India
Kodaikānāl

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    • Day 6

      Route de Pondichery a Thanjavur - Jour 4

      November 20, 2022 in India ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      Nous avons pris les services d’un taxi pour faire la route entre Pondichéry et Thanjavur afin de faire des stops dans les différents temples.
      Notre guide est sympathique, il nous accompagne dans le premier temple a Chidambaram : un magnifique temple coloré, remplis de fidèles, nous assistons à une cérémonie où les brahmanes jouent des instruments, font brûler de l’encens autour de leurs divinités. C’est poignant.
      Puis direction un deuxième temple, classé au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO, celui de Gangaikonda Cholapuram, une grande colonne d’or marque l’entrée, ce temple n’est plus polychromé, la pierre est redevenu naturel et il s’en dégage un vrai mysticisme. On est de vrais stars ici : tous les indiens veulent une photo avec nous.
      Enfin, dernier temple sur la route, celui de Dharasuram, beaucoup plus petit que les autres mais tout aussi beau, un brahmane nous marque le frond d’un point rouge. On visite ensuite les ateliers de tissage de saris avant de prendre la route pour Thanjavur.
      Thanjavur est une petite ville mais ça grouille, poussière, tuk tuks et scooters sont au rendez-vous.
      On se dirige vers le temple, encore un édifice impressionnant par sa taille et les belles couleurs que lui donne le crépuscule. On fait la queue 1h pour rentrer dans le centre du temple tellement il y a de fidèles. Encore quelques photos avec tout les indiens présents et on peut enfin aller se reposer à l’hôtel.
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    • Day 54

      Ahh Crap...

      January 11, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      By wearing all our clothes and not moving I was actually able to stay warm last night but wowzer was it cold in the morning in the room. Inside our room we wore all our layers, but as soon as we got outside we had to take it all off as it was actually warm outside. We went for breakfast at the same restaurant and just as we ordered my stomach went crazy. I had to run back to the hotel and it was not a good sight. Let's just say I had to also use a bucket when on the loo. If the room wasn't so cold I would have just got in bed and never got out. I was feeling so sorry for myself. I felt unbelievably drained, homesick and so sick of feeling ill. As I'd left Will at the restaurant and didn't have data I plucked up the courage to go back and I got so upset. Then when I asked for the bill the guy had put a few things that we didn't ask for on it. This can be quite common and they think that tourists will just pay. It was so stupid because we liked the food and would have been willing to come back everyday for breakfast but now he'd lost our trust. So I paid for what we actually had and walked out.

      I wasn't having a good day at all and I honestly just wished I was home. To top it off I was feeling so guilty because I was now ruining Will's day because I was so ill. He was amazing though and we just went back to the local bakery and he sat me there for a while. As I hadn't eaten he bought me some cookies water and some coca cola for my stomach. We sat for a while chatting and I slowly ate the food and got rehydrated again. At about 11am I was feeling a bit better so we decided to go on a little gander. We saw a church, a waterfall and then headed towards Mountain View. We stopped for lunch just before the hike down the valley and I had Smileys. Haha by this point the clouds in the valley had crept in and the view was absolutely covered in fog. We descended to the first view point and couldn't see a thing so sat for a while before deciding to abandon ship. We walked an alternative way back taking in a few more sights along the way and taking a lot of rests. After a while I started getting tired so we decided to try and hitchhike back. Hitch hiking seems to be pretty easy! I wish we'd done more of it. We soon got picked up by 3 teachers who brought us all the way back to town.

      For dinner Will had found a restaurant that had a fire so took me there for a mini and well needed date. I decided I was off Indian food for a couple of days and so I had a veggie burger with a runny egg and chips. I was in absolute heaven. A fire, a burger and my boy. What more could I have asked for. In the cafe they had a few books and I'd heard really good things about Who Moved My Cheese. As it was a short read we read it and as I'm attempting to get prepped for the real world again it was a fun insight back into the working world. I'd definitely recommend it. So even though the morning started off quite rough I'm glad I persevered and ended up having a really lovely day.
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    • Day 53

      Kodaikanal - The "Lake"

      January 10, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      We arrived at Kodaikanal at 7am and as I was woken to a guy yelling last stop I was very discombobulated when I got off. He kept hassling us for our hotel to which we didn't have one and then he kept saying oh I'll take you to one etc. I snapped... And said "I've literally just woken up, I don't even know where the hell we are and we need a couple of minutes to pack and get off the bus. Indians do not know how to leave you alone when they can see dollar signs in their eyes!! After a couple of minutes we were able to orientate ourselves and feel a bit more normal. We let the guy show us a hotel but we had to wait for a while to see the room. Huge crowds started pouring in and he said we should see a few other hotels, come back and then choose. So we did. We saw a few places but they were all pretty crap for the same price so we told the guy we would just go with the first one as it looked like a proper hotel. We filled in the guest form and when I said the agreed price was Rs 700 the owner said a flat no. He realised he could get a lot more customers for more expensive so he wasn't willing to bargain. Bear in mind we had been wandering round with our backpacks for about an hour now so I was not at all pleased. I found the guy who had supposedly negotiated this price and gave him a piece of my mind. It was an absolute waste of time so we walked off in search for ourselves. The guy kept following us and I as calmly and politely as I could told him to get lost haha He just wanted to gain commission and wasn't even showing us places within our given budget.

      We then sat on a step looked on line for a couple of options and decided to just go in and see if we could bargain. We went to a hotel called Jayaraj, we got the price down to 500 and then went to check out the room. It was freezing and very run down but meh. Just as I was about to say OK Will spotted mice droppings on the bed! So we quickly declined. He then showed us another room which was in a separate building. I must admit the room was knackered looking, but it didn't smell like damp like most of them, it wasn't really clean and it was even more of an icebox than the last, but it did have a hot water tank. We ummed and ahhed for ages and eventually just agreed as we were tired and in need of a shower.

