Feet diary South India

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After a couple of days relaxing in Goa, enjoying wonderful fruit breakfast and driving around with my ultra modern scooter, I finally decided to get back to some more cultural activities and headed to Hampi. Some of the most beautiful temples are located in this area. Their number is so important that I have hardly had enough time to visit them in 3 days (and I concentrated on the main ones). I had a wonderful time walking from sunrise to sunset between the temples, some of them being quite isolated thanks to the fact that most of the tourists are concentrating in touring in buses between the main sites. I did also one day of biking within the royal palaces… unforgettable. I cannot show any pictures right now simply because the CD with them broke in my bag unfortunately, but this was the best monuments I ve seen in India together with Ajanta and Ellora caves.

After Hampi, I went to Bangalore for new year’s eve, where I ended up in a new year s eve party in a terrace on a roof and was leaving with an very sweet Indian family, which helped me to get to know more about the Indian culture and learn to cook an Indian dish. Hopefully should be able to reproduce this when back in Europe.

After Bangalore, I spent one day in Mysore to visit the impressive palace over there and then headed to the south to Kerala. This region is known for the Backwaters, an impressive network of canals surrounded by small villages and rice paddies. This was an amazing place. I stayed longer than expected and explored the area by boat and rickshaw with an Australian friend. I saw there maybe some of the best sunsets in my life and it was with difficulty that I left the place to go to Kochi and take my plane to Mumbai. My time in Mumbai was nice as well, a lot of shopping, some interesting trips in the suburbs and my first Bollywood movie. I went to see Ghajini, a remake of the American Memento, but with the local touch. Starting with the national hymn during which everybody needs to stand up in the cinema, the movie started with some very interesting feature. First, the use of rickshaw in an action movie was quite a change from the usual American equivalent, the song and dance are quite a shock at the first glance but I was quite lucky to get a less musical movie. But it was a great experience that I recommend to all.

To conclude about India, what surprised me the most is maybe the positive attitude and education of the population, especially the young generation among which you wonder sometimes if there is still such an important cultural difference with the western equivalents. The culture is one of the eldest in the world, and you can feel its beauty and complexity on a daily basis. After 1 month there, I still have the impression of being new to the country and every day is full of surprises, the odds defying the probability.
After India, I joined my family in Indonesia (Java - Bali) for a more relaxing time. My highlight was my first dives (the first one including the visit of an old WW2 wreck). I was fairly used to do some snorkeling but being under 15-18 meters under water is a completely different experience, it is a whole different world you enter, with its own rules and beauty…

I m flying back on 27 January to Europe, and I wish I could bring the sunshine with me, but I have plenty of images and experiences in my head that I will not forget so easily.

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