We just sat down at a restaurant perched high above ground at the edge
of a coffee plantation. Coffee was severely lacking in North India, so
we were excited to sit and have real coffee (not instant) and relax.
Charles wanted to paint the street view below and I decided to get in
some blogging.
Yesterday was a long travel day. We had a 6:00 am flight from Delhi to Kochi, which meant we had to get up at 3:30 am. We woke up and packed up our backpacks like zombies. We stumbled into the dark lobby to find that no one was waiting for us. We were supposed to meet our driver at 4:00 am in the lobby. The front desk worker, who was sleeping on the sofa in the lobby woke up when we intruded on his quiet and quickly stood up and turned on the lights and returned to his place behind the desk. I asked him to call Vikram, the driver to see if he was on his way. Apparently there was some confusion - we were told 4:00, but he was told 4:30. Oh well. We made it to the airport and through check in and security, we were pleasantly surprised by how smooth it went. The flight was easy as well, maybe our smoothest flight yet actually.
I cannot say I was sad to leave North India behind, I enjoyed the people and the culture and the food, but was ready to be done with the filth and the dust and the honking and the crowds. I had read that South India was very different, slower paced and more rural - full of tea and spice plantations. As we began the descent into Kochi I raised the shade on the window and looked down. I knew immediately when I saw lush green hillsides and palm trees spreading in every direction, that I would like South India better than the North.
As the plane touched and began to cross the Tarmac to the jetway about 30 people took off their seat-belts and began opening the overhead compartments to retrieve their bags. We were still moving, pretty quickly actually. A few seconds later a flight attendants voice came over the speaker asking everyone to sit back down, only a few listened. Oh, India! We fought our way into the aisle to get off the plane and onto the bus that takes you to the airport terminal. Once inside we waited for our bags to appear. Charles' came first and he noticed that his luggage lock had been broken, but nothing seemed to be missing so we were grateful it was only a broken lock. My bag came still intact. We went to find our ride. We saw several men with white pieces of paper folded in half, we knew from our arrival in Delhi that these were the signs they held up to find their passengers, except they only hold them up for a few seconds. They also wait both inside and outside thei airport and as we learned in Delhi, if you leave the airport you cannot re-enter unless you buy an entry ticket. So, we waited inside and tried to catch glimpses of the names written on the pieces of paper in the few seconds they were held up. Charles spotted our driver outside with a quick flash of paper that said Watson. We were on our way.
Our itinerary (more about this to come - we decided to use a travel company in India and I am SO happy we did) had us traveling to a tiger preserve about 165km (100 miles) from Kochi, so we got in the car with that as our destination. The scenery was beautiful. The towns that we drove through were much more orderly and much cleaner than what we saw in North India. We drove up into the mountains past small homes set among rubber trees. Winding through narrow roads and rising slowly in elevation. Our driver stopped every once and a while to ask for directions or to inquire whether a road was closed. We were getting hungry. We thought about just waiting until we got to the hotel, but we really weren't sure what time that woulds be. So, we asked our driver to stop at a restaurant. About 10-15 minutes later we stopped at a restaurant with a sign that read Family Style. We walked in, very unsure, and were pointed towards a table. The men sitting at the next table were shirtless and wore only a sarong around their waist. We asked for a menu and were told they only had Thali, so we ordered one. It arrived on a stainless steel tray with several bowls of different curries, yogurt, and rice pudding. Then a man came over and shoveled rice from a bowl into the middle of our tray. We glanced up at him and asked for forks, he nodded and walked away. A few seconds later he came back with two spoons. We received stares from everyone in the restaurant, they were all eating with their hand. The food was good, very spicy, and very authentic. After eating we paid our bill and got back in the car, hoping we were almost there. The road twisted and turned and continued to rise up into the mountainsides with tea plantations in every direction. I kept thinking we were getting close, then another hour would pass. The drive took 6 hours, plus a 30 minute stop for lunch, for a total of 6.5 hours. It took us 6.5 hours to get 100 miles! We finally arrived at about 4:30 p.m., exhausted.
After relaxing in the hotel for an hour we went to a martial arts show. The martial art is called Kalaripayattu. The performance was entertaining. It was a mix of yoga type poses, staged fighting with various weapons, flips and cartwheels, fire batons and hoops. I wonder how authentic it was, I'll have to do some googling.
