Day 33 - Overwhelming

Our last day in India started with a jeep ride around the edges of the Preiyar natural reserve, where even though the only animals we spotted were five dark blobs at the top of a mountain very far away, the scenery just about made up for it. Our bodies did suffer pretty severely, as the vehicle's suspension was clearly tuned to Sport mode and threw us around rather violently even on supposedly paved roads. The last viewing point our driver stopped at happened to be next to a fuming landfill, where cows and crows (great name for a band, by the way) feasted themselves in waste while people climbed a small hill to get a view that looked remarkably like the previous view point, about five hundred metres away. The customary Kerala rain shower followed on the way back, which did not improve our friend's driving style, as I can attest that due to the lack of windscreen wipers (probably an expensive option on this Mahindra model) he might as well have driven with his eyes closed.

The drive to Trivandrum was long but not as challenging than the day before, as the rain, fog and high-beam-assisted darkness never happened to overlap with craters on the road, although at one point the fog was so severe other cars were pulling over out of fear of plunging into the unknown. Sissies.

This brings the Indian part of this trip to an end, and I cannot fault it for being dull. After one month in the country I have learned how to bargain semi-effectively, got scammed, got Delhi belly, fell off a scooter, bribed a policeman and made a few friends along the way. You will struggle to find anyone who will deny that India is a beautiful country - from the sensory overload and frenetic pace of the big cities to the jaw-dropping natural beauty of the countryside, there is so much to see and experience that even though I feel like I have been travelling for months, I would have happily stayed for a few more.

The people (yes, the 1.2 billion of them) are harder to summarise in one sentence. While it is undeniable that a lot of Indians are annoying while pestering you for services you do not require (from rickshaw rides to ankle bracelets) or outright trying to scam you, the truth is the other half are genuinely interested in helping you see the best side of their country. The skill, which I have not mastered in the slightest, is to assess which kind of person you are talking to. In any case, I have met people who are friendly, kind, funny and intense, with a joy of life that is hard to find. The best benchmark for that are the children, who are so overwhelmingly happy to see someone different, to get their picture taken or simply to find out where you are from that it only adds another element to their innate adorableness.

Sri Lanka is the next step, but these thirty three days in India will last as the most overwhelming trip I have ever been a part of. As well as glad for giving this country one third of these ninety-odd days, it has left me longing to come back for more, which can only be a good sign.

Cheers,
J-Wowww

P.S. - For those of you skipping the Portuguese posts (I have been told Google Translate does the trick!) my laptop has died on me after all. This means the posts will probably be shorter and have more mistakes, but most of all there will be no pictures until I can get it fixed or replaced, which will probably be in a few days when we get to Singapore. I will then spend a solid day editing pictures and add them to these dull and monochromatic posts!