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Post by onlyMark on Mar 2, 2016 13:43:29 GMT
A pretty coloured house. A couple of scenery shots to show I did see some countryside. And well blow me down with a feather! I ended up on a beach again. What luck! Interesting cliffs behind it. Guess what. No tourists. They were all just down the road on this beach and nearby. This is the semi-classic shot of the beach that some, who have been here, will recognise if they didn’t from the previous two. Varkala Beach. When I was here reasonably regularly twenty years ago or more the beach was more of a working beach with fishing boats and associated stuff. But time passes and I think they realise there is more money to be made from the tourists. But, not too much money as prices are still fairly cheap. For example, I called here for something to eat, just at the back of the beach in a prime spot. I sat upstairs. My companion declined any food. At least while I was looking. I had a vegetable sandwich, with four slices of toasted bread. We’d call it a salad sandwich. The tomato and tuna salad had seared real tuna, not tinned. I put most of the tuna in the sandwich to have a tuna salad sandwich. And thus a plain tomato salad. I’m innovative like that. There were small bowls of oil and vinegar. I had a bottle of water and a fresh lime soda. It came to 280 rupees, about 3.80 Euro/just over 4usd. All very fresh, very tasty and actually a bit too filling. Plus a very good view, which is often worth a fortune. I got trapped near the door of my room by an attractive Romanian woman in her forties who asked to look at my helmet. I said to her, “This one?” as I had it in my hand. She replied, “You have more than one?” I decided the smut shouldn’t proceed any further so I just mumbled about having another one at home. She wondered why I had one and I showed her the scooter and said that the helmet came with the bike. Conversation began from there about travels and the such like, as it does, she mentioning that she’s spent time in South America, in India and Europe and in the USA where she did a couple of courses. I naturally asked what they were about and was told they were regarding setting up an internet business. She mentioned they were a rip off and not really worth it but she was hooked in by the adverts and spiel. She runs this business now by remote when she is travelling and makes enough money from six months at home to travel six months on average. My next question was obvious, “What type of business do you do over the internet then?” “Energy distribution in simple terms”. Me – “What? Like oil tankers or electricity grids? That sort of thing?” I had a bloody good idea where this was going though. “Not really. A different form of energy. I send it to the needy.” “Like solar lamps to Africa then?” I could see she was a little frustrated by this question as I think she began to realise I was being deliberately obtuse. Yet, she was so determined to tell me all about it, she carried on. And on. It seems people send her money, I’d love to see the website by the way but she’s left now and I didn’t get chance to ask her. But people send her money and she sends them positive energy in a nutshell. She manoeuvred herself so that I couldn’t get in my door without virtually pushing past her. Her talk ranged from all the good she has done to all the Ashrams she had visited, some are silent, some are purely about laughing, most are to do with what I can only interpret as getting her to recharge her batteries enough so that she can ‘spread the good’ elsewhere, especially for those who can’t come to India themselves. She tells me she has done any and every course in India regarding meditation, yoga, spiritual healing – which she does for others via the internet as well, and she now is repeating them. (Yoga, meditation I think good. Spirtitual healing bad) Especially one fairly locally, from a woman who is so powerful you only need to look at her and your mood lifts, you have a spring in your step, your warts and blemishes disappear, world peace breaks out, Mother Nature sighs in relief, climate change reverses itself, all nuclear bombs disarm themselves and politicians start telling the truth. I may have exaggerated the last one though as I was still trying to side step her and wasn’t listening properly. She at last took the hint and maybe thought I was a fellow soul when I mentioned I had to send an email to my mother with an attached photo of the aura over the beach, just to cheer her up as she’s been a little down since a plague of locusts decimated the crops on the farm and it looks like my babies won’t have anything to eat this winter. I’m hoping the energy from the aura will help her rebuild the barn and farmhouse which collapsed from the sheer weight of numbers, before I get back. The whole family is living in the coal cellar at the moment. That shifted her and I shot off into the room and locked the door. Damn, I wish I’d asked her which website. P.S. If anyone reads this and does believe as she does then live and let live I say. As long as you do no harm there is no argument from me. Plus, James Randi would like to hear from you. Look him up if you don’t already know him. But, my view is akin to my view on religion and penises, as this post seems to follow that helmet theme, sorry. You may have one and I know it. I may have one and you know it. But whip it out and push it in my face and I’ll react badly. Keep it in your pants, be satisfied with that and I’ll be happy. Tomorrow explore and swim.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 2, 2016 13:48:13 GMT
