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Published: December 4th 2009
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Friday, Dec 4th - On the train to Trivandrum
Can’t believe how fast the last three days went by… Great times, though. It was soo good to hang out with Ellie and Darius again… We really enjoyed the time in our prison-cell-like room. Ok, find the logic: the bathroom didn’t have a sink, but we had one big-ass TV… Well that’s gonna help, when you wanna wash your hands :-)
Wednesday, Ellie and I had an all-girls day. We spend loads of money, went to a spa and ahared a piece of twenty-layer cake in the end. We got tailor-made Indian dresses (6 € incl. the fabric) and toe rings as friendship rings. Here, Indian women wear the toe rings, when they’re married. Well, Ellie and I decided it would be so much more fun to get two pairs and share them. Now, if we get the stupid “Are you married?”- question again, we can say “Yes, my wife’s gorgeous and lives in Germany/ Canada.” That’s gonna throw them off... Summing up we had an awesome afternoon and it was so good to spend girltime. Hadn’t done that in forever. In the evening it was Adrian’s b-day so we
went to his party. Had quite a bit to drink, so the next morning was kinda slow… Well, and besindes being hungover, Ellie had upset her stomach, Darius got his allergies and I was just generally feeling sucky, my body taking revenge for too little sleep and too much alcohol the nights before plus started to get a cold (just wonder who I caught that from ;-)) So Ellie and Darius decided to stay in the room one night longer, while my 16 hour train to Trivandrum was leaving that night… Thank god for painkillers. The train ride was OK, even though I hate AC class, but on this train we didn’t have a choice, since there was only one class. The idea of cooling rooms down to fridge temperature without fresh air still irritates me, even though you’d think having lived in the US I would be used to that by now.
Another thing that I noticed about Indians here is that they are accustomed to incredible noise levels. This includes the noise they make themselves as well as the noise they’re used to from outside. E.g. Amy and I were sitting in Café Leopolds in Mumbai and
kids blew up firecrackers in front. And when I’m saying firecrackers here, I’m talking bomb-like explosions (probably forbidden in Europe). So instead of the restaurant telling the kids to go play somewhere else, cause it was getting really annoying, no one except for the customers seemed to care. So tonight, when people got off the train at like 4:30 when everyone was asleep, first the put on the full lights and then discuss for about half an hour whether the train would be on time and then two cell phones went off. Well, at that point I was AWAKE, but again no one else gave a crap…
Since I’m gonna be leaving India tomorrow, guess this would be the point where I should start reminiscing and write about what this trip meant to me. It’s really hard to tell from an inward point of view. I can’t most definitely say that I totally fell in love with India, as dirty, loud and annoying it can be sometimes. I know that I’m gonna come back, cause I feel there are so many more places to see and even though I’ve been here for almost three month, it feels like I
only caught a first glance. I’m pretty sure I grew up a lot, especially traveling by myself, cause suddenly you have to make EVERY SINGLE DECISION by yourself and there is no one to discuss it with. Also I had to deal with every problem by myself, not that I ad that many, cause all in all the entire trip worked out perfectly, nothing stolen, not gotten sick, no accidents etc. But still…
I learned to trust my guts a lot more. For example if someone offers you a lift, you know, there’s pretty much no other way to get there than walking and it’s still a couple kilometers, you need to decide within seconds whether or not to trust this person. And the experiences I made where mostly very positive. Overall, Indians are very nice and try to be helpful, even if you don’t speak their language. (The only place where this doesn’t apply is asking for directions in Richmond town, Bangalore :-) )
I met very cool people all along my trip, some of which I know I’m gonna stay in touch with, even though they’re half a globe away, but on the other hand I guess
it’s me moving to Melbourne, so what place isn’t half a globe away :-) No, seriously, I made a some very good friends on this trip and I’m very thankful for that.
F***, my feet are so cold, stupid AC. Gonna stop here for today and go sit outside to warm up. I don’t really know if this is my last blog entry in India, but it could very well be, the next time you read my blog, I’m gonna be in Malaysia already. Weird thought that that’s gonna be tomorrow already. And today one week from now I’m gonna be in Melbourne… will probably to entirely believe it till I’m there, but for now, I’m just gonna enjoy my last day in India.
Love ya guys <3<3<3
P.S. I finished “Shantaram” a couple of days ago, I think I deserve a gold medal for getting through that book. One of the hardest reads in a long time… don’t bother.
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subin mathew
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abt trivandrum...
Hi Im subin... I live in trivandrum... i ws readin ur post nd found it curious that u didnt mention anythin about ur experience here in it...