We somehow managed to accidentally download an old Lonely Planet for South India, and it took us a while to click that the references to internet cafes, the guides at under half the price we had been quoted and the suggestions of restaurants that don’t exist meant that this was a very old book! It did however, have a quite hilarious description of Mahabalipuram, which I wanted to share - 

“And then, in addition to ancient archaeological wonders, there’s the traveller ghetto of Othavadai Cross St. You’ll hear the mellow trills of Jack Johnson. Bob Marley flags hang from the balconies. Stores sell things from Tibet, ‘Indian’ clothes that few Indians would probably ever wear, toilet paper, hand sanitiser and used books, and you know you have landed, once again, in the Kingdom of Backpackistan.”

You can feel the pre-internet days in this paragraph!! We didn’t hear much Jack Johnson or see the Bob Marley flags anymore, but we did see so many stores selling goods primarily from Kashmir and other Northern regions of India. We managed to find a nice silver ring at one of these places that will serve as a fake “wedding ring” on this trip. Often it’s much easier and provokes far fewer questions to claim to be husband and wife!!

Now to jump much further back than pre-internet, we were in town to visit the iconic heritage sites, from the days when the town was the major seaport of the ancient Pallava kingdom based at Kanchipuram. Most of the temples, caves and rock carvings were carved in the 7th century reign of the Pallava King Narasimhavarman I, whose nickname Mamalla (Great Wrestler) gave the town its name. The carvings are mostly Rock Cut Cave Temples, which means they are carved directly into rock hillsides, but the town also features a few Monolithic Rathas which are free standing temples carved from single boulders, in the shape of chariots! There was also one Structural Temple, which is carved from stone blocks. It is so hard to imagine how they moved these big blocks of rock around without modern machinery. 

Our favourite piece, which is often regarded as the crown jewel of the area, was Arjuna’s Penance. This is a bas-relief sculpture (one of the largest in the world), carved onto two massive granite boulders measuring about 30 meters long and 15 meters high. It’s a true masterpiece, depicting a grand scene from Hindu mythology with over 100 figures. The main story it tells is of Arjuna performing penance to please Lord Shiva. The sculpture is not without humor, there is a scene near the bottom of the rock with a cat standing on one leg in a similar pose to Arjuna, supposedly performing penance to a group of mice. Another favourite of mine was another small bas-relief sculpture nearby which featured an elephant, a monkey and a peacock. Although not hugely impressive in size, the realistic nature of the animals was incredible, the mother and calf elephant especially. 

The Five Rathas or Pancha Rathas are another iconic place in Mahabalipuram, and are often what comes up if you search for the town. These five Monolithic Rathas were carved out of huge boulders and actually still remain unfinished, due to a change of monarch. Can you imagine all that work going into these and then it not being carried on by your successor!! As well as being incredibly impressive in size and detail, these temples mark a pivotal moment in the evolution of South Indian temple architecture. They show the transitions from rock cut cave temples to free standing structural temples with multi tiered towers, elaborate sculptural design and early conceptions of classic temple features such as gopurams, vimanas and mandapas. This influenced the Dravidian style that defined South Indian temple architecture for over a thousand years, which we were to see more of over the coming days. 

Often these sandy colored temples light up beautifully at sunset - unfortunately while we were in town it was pretty overcast and rained a bit, but we still were totally enamored with these amazing pieces of iconic architecture. There were a few moments where we had to hide from a quick downpour, and one of these moments resulted in a total swarm of photo requests. We were in a cave temple next to Arjuna’s penance, and knowing we were trapped, I was stuck for about 15 minutes taking a photo with nearly every combination of people in there. We had heard about the photo requests in India, but this was our first experience. Josh somehow managed to sneak off and enjoy the carvings in the far corner of the cave, but I was in it for the long run, joining photo after photo after photo…

Also while in town we found a local restaurant that we just loved, and visited for nearly every meal. Every time we were served by a lovely man called Palani who recommended us dishes, and patiently taught us the order in which to eat a South Indian Thali. It was some of the best food we have had in India so far, and our wallets really appreciated the switch back to local prices after our lavish choices in Pondy. One afternoon we ventured further north, visiting a crocodile zoo and another beach town (both a little underwhelming, to be honest). While on the bike it absolutely poured with rain and by the time we got home we were both drenched from head to toe. I’ve never appreciated a hot shower in a dingy bathroom so much! 

