Back

Well, I'm back in England - Cornwall, actually.

It's clean, cold, incredibly empty. It doesn't smell. There is no livestock on the road. It's freaking the fuck out of me, culture shock in reverse. How long will it take to readjust?

Do I really want to?

Mentally beating myself up for getting stuck in Goa, for not going up to North India as I had planned. I couldn't really help it, I was sick and there were other circumstances keeping me there, but it's a shame.

Next time :D

Might start a normal, day to day blog now - I've enjoyed keeping this one.

Sorry!

I'm very tempted to lie and tell you that I left Goa weeks ago and I've been travelling around incredibly exotic places, living with villagers and holy men, discovering the meaning of life etc.

I'm not good at lying though.

I'm still here, it's a bizarre place to be, not entirely sure why I like it so much. I guess there are a few reasons - an important one is that compared to the rest of India, it's very easy. Shitty I know, but I was getting fed up with getting stared at, ripped off, laughed at, groped and otherwise hassled. It's horribly touristy this area, well, in the season it is, but now it's empty - nothing is open, there are no people. Village life is continuing in a landscape of abandoned charter hotels and closed irish pubs. Chloe & I have met a cool bunch of local guys who are bored now & seem to enjoy having people to entertain.

We tried to leave yesterday, failed. We got to the train station with all our bags, waitlisted ticket to Bombay in my grubby little hands... The train pulls up, and we decide that as we don't have a confirmed seat Chloe would rather fly to Bombay tomorrow than spend 12 hours standing up. I'm gonna stay for another week or so with a lovely bloke I met then head off north before I head home, if it all goes to plan (it never does). Clo's leaving me, flying back to Canada on Tuesday morning... *sniff*

I'll tell more if I do something thrilling.

Love ya.

Hey!

Ok this is a really quick one, I have 2 mins of time left. I'm still in Goa, having loads of fun, staying in Calangute now.

Not much to say but I'll post up a bigger post when I get the chance.

x

Resisting the urge to make awful puns on the word 'Goa'.

Still here.

Thought I would change the title to something a little less pretentious. This is more true to life anyway.

In todays thrilling news, I have a tiny little tree frog that has moved into my bathroom. He (I'm assuming he's a he) is squatting my tap. I don't mind, he's cool and I'm hoping he's also eating mosquitos. He can also climb vertically up walls. I will update you all as to his wellbeing next time I'm online, and also post a picture if possible.

Any ideas for names?

He's about the size of 2 50p pieces, is a mottled brown/green colour and doesn't seem to do very much except sit on my tap.

I've also got a few geckos but they don't stick around for so long, quite speedy little buggers in fact.

Was cajoled into going back to Paradiso last night. It really is awful, but there's no alternative.

I'm considering synchronising my return with Tribe of Munt.

Goa

I'm in Goa now, Vagator. It's a bit pants, I wouldn't bother...

Well.

It's the end of season so it's fucking quiet, everyone who is left are the junkies and weirdos who can't cope with the real world. It's like Monday evening at Glastonbury, but less interesting. We went out to a club last night, I've been looking forward to it for ages - the attitude towards alcohol in this country, and especially towards women drinking is extremely negative. So, I thought it might be nice to get a bit pissed and dance like I haven't danced since NYE. Goa trance is not good, even worse when the only other people dancing are extremely drunk and lecherous middle aged Maharastrian (an Indian state just north of here) men.

It's quite beautiful here though, nice, relatively unpolluted beaches. Vagator is probably not the place to be for someone who is rapidly becoming very cynical - anyone reading this who knows about Goa and thinks I would be better off somewhere else, let me know. I've been told that Arambol is beautiful, and full of freaks in the best possible way, so I'll check that out soon. I'm really in the wrong season though. Just killing time before my mate flies home from Bombay - she's got a couple of weeks but we thought it would be shattering to go too far. Gokarn sounds OK. We shall see...

I forgot to post from Kochi but it was lovely and chilled, Kerala is so beautiful.

Cloud Life

I've spent the last few days inside a cloud. It's quite nice inside, if a little damp - we would wake up every morning (or afternoon if I was feeling especially lazy), step out of our room and instead of a beautiful valley view, there would be white. In Kodaikanal there are lots of clouds, it's at 2300m!

I'm feeling a bit random today, I have a cold and a chest infection so don't expect complete coherence. Maybe todays missive will have the sinuous continuity of beat poetry. Or not - one can always dream.

The practicalities, an update. We left Pondy about 5 days ago, I was really sad to go though the others didn't seem to mind - I don't think they shared my love for it...One hour bus to Villapuram, 6 hour sleeper to Kodai Road, at which point I slept though the stop (It was at 5.30am, gizza break!) and we woke up in the middle of nowhere. Instead of being sensible and saying 'Lets get off at Madurai, then we can get a direct bus from there to Kodai' I said something along the lines of 'Fuck, ooops, lets get off here!'. So we were in the middle of nowhere, really nowhere, somehow managed to get a bus that took us further into the void, it was about 6am by now. Then, somehow, some guardian angel sent me a bus that took me all the way to my final destination, and granted the people who were helpfully telling me what to do in Tamil the ability to say 'Kodaikanal bus!' in English. I almost kissed the ground. 4 hours up a spaghetti-twisted mountain road later, I was less estatic. We finally got there anyway, and found the aforementioned guesthouse in a cloud.

Kodai was nice if a little bizzare - a holiday resort for rich Tamils bored of the heat, it's cold. Has a nice lake, and you can rent lovely horses to trek through the forests alone - this I did, I haven't ridden a horse for years, it was fun.

Then a 6 hour bus ride in the PISSING rain to Thekkady. Really really raining - the buses are not designed for it and I was sitting underneath a small waterfall by the window, hence the chest infection. We got here eventually though, just when I was starting to lose my mind luckily, and we are staying in a cool cottage job in a garden full of animals. Tomorrow we are gonna check out this wildlife reserve, loads of elephants and some tigers, though you ain't got much chance of seeing them apparently.

I realise I'm telling you all these places and no one except me and other people who've been to India know what the hell I'm talking about - I'm sure you're not dedicated enough to look it up. Would it be helpful if I stuck up a map or something?

Pondicherry, my cheri

I've fallen in love...

Pondicherry is my favourite place I've been to so far. It's great, it's got the hecticness, the noise, the smell and the fun of all Indian towns and cities, a beautiful beach side perfect for ambling down with an icecream in the evenings, and the locals are very friendly and welcoming Tamils. It was a french colony til 1950something, and it really shows - as you get closer to the sea the architecture changes to be noticeably gallic, the streets are somehow noticeably cleaner and emptier, there is even less traffic! I've got a few photos, I'll upload them when I can. Ooh and also, the food is fantastic - there is a massive ex-pat community who demand decent western food, so as well as a lot of top quality Indian food, if I fancy just beer and pizza it probably won't kill me. Loads of people speak French too - I've been brushing up.

I've been here a week now though, and as much as I adore it I'm starting to get itchy feet. Well, itchy feet in the sense that the heat is starting to broil me... I'm retreating to a hill station in Tamil Nadu, Kodaikanal - we are leaving on Wednesday. I'll be sad to leave, but in some ways it'll be a relief - I've had a nice break from the rigours of travelling, now I need a nice break from the Indian summer. Here, it's 40 degrees or so at the heat of the day, and very very humid - to the extent that you take a shower and the effort of it leaves you stinking! Kodai should be somewhere in the region of 10 - 20 degrees... aaaahh! I'll let you know if it lives up to its promise on Thursday (assuming they have internet in them thar hills).

Also if anyone has a chance to email, would love some news from blighty :)