India

We escaped one of our homestay owners trying to charge ten times the price of a bus for a ride in his car to Mysore and ended up here- where kitsch and zen collide.

We cruised along a 16km beach in a local fishing boat. We actually burned that day, but cooled down by swimming once in a while. We stopped at one point and had coconut milk and thalis on the beach, brought by some villagers

That's one of the clearest sunset we have seen in India, since all the other ones were faded by the pollution. Here in Madikeri the high altitude makes the air more breathable and a little ride up the mountain led us to this very nice sunset

The unique, the tallest in the world, the exceptional Shiva meditating on a tiger's skin carpet (killed from his own hands they say). The god of destruction sits next to the waterfront in Murudeshwar with his 43m. It's quite impressive. Unfortunately this is the only attraction in town, but it's worth stopping by.

We pretended we were Santa Claus for a while and here's one of our helpers packing our boxes full of presents for Christmas. But seriously, to send a box back home you have to bring your box to the tailor and have it sewed before taking it to the post office. So hopefully it will arrive on time back home !!!

Happy birthday!!!!! I swear inside of me I was happy but a stomach ache in the early morning makes me look this way I had a great day and a wondrfull flower necklace, which ended up in a shrine for the glory of Ganesh the elephant god.

This is the first day of our 3 days hike.Lunch break at the top of a mountain.We thought we were going to be rich that day since we were close to a stone mine, but we only found small little piece of what will transform into ruby if we wait 10.000 years.

What is this? It's coffee of course!!! Pur arabica they automaticly add some kind of sweetener when they serve a fresh cup of coffee so we didn't get to have the reall taste of it.Coffee plants are not native from India but has been imported during the british Raj. A bag of 50kg is bought 1200rps (20euros).

It feel strange to see it for the first time but you get use to it after a while. In India the swastika is considered extremely holy. Facing right it represents the evolution of the universe, facing left it represents the involution of the universe.The term is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being.

Rice fields in the coorg region.It's beautifull to look at,but's such a hard labor.75 rps a day (1.50euros) for a women wages and a 100rps for a man.

Once the rice is picked up. in the small villages buffalos turn in circle walking on the rice sticks to separate the rice from the plant .We have seen in wealthier places tractors doing the job of the buffalos.

Do not think that it is hot everywhere in India.We are in the cool season and in the mountains, so we are actually freezing while crossing the river ,but it was worth the adventure because we ended our walkfor the day after crossing.And washed ourselves swimming among 50 fishes per meter squar(and i'm not exagerating )We couldn't eat any for dinner though,the villagers keep them here for the gods.

...20 days old little veal can enjoy the confort of the hay and the sun.

kids and......

Come on you can do it Jay !!!!!Climb a little bit more

By the time I saw the elephant I had already given up on it. We were shoeless, wandering around inside the Hampi temple's inner courtyard. In a granite enranceway, past a humming holy man adminstering fingerprints of powder on a couple childrens' foreheads or pouring a questionably opaqe liquid into a child' hand, to be drunk immdiately, we saw no sign of a massive beast. We quietly refused these religious services, for yesterday my attempt at finding the elephant at the source had led to being blessed and sent out the door, yet another elephantine failure. Well, 'failure' wouldn't be the right word. Diversion, perhaps. Or welcome distraction. Or 'blessing in disguise' so to say, though I have no clue what the old bearded and robed man was saying to me.

We pondered the human likeness of the mischevious monkeys, joked about the five hundred rupee charge for video cameras, on top of a two rupee entrance fee (all the other entrances, wide open, were too elusive for tourists to find) then it was there. In the middle of the temple-bracketed square in the morning sun, lifting a left foot and bowing before a shrine, turning and taking residence in a corner. How had we not noticed the elephant coming into the living room? He couldn't have already been here, we knew, for we'd scoured the somewhat ancient, somewhat eerie, and altogether dank caverns juxtaposed by the false light of buzzing flourescent bulbs that seem to be planted about the countryside indiscriminately. We discovered that this active temple served approximately the same purpose it did five hundred years ago, but now white people glowed like apparitions in the labyrinthine carved granite network of chambers and walkways.

The elephant, a dark beast with light freckles between his eyes, seem content enough. Meandering over to his corner, the eighteen year-old stood at attention. Indians with baskets of flowers and coconut offered the animal white hunks that dissapeared without a second glance. The elephant swung his trunk rhythmically, a heavy pendulum, each time around grasping a coconut, or if none was available, coyly lifting a foot and tapping it with his trunk. People held out coins, and as gracefully, and rapidly, as one could imagine, each coin was slipped from the trunk and into the keeper's hand. I didn't know how to hold the coin, but the heavy, thick-skinned, wiry hair-littered trunk found my hand and pulled the coin from it. I squoze my eyes shut, he patted me on the head like a good tourist. We went off on bicycles to spot the Queen's old elephant stables. Majestic.

je m'occupe de la partie en francais c 'est un blog multi-langue .
Il fait chaud,super chaud c'est le troisieme ete qu'on passe cette annee et j'avoue que je ne m'en lasse pas ,heureusement quelques nuages couvrait le ciel ce matin parce que suer a 9 heures du matin ca fait un peu tot .
On a voyager pratiquement depuis le debut avec un australien et une israelienne qui etait un inde depuis un moment deja .ca fait donc une dizaine de jours qu'on les retrouve sur une plage dans tel village ou dans un temple autre part .ils nous on plus ou moins initie a l'inde:les prix , l'attitude a avoir quand quelqu'un vous devisage intensement ,les endroits a ne pas manquer en inde....
On ne peut pas dire qu'on se soit retrouve tout seule ici .on a rencontre un espagnole ,qui nous a dit que c'etait dur de voyager seul ou de dejeuner seul alors qu'il est entoure de 1.3 millards d'indiens ,paradoxale non?
Je dois avouer que nous n'avons pas ressentis cette grosse claque dont tout le monde parle, en arrivant en inde.Sans doute parce que nous sommes dans une region plus touristique ou simplement parce que nous avons ete chanceux et que tout a ete plutot facile .Je dirais que pour le moment la seule chose qui m'emmerde le plus c'est les transports en bus .c'est vrai que nous avons la possibilite de prendre des couchettes dans les bus (oui oui )mais passer 15 heures a faire des bonds dans un lit parce que les routes on ete innondees des milliers de fois et qu'elles sont dans un sales etats, que le conducteur freine comme un malade pour eviter je ne sait quoi et qu'au moment ou tu vas presque t'endormir il klaxonne comme un malade ,ca fait des nuits blanches qui au petit matin se manifeste par des valises sous les yeux et une melody ronchons pour commencer la journee .
bref ca va qu'on prend pas des bus tous les jours et de toute facon c'etait a prevoir .en contre partie on en prend plein les mirettes et on a le smile tous les jours .