South India - Part 4 - November 2019

Tuesday 5 November

• We drove the short distance from beautiful, serene Cardamom Hοuse in the foothills of the Western Ghats to dusty Madurai — the Temple City, City of Honey, City of Jasmine, the City that Never Sleeps, the site of the wedding of Shiva and Parvati in Hindu mythology. After the natural calm of the past several days it was a shock to plunge again into the chaos of a large Indian city.
• We were welcomed with a lei of jasmine and marigolds on arrival at the Heritage Madurai hotel, formerly the British officers’ club and an oasis of calm — and mosquitos. The city is surrounded by small lakes, ponds and streams, so there is plenty of opportunity for the annoying little blighters to breed.
• We met up with our guide at the 17^th century Tirumala Nayak Palace, built by the fabulously wealthy maharaja and designed by Italian (!) architects. It was an extraordinary mixture of classical (Greek/Roman) style stone pillars, complex painted Hindu plaster figures, and Arabic-style arches.

• Our guide was an entertaining character who did not hesitate to let us know that he has become a YouTube sensation for videos demonstrating the local traditional dance style. We thought he might be exaggerating, but several people came up to him to shake his hand. Some were quite jealous that we had him as a guide. He certainly had remarkably expressive and flexible hand and facial gestures. He was a former school teacher and very good at explaining the baffling and complex stories of Hindu mythology. (Prabu, our dancing guide)

• Our next stop was a visit to the vast, astounding Meenakshi temple — a site of pilgrimage for centuries and visited by over 2 million people a year. According to our guide, the Indian government wants it to be declared an 8^th Wonder of the World — no idea what that means. After leaving behind our shoes, socks, cameras, cell phones, watches and any other electronic gear (for religious reasons) we were allowed to enter through metal detectors and a body search (for security reasons). There was so much to see and to take in inside the temple. A few highlights, but sadly no photos:

1. Five huge conical towers decorated with literally thousands of brightly colored statues of the gods. Each god has a different color and the sight is spectacularly garish.    
2. A neem tree hung with hundreds of little wooden cradles each containing a baby Krishna. Women hang them on the tree as a prayer for fertility.
3. A huge canopy and a statue of Nandi (Shiva’s bull) carved from a single piece of black granite. If you whisper in the statue’s ear, Nandi will take your message to Shiva.
4. A ceiling painting of a circular bowl with a spout that points towards to viewer from whatever direction you look at it. We walked all around and it is very puzzling.
5. A popular statue of Shiva in female form (don’t ask), discretely dressed in multiple skirts, showing the correct stance for a woman to give birth. Temples are not just for religious observations but also places for education about sex and married life.
6. The temple is unusual in having shrines to both Shiva and Parvati, who normally have separate temples. As non-Hindus, we were not allowed to enter the shrines. There was no line to visit Shiva, but Parvati had a line with a wait of over 3 hours — easy to see who was more popular.
7. A huge weighing scale designed for a person to sit on one end to measure their own weight in produce — bananas, coconuts, rice — which they donate to the temple.

• After our fascinating and educational visit to the temple it was time to return through the dusty, crowded streets to our hotel for an early night as we had to be up for a 5:30 start the next morning.

Wednesday 6 November 

House sign created new every day

• Our early morning tour of the back streets of Madurai was fascinating. We were guided down narrow alleys with fresh water pumps every few hundred yards -- no running water in the houses.
• There were cows in the street being milked by men, and the milk being delivered by women — unpasteurized and uncooled — in small metal containers to their customers. Customers get two milk deliveries a day and refrigeration is hardly needed as the milk is used within a few hours, or turned into yogurt.
• The street in front of every house was being carefully washed and the woman of the house was creating a design in chalk powder at the house entrance. Each design is unique and different, reflecting the skills and mood of the woman. Young females looking for husbands are judged for their design proficiency, as well as their cooking skills, looks, and deference to the grooms parents. A young man is judged by the bride’s father for his ability to wrestle a large bull to the ground and to lift a 100 lb stone over his shoulders.

Banana Market

• We encountered families of goats, and sellers of 6 different varieties of spinach. 
• Lin had sweet-smelling jasmine flowers woven into her hair. We were given samples of jasmine oil by a perfume maker.
• We took a welcome break at a famous tea and coffee shop where we enjoyed small glasses of tea and a delicious freshly-made, deep-fried, cardamom-flavored rice doughnut.
• The banana market was fascinating with dozens of different varieties. We tasted the red bananas of which they are very proud. The flavor is more intense than our regular bananas, and the flesh is slightly pink.

