Madurai and beyond

Namaste!

The last three days we spent in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. We took the train from Trivandrum and safely arrived in Madurai after 7 hours. I like Indian trains, they go rather slow (40-60km/h), but the people are a lot more relaxed than in Europe. They sit with their feet hanging out of the open train doors, and jump off the train before it has even come to a stop. At every train station, a few people coming in wanting to sell you terribly sweet chai or coffee or snacks. A young family with a 6-day old baby was sitting on the bench opposite of us, curiously looking at us and sharing some of their meals with us. At one point, the mother asked us whether Maira and I are the two wifes of David (an Irish guy who was travelling with us) – that seemed perfectly normal to her… Tsts. Oh well, at 11 P.M. we finally arrived in Madurai, which train station was filled with people lying or sitting on the floor, most of them sleeping while waiting for their next train.

The next two days we spent exploring the city. Although Madurai also has more than a million inhabitants, it is a lot calmer and less dusty in comparison to Trivandrum. That, of course, doesn’t mean that it’s actually calm in the city, haha, no! There are still loads of honking rickshaws, motorbikes and buses everywhere… Madurai has a huge hindu temple in the middle, which unfortunately has been under renovation when we were there so we could only guess all the multi-coloured figures underneath the construction shelter, but the temple was still very nice – a real place of silence in the midst of the city. I particularly liked the hindu tradition that you are only allowed to go into a temple being barefoot, it really does give you a different feeling… Other things we did in Madurai included going to a tailor who made us some clothes, buying nice earrings, sleeeeeeeeeping (this heat makes you really tired all the time), having our future predicted by a bird amongst others. Oh, and Maira killed her first cockroach, I almost forgot to mention that…

Today, we went on a 4 hour bus journey from Madurai to Kumily, which is a little town in the mountains close to the Perinyar Wildlife Reserve. It’s really a relief to escape the big city again, and in the next days we plan on going on a little boat and a hiking trip and do some wildlife spotting. Let’s see how we like that.

Hope you’re all good, I managed to upload a load of pictures today, so check them out! Speak soon!

On my way to Madurai…

Heya!

We’ve spent a couple more days in Kovalam than actually planned, not because that tourist town is particular nice, but because all the spicy food, and the heat and the sun have caused me to be spend a whole night on the loo, yay, that was fun! My stomach has been a bit funny the following days, so we decided to keep it easy and just rest a bit longer. We didn’t do much else than sitting in cafes, reading books and talking about anything and nothing. Besides, our little everyday problems included a misplacement of passports or being hassled by Indian people to buy mangos, coconut oil or whatever else. So it’s been very easy living…

At the moment, I am in Trivandrum waiting for the train to Madurai, finally! I can’t wait to see more of this country!

Hope you are all well and healthy wherever you are!

Culture shock in India

Geeze, three days in India and I am already feeling totally exhausted as well as amazed by everything that’s going on around me…

We’ve been staying in a little tourist village called Kovalum for the last three days, where we mainly sat in a cafe called ‘Beatles’ drinking fresh juices or eating delicious food (the food, oh my god, it’s absolutely amazing out here – the vegetarians heaven, hehe)… It was good to have the first two days for relaxation, we needed some time to get used to this country and its way of life. Kovalum has two beaches, around which numerous hotels and shops have been built in the last decades. There are quite a few western tourists here, mixed with Indians trying to sell all kinds of stuff to you (cloth and clothes, jewellery, drums, fresh fruits, food etc.): „Madam, come in and see, pleeeeeaaase…“ – „Madam, most cheapest here, I promise“… It’s really hard to decide on how to behave towards people that don’t stop harrassing you, be it beggars, sellers or just nosy people. And how do you behave if you get stared at all the time, quite shamelessly, as they don’t even look away when you look back. I’ve discovered that sunglasses help A LOT – they kind of build up a good distance.

