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  • India
    11
    Day 20

    Kerala Backwaters

    December 24, 2018 in India ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    We drove from the highlands of Thekkady to the west coast of Kerala on the morning of the 23rd. At the first stop I realized that I'd left my camera in the room at the hotel. Arrgh! We drove through coffee, then tea, then rubber plantations as we descended. Mid-morning we arrived at a dock next to the sprawling, slow moving Pampa river. We boarded a water taxi for a ride some 45 minutes downstream to our riverside homestay.

    The ride was pleasant, but a bit noisy. It felt something like the African Queen as the diesel engine kachunked along. We passed some riverside homes. The tree house in the photo below really stood out. I'm sure that home did well during the torrential rains and flooding of the last monsoon.

    We passed many houseboats along the way. Our guide Veejay said that "there are two places to go in India, the Taj and the Kerala Backwaters." Tourism is down, so many were lying idle. The boats that we saw working were mostly engaged by Indian families. They are built on traditional hulls with thatched roofs and hobbit like windows. Many look like something out of a Miyazaki movie, except for the aircon units hanging off of the back.

    By mid-afternoon we'd reached Ayana's Pampatheeram Homestay. Very pleasant place built along a dike and right on the river backing up to rice fields. The owner took us on a long walk explaining the history of the place and pointing out native plants along the way. Coconut played a big part in the discussion. At one point he showed us how to weave some rope from the frayed husk of a coconut. He gave Sophie a homework assignment to practice spinning the husk. A video can be seen here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wnXt5FyYTRnVZL1U6
    After a short walk upstream we were met by a traditional canoe. We clambered aboard and set off downstream back to our digs. Very quiet and very pleasant time with the helmsman poling his way along the shore.

    Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We'll be in Kochi through Christmas before catching our flight to Mumbai for the great wedding event.    Read more

  • India
    Day 17

    Madurai to Periyar Tiger Reserve

    December 21, 2018 in India ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    We loaded into a van and drove up into the mountains for five hours to Thekkady and the Periyar Tiger Reserve. On the way we stopped by a spice plantation for a tour. It was pretty interesting. Madagascar might as well be synonymous with spice. This place was all organic and the shop at the end of the tour offered tea, chocolates, and ginger candy. Later we checked into our hotel and all took naps for a few hours. Nancy and Sophie finally are on the tail end of their illnesses.

    In the evening it was recommended that we go to a local tourist trap to witness a Kalari martial arts demonstration. We were not really interested, but Nancy really wanted to go, so we walked over to the place, put down our 200 rupees apiece and took our seats. It did turn into quite a spectacle. Lots of acrobatics, clashing swords, and jumping through smoky rings of fire. One can see a short demonstration and witness Nancy's obvious delight here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NzJbezoTETC1zPBK6

    Next morning we woke really early for a walk through the tiger reserve. Once again we didn't see any big cats, but did see some interesting trees and a kingfisher.

    Tomorrow it is off to Kerala and a night at a homestay in the backwaters.    Read more

  • India
    Day 16

    Pondicherry to Madurai

    December 20, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We left Pondicherry and drove several hours to the nearest train station where we caught a four hour train to the ancient city of Madurai. Madurai is India's second oldest city behind Varanasi and home to the 14 colorful gateway towers of the Meenakshi Amaan temple. The temple is a central pilgrimage site. It is dedicated to Meenakshi, a form of the goddess Parvati, goddess of creative power, fertility, love, beauty, marriage, children, and devotion; as well as of divine strength and power.

    We walked from our hotel to the temple and met our guide Charles. Throughout our tour of the temple. we noticed a lot of new babies. Charles explained that this is one of the places that one goes to seek blessings for a good life for newborns. Parents break a coconut and use the milk to make a cake to share with friends and family. Unfortunately they don't allow cameras inside, but suffice it to say that the inside is just as chaotically decorated as the tower facades.

