Off the Grid in Hampi

After cooking school (the blog for which I haven't published yet), I decided to go a bit further into the interior to a town called Hampi which is a bit difficult to get to. This involved a car to the airport with a stop at an elephant training camp, a plane, a taxi, a sleeper train and an auto rickshaw. It was a long day, but Hampi was worth it.

Hampi was once the capital of one of the largest Hindu empires from the 14th to 17th century. In the 16th century the population was over 500,000. It was over taken by the Muslim Moghuls in the 17th century when the country was united for the first time (the second time was under the British in the 18th century).

The city is home to one of India's largest area of ruins. There are active excavations going on in several locations and some day soon it will be a major tourist attraction. In the meantime, the city has a very charming air to it because the city doesn't have any really high end tourist accommodations or infrastructure -- instead there's an element of roughing it a bit. One of the airlines just started daily flights to a city about 30 km away (which I didn't find out until I was already on the train), so its probably only a matter of time until it changes.

Aside from several magnificent temples, Hampi's most unique feature is its setting amongst huge boulders. At one point, the area must have been underwater, because the boulders are 30 feet tall and I can't imagine how else they could have gotten there (unless there were glaciers in India?). My first reaction to seeing the area was that this is what Hanna-Barbara must have based the backdrop for the Flintstones on. I know it sounds strange, but the boulders were magnificent and I'm not joking when I say it was very easy to spend an entire afternoon "boulder watching".

The combination of the setting and the fact that people live amongst the ruins gives the city a bit of a time-warp feeling to it, like not much has changed in 500 years. The old city, or main bazaar area is largely unchanged from how it was when the city was inhabited. In the last 50ish years, the area has been re-inhabited by local squatters. They live in the ruins along what was the old market street, adding walls or thatch roofs to replace the originals as necessary. Their animals are either tied in the front of the houses or simply wander the streets. (More than once, a cow actually came into the restaurant I was eating in, but the owners usually shoo them away before they start eating.)

The best accommodations I could find cost 280 R or about $6.50. Needless to say, while adequate, it was no frills (and hot water is a "frill"). The whole old city only has dial up connections and no cell service. The touristy places have a hippie feel to them and play reggae music and the number of tourists who have decided to sport dreadlocks is astounding. I did not.

The meals at the restaurants along the main bazaar cost about 35R or $.80. I had a meal with someone who was complaining about how they over charge the tourists by about 10x what the locals would pay for the same food. Of course, most of the locals don't eat out and if they do, they eat "street food," sold by equivalent of a NY city hotdog vendor, which would make any tourist sick. I can't imagine what she'll think when she makes it to Delhi.

Assuming you don't mind the "tourist prices," the people were great. The locals, especially the kids, have no problem coming up to you and (trying to) have a conversation. For the most part they ask your name, where you are from and giggle a lot. I did have a really nice conversation about India with a few freshmen college students. However, since the only industry in the town is tourism, they is also a lot of presumption that you are rich and will give them things, especially from the poorest children. At one point, a young girl came up to me and said hello. She saw my water bottle and said "water bottle". I said, "yes". Before I knew it she had taken it and emptied the water, so she could take the bottle. It hadn't occurred to her, I had it so I could drink it. Another boy came up to me and pointed to my watch. He said, "you give me?" And he looked disappointed when I said, "no".

In order to get to some sites, or more accurately, the shortest option to get to some sites, is to take a boat. The boats are coracles, or a large baskets, similar to those my mom had when I was growing up, except big enough to sit in and waterproofed, rowed by a local who seems to be sitting in a very uncomfortable position. The boat ride through the canyon of boulders was one of the highlights. I went with one other person in the boat and we were lounging as we went along. When we came back to the dock we saw 10 Indians getting into the same boat, but it didn't look as comfortable. In general, whether its a scooter, car or boat, the Indians put more people into vehicles than we would ever consider was possible.

The whole place was very relaxed and I wouldn't have minded spending a few weeks there, reading some books and just hanging out.

Instead I decided to take a seven-hour drive to a town called Badami. The town is famous for its cave temples which are cut into the sides of some large mountains. They date back to the 13th century. I'm still considering whether I'd recommend the drive, but overall I liked the caves.

I continued with my driver to a city called Hubli which sees very few tourists, but is a major crossroads for the train system. I arrived 6 hours before my overnight train so I had a lot of time to kill. My very sweet driver helped me bring my bag to the trainstation, luggage lockers and then made sure I was happily seated at an internet cafe before he left. I thought I was set to fill my evening. Unfortunately, the cafe was only open until 6:30 and I had another 5 hours to wait.

