Varkala - Coimbatore - Ooty - Gokarna

Where to start? Well, last week we spent a few days in Varkala. I ran into Matt, an American I shared a room with in Cochin. He left before me and forgot to pay, so I got my money after all. It was only 5 euros, but Karma is working for me. So getting my money is just good Karma! Maybe Amma has something to do with it. :-)
Varkala is in the South, by the beach. It is beautiful, the town is on top of cliffs where you have an amazing view over the sea. If you go down some little steps you get to the beach. It's weird after all these weeks to be on a beach again among so many Western tourists. I've been in so many places and took so many trains and busses where I was maybe the only white person. But here it's all white! Taking off my clothes and wearing a bikini felt a little awkward. I am always covered to avoid being disrespected by Indian people and here I was wearing a bikini! But the beach is watched by special bikini-police. So if Indian men are on the beach and they stare too much, the police chases them away. A bit weird to know that Indians are not welcome on a beach in their own country, but maybe if they would grow up and learn about the rest of the world, they would be able to handle it more! Something to think about!
We stayed in Varkala for 3 nights and had a lot of fun. Other solo-travelers joined our 'gang' and so every night we were just hanging out, meeting lots of people and having fun. The guesthouse we were staying at was clean and nice, but the management was a bit weird. In the hall there was a bed and this French guy stayed there. He works partly for the guesthouse keeping an eye out at night, and all of his other time goes to paragliding. But when we first arrived he started warning us about Indians and how they lie and rip you off. He said the owner of this guest house is honest, but everyone else is not and that we don't even want to know some of the scams that are going on. Now, I know he's right. I've been here too long to be naief, but what I don't understand is how you can live here for 4 years when all you do is talk about how you can't trust anyone?! I would go crazy! But he didn't seem to mind that much. When he later told us that he bought a house in the same village as the owner and his family, we started realising that this guy HAS to be in on some of the scams. You don't buy a house in an Indian village because it is so romantic or because it's a good investement. Something was up. So the next nights we only went back to the guest house to sleep and we tried avoid this guy. Maybe he was alright, maybe not... but we were not the ones who wanted to find out!
After Varkala we left to go to Ooty. Ooty is 2200 metres above sea level and it's where you have the big tea plantations. To go there you have to take an old miniature steam train up the hill. So there we went, maybe not realising what we were getting ourselves into. From Varkala we took a train to Coimbatore. So we got on a train at 3:15 PM, but it turned out to be the prior train that was late. We were on the wrong train... so we got off the next big stop and thank god it was on the same route that we had to go. So we waited another hour and then we were on the right train. In total we traveled from noon till nine at night, which is when we arrived in Coimbatore. We decided to sleep there and then take another train in the morning at 5 AM. A lot of places were full but we found one lodge that still had 2 rooms available. They were new, modern, clean, with TV, so we took them with both hands. What we didn't think about was that the room Devika and me were in was on the ground floor and our door came out directly on the street. Once we turned off the lights...we knew. Some guy was selling T-shirts right in front of our door and honestly, you go mental when you hear a guy sceaming right on you doorstep "T-shirt T-shirt T-shirt...". When he finally stopped at midnight some guys were laughing and chatting and at 2AM Devika finally got up, opened the door, told them to 'shut the fuck up' and finally there was silence! O, sweet silence. Yep, 2 hours of silence. The silent night ended for us after only 2 hours, because we had to get up at 3:45AM. We had to take a train at 5AM and had to transfer in some meaningless place to the little miniature train. The drive up to Ooty took another 6 hours, but this was well worth it. The railroad goes right through the jungle and gradually takes you up to 2200 metres. There are no roads, no other traffic, no shops, no nothing... and you can see the nature changing every time we go a little higher. Sometimes it's a bit creepy when the train crosses a little bridge and you just see a black whole underneath you, but that's the price you pay to see such a beautiful landscape. Now, I know this all sounds very romantic, but this is still India. So I may have forgotten to mention that we were packed like sardines in a can in this 'little old train' and by the time we arrived in Ooty we were stiff from sitting in the same position for too long, some people even had to stand for a few hours. Yep, still in India!
So we arrive in Ooty and it's cold, but sunny. We walk around in the village and soon realise that this is a weird place. People look in a way that Indians normally don't look, they look like THEY don't trust US, they stole our look, this is how we should look at them. Very strange. Anyway, we are so tired after only 2 hours of sleep and a whole day of traveling that we just hang out at the guesthouse and go to bed early. The night was cold, very cold and it started raining so everything was damp. I was wearing a top, a longsleeve T-shirt, a sweater, my sjawl, a hoodie on my head, leggings and two blankets and I was still cold. So when we got up the next day we only had one mission. One goal in life and that was to get the hell out of Snooty Ooty!!! Yep, only one wish, but it would take us 3 hours to see it granted. 3 hours is what we had to wait for the bus that was late. 3 hours is what we spend in Ooty busstation where it was cold and wet. 3 hours of my life waisted in Snooty Ooty. At times like that you just turn off your brain, stare at the ground and try to forget where you are. There were people everywhere staring at us and at a certain point Devika and me couldn't take it any longer. So we wrapped our heads in our scarves and covered us up completely, trying to be incognito. Have you ever tried to be incognito in India? Well, it doesn't work. They still stare at you. But at least we had a good laugh doing it! :-D
When we finally got on the bus to Calicut it took us 6 hours, then we had to wait two hours at the trainstation, take a train to Mangalore that took 5 hours, wait 1,5 hours and then take the last train to Gokarna for 6 hours. Seriously, I have never traveled that long in my life before. It was hell. The good thing however is that I am mastering the art of sleeping now. I'm not a master yet because I can't sleep standing up, but I'm doing pretty good. I can sleep sitting straight, even without a headstand. And I sleep through noise and smells. It's like I have learned to block my senses and disconnect from my body. It's very important when you are traveling this much because otherwise you would go crazy from tiredness.
I could tell you some more stories about busses and trains in India and how filthy they are, how people spit throught the window, about the amount of waist they throw out the window, about Indian hands that are in places they are not supposed to be... but I'll spare you the details and skip to the good part!
We are in Gokarna now! Kudle Beach! And it is everything I want right now. We have a room in a house behind a restaurant owned by Nepali people and I can tell you with my hand on my heart; they are just a hundred times friendlier than Indians. And we are right at the beach, and it's hot and sunny and yesterday we saw the sunset over the sea and the full moonrise over the hills... oooooh, how beautiful life can be! :-))
I do realise that to enjoy the good you have to put yourself through some bad every now and then, so even Ooty seems all worth it now! For sure! Haha!