On a more personal note...

I’ve recently been reading one of Terry’s books about a guy who cycled across the world, and reading some of his stuff made me aware of how narrow / work focused my previous blogs and e-mails have been. So today I shall tell you all about other things from my almost 3 month stay in India.

I have to admit that the vast majority of my time is taken up with work, and since working with working on Project SEED I have had only one day totally off the project. I have had days where I’ve perhaps only done an hour of work, but daily we discuss what’s happening, and plan.

So a couple of weeks ago I had nothing to add to the project at that time, and took the opportunity to see somewhere new and get away from all things and people regular to me here. I decided to go to Yercaud, near Salem. I decided to go there as it’s a hill station at an elevation of 1600m, the opportunity of cooling down would be perfect. Yercaud’s the highest place within reach for a night trip, or so I thought. The bus ride to Salem turned out to be 6 hours, this was longer than expected as Salem is 120 miles away. However, I was on a government bus, which stops pretty frequently, and Indian roads don’t really allow for fast travel. It only cost 70p though, so I can hardly complain! Most of my time in Tamilnadu has been in coastal places, obviously, but Salem from Chidambaram is due west, so I got to see more of the interior of TN. It’s pretty, not as pretty as the coastal areas though, and has a lot less people and pass through towns. In Salem I only saw the bus station before getting a bite to eat and changing bus to get to Yercaud. On the map it looked pretty close, but I had no idea how long it would take.

The second bus that I got on decided to decant us all after about 10 minutes, leaving us on the side of the road, watching as the bus rode away empty. We stood around for about 20 minutes before another bus turned up and we continued on our journey. I of course had no clue what was going on, but I have enough trust in the Indian bus system to know we wouldn’t have been left stranded. Oh, by the time the third bus came, it was already dark. It took about an hour and a half to go the 30km or so to Yercaud as the road it a steep mountain road, twisting and turning all the way up. The bus was a short one, but still had problems making the turns and getting up hill.

When I arrived in Yercaud, I checked it out on foot, looking for an appropriate sleeping place and seeing the new town I’d arrived to. I was hoping to be able to sleep outside on the highest possible point and wake up to a beautiful morning sunrise, I’d packed appropriately and was thinking on how much small trips usually end up costing me, and so this time I was trying to do it the cheapest way possible. It’s a tiny town. I was asked if I was in need of help by quite a few people, a single female traveller always sticks out, especially in a place where there aren’t any other foreign tourists. I told my friendly helpers that I was trying to find how to get to the highest place to rest my head, their advise to me was that I check into a hotel. Not satisfied with their answer I set off with flash light in hand to se what I could find for myself, thinking that Indians don’t have much of a sense of adventure and worry about safety way too much, when it really isn’t so necessary. I found the perfect place to sleep. I wanted to sleep on the roof of a house I found, only the owner found me first. He was pleasant enough and told me the house I’d found at the east of town was not a house, but a male hostel. Apparently full of “drunken bachelors”, it was forbidden that I stay there as they feared for my safety, and again the advise was to get a room, also the advise was to next time not travel alone and to always have a male with me! I’d considered sleeping in a shop doorway, as many Indians do, but then I wouldn’t be able to see the sun rise from my make-shift bed, so that defeated the object. So I found the cheapest place I could to stay in. The price was Rs. 150, that’s almost ₤2. It was pretty expensive for what it was, but the cheapest option, so I took it. I had no running water but 3 single beds and the rest of the guesthouse to myself. I think I went to bed about 10:30pm that night, after not being able to focus on my book any longer.


I was woken at 7am next day by the staff, bringing me another bucket of freezing cold water. I don’t know how much they think I get through, but they’d already bought me a huge bucket full the night before. Unable to sleep again I got up and packed my stuff to leave with the staff until leaving. I headed to the highest place I could find. I was led there by a fellow I’d met the night before. Up on the roof top overlooking the tree covered mountains I felt inspired to meditate, this being the first time in 18 months or so. After I was done meditating and taking in the scenes and quiet I headed off to wonder the small street of Yercaud, trying to catch a glimpse of what life is like for the people there. As like everywhere I go in India I was greeting by waving, smiley, chatty children and head shakes by the older guys – that’s the Indian head shake (or wobble) of many positive meanings. I stopped by a well to watch people collect their water and was encouraged by a middle aged woman to see if I could lift and walk with a full barrel. No problem, I don’t think I could carry it on my head the way they do though, and didn’t attempt to try this, although a cool down soak would have been nice! Yercaud wasn’t as cool (in temperature) as I had hoped, the sun is still strong, and I was still hot.

