November 29th, 2008
South India has a multitude of beautiful things to buy. The region produces fabulous textiles including the famous Kanchipuram silk. It’s also known for woodcarving, especially sandalwood, and various forms of metalwork. Fort Cochin in Kerala has one of India’s foremost antique bazaars. Orissa has a wide selection of handicrafts. Some of the best devotional kitsch in the world is available from temple bazaars.
Every town has a bazaar, and big cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai have many bazaars that seem to merge into each other. Bazaars are like a world apart, with specialist areas set aside for particular goods (shoes, saris, jewellery etc).
For the traveller, bazaars are more about looking than shopping. Here you’ll see acres of unbelievable plastic kitsch alongside fine silks and cottons as well as mountains of cooking implements. In many towns Tibetans have set up their temporary bazaars of woollen clothing. These are especially popular around the hill stations. In all the tourist centres, Kashmiri vendors sell nearly identical wares of carpets, sandalwood elephants and lurid batik and tie-dyed cloth. Much of it is mass-produced and tacky, but if you persist they often have better stuff stored away. Pilgrimage towns have shops selling religious artifacts to Indian tourists, including beads, statues, ash paste and amazingly bright posters. The food stalls present an olfactory as well as a visual delight.
Official emporiums can be found in major cities and usually stock a large range of local crafts. Prices are fixed and are a little higher than you would pay in the bazaar, but for novices who don’t know the going rates for crafts or who are inexperienced in judging quality, the emporiums are a reasonably safe bet.
Be careful when buying items that include delivery to Australia. You may be told that the price includes home delivery and all customs and handling charges. Sometimes this is not the case, and you may find yourself having to collect the item yourself from your main port or airport, pay customs charges (which could be as much as 20% of the item’s value) as well as handling charges levied by the airline or shipping company (up to 10% of the value). If you can’t collect the item promptly, or get someone to do it on your behalf, exorbitant storage charges may also apply.
Metalwork
Bidriware is a craft named after the town of Bidri in northern Karnataka where silver is inlaid into gunmetal. Hookah pipes, lamp bases and jewellery boxes are made in this manner. Bidri employs the technique of sand-casting. Skilled artisans make a mould from sand, resin and oil and then pour in the molten metal.
Small bronze figures of various Indian Gods are available in Tamil Nadu, especially in and around major temple towns. The bronze makers still employ the centuries’ old lost-wax method of casting, a legacy of the Chola period when bronze sculpture reached its peak in skill and artistry.
A wax figure is made, a mould is formed around it and the wax is melted and poured out. The molten metal is poured in and when it’s solidified the mould is broken open. Figures of Shiva as Lord of the Dance, Nataraja, are among the most popular. Small copper bowls, cigarette boxes and paan containers are still handmade in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Bell metal lamps are a good buy in Thrissur (Kerala).
Jewellery
South India’s most important jewellery-making centres are Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty and Thanjavur. Hyderabad is a major centre for cultured pearls. Cuttack in Orissa is a centre for delicate silver filigree jewellery andornaments. Tirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu is a centre for many types of jewellery, particularly large chunky pieces. South Indian jewellery is generally distinguished from that made in the north by its use of motifs inspired by nature -lotus buds, flowers, grass stalks and in Kerala. birds.
Woodwork
Mysore (Karnataka) is South India’s main centre of sandalwood carving, and while sandalwood was once reserved for carving deities, these days all manner of things are made, from solid pieces of furniture to keyrings and ornate fans. Rosewood is used for making furniture and carving animals. Carved elephants are a speciality of Kerala.
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November 29th, 2008
Thirty million years ago, before Britain was an island, the Thames river was a small branch of the Rhine. By A.D. 50 it had changed course and it gave Britain its capital after the invading Roman armies established Londinium as a port at the highest point of the tide. (it now reaches farther inland due to rising sea levels and the fact that Britain is sinking into the sea at a rate of 15 centimeters every 100 years.)
