Bangalore...again...:-)

This is really a nice city...a good vibe to it and I could walk endlessly if it wasn't for the pollution! It is so thick with smoke sometimes that my heart goes funny :-(

I went back to the same hotel again, the Empire..I felt comfortable there and it's also very central plus I can eat inhouse - they have one of the most popular restaurants in town, they serve both veg and non veg food - I have heard that they have the best Tandoori chicken in town - I don't actually fancy having a portion myself, but it looks quite appetizing and fresh. I have spent these 2 days here walking around, doing some shopping and talking to people. Yesterday evening I had dinner with my gorgeous Kashmiri friend, Imtiyaz. He is teaching me everything about the pashminas that i should know and also about the Indian and muslim culture. He invited me to eat last night - so sweet - and I really enjoyed the evening. Today I went for tea in his shop, spent a couple of hours again talking about Kashmir. Then I had my "last Thali" for this time...buuh, with a plain naan - just as I love it! I am actually leaving Bangalore, and India, in a couple of hours...have paid my bill, have ordered a taxi and am ready to leave...for this time...but I know that I will come back here soon, maybe even sooner than I think :-) Bye Bye Incredible India - Thanks for having me here, thanks for looking after me, and, thanks to all the people who helped me make this trip possible!!!

And, to those waiting for me at home, I am looking forward to seeing you all :-) I promise that I will publish a bestof my photos very soon.....

One Love, Suz xxx

OG's Beach resort..in the middle of nowhere...

....it's so hidden away that not even the rickshaw driver managed to find it!!! The guy who was supposed to receive me and check me in, he explained more or less where it was, but impossible...jejeje...good sign I thought :-). I was guided to a little bungalow style room right on the beach. It was really dark when I got there so I could not really see the surroundings, but I saw the beach and the palm trees and then, at dinner, saw a little bit what was around the cottages...homm, it looked really promising! I had a great dinner, all by myself in the dining room, made out of bamboo and had 3 waiters buzzzing around me...sweet! They served me Keralan spicy specialities and I tried all the dishes - even a a little fish - I gathered it was really fresh...it was all really superb! The boss, who had let me in, had 9 business partners there for a men's party so I sneaked back to my room, knowing that it's not really kosher for women to be around under those circumstances...I read and wrote, had a real good shower and fell asleep early. The next morning - wow - I woke up to the most stunning scenery, just white sand, coconut trees and I was on my own on the whole beach! Apart from the fishermen of course.... I spent 2 days and 2 nights plus another half day there - it was so difficult to leave.. The second night I was already on my own in he whole resort! With a guard at my door all night! Jejeje...Bodyguard..didn't look anything like Kevin Costner though...

Finally got my act together and decided to follow my plan so I left, by bus...rare phenomenon, innit....and got to Fort Cochin early evening...Another colonial Disneyland kind of vibe, like Pondicherry in another funny way, but cool in the sense that you can walk everywhere and it's super calm - a litle bit too turistic and westernized to be India as far as my taste is concerned..but I suppose that if you have been on the road for a while - it feels a little bit like a relief to find things like real coffee, clean bathrooms with toiletpaper, brown bread...etc. I hired a room in a colonial house - a "homestay" they call it - nice, super clean house, a fussy landlady but cool in the end - just tired of dirty backpackers now that the season is over... The monsoon is pending in south India, especially on the west coast you can feel it...and shopowners are tired of tourists...it shows too....

Anyway, I stayed 2 nights there in Fort Cochin, and I explored the place quite quickly, the part of town they call "Jew Town" is full of jews, synagogues, muslims and mosques!!! Nothing new really...

I met a few nice people, did some shopping for ayurvedic products, spent half a day at the swimming pool of a local luxury hotel ( why not...) and then got ready for the BIG TRAIN TRIP :-) from Ernakulum to Bangalore....yes, I am coming back to where I started........

Kanyakumari to Varkala....by train....at last!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

