Pondicherry and Mamallapuram

In its hay day India was a hotly contested spot by ‘advanced’ European companies/countries. Having seen a lot of what the English contributed to the country we were keen to see the two cents left behind by the French. To do this we set off for Pondicherry, three hours south of Chennai on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

Pondicherry was, and in many ways still is, the French stronghold in India. It is home to a statue of Napoleon, the cheapest croissants in the subcontinent, and lots of surly French attitude - from Europeans and Indians to boot!

Pondicherry was hit hard by the Boxing Day tsunami but now you can hardly tell. The huts and shacks that line much of the coastline are back and its business as usual. The town itself is well laid out and boasts French St names and architecture. The thing we noticed most was that people take pride in their town and keep it clean.

It was the first time we’d seen the Bay of Bengal in a swimmable condition so we grabbed bicycles and croissants and put our legs to use. The photo below is of us enjoying the fruits of our labour.
Like France, Pondicherry is a novelty but has little of substantial value to offer. Having not been to France we can only jokingly speculate on this. Grabbing a local bus we went to Mamallapuram. Like too many small towns in New Zealand Mamallapuram is home to an oversized object.

Thankfully Mamallapuram’s object – Krishna's Butterball – isn’t man made and is slightly more dignified than an oversized vegetable/animal/bottle (Ohakune, Cromwell, Gore, Paeroa, the list goes on...).

The ball is housed in a well maintained (by Indian standards) park of ancient temples which were often carved directly into large rocks. We wandered around until the intense heat defeated us, forcing us to retreat to the comfort of the beach.


At the beach we saw something completely unnatural. Despite there being no natural food source or drinking water, dozens of cows choose to call the beach home.


They spend the day meandering around looking for rubbish and presumably working on their tans. Even with the heat none were brave enough to go into the water much to our disappointment. One evening we saw something resembling an albino dolphin playing in the surf; it turned out to be Clint.


Random Fact: Indians use the terms 'Lakh' and 'Crore' when talking about large numbers, usually cash. 1 Lakh = 100,000 and 1 Crore = 10,000,000 - it's all part of a larger system.

Highlights:
- Swimming. Doing anything between 11am-4pm can often take serious energy, a refreshing dip is just the tonic
- French cuisine, a more than welcome respite from masala and chappati
- Vigilante justice. If you’re foolish enough to leave a bag unattended on the beach do not worry. The locals use good children to inform on the bad ones, who are then apprehended and beaten by their parents in front of you. It won’t bring your $10 NZD back but hopefully the kid will learn his lesson

Lessons Learned:
- Don’t leave your bag unattended on Mamallapurum beach
- There are no seagulls in India. Instead crows have filled this vital niche. Incidentally we’re quietly campaigning for the crow to replace the kingfisher as India’s national bird…
- We were surprised to find that the croissants tasted like croissants. The French were obviously stricter task masters than the Brits when it came to the use of masala
- Injuring the right foot while running on Mamallapuram beach is common. In fact our small survey suggests it happens to 75% of all runners

Calcutta, Chennai and Goodbye

After a peaceful rest in Bodhgaya it was time to crack on. Calcutta was our destination and we were excited to see a city largely built by the English Raj.

Visiting a new town or city is a lot like meeting a person for the first time and as with people first impressions count. Now if Calcutta was a person our first impressions would’ve been that he (or she) was large to the point of being obese, outspoken with poor personal hygiene and of questionable integrity bordering on being villainous in nature.

We caught a taxi to the main tourist hangout, Sudder St where we spent a lot of time on the internet applying for jobs in London. We arrive in London in mid April. If you have any advice or know of any Business Analyst or HR/Comms opportunities please get in touch.

Before we knew it, it was time for Adam and Liv to depart for the greener pastures of Thailand. After our last supper we wished them well knowing that Thailand would be like a different world after India. It was really great seeing them both again and we sincerely hope that Adam gets a haircut – he looks like a girl. Before they left they were kind enough to give us gifts of Khata's from Nepal which we were both stoked (and embarrassed) to receive – as you can see in the photo below.

