Havelock Island Village No 1

Village No 1 is where the jetty is situated we arrived onto havelock Island and as you walk off the jetty there is a fenced off area where all the autorickshaw and taxi's are waiting to take you wherever you want to go

 

                                                               

Village No 1

        Painting the wagon with a little helper

                                    Time for lunch at B3 Barefoot Bar and brasserie

Havelock Island Fishing Trip

                                                                    Fishing Trip
                   This is where our fishing trip journey begins from the Beach at Village No 1

                       It was from here we boarded the fishing boat

                                         
                              No mucking around as soon as we left the fishing begins!

We get out a little way and I was sitting next to Meg'z enjoying the nice day settled in ready for the day and all of a sudden a wave come over the side of the boat and i was drenched made me gasp...lol.. so I  decided I was not going to sit anymore just didn't want to be wet the whole time we were out I stood up under the little shading that we had  and at the same time I was drying out.

          We stopped off at this Island on our trip back it was beautiful an uninhabited island 
                      I was told that there were Lots of Dear,Wild pigs and Snakes here 
                                              wasn't about to go for any walks.

          Mark decided it was time for a dip in this beautiful clear water 
                                             and how could he resist!

                                                     I stayed on the boat
                     Meg'z hoped out to take a look around and take a photo or two

We had been out fishing for a few hours and decided to start back the rain clouds were starting to set in and on the way back Mark managed to hook himself a nice fish
                                             King mackerel

Back at the Wild Orchid the chef cooked Marks fish made two differnt dishes for us to try it was very tasty we couldent manage to finnish it off but we did enjoy it!!
                               
              The next night the king Mackerel was on the menu board

Havelock Island The Wild Orchid

                                                    Wild Orchid Resort

                                    The First thing we notice is how clean and green it is here 

                                                           what a beautiful place to be!

Our first day here was a lovely sunny day but then it rained for two days we hired a bike managed to take it for a ride on the second day got back and it started to rain the next day we were hoping the rain would stop but it didn't.

                                                                        Front Foyer

          Library,Games,T.V room

                          Outside Bar

              The Emerald Gecko Bar

    

              Friendly Laundry Staff

Friendly cat that had taken to sleeping on our front porch outside our room every night

                                                                       Only in India!

         

                                  

                                                  Some great Photography by Megan

                       Enjoying the lovely day rain or shine I was going to this beautiful beach

                                             

I went for a nice walk along this road early one morning you have to be watchful of vehicles coming along this road.

They are very narrow roads that were built to cater for a donkey and cart maintenance of the road is something they just don't spend the money on.

  

If you want to live a long life you are best to give way to all traffic coming your way step aside into the vegetation and mud if you have to....

                                             

If it's a truck or bus you may get blown over run to a safe driveway nearby if possible...lol

This is the local Milk bar convenience store
1 min walk from the resort

  Nice to see they have chilled beer....

This is a house that is ready for an extension...hmmm.. wonder how long this has    been in progress for!!

Seems like a place to get some nice fresh baked bread

Not any bread insight at all...hmmm we couldn't figure out why it was called a German Bakery they had me confused!!We did get a nice milk coffee.

Rony is a very nice man lives here with his wife children and other members of the family 

his brother owns the property here and across the road he gave him this little piece of land to build his home and restaurant on.

Mark and I had a few meals here Rony is always willing to cook you up a lobster or two if you wish fresh from the ocean great hospitality if you ever go to havelock Island I recommend eating here.

  

                                                                        Paddy field

Young girl walking to school

Our Maids

Our cook Jayanthi and house maid Parapha started with us 4 months ago and even though Parapha couldn't speak much English it was o.k as Jayanthi was able to speak English and also be our translator.

As time went by there was a realization that Jayanthi was wanting to rule the roost

( Be in charge of the house and me) for those who may not understand what to rule the roost means!!

There were a few incidents a few times questioned myself of her intentions to the point that when i did approach her she would become very upset with me and talk to me like I was working for her... so we did have little discussion on that.