04.30 in the morning, brrrrrrrriinnnggggg...! Train left at 5.30 and we got a rickshaw, tutututut......to take us..damned early, but nice because I would actually get to Varkala before the real heat set in.. Wanda and I had a whole compartment to ourselves - well at least for the first 2 hours, then she got off in Trivandrum and changed trains....I went another hour towards the north and by 8.30 I was in Varkala. Then a "real" taxi - not a rickie - took me for the same price to Kerala Bamboo House - some really funky, ecclectic, kitsch bungalows on Varkala's cliff - just next to the beach and with a fantastic view. fairly turistic, but I was lucky because the low season had already started so there was less "hassle"...but I must say that the west side of South India is heavy when it comes the classic "come and see my shop, maam" - ouf!!! But, I enjoyed my bamboo cottage, although it was full of animals and insects - more or less noisy - and quite freaky for somebody like me...but I decided to be strong and said to myself that I am a big girl and no little creepy crawlers would stop me from sleeping... HELP!!!!!!!!! At lunchtime I took a rickie into Varkala village to eat "real Indian food" and to do some shopping for the real price, not a tourist one :-) Then I strolled around in the evening along the beach and spoke to some shopowners. Did some surfing and copied all my photos onto my harddisk - OUFFF! Met a really nice English couple, Sam & Alex - the are on a "aroundtheworldtrip" - sold their house in the UK before the crisis and decided to travel - cool.............before they will once settle and have lots of babies :-) Well, I managed to sleep a few hours & got up at sunrise, and, it was so beautiful...
That second day I spent entirely on the beach - under an umbrella and mostly sleeping, absolutely exhausetd after the last week of sleeping buses and visiting places in the day...
Decided to leave the next morning - found a funky way to get up north, to Alleppey, via ferry through the backwaters all the way from Quilon (Kollum). So, I took a train in the morning to Quilon, only 35 minutes away and a rickie to the ferry...that turned out to be a little boat, on which I was supposed to spend 8 hours with 5 local guys and....no way - I turned around, got my money back and got onto another bus (!!!) to Aleppey where I had arranged to be picked up by Ravi's friend & taken to this beach bungalow...
But, when I got to Aleppey, i received a message from Wanda asking me what's up so we decided to meet n do a half day tour of the backwaters together in the afternoon...what we didn't understand is that we had to change boats half way through it - so, we actually ended up doing the tour twice!!! Jejeje,well, that's life...no worries - we had a great time and took loads of pictures and finally got into town at 7pm...
Coming up next: Beach resort between Aleppey and Kochi...

Kanyakumari...here I come...

...ouf, I never got on that train to Thirupiupirachripilllapalli or whatever name I aleady forgot, the train was supposed to leave from platform no 4 so there I stood, faithfully like a Salvation Army soldier on the quai, waiting, sweating and thinking about how nice it would be to go for a swim... Well, when the clock turned to 16.15, I suddenly felt that something was wrong about this...I turned to a train man on the platform and asked and he said "train already gone, maam"...me, no understand, me wait here, train no go...? Yes, yes, train go platform 2, maam...." Oh no!!! OK, zen...plan B...hmm, another f....g bus??? My bottom is hurting from all these nasty worn out L-shaped seats, can't anymore....grrrrrrrrrrrr, but, what the heck - no choice...until I get wings :-)
So, I got me and my luggage into another "rickie" and off to "the new bus station" (which looked like something out of a movie...) and got onto a bus to Madurai, big junction for the south of India - just praying that there would be a night bus to Kanyakumari - they said here were many...so, ouch my sore bottom again...for 4 hours! Apples from the market, lukewarm water and crushed biscuits for tea and dinner...my stomach was asking for more, but the bus station vendors presenting soggy samosas wrapped in newspaper was not really that appealing. Got to Madurai about 8.30 - the driver was nice and drove smoothly...and then I had to wait an hour and a half for the next 8 hour (!) journey...and got on next to a nun weighing more than me and my entire family put together...squeezed Suzanne with biscuit crumbs and sweaty sauce...yum yum...YAK!!! I was almost cracking but thought that ther had to be an end to this...as well as the journey and tried to keep a smile on my face...and then like a MIRACLE - he nun got off the bus after 2 hours journey.yippeee!!!!!!!!!!! I finally got to kanyakumari at 5.30 in the morning...ouf..into the hotel - a shower and ZZzzzzz...........until the waiters in the corridors woke me up at 8...well, well, time to explore... Land's End where 3 oceans meet :-)

Pondicherry to Thanjavur...on my way to Land's End...

What an ecclectic place! Can't even say I liked it...first of all,when I arrived it was Saturday night and "impossible to find a decent hotel" - visited four and they were all super dirty and expensive -finally opted for a kind of boxy indian business man type hotel with boxy room and boxy toilet - style Lakshmi Hilton - and an AC veg.restaurant in it, so cold that I could not even eat there - orderedfood to my room :-). Anyway was so tired after the journey that I didn't mind, woke up by the terrible noise at 6.30 and decided to go out for a walk along the beach. That is the main, and I would say almost the only, for me, attractive part of Pondi. The rest is just too weird, the French croissant shop around the corner from the slum, the kitsch warehouse selling l'Oreal because I'm worth it next to the temple flower woman...hmmm, anyway - along the beach promenade I found a beautiful, clean guest house where a single room was available for one night only so I decided that this was a sign to stay another night and send my parcel to Europe from here. By now, I was more starting to look like a donkey than a backpacker :-). The guesthouse was part of the Sri Aurobindo Org and linked to ashram rules - no booze, no smoke and gates closed after 11.15 pm - suited me fine....Had a great view from there over the promenade and early in the morning I was enjoying the sunrise from my balcony...the locals were out power walking!!! Then I spent 3 hours having my parcel made and had to carry it two blocks to the ashram post office - where I had to fill out a form with 4 oldfashined carbon paper copies and the ladies were sealing letters with black tar! It stank! So, 2 days in Pondi and I left at 5 pm for Thanjavur (Tanjore) - famous for a splendid World Heritage listed temple and a Maharadja Palace right in town. Got to Thanjavur at midnight - fortunately I had booked a hotel - unfortunately not a very decent one - decided on the spot that this was to be a one nighter soI started looking at trains to Thiruchirappalli (!)....one step closer to land's end now.....Sorry friends, but most of the internet cafs in the country don't have USB ports - the PCs look like my old school computers and it's already a miracle to be able to write a post! Hope to be able to upload pics on y next stop....am leaving with the 4pm train...Om Shanti Om

Kancheepuram, Mahaballapuram, or, twist your tongue :-) !!!

