Sleepers Galore

I finished a book today called "Three Cups of Tea"... It's a lovely read about an American guy who founds girls schools in Pakistan. Inspiring stuff. Now I've moved on to "Shantaram" about an Aussie ex-con who makes a new live for himself in Mumbai. I'm only into Chapter 2, but it's good reading so far...

I sat out in the sun this morning, starting the first few chapters of the new book and got sunburned on my shoulders. First time I've got sunburned since i came away. It's not too bad but I've lathered myself up in Aloe Vera hoping to ward off any nasty developments. Apart from that my body is holding up well. I've got occasional bouts of stomach problems, but I'm taking probiotic supplements and keeping it in play.

The food is good here in India... I mean really really good. There's a snowball's chance in hell of me losing any weight here. Everyone was telling me before I came out that the weight would 'fall off me' in India, but jesus, I'm eating rings around me. And it's all so rich! I'm a big fan of masala with chicken or fish tikka, samosa's by the bucketful, aloo gobi (cauliflower and spud), chaat (a kind of indian salad with chickpeas, coriander, spring onions, chillis and a million billion other things), raita (cucumber and veg mixed with yoghurt)... the list goes on. Since hitting the Eastern coast, I've been horsing into the seafood, huge grilled tuna's with lemon rice, kingfisher curry etc.

So I think that the last time I did a decent post would have been Amritsar, in the northwest of the country, after crossing the Pakistani border. I have since traversed the whole of india, passed down the Eastern coast and am almost at the southern tip of the Subcontinent.

After staying a night with the pilgrims in Amritsar, I hopped on an overnight train to Delhi and met up with Helen, a friend of mine I'll be traveling with until Christmas. Six hours after my arrival in Delhi, I was straight back onto the Rajastani Express, an 18 hour sleeper to Kolkata (Calcutta), the city of Joy in West Bengal, where we met up with Emily, a good friend of Helen's from back home. Emily is volunteering for the Hope Foundation, a very professional and efficient Irish charity working with Kolkata's street children, and Helen had previously helped to organise fundraising for an affiliated charity back in Ireland. So we were given some really interesting tours of Kolkata's slums and shown projects ranging from slum schools, orphanages, addiction centres to women's vocational centres. Emily and her friend Niamh also introduced us to Kolkata's groovy social scene. Far from being the cesspool that we are led to believe from abroad (the black hole et al.). Kolkata is actually India's cultural and chill-out hub. We went to Bengali music nights, had a few slap up Bengali meals (de-fuckin'-licious), had a few nights out on the booze and even went to a local party. Basically we had an absolute ball of a week and I can't wait to make it back there in the New Year. It was a fantastic introduction to India and Emily and Niamh did a sterling job of giving us the 360.

Since then we hopped on another sleeper train down to Puri, a seaside city in the state of Odissa, where we spent a few nights in the beautiful Z Hotel, and saw some slick temples (it's all about the temples in India). Then another sleeper to Chennai, for a quick night on the booze in a big city, and finally a bus to Malalapuram, where we are now, a sleepy little village between Pondi and Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu.

And hey presto, it's time for me to fill my gut with some fine seafood (we're thinking of splashing out on a lobster one of these nights, although at ten euros, I'm not sure we can afford it)... so I'll be smelling you all later.

Peace out from Tamil Nadu...

C.

PS: Pics from Kolkata and a map of India below











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