ah the paradox that is India...

I'm currently reading Shashi Tharoor's "The Elephant, the tiger, and the Cellphone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century". It's a series of essays written within the past 6 years, and he's a fantastic writer, economist, and diplomat, but he tends to overuse "pluralist", "paradox", and "contradiction" when describing his beloved country. That said, I feel like I am currently having a full experience of the "incredible paradox of this exotic country" (said in extreme tongue in cheek) as I am couchsurfing in Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi. There are gigantic highrise luxury apartment buildings, a road of supermalls that puts New Jersey to shame, chain stores, multiplexes, cars, IT campuses, dirt roads, superhighways, cows, donkeys, beggers, tin shacks, fancy taxis, and cycle rickshaws. Shruti (my friend from Vassar who has been living in India for the past 6 months and is about to go home to California) and I aren't quite sure what to make of this urban sprawl, but the family we're staying with is incredibly laidback and welcoming, so for the time being we're catching up, shopping, and laughing a whole lot.

A quick note on couchsurfing: It's amazing. No matter what your age or position in life, just sign up (it's free!). I've been travelling for over 3 months, and now that travelling has become more of a way of life, instead of a holiday, couchsurfing has become this fantastic way to experience homelife and familylife for short periods of time. When I was in Bangalore, the mother of the family I stayed with gave me lots of hugs, cooked me tons of food (and wouldn't let me stop eating even though I was full), baked me homemade sweets, yelled at me for not taking medicine for my sinus infection, and had me pose in photographs with the rest of the family. Basically, she sure did my own mother proud... Feeling like an extra member of the family is not at all uncommon in our couchsurfing experiences, especially in India, which is one of the most hospitable countries I've ever visited. Bouncing in and out of different cities and towns can be tiring, but I'm forever thankful to the families whom have adopted us as one of their own.

A quick note on cities: I love cities. From Pune to Bangalore to Bombay to Delhi, I absolutely love urban life. I love drinking ginger spice fizz and reading Time magazine, I love fancy restaurants, I love sidewalks, I love concerts and music, I love tiny tea stalls, I love feeling like I'm in NYC, I love running into the same people over and over, I love the guides, I love the kids selling toys, I love the beautiful fabric stores, I love the fast internet connection. The country is beautiful and the village is incredible, and some of my happiest moments have been spent outside of the city, but urban spaces are my home. It's where I'm most comfortable, most at ease, where I can strut like a wacky American feminist and feel fantastic. A city girl has much more trouble in the mountains than a country girl has in the city (in my humble opinion), so for the past week or so, I've been thriving...

That said, Delhi is unlike any other city, and I'm realizing the north is very different from the south of India. I had an awful experience yesterday, and it made me understand how the stresses of travelling and the city can really bring out the worst in me. I wanted to find an internet cafe to continue planning my whirlwind trip through Rajasthan that I'm planning on taking in a few days, and basically I spent 3 hours in 3 different rickshaws and cycle rickshaws, and didn't make it to an internet cafe. Each driver drove around asking directions to many different people, and over the course of the trip, I ended up at a Cyber Park IT campus, an apartment complex, and 3 different malls. None of my drivers spoke ANY english (a big difference between north and south) and my hindi just wasn't cutting it. Each driver tried to ask for much more money than was initially agreed upon, and by the end of each trip I was so exasperated that I started yelling "Nahin! Nahin! (no)" and refused to pay the price they asked for. Crowds gathered, people tried to translate, and 3 different times I left my driver, a little confused and underpaid. I was frustrated mainly because each driver agreed to take me to a location in which he had no idea where it was, or where he was going. So far in the north, whenever I ask someone a question in English or broken Hindi, I'm given an answer or a direction that is 90% wrong. This happened in the south, but not nearly to the extent it happens in the north (so far, at least). In NY (in my experience), people give straightforward answers and directions. If they don't know an answer, they say so. This has been one of the most difficult cultural differences for me to get used to, and I don't think it will ever stop frustrating me.

