Our Asian Adventure: February 2012

Nearly 3 weeks into our trip and India continues to surprise us. From dramatic red sea cliffs to floating in a beautiful old style canoe to spotting wild elephants to wandering the holiest city in the Hindu religion, India is constantly amazing. We suppose the best way to tell our adventures is chronologically, so we’ll start where we left off, in Goa. Brace yourself, it’s going to be a LONG post as we have too much to tell you, sorry.

New asphalt being laid down,
about as long to do as to read this blog post

We left beautiful little Mandrem on the 14th, Valentines day, which is actually very big in India. Everywhere we went, people wished us happy Valentines day and our taxi driver on the 2 hour trip to the railway station gave us the wonderful gift of air conditioning (a very nice gesture but actually made us hotter than just windows down as it wasn’t very good AC). He also gave us a one hour marriage counseling session, encouraging us to “think of your baby from this day forward, yes Maggie?” and letting Todd know that “Todd, Maggie loves you 100% now, but when the baby comes it will be 50% you and 50% baby, do not be angry by this“. It was definitely a taxi ride we will never forget. We then hopped on a 17 hour overnight train to the southern tip of India into the state of Kerala, to the capital city called Thiruvananthapuram (a bit of a mouthful, Trivandrum is the name everyone uses, understandably) with the goal of working our way north along the coast.
After spending only 10 minutes in Trivandrum (10 minutes is more than enough), we took a taxi 45 minutes north and arrived in beautiful Varkala beach. Wow, we’ve never seen scenery like this. Steep red cliffs dropping straight to the sea, the beaches and waters are sacred to the Hindus and many come to pour the ashes of the their dead family members into the sacred waters. There were wonderful restaurants high on the cliffs and we spent a great day exploring this town, wishing we had more time to spend there (we were trying to spend only 2 weeks in the south of India so time was of the essence).

Maggie getting some henna done

Yes, that's an elephant on Maggie's finger,
it's for her students following on her art blog

From Varkala we headed further north by train to the town of Aleppuzha (Allepey to locals). We made the mistake of trusting the guidebook and booked travel plans to stay 3 days here, about 2 days too long. The guidebook said this was the Venice of India because the waterways go right through town. Uh, maybe if they muffled the ever present horns, cleaned up the heaps of trash, built some better restaurants, and dug about 500 more canals in town that would be a good comparison, but until then this is no Venice. Nonetheless, we did have a nice time when we chartered a large canoe style boat to take us on the “backwaters” outside of Allepey and all over this part of Kerala. Floating through peaceful villages, catching glimpses of rural village life, watching workers tend to the rice patties, seeing how Toddy is made (yes, it turns out Todd’s name is a type of homemade coconut beer made by the villagers) and taking in the calming presence of being on the water was quite nice. When we were on the bigger canals, however, it was quite a different story. The big business here is renting large, luxurious houseboats built in the traditional style to Indian and foreign tourists (amazing boats, most have air conditioning, satellite TV and some even have Jacuzzis) and the large canals are completely clogged with these boats, somewhat ruining the overall experience. We opted not to go on one of the houseboats as it was quite expensive and they’re not able to go into the smaller canals where the pace is a bit nicer, a decision we were happy about. Outside of that half day, there wasn’t much else to do or see in Allepey so we spent some time relaxing in our very tranquil hotel far from the main city located on a secluded little lake.

Luxury houseboat

Our boat for the day

Moving on from Allepey, we made a harrowing but incredibly worthwhile journey up to the Wayanad wildlife sanctuary in northern Kerala. After a train ride, a motorickshaw ride, a 5 hour bus ride up a very windy, steep mountain road in the most crowded bus we have ever seen (blows crowded buses in Central America our of the water, we were already very full and 10 people would show up trying to get on, the assistant would grab each one and push them in the back until there was room for the next, then start over, somehow everyone fit on), and a jeep ride (motorickshaws don‘t go at night because the road is known to be full of elephants that would crush their little rickshaws), we finally arrived to the Pachyderm Palace, right outside of the Tholpetty entrance to the park. This place is an animal lovers dream. We did one safari in the morning, seeing a lot of wildlife, then took a very nice walk along the road passing packs of Macaque monkeys, small villages and a great little market along the way. The real gem though, was the evening safari. On one 2 hour safari we saw Spotted deer (yes, like bambi), miniature deer, giant squirrels (the biggest in Asia), huge water buffaloes, wild boar, a peacock, a Kingfisher (beautiful bright blue bird with a yellow chest, the national beer is named after these), and the crowning jewel, two wild elephants foraging among thickets of bamboo. It’s the end of winter here so food is a bit scarce and the elephants are very thin as a result, but seeing them in the wild was an absolutely magical experience. We made some great friends here, the lodge we were staying in is popular with travelers and the fantastic meals are served family style around a single table. In fact, we met one traveler who just happened to be from Colorado, living in southeast Denver, and working as a waitress at a little bar called Gov’s park. For those who don’t know, we go to this bar quite a bit and no doubt had her as a waitress sometime in the last 6 months, unbelievable to find her in the middle of rural Kerala, India.

