Day 13 Fri. Nov. 30

"The City that Never Sleeps"

After a delicious breakfast, especially the porridge, at the Gateway Hotel in Madurai, located on the hill overlooking the city of 6 million people, we departed for the most famous temple in town called, “Meenakshi, which is dedicated to Lord Shiva.  The temple is one of the 10 wonders of the modern world and had its beginnings in 500 AD.  It covers 52 acres right in the middle of the city.  It is like a city within a city with 14 magnificient Gopurams or towers elaborately sculptured out of brick, mortar and painted in beautiful colours, and decorated with 1000s of celestial and animal figures.  The city passed a law to restore the towers every 14 years.  An aerial view of the temple reveals the shape of a lotus which is India’s national flower.  It was originally built to celebrate the marriage of 2 gods, Shiva and goddess Meenakshi,  a very independent goddess with 3 breasts.   Even though her parents tried to arrange a marriage for her, she resisted until she met Shiva.  She knew Shiva was the right partner for her because her 3rd breast disappeared instantly.  

We entered the East Gate and soon discovered the numerous art displays everywhere.  There is a famous ritual re-enacted every evening where Meenakshi, when ready for her husband, would invite Lord Shiva to the marriage bed.  The priests would carry Shiva from his temple to Meenakshi’s temple.  The crowds and crowds of thousands of people follow this procession, trying to get a glimpse of Shiva.  There is a lot of pushing and shoving.  Then, Shiva, after being with Meenakshi, is carried back to his temple where he is washed and powdered, decorated and fed for the day ahead.  

Our tour guide eventually got our group to the centre of the complex, where there was a golden flag pole which waves above the city whenever there is a festival taking place.  (which is almost always).  Another very impressive area of the temple city was the very large green bathing pool surrounded by many steps and 4 of the tall multi-coloured temple towers.  There were many people worshipping at every turn and lots of newly married couples adorned in jasmin flowers photoed by lots of family and friends.  One young student wanted his picture taken with Robert for his resume.

           We did walk around the busy temple city and checked out the shops while Kathy and Milla rode around the perimeter in a golf cart.  It was like a circus performance dominated by hundreds of hawkers selling everything imaginable.  Our guide arranged for all of us to ride in our own rickshaw for about an hour and parade up and down the busy streets.  For a short time, we all felt like royalty.

Our last stop was at the large yellow and white palace where the local people could come and present their requests and complaints to those in charge i.e. Maharaja or city politicians.  Today, this large forum is used for celebrations.

 light my fire

 2 Canadian tourists in a golf cart

 our hotel filled with ghosts

 a peacock and a peahen

 Kathy's rickshaw driver was the oldest

  Milla in her rickshaw

 student getting his resume photo

  young couple just before their marriage

 rob with Milla, Sue, and Kathy always behind him

  Sue and Milla just before their bath.

  public pool for bathing prior to temple visits

 one of 14 temple towers 9 storeys high

   a marriage in the Temple

We returned to our hotel to relax around the pool and watch the peacocks.  Our Gateway Raj home hotel, built in 1890, has the atmosphere of colonial British days gone by.  Kathy could feel the presence of ghosts everywhere.  Before we left the poolside for dinner, we chatted with the man in charge of the fitness and pool area.  He told us that the forests around the estate were filled with snakes such as cobras and vipers and lots of of mongoose.  He told us that he even had a pet mongoose and parrot at home.

Day 12 Thurs. Nov. 29

        We spent the night in the Spice Village Resort in Thekkady on the eastern side of the Western Ghats.  The resort is a 15 acre jungle property with a scattering of cabins, restaurants, spas, and other various health treatment locations.  The outdoor pool is oxygenated water using copper in the filter system to reduce natural chlorine.  It felt like swimming in silken purified water.  We had delicious meals, especially on the side of the hill at the outdoor restaurant, where they served garlic chicken soup, beet soup, cucumber ginger health drinks and sandwiches to die for.

Our first adventure of the day was the elephant training camp, located 1 mile out of town in the jungle.  This jungle reserve is 900 square kilometers with about 1500 wild Indian elephants and approximately 60 Indian tigers roaming free.  They allowed us to ride an elephant along a jungle path for about 45 min.   Each elephant had a personal trainer called a Mahoud.  These very qualified elephant trainers, work with the wild elephants for about 5 years, teaching them commands using a language called mayalam.  The elephants only respond to these Mahouds who speak this language.  They were very well behaved!   Sitting high on the elephants back, we passed by many poisonous wild spiders, who had nasty bites.   Elelphants live about as long a people, as long as they only eat organic fruits and veggies, exercised every day, and stayed away from stress.  Maybe we could learn from them.  Hmmmm ...  The forest was filled with Jack fruits, the largest fruit on Earth, all kinds of other fruits and veggies and coffee and tea also.   As a matter of fact, our guide took us to a world famous garden across the road from the elephant park, where we saw many many different kinds of spices growing.