Despite what we’ve said Calcutta isn’t all bad – it does have rugby. Wrangling our way into a preseason training session we spent three hours choking on dust as we ran around in hot conditions with the enthusiastic and energetic locals. Whilst the team we trained with were quite new to the sport it was great fun to have a run and meet some nice Indians who are passionate about their rugby.

Not wishing to stay any longer we were glad to board our 28 hour train south to Chennai. Covering a whopping 1662 km’s the train trip went smoothly and passed surprisingly quickly. After Calcutta/India in general Chennai was an eye opener, it was in a different league. Everything is better maintained and organized and things are just generally nicer.

We felt obliged to do a day tour of the city taking in the major sites. The first stop was Fort St George, a fort unlike any we’ve seen in India to date it was made by the British and looks more like colonial mansions. It was the first structure in town and the first territorial possession of the British in India. Every good fort has a museum and Fort St George was no exception. The highlight is shown in the photo below – a secret underground chamber about half a metre deep whose purpose is unknown...

We then took in St Marys, the oldest Anglican church east of the Suez (and the oldest British building in India) and Kapalishvara Temple. The photo below is of the temple – not the church…

It was then off to Marina, one of the longest city beaches in the world. The beach was covered in trash and we were lucky enough to see an Indian man taking care of his business down by the high tide line.

Random Fact: The Indian head wobble. The wobble - neither shake nor nod has caused us great confusion as we have endeavored to understand its meaning. Men and women perform it and it can be used for many different things and often without words. We've reached the conclusion that it can mean anything from "good" to "I understand". For a fuller explanation check out this website: Indian Head Wobble

Highlights:
- Clean, wide streets where horns aren't used constantly (Chennai)
- Egg rolls. For $0.40 NZD these things are great. It's similar to a dry firm omelet, but is rolled up and portable. Comes with a nice filling of things to top it off
- Chennai transport stations. The train and bus stations are both large, modern, clean and well run.

Lessons Learned:
- The state of Tamil Nadu (where Chennai is) is a lot better run than most of the rest of the rest of India
- Boys will be boys all around the world. The Indian soldiers on the train sneakily destroyed a bottle and a half of whiskey in 30 minutes, before passing out
- Kiwifruit is expensive in India - $1 NZD per piece. The Motueka orchardists should develop a direct supply chain to Indian supermarkets

Bodhgaya

We had arranged to rendezvous with friends from New Zealand so we hopped on a train to the meeting place - Bodhgaya.

We'd said goodbye to Adam and Liv two years ago in a dark and dingey alleyway in Wellington. Since then they've been teaching English in China and traveling.

Bodhgaya is the most revered of all Buddhist sacred sites because it's the home of the Bodhi tree - the tree under which Buddha achieved nirvana. Now when we heard this we were amazed and couldn't believe that its the same tree. We were right, the existing tree is a fifth generation descendant (great great great grandchild) of the original Bodhi tree and was brought in from Sri Lanka.

The tree grows at the back of the Mahabodhi Temple which excellently is free. Photo below: Dan, Adam and Clint standing tall infront of the Bodhi tree.


After spending some quality time catching up with Adam and Liv it was time for an activity day. We chose the Mahakala or (Dungeshwari) caves, where Buddha did severe pennance. After years of extreme self-denial at the caves he realised the futility and wandered down to Bodhgaya. Hiring bicycles we made our way out to the caves.


After an impromptu match of cricket which the NZers didn't do well in, the locals kindly directed us to the wrong hill. After climbing the steps, and there were alot, it was so hot we had to stop for a rest.


Battling on in the heat of the day and with Adams bike continually breaking down we finally made it to the right place. It was smaller than we expected - but slightly larger than the picture below suggests!


Back at the Mahabodhi Temple we found a concrete pillar where devotees try and flick coins onto the top, presumably to receive good karma. The top is pointed meaning that it's very hard. We failed to get any coins to stay up so didn't receive any good karma. We did however knock down a few coins while trying to get ours up - so we used those coins to buy good karma via the donation box.


While in Bodhgaya we enjoyed many cups of the really nice chai the Indians have. At less than $0.20 a go you can't ask for better value.


Random Fact: Some Indian men refuse to age gracefully. Instead they opt to dye their hair a bright red colour. It's always obvious and often entertaining. But then again if it's good enough for 'Big B' why not your average Rajjy?

