This is a really long blog but there is SO much to say about the South of India. There are sub headings to guide you so please take and use the parts that you need and I hope some of the tips you find here help you on your pilgrimage along India’s tropical coastline. Why you should definitely visit the south of India: Southern India’s coastline is dotted with dreamy tropical beaches. The weather is usually ridiculously hot so it is the perfect place for a cheap holiday in the high season or the low tourist season but you wouldn’t want to come here in the monsoon season as you won’t get to enjoy the beaches – they all disappear with so much rain. The locals are very friendly, welcoming and hospitable and will help you out in any way they can. There is something for everyone here from Yoga, Meditation and Ayurveda for people like me seeking the more spiritual side of India to the trance, dance party’s in Goa where you can groove all night with people from all over the world including the party loving locals. Budgeting and Money: Rhys and I have been budgeting for 2000 rupees per day or $40 NZ between us in the low tourist season of Indian Summer (May-July) not including more pricey, touristy fun events or long distance travel. This has been plenty to eat 3 delicious meals each, shop around and buy trinkets/clothing/souvenirs, drink about 5-7 cold bottles of mineral water each day, feed a few stray animal friends and share some small rupees with beggars, catch rickshaws here and there and have a comfortable bed to sleep in each night. We have been averaging about $330 NZ per week which means some days we have been a bit over budget with myself attending yoga classes and shopping up a storm but this is including all we need to live a fun and exciting life here in India and also our longer more expensive nights of travel usually costing around $60 NZ for the two of us to travel on a sleeper bus or train with AC. Getting around: -Local bus- If you are travelling somewhere only an hour or two away from your current location try to catch a local bus. You can talk to any travel agent for more information or if you are in a non-touristy town with no travel agents ask any local where the bus station is and head there for more information. The local bus will usually be your cheapest option to move here or there. To travel 65 kms by bus cost the two of us 110 rupees for two tickets which is around $2.20 NZ. Madego in Goa has a fantastic bus station where you are able to catch buses to any of the beaches starting from 10 rupees and they all have pumping tunes to listen to along the way. The only down side to buses is that they can sometimes get very crowded, smelly and hot and more often than not the drivers drive like absolute lunatics trying to win an F1 race. -Trains- Sleeper trains are a great way to travel long distance and of course it covers overnight accommodation. We used the cheapest option of the AC carriages which was 3 tier. On one side of the train there are booths with three tiers of beds and on the other side there are couples booths with only two tiers. Sleep with your valuables really close by and tucked somewhere beside you. You will be given two sheets per bed which I used one to cover my bunk and one to make a curtain for some privacy – take a couple of pegs to secure it and get creative. You can also travel a few hundred kilometers on the non AC carriages with the locals for a few hundred rupees or so. The carriages can get very crowded and hot and keep in mind that women can only sit next to their husbands and family members or other women. There is usually plenty of room to store your large bags in the over head area. When travelling overnight by train try to book at least 7 days in advance (book it sooner if you have a strict plan for your trip) as they get booked up insanely fast. You can usually order food on the train but it’s always a good idea as a vegan to take some small things with you to snack on. The coffee and Chai that they serve on board all contains milk. India has PLENTY of delicious vegan friendly treats, snacks and meals available. -Rickshaws and Taxis- Always try to do a little research before arriving in a new place so you have an idea of how many kilometers you are from the main town where hotels, guesthouses, hostels and food is located. Rickshaws in South India are cheap and will generally cost around 10-20 rupees per kilometer in most but not all towns. We always manage to fit our two large 20 kg bags and two smaller 5-10 kg bags into one rickshaw. Taxis are sometimes twice the price but the driving does not improve with cost increase. Eating out: Eating at touristy places will often cost you about 3x as much as eating with locals. In Kochi it was cheaper for Rhys and I to catch a rickshaw 3 km and back and eat 3-4 dishes than it was to eat a meal each in the touristy location of Fort Kochi. Plus the food where the locals ate was far tastier than any food we had in the tourist area. We found the Krishna Cafe on Palace Road, our favorite spot for lunch simply by asking a driver to take us to a Masala Dosa (he didn’t understand anything else I was saying). 