New website: jordimatas.net

Hello everyone,

I have just finished the 1st phase of my site, which will hopefully keep on changing and evolving very often.

Feel free to contact me for any enquiry.

I hope you like it.


jordi

jordimatas.net

fast news & change of plans!

Hello again!!
I know I havn't written for a long while, and that's because I've been very very busy!! I can imagine that it's hard to believe, but now you'll know why!
I arrived in mumbai almost 5 weeks ago. I spend the first 2 weeks hanging around, going out... discovering the city. I even met zac again, the american guy I was traveling with for 3 months!!
In some way, I felt very attracted to the city, feeling very comfortable, and seeing contrasts every now and then. I also started meeting people, indians and westerners, and because of all that, I went to check a model agency. In 3 weeks I've done 3 jobs, and I have a couple of options for next week!! I've been going out a lot, I've destroyed my nice budget, but I'm having lot of fun. And now I'm looking for an apartment and I think I'll have a bussines visa soon. So things go on a nice direction, and I'm planning to stay here for a few months, and if I keep on working like now, who knows, maybe years!!!
So the trip once again has changed completely. Unexpected things are keeping me alive!!!
The only thing is that here is summer now, and it's super hot. Average of 35 degrees, with a 80 % humidity every day. Nights, 28 degrees... yes, life it's so hard!!!
See you soon!!!!!!!!

new contact number!!

Hello to everyone!!
Since I think I might stay in mumbai for a while, I got a new cell number;
0091 9833051907

I'll explain you the reasons soon!!!

look at our world, it's so big & amazing 02!!!

Hello everybody!!!
I’ve posted a few more pictures I’ve taken since the beginnig of 'everything'. I hope you’ll like them, and please, don’t hesitate to write comments!! (about the pictures, the light, the colors, the topic, about anything you like!!!)
And once again, thanks for keep on writing mails and comments!!Thousands of hugs!!!

http://jordimatasimages.blogspot.com/

26-27/mar mumbai 03

26th of march, holi, pronounced without the 'H', more or less like italians would do it. I was supposed to go and live holi at mekhala's builing, but she told me there was nothing there, and that was good for me, since I had the chance to live it in direct contact with one on the poorest areas of colaba. I reached the colaba market just by case, and realised that the area was not exactly a wealthy area. But if I found something there, that was life, energy, happines and even madness! This area is set in a kind of left over between 2 wealthy areas, occupaying an area of the docks. I would say is something between a shanti town and a slum area, dirty, but today full of color and music everywhere, people dancing, and what makes the holi famous, people throwing color, powder, to the other people, that with the sweat, or the water, stays there, dying your skin, hair, and clothes of lots of colors. They were also throwing eggs, and drinking alcohol. Many terrible things are happening during this kind of festivals, but I guess that this is happening everywhere unfortunately. It has a religious meaning (hindu) that I still don't know. People is absolutely transformed, inside, for the happiness of a day without working, were everything is allowed, or from the alcohol, and outside, for the effect of the powders, water, eggs... After seeing other areas of the city in, during the same day, I've checked that holi is lived more intensively in these areas, where the people radiate happiness, and I was told that people is waiting for this day for weeks! I guess it's a way they have to forget for a while their real situation, accepted with more or less resentment, in this life. So today, everything is allowed, and if someone doesn't like it, must stay home. It was fun to see that people didn't want to touch me, since I was one of the only 'non indians' there, but after allowing a few children to throw me color, everything became much funnier, and I finished ... you'll see the picture soon in the image blog! This area, has a kind of beach, where the children were playing and swimming but it was only after a few minutes that I realized that there was no sand in the beach, just garbage, and shit... the water was very dirty as well, and I guess that that was the perfect place to get every possible disease...
After that, I went to meet mekhala, and we headed towards one of the most elitist social clubs of mumbai. So, in 1 hour time I passed from one side to the other. This club has swimming pool, squash, gol... and it's quite big, everything in the center of mumbai. And it's very nice. It's from the time when the british were here, and being inside makes you feel that you are in that time. Wood everywhere, the signs, some of the machines, the waiters... something I didn't like that much was that to order food, you have to ring the bell, and then the waiter comes. It made me feel quite uncomfortable, so was mekhala the one to order food and stuff. We swam there, met 2 of girls that were at jazz the bay a few nights ago. We went out at night, in a place called hawaiian check, that was too packed, and with music from the '80 loud enough to make talking possible. It was fun anyway, because I could see indian boys dancing like in the bollywood films, and also looking at me very bad when I was trying to speak to girls. On the way back home, we took a taxi, and I saw hundreds of people sleeping on the street, following the rail tracks... a neverending line of poor people, families... so, once again, contrasts and contrasts all the time, impossible to be indifferent, but still looking for my position towards it.
The day after I lost the wonderful breakfast (3 slices of bread, 5 if you have contacts, butter and jam, egg & banana), and I was very very tired. I decided to see the prince of wales museum, and the truth is that I wasn't very receptive, after that, I headed towards the hanging gardens, were I took a nap, after that mahalaxmi mandir (temple), hagi ali mosque, in the middle of the water, with one single access, 1 or 2 km long, with shops in one side and beggars at the other. I can imagine seeing more than 200 beggars, side by side, some of them in terrible conditions...
10/4/05

23-25/mar mumbai 02

Breakfast with josu again. After talking with my mum (that is living my trip as if she was here, reading, researching…), and washing my clothes, I went out and found heidi and johana, the girls I met in arambol, just by case. We had lunch together. After that, I started walking, and observing. Gate of India, and after that towards flora fontain (area) again. I bought 3 books, very cheap; 'midnight's children' (s. rushdie), 'by the river piedra I sat down and wept' (p. coelho) and 'digital fortress' (d. brown). They are all photocopies, even if they almost look normal books. There are lots of stalls in one of the main streets, and police is not saying anything about that, since each person has the same space every day, most of them leave the books in their spot during the night...after that, I took a bus and went towards opera house, where I found lots of electronic shops, and I started deciding which cd/mp3 discman was I going to buy, the right price... they also sell lots of models that are imitation, so one must be careful. I had dinner with a guy from nigeria, that is working for a NGO and is here to visit african that are in jail, and to try to peace them with the catholic religion... he tried to convert me from my agnosticism to his religion, but he wasn't successful, and he left a little bit angry, even if I was trying to be as respectful as I could.

And yes, I like to be in the salvation army (guest house); it's great to wake up early, there are no curtains, so the sun, and the other people use to wake me up. After the first night, where I was sleeping only with indians, everything changed, and I don't really know why; now almost everyone is foreigner, and most of them has more or less my age. So, it's quite fun. It feels like being on a cheap residence, since they serve lunch and dinners, a part from breakfasts. And yes, I can finally listen my music!! It sounds like an easy thing, but it took me a while. I finally bought in a normal shop (not on a street stall), and for the lowest price. It's not 100% legal. The told me that it was coming from singapur, grey market, and that that was the reason why there was no warranty. But, I couldn't afford to by a legal one, since they cost 2 or 3 times more. Let's see the time it will last! Dinner at the university, and afternoon with my blog, and uploading pictures. And still now, when I remember that I'm in india, in mumbai! it's hard to believe. I have this feeling of live dreaming very often, and the truth is that I like it!! Mumbai is a shopping paradise; Today I bought those books, and only because they were that cheap, I bought the dan brown one, that I would never bought in other conditions!! After that the discman, and now, when I was heading home, I saw that antique dealer, and I started thinking about buying a sun watch. I guess that my friend ribas will know what am I talking about! It's like a ring, with a very small hole, where the sun light gets in and shows the time. But it was impossible tom find it, no-one knew what was I talking about, and well, I think that that was good since I had already spend enough money! I was also looking for a lonely planet, the one of pakistan, and 'fortunately' was too expensive! When I was going to sleep, I found ami, the sister of neta, 2 israeli girls that I met in varkala, kerala. It was pleasant talking to her. She is traveling alone one year, and has already been in nepal (before the emergency state), thailand and india. She was thinking about going to japan, to see the blossom festival, that is supposed to be very important and nice.

The day after, I decided to do one of those things that I love to do.; I transformed a bag, 1 small towel and string on a case for the discman! It was fun to be alone in the room, listening music, sewing... and it turned to be quite nice , functional and safe enough to carry the discman inside my bag! there is also a part to keep the cd's. This day marc called me, and I was very excited because I was not expecting that at all, and we had almost lost the communication. It was the best surprise. And it was the best because he was with david from madrid and chidam from istanbul... of course I've thought a lot about them during this trip because I was in a very special trip with them in turkey, 5 or 6 years ago... ai...that was a great trip!!! Let's see if on a short time period marc, or marc and pati can come here and we can travel together for a while! After that, I went to see the sunset at marine drive, a road that goes parallel to the sea creating a sort of bay (with disgusting water), and with a beach, chowpatti in one of the corners. There were lots of people, most of them couple, and quite many holding hands, impossible to see in the rest of india, but more or less normal in mumbai, and I guess bangalore, delhi... big cities. After dinner, I met mekhala and her friends at jazz by the bay, a very famous bar in mumbai, with karaoke, rock concerts, and I guess that jazz concerts as well. It was nice to see that most of mekhala's friends were girls, all of them indian, and a couple of guys, vishal and anish. There was a very nice girl called puja. That night a the group that was playing were friends of them, and the music was very good, versions of classics. I had lot of fun, and it was very interesting to have the chance to talk with the wealthy part of india, of mumbai. I'll try to write more about that in the next posts. And yes again, I feel good here, I like mumbai, there is something that I can't still explain that attracts me!!! (a part from the beautiful indian girls!)

