30th Stop - Varkala, Kerala, India

I parted ways on Monday morning with Deni and Bela as they had to return to Bangalore and I was staying a few more days in Kerala. I got to the bus station about 15 minutes before the direct bus was scheduled to leave. It took me about 4 people to figure out where to find it. The last person I spoke to, a young man in his early 20’s, told me it would probably be late. Sure enough, a little over an hour later it pulled into the station. In the meantime, we struck up a conversation. Once we had covered all the usuals (country of origin, job, weather, where I’ve been in India, and favorite Bollywood movie), we started talking about girls.

He told me about the love of his life, an Irish girl he had met earlier this week, traveling through the country with a guitar, a genuine beatnik beauty, fair as a princess with a voice to put Sinead O’Connor to shame. I then surprised the hell out of him by saying, “Sure, I’ve met Paige too.” (Ran into her two nights ago with Alex from Fort Cochi, see previous post). His eyes literally popped out of his head. After several failed attempts to hear her play and sing, she left and he didn’t have a chance to say good-bye. I convinced him to write her a love letter that I could give to her in Varkala if I ran into her.

I had slightly changed my original plans which were to head into the mountains first to see some tea plantations. Tired of all the running around, a quaint beach town sounded like just the break I needed.

The bus dropped me off in the center of town and I started to walk towards the beach area. I figured I’d eventually grab a rickshaw to take me to the Skylark Guesthouse where I would meet Faith and her husband Sanjee who would be hosting me for a couple of nights. Then I spotted a post office and remembered that I needed stamps.

About 15 minutes later, I was back on the street and had just started negotiations with a rickshaw driver when a white woman approached to make sure I wasn’t getting ripped off. Then she looked at with a puzzled expression and said, “John?”

“Faith?” I replied. Faith wasn’t expecting me for another day or so. I explained how I had changed my plans and figured I would rent a room at her inn for the impromptu days I was there. “Ok, no problem!”

Faith is originally from Washington state in the USA and has been in India for a few years. She married a local man, Sanjee, from Varkala, and they are now running a guest house together. I really liked a couple of things Faith has up on her CS profile:

1. Get rid of the UN and have everyone join couchsurfing. It’s a surefire way to achieve world peace. I couldn’t agree with you more Faith.
2. Faith does not wear, nor own any socks. She lives in a tropical paradise, why bother?

As for Sanjee, he’s a trained chef and thus an excellent cook, but by no means megalomaniac. in fact, he’s rather laid back. He whipped up an delicious spicy red curry the first night I was there.

The next day, I went with Sanjee and two other guests, Tosh and Natasha (the puns and figures of speech were really fun: it's Tosh, not Tasha!) from Canada, on a day trip to a waterfall in the mountains. It was a wild day. Not the Canadians, they were tame; it was the two elephants, a snake, millipedes, and monkeys that kept us on our toes.

After a refreshing dip in the waterfall and gravity-induced aqua shoulder and neck massage, we went for lunch. What luck! It was a very special day in the region, a day to commemorate a deceased guru, so the village we passed through on our way to lunch was preparing a communal meal in the park. We joined about 50 others as the guests of honor for a spicy curry and rice dish, cooked on the spot in the biggest pots I’ve ever seen and served on a banana-leaf.

It was another one of those eat and run affairs, we were off before they had time to cook dessert. We cordially thanked them, snapped a few photos, and then went to an eco-tourism park to walk through a sculpture garden. A dense, sticky, storm haze oozed in by mid-afternoon and we got the feeling that rain wasn’t far behind. So we picked up the pace, got in the rick with Sanjee and headed back—in a torrential downpour.

The next days I hung out with another couchsurfer from Texas, Chris, who had studied art at Yale (sculpture) and was working on a museum project in Delhi for the past 5 months. He had pretty much finished up and was now taking some long-needed vacation before heading back to Austin.

Just a few last words on Varkala. I’ve never been to a place quite like it. You have to imagine standing on a 50 meter high cliff overlooking the ocean with a few scattered beaches below but hardly any beach at all. You are standing on a foot path that runs for a little under 2 km along the cliff’s edge and behind you are small restaurants, guest houses, and souvenir shops. Not too overbuilt, no cars, no noise... it’s just right.

