One thing I did forget to mention in my last update: my boat ride (the first of many) in the Periyar Wildlife Preserve. It was a small boat, covered by a metal roof, all decked out in the a darkish green (or was it orange...). Anyway, there was a huge watering hole in the reserve where many animals went to, you know, water themselves. It was about 3 hours long, and within those three hours, we saw a large family of boars, sambar deers (I did ask if these animals were involved in the production of a South Indian gravy sambar... Sadly no), elephants, water buffaloes, and storks either drinking or bathing themselves in water/dirt to keep cool in the 100 degree weather. I got some great pics of these animals. Sadly I have yet to post them...
Quick What/where/when/etc.
What: 2nd "educational" tour
Where: Kerela
Who: Me, and 15 other rowdy Americans
Why: *insert my new mantra* why NOT?
How: Van, House Boat, Ferries, Autos, Massive Buses with huge names on the top of them (to be explained), and my own two feet.
First stop: 8:00 AM in Kottayam:
Kottayam, as I said before, is essentially a big bulk of people pushed into a city-like setting. It had a very Madurai-like feel, but a very Bangalore-like population: not many people were decked out in their Sunday Saris (or salwars for that matter). Anyways, we left Kottayam at 8:00 AM on our way to a small suburb nearby where we would board one of the most epic boats I've ever seen. After an hour of rim rattling van, we found ourselves barging (no pun intended) onto what looked to be a mix between an enormous one story Gondola (picture Italian gondola and then enlarge the image about 20 times and you get this boat) and a thatched longhouse seen in American Indian "recreated reservations" in New England. I have pics of this, but they are not really... accessible, like almost all of my other pics (if you haven't noticed, there's a trend). The boat had the following amenities: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen (with a TV?! and a GEORGE FORMAN STOVE?!), a large "lounge area" that overlooked the front of the boat, and a kitchen where 3 Indians sat preparing coffee, coconuts, tea, and fried bananas (sailors of the high seas of Kerela's backwaters). We spent around 4 hours on this boat, puttering slowly from the river we started on, across a pretty large lake, and into another random river. All the while, palm, coconut and banana trees lined the sides of the lake, giving it a more Florida feel, minus the immense amount of noise from drivers and beach clubs. It was really relaxing: I read 70 pages of the Lemon Tree, put it down cause I got frustrated at the P-I situation (again), then went on the front deck to sit in the scalding 90 degree weather (by now it feels like a nice 70 to me. To emphasize, the other day it was cloudy, and the weather was extremely cool-- I thought it was around 60 degrees. What weather.com told me, however, made me realize how brainwashed my body's weather complex had become: it was 85.21 degrees fareinheit. I laughed. For three straight minutes. The upcoming Maine winter is going to OWN me). It was relaxing, and all the while I said hello to locals passing on boats, small gondolas, or farming on the side of the lake.
After the boat ride, we arrived in a town around 2 hours outside of Cochin, our eventual destination. We once again filed into the van, and hit the most straight roads (each of our stomachs said a mini thank god) I've seen since visiting Ohio on my College tour junior year. We arrived in Cochin at around 5 pm, after passing what seemed to be at least five pizza huts (and a subway?!). Cochin is a very interesting place. It is set about 3/4 of the way down the Western coast of India, and takes up an enormous amount of room. Contrary to popular belief, the city got more and more spread out as you approached the sea. The more inland you got, the more like Manhattan it got. The more towards the sea, the more fishing colonies, deceivingly beautiful beaches, and quaint little communities emerged. We pulled into the hotel, me and a couple of guys went to scan the area (and to look for an extra memory card for my camera), checked out the prices at Pizza Hut (and found a Domino's int he process), and returned to the hotel. That night we ate the most inedible meal I have experienced since my mom tried so valiantly to convince me that eggplant was a great invention in 7th grade. The worst part: it costed 180 rupees. The even WORSE part: my stomach hated the concept of this hotel's meal, and straightway gave me one of the worst bouts of stomach pains/gas/diarhea/burps/throw up sensations/nausea I've ever experience at the same time. What a knock out combo. Needless to say, I ordered Domino's and a bottle of Kingfisher (local beer, well relatively local-- it's made in Bangalore) the next night.
The next day we woke up and took, take a guess, a boat tour of Cochin. We first stopped at Fort Cochin to see the oldest church in Kerela, built by the Portuguese right after Da Gama's historic journey from Portugal, around Cape Town in S. Africa, and to straight on to Cochin. Da Gama was buried in the church back then, and his tomb rests in the church. It wasn't heavily decorated, though the caretakers said it was still used by the locals for prayers.
