While you're trying to wade your way through my insanely long past two blogs, check out the ACM India studies article about our work on the 350 campaign here in Pune!!
ACM Students Take to the Streets in India — ACM — Associated Colleges of the Midwest
11.12.2009
11.11.2009
Finally, a blog about my travels... part 2!
Hey everyone. I know I've been awful with this blog thing recently. I just can't even tell you how busy my past few weeks have been! It feels like normal life back at CC where I'm constantly running around. Between classes, homework, yoga classes, life with my homestay and oh--living in India--the blog's just gotten a little lost lately. On the plus side, this week, Scott and Carol are visiting from ACM's Chicago office this week! They're absolutely wonderful and have been treating us to some delicious food these past few days. Tomorrow, they're paying a visit to my host family and we'll all have tea. This year is the 40TH ANNIVERSARY of ACM's program in India! How crazy is that?? The past few days too have been absolutely drenched--there's been a cyclone hovering over the Mumbai area absolutely drenching us in rain. After dinner out last night, Logan and I got caught in some of the heaviest rain ever, and I was drenched down to my underwear. Of course it was late and no rickshaws would take us.... ah, well, I guess that's one of those experiences that just makes this so much more "India," if you know what I mean.
Well, now that I've updated you on this crazy, crazy week, time for another blog about my fall break travels! If I remember correctly, I left off with Madurai. And if you thought the first week was crazy....
The second week was a lot more intense travel. We were finally feeling confident about being able to navigate our way around train stations and whatnot, despite our little Marathi being completely useless. We started off the second week of our travels heading up to Kodaikanal, our first hill station. Since Madurai was so completely and oppressively hot, we were looking forward to a change in scenery (and temperature). Hill Stations, like I think I mentioned a few blogs ago, were created by the British. Apparently, Indians were completely uninterested in the mountains until the Brits came. The British, however, were seriously unprepared for the heat of the Indian summer and thus, they ventured to higher altitudes to escape the heat. Not only are they cooler, but the Western Ghats (the mountain range that dominates middle India--Ghats translates literally to "steps") was also named as one of the world's most naturally biodiverse areas. The Ghats are where a lot of tea plantations are in Southern India, as well as more cold-climate fruit and vegetable farms are, where imported produce from Europe and the Americas is grown. Kodaikanal is at a whopping 6700 ft above sea level--the same as Colorado Springs--but rises up directly from one of India's hottest places, the plains of Tamil Nadu. The bus ride up into the hills was gorgeous and insane all at once. We went from dusty, sweaty, and too hot to perfectly cool, to driving through a foggy and drizzling rain that splattered into the bus from outside. We drove up and over the fog and into some of the most beautiful green hills.
When we got into Kodaikanal, we were surrounded immediately by the usual hawkers, looking to sell us on whatever hotel was nearby. Luckily for us, we got a good vibe from a nice guy wearing a Cosby sweater and ended up staying in an old British cottage, situated on the side of this hill down a steep narrow path and surrounded by flowers. We could see a whole valley from the side and we were absolutely sold on how gorgeous and surprisingly cheap it was. We spent the day wandering around the town and exploring the gorgeous lake. If you're looking through my pictures, this is the lake that looks like it should be in Upstate New York or somewhere. We were enchanted by the friendly, sweater-wearing Indians who were always willing to give us directions. We got horribly lost that night, thanks to my Rough Guides map (long story), but luckily since we drove out of the fog it was simply pleasant to walk around in and relish in the season of autumn. The next day was similarly spent, only we all made sure to buy a Cosby sweater as a souvenir. I swear, I think that each Hill Station in India simply went to a bunch of Goodwills in the US, bought every ugly sweater they could find, and turned around and sold it for 40 rupees to Indians who aren't used to temperatures falling below 70 degrees!
