We left Madurai last Wednesday and took a 4 hour bus into the mountains to a hill station called Kodaikanal. Riding a bus in India is a couragous act. First, the busses are practically antiques. Some of them have been farting exhaust fumes since WWII. The process of boarding and deboarding is also quite wild. Typically when a bus pulls into the station, people start running after it as if its the last bus to heaven. When you’re trying to get off, 60 other people are trying to get on. There’s no waiting in line, or waiting your turn…its no holds bar, no hard feelings. I admit, I’ve had to drop a few elbows and box out a couple old ladies. We’ve preferred to sit in the back of the bus, probably because that’s where the cool kids used to sit, and so our view of oncoming traffic is obstructed. Watching your bus driver play chicken with an oncoming bus, or deciding to pass 100 meters before a corner…is a tad stressful.
Kodaikanal is a smaller mountain town, popular with foriegn tourists and Indian couples. The weather has been a welcome change, hovering around the 50-60s during the day but freezing at night. We’re staying at a hostel about 2 km out of town, where its quiet and the views are spectacular. Our first three nights were spent in a room that was similar to a cave. It created a whole new category of bottom of the barrel. Eastern style toilet (ie a hole in the ground with grips for your feet), a faucet coming out of the wall (like the kind you attach a hose to) which spewed only freezing cold water, and no source of heat whatsover. It was kind of like camping, which was confirmed when my stash of chocolate was hijacked by a local rodent. Most likely a rat. At that point, we upgraded to a better room…complete with hot water and a sink!
Our days have been spent hiking, eating, lounging, reading, eating and chatting. We’ve met some really interesting people, mostly Brits. JR used the word “tele” yesterday in place of “TV”…so I’m just waiting for the term “bloke” to get tossed around.
Tags:
India,
Travel
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February 16th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Hey guys, DEMPJON pointed me to your site and it is great seeing some of your adventures. I wanted to also let you guys know of a website a buddy of mine let me know of called couchsurfing.com. If you haven’t heard of it, t’s a community based website that allows you to find and stay with locals all over the world. Pretty cool idea, anyway, good luck with the rest of your travels and I look forward to hearing more crazy stories from around the globe.
February 19th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
looks like you two are having fun in India…one billion people can’t be wrong. have to love the rats and dogs running wild. i equate the amount of rats to the amount of pigeons here in the U.S. and the dogs to the amount of squirrels running wild on society. have u had any encounters with meagerly looking cows yet? i like how you two make friends with travelers who have American food…classic