Southern India

Auroville...slightly surreal. Apparently not many people leave the cult, err...community alive.

My scooter. I named her, Sketchy.

You know you're at the bottom of the barrel when you're passed out in a puddle of your own urine in an Indian bus station.

Massive Hindu temples of Madurai.

Typical Indian meal, or Thali. Also pictured is the French guy who would later consume that meal.

Holy Cow!

The Spice Baron commands his minions. And yes, I believe that is a younger picture of himself hanging up.

Scene of a traffic accident or Indians hard at work?

Kerala backwaters.

Thanks to an unusually speedy connection tonight...more Kerala backwaters.

The tests for Malaria and Dengue came back negative, so that was good. Although the sickness has definitely faded, it's still with me even now. I stayed at Sesha's for 4 nights in total, attempting to regain my strength through the heaps of food his wife would serve me each night. Overall I was fairly lazy in Chennai and basically just tried to adjust to India. Sesha gave me the heads up on a local electronics black market, so I headed
down there and bought a new mini mp3 player (which totally sucks and only fits about 40 songs on...but you cant expect much for the price I paid). Could have spent a year in this place. It was similar to a vegetable market except people just hawked sticks of RAM and state of the art video cards instead of potatoes and peppers. Another day was spent accompanying the Sundarams and another family to an Indian cultural theme park (sort of like Fort Langley but much better). It was good to see lots of the traditional stuff and the palm reader there declared that I should live to at least 90 if I don't do anything stupid in between, so that was a bonus. The hospitality put forth by Sesha and his family was tremendous.

From Chennai I caught a quick bus down to Pondicherry, also on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Pondicherry used to be a French province and the food there was spectacular. Spent a night in Pondi then rented a scooter and decided to risk my life on the chaotic Indian streets. There really are no rules here except to watch your surroundings. I often found myself dodging people as much as other vehicles, in situations where I would be passing the guy who was passing the guy who was passing the herd of cows and in doing so I was on the opposite sidewalk. Very normal driving experience here and once out of the city it was well worth it. Whizzing along right beside the Indian Ocean was awesome, especially during the rare occasions when I managed to get the road to myself and open up the throttle a little. The original reason I rented the scooter was to make the 15km trip north to a town called Auroville. Auroville is a strange 60's experiment going slowly nowhere. Basically a bunch of hippies decided to form an "international township" where all races could come and feel free from whatever was bugging them. I think the main reason I went up there is because it sounded like a cult and that was something I wanted to see. I managed to get lost several times up there, so by the time I arrived it was beginning to get dark and I didn't have a whole lot of time. Was very strange driving through rural India, then just popping out into this area where a bunch of 60 year old white guys with pony tails herd goats around. I couldn't help but think, this is where Gav would love to live if given the chance.

Following Pondicherry I caught a positively brutal night bus (maybe 3 hours of sleep...maybe) south to Madurai. Upon arriving I booked a night train out of the same town, ensuring that my weary body not get the rest it so desperately craves. Having a whole day (14 hours in this case) in a town without a room always sucks, but I wanted to stop there due to it being one of the best Hindu temple sites in India. Luckily during the battle to buy my train ticket I met a French guy who was in the same bind, so I had company. We saw the temple for a few hours, then set off on the French guy's journey to find the "scummiest part of Madurai". I have no idea why he wanted to accomplish this, but I figured it would be worth a laugh. Problem is, as we got farther away from any tourist areas and farther into shady little alleys and lanes, the people just kept getting nicer. By the end of the day we were stuck in a slum under some guys roof, drinking tea while avoiding the monsoon that raged outside.

I passed out quickly on the night train and awoke as the train was pulling into its destination of Thiruvananthapuram (cities and towns around here have massive names) in the neighbouring state of Kerala. From there I grabbed another passenger train up to Kollum where due to delays I missed the ongoing boat by about 6 minutes. I hung out in Kollum for the day and awoke today to catch the boat north to Allupezah, where I am now. The 8 hour boatride was fantastic as it wove through some rural villages along the waterways and is probably one of the highlights of the trip so far. Tomorrow I catch an early bus up to Kochi, where I grab a 30 hour train to Mumbai for the reception with ole Jas.

So far probably the best thing about India has been the food. Not just the Indian food (which typically doesnt sit well with the stomach but is still very good) but the chinese and "westernised" versions of food that they have here. Getting used to eating with only your right hand (although you're allowed to drink with your left, making buffalo rules easy to follow) and the complete lack of any sort of utensils has taken some time, but I can now flick it into my mouth as good as the locals and I no longer get curry covered rice all the way up to my elbow. Also, I can't stop taking pictures of the cattle. So many of them have jewelry and other strange things attached to them and its great watching traffic and people frantically move out of their way.