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lisa-jane
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Subject: "stomach excitement"
Posted: 17 Feb 2005 1:06 am
Hi Mark
I was having a confo with someone yesterday about how i craved that type of ridiculous feeling of what i call "stomach excitement" that seems to accompany the incongruaties of life on the road... As a Brit, a traveller, who has found HK home for the past 3yrs, things have been rather stationary - until the possibility to relocate to Tamil Nadu has become a real possibility - couldn't really get a sharper contrast could you! Anyhow, I was having fun reading your tales when your thoughts on getting woken up in Indian Hotels cracked me up!
"chai? Kaafi??" they shout...
"No thanks you bastard" you reply ... so amusingly british, seemed to recapture that lovely shock-to-the-senses that comes from our self-impossed "adventures"
Cheers
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lisa-jane
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Subject: culture quotes!
Posted: 17 Feb 2005 2:54 am
Hey Mark
Quoting you for the second time, I though the following was a good insight to the blurring of cultural phenomenon...
"So we ducked into a chai shop
for a couple of bottles of pepsi"
B e a u t i f u l
for the record, I am an anthropologist, so just love little comments like that, that reveal stronger forces at work when it comes to the way we experience our selves in different contexts.
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Mark Moxon
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Subject: Indian stomach excitement
Posted: 17 Feb 2005 10:27 am
Hi lisa-jane.
'Stomach excitement' - what a great phrase! (Though given my stomach's experiences of India, I'm not sure it would agree... 😉) I too adore living on the cusp of two cultures rubbing up against each other, and I particularly enjoyed this aspect of India. I don't know if you've been to Tamil Nadu yet, but it's a very special place, and there's no shortage of delightful experiences waiting round the corner. I'm hugely jealous; I'd love to go back!
I also found it a big relief that Indian culture is not only alive and kicking, it's managing to hold up extremely well against the tide of westernisation that's engulfing large parts of the globe. Sure, Pepsi and Coke are big in India, but the drink I kept coming across was Thums Up (sic), a kind of masala cola. I loved it, and it's a great example of how India absorbs things from other cultures (soft drinks, movies, democracy, train timetables etc.) and then changes them to be distinctly Indian. Bravo to the Indians, I say; it would be a crying shame if their deep culture was overrun by the steamroller of the West that's affecting so many other nations, but I can't see it happening. Instead there's a culture just chocka with moments of stomach excitement!
Have a wonderful time in Tamil Nadu, and do say hello to the place for me. Hopefully you'll grow as fond of it as I am.
Best of luck, and thanks for posting. 😀
All the best,
Mark
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lisa-jane
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Subject: thumbs up!
Posted: 17 Feb 2005 10:41 am
Hi Mark
how wonderful to hear that india as its own masala cola, looking forward to sipping a couple a'bottles of that whilst gazing beyond from the misty heights of kodaikanal, which of course was featured with great esteem in your travel pages.
Keep up your ace pages, and this anti-peach bathroom forum 😉
all the best,
lisa-jane
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Mark Moxon
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Subject: Kodaikanal
Posted: 17 Feb 2005 10:51 am
Hi lisa-jane,
Don't! You're making all jealous! 😉
Do say hi to Kodai for me. I heard from a recent visitor to Kodai on this forum - someone who was brought up there, no less - who said that it hasn't been spoilt by development (unlike some other hill stations), so here's hoping it's as lovely as when I visited.
Have fun!
Mark
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lisa-jane
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Subject: kody&litter
Posted: 17 Feb 2005 11:49 am
Hey Mark
rest assured that i will send kody your love!
Its great to hear that development has been kept to the minimum up there, what did you think of the rubbish issue and deforestation? Might get myself into a bit of horticulture by default.
After the hot steamy manicness of HK (although its nice and cool at the mo)a more temporate climate that requires one sit around the occasional fire would be a simple but lovely luxury.
If as you say any of your readers have lived in kodaikanal, i'd be happy to get a mail from them on raredrops44, from the mail-server that is no less than "hot"
for now mr. mark moxon with your degree from oxon (dy'a like that!), i will keep enjoying your honest and spirit tales from afar. You are the first male I have ever come across that digs good old shezza crow!brill.
cheers!
lisa
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Mark Moxon
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Subject: Kodai
Posted: 18 Feb 2005 1:56 pm
Hi lisa-jane.
I didn't come away from Kodi thinking it had been ruined; I don't remember seeing any deforestation there, or hearing about it. There's a large Sai Baba ashram there, and he's an influential bloke, though I don't know whether he has anything to do with Kodai remaining so unspoilt. Whatever, I'm glad if it's surviving the steamroller of progress...
Mark
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