India v. Dubai

India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v. . . . . . . . . . . . .Dubai

Lush and green. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dry and dusty

Simple life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .Materialism gone wild

Organic evolution . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. Glass and steel transformation

Centuries of culture . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . Brash newness


I don't know if there are two places that could be more different from one another than Kerala, India and Dubai, UAE. Flying in, I struggled to spot even one thing that wasn't green. Even in the "dry" season, it rains frequently. If something stays in one spot long enough, it will eventually be covered by grass, ivy, plants and moss.

We had our first night in the city of Kochin. A small city by Indian standards, but still it seemed big enough to me (took us 1 hour to drive from the center of town out to the airport). Certainly, you need to set aside your Western perceptions of what is a sufficient life. People live in small homes (we didn't really see homeless people - but I'm sure in the bigger cities we would have seen more). We took a small wander through our neighborhood, just to get a feel. There was a small little restaurant that we stopped in to have dinner. Cost 107 Rupees = US$3 for our entire meal.

The next morning we drove up into the mountains to stay at a hotel in the tea plantation areas. The roads were winding and circuitous the entire way. Our driver, Sujeesh, was an expert at navigating through the traffic. At each blind corner, he would beep his horn. As he manouvered to pass a car, he would beep his horn. As he pulled out into traffic, he would beep his horn. As he passed pedestrians walking on the road, he would beep his horn. I have a friend from India who related a story to us that his dad's car had the horn broken and he stopped driving it. Said he couldn't drive it until the horn was fixed. Now we know why.

All along the road were little villages. In each village, the road was lined with small shops and shoppers. Each little shop specializes in their own products. There was a shop selling aluminum ware. A shop to sell fruit and veg. A shop to sell Ladies Items - never did figure out what this was. A Tyre (yes, spelled the British way) repair shop. A building supply shop. Each shop was about 12 feet across and 15 feet deep. Amazing what they could fit into such a small space. I mentioned to Russell that if you moved there, one of the challenges would be figuring out what store sold what item - no such thing as Target there!

While in the hill country, we met another American couple from Florida, Chip and Karen. We hooked up with them for a dinner on our second night there and really enjoyed our visits and chats with them. Turned out they were heading from there to the same hotel we had booked in our itinerary. We'll definitely try and hook up with them when we're in Florida this coming November.

From the hill country, we headed to a wildlife area near a city called Thekkady. Thekkady had a bit of a hippy groove to it. Lots of Ayuvedic spas, shops featuring linen/cotton clothes, and silver jewelry and beads. Luckily our hotel had a pool. Lyra had been ready for a swim. While swimming around with Lyra, she proceeded to execute a near textbook perfect breast stroke across the pool. She has only been putting her face in the water for a couple of weeks and, until now, struggling with a dog paddle across the water. "Who taught you to do that?" I asked her (thinking of course she would say "Baba"). "Grace (the 10-year old next door)," was her response. "It's called the Pizza." "When did you swim with Grace?" I could only remember a time about 1 month ago when she went to the club with us. "You remember, at the club." OK, so now I'm puzzled. She wasn't putting her face in the water then. She remembered Grace's instructions after several weeks and then executes them perfectly? Wow, Grace has a future as a swimming instructor.

In Thekkady, we went to an elephant park and took our obligatory ride on an elephant. Little did we know that the next day we'd see a report on the news of an elephant going crazy at a Hindu festival and trampling 3 people to death. The television played and re-played the scene of one of the deaths. It was a bit awe inspiring to be on such a powerful animal and I will admit that during our ride I was thinking how we'd escape if the elephant were to suddenly go wild. If I had seen the news beforehand - I'm not sure if we would have gone. The video on the news was really horrifying.

From Thekkady, we headed toward the coastal areas of Kerala called the Backwater area. The land here is essentially flat and at sea level. The locals have built hundreds of miles of canals and levees in the areas to create land for their homes and rice paddies. We stayed at two different resorts in this area. The first was probably the most luxurious of all the places we stayed. We were on the shores of a huge inland waterway. The water hyacinth were forming a vast solid floating mass in front of our hotel. The water birds (cormorants, egrets, and herons) were picking their way across the green surface and plucking little fish out of the water.

The second place we stayed was on an island in the middle of the canals. Russell had a bit of a tummy bug (Ganesh Gurgle) and stayed in the room while Lyra and I went out on a small boat ride through the canals. Each of the banks was lined with small homesteads. The houses are small according to our standards (maybe as big as my dining room). But the people live a simple life of fishing and small farming. All along the banks, the kids would come out and wave to us.






.


The fishing was done by nets they call Chinese Fishing nets. The Chinese Fishing nets are strung up on a pulley system made of 4 slim tree trunks bound together into a "X" shape and the net corners are tied to each end of the trunks. In this picture the net is lowered into the water and the rocks hanging on the ropes are the counter-balance to help bring the net up and down. This little scenario is for the benefit of my father and sister who would have been fascinated to see these things working.

That night we had a tremendous thunder storm. Russell and I were startled out of bed by the loudest clap of thunder overhead. Less than a clap, it was more like an explosion. Wow! How Lyra slept through that is beyond me. It was fun to hear the sound of rain falling onto the roof of our room.

Our last day was spent in a couple of the touristy areas of Kochin before heading to the airport. India was a wonderful surprise to us. We enjoyed the friendly people, beautiful sights, delicious food (although you can get tired of Indian food every day), and facinating culture. We'll be planning a trip to more northern areas - maybe next April.