#390453 - 07/24/05 04:11 AM
From the Tip of India to the Deserts of the North...greetings!
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KenElevenShadows
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My other post is buried somewhere and I have a slow connection here, so I'll start a new post.
20 July 2005
Hello everyone!!!!!!!
We visited the very southern tip of India, another Hindu pilgrimmage site.
It's particularly auspicious to bathe in the spot where the three seas
(Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean) come together as the sun rises,
so I did just that. Splash!!!! And there is a rock where Swami
Vivekananda swam out to meditate for three days, so we went out there (but
by ferry, not by swimming, unfortunately!) and visited the very beautiful
temple.
And speaking of beautiful temples, the one just north of the tip of India
called the Suchindram Temple left me utterly slack-jawed. It barely
garners a mention in the guidebook, just a paragraph, but is it ever
gorgeous!! It has spectacular sculptures of deities on 1001 pillars
forming the central mandipam (central hall), with all of the pillars being
carved out of single blocks of granite, musical pillars (bang on 'em and
they produce beautiful musical tones - four pillars, each housing 12
smaller musical pillars producing a scale, each one again carved out of a
single block of granite). And if this weren't enough, there were
beautifully painted ceilings, bronze oil lamps illuminating the halls of
the temple with a buttery glow, a 16-foot high dark statue of the monkey
god Hanuman (looked like it was from a "Planet of the Apes" set, but
really cool looking nevertheless), reliefs, frescoes, carved designs in
the stone floor, 35-meter high carved entrances, and so much more. I
actually liked this more than the infinitely more famous Meenakshi Temple
in Madurai. But few tourists, especially foreign ones, seem to visit
here, which I suppose is good in a way since the tiny little town would be
completely overrun...
So we've visited oodles of temples and shrines, hiked, gone on boat rides,
seen magnificent Maharaja's palaces, eaten exotic cuisine...
...and now we're at a coconut palm-lined beach with black sand.
We're in Kovalam, still very close to the tip of India. And it's sort of
like a mini-Goa, but without the raves. It's obviously catering towards
Westerners. The shops here sell hippie-wear and trinkets, the restaurants
serve French Fries, burgers, fettucine, macaroni, and pizza, and upon
arriving here, I saw more Westerners in the first two minutes than the
rest of the trip put together, and it's not even tourist season here in
South India.
But Kovalam a great place to chill out and watch the sun set, watch the
surf pound agains the rocks, strolling along the promenade, sipping a
beer, walking on the beach. And the food's good, if a little overpriced
(unless you go to the local places). It's also extremely popular with
Indian tourists, who you can see laughing and splashing and throwing each
other into the ocean, videotaping their antics, and taking their wives
shopping for saris and tailor-made outfits.
Lisa flies back on Friday. After that, I head straight for Rajasthan,
starting with Udaipur. I know some of you have been following along on a
map, so that's much farther up north than I am right now, as Rajasthan is
more or less west of New Delhi. And yes, it's hotter than heck there, and
is not tourist season in Rajasthan, either. No, most tourists have enough
sense to either head to the hill stations or to the Himalayas, where it's
nice and cool and pleasant. And I'll do that soon enough, but I'll spend
about ten days in Rajasthan, visiting some of the old palaces and forts
that look like something out of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves before heading
up to the cooler Himalayan air of Kashmir.
Rajasthan's got a lot of internet cafes. Kashmir, I'm not sure. ANd I'm
nto going to be doing a lot of wandering around in Kashmir, either, as it
will be far better to just chill out and read and swim on the houseboat
and visit my friend and his family.
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#390454 - 07/24/05 04:14 AM
Re: From the Tip of India to the Deserts of the North...greetings!
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KenElevenShadows
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24 July 2005
I got in to Jaipur (Rajasthan - I'm much farther up north now, since some of you are following along on a map) last night at 12:30. It was hot when I arrived, and oddly enough, it's even hotter now that the sun's out....  why anybody would want to travel here at this time of year is just beyond me. 
I was in Jaipur in 1988, and I revisited the City Palace again, just to see what it was like (they've cleaned it up a little, but really, all the walls surrounding the City Palace are in a state of rapid decay, and the increased pollution from traffic hasn't helped any).
What is absolutely fascinating to me is the Jantar Mantar, or "instruments of calculation". They are astronomical measuring devices for every conceivable movement of the earth, built in 1728 by Jai Singh, whose passion for astronomy was even more notable than his prowess as a warrior. The field has all sorts of these different astronomical instruments, which are all very large, and many of which look like they might be at home in a modern art exhibit! The most striking and imposing of these is the Brihat Samrat Yantra sundail, a towering 27m high sundial, the largest sundial in the world (I of course commented to the guide, "That's the second largest sundial I've seen this month!", producing a rather uncharacteristic laugh from his otherwise professorial demeanor).
My intention is to push on to Pushkar, a smaller town situated around a lake that is supposed to be quite relaxing. And probably hotter...
And then on to Jodhpur, where I'll visit the tiny little village of Osiyan out in the sand dunes (think forts, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, Lawrence of Arabia, that kind of thing) and maybe visit a small village as well.
After that, I will go to Delhi to catch a plane to Srinagar in Kashmir, where I will lay low and relax and enjoy the lake and hang out with my friend. Kashmir has had some problems as of late (bombings in Srinagar) and I aim to avoid that at all costs.
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#390456 - 07/24/05 04:47 AM
Re: From the Tip of India to the Deserts of the North...greetings!
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Franky
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That sounds great Ken!
I think it makes sense that when I'm up in the middle of the night, someone on the opposite side of the globe in India is posting. 
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#390458 - 07/24/05 01:34 PM
Re: From the Tip of India to the Deserts of the North...greetings!
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theblue1
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Loc: Long Beach, CA
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Greetings, Ken!
Have fun but, as always when you're travelling, keep your eyes and ears open.
Cheers!
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#390459 - 07/24/05 03:29 PM
Re: From the Tip of India to the Deserts of the North...greetings!
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deanmass
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Baba G-noosh and Baba Wawwa.. 
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#390460 - 07/24/05 06:14 PM
Re: From the Tip of India to the Deserts of the North...greetings!
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fantasticsound
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Registered: 04/07/01
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Loc: Madison,TN, UNITED STATES
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How come I get the feeling he stopped in just long enough to post! Someone's gonna get a surprise in the next few days.
Thanks for the trip-tick, Ken. Sounds like another amazing trip. Someday I'd like to visit there, as well.
Your description of the temple at Suchindram brings back fond memories of temples in Egypt. But A)I haven't been there in 25 years and B)the idea of those temples being in a jungle backdrop sounds amazing. The desert doesn't offer much in the way of backdrop for the temples of Egypt. After the first one, every desert backdrop tends to look one-dimensional and the same as every other one. 
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