Lightning lit the clouds as we descended into Chennai airport, a week or so ago.\u00a0 The guy who booked me a taxi explained there was heavy flooding in Tamil Nadu and a cyclone was on it’s way.\u00a0 Mixed with heavily potholed roads and crazy traffic of all kinds, animal, mineral and vegetable, it made for a memorable ride the 60km to Mamallapuram, with dawn breaking as we arrived.\u00a0 The cyclone never hit, as such, but it feels to me I’ve been in it’s eye since arriving, just now coming out the other side, still spinning but remembering what it’s like to have my balance.<\/p>\n
Along the way have been the wonderful people, some (not all..) wonderful food and rarely a moment away from the din of traffic, a cacophony of horns, conductor’s whistles, engines, music, yells and more besides.\u00a0 So, I started with a really cheap room and have worked my way up to mid-range places that appear as I’d imagine ex-luxury hotels in socialist states like cuba or venezuela.\u00a0 From about 400 rupees (\u00a35, still twice the very cheapest) to 2500 rupees at the present place, in incremental steps.<\/p>\n
Fantastic sights: tropical scenery, colourful built environment, fashion and amazingly diverse vehicles, cottage industries of all sorts, mammals of various types all over the place. \u00a0And quite bizarre, to my untrained ear, music, as well as the more familiar indian pop which buses tend to supply as a soundtrack.\u00a0 Marred by poverty, plastic waste, sewage. Touting and begging has not been as overwhelming as I feared it may be, so far, but still takes some getting to grips with.<\/p>\n
Now, having had to stay an extra night to get the first available train reservation to Madurai (my second, mostly I’ve used buses), I’m on my way – via this city – into the countryside: the 2000m hill station of Kodaikanal.\u00a0 Back to a nice cheap hostel and less extraordinarily bustling environment, in what all locals who I’ve mentioned it to believe to be one of the most beautiful parts of the region.\u00a0 Maybe I can trek to Munnai in Kerala from there, if I’m lucky enough to find a group to join, but by whatever means this more rural state will be my next destination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lightning lit the clouds as we descended into Chennai airport, a week or so ago.\u00a0 The guy who booked me a taxi explained there was heavy flooding in Tamil Nadu and a cyclone was on it’s way.\u00a0 Mixed with heavily … Continue reading