50 meters up the road toward the Portuguese Palace was another place we went every night for dinner called Athurveya fast food pure Vegetarian – a must try is the Vada Curry (it’s spicy) with Paratha and my favorite: Masala Dosa. Just ask for no butter on the Dosa. Each place will cost around 30-40 rupees per dish = 80 cents to $1 NZ eating at a local restaurant. As a vegan the main things you will need to look out for are milk, butter and ghee. There are ‘Pure Veg’ places on almost every street in the South of India but this means no eggs and no meat – they still use milk and butter/ghee. Don’t be shy to ask for your meals to be made without these ingredients and most people will understand and oblige with a friendly smile. When eating at local places do not drink the water or tea that is on the table. All of the locals use the cups over and over throughout the day – you will notice they do not touch the cups with their lips. Always stick to bottled mineral water that is sealed and never let anyone open the bottle for you. Try to avoid ‘licking the plate clean’ it’s better to leave a layer of food between what you eat and the dishes. Take hand sanitizer with you and use it before every meal and then don’t be afraid to eat with your hands. It’s likely they are cleaner than the cutlery! Where to sleep: I guarantee you will always get a better price showing up in person than you will by booking any accommodation online or in advance. It can be a good idea to see how pricey other places are in the area before showing up as most guesthouses won’t even be advertised online. Also to give you an idea of how much you will be asked for so you have an amount to go by. With a bit of bargaining we have managed to get prices down to half of what was originally quoted. Always ask to see the room before you commit to staying and paying. Sometimes the rooms can be grotty and absolutely filthy. I can deal with a bit of filth and grot for one night but sometimes people will want way too much money so it’s better to move on and find somewhere cleaner for the same or lesser price. Around 500-700 rupees is what we generally pay each night = 10-$15 NZ and each room we have had has been clean and comfortable. This cost does not include air-conditioning but will always have a ceiling fan. The best way to get used to the insane heat is to get rooms with no air-conditioning. Also, get used to the idea of large cockroaches popping out of nowhere. If you are travelling to a different state try to catch a sleeper train AC or a semi sleeper/sleeper bus. That way you can save on accommodation and you get to wake up somewhere new and explore. Culture: - It is fantastic to visit smaller towns that aren’t so touristy but please just be super careful if you are travelling alone as you already stick out like someone snorting crack in a church. Indian people are incredibly friendly but just remember to never let your guard down and always have your wits about you. Most of the time in the South you will get big smiles from lots and lots of staring faces and probably get asked for countless selfies daily. - As a man you can wear anything you like in India but as a woman there is a lot of oppression here. When walking around cities and towns always dress modestly to avoid unwanted attention from men, local gangs and freaky drug dealers. Cover your shoulders with a t-shirt or shawl and wear long loose fitting pants or a skirt. Trust me, you will already stick out enough and by dressing with too much skin showing you will only attract more unwanted attention. The only place where you can wear anything you like is Goa. When you are at some more touristy beaches it is accepted that westerners swim in bathers/togs but always have a shawl or large scarf close by to give yourself some privacy – Indian people always swim fully clothed and it is not odd to see a woman in full gorgeous, saree in the ocean. You can look up other blogs with more information on how to dress in India if this is something that worries you. - Be mindful when entering the incredibly enchanting temples throughout India. Some Hindu people really do not appreciate westerners or non-Hindus entering the temples just to have a look around which is completely fair enough – these are their sacred areas where they pray each day and they want to preserve it as it is. You will not be aloud to take photos inside temples however you can take some snaps from outside which is usually the architecturally exciting, wow-factor, ‘how did they build this?’, type shots that I was looking for. Always ask a religious person if they mind you taking a photo of them before whipping out your camera as some people will get really upset. Try building a friendship first. Other than the above most people of the south are super friendly and are intrigued when they see a gora/westerner so don’t be offended when locals ask you 100 questions. They are genuinely curious of your life story and why you have chosen to visit their country. Give them a big toothy smile and you will generally get one back with a friendly head nod or wave. Sunset at Varkala Cliff Road. My top spots in the South/Beach hopping: Varkala Cliff Road- Yoga, Meditation and all things Ayurveda. Fort Kochi- A small part of the city that is covered in colourful artwork and is the tourist hub. Venture to Palace road for vegan noms with the locals. Catch the ferry to Vippin Island for 3 rupee and watch dolphins chasing after fish in the ocean. Karwar- For one night to pick up cheap trinkets and have a great view of the sun set over the Arabian sea. This is not a touristy town but the locals are very friendly and helpful. Gokarna- Stay at Kudle beach for cheap accommodation right on the beach, around 500 rupees. Venture into the quaint Hindu temple town for a day of exploring the ancient religious village, shopping and photography but do not enter the temples without permission. Have a day to relax on the beautiful Om beach just South of Kudle and watch the Monkeys playing in the tree tops on a walk through the jungle. Goa- Majorda beach is a white sand, clean beach with hardly any visitors and is a beautiful, private tropical get away. Palolem beach is a tourist hub with gorgeous white sand and a thick row of Palm trees providing shade - the perfect place to grab some beautiful bargains to return home with and a busy rave spot during the high tourist season. Coconut Palms at Majorda Beach, Goa. Boats lined up at Palolem beach, Goa.
