Thanjavur

Fishing Village

Chalk Drawing Outside Home

Fighting Turkeys

Taking a Holy Dip in a Tank

Jan. 6, 2013-Fishing Village

When the guide says, "I've never seen anything like that," you know it's quite a spectacle. As we left Pondicheri we began to follow a seemingly endless moving human rainbow of pilgrims walking (some barefoot) to a temple three miles away. Our luck, it's a once a year occurrence. For their dedication the faithful receive a blessing at the temple & are given a commemorative calendar.

We're headed to Thanjavur, the Rice Bowl of the region. It will be a 10-12 hour trip depending on stops along the way. Charles is into spontaneity & we are prepared for photo ops as he sees fit.  We even stopped for "bulla carts." That translates as a cart pulled by bulls (oxen) They're steered by ropes through their noses & I asked how old the bulls were when the noses were pierced. It's done around age two. They're also castrated. That's why those huge beasts with killer horns are so docile. Un-castrated bulls are donated to the temple.

A fishing village was on our schedule & it was a treat to mingle with the ever smiling people all of whom wanted to be photographed. Key is letting them see their picture afterwards. What did they do before digital cameras? Charles told us NOT to pay them. It is tourists who create the expectation for money leading to discomforting situations where tourists are surrounded by aggressive beggars. Poverty is evident but everyone has an ID card issued by the government. {eople below the poverty line are given ration cards so they can get free food. Begging in these parts isn’t the norm.

As we walked through the village towards the beach we passed a primary school. It's required to have one such school every three kilometers. Education is free & compulsory to age fourteen. Several people in the village are paying to send their children to universities where they'll be the first generation in the family to reach that level of education

We reached the beach as the fishing boats were coming in. They're now using fiberglass boats provided by the government after the tsunami wiped them out. Charles cautioned us to watch our step on the sand as there might be human excrement there. He did a shoe inspection before we boarded the bus. Sure enough David had to go to the shoe wash (just a spigot) & be supervised while he rid himself of the "crap." As we were leaving we stopped at a house to watch a mother & daughter create the beautifully colorful holy design at their doorstep. They use chalk dust in much the same way as a Buddhist mandala is made dripping the chalk from their hands held over the ground as a design appears as if by magic. We also learned a secret to the care & maintenance of the exquisite Indian women's hair. The younger woman told us she used coconut oil & hibiscus to keep her hair clean & shiny.

Part of the countryside through which we drove was very remote but we passed a couple of new looking modern medical centers. It was encouraging to see.

About Charles & India Today

Since we had a long ride Charles filled us in on personal information. He was born on a tea plantation in Kerala & was used to the sometimes cold climate at 7-8,00 ft elevation.  He said that monsoons were a nightmare & often dumped 1,000 inches of rain in the season.His parents were 4th generation Anglican & he's the youngest of seven siblings. Nine were born but two died. His father managed the plantation & his mother picked tea. After primary school Charles went to boarding school free.

He dropped out of school for a year during which time his parents had him take care of their cows & collect wood for the family. After a year of that he returned to school. He's the only one of his family to go to university. He graduated with a BA in history & in his student days he lived in a hostel & slept on the floor. He was a hundred miles from home & missed his family terribly.

He continued his education when he moved to Chennai & lived with an uncle for post graduate training in tourist travel. He obtained a scholarship, studied French & English & graduated with distinction.

This is his 25th year as guide. He's been with OAT since 2009. He's forty-eight years old. He married at twenty-eight & although it wasn't an arranged marriage, the family had to approve. His wife taught primary school at a convent & due to the meager salary chose to stay home after marriage. His wife had been Catholic but is now Protestant.  They have one son who is eighteen & is studying engineering & computer science. He calls his son daily to ask if he's read the Bible that day & if he went to church. Quite the helicopter dad.

It was their choice to have only one child. In 1970 Indira Ghandi introduced family planning. Now there's  a shortage of females. Even though they're the ones who care for parents they still cost a dowry when they marry. Scans were used to determine the sex of a baby but since the shortage of girls the government has banned such scans. Now the government pays an incentive for girls. Most of the problem is in the north where there are 1000 boys to 700 girls. There the men pay a dowry.

