Wildlife

Today I went to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. There are several guided treks to choose from. I choose the "Bamboo Raft" tour, which is an all day raft ride/trek. The tour is guided by two guides. There is also a porter (who caries the snacks and lunch) and an armed guard. The guard is considered important because there are tigers and wild bison.

Fear my WWI era rifle!


The first part of the day was pretty un-eventful. It mostly felt like a hike through the woods. We didn't see too much wildlife. I did see a Kingfisher (which is India's national bird) and some other birds.


We also spotted some wild pigs.



Just before lunch, everything changed. First, we saw some bison. At one point, the guides and the guard got very serious. The guard loaded up his WWI era rifle and shuffled out to the bushes. It seems that we had nearly cornered the bison herd, which is exactly the thing one does to make them charge. After the close call, the guides had us skirt around the herd and wait for a while so they could get out from being cornered. We then continued to stalk them until we could get into visual range. I got a good view myself, but unfortunately the lens I had with me wasn't long enough to get a great photo. At least I did get something.



After lunch it started raining. But rain was a small price to pay for what we saw on our raft ride back to the main trail. A herd of wild Asian Elephants! The herd actually swam across the lake to get away from us. When were were our closest we were maybe only about 75 yards away from them.


Leach proof booties being dusted with tobacco powder. Double protection from leaches! (All the guides except for the "guard" wore only sandals. They had no problems. But they did need to be much more diligent in checking their feet periodically!)


Fungus and bugs:

Un-Jaded

Today was a great change of pace. The tour took a radical turn and headed more for the sort of stuff I like. Seeing temples day after day was about the drive me crazy and Meenakshi temple an the gift shops around it just about did me in. Starting today I'll be on the other side of the ghat mountains. The monsoon should have moved to the east side of the ghats where I was staying before. But it seems like it's still raining here. From what I understand, the monsoon is late in moving on this year.

On the way to Thekaddy, which is in a different state called Karala, I saw many small companies producing what Satprem calls Country Fired Bricks. They make the bricks by hand. The bricks are sun-dried and then stacked in a giant pile which the brick-makers cover with a mud/dung plaster. The bricks are fired using nothing but the plaster as insulation. The process works, but it requires lots of wood. The bricks tend to be weaker than factory bricks as they are not fired as throughly. Worst of all, when quarrying for the required earth, careless brick makers often use top-soil, which of course ruins the land where it was quaryed and also makes poor bricks.

In Karala, donkeys rule the road.

One of my favorites. Fresh lime soda. You add the sugar and soda water yourself. Perfect, every time.


Part of my day I was set aside for a plantation tour. The place I toured specialize in spices, but they had some tea and coffee plants as well.

Vanilla beans


Can you see the dove in this orchid?

Entrance to the drying room


The guide shows me some cardamom in it's dry state.

Coffee plant

Nutmeg


cardamom
A colorful spider


Leaches! Leaches! [shivers] I hate leaches! ... if you walk around in one of the plantations or parks you are bound to pick a few of these up. But if you keep checking your shoes you'll see them before they have a chance to crawl up to your legs. Tabaco powder applied to your socks/legs repels them also.


Karala style architecture of the hotel where I'm staying.

Jaded

Today I'm starting to feel a little jaded. Several experiences over the last couple of days have added up to this feeling.

My guides keep taking me to gift shops that all sell the same sort of stuff. "Department stores" is what some of them call themselves. But really, I can tell they are gift shops. I'm starting to suspect that the guides might get some sort of commission or kick back on sales from their referrals. (I can't think of any reason why they would take me to these places) With the exception of one shop, which deals in fairly high quality statues and antique statues and lamps, the proprietors of each and every shop have left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It's how pushy they seem. I'm not sure if it's an Indian thing, or a gift shop thing, or both. But they treat you as if you are absolutely going to buy something. As if you wouldn't have come to the store if you didn't want to buy something. It rubs me the wrong way. You see, like most guys, I go into a shop knowing exactly what I want to buy. If I don't see it, I'm not interested in half assed options or substitutes. The other thing is, I'm gaining sophistication as I gain experience. When a pushy salesman tells me over and over again that he's selling me "pure silk", "pure silk" that is obviously rayon it really pisses me of. It also makes me distrust everything else he says.

India is famous for textiles, and rightly so. I've already been to proper Saree shops and I can say the stuff they sell is phenomenal. But when a gift shop salesman trys to push poor quality crap sarees and other textiles on me for even higher prices than the saree shop, again, it pisses me off.

