On the mission to the most southern part of India

NAMASTE!

Welcome to incredible India!
I don't even know where to begin??? So many memories :)

This incredible huge country with more than 1,12 BILLION (!) people living in it is really something special!!!! And it's different!
India represents 2.4% of the world's land area and it supports over 15% of the world's population. By 2035 will probably exceed China as the world's most populated country!!!!

It's chaotic, very polluted, loud, improbably dirty & smelly, overpopulated, with poverty and cows on every step...BUT at the same time it is extremly interesting, beautiful, different, friendly, colourful, mystical, unforgettable and multidimensional!
All in one.
It can inspire or frustrate you.
Love it or hate it.
It's all up to you...and I definitively love it!

OK - it's true, that there were moments when I almost lost my nerves...but only for a couple of minutes :) Usually only in a too turistic places, where local people were not so friendly as I would expect ...this is one of the negative consequences which comes with massive tourism. When we were in Hampi for example - which is by the way really nice little city, surrounded with huge rocks and nice temples - 5, 6 years old children were greeting us with: "Hello GIVE me 50 rupies" or "Hello GIVE me money" ...and they want to charge me 5 times higher price just for one cup of chai (tea) on the street!!!!!!!!! Of course I paid normal price at the end :)

"Real" India is not like that. Not at all. You can still meet incredible friendly and curious people - you just have to find not so turistic places, which is sometimes hard to do (specially if you don't have enough time). There is much, much different. People want to know you - they want to talk to you, drink chai with you, help you, they even invite you to see their homes...


For me India is one of the most multidimensional countries I have ever been with melange of music, religion, food, nature, lifestyle, population, languages, art... . It's great :)
My experiance is very nice, but - I admit - sometimes was hard. Particularly when you are faced with all that poverty, sadness and life »vegetation«. When you see people who don't have anything. Nothing at all. Sleeping on a street. On pavements. Without property. Eating from garbage. Begging. And trying to survive each and every day. Of course then u asked yourself…why do we need the last mobile phone on the market, 15 pairs of shoes, or 3 pairs of jeans in a closet??? I am not saying that u don't need shoes or a mobile phone…I just want to say that you don't need 15 pairs of shoes or the newest mobile phone if the old one is still working!!!! Here is a difference.
It is just a shame that most of the people never see what a true misery is. Hard life out from well developed countrys. Then u would all appreciate much, much, much more what you take for granted in everyday life. And maybe you would't bother yourself with unreasonable "problems".
We are just way tooo spoiled.
I know a couple of people who literally escaped from India after a couple of days - well, India is definitely not for everyone.

Ok - enough with my »lectures«…otherwise you will say that I lost my mind abroad….again.


We arrived to Calcutta from Bangkok…like always completely unprepared with information about the country.
We just knew, that almost everyone experiences »big cultural shock«…well, we are still waiting for that :) But it's true that we both already experienced a couple of 3rd world countrys so probably was a little bit easier for us or just not so shocking.
Of course u see poverty on every step, u have to bargain for (almost) everything and they want to rip u off…and of course they want to sell you everything - they just want to earn as much as possible. But that is nothing new. Saso would say - go to Africa or any other 3rd world country and experience their selling methods.

In Calcutta which is India's second biggest city (14,7 million!!!) we started our journey straight to the south. Before that we visited Mother Teresa's mission. If you want to know more about her impressive life and work you can visit this page: http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/

Our first train experience was 30 hours long...very relaxing&sociable with people from Bangladesh :) You can meet A LOT of interesting people in your coupe&you have some time to talk about...well almost everything.
We left busy Calcutta after a couple of days and decided to go to Chennai (Madras), which is just another huge city so we left early as well.
Pondicherry - former French colony and easy going coastal city was much nicer than big Chennai. But in India everything is big. Huge actually. Our Slovenia with a population of 2 million is like a villige in India:)

After a couple of days in Pondicherry we continued to Madurai which is one of the oldest cities of India, with a history dating all the way back to the Sangam period of the pre Christian era. Now after India's independence, Madurai is one of the major districts of Tamilnadu State with one of the most interesting temples in India - Sri Meenakshi temple! Madurai it's even called "The Athens of the East". Sri Meenakshi temple is pretty impressive complex. This is also a place where Mahathma Gandhi decided in the year 1921 to wear nothing but "khadi". This is homespun cloth (loin cloth or "bel prt oz. bel kos blaga ovit kot krilo okoli bokov"), which made him known throughout the world as the "half naked fakir".

Our next stop was at unbelievable nice little island on the south of India, called Rameswaram. This small island is actually located only 33 km from Sri Lanka! Ahhhhhh...we arrived there late at night and almost stayed without a room. Almost.
Rameswaram, as its name implies, is the holy place of Rameswara - here Rama offered thanks to goddess Shiva. This is the main reason that Rameswaram represents one of the most important pilgrimage centres in South India. Lots of indian people and just a few of us...tourists :) It was great. This laid-back fishing villiage is still one of my favourite places in India. One day we visited southeastern part of the island which is still abandoned. Destructive cyclone in december 1964 literally erased the village. Long, surf beach with huge waves, old boats and end of the world feeling :) FANTASTIC! On the way there we met on a bus a group of really nice boys from Madurai...we talked&walked for a loooong time. They were really with our company, because they don't have every day opportunity to talk to foreigners. One guy even told me that I am the 3rd woman in his life (beside his mother&sister!) with which he was able to speak in a public. Incrediable. Unbelievable -at least for our customs. Religion still has a HUGE role in Indian everyday life. They still have arranged marriages by their parents. They choose a couple of "candidates" for their son/daughter, who are acceptable according to their standards ...show them only pictures and then u have to choose one person from the picture. That's it. And this person will be your partner for whole life - without a doubt…divorce is becomming more common, but only in big cities. It's still unacceptable in rural, more traditional India (75% of the population is still living in the countryside).

From Rameswaram island we took a night bus to Kanyakumari and experienced the worst night bus ever!!!! OK - I still can't decide which one is worse...this one or the one in Burma from Mandalay to Bagan??? But for sure this was the worst night bus for my companion - Saso! Oh my god! That is all I can say. Ok - same afternoon before we walked for a couple of hours - it was the hottest time of day (really hot) - along that beach with end-of-the-world-feeling...fatigued, dehydrated, sunburned - those were Sasos results :( And of course if you add "luxurious" indian night bus with no space for legs, hard seats and bumpy ride...well - we were very happy when we finally arrived to Kanyakumari at 6am in the morning...and decided to visit beds for a couple of hours :) Well...Saso stayed there for whole 2 days! He was really sick. In the meantime I explored "land's end" of the Indian subcontinent. GREAT:) ! It was incredibly hot - it was impossible to do anything from 11am to 4pm…so I took care of my patient.
Kanyakumari or Cape Comorin lies at the most southern district of Tamil Nadu state, where the Arabian sea, the Indian ocean and the bay of Bengal meet!!! Kanyakumari is also famous for its small temple dedicated to Kanyakumari which is located on the seashore. Do I have to mention that sunsets were spectacular?!

I think this will be more than enough for first blog about India...
U can expect next one soon
I have a little bit more time for these things......now when I am already back home :( Unfortunately.

have fun and enjoy in photos - this time u need a little bit more time to check everything :)

see u

JANA

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