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Published: March 28th 2008
ALLO PEEPS!! Righto, about time we let you know what we're upto. Engand feels very far from where we are, in a makeshift net caf by the side of a busy, honking junction...after a half hour search, its the only place with working internet in this town. Pretty hard to find a decent connection in India, so please bare with my belated replies to facebook/emails!
Nearing our fourth week since we were ejected jetlagged and spongy legged into the hubub of a bustling Mumbian morning. I vividly remember the first feeling that hit us, DISORIENTATION! And yet we both felt our wings finally given the room to strech, such freedom!
We shared a cab to the centre with a couple of girls i know from Balham: they happened to be sitting behind us on the plane! (Jessie and Claire) After abit of trouble with an ever-increasing fare, we wished the girls goodluck and made our way to...'umm where are we on the map again?'
Manic, chaotic, buzzing, colourful, diverse and disorientating..are but a few words to describe Bombays tangible culture. I felt pretty self-conscious as i noticed 8pm Mumbai was devoid of women, the only exceptions were the occassional female beggars squatting with open palms. But I've had no bad attention from guys, they seem to be friendly and as respective towards me as they are to native women...pheww! but then who know what theyre really saying to me in their foreign tongue. me and ed joke. at least no need to die my hair black..lol
The next day, we took a boat to see the Hindu caves on the nearby island of Elephanta.
Eddie wrote:
'The aura about the caves was immense. Struggling to understand why the portuguese attacked the amazing statues of Ganesh and Shiva, amongst others. Why commit such violence in a place designed for exactly the opposite?'
The portuguese arrived on the Eastern coast about 100 years back, claiming it as their own and imposing catholicism on mainly Hindu India. they came with their catholic schools, hospitals etc.. which proved a benefit to the native inhabitants, but they also brought their disregard for anything but their own faith...consequently many of the skillfully carved stone statues in elephanta were barbarically defaced. But whats left of the enormous dancing shivas and Ganesh's is amazing! The place home to tiny monkeys hopping about all over the place, was jokes, got some good piccies of them!
Bombays beach is pretty special. The famous Chowpatty beach. A likely backdrop to a bollywood movie! Bombay coastline streches as far as the eye can see. Flocks of birds sweep freely over the sandy beach heading for nowhere in particular. Seems a reflection of Indian culture, chatting people walk gracefully accross the wide beach with no fixed destination. They seem to all be chilling out and just savouring the moment.Sunny, sandy bliss. Whirling, honking traffic. SIde by side. Amazing how one can forget about the other. Paradoxical Bombay!!
A well travelled French lady we met on the boat from the island advised we made our way down south to Cochin. There she said, as though promising some distant treasure, we can find a hotel room with a balcony over-looking gardens for half the price of our stifling mumbian prison cell (was bare expensive too)! With smiles on our faces and direction in our steps, we planned our trip down south. after 3 days we'd had our fill of Bombay, and Eddie was especially looking forward to getting out of that hectic bubble. To the more serene: GOA!
7/3/08
We've learnt things dont go so smoothly in india. We first had to learn abit of patience. This came in the form of sleeping in the main train station: victoria Terminus. We slept alongside 300 waiting passengers (or do they have nowhere else to go..?)gathered on brightly coloured mats under enormous jurrasic fans that suspended from the ceiling. Thankgod for those fans!! We sat against the wall anticipating a 9 hour wait til we could finally buy a ticket to goa.
8/3/08
Goa! Very very hot! We got off the train at Thivim station and made our way with the help of a crazynut and his tuk tuk, a hair raising journery...to Arambol, northern Goa. A tranquil haven of hippy markets and roughly made beach huts, lining the edge of the silver sand. Guest houses and restaurants with ever-expanding menus spring out of the hillside more out of demand than shop-keeper
convenience! We stayed at the Om Ganesh, a simple room overlooking the see, with a perfect view of the sunset. jealous? hehe,
it was incredible. Met some cool people while we were there, many on a 'quest to find a spiritual community', oh and a bunch of welsh lads who happened to be on the same plane as us, random! Met some guys who spoke of their journey of identity -loss and shedding of a past personality, replaced instead with a hindi name of their choosing. They had recently stayed in an ashram founded by osho himself, in Pune near Mumbai, hope to go check it out on our journey back up north.
