My last entry on my India news: Five days in Kerala.
On Friday, July 11, I took a plane down to the southwest tip of India — to the region of Kerala. Here I treated myself to a short vacation before returning to USA. It was great to relax after the seven weeks of school, as much as I enjoyed it all.
Kerala is an amazingly beautiful region of India. They have a lot of rainfall in a year, and the warm temperatures make for a very lush, green environment. Leaving the plane I felt it was much more humid and warm than the eastern shores. But that did not last. At the airport I was met by Sajith, who would be my taxi driver and tour guide for the next five days. Here in Kerala the language is Malayalam (a palindrome), which is totally different than Tamil (used in Tamil Nadu where SAM is located), and with a totally different alphabet.
We drove through the busy streets of the outskirts of Kochi, and up into the Western Ghats mountain range to the town of Munnar. This mountain area is full of lovely tea plantations. People wearing ponchos to keep the rain off were busy picking tea leaves. Rows of bright ponchos moved along the bushes, clipping off the top leaves of the plants with a scissors that seems to be connected to the pouch into which they shoved the cut leaves. When that was full, they dump them into a larger bag, which is carried off to the factory, where it is dried and packaged. I planned to visit a tea museum, which was closed. Then a tea factory, which also ended up also being closed due to a death among the workers. But it was really intriguing to see the beautiful fields lining every patch of ground on the mountains (except solid rock).
I arrived at my hotel just before dusk. The view from my room was gorgeous! The mountains in the distance were so beautiful. It was fun to watch the sun go down over the mountains. It is monsoon season in Kerala, so much of the time it poured rain! It was cozy to stay in my nice hotel room with the rain pouring down.
The next morning we traveled up to Eravikulam National Park, which is a wild animal reserve. The rain poured down while we tried to climb up the mountain. I was soaked! I finally gave up climbing and returned to the bus stop. Right at the bus stop were the wild goats called Nilgiri Tahr, an endangered species. They were crouched in one area, trying to stay warm in the wind and rain. The warm temperatures of Kochi were now long forgotten. Although a sweatshirt was all I really needed, with the soaking rain, I was getting pretty cold!
We also visited a Spice Garden, where a guide showed me many interesting plants, then off to “Echo Point” – a wide place along a river bed, which attracts a lot of tourists – but sadly – didn’t echo much! I of course immediately tried some cow calling, but didn’t get much of an echo responding! Being the only white person among all of the Indian tourists is a new experience. I was asked by a few people to take a photo with them! I never felt unsafe or unwelcome, in fact people were nearly always very friendly.
In the evening of my day in Munnar, I attended a dance-drama program of Kathakali – the actors have dramatic face painting and costumes. Men dress as women, and women as men. They were accompanied by 3 drummers, one of whom sang and performed Konokol (chanting the rhythmic “tala”).
After the one-hour show, I got into the back of a jeep to be taken down the mountain to a massage center (they need a jeep to navigate the streets of the village), where I got a nice massage from a young masseuse specializing in Ayurvedic massage therapy, which is done all over India, but especially in Kerala. Here you can find all kinds of wonderful oils for massage and aroma therapy, and the Ayurvedic massage therapy has many ways to relieve every physical problem imaginable. One popular treatment is to have a constant stream of warm oil poured onto your forehead for one solid hour. It relieves headaches, stress, and seems like a very strange thing to do! I was tempted to do it, but it sounds too much like Chinese water torture, so opted for a regular massage with steam bath. Note the picture of the steam bath! I was put into this plywood box, which had a notch sawed into it for the back of my neck, then she slid another plank with a notch for the front of my neck, and I was ready for the steam bath. The steam came from a pressure cooker of boiling water hooked to a hose, which was attached to my stockade! But it worked and was quite soothing, once I got used to the entrapment.
After the relaxing massage, I climbed back into the jeep, and thought all of the relaxation may be lost in riding back up that steep mountain in the dark pouring rain.
