South INDIA 1995-1996

Tuesday December 12: Got up at 7 and showered, packed and cleaned house. Gray, 55°F, "worst storm in a decade" forecast. Giff picked us up at 11:15 and took us to SeaTac. 100 mph on Oregon coast reported. A bit bumpy at take-off but not bad.

Arrived 4:15, took bus to terminal 2, but Air India office closed, but talked to them on phone and then bus 5:20 to Radisson Hotel in Narita. Very slow ride (43 minutes) via Terminal 1 and many stoplights.

Got a room, watched TV, had so-so dinner (kind of like Moscow hotels) - but it is free. Watched CNN in evening, partly in Japanese. Discovered that Air Condition meant heat - good. It was chilly in the room. Crashed 10:00.

Thursday December 14: Woke up 3 after 5 hours sleep, then slept on and off until 5:30. Had breakfast, buffet, and took a walk around 8. Sunny but chilly, lots of traffic, pollution, most was closed. A few nice gardens, but Chiba was a disappointment. Back 9:40.

Spoke to an Indian woman from around San Francisco going to Pune for a wedding (for about one hour). She disliked British. Went back into town looking for a Japanese restaurant but returned 1 hour 10 minutes later with no luck - nobody would take credit cards and we had no yens.

So dined in restaurant at our own expense. Nice and sunny outside. Took a shower. Bus left 2:30 (23 minutes ride this time). Had a beer while waiting. Plane 45 minutes late (baggage problem).

Somewhat dilapidated, but not bad. Good Indian vegetarian dinner and strong tea. Rested most of the time, but barely slept. Good leg room. Arrived Delhi 1:40 am. Nice Indian music (only one runway!).

Friday December 15: Arrived Bombay 4:15, 50 minutes late. Airport not as modern as expected. Long confusing lines to immigration. Changed $100 and looked for bus. 1 hour wait, so paid Rs 200 for taxi. Taxis everywhere! Looked just like 18 years ago. Still dark when we arrived at Victoria Terminus railway station.

Had a few idlisand vadas (?) and coffee/tea (sweet). After lots of running around we left our packs, took a walk while waiting for reservation office to open at 8:00. Eventually got sleeper for Solapur at 10 pm.

Walked towards Gateway of India. Such traffic, honking, people, vendors, hawkers, etc.! Looks just like the India I left so long ago. Again - it is hard to fathom this incredible change after stepping off the airplane. Months of preparation were not enough!

Stopped in Kerala Hotel and had Masala Dosa - excellent - and coffee. Got to Gateway at 9:25 and got on a boat at 9:30. Sunny and warm, nice ride with breeze, murky water, hazy, 1 hour ride. Hot walk up the steps along lots of vendors. Nice temple, especially Siva 3-headed statue, but still disappointment compared to Ellora. A few monkeys.

Walked down, had guava and oranges and beer. Spoke to native resident, who spoke English well. 1500 inhabitants, grew rice during monsoon. Missed the 12:45 boat by 1 minute - it was on time! So the next one ½hour later was 15 minutes late. Less hazy returning, so saw Bombay's skyline through the haze.

Walked to Punjabi restaurant and had excellent food: curd, thick dal, chana curry, lime and water (though many things on menu not available). I'm not at all disappointed over Indian food (I was a bit worried before).

Then bought Surain batik dress and myself "pajamas" pants. Strolled around, sat down on lawn next to Gateway of India. Sleepy, little girl joined us and talked to us for quite a while. Gave her ice-cream. Other little girl snuggled up to me for an hour or so. It was getting dark, so we checked some stores.

Taxi back to VT and marvelled at driving styles and lack of margins. Had thali dinner (shared) which was OK but not as good as the other food we had tried. Then waited in waiting room about an hour. Second class sleeper was better than expected, padded. Train was fast but made many stops, not really "express".

