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 by Marcia Shappert.
-.11
-We somehow survived customs in Trivandrum. We arrived back in India an the day of New Year's Eve. We checked into the Hotel Armitha, where we had stayed before we went to Sri Lanka.
-We had been promising the children we would take them to an Indian movie, and finally the chance arrived. The movie was billed as "Special Musical Entertainment". The three hour movie cost 350 each (for the dress circle seats) and was typical in the theme - the eternal triangle, plus singing and some violence. The Indians all seemed to love it, and although we couldn't understand a word that was being said, we got the drift of the
-story and enjoyed it too. I had told the kids that if they didn't like it
-we would leave at the half, but they wanted to see the whole thing. Movies are not rated there as they are here for parental guidance, and all ages attend, but the violence didn't seem to bother anyone.
-We want back to our room and celebrated New Year's Eve with a cool drink and were in bed by 10 pm.
-Walking to the movie from our hotel we passed by an elevated bridge,
-under which at least 60 people were living - existing is more the word for it. It was obvious that it wasn't a temporary thing. I heard the cry of what sounded like a very young baby and I thought how lucky we were to have our children here in Australia, with some sort of future open to them. I,
-uppose that if you lived under a bridge all your life, you might hope your children could improve themselves enough to at least get a roof over their heads. Very depressing.
-The next morning we caught a bus to Kovalam Beach for the day. Living
-so close to the beach in Sydney, we said we w)uldn't bother with the beaches, but we were drawn to them and always enjoyed them. There is a very Wastern hotel complex at Kovalam. PJ and Craig rented a small sailboat for $3.00 for the afternoon. The Indians all swam in their underpants or fully clothed. It was interesting to watch. One thing wc=eally remember here
-were the Qicy-cold coconuts (12c each) We had when we arrived. They must have had a huge fridge to keep them all in.
-Page 10	THE SYDNEY BUSHWALKKR	August, 1981.
-We had a late lunch at the Kovalam Hotel for $19.001! We didn't feel any more full than we did at our favorite Braham restaurant where we had had lca'eakfast for the four of us for $1.65. That's what you get for going to Western places.
-We were up at 6 the next morning to catch a 7 apvtour to Cape Comorin, the most southerly point in India. The bus stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. Of the gix things we ordered they got five wrong, so we ended up with coffee and tea only. The tour took us back to Kovalam where we watched the fishermen hauling in huge U-shaped nets for about 40 minutes before we had to return to the bus.	(That's the trouble with bus tours - it's always time to go when something interesting is happening.) We arrived at Cape Comorin about 1.45 pm after stopping at a few temple complexes an the way. We were free to roam until 6 pm when the bus left. This is one, of the few spots in the world where you can watch the sun rise and set from
-the same place, so we :were really looking forward to the sunset. The Cape
-is a 'hole' of a place, with few redeeming features. Sleasy food stalls
-and cheap souvenirs was the name of the game. There is a memorial to Ghandi there which could be described as architectural hodge-podge. I've never	-
-seen such an ugly building in my life. I even had to take a picture of it to prove how ugly it was.
-We walked along the beach, sat and watched the fisherman (their boats were just logs tied together, really primitive). We took a ferry boat out tO the rock shrine and got back about 5 pm. Had a quick cuppa and settled down to watch the sunset. Hawkers trying to sell all sorts of junk. One girl about 14 years old really got my goat. When I said I didn't want to buy what she was selling, she said "10 Rs, that's only $1. What's that to you?" It mattered not to her that had she been giving it to me I would have refused it - it was such junk. We sat and waited for the sunset, but. unfortunately it was so cloudy we never got to see it. So we had spent the wliole day on a lousy bus tour and didn't even see the sunset. The tour cost $2.50 each for a 12-hour tour. The day was redeemed by having dinner at our favorite Braham restaurant. We had become familiar in the restaurant by this time and people smiled at us as we came in. What a wonderful place.
-We spent our last morning in .Trivandrum at the zoo. Quite a nice one. There were signs all over saying "Don't tease the animals", and yet the attendants would deliberately do this (poking the animals with sticks, etc) for money, so some Indian with a camera could get a photo of an animal 'in action'.
