First overnight bus in India, to Madurai

I'm well used to overnight travel now, and so the idea of an overnight bus wasn't very daunting really, even given that we were in India. We arrived at the bus station in plenty of time, and our bus arrived and departed pretty much on time too.

I wasn't expecting luxury (the bus was described as 'semi-luxury', and of course any description in a 3rd world country with 'semi' in it means things are going to be pretty rough), and that's pretty much what we got. The seats didn't recline at all, and there was no air-conditioning apart from all the open windows, but in fact the whole journey was fine. I managed to get a fair bit of sleep (poor Sarah didn't get any meaningful sleep at all though), and we arrived at Madurai pretty much on time, which was nice and early in the morning.

After getting a hotel sorted (the Sri Devi, very near the main temple), we both slept for a few hours before checking out the town a bit.

Firstly I wanted to check out the local Gandhi museum, which gives a good account of recent Indian history and the part played by Gandhi in particular. A local bus from the nearby bus station brought to strolling distance from the museum, which is housed in a nice old colonial building. The museum only has a few knick-knacks of Gandhi's, including the bloodstained tunic that he was wearing when he was assassinated. The many information panels were detailed and informative though (and primarily in English, with less detailed panels in the local Tamil language).

I'd read a Gandhi biography years ago but I'd forgotten most of it, so getting a refresher was good. The poor English get a hard time throughout all the descriptions, deservedly so though by an account of one of their own, John Sullivan, with a pretty damning indictment here.

By far the most famous sight in the town is the huge temple complex, one of the biggest in India. But unfortunately for us, it was currently undergoing major renovations, which meant all the huge towers were obscured by bamboo scaffolding and palm leaf sheeting. You could still glimpse sections of the towers, and I'm sure it must really be quite a sight after it's freshly painted with all the mad garish colours used on Hindu temples. But it was still impressive to just stroll about the complex and watch the Hindu devotees doing their thing (like blessing themselves from fires, being dotted on the forehead with tikkas by priests, lying prostrate on the floor in front of statues, and all that crazy stuff).

Seeing as how their isn't much else to the town, I decided to move on the following day, and after another quick scout around the temple the following morning (just to see it in daylight really), and getting a tad lost, I ran back to our hotel to check out by 10am and then stroll to the bus station and hopped on the bus to the hill station town of Kodaikanal.

Pondicherry

Pondicherry is a funny auld town really. We arrived at the bus terminal to all the usual Indian madness and mayhem. I had to haggle hard for a fair price with the rickshaw driver to bring us to the hotel district, but once settled in and strolling about it became clear that this town was different. It's famous for it's lasting French influences, probably most strongly reflected in the number and quality of the restaurants, so needless to say we stayed for 3 days.

We didn't actually do much, as there isn't that much to do, but we certainly ate well. The few sights in the town were interesting enough - the small museum, the grotty botanical gardens, the hand-made paper factory with our friendly Dutch guide, just strolling down the pleasant promenade. But the most interesting place for me was visiting the house and ashram of Sri Aurobindo, a very famous guru-type dude along with his very scary looking French assistant known as The Mother (both long dead now).

This place struck me as just weird - and not in a good way. Firstly it was the message on the notice board (next to the list of strict 'rules' for everyone visiting or staying at the ashram), talking about the author of a book that I assume was negative about the organisation. Basically this message said all copies of the book must be found and destroyed immediately and all ties with the author broken - basically it sounded very over-reactionary to a book and seemed to reflect a scary cult-like attitude to self-preservation, and not at all about acceptance of different opinions and openness. But I suppose in fairness I don't know any of the background.

But then there was the tomb in the middle of the grounds holding the 2 founders, with a number of people sitting around and others prostrating themselves on the tomb itself (every morning the tomb has fresh flowers arranged in patterns all across the top - so I assume that's related to one of the 'rules' of the place being that nobody can bring in flowers). The prostrating seemed rather strange behaviour for 'spiritialists' or whatever they are, as it looked rather idolatry to me (and as each person left they dipped their fingers in water bowls and blessed themselves). I would have thought 'worship' of anyone or anything would be against the principles of pure spiritualism, as I understand that to be simply personal development (not that that is simple of course, just look at all the Epsilons around!).

