More photos to come...

I've finished off another 512mb card with around 250 pictures. It's hot in this internet kiosk and I don't think I have the patience to process them right now...

We will have more free time at our next stop in Mysore (you're thore !...ref to a joke I've told many times) and I'll get around to posting the pictures then.

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I really like how it's working so far.

Mamallapurum

We stayed in Mamallapurum to see some temples carved out of solid rock about 1400 years ago. Interesting structures, the depict more hindu symbols and figures. Pretty impressive...I have pictures. The tour was a little different this time...we rented some bicycles and rode around the town with our guide on a moped. It was a nice way to get around and not get hassled by the vendors. There are a lot of masons around here following the tradition of the people who originally built the temples. A lot of the carvings are impressive, although I didn't stop to take pictures because I would have immediately been hassled to buy something.

Another part of the stop was an optional trip to an orphanage here. A few of us went there on bikes again. The kids were really excited to see us. We spent the better part of an hour intercating with them...playing and showing the pictures. They were just starving for affection. I put a fresh media card in my camera and gave it to one of the older kids after a quick intro on how to use it. It turns out he has a good eye for it and got some nice shots. I'm planning on printing the pictures and mailing them to the orphanage.

Pondicherry and Auroville

Pondicherry was an old french colony in India. The french have left, but they seem to still have influence there. It is by far the nicest city we've been to so far. Everything is clean and nicely organized...they have traffic lights ! The place has a very laid back feel to it and the architecture is really nice. There are no specific sights to see...it's just a nice stop on the way. Incidentally, Pondicherry is where Mahatma Ghandi trekked to in protest of the british ban on making salt. He decided to go there and make some salt on the beach...it was a media fan fare and people around the world took notice and it was covered in the international press...a big embarassment for the british. The backed off and repealed the salt ban after that.

A wierd kind of hippie culture also emerged in the area with Sri Aurombindo. He sort of merged hindu and bhuddist philosophy with some western ideals and found an audience willing to listen. He also married a french woman of egyptian and turkish decent who also became quite influential. She sparked a movement to develop Auroville in 1968. It's a sort of utopian ideal community where material wealth is not supposed to matter and people live to serve each other and to persue their intellectual and spiritual interests. We stopped by the place to check it out...it has a very cultish feel. They're building this gold spherical structure (something like a small epcot centre in disney land) to be a place where people can go to meditate and stare into this crystal ball. The concept is very interesting, but in all honesty, I think it's doomed to fail. It is somewhat impressive that it has lated 30 years though. I got upset after we left though, because they are building this town in the middle of an improvrished area...a lot of money comes into the place and very little seems to go towards helping the people surrounding the "city". Most of the residents seemed to be new age europeans who decide that this is a life for them. Apperently, the utopia is running into difficutly with some infighting and lack of unity. It might be interesting to go a live there for a couple of weeks to see how it all really works.

Street Vendors and beggars...

Shopping in India is an interesting experience. On one hand, you can find some really nice things for really cheap. On the other hand, you have to put up with the crap of a lot of people. As a tourist, you stick out like a sore thumb and people view you as a source of money and that's it. They feign interest in you by asking you where you are from and introduce themselves and then give you a sales pitch. Some of them are quite slick. You learn quickly that being nice doesn't pay...it just means that they will nag you until you lose your temper. So I've learned to be short and direct with them and they seem to back off...for a while anyways.

Begging is also an issue...especially when you encounter kids. It's hard turning down a child asking you for money, but you have to keep in mind that, as in other places, the children are more than likely part of a racket and being taken advantage of by other people. The money you give them doesn't necessarily go to them...they usually pass it on to their "boss". It is difficult turning them down and I find myself feeling a little cold hearted, but giving them a couple of ruppees doesn't help them at all either.

