India

My ankle swelled up like a balloon full of liquid, it wobbled as i walked. So everyone persuaded me to go to the doctors! The doctor didn't look too impressed. He said in simple English, it had swollen up because i had been walking on it, and told me no more walking i must rest!! He strapped it up and i spent the next 3 days sat in the restaurant talking to various randoms and smoking abit. Read The Hobbit while resting! Even now 3 weeks later its still hurts a little! After Pau and the others left i thought id move on to Cochin! Got a night train 3 tier AC sleeper, was a long journey so i rolled abit of hash up and stuck it around the edge of a bourbon biscuit and woke up in Cochin at about 3am! The train station was crazy even at 3am, but of course plenty of rickshaw drivers, I asked to be taken to a place to stay as i hadn't booked anything(takes the fun out of it) We arrived at a place called 'Dream Catcher' And we woke the owner up at about 4am to ask if he had a room, he was a massive guy, tall and fat, he didn't look to happy and his wife joined him on the door step, they snapped at me 5500Rs, and I turned to the rickshaw driver and pleaded is there no where else? Then the big fat guy, Bernard, said whats your budget? I replied 1000Rs Max, and he agreed to let me stay in a luxury family room for 1000. Some where in me waking him up at 4am and asking for a room he decided to really like me. Every other guest that arrived was told how wonderful i was, he'd say, 'I really like him'. It did get a little strange every time you moved the gate, going in or out, he would holla out the window hello come in cup of chai! Strange place but they where really nice. Cochin was pritty shit the was about 2 hours worth of sight seeing, the Chinese fishing nets and some weird power station of the shore. No beach and westerner would want to swim in. I did the backwaters and this was nice but after an hour it was a little repetitive not much wild life, just stinky water and angry Indians saying no photos.

I met seven South Africans on the last night and we went out to have proper seafood. My first Proper sea food ever. I chose blue scampy, little lobster things, and took our food to a restaurant where they cooked it all for us. It was a different taste, but nice. A little messy picking it apart with your hands. Turns out that all 8 of us are on the same train to Varkala, so after a 4 hour train ride we went out for food, and got pritty drunk, later we took loads of Valium down on the quiet beach, about 1am, listened to music and had a paddle in the sea. Then we found a crab and proceeded to make a house for it, the house slowly turned into a prison which turned into a Gladiator arena, we got quite skilled at catching crabs and probably spent the next couple of hours giggling and chasing crabs and putting them in the arena...Crabs don't fight each other so our plan failed and eventually we let them go, had a smoke and went to sleep.

Varkala is a very touristy place, and the tourist do my nut in, walking as slow as possible down the narrow edge in a long line, terribly frustrating when you know where you want to go and can't get bloody past them. They also walk towards you looking in the shops. Theres not many travelers here, plenty of couples and family's and old people. Theres one place i've found that let you smoke and chill out, its called the 'chill out' i spend most evenings here. I've been in Varkala 15 days and i don't really know what i've done with those 15 days, but i am a lot browner and my ankle seems to be getting slowly better although there is still a lump.

I have a dinner date with Alma another friend and Alma's mum tonight at the cheap tali place, eat all you can for 50rs Bad ass meal!!
Then i think theres a party after at the chillout.
Tomorrow i leave for Kollam to catch a train two tier AC, for 16 hours to Chennai, where i get a flight to the Andamans!!!!

Spent far too much and for the next few months im going to have to be careful.

x

1. Climb a coconut tree and twist off a coconut
2. Ride an Enfield Bullet (without killing my self)
3. Speak to a sadhu
4. Drink Feni (Goan spirit)
5. Drink a Bhang Lassi
6. Live like robinson crusoe on Little Andaman
7. see atleast 1 wild snake
8. Stay for 2 weeks in one place
9. Eat Masala Dosa(rice pancake) for breakfast
10. Buy and wear a Lunghi (cotton skirt for men)
11. Feed a monkey a banana
12. Make friends with an Indian
13. Sleep on the beach
14. Blag that you are actually Jamaican but you have a rare skin condition that makes you white
15. Haggle with someone for ages and then say you've changed your mind
16. Swing on a vine in the jungle like Tarzan
17. Make something
18. Eat off a banana leaf
19. Watch an Indian film
20. Use the jug!

