Revitalization

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Sadly i have said goodbye to Erik, and for a while to cycling! I still have my bike and so i will be using it again, but after ten or so days on the road with Erik, we both were sat drinking a chai, hiding in the shade, playing chess surrounded by Indian men asking us questions, when we decided to ask them one. "Can you get a bus out of this place?" We only wanted to have a rest for the day and take 30km off the trip, but then they told us there was a trainstation. Suddenly grins came over our faces and we both knew it was time to end the trip! After so much expereinces, we were so dirty and tired. Even though we had for the most time had fun, we were feeling so mentally worn down with no privacy and place to hide it was time to finish. The last nights we spent in a orphange and a kiwi feild, and we had got used to drinking local well water. But it was a pretty uninspiring place to ride to be fair, continuous desert land, and industrial back drop, watching people coming out of work covered in black stuff, kids hammering the rocks on the side of the road for god knows what? When we found out the train was there we just said yep, lets do it, cos we had both promised each other pride wouldnt be the reason for riding but, enjoyment, its too easy to let my pride to get to me i think when riding and i dont want that anymore.

After this ride i have decided not to ride north anymore, I will take the bike to the hymalayas and ride it there on another short tour maybe a week or so, but the idea of riding alone through the rest of India doesnt appeal to me at all, even if it would be nice to say I did it.

In Hampi we got there too late for the boat crossing to the other side of the river so with luggage on our heads and pitch dark we slipped and slided our way across the river dropping the torch into the water on a few occasions! at the other side dressed in just our boxer shorts we got ourselves a place to stay and spent the next few days, letting all the things that I had taken in, float around and take a good place in the head. It took a little longer than i thought, i fell into a bit of a low spell, and have been asking questions about so many things, which are not worth going into here, but needless to say a ten day bike ride through india can really provoke a lot of questions that hit somewhere deep, about life and about self and ego...i cant even imagine more.
We played more chess, ate western food and paid stupid money for a few bottles of beer, got to watch the film slumdog millionaire which is fun, and finished a couple of nice books. Also i subvertized a national geographic, I always hated all those adverts in them, then i spotted Eriks glue laying next to me and a pair of scissors.......lalala 30 minuites later its back on the shelf without any adverts! haha. I have really missed creatively sabotaging adverts and other coperate nonsense so it was really nice to have some time to let a little bit of it out of my system.

I met some really lovely swedish girls too called Eva and emma, they were really nice down to earth and reminded me of back home a lot (dk) It felt so nice because it reminds you of who you are? or atleast who you were, and sometimes when your moving a lot, you loose a sense of who you is and feel just like your a changing breeze. We went for a swim in the river with mini jelly fish and i took a couple of rides around the area on my bike. Finally I beat the infection in my leg and now its gone.
After A couple of days of chilling in hampi I decided it was time to get moving again, i had already been to hampi and felt like i wanted to see somewhere new before i met my mum. Kay told me she might be at Kodai Kanal and so not really knowing where that was I headed off.

What followed was, interesting.
First I took a sleeper train to Bangalore and that was simple enough, but once in bangalore things got a little strange.
I asked about the possibility of a bus to Kodai Kanal, the guy in the shop tells me of course its possible, ride your bike 6 km to our special bus station and ask there, so i ride there in the early morning through crazy crazy city traffic..... i developed a tactic of hiding behind Rickshaws as they cut through the traffic so skilfully. When i got to the station, the lady said i had to wait until 8pm to find out if i could get the bike on the bus, this was 12 hours later, I could just get the train and then ride the rest? But i decided to go with the bus........ go to book it and she tells me theres none left.....so she would of had me wait all day to tell me there was no space after it left! So i ride all the way back, down a short cut a rickshaw guy told me, and arrived back at the train station. I had just missed the morning train to madurai (closest city to Kodai) and so... i had a nice 12 hours wait anyway for the train. Throwing my bike in the luggage room for a lot of rupees I spent the first part of the day drinking coffee and chilling out reading my book set in india.
Here comes John or something such, christian, living in india, from korea, smells of alcohol, hates indians, loves the bible. I was his new best freind. We discussed religion and reality, and well pretty much everything that can come of these subjects. At first I thought he meant to rob me, it seemed that way. Leaning over me with his bible reading my passages agressively. For some reason though I liked him and so decided to speak honestly with him about my views on life an reality and god.

It turned out we shared some very similar perceptions, which didnt suprise me since actually, i think the bible has a lot of sense in it, just i think the people who used it werent so sensible. For example we finally agreed that god is everything and everywhere, despite my interpretation of god been clearly different, ie not the name god, and not a superior being, we settled on this somehow. Unfortunatley for me no matter how much i debated, it was quite certain, im going to hell. But we did laugh a lot about some of the holes in his reasoning, but drunkenly and sometimes aggresivley he assured me those who dont have faith will perish.
John was really a type I hadnt met before, he had something in his smile that invited you in, but something sinister that made you feel sad. He hated indians, but lived in india, i didnt really understand him. When an indian asked him for a lighter, he ignored them, then when they got a bit confused and tapped him, he reacted aggresivley, gave them the lighter and then raised his eyes towards them signalling that this was an indication of how rude indians were.
He did it on several occasions, when we were asked for money, he said he hates them because they all want money, when one started a random conversation, he snapped at them.... it was all very odd.
We shared a beer, headed to the train station and i had to leave to put my bike in luggage
I left my belongings with my new freind John
When i came back my new freind john was gone
luckily i had my wallet and my passport but i was a bit confused why he would vanish.
i searched for ten minuites refusing to conclude he had robbed me, but starting to think he had, when eventually he found me in the crowd, gave me my stuff back and wished me goodbye as his train had come.