• We were amazed to see a vast pile of dried chilies being loaded into sacks by hand. Just watching made our skin feel hot and itchy. Hard to believe anyone could need that much chili.

• After the tour, we checked out of our hotel and flew -- late -- to Chennai, the last stop on our tour. We were sad to say goodbye in Madurai to our driver of three weeks, Kumar (a simplification of his longer Malayalam name). He had shown admirable skill in navigating us round south India's difficult roads and undisciplined traffic, while keeping us entertained and informed with his stories and insights. His use of English was interesting if somewhat challenging as he had learned it by osmosis from his clients. He was immensely proud of his state — Kerala. He could speak Malayalam, Tamil and English, but could read only Malayalam. Interestingly, his children can speak English and Malayalam, but can only write English. He referred to his wife as "she", and his mother-in-law, who lives with his family as "she's mother", who according to him can be "shouty".

• Chennai is a huge city — over 10 million people — but much better organized and cleaner than Bangalore. We were taken quickly from the airport to our modern un-Indian Radisson hotel in central Chennai.

Thursday 7 November

• Our final day in India was occupied by two tours of Chennai - formerly called Madras.
• In the morning, we visited the main tourist sites, First, another large and complicated temple with many small shrines. Our guide tried to explain the significance of it all, but we felt a bit bamboozled. With 33 million gods, many with multiple aspects, it is easy to get lost.
• We visited the Catholic church where Jesus' disciple, (Doubting) Thomas, is buried - he reputedly came to India in 52 AD. It is a rather fine building, with an interesting statue of Jesus standing on a lotus flower (Buddhist symbol), and flanked by two peacocks (Hindu symbols). Thomas' tomb was guarded by a stern nun, who forbade all talking and shouted at anyone who had not removed their shoes, though she was wearing sandals herself.
• The road running along the huge, wide Chennai beach was impressive and lined with stately buildings from the British colonial period. Our next stop was the fort where the English had established their colony, and the museum, full of rather dusty artifacts from the colonial period and the early days of independent India.
• Our final stop on the morning tour was the Anglican Church, where Anthony's grandfather was ordained in the 1880's. Anthony tried to communicate with the church authorities to see if there were any records of his grandfather, though with limited success.
• Our afternoon tour of the old bazaar was in many ways the best tour of our holiday. Our guide spoke excellent English, had a depth of knowledge and lots of good stories and information. She showed us many interesting aspects of the wholesale market that was set up to trade with the British East India Company in the 17th century. We visited a shop that sold many different kinds of rice, another making ghee and oils, learned about the health benefits of different fruits and vegetables, tasted jaggery made from sugarcane, coffee beans and spices.
• Finally, it was time for us to prepare for the long journey home. We left 90 degree F Chennai at 11:30 on Thursday night and were back in 25 degree Philadelphia 26 hours later.

Afterword
Our trip was memorable, stimulating, exhausting, enthralling, equal parts busy cities and quiet countryside — we are still trying to take it all in. India is an endlessly fascinating country, and we loved our encounters with the friendly, welcoming people of the south. We'll post some more pictures in the next few days.

Photos

South India - October/November 2019 - Part 3

Tuesday 29 October

• After a second night in our Secret Garden hotel in Kochi, we headed a few miles south to the small town of Alleppey. It used to be a town devoted to coconut matting and coir production, but has found a new lease on life with houseboats — the reason we were there. The area is a maze of lakes, canals, rivers and waterways surrounded by rice fields and marshland — very serene and beautiful, and full of birds.
• We were delivered to our “home” for the next 24 hours by a small, in-danger-of-capsizing water taxi. Our home was a large houseboat with two sumptuous air-conditioned cabins with queen-sized four poster beds, a fine dining room and an upper deck where we could view the passing show.
• The crew was 3 smiling Keralans, who looked after the boat and the passengers. We were welcomed with fresh coconuts with the tops cut out and straws so we could drink the coco water. Meals were huge with multiple dishes of spicy vegetables and fish, with rice and various breads — far too much food for us, especially as there was little opportunity for working it off between meals. The river was crowded with houseboats — all unique, but following a standard style of barge-like metal hull and a large superstructure of wood and woven bamboo. Some are very elegant — others not so much.

