after taking a 3 hour bus sitting on a tractor tyre with king asleep on my lap we arrived at mamallapuram.
after getting a rickshaw to the shore temple jon again thought he'd found the wrong place... we walked around the temple.... jon couldn't remember any of it...
we have however been here for 3 days now not wanting to rush our trip at this stage yet although we only have 8 sleeps till having to be in nepal.
jon found a great place with a big clean room, large bathroom and great undercover terrace ( which until an hour ago was all ours) that looks out over the ocean.
xavie found himself a rock carver freind and has been spending his days learning the finer art of carving..
jon has since discovered it was the same guy he had carved with while he was here and the guy morgan fully remembered the design of jons ball...it's pretty amazing out of all the carvers ( and they are shoulder to shoulder) xavie picked the same guy... everything happens for a reason!!!
yesterday jon met a nice lady named butma who invited us around fro chai...after going and hanging out for a bit in her home... kitchen outside, rooms detached from each other and no beds...though had a westerner toilet) offered to take us to the markets( so we get local prices) and cook us lunch....too good to refuse and saving some money ...so dear to our jons heart... 2 hours later we went backand did just that....
we spent 200 r on 7 big fish ( fresh though swarming with flies) she than took us to the supermarket to buy flour, rice and some vegetables... then took us back to her house while she prepared lunch( i chipped in and cut the vegatables with a ridiculously blunt knife against my thumb)....jon captured a great moment of me hot, bothered, struggling and flipping the bird.
we then ate on the floor of their bedroom, come tv room, come dining room in the sweltering heat ( no windows small door and electricity out so no fan, smack bang in the middle of the hottest part of the day.)
butma than served the boys first ( who only ate the rice) jon and i ate the fish. i quickly scoffed mine and luckily soon after king triped and fell... and thankfully was due for asleep so cried giving me my way out....
i sacrificed jon ( who had gotten us into this "opportunity too good to miss" and split for our nice cool room with fan and cold shower. the dash all the more urgent as i tired holding down my fish as i pictured it's fins, tail and eyes one exploded jelly one all over it's face and the other one intact eyeball swinging form it's tendon as i flipped the fish over......argh fresh produce how i love you so.
jon returned an hour later having bought and shared a beer with butmas husband bringing with him nay stories.
1) mr butma as a small boy went with his friend to the temple elephant for a blessing little did he know his friend had put needles in the bananas before feeding them to the elephant... he went on to say he knew nothing about it until his friend told him after...he goes on to say elephants have very good memories...they then went back 10 years later as 15 year olds and the elephant picked up his friend and set him under his foot and squashed him to death...finishing with " they have very good brains/ memories"
2) mr butma explained he used tom ake some money by being a tour guide.. one time he took some russians around india and somehow they ended up meeting a man who ran a mongoose vs cobra fight and ended up drinking with him and spending the night... mr butma had never seen a man get on so well with a mongoose the mongoose was very well trained and tame like a pet the man slept with him and cuddled him etc..... they had a big night drinking... during the night mr butma was awoken by a hair curling scream but went back to sleep... in the morning he awoke to find the cobra fighter dead....it was discovered and assumed the cobra man had gotten an erection during the night and the mongoose had mistaken it for the cobra and bitten it off.... the men too enubriated had not reacted and so the cobra man bled to death.
3) butma's son in law had died of cancer 4 months ago and then after being teased the wife ( butma's daughter) had covered herself in kerosene and commited suicide by setting herself alight right in the room where we sat and ate lunch...leaving her daughter behind... this story was horrible and i'm sure true but i found it very ironic when after all our meals and cooking etc they asked for 100 r to buy more kerosene.
needless to say after being told all the stories ending in death we paid the 100r without question.
after having our entire day consumed with stories, heat, scams and food... i washed my hands of the whole affair.... jon however returned the next morning for breakfast the next morning.. to "get his monies worth"
NB they were a lovely family, who obviously had had hardship both in the past present and future, we did not take the scam to heart... fed ourselves and another family, had locally cooked food, ate in "authentic" premises and heard a few good stories for free.
today we hired bikes ( bicycles) and went and saw the town's carvings, swam at the beach, had an afternoon nap, helped some goats reach their much desired high up leaves, had banana pancakes and chai for dessert, went and donated to a gig to raise money for the destitue called "jam for bread" ( which i was particularly taken with) did some bartering, watched pony rides on the beach( where the handler actually lets go of the horse entirely and smacks it on the bum as it takes off... and you get to watch as the person holds on for grim death), realized we had been away for 2 months and we still didn't feel like rushing home... and spoke to a white old hippie from cyprus who recalled realizing yesterday the worst thing he had to worry about in india was losing his spliff ( which he later discovered he'd put in his newspaper) this sentiment is true, though not about the spliff.. we are worrying about nothing... enjoying food, people, life and more importantly each other....
WE ARE SAFE, WE ARE SLOWED AND WE ARE ENJOYING!!!
