My trip around the world... India

after another day of recovering I made my way to madikeri. In the morning I went to the coffee day to get a decent breakfast. I ve been there at 9.30 and went inside... I was out again in a second. They are opening at ten. So I was sitting outside on the stairs, reading. People were cleaning the stairs constantly so I had to move all the time. Finally it was 10 and I got inside and ordered a doughnut and a coffee... sorry, no have... food is provided at 11 or maybe later... great... so I had onion rings and a coffee for breakfast. I got back to the hotel, paid my bill and made my way to the busstation. The guy in the hotel sent me in the wrong direction and I was walking all the way with my rucksack and it was getting very hot outside. I was at the busstop and asked for the bus to madikeri. Nobody could answer me. I was shouting at the busdrivers if they are driving to madikeri but they just looked at me and were smiling then, shaking their head. The 8th or 9th bus where I asked, the busdriver had a heart and told me that these busses are going from another station. All the way down the road again till the end. Ok...why not... so I started walking again... it was very busy. All the shops were open and I must have looked like I was going to shop. Everybody in the shops were shouting at me: wanna have new shoes? An umbrella? Some sweets? Papaya? New dress? My god... no way... finally I was walking on the main road just to get rid of the shoutings... ok, had some problems with the cars moving really closely by... but that was ok. The street was hard to walk on in flip flops with all my stuff... but in the end I made it to the busstand. I was asking around for the bus to madikeri and was surrounded by Indian people in a second. Everybody told me something different... but the bus was gone half an hour ago and the next one would leave the next day. I was close to tears... another guy said that there was another bus going from another busstand. He tried to explain to me which busstand it was and that I had to go there by rickshaw. Finally he brought me there in the rickshaw. The bus was standing there, ready to leave. We still had 10 minutes left. The guy was sitting next to me in the bus, asking if he could come to madikeri... ??? UH? No way I said... then he was asking me about germany and if I could get him a job over there or write him a nice letter so that he could get a visa... that was just too much... I wanted to be left alone... finally the bus moved and he got out... The journey was about 5 hours and the bus was crowded. When we were almost there it started to rain and it got colder with every minute. It was not very nice... I got out of the bus, trying to find a place to stay as fast as possible. I went to a hotel which was recommended by the planet... it was nasty. I thought, ok, when it is recommended I don't want to know what the other places are like... so I took the room. It was smelling ugly in there. The bed was really damp and the walls were wet and nasty... I got out of the room as soon as possible and went to the internet next door. There another guy showed me a room in this house. It was really nice, white walls, big bed, a bit damp as well but ok... big TV with remote... for 200 rps. I went back to the other hotel, checked out, had to pay half of the rent (100 rps)... I would like to go on a little hiking trip the next day. So I was asking the owner of my room if this was possible. He brought me to his "friend" which was obviously gay... He did tours of 5 hours through the woods. The planet said that for such a tour you have to pay 250 rps. He wanted to have 500... It was out of the season and there was no other tourist to be seen... so I said that it was too expensive. He didn't care... so I didn't go. I went for something to eat and went back to my room. On the way I met the owner of my room again and he said that he is free at 9.45 pm and if I wanted some company. I said that I ve had enough today and that I just wanted to go to bed, watch tv and do nothing. He kept saying that he would come along to keep me some company... really safe... yeah...great. I went to my room finally, got showered and went under my blankets. I am happy I brought my sleeping bag... you won't believe how cold it was. At 10 pm it was knocking at my door... guess what,... it was the Indian guy, shouting my name and wanted to be let in... no way... I was shouting back that I was in bed already and that he should leave me alone... He didn't. He went away for half an hour... and until 12 pm he was coming back, knocking at my door and asking to come in... It was mad... after 12 pm he gave it up... which was good. I wanted to go to sleep but there was a strange smell of smoke. I checked if something burned in my bad from a fag or so... but there wasn't. I got up, went to the window and glared outside. Right... they were burning their waste outside my window. The window was closed, I stuck the curtains in the corners and thought that I done well. I went to bed again but the smell became stronger. So I was looking around and thought that it might be a good idea to close the door to the bathroom because there was another window. So I did... and I went back to bed... still the smell was coming... I looked again... and there... there it was... a big whole above the door to the toilet... great... I couldn't close this one... so I turned on the van and was hoping that they are finishing their waste burning at one stage... finally at 2 pm I fall asleep...

the next morning I got up early and went by rickshaw to the Abbey falls, which are nice waterfalls. Not as big as the jogg falls but nice to look at. I spent an hour over there because I was really on my own... no Indian people to be seen... then I made my way back walking to Madikeri which was 10 km away up and down the hills. I had my hiking boots on and was walking. It was a great scenery and the weather was pleasant. It was not too hot but also not raining... I got to an open field and was sitting down there to have a rest. I heard voices behind me... there were two Indian couples coming down the hill. They came directly to me and started asking me questions. They told me that beer was coming and food and they invited me for lunch. That was nice... we talked about anything and they were impressed of me rolling cigarettes. They all wanted to smoke my tabacco. In the end there came the beer and more Indian people. We were sitting in the grass, eating rice out of a plastic bag and having beer. My tobacco was almost empty when we finished. They went home by rickshaw and I was walking the last kilometers... J it was very nice to walk even though my feet weren't used to closed shoes anymore. At 4 pm I was back in madikeri. I went to my room and left the next morning to Ernakulam. The bus took 5 hours to Thallisery where I took the train down. It was torture... I was sitting in the front of the bus which was really crowded. The bus driver sweated a lot and I could smell every single drop. My window was not opening and the sun shone inside and I was sweating myself. Next to me sat two big Indian ladies and two kids on their laps... Finally we arrived in thallisery and I went to the train station. There they told me that I have to change trains on my way down. That was ok. I got into the first train and had a nice windowseat. It only took half an hour to get to the next train. The other train was crowded... people were standing outside the doors trying to push inside. I went to the far end of the train and tried to get into the women compartment. It was nasty. It was full... it was dirty. I got into the train finally, at least I could sit on my rucksack in the opening of the door. Behind me there stood like 10 women... the train would go 6 hours and I hoped to get a seat halfway... an hour later there was the first stop. The women told me to rush inside and grab a seat. They pushed me and my rucksack inside and I got a seat... but I didn't know if I wanted it anymore. It was sticking hot. Women with kids sat above on the luggage things. One row of seats should be for three persons... on my row we were sitting with 9 women and some kids. Opposite me they were sitting with 11 women and kids... so I made a good deal in the end. It was raining outside and so the windows kept shut. I tried to read but it was almost impossible... my arse hurt from the wooden banks and I had always some feet in my face from whether women or kids from above. I got in a quite bad mood. Then I was looking around me and all the women had great fun. They were talking and laughing... they couldn't move and they were hot as well but still they laughed and made jokes and tried to help each other with the kids... that was nice to see... and so I thought... it's ok... another experience and my mood got better. Still it was a long journey and I was exhausted when I finally arrived in ernakulam. There I met Chris again and we went to Cochin the next day.