Last post from India

Location: Mahabalipuram
Country: India

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This will be my last post from India, all being well next week I will be in Thailand.

The last day in Podicherry, we went to see the only interesting thing there is to see in that area – Auroville village.
Auroville is an international community of about 1700 people from 35 different countries. They live together kind of like in a kibbutz, no interest individual gain or money and work in different crafts, research and all community things.
Basically it sounds very ideal, but it’s probably just some corrupt cult thing.
The woman who initiated the project is called “The Mother” and there are huge pictures of her everywhere.
But, if you find it interesting and would like to read about it - http://www.auroville.org/

We had had quite enough of Pondicherry and our “amazing” guesthouse there and decided to move on to Mahabalipuram. The problem was that it had been raining quite heavily and there were floods in the area and we were worried that the roads would be blocked, I really did not fancy being stuck in Pondicherry, but in the end all was well and we made it out of there.

Mahabalipuram is just great, exactly what we needed for our last days in India. It is a small town by the beach (though the beach is horribly dirty and only crazy English people seem to go near it), with loads of shops and nice restaurants around.
As it was Paula’s last guesthouse, she asked that we stay somewhere a bit nicer than usual, I was sure glad to have agreed. We had a lovely room with hot water (I haven’t had a hot shower in over a month, and I really really hate cold showers).
The best thing about the guesthouse is that it has the most amazing swimming pool.


The first day here we did a rickshaw tour of a couple of hours to see all the rock carvings in the area, was very nice.


Once we got that over with, we were free to just sit by the pool sunbathing and reading all day, allowing some time for shopping of course.
We were very lucky with the weather whilst Paula was here, it had been raining constantly due to a cyclone before we arrived, but we had wonderfully sunny days.
We met this really great English guy here - Eric, I get on brilliantly with him, and we are so similar in some ways it’s amazing (sorry Mum, don’t get your hopes up, he is gay).


Paula was flying home on my birthday, so we celebrated together with Eric the night before.
Paula managed to buy a cake from somewhere and even managed to get “29” candles.

Paula was not supposed to buy me a present, as she had already paid for the house boat as an early birthday present, but she went ahead and got one anyway – it is a beautiful necklace and I am really happy with it.

I also received a lovely card from her, and Eric was really sweet and gave me a card too.
You see Mum; you didn’t have to worry about me getting no cards this year.

Yesterday I went with Paula to the airport, which is a couple of hours away and saw her off.
It has been so great traveling with her; we got on really really well and had no problems at all.
I don’t think there are many people with whom I could spend such intense 6 weeks together with and not want to kill them by the end of it.
I have to say that she was brilliant, she did India in the same way that any average backpacker does, I did not let her take the easy way out. She was great about it and seemed to have no problems even thorough the inevitable hard parts.
I am sure that there will be times when I will miss traveling with her.

I am now sharing a room with Eric and spending most of the time with him. The weather has turned bad again (stupid cyclone), so I guess I will just have to teach him some card games.

Here are some sentences that I am sick of hearing from Indians and will be glad to hear no more. Imagine them in an annoying Indian accent.
“What is your (good) name?”
“What is your country?”
“What is your occupation?”
“Come see my shop”
“Just looking”
“Looking is free”
“Is good price”
“I give best price for you”
“You say how much”
“Hello madaaaaaaaaaaam”
“Rickshaw madam? Rickshaw?”
“You have money? / biscuits? / pens?”
And the most annoying of them all is feeling a light tap on your arm and turning round to see a local gesturing with his hand towards his mouth asking for food.

Small things that I have learnt to appreciate whilst traveling in India:
* A hot shower.
* Food arriving in less than half an hour.
* Food arriving for all the people at the table at the same time.
* Salt that actually comes out (apparently they haven’t heard of the idea of putting rice in the salt).
* Walking down the street without people staring at you and hassling you for something.
* A sink in the shower.
* No urine smell in the room / train / bus / street.
* Clean room and toilet.
* Good laundry service. Having the cloths smell like they have really been washed.
* Public transport arriving on time and no major delays on the way.
* Toilets that don’t make you want to throw up when you walk in.
* Toilet stops at normal intervals during bus rides.
* A comfortable bed.
* Fast Internet.
* Not seeing people spit and urinate around you.
I could go on and on, but that gives you a general idea.

But, having said all those things, I also must say that I have really enjoyed my time in India.
I have seen some amazing sites and places and have managed to meet some great people (even though many of the travelers here are not really my type of people).
India is huge, but I feel I managed to see quite a bit, and who knows, I may still visit here again before my trip is over.
I am looking forward to arriving in Thailand and enjoying its comforts, and exploring some new countries in that area.

As I mentioned, I celebrated my 29th birthday yesterday, I had no wish to make on my candles, as I am already fulfilling my biggest wish.
To all the people who sent emails and added comments to the blog, wishing me a happy birthday – thank you very much, it is much appreciated.
To all my readers who never add comments, you will have to do so now, it would be considered too impolite not to wish me a happy birthday...