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Published: January 11th 2007
It's hard to believe, but my journeys through India are winding down and I haven't written a full blog entry in nearly a month. So here's what I'm thinking. In this entry, I'm going to provide a lot of the places and details of what I've been up to since I got to south India. It might be heavy on the info, but it's been a pretty fast pace. Then, I'll plan on one more from Mumbai before I get on the plane to Tanzania (January 15!). Fortunately for all of us, I'm anticipating that blogs from Africa will be shorter and sweeter since I won't be moving to a new city ever four days. We'll see ....
I've posted
many pictures here, which will help add some imagery to all this text (refer to the Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu album). I haven't created a map just yet, this computer monitor is pretty bad, so that will come later. And now, on with the show:
When we last left off, I was sending Hanukkah wishes from Kochin, Kerala, along India's southwest coast. This was actually my second stint in Kerala, as I had spent one week in Kannur from December
9-17. This was my "vacation from vacation week" since I had been on the go for two months solid. As a birthday gift, my dad reserved a room for me at a quiet, isolated resort known as Kairali Heritage. My studio apartment size room was larger than any hotel room I had been in, and came furnished with cable tv, so I didn't do much during the week except: (1) read books, 2 total (2) watch movies, 14 total, including returning of the king again, (3) eat some really good food, (4) work out, and (5) do yoga. In addition to the indoor laziness, I swam in the pool once, went on an hour-long houseboat trip and got out for a great all-day hike in the Western Ghats.
That brings us up to the 17th, at which time I was long overdue for some social interaction. So I left my refuge and booked a train up to Goa, the state with most of India's most famous beaches. There, I went to Anjuna Beach in the north to meet up with a friend of a friend working at a yoga retreat, and awaited the arrival of my friend Adam (aka
Rubes) who would join me from the US the following day.
Rubes arrived jet-lagged and exhausted after a whirlwind trip from NY and 24 hours of sleeplessness in Mumbai, so we spent a nice two days doing a whole lot more nothing ... sitting on the beach, going for swims and eating seafood while Adam adjusted to the time change. I did squeeze in a couple yoga classes and managed to fall in love with no less than five different yoga instructors (over the course of three hours) who were westerners spending the holidays in Goa refining their Ashtanga yoga teaching skills.
After two days (now the sixth night of Hanukkah), we hopped on the train for Kochin. Why is the Hanukkah reference important? Because Adam and I received a gift from god. You see, all the trains were booked full because of the hectic holiday hooplah, so we were only able to purchase a ticket for the general boarding class, which is no more than a cattle car filled with as many people as space will allow ... sitting, standing, hanging from the luggage racks, and occasionally leaning out the doorways. For extra context, this was to
be a 14-hour, overnight journey so neither of us was in the greatest of spirits with the prospects that lied ahead. Our only shimmer of hope is that we heard that travelers can sometimes walk into the nicer 2nd and 3rd class cabins and request an upgrade if space is available. So that was our plan ... beg for a sleeping berth or spend the night awake in a hot, overcrowded train car.
As I said, we had a Hanukkah miracle. Two passengers from further north had not boarded the train, so we got a small berth with two sleeping bunks in the 2nd class AC Car ... by far the most posh train accommodations I had experienced up until this time. Happy Hanukkah .... we're heading south.
Kerala We arrived in Kochin and stayed for three days. Without question, Kochin was one of my top highlights and favorite places in India and I definitely wish I had more time there. Naturally, I'm biased because of the Jewish history and synagogue in the city (refer to the Happy Hanukkah blog for info) but the city was much more than that. Kerala is a very unique state, the culture
is so rich, and Kochin was a coastal port town with much to offer.
On our first evening, we went to see a form of traditional dance known as
a Kathakali performance,a form of dance hundreds of years old, in which actors wear brightly decorative costume and act/dance traditional Hindu stories. All the actors are male, and the audience arrives 90 minutes early to witness the application of make-up, all naturally contrived from local stones. Then we were treated to an introductory dance, where one actor, accompanied by a troupe of drummers, took the stage and articulated the facial and eye movements the actors would display (there's no speaking) as well as a few hand gestures that took the place of dialogue. All the actor's motions were completely coordinated with drum beats, and this was true throughout the entire show. Dancers and drummer spend more than ten years preparing for careers in Kathakali.
Showtime. The performance was a completely magical experience where I really didn't feel as though we were watching actors, despite the fact we had seen them apply makeup on that very stage. Two singers chanted the story in Malaylam as drummers coaxed the characters into furious activity
with their rhythms. While the show was only a couple hours (for foreign tourists) a traditional performance lasts all night, from sundown to sunrise, as the dancers perform extended stories from Hindu epics.