Although it's a male dominated society they've had a female president. Now there's a 30% requirement in Parliament for females. There are some elections only women can run in. The rape in Delhi had more press coverage in the North than South. Sex offenses are reported in the press but sex isn't generally discussed. There's an attempt to introduce more sex education in a country where the sexes are segregated in school & men don't look directly into the eyes of a woman. Charles' son is in a co-ed school now but is still expected not to make eye contact with women. Even married couples are discouraged from sitting next to each other in public & shouldn't hold hands. And this is the country that has an erotic temple & the Kama Sutra. Here culture trumps freedom.  Hidden things create mystery & some interpret it as making women off limits & more exotic. Rape is a vicious crime of violence & no excuses are made for it.

Homosexuality is still illegal & it's common for families to disown gay children. But help might be on the way. The Supreme Court will be ruling on the legality soon. The GLBT movement is in its infancy here.  Transgender people aren't "accepted" but are invited to parties to perform. In the North it's thought they bring good luck to  the family. Not so in the South. In April in Tamil Naru the state where we've been, there's a major celebration & transgender festival. There are a few noted trans people in India. One is an engineer & one an actor.

There's a big HIV problem with three million infected. There's a move to promote condoms & they're provided for sex workers. The infection rate has been reduced. Prostitution is  illegal but some areas like one in Mumbai are licensed.

On to another Indian phenomenon, the caste system. This class system was  introduced after the arrival of the Aryan tribes around 2000BC & is based on skin color.  Originally there were four categories. Brahmins were the highest & intellectuals. They were said to come out of the head of Brahma. The second caste came out of the shoulder of Brahma & were warriors. The third class came from the stomach of Brahama & comprised the business community. The fourth was from the legs of Brahama & were menial laborers. Eventually it evolved that due to what was seen to be the "unclean" nature of their work, some in the fourth caste became untouchables.  They were workers who, for example, collected trash.  Any society has discrimination but Hindus used the caste system as a caveat to be a good human being so in the next life you'd be rewarded by being re-born into a higher caste. Now there are 4500 sub-castes. I guess they thought more is better. Sometimes caste is part of a family name but it's hard to tell now. As far as the priesthood goes all priests are Brahmans but not all Brahmans are priests.

We stopped at a local market to buy vegetables as we made our way to lunch . Tomorrow we're stopping at an orphanage supported by OAT & Grand Circle Tours. At the one we'll visit there are 150 girls & 120 boys. There's a primary school on site shared with villagers. The older children go to secondary school in the village. The OAT/Grand Circle Foundation gets $10 from each tour booked & distributes the money to schools around the world where they send trips. As I shopped I hesitated  to touch the produce until I knew what the custom was. As it turned out the buyer put their selection in a bowl. It was transferred to a scale, dumped into a bag Charles had given us, & a fee was set. We didn't bargain but they were honest & David got change one time. Sometimes the vendor added extra or took away to balance the scale. David got an extra ear of corn & a man nearby told him it was "for hospitality."  We got many a side to side head bobble meaning we'd given them the correct payment & thanking us for the business

Our lunch was delightful & David got to taste Charles' food & experience native Indian spicy. Not a problem. He said it was flavorful as well as hot. It was during that stop I realized there was proof that God is female. Not only did they have Western toilets, but the floors were dry, & they provided rolls of toilet paper!

As we left we saw two male turkeys trying to win the favor of a female & the right to play a rousing game of Scrabble.Those of you who read my emails from our Rhine River cruise may recall that our guide euphemistically referred to the sexual shenanigans of the royals as "playing Scrabble." One observer suggested placing wagers but we had to leave before a winner was declared. Film to follow.

On the way to our hotel we paused at a huge water tank (swimming pool) where men &  women bathed & did laundry. Charles said it's not about cleanliness as much as ritual cleanliness & belief. The water is piped in from a river but is pretty stagnant. Twelve shrines surround the pool representing the twelve signs of the zodiac. An elderly man had finished his bath & was sitting on the steps carefully smoothing out the seams of the white shirt he'd just washed. He obviously took a great deal of pride in himself & went about the task with dignity. This bathing experience contrasts with the one we saw earlier in the day. Men were bathing in a river within sight of crocodiles. So far there haven't been any “incidents.”

Techno...Not

Last night was a comedy of errors when we tried to go to bed. David attached himself to his CPAP machine & I read for a bit before turning out the light. Indian hotel rooms have few outlets & it was our plight that those within reach of his plug were controlled by my light switch. When I turned off the light all power to those outlets ceased & David was literally left breathless. Fortunately we travel with a 25 foot extension cord & adapters so he ran the connection to a plug on the opposite side of the room. The trick was for him not to trip on the cord during his mid-night forays to the bathroom.

