The First Leg

Mysore and Hampi

tjs — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 04:39:00 GMT

Mysore has a very famous Majaraja's palace that was actually designed by a British architect. It's supposed to be over the top. It was. Its still in good shape since its just barely 100 years old. The one it replaced burned so this one is made of stone and iron. Many of the really colorful, elegant, multistory halls are help up by thin iron columns made to look like wood. In some ways it reminds me of Beaux Art buldings but is a classic Indo-Islamic building. There are sculptures in stone everywhere and all of the wood doors are intricately carved. Unfortunately they don't allow cameras. The audio tour that comes with the foreigner's ticket was frustrating in a couple of the museums there because things were just out of order or numbers were missing altogether. Then i got blamed for breaking the headphones when I said the headphones were broken. There just isn't a sense of customer service here unless you are in a clothing or jewelry store where there are 5 or 6 people trying to help you buy something when all you want to do is just look at something. The museums were interesting for there regal paraphernalia and outrageous furniture like carved wooden peacock chairs.

After the Palace I spend the afternoon in the Bazaar where I photographed as man flower merchants as I could in between be husled by Patchouili salesmen and kids trying to get me to come to there incense making shop and take a picture. The only other big thing I did was go to a temple up on a hill overlooking town. I've seen so many temples it really hard for me to get excited by anything.

So I took a night train to Hampi, the ruined capitol city of the Vijayanagar kings. It was destroyed by a league of 4 sultans in the 16th century. It's huge (64 square miles). Temples and buildings range from the 7th century right up to the 16th. There are small temples just everywhere. The landscape is stark with hug round volcanic boulders strewn everywhere and coconut and banana treed as rice paddies dotting the valleys like oases. There is a sacred center with many temples including the major one called Vittela or the muscial temple because many of the small pillars will ring is slapped. Then there is a royal center with palace ruins. Some things still stand there like the Queen's Lotus Palace and the Royal Elephant stables. The area must be prone to earthquakes because the construction doesn't look very tight on most of the remaining buildings especially the mandapans or pillared halls.

I spend the first day just wondering around the ruins near the area I was staying called Hampi Bazaar. The Bazaar was one of the 7 bazaars of the city, this one supposedly was the center of gold and diamond trading. This is also part of the sacred city where the major temples are. To one side of the bazaar a small tourist town has sprung up and then been partiall bulldozed. It's an annoying little town with rickshaw drivers constantly asking if you want a rickshaw ever 10 or 20 feet. The next day I took a bicycle tours of some of the royal center. It was a very hot bike ride. Most of the things we saw were pretty cool with some of them amazing. For one complex we had to buy a ticket, again foreigner's tickets cost 10 times more than for Indians. The ticket was good for the musical temple as well so after the bike tour I got some bananas for lunch and sat for a while before trekking the 3 km to the other temple. The walk was beautiful as was the temple. On the way back i walked along the river and found a little temple partially in the river. I watched the sunset from here. It was so beautiful and peaceful came back the next night for sunset after exploring some temples and a little town on the opposite side of the river. On my last day there I finally succumbed to the guesthouse owner who also owned a rickshaw. He'd cornered me a couple of times trying to get me to go on a tour with him. It got very annoying. However, that morning I went on a rickshaw tour of some of the buildings out at the periphery of the site that I'd missed. Most of them were worth seeing but as is usual I paid too much for the rickshaw. One of the temples was dedicated to Rama and is believed to be where Rama and Hanuman lived to wait out some horrible event. There was also a shrine to Hanuman where I met a priest who was getting ready to go on stage to chant for several hours (continuous chanting at this temple). He walked up to me and asked if I had a cigarette. When i didn't have one, he showed me around instead and gave me a blessing in the Hanuman temple with an orange dot on my forehead. Whenever you are blessed you must pay a token to the priest for it - it's still a little strange to me. I forgot all about the orange dot on my head until a waiter reminded my and then I noticed people were staring oddly at me at the train station when I went to leave Hampi for Goa. Thank god I still had some toilet paper to wipe if off with. People stopped staring.