10/4/05

21-22/mar mumbai 01

And yes, I was in the train, reading, eating, and after I couple of hours, I saw that girl, indian looking, that was looking for something. She told she had lost her wallet. Five minutes later, she came back, more relaxed, and with the wallet. We started talking, and we did so for 8 hours!! Her name was melisa, and she was English. She had lots of relatives in India, some of them from goa, the others living in Mumbai. She was a very esay going person, and was nice to spend that time with her. After a couple of hours, her friend sarah, also English, came, a little bit worried since she thought she had lost her friend in the train. The journey was nice, and sitting with 2 girls, one of them blond, made me see the attraction that all Indian male have for them. We were most of the time surrounded by Indian, salesmen… Melisa explained me a little bit about her family. A wealthy Indian family, that had good relations with the british, and that had traveled a lot. They are staying at her uncle’s house, just 2 minutes from the taj mahal hotel, with views over the sea. Not bad!!
Once in mumbai, we arrived at the Victoria station, a astonishing building that could be a parlement or the kings palace. Gothic style, made in the british time. And, just by chance, my place, the cheapest one in Mumbai, was 5 minutes far from where they were staying, and 1 minute from the most expensive hotel. So, it wasn’t a bad location at all!! It was the salvation army, a dormitory with room of 12 to 16 beds (bunk beds). Rs 135 with breakfast included. The most expensive place I had been in India so far, but the cheapest one in Mumbai. The rest of ‘cheap’ places were at least 300 – 350Rs, obviously out of my budget! In my room, there were only Indians, even if I was told that that was the backpackers place in Mumbai. No problem. Well, yes, there was a problem. One of them was snoring… but, c’est la vie!
I slept very good, no bed bugs (I was told there were), breakfast till 8:45 am, so I had the chance to wake up early, and I met josu (36), a guy from bilbao, that was working in correos, and had been traveling a lot. The only problem about meeting people while your are traveling, is that sometimes you don’t have too much time to get to know them, and most of the conversations are exactly the same. Anyway, it’s always good to meet someone, since it’s not possible to know if that person will change your life or not!!!
After that, I went to the model agency elite, to show my stuff, and the girl that was there treated me very good, even though she was new there. She told me there was job for foreigners in town, so I was quite excited, even if I was supposed to meet the boss!
There area of the agency, is a part of colaba, south of Mumbai, and where my bed was. And it was another India that I had never seen before; there was lot of life and energy there, but lots of suits and ties, lots of business men, good cars, I was only hearing English, street slightly cleaner, skyscrapers, expensive hotels… A kind of pleasant downtown. After that I went to the embassy. I had questions about the Indian visa, Pakistan, china… and was fun to see that the consul couldn’t even speak Spanish, in the Spanish consulate… I was looking for the catalan consulate, but I couldn’t find it. Well, Mumbai is still growing!! After that, I went to the university building, a very old and elegant gothic building, with a canteen. Thalis 16 rupees!! And the chance to meet students from Mumbai. Everything was nice, the city was treating me very good, and I was feeling very comfortable. After that I startes looking for an cd/mp3 discman, and was a good excuse to start walking. Victoria station, Crawford market, and then south again towards flora fountain, and after that the world trade center, but they were closing. I got an sms from melisa inviting me to have dinner in town with her aunt and cousin, and I was lucky to have an extra t-shirt in my bag, since the place was… I first got scared when I saw all those waiters parking cars, opening doors… and then the restaurant in itself. I asked, and I was told that it was an expensive restaurant. When they came, I just saw 4 young girls, and that because the wife of david, the uncle, was only 28. Anyway, we got in, drunk a couple of bottles of beer, eat the best food I had eaten so far, and pay 700 rs each… (2 days of my budget!!!) I was happy though, I had good time there. After that, we went to a club, Wellington club, where they are members. A very british place, very elegant, a bit old fashioned, and with lots of waiters again. Let’s remember that there is more than one billion people in India, the second highest population right after china. And growing. After the club, the aunt and mekhala, melisa’s cousin, left, and we 3 went to the taj mahal, to check how insomnia was. Supposedly the coolest disco in Mumbai. 1000 Rs the entrance… it was empty, so we could go in without paying, and the place was nice, nice interior design. Something minimalistic with an Indian (geomethry) touch. We were a little bit happy (drunk), so me and melisa went to the reception of this hotel, and asked for the presidential suite, 2300$ per night. After waiting a bit, the girl told us that she was alone in reception, and we should wait till the day after to see it… that was fun!

8/4/05

19-21/mar arambol & future plans

Fast shower, just in time to take the bus to got to mapusa, and after that straight to arambol, one of the last beaches of the norther goa, and my last beach for the next few months... I met a finish and a british girls, that were also going to arambol. They are both doing one of those wonderful north/european, mosly scandinavian things, spend a year on another country, switzerland, just learning the language, and getting sponsored for it!! great, isn't it!!
It was nice because I could speak a little bit swedish, since heidi, the one from finland, was living on the swedish speaking area, western finland.
Once in arambol, one of the first person I saw was chani, the israeli girls I met in gokarna. To meet known people, is happening very often, more than I would never thought!
The place looked nice so far. It was a touristic place, that's a fact, with the bars by the beach... but there's another atmosphere, something that one can smell while being there. The bars are more discreet, made with wood and palm leaves, no sun beds on the beach, no umbrellas... though in the northern part of the beach there were concrete buildings, not too high. But here, as the beach was wider, was less annoying. People seem to be here on a chill out mood, less showing off, less appearances... more normal. Even in the shops, or in the town itself the tempo is lower.
The beach is very long, with a few fishing boats, and quite many people looking for shells, reading, walking on their hands, playing freesbee... I stay with the 2 girls on the beach for a while, but I was feeling like moving, and they just wanted to lay down and cook themselves! So I went up north, and I discovered a very nice beach, surrounded by rocks, but quite big at the same time, and facing the west. So that was great because it was the sunset time. In that beach, with very very few people, there was only one bar, so it was nice and peaceful.
The day after, I had breakfast at a bar where the waiter was from dharamsala, headquarters of the tibetan government in exile, and where the dalai lama lives. I think he spend the coldest part of the winter in bodhgaya, place where budha was enlightened under a tree. So, we spoke quite a lot about the area, about kashmir, ladack... all these places where I wanna go.

(so here I decided a kind of possible route. My indian visa expires the 7th of July, but I wanna spend the summer in the himalayas (dharamsala, manali, leh, srinagar...) doing trekings (that I've never done before) and enjoying nature. So, in order to get a new visa, I was thinking about going to pakistan at the end of April spend a month there (I think it must be an amazing place, with very few tourism, and I think that now is quite safe, since the indo-pakistanian relations are in a good moment now), and comeback to india (with a new visa, 6 more moths) in June spend a couple of weeks in punjab, with chandigarh as a capital, famous because the city was entirely designed by le corbusier, the most influent architect of the 20th century. And then, 2 or 3 months in the mountains. After that would be cool enough to go to rajastan, desert area, gujarat, and then towards varanasi, where there are suppose to be festivals in autumn or early winter. Let's see! fortunately, plans are changing every day!!!)

I spent the day thinking about possible routes, swimming walking on the beach, and when I went back to the secluded beach, I met a guy from holland, whom I had lunch with. He had been traveling a lot, and was a very pleasant company. We played chess, he destroyed me, and talked about lots of things.
The day after, I finally left towards mumbai. For the first time ever, I felt sleep before starting a trip! the good thing is that the train came late, so I took it without problems. I was very lucky. And now again, another train trip. 10 more hours in the best transport system, the best place to be with yourself or to meet people. And of course, enjoy the landscape!!! And after that, mumbai, the city I studied in the university, and one of the only indian cities I've known since I was a child. I was very excited!

