Good Times in New Orleans

I was here over Halloween and the entire French Quarter turned into a giant street party. Definitely the highlight of my visit.

Quick Tips:

My tip for New Orleans? Do not underestimate the power of a hang grenade or hurricane!

Best Way To Get Around:

If you're staying anywhere in the French Quarter, everything is within walking distance. I travelled in by bus, which were straightforward and frequent.

Whether you enjoy your stay at India House depends on what you look for in a hostel. As far as facilities go, the rooms in the main house are spacious--it's an old house with very high ceilings. There are two bathrooms; the one upstairs leaks, and the one downstairs doesn't have a lock on the door. The kitchen is fairly large; some mornings, breakfast is available, if you're lucky--I waited an hour for mine, reminded the cook twice, and by the time he remembered, he'd run out of ingredients.

There are a couple of common rooms, including a huge TV and video. Outdoors in the courtyard, there are several picnic tables, another set of toilets and showers for the bunks in the cabins, and a swimming pool. Sadly, and contrary to the website, the alligators are no more.

The building is pretty run-down--plaster flakes from the ceiling kept falling down in my room. But the walls are covered in colorful murals and it's all part of the atmosphere here. Despite the slight grimness, it's a great place to stay. India House is really relaxed and friendly and I had a good time here. If you're looking for an experience rather than just a place to sleep, I'd reccommend staying here.

Cafe Du Monde is one of the French Quarter's traditions and well worth a visit. It sits on a corner midway along Decatur Street, and here you can have a New Orleans specialty--cafe au lait (milky coffee with chicory) and a plate piled with warm beignets (fresh fried donuts covered in powdered sugar). It only costs a few dollars, and you can sit outside in the covered courtyard and listen to the buskers playing jazz.

NB: The beignets are very tasty, but tend to explode powdered suger when you bite into them.

Gumbo is another of New Orleans's traditional foods--it's like a spicy stew with rice. The Gumbo Shop, which is actually a restaurant, seemed an obvious place to try it.

The service was prompt--possibly a little too much so, as you got the feeling they were trying to whisk as many customers through the doors as possible. I had the chicken gumbo which was tasty but a little watery. I think the Gumbo Shop is possibly oriented towards pulling tourists in, but the food was still tasty and not too expensive.

As anyone will tell you, New Orleans is a jazz town and Preservation Hall is a great place to hear the old standards.

It's literally just a hall--there is no bar, toilets, chairs, or even a stage. Get in early if you can, and sit down on the floor in front of the musicians, but avoid sitting in front of the trombonist and/or saxophonist unless you like saliva dripping on you.

Several bands play during the evening and your ticket is good for the whole night, so you can nip out to get a drink between sets. Still, you won't be allowed back in once the next band starts playing--you'll have to wait until the next interval.

All the bands I saw were fabulous and played all the old jazz favourites--'Sunny Side of the Street' and 'Hello Dolly'--and some bands will play requests for tips.

This tour was arranged through the hostel and was one of the cheapest tours around at $35. We were picked up and then drove for about an hour to get to the swamp, which gave us a chance to see a bit more of the countryside around New Orleans.

The boat seated about 20 people, so was small enough for everyone to get a good view, and we chugged around the swamp for about an hour and a half. Our guide was pretty informative, telling us about the swamp and its inhabitants, and pointing out film locations as well. He laid on the N'awlins Cajun persona fairly thick, but it was part of the fun. And as he just narrowly saved us from crashing into another boat, I'm not going to criticize him too much. The swamp itself is eerie and beautiful . . . skeins of Spanish moss hanging off half-submerged trees.

My one disappointment was we didn't see any alligators in the swamp--apparently they'd been kept away by the recent hurricane flooding. However, when we got back to the base, one of the guides showed us his baby alligator--so cute, and we were allowed to stroke him.

The Louisiana State Museum is housed in the Cabildo next to Jackson Square, and I found it surprisingly fascinating. The buidling itself has played its part in the history of New Orleans, making the exhibits themselves especially evocative, since some of the events they depict actually took place here.

The museum begins with the original inhabitants of the area and what life was like for the first settlers, using everyday objects to bring it to life. The exhibits follows the history of New Orleans as it became a city and the changes it experienced under Spanish, French, and English rule.