Saturday December 16: I hardly slept at all, though bed was OK. A few smokers, but nothing like China or Tanzania. Beautiful sunrise. Eventually arrived 9:05, ½hour late after slow going at end. Not wanting to wait 4½hours for a train, we took an auto-rickshaw to bus station and hopped on a bus to Bijapur. Grabbed some hot snacks.

Nice guy with very limited English tried to converse. Very bumpy ride, but fast. Found nice but rather basic hotel within walking distance. Showered - badly needed! Clean clothes - first time since we left.

Went out for lunch, pulao and masala dosa, both very good. Took a horse-cart to the station to confirm the departure time for the Badami train - 6:40. Then climbed over to Gol Gumbaz - very impressive tomb, built in 1557 and largest unsupported dome in the world. The whispering chamber was a cacophony of voices as school-children yelled out. More and more seemed to arrive all the time. Most of them asked us our names - "sjuksköterska" and "Homo homo nuku nuku wapua a". Walked up to the top for good views. Saw beautiful, green parakeets dart around on the walls.

Then headed out and took another horse-cart to Jama Masjid, which was nice but not as impressive. More children asked for our names, giggled at them, asked for baksheesh, didn't mind having their picture taken. Walked home via several other monuments.

Had masala dosa and uttaiki (?) for dinner, good. Nice bed, mosquito net, SLEPT finally several hours.

Sunday December 17: We got up at 5:15. Got an auto-ricksha and reached station about 6. Many asleep there. Had good uppuma for breakfast - the vegetable was green chilli. Many school-children came down to wash and others filled water.

Train left 7:05, 25 minutes late. Meter gauge. Fairly crowded but all could sit. Read and chatted a bit with Indians. Rajasthani women at one stop (like we had seen them yesterday) with all their metal decoration around their faces. Incredibly interesting watching all going on, but impossible to describe. Why did we wait 18 years to return to India?

Got to Badami 10:25 and rode an horse-cart the 5 km to town. Found good room in Mookimba Hotel for 125. (though tourists said it was full 10 seconds before that). Had lunch (rice stuff - good) and tried to get on bus to Pattadakal. Was told it was more than one hour wait, so took an auto-ricksha there for 125 (22 km). Slow ride, bumpy, but quite interesting.

Pattadakal's temples fascinating. Lots of school children, some recognized us from Bijapur. Shook many hands. Made a quick 1-hour tour to catch the 1:45 bus to Aihole. Man told us no bus until 4:30 (Badami bus station had told us 1:45 and 3:45). Eventually believed him. He was a temple attendant and wanted to show us "his" temple by the river. We accompanied him there and were not disappointed - this was the best temple. He allowed us to use flash (not allowed according to sign at other temples). Interesting to walk thorugh part of the village to this temple.

Just barely got on the 2:15 tempo back to Badami. It was extremely full, as packed as could be. When Surain took a picture when it stopped, we were asked to take more - and one to send to a woman. People don't mind having their picture taken! Went back to hotel for short rest.

Then on to the caves. Very interesting walk through town, extremely friendly people, e.g. the man who wanted his very young daughter to walk out and talk to us.

Lots of people at the caves, mostly school-children. Several groups of mostly men wanted us in THEIR picture! And again children, smiling, laughing, shaking hands, wanted their picture taken, wanted us to send them a copy [it is strange how safe I feel here, how little I worry to have anything stolen. People are just extremely curious and friendly. And no signs of starvation. This is such a difference from at least my first journey here. The other big difference is the many-fold increase in motorized traffic.] The caves are wounderful, some with exquisite carvings, much better than Elephanta. This is the way I remember Indian carvings.

On the way back we stop at small stall and have green chilli bhajji and tea. A man comes up with his daughter (quite young) to have the picture taken. We have another good dinner, thali (spicy rasam!) and masala dosa. On the way back a man who speaks good English talks us into having him guide us to some stone inscriptions tomorrow. Showered.

