Anyway, we had the option of overnighting there or rolling on to Madurai, and the group took about 5 minutes to agree that we'd rather spend a night in Basra than Cape Comorin, so on we went.

It's tempting in India to reckon that everyone just wants to extort rupees out of you, but actually there is an underlying friendliness to the people here. We got into Madurai at 7pm without having booked ahead, and the first couple of hotels were fully booked. I explained our predicament to a local guy who first offered directions to a couple of hotels, then offered to get in the truck and come with us. While on board he phoned a couple of his mates and got them on the case, calling and visiting various hotels to see if they had room. After a while he decided it was impractical to be driving the big truck around the narrow streets, so told us to park up while he went off scouting on a motorbike. 20 mins later he returned and led us to a perfectly acceptable hotel. And was there again in the morning to take a couple of our group round the local temple. And didn't want any payment. What a man. This one's for you Charles.

written by  phileasdogg on October 18, 2008 from Madurai, India
from the travel blog: Planes, Trains & Taxiwallahs
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

But at least driver Dan is a happy man. We've finally been reunited with co-driver Jim and the transmission part sent from the UK 3 weeks ago, he was in an air-con room, and Chelsea were playing on ESPN. Happy days.

written by  phileasdogg on October 19, 2008 from Tiruchchirappalli, India
from the travel blog: Planes, Trains & Taxiwallahs
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

Anyway, starting to turn my thoughts to China now, where I will find myself deposited in less than 48 hours. Goodbye curry, hello sweet and sour dachshund.

written by  phileasdogg on October 21, 2008 from Mamallapuram, India
from the travel blog: Planes, Trains & Taxiwallahs
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

A few people told me before I arrived that India was like Marmite - you either love it or hate it. I wouldn't say that I was at either end of those extremes, but it is a difficult country to enjoy, especially if like me, you're not religiously or spiritually inclined. The infrastructure is poor, there appears to be no semblance of order to anything, and yet in spite of that the bureaucracy is overwhelming. Perhaps most frustratingly they don't seem to attach any great value to their culture and history. I'm sure they do, and I'm just measuring it by Western standards, but it's a shame to see so much litter, pollution, sewage and the like everywhere. One of their major problems is that the population is growing faster than the country can support (half a billion more people in the last 50 years) and it's hard to see them becoming a global superpower (as seems to be frequently predicted) until they can address that.

On the plus side, the food has been great, the prices are fantastic if you're a Westerner, and the people are unfailingly friendly, generous and optimistic. It won't be a country I'll rush back to, but I'm glad I came. Now to tackle the other emerging superpower, China.

written by  phileasdogg on October 22, 2008 from Chennai, India
from the travel blog: Planes, Trains & Taxiwallahs
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

Unfortunately, another contrast with India is that it's dropped about 20 degrees in temperature, so have had to dig the fleece out of my rucksack. Think my carefully manufactured tan is going to disappear very rapidly.

Wandered around the Forbidden City today, the best preserved area in the whole of China, where the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties spent their time, only venturing outside its walls when absolutely necessary. It's beautifully preserved and hugely impressive. Had planned to go to Tiananmen Square afterwards but it was 5pm by the time I'd finished looking round, so will do that tomorrow instead.

But so far, so good.

Had a look round the Olympic stadia a couple of days ago and the Bird's Nest stadium is fantastic. Also went to see Tiananmen Square which is just, erm, a very big square. With a lot of CCTV cameras. And had a 2 hour drive outside of Beijing yesterday to climb about a million steps (or so it seemed) to get up to the Great Wall and then climb along it. It's hard enough to get to, so building the thing is a pretty impressive achievement. But it was a beautiful autumnal day and the views were fantastic. And followed that up with a trip to the theatre to see 'The Legend of Kung Fu'' which was part fictional story, part acrobatics and part kung fu, and was actually highly entertaining.

Now off for some Peking duck and then it's the night train to Xian.