3/4/05

15-18/mar moving, margao, panjim & vagator

I feel a little bit better today, my stomach respected me tonight, and this is quite good because I have to travel today, 8 or 9 hours on the train, towards margao. And the trains, are one of those perfect places to meet people, to look outside, and even inside, but as well to read. And I started a book, a present from Ok, the girl from South Korea. Travelers to tibet, and it really seems interesting,but very sad at the same time. People explain in first person their experiences in tibet after the 1978, when the chinese government opened the border to tibetans that where living abroad, and to tourists as well. And what they saw was a complete invasion of tibet by chinese people, getting better jobs, speaking mandarin, and destroying the tibetan culture, very rich before the invasion, I think at the end of the '50. The chinese destroyed lots of temples, and exploted their nature... it's sad, very sad so see how they are loosing the tibetan identity, absolutely attached to their religion... well. So the train journey was splendid, like most of the times, and some of the areas, very beautiful, specially when we were getting closer to the border with goa, a mountain area, very green. The only difference with the rest of my train journeys is that this one had lots of beetles. Ribas might be either leaving brasil or arriving to girona, after 5 or 6 months that I'm sure that have passed too fast. Let's see how everything was! Once in margao, bus to panjim, where I spent a couple of nights. Here, everything (accomodation, food, internet...)was slightly more expensive, even if it was middle season. And panjim was a nice town, with a very cute portuguese old area, with colorful houses, narrow streets, and even people speaking portuguese. I didn't dare to use my portuguese, I think because it's too rusty now! The name of the area was fontainhas, where I stayed. The day after was my little sister's birthday!!! she turned 20 years... time is flying too fast! and of course, this reminded me that I'm getting closer and closer to the '30! felicitats elisabet!!! Walking in panjim was like walking really in another country. A part from the colors of the houses, the balconies, doors... everything with lots of details. And all women (almost) dressing western style. the really looked like brazilian girls, since the have the same skin color, hair, and lots of ethnical differences. Many of them were beautiful. This feeling of being outside of india was emphasized by the presence of churches, and absence of temples or mosques (even if there were, but not as a main buildings). The portuguese were the last colonizers to leave india, I think in the '60. Lots of street names were in portuguese, names of shops, surnames of people... panjim was a pleasant city, with the atmosphere of a town. The day after I went to old goa, the religious center of the portuguese occupation, with lots of churches and cathedrals, and where all the streets were extremelly clean. Everything was white, too much for india I would say! And was there where I bought my ticket for mumbai. The truth is that I passed by all this buildings quite fast. I wasn't that interested, maybe because I'm already tired of seeing churches... but also because i wasn't feeling that good. I took a but to mapusa on the next morning, and from there to vagator, in the middle of a couple of places that I wanted to visit. The town had nothing special. No history, just tourism. Lots of hotels, lodges, restaurants, shops... and any sign of previous life before the arrival of the tourism in goa, I would say in the '50 or '60. But the worst came when I saw the beach, and then I remembered that that was goa. Lots of construction close to the beach, wooden sun beds all over the beach, small stalls selling clothes, umbrellas... and a masala of stylish english, others with milions of tatoos, but everyone ready to observe and be observed. Families, and old ravers. Everything very fashion! There were only groups of people traveling together, very few backpackers. There were also many indians, 4 of them very funny. 4 sicks, laying down on the sun beds, that were placed very close to eachother. They were very fat, with underwear, long beards and turban!! So, a part from all this fauna, one had to use the imagination to see the lasndscape behind. It was really on a second plan, sometimes even on a third... A funny thing about this place, is that no-one is using the sand to lay down, only me and 4 more... and, the water was dirty. So I decided to go to discover new beaches, full of optimism! And that was a goo decision. 15 Miunutes far from the little vagator beach, there was vagator beach, bigger, wider, cleaner, without buildings, without sun beds, and with not many people. The only houses I could see from my place were integrated to the landscape, portuguese houses, and palm trees covering them. So this beach was nice, but not as amazing as the other could once had been. No loud music, just people reading, playing freesbee, meditating... I was feeling better here. I was feeling far from the party scene in those days, and my stomach was so so still. In the area, everyone has a motor bike, the best way to move in goa, since is small enough to go from one side to the other in one day. And 40% have enfields. I must admit that this day I was too critic, and many things were irritating me. As soon of the day was finishing, and after realizing about my mood, I started being more posotive, and I liked to see that I was changing. Everything became better then. Even the night was good, I was staying with a family. They had dogs, and even pigs in the courtyard!! The day after I went to anjuna, one of the most famous party places in goa. I thought it was because of the discos and stuff, but also for the nature and beauty of the place. But once again I was a little bit disappointed. Well, maybe more than just a little bit, since I didn't even swim over there. The town is small but scattered, so it looked big. There was not a real center, at least while I was there. I guess that during the x-mas time is another story. So I saw 3 different centers; the one by the road, the paradiso (disco) area, and the beach. From the road to the beach, 3 or 4 km, packed with bars, restaurants and lots of shops, selling almost the same things. This town has not a clear plan, is quite chaotic and has been growing without any prevision. The beach is ugly and narrow, since you can not see many palm trees; you see only sun beds and umbrellas, and all the bars just next to the beach, many of them quite big for the place, and concrete made. One can only swim in certain areas, since the are a sort of black rocks, that looked volcanic. Maybe gokarna would be like this place if the access was better, and they the guest houses more comfortable. But when I was leaving, I had a more positive feeling again. This place, looks like a sort of ghost town in low season, and it has a certain grace; if you look through 'the whole', the town first shows you a memory of the very last past, from the '60, as a kind of souvenir. You can imagine how it was in the '60, with those hippies that 'discovered' goa. The glorious time of the people. These empty street might have been full on that time. Now even the salesmen sleep... and then, the place shows you another memory, previous to the western 'occupation'. Through these empty streets, you can imagine how beautiful this place was once, the glorious time of the nature.
After anjuna, I went to chapora, a fishermen town, kind of hidden behind a mountain with a fort on the top. There were a few restaurants and motorcycles, but the atmosphere was already different, more chill out. The shops here sell things for the everyday life, for the people of the area. There is only a harbour, small, but with the number enough to pollute the water. I walked from the town, kind of climbing a mountain, to the vagator beach. There was a very small beach, very cosy, with very few people. So I was quite happy to be here, and as my mood was great, and my stomach was better, I decided to go to the same beach of the first day, where I met a few people. I had dinner with a british guy, and went to sleep being aware that I had already spent enough time in goa. Maybe another time, in another situation...

2/4/05

11-14/mar hampi 03

Breakfast with the french guy, and back to the acropolis. It's good to think about what to do, it's good for writing, since it's very relaxed... and I decided to go back to hospet, to keep my blog updated. Hampi it's extremely hot today, and I'm still tired from yesterday, so the idea to remember past days, on a air/con environment, sounded very good. On my way back to hampi, I found rebecca. She moved to my guest house. We decided to go to see the sunset at a mountain. More than a mountain that was a huge monolitic stone, flat enough to be comfortable while admiring that amazing sunset. The place was near vittala temple, and was empty. And I can say that that sunset was one of the nicest I had ever seen!! The place was just too special, I had never seen nothing like that before. Like a fairytale; rivers, stone temples, greenery, palm trees, huge stones, mountains...The company was very good, fun and interesting, and the light... breathtaking; the colors were very orangish, the sky very clear. It was as my sight could see everything!! After a while, we went down and spent a few hours chatting by the river, till a police came to tell us that we were not allowed to stay there. Dinner after that, thali, of course. The day after, the 3 korean girls left, and Sun left me a very sweet note. It's amazing the details that the korean people can have. They always surprise me positively, like the 2 girls from korea I met in kolkata.After having breakfast and renting bikes, we started pedalling south, stoping every now and then, enjoying the landscape (that includes architecture), its history... that part was a little bit dryer, and it was hot. So when we found a kind of hose (esperssors), we started playing with them. I was absolutely wet, and since I was wearing new trousers, indian made, green, I looked like hulk after that. The discolour was important! I also swam in a river, and went from one side to the other. It wasn't that big, but after a couple of days someone told us that there were crocodiles, something that I don't really believe. Even if I like the idea!!! Another nice sunset, but this time from the top of a mountain, where there was a temple. This one was not as nice as the other, but was ok. And that day the dinner was at the mango tree, a very nice place west of hampi, where you had to walk betwee fields, without light, and where was possible to see insects with light. And the place in itself was very quiet and well done. Big steps, with low tables. Carpets and pillows, very little light... just a potential perfect place!! I woke the day after tired again. We had done 20 km at least the day before. I went to hospet, since my blog was not updated yet... I still write very slow, but I see this writing as a kind of job, as the possibily to have some of the memories of this trip forever. On my way back to hampi, I was told that the town was almost empty, but because of tourism people started moving here. They are 2000 now, plus tourists. So even if the town has grown up, they manage somehow to keep this old-town atmosphere. Houses are 1 or max 2 stories. I think there was only one 4 storey building, a little bit far from the 'center', very ugly. I wonder how all this will be in the future. They are using the stone of the area to build fences and any possible thing that can be build with that stone.The closest old buildings, temple-kind, have been reused. One of them is a school, and it really looked nice. There are quite many children. And the town is clean, something strange in india, even if small town are always much cleaner than cities. Even of that, there were no trash bins around, but people sweeping. This time, we saw the sunset from the hanuman temple, from the top of a mountain. One must climb more than 400 steps to get there... but it was nice. The only problem is that one of the monkeys (hanuman temple is the temple of the monkey god) bite rebecca's arm, and that means 3 rabies vaccinations... a part from that, and after chosing the perfect rock to sit on, we saw a group of 'killer bees' that passed very close to the us, and indians told us that those bees could be very dangerous, since they travel in huge groups... fortunately, nothing bad happened!! a part from the monkey business!! A bad thing, that turned into nothing, but that sometimes worried me, is that I hurted my knee by just sitting on an incomfortable position... let's see. Brekfast with the french guy, and back to the acropolis. It's good to think about what to do, it's good for writing, since it's very relaxed... and I decided to go back to hospet, to keep my blog updated. Hampi it's extremely hot today, and I'm still tired from yesterday, so the idea to remember past days, on a air/con environment, sounded very good. On my way back to hampi, I found rebecca. She moved to my guest house. We decided to go to see the sunset at a mountain. More than a mountain that was a huge monolitic stone, flat enough to be comfortable while admiring that amazing sunset. The place was near vittala temple, and was empty. And I can say that that sunset was one of the nicest I had ever seen!! The place was just too special, I had never seen nothing like that before. Like a fairytale; rivers, stone temples, greenery, palm trees, huge stones, mountains...The company was very good, fun and interesting, and the light... breathtaking; the colors were very orangish, the sky very clear. It was as my sight could see everything!! After a while, we went down and spent a few hours chatting by the river, till a police came to tell us that we were not allowed to stay there. Dinner after that, thali, of course. The day after, the 3 korean girls left, and Sun left me a very sweet note. It's amazing the details that the korean people can have. They always surprise me positively, like the 2 girls from korea I met in kolkata.After having breakfast and renting bikes, we started pedalling south, stoping every now and then, enjoying the landscape (that includes architecture), its history... that part was a little bit dryer, and it was hot. So when we found a kind of hose (esperssors), we started playing with them. I was absolutely wet, and since I was wearing new trousers, indian made, green, I looked like hulk after that. The discolour was important! I also swam in a river, and went from one side to the other. It wasn't that big, but after a couple of days someone told us that there were crocodiles, something that I don't really believe. Even if I like the idea!!! Another nice sunset, but this time from the top of a mountain, where there was a temple. This one was not as nice as the other, but was ok. And that day the dinner was at the mango tree, a very nice place west of hampi, where you had to walk betwee fields, without light, and where was possible to see insects with light. And the place in itself was very quiet and well done. Big steps, with low tables. Carpets and pillows, very little light... just a potential perfect place!! I woke the day after tired again. We had done 20 km at least the day before. I went to hospet, since my blog was not updated yet... I still write very slow, but I see this writing as a kind of job, as the possibily to have some of the memories of this trip forever. On my way back to hampi, I was told that the town was almost empty, but because of tourism people started moving here. They are 2000 now, plus tourists. So even if the town has grown up, they manage somehow to keep this old-town atmosphere. Houses are 1 or max 2 stories. I think there was only one 4 storey building, a little bit far from the 'center', very ugly. I wonder how all this will be in the future. They are using the stone of the area to build fences and any possible thing that can be build with that stone.The closest old buildings, temple-kind, have been reused. One of them is a school, and it really looked nice. There are quite many children. And the town is clean, something strange in india, even if small town are always much cleaner than cities. Even of that, there were no trash bins around, but people sweeping. This time, we saw the sunset from the hanuman temple, from the top of a mountain. One must climb more than 400 steps to get there... but it was nice. The only problem is that one of the monkeys (hanuman temple is the temple of the monkey god) bite rebecca's arm, and that means 3 rabies vaccinations... a part from that, and after chosing the perfect rock to sit on, we saw a group of 'killer bees' that passed very close to the us, and indians told us that those bees could be very dangerous, since they travel in huge groups... fortunately, nothing bad happened!! a part from the monkey business!! A bad thing, that turned into nothing, but that sometimes worried me, is that I hurted my knee by just sitting on an incomfortable position... let's see. After a couple of month being perfect (I mean my health!), I spent a bad night, stomach problems... I think I woke up 15 or 20 times!!! Fortunately I was allright during the day. I decided that I had seen enough of hampi, and that was time to go on, so I bought my train ticket (this time was possible) to margao. And as I was just a little bit weak, I took rebecca's mp3 player, and spent the day reading and listening music on a very nice and relaxed bar by the river. There I met a couple of british girls, studing aryuvedic massage in kerala. Made some writing, and eating just plain rice... very boring food, since everytihng here is so tasty, and the plain rice... well, let's forget about that! I shaved myself on the terrace, with the amazing views of the surroundings of hampi, a small mirror leaning on a broken chair, and a big bucket full of water between my legs. That afternoon we went to see a unexistent waterfall. Fortunately the place was worth going, and was good enough for chatting. After that dinner at the mango tree restaurant again, and time for 'goodbye', before going to sleep. It was great meeting her here, let's see if we stay in touch! The bad thing of traveling, is that you meet lots of people, that became close to you very fast, and that you think that you'll stay in touch forever, but then, you leave, meet new people, have the same feeling again... and then you start losing the contact, and sometimes is very sad. Anyway, the chance to meet this huge amount of people has no price!!!