I'm only talking about 3 or 4 individual instances in the last 3 days. I can't go to more than one shop a night because it's just exaughsting. I'm not a big shopper. But I have been trying to pick up some things while I'm here. Even back home, shopping is hard for me. But in America, it seems like the problem is getting enough attention from a salesperson. (in addition to actually finding what I want) In India, the problem is getting TOO MUCH attention. (And still not being able to find what you want) The salesmen (so far, I have only ever had salesMEN) never just leave you alone to browse. Even if you ask them to leave you alone, they still hover. I've read about this but experiencing it first hand is a real eye opener. Add to that the issue of haggling for price. Many shops have no fixed price. That means all they have to do is take one look at me, size me up as an American and then jack the price 200%. Haggling is hard work. It wears me down even faster than a salesman who's too over-eager to find something to sell me. Who would have ever guessed that the first thing I'd really dis-like about India was...shopping.

As I said, I'm starting to build a little experience and sophistication in shopping. It's pretty easy to tell what's good and what's crap once you've seen both ends of the spectrum. It helps to shop in a few reputable shops before heading out in the uncharted territory In India, sometimes the best available is still crap, by western standards. But that is not likely to be the case in things you would be shopping for as a tourist.) I'm still working on the haggling thing myself. It doesn't come naturally to me. But I'm starting to get better at it... Sadly, I'm also almost done with my shopping. :-(

One thing that has really been driving me crazy is that I can't seem to find places to buy certain cloths that I commonly see the locals wearing. Neither my driver nor any of the guides I've had so far have been any help. Actually, it's this particular issue that has led me to distrust them. When you ask for a very specific thing. Even point to people wearing it one the street, and then they take you to a store that sells nothing similar, it starts to make you little more than suspicious. Of course, they could also just be clueless. I try to follow the rule of "Never chalk up to malice what can be explained by incompetence", but I am by nature a suspicious and hate being played as a sucker. At this point, incompetence or malice, I'm pretty much done with getting any shopping tips from guides

It's learn from my experience (i.e. mistakes) time!

Tips:
If you are not shopping at gift shops...shopping at "locals" shops at least a 10% discount is almost always possible, even on fixed price stuff. If you buy more than a single item be sure you ask for it.

Your travel guide book will have suggestions for good places to shop for particular items. Avoid the gift shops at the touristy places. Depending on what you want to buy, try to shop where the locals shop. Of course, if you WANT touristy stuff, it will be easy to find. See the following tips.

Even fixed prices usually don't really mean anything, especially in touristy areas. If you pay the price on the label you are getting screwed. Be ready to start bargaining. If you have no idea of the real value of the thing you are trying to buy, you are gonna get screwed. (I am speaking from experience so listen to me...) Try to take into account the local economy and what people really make per day. What is the lowest price you can possibly imagine? What is HALF that price? Some people in India make only two or four dollars a day. Many people make less than a dollar a day. This is common for people who have jobs you might normally consider a "good" job. Almost anything labor related is low paying. Even blue collar type work. Is the thing you would like to buy something a person who earns a dollar a day is capable of making? How long would it take them to make it? Don't forget that you are not helping that dollar a day person at all by getting screwed by the merchant selling the item. You are only enriching the merchant. (He and the dollar a day guys boss are the people exploiting the cheap labor) It never hurts to low-ball the seller. It sends the signal that you may not want to buy the item at all if the price is too high. (or that you are on to his game)

Of course, the BEST thing to do is buy stuff directly from the people who made it. That way, even if you get screwed on the price, at least it's going straight to the people who did the work. By "getting screwed" I mean, paying substantially more than they can usually get for the item... not nessesarily uncomfortably high from your perspective. Honestly, I would not mind so much being taken advantage of in this case. "Working Indians" are poor enough as it is. If you you feel the price is fair, there is no reason to haggle over the price too much. Maybe he'll be able to improve his life a little by getting a cell-phone or a motorcycle. Unfortunately, it's though to find the actual producers of most items and they usually don't have a huge selection. ( As I've mentioned before, in the case of a Saree it can take 10+ days to make a single piece... one family can't realistically make that many each year. Carvings, etc, can take similar or longer to create) Other craft items are frequently made in factory-like operations or procured though "cyotee" like middle men, and buying direct isn't possible.

About the photos:

On the way to Madurai, a farmer drying maize on the freeway. This is illegal but totally common. No one bothers to stop them from doing it. And what would be the point? They are some of the poorest people in the country. The farmers do the same with other crops. Micheal told me that they'll put rice out on the road to have traffic drive over it to help thresh it. Obviously, hitting rice straw and 60 km/h could be very dangerous (especially for a motor cycle) notice the logs around the corn. Cleaning and bagging corn (taking up an entire lane of an undivided two lane highway)

I purchased half a kilo of cashews from this family and asked if I could take a picture of the grandparents and the kids.


