Mysore

So I arrived in Mysore. A nice city and I felt in the end you could almost reach everything by walking (in the city centre), while other cities are much more massive!
Sadly I decided to go for the real cheap rooms: 200 Rupees. But it was basically ok, indian toilet and shower, no biggy.
But then when I tried the faucetts, they didn't work properly. One was broke (you'd have to use another valve to open it) and the other wasn't drip-proof...
I complained (because working faucetts SHOULD be no big deal and demandable). The reception said: sure! We'll fix it. But they didn't When I arrived in the evening all was the same. So I complained again, now that the manager was there the guy jumped up and tried to fix it. He told me the plumber couldn't come because of the big Ganesh festivities going on.
It was better, but they wanted to show me another room. In total I saw 3 rooms, ALL had the same problems... I had long talks about it with the manager and the other receptionists. I would have adapted (as the manager said all the indian guests do), but just the fact that the guys from the reception didn't really do anything and didn't take me seriously was annoying and made me want to complain. The second evening I came back and asked if it was fixed the guy told me "Yeah!". But it wasn't. Only then they told me they were not able to go into my room, except I was there. Information which would be useful at the first day. But anyway I eventually moved to a deluxe room where everything worked. Maybe for once they actually looked before claiming everything was fine...

So hotel aside, I enjoyed Mysore!
I met a few people, walked through in the evening around the big Mysore Palace and saw beautiful lights. On of the people I met were the german couple (Carina and Tobias). We met to visit a small temple in a village close to Mysore, took a bus and headed there. Close to the place where we had to change buses we encountered a strike. Alot of people were sitting on a big junction of the village and were protesting. The supreme court had forced the state Karnataka to give water to the state of Tamil Nadu. Much to the disaray of the farmers around the area, where the water is supposed to be taken from. This grew bigger and bigger untill some political figures stood aside the farmers and called for the strike. We watched and wondered if we would arrive at the temple... Luckily the other bus station was behind the strike so we were able to get there. The temple was fine, much more expensive than expected, the guy said the prices were raised last month. Carina confirmed, that the prices have also been doubled in Hampi last month... Not happy we bought the tickets and explored the temple.

Here the temple, probably the top is missing(?) and the colours etc. aswell.

It is not really being used as a temple I guess (though some kids came inside to pray at the statues

When we were on our way back we waited at the bis station. And we noticed alot of people were waiting with us aswell, because of the strike (which was apparently still going or just had ended) the buses were late and rather rare. Once we finally got into a very very full bus we were actually able to get through easily. We met again for dinner, because it was there last "proper" day in India! The next day they took a bus to the Bangalore airport to wait there a few hours and then head back to Germany in the early morning. All the best =)
That evening I noticed Maria. A girl from Spain travelling alone. I met her again in the morning for breakfast, we chatted and decided to hang out together.
We visited the Palace in Mysore! A beautiful building! Not too big (at least what is open to the public) and very pretty. The included audioguide was fine aswell, using some funny sayings and oldish words (spanish apparently a little more, because Maria thought it was quite funny). Interesting thing a just amazing. Sadly the guards didn't like people just talking in the hallways so a few times we were asked to move on and not just stand somewhere...
But it is nice. Not just the outside at night, but also the inside.

Front view of the palace by day

From the side

"normal" illumination at night

The grand illumination on sundays (and festival days)

