Riding (and spying) elephants and swinging swords

Saturday April 4th through Wednesday, April 8th

It’s not everyday I have the privilege of combining my love for animals with my love for men jumping through rings of fire, but on the 4th of April in Periyar National Park and in the town of Kumily in Kerala, South India, I did.

We were able to do about a four hour trek in the national park in the morning, where again any tigers evaded us, but we did see a wild elephant as well as a bear (black one, I think), a buffalo, nilgiri langore monkeys, and a variety of other animals. Mainly though, the trek was beautiful and I enjoyed what is sometimes hard to come by in India--peace and quiet.


That afternoon five of us decided to take part in something I have always wanted to do: ride an elephant. Having missed my last opportunity to do so when I was 21 years old and visiting the National Circus Museum in Barraboo, Wisconsin, I was not going to miss the chance in India. So we piled in rikshaws and headed over to what I was sure would be The Adventure of a Lifetime.


Katherine, an accountant from England who had been volunteering with deaf children In Bangalore, India, and Anne from Ireland who is a dentist that had been practicing for nine months in rural, central Australia before joining the Indian tour, joined me on our elephant, Laki. Though it wasn’t exactly a rip-the-limbs-off-trees crazy safari, we thoroughly enjoyed our ride. Ionna and Ed, a travel agent from England who is soon to relocate to Argentina, rode the other elephant, Makana. After our ride, we were able to give Makana a bath, where we used coconut shells to scrub her down.



Having such a great ride it seemed impossible for our day to get better, but it certainly did. That night a few of us went to the Kadathanadan Kalari Centre to see what they described as the oldest form of martial arts called Kalaripayattu, which originated in south India. The performance involved the martial artists tumbling, battling each other with swords and shields, defending against all sorts of blows from one another, and even jumping through multiple rings of fire. I was enamored by one artist in particular, Lalu, and he invited Anne and I down after to meet a few of them and practice some of our own moves.

Lalu was my hero, and I told him so.

Anne and I battle it out!

The next day we left Kerala for Tamil Nadu and arrived at the town of Madurai via another local bus--this one not nearly as bad as the first, but as I was sitting next to the wide open door the entire time I had a nice breeze, but also was caked in dirt by the time we arrived. However, it is best just to embrace these sorts of things, as its so hot it really is of no consequence. In Madurai we were able to tour the Sri Meenakshi Temple, which is dedicated to Meenakshi, who was a beautiful princess born to the Pandya King of Madurai, but she had three breasts. Luckily for her, she met Lord Shiva and he became her Divine Consort and she lost her deformity. The temple is actually made of 12 tours, so it is expansive. The Hindu gods that adorn it and make up the structure are repainted every 12 years, and we were lucky enough to visit just as it was being repainted so it especially stood out. I also was blessed by an elephant here, which I am sure means nothing but Good Things to come.



There were thousands, literally, of pilgrims who came to the temple to visit, and apparently this is the case each day. We had to remove our shoes, which is a fairly standard practice, but as this temple tour was longer (and larger) than most, it made dodging things all the more entertaining. I also was most amused they sell cotton candy outside the temple, and that there was a Modern Bathroom.


At night a light show adorns the temple that we were able to view from our rooftop restaurant; again, the Indians never cease to amaze me for their love of flair!

Before we got on a 6 hour day train ride to Pondicherry (not advisable if it can be avoided in the Indian summer) we had an excellent breakfast of dosas, vadas, idlis and filtered coffee near the temple. Truly, the southern India food agreed with me! After cleaning up from the train ride, we all piled into a mini-bus taxi (and I mean mini) for 5 rupees before enjoying some great food. Walking back to our hotel along the Bay of Bengal, I was able to climb up a huge statue of Ghandi and slide down with a little girl who was just as excited about it as I was.