Highlights:
-Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Simply chilling out under the tree was enough for us to achieve our own version of Nirvana- a great way to escape the hustle and bustle which is India
- Nice village life. On the way to the caves we rode through a village which was full of nice people. Everyone was happy to see you and waved and smiled as you went past - nobody asked for money, it was almost surreal after the othersides of India that we have seen
- Talking fast to other New Zealanders. It was great to have some fast paced conversation with friends knowing that what we were saying was being understood!
- Adam leading some rooftop yoga under the star light. The '5 tibetans' will serve us well if we can do them regularly!

Lessons Learned:
- You can spend the night at the Mahabodhi Temple under the Bodhi tree. We saw Japanese tourists erecting little individual pop tents - classic.
- Everyone tries to collect fallen leaves from the Bodhi tree. Watch out or you'll lose a hand.
- If you're bike is broken the locals will try to fix it, their tool of choice is always a rock. Don't let them near the bike (this will be very hard), they'll only make it worst!
- Leave a key somewhere obvious and it will walk off. A local will then find it and want a reward - all our kind man received was praise and wishes of good karma

Varanasi

Grabbing an overnight train we were off to Varanasi. One of the oldest living cities in the world it was always going to be an interesting mix of old and new. Varanasi stands at the centre of the Hindu universe. Located next to a ford on an ancient trade route it is a “crossing place” that allows the devotee access to the divine and enables gods/goddesses to come down to earth.

Varanasi is one of the holiest places in Buddhism being one of the four pilgrimage sites said to have been designated by the big Buddha himself.

For two young travellers this meant we were going to see some eye opening religious activity.

The city gets really hazy, not to mention steaming hot during the day so the best time to check things out is the morning/late afternoon. With this in mind we were up early to see the sunrise over the ganges.

The photo above makes the river look beautiful but looks can be deceiving. The river is disgustingly polluted. It is filled with chemical waste, sewage and even the remains of human and animal corpses. The dead are cremated on the banks before having their remains pushed into the river. The amount of faecal coliform bacteria rate per millilitres is 120 times more than is considered safe for bathing.

Hindus believe that bathing in the ganges remits sins so each day they go down the ghats

To view the ritual bathings you can either walk along the ghats or go out on the water. We opted for the latter and hired a row boat. Unlike the other tourists we wanted to row ourselves around, picking and choosing where to stop. An estimated 2 million persons ritually bathe in the river every day. Without exception every tuk tuk driver we've ever met should spend half their time bathing in the river to remit all of their sins.

The photo below is of bathers performing their absolutions. Note that the sky in Varanasi isn't multicoloured it's the effects of Clints attempts to make a panoramic photo.

The bathers really don't hold back. Dunking their heads and even scrubbing teeth with their fingers. When you can see children and adults using the river as an open sewer 20 metres downstream we couldn't decide whether this was a demonstration of their religious conviction or just plain stupidity.

In the afternoons the breeze picks up and the local kids take to the sky to fight their kites. Being big kids and keen for an aerial tussle we bought kites and went up to a rooftop. Dan flew his the best and quickly ran out of line.

Once your kite is up the idea is to circle another kite and snap his line. New to the sport and with a weak line we were quickly punished. Once you've been defeated you can trace the victors line down from the sky and find his rooftop. You can then lamely shake your fist at him whilst shouting at promises of revenge.

Always keen for a light training session we found a local "judo" arena and went down to see what the locals were about. We were highly amused but disappointed. The local athletes are overweight and not up to much but it was interesting none the less.

Random Fact: Anyone that dies in Varanasi obtains instant enlightment making the place a mecca for the widowed and elderly.

Highlights:
- The amount of Japanese tourists doing the buddhist circuit. All the touts are fluent in English and Japanese
- Indian hospitality. When the manager of our guest house found out we were from New Zealand and that we were keen cricket fans he invited us to his home for lunch and to watch the 20/20 games. What a good man
- Watching New Zealand defeat India at 20/20 cricket, not once but twice
- Wandering the maze of narrow streets. Often only a meter or two wide they keep the motorbikes out

Lessons Learned:
- It’s very hard to launch a kite but easy to fly once it it’s up
- The Indian peoples immune system is second to none
- It's hard to find cheap accommodation which isn't fully booked