Who: Aimee, Caroline, Razlyn Abdul Rahim and Whitney Anderson
Where: Approx. 2525 km; Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Ambalamoola, Nagercoil, Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli), Kerala (Kozhikode, Kalpetta, Sultan Bathery, Padmanabapuram Palace), and Karnataka (Mysore, Bangalore)
When: 8 days; July 30-August 8, 2011
Why: Because Lonely Planet needs new writers
Price for train tickets: $52
Price for cheapest meal: Rs. 13 (26 cents American) for idly
Seeing Wild Elephants: Priceless
Highlights
Traveling - Seeing India by bus and by train are worthwhile activities unto themselves. There is no better way to see kilometers of countryside and snapshots of daily life that you'd miss by air. There's more opportunity for relationship making; cutely, like the pajama-clad boy with his trucks and cars, or more imposingly, like the aravani asking for money. When the trains travel by night, they make excellent and cheap sleeping accommodations. Minus the middle-aged men who snore - sometimes they snore in unison; sometimes they snore in a round; sometimes its a symphony in which the apnea-suffering pig is the featured soloist.
Buses have their own collection of sounds - horn honking for passing, for cows, for pedestrians, and for fun; music videos with high-pitched, infantile voices (seriously, the gods are portrayed by kids), the same default Nokia ring for every text and call, and incessant, throat-clearing hacking and spitting.
In Wynaad, we enjoyed the one-lane, monsoon-swept roads in jeeps and in the mobile outreach vehicle to reach beautiful tea-covered mountains and remote tribal villages.
We used autorickshaws when absolutely necessary, but our favorite way to travel was to walk - to walk through elephants' footprints, up muddy mountain paths, down vendor-lined sidestreets, barefoot through palaces, the beach and our host family's dining room. Sometimes we walked with a purpose; sometimes we walked to find a quiet place. Though our trip was planned, the in-between traveling allowed for unexpected and rewarding moments.
Wayanad - It was thrilling to be in an area where nature dominated. Though this statement includes leeches on the muddy ground, it also included monkeys and wild elephants! Every inch of land was covered in bamboo, tea, coffee, green chili, eggplant, rice, tapioca, banana, butterfruit (avocado), peppercorn, guava, coconut and jack fruit. Jack fruit were just newly coming into season, and after mentioning idly that we hadn't tried them, suddenly a local man was up the tree and throwing us two of the massive fruits.
Standing on the roadway, we enjoyed the challenge of plucking the fruit-covered seeds from the stringy pulp. Though not the prettiest of fruits, their flavor and texture mixed banana and pineapple. Even with seven of us, eating just one half of the jack fruit was a feat.
Mysore - At the perfect middle of our trip, we had a collective spaz attack. Perhaps it was in reaction to our well-located but thoroughly disgusting hotel (thanks Lonely Planet). Maybe it was due to the shoe-snapping epidemic that orphaned Caroline and Whitney's flipflops. But maybe we just wanted an excuse to see Harry Potter. With the help of the entire wait staff at Parklane Hotel, see it we did. However, Caroline and Aimee might find it in Delhi once more because the projection could not have been screwier. But we made some friends from the Netherlands to make up for it.
In the morning, we tried to behave for Mysore Palace, but when people kept asking for pictures with us, we kind of lost it again. Caroline made the ultimatum "only if you make silly faces" to the next group of guys looking for a photo op.
Kanyakumari - On the overnight train between Bangalore and Kanyakumari, I (Aimee) found out that Seth Dunn, a friend from my undergraduate, had died in a terribly sad accident. Word came by the groundswell of social support circulating through the dispersed Bethel community through Facebook, and though connected virtually, I felt suddenly alone in my sadness...for a moment. Then Michael, my husband, appeared with expert timing for a much appreciated online chat. I was given instant and generous support from Whitney, Caroline and Razlyn, together and each in their turn.
I enjoyed my time immensely in Kanyakumari, but the effect of this news is not avoidable. I could not have anticipated how Seth's death would alter moments in Kanyakumari, mostly because we never anticipate such sad things, but also because of the foreignness of my social and physical environment. I found that being on the coast where the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal converge in visible current collisions provided beautiful images of continuity and universal connection. Sitting in Tsunami Park provided a contemplative spot for thoughts about loss. Quiet was more appealing than the noise brought by the large tourist crowds, and I appreciated my companions offering time for me to find that on small, out of the way, overlooks and beaches. On one such beach, I etched Seth's name in the sand, letting it get swept away by the water.
These actions were for me as much as him, I know; he probably would have enjoyed the guys running around with the puffer fish more than I had patience for. I'll work on laughing more for him in the future, because that's the most memorable thing about him. For all of those still grieving, my thoughts are with you too.
Day Tour - Near the end of the trip, we found ourselves with an extra day to organize, and though we'd woken up at 5:00 a.m. to see the sunrise, we wanted to make the most of it. So we booked a tour of four sites: Suchindram Temple, Padmanabapuram Palace, Mathoor Hanging Bridge, and waterfalls.
Padmanabapuram Palace, though in Tamil Nadu, is considered Kerala territory. We enjoyed the palace for its intricate carving and indigenous structure and the way the light played through windows and against the dark wood. There were so many passages and corridors that made for many fun pictures. The view from Mathoor Hanging Bridge is breathtaking, both for its height and for the Eden-like quality of the turquoise river pointing to mountains on one side and into a lush, emerald valleys on the other. The waterfalls we visited seemed to double as a mass shower for anyone who came to visit. They had an outrageous camera charge, so Caroline snuck a few illegal pictures in the cover of the crowds.
Epilogue - We have felt like we've had the opportunity to make a lot of our time in India, this trip being a prime example. Prince Solomon, a social work at MCC, helped a lot in its arrangements, but we did a fair amount of leg work ourselves.
Our time in Bangalore, for instance, was short - only about three hours between our arrival from Mysore to our departure for Nagercoil. But look who we managed to find for dinner in those short three hours!
Carpe Dium!
