10-Day South India Tour

We began our 10-Day tour of South India by driving from Pondicherry to the big city of Bangalore. The drive was uneventful (hitting every pot hole and main street village market along the way - some highway!), but we had a very nice all-veg lunch in a famous temple town called Tiruvanamalai. We spent about four days in Bangalore with some good friends at a College. The timing was such that Ginette was able to join the other children in a Christmas kid's play. Here she is singing along, dressed as an Angel, just like she had been one of the gang for months. Needless to say, she was thrilled to be on stage.




We left Bangalore and headed south to a common tourist destination called Mysore. I had been to Mysore before and knew that, it's past glory having faded, it might better be termed "eye-sore" these days. So I had our driver stop at Srirangapatinam Bird Sanctuary which is just 16 kilometers outside of Mysore. Here, we hailed a Tonga and rode into the Bird Sanctuary. The Tonga ride was worth the trip all by itself. This little horse was working pretty hard pulling all five of us, but the nice Muslim man driving it assured us all was well.


The Bird Sanctuary was pretty much in-season and so we had some good views of exotic birds. We took a boat ride through the Cauvery River where we got close-up views of bats, spoonbills, various egrets, and of course some crocs!



There are basically two things to do in Mysore - check out the Palace and the Zoo. We had already seen some wildlife and were heading into the jungle the following day, so we opted for the Palace. There's a ton of history around this, but I can't even begin to tell you any of it. It was certainly breathtaking, but they confiscate your camera when entering the palace, so I can't show you any of it either. I don't really want to, however, because by the time we were finished and they gave us our camera back I was completely done with the mass-people-tourist thing. We did manage to snap this one photo before leaving, and you can see the very huge and intricate palace in the background. It was back under that archway that 30 small Indian children laughed at me when I asked them to please give us some breathing room and haven't they ever seen a white guy before? Oh, it was rough, I tell ya!



We finished with Mysore in a nick of time and headed into the mountain jungle region. This would be the Western Ghats, where there are several national forest reserves that span hundreds of square miles. The particular reserve we stayed at is called Mudumalai, and it is one of the oldest reserves. This is the kind of Indian jungle that still has wild elephants and tigers in it. We didn't see any wild elephants or tigers, but we did see some nice animals, not the least of which are these common langurs who were very interested in our vehicle.



But the langurs were pretty shy and fairly rare compared to the other variety of monkey in these parts. I don't know the formal name for them - everyone just referred to them as "monkey." They looked so cute sitting there begging tourists for food! I should have realized this could turn into a classic Neveu animal story -but I didn't. It was when we were waiting for our hired Safari ride that I saw a mommy monkey with her cute little baby monkey underneath her, and I just HAD to get a photo. As I got out of our SUV and moved closer for a photo, a large monkey came at me and looked quite aggressive. I quickly jumped back in the SUV and was almost done congratulating myself when that big monkey jumped right into the open window and bared his teeth at me. I moved away from him, and then realized he was beginning to threaten Cindy and the kids in the back seat. Things got a bit surreal at that point, as I contemplated actually punching the monkey in the face, or perhaps doing a Three Stooges move with two fingers to the eyes. But some kind local gentlemen nearby saw this happen and they hissed at the monkey, sending it back to the guardrail. After it was over we shot a video to capture the emotion of the moment, but this stirring rendition in prose will do just fine.


Basically undeterred, we jumped in the Safari bus and enjoyed the ride through the jungle. We saw some nice spotted deer and more langur. Somewhere along the way we stopped at a beautiful waterfall and got this photo of Ginette and Marlon. The safari ride itself was kind of a letdown after the close encounter with the monkey, and so Ginette and I began making wisecracks and wound up laughing uncontrollably when the bus almost capsized on a turn. She's a fantastic little traveller and we had a great time together while Cindy and Marlon had a time of their own on the other side of the bus.


I think the Safari Bus was built in 1947 and starred in MASH with Alan Alda. Cindy told me I just had to get a photo of it, and you can see why we were laughing so hard. While we were coming down the mountain the driver did some kind of downshift maneuver and the engine made a horrendous squealing sound. I told Ginette that the man had put the bus into "turbo mode" and that put us over the top.