After trying to communicate as best I could with a ancient women who barely had teeth due to her life long addiction to beetle nut (pieces of beetle nut wrapped in a leaf and chewed day and night by many in Asia, it makes your teeth stained red, and it’s pretty hard, so seems to make them out of shape, although they swear it actually strengthens them, it also means you have to spit out gob fulls of red saliva. It’s supposed to give you a small high, but when I tried it In Thailand a couple of years ago, it gave me no effect) I stopped to play with a tiny puppy. I was asked in English if I like dogs, and this is how I met Nagomi. Nagomi is a 72 year old born and bred Yercaud lady. I spent the next hour with her in her “house”. It’s actually just a single room, about 5x8 feet, with black stained walls and ceiling form burning a kerosene lamp. Her ceiling and floor are made from opened out cardboard boxes and the plaster on her walls bulges, it looks like her walls may collapse at any moment or if pushed too hard from the other side. She tells me of her loneliness as I sit on her bed with a layered cardboard mattress. She has no family, her husband died many years ago and they never had children. She is able to speak broken English as she previously worked as a housekeeper for a German woman. I am bought a cup of tea and some “pancakes”. I didn’t want them as I was full on breakfast and didn’t want Nagomi to spend any of her Rs. 200(₤2.50) monthly government pension on me. But she told me it would make her so happy if I chatted with her in her house eating and drinking. The food was disgusting. The “pancakes” she had bought me were tasteless, dense and soggy, they also had a mountain of sugar on top. I tried not to retch as I ate the two too many she had bought me. I considered putting them in my pocket when she wasn’t looking, they really made me feel very ill. After chatting for a while I told her I had to leave. She started to cry and thanked me profusely for spending so much time with her and giving her Rs 50 when (in her words) she had spent so little on me, and I had given her so much. It was sad to see her cry, she doesn’t have many friends or any family and is only fed if the woman a few door away feeds her. Otherwise she spends her days outside her room in one of the many narrow pretty streets of Yercaud.

After visiting Nagomi I wonder slowly back to get my things. I then take the bus back at lunch time, but not before making a stop at the toilet to put my fingers down my throat and bring up what I had just eaten which was making me feel so sick. I like to travel during the day so I can see out of the window. Just looking out the window in India beats 95% of British (& 99% of foreign) TV any day! However the ride back is long and uncomfortable. The windows don’t open so well and the Tamil movie they are playing at full (distorted) blast isn’t kept out despite pushing my ear plugs in as far as they will go! After just a few hours of being on the crowded bus a man comes to sit next to me and strikes up a conversation in very broken English. I don’t mind at all talking to people, but when they have nothing of real interest to say, have heinous breath and you’re stuck on a small seat with them for 6 hours it’s not so much fun. I decided next time to not go so far away just for a one night trip – but these are the things you do when you travel! I’d been meaning and wanted to go to Manchester (where I went to uni) to see old friends all the while I was back in England, but thought the 3 hour trip there was far for just a weekend, ok so it costs more than 70p to get there and the ride is considerably more comfortable, but still... I did about 15 hours on 4 buses to stay in a town from 8:30pm until 12:00pm the next day!!

Wow, I just realised how much I wrote about Yercaud, hope you found it interesting!! As I said before Yercaud is the only overnight trip I’ve been able to make. There’s such a desperate need here, and things are happening 4 months late, it doesn’t allow for much time off. We do however have day or half day trips we are able to make, and have done so a few times, but riding in style on Terry’s Royal Enfield Bullet, which being Indian design and manufacture comes with it’s own set of eternal problems. Oh, I’m being unfair, it’s just a very fussy bike – we had a bit of a problem when Terry couldn’t get the bike to go into 1st gear, and no mechanic could find the problem (because they didn’t look hard enough), that was until we found one who fixed the problem, but then created 2 more of his own. It didn’t help that the guy had substandard tools, the screw driver needed to be filed down so it could fit into screws properly to tighten them, but it wasn’t, so after riding the bike for a day screws had come loose from vibration and caused the bike to empty most of the gear box oil on Manu’s (our friendly landlord) outside house parking area. The problem with mechanics here is that they don’t always do a very good job, like when he half fixed the gear problem, it was still kinda difficult to get in gear, his advice was that rather than fix it, Terry would need to change the way he shifts gear! Labour is cheap thou, Rs.300 (₤3.75) for a full day’s work. That in India is a good day’s wage for a working man, especially if he is successful in ripping you off in money terms or taking your good parts and putting on black market copies, or draining your petrol whilst you’re not looking!!

