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!