In the Tropics

Saying Goodbye..


..is something that cud be terribly hard... Not if you concentrate your thoughts and feelings to appreciate that you even got the opportunity to meet a person or go to a place.. And somehow I know there is no goodbye that is definite, once you met a person or experience a location you will always carry a piece of the feeling they gave you..



So eaven tho I wish I could see everybody I meet and love, I'm not sad..


We had to say goodbye to the beautiful people we met in kochin and head on..





we got up at 7am to and packed our bags (I really need to send some stuff home that I've just carried around since I got here without using, (fleece, sleeping bag, jeans and some of the Kevlar wick I brought... Pheww thats half my bag.).. We had a very haisty goodbye (Ther is always time to hug) and ventured away from Ham Dale Homestay..










Walk, ferry, rickshaw, train, buss and finnaly Husstle..

You get used to walking with your bag, but what is hard getting used to is all the people 'offering you a place to stay' (Draging your arm to get you to go with them) when you're walking down the street with your bag (Yes, you do get husstled in different ways without a bag to, but not at all as much..). The 30 min ferry ride was 2,50 rps (about 2 usd cents) and the rickshaw to the station were 40 rps for 3 people (Tamsen, a nice British girl we meet at ham dale shared it with us and payed it for us.. Thanx Tamsen!!)

Chai at the station and two 11rps tickets to Allepey later we sat at the train talking to a katakali dancer (traditional Indian dance) for the entire yourney.. an hour later on the buss (4,50 rps) and then on the streets of Alleppey... Jumping of the buss looking semi lost have the same effect as if you would trow money around you.. There will be people rushing towards you.. We hustled for a bit (bargaining with different people, looking a one of the locals hotels.. ect.) before we took a home stay offer (300rps a night)..

Home stay again..

Every home stay is totally different tho you stay with different families every time. I think we've been lucky because we have payed less and gotten good accommodation.. This time we ended up with a Roman catholic family with a very nice house in some Asian style architecture, I think?. We, again, got a giant room with attached bathroom and our own entry as an addition... GREAT!!
They even let us borrow Bicycles without any extra charge... So we left our bags in our room and ate lunch that the family prepared for us (50 rps a meal..) and ventured of on one ancient and one a little newer bicycle..

The love to a Bicycle..

It's just an amazing way to explore a new place!! We ventured off on some back roads and continued as far as we could..

...SUDDENLY, There was one child in a blue school uniform who started to point at us..
Then another... ...and another... and another.. And so on untill we had about 20 school children staring at us..

Then...

...pen, PEN, PEN..

...Sir you got pen?...

Suddenly we had 20 laughing school children running along the sides of our bikes shouting.. (you guessed it) PEN PEN PEN...

Then after a while the road ended and we continued on a small dirt path.. 30 minutes later the trail ended.. We passed a lot of people doing their laundry and washing themselves in the canal (not something i would do)..

when we got back we were exhausted, drenched in sweat and hungry.. The humidity in Kerala must be above 100%...
We watched some Indian MTV, had a nice home stay meal and passed out..


A boat ride trough paradise..
1030 in the morning we were comfortably seated on the small ferry (20 people) witch departing to Kollam.. We had already taken the buss in to town (Usual Near death experience) and had a nice Masala dosa (18 rps) for breakfast..

The ride Was AMAZING... Think EXTREAMLY green, small villages and overloaded boats and temples playing music so you heard it a kilometre away..

We saw house boats, kanoes, Concrete carriers (the boat close to sinking) and small fishingboats..
































Kollam..

Kollam is a big city (Big cities kind of have the same feeling to them) and is not on our places to stay list.
We did however watch a Tamil movie (action, comedy and Music videos.. WHAT??) while we were in kollam..

Next stop VARKALA