Making the brochure
Another Christmas has sailed by, this time a bit warmer than our previous one.
Last year (2007) we had our first ever white Christmas, when we went skiing in Austria (at Zell-am-see). On this trip we made two new friends - Gareth & Roxy with whom who tore up the Austrian slopes.
But as Christmas time approached, Gareth and Roxy (who visited us recently in Hyderabad) sent us a very excited sms saying that the 4 of us made the Ski brochure for the next season.
Starring in a ski brochure!
Genuinely deserved affirmation that we enjoyed our skiing Christmas holiday to the maximum. This is an achievement which we are extremely proud of. We had so much fun that our snow adventures can be used as marketing material to entice others to tackle the same slopes.
You can download the full brochure here. We had an amazing time and we’ll definitely use Ski Leading Tours again! If you want to book them I recommend you work via Sure Travel Rendezvous, who has arranged not only two awesome ski trips, but numerous other amazing holidays.
Gareth & Roxy
We had a great time in Hyderabad with Gareth and Roxy. We managed to visit a view sites, and get in lots of shopping, and we also managed to strike a few “cords” on the guitar.
We also attended our friends Anne and David’s daughter (Aqira)’s birthday party. It was a festive and grand affair. We also had the privilege to pick up the birthday cake on the way. At the party there were Bollywood dancing, henna painting, food and lots to drink (i.e. the recipe for a fantastic bash!).
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Get the latest Flash Player to see this video.
We think Gareth & Roxy had a (severe) culture shock when they arrived in India (Delhi) and toured around before meeting up with us. Odds are we’ll meet up again on the ski slopes before another get together in India, but I’m sure they will agree that India is an experience and totally impossible to describe to someone - it is something to experience.
Our Northern experience
Before leaving for my extended stay in SA at the end of December, Theo decided to organise one more of his amazing trips for the two of us – probably also our last holiday as a carefree, childless couple.
We headed North, to where it is notably cooler this time of year (in Hyderabad they also talk of their “cold season” this time round, wear jerseys over their sarees etc., but we’re still waiting for the average daily temperature of 30 degrees C to drop a little further!).
Rajasthan - Jaipur
Our first stop was Jaipur in Rajasthan (next to the Thar Desert) – India’s first planned city (and indeed, most of the streets are parallel to each other!). Although quite dry and neglected (as most cities in India), we were pleasantly surprised by its high hills, covered with wild plants. It is also called the Pink City, as one of its rulers had all the buildings painted pink in 1853 to welcome the Prince of Wales who was about to visit.
This time we could only stay in Jaipur for two nights and had one day to admire the city’s colourful and creative handwork and architecture, which almost has an old-world charm to it – but we are planning to go back … We visited the Rambagh Palace – also called the “Jewel of Jaipur” and occupied by the Jaipur royal family until 1957, after which it was converted into a luxury hotel. We were shown the room of the prince, which his mother, the Maharani of Jaipur (who is still alive), had built especially for him. Theo and I were astounded by the sheer luxury, size, lavish furniture and huge crystal chandeliers (not to mention the stunning marble, gold and crystal bathroom), and were disappointed that we didn’t take our cameras along!
We’re fine
There were terrorist attacks in Mumbai last night where several people were killed.
One of the hotels attacked is the beautiful and historic Taj Mahal hotel.
(We were there less than a month ago with my parents).
We are currently in Agra at the actual Taj Mahal monument - very far from Mumbai.
So we are safe.
Moving Up, Monkey-gate & Miles apart …
We have mentioned our driver, Sajid, in earlier posts. Admittedly he is a less colourful character than the ever present Raju.
Marga and Raju’s interaction are the stuff of legends and if the creators of Madam & Eve (a very popular cartoon in SA) ever want to expand to India, then Madam & Raju have the makings of a super hit. (And within previous blogs are the potential script for the first month’s worth of cartoons).
