Skip to main content

India!

After sleeping overnight in the Bangkok airport on Tuesday, I left Thailand one day after my visa expired (thankfully this is ok) and started my long set of flights across India to get to Kochi.  It was a cool experience but I was stoked to get off the final plane and know I don’t have to see one of those for a few weeks.

I crashed as soon as I got to my hostel, woke up late and wandered around the area here by Fort Kochin.  I don’t have internet access where I’m staying so I didn’t realize that the test driving and rickshaw familiarization for the Rickshaw Run started today – but ends at four so I’ll just skip it until tomorrow.

Random thoughts about India, Kochi specifically after a few hours:

  • The hype is true – the way people drive in the urban areas is crazy.  Possibly as crazy as I’ve seen to some degree, because as I was warned, there are huge trucks and buses in the middle of everything and they just crush people with no warning.  Brutal.
  • Also as I heard, everything is definitely male-centric here, at least outside.  I can almost count the number of women I’ve seen outside and they have almost always been in pairs, one younger, one older.  Tons of men wandering around though.
  • Dirty, very dirty.  Worse than a lot of South America and definitely worse than Phuket.  Then again I’m also catching the tail end of the dry season, so…
  • The people so far seem really cool.  More smiles from strangers than I saw in Cambodia and Thailand, more groups hanging out and having fun, lots of courtesy.  So far the people are definitely the highlight and outweigh the other negatives.

Okay, think that’s it for now.  My arm is still really hurting, but hopefully it will survive this!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patagonia Beckons

Today I begin what may become one of the most difficult tests of long term mental and physical endurance and strength I have ever undertaken: for most of its remaining 2500km through Patagonia, Ruta 40 is considered one of the most desolate highways in the world. Over half of the remaining road is gravel, sand, and dirt. The number of towns listed on a map once I pass Perito Moreno can be counted on one hand, and there are many stretches of hundreds of miles without provisions, fuel, or places to stay.
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Things that Suck about Traveling Solo

I find it telling that it seems a majority of the interesting travel blogs I run across are written by solo travelers, most often women. I think there’s a reason why we write more than people who travel with friends or in groups and that it’s pretty self evident: it’s an outlet for our loneliness. In the last year and a half, the vast majority of my time has been spent away from home, alone. As I write this, it’s been over a month since I’ve conversed with anyone in my native language, and I can remember every single conversation in English for the month before that. The truth is, I don’t think I could have done this without the internet – without a blog to share my thoughts, without Facebook to see what my friends are up to, without the occasional e-mail to provide a façade of normalcy… without these things I’d likely have driven myself insane with my internal dialogue. Now, I grant, there’s a reason I travel alone and I do love it, but lately it seems all I run across in the blogosp
Post a Comment
Read more

Gear Review: Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks

In the past couple months on the road I think I’ve spent more time riding my scooter through rain than I have in the dry – this is clearly reflected in the fact that as time has gone by I’ve invested more and more money in things to keep my stuff dry, since wet gear sucks. One of my favorite purchases for this trip is the pair of Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks I picked up just before leaving, in 13L and 20L sizes. They cost me around $20 each and are one of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased in years – extremely durable, effective, and simple to use.
Post a Comment
Read more