HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
I had an amazing time travelling around South India over the festive period. I am going to try and summarise what we did but three and a half weeks is quite a long time so I will probably forget something..
Madurai- After Holly and myself got off our thirteen hour train to Chennai, we met the two other volunteers, Tati and Martha, and then hopped straight on another ten hour train down to Madurai! On the train we got talking to a young lady who then invited us to her house for lunch. Why not? So we got off the train three hours before our stop and then got a two hour bus to her home where we met her excited parents and ate loads of food! Her father owned a local shop so before we left he gave us a ridiculous amount of biscuits which took us half the holiday to make our way through! They then put us on another bus to Madurai where we arrived quite a bit later than we planned. It was an interesting start to the holiday, but it was so nice to be shown such kindness from total strangers! We spent two nights in Madurai where we visited a massive temple, the markets and the Gandhi Museum. We had a guide to show us around the temple which I think, in hindsight, was a mistake. It felt like he just kept repeating himself for the whole hour and at the end he tried to take us to his sister's shop, obviously hoping we would buy something. We weren't keen to do this so we walked on to wait for him but I think he though we were trying to walk off without paying and he came running after us saying that we had insulted him and that we shouldn't have come to India! And he took his money and left us to find our way out of the temple complex (covering 180000 square metres) by ourselves, in fits of giggles. One thing I learnt while travelling is that most guides, drivers, hotel staff, resteraunt owners etc are always trying to get more money out of us! And if you don't stand up for yourself, you will get ripped off. The Gandhi Museum was really good, I found it so interesting! This is where the blood stained loin cloth, that he was wearing when is was assassinated, is kept but unfortunately that part of the museum was closed when we visited!
Kovalam- The next place we went to was a beach resort in Kerala. Our accommodation here was the most expensive of the holiday (£6 a night) but it was gorgeous! And breakfast was included by the pool every morning. I have never appreciated eggs, toast and ordinary tea so much in my life! We spent four days sun bathing on the beach and swimming in the sea, and its the most relaxed I have felt since coming to India. Kovalam was very touristy which meant that we enjoyed lots of western food like pasta, pizza and pancakes. One day we went to explore a hidden beach and when we walked down an overgrown path we saw a snake which must have been about two metres long! Unfortunately is disappeared before I could get my camera out. That was the first snake I've seen in India and I very much hope it's the last! Every morning we got up to swim in the sea before breakfast and in the evening we were in the sea as the sun set! It was bliss.
Trivandrum- We then moved on to spend one day in the capital of Kerala. The only thing we wanted to do here was visit the zoo that inspired the Life of Pi. We saw loads of animals including big cats, hippos, rhinos, vultures and more.. but the size of the tiny cages was a bit depressing! And I got severely attacked by mosquitoes.
Alleppy- In Alleppy we were convinced to go on a houseboat through the famous backwaters of Kerala, and I'm so glad we did! We got onto our private boat at noon and spent the day reading and playing cards as we drove through the network of water. In the evening we played poker and drank beer until a ridiculous time in the morning and then went to bed on our luxurious little boat. It was the most expensive thing we did on our holiday but it was well worth the money!
Cochin- On Christmas Eve, after waking up on our boat, we left Alleppy and travelled to Cochin. We got a short ferry over to Fort Cochin which was a quieter, smaller town so it was a nicer place to stay. On Christmas Eve we went for a long walk along the sea front which was decorated with loads of lights, and there were people everywhere! On Christmas morning we all sat in bed and opened our silly secret Santa presents and ate plum cake for breakfast. Then we headed off to the beach for the day. On our way there we met a Belgian free spirit who was travelling by himself so we ended up spending the day with him. He was very funny and served well as our body guard in the sea when we were getting bothered by Indian men! It was a really strange day and even though I enjoyed myself, I was relieved when it was over. I don't think it properly registered that it was Christmas day until it had passed! On Boxing day Tati and me set out to get our ears pierced, which ended up being a bit of a nightmare. We found a place with a man who was sat crouched around a fire sharpening his mental sticks, and Tati kindly offered to go first. I'm not entirely sure what happened but there was enough blood to put me off letting that guy anywhere near my ears! So I managed to find a place that used a gun instead. But I don't think the gun was working properly as he ended up having to pierce one of my ears twice! And the 'imposter gold' studs started to change colour so I ended up changing the earrings after only two days! But oh well, they seem fine now. That night we got an overnight luxury bus with reclining seats and everything! But I was too cold with the air conditioning.
