Trains, head waggling and masala dosa (1st - 6th Dec 07)

To those who have read 'Life of Pi' you will be familiar with Pondicherry, a small former french enclave in the south east coast of India. This was our next stop and was an interesting fusion of a seaside French resort in India. The town was divided by a canal with the French part near the sea and the Indian part inland. The French part had wide roads, colonial buildings at it seemed that as you stepped across the cannal the hustle and bustle stopped and there were no more motorbikes hooning past or bus sitting on their horns.

But Pondicherry had a lovely boulevard and a french feel, but there was not much else to do. So after a couple of nights we moved on.

One of our favourite meals has been the Masala Dosa. Dosa is a huge thin rice flour crepe. The masala version is filled with curried potato and onion. The dish is served with an assortment of coconut chutneys and a vege curry. A great dish that can be had any time of the day, for a mere 60cents.

A tasty Masala Dosai


The Indian Head Waggle:
Now this is something we are only now starting to get used to. When Indians agree with something or are confirming something they waggle their heads from side to side. It is kind of like a shake but with no rotation. When we first encountered it we were a bit confused.
"We will have the vegetable biryani and two coffees....." Then the waggle, we thought this meant no biryani, but it means ok. we have started practising our waggle, and hopefully in a few days will be brave enough to put it to the test with some Indians.

From Pondi, we caught a train to Trichy in the central south, a temple town. As you know we really love trains, and avoid buses at all costs. We tried our hand on the "unreserved class" which is basically a free for all - first on first seated. Since we did not get on from the departing station we were standing in the aisle. The carriage was packed but before long the people we were rubbing shoulders with were asking the 'set questions'.

Where are you from - New Zealand - ahhhhh - good cricket team. If it wasnt for cricket, no one here would know NZ.
What is your job.....
Purpose of visit.......
It starts to feel like a customs interogation but it is good natured. After this we were talking about the 2nd cricket test between India and Pakistan and who would prevail on the final day.....most agreed draw. And it was.

One of the best parts of being in the lowest possible class of train, is the hospitality of the people. There was one quite large women, who was flopping off the side of her seat as it was, who felt sorry for Nat and moved over so she was hanging off even more so that Nat could rest 1/2 her bum on the seat to. It was so kind of her. One of our criket c chatting friends dived for a seat when one opened up, only to give it to Nat, which was also lovely gesture.
Nick, being a man, ended up standing the whole 4 hours but it was worth it.

If the trans mogolian train was a bazaar on tracks, the Indian trains are a restaurant on wheels. Throughout the journey vendors were squishing their way past bodies, selling tea, coffee, fried vege patties, biryani, samosas and other premade meals. When the train stopped, more vendors jumped on to offer premade meals or sold them through the grates in the window.

Vendors passing an Indian train


We spent a couple of nights at Trichy visiting a few temples. There were some huge multi level dravidian temples and a ganesh temple perched high above the city on a huge outrcrop of granite which gave spectacular views of the tropical palm forests.

A Hindu temple on a rock outcrop