With a 12.5 hour time differenc, jet lag was high on my mind, but I managed to stay up till 7:00 PM and 13 hours later, feeling fully refreshed, even the 8:00 AM 90 degree heat and humidity couldn’t dampen the mood. That is probably a good thing, because it is likely to be a pretty common occurence here.
We headed off at around three to do some shopping and visit some recently found and excavated Budhist ruins a bit north of Vizag proper. Driving here continues to be something out of a Kafka story, with huge trucks narrowly missing whole families on mopeds.
This doesn’t make India unique though, just very different than the orderly streets of the US, so I promise not to keep coming back to it. Suffice it to say though, that I have only noticed a single stop light in two days. The whole experience it more like a huge dance hall shared between a modern dance company, a waltz competition, a classical ballet and an Bollywood routine. ALL AT ONCE!!! Toss in a square dance troupe with no caller and here we are! :D
We went about 20-30 killometers north, up the coast, passing Sri’s engineering school on the way (she made this commute daily on a scooter). I managed to get a series of photos of a couple of ox dragging a huge load of palms through traffic, which parted with no seeming difficulty (nor lessening of pace) for the wide load going about 2 kilometers an hour.
Seemingly in the middle of no where a well maintained road with no sign headed to the left and after consulting a local, Bala headed into the hills. The signage is somewhat sureal with a slightly military looking sign pointing out a 2200 year old budhist monestery with a modest fence and no other markers… We toured the ruins on our own before clambering back into the car and heading further up the coast to a slightly more museum like place where a guide gave us a wonderful description of both these ruins and the ones that we had just left… Suffice it to say, but he was very knowledgeable and he gave us very definitive information about the ruins. While I’m not sure how they know this much daily detail, it was great to learn which parts of the “ruins” where recreations and which were original.
Don’t miss the pictures (India, 2008 – Day Two Photos)
From India Trip |
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