From Goa to Hampi

Geeze, so much has happened since my last entry, so I’ll try to give a brief overview…

We’ve spent the remaining days in Goa with doing some paragliding around the cliffs and over the beaches  (that was amazing, you really just glide through the air, it’s so calm and peaceful and has something meditative about it…) and otherwise just relaxed on the beach. That was very relaxing indeed and we could have just stayed on…! But we had booked the night bus to Hampi for Saturday night, so we eventually left Arambol and spent the day in Old Goa (visiting some old churches) and Panjim, where we were lucky enough to see some Indian carnival action! One road has been closed off to make room for dozens of beautifully decorated wagons, loud music and wildly dancing Indians – what a splendid atmosphere to be in! There were even a few men dressed as women acting rather obscene, an unusual sight in India where public affection and sex in public is very uncommon, I loved it!!!

After that spectacle we hopped on the sleeper bus to Hampi, and that was quite an experience in itself: we booked  sleeper seats (somewhat of a ‘cave’ you can lie down in), and the bus was supposed to take a good 10 hours over night. Well, we finally arrived in Hampi after a good 16 hours, including a bit of sleep, several toilet stops, some mechanical works on the breaks, a fight between our driver and a truck driver over a broken mirror and some traffic jams… But hey, in India time is a circle, at least we arrived in good health. This, however, was to change shortly after we tasted some food on one of the numerous rooftop restaurants in Hampi. So besides a really nice sunset overlooking the vicinity of Hampi we’ve seen nothing of the place but the hotel room and – of course – its toilet for the first 48 hours… Grr. Oh well, after a lot of sleep and some pills from the local pharmacy I was feeling better and was lucky to make the acquaintance of two ‘Wannabe-Austrians’ from Ulm, Germany while eating some breakfast. They were so nice as to invite me along on their motorbikes, exploring the surroundings of Hampi. We spent two absolutely awesome days  visiting temples, watching the sun set and rise again and chilling in the shadow of immense rocks, temples  or restaurants, all of them coming with the most amazing views on these rocky, but yet fertile grounds and taking loads of ‘accented’ pictures… Unfortunately, Maira wasn’t feeling as good yet and thus didn’t accompany us all of the time, but with her I went up the hill next to Hampi one night at 1 a.m., and I can hardly find any words for what greeted us up there; it was just the most peaceful place, with the numerous parts of old temples wither glowing black against the spotless sky filled with stars, or being enlightened in a slight blue from the lights of the village. We spent 3 hours up there, talking about anything and nothing, feeling peaceful, happy, filled with the pure power of life. This was one of the most powerful places I’ve visited so far in my life, I was totally amazed and touched by it!

So here I am now, spending my last few hours in Hampi, still feeling tired from the lack of sleep in the last two days, but very much alive, smiling, happy and healthy – well, apart from a nicely bruised butt from sitting in the back of motorbikes stumbling across Indian roads  (thanks for that you two… :* ) Tonight, we’ll take another sleeper bus up to busy Mumbai, could there be a bigger contrast to the peacefulness of this place?! Well, here we go, that’s the diversity of India, and that’s how I love it!

Speak soon!

Bathing in sweat on a train and taking it easy on the beach

Alright folks, let’s play a game called „guess where I am at the moment“: we started the day with a delicious breakfast at a beach cafe (they even had proper cappuccino, wow) and spent most of the day lying at the beach with the sun shining on a cloudless blue sky (32 degrees), having a dip into the sea once in a while and being served freshly squeezed fruit juice while listening to some Beatles meadley… Besides that we’ve been shopping a bit at one of the numerous cloth stands along the one single road here and the beach front AND we’ve booked some tandem paragliding action for tomorrow (I can’t wait!!!).  So, any guesses? Mhmmmmmm? Yes, we’re in Goa! In a little village called Arambol that’s been taken over by a handful of European Hippies some 20 years ago and which has so far not been discovered by the big tourism industry. Quite a few Hippies of every age have come over to live here, and bring with them good food and a relaxed atmosphere. Being here is a little like escaping the real India and taking a dive into another world which compares to nothing I’ve seen so far. But then that’s quite a typical thing for India as well I guess. Oh well, we’re just enjoying a bit of a break from all the hectic and noise of the India outside, trying to regain our strength and power again that’s been robbed a bit too often by the heat and the stomach problems of the last weeks…

