"but from this endless end
of briefer each our bliss--
where seeing eyes go blind
(where lips forget to kiss)
where everything's nothing
--arise,my soul;and sing"
My brain has ceased to work for a while, every though and recollection of my trip has been skewiffed and splattered by my unceasingly complicated life. I realise that I am sounding like I have regressed to emo and such but no, I am fatally realistic. But either way, I shall continue to brief you on my time travelling. Bear in mind that up until a month ago everything was fantastic. I felt free, level headed and clear. I established a clarity that I thought impossible. I'm still having fun but a rather dead-weight suffocating guilty fun which is less pleasurable than the real thing...
I'll continue from Palolem -
We travelled to a little place in Karnataka called Gokarna. We stayed on 'Om beach' which is named for the shape of the coast line around the beach It's fairly self explanatory :) It's very serene, we spent two happy days there chilling out on the beautiful sands... we stayed in very basic accomodation, I could liken it to a prison cell but it was very cheap and I guess that it counts towards the proper traveller experience. Every experience in life counts, even if one of those is staying in a lizard infested hovel. Sunbathing was difficult in Karnataka, I encountered the eagle eyed Indian men for the first time on an Indian beach and needless to say it wasn't very enjoyable, so getting a tan was out of the question (5 weeks later and I'm back to my pale old self!) It was nice but there wasn't much there, no social scene, no nice food to eat so we left pretty sharpish after a couple of days.
The next notable place was Fort Cochin in Kerala. After a ten hour train journey from Mangalore to Ernakulem we took a rickshaw to the much quieter Fort Cochin. Our time there was fraught with highs and lows. We entered our homestay and realised that we were living a life of luxury, TV, the first hot shower since leaving England, a balcony and a big double bed that was incredibly comfortable. Lovely times, nice and relaxing! Our main issue with Fort Cochin was that we couldn't find anywhere nice to eat. We had lots of bad meals which was fairly distressing as it was around Christmas time. Christmas day was awful, it was lovely to speak to our family and friends on skype but they regaled us with tales of presents and yummy food which made me incredibly jealous and slightly disheartened with the lack of scrumptious food available. My Christmas day food diary will enlighten you on the strength of my food envy. For lunch we shared a tuna sandwich and a fruit salad in a gorgeous little art cafe which was good. I love tuna and fruit so we were doing well but for our Christmas dinner we tried to go to a restaurant for a nice meal. It wasn't great to say the least. I ordered vegetarian stuffed peppers, yet I received a raw pepper halved with plain cold boiled rice on the top. Needless to say in India it's fairly unwise to eat raw salad so my Christmas dinner meal consisted of a few spoonfuls of cold rice. We left abruptly and went to the shop to get a packet of Lays each and some chocolate biscuits. Yum! It didn't quite compare to the yummy dinner you would have all been having. Christmas without family and friends is very difficult and very saddening, I'd mentally prepared myself for the homesickness but I didn't quite do it well enough. Christmas day made me miss everyone that I love more than anything. I wish wholeheartedly that I could have flown back and been with my family on Christmas Day. I still don't know what they got for Christmas. Oh I should also mention that Christmas Day was spent sober, those of you who know me know how hellish this is!!!
So we cheered ourselves up by going to the backwaters...it was beautiful and idyllic. We spent the day on a wooden river boat crusing up and down the beautiful lakes of India. We ate lunch - a veg thali off a banana leaf. Completely authentic Indian food. The Poppadums were AHMAYZING. The best ever! It was such a nice day!
The saddening thing was, when we got back from the backwater trip I found out my dad had been rushed into hospital, he was in a critical condition for two weeks. Without saying too much about it he's still very ill and for the past month I've been waiting for information. I might have to come back to Manchester, he's doing well but it could be bad news so it's plagued the rest of my trip with worry and guilt about not going back straight away. All I want to do is go home and give my family one big cuddle.
of briefer each our bliss--
where seeing eyes go blind
(where lips forget to kiss)
where everything's nothing
--arise,my soul;and sing"
My brain has ceased to work for a while, every though and recollection of my trip has been skewiffed and splattered by my unceasingly complicated life. I realise that I am sounding like I have regressed to emo and such but no, I am fatally realistic. But either way, I shall continue to brief you on my time travelling. Bear in mind that up until a month ago everything was fantastic. I felt free, level headed and clear. I established a clarity that I thought impossible. I'm still having fun but a rather dead-weight suffocating guilty fun which is less pleasurable than the real thing...