What a journey, thanks Mark. Having suffered from prickly heat and knowing where it is likely strike, plus its association with a Swedish lady, can only lead me to one conclusion Mark. I trust you enjoyed the experience. I looked through my fingers mossie.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 2, 2016 15:31:33 GMT
Another very welcome and interesting set of photos Mark! I loved scrutinizing the market produce. I get excited just recognising vegetables I get or grow here at home. Some of them were: Those pale green curved gourds, my beloved Snake beans, little pink shallots, Madumbi's or in other parts of the world..Taro. The squid and the Whitebait look young and I'm sure would cook up great. Onl;y thing that puts me off about the fish market is the sand all over the fish and the occasional bucket of what looks like pretty dirty water. I feel for you and your helmet trouble Mark. It is a real pain when lonely wandering nomads want to devour you whole in conversation only they want to dominate. Lucky escape bru. I like the scooter and have been wondering for the past couple of days how come you were covering so much ground on a pushbike. I pictured your muscular thighs in torment every afternoon as you arrived at your next abode....seems it was just a whimsical thought
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 2, 2016 16:13:22 GMT
I'm good on a bike for quite a distance, but an Indian bike with only one gear on Indian roads at what seems like 100 percent humidity and a pack on the back............. thirty to thirty five km is by far enough. I wanted to go further now than that. Never mind hotels aren't at regular distances.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 3, 2016 17:01:06 GMT
Day 14 As promised, I didn’t do a lot today. In fact I may do even less tomorrow. After a normal standard breakfast I went for a ride and a walk. Varkala is really two beaches, you saw one yesterday and this is the more popular one just north of it. It does have quite a few tourists nearby as on the cliff behind is where the majority of accommodation and restaurants are. This is the beach. The cliff top is more or less a kilometre long and cafes and shops are shoulder to shoulder. As there is only a small track, no vehicle access, it feels quite reasonable. There are a few hotels to break it up but the majority of them are just behind. I took a wander along. There wasn’t that much to see but there was no shortage of places to stop and ponder for a while with a coffee and cake or most anything else. I took the scooter out for a ride around the area. Not all beaches here are pretty. This is somewhat lacking in the beauty stakes. It’s a good half an hour walk from the main tourist area and even though the beach isn’t up to much, there is still a resort at the end of it. You can just make out the two female tourists walking towards me. Where they are going I’ve no idea. I did spot a nice house tucked away in the trees. But I got held up for a little while. This was a bit more scenic. Continuing on. I was getting ready for a swim so I stopped and turned round at this archway. Good artistic work. Not a day goes by without me having to eat. What a surprise. When I’m in somewhere like Varkala, in an evening I’ll tend to eat at one of the tourist restaurants, but for lunch I’ll just eat wherever I am. Around here the local places at lunch time just do one dish which they will advertise outside as a ‘meal’. The meal is whatever they’ve made but there is only that. Like it or lump it. I’ve not found one yet though that I didn’t like. This one was fairly epic and filling, especially with all the rice. One thing to note is that if you manage to eat all the rice, they’ll often give you more as part of the meal. I usually can’t manage it. This one had the rice with the two grilled and coated (with semolina?) fishes, then about three different types of curry on the top, all veg curries, of which you can help yourself. You can see the three metal containers at the top with more in if I want it. Then in the small compartments from right to left, of which you don’t get more, is first a blow your socks off pickle, A small curry flavoured coleslaw type thing, only medium hot, a veg that was probably cooked radish type with what tasted like grass, then the red is cabbage and beetroot. There was a papad with it as well. Which I ate first, so it’s gone. All washed down with tap water. Cost just under a Euro. In the afternoon I went for a swim at the first beach I took a photo of, where there is nobody around then this evening I had a bowl of Thai Tom Yum soup at a restaurant on the cliff top. Tomorrow I need to seriously plan what I’m going to do next. Should I stay or should I go? If I go, then where? And why?
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 3, 2016 18:24:34 GMT
More fascinating pictures. Your lunch looks delicious. Love "Cain Furniture". Does the sign to the right of it advertise "Able Furniture"?
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 3, 2016 18:38:39 GMT
That's why I took the photo, the spelling. I was going to make a comment above but I thought I'd leave it blank for someone else to join in.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 4, 2016 8:58:35 GMT
Markymark, where are all the traditional Indian dishes? Chicken tikka masala, onion bhaji, beef madras and so on?
I mean Tuna sandwich? I can have that here (if indeed I ever ate Tuna). You sure you're not in Fuengirola?