We visited another art gallery, which had some nice pictures of Raja Ravi Varma (a famous artist in India) and some cool musical instruments (no fotos allowed...). I met Carina and Tobias at the bus stop to say good bye to them (and they were kind enough to take back a few things of mine ^^'). On the way I encountered a huge procession, alot of police, men dressed in orange were dancing like crazy and behind that a long line of cars/ loreys with Ganesh statues on top. These were all guarded by people on the trucks, they gave shade to the idols (the sun was shining), watched, that they did not fall and prepped their garlents. A great sight. Probably 10-15 cars were all driving behind one another, some with huge speakers making loud music for the dancing crowd, others just with the Ganesh and kids hanging around.
This is a part of the big Ganesh festival, that goes on for several days in India. It is supposed to be huge in Mumbai, but I saw it in Mysore, Hampi and Goa. When I had finally arrived in Mumbai it was over. (some say it's 2 weeks, others 10 days, probably depending on the region).
Basically the Idea is this: People go through town in a huge parade like thing, making loud noises/ sounds (in Goa they'd use crackers ahead of the Ganesh carrying cars) and by this show devotion to him. People were able to go to one of the big Ganesh trucks (the Ganesh all had different sizes) and recieve flowers/ other blessings. The destination is a river/ lake/ sea/ ocean where they would drop the Ganesh into the water in a ritual. (with songs, prayers and stuff). No priest has to be present (at least I wasn't able to make one out). While I was on the way back to my hotel I met Maria again and we walked with the parade and watched everything happening there. In the very front there were two men dressed up (a little like in the Kathakali costumes I saw in Kochin) doing some theater/ dance. I didn't see this in any other Ganesh procession.
At one point we left, because the closest river/ lake was quite far away and so it could have taken a very loooong time till they arrived their (and maybe another one way their goal). But very fun to watch. A few kids came up to us and asked us our names. They made up names for one another, which probably meant some bad things. The youngest only came up with the word for "bad boy", saying that was the name of a friend on one of the trucks ^^

See the small Ganesh statues on the trucks? Everything in orange and ready for a big festival!

The next day I did a short walk up the Chamundi Hill to a temple. 1000 steps. Hah! Easy! (if you remember, the walk up to Tirumala was 3550 steps)
I walked up, this time with shoes (all others were wearing them aswell). This is much smaller and apparently less known. Many people simply use it as a way to school, shopping etc. About 2/3rd of the way up there was a big Nandi statue (the riding bull of Shiva). And a few small stalls. From that point on I had a dog. She just followed me. I realised at one point something was at my side, this dog. Sometimes she'd walk ahead, sniff in the forest left and right, wait for me to catch up. Sometimes stay behind and hurry back to my side. Pretty cute^^
I guess it was all so the dog could be protected by me from other humans/ dogs/ animals. Though it would scare off the monkeys or whatever is scared of a barking dog. As soon as I reached the top the dog left me and lay down underneath a cart in the shade to relax. No more dog for me =(

The doggy on my side for the walk up

View on the steps (the colours are put there by devotees)

Awesome centipede! (matching the colours of the steps!)

1000 steps! Woohoo ;-)

The Gopuram on top, currently being renovated

The temple had a big Gopuram, which was under construction and the view was that great from the top, but the walk up was nice.
I walked a little through the village on the top, saw there were much more touristy shops etc. here and even priests selling stuff like other vendors (sitting on the street with baskets infront of them). I walked back down, met Maria once again and we planned to meet in the afternoon.
This didn't happen, because on the way she heard of a big strike in Karnataka on friday. Apparently everything would stand still. She was worried and headed to her hotel, where we met one last time and she then headed back to Bangalore, to be closer to her flight on friday evening.
On the way I was searching for a post office to send back some spices and stuff to Germany. I decided to take the service of the "Indian Post", because it cost about 2000 Rupees for 4,1 kg while DHL cost about 9000 for the same weight (box etc would still be extra).
So I sent a package to Germany (it already arrived! Yeah!)

The next day was the strike. The hotel people told me everything would be closed, I should brace myself. I didn't really think about it being so big...
On friday the 9th of September the state wide strike started in Karnataka, to oppose the supreme court from taking their water and giving it to Tamil Nadu. And everything was closed. EVERYTHING! No small stalls, no shops, no restaurants were open. All schools, colleges, public buildings and so one were shut down aswell. When I walked out in search for breakfast I was suprised to find Mysore almost a ghost town. The streets around the hotel are usually quite busy but today nothing. Maybe 2 people walking around. Then I heard loud shouting and honking approaching. A group of 2wheelers, rickshaws and such were rushing down the road yelling stuff, waving the state flag and driving through the small streets. People told me they were making sure that all shops are closed and stay closed. The hotel told me "They are not dangerous for people, but for the shops and businesses, thats why we keep our doors locked, should they come by." Finally I saw a restaurant whose door was slightly opened and people inside. They let me in and I had some breakfast. Soon they shut the door and their security cameras pointing at the street showed the gang of scooters driving past! After I finished I headed out again and slendered through town. It was amazing how empty everything was. Really no one was working, probably scared of what the biker gang might do to their shop.
At one point I was suprised by a group of men, who were about to take pictures for the protest and they put me in the middle, so I might be in some newspapers "Even foreigners support our cause!" "Germany is at our side and wants us to keep OUR water!!!!!!"