The Romans consolidated the river as an international port (trade with the Continent had started in the Bronze Age), constructing mills, wharves, and bridges. The iconic London Bridge was the first water crossing, lined with houses and shops; it has been replaced several times, most recently in the 1960s when the previous one was taken apart and shipped to the USA. There are now 14 bridges in central London, the most recent being the Golden Jubilee footbridges built in 2002.
About 100km (60 miles) from the sea, the Thames becomes tidal, flowing “the wrong way” toward its source twice a day as the sea pushes up the estuary. As the tide falls, the riverbed is disclosed, and in the mud and slush you can discover fascinating clues to London’s past, including clay tobacco pipes and pottery fragments.
The Thames was most splendid under the Tudors and Stuarts, when the river-loving Kings and Queens lived in lovely waterside residences at Hampton Court, Kew, Richmond, Whitehall, and Greenwich, using the waters as a “royal highway.” Fittingly, the Thames saw many monarchs’ final journeys in the form of stately funeral ceremonies, including that of Elizabeth I in 1605, and that of Henry VIII in 1547. Its said that during the overnight stop at Syon House his coffin came apart and dogs licked at his body.
Today you can travel the same waters on passenger ferries or tourist vessels from Westminster upriver to Hampton Court via Richmond and Kew, or downriver to the glittering stainless-steel Thames Barrier via Greenwich. Alternatively, you can walk all or part of the Thames Path from the river’s source at Thames Head down to the Thames Barrier, or meander along the South Bank with its riverside attractions, restaurants, pubs, and shopping malls. (Note that a walk along the Embankment on the other side can be frustrating for little kids because of its high walls.)
When you’re on the Thames, try to picture in your mind’s eye the Lord Mayor’s processions that took place from the 15th century to the middle of the 19th, in barges covered with gold leaf, some rowed with silver oars. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Frost Fairs were held on the river during winter freezes, complete with fairground amusements and stalls, performing clowns, and ox roasts.
Today, The Mayor’s Thames Festival is a fantastic family-oriented celebration of the Thames, including the transformation of part of the shore on the South Bank into a temporary urban beach. The river also hosts a variety of annual regattas, including the famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
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October 31st, 2008
A short drive south of Brisbane is the Gold Coast, stretching for about 35 kilometres along the subtropical coast to the New South Wales border. With its many theme parks, entertainment venues, and surf-washed sandy beaches edged with high-rise holiday apartments it is the gateway to instant leisure.
Just north of Brisbane Iies the Sunshine Coast: Caloundra, Maroochydore, and Noosa Heads beckon with kilometres of golden sands and surf.
North of the Sunshine Coast is Hervey Bay, which has long been a popular holiday spot with locals, but in recent times has become the base for a fleet of boats carrying large numbers of visitors to watch whales off nearby Fraser Island.
The largest sand island on Earth and World Heritage Listed, Fraser Island attracts thousands of visitors annually who come to experience the beauty of its sub-tropical rainforests, freshwater lakes, and dunes that rise to heights of around 230 metres; others come for the great beach fishing. At the northern end of the island lies the Great Sandy National Park.
In the hills behind the Sunshine Coast the town of Nambour is surrounded by pineapple farms and is home to `The Big Pineapple’, a tourist attraction set on a pineapple farm. Some of the best scenery in this area is around Maleny, where there are wonderful views over the Glasshouse Mountains - a series of old volcanic plugs that rear over forests and farmlands. Named by Captain Cook in 1770, their strange shapes standing on the horizon were a reminder of the glass furnaces of industrial Yorkshire.
For nature-lovers and bush walkers, it is often a relief to leave the clamour of the coastal resorts and escape to the quiet wilderness of the hinterland’s national parks. Mount Tamborine, close to Brisbane, has some small but delightful parks. One of them, Witches Falls, was Queensland’s first national park in 1908; at that time, forestry officials declared it to be ‘unfit for any other purpose’.