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 4, 2016 11:34:54 GMT
If those dishes were proper Indian........... Bhaji's are for sure and I see them and eat them often. But they are not called bhaji's here. I don't know how come it changed but the word means different things. A pakoda or pakora is more often what we'd mean as an onion bhaji but in the UK that can be different as well. A dish called a vengaya bahji would get you what you want whereas as a pav bhaji is, "pav is an Indian bread and bhaji is mashed vegetables cooked with spice powder", so is completely different.
Chicken tikka masala is an English invention (as you know) and there is no curry sauce called 'Madras'. There is a sauce common to Madras but it varies considerably though tends to stay hot. In Madras if you asked for a chicken curry you'd get a chicken madras. Ask the same elsewhere and you won't. Plus in India when not in Madras you'd be struggling to get chicken with a madras type sauce. You might in a western high class restaurant, but normally, not really.
There are restaurants that offer 'north Indian cuisine' or 'south Indian cuisine' in the different parts but the dishes made in the UK you wouldn't get. A bit like a Balti. In Pakistan you'd get a similar thing but it wouldn't be called that. In India I'd get chicken tikka or a chicken with a masala sauce. I understand the comment and the tease but it did raise an interesting point. Besides the fact that it is rare, like now where I am, that I eat in places geared to tourists. Here I can eat anything from virtually any country but I can't get authentic Indian food unless I go out of the tourist area. Which is where I normally eat as I'm mostly not in them anyway, plus if I wanted a burrito I'd go to where I can get real ones.
I wouldn't go to Fuengirola much, I'd tend to eat in Benalmedena where the fish and chips are better.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 4, 2016 11:41:25 GMT
I've mentioned this before but as my father said after a month in Spain and on the ferry returning from Santander, it was nice to have proper English food. I asked him what he ate and he replied, "A chicken madras".
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Post by tod2 on Mar 4, 2016 12:20:03 GMT
Mark the scenery is top class. I have noticed the clean swept streets....superb. The menu offerings are strange in some places....do they really expect a horde of Mexicanos to come and eat suedo Mexican food whilst on holiday When I saw the menu I wondered immediately if Bixa would do an about turn and run a mile! I appreciated your answer to Mick about Traditional Indian dishes. To add some traditional Indian dishes and accompaniments here which may also be known elswhere, are: a Bunny-Chow, roti with dhall, Chicken, mutton, or vegetable biryani, Butter chicken, samoosas, popadums, burfee, semolina ladoo. It is difficult to get a beef curry worth eating so we stick to lamb or mutton but most places serve a really awful 'curry'. The best one made in our city is not by Indians but by a Greek Cafe` owner.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 4, 2016 13:05:28 GMT
Hang on a minute. Bunnu chow, burfee and semolina ladoo are dishes I don't know. *quickly Googles*
Probably because bunny chow comes from Durban and the other two, though I've found out are Indian, are desert/sweets. I don't have any deserts or sweets here mostly because I put on enough weight when I come never mind adding to it with pure sugar. Bunny chow sounds pretty good and I'll have to try it. I'd be interested to see what the curry part tastes like. Butter chicken known here as Murgh Makhani is something I ate last time here in the Punjab region. Bit of a calorie bomb though. I don't remember seeing it anywhere else.
The streets are generally cleaner here for sure. Every so often I do enjoy eating at a tourist place as a break from three meals a day curry. I soon start travelling again though and get the street food. In fact I'm just going out now to the main cliff area to see if I can get a full English breakfast for my dinner.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 4, 2016 13:07:53 GMT
I was just pulling your leg.....
