Happy Birthday, Marta!

The 27^th was Marta’s birthday!!!! 

We made a circus in a place we had breakfast in Pondi…and we finished it with traditional vodka cocktails in Mammalapuram…

I was happy to move on to Mammalapuram. It’s cute little town with a lot of temples and… white tourists…

I like the atmosphere here much more than in Pondi. We came here in time for a big Indian dance festival. We potter around… cause it’s raining. The cyclone 350km away causes a gray sky above our heads and it’s dump like in Belgium… but warm and with curry and Indian coffee.... and Marta's 27th year old wisdom ;-)

 

Xmas :-)

 

Meanwhile the Xmas has come… 

We needed to look splendid :-)

 We had very nice Xmas dinner in a resto… with “oplatek” (polish traditional communion-like thing to share) and…













presents… !!!!

We made presents for each other for no more than €1. In India you can buy fun stuff :-) 

 

I celebrated Xmas like this first time in 6 years, I think…

I didn’t wish you nice Xmas but in my thoughts I was with you :-)

Baska's arrived!!!

 Baska’s arrived!

 

Now we are off to the east side of India – first time for me… and them, of course. But first, an Indian night train for 12 hours!!! Just regular sleeper car to give the girls an opportunity for an Indian indulgence ;-)

Pondicherry… Too western (particularly French) for Vio… We took so much time to find some decent = Indian food each time we wanted to have a bite… I felt much better on the typical Indian side of the town.

 But we have typical Indian indulgence dressing Marta in saree :-)

Baska just enjoys watching...

Becoming Indian….

Laundry… I must admit, I love having a washing machine at home…

 Trying out henna. I enjoy doing it :-)

Tree house and Allappey

 

A nature sanctuary adventure – sleeping in the tree house. As ignorant as we were about the wild life there, we scared our tribal guide ‘cause we insisted on staying down and not going up on the tree…

The backwaters in Allappey, Marta really liked it. It’s a bit like an Indian Venice. We hired a canoe and we strolled along the canals to the villages stretched alongside. We even get a treat of seeing (and hearing) how is produced a video clip for Indian singer.

I’m so proud of my cousin! She’s stayed longer in Allappey with Analise (a girl we met on the way). Marta spoke only English! And also discovered that French speak English less than her :-)

My cousin arrived!!!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!!!

Wwoouuufff, I finally got to the internet to give you some news; 

 

I was busy travelling…with my cousin Marta...and then Baska has joined us!

With Marta we’ve spent lovely time with Lizz and her mum in Kochi.

 Then we went to see the tea plantations in Munnar. Seeing this women working on picking up tea leaves for 9 hours a day, makes you appreciate a cup of tea much more… They are freezing their hands in the early morning (the altitude) and are burned by the sun from 11am onwards. Why then the tea is so cheap…??? I’m not a big tea drinker but certainly I’ll make careful selection next time I buy it. Fairtrade, as much as there is scepticism around it, gives a hope that at some plantations people might be fairly paid… Even more so for a price of coffee – here they have to pick it up by hand almost one by one…

 

We’ve met great people in Munnar. And you know how it is with backpackers – we did some seeing together or hop out for a meal, or we crossed our ways in other places that are obvious tourist destinations.

 Marta’s dream of this trip was to have an elephant ride… so with my bleeding heart for the whole concept…we did… What do I do for my little sister…