Train journeys have become quite the routine now, having traversed most of the country this way. Still we arrived in Bangalore a little tired and early in the morning. Not having planned anything we wondered around the city with backpacks for a couple of hours being quoted horrendously high hotel prices everywhere. "Cheap price" seemed to mean around 1500 Rupees... Finally we found ourselves a nice place for a good price using that interweb thing everybody talks about, how strange. Bangalore is an interesting city, very modern in many aspects - women in jeans and tops, couples holding hands openly and a centre for IT and the Indian space program. Yet it is by far the most polluted place we have been so far. Piles and piles of rubbish and excrement line every street, contrasting the extremely modern shopping malls with security checks and near western prices.
Being exhausted from our search our activity for the day was very simple: Fill yourself with the brink of bursting with good old fashioned American food - excuse our craving for burgers and chicken wings after weeks of curries. Fam could only just stop me from ordering all you can eat chicken wings and all you can drink Tuborg for 699... We were there for lunch and it would have ended tragically both for me and the restaurant! Good thing we didn't spend all our day there, as while buying some soap we met bboy Neguin and one of his crew in body shop (look at us!). Look him up if you don't know him, not only is he a great break dancer but a sound guy who invited us to his show that evening which unfortunately we weren't able to attend due to some finance and internet timing mishaps... Nonetheless good fun for a day.
The second day in Bangalore was one for wandering about, mainly through the big botanical gardens currently holding flower shows in preparation of Indian Independence Day. Lots of beautiful flowers and people! Wandering through the streets for a few more hours we continued our day with the city luxuries of strolling through a mall and going to the cinema, only to continue our journey southwards that same evening.12 hours later we arrived in Ernakulam or Kochi and only realised that we were finally going to see the ocean two hours before arriving... We found a lovely guest house with a shared kitchen and have been very lucky with the weather so far. It's mostly been raining during the nights and the days were mostly sunny - we have shining red backs to prove it. We have enjoyed cooking our own fresh seafood the last two evenings - first a biriyani and yesterday the obligatory seafood pasta!
We have also managed to take a tour through the Kerala backwaters, which are gorgeous to say the least. Yet as is to be expected of us we stayed up late the night before and had a couple of beers with the Spanish couple we met and were at times hard pressed to not fall asleep. Beautiful scenery can have that effect if accompanied with slow rocking movements and comforting music or near silence. Still we saw lots of wondrous plants and birds, including a couple of Kingfishers basking in the sun. It seems like we'll be on our way a bit further south tomorrow as Nick, one of our friends from up North, is in Kerala as well. So we'll probably meet him on one of the lovely beaches this Indian "planet" has to offer!
Happy Independence day!
FUNDL
No comments:
Post a Comment