Pondicherry is a beautiful city with a French influence and small streets reminiscent of the French Quarter in New Orleans. It was refreshing to be able to walk down the streets and enjoy the flowers and some quiet. We visited an Ahsram for a bit, as well as a homemade paper factory and had way too much Thali for lunch. As it was a dry day in India (there are lots of these days here, which fall on holidays and mean that all liquor stores are closed) I was denied when trying to purchase a bit of whiskey; alas, you can’t win them all.

There were seriously a lot of kids in this rik.

From Ponidcherry we drove a short distance to the communal living city of Auroville or “The City of Dawn.” Auroville begain in 1968 by a French woman known as “The Mother” and the idea is to create an independent, multi-racial community that live and work their self sufficiently without relying on money to get by. We watched one informational video on Auroville and then another in order to be able to walk to the Matri Mandir, which is a large, golden dome in the center of Auroville that serves as a meditation room and houses the largest crystal in the world. We were not allowed to see any of the homes though. Auroville undoubtedly is an intriguing entity, but it left most of us with more questions than answers. I joked with Anne that I would ride in on her coattails as she was a dentist, but I wasn’t sure if they needed any early-retired researchers in their midst. The goal I believe was to have 50,000 inhabitants, apparently now they are around only 10,000. Definitely something I intend to read up on.

Senor liked Auroville.

We drove to the small beach town of Mamallapuram that night, where we enjoyed a delightful seafood dinner that would have been even better if I still wasn’t full from the thali at lunch! Mamallapuram was one of the towns affected by the tsunami in 2005 that devastated so much of southeast Asia. We were able to visit the Shore Temple, which withstood the tsunami. We also visited the Five Rathas which are statues carved out of granite, as well as Krishna’s Butter Ball, which is a large rock that appears as if it will roll down a hill but is situated soundly instead. Mamallapuram was most enjoyable as well because we got to tour around on bicycles visiting all the places--and yes, the bicycles had bells. Our hotel, though the AC did not work so well, did have a swimming pool that I was able to take advantage of three times in a 24 hour span. Also, being on the beach, Ed decided to try for a surf with some new friends we met at the hotel, one of which turned out to be an Aurovillian! If I had only known sooner, the mystery of Auroville may have been revealed to me. Alas, my surfer boy, who we came to call Trident and was from the UK, could ride the waves very well.



Before we caught the night train to Mysore, our next city, we visited an orphanage run by a friend of the travel company’s. We were able to play games with the children for about an hour, and it was definitely a highlight to spend time with them.

Tuesday, March 31st through Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Sometimes it takes a little push from someone to make a decision. Thus, I owe my adventures the first two weeks of April to my cousin Maria and my friend Sunitha here in Mumbai.

I traveled with Maria in Rajasthan in January and February, and she had just completed a two-week tour of Southern India when I met up with her . She encouraged me to not only keep traveling, but to check out whether Intrepid Travel (the company we booked with) was having any sales for the Southern India trip.

I checked when I got back from the north, and low and behold, the South Trip was on sale. Sunitha had been encouraging me to take advantage of visiting the south as well, as she grew up in various cities in the state of Tamil Nadu. So, I booked it, and on the 31st of March I found myself on a flight from Mumbai to Kochin in the state of Kerala.

After arriving in Kochin (Cochi) and having a much needed nap--where I dreamt of pouring rain, high speed Internet, and a huge luxury suite--and yes, I was still in India in my dream--I ventured out before the evening meet up with my new tour group. I stumbled upon a used bookstore where I was able to purchase three good reads, and had an excellent lunch of prawn noodles before meeting my roommate for the trip, Ioana from Montreal, Canada, who was only a few days into her retirement from her job as an IT Manager. I was hoping her retirement would start off as well as my semi-retirement has!

Our first full day of the tour we met with extremely hot temperatures--April in India is summer, after all, but after my breakfast of southern India specialty of Masala Dosa, our group of nine headed by ferry over to Fort Cochin, where we toured a Jewish synagogue as well as an archeological museum with historic Indian murals and St. Francis Church where Vasco de Gama‘s tomb is located. The highlight for me, though, was being able to pay a few rupees to some men on one of the Chinese Fishing Boats and reel in some BIG catch.