-We got back to the hotel about 12.45 to pick up our packs and decided to have lunch at the hotel restaurant to save time. We ordered at 1 pm and were told it would take about half an hour before it was served. By 1..45 (our bus left at 2.30) we asked again. Finally Craig and I got our meals, but PJ and Jenny didn't get theirs until after 2 pm. They literally gulped. it down so we could catch a taxi to the bus station - we made it with
-minutes to spare. The bus conductor tried charging us fall fare for PJ
-even though when we bought the ticket the day before we were told he was half fare. We didn't pay the extra fare, but it was a hassle.
-We were taking the bus from Trivandrum to Madurai, our longest bus
-ride, about 6 hours. We had tried booking a room from Trivandrum for
-Page 11	THE SYDNEY BUSHWALKER	August, 1981.
-Madurai, as it was the first day of a 'World Tamil Conference'. We were told that hotels wouldn't take advance bookings, but because we would be arriving about 8 pm we would have no trouble getting a place. About 6.30 pm the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere, and we sat there for about
-hours with nothing to eat or drink. At one stage a man pedalled out from somewhere with icecream for sale. . His stock quickly sold out. Finally - about 9.30 we got going again, but the driver wouldn't stop at the next town So we could get something to eat. When he finally stopped (for 10 minutes) we quickly bought some cookies, fruit and a bag of candy. It was impossible to -sleep on the bus - the left the inside lights on and the road was so . rerrible that it was a very rough ride. Somehow PJ and Jenny managed to get some sleep. We finally reached Madurai at 2.45 am.
-We had been talking with a young English fellow and when we reached Madurai we decided to all stay together. Kevin said he faund some fellows who knew where rooms were available, so went with them in two trishaws. Craig and Kevin were going to share one room and the kids and I the other. When we got to the hotel, there were no rooms available. They said to try another place and so we went on until about 4.30 am, when we decided just =44D spread out our rain capes on the street and sit and rest. I was amazed
-at the number of people on the streets at that time of night. We had stopped at one stall for some coffee and it was packed. I guess if you don't have
-place to sleep/live, the streets are where you spend your time. Of course, we attracted a lot of attention. They just couldn't believe that Europeans would sleep on the streets like they do! The owner of the stall across from where we were sitting came over and told me I shouldn't let my child Sleep on the street, but must find a bed for her. When I told him we hadn't been able to find rooms, he just shook his head and walked away:
-Kevin and PJ said they would continue looking for rooms. They came back about 5.30 am to say they had asked at a hospital if we could stay there. They were told we could sleep on the floor in the out-patients
-department. We settled down on the floor there about 6 am.	(The worst toilet we found on the entire trip was at this hospital. It was beyond belief). At 6.45 they woke us up to say we had to move because the Patients were starting to come, but we could sleep in another spot - which we did until 7.30 when they said we would have to go - the space was required. When we got up we noticed that we had been sleeping at the bottom of a spiral stair- Case. Now it was lined to the top with curious Indian faces, all watching Us. The guards (armed) had watched us and our things to make sure no one disturbed us. We really appreciated them letting us sleep there.
-We all took a taxi to a big hotel and had a lovely breakfast - we felt We deserved it after no dinner the-night before and very little sleep. Toast and jam never tasted so good.
-Even this hotel (the most expensive in Madurai) was full, so we enquired about a flight back to Madras - it was obvious we weren't going to #nd a room. There was a special flight going back to Madras so we made reservations on that for 11.30 am. I was really disappointed as I had especially wanted to see the temple complex here. I had saved my temple
-viewing for here and now I was going to miss out.
-We bid farewell to Kevin (he was meeting his brother in Madurai) and
-Page 12	THE SYDNEY BUSHWLLKER.	August, 1981.
-headed for the airport. We arrived in Madras half an hour later and fell into bed at the hotel. I had come down with a terrible cold and was feeling
-really crook. The hotel we were staying in was very noisy, so the next morning we transferred to the Hotel Savera - very Western and plush, but
-just what we needed at that point. The kids enjoyed the swimming ppol and I'enjoyed the hot shower and room service.
-We took a tour to Kanchipurw and Mahabalipuram and enjoyed the temples and scenery. Kanchipuram is a typically rural town of South India. The mud streets are dotted with groups of people winding add sorting thread - this is a big weaving centre - amidst a kaleidoscope of animals, women carrying brass pots to the well, trishaws and holy men with ash-covered faces.	.
+We somehow survived customs in Trivandrum. We arrived back in India on the day of New Year's Eve. We checked into the Hotel Armitha, where we had stayed before we went to Sri Lanka.