We spent most of the last week in Kochi/ Fort Cochin, one of them I’ve spent in bed being sick again. I suppose it was just the heat that I couldn’t really cope with (even if you took three showers a day you were still covered in sweat in no time again, feeling absolutely gross), together with some food my stomach didn’t feel like digesting… However, the homeopathic doctor from next door was able to help me very quickly, what a blessing! So I was able to have a closer look at the town and its Jewish quarters, and to get frustrated trying to buy a train ticket up to Goa. That’s so typical for India: even those things that do not appear to be complicated turn out to be a real pain – like buying a train ticket. We first had to take the ferry to Ernakulam, then a rickshaw to the train station in order to stand in three different queues at which ends three different guys told us three different things – in the end we believed the station supervisor and went for his proposed option. Unfortunately, this train wasn’t until three days later, so we were just a tiny bit annoyed as we got up at 6 a.m. that morning in order to be the first ones at the ticket office. That actually wouldn’t have been too bad, but as the guy from our homestay took us out to a night club the night before, we’ve only had about 3 hours of sleep and were a bit knackered… But it was worth it, seeing the Indians dance and be absolutely ‘cool’ to European club music, haha. However, I have to admit that the Indian guys are just so annoying – they tried to touch and grab me all the time, even when I was just sitting on a couch in the corner they sat down a touch too close next to me, touching my arms, my belly, wanting me to go outside with them. But even if I was telling them to stop and go away, they still returned and wouldn’t leave me alone. As you can imagine, I was quite happy that we met two Swedish guys who enjoyed playing my personal bodyguards…

Anyhow, we somehow made it to spend the additional days in Kochi without being too bored, and went to Ernakulam the last day. With our luggage locked at the train station we managed it to go to the cinema while waiting for our train to depart (at 22:45). We watched a bollywood film called „Billo – The Barber“ which unfortunately was in Hindi with no subtitles, so we didn’t quite get the whole plot. But that didn’t really matter, it was fun enough to hear the girls in the audience scream as their favourite actor came on screen, and to see those dancing and singing scenes which reminded me of quite bad music videos on MTV and which suddenly came up in the middle of the film without any warning… But I suppose that’s just a must in every Bollywood film, and if you ever get the chance to watch one, do so! Nothing reflects the crazyness and chaos of the Indians better than a proper Bollywood movie!!!

So after this enjoyment we boarded the train to Goa – 15 hours in a sleeper department, including loads of mosquitos, people and noise all around. No, it was actually better than I imagined, I even managed to get a couple of hours sleep until the first guys came walking along the trains with their huge metal buckets yelling „Chai, Chai“ and „Coffee“ at 5 a.m.. So I enjoyed a couple of those terrible sweet drinks (I guess it’s the mixture of caffeine and sugar that really wakes you up), and spent the remaining  hours with looking out the window. These views are one of the beauties of travelling by train in India: watching rice fields and other plantages, people, villages, palm trees, churches, temples, rivers and seas (…) pass by combined with a fresh breeze that comes in through the windows. That morning the lack of sleep has been awarded by being able to watch the sun rise, what a stunning thing to watch! So, then, we approached Madgoan/ Goa in the early afternoon and after another 3 hot hours of bus ride in three different buses (one of which had some engine problems so we stopped every few hundred meters and one of the poor guys had to manually start the engine again), we finally arrived at Arambol. We quickly found a room and I think I’ve never in my life enjoyed taking a shower as much…! However, any help is lost for the t-shirt I’ve been wearing those two days…

We’ll be staying in Goa until Saturday when we’ll take an overnight bus inland to ancient Hampi (we learnt from the last time and booked early… ). A couple of days taking it easy is nice and very much needed, but some people stay here a few months, I guess that would be too boring for me. Besides, I haven’t come to a country like India to stay at the beach the whole time, but rather want to see some of the variety this country is made of!

So, I guess that’s all the news for the moment. I tried to upload some of the numerous pics I took, but unfortunately my battery gave up, so you’ll have to be patient a couple more days… I hope you’re all good and don’t get buried in snow. I’m thinking of you guys while taking it easy on the beach! – What a life!

