Netsi and friends on a shopping tour

As I already wrote Netsi is taking classes on Bollywood dancing in our appartment complex. Now they decided to get the appropiate costumes, so they went on a shopping trip. On the picture you see Netsi,her friends and Arun, the cheroagrapher and coach. The lady besides Netsi is Sima, our neighbor. She is very nice and her husband and her invited us last week for a diner party. It was very traditional Indian, laides in one corner, men in another. The food was excellent and we met many very interesting people. Netsi later on told me that she had the impression I like the Indian style - Men with beer have a decent conversation being served by beautiful ladies - well no comment

  

Srirangapatnam

About 16 km outside of Mysore is the city of Srirangapatnam, which was in former times the home of Tipu Sultan. This Tipu Sultan was a colorfull personality, some call him the first freedom fighter of India, other call him a despote leader. It is worthwhile to read about his life in wikipedia , for example he was in close correspondence with Napoleon Bonaparte and he was the raw model for the uncle of Captain Nemo of Jules Verne.

Srirangapatnam was Tipu Sultans residence, there was huge fort, surrounded by 3 walls. It was also here were he 24 british soldier were imprisioned in a dungeon for more than 2 years under incrediable circumstance before they were freed by British troops. The picture shows the dungeon, which was totally dark in the 18th century. The canon in the middle is a french canon given to Tipu Sultan by Napoleon

After Tipu Sultan won 3 wars against the British he was finally defeated in Srirangapatnam because he was betrayed by one of his ministers. He left a gate open. By coincidence Tipu Sultan was just on his way from the mosque to his palace when the British troops came in. He was shot death and the little stone on the picture marks the place where he was found. &Hs death was alos the end of the wars because the Indian surrendered shortly afterwards. The Britains completely destroyed his fort and made the Hindu maharascha's of Mysore their Vasalln.

An interesting story one the side. Tipu Sultans sword was recently bought by one of the richest Indians, Vijay Mallja and brought back to India. Normally he would have to pay import taxes on this, but within a week the indian government passed a bill that the import of goods of national importance is tax free :-) You have to know that it is not unusal if a law needs 10 years to pass.

The Tomb of the Tiger of Mysore

After his death Tipu Sultan was burried next to his parents Hyder Ali and his mother in a tomb (in Indian called Gumbaz) close to his palace in Srirangapatnam. We had an excellent tour guide in Srirangapatnam - an older guy with an impressive knowledge about the history of the place. You can see him in the foreground of the picture. Today the 6th generation of Tipu Sultans descendant is very ppoor - living in Calcutaa, where the family of Tipu Sultan was banned by the British after the defeat. The doors of the Gumbaz were origianlly made out of teakwood and gold, but the British troops looted the place and took the gold. In the early 20th century the doors were then replaceed by doors made out of teakwood with ivory inlays.
 
 

Temple in Sriangapatnam

 
 
 
  

Always a treat: Mysore Palace and Market

 
 
 

 
 
 

Our Stay in Jungle Hut in Mudumalai Nat. Park

In the Mudumali national park we stayed at a place called Jungle Hut. This again was a recommendation from our neighbors in Bangalore and they knew the owners and there we go. The place itself is wonderful and highly recommendable. It is very clean, the rooms have aircon and the people there are very friendly, you are treated like family. Similar things can be said about the neighboring resort, called jungle resort and oeprated by the son of the owner of jungle hut. So we relaxed there the kids played in the pool and next morning we took on a jeep safari at 5 am in the morning. We spotted deers, antilopes, birds and a bison, but not elephants - we heard them but we have missed them by about 10 minutes, so our ranger told us. But anyway this is wilderness, so you can't expect to see all the animals, a portion of luck is involved as well. After teh ealry morning trip to the jungle our youngster was exhausted - he slept like a stone for 5 hours again Anyway we enjoyed the stay there a lot and we had a hard time leaving. On our way to Mysore we had to cross the entire National Pakr and there on the road we saw wild elephants, unfortunately in the distance so not worth taking a picture, but at least we saw them. 

 
 
 

Our stay in Ooty

Today we continued onwards to Ooty, one of the most famous hill stations in India. Netsi and I have been there almost 10 years back and - man Ooty has changed. Once a quite and easy going resort it has become a bubbleng and crowded city. There is now an amusement park on the lake and lots of people.
We just stayed a few hours. Since we had promised the kids a horse ride we used he time to do this. Netsi organized it but just before we went she said Thomas you have to accompany the children and so pretty quickly I was on a horseback as well - my first time!. In the beginning they took as through the city, in between honking buses and three wheelers and I just prayed the horses would be used to all the noise. But later we got in a forrest and quite area, and there it was really beautiful. We went for more than a hour, so it was our first horse trekking. As a treat we then had lunch in the guesthouse of the Firnhill palace, the palace itself is meanwhile renovated and so luxerious, you are not even allowed to enter if you are not a guest. So we had lunch at the guesthouse, where Netsi and I had stayed (and frozen) 10 years ago. Meanwhile this place is pretty randown, so we were happy not to stay there for the night. From there we went down to Mudumali National Park where we wanted to spent the night. Kubendran our driver took us down the old road, with 35 hairpin curves. The ladies in the back were quite sewating and happy when we arrvied at the bottom of the mountains

Train ride to Conoor

On friday morning we left our hotel in Coimbatore at 5:00 in the morning to reach Mettupalayam, the station where we caught the Nilgri Express. We had reserved tickets on first class and since there was only one cart in first class it was a wise decision. I was able to book the tickets through the Internet, &and they were delivered to me in the office, and sure enough in Mettupalayam we found our names on a printout outside the cart. The train is pushed by a steam engine and as one can see the operator is standing with bare feets on the coals. Travelling in India with a train is anyway an expereince but this train is even mor special.A steam engines pushes the train up and in addition it is partly a rack railway, meaning it uses gears. The first clas cart is also at the front end of the train, so you can even look forward and not be covreed in smoke.
The train ride take 3 1/2 hours for 25 km, so you can easily plug flowers during the ride. In adiditon we had four stops on the way, first for the engine to pick up water, as you can see on the picture and second to give the passengers and the operators a rest. The ride is really beautiful and I can highly recommend it. You have a wonderful view, you ride through vast lush tea plantages and jungles - it defintely was worth the effort.
 

 
 

In Conoor at the Wellington Golf Club

After arrvial in Conoor, a hill station about 2000m above sea level, a car picked us up an took us to the Wellington golf club, where we stayed. This was organized by my golf pro in Bangalore,
who knew the manager of the golf club in Conoor, because normally the cotaages there are reserved for millitary personell only. It is like always in India, personell relationships are highly valued and make almost everything possible. So we were the only civilians among hte officers of the Indian army, who had a cricket gme there. Obviously I used the time to play golf. First my brother in law Lulseged and myself had a practice round with a coach. It was the frist time Lulseged played golf and he later acknowledged - yes it is sport. The way you do it here is you hire two caddies. The one is placing the ball and giving hints on your swing, the second is collecting the balls and returning them to you - so no machine as in Germany, everything is handwork, like always in India. &The golf course itself is very hilly and very difficult, but wonderful from the landscape. It is surrounded by tea plantages and when I played in the early morning I even saw some wild bisons on the fairways. &During the time I played golf the rest of the family relaxed as you can see. We had our own caretaker, Thomas, which you see on the picture. Thomas has served 58 years! oin the golfclub, he started with ten years - unbelievable. He is a very nice fellow and we gave him an excellent tip.