This garden was called, “Abraham's Spice Garden”.  We saw all the trees and plants for many spices that we use at home.  Since we are high in the mountains, the land and climate is perfect at 800 meters above sea level, for spice growing.  Note:  This highway,  is thousands of years old and is known as the Spice Road to China.  It goes from Kochin on the western side of southern India, to Madurai on the eastern side of southern India. 

Here are a few things we learned about spices ... 

1. The Maharaja (King) of all spices is PEPPER.  The longer it grows, it changes colour and becomes more healthy for you.
2. The Maharani (Queen) of all spices is Cardamon.  It is very sweet tasting and is using along with other spices in many recipes.
3. Turmeric is an anti-bacterial spice which is great in most dishes.
4. Nutmeg is great for calming the stomach.
5. Allspice is a tree which includes 5 spices in one - cloves, cinnamon, cardamon, pepper, ginger.  Allspice will smells like “Christmas”.  Maybe it’s the cloves in it.
6. Vanilla beans can be purchased in Canada.  Take a couple of squashed beans and soak them in a cup of Vodka for a week or so.  This will produce pure vanilla for your cooking.  As it gets weaker, just add more beans.

         While were enjoying our adventure, Kathy stayed behind to have a massage at the spa. As she had a cold, she decided to go for the whole shebang after consulting with the doctor who meets with each client prior to the massage. It began with her removing all of her clothes while the two female masseuses watched and examined her body. 

She was first given a head massage, then covered in oil, and the two women massaged her in a rhythmic pattern that always began at the finger tips and went to the toes.  The same process was repeated on the frontal massage.  The next step was to be led to the steam bath, which was a wooden box that one sat in while the door is locked and a wooden yoke placed around the neck.  As Kathy is extremely claustrophobic, the wooden yoke was not used and although the door was supposedly not locked each time Kathy tried the door with her foot, the door was locked.  After about three freakouts from Kathy, the attendant understood.  She was then led to a shower and instead of being left to wash, the attendant scrubbed, rinsed, and dried her from head to foot.  Kathy felt as though she was the Maharani.  But it wasn’t over yet -- the piece de resistance was when Kathy was sat in a luxurious chair - after dressing - a powdered medicine was patted on her head, a medicinal balm applied to her forehead and a shot of spiced coffee offered.  It consisted of dry ginger, black pepper( lots!), coriander, cumin, coffee powder and jaggery.  Upon finishing the delicious drink, Kathy floated out of the Spice Village spa a new woman.

 Sue doesn't want to leave Spice Village.

  Rob relaxes just before our bus departs from Spice Village.

        We traveled for about 3 hours this afternoon to Madurai, stopping along the way for breaks, and finally arrived at the Gateway Hotel Masumali in Madurai around 5 p.m.

 Rob, Milla, Sue on a female Indian elephant.  Girls have no tusks.

Our elephant was so excited, she pooped.

 Elephant whisperer, Milla!

  on the road to Madurai

  wild Indian spider in elephant jungle

 Kathy after her spa treatment

  Maharaja Rob (pepper spice)

  

  Jack fruit is the largest in the world!

Day 11 Wed. Nov. 28

Today was an early departure so Susan and Robert were swimming laps in the hotel pool by 6 a.m.  The water was warm and the birds serenaded us from the large rain trees hovering over the pool.  After breakfast, we headed south from Kochin.  We are still in the province of Kerala.  We had a 2 hour bus ride to Alleppey along the coast where we were to board a passenger ferry cruise and tour the backwaters.  This area is at sea level and the rainy season which happens from June to the end of November causes major flooding so the people capitalize on this natural phenomenon by growing rice.

Lakuma, our tour guide, decided to teach us all about the Indian cast system.  To simplify her information, I will share some basic facts.

1. There are five casts ... a) Brahmins (religous leaders)   b) Warriors (military)  c) Business (people who control the money  d) Laborers (those who do all the physical work  e) Harigens (untouchable or Children of God) basically the poor people
2.   People can’t marry outside their cast
3. The cast system is slowly fading away.  The cast system is alive and well during courtships and weddings.  If you marry outside your cast, you are ostracized from your family and cast members.

