Blind leading the blind

Till yesterday I was in a Homestay in a village in the Kerala backwaters after a slightly sleepy New Year..something I ate kept coming out the wrong end. Ewww!!!

Anyway have just spent the last four days soaking up a peaceful village existence (granted without the day to day hard work that most villagers have to do).
I stayed with a Syrian Christian family (essentially part of the Orthodox Christian tree) and found it really hard to leave the hammock where you could lie back, watch all the bird life in the rice paddy and try not to fall asleep again. To tour around we caught ferries around the backwaters or walked down little pathways next to the backwaters where the villagers lived their lives, house on one side steps leading to public washroom on the other. And everyone smiled and waved Hello without needing to practise their English.

It was heaven until I met the Other Tourists. This stay was a bit of a lash-out for me as usually I would spend half what I spent with George in a day but the comfort and rest was worth it..

I dont travel that cheaply but one girl from Canada...who talked incessantly about her 'like' self... reminded me you can do India without seeing anything outside your taxi window on the way to the airport or you can take a slow boat through a village and bump along with the locals trying not to notice that you have become the on-board entertainment as they all stare at you.

So when you think its nice to gather around a room in a hotel meeting fellow travellers its better to stay in cheap accomodation where the people are likely to be on a similar wave length. Even so it can be a tricky one on arriving at Fort Cochin (mini Europe with the Europeans forgetting that they are in a conservative country.. more skin than some beach resorts)... I found that it could get worse when I met the 'nice' Belgium couple who gave me a beer.. and then mentioned their love of the Right wing politicians in Holland after a few of those Kingfishers opened the conversation to politics???


I am running with the wrong crowd lately.. I suspect Dorothy got lost somewhere on the Yellow Brick road...


Fort Cochin makes me feel as though I am in Europe with European prices but finally found a ridiculously expensive Yoga class to try.. for a stretch for my decrepit body...

Belly full of trouble

Well its been a while posting mainly because I was feeling a little bit Zen up in Kodai - until I tried to get onto their dial up Internet cafe's and realised that typing anything would just have to wait.

When I left Kodai
I caught a mini-bus which I discovered I was sharing with 4 families
holidaying from Bangalore. The excitement of seeing me get onto the
jockey seat (next to the driver).. was amazing. Till I realised that
once grandmother had inspected me (rather spuriously I should think..
and not so much as a smile to grace her very down her nose expression)
then I was to be the groups English practice session till they ran out
of phrases.. which fortunately wasn't long. Then we had the crazy bus
ride down the mountain. You don't really have bus rides in India that
are sedate.. they all drive maniacally I spent the time thinking I was
on an a fair ride.. with a very sore behind by the end or this was
where I was going to die??

Fortunately I arrived in Madurai and promptly found myself escorted into tourist shops and tailor shops by very friendly
blokes who in the end were grateful for my patience in their efforts to
get me to buy stuff..so grateful that one wanted me to come home to
dinner to meet his wife(???) and the other one shook my hand when I
left. The scam is that they ask if I want to see a really good
(doubtful) view of the temple, no charge, which is fine if I wanted to
look at more handicrafts. Once I was shepherded into the shop I found
myself followed by a couple of very wolfish salesmen who wanted to show
me stuff and in fact really didn't know how to take no for an answer... mind you they did have some nice very nice tops that I couldn't
quite go past. When I went tailor shopping one guy showed me a shop
near the temple, which I said I would think about, I left him walked up
the street, got cornered by another tailor tout, who took me on the
back of his bike to the same shop. I just laughed.. but I got a ride on
the bike..

Now down south in Trivandrum -a town with no cows roaming the streets but a couple of fine elephants wandered past the other day.Its much more prosperous and from what I have seen really hassle free.

But I havent seen much as I have spent the last two days lying in my hotel room quite exhausted and sick.. I thought it was just
something I ate. Today I finally dragged myself off to an Aruyvedic doctor who suggested that I am resisting India, resisting the food and experience of India, and I should drink more water. She is right in a way.. it can
overwhelm you here sometimes if you don't watch out.. I have realised its not a place to be rushed through but savoured slowly. One traveller I
met only has three months here but will spend weeks just hanging out in
one place before going to another... he has been here 8 times before so
he might just have something there.We cant swallow our experiences whole but taste them slowly and let them settle..