We got back onto the boat and then went to the best part of our tour in Kerela (for me anyway). Get ready to laugh. We stepped off the boat, and the first sign I saw said the following:
JEW TOWN
Seeing such a blatant name implying Jews were here was quite humorous-- it was like naming the Bronx The Hasid Quarter. Directly under it says "Ethnic Passage", which I thought to be a little bizarre, given that Jews are not an ethnicity... (I also saw a "Jew Town" sign perched directly on top of a "God's own Country" sign... irony?). Cochin, remarks a sign outside of the old sephardi synagogue there, houses currently around 95 Jews total, yet only 10 family practice on a daily basis. News to me. Jew Town was pretty awesome. There were Hebrew words perched all over the place, and the town was set up as a huge circle of cobble-stone roads lined by handicraft, textile, and souvenir shops (and a memory card stall, at which I still didn't freaking find a memory card. Stay tuned for my camera solution). At the end of one of the roads stood the sephardi synagogue, dating back around 400 years as well. I wasn't able to take a picture of the synagogue, because the caretakers disowned anyone who did. Yet they still took 10 rupees from all visitors (sigh... Jews and their rules). For those with a background in Synagogue architecture, picture a sephardi style synagogue (podium in the middle) facing steps that led up to a golden ark. Around the podium were literally no chairs-- benches lined the walls surrounding the podium, but the caretaker said that everyone worshipping there sat on the floor to pray. He also said that there were only 10 practicing families still here, and that men primarily led the service, though they have started teaching women and children (post-b-mitzvah of course) the services so the men "don't get too bogged down" in work (sounded like they were quasi-orthodox). I saw a sign saying "Haval Al Azman", and it brought me back to the days I spent in Israel on a bus when our Hebrew teacher Racheli would have us do this progression: (How do you say good?! Tov!, after Tov? Tov Meod, Tov Meod, Metzuyan, Metzuyan, Haval Al Azman!)... It was a good time. I almost bought a hippie shirt, but instead bought the book that changed my life: The Zahir by Paolo Coelho. Everyone go out and buy it. After reading it, you will never have a bad day. Ever.
Post-Jew town, we went to a nearby cafe. Ate great food, drank real iced tea, and only costed us 100 rupees. What a great meal.
Afterward we went to the waterfront, read for a time, then went back to a cultural arts exhibition. There we saw traditional Kerela fighting/martial arts, traditional dancing, and ACTING THROUGH DANCE (which was INCREDIBLE. This style of dance incorporated traditional dance with facial expressions that would blow your mind. The actor uses all parts of his face to portray his feelings: he scrunches up and down the neck, moves the eye brows up and down at a rapid pace, has different eye movements/shapes for each feeling, and on top of that, uses his body to fill up the stage. It truly was remarkable. I can't explain it well, but I tried to do it after I saw it. I ended up on the floor, with three Indian kids and 15 Americans laughing at me. Sigh, guess my future in theater was never meant to be).
We went back to the hotel, ordered pizza and beer, as I said before, and watched Anoop become the 13th on American Idol. Nothing special.
Next day: gondola tour down a side water outside of Cochin. We took mini house boats (this time, about the size of a real Gondola) with men gondolaing behind us with huge bamboo sticks. I tried steering the boat. It was freaking hard. Saw some nice views like the rest of our boat tours, and then headed back.
Some of us went back to the same cafe we had gone to the day before, this time eating potato soup, chicken salad, and chips instead of carrot soup, grilled cheese, and sprout salad. There was no difference: it was still delicious.
Then, an epic journey. We crossed from Fort Cochin to nearby Vesper Island for a mere 2 rupees on a ferry, took the bus 26 kilometers to "Cherai" and walked to the beach. For those of you who have been fortunate enough to have visited beaches in North or South Carolina (not the Myrtle Beach ones, like the ones out of the way like Sunset Island), this beach was EXACTLY like that, only loaded with a bunch of Indian men that did backflips and cartwheels into waves. It was incredible. We got there at about 4 pm, when the sun was low enough such that it was around 80 degrees (or a comfy 60 degrees for all of those back in Maine, who wish it would stop snowing). The sand squeeked beneath your feet; the water was warm to the touch (but really salty for ocean water); the light was a bright orange for our time there. This was the refreshing beauty I was talking about. It rekindled that light in the back of our heads that is reborn when we see beauty, in any form, in the world around us. On top of it, I experienced my first sunset over the ocean. When it had become too dark to see the ocean, we took two autos the 26 miles back to the ferry and then went all the way back to the hotel, each of us feeling more refreshed than even Hampi. As I said before, Kerela was refreshing. Hampi still remains my favorite place in the world (directly beside the Israeli Desert).
