Its Pissing Down in South India
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
4
21
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Somewhere in Deepest Kerela,
India
Thursday, May 6, 2004
Well I am sure you will be glad to know that it has been literally bucketing out of the heavens here for the last four days and our progress has been seriously impeded. On a positive side this rain takes a lot of the heat away. On the negative side the humidity is about 100% so it is quite uncomfortable.
We are currently staying in a guest house for the mammoth sum of 5 Euros a night. In our room we have several cockroaches mossies etc. Oh least I forget we also have a lizard running about the room, although it mostly sticks to the ceiling! So we are at one with nature. The people in the house are very friendly and even picked us up from the train station last night.
Speaking of trains our train was only delayed for three hours yesterday! The trains are difficult to describe but I enjoyed the experience. We are considering getting one up to Agra from Madras but may fly as the train takes 35 hours.
We left Bangalore on Sunday and headed to a place called Mysore. Toured around it for a few days/ There is a fantastic palace there which is lit up by some 97000 bulbs every night. I have to say I was impressed.
In Mysore we went to the Zoo . It was mad. I don't know how to describe it but there is obviously no RSPCA here. There where massive tigers kept in concrete rooms which where 10ft by 6ft. Not only was this rough enough but the locals where pissed that the animals didn't move. The locals constantly bombarded the poor animals with anything that they could find close at hand food pebbles etc.
It was real mob rule, if an animal moved in an enclosure that we where visiting you would have to stand back or the human stampede would literally have run over the top of you. They (humans) stampeded from one enclosure to another based on any movement from the animals. We only went round a bit of the zoo and then decided to leave. On our way out these Indian guys started demanding a picture of me. I explained that the Zoo animals where elsewhere but for a hundred rupees I would consider selling myself. I think Roisin was secretly disappointed that they didn't want a picture of her :)
Another thing about Indian culture. It is totally taboo for Roisin and myself to hug in the street. However everywhere you go you see all the males from child to adult walking around hand in hand or with their arms around each other. You very rarely see a man holding hands with a woman here. Its a bit strange but I have taken several pictures as evidence to back this up.
I have another cracker about Indian culture that certainly would not go down well at home. The elections here are staged over four weeks. From what I read in the local papers most politicians here are even more corrupt than those at home. To try and stop politicians buying votes the sale of alcohol is prohibited in a state where the election is taking place for the two days prior to an election as well as the election itself. We came across this in GOA and had to stock up on beer in our room during the election there. Now unfortunately the election takes place in Kerela on the 9th so we will probably find it difficult to buy a beer for the next few days
