Monday, January 09, 2006

A Tale of Three Cities

After our trip through the mountains it came time to return to the big smoke and in India there certainly is a lot of smoke.

First stop Mysore - beautiful old city with lovely buildings and actual parklands...first we have seen in India in fact, and there are big old trees that line the streets providing releif from the heat and making Mysore one of the nicest cities in India. We became real tourists in Mysore we walked around with our maps, carrying backpacks, we paid entry to see places, read badly written information cards and took lots of photo's.

Second stop Bangalore - this was the first family visit that we did with my Cousin Gerard his wife Sabrina their cheeky 2year old Leanne and their extended family, we were well looked after and had a great time. Bangalore is the IT capital of India and so is wealthy in comparison to other states - malls are prolific here and walking into one makes you feel like you have been transported back to Australia, if it weren't for the paneer wrap at McDonalds...but walk outside and the traffic is hideous (I don't even think I can describe how bad, and to add to the choas no lanes, huge potholes, bits of road carved out and left laying there in big mounds - scary at night if you hit one in an auto)

Third stop Chennai - the straw that broke the camels back, kicked it in the guts and threw sand in its eyes. Chennai is a hole of a city, it stinks mainly of piss, men piss everywhere here and quite openly - just walked to breakfast and have seen four dicks already. It is also a tip there is garbage everywhere, the first street we stayed in smelt like blue cheese, good smell in a cheese but not so good on the street in 30 degree heat. Luckily we did find another place to stay away from cheese street and even over looking a park about the size of two car park spaces at your local Westfields and gated - you can look but no touch. This is a richer suburb but just walk a few metres from our hotel and your find another park hemmed by a street filled with garbage. Besides the garbage everywhere you also have to handle yourself carefuly over the open sewers, that are very still as present despite the rain and make you gag just looking into them. After 6 weeks of travelling, we are well and truly over the food, the South particularly Tamil Nadu has the same menu everywhere you go, for the firt four weeks it was exciting but now if we can get cornflakes for breakfast it makes our day.

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