Rentree plus tot, Anna a rédigé un récit complet de notre épopée. Vous pouvez voir les photos correspondante sur son compte Facebook, etape par etape, en cliquant ici.
Sans plus tarder, voici l'integralité du texte, en anglais s'il vous plait:

Mumbai:
I arrived safely in Mumbai via Frankfurt at half past one in the morning on the 22nd along with a myriad of other people. Although it was rather early in the morning, the airport was totally packed. Quickly found a taxi to find and brutally wake up my travel companion Vianney at a hotel in town centre :) Having waffled at the sleepy Frenchman for quite some time, I set up my mosquito net (thanks for lending it to me Kristina) and fell asleep. The next morning, I really began to take it all in: the Indian people, the rhythm of life, the warmth, the food, the landscape, the chaos, the contrasts and last but not least the overwhelming friendliness. All in all, this is a wonderful place to visit. Vianney and I did lots of obligatory touristy sight seeing on the first day, which included visiting the Gateway of India, a grand emperial triumphal arch by the seaside, and the Elefanta Caves which are caves that have been carved out of the rock containing beautiful sculptures of Hindu gods. In the evening, we packed our stuff and caught a train up to the northern suburb of Andheri to visit a fellow couchsurfer. We opted for the crowded 2nd class train ride, which at one point basically involved me standing on one leg to fit in. It felt strange to travel by the 100-year-old British transportation relics which had had large fans added and doors removed to cater for the relentless heat and huge crowds. The couchsurfer Kenneth Lobo came to greet us at the station and guided us to his place where we met his parents and cousin Merwin, who were all extremely friendly and hospitable. Kenneth even insisted that he slept on the floor so that I could have the bed. Kenneth showed us and a third Dutch couchsurfer Niels around his neighbourhood before he went to work the following day. When he left, we just wandered about. It was very obvious that people in this part of town are not used to foreigners so they really did tend to stare and turn their heads quite a lot, but it didn't take long to get used to lucklily. When walking past some children playing cricket in a dusty field, they all came running toward us and asked if we wanted to play with them. At the risk of looking like a fool, Vianney and I declined, but our friend from Holland Niels, had a go at batting a ball and we all had a really good laugh. In Mumbai, we also managed to set up a brief CS Meeting, which naturally included myself and Vianney, our hosts Kenneth and Merwin, and fellow couchsurfers Kavita, Kesley, Niels, Dana, Misha and Maria. Quite a crowd :)

Matheran:
On the 25th, Vianney and I took an auto rickshaw to Kurla, where we were to catch a train to Neral Junction and onwards to the hilltop station of Matheran. However, finding the right platform and train proved to be somewhat of a challenge. Naturally, only being able to produce phatic hindi phrases such as ‘hello’ and ‘nice to meet you’, was part of the problem, but one can go a long way with just pointing and pronuncing your destination c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y. Our fellow Indian commuters were eager to help, yet we found that asking ten different people would return approximately eight different answers. Anyway, we somehow managed to catch the right train, and were soon hiking the last leg of our journey to Matheran with our heavy backpacks along the toy train track, which we had missed – of course. Monkeys were all round us, looking for scraps of food. It didn’t take long for one of the monkey to engage in an attack, which seemed to have been performed many times on unsuspecting individuals. One of the Indian tourists was carrying his lunch in a plastic bag. Suddenly, a cheeky monkey raced past him and picked a little hole in his bag causing the lovely food to spill on the road. Then the rest of the monkey gang, rushed to the scene and picked up all the goodies. Monkeys or no monkeys, Matheran is a picturesque hilltop station situated in the mountains amid a shady forest. Also, all motorised vehicles are banned in Matheran, which allowed our ears and lungs to recover from Mumbai. Vianney and I followed the many red dirt paths around the area, which took us from one breathtaking viewpoint to the other. Vianney uttered “Ah, c’est beau”, so many times I stopped counting :) On our way back to Mumbai, we met Quinn, an extremely sweet, friendly and talkative aussie, who we happily helped in celebrating Australia Day! Do check out the fantastic hat pictures! :) Anyway, our return journey to Mumbai took quite a lot longer than our ourwards journey so we almost didn't make our domestic flight from Mumbai to Kochi, but our rickshaw pulled up by the terminal minus 10 mins to go. We were just THAT good.