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 4, 2016 16:21:03 GMT
Day 15 Such a really hard day, today. I had breakfast, went for a swim. Had lunch, went for a swim. Had afternoon tea and cake, went for a swim. Had dinner. I'm sure you have no desire to see a photo of me in my swimmers so here is the view from the cliff a little after sunset. You can see the lights of the fishing boats just starting to show. The cafes are all gearing up for the evening rush. Later, after dinner, the lights of the boats really show up. Like a handful of carelessly strewn diamonds. Tomorrow I’ll head south a little further and have a day in the city. Trivandrum. It’ll make a change from beaches, though there is one nearby. One question that may have popped into your mind is how I find my way around and pinpoint where my accommodation is? Usually, and I must say, unerringly. Though I bet I’m tempting fate now. Even if you haven’t thought about it, I’m going to tell you anyway. I don’t carry detailed maps with me anymore and even if I did I’d often need too many to make it viable. I do have a general southern India road map but it’s fairly large scale. Road signs are often unreadable, if they are there, especially in rural areas where they’d not be in English anyway. Street signs are few and far between in towns. When I’ve driven a car I’ve managed to get hold of a routable India map for my satnav. I can’t use that on the scooter and definitely on a bike, mostly because without a power source it’ll only last a short time. Plus there is nowhere to mount it. So I use an old style GPS receiver. I load it up with a few navigation points taken from Google maps; these are called waypoints and then the destination point. It has a cord to hang round my neck and I can refer to it when I need. The batteries last days especially when you don’t need the backlight. It is though a ‘point and shoot’ in that there are no maps to follow within the device, it doesn’t tell me to turn left or right etc like a satnav. It just has an arrow pointing where I want to go and a distance. The distance is as the crow flies so the arrow ignores and obstructions like rivers and buildings, it just points. I used it frequently in Egypt in the deserts where there are no roads anyway and it is most useful in cities where it is easy to lose a sense of direction. It points simply the way to go. I’m sure a lot know of these even if they’ve not used them. It is a Garmin eTrex, robust, good battery life and the simplest thing they have.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 4, 2016 16:26:42 GMT
Mick, I know you were and appreciate the thought.
What you said though got me thinking. I can do that from time to time, though not for long periods. The question of what we see as traditional Indian fare and the misconception of Brits when they go to somewhere like Goa on holiday and can't get it. I know because I've heard them saying the food tastes nothing like what they get at home. I've heard them say they like a good curry but strangely can't get it in India.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2016 16:44:57 GMT
A friend of mine from Cape Town who lived in New Orleans for many years could never be persuaded to not order the curry in NO Chinese restaurants. She kept doing it and was always furious that it wasn't wonderful like what she got in Cape Town's Chinese restaurants. She was otherwise a sane and lovely person.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 4, 2016 17:37:08 GMT
I can't really imagine getting a curry from a Chinese restaurant. I wonder what a Chinese meal tastes like in China. Is it like Indians in India compared to elsewhere? Or is it fairly accurate?
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2016 17:57:11 GMT
Well, there have been Indians in South Africa for a long time. Maybe curry in Chinese restaurants there is the same logic as offering fried chicken or hamburgers in regional restaurants anywhere in the world -- for those in the group who aren't going to eat any funny foreign food. Tod can tell us if curries are mainstream food in South Africa.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 6, 2016 11:21:32 GMT
Day 16 Not a lot happened today other than I slipped further south to Trivandrum. I tried to take a road that ran parallel to the beaches but was baulked by it being closed and cut off. I ended up backtracking and taking a fairly major road that I didn’t really want but got me to my destination all the same. As I didn’t take any photos, apart from the following one, I’ll leave you with some flowers and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Day 17 I always like to have a bit of a theme, at least to start off with, when I come to India. Last time it was stepwells, but I soon ran out of them as I headed away from their area down to Goa. This time I had no plan but one seems to have lent itself to me and that is the theme of beaches. Could have had a lot worse one. Next time I might do something more in depth about food or temples or something. There certainly is a lot to keep interested in. I had a pleasant night’s sleep in my pretty damn good room and woke up refreshed. I did have a plan today that I’d stick around the city and visit one or two of the sites/sights. I did a lap or so and was so irritated by, would you believe, traffic lights that I decided on a change. The problem with the lights is that in a car you can wind the windows up and put the air con on to overcome some of the heat and pollution. Obviously on a scooter, you can’t. The traffic lights all have a counter so you know how long you have to stop there for. A good thing in a way but knowing I still have a minute to go when I’m sitting in the sun at the side of a smoke puthering bus, tuk tuk and trucks and hemmed in by other cars and bikes/scooters, is not how I wish to spend my time. There does seem to be an inordinate amount of traffic lights in this city. Unless I just attract them somehow. I knew there was an area of beaches not too distant and I felt the fresher air would be welcomed. Still hot and humid though but at least a bit of a breeze coming off the sea. So I took the most direct route to them. After being stopped at another half dozen of those