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Published: March 23rd 2009
Traffic Jam
We came upon this after being on a pretty good road. Truckie told us he had been here for 1 and a half hours. We were much quicker than that.We have done some longish drives on the trip so far. Not far in kilometer terms but the hours are a different matter. The road from from near the boat landing at Allepi/Allaphuza took us across Kerala to the Tamil Nadu border and then on towards the Eastern coast. It was about 390 km I think, but I can't be too sure of this. The map did not always accurately reflect the roads and we didn't actually come to towns in the order that they appeared on the map so I would not be too sure of the distances mentioned. (I mention this because on this particular day it was my turn to be rotated to the navigator's seat. I have no particular afinity with maps and tend to regard trust in maps as somewhat naïve. My view was justified as we came to places before we should, followed roads that didn't exist and found towns that did not appear anywhere.?
Travelling by road normally has a few advantages over travel by rail or air. You get to see a lot more as you move through the villages and roads, unlike rail, actually go through villages. They are building some
Some Traffic
Not much to eat here for this one diversion roads around some towns but only for the larger places. The towns would be a nuisance of course if you were in a hurry, or had seen it all many times before, but for us it was interesting. Not so interesting that we didn't have a kip along the way and Barnes is generally reading, but those of us who have no hope of reading in a moving vehicle get to look about.
I don't understand the rules and requirements of Hinduism but I am well aware that cows are considered sacred. You are certainly not supposed to eat them. Cows are clearly considered useful because they provide milk. Bull calves are useful only as pack or draught animals. Possibly because you aren't going to eat them many of them seem to be in need of a good feed. In the words of my father they are almost all 'as poor as wood'. Doesn't stop them being worked hard though. They are a constant source of nuisance on the roads moving slowly along the roads hauling often massive loads of goods. Their harness is normally a piece of wood - could have some shape to fit over their
Cock of the Walk
This bloke was well fed but he couldn't get around much. Still he was safe necks but often not - a piece of rope is used to direct the team but the alternative of a twist to the tail or a wallop with a waddy is frequently used. I guess in a country where some of the people have difficulty finding food for themselves feeding animals has a low priority but I have great difficulty with the view that cattle in India have a better time of it than they do in the places in the world where they end up with an appointment with a hammer. I guess it depends on whether you look for a long life in misery or a shorter but happy one.
Of course the cows aren't the only ones that do it tough here. Chooks and dogs often don't do much better. We had been wondering whether they have a special breed of chook here that only has bony joints until we had a meal recently at a private house where the chicken had meat on the bones. There are dogs that obviously get well looked after, of course, but they aren't out and about much. Cats? Haven't seen many and, unlike China and Vietnam, it is not
Loaded
These were common. Good place to get a bit of shade on a hot day because the excess are consumed.
All in all I would not want to come back here as an animal unless I could get a guarantee that the family was well off and had, if I was a cow, a nice large, well grassed paddock for my use.
Lining the road through much of the countryside is the weed that I mentioned in an earlier post. When we first encountered it in Andra Pradesh there was not too much of an infestation and it looked like it could probably be eradicated with a concerted effort. Through Tamil Nadu it is clear that there will need to be a massive effort to shift the stuff. Any land that is not actually in intensive production seemed to be covered in the stuff. It is very thorny and clearly spreads very easily. Once in place it looks like it is extremely difficult to shift - although I have to admit that I wouln't mind having a bit of a go.
Add the weed to the groundwater problems that I have been reading about in the paper and the rural people here are really having a hard time of it. It seems
Nice Horns
shame about the harness but at least he wasn't trying to haul too much along the road that, in addition to the problems caused by too much draw on the groundwater, there are also problems with the contamination of the resource as a result of over use of some fertilisers and inadequate sewerage in the towns.
The road from Alleppi to Madurai took us through the coastal plains, over the range and then on to Madurai. Everyone we have met here has a view about what we should see and are keen for us to see the parts that are most interesting, beautiful or spectacular. Most of the time they have different views about the best places to go but just about everyone seemed to agree that we needed to see Madurai as one of the best temples in the country - or perhaps in the South of the country.
There are two temples - the big one and the small one. Our hotel was at the back of the small one but we went to see the big one. It was certainly large. Had 4 entrances and was very ornate. We have now seen a few temples and we have had a number of guides. We are getting to know the various gods, their
characters and their tendencies, adding new information with each person who provides an explanation. This temple is being made ready for a major festival that is to be held in early April. A major cleaning, paiting and renovation job is underway and, by the look of current progress, has no hope of being finished by the due date.
We had a guide here but his initial price at 350/- for an hour or so seemed too high for us so we battered him down to 200/-. Still more than we had paid before but this was a place that was obviously popular with tourists so I guess that the prices had increased. He was competent but it was a pretty basic tour. Sullen bugger. Probably kept thinking of the 150/- that he had missed out on. As usual he took us to a shop from which we could get a view of the temple. It wasn't a much better view to the one we had from our hotel but there were no carpets, elephants or other material available in the hotel. We left that place without purchasing but I am sure that the purchase of carpets is well and
Finished her Feed
I was late with the photo but decided to put it in anyway. Shankar is stil unloading our car. truly on the horizon.
