Crowds, noise, food

7 October

Sitting in our hotel room with a cacophony of traffic sounds below, glasses of Kingfisher beer in hand. We're just back from Spencer Plaza, a shopping mall in the throes of renovation. Lots of stores selling brass statuettes, rugs and pashmina shawls, with traders and spruikers touting their wares - 'just opened today', 'brand new', 'best price'. Also though, department and speciality stores with fixed prices. Damian came away with new sunglasses (dropped his this morning), and I have a new pair of walking shoes - just because. Learning the art of haggling and walking away with the auto rickshaw (took-took) drivers - in the end it's just a few cents difference.

The day started though with a combination Indian and Western breakfast - masala omelette or beans and eggs, and a lot else besides; can highly recommend the masala omelette - plenty of oil, eggs, onion and spices, similar to something we had on our Nile cruise a few years ago. Crowds and noise are the key words on India so far - the streets, the temples, the markets. Visited a Hindu temple as part of a sightseeing tour this afternoon - no shoes, no photos inside certain shrines, and no non-Hindus within other parts too. We did get blessed by a Hindu priest though, so maybe we will come back as sacred cows in the next life. After receiving his jasmine flower necklace from a woman in the temple, Damian paraded around for an hour looking very holy. Not knowing what to do with it later, though, we worried that simply tossing it away would lead to other less favourable reincarnations. Luckily the two Hindu god statues in the foyer of our floor at the hotel accepted the offering.

On another religious note, we visited the Cathedral Basilica of St Thomas (the doubting one). I have always been fascinated by the fact that Christianity has been in India almost from day one - St Thomas is said to have arrived on the west coast of India in about 60AD and died in Mylapore (now Madras/Chennai) in about 72AD, murdered by the spear of a local on a hilltop in the region. Images of Christ and the apostles in the cathedral have a distinctly Indian quality to them - vibrant colours, flashing neon lights, and saintly images likely modelled on Bollywood actors, though St John had a touch of the Chuck Norrises about him. Another fascinating fact - the Cathedral Basilica of St Thomas is one of only three ini the world build on the tomb of a saint, the others being St Peter's in Rome and the Cathedral of Santiago (St James) de Compostela in Spain.