Memories from South-India

I had visited all those places: Goa, Hampi, Pondicherry, Chennai, Bangalore, Allepey, Fort Kochin (only Mumbai - the point of origin - I hadn't, but still I didn't this time, after some typical but personally rare digestive problem that kept me in bed)...

... but to re-live these sites with you, my darling, made a whole lot of difference. I love you forever.

Again this is not the story of my trip with my sister-like friend Ana Gil (a.k.a. Ana Sanchez de Sousa, Ana Gil de Sousa Pinto, Aninha or Docas), but the story of some first striking memories from South-India in the 1st fortnight of Feb'09 with her.

1. The attempt of a pseudo-guru to ask for money for some lucky-charm objects and a forehead paint tikka alleging a religious festival while we still carried our backpacks together for the first time.


2. Putting pain-killer mint gel in my mouth in an attempt to brush my teeth in a (quite common) pitch-dark guest house room in Allepey, Kerala.


3. Sleeping in never-washed brown dirty berths and hearing the vomits of someone 4 am in train Hampi-Chennai: immediately rated 2nd grossest experience in India (classified under a revolving stomach).


4. Having our heads full of flowers and eating fruits from the trees while walking the canal villages, homes and rice plantations of Allepey with a local villager.


5. The contrast in cities like Mumbai and Pondi between touristic and urban/local areas.


6. The moving fact that Ricky came to Mumbai just to say goodbye to me. Really appreciated it, dear. Sorry for having had to stay in bed.


7. Great sunset on top of Hannuman/ Monkey Temple, Hampi.


8. Good guides: good people: T. - village tour in Allepey; call rickshaw driver Vikram if you go to Hampi for any pick-up or drop or day tour: he is honest like there are few, very helpful and a nice person: his number: 00919480568903.


9. My carry-around small back-pack always having everything that was needed.


10. Meeting young, middle-aged and aged women travelling India alone and finding it easy. Like our newly made friend Ute, from Germany, in Hampi - the 65 y.o. youngster, our pal.


11. 'Ladies Only' marked zones: bus seats, train wagons, queues.


12. Being stolen an ice-cream by a crow while walking Fort Cochin ocean promenade, reminding me of having been stolen 6 bananas by a monkey on the way to Taj Mahal.


13. A Cape-Verdean Coladera music playing at 'Upstairs Italian Restaurant' in Fort Cochin, after Kathakali (again an amazing artistic experience).


14. Ayurvedic massage in a wooden table with oil: the 2 girls by 2 girls.


15. The elephant bath, feeding and ride in Perimbavoor, Kerala.


16. Having my very travelled sandals sowed for the 3rd time.


17. Eating egg biriyani (an Indian rice specialty) with hand in my final train.


18. Staying in a family-house in Kochi.


19. Palolem Beach, Goa, and the will to stay longer.


20. Ana's determination and success in overcoming just about enough of all India's personal challenges: hygiene, mosquito bites, garbage and dirtiness, danger and relative risk, fear of malaria and others, men's looks, usage of public low budget crowded transportation and accommodation, luggage carrying and pains, heat, confrontation with poverty and misery, disturbing noise and loud horning, constantly having someone trying to sell to you = cheat you, etc.


21. The way everything simply worked in spite of chaos.


22. The way I started really missing home and people for the first time in my life after the taste of familiarity through Ana. The re-awakening of romantism.


23. Feeling like a good traveller and back-packer.


24. The orange(st) sunset in Kerala.


25. Sitting on the open-door steps of train Madgaon-Cancona, Goa.


26. The trip in suburban bus to Auroville: overcrowded, literally glued to 3 indian women, their babies, bags and buckets.


27. Our late night talks in beds covered by mosquito-nets or upper-berths of trains, recovering all the lost time after not having met each other for long.


28. Taking every day (almost! - whenever there could be one) 2 or 3 showers in one go after having put on a thick layer of dust.


29. The colonial outlook of Old Goa and Pondicherry and the Portuguese and French heritage and cultural/ linguistic remains.


30. How good it is to revisit places and see them with less anxious eyes, especially when you have such a great company! :)