Day 8

Day 8

April 18, 9:12 am, Mamallapuram
Sorry about that last one. I was so exhausted that I started writing
jibrish so I decided I better just stop and go to bed. Anyway, this is
a nice little town. It is much smaller and quieter than Vellore, so
it's nice to get away from that. It's also right on the beach, which
is cool. Yesterday we ate lunch at a little place on the beach. All of
us had prawns. It was pretty good. My stomach was still a little off
though, so I didn't eat a ton.

I am feeling much better though, as a side note. Thank goodness that
the food poisoning stuff only lasts for a day or two, because it would
really suck if it was longer! For that day you feel like you will
never want to eat again. It's horrible. But I'm pretty close to 100%
today, so it's all good.

After lunch yesterday we wandered around town. We headed over to the
shore temple but decided to wait and go today since it was going to be
closing soon. That and the five rathas. There is a joint admission
ticket for the two of them. It's Rs 250 for foreigners, Rs 10 for
Indians.

This place has lots of tourists. The hotel we are staying at, sea
breeze, is pretty much all white people. It's expensive too! Paying
more than at the Aavana for a non-AC room. Oh well, at least they have
a beautiful pool and free breakfast. The pool felt great this morning
before breakfast. But back to yesterday... since there are so many
tourists the people here are very good at working you to buy their
stuff. This town is known for it's stone carvers, and they are all
over town. I guess it's been that way for years, because there is all
the ancient stonework here too. It's pretty cool. Okay we're getting
ready to head out. I'll finish later.

10:54 pm, Pondicherry
Okay it's later, but I really don't feel much like writing. I'm
starting to realize that India is very much a love/hate relationship
and I'm currently leaning towards the hate end. Don't get me wrong,
we're in Pondicherry right now and it's really nice. I just can't
fully enjoy it because my stomach is bugging me. My bowels are not
moving now, I guess because of the imodium and pepto I took, and I
just feel sick. I don't want to eat anything and I feel nauseated.
Sucks, especially because Pondicherry has some great places to eat!

The other thing is the heat. It is almost unbearable well you are
feeling fine, but throw in some stomach problems and a little nausea
and it's just downright hellish. Seriously, it is sweltering. Even the
Indians think it's too hot and complain.

That being said, Pondicherry (or Puducherry as it's called now) is
pretty awesome. It's where the French used to be and you definitely
feel the French flair here. Definitely in the architecture, as well as
in the well-shaded, well-paved, wide boulevards. It really doesn't
feel like the rest of India that we've seen.

They have a very nice main boulevard that goes along the sea. It's
very pretty and tonight it was packed with people. It seems the whole
town is out there enjoying the ocean breeze and the relative cool of
sundown.

We spent a couple of hours on the bus today from Mamallapuram. I sat
next to a really nice man, Jalil. He was from Chennai and on his way
to Pondy for a wedding tomorrow. I asked him if it would be a big
party and he said yes, except without strong drink because they are
Muslim. I explained to him that in my religion we don't drink strong
drink either and he was very happy about that. It was nice to be able
to talk to someone here, because I feel that is how you really get to
know a place. I think too many Americans come here, and to other
places, with a sort of attitude that they better than these people, or
that it is them vs. us, you know? Like every Indian you meet it trying
to swindle you or something, and so they are never really friendly
with the people. They come and see their country and their sights and
bargain with them so as not to pay too much for something they want,
but they don't actually take any time to be friendly with the people.

Sorry for the soapbox. Just something I've observed.

So anyway, it was nice to get to know Jalil (maybe Halil?) a little.
He is a truck driver... drives goods from Chennai all the way up to
Agra, which he said usually takes about 5 days. 3 at the very least.
He has a wife and 2 daughters, the older of which is getting married
on May 10th. He taught me a couple of words... nandri is thank you in
Tamil, and I think it was Vanacom that means good morning/afternoon/
evening, which is also accompanied with the little hands together in
front of you bow/head bob thing. At least that's how he did it.

We spent a good chunk of our time today eating at the nice place... I
can't remember the name. Really we were just hanging out there, only
ate a little. But it was a really nice place with AC and TVs (had to
watch cricket). Much nicer than anything we've seen until now.

We're stating at some international guest house. It's not bad. No AC,
but a toilet and shower head. It's an Ashram place. Apparently Ashram
is some blend of like yoga and modern science that started here and a
lot of people come here to practice or study it. So they have these
Ashram guest houses.

The morning in Mamallapuram was pretty nice too. Saw the Shore Temple
and the Five Rathas. Pretty cool stonework from like the 7th century
AD. Yesterday we hired a guy to give us a walking tour of some of the
other sights. It was pretty interesting. Nice guy, very informative.
Hinduism is so complicated. So many different people and stories to
remember! It's hard to keep them all straight, but interesting.

Vishnu is, apparently, a favorite though. He is the protector and I
think there are more temples and more worship of him.

Anyway, I could probably go on all night. I didn't intend to write so
much. I need to put on some more Off before I go to sleep. I think
this place has mosquitoes. Ugh.

day 8 photos