Feb 17, from Peterborough, ON CANADA. Home again.

Fort Kochi, Kerala State, was a great place to decompress from 3 weeks in north India.  Most of the first two days, as Graham recovered, was spent on a walking tour of Fort Kochi (including where Vasco da Gama was buried for 14 years) and getting a sense of the colonial period here; even did some reading (I've finally read Margaret Laurence's, The Diviners.)  During the rest of the time, we did get to the Ernakulum Utsavam Festival (8 days celebrating Vishnu with an elephant procession), a backwater cruise (where we saw a cinnamon and black-pepper trees and several other spices growing) and Cherai beach where Alan got sunburned (Reminder to Alan: you have different sun exposures at 15 degrees north of the equator than at 40+ degrees!).  Also saw Mattancherry Palace (a 1555 gift from the Portuguese) and Paradesi Synagogue (1568), no photos allowed in either.  20 hours of flying to get home, but broken by one night in London followed by 12 hours of sleep last night.  Feeling almost human today, the 17th.

Final impressions from India ?  A much stronger sense of how close we still are to our primal origins --even after some 12000 years of "civilization".  Life is, after all, living and dying, punctuated occasionally by birthdays, marriages, celebrations of other types, illness, some hunger for many, joy and sorrow in various measure.  Unless you believe in reincarnation, we have only one shot at this and we must make the most of it.

Love to all who read this.  Thanks for sharing our wonderful experience.

 Alan and Linda

Typical street in Fort Kochin

Ferry (8 cents) to Ernakulum island for Utsavam festival, women sit at front.

Elephant procession, Utsavam Festival

Applying makeup, to  Kathakali dancer

 

Little girl, Utsavam festival

Kathakali dancing

Playing cricket

Backwater cruise houseboat

Adding a power cable, men were pulling on the rope at right.

Backwater cruise, small canal.

 

Feb 14, Valentine's Day at Cherai beach +30C. Our umbrellas are the far ones.

Goodbye to Kathy and Graham at Toronto

Home again, beautiful snow but -10 C!

Feb 9, from Kochi in the south

Feb 9 from Kochi in the south of India, a whole week since the last blog.  Written this all once before but the i-pad crashed so trying again from an internet cafe. 

Feb 2, Tiger safari.  Saw a tiger at about 1/4 km for about 2 seconds after running back and forth in jeeps for 2 hours!

Feb 3, Khajuharo, home of the erotic temple statues built 950 to 1050 BCE.  Lonely Planet says "The Chandelans were usually at war when not inventing new sexual positions."  The soaring temples are truly beautiful, and still exist because the image-destroying Islamic Moghuls did not know they were there.  We'll share the really exotic photos privately.  Our tour guide says that sex is an essential part of life, so it is normal that it be properly recognized.  It is, here.

Feb 4, Varanasi, holiest of Hindu cities and the oldest continuously inhabited city on Earth, from at least 1200 BCE and maybe 8000 BCE.  If you are cremated in Varanasi you immediately get released from the reincarnation cycle (you reach moksha), so many Hindus go to Varanasi to die.  Our first sight of the holy Ganges River at dusk will never be forgotton.  Thousands of people amassed on the ghats (steps leading to the water) with the cremation ghat dotted with burning and smoldering pyres and the occasional cow. Bells ringing, chanting, flowers for sale, enormous piles of logs for cremating.  We (and many others) took a boat cruise past the ghats as night thickened, as floating lamps carrying wishes blinked past.  Stopped for a half hour for a Hindu ceremony: more bells, chanting and incense.  Then sipped drinks in the Blue Lassi on a narrow lane where, every few minutes, chanting heralded the passing of another litter carrying a dead person draped in orange and gold, accompanied by men only.  Our guide says that women are too emotional and sometimes throw themselves oto the flames.  At the water, the body is immersed totally in the Ganges before waiting its turn for a pyre.

Feb 5, another boat cruise past the ghats as the sun rose, pilgrims gathered at the water's edge for the "holy dip", and more wish-candles floating slowly away from us.  Afternoon, visited Sarnath where Buddha (563-483 BCE) gave his first sermon.  The temple ruins were built by Ashoka who converted to Buddhism about 260 BCE.

Feb 6, back to Delhi, with half the group flying home Feb 7.  This has been such a wonderful group experience, with each person bringing their individual gifts to make this such a rewarding trip: the whole was much greater than the parts!  Thank you all, and to Dushyants, our ever-sensitive, knowing and patient guide.

Feb 7, Alan, Linda, Kathleen and Graham to Kochi in the south. It is like another country: much wealthier, 100% literacy, road traffic approaching the sane, almost no cows on the road and 30-degree weather.  Much of this (not the temperature) apparently because of its democratically elected communist government which has been in power most of the time since 1957.  Fort Kochin where we are staying is a hippy paradise: lots of homestay accommodation, little restaurants, boutiques advertising enviro-friendly products.  Kerala was "discovered" by Vasco da Gama in 1498, leading the way for European spice traders.  This is apparent in the wide diversity of religions here including Christian. 

Feb 9.  So far we've spent most of our time decompressing from 3 weeks in the north, but have seen the cantilevered "Chinese" nets that still operate daily to bring in the occasional 10-inch fish.  Plans are for traditional dance (Kathakali) tonight, part of an 8-day church festival (including an elephant parade) tomorrow, and maybe a backwater cruise through the inlet forest near here.  However, today is Graham's turn to be sick, so we'll see.

Life continues to be full.  See you in a week!