When I left, I noticed there were no other westerners wandering about and that literally, everyone was stopping and staring at me. Although people have been staring at me for about three months now, I still look down to check my fly instinctively. I went into a restaurant, sat down and ordered something to drink. Nobody spoke English, but with some pointing I managed to get some tea. I eventually realized I had sat in the all male section and that the "family" section was upstairs. This probably didn't help with the staring.

The best available car on this particular train was a third class AC sleeper. I was a little worried about what this would mean. I'd been on first and second class sleepers and slept relatively well, but wasn't sure this would be a good thing. In the end, the only difference seemed to be that there were three tiers of beds. Naturally, since I don't understand how the reservation system works, I got the upper bunk. Somehow, all the Indians knew that I had that seat even before everyone had arrived to our cabin. When I've talked to other tourists, they've said the same thing, that the train reservation system is the impossible to understand unless you were born here. Luckily one person in my cabin spoke good English and the others were getting off at my stop so I didn't have to worry about over sleeping.

I arrived in Goa, beach capital of India, and was suppose to only have 6 hours before my flight. Sadly, my flight was cancelled so I had to spend another day at the beach. The chaise, the umbrella and the cocktails were just like any other paradise resort -- the waterbuffalo was an added bonus. Tonight I arrived back in Delhi to wrap up the end up my adventure.

Recipes from Keralan Cooking School

Gobi Masala

Preparation:
250 grams cauliflower florets
6 T chick pea powder*
4T water, approximately

Mix by hand until cauliflower is coated with a light batter.

Heat a pan. Add about 1/2 cm of coconut oil in the pan and heat.
Fry cauliflower until golden brown.
Remove cauliflower and put in a strainer on top of a paper towel.

Sieve the oil to remove the bits of batter. Replace 2T of oil in pan.
Add 2 red onions and 5-7 fresh curry leaves.
Stir until lightly cooked and slightly browned.

Add 1t of garlic-ginger paste (equal parts of both mixed in a food processor)

Temper the garlic-ginger paste until it loses its raw flavor, but is not browning or burnt. (To temper, push the other ingredients to the side of the pan and quickly mix the g-g paste, breaking it up with the wooden spoon.)

Add spices and stir rapidly:
<1/2>
1/2 t gumar masala (equal parts lightly toasted and ground cinnamon, cardamon and cloves, it can be kept in a jar for up to 10 days)
<3/4>

Stir rapidly (for longer than you think necessary) until the spices lose their pungent aroma and the vegetables begin to release their oil.
Add 4 tomatoes, blanched, skinned and diced.
Stir until the water begins to evaporate.

Add cauliflower and stir until mixed with spices/onions.
Cover and leave for up to 1 hour before serving.

Okra Turorn

Heat a thick bottomed skillet on the fire
Pour 2-3 T of coconut oil in the pan.
When oil is hot, add 1 t mustard seeds, 2 T of urad dal (white lentils) plus 1 sprig of fresh curry leaves (about 5-7 leaves)

Heat until the mustard seeds pop, the urad dal is brown and the curry leaves are lightly fried.

Add 1 chopped red onion and saute.

Add one broken kashmiri (spiral) red chili pepper
1 pinch of turmeric powder
1/4 c grated coconut (coconut must be tempered)

Add 150-200 g. okra (thinly sliced on a diagonal) and stir into dish. Keep stirring until the okra is pliable. Pile in the middle and let sit and then stir again after a few minutes.

Remove when pliable and add 1/4 c. grated coconut as garnish.

Palak Rieta
Heat pan.
Add 2T coconut oil.
Add 2t ural dal (white lentils halves)
Add 3-4 cloves of garlic chopped
Add 1/2 inch ginger chopped

Stir for some time until well done.

Add 1 chopped red onion
Add 1 green chili pepper (maybe remove seeds)
Saute.
Once sauteed, add 2c finely chopped spinach
Allow to cool and add 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt curd.

Vegetable Pilar
Mix spices:
star anise
pepper
cloves
cardamon
*nutmeg mace
cinnamon
*(allspice leaf, if available fresh)

Heat pan
Add 1 T ghee
Add spices, cover with colander upside down so popping seeds don't spatter.
Add 1 red chopped onion and saute.
Add 1 t garlic-ginger paste
Add allspice leaf and nutmeg mace and stir rapidly
Add tomatoes until liquid evaporates a little
Add 250 g. steamed carrots, beans and peas
Add 1 1/2 c. uncooked basmati rice (cook before adding, but measure dry)
Add 1 t salt

Fold together.