We're staying at the Sangram Hotel. It's probably a three-star but will be fine for the two nights we're here. So far we've had several blackouts. During one I started singing "Happy Birthday" & it caught on. The lights came on before the song ended & we applauded. Wi-fi is also dicey. It comes & goes unrelated to the blackouts. But we found the socket for the CPAP that works independently. Dinner was preceded by a cocktail hour with Charles providing Scotch. There was something about the antiseptic smell in the room that disagreed with me so I went up to our room until dinner time.

I'm exhausted despite cat napping on the bus & the heat is getting to me. My stomach is also funny from the amount of different spices it's being assaulted with delicious though they are. I just stopped taking amoxycillin after the root canal so I don't think I have Delhi Belly yet. In the end dinner would have been worth skipping. Each meal has begun with tomato soup & this was no different except this soup was awful. Tomato soup might be the watermelon of India. In China we had watermelon to look forward to at the end of each meal. The woman across from me had the same offended expression as I did when she tasted it. I don't think any of us finished the soup. I chose to have a white dinner which consisted of rice & plain pasta. It was “be kind to tummy night for me.” Reports from others on most buffet selections were less than stellar. I left dinner early, showered, & am ready to turn in when I send this out.

Tomorrow we'll tour some of the 36 Hindu temples in the area.

Toby

Pondicherry

Rock & Goats

Beachfront at Pondicherry

Funeral Procession

Jan. 5, 2013- Frolicking

I'm getting used to Charles. He's not charismatic but is knowledgeable.

"He Who Litters Opens Evil To the World." That was a sign at a UNESCO site we saw this morning. Too bad they don't have those signs in towns. Although this morning some took a walk with Charles to see the village wake up & observed the women picking up trash & drawing colorful symbols at the entrances to their homes.

The site, Krishna Mandapam, was a 7th-8th century Dravidian series of bas relief monuments & cave temples carved from monoliths into rock during the Pallava Dynasty. It was just outside Marmallapuram near our hotel. As we approached we saw a huge boulder balanced precariously on a rocky slope on which goats frolicked. We couldn't resist. Of course I scrambled my way up but so did the newer, slimmer David. I was so proud of him. As we took photos of each other we were surrounded by Indians who wanted us to take their pictures. Then they wanted us to pose with them. They made no attempt to ask for money & had the biggest whitest smiles we've seen. One man overheard us talking about how bright their teeth were & he told us how he used a branch from a certain tree to clean his teeth. Amazing.

January is the month of pilgrimage & the color of the clothing depends on where they're going. Most of the people at the monuments were in red meaning they were heading for Karala. Maybe we'll see them again when we get there. The ones in black were going to Kancheepuram where we were yesterday. 

We also went to the Shore Temple so named for its proximity to the Bay of Bengal.  Interspersed among the ruins near the main structure were Roman ruins from the 2nd century.  Of course there were. This was an excellent port. Evidently the tsunami that hit Thailand also devastated a lot of this coast. Thousands died but unknown temples were found. They're still under excavation & we were unable to see them. Thank goodness. It's beastly hot again.

Hawkers were scurrying all around the area. They're persistent but not aggressive. I smiled, they smiled, we disagreed, then found a comfortable price for a small primitive painting on a piece of silk. It will cost twenty times what I paid to frame it.

We were having camera problems. We thought the battery was charged enough but we'd used it more than we thought. Charging did the trick. We've had bad camera karma before & have been bailed out by folks we've traveled with.

It was a fifty-five  mile (two hour) ride to Pondicherry. We stopped to watch people planting rice & were treated to a woman goatherd in a stunning sari working her herd. As we were leaving, water buffalo were being driven across the road. The people in the fields & herding animals were working in government jobs. They're guaranteed employment 100 days per year.  We also stopped to watch people fishing from catamarans. That's a Tamil word for two logs attached together making a boat & that's what they were fishing from. The women wade into the water & catch shrimp by hand. They catch about two pounds a day & get paid $5 for it. Then our bus passed a building with a sign reading "Shrimp Health Care Center." I kid you not. I wonder if the lady shrimpers were rescuing them so they could be cared for until they grew up to be prawns? Charles ruined our fun by saying it was concerned with shrimp culture & prevention of disease.