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Kerala

tjs — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 02:42:00 GMT

Since I'm so far behind in blogging as well as in traveling. I'm going to lump some things together. The state of Kerala in Southern India is a small state anyway. The hill town Munnar, with all the tea is also in Kerala so it was only a 5 hour bus ride to the town of Allepey and the famous backwaters - a river system with canals added to it to so people could get around from village to village. I this is where people go on backwather cruises and stay on houseboats that look like rice barges overnight. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to afford an overnight cruise since they are easily a couple hundred dollars. However I stayed in a guesthouse my first night that had its own houseboat and connected groups of people together to go so the cost could be split. Out of nowhere the next morning, I was connected with a couple of retired German school teachers who had the boat the next night but were looking for another person. I've hung out with a lot of retired European school teachers on this trip. To get to the boat we had to go to the guesthouse out in the backwater and spend the night. It was very peaceful. We mostly just took pictures and got acquainted. One was a German and art teacher and the other taught chemistry and biology. They had just retired the week before coming to India. They were both women. We had a really nice canoe trip that evening that evening which was probably the highlight of the whole cruise for all of us. We were really close to the water, birds and villagers. Dusk brought a little bit of mist so it had a very serene atmosphere tinged with the orange from sunset. After was dinner, where retired Danish teacher joined us. She was fun. She was an English teacher and brought some rum with here so we talked about all kinds of things. She was from Elsinore! She offered to let me stay if I ever made it to Elsinore, but I've lost her email address. The cruise started at noon the next day. The owner had spent 2 years making the boat by hand using traditional methods so it looked very authentic. We started out with lunch after only a little cruising. There was lots of food. Once we got going again we noticed we were in a traffic jam of these boats, hundreds of them make their way out of the backwater and into a bay - which is not where we wanted to go. We looked at each other and said, we could have done this part at home in Puget Sound or the Baltic. Finally we got back to the canals for a few hours and parked for the night. We arranged another canoe trip and went into some smaller canals. There were so many birds - lots of kingfishers. Dinner was again a lot of food, and we had the cheap version of the cruise with a 5 course dinner. We talked a lot and watched the last of sunset and the river. We didn't get alcohol with the cheap version. The German/art teacher was also a buddhist so we spent a couple of hours talking about what brought us to that decisions. I really like these two teachers. Morning was somewhat abrupt as we had breakfast and had to be off the boat by 9 am. So I took the 8 hours water taxi from Allepey to Kolom to try and get more water time. I was done at about 6 hours.

The entire reason to go to Kolom was to go to the Munroe Island tour where you go on smaller backwaters on a remote island to see how villagers live. It was actually really good. There was cuir making (coconut fiber product - it was here I discovered that all those really hard beds I'd been sleeping on were stuffed with coconut fiber) and spices and a lot of prawn farming in large ponds. The town of Kolom itself wasn't all that so the next day I went to the beach town Varkkala. It was ok and even the barkers were laid back but it was very much a tourists town overlooking the ocean. Tons of yoga and ayervedic massages. I passed. On those. I came because there was suppose to be a temple festival. The next day there was one. I made friends with an Indian guy who worked for a start up energy company in the US. He still lived in India though. He was and interesting guy who had just started to experience being on his own after a divorce. He had never traveled alone. Everything was new. We talked about economics, politics, social structures. He as a bright guy. The next day we made it to the temple festival with 20 elephants walking around town in procession. They were decked out in red cloth and gold plates. Between them were dancers and characters from mythology and drummers. The drummers had a lot of energy and made everything very festive. We both really enjoyed it and had a nice celebratory dinner of local fish and beer.

The next day I went to Kerala's capitol Trivandrum. Just for a day. I saw the Zoo. Lots of animals I'm not use to seeing but the birds and tigers were in small cages with lots of mesh so it was hard to see. The tigers didn't look happy. They cried and paced or just lay there. I made it to the old palace and the temple even though I wasn't even allowed up the stairs here and Indian men had to take off all western cloths and put on traditional garb to get in. There were army guards at the temple entrance which I later found out was because the amount of treasure in the temple vaults had recently been leaked to the public (the leaker mysteriously died) and it turns out it may be the richest temple in India. Of course it all belongs to the royal family since the temple itself is owned by the royal family - this in a communist state!