1/4/05

10/mar on the other side of hampi 02

I had a very powerful breakfast, since a long day was waiting for me. And a bike as well. One day, without the night, RS30 (0,5euro), twice the price I paid in puri. But even if it’s still cheap, we cannot forget that hampi is a very touristic spot.

I decided to cross the line!! Or better, the river, and go to check the other side. To cross the river the have those extremely simple, bamboo round boats, covered with a kind of plastic. It looked like those cheap swimming pools for children, the blue ones… anyway, with these 2 materials, they manage to take people, bicycle and even motorbikes to the other side. And it was there where I saw Indian women cleaning themselves, and their clothes. And they do all that in the river, without showing any cm of skin, always dressed, probably uncomfortable.

Once on the other side, I started pedaling towards a lake. Any excuse was good enough. Even if it was very very hot! The other side was full of green fields, rice and peanuts, with all those colors, people working, full of animals,, buffalos, cows, donkeys, goats and sheeps, pigs, and lots of monkeys playing on the top of the trees, and yes, and yes, I can not avoid being surprised every time I see one. It’s like seeing cats in Europe!!

The road is only half asphalted, full of people carrying stuff on their heads, back and forth. There are also eunucs… everything together is suggestive. I know I’m using this word a lot, but for me this is India, a never ending excitement of my senses.

After this green stripe of nature and water, canals, rivers, one can see those huge and imposing monolithic stones. You would almost expect to see a giant appearing at any moment, to play with them again…

After more than 400 steps (I lost the number when I was almost at the top of the mountain), I reached hanuman temple, a monkey god. From there, as you can imagine, one of the highest mountains of the area, the view was amazing. And of course, the temple was full of monkeys, some of them very aggressive, but maybe less than the beggars that wanted to charge you money once you were there. Of course, unofficially!!

The temple/house was very small, and not that interesting, architectonically talking. But the top of that mountain was great. A kind of moon-like landscape, where you had to jump to go on. How can these rocks stay in these positions!????? People have different theories; old oceans, volcanos, wind erosion, meteorite impact… If I have to choose one, the meteor one. But with magic involved!

After this temple, lakshmi temple, where a puja was celebrated. A puja is a hindu celebration, like the Christian on Sundays, but without a fixed day. And in the government temples, there’s free food afterwards.

On my way to the river, in another part of it, I passed through a town, full of children, very small, and very happy and waving there hands and saying hello all the time! It was the ‘after school time’.

And after that… I was very tired, and it was very hot. I was also burned by the sun, and hampi was still far. These last hour was hard, since I had to carry my bike (Indian bicycle may easily weight 15 or 20 kg!) in many parts of the way. It was sad to pass by wonderful places, but… I would have time to go back there another day.

Once in Hampi, I found a very nice place to eat, by the river, protected from the sun by 4 or 5 huge trees, a Japanese and a polish playing guitar and tabla… very peaceful and relaxing. There I met Rebecca, a girl from the states. She was very cute, nice and amusing, and super expressive. It was hard to tell her age. We spent the afternoon there, taking it easy, and had dinner with 4 more French. Once in the guest house, I met another French, and one Israeli. It was a great day, and I was destroyed!!

25/3/05

8-9/mar hampi 01

It was fun to see that my neighbor in aranchana lodge was helio, the surrealist Italian I met in fort kochi. This very interesting man (52), with the job dreamer, romantic and naiv, eager (desitjos) to live life in his own way, avoiding inertias, or established things and thoughts. And even if we come from totally different generations, we had many things in common while chatting for hours.
I found Michele, the American girl a met in gokarna in the place I had breakfast. India is so small!
In hampi there’s a main temple, virukapsha temple, that reminded me the sri menakshi temple in madurai, both for the forms (even if the one in madurai had colors and this one have not) and devotion of the people. In the moment I was writing this stuff, there was a family singing inside a sort of hindu chapel. Children couldn’t sing the whole songs, but their parents were very patient on teaching them one of the bases of their life, the religion. It was fun to see that when children said something wrong, all of them started laughing!
There was also an elephant that was blessing people for an small amount of money, repeating the mechanical movement I’d already seen in madurai. Quite sad to see this huge animal tied to a pillar with a big chain. There are also monkeys in the temple. But where I saw lots of monkeys was in the hemakuta hill (reminded me the acropolis, in some ways), just next to the temple. It’s a hill full of temples, small ones, and if you walk towards one of the limits, you find those rocks that makes of hampi a very special place. All the temples in this hill were built on a one-huge-single-stone, the biggest I had ever seen. From the top of this hill, you can have a first glimpse of hampi, and discover that the landscape it’s so powerful and suggestive here. You could see mountains made by these huge monolithic rocks, one over the other, reaching very high levels. These rocks seemed to be out of scale for the place, and it was very hard to imagine the origin of such a formations. There were different theories, but for sure magic was there, on a second plane. On the foot of these mountains, there was a green carpet, made out of rice fields, palm trees and other big trees, underlining the river and canals.
This must be the perfect place if you are an artist or a writer, if you control the techniques enough to be able to express the potential of hampi.
Temples are spread all around. Wherever you look, there they are, I good conditions, frozen in the time, and without fences nor stands or man creations. And it’s hot, but it’s ok, since you can sit inside the temple, and enjoy their shades… this place it’s so incredible!!!
After the sunset, I met a Canadian girl I met on the train to mangalore, and another from Belgium that I met in om beach.
The place it’s quite touristic, we can say. But I think that it’s not a big problem here. They are occupying the town, small, and all the areas to be seen are a little bit far from it. So it doesn’t bother that much. Moreover, it’s ok for me, since you have more option for everything, and it’s easier to meet people. But prices are not that low, even if there is competence. They are ok though. There are lots of restaurants, travel agencies, bikes to rent, shops selling religious stuff and other touristic things. Lots of lodges and small guest houses.
When I was going to have dinner, I met alessandro (met him in fort kochi together with helio) with an Italian woman. After dinner, a girl from Barcelona came to join us.
The power cuts happen very often here. But it’s not a big problem since I spend most of the day out. A good thing to do with this happen that often is to avoid eating ice cream. The night was nice and cool, very peaceful.
The day after I went to hospet, the biggest town of the area, 13 km from hampi, because I wanted to buy an mp3 player, or a cd/mp3, and I had also to actualize the blog, since I was behind with it. But I did not one thing nor the other. The cd/mp3 player was supposed to be cheap, but they didn’t work all the time. And to check all different places, choose a shop, and the model… it took me time, and all for nothing. Then, once in the internet place, there was a power cut, and I lost a lot of time…
On the bus to hampi, I met the controller of the bus, and he made me a funny question; Which is your favorite god!?
I had dinner with the Italians and pilar, the girl from bcn. After dinner I went back home with helio, and spent a few hours talking, on the terrace with all that huge sky full of start as ceiling. There were lightnings, but It didn’t rain. We talked about the reasons to leave a place, why we feel attached to the place we were borned, about the security we like to feel…and then we met 3 girls from Korean. I stayed there talking with them till late that night.

17/3/05

7-8/mar on the way to hampi

The room was very nice in agonda, it was a hut, made out of bamboo, the structure, and palm leaves covering the five sides. And the bed was very big, with a nice mosquito net, where was possible to hear the sea, a few birds… there was only another person in my place, a girl from Greece.
Took to buses that let me in margao. There, I wanted to go to hampi by train, but it’s leaving only twice a week, and it had already left yesterday. All the sleeper buses were full, and the last option was to take a normal urban bus, with very little space for the legs, hard seats, and almost a 90 degrees back…
Goa, margao, it’s a different place. You can smell the Portuguese influence all around. The buildings, not high, with very loud colors, clay tiles on the roofs, nice wooden balconies… and no bamboo houses or palm leaves. And the people… Girls dress western style, and I can not avoid thinking about brazil. Here many people is still Christian. I think most of the population of goa, and this can also be seen in the names of the shops, surnames like fernandes, dias, rodrigues…
I had dinner with an Italian woman (45) that was very very talkative, and after that, while waiting for the bus, wrote a few mails.
The bus journey was long and tiring. 11 hours. My knees were touching constantly the back of the seat that was in front of me, and the man sitting right next to me was sleeping and leaning on me all the time! So, even if the cleanliness is no the most common thing in India, I decided to leave the whole seat to my neighbor and sleep on the floor, surrounded by feet, shoes and bags. It was dirty, but much more comfortable, and I managed to sleep a few hours.
We reached hospet at 6 am and the bus to hampi was leaving at 7:45 am.
And I found, very fast, a very nice and quite cheap room, in the center, that is something easy since hampi is very small. Everything I’ve seen from the bus, looked so amazing and different to all the things I’d seen before.

