South Pole. turn around

From Kochi, went south to Kollam, Stayed in an enormous government guesthouse which is ridiculously cheap, extremely inefficient, and where we were the only guests:

Kollam is one of the access points for the Keralan backwaters. Visiting the backwaters, and particularly staying on a houseboat, is touted as one of the best things you can do in India, so we did (we being Josephine, Simon, Olivier - all parisians, et moi). Here's our boat:

It was beautiful - reminded me of the florida everglades - palm trees lining endless waterways, eagles, kingfishers, kids running along the river bank shouting "one school pen" at the tops of their voices, great food, swimming in "lagoons," waking up to sunrise on the water etc.

It was a great thing to do, and nice not to have to "do" anything to see so much.

From Kollam it was a short hop down the track to Varkala, which lots of people had told me is their favourite Indian beach... Actually, there isn't much of a beach but what there is is pretty amazing: the sand is black and the waves are pretty good (compared to goa). So, did some (body)surfing.. Varkala is very relaxed, but extremely touristy, and as it becomes more popular, it expands very quickly so is a bit of a building site.

There's a lot of rain in south India at the moment - nobody seems to know if this is the end of the monsoon or the start of the 2nd monsoon which sometimes happens. Anyway, there were some phenomenal storms which I watched from a bamboo shack on a cliff over cocktails.

All my french friends and 2 aussies we'd met in Jaipur (and bumped into in Kochi) left Varkala on the same day, in different directions, but I stayed on to meet a couple of friends from Arambol. Both clinical psychologists, both northern, both alcoholics, both into s**t music (I actually listened to a conversation about the relative brilliance of messers blunt and powter), but both lots of fun (and it was nice to speak english quickly again!)

So, I left Varkala alone which was actually really nice - exciting to have no idea if you'll see anyone you know for the rest of the trip, and to be able to travel at my own pace (having spent longer than anticipated on the west coast) - and headed south to Kanyakumari, the Land's End of India (where the Indian ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea meet), in Tamil Nadu. I only went there for its location, so wasn't too bothered to find that, like Land's End itself, its a bit of a themepark. More sea-shells-with-your-name-written-on stalls than I could count. There were some nice bits of town, but it is a tourist hotspot (Indian tourists, that is).

Having gone as far south as possible, I had little choice but to turn around! I had a great time on the east coast, but it was nice to leave as most of the places I went are tourist-focused - i.e. its hard to have a conversation with an Indian which doesn't end in a sales pitch, which is fairly irritating after a while. Its nice not to have your guard up all the time, as when you do meet someone who just wants to talk, you're naturally cautious. Anyway, I headed inland to Madurai, a large city famous for the Sri Meenakshi temple:

I'm really pleased I saw this temple as, until this point I hadn't been overly impressed by the temples I'd seen. But to see a massive, living, breathing Hindu temple in all its colours, with all its pilgrims' colours, was quite amazing. I'm pretty sure it designed by Matt Groening, or possibly Rolf Harris though...

Madurai itself is a fairly gritty Indian city. Lots and lots of beggars, not so many western tourists, thousands of rickshaw drivers (none of them with any customers as everything is within walking distance), tailors, electrical shops etc. Despite an attempted mugging by an old woman, I found Madurai really friendly and would like to have stayed longer, but I'd already booked my train...

And unfortunately the only seat left on the train to Pondicherry was in first class. There are about 6 classes on Indian trains and the 3rd/4th are absolutely fine, but its worth seeing how the upper crust do it. It reminded me of the carriages in the fims about the Orient Express, or maybe I'm confused. The most comfortable bed I've had in India, AC, 1:1 staff:passengers etc. Unfortunately the train left at midnight and arrived at 530am, so I didn't make the most of it.

Had one of my most embarassing moments in India shortly after getting off the train, sleep-deprived, onto a packed local bus where every sleepy-eyed Indian was already staring at me when I saw 3 brothers taking their morning shit by the side of the road (as most Indians do at that time of day). The smallest boy did the biggest, and the smugness on his face made me laugh for about 10 minutes... Mature, I know, but I was tired.

So, I'm in Pondicherry, on the south-east coast. This was a french colony and the french influence is everywhere. Apart from the language, there are wide tree-lined boulevards, proper coffee, steak roquefort, and not many tourists - I imagine because the lonely bastard bangs on about the ashrams and cult here... I'm not well-informed enough to explain their beliefs, but its citizens-of-the-world, no nationalities, building a better future etc. Near to Pondy is Auroville, a purpose-built "city" for this community, which is very strange. Most of what I saw was very serious, treat-our-founders-like-gods-and-buy-their-books-while-we-meditate-over-their-graves stuff. Needless to say, I'm more taken by the french side!

