Rediculousness

Chai Talk

Thursday, February 9

Location: Sweet Shot beside the Meega hotel Trichy, Tamil Nadu
Rating: */5

First I must apologize to my faithful blog readers. I've been neglectful the past two weeks while I was touring around with my parents. I enjoyed living a slightly more comfortable life in India traveling through Rajasthan with a car and driver, flying to Goa and spending a couple days in Mumbai. I think was a good guide and for the most part I kept my parents out of trouble while introducing them to the wonders of India including a stop at the post office on the morning of their first day where they saw first hand how many people and bribes it takes to mail a package to Denmark. Thank God, I just heard from Mads he actually got it to!

So after the tour with my parents they were nice enough to fly me back to Bangalore to start my travels in the South again. I went straight from the airport to the bus stand and hoped on the first public bus to Tamil Nadu. It felt good to be uncomfortable and have Tamil movies blaring over the bus again as I made my 10 hr trip to Trichy. After asking numerous people which bus I should be on and trying a few I finally made it at 12:30 at night and settled into a decent hotel near the bus stand. Yesterday I saw the extremely disappointing rock fort temple which was really just a bunch of stairs going up an 80m piles of rocks with some stands selling fruit and an obviously recently "reconstructed" temple on top. Reconstruction seems to have meant adding railings and a marble interior reminiscent of a hospital. At least the second temple was cool. The Sri Ranganathaswamy Templa is huge and actually still in use. It was filled with Hindus walking around a praying, having lunch, and an elephant moving logs around. The large brightly painted gateways were amazing and the atmosphere was fantastic. Of course it also had the standard temple shops selling crap and priests asking for donations but it was one of the coolest hindu temples I've seen and the least annoying for tourists.

After diner I was craving some sugar so I went the sweet shop near my hotel. Their limited menu of sweets seemed to be gulab jammin and halwa. I went for the gulab jammin which I think must have been package because it was awful. My masala chai came after the gulab only to had no masala and a thick skin on top. The milk was heavy and the tea light giving the feeling of drinking whole milk. I left unsatisfied especially after being spoiled with good chai in Delhi and Rajasthan when traveling with my parents. I have to say the best chai in India is in the north. I think I might just stick to fresh juice and lassi's down south. Luckily when I got back to my hotel I realized I had a couple english channels and one was playing Clueless, ahhh perfect way to end a day in Trichy
nicholas, 1:21 AM

1 Comments:

Haha...clueless. Just how one feels in a land where the language is different than your own.

Honestly, though, the best chai is in the east. You should see the "black gold" I brought back with me. I can guarantee I'll still have some when you get back and I'll make you chai better than the Bangladesh House. Do I see the elusive 5-cardamom seed rating?

Have fun in the south.
Blogger kent, at 9:34 AM  

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