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I spent my adolescent years planning my escape of the 9-5 life. I had always dreamed of travelling the world and experiencing culture, learning new things and developing my emotional and spiritual self through travel. With a keen interest in throwing myself into situations outside of my comfort zone I convinced my fiancé (with little work) that instead of having a wedding we should sell everything we own, save as much of our earnings as we possibly could and jet off to the cheapest countries to explore and adventure there for as long as our money would last.
I bought the ticket because I wanted to follow my dreams. I ached for something that wasn’t there and I didn’t know what it was. Suffering from anxiety and depression in a job I once loved and had been in for over 3 years my soul was craving something more and I thought that travelling would magically heal me as well as being super easy and 100% fun 100% of the time. What a cliché. 5 months ago I stepped onto a plane hoping travel would change my life. Here’s how it has: New Zealand > Australia > Thailand > Vietnam > Cambodia > India I have learnt that getting out of my comfort zone is essential for mental, emotional and spiritual growth: When Rhys and I first arrived in Bangkok we were both nervous as hell after everything we had been told. I vividly remember the first drive from the airport to our hotel both of us completely silent staring out the taxi windows at the extremely dodgy looking power lines crossing over hundreds and hundreds of tangled lines and wires while motos and cars zoomed past us weaving in and out of traffic. I remember the first time hoping onto the back of a moped and cruising along Laem Mae Pimh roads and begging Rhys not to go over 40ks and to stay directly to the side of the road out of harms way. Getting stuck and kicked out of our taxi van in the middle of nowhere 2 hours from where we had supposed to be surrounded by non English speakers. Having to visit a local hospital and being stared at by over 200+ people like I was an alien in Saigon, Vietnam. Arriving in Cambodia with $0 cash and no internet to transfer money onto our credit card at 10pm at night. Becoming more incredibly and painfully ill than I ever remember being in my life, more than once; just for eating food. Being scammed by professional hustlers and feeling pressured into doing something when someone starts getting angry at you. Getting pulled over by an extremely corrupt police force and standing up to them and getting away with it. These times that I have felt 100% uncomfortable are the times I feel like I have really learnt the most about people, places, systems and cultures while travelling. In the end they turned out not to be such bad things after all. I have learnt gratitude for a country I never wanted to return to, my home; New Zealand: How often in New Zealand do we take for granted that our streets aren’t overflowing with rubbish and plastic? Or that the water in our toilet bowls is cleaner than water available to entire villages? That our streets aren’t teething with skinny, hungry, stray animals covered in fleas, ticks and who have contracted rabies and who knows what else (adopt don’t shop!)? Most of our children have access to public education. The fact that freedom of speech means we can protest things that we don’t agree with without being bashed and even shot in the face by our own policemen and women. That it is illegal to rape a woman and communities will band together to push out the rapist and not the victim and their entire extended family. I took New Zealand for granted many times over and every time I tell someone in the world where I am from they always start with “wow!” and tell me that it’s the best country in the world, or that they have heard so from other people they have met. How lucky are we to be able to live in such a desired place that some people can only dream of visiting let alone moving to. By absolutely no means am I suggesting that all New Zealanders have it easy. I have learnt to be more patient, understanding and compassionate toward my fellow human beings: For a long time I had little to 0 tolerance for other people. I would get frustrated at friends and family for saying the wrong things and would end up feeling sorry for myself and falling into a pit of depression letting other peoples moods and words dictate how I felt about myself. Through travel you see and speak to so many diverse people with different backgrounds. Street beggars missing limbs who won’t leave you alone until you give them some money for food, tuk tuk drivers who don’t make more than a couple of dollars each day to support their wives and children at home, shop owners who try so desperately to get you to buy something, anything from them as it may be their only sale they have made in who knows how long, street kids trying to sell you postcards and bracelets that may end up giving the money to gangsters who are forcing them to be out there – my point is that we always see each other for who we are on the outside and it’s easy to see a pushy saleswoman who is being completely rude and annoying or a tuk tuk driver trying desperately to sell you a dodgy deal for sightseeing but what we don’t see is how these people got to where they are today. We don’t see the mental state they are in or their background and the obstacles that they have had to over come trying to live a better life. We have all had obstacles in life to over