We then took a night train all the way back to Madurai. I was able to get a whole 8 hours of sleep, despite the presence of five snorers in my car (must have been the ocean). Tour ended, and the IS period began, and here I am. I have much more to update, such as my IS project, why it hasn't worked yet, and above all, Pondicherry (which was very very anticlimactic... though I think it's cause I only saw one side of the city the whole three days I was there), but I really must do those interview questions. I meet the interpreter in an hour to go over them and go over my expectations (cause he is a first timer, and about as nervous as I am) for the interview, despite the fact that I'm interviewing his father (story of why I'm doing that will probably come tomorrow when I'm back from my interpreter's village). To all Colbians: hang in there, the snow will melt and so will your work... figuratively. To everyone else: until next time.
Love and Miss you all, and I STILL wish every one of you were here with me.
Hasan Bhatti, "The Most Likely to Make a map of Madurai before I leave for the US" (surprisingly I got the award for "directional ability"... didn't expect that one)
Post-Jew town, we went to a nearby cafe. Ate great food, drank real iced tea, and only costed us 100 rupees. What a great meal.
Afterward we went to the waterfront, read for a time, then went back to a cultural arts exhibition. There we saw traditional Kerela fighting/martial arts, traditional dancing, and ACTING THROUGH DANCE (which was INCREDIBLE. This style of dance incorporated traditional dance with facial expressions that would blow your mind. The actor uses all parts of his face to portray his feelings: he scrunches up and down the neck, moves the eye brows up and down at a rapid pace, has different eye movements/shapes for each feeling, and on top of that, uses his body to fill up the stage. It truly was remarkable. I can't explain it well, but I tried to do it after I saw it. I ended up on the floor, with three Indian kids and 15 Americans laughing at me. Sigh, guess my future in theater was never meant to be).
We went back to the hotel, ordered pizza and beer, as I said before, and watched Anoop become the 13th on American Idol. Nothing special.
Next day: gondola tour down a side water outside of Cochin. We took mini house boats (this time, about the size of a real Gondola) with men gondolaing behind us with huge bamboo sticks. I tried steering the boat. It was freaking hard. Saw some nice views like the rest of our boat tours, and then headed back.
Some of us went back to the same cafe we had gone to the day before, this time eating potato soup, chicken salad, and chips instead of carrot soup, grilled cheese, and sprout salad. There was no difference: it was still delicious.
Then, an epic journey. We crossed from Fort Cochin to nearby Vesper Island for a mere 2 rupees on a ferry, took the bus 26 kilometers to "Cherai" and walked to the beach. For those of you who have been fortunate enough to have visited beaches in North or South Carolina (not the Myrtle Beach ones, like the ones out of the way like Sunset Island), this beach was EXACTLY like that, only loaded with a bunch of Indian men that did backflips and cartwheels into waves. It was incredible. We got there at about 4 pm, when the sun was low enough such that it was around 80 degrees (or a comfy 60 degrees for all of those back in Maine, who wish it would stop snowing). The sand squeeked beneath your feet; the water was warm to the touch (but really salty for ocean water); the light was a bright orange for our time there. This was the refreshing beauty I was talking about. It rekindled that light in the back of our heads that is reborn when we see beauty, in any form, in the world around us. On top of it, I experienced my first sunset over the ocean. When it had become too dark to see the ocean, we took two autos the 26 miles back to the ferry and then went all the way back to the hotel, each of us feeling more refreshed than even Hampi. As I said before, Kerela was refreshing. Hampi still remains my favorite place in the world (directly beside the Israeli Desert).
We then took a night train all the way back to Madurai. I was able to get a whole 8 hours of sleep, despite the presence of five snorers in my car (must have been the ocean). Tour ended, and the IS period began, and here I am. I have much more to update, such as my IS project, why it hasn't worked yet, and above all, Pondicherry (which was very very anticlimactic... though I think it's cause I only saw one side of the city the whole three days I was there), but I really must do those interview questions. I meet the interpreter in an hour to go over them and go over my expectations (cause he is a first timer, and about as nervous as I am) for the interview, despite the fact that I'm interviewing his father (story of why I'm doing that will probably come tomorrow when I'm back from my interpreter's village). To all Colbians: hang in there, the snow will melt and so will your work... figuratively. To everyone else: until next time.
Love and Miss you all, and I STILL wish every one of you were here with me.
Hasan Bhatti, "The Most Likely to Make a map of Madurai before I leave for the US" (surprisingly I got the award for "directional ability"... didn't expect that one)
You were SURPRISED to get an award for directional ability? Wait until I tell Rehan that one. We'll laugh ourselves silly. You are Mr. Directional himself... you will never need a gps unit in the car :-)
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