Monday December 18: Again hard to sleep, but slept several hours early on with a few mosquitos buzzing - no mosquito net. Got up 5:25, had some sweets and tea. Our guide showed up a few minutes after 6.

Started 6:10 in darkness but not pitch black, walking at a good clip. Up over rocks, some sand. Cactus. Saw 2 rabbits. Beautiful sunrise. Got to interesting dolmen 6:55 with giant feet preserved in stone. 8,000 years old (or maybe 15,000) according to our guide. Then on to cave with old writing and some pictographs. Writing was hieroglyphs (except old Kannada in one place). Several thousand people lived here. Plenty of water from cracks, cactus. The people may now survive in Ladakh.

Saw "astronaut" and headed back to Badami, 8:50. 2:40 hours was a record according to guide since 22 years. Packed quickly and had poori and potatoe vegetables. Horse-tonga to station.

Train not too crowded. Had a nice ride and spoke with several people. Got to Gadag at 12:25. 3 hour wait for next train, so walked "1 km" to bus station, which was much farther. Eventually got there at 1:15. It was kind of like a zoo, so we took auto-ricksha back to station. Had idli and sugarless tea. Wrote postcards in waiting room with some kids hanging around.

On the train a man was sitting on the floor the whole time, like we had seen a woman before. Untouchable?

At Hospet took a ricksha to Malligi Hotel, which was kind of a chock. Very Indian, but with so many ? and services, TV and a/c on room. Left laundry with a guy and walked to restaurant, which was kind of hard to find. Oranges, oranges. So many jewellers! An Andhra Pradesh restaurant was very good, South Thali. A place resewed my straps to green backpack. Had lime soda in very nice courtyard. Sort throat.

Tuesday December 19: Slept poorly again, mostly towards end. Sore throat, ate vitamin C. Showered. Had breakfast downstairs, uppuma. Tried to reserve train towards Belur, but couldn't, but did find out about a night train from Hubli.

Got on the tour at 9:00, minibus with about 15 people, we being the only westerners. English-speaking, somewhat hard to understand. Indian style of tour - packed full of things to see and do, much talk by the guide but no time at all for us to stroll around. Guide had whistle to call his sheep to order - but it did help.

First temple Virupaksha, very crowded with Indians and many tourists. Still in use as a temple. OK carvings, but not outstanding. Lots of food carts outside, we took several pictures. Rest of temples much less crowded, and only one an active one. Also fewer westerners, but the walk is long. Saw many nice temples.

Stopped at one place for cane juice, first time for us - very good. Several of the Indians talked to us. At lunch we shared table with a couple from Bangalore. Nice North Indian food. Again, drank the water.

The last temple, Vittala, was the best with an incredible amount of carvings. A man demonstrated the music pillars - amazing that stone pillars could serve as musical instruments. With a roof it would have been louder. Then we drove to the museum and the dam. Dam impressive and large - could barely see across.

Back at hotel we got our laundry back - clean! The smoke man came again to deter mosquitos from entering.

Had dinner downstairs - way too mild! OK, kind of expensive. Chatted with a British woman for a while. Sore throat.

Wednesday, December 20: Slept better, until 3:30 at least, no sore throat. Got up at 6+, walked to bus station and went to Hampi - not too crowded. Breakfast at small place - overpriced. Tourist told us Hampi was the only place he would get sick at - great!

Walked along river, nice stroll along several ruins. Were almost alone at Vittala tempel for ½ hour - quite nice. Buses started arriving, so we strolled back past some other ruins. Nice views. One hour wait for bus back, which was extremely crowded (and cost 3:25 instead of 2:25).

Looked for bank to cash travellers checks with older British couple, were told there was no bank in Hospet to do that. Had excellent lunch at Andhra restaurant - hot!

At hotel, money exchanger was gone until evening, so I rushed out to State Bank of India to exchange $100 in cash (Monika Travel charged 3% for T/C plus 1% lower rate!) Then we took ricksha to station and got ticket to Hubli (bank would only give Rs. 5 in coins).

