Craving for the Wild

Craving for the Wild

We are in the first wildlife reserve are we have visited in Asia part of our trip. Its name is Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. The reserve area, on the way between Ooty and Mysore, with a busy road passing through it, is not fenced and a natural living area of wild elephants, gazelles, monkeys, tigers and some tribes under protection, living in a primitive way compared to actual circumstances. It is open for tourism with a reception, information center and several guesthouses in a small area. It is prohibited to walk out of the space around these buildings. Also with your own vehicle… This restriction is to avoid being hunted by wild animals and getting lost in the forest. It is also forbidden to get close to the local people around the place because nobody wants to spoil their way of living by modern citizens, especially by western tourists. So, the “wild” people are also under protection here. Just for a couple times in a day, the chance to observe wild life is given to us, modern human, with camouflage-buses following a certain way in “Wild Life Tour”. We join one of them because of despair and inattention. As wild animals are afraid of the noisy buses, not only we it is not possible to observe wild life, but also it becomes an activity in which we feel ashamed because of disturbance we caused and questioned our species again. This place is so quiet and calm that, we dream of staying for one night and observe the wild life around. After settling in a room we found luckily in one...
Pondicherry-Madurai

Pondicherry-Madurai

After leaving Sadhana, we have visited Pondicherry and Madurai in India before going to Sri Lanka for the second month of our journey in Asia. Pondicherry (Puducherry) is a small settlement, which was a colony of France before. It’s tidy, clean and calm streets still has the French spirit. We feel like we are travelling in a small town in Mediterranean while we were walking in the French Quarter with elegant boutique shops.  Botanical Garden next to the train station is a nice and informative recreation area. You can take a short tour with the tiny train in it and travel in your childhood. Another important spot of the city is Lakshmi, the Ganesh Temple which is at the center of the city. Even though  it has nothing interesting but the poor elephant who is brought here every day about 4 pm, it is a place visited by many people. Sri Aurobindo Ashram that is close to the temple is founded by Sri Aurobindo, the creator of the idea of Auroville with The Mother, who played an important role in Indian History.  Now it serves as a museum for visitors… Besides the open canalization passing through the middle of the city, the clean view of Pondicherry is seen in restaurants also. Food in the restaurant called Bombay Anandha Bhaven, in which we usually ate, is pretty tasty and affordable. There is another Anandha Bhaven, closer to the temple, which is more “touristic”. For accommodation, we recommend Natura Ashram. The guesthouse, with the option of private and shared rooms, is both cheap and clean. The founder of the Ashram is...
Introduction to India 101 (Chennai)

Introduction to India 101 (Chennai)

“Incredible India” was only a slogan we saw in the consulate. After 3 days we spent in Chennai, we realized that maybe this is the most appropriate slogan to define India. We arrive Chennai before the sunrise after a 1,5 days of journey with 17 hours of waiting in Shrjah Airport. When we step outside, we hardly breathe because of the hot weather and moisture. Breath-taking in real terms… We reach Erik and Selcem’s house early in the morning. Thanks to Couchsurfing, we get into the a totally different culture slowly not to have a culture-shock. November and December is the monsoon season in Southern India. That’s why we always take our rain covers with us. But it’s not bad to get wet, as even the rain is warm. Everybody on streets walks either on their naked feet or with slippers… Chennai is the 4th biggest city of India, the traffic is too dense. In the beginning, we get crazy because of the sound of horns. For us, horn sounds aggressive. But nobody is angry and the flow of the traffic depends on this. In all the congestion drivers communicate by horn. A very developed language, that can be examined by linguists. Behind many vehicles, it’s written; “sound horn”. The thing we come across everywhere, after sound of horn, is the spice odor, of course. The whole city is like a huge spice bazaar. But this is a different language also. In the mess of sounds and colors, odor becomes an element of marketing. A smell you like, mostly takes you to a dish you like… To all languages...