I thought it was under control but it seemed Jayanthi is a women of Independence and of a very controlling nature.

At one stage I sacked Parapha for not turning up for work there were a few occasions and not ringing to let me know I wasn't sure if she had decided she didn't want to work for us anymore or not she did come up with excuses a number of times there was always something but I gave her lenience... silly me but we live and learn...

The day I asked Jayanthi to tell Parapha not to bother coming back to work that she was no longer needed due to the reasons above...But that didn't seem to be a good enough reason and Parapha turned up at the door the very next day apologetic and pleading for her job back with tears streaming down her face.

She was sick and needed to go to hospital that was the story....so rolling my eyes knowing I am being railroaded and taken for a ride...but yes I gave in and rehired her telling her she could have only one chance and to go now and not return until Monday morning and that she was to be here on time 7:30 - 8:oo no later and not leave until she had put in her 5 hours work she was very grateful and agreed most of this was in translation through jayanthi but who knows if something was lost...

The following Monday everything was good the work was being done Parapha had improved in her cleaning skills and was more thorough than before this did please me very much but there was still a problem with ironing the iron must not of been hot enough or she wasn't doing it at all because there were still creases in the clothes like they had just come out of the dryer..hmm

This information I passed onto the cook Jayanthi and she would show her how to do it but alas the only time the clothes were ironed was when i approached Jayanthi about it and I have a suspicion that jayanthi was staying back to do it that only happened a couple of times and then it went back to wrinkly clothes again hmm..

Jayanthi asked once if it was alright for Paraph to come over this one Friday night at 5pm as they were going to church together I said yes that was o.k....

but a few times I would walk in the door and Parapha was in the house without asking my permission.

Which told me things were getting out of hand so I told them they needed to ask first one time I came home and Parapha was in the spare room I asked her what she was doing here and Jayanthi answered for her that she had not completed all her work today so she had come back to finish the ironing and that they were going to church together tonight!! o.k so why hadn't she finished her work then that question wasn't answered as we were interrupted with Mark and megz returning home.

Well I had quit enough by now I was worn out with the constant struggle with getting things done and the never ending interruptions to show Jayanthi how to cook something "I may as well have done the meal myself" constantly asking her to fry the meat not put it in the pressure cooker to cook it and in the end every meal seemed to go into the pressure cooker it was just to much.

The following Tuesday I told her we didn't need her here to cook meals for the next 2 days but I did keep Parapha to clean house and then on Thursday I sent Jayanthi a message via mobile that I wanted to speak to her and Parabar at 8:30 Friday

I had let our driver suresh know what was happening on that day that I was letting them both go we only want one maid to do everything life would be a lot simpler I hope anyway!!

I think I had been very lenient and compassionate with them both.

Friday came and they came late Parapha was sent into the house first when she came in I asked her for the house key first and asked her to sit at the table

There we were waiting I asked where Jayanthi was and she said in the other house and Parapha called her to come now...hmmm

Jayanthi Finlay turned up 10min later I asked her to sit also and then told them there services were no longer required as sir and I had decided we only wanted one maid to do everything.

Jayanthi glared at me....my goodness if eyes could kill I would be dead..

it was a little disconcerting but I managed to focus on the job at hand and console Parapha

I gave them there wages gave them a hug and said goodbye with much relief suresh our driver turned up just after I had told them.

I dident think they were going to go Jayanthi wanted more explanations and I wasn't about to explain our decision with her anymore and told her that the decision was finale.

Hopefully we shall find a maid that can cook clean and not try and take over!!

Wish us luck.

Life in Chennai what's it really like!!

Hello all

I was just chatting online a few moments ago and it dawned on me that I have all this stuff to say that may not even make much sense but I am going to say it anyway

I have been living here in Chennai for 5 and half months and haven’t written a word about what's life really like here so I think it time that I did

First I must say I do love living here and having this experience away from my homeland, Friends and family.

