The Beach Orchid Kollam

... paid often); hence poaching is a problem. As wildlife populations decline, people fail to see the importance of actual conservation. Tribes still live in the reserves, and receiving no benefit from the park itself, they seek the more valuable thing while hunting prey such as deer (which is also declining and is a staple food item for the tiger). While the parks seem to have a steady influx of visitors, less than 25% of that actually goes to the park. The locals do not receive it, so ...

To get to my next destination, i took a 4 hr cruise of Kerala's backwaters. For the most part the backwater, or large canal runs parallel to the coast of the Arabian Sea, just a bit inland. I hopped off half way through, as it continued for another 4 hours. The cruise was very relaxing as i sat on the covered rooftop, watching, taking pictures, at the locals carrying on with their normal everyday lives. There were fishermen, labourers transporting sand on wooden canoes ...

... it as it downpoured for a wee bit), palm trees everywhere, beautiful with the many canals and fish farms adding character...and peeps here and there doing their every day things, cutting, washing, building, walking, or just sitting.

It was a great tour, great insight, a great afternoon..and i was happy once again. Traveling truly is the rollercoaster ride of a lifetime...just as life is. I love it.

Next stop for us was Amma's Ashram 'The hugging Mother'. Her ashram is located about 40 km from Kochi and you can get there by ferry or bus. We chose the ferry from Alappuzha - about 4 hours a pleasant journey. 'Love is my religion'- says Amma - Mata Amrita Nandamayi Math. When Amma is in her ashram everything takes on life, there is a lot more people. When we arrived there the ashram was nicely quiet as Amma was in Bangalore where we met her later on. Amma dedicates ...

... frem i mens en guide fortale om det vi sejlede forbi samt om hans egen familie. Paa turen fik Nana lov til at proeve at lave kokosreb.. :) Vi sejlede ad nogle smaa kanaler hvor man sommetider maatte dukke sig for ikke at slaa hovedet ind i broer og traer. Har man proevet en kanalrundtfart i KBH kan det lidt sammenlignes. Same same but different.... Knus Christian og Nana

... little city from where you can access the backwaters. Being Sunday afternoon in a predominantly Christian area it was also dead and after a delicious mutton curry with parota for dinner it was strait to Bed. The next day we devoted the good part of our morning to searching for a particular Bazaar (who's name I cannot recall which is terrible considering it occupied us for about 5 hours). This Bazaar was described by the lonely planet as a busltling array ...

... the start of our stay it didn't work properly. The spin cycle broke down within a month of our arrival and two months later after a number of requests when I even offered to pay for the repair we were given a telephone number of a repair facility in Mumbai who might have a man in Trivandrum; since Alison had been hand-washing throughout this period we did nothing about it. He tried his usual blackmail of saying he would pay for the repair if we didn't but it didn't work. Apart for ...

... celebrated Rachel's Bday) then caught a midnight train bound for the secluded Gokarna beach. While the girls were staying in Kochi for a few days, I was chomping at the bit for some alone time and couldn't wait to get on that train. It's also easier to meet new people when you're solo and I was ready to meet new people. Thankfully my second overnight train experience was uneventful compared to my first one, as I went right to sleep with a family that were in my section.

... who this family was. So apperently this family is the owners of the biggest newspaper in Kerala called "Malayala Manorama", own the biggest tire producing company in India and a bunch of other smaller companies. They are probably among the 100 wealthiest families in India and now I was suddenly going to meet them and attend the wedding the next day (the fact that I had only been invited by Raj, and not the family hosting the wedding didn't really seem ...

... they do get to you so it's not fun every minute of every day, and that's probably true of this kind of travel generally - it's very different from a 2-week holiday where everything is about relaxation and fun. We've seen so much though, and really experienced a country that's so different from our own, and that's been really amazing. We feel like every day we're storing up memories for the future and that's brilliant. (R)