We stopped briefly at a factory that harvested coconut fibers for rope and carpets.  Robert had a chance to make a rope and Kathy checked out old machinery.  The fibers are called coir.  Most of the people in our group need bathroom breaks regularly so the tour guide managed to find a small hotel (Prince) where the bathrooms were somewhat clean.  Milla found a tiger in the lobby and had her picture taken stroking it.

The major attraction for the morning was the boat tour on the backwaters.  It reminded us of the canals in Venice but the waterways seemed a little wider.  There were many house boats of various sizes parked along all the canals.  Most of them were made out of wood i.e. bamboo.  It appeared that some people lived in them and others just rented them for a holiday.  As we cruised along sitting on the upper deck on plastic lawn chairs, we took many pictures of the action.  We boarded a house boat that was being repaired.  One of the workers told us that it would take about a year to complete it.  We passed rice paddies, villages, various working boats, men poling boats, fishermen, churches, schools, fancy expensive homes, and we even passed a Toddy shop.  Toddy is extracted from the coconut tree like we extract maple syrup from the hard maple tree.  Toddy is a coconut liquid which is considered very healthy but the men who drank it in the bars, waited for the Toddy fluid to ferment which made it toxic and tasted like alcohol.  After 3 hours of cruising down the canals in the hot sun, everyone was ready to eat and cool off.  Our tour guide took us to a small town called Changanacherry which is the gateway to the Western Ghats.  These mountains hug the western side of India and we are about to head east.  The bus stopped at roadside restaurant that had a very limited selection of things to eat so we all purchased junk food.  At least we had a chance to empty our bladders.

We are heading through the mountains to a place called Thekkady which is spice country.  We are anxious to see how they grow ginger, garlic, cardamom, vanilla, pepper, cinnamon, coffee, tea, cloves and nutmeg.  We just passed a pineapple plantation and a rubber tree plantation.  I think our hotel for this one night stop is in a place called Periyar just in case you wanted to mapquest us.  I am not sure why some of the rubber trees have different coloured plastic wrapped around them but it might have something to do with the rains.

In another busy mountain town along this ancient spice route called Erumali, we stopped to take pictures of pilgrims and others who were celebrating the festival of the moon.   These men were clothed in lungis only, and decorated with multi-coloured paint , dancing to drum beats, while parading down the middle of the road.  It was quite a party!  They came from all over the Kerala province, walking to this town because the town had a Hindu temple and a Muslim white mosque side by side.  These two buildings were built here to celebrate the relationship between these two faiths.  This is the only city in India where Muslims, Hindi, and Christians all get along. 

 life on the backwaters of Kochin in Kerala province

 robert makes rope from coconut fibers

 ducks even go to temples

  Milla enjoys the boat tour of the backwaters in the warm sun

 Milla gets her strength from the Tiger

  our cabin at Spice Village in Thekkady

This is an eco resort worth visiting - www.cghearth.com

 rob has his breakfast from the Pepper tree

 some pilgrims in Erumali celebrating friendship and understanding between Hindu and Muslim

 tapping the rubber tree sap

 Sue with the coffee tree

 boat building in the backwaters

  Kathy gives us some pointers about fishing boats.

The bus sped to Thekkedy through the mountains because Susan, Robert, Milla, and Kathy have booked massages for 5 p.m. at our next hotel.  Well so much for the massages tonight.  We winded our way through the very high mountains and finally arrived at the Spice Lodge at 7:30 p.m.   The facility is in the town of Thekkedy, a mountain resort high in a very tropical forest.  Each of us has a cabin in the woods that is exquisite.  It is time for dinner so I won’t be able to post today’s pics until tomorrow.  We are all too tired!

Day 10 Tue. Nov. 27

We started the day off with a swim in the Kochin Trident Hotel pool.  The water was warm and silky and chlorine free.  Our breakfast on the patio was a delightful way to fuel our bodies for a long day of sightseeing in “God’s Garden” city.   Kochin is located in the province of Kerala.  Kerala’s industry is nature ... spices, fishing, coconuts, and sesame oil.