Khadjuraho

Khadjuraho spire

Khadjuraho romance

Varanasi cremation ghat

Sheila launching a wish-candle

Hindu ceremony at the ghats

Lane near the Blue Lassi, Varanasi

Sarnath ruins, Buddha's firstsermon

Sarnath ruins

Our usual transportation

Sunrise on the Ganges

Taking the holy dip

Our wish candles

Saying goodbye, Delhi airport

Fort Kochi, Walton's homestay

Chinese nets, Kochi

Canoe fisherman, Kochi

Feb 9 from Kochi

Feb 2, from Khajuraho

Sunday Feb 2, from Khajuraho, home of the erotic carvings.  (Pics of this next time!) Pics below out of order!

January 29-30 in wonderful Orcha. The last few mornings have been cloudy or foggy until almost noon and then again in the evening, making sleeping damp and cold. Yes, we really do sympathize with the snow overload in Peterborough and cold temperatures across the country. However, we didn’t plan on cold and most of us wear everything we have much of the time.

Orcha has a population of 8,000 with almost as many temples, mausoleums, palaces….a slight exaggeration.  On Thursday, we went to a cookingclass with V(w)andana in her house. She gave us recipes and then cooked the dishes for our lunch. A special paneer (‘cottage cheese’) dish was extra because her oldest daughter turned 8 that day. Kathy left stickers and a pen from all of us.  Vandana’s story was long, sad, but ultimately victorious. She and her husband have survived and have just built a new house where she can give these classes. She is already ensuring her girls learn English (another 5 year old) and says that she and her husband prefer arranged marriages but are prepared to allow a love marriage if her girls want it.  This is modern India at its best.  We have met few women with the support and determination to make decisions like this.  Food, by-the-by, was delicious.

Attended evening prayers at the Raj Rama (King Rama) temple with chanting from the Ramayama….very moving.  Walked in the market which had no vehicular traffic making it wonderful.  Linda under the weather with a cold, stayed home that night and most of the next day.  Antibiotics fixed her. 

January 30^th

Dushyant’s (our guide) 28^th birthday.  Linda wrote a birthday song which everyone sang at breakfast. He really appreciated it. We gave him 4 of Bill Slavin’s books for his nieces and nephews. Kathy gave him a colour sketch of him talking with several of us.

Saw Chaturbhaj Temple decorated with live green parakeets and vultures. Visited the Chhatris Cenotaphs/mausoleums dedicated to Orcha rulers dating from 1600. Another palace mix of Muslim and Hindu architecture, turquoise tiles, mosaic ceiling with a great view of  a landscape dotted with monuments.

January 31, Allipura

Rosemary remarked about this place that it wasn’t on google or our travel guides but she was going there anyway! We all enjoyed the drive – flat countryside with lots of mustard and wheat.  Visited a cloth-to-paper factory providing jobs for over 100 people.

Stayed at Allipura Palace Hotel, owned by the King of the region who showed up that night for a session with his visiting Guru. Chanting in the courtyard for an hour with about 50 others while we sat in another small courtyard around a fire….it was cold! The chanting gets into your soul the way the drumbeat does at a powwow.  We were introduced to the king and queen and his sister, who literally got the red carpet treatment when they first arrived (photo).

Walked through town, attracting a crowd who followed us.  Played a bit of badminton + a game of cannonball (photo), a cross between crokinole and pool.  Beautiful images: babies in arms, pigs, kids, roosters, a boy net-fishing from an inner tube, ox carts. 

Women pilgrims, Orchha

Graham playing cannonball

Aunt and baby

Children interested in strangers

Bangles at country fair

Alan sharing math homework

Rosemary with grandfather father of present king, Alipura

Orchha market and cattle gate

Women going to work, Orchha

Kathy & Graham, red carpet at Alipura palace hotel

Mausoleum, Orchha

Vandana's cooking class, Orchha

Men in Orchha market

Landscape dotted with temples

Paper making ngo

Chaturbhaj temple, Orchha

Feb 1, Visited a village whose inhabitants rarely see whites: followed by more crowds.  Housing mostly like the temples: plaster over brick core. Invited into a house where the courtyard was paved with cow dung and straw which is very hard, cool in summer and warm in winter and repels mosquitoes without smelling to us.  Visited a country fair with a human-powered ferris wheel and more curious crowds.  Processing our interaction with the crowds is hard—when we engage in conversation it becomes more human.

Jan 28 in Orccha, after the Taj Mahal

January 28^th in Orccha or Orchha

Jan 27^th in Agra.  Agra Fort begun in 1565 by the third Moghul King Akbar – red sandstone over brick core and the occasional palace of marble by Shah Jahan. Two moats – first with crocodiles, second with tigers….and entry ramped for rolling boulders and dropping boiling oil at attackers. On to Baby Taj, (built 1622-1628) a  gorgeous memorial to father of queen (who kept her husband drunk because he killed her first husband and forced her to marry him so 59 glasses of wine/day kept him in order.)  This was the first example of inlaid marble in India – appears to have come from Italy through Persia.

Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan (1631 to 1653) as a tomb for his wife….who died bearing their fourteenth child.  This along with 400 concubines kept him busy!  The Taj floats serenely in beautiful gardens and ponds, and truly lives up to its international icon status. 

 Today, 28^th, after train from Agra to Jhansi, then van to Orccha, we’re set up in a Swiss tent (really!) in a small village of 7000, beautiful rocky river and monuments/tombs. 

Agra fort exterior

Agra fort moat

Palace at Agra fort sweeper

Baby Taj

Baby Taj

Taj Mahal

View from back of Taj Mahal

From train

Jhansi station

Orccha tombs