However, in retrospect, and after a conversation with my host Mona who gently explained to me that rickshaw drivers don't even know what the internet is, and they are the people who are statistically earning less than a dollar a day, I realize that much of the root of my frustration lies within me. If I could speak and learn Hindi and/or if I knew my way around the city or had thought to find out an exact address, the drivers wouldn't have driven around aimlessly for so long. Getting frustrated and angry is certainly a part of travel, and I don't think in the 3 months we've been on the road, I've gotten this ignited. It's difficult, but an important lesson to learn, and if I want to make it up north, I'm realizing that I'll have to pick up more Hindi, breathe a little bit deeper, and have A LOT more patience... It's a whole different world up here..

Haiku in the Real World

Isn't it delightfully ironic that it took a Haiku Festival to get me to write a blog entry in proper prose? Well here it is. My time at the World Haiku Festival (WHF) can be likened to a teen chick flick in a way.

First - the players:
Susumu - the Japanese leader living in London and expert on Haiku - both a traditionalist and radical at the same time.
Kala - the organizer - always on her cell phone. Beautiful haiku writer - with many about her family
Norman - the Irish bulldog - headed on the Renku sessions (collaborative haiku comprised of 12-100 verses where you cannot repeat themes - very very difficult)
Stanford - CT freeverse haiku poet with a deep interest in Buddhism and Lebowski.
Kiran - The bird whistler - knowledge and ability to imitate and communicate with over 200 birds.
Johannas - German living in Baroda - a lanky of sorts to both factions - but writes amazing haibun (haiku in prose)
Narayan - The philosopher mathematician magician haiku master - burst out in yelling fits - hes just too smart.
Chorus:
The old people - the guy that looks like an Indian George Burns, and the fifteen doctors
The young people - dude from Bangladesh, the two reporters, the nature educator
and
Me: "How the hell did you get here?"
The Scene:
The Art of Living Ashram - In the middle of nowhere - beautiful spread out campus with many many greenspaces and a giant five story white temple in the shape of a lotus - which ends up looking more like a wedding cake. Everywhere is a ten minute walk away. There are dogs and monkeys.
Storyline:
So these were the main folks. We had numerous lectures on India's role in the world haiku game - I only fell asleep for one - but that was because I stayed up all night dancing. In addition, we had an interactive bird call session, i learned the already mentioned new forms of haiku - and proper Japanese names, watched a dance performance that my peers said they had never seen dance as good as that before - one dance featured temple sculpture inspired dance and forms. For those who have never seen classical Indian dance before, there is something unqualifiable as the way the dancers move their eyes back in forth, while moving just their head in a staggered head waggle, also while shaking shoulder blades aaaaaaannd putting their wrists and fingers into complex mudras (holy hand formations).
Then some drama arose because some wanted to see haiku stay strict and others wanted it to be free - but in the end - those who were upset were too tired to argue anymore because they were suffering from jetlag and boredom. Either way, I got a sweet tote bag, learned about new forms of haiku, acquired a bunch of books on haiku, made some new friends, and 3000 Rupees ($75 US). Whoas. I would include some haikus here - but I'm burnt out for the next two weeks or so.

Tomorrow night I'll be taking a sleeper bus from Bangalore to Pondicherry to join the community at Sadhana Forest for a couple weeks. Ill be WWooFing and figuring out how to be more sustainable. Also I'll be deepening my art of beard cultivation. I'm at exactly two months in and for those of you that know Jeff Walker...or Moses - I'm slowly reaching their greatness. Further - I'm at the point where if I shave it - I'll have a very hilarious beard tan.

