I've stumbled into a little gem, a rare moment of peace, with a nice breeze, the sounds of exotic birds whistling in my ears, and the most valuable commodity, peace and quiet. I'm sitting in the morning sun and a gunmetal bench on the fringes of the Mysore Zoo. I'm licking my festering travel wounds which have been unmercifully lashed upon me in the las few days . Ignorantly thinking that people would not make a large deal of Christmas in a land populated by Hindus and Muslims (about 94%, anyways), I set about my travel plans with the usual gusto, taking off from Goa and Gokarna some days ago, with dreams of the south in my mind. Only to realize that at least 1.1 of the 1.2 billion people of this country are now on Christmas vacation, and are traveling, and are traveling where I have been intending to travel, swarming through, booking overy room of every guesthouse and hotel, and every seat of every bus and train, leaving me with a dumbfounded glaze over my eyes. Arriving in the hill station of Madierki yesterday after a 5 hour (hard dusty bumpy) busride, I realized there was simply no rooms to be had in the entire town. After a quick bit of lunch and many phone calls, I was forced to get back on the bus for another 5 hour hard, dusty busride to Mysore. Me and the unlucky rickshaw driver who happened upon me at the bus stand visited 15 hotels, all completely booked, finally stumbling upon one place willing to rent a filthy, decrepit room with cold water coming out of a hole in the wall for the price of $15 (which is a LOT in India, let it be said). I was ready to get down and kiss the floor of this hovel, except my typhoid booster is a bit out of date.
But alas, I have managed to find a ticket on a night bus up north, in the hopes of some tranquility amongst the ruins of the ancient city of Hampi, to bide a bit of time and allow all those others who are gainfully employed to return to work and allow the rest of us to continue on in our work...
I continue, with the full realization that traveling is not vacation, there are good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks. Having the time and the flexibility to adapt to whatever the road throws at you is essential, and it makes me smile, sitting here on this bench, with the warm sun on my face, my moment of tranquility coming to an end with huge packs of young men in tight jeans approaching, wanting to know my name, where I'm from, and what I do (ha!).
This is India.
Some pics have been posted on picassa.....
Happy Holidays and Namaste from India.
