Hello !
So, I am writing my posts in French and then trying to translate them myself, there will be a slight delay as it actually take some time… It is 4 am, I am currently translating my first French post about India in front of our hostel in Bangkok, waiting for the door to open, after having travelled for the past 16 hours, I hope I will manage to be coherent !
India then, my observations are based on the two weeks we spent in the Kerala region, southern India. We haven’t visited any of the big cities , but mostly small villages and towns and the countryside. First of all, this is a beautiful country, with stunning views, amazing colours and lovely locals. I really liked the fact that we could not find any fast foods, Starbucks or others and that the main advertising seems to be very localised to their own products. It is a poor country where toilets can be unreal ; where people still work sometimes on the floor in very dubious conditions, but where smartphones are everywhere. I was super surprised to see how many people are actually watching their favorite soap on the train back home on their 4G, when the trains themselves look like they were just taken out of the 1950’s.
In order our itinerary was:
Kochin
Munroe Island
Varkala
Munnar
Kochin Again to fly to Malaisia
We took a lot of public transports, trains, buses, local buses. Prices are incredibly cheap. Trains for example are either sit but unreserved or tends to be sleepers. It tends to be quite a big mess. People just pile on one another and as it is super hot, it gets quite sticky. The principle of queuing is somewhat alien to them, while I was buying our first tickets, people kept jumping before me, I had to actually battle to get there. nothing surprising thinking about how many people live there, but quite an experience.
Locals tend to look at us a lot with Alex. I, because of my very white skin colour, Alex because of his hands. They often stare in the most obvious manner, some even comment and touch him. It is originally quite discumcerting but since everybody is doing it ( and still does now that we have done three countries), it is a different culture. The woman’s condition is quite far of European / Western countries. Proportionally, we see much less women than men. I thought it was just an impression, so I looked up on internet and I found that last time they checked their population properly, there was 925 gilrs to a 1000 boys ( against 945 /1000 ten years earlier. It seems like a small drop, but it means that in ten years, proportionally to their population, they have created a women’s deficit of about 35 million… ). Women seemed hidden. In the trains we took and transports in general, there was mostly men, and never a woman on her own. Same thing in restaurants. Everytime I was paying in a restaurant the waiters would always give the change back to Alex, which I find kind of annoying (very).
An other thing that I couldnt help but notice, because it is EVERYWHERE, is garbage. India is incredibly beautiful, but India is filthy. There are very few bins and even if they are there, they are not really used. On our way back from Varkala, we spent a night with Douglas and Charlotte on a house boat. Very excited by the prospect originally, quite a few things turned out to be very disappointing. We were told we could go swimming in the river, after a couple of hours on the boat, I get ready, put on the swim suit, but the moment they stop the boat, we start seeing some floating chicken feet on the surface, then some wings, more feet, it was never ending and there were so many ? To this day I Still dont know if it was because a butcher was up the river somewhere , but not the best site if you want to go swimming. We asked them to move, everytime it was worse. The next morning, while taking pictures of sunrise, Doug saw quite a few people pooing directly in the river. In the end, I never went swimming. The hygiene question that is so prominent in Europe seems to be completely overruled here. Some of it is actually based on their belief that since river like the Gange was created by Buddha ; you can put whatever in it, since it is sacred water.
While we were visiting ; I kept on wondering pessimistically, what will the futur of this nation be. How are they going to cope with over population but also pollution that are already interfering with their neigbouring countries like Indonesia.
My last point is based on their beliefs, you can find temples and churches about everywhere. You can feel that faith is very present in their lives and that communities still evolve a lot around this. We were Lucky to attend one of the big festivals in Munroe Island which was really fun to partake in. I kept on wondering why they have some flower wreath on their cars, especially the nice ones, and one of our guides explained that it keeps jealousy at bay and makes sure to leave off bad feelings. I find this fascinating that superstitions like this are still very much believed in.
India is an incredible smile. People smile at you all the time, I realised hoz much more I was smiling myself while being there. Smiling is contagious. People were so lovely, they wave say 'hello', there is a very strong feeling of humanity, of kindness, maybe linked to religion, maybe not. IT made me want to get to know people better, understand them, know what their lives are about. The first week we were incredibly lucky to stay at a homestay recommended by Katie, Alex's sister and it was such a good experience. Vijeesh's family was great, I couldn't recommmend it enough.
For a country that was not on our itinerary originally, (Hello Doug & Charlotte!) , I loved it and it made me want to discover more. Round the world trip 2026?!...