We tried to get on a bus the next day, but because we were white the conductor insisted that we sit--and tried to kick these three little old ladies off the bus to make room for us. We weren't having it though, and we just caught the next bus down to a small junction town called Pollachi. Pollachi was, after Bangalore, my least favorite Indian city by far. Not only did I get horribly, horribly motion sick on the drive down from Kodaikanal, but the entire city basically consisted of a giant bus station. When we got off the bus, we were instantly surrounded by three dozen people, none of whom spoke English or could point us in the direction of a hotel. I was irritated and sick and exhausted. We walked for a while trying to find a hotel because Rough Guides had absolutely nothing to say about Pollachi, and eventually stumbled on a street with a few run-down places. We took a look at a few that were insanely cheap--we're talking less than 200 rupees for all 4 of us--but we simply couldn't do it. Most of them looked like they would definitely have bed bugs and definitely didn't have showers. After some searching, we found a nicer place for about the same price that thankfully had a shower--albeit a cold bucket shower. Since we knew we wouldn't be spending much time there, we were alright with the joint.
The next morning, bright and early, we headed out at 5 AM to catch one of three government busses all day that went from Pollachi to Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. We'd heard a lot about this Sanctuary, including that we would get to ride elephants here. Unluckily for us, the day was a rainy, drizzly one. The hour-long bus ride was, hands down, the most insane road I've ever been on. It was incredibly pot hole-ridden and one hairpin turn after another. And this bus driver was somehow just careening around the turns (while wearing, get this, coke-bottle glasses. I don't know if I've ever feared for my life quite so much). Somehow, we made it, and once we were off the bus we were surrounded by--absolutley no one. Yeah, the whole place was completely deserted. It was so, so surreal. The surroundings were beautiful--green hills with wild boars randomly running around and this awesome fog shrouding the area... but there was no one. After a little exploring, we finally came across a few park "rangers," who seemed pretty much just like bad-tempered guys with moustaches, who informed us that there was no way for us to either ride elephants or go trekking. Nate was all about trekking anyway, but they told us that the reason we couldn't trek was because the rain made the LEECHES come out. I put my foot down.
Our main options exhausted, we mostly just had to bum around this deserted sanctuary for a few hours waiting for another bus to come by. Some other apparently misinformed Indians came up to the park also and wanted to share a jeep tour with us, so we decided to go ahead and go with it. That ended up being fun, but all we saw were some chained-up elephants in a village that made for good photographs but certainly not any real "wildlife adventure." We caught the same nerve-wracking, falling-apart bus back to Pollachi midday and were then back in the same awful bus stand trying to figure out where to go next. We decided to go ahead and try to get to Ooty that day, instead of trying to stay in Pollachi again, so we hopped on three more busses and traveled the rest of that day to get to the famous Hill Station.
Ooty was much like Kodaikanal, only the bus ride was much more horrific. I was ten times as nauseous getting off the bus in Ooty as I was in Kodaikanal and I was in no mood for the hawkers to try and rip me off because I'm blonde. It was a good decision--we walked a little ways and ended up at a nice hotel with a scary staircase (it might as well have been a ladder) and giant St. Bernard. Ooty was a little colder than Kodaikanal, and a lot bigger, so we didn't do as much wandering. Instead of seeing it more as a destination in and of itself, we used it more as a jumping off point the next day to get to Mudhumalai Wildlife Sanctuary.
Mudhumalai is situated about halfway between Ooty and Mysore, so the route is pretty well fed by regular busses going back and forth, without it being overly crowded. We got incredibly lucky and ended up on a private, but still cheap, bus--complete with individual seats and enough room to stretch our legs out a bit. We got some much-needed naptime, too. We also almost missed our stop in Mudhumalai. As irritated as I get when people here try and kick other Indians out of chairs for us or try and make us pay double for a rickshaw because we're white, I am just as overjoyed when people go out of their way to make sure that we get off at the right bus stop. We hopped off and were hoping for good luck, because we realized when we got there that this was certainly not the place that lots of random hotels would be situated.
We did, in fact, get lucky again--we ran into a trekking guide who told us about this dorm system that they have at Mudhumalai that was dirt cheap. We got 4 beds in one room for 65 rs. apiece. That's about $1.30. Yeah. Anyway, we ended up sharing the building with only one other German lady who was traveling alone, and she was a great help too. We ate dinner at this house that was nearby and got to watch the park's famous domesticated elephants getting fed. The next day we were up brutually early again for a 5 km. trek through the forest in search of wild elephants and a sight of some of the park's other animals. No luck there however--obviously it had already been exhausted by our travel luck--and instead we saw some pictures of these two Swedish people who were there just a minute before us and got to see a leopard and sloth bear. The hike was nice though, and we saw some gorgeous scenery. Oh, and I got poked by this big tree that looks like a tree but acts like a cactus.