I had a wee read of some of the plentiful literature around too - all of which seemed fairly straightforward spiritualism I suppose, although always couched in those typically empty and in themselves meaningless terms, like 'energy, universal, divine, oneness', etc. Why can't someone write that literature in simple plain English, as I've always found the underlying ideas valid, simple and interesting (like for instance, a short paragraph about the importance of being an optimist as opposed to a pessimist, which naturally I had to show to the Negator!)?

Anyway, I came away from that place feeling rather similar to the way I do around any organised-religion-type places, like Christian churches or Hindu temples (Buddhist temples are OK, as Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion, and Buddhists don't worship Buddha or anyone else, they just follow (and question for themselves) his teachings - all the temples and statues and stuff are just there as aids to meditation). As I understand it, many forms of Buddhism have rituals and 'rules' and stuff, but they are all related to the original religious beliefs that existed before those branches adopted Buddhism and adapted it to their own local preferences - pure Buddhism, as I understand it, has no rituals, rites, doctrines or general 'baggage'.

Anyway, these 'organised religion' places always have people doing silly little rituals (like blessing themselves with 'holy' water, or kneeing down or bowing or robotically recanting verbatim prayers or whatever). I've long thought all of those things are just means of control and subjugation, and are simply used to prevent people from questioning anything they've been told to believe (I love that classic Catholic answer to any 'difficult' theological question, such as a simple 'Why is there so much suffering in the world?', answer: 'Ah now, God acts in mysterious ways!' - how in any god's name is that an 'answer' to anything?!?!). But I suppose the individuals themselves 'like' not having to question stuff, and therefore 'like' living in their bubbles of self-imposed ignorance, and ultimately I just feel kinda sorry for them 'cos I think they're really just selling themselves short.

Actually, we were coming out of the lovely main Catholic church here during a mass service (I've always liked checking out churches and cathedrals, as they're always so calm, cool and peaceful - it's just the opulence and obviously expensive upkeep that disturbs me somewhat). Anyway, it was during that bit in Catholic mass when the whole congregation all chant together that mad long '...we all believe in the one true church, the divine such-and-such...'. Every time I hear it it sends a shiver down my spine - I can't help thinking of the mindless robots in The Stepford Wives (the story of a small American town of men that kill their real wives and instead create perfect, docile and mindless wives for themselves - it's billed as a horror story). I always now associate that bit of mass with a congregation of mindless, docile, 'repeat after me' robots.

The same bit of Catholic mass always makes me smile though too, as it automatically brings to mind one of my favorite pieces of comedy - a scene in Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian'. It's where Brian is trying to tell all his idiot followers that they are all individuals and should find their own directions in life, and they all, in robotic unison, respond with 'Yes, we are all individuals!', whereupon one member of the crowd shouts out 'I'm not!'. Oh lordy, how that makes me laugh - it's so funny because it's so true...

Anyway, enough of that rant - the next day I had wanted to rent a scooter to check out the nearby Auroville, which is the main centre of the Sri Aurobindo crowd. Apparently a few thousand believers live out there and are quite successful, so it would have been interesting to look around. But the scooter rental guy told me that the police are regularly checking drivers for licenses, and I don't have my license with me (the one for motorbikes). Sarah can't drive a moped so we were forced to forget about a moped and just get bicycles instead. It meant not getting out to Auroville, which was a pity, but instead we could saunter about the town instead.

First we rode out to the bus terminal to book seats to our next town for later that night, then back to check out of our hotel, and then rode to an internet place. Then we rode down along the lovely promenade (it was a glorious day), to a great French restaurant for a very fine lunch of fillet steak and fish (we had lobster the night before in the fancy Promenade Hotel, Sarah saying in all seriousness on the way home, 'I think I prefer my lobster with lemon as opposed to a sauce' - methinks maybe I'm continuing her lifelong spoilt-ness just a tad!). After lunch it was another leisurely cycle through the lovely quiet French-esque streets to the internet place again, before another fine dinner and then a rickshaw to the bus terminal for our overnight bus trip to Madurai.

