R-O-C-K in the USA

It's Sunday night and I've been home since Thursday. Jon's having a bbq and a bunch of people are heading to Meijers, apparently to purchase a kiddie pool and some jello (!). Not sure how that's going to work out - should at least be entertaining.

I promised an update on our trip to Coorg. We took a sleeper train on our way out, and I managed to sleep for most of the 9.5 hour journey. Upon our arrival in Mysore, we ate breakfast (Indian coffee and local bread & dips) and started on a long car journey to a town in Coorg. The car trip was over two hours long and increadibly bumpy. Most of the roads were only one lane and not exactly smooth, so the trip envolved alot of swerving. As I told R right after we arrived in Madras, driving in India basically means ignoring every instinct that you might have while driving in the US. Near death is a normal experience. We finally got to our hotel around 2pm, in time for a lunch of tasty North Indian fare. R was a bit too queasy for lunch, since she sat in the back of the car with all the luggage.

We hung out around the hotel and took in all the beautiful views of the hills and towns. Coorg is much cooler than Madras (70s & 80s instead of the 90s) and less humid (60 percent instead of 80 percent) so we could sit without fans or AC and feel comfortable. We also visited a fantasitic waterfall and several temples nearby. The walk from the car to the waterfall was several miles down steps in a bright, green forest, which was difficult for R's mom and grandma. When we arrived, people were bathing in the sacred (but probably dirty) water at the base of the falls).

On our second day, we started with what is likely the one of the best temples that we visited. There were views of the surrounding mountains from inside the temple, and the wood carvings 0n the roof are quiet unusual. I also managed to check my e-mail at the tiniest internet cafe that I have ever visited. The connection was high speed, but also really slow, and cheap! Irony abounds in all things.

We left the first town and took another bumpy ride to Mysore on our third day. We visited an amazing Budhist temple & school on our way, as well as a lovely woodland resort. The temple, which is not listed in most guidebooks, contained 60 + foot high golden statues of three important Budhist teachers, including Budha himself, along with hundreds of paintings of gods. I started feeling sick the night before, so I started my diet of bland food (which lasted until the end of the trip).

In Mysore, we checked into a great hotel. In India, most of the bathrooms have a drain for the shower, with a bucket and a tap and sometimes a showerhead. Because of this fact, most of the toilets get soaked every time someone washes up. This hotel actually had a bath tub, which made me feel really at home. The hotel owner even sent someone out for toilet paper (most people in India douche) when he saw me. The night of our arrival we checked out the fountain light show in a garden famous in the Bollywood movies of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Like the train station in Chennai, it was increadibly crowded. Like, OhmyGodIcantbreathfromallthesepeoplewhatifIgetlost crowded. But the light show was pretty neat.

We saw the beautiful palace at Mysore the next day. The palace has a lovely temple next to it, along with some rather sad-looking elephants and camels for childrens rides. Being sick meant that (in part from desperation) I used my first India-style-hole-in-the-ground-toilet, which really isn't that bad (doesn't matter if it's dirty, since only your feet touch the thing). We then went to a summer palace of a famous, 1800s Indian warrior king (fought the British). The palace, composed of intricate paintings on every wood surface, is crumbling, but it must have been beautiful in its day. I imagine that some of the great monuments of Europe reached this state before they were revitalised in the last century. I hope that India's riches can be restored, but I also hope that the poor of India recieve the attention that they need & deserve first.

Our train back to Chennai was also a night train. It was good that I decided that Indian toilets were okay, since I had to use another one (with a handle for balance) on the train back. I slept on the top bunk this time, wich was fine, except that the air vent freaked me out a bit (I kept thinking something would crawl out of it, since it was right next to my face).

On our first day back in Chennai, we went to the wedding of R's second cousin. I wore a salwar kemis (spelling?) to the first ceremony. At the second, R & her mom dressed me up in a blue & pink silk sari, along with excellent safire jewlery. I have to show my parents the picture's, since R's mom was excited to hear their reactions. Everyone who saw me seemed amused, and R's mom said that it was hard to drape a sari on someone so tall (I'm only 5'7", but that's tall for South India).

The next day was my last in Chennai. We took care of some last minute shopping (a shirt for my dad, some bangles for a friend). R had to spend the afternoon taking care of her passport so that she can return to the US in a few months. Her mom was really nice, and she took me to the airport in the late afternoon. I had a nice chat with some of the family before I left, along with a renewed invite to visit some really nice people in Dehli if I make it out to Sylvie's wedding this December.

Getting through the airports was a bit rough. I forgot that I had to get my checked baggage examined by security before I could check in and check the baggage for the flight. In the baggage line, several people just walked in front of the people waiting for no explicable people. In spite of only having a few people in line, the check in line took over 45 minutes. A nice guy from Burma, who turned out to be in a group of 6 after I got in line behind him) let me go first with my one bag.

I had to stop in Dehli on my way to Amsterdam. I made the mistake of going through security for my flight right away, so that I had to sit in the area with no shops or magazines of 3.5 hours before my flight (the area just outside had some stuff to do).

I'll write some more about Copenhagen (my next stop) soon. I have mixed feelings about India. It was beautiful and too hot. Eating with your fingers is not so bad (but I had to lick mine off after each bite, while the locals let the food pile on). A motorcycle can apparently fit 3 adult men or a family of five, but that doesn't seem safe to me. I like that they have saved the trees, but I'm not sure that it's worth compromising safety to let them stand in the middle of the (mostly lane-free) roads. I think that, if they can do something about the intense poverty & the disparity between the rich & the poor, and fix the infrastructure (safe roads & public transportation) and clean everything up, South India could be on a fast track to being something amazing. I guess I just didn't realize that it was still so far from being a developed nation.

Oh, and Sylvie's taste is downright subtle by Indian standards (giant plastic rubbies surrounded by fake diamonds are shiek). :)