Gustible - under the rubric of [$_SELF]

I did hear Jingle Bells, twice, during our four week long holiday. But the enduring colour, cacophony, spirituality, movement and stillness to be found in India mitigated this.  Here is the first installment describing our trip to South India – I will write this as a travelogue, reference, rant and memoir – with plenty of pictures!

We were traveling for four weeks – this is both a bit too long, yet far too short a time for the trip we did – one finds oneself at the edge of slipping into the spirit of the country, just as one has to leave. This happens at virtually the same moment one starts getting homesick. India tends to creep up on a person – you think you see and hear it all in the abundance of sounds and colours, but the real spirit of the continent is far more subtle than this. I will try and convey our experience in posts over the following few weeks.

In summary – we arrived in Mumbai on 14 December 2008, and returned to Cape Town on the 11th of January 2009. In between those dates we traced an erratic path through the southern part of India – Mumbai to Panaji to Kochin to Allepey to Munnar to Mysore to Madurai to Trichi to Pondicherry to Mamalapuram to Mumbai, with various digressions in between. Do trace the route on a map – clearly we should have planned better – but sometimes the “have credit card, can travel” approach produces the most enriching experiences. (That said – right now my credit card is a worthless piece of plastic…)

During our travels we relied mainly on The Book – the Lonely Planet edition for South India, that is. It is possible to endlessly debate the merits and the drawbacks of travelling with a guidebook such as the Lonely Planet. And I will certainly provide some criticism in future posts – BUT if one has limited time, or one is exploring a new country for the first time, The Book is very useful.

So – the Jingle free holiday. The south of India has much larger Christian communities than the north, mainly due to more extensive colonisation by European countries other than Britain – specifically Portugal in the Goa area on the west coast, and France in the Pondicherry area on the east coast. The proselytizing nature of the catholic faith practiced in these countries guaranteed the enforced establishment of Christian enclaves in these areas. Despite this – we were never assaulted by the unmelodious jangle of Jingle Bells, except in one Portuguese restaurant in Panaji, and in a lodge in Munnar on Christmas Eve. I can forgive India this small misstep, and I consider the mission accomplished – we managed to avoid the tawdry semi-religious commercialism of Christmas that pervades the West during this season.

The next few posts will cover our journey through various states – experiences in Mumbai, and what the city felt like after the mass murders. Goa and its beaches.

The temples of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Houseboats in Kerala. Croissants in Pondicherry. The good and the bad hotels. Thalis, vindaloo and Kingfisher beer. Flowers, blessings, gods, shrines and incense.

Thank you India, for your hospitality and generosity.