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Do you remember the parcel? It arrived on 19th! Efficiency at last!

Update and a problem

Walking on the last day I asked these guys to pose for me as they stopped to chat in the middle of a small road.

 We stopped at Lila's cafe for lunch and I remembered to take a photo of my smoked kingfish before tucking in!

We got chatting to some young people and here is their situation.

He is Hindu and on a limited income. She is Christian, well educated and comfortably off. They love each other. Both fathers are deceased. Seven years ago they secretly married in a registry office. 

She is headstrong and apparently independent. He is more reserved and traditional. Their families forced them to separate and cancelled the marriage. They are forbidden to see each other by emotional blackmail. Her mother has a heart problem and if she causes stress and her mother dies then it will be her fault. 

To suit his mother she would have to become Hindu and be a traditional wife.  His family is arranging a suitable marriage for him. Her family is doing the same for her. She met her new suitor a few times then cancelled the wedding because she still loves her Hindu boyfriend. They still meet secretly. She is threatening to go abroad if he gets married to another. 

What a dilemma. Any suggestions Jenny in Oz?

Birding

As we approach the end of our holiday I went out with Vijay to find some birds in nearby Arpora woods.

He had arranged to meet up with Raymond, local taxi driver and owner of a telescope. He is a good birder and he had 3 English people with him. 

First he found Indian pitta which is very hard to see in the dry season but easy in the monsoon. This was why we met at 7 am.

Then, a first for me, an Indian yellow tit with lovely crest. On  the track we had great views of golden fronted and Jerdon's leaf birds, white browed fantail and ....great excitement...pair of Indian pied hornbills.

It was a very successful morning birding with a total of 25 species in two hours 

Back at the apartment the electricity is off all day while the workmen improve the connections by digging up the road. We hauled the washing out of the machine and wrung it out manually. Then the apartment owners dropped in for a final check and farewell.

We are off to the pool and then to Taj holiday village to meet friends from Ireland. 

Sunday and Monday

In the evening we took the bus from the hotel to Baga beach. Someone recommended Cafe del Mar as clean and having good food. It is a three storey open structure with no walls. The view of the beach and setting sun is marvellous and we enjoyed the cooling sea breeze.

I ordered Goan fish curry and helen had prawns. We chatted to a young man serving and he announced he was from Nepal. He had left his farming family after he fell off a tractor and suffered head injuries. He had been studying at his local college but decided to travel once he recovered. 

His father, who is a lowly farmer, cannot read or write. His parents urgently want him to return and take over the fields.  He wants to be a mountaineering guide to Everest base camp.  He has been a porter but is more ambitious for himself. 

Anyway the food was tasty and we ate and watched the sun set on the Arabian Sea. 

Today is Monday and I had arranged to meet friends from Ireland and do a spot of birding with them. Vijay drove us to Siolim where the rice was almost knee high. We couldn't see so many birds therefore but had good views of shrike, pied kingfisher, asian openbill stork  and quite a few others. At Siolim Sodiem we had great views of an orange minivet. This was a first for vijay. 

Back to the apartment for another afternoon of relaxing by the pool.  We are just deciding where to dine and how to do online check in and whether we need to go to an Internet cafe to print out boarding cards. 

Saturday

 I did the rounds of the village last night. Firstly I ordered a delicious takeaway of king prawn masala. While it was being prepared I went down the road to buy limes for  lime soda. It's perfect for a hot day.  On my way back I was spotted by Umesh. He is looking so much better now that he is a family man. His new wife must be a good cook.

Anyway he offered me a lift on his scooter which I gladly accepted.

Back at the ranch Helen was really suffering with spasmodic coughing fits which never seemed to end.  We discussed the symptoms and some possible diagnoses and I urged her to see a doctor soon, since we are travelling home in five days. Then we discovered that the phone was out of credit....  Back down to the village to get an instant top up.

I booked Vijay to take me birding early to Succorro plateau.

Sis found a doctor, recommended by Umesh. Today we went to Dr Dukle's clinic by taxi. I went straight to the reception desk and said I thought her heart was bad, because heart failure was one possibility. 

We were taken straight into the emergency room ahead of a European man with a broken arm and a European woman with a bad cough.  The locals were sitting in another area waiting to see the doctor individually. The emergency room had two nurses and another woman who took the payments after patients are treated.

