south India tour

My parents recently joined me here in our fair Tamil Nadu for a whirlwind 11-day non-stop tour of south India. We managed to visit two states and six cities and saw everything from IT parks to nature preserves. We visited palaces, temples, and shopping malls, and traveled by plane, train, autorickshaw, bus, and automobile. The A/C Scorpio car from Mudumalai to Mysore was probably the most posh way we traveled, except that the driver was completely deranged and drove at terrifying speeds through crowds of people. I was so carsick I was prostrate in the backseat, but I managed to get up long enough to tell him his driving was horrifying us and he did manage to take it down a notch after that. My parents favorite mode of transport, however, was undoubtedly the "slab train" as they called it, seeing as how the "beds" resembled slabs. (It might be called "sleeper" train but for them sleep did not appear to be an option.) The highlights of the trip were the elephants and wild dogs in Mudumalai. We started off with south Indian cuisine three meals a day, but by the end of the trip we were chowing down on pizza in Mysore and Subway in Chennai. Admittedly this isn't exactly the best way to introduce folks to the local cuisine, but seeing these titillating American food items in the big city made me feel like a convict who has been locked in an idli-dosai jail for the past year and a half.

I highly recommend the Chennai - Madurai - Coimbatore - Ooty - Mudumalai - Mysore - Chennai itinerary, though by the end of the trip I don't think you have ever seen three more tired human beings than we were -- and I think we are all still recovering a week later. After I dropped my parents off at the airport last Saturday night, I don't think I have ever been so exhausted in my life, but I ended up going to a three hour Tamil movie starting at 10PM! I did this for my good friend in Chennai who I hadn't seen in a very long time. I felt bad, however, because I think I must have fallen asleep during the movie at least a dozen times. I came back to Madurai looking like I had been run over by a lorry. I got a croup cough in Ooty and developed a stomach problem (most likely from yet another evil mango, if you will recall a previous posting some month's back), so a couple of days ago Renuka had me drinking an unidentifiable liquid which was the most foul-smelling stuff with an odor like poison and a taste worse than anything you could imagine. You are supposed to chase this stuff with pure sugar. I drank it only because they told me they give it to babies, and I figured if it was safe for them it'd be safe for me. I feel asleep soon after consuming the concoction, and when I woke up 2 hours later my stomach problem was gone. A highly unpleasant and suspect home remedy, but with positive results. Again I have been scolded for consuming the "heating" mango, but I think it is rather the 40C heat outside that could be to blame. Call me crazy.

Ooty actually felt "cold" from time to time.

Eruption!!! Highlight of birdwatching in Mudumalai:
White-bellied Minivet.

Chamundi Hill, Mysore;
in front of statue of demon that the goddess killed.

Mysore Palace

We saw at least 15 wild elephants at Mudumalai NWR

Spotted Deer

Langur

First in a series of cow pics; devotees (and calves)
wait in line for darshan at Chamundeeshvari Temple, Mysore

Cow in doorway, Chamundi Hill;
Looks like they used the same housepaint on his horns.

One of the biggest Nandi (Shiva's vehicle) statues in India.

Joy rides available to foreigners for an extra Rs. 50.

Scientology is in India, folks!!!