Thanks again to Faith and Sanjee for hosting me a couple nights in Varkala. Drop in and stay at their guest house if you ever make it there. They really make you feel at home: they write your name on your door in chalk, let you use the kitchen to cook your own food, have a great collection of books and movies, and even play scrabble with you in the early evening.

Next stop: Bangalore!

29th Stop - Kerala, India

As we stepped out of terminal and walked towards the bus in the sweltering heat of tropical India, I couldn’t resist the fresh squeezed sugar cane juice stand—it’s been ages! The best fruit juice in the world, plus it’s healthy (I think). We took the bus into town and got off in in the outskirts of Ernakulum to meet up with Steve from www.CouchSurfing.org. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get in touch with him so we took another bus and rickshaw to the ferry terminal to cross over and spend the night at Fort Cochi.

Fort Cochi is an old trading post along the tea and spice routes. It was ruled by Indians, the Portugese, the British and probably a few more in-between. Now it is a sleepy fisherman town and tourist attraction. We checked into a hotel and then went out to a bar for drinks.

We had a late lunch so we skipped dinner altogether. After a few drinks, some other tourists started to show up. Mike, a former financial portfolio manager from Hawaii, recently left it all behind to teach in Thailand and would be traveling around India for a few weeks before the semester started promoting his new website www.powerkickinc.com. A Scottish girl from Glasgow who insisted that it was not a good idea for a girl to travel alone in India (especially in Delhi) after experiencing it first hand for the past few months. Apparently, she almost got gang raped in Delhi which explains the hard feelings. Then there was the Australian girl who was on a round-the-world trip and was traveling around India on a motorcycle. Cool.

Up early the next day, we hopped on a bus and rumbled on down to Alleppy, the gateway to Kerala’s famous backwaters. I was engrossed in my book, Losing my Virginity (Richard Branson’s autobiography) for most of the ride, looking up from time to time to take in the scenery. At one point, when we had almost reached our destination, I spotted a JCI banner with a picture of Roland Kweiman, this year’s world president, on it! Wow, JCI is truly everywhere, even in the most remote, “backwaters” places like Alleppy!

That afternoon, we checked in with Antony, our CouchSurfer host who owns a tourism business and resort: http://tourinalleppey.com/. We had a cup of coffee and then he sent us out on a relaxing canoe trip.

The backwaters gets its name from the 1,000 km of canals and rivers that intertwine in a dense tropical fruit tree paradise. Also a tourist photo-happy paradise (thanks by the way to Bela and Deni for all the photos!).

By the time we made it back to our residence, it was dark and we needed to make plans fast. Antony and his Finnish girlfriend decided to join us for dinner so we all went to a nice hotel for cocktails and Indian fare.

Rarely have I relied on guidebooks for my travels so far, but I do look into them from time to time, especially when one is readily available (thanks again Bela and Deni!). The Lonely Planet advised us not to miss out on a backwaters house boat tour, despite the fact that the price would be about 50 times more expensive than anything we’ll have done so far in India. Let me reiterate their advice: you have to do this if you go to Kerala, you won’t be disappointed!

We got on the houseboat around noon, put our things in our rooms and slipped into our houseboat attire: shades and bathing suits! Our captain took us to the middle of the lake first so we could cool off with a swim. Getting into the water wasn’t hard; swimming in the water on the other hand brought back memories of Indiana Jones trying to cross the river of man-eating crocodiles in the Temple of Doom. Our fears got the better of us, so we climbed back aboard for lunch!

The rest of the afternoon we tooled around the canals, listened to Bollywood music, read books, took pictures, and meditated. If you ever go to India, do make a stop in Kerala and tour the backwaters. Thanks to Bess and all the Indian friends who told me to come here! Thanks also to Antony who hosted me on Saturday night.

Next stop: Varkala, India!

28th Stop - Bangalore, India

Photo courtesy of Sam Mohan

When I arrived in Bangalore, it was pouring rain. I took the bus to the terminal stop, which is next to Vijay’s place, my host from www.CouchSurfing.org. When Vijay pulled up, I was pleasantly surprised: he was riding a 1993 Enfield motorcycle, with a military khaki paint job and side car to boot! One-of-a-kind in Bangalore, that’s for sure.

