Palolem - preparing for the silence

A friend had told me that at Palolem it is possible to rent a kayak and observe dolphins so I needed to go and see for myself. I went out twice and paddled to some bays near by with my eyes searching. The first day had the concurrence of some motorboats chasing after the sea-mammals but on the second day I got up early and could enjoy the silence on the sea. The dolphins seamed to be more comfortable without the noise of the motorboats too and let me come very close. I did not dare to swim with them but tried to follow them on their rounds through the bays. In two occasions a dolphin jumped out of the water a few meters next to me which was fascinating and a bit frightening at the same time ;)))

On the 1st of April I will start a 10 day retreat in Dharamsala next to the Himalayas so I will not be able to communicate in what ever form until the 12th. Have a great time meanwhile, big hug to everybody.

...one more detail which might be interesting especially for my Spanish friends. I just booked a ticket to Madrid from the 5th to the 23rd of May. Me hace mucha ilusión veros a todos de nuevo!!!

Hampi - on a motorbike through the surreal landscape

Feeling a bit like easy rider I took of to explore the monuments and ruins a bit further from Hampi, cruising over sand-roads, passing through rice fields and reaching places where the locals looked at me like they had never seen a westerner before. A beautiful thing in India is the natural and direct way people get in touch with each other and welcome strangers with open arms and a bright smile.
In the evening I went to a famous sunset spot on top of a mountain of big round rocks piled on each other. As I was a bit lazy to search for the way and already had practiced the day before I just climbed and jumped from rock to rock to reach the top. Up there a pack of monkeys was waiting for the tourists hoping to get some food or what ever they could grab to play with. I shook a finger with a young monkey and was stunned by their fearless behavior. When I had an adult monkey hanging at the strap of my rucksack I realized that these little bastards were ready to steal about everything they could lay their hands on ;)
This day I did not want to risk having to walk down in the dark so right after sunset I got on the way down, having to climb over an already locked gate of an Ashram near by in order to get out the motorbike…

People in Hampi celebrate Full moon with a huge bond-fire. Now I understand the concept of a "full moon party". In earlier days these were the occasions where people could take advantage of the bright moon light in order to stay up late and celebrate. As I am not a big fan of masses and and the crowd in ecstasy I went to sleep soon in order to gain some strength for the national "Holi-festival" the next day. I guess the pictures speak for themselves, it was great fun to throw color pigments at each other and dance to the percussion music with a child riding on my shoulders… Now I am sitting here, wondering if the stains on my skin will wash off in a few days ;) Big hug to all of you!!!

Hampi - night bouldering

The landscape around Hampi is so surreal, that no photo can capture it´s magical spirit. As I got briefed well about this place I hired a bicycle and started exploring the areas surrounding the town following a hand drawn map created by the biologist I had met on the beach. Over stones and sand I went with this one-gear-crap-bike which was falling apart little by little. At some point I had to leave it behind and hike and climb over big boulder-rocks (Hampi is a paradise for climbers…) to find ruins of temples and palaces.
In the afternoon I decided to search for a waterfall I had heard of. After some time and only with the guidance of a local, Fritz (a German guy I met somewhere lost in the middle of nowhere) and I reached the waterfalls, not without climbing and jumping over smaller river arms. Enthusiastic and in total bliss the two of us had a swim against the current, climbing on rocks in the middle of the stream and like this moving upstream. Swimming back to our base I felt like a Olympic swimmer because of the additional speed by the current.
Over taking photos, jumping form rock to rock, swimming, having a picnic and just enjoying the sunset we missed the right moment to get going back. Too self-confident and having underestimated the way, we got lost on the river, trying to find our way climbing over boulders, searching for a way which would not lead us through the water and high vegetation further down stream as there most likely live crocodiles (the biologist had found a dead crocodile when see was here only a few days ago) and snakes. The whole situation turned out to be a bit like in a horror-movie, where the protagonists die one after the other because of getting separated. Fritz (who had been a total stranger a few hours earlier) and I did not agree on the way, as I was not willing to walk through the water and high vegetation without seeing where I stepped… So under the threat of separating us (which was not fair at all from my side, but my urge to survive was stronger than my wish to be diplomatic and considerate at that moment) he followed me over the rocks until we reached a barbed wire fence, which we crossed to get help of the only family who seamed to be living on this Island in the middle of the river with it´s huge rocks. I guess that the river bed was about 100 meters broad, so even with the guidance of this local it took us some more time over boulders, through shallow water-passages and finally out of the river bed, where we found our bikes. Exhausted, but happy for having gotten out of there without a scratch we brought our bikes back through the moon-light of the night before full moon.

Gokarna - life sucks ;)

Among some friends we have the running gag of stating "life sucks", when ever we live moments of sheer happiness stunned by the impressions invading our wits. Gokarna is definitely a place where one would like to stay for some time, in fact almost all the people I met there stayed way longer than they had planned to ;)
Back from Kumily I tried my luck to catch a fully overbooked night train with 3 hours delay and the whole Indian Railway reservation system out of order and succeeded!!! The TT (don´t know what that means, he is kind of the chief-ticket controller of the train) accepted my appliance ticket (this ticket gives you the opportunity to ask the TT for admission in the train if there is space). Having arrived at a train-station some 30 kilometers form Gokarna I wanted to find a way to get there without having to rely on very business oriented rickshaw drivers. Luckily a nice man observed me negotiating and offered to take me in his car almost the whole way. He turned out to be a hard working physician who built up his own clinic and has become very wealthy dedicating all his efforts to his business and family. I felt a bit strange sitting next to a men, who maybe takes half a day off per week and only occasionally takes some time off in order to visit his two grow up children at the towns where they study, while I have been traveling for 4 and a half months now, spending only a few days working and a few weeks doing courses. I guess it is impossible to determine, which way of living is better, I guess this depends entirely on the dreams, wishes, possibilities and priorities of each person.
How ever it seemed that it was my job to keep the conversation flowing while the doctor did the driving ;)

The first photos you seen actually show the bus stop, where the man dropped me. I had to smile about the Indian way once more, improvising and keeping things simple. How needs signs, as long as the people and the bus-driver know where to stop?