Today we went to a spice plantation, which was really cool. This afternoon we are going on a boat safari and are hoping to see a tiger, although with all of the over development here, we don't think it's very likely. Ok, time to head out into nature...
Yesterday was a long travel day. We had a 6:00 am flight from Delhi to Kochi, which meant we had to get up at 3:30 am. We woke up and packed up our backpacks like zombies. We stumbled into the dark lobby to find that no one was waiting for us. We were supposed to meet our driver at 4:00 am in the lobby. The front desk worker, who was sleeping on the sofa in the lobby woke up when we intruded on his quiet and quickly stood up and turned on the lights and returned to his place behind the desk. I asked him to call Vikram, the driver to see if he was on his way. Apparently there was some confusion - we were told 4:00, but he was told 4:30. Oh well. We made it to the airport and through check in and security, we were pleasantly surprised by how smooth it went. The flight was easy as well, maybe our smoothest flight yet actually.
I cannot say I was sad to leave North India behind, I enjoyed the people and the culture and the food, but was ready to be done with the filth and the dust and the honking and the crowds. I had read that South India was very different, slower paced and more rural - full of tea and spice plantations. As we began the descent into Kochi I raised the shade on the window and looked down. I knew immediately when I saw lush green hillsides and palm trees spreading in every direction, that I would like South India better than the North.
As the plane touched and began to cross the Tarmac to the jetway about 30 people took off their seat-belts and began opening the overhead compartments to retrieve their bags. We were still moving, pretty quickly actually. A few seconds later a flight attendants voice came over the speaker asking everyone to sit back down, only a few listened. Oh, India! We fought our way into the aisle to get off the plane and onto the bus that takes you to the airport terminal. Once inside we waited for our bags to appear. Charles' came first and he noticed that his luggage lock had been broken, but nothing seemed to be missing so we were grateful it was only a broken lock. My bag came still intact. We went to find our ride. We saw several men with white pieces of paper folded in half, we knew from our arrival in Delhi that these were the signs they held up to find their passengers, except they only hold them up for a few seconds. They also wait both inside and outside thei airport and as we learned in Delhi, if you leave the airport you cannot re-enter unless you buy an entry ticket. So, we waited inside and tried to catch glimpses of the names written on the pieces of paper in the few seconds they were held up. Charles spotted our driver outside with a quick flash of paper that said Watson. We were on our way.
Our itinerary (more about this to come - we decided to use a travel company in India and I am SO happy we did) had us traveling to a tiger preserve about 165km (100 miles) from Kochi, so we got in the car with that as our destination. The scenery was beautiful. The towns that we drove through were much more orderly and much cleaner than what we saw in North India. We drove up into the mountains past small homes set among rubber trees. Winding through narrow roads and rising slowly in elevation. Our driver stopped every once and a while to ask for directions or to inquire whether a road was closed. We were getting hungry. We thought about just waiting until we got to the hotel, but we really weren't sure what time that woulds be. So, we asked our driver to stop at a restaurant. About 10-15 minutes later we stopped at a restaurant with a sign that read Family Style. We walked in, very unsure, and were pointed towards a table. The men sitting at the next table were shirtless and wore only a sarong around their waist. We asked for a menu and were told they only had Thali, so we ordered one. It arrived on a stainless steel tray with several bowls of different curries, yogurt, and rice pudding. Then a man came over and shoveled rice from a bowl into the middle of our tray. We glanced up at him and asked for forks, he nodded and walked away. A few seconds later he came back with two spoons. We received stares from everyone in the restaurant, they were all eating with their hand. The food was good, very spicy, and very authentic. After eating we paid our bill and got back in the car, hoping we were almost there. The road twisted and turned and continued to rise up into the mountainsides with tea plantations in every direction. I kept thinking we were getting close, then another hour would pass. The drive took 6 hours, plus a 30 minute stop for lunch, for a total of 6.5 hours. It took us 6.5 hours to get 100 miles! We finally arrived at about 4:30 p.m., exhausted.
After relaxing in the hotel for an hour we went to a martial arts show. The martial art is called Kalaripayattu. The performance was entertaining. It was a mix of yoga type poses, staged fighting with various weapons, flips and cartwheels, fire batons and hoops. I wonder how authentic it was, I'll have to do some googling.
Today we went to a spice plantation, which was really cool. This afternoon we are going on a boat safari and are hoping to see a tiger, although with all of the over development here, we don't think it's very likely. Ok, time to head out into nature...
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