Southern India: East to West +down up down

After arriving in a city I didn't know the name of I got a good night sleep and the next morning headed to a little place called Tranquebar which was an old Danish Colony and sits right on the water. This area was heavily affected by the Tsunami, but they are working hard to restore it. It was a great little unique place to visit. Also while being here I bumped into a film crew as they were filming scenes for a movie. They all paused when they saw me and then the director wanted some footage of me standing there wondering what they hell they wanted me to do.




Next I headed west to a city called Tanjavur. It has this enormous temple in the center of the city that I visited and was pretty cool. This part of the country really doesn't get too many tourists, they are there, but only a few. This is when I started to really notice how they have these big billboards or marketing signs with completely wrong spelling; and it's not part of their marketing plan. Some examples: Footwere. Luxery. Chinies. Famoos. This is what they spent lots of bucks for and will be their campaign for some time.


After Tanjavur, I headed to Trichy which had some of the best restaurants I've eaten at (they call their restaurants hotels here). In Trichy I went and saw some more famous temples, climbed a hill to a temple that had a city view and then spent time in the Big Baazar and Chinese Baazar (there were no chinese people there) and bought some dvd's for about 40 cents each. (It turned out to cost more since only half worked or were in another language).
I then headed to Madurai which is a big city. I only had a brief time here so I decided to do a bus tour of the highlights. They picked me up first and then had to pick up 11 others which took an hour and a half. Our first stop was a palace that had construction going on throughout. we had 40 minutes to check this out. The next stop was the much awaited Ghandi museum, I had heard great things about this and it told the story of Ghandi's life along with the history of the british in India. Our bus driver said 15 minutes to visit here. I took a half an hour and I could have spent hours in this place. When I got back I asked how anyone was supposed to see it in 15 minutes and he said it was small. Granted, you could walk through it in 15 minutes if you didn't read any information. The next stop on the tour was a temple; 45 minutes.
From Madurai I caught a bus to the mountains, a place called Kokaikanal. I sat next to this kid on the ride and we talked the entire time; he was a clever little guy and I quite liked his company.
On arrival in Kodaikanal, the temperature had dropped significantly from the city, but this also meant no mosquitos. It was absolutely beautiful here. I got a room in a house that had seven other rooms that were all vacant, so I had the house to myself. I visited many different lodges, made a friend at a shop, and met a white guy who had been here for a few years getting his doctorate. He introduced me to some great locals who knew the surrounding villages and tribal villages well and one man I spent time with will definitely be part of the onelovetours team. See Vetri below with his family.
I really enjoyed my stay here and started to work with some people on getting tshirts made of for the company (anyone want to order one?)
Some of my time in Kodaikanal it was beyond foggy due to the elevation. I was actually in the clouds and couldn't see 20 ft ahead.
This is not what the t-shirts will look like, it is only what the friend from the shop did one night on his shirt with some markers while he was working.
From Kodaikanal, I headed on a 7 hour bus trip down and through the mountains to tea country, which is known as Munnar. Completely surrounded by tea plantations, this is a little city that sits in the middle of the hills, from one view point you can see a church, a temple and mosque sitting near each other on a hill near the city. I ate in a place where all the drivers eat and this is the first place in India where I see people eat meat; we have now entered the state of Kerala, the only Democratic, Communist state in the world.
I visited some heritage guest homes that sit high in the hills in the middle of the tea plantations that I can send guests to. This is where I met up with Benny (a friend from home) and his family. They were taking a day trip and picked me up to see the surrounding sites.

I then headed back to Cochin, a city on the water; no more mountains, with Benny and his sister to meet up with their mom at home. On Christmas Eve we got some carollers; these are them.
Benny, his sister Joslie and I headed out of Cochin to the backwaters to take a house boat for a day and night. After bargaining hard we got a great boat which we cruised around on, had some good food, played some cards and games, and it was a great change of pace.
The following day we went to Allepay where we strolled through the city, visited some guesthouses and then found a carved out canoe with a guy (Saboo) to take us around small alley's that I big boat can't fit into. We ended up stopping to see his home in his little village that is an island.

Back in Cochin we celebrated Christmas with lots of movies, lots of food, and good company. It is so nice to be with friends over the holidays even when it is just relaxing and not doing too much; so thank you to Benny and his family.

The day after Christmas I went to a nearby island that is quite quiet with home stays set up right on the water. I also learned how to catch prawns and fish at a prawn farm.

I know this blog lacked detail, but it has been some time since I wrote my last one and I just wanted to give a quick update with lots of pictures. Southern India is a completely different world than northern India, it is like visiting different countries. Also, in the south, each state speaks their own language and many people only know this local language.

Here they say "Happy Christmas"

A cake we ate on Christmas said "Happy Celebration"

Fair thee well until next time.