“God’s Own Country” is the hallmark of the tourist industry in Kerela. Here are a few interesting facts about “God’s Own Country.” They have more mosquitoes than anywhere else I have ever been, ever. Also, I’m not sure how long mosquitoes can live without food, but these ones have just about found the limit and are thirsty. The state of Kerela is among the very few places in the world that has voted communist leaders into power and peacefully alternate between the communist and capitalist leadership on a rough 4-year cycle. It’s also 95F and 100% humidity in what they refer to as, “winter.”
I was traveling with four other volunteers on this fine excursion. Roz, mid sixties, is from somewhere in England and she has been in India for a while now volunteering at an orphanage. She loves to read and has accumulated a vast wealth of knowledge over the years that she enjoys sharing with us (we enjoy it too). Jess, 18, is from Edinburgh, Scotland and volunteers at the same orphanage as Roz. She is a fun girl who’s up for anything and appreciates the adventure. Matt, 18, is from somewhere else in England and volunteers for a company called Dream a Dream as a sports coach. He has a great sense of humor and one of the most chilled out and easy going people I’ve met here. And the aforementioned Tom was the fourth and final of my travel companions.
We started off in Cochin and visited some historical sites including Jew Town! There’s a 500 year old synagogue there that had some pretty cool indigenous influences (no cameras allowed inside though). Also, cool fact about Cochin, the inventor of Drip Irrigation (the irrigation technique that was used to “make the desert bloom” in Israel), Eliahu Bezalel (http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/85591/) is an Indian Jew who immigrated to Israel in 1955.
The following night we went on a house boat in the Back Waters of Kerela. The Back Waters of Kerela were formed by siltation from the river that flows into the golf and are used for transportation and irrigation of the gigantic rice patties. The tourist industry has dubbed these Back Waters, “The Venice of the East.” I’m not sure who else calls them that, but it does have a ring to it. The house boat was massive, compared to what I was expecting at least, double-decker with a length of about 90’ and a beam of about 20’. We motored through the Back Waters until sunset when we were obligated to tie up for the night to allow the locals to drag their fishing nets across the water and had a leisurely evening. THIS is the life, and at $18 for accommodation on the boat and 3 meals, an affordable one at that.
After the river boat, Roz spent some time in the Ashram of the Hugging Mother. My other three travel companions and I hopped in the car with Francis, our trusty tour guide/driver and headed up into the mountains! The foot hills and even the sides of some of the mountains were cultivated into endless tea plantations. The villages came and went with the blink of an eye and the already precarious Indian road seems much more daunting when one particularly poorly placed pot hole could send you over the un-guarded edge. With all that, we eventually made it up to Thekkady where we rode elephants, went to a traditional dance/fighting show and hung around the town. We also went to a nature reserve where we were supposed to be able to see tigers. We didn’t see any, but we did see tons of monkeys, awesome monkeys. There were several working together to clean each other and the rest were trying to break their way into the snack shack. There was one special monkey that was able to steal Pepsi from Tom and Jess, he was a Pepsi fiend.
The following day consisted of driving out of the mountains, picking up Roz, driving back to Cochin and getting on the bus home. We arrived in Bangalore at 7am the next day with a full day of teaching ahead of us. Good times!
I was traveling with four other volunteers on this fine excursion. Roz, mid sixties, is from somewhere in England and she has been in India for a while now volunteering at an orphanage. She loves to read and has accumulated a vast wealth of knowledge over the years that she enjoys sharing with us (we enjoy it too). Jess, 18, is from Edinburgh, Scotland and volunteers at the same orphanage as Roz. She is a fun girl who’s up for anything and appreciates the adventure. Matt, 18, is from somewhere else in England and volunteers for a company called Dream a Dream as a sports coach. He has a great sense of humor and one of the most chilled out and easy going people I’ve met here. And the aforementioned Tom was the fourth and final of my travel companions.
We started off in Cochin and visited some historical sites including Jew Town! There’s a 500 year old synagogue there that had some pretty cool indigenous influences (no cameras allowed inside though). Also, cool fact about Cochin, the inventor of Drip Irrigation (the irrigation technique that was used to “make the desert bloom” in Israel), Eliahu Bezalel (http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/85591/) is an Indian Jew who immigrated to Israel in 1955.
The following night we went on a house boat in the Back Waters of Kerela. The Back Waters of Kerela were formed by siltation from the river that flows into the golf and are used for transportation and irrigation of the gigantic rice patties. The tourist industry has dubbed these Back Waters, “The Venice of the East.” I’m not sure who else calls them that, but it does have a ring to it. The house boat was massive, compared to what I was expecting at least, double-decker with a length of about 90’ and a beam of about 20’. We motored through the Back Waters until sunset when we were obligated to tie up for the night to allow the locals to drag their fishing nets across the water and had a leisurely evening. THIS is the life, and at $18 for accommodation on the boat and 3 meals, an affordable one at that.
After the river boat, Roz spent some time in the Ashram of the Hugging Mother. My other three travel companions and I hopped in the car with Francis, our trusty tour guide/driver and headed up into the mountains! The foot hills and even the sides of some of the mountains were cultivated into endless tea plantations. The villages came and went with the blink of an eye and the already precarious Indian road seems much more daunting when one particularly poorly placed pot hole could send you over the un-guarded edge. With all that, we eventually made it up to Thekkady where we rode elephants, went to a traditional dance/fighting show and hung around the town. We also went to a nature reserve where we were supposed to be able to see tigers. We didn’t see any, but we did see tons of monkeys, awesome monkeys. There were several working together to clean each other and the rest were trying to break their way into the snack shack. There was one special monkey that was able to steal Pepsi from Tom and Jess, he was a Pepsi fiend.
The following day consisted of driving out of the mountains, picking up Roz, driving back to Cochin and getting on the bus home. We arrived in Bangalore at 7am the next day with a full day of teaching ahead of us. Good times!
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