Train not very crowded. Got into Hubli at 19:45 (scheduled at 20:15) and bought tickets to Kadur. Had to talk to train TC (ticket collector) to get sleeper.

Station had TV and other gadgets. Had good thali dinner and again drank the water. Sat in waiting room till train arrived. Then mad rush to find the TC. Were directed to front of train, talked to TC ("goto S/6"). Sat there for a while. Then talked to TC who said "train is fully booked", but second TC told us to go to S/3. There we sat down with nicely dressed Indian, who also wanted sleeper.

Train left at 22:00, but long time before TC showed up, slightly drunk (?). Gave us all sleepers, but said he would come back with our tickets later - and he would wake us, too. Went to bed 23:00.

No smoking in restaurant and waiting room. Woman yelling at man. Display of new trains.

Thursday, December 21: Slept well. Fast train with few stops and you could walk through it. TC never returned, didn't wake us. Fortunately, the Indian noticed we were stopped at Arsikere, so we got off at 4 am. Chilly. He also got us out of the station without tickets and walked us to the bus station, where we waited until 6 am, when we got on a bus to Halebid.

Rough ride, took almost 1½ hour. Had breakfast in a very small place with nice woman with soot-covered face. Dosas, more like mine than like Indian, plus plenty of sauce. Did not drink the water. Looked at temple with packs on our back - as nice as I remember it. Took 9 am bus to Belur and walked one kilometer to temple. Also nice - bigger and nicer columns, but I prefer the Halebid carvings. Had guide for five minutes.

Back at bus stand we were whisked on minibus to Hassan and then an almost empty bus for Sravanabelagola left within a few minutes. So we arrived there 13:20 already!

Had lunch at bus station and then checked in to small nearby hotel. Incredible value for Rs. 50. Nice courtyard, bucket shower, toilet, fan, blankets but no sheets.

Sravanabelagola statue was as nice as I remember. Then walked across to the smaller hill and were taken tino a tour seeing all of it. They opened all the inner sanctuaries for us (unlocked and let us in). Really good statues from black Jaipur rock, some 2300 years old.

Had dinner in town. Having seen the water supply, we dared drink the water. OK but not excellent thali. Good coffee. Power outage. Talked to a bunch of students at hotel entrance, comparing India and the US.

Friday, December 22: Up 5:45. Power went out again when packing, so used flash light. Breakfast at bus station, then took 7:25 Mysore express bus. Went by dirt roads and tiny villages all the way to Krishnarajput, after that fast ride with few stops. Just north of Srirangapatnam traffic jam due to many oxcarts laden with sugarcane heading to factory.

Found (rather, was led to) nearby hotel. Only bucket shower, no towel, but nice guy in reception. Exchanged $150 T/C at bank, bought stamps, walked to tourist office. Interview in tourist office about increasing tourism in India.

No brochures, signed up for car ride 4 am to Bandipur on Christmas Eve. Asked about dances, and walked to Art College. Mysore Women's Art College had no dance classes, but it was fascinating seeing all girls there in their beautiful saris.

In the afternoon bought a few more books and then walked to V.V. market - not very interesting. Had a good Rajasthani thali diner, good and hot (hottest so far).

Saturday, Decmber 23: The mosque nearby woke us up at 5:20 with the prayer announcements. Had idli breakfast, bought postcards. Then walked to Palace. Nice palace, but we are not palace people.

Took bus up to Chamundi Hill, then walked down to Nandi Bull - nicer than I remember and a few fruit stalls (lots of them at top). Many people visited. There was only the bull 21 years ago. Wrote postcards, ate pineapple, and walked to the bottom of the hill.

Met nice man who came up on bus 11 (= walking in Karnataka). Took ricksha back, tried street food - good and hot. Excellent papaya!

Had masala/onion dosa dinner, then met Satya at 7 at clock tower. He took us to small restaurant, where we had tea/coffee. Nice chat with him for 1½ hours.

