I knew this day would come. I just didn’t expect it so soon. For a good while on Wednesday I HATED India. I knew this trip would be a challenge, and it was one of those days where the subcontinent struck.

My mood was largely prompted, I believe, from a very poor night’s sleep in the dodgy hotel. I think I’ve learned my lesson, just because it’s crazy cheap doesn’t mean you should stay there. I woke in the middle of the night, itching, with an incredibly suspicious bite on my arm. It did not look like my typical reaction to a mosquito bite so I automatically thought bed bugs, due to the paranoia the great bed bug scare has instilled in me. I freaked out, combing my room for other signs, even though my first clue should have been there was only one bite instead of three on my arm. Nevertheless, I was scared to be near the bed so I sat up for an hour hand a half watching Arsenal highlights from the 94-95 season because that was randomly on the sports channel in the middle of the night. It did the trick in calming me down (even when typically Arsenal has the opposite effect) and I eventually rationalized I should get a couple more hours of sleep.

I did get some shut eye, woke up early and took my time getting ready. My intention was to go to the Palace Museum right when it opens and go back to pick up my stuff to head to Trichy. Lonely Planet had an interesting description of the museum, definitely praising it for its large collection of stone and bronze statues. A sentiment that I largely agree with. They had really great pieces of varying ages the oldest of them being from around the 11th century. Again, I just love the expressions of some of the statues. They show such a large range of emotions from a stoic Vishnu to overly coy smiles and smirks from minor yakshi goddesses. I also had a greater appreciation for the bronze statuary after going to the demonstration the day before. In regard to the palace itself, it definitely is under cared for and there is an eerie shroud around the place that is difficult to put into words. It was almost like you could sense the great amount of life that used to be present in that place in contrast to the current physical emptiness and dilapidation. You’re allowed to climb up the many sets of really cool, narrow winding stairs, up the main tower to get views of the city. Besides two other tourists I largely had the place to myself. Each floor had dirty white walls, some with graffiti,  and at least one gigantic brightly colored ceiling lotus. The many doorways were in the shape of Islamic style arches alluding to the presence of its former Mughal residents. I really enjoyed going up there and poking around. I couldn’t help but wonder what the former owners would think of the palace that was surely once lavishly decorated in contrast to their abandoned empty home.

When explore time was over I scampered back to the hotel, grabbed my stuff and I was out like a shot. I grabbed the next bus to Trichy and settled in for the short hour long ride, but not before arguing with the rickshaw driver about how much he initially said he was charging me, my mood definitely got worse. I got off the bus at the stand and saw that the hotel I intended to stay at was not too far way. However, my sense of direction was way off and I got quite lost no thanks to some unhelpful directions from locals. It was quite hot that afternoon (as it is every day) and I had my 20lb pack on my back that I didn’t want there for too much longer. I succumbed to getting a rickshaw to the hotel, and I didn’t even end up staying there dude to the rates that were suspiciously higher than those listed in Lonely Planet. I couldn’t stay there so my next option was a huge haul away, so I shelled out more money to another auto driver to get to the other hotel, which also had inflated prices and a very curt, borderline rude staff, that wasn’t just a poor interpretation of culture. I have run into plenty of polite hotel proprietors, or at least polite enough, but these people really grated on my nerves. I was too tired to search for something else so I agreed to shell out the extra cash and stay there.

I was cranky, upset with all the money I had just spent, and very hungry. I was crazy frustrated, but there were things I wanted to see in Trichy that day, so I sucked it up and headed to the restaurant in the hotel that I didn’t really want to eat at but there was absolutely nothing else in the area. My options for lunch were limited but they did have coffee so I took the best sounding option. When I sat down I looked to the next table, spying a single girl, who I assumed was also alone. I leaned over to ask if she wouldn’t mind me joining her and she happily obliged.

Her name was Pernille, she was originally from Denmark, but was currently teaching at a Scandinavian school in Delhi. She was traveling around south India during the school holiday. Since we were planning on seeing many of the same sights anyway  I asked if she wouldn’t mind if I tagged along. She said yes and I had a companion for the day, a much welcome thing.

