Farewell Oddan, we'll miss you

Well, we've left Oddanchatram never (probably, but who knows?) to return. After heading in to 'work' for a couple of hours yesterday morning we packed up our gear and headed to Dindigul (did I mention we love Dindigul?). Leaving our packs locked up at the train station, we had a bit of a wander and came across a very nice hotel restaurant with A/C where we sat and relaxed a bit with some ice-creams (three of us had what was called on the menu a 'Funny Hug' - no idea why - it was only funny because it was called a hug and it was really just fruit salad and icecream..strange).

With about an hour to kill before they started serving dinner, we went outside for a wander of the surrounding area. The sun was just about to set at this point. We still had a few flowerpots and crackers left over from Diwali that we had to get rid of, so we let a few off in a sidestreet near the hotel. Then the most bizarre thing happened. Fireworks started going off all over the town and within literally ten minutes of leaving the hotel, all the local doorsteps were lit up with small oil lamps illuminating beautiful chalk drawings that the locals had drawn. Everyone started spilling out into the street and lighting fireworks and before we knew it we were in the middle of WWIII. A young Indian bloke told me that it was yet another Hindu festival being celebrated (just looked it up - its called Dev Diwali), and handed us all sparklers. We wandered around the small alleys and markets avoiding the crackers for about an hour and the effect of the lamps in the dark, with a full moon overhead was simply stunning. A very unexpected treat for our last night in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Kev and I got the overnight train to Bangalore and we're spending the day here, before flying to Nepal in the morning. The girls left us having to get a bus to Madurai in order to catch a train to Nagercoil in the south. Bangalore is a very westernised city, complete with bars that sell alcohol (and allow women, in fact some places won't let in blokes without female 'chaperones'), dancefloors and all the big brand shopping you can handle. We had pizza for lunch - apparently we were craving some non-Indian food after our 4 weeks in the back of beyond - it tasted soo good :) Can't wait to get stuck into some Nepali food starting tomorrow!

Thanks for dropping by!