Home, sweet...sleepless home!

After a whirlwind tour of Crawford Market, traffic, the Gateway of India, traffic, Leopold's (from Shantaram), more traffic, etc. in Mumbai, we flew home through Brussels and Newark without a hitch (except losing one bag). Now, we just need to re-train ourselves to sleep...anytime will do, thank you very much... because we are both starting new jobs this week. It's great to be home... we've got to get busy and plan the next trip (to northern India, hopefully).

It's a Long Way Home

We knew the day would come when we would pack for the last time and prepare for days of airports, waiting, flying, waiting, airports, waiting, flying. We just left Varkala, the most gorgeous cliff town where, had we known better, we might have stayed for at least a week or two. Our rickshaw driver, Sidhu, took us to a village for yet another elephant ride, this time not quite "bareback", but with only a blanket, no seat. The elephants were the most enormous creatures we've ever seen, one jet black with long white ivories. Sidhu was kind enough to take us to the temple and to do errands in the town, and to introduce us to his family and friends, and... get this.... When he found out Susan was a driver's ed teacher, he stopped the rickshaw and let her drive! Yes, on the LEFT side of these narrow torn up roads, with the clutch and gears on the left. He was impressed. (Of course, she's driven motorcycles and 3 wheelers, etc. so she's got an edge here). The "rest of the story" came when he made Maggi try! (more later on that). We ate our last meal (Tandoori oven BBQ vegetables and Susan had Baracuda!) while we sat outside under a half moon, coconut palms, and a dramatic sea that looked like a sheet of mica, shifting blue and silver light in a steady ocean breeze. WOW. It doesn't get better than that. (Have we said that more than once on this trip?) Now in Trivandrum, where we fly out ... but first, we ask rickshaw driver to take us to breakfast, the internet cafe, then to the temple and a beautiful sculpture park, and then finally the airport. We fly to Mumbai and try to find a room for the night, then fly out the next night. Will try to email from Mumbai, but if not, we'll see you Wednesday night (which will be Thursday a.m. for us!)

Life Happens when You're Making other Plans

We left Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, yesterday, on a train for Kollam. We had our hotel picked out, and decided renting a houseboat was just too expensive. After all the hotels looked seedy or were closed for renovations, we negotiated a "special deal" where we spent a magical night on a houseboat moored on the water, with a private chef and a tour guide who took us to temples and churches and mosques and fishing villages, open fish markets and match factories, and coil (rope making) operations by candlelight and open oil lamps. After a brief tour around the backwaters in a rice barge (covered houseboat), we then visited villages by open canoe, to watch rope being made, spice gardens. Our driver bought us flowers for our hair, we drank coconut juice after a guy cut the coconut in half with a machete, watched snakes in the backwater canals, and visited a Hindu temple. We are in now in Varkala, a tiny tourist town, north of Trivandrum, south of Kochin, on top of high cliffs overlooking the ocean, dramatic and cool and beautiful, staying in a bamboo hut for $8/night. What more is there to say, other than, we have reached the point of completely mixed emotions: how much we miss all of you, how good it will be to have a hot shower and sleep in our own beds, and .... geez, if we only had three more weeks, think of what we could do? There are snake boat races only a couple of hours from here, and we have the train thing down. So, all of India feels accessible. Suddenly, in a very primitive way. K & T said this trip will either bond us or make us hate each other. I don't think either of us can think of a better travel companion for this trip, where we make decisions silently and simultaneously, bargain down to the exact same "bottom price", are ready to eat at the same time, call it a day at the same time, etc. The only "stretch" has been when Susan talked me into the hotel room in Kanyakumari that had a squat toilet!!! Who woulda thunk? We leave in 3 days for Mumbai, where we will spend a long hot 24 hours before flying home. Can't wait to see you. (WARNING: Don't ask about pictures unless you're available to come to a slide show. We have some amazing .... no TONS of amazing pictures.!!!) Keep writing, and sending any last minute requests. Susan and Maggi

Rule #2: Trains are on time or late...but never early

Our friend, Al said, "Bands either start on time, or they begin late...but they never start early. As we have learned about trains in India. After a day of coal-walking festival and many goodbyes, we took a bus to a small village, Chengalpattu, where we stood on the train platform for the sleeper train to Cape Cormorin (Kanyakumari)... We were early, we asked many people for the right platform, the right train, and even our correct car number. We hopped (literally) onto the train at 6 + p.m. (a tad before our 6:25 scheduled train) only to find a family in our seats & berths. Double booking? Nope. We had hopped the wrong train! Still going south, so our panic faded when everyone in the train car tried to advise us about what to do...to get off at the next stop, to talk to the station master, to make sure we got on the next train (the correct one) which was due to arrive in 10, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on who was advising. It worked! Within the hour we were on the correct train, with top berths as planned (thanks, Bryan!) ... where the photos we took of each other lying outstretched next to the ceiling (where Maggi's hair caught in the fan) reminded Susan of us lying in coffins. {it's a joke!} We slept like babies, until 6 am when we arrived in Kanyakumari to a sunny ocean(s)-front town...there are 3 seas here, and they really are different colors. Got an ocean(s) front room with a balcony for $7 or $8 dollars. All is well. Hope you all are. From here, we will re-enter Kerala, and visit some beach towns (Kovalam Beach, Varkala, Kollom, etc.) before flying out of Trivandrum Monday to catch our flight home from Mumbai. Watch for more photos. We filled another card up.