Most interesting are the cultural-history displays detailing old New Orleans society, from dueling to the quadroon balls to mourning rituals. The museum also has Napoleon's death mask.

The Mardi Gras museum is housed in the Presbytere next to Jackson Square, details the history and practice of Mardi Gras, and includes everything from posters of the first Mardi Gras to recent parade costumes. It explains the various practices involved--like how the krewes put together the floats--and illustrates it all with music, videos, and colourful memorabilia.

The place is a bit of a maze and you may turn a corner and discover a 10-foot figurehead leering at you or find a dress made of diamonds--it's all quite fantastic and you'll end up wanting to experience Mardi Gras for yourself. At the end of the exhibits you get to experience some of the fun by trying on costumes and having your photograph taken in them.

N.B. I wandered around this musuem with a hangover. I do not recommended doing this as the bright lights, bright colours, and loud music are not good.

The Jazz Museum is housed in the old Royal Mint building down near the French Market. The museum isn't very big and does its best to trace the history of New Orleans jazz from its beginnings through its contemporary output. It has lots of photos and memorabilia, but if you don't know the music already, you probably won't be able to fully appreciate all of it.

When I visited, the museum also had a Matisse exhibition on in a side wing. I'm not quite sure of the connection to jazz, but the exhibit illustrated Matisse's later work with cutouts.

Halloween is one of the big celebrations in America and especially in New Orleans, the city that like to dress up and party. There are numerous Halloween parties--Anne Rice's Monsters Ball among them.

The French Quarter itself turns into a huge street party. The roads are packed with people overflowing from the bars dressed in all manner of weird and wonderful costumes, or in some cases nothing much at all. Anyone in normal dress is definitely in the minority. The streets are filled with people; at times it's difficult to walk, and if your group gets split up, don't expect to find them again.

We saw a music parade march through the crowd and joined the people dancing behind them; for a while, we were part of the entertainment and found a way through the masses.

It was a fantastic night--everyone in costume, everyone partying. It's an amazing atmosphere and, I think, one of the best places to be at Halloween.

The Natchez is one of the paddleboats that offer cruises along the Mississippi River. If you go to the river wharf by the back of Decatur Street, you can buy the tickets and board the ship. The cruise takes you along the flat bends of the Mississippi River.

It's a very tranquil few hours on a warm, sunny day. If you like, you can go down to the dining room, have a drink, and listen to the live jazz band. It's all very pleasant and a nice chill-out option--not particularly exciting, though, as the landscape is flat and rather dull.

The French Market is at the end of Decatur Street. It's a large covered market and a good place to get cheap souvenirs, especially on Saturday when there are even more stalls.

It has all the usual souvenir stuff--T-shirts, voodoo dolls, stuffed alligator heads, beads--but at cheaper prices than the souvenir shops. It also has some surprisingly good and original craft stalls that don't just sell the usual tat, but also silver jewelry at bargain prices.

There's a food market nearby where you can get all the usual New Orleans hot sauces and spices at cheaper prices than in the shops. Theres are also fresh fruit and vegetable stalls.

There are two main cemeteries visited by tourists in New Orleans; this is one of them. I visited Lafayette Cemetery with a few friends and it was actually closed, but we squeezed through a gap in the railings (to the consternation of a tour group who just stood and watched us).

We wandered on around the avenue of white tombs by ourselves--it is a spooky experience. The tombs are set out in rows and are mostly taller than you. You wander down one row alone, and you don't know who else is around. Although there are still recent burials in Lafayette, a lot of the tombs are run-down and neglected, adding to the atmosphere. To make it even more perfect, we came across a black cat, sunning itself on one of the graves.

There are actually two voodoo musuems in the French Quarter, and entrance to one gives you free entry to the other.

We went to the voodoo museum on Dumaine Street first. It's not very big at all--only a couple of rooms and a corridor and jam-packed with dolls' pictures, altars, and offerings of the voodoo religion, including Blanche, a huge white python used in the ceremonies. There are a few information boards around that detail aspects of voodoo, but no coherent explanation. In a way, this makes the displays of strange jumbles of religious symbols and gaudy trinkets even more compelling.