Seventy per cent of the population live in rural areas. Agriculture is the main industry but that's changing with an exodus to cities for better jobs. As far as density goes there are 400 people per kilometer here versus 30 per kilometer in the US.

This area reminds me of south Florida. There is tropical vegetation, it's swampy, sandy & it's not far above sea level. Many houses have thatched roofs & open sides much like the Seminole Indians in the Everglades.

Yesterday one of our group bought a sari. I've always thought it was almost the perfect attire for women. It's expandable for a pregnancy or weight gain & there are plenty of chubby Indian women here. What I didn't realize was that it's worn with a long slip underneath. The fabric is the same length for all sizes (about 20 feet). It's worn with a short sleeved shirt coming to the midriff & most women in the South allow that area to show in the gap between fabric & shirt. Sometimes it's not a pretty sight.

We were surprised to find that pork & beef is commonly served here since there aren't many Muslims. Christians are common down South. Our lunch stop was at a hotel, not ours, to experience aThali meal. It's served at festival times. Charles encouraged us to bring our cameras. It was indeed a lovely sight but, alas, our camera was out of commission. The various parts of the meal are served on banana leaves. The hotel used round trays but families don't have enough trays or plates for all guests so they serve soley on banana leaves. There was a bowl of rice in the center of the array surrounded by about a dozen small bowls of sauces, chicken, fish, yogurt, tapioca pudding, & a square of fruit cake. Most sauces were mild enough for me to eat & two were suitable only for David. Dessert was a tiny cup of ice-cream & a banana leaf wrapped around anise seeds & a sweet candy. It was optional to chew the leaf. I took a nibble of the contents but David did try the leaf. He said it mostly tasted of the candy inside.

Multiculturalism

Originally called  Puduchcheri meaning new fishing village, Pondicheri is back to using it's original name. The change was accidental due to an error in transcribing the name. It was settled in 1673 by the French East  India Company & was a French colony until they left in 1954ish. There were many battles over it's ownership & it went from French to Dutch to French to English & back again. We're staying at the Sunway GRT Grand Hotel & although Charles said we'd never see the likes of Radisson quality again on the trip, this is fine.

We set off for town in late afternoon to "beat the heat." I don't think so. We got caught in a water buffalo traffic jam but made our way to the beach in good order. Pondicheri is divided into, believe it or not, White Town where the French lived & Black Town where the Indians lived. The French area was seaside & pristine until they left & the Indian population took over. Although there is still a small French presence here the town is now trashy & run down. The beach was bordered by rows of stands selling all kinds of "beachy" paraphernalia.  

Eventually we arrived at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The decor was red & white Gothic style. David thought it was gorgeous. One of the gay men remarked to me that it was garish. What do straight men know? But it was colorful with flowers bedecking the altar & festooned bleeding sacred hearts every few feet. As we were leaving ,a funeral procession was wending its way down the street. The palanquin on which the body rested was laden with garlands of flowers & musicians led the parade. It was a bit like New Orleans & I thought they'd strike up When the Saints Come Marching In but this was a Hindu funeral. Charles noted that it was unusual for Hindus to use a coffin & we later saw a procession with the body wrapped in white cloth. Women aren't allowed to go to the cemetery & men who go must shower & change clothing after a visit. It's somewhat like the Jewish custom of hand washing after a funeral. Hindus too have a feast after burial.

Since liquor is less expensive here & more available we stopped at a liquor store. We bought a split of port for next Shabbat. It's appeal was that it was in a plastic bottle compatible with packing.

The Botanical Gardens awaited & I asked if that was where The Life of Pi was filmed. I was told they did shoot the opening segment there but switched to Taiwan for scenes inside the garden. This park had been devastated during a recent cyclone & wasn't up to standards. On a lighter note there was a mini Arc d' Triomphe monument to Madame Claude, a brothel madam. Evidently the water supply she & her "employees" dug saved the city for the French when the Brits barricaded it.  As we were leaving the park there was a disturbance among police, a man, & a woman. Charles translated for us. It is unseemly for unmarried people of the opposite gender to be in public in a "compromising" position. The argument occurred when the police told the couple to leave & the woman re-butted the rebuke saying they were talking, nothing more. Charles said the police were over-zealous in using their power, the couple were doing nothing untoward, & there was no reason to ban the two.