The doctor managed to see a patient in his office plus 3 in the emergency room simultaneously. He listened to sister's chest and said it was unlikely to be a heart problem. He diagnosed bronchitis and gave her a prescription for various medicines which she bought in the adjoining chemists.

Green bee eater

How to post a parcel 2

So by now you should have the following:

Your parcel with labels inside and stitched into cotton securely.

A photocopy of your passport and visa.

A customs declaration form describing the goods and value.

On the back of this please write the To and From addresses.

Go to the post office and stand at the desk. Get sent to another desk to have your parcel weighed. Meanwhile someone else is dealt with at the original desk.

Return to first desk and wait till customer is served. Then get sent back to second desk to complete customs form for THIS post office. Another customer is dealt with while you are away. Multi tasking is a way of keeping all customers happy while they are standing in a queue. It happens in all settings, including the phone shop where 3 people deal with 8 customers simultaneously. 

Finally you are ready to proceed. Pay £25 for 3kg via Speedpost. This is airmail and includes tracking number. We might arrive back in UK at the same time as the parcel.

Ps...it's easy when you know how!

How to post a parcel from India

Wrap your items in a strong bag - preferably an old concrete sack picked up at the river and washed.

Don't forget to include name of sender with address and phone number inside.

Take parcel to local tailor to have it stitched into white cotton.

Write your name, address, and phone number on outside. Also address of sender, also with phone number. Write the contents description and value on the cotton as well.

Take it to the post office in Mapusa. Don't mind standing in a queue for one hour because everyone is very patient.

When you finally get to the counter don't be surprised when you are instructed to hand over two copies of your passport and to fill in two copies of customs declaration form. Of course you didn't bring your passport so you must return and try again. 

March assertively behind the counter and go straight to the Postmaster where you advise him to put up a poster explaining the parcel-posting regulations to foreigners. He will politely agree to your request, "of course Madam". 

In your determination to get this done in one day you will ask the tuk tuk driver to wait till you collect your passport. Your sister will be utterly exhausted and will go home to lie down. 

Off you will go with the tuk tuk driver to a closer post office at Calangute. 

Delighted to find that this post office is almost empty you will think "Hooray ...this will be done quickly.."

When asking at the desk the clerk will say brusquely, there is no post today, there is a strike, come back tomorrow! 

And anyway you need to get passport photocopies. The shop is just up there on the left. The tuk tuk driver and you will go to find the shop but it is closed.  Off you may go to Myron, the phone shop, and get your 4 copies for 20 rupees (20p). You will know which one is your tuk tuk because he has a bunch of green chillies and a lemon decorating the front of his machine. 

Go back home and lie down for a rest and try again tomorrow.

Hindu festival

Tonight the streets were filled with the loudest music you could imagine coming from a Cart with about 8 huge trumpet speakers and a uniformed band playing drums and cymbals. 

The lights along the road were lit in celebration.  A palanquin containing the female deity was carried by smartly dressed men who stopped at various shops and restaurants along the road to have food blessed.  Bhoumika is on a five day tour of 

the neighbourhood and each night she sleeps in a different local temple. She will eventually return to the mother temple. 

The food is placed in front of her for a moment or two, in order to be blessed,  then retrieved and taken home. Sweetmeats are handed out along the way to bystanders. 

A sour old Englishman complained that this would cause even more traffic jams!

I had Tasty Goan fish curry tonight with rice and curd. 

Update

Helen is under the weather with a bad cold picked up in North India. 

We walked along the river past the hotels in the morning and then wandered on down the road towards the Anjuna road. We couldn't pass a large supermarket called Orchard Stores and had our eyes opened. The shelves contained a wide range of goods and this is where the long term, sun wizened hippies do their shopping. Dreadlocks on one white guy, tight clothes on an ancient European mama and skintight leggings, showing all, on a younger version! 

It was after 1 when we returned to the apartment and very warm.

Later Kamal collected us for dinner and she drove us to her house in Assagao. It is a three storey house built 8 years ago in the Portuguese Goan style with shaded verandahs and cool marbled floors. On the top floor is a small seated area overlooking the treetops.

Kamals daughter and husband arrived with their 4 month old baby, Also a tiny indo-Canadian  girl, who is a musician, and a French woman with her musician boyfriend and baby. We sat outside in the dark, after the mosquitos had gone, with a bright, waxing moon and Orion visible above us.

