South India Travel

Let me preface the following by saying that I was a first time traveler to India, spent less than 10 weeks traveling through Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and now returned to the USA intend to spend several months (or years...) processing my experience of South India before coming to any "definite" conclusions. (In my travels I have learned that it takes time for one’s experiences to assemble themselves in some coherent fashion, and this is certainly as true for a westerner in India as it must be for "easterners"(?) when confronted with our foreign sensibilities.)

And so I will *try* to be as objective and practicality-oriented as possible, while presenting the still fresh (but half-baked ;-) details of my travels for the benefit of first-time travelers in particular. (I expect that most India-philes who read this will wobble their heads in amusement, but there are a few details which may benefit them also :-)

My experience was further limited by time, language and transportation: I have worked as a professional driver in Los Angeles and ridden motorcycles for 20+ years, but did not hire a car or otherwise drive in India; I do not speak any Hindi (besides Namaste;-), nor the languages more commonly used in different parts of S. India; and I was accompanied by my lady friend during the first 2+ weeks of travel. Also, I am a white "middle-aged" (ouch!) , middle-class (only apparently ;-) American male, who spent the rest of my trip traveling alone.

Also of importance to note is that everything is very subject to change: the 2007 LP Guide was accurate about 1/4 of the time (which makes it frequently disappointing but worth carrying...), and that the rapid rate of change occurring in India means that even first hand information which would otherwise be considered current ("I got from point A to point B on this bus/train etc. for this price in this amount of time last month", etc.) far from a sure bet. In fact, getting good information *from anyone* in India is amazingly difficult; for example, the obstacles which arise while trying to book a train at an internet Café (before the operation "times out" or the server becomes unavailable) is frustratingly applicable to ALL sources of traveler information, human and otherwise... (Also, the electricity cuts out frequently and randomly EVERYWHERE, as does the internet itself, though of course more often....) I found only TWO Indian Tourism Offices open, one in Alleppey (manned by gangsters), and the other in Hampi, where an old gentleman quoted transportation schedules apparently from a bygone era...

So for what it is worth, and with sincere thanks to all who helped me, I offer the following: (I am listing the details in the order which I visited each place between Jan. 21 and March 26.)