sunrising over the fireflies

I've only slept 4 hours in the past 2 days, but with good reason... Yesterday morning we arrived in Bangalore after taking a 19 hour train from Kanyakumari, with Jake heading off to the International Haiku conference at the Art of Living ashram outside the city, and me heading off to couchsurf in the city. I'm staying with Dilip and his beautifully kind and fantastic family, and they've been treating me well- keeping me warm and fed- which always makes me happy. Dilip and his friend were going to a music festival at an ashram called Fireflies, right by the Art of Living ashram, so Jake and I planned to meet up later in the evening for the all night fest of sacred music and dancing underneath a huge banyan tree in the woods. Dilip and I arrived in the afternoon to find that we were among the first to arrive on the beautiful grounds. We walked around, and met up with a traveller coming from Auroville, who was American, and had spent time at Mount Madonna Center (this doesn't even surprise me anymore). We also ran into a group of American students who were doing a study-abroad program at the ashram, studying social justice and spiritual movements in India. The program was from none other than Ramapo College, which is right where I live (I attended Ramapo High School), and all of the students are from the familiar towns of Hillsdale, Ramsey, and Belmar, NJ. A short while later a woman approached me and asked if I was the girl from Wyckoff- when I said yes, she said that she, too was from Wyckoff, and she was visiting her son who was on the program. Not only are they from Wyckoff, but from Lincoln School area Wyckoff, so we literally all live within 2 minutes of each other. Her son, Paul, is two years younger than me, but we recognized each other, and played the Ramapo name game, re-living a bit of the past. So there we all were in India, a bunch of Jersey kids, talking about the DQ and Boulder Run (Jake gets to be an honorary Jersey kid, since his mother is from Clifton and he's got family in Oakland. I know he's so proud). I've given up commenting on what a small world it is- the energy of those kids was incredible, and it was nice to be around some familiar folks and accents for a night.

The festival itself was positively insane, lasting until 8am this morning, with a sizeable crowd at that. There was indian classical music, jazz, rock, blues, jam, and all kinds of imaginable fusion. I loved just sitting up top, drinking chai, and talking to people, or going down to the backstage area and dancing up close to the musicians. At one point, the students took us up to this tower overlooking the whole concert, and we danced and danced to the most incredible indian percussion. Got to hand it to the Indians- they know how to put on a good show, and keep the energy going even to the morning sun.

It was a bittersweet night and dawn because it was the last night Jake and I spent as travelmates for awhile. The dancing fools are going to part ways for the time being, though I can't imagine a more fantastic farewell evening. We danced in the paths, we danced behind the stage, we danced in the tower, and everybody stared at the white kids doing strange movement, but then everyone told us they really appreciated seeing us move so happily and joyfully. It's quite a trip to spend a little over 3 months with one person, traveling in a by no means "easy" country, and I'm so thankful for this dear friend of mine. Though we have the same goals and values (and silly sense of humor) especially regarding travel, we also have some very different interests in this great big world. Jake is most likely going to go study painting more intensely, and/or WWOOF around, go trekking, and stay with people he's meeting at the Haiku conference, while I'm going to study yoga, look into learning about the Indian prison system, and go to a woman traveller's conference in a couple of weeks, organized through Couchsurfing Independent Women. I'm also going to learn what it's like to be a solo traveller, which I think will be an incredible (albeit sometimes difficult) experience. Though as a woman I met last night pointed out, that in India, you're never travelling solo because people take you in as their own, and the hospitality and generosity (as I've learned) is just astounding. That said, we'll see what arises, and the dancing fools had a hell of a time taking on south India to the very tip... Now Jake is actually going to have to write blog posts, so look our for some alternating tales, adventures, and craziness, as only we know how to do.

at the end (or beginning) of the world

today I turn 23 years old and we rung it in with some weak (but cold) Indian beer, delicious food, and french fries (b/c what's a late night meal without french fries?!) in a restaurant on the tip of the Indian subcontinent, in a town called Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari is the place where the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea meet... It's a powerful place, important pilgrimage site, and filled with so many beautiful colors, fishing boats, and waves that crash into each other from all directions. This morning we awoke to a loud knocking at our door, but we were upset for only a moment. Whoever knocked on our door (by mistake, or maybe not) wanted us to catch the sunrise, which was pretty breathtaking. We walked up to the roof of our 5 story hotel along with a few Indian families and couples, and we all stood up there, snapping photos, and watching the clouds change color as the sun rose up above the water. At the same time, the full moon was eclipsing a deep yellow/orange as it set into the buildings behind us. Jake called the moon a peach, and I can't think of a better description. The whole scene had a typical Indian soundtrack with Hindi music and prayers blasting on loudspeakers throughout the town. What's amazing about Indian towns and cities is that different places will be playing the same song or annoucement so that it blasts the same thing, at the same time throughout the area. If you're driving, walking, or sitting somewhere up high, there is one unified sound coming at you, rather than competing beats, rhythms, and languages. For a country filled with so much diversity and difference, I've found this singularity really amazing.

