5WomenandaDug

Notes from a Dug: The Beaches of Kovalam End of journey. Yesterday saw Deb and Janice leave the magic of our final Indian residence, the Surya Samudra in Kovalam. Situated about 100 feet up a rock face, our side by side cabins look out over the never-ending breakers that stretch forever to the West. This thirty cabin property on about 30 ocean front acres is yet another retreat from the never-ending waves of people and the forever mysteries of micro-commerce and subsistence living that form the ever-undulating backbone of this country. Much like the departure of Lisa & Anna, there is the sadness of separation that each leaving of our friends brings to both Terry and me. We are now the last of the original six still in India. With only another seven days left, we ... read more

Notes from a Dug: Periyar & Half Way through Munnar Welcome to the Communist state of Kerala. A 48 hour nation-wide strike has been called and in this country of 1.2 billion people only the 2% of the population that live in Kerala will be paying any attention. However, there are implications for us. No public or private transportation will be allowed during this time. That means we will need to condense two days of our program into one. It also means we can only stay in our Periyar hotel for one night as we must be at our next location before the midnight witching hour when the strike begins. Hmm? Where will the three women and a Dug stay? We have been told we cannot check into our destination hotel one day early as it ... read more

Notes from a Dug: Pondicherry - Chidambaram - Kumbakonam - Tanjore - Trichy - Madurai Man, have we been on the move! Two days ago we were to have left Pondicherry in the early AM but the three chicklets kinda liked the town and decided we could squeeze in the day's itinerary and still spend half a day in Pondicherry's French Quarter. The Dug liked that idea as well. Let's find that French Quarter and get immersed. Vinkie, our driving man dropped us in what he said was the French Quarter. It was more like the French Centime, only a fraction of the quarter. I don't think the Vinkieman knows the mystique of the phrase. Mind you, neither does anyone else in India. The French Quarter to the three women meant shopping (wouldn't ya know it, ... read more

Notes From A Dug: Chennai to Mahabalipuram On this part of the trip, the Three Women and a Dug found their collective voices and it involved a lot of barking. Leaving Chennai, our first stop on the road to Mahabalipuram was at the temples of Kanchipuram. Our guide for this stop was a Brahmin priest who was also a part-time tour guide. If anyone could present a context to the stream of temples we have been seeing, it should be this boy. Unfortunately, he was also a part-time English speaker. The only context he could provide was, "This is Lord Shiva. This is his wife, Parvati. This is the cow jumping over the moon." In other words, we learned nothing. However, what we did learn, once again, (remember the priests at Pushkar that had us recite ... read more

Notes From A Dug: Mysore More often than not on this trip, where we find ourselves staying has had enchantment written in big bold letters. Our stay in Mysore was a calming hideaway just a breath away from town. A small stream ran past the restaurant and, at dinner time, the geese and frogs would compete for our attention. Imagine "Bridge Over Troubled Water" croaked out and honked over by reptiles and feathers. On occasion, the geese seemed to strut into the kitchen oblivious to their potential fate. I'm not sure, with the fantastic use of spices here, if my spinach butter chicken was really euphemistic advertising. At $3.50 for a main course, though, you didn't hear me squawking. Each of our ground floor rooms came with outdoor showers and, in our case, the upstairs guests ... read more