Off to the Aurobindo Ashram we went. We had to observe absolute silence as we walked through. The courtyard was filled with flowering potted plants leading to the flower covered tombs of the two people who were instrumental in keeping it viable. They're buried side by side. Since one of them had a Tunisian father & Jewish mother that tomb is decorated with a floral Star of David.

We were worn out & all decided to head back to the hotel. Charles didn't think the shopping here was so wonderful so we skipped it. It's still early in the trip so we have time.

Dinner was on our own & we joined people at the hotel restaurant for a change of pace. One ordered pasta Alfredo & the rest of us ordered lamb. I was the winner with succulent Moroccan lamb chops. David thought he'd ordered lamb chops Punjabi style but it turned out to be chopped lamb chunks with bones intact. English is not their first language.

Tomorrow we have a long day of driving back roads to Thanjavur.

Toby

Kancheepuram

Truck ride

Supplicants at Shiva Temple

Dance Festival

Jan. 4, 2013- Again

In crossing time zones I lost track of the date. I guess it's still the 4th.  Not only that but I'm frustrated trying to find all the stuff in my bags. But did find that our hotel has a fine selection of Indian breakfast foods so I'm back on track for experimentation.

My writing routine has changed with the use of the IPad. I take notes as we tour but now if we have a long ride I  begin to transcribe them while returning to the hotel on the bus. I'm still not understanding Charles  & I don't know that I'm bonding with him. He's knowledgeable & nice enough but lacks personality. It's to your benefit. The less I learn the less you have to read.

What I did learn was that there are two categories of people in India: Aryans in the North & Dravidians in the South. There are twenty-one languages & 1600 dialects. It's no wonder there are political problems. At meetings each government representative speaks their native tongue & it's translated into the other twenty languages. To top things off there are 863 political parties. In the U.S. we have trouble agreeing in one language although I guess we didn't go over that looming fiscal cliff after all.

Charles told us that Indians are the happiest people in the world according to one survey. The French are the most discontent. Indians rank family above worldly goods & it’s said that's why they’re extremely happy. I never heard of that survey. I don't know if that included the lepers in the town we drove through. It's a center for treating the disease & they're successful in halting the progress of deterioration if caught early. There's still no cure.

Our touring took us on a two hour odyssey past rice fields & through villages to the most fun experience I've had so far on this trip. We got off the bus in one town & climbed into the back of an open truck. We stood holding onto rusty hand rails  as  the truck lurched & heaved through the market. As it turned out we were the attraction for the town-folk. They waved at us & a person in a passing car took our photo. Several of the buildings were colorfully painted despite the squalor around them. It's about finding the lotus in the mud. Only one of our group stayed behind on the bus. She thought it was too dangerous. To me, it was more dangerous flying fifteen hours to get here. It was also less daunting than Charles' stop at a roadside "potty." He says it's cleaner to go behind a bush than to use a public restroom. There were no takers.

Temples & Maidens

We arrived in Kancheepuram ready to see two of the 1,000 Hindu temples in what was once the City of Gold during the Pallava Dynasty from the 5th to 9th century. The oldest symbol of Hinduism was evident at the first & largest temple which covered forty-two acres. That symbol, the linga, represents sexual reproductive organs & the creative force. Shiva was the god to whom the temple was dedicated. It must be hard to choose among the thirty-three million gods & goddesses. That can't be right. Wonder if I misheard & it's thirty-three thousand?

Much like the  Temple in Jerusalem, there are three sections to Hindu temples the last one being an inner sanctum only entered by the priest & Hindus. There were charity boxes the size of oil drums all over the place. It reminded us of the "pushkes" seen in synagogues only larger. We got a glimpse of the holy mango tree & I encouraged David to touch it so he might rid himself of that allergy.  He took a pass. There was a priest available for blessings & getting a smudge of ash on the forehead & many partook. David loved that it was a living temple still widely used by supplicants.

The next temple was the oldest dating from the 8th century. All I can say  is that it was equally  hot. The bus isn't well air-conditioned & the heat almost overwhelmed me. Lunch didn't come soon enough. Although we had water with us we needed the semi cooled indoors & iced water.

We ventured out again too see a silk "factory." One man owns most of the silk looms in the area & sets them up in homes & small buildings. About 50,000 people work for generations making hand loomed silk sari's valued throughout the country.