After our final morning enjoying some AC and hiding from the periodic downpours, it was time to find our way to the next stop, Tiruvanamallai. So far, showing up blindly at the bus stand and asking which bus we should catch has worked out ridiculously well, but this time not so much…  We headed inland and all seemed to be on track, before changing buses at a major junction town. A lovely man had written down instructions for us that led us to our next bus, which we got on with confidence. However soon enough we realised we were heading North instead of South, and were nearly in Chennai. We hopped off after about half an hour, and some lovely local girls took us across the road and flagged down a different bus for us, one that was much more direct and even had AC! The dream! It might have added a couple of hours to our trip, but it was, as with most things here, an adventure we won’t forget. 

After our arrival to India at the minor port town of Nagapattinam and failed attempts at obtaining sim cards, we were very happy to be on our way to a larger city where we would have a few nights to relax and get ourselves sorted for our time in the country.  From the first moment we stepped off the ferry on Indian soil I was buzzing. The best way to describe India is a complete sensory overload. And we were only in a small town! It was overwhelming and we were both feeling a bit stressed about not having SIM cards. We were able to buy a bit of data using e-SIMs, however they are expensive and not always the best connection. 

Pondicherry (commonly called Pondy) was a French settlement for over 100 years until 1954. We had booked our accommodation in the french quarter known as White Town. This charming seaside town felt more akin to the South of France than the South of India. The leafy cobblestone streets are lined with beautiful colonial-era French villas, cafes brew delicious coffee, while bakeries serve mouth-watering pastries. After a month of mainly Sri Lankan and South Indian food, we were excited for some variety. At the same time, we were feeling a bit overwhelmed by India, and wanted some time to find our feet.

It turned out to be a bit of a process getting our SIM cards. The first company we tried wasn’t available for foreigners. We then tried going to another provider and had to give them the address of our accommodation so they could send someone there to give us the SIMs. This was a bit frustrating as we had to wait at our accommodation rather than exploring on our first night in Pondy. However, when the technicians finally arrived they managed to get our SIM cards up and running quickly. This experience was a good reminder that you can’t rush things in India, it will happen eventually but sometimes you just have to wait.

We spent most of our time in Pondy wandering between boutique stores, art galleries and beautiful colonial churches. The rest of our time was spent eating delicious food at French inspired cafes and bakeries. It was the first time on our trip where we weren’t mainly eating local food. Of course we were very excited to dive into South Indian cuisine, but we felt that while we were somewhere with amazing western food we should take that opportunity. It was a nice reset and a cleanse of our pallets from the Sri Lankan food we had been eating so much of.

One of the main events of our time in Pondy was the grand final of the ICC Champions Trophy which is an International cricket tournament. This was a major event because it was India vs New Zealand, and Cricket is by far the most popular sport in Sri Lanka and India. 

This is a very common conversation we have in Sri Lanka and India:

“Hello, what is your country?” 

“Hi! We’re from New Zealand!” 

“Oh very nice country! 

“Thanks, this is a nice country too.” 

“Kane Williamson is a very good player!”

For those who don’t know, Kane Williamson is a New Zealand cricketer and the former captain of the Black Caps. He is held in very high esteem in this part of the world, maybe even more so than back in New Zealand where he is regarded as the greatest New Zealand captain and batsman of all time. 

So being in India for this big clash between the New Zealand and Indian cricket teams was at the same time exciting and a bit concerning as we didn’t know how we would be treated if New Zealand won. We ended up watching the game at a craft beer brewery which had the game playing on a big screen. We met a very friendly and chatty guy there called Arjuna who was visiting Pondy from Chennai to watch the cricket. He was a real character and gave us lots of shit as the Indian team picked apart the New Zealand team in the finals. It was a close game and while we were sad to lose, it is kind of a relief we wouldn’t have to deal with the potential repercussions for the rest of our time in India. 