blasted lights on my way out. I noticed this place on the way. Maybe someone can give me a good explanation of what a customer fed beer shop is. I think I’ve been a bit spoiled by deserted beaches but I’ll let you draw your own opinions as I visit a couple or three of the ones spread along the coast. It didn’t start off too bad, as shown above. But then………… Bugger, someone got here before me and started attracting tourists, both local and foreign. It must be dangerous here. Actually just a bit over there, to the left. The beaches are filling up. Bloody ‘ell, it’s dangerous to the right now. And I can’t have a bath. You must be kidding. Not another German Bakery. I told you there always is one. This is me sorted then. Yoga for them wots my age and above. There was a problem though. Bottom left corner of the poster, “Yoga 7.30am”. You must be joking. I’m on holiday. There is no way I’m getting up, doing my toilette (otherwise I’d be farting whilst doing the half hero stretch. Not polite, though there is a ‘wind relieving’ position anyway) and getting down to the place for that time. But to continue. Looking back from the big red lighthouse to the smaller blue half lighthouse a few photos previously. It’s just visible middle left. I cleared two more small beaches to the other side of the red lighthouse. It looks quite pleasant. The eagle eyed though may spot what is the fly in the ointment on the bank to the right. If I stand still at that spot and just turn the camera down near my feet. Oh dear. If I move south no more than another few hundred metres you can see the children’s playground as well. Good idea apart from it being all metal and burningly hot to touch. It may have cooled down late at night. If I spin a quarter turn to the right. That’s 90 degrees to anyone who learnt higher mathematics or 0.25 of a turn to anyone who only learnt the metric system and gets flummoxed by fractions (hello daughters!). Just a short distance further and we come to a proper working fishing boat area. I had to get under cover quickly. They were coming in for the kill. I could feel it. I know they were trying to distract me but wheeling around and around, maybe even hypnotise me, but I just knew. To finish off, there is a beach close to the city, just a kilometre or so away. No tourism at all. Maybe you can see why. Looking one way and then the other. It was said some time before in a comment that everywhere is so scenic and was it luck or knowledge that took me there. Something like that. It is scenic because I chose/choose it to be. It is no fun, there is no romance, no magic in showing all the nitty gritty reality of what is the vast amount of India. I could do that in most places, though as we have seen, the situation is better in the south than a lot expect. Cleaner and better kept. It doesn’t take long or have to go far though and that is one of the other reasons I wanted to slip out of the city today. The advert for the country pushes the phrase, “Incredible India”. It is true even if you only take the positive. There is a negative that is also incredible though.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 6, 2016 12:18:39 GMT
Oh Mark, does this mean you are homeward bound?? I have enjoyed this journey with you far more than any previous reports. Recent photos of the more built up touristy area are not as appealing as the previous unknown area you travelled through, but they have their place. In the photo of 'the proper working boat fishing area', the second photo shows the retaining wall of the harbour made out of concrete 'dolosse'. This design of protection from the pounding waves is used worldwide and was invented by a man from Port Elizabeth, South Africa. A dolos (plural dolosse- approximate translation "knuckle bones"; approximate pronunciation "dohl-awe-sah") www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com/tech/38-tech/innovation-bg/116-south-african-inventions
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 6, 2016 13:01:44 GMT
Am I homeward bound? Not on your life. Not yet anyway. I have started though making plans as regards getting up from here back to Delhi to fly home. The last few days before then won't be up to much but I have to be back in Kochi for the 17th to fly to Delhi for the 18th and back to Europe on the 19th. The visa stops me staying any longer.
I've seen the dolos before but never realised they came from SA. You learn something new every day.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 6, 2016 15:53:30 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 6, 2016 15:59:21 GMT
Yeah. The speed gun. Really useful, that is. I hope the inventor suffered a long lingering death.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2016 16:37:10 GMT
I didn't understand "speed gun" so I had to look it up. The French name is perhaps more explicit: "radar mobile" -- but this term does not distinguish between the type that might be set on a tripod on a highway overpass or the sneaky hand held version.
I was looking at the photos of the excellent hotel room to see if I could find anything in it that implied "India" and saw absolutely nothing. But perhaps there was a little touch or two that you noticed, and I hope it was not brown water running out the taps.
I was also intrigued by the Consumer Fed Beer Shop sign but not for the same reason. The sign also says "Alcohol consumption is injurious to health." Is that now a legal requirement on signs or ads for alcoholic beverages? It is in France, albeit stated in softer but longer terms: "Alcohol abuse is a health danger. Learn to consume and appreciate in moderation." On live television programmes, it even gets rather ridiculous. If anybody mentions any kind of alcohol -- champagne, beer, wine, etc. -- the host instantly says "in moderation, of course." Staying off topic for just an instant longer, another ridiculous thing on French television is the rule about never mentioning brand names, but that if a brand name is mentioned, at least two other brand names must also be mentioned. If an adventurer is saying "I walked across the entire Sahara desert, so when I finally saw a drink stand, I bought a Coke," there is always somebody to say "but it could have been an Orangina or a Pepsi."