The next day we traveled to Thekkady, where I went to another wild life park in hopes of seeing wild elephants and tigers. I saw rain. A large government boat holding about 60 passengers slowly moves through the waterways of the reserve, where the animals come down to drink by the shores – but the animals are smarter than the humans and stay under cover during the rains. We did see one wild boar, two deer, and a bison. The most interesting animals were giant squirrels right near the parking area. The bodies of the squirrels are about .5 foot long, and the tails 2 feet long. They have colorful stripes along the sides of their heads.
After the boat ride I checked into my hotel – Cardamom County – a beautiful place with a pool! (Which I used even with the rain.) I changed into the wet clothes from the day before and went to get a shower from Beena, the elephant. First I scrubbed her a bit, then got on top of her, and she showered me with 4 big squirts of her snout! It was crazy and fun!
The next day we drove to the town of Allepey, where I spent the evening on a houseboat that traveled through the backwaters of Kerala – canals of fresh water inland from the sea. All along the canals are one row of houses, inhabited by fishermen and rice farmers. Behind this single row of houses are large plots of rice paddies. It looks much like the landscape of North Holland! Except for the rice paddies, and cement houses (nice, but humble) instead of brick or green wooden houses such as in Marken, Holland.
I felt like the Queen of Sheba, lounging on the boat! I was the only passenger, with three young men to navigate the boat and make my meals. It was really relaxing. We traveled through a large lake, then through the villages on one of the canals. There were a few temples along the water, some shops, and a water bus took the villagers where they needed to go. Most villagers had a little row boat to get places and use for fishing.
I got ANOTHER massage at a place along the water. She was a great masseuse, and at the end bathed me, pouring warm water with Ayurvedic leaves in it over me. It felt fabulous! After this we bought huge prawns for my evening meal from a shop along the canal.
We had to dock the boat at 6 PM, so stayed on a small canal for the evening. I took a nice walk on the dirt path in front of the homes, then relaxed, had a great meal, and retired for the night. I awoke early and watched the sun come up and the village day begin. Everyone has steps to the water in front of their home, where they do all of their bathing, dish washing, clothes washing, teeth brushing, and whatever else they need to do. This is water that has hundreds of houseboats driving through daily, plus all the other activity. But everyone that morning had a toothbrush in hand and were out there bathing and doing laundry, etc. Pretty humbling. It was fun watching a little boy doing his morning bathing – mostly playing in the water – then a little scrub, more playing, then a little tooth brushing, more playing – he was out there a good hour, I think. It was fun to watch the locals visiting each other and doing daily chores such as tending to the animals, fishing and cleaning.
Kerala people are proud of their houses, and I saw many very nice homes while traveling through the countryside.
On Tuesday morning I left my little queenly overnight to travel with driver Sajith to Kochi – where I saw Chinese fishing nets – even helped them hoist one up! And did some shopping. I needed to buy an extra suitcase to take all of my purchases back to the USA!
When I was in the airport at Kochi waiting to return to Chennai, I realized that my flight back to the USA was at 5:30 the next morning instead of the next evening! In a way, I was happy, because I was ready to go home, but that meant some fast packing back at my friends’ house, and a 3 AM trip back to the airport.
Back at my friends Ed and Ujjayinee’s apartment in Chennai, there were three students from SAM, and Mukund and Shyam besides Ed, Ujjayinee, their cute kitty Dizzy, and myself. Ujjayinee had made a delicious chicken dish – typical Bengali fare – for supper. Next time I will have to visit North India!
We had more laughs and visiting, all ended up in the lounge of the Hyatt hotel between 2 and 3 AM, then Mukund took me and Avishek (a SAM student flying to Kolkata) to the airport. Goodbye to all my wonderful friends in India!
After a loooooooong and uncomfortable 27.5 hours return flight (with stops in London and Chicago), I arrived in Minneapolis at 10:30 PM on Wednesday.
Home again! I am really glad to be home, but also very happy to have had such a wonderful adventure in India! Thanks for reading my India News, I hope you enjoyed it!
— Peggy
