South Africans in India - Part 4: Chennai to the tip, Kaniyakumari
Chennai |
We arrived late, at 10:30pm, and got a pre-paid taxi to our Paradise hotel in Chennai. Chennai was like if Green Point, (Cape Town), never ended. Odd traffic barriers were placed in the middle of the highway. More dangerous than if they weren't there. Our Rs600 room was like a mental ward, entirely white, spotless. 
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PondicherryDay 40 - Nov 19! |
It was my birthday, so we were both excited to go to Pondicherry and have a good time. Pondicherry is an old French colony, so there is steak and no liquor taxes. We had breakfast in bed, room service for Rs160. We went outside and got a Rs200 taxi rickshaw to the bus station. Chennai was a mess during the day. Anarchy. We took the public bus to Pondicherry, which cost Rs55 each. It took about 6 hours. It was somewhat scenic, through views of the ocean, jungle, and chilled houses and businesses. We arrived and took a Rs60 rickshaw (Aurora insisted that I relent, on my birthday - though we could have got it for Rs40) to our hotel. Ajantha Guest Beach House. Rs1500 for a sea view suite. Really nice. We got ice cream from the lobby while a guy fixed the thyristor in our fan's knobby thing, and got batteries for our remote control. I was really impressed when the guy said 'thyristor'. He didn't speak any other English though, except '5 minutes! 5 minutes!'
We went for a walk around the block. We saw an anti-litter sign, and had a good feeling about the place. The beach was just rocks. The police stopped us from walking to the pier. So we just strolled in the other direction. We bought some green apple smirnoff vodka.
We went to Le Club for my birthday supper. We ordered some orange juices and poured in the vodka, but it was gross. Don't buy green apple flavoured vodka. We had a cheese platter (well, it was just mozarella and tomato) but it was gross. Then garlic bread, and then finally it was time to end my vegetarian streak. HOLY STEAK! Aurora took her malaria meds and threw up, so I ate her Veg Lasagne too. We went out to the Space Cafe that night, and met an Icelander, Andri, who was practically translucent. We had Rs160 cocktails until tipsy and wandered back to the hotel. It rained suddenly on the way home, and we were soaked by the time we got to bed.
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Day 41 - Nov 20 |
We woke late, and wandered around to Hotel Continental, and agreed to pay Rs500 per night. We had room service breakfast and walked along the beach front. We made it to Le Cafe for lunch, but they weren't serving for another hour, because they had no electricity and therefore no bread. We waited, sipping french coffee, being a bit hungover, until they were ready to serve club sandwiches and lots of french fries. We walked on towards the town's big Gandhi statue, and some weirdo started talking to me. He was clearly on holiday, with his friend and an ice cream stick. But he didn't speak much English, so i only made out some words, like 'ashram'. Most tourists come to Pondicherry because of an ashram there founded by the saintly Sri Aurobindi, who was the devotee of 'Mother', a French woman, who exuded calm. I read about the two in the book I had, Arthur Koestler's 'The Lotus and the Robot'. Apparently 'Mother' had great feet. We went to a park, and had our pictures taken with and by some Indian tourists. We continued to the end of the Beach road, and sat on rocks. These 2 kids, I swear one was a boy, but it did wear a dress, harrangued us for about an hour. They wanted to sell us tacky bags. They were amusing, so we just let them bug us, while making it clear that we would not buy anything. I made tiles from broken pieces of tiles... I stared silently for minutes... We tried to pay them to leave... we even offered to buy the Rs5 bag. An hour later, we walked away, and the little girl cursed our ancestors, or something. So Aurora gave them Rs10 each. My rupees! They scampered off happily. We walked back to the hotel and watched TV. We went out to the Space Cafe but it was raining, and closed. There were people in the bar, but they just wouldn't let us in. We stood around with some French women and Andri, and decided to go drink at the Hotel Continental bar. Andri and I had beers, and Aurora a double rum and coke, and I explained to Andri what I do for a living. He had no idea about software, and actually seemed interested.