17/3/05

27-6/mar om beach

First thing to do after waking up, washing my face in the sea… after that, swimming a little bit, and then, breakfast. All these things that had lost any meaning (a part from cleaning, sport and feeding) in Barcelona, become very special here.
I had breakfast with the girl from Israel, aia. I decided to go till paradise beach, passing through half moon beach first. To get there, a part from those 5 km, minimum, you’ve to climb a little bit, jump a few rocks that are on the shore, slippery, cross a couple of forests, and walk on the limit of the cliff. These two beaches are still more peaceful than om, but very small, and the water, at least this day, was dirty. The only way to get there is either walking (trekking) or by boat. I swam a little bit and went back. The way is beautiful full of animals, and also with monkeys and dolphins. Everything is so green!
I read quite a lot, and met a few more people. A guy from Austria, a girl from US, and I had lunch with them. After that, swimming for a while, quite a lot, sunset, shower and shaving. Busy day! I met my neighbors, jeff from England and clementine from france. Both English teachers, but not in England. They have been teaching English in Indonesia and china. We chatted for a while, shared a couple of spliffs, and had dinner together. They have been traveling 3,5 years. Very nice guys.
The day after started in the same way. Swimming, breackfast… but what was difernt this time was that on my way to the bar, I found a cobra on the dirt track. The first ‘wild’ snake I’d ever seen in my life. A little bit longer than a meter, moving on ‘s’, and suddenly stopping to rise her head, and show us the beautiful and big ‘neck’. Very scary, but impressive. And of course, I’m not that used to life with this kind of fauna close to me, and since the door here are just symbolic, because they never touch the ground nor the roof… well, I had to accept that I was a guest of the nature, and that I had to get useed to this things.
I finished ‘in giro per il mondo in 80 giorni’. It was nice reading it, but there’s no much info about the places, trips… everything is done with the money and to win a bet, not for traveling in itself. Good anyway. I swam at least 3 times a day now. This is one of the good things of being by the coast. You can do exercise every day. I spent the afternoon talking with Miguel, I guy from galicia that has been (and is) traveling for the last 16 years. He is traveling with his girlfriend rosa, from brasil. After that met a few more people from Holland, Israel, Poland and danmark. We decided to have a bath after dinner, and that was so great! There was plankton that when you were moving your hand, or just the water, was giving light!!! It was great to swim with that halo of light following you all the time, and the water was so warm! And it was also easier to see because the moon was still hidden, and the lights of the few bars open were so weak.
This last group of people, edith and koen from Holland, ela from Poland, susanna from finland, shani from Israel, jakob from danmark and gareth from south Africa, were very nice. I felt very good with them. This night, even if the cobra was in my head, was very peaceful again. Nights are not that hot here.
The first day of march, started the same way. I spent the whole day with them, from the water to the shadow of the bar. I thought I would only spend here a couple of days, and…let’s see. I like it, the place is great, and I feel very comfortable with the people, it seems a small family (or not that small). The group is growing day after day. We spent the last part of the night playing cards and drinking. After that, we made a fire on the beach, and we were about 25, with guitars, percussions and even people singing…wow!!
The next morning I woke up and there were dolphins on the shore. We started swimming towards a rock, and they didn’t followed us… and that was a long swim! The rock was 5 or 6 meter high, and we spent a while jumping to the water from there. After that, I kept on swimming, towards another rock, and then back to the beach. My biggest swim ever! We spent the evening playing cards again, and having lots of fun.
The day after I had a small hangover, alcohol here is cheap! But it wasn’t bad enough, so I played frisbee with koen and gareth. Then, a little bit of internet, where I met miwa and jessi. She from japan and he from Canada. I saw the sunset from the lonely palm again, but this time alone.
Days are very similar, but good, because there's always something, a moments that makes it special. Everything is so easy, and one could keep on living this way for a long while.
I discovered that guereth is also architect, and we spent quite a long time talking about that. He had similar feelings that I have towards architecture. Very interesting, when you can design and built, but not when you work for others, since after a while, 2 or 3 months in an office, it's difficult to learn new things, everything becomes monotonous, and the only thing you do is drawing, drawing and drawing. No creativity at all, just using autocad. I know it's not that extreme, but reality it's not that far from that. Anyway, the 4th of march was a nice day, because I spent a very nice time with all this people, but also because we took 'mushroom chocolate’, from england. We were 8, and 3 pieces of chocolate, so the effect was not very strong, but, at least to me, was very satisfying. For a few hours, everything was extremely beautiful and with lot of power (still more than it is normally). I wasn't stoned or nothing, but my perception of the reality, or at least my reality, was more defined, even exagerated, and every single thing, was ... yes, beautiful!! Nice sunset, nice swim, and then a very relaxed and peaceful dinner... and, I finally learnt to stay on the water floating, 'fent el mort'!!
The day after edith and chani left, and I decided that it was also time for me to leave, after already a week.
I woke up very early, to avoid walking under the sun. There's an hour walk to gokarna, then a bus, and I found myself in agonda, south of goa. I wanted to stop on a beach without people before going to hampi, or at least with less people. There I met a few israelis, and I had dinner with them (4). I really liked 2 of them, a couple, that are living like gypsies, in europe, building there own houses from the things they find around, and also making art and selling it. The bad thing is that when I left I forgot to ask their mails… The beach was very long, and I only found 4 westerners in 3 or 4 km. Quiet night, listening their music (I miss music so much!!), chatting a little bit, and remembering that I havn't seen myself on a mirror for the last 8 or 9 days!! That was a funny thought, since in europe a part from having mirrors at home, there are shops with huge windows, where one can be seen… and this is not happening here.
I left the day after, after walking on the beach a few hours. Had to say good bye to the sea! At least for a while!!

16/3/05

26/feb gokarna's fauna & om beach

Gokarna. Holly city for hindus, that attracts a potpourri of hindu pilgrims, Sanskrit scholars, tourists from India, from abroad, hippies and western hindus, quite young, and that are dressing even more ‘hindu’ than the sadhus, with the longest dreadlocks, with ‘om’ tattoos, lots of necklaces made by rudratx around their necks, with huge balls of rudratx. Everything is ‘supersized’ in them, even the last technology nokia that they keep on their sadhu bag. I describe these group of people with a little bit of irony because it’s a bit shocking to see all these transformation, or partial transformation, but I must admit that I’ve never talked with any of them, and I’m possibly affected for the dreadlocks fashion that reigns in Barcelona, or any other fashion. Anyway, thay make this place even more interesting. Gokarna has lots of temples, and it’s the city of shiva. There’s also a lot of merchandizing with all the possible religious stuff. Images, sandal, bracelets and necklaces, flowers, coconuts… lots of things! Also lots of things for the western tourist, cloths, percussions, handicrafts…
To reach the beaches area, there are 2 options; either take a boat that takes 15 minutes and pay 150 RS (2 nights) or cross a few mountains, walking 20 to 30 minutes. There are 4 beaches, separated by these mountains, sometimes easy to cross, sometimes a little bit more difficult. The first beach after gokarna is kudle beach, After this one om, half moon and paradise. I decided to walk to om beach, and it was almost 50 minutes, and it was very hot!! But I remembered again the travelers of the beginning og the XX century, where there were no regular boats or buses…
Was quite interesting to walk through all these unknown paths, deciding at every crossing which way to go, sometimes choosing the right one, but not always.
Kudle beach is very beautiful, but with 6 or 7 restaurants, quite integrated with the landscape. But I was told that om beach was great, a little bit more peaceful and with a nicer scenary. There is also young people, backpackers, of course, and it’s in the middle of everything. Far enough from the crowd of gokarna.
And yes, there are 3 small rocky bays drawing the om, this very nice mantra that you can se anywhere in India. The sand is white, and behind palmtrees and a few restaurants made by bamboo and palm leaves. It’s so beautiful!!!
I chose the sangam lodge, with a nice restaurant close to the sand, but not menacing the beach, and I got the last hut available, a very luxurious one with electricity and mosquito net. RS 70!!! The others, made entirely by palm leaves, have no electricity nor mosquito net, and you sleep on the floor. They cost RS 60. The food was a bit more expensive, but they have to take it here, and accepting that, it’s still a good price.
These small bays, creates by the cliffs and rocks, frame a very nice image of this Arabian sea. Water is clean, calm, but not crystal clear!! What a problem, I know! Showers have no roof. The roof is a palm tree, and the walls separating the 2 showers are low enough to see the one that takes the shower next to you. There’s a quite powerful nature inside this place, with different palmtrees, trees, plants, and dirt tracks following random directions. And, yes, I cannot avoid remembering butterfly valley in turkey… maybe I shouldn’t resuscitate this word and all its meanings…

I spent a few hours on the beach, surrounded by cows! One of them ate my newspaper… I met I girl from Israel, very hippie. In the afternoon Claudia, a girl from italy, from alto alice, that speaks exactly like heike, and now, I’m sitting a lonely palm that’s hanging on a cliff that’s closing om beach. I’m surrounded by sea, and… there are dolphins!!! This place is incredible. I’ve seen 7 different (I would say) dolphins when the sun is losing power and is becoming orange/reddish. The breeze started blowing, hard enough to reach the perfect temperature, and yes, all these things only for me…
Dinner with 2 israelis, plus a german man after a while, and a woman from Belgium and another man from germany. We spent a few hours chating on the beach, with an almost full moon, that starts getting smaller. Peaceful atmosphere and nice people.
Not bad!