After recovering at the hotel & cooling down we found the energy to join a small group led by Charles & walked into town for a dance festival. It was a first class troupe who showed us the best of a variety of indigenous dances. George, one of the gay couple & former professional dancer, was with us & was our main critic. He thought it was superb. To my eye it was thrilling to see the intricacies of costume & detailed isolated movements that told the story of the dance. Even the head movements & expression of the eyes were precise. One dancer in particular was amazing. She did four dances in a row & narrated in between without sounding winded. 

Charles arranged for us to have dinner at a seafood restaurant (Moon Raker) in town. David & I almost decided to skip it as it was mostly shellfish & fish served with head on which I can't do, but they had chicken curry on the menu so we stayed. Average fare but fun. After a brief walk back to the hotel we all planned to collapse.

Tomorrow Pondicherry

Toby

Marmallapuram (Mahabalipuram)

Floral Gralands

Crowded Train

Temple Bay Hotel

Jan. 4, 2013- Orienting

We slept all night until the wake up call despite the couple of blackouts. David was aware of them because his CPAP machine stopped working. It didn't last long & he managed to go back to sleep. Breakfast was fun. We had a choice of Indian or Western food. I tried some of the chutneys but think I'll stick to my usual cereal & yogurt. Somehow I remember the breakfasts we had on our first trip as better. Actually the chutney was great, it was the dosa that wasn't. I'll try again.

The composition of the group is interesting. Charles, our guide, is Christian. There is a gay couple, one of whom is Jewish, & they're celebrating their 50th anniversary. One is from S. Africa & the other New Zealand. Love the accents. There's a lesbian from Colorado who Googled everyone on the trip, a Jewish widow, & a Jewish couple (not married) from Jersey.  Most have been to the North of India. We have a Vietnamese single man who's the baby of the group. He's only 57 & came to the U.S. as a refugee. The Japanese woman from the West coast is American born, I think. Haven't heard her speak much.

Tamil is the language of this area. The British East India Company was established here in 1634 & called the area Madras. But they were preceded by the Portuguese in 1524.

Chennai is the fourth largest city in India with a population of 5 million. The British left in 1947 & today the city is 20% Christian & 15 % Muslim. Chennai beach on the Bay of Bengal boasts the second longest city beach in the world, but swimming in the water isn't usual. Custom doesn't call for disrobing in public so most people just sit in the sun & wade. Goats graze between road & sand. Charles said it's ok to pet the goats we find

wandering around but to stay away from cows, dogs, & cats. They can be aggressive. I wonder about those aggressive cows. People-wise it does seem less congested here than the north & so far no one has tried to hijack us as we walked or tried to sell us something.    

And We’re Off

Our first venture off the bus was to a typical market. It's hot as blazes for us but mild for natives. It's in the 90's. I don't know if we took more than one picture & it was of a stand in the flower section. We then boarded a suburban train for a twenty minute ride just for the hell of it. Charles wanted us to have the experience. It was very crowded around the doorway but the seating areas remained clear. We looked out the windows for a bit but when it was determined that the view was mostly of trash heaps we engaged in a conversation with the Coloradan. She has a horse. Need I say more?

Lunch was spicier than I thought it would be. I ordered paneer tikka masala & asked for it to be mild. If that was mild I'm in trouble. David ate mine & I ate his dosa masala. There was a petrol smell in the city that permeated the restaurant. I got queasy but kept drinking water (bottled) & felt better when I cooled off on the bus. The toilets in the restaurant were kind of iffy. The women were thinking we'd all leave with a urinary tract infection at least. Some of us are trying to decide whether or not to continue our malaria meds. One man is definitely stopping since it's affecting his stomach. We're undecided. Charles said we shouldn't be afraid of getting malaria especially since they've had less rain than usual. They just sprayed for mosquitoes outside our room. If malaria doesn't get us, deet will.                                                                                                                          

After lunch we visited the Church of St. Thomas. It is said that St Thomas came to India to preach the Gospel to the Jews in the 1st century & was killed by a Hindu fanatic. The Catholic Church is built over his tomb. Relics were kept here but his body was sent to Rome. When we entered the sanctuary Charles asked if we noticed what was different about it than other churches we'd visited. I suggested, tongue in cheek, that Jesus was dressed in this one. That was the correct answer. The Jewish lady figured it out! He's portrayed as the risen Jesus standing in a lotus blossom fully robed.