The voodoo museum off Decatur Street is more modern. In the airy room downstairs, there's a video about contemporary voodoo practice (and comfortable sofas). Upstairs, there's another collection of voodoo paraphernalia. The displays of bones, crosses, and ribbons still aren't explained, but that seems to be intrinsically voodoo--strange juxtapositions that combine and produce some sort of power.

We met the tour group at the Royal Coffee Shop at about 10 o'clock and had time for a coffee (I reccomend the bagels and cheese here) before our group set off. Sporting our tour-group stickers, our guide led us along to St. Louis Cemetery, pointing out historic buildings, etc., along the way.

At the cemetery, we were one of several groups around--so it felt like you were hearing the information in stereo, as we caught echoes of the the other tour guides speaking. We were led around the cemetery, the guide pointing out various tombs to illustrate her narrative, including the (alleged) tomb of Marie Laveau with its attendant offerings. The guide was informative and interesting, and I appreciated the cemetery a lot more once I understood the customs behind it. On the other hand, visiting the cemetery in a tour group rather kills the atmosphere.

Our next stop was a visit to a voodoo temple and a chat with the voodoo priestess there. The temple was a series of rooms, crowded with the usual altars and artifacts--colorful and strange. The priestess explained to us how she felt her life had led her to this point and how she helped people. She invited questions from our group and seemed a nice and very happy woman. It was an interesting tour, and worth doing I think. You could go to all these places by yourself, but without someone to explain the history and meaning, you would miss out on a lot.

New Orleans is the city for partying, and Bourbon Street is where everyone goes--to start off. It's full of cheap booze, cheesy clubs and bars, strip joints, drunks vomiting in the gutter, and any number of men and women flashing for beads. Cats Meow is a popular bar and has live music, sometimes good (it also has a webcam if you want to wave home to Mum). Look out for happy hour in bars like Utopia, where it's usual to get three drinks for the price of one.

But there are other places to go in the French Quarter. Pat O's is a large bar/restaurant near Preservation Hall. It serves good, reasonably priced Hurricanes (New Orleans cocktail) and has a special-effect fire fountain. Hand grenades are the other New Orleans cocktail to try--be warned, they are pretty lethal.

If you want something a bit more alternative, try Decatur Street. Walk towards the French Market end past the tacky souvenir shops and drink places for the more interesting bars. If you're into rock/alternative music, I reccomend the Whirling Dervish, a bar towards the end of Decatur Street. Another interesting club where they play anything from '80s to punk is Shim Sham, with a confusing second floor that doesn’t go anywhere.

NB: In New Orleans, you can carry your drink from bar to bar as long as it's in a carry-out cup. So buy your drink at one of the cheap "To Go" places before going into a bar. And remember to bring your ID, as you will be asked for it even in New Orleans.

The French Quarter has a range of shops, from little individual one-off stores to the usual big department names.

The shops in the main streets vary from tourist tack to art galleries, mostly depending on location. Royal Street has mainly upmarket shops--expensive (but lovely) dress stores, carefully crafted masks, beautiful jewelry stores, Civil War armaments.

At the other end of the scale is Decatur Street, with the usual souvenir shops of beads, T-shirts, and voodoo dolls. There's also a small shopping mall with a Virgin Megastore attached. (The food court upstairs isn't that great, but you can eat your snack on the outside balcony by the Mississippi River.) Walk on down Decatur Street and you'll come to the French Market, a good place to shop for cheap souvenirs. The shops at this end are more alternative, with some great clothes shops if you're looking for something different. Gargoyles has some fantastic outfits and has three outlets selling clothes, shoes, and leather.

Check out the side streets in the Quarter as well for a range of shops from Harley Davidson to authentic voodoo charms (allegedly) to one-of-a-kind corsetry. If you long for the usual brand-name retailers instead, wander down to the Riverside shopping mall near the aquarium. It has all the regular names--Gap, Abercrombie and Fitch, etc., but with the added bonus, this being New Orleans, of being able to get a cocktail in the food court.

There's another shopping mall, more expensive, near the beginning of Decatur. The main store is Saks and the other shops are correspondingly more upmarket, with a small cinema attached on an upper level.