Oh, the places... pt 4: Kerala

“No matter where you go, there you are.” ~ Unknown

For my final trip traveling around India this summer, I talked five of my classmates, one Erb alum, and one friend-of-a-friend into journeying with me to Kerala. For three days we traipsed around the lush hill station of Munnar, floated peacefully around the backwaters of Alleppey, and toured the historic sites of Cochin. These three stories highlight some of the fun we had:

Indians in cardigans. Our first day was spent driving up a mountain as we made our way to Munnar. Along the way we made multiple stops where, among other things, I got to climb behind a waterfall, stand next to the third largest elephant in Kerala, and take a tour of a spice garden. I was ecstatic to reach the top of the mountain because the climate reminded me of San Francisco: 55 degrees, overcast, and quiet lovely. The locals, however, felt otherwise. Everywhere we went Indians were in sweaters, winter caps, and down jackets. Now that’s comedy.

Vishnu. We hired a tour service to get us from destination to destination. Our tour guide, Vishnu, was a great mix of funny, informative, and slightly sketchy. On the one hand he helped us navigate everywhere we went. On the other hand he kept recommending places we didn’t want to go because the shop owners would give him a little cash under the table (this was all implicitly arranged of course). By the end of the trip I was completely fed up with having to bargain for everything and fend off every would-be tourist scam artists. One guy tried to sell me a wooden snake for 1,000 rupees ($20) that was clearly worth about a third of that.

Vishnu’s best quality was that he didn’t kill us while driving. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts the roads in Bangalore are extremely chaotic with very little regard for traffic rules and a LOT of attempts to pass the vehicles in front of you. Well, multiply that chaos by a factor of ten and you’re close to what it feels like to travel on the open highway in India. My travel companions and I learned to ignore the large trucks barreling straight at us as we passed a car on a blind corner for the more scenic views outside our van’s window. Vishnu was more relatively more cautious than other drivers, but nevertheless my blood pressure spiked every few seconds. Still, he got us home.

Houseboat heaven. By far my favorite experience of the trip was floating on the heavenly backwaters of Alleppey. We had the entire boat and three-person crew to ourselves. As the photos below highlight, the scenery was beautiful and completely different than anything I had scene on other trips. We lounged, we ate, we drank, and then we lounged some more. The next time I visit Kerala, I’m renting a houseboat for a week and chilling out.

The only damper on the experience was when we tried to watch a Batman movie late in the evening. Realizing that the living room/dining room/TV room also doubled as the boat crew’s sleeping quarters, the four of us – two guys and two girls - proposed to watch the movie in one of our rooms. Our hosts were not happy about that idea. Citing the area as “dangerous,” they said we couldn’t watch the movie in our room and had to watch it on the deck. It took a few minutes, but we soon realized that the real reason they didn’t want us behind closed doors was because we were of the opposite genders. Frustrated by this ridiculous cultural norm, but nonetheless respectful, we tried to watch the movie on deck. I’m not sure what killed the idea first: the mosquitos or the fact that we could barely hear the movie over the standing fan. In the end, we went to bed without much Batman or satisfaction. Next time we decided we would all act like we were married.

Ultimately what made the trip for me was seeing friends. I’ve made friends in Bangalore, but there is something comforting about being around people who know you and with whom you can be yourself. I’m going to miss my travel buddies, but fortunately I get to see them again in a few weeks back in Ann Arbor.