Choki Dani

I have been in Pune for the last three weeks working so unfortunately I have not had sufficient time to post and have thus sadly neglected the blog...  Last Friday I went to Choki Dani with my colleagues for dinner and was surprised to find, instead of a normal restaurant, a re-creation Rajasthanani village!  There were dancers, acrobats, crafts, rides, and of course amazing THALI!  We had a wonderful evening and I managed to snap one of my favorite pictures I have taken in India!  This is a picture of a local fire breather mid flame that was part of a Rajastani dance troupe perfomance.  I actually love the fact that it is black and white though Matt disagrees :-)

KERALA REDUX

KOVALAM(BEACH)

This beach, right outside the Travancore Heritage compound, is actually a few kilometers closer to the beach in a village in Chowara. It's a rugged fisherman's beach. At night the sea is illuminated with the boats' running lights, creating a glow similar to a small city. During the day the fisherman sleep in their boats. Watch your step if you take a walk outside of the 100 yards of Tranvancore cleaned area. It's like a large cat litter box.

ALLEPPEY(BACKWATERS)

The houseboat ride around the backwaters is more a kin to time travel than anything else. We saw people giving kids a bath, brushing teeth, and doing laundry in the water right outside their steps. Tiger prawns, fish, goats, chicken, rice, coconuts, mangoes, and banannas were all plentiful and within easy reach.

MUNNAR-THEKKADY

This ride was heaven for the eyes and hell on the stomach.

COCHIN-MUNNAR(WATERFALLS)

The beautiful climb from Cochin to unnar reminded me very much of the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway in the summertime. Lush greens, old rocks, and lots of fresh flowing streams.

Amritapuri

Last Wednesday we had the great fortune to visit the Amritapuri Ashram in the Kerala backwaters.  The founder of the ashram Mata Amritanandamayi Devi or Amma is a gura famous the world over.  The Ashram is the headquarters of Amma and her spiritual empire :-)  Her singular claim to fame is that she spreads the power of eternal love through hugging...yes HUGGING.  She has hugged hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world.  The ashram itself is a fascinating place.  There are people from all over the world visiting, working, and living at the ashram.  The many foundations created by Amma provide charitable donations, education, and spiritual leadership globally.  We arrived around 11AM in the morning and the Ashram was in full swing!  Breakfast was just finishing and devotees were busy performing seva throughout the compound.  We waited in line for our darshan or "sight of the holy mother" tickets...in other words you need to wait in line to get a ticket to wait in line to give this woman a hug.  Needless to say we would have had to wait 5 HOURS to hug Amma...so we just decided to go to the beach instead.  But we plan on heading back to stay a night or two it is a pretty amazing place :-)

Allepey

Monday evening last week we arrived in Allepey to board our houseboat home for the next two days.  It was absolute serenity on our houseboat.  We ate and slept on the boat as it lazed its way around the canals of the backwaters. This part of Kerala is often called the Venice of the East and with good reason.  There are over 700 canals in this part of Kerala bordered on each side by small, colorful houses, each with its own rice paddy growing behind it.  Almost every fruit you can imagine grows readily here.  There are palm trees, mangos, papaya, and jackfruit trees almost everywhere you look.  Life along the canals seems unchanged in the last hundred years and the farther you drift along,  the more you feel that you are drifting into another time….  Men in lunghi bathe, women wash laundry and clean dishes seemingly indifferent to your presence, curious children wave at you excitedly from the river-bank.   We buy fresh fish for our meals from fisherman who come gliding up to the boat in long, thin traditional canoes with coolers bursting with tiger prawns, freshwater lobsters, and black pompano.  I think the pictures speak for themselves :-)

Monkey Business

Monday we left Thekkady for the Kerala backwaters of Allepuza.  In the morning as we were preparing to leave the hotel in Periyar we were treated to a little surprise.   Checking into the hotel the night before we were told that we could leave the windows open in the evening, but, we needed to shut them in the morning around 6AM, or, as the bellman said, “the monkey will come in…and they will STEAL things!”  So it was Monday morning, I was sitting on the hotel bed, reading, when Matt stepped out of the bathroom and said  “Corrie, LOOK!”  I glanced up from my book to see a baby MONKEY sitting on the windowsill about 5 feet away from me!  I screamed and jumped up just as the much larger, 40lb mama monkey climbed into the room.  She was impervious to our attempts to shoo her our of the room and leisurely leafed through our books, rummaged in our bags, and finally made her way over to the coffee machine sitting on a desk on the other side of the room, cornering us by the door.  Matt offered her some granola and tried to get her to leave by throwing some out the window.  But she took one stiff of the Granola and threw it on the ground!  She proceeded to eat ALL the sugar packets near the coffee machine as we continued to try to scare her away.  As Matt inched closer to her, aiming to ward her off with a water bottle, she suddenly bared her teeth and ran toward us hissing!!!  I RAN to the bathroom and cowered while Matt finally took one of our suitcases and slammed it down on the bed, catapulting the monkey out the window!   Definitely the highlight of the vacation…monkey in our bedroom!

Riding the Elephant

We arrived on Sunday in the town of Thekkady.  We are staying in the Periyar Tiger Reserve…the name is a bit deceptive I think very few people have ever seen a tiger there :-).   When we arrived in Thekkady we were able to take a bareback ride on an Elephant through a short jungle trek…very fun but also very crowded.  The elephants looked as wilted as the tourists sweating in the sun and we felt a bit sorry for them.  After the Elephant ride we headed over to the Aurvedic center near the reserve.  Matt and I both got a massage and a steam bath which was a bit less than relaxing.  It seems both of our masseuses were a bit over-zealous and we left feeling pummeled, sore, sweaty, and oily.  Needless to say I think that is the first and last Auryvedic massage Matt will ever have….

This hairy British tourist chose to bathe with an elephant...in a Speedo.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

I love Kerala

We spent Christmas day sightseeing around the town of Munnar.  We bumped and jolted our way out of the plantation in view of thousands of acres of tea bushes.  Then we spent the day sightseeing around the tea plantations of Munnar.  We were even able to visit the Munnar tea museum (more interesting then it sounds :-) ), where we learned how tea if farmed and processed.   We are lounging by the fire now listening to Abba’s greatest hits blasting from the club house (I know, who could ask for more!?) and drinking giant Kingfisher beers.  We ordered 4 beers only to find when they arrived that they were LARGE Kingfisher bottles…so that means we ordered about 8 beers :-).  I love Kerala.  Check out the pics below!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

View from outside our window...

Our cozy little cabin :-)

The "road" we drove in on...in the dark!

Children from the local village celebrating Christmas.  They were VERY excited to be photographed :-)