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Published: March 2nd 2011
Mamallapuram carvings
From 30 years ago I remember this elephant. But back then I stayed in a simple fisherman's thatched hut. Now there are wall to wall hotels and restaurants. A potted history of the trip on Gladys (Royal Enfield) with Carolina (Spanish) to Tamil Nadu and Kerala - Jan and Feb 2011.
January 14th:
I left Bhubaneswar at 5.30am on Gladys (Enfield 350cc) and headed south for Chennai. I was hellbent on just getting there. Hm…. Maybe this was something to do with the anticipations around meeting Carolina, my new friend of three months. We had been Skyping and chatting but never meeting face to face before. Carolina had ‘found’ me on couchsurfing.org and seen that I was also a volunteer in India. I made it to Rajahmundry at around 6pm that day, having ridden more than 650 klms. I found a lodge and was happy to wander around the town eating street foods.
The lodge was a bit of a dive, and I did not sleep well. I decided to just get up sometime after 3 am, meditate, do some yoga in a very limited space!, wash and pack, and hit the road. I left by 4.30am but soon realized that there was such a thick mist about that it was like riding in rain. Visibility was therefore very poor and the going slow and careful –
AND it got cold. Not what I had expected. The sun only showed after about 7.30am.
Meanwhile Carolina was in Vedanthangal enjoying her last day with her Spanish friend Roger. She was expecting me on the 16th so... she was very happy when she received a text message saying that the ride was quicker than I had thought and maybe I could reach Mamallapuram on the 15th.
January 15 – 18th:
I rode and rode and got to Mamallapuram around 5pm. Then I met Carolina for the first time (face to face) – she had arrived earlier that day and found a great room on the beach. We already knew so much about each other that the physical chemistry seemed to flow pretty easily after that initial huge hug, which seemed to get the chemistry going pretty well! A surprise to both of us. Watch out here!
Carolina and I spent the time just lolling around Mamallapuram: walking, talking, mucking around, getting to know each other better, eating (parota and other south Indian delicacies), me getting to see the sights (I had not been to this place for 30 years), taking chai, playing the guitar (we borrowed
Kolams
These are painted outside the house doorways in Mamallapuram during the festival of Pongal - harvest celebration one from Abdul's music shop) and swimming in the sea. Oh… and rum and cokes and the occasional joint on the room balcony in the evenings. I also met up again with Patrick Campbell – my Scottish friend who I had met in Feb 2009 in Varanasi (we had kept in touch).
January 19th:
We set out on Gladys for the great journey – no fixed plan but something about heading south to Pichavaram and visiting the temple at Chidambarum. Pichavaram turned out to be a no-go (no guest house in existence currently) so we stayed the night just outside the gate of the Chidambarum temple. Not much more to do in Chidabarum but visit this pretty large Shiva temple.
January 20 – 21st:
Karaikal on the south coast. A small city with next to no tourists and a beach infrastructure waiting for something to happen. We breakfasted on the beach each morning having the place basically to ourselves. We also did our meditation and yoga on the beach. I had Gladys looked at again and a hole in the air tube to the carburetor was discovered and repaired. This greatly improved her performance, funnily enough!
January
Heaven's Angels
Bikers in Tamil Nadu 22 – 23rd:
We left Karaikal. The road to Thanjavur was shit! One of India’s “national highway” disgraces. I had a very strong out of body experience after (rather stupidly) overtaking a bus with loads of apparent room, despite the three-wheeler approaching from the other direction. What I did not see was the two-wheeler (bike) the bus was about to overtake (and he did not check OR ignored me coming up on his right). I think there was about a whisker between us coming a cropper (with deadly effect I’d say) as I shimmed through the very tight aperture between bus and three wheeler. As I drove off I had a strong vision of us both back on the road dead.
We arrived in Thanjavur – but due to the famous Music Festival being held in Thiruvaiyaru (annual event that has been going since 1847), all the cheaper lodgings were fully booked. We found a pretty classy hotel for Rs 825 a night. We did though make very good efficiency of the use of that room.
