December 2010
21 posts
My year in music
Sitting on the last train on this trip and for once can’t be bothered to stare outside, so it’s time for a lie-down, headphones on and a little typing on the phone, in the hope that I’ll have WiFi soon to upload this post.
I would like to present to you: my year music. Should have done this before leaving, obviously, as I didn’t really discover any stuff while here (I...
1 tag
Travelling along Indian roads
You wouldn’t believe it when driving along Indian roads, but people actually take driving lessons here. I’m sure the instructions are a little as follows:
- Check if your horn is working. Lights, brakes, whatever … as long as your horn works.
- You will not drive on the left or on the right, you will drive wherever there is space. This is especially true if you are driving a...
Water and pilgrims: temple towns and the northeast...
So far I’ve mostly been bragging about the high temperatures during this trip, but what I haven’t mentioned was that rather than sunny, most days have been overcast and it usually rained every day, sometimes just a little, but the further we went South, the more rain there was. The Northeast monsoon has been pretty fierce, especially battering the state of Tamil Nadu, where 200 people...
An update about the "stupid tourist" thing and a...
A while ago I wrote all this claptrap about being a tourist and all that, but actually my friends Seb and Vanessa made what seems like an awesome, utterly non-touristy trip through Northern India, visiting tribal communities and guerrilla sensitive areas in Jharkand and Orissa. You can read their highly interesting trip report on http://verrewoorden.wordpress.com (in English and Dutch).
Also, I...
1 tag
"Stupid tourists" and the Lonely Planet mafia
Sometimes I get couch requests from people that go a little something like this: “Hey Nils,we’re blablabla and so-and-so and we’re coming to Brussels and we’d like to stay with a local because we don’t want to do all the stupid tourist stuff…”
Hang on a minute. You don’t want to do the “stupid tourist stuff” …? So, by that you mean...
1 tag
From the backwaters to the ocean
From Kochi we moved down South, through an area which is known as the backwaters of Kerala, a whole ecosystem of rivers, lakes, small canals and all sorts of little waterways, with tiny hamlets and villages accessible by boat rather than by road. After quite a horrible bus ride to Kottaym, we had a fantastic meal and then took a public boat for a handful of rupees, which in two and a half hours...