garbage-littered streets. That said, there are many occasions when we are delighted to return to Margao from an out of state trip. It’s better than a lot of towns and cities in India.

However, there was not enough controversy over Iffy this year so the media stirred it up saying that it was inconsiderate that the festival was being conducted at the same time as the nine day St Francis Xavier event and showed disrespect for the religious sensitivites of the 30% Christian population. St Francis you may recall, is the patron saint of Goa. He spent a few years here before heading east and dying somewhere in the Orient. His body was preserved and shipped back to Goa, where it has remained sort of intact. He’s minus a few bits where fervent worshippers have nicked a body part or two and word has it that he is falling to bits.

Diggy presided over the closing ceremony in Panjim but he was still in ‘beautiful’ Margao mode.