the Houseboat

Location: Varkala
Country: India

---

Before leaving Bangalore, got a glimpse of the nightlife there, it was quite amazing, didn’t think any night life existed in India till I saw that. There were packed coffee shops with all the Indians dressed in western cloths and many of them speaking English. It was like being in a real western city.
Another thing I saw there that I have seen no where else in India, is a real supermarket, I walked along the aisles in shock by the variety and quantity.

From Bangalore we had a 12 hour train to Cochin. I was so utterly exhausted from not having slept the night before on the bus and from walking round Bangalore all day, that I slept for about 11 hours out of the 12, it was great.
Poor Paula didn’t sleep at all after having seen a rat happily running along.
Cochin was lovely. We stayed in an area called Fort Cochin; it is a quaint fishing village with beautiful houses all around and greenery, rather clean with not a cow to be seen.
Cochin is in the state of Kerala, which I believe is the richest state in India with the highest literacy rate. The people here are actually quite nice, much better than in other areas in India (for me to say that locals in India are nice is really saying something).
The guesthouses in Cochin are great, most of them feel like bed & breakfast places (minus the breakfast). They are usually in houses with about 5 rooms being rented out and a communal sitting area. We had a really nice guesthouse with a huge room (there was even a sitting area in the room!!!).
The fishing in Cochin is done with Chinese fishing nets; I’ve never seen anything like it before, you can see in the picture.


We had one day of walking (yes, walking) around Fort Cochin. We bought this map of a walking tour, and I insisted that we found every site and read about it, which drove Paula a little mad (my father always says, if you’re gonna do something, do it properly).
Saying we saw the sites is a bit of an exaggeration, most the places were abandoned buildings that were once some important place, but walking round Fort Cochin was lovely, as it is very peaceful and pretty.

That evening we went to see a Kathakali show which Kerala is famous for. It is a show in which they use mostly face and hand movements to express themselves. The actors have to study for years in order to do it.
Part of the show is getting there an hour and a half before in order to see how the actors apply their complex makeup. Without giving it much thought, I went along for this part. It was torture; I was going insane by the time it was over. An hour and a half of watching someone apply makeup is about an hour and twenty five minutes too long. At least it gave me plenty of time and material to make sarcastic remarks. Paula refused to admit it, but I think even she found it boring.
The actual show was very interesting, the movement they manage to make with their faces and eyes are quite unbelievable. Though half an hour of watching it would have been quite enough for me, and hour and a half was pushing it.
The proper Kathakali shows go on for about 10 hours, which probably would have sent me to the nut house.


The next day we did a rickshaw tour round another area of Cochin – Mattancherry.
The highlight for Paula was an elephant we went to see (she loves elephants). Apparently this elephant has mental problems (!!!) and is being treated for it.
We visited Jew Town (didn’t care much for that name). There used to be a very big Jewish community in Cochin, now there are only 14 Jews left, and they don’t even have a “minyan”.
We saw the Jewish synagogue, and I’m guessing that this is the only synagogue in the world in which you have to remove your shoes when entering.
I was quite looking forward to speaking to some members of the Jewish community there, but I kinda stuck out on that one.
One woman I met was taking money at the synagogue entrance, she wasn’t quite right in the head (inter-marriages – bad idea) and had no desire to communicate apart from taking money for me.
Another woman I met in a shop was friendlier, but then got well pissed off with me when I bought something from her and did some very hard bargaining, she was not happy with the price I managed to get from her.
So I didn’t do much good for the relationship with our brothers in India.

That evening I figured I would have my revenge on Paula, and we went to see s display of Kerala martial arts, I figured that would be really interesting.
I know you won’t believe me, but it was even more boring then watching actors apply makeup. I still can’t figure out how they managed to make martial arts so boring.
It was also scary, as they weren’t too well trained, and a few of their weapons flew in our direction.

From Cochin we got a bus (only an hour and a half, so nice in the south, most trips are rather short) to Alleppey.
Alleppey is where the backwaters are and you go there for boat trips. Apart from that there is absolutely nothing there. It is a very Indian, untouristic town –not for me. We managed to find a nice guesthouse to stay, but finding somewhere to eat was a right mission.

