Love is Life: Train, buss, ferry and bicyckle...

SO... I'm Sorry i have neglected writing for so long... WAIT!?..

It's just been 3 days???
Like I say, "HOLY COW", time must stand still!!!

To Continue the adventure...

I had my tali in Gokarna (about 3 month ago?) and it was as I expected, VERY GOOD.

I went to an ATM to fill my empty wallet and discovered that there is two ATM's in gokarna.. Neither of them accepted MasterCard (WHAT)!? Luckily we found an traveling agency that had the solution against the small fee of 2%.. Actually not bad =)..

O I realized I've written prices in rupees without telling the value of Indian rupees..
One Swedish Krona is 6 rupees and one US dollar is about 50 rupees.. Just for reference..

So I got 2000 rupees (4 days of expenses) and had to pay the large fee of 40 rupees..

Going to Kochin in kerala

Time for the buss. Back to the station.. We had put our hope in that the night station officer booked tickets for us so we wouldn't have to travel unseated on a train for 14 hours..

Well... He hadn't booked us any tickets, BUT we were lucky and got last minute tickets in sleepers class (300 rps) (after 25 minutes of intensive tries to communicate with the semi English speaking station master)..

I exercised my homemade fire staff (Remind me to NEVER backpack with a 5 feet staff in the future) in the sun and Phillip played with his camera.. After a while other people started to turn up, one very nice girl (Sophie) from Spain (she had good English!), and two french girls (also surprisingly nice English). It turned out we had our seats just next to each other...

The train journey was, as always, interesting..
I spent a good hour hanging out from the train (Pure adrenaline) going 100km an hour (I here refer you to picture NR 1 and dad, don't worry my hands were tucked behind sturdy bars), I had good train food (an EXTREMELY spicy tali packed in plastic bags, with some chai as beverage, nice..), I got invited to a nice (but VERY drunk) Indian gentleman's house (he wanted us to tag along right away) AND I discussed the meaning with life, my life philosophy and life and love with Marie (one of the french girls) until late night (It's wonderful with new perspectives and life loving people)..

We (the little club we formed during the 14 hours of traveling) woke up at the end station around 4am (luckily our station, something we did not know) and realized the train was empty except for a few westerners, us... Hrmm..

We all had masala chai (really good one), then talked to the rikshaw drivers discussing prices, but ended up deciding to take the 6 am buss. We spent time talking and drinking Chai untill the busses started running.

You would think that the busses would be conected to the train station.....

NOT..

The train station (a really big one since Kochin got just under a million inhabitants) is in the city but still we had to walk a good kilometer before we reached the bus stop.. AMAZING.. hahah..

It was still dark when we jumped on the buss and payed the 8 rps it cost. It was a nice ride.. the feeling of being totally lost going trough impossible passages passing people, goats, cars and cows with a margin measured in a few centimeters... CRAZY

We jumped of at some place Philip had looked up as a good area to find living. We hustled around for an hour or so (6:30am) and meet Bruno (Pic NR 2) who turned out to be of old Portuguese heritage and being a old hotel manager.. It is so hard to know ho to trust due to all the husslers, so when he gave us different recommendations I didn't know if he was genuinely nice or tried to get some commission.. After having something to eat I went with the stomach feeling and we ended up at the place he recomended and got a discount mentioning his name...

In Kerala they have something called home stay which is just that.. You basically rent a room in someones home.. This is what we are doing now (Thanks Bruno) and we have 3 beds on 2 people and our own bathroom, in the middle of the city... For the price of 400 rupees!!

We spent the day with the french girls and were

cultural in the eavning waching a dance and ended it watching the sea while a warm rain (We're on the equator you know) and a mighty thunderstorm started up in the clouds..

Yesterday started with a south Indian brea

kfast, Iddly, white soft lentel cakes that you eat with spiced milk kurd (I survived the spice attack but would not voulonteer for an other one) we rented bicycles to see what it would be like to discover a kochin on the back of a steel horse...

A MUST DO (The best way to se a place)..

We took the ferry from the

island we stay on (I got quite surprised when I found out it was an Island) to a close by peninsula. On the ferry we met the Dheli vollyboll team, hare krishna (O

MG), TALL INDIANS..

After biking for 15 km down the road, CRAZY TRAFFIC, we got tired and tried a small little road to the right thats (thats me standing about half way down the road.) 15 min later we found our self in a small fishing village with smiling people and a small beach. The whater was probably 30 degrees warm.

We meet a 18 year old boy who were VERY interested in us. He Even knew some English... (he is the one doing the wheelie with my bike)

With very soar bums but an unforgettable feeling of Life we got back home (the movie clip is from the ride home)..

A shower later we went to the same resturant we had breakfeast at. I had the best veg. kurry with parrottas (fried breadkakes) so far

. When we were walking to the whine shop (Crazy little butik with counters protected with steel bars with a walk trough system.) we stumbled upon a hindu cermony in the street with elephants (Notice the 'shnabel' in the picure), Crazy India..

Today

Such a good day.. It's almost midnight and I'm soon to head back to the homestay and talk and drink with the other guests.. (half bottle rum 130 rps)

Today was an easy day. we bought tickets for tomorrows train (11rps) and ate and spent mony in the internet cafe (3 hours 90 rps)

Indian wiering is somehing that require more than just education (Fatalism maby?)...