India - Days 3 through 5

The rest of our stay in India was much better than the first few days but since I am running out of time on the ship I’m going to have to resort to a summary of events. On our third day in India we went to a tourist office to inquire about guided tours and were told that there were none available. After we stopped into another private tourist office we met John who said he would personally take us on a walking tour of Ooty that afternoon if we chose. He met us at our hotel a few hours later and took us on a wonderful walk through the hills around Ooty, pointing out birds, trees, and various plants along the way. We walked along a muddy path in the forest that brought back memories of our jungle trek in Thailand. Finally we visited a tea factory where we had the chance to see how tea is processed and we were given a free cup of tea. I bought several kilograms of tea there (which cost less than $10).

John recommended that we visit the botanical gardens which were begun by the British in the 1800s and have been maintained since that time. He said that we could visit a tribal village nearby which was easy to get to. All we had to do was walk towards the back of the gardens, up some hills, and we would eventually stumble upon gate that said, “No entrance” which we should ignore and enter anyway. We would probably be met by a man who, if we paid him a small sum, would let us in the village. John also arranged a driver to pick us up at 6 A.M. or so the following day to take us to a national park a few hours away where we could go on an animal safari.

In the late afternoon Mike and I walked to the botanical gardens and wandered around a bit. As soon as we saw how big the gardens were we realized we would never find the Toda (one of the tribal peoples that have lived in the Nilgiri Hills for centuries) village. The gardens themselves had weird trees and flowers from around the world that I had never seen (such as the Monkey-Puzzle tree indigenous to Australia). We eventually found the gate with the “no entrance” sign but were yelled at by someone when we went through the gate so we turned back, disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to visit a Toda village.

On the way back to the gardens we met a young boy on his way home from school, he told us that he “lived in the forest” and pointed back towards the village. It wasn’t until we left him that we realized we could have gotten him to bring us to his home. That would have been an interesting experience. I always think of the really good ideas after it’s too late. After we left the gardens we walked around the Tibetan market which, just as the Russian market in Phnom Penh contained no Russians, was devoid of Tibetans. I bought a small bag to transport all the tea I bought but I hadn’t realized at the time that it was rusting and falling apart. By the time I got it back on the ship a few days later the shoulder straps had ripped off and I barely got it on the ship before it felt apart completely.

On our fourth day we woke up early and met our driver in front of the hotel who would take us to Mudumalai national park for an animal safari. The park itself was only open in the morning for a few hours and since it took a few hours to drive there we had to leave at 6 A.M. The drive down through the hills was stunning. We went around some 30 hairpin turns and probably twice as many s-turns on roads that had only one lane. There were signs on the sides of the roads that said “do not overtake automobiles on turns” which everyone violated at every possible moment. The only way to let a car know you were coming was to beep your horn which meant most of the ride was spent listening to our driver and other drivers beep their horns at each other.

In the beginning of our journey while we were still at the top of the hills we drove through an ancient forest with towering trees. In the early morning gloom everything looked ancient and alien and I kept expecting dinosaurs to wander on to the road. As we slowly descended a few thousand meters the hills were wrapped in a thick mist that would not go away until the sun was high in the sky later in the day. After the spell-binding drive to the park the animal safari was bound to be disappointing. We had to sit on a bus with a bunch of Indian families and their screaming kids. During the 45 minute-long drive we saw elephants, boar, and some other unexciting animals. After it was over we left the park and began another long drive, this time up the hills. It was just as exciting on the way up and the combined four hours we spent driving to and from the park were definitely worth it.

That afternoon we had to check out of the hotel and take a taxi to Coimbatore. From there we would fly back to Chennai on the following day (our last day in port). Driving to Coimbatore required that we again descend through the Nilgiri hills (in a different direction than Mudumalai national park) which this time proved to be nerve wrecking. Not only did we have to deal with passing cars on hairpin turns but many of the other automobiles were large trucks that didn’t bother to slow down when they saw oncoming traffic. There were a number of times when I was sure we were going to be mashed by oncoming trucks (including one military truck that was carry plastic explosives from a bomb-making factory we passed).

That we made it back alive is a testament to the driving skills of the people who probably drive the hill roads every day. We checked into a decent hotel (it had its own supermarket!) in Coimbatore, had some dinner, and then went to the bar where the bartender spent most of the time making fun of us for being American (at least that was how I interpreted it). We went to bed somewhat early because we had to wake up at 4:30 A.M. to get to the airport to catch a 7 A.M. flight (or so we thought).

