July 07 Onwards

For those of you who didn’t read my last blog entry, I caught a flight from Bangkok to the Indian city of Chennai last Sunday.

Within a few hours of arriving in India’s fourth largest urban settlement though, I must admit that I fell out with the toxicity of it all pretty sharpish, and so within a day or so I sorted myself out a bicycle and I upped and left the place actually.

Ha ha! I ended up heading southwards on the eastern coastal route towards India's Land's End as it goes... oh and despite the fact that it is the middle of the Indian summer here now (and the 41 degrees celcius that comes with this!)... I also managed to visit 3 towns along the way since I last spoke to you as well.

The thing is however, despite me achieving the above, I'm sure you wouldn’t believe me if I told you the number of hissy-fits I've thrown out in the middle of nowhere as a result of the overwhelming power of the heat during this past 5 days!...

"Come on Matt, pull yourself together!" I was shouting at myself after stopping for the 3rd time in 10km the other day in fact!

I'm guessing that it is my legs seizing up or something probably, and that the heat is zapping everything out of me to the extent that the chemical reactions inside of me are going haywire perhaps...

All I’m usually doing is cycling along roads that give me no other option but to breathe in nothing but huge clumps of hot air you see.

Then the water I have on me at the time is well on it's way to the none-too-comforting boiling temperature of course...

Oh, and my poor knowledge of food on offer at the places en-route means that I mostly have to rely on eating the mushy raisins and peanuts I have on me as well!

Ha ha! It's all good fun though... as once I get to where I want to be it does end up to be so, so worth it...

Paddling in the Indian Ocean... eating at a restaurant looking over a beach... speaking to the local women wearing their saris... yes, it's fair to say that the nice parts of India have captured my attention all right!

On top of this, I must say that I am quite impressed on the random side of things here too as it goes... but the thing is I wouldn't know where to even start talking about the weird stuff I'm seeing on this blog of mine however, as it all gets just a bit too natural out here in the countryside at times.

Moving on anyway... and the most important thing I have found since I got to this part of the world is that the locals seem to be a very nice bunch indeed... in fact most of them have been very kind and helpful when I have needed it, if not a little bit too inquisitive perhaps as well...

Ha ha! When it comes to this inquisitive nature of theirs though, it’s not a problem really, as I'm sure the main reason for it is probably down to a lot of them not having seen many Westerners turn up on their doorstep before...

Oh, and besides which, I know I'm not really helping things on the whole "looking strange" front much either... because by me sporting the old multi-layers and head-coverings combo which I have on me (I will do ANYTHING to keep that sun off my skin by the way!)... I must look like a huge pile of washing on wheels in their eyes!

The countryside fellas here are that hardcore you see, that all a lot of them seem to do clothes-wise is wear nothing but a skirt type thing whilst letting the sun bake them dry.

And I would quite literally fry in minutes if I did such a thing, no joke!

Putting the locals aside now however, and I must say that the few tourists left out here in the low season are a bit of a different breed...

Firstly there was the Swiss lady who was telling me all about the time she cried herself to sleep for 9 nights in a row because of the things she was seeing here in the day(!)... and then the rest of them here... well they all seem to be into the whole “peace out man” way of life thing and all that jazz don't they, and I’m not too keen on that...

Mind you, when it comes to this “Traveller’s Panache Syndrome” that most of them seem to be suffering from, I must admit that I myself have been a little bit guilty of it too recently I suppose... as I only went and made the decision to style myself a pretty decent moustache today didn’t I?

The thing is, they really do appear to be the "in" thing on the subcontinent at the moment, as everywhere I look around here everyone has got one... the guy on reception at the hotel... the owner of the restaurant... the taxi driver down the road... so why not eh?!

I'll be the first to say that mine does make me look like a cross between a younger, poorer version of Magnum PI and the Queen lead singer circa 1986 though...

But don't you worry, because with a quick name-change to Matt Merc whenever I introduce myself to somebody new from now on, it should be all cool...

And speaking of which, I had better get back out there and amongst it now... because what with India being India, there are plenty of people to meet out here!

Rock on ;o)