Family affair with a rickshaw guy

Caught a taxi back to Chennai with a couple of people I met at Ramana's ashram both studying to be yoga teachers.. in fact I have met so many yoga teachers here its getting funny... We went through a very quiet place called Gingee which had ruins of a magnificent fort. we only had half an hour to explore so didnt get to see all of it but its worth the side trip and the taxi fare which was expensive compared to the buses..
Back in Chennai I found a room showered ate and finally slept. The next day I needed a rickshaw to get my bus ticket and was ushered (after a very half arsed negotiation) to a very shiny new rickshaw. The guy said he had been driving for 13 years still worked for someone else and had 3 children. He showed me where to buy shoes (oooh sooo cheap)... and then back to the hotel and he said he would show up when I needed to catch the bus. I was fine with this because by the looks of him sitting on the street most of the day I may well have been the only fare he had all day.
When I checked out of the hotel he was there waiting and he realised I had a few hours to kill before the bus.. hence the proposition.
If I go to a tourist shop and hang around for a minimum of 10 minutes I dont have to buy anything but I just had to look his kid would get a free t-shirt. I thought what the hell.. so we whizzed past his house (literally a hole in the wall across the road). Picked up his ten year old son and a nephew and his very chattery daughter who would have been two.. she was hilarious so we poked each other and made faces in the back of the rickshaw. I checked out the shops and the kid got his t-shirt.. and this was probably the most fun I had all day in Chennai. The kids practiced their three words of English and the dad got paid well and we all had an adventure. I also found it is really good when in India to know a little bit about cricket.. their eyes light up at the mention of Ricky Ponting or Shane Warne...
Its great!!!

Useful things to bring to India

Goggles for the bus trip or even better a helmet... I caught a bus to Tirunvamalai yesterday and didnt realise when I followed the suggestions from the hotel owner in Pondicherry that I was catching the LOCAL buses..
The scary green rattlers with no windows, no seat padding, no luggage storage and usually no shock absorbers...
It was actually remarkably easy to work out where i was going though... even if I cant for the life of me pronounce Tirunvamalai properly. Bus No.1 took me to the interchange.. I got off the interchange and wandered about till I found an information booth which sent me to the wrong spot. I then found a freindly local (and had to explain yes my husband was working at home).. who pointed me to a green rattler from hell...
Actually its pretty amazing to bounce through the countryside.. there were very small farming communities hugging the roadside.. school kids riding their bikes home from one small town to the other. Women working in the rice field. (It made me think of the bloody Dilmah tea ad with the ridiculously affluent Dilmah family talking about their fine tea and I am sure the woman looking traditional picking the tea werent paid a comfortable wage for their back breaking work).. or I could be wrong... it looks like a hard physical life working in these areas. I saw children herding goats.. during school time and wondered if the cycle of poverty ever changes for people here. In Ireland over a few generations things have changed for many Irish finally) but does it happen here as well.. and can it happen.
So I ricocheted into Tirunvamalai and found my first freindly Australian and Ramana's Ashram. Its a lovely space but I am confused..

Which beggar...

I love Pondicherry.. I love the name I love the comparative calm.. although you have not seen a traffic jam till you see one when the kids are leaving school at lunch time. School pickup in Melbourne is an oasis of calm and consideration in comparison...and I even love the beggars..

But the beggar question bugs me.. some guidebooks get a little superior about begging suggesting we should donate to charities rather than to individuals hassling on the street. And certainly there is an art to the appearance of desperate poverty. I saw a women with a tiny toddler walking around the beach begging, and then after a short rest where her husband brought water for her and the child she was walking up the beach again. What surprised me later on when I walked past them was the husband had suddenly developed a disease of the legs and could no longer walk lying against some steps pleading for "ma" whatever that was..

On the other hand I see so many locals giving money to beggars and considering that there seems to be a lot of men just wandering the streets or working for a couple of rupees a day maybe the begging gig is as good as anyway to feed a family. A shoe shine man was "begging" me to come get my birkenstocks shined???