      After a good freshen up and a few internal screams due to feeling so cold in the ice room we got out in search for breakfast. We had Pooris and lots of cải tổ warm us up while planning the day. The plan for the day is to attempt to find scooter hire for the next 2 days and just get our bearings around the lake.

      We went down to the lake and wow what a mess. Now to be fair Kodaikanal had been hit by a cyclone in November so it was very clear that they were still doing a lot of work to clear up the destruction, but our expectations of the "Lake" soon decreased. Sure it was a lake but it had tatty stalls all the way round, you couldn't actually sit down and enjoy the scenery because there was a huge fence around the lake. To be honest it was an absolute let down. We started walking around laughing at the situation when Will decided to turn it into even more of a comedy, by hiring a tandom bike. The tandom was definitely for kids and was hilarious. First Will was on the front and it went quite well. Then half way round we switched and I just couldn't steer properly. Will was so heavy on the bike and everytime he cycled he would bump his knee into my bum as he was too tall. I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. All the locals were laughing at us along the way. It was great half an hour of fun.

      In the afternoon we went exploring up towards upper lake view and we sat drinking tea. We were having no luck with regards to getting a scooter and found out that the taxi union opposed scooter rental so once again the taxi mafia were able to do and charge what they like to tourists. We had quite a long walk back and decided to try hitch hiking. It worked! Some uni students in a jeep picked us up and brought us all the way back to town.

      We walked past the local bakery and it seemed super busy so we went in to see what was happening. Outside everyone was eating ice cream so obviously we had to try it too. The owners were soo sweet. They gave us overly generous tries of all the flavours, I must have had 2 scoops worth of tries, before I settled with a really yummy Pear ice cream. When paying they gave us a veg pastry on the house too. I'm obviously coming back tomorrow 😋

      We then went for dinner at a small cafe and had veggie burgers with nachos. To be honest it wasn't great but worth a try!
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    • Day 55

      Let's see where we can get to!

      January 12, 2019 in India ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Umm maybe we should have found somewhere new to stay... Last night I swear I slept in a freezer. No matter how many layers I wore or how little I moved I could not get warm. But... at least we have a warm shower! So no we didn't move...

      Today we decided to go to the bakery in the morning as I was still not risking Indian food. So I had a very healthy breakfast of a pizza slice, chutney sandwich and muffin 😊 We met some travellers outside and soon got nattering and lost track of time. When realising the time we got up and decided to see how far we could get today as I was feeling much better. We walked for a while and then was able to hitch hike to the next town along. We then walked to all the various view points along the way. Wow it was busy!!! When we arrived at Green Valley it was hilariously foggy again. You couldn't see past the metal fence! Two minutes back onto the road and it's glorious sunshine but in the valley it was freezing and foggy. It was quite the sight. As we had no particular aim in mind we carried on walking past Pillar Rock, Gunan Cave and finally to Pine Forest where we sat and chilled for a while munching on snacks.

      In the evening we had planned to meet a couch surfing host for a drink so just before 3pm we decided to begin the journey back in case we couldn't hitch a lift. If we had to walk back it would have taken about 2 hours, so we were quite keen to hitch a lift if possible. We got onto the road and within 1 minute we were picked up by a family from Chennai who were so sweet and took us the whole way back to Kodaikanal. We were back by 3:15pm! We had a few hours to kill so we went to the cafe with a fire, had a hot chocolate and some chips and sat chatting to some guys from Watford who had just started their travels. They were definitely lads lads haha it was good fun.

      At 5pm we went to meet Rudy at his house. When we got there we were greeted by his wife as Rudy was still out on a run. He actually didn't get back till very very late, he ended up running nearly 100km! Instead Sonny and his wife kept us company and we had a good old chat about our travels, their travels and how they ended up in Kodaikanal. People are so fascinating! Rudy and his wife were both travelling separately and met in India. Since then they have never returned to Switzerland and have a beautiful semi detached cottage with Sonny as their neighbours. I'm so overwhelmed by everyone's openness and hospitality to strangers.
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    • Day 56

      Cafe Day

      January 13, 2019 in India ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      Today we had grand plans to go on an adventurous hitch hike and hike that Sonny told us about last night. But for once it was me that didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Hats off to Will though, he got up and out for Sunrise! I'm a bit gutted I didn't now as for the days we have been here we've not had a very good view of the valley but he did this morning.

      As soon as he left I did get up and got ready thinking he would come back soon but he wanted to give me a lie in so stayed out. I wish we had 2 sims! I was inside our icebox waiting for hours. Ah well he had a nice morning hehe

      The rest of the day was spent eating and chilling in a cafe. The last picture is of a kid that got a mega paper dosa, zoom in, its huge!!

      We are both utterly exhausted now and the thought of coming home is now very high on our agenda. We can't wait to have a real bed, not feel constantly exhausted, not have a dicky tummy or the constant feeling of a cold. We probably sound like such ungrateful gits but let's just say travelling is not easy!

      At 6pm we picked up our bags and after 45 mins of not having a clue where the bus picks us up we eventually jumped on the bus and straight into our beds. Again we splashed out on the slightly more upmarket ones so we could get a good night sleep. Each bed had a TV and speakers and this time someone was actually using them to watch a crazy action packed bollywood film in the birth behind so that wasn't ideal for sleeping... It's now 3am and we all got woken up and kicked off onto a seated bus! 😭 Can someone let me sleep please...

      Tomorrow is going to be difficult.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Kodaikānāl, Kodaikanal, Кодайканал

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