Cochin:
In Kochi we set up camp at the Kovil home stay in Fort Kochi, run by Mr and Mrs. Satheesan, a hospitable couple, who gave us a really warm welcome and offered us neat and homely accommodation which included extremely tasty Kerala breakfasts prepared by Mrs. Satheesan. Kochi is a very beautiful place and became our starting point for our Kerala visit. Kochi has attracted traders for over 600 years and remains a mix of many exotic cultures like the Portuguese, Jewish, English, French, Dutch and Chinese. Whilst staying in Fort Kochi, we hooked up with local couchsufer Bijoy and his brother Romeo and friends Liby and Neil. Among other things, we saw the synagogue, Dutch palace, St. Francis Church, Santacruz Basilica and the Chinese fishing nets. We also joined a joyous and extremely colourful procession celebrating the 450th anniversary of Saint Joseph. Why can’t Europeans be that colourful? During our stay in Kochi we also attended a Kathakali play, which is a form of dance-mime-drama that originated in the state of Kerala during the late 16th century.

Munnar:
Munnar is known for some of the world’s highest tea-growing estates. Hence the hills of Munnar are covered in vast sloping fields of lush green tea plants. Having endured a rather bumpy bus ride up the hills, we arrived in Munnar in the evening and found a simple but great place to have dinner, which appeared to be the favourite choice of the Munnar rickshaw drivers. At this point, I still hadn’t mastered the underrated act of eating with my right hand fingers, so I’m sure my fellow diners had a good little laugh on my attempts to move food from the plate to my mouth. In order to explore the area the next day, Vianney and I organised a day of rickshaw sightseeing with another French backpacker. Our knowledgeable rickshaw guide Ravi, was very eager to tell us all about the area and seemed to have a very organised tour set up for us, which took us around the patchwork of plantations surrounding Munnar. Rarely, have I seen such beautiful landscapes. Apart from the tea plants, we also saw coffee and cardamom plants. Naturally, we left Munnar with bags stuffed with lots of quality tea and spices.

Allepey:
In Alleppey, Vianney and I rented a houseboat for 24 hours to explore a small part of the network of waterways that edge the coast of Kerala. Travelling the backwaters in such a luxurious manner was truly an experience of a lifetime! Just check out the pictures! Our houseboat designed like a rice barge had two onboard cooks aside from the captain and they prepared some great meals for us. On our journey around the Alleppey backwaters, we drifted past beautiful scenes with coconut palms, rice fields and local residents going about the lives a world away from the India we had seen in the busy cities.

Varkala:
From Alleppey Vianney and I caught a bus to Varkala, a small coastal resort with dramatic high cliffs and white sandy beaches. This beautiful place holds a very relaxed atmosphere and visitors are know to prolong their stay in Varkala, as did Vianney and I :) In Varkala, our residence took form of a charming yellow bamboo hut, including wicker patio furniture, groovy chillout batik bedding and a lukewarm shower water! Oh joy :) Naturally, we had to test the seawater temperature as well and found it to be absolutely perfect. Regrettably I still can’t swim to save my life, so whilst Vianney was conquering the waves at a great speed, I was watching nervously from a far, bobbing around the low waters. To my credit, I did try a few breaststrokes and swam approximately 3 meters, but in doing so also swallowed several large gulps of seawater. Yuk! In Varkala, Vianney and I also signed up for cooking classes in order to be able to reproduce some of the great Indian dishes we had been sampling while travelling. With the help of two friendly cooks, we managed to whip up a 5 course dinner, including: Pakora, Chapatti Bread, Vegetable Kurma, Fish Biryani and Banana Fry. We practically rolled back to our bamboo hut like big puffed up balls that evening. The next morning, we first decided to do a bit of shopping. Oh, did they saw us coming! Still not being accustomed to the Indian way of haggling, I’m sure we paid a high overprice, but then again, it was still cheap. Then we went to treat ourselves to an Ayurvedic massage. Ayurvedic massage is all about detoxification and rejuvenation and incorporates large amounts of warm oils and herbs. Each of our Ayurvedic massages lasted in total about an hour and left both of us very relaxed and warm inside… and also very oily ;) In fact, the area of skin that wasn’t covered in oil can be covered by two hands or less.