In a few minutes we'll leave this cafe and take a walk to the tip of the world.. I'll press my toes over the edge, and see what I feel. So far, twenty-three hasn't been too bad.

The Enlightenment Game

Welcome to the Enlightenment game!  It's really easy to play, and if you rack up enough points, you get (you guessed it) the amazing prize of enlightenment!  Here are the rules...

You get points based on how many "authentic" and "pure" things,places,people you accomplish in your travels.  Here are some key examples:

1) 10 points for knowing straight away that "the real India is in the villages" and getting out of Mumbai or Delhi as fast as you can

2) 10 points for visiting really obscure villages where there are no white people, and avoiding (and denouncing) touristy spots like Goa and Varkala

3) 5 points for knowing how to haggle with rickshaw drivers and saving the 10 rupees by getting them from 40 rupees to 30 rupees

4) 3 points for a really small backpack and not buying anything while you travel

5) 15 points for avoiding eye contact with all other white people, even when you're in a tiny little town, and running into other tourists is pretty rare

6) 5 points for eating with your right hand and not using silverware

7) 10 points for no longer needing to buy toilet paper

8) 20 points for each time you criticize your own country, especially to fellow countrypeople

9) 10 points for taking the bus or riding in a sleeper train as opposed to a personal taxi or something with A/C

10) 30 points for working in a slum/orphanage/NGO and taking lots of photos with the kids you work with

11) 20 points for eating street food on purpose (and an extra 5 points for not getting sick!)

12) 20 points for refusing to buy bottled water

13) 10 points for rarely checking internet

14) 10 points for rarely reading the newspaper

15) 20 points for surviving a near death experience (ie: being alone in the mountains, in the jungle, etc. and talking about it like it was no big deal)

First one to reach 200 points get enlightenment, and bragging rights to all their friends!!!

Okay, this is silly...  But our friend Kaila and I were having a pretty interesting conversation about traveling in India and the people we have met along the way.  Kaila has spent the past few weeks in Auroville, an international community on the eastern coast, where there are many ex-pats living from all around the world.  Jake and I have also come across many different kinds of people in our travels, and something that's been coming up for me a lot recently is the feeling that a lot of this whole backpacker thing is for show and for an image.  While we have met a ton of genuinely fantastic and beautiful people on our travels, there are some people, or sometimes just a general vibe from a place or a group of people that are almost competing for the enlightenment prize.  The points I listed above are the first that came to mind...  They are things and experiences that we have had, and we have also bragged about from time to time in our own right.  We are by no means immune to this travelers' arrogance...  But at the same time, looking back at our trip these past 3 months, I'm really happy and satisfied with how we've dipped in and out of the tourist trail and the obscure trail- we've racked up "points", but we've also lost "points", and I think that has made our experience even richer.   Though I tease him, I'm always proud of Jake when he takes the time and energy to haggle with the driver or salesperson over the price.  Or when I don't know to take the bus and he navigates our way through three different buses after we've been traveling for 9 hours.  I'm also proud that we've stayed in villages and have tried new food and have been open to these "off the beaten track" experiences.  But still, it's not something to dwell on, and in talking to other travelers, I realize how arrogant people can become about "doing the India trip right".  Everyone keeps talking about the "real" India, the "pure" and "authentic" India, but where is that, really?  Is it in the ashrams, the villages, the mosques, the cities, the restaurants, the tourist traps, the buses, the 5 star luxury hotels?  It's everywhere, and there's no way to define it.  For a while, I felt myself resisting some things and feelings in myself that go directly against the backpacker ideal, and the search for the "real" India, but I'm realizing that it's really silly to even try to fit into that tiny little box, just to have bragging rights with other travelers and to feel a false sense of superiority to everyone back home.  To be honest, I'm utterly thankful for my friends and family back home that sometimes think I take the hippie/backpacking thing a little far, and laugh at me (and with me) for my crunchy-ness.  You can get too caught up in yourself if you can't laugh at yourself, and once you stop taking yourself so seriously, everything becomes so much more enjoyable.  So bring on the villages, the home-cooked food eaten with one hand, the fancy tourist traps, the over-paying, the haggling, the beaches, the mountains, the cities, the corporations, the small businesses, the American music, the sitar, and the obsession with Will Smith (because this country LOVES Will Smith).  I've always heard of and somewhat understood the paradox of India, but it's becoming more and more clear just how beautifully contradictory this country really is.  Nothing is the real India, and everything is the real India!  Sometimes the guidebook really does have the best places to visit and eat and sleep, and sometimes the taxi drivers really do take you to the local secret treasure, and sometimes (and it really is exciting when this happens), you stumble upon something incredible and beautiful all on your own.  Dipping in and out of all these different worlds has been the best part of this trip, and has been teaching me more than I could ever imagine.  