13/3/05

24-25/feb moving to gokarna

The fact of visiting hindu temples with a hindu, allowed me to live a little bit closer the ceremonies that hindus follow once inside the temple, the rituals, details, many things that are always unnoticed, hidden to non trained eyes.
Sashiram came to pick me up with a friend’s motorbike at 11 o’clock. After that we’ve seen 3 temples, his favourite ones. For me they were not amazing temples, since were new and quite small. In the first one, a shiva temple, after giving 4 or 5 rupees to the Brahmin, he blessed us putting water from the water tank on our hands, and then as few flowers and leaves. Together with all that, a small ball of sandal, that he put on my head since he realized that I didn’t know what to do with all that stuff. They always keep the rest at any place; pocket, car, motor bike… After that, Sashiram prayed in Malayalam, word cap-I-cua. After a couple of more hours, he left me home and I spent the rest of the day walking on the beach, internet… easy day! I’ve been walking a lot lately.
The day after a took a bus to mangalore, and from there a train to gokarna.
I finished the book interpret of maladies, and I didn’t really enjoyed that much. Furthermore, I think I had already read it a few years ago, and I think I had the same feeling. I have started ‘in giro per il mondo in 80 giorni’ the book that alessandro gave me in fort kochi, and this one I like it, since I’d seen all the cartoons when I was a child, and of course, many memories came to my head.
I reached gokarna late at night, with the time enough to have dinner and go to sleep.

11/3/05

23/feb theyam & poorakali

It’s good to have destination, a goal to reach, because then if you decide to take not the fastest way, you find yourself enjoying the way in itself. And then, the goal will come, if it was meant to come. I had one of these places to reach, unknown, and not extremely easy to reach. And my way towards that place, that house, was a very interesting way, since I took paths I would never take, far from the main areas, and where no-one speak a word of English. My Malayalam it’s to bad to understand their answers!! Dirt tracks (camins de terra), houses with garden, animals, and fortunately, lots of shadows, since the trees were big! In this area (and on the last few days) I havn’t seen any house made by mud and palm leaves.

My destination, a theyam. I arrive too early, and I decided to sit down, leaning on the back part of a house. After a couple of minutes, I was inside their house having breakfast with them, I sort of strange porridge with sugar, coconut and banana, and a chai, a tea with a lot of sugar and milk. After that their neighbor offered me a coconut, and the water of it was very cool!

At 11:30, the theyam was ready, in a house nearby. First theyam of my life. More than 400 people, sitting on the yard of that community house, under the shadow. Women on the ground, men standing or sitting on chairs. Women on the right, men on the left. The theyam is a religious ceremony, done by necessity. When a family has economical problems, or someone is sick, the talk to the Brahmins, priests, and those organize everything. The ones that ‘represent’ these theyams, are from a specific cast, and after starving for a few days, they enter in a sort of trance, and they think they are avatars of the gods. Other people also believe they are gods. A few Brahmins play percussions, other help to put the make up and to dress the gods. Lots of colors, and strange clothes. In this theyam, the gods were chamundi and vishnumurti. An avatar is an image of god. A hindu god have plenty of avatar, of representations. People doesn’t pray to the gods, since for them they are already here, talking to them, giving answers to their problems.
Each god has 7 or 8 brahmins playing for him, sometimes very very loud, and the rhythm changes very often. Gods follow the rhythm while dancing. They get close to the people, and people are scared, after they run away, talking non-stop, many times just shouting. The walk barefoot on the fire, and people throw them rice, while the gods make jingle the bells, and used their weapons; arrows, archs, swords, tridents…. Suddenly a group of old women started throwing flowers over the gods, with a lot of passion, and absolute belief. All these things can decide the future of that family. Sometimes the music stops, and the gods start talking with the men of the family. Sometimes gods talk to eachother. And at the end, they sacrificed 3 chickens, cutting their heads, and mixed their blood with water, and throwing the water on the floor afterwards. They are really possessed!
Then they started giving rice, and people became mad, since everyone wanted that blessed rice. Today, I can say, I’ve seen people talking to god.
After that and a few more ceremonies, lunch time. The queue was very long!! And even if I started waiting like everyone, they told me to sit and they served me the food. I wasn’t that happy with that, but I had to follow their rules. Of course, the food was for free also.
And again, today, I can say, I ‘ve traveled in the time. This is a very old ceremony, and the people, their clothes, the colors, the atmosphere, the surrounding, music… everything was… amazing. And I was invisible. And very fortunate to be there.

After the theyam and on my way home, I was invited to a poorakali representation, a religious dance with children boys and men. They dance, sing and clap their hand around a blessed trunk. The 4 cardinal points are also blessed by the Brahmin. So they start going around on one direction, and then to the other, singing slower and faster, making movements more difficult every time… for one hour. After that, they invited me to have dinner with them, and when I was going to sit on the ground with the others, they placed me on a sort of pedestal, one meter above the ground level, and they all sat making a half moon surrounding me. They could be around 35 men and 10 women eating there (women only after cooking), and all of them looking at me. Fortunatelly the food was great and easy to eat with the hands. They offered me a spoon, but a refused. After that, a ginger coffee, very good. Unfortunately no-one spoke English, so we spent the whole dinner looking at eachother’s faces, and smiling. Everytime I was trying to say something, the started laughing!! After shaking all 35 people hands, they took me to the main road, since this place was a little bit hidden, and I think it wasn’t that safe. I would like to know if one day we’ll see immigrants in these way, as guests. But of course, they will never look at me and think I’m one of them… well!
I didn’t spend a rupees in the whole day today!

So well, responding to that sentence ‘ India, either you love it or hate it’, I would say that if you hate it it’s just because of a lack of interest in India, because they have so much to give and offer, always with a smile in their faces, making you even feel sometimes guilty about their problems and poverty. Your mind must be open, remembering that this is not our clean and ‘perfect’ Europe. This one is being the most intense trip of my life, where I’ve been more in contact with the people, and where I’ve seen the most amazing things. This is another world, another way of looking towards life, full of spirituality, of traditions, beliefs, details and colors… of course is not the perfect paradise, for them I mean, but there is potential, and I hope that poverty, sex differences, casts, dirtiness… will soon be only on our memory.

When I thought that I was going to sleep, I met 5 guys in my hotel, very open people. We finished trying the traditional clothes of north kerala on me! White lungie (pareo) with a color stripe, and neckerchief or shawl on the shoulders. We took a few funny pictures, because even if they weren’t children, the became mad when they saw the digital camera.

What a day!!!!!1

11/3/05

22/feb indian hair & pallam town

I woke up in the darkest darkness. Madikeri like many other cities in India suffers habitual electricity cuts. And in a room without window, and without flashlight nor candles… but a cold shower (15 degrees inside the room) made me see things brighter and took the laziness out of me! Bought ‘the times of india’ only RS 3 and had breakfast in a nice Indian bar. Places are not touristic at all here. I would love to feel the same warmness in the bars of Barcelona, where is hard to be treated as an habitual costumer. This happens here after only a couple of times! In the bus to bekal, north of kerala, I made this amazing discovery; all (and I say all) Indian women have black hair. And the same happens with Indian men. And again, all Indian women have a long plait (trena). The only women with short hair are the widows, in rememberance of their husband. The life of a widow in India is supposed to be very hard, they can be just left away, and finish begging very easily. IN kolkata, things were a little bit different. The fashion, in men, was to dye their hair reddish, some color between red and orange.
The bus trip is nice, relaxed, and with great views over the coffee plantations first, and palms trees and the canals at the end, where the weather is different as well, much hotter and humid. I’ve seen for the first time a very strange kind of palmtrees; They are very high, and the trunk is absolutely vertical, and very thin. They look like metal pillars. On the top, small palm leaves. The trunk reminds me the bamboo trunk, with all those partitions. The proportions are great, they are elegant!! I’ve also seen a family of monkeys, 6 or 7 sitting on a tree, watching cars passed very peacefully.
In the bus I’m the only non-indian again, and there are plenty of hindus, but also many muslims. North of kerala is supposed to be a muslim area.
I decided to stay in a nice hotel (RS90) in pallam, a town on the main road, 2km far from the beach. I verify that the area is mostly muslim, 60% muslim, and 38% hindu. The rest Christians. The room is great, the biggest and cleanest one I’ve been so far, and the owner seems to be nice.
I went to the beach, and there I realized that this is a non-touristic place. Kilometers of empty beach, surrounded by mangroves on one side, and that huge Arabian sea in the other, very wavy and moved. No buildings at all, only one or two hundred meters from the shore. After walking one hour, I found a fisherman. IT came to my head that beach in brasil, the naturist beach I forgot the name, but I feel safer here. After a while, a river crosses the beach, and in that crossing there are lots of birds, and eagles. I met there 7 muslims, very funny people, and they told me to take a picture altogether. Everything is great here!! It’s like a small paradise, where people is friendly, landscape pleasant, temperature good… After say bye, I started going up, following the river. There were rice fields on one side, and fishermen the other. Then I crossed the train rails, and I reached home after a little bit more than one hour, feeling lost for a while, too close to the sinset time.
I don’t know to how many people did I say hi today!!
And another nice feeling I had, was that I always see these people, these villages and surroundings from the train, and now, passing by the train, when I was waiting to cross the rails, Irealized that I was one more character, not only observer. I was also part of the landscape, an active part.

