Our many homes away from home...

I just wanted to do a little blog about the accommodation that we are staying in, before arriving here I was imagining backpackers with bunks and communal tables where you met other travelers and little gardens where you hang to read books. Sadly not so.


Mainly the accommodation here is hotel style and they are stuck in a 70's time warp they are usually pretty bare with a bed, table and chair, painted white but inevitably more brown from years of wear with some rather strange stains at times, one room we stayed in had two great big hand prints on the ceiling.

The smell if not of mould due to the weather conditions here rainy and hot is of moth balls, for some strange reasons Indians put moth balls in all their drains a mystery we are yet to figure out.

Next you look at the bed, usually thread bare, in one room we could feel that slates of the bed through the mattress. The pillows are rock hard, if you were to have a pillow fight with these suckers there would be causalities. Double beds are a rarity in India and most doubles are just two singles pushed together with single sheets on each side, Greg and I have a running joke about being one of us being on crack if we want to cuddle.

Next we open the curtains always closed to discover our delightful view of a brick wall, garbage pit, over pass or train tracks.

Christmas and New Years Our Tales of Woe continue

Christmas - we were in Chennai to visit the family, muggy heat and gray skies everyday, to treat ourselves and because neither of us had a work Christmas party this year we decided to have a grand buffet meal at one of the five star hotels. The meal was lovely, nothing special but both of us we overjoyed by the sight of lettuce and just ate several plates full.

Later that night Greg started vomiting and pooing and did not stop for days. Christmas day, we had been up all night and arrive to my Uncle Pats place exhausted and over it, Royapuram the place where I was born is grubby little port town and rather a sad sight on Christmas morning. Uncle Pat is joyous to see us but informs me that the family does not get together for Christmas and so we have to get around in the one day to see the three families. Greg tries to eat a bit of breakfast - throws up and then needs to go lie down. I try to make small talk mainly about what I remember which is nothing and long for home....I start feeling a little sick myself.

Next stop is my Uncle Joes, we get there and he insists that we drink some juice, and we are presented with juice of which I have no description that neither of us could drink, more talk about what I remember, Greg swaying nauseously in the corner....Joe insists we have lunch and we awkwardly tell him that we have to go to my Auntie Maree's for lunch.

We get to auntie Maree's my Grandmother is there and I am happy to see her after so many years...we hug and kiss and Greg takes a few photo's before exiting to throw up and lie down. Conversation is slow and then we start watching a Karaoke video, which takes all of our attention. My family insist that we go out and get some medicine for Greg which I think is a good idea we go out and I discover they have taken me out to buy me a gold ring, horrified I beg them not to buy it and even walk out of the shop and refuse to try anything on, they buy me a ring anyway.

Another hour of the Karaoke video and we are off back to our hotel, Greg collapsing and me in a daze.

New Years Eve and the plague continues, we arrive in Goa after 22hours on the train on the 31 first of December. The train ride itself is an event, thinking that our train was at 11pm on the 30th we were cruising around getting some things done when we discover at 12.30pm that our train is leaving at 2pm, after packing at break neck speed we arrive at the station in time for train, hot, hungry and tired. All of the trains we have been on so far have had a continuous stream of food sold by porters walking up and down the carriages so we were not disturbed by the fact that we have had no lunch. An hour into the train ride and not a porter to be seen I asked the conductor if there was food, only to be advised that there was no food on this train an we would have to wait 8hrs until Bangalore to get food. Thankfully he was wrong and food was available at a station about 3hrs into the trip, but we were so scared of possible starvation that we over ate for 22hrs of our trip and arrived at Goa stuffed, exhausted and not really caring about partying for New Years.

Knowing that it would be busy there we booked a room well ahead, but India being India they gave our room away and so three hours later we found a hut on the beach and sat down to relax, a quick swim and we got showered and dressed for the festivities. At dinner started sneezing uncontrollably and kept going this way until about 11pm when I had to go to bed - so missed the count down and fireworks and had a fierce cold for the next three days.

But we are in Goa the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the ocean is bright, cornflakes and lettuce are in plentiful supply and things are looking up.

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.