Kerala Part I

Ok so the further South I am getting the more frustrating internet has become... Hence I shall just put on bigger posts about Kerala. I am hoping this will save me seven hours of trying to get the photos uploaded or the browser open! In a way this is not fair to poor Kerala because this has been on of the most diverse and breath taking state? province? I don’t know... I just had a debate with the Pohms about this and I am not that much more assured of my choice. 

Sooo from Mysore I headed down to Fort Cochin which is an old town from way back when. It would be the perfect place to mow down on fresh fisheis and has badass “Chinese Fishing Nets” which look like something a pirate should have... a pirate or maybe me. 

We spent a lot of time in Fort Cochin wandering... which is in my top five favorite activites. We did eventually givin into a rick-shaw driver who was going to show us the sites.... Mainly as the do he took us to over priced tourist shops... BUT he did take us to a spice market which was cool... the were drying ginger all over the place and it smelt amazing! The cute old ladies served me a shit load of teas and a bought a bunch of spices for me ma!

Ginger drying in the sun

"Robbin Bastard" if you will

Just a pretty view of backwaters in Fort Cochin

We also took a look at the Mattatcherry Palace... built by the Portuges... not nearly as impresive as Mysore but full of artifiacts from pre-English times! Again no cameras allowed in there... Fair enough.

From Fort Cochin it was a mission on down to Alleppey... Time for houseboating in the backwaters. I have been looking forward to this since I was still sitting behind my desk in Edmonton wanting to take a hammer to a computer screen. It was amazing... the houses up and down the canals and lakes were really cool. I would love to stay in a house surrounded by water in the middle of no where. We anchored over night and had one of the more peaceful sleeps of my time in India. We did have a night time visitor in the form of one big ass mother fucking cockroach that our heroic crew caught and removed for us!... While in skirts!

Or boat actually came from behind all these boats quite a mission... well I just sat there but still

Nothing can quite describe how lovely it is to drink coffee while the sun sets in a boat in Kerala.

Right?!?!?!

The prawns! Massive and kinda cute!

This was our boat! Pretty cool! Best accommodation I have had so far!

Kerlala has been quite an active trip thanks to Kelly and Nicki, the lovely, proactive ladies  who have taken me under there wing and provided me with people to talk at, and more importantly toilet roll and candy!

Hampi... Bangalored

I have just left Hampi and I am not going to lie I miss it already... I am currently in Bangalore and it sucks major ass fuzz. Only one day here though so I will just power through and try not to kill myself or someone else who is trying to sell me oversized balloons or a sarong or some shit. I might just tell everyone I am American and act like a douche nozzle..

Annyywayss Hampi was gorgeous I would really recommend it to anyone, just as every Indian I met recommend it to me. I spent two days sight seeing day one by bike; day two by rick shaw. I had no idea looking at stuff was so exhausting. 




Sweat and gross photo of me... your welcome...


The mixture of the natural landscape and architecture of the area was amazing, many of the sculptures and temples were made out of one solid piece of stone.

I have never visited any sites like this before in my life and I think I am lucky that the Indian government still allows you to climb all over the temples and touch whatever you like. I imagine that in time this will not be that case.

Since this area is a World Heritage Site, the government has slowly been knocking down the bizzare and I believe they intend to move the residents of this area out of the site. It seems like a shame to me, all the temples that I visited where taken care of by local families. The one young girl I met told me her family had always lived at the temple. I don’t understand the logic of knocking stores half down, I have seen this trend in India the beach in Baga went through a similar destruction a few years ago and they just rebuild from the rubble.

So many temples in Hampi... I could explain to you where these all where and what they all mean but I will just put them up and one day in real real life I can explain them to you if you want... I know that this is unlikely though ;)

The atmosphere of Hampi was really what made it so great, it was really laid back with a beautiful river running through the middle, and volcanic rock everywhere. It was surprisingly cold for India; Bangalore has been too, I am in a hoodie and sweat pants today and I feel a little chilly.

The only cool thing I have to report about Bangalore would have to be my trip here I took the sleeper train, which is basically just normal train and I was the only Westerner on my car. Its really not that bad and hella cheaper then a posher A/C sleeper car, I locked my bag to a chair and had no worries at all!

There were also lil mice friends on the train... bless

I am heading to Mysore and can not wait to be out of the city again!

