Shirley Mancino is an accomplished professional artist represented by Tay River Gallery in Perth. As an experienced budget traveller, life in Asia is often the inspiration for her work. Mancino travels to paint andpaints to travel. Image pictured to the left is "Sari Elegance", a 30 x 22 original painting in watercolour & acrylic by Shirley Mancino currently available at Tay River Gallery.
Epistle from Mahabilipurim- Nov 29
Just so you all know, we are safe and sound in SE India....nowhere near the fire and bomb blasts in Mumbai. Our flights departed and arrived on time but still we were about 21 hours in airline transit. We arrived in Chennai in the rain. We made a mistake in our arrival time, wasn't the middle of the afternoon but in the middle of the night 12 midnight to be exact. We had our guide book packed away and no hotel pre-booked....so we found a place in the city which cost about $30 US about twice as much as we have ever paid before....pouring rain and windy and two AM before we got settled in. The next morning we were awakened by a knock on our door by a man wanting to shine our shoes. we explained that we only had sandals and he offered to make us shoes....only in India.
Our biggest adventure so far has been finding our way across the sprawling city last Saturday and then onto the bus for Mahabs the next day....didn't get rained on or at least only a sprinkle....This is the monsoon season on this coast but we have also had a typhoon for the last 4 days, winds at 50 miles, power out all over on and off for days (mostly off) and our hotel room roof here in Mahabs is now leaking. We have had some romantic candle light evenings in our room with no TV and we have sat in the dark trying to stay awake so that we could overcome our jet lag. We are now able to stay awake all day which is a relief and the sun has come out. We changed rooms this morning so should be dry and safe tonite. We are missing the comforts and conveniences of home especially the food choices. This is a very poor state and/or village and there are barely no veggies to be had.We are tired of Indian food already and go looking for western alternatives.... absolutely no chocolate or treats. Beer is about $3 Cdn a bottle but til today, it hasn't been hot enuf to think about it.
I have completed 2 1/2 paintings so far so my production levels on that score are about normal. No galleries or other art studios here with the exception of stone carvers...they are everywhere. Will get this off before the power goes down again.
Dec 03- Further notes from Mahabs
We are staying in a small guest house here at the beach. This is an ancient town with temples and cave carving from the 1st to the 6th century...Palava, for any of you who care. we saw most of the sights the last time we were here so this time we have just been hanging out recuperating from the 10 1/2 hour time difference. It has taken us about 10 days which is what they suggest it will take.
The weather is great and we have been swimming twice altho... the water is very rough and dirty from the storms last week...our room is about 12 x 12, tiled floors and bathroom, TV and a balcony with plants and seating areas right outside our door, fan only and cool water shower which is surprisingly easy to get used to when the temp is 29 degrees C. Cost is about $5 USD. Oh and I get fresh flowers affixed to my door every morning!
As mentioned in our last epistle, a cyclone blew thru here and put the final touches on a sea wall which had been damaged about a month ago....12 feet high, 12 feet wide and about 200 feet long....the sea is very unforgiving. Now the rubble blocks the beach in front of a luxury hotel. The beaches are strewn with plastic bags and other flotsam making it an unpleasant walk.
But the streets are not paved or are paved only in places and are cracked and broken, making walking treacherous. Sand is everywhere and garbage...the dumps seem to be on every street corner. There is tremendous poverty here, most people wear no shoes and are dressed in only longy (short little sarongs). as mentioned before, food consists mainly of rice and bread (parotta or chapattis) and dal and not much else.
We are escaping to Goa on Friday, a 24 hour train ride which will cost about $20 USD for both of us.
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