As you can see, our mammoth efforts only yielded a few fish, but I think the heat interfered with our skill. Also, the photo above is evidence of the height differential I have experienced since arriving here, which seemed for some reason even more prominent in the south.

A few of us made it over to Calm Restaurant, where the Bob Marley was on heavy rotation, and the service was slow but they had an interesting take on Diet Coke:

Since it was so hot, we decided to go over to another establishment for chai and dessert. The Teapot did not disappoint, and if ever back in Fort Cochin, which I hope to be someday, the Death by Chocolate is not to be missed.

That evening, we headed over to see some traditional Kathakali Dance, which was a very interesting performance (though quite long) and takes us through the process of putting on the makeup of the dancer, to his transformation, to his dance. Though things did get BIGGER and LONGER throughout, it was definitely unforgettable. The pictures really speak for themselves.

After sleeping off the Kathakali Dance performance, the next morning we braved our first local bus of the tour. This bus was nothing like I had experienced yet in India--it made the buses in Rajasthan seem like luxury coaches. However, I think the fact that I wasn’t feeling 100% and that my claustrophobia is getting worse in my old age contributed to some of my stress. Sooner than later we were able to disembark and load ourselves onto a lovely two-level boat and cruise through the Keralan Backwaters, on our way to stay at the home of Thomas Zachariah.

Thomas is a rice farmer whose family has had land in the Backwaters for many years. The home we stayed at was actually his sister’s, who was in England at the time of our visit. Though hot (did I mention, it was hot?), it was very relaxing in the Backwaters and it did not take me long to locate the hammock, which became my favorite spot quickly. Thomas and his family were generous hosts, and we were able to enjoy loads of lovely Southern India food while at their home, and also were able to take a walking tour around the village, past men repairing the fishing boats and the boats that the Mud Digger--yes, there is a caste of people who dig mud from the waters to make higher levees for when the waters rise--uses to scoop the mud into.


As the sun set, we walked for maybe 40 minutes breathing in the--gasp!--clean Indian air, and soon found ourselves in boats, serenaded by men from the village with local songs that told stories I was unable to decipher but was captivated by nonetheless (I did understand the song about the supercomputer, but I digress…)

There is a special kind of alcohol made from coconuts in the backwaters called toddy, and it is only sold in a few spots, so we rowed over to the Toddy store only to find that…alas…The Toddy Store was closed. Only slightly disappointed, we headed back to Thomas’ for dinner where the conversation ranged from unconscious people’s kidneys being extracted in bath tubs to Madagascar 2, supporting evidence to why I love tour groups.

The next morning I was feeling especially under the weather, so as we floated away from our homestay, I buried myself in a book and enjoyed the tranquility of the Backwaters. It is a truly special place, its quiet reminding me a lot of small town life back home.

Soon enough we were off again in SUVs to a different town because we were to have an extra activity that day--attending the engagement ceremony of our Group Leader, Vinit. Vinit is to be married at the end of June, and he agreed to have his parents arrange his marriage for him. Thus, our group was lucky enough to experience a traditional Indian engagement ceremony, where we also got to eat directly off banana leaves, which is a tradition in Southern India.


After the meal, where the nine of us were still eating when everyone else attending had long finished, we loaded back up in our SUVs for the start of our drive to Periyar National Park. Along the way though, we drove through the Western Ghats, where I was delighted to see a beautiful side of India I had yet to experience, and also hit up a wonderful banana stand.

There's always money in the banana stand.

I was however, pretty tired, but still content as this picture Roland snapped of me adequately exemplifies.

Give me music, I am happy.

