davethegrinch.net

Sarah says:

We have just passed our 3 month traveling anniversary and fully appreciate that perhaps we are just feeling a bit tired, but India is hard and feels like it keeps getting harder. Our latest adventure began on our journey from Kochi to Munnar. Kochi is probably the most touristy town in south India and also happens to be the first Indian town we’ve visited that, despite the guidebook’s frequent use of the word, fits my definition of “charming”. It was lovely: cute streets, clean, quiet, perfect. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay more than two days because the heat was, shall we say, unbearable. We decided to head inward toward the mountains to visit some tea plantations. The climate, we anticipated, would be cooler and a town built by the British for the purpose of tea must be “charming”, right??

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Dave says:

We were not happy with the Poopada Hotel in the hill station town of Munnar, Kerala, India for two whole days. A whole series of complaints including dirty towels, no hot water, excessive noise from both management and guests and cold/late food had brought us to a point of frustration. The hotel in question was charging more than any other hotel we had stayed in in India and was forced upon us because every hotel in town was full of Indian tourists due to Easter weekend and the start of the school holidays coinciding. It was the only place in town with rooms for the entire weekend and we were stuck there. The situation escalated and came to a head on our second night when a bus load of Indian students pulled into the parking lot, built a campfire right by the bus and proceeded the start their own Indian rave. By the time 12:30am swung around, the hotel manager was either drunk or stoned and wasn’t making much sense of our complaining. We informed him we’d be expecting a discount but I don’t think our annoyance made it through his bloodshot eyes to his beetle nut addled brain. He then attempted to turn the situation into a bartering opportunity, forcing us to explain his job was to make his customers happy by offering a discount he thought was appropriate; we are talking about a hotel, not a trinket stand at the local market. Besides, he was not serious and any offer we would have made would not have been accepted. He then spent the next 10 minutes trying to tell us that the room rate we had was discounted already and we spent the 10 minutes following those informing him it was not. He grasp of the English language seemed to leave him at the most inopportune moments, especially when arguments turned against him. Once it was clear this was getting us nowhere, we left him to think about his attitude but were sure he couldn’t care less. (more…)

Dave says:

Mysore is home to sandalwood, silk and incense. It’s also, despite what the guidebooks say, a bit of a shithole (excuse my Hindi). It also has the strangest scam artists in the whole of India thus far. We met about four of them and, to our own amazement, were caught in the same scam twice. (more…)

Dave says:

One of the pleasures of traveling and, in my opinion, one of the benchmarks by which to measure the visited culture is to eat and drink like a local. This subject has been well documented in other reports from other countries and now it’s India’s turn to step up to the gastrometer for the great global food weigh-in. (more…)

Dave says:

If there is one thing the British left behind that the Indians are in no hurry to rid themselves of, then it must be the railway system. It is the lifeline of the country and the only piece of infrastructure that actually works as advertised, well most of the time at least. For clarity, but not necessarily brevity, I will divide the actualities of this not-so-modern marvel into 3 categories.

1. How the government would like you to see it.

2. How it is.

3. What nobody likes to mention. (more…)

Sarah says:

In our experience so far in SE Asia and India, when you arrive in a town that has any ounce of a tourist population, you will be barraged at the train station, bus station or airport by taxi and tuk-tuk drivers all wanting to take you where you want to go.  It’s a slightly manageable scene at the airport since we, the tourists with money, can safely view from inside the baggage claim area what is awaiting us once we take our first steps outside the airport door so we can take a few deep breaths and prepare. Train and bus stations, however, can seem almost riotous. I have seen taxi drivers actually board moving trains, I’ve seen them charge onto buses before any passengers can get off, all to hopefully land the job of taking you and your bags to your final destination and if it’s really their lucky day, they’ll convince you that the hotel you want to go to is full or they charge too much for what you get and you should really take their advice and go to this other hotel. If they use just the right, “I’m not trying to scam you, mate, I’m really just trying to help” tone of voice, they may just convince your naive ass and, at the end of the day, they’ll score a juice kick-back from the hotel. (more…)

David says:

There is, in the center of a 500 year old temle, which sits in the center of a small village called Hampi, which in turn is in the center of the state Karnataka, which itself is virtually in the center of India, an elephant. Her name is Lakshmi and every day she greets pilgrims to this quite centrally located temple. For one rupee she will grant you a blessing. She is probably the most pampered elephant in India, bathes twice a day and wanders the village in her off time. She looks happy. Deep in her dark eyes lies the soul of an elephant who realizes she could be doing a lot worse. (more…)