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Published: April 5th 2006
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We arrived at the bus station in Pondycherry and it went a little something like this:
'Madam- bus to Chennai?'
'No sir, Tiruvannamalai'
'Chennai?'
'No sir, Tiruvannamalai'
'You going to Chennai?'
'NO...we..want...a...bus...to...Tir-u-vanna-mal-ai'
'Oh, this is the bus to Tiruvannamalai madam'
'We know... thank you sir!'
Having watched the landscape change from coast, through paddy fields to dry desert-like scrub we finally rocked up, two sceptics in the holy town of Tiruvannamalai. Shadowed by the mountain Arunachala, where a number of holy folk went to live in isolation in caves to find 'enlightenment', leaving a legacy of numerous ashrams and guru addicted followers!
We met with a friend of Joelle's, Laxman, who kindly offered us his kitchen floor for the week, so we headed off around the mountain to his idyllic hideout in the sticks- which brought its very own lavatorial challenges- he assured us, being an old hippy, that it was made entirely from natural materials... and he was right as far a hole in the ground goes!! Part of the enjoyment of staying with Laxman was the early morning swims in a disused quarry, followed by a brisk 15km evening stroll around the mountain which we dutifully trotted 4 times- still no more enlightened, however a few kilos light-er (if that counts?)!
We met a combination of lovely, and some totally insane, people there- all of which were baffled by our lack of guru action... how do you live your life? who tells you which path to follow? ..... erm- yeah! We spent our time drinking chai and playing Pass the Pigs, with a Swami called 'A', his parting words to us were- 'I wish you to become slim and strong'- how did he know the purpose of our journey? Maybe this guru thing isn't bollocks after all?!!!
Next stop: Kodaikanal- a hill station 4000ft up!
The temperature on the plains peaked at 48C and 39C in the shade, so we headed for the hills to cool off before hitting the west coast. Shocked and horrified when the evening temperatures dipped below 10C- bloody freezing, we don't know how you do it, we needed 3 blankets each and not a hot water bottle to be found!!
This town was small and sleepy, stone cottages surrounded a lake, could have been somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales if its wasn't for the sarees and ingenious wollen headscarves!
Wasn't much to do there apart from drink hot chocolate and go for long, long walks. Took a 'stroll' to an overhang in the valley called the Dolphin's Nose and a place called Echo Valley, natural Dolby Surround Sound. We met a girl there called Tanya, and some bright spark told us that a tribal village was only a short distance away- ha, short distance being over 10km through a valley, along the ridge and back up the other side! Exhausted, we arrived and a kind family offered us rice and a cup of coffee grown in the hills around the village- afterwards we hauled ourselves back up steep- STEEP incline back to our hostel to enjoy stunning night views and a roaring log fire.
Arrived today in Kerala, just chartered a houseboat to cruise the backwaters- to be continued...
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Lili Joelle
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If you haven't got a guru
... then how could you know it was ok to leave the Mountain...? I'm baffled! Such temerity in the face of the unknown. Well done on the kilo-shedding! Love and light from me - ps, nothing wrong with that loo! Once you're balanced on the stone 'plank', it's quite ok ;-))