The Mahatma Gandhi circle, usually really busy, now empty:

Me posing for the camera. Leave our water in our state! Justice!

Here comes the gang! Driving through the small streets in Mysore

And they drive off again, searching for open stores to storm into!

And I say what about: New Bombay Tiffanys? She said I think I remember the dosa!

Infront of the big Bazaar. Also usually really busy, now you don't have to worry to cross the street to... closed stores...

No idea... At least they told me I'd be in the paper with the british couple I met there in the crowd. We strolled through town together, found a place for lunch and then I headed back to the hotel to pack my stuff and hoped the trains would really not be affected by the strike so I'd be able to get to Hampi.
And they were not affected luckily. SO off I went to Hampi, leaving Mysore behind.

Random picture of the day: Sheep spraypainted to look like Tigers

Bangalore and meeting up with old friends

While in Munnar Prashanth called me. He was one of my best friends in KIS (3rd and 4th grade). It was weird hearing his voice after 17(!) years. But kind of cool. So I told him about the train and that it would probably be late, he seemed flexible with his job, so everything was fine.

While I was waiting for my train to Bangalore I got a message from the railway company telling me the train will start 2,5 hours later from it's starting destination! Great... So I had to wait till 11:30 pm instead of only 9 pm, I arrived at 7:30 pm at the train station... When the train finally arrived it wasn't able to catch up its delay and so I arrived about 3 hours late in Bangalore. Which wasn't too bad, so Pranshanth (who wanted to pick me up) just had to take a longer lunch brake instead of leaving his job inbetween.
When I arrived he picked me up and brought me to his place. There I met Nishanth (the second one) and his mother again. Awesome!
So I hung out with Nishanth who is currently freelancing and therefore doesn't have "officehours" like Prashanth or courses like Sushanth. In the evening we all together headed out to a pub called "Pröst" (they didn't acknowledge the "ö" and just called it prost - of course pronounced in englisch... I thought then how to say it german). We cought up, talked and had a great time. But we came back to his home rather late, the landlord locks up the outer gate in the night, so the mother had to open it for us (kind of inconvenient).
The next day I did some shopping and exploring with Sushanth, after we did a short jam session in Prashanths office. When he headed to his college I went to town or tried to. Not that easy in this gigantic huge cty. The traffic in Bangalore is unbelieveable! There's probably be a traffic jam at all times somewhere in the city, more likely several. In the evening I met up with Prashanth and Sushanth (I took a rickshaw with Nishanth) at a pub/ bowling alley and we had another fun night. Prashanth and I talked long and it was great. Just checking out what was going on in his life and chatting, I loved it.

But because Prashanths place was kind of crowded I stayed with a couchsurfer (Vivek), who lived close by, so we were still able to meet up.
After the two days staying out late I took it a little more relaxed and stayed one day just at Viveks place, played with the cats (they have 2 cute cats!) and answered some work, you do while travelling (making plans etc). That day was a general Bandh (strike) in India, so I wasn't sure I would even be able to get anywhere.