On our last day in Pondy our new friend Arjuna took us to his favourite South Indian restaurant for breakfast where he explained the menu to us and recommended some things for us to try. It was a great introduction to South Indian cuisine, and made us really excited to go back to our normal travel routine of only eating local food. 

Puducherry is a beautiful place with a wide variety of Indo-French inspired food, amazing shopping, and beautiful colonial architecture. It was the perfect way for us to start in India as we really needed a few days to relax and find our feet. Next up we are heading off to explore ancient southern India at historic Mahabalipuram

It was the distances that worried me most about India. To try and travel this country by boat, road and rail felt silly once I realized it was over 50 times bigger than Sri Lanka. 

Once the coast was within sight, I watched our blue GPS dot inch slowly up the tiniest stretch of coastline. A ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ type of scenario, when looking at a map of the whole country. The boat from Sri Lanka had taken the expected 5 hours, and just like that, we had arrived in India. 

We pulled into the bay with a few spectators watching along the shore, and then into the port with much more than a few border patrol, army, navy and other official looking people waiting. It was actually sunset when we arrived, the whole place cast in a golden glow. It felt otherworldly, and many cameras were out as we made our way to the terminal. Here, as in Sri Lanka, immigration was an easy process. We wouldn’t have been able to get in without our paper visas, and it was nice to see the pre planning that had gone into getting these pay off. We were actually asked how we were leaving the country (it can be difficult not having a return air ticket), but the officer wasn’t bothered when we said we would be catching a bus into Nepal. 

We tried to get answers out of the boat company team on a few key questions:

We didn’t get any comprehensible answers, and within a few minutes were ushered out the gates to start our journey with a polite goodbye. Bracing ourselves to be hustled we approached the nearest group of Auto drivers, who although speaking very little English, were very helpful in taking us to get cash out, and then to our accommodation for what seemed like a reasonable price. (To break the fourth wall, about four days into India as I’m writing this, I’m still unsure about how much to pay for autos. It seems to vary every time and we seem to have no hope in hell with bargaining. I’ll update you in another week, hopefully we’ve got the hang of it!!) 

Our first impressions of India on that auto ride were exactly what I remembered and totally what I imagined. It was more chaotic, noisier, dirtier and busier than the streets of Sri Lanka. We saw cows, sewars, rubbish piles and people urinating basically straight away. We also saw the most beautiful saris, so many chai shops, a bustling port town, and people trading and selling everywhere. Key words there being ‘people’ and ‘everywhere’, it’s immediately clear that this country has the largest population in the world. We both had a kind of anxious excitement. Feeling hesitant to dip a toe in, it was hard to imagine how we would fit into this picture. But, India doesn’t really give you the option of dipping a toe in, it’s more like jumping into the deep end of a swimming pool. 

Our accommodation was fine, and after dropping our bags we decided it was time to go for it and jump in. A short walk down the street was enough for night one, and there was plenty to see and explore. We found some delicious paratha and sambar for dinner (basically a flaky flat bread and curry), served on a banana leaf as it has been in Northern Sri Lanka. After dinner we had the obligatory chai, which was simply delicious. Looking forward to many more cups of this!! We talked to lots of people on the street and were asked many times, “what country”! New Zealand is always greeted with smiles and handshakes, and responses of “Black Caps” and “Kane Williamson”!

I’m not quite sure how to explain how it feels to walk down the street in India. About 80% of your focus goes to the cars, motorbikes, trucks and buses that are hurtling past. Another 10% goes to making sure you don’t step into anything unsavory, or walk into anyone. That leaves 8% to take in what’s going on around you, and 2% to consult your google maps. There is enough to see for that 8% to be 100%, so stopping at various points to take it all in is essential. 