    A strange, and perhaps miraculous happenstance ocuurred when I was inside of the temple complex. The complex was pretty full of people. Thousands of people. Lots of pilgrims, families, and mendicants. In the center of the complex is the sanctum santorum and location of the statue of Meenakshi. There was a long cue of pilgrims waiting to enter. Suddenly I heard someone from the cue yelling my name, I turned and there was Jevesh, the pilgrim Augie and I had met on the beach in Kochi some 10 days and many miles ago. There are some 60 million people living in the south of India and we had crossed paths once again. Go figure...    Read more

  • India
    1
    Day 14

    Auroville and the City of Puducherry

    December 18, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Today we drove south along the Bay of Bengal to Auroville. Auroville is an intentional community of several thousand inhabitants. The vast majority of the city's inhabitants are Indian. It was founded by a French woman and widow of an local guru. She is referred to as 'the mother'. Its overarching theme is one of unity. There are 12 qualities to aspire to that are listed in the second photo below. Being conscious is an aspiration and expectation. As is the subsumation of one's ego to the greater good of the Community. It is supposed to be a cashless society, but the adherents have paid cash for most of the buildings at the center of the old nearby French colonial city, Puducherry. The organization also accepts cash from novices and at their gift shop, cafe, and ice cream shop. One can find out more here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auroville

    At the center of the Community is a banyan tree. Next to the tree is a large circular structure designed to allow followers to reach full concentration. The first photo below depicts this structure. It is quite large. The scale of the structure kind of reminded me of the Atomium in Brussels or the Center of the World near Yuma.

    Next we drove to the the city of Puducherry. It was once a charming French colonial town, but seems to have fallen on hard times since most of the colonists left. There is a smell of sewage emanating from the gutters around town. Also a dying rat fell from a second story balcony and landed on Sophie's Instagram feature. They have, however, taken some steps to freshen up their seafront with a traffic free prominade. Otherwise the place feels a lot like any other medium sized Indian city.

    Our visit included a tour of a local weavery and a place where people make paper from discarded cotton clothing. Both are run by the Auroville people and accept cash. At the prominade we sited a statue of Gandhi on the march. The highlight was a visit to a temple of Ganesh in time for a ritual cleansing. The sights and sounds and smells were incredible. Nancy took some photos which I'll add later. In the evening Augie joined us for pizza.    Read more

  • India
    1
    Day 14

    Ancient Sea Culture of Mamallapuram

    December 18, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌫 25 °C

    Mamallapuram

    While Hans and Sophie were recovering, I spent the afternoon wandering with Ina and Anatole, a couple from Brooklyn on the trip. We decided to head down to the beach; our tour later in the afternoon would take us to the UNESCO monuments built in the 7th and 8th centuries that Mamallapuram is famous for.

    As we walked down the road from the hotel, and hooked a left for the beach, we noticed an astounding number of men and women dressed in brilliant red and orange tunics and trousers or saris. Women had woven flowers into their braids. There was a general festive air. The road eventually petered out into a sand track lined with stalls, selling trinkets. Anything you could imagine. Shoes, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, bags, backpacks, whistles, sarongs, stone sculptures, soapstone elephants, plastic toys like what you'd see in a McDonald's Happy Meal back in the day. We could have gotten a tattoo if we wanted or had our picture taken with a monkey in a dress. Or, we could have our name etched into a grain of rice and put into a bracelet. Plenty of options!

    Throngs of people stood at the shoreline, cooling off and watching the waves. Kids played in the water, a group of women got soaking wet, saris and all. A few enterprising young men gave pony rides.

    Later in the afternoon, we met up with VJ, Augie, and Scott to bike to the sites on the monument tour. Our first stop was The Five Rathas, the five rock temples carved in the form of chariots. The temples were carved from a single granite boulder (a gigantic boulder!). The carvings took shape from the top down, and the rock was split (somehow) using wooden wedges and water.

    We saw Arjuna's Penance, one of the tallest bas relief structures in the world, second to Ankor Watt. I think the guide was saying that some of the temples in the Ankor Watt complex are in the Tamil style. The carvings here were exquisite, very delicate and precise, not at all damaged or worn.