An heirloom "farm chicken" I was able to get a picture of. Interestingly, every Indian I've spoken to so far knows the difference between an agri-business chicken (a "broiler") and a farm chicken. (which they call farm chicken) They all prefer the the taste of farm chicken. Interesting. Most Americans don't have any idea at all where their table chicken comes from.

Rain day:

I can't remeber the name of this place ... I'll look it up.


They still use old fashion locks all over South India.





Meenokshi Temple. Very commercial. It was like Grand Central Station inside with garish neon signs and shops. The feeling of this temple contributed greatly to my jaded mood.

Brihadeswara

Today I visited Brihadeswara temple in Thanjavur. Brihadeswara was built in the 10th century by the father of the king who built the temple I visited yesterday, Airavatesvara. His name was Raja Raja. Brihadeswara is detailed, but not nearly as intricately adorned as Airavatesvara. But what it lacks in detail it makes up for with SIZE.(if this was the first Chola temple I had seen I would still be impressed by the detail, btw!) Brihadeswara is all about size. There are columns of solid stone 10 meters high, a GIANT solid stone Nandi (The second largest in all of India) and a cap stone so large it required a ramp 2 kilometers long to to install. 2 kilometers! Another interesting little fact is that none of the stone is "local" it was all brought in from over 60km away from the site. The work was done with help of elephants.


Like every other temple I've visited so far, Brihadeswara is a working Hindu temple.

Notice the way that stone is being used to emulate wood construction on the eves. Each "beam" on the eves is actually part of a larger stone that fits together with it's neighboring stones perfectly.


A tank carved from a single block of stone:


Here we can see some unfinished stones on the side of the temple. The stones were actually fit together first and then carved smooth. Another detail worth noting is that there is no mortar in used anywhere. The stones are all carved to fit together perfectly. The lack of mortar is one of the reasons the temple is so well reserved. Mortar usually fails long before the stones in a masonry structure.


Today, I had a particularly good guide. He took the time to explain to me some of the more confusing (for a westerner) details of Hinduism. For example, take the Lingam. From a westerners perspective, it doesn't look like much:

I could not help but ask what the pillar statue was all about. I'd seen in in other temples but this temple had a massive collection of them. It turns out the Lingam statue is one of the most advanced visualizations of God in Hinduism. You see, despite what most westerners think, in the most advanced interpretation of Hinduism there is only one God. The Lingam, being the most abstract avatar for God is still just a stepping stone to the MOST advanced understanding. It actually represents Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma all at once as well as male, female, creation and eternity. From what the guide told me, "God" is actually most represented by the space above the Lingam. In other words, there is no avatar for that level of understanding of God. No-God, I guess you could say. (or at least an understanding of God not requiring an avatar to comprehend) God is literally represented by nothing but empty space. Taking the concept a step further, there is the Akasha Lingam, or Sky Lingam, as found in the Chidambaram Temple. It's an empty space in the inner shrine of the temple. There is no statue representing the presiding deity at that temple.

OK, so it all still sounds very complicated. Maybe it is. Hinduism is the amalgamation and synthesis of thousands of years of regional religions. The interpretations he gave me were either his or those of scholars he was repeating. So, maybe you could say it is complex, but at least a few people have figured it out. One other thing he related was, in his opinion at least, Hinduism works for any level of understanding in the devotee. Children are started out with simple images and story's. As their understanding grows they can move on to more advanced concepts. (Assuming they care to)

Like most religions, there are many flavors of Hinduism, for example, devotion to Shiva or Vishnu... the guide described it as similar to Protestantism vs Catholicism.

There is a lot more. But I found the all the above details very interesting.

On a practical note, I'll add to the list of injuries I've sustained in India. I'm not sure if it was the hot stones at the temple yesterday, my sandals, walking around bare foot so much, or all of the above. I've developed a blister on my right foot. It's not some kind of parasite or anything. It's a friction blister, or a second degree burn. My feet have had a month to harden up. I've been walking around in Auroville bare foot most of the time. I really think it was walking around on hot stones. It was BLAZING hot at Chidambaram Temple. I just hope the blister doesn't cripple me the rest of the trip. I'd built up a nice layer of callous but now it looks like I might lose it to the blister. :-( My motorcycle burn only took about a week to heal up. But a week is a long time when your are only touring for two weeks. The most bothersome thing is that this is the first friction/foot blister I've ever had in my entire life. (Well, the first bad one!) This coming from a former boy scout who still gets in his fare share of hiking. What a drag.

The last photo is my bell-hop. He's the first person who's actually given me contact info to send him the photo. (I'm really going to have to try and get a better photo for him but tomorrow is my last day here)