I do feel like I’m being stared at much more than Sri Lanka already, but that is to be expected and nothing has felt at all hostile or predatory, just curious. We were out walking for about an hour and a half, and that felt like enough for night one. There was so much to see but we were pretty exhausted and it was overwhelming. At this point we realized it would definitely take a few days to get used to this. 

That night we both slept pretty badly, it was pretty hot in our non ac room without the window open, but there wasn’t a mosquito net (or somewhere to hang one). The following morning we spent a couple of hours trying to get SIM cards, eventually working out that waiting until the bigger town of Puducherry would be much easier. Thank god for e-sims which were providing us with data in the meantime. We found our way to the bus station and had a great breakfast of dosas and coffee (the local filter coffee here is really great, and cheap). Then it was time to find the bus, and we swiftly got ushered onto an AC semi sleeper, without a lot of say in the matter! We had intended on trying to take the local bus, but for 460 rupee (less than $10 NZD), we were happy to do what we were told. 

Sitting down on that AC bus I felt a sense of relief. Like, okay, we can do this! We fed ourselves and got ourselves around and we are now successfully on the bus to our next destination. The bus was about four hours (160km), and I laughed to myself again watching how small of a distance the blue dot was again inching across. What a journey we are in for. India, we have arrived, but I don’t think you’ve noticed. 

A small P.S. - pictures are a bit limited, as most of our attention at this point was on surviving, not documenting!  

The port was a short 30 minute drive away from the main town of Jaffna, in a small beach town called Kankesanturai. We had visited the night before for a swim and to soak up our last sunset in Sri Lanka, one of the most beautiful we’d had so far. We also took this as an opportunity to scope out where we needed to go the following day. We had a 1 PM departure, so we arrived at 11 AM to begin the check in process. The port is part of a navy base, and from the number of staff in uniforms, you could definitely tell!! It was hard to know who was army, navy, port authority etc, but there were definitely a lot of them. Immigration and customs was easy and fast, with much smaller lines than you would experience at an airport. We were the only people there that weren’t Sri Lankan or Indian, so we got lots of smiles and attention the whole way through. After about 20 minutes, all the formalities were done, and we were waiting in a very cold departure lounge for another hour and a half until it was time to board. After eating amazing food all throughout Sri Lanka, our final meal consisted of different types of plain white bread and muffins, and Nescafé coffee. I couldn't believe I had eaten my last hopper without really memorialising the experience!!

After 90 minutes of sitting around, all of a sudden things started to move very fast. Everyone was up and out the doors before we even realized what was happening (we had both been plugged in writing and researching), and suddenly we were being told to hurry hurry! We still had our big bags so we were jammed into the middle of a bus to take us the two minutes over to the boat. Then, excitingly, we boarded the boat to India! Somehow we managed to be put in premium economy (by ourselves), not sure if this was our tickets or the fact we were the only white people… the seats were comfy and we had great views out to each side. Unfortunately you couldn’t go outside on this ferry, but we watched Sri Lankan land slowly fade away as we heading further across the Palak Straight. Throughout the start of the trip we were visited by a number of passengers from downstairs, many who were vlogging or FaceTiming friends and family. The boat between the two countries is still a bit of a novelty! They showed a great Bollywood style film on the boat (with subtitles), that was very dramatic and most entertaining, and we were served rice and curry for lunch. Josh had a nap (I was too engrossed in the film), and before too long we were sailing parallel to the Southern coast of Tamil Nadu, making our way to Nagappatinam. 

The train to Jaffna was the nicest train we had been on so far! We booked 3rd class unreserved seats which only cost us $4NZD total for both our tickets on the 200km (4 hour long) journey to the top of the country. We managed to get a comfortable booth to share with some friendly local guys from the north, one from Jaffna and the other from a small town nearby. They both spoke fluent English and were clearly very well educated. One was now living in the UK and back visiting his family, while the other was working in finance in Jaffna. They gave us some helpful recommendations for the city, and explained some of the cultural differences between Sinhalese people and Tamil people. We also got a language lesson, which taught us some basic phrases to use in Tamil (the language spoken by Tamil people), which is actually one of the oldest living languages in the world. We were very interested to see this culturally different part of Sri Lanka, and learn more about how the Civil War had impacted the people from this part of the country.