The following day we were ready to relax, and we spent the daylight hours on a boat trip through
Kerala's backwaters, a winding network of rivers and lakes that flow from the foothills of the Western Ghats out to the Arabian Sea.The backwaters are a tropical paradise of small farms, spice plantations, and villages dotted throughout the landscape (which is mostly water).
After Kochin, Hanukkah came to a close and Christmas was on the doorstep. Despite the fact that we were in a Hindu country and had no intention of celebrating the holiday, everyone was free from work just like home in the U.S., so our destinations would be crowded for the duration of the week/year.
Our next stop was the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Western Ghats, which we reached by a local bus. I believe the ride was supposed to last 4-5 hours, and it turned into 7.5, and featured all kinds of excitement, including a crazy guy who was forcibly removed from bus only to magically reappear when we looked down the aisle about 30 minutes later. Only the strange things happen in India.
In Periyar, we went on a night hike with two park rangers (one carrying a shotgun) and a group of Indian tourists. I think the three-hour tour (no pun intended) was a little long, and unfortunately, most of the local tourists didn't observe the "keep quiet and keep your flashlights off" kind of guidelines. It wasn't unlike the night hikes I've led with ten-year-olds, except that at one point we were so close to a buffalo that it barked a warning at us and we nearly messed our pantaloons.
On our last day ... Christmas .... the park was bursting at the seams with tourists, but we got on a small forest department boat to tour the lake, the main tourist corridor in the sanctuary. We saw wild elephants, large lizards, a buffalo, sambal deer, and lots of birds. And the small boat kept us free from the overcrowded atmosphere of the tourist boats, which went to the exact same places for ten times the price!
Tamil Nadu We departed that night for Madurai in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, known for the huge, awe-inspiring Sree Meenakshi Temple ... check out the photos on the other page. We also visited the city palace before departing to our next stop, Thanjavur, to see the Bragatheeswarar Temple, aka "the big temple." Despite Madurai's fame, Adam and I both agreed that the Thanjavur temple was more interesting, perhaps it felt older ... it was a bit more simplistic with exquisite carvings on sandstone and not as ornately colored as Madurai ... I don't know, it was sweet, end of story. I should also mention that Adam may have inadvertently converted to Hinduism while visiting the temple at one point when he was not allowed to break away from a large group of devout Hindus making a puja offering and he emerged from the temple with ash on his forhead providing him with a third eye.
One thing I've glossed over up to this point is the fact that during the whirlwind tour starting with the train ride to Kochin, Adam and I were traveling nonstop, getting hassled and frustrated left and right, receiving a constant barrage of misinformation whenever we tried to make plans ... it's India, what can I say? So by the time we left for Pondicherry, we were looking forward to returning to the coast (now the east coast on the Bay of Bengal) and relaxing in a town known for its colonial French history that lasted until 50 years ago. As in Goa, we expected the western influence to translate into creature comforts from home.
Wrong.
By now, we were too close to new year's (in time) and too close to the city of Chennai (in distance) too find anything relaxing. I won't say I was disappointed, but the only thing I really remember about the town was its great food and sea views. Not much else to say.
Afterwards, we headed up to the small town of Mahaballapuram (say it three times fast), known for amazing rock carvings, a natural boulder formation known as "Krishna's Butterball" (now say
that three times fast) and the Shore Temple. According to our guidebooks, it's also the only real "traveler hang out" in Tamil Nadu, thanks to a lovely beach and seashore ... again, check out the pictures for some nice images.
Once in town we befriended a handful of British travelers staying in the room next door and we enjoyed some good meals, great conversations, and a new year's bash that had us up until the sun rose over the Bay of Bengal (only it was cloudy, so dawn arrived without all its usual flash). And on the morning of January 2, Adam was headed home to New York, via Chennai and Mumbai, and 2007 was really underway.
To be honest, I've had it in my mind for a long time that once Adam left India, my journey would also soon be ending, or at least this phase of it. And when the time came, I was so exhausted from our pace through southern India, so instead of going to visit ancient cave paintings/carvings in Maharashtra, I decided to return to Goa via Hampi to relax before I went to Mumbai for departure. As always, plans were changing ... but there was more.
Return to Karnataka Naturally, the transport was more complicated than first imagined, but I took an overnight bus from Mahaballapuram to Bangalore with three of the British travelers who joined us for New Year's Eve. Since I knew the layout of the city from my prior visit, we were able to lay low after our 5:30 a.m. arrival, find some breakfast and locate a theater for a matinee of Babel before having lunch. The girls were off to Goa (they had been to Hampi) and I boarded my second straight overnight bus to Hampi.