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Day 42 - Nov 21 |
I called Charles to say Happy Birthday. We spoke for 16 minutes for Rs105. That is really cheap for a long distance call. Charles says he's trying to get rid of some of his books, as they are taking up too much space, and no one will ever read them. Journal of Surgery, Volume 12, 3rd Edition, 1971, was selling for 1c on Amazon. So it's as good as firewood. Dylan is doing a project on using grey water for gardening. I started feeling sick. We walked to the motorcycle place, intending to go for a ride. When I got there, I realised I'd forgot my driving license, and didn't have an international license. I had forgotten all about it. Aurora was pissed. She became mute and silently belligerent, and we walked the entire way home in silence. Then I found my California drivers license, haha. All was forgiven. We took a Rs30 rickshaw ride back to the motorcycle shop, and rented a real clunker, but the brakes squealed like an exploding pig, so we traded it for a Hero Honda Passion. It was 125 or 150cc. It must have gone up to at least 80kph, but we barely exceeded 40kph. We spent half an hour looking for a petrol station, and put in Rs50. The attendant figured it would get us about 60km. We drove towards the beach. There were no signs. But I saw Serenity Hotel, and that sounded nice. It led to a beach, and was really relaxed. A troupe of about 20 men came screeching at us on motorbikes, howling and yelling like monkeys. It was scary, but exciting. We parked and walked along the beach. French kids were playing with Indian kids in the water. We ate at a cafe run by a Samoan, or a Sumo wrestler. Really nice tea and ratatouille baguette.
We went back to town, and stopped at Baker St bakery, a place Aurora found on the internet, and had been drooling over for days. We had chocolatines, and croissants and coffee, and dropped off the bike. We checked our emails at Coffee.com, and went home. I didn't want to go to a fancy restaurant, so I ate oranges and nuts and sesame ball things in our room. On the way, some guys assaulted Aurora from their motorcycle, and I was too sick to run after them, though if I'd been feeling better, I'd probably have done some real damage. So the night ended a bit poorly, with Aurora wanting to leave India. But I said it would be ok in the morning, and it was, sort of.
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Day 43 - Nov 22 |
We had wanted to go to Auroville, which was 30km away, but I woke up sick, way too sick to go. Also, we woke up at 1pm, so it wasn't necessarily a good idea anyway. We ate at Cafe Flunch, and I ate Indian food to try appease the Indian bacteria. After a pit stop (this euphemism is apt for India), we went back to Bakers St and the supermarket. It was the first supermarket we'd seen in India. We bought baguettes, and cheese, nuts, shampoo and nail clippers. We walked to the beach and ate our cheese baguettes. An Indian guy parked next to us, he looked like a pilgrim, or just a homeless guy with a backpack. He was awfully greatful for his cheesy bread. We walked home and ate everything we had in the room.
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Day 44 - Nov 23 |
I was still sick, so we had another lazy day. Pondicherry is a nice place to do nothing, at least. We walked to Le Cafe, again, had breakfast, as Aurora read Sylvia Plath's book, the Bell Jar, and became more and more morose. Le Cafe ran out of electricity again. I had to go back to the Hotel. We ate at Satsanga, a very nice, but expensive place, with a koi pond, and butler waiters. It was a nice dinner. We went walking, and ended up at the Space club, and stayed until 11:30 playing chess with the waiters. I beat the first guy, and lost to the second. One bad move on my part. We bought a book called 'Elementary Solutions to Challenging Mathematical Problems' or something like that, thinking it was going to be fun. But the problems were extracts from the Russian Mathematics Olympiads, and some problems were asterisked with a disclaimer that the average reader can hardly be expected to work them out. Anyway, Aurora and I tried one where you have 11 chemists and a safe full of chemicals. How many keys and locks must you distribute, and how, so that the box can only be opened if there is a majority of chemists present? Aurora and I argued for an hour or so about it. She was saying that the question asked 'if' and not 'iff', and therefore, you could just put on 1 lock and hand out 6 keys and it would satisfy the condition. Obviously that wasn't what they meant. They wanted you to do some combinitorial selection of 11 and 5, or something like that. But eventually I had to concede that Aurora was correct, that the question should have said 'if and only if'. We had crazy dreams after that.