So I was on the beach with Pau, and we were going to go for a swim and maybe play Frisbee! We ran into the sea full sprint lifting my legs high over the waves to maintain the speed for as long as possible! And then I twisted my ankle really bad, i was lying in the sea feeling sick and unable to breath for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes it felt a little better and i had a swim with just my arms. We got out and i thought ah fuck it, not that bad i can still feel my toes! So we play Frisbee!!! Later on that evening after dinner it really started to hurt and i couldn't walk on it, it really swelled up, looks like a balloon in the shape of a foot. And my toes look fat!!!!!!

I figured this isn't good so i spent all day yesterday resting in the guest house restaurant chatting with various people and smoking a few. There is only so much you can rest though, i'm in India, I can't waste it in the restaurant when there are experiences to be had! One of the others got chatting to a another crazy person from Amsterdam (50% of people here are crazy it seems) she was selling acid at 600RS a drop!!!!
This is my first time on acid and im doing it in India on a beach with a fucked foot! We bought 1 drop and split it, i only took 1/4 as my first time and i don't want to go swimming!

This was amazing, everything was so intense and it made me a natural poker player, i cleaned up pritty easy!!! Luck was definitely on my side i couldn't lose, i tried! This poker match did go on for quite some time 2-3 hours! Then we went to the beach to have a last smoke before bed... 4-5 hours later me and Pau were still sat around a fire staring at the moon and stars. A few dogs came to share our company, and in the background a few cows climbed on the rocks? We saw a boat with no lights and it was going parallel to the shore, i thought shit POLICE-SAY!!!
But curiosity got the better of us and we investigated, it was a crazy Indian Mackerel Fisherman on a home made boat fishing at 3-4 in the morning? I helped him pull his boat ashore, doing more damage to my ankle i think! The fisherman then started jumping all over the rocks before after 10 minutes coming back over to us and our fire and saying Cigarette? As all Indians do! Later i started to think again, and realised that i'm developing a new language to talk to non-English people, a simpler version! I thought i might forget how to talk properly for ever! And then i realised i'm missing a Spanish accent, the English accent seems so boring compared with every one else. And i'm getting tired having to think of words for people!!! So from now on maybe i am Haroldo, a Spanish guy. Hi, how are you?

Maybe Kerala for XMas every one seems to be heading that way!!!! I can hop there!!!

Hope every one back home is ok!!
Sorry to worry you more parents!!

xxx

Following on from the last post, i wasn't having a good day! Found Michael sitting in the net cafe next to me, without noticing each other for about half an hour. He brought me good news though, he had found a bhang Lassie and nice ok smoke! So after the net cafe we walked up to this place and i had a bhang lassie, Michael had already had one and declined another even as i offered to pay, must be good then! After we went up the monkey temple again 572 steps for the second time!!! Watched the sun set and fed the monkeys and had a smoke with a mad Isreali bird! Then came back down this was about an hour after drinking the bhang lassie and i still felt nothing! Disappointing!!!!!! We walked up the main strip and saw they were showing the black swan in this one place, so we went in and ordered some food... after digesting the food it had me, SMACK in the face, and i was in the oven for the rest of the night. Was a really good film to watch wasted, not that i had any choice i was incapacitated! So a good finish to the day and i have smoke again!!

Next day we hunted down the tipi place that had been recommened to us by Alice the French Hippie! A lovly place surrounded by round boulders that look as if they have fallen out of the sky! We debated how they were deposited there and how the land scape was formed, of corse i gave a good scientific explanation, that sounded like it could be half true! The tipi place was full of hippies but they weren't over the top ones, real nice and laid back!

There was one guy here that was truely mad! I avoided direct conversation with him as he is the kind of guy who won't let you break eye contact for atleast an hour while he bores you half to death! But from tactical eves dropping he was going on about how he had been used as an experiment by some authority, and his mind had been altered and monitored! CRACKERS!

Later on we went to a local Festival i think the first to include both the Hindu and Muslim religions in the same festival. This festival consisted of 2-3 mad old Indians coaxing the fire in the middle, while 2 drummers on hand drums banged a catchy beat and then on the outside every one danced around with the drummers and circled the fire. We stayed for 2 hours and they showed no sign of tiring, but at the end of the night about 4am people get possesed by the gods and walk across hot coals with bare feet. Every one was drunk and for once the westerners were the only sober ones.