That fantastic Country I call home .... Australia

I don’t know what it is but I just need to let it out...

When you move away from everything you have known all your life never even for one second thinking in my entire life I would be in a strange and so very different land it’s absolutely amazing and at the same time terrible.

Some days are good and some days bad you are probably thinking well no different from anywhere ells’

Well your right Life is full of up and down moments... but at least in your home country there are so many familiarities that you feel so much more at ease

So here I go…lol

August 2010

Thursday 5th
Today Meg went back to dentist and now she has a tooth again very well done as well diden't take long perfect match
they did a fantastic job I am very happy with it and more importantly so is meg...
On the way home had to do a little grocery shopping and what do you know nouthing runs smooth here in India...lol..well this is what happened I did all my shopping except for two things which I knew I could get in the store up the road a bit so all good went to the check out waited there for quite a while just one of thoes days then it was my turne hurray...the girl put all my shopping through then it came time to pay for my goodies took out my card the lovely girl swiped my card then again then again hmmm...... here we go it's one of thoes day's then she atempts one more time in the mean while there is a lot of descusion going on between the other check out girl the manager and the packing boy...they seem a little annoyed ..then the girl turns to me and says can you pay cash

huhuhu..hehehe as if...... I said "I carry no cash sorry" then she turned to the manager had a talk turned back to me and said "you can go accross the road to the ATM and get money out"..hmmm.. to which I said "can I".... "I dont think so" and I walked outside got into the car and told my driver suresh go to the next groacery store no good here...lol he was very confused after explaining what had happened he took me to the next port and I did my shopping and the girl swiped my card and off I went with the the boy carrying my shopping to the car and then we went home. so that was my day...feww now to put up my feet and relax a bit

Friday 6th

Here we go again anouther day in Chennai, The Morning starts with breky with Mark and the girls the driver Suresh turns up we go through the plan for the day,Kat and Mark head off for there day.

Suresh turnes up on time 11:15am Meg and I head off to pick up Mark from work, then we are off to Megs school for her oriantation we have to go through sercurity first pick up Sureshe's pass to enable him entry into school,then to the libary for our oriantation!!
All went well we were then taken around the school time to leave take mark back to work and meg and I go and pick up kat from school then off to the Imigration office for Kat's finnale papperwork,while she is here.
This to me is a very amusing process we walk in and are told to go to window one in a small very crowded room with about 30 chairs and people lined up on all four walls chatting while they wait, in front of the chairs are three windows, a little like when you go into the bank in Oz but not as fancy...lol
Kat and I then go to window 1 and there is a group of people standing there in front of this window waiting for an opertunity to be served so kat and I line up behind them hopeing for service and to get out of there.
Not that it is at all a nice orderly line its elbow and be as close as possible to the window of oppertunity as possible amoungst the other people, Who are intending to do the same thing as we are.
Any small space between you and the next person is yours for the takeing!! kat and I took it,no such thing as personal space here.
Then we had a few people who were summond by the lady behind the glass window to come forth to collect pappers that they needed to sighn,then they are off to the next process...hmmm remember doing that one with Mark and meg..
Then there it was that window of oppertunity that showed itself to us, I shoved my paperwork infront of the lady behind the glass...yarhooo... we made it she took our pappers and kats passport.
Took a quick looked at kat stamped her papers then passed the pages of papperwork back to kat for her to sighn.
I think there were 4 pages for her to sighn then passed it back then stamp stamp stamp passed us back one peice of papper and her passport then we got out of there...home free .
I called saresh to come and pick us up, we walked out to the front gate and waited jumped into the car feww..
On the way home we stoped at a local cafe for some lunch we were starving it was now 4pm filled our tummys and went home.
and that was anouther one of my interesting days....lol.

Sat 7th
Well this day hasen't started yet its 10pm here Friday night but we have a family comeing over tomorrow for a BBQ and to watch the game hopefully no power cut's!!!
Mark has his fingers crossed!!