The conversation flowed firstly around Sikhism and then politics. The new AAP party, against corruption, recently gained control of the New Delhi area (a powerful win) and rescinded many of the controls and structures set up between the World Bank and the strategically muscular Indian energy company which controls the other two parties. 

Sunny, the musician boyfriend sings Sufi songs of his own creation. One song he sang was about the Indus River dolphin which is threatened because there are so many dams along the upper Indus. He is a trained medical doctor but prefers music and, hopefully, politics.

Kamal provided us with a delicious meal of kebab, paneer and spinach, dal, curd, prawns, cauliflower, chappatti and rice served with wine or beer. This was followed by fresh cream cakes. 

We were glad to flop into bed at 11:30. 

Cotton fair

We read the paper which announces events in the locality and spotted an all India cotton exhibition in Pamjim, the capital. Took a taxi and arrived before the crowds. There were about 100 stalls selling colourful bed sheets, rugs, shalwar kameez materials from Rajasthan and Bihar, embroidered shawls from Kashmir, hand crafted arty jewellery made from jute, and the same again repeated.......

I nearly bought some sheets to be converted to curtains but he didn't have enough of the same colour. They aren't like our sheets but printed with a colourful broad surrounding border and a printed pattern in the centre.

Everything is carefully laid out in neat piles but the vendors have no hesitation in pulling many items from their packaging and spreading them out by billowing them in the air. No one is cross if you don't buy.  I bought some cotton dhurries. 

This man below was selling saris from the Punjab. His white skull cap indicates that he has been to Mecca.

Relaxing in the sun

We haven't done very much since returning to tropical Goa.  Been to mapusa  to buy vegetables and to Calangute to get our photos taken for future visas. Came back and lounged at the pool for a bit. Later we visited Colette and Steve who own a two storey, two bed roomed house overlooking the marsh. 

Not much to report except that Helen ordered some new mattresses.

Travelling Bharatpur to Goa

We rose at 5 and left at 6:30. Not much to say about the long drive except that the driving is very dodgy. No lane discipline. You can overtake anywhere there is a space...even where there isn't a space! Outside, inside it doesn't matter as long as you use horn to let the driver in front know you are there. Taxis,  heavily laden lorries, jam packed buses, tuk tuks seating up to 16 passengers, motor bikes, bicycles, occasional camels pulling carts, cars decorated with garlands carrying newly weds (February is a good month for weddings), bullocks, dogs, puppies, peacocks, antelope, monkeys and pedestrians are all using the road.   Driving is very stressful but no one seems to lose their temper.

We were all exhausted so there wasn't much chat. It began raining and the driver brought our luggage off the roof and into the car. 

Do not ever try to rush in Delhi as the traffic is impossible. There is a metro which might have speeded up the journey except that it goes to the city centre only. To be investigated.  

It is a pleasure to be back in Goa where the driving seems quite civilised!!  

Thursday we shopped in Mapusa: collected glasses from optician, bought tomatoes and fruit, baby clothes for Umesh's brand new baby and some back up blood pressure tablets. 

Last day at Bharatpur

Last night we went to a wedding ceremony. Lots of trumpets, whooping, clapping and drum banging for the resplendent groom sitting in his gilded coach pulled by a horse. Members of his family young and old danced in front of the coach and the musicians kept up the drumming and playing.  It was  very much in slow motion as the carriage moved about 5 feet in 30 minutes.

Helen was welcomed by the groom's brother in law to join in the dancing.

It seems the more the merrier. People were throwing money for good luck. 

There was no sign of the bride as we entered a tunnel of fabric and lights which opened out to a football pitch sized field. Around three sides were stalls offering paan, vegetable curries, chicken of different kinds and fizzy drinks. Tables were placed around for informal dining.  We were each offered a tall throw-away clay cup with masala chai and almonds. Very sweet but delicious. In fact we were invited to eat as well but declined since we'd just had dinner. 

At the far end was a stage with seating for bride, groom and parents. The bride was due to arrive about 9:30pm. Rows of seats were set out for friends and family to watch the ceremony. The wedding ceremony, and associated ritual, was expected to last well into the early hours of the morning. The bride and groom are from wealthy families...politicians, landowners, business men. They both live, and work in high powered jobs, in Australia. 

We returned to the park for a final session and the main interest was a glimpse of a black bittern skulking under  a dark, thick tangle of branches reaching over the water. 