• The boat proceeded at a stately pace up a wide river lined with small houses — some large and modern, and many others small and humble. The river was constantly busy with long narrow canoes filled with cargo — rice, vegetables, coconuts, school children — being ferried along the river, or from one side to the other. There had been so much rain that the level of the river water was higher than the surrounding fields.
• The boat glided along with very little sound past herons, kingfishers, bee eaters and kites, each bend in the river opening up new vistas of palm trees and rice fields. Every so often we heard the slap-slap sound of women washing their clothes by soaking them in river water and pounding them on the stone dykes.
• Our one and only stop was at the small village of Champakulam, where we visited the workshop of a skillful wood carver, who was as happy to carve a crucifix as a statue of the Hindu god Ganesh. The main purpose however, was a visit to the oldest Christian church in India, established in 427 AD! When the Portuguese arrived in India in 1497, thinking they were bringing religion to the heathens, they got a real surprise to find there had been Christians in Kerala for over 1000 years. The current church was built relatively recently and is beautifully painted inside, along with several elements we would consider Hindu — the pulpit is held by a painted lotus flower and outside is a huge golden pillar.
• Our departure from the village was witnessed by a group of teenage schoolgirls waiting on the dock for a water taxi. We were a source of great curiosity.
• Our boat anchored for the night on a quiet corner and we watched as evening fell, with herons and brahminy kites heading for their nighttime roosts, then a procession of huge bats with 3 foot wingspans.

Wednesday 30 October

• The next day was more of the same, gliding along in the early morning, eating a delicious breakfast before reaching the dock. Our pond society members would have been jealous of the huge rafts of brightly colored tropical water lilies growing by the edges of the canals. 
• We were lucky on the boat to have mostly dry weather, but that was to change as we headed up into the Western Ghat hills where they grow all the wonderful spices used in Ayurvedic medicine and Indian and western cooking.
• We ended up at a modest and lovely hotel — Dewalokam — which was built by a 4th generation spice farmer, and was one of the highlights of our trip so far. The owner, Jose (short for Joseph) and his wife Sinta were charming hosts and provided employment for an army of ladies who did the housework, colorfully dressed in matching dresses, and men who did the cooking, serving and handyman jobs. All meals were provided and were delicious and mostly vegetarian. 
• After a thunderous downpour, we managed to fit in a lengthy walking tour of the spice farm before the next downpour. It is amazing the variety of spices they grow, and we tasted tiny pieces of each. In their raw uncooked state most are bitter and highly aromatic — cloves, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper, turmeric, ginger, cardamom and many others. We were also introduced to many of the strange gourds and beans that are used in the local cuisine, and learned about pineapple cultivation.
• In the evening we attended a cooking demonstration in the kitchen, given by their talented chef, who rustled up two delicious dishes which we later ate at dinner. He also presented us with a copy of a cookbook he has written so we can try out some of his recipes at home.

Thursday 31 October

Rubber tree seedlings among pineapples

• Today we took a highly educational walk through a rubber and pineapple plantation to the local village. Both require the same climate and soil. Rubber trees only last about 30 years before they die and are cut down. The cleared land is planted with rows of pineapples with little rubber tree seedlings between. The pineapple plants last for about 5 years, by which time the rubber trees have grown large and create too much shade for the pineapples. 

• Every mature rubber tree has a diagonal slash along the trunk with a little cup at the bottom to collect the latex as it drips out. People were pouring the cups into buckets that they hauled back to a collecting shack where their contribution was weighed and added to barrels that are shipped to the rubber factory, where it is used for rubber sheet, aircraft tires etc. What a lot of work.
• The village we reached at the end of our trek was small and busy. A ladies’ cooperative with a dozen sewing machines was producing thousands of reusable shopping bags — Kerala wants to stop the use of disposable plastic bags. A small spice processing plant smelled wonderful, but we felt sorry for the young woman working on the chili grinding machine. Being in the same room made our noses itch and eyes water. There were several very fancy houses in the village, built by locals who had gone to work in the Persian Gulf for a few years and come back very well off. A jolting bus ride, then a tuk-tuk took us back to our hotel for a typical Kerala meal eaten with fingers off a banana leaf.

Kerala feast on a banana leaf

• The afternoon was very wet but we did get out to visit the animals on the farm — cows, buffalo, chickens and some very characterful goats. The buffalo provide milk that is made into the most delicious yogurt and cheese, the chickens provided eggs (and often end up in the tandoori oven), and all the animals provide manure that goes into a large underground digester, that creates all the methane that is used for cooking.
• We got such a surprise in the evening when our host and hostess unveiled a board with “Jubilee Greetings, Linda and Sandy”, and presented us with bouquets of flowers and a cake — somehow they had heard it was our 50th wedding anniversary this year.

