INDIAN ADVENTURES

Southern Kerala and Northern Tamil Nadu

India is somewhere that was added and then cut out of our itinerary probably 20 times before we made the final decision and booked our flights. Our apprehension came because of all the horror stories we had heard about the country. It has a reputation as being somewhere you either love or hate, and from our experience speaking to friends and travellers who had been there, about 30% of people love it and the rest, well, they describe it as something akin to hell on earth. Because of these reviews we weren’t exactly excited about our trip there, but at least we had our expectations set low to avoid disappointment. And we had extra incentive to go to India because our good friend Dave (met in Vietnam the previous year) was flying there to meet us and travel for a few weeks before attending an Indian wedding. So it was late September when we finally left Bangkok, which as always had become our home away from home, and boarded the NokAir flight to Bangalore in the centre of southern India where we arrived at 2am with little cash, no hotel booked, and 16 hours to kill before a domestic flight further south.

Our first day in India was certainly an experience. We spent our first few hours at the Bangalore airport trying to get snippets of sleep on the brick ground outside as they wouldn’t let us indoors. We had countless people come and stand little more than 1m away from us for up to half an hour at a time, just staring in amazement at our pale skin. And when I say stare, I don’t mean a discrete sideways glance. I mean full on, in your face, staring competition style intensity. We ate the most amazing masala dosa (thin, crispy pancake filled with spicy potato mixture which soon became our staple breakfast whenever possible for the next month). And we polished off half a bottle of whiskey while playing cards, trying to will away the hours. Finally, we caught our domestic flight to Trivandrum in Kerala on the southern coast, where Dave flew in to meet us and our holiday began. Needless to say we were exhausted when Dave finally arrived and we made it to our hotel: by this point, we had been awake for 36 hours straight. But the excitement of the three of us catching up in this foreign land prevailed and we stayed awake until 5am drinking more whiskey and laughing like children, as we always do when together.
Trivandrum is the capital of Kerala and we didn’t find a whole lot to do there, but after a good sleep and an extremely spicy breakfast we made our way about 10km out of town to Kovalam – the area’s main beach. Having spent a lot of time on beaches in south east Asia, I have to say the beaches in India are completely different. Locals flock to the beaches each evening and stand waist high in the water gazing at the sun as it sets, fully dressed in their shirts and saris. Many of the beaches are black and set against the colourful clothes it creates an amazing image.
From Trivandrum we headed further south to Kanyakumari – the “Land’s End” of India where the Bay of Bengal, Arabian sea and Indian Ocean meet. Kanyakumari – at the northern tip of the state Tamil Nadu - is a pilgrimage destination for Hindus and contains an island rock memorial to the Indian Philosopher Swami Vivekananda as well as several important temples. After getting our dose of culture and a night of great food in Kanyakumari, we set our sights north again and re-entered Kerala, heading to the gorgeous cliff-top town of Varkala.
Varkala is probably one of our favourite places in India because of its relaxed, travellers atmosphere, rough sea which is great for body surfing, fresh seafood restaurants and views from the cliff out to the open ocean. We could easily have spent several weeks just chilling out there but because of our time constraints we only had a couple of days before it was time to jump on one of India’s crazy trains again and head slightly further north to Alleppey, where a little houseboat awaited us for a night’s journey through the famous Kerala backwaters.

One of our many "waiting" positions at the airport

Streets of Trivandrum

The first Indian beach we visited - Kovalam

The "Land's End" of India: Kanyakumari

After our visit to the Kumari Amman temple (idiots, we know)

The three travellers unite

From our balcony, Varkala

The town on the cliff-top

Bol getting into boogie boarding in Varkala
You can't get much fresher than that

The boys just after sunrise in Varkala

Backwaters of Kerala
Kerala is known as the Venice of the East because of its 900kms of canals. We covered barely 10km of them during our overnight trip, but even so it was such an amazing experience. The three of us hired a houseboat, which is a tube shaped bamboo structure with two bedrooms, bathroom, an outdoor lounging area and a kitchen. We had three staff to manage the boat and all the cooking for us, and we literally just sat back, drank beer and watched the world go by.

Our little beauty

Our captain was sun smart!

Enjoying our "welcome drink"
The chef on our boat was amazing


One of the canals

View from the windowYou can't beat these sunsets

Hampi
After our relaxing cruise we had a manic 24 hours which included travelling up to Kochi by public bus (not recommended) and then flying to Bangalore (sometimes the 17 hour train trips are worth sacrificing the budget to miss) and finally catching an overnight train to Hampi, in the state of Karnataka. Hampi, often called the City of Ruins, is quite spectacular with its clusters of temples, ancient monuments and boulder strewn landscape. We hired a rick-shaw driver over two days and visited countless temples which are like a smaller scale of Angkor Wat. It is a very religious place and amongst the ruins lie many important Hindu temples which are still used for worship today. The town of Hampi itself also has a great relaxed travellers vibe, making it a great place to spend a few days chilling out. The only set back is it is a "dry" town and so an ice cold beer at the end of a hot, temple viewing day, is only possible if you taxi it out of town (which we admit, we did do one evening :)