I backtracked up Kerala to Kochi to stay with the family of a friend from work. They were incredibly kind and welcoming and fed me lots of home cooked food. They helped me get around town and took me to dinner and showed me how they cooked. If was very comforting. I spent one day in the old town of Fort Kochi where the Portuguese and Dutch had forts to control the spice trade. I went to Jew Town were a 500 year old synagogue was still standing. There are only 70 jews left though - most have gone to Israel. There were Chinese fishing nets brought by Chinese merchants several centuries ago. There seems to have been a lot of far east Asia influence here as the architecture has curved pointed roofs that I think of seeing in China and Thailand. There was an interesting arts show called the bienalle, that occurs every two years. It shows Indian artists and brings in some international ones. It was interesting to see the mix. There was even a piece by Yoko Ono (it was a pile of postcards siting on a pedestal for people to take and use; first done back in the 60s). The best part of the day was seeing the traditional Kathakali dance used to tell mythology in temples. It has outrageous costumes, big makeup, over the top facial expression and music. Usually the dances go all night in temples but this was just an hour. After that I stayed for a sitar music. I've always loved sitar since I first heard it in Beatle's songs and enjoy ragas. I had to listen to sitar if I came to India. The next day I scored big with some duct tape. It took 2 weeks of looking and searching the internet. Once I found an address in Kochi it still took me an entire morning of asking for it because google maps was a little off and the company had changed it's name but neglected to change their online info - typical! I tried doing a little shopping other than that but I really just hate shopping. So I went home and took a nap until people got home from work. We had dinner and then I was told all kinds of tales of what it was like as Indian doctors working in Saudi Arabia.

After a couple of days I headed north to the Wyanad Wildlife Reserve to see elephants in the wild. I stayed in small town called Kalpetta. You can only get a 1 hour jeep safari because they don't take people too far into the reserve anymore. Apparently the elephants have killed a couple of people and something about a tiger killing a couple of people last year - whatever! The earliest I could get to the reserve was 9 am so things had already started to warm up and I worried about seeing any animals. There were a few white tailed and samber deer and a peacock over the first 20 minutes or so. I was starting to get disappointed. That was only reinforced when the jeep driver started pointing out termite mounds - admittedly they were 6 foot tall mounds but still. Finally around a corner we saw elephants off in the brush about 100 feet away. The guide said there was 7 including a baby. I only saw 3 and maybe something that could have been a baby. Trip made. The only thing we saw after that were some tracks the guide said was a tiger and its cub and had been made maybe 30 minutes prior. I was sceptical but took a picture of the smaller track near me so I could compare later. Once we got back to the paved road I thought all was over, but then they spotted something lying in the middle of the road. It was this huge red and black squirrel with blood coming out of its mouth. It was a Malabar squirrel and they had to stop and call it in. Its body was almost 2 feet and the tail added another 1.5 to 2 feet. We had to wait until someone came and got it. So I got to play ranger.

After the wildlife sanctuary I went to a town called Sultan Batheri because a Sultan used to keep a battery of artillery there. I really liked this little town. I went shopping at the local Hyper Market which was a small department store and had all kinds of stuff from spices and hair products to dishes and cookware and a grocery store. It was kind of cool. After shopping I finally found a bus that would take me to some nearby caves with 3000 year old petroglyphs. The ride into the country was beautiful with banana and coffee plantations. The bus driver told me the last entry was at 4 pm. I ran up the hill to the gate about 1 km and made it by 4 to be told that I couldn't enter because the last entry was at 4 and the ticket office was another 25 minute walk up the hill so I couldn't go past the gate. I almost lost it because I'd just taken the bus and fun up the hill to get to the entrance by the stated time to be told that the stated time is not actually the stated time. Again, sometimes Indian logic makes no sense. The guy was turning away Indians as well, so it was not just me. He just didn't seem to see the problem with the rules as stated. I started being really annoyed and aggressive asking about how to take a damn bus back to the town. Apparently I mispronounced it so he tried to correct me. I just turn around and yelled who cares and walked off. A rickshaw driver suggested I go to a museum nearby instead. Why not? Finally a museum that understood how to light object so you can actually see them instead of no light or everything covered in glare. Still no real context for the items being presented but baby steps, baby steps.