In the state of Karnataka, Hampi is known for large scale ruins that were once part of a city that was the capital of a South Indian empire at a time when Muslims ruled the north. Upon arrival, I was immediately impressed by the scale of temples and carvings, and the arid climate of this rocky landscape. I enjoyed hiking around the rock formations, tacking pictures, relaxing at a restaurant called "The Mango Tree" and reading (ps, pics will get posted later for Hampi).
Unfortunately, this only lasted for one day. I had grand plans to go on a subsequent tour to see some of the outlying temples when it hit me ... Delhi belly round two, complete with fever, chills, lethargy, joint soreness and overall fatigue. In fact, I was absolutely convinced I had malaria, because the onset of illness was the fever and fatigue, not expulsion of waste from the intestine. So I went to see a doctor, demanded a malaria test, which thankfully came up negative, and was actually happy to have the more minor situation. Nonetheless, I really did not sleep that night, decided to stay and extra rest day in Hampi, and barely recovered in time for ... what? ... another overnight bus trip!
Return to Goa Still exhausted, the bus ride wasn't too bad and I met two women (Irish and Kiwi) headed to Palolem, Goa's most famous beach, to which I was also headed. The bus arrived in the pre-dawn darkness at 5:00 a.m. sharp and i took a rickshaw to the beach. Rather than pick a guest house in the dark, I wandered to the far north end of the beach and sat down by a log underneath the stars.
In all honesty - and most unexpectedly - I was having one of the most unique and memorable experiences I've had in all of India. Arriving at Palolem alone (not sure where the girls went off to when the bus arrived) and in the dark, I felt so comfortable listening to the waves splash on the shore, enjoying a cool (but not uncomfortable) breeze, and resting.
Once the sun rose - beautiful, by the way ... breathtaking - I started walking back down the beach and found the two girls having chai at a restaurant. It was a guesthouse where they had spent Christmas and told me that everyone, staff and guests, were extremely friendly and relaxed, so I got a room and went to sleep until 11:30 a.m. or so.
I've since joined up with a wondeful group of travelers, a mix of ages and countries, who arrived independently at Palolem, most only planned to stay for a week or so, yet all have stayed here for 1-2 MONTHS! That's how nice it is here. In fact, I strongly urge you to do a google image search for "Palolem" right now.
I also picked up one of my all-time favorite travel stories here in Palolem. One of these unplanned visitors arrived in Goa for a trip that was scheduled to last a few weeks, like Adam's visit, but from earlier in December through Christmas and home to the UK before New Year's. If you're keeping track, though, I didn't arrive until a week into this new year. As it turned out, two days before she was set to return, this traveler decided to quit her job and continue on the road. The following day, with only one to spare, she emailed her employer, quit the job, arranged to have friends pack and store her belongings, and is now planning to travel until April at the earliest. If that's not the truest spirit of spontaneity, I don't know what is.
Based out of our restaurant/guesthouse, we've all been swimming, playing frisbee, dining, practicing yoga, riding in boats, enjoying conversation and good company, and staying up on the northern quiet end of the beach the last few days (for them, the past few months). On Tuesday evening we had a power failure (surprise, surprise) that wiped out electricity on the entire beach. I wandered the entire length of the beach, from north to south and back, under the stars, listening to the waves and enjoying the moment. When I reached the far end of the beach, I turned around just as a handful of dazzling fireworks light up the sky, reflected in the Arabian Sea below. Another magical Palolem moment.
As you can imagine, I'm definitely feeling recharged at this point and have completely recuperated from my illness part two. I've been doing lots of reflecting on the journey I've had here in India (I can't believe it's already nearing its end) and I'm really getting excited to head on to the next leg of the journey in Tanzania, after my four days in Mumbai. I'm also a bit relaxed because I've already booked the overnight train from Goa to Mumbai, and thanks to that sixth night of Hanukkah experience I've splurged on another 2AC car. Though it's only about $20, the train ticket costs more than the entire three days I spent at Palolem, including food and lodging.
Okay - thanks for bearing with me through what I hope is the last of the long blog ... so much to cover in this one! Look for one more blog coming from Mumbai focused mostly on the three months as a whole and getting ready for East Africa, as well as some of the final photos from India.
AND GO COLTS!!!!
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Melanie
non-member comment
Palolem
Hi David! So, Palolem is now the "most famous beach in Goa" huh? So much changes so fast in India - I'm stunned! When I was there - 3 years ago now - Palolem was the place you went to get a way from the most famous beaches in Goa. But then I think Matt Damon filmed part of his Boune Identity there? Not sure which one - maybe the second one? Anyway, glad you are having fun and you found that beach - I would have recommended it to you if you had asked! ;) I have fond memories of rising at dawn and doing yoga, and lots of writing. Sigh - I wish I was there right now! Take care, Melanie