Video of a bike ride in Munnar, India

So I uploaded a video to Facebook only to realize that you need to be logged in to see it, so if you are on Facebook, go check out a small clip of a bike ride we did in Munnar, India.
And if you're not... then sign up.

POTD 6

So I'm currently in Munnar, India and the scenery is spectacular... here's one lonely tree among the tea plantations.

Bangalore to Kodaicanal

So after a pretty "ok" night bus, we ended up in Bangalore, my first real Indian city. The noise, pollution, and simply craziness was kinda of nice for an hour or two, but then got to be a little too much. We found a breakfast place serving some fresh and delicious chowpatti with some kind of delicious dhal. The place was packed, but so worth it... not a single traveler :) One of the nice things about India is that since they have so many languages (27?) , people from different regions often communicate in English... which has a nice side effect... people can communicate on a descent level. (at least in some places)

We (Ollie and I) walked around the town the entire day... about 16km... and I think it was enough to see the city. Given that we just came off of a night bus we were quite exhausted by the time we had to board the next night bus to Kodaicanal... another 13 hour night bus :(  The bus ride ended up being ok... with quite a bit of shuteye.  Yet... two night buses in a row takes a toll on you... and we'll need a couple days to recuperate.

Hampi and more salsa

So the president of India came to Hampi two days late, and we didn't have to move... although we couldn't go to the main side of Hampi for 3 days. Nevertheless there was plenty to do... relax, swim, hike, see lots and lots of monkeys and a couple of temples. The other side, which we got to go to after these couple of days was phenomenal... so many gorgeous temples... and all of them so ornate. One could easily spend a couple of weeks here, and never see the same thing twice.

I also managed (thanks to my local guesthouse owner Babu) to volunteer some time at the nearby Kishkinda trust. I taught two salsa (really cha-cha) classes to the local school teachers, which in turn will teach the kids in the village. So the kids called me "master" teacher... as I am the teacher of the teachers :)

As part of the treat, I got to eat some real Indian food at the homes of some of the local villagers. That was one of the nicest travel treats I've had in a long time. Real food that people eat day to day is such a refreshing change from the daily restaurant food. And by some form of magic, (tfu-tfu-tfu) I haven't been sick yet (3 weeks)... the entire trip!

But now I'm moving on... tonight I'm heading to Bangalore (in another overnight sleeper bus). This is just a short stopover on the way to Kodaikanal in the far south. I will also stop traveling with Ifat for now, and I'll be traveling with a nice British guy I met here in Hampi... Ollie.