In Thailand

My time in India is now over and I am in the party city of Bangkok. Let me share some stories and commentary of my last few weeks in Kerala. I travelled around Kerala for one week, staying in a 250 year old British Residency for 120 rupees (less than 2 pounds) for the night, and took a backwater trip to an Ashram (Hugging Amer). Here I stayed for one night and received a hug and blessing. I than travelled to Kochi, where I stayed for a few nights before busing it all the way back to Trivandrum. I also went to Kovalam where I thought what could be better, beaches and sunshine. However, I was deterred by the sight of the tourists who consisted of charter holiday couples - something I was trying to avoid in India! After my week of backpacking around Kerala was over, I returned to the school, and carried on teaching English, whilst also visiting houses of sponsored children (children who were being sponsored by westerners, so they could go to a good school). The houses these children lived in, mirrored some of the sights you would have seen in Slumdog Millionaire - however, what was surprising was that these children were always smiling and so eager to learn -not like in the West!

So my last few days in Kerala were spent, seeing a Bollywood movie (Billu Barber), getting some clothes made up from cotton I bought and observing a holy Indian holiday. With regards to the film, it was extremely entertaining, however, there was a young chap next to me who kept clearing his throat (argggghhhhh sound as you hear continuously throughout India) and then spitting on the floor. When the lights turned on, well you can imagine - a puddle of spit! (Lovely!). Last Monday I observed Shivaratri, where I stayed up the whole night with a small community praying - it was a real unique experience, and was something that appropriately bought my stay in India to an end. The last two days in India were spent in Bangalore, where I stayed near Brigade street, which is a road that mirrors those of London city - every fastfood chain, and endless designer shops. When I looked around, there was no traditional Indian culture in sight, but fashion conscious teens spending endless disposable income on electronics, clothes and food. My main mission in Bangalore was to see Slumdog Millionaire - which I eventually saw after much trekking across Bangalore in tuk tuks.

Now, I am in Bangkok, and today I visited the spectacular Palace and Buddha temple, whilst also enjoying some local (i.e. off the street) Pad Thai!

Down South

I have been here in Kerala - South of India for two weeks now and my experiences have been totally different to those of the North. I am staying in a village on the outskirts of Trivandrum (capital) , and appear to be the only tourist in this village - which has allowed me to almost completely submerge myself into the Indian life. The food down south is much more bland which seems to agree with my stomach - so I have only been eating Indian food - with Masal Dosa being my favourite dishes. Now being in India and trying to live like the Indians, I retired my cutlery in the North, and have only been using my right hand (as left is for cleaning - I won't go into it) which took some getting used to but now I feel I can do it as good as any other Indian.

With regards to transport - the roads out here are questionable, and I have taken advantage of every transportation Kerala has to offer, venturing on the back of motorbikes a couple of times - little worrying especially without a helmet. Now let me talk about the main reason I am here - to teach in a school. The building and grounds of the school are very different to back home- it is like stepping back 100 years in time. The children are amazing and overly excited with everything I teach them - and last night after over a week of learning it - my class (Standard 5) performed on their annual day - LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN (thought it was appropriate). Last night,I also had to make a speach in their language which was extremely difficult as there are so many different sounds to the words - I am sure I made a few mistakes here and there.

A few observations I have made whilst being down here are, firstly people never drink directly from the bottle or cup but alway keeps it at least an inch from their mouth, that there are set questions everyone asks me (mother's name, father's name, brothers or sisters? and what's your father, mother and brothers' job). Finally, being on my own, many Indian people approach me, wanting to talk to me - asking above questions etc - and most of them are adamant on giving me their phone number and for me to call them - so I have been collecting piles of paper with phone numbers - even someone from Congress wanted me to call them - well thats life down here!

I am now back in Delhi, and will give a brief recap of the last week and half of my trip around north India. After leaving the holy city of Varanassi, we travelled on a coach for 14 hours due to our train being cancelled - not suprised. The coach had more drivers than passengers, as each person in the front part of the coach would lean out the window and shout move right or left if a cow or person was in the way. We finally arrived in Agra and saw the famous Taj Mahal and Red Fort - which were as incredible as the photos depict. However, once again two others and I were shoved in a picture with an Indian family (wife and two kids) whilst the husband took the photo! - this was happening on a regular basis - not that we minded too much. We moved from Agra to Jaipur which was a city that represented modern India and old India with a Subway and Levis Jeans next to a man selling tobacco and random tourist souvenirs. Jaipuir was a little intense in terms of the hassling as the sellers would not stop following us and would even lean into our Tuk Tuks to sell random stuff that no person would ever find useful. Also there was a lot of children begging which was quite difficult to deal with. However, the highlight was going to the cinema and watching a Bollywood movie - with no subtitles. The atmosphere in the cinema was "different" - as the audience would whistle at certain times during the movie and cheer and clap! After Jaipur we stayed a night in Roopangarh Fort - which was more than comfortable as we sat round a fire eating and drinking - true Maharajah style. The trip of the North came to a close with the last two nights in Pushkar where half the group including me were all suffering from Delhi Belly. So now I am back in Delhi looking ahead to my next month in Kerala.

FIRST WEEK

Hello from India! This is my first post with an update of what's been happening over the last few days I have been here. I have enjoyed Delhis finest public transport, such as the Tuk Tuk, where we encouraged the driver's to race each other to the hotel (nearly crashed a few times). We spent the last few days on small boats going down the Ganges, where we sat listening to music and chilling - the life of Kings! At night we camped by the river banks and enjoyed the peacefulness of untouched India. All food was cooked freshly on board another boat - best Indian food I have ever had! With regards to food - it is totally different to Indian food in England - there is no comparison in taste and look - hence why you have to come to India to have real Indian food. The group is pretty cool - as most people are young but we have the wisdom of older generations aswell. With regards to the people of India, most have been warm and we have been approached a few times by Indians to have photos with them. The funniest story was the BONG MAN - where this small Indian man selling Bongs would not stop following us in Delhi, and when we thought we had lost him, he would appear in front of us saying Bong Bong Bong! He even jumped on the moving Tuk Tuk to secure a sell from us. Well I am now in Varanssi, and have just visited the famous Budhist temple - where we sought enlightment and this is where I will leave you with a saying that I have copied down from this temple: "Those who know the essential to be essential and the unessentuial to be unessential, dwelling the right thoughts, do arrive at the essential"

THE BRIEF

Not quite like Charlie Boorman, but as good as. I leave for Delhi on 9/01 and will be adventuring around the North of India, riding on tuk tuks and Camels, whilst also experiencing the pleasures of the Indian Train Service. After two weeks, I will be catching a flight to Kerala and teaching in a poor rural school for a month. Then will fly to Bangkok to experience delicacies such as fried cockroach and other tasty dishes. From this buzzing city I will travel across Cambodia and Vietnam all over ground to reach the destination of Hanoi and Halong Bay (as seen on top gear Christmas Special). The last part of my trip will be a flight from Hanoi (Vietnam) to Sydney where I will spend six weeks travelling up the east coast.