Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Last Little bits of India - so long my friend
Spent the last weeks of India being a little less organized in terms of transport and missing out on reserved train seats, which being as we didn't have the know how and extensive pushing and shoving skills necessary, we almost always ended up traveling standing up by the toilets with the lovely pissy pooy breeze wafting in our hair - which is where we ended up on the way to Mysore.If you do manage to get a seat you have to be prepared to share with at least two other people, probably with a child on your lap.
Mysore wasn't so much of an eyesore.Caught some panoramic views of the city up Chowmundi hill a big Hindu pilgrimage spot with a large garpuram surrounded by lots of children who all address western foreigners as "hello school pen"and we kindly address them in reply "Hello sorry no school pen"(We did hand out a load of pads of paper earlier on in our travels but made the mistake of buying pencils which no one seemed too thrilled about - I personally thought they'd last longer!)On our way traversing through the streets we noticed a crowd of people looking up at a tall building at a man who was hanging by his neck with blood stains on his white clothes.For a split second we thought we were witnessing something quite scary but then we noticed a whole film crew there - phew. Apparently they don't need western extras in lynching scenes so we were moved along - they obviously didn't know about our bollywood credentials.
Headed to Kerala and spent some time wondering around Portuguese style towns, meandering along the backwaters and drinking special tea (beer out of a tea pot shhhh).Went to stay in Munnar, a hill top tea plantation type town with beautiful views, waterfalls and wild elephants.We stayed in a guesthouse which was a little far out so the owner offered to give us a lift with our baggage.He proceeded to insist that we DID NOT wear are seatbelts, saying that the police wouldn't be around.Kind of wanted to explain the reason I wear a seat belt isn't to avoid a fine most of the time.Anyway the next day we were out in a rickshaw and we came across a recently crashed jeep whose front tire had burst sending it flying into a tree.Our rickshaw driver got out and we joined the crowd of people around the car wreck.The passengers had already been carted off the hospital but the car was in a bad state, blood on the floor and abandoned shoes all over the place.Unfortunately no stunt doubles for those poor people.
Went to Pondicherry and stayed in an Ashram with a sign up saying "Be nice to people who smoke and drink, they wont be around for long" charming! The place was a quiet French colonial town with paved boulevards, very clean for Indian cities, full of French expats.It's here we discovered that beggars could infact be choosers when an old woman who came up to us begging, threw the coin we offered her back at us - twice.The following day we saw her trying to steel a sugar cube off of a small child.It was all quite surreal.
Headed to Mundurai and Varkala when the rainy weather set in.After breaking my umbrella and loosing my water proofs I was on the quest for something new. Not a moment after I had mentioned it we happened across an umbrella factory!A little doorway in between 2 shops that led up to a small upstairs room with a crowd of people all gathered round the owner, an old man who didn't speak any English, sitting amongst a pile of spokes, rods and tools fixing and making umbrellas.One guy had travelled all the way from a village 4 hours away and had been doing so for 30 years, only 4 umbrellas.Got me thinking how lucrative such a business endeavor could be in rainy old Manchester… mmmm?
Anyway due to the rain we watched a lot of Indian TV.As you can imagine there are many things that are censored and edited out of shows and films over here.Same sex kissing, straight kissing involving tongues, sex scenes, scenes of extreme violence and most other things slightly untoward.If English swear words aren't dubbed out the subtitles will substitute it for something less offensive like "s***" = "Shucks, "bulls***" = "nonsense", "Ass" = "Butt", "we caught the b******s" = " we caught the rascals" etc.In one chocolate éclairs advert, where a man, after eating a choclate, turns into chocolate, there was a written disclaimer at the bottom of the screen 'This is just a graphical representation' just for those who were getting a bit worried…The whole ordeal reached a crescendo when me and Ross watched a horror film "The Unborn" where a woman can see evil spirits, presumably that is.We weren't sure because throughout the whole film every remotely scary part was cut out!E.g. she's walking down a corridor, the music is all spooky and building up, a few moments go by, she finally reaches the door at the end and slowly opens it and… and… and… cut to her running away.Grrrrr! Very frustrating.
Over and our comrades xxxx
- comments
Mark 'Be nice to people who smoke and drink, they wont be around for long' bloody brilliant!! Enjoy the pissy poo breeze as much as you can as you'll be back in pissy poo England before you know it! xx
chazza i second mark's comment about the self righteous hippy types. have you started playing the "what can i smell now?" game? it's quite fun in india.