I'm still having trouble understanding Charles but I got the message that he doesn't think highly of people who take advantage of the welfare state. They work & are given  houses & thirty pounds of rice a month. School education & uniforms are free but they spend their money on liquor & gambling.

We're staying at the Radisson Blu Resort at Temple Bay. It's lovely & most unique. The swimming pool & wading areas form a lagoon that meanders throughout the complex & is accessible right outside our room. The hotel property includes a beachfront site which we'll explore tomorrow after touring. Dinner was really good. What we thought was the main course was a starter. There were sides & sauces all within my palate limitations. The main was fish & David, being in is new pro-fish mode, loved it. 

Although the iPad is convenient I miss my cursor. I love the iPad's size & wrote some on the bus before I fell asleep but I'm still climbing the learning curve.

Tomorrow we're taking an all day optional tour to see lots of temples.

Toby

Getting to Chennai

Typical Crowds in Chennai

Jan. 1-2, 2013-Airline Torture

I don't know what day it is or the correct time. I'm in a tube hurtling through the air for the last 10-13 hours. Don't even know how long we've been up here. The program telling where we are & when we'll arrive is down so I have no frame of reference. We were served dinner (not Indian food) shortly after we boarded. It was 5 pm EST. We stayed up until about 9pm EST then took our Ambien & went to sleep. I was shaken awake by a flight attendant wanting me to put my tray table down so he could serve what might have been breakfast. It was two slices of bread, one slice of cheese, & lettuce. The seats are so hard I feel as if I've been at a day long Amish meeting. My buns are numb & I reckon I got two hours sleep.

 But my usual trip meltdown came earlier than expected. I had an emergency root canal before we left & I'm not sure the infection is healing well. To make matters worse I'm starting to experience the same symptoms on the other side of my mouth. The one thing I don't want in India is a tooth problem. I'm still taking amoxycilin for the root canal & have another series to take if this doesn't do it. I then have all kinds of other antibiotics to get me home.  

Other than the hard seats, this Air India plane is now leaking something from three of the bathrooms that has saturated the floors in the aisle. I know this because David just stepped in it. Every once in awhile I get a whiff of what smells like the deodorizer put in men's urinals. The bathroom closest to us & the one I prefer to use has the toilet taped to the wall with security tape marking when it was inspected. Every once in a while I remember that three hundred people are using eigtht bathrooms over a period of fifteen hours. Now there are only six in use. I'm not including the "upper classes." It gives me pause. David's control  panel just stopped working. He said they want us to experience India at its fullest as soon as we can. I reminded him that India is much worse. When we landed in Delhi (early) before I could censor my thoughts my mind said, " That wasn't too bad." Hmm! Being on terra firma does strange things.

Meet & Greet

We met some of the people in our group while waiting for the flight at JFK. Some who took the pre-trip to Sri Lanka will meet us in Chennai (formerly Madras) but I think the rest are all here in this tube with us. We're easy to identify. We're the Anglos with yellow luggage tags in a sea of Indians returning home, visiting family, or as with the man next to me, going to a wedding. When our tour-mates & we got off the plane in Delhi & were on our way to baggage claim we realized they were with an OAT group going to the North. Whoops! No use learning their names. Meanwhile, where are our folks? We're now killing time with the one person on the plane who is on our tour. Tom is a Lutheran pastor from Sonoma. He & David are bonding while I type. We're hunkered down at a table in a cafe  having eaten a masala dosa. It's a thin crepe-like bread filled with potatoes.

Since we landed early it stood to reason that our plane to Chennai was late. We had ample time at the gate to meet others who were actually on our trip. There's a huge military presence at the airport & we were there long enough to witness shift change. I must say several of the guards are attractive young women. I missed all but the meal served on the flight to Chennai. I made up for lost sleep.

Walking out into the murky air as we deplaned the airport around midnight brought me back to my old memories of India. There's a haze even at this hour, however the smell isn't as pungent as I remembered. At the terminal there was a cloying scent of camphor  which I traced to the toilets as I used my first squatter of the trip. I may have waited a year too long to come here. The old knees aren't as nimble as they used to be.

The drive to our hotel was through what we'd call rush hour but here it's considered to be a breeze. Between motor vehicles, construction, & pedestrians it was daunting.

Ah yes. I finally got my first whiff of eau d'India...sewage with overtones of ammonia.