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Day 45 - Nov 24 |
We watch Minute To Win It on TV, and eventually get out of bed, to check out Cafe Les Artes. It was great. They had a cat that just miaowed endlessly. It started raining, and we had to decide between going to Auroville finally, or to see Harry Potter's movie, which Aurora was excited about. But I convince her that Harry can wait. We rent a motorbike, but find that it has no mirrors, so we wait as the guy puts some on. The drive to Auroville is really beautiful, and pleasant. We notice how everyone driving the other way is pretty hot, and we joke about how it's probably a eugenics program. Auroville was started by 'Mother' back in the late 1960s, and is centred around the Matrimandir, a giant gold golf ball, which contains the sands of all countries, or at least some of them. Mother died when it was completed. It is a spiritual centre, and there are people living there from all around the world. They let you stay at a camp only if you'll stay a week. You work the land for 5 hours a day during the week, and all housing and food is provided. Aurora said she might like to live there, as it seems wonderful and full of optimistic naive ideals. We make it to the centre, and read about some holy Banyan tree, and the giant golf ball. It was pleasant. We checked out a nearby hotel and booked for the next day. We rushed back on the bike on one of the more harrowing rides I've ever been on, dodging oncoming trucks that decide to drive in your lane, and people driving towards you on your right and your left. We drop off the bike, and eat at Suguru, next to a store called 'Mammela Protein' with pictures of animals. It's a nice locals restaurant, and we eat South Indian dishes, Dosai and Uttapam, and have Gulab Jamun for dessert.
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Day 46 - Nov 25 |
We check out of Hotel Continental, and take a rickshaw to Hotel Bay Castle. They used to say they were in Auroville, but are not allowed to, technically, so the brochure has scratched out 'Auroville' with a pen. We got some water from the supermarket, and Xeroxed our passports for the consierge, and had lunch on the rooftop of our hotel, 'Hunky Dory' restaurant. Aurora's cheese sandwhich was very nice, but my Veg Manchurian looked like it had E.coli. Luckily, they deep fried the hell out of it, so I felt safe eating it. We rented a bike for Rs150 from the hotel, no deposit, and Rs50 for petrol. The bike had no mirrors, the kickstart moved about as it pleased, and it was really slow, but since it was raining, it was fast enough. We went into Auroville and drove about randomly. Places called Certitude and Surrender were not much to look at, the EV Camp was just a construction site, Gaia though, was pretty cool. Some family lived there, with a windmill and a dog, in a sort of bunker. We found a guy at the Solar Kitchen, who had been there for 1.5 months. I asked what there was to do, and he laughed. 'Today? The rain? haha'. He taught children or something. We bought cake at the visitor's centre, and bought a new dress for Aurora for Rs800. It was well made, having two layers, apparently. I was sort of called in to look at it, say 'yeah its great' and bargain the price down. She wanted the dress though, which makes it harder to bargain for. We returned and watched someone win $500000 on Minute to Win it, and then went to supper at Giorgios, a real Italian pizzeria. We ate some nice pastas, and did our laundry.
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TrichyDay 47 - Nov 26 |
We checked out and took a rickshaw to the post office and bus station. Grace had apparently sent me a birthday present, but it was too complicated to find out if it arrived. The lady sent me outside, the lady outside sent me inside. The lady sent me further inside, then said go stand by a pillar and maybe the Post Master would come by. But there were no pillars. So I gave up. But unless she sent it 2-3 day courier, there was no chance it was there anyway. We took a public bus to Villipuram, where we swapped over to a nice AC bus to Trichy. It rained incessantly, being a late monsoon. The bus took for...ever. We got there when night fell, in the rain. The place was still chock full of people, and it was really dangerous crossing the road. We took a non-AC room at Hotel Matura for Rs600, and ate supper in the hotel downstairs. We had the most eager waiter ever. He gave us the menu and stood poised with his pen. He picked up our plates as soon as we were finished.
