Kovalam/Trivandrum

No diary this time, and not many photos as my camera died.



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Madurai

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Pondicherry - Monsoon honeymoon

Have just updated what we have been up to recently.
Why am I doing this on my honeymoon?
Well its monsoon season at the moment, and it rained all day while I had a little siesta that lasted too long. Maurice is back at the hotel sleeping normaly.

Tiruvannamali - Shiva festival

We arranged to meet at 11am outside our hotel. Some were incredibly punctual (well done Einet and shuky!) while others not mentioning any names, Chad, we still in bed at 1130.
We were off in good time though, passing small villages and colourful temples. Women in multi coloured saris brightening up the green/grey landscape, picking rice from the rice paddies.
Wild traffic as usual, swerving in and out of other beaches, never slowing down slower than 25kph (until we stopped at our destination)
We went to see the religious rituals that happen once a year here on the the full moon. Hindu devotees come here to celebrate the life of Shiva, either climbing the imposing mountain that dominates  the town or walking the 14 Kms around it.

We arrived in the town and went for lunch just opposite where we had parked, all ordering different meals, causing obvious confusion to the waiting staff.

After filling up, we set out to tackle the walk up the mountain. Apparently, a four hour return trip. the views were absolutely amazing and we gained a lot of height quite quickly, leaving the noise and smells of the town behind us.
Mt. Arunachalswar started off quite steep, with people living on the path a good way up the hillside.

We were, inevitably, joined by an Indian guy who wanted to guide us up and around the mountain - into religious caves and past temples.

We got close to the top (after passing a terribly smooth, steep, shear rock face that was slippery and shiny with rain that had fallen a few minutes earlier) and then realised that we still had quite a way to go before getting to the top. The sun would be going down soon, so we decided that we would start to go back down again as it was staring to rain "no! no rain!! you can make it to the top!" our wonderful 'guide' tried to convince us, despite the rain pouring down his face.
We decided to ignore his advice and go back.
The rock face that we had tackled a few meters earlier was even more slipperly thanks to the down pour, but much less daunting than before as I followed some other Indians AROUND it, instead of following our 'guide' across the stupid thing.
Our 'guide' had latched onto us, I suspected , for money. As usual. He was really frustrating me, stressing me out on this rock face and directing us without being asked. I should say though that I d regret snapping at him a few times as when we had arrived at the bottom of the mountain, he jumped onto his moped and without saying goodbye, rode off! we were all really stunned to see him go, but not surprised when he found us again later...but still not asking for money!

After a well deserved Chai, a new guide found us, and took us to an Ashram. We had a look round, but I didn't really understand the whole thing, so left quite soon.
We all left the Ashram and started to walk back into town. Maurice passed a woman, who on seeing a cow next to her doing a wee, caught some of it mid flow and 'blessed' herself in it showering Maurice with cow wee. Hilarious!!
We arrived back in town and after a little break at a roadside cafe were were off again, joining the masses entering the temple.
Absolutely stunning structure - one of the largest in India. It has four large towers (?) in absolute symmetry and covered with carvings of all the gods and deities. The art , the colour, carvings, and consistency of everything in the temple just amazes me!.
A few of us walked around the temple, through one of the towers where we watched devotees lining up for blessings and prayers around the centre piece of a sculpted Shiva statue.
After a while we exited the temple from a different direction and walked back barefooted through the streets (and cow poo) to the car. Once we were all back it was getting late so we started to make our way back.

So that was our trip. I slept most of the way back, occasionally jumping at the sound of laughter from behind us in the car from our new friends.
Beautiful.

Planning an excursion

Yesterday Maurice and I decided that we wanted to go to a religious festival that is happening over the next two days, but to go on our own would be too expensive. So we spent the whole day asking other travellers if they would like to join us and hire a car for the day. We asked our neighbours first (Kiran and Marnie - UK, Germany) who jumped at the chance - so that got the ball rolling to find more people to join us.and to get a good price on a car.
The next two, Claire and Ollie- UK, were also easy to convince . They had missed many festivals since being here and were really up for it.
We walked further, asking on the way about car hire an met Chad- Canada on the street. He was interested, so we arranged to meet him later too. Jeremy -France was the same, if a little nervous when we bombarded us with questions!.
Next was Einet - Israel who when we asked her, replied "well lets just go!" and said her friend would be into it also.
By then we had found a good car, for all of us, return for 3500.

Everyone arrived at our hotel at 6pm and we arranged the time to leave and got t know each other for a couple of hours. Maurice left us and went to the gym, while we carried on chatting and then went out for a meal.
It was so wonderful being in a big group of people. We all got on so well (so far so good!) and fan having so many great conversations going on around the table.

We should seriously do this type of thing for a living!

Bollywood again?!

Yesterday Maurice came back with the news that we were invited to be extras on another Bollywood movie set! we jumped at the chance to get our mugs on the camera once again (see the India posts on the blog http://www.wherethedevisbecci.blogspot.com/) and arranged to be ready by 8 am today.
We were ready by 8AM, but hey, this is India and we were all in the car by 10. We had awoken to the beginning of the Monsoon (yup, the rains have started late, they should have finished by now) and I was expecting it to be cancelled.
So, 10 of us piled into a car and set ff towards Chennai around an hour away to a massive 'exclusive' hotel where they had made a theme park set in the grounds of the hotel. It was only until we had eaten a massive 'serve yourself/all you can eat' breakfast that we were told that the shoot was cancelled!
We both had big plans for the day as we drove back top Mamallapurim, but when we got there, we both fell fast asleep for a couple of hours! we woke feeling fresh, better and the sun was coming out hooray!
We went for a long walk down the beach (followed by a mad beggar woman, who was not deterred by our usual words to beggars) and around back again into town throughout the rock temple area.
I have not read/learnt much about this area yet, but there are many temples carved out of rocks, dating from the Palava Dynasty. I have no idea when this was but it sounds rather tragic!

Mamallapurim

We arrived in Chennai after a wonderful flight from Melbourne with Singapore airlines. Who needs first class when you have such a great company, food, space and free Singapore slings all the way?
We took a car straight from the airport to Mamallapurim, as we wanted to get straight there instead of staying a night in Chennai, which would probably lead to 2 considering jet lag. Had a good journey, and quite a good deal considering we have not bargained for a while. We arrived quite late at night, waking up the owner to get a room.
I woke up the next morning to absolute silence. Wondering where I was, I checked the time. 9 AM. Why was it so quiet? I looked around, yup, in the same room that w checked into lat night, yep in India..... Then I took out my earplugs and India came to life.
Fortunately though, its a very peaceful town here, its nearly midday now and its still not too loud and busy.
I am sitting on the balcony of our room listening to banging and clinking of tools scraping away at some stone carvings.
So far it looks really nice here, the town is not too busy as the season has not really started yet, so the shops are open and ready, but there is none of the usual hard pushing for sales which is really good for us.