We took a 24 hour houseboat trip. It is highly expensive in Indian terms (300 shekels for the both of us). Paula treated me to it as an early birthday present, which was very nice.
It’s a small boat with a bedroom and sitting area in the front, and you have 3 Indians seeing to your every need.
It was lovely floating along the river, so peaceful and surreal. We were fed non-stop (I guess they know that to keep westerners happy you need to feed them) and pampered over.
When we stopped for the evening, one of the guys said that he was going to buy some fresh chicken. We were a bit concerned about how we would know whether it was fresh or not, well that problem was easily solved – the guy turned up with a live chicken!! I am not a person who has any problem with the idea of eating animals, but never before did I have to look an animal in the eye an hour before it was on my plate.
The houseboat experience was really great; we both had a wonderful time.


From there we got a 3 hour bus to Varkala which is a beach town. It is so beautiful here and we managed to find a really nice guesthouse.
All the tourist area is along a cliff, it has a promenade all along with shops and restaurants.
The people here are really nice, could probably be explained by the fact that there are many Tibetans here.
No site seeing to be done here, we are just hanging out, eating and reading, I guess we really need the rest….
We will probably spend a few peaceful days here before moving on.

Hampi - The most beautiful place in India

Location: Bangalore
Country: India

Last time we left off, we were about to move from Arambol beach to Palolem beach in Goa.
It is true that Palolem is a beautiful beach and the sea there was lovely and clear.

The problem is that the beach has been ruined by Indian greed. Along the entire strip of beach, which is quite big (takes about half an hour to walk from one end to the other); there are guesthouses back to back. It is dreadfully over touristic there and the prices are high (relatively to India of course).
We didn't like it there much (learnt to appreciate Arambole...) and only stayed for 3 days.

While there I decided to live on the wild side and had a henna tattoo done on my back.

(Don't worry Pops, it's only henna drawn on, and it comes off after 2 weeks).

From Palolem we got a sleeper bus of about 10 hours to Hampi.
The trip was very close to being a nightmare. The road was very bad and we were being tossed around all the way. But worse than that, it was absolutely freezing. We had some warm things with us, but no where near enough; we were completely frozen by the end of it.

But as soon as we arrived in Hampi, all the hardship of the night was forgotten. It is the most amazing place I have ever seen, and is now officially my favorite place in India (so far).
All around there are huge rocks forming small hills. It is just unbelievable. I fell in love with the place as soon as I saw it.

Add to that the fact that we found a great guesthouse. There were huts spread out with grass and trees everywhere, it was like being on a kibbutz. The atmosphere in the guesthouse was also great, relaxed and friendly.

All around Hampi there are excavation sites of temples (you can see in the picture the advance excavation methods they use).

We spent one day on a rickshaw tour seeing all the different sites.
One day we went to a temple that is on a mountain and had the most spectacular view of the area. The down side being, that you have to climb up like 700 stairs to get there.
Paula had to stop in the middle because of her fear of heights. I went all the way to the top, despite the fact that I was very close to a major heart attack. But it was so worth it, it was an amazing site from up there.

But we actually spent most the time in Hampi just enjoying our kibbutz guesthouse and hanging out with some really great people we met there.


Now we are heading down south.
Got a night bus from Hampi to Bangalor last night. Bangalore is the hi-tech capital of India, but hasn't much interest to tourists. We just had the day to spend here, as we have a train leaving to Kuchin tonight.
We took a bus tour of the city thinking there may be some interesting things to see, but there weren't.
There are some areas here that are very western, which is weird to see. We went in to a couple of shopping malls, and you couldn't tell that we were still in India, all the big shop names, everyone in western cloths, fast food restaurants.

It has been a bit of a rough day, as didn't get too much sleep on the bus last night, and not sure how tonight will be, I'm hoping to sleep well on the train, I'm so tired, that I think I will.
Thankfully, once we reach Kuchin, the trips from place to place should be much shorter.

