Blogs from Kannur, Kerala, India, Asia - page 2

Hi all! i have been ill since the 21st, fever and snot and aching bones not the most fun iv'e had in a while. Luckily i'm on the mend, iv'e been having medication from the local Indian doctors, it doesn't taste so nice but it seems to b doing the job. I cut my hair by puting it all up in a bunch on top of my head and then i just cut the bunch off! It looks bad. Well no point crying over cut hair. we are leaving Kannur soon, i cant wait, we have been in India for about three weeks and two weeks off it spent here, mostly because of me and my illness but you know... its nice to move on! We are going to Hampi which is meant to be really ... read more

Jutranji frustk: sapote (sapodila po indijsko), bananice in pomarance ter prazeni arasidi. Potem pa pot pod noge do zelezniske postaje, saj je bila danasnja destinacija Fort Bekal oz. Bakel Fort, kakor se vzame. Gre za eno od utrdb na tej strani indijske obale, baje celo najvecja, tako da sem morala malo pogledati, kaj se tam dogaja. Pa ceprav je bilo vreme precej klavrno. Spotoma sem na postaji vzela se idli in chai, potem pa se za 12 rupij vkrcala na passenger vlak, ki je imel sicer pol ure zamude, a nic hudega, namest ob 7.20 smo tako odrinili ob 7.50. Vozili smo se vzdolz precudovite obale oz. tik ob njej, druzbo so nam delale plantaze kokosov, rizeva polja, mocvirja, jezerca, recni rokavi, mlakuze v simbiozi z vasicami, pticami in mostovi. Res slikovito in predvsem zeleno! Izstopila ... read more

The small seaside town of Kannur, in the north of Kerala, was a bus and a long train journey from Allepey. The 6 hour journey cost only 20 rupees (30 pence). A staggeringly low fare considering a short bus ride into town would cost 5x that amount in England. A ticket however, doesn't guarantee you a seat and as the train pulled in we had to jostle with hordes of people to secure a place. Much the same as a train from Paddington station on a Friday night really but a lot hotter. We hadn't envisaged having any problems finding a room in Kannur town. But an hour after our train arrived at 11pm we were still trudging around the dark, dog infested streets trying to find a hotel that wasn't full. After finding literally the ... read more

Arrived at Kunnar rail station at 7.30am, after a fairly uncomfortable 2nd class sleeper jouney of 8 hours - our pre booked lower berths were already occupied by sleeping Indians when we joined the train, so had to clamber up to upper berths with our baggage and try and sleep, not very successfully. At least we had air con, unlike 3 class non reserved, sitting upright on unpadded seats, so we can't complain too much..... Found reasonable hotel in centre of town, and set about looking for somewhere to stay for a few days. Distinct shortage of anything alcoholic, as it was commemoration of Ghandi's assassination. On 2nd night, decided to try and find a bar/some sort of night life, which to date has been abundant in previous towns. Directed to an 'executive business' hotel, where ... read more

To further my insight into the amazing ancient wisdom that India has to offer, I decided to do an Ayurveda & Panchakarma course...... Ayurveda ('knowledge of life') is an ancient system of holistic health science that has existed for over 5000 years. Panchakarma is a collection of purification/detoxification techniques that are prescribed for some diseases and periodic cleansing (rejuvination purposes). I learnt so many incredibly valuable and interesting things during this month......there was quite a bit of theory at the beginning but then mainly practical training, where we learnt among many other techniques, several types of massages (using oil, oil and more oil as well as making 'bolus bags' with either herbal powder, leaves or rice). I was the 'model' for the bolus bag body massage using rice (bags filled with herb rice mash and ... read more