Rule #1: Have no Plans

FYI: We have added 2 photos to their corresponding blog entry below, if you are interested. It is Sunday afternoon. We have exchanged books for Susan's 3rd mystery. We have eaten a leisurely Indian breakfast at Anthony's (new rooftop restaurant overlooking the ocean) -- a friend Thane and Kendall and Maggi discovered two years ago. Across the street, another friend, Sentihl, has opened a new shop. We visited and played with an adorable baby named Sai (1 year old?). Last night we visited the 5 rathas (chariots from the 6th or 7th century, unearthed only 200 years ago) just before closing. On the walk back, we watched 5, then 20, and finally about 30-35 Indians decorate and raise a "totem pole" 30 or 40 feet tall, from lying on the ground to standing upright in a deep hole they had dug in the ground. It was an amazing engineering feat, and we had to hold ourselves back from helping as they pulled on ropes, and the pole twisted in midair over a bus and cars and bicycles and all of their shoes... then they wedged wooden planks in the hole and repaired the damage from the first try, then pulled the ropes again to make the pole make it safely to a vertical position. The sun set as we watched and then.... lots of cheering! We have no idea what the occasion was. Tomorrow, we go with some German friends staying at our guesthouse, to a nearby festival in a village. We don't know the occasion. There have been festivals for an eclipse, and school shut down so the children would not hurt their eyes; men walking on coals, fireworks, etc. We should get some good pictures there, on the eve of our departure for the south.

Just chillin'

We took a night train ( our first!) from Madurai to Mamallapuram (just south of Chennai/ Madras on the southeast coast , if you're following a map). This is the town Maggi spent a couple of weeks in with Thane and Kendall two years ago. We have visited the kids at the orphanage twice, visited with the artist, Kumar, and met up with friends from England and Holland. We get up early to see the temple and rock carvings, stay still during the heat of the day, and then walk around and sit in outdoor restaurants near the ocean in the evening, when the breeze makes it tolerable. It is our first place where we can just chill and not have to DO anything at a particular time due to the torrential rains or a bus schedule. We got tickets for the first available train which is next Tuesday afternoon . We will head south to the tip of India, Cape Cormorin? to see where the 3 seas meet. Then we will spend the rest of the time on the western coast (geez, do we get around!) back in the state of Kerala. It may be pouring again, but everything is relative. It's so hot here, the rain is welcome. Thanks for all your comments on the blog , and for your emails.

What are the chances?

We know that everyone has probably heard that there were bombs in India over the weekend and we want to let you know that we are not in the area of the bombs. We checked and the one that was supposedly in Kochin was just a telephone call . Gujaret, north of Mumbai, did have a bomb, and so did Bangalore. A man explained it all to us today. But no one knows of another bomb in Kerala. Everyone is so helpful and kind... we are having a blast. We are being careful not to eat things we shouldn't, and are happy to be dry. The train station manager took us into his office and got us top berth train tickets for tonight, in 4 hours, where we will sleep and arrive in the morning, in time to take a bus to Mamallapuram and get to town for breakfast. It's perfect actually. We don't have plans about when to leave mamallapuram to travel south again .... you know, I still need to see the 3 seas. And we fly out of Trivandrum. Susan had a top made at a tailor today. She's better at directions than I seem to be, and we've had our share of haggling over prices. It's great to be with her instead of alone. Plus, she doesn't seem bothered about any of it; because something we ordered came with mayonnaise, we boxed it up and gave it to two children begging on the streets. Very satisfying. All our clothes are dry, we took a hot shower and washed our hair before checking out of our hotel, and we are set to begin again. The rooftop restaurants are fantastic. So pleasant, breezy and out of the heat of the streets. We tried to visit the temple today, to find out that it was covered over in thatch that took about three months to cover. Now they are in the process of repainting the temple which is only done every twelve years. The expected finish time is around the end of Octber which we will miss the unveiling. We were taken to the rooftop of a shop and he explained what we would have been able to see had we been able to go inside. Afterwards, we tried to visit a palace for a light and sound show to find out upon arrival that it too was being renovated. Great timing. Thanks to everyone for the comments. It is nice to hear from you and know that you are keeping up with us. We are now off to dinner on a rooftop and then to our train where hopefully, we will get some sleep. Goodnight. Susan and Maggi

Throw Away The Maps

Ok. Here's a shocker. I'm typing today (Susan). After a restless night of deciding where to travel to today, we started back toward Kochin with Ravi (our rickshaw driver and tour guide) to find out that during the night there had been a landslide and the road was closed. That helped to confirm our decision to travel to Madurai, where we heard it wasn't raining and it was warmer. After discussing it with Ravi, we hired Babu, a taxi driver, that would drive us to Madurai. After deciding to go with Babu, Ravi asked if he could go home and get his son, Sreeram 8 years old, who needed to go to the village medicine doctor along the way to have his broken arm checked. We agreed to let them ride with us, and he was our tour guide for the trip. Tonight we are in Tamil Nadu, another state of India, that we had not thought we would visit. Tomorrow night we head further east to Chennai on a train, which neither of us has ever ridden, then on to Mamalapuram. We have left Kerala all together and GLAD FOR THE HEAT AND SUN. Our trip here was wonderful and we took lots of pictures over the mountain pass of the Western Ghats with some pretty awesome views of waterfalls. We had a wonderful rooftop dinner overlooking Madurai. Stay tuned.