I took a night bus from Puttaparthi to the town famous for its temples and silk manufacturing. I finally arrived at 4 in the morning! Sweaty, dirty, smelly - yak, but there was a sweet rickshaw driver waiting and we found a hotel almost instantly...great!

Wow, the temples! I visited the major 5 in one day, in the afternoon I went to see a NPO (non profit organization) for the protection of Women and children, run by an Indian couple since 25 years, living a few kms outside Kanchee, it was very interesting. Their main task has been to stop child labour in the silk factories, and I got a list from her with the "kosher places" to buy from - so I then spent the rest of the day in the silk shop...unfortunately, there was a politicical strike going on in Tamil Nadu because of the conflict Tamil/Sri Lanka and the city literally stopped for 12 hours and my trip to the next place got postponed, but, when I finally got there...

Mahaballapuram...what a great place! Really! I highly recommend it - the people are lovely, friendly, it's small and you can feel the suffering they went through when the tsunami swept their villages away. It is not a "pretty place" as far as the ordinary tourist site is concerned although there are quite a few tourists, mostly quite embarrassing, walking around half naked in a hindu/muslim culture - quite respectless, sticking together drinking beer and wine in the only restaurant serving beef and fries (!!! especially as the cow is holy in India !!) but, of course I am not surprised, 95% of the tourists were German or French, sorry to say, but according to my experience they seem to be the most arrogant when it comes to behaving abroad... I just pretended i did not speak anything else but English :-). Well, to find out more about this fab village, I spent a lot of time with the people, talking and drinking tea, and I also spent a considerable amount of money in their shops, not only because they had great things, but I have also decided that I would like to come back and contribute to the children's education, it is a very poor village, some don't have access to school and a lot have lost their parents.

They are re-constructing allover the place, and the builders and roadworkers are everywhere. The problem seems to be that, since the re-building of the coastal villages has stopped because it is no longer making first page headlines, well the funding has stopped and the development is completely irregular and non sustainable. There are a lot of things that one can do to help - they need both material help and know-how. The main lesson that I learnt from there is how humble and nice they were with so little...something we should learn from in our western "crisis mania" - they have had, have, and will have crisis...all the time - it's part of their life - I am really grateful that I got to see this. Next stop will be Pondicherry....Om Shanti Om from Tamil Nadu xxx

Puttaparthi by bus - Kafka style....

Instead of taking a rickshaw, these two sweet schoolgirls guided me by foot to Commercial street in Bangalore. That's where you can buy cheap indian outfits and saris. I actually had to zig zag across a whole block of road works, not as efficient as in Europe, but charming somehow...you've got to have a lot of patience... :-)

This picture is taken just outside Cubbon Park in Bangalore - it's a very green city and the park is a really peaceful place to meditate, stroll arounds, have picnic or just rest in the suffocating HEAT!!!

These beautifully dressed women seemed to have a meeting in the park, I could not help myself from taking a pic!

Dear all, on Sunday I finally checked out of my hotel in Bangalore, heading for ther central bus station by autorickshaw. It was a simple task to get there, once there, my story 'a la Kafka" started. I got there at midday and wanted to catch one of the six daily buses listed in my guidebook...once there the ticket office man said:"No bus until 5 o'clock, maam". Ok, calm, Suzie, stay zen, go back and ask I thought, so I did. Another man this time said, well there is a bus at 1 o'clock, just wait here and my friend will tell you... hmmmm...One hour later, no bus, no friend, 96 degrees in the shade and desperation started to set in - realizing it was Sunday afternoon! Here we go again: back to the ticket office, they said "Are you still here?" Grrrrr...Yes, I am, as you can see I said with a bittersweet smile... Then a 19th man came in and said: There is a slow bus at 3 pm. Hmm, slow bus, in my mind it would be ok, any bus would be just fine, please! And, like a MIRACLE, at 2.30 an old, smelly bus turned up, it looked like it was falling to pieces... After almost five hours, stopping at all villages to let goats on and off, well here I am in Puttaparthi, in the state of Andra Pradesh, appx. 270 kms north of Bangalore. I have, by 'curiosity" decided to spend 3 days in the ashram of Sai Baba, the avatar that I have heard about for a very long time, and his presence has crossed my life path... It has indeed been a very enriching experience - too long to tell here...and tomorrow evening I am (hopefully... ) catching a nightbus to Kanchipuram, in Tamil Nadu - hope to write from there in a couple of days... Until then: Ohm Sai Ram from Prashanti Nilayam...