    We also visited a cave temple, as well Krishna's Butterball, a 250 ton 20 foot tall rock balancing on a steep incline. Apparently, a British governor, citing safety concerns, tried to move the rock with 8 elephants, but it wouldn't budge. (We also saw a sausage tree, one if the wierdest trees I've ever seen. The fruits look exactly like sausages and are supposed to be good for liver health.)

    The most impressive temple of all was the Shore Temple, the last remaining temple of 7. It's on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, and the other 6 temples are now underwater. We were told that in the 2004 tsunami, the 6 temples appeared just before the tidal wave hit, when all the water had receded.

    When we returned, we were happy to see that Hans and Sophie were on the mend. I'm still under the weather, and have finally resorted to the antibiotics in our first aid kit.

    Tomorrow it is down the Bengal coast to Pondicherry, an old French colonial city.    Read more

  • India
    1
    Day 14

    Worst Possible Timing

    December 18, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We spent the day in Mysore visiting the market. Sophie and I went to a government run silk factory where they make material for many of the gorgeous saris that this city is known for. They didn't allow cameras, so we left without photos. They wind 10 strands of silk into one thread then feed them through giant looms. Everything was mechanized, but there were hundreds of employees tending the machinery. The shuttles moved incredibly quickly back and forth across the loom. Couldn't really follow them with our eyes as they moved.

    In the evening we had dinner at the home of a long time Intrepid Travel guide and his family. Chicken Birryani and an eggplant dish. The food was delicious.

    We then boarded an Indian Railways overnight train for Chennai. Accommodations were a bit different than the last time I traveled on one of these trains 45 years ago. Porters bringing chai, making up the compartments, and seeing to every need. Now first class tickets have to be reserved months in advance. All other classes basically require a mad scramble with no guarantee that seats/berths will be together. Our second class berths were in an open compartment with eight others. At bedtime we folded the backrests up to form a middle of three berths per side. The seats at the passage end make up the seventh and eighth bunks. It is crowded.

    The night didn't go so well. I thought it would be a good sleep from the gentle rocking of the train. The ride was much more jolting than I remembered or expected. Sleep was difficult what with people moving up and down out of the bunks, babies crying,, and Nancy's snoring exacerbated by her headcold. Then it got bad. I thought it was motion sickness from the movement of the train. By 3:00am I was scurrying to the squat toilet at the end of the car. I'll spare the details, but this sort of thing is not easy or sanitary on a train moving at 60 mph and jolting back and forth.

    Sophie and I spent the last 24 hours sick and sleeping in our hotel rooms in Mamallapuram. Another of our crew experienced the same. All three of us had taken seconds of the aubergine dish the night before.

    Nancy and Augie spent the day experiencing the charming city, going to the beach, and riding bicycles around the temple complex. Their report follows.    Read more

  • India
    Day 12

    Mysore

    December 16, 2018 in India ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Today we entered Mysore. A busy metropolis of some 1.8 million people. We started things off at a local temple marking the site where the demon Mahishasura was killed here by Goddess Chamundeshwari. The demon believed himself to be indestructible and the goddess pretty much proved that this was not the case.

    Nancy toughed things out in the morning, but by afternoon she was laid up with a low grade fever. She skipped the visit to the Maja Raja's palace and the follow up visit to an incense and essential oils factory. The palace is said to be the second most visited tourist site outside of the Taj Mahal. It is an interesting structure with loads of history. One guy who was born nearby came up to me and opined, "You know where they found the money to build this here? From us and our labor; you know". The women were dressed to the nines. We saw many exquisite saris and lots of regally made up babies. At 7pm on National holidays and Sundays they light up the palace. We stuck around with about 1.4 million Mysorians and witnessed the event. Augie caught it on video:
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/N5cHfcvgpXKNYZqRA

    We also had a chance to visit an incense and essential oils factory in town. The purveyor showed us how they roll incense sticks and dabbed scented oils on us explaining each oil's essential properties and various uses. Augie and I learned a lot while Sophie participated in the stick rolling and bought some of the more essential oils. I think that lotus flower oil was my favorite.

