Cheryl's Visit to India

I haven't done an entry in a couple of months and I'm becoming backlogged with news.
In September the much anticipated visit finally happened.  My girlfriend, Cheryl, came to visit me in India for a couple of weeks and her only serious request was to visit Kerala.  Her aunt had lived there for one year 40 years ago as a pioneer member of the Peace Corp.  She had heard stories from her aunt her whole life and was interested to see if Kerala was such a magical place for herself.  I planned the visit for Kerala right in the middle of her two week stay so I filled our other days with numerous India experiences, anxious to give her a taste of my life for the last five months.


There is not a lot of touristy-type of destinations in Bangalore, but just taking in the day to day street life keeps the typical visitor in sensory overload for a few days. The traffic, horns blaring, road construction, cows in the middle of the street, the hodge podge of businesses and street vendors, colorful sarees, and brightly painted temples. It's hard to take it all in and one feels exhausted at the end of the day.

typical four seater motorcyle

city cow eating from a trash heap

Colorful temple in Bangalore

We did spend a day seeing temples and stopped at the Bangalore Palace which is a "no-go". If anyone is reading this with the intention of taking notes for a future trip to Bangalore I will tell you, don't waste your time here. The camera fee is 600 rupees (over $10) alone.  It is typical everywhere you go for the foreigners' tickets to cost you about 500% more than the nationals' tickets, not worth it here.  I was told that there is nothing to see inside except for some gaudy paintings of dead animals and hunting scenes. So we skipped the tour.

Judging by the way the security officer was blowing his whistle at us we apparently weren't allowed to walk around the grounds without a ticket or even take a picture. The security dudes around here are not very intimidating since they look like they are about 15 years old and they are usually bored and occsionally fall asleep. Just for kicks as we were pulling out of the parking lot I cracked my window and I took this picture. He went crazy on the whistle. We gave the security dude the most excitment he'd had all day.

Bangalore Palace and bored security in blue shirt

We visited a handful of my favorite restaraunts in Bangalore such as Tandoor on MG Road, Barbeque Nation, Leela Palace (great ambiance), Tuscano, The Fat Chef, The Great Kebab Factory at Mantri Mall, and for a night cap we did an evening at the outdoor bar at Taj Vivante.

Cheryl and I had a huge lunch at Tandoor

Enjoyed our time at Barbecue Nation where the food is grilled right on your table.

We spent all day in the car one day, driving to Dubare to see the elephant camp.  This was going to be an exciting day of seeing elephants up close, maybe even bathing them in the Kaveri River, just like the tour book said.  So we left early to try to beat traffic, which was pointless, unless you're on the road by 6 a.m.  After a five hour car ride we drove the last 15 minutes through windy, pit filled roads, came to the dead end at the river nearly nauseous, only to find out that they were not showing the elephants that day.   However, they would be giving five minute boat rides for 20 rupees each (under $.50).  We decided the kids needed SOMETHING to believe in after all that driving. 

We moved on to Mysore to see the Mysore Palace because I knew we'd get an elephant ride there.  Since I had been there before I knew where to go and I walked Cheryl and the kids all the way around the back of the palace and found a camel and elephant ride for about 400 rupees ($10). 

We finally got an elephant ride at the Mysore Palace

I had to show her the palace since we were this close to Mysore, but we didn't bother doing the tour.  After the elephant ride we made tracks back to Bangalore.  Whew, that was a long day!

KERALA

Our trip to Kerala was the highlight of her visit.  Kerala is a state on the South-West side of  India tucked between the state of Karnataka and the Arabian Sea. There's plenty of excursion choices from plantation tours with cool temperatures and rolling hill stations of tea and spices, or lazy backwater tours in a rice boat on the inside rim of Kerala, or beaches. There is too much to see in just four days so we narrowed it down to a backwater adventure and went the easy route,  we lazed around a resort for four days and watched the boats quietly float by.

View from the room, rice barge house boat floating by at sunset

Traditional Kerala house boat

We stayed at the Zuri hotel on Lake Kumarakom which was a great choice.  The resort was only one and a half hour drive from the Cochin International airport.  I had prebooked the hotel shuttle which included a box lunch, a necessity with kids. When we arrived it was like we had entered a new country.  It was such a nice respite from Bangalore's noise, pollution, and speed bumps.

Swimming Pool at the Zuri Spa

The best part is that the resort was all-inclusive and we had two separate rooms.  Steve and the kids got the presidential villa complete with their own private infinity swimming pool overlooking Lake Kumarakom, while Cheryl and I got our own cottage villa with views overlooking the lagoon.  I had to try the Kerala style spa treatment where they pour a liter of oil on your forehead.  The pool, food, entertainment, and personal attention we got made our stay very memorable.  The resort has a lovely paved path that meanders around the lagoon and leads you over a covered bridge where you get great views of the lake and resort.

covered bridge looking over the lagoon

Each morning at 7 I did yoga in a small pavilion called the "body temple",  which was placed on a tiny island in the lagoon.  The sun sparkling off the lagoon where purple water hyacinths grew in patches, early morning birds singing, and the distant sounds of the rooster crowing carried my mind into pure relaxation.  I was taught about many different styles of breathing.  Cheryl and I tried to contain our laughter as we participated in breathing exercises that reminded me of the lamaze classes I had taken ten years ago.

Through the resort we booked a traditional house boat tour of the backwaters which took us to a lovely little plantation called Philipkutty's Farm.  I think Cheryl would agree that this was the highlight of our Kerala trip.  Immediately upon our arrival we were escorted to an outdoor pavilion and seated at a beautiful, large round table with the biggest lazy-suzanne I had ever seen.  We ate lunch family-style, served by the owner herself where dish after dish of traditional Kerala food was spread before our eyes. This is the place where I discovered that you can eat banana leaf flower. The outer layers of the flower are peeled away and the inner flower part is chopped and put into vegetable cutlets. I'll put the recipe in another blog.

banana flower

 The food was rich and delicious, all cooked in coconut oil, which became a joke between me and Cheryl.  Cheryl said that coconut oil to India is what window cleaner is to Greece (from My Big Fat Greek Wedding).  They tell you to put coconut oil on everything from hair, to bug bites, rashes, sunburns, you name it. 

One memorable night at dinner we were waiting out a monsoon rain and sat through a couple of black outs. When the rain didn't seem to be letting up we decided to brave it back to the room.  The hotel offered us a couple of umbrellas and as we were about to head out into the downpour we heard the thumping of dance music coming out of a conference room where the sign announced an HR Strategy Conference was happening.  This didn't sound like any HR meeting I had ever been to.  The staff explained that they were doing a rain dance and offered to let us take a peek.  A rain dance seemed like the last thing we needed.  We entered an empty room filled with tables of food and smoke, the party was happening outside in the rain!  Middle-aged men and a couple of brave women were dancing their hearts out Bollywood style in the pouring down rain.  Laser lights of different colors bounced off the rain as the music was pumping.  I've never seen grown-ups have so much fun.  As we turned to head back something made us stop in our tracks...we couldn't believe it.  John Denver's song "Country Road" had been remade into a modern dance song.  The people were singing at the top of their lungs "West Virginia, Mountain Mama, Take Me Home, Country Road"  Did they even know what they were singing?

Addien, Cheryl, and Keely in Kerala

Kerala is called God's Own Country for a reason when compared to the rest of India you can understand why.  It was hard to leave to head back to Bangalore.  I had Kerala on my mind for many days afterwards.  But it was even harder to say good-bye to Cheryl and I really started to miss my friends and family back home.  To me, North Carolina is God's Own Country....In My Mind I'm Going to Carolina.