We had to leave this morning by 8. In order to do that we had to get out of the room, check out, and eat breakfast. We are frenetic, so we had lots of time.
Driving in India has a pattern. I'm just glad I'm not doing the driving. On the highway are trucks, buses, tuk tuks, motorcycles, pedestrians, and, of course, cars. All vehicles seem to be anywhere to the left of the road. If you want to pass, you honk your horn. If you are about to be passed, you honk your horn. If you are worried that someone is about to hit you, or you are about to be hit, you honk your horn. It's a loud process. When you are going to pass someone you pull to the right (they have left hand drive here-a la England). A lot of honking ensues. If an oncoming car seems to be closing in, you pull back and wait for another chance. To say the least, it's not very relaxing either for driver or passengers. We drove straight through to Madurai and got here about 1:15. By the time we checked in, got our room, and kind of settled it was 2.
Below are photos that we took on the drive. The areas that we have visited so far have been rather flat. The hill that the palace stood on in Hyderabad really wasn't that tall. On our drive today we went through much higher mountains than we've seen so far.
We ate in the cafe here. OK. Tonight at 8 we have a temple visit. I'll write more about that later. The internet is quite slow, so we're in the lobby hoping for the best.
Another kingfisher. This one just sat on the lawn and posed. It's a little hard to tell how big they are from the photo - it's about 18 inches tall.
Driving in India has a pattern. I'm just glad I'm not doing the driving. On the highway are trucks, buses, tuk tuks, motorcycles, pedestrians, and, of course, cars. All vehicles seem to be anywhere to the left of the road. If you want to pass, you honk your horn. If you are about to be passed, you honk your horn. If you are worried that someone is about to hit you, or you are about to be hit, you honk your horn. It's a loud process. When you are going to pass someone you pull to the right (they have left hand drive here-a la England). A lot of honking ensues. If an oncoming car seems to be closing in, you pull back and wait for another chance. To say the least, it's not very relaxing either for driver or passengers. We drove straight through to Madurai and got here about 1:15. By the time we checked in, got our room, and kind of settled it was 2.
Below are photos that we took on the drive. The areas that we have visited so far have been rather flat. The hill that the palace stood on in Hyderabad really wasn't that tall. On our drive today we went through much higher mountains than we've seen so far.
The blue plastic bags are covering collections of rubber from the trees. It had been raining, so the plastic was protecting the product
Mountain view from the road
We stopped to admire a waterfall
A tea plantation
A closer look at the tea bushes
Another view of the tea bushes
The bar behind the stop sign behind the walkers is the border between Kerala and Tamilnadu. Seemed overly formal until we went through. No ceremony - no stop - just a bar
The man in the photo is making banana chips. I really dislike bananas, but these were pretty good. They really tasted like potato chips.
More beautiful scenery
It was Sunday, a holiday for most people, and the beginning of Diwali, a very big deal holiday for the Indians. It goes on for 5 days. Apparently it is also celebrated in Sri Lanka, so we won't miss the end.
This store was like a combo of Disneyland and Macy's at Union Square
We ate in the cafe here. OK. Tonight at 8 we have a temple visit. I'll write more about that later. The internet is quite slow, so we're in the lobby hoping for the best.
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