Goa

Location: Arambol
Country: India

---

Many people warned me that the beaches of Goa do not compare with the beaches of Thailand, that is an understatement. I don’t think they compare with Sinai or even Michmoret beach.
I have found the beach here disappointing. The water in the sea is unclear and has sand floating around in it, and every time I have been in, there has been a strong current. The beach itself is ok, but nothing spectacular.
There is also that annoying thing that you see on the beach here, that I do not think you would anywhere else:


The actual village is very touristic with many shops, but very pleasant to walk around.
There is no night life to speak of. I ain’t exactly the party type, but it would be nice if not everything closed at 22:30.
This is not to say that we have not had a very pleasant week here, I guess I was just expecting more.
I will say this - The food here is brilliant! I haven’t enjoyed food this much in two months. We’ve had lovely fish, great Italian and I even had a steak, which was a right treat. Seems like every restaurant we pick has good food, good service and a beautiful location.


We have mostly been spending our days on the beach, Paula can take lying in the sun longer than I can, and I am getting worried that she is getting browner than me.
I sometimes prefer sitting on our balcony and reading there, it is cooler then the beach and as I have mentioned, the view is beautiful.


One day we decide to go out for the day to Panjim (the capital of Goa) and to Old Goa (the old capital of Goa). We could have done it by cab, but we decided not to be lazy tourist and do it with buses. Again the lord decided to punish me for trying to change my natural ways.
It started off badly with us having to walk 2 kilometers to the bus stand. This should have been the point when I understood I made a mistake and found a cab. But no, I carried on for some reason.
The buses were an absolute nightmare. I could handle the fact that it was old crummy buses, I could somehow bare the terrible heat, I could even handle the fact that I had to stand, but being squashed to death by smelly Indians was beyond my abilities.
Somehow, I really don’t know how, we survived the buses (3 there and 3 back).
First we visited Panjim, which is very quiet and peaceful for a capital. We visited the main church there (Goa is predominantly Catholic).

We saw the Portuguese quarter with it's pretty houses and the Goa State museum, which Paula really enjoyed and I just glanced through and enjoyed their chairs more.
I have to mention at this point that is was a boiling hot day and the distances we walked were not short (by normal standards, not by mine).
We then went on to Old Goa, by which point we were starving, hot, sticky and exhausted.
Lunch was pretty bad, but took care of the starving part.
We were then approached by a cab driver, who told us that there were 17 different churches and chapels to see, that it was too far to walk and that we should take a cab tour. We had no idea if this was true or not, but we chose to believe him just to be able to sit down in the cab and not walk anymore (a cab with air-conditioning would be too much to hope for, but the breeze from the windows was a blessing at this point).
The cab driver turned out not only to be truthful, but a great tour guide. He took us round all the sites and gave interesting explanations. Paula and I both love churches, so we had a great time.
After taking the 3 buses back to Arambol and walking the 2 kilometers back to the village, we were both totally exhausted.
All I can say is, if you are ever in Goa and want to do that tour – take a cab.

The other day we went to the weekly market in Anjuna (took a cab this time).
This market was unbelievable, it was the biggest market I have ever seen in my life, tourist from all over Goa come to it. I don’t know how many stalls there were there, but we were walking around for 2 hours and felt we had hardly seen any of it.
Paula managed to buy some nice bits there, I didn’t buy much, there was just too much to choose from and too much going on for me to be able to concentrate on shopping.
It was an interesting experience just being there.

Following the visit to the market and too much past shopping, we both decided to send packages home.
I jumped on the opportunity to make Paula send home at least some of the excess things she brought with her.
We went through her whole bag checking what can go.
Thankfully, after carrying the bag on her back on the way to Goa, she did see the logic in sending some things home and agreed with most of my suggestions, but there were shouting matches about things we did not agree on (such as the high hill shoes, which she categorically refused to send home).
I think we managed to lighten her weight quite a bit (though would have been more if I had had my way).

My washing abilities are fast improving. I am now succeeding in the two main objectives – The cloths are coming out clean and they are not ending up with any colours that were not originally theirs.

Tomorrow we are off to another beach, at the other end of Goa – Palolem. It is said to be the most beautiful beach in Goa, so I am hoping it will impress me more than Arambol.

I leave you with yet another sunset picture, I liked it too much to leave it out the blog. And to prevent the questions – I do not know who the guy is, just made for a good picture.