I'll continue from Palolem -
We travelled to a little place in Karnataka called Gokarna. We stayed on 'Om beach' which is named for the shape of the coast line around the beach It's fairly self explanatory :) It's very serene, we spent two happy days there chilling out on the beautiful sands... we stayed in very basic accomodation, I could liken it to a prison cell but it was very cheap and I guess that it counts towards the proper traveller experience. Every experience in life counts, even if one of those is staying in a lizard infested hovel. Sunbathing was difficult in Karnataka, I encountered the eagle eyed Indian men for the first time on an Indian beach and needless to say it wasn't very enjoyable, so getting a tan was out of the question (5 weeks later and I'm back to my pale old self!) It was nice but there wasn't much there, no social scene, no nice food to eat so we left pretty sharpish after a couple of days.
The next notable place was Fort Cochin in Kerala. After a ten hour train journey from Mangalore to Ernakulem we took a rickshaw to the much quieter Fort Cochin. Our time there was fraught with highs and lows. We entered our homestay and realised that we were living a life of luxury, TV, the first hot shower since leaving England, a balcony and a big double bed that was incredibly comfortable. Lovely times, nice and relaxing! Our main issue with Fort Cochin was that we couldn't find anywhere nice to eat. We had lots of bad meals which was fairly distressing as it was around Christmas time. Christmas day was awful, it was lovely to speak to our family and friends on skype but they regaled us with tales of presents and yummy food which made me incredibly jealous and slightly disheartened with the lack of scrumptious food available. My Christmas day food diary will enlighten you on the strength of my food envy. For lunch we shared a tuna sandwich and a fruit salad in a gorgeous little art cafe which was good. I love tuna and fruit so we were doing well but for our Christmas dinner we tried to go to a restaurant for a nice meal. It wasn't great to say the least. I ordered vegetarian stuffed peppers, yet I received a raw pepper halved with plain cold boiled rice on the top. Needless to say in India it's fairly unwise to eat raw salad so my Christmas dinner meal consisted of a few spoonfuls of cold rice. We left abruptly and went to the shop to get a packet of Lays each and some chocolate biscuits. Yum! It didn't quite compare to the yummy dinner you would have all been having. Christmas without family and friends is very difficult and very saddening, I'd mentally prepared myself for the homesickness but I didn't quite do it well enough. Christmas day made me miss everyone that I love more than anything. I wish wholeheartedly that I could have flown back and been with my family on Christmas Day. I still don't know what they got for Christmas. Oh I should also mention that Christmas Day was spent sober, those of you who know me know how hellish this is!!!
So we cheered ourselves up by going to the backwaters...it was beautiful and idyllic. We spent the day on a wooden river boat crusing up and down the beautiful lakes of India. We ate lunch - a veg thali off a banana leaf. Completely authentic Indian food. The Poppadums were AHMAYZING. The best ever! It was such a nice day!
The saddening thing was, when we got back from the backwater trip I found out my dad had been rushed into hospital, he was in a critical condition for two weeks. Without saying too much about it he's still very ill and for the past month I've been waiting for information. I might have to come back to Manchester, he's doing well but it could be bad news so it's plagued the rest of my trip with worry and guilt about not going back straight away. All I want to do is go home and give my family one big cuddle.
Anyway, although sad the journey continued. We travelled to Varkala by train...although the train ride was short(ish) the day was very bad. We ended up travelling for twelve hours when the journey should have taken four. Argh! That's India for you! Luckily, due to our misfortune we met three lovely Australian girls; Ella, Ellie and Tahli. The meeting of new people released our mind from constant worry and we managed to have a fun New Years Eve- a lack of sobriety was a welcome release.
So we came to the end of our time in India with a mixture of happiness and sadness in our hearts. The places and beaches that we encountered were some of the best in the world. A country that is a mixture of idyllic pleasure and unwelcome carnage. An overpopulated empire with a highly spiritual hidden layer. A mixture of cultures, religions and spirituality, India is a gift to all that go there. I managed to discover what needed to be uncovered and unearth some realities and truths about myself that otherwise wouldn't have been found. Miraculous..!
Love xxxxxxx
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