Peanutbutter, clean streets and festivals

It's a big shock to be back again.

August the 14th we landed on Schiphol Airport again with the 7 of us. The 12th we already left Sanne, John, Aline and Anil behind in Trivandrum. It was weird to split up. All the time it was like we were not complete. It's a strange feeling not to have everyone around anymore. I miss the game playing the chats and pouncing with Loek, John and Rishi. I miss the big adventure that we were doing with the 11 of us.


Right now i'm writing from the computer at my parents house. I'm just back from a heavy weekend of Music, Mud and Beer at the Lowlands music festival. (went there same day we landed in the Netherlands again). It was great, but my emotions were all mixed up.


I found it very hard to deal with the big differences. At lowlands people spend awefull amounts of money on beer, chips and other fastfood. I couldn't get the picture of the begging children and men and women out of my mind when facing this. the first two days i even found it hard to really have fun, while on the other side of the world, people are in hunger and worrying about the rain that doesn't come. We hoped it would stay dry for the whole weekend. (which didn't happen by the way, but only on the last day people could go mud-sliding on the slopes)


Here its clean, cold, rainy and the trains run in time.

I ate my first sandwich in weeks and even the pasta at the camping tasted like some luxurious dish. I enjoy the clean toilets, with plenty of toiletpaper, the bath, the couch and most of all being with my family and friends again.

I miss the Dosa's for breakfast, the tasty indian spices and the chai-guys on the train. The potato fields in the polder are empty without colourfully dressed women working in the field and i can't take a rikshaw to the citycentre anymore. Tomorrow, the first thing i will do is cycle again. I'm already looking forward.


I still owe you the stories of the last few days. My last post was from Ernakulam. Just before we went to the internetcafé, I heard that one of my guinneapigs died on monday. It was sad news that first didn't got into my mind. Few minutes later tears would flow and a feeling of being powerless got on to me. I was so far away and i had not been able to take care of her during the last days. It still makes me sad. This afternoon i was at least able to cudle the other one that's all alone now. It was nice to have some arms around me and that people of the group cared :)


6th of august
That day we took off to Munnar. In short there are only few words to describe that; beautifull, amazing and incredible. The teahills are just so nice to see. It's all green, with colourfull women picking the leaves from the top of the bushes.

The night before, we took our last nighttrain from Tirumala to Ernakulam. It's a pity, because i really like the Indian night trains. Once you are settled it gives a quite cozy feeling and its nice to talk with eachother while just sitting there relaxed. When we boarded the train, Anil already took care of some food. There was a big bunch of rice wrapped in banana leaf, several sauces in little plastic bags and there were chappati's (which i didn't take). We ate it from the little tins that belong to my lunchbox and listened to some music (John and I were in one compartement). Meanwhile we were amazed by the heavily snoring Indian lady that was lying there as well. Luckily I wasn't bothered by it during the night.

I had a nice sleep and after we arrived in Ernakulam we got some rikshaws to a hostel. Not to stay there, but just to freshen up.

While i was taking a shower, the boys came into the room and started complaining about mine (and later Aline's as well) singing. (I wish i was a punkrocker). It turned out that there was no proper wall between our, and their shower, so they could hear it quite clear. *oops*

Just some seconds later we heard Rishi again saying *Boeuf*


We went to the internetcafé, bought some lunch and around 5 the car arrived to take us to munnar. It was a very nice 13 seater van. When we arrived at Munnar it was already dark. We stayed in a small cozy house of a friend of a friend of Anil. It was cold in the hills.

The next day we made a tour with the bus through the hills, visited the Tata tea museum and went for some boating. Because of strong winds the boats were not running. On the way to the boats we spotted some wild elephants across the lake, very nice to see. But sad at the same moment. On the same spot there were also elephants that lived in captivity and had to cary humans on their back all day. I'm not really fond of these kind of 'attractions'.


We bought a lot of tea at the museum and after the trip we did some shoppings in Munnar. We planned to cook ourselfs that night and it turned out to be great. Almost everyone was helping and who didn't, helped with the dishes. The food was nice and it was even more nice to have some (safe) salad again!


8th of August
The next morning we took off to Allepy (Allepuza). We wanted to make a tour around the backwaters there, but because of a huge boatrace and constructionwork on a bridge, there were no boats running. So we shopped a bit, had some lunch at a tiny restaurant and went back to the hotel. At night Loek and John found a hotel where they sold beer. So we went there around 11, but the bar was already closing. It was a quite dodgy place with all drunky man so we just bought some beer and went back to the hotelroom of the boys, to annoy Rishi. The next morning we took off to Trivandrum, our final destination already!



9th of August

On the way to Trivandrum we booked a cheap hostel and at arrival Loek and I checked the rooms. They looked neat and pretty clean. This turned out to be a result of the fact that they just chased away the cockroaches that were appearing later on. I guess its all part of the experience and i wasn't really bothered by it.

The first night we went to a big shopping centre where i bought heaps of fabric, another churidar-top and a purse. We also bought a beautifull saree for Anil's mother. We had some dinner in a small restaurant again and went back to the hostel. The next day the beach was on the program. Except for Loek and Rishi, who went to the most southern tip of India. Together with Arianne, Sanne, John en Caroline I went to the beach at Kovalam. We took a taxi that waited for us the whole day. It is a very nice beach, we had good breakfast, i got seriously sunburnt and payed way to much for a big picknick-sheet. It was a nice day.

The next day Yoga and meditation was on the programm. Thanks to the efforts of some people we finally had appointments on that. The yoga was very nice and the meditation was also a very nice experience.

That evening we had dinner with the whole group at Kovalam Beach. There was a speech of the whole group for Anil and one from Anil to the whole group. We went back to the hostel where i started to pack my bag (around 11 pm). Sanne already hopped in her bed, she was not leaving yet. by 2 am i was all packed. I chased away a whole family of ants from my bag (there were sweets in it) and made a last picture of the cockroach. Meanwhile it was raining cats&dogs outside. I decided to take a shower, but as soon as i opened the door to the bathroom i found out i didn't have to use the tap. Water was coming down from the ceiling like a shower. Now we knew why the cockroaches sometimes were on their back suddenly. I took a shower, tried to dry myself without getting even more wet and went to bed at 2:15am. The alarm rang at 3:15, i got up, stacked away my mosquito net and got my bags ready.

12th of August
4 am
We went to the airport at Trivandrum. There we had to wait for a few minutes untill we could check in. It was a sad happening. It just didn't feel right to split up after so many days being together. We said goodbye to Anil, Aline, Sanne and John and checked in. After the check-in some tears tried to fight themselfs free. The flight was quite relaxed and at Delhi we arranged some prepaid taxi's. The last days we spent in the Youth hostel, writing our diary, sleeping and dreaming of the nice part of going home (bread, cheese, clean toilets, family and friends ... ).

pictures and maybe some more stories that i forgot will follow soon :)