Kodaikanal- After over two hours travelling up a very steep mountain side, we arrived in Kodaikanal the next morning. Being so high up, we were absolutely freezing and ended up buying big woolly jumpers on our first day there! It was strange being cold, I'd almost forgotten what it was like. I felt as if I was in a ski resort in the summer because we were surrounded by mountains and it was sunny but also cold. Both evenings we were so cold that we had Dominoes pizza delivered to our hotel room and ate it in bed watching movies. We went on a long hike up into the forests which was really nice but we couldn't be bothered walking back so we hitched a ride on the back of a truck delivering water! We also had a hilarious experience with tandum bicycles which did not work very well at all and had no brakes. Being on the back, I couldn't see anything in front so I just looked to the side to see lots of amused Indians as we screamed at everyone to get out of the way!
I had an amazing time travelling around South India over the festive period. I am going to try and summarise what we did but three and a half weeks is quite a long time so I will probably forget something..
Madurai- After Holly and myself got off our thirteen hour train to Chennai, we met the two other volunteers, Tati and Martha, and then hopped straight on another ten hour train down to Madurai! On the train we got talking to a young lady who then invited us to her house for lunch. Why not? So we got off the train three hours before our stop and then got a two hour bus to her home where we met her excited parents and ate loads of food! Her father owned a local shop so before we left he gave us a ridiculous amount of biscuits which took us half the holiday to make our way through! They then put us on another bus to Madurai where we arrived quite a bit later than we planned. It was an interesting start to the holiday, but it was so nice to be shown such kindness from total strangers! We spent two nights in Madurai where we visited a massive temple, the markets and the Gandhi Museum. We had a guide to show us around the temple which I think, in hindsight, was a mistake. It felt like he just kept repeating himself for the whole hour and at the end he tried to take us to his sister's shop, obviously hoping we would buy something. We weren't keen to do this so we walked on to wait for him but I think he though we were trying to walk off without paying and he came running after us saying that we had insulted him and that we shouldn't have come to India! And he took his money and left us to find our way out of the temple complex (covering 180000 square metres) by ourselves, in fits of giggles. One thing I learnt while travelling is that most guides, drivers, hotel staff, resteraunt owners etc are always trying to get more money out of us! And if you don't stand up for yourself, you will get ripped off. The Gandhi Museum was really good, I found it so interesting! This is where the blood stained loin cloth, that he was wearing when is was assassinated, is kept but unfortunately that part of the museum was closed when we visited!
Kanyakumari- After Madurai we travelled down to the southern tip of India where three oceans meet at one point! It was really nice being beside the sea for the first time in four months, I didn't realise how much I missed it! 400m off the cost of Kanyakumari is a rock where the Indian religious figure, Swami Vivekanandra, meditated for three days solid. Because of this, the town is a busy pilgrimage site and lots of people come here to see the statue and memorial out on the rock. It turned out that the day we were in Kanyakumari was Swami's 150th birthday so it was even busier than usual! Apparently the beach is an amazing place to watch the sunset but unfortunately it was cloudy both of the nights we were there. It beach did have a lovely atmosphere is the evening though as lots of people gathered there to watch the lack of sunset! We also visited the Gandhi Memorial where we had an excellent guide who insisted on taking all four of our cameras and taking interesting pictures if us in the building.
Trivandrum- We then moved on to spend one day in the capital of Kerala. The only thing we wanted to do here was visit the zoo that inspired the Life of Pi. We saw loads of animals including big cats, hippos, rhinos, vultures and more.. but the size of the tiny cages was a bit depressing! And I got severely attacked by mosquitoes.
Alleppy- In Alleppy we were convinced to go on a houseboat through the famous backwaters of Kerala, and I'm so glad we did! We got onto our private boat at noon and spent the day reading and playing cards as we drove through the network of water. In the evening we played poker and drank beer until a ridiculous time in the morning and then went to bed on our luxurious little boat. It was the most expensive thing we did on our holiday but it was well worth the money!