Working the tea planations

Enjoying the view

Yep, that's bambie's dad

Alex, from Gov's park, halfway around the world.
Anyone doubt how small the world really is?

After heading back down from Wayanad, we made our way to the airport in Kozhikode and said goodbye to southern India, opting for 6 hours of flying (spread among 4 flights) over 72 hours on a train to get to the north. We landed in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh, meeting a wonderful Australian girl who we hung with for the next few days along the way, and made our way into the most incredible, overwhelming, sacred, smelly, oddly beautiful place either of us have ever seen. Before we get too much into the details, a little background about Varanasi helps to fully understand it.

Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world at about 3200 years old, dating back to 1200 years before Christ walked the earth. The city in it’s current state is about 400 years old as the city has been ransacked by invading people numerous times (“my god is better than your god“ type stuff, a recurrent theme all over India and really all over the world, quite sad actually). You can feel the history of the place when walking the streets, it‘s amazing. Varanasi is also the holiest of the 7 holy cities for Hindus. It is believed that the waters of the sacred Ganga (Ganges river to us westerners) cleanse the spirit of sin and death in the water offers automatic liberation from the cycle of rebirth. As a result, many faithful senior citizens will move here at the end of their lives so that their body may make its way into the Ganga and they will be freed from the cycle. Combine these historical and sacred overtones with 1.2 million residents living in much too small of an area with their auto rickshaws, cars, cycle rickshaws, innumerable cows, goats, dogs, monkeys, frogs, mosquitoes, and other beings and you begin to get a feel for what Varanasi is all about.

Filming a Bollywood movie on the Ganga

We stayed in a wonderful guesthouse right in the heart of the old city along the banks of the Ganga with a beautiful view over the river. Just walking back to our hotel was an adventure, carrying our all too heavy packs on the 15 minute walk through narrow alleyways (the roads are much to narrow for anything motorized but motorcycles and bicycles), dodging cows, cow poop, and incredible crowds was trying, but we made it. We promptly made our way down to the main ghat (the word for steps leading down to the water, there are many ghats that each lead to a different holy place, bathing ghats, cloths washing ghats, burning ghats, etc.) to see the nightly puja (hindi word meaning something like offering). This was one of the most incredible sights either of us has ever seen. There was something interesting happening everywhere we looked. A nearly naked man doing black magic in different yoga poses, people begging, people selling things (our favorite was selling hand massages by holding the hand out to shake tourists hands and then starting a massage without permission and moving all the way up the arms to the shoulders, head, forehead, neck, etc., Todd got suckered in and it was quite nice for $1.50), priests performing dances with fire, people releasing hundreds of floating candles down the river, burning incense everywhere, cows wandering everywhere, and all this while people ring loud bells and bang drums everywhere. A bit overwhelming but absolutely magical.

Really, sleeping with a cow in your face?
And with incredible noise all around you?

Learned later this was black magic and
we shouldn't take pictures, oops

We woke up the next day at dawn to take a boat ride down the river, see the sun rising over the ganga, and witness the beginning of the day on the ghats. Pilgrims come to make their own puja by bathing in the ghats, doing laundry on the ghats, washing their cows (those that are owned by people), doing yoga, praying, and drinking some of the holy water (holy water filled with toxic chemicals from factories upstream, cow poop, human poop, and countless other toxins, but holy nonetheless). We witnessed the incredible practice of open cremation that happens all day every day at the burning ghats. The Hindu tradition is to dip the body in the ganga, then burn the body on different types of wood (quality of wood depending on your caste with lower castes being burned on scrap wood and the highest castes on Sandal wood) for 3 hours, and then sprinkle the ashes into the ganga for final release. One of the more disturbing aspects of this tradition is that children under 10 are not cremated at all but the whole body is tossed directly into the ganga upon death. We actually had the incredibly disturbing experience of seeing an infant float by during our boat ride, just one example of the rawness of life and death in Varanasi and something we will never forget. That is just the thing about Varanasi, the proximity of life and death, celebration and sadness. The streets are filled with contradiction. We walked down one street and saw a funeral procession with the body loosely wrapped in cloth held high over head on their way to the burning ghat and then turned onto another street to hear a loud wedding procession complete with dancing and banging drums. We walked the narrow mazes of the old city and stepped around a dead puppy and later a dead monkey, but walked other streets and saw incredible temples with vibrant, loud, devotional ceremonies. Varanasi is hard to experience and even harder to describe, but we are grateful for the experience and will never forget what we have seen.

Travel beard is coming in nice, no?

Cow dung pies anyone?