Jaffna is a dynamic city and we immediately felt the energy and hustle and bustle of the place. The primary religion of Tamil people is Hinduism rather than Buddhism which is everywhere in the south, and this was immediately noticeable. Hindu temples with their towering gateways adorned with statues of the innumerable Hindu gods were everywhere, and cows (considered sacred by Hindus) freely roamed the busy streets. This was my first time seeing anything Hindu and I am very excited to learn more about this ancient religion of many gods which dominates India.

Our first stop in Jaffna was to try and get some pants made for Alice (she had brought some from Glassons before we left and they lasted 2 weeks before ripping). A good reminder not to buy fast fashion. We headed to the nearby local market where we found a store selling linen, and Alice picked the colour she wanted. With fabric in hand, the helpful family at the shop sent someone with us to help. We walked down to an entire avenue of tailors, who seemed to speak almost no english. Luckily our friend from the store could roughly translate that Alice wanted some pants made from her fabric. The ladies in the tailoring store seemed uncertain at first as they were all tiny and Alice towered over them, but after some further conversation they seemed happy to do it and started taking measurements. We were not holding out hope that the pants would fit or be what Alice wanted but we left with our fingers crossed, and we would find out in a couple of days time.

For our first full day in the north we rented a scooter and started early as we had a big 200km of driving ahead of us. We started by heading to Point Pedro lighthouse (the northernmost point on the island) and from there we cruised down the eastern coast on the coastal highway. I have been quite impressed by the quality of the roads in Sri Lanka. They are wide, well painted and signposted with very few potholes. It made for a nice cruisy drive, with very little traffic and we made good time. We were heading for a small fishing town down the coast called Mullaitivu. This place has experienced tremendous suffering in recent years with the 2004 boxing day tsunami causing widespread devastation, and an important historical location from the Sri Lankan Civil War. We have learnt a lot about the Civil War from reading books set in the country during the time, and we wanted to see this harrowing place firsthand. The war was fought from 1983 to 2009 between the government and an insurgent terrorist organisation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE wanted to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to continuous discrimination and persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government.

First we visited the government built war memorial which is a towering statue of a soldier raising a machine gun to the sky erupting from a quiet little pond covered in lillies. Next we went searching for the secret Tamil war memorial which was a lot less obnoxious and a lot more depressing. It consisted of five stone pillars topped with plastered hands dripping blood. There was clearly no government money available to fund the construction, and no signs to explain the significance and meaning behind the memorial. 

At the end of the Civil War with the LTTE in full retreat, they were holding hostage much of the civilian population in the area, and the government declared the area a ‘no fire zone’. However, this was largely ignored and according to the UN, between 40,000 and 70,000 Tamil civilians were killed from indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. Not that the LTTE were saints either, as they reportedly shot at any civilians attempting to escape. It was a barren and desolate place even today, and I can’t even imagine the horror that the innocent Tamil people caught up in this conflict must have experienced.

The next day was our last full day in Sri Lanka, and we spent it doing some more lighthearted activities. First stop was to check on Alice’s pants, and to our surprise they were a major success. The shape and fit was great, and the stitching looked impeccable. I suspect they will last much longer than the Glassons pants. We thanked the ladies in the tailoring shop and Alice got a photo with them which they loved. We met a lovely local guy called Kasun at his coffee shop. He was so lovely, and actually ended up offering to cook dinner for us for our final night in Sri Lanka. After a scooter ride to the beach for sunset we were back to Kasun’s for dinner, which was a delicious Vietnamese pho. Kasun was a chef for many years in a Vietnamese restaurant, and his cooking was great. It was an excellent final dinner and night in this amazing country, and overall a really nice day. Tomorrow we will be catching the ferry to India, and we were equally nervous and excited about this next step in our journey. Would the ferry even go? Would our Indian visas be accepted fine at the port in India? All would be revealed the next day..