Cruising the Keralan backwaters and visiting an ashram

Heya guys! It’s me again!

After we’ve spent a little longer than a week in Kumily, Western Ghats, we finally managed to take the bus to Kottayam (including some breath-taking overtaking close to very steep mountain edges), we took a boat from Kottayam to Alleppey along the Keralan backwaters (a huge labyrinth of rivers, lakes and lagunes…). That was really scenic, as you can see on the pics of my picture page…

After two nights in Alleppey (where Maira finally got rid of her stomach problems thanks to some antibiotics), we decided to pay Amma’s ashram a visit. Amma is a female guru, praising unconditional love as the ultimate weapon for a better society, so she hugs people in order to give them strength and guide them – sometimes as many as 5000 a day! Her ashram is in the middle of the backwaters, and has – due to its popularity – grown a lot within the last years; now there are numerous pink high storey buildings and a temple. Every night she sings with her fellows, and there are pictures of her everywhere. You can even buy little Amma dolls and rings with her face on it… Crazy! We stayed in a room with two American girls who spend most of their time meditating, we just wondered how as there were people everywhere and with it, a lot of noise – not a single bit of solitude. Oh well, we got sick pretty quickly by this hype for a god-like persons, it was almost a bit scary to see so many people following the words of a single person – even though she praises love and launched many social projects in the last years…

So we left her ashram this morning, and took the train to Kochi (Fort Cochin), where we are now. It’s a nice city, quite western due to the influences of the Portugese in former centuries (the first Christian church on Indian grounds was erected here some 400 years ago…). There is a nice promenade at the seafront, and many small shops with cloth, clothes and jewellery (…). We’re planning to stay here for a couple of days and then head north towards Goa.

Alright, that’s it for the moment. Hope you are all doing well, and that the long time between Christmas and the beginning of spring is not getting toooooo long for you. Myself, I can only say that any thoughts of winter or being bored are far, far away, I’m enjoying the summer (it’s a bit too hot once in a while) and the freedom I have here!

Take care!!!

From the city into the jungle…

Heya!

We are currently in a little town called Kumily, Kerala, right at the border to Tamil Nadu. It took about 4 1/2 hours by bus to get here from Madurai, but the journey was absolutely worth it: this place is very peaceful, right in the middle of a wood in the mountains, and the honks of the autorickshaws are only audible once in a while…

We spent the last days with having an ayurvedic massage (you get covered in warm oil from head to toe and after that put into a little wooden steam box with your head stuck out through a little hole on top, in which you start sweatin…), or doing a boat tour along the lake of the Puniyar Wildlife Reserve. The latter, however, was rather boring, more like a coffee cruise for the elderly, but at least we saw some wild animals (bisons…).

One day we hired a local guide and a driver to take us out to some local villages and plantages in the vicinity. That was a really interesting 4-hour trip, where we visited many different fields and plantages (beans, bananas, lady fingers, grapes, sugar cane, rice, coconut…) and talked to the people working there. They were all really curious and very friendly and wanted to share their food and stories with us. The communication was rather hard though, as only possible through the use of arms and legs… But still, it was nice having a chai in a little place in the middle of some village people, who were all staring at the TV in the corner of the room (which was made of palm leaves by the way), possibly one of the few TVs in the village. Most houses/ sheds didn’t have running water nor eletricity, but the people seemed happy nonetheless. Sometimes I think they seem a lot happier than the people in hectic cities back home…

Today, we were actually planning to take another bus to Alleppey, to have a couple of days cruising the Keralan backwaters (a labyrinth of small rivers and lakes in the woods), but unfortunately my travel companion Maira has caught something and is now the one being bound to bed and toilet. I hope she gets better soon, I and also the women of the house we are staying at are doing our best to help her regain her strength and powers! Besides that I use the time being very lazy, listening to music, reading some books (I just finished ‘Zusammen ist man weniger allein“ by Anna Gavalda, very nice!!!) or enjoying some yummy ‘idly’ (something that’s made out of rice flour and steamed over hot water) with fresh fruit marmelade… Mhm, as you can see, I am doing really good and enjoy every single minute of my time here!

Speak soon!