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Kicking Back on the Kerala Backwaters

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

After our last post, we headed to Periyar, a wildlife sanctuary. We took a “jeep” (actually a Mahindra) safari and spotted a cobra, a huge tiger back spider, lots of langur monkeys, and some Malabar giant squirrels (don‘t laugh, they really are huge). We were disappointed that we didn’t see any wild elephants, especially because we saw so much evidence, i.e. fresh dung, that we knew they were nearby.

Our next stop was a homestay on a rubber plantation. The family who own and run the plantation also host tourists for stays in their guesthouse. Aside from learning about how the latex is harvested from the trees, we were also treated to some amazing meals in their house. The food in Kerala is quite different from the north and uses a lot of coconut milk.

The homestay was the first real downtime we’ve had since we arrived, but our next stop was even better. We boarded a houseboat to cruise the backwaters of Kerala. These boats are patterned after traditional bamboo rice barges, but they are all luxury inside. As the boat cruised through quiet canals with views of rice paddies and coconut palms, we were tempted with meals of fresh caught seafood by the on board cook. This experience was by far the most relaxing, decadent thing we’ve done here. The Kerala tourism slogan is “God’s Own Country” and now I have to agree.

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Posted in India, Travel | 2 Comments »

Tea for Two

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

We’ve been offline for a while, so I’ll just take a few lines to catch up.  During our long layover in Mumbai, we caught a movie.  Bollywood makes more films than Hollywood, so the cinema is serious business here.  We opted for Slumdog Millionaire in English, but it was also showing in Hindi as Slumdog Chorapati (think I got the spelling right).  It was strange to be watching the scenes of Mumbai  on the screen while actually being surrounded by it.  It’s a very clever story, so I hope it picks up a Oscar or two…

After the chaos of north India, we arrived in Kerala with, as the Lonely Planet guide aptly puts it “a sigh of relief.”  The south is very different – less crowded, more organized, slower paced, more friendly.  There’s a lot to see in Cochin/Kochi, including quite a few churches that set up when the Portuguese, Dutch, and finally English traders came here starting in the 1500s.

Kerala elected a communist government in the 1950s and has kept it since then. There is also a mix of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu religions here, along with quite a bit of healthy capitalism, which creates a very unique brand of what our local guide called “Tata” Communism.  After an intense conversation with him about how it all works (and it does seem to working well here), he left us with a great quote, “Philosophy doesn’t bake bread.”

From there we headed to Munnar, famous for the tea plantations high in the mountains.  The scenery is beautiful and the tea and cardamom plants make the whole place look like it was landscaped.  This might be my favorite place in India so far.  Here’s the view:

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Tigers and Tummies

Friday, January 30th, 2009

I’m writing this one from an internet cafe in Mumbai.  We’ve finished up the northern part of our trip to India and have a long layover before we head south to Kerala. 

After Agra we headed to Ranthambore National Park for a few days.  This is one of the best places in Rajasthan to spot tigers, but unfortunately we didn’t see any.  We did see plenty of interesting deer, birds, crocodiles, and the highlight was a leopard.  Our next stop was Jaipur, the pink city.

We didn’t actually get to see too much of Jaipur, since both of us seem to have caught different variations of “Delhi Belly” and spent quite a bit of time at the hotel.  We have actually really been enjoying the food in India, so this was a bummer. The hotel itself was as good a place to be stuck as any.  Called the Alisar Haveli, it was formely a minor prince’s house, turned into a hotel.  It’s beautiful, and on the bright side a nice place to chill out for a few days and get better.

Onward to Kerala!

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Recipe for Traffic

Monday, January 26th, 2009

We spent a few days in Delhi, taking in the sights and really enjoying the food. Quite a few of the sights were closed in preparation for Republic Day, but the Qutb Minar was a highlight. It’s a huge tower that is 900 years old and in perfect condition. Delhi was a bit more manageable than Mumbai, but maybe we are just getting used to India.

Our next stop was Agra to see the one thing everyone comes here to see… the Taj Mahal. It’s just a short 200 km down the road from Delhi. No big deal, right?

Six and half hours later, we arrived just in time to see the Taj and get our snapshots before it closed for the night. Since most of you know about that famous monument, and because it’s impossible to put into words what it’s like to see it, I think we’ll write about something more interesting today.

In theory and on the map, the national highway between Delhi and Agra is a nice four lane road. In reality, it ranges from about 4-5 lanes each way to just 1 for both directions over some bridges that are “under construction“ (or possibly under demolition – hard to tell). Every manner of conveyance is represented, and everyone weaves in and out of lanes, even traversing the median curb to drive on the other side when yours is too congested.

Based on what we saw during our time on the road, here’s the perfect recipe for traffic. Guaranteed to produce gridlock results every time.

On the road, mix together the following vehicles: equal parts private cars, tourist cars with drivers, lorries (big trucks) loaded to overflowing with any possible type of cargo, rusty local buses (a few with flat tires), large tourist coaches, tuk tuks (minimum 9 people), motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws, tractors pulling carts full of produce, tractors pulling carts of people.

Season with a large helping of these items: Horses, ox carts, and camel carts. Add a dash of random cows, dogs, monkeys, goats, pigs, and pedestrians. Top with one holy man riding an elephant stuck at a toll booth.

Bake at high temperature in small villages with roadside markets featuring hawkers, gypsies, barbers, farmers, and whole families working together to slap mortar by hand on the road itself for “repairs“. Give a short amount of time and you’ll have one of the most fascinating, frustrating, and entertaining traffic jams you’ll ever witness.

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Posted in India, Travel | 6 Comments »

A City of 16 Million

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

What I do say about Mumbai? It’s hard to put into words, but the first that comes to mind is “chaotic.” But that doesn’t really capture the essence of it. We didn’t originally intend to visit Bombay, aka Mumbai, but when we booked our RTW ticket, we found that the OneWorld airlines don’t fly directly to New Delhi. Since we had to stay over, we figured we might as well spend the time and check it out.

The city is huge and crowded. There are people literally everywhere. It’s strange and somewhat overwhelming, but interesting all the same. Among other things, we visited the Elephanta caves, a Jain temple, and a house where Ghandi stayed while doing some of his most important work (incredibly inspiring). Since the events of last fall, security has been stepped up and guards are highly visible outside many of the hotels and restaurants.

I think it will take some time to mentally process everything we’ve seen and experienced, so that’s it for now. Here’s the view that we saw most in Mumbai: traffic, including a lot of ‘72 Fiats. If we had a soundtrack for this, it would be the nearly constant beeping of horns.

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Posted in India, Travel | 4 Comments »