Cute little balls of fur! Muffin and Shotku (little one in Hindi - spellcheck pending)

The next day I took a bus into town. I wanted to see  the MG Road area (which the Lonely Planet talks alot about). Not that exciting, except you love shops, malls and stuff like that. A taxi driver talked me into taking a ride (for a favour, similar to Kochin). So I agreed and looked at a few shops (again... they were suprisingly similar to the ones in Kochin). They of course had Bangalores Speciality (Silk and precious stones, which seems to be every places speciality). Visiting the shops  took much longer than I expected and so it was already dark, when the guy dropped me at a bus station. I had a quick dinner and searched a bus back to Viveks place (my phone was dead, so I couldn't search online). The people were all very helpful and told me where to change/ get off but couldn't make up theis minds which would actually help... So I wasn't sure and decided to take the advice of the conductor. But on the way I chatted with an indian guy my age, who then suggested I take his Motorbike to a bigger bus station where a bus will definately go to my destination. I think he underestimated the distance and because he didn't know Bangalore (he just moved here) he had to ask for directions. All the time... and it took long. Very long. So at about 22:30 I arrived at the bus station and waited for a bus. When a private bus approached, which actually drove close to Viveks home I entered happily hoping my adventure would soon be over. But they waited. And waited.
Some people got into the bus, others out and we waited. Till the bus was almost full and only then did it start! Same happened at a bigger station where alot of people got off the bus. Sadly I noticed too late one of the government busses overtake us and just left the station while we were waiting at... So after about an hour I finally arrived at Viveks place... The drive is usually maybe an hour with medium/ heavy traffic. And at that time there wasn't much traffic... (wait what?!!!) so it just took rediciulous 4 hours to get back!

The last day I visited the botanical gardens and drove with the metro. In all I didn't really have the feeling I saw alot in the city, but I had the feeling aswell, that there isn't THAT much to see. Most is meeting people and having a nice evening together.

The metro signs in Bangalore: Of course women wear sarees!

Security scans at the metro entrance!

Huge metro hall

And the Botanical Garden: Small maze for small children to get lost in^^

Nice peacock flower thingy in the Bangalore garden

Another selfie - with big green ears!

Thanks to Vivek I was able to book a train online and took the morning train from Bangalore to Mysore on the 5th of september. In total a nice stay. Just the fact that I met Prashanth and his Family again was amazing. They are really cool guys and I hope to be back soon, or maybe they'll come to Germany one day? :D

Munnar - Tea! Tea everywhere!

After the early bus I arrived at Munnar. I was of course welcomed by many rickshaw drivers wanting to bring me to my place and offer me their good deals with tours around Munnar, because that seems to be  the thing to do here.
I just took one to the JJ Cottage I was staying in, a nice small place and asked them about the tours and such. He said they arrange trekking tours and such aswell and a few tours are definately worth it. But for the treks I'd need company, because if I were to do it alone it would cost alot...

After a stroll through town I was told, someone was found for the trek next morning so I could join them and have a nice walk in the mountains. Great! So in the morning I got ready and headed down, 2 french women were waiting there I thought I'd be hiking with them, but then 2 guides appeared and one of them took me somewhere else, while the other guide waited with the french. Kind of confused I followed and was wondering why I wasn't going with the otheres but soon found out, that my partner was a woman from Austria and was staying somewhere else. But we met the french ladies and their 3rd hiking member a couple of times later on. So I'm still not sure why we were seperated (except those 3 wanted to do it alone?).
Anyway we hiked up the mountains and all of it was through the gigantic tea plantations, now and then our guide showed us things or explained something. For example how white, green and black tea are made and how the teaplants grow over 100 years old untill they aren't useful anymore. I forgot the specifics, but white is handpicked and is made out of the freshest and youngest leaves (therefore being very expensive), the others are usually just cut off of the plant and then the process of how they dry/... the leaves makes it either green or black tea.

A tea plant with a flower - the smalles light green leaves are handpicked for white tea

The other light green leaves are used for green and black tea

We had a nice breakfast on a mountain top (higher than the plantation) and headed further along the ridge of the hills. After a viewpoint without view (Ah! Pretty clouds) we walked down into the forest. Katharina (the Austrian girl) joked it wasn't really a trek but more of a pleasant stroll in the mountains and fearing our guide was too exhausted. She had a point, our guide was always suggesting breaks and so it took longer than we would have needed.

Our guide said: Go up there, I'll take a picture. Apparently they do it for all of their trips ;-)

The viewpoint... Pretty clouds =)

Tea plants! Woohoo!

