I saw a cloudy sunset and a magnificent sunrise in Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India, where the Bay of Bengal, the Arabic Sea and the Indian Ocean meet. Famous as I am, I was constantly asked to be in random peoples photos, often posing by shaking their hand while the photo was being taken. I also had the new experience of being hit on by a far too old Bengal reading me this poem that he wrote: So far, but yet so near, your footstep on my doorstep I still hear. Don't worry, I resisted his charm, rice belly and poetic skills and have no current plans on moving to Calcutta.
In Madurai, I couch surfed with Raj and his family. They made me understand the true meaning of the word hospitality. Raj picked me up from the bus station and took me out for dinner on my arrival. When I tried to pay, I got a firm no with the motivation "I am your host". This seemed to be his motto and he took great pride in making me feel welcome in every way possible. Sudra, Rajs wife, cooked the best food I've had in India. I'm NOT exaggerating, I've had plenty of finger licking food in India before, but nothing quite like this. Her food alone is reason enough to go back to Madurai. On my second night in Madurai, Raj took me to his Rotary meeting. There I was introduced to around 15 proud middle aged, middle class Rotary members (all men of course). A 72 year old body builder held a lecture in Tamil on health. The only thing I understood of what the white haired muscle man said was a few words in English, like leafy greens or breakfast. My background knowledge on the subject combined with some thinking skills, helped me work out that it's important to eat breakfast and leafy greens. How lucky I was then to be in the breakfast state of India with the best chef cooking for me!
I was supposed to move on after two nights in Madurai, but Raj convinced me to stay and come with him and a group of Rotary teenagers to a Tamil movie. The movie, "Robot", stars the most famous, celebrated and worshiped Tamil actor Rajinikanth. He is also the second most payed actor in all of Asia (after Jackie Chan). Raj told me that at the premieres of his movies, people pour milk on posters of him (that's what Indians do on images of gods). All the Rotary teenagers had already seen the movie at least twice before. The guy sitting next to me had seen it six times. And yes, it was very entertaining, the full four hours of it. The dialogue was of course in Tamil, but this time I had no problems what so ever understanding the content. I don't think I'll watch robot six more times though, once was enough to satisfy my Rajinikanth hunger.
After such a long movie, it was too late to catch a bus to Trichy, so I was forced to stay another night at Rajs and get some more of Sudras food. Life certainly isn't easy! On top of that, Rajs mother dressed me up in an elegant red sari, painted my hands with henna and fed me (since I wasn't allowed to touch anything with my henna hands). This is probably the closest I'll ever get to feeling like an Indian woman about to get married. Leaving Madurai and Rajs family was a little bit sad, leaving Sudras cooking was devastating!
Lots of temples, celebrity photos, masala dhosas and some extremely lazy and pleasant days in Pondicherry later, I arrived in Chennai. There I couch surfed with Mahesh and Suja, who I'd met in southern Laos in June. Mahesh and Suja are probably the most modern Indians I've ever met; at their wedding they only had ten guests (unheard of in India), they quit their jobs and went backpacking in Southeast Asia and now they're looking into starting an organic farm and guest house outside of Chennai. Seeing them again was great fun and I regretted only having two days of touring around Chennai with the perfect trio Mahesh, Suja and their friend Ram. A lot of the time was spent on motor bikes, another big part listening to the trio disagreeing on something and discussing it forever. We also had lots of good Tamil food. These three things would have been enough to keep me entertained and happy for weeks.
However, it was time to leave India to go meet my first guests on this Asia trip, my mom and her boyfriend (is there a better word for that? It sounds more like a teenager than a 59 year old..). So, how does one travel to Kathmandu from Chennai for 16 euro (20 dollars)?- Take the 44 hour train to Gorakhpur.
- Take a two hour jeep to the border in Sunauli.
- Take an eight hour bus that instead takes 12 hours to Kathmandu due to an accident on the road.
It sounds long, but somehow I thoroughly enjoyed it all, probably thanks to all the people I met on the way. People are so nice! On the train I was the target of a great deal of curiosity and was photographed numerous times. I had a train friend, Ganapati, who came to visit me every once in a while and asked me more questions about Sweden than I care to remember. In the jeep (containing 17 people) I was offered tea by two Nepalis. On the bus I got two new friends: a nine year old boy sitting in front of me (but most of the time traveling backwards to be able to talk to me) and a 30 year old man next to me. At the bus, I suddenly felt like listing two of the top reasons to go to Nepal:
1. Seeing a nine year old boy trying to rap along to Swedish hip hop from the 90's (Fint vader med Latin Kings) on a bus standing still in a traffic jam.
2. Getting a lesson in Nepali by a nine year old boy and a 30 year old man on a bus standing still in a traffic jam (while the rest of the bus is happy about the entertainment and listening to everything).
Being back in Nepal feels very familiar and made me realize that this is actually the country I've spent the most time in this year! Seeing the guests of honor was also familiar and I'm convinced that we made the most of their stay here. It felt like luxury spending so much time with mamma (and eating salty licorice again)! I got to act as a trekking guide twice; first with mom and Leif at Helambu Circuit and then alone with mom at the Gandruk Loop. My mom and I also had a time to do a small meditation retreat in Pokhara. During her last night, we celebrated her 60th birthday at a Korean restaurant.Now I have around ten days until I'm meeting my second guest of honor in India, my dad. He was in India 36 years ago and is going back for the first time. The expectations are high...
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