[posted 11/11/09]

From Tanjore (Thanjavur) we made our way to Pondicherry, with a Swiss woman and driver trailing us because her driver didn’t know the route. Along the way we stopped in on three more temples and by the end of the day all the temples we’d seen over the various days were starting to blur into one and other.

The first stop, Airateswara Temple (also /Airavatesvara/Airavateshwarar Temple), was also nicely un-busy. As we wandered within the temple a skinny little Brahamin priest gestured for us to follow him to the inner sanctum, where he said a long blessing, gave each of us a tilak and was quite happy to receive our donation. Then as we came across him a few minutes later in a different part of the temple he urged me to take a photo as he posed in a shrine to Shiva (I think it was Shiva), and once again was happy to receive a donation. He seemed like a nice guy so we were cool with handing over some cash.

The second temple of the day was the Brihadishwara Temple Gangaikondacholapuram (they’re a mouthful aren’t they?! almost as bad as Welsh!), which had a fantastic column-lined corridor I desperately wanted to take a photo of, but pleading with a couple of people for just one shot got me no-where and the ‘no photo’ sign beat me yet again. Damn you pesky sign!

By the time we got to the third temple we’d been travelling for half the day and H was over it all. But our driver said this spot, the Chidambaram Nataraja Temple, was an excellent Shiva temple and after coming all that way I didn’t want to miss any photo-op, so I wandered around by myself. H chose wisely because this was without doubt the hottest temple I had to walk around. See, with all the temples you have to take your shoes off, leaving them at a shoe cloakroom of sorts. Mildly annoying, but when in Rome etc. However this was a particularly hot day and the sun was really beating down, making the stone pathways incredibly hot. So hot I actively sought the smallest of shadows to walk in and specifically avoided any of the dark or black stones that were in full sunlight – I just couldn’t take the pain. No doubt my squawking white-mans dance made a couple of the locals chuckle!

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[posted 10/11/09]

From Trichy (Tiruchirappalli) we travelled to Tanjore (Thanjavur), and more temples. But first we took a break and checked out the Thanjavur Royal Palace, which Lonely Planet (LP) accurately describes as a ‘labyrinthine complex of decaying splendor… huge corridors, spacious halls and shady courtyards’. It was pleasantly un-busy and we were one of very few people wandering around the place. As we finished up H retreated to the aircon of the car while I walked around the corner to grab a few shots of the palace bell tower.

There were a couple of carts selling trinkets or drinks and as I came near one the seller squawked at me inquisitively “Coak?”, holding up a bottle. No thanks I replied, wandering off to find the right angle for my shot. He kept an eye on me, and the couple of times I drew near he cheerily squawked “Coak?” at me, and with a friendly smile I politely replied ‘no thanks’. Once I had exhausted the photo options I walked back towards the car, expecting my new-found friend to give it one last try, but he seemed to have given up. Ironically I was actually quite thirsty, so I walked over and cheerily squawked “Coak?” at him, which was met with a beaming smile and one refreshingly cold bottle of ‘coak’. (Yes G, I am fully expecting you to make some cock reference here. Go ahead.)

Later in the afternoon we visited here, the Brihadishwara Temple, a World Heritage listed monument said by LP to be the ‘crowing glory of Chola temple architecture and the highlight of Thanjavur’. We did the usual full-circle walk around the inside of the courtyard so I could get the main gopuram (’monumental tower, usually ornate‘) from all sides/angles, before taking advantage of it being the one temple that allowed us heathen non-Hindus into the main sanctum. We made our denotation and took a couple of tiny oil lamps in return, then lined up to receive a blessing from the Brahmin priests, lit our lamps at the designated place and walked back outside. It was all quite nice and I still didn’t quite follow what all the non-Hindu fuss was about elsewhere. Respectful tourists are often paying tourists and the temples rely on donations. (Though I suppose they aspire to being more temple than tourist attraction. Chicken/egg anyone?)

Lonely Planet recommends visiting this particular temple in the early morning or late afternoon when the sun ‘bathes the sandstone tower and walls in a syrupy glow’. They’re right, my first shots from when we arrived aren’t nearly as warm as this, so I was pretty happy our luck brought us there at just the right time. Oh, and they had a elephant, so I think I gave her a donation too. Nice heffalump. Though I didn’t get a blessing from her (yes, the elephants will bless you, what with being incarnations of Ganesh and all).

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[posted 09/11/09]

Tired. Will have to fill in the travelogue blurb tomorrow.

[updated 10/11/09]

After Madurai we moved on to Trichy (Tiruchirappalli) and continued with (what was to become) the main subject of our South India exploration, temples. And fending off ‘guides’.