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MaduraiDay 48 - Nov 27 |
We decided Trichy probably sucked anyway, based on the fact that it was raining constantly, and all the attractions required a few kilometers of rickshawing. We bought an umbrella and took off to Madurai, sitting in the front of the bus. The bus station was far from town, so we found the local town bus number 700, which cost Rs14 to take us to the train station. We asked around and found out that buses are better than trains for travelling to Kaniyakumari. We walked a little down Town Hall road, and a guy took us to a hotel 'no charge', Rs400/night. It was pretty ok, but the toilet didn't flush, which made for a scary close call. The guy who showed us the place wanted baksheesh. I gave him Rs20, and he balked, and I whined at him 'No charge no charge. You led us past 7 hotels!' and he laughed. We went to eat as it was 4pm and we still hadn't had breakfast. Nice Indian fare. We walked to the giant temple towering over the city, past remote control and sound system shops. The temple was big and impressive. Aurora needed to borrow a shawl for modesty. We walked through, saw an elephant giving head blessings, and went home. We later ate at Hotel Chentook, a really nice place. Our waiter disppeared though. We joined a Belgian couple, who were doing social work nearby, and were taking a break in Madurai, 'a big city'. After the capitals we'd been to, we thought it was a quaint town. The guy said they had a motorbike crash, driving to or from the village, and he had open wounds where his side was all red and raw. At night, he awoke, thinking there was a gust of wind, or something, and turned on the light. But it was cockroaches, eating his flesh! We had some beers and went to sleep.
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Day 49 - Nov 28 |
At 1am, the toilet didn't flush, and I went to get help. The guy I woke up just picked up a bucket, so I said 'Um, wait, it's ok, tomorrow.' I tried to explain that he needed a plunger by drawing a picture. I pumped my umbrella and he seemed to kapeesh! I gave him Rs50 because he was probably just going to use his hands anyway. It rained so much over night that our hotel's street had become a lake. We had breakfast at Hotel Chentook, and took a photo since we forgot to bring a camera yesterday. We got a rickshaw to the bus station and just barely made the 2pm bus. Some guys were yelling 'Kaniyakumari' and saying we had to reserve seat numbers, but luckily we ignored them and ran to the bus as it was leaving. The men were just crooks.
It was a super long journey. We heard the Shakira Fifa song, and saw some guy reading an English poetry exercise book. An amusing ad passed by, for 'Poomex cement', and one for 'New Disco Hair Style'. Some cool scenery. We got to Kaniyakumari at 8pm, 6 hours later. We called a hotel and booked a room for Rs300. Squat toilet, no TV, but it was ok. There was water dripping from the ceiling, so my side of the bed was wet... but ok, it is cheap, whadya expect? Some sort of pilgrim tour group occupies the rest of Narmadha Lodge. We went to Sangram restaurant which made fanfreakingtastic alu fry and chana masala. We came back to our room because it was raining, and because the pilgrims are kind of weird. There is a some psycho sitting like cornholio in catatonia outside the police station.
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KaniyakumariDay 50 - Nov 29 |
The pilgrims start bathing non-stop and yelling from 5am onwards. Aurora suffers. I sleep through it, though it is annoying. We sleep on the bed sideways to avoid the puddle. We walk to Hotel Saravana for breakfast after checking out the promenade, which has sea shell sellers by the hundreds, and a bizarre memorial to the 2004 tsunami victims in India. A guy wanted to sell me sunglasses even though I was wearing them. It was great weather. We were lucky, since it had rained non-stop for the last 4 days. We took the ferry to some social reformer's island, and Aurora showed a family pictures on her camera. They took pictures of her camera's photos with their camera. There were lots of weirdos, and the line was stupidly long to leave the island. We went to the second island, which has a giant statue of a poet, and asian women paid a guy to take photos with us. Some guy asked me 'Hindi?' 'no, sorry'. The people in the line to leave were unscrupulous, cutting you off with no eye contact. I embarassed the one guy by squeezing back in front of him, but we ended up in the other line, because they were a group of 50 or so men. We went back in the heat to our hotel, and to Sunset point. It cost money to go into a stupid corkscrew building, so we just walked to the beach next to it, which had ocean and sand for free. Some Scottish blokes, Lloyd and Alan were pretty cool, and we walked back with them. We agreed to have supper with them later. We went at 8 to Hotel Sea View, a swanky joint, and ate lots. Huge ice cream, very spicy food. We said good night, and at our hotel, there were pilgrims sleeping in the hallway outside our room.
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