Travel Virus

The very wellknown beach of Varkala is quite nice but there are way too many white tourists. The atmosphere is a bit hyppie and not at all indian. However it was nice to be there for a day. The weaves are very big, some austrialians were body surfing, while the indian aunties with kids come to the beach to see what are all those white people doing The only good restaurant is the Cafe del Mar.

On the way south, after Varkala I stopped in Kerala’s capital: Trivandrum. As all big cities there are more annoyance and the feeling of beeing cited all the time. There is a nice zoo, several musems, the raja palace (with guide) and a big temples where tourists are not allowed (but everything is possible in India). The palace is quite nice, with a mix of italian marble, belgium cristal and colorful indian deities. The hotel Manjalikulam is really crap, very unfrendy staff and overpriced.

After the peaceful backwaters I head to the city of Kollam, which I liked very much: it’s a perfect mixture of city-backwaters-sea! All in a couple of kilometers… fantastic. Nobody was swimming in the sea, maybe it’s not a popular activity for indians. I stayed in an idillic homestay with backwaters on three sides (like a small peninsula). Still, this paradise is quite unexpolred by mainstream tourism, who prefer to go to the westernalized beaches of Varkala and Kovalam. If you plan a trip to Kerala, this is a place I would strongly reccomand.

Finally I’m in Kerala on the backwaters!! It’s a paradise! After a short stop in Delhi, I took a flight to Cochin (Kochi), the biggest city in Kerala, in the south west of India. I went back to Fort cochin, a beautiful area (full of tourists) and took a ferry to the city (ernakulam) for 2.50 Rs (=about 0.40 euros). Then we took a local bus to Aleppy, “the Venice of India” and in about 2 and a half hours I arrived in this amazing place on the backwaters (mix of river and sea water). There are coconut trees, mango trees, a hamac in the garden and delicious food. Today the host of the homstay, Mr. Thomas of Green-Palm Homes (see the lonely planet), took us for a bike ride in the countryside of Aleppy… awesome!! We biked for three hours between the local houses, all facing the water and the rice fields. After the ride, for relaxing there is nothing better than a swim in the backwaters, as you can see from the picture. As in India there is a full body coverage tradition I’m swimming with all the cloths, which was fun and also useful since they needed to be washed anyway  Then I did some proper washing at the river like the indian aunties do… provoking some laugh of the indian tourists passing by on the beautiful luxiurios houseboats.  

As you see in the picture, Aleppy is not called “Venice” by chance, in fact the boats really do look like gondolas and the houses are built almos in the water. The main difference is that here there are 30 degrees all year and it’s 100 times cheaper!

My addiction to travelling is not getting any better, you know, there is no cure for the travel virus!

Tomorrow I’m going to India!!!!!! Yes, it was so amazing the first time that I really felt the need to go back and discover more of it. As I told Ralph today, I should go to India once a year to update my Karma

I’m flying to the capital first and then I’ll go to Kerala, God’s own coutry! Altough it is not sure which god we are talking about, Kerala is a real paradise and one of the most developed, rich, healthy and educated states of India. In fact much has been written on Kerala “miracle” (see eg. Amartya Sen, Indian development). The miracle is probably consisting of the gulf money coming from the expatriates, but more romantic people (like the italian journalist  Rampini) prefer to attribut all the success of Kerala to the communist goverment freely elceted by the people, ignoring the exogenou factors influencing the overall economy.

Beside all this political and historical issues, Kerala is awesome and I was totally fascinated by the backwater scenaries…  and here I am, ready to go back and explore more in deep!

Wish to come with me? then see you tomorrow morning at 4:30!

Today I would like to draw your attention on a crucial cross-cultural issue: food.
Tonight me and Rahel were cooking very different kind of food, which mirror quite well our cultures, as you can see in the picture.

Now tell me: which one do you prefer???? The italian torta salata di zucchine or the egg&bacon?

Yesterday there was a big party in the University of Lugano, called a tutto campus, to celebrate the new builings of the campus. It was a nice event, with food from the five continent, shows, dancing, art expositions and a disco party. Here in the pic you can see the performance of a musician and singer called “a world of sound”.

For some time I’ve been thinking about posting pictures of food and recipes: I think that learning about other cuisine traditions can make us discover different cultures, too! I was also inspired by Ms Adventure in Italy, a blog of an american girl, posting italian recipes, mmm… maybe I can learn some southern dishes from her!

Here’s only a part of the food that we tryed to eat in only four peole: bruschette, brad with ricotta and dryed tomatos, salad, caprese, spinach and ricotta pie (torta salata di ricotta e spinaci) and pinzimonio, and of course… pizza! Plus four kind of sweets that are not in the pics… happy birthday Sibylle!

Some people have been asking me how it is to live on the sixth floor…
mmm, when you have a nice scenary of mountains all around (and the elevator) it’s actually nice!
Beside when there are hearthquakes like a couple of years ago. I can also see the university, but luckily non my office, that would have been too much! The nice old-looking building with flowers and trees is the library of the University of Lugano.

In the last few weeks the critical situation in Tibet has gained public attention, thanks to the focus on China for the Olympics. china has attibuted the violences in Lhasa to the monk protest: I will not make any futher comment than this very insightful image depicting the cause of the violences!!!!