A lot of this came up to the surface as I read about the possibility of Obama becoming president, the shootings in Illinois, and on a local level, one of my classmates from Wyckoff has recently gone missing, and the search and outpouring of support for him and his family from my little town is massive.  Meeting so many people who want to completely disconnect from their homes, countries, cities, and towns makes me realize how much I love staying connected (thank you Internet cafes!), and is making me appreciate so much where I come from.  Of course, I have lots of problems with my home, from the country I come from to the town I grew up in, but as Baldwin says (and I paraphrase): "I love my country, and therefore I have the right to criticize her".  I'd rather face my issues with the west and the city and myself head on, then let is build and bubble and boil in resentment.  It's difficult, but it's making me understand a lot...

We're staying in Varkala right now, a beautiful little beach town that's very touristy and ex-pat, but a lot more laid back than Goa...  I feel like I've been here for a month and it's only been one day.  We're staying in a guest house run by two fantastic Americans we met through couchsurfing, and Jake is giving figure drawing lessons in exchange for our room, which is wonderful!  Also, Kaila Binney, beautiful lady from Vassar who is doing research on sustainable eco-villages around the world, is staying here with us, and it's been really nice to catch up with her.  And of course to make the world really small, while we were sitting at breakfast, Josh, a guy that I met at Mount Madonna Center, the yoga retreat center in California, walked right up to the table and said hello.  Also ran into Liz, our lovely American friend from Goa, when I was walking on the strip.  There's a woman from Baltimore here (where Jake lives), and we met a woman from Teaneck, NJ (about 20 minutes from my home).  Small, small world, and always getting smaller.  Happy Hallmark Day to ya'll back home, lots of love from across the world!!!

Tea and Jasmine (and Israelis!)

Quick post from Munnar, a town that I am quickly falling in love with. Munnar is known for its tea plantations and tea manufacture, so we were definitely excited to try some delicious black tea, take a tour of the tea museum, and walk and hike in the mountains. We left Kochi on a 5 1/2 hour bus out of the city and up up up a winding mountain road, to arrive a bit tired and overwhelmed into Munnar at 10pm. We wandered around looking for our lodge, dodging rickshaw drivers and kids on bikes trying to sell us a room. Ran into a group of fantastically happy and drunk Israelis who led the way to the lodge we hoped to stay in. hough we had a reservation at a lodge in town, we're quickly learning that reservations over the phone mean nothing, and there were no rooms available. However, there was another hotel owner standing in the hotel in which we were denied a room, and within 5 minutes of haggling and confusion, we found ourselves crammed into another rickshaw, driving up a dark mountain road. Turns out the new hotel is cheaper and MUCH nicer- I think it's the best deal we've gotten so far. We've got clean facilities, a BEAUTIFUL mountain view, and it's quiet. Also turns out that the Israelis are staying in the same hotel so we joined them for some drinks and lots of Hebrew conversation that we could only smile and laugh at. Though they did turn on Led Zeppelin "in honor of their guests", so at least we could all sing and wail along to Robert Plant. They claim to be the last Israelis to get 6 month visas, and they told us a new story in the Israeli visa fiasco... Apparently two Israelis got drunk and were found pretty indecently in a Hindu temple. Is the story true? Either way, the Israelis were proud! Another strange note, one of the Israelis lived in the town next to Pikesville (Jake's hometown) for awhile, and another one of the Israelis worked in the Press Toast on McDougal street in NYC, which is in the same building that I lived this past summer! Small world...