11/3/05

21/feb Dr. Premnath Punja

I started walking towards the abbi falls, 9km north west of madikeri. After leaving the town, with the burkas and saris, cows and rubbish, I step into another world of smells and pure air. Madikeri has those drawings under the doors drawn by the Brahmins again, that had disappeared for while, at least in the touristic areas I had been, where tradition and religion is harder to see, a bit more blurry. Everything is so silent over here, no car horns, just birds, sometimes a cow, or the waving hands of the people. After 40 minutes walking, an old man stopped his car, and took me with him for a couple of km. After that, he invited me to his house, not far from the waterfalls. And it’s nice to see that you are in the right way, just by the sound of the water. First you realize that there’s a river, then the water became noisier, and afterwards you discover the waterfall, where the ambient is cooler. There is me and 3 more men, Indian, next to the water. The waterfall is not high, and there’s not a lot of water coming down, but the place altogether is very relaxing. I sat down and wrote for a while. After that I went to towards Dr. Pramnath Punja’s house. On my way I met a few Indians, and all of them knew about him and his family. And that’s because the family is one of the most powerful of the area, and it has been like this for the last 3 generations, since the british empire time. One of the roads has the name of his grandfather… Once inside their property, I realized that they live on another Indian reality. I’ve always met people just living, never rich, but never poor. After more than one kilometer, I reached his house, leaving other smaller houses behind (workers houses), big trees, beautiful plants and flowers, and the nice view of the coffee fields. And if the outside it’s amazing for the nature, and for how they keep it, in perfect conditions, the inside of the house is also amazing, just like a museum, a part of the history of the area, from the region of coorg, with lots of anecdotes, a few explained, many other forgotten. Walls full of pictures (all of them ib black and white, with a thin layer of dust), art pieces, sculptures, novelty titles, a huge billiard table, big spider lamps… and lots of rooms, 2 assistants…
He received me very effusively, alone in that big living room. I was still recovering from all the beauty I had seen in those last minutes. Once sitting on the sofa, and with snacks on the table, he started explaining me about the family and about the house. He, very aristocratic, was delighted to know that I was an architect from Barcelona, one of the few places he hadn’t been in Europe.
The house was built in 1848, under the british empire’s government, by J.P. Hunt, a rich Scottish man. And he showed me pictures of the house on a interior design british magazin, and on a book, with an article talking also about the family. His grandfather bought the house in the beginning of the 1900. He was the first Indian judge in India. He was the judge of the coorg’s district, and after that moved to mangalore, a bigger city (that has changed too much, he told me). His father followed the tradition of educated people, and studied at the university. He was also judge, and named by the british, member of the legislative council of coorg, during 40 years. And I would say that it was something important, because he was so proud about it. Furthermore, the grandfather was also named rama raobahadur, an important title higher than sir in England. He is, or was, now he’s retired, doctor, psychiatrist, and had been working many years in England. His family is living abroad, England, usa.
The pictures in black and white, were quite interesting. His relatives seemed to be maharajas!! Men with tourbans, jewels, and women with saris, and more jewels. After chating for a while, we had some food, and after a coffee. He has more than 100 people working in his coffee plantations, and that’s his job now. He explained me the differences between arabica coffee and robusta coffee. He told me the names of all the flowers and trees…
A part from all this, he also owns a golf course, quite big, and he would take me there on the sunset time.
We kept on chatting for a while, and when we said goodbye he apologized to me because he would have loved me to stay in his house, but he was leaving to bangalore soon. I’m eternally invited, he told me, and better with my wife…that was funny!
His driver took me to see the golfcourse, that was big!! And yellow instead of green. IT’s supposed to be nicer after the monsoon time. There were 4 old Indian men playing, and they, as well, were very wealthy people. On our way here, I was dreaming on an India of palaces and maharajas, because of the sunset time, the colors of the sky, Indian music on the stereo, that nature outside…
So, again, a very intense day, totally unexpected, that is filling my days with light and color, giving still more sense to the trip, and of course, to my life.

9/3/05

19-20/feb on the way to madikeri

I woke just in time for the check out, good breakfast / lunch, in the same place of the last 3 meals, a place with only Indian people, a little bit dirty, enough, dark but with light colors, decadent, like many of the places in India, but with big and good meals, especially thaly costing only 12 RS. Asslam, the owner, was treating me like the most habitual costumer, after eating there a couple of times. Hello Barcelona!! He told me all the time.
That day, a was on my way first to ernakulam, twin city, and then to mangalore, a city in Karnataka, the state next to kerala, in the northern part. And like most of the times, they told me that the train was full, but that I could make a reservation, paying, of course, and we would see. And like most of the times, there was no problem on finding a free place. They always keep a few seats for foreigners, because they say that we always make decisions at the very last moments… and I guess that’s true. But is not very nice for the Indians that can not travel on that train just for that reason.
I spent a few hours updating my blogs, and went to the platform one to wait for my train after having dinner. The train I was taking, was an overnight train. And there I found inga, the german yoga teacher. Just by case it happened that we had the same compartment.
Once in mangalore, 8:30 am, I took a local bus to madikeri, a hill station that george, the Portuguese guy, told me it was very nice. 160 km, 4,5 hours. Lodge, late lunch and sunset. The road wasn’t that good, and as it’s quite high, 1200m, was full of ‘road curves’. But it was nice to go up slow, seeing the landscape changing, from the sea shore to a hill station. Everything very peaceful, small towns every now and then, trees instead of palm trees, and very dense forests. Everything green, even if the rainy seasons will arrive in a couple of months. There were shadows everywhere, and the temperature was lower, pleasant. And again, when you are 1 cm further from the touristic paths, there are no foreigners at all. I was the only one on the bus, and I only saw 5 more in town.
Madikeri is a very good place to walk around, since the mountains are very green, full of plants, flowers, big trees, and what makes the place different, full of rice, coffee, tea and cardamom plantations. You can also find waterfalls, rivers…
I saw the sunset from the raja’s seat. It’s a high mountain on the western side of the time, easy to reach walking, and where the best sunsets of India can be seen. (that’s what I was told!!) But this day, Sunday, was very busy, and full of noise. There was also fog and clouds, so the sunset wasn’t that spectacular. But, instead of admiring the nature of the place, I spent a few hours admiring the stories from an old Indian man, 87 years old. It was a little bit disappointing to see that at the end, he was asking me 50 RS, for the chat… It was also interesting to chat with another man, 50, and for free. He was hindu, and couldn’t understand a life without an ‘official’ religion…
After dinner, I started thinking about the time that I would like to spend in the north of India, in the himalaya… hard decisions!!!

9/3/04

look at our world, it's so big & amazing!!!

Hello everybody!!!
I’ve created another blog, where I’ve posted a few pictures I’ve taken since the beginnig of 'everything'. I hope you’ll like them, and please, don’t hesitate to write comments!! (about the pictures, the light, the colors, the topic, about anything you like!!!)

And once again, thanks for keep on writing mails and comments!!

Thousands of hugs!!!

http://jordimatasimages.blogspot.com/

17-18/feb kathakali in fort kochi

I meet alessandro, from Florence, that bought a vespa in chennai, in the south of India, and is planning to spend 3 months touring india. Italian and vespa, of course! He has given me a book, a quite special present, from jules verne; ‘around the world in 80 days’, in Italian. Yes, still in kochi, twin city of ernakulam.
I walked around, updated my web pages, ate thaly… easy and nice day, meeting a few Indians, talking about football with them… The next day was a bit more active;

I rented a bicycle after a very good breakfast in a very nice place, and extremely cheap. I think that I still havn’t found any place in India with bad food; you can always find lots of tastes in each dish, and I guess that’s why they use a lot of spices. The only problem is that sometimes curries are too oily, and if you eat that everyday… I don’t think is that healthy. Anyway, in this place the food was excellent. I started pedaling, and I did a big tour around fort kochi, the historical area of kochi. First by the beach, following the famous Chinese fisherman’s nets, the ones I talked about in the backwaters chapter. After that, towards the fort, surrounding the sea shore. There are quite many Christian churches, muslim mosques, and hindu temples. But here, in kochi is also possible to find jewish synagogues. Jewish have stablished a big community here, a long time ago, the oldest in India. And so, there were many Israelis in town. And it is nice to see all these different religious buildings living together, and all those names of the streets, some of them hindu names, christian, muslims, jewish…as the most normal thing of the world. People should come and see, and learn about convivence. The western area of fort kochi it’s the rich one. A kind of urbanization, with big houses, very well-kept, cars… There’s not big poverty in this area. I’ve realized that in kochi, goats have taken the place to cows, but like these ones, they keep on eating the trash. Today, is Friday, and everything is very relaxed and quiet. Streets are semi-empty (if this is possible in India), and that’s why today is Friday… absolutely logic, isn’t it! Synagogues closes on Fridays and Saturdays, and the rest of ‘public’ buildings, closes on Friday as well. Just a few shops for tourists are open. So I guess I’ll have to wait till my trip to Israel to see a synagogue!

In the sunset time, I was looking for a good spot to take pictures to the sunset through the Chinese nets. In that waiting time, I met I guy from Israel, traveling also by bike, a royal einfield, a very very nice bike! And a man from England, that has been traveling for the last 3 years… wow! After taking the pictures, something more cultural. I was at a kathakali show. Jorge, the Portuguese guy told it was worth watching them. And so did I!