Okay back to topic -- your fishing boat photos are as outstanding as ever, and those colourful temples (mosques?) are intriguing splashes of coulour on the landscape. Do you ever go into any of them or 1) not interested 2) forbidden to non members 3) seen one, seen them all?
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Post by bjd on Mar 6, 2016 16:55:12 GMT
What I find intriguing about those bright splashes of colour is that they seem so out of place. Fishing boats, garbage on the beach, little shops -- and all of a sudden, a place that looks as though it has just been painted.
I was thinking the same as Kerouac about that hotel room -- it could have been anywhere.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 6, 2016 17:52:43 GMT
A speed gun can be used for many things, in science and elsewhere, but the common one is for speed traps. That is how I understand it. I used to wield a hand held one periodically and it was commonly known just as a radar gun. We were supposed to go on a course to use it and thus be qualified. But I never did. I'd just take it out and issue a few tickets when my work book looked a bit poor that month. If they were ever challenged we would have had to dismiss the ticket, but it never happened.
The hotel room is completely European and without any trace of Indian character other than the coffee/tea/sugar/powdered milk sachets by the kettle that are local. The snacks in the minibar are also local. It's a rare room and hotel.
I think there must be regulations here about advertising, especially alcohol. I notice that on the TV at the beginning and end of every set of adverts there is also a note saying smoking kills, for a few seconds as well. I also know that in this state, Kerala, there are some of the strictest laws as to where you can smoke and about things like not being able to sell tobacco products within 400m of an educational establishment. Something like that.
The colourful buildings are mosques. As usual with religion there is a lot of money to be made. No matter the poor suffer, disease is rampant, litter is everywhere, infrastructure is failing, health services are overwhelmed, public transport is insufficient, pollution in above any recommended level and the highest in the world............ as long as the temple/mosque/church has a lick of paint and is well maintained, God will provide. No I don't go in them.
Unless there is something specific as with the Mezquita de Córdoba, the great Mosque of Esfahan, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, in Istanbul, various Cathedrals dotted around the world like Gaudi's Sagrada Família in Barcelona, certain Indian temples like at Hampi...... the list is long but they are all special in their own way. I go to see them as a tourist attraction and not because they are a house of worship. I'm not going to get into another rant and this time about religion. I'll take pictures of them because they are pretty. That is about the depth of my feeling about them. Glad you asked though.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 6, 2016 18:04:06 GMT
Mark - I thought you mentioned the aversion to the Speed Gun as a victim.....not as an inflicter of the devilish device.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 6, 2016 18:23:37 GMT
Sorry, yes, confusing. I've been a victim on a number of occasions in many countries, even in somewhere like Tanzania. I did use them but under sufferance when I needed to but I never agreed with them. Excessive speed does kill but the benefit of using them has been far outweighed by the cash cow they and their ilk have become. Especially in the UK where they are endemic.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 7, 2016 13:21:22 GMT
Day 18 I’ve done with going south now. There wasn’t a lot to see much further anyway unless I went to the southern tip of India just to say I have. Well, I have. A few times anyway, so I don’t really need to go back. I’m heading north again but will be calling at a couple of places I missed out on my way down. I’m supposed to have the scooter back for the 9th but I need to go there to arrange to have it longer. That suits me as I’ll see about getting quite a bit further north than when I was just on the bike. I’m trying to fit in as many beaches as I can, mainly to see how they are and if they’d be good for a week’s holiday or so, maybe with the family. It’s an excuse anyway. By the way, if you need a little statuette, I know just the place. Hand painted no less. If you did a google images search on Kollam beach you’d find it didn’t look too bad at all. If you looked on Trip Advisor you’d see that eighty one people have rated it excellent or very good. Forty three think it is average. I didn’t check any of that and decided to stop and have a look as the town is a convenient place for me to stop and a reasonable hotel nearby. Things looked interesting right from the start. I looked right and started to feel a little disappointed. I looked down the steps that lead me to the beach. I noticed the sign. No chance of a swim here then. Not that now I wanted to. So I walked to the sea edge and did the usual right and left photo. Maybe I should have read the trip advisor comments first. Especially those that were ‘Poor’ and ‘Terrible’. At least the floor of the lift in the hotel is nice.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 7, 2016 14:33:37 GMT
Trivandrum and Pondicherry. Nice place names.
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