We caught the same bus that brought us to Mudhumalai to Mysore, and it was an easy ride. The last few minutes as we were coming into Mysore were filled with the famous scents of lavendar and sandalwood, and I was already in love with the place. It was neither too hot nor too cold, and on a trip filled with some extremes, it was nice to be a little in-between. We also planned on staying Mysore for a glorious 3 days, so we got to really get a sense of the city and wander around from place to place. My sense of geography there is much better because I spent some time there. We had a great time just exploring the city and especially the city's famous flower market. I've never seen so many fresh flowers in my entire life! You have to see my pictures for that to be sure. I don't even think I can describe it! The whole place just smelled like fresh blooms and people were running from place to place buying oils and incense and flowers. Mysore also has two really famous, huge palaces. I've read they're rather like Versailles, though--gorgeous on the outside with beautiful flowers, but the inside is rather dull once you've seen one room. We decided not to go for the few hundred rupees cover charge to get in and instead spent the extra cash on a nicer hotel and a few nice dinners. Mysore was a really great town and it was the perfect end to a rather hectic trip.
We planned on getting to Bangalore only a few hours before we had to catch our train back to Pune. We originally thought we'd be getting back to Pune on Sunday to get to class on Monday. Instead, we ended up getting on the right train and sitting down in the right compartment--only to find out that our train was actually booked for the next night. Baffled and more than a little embarassed, we then set out to find a hotel close to the bus station so it would be easy to get back the next day. Like I mentioned earlier, Bangalore was my least favorite city I visited... and it's because all I saw of it was a giant wall of BUSES. I'm not even joking. Apparently the traffic was "bad" because it was Diwali--aka lots of people were setting off random fireworks--but still. We literally got out of the train station and could see about 50 hotels just waiting for us on the other side of the street... but couldn't get to them. We walked for more than half an hour in one direction trying to find a crosswalk or intersection where we could get across and we simply couldn't do it. By the time we found our hotel I was exhausted and frustrated so much that we spent the whole next day bumming around in the hotel room (and then getting KFC for dinner... what?!) just trying to get rid of the traveling exhaustion!
The train back to Pune (this time on the right night) was easy and we were very happy to be back on trains after almost a solid week full of bus travel. By the time I left I was much better at several card games and a trillion times closer to Nate, Sydney and Logan. I absolutely count this experience, including the frustrations, as one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I can't believe how lucky I am to be here. And now, looking forward to traveling next month, I realize that I have three huge papers still to write but all I want to do is think about what NORTH India is going to be like!!
Thanks to everyone who stuck through this insanely long blog. I'll post again soon... when something as interesting as all this happens!!
Well, now that I've updated you on this crazy, crazy week, time for another blog about my fall break travels! If I remember correctly, I left off with Madurai. And if you thought the first week was crazy....
The second week was a lot more intense travel. We were finally feeling confident about being able to navigate our way around train stations and whatnot, despite our little Marathi being completely useless. We started off the second week of our travels heading up to Kodaikanal, our first hill station. Since Madurai was so completely and oppressively hot, we were looking forward to a change in scenery (and temperature). Hill Stations, like I think I mentioned a few blogs ago, were created by the British. Apparently, Indians were completely uninterested in the mountains until the Brits came. The British, however, were seriously unprepared for the heat of the Indian summer and thus, they ventured to higher altitudes to escape the heat. Not only are they cooler, but the Western Ghats (the mountain range that dominates middle India--Ghats translates literally to "steps") was also named as one of the world's most naturally biodiverse areas. The Ghats are where a lot of tea plantations are in Southern India, as well as more cold-climate fruit and vegetable farms are, where imported produce from Europe and the Americas is grown. Kodaikanal is at a whopping 6700 ft above sea level--the same as Colorado Springs--but rises up directly from one of India's hottest places, the plains of Tamil Nadu. The bus ride up into the hills was gorgeous and insane all at once. We went from dusty, sweaty, and too hot to perfectly cool, to driving through a foggy and drizzling rain that splattered into the bus from outside. We drove up and over the fog and into some of the most beautiful green hills.
