It had to happen. Following an almost-perfect four days of sun, sand, jovial conversation and great food, we've had a crappy day of purgatory that's taken us from the paradise that is Palolem through nearly five hours of car travel, two of plane travel and a lot of wasted time to a filthy wasteland. A 5am start got us to a plane flight by 8:15, followed by a crazy long drive from the Bangalore airport to Mysore, with a pointless and undesirable stop at what our driver told us was a beautiful, relaxing river view but was instead a kickback and lunch break for him only 15 minutes from our destination. I was not amused, especially since we only bought water, which appeared to have been pre-opened and was hence ditched.
Our hotel is adequate, which is good since we've spent a lot of time here. After getting in we went for a quick walk attempting to get our bearings and only finding lunch. We had an aloo gobhi and dahl fry with chapattis, which was really good for only 119 rupees, or about $3. We came back to the hotel room - after getting lost - and caught up on some much-needed sleep. We struggled to get ourselves moving again but we eventually got out and about in search of a decent hotel to have a drink and a safe dinner, again we got lost and found a vegetarian place we'd considered going when we were actually hungry, and decided to just snack there regardless. There was no alcohol, but we had a second mega-cheap dinner, this one only costing 57 rupees.
Given it was ridiculously early we decided to have a drink in our hotel bar, a rock club. It sucked. It was loud, dark and dank and full of smokers. We had one drink and we're back, looking at an early night in order to get all the requisite tourist business done.
This place, so far, really seems to epitomise what we'd expected India to be - filth covers the streets, the sky is coated in a hazy film, and people don't hesitate to urinate openly in the street, as we discovered soon after dinner on an ill-advised way back. And far from the delicate scent of sandalwood that we'd been told of, the whole place smells alternately of sewerage and burning rubber. We've since resolved to get motor rickshaws everywhere to minimise our contact with the ground.
2 comments:
India hasn't changed then. We lived there from 88 to 92 and it sounds the same. Greg has been back and says it hasn't changed, but then change is something which is avoided in India. No doubt for all sorts of valuable reasons but it is hard coming from a more organised country.
I would add, it is a great experience. it challenges you to think about who you really are and how you believe the world should be. I remember when i first went there thinking it was so easy in Australia to do the religious/spiritual bit because it was all so neat and tidy... India is neither neat nor tidy and far more of a challenge. Then again, we are all different and some are more challenged than others.
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