So yesterday I went to a beautiful garden called ‘Project Ecolake’. This couple took a landscape that quite literally looked like the moon as it was totally baron and just 35 years later it’s now a lush dry evergreen forest which is indiginous to Southern India. So basically it looks just as Sadhana forest should do in 35 years. It was really inspiring as it was so beautiful. More than anything I was overwhelmed by the couples devotion and hardwork in the cause. They’re so much like Aviram and Yorit (the family who started Sadhana forest). They let very few people in to see the forest/garden as they don’t want publicity and they don’t want to upset the nature there. They ask for no money to see the forest and they were so so welcoming. I am going to go back on Tuesday to just sit in the garden as it was such a peaceful environment. On the tour I felt like i needed to be there longer as it was so beautiful. Like another world to the chaotic streets of India!

In the previous week I’ve been doing much more at Sadhana. I’ve taken on the role of kitchen

And again

manager now, which is great as it’s nice to have a little more responsibility as you get to know the place much more. So far I think I’ve been doing well, fingers crossed it will continue! I’ve also been going into the forest much more and this week I helped build a bund. Bunds are for water conservation as they basically stop the water flowing down the hillsides and keeps it where the trees need it. So you take a load of dirt and make something like a damn almost. I was the stomper, so i spent virtually two hours each morning stomping on the bunds to compact them so the water flow wouldn’t knock through them. It was almost like being on one of the steppers at the gym! So there was my exercise for the week!

I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and go vegan. So no more ice cream at Richie richs! Instead I have lots of fresh juice. It feels good to have finally gone back into it, as it’s where my morals lie and I feel so much better for finding the will power to just do it. Who needs normal cake

when you have vegan muffins on film night!!

Most of the rest of my free time has been spent at New Creation pool! I’ve found a pool and it’s amazing. It seems to be getting hotter and hotter yet so this pool is like a god send! I’ve even got myself a membership now I’m that addicted to the place!

Ooooo also, Poofy had puppies! She’d secretly mated with one of the local village dogs and had 6 puppies. They’re so adorable. But 4 of them died, and i’m pretty sure that the other 2 will also as she’s an awful mother! She hides them in holes under the toilet and in the showers and just leaves them there. She’s a little crazy I think. Nevertheless it was still exciting to be woken by the excitement of findings new baby puppies in one of the huts!

That is all for now. I love you all. xxx

This is how I’d imagined monsoon in Palolem! We are blessed with sunshine which stretches on for days, before the humidity builds and releases torrential downpours which reflect and revive. We get a fantastic deal on a penthouse apartment on the Palolem – Patnem road, just 5 mins walk through coconut groves to the beach. We are living in sparkling clean luxury complete satellite TV, internet connection, our own kitchen and huge, completely private sunbathing terrace. I take advantage of the seclusion with some serious tan line free sun worship! We go to market in Chaudi every few days for fresh fruit, veg and fish. It’s a real novelty to cook for ourselves after over 11 months on the road.

Coming back after our jaunt in Karnataka, we find we have become ‘local’. Villagers greet us as we walk into town and we stop to chat with Goan and ex-pat friends…it’s like we’re characters in ‘Cheers!’ except we’re in an idyllic tropical village and not a pub run by Ted Danson.

We rent a scooter and visit other beaches around Canacona, including the turtle nesting beach Galgibag, but agree that nowhere is as beautiful as the heavily palmed Palolem.

view from our balcony

Driving through peaceful villages, the sea on one side, paddies and plantations on the other, is an essential Goa experience. My heart swells with happiness both for the moment we’re in, and the adventures we have enjoyed together this past year. Even when tears come, my overwhelming emotion is joy. It’s hard to tear ourselves away, but we have such a bond with this place that I know we’ll be back.

We took a three day trip to Kerala from Chennai.

we boarded the Chennai -Allepey mail on 30th July, thursday @ 2100hrs
Reached allepey on the 31st @1030hrs.

we had our can waiting for us in the railway station. he took us to the house boat jetty. we did buy around 2kgs of karimeen (lake fish) for fry, also carried a crate of mineral water and some soda bottles.