Before we reached Periyar, we stopped at a Spice Garden operated by a man named Abraham, who was not only an informative tour guide (with extremely long ear hair), but fed us an amazing meal at his house, and I also ate one of the hottest, and smallest, red chili peppers I have ever had. Abraham’s Spice Garden had been featured on the BBC and the tour was a fascinating place to visit, as only a place growing purple peppers can be.

Elephanta Monkey Fights & Chicken Tikka Street Rolls

Thursday March 26th, Friday March 27th, Saturday March 28h

The next day we had to head back to Mumbai, but unfortunately landed in the thick of rush hour traffic, so making our way to Colaba (downtown Mumbai) took much longer than planned. I got us an AC taxi that was run by an all-female cab service from the airport, but our driver said she knew where to go when she didn’t (a typical Indian thing to do, I have noticed) and also talked the ENTIRE TIME on her mobile. It was when I realized my increasing level of impatience that I had to laugh and think, maybe I did, indeed need two days lying on the beach instead of just one. After all, having the BA (bad attitude) wasn’t going to get us there any faster.

We didn’t make the movie we hoped for that night, but we did go to the famed Leopold’s Café for a great dinner and then walked around the area where India Gate is and the Taj Hotel. We also were approached to be extras in a Bollywood movie shooting the next day, but we already had full plans so passed that up (I still hope to do this while I am here though!)

The next day took us to Elephanta Island in the morning, which is about an hour boat ride from the Gateway of India and is an island full of ancient caves and sculptures of famed Indian Gods, as well as lots of monuments to Shiva (which all are very, very phallic). We chatted up some fellow Americans on the way there (including one from Minnesota), and ended up getting a local guide, Nitin, to show us around the caves which turned out to be worthwhile as he proved to be a skilled photographer as well. We also were able to see several monkeys and even a monkey fight (which yes, I did get on video). This little guy also really liked Sour Cream and Onion chips.

MONKEY FIGHT

He loves Salty Snacks just like me.

Shiva Shrine

OMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I snapped a lot of photos at Elephanta; there are a few below for your viewing pleasure. This includes photos of a hen and her chicks (yes, my fascination and love for animals has yet to wane) as well as a replica of the Eiffel Tower, my second in two weeks. Perhaps Paris is indeed calling me back?

Yes, we had lunch here.

After Elephanta, we hit up Jehangir Art Gallery, did a bit of shopping, than rested for an hour before we headed to see a movie. We had hoped to see a Bollywood flick, but near where we were staying was a new, renowned drama called Videsh (and no Bollywood flick) so we tried it; turns out it was an uplifting film on domestic violence. DOH! I felt terrible about the choice, but Jes, champ that she is, rolled with it. We then headed to Café Modegar where we met up with Harsh and Vinu. Café Modegar is a tourist and seemingly popular locals hot spot, with entertaining murals on the walls, see for yourself:


The night brought us to a place called Henry Thams, where an Indian guy who I think lives in the UK was spinning some crazy music; we had to wait to get in, pay a cover, and once in fight the crowd, but it was hip and urban at its finest. Not the type of place I would likely hit up back in Denver but it was a great time and we got to sit in huge, Alice in Wonderland type chairs!


Once closing time hit, we were pleasantly surprised to find we could stay later and exited through the kitchen around 3:30 a.m. But the fun didn’t end there--as the guys walked us back to the hotel, a restaurant had seemingly sprung up from the earth, and I was privy to what was the closet thing to a burrito I have eaten since my arrival in India. Alas, if only the man who makes those Chicken Tikka Rolls knew he holds the key to my heart with those tasty treats of his.

Saturday was Jes’ last day in India, and we headed to the ‘hood (AKA Sunitha’s) for some great lunch and a (rented) Bollywood flick. We had a whirlwind week and I was sad to see Jes go that night, but more so I was elated she had made the trip! There really is nothing like seeing someone close to you show up in a foreign land; it provides a sense of stability and normalcy that you might not even have realized had been missing, and I am really grateful to her for that. (Plus, we got to party it up!)