Sunday, December 24: Up 3:30 and left in car 4 am. Arrived Bandipur 5:45, but not much happened until 6:35. Got bus ride (only "jolly" elephant rides later). Expensive. Not a very nice way of wildlife viewing. Saw chital and sambar several times, quite close. Lots of peacocks and one eagle (close). Back 8 after one hour.

Continued in car to Mudumalai. Saw three elephants cross road from car. Full hotel, but got room in Masinagudi 7 km further.

Had breakfast (idlis) and walked a while, waiting for our room to be ready, read. Then jeep to Theppakadu, couldn't sign up for anything, elephant rides already full for today but wouldn't take reservations for tomorrow. Had lunch/dinner at hotel, thali - best and hottest so far. Two kind of monkeys.

Got on a bus at 3. Drove too fast, barely stopped. Saw a few chital and sambar (not as many or close as in the morning), and one "wild cat" nearby, and finally three elephants. One hour. Signed up for one more trip, and got on at 6 (having watched monkeys steal food from tourists). Kind of dark, but saw sambar, then chital and elephants.

Waited half hour for bus back to Masinagudi. Bought some sweets. Made tea for the first time in our room and ate the Christmas cakes.

Monday, December 25: Christmas Day and a day in transit. Woke up about 5 by loud music blaring out from town. A litle later Muslim prayer calls temporarily joined in. Got up a little before 6, packed and left. The music came from loudspeakers at a nearby Hindu temple (we had expected a church, since we hadn't heard music this early before and it was Christmas Day). Had just a cup of tea and then waited for the bus.

Then a jeep pulled up and offered a ride for Rs. 3 each. So got in. But at the other end they wanted 60 - saying they had acted as a taxi. After a long discussion paid 35. Had another tea. After a while we got on an old bus to Gudalur. Had breakfast in Gudalur, idli/puri and vada (which we hadn't ordered).

Bus left 8:45 for Sultan's Battery, 48 kilometers away. Very rough road on the Tamil Nadu side, slow going. Lots of tea plantations (Lipton's, etc.) and some coffee plantations. Thick bamboo growth at state border. After 2 hour and 20 minutes in very crowded bus arrived, and had to take ricksha to other bus station, cheap and used meter.

Waited for second bus to get seats, but didn't help. I sat on floor next to driver, a bit hard but wood and good view. Surain was offered a seat. Fast driver. Beautiful descent through the western ghats. Moist air at top of ghats. Driver ended up with gear stick in his hand a couple of times, but just put it back and continued.

Got to Kozhicode about 2, another cheap ricksha to railway station. Sweaty. Short wait for fast train. Had to pay sleeper surcharge, since we didn't want to move to very crowded unreserved section. man gave us palm flowers, hardened and white and quite good. Changed trains in Shoranur, no wait. Turned out to be a milk train, stopped about everywhere. Were passed by express train, so it would have been faster to wait in Shoranur. Lots of train traffic in Kerala.

Eventually arrived Aluva around 8. All hotels full in city. But one person at hotel was helpful and called and managed to reserve a room (last one they had) at a place at bypass road. Power outage. Took autoricksha there.

Nice room with air conditioning. While Surain was showering, an employee knocked on the door, giving us Christmas cake and wishing us Merry Christmas.

No restaurant at hotel, so walked to nearby Periyar Lodge across bridge.

Air conditioned restaurant, but sat outside. After long wait we got very good North Indian dinner. Had two beers. Crickets, sat just above the river. Fortunately all the hotels were full, otherwise we would never had found this nice restaurant.

Made tea back at hotel and ate the cake. Ran air conditioning a short while.

Tuesday, December 26: Less than perfect sleep. No breakfast at hotel. They didn't know where Karumalloor was, but at least one person had heard about it. Found ricksha driver who knew about it. So paid him 50 to drive us there.

Came to very small village. Took out the pictures and showed the picture of King to some villagers. Surprise, surprise! They recognized it and pointed us further on. So we came to bigger village and found King's home (he had moved, and I hadn't been in his home anyway).

