FURTHER: A TRAVEL BLOG: INDIA REDUX

Sights, sounds, smells, and tastes assault the senses. Beauty, squalor, wealth, poverty, ancient and modern co-exist in a kaleidoscopic combination reincarnating a thousand times a minute. Welcome to India

Richard enjoying first class travel

Bleary eyed and jet lagged we stagger off the plane. After an interminable line for immigration, we exit the terminal into a warm wet smoky blanket of air. We are in Chennai, formerly know as Madras, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Throngs of people, many with signs, wait for deplaning passengers even though it is 1:30 in the morning. I look fruitlessly for a sign with our name on it, but somehow miss it in the chaos. Deb, sharper eyed than me, finally spots it and we are soon whisked away by our driver into the Indian night. A short hour later, after over 24 hours en route, we are deposited at our hotel in the ancient city of Mahabalipuram and find our way to bed for some much needed sleep.

We wake early still on west coast time, and even though it is only 7AM, the day is already warm. Despite having 5 meals in the last 24 hours on our three flights to India, I am hungry and start to salivate when I think of our first meal in India. South India breakfast…mmmm…idly, sambar, curried potatoes, banana, papaya, chutneys, and tea. I eat like I mean it and am soon fired up and ready for the day.

The local presser

Beating the heat with style

We walk out into the hot morning sun and find our way to ancient ruins of the Dravidian culture. Ancient Maha was the testing ground for the designs of the gigantic temples that dot southern India. Pyramidal structures towering a few hundred feet are garishly decorated with Hindu gods and goddesses. The best examples are found in Madurai and Tiruchirappalli.

Vishnu and Parvati

Deb and friend (He doesn't eat much)

We are disappointed that Maha is busier and dirtier than we remember so decide to take off the next day to visit Kanchipuram; one of the seven sacred cities of Hinduism.

Road to Kanchpuram

The family "ride"

We book a car for the next day and are off bright and early to beat the heat and the short opening schedule of the temples in Kanchi. With sun filtering through large trees along a narrow two lane road we pass by verdant green rice fields. We alternately race and then crawl behind overloaded lumbering diesel trucks belching thick black smoke. Our two hour trip stretches to three before we enter Kanchi to be confronted with giant posters of a scary looking man. Black and red banners and streamers are strung through the town. We have stumbled into a political rally, for Moti, a candidate for Prime Minister. We pass the rally site which seems very sinister surrounded by several hundred men that look like thugs.

Thugs

Even more delayed by the chaos surrounding the rally, we are still able to visit a few fine temples before my internal clock screams, ”LUNCHTIME”. In an as calm as I can muster voice, I suggest to the driver that we find a spot for lunch. He suggests a restaurant famous amongst Indians (not tourists) where we sit down to one of the finer meals I have ever had in India. South Indian pure veg thali which is a prix fix, all you can eat meal, consisting of several small bowls of curries, dal, chutneys, curd and raita served up on a banana leaf covered stainless steel tray accompanied by rice and a large papadum which is an Indian flat cracker bread. Savoring my meal I look up to see throngs of people looming over our table and realize that our seats are in high demand; we are entering the peak of the lunch hour. I quickly finish up and pay the bill totaling less than five dollars for the three of us.