When we got into Kodaikanal, we were surrounded immediately by the usual hawkers, looking to sell us on whatever hotel was nearby. Luckily for us, we got a good vibe from a nice guy wearing a Cosby sweater and ended up staying in an old British cottage, situated on the side of this hill down a steep narrow path and surrounded by flowers. We could see a whole valley from the side and we were absolutely sold on how gorgeous and surprisingly cheap it was. We spent the day wandering around the town and exploring the gorgeous lake. If you're looking through my pictures, this is the lake that looks like it should be in Upstate New York or somewhere. We were enchanted by the friendly, sweater-wearing Indians who were always willing to give us directions. We got horribly lost that night, thanks to my Rough Guides map (long story), but luckily since we drove out of the fog it was simply pleasant to walk around in and relish in the season of autumn. The next day was similarly spent, only we all made sure to buy a Cosby sweater as a souvenir. I swear, I think that each Hill Station in India simply went to a bunch of Goodwills in the US, bought every ugly sweater they could find, and turned around and sold it for 40 rupees to Indians who aren't used to temperatures falling below 70 degrees!
We tried to get on a bus the next day, but because we were white the conductor insisted that we sit--and tried to kick these three little old ladies off the bus to make room for us. We weren't having it though, and we just caught the next bus down to a small junction town called Pollachi. Pollachi was, after Bangalore, my least favorite Indian city by far. Not only did I get horribly, horribly motion sick on the drive down from Kodaikanal, but the entire city basically consisted of a giant bus station. When we got off the bus, we were instantly surrounded by three dozen people, none of whom spoke English or could point us in the direction of a hotel. I was irritated and sick and exhausted. We walked for a while trying to find a hotel because Rough Guides had absolutely nothing to say about Pollachi, and eventually stumbled on a street with a few run-down places. We took a look at a few that were insanely cheap--we're talking less than 200 rupees for all 4 of us--but we simply couldn't do it. Most of them looked like they would definitely have bed bugs and definitely didn't have showers. After some searching, we found a nicer place for about the same price that thankfully had a shower--albeit a cold bucket shower. Since we knew we wouldn't be spending much time there, we were alright with the joint.
The next morning, bright and early, we headed out at 5 AM to catch one of three government busses all day that went from Pollachi to Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. We'd heard a lot about this Sanctuary, including that we would get to ride elephants here. Unluckily for us, the day was a rainy, drizzly one. The hour-long bus ride was, hands down, the most insane road I've ever been on. It was incredibly pot hole-ridden and one hairpin turn after another. And this bus driver was somehow just careening around the turns (while wearing, get this, coke-bottle glasses. I don't know if I've ever feared for my life quite so much). Somehow, we made it, and once we were off the bus we were surrounded by--absolutley no one. Yeah, the whole place was completely deserted. It was so, so surreal. The surroundings were beautiful--green hills with wild boars randomly running around and this awesome fog shrouding the area... but there was no one. After a little exploring, we finally came across a few park "rangers," who seemed pretty much just like bad-tempered guys with moustaches, who informed us that there was no way for us to either ride elephants or go trekking. Nate was all about trekking anyway, but they told us that the reason we couldn't trek was because the rain made the LEECHES come out. I put my foot down.
Our main options exhausted, we mostly just had to bum around this deserted sanctuary for a few hours waiting for another bus to come by. Some other apparently misinformed Indians came up to the park also and wanted to share a jeep tour with us, so we decided to go ahead and go with it. That ended up being fun, but all we saw were some chained-up elephants in a village that made for good photographs but certainly not any real "wildlife adventure." We caught the same nerve-wracking, falling-apart bus back to Pollachi midday and were then back in the same awful bus stand trying to figure out where to go next. We decided to go ahead and try to get to Ooty that day, instead of trying to stay in Pollachi again, so we hopped on three more busses and traveled the rest of that day to get to the famous Hill Station.
Ooty was much like Kodaikanal, only the bus ride was much more horrific. I was ten times as nauseous getting off the bus in Ooty as I was in Kodaikanal and I was in no mood for the hawkers to try and rip me off because I'm blonde. It was a good decision--we walked a little ways and ended up at a nice hotel with a scary staircase (it might as well have been a ladder) and giant St. Bernard. Ooty was a little colder than Kodaikanal, and a lot bigger, so we didn't do as much wandering. Instead of seeing it more as a destination in and of itself, we used it more as a jumping off point the next day to get to Mudhumalai Wildlife Sanctuary.