We ended up hiring a rickshaw for the afternoon to take us to the 5 sights that we wanted to go to. The first stop was the Sri Ranganthaswarmy Temple, a Vishnu temple which is one of the largest in India. With the price of admission we got to head up to a great viewpoint to capture the many gopurams that were a part of the complex. All of them were fully colored except for one that was white, which was striking in its own right. After we wandered around the pubic parts of the temple, since much of it was off limits to non-Hindus. There were many smaller side temples and sculptures to see though. I, personally, was quite glad that I wore socks that day. At every temple you have to leave your shoes outside, so walking around barefoot on the incredibly hot stone floor of the temple would not have been fun at all. The next two stops were another temple and a church tat was quite lovely. Pernille and  I meandered around the main bazaar for awhile and stopped for a cold drink while we hoped things would cool down a bit before our planned climb up to the top of the Rock Fort Temple.

The Rock Fort Temple, the premiere landmark of Trichy, is a temple on the top of a huge granite rock, jutting out of the middle of the city. There are 400 some stairs and we waited until sunset to avoid having to go up in the blistering heat as well as get an optimal view. The climb really wasn’t that bad, all of the high altitude hillsides I scaled over the past few months has put me in pretty good shape. The majority of the stairs were inside the rock so not being exposed to the sun was beneficial as well. The view from the temple at the top of the crooked stairs was amazing. You could see the entire city, all temples included. The Indian sun, that for whatever reason you can look straight at without any immediate side effects, washed a beautiful dusky light over everything. It was well worth the wait.

Pernille and I headed back to the hotel and chilled for a bit before we parted ways, myself another day in the area and her headed of to Tanjore the next day.

I slept in a little Thursday morning. The activity was a day trip to Puddotakkai, a small town 60 km south of Trichy, that was once the center of a state from the late 17th to 20th century. Lonely Planet recommended the local museum as well as an obscure rock cut temple in a random village on the road back to Trichy.

As usual, I caught a bus easily enough an went to the museum. I was greeted enthusiastically by an employee with one of the best mustaches I have seen yet. It was huge and bushy and without a bearded chin took up most of his jaw and about half his cheek on each side. he tired to explain everything that was there, but his English was very limited. He was friendly though and I appreciated the effort and his pantomimes to get me to understand.

There was a wide variety of artifacts from the area including Jain stone statues from the 10th century, Roman coins, chain mail, swords, boomerangs, wood carvings, some great paintings, musical instruments, pottery, locally made dolls, textiles, and many very creepy taxedermied animals. The majority of these were jut laying on the floor of one of the rooms as they had not been placed into the cases that can only be classified as, “coming soon”. I enjoyed the museum and it was very interesting. It had a lot of things I may not have seen anywhere else.

From there I got on a local bus (after much confusion about the directions that I was given) to Natharmalai, a small village 10km or so north of Pudotakkai. The bus dropped me at the village entry gate, and after learning the temple I sought was only a 2km walk I bypassed the auto. The village is basically one long main road with houses and a few businesses on either side of the tree lined street. I was definitely more of a curiosity than usual, but at least most people greeted me with a hello instead of the more common blank stares I get in urban areas. It was incredibly hot that day and the sun was merciless. I had water with me but I should have taken 2 bottles because eventually when I reached Nartharmalai proper, there were not shady trees to walk under. With guidance from locals I eventually spotted the temple on the side of a gigantic granite rock and mapped a general trail up the rock and across the side to get there. The heat was intense, but I eventually made it to the temple which was completely deserted. People must have stopped using it as a place for worship years and years ago, but the stone work, albeit weathered was so striking. Of the many red-orange buildings on the small temple grounds there was one large ornately decorated Siva temple in the center and four smaller surrounding shrines that no longer had statues of deities in them. I assumed they had long been taken away to museums and such. I explored the small area and wanted to continue on to look for the Jain cave drawings I read about that were not too far away. But the sun was too much that day and my body couldn’t handle much more, especially with the small amount of water I had left.

I headed back through the village and onto the bus. I spent the rest of the day chilling in the hotel, nursing a giant heat headache that I had amassed during the day.