Long Days and Short Nights

Maybe I should have thought it out a bit more carefully, but just lately my itinerary has been slightly flawed. For example, I arrived in Chennai at 4.30 in the morning. It is a difficult time to do anything, especially when you find the only decent waiting room in Chennai Central station completely chock-a-block with sleeping passengers. So there wasn’t anything else to do except get out of the station at about 7am. My mood was not the best, as you can see from the picture!

fruit in Mysore market

The days before, up in cool and pleasant Mysore should have been relaxing. This was the case for the first day when I arrived but the following day I took on an arduous 12 hour tour from 8.30 to 8.30 in the evening. It finished at the Brindavan gardens, which are below the walls of a very large dam. After the sun goes down all the waterfalls, fountains and miniature rapids are lit up. Then there is the musical fountain at 7.30, strangely dancing to Bollywood favourites. Anyway, a hard day made much more bearable by the company of Jenny, a fellow traveller from New York. Two other places were the zoo and Mysore palace which I had seen in the darkness of the previous evening. I expect you guessed right; it was a Hindu priest blessing a proud owner’s new car. If he has an accident I suppose its money back. Closer to home, or hotel, is another Mysore attraction. It is the large highly colourful market where Jenny bought some perfumed oil from a very precocious junior salesman of 12 years.

Rally in Madras

Mysore zoo

outside Mysore market

Mysore Palace

The early arrival in Madras was responsible for my being seen entering the gates of the old St George’s Fort with the early morning workers. It is in fact almost completely occupied by the Indian army who have converted most of the inhabitable historical buildings for various sections of their army. But it was easy to see that the purpose built colonial structures once were the headquarters of the East India Company which started in Madras and the British Army. In those days long ago, the British Empire was in its infancy, in the 17th century. St Mary’s Church is the oldest Anglican Church in India with some rather grotesque tomb stones from the late 17th century. They depict what I presumed to be the skeletal form of the ‘great reaper’. However, the more recent memorial plaques are dedicated to members of the British Army, and some civil servants, who died in the service of company and country. In an amble along some of the back lanes I was struck by the multitude of birds kicking up quite a racket in the trees above me. Very nice actually. On the way back to the station I came across a highly excited crowd attending an ever popular political rally. The din was deafening; I think I prefered the birds in the trees.

canon at the fort

I should have got off the train at 5.20 (2nd Aug) but slept so soundly I woke up not long before the train came to the end of its route. Trichy was by then about 90km back down the line. But everything turned out fine as I only had to wait an hour before a train arrived heading back to Trichy. By 11am I had secured a room in the Ashby hotel, which happened to be my first choice from the Lonely Planet guide book. Now its 1pm and I have had my ration of fried eggs and toast and almost my entire minuscule wardrobe is now hanging up in the courtyard drying.
cheers Derek