The view from the outdoor Mango Tree restaurant where we feasted on talis
Peak hour traffic in our rick-shaw
The cows and oxes are all decorated with paint and bells in Hampi

One of the many temples we visited
Amazing scenery - reminded us a bit of Central Australia
Dave and Bol amongst the temples

Goa
From Hampi it was time to hit the beaches of Goa, known as India's real tourist hangout and to Indian purists "not the real India". Real or not, we aren't people to turn our noses up at fresh seafood, cold beer, palm trees and beaches. Our first stop in Goa was Palolem, near the very southern tip. Our entire trip was several weeks before the tourist season really started, which in many ways was great because there were less people everywhere and cheaper places to stay. However in Palolem it also meant the beach shacks were still being built for the season and so we had to stay a street back from the beach. Apart from that, we absolutely loved Palolem. A gorgeous beach filled with local cows - we absolutely love the cows everywhere in India: so gentle and cute with their lovely long lashes! And we got to spend time hiring a motorbike to check out the area with some other travellers we met. We had a really great few days.
From Palolem we headed two hours north to another coastal town called Benaulim where Dave's aunt and uncle live. We stayed with them there for a night and his auntie took me sari shopping in preparation for the Indian wedding we were heading to. So much fun! She also gave me bindis to wear for the wedding, as well as bracelets and a lesson on how to wear the sari. One night wasn't enough to spend with his lovely family but unfortunately, with time against us again, we had to head off further north the next day to another coastal town called Calangute, where a group of Dave's other mates from England met us, as they too had flown over for the Indian wedding. Calangute was a bit more built up than other places we visited in Goa, but even so we had a fun few days eating amazing curries, swimming and even dabbling in a little late night karaoke. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody never sounded so good!
By the time we left Calangute there were six of us in our little travelling group: everyone but us was from England with an Indian background. It made the trip so much more meaningful because they could speak with the locals wherever we went and so we got so much more insight into the place, rather than just being treated as tourists. Our last stop in Goa was Arambol - right at the northern tip. Much like Palolem in the south, Arambol is a relaxed travellers hangout with bungalows and beachside cafes. Another place you could easily spend a few weeks just hanging out, but we had other pressing engagements: namely an Indian wedding to get to!

Palolem beach

Love those cows!

We found this stunning spot on our day trip on the motorbike
Bol and our bike
Dave with his auntie and uncle
Sunset at Calangute

Our matching beach huts in Arambol
Front of our guesthouse, Arambol
The bay to the north or Arambol's main beach

The Wedding
Dave's best friend Neel, also from London, was holding his wedding in Baroda in the state of Gujarat and kindly said Bol and I were welcome to attend even though we had never met him. Nice guy! So we had the amazing experience of attending a two day Indian wedding filled with feasts, dancing in the street, the most decorated horse drawn cart known to man and crazy ceremonies involving face paint. Bol borrowed an Indian suit for the Sunday (main ceremony day) and I of course had my sari all ready to go (thankfully the hotel's housekeeping could help me put it on). So we fit in pretty well and were not too shy to get up there and dance as if we were changing the light globes. They really do dance like that in India! It was an amazing weekend and we were so lucky to be able to experience and Indian wedding in India. Neel and Asha's families made us feel so welcome and we know it is a weekend we will never forget. I, especially, will not be able to forget it for a while because it is custom for all the female guests to have a henna tattoo painted on them the evening before the wedding. So for the next month or so I have some pretty full on designs covering the front half of my feet in a bright shade of orange. All part of the experience :) We were also in Gujarat at the same time the Navrati Festival (Nine Nights Festival) was being held and so we got to attend parties filled with 250,000 people (40,000 of which dance in the centre of a stadium). Amazing to watch.

Samir, me, Dave, Neel, Paz, Mike and Kate at the Saturday evening event
Getting the henna applied
Dancing in the street at the Navrati Festival
The main arena for the Navrati Festival
All dressed ready for the wedding day

Top and Bolow: Wedding cermony rituals

Dancing in the street in the lead up to the main ceremony

At the ceremony
Neel arriving at the wedding in style

We are now in Mumbai for two days before we jump on a plane headed for Bali. Thanks to us both coming down with the flu we haven't managed to see much of the city yet, but will try to get a glimpse before our flight tomorrow. All in all though, I can say we fall into the "lovers" category of India. We only had a month here - far too short - but I know we will return to explore the north of the country in years to come. We found the people extremely hospitable, the food absolutely amazing (the extra kgs is proof of that!) and the scenery spectacular. The cities can be a bit full on but if you limit city stays to a couple of days and then get out to the countryside, India needn't be the hassle that many people find it. Amazingly neither of us got stomach bugs while here. We could quite possibly be the first travellers to India to say that (touch wood - still 24 hours to go). And who can fault a place which has such cute cows and such a crazy driving style where leaning on the horn is the only way to get around!