travel update from Varkala

Greetings from Varkala!
Varkala is a small village in Kerala India on the west coast. It is built up on red stone cliffs facing the Lakshwadeep Sea. This is the local name for this body of water. It is for all practical purposes still the Arabian Sea. I arrived here on April 1. and I am enjoying a littel quiet time alone. I have been travelling with a few travel mates for the last 5 or 6 weeks now and I am glad to be on my own again. That being said I have truly enjoyed the company of the travellers I have been with lately. sometimes people ask if I get lonely from travelling by myself. The fact is that I am almost never alone by chance or design! So the first couple of days lhere I made a point of not talking to anyone just to be by myself. I am digging it!!
So I came here after spending 6 days and nights in Kochin or Cochi. it is spelled both ways. I met up with an Irish lad on the night train from Gokarna to Kochi and we decided to share rickshaws into town and then we decided to share a room our first night and then we both moved into a very nice "homestay" guest house called Wilsons. We each had private rooms and bathrooms and patios. Very nice for only 150RS per night a littel less than 3 euros. Kochi is soert of a blur in my memory. I found myself partying a lot with the irish lad. He kept buying these tolas (10 gram packets) of this very fine Kerala Ganja. I joined in with him and got quite stoned. Here in India, The drugstores are quite liberal compared to some countries. Drug prices are also regulated here so the people can afford the drugs they need! Wow what a concept, huh? Affordable medicine...hhmmmm... Well anyway among the affordable goodies one can purchase legally without a prescription are 5 or 10 milligram valiums for 4 cents or 7 cents, 15 mg codiene tablets for 8 cents or ( oh I love this one) 16mg morphine tablets for 11cents.
Nothing starts the day off quite like 48mgs of morphine and a nice hot cup of chai!!! Then back to the room for a couple of joints and Oh say it aint so The irish lad has some of that Peruvian marching powder that I so loved when I was a youngster!! Aye Zukes...Where does the time go?
While in Kochi; which is incidently, the nicest of all the India cities I have visited so far, we went on a tour of the backwaters in a dugout canoe propelled by bamboo poles that the indian "sailors" push the boat with. Super tranquil and very beautiful. Saw lots of cool stuff like peppercorn vines, nutmeg trees, cashew nut trees orchids and jasmine and frangipani. Watched women making rope out of coconut fibers. And lots of birds and other wildlife like turtles and fishes.
There is an ancient form of musical dancing called Kathikadi and we saw an interesting performance of this art form. You are meant to arrive 90 minutes before the show actually begins so you can watch the performers put on their make up, which was as fascinating as the performance!! We also went to another dancing concert which was better. It had no name that I am aware of but I think it was another form of Kathikadi. Very cool music too....
Gokarna was a blast. i had a very kicked back time. Lived for 3 weeks in a bamboo hut on Kudle beach. Great fun although I didnt do much of anything except read swim and go for long walks on the beaches and on the cliffs along the beaches. Hung out with a few Italians. All pretty cool. Made a good friend in Stefano who I will most likely go and visit next year in Italy. I am thinking of spending a couple of months in Italy mostly on the island of Sardegnia in April and May of 2008.
I will remain here in India, in the deep south of india for the next 5 or 6 weeks until May 14 (the day before my visa expires) I have bought a ticket to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia from Chennai on the 14th and I will probably stay in Malaysia for 3 months or so since that is how long my visa will last there. I hpe to go to Singapore while I am there also. After that I am not sure.
In a few days I will go to Kanniyakimuri. It is a small city sacred to the Hindus, at the very southernmost tip of India. Here is where the Bay of Bengal, The Indian Ocean, and the Arabian sea all meet. Three huge bodies of water all converging. The beach has 3 colors of sand from the different waters and during April the sun sets at the same time the moon rises on the horizon, So you can see the sun and the moon on the same plane. I don't know of any other place in the world where this occurs, do you? It is only 3 hour s away from here by train.
India has some very interesting travel arrangements. The three ways to get around for long distances are by bus over badly maintained bumpy roads, or by train which is efficient but excruciatingly slow. The trains only average about 35 km per hour(25mph) and the express or fast trains only go about 50 or 60 km per hour. But they are cheap and they sell good food on board and I always meet interesting people on the trains so I am not complaining. Also I am never really in a hurry anyways so...Whats to complain about?
Here then are a couple of quotes to think about until you here from me again...

"A train is travel; everything else,- planes especially -, is transfer, your journey begins when you arrive" Paul Theroux

"When there is intelligence, then Nationalism, Patriotism, which is a form of stupidity, disappears." J. Krishnamurti
Peace and Love to all who read these words.
Robert