Rice Noodles:
Put 2 1/2 cups rice flour in a large bowl
Slowly, while mixing, add boiling water and a pinch of salt
the amount of water should be roughly 2x the amount of rice, but the dough should not be sticky
Stop adding water when the dough is the consistency of play dough.

Let cool. After 20 minutes, kneed until texture is consistent.

Use a rice mill to make noodles in small piles. Add 1t of grated coconut and then mill another larger pile of noodles on top.

Place in a steamer and cook for approximately 15 minutes.

Egg Masala
Heat 3-4 T coconut oil in a pan
Add 750 g. chopped red onion
Add a sprig of curry leaves
Continue stirring

Add 1 t ginger-garlic paste and keep stirring

Add 1/8 c. sugar and a pinch of salt to balance the acidity of the tomatoes

Continue stirring until the onions are lightly browned

Add spices:
3/4 t turmeric
1 t gumar masala
2 t coriander
1 t chili powder

Stir rapidly

Add 650 g. chopped tomatoes and stir gently
Continue on heat until it is slightly meshed together.

Serve with either hard boiled eggs on the side or lightly fried potatoes with turmeric and pepper in coconut oil. The potatoes may be mixed in before serving.

Vegetable Stew to be served on top of the rice noodles

Spices:
Cardamon
Cinnamon
Cloves
Pepper
Star Anise


Sliced ginger and garlic
1-2 sliced red onion
all spice leaves if available
2 green chilis (remove seeds)
700 g. steamed potatoes, carrots, string beans, all diced.

Heat pan.
Heat oil.
Add spice mixture and stir.
Add onions and stir.
Add garlic and ginger, very soon after onions.
Add chilis
Stir all ingredients until lightly brown.

Add steamed vegetables.
Add 1 t salt (maybe 1/2 t)
Add 2 1/2 c coconut milk (coconut cream with water added, about 30-40%)
Simmer for 5-10 minutes
Close fire.
Slowly add thick coconut milk (add water to coconut cream until its the consistency of milk) and stir (don't do this over a flame or the milk with curdle.)


Snake Gourd Saute
(alternatively use cabbage, courgette, zucchini, chopped beans)

1 T coconut oil
1 t mustard seeds
150 g coconut chips
1 big onion sliced.
1 1/2 t pepper powder
pinch of turmeric
400 g snake gourd, chopped.
salt to taste

Pan on fire
Add oil and allow to heat
Add mustard seeds and allow to pop
Fry out the coconut chips. Stir quickly until brown and starting to release oil. (add additional oil if necessary).
Make a well in the middle and add the onion and stir the onion within the well.
Mix the onion and the coconut quickly until translucent and slightly brown.
This takes a long time.
Add the pepper and turmeric -- stir rapidly for about 3-5 minutes.
Add chopped snake gourd.
Pile in the center of the pan and allow to sit, stir every few minutes and re-pile.
Salt to taste.
** Fully mature coconut releases more oil. Less mature coconut requires extra oil.

Carrot-Cabbage Thoran

1 T coconut oil
2 t short grain brownish rice (parboiled)
1/2 t mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
pinch of turmeric
Make a paste out of:
*1 green chili - chopped
*3 shallots chopped
*1/3 c. grated coconut
300 g. chopped and shredded carrots and cabbage with salt

Pan on fire.
Heat oil.
Add rice, mustard seed and curry leaves. Puff rice, pop mustard seeds and fry curry leaves.
Add turmeric and mix.
Immediately, add ground paste. Reduce heat, and fast stir until spices are tempered (not as pungent).
Add carrots and cabbage and cook until reduced stirring frequently.
Salt to taste.

Aloo Gobi
6 T coconut oil
1 1/2 t fennel
1 1/2 onions
3/4 t turmeric
3/4 t chili powder
6 T tomato paste, but more liquidy (maybe 3 T tomato paste and 3T water)
300 g. cauliflower, uncooked florets
300 g. potato, cooked and diced
6 tomatos, quartered
150 ml milk
150 ml water

Pan on fire.
Heat oil.
Add fennel, until seeds stop popping and browning.
When almost finished popping add onions.
Cook onions until translucent and slight browning.
Add turmeric and chili powder.
Stir quickly until spices are tempered (less pungnet smell)
Add tomato paste and stir until the water reduces a little bit.
Add cauliflower and stir until it is coated in the mixture.
Add potato, stir until coated.
Add salt to taste.
Raise the heat.
Add tomatoes and stir until the tomato skins softens and the mixture is sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Lower the heat and add the milk and the water at the same time.
Stir intermittantly. Put a lid on and slow cook until the mixture is creamy/thickened and the cauliflower is cooked.
Salt again and garnish with mint and coriander.

