Arabian Nights

Parts 1 to 3

Ground Down

So I’ve bitten the bullet, and I’ve bought myself a domestic flight ticket.

I didn’t want to, but it was the only way to meet my friends down south in time. I can't get a train seat. Everything's booked out, in all classes. And I no longer have enough time to take the whole pile of buses needed to get to Trivandrum in time.

But actually, despite my eco-guilt, it's just as well, because I’ve been as sick as a dog, and a few more days of overland travel would’ve probably knocked me over the edge.

My belly’s been a little dodgy off and on since I got back to India a couple of weeks ago, and in Puri it got worse, I started to feel really crap, and started having sweaty feverish nights, for all the wrong reasons.

Since I’ve been here in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state of Odisha, it’s been the same, and, besides my first day here, I’ve pretty much had to stay holed up in my room, horizontal, only going out for food, if I felt I could stomach it.

India can be taxing on the body, physically. One big issue is the poor air and water quality, which, over months and months, can really wear you down, especially if you’re on the move. Overland travel here is often slow and pretty rough, and is itself pretty physically taxing.

Hygiene can be dodgy in places, and even though my immune system’s definitely had a lot of practice with new bugs, they sometimes get the better of me.

Living in crap air for long periods can’t be great, I’m sure that it's taken its toll on me. I’ve basically had a cough, and often a runny nose, ever since I left Southeast Asia nearly 3 months ago, which has rarely let up. Every day I cough up the crap that I breathed in the day before.

Bhubaneswar

As soon as I arrived in the Odishan capital, I could see that the state government's on the ball. The place is relatively clean. There’s electric buses and rickshaws plying the streets. There’s vehicle air pollution testing stations around, something I’ve never seen in India. And there’s electric billboards displaying current air pollution levels in different parts of the city.

It seems to have made a difference here. The air quality is better than in many urban places in India. It’s noticeable.

Yeah the traffic’s still bad in places, but not too bad. There’s traffic cops stationed at every major intersection, directing people along. There’s traffic lights that people obey. Sure, the population of the city is only 1.2m, so I guess it’s unfair to compare traffic management here with Delhi or Mumbai, but it’s still relatively impressive for an Indian city.

On the clunker from Puri

Rickying to a hotel

My hotel was in a quiet suburb a few clicks from the city centre, in this street.

Selfies are still happening everywhere. Every now and then I get them to take one on my phone too, to add to the countless pics they take on their own phones, and then post on social media. Go figure.

Don’t ask about the helmeted receptionist.

Then I went wandering.

There’s even cycle lanes in this city. No matter that motorcyclists use them too.

Mobile vehicle emissions testing centre.

Air pollution indicators

Brand new electric bus

I headed towards the main attraction of this city - the collection of incredible ancient temples right in the city centre.

The centrepiece, and the biggest temple in Odisha, is called the Lingaraj Temple, and is yet another incredible marvel of the ancient world.

The temple from behind the outer wall.

Note the ancient shrine right in the middle of the road. I love that.

The temple was founded in the mid-600s, but the really speccy parts were built in the second half of the 11th Century, in what is known as the Kalinga architectural style. Kalinga is an ancient region encompassing current-day Odisha, as well as northern Andra Pradesh, Odisha’s southern neighbour state.

The temple has been built with a succession of tall stupas and shrines, culminating in the temple centrepiece, a 55m tall stupa, which contains a rock linga.

Unfortunately the temple is also closed to non-Hindus, so I couldn’t go inside the temple walls, but I could see part of it from various high points on the outside.

Looking in on the Lingaraj action

Main temple entrance

Very human-esque lion guardian. Love the mo.

I met Larry, from Chicago. He's an interesting guy, and has been hanging out in Bhubaneswar for awhile now. He comes to India regularly, and is a sprightly 80 years old, and damn proud of it. I don't blame him. We hung out and chatted about lots of things, he's writing a book on Indian spirituality, and his brain is full of interesting ideas about how the world operates.

The Lingaraj temple is just one of many incredible temples in the old city. They’re everywhere, you just need to wander around.

And wander I did.

A baba in his temple home.

Afternoon snacks. Really delicious, especially the eggplant pakhora.

Carved stone crockery

Yeah, what to say

Bindu Sagar, a sacred lake close to Lingaraj.

Ananta Basudev Temple

Papanasini pond

I tell you, there's just so many historic temples, all over the place. The whole area is littered with incredible history, it's so amazing walking around and discovering things everywhere, unmarked, unsignposted, but ancient and significant nonetheless.

Part of the stunning Mukteswara Temple

Bhubaneswar also has ritz. As the state capital, the city is an important administrative centre for the 48m people who live in Odisha. Yeah, 48m people in one state.

