Mom, Mysore and Madikeri! Plus a train for good measure.

---

Namaste!



This time, from me AND my Mom! Christmas and the following few days passed with me getting some last-minute swimming and playing on the beach in, and saying goodbye to Gokarna and Kudle beach was, as always, bittersweet, because I was saying goodbye to people and a place that came to mean a lot to me – not forever of course, because I fully plan on bringing my mom there at the end of February to end our trip (although I should be wary of making “plans” as these tend to go astray VERY quickly in my life!), but goodbye for now. I was really excited though, as I got on a bumpy 12-hour overnight bus to Bangalore, knowing that I was going to pick my mom up at the airport the next evening, and the reunion lived up to expectations and was something that should have been filmed, complete with tears, hugs, and staring strangers!



It is a testament to my mom's spirit and stamina that she then put up with my travel plans for us for the following day! After next to no sleep on her flight, we got breakfast (and she ate with her hands for the first time!) at a little restaurant next to the hotel room I had gotten for us (with only a single bed – I napped on the floor for about an hour) and then onto a 3-hour train to Mysore, the spice and sandalwood capital. I kept waiting for her to be all shocked and surprised at the honking, the pollution, the noise, the piss running through the gutters, and all the other assaults on the senses that Bangalore (and India) brings, but she sort of shrugged and said “Yeah, they have this in Turkey too”, so at that point I knew that the next 2 months would be fine!



We have had some pretty hilarious, sweet and frustrating moments in the days since, the first one of which occurred on the train to Mysore. We were sitting across from a middle-aged couple and within the first 5 minutes of the ride the husband knew my mom's occupation, family history, and how much our house is worth! This extensive questioning is all very normal, and I was used to it, hiding my giggling face behind my hand as my mom answered some incredibly personal questions, including this one:



“I have to ask you, your daughter, she does not live with you? How is that possible – you have NURSED her, you are attached to her, you raised her, how does it not break your heart every day that she is not in your own home?”



I get the daughter-version of this question all the time (“How can you stand to live away from your parents? Don't you get scared/lonely/nervous/miss them terribly?”), but it was really funny watching my mom answer it – she very graciously and tactfully (being mindful that said daughter was within earshot) told him that she was proud of me for doing what I want to be doing and for being so independent at such a young age and that she enjoys when I come home to visit and visiting me wherever I live, but that really, she doesn't actually want me to live with her either! The man was stunned but accepted this answer (he did, however, refuse to accept the fact that I might not choose to get married – this was apparently quite impossible hahaha!).



The weather was totally miserable in Mysore, raining and cold (bone-chillingly cold, according to 3 different newspaper articles, which caused my mom endless mirth as it was actually about 25 degrees and she had just come from minus-20 Canada) but we did get to see a fair bit, including the city palace where I took several secret, clandestine and forbidden photos, and the Durga temple on Chamundi Hill, where I believe the goddess Durga (who is a form of Kali, who I mentioned in an earlier blog, or maybe Kali is a form of Durga, I am pretty sure it is all one and the same) slayed a really bad demon (or something along those lines). So there is a big temple on top of the hill dedicated to her and apparently, holiday time is NOT a time to visit a temple if you want a really quiet, spiritual experience because we were herded through turnstiles with hundreds of other pilgrims to get inside, only to find ourselves in the wrong line because we didn't have a coconut (I know, big question mark for me too) and so we wound up back outside the temple again without actually getting to see the idol inside the sanctuary. After sheepishly explaining to the guard that we messed up, we got back in the correct line and were pushed through to see Durga before giving a donation to a priest there who rewarded our generosity with 2 flowers and a small mound of red kumkum powder (which is used to put the mark on the forehead) on a piece of newspaper. We went off to the side and tried to put it on each other's foreheads without having the slightest idea about how to do it properly, and were despairing when a woman came over and said “Please” as she dipped her finger into the kumkum. “Great!” we thought to ourselves, “She's going to show us how to do this correctly!”, but instead she turned around, anointed her entire family, and then walked away! My mom and I nearly fell over, we were laughing so hard at this woman piggy-backing on our offering, when we were approached by another priest who dabbed sandalwood paste on our foreheads, then muttered “100 rupees, 100 rupees,” under his breath while I dug through my purse – I gave him 10, my mom remarking on what a hardass I'd become.



We went outside and as we sat putting our shoes on we went through the usual process of having dozens of people take our photo – husbands, wives, babies, friends, etc... and my mom, again, took it all in stride! I was so impressed, and was impressed even further when, upon finding that a rat had chewed a hole into her backpack overnight, and also left rat shit all over the floor and my clean, just-washed clothes (my fault, due to my insistence that she bring me trail mix as a Christmas present (I also insisted that she bring my Dad's cinnamon buns that he makes every Christmas morning – these did NOT come, and I was NOT happy about it as I have been dreaming about these things for a month, so Dad, please can you make some when we come home in February?)), she did not insist that we leave India immediately and was ok with simply switching rooms – she was made for this trip 😊