Diwali – A nation gone mad

Location: Arambol
Country: India

---

Diwali is one of the major festivals in India. I haven’t quite figured what it id for, as they seem to have several different meanings for it. It is manly for the god Laxmi who is god of wealth, which of course would be the god of my choice were I Hindu.
This is the festival of lights and noise. They put Christmas lights up everywhere, and have fireworks and firecrackers.
I’m sure it sounds quite nice when you are reading about it, but the thing is that this goes on for 2 weeks non-stop before the festival. Everywhere you go at any given time of day there are groups of people standing around setting off firecrackers. You walk along the streets constantly wondering when one of these things is going to hit you. Of course, being India, no safety rules apply, and you have little kids setting off these things.
Not to mention that sleep has been almost impossible during this time, as it goes on till all hours.
One would think that a couple of days of this and they would get bored of it, but no, they went on and on for 2 weeks.

Last time I updated, I believe it was my last day in Udaipur. From there got a 16 hour sleeper bus to Bombay. Thought I would show my body who is boss, and took a sleeping pill, but to no avail, managed little more than dosing off lightly.
I was mentally prepared to hate Bombay, as I had an image of Delhi in my mind. I was quite surprised to discover that I quite liked it.
Bombay feels very European; parts of it very much reminded me of London. A lot of old beautiful European buildings around. It is quite clean, with hardly any cows to be seen.


I was worried about having problems finding a place to stay there because of the Diwali, but found something with not too much trouble. It was much more expensive than what I usually pay and not as nice, but it was only for 3 nights.
The accommodations would be the only complaint I have about Bombay, it is known to be the most expensive in India.

The night I arrived, went to meet Paula at the airport.
For those of you who do not know, Paula is my aunt and will be traveling with me for 6 weeks. (From now on, if I refer to “we” in the blog with no further explanation, that would be Paula and I).
We managed to meet up at the airport with no problem, and thankfully there was no need for all my contingency plans (though I am sure that they would have worked perfectly had they been needed).
Paula shlapped way too many things with her, even though I warned her time and again not to and sent her a list what to bring. But I think she did quite well for a first time backpacker.

We spent the first day walking round Bombay around Kolaba and the Fort areas, walking in to a couple of museums as well. It felt to me almost like walking round London (they even have double decker buses).
The most important thing we saw that day was the Jewish synagogue – Keneseth Eliyahoo synagogue. It felt very strange and special visiting a Synagogue in the middle of India.
This old Jewish guy sat with us, explaining about the place. But then, just to remind us that we are in India, attempted to sell us some things.


On the second day we took a half day taxi tour around Bombay, which was really good.
There aren’t actually that many sites to see in Bombay, so half a day is pretty much enough.
Two places worth mentioning are the Mani Bhavan museum – where Mahatma Gandhi used to live and was converted in to a museum. Was almost professional and quite interesting. The second place Dhobi Ghat, which is the city laundry place, with 5000 men standing doing laundry by hand, it is quite the site.


On the third day we went to Elephanta Island, which is Bombay’s biggest tourist attraction, and rightfully so.
You get there on a one hour boat trip, which was nice in itself. You get a good view of Bombay and it is hard to grasp how big it is.
On the island, there are temples dedicated to the god Shiva (god of destruction), that were carved in the rock.
It was beautiful and really interesting to walk around. Each carved panel told a different story about some aspect of Shiva.

That night, we had an 11 hour train trip to Goa. I think that at the first site of the train station (which was jam packet with people) and of the train (which gives most people an association I had better not mention here), Paula was rather shocked. It was also the first time that she had to really carry her bag around, which is of course way too heavy for her.
But, I think she did really well, didn’t let it get her down, and eventually didn’t find the trip too bad.


We are staying at a beach called Arambol in Goa, which is a relatively quite beach, no big parties going on all the time.
We have a nice room, with a balcony with a view of the sea.
First impressions are very favorable and we can both do with some quiet chill out time.

FYI - Yesterday I decided to stop being lazy and start doing my washing myself – most the cloths and underwear I own are now covered in purple blotches. I guess I should have stuck with the lazy, as god intended.