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..