-It is one of the group of seven holy places which an ardent Indian pilgrim will try to cover on his crusade around India. Most of the temples date back to the 8th century.
-Mahabalipuram is famous for its Shore Temple and enormous carved
+We had been promising the children we would take them to an Indian movie, and finally the chance arrived. The movie was billed as "Special Musical Entertainment". The three hour movie cost 35c each (for the dress circle seats) and was typical in the theme - the eternal triangle, plus singing and some violence. The Indians all seemed to love it, and although we couldn't understand a word that was being said, we got the drift of the story and enjoyed it too. I had told the kids that if they didn't like it we would leave at the half, but they wanted to see the whole thing. Movies are not rated there as they are here for parental guidance, and all ages attend, but the violence didn't seem to bother anyone.
-monuments called rathas. Each ratha is carved, decorated,saulptured and
-hollowed out. so that it seems more like a decorated building than a work of art carved from solid stone.
+We went back to our room and celebrated New Year's Eve with a cool drink and were in bed by 10 pm.
-We sent a message to the family we met in Madras the first time, and the husband came to see us at the hotel. We gave him the calculator as we had promised-and he was overjoyed. He told us that we had brought him luck when we visited them at their house and he had just been hired for a job in Lybia and would be getting about 000.a month there. A truly phenomenal sum to him. He invited us back to his house, but we declined as he had told us his son had typhoid fever. He brought his wife to visit us the next morning.- She is such a lovely person and I really enjoyed seeing her again. She said, "We have walked past the Savera Hotel all our lives. VIT0 would have ever thought we could get inside." We had ordered tea from room service and they were amazed at this.
-The kids wanted to see another Indian Movie, but this time an ''action- packed' one. We saw 'Qubanel, which certainly had lots of action.	Lots -
+Walking to the movie from our hotel we passed by an elevated bridge, under which at least 60 people were living - existing is more the word for it. It was obvious that it wasn't a temporary thing. I heard the cry of what sounded like a very young baby and I thought how lucky we were to have our children here in Australia, with some sort of future open to them. I suppose that if you lived under a bridge all your life, you might hope your children could improve themselves enough to at least get a roof over their heads. Very depressing.
-of car chases, fights, etc. but also lots of singing and the eternal triangle. WO loved every minute of it. In the first movie we saw, no English was
-spoken at all. In 'Qmbane' all the swear words were in English. Interesting.
+The next morning we caught a bus to Kovalam Beach for the day. Living so close to the beach in Sydney, we said we wouldn't bother with the beaches, but we were drawn to them and always enjoyed them. There is a very Western hotel complex at Kovalam. PJ and Craig rented a small sailboat for $3.00 for the afternoon. The Indians all swam in their underpants or fully clothed. It was interesting to watch. One thing we really remember here were the icy-cold coconuts (12c each) We had when we arrived. They must have had a huge fridge to keep them all in.
-Our flight back to Bombay was late (as usual) so we didn't reach there
-uatil 2.30 am. I had developed a boil under my arm and was in real pain,
+We had a late lunch at the Kovalam Hotel for $19.00!! We didn't feel any more full than we did at our favourite Braham restaurant where we had had breakfast for the four of us for $1.65. That's what you get for going to Western places.
-so we spent the next day just resting around the pool. The hotel was right on the beach with a high wall around it. The children had pony rides on the beach and watched all the acts put on. After one act, a little girl
-was attached to a long pole and lifted up to the wall so she could ask for money.
+We were up at 6 the next morning to catch a 7 am tour to Cape Comorin, the most southerly point in India. The bus stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. Of the six things we ordered they got five wrong, so we ended up with coffee and tea only. The tour took us back to Kovalam where we watched the fishermen hauling in huge U-shaped nets for about 40 minutes before we had to return to the bus. (That's the trouble with bus tours - it's always time to go when something interesting is happening.) We arrived at Cape Comorin about 1.45 pm after stopping at a few temple complexes an the way. We were free to roam until 6 pm when the bus left. This is one of the few spots in the world where you can watch the sun rise and set from the same place, so we were really looking forward to the sunset. The Cape is a 'hole' of a place, with few redeeming features. Sleasy food stalls and cheap souvenirs was the name of the game. There is a memorial to Ghandi there which could be described as architectural hodge-podge. I've never	seen such an ugly building in my life. I even had to take a picture of it to prove how ugly it was.