I was leaving the next day for Mysore, but that morning I wanted to see more plantations after my trip through the countryside to the caves. The desk clerk told me to just go walking out this road. It was one big coffee plantation. I tasted my first coffee fruit - general fruit flavor but nice. Lots of pictures. After I wanted more so I went to the tourist office and they said take a bus out this other road and go to Swami's Estate. They put me on a bus and had the conductor let me off where in needed to go. There was a sign at the toad saying Swami's Estate. No other information and no arrows. I wondered around for a couple of hours down the road and through some coffee trees until one of the people i ask could do more than just point. This was at the house of a retired deputy police director for the town, K Jonny. All that was listed on the gate outside. They invited me in and gave me something to drink and a fruit I'd never heard of (it was the only thing the monkeys wouldn't eat in the garden). They showed me pictures of their kids. One was a neurosurgeon so they loved that I was a neuroscientist. He was also a writer and was just having a book publish about how is family's coffee estate was mostly submerged when a nearby damn was built. His wife kept taking lots of picture of me - a little unnerving. They were very nice and sincere people. After a couple of hours they gave me a ride back to town to catch my bus. Just before leaving he wrote his email in my notebook but insisted he use his pen, a fountain pen he used to write his first published short story 23 years ago.

Hill Towns

tjs — Mon, 9 Mar 2015 21:17:00 GMT

Having reached my threshold of Southern Indian cities, I headed off to the mountain where I stayed first in Kodaikanal and then in Munnar. I really wasn't sure what to expect when I got to Kodaikanal. The bus arrives in the center of town in the middle of a tourist district complete with a lake and Indian couples paddle boating on it. I thought it was going to be more of what I was trying to escape in the city. However my cheap hostel was a km away from the lake. I walked. The tourist center started to fade and was replaced by countryside. It was dark so that's all I could tell. I checked in, got some dinner back in town and went to bed. The next morning found that the hostel itself was on the edge of a cliff with amazing views of the mountains and plains below. I took a lot of pictures. After hanging out just looking at the view for a while I rented a bike and when on a ride to the nearby village of Vakkanal. It was supposed to be a nice alternative to the tourist center. It was lovely ride and Vakkanal was a small place but it was an Israeli backpacker stronghold. I think Israelis out numbered locals. I did have some really good middle eastern food at one of the restaurants. I ran into a group of French I'd met earlier at the hostel. The woman with the best English told me she had once done a 2.5 year around the world trip. Her suggestion was to have a project to come back to when you are done. Otherwise, coming back is the hardest part. Hopefully, if grants come through I will have a project.

Back at the hostel that afternoon, I noticed someone drawing so asked him how it was going, pointing to the drawing. He just shrugged and we started talking. He had first been in India 20 years ago to plant trees in Auroville. He feel in love with Kodaikonal and stayed in the same room he was in now for a month. His wife came out and joined us. They were an English couple in their 50s from Sussex. In talking about India and me complaining about the barkers in the cities I was escaping, he offered that he thought more greed had come to India and that was creating a new caste; He knew brahmin teachers who had become rickshaw drivers because they could make more money. Sounds familiar. Before leaving for dinner I mentioned to the couple, Dave and Tracy, that I was going to stay another day. He said "careful, that's how it starts." At dinner I ran into the into the group of French from the hostel and Varkkanal again - it can be a very small tourist world sometimes.

I ran into Dave and Tracy again in the morning. They had moved rooms because of overbooking. We chatted again for a long time over coffee (they had a kitchen in the new room) They were nurses. He had just quite his job but she had taken a 3 month leave of absence for this trip. We talked a lot about healthcare. They told me that the Health Service in Britain is slowly being dismantled in favor of private insurance. We also talked about different travels. They were a fun couple. After I did very little but look at the view until about noon when the mist rolled in and blocked everything. I did get some internet banking and reading done. Mostly I just tried to relax and figure out the next few days. I went to a Tibetan restaurant Dave had recommended and and had momos for the first time - yummy.

