So India or to be precise southern India. I came here with all my western stereotypical thoughts and fears of poverty, dirt, crowds but with history, India seems to get a lot of that sort of press and images at home.
First, a step back to set context: I have been here 5 weeks now and have managed to see only part of the south! It's massive. And what I've seen and experienced have thankfully confirmed some but dispelled, or at least overridden, most of those stories.
- The biggest surprise has been the geography, which is beautiful - forest covered hills (the Western Ghats) behind a western coast of beaches, waterways and historical ports. Behind the hills, fertile plains (the Deccan plateau) cut by river valleys with areas of barren hills and volcanic outcrops.
- The history stretches from centuries BC to British colonial to Independence via warring kings, sultans and emperors who all built cities and fortresses, trading routes with Arabic, Persian, Chinese and then European merchants, created advanced civilisations and brought their religions - buddhism, hinduism, muslim, christian, jainism. And left huge legacies of cities, palaces, temples and cultures.
- Independent India has had a fight to catch up with western countries who to this time have held the power, money and economic influence. Hence our views of a backward nation. But that is changing, at least for those who have managed to catch the new gravy train of an Indian economic boom based on IT and manufacturing (cheap labour), there is a thriving educated middle class.
- Languages: there are 7 official languages, so quite often people from different states revert to Hindi, the most populous) or English!
- Travelling is hard work - the distances involved plus the ageing roads (they just go from a reasonable B-class road to a mass of dirt, potholes and axle-breaking trenches within a split second), ever-stopping buses and trains means a 30 kilometres (say, 20 miles) per hour average speed. So any move is a full day or overnight lack-of-sleep-er bus/train.
So, the stereotypes and the contradictions:
- Yes, there's poverty - huge numbers scrape an existence through scavenging, sweeping up after everyone else or begging. Shanty towns and homeless on the city streets. Many who won't catch this economic development through lack of opportunity (the caste system is still alive and thriving, I'm told), education or chance. But hopefully its effects will filter down. Remember, Britain had huge slums and homeless during our big development times of the Industrial Revolution and before - and we may have again some time?
- Farming appears to be subsistence only and country folk stay that way or join the shanty towns - this is very much a bullock cart and ancient local buses in the country versus cars, taxis or at the worst tuk tuks in cities
- Yes, there's dirt - but there's a strange dichotomy between a complete willingness to create rubbish and a culture of personal and home / business cleanliness (linked with Hinduism water rituals I think) - so dirt is someone else's problem, as long as it is not on me or in front of my house / shop - they are forever sweeping their bit of the pavement or road. And it feeds the scavengers, animal (cows - who even eat cardboard here!, pigs, dogs, crows roam the streets) or human (night sweepers, recyclables collectors, homeless). The real problem comes when they litter in areas where no one cleans up like beaches, empty building plots, river banks.
- Yes, there's crowds - the Indian government openly admits it can't keep up with the population growth in terms of housing, infrastructure, education and employment, So exaggerating the haves and have nots gap. No, there are not crowds everywhere - this country is massive and you can find some beautiful places in the hills or on the coast.
And now the fun bits.
Highlights include:
- Swimming on Xmas Day at Om Beach with a barbecue fish dinner on the beach
- New Year's Eve on a guest house roof swigging illegal local spirits until 4am with a group of other travellers from 4 countries in Hampi, a dry city
- Hampi - an ancient temple and royal capital in a pink granite bouldered river valley - surreal. It took 3 days to walk around all the sites / sights!
- Mysore and Hyderabad royal palaces - those guys were seriously rich and knew how to show it off
- Indian whisky is pretty damn good, and cheaper than drinking local (Kingfisher, Cobra, Foster's) beer. About 1.40 pounds for a treble in one of the dark and grotty bars they specialise in here
- Ellora cave temples complex and Khailasa monolith temple, quarried out of a cliff to leave behind a big piece in the middle which then got carved into temple halls, shrines, statues and monuments - without breaking any away from its base - 2x Athens' Parthenon! All by hand in 12th century
- Western travellers going native - hippy linen clothing, long hair and Jesus beards, beads and bangles and ashram/yoga/meditating things (actually saw one bloke get up after his meditation on top of a rock above the sea, not realise his legs had gone to sleep and fall over - nearly killed himself! Dead funny) whilst Indian middle classes and youngsters are heading west - clothes, TV (for good or bad - reality TV has arrived here), music
- Indian politician's polling victory parade in Madakeri - motorcade, fireworks, dancing, drums - blocked all the streets - until it reached a T-junction and no one could decide which way they should go!! Brilliant
Lowlights include:
- Lack of sleep on sleepers and travel times
- City pollution, traffic noise (drive without signals or mirrors just blow horns) and yes, rubbish
- Spitting, hawking at maximum volume and anywhere that's got a wall is a public toilet - mind you there are no actual public toilets except in major cities and tourist venues. ALWAYS watch where you are walking! Avoid the cows too, they stroll or just sit down anywhere
- Bloody vegetarians - everywhere, I know its a religious thing but come on....
- Power cuts
- Grotty, cold water sluice buckets not showers in guest houses
- A cockroach on my toothbrush
- Moustaches are a must!
Enough! Photo link is http://picasaweb.google.com/laurentmik/South_India_1_2010
Cheers! Mike
