Milestones

Not that this time is any more significant than any other, but I thought I would jot down a few things.

• I have been on the road now for over four months.
  
  
• I have been in India for over one month.
  
  
• The odometer on my GPS unit has passed 4000 km. It should probably be over 5000, but somewhere in China it mysteriously reset itself.
  
  
• After two weeks, I think I have finally gotten rid of the diarrhea. And it took until the last of ten pills to do it.
  
  
• I don't know what my weight is, but my cheeks are starting to hollow out a bit, and I have moved to the last notch in my belt (something I haven't done in about four years).
  
  
• The image numbers on my camera have wrapped back around to "_0000" that means I have shot over 10000 photos with this camera. No, not all on this trip. And definitely not all "keepers."
  
  
• The cheap sunglasses I bought in Tibet have finally broken. I was wondering when it would happen.

No nothing monumental in those milestones. Just a way for me to measure time as it passes.

A Nandi near the big temple.

Madurai is an OK place, but I don't think it lives up to the praise given it in the guide book. The main sight for tourists, the Sri Meenakshi temple is definitely worth a look, but I had recently become frustrated with the pricing structure and considered the camera charge just too high this time. So the images will have to live in my memory rather than in photos. Also, some parts of the temple were closed off so I couldn't have taken many good photos anyway.

Drying in the sun.

Actually, just as interesting to me was the sight of the daily laundry chores in the Vaigai river as I crossed it to visit the Gandhi museum.

The old fashioned way.

A large part of the museum really seemed to be the struggle of India against the west, and the part that Gandhi eventually played in it. There was a lot of reading involved, and through it all I noticed one theme that I expect the museum people probably didn't see coming.

A lot of the stories focus on the struggles and battles and many of them say something similar to ... The Indian people fought a valiant fight against the British (or Portuguese or whoever) ... but lost.

I don't know if the museum folk are aware of how it looks in English. Indians fought the fight, may have rarely won a battle, but eventually they lost the war with the West. I expect that is not quite the message they had hopped to give.

Part of what is left of a palace. The place must have really been something special.

One more thing about Madurai. Not every white guy walking around the streets in the evening smokes marijuana. We aren't all druggies. And after being asked every five or ten meters if I wanted to buy some, I was beginning to resent it. I mean if you are going to do something illegal, at least show a little discretion as to who your clients are to be. One guy asked me every time I walked by him. But then I think he was using too much of his own product. Usually I tell them that marijuana is illegal, and then they say that no, it is no problem. When I ask them if we should go to the police and ask if it is OK, they usually leave me alone.

Not many photos this time. Enjoy what you can.