Varkala and our houseboat in the Alleppay Backwaters
Hello again everyone. I've been scolded for not being better at blogging so I'm hoping to redeam myself. We are still finding India a wonderful and fascinating place. I think we may have gotten spoiled by starting our travels in southern India. I can only hope the rest of India is as great. We have been pleasantly surprised with this country. The people we've met have been so gracious, kind and helpful. They have a friendly curiosity towards us and want to lend a hand whenever possible. The Indians are funny in that the very first question they ask you is "Where are you from?" followed by "What do you do for a living?" For some reason, these two questions seem to be incredibly important and you just have to get used to them.
It's strange for women in their 30's to be single so Lori and I say we have boyfriends at home just to make them feel better. Of course the next question we get is, "What do your boyfriends do for a living." Lori and I have taken it upon ourselves to be as creative as possible. Our boyfriend's jobs change day to day and this afternoon Lori was dating a movie producer while I was dating a tree trimmer.
The Indian women are always impeccably dressed in beautiful, colorful saris. Even the little girls are dressed to kill and it's sad when a 7 year old is not only better dressed than you but also wears more make-up and jewelry.
After we left Varkala, we took a very crowded public bus to a place called Alleppay. From there we charted a houseboat for two days along the region's backwaters. The backwaters are an intricate network of canals and waterways where thousands of Indians live and work. The region is beautiful, peaceful and tropical and I'm sure it will end up a highlight on our trip. It's so quiet and all you hear at night are crickets, frogs and birds. We had a wonderful chef and I don't think I've been disappointed with one meal here yet. We hit the liquor store before our trip since it's hard to find beer in this region. Very few restaurants have a license to sell beer and many will sell it illegally, serving you beer in a coffee pitcher.
Lori and I went to the state-run liquor store, which was a wood shack on the street with 15 rows of men lined up to purchase booze. We were the only women in line and were quickly invited to the front by the clerk and allowed to purchase a few beers. We settled on "Knock-Out Beer" because the label said it was "brewed for the real strong man who don't settle for anything less."
After our houseboat ride, we took another bus to Cochin. We left a few hours late because our houseboat broke down and we had to be towed to shore. I couldn't imagine a better place to have been stranded for a few hours!
We are now in Cochin and it is the cutest town we've seen yet. It is a very old trading port. It has Portuguese, Dutch, and English influence and you can get lost in the narrow streets staring at 400 year old houses and churches. We are staying in a predominantly Catholic area and we could not have planned it better for Easter! Last night there was a huge procession around town of a wooden Jesus who eventually ended up in the Basilica. Everyone donned their fanciest white saris and lengis and came to pay homage. The church was open and packed until midnight. Tonight Lori and I are attending mass at 11pm and it ends at midnight, Easter morning. It's quite an event and we're pulling out our finest, wrinkled clothing from the bottom of our packs to be part of the festivities.
Tomorrow we catch a 9am train to Bangalore. The 'tourist' seats were sold out so we'll be sitting in a local coach with 9 million other Indians for 12 hours to Bangalore. It should be very, very interesting. Once in Bangalore, it's off to the Ashram for 5 days so I should have some interesting stories when I'm done. The Ashram has a strict policy of waking up at 6am and no Knock-Out beer allowed.
Thanks for all your nice e-mails. It's always great to hear from you all. Love K