We visited the Music Festival three times, interspersed with visiting the Thanjavur Palace and “BIG Temple”. Carolina and I were by this
Music Festival near Thanjavur
This was one of the best organised events I have ever been to - run like clockwork with many short 15 minute acts - and a great set-up with tents etc. time gelling pretty well and having a great time sharing many things. We were into a morning routine of meditation and yoga, and then breakfast of papaya/ banana/ nuts/ lime with yogurt (self prepared from things bought the previous evening). Oh, and I should mention that by this time an institution had been established – that of me putting up a “line” as the first action in any new room. A “line” is the use of the bike stretch staps (bungie or ‘occy’ straps) across the room to hang things like wet towels and clothes. A must for any room in India, where hanging space is often not provided – and certainly not anywhere to hang a wet towel to dry. The other institution was checking out the roof area for morning yoga. And the one I enjoyed the most was looking for a mechanic everywhere we went! Not because Gladys needed it – just in case (is Carolina going to write a blog about this?)
January 24 – 25th:
We left mid morning and headed for Kodaikanal via Trichy (just passing through). I got my “National Highway 45” mixed up with “National Highway 45 B” as you do.
But without not too much of a detour we got back on track. Carolina experienced my impatience and single-mindedness for the first time. We had adopted a trip theme: taking pics of the “Indian Overload”. This was for a planned blog of mine – featuring the many ways Indian put extreme and unbelievable loads onto bikes and cycles and rickshaws and trucks. We came across a truck over-loaded with cows. They were packed like sardines in a can. A must have pic. We stopped and Carolina went to negotiate the pic with the driver. I meanwhile saw the opportunity to climb the truck ladder behind the cabin and just take the pic. Carolina was telling me to stop because she was negotiating. I went ahead, the driver got mad, Carolina was unimpressed, I got frustrated. I went back to the bike and said to myself “fuck this” but realized that I was the one at fault. We got through it (talking it through later that day). Good – one 'shit exposure of self' safely dealt with!
The ride up to Kodaikanal was ecstatic (typical when you climb into the hills from the plains on a bike – taking in
the lovely scenery, the great corners, and the fresh cool air). Kodai was a bit of a treat. We decided to take the Rs 1,000 a night room because it was very cold and that was the room with 24 hr hot water. It was a recently renovated old English stone cottage with fabulous views over the valleys and mountains. Again – good room efficiency!
We just loitered around Kodai, mucked around, got Gladys looked at by a mechanic, ate more parotas and had more chais. We also met Sathya, a 24 year old Argentinian artist (clowning and acting) who was visiting Kodai for the first time since her birth! Her mother did business in India and she had been born here! Some weeks later Carolina met her again in Mamallapuram and she said that, finally, she had found her midwife in Kodai. It was an amazing experience for her.
January 26 – 29th:
We checked out Vaddaikanal – a small village 6 klms from Kodai, thinking we might rent a house for a couple of days. The place was a little Israel (i.e. full of young Isrealis who were fresh out of the army and having their
fun in India), and we decided not to stay but head on down to the Bodhi Zendo at Perumalmalai, 12 klms from Kodai. Patrick Campbell had mentioned this place back in Mamallapuram and Satya also had heard of it. It is a garden retreat in the middle of a coffee plantation and forest run by AMA Samy, an Indian Jesuit Priest Zen Master. There is place there for about 30 people and most are German as AMA had spent a lot of time in Germany. It was one of the many “bubbles” we found on the trip – places where foreigners get to experience something very ‘other’ than India in India. “Bubble” was the apt term Carolina came up with to describe this.
January 30th:
Ooty – just one night on the way through. Slept in a dive that Lonely Planet has listed as good and clean. Not terrible, but a bit shabby.
January 31st:
Reached Johnnie’s – a bubble of a small mansion (?) in the middle of Mudumalai National Park (near Masinigudi). Johnnie had contacted Carolina on couchsurfer. He is 54, lives alone, has non-Indian residency due to his Raj ancestry, and lives a pretty nice
lifestyle other than being lonely for love. But he seems to compensate by setting up a honey pot trap for female travelers wanting to be pampered via couchsurfer. Really nice guy. We had one night and good food and good red Shiraz (from Nasik). He has an Enfield Classic 500cc and two guitars – what else do you need?