We lugged ourselves out of bed, packed our things, and checked out without showering due to time constraints. When we got to the airport we noticed something odd, there was no one at the counter for the airline we were supposed to be flying on. I checked our itinerary and suddenly everything made sense. Our flight to Chennai was last night at 8 P.M. not that morning at 7! How could we have been so stupid? When we were originally looking to book our flights we had discussed flying back the morning of our last day in port. When we asked Cheryl to help us book the flights our return flight was changed but somehow in our minds we still thought we were flying that morning, and we were so certain of it we never bothered to check.

So here we were at an empty airport at 5:30 A.M. We were tired and the humidity of the day was creeping up along with a disgusting amount of flying insects buzzing around. There was only one airline counter open, Kingfisher airlines, and thankfully they had a flight that morning that we could take to get back. We spent an uncomfortable couple of hours waiting in the un-air-conditioned airport. I had to use the bathroom but in India public restrooms don’t usually have toilet paper. The power went out in the terminal at one point which got me to thinking about how often they do safety checks of the planes. Eventually we got on the plane and despite the kids behind us who kicked the back of Mike’s seat the entire flight we got back to Chennai in time for our SAS trip to the Theosophical Society.

Mike and I went on the Theosophical Society trip because our Philosophy professor was leading it and we felt that we should attend one of the day trips he was leading. We went with Eva and a bunch of other people from his various philosophy classes. The Theosophical Society was pretty boring and it didn’t change my low opinion of Theosophy. Theosophy was founded by a Russian woman and an American man in the 1870’s. They attempted to combine what they saw as the best of all the world’s religions into one system which predictably meant that Theosophy was a ridiculous mess. They had noble goals but they failed miserably. Along with strong influences from Hinduism, Theosophy includes strange ideas that today we would consider “new age” or “occult” (such as gibberish about “latent powers of the mind).

The Theosophical Society’s headquarters were founded in Chennai (then called Madras) because the founders thought that India, with its long tradition of spirituality, was the perfect place for such a society. After the Theosophical society we visited Kapaleeshwarar, a Hindu temple, which was an overwhelming site. If you ever want to know what India is all about visit a Hindu temple, they encapsulate everything that is India: The smell, the chaos, the color, it’s all very overwhelming. While we were there we saw beggar children being beaten with paddles and Indians used our group as a background for their pictures (a big group of white people is an exotic site in India these days).

Next to the temple is a market that was teeming with people. As we made our way through the throngs of people I felt scared, the first time I ever felt in real danger in any of the countries we had been to. People kept approaching us trying to sell us things and limbless beggars clung to you trying to get you to give up some money. We had to take our shoes off and walk barefoot around the temple which was quite unnerving. India is about the last place on Earth I’d want to walk around barefoot but we had no choice. Accompanying us on our trip to the Theosophical Society and the Hindu temple was an Indian lady who had been an interport lecturer for SAS a few years ago. She was extremely nice and very knowledgeable about Chennai, Theosophy, and the rituals that we saw performed at the Hindu temple. She was very grandmotherly and seemed so excited to be able to teach SAS kids about India again.

After our trip we went back to the ship and Mike, Eva, and I decided to eat a quick dinner before the mandatory on-ship time. We met up with some other friends, quickly negotiated with some autorickshaw drivers, and went to a restaurant that our Indian tour guide had recommended to us. The food was excellent and it was a memorable experience, unfortunately not as memorable as the smell when we traveled over the bridge that went across the sewage river. Never have I smelled something so foul, I wish I could have bottled it up to bring home and share with everyone. Then you would know India.

In the end I have mixed feelings about India. Ooty was beautiful but the bigger cities in India are a mess. There has been a lot of discussion in the media about the economic rise of India and China in recent years and though they make it sound as if both countries are on equal footing it’s not even close. China is years ahead of India in almost every respect and their strong central government is actually part of the reason for this. On the other hand India has the advantage of more liberal social policies (except rural areas that haven’t quite caught up with the times) and Indians tend to be much better speakers of English which is becoming increasingly important. Since each of India’s states speaks a different language English has unofficially become the lingua franca of India (Hindi is the main official language but has traditionally been the language of only one state). If nothing else, India was a learning experience in how to plan and execute private travel plans in a foreign country.