Miscellaneous Tamil Nadu Trip

One of the things that come with a tour (even a private tour) are the inevitable visits to souvenir shops.  We visited several, and Liz missed one (in Chennai when no autocab driver would take me on my trip unless I visited a shop.)  But here is Liz getting into an Autocab in Chennai.



Liz meets an Autocab in Chennai

A ride in an autocab in Chennai

In Chennai we visited (voluntarily on our own) a one price shop (Kalpa Druma) near our hotel.  The shop specialized in soft goods from various ethnic areas of India.  This was not one of the government operated shops.  The goods were displayed attractively with attentive and helpful sales people.  I purchased a number of India style men's pullover shirts.  I even went back to purchase more.  No heavy sales pitch and we appreciated it.

At Malapuram the shops were on strike (see a previous blog entry), but we visited a government run souvenir shop.  The items were not displayed well, but they did find and return Liz's prescription glasses (see description in an earlier entry).  As a side comment, here in Malaysia Tesco has been hired by the government to consult with small shop owners to renovate their shophouses (perhaps Walmart\Tesco\Target should do the same to assist local businesses update their shops in small towns).

In Tanjore we have already commented on the trip to the souvenir shop outside of the temple, and we were dreading the stop at the brass foundry.  Much to our surprise, this visit was fun, informative, and interesting.  If it had not been for the immediate previous experience we may have purchased an item.  As in many places, if you see it, and it interests you buy it, as it most likely will not be available in the next village/town/city.

The brass foundry (Baskar, Chola Artisans of Tanjore) was a small shop in a residential area on the outskirts of Tanjore (No. 6-A, Ganapathy Nagar, (opp. Sathya Stadium), Tanjore - 613 001, Tamilnadu, India).  We were led into a dark work area with two workers, one operating the bellows, heating the ore mixture to the appropriate temperature.  The fire was fueled by charcoal.  While this was going on, the owner was describing the process, a lost wax technique similar to this linked video.  Specifically, the artisan was using Chola Bronze Sculpture Lost Wax-Cire Perudu Technique.

Bronze being made from ingots of the raw materials

The forge

The artisan

The bronze out of the cast



A partially completed statue, hand finishing yet to be completed.

And finally, we did a short walk through the city in Bangalore.  Bangalore actually has unobstructed sidewalks which makes it a walkable city.  We were in the center of the city on our day of departure to Kuala Lumpur, so we spent an hour our so walking around.  Bangalore has a massive bus station adjacent to the central railroad station.  From above we could view local and long distance buses pulling in an out of the complex, with designated bays for each bus service.

Bangalore Local Bus Station

When travelling we frequently muse at the great varieties of snack food that are available.  Even familiar brands such as "Lay's" will localize their products.  Simple non flavored snacks "salted potato crisps" may not be available.  So we take pictures of what we find....and of course sample the products.  Here is a local product for your enjoyment.

Local Indian Snack.  Tastes like ketchup.

And finally, no trip is finished until our driver says good bye.  He takes responsibility for us from the start of the tour and only takes a sigh of relief when we are gone at the airport.

And with many thanks.... our driver, Suresh Babu.