I met a nice girl from Switzerland, Martina, on my way to Ooty and we ended up traveling together for several days. Ooty was nice, freezing cold surprisingly at night, but a good place to be for 2 days. I did a day trek through the hillside, which ended in one of the tribal villages where there was a festival going on. All the women were dressed in their best, beautiful bright saris and they sat around the temple area while the men had a serious jam session and did some traditional dances around the small, colorful temple. It ended with a goat being sacrificed, which I didn't stick around to watch, but one of the families took me into their home and looked after me...they were really sweet. I felt really privileged to witness the festival and the ceremonies, most of which I wasn't allowed to photograph.
Traveling around India is cheap, dirt cheap, but often complicated, late, non-sensical and chaotic - all part of the experience I suppose. In order to get to the coast from Ooty which is about 100 km inland (I think) I had to take a miniature UNESCO train to Mettapulayam- amazing landscape and definitely one of the best things I've done in India - then a crazy bus ride to Coimbatore, stay overnight, then take another train that was more than 5 hours late to Ernakulum, then a rickshaw from the train station, finally arriving in Kochi. I was only planning to stay in Kochi a few days, but I liked it so much I stayed a week. It's definitely a tourist town, but it's a nice little seaside place with decent restaurants, good coffee and lots of shopping.
On my way to Kanniyakumari I took a day tour through the backwaters of Kerala, which run for about 900km through the southwestern Indian state. It was peaceful sailing down the little canals seeing all the different kinds of birds and flowers, passing by little villages along the way.
It's such a hard life here, especially for the women. Everywhere you look you'll see women busting their butts in the fields in the middle of the blazing afternoon sun still in their full-on heavy saris while the men stand idly by wearing close to nothing relaxing & watching under the shade of a nearby tree. You'll see the women in rivers everywhere washing loads of clothes by hand or carrying literally 15 to 20 bricks on their head or tending to their child's every need, all still in their saris...it's pretty impressive.
Now I'm in Kanniyakumari, which is the southernmost tip of India. They say it's the only place on earth you can watch the sun rise and set over the ocean from the same spot - i'm not sure I believe it, but I like it here. Tomorrow I think I'll head to Varkala, another beach town - I think I'll stick to the coast for now. India is growing on me veeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyy slowly, but surely.
Traveling around India is cheap, dirt cheap, but often complicated, late, non-sensical and chaotic - all part of the experience I suppose. In order to get to the coast from Ooty which is about 100 km inland (I think) I had to take a miniature UNESCO train to Mettapulayam- amazing landscape and definitely one of the best things I've done in India - then a crazy bus ride to Coimbatore, stay overnight, then take another train that was more than 5 hours late to Ernakulum, then a rickshaw from the train station, finally arriving in Kochi. I was only planning to stay in Kochi a few days, but I liked it so much I stayed a week. It's definitely a tourist town, but it's a nice little seaside place with decent restaurants, good coffee and lots of shopping.
On my way to Kanniyakumari I took a day tour through the backwaters of Kerala, which run for about 900km through the southwestern Indian state. It was peaceful sailing down the little canals seeing all the different kinds of birds and flowers, passing by little villages along the way.
It's such a hard life here, especially for the women. Everywhere you look you'll see women busting their butts in the fields in the middle of the blazing afternoon sun still in their full-on heavy saris while the men stand idly by wearing close to nothing relaxing & watching under the shade of a nearby tree. You'll see the women in rivers everywhere washing loads of clothes by hand or carrying literally 15 to 20 bricks on their head or tending to their child's every need, all still in their saris...it's pretty impressive.
Now I'm in Kanniyakumari, which is the southernmost tip of India. They say it's the only place on earth you can watch the sun rise and set over the ocean from the same spot - i'm not sure I believe it, but I like it here. Tomorrow I think I'll head to Varkala, another beach town - I think I'll stick to the coast for now. India is growing on me veeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyy slowly, but surely.