Today, we finally took the bus to Trivandrum and spend the day walking around. It’s been terribly hot, and the streets were covered with red dust, there were cars, motorbikes and rickshaws everywhere, and of course plenty of walking people as well. The worst thing about this was the level of noise: engines, never stopping buzzers (everybody seems to constantly need to remind everybody else that ‘here I come’), people screaming, music. All of that gave me a pleasant headache after a few hours, and I started to wonder how people can actually live in a city like that… Oh well, I hope that time will help me getting used to it very quickly, latest tomorrow I’ll have to find a way to handle it anyway, as we’ll stay in Trivandrum for a night before heading out to Madurai on Sunday. We’ve already discovered today that buying a train ticket is not as easy at it may seem…

From what I’ve seen so far, India is a country full of contrasts: there is so much poverty and rubbish everywhere, but people are still quite polite and seem to be happy. And there is a lot of wealth as well, huge houses are being build right next to shabby huts. There are smells everywhere – good and bad ones… And all the colours everywhere (houses, clothes, advertising banners, buses, people, fruits…), totally amazing! I’m more than excited to see and experience more of this country, but for now I’m just looking forward to have a yummy and relaxed dinner in one of the nice vegetarian food places around here…

I’ve uploaded a couple of pictures to my photo page, but the internet connection is very slow, so more will follow some other time. Take care folks!

Arrived in India!

Heya folks!

I just wanted to let you know that both Maira and I have safely landed in India and are currently in a town called Kovalum, close to Trivandrum. It took us some effort to get any kind of orientation and find our ways around the busy Indian streets, but we finally made it to our hostel… Since then we’ve enjoyed the afternoon and the sunset in a little cafe at the beach drinking pineapple juice and lassi, and chatting about this and that. Tomorrow we’ll head off to explore the city of Trivandrum…

So far I can say that India is nothing what I’ve expected, it’s hard to describe really. I hope to be able to give you a much better description in a couple of days time… Until then, take care and fare well!

Bye Maldives, hi India!

Heya guys!

The two weeks here in the Maldives have gone by very quickly, unbelievable! It’s been a very nice time – thanks to Sinan and his friends! From a day at a safari yacht to a fishing trip and 3 1/2 days at a resort island (one of Sinans friends was able to negotiate a cheaper price), everything has been included! I’m really thankful to all the people here, I’ve made some new friends, and I’m confident that the Maldives will see me again… For pictures check out my photo page…

Tomorrow in the morning, I’ll be boarding the plane to Trivandrum, India, where I’ll meet up with Maira. I’m very excited and anxious about the coming weeks and months!!!!

I’ll keep you updated, until then, take care!

The first 6 days in the Maldives…

Heya guys,

I finally have a bit more time to update you about my first days here in the Maldives (the guys are watching a football match and one of Sinan’s friends is so kind as to let me use his computer). But from the beginning…

I arrived last Wednesday morning after a sleepless night in the plane, and my heart was starting to pump really hard the second I was stepping out of the plane. The reason for that was not my excitement (which of course had been huge at that moment…), but more the heat that hit me. A nice 30 degrees celsius welcomed me, with quite a close air – a huge difference to the minus 17 degrees that I left behind in Germany… Anyhow, Sinan and his friend Milo awaited me at the airport, and we took the water bus (= a boat) to the capital, Male’.

From there we took another boat to Hulhumale’, another close-by island, where Sinan has arranged an apartment for us. As Sinan had to work, I spend the afternoon alone and instead of sleeping I went to the beach behind the apartment, and was totally amazed by the beauty of the scenery in front of me: white sand, a deep blue sky, turkoise water… I couldn’t really believe my eyes. But see for yourself:

I couldn’t quite believe what I saw, and must have seemed quite lost – that’s at least what two guys said that I met shortly after: a dutch and a spanish pilot that have a few days off while waiting for their flight back to Europe. I have to say that they seemed rather lost as well, so we started to chat and ended up spending the afternoon together at the beach and later at a coffee place. That’s where I first felt a bit awkward being a woman and being white: there were only men in that coffee place and every single one stared at me. I came to a point where I didn’t know where to turn my eyes to anymore, and felt quite uncomfortable… I was more than happy that I was in the company of the two guys!