+We walked along the beach, sat and watched the fisherman (their boats were just logs tied together, really primitive). We took a ferry boat out to the rock shrine and got back about 5 pm. Had a quick cuppa and settled down to watch the sunset. Hawkers trying to sell all sorts of junk. One girl about 14 years old really got my goat. When I said I didn't want to buy what she was selling, she said "10 Rs, that's only $1. What's that to you?" It mattered not to her that had she been giving it to me I would have refused it - it was such junk. We sat and waited for the sunset, but unfortunately it was so cloudy we never got to see it. So we had spent the whole day on a lousy bus tour and didn't even see the sunset. The tour cost $2.50 each for a 12-hour tour. The day was redeemed by having dinner at our favourite Braham restaurant. We had become familiar in the restaurant by this time and people smiled at us as we came in. What a wonderful place.
+We spent our last morning in Trivandrum at the zoo. Quite a nice one. There were signs all over saying "Don't tease the animals", and yet the attendants would deliberately do this (poking the animals with sticks, etc) for money, so some Indian with a camera could get a photo of an animal 'in action'.
+We got back to the hotel about 12.45 to pick up our packs and decided to have lunch at the hotel restaurant to save time. We ordered at 1 pm and were told it would take about half an hour before it was served. By 1..45 (our bus left at 2.30) we asked again. Finally Craig and I got our meals, but PJ and Jenny didn't get theirs until after 2 pm. They literally gulped it down so we could catch a taxi to the bus station - we made it with 10 minutes to spare. The bus conductor tried charging us fall fare for PJ even though when we bought the ticket the day before we were told he was half fare. We didn't pay the extra fare, but it was a hassle.
+We were taking the bus from Trivandrum to Madurai, our longest bus ride, about 6 hours. We had tried booking a room from Trivandrum for Madurai, as it was the first day of a 'World Tamil Conference'. We were told that hotels wouldn't take advance bookings, but because we would be arriving about 8 pm we would have no trouble getting a place. About 6.30 pm the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere, and we sat there for about 3 hours with nothing to eat or drink. At one stage a man pedalled out from somewhere with ice cream for sale. His stock quickly sold out. Finally about 9.30 we got going again, but the driver wouldn't stop at the next town so we could get something to eat. When he finally stopped (for 10 minutes) we quickly bought some cookies, fruit and a bag of candy. It was impossible to sleep on the bus - they left the inside lights on and the road was so terrible that it was a very rough ride. Somehow PJ and Jenny managed to get some sleep. We finally reached Madurai at 2.45 am.
+We had been talking with a young English fellow and when we reached Madurai we decided to all stay together. Kevin said he found some fellows who knew where rooms were available, so went with them in two trishaws. Craig and Kevin were going to share one room and the kids and I the other. When we got to the hotel, there were no rooms available. They said to try another place and so we went on until about 4.30 am, when we decided just to spread out our rain capes on the street and sit and rest. I was amazed at the number of people on the streets at that time of night. We had stopped at one stall for some coffee and it was packed. I guess if you don't have a place to sleep/live, the streets are where you spend your time. Of course, we attracted a lot of attention. They just couldn't believe that Europeans would sleep on the streets like they do! The owner of the stall across from where we were sitting came over and told me I shouldn't let my child Sleep on the street, but must find a bed for her. When I told him we hadn't been able to find rooms, he just shook his head and walked away.
+Kevin and PJ said they would continue looking for rooms. They came back about 5.30 am to say they had asked at a hospital if we could stay there. They were told we could sleep on the floor in the out-patients department. We settled down on the floor there about 6 am.	(The worst toilet we found on the entire trip was at this hospital. It was beyond belief). At 6.45 they woke us up to say we had to move because the patients were starting to come, but we could sleep in another spot - which we did until 7.30 when they said we would have to go - the space was required. When we got up we noticed that we had been sleeping at the bottom of a spiral staircase. Now it was lined to the top with curious Indian faces, all watching us. The guards (armed) had watched us and our things to make sure no one disturbed us. We really appreciated them letting us sleep there.
+We all took a taxi to a big hotel and had a lovely breakfast - we felt we deserved it after no dinner the night before and very little sleep. Toast and jam never tasted so good.
+Even this hotel (the most expensive in Madurai) was full, so we enquired about a flight back to Madras - it was obvious we weren't going to find a room. There was a special flight going back to Madras so we made reservations on that for 11.30 am. I was really disappointed as I had especially wanted to see the temple complex here. I had saved my temple viewing for here and now I was going to miss out.
