Winning Streak Over: Eggs Implicated

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14th December 2006

Well, last time you heard from us we were very healthy! Unfortunately, that very morning, we had tired of curry for breakfast and had decided to order scrambled eggs on toast. Lesson number one in India: Indians only know how to cook Indian food.

6 people in our group ate those scrambled eggs - and the exact same 6 became very sick. The details are absolutely disgusting but suffice to say, Andrew, Lauren, Cliff and I all became very sick. I was the sickest I have ever been with a gastrointestinal problem. Andrew was also extremely ill but he seemed to clear it out of his system in a day or so, perhaps being a bit taller, whereas it took me four days.

Anyhow, the majority of this day was spent travelling from Madurai to Pondicherry on the train.

15th December 2006

Lauren and I found the energy, somehow, to visit Auroville: an experimental village of 2500 citizens from 120 countries set up outside Pondicherry.

It was begun in 1968 and comprises an immaculately-kept village set out in the pattern of a galaxy. The visitors centre is lavish by anyone's standards. Here we watched an explanatory video: that Auroville belongs to all humanity, that work is a form of yoga through which we reach the divine spirit, that education should not be about passing examinations etc. In the centre of the village is a massive, massive MASSIVE structure that looks like a giant gold golf ball. The entire place is uber-fashionable and clearly there is a LOT of money.

I was very skeptical about the whole thing - my questions are:
- If work is a way to reach the divine spirit, why was there not a single European person scrubbing the toilets or tending to the gardens? And yet, there were dozens of Indians from a local village doing these chores.
- You have to give up all your possessions to become part of Auroville. If Auroville belongs to all humanity, why don't they let all the homeless people in, who I am sure would be pretty OK with giving up all their possessions to live in these luxury mansions?

16th December 2006

Taxi from Pondicherry to Mamallapuram. Mamallapuram is a charming sea-side town which is non-chaotic by Indian standards (so it's only like Bourke Street at Christmas). Mamallapuram means "great wrestling town" and it is famous for its extensive Pallavan stone carvings.

The carvings are listed as world heritage sites and include Dravidian, Chinese and Roman architecture. They are basically temples representing Hindu stories and some of the stories are quite interesting. (The Dravidians were the indigenous tribal people, thought possibly related to the Aborigines, who inhabited India prior to Aryan invasion from the North over a thousand years ago. The Aryans are people from where modern day Afghanistan etc. is. You can still see some very black Indians in the south who have not mixed with Aryan blood. The black Indians were formerly of the lowest castes.)

At night we took a 10 hour train trip to Mysore.

17th December 2006

After a quick freshen up in our hotel we visited the Maharaja's palace. Being Sunday it will be lit up with 90,000 globes tonight, which we will go and see. The palace was really something quite unimaginably lavish, with leadlights from Glasgow, Italian marble, English tiles, Czech crystals in the amazing chadeliers and a chair made of 80kgs of gold. Absolutely no space in the palace was not decorated - the ceilings had beautiful pictures mapped out in tiles, paintings adorned every single wall, every door was an incredibly detailed sandalwood carving...and so on and so on. It was truly an amazing spectacle - although, I just can't help wondering if the fate of the Indian people could have been better if there was just a little less worrying about 80kg gold chairs in all these old kingdoms and a little more emphasis on education and health for the masses.

Maddy's No 1 Tips for Travel to India:
- Bring toilet paper and never be without it.
- Watch your head: door frames are very low even for me.
- Only trust Indians to make Indian food and very little else.
- Have patience because India is a country built on adding unneeded layers of work or bureaucracy. (Example: To save 5 rupees (or 11c AUS) for concession entry to the Maharaja's palace, you must apply in writing with a letter from your institution explaining the purpose of the visit).

Funniest signs in India so far:
- "Emergency rubber stamps available here."
- "Pre paid rimming available."

We are so sick of...
- Seeing healthy children who should be at school kept home by their parents to go begging.

We are not sick of...
- The smell of incense and sandalwood.
- Head waggles!

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Comments

[Ines]

Hello
Hello Maddy and Andrew, I’ve been very amused by your stories so far. Especially the leeches made me laugh, because they reminded me of the exact same trip that I did there in India, and all the millions of leaches on my shoes. Isn’t the Mysore Palace the most beautiful palace in the world?! It’s so beautiful with the lights on. Hope your stomach is better now. Have a great Christmas and keep on having fun travelling through India. Ines :0)))