Then I was wondering if I give to a beggar what's a good outing for them.When I gave one old woman 10 rupees she looked as though she was blessing me (about 30cents) and another I gave 5rupees too and she looked like it wasn't great..

I didn't factor the 10rupees a day into the budget (I am only joking here).. but do I give to just one beggar a day or let me get hassled all day. And should I also start buying the drums and beads that I get hassled to buy...

So there is my beggar bother... just what is a good thing for a beggar and how much is too much???

It cant be much I paid 3 rupees for a coffee in a street cafe this morning which was lovely.. (not even 10 cents)... and much more interesting than going to a cafe catering for Eurpeans none of who smile at you or to anyone for that matter.

Riding the horn

The thing that is making me giggle about getting around the streets of Chennai and it seems any city is the driver constantly tooting to make himself noticed (if he is little) or get people out of the way (if he is driving a big modern bus). And they have some quite creative horn sounds from dolphin imitations to clown whistles to your standard beep beep... and there's a whole lot of tooting going on.

Yesterday I decided to accept the genuinely persistent offer from my stalker autorickshaw guy who wanted to take me on a tour of the city.. for a small fee. He pretty much followed me every time I left the hotel and well I thought its the easiest way to see Chennai.. but I should have clarified the route and finish time. We went to the beach which was misty and hard to photograph and had heaps of huts lining the path to the beach selling everything from watches to a mysteriously dodgy looking palm sugar juice drink being produced on a machine that should be in a museum. I went to some temples - they are fantastic places and although its great to see I wasnt allowed in the main area (strangely I got all the way around before they realised a Non -Hindu had arrived). And just when I had enough of the tour.. one more stop.. nearly all they way out to the airport (before I realised what was happening anyway)... to go to "the snake park" which was closed. After that the guy seemed genuinely dissapointed that I wasnt happy with his tour, and well he probably got his family feed for the year with what I ended up paying..

Last night I headed to Pondicherry on what was meant to be the airconditioned bus.. they should call it refrigerated. The bus was also meant to arrive at 7 but it got mixed up with the bus that left at 6 to arrive at 10... and I wasnt the only one confused.. a local couple coming up for a day trip were looking just as bewildered about our trip. I arrived and found another autorickshaw guy to take me to my guest house...

The funny thing about India is that whatever I do seems to attract a crowd of helpers. Last night when I asked the rickshaw guy if he knew where Ram guesthouse was he didnt know so I pulled out my book and within seconds two more guys appeared.. one of them knew enough English to look and he then whipped out his mobile to ring the guesthouse gave the driver directions and then disappeared.. which was wonderful after the bus trip which should have been three hours but turned into five...

At least the guesthouse lives up to its guidebook promise. I used to be a bit reluctant to use the book but it has made things a hell of a lot easier apart from getting room bookings as all the other travellers clutching their lonely planet must have got in before me.

Now to see Pondicherry...

Arrived ... well almost!!

Landed today to a very wet and muggy afternoon. I packed everything I could think of for India except a raincoat.... how wise???
I decided to take a chance and catch an auto rickshaw into town... its cheaper and here's why. If you can imagine yourself in a small three wheel trike covered and motorised playing dodgem cars with trucks,cars, bikes and whatever other vehicle thinks it can survive on the road weaving in and out of traffic... then you are starting to get the hair raising ride of death that is the rickshaw ride. OK it may be a little bit of an exaggeration I am sure countless generations of Indians have been hurtling around their city without too much injury.. after all I did only see one accident in my first rickshaw ride. I made it though! Haggled on the room price and have decided that Chennai is not a place I want to stay for longer than necessary. For one thing I am having an awful time trying to cross the road.. its a bit of a challenge.. I was actually egged on by a guy on a motorbike to just go for as i almost try then retreat in despair.. then try again and then stand on the middle of the road waiting for an Australian version of a break in the traffic. The Indian one is to just put your hand up and assume that they will go around you if they dont feel like slowing down.. lots of veering around the obstacle course of people, bikes scooters buses and trucks...