The Dutch Palace built in 1557 by the Portuguese and then given to the Raja of Kochin was our first stop.  The walls were painted using tumeric and lime, depicting a classic Indian legend about their god of preservation, Vishnu.  One of Vishnu’s descendants was Rama, who was born as a human to show mankind the right way to live.  Nature was the answer to all the world’s problems.  A good example of nature taking care of us is when coconuts fibers are made into mattresses, which allow the human body to be massaged while sleeping.  We learned that turmeric prevents cancer and sesame oil + gram (grains), used on the skin will eliminate wrinkles.  There was also a portrait gallery in this palace, showing all the Maharaja’s of Kochin painted in 3D.  This advanced painting format, brought reality to the viewer, and it was the artists’ use of light that was the secret to this painting style.

We then walked 4 blocks along a busy street filled with shops of all kinds and many “hawkers” selling everything you really don’t need.  We arrived at a very old Dutch Jewish synagogue.  It was small and quite barren, with many chandiliers, oil lamps, and a ceraminc floor with a blue and white Dutch motif.  We learned that there are only a few Jewish families left in Kochin.  Apparently the world took out their frustrations on the Jewish people forcing them to always find a different place to live.  The Dutch Jews came to Kochin India to make money on the spice trade.  They did well as always because they used their brains to gain fortunes.

          A large public laundry was also in this neighbourhood,  where only members of the Dhobi cast were permitted to wash, dry, and iron clothes of other people in the area.   One washer man was also washing his crotch while washing Kathy’s new Indian shawl.  The flat irons were very heavy with hot coals in the bottom of the iron.  Kathy tried to lift it but her rotator cuff stopped her so a Dhobi man took over.  We saw table clothes from our hotel drying on the grass.

          India has many people and many modes of transportation and public transit is very useful and necessary.  When riding on a bus, all the men sit at the back and all the women at the front.  The women did not want to be too close to the men on these crowded buses just in case the men couldn’t control themselves.  Tuk tuk’s (auto rickshaw) are everywhere and we were lucky enough to ride one to the harbour where we witnessed an ancient Chinese fishing technique.  The fishing nets are attached to long poles.  Ropes are fastened to large boulders and a lever system is created.  As four strong men tug on the ropes hoisting the boulders, the net is lowered into the water.  In 3 minutes, numerous fish are snagged and the nets are raised out of the water.  This process repeated two hundred of times a day.  Mallet fish was the primary fish caught.  

We left the fishermen and walked past a man mesmorizing cobras with his flute playing this song (try singing this)  ... “ on the other side of France, where they wear no pants, and the men wear classes to see the ladies asses”. Most of the men in the streets wear a lungi which is a cloth wrapped around their waste which resembles a diaper.  Yes they have underwear on ladies!  Soon we came to India’s oldest European church called St. Francis.  Vasco de Gama, a famous Portuguese explorer died here. He discovered a route from Europe to the spices in India, has a monument located in this church but his body is buried in Portugal.  Strange material baffles hung from the ceiling the length of the church on both sides.  The material was soaked with water and the ceiling fans cooled the church as the baffles swayed back and forth.

Lakuma, our tour leader, took us to a carpet/jewellery mall, where our group had the opportunity to spend rupies.  Sue almost purchased a 20 thousand dollar necklace but thought she would wait and look for something cheaper at the thrift store in New Hamburg.

Our last stop before returning to our hotel was Santa Cruz Basillica.  No one made it inside because the Nazi caretaker had locked the doors and there was a performance happening outside in the 35 degree heat consisting of 20 teenage girls marching and playing musical instruments.  Garry said later that this performance was the highlight for him so far.  

We briefly stopped at our hotel to shower the sweat from our bodies and then returned to the same part of the city to watch an exotic Kathakali dance drama.  This is the traditional dance of Kerala and one of the oldest dances in the world still being acted out.  It was a weird mixture of makeup, costumes, music, storytelling and dance.  The emphasis was on the eye movements and hand gestures.  As the sun was setting on the Chinese fishing nets at the harbour, some of the camera buffs in our group snapped  many photos.

We finally returned to our hotel around 8:30 p.m. and had some delicious mini potatoes, freshly steamed veggies and creme de brule.  The meat dishes were just too damn hot, kind of like our bug-sprayed bedrooms. We were going to lounge at the pool before bed, but never made it.  Stay tuned for our backwater boat cruise happening tomorrow. 

 marching band

 church with baffles

  Kathy looking for her shawl

 cobras dancing to song

 dance drama both men

 

 Rob helps pull net out of water

  net rises

  net lever

  Chinese fishing nets

  where is Milla's wallet?

  Sue just finished 50 lengths.

  This is how he earns a living in India.

  Milla's leg sticking out of the Tuk Tuk.

 God Vishnu's son - Rama Rob

(born immaculately with help from the pudding and the trees)