The hotel in Madurai - the Aarathi - has an interesting guest for dinner and breakfast. When we arrived an elephant was in the courtyard being fed 'idli'. Actually, she was being fed a great deal of idli in large lumps. This is a type of rice porridge that is rounded into a ball, for this lady, large balls. She comes back for breakfast but we missed that.
From Madurai it was what looked like a long drive to Puducherry/Pondicherry. It turned out though to be one of the easier trips. The road was good with an expressway, of sorts, for most of the way. We slipped along at good speed for most of the way and made excellent time in our Toyota Innowa. Even on expressways, however, you will meet ox-carts, slow moving 'autos', the occasional push bike and slow moving motor bikes. So there is still a problem for the driver in weaving his way through the traffic. The addition of vehicles simply taking a short cut down the 'wrong' carriageway simply adds to the fun.
Pondy - easier to say than the long version and used even on the road
Madurai Tower
From the hotel room. There are 4 towers all being repainted while we were there signs - is about 70 kms off the main highway. It is an old French colony and is still governed separately - in an arrangement I don't understand - from the rest of Tamil Nadu. This means little to us except that Pondy has a different liquor licensing regime and you can get beer or wine here with your meal, unlike most of the state. It would be an easy town to stay in for a while. The French influence on the buildings is strong and there is still a strong European influence on the way of life. People have a camp after lunch and they eat dinner late.
Pondy was the site for Trish's birthday dinner. We found a nice restaurant that served both Indian and western dishes along with wine and beer. It was full of other tourists and such but we made an exception for the occasion. We all ordered Western food. Perhaps because we haven't eaten that much Western food for a while I must say that, while it was properly cooked, well presented and enjoyed with good company, the food itself was not the best we had enjoyed in India. The wines were interesting.
Wide Shot
Getting in all of the towers all over town. Next door we had a mosque and there was a large church around the corner. We had a French wine - what else would you have in Pondy - and followed up with an Indian red. By general consensus the Indian wine was better. Could have been that it was the second and we had already consumed some big Kingfishers but I don't think so.
On from Pondy the next day and - true to form - Shankar had been doing some checking. The place we stayed at didn't have breakfast included and we decided to pick up something along the way. We had thought we needed to drive back out to the main road to drive into Chennai. Our Chennai advisor, who admittedly, has not actually lived there for a long time, had told us that this would be a difficult trip with a lot of traffic and to allocate a reasonable amount of time. We had decided, therefore, to get on to the road early. Shankar insisted that we didn't need to go out to the main road and that there was a good place for breakfast.
I suspect that, by the time we found the place, Shankar was starting to doubt the value of his information but the place was
Streets of Pondy
Nice streets and plenty of shady trees. only about 5 or 6 km out of Pondy along a road that ran along the beach. It was called the Dwaraka Restaurant and it was at 16 East Coast Road, Sanukkapattam, Kottamadu, Kottakupurun. We had dhosa and coffee for what was one of the best breakfasts we had had in a clean and bright place with an excellent host. The total cost for the 4 of us was 185/- or a little over $A5.
On along a lovely road with only light traffic - the 47/- toll might have deterred some - to Mahabalipuram. This is, without doubt, the most interesting set of temples and structures that we have struck so far. Much of it has been uncovered as part of archaelogical work. The temples and others structures date back to the 6C AD. There is strong influence of Egyptian styles in the statues of the gods and the buildings, Chinese lions adorned entrances and some of the stone work was amazing. The site has a bas relief that is claimed to be the largest of its type in the world. All of the structures were carved out of single rocks and carved from the top down. The
New Game
Like a combination of air hockey (sans air) and billiards (sans balls) where you flick one button into others to put them down holes. Money changes hands work that went into the structures shows both a tremendous amount of skill and real artistic flair. Worth the exorbitant amount they slug foreigners to enter - 250/- for foreigners and 20/- for Indians. On this occasion we had a nice oldish bloke as our guide, we paid what he asked and let him take us to the shop that he just happened to walk past. Cost us 350/- and a couple of souvenirs. A good price for the value he added to the experience.
On we went to Chennai, still on our lovely road. Eventually, though, it ran out and we had the normal fun trying to navigate our way through a large city without a decent map, without many signs and with only the auto drivers to rely on. Made it to the YWCA close to the centre of town - if Chennai has a centre. The Y is, typically, an olde worlde oasis set in tropical gardens. Good airconditioning and a TV with cable but only very slow internet.
We had originally planned to stay a couple of days in each of the towns that we stopped in between Kerala and Chennai but changed our
Carpets Again
Wherever they are spotted they are examined. Becoming experienced knot counters. plans to give ourselves more time in Chennai. There are people here we needed to meet and we wanted to do the city some justice. It also gave us the opportunity to get some washing done.
I have probably said it before but washing is a constant. This time I had a bit of a stock so I gave them to a laundry but, normally, we wash every night. There is real management required here. Pat and I wash turn and turn about. This way things get washed well at least every second night. But you need to keep swapping things so that they hit the washing on the day when the good wash happens reasonably regularly. Another factor in the equation is the amount to be washed. Some days there is a lot and on others not so much. A certain amount of sneakiness is required to manage this situation to achieve the best possible outcome. I haven't worked it out so far but will keep trying.
I was going to post just once in Tamil Nadu but have decided that I will do a separate post on Chennai. There is too much to fit in for
Mahatma
Can't always have a Che so here is a replacement for Adam this one. So I will go now.
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