Departure day closing in...

First of all I can't understand how time flies. At some point it felt like I was going to be in India forever and now that I'm getting used to the idea of going back home it's like "SNAP! It's over". I've been thinking of what I will miss of India;

• The friends I have made that I'll hopefully see again in not too long time.
• The food: Idly, Vada, Thali, Naan, Paneer Butter Masala, Channa Batora, Dosai, Porotha and all the other vegetarian dishes that I really enjoy eating.
• The way food is eaten: using only right hand formed like a scoop, using the thumb as a spoon to shovel it into the mouth, using the pointy finger and middle finger as fork and knife. Eating is so much more intimate in this way and it's way better to enjoy the whole experience of the meal.
• The hole in the wall; Our regular bar with beer served through a hole in the wall. The first weeks we thought the employees hated us cause they looked at us in a weird fashion, but they turned out to be really great and always greeted us when we passed by even though we didn't buy anything at that exact time.
• Rickshaws; an easy and cheap way to get around if you really don't want to walk, or if you have to get to the other side of the town really fast to a liquor store to buy Bacardi Breezers before closing time.
• Eating out.; I haven't prepared my own food in a long time, I nearly don't know how to do it anymore. But where one thing lacks another thing steps in to take it's place; I've been washing my own clothes by hand in the shower with a detergent bar, using an hour just to get done. (Yes, I should have an applause for that.)
• The heat; even though it has been incredibly hot here for the past weeks and I've been sweating like a pig, I'd rather sweat than freeze.
• The outgoing people; It's a fact that it's hard to come to a personal level with Scandinavians in particular. This is not an issue in India. This could be kind of over the top for many reserved Europeans, but when you get past that border you will meet so many great people and get strong relations to them.

I could continue with this forever, but this is the main things that I'll miss the first when getting back home.

Secondly I'm amazed by how small the world is. When staying in Varkala I met a friend from my own hometown on the beach, unknowing that we both stayed in India at the same time, and in different places in India. Last night I met a Danish girl, through some common Indian friends, that have been studying in Ireland together with a former classmate of mine that also has lived in my hometown and spent a lot of time in the village where I grew up when we were growing up. There has also been one other guy from my hometown here in Pondi during our studies, but that weekend I was away in Bangalore, but this just proves how ridicilously tiny the world is. Or how people from my hometown are trying to colonize the world yet again.

Now it's time for me to figure out how I'm going to get all my belongings back home without paying a fortune at the airport in overweight charges. I'll just say "Mail, mail, mail!".

Backpacks, drums, restless bumpy bus rides and long lasted return to Pondi.

Actually has this post already been summed up in the title, but I could try to explain a bit more even though your fantasy could do the rest more interesting. Yesterday, at 5.30, I got up, had a shower, cleaned my wounds and packed my stuff together. I went down to the junction near our hotel in Munnar where me and Paul parted ways for the last time in India. He went back to Kerala and would finish up north while I had to get back to Pondicherry for my final week. I went up to the Tamil Nadu bus stand where I met a sleepy bus driver that told me that the bus would leave at 7.00 AM and not 6.30 as I was told. I asked if I could wait inside the bus, and that was OK. At 6.23 we were on our way. This Indian time is a mysterious wonder by itself.

The bus trip was really interesting....and scary. The long, steep hillsides of Munnar is nothing you want to challenge. Tell that to the bus driver. I found out that the best thing was to try to sleep. Close the eyes, lean back, listen to the engine and hope that no one starts screaming. That trick actually helped a whole lot. Everyone told me that the bus was an express bus to Coimbatore. They were wrong. After much discussions back and forth I finally got on to the right bus that we changed to. This went to Coimbatore, but no one on the bus could help me to find the bus stand where the bus to Pondicherry, or Chennai, left from. So I just got off at a bus station. Of course, the wrong one... From this point out I had a lot of helpers. At least seven of them. I felt like Snow White, not referring to skin color as one could imagine. I have never gotten that many business cards in my whole life;

- "Call me if you need any help!"
"Yes, I will."
- "No, but seriously, call me!"

Anyhow, the people of Coimbatore are very helpful and wonderful beings, and even though all buses to Pondicherry were full, they managed to get me the last seat on a local bus. And the guy who managed that really didn't know how much that meant to me. Spending one night at a hotel in Coimbatore only waiting for the buses the day after to leave was not what I could dream of unless having a nightmare. The samaritan looked at me as I was stark raving mad when I shook his hand and thanked him of all my heart.

At this point the clock was 13.17, the bus would leave at 20.30. So what do you do in a town you don't know, where it was hard enough trying to find the bus stand to leave from, and you really won't lose that position again? You stay!

