Last week in India!

Well my time in India is quickly coming to an end, in two days i take a 24 hour train from Cochin to Mumbai and after two days i have a flight to Bangkok. Its pretty crazy, seven weeks has gone by very fast. Last i updated we were in Pondicherry, which was over a week ago and lots has happened since then. We went from Podi to Madurai on an all night bus. Madurai was nice, but the main temple, which is huge, was all covered up so they could repaint it, so that was sad. We still went inside and saw some of is, but the outside would have been nice to see. I liked Madurai, its a big enough city, but not too big to be all crazy and overwhelming. We also say the Gandhi Museum which was pretty nice, and free, which is always a plus. I also had the best Thali ever there, it had like 12 kinds of dishes, with rice, papadum, chapati, soup, chips, and fruit all for the equivalent of $1. I love indian food, haha.

From Madurai we headed to Peryier National Park, which was also very nice. We did an all day hike with a guide and four other people which was pretty fun. The only animals we saw were Gaurs and monkeys, but the forest was nice, it was a lot more like a jungle then other places we had been. We also saw a Kathakali dance show there which was pretty crazy. The make up they do is really elaborate, but it was a bit hard to follow the story. Traditionally the shows can last all night, but this one was only and hour which i think was good haha. After Peryier we we took a bus up to Munnar in the mountains. It was really nice to get away from the heat, we actually needed blankets at night! There was some confusion because we had to change busses in Theni before Munnar but for some reason the bus driver keept thinking we were saying Chenni which is way far, haha, so everyone on the bus thought we were crazy tourists and told us we needed to get a train there not a bus, but in the end we figured it all out. Munnar is cool because it is surrounded by tea plantations, so much tea its crazy. We hired a taxi to drive us around and see the sights, it was fun. We also went on a walk to a nice view point, which made me realize how it had been awhile since i'd hiked anywhere much above sea level, its hard work, haha. There isn't much else to do there, expect look at the tea so we headed out the next day to Kottyam.

As soon as we got to Kottyam we hopped on a local ferry to Allupey so we could book a backwater tour for the next day. The ferry was nice, 2 hours floating along canals picking up people who live along them. I got my hair cut, which i had been meaning to do forever and we we booked an 8 hour tour to Kollam. The tour was nice and relaxing, tho some how we picked one that we were by far the youngest people on it, so we didn't really make friends but it was fun all the same. It made a few stops along the canals for lunch, tea and fried bananas. I did manage to sunburn my knees which was to bad, but oh well. One of the women on the tour commented that we were the first Americans she had seen for a while and i realized that the whole time i've been gone we have only met one other American, in Nepal, which surprised me, but i guess Americans don't travel in Asia as much as Europeans do.

After we docked in Kollem we shared a taxi with a family to Varkala beach, which is quite touristy, but a really great beach. Its the kind of place that hippie travelers come to hang out for a month and swim and learn yoga, but it was fun. We swam and ate basically for two days and didn't do much else. Our time in south india had been much more relaxing then in North india, which i'm not complaining about. It was a bit strange on the beach tho because at one point we saw a lifeguard/policeman make a group of indian men move away from the tourist side of the the beach, it seems kind of weird that they were not allowed to swim on the same side as we were. Although at the same time in Malabalapuram we were swimming and soon I was surround by a large group of young men asking to take my picture in my bathing suit and running into me 'accidentally' in the waves which made me a bit uncomfortable. Its weird being a tourist sometimes.

Anyways, after Varkala we took the train to Cochin. The train was a bit of an adventure because we took it second class unreserved with is very crowed and hot but way cheap. For part of the four hour trip we had to sit up on the luggage rack, or stand, haha, but we made it with no problems. We now have a day of sightseeing here and eric flys back to Delhi tomorrow! So I will have about 10 day traveling on my own before i meet up with Pieter in Thailand. Ok that was a long post, i should try to update more often haha.