+We bid farewell to Kevin (he was meeting his brother in Madurai) and headed for the airport. We arrived in Madras half an hour later and fell into bed at the hotel. I had come down with a terrible cold and was feeling really crook. The hotel we were staying in was very noisy, so the next morning we transferred to the Hotel Savera - very Western and plush, but just what we needed at that point. The kids enjoyed the swimming pool and I enjoyed the hot shower and room service.
+We took a tour to Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram and enjoyed the temples and scenery. Kanchipuram is a typically rural town of South India. The mud streets are dotted with groups of people winding and sorting thread - this is a big weaving centre - amidst a kaleidoscope of animals, women carrying brass pots to the well, trishaws and holy men with ash-covered faces. It is one of the group of seven holy places which an ardent Indian pilgrim will try to cover on his crusade around India. Most of the temples date back to the 8th century.
+Mahabalipuram is famous for its Shore Temple and enormous carved monuments called rathas. Each ratha is carved, decorated,sculptured and hollowed out so that it seems more like a decorated building than a work of art carved from solid stone.
+We sent a message to the family we met in Madras the first time, and the husband came to see us at the hotel. We gave him the calculator as we had promised and he was overjoyed. He told us that we had brought him luck when we visited them at their house and he had just been hired for a job in Lybia and would be getting about $000 a month there. A truly phenomenal sum to him. He invited us back to his house, but we declined as he had told us his son had typhoid fever. He brought his wife to visit us the next morning. She is such a lovely person and I really enjoyed seeing her again. She said, "We have walked past the Savera Hotel all our lives. Who would have ever thought we could get inside." We had ordered tea from room service and they were amazed at this.
+The kids wanted to see another Indian Movie, but this time an 'action-packed' one. We saw 'Qubane', which certainly had lots of action.	Lots of car chases, fights, etc. but also lots of singing and the eternal triangle. We loved every minute of it. In the first movie we saw, no English was spoken at all. In 'Qubane' all the swear words were in English. Interesting.
+Our flight back to Bombay was late (as usual) so we didn't reach there until 2.30 am. I had developed a boil under my arm and was in real pain, so we spent the next day just resting around the pool. The hotel was right on the beach with a high wall around it. The children had pony rides on the beach and watched all the acts put on. After one act, a little girl was attached to a long pole and lifted up to the wall so she could ask for money.
 Our flight back to Australia was long and crowded. When we reached Perth Craig bought us all a glass of cold milk, something we really missed in India.
 The trip was a good chance for the children to get to see how other people live. They found that even though they couldn't speak the language they still could enjoy people and have fun with them.
-Page 13	THE SYDNEY BUSHWAIKER	August, 1981.
-Our fifth week ,das a bit of a.disaster. If we had left after Sri Lanka and the fourth week, we would have had a perfect trip. The fifth week was an 'experience'.
+Our fifth week was a bit of a disaster. If we had left after Sri Lanka and the fourth week, we would have had a perfect trip. The fifth week was an 'experience'.
-The trip cost us $1800 plus air fares. Most of the money went on
-taxis.	When I had travelled there before I could split the taxi fares
+The trip cost us $1800 plus air fares. Most of the money went on taxis.	When I had travelled there before I could split the taxi fares with other people. This time we had to pay the whole slug. Petrol is very expensive there, and getting from the airport to the city was always very expensive. Also, the children didn't walk as much as I had on past trips. We had always walked everywhere, now we were taking taxis or motorized trishaws. We didn't buy many souvenirs. The trip was well worth every penny, though. Now, when I ask PJ if he'd like to go back to India, he says, "Yes, sometime. But I'd rather go to Disneyland". I plan an going pack again sometime and I'm sure the kids will come along.
-with other people. This time we had to pay the whole slag. Petrol is very expensive there, and getting from the airport to the city was always very expensive. Also, the children didn't walk as much as I had on past trips. We had always walked everywhere, now we were taking taxis or motorized trishaws. We didn't buy many souvenirs. The trip was well worth every penny, though. Now, when I ask PJ if he'd like to go back to India, he says, "Yes, sometime. But I'd rather go to Disneyland". I plan an going
-pack again sometime and I'm sure the kids will come along.
-* * * * * * * * * *
 "HOB A SARDINE AND JAM SANDUICH'i" SPTI  SAID.
 by Peter Harris. .