Mamallapuram

Mamallapuram is only 2 hours South of Chennai by local bus, and it's mentioned as a highlight in a Guerba tour brochure for this part of India, so I decided to stop off there on our journey south. It turned out to be a lovely wee town really, although the beach was disappointingly dirty, and so we only ended up staying 2 nights.

Our bus from Chennai was quite straightforward (after quickly rectifying our mistake of getting on the bus going the wrong direction), and Sarah found a nice place easily enough (Hotel Lakshmi). The town is famous for it's carved temples, caves and sculptures. But the first day was just spent relaxing mostly, and checking out the beach and local environs.

The next day we hired bicycles (Sarah heading off before me), as the temples and carvings are scattered about a bit, so having the bikes made exploring the town really easy and relaxed. After seeing the mad precarious Butter Ball rock and the huge bas-relief carvings in the town I rode out to the Five Rathas. From there back to the main temple, called the Shore Temple, which was nicely set right on the sea, although it's actually fronted by a protective sea wall, and again the beach here was crowded and very badly littered. I didn't bother to pay the rather hefty admission price for the temples though, as you could see them easily from the fencing around them, and the admission price was 25 times what locals pay (the biggest difference I've seen so far is 30 times!).

Having the bikes meant we even got to check out Tiger Cave a few kilometres outside the town, where I had a lovely wee swim in the sea from the nearly deserted beach (the waves were very strong, and there are dangerous currents around, so I didn't swim far or for very long). So yet more great food in really cheap local eateries (we ate one night in a Westerner-backpacker-type place, and it was the only disappointing meal we've had in all of India so far - generally you're always better off following the locals rather than the tourists of course!).

So having seen all the temples and carvings and stuff it was time to move on again (I was kinda tempted to stay another day just to chill out, but I'm hoping to find a more relaxed, laid-back beach place further south). Next morning it was a local bus for the 2 hour trip down to Pondicherry, but poor Sarah awoke to discover that her trekking trousers had been stolen from the clothes line outside our room overnight. After the fury and disbelief of that little incident (who robs someone else's trousers?!?), we arrived in Pondicherry in the early afternoon.

Hyderabad

Our guidebook spoke well of Hyderabad, and it made a convenient stopover on our journey towards the southern beaches. So we boarded our train, found our berths and settled in for the long 22-hour journey.

For some reason this train was actually fairly quiet, and our compartment that normally sleeps 6 people only had the two of us and one other Indian lady. It meant I could sit on the left-hand side of the carriage having two seats all to myself and I could even pull a curtain across to give myself complete privacy from the passing tea and coffee sellers. So basically I spent the whole day just reading my book (The Secret Lives of Bees), while occasionally looking out at the Indian landscapes drifting past. Again the train was super-smooth, comfortable and quiet, and so it made for a brilliantly relaxing day. That night was another super-comfy sleep, and the timing again meant we arrived early in the morning, this time at 8:30am.

We had actually arrived in Secunderabad, which is just an extension of Hyderabad. So a quick local bus journey to Nampally and then the usual scouting for a decent place to spend the night. Sarah scouted first, but couldn't find a recommended place, so I went looking and found it just around the corner!

We had 2 full days to explore around Hyderabad, and again it was a pretty cool city. The main sight is the Charminar, a huge and very impressive structure. We had to get a rickshaw there after my initial attempt to walk resulted in us arriving back where we started! We got to check out a couple of cool palaces too, one with a wardrobe that is 72 metres long, and also the huge private collection of one of the old-order Nizam rulers. In fact I found the collection all a bit sad really. Yes, it was all very lovely art (especially the 'Veiled Rebecca'), but just the thought that one guy could amass all this 'stuff', or even want to amass so much 'stuff', just didn't sit right with me at all - especially in a country as poor as India. So basically I just thought it all amounted to clutter and functionally useless tat - I used to think of myself as fairly minimalist before this trip, so I daren't even think what I'll be like when I get home!

After the museums on both days we ate at a real gem of a restaurant, Hotel Shadab (which was tricky to find due to our guidebook map being a bit useless, but all the locals knew where it was). It came very highly recommended, and certainly didn't disappoint - it was by far the best biriyani I've ever tasted (for which the place is justifiably famous), and also some of the most tender chicken too. It was a mad busy place (we had to wait the first time), and we were the only Westerners, but the service was quick, efficient and friendly, and gave the place a fantastic atmosphere. In fact, it was the perfect example of how a cheap, characterful local place can often beat the pants off any of the fancy-dancy five-star restaurants.