The next day it was off to another hill town called Munnar that was surrounded by tea plantations. It was a really long 9 hour bus ride with one transfer. We basically came down one mountain and then went back up another. As we got closer to the town, the tea began blanketing the mountains in beautiful striped pattern of deep green. Trees grew dispersed throughout the fields. I thought they had something to do with the ecology of the tea but no they were just silver oak grown for wood. By the time I made it to town in was dark and had a hell of a time trying to find the hotel that had a room but wouldn't reserve it for me - nobody I called had rooms in my price range. It was here I started to realized that every little thing tourists do costs money. To go for a two or three hour walk in the tea with a guide would cost half of my daily budget. I asked the hotel manager to recommend a cheap guide. He was very much a happy, love, yoga, mediation local who still admitted that yes foreigners have dollar signs on their foreheads. He said I could just go walking out past the hospital and I'd be surrounded by tea. So that's what I did. I just walked up the trails and through the tea trees for a couple of hours before I was busted. I came upon a bunch of woman carrying baskets of tea leaves on there heads down the trails and their supervisor was in front. He looked at me and said "No tourist area!" I just asked if I could go back the way I came and he seemed ok with that. I don't think he wanted to deal with the whole problem. So I head off kind of in the same direction but took a turn to get to the tea museum. I was kind of a minimal museum - they had some stuff left over from the last hundred years so they put it in a building. The phone exchange was kind of cool but the typewriters not so much. They processing demo was interesting to watch as tea was aged, chopped, sifted and dried. The guide lecture was not so much about how tea is made but about how tea does all kinds of great wonderful things like lowers blood sugar and stress and has vitamins blah blah blah. The white tourists were mostly annoyed but the Indian tourists loved it. I think I learned a bit about Indian story telling and rhetoric and why we in the west find it so hard to get anything out of. I was staying in town, which was a nice little place. I got my pants mended at a tailor and bought some bath soap. For dinner I went to a place recommended by my guide book (don't buy lonely planet anymore, it's now aimed at Brits on Holiday not the individual backpacking traveller it used to be for). The place was fine but to get there I had to go to the other side of the river which was like the other side of the tracks. Here a new town was being built with gleaming white, new hotels complete with glass and marble lobbies. They are all filled with Indian tourists. I didn't like it at all. When I left the next day for Allepey, I saw lots more of these resorts out in the tea fields. The guy next to me was an engineering student at the local college. He said the resorts starting to show up about 5 years ago and they keep coming. He was a nice kid I enjoyed talking to. This is why I take public transit and do things on the cheap. Otherwise you totally miss talking to the people who live there.

temple towns

tjs — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 02:47:00 GMT

From Pondicherry I swung down through central Tamil Nadu to see several ancient Hindu temples. First stop was the town of Kumbakonam with a couple of UNESCO designated temples. The first temple, Gangaikondacholapuram (3 weeks later I can finally pronounce this name), was a 30 km bus ride out into the countryside. The town there is more than a crossroads but not more than a couple hundred feet through. Too the side of town rises a five story, stepped tower curving in and up from a fortified courtyard. Inside the first gopuram (entry tower) a giant sculpture of Vishnu's bull Nandi sits between you and the temple. The temple begins with a long, enclosed hall before you reach the tower so that the whole building looks like a church without trancept. Inside the hall are rows of columns you walk through by the tiny amount of sunlight that comes in though a few small windows. Shrines are scattered throughout the hall with small statues of deities shining from oil and wreathed in flowers. At the end is a vestibule where Brahmins stand before the entrance to the main shrine to Vishnu, represented by a linga (lingum) or sacred phallus. Only the Brahmins are allowed to go into the shrine. Even though the temple is about 1400 years old, people still come to worship and receive blessings or darshan from the priests. I watched people getting their little smears of ash and red pigment on their forehead for a while. I'd seen it before and had it done to me once, but I still can't say I understand what is behind all of the movements and symbols. Outside, the bright late morning sun gave the stone some great contrast for photos. I sat and did a drawing. Drawing always made me an attractions for kids. As in Mahallabapuram, they would come up and watch and then ask me where I was from and what my name was. A few would always want pictures with me. It was a fun way to interact with them. With the busses it took about 6 hours to visit Gongaikondacholapuram (now it's just a fun word to throw around). Luckily the other temple was just on the outskirts of town. This one was small and intimate with some great sculptures. I walked in and was immediately yelled at by one of the workmen who were cleaning the temple because I had not taken my shoes off. Everywhere Indians come up to me and ask me where I'm from. At this temple there were two Indian guys and me. When I said that I was from Seattle, one said "me too, I work at Amazon." Jesus, even here I can't get away from Amazon.