Concert hall

I found a great place to eat just around the corner, Hotel Venus. This is sambar wada. Wada are basically little savoury donuts made of legume flour, and spiced. They're really delicious, and in central and south India, are served with a curry sambar, a savoury coconut sauce, and something chillified.

Another lassi variation, even though I ordered just a plain lassi

Bikki snacks, and my dirty shoes

Florist. These were all real, believe it or not. The smell was divine.

So, after more time of not being well, and resting, I finally made it to the snazzy Bhubaneswar Airport, where President Modi was looking all smooth and loving.

I had a stopover at Bengaluru, the new twin-terminalled airport there is just over the top. Super ritzy brand new modern state-of-the-art. Plus there was another Christmas tree.

The Long Road To The Deep South

So, finally, I was in Kerala, and I'd made it with a couple of days to spare.

It was raining! Yay! I haven't felt rain forever, haven't breathed in that rain-cleansed air, haven't smelt or felt the coolness, for as long as I can remember.

A fine spray

I rickyed it to the central bus station, and then bussed towards Varkala, in a sort of convoluted way, via the town of Kallambalam.

Beautiful mosque en route

I met Anand on the bus, an IT guy from Hyderabad, who feels pretty stuck in his life. He wants to travel around the world, experience life on the road, and immerse himself in different cultures. I know the feeling.

But the pressure of family bears down hard on him. Even though he's clearly expressed to his parents his desire to travel, they think it's irresponsible, and, given how things are in India, have arranged for him to marry a woman of their own choice. In a few weeks, no less. He doesn't want to, but feels he has no choice.

Living in conservative India is really difficult at times, he said. But while he may not have a choice about marriage, maybe he could travel with his wife for awhile, before they have kids? That was my suggestion to him. He said his wife's 30, almost considered over-the-hill for child bearing in India.

Bah humbug! I cried, women have their first kids way later in the West.

He told me he was so glad to talk with me, he feels like maybe he has another option, at least for awhile.

Anand was heading to Varkala too, we strolled along the beach together, and climbed the cliffs.

The beach! The Arabian Sea!

It's so amazing to be back on this coast.

Like many places I've re-visited in India, Varkala is completely unrecognisable. When I was first here it was just a sleepy little temple village, with a few small homestays dotted around the clifftop, in amongst the coconut trees.

But these days it's complete tourist central up on the clifftop, the whole area is plastered with restaurants, resorts, cafes, bars and guesthouses, all of varying standards and price levels.

But there ain't nothin' cheap cheap though. Not really. The cheapest room I could get for a couple of nights was 1000 rupes.

So my next mission was to find a place for my friends and I to stay for a few nights, so we could all be together, and so they could really rest up after some long haul flights.

It wasn't that easy, especially being sick'n'all, but eventually I found a spot.

Unfortunately, my illness has been a little more intense lately, with more intermittent fevers, sweat-filled sleepless nights, a complete lack of energy, and a persistent runny nose and cough.

Time to see an Ayurvedic doctor.

When I get back to town.

So I pretty much rested a fair bit of the time in Varkala, and took it as easy as I could.

Cafe hangout spot

Psychedelia

A floating pier

India's national bird

A local temple at Aaliyirakkam Beach, just to the south of Varkala

It was beautiful and quiet down there

The kund by the Ganesha temple in Varkala

Sunset with weekend tourist crowds

A marlin wishing he was a Merlin

Clifftop resort. Sad but true.

I could get me a yummy lemon mint juice though. Upmarket tourism has its benefits.

I strolled into the main town of Varkala one day to get cash. It's busy and interesting. This is the main roundabout

Bin laden

Check out the prices. Less than a shekel for a dosa. I'm glad Without Tea and Without Coffee were free.

Horlicks malt drink. Haven't had one since Malaysia, nearly a year ago. It's delicious.

Local shop, with jute rope

Great old diner

Temple lamps

Rendezvousing

At last!

The time had finally come for me to head back to the capital of Kerala, Trivandrum, to meet my friends.

Random scenes from the bus window.

Kerala is one of the most progressive states in India, as a whole. Literacy rates are the highest in the country, at 94% (compared to only 61% in Bihar state, the least literate state).

Since Indian independence, Keralan state politics has been dominated by the Left Democratic Front, a communist-led alliance, who have governed the state on and off since that time, occasionally conceding power to the Indian Congress Party. The current ruling party of India, the BJP, a strongly pro-Hindu nationalist party, doesn't get many votes down this way.

So the Keralan state government funds a widespread welfare, transport and education system, and you notice it. There's very few beggars. Everyone seems to live in ok homes. The place is (relatively) clean and organised.

As a Westerner here, people don't look at you as if you're a rich alien from some weird other world. They don't feel the need to watch your every move. They pretty much ignore you - although they're super friendly of course, if you wanna engage.