On our second day in Hyderabad we got a local bus out to the famous Golconda Fort. Again all very impressive, with an imposing setting on a hillside (although what appeared to be smog made any distant views quite hazy). That evening we caught our 3rd overnight train to Chennai (used to be called Madras), which we planned to merely skip through enroute to a fishing village a couple of hours further south.

Puri and Bhubaneswar

So our first Indian train journey was actually a real treat.  The train left spot on time, and after about an hour or so the other 4 people in our carriage made ready for bed, and so we did the same. Within 2 minutes of curling up on my upper berth I was sound asleep and didn't stir until Sarah shook me awake as we were pulling into our destination station at Puri.  The train was super comfortable, and totally quiet and so I had a fantastically refreshing sleep.

Sarah took over the map reading duties for our stroll to the backpacker area of the town, and after checking a few places out we settled into the Lotus Hotel.  Since we arrived nice and early in the morning, and we'd both had a great sleep on the train, it gave us the whole day to explore the small-ish town.

The town itself isn't very nice though, it's really famous for having a huge Hindu temple (that non-Hindus aren't allowed enter), and also for being only 33kms from the really famous site of Konark.  So that first day we just took things easy and strolled along the not-so-clean beach and checked out the restaurants and stuff.

The next morning I hired a moped and we set off for Konark (after booking our onward train to Hyderabad for later that night, and failing to get more money out as the ATM's in the town were down!).  After the mayhem of getting out of Puri, the road trip out to Konark was lovely, with very little traffic, great weather and lovely scenery.  The Sun Temple at Konark really was worth the trip, as the structures there are very impressive indeed.  The huge charriot wheels and numerous erotic carvings from the 13th century were amazingly well perserved (the whole complex was buried under massive sand dunes for hundreds of years), and the surrounding grounds immaculate.

We had lots and lots of Indian people asking us to have picture taken with them of course, which gets tiring pretty quickly, but the overall atmosphere was really cool, with all the Indian ladies wearing beautifully colourful saris and lots of kids running around (and the peacefullness was no doubt helped by there being no hawkers inside the site, nor did we have any hassle outside either - in fact after nearly 3 weeks in India we've had very little hassle of any kind from anyone really).

So after a couple of hours exploring the temple we had a great lunch in the fanciest hotel in the area (it's a tiny village area though, so 'fancy' is a relative term), checked out the local museum that had some impressively displayed sculptures before heading back to Puri town.

Seeing as how I was now an expert at driving in Indian traffic I decided to check out Puri town itself (although the traffic is totally manic, with people, bikes, trucks, taxis and cows all over the place, it all moves quite slowly, so it's not difficult at all really).  I managed to find all the main sightseeing sights in the town, although the hotel from which you view the famous temple was closed on Sundays.  So all-in-all, it was a really great day out, and I felt I well and truly deserved the drink or two that evening over dinner.

Next morning we needed to get a bus to the town of Bhubaneswar, from where the train would take us to Hyderabad.  It was bit awkward with timings though, so I decided to head there and spend a night before getting the train the following morning (I could have tried to get there from Puri on the morning of the train, but that would have been pretty stressful in Indian traffic with a fixed train departure).

So it was an auto-rickshaw (basically a tuk-tuk) to the bus station, although of course the guy tried to earn himself a wee commission by dropping us directly to a private bus instead of the bus terminal.  I was arguing with the guy and the bus driver dude as another bus driving past just stopped with the conductor guy hanging out the door shouting 'Bhubaneswar'.  After asking him the price (a good bit cheaper than our private bus dude, and obviously leaving that second), we both literally hopped onboard and left our cheeky rickshaw driver behind, a tad bewildered looking and completely commission-less.

So that gave us a whole day and night to explore Bhubaneswar, which basically involved a lot of strolling about checking out temples and the like.  They were all pretty impressive I must say, and I got a tiny wee tour of one temple from the high-priest guy.  He showed me the kitchens were they cook every day to feed the local poor, and it was gorgeous looking food I must say, and lots of it.