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It was funny to wonder what had happened, and then finding out the best thing, i left him my email adress and continued my long wait for the train.

Next came the longggg wait on the trian. I couldnt book a sleeper train because i was too late, and so i rushed with teh rest of the passengers to try and grab a seat on the regular carriage. I managed it, squished inbetween many other passengers. I looked above me and the luggage racks were also filled with people, on the floors, all full of people. Then inbetween my feet, also full of people. It worked out so as you couldnt move and inch. then the train rolled off and we came to the next and the next station, filling up more and more so that it was getting ridiculous, then at the next station some indians locked out carraige door. Sadly it seemed that every other carriage had the same idea and the station police came and hammered on the door with their big sticks until we got even more inside!! Eventually we had done all the filling up. By this time it just looked funny, it was really uncomfortable but people were so kind to each other after the initial battles for seats. People would take it in turns to stretch their legs, people would hold each others children when they go to sleep. I got into the mood of that and so even though sleep was impossible, i really felt the energy there and our weak smiles into the night really felt honest and comforting. Eventually i got myself onto the floor by the toilet and was only awakened when someone wanted to be acrobatic enough to get to the toilet.
This included swinging and hanging from bars and makign sure you didnt crush any little child heads, I kid you not, it was amazing.
Eventually I awoke and teh sky was still dark and i had a feelign I was nearlly there, and i was, and i got off, and i tried to get my bike, and i coudlnt get it!! They didnt have the key for the luggage door there! So i had to go all the way to the end station to get my bike out. I was really happy to be at teh end station and away from the train, and just wanted to get somewhere to wash and relax..... I was hoping a lot by this point that my sister would be there adn giev me some good company!
another 5 or six km through crazy india town and arrive on bike at madurai bus station, after a bit of negotiating they agreed i could put my bike on top of the bus, so with a little help i was stood atop of the bus tying my bike on top......later i came to wish i had of tied it just a little tighter, nto realising just how vertical the climb was going to be to Kodai Kanal.
The climb was amazing!
Three hours going up hill, i dont think i ever expereinced anythign like it. When the plains started to vanish below and turned into coloured patterns i just began to melt. And then came the cool air through the windows, beautifully cool crisp air. It felt like i was back in yorkshire in spring time stepping out when the coach took a break. All the way up it rocked precariously close to the edge, and i loved this feeling, it always makes me really happy when it feels like something really crappy could happen and theres nothing you can do about it, i cant smile more and i dont know why, maybe im going crackers.
Trees gorgeous trees tall ones, thin ones, bendy ones, the smells bombarding you, monkeys, cows, horses, grass, smiles, poo, tea, coffee, juice, everything all on one little bus ride, everything always so much thigns to see its amazing that you dont see them all the time. By the end of the climb wee are surrounded by clouds all around, the first clouds i had seen in a long time!
Kodai Kanal is a beautifull little hill station (i dont know what that means) and is just really pretty, some parts are so yorkshire its ridiculous, and its really clean, and apart from taxi drivers, you dotn really get hassled, which was perfect.
Luckily in Kodai i bumped into a sahdanna forrest freind who told me where kay was hiding, with........ Sam and Amelie as well, and another Sahdanna person Grant.
When i got there it was the most beautifull place i ever saw, or not perhaps ever, but certainly on a par with some of the most beautifull places i have ever seen. Little cottages set back into the rising moutain, little tin shops where you can sit in the mornign and look out over the hills. The clouds in this place are the most fantastic thign, they dance around you, they creep into your room like little tentrils trying to grab you. Sometimes the mist is so thick around you that you cant see more than a few metres.

Then all of a sudden you will be walking and the wall of white opens and another random beautifull view comes. pow! Blows you away. I took a walk to a place called dolphin point. Its perfect, a littler rock big enough for one person to sit on perched on the edge of a big abyss, nice sheer drop and amazing view of creeping valleys flying off forever. I satt here on my second day in kodai and felt so overwhelmed by the power of the area, little helicopter leaves came floating up on the hot currents and floated away above my head. I sat and thought, if I jumped now, the trees would catch me, and it hought about how an amazing thing it would be to just jump. and if i died atleast i would of jumped and felt that amazing feeling of freedom, It made sense then, and so i did it, i jumped out into a one hundred metre drop with just trees beneath me and fell..... and then i opened my eyes and i was still on the rock but in my mind i had jumped and i felt the last few weeks wash off me and began to love kodai kanal.

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Comments

[orangestew]

WOW
I'm so amazed reading your blog! You ROOOOL!!! You should publish it all, you write so amazingly, it really feels like I'm there with you! Life's all good with me too but not nearly half as exciting, I'm gonna do summat to change that!!! I love you millions and I'm so glad you're having such an amazing experience!!! Sorry I haven't been in touch for so long!!! Love ya long time Samius xxxxxxxxxx love Miss Orange xxxx