 The sad news is that the long tailed nightjar is no more. It was eaten by a jackal. It is such easy prey for any animal with a sense of smell as it roosts on the ground thinking it is invisible. 

Three were some good views of booted eagle, Egyptian vulture, owls and a crested hawk eagle but many of the small birds were hiding from the sun.

We gave Manoj the latest field guide to Indian Birds and he was delighted because he was hoping to purchase it. If you want a calm, quiet, observant, knowledgeable guide in North India he is a good choice.  His name is Manoj Sharma, wildlife escort, naturalist, ornithologist. Manojmudghal@gmail.com mobile 9414376521 or 8387943470 . He will also hire a car and driver for you. He lives in Bharatpur. 

Our hotel is Udai Vilas Palace and is near Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary.  It's used by tour companies. 

Leaving at 6:30 am for long drive to New Delhi.

🎶 All my bags are packed, I'm  ready to go, I'm  standing here right by the door.... 🎶. 

Mumtaj Mahal

.....Along the road in he morning we saw  many milk carriers delivering milk to the city.

Helen spoke to an English tour guide at the hotel last night and he gave her a contact number to book a proper guide. If you are interested phone Ashok +91 9639 854279. Or if you want an interesting north india approved tourist guide with a History degree and fluent English contact Anshul Jain anshuljain15@yahoo.com

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built by Emperor Shah Jehan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaj. The other two wives are buried elsewhere in the grounds but their graves are inaccessible now, unlike in 1975. 

Inside the tomb has changed over 40 years. Firstly there are far more people,  being shepherded by a security man blowing a whistle and it was quite noisy. It's not very fitting for a mausoleum where there should be hushed voices. Last time I walked in the actual tomb ( I think) but now visitors are restricted to a duplicate set of tombs inlaid with cornelian, coral, malachite, lapis lazuli and turquoise. We later watched a demonstration by skilled craftsmen making intricate flowers using the same techniques. 

Visitors come from all over India. We saw Kasmiris wrapped in pashminas, a family from South India and spotted these two from North East India near the Burmese border. Their home town is Meghalaya, North of Kolkatta and East of Nepal. They have government jobs preventing the locals from clearing forest by teaching them how to improve land productivity instead. Their faces bear characteristics of Burmese/Assam/Chinese people. They proudly wore their waistcoats and head scarves showing off their origins.  In case you are wondering about the footwear.....we were all wearing them to keep the marble clean. 

You are not permitted to sell here. 

It was a very successful visit and the weather was lovely...fog cleared by 10 am.

Two happy customers.

Smog covers Gangetic Plain

Does anyone remember the yellow smog of the fifties and early sixties? 

That is what Delhi is like now and the pollution has affected the whole plain from east to west.

This is the 3rd morning of thick fog which doesn't lift till nearly midday. We've read about the pollution problem caused by temperature inversion and thousands of standby diesel generators plus diesel mobile phone masts, not to mention traffic and wood burning fires.

It really is a major problem because North India is cold and without heat people will die. The government is giving a subsidised cash payment towards 12 gas cylinders per year per family, in Delhi and Mumbai, for cleaner cooking. On the open market a 14 kg cylinder costs £10 but now it can be bought for £6. ...as long as you have a bank account. The scheme is to prevent black market hikes in price. 

Today's birding in the park was foggy and miserable this morning. These guys agree....

I wasn't so well disposed towards the monkeys when a male came straight up to me and grabbed my bag. It was over my head and shoulder so he didn't get it but left dirty paw marks as a reminder to be cautious. We heard that the monkeys regularly grab cameras off tourists, glance at them and then drop them in the water.

By 11:30 the sun was fighting off the fog and shortly after we enjoyed warm sunshine. 

A male Red breasted flycatcher posed, as did a grey headed canary flycatcher. 

 

Tomorrow we are off to Agra with the driver.

 

Another long walk at Bharatpur

This reserve is really special. It has so many different habitats covering 25 square miles. Wetland, woodland, dry desert, savannah. Turn off the main drag full of rickshaws, horse and cart and  golf buggies and you leave all the day trippers behind. We walked today over the dry savannah and saw no one for 4hours. 

If you are a birder it's well worth a visit. Saw red avadavit, 5 types of raptors at least including greater and lesser spotted eagle,oriental honey buzzard, bonellis eagle, and others I can't recall.

Yellow bittern