That evening we checked out more fancy hotel restaurants and had yet another great Indian feast of a dinner before a drink in a pretty cool local bar.  It's strange here that people don't really drink much, or at least not in the open.  Quite a few places have now served us beer with the bottles and our glasses wrapped in tissues, or in metal cups.  I've seen regular news reports about Hindu conservatives in vcarious parts of the country - the biggest news being about physical attacks on Indian women drinking in Western-style bars.

Next morning we got breakfast as a take-away from our hotel and strolled down to the train station for our train further South to Hyderabad.

Off to see a Tigger

So after 5 nights in Kolkata we packed up and did a 2-night, 3-day trip to the Sunderbans tiger reserve. We arrived at the tourist office at 8am, and after a 3 hour bus trip we boarded our boat. It turned out there were only 15 people on the tour, and only 2 others were Westerners (Jaime a gay Portugese guy and Michael an Austrian guy). Jaime explained to me that they needed a minimum of 14 to do the trip, so clearly this was not going to be a crowded trip. In fact, it turned out that the boat will take 46 passengers, so yet again on this trip, we've been blessed with the luck of the Irish, having a grand big boat with lots of room for everyone.

Originally I'd booked the cheapest option, staying in the basic dormitory, but when we arrived at the tour office the guy suggested that we could upgrade by paying him extra. Initally he offered the upgrade at half-price, but on condition we paid just him and in cash (obviously a back-hander). Anyway, I refused, saying it was way too much and after chatting to Jaime I knew for a fact that this guy would basically take any money I offered him, seeing as how the upgrade beds would just go empty otherwise. So after a fierce, but always friendly of course, bit of haggling I got the guy to accept 300 Rupees for our upgrade (from full upgrade price of 2200, and his initial offer of half-price of 1100). So we got a lovely little curtained cubicle all to ourselves, which was great.

The trip itself was really good. The boat was in pretty good condition, and surprisingly quiet, and the food throughout was fantastic. Basically it involved just cruising along at a nice slow pace, and stopping off at small reserves to walk to a watchtower to try and spot tigers and other wildlife. We never managed to spot any tiggers though (our guide said in 163 trips he's only had 7 sightings), although we did see quite a few beautiful spotted deer, a couple of huge wild boar, a big water monitor and millions of kingfishers. Its mad, but after only ever seeing 2 kingfishers in my life before this trip (both on the same Shannon cruising trip), I've now seen hundreds and about 6 different species.

So after a lovely relaxing couple of days cruising about it was time to board the bus back to Kolkata. In fact just before we left I heard a taxi driving past screech to a very abrupt halt. Turned out it had hit a kid that ran out from in front of our bus. Michael from our trip was a paramedic and when he realised what happened he rushed out, but literally within about 15 seconds I saw the kid being picked up like a rag doll and bundled into the back of the taxi, as it turned around and shot back up the road the way it had come - presumably to a hospital or clinic. 3 minutes later our bus left - no need for eye-witness reports or anything, so I have no idea what became of the poor kid!

Anyway, we arrived back in Kolkata 2 hours early. Having lots of time before our 9:45 overnight train we dropped our rucksacks at the left-luggage at the train station and did a wee bit more sightseeing in Kolkata, which involved getting the ferry across the river and then the metro down to Kalighat, the site of a very famous Hindu temple.

After the usual trouble trying to find the temple (streets have no name plates), I eventually found it and it was mad interesting to watch all the devotees doing there thing with offerings and stuff. Then another stroll to check out a couple of restaurants, and naturally eating in the mad fancy one ('Oh! Calcutta' which was very nice indeed).

So heading back to the train station I realised from the guidebook that the last ferry was at 8pm, and it was now after 9pm. Ah well, I reckoned we still had lots of time to stroll to the station by just getting a metro and then walking across the iconic bridge (Howrah Bridge). Sarah had another bit of a Negator attack wanting to get a taxi, but of course it all worked out perfectly, and the walk across the bridge was actually really atmospheric in the deep dark with thousands of Indians all walking the same way towards the station (I thought it felt like a mass evacuation like in a nuclear holocaust movie or something). Our train even left on time...