come. Every single one of us. There is no one on this earth who hasn’t been handed a harsh lesson by life but there is one thing that every being on this planet is seeking regardless of where they are in their life now: Kindness, love and companionship. Our experiences shape who we are as people and everyone has a different story to tell. Most of us are just trying to live a comfortable life by our own standards. I have learnt that my body is stronger than I ever realized: Everyone I talk to says I have had one of the worst run of illness they have ever heard of while travelling. Obviously I know there are people out there who have had it worse than me. There are people out there who can’t even afford the most basic of medical care but when illness happens to you it feels like the hardest thing to overcome. I have suffered food poisoning in Thailand that landed me in hospital hooked up to a drip and lasted 5 days after that interrupting my Yoga teacher training. I endured an endoscopy in a local Vietnam hospital and was diagnosed with mild gastritis. My most recent run was a trip to an expensive western hospital in Cambodia after a night of hallucinations, high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea being told I had a parasite eating the tissue inside of my large intestines. It was all of these times that I felt like all I wanted was to go home to New Zealand desperately and considered booking flights but at the same time something inside me was holding on to travelling. Pain is only temporary even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time. It is so incredibly hard to hold on to any sort of positivity when you don’t even have enough strength to lift yourself out of bed but with Rhys help I made it through and I’m so glad I didn’t give up and go home. There is still so much world out there that I have to see! I have learnt again and again why I sill never stop speaking up for animals: In a world where animals and people are constantly treated like rubbish it is easy for some people to point fingers at Cambodian and Vietnamese people and say “how disgusting that these people eat dogs!”. Unfortunately I had the heart-breaking experience of coming face to face with a pile of dead, skinned, dog bodies piled on top of each other when we were staying in the ghetto of Saigon and it only strengthened my belief that speciesism is another form of oppression used by humans to claim that we are on top of the food chain. How come it is ok to eat a pig that has been forced to live a horribly depressed life which is smarter than a dog but it is not ok to be completely poor and have absolutely nothing and eat a dog? There are 1.5 billion starving people in the world but in the western world we can grown enough food to feed 70 billion livestock to serve to people who are unwilling to accept that eating mass produced factory farmed meat is destroying us as a species. It is destroying our land, it is destroying our mental and physical health and it is oppressing and destroying innocent living, breathing, feeling beings. Ignorance in the age of information is a choice. Also, please stop riding Elephants! - https://www.thedodo.com/elephant-rides-trek-1132645600.html I have learnt that there is something to love about every country: There have been some rough moments in each country but over all the parts that I remember are the bits that I loved about each and every place. Every single new place that we travelled to became my new favourite and all for different reasons. The ease of getting around in Thailand made it a breezy place to travel exploring the Northern mountains and the beautiful South beaches, the delicious vegan cuisine in Vietnam filled my taste buds with delight, the gorgeous, witty children of Cambodia always made me laugh and smile and the experience of traditional Yoga and meditation in India has really made me feel like I am slowly but surely learning how to become a good Yoga teacher. There are so many other things that I loved about each country and I will surely be back to visit good friends in Thailand, motorbike trip around the full North of Vietnam, volunteer helping children living in poverty in Cambodia after the wet season and complete my 500 hour YTT in India. I have learnt how much I love to connect with people and how really special my friends and family are: Never have I enjoyed so much writing letters and postcards home to family and friends. Skyping and catching up with friends and family on a video call and seeing familiar faces – there is always too much to say in not enough time. I have seen how supportive loved ones can be helping where they can from miles and miles away. It’s friends and family who make me often miss home. I have met inspiring, lovely, helpful people who have great travel and life advice and just generally great stories to tell. I have met people who I will never forget and will plan reunions with just to be in their presence again. I have created a stronger bond and many incredible, breath taking memories with my love and captured fantastic moments through the lens of our camera. I have met my stronger self through struggles and perseverance. I have met my self worth and my confidence again. And I have met a me who can express my thoughts whatever they may be through writing – something I really never thought I would be able or confident enough to do. Alana xx |
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October 2016
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