Cochin- On Christmas Eve, after waking up on our boat, we left Alleppy and travelled to Cochin. We got a short ferry over to Fort Cochin which was a quieter, smaller town so it was a nicer place to stay. On Christmas Eve we went for a long walk along the sea front which was decorated with loads of lights, and there were people everywhere! On Christmas morning we all sat in bed and opened our silly secret Santa presents and ate plum cake for breakfast. Then we headed off to the beach for the day. On our way there we met a Belgian free spirit who was travelling by himself so we ended up spending the day with him. He was very funny and served well as our body guard in the sea when we were getting bothered by Indian men! It was a really strange day and even though I enjoyed myself, I was relieved when it was over. I don't think it properly registered that it was Christmas day until it had passed! On Boxing day Tati and me set out to get our ears pierced, which ended up being a bit of a nightmare. We found a place with a man who was sat crouched around a fire sharpening his mental sticks, and Tati kindly offered to go first. I'm not entirely sure what happened but there was enough blood to put me off letting that guy anywhere near my ears! So I managed to find a place that used a gun instead. But I don't think the gun was working properly as he ended up having to pierce one of my ears twice! And the 'imposter gold' studs started to change colour so I ended up changing the earrings after only two days! But oh well, they seem fine now. That night we got an overnight luxury bus with reclining seats and everything! But I was too cold with the air conditioning.
Kodaikanal- After over two hours travelling up a very steep mountain side, we arrived in Kodaikanal the next morning. Being so high up, we were absolutely freezing and ended up buying big woolly jumpers on our first day there! It was strange being cold, I'd almost forgotten what it was like. I felt as if I was in a ski resort in the summer because we were surrounded by mountains and it was sunny but also cold. Both evenings we were so cold that we had Dominoes pizza delivered to our hotel room and ate it in bed watching movies. We went on a long hike up into the forests which was really nice but we couldn't be bothered walking back so we hitched a ride on the back of a truck delivering water! We also had a hilarious experience with tandum bicycles which did not work very well at all and had no brakes. Being on the back, I couldn't see anything in front so I just looked to the side to see lots of amused Indians as we screamed at everyone to get out of the way!
Trichy- In order to break up the long journey to Pondicherry, we stopped in a city called Trichy overnight. The only noteworthy thing that happened here was a disagreement we had at breakfast. All of our plates had arrived with one wadai (spicy donut) as well as what we ordered, and since we didn't ask for it we assumed it was free with our meals. Then when the bill came they had charged us for it anyway, obviously trying to get extra money out of us foreigners. So Martha and I struck up an argument and refused to pay for food we hadn't ordered! A man who was also eating at the restaurant also joined in which proved that we were right! And eventually the manager asked me where we were from, I replied, and he said, 'fine, get out!' So after all that, we saved 14p each!
Pondicherry- Here we met Martha's parents who had just arrived in India to visit her! They brought a massive bag full of food, magazines, books, toiletries etc. It was amazing! So we sat on our balcony reading heat magazine and working our way through two boxes of mince pies! On New Years Eve we decided to visit a place called Auroville. I'm still not entirely sure what it is, but to me it seemed like a convent where spiritual people go to pledge their service and work for free. It was a bit odd! To get there we hired scooters because it was about 20km away, and that was great fun! On the way back it was my turn to drive with Tati on the back. Just as I was starting to feel comfortable, we took a wrong turn and ended up on the motorway, which was so much fun! But from that point on I couldn't relax at all and my arms were so tense by the time we made in back through all the traffic. Indian roads are insane! At night we had a nice meal out and had a few drinks but generally it was a very low key Hogmany. At 12 o'clock we went to the beach and were so overwhelmed by the thousands of people who were gathered there! Then we spent the rest of the night driving around on our scooters!
The next day Tati, Martha and her parents left to go back to their project. It was really sad saying goodbye, it felt liking saying bye to my friends back home all over again! Unfortunately Holly was ill so I spent some time exploring the town and reading my book in cafes all day, which was really nice! Pondicherry is an ex-French colony so there are lots of nice bakeries and European cafes that I just sat in all day. It was a nice, relaxing way to end our holiday!
Chennai- After a few days we had to go back to Chennai to get our train back to Hyderabad. Some of my family friends just happened to be there visiting family so I was able to spend a day with them which was so so nice! They brought me a few Christmas gifts from home as well so that was lovely. Seeing them just made me feel a bit more connected to home!
I had a great holiday overall! I laughed more than I have since I left home, I am finally looking brown, and I just generally felt relaxed and ready to get back into work for the next few months. I can't wait to do more travelling in the summer!