Mudhumalai is situated about halfway between Ooty and Mysore, so the route is pretty well fed by regular busses going back and forth, without it being overly crowded. We got incredibly lucky and ended up on a private, but still cheap, bus--complete with individual seats and enough room to stretch our legs out a bit. We got some much-needed naptime, too. We also almost missed our stop in Mudhumalai. As irritated as I get when people here try and kick other Indians out of chairs for us or try and make us pay double for a rickshaw because we're white, I am just as overjoyed when people go out of their way to make sure that we get off at the right bus stop. We hopped off and were hoping for good luck, because we realized when we got there that this was certainly not the place that lots of random hotels would be situated.
We did, in fact, get lucky again--we ran into a trekking guide who told us about this dorm system that they have at Mudhumalai that was dirt cheap. We got 4 beds in one room for 65 rs. apiece. That's about $1.30. Yeah. Anyway, we ended up sharing the building with only one other German lady who was traveling alone, and she was a great help too. We ate dinner at this house that was nearby and got to watch the park's famous domesticated elephants getting fed. The next day we were up brutually early again for a 5 km. trek through the forest in search of wild elephants and a sight of some of the park's other animals. No luck there however--obviously it had already been exhausted by our travel luck--and instead we saw some pictures of these two Swedish people who were there just a minute before us and got to see a leopard and sloth bear. The hike was nice though, and we saw some gorgeous scenery. Oh, and I got poked by this big tree that looks like a tree but acts like a cactus.
We caught the same bus that brought us to Mudhumalai to Mysore, and it was an easy ride. The last few minutes as we were coming into Mysore were filled with the famous scents of lavendar and sandalwood, and I was already in love with the place. It was neither too hot nor too cold, and on a trip filled with some extremes, it was nice to be a little in-between. We also planned on staying Mysore for a glorious 3 days, so we got to really get a sense of the city and wander around from place to place. My sense of geography there is much better because I spent some time there. We had a great time just exploring the city and especially the city's famous flower market. I've never seen so many fresh flowers in my entire life! You have to see my pictures for that to be sure. I don't even think I can describe it! The whole place just smelled like fresh blooms and people were running from place to place buying oils and incense and flowers. Mysore also has two really famous, huge palaces. I've read they're rather like Versailles, though--gorgeous on the outside with beautiful flowers, but the inside is rather dull once you've seen one room. We decided not to go for the few hundred rupees cover charge to get in and instead spent the extra cash on a nicer hotel and a few nice dinners. Mysore was a really great town and it was the perfect end to a rather hectic trip.
We planned on getting to Bangalore only a few hours before we had to catch our train back to Pune. We originally thought we'd be getting back to Pune on Sunday to get to class on Monday. Instead, we ended up getting on the right train and sitting down in the right compartment--only to find out that our train was actually booked for the next night. Baffled and more than a little embarassed, we then set out to find a hotel close to the bus station so it would be easy to get back the next day. Like I mentioned earlier, Bangalore was my least favorite city I visited... and it's because all I saw of it was a giant wall of BUSES. I'm not even joking. Apparently the traffic was "bad" because it was Diwali--aka lots of people were setting off random fireworks--but still. We literally got out of the train station and could see about 50 hotels just waiting for us on the other side of the street... but couldn't get to them. We walked for more than half an hour in one direction trying to find a crosswalk or intersection where we could get across and we simply couldn't do it. By the time we found our hotel I was exhausted and frustrated so much that we spent the whole next day bumming around in the hotel room (and then getting KFC for dinner... what?!) just trying to get rid of the traveling exhaustion!
The train back to Pune (this time on the right night) was easy and we were very happy to be back on trains after almost a solid week full of bus travel. By the time I left I was much better at several card games and a trillion times closer to Nate, Sydney and Logan. I absolutely count this experience, including the frustrations, as one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I can't believe how lucky I am to be here. And now, looking forward to traveling next month, I realize that I have three huge papers still to write but all I want to do is think about what NORTH India is going to be like!!
Thanks to everyone who stuck through this insanely long blog. I'll post again soon... when something as interesting as all this happens!!
11.04.2009
Finally! A blog about my travels.
