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Justine Shapiro travels through South India,
an enchanting land of Hindu Temples, hill forts, pigeon English
and vegetarianism which has become a favourite destination
for your backpackers.
 Beginning in Madras, the capital of Tamil
Nadu, Justine ventures into a restaurant where three
thousand local people eat lunch every day. Each day they all
dine on the same dish - a vegetarian speciality called Thali.
A local helps her master the art of eating with her fingers.
Travelling south to the typical market town of Gingee, Justine
hitches a ride on a bullock cart to the nearby Hindu temple
at Tiravanamali, where she encounters the elephant god, Ganesh.
Ganesh's blessing is said to bring good fortune and wisdom.
Further south is the temple city of Madurai,
one of south India's oldest cities. Justine joins the locals
in one of the town's 50 cinemas before witnessing the colourful
Hindu Float festival.
An overnight train takes Justine west to Quilon in the state of Kerala. The sun-drenched
coast is pockmarked with little bays and beaches, such as Varkala. Varkala has become a popular destination
for seasoned India travellers who are venturing further south
now that the old hippie hangout of Goa has been overrun by
package tourists. From here Justine travels to an elephant
sanctuary where she helps bath the elephants.
Justine takes a boat trip through the backwaters of Kerala
- a system of lakes and waterways that lies just below sea
level and covers a 350 square miles. The maze of canals leads
to an  Ashram where Justine visits one of
India's very few female gurus, Amma, who
has hugged over 10 million people from all around the world.
The hugging is known as darshen and it's
meant to produce a beneficial spiritual current.
On the final leg of her trip, Justine leaves mainland India
and heads west to the idyllic Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea, where she washes off
the toils of the road and basks on the golden sands. |
