Come along for the journey!

Come along for the journey!

Tuesday 22 December 2009

PILGRIMS & BACKPACKERS: (Somewhere in Tamil Nadu, India)

As a reminder to you that this blog is not simply wasting your time with pictures of our unrecognisably incremental tanning, I submit to you another riveting observation that will be entirely meaningless to most, but will satisfy my pseudo-anthropological tendencies.


I'm going compare and contrast the pilgrims who we believe are headed for the Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, and us weary backpackers on the old hippy trail: both consider their trip 'a quest' of sorts - the pilgrims seek good luck and prosperity through their devotions and offerings, backpackers find neither; the pilgrims shave their hair as an act of piety whereas backpackers frequently feel compelled to grow theirs; both have to carry all the posessions needed for the trip - the pilgrims may only take what they can carry on their head, we may take what my wife can carry; neither party showers for extended periods; and both must travel third class (apart from our own Laura Spink who simply 'will not').

Whilst my exhaustive study draws no concrete conclusions, my submission to Harvard will inevitably land me with a grant to pursue yet more inane pontificating.

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