Hey everyone,
I want to apologize first to everyone who’s been reading my blog this whole semester for the past few weeks. I’ve seriously been lacking when it comes to updates, and if it makes you feel any better, I do have a pretty legitimate excuse for my bad blog behavior. As soon as I got back from vacation, I realized with a bang how much SCHOOLWORK I have to do now! I’ve been very seriously into school the past two weeks, and I’m realizing that I’ve got so much left to work on. I’ve been doing a lot of work on my Independent Study Project (an environmental science project) as well as two other papers I have due, plus trying to learn even more Marathi before my exam at the end of the month. I’ve never had to deal with finals before, and it’s definitely catching up to me. Thank God for the block plan—semester schedule is HARD!
Anyway. Now to talk about my travels.
I started off my travels the way I generally start off on new projects—anxious and generally over-prepared. This is a tendency that generally serves me well (and did on this trip, though we’ll get to the over-prepared part later). My anxiety led me to read my travel book like a Bible. I thought that I would be able to handle absolutely any situation we could get ourselves into. This outlook was a little naïve, and so all I am is glad that nothing went seriously wrong. Yet, despite this naiveté, I found out that I’m a pretty resourceful person who can use all the tools that I’m given. Know how I found THAT one out? I walked into the train station in Pune with my backpack on and my travel book in hand and realized that I had no idea how to find our train.
Like I said in my last blog, train stations really do make sense in India. But I think part of me will never really get over the idea that not everybody speaks English. This mindset definitely comes from living in a country where mono-lingualism isn’t just the norm, it’s almost encouraged. So there we are, standing in the train station, tickets in hand, looking at one another in total bewilderment. My first instinct was to find someone wearing a uniform and ask them for help—but of course, no one who worked at the station was around. We ended up piecing the whole process together, using a variety of numbers listed anonymously on our ticket and by asking people who looked like they spoke English if this was the train going to Kochi.
Obviously, we figured it out. It wasn’t, in the scheme of things, difficult at all really to find our train. Of course, it was sitting right there on the first platform, waiting for us. But that small little step was definitely a reality check. It gave me confidence that we would definitely be able to find our way around India, but it made me more aware that everything would not be as easy as it would be where every sign is in English and everybody around speaks English like a native (ha ha).
The train to Kochi was a long one. We were delayed more than twelve hours overnight because of intense flooding happening in Karnataka. It rained much harder than I’ve ever witnessed that night and I froze sleeping on the bottom bunk next to the window. It ended up taking us a glorious 41 hours to reach Kochi, which ended up being fortuitous because we got into Kerala around noon instead of around 1 AM. We shared our compartment that day with a family from Kerala that could point out the exact point between Tamil Nadu and Kerala—it was actually shocking how it transformed from sparse trees and mountains into a serious tropical forest.
Kochi is a beautiful port town, right on the Arabian Ocean. It’s famous because of it’s islands and waterways that separate different parts of Kochi. These waterways eventually lead into the tiny canals and rivers that make up the backwaters of Kerala, some of the most lush forests in India. When we got off the train it smelled like salt water and cooking fish, so we immediately fell in love with the place. We found a decent hotel pretty quickly and established early our penchant for cheap hotels. The place in Kochi was fairly average—the four of us paid 600 rs. a night to share a room (that’s about $12 a night, split 4 ways. Awesome, right?). We spent our time in Kochi getting accustomed to what it was like to travel on our own. I suggested that we check out the tourism office, and they pointed us in the right direction for classic Keralan dance (Kathakali – look it up! Absolutely amazing stuff) as well as a day-long backwaters tour.
The tour of the backwaters we did was fantastic, mostly because we were by ourselves for the majority of the day. In the morning we shared our motor boat with an Indian couple that seemed seriously uninterested in the natural beauty of the backwaters—the husband talked on his cell phone all morning and his wife proceeded to simply look bored. The afternoon was much better; we started off with one of the most delicious lunches I’ve ever had and a quiet tour given by a man who pushed the four of us in a canoe down narrow waterways into the forest. I think the most surreal part of this experience was seeing all the HOUSES there were in the backwaters. We saw schoolkids walking along a path next to the canals, and I realized—this is so normal for them. What is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been is absolutely typical for them. How strange.
