The End of the Affair
I set here in the middle of a sudden and pretty scary thunderstorm in calcutta. Its my last night in india. Time to look back, time to sum the last 4 months up. They have been just simply incredible, a really wonderful experience. 4 months ago seems like such a long time ago, I was so nervous walking out of the departure gates of mumbai international airport in the wee hours of the 30th of november. I cursed myself for picking such a notorious place to start off the adventure but in hindsight I couldn’t have picked a better place. If you can survive mumbai you can survive absolutely everything else that I have seen in this country, to take it even further than that I actually enjoyed that sprawling mess of a place. You need to take your time and give yourself a chance to adjust.
Goa was a let down I have to admit and anyone that I have gotten on with that I have met her agrees wholeheartedly with that assessment. The beaches of Kerala are much better, much friendlier places. Hampi is an amazing place, the landscape there is awesome. It is also well set up for lazy buggers like myself 🙂 After there it was xmas by the beach for spending the guts of january hunting down the best temples that tamil nadu has to offer. From there it was a trip up the land of kings, Rajasthan is an amazing state. There is so much there for everyone. After a week in the capital and a trip to the taj with diarmo I headed north to the mighty himalayas before returning back to the capital where my journey has been cut short. A quick dash over to calcutta and I am now ready to leave india. It feels weird to type those words. I am going to miss so much of the place, the food, the chai, the silly chats with shop keepers, the train trips, the mountains, the forts this country has so much to offer. There are elements which I will not miss, in my opinion the country needs to clean up its act on a lot of things that we take for granted in the west. The caste system needs to go, its fcked up. They need to install a proper system to ensure that every kid has a access to an education, its the only way out of poverty. Begging needs to be made illegal, it fosters a horrible element in society. Giving to these people very often that not only serves to perpetrate the situation. They need to introduce a waste management system, you can walk for days without seeing a bin. You can arrive at the most beautiful waterfall only to see that its base is destroyed by peoples careless littering. In the cities it only serves to feed the horrible sanitary conditions where vermin and disease amongst the poor is rampant. Its these fundamental things that stop alot of people coming here and it is a pity because as I have mentioned before it is a wonderful place.
Right I am going to sign off this now, this is the last of the wobble. I am off to thailand tomorrow – I don’t really have a clue what I am going to do there because it has come on alot quicker than I anticipated. Having survived 4 months here I reckon I should be okay…
Over and out,
Phil
Tags: India, India
Phil Gill
Phil, truly sounds like you had a get time in India, enjoyed reading about it
The Indian economy will surely despair without its rich Irish Sugar Daddy!!!!
cheers sean,
just arrived in bangkok – its like a hospital compared to calcutta!!!
I say change the title of the blog and keep it lit… or is that the plan anyway?
I (with some help from the map) make it 5200 miles travelled in India, no’ bad 😉
Mags
jaysus, thats not bad going…. all over land aswell.
I will keep blogging alright but I will take a break from it for a couple of weeks. I would just end up comparing everything I see in thailand to stuff I have seen in india. From what I have seen so far, which isn’t alot its just like a really hot version of temple bar, and I mean hot as in volcano, not as in jessica alba!!!
Just booked myself a bus and boat trip to ko phan nang… Some beach therapy called for me thinks….
Fair play to you, young man.great reading.
Take care.