After some hesitation, King and I recognized each other. He lived with his wife and son and daughter (another son was in Bombay). Were invited in and given tea and Christmas food, good meat curry and cake.

After talking for a while walked with King and wife Mary to school where the girls had danced (King was now a teacher at a different school). Were introduced to many and the picture was passed around. Christian service. Then were introduced to two of the people who had been with me 21 years ago. Joy (the funny guy) was not on speaking terms with King, but think King tried to find Joy, since we were introduced to Joy's brother but no Joy.

King showed us the way to the river. We were fascinated to see Indians unload sand from boats to trucks. Sand was taken from the river, which was now much deeper than 20 years ago. Took many pictures.

Walked back to King's home (he was campaigning for some kind of local bank election, so he wasn't home yet). Were given wonderful passion fruit juice. I played chess against Shajjan (son), I lost after hard fight. Very nice lunch, never seen anything like it in a restaurant.

King returned, had lunch, chatted, and eventually took taxi (all six of us) to the beach. Heavenly beach, very warm water. Spent about one hour there, walking along water. Then back in taxi (that had waited) to their home.

Were given small meal and drank beer. King put us on bus back to Aluva about 8:45.

Wednesday, December 27: Hard to sleep due to all mosquitos. Ricksha to railway station and breakfast (uppuma). Train to Ernakulam junction, good room at Woodland, most expensive so far (325). Gave laundry.

Walked to jetty (some difficulty to get there, fences). Boat to Willindon Island, tourist office. Not many good brochures any longer. Man rowed us across to Cochi, walked to palace. Many, many stores. Palace much smaller than expected, but ground floor closed. Synagogue lunch closed 12-3, so skipped it.

Had lunch at a "Meals Ready" place - on banana leaves for the first time. No silverware. Got a small fish, still only 10. Took bus to ferry, but it soon sped in the wrong direction. So switched and got on another to Fort Kochi. Long ride.

Saw the Chinese Fishing nets - interesting, lots of tourists (and fish-stealing crows). Didn't seem to catch a lot. Icecream, tea. Walked to pier and got a boat back, I almost fell while taking a shortcut to secure a seat and injured my knee.

In Ernakulam bought a dhoti for me. Showered again. Later went to the "Food Festival", which wasn't as elaborate as we had hoped. But the special vada was good. Walked (I hobbled) to the dance performance (Katakali). Good explanation. Very elaborate makeup.

Thursday, December 28: Up 5:45. Woke up in the middle of the night with my knee extremely painful, so put pillow underneath. Better when got up. Mosquitos not a problem, but they had an electrical gadget,

Ricksha to station, got on a very fast intercity express train to Allapuzha, stopped only three times. Had idli and vada and tea on board. Got ricksha at other end to buy tickets and be delivered at KTDC restaurant, where we had poori/onion pakora.

OK, boat left at 10:30 with 36 people; about 2/3 upstairs. All the Indians sat downstairs under cover with us and a few more tourists. Had good conversation with very educated people. Nice ride, a bit long at middle of trip, but especially nice closer to Kollam. Eagles and jellyfish.

Went through fresh/salt water lock. Parts of the water is fresh after the monsoon. When it dries up, they let in salt water. Most land near Allapuzha lower than the canals. Rice, rice, and coconuts everywhere. Boat stopped for lunch (we had the thali plus one fried banana) and later for tea.

Arrived 6:30. We walked to a couple of full hotels, then took ricksha to Shah International, quite nice (book said mediocre). Nice meal in their restaurant.

Friday, December 29: Up 6:15, mosquitos not too bad. Ricksha to station, got tickets. Train late. Had breakfast, uppuma.

From Tiruvananthapuram took ricksha all the way to Kovalam beach, cheap @ Rs. 40. Got a room in a private home, nice to be there instead of with all the tourists, but not a good value