The boat name was ROYAL STAR. its a super luxury boat. The crew was friendly and we started our sail.

During our sailin vembanad lake, we saw an old man in a very small canoe fishing. he had super big prawns.
We bought 5 huge prawns(each weighing 500 grms) for Rs.500/-.

we then stopped for TODDY, and had special food(Tapioca and red fish curry) from the toddy shop. then it was time for lunch and we had kerala food with fish fry.

evening we stopped for a halt. morning we started sail towards kumarakum and it was an awesome site. the boat passed thru kumarakum canals and we got down in a jetty.

a TAXI driver was waiting there for us to drive us to

houseboat ROYAL STAR 1

thekkady. rest in my next blog….

But a night in a houseboat is something you should do before you die…. once in a lifetime experience…. great & awesome ….

ROYAL STAR

fisherman in VEMBANAD LAKE

fishing boat in VEMBANAD LAKE

houseboat in Vembanad lake

rainy clouds in vembanad lake

vembanad lake

vembanad lake2

private resort – vembanad lake

lake shore

lake shore 2

lake shore 3

house boat

houseboat in kumarkum

houseboat in kumarakum

houseboat in kumarakum

new captian- deep

captian JOSE

Gate of India

Fangen wir mal an Mumbai zusammenzufassen.

Mumbai hat offiziell 16 Millionen Einwohner. Die sind gezaehllt worden. Schaetzungsweise sind es 20 Millionen. Diese Menschen kriechen ab 6-7 Uhr aus ihren Loechern und laufen munter auf der Strasse rum. Es sind einfach zu viele Leute. Fuer mich sieht das aus, als wuerden sich Ameisen ihren Weg bahnen. CRUNK STYLE !!

Mumbai ist fuer mich noch extrem heiss. Ich trinke die ganze Zeit Wasser und wenn ich kein Wasser trinke, trinke ich einen Banana- oder Sugercane Juice.

Preislich ist Mumbai anscheinend relativ teuer. Aber das ist halb so wild, da ich fuer das Hostel gerade mal 2,xx Euro zahle. Es ist wohl ein Dorm, aber das passt schon. Hygienetechnisch wuerde die ein oder andere Frau die ganze Zeit schreiend durch Gegend rennen, aber da muss man ein paar Abstriche machen. Relativ widerlich ist, dass es keine Toiletten gibt. Nur so ein bloedes Loch im Boden. Man darf dann einen grossen Eimer Wasser fuellen und dann …naja den Rest koennt ihr euch denken. Wohl dem der Desinfektionsmittel mitgenommen hat.

Heute habe ich mir ein Zugticket fuer Morgen Abend nach Aurangabad besorgt. Da sollen ganz tolle Hoehlen und Tempel sein. Ich bin

Ghandis Zimmer
Da hat der gute Mann angeblich gewohnt und gearbeitet

gespannt. Das hat Ganze 3 Stunden in Anspruch genommen. Hier laeuft alles ziemlich ineffizient.

Dann hab ich mir noch ne Stadttour fuer wahrscheinlich viel zu viel Geld andrehen lassen, aber ich wollte was von Mumbai sehen und alleine so etwas zu organisieren grenzt an das Unmoegliche.

Ich habe das Gate of India gesehen. Frueher sind die Leute halt noch per Schiff gekommen und da war dieses Tor wohl das Tor zu Indien.

Naechster Stop war dann Ghandis Haus. Relativ interessant, da dort an Hand von Puppen in Schaukaesten die Geschichte Ghandis dargestellt wurde. Ich, als alter Banause habe natuerlich nicht gewusst, dass Ghandi erschossen wurde.

Anschliessend ging es zu einem Tempel und hier sind alle irgendwie im Moment verrueckt, da der Gott Ganamesh oder so aehnlich irgendwas macht und das nur alle 4 Jahre. Mein Glueck wohl. Leider hat der Guide nicht wirklich gut Englisch gesprochen, sodass ich nix darueber berichten kann. Dann durfte ich noch gegen eine kleine “Spende” das Krematorium anschauen. Davon gibt es wohl mehr als 10 in Mumbai. Die Fotos von den Grabstellen von Kleinkindern erspar ich euch bzw ich hab die gleich wieder geloescht.