A slight Detour

At our friend, Dr. Thomas' suggestion, yesterday visited a state park where we rode Tunita, an elephant bare back (oooh, prickly!), climbed in treehouses overlooking the Periyar River, took turns swinging on swings made of bamboo, visited an orphanage, a zoo with deer, monkeys, peacocks, crocodiles, pythons, and bald eagles. The elephants there were rescued and trained. Then we hopped on a bus and rode 4 1/2 hours east up to a hill station that Dr. Thomas said was his favorite spot. Munnar (which means "3 rivers") is a small town in the mountains, 90% tea plantations, home of wildlife preserves, waterfalls, and sandalwood forests. We met Ravi, who became our guide in his rickshaw with blue tarps fastened to the sides to HELP keep the rain out. He took us to a guesthouse, and today, picked us up and took us to a breakfast of dosas (enormous crepes) on banana leaves, with coconut chutney and a spicy sauce to dip them in. Again, Susan ate with her hands like she'd been doing it all her life. Ravi took us to buy jackets (2 for $6), and socks, because we were cold! Then he took us even higher in the mountains where we could see the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. (Rain stopped and clouds cleared for only a few minutes when we reached the summit). We spotted wild elephants, drank hot chai from the side of the road where they were roasting corn, and stopped to take pictures (grey ones in all this rain and wind) of waterfalls, lakes and dams. Tomorrow, we will visit huge waterfalls, and more wildlife parks, and then eventually move on back down to Kochin. We'll leave our jackets here for Ravi to sell again, for money for his 3 children. It is an amazing experience to be here, where the Communist party makes India seem "the same same, but different" -- as they say in India. Of course, Susan is seeing all of this for the first time, and it doesn't seem to phase her. We are having a blast! Hope you all are well. More soon. Susan and Maggi

The Adventure Begins at Home!

We know any vacation begins at home, and this one is no exception. First plane from RDU was cancelled. We were put on an earlier flight. The Newark flight was 3 1/2 hours delayed WHILE we sat on the tarmac in a lightning and thunderstorm. The airport was closed down because lightning struck the radar. When we finally got to take off, there was quite a bit of turbulence, of course, but we managed to get to Brussels ... WAIT! Brussels? We thought we were on a non-stop to Mumbai. Herein lies the difference between "non-stop" and "direct" flights. Pay attention, girls! The plane was unloaded and then we were told there would be a delay... because... get this --- the plane had been struck by lightning twice! If they couldn't fix it, we would get a new plane from Mumbai the following day. We were given food vouchers, and we set up camp on the floor. Finally we were loaded back onto our plane and landed in Mumbai 6 hours late. Of course, we wouldn't make our connection to Cochin from a different airport. But we did it. They held the plane and Dr. Thomas, our friend in Cochin, picked us up at 8:30 Friday morning. In one short day, Susan has learned to eat with her RIGHT hand, learned Indian traffic patterns (that supposedly include driving on the left side of the road), seen men in dhotis, toured Dr. Thomas' farm where we saw how rubber is made, visited a school full of children where we counted with them in English and asked them to all introduce themselves. Maggi already got a new filling and Susan held Dr. Thomas' new baby girl, Nissi Susan. We feel like part of this huge wonderul extended family, and the soft summer rain in Kerala. We have big smiles on our faces!

Where is Kerala?

Kerala is the very small (green) state in the most southwest tip of India. Here are maps to orient you as we make our way south from Kochi (Cochin), about midway down the western coast of Kerala, to the very tip of India, where it joins the state of Tamil Nadu. [Click on yellow map of Kerala to enlarge.]

Bags are Packed

Susan is especially proud of the fact that we are taking only one backpack each, and not checking any bags at the airport.

Lions, Tigers and Elephants....Oh My!

From July 23 until August 13, 2008 we will be in Kerala, in southern India where it is monsoon season. (No, we won't be riding bikes to India), but you can follow our trip here whenever you think of us. We will post as often as possible: that is, when we find an internet cafe, IF there is power, IF it is not flooded, and IF we can figure out how to post to this blog correctly. Though we know it is a mistake to plan too much when going to India, watch for highlights of our staying in a treehouse by the wildlife preserve, renting a houseboat to cruise the backwaters of Kerala, riding elephants, and standing at the southern most tip of the continent where the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal all come together in their own unique color. We're looking for magic. Susan and Maggi July 2008