India at last!

I've always wanted to travel to India, ever since I can remember really. On my last round-the-world trip it was high on the list of destinations (probably the highest in fact), but that time myself and Hanno just fell so much in love with Nepal that we didn't have time to go to India at all. This time around, I was determined not to miss out and so it was with some relief that I finally arrived in Calcutta (now called Kolkata).

I must admit to being somewhat apprehensive about it though. Of course I've heard all the horror stories about India, but by now I've learnt to almost completely disregard the 'advice' I hear from others - let's face it, those travellers are almost certainly Epsilons after all. But this time I was hearing endless stories of delays, beggars, general hassle and sickness from probably the most travelled person I know, Mr. Sean Mullins. We'd been travelling with Mullins for 2 weeks before arriving in India, and his regular jokey slurs about the pain of travelling in India, although obviously mostly in jest, began to have the same effect as all repeated propaganda. Eventually you start to really believe it, and like I've said before, nobody is immune to fear and paranoia.

So having said all that, without about 20 minutes of walking out of the airport in Kolkata, all that fear and paranoia did it's usual disappearing act once confronted with reality. In fact I was almost immediately reminded of Nepal, which to-date has been my favorite place in the world, so obviously I relaxed immediately. There's certainly no doubt that India is a mental place (the state of the taxis in the airport were testiment enough to that), but seeing as how we weren't met immediately by horrifically multilated beggars probably did more to dispell the paranoia than anything.

We shared a taxi from the airport (after I sorted out the guy for trying to extort an extra payment for our bags - jeez, taxi drivers the world over...), with a French-Canadian couple (the metro extension to the airport is not yet ready unfortunately), and through the total mayhem that is Indian traffic (the beeping is absolutely incessant, just like Nepal in fact), we arrived at the backpacker enclave of Sudder Street after about an hour. After the routine scouting out we found a lovely place that turned out to be a real gem - it was clean, really quite and cheap. After 2 nights there of a shared bathroom we upgraded to a room with a lovely ensuite.

But still the fear persisted beyond my initial impressions by making me feel just a little nervous about the food. Kolkata has loads of top-notch, fine dining establishments though, and seeing as how food has been a major preoccupation on this entire trip, splashing out on good grub wasn't going to be a problem here.

So the first day we just strolled about the local area, and ate in the fancy Peter's Cat, having a lovely introduction to local Indian food. The next day we explored a little further afield, checking out the impressive Indian Museum at the end of Sudder Street, then the huge Maidan (basically a huge open park with thousands of locals all playing cricket with tennis balls and litter everywhere), and milling about with the hordes in the Victoria Memorial monument (it was a Sunday). It was here I had my first encounter with a tourist being annoyed at having to pay 10 times the price of the locals to get into a cultural attraction - it is a little annoying, but I don't really have a problem with it usually, although today I paid 20 times what a local pays, which I suppose is a tad ridiculous really.

Another day we organised a trip to the Sunderbans tiger reserve with the government tourist office, and then booked our onward train tickets, both of which were completely painless I must say. In neither case did we have any crazy bureaucracy to deal with, just straightforward easy booking procedures like anywhere else. So after the relief of getting all that sorted out we popped into a cool-looking bar/restaurant (the Limelight) on the main square for a bit of a rest, but ended up staying quite a while (after ordering a 'snack' of pakora and expecting to get one, but actually getting six huge pakoras and therefore destroy our appetites).

On the walk home there were millions of trucks filled with people all travelling in the same direction, with everyone singing and dancing. Each truck had a statue of a Hindi goddess (or something), and so when one of the trucks stopped and offered to take us along we promptly lept up and off we went! Everyone was really friendly (although we couldn't really talk to any of them because of the noise and general mayhem), and after about 10 minutes we arrived at a huge festival-type thing on the banks of the river where everyone was carrying their statues to the river and throwing them in. Of course they all wanted their picture taken with us, and the whole thing was completely mental and of course we didn't have a clue what was going on really. A truck then took us back to the city, dropping us off near our street, and we had a short taxi ride back to the hotel. Got some cool photos and video clips though...

So the next morning we were off to spot us a Tigger...