6/12/2011
Had a massive chill out day and almost finshed my book, Inheritance! Late afternoon we walked a few KM's to the lake and found a secluded spot and had a nice relaxing dip. I was dredding the walk back as the walk there had taken enough out of me. But Joanas from sweden i think, stuck his thumb out and a Lorry driver pulled over, 5 of us climbed into his cab and he gave us a lift all the way back to the main Hampi road, lifesaver. Hitchhiking in India!!
Interesting fact: 70% of the population of India is below the age of 30.
And the statistics say that the most drink is consumed by 18-27 Year olds. so most the population likes a drink!

7/12/2011
My last day in Hampi and i decided to ditch my guide book, was 5 years out of date and i never used it, every where has the Internet and there is information on the net if i need it. I spent the day trying to finish the last 200 pages of my book so i could ditch that too, i failed with 8 pages to go and had to leave for Hospet to get my bus to Goa, arrived in Hospet alittle early about 17:30 and the bus didnt arrive untill 19:00, so i had a couple of beers and some spicy chicken kabab.
As I arrived in Hospet a man walking with his hands and legs over his shoulders approached the tuktuk begging, and then another with the same disorder approached the otherside of the tuktuk, What a coinsidence!!! I thought isn't it lucky that they both found each other!!!...
When my phone said 19:00 I made my way round the corner to the bus. On board the people next to me said that the bus has a connecting point to Gokarna! I booked a train from Goa to Gokarna for the same price!! I got off at Angola at about 2am a tuktuk driver, as they always are, was waiting as the bus stopped and i paid 600RS for an hour long drive through the night to Gokarna Om Beach. Arrived at 3am with no where booked to stay, and no old monk rum to ease my suffering of sleeping on the beach! I walked all the way down the beach and found 4 swedish people having a late night drink and smoke, so i joined them and the 2 girls offered to let me sleep on the floor in there room for a couple of hours until everything opened up and i could get a room, beats sleeping on the beach sober!!

8/12/2011
Found a room, and just had breakfast! Back by the sea!!!!

Got a Night sleeper AC coach to Hampi, it was not comfortable i woke up every time someone brushed passed me convinced that some one would try to steal my bag. And every time we took a corner at 60MPH you had to hold on to stop being thrown into the center aisle! I would of preferred a seat! (there not available) I don't understand who thinks it better idea to make sleeper coaches than seats!

Arriving in Hampi the rickshaw drivers and little kids chased the coach until it stopped, fighting each other for our custom! Every one of them said the same thing 'Hello friend, What is your name?' 'Come i give you special price' They don't give up easily! And every kid was trying to sell maps of Hampi, even when your eating they come over have a chat with you then try to sell you postcards and maps, better than begging i think but i do not wish to purchase a postcard at double the price i can get it for 30 seconds walk down the road! Some are too cute and you have to give in or you end up feeling nasty.

We got a Rickshaw driver to give us a full tour of the ancient city was amazing!!! Got lots of photos!
Was in a museum of some kind and heard monkeys fighting outside, when we went out to investigate one monkey was having his way with another!

We rented another scooter to go and visit the Monkey temple and I fed a monkey a banana and had a fight with one, he won rather quickly and i turned tail dropped the banana and ran.

On the way back i heard a strange noise from the exhaust so i turned to look and when i glanced forward again i was heading straight for a spikey bush, got a few scratches but didn't fall off.

My shed is 100rs a night about 1.30 GBP. But i am right next to the toilet and the fan doesn't work :/. It smells of cow shit...

I have booked my train to Gokarna from Goa and another night bus to Goa from Hospet , am thinking Kerala after, and then flight to Chennai to go to the Andamans early January!

Not much else to say really, you will have to wait for the slow trickle of photo's as my camera is a piece of shit! I will come back later when my camera is charged and begin the process of singularly copying 6 photos on the camera to inbuilt memory(that's all it holds) and then taking the memory card out and plugging in the camera to the computer uploading 6 photos and then unplugging it and deleting them photos and putting the memory card back in and so on. It's a painfully slow process!!!!!

Ran out of smoke!!!!!!!!!!!!! Main mission today!

Peace!
xx