salsoblack

Well I am home. I have been for a week now actually. I have just been reluctant to write the final chapter of this little adventure because then it would truely all be over :-( My last couple of days were in Delhi. They were great, I saw the bits I missed previously and did some shopping. I met up with Aijan and we went on a tour of some of the poorer parts of the city together (not a slum tour as advertised by the lonely planet but interesting nonetheless). And we ate in nice places and I spent hours walking around all the little streets of the Pahar Ganj and just generally had a really good time. I could definately spend some more time in Delhi! I had to leave eventually however. :-( My ... read more

Well I am in Rishikesh, laxmanjhula to be exact and this place is pretty nice! Touristy yes, but thats kind of nice when your travelling by yourself. Just as the Beatles came here to do yoga I have also given it a go! Fun fun, but not so great for my dodgy shoulder... My first lesson was pretty intense, beautiful view over the turquiose Ganges from the rooftop of my Ashram, with the sun setting towards the end of the class. Nice. The 'intense' part is because my ashram is a retreat for yogaholics that are training to be teachers- so they are all considerably better than me!! I was once again the class comedian falling over! This position was rivalled however by the local monkeys who was making us laugh with their antics quite alot. ... read more

I split off from my company and am back on the road alone now! I booked a flight back up to delhi (expensive but 6 hours of travelling verses 78...) but wanted to see Kochi first. Unfortunately I didnt factor just how long it would take to get to Kochi from Kumily! So I didnt arrive till 5pm! Still I got to have a nice evening walking round looking at the various sights and also went to a Kathakali performance. This was an interesting experience. Kathakali acting involves very mime-like facial gestures and the actors are very good really. But they don't talk and instead communicate the 'dialogue' with the most long-winded form of sign language ever!! Basically, what could have been conversed in 3-4 mins (with emotion and time to spare) took half an hour ... read more

Well the journey to Periyar, back up in the mountains, was a long and uncomfortable one, for a change :-s This place is nice, got a really nice place to stay for a good price and I've been having adventures in the jungle with Mogoli (well Babu but I think of him as Mogoli! Since Aijan had to travel to Ernakulam imminently she only had time for a half day safari. Unfortunately the govnt controlled prices does not include a half day, and she would have had to paid a full days price for only half, and then have to somehow get back to the town by her own means... not ideal. Enough searching however revealed a market for 'illegal trekking' through the jungle...We were a little worried, especially that it might be a cop scam ... read more

Well after the stress of being in a completely controlled environment (the Ashram) I needed a bit of sun, sea and relaxing, with no chanting and no crazy people dressed all in white trying to convert me! So to the beach of Varkala I (and friends) did go. That place is really nice, wish I had spent a bit longer there really but time is getting tight now!! Will be heading back to UK soon and soooo many places not been to on list! Beach time is always nice but I also had the added enjoyment of a beautiful ayreuvadic full body massage! It was soooo good, think I may become addicted to massages. So so relaxing. Worst thing about the beach is the price of the 'tourist food'! Had some trouble since my card wouldnt ... read more

Ever heard of 'the hugging saint'? She has travelled all over doing lots of hugging of strangers and also has many very worthy charitable causes she funds. She has an Ashram and I went for a couple of days to check it out. Interesting experience... I mean I knew it was a bit of a cult, a hugging cult. But I didn't realise till I got there that her followers have actually deified Amma and sing worship to her, believing her to be the representative of Devi (the divine mother) on earth. It was a strange place to be: mostly because of the high number of westerners that have given up their lives to stay with Amma at the Ashram, even bringing up their young children on the compound with colouring books telling Amma's life story ... read more

Well I'm a bit later writing about this, but I have been having a good time! Alleppey is a busy little tourist centre with loads of places to stay and take houseboats from. Still travelling with Louisa, we also met up with a friend I made in Jaisalmer, a kyrgys (from kyrgyzstan) girl called Aijan. She got there several hours before us (we had 2 long hard-chaired hot bus journeys totalling 6 1/2 hours) and found us the most beautiful place ever to stay. It was right on the lake at the front and backed on to the rice paddys. Sunrise over the water and sunset over the fields and coconut trees. Beautiful. From Alleppey I did a canoe boat trip on the backwaters and this was great! First we took the ferry out to a ... read more

After Gokarna we (still travelling with Louisa from Hampi) travelled down to Kerala by train. This involved travelling 32km by bus to the town of Kumta to catch the 00;45am train (which arrived 01:45am). Getting to Kumta was alright; physically catching the train however was somewhat exciting! After being told, platform 1 #5 for our carriage we dutifully waited there...only to watch the sleeper carriages speed past us right to the other end of the platform (trains can be up to 3/4 mile long in India). The train only stops on the platform for about 2 mins (small town) so we had to leg it up to the sleeper carriages! We couldn't get on the train where we were because you cant walk through the cooking carriage, which was between the sleeper carriages and the carriages ... read more

Well now Gokarna. It was an interesting place to get to and I met some great people! The overnight 'delux' sleeper bus was supposed to be a special treat really for the journey from hampi to Gokarna. Getting to Hampi on the hard plastic chair of the standard public bus for 10hrs had not been comfortable in any way so i thought it was an investment to get a nights sleep on the trip back to the coast... What I had not counted on was the 'delux' bus being full of cockroaches! And the part where they dumped all the people not headed to Goa (to Gokarna) in the middle of nowhere by the road at 2am to wait for an uncomfortable minibus to come collect us. Of course of the said minibus, the driver was ... read more

Well happy easter readers! Hope you all had a good time :-) here there was not a chocolate egg in sight, far too hot. Besides the indians in Hampi were celebrating an entirely different festival; one which involved thousands of people milling about, throwing bananas and coconut milk around, supposedly in the direction of one of the temples. The last couple of days I have been wondering between the ruins of this once-great Hindu city, and taking in the wonders that this festival involved, sweets and coloured pigments everywhere, decorated cows and floating platforms on the water. Besides that I have been taking in the fantastic landscape that encases the ruined city; huge boldor-filled vistas over a beautiful river. It reminds me of the pictures of some of the places in America, maybe arizona or something. ... read more