Salon Wanderlust | Mondo Weirdo

Women's dilemma
By Dawn MacKeen
Is solo travel worth the risk?
Florence
By Jan Morris
The most civilized city of all time
D E P A R T M E N T S
The Surreal Gourmet
By Bob Blumer
Buco time: A feast for that extra hour
Mondo Weirdo
A piercing Hindu fest
Road Warrior
Business travel & beyond
Table Talk
From the medieval torture museum in Amsterdam to piles of skeletons at a World War I battlefield, world travelers discuss the strangest museums they've visited in the Wanderlust discussion area

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LA S T+W E E K
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 1997

This place has legs
By Catherine Seipp
In search of the perfect Hollywood hangout
A full list of all
Wanderlust articles

[Mondo Weirdo: A piercing Hindu fest]

A+P I E R C I N G hindu F E S T
This week's Mondo Weirdo takes us to a bizarre Hindu festival in Malaysia, a treetop room in Zimbabwe, a rooftop in Morocco and an unusual "hotel" in Alaska. What's the most amazing festival you've ever seen, or the strangest night you've ever spent? Send your tales to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com.
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Is that a skewer through your nose?
One of the most incredible festivals that I have ever seen is the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. This festival occurs once each year outside of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the Batu Caves. Several thousand Hindus participate.
They sleep all night in a temple, then, before dawn, they make their way to the river that runs by the festival grounds. They put on loin cloths, then dip themselves in the river. After leaving the river, they kneel before a priest and inhale incense, which sends them into a trance. The priest will then start piercing their skin with hooks and skewers. Many will have skewers through their tongues and cheeks. Some will carry heavy baskets with sharp points that will pierce the skin. Incredibly, they don't bleed from all of this. Evidently, bleeding is a sign that the gods rejected the sacrifice.
The participants, still in a trance, start dancing around while the priests chant. They make their way down a path to the bottom of a hill. There is a staircase with about 500 steps leading up the hill. The participants climb the steps to the top. In a cave at the top, the priests remove the hooks, skewers and baskets, then declare if the sacrifice was a success. I can still hear the thousands of people chanting and smell the strong incense.
-- Carl Bishop
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A strange and furry bedfellow
Sleeping in a treetop room in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, I was awakened by a scurry across my sleeping bag, although I was inside a mosquito net and had it tucked under my sleep mat. As I felt around tentatively over my bedding, "it" scurried a little out of reach.
Then, in sheer terror (and curiosity), I whispered to my traveling companion to wake up and bring me the torch. After a fumble to get out of his bag and net, he shone the torch on me. It was a furry creature like a very small possum with bright shiny eyes, as startled as I was. He was quick to get away when we pulled up the net. I never knew what it was exactly -- although the rangers seemed to know, but I didn't catch the local name for it.
-- Sharon Griffiths
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Concrete jungle cooker
On a trek through the Atlas Mountains of Morroco, the first stop was the village of Emoulas. Arrangements had been made for us to stay in the home of the village headman, one of the finest homes in the village. Construction was of concrete rather than the traditional mud. Our room was furnished with carpets and cushions and had brightly painted walls. There was no electricity, running water or screens on doors and windows, but it was the only room so sumptuously appointed. Although the concrete was meant as a luxury, it was also a very efficient heat insulator, and the day's accumulated BTUs radiated from the floor, walls and ceiling throughout the night. I had brought a down sleeping bag because we were going to the mountains, right? I ended up joining my six companions on the roof -- where we found relief under one of those incredible skies filled with satellites traversing the heavens over this village so very far removed from our high-tech world.
-- Leonard Hunter
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Is there a sleeping compartment in this plane?
I spent most of the '80s tramping around the islands of southeast Alaska. The only transportation with any speed were float planes. Boats were also available but, with the size of Alaska, very slow in getting you to your destination.
One fall I was flying back to camp in a wicked storm. The brush pilot landed in a secluded bay that was sheltered from the wind. After catching and frying a few fish, we spent the night in the float plane. Not my best sleep ever, but interesting.
-- "quig"
SALON | Oct. 21, 1997
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How about you? Do you have a weird travel tale to share? Send it to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com. And join our Table Talk discussion on travel and food.