As a huge fan of Madam & Eve I just couldn’t resist throwing in one of the cartoons in this blog:
Moving on up
The main purpose of the blog is to give an update on our driver Sajid, who seems to be making some progress and moving up in the world. He is a very pleasant person and a total “padvark” (road hog), which makes him the perfect driver here in India.
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From hawkers and stalkers to palm trees and beaches
The week before Theo’s parents headed back home, we gave them a glimpse of the fast life in Mumbai and ended it off with one of my favourite places in India so far: Goa.
The hawkers and stalkers at the Gateway of India in Mumbai again didn’t disappoint, and Theo and I had plenty of opportunity to practice a few Hindi one-liners Abdul, our Hindi teacher, had taught us to get rid of them. Unfortunately most of them were so intrigued by these caucasian beings uttering their language, instead of feeling offended, they clung to us, trying to get us to talk more Hindi!
Theo had a long conversion with one of the hawkers about the size of his balloons. A few of our colleagues have been caught out by these balloon salesmen. They carry very large, blown-up balloons, but often when a tourist buys a packet of these, they turn out to be normal-sized balloons. Given that the conversation with Theo was in Hindi, the salesman proudly displayed the packets of small balloons (which he admitted he normally gives to tourists) and the packets of larger balloons (which are significantly larger, even when not inflated) that he said we would be receiving! We weren’t in the market for balloons, though …
Boom!!!!
We just enjoyed/survived our first Diwali in Hyderabad, and boy what an audio-visual experience!
Firecrackers have been going off for 3 days and on Tuesday it really felt like living in Baghdad at the height of the aerial bombardments! It is really difficult to try and capture Diwali in pictures or video because it is a 360 degree, 3-dimensional, surround-sound experience.
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Floating in God’s own country
As I’m writing this it sounds like I writing from the middle of a war zone. It is Diwali over here and boy is it bright and loud! But we’ll leave that to another blog.
We have guests:
My parents are visiting India and we are touring and exploring India with them.
The Rocking Horse
The last 2 posts I have made were a bit devoid of emotion and our experiences. I tried to plaster them together with information and photographs, but even when I read them the author seemed very detached.
There is however a good explanation, which you will find a bit later in this blog.
South African flavours in Hyderabad
We had a wonderful week, with many “tastes” of home and other exciting things happening.
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A Date with Delhi
The good news is that both Marga and I are flu free at last … (and we really hope it lasts).
Apologies to all the Internet Explorer users - there was a bug that affected the ability to view older posts. Hopefully it is fixed now. If anyone encounters a problem, please let me know. And since we are talking about the blog - if you click on any of the pictures in the blog, a larger version of the picture will open (same as on the website), and now let the blog begin …
Marga and I were invited to attend the opening of the South African Business Forum in India in Delhi. We took the opportunity to extend our stay and to take in the sights and cultural nectar that Delhi has to offer.
We were really impressed by Delhi, especially the grand and impressive streets of New Delhi and the hi-tech shimmer of Gurgaon. Delhi is a city filled with history and New Delhi is the eighth city created in the Delhi area (“Old Delhi” is the seventh).
Other than exploring the sites, we also had the wonderful opportunity to speak Afrikaans to a lot of South Africans who attended the forum.
As usual we were welcomed by an odd-looking sign:
By now we were able to recognise it as our “personalised” welcoming the moment we saw it.
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Back with a bang
We’re back in India after a quick stop in SA.
We seem to have hit the ground running in Hyderabad – I had a whole 2 hours to rest before attending my first meeting of the day. Thereafter we had a nice full social calendar (to complement the normal chaos that awaits after you have taken some leave).
We attended the opening of an art gallery, a dinner hosted by our landlord and had VIP invitations to the opening of a new club (FireFly) in Hyderabad. So, for visitors who like the wilder side of life, we now have connections … (hint … hint …. Robert!)
We have taken in a few interesting sights in our daily lives, but have not had time to really wander around Hyderabad since we returned. Here is an interesting, but not uncommon sighting:
A normal vehicle for a family of 6:
Theo Scheffler