Wildlife and wild nights
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2004
1
7
53
Trip End
Aug 15, 2005
Chennai and Pondicherry,
India
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Periyar was much cooler, we even had to get our fleece and jeans out in the evening. The town its self was really pretty, surrounded by mountains. We went on a 3 hour tour which included a visit to a spice garden, a look at an amazing tall waterfall and a view point which was looking down 2000 meters onto the plains of a different state - Tamil Nadu
Cil. Steve and Liz
. The spice garden was extremely interesting. Amongst other plants we saw cinnamon, cardamom, chillies, curry leaves, aloe vera, pepper, ginger, tamarind, henna, turmeric, saffron, etc etc . . . later on that day we caught the last boat cruise to take us round the lake in the middle of the sanctuary. We were really lucky to see every animal except tigers, which are very rarely sighted. We saw 2 herds of elephants, there was mummy, daddy and baby elephant at the lakes edge and aunt and uncle in the background. We also saw some wild dear, water otters, bison and wild boar.
We had a couple of nights there and to save time so the boys could catch the cricket we got a taxi to Madurai train station to get the train to Chennai. Another glorious taxi journey ensued, as we descended down from the hills in Kerala we entered the state of Tamil Nadu where we preceded to travel along miles and miles of plains between 2 sets of hills. The roads were surrounded on both sides by beautiful Tamarind trees creating one massive avenue with paddy fields, pineapple groves and sugar cane fields behind the Tamarind trees. These surroundings lasted for about 4 hours until we reached the city of Madurai, and it was Madurai train station where i went to the worst toilets that i have ever been to - much worse than the toilet in Edinburgh in 'Train Spotting' I walked into the ladies and the floor is swamped in brown liquid, and there in the middle of the floor is a woman squat down pulling up her sari having a piss, so I walk in to one of the AVAILABLE toilets and have to dodge the Indian turds to do my thing
Elephant ride in Periyar
. Is there any need for these beautifully dressed and elegant women to shit and wee in the middle of the floor! Gordon Bennet!! I can appreciate how this might happen in the streets due to the large amount of homeless people but when there are 5 free toilets I mean come on!During the night on the train Rich was fast asleep and then got woken up by something which he could only describe as a wet feeling on his hand. He stirred and awoke to find an Indian man kissing his hand and then walking off out the carriage!!!!!!!!!!! now we have learnt since being in India that the men are very tactile to each other and we often see men holding hands in the street but this was just a little weird!!! We met a girl a couple of weeks ago who also found a man kissing her feet on a train! Indians!
We got into Chennai at 5.30am and checked into a grotty hotel across the road from the train station. Now this room was more like what I was expecting all budget accommodation to look and smell like, very much like a cell room and the bathroom stunk. but hey it had a TV and a fairly comfy bed and this was going to be my home for 12 hours while Rich, Steve and Cil went to catch the Zzzzzzzzzzzz . . . cricket
So over to Rich to let him explain exactly what its like to queue up and purchase tickets for the cricket in India:
So we left Liz and caught a rickshaw to the Chepauk stadium and got there about 7.45am early we thought for a game that started at 9.45am
Pondy at night
. As we arrived at the stadium the queues were already about 600 meters long for all the entrances. However the atmosphere was already building as there were flag sellers, face painters, horn sellers and Indian musicians playing country Indian music on traditional instruments creating a real buzz around the ground. After about an hour the queue still hadn't moved and Steve began to get a bit worried that we might not get into the ground and Cil was getting disappointed because every Aussie that we saw was pig ugly. Our minds however were put at rest by the really friendly Indians that were in the queue behind us as they said we would have no problem getting in and the queues were still getting longer and longer. At about 9.15 the gates opened and our queue started to move only for us to get about 20 meters away and then stop again, as policeman were pushing people back from the gate, after about 10 minutes we were back on the move again and we got to the gate pretty quick and this was where the fun really started. As you entered the gate you then had to walk down a little alleyway with walls on either side where all the people from outside were herded in like cattle, it was just one massive free for all as everyone was pushing trying to get to another gate on the inside - imagine an old football terrace with the crowd swaying except you are in 40C heat and there is no room for your feet to move anywhere and people are getting crushed, children crying and the Indians just don't give a shit all they are bothered about is getting to the gate 1st
Ranjit under the moon at the beach
. This lasted for about another 20 minutes when eventually the alleyway opens out into a little square where we managed to catch our breath. At this point we met an Australian couple where the woman was petrified, crying and shaking with shock at the experience. Just as we thought we were getting somewhere we realized that in the little square we came face to face with typical Indian bureaucracy, there were 3 turnstiles for people with tickets and 1 window where you could actually purchase a ticket so the scrummaging, pushing and crushing started all over again with everyone trying to get to the 1 window whilst the other 3 were totally empty. At this point I handed my Indian flag I had bought for the day and sunglasses over to Steve and really went for it Indian style to try and get tickets whilst Steve and Cil took a break in the square. After about 10 more minutes, now totally drenched with sweat i was getting close to the ticket office about 10 feet away. At this point it was total mayhem and every man for himself, when all of a sudden about 10 police came to sort it all out Indian style, they started battering people over their legs and heads with massive sticks to try an get some sort of reasonable queue going and there was I in my shorts getting ready for a whack with a massive cane. At one point they dragged someone out and I got pushed back about 10 feet I was getting nowhere, fortunately a police man must have seen this and grabbed hold of my elbow a took me about 4 feet from the front of the queue - I was nearly there. Pushing as hard as I could I got to the ticket office and got our 3 tickets and from there on in it was a breeze, up to any 1 of the 3 empty turnstiles and into the ground where we found it only half full and nearly an hour into the game - why can't they just open the gates 2 hours earlier I just don't know. Now the actual cricket - the atmosphere was fantastic all day especially whenever the Indians took a wicket. And just one more toilet story before I go - after tea Cil was desperate for a piss and bearing in mind Liz's experience the night before was not looking forward to going at a cricket match
Rich and Steve - border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala
. Apparently again the floor was covered in piss and shit and women were squatting down anywhere having a piss whilst there were free cubicles. Cil went into a cubicle to find shit all around the floor nowhere near the toilet and when she came out and went to wash her hands found a woman squatting down and having a shit right next to the sink. Lovely folk hey?Its me again. Well you now know a little about the toilet habits in Indian and the lack of queuing. But we are now in the south east of India in a town called Pondicherry and it's close to heaven. Many moons ago the British fought with the French over this port town and the French won and boy are we happy! for the past 3 days we've had baguette after baguette, camembert cheese, wine, decent coffee (the Indian coffee is very milky and comes with about 6 sugars) and have thus satisfied our cravings. Pondy is very different to other towns in India, its still got manic traffic and plenty of beggars but its generally a wealthier place with lovely french colonial architecture and cobbled streets. The guide book says you'll probably end up staying here longer than you think and we're already planning on staying 3 more days before we get back on the road to head up to the far north. Unfortunately because of the Divali festival and another one which we can't remember the name of, the trains up to Varanasi and Darjeeling are booked up for 4 weeks, so instead of putting ourselves on the waiting lists and hoping for the best we've decided to knock Varanasi and the north east on the head and instead just spend some more time in Utteranchal and Himal Pradesh in the far north up by the Himalayas.