Love the boys and banksia
after getting a rickshaw to the shore temple jon again thought he'd found the wrong place... we walked around the temple.... jon couldn't remember any of it...
we have however been here for 3 days now not wanting to rush our trip at this stage yet although we only have 8 sleeps till having to be in nepal.
jon found a great place with a big clean room, large bathroom and great undercover terrace ( which until an hour ago was all ours) that looks out over the ocean.
xavie found himself a rock carver freind and has been spending his days learning the finer art of carving..
jon has since discovered it was the same guy he had carved with while he was here and the guy morgan fully remembered the design of jons ball...it's pretty amazing out of all the carvers ( and they are shoulder to shoulder) xavie picked the same guy... everything happens for a reason!!!
yesterday jon met a nice lady named butma who invited us around fro chai...after going and hanging out for a bit in her home... kitchen outside, rooms detached from each other and no beds...though had a westerner toilet) offered to take us to the markets( so we get local prices) and cook us lunch....too good to refuse and saving some money ...so dear to our jons heart... 2 hours later we went backand did just that....
we spent 200 r on 7 big fish ( fresh though swarming with flies) she than took us to the supermarket to buy flour, rice and some vegetables... then took us back to her house while she prepared lunch( i chipped in and cut the vegatables with a ridiculously blunt knife against my thumb)....jon captured a great moment of me hot, bothered, struggling and flipping the bird.
we then ate on the floor of their bedroom, come tv room, come dining room in the sweltering heat ( no windows small door and electricity out so no fan, smack bang in the middle of the hottest part of the day.)
butma than served the boys first ( who only ate the rice) jon and i ate the fish. i quickly scoffed mine and luckily soon after king triped and fell... and thankfully was due for asleep so cried giving me my way out....
i sacrificed jon ( who had gotten us into this "opportunity too good to miss" and split for our nice cool room with fan and cold shower. the dash all the more urgent as i tired holding down my fish as i pictured it's fins, tail and eyes one exploded jelly one all over it's face and the other one intact eyeball swinging form it's tendon as i flipped the fish over......argh fresh produce how i love you so.
jon returned an hour later having bought and shared a beer with butmas husband bringing with him nay stories.
1) mr butma as a small boy went with his friend to the temple elephant for a blessing little did he know his friend had put needles in the bananas before feeding them to the elephant... he went on to say he knew nothing about it until his friend told him after...he goes on to say elephants have very good memories...they then went back 10 years later as 15 year olds and the elephant picked up his friend and set him under his foot and squashed him to death...finishing with " they have very good brains/ memories"
2) mr butma explained he used tom ake some money by being a tour guide.. one time he took some russians around india and somehow they ended up meeting a man who ran a mongoose vs cobra fight and ended up drinking with him and spending the night... mr butma had never seen a man get on so well with a mongoose the mongoose was very well trained and tame like a pet the man slept with him and cuddled him etc..... they had a big night drinking... during the night mr butma was awoken by a hair curling scream but went back to sleep... in the morning he awoke to find the cobra fighter dead....it was discovered and assumed the cobra man had gotten an erection during the night and the mongoose had mistaken it for the cobra and bitten it off.... the men too enubriated had not reacted and so the cobra man bled to death.
3) butma's son in law had died of cancer 4 months ago and then after being teased the wife ( butma's daughter) had covered herself in kerosene and commited suicide by setting herself alight right in the room where we sat and ate lunch...leaving her daughter behind... this story was horrible and i'm sure true but i found it very ironic when after all our meals and cooking etc they asked for 100 r to buy more kerosene.
needless to say after being told all the stories ending in death we paid the 100r without question.
after having our entire day consumed with stories, heat, scams and food... i washed my hands of the whole affair.... jon however returned the next morning for breakfast the next morning.. to "get his monies worth"
NB they were a lovely family, who obviously had had hardship both in the past present and future, we did not take the scam to heart... fed ourselves and another family, had locally cooked food, ate in "authentic" premises and heard a few good stories for free.
today we hired bikes ( bicycles) and went and saw the town's carvings, swam at the beach, had an afternoon nap, helped some goats reach their much desired high up leaves, had banana pancakes and chai for dessert, went and donated to a gig to raise money for the destitue called "jam for bread" ( which i was particularly taken with) did some bartering, watched pony rides on the beach( where the handler actually lets go of the horse entirely and smacks it on the bum as it takes off... and you get to watch as the person holds on for grim death), realized we had been away for 2 months and we still didn't feel like rushing home... and spoke to a white old hippie from cyprus who recalled realizing yesterday the worst thing he had to worry about in india was losing his spliff ( which he later discovered he'd put in his newspaper) this sentiment is true, though not about the spliff.. we are worrying about nothing... enjoying food, people, life and more importantly each other....
WE ARE SAFE, WE ARE SLOWED AND WE ARE ENJOYING!!!
Love the boys and banksia
Well there you go then , another great blog from india ,I think you have a touch of the irish .or at least your indian friend has.... Glad you're all safe and well, feeding the locals and slowing down... safe travels.
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