Rameswaram and the Nasty Flies

I headed out of Tanjore first thing this morning hoping to make it to Rameswaram in one day. The jouney took me thorugh some very rural villages and along some very dusty and bumpy dirt roads. It took me close to 8 hours before I finally reached Rameswaram, a tiny, remote island village off the south eastern coast of India. Rameswaram is home to Ramanathaswamy Temple, one of the most holy pigrimsites in India; second only to jumping in the waters of the Ganga at Varanasi. Turns out my visit coincides with Masi Sivarathiri, a festival held each March and as such, finding a room was next to impossible and the streets are flooded with Indians making pilgrimages here.

Walking down the streets I couldn't help but notice the excessive amount of flies swarming about. This town seems no dirtier than any other city or village I've been to, but I've never experienced flies like this before. These aren't just little house flies either, they are big, fat, red-headed flies, that surround you. It's what I imagine it must be like during a locust invasion. I was literally scared to take too deep of a breath for fear of inhaling a fly either through a nostril or staight into my windpipe! My room is full of flies too. Laying on my bed cooling off under the ceiling fan I noticed not only flies all over the room,but falling occasionally onto the bed. Grossed out, I'd wave my hand over them encouraging them to move on, but they just laid there, completely unfazed by my hand. I think they got a little too close to the ceiling fan!