Another place we visited is called Poombahar, about 25 miles away to the south and on the coast. We’d been trying to find a nice beach spot close to home to chill and get out of the house/office, but was unsuccessful as there’s a massive river which separates land from a little more land, then sea. There is a way if you can find the road to the north of the river, we tried once, but were unsuccessful. We shall try again, as I know I have been there with CARD, but wasn’t paying attention to the route.
Anyway, Poombahar is ok. There’s an old building there with figures inside of “ancient Tamil women..” doing this that and the other. It’s hard to believe that ancient Tamil women would wear as little as the statues depict, especially when I have had girls as young as 7 pull down on my top as I reveal an inch of belly!

Sat on a rock looking out to sea we watch men handle their catamarans and pull in their catch. The men here are fishing on catamarans, made of 5 logs of match-stick wood, tied together with rope, their oars are unshaped. 3 fit on a boat, with two paddling, and one steering by pushing a long stick into the ground. It looks extremely exhausting work, although their catches were impressive. The turds on the beach however weren’t. Terry worked in a fishing village a week after tsunami and told me how every morning all at the same time the men of the village would wonder down to the water’s edge for their morning crap. It was apparent at Poombahar that the tide had not yet come in! I also saw at Poombahar a girl of about 13 come to me to beg. She told me her parents had both died and that she wanted some rupees. You never know who to believe, but I don’t give very often to beggars in India as it encourages them (if compelled I give food instead), besides if her parents had both died because of tsunami the government will be paying a relative to take care of her. She hangs out with Terry and I for an hour, pretending to be someone she probably wants to be as she wears my sunglasses and imitates a chat on my mobile. She like many young Indian girls is stunningly attractive. She goes through my bag, asking if she can have different items in there and tries on my long sleeve top. You know with these kids they won’t take anything off you, so when she wonder off with my camera or removed my ankle bracelet I wasn’t concerned. They only take what you give them. I gave her a pen, which she then hid in her blouse and told me she’d lost it, so would I give her money! She actually tried to sell my pen to passing Indian tourists for double the value I told her I’d got it for! If this girl really is all alone in the world, she’s savvy and tough enough to make it!

So what else about life shall I tell you? I’ll tell you we’ve been thinking of moving. We do a lot of work in the house as we also use it as an office. The main room had 2 windows, but one looks out into a hall way and the other is small and high so we can’t see out of it. There is no light and no breeze. We are kept awake by traffic, Manu’s dogs and chickens. I don’t really know why he keeps dogs. He says they’re for security, but we sleep behind 2 padlocked gates and a locked front door! I want to move to a cottage in a village, they look really cute, we’ll have a look to see what’s available before making a decision thou. It’s nice to be able to take our meals onto the roof here and overlook so much green. The downside is the main road we are next to. Vehicles here are extremely noisy, and even when in the house talking on the phone if a truck goes by it would be the norm that we would have to ask the speaker to repeat. I’m getting on fine with Terry. He talks less then before, but is still good humoured and fun to be with. We work well together, although he has many more ideas then I do. I am thinking after the project here I’d like to take it across to Sri Lanka and do the same thing there. I figured seeing as response has been so slow, unorganised and lacking in scope and ideas, it’ll be even worse in Sri Lanka where many are still living in relief camps.

Ok, I guess it’s time for bed. I have to be up and out the house in 6 hours. We have a day off and are going to Ponicherry. I want to check the tourist shops there as I am thinking about creating an e-bay shop to sell manly fabrics, but anything made here that would sell in England for a nice profit. I also hope to market goods made by self help groups, such as the pictures made by the disabled women just outside Chennai from rice paddy discard. Oh I need to shower, again. It’s 2am, but I am close to sweating. It’s 33C in the shade and 40C in the sun during the day, we still haven’t reached peak summer!

I hope that all you out there reading this are fine and happy. Thanks to those of you who’ve written to me and apologies if I haven’t responded yet. I plan also tomorrow to send this and some photos from Pondi, I hope you enjoy them, and if you’re wondering where to go on your travels, or have some time off, I welcome you to India. People have such misconceptions of India. It’s actually a very nice place with overly friendly people. It’s dusty and dirty in places, but all totally manageable. The only downside, when you’re living in a town, as opposed to travelling, is there isn’t many options for entertainment. We were really felling this today. The only thing outside the house to do in the evening is going for meals.

Anyway, I think at 5 pages it’s probably time for me to stop. So my beautiful friends I bid you goodnight or good day. I look forwards to the day when we next meet.

With much love from me and my browner than brown back, shoulders and arms!
Ruth xxx

p.s I have started to make a hanging chair from string and wood. I don’t really know how it’ll turn out as I am copying a design stored only in memory, and as I learnt today I sometimes have difficultly hammering a nail in straight and avoiding my thumb! I am hoping it’ll be something I am able to do from very basic materials, but also if I can teach people how to make them and sell them, it’ll be a good all rounder. The cost of materials cost me 50p. Selling price is ₤5. I hope to have a photo for you next time.