Colombo -- ! Sri Lanka ! --

Here I am! In Sri Lanka!

Although I was quite close while I was in India, I was not there... Now, it's done :-) 10 months traveling. It's a bit longer than flying from St Exupery to Colombo, for sure. But it was worth it.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Wish you all the best in CS, in your family, in your city, in your country and in your small and big projects!

Yes I flew from India to Sri Lanka, that's why I arrived in Colombo. I looked for a ferry. A company had tried for a year... then stopped providing the service. Because of political issues?

Before moving from the capital, I waited for Alexandre, the Frenchy touch, from Lyon who came to visit me!  We spent a nice and quiet New Year's Eve at a restaurant, drinking bier, discovering Sri Lankan dishes and watching cricket :-).

With Alex, many French surprises were waiting for me in his bag. Home made French bier, cheeses, tapenade and other great stuff! Thank you guys for these flying Xmas presents!!!!

After walking on beaches, taking photos of the only big park of the city and extending our visas, we moved to Kandy, the 2nd biggest city of the country and a hot spot for tourists... grrrr Where fortunately Benjamin and his family welcomed us in the greeny hills of Kandy. Nice talk, nice food, nice view and nice CSurfers from all around the world to meet! :-)

Alex et son bel appareil vous présentent l'esthétisme qui suit :

La sortie d'école

1ère vision bouddhiste

Train de Colombo à Kandy

Thirthahalli IN

Thanks to Apoorva, I discovered the surroundings of Thirthahalli, a countryside city. There is no wine, no cheese there, but good vibrations! Western Ghats still, great nature, a farm to take care of, some camp fire trips, a simple but well equipped kitchen to experiment Indian cooking. What else do I need? :-) So, in the list of the exotic food I am able to cook now are: rotti, chapati, how to use chilli, prepare rice flakes and choose a good coconut!

Lunch time in a small canteen...

Simple, healthy and tasty food: masala dosa, a slighty spicy thali with coconut and cucumber chutney, on a banana leaf that you wash on the table before eating, an old man, with a perfect round and firm belly, broken but still useful glasses on the nose, smiling at you while asking "more rice? another puri?". And the metal baby glass of light pink milky and sweet tea... hmmmmm... The updated newspaper liing around. :-)

Food is part of life, food is what you are made of, day to day life. Food here is an institution. In France too, for sure. In India, I believe that food is a significant part of people wisdom and happiness. Probably less meat, no red meat at all,  proteins from pulses, but not too much, spicy food, but not heat releasing, gluten free, less energetic, a few pieces of potatoes... Sad that all of these are full of pesticides. :-/

Family importance, sense of belonging to a community, lights celebrations and flowery, musical parties all the time: there is no day without fireworks or crackers let off in streets in India. Could they be some keys for happiness?

paddies

Sunrise at Kodachadri

Un peu de wwoofing dans la plantation de hévéas

Western Ghats IN

Western Ghats or Wonderful Grazing! A place made for me. :-)
We hit the road down south with Maria and her driver Apoorva. The Western Ghats was all ours!

Winter time there is like a smooth summer in France, sunny, warm enough, but still softly chilly at night. Landscape is lovely: hilly, kind of mountainous, rivers everywhere, clean ones, where you can swim against the current, as a Big Fish among the other swimming animals, waterfalls, deep forests, huge old trees, nice creepers, green leafy wood, cool and humid small areas in the middle of nowhere, wild or domestic cattle grazing around. And quietness :-o, few cars, almost noise and pollution free, smart people, cleanliness of the street... After Mysore and a short nice time with Prem at his coconut farm, we headed for Tamil Nadu and Kerala border.

Bandipur National Park has been founded as a tigers reserve in 1973, and now protects several species of Indian wildlife, as Indian elephants. There is a ban on traffic from the hours of dusk to dawn. oh oh oh...  I felt the temptation irresistible to stay overnight in this wildlife. ;-) We stopped the car on the side of the road, walked around, aware of the elephants that could cross our way, then made fire, cut tomatoes and onions in the peaceful and clear evening, enjoying nature time... National police arrived suddenly, shouting in Kannada,  "How dare you, Indian piece of s..., getting this French and innocent girl involved in your dangerous and dirty plan!". Tension was highly perceptible. Bringing us down to earth, they lead us the way out of the park in order to wait for the final decision of our case with the park officers the very morning.  Thanks Apoorva for your perfect reactions! Mild and clever behaviour plus a few banknotes struck the deal before the police came. I told you, lady!

Kerala has the highest literacy rate in the country. Kerala is also known to be the cleanest state and the least corrupted. And many other positive points. And you know what?! This state is communist! :-) In 1957, for  the first time anywhere in the world, a communist government was democratically elected to power in Kerala.

Maria and Apoorva

USE DIPPER (or diapers!) AT NIGHT :-D

Bel emblème !

Tea, tea and tea estates again