Charles, our tour director, was waiting for us at the hotel. It will take some getting used to as far as understanding him but that will come. We are sending this email to let you know we arrived safely (no lost luggage), but we may not be in as close contact as we thought. WiFi is not free at this hotel. It's $10 an hour. We'll find out more at orientation tomorrow.

Toby

Highway Code of India

This was given to us in our orientation packet. Read it & weep.

                                              

 Article I: The assumption of immortality is required of all road users.

Article II: Indian traffic like Indian society is structured on a strict caste system. The following precedence must by accorded at all times. In descending order, give way to: cows, elephants, camels, buffalo, pigs, goats, dogs, heavy trucks, buses, official cars, pedal rickshaws, private cars, motorcycles, scooters, auto-rickshaws, handcarts and pedestrians.

Article III: All wheeled vehicles shall be driven in accordance with the maxim: to slow is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat. This is the Indian driver's mantra.

Article IV: Use of horn (also known as the sonic fender or language of the road)

Cars: Short blasts (urgent) indicate supremacy, i.e. clearing dogs, rickshaws and pedestrians from path. Long blasts (desperate) denote supplication, i.e. to oncoming trucks, "I am going too fast to stop, so unless you slow down we shall both die." In extreme cases this may be accompanied by flashing of headlights (frantic). Single blast (casual) means: " I have seen someone out of India's 1 billion whom i recognize," or "There is a bird in the road which at this speed could go through my windscreen," or "I have not blown my horn for several minutes." Trucks & Buses: All horn signals have the same meaning, "I have all-up weight of approximately 12.5 tons and have no intention of stopping even if i could." This signal may be emphasized by the use of head lamps.

Article V: All maneuvers, use of horn and evasive action shall be left until the last possible moment.

Article VI: In the absence of seat belts (which there is) car occupants shall wear garlands of marigolds. These should be kept fastened at all times.

Article VII: Rights of way: Traffic entering a road from the left has priority. So has traffic from the right, and also traffic in the middle.

Lane discipline: All Indian traffic at all times and irrespective of direction of travel shall occupy the center of the road.

Article VIII: Traffic Management: It's a jungle out there. Apparent traffic islands in the middle of a crossroad have no traffic management function. Any other impression should be ignored.

Article IX: Overtaking is mandatory. Every moving vehicle is required to overtake every other moving vehicle, irrespective of whether it has just overtaken you. Overtaking should only be undertaken in suitable conditions such as in the face of oncoming traffic, on blind bends at junctions and in the middle of villages/city center. No more than two inches should be allowed between your vehicle and the one you are passing-one inch in the case of bicycles or pedestrians.

Article X: Nirvana may be obtained through the head-on crash.

Article XI: Reversing: What's this? Not many drivers in India like to use this gear. It's against their driver's mantra.

Article XII: The 10th incarnation of God was an articulated tanker.

New York, New York

Trusty toilet paper to take with us

Dec. 31, 2012-Happy New Year to all!

We are in New York City staying at a motel near JFK. We were lucky not to get evicted from our flight from Cleveland today. By the time we got off the plane it reeked of garlic bagel. Not wanting to miss a meal, we bought bagel sandwiches & carried them on board.

I just wanted to check in with you to wish you well in the New Year. We arrived this afternoon in preparation for our departure for the South of India tomorrow. It took us as long to get to the motel from the airport as it did to fly here from Cleveland. Most of the issue was getting on the airport train going in the wrong direction. When we finally got to the shuttle stand things smoothed out. Our first glitch. 

We spent the evening with friends formerly of Akron. They're both well & introduced us to a great Japanese restaurant in their neighborhood. Always good catching up.

Tomorrow we fly Air India from here to Delhi. Hopefully our next flight will smell of curry, not garlic. It's a fifteen hour flight non-stop. We have a five hour layover in Delhi before we board another plane for Chennai. After a four hour flight we end up at our hotel. Fortunately it will be nighttime & we'll go right to bed.

As you know the emails from India will be full of my take on the experience. We've been to Northern India & are relying on Lauralee Garfinkel's assurance that the South is very different. India is a hard place to be & we figured we wouldn't be in better physical shape next year, so why not go. My motto has always been that we should do the hard countries while I can still squat. Yes, they have those blasted Asian toilets (not in the hotels, though).

We'll be on an Overseas Adventure Travel tour with 16 total in the group. OAT is a subsidiary of Grand Circle Travel with whom we've traveled in the past. India isn't a place we want to tackle on our own.

Toby