Madurai:
Until Varkala, we had done very little planning. Before starting our adventure, we had obviously discussed which places we would like to visit in the south of India, but no dates had been written down, no hotels booked, no train tickets reserved etc.. This ‘let’s take it as it comes’ approach to travelling had worked superbly until now, but when trying to arrange for an overnight train from Trivandrum to Chennai, we soon learned that this had to be done tree days in advance in order to travel by the more comfortable compartments. However, this little hiccup was not to bring us down and we bought two general (second class) tickets to Madurai, where we would do a short stopover before continuing the trek to Villepurum and Pondicherry. This train journey, which would cover more than 300 kilometres, only cost us around 40 rupees (0,7 Euros) each! This only confirmed the fact that travelling by rail is the cheapest way of inter city travel in India. When the train to Madurai finally arrived, about an hour late, people surged into the compartments in the hunt of a free seat. At first, it didn’t look like we both could find seating, but soon a helpful Indian would squeeze into another seat, so that we could sit down together. A fine gesture that would happen on a regular basis. It was quite difficult to find a comfortable position on the hard wooden seats, and every now and again one was forced to perform the obligatory butt cheek switch before numbness would kick in. Whilst the train was making it’s way to Madurai, Vianney and I would read in our books, play chess and take turns in nodding off. Later on, the luggage racks became makeshift beds for those who were lucky enough to have grabbed one of them. I even managed to get some shuteye by sleeping on the floor like a true Indian for a while. At each station on the way, chai and coffee vendors would chant hypnotizing selling slogans, in order to catch the attention of the weary travellers. Although it was not my most comfortable journey of my life, it was definitely an Indian experience not to be missed and looking back, I'm glad we didn't pause our travels just to reserve tickets for the the luxury AC sleeper compartments. Anyway, at 5:30 we arrived at Madurai, where our main goal was to visit the famous temple of Sri Meenakshi. Much bigger than I had anticipated, Sri Meenakshi is actually temple complex covering an area of 6 hectares. The complex comprises 12 temple towers varying in height and all highly decorated with colourful carvings of gods, goddesses and animals. Although we didn’t have time to do much research on the temple prior to arrival, I was glad we didn’t miss this glorious sight. From Madurai, we hopped on the train to Villepurum. Continued to Pondicherry and got a bus to Auroville.

Auroville:
"Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity." This is how Auroville was described by its yoga leader, known as “The Mother”. Not surprisingly, Auroville was founded in the late sixties and the goal of the community which counts around 2000 individuals at present is to iron out cultural and class differences and to reach human unity. All in all a very respectable mission, yet, as is has turned out, also a very difficult, time consuming and slow mission. During our stay at Auroville, Vianney and I were to learn about Auroville from very different viewpoints. We also attended a conference about water and in particular dynamized water enriched with cosmic rays, which supposedly have all sorts of magical properties (a little farfetched some might say, but certainly in the Aurovillian spirit). In the heart of Auroville, a huge spherical structure has been created called the Matrimandir, which at first sight may look a little bit like a semi-squashed golden golf ball. It is not supposed to be the destination for tourist sightseeing, so gaining access to the inside of the Matrimandir was not an easy task, but we eventually managed to obtain passes to go inside the amazing dome, which contains a large meditation hall. In Auroville, we stayed at couchsurfer Snehal and his family’s place, who had set up a quiet and simple life right in the middle of Auroville without being actual Aurovillians, yet benefiting from the educational possibilities derived from the Aurovillian project. Snehal and some friends had designed and built the impressive accommodation huts themselves, and I think it was at Snehal’s place where I had the best shower ever. Imagine taking a shower inside a small shack made entirely from weaved coconut leaves with no roof, letting the sun come in and allowing you to gaze at the palm tree tops. Incredible.

Pondicherry:
What, nothing? Anna.... well it WAS kinda short a visit.

Chennai:
Our next stop on our journey was Chennai, previously know as Madras. Here we met up with couchsurfer Ram, who took it upon him to show Vianney and myself around his home city of Chennai. First of all, we went to see a Bollywood movie in the huge Sathyam Cinema. Next, we went to the beach. The sky looked ominous and dramatic, and within 10 minutes the weather changed from being sunny and ridiculously hot to cloudy and rainy. At the beach, Ram treated us to green mango slices and pineapple and afterwards we went to a spice market to stock up. Our last meal in Chennai consisted of a most typical Indian meal, that is Masala Dosa. Before turning in for the night, Ram also drove me around Chennai town centre for a bit on his bike, which was great fun.

Kanchipuram:
On Sunday the 10th, Vianney and I caught an earley bus to Kanchipuram, famous for its temples and silk saris. Upon arrival, we rented two bikes and went on the hunt for the temples listed in our guidebooks. One of the first temples we visited, however, was not in the guides and we kind of stumbled upon it by chance. Here we were lucky enough to witness six Hindu marriages. As part of their rituals, food is offered to the gods by way of serving a meal on banana leaf to people visiting the temple. We were invited to sit down with the bride and groom and enjoyed one of the best meals of the entire trip at this occasion. On the subject of food, I would like to proudly announce that at no point throughout my journey did I suffer from the common tourista thanks to my apparently rather robust intestinal flora. Hooray!