monday 21/1
3.20 got up
the typical indian traveller, according to my very limited study: either old and grey or young with blond unbrushed hair and a green rough jacket.
lots of snow in iran.
21.30 (local time) landed in thiruvananthapuram. got on a pink bus to our hotel, together with a bunch of old age pensioners.
were welcomed with flowers and a very sweet drink.
dinner: lots of strange dishes with different colours and smells. "no no, no strong, only a little bit strong": yeah, right! i can tell allready i'm going to starve on this trip >)

tuesday 22/1
6.30 got up
bus to alappuzha ("the Venice of the East"), which took about 4 hours. stopped on the way to have lunch. some people saw dolphins. i was not on of them :(
got on a kettuvallom (or something like that), which was an old boatmade of ropes. i think it had been used to transport rice, because they called it rice boats. the husband and i went on a boat together with a cool couple from uppsala/manchester who had ohm tatoos, yin and yang in the ears and did tai chi to start the day.

cruised the backwaters of kerala all day. spent the day, evening and night ooking at the vies, reading and resting. at sunset the boat stopped for the night. beautiful night with a full moon on one side of the boat, and some kind of ceremony going on in the distance at the other.

woke up after two hours sleep. until then i hadn't realised how much a person could sweat! it felt like my skind was liquid, and the air was filled with more water than actual water!

today i had the smallest banana i've ever seen. i also had a green one and one that wasn't sweet. and i don't even like bananas >)

so far: doesn't feel really "me" to be so extremely "tourist-ish". maybe booking a roundtrip was a mistake?

wednesday 23/1
6.30 up (again! i don't even get up this early when i go to work)
today is the birthday of an important hundu god, so we've heard drums and prayers all night :)

breakfast on the boat with the cool people. this is their third trip to india. their first stay lasted 7 months.

went on a bus to the western ghat mountains. you seem to be able to drive on whichever side of the road you feel is the most appropriate at the moment. and there are people, mopeds, elephants and kids all over the road. the cows and goats are clever and keep at the sides of te roads :)

stopped at a rubber plantation. two dirty little men showed how they make rubber.

visited a tea factory. very load! and i suppose they wouldn't pass a system safety test... it was cool, though. the machines looked like something in a tv-programme i saw as a child (doctor snuggles?). and the air smelled of tea. apparently their tea was of very bad quality, and was only sold locally. but now i have bought some bad tea to give to my friends :)

saw a flower garden too. they had lots of flowers. and as everything is so wet things grow everywhere. the walls of the houses turn grey with mould while they are still being buildt, and soon green little leaves start to grow through the cracks.

had dinner at a restaurant on top of ahill with a fantastic view. met a group of american tourists born in india, and the former owner of the restaurant.

arrived in kumily in the afternoon. our hotel was double booked, so we got to stay at a brand new hotl right at the edge of the village. it feels like the country side, with cows and field just outside, and only a short walk to the city/village of thekkady.

went for a walk over the border to tail nadu. met javeed from kashmir, who told us everything about shawls. had a head ache, and bought head ache pills with the colour "sunset" :)

so far: everything is weird and new and different: smells, tastes, sounds, colours. it's very green and damp, and the houses are falling apart in one end while they are still building the other.

have to go. this is the first internet we've seen for ages, and tmmy and someone else are standing in line.

i'm now on top of a mountain, where it was three degrees below freezing yesterday night!  ¶ 4:23 PM