Kathakali is a dance-drama from kerala, from the 2nd century a.d., but popularized in the 17th century. Kathakali means story play, and at the beginning there were over a 100 plays. Now 30 of them are kept. All of them based in Ramayana and mahabharata, books talking about conflicts between gods and demons (many times under human forms), and about the exploits of Krishna. In this play, there are 2 men playing percussions, the actors, and the story teller. All of them have been studying kathakali for at least 6 years; First the story teller explains the bases and history of it. Then, the first actor appears, and following the rhythm of the drums starts defining the ‘alphabet’ of kathakali, how to say yes or no, feelings, animals, and different situations of life. Only moving the eyes, in a really amazing way, moving the muscles of the face, I would say all of them, moving the neck, head, hands, fingers, feet… He never speaks. Only men are allowed to play kathakali. So I guess that if you know all this very complex alphabet of kathakali, you can understand the whole play, but with a 10 minutes introduction is not enough. Plays used to long more than 10 hours, but this one is a special show for tourists… Our play goes about a nice looking warrior, jayanthan, than meets a girl, a very hot girl, lalitha, an avatar of the demon, under a human form. Nacrathundi is the demon. The play explains their meeting, how they get close, how they discuss, the moment he recognize the demon in lalitha, and the fight of jayanthan with nacrathundi. Not even a single word, and millions of precise movements with all those parts of the body, mostly the eyes, face-muscles and neck. During the show, the story teller is singing, and the drummers playing the drums. Everything together quite interesting, and takes you to another time. And what for me was more important; I’m not 100% sure, but I would say that this kathakali has influenced a lot, the Indian cinema, and video clips. The choreographies, the way men and women act… and always with music as a backgrond. So, I would say that:
Ramayana and mahabharata (2nd a..) – kathakali (17th a.d) –Indian movies (20th a.d)

After that, dinner with alessandro (33) and another Italian (52), quite surrealistic, artist and dreamer. The dinner went on till the restaurant closed. Very nice dinner, and very interesting people. It’s amazing to see how here, everyone has been everywhere!! All the continents, and even in very strange places…

24/2/05

16/feb backwaters 02 & matthew

Breakfast with Jorge, and then we took different directions. I decided to go to changancherry, an out of rout town, also in the backwater. And for that I took a local boat. RS 11, instead of RS 260, and only with Indian. I was the only foreigner. So the A9 boat was ready to leave at 1 pm to the labyrinth of canals. Only Indians, and after only one question I was one of them. Matthew sat next to me, to tell me that the trip would long 3 hours. And of course, that was only the beginning. We spoke for 2 hours, till the moment he reached his boat stop and home town. The landscape is like the one of yesterday, palmtrees and water everywhere, but more rural. It seemed also nicer to me, probably because I was in another mood, feeling as a pioneer again!!1 discovering new areas never explored before!!! I’ll be the connection to the world!!! … sorry, I use to have this problem everytime I see no tourists around! J
Matthew told me that those canals were below the sea level, like Holland, and that because of that (and I would add the latitude) they can not plant everything. People living here are fishermen or farmers. He complained about a bird that came from Cyprus, a black bird that is very good a fishing, and that is eating all the fishes!! He told me, close to my ear, softly, that with his brother in law they use to kill them. Even if they are protected. He is Christian, and sterilized, with one daughter and one son. In the ’70 and ’80, there were sterilization camps, were people was sent (willingly or not) to be operated to avoid the fast growing of the population. They got radios in exchange… The mafia (politicians include, of course) of the time was getting a great advantage of it. He thinks that was good for the country. And he don’t believe in condoms or stuff like that. And that’s because he’s extremely religious. From the Christian / sirian church. He told me that his ancestor arrived in India 2500 years ago, carrying this religion. They have been since then from the knanaya/Christian cast, only 10000 in kerala now, and he’s extremely proud of it. He is also very proud of the bright skin of his daughter. He doesn’t really like the dark skin (even if he’s quite dark). And as proud is he of his religion, that if his daughter or son wanna merry someone from another religion, they would never be allowed to touch or talk to him again. And of course, they could forget the heritage (?) (herencia). His race must be kept pure, like the one of his ancestors, he said. First god, that’s the reason to live, then the family, after the rest… But all this extremism was not easy to appreciate, as he had a very soft and sweet way to explain it. He spoke with the same passion about the plants, his other love. He has so many plants, and fruit trees, and palmtrees, and is growing lots of vegetables. He is also very familiar to alternative medicine, using plants and stuff. He told me many examples of plants curing epilepsy, dysentery, headache… Even snake bits can be cured this way. Like his ancestors did, he said. He said that he has been blessed by god in many ways, and one of them is that he can kill snakes; Cobras, king cobras… There seem to be many of those around the canals. And even if they are dangerous for people, mostly children, they are good for the harvests, because they eat rats. Harvests takes between 110 and 130 days.
He told me that Indians are extremely lazy, and that’s the reason why china is going to grow up faster and better. Indians accept everything. The minimum to live it’s enough for many millions of people. Chinese work harder, and control the population better. But… that’s India, he said before leaving the boat.
Now a second part, more contemplative, started. In this public boat, that is stopping every minute. But very silently. Everything here seems very relaxed. In the boat, men speaking and laughing with the women, without being mixed, ok, but communicating. Hard to see in bigger places. And this canal and its surroundings are full of people and life, that goes on quite slow, in another speed; Women washing clothes, beating them against big stones, children and grandmothers fishing together, lots of little churches… no mosques, nor temples. Only jesuschrist. Omnipresent. And full of color. Strange fruit hanging from the trees, and super-huge trees. People waving their hands to us, young and old, and green all around. Rice fields again. Everything is very suggestive!!! I had a couple of old ladies in front of me. Probably very old friends. I invited them to eat cookies. After accepting them, they had been offering me smiles during the whole trip. People going in and out, children coming from the school, revolutionizing the boat life for a while, the silence again… That was a great trip, much better than the other. After walking for a while in changacherry, I took the train to kochi (ernakulam station, twin cities again). In the train, the landscape was different, but the characters the same. Smiles and colors everywhere. More poverty. Loots of green. And children playing after the school, still with their uniforms, under the palmtrees. And beautiful girls living in dirty places, in poverty… like diamonds hidden behind the trash. And lots of mustaches!!! All men have mustaches here!! Always perfectly shaved. Once in ernakulam, noise and strees again. We have arrived to the city again.

19/2/05

15/feb backwaters

I bargain a little bit for the ticket through the backwaters. Instead of 300 RS, I paid 260 RS. 2 meals. The boat goes from Kollam to Allappuzha, 8 hours, and… only with tourists. It has been nice, but maybe a little bit monotone. Canals, lakes and lagoons, not that clean, with fishes, and lots of jellyfishes, and chinese fishing nets. The main advertise for this backwaters trip. There’s a squared net hanging on 5 points; the 4 corners, and the center. A wooden structure, quite big, that works at counterbalance (contrapes), and a light in the middle of everything. They use to fish at night, leaving the net on the water, and attracting fished with the light. After a while, they lift the net, and the fishes are flying, on the net. There are lots of canoes, and fishing boats, black painted, and with drawings of ‘oms’, eyes… They look like the Viking boats, more or less. And lots of little houses everywhere. There are no bridges, not even small ones. Bathrooms, are a kind of small platform, over the water, with plastics as wall. And they shit directly to the water. There are lots of small churches, and signs announcing Christian associations, crosses… Portuguese and I think that also French, stayed in this area for a while, and this must be one of the influences.
Everything is so quiet, the boat is not noisy, the water is flat, there is a little bit of breeze, shadow… but I have a thai woman, half thai half French, asking me questions all the time, and speaking quite loud… I had dinner with a couple of Australians, from Melbourne. There are quite many falcons, or little eagles, with white heads and brown body, flying very elegantly. I met a guy from Portugal after lunch. Jorge, writer, 28 years, and very ‘traveled’. He is always making allusions to his trips, maybe a bit too much, but he’s nice and interesting. He told me that he’s now in India collecting information about the Indian cinema; bollywood (from Bombay), kellywood (from kerala), tallywood (tamil nadu)… He is going to write a book about that. It was nice speaking to him. We decided to look for a room together, but his budget is higher than mine, so we decided to had dinner together.
Nice relaxed and peaceful day!

19/2/05

12-14/feb 'pareos' & natural churches

On the water again, I met a guy from the states, that has been coming for 9 months a year in India, during the last 9 years. The other 3 years, either Hawaii or California… He is here for yoga, ashrams…
I’ve been writing Arabic sea in the last posts, but it’s not correct I think. I think the right way would be Arabian sea. And I write this because I was having lunch on the cliff, with that amazing sight. The food was great, chicken curry (I can not become vegetarian from one day to the other!) and coconut rice… so tasty, and he nans. I love nans, more than chapatti, and as much as porota. All these 3 things are Indian bread, but very thin. Something like pizza, even if it has nothing to do with pizza. Only the shape. They are cooked in different systems. After eating, I spent a couple of hours reading on the restaurant. The shadow and the breeze were great. It was too hot to be down on the beach. And sun is strong here! Today I spent at least 4 to 5 hours on the water, and I’m very tired. After having dinner with the Spanish community, I went to sleep.

The pareo (sheet) it’s so useful here. You could live only with that. Sheet for the night, towel in the beach, pillow in the train, skirt after the beach, and decoration for the room, when I dried it. Today the sea was very flat, only with the clean and organized (but not very big) waves. After swimming a lot, I met neta, a girl from Israel that used to be air hostess. After that, I started creating the images website (blog). It took me a while to understand the way it worked. After dinner, I started thinking where to go next. The moon was growing, the food was great, Dylan as a background, and everything so quiet and peaceful. I could stay here for ages, but 6 days are enough. India and the world are huge, and fortunately, the only thing I have is time.

Breakfast with neta and her sister. They were also leaving today, but to munnar. I was at the beach for a couple of hours, last hours in varkala, this small paradise, where I still had time to meet an old british man, that explained me his trip, in the ’70, in Israel, working in a kibbutz, and then to afganistan through iran, turkey… He was shining while was talking… I decided to go to kollam, to discover the famous backwaters. From the train, landscape it’s great. Forests of trees, lagoons, or lakes everywhere, canals… water is life!! Sometimes there is only the train, and water all around, as if it was a boat, a long and thin boat. And trees are huge here. They must be very old. I don’t remember seeing trees that big anywhere else before. And these forests are very very dense, and high. Like a kind of old gothic cathedral, forsaked in the middle of no-where, with lots of pillars (trees), high roofs and light entering through the dust… benches have been devoured by the small bushes. And this cathedral is infinite, you cannot see the end.

I havn’t really seen much poverty in kerala (state), nor beggars, nor slums…People call it ‘the gods own country’. Maybe it’s true… Once in kollam, I found a lodge, but not very nice, and smelly. With only men. And since I don’t spend time in the room, I stayed. Rs 70 (1,25 euro). I had to fight a little bit to get an extra sheet. I wanted for the pillow. I think they had never changed the cover of the pillow before. And of course, it was black!! The extra sheet was ok to hidden the blackness, but not the smell. Kollam is a quite big city. 400000 People. But it seems like a town. That’s normal in India, a part from the very big cities, I guess. After getting the info about the backwater, I went to sleep. Nice night!
And it was funny to see that I was going to the backwaters area, and my mum send me a mail, today, telling me to go there!!! I think that josep and nuri brought some info about it. Let's see!

19/2/05