Total
land kilometres travelled: 8,500km and counting
Where
we have spent the night:
29 guest house beds
8 train beds
3 bus seats
1 village hut
Dear friends and family – we have just
spent an amazing 10 days exploring the beaches and hill tribe areas of Orissa
state in North East India. We are in the progress of moving south along the
coast to the bottom tip of India.
Puri Beach
We travelled 8 hours by train south from
Kolkata to reach Puri – a beachside town on the cost of Orissa. We spent 4 days
in a beachside cottage beside a fishing village – passing the time by having
massages, swimming, drinking cold beers and meeting fellow travellers. However,
our sins of gluttony and sloth were soon punished when we both got sick. Chloe
ended up in hospital with a needle in her hand and Cisco is on antibiotics –
but luckily it was short lived and we’re feeling back to 100%.
The theory for the sickness lies in the
state of the beachside fishing village we stayed next to. Puri beach could well
be renamed Poo-ree beach because, imagine if you will, the beach is littered
with hundreds of human turds. Walking along the beach we had to keep our eyes
trained on the sand to avoid stepping over a poo or a person in the process of
making one. I saw more bare bums in this week than I have in my previous 31
years, which sounds exciting, but trust me, it wasn’t pretty. I wanted to chip
in to buy everyone a shovel – but one village woman I met told me this is the
way the village has always worked: everything is done in the open. To add to
the grime we also saw kids playing cricket around puffy dead dogs (who had
their legs bound and been drowned) and dozens of massive rotting turtles (whose
legs had been slashed by fishermen so they couldn’t swim). The villagers lives
and work in these putrid conditions – which is incomprehensible to us but
normal and acceptable for the happy villagers, which of course is the main
thing. However, we did stop eating seafood after we saw where the fish were
coming from and, most importantly, what they were probably eating.....
Note: don’t worry - we walked to a clean
part of the beach for the swimming – but it didn’t stop Cisco saying to me
“Don’t look now, but there is a turd on your shoulder” when I came up for air.
We met two kindred spirits & fellow
adventurers in Orissa – Nettie and Jack from Holland. I am sure they won’t mind me telling
you that they are 67 and 70 and still choosing the adventurous road in life.
Beyond being amazing people – they showed us that being young at heart is the
only prerequisite for travelling and exploring this amazing world.
Hill Tribes of inner Orissa
We decided to buck the trend and head to
inner Orissa to visit the villages near the jungles and hills where the Adivasi
tribes live. Due to logistics and restrictions not many people come to this
part of Orissa: to visit most surrounding areas you need a permit and a guide.
We decided to venture forth without either and it was the best decision we had
made. Because the tribes live so
remotely and so traditionally its impossible to visit the actual tribal
communities in the jungle so we headed for the villages nearby to see them as
they come down from the hills for their weekly markets.
The highlight of our visit to the hill
tribes was a 3 day stay in Koraput village - which is near to the Bonda tribe.
This tribe still hunt with bow and arrow and are distinguished by their tribal
facial piercings and are known as “the naked people” for wearing little
clothing. We were in Koraput on the day which the Bonda tribespeople come down
from their hills to sell their crops to the village. Their appearance is very
different to the Indians we had met so far– some look almost African or
Aboriginal - women wear three large gold hoops through their noses and most
limbs are roughly tattooed. All tribespeople are barefoot and dressed in a
simple piece of material wrapped (to varying degrees) around their bodies –
usually accompanied by a baby in a sling or a stick from which they hang their
wares. The Adivasi are known for their happiness and zest for life: they
believe in appreciating their gift of life by celebrating it everyday. We loved
seeing such a different side of India
and were shown yet again how the simple life can be the happiest.
While in the tribal areas we visited a
village called Rayagada and after meeting a young schoolboy on the street we were
invited to spend the day with a local family there. Uncle and Aunty, their 3
foster children and maidservant Onu adopted us for the day – driving us up into
the hills to see waterfalls and rivers, showing us the full collection of
family photo albums and feeding us an amazing thali of local Orissan food.
Little maid Onu was wonderful – so shrivelled up and bent over but so warm and
wonderful. She had been living with the family for 36 years and had long since
passed her useful and productive days, but she was considered family so still
lived in a tiny room out the back of the house.
We love Uncle and Aunty – so generous and loving to everyone who touches
their lives.
Why
we love India
India has
shown us that the people with the least are those who give the most: always with
a smile and open heart and never with an expectation of return. We saw quotes written around Orissa which we
really liked. Here is one variation:
“The measure of a man’s wealth is what he
has when you take away his money”
This focus is why, without exception, the
Indians we have met are so rich in spirit and such amazing people. This is why
we love India.
We will leave you with that thought as we
head back into the Pondicherry
chaos.
With much love
Chloe & Fra xoxoxoxo