I'm going south to a tsunami-relief project for a week, and then I'll only have 10 days til I fly back for Xmas. Can't believe how quickly this is going, or how badly I'm writing this! byebye.......................

maps (and nothing remotely indian)

thanks to ed for saving me from a technological brick wall and letting me have a route map on the page. it doesn't have all the names of the places i've been, but there are a lot of places in India.
the reason for the brick wall is also the reason you can't enlarge the photos anymore, and why the text looks weird - blogger are upgrading. its all free, so can't complain. well, maybe.
ANYWAY
no, the title of the last post was not designed to reference a counting crows album.
i have lots to write but it'll have to wait as the computer i'm using doesn't have usb or a cd drive(!) so no pics. soon soon...

Gokarna and everything after

scene: I have 2 hours until the internet closes for the night, my next date with "broadband" is probably distant, I've just had to drink a few to wake myself up after one of the more relaxing experiences I've had (naked, covered in oil, being rubbed all over by 2 hairy indian men simultaneously), 2 feet behind me a live bangra band is playing "you are my sunshine." I am dazed and i am confused, this may not make much sense.

So, my last day in Hampi was significant for a terrifying experience involving a "14-year-old" "boy" and a razor blade. This kid was not my first choice for my first ever cut-throat shave, but his dad said he was fine so what could i do? He was fine, but he must've been 12 and he wore red nail varnish. Because of the festival in Hampi, all trains were over-booked back to the coast, so i had no choice but to take the overnight bus. Fortunately I had company - Josephine, a parisian food designer with whom I'm still travelling - but i have vowed to avoid night time buses from now on. My "bed" was a plank that must've been 1' wide, 5' long, the "bus" had no windscreen or suspension, and the "road" was possibly entirely imaginary. Most of the night was spent in mid-air, trying to make sure i landed on my target when i finally crashed back to gravity. Still, somehow we made it to Gokarna...

This is one of the most important places for Hindus, spiritually. Its on the Arabian see, just south of Goa, and is an incredible place. There are several gorgeous beaches to the south (Gokarna beach itself is covered in litter) which I think are just as nice as Goa, and the town itself has the nicest feel I've experienced in India so far. Foreigners (there aren't many, relatively) aren't allowed in the temples which is a shame as they're in use and would have been interesting, but its symptomatic of (part of) what makes the town so special: its really not there for tourists. There's a real spiritual tranquility in the air and I very much hope to go back there at some point.

Spent a few days in Gokarna, then headed down the coast to Kerala. Kerala is a small state in the south-west corner of India and is often trumpeted as the country's most advanced state in terms of literacy, poverty, infant mortality, child labour etc. It also seems to continue the trend of travelling becoming easier the further south I get. In general, its extremely friendly. On the tourist trail (such as Kochi, where I am now), there's a lot of hassle (it is mildly irritating to be asked the same leading question / told the same joke about rickshaws and ferraris 5 times within the first minute of leaving the hotel), but its definitely not aggressive. Went to a Theyyam (seemingly pre-Hindu religious ritual) in Kannur, northern Kerala, which was confusing - I feel a bit cynical about important religious events being held right next to a bus stop on a busy road, especially when westerners are being charged, but actually there were lots and lots of locals taking it very seriously, making it really interesting for me. Good drumming too.

Its nice to be travelling with someone else for a while, especially when not on the beaten track. Josephine & I next headed to a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Kerala to try and see elephants, tigers, wooly mammouths etc. Nice to be the only westerners in the city, to have some linguistic challenges, and very very spicy food, but really very little wildlife.

Another day, another bus, this time to Ooty. The most famous south-Indian hill station (2250m up I think), where the british top-brass relocated in the summer when Madras became too hot. Strange place. Incredible scenery, nice to have some cold weather, but strange place. Here's an illegal picture of the ballroom in the maharajah's palace: The highlight of Ooty was riding a horse through a cloud and emerging to a landscape of Eucalyptus forests / sweeping hills of tea plantations... This was amazing. Hard to take a good photo from a big moody horse when you can't ride a horse though:

And when you ride a horse for 3 hours, having not ridden for at least 15 years, its advisable not to commit yourself to sitting down for the next 6 hours... We took the minature railway out of Ooty in an effort to get back to the coast, but didn't get very far before a landslide halted our progress. Fortunately we met 3 french guys on the train and shared a taxi for the last 4 hours of the journey. Nice to be able to get out of jail free, but its not moral backpacking! Still, I probably speak better french than ever now...