We didn't get an elephant ride, but we did get to watch the men feed the captive elephants. It seems these elephants were used for logging in years gone by, and since elephants live so long they now have the obligation to feed them for life and take care of them until they pass away naturally. I suppose it is kind of a cross between a zoo and the wild because these elephants can interact with the wild elephants to a degree. The feeding was neat - these men mixed up huge globs of coconut, rice, and other things, and put gallon-size blobs into each elephant's mouth. Each elephant ate from 10 to 12 of these things. They seemed quite happy with the arrangement.

Our time in Mudumalai was over and so we continued on to a city called Ooty. Ooty is 6,000 feet above sea level, and so we had to drive up 36 (yes, that's thirty six!) hairpin turns to get up into the mountains that high. The only drag was that a huge low pressure had decided to dump on South India for 4 days, and our time in Ooty was smack dab in the middle of it. It rained very hard continuously, and at one point we saw the road look just like a river as an auto-rickshaw became stuck in a huge hole. But in the middle of this we saw the beauty of Ooty. It seems that the British used Ooty and the surrounding areas as a safe getaway from the 120 degree Indian heat. During our stay in Mudumalai, I read a "circular" letter in an old local history book that was written in the early 1800's, informing all who were interested about the current state of accommodations at Ooty and the definite health benefits obtained by those who stay there for a year or so. It was an amazing little slice of history, and before we left Ooty we realized that it is pretty much the Indian version of Lake Placid, New York, in the Adirondacks. I think it always rains there too!




Before leaving Ooty, we took the long and winding hair-pin drive up to the top of Doodabetta Peak. This peak is 8,250 feet above sea level. It continued to rain hard and we were well into the clouds, but Cindy and I left the kids in the SUV with Raja and we took a romantic walk to the lookout area, bringing only the camera and two umbrellas along with us. I was talking a surround-round video of the scenery when a fierce gust of wind blew my umbrella inside out and turned us around nicely. PDA is completely off limits in India, and so I heartily enjoyed these few moments with my wife as the wind and rain kept other human beings at arm's length for the moment.



Leaving Ooty, we drove out of the mountains and into the heart of Tamil Nadu. As we went out of the mountains we descended 30+ hairpin bends. Marlon had been complaining that he didn't feel good, but since complaining is nothing new from him we didn't think much of it. Soon Cindy was playing catcher and a curious monkey was wondering why we pulled over and all got out of the car so quickly.


The plains in Tamil Nadu were very nice to see. We had a meal somewhere along here that was memorable due to the sheer number of flies on the food. I didn't eat much there, and so I didn't think much of it.


While in the plains, we saw these HUGE mountains in the distance and Raja told us that the highest one is our destination, called Yercaud. This place was chosen to break our 12 hour drive home into two 6 hour trips. We went up another 26 hairpin turns to the top of the mountain. The top of Yercaud was about 3,000 feet higher than the bottom of the mountain, and so there were stunning views. I got completely ill in Yercaud (dang flies!), however, but Cindy and the kids did get a nice photo or two of the views. Our trip ended with an uneventful but very stressful ride from Yercaud to Pondicherry. We were extremely glad to be back in our cozy home, here in Pondy.

My New Wheels

I grew tired of walking around town and taking auto-rickshaws everywhere. The temperature is a bit too hot to walk briskly, and auto-rickshaws don't give you the flexibility that is necessary for really exploring the town and surrounding areas. So I got up my nerve and rented a bike. I say "got up my nerve" because I'm talking about riding this bike on the LEFT side of the road, interweaving with traffic and basic choas the likes of which us Westerners have never seen before. The driving here in India deserves a post of its own, but I probably won't get to that any time soon. Suffice it to say that it takes a while to get up the nerve to even attempt to operate a bike here. I had to choose between a bike that all the old Indian men ride, one that looks like it is for a girl, and this sporty model. Naturally, I chose the sporty model! I was proud of myself for negotiating what seems to be a good price - 9 rupees per day (about 22 cents).

This may not work so well on your computer, but if you click here you can enjoy the sound of the bell. It is absolutely necessary to have a good sounding bell on your bike. This way you can ring it when you are passing people, other bikes, motorcycles, cars, dogs, etc., and essentially tell them, "I'm coming through so get out of the way!" After some practice I have gotten used to this, and now it's quite intuitive.

