על הוביטים בבני אדם

 

Well, goodbye India! Im in Nepal and looking back on my traveling in India and think "it was too quick and short!"Well, goodbye India! Im in Nepal and 

looking back on my traveling in India and think "it was too quick and short!"
what really happened?
I went with Alan to  48 hours trip to Elora caves that was Amazing! carved temples and statues in the shear rock! we came back in a overnight train and the next night I left for Goa.
I met there Karolina and Dominica, from Poland (we traveled together in Ladakh) and we hang out in Anjuna and Arambul.
after 3 days I had to start rushing up south. I had 1month left in India so I took another overnight train to Fort Kochi (Kuchin) which is very touristic place with a Portugese Aroma and christianity definatly have a presence there.
I rent a bicycle and went around the Island and through the ferry to Vypeen Island and over a big bridge to the mainland, to Ernakulam.
I took a 3 hours kanue trip and one of the people on the boat was 1a guy from Saudi Arabia.
my days in Kochi has finished and I went to Alepey, a little town between the network of the Kerala kanals that conected the many lakes and rivers to create a sophisticated airigation and transport system. the kanals are between sleepy villages and plantations of rice, cocunuts, mango, buttlenuts,pineapple, bananas, cashionuts,spices,cakao, fish pools and more. many birds live there including the elusive king fisher and I took millions of photo's.
I took a ferry to Kottayam, there I stayed with a local family (legi, his name)   and went to visit a nearby village called Komarakom. the bird sanctuary was nice but no birds...
from Kottayam I went to the Peryar elephants reserve and saw many animals, but no elephants. I only heard them.
back to Allepei, Im took an 8 hours cruise down south to Kollam and it was magnificant. I stayed in town 2 days and took another kanue trip to the small kanals of Monrue Island.
brilliant! shadowed by a talkative american couple who were blabering about the kids who say "one ruppe, one pen" for two and a half hours!
my next station was trivandrum for 1 hour and the southest tip of India- Kanyakumari. where the arab sea, the Indian ocean and the bay of Bengal meet.

one word about the people of Kerala. they are very different than the Indians of the north.
they more dark skinned, there lenguige is totali different from Hindi, and the state is very clean and leid back. no much hustle like in north India, the towns are smaller, and there is 100% litreture in Kerala. the ruling government is comunist and there is big presence of christians and muslems (traders and marchants from the middle east and europe left there mark) and a jewish comunity in Kochin were existing for 2000 years until the 1950's and now only a few families.

leaving Kerala met me the first time with Tamilies. kanya kumari is in Tamil nadu and there look similar to keralish but they are different in theire calture and mentality. they arent that welthy like keralish, the scenery is more arrid and dry then in Kerala and big temple towns with the huge Hindu temples you will ever see. they represent the Dravidian hindu art of temples that different then the Arian temple architecture.
leaving kanyakumari after 1 day I had a 9 hours local bus go between the tamili villages on the south east coast of India. eventually the bus arrives the temple town Rameshweram.

it was a small town on the Indian ocean in a long and narrow peninsula like a finger reaches out toward Sri Lanka. the temple is very old and impresive. big and consist of one elephant held there in a cage.
the pilgrims was themself in the beach, kiss 3 cows who tied there and walk barefooted to the temple.
I went with 2 english to see Adam's bridge- the little islands that go all the way to Sri Lanka but it was too long way in the very hot sun (I forgot to put sunscreen and got burnt. all my skin turned red) so we decided to head back before getting there. Rama is very important here, the story of the Ramayana took place here when Rama, an Avatar of Vishnu fight the bad king Ravana.
next day I arrived to Madurai, the big city in south Tamilnadu and walked to see the Huge temple there. unfortunatly, once in 12 years all the temples are covered with canvas and being renovated and repainted for a few months. 2009 is one of this every 12 years thing. so madurai was covered and also the temples in other towns north of madurai.
so, at last I could escape the hard heat and humidity of kerala and tamil nadu by going to the hills of the western ghats- a ridge of hills going in the middle of south India that get as high as 2600 m

the train ride to kodai road was like sardines in a box. too many people in too small coach.
I went down in one piece an took 2 local busses to Kodaikanal. the town is 2000 m high so its cold in the nights and I neede my sleeping bag again.
I met an Italian guy there and we made two day hikes with an englishman,american couple, and 1 girl from hongkong.
eventually I left the nest of Kodaikanal and made ny way with the Italian guy to Munnar (3 busses, 8 hours).
Munnar is a little town 1500 m high, surounded by hills covered by tea plantations. it was so beautifull there! we went cycling through the tea plantations to a waterfall, we went to sea "top station" where we saw ,more tea's, and the next day went to see an "elephant park".
we didnt see elephants in the elephants nature reserve in Chinare accept one trunk of a wild elephant.
I left Munnar in tears and moved on to coimbature (8 hours, 2 busses) and next morning took the miniature train (steam engine, amazing ride!) via muttapalayam to the holiday town of Ooti.
Ooti is 2000 m high and I hang around town for a day. the town is dirty and noisy, so I took a trek tour to the hills and walked through ekaliptus tree's and... tea plantations. I made friends with 2 girls, one from Austria and one from swizerland, and went alone to another village named Kotagiri. more tea plantatations...

THE BIG RIDE NORTH
only 4 days left for my visa to India and I had to get to Nepal... I took a bus to Mysure and visited the beautiful palace there. another bus to Bangalore and a train in 19:20 to Delhi.
The train lasted 40 hours and my companions were 1 girl from france and 1 Indian guy from the north east- nagaland. we had a good train travel. I had fun and didnt bothered by the train going on and on. Delhi was pretty cool after the hard hot wether in the souith. I spent a nice day with Sophie and in the evening took the metro to the station in Nizamudin and had my last Indian train to Gorakhpure. a 2 hours bus from Gorakhpur brought me to the Nepali border in Sunali where I crossed safly to Nepal's dusty terai.