Madurai and the Shri Meenakshi Temple

We left Periyar and Kumali on a local bus to head towards Madurai, home of the Shri Meenakshi Temple. 6 hrs on an uncomfortable bus where the seats seemed to be designed for midgets and blairing indian music was a bit much, but the scenery was awesome. The temperature change from the mountains back into the valley was drastic. We went from a nice cool green mountain climate into a dry stifling heat. Like other Indian cities on the trip, Madurai is a busy place with a constant noise of beeping, dust and diesel fumes in the air. The temple itself was a sight to behold. It was built initially in the 1600s and is packed full with hindu symbols and statues. It was pretty awesome. We went on a tour on the inside with a guide and saw how hindus prayed, what the prayed for, and how they give thanks. The level of symbolism in the place is incredible. The lotus flower, for example, is a big symbol and is highly regarded. The plant itself grows in very muddy waters and the buds and the leaves have to work their way through all the muck and water to get to the surface...the flower itself is beatiful. It symbolised the struggle through the suffering and unhappiness in life to get to the enlightened state. When you consider hindu philosophy, it's a pretty deep concept. There's a lot of information to absorb, so I don't know exactly how it all ties together. I know that a lot of hinduism is based on 2 ancient epic stories...the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. All the gods and their numerous incarnations are present in these epics...again, too much info to really absorb, but those links should give you a good overview.

Comments...

Thanks for all your comments on the previous post(s). Just as a quick note...if you do post a comment anonymously, please sign your name so I know who it is...it can get hard to figure out after a while.

Photos...

I've been in India for about 6 days and already have close to 300 pictures. It takes a long time to upload them and the publish them. I have had to shrink the pictures down so that the upload time would be around 20 minutes rather than 7hrs.

You can view the pictures here. I'll put a link in the sidebar as well so you can view it at any time.

There are some really nice shots, but sorting them out and publishing them on the blog is time consuming. The album should do for now. Have a look and let me know what you think...

Periyar National Park

We made our way to the Periyar National park area via a 2hr boat ride and then a 5hr car ride through the mountains. The scenery was fantastic ! Great big mountains and the low level clouds were blanketing them. You would see the occational church or village nestled in the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere.
Our hotel is pretty swanky...not what I expected.
After settling into the hotel, we went to Abraham's Spice Garded (listed in the Lonely Planet 2005 guide !). The garden was started by Abraham's grandfather and the family has been running it ever since. It was really neat to see how some of the spices grow...the cardamom plant was interesting...not what I expected. The pods grow at the base of the tree. There were lot's of other plants...too many to really remember/list. They made dinner for us that was made with spices from the garden. Really good !
The Periyar park area is a major attraction so there's been a lot of effort to develop the area as a tourism attraction. Neil and I went for a beer last night at a local bar...really nice and cozy place. We played chess with the bartender...he's pretty good, made me think really hard.
I also chatted with the hotel accountant Rakesh. He hangs out at the bar after his day is done and interacts with the tourists...nice fellow.
This morning we got up pretty early to go trekking through the park. It was a really nice walk of about 3-4hrs. We hoped to see some elephants and other wildlife, but it didn't really work out. We saw some howler monkeys in the trees at one point, but they were too far away to really appreciate them. Other than that, I really enjoyed the walk...the scenery was great and I got some neat pictures of the local plants.

Keralan Backwaters

The state/province that we're in is called Kerala. We left the city on a public bus...interesting experience. After about 1.5hrs we hopped on a boat to take us to our homestay with Thomas and Matthew. The Keralan backwaters are the countryside where they grow rice and other crops. It's a system of canals and fields. The water is used for everyting: transportation, irrigation, cleaning. There are no roads, but people use boats and ferries as public transportation to get around the place. Thomas gave us a walking tour of the area and explained some of the history. Apparently the place is below sea level and the land was reclaimed from the sea in a similar fashion to the Netherlands/Holland. After a few thousand years the entire region is a series of man-made islands and canals. Really fascinating.
This was a nice stop...really refreshing and a nice departure from the noise and rush of the city.

Fort Cochin

Our first group outing was to Fort Cochin. It's a nice little town with some neat little shops and attractions. There's an old jewish neighbourhood started by some people who left the middle east a few hundred years ago. There's a dutch palace that has some very old murals depicting the great Indian mythical epics of Vishnu and the Ramayana. Really interesting, but it's fairly old and some sections are hard to make out.
There were a couple intersting churches to see and the town itself is nice to walk around. We had lunch in this little artsy cafe that had really good chocolate cake. I started getting pestered by shopkeepers and autorickshaw drivers so I had my fill of the place pretty fast.
We went back to the hotel for some rest before heading back out to watch a short Kathakali...traditional Indian theatre. It's been around for a while and the costumes are pretty elaborate. It was really interesting...I got some great pictures.
Indian culture is not subtle it seems to me. They're very direct and deliberate about the message trying to be conveyed in their art. It's refreshing in a way...

The group...