Our original plan was for us to go to Periyar after Kochi, which is a wildlife sanctuary in Kerala. We found out, however, that it was closed. It turns out that a few weeks ago, 40 people drowned in the Periyar Lake—the guide on a tourist boat warned the people not to run too quickly to one side of the boat if they should spy some wildlife, but of course, they didn’t listen as soon as they saw some wild elephants. It is tragic but utterly stupid. So we were confronted pretty quickly with the need to change our plans quickly. We decided to move on to Trivendrum in southern Kerala. We only stayed their for a single night though, on the way to Kanyakomari.
Kanyakomari is a beach town situated at the very southern tip of the Subcontinent. It’s considered a holy place for Hindus and just a pretty cool tourist town in general. Three oceans meet at Kanyakomari: the Indian Ocean to the South, the Bay of Bengal to the East, and the Arabian Sea to the West. Since it’s touristy, it’s filled with guys selling the most hilarious trinkets. Kanyakomari frustrated me at first because it was so full of tourists, but it ended up being great—we enjoyed our hotel and had some funny encounters on the beach. Most importantly, I put my feet in three oceans in one day!
From Kanyakomari, we headed to Madurai. This city in Tamil Nadu is incredibly famous for it’s Meenakshi Temple, which rises up in the middle of the city in all its ornate and complexly colored glory. It was built when Madurai was at the center of a teeming trading empire in the 15th century. We stayed at perhaps the sketchiest hotel ever, but only had to pay 450 rs. a night for it, and nothing bad came of the experience. After the sea breezes of Kanyakomari, Madurai was oppressively hot. It was around 95 degrees when we checked into our hotel—at 9 pm. It was also strange to be back in a big city after a few days of relative peace in Kochi, the backwaters, and Kanyakomari. There were simply so many PEOPLE.
After checking into our hotel, we found a restaurant and ate delicious dosas. Dosas are a specialty of South India: a superthin rice pancake that’s crispy on one side folded over a little pocket of masala, which is usually a mix of spicy tomatoes and potatoes. They’re absolutely delicious and we ate them almost every day in the South, but the one in Madurai was especially delicious. I never thought I would say anything like this, but veg balls are amazing! I have no idea how they make them, but every time I’ve eaten veg balls they’ve been awesome. Anyway, moving on….
This is the part where overprepared certainly came in. We were approached by a guy on the street who was incredibly excited that we were Americans. His enthusiasm was infectious so we decided to follow him. He promised to show us the Meenakshi temple from the top of a shop close to the temple. I had read in my travel book that hawkers do this often in Madurai to obvious tourists, and though they promise it’s free, they harass you on your way out until you buy something. I was worried the entire time that that’s what would happen to us, but I was wrong! We stood on the roof of a government shop (so lots of tribal art items) for around half an hour, then left peacefully and found our way back to our hotel.
That night, the most ridiculous thing happened. We woke up in the middle of the night to hear the loudest, reverberating bangs on metal piping ever. In my somewhat unconscious mind, the sound sounded exactly like the sound the heaters make in my house when it’s cold outside and they’re warming up. But as I woke up more, I realized they were not only completely unnecessary (I would put the heat at still around 85 degrees), but much, much louder. We realized that there was a plumber, somewhere in the building, working on the piping. We’re still confounded as to why he was banging away at one AM, but I guess there are a lot of things about India I’ll never understand!
The next day, we visited the temple in earnest. It costs more for foreigners to go inside temples and monuments, and you always have to pay for cameras, so we only took one camera inside and wandered around for a while. There were a lot of different parts of the temple that only Hindus could go into, so it wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped. BUT, on our way out, we noticed a small crowd, and wandered over. It was the temple elephant—all decorated and chained to a pillar. For 10 rs, he would bless you by putting his trunk on your head and take a photo with you. Seeing him chained and inside in the dark room depressed us, but Logan, Sydney and I decided to go for it. I handed the elephant 10 rs and his soft, strange trunk grabbed it from me, and the next thing I knew—his trunk was on my head. That was definitely a strange experience.
We were excited to get out of Madurai, so we left that day for Kodaikanal. But for now, I’ve got to go! I’m getting ready to leave this weekend for Malabeshwar, a hill station close to Pune. We’re going this weekend for a retreat to discuss our big Independent Study Projects that are due at the end of the month. I’ll be sure to write another blog this weekend sometime about the second half of my trip and post it early next week…. I PROMISE!
Have a good weekend everyone!
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