The next town was Thanjavur (Tangore). It too had a UNESCO temple. This one was build by the King Rajaraja I while Gongaikondacholapuram was built by Rajaraja II. They were very similar except for the curve of the tower. The stone was granite but reminded me of the limestone. The tower actually reminded me of Versailles because lines and color. Tangore is still a big city so there were lots of Western and Indian tourists. At night this one was lite up so I stayed until pretty late. I'd also gone to the palace earlier in the day, but it wasn't all that great. However there was a library from the Nayak kings and then Sultans that had a lot of Western books starting in the 17th century which was intersting. I wanted to see the temple in morning light so I stayed one more night and the next afternoon left for the city of Trichy (the name is just too long and nobody uses the entire thing).

I hated Trichy. The bellhop started begging me for American money because he had a wife and kids before I could even unpack. He insisted on doing things I didn't want him to do so I'd give him tips. He said he would bring me coffee at 8 and maybe then I'd have American dollars (like fives or tens, he said). Then what might be the biggest temple in india was completely under scaffolding so they could replaster and repaint. Then I got hassled by one of the ticket guards for being a single man and for having a cellphone camera and not paying the camera fee while the ticket agent was just waving me on. Kids would come up begging for money, saying "pen pen" which meant they wanted ten rupees. I was just done with being constantly hassled and listening to the constant honking (everyone just constantly honks because nobody follows and rules and just goes all of the road to get around people). I got up early and took a 7:30 train to Madurai. I don't know if the bellhop ever brought the coffee or not.

Madurai was also a little difficult but the sites were pretty good. I got hit with the same scam 3 times in 3 hours. I guy would start talking to me and then suddenly he was a tailor who's family had a shop. Let me show you the way to the temple, we can go by our shop. I was trying to remember not to smile, which was becoming easier because I was starting to just be angry all the time. However, this Nayak palace was pretty amazing with huge columns 60 feet high and 10 feet around leading into graceful Islamic arches and painted ceilings where it was open to the sky. This was the grand reception hall. Everywhere there were sculptures of lions like the ones from temples. The Temple of Meenakshi Amman was mixed. Cameras where not allowed along with a bunch of other things because they were afraid of terrorism because of a hoax bomb . I got yelled at one point because I didn't have a Foreigner ticket (the only temple that had needed a ticket) when there had been nobody around to sell me the ticket after I had been patted down by security. I started to yell back at the ticket guy and he tried to make nice. Then it happened again on the other side of the temple. Again, they starting on on "oh, sorry sir." Don't yell at the tourists you are trying to make money off of! Inside there were many gopuram (towers) and arcades with shrines with people praying. There was a nice holding tank which is a resevoire for pilgrims to bath in. Lots of great sculptures. And a temple elephant. However, I need a break from the cities so I decided I'd head to the mountains.

The next couple of Places

tjs — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 21:30:00 GMT

Except for the ancient temples and carvings, Mahallapuram is an awful little tourist trap of a town. I've since heard someone refer to it as Backpackerpuram. There is an entire section of town that is just backpackers and all of the people trying to sell things and services to them. The area around the bus stand caters to locals and Indian tourists. I'm surprised by how many Indian tourists there are. The temples carved out of rock and the relief carvings are pretty amazing though. The area was used for carving in the 7th and 8th century by the Chola Empire. It is thought there was a school of carving and that is why there are so many unfinished works. There are three major sites. The first has a lot of unfinished temples carved from caves with stone added to them. There is one major piece called "The Penance of Arjuna". Arjuna is the human lead in the Bagavad Gita. It is a relief painting about 30 feet tall by 60 feet wide. There are gods, people, big elephants and some cats. Down the center was at one time a fountain symbolizing the Ganges. It's been filled in with other sculptures since then. After that is the Five Rathas (chariots, even thought they look nothing like chariots. They are temples dedicated to the Pandava brothers and their one wife from the Bagavad Gita (Arjuna was one of the brothers). Each one of these say 20 by 20 foot temples was carved from a single boulder or outcropping. The big draw is the Seashore Temple. Having the sea and sky as a backdrop really makes it eye popping. It perhaps 3 stories high with many, many carvings. The carvings have weathered to become suggestions of what they were - it reminded me of Gaudi's "La Sacrada Familia".

