Look who is on the front page!

Our monkeys made the front page of the New York Times today! Read about them here: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/world/asia/fed-by-indians-monkeys-overwhelm-delhi.html?_r=1&hp

Claudia Heller, this post is for you

I forgot I took this. This was a sign at CMC in the hospital library below the stacks. Obviously, it made me think of you!

Moriah

All our bags are packed: part 2

We are sort of cheating with this post, because we are writing from our hotel room in America. We arrived back in the states this morning after a 16 hour flight from Mumbai. Although we were daunted by the thought of a 16 hour flight, it is amazing what a long list of on demand movies and some Unisom will do to pass the time. It was not nearly as bad as we thought it would be. Once we got to Newark we then boarded a plane for Atlanta where we will meet up with Dave's family tomorrow to celebrate Ariel's graduation.

Though the flight from Mumbai was not bad, the wait in Mumbai was. I duked it out with a security guard who wanted a bribe to let us into our terminal. Hopefully that was both the first and the last time I yell at someone who is holding an assault rifle. There were also extra layers of security, which though we usually appreciate, got quite frustrating. There was more yelling and then chugging of a water bottle before we got onto the plane. I am not normally not like that, I swear.

We have more to tell you about our trip-- stories in retrospect-- but we are working on 4 hours of sleep and a 9.5 hour time difference and are not quite up to the task of writing at the moment. We will post more soon, once we rest and can stay awake for longer than 5 minutes at a time!

Ponda Spice Plantation

We arrived in Goa, a tropical paradise on India's west coast on Friday afternoon to stay at a beautiful resort in a town called Fort Aguada, named after a fort that the portuguese built in the 1600s to defend at different times against the British, French, and Marathas. We have yet to post because until today, we've done little besides sit next to the beach/pool/pool-side bar/pool-in bar: In most of our previous posts we'd endeavored to display unique and interesting aspects of Indian culture as well as detailing our adventures with a few monkeys (or maybe a lot of monkeys) and rabid dog bites tossed in. We were pretty sure that nobody was interested in reading the exploits of a young couple enjoying drinks at a bar located within a pool.

So today we went to a spice plantation where we got to see many of the plants that produce some of the spices we have been enjoying for the last five weeks. Before we started our tour however, we jumped at the opportunity for an elephant ride and shower (culture to follow,I promise). We gave Genga a bath in a stream, scrubbing her with coconut rinds and rinsing her in the muddy water. She then returned the favor by trumpeting water over us. It was very fun. We also got a short ride from the male Bapu. But on to the educational portion of the tour.

I expected orderly rows of plants, but happily the plantation resembled more of a jungle, with densely packed trees and flowers that bore very little resemblance to a farm. Initially I thought that the "jungle" was just there for the ambience, and that we would be taken to the plantation, and was a bit shocked that scattered throughout the jungle were the various spices and fruits, even some large termite mounds sprinkled in. We saw cardamom, the third most expensive spice in the world, as well as coco, the second (they didn't have saffron). They grew lemongrass, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, allspice, curry, and many others in this dense area. The guide took us to a peri peri pepper plant, one of the hottest peppers in India, and with a devilish look in her eye asked if anyone in the group would like to taste the peppers. She must have been laughing very loud in her head as this silly white boy agreed to try them. They were pretty damn hot. I'm glad I remembered not to touch my eyes.

If you gave me ten tries to pick out the plant/flower/fruit that cashews come from, I would have failed miserably. But they are very beautiful, and contain a juice inside that smells very good. They ferment it to make feni, a liquor that does not taste even close to as good as the juice smells, but maybe it is an acquired taste.

We had lunch at the plantation, which of course was very well seasoned, and then headed back to the hotel, eager to see if our seats at the pool-in bar were still taken, and relish our last full day in India.

Fort Cochin

To the west of Tamil Nadu, where Moriah and I worked at CMC for 4 weeks, lies Kerala, a thin patch of land bordering the Arabian sea. We stayed at Fort Cochin, a small town with an impressively deep history. It is home to the oldest European church in India, dating to the 17th century, but there is evidence of Christian influence here dating back to at least the 5th century, possibly even older.

Fort Cochin is also home to Jew town (their words not ours) and a synagogue that also dates to the 17th century. The museum near the synagogue claims that Jews came to Cochin after the diaspora, with more coming following the destruction of the second temple. Until quite recently there was a Jewish community in Cochin, but their numbers slowly dwindled through intermarriage, until finally the last remaining family moved to Israel.

We stayed at a home-stay called the Jasmine Villa, run by a very nice couple, Stanley and Jasmine, who also own a travel agency in the area. Dinner and breakfast were included, and man did they stuff us silly. In fact, after bringing dinner onto our plane to cochin and then also being served dinner on the plane, we arrived at jasmine villa at 10:30 at night to a full dinner spread. When we tried to explain that we had already eaten dinner, in fact two dinners, they looked crushed. So we said "well maybe we will taste everything" which perked them up and led them to serve us a full third meal. We have never been so full in our lives... Except for breakfast the next morning, that is. Jasmine specializes in south indian cuisine, and her sambhar was by far the best we have had. She also teaches a cooking class, but wasn't able to hold one while we were there due to a conflicting schedule. Its a shame, we would have loved to learn her secrets! The first day we toured Fort Cochin, going to the church as well as Jew town. We had our first mango in India (they hadn't been ripe yet).

