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Published: September 19th 2016
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During my first trip to india as a volunteer for an NGO I met the man I'm now married to. We met during the mission in july-august 2014 he was working for this NGO as country manager for a couple of years.
As we didn't talk much during that time he invited me back to India for the full month of September. As I had to start the university in October only I accepted. I was so happy and excited but also a bit stressed. That was the first time I was going alone to India to meet somebody I almost never talked to before ! When I landed in Chennai he was there waiting for me with Jasmin and roses. That was so cute ! We went back to Pondy with a car and within a week we planned to visit Kerala where his family is from.
We took a bus in the night to reach Kumily. One anecdotic thing: we went to sit at the back of the bus where two guys were already sitting obviously drunk. I knew they were talking about me as I was the only white woman here. They were speaking malayalam which is the language in Kerala. They probably didn't know that my friend understood a bit of malayalam and he got so furious he went to complain to the bus driver even the cops as the bus didn't start yet and those asked us to move and change the seats if we were not happy with something. My friend went even more upset with that unfair decision that we were kicked out of the bus. He never told me what they said. Well first impression about being a woman besides of being a foreigner there.
Anyway we reached Kumily and stayed there for a couple of days. Kerala is very green and very peaceful with a lot of tea plantations. While waiting for another bus to go to Thekkady I felt observed from everywhere. People were staring at me as I'm white. That was as if they never saw any white person in their lives. That's understandable but also embarrassing. When we reached Thekkady we went to a very specific show about face expressions. That was actually a man dressed as a woman and wearing make up who ran the show. That was quite strange at first but very interesting. Then we went to see a martial art show where people were demonstrating local martial arts. That was impressive. From Thekkady we took a boat to Alleppey. Alleppey is fantastic. The landscapes are amazing. In there we rented a scooter to go for a drive around and we went in a very small boat for two persons and someone directing the boat as in Venice ! So romantic I will never forget that. At that time I had my hand in the water. A while after I was told to get it back and when I did I saw a big snake swimming back to the land. Ouh ! The place we were staying was very enjoyable with hamacs and all. From Alleppey we had a stop to Idukki where we did some shopping for a while. The next day we reached Periyar. I have a very good memory about this place as it was where I first saw monkeys. I was told not to have eyes contact with monkeys in because they will become aggressive and may attack especially if you have some food.
Periyar is a big and beautiful place with a park and a lake. While my friend was booking the tickets for a tour on the lake I was enjoying the view. As I went shopping in Idukki before I bought some bindies to put on the forehead and a churidar which is a tunique along with pants and a chale to cover shoulders. Some local women were looking at me some curious some others happy that a foreign woman was trying to adapt wearing the local woman dresses. In the boat we saw some specific wildlife all along such as monkeys, parrots, indian buffalos. That was quite cool. The last place we went was Varkala. Varkala beach is absolutely beautiful and it was actually 2 minutes walk from the place we were staying that was convenient. We saw the sunset at Varkala beach which is great. We were lucky to stay in pretty good hotels from the start which were clean and with good staff. Our trip to Kerala was awesome ! I definitely loved it and recommend it to any people looking for peace or green places and amazing landscapes. This was the start of a long love story with the country and my husband.
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