July 07 Onwards

As a quick update for those of you who didn’t read my last blog entry, I am in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu at the moment, and I am currently in the middle of trying to cycle from the east coast industrial city of Chennai down to the Land’s End of the subcontinent...

In fact, on the subject of which actually, here is a brief statistics analysis of this new adventure of mine on the old Merc-o-meter for you to read if you like:

Number of towns I have visited since leaving Chennai so far: 6
Number of kilometres I have cycled so far: 470ish
Heat Rating: Very (up to and over 41 Celcius apparently).
Number of times I have had to get off the road pronto because of double/triple overtaking manoeuvres: More than 5, less than 10.

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So anyway... half-past four am is the time my alarm goes off on the days that I am moving from town to town at the moment would you believe (like I said late last week, I will do anything to escape that heat!)... and when I look at it actually, I must admit that it’s quite funny waking myself up at this unearthly hour I suppose, as in a strange kind of way it reminds me of the time when the Old Lady had me getting up at a similar hour in order to shadow the dealers up there for a short while...

Because the thing is you see, the excitement of it all doesn't hit me until I’ve strapped the few clothes I have with me and my guitar onto the back of my bike just before I set off really... this being pretty much as good a comparison as any to the feeling I got when I first flicked the rates screens on at 7am back then for the pin-stripe boys up there in the Square Mile I guess...

In fact if I’m honest about it on the excitement front, it’s fair to say that as soon as I get out of this zombie-like state of mine and I set off first thing in the mornings here at the moment, it usually turns out that I am on such a buzz it's untrue... as all I seem to be doing is sharing the road with the dogs, snakes and cows that are dotted about the place... and to have this kind of peacefulness in India is quite a blessing to say the least!...

Then on top of this tranquility, and once the sun pushes the night-time out of the sky of course, I am able to see the rural communities starting to spring into life too, which is pretty interesting... the fellas at the roadside who are cleaning their teeth with sticks... the women in their saris who are splashing water outside their front doorsteps... the small families who are having communal washes together at the local village pumps... it's all pretty surreal stuff for me to witness as you could probably well imagine!

Ha ha!...

This is even more the case when I compare it to the madness of 8am onwards actually, as this is when the busy roads and the hot weather combo usually have the effect of sending me into a semi-trance-like state I guess, and so from this point onwards India to me becomes a different experience altogether!

I must say that all this mayhem on the roads does provide me with a good opportunity to get into the whole “India Zone” thing so that I am ready for the next town I am visiting however...

And as a quick explanation on this in fact... have you got a box room full of, well, practically everything in your house?

Most of it being normal stuff strewn all around the place I mean, but in-amongst it all, the odd one or two things of special importance being hidden somewhere in there too?

Well that to me is the average town I have been visiting during my travels here really.

Beautiful temples and forts hidden in absolute chaos! (And I thought China was mad on the busy front!)

Anyway... onto the comedy side of things at these places, and to be honest it's all about these budget range hotels I've been staying at...

Hotel Ganash... Hotel Sea Horse...

My god... these establishments should be on movie sets or something, they really should!

In fact, if it wasn't for the mildew on the walls or the insects running around on the floor, I’m kind of thinking to myself that, what with the high, imposing ceilings and the posh dark-wood furniture inside of them, they could quite easily be referred to as being opulent you know!

I mean, at one of them even, they had this big posh balcony attached to the front of my room right, which they only ended up having me going to use the toilet on of all things didn't they?!

And on the subject of which, I don't know what was worse actually... the fact that the "blood and sputum collection clinic" across the road could see what I was doing on the loo front, or the fact that I could see the "blood and sputum collection clinic" across the road whilst I was doing whatever it was that needed to be done!

But despite the above making me laugh though, by far the best bit of my week so far, and yes, this is still hotel related I guess, relates back to the time when I met one of the room boys who worked at Hotel Sea Horse a few days ago...

In fact if I was to introduce you to him quickly, he was a short, thin, scruffy-looking, wonky-smiling fella who was in his 40’s, oh and he looked as though he was the type who didn’t have two pennies to rub together as well...

Well anyway, as the story goes, I turned up at this Hotel Sea Horse dive of a place at around 12 noon, and as soon as I did so, he noticed that I had a flat back tyre didn’t he?

But the thing is ok, it actually turned out that because he spotted it, he then had to fix it of course (no two ways about it), so I gave him the equivalent of one pound twenty pence as payment, and I left him and his funny choice of tools to it...

A quick check by myself later on during the day however, and I soon had the pleasant surprise of finding that it was all fixed ok and that my hot rod was good to go again, so I gave him a quick thumbs-up when I saw him a short while afterwards to say thank you, and I left it at that.

Then 9pm came, I was sat on my bed at the time whilst trying to work out the guitar homework good old Champ the Thai had set me or something, and my bedroom doorbell started to buzz didn’t it?

So I answered the door, and there this guy was (my new friend with the wonky smile I mean), and he was beaming at me whilst wearing none other than a pretty dapper button-up shirt of all things as well!...

Now I don’t speak a word of Tamil and this guy didn’t speak a word of English, so I must admit that (other than thinking that he wanted to go for a night out on the town with me) I was a little bit stuck on ideas as to why he had come to call for me to say the least...

Oh and on top of this, the whole body language thing wasn’t working either really, because a "yes" nod and a "no" shake of the head seem to mean nothing in this part of the world, as most of the locals just wobble their head during conversations instead...

So anyway, as a result of these two aliens colliding, both of us were stuck there in our states of confusion for a while weren’t we... me busy wracking my brain whilst trying to think of what he wanted to do for the night dressed up in his lucky shirt like that... him just stood there grinning at me whilst pointing to my bicycle pump or something... oh and then hang on a minute... the lightbulb suddenly switched on inside of my head and it all became clear...

Silly me!

He wasn’t wanting to go out for a beer with me at all was he bless him?!

He was just wanting to come up to my room to show me the new shirt he had bought with the one pound twenty pence worth of local money I’d given him earlier on in the day of course!

Ha ha!

And when I worked this out?...

Well, yes, as I write this now, I will be the first to admit that it was a case of the old "you need to be there at the time" scenario, no doubt about it at all... but even so... I must tell you that I was pretty choked up if the truth be known!...

Because when I sat down afterwards and thought about it for a while you see, it certainly seemed to me to be the most "live for the moment" thing I could remember seeing during these strange travels of mine, that’s for sure!

Rock on in a weird kind of way, eh?!

Speak soon anyway ;o)