At a small spice farm we halted and had good expensive tea. Well expensive tea. It was good, but rather not worth 4 times a normal tea... Around it were treehouses and alot of other expensive things/ accomodations and so on.
Anyway we came out of the forest and came back into the plantation area. Crossed a dangerous river (well the bridge was rather dangerous) and met our guides brother on our way back to town, he was in his tuktuk, so we hitched a ride for the last 1.5 kilometers I guess.
Katharina had to head to her Bus, so after a quick lunch she left and I had to make my guide happy by promising he could take me on a tour the next day.

Sleepy Jakob

Powered up Jakob

Spooky treehouse...

So this is the way we're going? I think I saw some barbed wire just cut and moved to the side...

This explains that!

So the next day he picked me up and we went to a viewpoint, called top station. Wasn't really what I expected... "Top station" sounded like a station on the top of the moutains. But it was just the side of a round with a nice view towards the highest mountain in south India and over the border of Kerala to Tamil Nadu. But I could have imagined the road might lead even higher, but not sure... My driver himself is from Tamil Nadu und is native tounge is Tamil, as he told me. But alot of tamils came to Munnar as workers in the tea plantations. He told me this while looking at the tamil nadu border.
On the way we visited a few sites, I took pictures of nice views from dams, of rivers and lakes and of course pictures in all the mountains.
He convinced me to take another tour in the afternoon, so that I spent almost all day in a tuktuk. Before lunch he took me to the tea museum, nice place but small and should therefore be cheaper (in my opinion) (it cost about 200 Rupees). In the tea factory (where one could see how they dry and chop up the tea leaves and such) the group of tourists (they show a short film about the tea plantation company and this audience was the group) was sent upstairs where an older indian guy appeared. He started talking about how great green tea is. He told us that chinese and japanese aren't fat or overweight because they drink green tea and no black tea as indians do. He was making it sound like the best thing in the world which could cure all problems. Not sure about that.. but sometimes the amount of tea consumed in India might actually not be that healthy (especially with all the milk and sugar they add into it).
But it seemed kind of weird to say a speech like this in that place (where they mainly sell black tea) so... yeah.

Nice waterfall on my tuktuk trip

The tuktuk which took me to all the places on that nice sunny day!

Tea pickers at work! They use scissors with bag attached, so the leaves are saved directly, then are put into bigger bags, into bigger bags....

After that I had some lunch and then the tuktuk driver took me into the other direction (more downhill) for my second tour. I saw a cool waterfall and the last stop was a spices farm. Here they grow all sorts of different plants, many would be used in ayurvedic medicine and stuff like that, but some are just planted for making food spices and such. The guide was very kind and explained all sorts of things to us (a north indian couple joined me) and told us about his farm (apparently it belonged to him).
Here I bought some spices and seeds (like muskat, anis, kardamon, in the package were cinnamon and curry leaves aswell) and had to go back in pouring rain. I think the driver wasn't too happy about that, but that wasn't my problem. After argueing about the price (he said the tea museum was extra) I convinced him the other tours were so much shorter than he said (4 instead of 6 hours, 3 instead of 4), he could handle the waiting there with the "normal" prices - that actually worked! It cost 1000 Ruppees, considering I was in the riskshaw about 8 hours (well and him waiting at the spice farm, tea museum, other viewpoints) and we did about 100 km (going there and back again) I'd say a fair price, but the distances could be much less and he just told them to me to justify the price. Anyway it was fine.

A tomato tree?! In the ayurvedic garden

I was actually planning to do a cooking class in Munnar, unfortunately it didn't work out. The chef asked for at least 2 people and when a couple called in sick I would have been the only one and so she canceled. Instead I was able to do a "safari" with the tourist corporation. We (a spanish couple and I) drove in a Jeep up the hills, saw nice mountain ranges and stuff untill we reached a wildlife sanctuary/ park where we tried to spot some wild animals, unfortunately it was midday so most animals were in hiding and not to be seen. We got a short glimpse of Bison (the ones like in Kodai) and a group of monkeys. Our guides seemed to be on an elefant trail (they had found some footmarks and poo at one point) but weren't able to find the elephant. So we just walked through the forest, we were shown a few spots with cave paintings and old graveyards which are supposedly 4000 years old, but it was very hot, so it was kind of exhausting. In total really expensive, especially because we paid for the tour and then for the trek was additionally.
We arrived early back and I wasn't suprised we saw so few animals considering we were almost always close to the street (I realised when we started heading back we crossed the street twice).