We visited the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple and had a nice guy from the temple show us the way up a few stairs to the (legit) viewing spot. He was kind enough to explain a few things about the temple to us, ask if I was a professional photographer (multiple lenses and tripod apparently equals photo pro) and then play the ‘would you like a guide?’ card. After the previous days bullshit we politely said no thanks. Undeterred, he said that without him we wouldn’t be able to see the most beautiful parts of the temple (true, the inner sanctum of most temples is usually marked ‘Hindus only’), and that there would be many spots where the Brahmin priests wouldn’t permit photography. We again said a polite no thanks. So he flashed his temple ID, reassuring us that he was the real deal, that there were only a few permitted guides and if we weren’t happy at the end we didn’t have to pay him if we didn’t want to. But we held our resolve, thanked him for his offer and said we would be fine to wander around at our own pace. Finally he seemed to take no for an answer. Then asked for a tip! Exasperated, I gave him 20 Rupees, packed up my shit and we made our own way back down.

Funnily enough it was about 10 minutes later when H&I passed a huge statue of Ganesh, with a Brahmin priest at the foot blessing pilgrims, that we noticed the first ‘No photography’ sign. Respectfully I didn’t take a shot of that scene, instead I turned around and pointed my camera in the opposite direction, but still the priest yelled at me! We quickly walked around the corner!

And then not 5 minutes later I cautiously walked into another part of the temple whilst carefully looking around for any signs forbidding anything, only to have someone (a priest no doubt) yell “Get back!” Jeeze, they really don’t take kindly to us heathens.

We had less trouble later on in the day when we climbed up here, to the top of the Rock Fort Temple. H wasn’t too happy about the 437 steps, and neither of us were particularly delighted with the ‘no shoes’ rule! And then to top it all off the actual temple at the very top turned out to be ‘Hindus only’! But hey, that bottle of water we bought at the summit was probably the most refreshing of the entire trip! And in the end I got this pano from the top so it wasn’t all bad.

Big pano here.

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[posted 05/11/09]

In Kumily we got up early and had a three hour trek (with a guide) in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Didn’t see any elephants or tigers, but I did walk through the web of what our guide said was South India’s largest spider – causing H to freak out a whole helluva lot. I was okay, but that’s because I didn’t realise I had the spider on the back of my head. That was fun!

Then we drove out of Kerala state into Tamil Nadu, and on to the town of Madurai, which took us most of the day.

In Madurai in the late afternoon / early evening we had a guide by the name of Raja who at first seemed like a nice guy. He showed us around the Tirumalai Nayak Palace, and then around the Sri Meenakshi Temple, rattling off historical dates and events that we immediately forgot. Towards the end he brought us across the street to the ‘temple viewing point’ which he said would give us a good view of the whole temple complex. Indeed it did. But it was actually the roof of a five story shop, and the price of getting out was to listen to the sales patter of this asshole carpet sales guy.

The prices started at $1,000 USD which I laughed at and said there was no way we were buying a carpet! But the carpets kept on coming. There was the carpet weaving demonstration, then the explanation of thread-count and how the colours looked slightly different from each end, and when he started to throw out bigger and more elaborate carpet after carpet after carpet with the prices quickly escalating to $6,000 USD and beyond I decided we’d been held captive long enough. I grabbed H and we marched out. But this meant rushing down four or five flights of stairs (we’d initially been taken up in an elevator) with the sales guy hot on our heels urging us to look at jewellery, textiles, sculptures, this, that, blah de blah de blah. “No thank you. Not interested. We’re leaving, thank you GOODBYE!”

And then to add insult to injury our wanker of a temple guide, Raja, who had been waiting outside said “Wow, you’re out quickly!” “Yeah, don’t need a fuckin carpet!” I said. The motherfucker had basically placed us in a hard-sell situation hoping to get a percentage commission on the sale! Sod that!

So if you’re ever in Madurai and you meet a short stocky cunt of a guide by the name of Raja, steer the fuck clear of him. He’s a conniving shit and deserves a good kick in the balls. Asswipe.

Anyway, this is inside the Sri Meenakshi Temple, a Brahmin priest blessing the pilgrims to the temple.

Raja of Madurai, you’re a cunt.

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[posted 04/11/09]

After Munnar we moved on to Kumily to check out a sample spice garden with it’s various plants and trees. It was kind of amazing to see the sources of all those household names you’re familiar with (cardamon, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg) and to sniff the crushed leaves from each plant/tree which usually confirmed the expected smell.