There's 6 of us in total in the group. Peter, an Irish fellow, is the group leader. Joan and Lara are Aussies. Neil is from New Zealand, while Jean-Pierre and I are Canadians. So far it's been great...we're all getting along and are really here to have a good time. Peter has been doing a good job so far in getting use where we need to go.

Cochin

I had a free day by myself before I met the group and decided to walk around and check out the town. I got abushed by a couple of autorickshaw (little motorcycle type taxi vehicles) asking me if I wanted a tour around the area. I put up a good fight, but in the end I decided that there wasn't much to lose. It turned out to be a good trip. The driver's name is Jose Thankachan. He took me to some villages south of the main city. We stopped at the end and walked through some villages to find a little resort run by an English physician and his wife Michaels Land Resort. They fixed up the place and started building sailboats with the idea of offering cruises around the area. I sat down and had a bit of a rest and some Australians showed up. They're yachties touring the world in their sailboats and have been at sea for about 3 years. They stop in different countries and stay for a few months. Really nice people...I chatted with them for a little while. Jose then took me to his village and I met his wife and his mother (82). Nice little place...the people are poor by western standards, but they're not desolate. They have enough and live within their means. I ended up back at the hotel in the afternoon and had a little snooze. I met the group at around 6pm.

I'm in...

18hrs on a plane and about 9 hrs waiting time, I finally made it. It was a really long trip. I ended up forgetting my Lonely Planet guide to India on the 2nd flight so I'll have to find some other type of guide. Somehow I have a feeling tha not having a guide book won't be that big of a deal...I'm sure someone else in the tour group will have one.

I took some pictures on the taxi ride to the hotel, but the computer I'm on is fairly old...no USB connections so I can't upload anything at the moment. I'll have to wait and see.

My intial experience with India was an assault on the sense. There's so much to take in. There are a lot of smells...good and bad. A constant noise of traffic and beeping of little car horns. It's hot and humid and everthing is wet. The plane arrived in the middle of a downpoar...the temperature was 34C. There are some really run down places alongside some really nice places. People are pretty friendly though. Maybe it was because I was really tired (I slept for about 6 hours after I checked into the hotel), but part of me was wondering what the hell I was doing here. A little sleep gave a new outlook. I feel excited...can't wait to meet the group tomorrow.

RA

I'm off...

The news this morning was talking about a scare on an Air India flight. Apparently a passenger saw a "suspicious" package in the bathroom and notified the crew. They turned the plane around and landed at Pearson. The RCMP bomb squad came in and blew the package up..."render the package safe" were the words that were said.

Nobody said what was in the package. The RCMP did not say what the debris of the package looked like. I don't know if the press asked any of them that question. But since explosives were used to blow the package up, then finding traces of explosives in the debris doesn't tell you anything about the package itself. My impression is that the RCMP blew up a dirty diaper bag and are embarassed to admit it...you'd think that with all the technology we have now that someone would have come up with a portable x-ray machine to inspect suspicious packages like that.

It's wierd that this came out on the day I fly to India. I wonder what security will be like when I go through the airport tonight.

But that's an entirely different topic...

Welcome to Something Brewing !

This is my travel blog. I thought I'd do this instead of sending a mass emails out on the odd occasion. This blog allows me to keep everything together in one spot and allows everyone to interact with me as well as each other. I can post entries like this post and attach pictures like this:

This site will also be up for as long as I want and anyone can go to it years from now and read it through again. The best part: It's 100% Free !

I haven't quite decideded how I'm going post online picture albums mainly because I don't have a feel for the internet speed that I'll encounter in India. But once I get there, I'll know what it's like and will post pictures. I'll add a link to this site for you to view them. I'm planning on posting entries frequently...about every couple of days. So please bookmark this page. If you ever wonder how I'm doing, check the site and post a comment or email me if you like.

There are 2 portions to my trip: 6 weeks in India and up to 3 months in the Philippines. I signed up with GAP Adventures for the tour through India. I combined two trips together:
India North and South and Mountains and Mystics to get the full experience of the entire country. I start from the very south and go to the very north.

The Philippines is another story. I have no real plan. I will arrive in Cebu on Nov 9th and visit with some cousins from my mother's side. There are many others to visit and interesting places to see. I'll plan a route once I get there...there's no rush, I'll have lots of time. I'll post the details when I figure it out.

I'm sure I missed a few people on the broadcast email...The address list is long. So feel free to pass the website address along to people who didn't get the email, that way they can check and read it through at their leisure.

Take care everbody ! See you in a few Months !!!