Here's some fishing in Kochi, capital of Kerala, where I am now.

Its nice to be in "civilisation" again, but I look forward to leaving tomorrow. Its easy to spend more on a meal than most Indians earn in a week. Seriously, in fact while I'm on the subject I should share my naive horror at finding out (in Gokarna) that the average waiter works 17 hours per day, 7 days per week, for 2000 rupees per month. Its misleading to think of it in pounds but it works out at about 5 pence per hour. And that's a good job - the alternative for many is back-breaking field work for half the money. There are many shocking facts very close to the surface here that I won't try to do justice to in this state, and time is running out...

Off to the Keralan backwaters tomorrow.

In an interstellar burst...

...I'm back to make you all jealous.

So, lots to say since Goa.

Break it down. Ok.

Hampi then (in Karnataka - I'll try to get a map up soon)

Having narrowly avoided the biggest club in Goa the night before I left Arambol, a 4am taxi was just what I needed. Still, the train journey was stunning - winding up lush mountains (the western ghats), under waterfalls (bad photo above), and my mp3 player helpfully kept playing me epic Sigur Ros and Mogwai tracks. Its really exciting picking up all your stuff and going into the unknown and, after all that happened in Goa, Everything was Ecstatic...

Hampi is bewildering. 2 things you need to know: temples and boulders. Ok, 3 things: monkeys. I won't go on about the temples as, frankly, there are far too many of them and I found most of them really quite oppressive. Controversy. Not all of them. Its just that the architecture is very linear, low ceilings, little light, no colour etc. Not all of them. I do imagine, however, that back in the day (400 years ago I think) they were vibrant and colourful. Nye, I'm sorry... Still, here's me being blessed by Lakshmi.

The boulders, on the other hand, I love. I've never seen anything like it (except perhaps the Olgas in Oz, but Hampi goes on for miles and miles). They form the most bizzare, precarious arrangements - strewn across the river, stacked into mountains. I think they're formed by some kind of plate-squeezing-cold-volcano process, but i might be wrong. Anyway, they're fascinating.

My first couple of days were hectic, dutifully marching between temples, climbing up hills for amazing views, being surprised to find myself sitting next to Emma...

(actually this is Ally, my ozdrawlian trekking buddy, and i mainly put this photo in to draw attention to the fact that Ally is a good name for a girl). Shut up rich. OK.

Anyway, after running round for 2 days, Hampi hypnotised me. It does that. I spent a phenomenal amount of time at the nicest cafe in India (so far): the Mango Tree

So, I stayed in Hampi longer than "planned" partly due to the trance i was in, but mainly because there was a massive festival coming up. One morning I climbed up a hill at 8am and when I came down again, Hampi had been transformed from sleepy temple town to the annual gathering of the entire Karnatakan police force. There were thousands of them. And (apparently) they're the most corrupt in India. Every hotel in town had to give them 5 rooms, every restaurant had to feed them for free, etc. But by the second day of the festival, there were almost as many cilivilians as police, so it wasn't so scary. The festival was free (state-sponsored), and was a strange mix of incredibly good Indian music (the Tabla is one of the best instruments in existence) and village-talent-contest standard dancing. Interesting to see some Indian dance, but even I could tell this was awful and could probably have done better myself. Or not. And perhaps even stranger than the 1940s brass band intro, the monotone presentations of awards to every participant, and the fact that the sound-man didn't bother to delay the speakers further from the stage (so everything had 3 fast echos), was the crowd reaction to performers. My theory on Indian crowds (as put forward in my post about the cricket in Jaipur) has suffered a blow as, even when the act was incredible, it was met with muted, impolite applause! I really couldn't believe it. Here was an excuse to holler and cheer together being completely missed. Strange. Still, if there's one thing I'm learning, its that you really can't stereotype India, or Indians.

Ok ok, here's a temple.

The Vittala temple is "the undisputed highlight of the Hampi ruins" (according to the lonely bastard). I dispute this, but who am I?

I'm tired so lets have some Hampi animals:

Hampi was almost 2 weeks ago now. Hopefully I'll get some more done soon. And hopefully my blergh hosts will stop doing strange things with my blog. byee.....

transmission impossible

So, the further you get from big cities, the slower and more expensive the internet becomes. The prospect of uploading photos is unbareable, so I won't. And what's a blog without perty pictures?

Suffice to say, I'm in Gokarna which is an amazing place. Just south of Goa on the coast, a spiritual centre for Hindus, great beaches and "something in the air" (? - hard to describe). Been in Hampi for a week which is also amazing, but I'll wait til I get to a city - probably in a week or so - to do this properly...