Then we jumped aboard a passing heffalump to experience that tourist attraction. And let me tell you, they’re not the most comfortable means of transport! Try straddling your desk and you’ll have some idea of the near hip dislocation you endure. But they do seem like quite gentle giants, and we never got tired of seeing them around the place (usually at temples).

We also managed to do a bit of shopping in Kumily and try our hand at haggling – which was another notch on our belt of Indian experiences. And to end the day we squeezed in a demonstration of Kalarippayattu, a ‘Dravidian martial art from Kerala‘, which was a fairly mundane and highly choreographed affair – though the fire-twirling at the end just about made up for the rest.

And again we’ve got a guest post, this time taken by Sajeev our driver. Just as we were drawing to the end of the ride I swung my camera down to Sajeev and he managed to get a few snaps of us before we wearily extricated ourselves from the heffalump’s back. Good man, thanks dude.

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[posted 04/11/09]

On our second day in Munnar we did a bit of sightseeing around the area. First we visited Eravikulam National Park hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare mountain goat, the Nilgiri Tahr whose population apparently number less than 2,000. We saw loads of the suckers so either they’re not as rare as everyone claims or the remaining ones are particularly tame.

Then we went to a tea museum to see how tea is processed. H & I are big tea drinkers (literally big, our ‘tea cups’ hold a pint of tea and we have at least two cups a day) so we were particularly interested in the source. This is a shot of a withering tray, where air is blasted through the leaves for 12 to 16 hours in order to remove moisture, creating a more pliable leaf (which makes subsequent processing easier) and concentrating the sap. I won’t bore you with the numerous steps after this (Wiki) but suffice it to say there was some machinery and then a tea shop at the end, so we dutifully bought some fresh Indian tea.

We also visited a coule of dams that afternoon, but after you’ve seen the Hoover Dam all others pale in comparison.

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[posted 03/11/09]

We had the houseboat for one night, and then H & I started on our cross-country leg of the trip. The rest of our friends had about one week away, staying in Kerala the whole time. But H&I decided to take two weeks and booked our departure from Chennai on the east coast, forcing us to see some of the country. So after the houseboat we were picked up by our really nice driver, Sajeev, in a comfortable airconditioned minivan. Excellent.

The first day of travelling we went up into the hills, to Munnar. The (South) Indian roads can be pretty slow-going at times, but when you’re travelling up a windy, and at times one-lane, road with potholes and steep drops, the going is even slower. It took us most of the day to get to our hotel, but up in the hills it was a lot cooler (a welcome relief) and the tea plantations that blanketed most of the hillsides were a sight I’ll never forget.

Once we got to our room H&I broke out the gin and tonics and just kicked back. This was the view from our balcony. You can see H wasted no time in finishing off her G&T, while I was enjoying a Romeo Y Julieta No.1, and perusing our copy of Lonely Planet South India. Just after I took this shot we fired up the netbook and watched a few episodes of Entourage season 6. Happiness is watching one of your favourite TV shows, with a G&T in one hand, a nice cigar in the other, in a forest, a quarter of the way around the world from home, with the cicadas singing below. It’s a rough life but someone has to live it.

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[posted 03/11/09]

After the wedding we had one more night in the luxurious Kumarakom Lake Resort, and then it was time to leave the newlyweds and get on with the rest of our Indian trip.

We were driven down to Alleppey where half our group had rented a houseboat to travel the Kerala backwaters. After a bit of haggling over the boat details we settled in, chilled out and watched the river life flow by. We didn’t have to do much, which was great. Lunch appeared at some point. We had some gin and tonics. Then dinner appeared. We had some more gin and tonics. And somewhere along the line we even managed to fit in a Bollywood movie (two thumbs up for the film “Luck”… well, the first half I managed to stay awake for) before retreating to the airconditioned cabins and the safety of the mozzie net.

I should mention that this is a guest post taken by A, the big sheep-loving Kiwi. Thanks man.

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[posted 02/11/09]

Whether it’s delayed onset of jetlag or the brief 5 hours of sleep I had last night, I’m just too damn tired to write anything meaningful at the moment so I’ll post the shots today and update the blurbs tomorrow.

[updated 03/11/09]

The morning of the wedding was excruciatingly humid, which was bad enough. And I can’t say it helped to be wearing a long jacket that was stuck to my skin within minutes. The real problem came to light when I took my nicely aircon-chilled camera out of it’s padded/insulated camera bag and experienced the horrors of condensation… INSIDE the lens! ARGH! And there was absolutely nothing I could do but patiently wait for it to acclimatise. I was almost beside myself, fearing it’d take an hour or more to clear, and the wedding was supposed to start in just ten minutes time!

