Friday, December 09, 2005

India South and Sri Lanka: Since my last posting I've traveled from the south west coast of India, to central south (Bangalore, Mysore regions) and then on to the south east coast of India and Chennai which is India's 4th largest city and has about 6 million inhabitants. The train trip from Bangalore to Chennai was 7 hours but really memorable because I got to stand at an open door between train cars for much of the trip, which got me out of the stuffy and dingy interior and really enabled me to watch the world go by. The sunset was great that evening.

Chennai is on the Bay of Bengal in the state of Tamil Nadu and I dipped my feet in the water. The surf was so rough, no one could go in. The city has 13 kms of fabulous beach front and everyone in Chennai ends up there on hot days. The city is busy and polluted like all the rest. The British East India Company established one of its earliest seats of power in Chennai (formerly known as Madras). There is a fort and churches, plus the usual host of Hindu temples. I traveled to a wonderful site about 60 km south along the coast called Mahabalipuram, which has great century old temples right on or near the beach. During the drive south I also saw where the Dec. 26/05 tsunami came ashore and washed away homes. Eight thousand Indians either were killed or lost. Now there is temporary housing for people but the push is on to get them permanent ones. That is taking longer then expected. Beach front property is cheap here and there's lots available. hmmm.... would I like to have a little hut on the Bay of Bengal? Maybe not.

Leaving India we flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka around December 1st. What a very different county! Such a reprieve from the chaotic activity of India. More like Indonesia I would think. It has 19 million people and is very laid back, relaxed, green, tropical, rice paddies, elephants, gentle, shy people, tea plantations, more wretched dogs then India, 80% Buddhist so lots of temples. We were able to do more hiking and that was good because I needed the exercise. So a couple of treks to holy sites / temples were done . You can't be in this part of the world and ignore the temples. I swam in the Indian Ocean just north of Colombo so now I've been in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. Sounds so exotic. The lushness of the country side is delightful and there is something very charming about the entire place. Traveling into the hill county, the tea plantations are stunning colours of green and you can see the tea pickers busy at work and then stop at a plantation for tea and Christmas cake! I've seen more elephants than I can count and monkeys galore. At night I must keep the windows shut or they will invade the room and take things. I actually have grown to not like them at all. They are nasty animals.

The internet service was dismal in Sri Lanka hence no blog during my time there, but I would recommend it as a place to see if you are this part of the world. Not so sure you should make a trip just to see it (many people do like the Australians and British) but it's a great way to wrap up a trip to India. So now I am recounting my travels from Baga Beach in Goa, India. Only took me 21 hours to get here from the interior of Sri Lanka yesterday. 7 hours by car, then a plane trip to Mumbai from Colombo at midnight, waited for 6 a.m. plane to Goa from Mumbai and then an hours car ride from Goa airport to hotel. Whew - crashed for a few hours after that one. Now I'm in Goa for one week to chill out and watch sunsets. Ta, ta for now.

No comments:

Post a Comment