So after finally getting my laptop working after far too
long, I can now brag about all my holidays.
I was planning on doing them in a big long blog post but I realized I
would probably write far too much and it would just be boring. Although, I’m not sure how interesting three
will be.
Over Christmas and New Year, Sarah and I had 10 days off
school. So after planning and
replanning because of the lack of trains we’d finally decided on our
itinerary! So, straight after school on
the 23rd we headed to the train station and got on our first of many
trains. We arrived in Chennai at the
horrible time of 4.30 in the morning. I
can confirm that Indian train stations do not get quieter at any point, it was
still as busy as we’ve ever seen it. We
met our two friends Zoe and Charlie at the station purely by chance! I just felt this tap on my shoulder and heard
“excuse me madam” and I panicked a fair bit because I thought it was someone
offering me a rickshaw. But it was so
good to see them because we hadn’t seen them since training! We then had a long wait at the train station
for our two other friends Ruth and Tabs.
Finally after 7 hours in Chennai Central, we were finally on our
way. We had rented an apartment for all
of us to spend Christmas and it was amazing.
We had a washing machine! I washed all the clothes I had just because I
could. It was beautiful. I may have even done a few loads on Christmas
day. My parents think that someone else
is currently using my body. The apartment also meant
we could cook whatever we wanted. Being
able to eat “normal” food was the best Christmas present. Maybe bar the washing machine. We may have gone mental at the supermarket
while shopping for Christmas dinner. But
the draw of cereal was just too much. Three of our other friends arrived later,
Brittany, Anna and Natasha, and it got really exciting.
Christmas Day was definitely not the traditional Christmas
everyone knows. I was woken up by Tabs
flinging a toilet roll at me because I was still sleeping and she wanted to
start Christmas. We had secret santa
presents under our “tree” (bamboo and palm leaves) and we all got to open
them! I got this terrifying baby bag
that I’m still not sure what to make of it but it’s getting treasured now
(thanks Zoe) and a blueberry muffin when we headed to the mall on Boxing
Day. After breakfast of cornflakes, we
watched Frozen and everybody skyped home.
It was so strange to be talking to everybody at home while they were
eating turkey, gammon, pigs in blankets, (can you tell I’m missing meat?) roast
potatoes and all other normal Christmas food while we were cooking
fajitas. That was our Christmas dinner,
fajitas. But I’m not complaining because
it was wonderful. It was so good having
everyone together though. We could all
talk about our projects and India and it was really nice to know that everyone
was feeling the same about different things and having similar issues to what
we were having. And the common answer to
everything that happened was “cause India”
and it’s true. If anyone’s
thinking about having a year away, yeah, Christmas is hard. But it’s so different that you don’t even
notice it and it’s not too bad. You’ll
always have next year as well and it’ll be just as you remember!
Watching Frozen
Our tree!!
Honestly, it was a lot nicer than it looked. It was one of the best meals I've ever had
A slightly long lie on Boxing Day then off to the mall! We had a lovely western lunch and then just
wandered around for an while in a nice air conditioned shopping centre! After a boxing day dinner of pasta, we headed
out to a club in Chennai called Dublin.
It was so different from a night out back home! I’m not sure which one I prefer but being out
in Chennai was definitely amusing. And
there was a bowl of free mints. Which I
think every club should have.
Unfortunately, we all had to part ways on the 27th. It was really weird having to say goodbye to
everyone again. Sarah and I were heading
on to Cochin in Kerala so that meant a 12 hour train arriving at the beautiful
time of 3 in the morning. Luckily we
managed to find our hotel okay in Cochin so it was straight to bed. Cochin is a really beautiful city. And it’s a shame we were only there for the
one day because it was really amazing. But we were off again to Kumily! We had to get a bus there and the guidebook
promised us the journey should only take 5 hours. Almost 8 hours later we
arrived. In the middle of the
night! Which made it interesting trying
to find our hotel.. But it didn’t matter
because Kumily was amazing. It’s lovely hill station, so it’s surrounded by
tea plantations, spice gardens and a wildlife reserve. Our friends Tabs and Ruth recommended that we
ride and elephant and get a wash from an elephant so that was top of our
list. It was amazing. It really was. And I’m already to ride an elephant
again. It was so strange to be up that
tall though. You don’t realise how tall
an elephant is until you’re perched on the top.
And getting a bath from it was amazing as well. We had to sit on it then it sprayed us and
it’s probably the best shower I’ve had in five months. That night we went to a traditional Keralan
dance thing. Which was strange. I’m not really sure how to describe it. I think I enjoyed it but I really can’t say
for sure. And the pictures really don’t
do it justice.
We left Kumily pretty early because we had a full day of travelling
in front of us the next day. We got a
bus down the mountain which was amazing.
It was beautiful looking down into the valley. But thankfully we got on
early because loads of school kids got on as well and I would not have liked to
be standing on that bus. We arrived in
Kottayam and went straight to the ferry terminal. We got a two and a half ferry to Alleppey on
the backwaters. The backwaters are beautiful.
They just have so much on them. I
would love to be able to explain them properly but I just don’t know how. Hopefully the pictures at least show it a wee
bit.
From Alleppy we headed on to our last stop for the holiday,
Varkala. We stayed at an amazing hotel
called the Nine Planets Homestay which was in such a handy place and it was so
clean! With a normal shower as
well. Although Sarah did ask me where
the bucket was the first time she went for shower. We’ve gotten far too used to pouring water
over ourselves. However, we did find a
massive spider in the bathroom. Like the
size of my hand massive. It was not
pleasant. We had to ask to woman to come
and get rid of it for us. And it did
come back on New Years Day. Which was
not nice when all you want to do it go to the toilet at 6 in the morning. Thankfully, someone came along and dealt with
it so it was not coming back! Varkala
was amazing. It’s a beautiful beach
resort right on the cliff with long beaches and lots of lovely shops and
restaurants. We spent every day on the
beach doing absolutely nothing, occasionally going into the water when we got
far too hot. Eating Western food was
delightful as well. Normal breakfast
food! Yay! We ate at a lovely place
called the Coffee Temple every morning, partly because it did cornflakes and
bacon. On Hogmanay we had dinner at a
lovely Italian place where we met two Swedish girls. They were really lovely and it was so nice to
talk so more people! New Year was
strange as well. We wandered around
after dinner dodging men and fireworks trying to find somewhere to celebrate
the bells. It was also really strange
wishing my mum and dad a happy new year when it was still another 5 hours away
for them! On the 2nd our two
friends Charlie and Zoe arrived! It was so nice to see them again even though
it had hardly been a week! But it was
nice to just sit around and chat. And
then, on the 4th, we had to leave.
It was actually really hard to leave because we’d had such a good and
relaxing time that the thought of heading back to “normal” India just wasn’t
fun. We’d met so many nice an interesting
people on our holiday, especially in Varkala and it was just strange to go back
to somewhere where we would be stared at for being white and pointed at. And going back to teaching after a holiday
and 4 hours sleep was not particularly fun.
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