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My Bum had gone to sleep from an extremely bumpy bus journey but my senses were enlivened from the death defying climb which the old rustbucket of a bus made up the winding hills (we'd call them mountains) and stunning backdrop of tea and spice plantations, to the town of Thekkady. I now have a wonderful tree house on the border of the Periyar wildlife sanctuary where I am sure I'll fail to spot a Tiger on my early morning safari tomorrow. 5.45am! Can't the bleeders get up a bit later?! It's hard to believe that this morning I was lazing (I do it quite well) on a canoe around the backwater lakes of Alleppey and now only a few hours later I'm, well, very high up.
The bus journey was, as they all tend to be round here, exhilarating. This one was different though and I wondered why, when Indian men (generally) appear so lazy, must they transform into Death's Messengers when you put them in control of something with wheels and an engine? That's what I thought had happened to my driver as us expendable passengers hurtled around bends a considerable way up the hillside and in tandem slid backwards and forwards across our seats. I actually fell off mine once as the momentum provided by a fat sleeping lady sat next to me proved too much. That'll teach me for being so skinny. All in all I think ballbearings in screwball scramble have been tossed about with more vigour but i should button it since I'm here aren't I?!
Fair bit of creative writing gone into that. Can't say I've been keeping an eye but don't think we've yet made it as STA blog of the day. What's going on? Maybe I need to articulate better how I'm fresh out of Uni spending Daddy's money and having the time of my life finding myself. Damn. Ok, how about I just go for the sympathy vote and say how my beautiful girlfriend and I both miss each other. Lots. Will that do it Mr Blog person?!
Back to the story. Today's great views apart, I wasn't overly impressed with the whole backwater experience. Maybe the town being quite dirty and full of touts ruined it since the backwaters were pleasant enough, especially since the weather held (proving that you shouldn't take anyone's word for it but simply go and see it for yourself over here. For "No, don't go there, the monsoon has arrived in Kerala" read "come to my dank expensive excuse for a hotel in the North". Or so the story from the Delhi travel agent goes.) But aside from all that, from my mere 6 weeks or so here, it seems that seeing actual things in India isn't always the thrill - rather, the interesting stuff is seeing the demands the place puts on you whilst travelling and just being here. It astounds, entertains and exasperates - usually in that order and I've gone from loving a place to hating it as I did with Bangalore all in one day.
To be fair (Gary), I probably didn't give Bangalore enough of a chance since I was only passing through on my way to Kerala, following my arrival from the ultra friendly Hampi. That said, I did wander round for a day and it didn't have much in terms of sights but seems to be the modern developing City that the cliche says it is. Anyway, the Maharaja Mac was a spicy chickeney let down but it was great to have some proper chips at long last. Why do these blogs always end up about food? Maybe it's because I'm hungry. There's a thought - dinner..
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