A few days on the beach

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Spending a few days on the beach prior to part two of our adventure in Kerala
Some thoughts

Rubbish- Much of the Indian nation has little notion of the concept of rubbish removal. All types of litter from the ubiquitous plastic water bottle to chicken carcasses litter the sides of the road and cattle graze on this waste, pigs forage amongst it and large black crows and kites scavenge-it eventually dissipates when little fires are lit, but the smell lingers on.

Driving- The Indians, although skilful are the worst drivers I have ever come across anywhere in the world. I have tried to work out what rules they follow but there are none-its every man for himelf, horns blaring, swerving all over, passing anywhere and generally causing mayhem-there are lots of accidents

Fenni- an old gentleman told me that when rich westerners tipped the Indian workers 100 Rupees that it was causing all sorts of problems. The reason is that this amount of money (1.25) was enough to buy huge amounts of Fenni and they often vanished for days only returning when the money had gone and they were suitably inebriated.. Fenni is a rather vicious spirit with a taste something like a cross between deisel oil and paint stripper and is fermented from either the coconut palm or the Cashew tree. There are many injuries and often fatalities caused by the coconut harvesters falling drunk out of the trees when they had had too much fenni. I decided to try it- it was fierce and I had a bad head for 24 hours.

Roads- Driving along one day I asked our guide about something I had noticed. You would see 50-60 men with huge sledge hammers breaking up rocks then further along 50-60 women with little toffee hammers breaking the rock pieces into small bits. I suggested that a stone crusher could do the job much faster and better to which he replied-WHAT and put 10,00 Indians out of work-makes you think doesn't it.
More to follow

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