There's a comfortable plurality of religious worship down here, with Christian churches, mosques and Hindu mandirs dotted all over the place.

Christian temples

Old Trivandrum

The cooling rain!

Uttapam (like a fermented rice flour savoury pancake), and fried noodles. The uttapam was amazing, the noodles not.

A Hindustan Ambassador, a local car manufactured in India till 2014. They used to be everywhere, albeit only owned by the very rich. Actually, they're gonna launch a new electric Ambassador this year. I'm shocked.

Idli brekky. Idli are little soft steamed discs made from fermented rice and lentil flour. Super delicious, with chutneys of course. The little donut thingy is a wada, or vadai, also made from the same flour and deep fried. They're the absolute bomb.

I walked to the airport to collect Ajuna, Frankie's daughter.

Beautiful temple

Bust of Indira Gandhi, India's first (and only) female Prime Minister, who ruled twice, and was assassinated in 1984 whilst still in office.

Local youth organisation flag.

What can you see?

It's a beautiful kingfisher

Keralan (speccy) martial art, kalaripayattu.

Modern greenery

Many young Keralans leave their homes to either study or work overseas. The most popular work destinations are the Gulf states - Qatar, UAE, Oman, etc. They can earn so much more in those countries than they can at home.

Trivandrum's new name is Thiruvananthapuram. It's no surprise that the old name is still widely used.

Friends Again

So Ajuna was the first of my friends to arrive. It was great to see her, and, like most of my friends from Oz, I haven't seen her for over a year.

We took a ricky to our hotel, and then went off exploring.

Ajuna, happy to drink coffee at the Indian Coffee House, an amazing art deco building, which has no stairs, just a long circular ramp that winds its way up, right to the top of the building, with dining tables all the way up.

The waiters wear the best gear, and actually the whole business is a co-op, owned by the staff.

Downtown Trivandrum

Big Ganesha temple

Sri Padmanabhaswamy

Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, a very sacred temple in Kerala, is, despite its humble-ish exterior, widely regarded as the wealthiest place of worship in the world.

It's true.

There's at least eight vaults under the temple, stashed with gold and precious stones. They've opened five of them, and the three larger ones remain closed. But just these five smaller vaults already hold what is considered to be by far the largest collection of items of gold and fully precious stones in the recorded history of the world.

The treasure was accumulated over thousands of years, donated to the temple deities by a whole succession of royal dynasties.

They include a 1.1 metres (3.5 ft) tall solid pure golden idol of Mahavishnu, studded with hundreds of diamonds and rubies and other precious stones. There's a 5.5-m long pure gold chain, a gold sheath weighing 500 kg, a 36 kg  golden veil, 1200 'Sarappalli' gold coin-chains that are encrusted with precious stones, and several sacks filled with golden artefacts, necklaces, diadems, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, gemstones, and objects made of other precious metals.

There's ceremonial attire for adorning the deity, in the form of 16-part gold anki weighing almost 30 kilograms (66 lb), gold "coconut shells" studded with rubies and emeralds, and several 18th century Napoleonic era coins.

There's an 800 kg hoard of gold coins in there, dating to around 200 BCE, each coin priced at over US$340,000. There's a pure golden throne, studded with hundreds of diamonds and other precious stones, meant for the 5.5-m long deity. Several of the largest diamonds there are as large as a full-grown man's thumb. At least three, if not more, solid gold crowns have been found, studded with diamonds and other precious stones.

Even without the larger chambers, the treasure inside the temple is estimated at around $22bn Oz.

Imagine how that could be used to alleviate poverty around India.

More local residents

Colonial era archway

Sidewalk puzzle. Why the condom? So random.

The old and the new. Families spend a fortune on sarees and jewellery for weddings.

Hand made birds nests for people's gardens

The latest Bollywood hit

Kovalum

Ajuna and I decided to hit the beach. We had to wait ages for the local bus, for some reason. And then when it finally arrived it was a shitshow to get on there, arms and pointy elbows jostling all over the place.

Kovalum is not as developed as I expected, considering how close it is to the large city of Trivandrum. There's a relatively small stretch of sand that was pretty chilled, we just sat around and watched the world go by, tried panni puri, little balls filled with a spicy savoury liquid. Ajuna loved them.

We hung out for the sunset, and then made our way back to town, and to the airport, to pick up Frankie. Exciting!

Decorated department store

Well I'm not going there then

Husband and husband, happy to finally be together again.

Father and daughter in the same state.

We dropped off our bags, Ajuna crashed, and Frankie and I headed off for chai, despite the lateness of the hour.

Of course we did.

Eyeing off

Phil arrives tomorrow, and we're all embarking on a new amazing adventure, a few weeks together, exploring some new and incredible parts of India.

How lucky are we? How lucky am I?❤️

Oh and yeah, thank you thank you thank you.

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