Kerala, South India

"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!" -- Mark Twain


This winter break, we thought we'd finally venture to India, a destination we have been vying to explore since we moved to Oman. Our decision: Kerala on the southwestern tip of the subcontinent. Many people we know who have visited southern India have told us that Kerala was the place to go. They were right.

Kovalam


We arrived the morning of the 28th--had some visa problems and did not get out on our original flight Christmas night. At the airport, we were picked up in style: the old Indian-made Ambassador you see in the photo was our mode for long distance travel throughout the trip. They are the most common cars there and are quite sturdy. Taxi renting was a bit more expensive than busses, but with the kiddos, we really did not have an alternative, especially with Kai's back seat performances in the mountains (just like old Dad--sick as a dog at every winding turn!)

Kovalam Beach was quaint, but not what we really had expected. I guess our perception of South India's culture was something like most people envision India to be: Taj Mahal, temples, the whole nine yards. Kovalam is not so. It's a fishing village-turned touristy beach community, quaint like I said, but it does not really possess the culture we were after.
It is incredibly jungled, all the way to the edge of the sand in spots, so that was nice.












There was surf, and I caught two very fun days of waves (sorry, no pictures; the camera crew had her hands full with the kids :-(( ), but there was not much else to do other than to take a backwater canoe ride. So we did. It was not what we expected either, but we did get to experience some more traditional culture.





We visited an island and gave the kids an opportunity to explore:

Made some friends, like this coconut barista:


And this friendly bunch returning from church:















And we had the chance to make rope from coconut husks!! Here's a local rope maker helping us out:







Needless to say, the women were not as impressed with my rope making skills as they were with Kai's spindling aptitude! He had that wheel going so fast that I could not keep up!

















We kicked around Kovalam until the 1st (New Years was quite festive--fireworks until 2 or 3 A.M.!!) then hit the road for the Western Ghats Mountain Range, and Periyar National Wildlife Reserve.


Sabarimala, on the road to Thekkady


As luck would have it our path into the mountains drew a line through one of the largest religious pilgrimages in the world. The Sabarimala Pilgrimage to the Temple on the Hill attracts, from what I have found in researching it, between 10 and 60 million pilgrims each January. It was amazing to see. These people, mostly men other than prepubescent girls and post menopausal women, WALK from all over India, some thousands of kilometers if they truly adhere to the asceticism required of the devotees. Almost all of them are barefooted with a meager stash of belongings tied to their heads. And most of the pilgrims had only a loin wrap, or lugoos, for clothing. For further reading: http://hinduism.about.com/cs/temples/a/aa111103a.htm



Sabarimala had the frenzied atmosphere of Mardi Gras, except that the participants had not had a lick of alcohol for at least 41 days!! It was a real treat to have the opportunity for this experience.

Kumily, Thekkady and Periyar National Wildlife Refuge


Situated in the Western Ghats Mountains, the tallest range in southern India, Thekkady we'll call it (the names are used interchangeably) had cool weather and lush verdant jungles. Shawna declared it paradise. On our first full day, we visited one of the many spice gardens and rode an elephant.


We also had the chance to pet and feed the critters,
















and in return they blessed the kids. How fortunate...


















In the Wildlife Refuge, we took a boat ride in order to try to see some wildlife; unfortunately, none of the buffalo or tigers or rhinos had had any coffee for the dawn cruise, so we only saw 1 deer and a few wild boars and kingfishers--there are supposed to be 38 or so tigers in the park...Oh well, we had a nice hike in the park and saw gi-normous trees and many monkeys.


















(note: the monkeys above Shawna and the kids!)

We also had the chance to see a Kalaripayattu presentation in Thekkady. Kalaripayattu is the original martial art. All other forms, kung fu, jujutsu, karate, aikido, is said to come from this art. It dates back at least 3000 years, that is the first record made of the art, and was about the time a traveling Shaolin monk discovered Kalaripayattu. The training is still passed down through families, and the artists study with monk-like devotion. It was an incredible show to watch.

(that's a thin reed mat on a solid ground floor that this guy is landing on!!)










Here's a great knife defense sequence:











And here's the shrine and the practice weapons they use for the performance:



Thekkady was an incredible experience in India's rich culture, relatively distanced from the tourist-focused atmosphere of the coastline, but alas, we had to move on to Cochin in order to finish our trip. It was almost painful to leave the beauty of the Western Ghats.

Fort Cochin
Called "eclectic" in our travel guidebook, this town lived up to the word. It is a mélange of cultures: Indian, Chinese, Dutch, Portugese, English. The diverse architecture was reflected in each building. One of the more interesting characteristics were these Chinese fishing nets:



On a brief side note, here's an interesting perspective of our main mode of travel--autorickshaw:












Other than our day trip into Cochin (we housed up 15 kms away, on a quiet beach on an island--no surf the entire time) we relaxed and swam and read and journalled and just took it easy after racing around Kerala.

The last night in India, we were invited to stay with Babu, the head maintenance guy at our school. It was one of the highlights of the trip. He warmly welcomed us into his home, showed us a Hindu temple and his church, the oldest Catholic church in Kerala, and finished the day by taking Kai and me down to the river by his house, an river lored as one of the most sacred bathing rivers in South India; so we bathed in it.

All in all, India turned out to be completely different than we had expected, but then, that's what makes an adventure successful, isn't it? We were glad to touch down in Muscat again, but with reluctance to have abandoned the jungles and the green and the generosity of the Keralans. We have many great memories, and we are already planning another adventure soon. I'll keep you up to date until then though.

Welcome to 2008!!