The other day I had the opportunity to head down to the southern tip of India. Apparently it's one of the few places around that you can see the moon rise and the sunset over one ocean. Sounds nice enough, right? Wrong.
I learned two lessons from this trip. The first was the one I've had to learn time and time again - don't have expectations.
My idea of the trip was to be dropped off on the beach and then the other tourists do thier touring and I go out and paint. When it's time to go, I head back and we all head home.
The reality of the trip was completely opposite. It involved a big bus, full of a bunch of people being shuffled in and out going from one spot to the next. Our first destination was some waterfalls. The water falling was nice, but the acres and acres of concrete surrounding them really took away from the scene. After standing around doing nothing, we headed to a temple which didn't interest me too much, and then we went to breakfast. In the bus and then out of the bus then back in the bus.
Our next stop was to the very southern tip of India. There's a town there that I didn't bother to remember the name, because I know I'll never go back. We shuffle off the bus and this time we get shuffled onto a barge and head to this little rocky island with an enormous statue build on it.
The statue itself was amazing, but we didn't have much time to enjoy it since we had to get on another barge and head over to another rocky island to see a temple. After a quick scurry around this temple, it's back onto the barge, back onto land, then back on the bus.
The highlight of the island hop wasn't for me, but for the Indian's who wanted to have thier picture taken with a white guy. I was happy to oblige. Seeing the smiles on thier faces and enjoyment, took away from the dismal air hanging around my trip. Once one person saw that I didn't mind the photos, others came along and joined in the fun.
Now it's time for lunch. So the bus takes us to this cafeteria place and the food was delicious. We stayed here longer then we should have, which was odd since there wasn't anything there. I did enjoy a talk I had with this gardner there. He was teaching me hindi and I learned some important words and when I return to the states I told him I'd send him the picture I took of us and a pack of American writing pens.
After lunch we finally head to the beach. Alright, things are looking up I thought, but once again my expectations were dashed. The bus parked us on top of this hill and the beach was below us. "Whoo Hoo" I screamed as I headed down to the beach. (Well, not really, but in my head I was thinking that.) It didn't take long for me to realize that this wasn't a beach at all. It was a toilet. The stench was my first clue, the second was the all the dookie everywhere. If that wasn't enough of a clue, the man on the rocks doing his duty out in the open was my final clue.
Ok. No beach. No swimming. Fine, I'll go paint. Normally, I can paint anything anywhere. It's the beauty of not having a particular 'style.' This time, I was at a loss. The wind was blowing fierce and there were people eveywhere. The places where there wasn't someone selling, squating, or begging, only held garbage.
When I tell some people I'm heading to India, they get this expression on their face that says 'why?' The southern tip of India is what they are picturing in their mind. This was actually my first experience of this side of India, and boy did it stink. Lilterally.
As I'm wandering around to paint, I'm passing stall after stall of people selling junk. The junkiest of junk. Little plastic trinkets, key chains, broken plastic toys, and toys that will be broken shortly. It was so pitiful really. It made me think of our shopping in the west and at the heart of it, it's no different then this nonsense. Just a bunch of poor people buying useless junk.
After an hour of shuffling through crowds I find a restaurant that offers some respite. I sit with a few friends and we take in the air conditioning and watch the world go by from the security that comes from a window of glass.
Finally it's time to meet up at the bus. I'm thinking it's time to go, but nooooo. It's time to watch the sunset near the stinking, poopie beach. You may think that sounds nice, but it was cloudy. C'mon, you've got to be kidding me, can't we just leave? Nope. We are on a bus, and this bus has a schedule. Realizing my fate, I go sit on the bus and meditate while the flies land on my head and the cows eat the plastic wrappers on the street.
Now the sun is set. The cows have moved on and it's time to go home, right? Wrong. Now time to head to yet another temple. This temple was actually the most beautiful, but it was so late and I was so ready to head home. Once at the temple, we all shuffled off the bus and met a tour guide. Apparently we were a little behind schedule and the tour guide was ready to give us the summary tour of the place.
"Come, come, come. Look here. Krishna, statue, stars! Come, come, move one. Here we have some pillars that make noise. Come Come come, hurry we must go here.Look up, neat statue. Come, come, come."
As we follow around this maniac tour guide, we come to a place where the devout are supposed to climb some steps, wipe some stuff on their head, eat some prasad, and head on through. A long line of Indian men were waiting trying to offer their praise to their god before the temple closed. Instead of waiting in line, our tour guide, let us cut in front of the line and go through the process.
To me, this act was the crowning glory on an obnoxious day. Here were these people who truely belive in what they were doing, and they have to wait while these white, clown, tourists go through the process with no heart, and no belief? It was just as pathetic as the beach. I decided to wait for this circus elsewhere.
Finally after the longest day of my life (slight exageration) we get on the bus and head home. I fall asleep on the bus and I wake up to this horrible sound of crunching metal. The bus is going backwards down this steep hill. The guy in front of me is saying 'What is this driver doing? We've come all this way only to die as our bus falls into the lake." Ahhh... nothing like a relaxing day out of the Ashram.
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