Carolina started getting very surprised about how many different “bubbles” there are in India.
February 1 – 4th :
Kappad Beach – recommended by Johnnie. The ride through the Keralan back hills was just gorgeous – beautiful green hills and tea plantations, a waterfall and creek to bathe in on the way, great roads. Last climb down on the National Highway to Calicut (now known also as Kodhikode) was shit but….. Kappad beach was a delight. Hardly no tourists despite the overpriced one resort (we stayed 8 klms away in a town – see story about the scheduled power cut below. Gladys made this very feasible – we went to the beach each morning for breakfast and yoga). More parotha plus we found putte in the market. Great ‘bakeries’ for chai and biscuits all over the place.
February
Bodhi Zendo garden
This is at the Zen meditation retreat near Kodai. A beautiful place in the middle of a coffee plantation in the hills 12 klms from Kodai. 5th:
Malappuram – a last minute stop after a recommendation in the previous town. The attraction might have been the view out the window of our very nice room with solid windows on two sides overlooking the palmed valley. But the official attraction is the hill top ‘park’ which is one of those over-planned with little though ‘ventures’ found all over India. Some nice infrastructure but weird in many ways. Also the state Muslim political party was having it’s election campaign launch in town that night so many people and many stares at us walking around holding hands.
February 6th:
Anguli was the last resort after our aborted attempt to go to Silent Valley. We could have done it but we would have had to stay at the official guest house for Rs 1,000 each. Then pay Rs 1,200 for the jeep into the park. Didn’t seem like our scene. Anguli had the best darba ever – the guy just had it pegged – really good food – varied and with substance. Then a swim in the relatively clean river before we left the next morning.
February 7 – 8th:
Trichy was good despite Paul being characteristically arrogant
Mudumalai National Park
Between Ooty and Calicut about finding a hotel at the beginning. Carolina has seen many things about Paul on this trip (and seems to accept them while challenging them appropriately). We visited the ‘knock your socks off’ temple (huge) and the fort.
February 9th:
Jayamkondacholapuram – a place to just sleep the night – nothing other than that.
February 10th:
On the way to Pondicherry we came across (randomly) the amazingly beautiful (I’d say best we saw in all of Tamil Nadu) temple at Gangajkchondapuram. There had been a wedding there that morning and so we were invited to sit and have breakfast on banana leaves – just great. Very good Halwa (Paul). Spent the night in Pondicherry.
February 11 – 12th:
Auroville with one night at Patrick and Heidi’s and one in a guest house. Also had the extreme pleasure of attending a sufi concert (Patrick’s friend Sri Prahlad Singh Tipanya and troupe singing Kabir bhajans - from Madhya Pradesh).
February 13 – 17th:
A great do nothing time in Mamallapuram. Well, not nothing: swimming in the sea, mucking around, chais and more chais, eating, walking, much talking (including one or two cathartic ‘melt-downs’), playing guitar, and some ‘Spain’
shopping for Carolina.
February 17th:
Carolina and I arrive in Vedanthangal from Mamallapuram. We visited the Bird Sanctuary and Paul had the opportunity to see where Carolina had lived for 5 months and met her friends in the village. We had lunch in Habeeb's house in a very special day for them: their daughter had her first period! She had to sit alone on a mat for the duration of this time (about 4 or 5 days) doing nothing.
February 18th:
Said goodbye to Carolina, leaving Vedanthangal at 11.30am after a breakfast of idly at Fatima’s. I got to Chennai about 2pm and negotiated the packing of Gladys. This involved me doing a lot of the packing myself and telling the guy “no, not finished yet”! When I wheeled her into the baggage area to book her in I found out there was no room on my train for her.
