Me-go: Around-the-World

After a few more days at the ashram where we got as far as the headstand asana (position), I was ready to leave. Staying would have been good for me, sure, but the possibility of squeezing in a few more towns before heading back to Mumbai for my flight was too enticing. I had to check out of the ashram at 11am and three hours later I was on Kovalam Beach eating spaghetti.

The beach was underwhelming and I walked around, trying to find a book exchange, until it was time to catch the bus back to Trivandrum for my 8:20 train to Madurai. It was a hard travel night for me because my train arrived in Madurai at 5am, where I had to wait for another train to Trichy, my final destination. I found a Diet Coke as a stall in the station and took it as a sign that taking the two trains was a better idea than the one direct train that arrives at 2:30am.

In Trichy I checked my bag at the station cloak room and hopped around buses all day, seeing another colorfully painted temple, similar to the more famous temple in Madurai. I was beat by 3:30 and caught the next train to Thanjavur, another Tamil Nadu temple town off the main train line. Buses are much more frequent for these kind of trips but because my bag was checked at the train station and the hotels in Thanjavur were next to the train station it made sense to stick to the slow and steady trains.

Thanjavur reminds me a little bit of my favorite town in Myanmar, Monywa. It has a lot of Art Deco-style cement buildings from the 1930’s – 50’s and the Dravidian temple architecture of Tamil Nadu is similar in garishness to the circus-like temple that I loved to much in Monywa. Granted, Thanjavur is a much busier town and smells a lot more of urine, but I’m always a little happy to see similarities in the cultures I visit.

This morning I took the liberty to sleep in and then watch The Lost World: Jurassic Park on cable before heading out into town. Traveling during the night and heading straight out to sight see really wore me down. And I also think that the ashram food messed me up a bit. Since I’ve left I’ve felt hungry but when I eat I’m never satisfied. At the ashram I got to the point where I was never hungry, but the food wasn’t very appealing. Now, everything is extra-spicy because the ashram diet excluded anything with taste, including salt. I barely touched my lunch, much to the dismay of the kind Singaporean woman who sat at my table with her local husband. She exclaimed “but where will you eat now?” as if I was going to go and sit down for a second meal.

Because it was late and temples shut down during the middle of the day I headed straight for the palace, which turned out to be less palatial than I expected. I think the princely towns of Rajasthan really spoiled me in that regard. However, one of the sites had a nice colorfully painted hall with a large mirror-covered area for the king.

Today was overcast and a nice temperature without the sun beating down. Locals are shivering and some are even wearing knitted hats and ski masks. It’s only 75 degrees! With the nice temperature I was able to walk out to Brihadisvara Temple, which is one of the more famous “World Heritage listed” temples in the area. Even so, because the town is off the main rail line I didn’t see too many foreign tourists and had a good time receiving my third elephant blessing since I’ve been in India. Check out the video:

Thanjavur Elephant Blessing from Megan Kearney on Vimeo.

This temple isn’t painted at all, which was a nice break from the typical Tamil Nadu temple scene. After walking through two large gates a platform holding a massive bull statue sits in the middle of the stone and grass enclosure. I followed the locals around it’s perimeter, receiving a blessing of white powder on my forehead from the priest camped out in front of the bull’s head. I had attracted a lot of attention by now and posed for photos with a group of teenage girls and took photos on request from a group of older women.

Two or three school group filled into the are wearing matching uniforms and snapping sneaky photos of my from the side. Their teachers were Roman Catholic nuns who I had a nice talk with. The place was hopping with Indians pushing through the main temple to place candles in front of the Shiva lingam and others relaxing on the grass along the outside wall.

I was in a good mood and answered all the same questions I get asked every day and people seemed to appreciate the chance to talk to a foreigner. Most of the foreigners I saw were in groups, including one Japanese group who looked like it was attacking the place with it’s cameras.

At the end of the day, I still found the temple in Madurai much more fascinating than Thanjavur’s, but this was a relaxed place to visit with nice people and no hassle. I will be moving on tomorrow morning to Pondicherry after a failed attempt to buy a train ticket to Chennai, where I would have connected to Mallapuram to see some rock carvings in the seaside cliffs. This means I will have to bus-it all the way to Bangalore, where I will spend a few days getting my Western tastes satisfied before heading by train to Bombay and my flight to Jordan.