Our life in Chennai

Friday, November 19

New Maid

As of Monday 18th October we now have employed a new maid.

Mercy is 36 has a 11 year old daughter and takes care of her mother

Diwali 2010

It is Diwali in India at the moment and its Fantastic!!

Deepavali is an official holiday in India.

Diwali commemorates the return of Lord Rama along with Sita and Lakshman from his fourteen-year-long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana.

In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the Capital of Rama, illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas (oil lamps) and burst crackers.

Here is a little bit of info I found interesting

The city Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu is the capital of India’s firecracker industry with about 8,000 factories, big and small, producing 90 percent of the country's total fireworks output.

It also has the world's largest fireworks manufacturing unit.

Popularly known as the festival of lights, is an important five-day festival in Hinduism,Jainism and Sikhism occurring between mid-October and mid-November. For Hindus, Diwali is the most important festival of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes.

In Tamil Nadu it is celebrated as People light deepams, bursting firecrackers, wearing new clothes and sharing sweets.

A traditional visit to the Temple is a significant ritual of the day.

Just like Christmas in the Western World

We handed out a boxes of mixed sweets to all the security guards and gardeners here they were very happy.

When I say sweets its not the same thing as in western world

Indian sweets, known as mithai Many are made with sugar, milk and condensed milk, and cooked by frying.

In the evening before it even gets dark the Fireworks start,up on the roof top we go and everywhere you look you can see fireworks its just beautiful

Except for the constant letting of of crackers they are going day and night!

We are so glad we decided to live away from the main town and out a little, as you go closer into town it gets loader at least we have some relief from the constant noise.

Once we go in the house its not so bad and we can at least get some sleep, unlike some people we know that live in closer to town are not experiencing the same luxury as we do... sleepless nights!!

We were invited to a Diwali dinner by our freinds new landlord,we were looking forward to experiance this wonderful tradition in India.

The day started with us entering the house greeted by the hosts Sucharita and V.Kumar we were given blessing for mother,father and children also meg and I were given floweres to put in our hair.

Jasmine flowers are worn in girls' and womens' hair mainly for their beauty and fragrance.

They are also used in floral decorations for marriages and other important functions.

After our greeting we are taken upstairs to a balcony that overlooked a fantastic view of the sea and introduced to other guests we were offerd refreshments and nibbles then after a while we were seated and entertained by a young man with a guitar and a young girl who sang like an angel it was just beutiful they sang some traditional Tamil songs and some modern, the guests were invited to come up and sing a song also but that is something I was not willing to do dident want to scare people away...lol

After our entertainment we played a game of bingo and guess what I managed to win second prize while mark won 3rd how lucky were we mind you mark had convinced Melisa a freind to swaped tickets!!!

Once the game was over we all went down stairs to a lovely Lunch and to mingle with other guests we were given gifts by our hosts and then the fireworks began it was a enjoyable relaxing day.

thank you sucharita and V.kumar for a fantastic Diwali.

Friday, October 29

PORT BLAIR

We have left the beautiful Havelock Island and arrived at Port Blair

As there is only one ferry per day leaving the island to Port Blair and no flights available to leave until the following day we had to stay overnight.

We were catching the first flight out the next morning interesting way of assuring that travelers to Havelock Islands also spend a little money in Port Blair to help with the economy.

PALM GROVE ECO RESORT

Mark tried his best to find a nice place to spend the night doing this over the internet you can never be sure what a place is going to be like until you actually get there most of the best places were booked out due to the fact that everyone coming from havelock were in the same boat as we were and had booked in before we had... as Mark said it was the best of the worst ...lol in him saying that left my mind wondering but I kept a positive mind.

Reception

We arrived at our accommodation for the night the staff were very hospitable and I am thinking to myself hmmm o.k so this is different interesting artifacts in

The reception area tried to show interest not letting on to Megz and Mark that I had some concern but we hadn't seen our room yet it is probably o.k just wait and see after all there was vegetation everywhere and it seemed clean enough....