Dann noch in den Hanging Garden.

Einaescherung
Im Krematorium eines Tempels

Relativ verwundern ist, dass sobald man in dem Park ist kein Hupen oder sonstige Larmbelaestigung aus der Stadt mitbekommt sondern nur Vogelgezwitcher.

Zum Schluss noch zur groessten “Waschanlage” in Mumbai. Dort laesst anscheinend der Mittelstand waschen.

Abschliessend kann ich sagen, dass mir Mumbai bis jetzt nicht so wirklich gefaellt. Zu viele Leute, zu heiss, zu viele Bettler bzw. Armut.
Mit dem Essen hier in Indien komme ich halbwegs gut zurecht. Es gibt halt Gericht Scharf1 Scharf 2 bis Gericht Scharf 100. Die Auswahl ist erdrueckend gross und ich weiss nicht wirklich was ich bestelle, ausser halt beim 2ten Mal.

Uebermorgen bin ich dann in Aurangabad, da ist es hoffentlich gechillter als hier. Bis dann fellas !

Feuerstelle

Holz zum Einaeschern

Hanging Garden

Mumbai
und davon nur ein exTREM kleiner Teil. Die Stadt kennt man bestimmt erst nach 10 Jahren richtig gut…..

Bonsai
Im Hanging Garden

Tempel Figur

Waschmann

Laundry Place
Hier wird im grossen Stil Waesche gewaschen

Kerl
Als kleines Schmankerl. Dem Kerl hier gehoert wohl der PC. Keine Ahnung fuer was er das gemacht hat, ob fuer seine Freundin oder eine Datingsite. Ich finds auf jeden Fall lustig ! HRHRHR

The train to Chennai was not an unpleasant experience. It was not exactly luxury either but it was grand and we arrived in one piece. The best bit is not wasting your day travelling and if you can get any sleep then you’re ready to hit the day at a run. Anyway when we got to the station we had to book our next train journey for the following Monday. In India, you haveto book long jounreys well in advance because they tend to be very busy. So, we had to wait until the reservation office opened and by the time we got it sorted we were kind of tired and did not really want a rickety bus journey to our next stop – Mamalapuram. We were about to get an auto rickshaw to the bus station but our prospective driver offered to take us all the way to the aforementioned Mama…. So for ten euro, sure we said why not. I can thoroughly recommend it too, it was one of more interesting trips. And in case you’re wondering what a tenner gets you, it was about 60km of a journey complete with his efforts to elicit a tip by making

Photo 2

up some tour guide stuff on the way. Anyway, he was delighted with the fare and it was doubtful he would have to work again that week.

So, the driver dropped us off at our hotel and what a relief to stay in a place with a pool !! It was heaven. They even had beer – albeit illegal beer (which I think makes it taste nicer anyway.) The food was great too.
One other thing to note that for many people this was the first stop from their arrival in Chennai (from their home countries) so the locals were keen to ride them. Once they figured out we were not for riding (figuratively speaking) we were grand. One of the dudes tried to sell us fish for 40quid for lunch ! I would expect a share in the hotel for that, but I did see a few newcomers tucking in to said marine life a little later. In a similar vein we met an American couple who were charged over double what we were, because they booked in advance. Oh, how smug we felt.

The book (Lonely Planet for the uninitiated) mentioned a few local temples which

Rock temple
What an amazing temple in Mamalapuram

were worth seeing so we decided to take a look. First was a shore temple (i.e. near the beach) Grand but the real jewels were to come, in the form of a set of 5 temples carved in to caves about 300 metres away. They were stunning and worth the trip alone. There was a different theme to each one but my highlight was the one of Krisha (with the 8 limbs) “entertaining” 8 maidens all at once.

Sure what’s the point in having 8 limbs if you can’t use them ??