Later that night I took the boat to Male’ again (about 20 minutes), to have some dinner with Sinan and two of his friends. Before that, however, we went for a motorbike ride around the capital island – which has the size of merely 2 square km. It was a lot of fun, even though it was a bit awkward at first sitting in the back of a motorbike, without a helmet or anything, driving around the streets of this busy city. Male’ has been called the „love child of New York and Venice“ in the travel guide, and that description really hits the nail on the head. Anyhow, I was more than happy to get back to bed that night, after 33 hours without sleep… The next morning I had to get up reasonably early to pick up Richard, and we spent the day similar to the previous one.

On Friday (the Maldivian Sunday) we went to a „picnic-island“ called Kudo Bandos – a little island that is not inhabited owned by a resort that’s only open to Maldivians on Fridays; all other days there are only residents from the resorts visiting the island. We had to get up at 5 in the morning in order to get the ferry, and together with a couple of Sinan’s friends and the two pilots we set over. We spend the whole day playing football and volleyball, going swimming and snorkelling, eating, chatting…  I especially enjoyed the snorkelling which I had never really done before – it’s an amzing way to see what’s going on underneath the surface of the sea! There you can find the most beautiful colours and shapes of fish and corals – a world in itself! It was a totally amazing day!

Yesterday and today we were finally able to sleep in, which we really needed to get rid of the jetlag. After that we just spend our time wandering around Male’, having loads of coffee, ice cream and yummy food and just observing what’s happening around us…

Tomorrow evening we’ll be going on a fishing trip on a boat, and we’ll of course barbeque our catch right away… Next Friday we might be going on a 3-day-trip to a far away island, depending on whether we’ll be able to get seats in the water air plane. We should find out about that within the next couple of days… Besides that there are a few loose plans and ideas about what we could or might do, but in the end we manage it fairly well to simply live into the day and enjoy our time here. That’s the one thing I really aimed to do, so I’m absolutely satisfied!

I really enjoy my time here, wandering around in the heat, never having to put more clothes on than a skirt or shorts and a t-shirt, never feeling cold, eating lots of nice food and drinking the most delicious freshly squeezed fruit juices… Are you jealous yet? Hehe…

Anyhow, enough for now, I’d better join the guys watching their football, lots of emotions going on there!

Sending you some sun shine and speak soon!

Pics!

Pictures are now online at http://lisa.gezeiten.org….

Speak soon!

Arrived in the Maldives!

Hey guys…

I just wanted to let you know that I’ve securely landed here in the Maldives. And tell you what: IT’S BEAUTIFUL!!!!! We’ve already done a lot of stuff – snorkelling, swimming, riding around the capital island on motorbikes, trying different food, getting the first sunburn and drinking freshly squeezed fruit juices and loads of water (which is absolutely neccessary as it’s so hot here). We have a little apartment right at the most beautiful beach on Hulhumale’, a reclaimed island about a 20 minutes boat ride away from the capital. Tomorrow (friday is the islamic sunday…) we’ll go to a picnic-island with a whole bunch of people and relax for the day. Sounds good to me!

Alright, gotta get back to my watermelon juice… I promise you the most wonderful pictures soon, I just need to find a way to get them from my camera on the computer… Should be feasible somehow, and I tell you, you’ll be damn jealous!!!

The sunniest greetings and take care!

Bye bye winter wonderland…

This time tomorrow I’ll be boarding a plane at Düsseldorf airport that will take me to a completly different world within 10 hours: to the Maldives… 31°C, white beaches, palm tree…. Wow! Right now that’s just a bit hard to believe, as it is freezing cold here in Warburg, Germany, with nice snow and ice flowers on the windows. So what a swap!

Geeze, I’m just so terribly excited, I can’t wait to start this big journey! My backpack is packed, everything’s sorted, I just need to hop on the plane…! Take care guys and keep your fingers crossed that my flight will be on time (there have been some delays due to the cold weather in the last couple of days…). Speak soon!

Oh, and by the way: Jannis has been so kind as to create an online picture gallery for me, in which I will upload loads of pictures within the next months…If you’re interested, here’s the link: http://lisa.gezeiten.org