    Nancy also missed some of the nonsense we were caught up in around the taking of selfies. It seems that everywhere we go we are stopped by people asking where we are from and requesting selfies with us. It must be a 'thing'. Sophie and Augie respond congeneally. I respond by uninvitedly joining people's attempts at family photos and seeking out interesting groups to solicit my own selfies. (see photo with some of of my new Tibetan friends)

    Tomorrow we're off to another temple and end up taking the night train to the east.    Read more

  • India
    Day 10

    Bandipur Tiger Reserve

    December 14, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We left the tea highlands and the state of Tamil Nadu and headed north to the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnatika state. As we drove into the reserve I caught the photo of the young mahoot talking on his cell phone while driving.

    We stayed at a very nice lodge with amazing food. Lunch was a collection of indigenous items including three dishes made with millet. Anthony Bourdain said of Indian food that it is the only menu in the world that could make him not miss eating meat. This was certainly the case. I counted 22 different dishes.

    We boarded a safari vehicle and took a bumpy three hour ride into the reserve. We didn't see any big cats, but did see two types of deer and a few mongoose. As we drove back to lodge we saw a wild baby tusker in the brush. See photos.

    The next morning Augie and I woke early and went birdwatching with a local naturalist. I caught a few nice photos from distance. The photo below is of a Bramany Starling. The Bramany comes into play in the name when the rust chest appears.

    Nancy is still up coughing at night and generally feeling low.    Read more

  • India
    Day 9

    Tea Highlands Tour

    December 13, 2018 in India ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Augie and Nancy came down with separate illnesses overnight. Augie wasn't up for the day's activities and stayed behind in Conoor to rest. Nancy, Sophie, and I spent the morning touring the Highlands Tea Factory in nearby Wellington. The tour was good although it covered a lot of familiar ground. We learned that tea harvesting happens all year, but the main harvest is in June when the monsoon rains bring fast growth. The guide explained that they employ one hundred pickers year round and several thousand during the wet months. While there, we noticed that several of the workers in the factory were migrants from Southeast Asia. He also explained that a picker's quota of leaves for black or green tea is around 40 kilograms or 88 pounds per day. The same pickers quota of white tip tea picked is 100 grams or less than a quarter pound per day.

    In the afternoon we caught a toy train from Conoor to Ooti. A World Heritage experience. Both towns were Hill Stations and are tea centers. Quite a nice ride through some lovely country. Much like our epic train ride through the Highlands in Sri Lanka.

    Upon return we found Augie to be much improved and ready for tomorrow's safari in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.    Read more

  • India
    11
    Day 9

    Journey the Nilgiri Tea Highlands

    December 13, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Our Intrepid Travel tour is made up of eight individuals, four of whom are well known. Two couples have joined the trip, one from New York, Ina and Anatole and the other from New Zealand, Suzanne and Scott. The guide is VJ from Rajasthan. Everyone is a veteran traveler. So far so good.

    Yesterday we left Kochi and headed up to the tea highlands by train. We rode in second class cars and were fortunate to have seats together. I got a little bored on the train and spent part of the time taking photos of all the methods concocted to keep trays latched. We had an amazing lunch at a roadside restaurant along the way. Thali trays of South Indian delights. One of our number, Suzanne, is a chef's consultant in Auckland and is really into the food end of things. This should be fun!

    Once we made it to the Tiger's Hill Inn in Conoor Nancy, Sophie, and I took off on a nice hike in the tea fields. The road snaked along the side of a steep mountain dipping in and out of dense forest. As dusk set in a gentleman came alongside on a scooter and urged us to turn back because 'animals are coming!' Up here that could mean any number of things, including lost big cats so we decided to grab the next rickshaw and hightail it back.    Read more

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