Living In The Tea Plantations Of Munnar

About Liz

Latest Posts

A Murder of Crows

IMG_2633

For all their jingoism and arrogance, I felt humbled by their intrepidness. We call ourselves travellers today, but catching a flight over to the other side of the world for a quick jaunt up to Machu Picchu, or a guided tour round a wildlife park, doesn’t compare to the terrifying adventure into the unknown these individuals must have endured for the sake of commerce.

4 Comments

The Kites of Kolkata

IMG_2549

As the sun began its rapid descent, the sky began to fill with black kites, some of them tiny specks a mile high. At first we took them to be of the raptor variety, but as we emerged from the undergrowth into wide grassland we saw a hundred boys and men wrestling with long twine stretching into the distance.

Leave a comment

We Meet The President: A Darap Village Homestay In Sikkim

Ever been to Shangri-la? We have. It’s alive and kicking in Sikkim. Almost anywhere in Sikkim, outside a large town or tourist area, will do. We found our lost horizon in Darap, near Pelling. Two hundred year old houses growing out of the side of the mountain in which tiny people and chickens share their home with you is not something that happens every day. An afternoon getting high on hooch in the Himalayas is something to remember.

Leave a comment

The Best View of Kanchenjunga: Gangtok and Pelling in Sikkim

Searching for the best view of India’s highest mountain took us to India’s Shangri-la. Relatively recently swept into the united states of India, Sikkim is like another country: we had to obtain permits to enter the ancient Kingdom of Sikkim.

2 Comments

Sleeping In A Dung House: Walking In Kalimpong

IMG_1846

Sitting on ankle-high stools we ate fresh pork straight from the flames of a dung oven, which we washed down with ‘Tongba’ and home made millet beer. After a few glasses of Rakshi this Arcadian village life became more and more attractive.

Leave a comment

Salty, Buttery Tea: A Trek in the Himalayas

IMG_6831

He knew he would never get out alive, so after twelve days he escaped, taking his mother and father with him. He didn’t know how many miles they walked over the mountains, but he told us it took two months to get here and build their first farm out of the local bamboo.

2 Comments

Do You Believe in the Big Bang Theory?

IMG_1494

The entire school was eager to meet us, so we made a point of visiting each of the tiny, cold classrooms. With saucer-eyes, they drank in everything we said. We played games, swapped stories, listened to them sing and watched long and intricate dances.

Leave a comment

Jamie’s First Exhibition, Wanderlust’s Pic Of The Month + New Photo Blog

Life Out Of Balance

Some great news about Jamie’s first photography exhibition. Four of his pieces are part of a group exhibition juxstaposing his African and Indian street photography with architecture and urban themes, showing at Urban Picnic in Saffron Walden, UK, which runs from now until December 8th. If you’re on the High Street in Walden please do pop in and offer your support. We left before it opened so we missed it, but we’d love to hear from you if you get a chance to view it. If you can’t see that, then you can get a regularly updated stream of his photographs via his new Photography Blog. Click the link for more details…

1 Comment

Boxed Blessings: A Buddhist Procession in Darjeeling

IMG_1420

“We watched the procession snake past the Dekeling for about half an hour. No sooner had one group of musicians receded with its attendant crowd of worshippers, than the next little band would arrive.” The next in our Himalaya trip where Liz gets all spiritual…

Leave a comment

Arrival at ‘The Queen of Hills’

IMG_1366-2

And they’re off! This is the introduction to our trek into the Himalayan foothills. “Cold and travel weary by 5pm, we stumbled across Joey’s pub… with its cosy bar, ramshackle tables and faded posters it felt immediately like home.” All that Buddhist culture and we end up in a pub. Typical. Lots of atmospheric photographs and an argument with an Indian tourist in this blog entry…

5 Comments

Unique Udaipur

IMG_0198

This is our final entry of our Rajathan trip, written by Octopussy…I mean Liz. Why Octopussy? Because we’re in Romantic Udaipur, where the rather kitch 1983 Bond movie was filmed. However, as Liz writes: “shunning the ‘antiques’, carpets, and tailoring being thrust at us we ended up by the water, watching the sun go down over Udaipur from the best viewpoint in town, in the company of professional photographers and the homeless.”

9 Comments

Sambhali Trust: Charity begins in a Rajput Home

“We teach them about their appearance, good dress sense. Most don’t know where Jodhpur is, or even that they live in Rajasthan. Their lives are simply this: get up, brew tea for Dad, do the dishes, clean the house, cook lunch, sleep, clean the household, make dinner, go to bed. Every single day of their lives. They have no weekends, no holidays. They are married at 15, and then have the exact same life with a husband who probably rapes and certainly beats them.” This is the account of one man’s mission to ‘empower’ disadvantaged women from Rajasthan, in a superb write-up by Liz that is packed with first-hand accounts, facts, sad stories and, ultimately, the positive action of the Sambhali Trust.

11 Comments

Fatehpur Sikri: City of Victory

IMG_8853

Cliché or no cliché, Akbar’s ‘City of Victory’ really does “rise majestically” from a barren rocky plateau. Referring back to my note book, before writing up this visit, I found a string of exclamations: “The scale! Location and position! Extraordinary! Fabulously well-maintained! Power! More palace than fort!” An extraordinary place…

1 Comment

Finalist in the Bradt/Independent on Sunday Travel Writing Comp

UTC225

“…We all liked your entry – an interesting and atmospheric piece of writing… you should be very proud of yourself – there were a lot of good entries this year. The six finalists now go forward to Matthew Parris to select the final winner, so who knows who that will be. Meanwhile crack open the champagne!” Hilary Bradt. Wow! Very excited to have reached the final of this prestigious award. All six pieces are available to read right now on-line, so have a look and, if you feel like it, do leave some feedback.

12 Comments