This day happened to be New Year's Eve and there were a couple things going on in Mysore, including a party at a hotel that we had eaten breakfast at that morning. As my mom was still tired from jet-lag and I was tired from barely sleeping in the previous few days, we were debating whether or not we wanted to go out or do anything at all. But I put my foot down while I was getting a lice check (just about clear, in case anyone wanted an update on my unfortunate situation!) and watching the Big Bang Theory in bed and decided that we could not spend our New Year's Eve 2012 in bed, watching the Big Bang Theory, doing lice checks, and that we should go out! So we got dressed up in our nicest clothes (well, as nice as a backpacker wardrobe gets) and went to the Metropole Hotel in Mysore for a massive buffet dinner and dancing to a super-sick Bollywood DJ until the fireworks went off at midnight (another perk of Travelling With Mom – being able to suddenly afford to do things like this! My living standards have improved considerably since she got here). Definitely, definitely a memorable way to ring in the new year and we made tons of new French, German, American and of course Indian friends over the course of that night. I count myself very lucky that, again, I got to spend my New Year's Eve having an amaaaaaaaaaazing dance party! 😊



The next morning after very little sleep we boarded a bus to Madikeri, to stay at an organic coffee plantation in the jungle, and spent a couple nights camping, trekking, and eating delicious organic food. This was a very welcome change for me, and I fell asleep to the sounds of buzzing insects every night (instead of honking cars) although my mom wasn't AS excited as I was about the camping. It was a really nice break and we left a couple days ago, boarding a reeeeeeeeally long bus ride to Kannur, in Kerala. We were supposed to have gotten a direct bus at 7 a.m. (and had woken up at 5 especially for that!) but when we got to the bus stand, we were told there was no direct bus that day because “Tire no” (not sure what exactly the problem was!) so we had to take a couple different buses to get us to where we were going. We had the sweetest moment while eating breakfast and waiting for the bus – a teenager who was about 14 and really shy came over to our table and obviously wanted to practice his English, so he was asking us in this very soft, whisper-quiet voice how we liked India, where we were from, and how long we were here for – unbelievably sweet and we answered all his questions, hopefully to his satisfaction!



Everyone on the bus was so helpful to us, telling us when we needed to change buses, carrying our bags for us, one woman even tapping my mom on the arm and then waving at her (which was really cute) and for me, it was incredibly emotional to come back to Kerala, which is where I came first when I came to India the first time and is where I fell in love with this amazing place (it didn't actually take long – I was in love the second my feet touched Indian soil when I got off the plane in Trivandrum). I am so happy to be back here, it really does feel like a homecoming! We spent only a night in Kannur, in a real shithole actually (pardon the language), complete with cockroaches, spiders, and stained walls, but for the bargain price of 300 rupees, and again mom was very patient with me as she explained that she was fine with paying more for a room if it meant she didn't need to worry about contracting venereal diseases from the bedsheets (it was her fault we stayed there, though, after a really hot trek through busy streets trying to find a guesthouse, she finally told me to just go ahead and find us a decent room while she sat and rested and that she didn't care what it looked like – we apparently have different definitions of “decent” and “not caring”). For only a night though, it was fine, and we are on the train to Ernakulam right now for a couple days of hanging out in Fort Cochin!



I love trains, which I know I have mentioned before in this blog, and while I tripped and almost fell through the gap between train and platform as I boarded this morning (no one reading this who knows me will be surprised about that one), it could not dampen my spirit and I was so happy this morning when I got to hang my entire body out the door, feeling the wind on my face, watching the sun rise through the misty palm trees and paddy fields. This is India for me, and is where I feel happiest and most comfortable and safe (which I know sounds odd, as hanging precariously out of a train would for most people be quite frightful), and I still have a big smile on my face as I look out the window right now and watch the beautiful countryside rush by!



So, loved ones, I will leave you now, I need to get back to staring mindlessly and joyfully out of my train, but I hope you all had an amazing holiday and are enjoying the frosty weather back home! Things with me are wonderful as usual and so far I am so so so loving sharing this special place with my mom! We send so much love back home to everyone, till next time, Namaste!!



xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

---

Photos

No Urgent Service
We're going to take our time with your order, so you shouldn't be in a hurry!

Dance!
Some traditional South Indian dancing we saw in Mysore

Illegal Photo
The beautiful inside of Mysore Palace

More illegal activity
The beautiful ceiling of Mysore Palace

Day Three
Mom's first temple blessing! This photo was taken in between Indians taking our photo

Perfume Merchant
This man's voice was so soothing and calming, he literally could have sold me anything and I would have bought it! Really nice guy!

Happy New Year!!
Dance floor mother-daughter love!

Just... wow.
You know that feeling you get when sandwiched between two drunk Indian men, one of whom is an incredibly sweaty Lionel Richie lookalike?

Madikeri hiking!
Gorgeous hike through the Niligri hills in Karnataka

Ananas!
Pineapples grow in the cutest way - like they're emerging from the bush, saying "Here I am! Pick me!". Love it.

Sunset
I am developing a serious collection of sunset photos - this one is in Madikeri at the coffee plantation.

Ladies waiting room
Mom enjoying the VIP status of being a woman at the bus station!