Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Our Unholy Tirupati/Tirumala Pigrimage

first vision after waking and walking bleary-eyed off our train in early morning mist.
namaste!
most beautiful dosa ever!
the cute girl (with drawn on eyebrows?) kept popping up to take a peek.



bahut tamatar
why hello.
approach of a temple
offerings for sale

dreadded sara says whats up to a dreadded baba

people shave their heads while on the pilgrimage (and then wear silly indian winter things like earmuffs)


Cleanliness is next to godliness (if you believe a white rabbit).
Shelter from the storm
Ah, we've found the rabbit hole.
From here we see what happens to all the coconut offerings at the temple below.
The rabbit hole is ascending and candy striped.
offerings of rock/fabric/unknown substances enjoy the view
bangles too
rock sculpture offerings
someone else is enjoying the view
discarded oil candle holders


trying to dry
compost offering?
a bright tent with hot frying food and people huddling in from the dark rainy night (the indian oasis?)
the most delicious, welcomed, nourishing chai from the sweetest chai-walla i have had in india thus far
we prepare for the day.
bag lady (wearing a skirt as a sack)+
umbrella lady = mary poppins in india yay!
A fraction of the Vanketeshwara Temple, the second wealthiest religious site to the Vatican, apparently because hot laundered money is tucked away here without investigation.
it's a looong wait.

might as well take this moment to study for our kuchipudi mudras test we have the second we get back to hyderabad.

wha?
this calls for a conga line
after a long day of waiting, then being pushed passed the demigod's shrine by other pilgrims and those women hired to push you past, then getting harassed because meghen stole a photo of the outer architecture, not to mention being wet all day, hot water was a blessing.
finding every corner from which to hang wet things.
our damp bed has transformed into an island! we put down the tarp meghen found on the street and had been using as a cape all day, then all the dry fabric we had-- tada!
next morning, went on a wild goose chase to check out because the registration office man who had helped us the day before kept our receipt that we needed to check out... just hangin out here waiting for our duplicate receipt...
i wonder what the others were waiting for (but i really don't want to know)
after feeling accomplished about the successful checkout, we went to eat and then wandered around the beautiful fog town (by getting as far away from the town as possible).
this guy wanted to come along,

but the way was too steep
to the fog forest!

why is the sewage intestine-colored.
why are there heads of hair everywhere (i guess if everyone's shaving their heads in this town they might as well do it here).

in the end this weekend was ridiculous and im never coming back here ever again, but it was pretty funny and what is a weekend in india without the ridiculous parts? nothing.