Tamil Nadu

Written by S:

today we are in chennai, and it's our last day here in india. this is a huge, complex, confusing country, and we've covered a lot of ground in the last three months, which is an accomplishment of which to be proud. so far, india has had the best food, many of the best sights, and the craziest people. it's a little sad to be leaving. but on the other hand, this is a totally exhausting place to be a backpacker, and we are ready to move on to more relaxed sri lanka, and then southeast
asia.
since munnar, we've been to madurai, trichy, pondicherry, mamallapuram and now chennai, all in tamil nadu state. tamil nadu is one of the indian states that obstinately refuses to learn hindi, instead preferring tamil, a langauge that has been spoken here uninterruptedly for over 2000 years. apparently they still use the same slang that greek and roman traders heard here thousands of years ago. the
langauge is totally unrelated to the sanscrit-based hindi, which they view here as a form of northern cultural imperialism.

madurai and trichy have two of the largest hindu temples we've seen so far - tall, labyrinthine, and intricately decorated. pondicherry is the former heart of french india, today possessing a bizarre mix of french and indian culture. parts of the town look like you are in mediterranean france, or even martinique. french is still widely spoken here, and it can be somewhat surreal to see traditionally dressed indians jabbering back and forth to each other in perfect french.

mamallapuram is seaside temple town, that's kind of been overrun by backpackers. and today we are just relaxing in chennai, mentally preparing to leave to country. we will be in sri lanka for a week, then i will head to southeast asia while vickie heads home to interview for jobs.