Later that evening, we had dinner and a few drinks at our hotel. They wrapped the beer bottles in napkins to disguise them !! Our waiter was great so we gave him a 200 ruppees tip which is about 3 quid and he was ecstatic. The next day at breakfast he was all chat. It really brought it home how lrich we must appear to the locals – and also how few people must tip.

After breakfast we lazed around for a while and took the bus to Pondicherry (50 cent each for about 100k).

The train to Chennai was not an unpleasant experience. It was not exactly luxury either but it was grand and we arrived in one piece. The best bit is not wasting your day travelling and if you can get any sleep then you’re ready to hit the day at a run. Anyway when we got to the station we had to book our next train journey for the following Monday. In India, you haveto book long jounreys well in advance because they tend to be very busy. So, we had to wait until the reservation office opened and by the time we got it sorted we were kind of tired and did not really want a rickety bus journey to our next stop – Mamalapuram. We were about to get an auto rickshaw to the bus station but our prospective driver offered to take us all the way to the aforementioned Mama…. So for ten euro, sure we said why not. I can thoroughly recommend it too, it was one of more interesting trips. And in case you’re wondering what a tenner gets you, it was about 60km of a journey complete with his efforts to elicit a tip by making  up some tour guide stuff on the way. Anyway, he was delighted with the fare and it was doubtful he would have to work again that week.

So, the driver dropped us off at our hotel and what a relief to stay in a place with a pool !! It was heaven. They even had beer – albeit illegal beer (which I think makes it taste nicer anyway.) The food was great too.
One other thing to note that for many people this was the first stop from their arrival in Chennai (from their home countries) so the locals were keen to ride them. Once they figured out we were not for riding (figuratively speaking) we were grand. One of the dudes tried to sell us fish for 40quid for lunch ! I would expect a share in the hotel for that, but I did see a few newcomers tucking in to said marine life a little later. In a similar vein we met an American couple who were charged over double what we were, because they booked in advance. Oh, how smug we felt.

The book (Lonely Planet for the uninitiated) mentioned a few local temples which

Rock temple
What an amazing temple in Mamalapuram

were worth seeing so we decided to take a look. First was a shore temple (i.e. near the beach) Grand but the real jewels were to come, in the form of a set of 5 temples carved in to caves about 300 metres away. They were stunning and worth the trip alone. There was a different theme to each one but my highlight was the one of Krisha (with the 8 limbs) “entertaining” 8 maidens all at once.

Sure what’s the point in having 8 limbs if you can’t use them ??

Later that evening, we had dinner and a few drinks at our hotel. They wrapped the beer bottles in napkins to disguise them !! Our waiter was great so we gave him a 200 ruppees tip which is about 3 quid and he was ecstatic. The next day at breakfast he was all chat. It really brought it home how lrich we must appear to the locals – and also how few people must tip.

After breakfast we lazed around for a while and took the bus to Pondicherry (50 cent each for about 100k).

Pondicherry

I was expecting

Carvings
More wow stuff

a mini Paris in Pondy so was a little disappointed when we got there. Yes there was far more night life but the first place we went to was average. Food was ok but the service was fairly crap. We went for a pint afterwards but got chucked out at 11 (along with everyone else I might add) when the power was cut off. Actualy a the same time the police were outside with very very big sticks so it was probably time to leave. We had tried a different bar which was mentioned in the Lonely Planet but that was an awful kip. Somebody had puked in the sink there and nobody had cleaned it up – nice.

Next day we toddled down to the bach, which was nice but you couldn’t swim there which was a pity. We did a bit of shopping and strolling around and later went for dinner to a place we’d seen the previous night. And what a place ! It restored my faith with loevel food , very drinkable Indian wine and great service. Needless to say we went there the next day too.

So, once we’d confirmed our seats on

More carvings

the overnight train to the Southern tip of India, off we went on the Monday night – a good bit of travelling ahead before we got back to Kerala for the final leg.

One thing to note, we had to get a local train to the junction where the overnight train stopped, the cost : 7 rupees each which is about 12 cent for a 45 minute journey. Unbelievable.