One of the highlights were the cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, impressive 50 foot tall structures. These nets date back to a visit in 1400 by Kubla Kahn, but as it has become less and less profitable, Fort Cochin is one of the last places these nets can be found. As we walked up and down the pier looking at these structures in action, the fishermen kept motioning for us to join them. They were happy to let me join in the fun, and I stayed and fished with them for a few hours. This is a very low time in the year, as they would average only about one smallish fish for every pull, and they would do it all day every five minutes or so. Very hard work and very few fish. We caught manly sardines, shrimp and small mullet, a bony fish with a flat head and brilliant white underbelly. Catching one large mullet drastically improved the spirits of the men, and they broke out beedi, small hand wrapped cigarettes, to celebrate. Around five they closed up, and Moriah and I walked down to the fish market to see what the other nets had yielded. Here there were also fish from the boats that had recently returned. We saw a number of fish I was familiar with from Hawaii, including Mahi Mahi, Ono, and small tuna. They also had some enourmous grouper, and the largest tiger prawns I had ever seen. There was also a small grey tipped reef shark. The fish monger was pretty sure that no one would buy this type of shark, and sadly it would probably just go to waste.

Dave and Moriah

River cruise on the Kerala backwaters

Kerala is perhaps best known for its vast, 900 km network of backwaters. In many areas, these are so much easier to use than the roads that people rarely if ever use to travel between villages. On our second day in Fort Cochin we left our home-stay and took a cruise on a houseboat through these backwaters.

We boarded the houseboat in a town called Alleppey, just south of Fort Cochin. We booked a one room houseboat, which had a crew of two pilot/captains and a chef (who introduced himself as Chef, which amused us to no end).

This will end up being the most expensive thing we did in India, but it was well worth the price. We traveled through the canals lined with palm and mango trees, bordering rice paddies and fields of lilies. In a country where the cities are dominated by aggressive honking, barking and bleating of dogs and goats on top of normal city noise, this was one of the first times in India where we expienced true quiet.

The chef was a master. The local grilled and curried blackfish was spiced perfectly, as was a savory combination of coconut and cabbage that I know might sound odd, but really hit the spot.

After lunch we spent the afternoon lounging on the pillow at the bow, enjoying the greenery and the beautiful birds. The crew pointed out eagles with white heads, and they did look an awful lot like bald eagles. We saw a number of famed kingfisher, a lovely blue bird with a red and yellow neck for whom an airline, water, and beer company is named. The boat docked at a banana field at 5 to open the river way up to the fishermen, and Moriah and I explored the area for a bit. We were "charged" at by a baby buffalo, who was desperately looking to get his head scratched. I left Moriah to play with the buffalo a bit and went a little deeper into the banana field, where I saw a 6 foot snake slither quickly into the deeper brush. Obviously I didn't have my camera with me, otherwise I probably wouldnt have seen the snake in the first place. This was "proven" when I returned to the banana fields with my camera, and searched for another hour to no avail.

As for the type of snake it was, of course I hope it was a cobra, so I could say I saw a cobra in the wild. I did, however, want some input from an expert on this, so I asked one of our guides what kind of snakes live in the fields. He simply answered "cobra." So there it is, indisputable evidence that I saw a cobra.

Moriah and I slept very peacefully on the quiet river that night, but had a very interesting conversation over breakfast. During the peak season, there are thousands of boats, each completely unarmed, full of tourists that probably have money and passports. Sounds like the perfect place to start a piracy group, just a small ship disguised as a houseboat with some of our friends, armed to the teeth of course. Plus you'd get to live in Kerala! Who's in?

Dave

Whirlwind tour of Delhi

Today we took an expedited trip of New and Old Delhi. Unfortunately many of the monuments or sights are closed on Mondays, but by hiring a car for the day we were able to cover a lot of ground. We started at the Baha'i House of Worship, better known by its nickname the Lotus Temple. Unfortunately even the grounds were closed so we could not get very close to take better pictures.

We saw a number of buildings which like the Taj Mahal were commissioned by Shahjahan, including Jama Masjid, largest mosque in the world, and the Red Fort, which was the seat of Mughal power until the British defeated their empire in 1857. We walked through the bazaars of Old Delhi bearing the continuous assault of touts and beggars.

Though we have seen many Hindu temples, we visited our first Sikh temple, where we both had to cover our head. On the way out of the temple we were given a sweet, warm mash handed out by a large man with his bare hands. We both felt too polite to turn it down, and it tasted pretty good.

Next up was the India Gate, a massive red sandstone arch built to commemorate the Indian and British soldiers who died in WWI, later expanded to include those who died in other conflicts as well.

 Just before heading to the airport we stopped at Rajpath, a two mile long avenue used for parades, and an area bearing many similarities to our national mall. At the end sits Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India.

We ended our whirlwind tour of Delhi with an extra hour in the airport to sip actual American black coffee before boarding our flight to Kochin.