Or at least you stay in the area. I think I didn't leave further away than 5 minutes from the bus stand. Luckily it was a hotel close by with both restaurant and bar. Next door was an Internet Cafe. So the linear story was the following:

1. Thali at the hotel restaurant, which was the best thali meal I've had in India.
2. Internet at the internet cafe.
3. And finally cricket and a couple of KingFisher's at a dark hotel bar where sunlight was denied by thick curtains.
   

Now there was only one and a half hours left. I left for the bus stand where Indian eyes meassured me up, down and sideways as if westerners never travel around India in local buses, which they actually may not do... too much... After an hour the bus arrived and I could kill the last 30 minutes killing mosquitoes in stead. The journey for Pondicherry lasted for nine hours on bumpy roads and hard seats. But the prize at the end of the rope was getting a double room in Pondicherry with an own rooftop and view over the bay of Bengal. And after breakfast and a little rest I'm now ready to take on to Pondicherry once again. This is it. The last week. Cherish every waking moment.


P.S.: while taking the bus I started thinking of every person we have met that hasn't been mentioned here. We have met some very interesting people; from the crazy scotsman in Varkala to the 15 year old Brahmin kid from Mumbai at the hotel in Kottayam that I amazed with card tricks. The local auto repair man from Coimbatore that just wanted me to call to the two Boston girls in Munnar that didn't want me to sit alone eating lunch in a local restaurant. And there are many, many more, but of course I can't write all their life stories and the impressions that they left. But maybe they'll end up in a book once, along with stories about power failure, rooms full of cockroaches and staff that unexpectedly enters your room at night while you're sleeping to hold your hand. India is amazing and hard to explain, but it's worth trying, right?

From beaches to mountains.

After finishing up on kicking concrete so my big toe fell apart, we took the train for Kottayam where we spent a couple of hours. We took the bus early in the morning for Munnar, a hill station with a cooler climate, more vegetation and lots of mountain tops. It was good to see all these things although it felt a bit cold with only 20 degrees. I actually had to put on a sweater, while wearing pants is now a habit I practice in cold areas as well as places with temperatures above 35 degrees. Munnar has a split population between people from Tamil Nadu and people from Kerala which results in a mixed spoken variety between Malayalam and Tamil. This is funny since we know a bit Tamil, but of course it could end horribly wrong as well. Yesterday two guys came up behind us and asked how we were doing, in really bad english. We answered back in english and soon realized that he didn't know much more to say and what he tried to get out was pretty much incomprehensible. So to make him feel better I tried som Tamil phrases, which resulted in the same incomprehensible dialogue, except the tables had turned. He was extatic and started talking, what to us was, gibberish. Anyhow, it was he who started!!

We walked into a small village up in one of the tea farms in the area and met some children. They wanted us to take pictures of everyone and then they wanted to take pictures themselves of everyone. Luckily we're both guys who knows how to say when enough is enough.

There are a lot of interesting signs around here. For instance we have found the "infant jesus radiator shop". I want a car just to go there to get some service done. We have also found a "very very weak bridge", and believe me; they are not kidding. The police has a slogan: "polite, but firm". What a relief.

That pretty much sums it up. Tomorrow morning we'll head for Coimbatore and then we'll separate again where one half goes up north and the other, which is yours truly, will be heading back to beloved Pondicherry to spend the last week with friends I'll soon be leaving behind.

That's it for now. I'll post more later. Mountain hugs to everyone!

Wonderful Kerala.

We've been on the road for a couple of days and finally we settled down for a three day long vacation in Varkala. First we left Kochi by train down to Alleppey (Allapuzha) where we checked into a houseboat and spent the night rocking away to the soft touch of the waves. The backwaters is beautiful and it's so comfortable just getting everything done for you. The only thing you need to do is to enjoy yourself, which isn't really hard when being with good company. We set out to sea at noon and went to buy some fresh tiger prawns from some local fishers. That was amazing. I've never seen prawns that size before. They looked like aliens. Our chef prepared them for us and that is undoubfully the best dinner I've had down here, and maybe the best dinner I've ever had. Later on we watched "Om, Shanti, Om" starring Shahrukh Khan, a really good and funny Bollywood movie with a lot of great songs. The day after we left the houseboat by nine and went for the bus station. We took the bus for a four hour long drive down to Varkala where we have stayed for three days now. This is a tourist place similar to Greece, Cyprus, Spain and, yeah, you catch my drift. Luckily it's the end of the season so it's not many tourists left. Unfortunately this makes all the desperate bars and sellers to become more aggressive to get a grip on to the few people left. Well, anyhow, we get cheap booze and beer compared to the high season prices and even though the monsoon is closing in we still have good weather during daytime. Around 37 degrees and warming sun. Compared to Pondicherry it's more windy here which makes it feel cooler than on the east coast. The waves and the undercurrent here is really strong and many have given in while being swept away, but the lifeguards try their best to keep everyone safe. I wonder if they know how to swim instead of just blowing their whistle. This will be the last day here and we're unsure of where the next trip will go. Some are heading back to Kochi since they're leaving for Pondicherry on Monday. I am not sure if I'll head for Munnar or Thekkady, but first I either have to get to Kottayam or Kochi. Either way it's a day of traveling in bus, and the local buses here are not very comfortable. I'm sorry for not getting to show you pictures, but there is no way to connect my Mac to the internet anywhere so I'll have to publish them in some other way at another time in life. Maybe when I'm back in Pondicherry. Check in for more later. Tally-Ho!