Cow bus
Cows waiting for the bus in Mamalapuram

Civilisation in Pondicherry
Thje only way to get a bit of silence

The next major stop on our voyage was India. Since I am in a slight time crunch right now (I am going to be in Thailand in like 6 hours), I am going to not be as wordy in this post and just highlight the main events. The first thing I noticed, and most people would agree with me, was that India smells. A lot. I woke up and the smell of exhaust, dirt, and other less than glamorous smells had seeped into my room. As you approached the gangway, the smell got worse and worse. It was a true shock to the senses, but after a few hours, my nostrils had become used to it. What I never got over was just how crowded Chennai was. The roads were full of cars, motorbikes, and tuk-tuks, or three-wheeled taxis. People were everywhere and the walking was more like being pushed from location to location. The first day, I went around Chennai, being ripped off by cab drivers but still having a good time. A group of friends and I went out for a nice traditional and authentic Indian meal. While we did a good job of ordering mostly non-spicy food (which

Market
One of the markets from my bus window

was still pretty spicy), I did make the mistake of biting into some chicken that I swear was doused in peppers. That pretty much ended the meal for me because I ate all my rice just trying to cool my mouth off. The second day was spent traveling to Agra in order to see the Taj Mahal. We were the unlucky group that got stuck on the non-express train and had to endure the five and half hour train ride. However, a few of us managed to make it fun by standing in the sections in between the cars and watching the scenery go by (was really Slumdog Millionaire like). When we finally arrived at the hotel everyone was ready for bed. But after hearing what sounded like a dance party going on, my roommate for the trip and I went downstairs to investigate. The source of the sound ended up being a 25th wedding anniversary. After watching from outside the hotel conference room for a few minutes, we were invited inside. Soon after, the band noticed us and invited us to dance in the circle and on the stage. It was a really cool experience learning their traditional wedding

Monkey in a Fort
Just a monkey in one of the forts in Agra

dances and trying not to completely embarrass ourselves, which I am failed at miserably. After thirty minutes of Indian techno/ dance music, we said our goodbyes and went to bed. The next morning was the long awaited trip to the Taj. Walking through the main gates was one of the most wowing experiences that I can remember. The tomb is one of the most picturesque buildings I have ever seen and the haze from the pollution gave it an other-worldly feel. As I walked closer to the structure, it seems to grow exponentially and by the time I reached it, I felt completely dwarfed. The inside was kind of a disappointment because I was expecting more elaborate designs, but the marble building is by far the most impressive structures I have ever seen. We visited several other Indian monuments that day but after the Taj Mahal, they just were not as cool. After a second visit to the Taj, we headed to Delhi to get in our hotel and explore the capital of India. Delhi was mostly a bus tour of the major monuments and political buildings. We were able to see the houses of the Indian president and the

Taj Mahal
This is the site right through the main gate

Indian equivalent of Congress. However, since it was a bus tour, it was very difficult to take pictures of these buildings. After this quick tour, we went to the airport and flew back to Chennai. My final day was probably the most important one that I had in India because it was the day that I was able to converse with locals. I participated in a trip that went to visit the slums and some of the other market areas in Chennai. This allowed me to see the extreme poverty that many people have to live with in India. We were not allowed to bring cameras on this trip because the people did not want to be captured in a photo in their surroundings. It did not end up mattering because I saw things that I will not soon forget. I do not want to go into great detail so I will just say that the poor people in America do not know how good they have it. There were gangs of kids roaming the street, people passed out (or worse) in the middle of street, and the houses were literally composed of nothing but trash. It was difficult scenario

Taj Reflection
It was a lot of fun to play with the angles and see the different types of reflections you could get

to walk into, but it is one that adequately allowed me to sum up India. India is a country of variance. There is extreme beauty and ugliness, richness and poorness, and grand structures like the Taj Mahal and tiny little shacks made out of wood and trash. I hope that by the time I visit again that this discrepancy has lessened, but I truly do not even know how that would be possible. India is a country that has truly changed the way I look at my values of money and how I look at poorness in the world, I will continue to think about India as I go to each and every country after it.