No animals, but nice views!

And rock paintings! Supposedly 4000 years old

On monday the 29th of August I packed my stuff and took the lunch bus back to Ernakulam. I missed the stop at the train station so had to take a tuktuk to the station from the bus station. Wow next stop is Bangalore and I would be staying at Prashanth, a good friend back in 3rd and 4th grade... amazing and still sort of unbelieveable for me. I was very excited!

Kochin and shops (bargaining) in India

On tuesday (16th of August) I headed for Kochin and stayed in a small cottage called the beach house (owned by a tuktuk driver), which was nice. I had planned to stay somewhere else, but because that place was closed down the rickshaw driver convinced me to have a look at that place. A good choice and I enjoyed it.

So Kochin (Cochi? Cochin? Fort Kochin?) was once a potuguese colony, untill the dutch came which were eventually defeated by the british.
In this place there is (was) a big jewish community, so a part of town is still called the jewish town and they have a pretty synagogue there. The story of the jews in India (or this part of India) starts in the first century AD, after the romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. They were allowed to live with the Indians on the coast and florished untill the portuguese came, who destroyed their homes and synagogue, a few escaped to the Maharaja of Kochi, who protected them also after the portuguese had taken over Kochin. Since then they were a part of the society there. But since Isreal was founded many have left India (someone told me).

Otherwise I felt like this city is much more frequented by tourists and foreigners than other citys. Or maybe I was just in the touristy corner for a change. The food was expensive (but good!) and there were only a few spots of "typical" indian shops and stalls. To find these you'd have to look or just walk into the other direction for quite some time, untill you get past the residential area.
Of course there were alot with gift shops, small souvenirs and stuff, aimed to get tourists to buy stuff. The Tuktuk drivers usually all had a deal with the government shops around the fort cochin area, so you could get free rides if you let them take you to the shops (they'd ask you for a favour). Thanks to this I got a tour through Kochin for free. I did visit 5 shops, but still more than half of the time was spent sightseeing.

This seems to be a thing in Jain temples... they feed pidgeons!

They gather by the hundreds for lunch time! And swarm around the temple, waiting to be fed

One of the old ware complexes of the dutch, some are still being used to store spices and other stuff

Here the washers hang and dry the clothes, there is one big house and this field were alot of people work and clean their clothes

These shops are basically all the same. They sell bronze statues, wooden sculptures, shawls (of course finest quality and 100% pashmina *cough*) and jewellery. And then the bigger stuff (tables, chairs, carpets and trunks).
The pieces themselves would differ, but it was all basically the same. Depending on the people inside you could spend minutes or hours in them (if you don't shake them off). Many are very eager to find out what you like and know which questions to ask, what to say to try and get you.
"Would you like a necklace for your mother?"
"No thank you"
"Oh you don't love your mother?"
"Of course I love her!"
"Well why not show it by giving her this beautiful necklace? Isn't it pretty?"
"Yeah, I guess"
"So should I pack it?"
"No!"
"But this is a unique way to show that you love your mother"
"But I don't need a necklace to prove that I love her"
"True, but if you would get her a necklace, she would know, that you thought of her in this moment in India! When she would carry it she would be proud of you and know you thought of her on your travels."
"Ugh... how much?"
"How much would you pay?"
*sigh* "1000 Rupees?"
"I was thinking of more than that"
"Then sorry, good bye"
"No no wait! How about 3000?"
"I'll have to think about it"
"But this deal is only good today! Its a special day and for you, my goooood friend, I'll give you this one-time deal! It would be stupid to let it slip"
"Sure, then I guess I'm not that smart. Good bye!" (runs away)