Friday 1 November

• We were sad to leave Dewalokam on Friday, especially as the sun was shining for the first time during our visit. Now we traveled further up into the hills towards the huge national park of Periyar — over 1100 square kilometers.
• It was a long drive but ended at an elephant sanctuary, where formerly working elephants are kept and looked after. Elephants are no longer allowed to work on forestry or circuses in India, so there are many elephants that still need to be looked after. First up was an elephant ride — two of us sitting astride the giant 7,700 pound animals. They were so sweet and well trained and their mahouts (trainers) had real empathy with their animals. 
• Next they demonstrated some of the tasks that they used to perform in the forests — hauling huge logs. They were amazingly nimble at finding the balance point to pick up a log with their trunks and carrying it in their mouths.
• Then Sandy and Brenda gave one of the elephants a scrub in a large pool. They need to be wetted down regularly to stay cool. Then...

• ...Sandy got a shower, too. Finally, Lin and Brenda fed the elephant a tasty treat of pumpkin slices.
• After all this elephant excitement we went to our hotel close by. What a strange place. Obviously a lot of money had been spent, but the design was awkward and, although new, it was crumbling in places. You could only reach the cabins by climbing a rusting and unsafe staircase, taking a golf cart that struggled to get up the hill, or taking a long walk. We mostly chose the last option. In the evening we were the only guests in a vast dining room the size of an aircraft hangar, and were looked after by half a dozen over-attentive waiters.

Saturday 2 November

• A very early rise (5:20 AM) to take a long bumpy ride in a Jeep into the Periyar wildlife sanctuary. Our early rise was somewhat rewarded by the sight of a large wild bison, but we arrived at our destination reeling from the uncomfortable ride and diesel fumes.
• The destination — the lake at Gavi — was, thankfully, delightful. We were signed up for their ‘day program’ which turned out to be very enjoyable and just what we needed. The entrance was beautiful with an arbor of hanging wisteria-like red flowers, thronged with multicolored sunbirds.
• First on our program was a delicious and unexpected Kerala breakfast, with no concessions to western tastes. Idli (small flying saucer-shaped rice flour balls which are everywhere), sambar (fiery hot vegetable sauce), veg curry, chapatis and omelet.
• We then met our very knowledgeable and charming guide for the day who took us on a 3-hour hike over hills and through the forest. The highlight was spotting a family of elephants — one large male, two females and two calves of different sizes. A few minutes after we spotted them they made their way into the cool forest to escape the heat of the day. Although we did not see any tigers we spotted traces of them and learned much from our guide.

• After an excellent vegetarian lunch, we took a rowing boat ride on the lake to see the waterfall that feeds the lake, and to see the birds and monkeys that live on the banks.That turned out to be a rather wet experience as the heavens opened half way across the lake. The sun was out a few minutes later and we quickly dried off.
• Our final stop was a little museum with skeletons of local animals, before our bumpy descent of the mountain back to our hotel. We were so discouraged by our dining experience the night before, and well fed in the park that we decided to forgo dinner in favor of of cookies and chocolates we had gathered on our travels.

Sunday 3 November

• The next morning we drove out of the state of Kerala down the mountains into Tamil Nadu, where they speak a different language and write in a different script. We have now been in three different states each with a different language.

• After the mountains we drove across a flat, dry plain, dotted with ponds and rivers and large farms. We passed through several villages and small towns with many very well dressed people coming in from the country to do their shopping. There also seemed to be many weddings, with ladies dressed in even more exotic finery and their hair garlanded with jasmine.
• Our destination was Cardamom House, a lovely small retreat in the foothills overlooking a lake, with unspoiled countryside all around, and abundant with birds. 

Monday 4 November

• This is our final stop in the countryside before we visit Madurai and Chennai and head for home, so we are making the most of it, which means doing very little. The staff is kind, dedicated and attentive and the food is excellent. We have all become “pure veg” as they say here.
• A morning walk in the increasing heat took us down to the lake, past a very strange Hindu shrine, where women who are unable to have children and men who need wives come to pray. There were large herds of sheep and goats, some of which will be sacrificed to the gods then served up to the pilgrims.
• The afternoon passed listening to the songs of birds, the hooting of monkeys and swimming in the pool. We could happily stay here for a month.

Part 4            Photos