India, Mudumallai, Mysore and Mamallapuram

With this toe ring I they wed. Today we crashed four weddings before we even brushed our teeth this morning. If you are married you have a toe ring on your second toe. So part of the ceremony is putting on the toe ring amongst smashing coconuts, throwing flowers, washing peoples feet in milk and yogurt and putting a third eye on their forehead.

We were not dressed in our finest with our hair done or teeth brushed. We had just gotten off a 12 hour night train and went to see a temple on our way to breakfast when there were four weddings taking place at the same time at the temple. We were invited to have front row seats and at the end our pictures taken with the not so happy couple. The bride did not smile throughout the ceremony and it made us wonder what it was all about. Was this the first time she saw her husband? Arranged marriages in India. Did she have a love relationship and wasn’t allowed to pursue it and had to marry this guy? Who knows?  But like I said all this done before we even brushed our teeth after that “lovely” night train with 64 other people in our car. Weddings in the South take place on Sunday at 8:30am.

In Mysore we happened upon elephants in the back of trucks being transported after a festival. There must have been a least a dozen and the elephants were all painted up for the festivities.

Mysore has a beautiful palace that is even prettier at night because it is illuminated with full size light bulbs all over the whole structure.

We went to Chamundi hills temple with the masses and witnessed bananas being pelted at the monument and coconuts being smashed all in offerings to the gods. There were thousands of people there. Then we came down a thousand or more steps with the masses on their pilgrimage.

We went to a village and saw that families there live with their cows and livestock inside the house in the main living space. One side of the open room was the TV and the other side was shi**ing cows and ox. I have never seen the animals right in the house before. This village was old school as well with buckets they send down the well on a rope to retrieve water.

These are wild elephants we saw as we were driving down the road.

We stayed in another jungle “resort.” There were elephants along the perimeter when we went to go back to our bungalow from dinner in the main area. We were all spread out along the property and the others had wild elephants outside their door in the night. They could see the droppings and branches down off the tree in the morning. There were cannon like sounds going off in the night to ward off the animals. We went on a Jeep Safari and saw lots of spotted deer, peacocks and elephants, but no tigers.

We have been spending lots of time on the road and seeing lots of country side. The bus we had left a lot to be desired as far as a/c and leg room were concerned. We did happen upon a livestock auction that we stopped to check out. You can get a “nice” cow and calf for $400. There were ox there too and we witnessed a guy shaving off part of the horns with a large knife to make them look cleaner.

Oh yes a cow head butted me the other day as I was walking down the street in Mysore. Cows are everywhere roaming freely and this one just decided it was going to push into my torso with its head and horns.

In Mamallapuram (which is on the East Coast of India) we had bicycles for the day to ride around to the many stone archeological sites. The bikes were interesting. Hard seats with narrow handle bars which made for difficult turns but a great way to get around in this laid back backpacker town with not much traffic.

There is a great big boulder here that they call the butterball, and many ornately carved out elephants, gods, animals and temples.  

Barry the 70 year old former doctor went to the hospital today as he was having some urinary problems or prostate problems and wanted a urine test done. His emergency room visit cost 350 rupees or $7. Yes $7. It was a short lived illness as he was swimming only a few hours later and feeling much better.

A few people have had the Delhi belly this week and have been down for the count for a few days.

We have been able to get some nice seafood in this town and I have taken advantage of the jumbo tiger shrimp and calamari. They bring it out to the table for you to see it before it is cooked.

A cyclone has been going through the south of India but luckily we have only had heavy rain and there doesn’t seem to be any in our current town. It was a good day to have it rain as we spent 10 hours in a bus. When we arrived in Madurai the streets were barricaded off and there seemed to be demonstrators all over the place. At the hotel there is a notice that no alcohol is to be served for two days under government mandate. It must be to keep the protestors in line.

Click on this link for more photos from the South of India