I kept the camera out of the camera bag, checking it every few minutes, wiping the front filter only to have it mist up again seconds later. There were a few small delays but in no time the small band began playing and we started our procession from M’s villa to the lakeside lawn for the ceremony. By the time we got there my camera was still fucked and I was resigning myself to coming all this way and ending up with no photos of the event!

Eventually K, the bride, started down the lawn by which time I’d given up on my camera. I was kicking myself for not having put my camera bag out on the balcony over-night. Hindsight eh?! Just as K came up to meet M, I gave the camera one last hopeless glance and FUCKME it was just about clear! Oh joy of joys, sweet fuckin jesus it was ALIVE! And so I started photographing like a mad man, but the shots were rather difficult to get because all the guests were clamouring to get close to the couple. So here’s my best shot of M&K from the day, taken at the evening reception. Congrats guys, really glad to have been able to come over and join in the fun!

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[posted 02/11/09]

Whether it’s delayed onset of jetlag or the brief 5 hours of sleep I had last night, I’m just too damn tired to write anything meaningful at the moment so I’ll post the shots today and update the blurbs tomorrow.

[updated 03/11/09]

After a day and a half in Kochi we had a quick look around Fort Cochin, including the delightfully named ‘Jew Town’ and fulfilled our tourist quota by checking out the Chinese fishing nets. Then we travelled to the idyllic 5-star Kumarakom Lake Resort where M&K’s wedding was to take place.

Shortly after checking-in it was time for the girls to get their mehndi done. There were two ladies applying the mehndi, and while about 10 or so girls in our extended group had various small/medium designs applied to the front and backs of their hands by one lady, the other worked continuously on the bride’s hands, arms and feet. Quite extensive work.

Here’s the result of one of the girls, the ever-patient model, my other/better half, H.

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[posted 01/11/09]

We landed in Kochi, Kerala, late Friday night and with the wedding just days away (Monday) our first priority on Saturday morning was to get some appropriate attire. The girls were quite excited at the prospect of saree shopping. Not to be out-done, the guys were up for a bit of ‘fancy dress’ too – which turned out to be a bit fancier than we expected, and as we learned later, a lot fancier than we needed!

Anyway, this is how you shop for a saree in a nice department store. They sit you down and then one or more sales gophers show you saree after saree after saree from an extensive selection of colours, styles, patterns and quality that span many walls! Prices range far and wide, from less than $100US/AUD to the many many thousands – and no doubt higher if you have the budget.

When I say they show you a saree, they actually show you a strip of unstitched cloth, ranging from four to nine metres in length. You then have this cloth tailored into a choli blouse with the reminder of the cloth being wrapped around the waist leaving one end draped over the shoulder. (I think there are pants involved also, but I have to check with H.) H says in the comments “There’s an underskirt, and they also choose you a matching lining for the blouse.”  To us westerners it’s all quite new and interesting.

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[posted 01/11/09]
Hi all.

Sorry bout the three week silence here on Detour but work was absolute chaos in early October, just before H & I went globe trotting for a couple of weeks in India! Our first holiday in over three years we and a bunch of friends jumped at the chance to experience a bit of India, and somewhere along the way we found time to cheer on a very good friend as he married a lovely Indian girl at an idyllic resort.

So stay tuned for some pretty good stuff (IMHO) from the hot, humid, dusty, chaotic, 1st world meets 3rd world, culture shock that is India. From sarees to Rupees, tea plantations to temples, beer to beggars, I came home with 3,400 shots weighing in at 31.2GB – which should keep me in material for quite some time to come!

Initially I’ll do a day-by-day run through of the trip with an indicative shot showing what we did or where we were (and these will be date specific for anyone who is curious). After that it’ll be a complete mish-mash of shots, kind of how India works – dis/organised chaos!

So here’s day one, 16/10/2009, flying from Oz to Kochi – a 17 hour door-to-door trip.

Rolling stock, that’s not something you ever hear today, but once I thought about this shot the words popped into my mind. Better that than them being stuck on tip of my tongue (ie not being able to remember them)! And what is ‘rolling stock’ you ask (let’s just pretend you did, hmmm’kay?) Why, Wiki says it’s “the collective term used to describe all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons.” That’s the third new thing I’ve learned today. You?

Skyhook, the inflatable dartboard, black and white colour TV, waterproof teabag, solar torch/flashlight, black highlighter. Impossible inventions maybe, but I think I managed to photograph a skyhook here. Just need to reel in those clouds.

And yes, that was best blurb I could manage.