I had ridden my new bike all around the town and was feeling quite comfortable with it. Then I went out to do some errands and noticed my tires were a little low on air. The seat had been bothering me a bit because it was about an inch and a half too low. So I took the kind man's advice and stopped by the bike shop for some maintenance. Unfortunately, when the guy went to put air in the tire something went wrong with the nozzle and I lost all the air in the rear tire. He couldn't get it fixed, so I had to take a loaner for a day. The loaner was simply awful. It had rust so bad that it looked like dirt was flaking off the frame of it. When I turned the steering wheel all manner of pieces rattled against one another. Only the front brakes worked, and the bell was also basically defunct. But it was, after all, only a loaner, and the bike shop fixed my beauty by 10:00 the next morning.

After picking up my bike, I was feeling great. Ahhh, this bike ROCKS, I thought to myself, as I went on my way to the fish market. Now 10:30 AM is the optimal time to arrive at the fish market. This day was the ultimate because there was virtually no wind, which means the fishing boats have been able to go far out into the ocean and catch lots of great fish. Standing there in the crowded fish market, I spotted a really great find - a nice big WAHOO! While I was asking how much that fish costs, another one was delivered, fresh out of the sea. It was still cold. Oh, I couldn't pass it up! But they wouldn't sell half the fish so I got carried away and bought the whole thing. I was dreading the moment when the fish guy realized I had ridden here on a bicycle to buy this huge fish. But he wasn't fazed a bit - he just grabbed some rope and tied it to my bike.

Our kitchen quickly became "Al's Butcher Shop" but after an hour this was all done. I cooked up Panang Wahoo (a Thai preparation) and we all ate as much as we wanted. I now have enough Wahoo in our freezer to feed about 30 people. This is not a problem because Wahoo is considered to be just about the best quality fish there is. I believe the only thing better is Chilean Sea Bass, but they don't have that here in India so this Wahoo will have to do!

In Search of a Thanksgiving Feast

It was Thursday, November 22nd, and of course we wanted to have a Thanksgiving holiday and traditional feast. After receiving scores of e-mails asking us what we plan to do for Thanksgiving here in India, we decided to make an adventure out of it, taking photos all along the way and creating a blog post out of it.

Our adventure began by walking down our street toward a corner where we usually see about half a dozen turkeys standing around some garbage. Just two houses down our street there is also usually a man doing some ironing on a cart. We saw him there, and so we took a photo of him as he didn't seem to mind.

Just a little further down the next block, you come to the Mulim butcher shop. This is a shop that is fairly well known to westerners in this part of town because this butcher also sells beef, whereas none of the other shops carry it. We still have not yet tried the beef here. In the photo of this "meat shop" you can see a cage out front, on the street, which contains a few rabbits and has a chicken sitting on top.

This shop is not nearly as gruesome as the market down a few more streets. In that market you are confronted with the carcases of goats, pigs, and rabbits, stripped of skin and hanging from the ceiling. The goat heads are also for sale, sitting on the counter to tempt passerbys.

But our adventure for this Thanksgiving did not call for a turkey, and you will soon see why.

Another half a block down the street brought us to the corner that we have been promising ourselves we would photograph for some time. As luck would have it, the turkeys were present in full form. If they had not been there our back-up plan was to walk down by the canal where there are always a few standing around. But no need this time because they were right there waiting for us. There is some construction going on in the next lot, but this corner remains a real train wreck. The turkeys seem to enjoy this place due to the scraps of food they find in the rubbish piles.

I crossed the street and walked just beyond the garbage cans so that I could get a close-up of the turkeys. Here they are. Now you can see why we wanted something different this Thanksgiving. The close proximity of these turkeys to the cage with the bunnies in it just caused us to want to try an alternative of some kind. Heck, of ANY kind.

But wait, this was kind of nice after all. The handsome white turkey decided that he likes me and he came right close to me, making a cute little "whirring" sound as he bobbed his head. He was hoping for some food from me, but it was somewhat endearing nonetheless. Just after this a family of ducks came waddling across the street, also looking for handouts.

After enjoying this corner, we went back to Mission Street and headed to the center of town, aiming for the Fish Market. Oh, along the way we were feeling bold and so we decided to stop and take a photo of the Petit Canal. This is just a little canal that has a few families living in it. This is really a very nice and clean canal, as Indian canals go, but it will suffice just to give you an idea of what it can be like walking down the street here in an Indian city. Other canals in larger, nastier cities are just about one thousand times more disgusting than this one.