Mysore

Thank fuck I left Bangalore.... Mysore though, is a lot larger then the Lonely Planet  would lead you to believe. Other then some misleading Lonely Planet facts Mysore was fantastic.

The Maharaja Palace was amazing... I have never seen anything so excessive in my life. The detail work that has been put into every space of the palace was crazy from the painting on the walls, to the stained glass windows it was all obviously done with no expense spared. It was interesting to learn as well that the entire palace is relatively new and the Royal family still uses it to some capacity. I wish I could have taken some pictures of the interior but it was not allowed... although camera phones are fine? Oh India your ways are strange sometimes.

Although I thought the entire city was going to be palaces... well it wasn’t. Although there were many impressive Mosques and Churches around! I really enjoyed wandering around a proper normal South Indian city. I visited a veggie market which just made me miss cooking and raw food... I got to smell essential oils and bought fresh sandalwood incense as well. Mysore is the first place I have seen how a person could would actually go about living in an Indian city without having to eat out ever night and walk around in Ali Baba pants exclusively!

Fresh veg at the market  made me miss cooking and real food...

I feel sad about how ugly I made this cute girl look in this photo... sad meow

Cows and cow shit fuel patties!

Indian Christmas lights!

On my second day I went up to  Chamundi Hill which has an amazing temple, Sri Chamundeswari Temple, on the top not to mention a killer view and some really cute homes. The smart option when its balls hot outside is to walk down the 1000 or so steps from the temples so I did just that. Half way down there is a bug cow statue that I know is Shiva’s cow but I do not know much about its relevance... I caught on that it is sacred but need to do some more reading about its history! One of these days I will get to all that...

Shiva's sacred cow dude

The view on the walk down to Mysore

I stayed in probably the worst hotel I have chosen this trip... the bathroom was less then fantastic and when I laid down in my bed I realized there was a huge water stain that reminds me of something from the Ring or some movie I can’t quite put my finger on it but it was defiantly made by some kind of evil force of nature.

Goa

From Mumbia I made my way to Goa on a night bus. The plan was to do some relaxing before I get right into it... The more places I go, I see that more options then Baga beach etc exist for me to do that. I took the bus to Mapsa a larger town in Northern Goa and took a rickshaw 15 minutes up the road to Baga. 

Baga as it turns out is also where crazy Indian men who have escaped their wives or responsibilities for the weekend also really enjoy going to... They also really enjoy taking pictures of strange white women. 

Drinking Masala enjoying the view before things got to hectic on the beach.

Other then that its a great place to lay on a sun bed all day read and have useless shit sold to you! I spent three of the five days I was there doing just this!

Obviously one of my favorite things was the fact there were a lot of happy puppies running around who looked pretty taken care of so I had no issues with giving them some scratches.

This was some smart Indian recycling... broken bottles make a pretty secure fence in my opinion.

I am really trying to grow to love the beer in India, its just really taste bad but its so cheeeeap. FML

I have no problems with the food though... this was lunch/breakfast/good.

Tandoori Paneer... I love you.

The one day I went on an epic adventure I rented a scooter and headed up to the Anjuna market... Anjuna is old hippie ville and full of the usually western stereotypes that travel though Asia... A lot more dreads and leathery old people. I picked up some anklets and wandered the maze of a market for a few hours.

Even in India <3

The spices and teas smelt soooo good I wanted to stick my face in the tea. It was all so fresh and lovely.

After the market I climbed this hill...

A local taxi driver had no idea why I would do this as there was nothing to see on a hill.

I thought this was worth it, but I am from Alberta...

Also this was pretty nice...

You could see all the way to Baga and I think to Mapsa as well from the top of the hill. It was awesome.

When I got home that night I had a lil friend waiting for me... And I reacted like a girl about it. We formed an understanding in the end I will leave him alone as long as he did not do some sort of flying back flip onto my face while I took a shit!

I went to some club that night that had free entry for ladies and free drinks. How they make money I don’t know. It was pretty much the kind of place you would have to roofie me to convince to go to at home... but it was free so that helped a bit. I met a bunch of random Westerners and Indians and its always nice to have a chat with people see what their plans are.

I learned a lot in Baga especially about Indian men, and how sexually repressed they must be if seeing my lower legs at the beach causes such a fuss. I also like seeing that Indians actually travel in their own country quite a bit compared to places I have been in South East Asia I left yesterday December 3rd, but I can see why people come and spend their entire vacation relaxing in Goa.