The beginning of the Indian chapter | India
- giulia
- Nov 14, 2017
- 3 min read
The Indian chapter
It's crazy how within one country one can have so many different vibes. We started off pretty chill with the back waters cruise and the happy gang and we're now really getting into the crazy distances kinda travel.
Alappuzha was so quiet and relaxing, it didn't really feel like India at all but maybe also because of the unique company of 4 Latinos girls and one Indian whose nickname is Sushi, a great guy. We ate morning to night and did an average of about 1,000 steps per day and that was mainly to move our lazy selves from room-deck-common area to eat. Very ashamed of ourselves after 3 days of Royal eating on the boat..but it was a very relaxing experience and it would be the perfect cherry on the cake to the hustle of an Indian trip.
We then moved to Kochi, Munnar & Bangalore and are currently on our 2nd night bus in less than 2 weeks direction Hampi. This time I learnt that eating curd rice, masala and butter parotha before 66km of mountain roads is never a good idea. And a trip to the local pharmacy to get some tablets always helps!
Munnar was surreal. The best word to describe it really is surreal. The climate and vibe is that of a small mountain town, people dress with hats and coats and it gets really chill at night. The landscape looks like the advertisement of a Swiss milk company with cows, so much green valleys and trees and small lakes with rivers that if it wasn't for the tea plantations you could really have it mistaken for some European/British land. The tea plantations were arranged and cut in such a gracious way they reminded me of Alice in wonderland's British gardens and with the fog and all, you sometimes dream of the white rabbit or the queen of harts coming out from one of those bushes...
The place where we stayed was really cute and the guy running it really did it with his soul: the place belonged to his dad and his grandfather before him and he told us the sad story of how they both died at a relatively young age. He told us chemical and pesticides in Munnar area are contributing to make people's lives shorter and his grand dad died at 80, his dad at 60 and at only 23 years old of age he literally stated " who knows maybe at 40 I will be gone ". I could see the resignation in his eyes so it made it a bit sad; I really hope he somehow earns his way to a better and healthier life. That being said, Munnar was a really mystical, magic and amazing outdoor experience and I strongly recommend it.
Bangalore is a completely different story, huge, chaotic, some of the large roads reminded me of some Dubai areas while our cozy neighbourhood had a lot of cute cafes, breweries and all sorts of eateries within few blocks. The city itself I don't think has much to offer in terms of attractions but we got lucky as there was a festival being held at Cubbon park and we managed to "taste" some real Indian culture including a rather interesting wrestling match between 12-13 year old kids that could have been my brother!
There's so many other feelings I have about India but I what I can say so far is that people, and even stray dogs, in the south of India have been extremely kind and friendly to us and I wonder how it'll feel when we reach the North again..
Enjoy the photos xoxo (click to enlarge)
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