The most popular park in Queensland is Lamington National Park, situated close to the New South Wales border. Edged with escarpments rising to 900 metres, the park protects an outstanding area of undisturbed rainforest on the Lamington Plateau, on the south side of the Scenic Rim - the crescent of mountains lying behind Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The park has the oldest stands of Antarctic Beech trees in the southern Hemisphere.
Another notable park on the border is Springbrook National Park. The Natural Bridge and waterfall, one of the park’s main features, lies close to the Numinbah Valley road; higher up in the park, near the village of Springbrook, the Best Of All Lookout offers aerial-like views over the ranges.
The capital of Queensland, Brisbane is built around the busiest commercial river in Australia, the Brisbane River. One of the best views of the river with a backdrop of the central business district is from a small park at Kangaroo Point. Further upstream there are more good views of the city from the South Bank Parklands, situated on the southern banks of the river. A ‘must’ for visitors to Brisbane, the 16 hectares of parks and tropical gardens feature restaurants and cafes, weekend markets and entertainers and an artificial beach.
Nearby, on the same side of the river, is the Queensland Cultural Centre, which incorporates the performing arts complex, the State Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Queensland Art Gallery.
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October 31st, 2008
The southern approach to Brisbane presents a striking picture: rounding a bend on the Pacific Motorway you see weatherboard stilt houses with red tin rooves on leafy hills, with the thrusting towers of the Central Business District (CBD) beyond.
Crossing Captain Cook Bridge, you catch glimpses of the serpentine Brisbane River, bordered by skyscrapers on one side and lush parkland on the other. It’s hard to believe that, only a few decades ago, this impressive waterway was polluted and neglected. Today’s sparkling river is at the hub of city life and is the pride of Brisbane inhabitants.
It serves as an aquatic highway for ferries connecting riverside suburbs and is the focal point for festivals and celebrations. The motorway follows the river’s edge, swooping above the bank and through luxuriant mangroves — an unexpected sight deep in the heart of Australia’s third-largest city.
Nearly half of Queensland’s population of four million lives within Brisbane’s statistical boundaries — a sprawling 4,700 sq. km (1,800 sq. miles) — one of the reasons why the city’s reputation as the “world’s biggest country town” lingered for so long. Brisbane is the third largest city in the world after Tokyo and Los Angeles and has a budget larger than the state of Tasmania.
The catalysts for change were the 1982 Commonwealth Games and the Expo ‘88 which put Brisbane on the cultural map. These games were a catlyst for the introduction of fast and clean electric trains, late night trading and city malls. Inevitably, something of the city’s laid-back character has been lost in transition from sleepy backwater to cosmopolitan hub.
The new Queenslander may wear board shorts but, in business, he or she is as hard-nosed as anyone from Sydney or Melbourne. More than likely, the new Queenslander is from Sydney or Melbourne. Yet there remains some truth to the old saying: “In Melbourne they ask what school you went to, in Sydney, they ask how much you earn, in Brisbane they ask if you’d like a beer.”
Rough edges remain, but there’s a new sophistication, as evidenced by a healthy restaurant culture and the number of people able to spout knowledgeably about wine. Add Brisbane’s hip young generation to the mix and you have a sassy, confident city.
Young people no longer feel the imperative to leave. This, plus a surge of interstate migration, has caused Brisbane’s population growth to outpace that of every other Australian capital. This fast growth has caused it’s own problems including water shortages, traffic jams and rocketing property prices.
The climate —subtropical summers and mild, sunny winters has undoubtedly played a part but the reasons for Brisbane’s rise are many and complex.
Brisbane’s recognition of the value of its architectural heritage came too late to save many iconic buildings destroyed during the development frenzy of the 1980s. Still, enough historic architecture remains to show what used to be. Many of the city’s distinguished colonial-style residences were wrenched from their stumps in leafy Ascot or Hamilton and relocated, iron-lace and all, to exclusive outer suburbs like Brookfield and Pullenvale.
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