Just a few more blocks and we stopped at a wonderful, authentic Indian restaurant called Surguru. This place is an outpost of the Surguru Hotel, which is across town and is known as being the king of the South Indian Tali meal here in Pondicherry. A South Indian Tali meal is difficult to describe, but I'll try. You sit down and tell the waiter that yes, you will have a "meal". He smiles happily, and then brings a stainless steel try to you that has the bottom covered with fresh banana leaf. There are several (8 or 10) small stainless steel bowls inside the tray, each filled with a small amount of an amazingly tasty and tangy type of curry. There is no meat present, but you don't really miss it. Then a guy comes around and gives you a big pile of white rice right in the middle of the banana leaf. If you know what's good for you, you'll ask for a papadam and they will bring you a fresh one. Somehow everything gets really serious at this point and you kind of go numb in awe and taste overload. You come back to reality when you realize you need a drink and slam down 12 ounces of cold, fresh water, and then realize you ate too fast and your stomach hurts a bit. The ride is usually downhill from here, unless you have been wise enough to stop eating before you are too full. If you are western, you may decide to consume a chai tea at this point (the Indians wait until 4:00 PM), and then you learn a new level of "carb coma" that you have not yet experienced, even with several dozen business lunches at awful Chinese places in America under your belt. This time, however, we only had one big dosa to share and so we managed to keep our lunch small so that we still felt great and were able to save our appetites for dinner. But while we were at Surguru we bought two curry dishes and took them to-go, intending to "cheat" in our preparation of our Thanksgiving feast. We selected a paneer butter masala (called makhani many places in India) and also a navratan korma. If you don't know what these are, go to an Indian restaurant and ask for them. If you are like me, you'll get angry when you taste them, wondering why everyone has kept this from you for all these years.

We made it to the fish market after our small lunch. The fish market really deserves a blog post all of its own. The last time I was there I saw three huge marlin get delivered to the market on the back of a bicycle rickshaw. I watched as the guys dragged the huge fish into the market. I managed to snap a quick photo of them dragging the biggest one, and you can sort of get a feel for the fish market by checking out this photo.

My intention was to purchase a huge cross-section of marlin, maybe 5 or 10 pounds of fish. I just love the red, translucent meat of marlin - you can do lots of different things when preparing it and they all come out tasting wonderful. But there were no marlin today. There were also no mahi mahi. There was one tuna, but it looked like a kind of tuna that is a little off the beaten path, so we chose a nice, large kingfish. This fish is called a king mackerel in the USA, and here they call it a kungadunbadumbadagingka, or something like that. The meat is white and quite light, but you can't cook it too long or you will dry it out. It's not an oily fish at all, and is not very "fishy" tasting. Leave king mackerel on the grill too long and it will shred when you try to lift it off. But we have no grill (nor oven) here in India, so I have to get jiggy with the frying pan and the lid of the frying pan to simulate a grill. I'm quite good at it now.

Here you can see the kingfish that we bought. It was about 8 pounds, and I was able to obtain it for 450 rupees. That's about $11 USD. That, I'm certain, was the foreigner price. I tried very hard to get the price down, but the ladies knew they had the best fish in the market that day, and they knew that I knew that too. I have bought fish from them before and I'm more interested in cultivating the relationship than saving a buck, so I gave them their price with a smile and a wink so that next time they will remember me and pull out the freshest fish they have. Just like I have learned in the software industry, when you can't get the price any lower, go for quality and convenience!

The ladies also wanted to see the king mackerel held up next to our son, Marlon. They tweaked his cheek and thought it was the funniest thing that the fish was over half his size. If they could only see him next to the 26 pound salmon that he and I caught this past summer, they'd get a kick out of that.

Finally all our preparations were done, and it was still only 2:00 PM. So we headed over to a restaurant/cafe run by our landlord and had an iced coffee. Iced coffee? Wait, I heard that it snowed in Rochester on Thanksgiving. And how was the weather here in Pondy? It was just like the day before - 85 and sunny!

For our Thanksgiving feast, we cooked up the fish as boneless fillets and brazed them with a sugar/cardomon/vinegar/pepper sauce. Then we added the two curry dishes and some basmati rice. Oh, can't forget the fresh "today eat" pineapples that we bought at the fruit market, right next door to the fish market. All together we had a meal to remember and one that was easy to give thanks for! We heard about the cold and snow back in the USA and we missed the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc., but we didn't miss the cold, damp, gray skies and the thought of "black Friday" soon approaching. We went in search of a Thanksgiving feast, and we found one.