From train to houseboat.

Today we'll leave Kochi for now and head down to the backwaters and Alappuzha. We have a houseboat there for a 24 hour ride through canals and with three bedrooms and freshly prepared fish that'll be fished along the way. We'll try to make it onto one of the local trains. From there we'll see if we'll head down to Varkala to work on the tan.

Greetings from Kochi!

We arrived Kochi in Kerala on Sunday and have already got to try out fishing with Chinese fishing nets, starred in a major Keralan movie, been swimming through the town's streets during heavy rainfall and watched traditional dancing and martial arts performed to excellence.

This sums it all up and, unfortunately, I can't upload pictures because there is no such internet connection here so that I can use my own laptop. But we'll all survive. Today we'll have a reunion with some friends and tomorrow we may head on down south to backwaters or beach areas. Stay tuned.

Nearly the end (some thoughts around life in India).

It hasn't been too many updates here lately. Mainly because nothing has happened. We're counting down the days until the studies ends and try to reminisce all the things we have experienced. I've passed both my mid-term papers and have kind of taken a break from reading while organizing all the information I've stock piled in my memory for the past 9 weeks. I'll soon travel to Kerala where I hope new experiences will make it into new blog posts and extraordinary pictures. So, to make this a blog post that isn't just rubbish, I'll try to paint a picture of what impressions I now have of this "small" Indian town.

'Parklife' has a totally different meaning here. Basically because people actually live in the park.

Most Indians have this mentality that 'what goes up must come down', or more like 'what's inside must come out'. It's not unusual to have Indians spitting right in front of you in the street. While eating at restaurants, or being on planes or buses, your fellow companion in the seat next to you may burp out loud. When going shopping, being a bit larger than the average Indian, you may hear that your size doesn't exist in India. Or if you're slightly overweight they will confront you with the fact that you're actually fat.

Patience is a virtue. There is nothing called efficiency. If you wait for a coffee which you'll get after about half an hour, you'll be surprised by how hard working they actually are at that place.

Never order continental. Or, you may, but it's faster, and far better, with Indian food.

Read newspapers with a six year old's mind. I quote yesterdays paper: "During the weekend 580 people were arrested in Chennai to prevent riots during the election, including 15 anti socials (??)...", or maybe even better "A man, on monday, complained to the police about being harrassed by his wife, which have two kids, for bad housing.".

Don't go reversed bungee jumping. An Indian student's safety belt buckle broke and resulted in a 60 feet launch and likewise a 60 feet fall to his death... Obviously...

What comes around, goes around. Don't become a criminal. A guy in Pondicherry got stabbed to death by 11 members of a rival gang last week just meters away from the bar we hung out at. He had tried to kill one of them the day before, but the "victim" escaped. What you should learn from this? If you need to kill someone: succeed in doing so!

Choose your rickshaw driver with wisdom. If it says "Speed King" on the side along with a drawing of a dragon, then it's a safe bet. It's fast and fun.

Stay away from tuna that doesn't taste like tuna. It is most likely not tuna and will make your intestines wish for a new resting ground.

Get yourself mosquito repellant. Anything will do. You'll get sucked dry anyways, but over a longer period of time.

Get used to bedbugs. Consider them your pets. It's always nicer sleeping with someone, or something, than spending the night alone.

Be prepared for any situation. There may suddenly be a beach party somewhere or a collision involving a couple of motorcycles. Prepare yourself for either surfing or saving lives.

Learn falling techniques. Just in case you want to avoid being a subject of life saving after a motorcycle accident.

Use fans. Fans works just as well as air condition except for the fact that air conditioning gets you sick. If you're sick, deal with it! Indian doctors seems hard to cope with and has very different ways of treating your illness than what you're used to. If your ear hurts it is probably your throat and if you have stomach pain they may have many different options on what it could be. It's a bit like "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?".

Do the finger dance. When the finger dance comes into the picture you know the party has started.

Bear arms. Get yourself a BB-gun. You'll hate the crows and it's good having something in hand that prevents you from running around chasing them instead.

I think this concludes it all, but there is probably more that I have left out at the moment. I'll keep you posted. Peace!