A look back on India

I love India.

So I came to India in the end of June. Almost 4 months ago. Unbelievable. 1/3rd of a year I have spent in this country, where I spent my childhood.
I had a really good time and enjoyed my travels. Though I miss my friends and family and Germany (especially Hamburg) I felt good and was most of the time comfortable here on the road (or the tracks of the indian railway). Today I arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal.

India is an extraordinary country. So many people, so much tradition and good food. Loads of rituals, rickshaws, noise, dirt and animals. Huge fields, temples, beaches, mountains, crowds and plantations.

I loved it, raoming around town, haggling with people about prices, getting food in small stalls and creating a smile on the man selling me a samosa.
I adored the children who loved to wave to me and yell "Hi!" or "Bye!" or the parents making staring babys wave, though they were scared of this pale human.

The huge cities making me feel nauceous of the smell of dead animals or fresh piss, making me deaf of all the honking, making me blind with all the dust and dirt in the air and making my skin red because I forgot to put on sunscreen.
The smaller towns where white tourists were rare and because of that them staring at me, maybe seeing a foreigner for the first time in their life, helping me out of the goodness of their heart, smiling and greeting me like a fellow human and feeing alienated by me because I look very differently (with my blond hair, redish beard and white skin).

Just great. I loved it.

Arriving in Chennai I was immediately ripped off by the taxi to get into town. From there I was overwhlemed by the city. I wasn't even able to cross the street without an heart attack! I would have really enjoyed someone in the first few days, I managed and the food was greaet. Mmmmm.
I had my first Biriyani in India since 17 years... And dosas (crepe made of rice dough), idlis (basically rice cakes), vada (savoury spiced "donuts") and the curries! Masala everywhere, with aloo, ghobi, paneer, palak, tikka and more with names I forgot. Sooo good. I loved the Thalis in south India. Mainly big rice portions with alot of different sauces, chutneys and other dips (often with vegetables). Thali was translated to me as "meal", so you get if for lunch or dinner, it is cheap and in south India I got second, third or even fourth servings of rice (if I wasn't careful) and each time new sauces.
Being vegetarian is no problem in India. Vegan might be I guess (they put butter, cheese or milk into alot of things and that concept of food is unfamiliar to them). But because of the religion and culture many animals are considered holy and therefore many won't eat any animal. Though there are enough that do, so chicken is very common, mutton a little more rare. Beef is pretty hard to get by, mostly it is even outlawed, but you might stumble across someone who knows someone who knows someone who has a guy - if you get what I mean.
So you will find vegetarian options in all restaurants. Even McDonalds, Burger King or KFC. And often it is a 50:50 ratio, not like in other places where McD might have 1 vegetarian burger.

Food aside, I soon got more accustomed to haggling, negotiating (though I am still REALLY bad at it) and knew a few prices which is very valuable. But if you get ripped of the first time and you think the price was right the second time you might still be paying too much. You will know as soon as the vendor sells it to you without at least trying. For example:
"How much?"
"500"
"300?"
"ok"
"..." - At this point you know you still paid enough to guarentee him a good (if not huge) profit, so he doesn't even have to try.

I enjoyed the typical tourist places at the beginning, not to crowded, not too much haggling (set prices) and only rickshaw drivers to fend off. I visited forts, temples, churches and museums. Especially museums were a calm haven for me, mabye an annoying class rushing through, otherwise quiet. Most temples will be quiet and peaceful aswell, though if it is popular you won't have much space or calm, because devotees will be rushing through and trying to recieve darshan or prasada. If I was in bigger cities gardens and parks were great for a retreat.

Later I would venture more into the bazaars, try not to be pulled into any shop, or at least not buy anything unnessacary for way too much money, because I had no idea how much it cost. As an advice: Never buy at your first place. In the second you might hear another price or while walking out the shopkeeper will try and keep you interested by dropping the price significantly.

Amongst all I loves meeting people. Be it other tourists or Indians, whose short chats often resulted in them asking for my number or facebook name, to keep in touch. I still think it is weird just to walk up to a stranger like that, but I guess otherwise you won't meet other people.
I really enjoyed travelling with Christina and William, hanging out with the people in the hostels in Goa and meeting the people in Mysore and Alleppey.
Doing trips, be it in a tuktuk, on a canoe, a local bus, scooter or train.
I probably forgot alot of the people I met, I'm sorry, if I do, just remind me, maybe I wrote about you in my blog ;-)

The south stayed my favorite. It might just be, that I was there longer than in the north and I rushed through the northern states. Or maybe just because I had a more emotional connection towards it (growing up there and so on shouldn't be ignored).

Things definately stuck in my memory are visiting the places of my childhood: Tirupati with the people still feeling gratitude towards my father and projecting this unto me. Kodaikanal, where I saw our old home, walked the well known paths to old friends homes, through the woods of our compound or just over the campus. Thiruvannamalai where I met people from different faiths and later relaxing on the beaches of Kerala. The lush hills of Munnar and the calm hikes through the tea plantations. The busy cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, Varanasi and Delhi with their bazaars, shops and sights. Having drinks with other travelers in Goa and driving with rented scooters. Visiting religious sites of both Buddhism and Hinduism aswell as amazing muslim arcitecture in Agra or Jaipur. And lastly visiting the border of India and Pakistan and feeling the patriotism of this country rise high over all I have felt before and trying to hard to get into a fort in Delhi.

The last mentioned experiences will follow in their own blog posts. I apologize here for being so slow with writing my posts. I have finally made a map of India, which I have uploaded to this post. You can see where I have been and it is even coloured (I am after all planning to become a teacher!) For the next countries I will try to get a map uploaded earlier, so people can "track" me - if desired. I'll try.

Now for my poorly made map: Numbers show in which states I was during the travels
1: Tamil Nadu
2: Andhra Pradesh
3: Kerala
4: Karnataka
5: Goa
6: Maharashtra
7: Uttar Pradesh
8: Rajasthan
9: Haryana/ Delhi
10: Punjab

Here the route I took:
Tamil Nadu: Chennai -> Tirupati -> Sri Kalahasti (back to Chennai) -> Thiruvannamalai -> Pondicherry/ Puducherry (and back) -> Madurai -> Kodaikanal (and back) ->
Kerala: Trivandrum -> Alleppey -> Kochin/ Ernakulam -> Munnar (and back) ->
Karnataka: Bangalore -> Mysore -> Hampi ->
Goa: Palolem -> Anjuna ->
Mumbai -> Jalgaon/ Ajanta
Varanasi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Gurgaon/ Delhi -> Amritsar