Eden Garden Varkala

... morning to the before dawn prayer that lasts 15 minutes). I go see the local caves, which turn out to be overpriced and super crowded, much to my dismay (after climbing a mountain for an hour), so I return and try to go to the Wayanard Reservation (again overpriced). I arrive only to see it's also super crowded, so again I did not enter and after talking to the warden, he advises me to come at 6:30.

The ...

... stares (curiosity, white skin, western woman, yea whatever else etc), the flattery is long gone and I find myself becoming a bit perturbed by the consistency. Reminding myself of the reasons and try to let go of small irritations, this gets me to Calicut, where all self checks go out the window. I step off the train in this not fussed city of almost one million people, I immediately get bombarded by: people holding out their hand, asking for my name, rickshaw? Hotel ...

... and tripped to Elagiri in the month of October with a good trek as well. Yes it sounds in my heart that it was a huge gap from the last trip and I became a day dreamer to be a frequent traveler to discover many known/unknown places.

Keep myself cool and not better than late, here is the next quick start to Valparai (near Coimbatore) on 19th November. We always target for Western Ghats, I keep this in mind that my youth is not enough if I have to discover complete Western ...

... fact along the cliff front the restaurants are not officially allowed to serve beer as there is no barrier to the 100 foot drop in places and I guess a couple of Billy Brits might have fallen in their drunken past. To get round this you drink beer from mugs and have to place the bottles on the floor hidden from prying police eyes. Actually it was all a bit daft but it amused the kids that we were drinking illegally!

Issy and Ady have enjoyed the freedom to wander around, go ...

... and the sadness in me and give my life a clean bill of health in order to restart here? Should I purge the childish feeling of love and hate inside me so that I will no longer suffer from the cold shoulder offered by the others to my passion? So that I can immune to humanness and become again a pure existence of impartiality and professional efficiency?

My beloved Beatriz, tell me.

... plutot de la piece glauque, ai paye mes 500 roupies et suis alle direct boire un mojito a mon bar... Trop agreable, me sentais comme dans du coton et pour une fois je ne transpirais plus...
Ai rejoint les autres a la plage. Me suis baigne brievement car sur la plage etait echouee une enorme meduse toute violette, et dans l'eau il y en avait quelques unes aussi, ainsi que les toutes petites par milliers, et pas mal de detritus ...

... would think you would get a better service away from the touristy areas, but that doesn't seem to be so.

Anyway, we are going to have one more evening here, maybe try and find some fish to eat that hasn't been sat on a slab outside a restaurant for the last week, and then move on tomorrow up the coast to Kollam. It's only half an hour by train, so not too strenuous a journey.

Hope all is well at home.

... the Palm Grove resort with its beautiful deluxe houses, outdoor showers and shaded palm covered retreats with swinign hammocks to boot...Its was election time so thebest thing to do was to jump on adeluxe old style Indian riverboat and slip right into 3rdgear for 48 hours where the only thing to worry about was the mossies at nighttimewhich we got somewhat caught out by. Alexmanaged to persuade me to go swimming in the local rivers which I am shre are infested ...

... women pray for a husband like Lord Shiva, who is regarded as the ideal husband. To mark the Shivratri festival, devotees wake up early and take a ritual bath. After putting on fresh new clothes devotees visit the nearest Shiva temple to give ritual bath to the Shiva Lingum with milk, honey, water etc. On Shivaratri, worship of Lord Shiva continues all through the day and night. Every three hours priests perform ritual pooja of Shivalingam by bathing it with milk ...

... a day sight seeing in Old and New Delhi. Today I travelled on to Agra, where tonight I watched the sun set by the Taj Mahal. The building almost incredibly changes from gold, through red until finally at sundown it has a blue colour. Tomorrow, all being well, I shall travel on to visit a couple of national parks. I have only 16 days left and am simultaneously looking ...