Where’s Megan?

First off, sorry I haven’t updated in awhile. The computers here are in worse shape than I expected, so it’s not entirely my fault. So quit bugging me! 🙂

I landed in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) and spent my first 2 days in a blur between sweating and sleeping. The heat was pretty unbearable, so I really didn’t see much of the city. And I didn’t take many pictures either. Knowing that my camera costs more than the annual earnings of some people I’d be photographing, and the fact that they’re all staring at me made me hesitant to take many photos. But in the (deceptive) safety of my taxi, I did capture a few shots of the madness that is Indian driving.

It helps to think of it as a thrill ride, rather than impending death at every turn. If there were traffic signals, nobody noticed; it’s more of a constant weaving of cars, buses, rickshaws, people, and the occasional wandering cow. And forget turn signals, the car horn is the perfect multi-purpose device. It can mean: watch out, I’m turning, I’m passing, stop, go ahead, or hey check out my horn! There’s so much honking you’d think they were using sonar navigation.

(Oh, and the staring? Still lots, but different than in Morocco. Less, “Ooh, blonde chick!”, more “oh my god, what is that?”. Or at least that’s how I interpret the long, blank, unnerving stares. It’s just not considered rude here to stare. Hooray for cultural differences!)

Anyway, so I knew I’d be in India during the monsoon season, which meant hot and rainy. But I was wrong – I actually had a choice: extremely hot OR extremely rainy. The north was reaching temperatures of 120 F, so I headed south to the lush, tropical state of Kerala. This meant a 30-hour train ride down the west coast, but since I chickened out and went 1st class with air conditioning, it was a wonderful, relaxing journey spent reading and staring out the window at beautiful scenery like this:

My train bunk:

(The train toilets were surprisingly non-stinky, despite no flushing mechanism. Can you guess why? Hint: they ask that you not use the toilet while parked in a station.)

Arrived in Kochi, which is mainly a transportation and commercial hub with just one real attraction: the chinese fishing nets along the harbor.

Kind of cool looking, but incredibly simple: Lower big net, wait 5 minutes, lift up and scoop out whatever wandered by. I guess it’s similar to rod-and-reel fishing, but with less excitement.

Fun Fact: The closest airport to Kochi is located in the city of Nedumbassery.

That night I experienced the travel disaster I never anticipated: glitter. In a futile attempt to lessen the gawking, I picked up some slighly more Indian-style clothing, including a skirt (I’ll pause here so you can verify you’re reading the right person’s blog. It’s freaking hot here, so sue me!) Well I didn’t notice it at the time, but it had little dots of glitter that had now contaminated everything in my pack. It was too late for quarantine so I tried to minimize the damage, but I know I’ll be seeing specks of glitter for the rest of my trip. (No skirt photos, so don’t ask.)

I headed further south and took a ferry through the “backwaters” of Kerala:

It was a fascinating glimpse at villages that were just slivers of land surrounded by water, and people out doing laundry, bathing, and whatever else on the steps.

Next stop was Periyar Wildlife Sancuary. I did an early morning trek through this huge park, home to all sorts of animals, including some elusive tigers.

Just after we started, we saw a lone elephant scrossing from one side of the big clearing to the other, which was an awesome sight.

We also saw some wild boar, a gaur (like an ox), a bunch of monkeys, a big frog, and a huge scorpion, 4″ long plus stinger.

There were plenty of things to worry about (getting eaten by a tiger, charged by an elephant, stung by scorpions, attacked by bears (small sloth-bears, but still)), but our primary enemy was far more terrifying: Leeches! The moist ground was covered with them, and with every step more climbed on, up, and into my shoes.

Thankfully we had special leech-proof socks that kept them away from the skin, but it’s a little hard to concentrate on looking for wildlife and enjoying the experience when you have parasitic worms chomping at your feet.

After de-leeching, I visited one of the many spice plantations that are in this area (known as the Cardamom Hills). They had a huge garden with an amazing variety of herbs, spices, and fruits. Some were new to me, and some I knew of (like tapioca), but never knew what the plant looked like (vaguely resembles marijuana, but the root is used for that delicious pudding).

Here’s a “tree tomato”, a strange-looking fruit that tastes kind of like a sweet tomato.

And some pineapples, which are delicious.

It was unfortunate that the one place in India where a good sense of smell is advantageous, I had to visit while still congested from a cold. But I managed to smell or taste everything (passed on the chili peppers, though).

So from here I’m heading east where there’s less rain but a little warmer. Overall India’s been more challenging, but definitely plenty of new things to discover every day. From a safety standpoint I’ve had absolutely no problems, even if the comfort factor has been somewhat lowered.

Other Notable Items:

Sanitation
Yep, India’s filthy. Especially the cities. A combination of too many people, too little money, and a perfect climate for breeding bacteria. There’s no way to completely protect myself, but I’m taking basic precautions (treating my water, washing my hands, and not touching anything pee-height or below, for example).

Garbage disposal, Indian style:

Mosquitos
A definite nuisance, and they’ve always found me particularly delicious. (Mom & Dad, remember when I had so many bites one summer that a doctor suggested that I wear a flea-collar-like device? I don’t know if I ever fully expressed my gratitude, but THANK YOU for not following his advice). I’m using various repellant methods, but one forgetful night and I ended up with 13 bites on one knee. I think I know now why you can’t donate blood after being in place with a malaria epidemic – you don’t have enough left!

Language
The primary language of central India is Hindi, but other areas have their own very different languages. So in practice, English is often used for cross-country communication. But I don’t have it quite that easy. The English that’s taught is very proper, formal, British remnants (i.e. “madam, what is your good name?”). Then, as it approaches the fast pace of Hindi, it quickly becomes an unintelligible “Hinglish.”

Costs
Cheap. My fancy, splurge hotel dinner the other night almost reached $4.

Food
Mostly delicious, even when I can’t identify what I’m eating. A popular dish in South India is the thali, or just “meal”, a heap of rice surrounded by little cups of different stuff to mix with it, sometimes served on a banana leaf. This isn’t a thali, but you get the idea:

Tags: India, Kerala, Kochi, Mumbai, Periyar, Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 at 10:30 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.