10/3/08
Bumped into some other mates from south london (amaya, jj and Sally), whilst sat blinging white on the beach lol. We headed to a small party on 'Hill Top', to find a banging, bopping psytrance crowd at 6pm in a venue in the middle of nowhere! A real festive vibe, colourful mixyure of ppl, UV decor, the lot...but with tropical heat and little indian food stalls! we were surprised to see quite a few local guys stomping about, eyes firmly shut, amidst a venue of hippy, tatooed woodland creatures hehe. The music was ace but the night was over by 10pm, and we wnet to get some munch in a nearby restuarant lol.
The next couple of weeks were pretty faded due to food poisoning, generally feeling pretty shitty.Frutsrations rose when we were stuck in Arambol because i was unable to travel. We finally made it down to Cochin, Kerrala...and Eddie came down with it too..grr. upon our arrival in cochin we hunted down the nearest pizza hut, and waited half an hour on the steps outside for it to open. Haha, bloody tourists, but we seriously couldnt stomache another curry.
We spent good friday in Fort Cochin, a very colonised pretty district in Cochin. A communist, Catholic part of India. Met many Indian Georges, pauls and Anthony's. Slightly disconcerting I must say! Was an interesting experience, witnessing them all idolising white skinned saints.
After a few days we headed down to Allepey, where we spent Easter Sunday bathing in the many grey shades of Allepey beach. The first day in 5 since we'd arrived in Kerrala that the moonsoonal rain had left us with a glimpse of Indian sun! Our hotel was lovely, a real melting pot of open minded travellers.
24/3/08
Aaah the main reason for going to Allepey was backwater tours. The last 4 weeks seems only a meaningless label placed on a bag full of momentary experiences, a collage of colourful images, a swirl of mixed emotions and 'moments of bliss' as eddie described the houseboat. It def made a a brighlty coloured marbel in our memory bag! Although not sure I'd put it on the '10 things to do before i die list' (lonely planet guide) was worth the 20 squid each!
We cruised the backwaters in a finely crafted bamboo houseboat, chef and captain on board. Such style! We sailed through miles of waterlilles, covering murky fish-filled water with mini waves that rippled to the base of large palm trees. Palm tress that provide the villagers wth their only form of alcohol: coconut wine! Much to our dismay, the crew announced there would be no trips to the hidden villages, as this would mean passing the tightly lilly strewn canals, impossble for large motorised boats. A narrow canoe, manned by a couple of locals came to our aid. 😊 for 300 rps, they took us through possibly one of the narrowest canals, giving us a glimpse of the village life in the backwaters. We joked that its like Veniice in the East. but that sums it up. The younger of the canoe men made an enthusiastc guide, and took us on foot to one of the hindu temples. We fond a staue of a Guru sitting peacefully in a little white house adorned with flowers.Alongside stood watch a grand old Banyon Tree, its dread like branches bending low over drifting lillies. We witnessed a flame-filled sunset, its equal rose mirrored from the water. A view of green foliage, terracotta earth and flame streaked sunset. Stunning! One of my favourite moments yet. Walking back to the boat we passed a bold poster of Che Guevara, supported with many red flags, a striking show of comunism. James kenny would be proud.
28/03/08
after a quick beach stop in Varkala, (much like Goa) we took the train to Kanya Kumari... which brings you up-to-date...we're here sat in an internet caf in the southern most tip of India. Its a wierd and wonderful feeling when you travel for so long, to suddenly run out of land...all there is before us is a great expanse of sea until you hit the antarctic. It is the point where the 3 great seas merge; arabian sea, Indian ocean and the Bay of Bengal. At this point in the water stands a great pilgramage memorial to Ghandi, a memorial to a holy man swami vivekenanda (very grand black stone building, beautifully carved in white stone) and an enormous statue of a famous Tamil Poet: India's version of the Statue of Liberty. Very special point in India.
8am tommorrow we board a train for Maddurai... then possibly take a boat to Sri Lanka (looks unlikely due to political trouble) and then head up to Ponducherry...or 'Auroville' one of the worlds largest comunes. Feels good to be on the move again 😊
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kate
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Oooooooh!
Amby my lovely! Big love to you both...sounds like you having an amazing time! Keep safe and have many happy hippy trails... xxx