Category Archives: _Asia_

Into the Nilgiris

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We left Kochi and headed inland towards the Nilgiris, first by train to Coimbatore and then continuing by private vehicles up to Ooty (at 2240 meters above sea level).

Kathakali

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This evening saw us attending a Kathakali performance.

Kathakali is a traditional form of art in Kerala; Kathakali aims to tell a story through dancing and music. Costumes and make-up are grand and colorful; preparing the make-up already takes up hours. For more details on the origins, refer to this (very good) article in wikipedia.

The story, we saw, was a shortened version of Baka Vadha or Death of Baka, telling (or dancing) the story of Bhima deciding to fight the man-eating beast Baka, his encounter and struggle with Baka and finally his victory over the beast.

Exploring Kochi

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As odd as it may sound … so far, I have kind of avoided traveling to India – mainly due to the ambiguous feedback, I did hear from others (in about 60% “Oh my god … so intense, never again”, the other 40% “I loved it, BUT …”). However, I had to make it eventually – so here I was … booked on a one month trip, covering two weeks in Southern India and two in the North.

My trip started with a flight to Delhi, a loooooooooong (9 hours) lay-over at Delhi airport (thanks to Air India for canceling my original flight) and a short hop down South to the coastal town of Kochi.

With the tour only starting in the evening, I had a good part of a day to start to explore the area … which I did – covering the main bits around Fort Kochi, including the beach, the Chinese Fishing Nets and the churches.

Final Entry

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I made it back home, back to my normal life – and this will be the final entry for this China trip.

It is somehow an odd feeling being back home again. Over the past weeks the full team (including the interns and Lesley) had become like a family – and that group is now split up again … let’s see when (or how quick) we will get together and see again.

It is also a good feeling being home again – back to familiar surroundings with access to all those little things from whole-grain bread, cheese, access to uncensored and speedy internet to being back to friends and family.

Overall it was a good experience being in China on the CSC program, a good opportunity to get an insight into Chinese (business) culture, the cultures of teammates, an introduction to a different way of working and the topics different from normal work – plus all the fun we had – be it on weekends, the evenings or during work or while trying out odd food etc.

Leaves me to say a big 谢谢 to everyone who made the stay possible, to the team, DOT China and – last, but not least – our interns.