We went back to Vijay’s and had a nice talk over whisky and dinner. He told me about his wife and new-born son, who were staying with her parents for a while, his furniture design and manufacturing business, and his hobby: creating bicycles out of bamboo. Not only had I probably met the only guy in Bangalore with a side-car, but also the first Indian to make a bicycle out of bamboo! Check out his site: http://handcraftedbikes.blogspot.com/

Vijay's other bike

On Saturday, we met with a potential business partner of his for some late morning beers and cigarettes at a private fitness club. I was praying to god we wouldn’t have to work out afterwards! Then we went for a drive to M.G. Road, met some German students in the street and got another beer at a classic rock joint with Led Zep, Frank Zappa, Rolling Stones, and Grateful Dead posters, among others, plastered over every wall and stacks of cassette tapes to hammer home the authenticity of it all. Then we a late lunch of Tibetan food, ran into the Germans again, and went for coffee.

Photo courtesy of Sam Mohan

That night, one of Vijay’s friends who works as a PR consultant, was having a small party and Vijay brought me along. I met a lot of nice people there and had some interesting discussions about spirituality in India. Interestingly, they talked about Art of Living which I would learn more about in the coming days.

On Sunday, we went back into town with the sidecar and had an excellent lunch at a famous local joint called Nandhini’s Palace. An assortment of dal, veg curry, raita, and other tasty dishes are served on a banana leaf and you eat the whole thing with your right hand. After stopping for coffee, we started to head home but it was early and we didn’t have to go to Vijay’s employee’s wedding until late that evening, so we turned around and went back to M.G. Road.

Not a photo from the restaurant but to give you an idea

Just before we were about to park, I saw a girl sitting outside on the steps of a shop. I smiled at her, and she smiled back and waved. The only sensible thing to do in a situation like this is to go up and talk to her, so I did just that. We introduced ourselves and it turns out that Deni is Albanian, studying in Norway and currently doing field work with poor children in Bangalore. I think I impressed her with my knowledge of Albanian language by telling her “pune mbare!” which means “good luck with your work” (something I picked up last year when I spent a few days there en route to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia).

Deni was at a saree shop trying on dresses with her friend Bela, another Albanian, and she invited us into the shop to meet her friend. At some point, we let slip that we were going to a wedding and Deni shamelessly asked if they could tag along. Sure!

We picked them up an hour later and went to the wedding. I’m not sure if it was because we got lost and arrived rather late, but this was definitely the shortest wedding reception I’ve ever been to. We went into the main auditorium, met the bride and groom who were standing in front of a large floral arrangement, gave them some gifts, and then took pictures with them. As soon as the photographer had taken pictures, everyone started asking us if we had eaten yet, gesturing towards their mouth with fingers pressed to their thumb. As we hadn’t yet eaten, we made our way downstairs and had a delicious banana leaf meal like the other day. Once we polished that off, Vijay told us that that was all there was to it, time to go!

Vijay and his designs

During the week, I got a chance to visit Vijay’s factory and see some of his designs and the bamboo bike. My personal favorite was the small seat/stool made from used tires. I also went with Bela, Deni, and Azzam to the world-famous Art of Living ashram and learnt more about Sri Sri Ravishankar. We got a chance to meditate; I was either really good at it or sleeping because I don’t remember much. Deni also took me to the school in the slum where she was working to meet some children. I was very impressed by the kids’ level of English and their eagerness to talk and find out all about us.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough trainees for the trainings I scheduled. I would however like to thank Dolly from Evoma Hotel for helping me arrange a seminar room. On Thursday night, I conducted the second half of an online Wordfast training. Though this format needs to be refined, I definitely see a lot of potential in it.

Deni and I met Chitra from couch surfing for coffee one afternoon and had a really nice chat before going for a walk in the park. Thanks Chitra for contacting me out of the blue and meeting up with us, it was a real pleasure!

On one of the last days, Vijay introduced us to another friend of his, Sam Mohan who is an amazing photographer. He's the one who took the spectacular photos of Vijay on his bike (see above). His work is quite impressive and I definitely recommend that you check it out on his website: http://yolkstudio.com/

Bela and Deni had planned to go to Goa over the weekend but hadn’t booked tickets, so I convinced them to come with me to Kerala instead. I met up with them Friday morning, then we went for a coffee and Vijay joined us. At one point, Vijay asked, “What time is your flight?” To which we replied “4 pm.” With a look of consternation, he said “You guys should not be sitting here right now!” So we grabbed our things and rushed off to the airport, arriving minutes before the check-in closed.

Next stop: Kerala, India!