A rickshaw ride later and 24 hours of traveling I landed at Om-beach, a nice spot with only a few restaurants and palm leaf huts. The hut I rented did not have a floor, so the beach-feeling started right after getting out of bed ;)
So every mooring I got up like a champion to do my Yoga practice and go for a swim, spending the rest of the day reading, writing and exploring other beaches in walking- or at least hiking distance. Had it not been for a nice and (maybe a bit hyper-) active biologist from Alaska, I would have taken things a lot easier, but like this I discovered Gokarna-town and 3 more beaches… According to her the dog is the only species which co-evolves with humans and thus always wants to be near us. Indian street dogs are not very considered by the locals, but they don´t get mistreated either, so these dogs are much more relaxed and friendly than most of the over-breded dogs in Europe.

Kumily - between tea plantages and the rain forrest

A little sentimental I left behind Alleppey and took the morning bus to Kumily, a 5 hour ride over pumpy roads winding up into the hills, with branches occasionally reaching into the bus without window-screens slapping faces of inattentive or sleeping passengers. Having reached Kumily I found the place my Tirolean friends had recommended, a modest house with a few rooms for rental just next to the forrest. Luckily the owner warned me about the monkeys climbing around the balcony, playing with what ever they can find and even entering rooms in search of food or interesting items to play with.
As I got the initial impression that this village was pretty much focused on tourism only with not much else to do or see than tea-plantations, spice gardens and the national reserve, I decided to jump right into it in order to move on after 2 days. By ricksha I went to see a tea plantation, where a guide repeated his every-day sermon to a small group of travelers, trying to practice his French and English rather than actually giving useful information and actually showing the processes involved in the fabrication of tea. How ever, I learned that all the different types of black tea in the world apparently developed from only two species and I know now how to make Chai ;)
After a short stop at a spice garden where another guide pressed the play-button on his forehead in order to reproduce his mental tape about spices. Reminded of my job as a fundraiser some years ago I tried my best to get the poor man off his track by asking him things which didn't have anything to do with spices. In the evening I visited a Kalari-show -- martial art -- longing to got off the tourist path again and experience some more authentic India.
The next day at the "Periyar Tiger Reserve" I past with mixed feelings as well. In my romantic dreams I had expected tense rain forest, as far as my eye could see, many different kinds of animals crossing my way and an experience adjusted to the wishes and needs of the small group doing the safari. When the 5 of us entered the reserve we could see wide deserted hills where one day must have been a rain forest. I guess that most of the animals were not very keen on seeing us noisy, civilized and maybe degenerated humans and the reserve guide did not seem to care much about his job either, wearing a shiny red t-shirt and talking on the mobile phone in the middle of the jungle. In the end we saw a black giant squirrel, a few black macacs (monkeys) and some bisons from far fleeing into the shelter of the woods. I imagine that the only way to actually see and observe wild animals is far off the tourist-paths, with a zoologist or alone with a very good tele-objective waiting for the wild creatures to show up at a water place or crossing a lightning in the forest.
After concluding the 6 hour trek on small paths over hills and valleys I was wondering in what a bad condition our planet must be, when even in nature reserves the human imprint is omnipresent. Overpopulation, illegal hunting and corruption are stronger than the attempts of several programs to actually safe endangered species and their habitat, for instance there exist some tiger-reserves in India where not a single tiger has been spotted in many years…
Sorry if I sound a bit dark today, but I was not able to find a funny twist this time ;) Big hug to all of you.

Alleppey - the right spot to do a freelance experiment

Before meeting my Austrian friends in Kochi I already had stayed at a great place in Alleppey, so when Marlene and Wolfgang decided to check out the back waters as well I just brought them back here. Run by some young Indian Bob Marley imitations this Traveler´s home consist in 6 small double houses with verandas and something which with some fantasy reminds on a front garden.
As my friend Peter and his friend still were here I felt a bit like at home, having my friends as next door neighbors ;) We all had a great time together having Chai on the veranda, going to town to try out legendary places like "The Indian Coffee House" and doing a boat trip through the smaller channels of the back waters. In the morning Marlene and I did Yoga together, so I even had the chance to practice my teaching skills with my first student.
I already had started to get used to this sweet way of living, when all my friends left the same morning, which confronted me with being all by myself for the first time in the past two months. All of a sudden I had to create my own structure again and decide how to move on. As I have been feeling very comfortable at this place and as they have free WIFI here, I decided to stay and work on a freelance project a good friend of mine passed me on. This gives me the opportunity to find out how well I can do a job sitting on a veranda in India… For now I can tell you that it is not so easy to sit down and work while all the people around you are enjoying their holidays, but of course I prefer to work like this than sitting in an office ;))) So I try to get up early every day and start the day with Yoga and meditation before I work for some time on the computer.
A few days ago I met 2 young Tirolean couples, which makes this place feel a bit more like home again. We went to a beach near by and enjoyed incredibly tasty pineapples and other fruits on plates we had woven out of palm leaves ;)

My dear friends and family, I miss you all...