Headed to Pondicherry the next day. I still can't believe it was a French colony until the 50's. The coffee was good. It wasn't exactly like real French coffee but some of the best I've had in India. I stayed in something that called itself and Ashram but it was focused on social justice, education and environmental issues. They did a lot with the commune Auroville just outside of town. It's a failed hippie experiment in many ways but they are still trying. Everyone said I should go but I just didn't see the need. I spent a lot of time in the old colonial center. Most of the buildings are old colonial ones which haven't been kept up very well. There is a big park I hung out in on Sunday afternoon watching Indian families stroll and play. I really have come to like the food and love trying out new restaurants - some from the guide book and some that look to be locals only. I find the locals only places are usually much better - and I don't see any Westerners in them. The place I was staying was just outside of the colonial center in a little residential area with lots of brightly colored houses all packed together with lots of kids playing in the streets. It was fun to watch them. They all loved to say "Hi" to me and ask where I was from if they could. I don't think I will be posting more pictures here because this site has a really difficult photo loading process. If you want to see pics they are on Instagram and Facebook

Day 4 Channai: I think it's time to move on.

tjs — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 20:24:00 GMT

And I thought Naples was crazy. Somehow it hasn't frazzled my nerves yet; I'm pretty calm walking through a sea of people, cars, tuk-tuks, dogs, and some kind of shit (sometimes dog, sometimes not) and garbage (the rivers smell like garbage dumbs). However, people have been very nice for the language barrier there is. I find it odd that everything is written in Tamil and English, many times only English, but almost nobody speaks more than a few sentences and most only a few words. This is really the first travel where I don't know at least a few basic phrases of the other language. Smiles help a lot after I initiate contact - but I will take to heart the advice don't just smile willy-nilly at people or it will cost you money. A guy at Kapaleeshwara Temple walked up to me and started right in with "need a tour guide, of course you do, let's start with this shrine, put the ash on your forward for good luck..." When he started to bug me about a large donation to the temple to help feed the homeless from the 2004 sunami, a donation that he would have to take into the inner temple because non-Hindus are not allowed, I realized I had been taken. He wouldn't let me walk away but insisted I finish the tour. At the end he wanted $20, which is a full day's budget for me. I said no and walked away and out of the temple. He followed angrily all the way out to the tuk-tuk waiting for me (also a scam to get me to go to shopping at certain stores - I did buy a lovely shirt - I like to get all the mistakes out of the way on the first day). I offered 100 rupee as the value of his tour. He was furious so to shut him up I gave him 200 and he stepped back from the tuk-tuk so we could leave. And then the scamming tuk-tuk driver said "never trust guides at the temple. If you want guide ask me." Thankfully, I'm not as jet lagged now and have paid my tourist dues.

In general the history has been interesting; the ancient art lovely; the religion completely confusing (avatar of who again?); but the way people live has been eye-opening. The contrast of the rich with Land Rovers and the extreme poor of families living on the sides of streets in shanties or just a piece of plywood with a little fire pit next to it is a little shocking. They aren't really separated out into a separate area but are just all over the place. Of course I've been in the city center where there are cheap hotels so haven't seen much of the affluent suburbs.

I love the food. Just run of the mill food is great. Thankfully I brought lots of antacid. I've yet to find any toilet paper to purchase at the shops. Since this is the largest city south of Mumbia (at least I think it is), I'm a little afraid I'm going to have to go native - huhhhhhh.

Oh, oh, the government museum has some great ancient temple bronzes of a whole bunch of avatars of Shiva and Vishnu, but the "anthropology" section is itself a museum of at least 60 or 70 years ago; complete with instructions on how to measure and differentiate the races and signs like "Daggers of Various Types", "Neolithic Vases of Various Kinds" with no explanation.

On my last day I did a little bit of medical tourism. Before leaving I got one of the three rabies shots because completing the entire course was $1000. While the travel nurse couldn't officially advise me on the idea she agreed that I could finish the course in India where it was cheaper. I wasn't sure about finishing the series, but in the last few days just walking around the city I've come within a few feet of at least 30 dogs a day. So today I went to a private hospital recommended as a place for medical tourism. The place was as nice as everything but the very latest medical buildings in Seattle. The vaccine came in a little packet with a packaged, sterile needle and syringe and was the same stuff from novo-nordisk as in the states. It was cold and on ice as I took it from the pharmacy to the vaccination clinic. For the same shot that cost $320 dollars in Seattle at the King County Public health that charges cost for the vaccine itself and a $60 injection fee, I paid about $8. One more in a couple of weeks and I won't die from a dog bit.

Wi fi here sucks!

Photos: India

tjs — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 10:17:00 GMT