February 19th:
Arrived back in Bhubaneswar. The train was 2.5 hours late and I was greeted by unseasonable torrential rain. Back in my home by 9pm. Carolina was waiting for any news... did he disappear in just a few hours after this trip never to be heard
of again?
February 21st:
Still waiting for Gladys to arrive from Chennai! No room on the train I took so I had to wait a week for the next Bhubaneswar Express. And a good thing that I supervised and participated in the packing – trying to copy the great job the boys at Bhubaneswar did on my last trip. It worked – no damage to Gladys this time.
All together I rode about 4,000 klms – and with Carolina I rode about 2,700 klms. Good trip! Very good trip.
Paul and Carolina’s new shared language from this trip:
- Many things here!
- Many nice things here!
- Good playing here!
- Many problems here!
- This, no possible!
- How is this?
- It exists?
- Good line here!
- ok bar!
- I wanna you here NOW!
- What is this?
- Who are you?
- Look at you!
- we are not in a hurry right?
- we have time
- wanna have a chai with me?
- what are you doing tonight?
- very good, very very good
- WHEN you come to Australia (!!)
- We are having a good time, right?
- We are lucky
- what happened?
- Fucking bastards!
- You want a piece of me?
SHORT STORY:
From true events while staying at Kalyan Residency (let's call it Fawlty Towers), Koyilandy, Calicut, Kerala.
A scheduled power cut in Kerala
The hotel was the best accommodation Paul and Carolina could find to place them close to Kappad beach in Kerala.
The Non-AC room was very nicely appointed. Within ten minutes of settling in, the power failed and it soon became apparent that it was a room specific problem. They were moved to the room next door. Again the power failed after ten minutes. They were shuffled into the next room. Paul was collecting quite a number of complimentary soaps by this time. The power tripped again (obviously some kind of circuit overload). This time the manager (let’s call him Basil) offered them, at no extra charge, an upgrade to an AC room.
Being quite comfortably settled into the place and enjoying their morning forays to Kappad beach, three days quickly passed. They saw no other guests the entire time. The AC was very good and they were using it a lot. Paul went to
Severed Air/Con electric supply
Basil had simply cut the chord and removed the plug... with a grin! the market to buy some fruit. While he was out, the hotel assistant (let’s call him Manuel) came to the room and informed Carolina that the AC had a problem. Funnily, it was working fine, but Carolina thought nothing of letting him in to investigate. He quickly disappeared into the attached bathroom and fiddled around.
“Everything good now” he said on his way out. Carolina noticed that the AC was no longer working.
Paul returned, and after exploring the attached bathroom, discovered that the power lead for the AC had been cut leaving a dangling plug-less chord. He called Basil and demanded an explanation. Basil went to the attached bathroom to be shown the actual plug-less chord and appeared shocked. He left and arrived with a complimentary plate of prawns which were delicious. Paul still wanted an explanation. Manuel was called. He and Basil discussed something in Malayalam. Paul kept asking Manuel for an explanation: “Why did you cut the chord? What’s going on?” Manuel grinned back at him the whole time. Paul turned to Basil and said “Look, if you had a fucking problem with us using the AC all this time you could have spoken to
Basil and Manuel at work
Trying to fix the Air/Con with a new plug..... Basil with a grin! us right? You didn’t have to cut the fucking chord!”
Basil tried to explain that in fact it was the room next door that had the AC problem and it was all a mistake. Oh, thought Paul, that then explains (not) cutting the chord. Perfectly reasonable thing to do, right?
Basil and Manuel left and came back with a new plug assembly, looking very pleased with themselves. They fiddled around for about fifteen minutes in the attached bathroom trying to re-attach the chord, unsuccessfully. Paul was getting frustrated and told them to leave and forget about the fucking AC, all the while asking Manuel “Why the fuck did you cut the chord in the first place?”
Paul and Carolina left the next day, Paul still asking Manuel what he thought he was doing, with Basil thanking them profusely for their stay and enticing them to please come again.
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I like this article Travel Guide and Travel Infornmation
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I like this article Travel Guide and Travel Infornmation
I like this article Travel Guide and Travel Infornmation