The longer this takes you usually feel more the urge to either just give up and buy it or to just run away. Additionally you get the feeling you need to compensate his job somehow, he has been trying to sell you something for this entire time, now you should maybe buy something small at least...
Luckily I have a good controll to only get weak when I actually want something. But then the bargaining gets harder and so on... sometimes walking by/ leaving simply helps alot. They will go down with the price. That way you can get something from 12.000 Rupees to 3.000 Rupees. Of course 12.000 is way to high for the actual price and it is never worth that much, but you can more or less notice it when they go down with their "special discount" for you. I can't imagine them selling something, if the money is less than it's worth. You should probably half the prices (probably close to actual worth?) and then half it again to be able to bargain. Often the question was: "What would you pay?" "1000" "But the quality is so high! It's such a good piece" "Hmmm... I only have 1000" "2000" "Sorry, no, I'll go" "Ok! Wait, we'll do 1000, ok?!" So you could imagine, that this might actually be the proper price or close to it. And then again you have no Idea/ proof if the article you bought is actually handmade/ fairtrade/ organic/ ... whatever they promised you. Most Shawls and wooden/ bronze items are probably made in the millions and sold all over India.

So Fort Kochin itself wasn't that great, not much to see, cool architecture here and there but not really something breathe taking. The fort itself doesn't exist anymore (except a few walls here and there). The coast line is nice, it has a small harbour, so witha  small Hamburg vibe, so you could often see freighters with alot of containers enter and leave the harbour. They seem to care as less about the environment as many others in India.

Just dumping black waste into the water...

But I still like harbours =)

Another thing at the coast are the chinese fisher nets, they are fun to watch, as they slowly desccend into the water and rise maybe half an hour later. I haven't see any big catches there... but they have to work, otherwise they wouldn't be used.

The net about to be "dropped" into the water

And at sunset... 

So I stayed, to be frank, too long there. One thing was that I had booked a train for the end of August and I didn't know if leaving the city (except for Munnar, as planned) was worth it. And when I got a little ill, leaving the city was out of question, so it wasn't that bad to just stay in one place and get well again. It was nothing bad, if it would have been more than the 2 days I would have visited a doctor. Since then nothing else happened, so I guess it was just a short thing, too much or less of something (water/ sun/ stress/ traveling/ indian food/ spices/...). I don't know, it's gone, that is the main thing.

On one of my last days I met Carina and Tobi again. I had spent an evening with them in Alleppey and just met them standing in the street. So we hung out together once again and we realised we'd be in Mysore at the same time (now beginning of september) so we stayed in touch.
Together we visited the "Kathakali" a traditional Kerala dance. It's closely tied with religion, showing a scene of the Ramayana (or was it the Mahabarata?). We went to a theater, where first the different moves, gestures and emotions were explained. Way to many to remember any, but it was interesting just to know, that all hand signs actually have a meaning (like sign language!) and the dance was very emotional (alot of face expressions complemented the hand signs). When the actual dance started a man in the background started singing (probably reciting the Ramayana or explaining what was happening, but it was on Malayalam, so I have no clue). The show was about a demon (who was disguised as a pretty woman), who tried to seduce a god, but he stayed strong and resisted long enough to see through the demons illusion and lastly killed him, to free his fellow gods, who had fallen to the demons spell.

Me posing with the Kathakali actors (left the god and right the sexy demon woman who tried to seduce him)

The stage inside the theater

This was actually really cool, though the speakers weren't adjusted at all, so it wasn't that enjoyable (way too loud!). But the dance was interesting.

After the couple had left I had another day and explored Ernakulam, where I would arrive from Munnar and then take a train (so I would know where to go etc).
In the night I toke a private bus (but one like a proper public transport, probably to meet the demand on this path) to Munnar and arrived there in time for lunch (it had some technical problems, so it was delayed).

An old ship radar, outisde the navy museum

And inside the Museum (they displayed alot of weapons, missiles and stuff like that)

At the beach of Fort Kochin, one of the old defences!