Vagamon, Kumily - India

The hostel I stayed in in Vagamon was in the middle of nowhere and had a wonderful view of the Kerala mountains. Since I made the resolution the night before that I wanted to have a better day today and start it with optimism, I just did that. Today I wanted to go hiking all day and I realized once again that I absolutely love and enjoy heaving myself over mountain ridges, strolling through valleys, jumping over streams, stomping through rivers, hopping from stone to stone, making my way through undergrowth, fighting through jungle scrub, balancing over tree trunks, climbing rock faces and cooling off in mountain lakes. So I did exactly that that day and noticed how the joy and happiness rose within me again and I frolicked around the waterfalls like a toddler and tried to grab fish with my hands.

At half time I treated myself to a Chai Massala and three fried bananas at a small stand before I went climbing. Barefoot, armed with a backpack and with confused looks from Indian tourists, I climbed the next 15m to the REALLY highest point of the peak, where I could then see the 360° view alone with my crossword puzzle book and my adventure playlist could enjoy. Someone took me back to the hostel on his completely broken and rusty scooter and then tried to sell me magic mushrooms at the end. I gratefully declined his offer and went to another waterfall with another Indian, where I made the acquaintance of someone I had been looking for since my arrival in India. Interestingly, a cardamom farmer was sitting there with his 3 thousand euro drone and asked me if he could take pictures of me. I chimed in and he told me he was among the top three Indian travel content creators and showed me his Instagram with half a million followers. That was really interesting and cool, but didn't he just mention in our conversation that he was actually a cardamom farmer? Yes, he did!

I've already been able to tick off three of my goals for my year-long trip: working with elephants, going to a full moon party in the jungle and learning to surf. Next up was to work on a tea plantation in India for a few days. So after I asked a lot of people to no avail whether they could help me with my project, I thought to myself that I had set myself a goal that was too ambitious. But now I was standing in front of a farmer who lived 50km from the village where I wanted to work on a tea plantation. So I asked him if he had any contacts and after three phone calls he sent me a contact and said I could start next Tuesday. I couldn't quite believe my luck and kept thanking him.

In the evening I met the fantastically lovely Indian woman Shubhangi and Cori from the Netherlands, who was really pleasant once you got to know him. I chatted with Shubhangi around the campfire until late about socializing and love. When the others slowly got ready for bed, we started dancing to Bollywood music and then I turned on the JustDance dances to "Rasputin" and "Moscow" on her laptop and showed her the choreo I had practiced, which I did with a good friend in the first lockdown danced until I dropped. We then played carom and table tennis quite amusedly until two in the morning, with the evening ending with a toe stub from me that turned my left 'pointer toe' :p into a purple meatball. We agreed to meet again in another hostel in two days because I had to continue hiking now. No, I wanted to.

To be honest, there are no special events to report about the next day, except for two. At a viewpoint on a mountain, an Indian man engaged me in a conversation that was more of a monologue on his part. I didn't understand his poor English or his accent at all and didn't want to wave him off rudely either. So I nodded and grinned in a friendly manner for 10 minutes at the previous day and occasionally, at times that I thought made sense, I threw in an "oh yeah", "totally" or "yeah, I understand" (the latter was a blatant lie on my part). . In the end it turned out that he told me his business plan, with which anyone could actually be rich if I just invested in his stocks...

After he tried so hard for 10 minutes to pick out his most academic English vocabulary and promised me a financially more than attractive future and asked me if I would like to join the business, I looked at him for three seconds with a meaningless look and said briefly and curtly "nope", turned his back on him and walked away. But seriously, what did he expect? On a mountain, a white tourist, broken English, doesn't even know my name and asks for a financial investment of several thousand euros. Ugh... difficult.

On the way to the next village, a run-down Mikra chugged past me on the gravel road in the rain and I could see 7 people in a five-seater car out of the corner of my eye. The car came to a stop 20 meters in front of me and a seemingly Indian woman got out and smiled at me. After the first word out of her mouth, I knew immediately that it wasn't an Indian woman standing in front of me, but a native Texan. With the typical Texan openness, relaxedness and unique accent, she explained to me that she was visiting her family here, saw me here in the rain and could please take me with her to the next village. I happily squeezed in with the other seven inmates and the Texan woman distributed the three children across everyone's laps like only a Tetris master could have done. I enjoyed the change of mentality, listening to her many curses and authentic "oh hell no", "I swear by Jesus", "but damn" and "oh f*ck no" with a big grin and a slight smile. (You have to imagine the Texas accent when reading). After I politely declined her snacks because I wanted to eat something big right away and she let me out at the next intersection, she came back five minutes later because her family had a guilty conscience because... I didn't fully understand it either and still don't understand it. Anyway, they were sad because I was hungry and they invited me to have dinner with them tomorrow night. I was totally touched, but unfortunately had to cancel because I was driving on towards the tea plantation the next day.

I love the people here (the bad experiences two days before were almost completely out of my mind or assumed much less importance).