Another Weekend, Another Trip

Although we didn't get the holiday in the US, the Google offices here in India were closed for Good Friday, so we took advantage of the long weekend and planned a trip to Kerala, a state on the southwest tip of India.

I'm happy to report that this time the flights went much more smoothly. Having mastered the Indian airport system, my co-worker Jocelyn and I reached Kochin without any hiccups on Thursday evening. We spent the first night in a hotel near the airport, which was actually much nicer than I was expecting. The restaurant in the hotel was good and cheap, and they even delivered a full breakfast to our room at 5:45 in the morning for no additional charge. Pleasantly surprising!

We left the hotel bright and early Friday morning in an attempt to see the elephants being bathed at the Elephant Rescue Center in Kodanad. Right as we'd almost given up and were walking back to the car, we turned around to see a procession of three elephants heading towards us:



We followed them as they walked through the village and to the river, which they promptly walked into for their baths (check out the video here). If you've never seen an elephant attempt to lay down, it's a rather interesting process. Once they were laying down in the water, their caretakers scrubbed them with coconuts. We were invited to partake in the scrubbing as well, but after seeing what else the elephants did in that water, I declined the opportunity.

Once we left Kodanad, it was on to Munnar, a hill town further inland known for their tea plantations. In an attempt to cater to our American tastes, our driver put in a hilarious compilation CD complete with Barbie Girl and an assortment of Abba and Backstreet Boys songs. Although the car ride there was probably the most frightening thus far (imagine the usual craziness I've described, with the addition of twisty mountain roads and no seatbelts - yikes!), we saw some interesting things along the way, some natural (waterfalls) and others cultural (lots of cross-bearing Good Friday processions). Munnar is also known for the spices they grow, and we stopped at a small spice garden where they showed us how all sorts of spices are grown, and even let us taste a few. We saw a giant snail...



...and some insane plants as well:



Once we got to Munnar, the scenery was stunning. All of the hills are carpeted with tea plants and shrouded in mist. Everything was incredibly green, and the weather was shockingly mild and comfortable.


View from our hotel room


Tea plants

Unfortunately, due to the holiday a lot of things were closed, including the tea museum and a lof of the restaurants that cater to tourists. As such, we ended up eating at a very local restaurant for lunch. All over India they have these small restaurants which are labeled as "fast food," but as opposed to being American style fast food, they really just mean food served quickly. The restaurant was packed, so we were instructed to sit at a table with an Indian couple who were already eating their lunch (without utensils I might add - must be another cultural thing I was unaware of). Luckily we were given forks with which to eat our lunch, which ended up being pretty good and insanely cheap ($3 for two big plates of biryani and a giant bottle of water).

On Friday evening, we went to see a traditional Kerala dance performance called kathakali, which to my untrained eye was like a combination or interpretive dance and story telling with complete elaborate make up and accompanied by traditional percussion instruments and singing. They were moving around a lot, so it was hard to get a good picture, but this gives you an idea:



After the performance we headed back to the hotel for dinner, and were lucky enough to catch part of an absolutely terrible Nicholas Cage movie on TV. If you ever see "Snake Eyes" on TV, I'd recommend skipping it!

Tomorrow I'll update on the rest of the trip, which took us down out of the hills and back to the heat!