Woke up this morning to gorgeous purple flowers covering the mountain, and clapping and singing from the church services. Walked down the mountain, past white flowers that look like champagne flutes, and found the bustling town so alive because it's Sunday and market day. I bought some jasmine flowers to wrap around my hair, so whenever we weren't smelling tea leaves, we were smelling jasmine. After a nice walk along the village road, we found our way to the tea museum, took an incredible tour that smelled so delicious, and then we met a man on the way back who showed us to the best tea stall in town. Drank delicious black tea, ate a special local snack of spicy fried bananas, and then wandered through the fruit and veggie market till we found tasty papaya and guava. Sounds from the mosque, the hindu temple, and the church ring around us everywhere we walk. People smile and wave and everyone's pretty happy. This is definitely a good place to spend a few days.

some items of interest

the way to find if a fish is fresh is to check its breath (smell it), check if the gills are red, and by the color of its scales.

squid are huge. like the size of small dobermans.

sara bought biscuit scented purfume

travelling with four people is amazing - but much different than travelling with only two people

Coconut beer tastes like sourdough bread

aged Coconut Sweets (coconut, sugar, ghee) tastes like blue cheese

wind swept ginger dryed with lime powder clouds streets with an intoxicating aroma and strange sense of nostalgia (for what, i don't know)

india's antique markets have a lot of wooden boxes, kind of like the end of raiders of the lost ark where theres that giant warehouse of boxes where they put the ark of the covenant - except theres more dust

the drinkable coconuts are overpriced here (12 rupees compared to 7)

action movies are whats imported to the theatres here for english movies, rambo 4 is not on our short list.

im still writing haikus - but i never have my book with me at internet.

Small papayas are just as delicious as large papayas.

how the hell do you batter fry bananas?

Indian ecliars are delicious

Butterscotch icecream tastes a lot more like cake batter ice cream.

A lot of these have to do with food. We have a strong bond.

palaces, dancing (of course), and backwaters

It's been a whirlwind of a week! We ended up foregoing the trip to Bangalore (we'll be hitting up the city on 2/22 for Jake's haiku workshop and another music festival), and went straight to Mysore to eat some dosas, check out the famous fruit and veggie market, and see the maharaja's palace. Initially, Mysore was a bust. We took an overnight train and arrived very groggy and a little delirious in the early morning. This visit also began our bad advice stint from Lonely Planet. After seeing two hotels that were pretty awful, we finally let the rickshaw driver take us to the hotel he recommended (usually not a good idea to do, but we were out of options and VERY tired), and we crashed. After rest, we checked out the amazing fruit and produce market where we ate a whole papaya, tried custard apples (really gross looking fruit that tastes like a banana and apple pie mix!), and talked to some of the vendors. Also tried some Mysore Pak, which is the famous sweet of Mysore made entirely of ghee (clarified butter) and sugar. Yum... The next day we weren't feeling Mysore too much, since it is INCREDIBLY touristy (or at least we were too tired to find the non-tourist route). Interestingly enough, there were almost no couchsurfers or hospitalityclub members in the city, which is strange for a big place. That said, compared with Mumbai and Pune, it felt like no one actually lived there but people selling things. However, Mysore took a pretty incredible turn when we found a park to spend the day reading, drawing, and practicing yoga. We hadn't sat in grass since we began our travels!! India is really short on green spaces, particularly public green spaces, so it was wonderful to sit in the park for the day. We were feeling really sleepy, but we managed to convince ourselves to take a tour of the maharajah's palace, which was an excellent decision. There were a ton of tourists, but most of them were Indian families and school groups which was really sweet. The palace was GORGEOUS (couldn't take pictures). It was so grand and intricate and delicately painted. Actually, I wrote a haiku:

Feeling like tourists
Guess we'll go to the palace
Dance!! Travelers once more

When we stepped into the main ballroom, Jake and I couldn't help but dance. We started with a little waltz and then moved into some contact improv. Though it was only for a few minutes, it was pretty amazing, and we managed to stop traffic in the ballroom almost completely. A few people came up to us afterwards and told us they were so happy to see us dancing- it was such a sweethappy moment! That night, after watching the sunset from a rooftop restaurant, we walked by the palace again to see it lit up (that's the first photo up top). Every Sunday from 7-8pm, the palace is lit up with thousands of lights (I've never seen so many lights in my life! The photo is just of the archway, not even of the palace itself!) and a band plays. It's so festive and there are tons of people there, it was so beautiful!! We could only stay for a few minutes because we had a bus to catch, but we left Mysore on a really high note.

Overnight buses are not my favorite mode of travel, let me just put that out there. Jake had taken sleeper buses in China, so he knew what to expect, but apparently we were only on a half-sleeper bus, which I've learned means you can only half-way fall asleep!! Basically, the chairs reclined a bit and that was it. We left at 8:30pm and arrived in Cochin, Kerela, our next destination, the next morning. We were absolutely delirious when we got off the bus, and then we had to take ANOTHER bus to Allepey (about 2 hours) where we were to meet our friend Maya from Vassar and her friend Eva from home (Jake was totally psyched to be spending the next few days with THREE Jersey girls!). Well, we made it, met up with Maya and Eva, and a few hours later we found ourselves relaxing on our very own houseboat on the backwaters of Kerela. I couldn't believe we were going to spend the next two days with a personal chef, navigator, and delightful views of the water and villages. It was relaxing, delicious, and really wonderful to catch up with Maya and meet Eva!


This first photo is the view from our houseboat (that's Maya on the front of the boat, and Eva sitting near the back). The Kerelan backwaters are kind of like Venice. Everyone lives on the canals, and takes little canoes or ferries everywhere. We passed a few schoolferries (as opposed to school buses) with lots of kids on their way to class! Sometimes we passed through villages, sometimes we were surrounded by other houseboats, and sometimes we were completely alone on the water, which was amazing.
Jake made a makeshift fishing pole, but couldn't catch anything. He found the houseboat for us through couchsurfing, and we managed to get an incredible deal for the two days, which was really nice considering houseboats are usually really expensive. There isn't much else to say about our houseboat trip, since all we did was relax, read, sleep, and talk for the 2 1/2 days we spent floating on the water. It was a trip not being able to move more than 10 feet for a few days, and though I was really happy to be on the boat, I was also happy to reach land and walk once our trip was done. From Alleppey we took a bus back to Cochin where we figured we could stay for a few days before Maya and Eva had to take trains to Mumbai and Chennai respectively. We spent the first couple of hours in Cochin looking for a place to stay and realizing that Cochin is super expensive! Finally, through an amazing couchsurfing link that Jake had made a couple of weeks ago, we were told we could stay in the Regional Sports Centre in the center of the city. That's right... We're staying in a sports complex. The jock and hippie in Jake is fully satisfied!! Amazingly, the room is really nice and spacious (and cheap!) so it's been a great base for us for the past couple of days. Yesterday, we wandered around Fort Cochin (the tourist section of the area) and visited tons of little shops for most of the day. We ended up wandering down this alley at one point and the smell of ginger was so strong, it was incredible. This final photo is of the ginger drying with lime powder. There are three types of ginger (the brown, the gray, and the white), and it was really amazing to see it all laying on the ground! Turns out we had stumbled upon a women's cooperative that sold tea, nuts, fruits, soaps, and other products. The women took us upstairs to this tiny little room and let us sample everything before we bought a whole bunch of stuff (supporting an excellent cause!). It was a really nice find... At night we went down to the fishing nets, picked up a huge white snapper caught just a couple of hours ago, and then brought it to a restaurant to be grilled. It was delicious!!!

Another day or two in Cochin and then it's off to tea plantations and back to the beach for awhile after that... Kerela has been good so far!