We were taken to our room passing other lodgings I had a good look... yer this will be o.k we got to a staircase and we started walking up those stairs the mussels in my legs woke up I didn't think I was going to make it to the top the steps were so steep and shallow I though I was going to fall backwards and there was nothing soft behind me to break the fall if that was to happen thankfully we made it to the top

The door had a bolt and padlock on it I was keeping positive but laughing inside...couldn't wait to see what was behind that door couldn't even get my imagination to work and conger up a vision of what my eyes were about to see.

I wasn't even going to look at Meg or mark in fear I would go into fits of laughter or have a look of horror on my face.

The door opened and it wasn't too bad at all the first thing I noticed was that it was clean it seemed o.k I was relived and it was only for one night.

Once we were shown our room and the man had left we investigated the bathroom it seemed o.k but on looking closer I decided I was not having a shower I just had a quick wash I'll wait untill we get home.

We had been given towels but I think it was time for them to go to towel heaven they were worn out and hard o.k so now to check out the bed.

When I came back into the room Meg and Mark were lying on the bed I asked meg what she was doing in our bed she said "I'm not sleeping in that bed I'm sleeping here my bed is too hard" I sat on our bed and I thought it was hard then I lay on Megz bed and it was like a concrete slab.....lol...o.k so now I understand our bed was hard but megz's bed was worse so the three of us slept in the double bed that night.

We had dinner at there outdoor restaurant at first I thought I might skip dinner but I was hungry and its not like we could pop down to get takeaway so I braved it even Megan ate much to my surprise we had curry what else no western food here... the food was very tasty loved it hope I don't suffer the next day.

Megan ate and went back to the room Mark and I decided to go for a walk before it got too dark
we didn’t go fare we went back to the room and got ready for bed.

The Jail

The next morning I was up first I got dresses and went to go out the door and it wouldn't open hmmm...What the!! Have they locked us in.

Then I realized there was a bolt on the bottom of the door so I pulled it up but still the door wouldn't open hmmm.. o.k I shall wait.

Mark woke I told him I couldn't open the door he said that's because you have to unlock it there is a bolt at the top of the door o.k... so I didn't think to look and see if there was a bolt at the top of the door!!

I went down stairs to see if I could find someone I had decided my pants needed ironing so I asked if they had an iron I could use to iron my pants...I found the young man that had shown us to our room he said yes.

Only he would take them and have them ironed...hmmm...thinking about this if he takes them would they come back in time as we were leaving at 10:30am and it was 8am he assured me they would be back in time...o.k thank you.....after he had left I started to think maybe it was a bad idea so what if they are crease better creased than not having any pants at all.

While I was having this conversation with this young man the door to one of the other rooms opened first a man came out stood there for a minute looking at me then he went inside then a lady came out looked at me and went back inside then a young girl came out looked at me and went back inside then another young girl came out looked at me and went back inside then the man and one of the young girls came out and started walking in my direction then the young girl who was maybe about 14 started taking photo's of flowers.

As she was doing this there was a discussion going on between what I assume to be the mother father and two daughters when I had finished talking to the staff member about my pants the young girl and her father approached me and asked if she could have a photo with me so I obliged...now that was different! It's usual me asking to take a photo.

Building new accommodation across the creek

There was a knock at the door and when I opened it the man asked if we would like anything I asked for coffee so off he went and a while later came back with a flask of nice hot coffee....and by the way the food we ate was all good we had no reaction too it so all was good.

We were all packed ready to go and my pants had not come back yet Mark was going for a wonder and to take some photos so he was going to ask them about my pants.

A little while later Mark came back from his walk with my pants I was very relived I went inside to the bathroom went to put on my pants and there was a big hole in the crutch....lol.... o well lucky I had a long top that came to my knees so no problem.

When I was asked how the pants were I told them I was not happy my pants have come back with a big hole in them they didn’t charge us for ironing.

It was time to go an older gentleman came to collect our bag's he must off been in his 70s I was a little concerned when he came to collect our bags keeping in mind what the stairs were like and to carry heavy bags down as well...hmmm...how is this going to go I'm wondering.

Well there he is with two bags struggling down the stairs I thought he was going to fall and then it happened he took a little slip I was freaking out at the same time a younger man was yelling something and the older man stopped then he started off again he went down those stairs and was fine.

I only had my carry on bag going down the stairs and that was scary enough let alone the heavy bags this guy was taking.