Holy Cow!

For Paul and Teena

This is the fire station at Tiruvannamalai and the firemen standing in front of it.

For Bec/Derick and Suzanna/Gavin

This is the family vehicle in India - seriouly in Chennai we saw mum/dad and 3 kids on a bike but were not quick enough to get a photo.

For those at Cellarmasters this is where I now work!

They do not actually sell any wine !

Tiruvannamalai

Tiruvannamalai

Tiruvannamalai

Tiruvannamalai

Took a four hour bus ride from Mamalla to Tirvannamalia which is further south, it was raining all day and we spent most of our time on the bus and the interchange (a wrought iron awning, rusting and with many holes - held up with wooden poles direct from tree to bus stand) soaked. However on entering the town it was completely worth it, on approach to the town you got a spectacular view of a looming green mountain shrouded in a misty fog. Later in Nov pilgrims flog to this town to walk around the base of this mountain until a giant wick is lit at the top using an incredibly long rope and tones of ghee. The town is home to a Shivite temple, which covers 10 hectares, the Aranachaleswar Temple.

We decided to visit this temple for its evening opening at 5.30pm, the skies covered with rain clouds brought the night early and we approached the temple in darkness lit by street and vendor lights with sheets of rains flowing down and the wafting smell of Jasmine from the flower sellers that line the temples entrance. After depositing our shoes with the Chapel Stall (Chapel is shoe) we squished our way through mud and splashed our way through water to the main temple.

It opens with a large courtyard in which pilgrims can sit in the open and talk, we came in to find a group of religious men talking as 3 monkeys circled them and quickly darted away as we made our way through. Entering the main temple the first thing that hits you is the smell, oil lights are laid in every corner and are fueled with ghee and oil is rubbed into the walls and statues of the gods, so the smell is of warm, slightly rancid ghee, it is very pungent but not as bad as it reads. The light is low although fluorescent lights do line the ceiling the space is so vast and the walls so black from age and oil that light is subdued. The halls are sparse with left wall lined with what Greg tells me are replica's of Shiva's penis (was not really keen to confirm this with priests or pilgrims - language barrier and all). It does feel like you have gone back in time there is something ancient and a little scary about this temple.

After exploring the inner temple we sat on one of the outer courtyards, watching the rain, orange as it sheeted under the street lights, but still had a direct view into the centre of the temple many pilgrims were sitting there praying and waiting, we were not sure for what. Two musicians came to the court and starting playing one a hand beaten drum and the other an oboe the music was pulsing, strong, loud and beautiful. At 6.30 a large bell suspended above the court was rung the noise resounding through the whole temple, the musicians continued to play and everyone stood up to face the inner centre of the temple closing their eyes and mumbling feverish prayers, the large bell tolled as the musicians played and priest walked around ringing a small bell and as the rain came down and darkness closed in I felt this sense of peace and connection to what it was to be in India.

Shiva and family

We have made our first Indian friends and this was harder than it seems. When we got to Mamallapuram we met an English guy- Matt who has been coming to India for 15years and first came to Mamallapuram with his family when he was in his teens. On their first visit the family met with one of three shop owners Shiva and his family (Mamalla now has about 40shops). Through Matt we got to be friends with Shiva his wife and his two daughters and the their friends. They were lovely people inviting us to sit out the front of their shop and chat feeding us with coffee and snacks and showing us their family snaps and even photo's of Matt on his first visit. They generally took us in, dropped us to the bus station when we were leaving and invited us to stay with them if we returned or call them if we needed help.

This was rather a lovely surprise for us as it is hard to tell sometimes in India or I guess anywhere whether people want something from you or really want to be your friend. We also befriended another shop owner Albert who insisted we come and talk to him and not have to buy anything, after a few days of buttering us up with tea and conversation, just as we were leaving he asked us if we would give him money for his daughters education - send it when we got back home and he would send us the bills. After three days of being hit up by every beggar and shop owner continuously as well as the staff at our hotel who claimed to have lost everything in the Tsunami we were both a little tired. One such incident relates to the photo of the three little kids on the beach, I offered them some money for a photo and after I had taken it I asked the boy where his parents were and he told me he didn't have any and asked for a 100rupees, later I saw him with his parents who sell beads on the main street.

India is a bizarre mix of extreme generosity and demand; we are still and probably will continue to learn how to deal with

Mamallapuram - On the hippie trail

After a few aimless days in Chennai decided to follow the traveler’s hippie trail to a little seaside town called Mamallapuram. This town after the busy chaos of Chennai is a welcome relief, however it is very much Westernized and was born out of the tourist trade, here all the menu's are in English and rather than dividing the menu up by types of food the menu is divided instead into countries the best that we have seen so far is the 'French Breakfast' - French toast, coffee and a cigarette.

After the heavy rains and being not quite tourist season, the town was very quite and the shop owners solution to getting more business was to position loud touts at the front of their shops and restaurants that basically hassled you until you were so angry you would never go in or would just give in and end up going in. Despite all this the shop owners that we met here was lovely particularly off the main road.


This town's main income comes from two streams the tourism being key but also fishing being a major industry. Before the Tsunami there were 7 boats and as many fisherman, although the water did rise very high here and effected the main tourist drag and washed away their 7 boats, the damage was minimal and thankfully only 2 lives were lost. However a Swedish company has set up a relief effort specifically in Mamallapuram but only helps the fisherman giving them boats, nets, rice and funds. There are now 150 boats in Mamallapuram and over fishing is already evident, Lobster is advertised everywhere and sadly they are only 10 to 15 cm's long, young and grossly undersize. I imagine it won’t be too long before they are all gone.

The reason that travelers starting coming to this town was for the large rock carvings and the temple - sadly these are not practicing temples and walking through them just does not give you the same experience. Born out of these carvings an artistic tradition of rock craving has begun here and there are many shops with artists out the front working selling everything from pendants to enormous statues.

Chennai

Chan Ancestral Family Home - KL

Chan Ancestral Family Home - KL

Chan Ancestral Family Home - KL