The Wandering Two: Onam okay!

So, it’s been a busy week. We spent the past week traveling around Kerala, otherwise known as God’s Own Country (and Naveed never let us forget it!) We met up with Sholeh & Sohayl and headed to Munnar, a town surrounded by hills covered with tea plantations. In Munnar we decided to ride elephants, I didn’t really want to since I had already ridden an elephant last time I was in India but since majority rules I found myself sitting with Naveed atop Laxmi, the daughter of Lucky, the elephant Sholeh and Sohayl were riding. We were nearly finished our loop of the tea plantation and were quite far ahead of Lucky and her riders in a patch of forest when Laxmi suddenly jumped, went (insert LOUD ELEPHANT SQUEAL here), turned around and started running running running down this steep hill towards her mother. The saddle slipped to the side, and so did I; I was literally hanging off the side of the elephant, trying to keep my head out of danger. Naveed managed to grab hold of my jacket thankfully and helped me to hold on, who knew elephants could run that fast? Not me that’s for sure. Meanwhile down at the bottom of the hill Sholeh and Sohayl could not see what was happening as we were hidden by trees but had heard the (insert LOUD ELEPHANT SQUEAL here) and sounds of an elephant moving quickly and got excited about the adventurous turn the slow elephant ride was about to take, until they saw us round the corner and come barreling down the hill towards them with me hanging off the side for dear life. Once out of the woods Naveed started yelling at me, “fall down, fall down into the tea!” but I was afraid of being trampled so I held on. After what felt like hours which would result in sure death, Laxmi reached her mother and slowed down enough for Naveed and I to jump off the side and run to hide behind a tree. Sholeh and Sohayl soon joined us and the poor handler, who had been dragged down the hill by Laxmi as well got up, brushed himself off, asked if we were okay and then asked if we wanted to get back on to ride to the top of the hill. Ummm…..??? Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, though we were definitely bruised and sore (and Sholeh was bleeding…?) and had gained a newfound appreciation for the power and unlikely speed of elephants! No more elephant rides for us!

On our first day in Kerala we found out that it was the last day of a celebration called Onam. For the rest of our trip Naveed kept saying “Happy Onam!” to everyone we passed until the driver had to break it to him that Onam was over and he couldn’t say that anymore. Naveed asked the driver what he should say instead and the driver replied, “Onam okay?” Apparently everyone’s Onam was okay, and Naveed asked everyone, trust me. We also got to sample some special Onam Pudding. Twice. One time it was not so good and Naveed, having taken the first bite, motioned to us frantically not to try some and we hastily all said thank you and ran away. Our second Onam Pudding experience luckily was delicious.

While in Munnar we also attended a performance of Kathakali, a traditional Indian dance-drama originating in Kerala. Let’s just say that it was a very interesting and slightly scary experience and leave it at that. Another interesting and slightly scary experience no doubt, were the full-body Ayurvedic massages and steam baths that Sohayl and Naveed got in Munnar. Photos to follow.

Our favorite part of our trip to Kerala was going on a houseboat tour of the backwaters. We booked a 2 bedroom houseboat and boarded at noon, were served fresh coconuts to drink by our lovely 3-man crew and then an incredibly delicious lunch feast of traditional Keralan foods which included lots of coconut and fish, yum! The houseboat cruised through the beautiful backwaters, past little villages and towns, rice fields and fishermen and was wonderfully relaxing. We stopped for the night in our captain’s village and got to walk around and explore before having dinner. Spent the night on the boat then came back in the morning after breakfast. We’d really recommend anyone coming to India to do a houseboat tour in Kerala.

After a day exploring Fort Cochin, we flew to Mumbai to spend a few days there. By far our favorite thing was having high tea at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. We sat in the Sea Lounge with a view of the India gate and the harbor and ate and ate and ate for 3 hours. There were traditional high tea foods like tea sandwiches and scones and quiche but the Taj also had a buffet of Indian snacks and street food, which we normally would be terrified to eat, but were excited to finally be able to try. The service was amazing and we only wish we had been able to eat more of the delicious food! Upon our departure we learned that “no” is a word never uttered by staff within the Taj Hotel and wish we had asked for a free night of accommodation.

Another highlight of Mumbai was seeing Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, an open air Laundromat powered by hundreds of dhobis, or washers. It really was incredible; we wandered around the alleys surrounded by clothes hanging up to dry, or in piles to be washed, and tubs filled with water, clothes and people of varying states of cleanliness. Many hotels and businesses send their washing to be done here and the place was huge.

That evening we went to see a Bollywood film, Bodyguard, as we had been seeing posters and billboards for it everywhere. Of course there were no subtitles but we managed to understand about 80% of the story right up until the end (and google helped us fill in the gaps). Sholeh gave us her own interpretation of the events as the movie unfolded, complete with lots of singing and dancing and ridiculously cheesy action sequences. You can’t come to India and not watch a Bollywood movie!

We took the train back to Pune and spent a few days showing Sholeh and Sohayl our favorite spots then headed to Panchgani for the wedding festivities. We spent some time helping set up for the wedding the day before and also hiked up to Tableland again then the following day got all dressed up and celebrated the union of Farshad and Yeeteng!

Back in Pune now and back to work; Sholeh is staying for a few weeks to volunteer and we also have 3 new volunteers from the UK and Canada here to work with Deep Griha which is great.

Love,

The Wandering Two (four)