We left Varanasi after spending a great day just outside of it in the town of Sarnath. Buddha gave his first lecture there and it is one of the 4 holy cities in the world for Buddhists. There are some nice ruins, a great temple complete with paintings depicting Siddartha’s life and conversion into Buddha, and a cool museum with ancient relics. A great stop to finish our spiritual journey around Varanasi.

Part of Siddhartha's life

From the Tibetan Buddhist monastery

Why not do haircuts in the middle of the street?

We’re now in New Delhi for the night, on our way to the neighboring state of Rajasthan and the town of Udaipur. We’ll update again when we can, again, sorry for such a long post. Please click follow us on the right, it's nice to know who's following along. You stay classy America.

Cultural bits we have learned:

1) Cows are sacred, but for some practical reasons as well. Turns out that aside from milk and cheese, cows are great providers in other ways. Their dung is flammable (meaning easy fires on a cold night), the dung can also be used to reinforce concrete and grout used in construction, their urine can supposedly cure everything from baldness to a bad cold, and they can pull carts and work the fields. Kind of a miracle animal, no?

2) Patience is not a value in India. Lines mean nothing (any space in front or to the side will be promptly filled), passing someone on a busy walking street is expected to come with a small shove, and everyone drives with the same mindset (picture driving on the wrong side of the road when traffic is bad and lanes mean nothing, why can’t 4 cars fit in the space for 2?).

3) Love marriage is looked at with ga ga eyes. Most Indians we have met immediately coo over us when we tell them that, no, our marriage was not arranged but we met and fell in love. Turns out arranged marriages at age 12 or 14 are not as romantically satisfying as they seem at first.

4) There is more public affection between male friends than between men and women. Men walk the street holding hands, arms wrapped around each other, and caressing their friends’ shoulders while talking. Men and women, however, do not hold hands and rarely even come out together.

5) Women are scarce in public. The ratio of men to women in most public places is at least 10 to 1 (Maggie was the only female in one crowded bar in Kerala). Turns out the cultural expectation is for men to protect their women’s honor by attending to all public business including grocery shopping and for women to maintain the home (saving them from the shame of walking the streets, somewhat understandable given the insane condition of some of the streets, but very strange to us).

6) Alcohol is hard to come by. Hindus do not drink and with 80% of the population being Hindu, there are some interesting laws and expectations around booze. In Kerala, the government controls the few liquor stores (with constant long lines) and there are very few government sanctioned bars (we spent a great night in a 1930’s era speakeasy type bar). The tourist bars do cater to tourists though and, without the proper license, will discreetly serve beer in a coffee mug or tea pot, at a premium price.

7) Hinduism is a LOUD religion, in every sense of the word. Loud music (chimes, bells drums, flutes), loud colors, loud smells, and incredibly loud combinations of the three during devotional ceremonies.

Top things we’ve never done before this trip

1) Learned that Maggie is the Hindi word for noodles. Hence the title of the blog Noodles and Coconut beer (Maggie and Toddy).

2) Gotten an hour long marriage counseling session from a taxi driver.

3) Received the most terrifying and hilarious massages ever. The first Ayurvedic massage we got was given by a woman who had no idea what she was doing (do my shinbones really need aggressive massage? and does my hair really need loads of oil and pulling?). Thinking that was just a bad experience we went for a second time and it was much more relaxing, but they insisted on complete nudity and rubbing oil EVERYWHERE (yes even those spots).

4) Watched a goat beg for food from a man, just like a dog would.

5) Sat next to a gigantic cow during a sensory overload exhibition of devout offering to the holy Ganga.

6) Saw an ancient form of theater, somewhat like a mime with no words but loud drum banging, very intricate facial expressions, and incredibly elaborate costumes and makeup that takes hours to apply (a process we got to observe).

7) Been in an accident in a motor rickshaw. He hit the motocycle in front of us hard, doing some damage, but nothing that a whole bunch of yelling and a one dollar payoff couldn’t smooth over.

8) Had our marriage blessed at the Durga temple in Varanasi. We were told to buy a small offering but somehow ended up with the all inclusive blessing of a flower necklace, a small red cloth, a coconut, some powder, some form of sweet white balls, incense, and string. We made our offering, handing everything to the priest and he exchanged our flowers for others offered by someone else and put them around our necks, broke the coconut (placed half on the altar and gave half back to us), put the cloth on the altar, put the powder dot on our forehead, tied the henna died string around our wrists (right for Todd, left for Maggie), and lit the incense. Marriage blessed for life, check.

9) Had ketchup served with nearly every meal. People seem to think that because we are white we want ketchup on our noodle dishes and our Indian curries among others. Delicious.

10) Squeezed past a cow in a narrow alleyway with all-too-heavy packs on our backs.

11) Observed how handmade silks are made in a process that is probably a thousand years old