Jerra Rice
3 T coconut oil
2 t urad dal
1 t cumin
1 onion sliced
2 kashmiri chilis, broken (spiral)
2 c. uncooked rice, cooked
pinch of turmeric
pinch of salt

Heat oil in pan, medium to low heat
Add dal, no stirring, cook until brown.
Add cumin, allow to pop.
Add chili and stir rapidly.
Add onions and stir rapidly.
Add turmeric and salt and stir rapidly.
Add rice, spreading it evently over the top of the mixture.
Don't stir until you've added it all.
From start to finish its all very quick.
For garnish, fry raisins and cashews in coconut oil.

Sambar Dal

3/4 c urad dal (soft dal)
Water
Salt

3 T coconut oil
250 g. chopped onions
1 1/2 t mustard seeds
1/2 t fennelgrek
sprig of curry leaves
1 t chili powder
2 t coriander
1/2 t turmeric
tamrin (just smaller than a golf ball, soaked in water for 10 minutes)
four dashes of asafoetida powder
300 g. fresh tomatoes diced
salt to taste

First cook dal in water and salt for 15 minutes

Pan on fire.
Heat oil
Pop mustard seeds and fennelgrek and fry curry leaves.
Add onions, stir rapidly until translucent and lightly browned.
Add chili powder, coriander, & tumeric. Stir until tempered.
Add the water from the tamerin, but not the flesh.
Add a few dashes of the asafoetida powder, stir quickly.
Add tomatos and stir until soft.
Salt to taste.
Add the dal and the water and simmer for 20 minutes to boil off some of the liquid.

Coconut chutney

1 1/2 c. fresh grated coconut
sprig of curry leaves
1 green chili pepper with seeds removed
1 1/2 in of ginger peeled
6-8 shallots
1 t salt (real teaspoon, not heaping)

Place shallots and ginger and salt in the food processor
Add 1/2 coconut and a few T of water
Empty from food processor into bowl
Add the remaining 1/2 coconut with the green chili and the curry leaf and mix.
Empty into the same bowl and mix together.

Periyar Tigerless Tiger Trail

I had been trying since mid November to sign up for a camping trip through one of the national tiger reserves. When I first called, the guy said there was no way since they only allowed 5 tourists at a time and 20 tourists per week to camp over night in the park. I decided this was something I wanted to do and persisted calling every week and eventually, last week, there was a cancellation.

I didn't know exactly what I was getting myself into. I can't think of a time since I was 17 that I had camped outside. It didn't occur to me that most people actually go on safaris go to look at the animals in jeeps, not on foot. I'd never seen an unchained elephant before. And that the concept of liability which generally lowers the level of risk in any activity run by an American company doesn't exist in India. But why not?

Periyar is a 770 sq. km. park. with approximately 40 tigers. The reserve is based on a man-made lake formed by a dam built by the British in 1895. (The lake still has trees sticking up from the forest which was flooded over 100 years ago.) Until partition in 1947, the area was a British game park. The reserve was formed in the 1970s, but a federation to stop the poaching of the tigers, elephants and other endangered species was not formed until 1998. Since then they have had considerable success in eliminating the poaching and beginning to rebuild the populations of wildlife and plant life. The camping program is run by ex-poachers who split their job responsibilities between leading tourists and providing security against poachers. At least two of our six guides were former poachers.

I met up with the group I would be trekking with at the park ranger station. As with most things in India, things were a bit chaotic and got off to a late start -- or on time if you are going by "Indian time". The group consisted of three other Australian women and the six Indian guides. We started walking with Varkey, our park ranger, leading the group carrying a rifle that looked like it was a hold over from British days, and Agee, one of our trackers carrying a machete. We were all excited as we headed off.

The first part of the trek was through a part of the park where they allow many tourists to go on boats through the outer sections of the park. It's loud, and we didn't see many animals. We took a (barely floating) raft across the river and began to hike toward our first campsite. We, the tourists, were carrying our own clothes and a bottle of water. The guides were carrying food for 10 for three days, mineral water for us, tents for us, and pots, pans, plates and cutlery for the gourmet meals they were going to prepare. (Actually the food was outstanding and pretty amazing that it could be made with limited equipment and a campfire.)

By the middle of the first day, I began to think of our Indian guides as our our personal troupe of "Tiger Dundees". They could pretty much do anything, very effortlessly. Before arriving at our campsite, we had to cross the river again, but the boat was tied to an underwater tree about 20 meters from the bank. After a loud discussion (one which I believe could have been avoided if they were familiar with "rock, paper, scissor."), Sunod, one of the cooks, took the cloth he had been using to balance the 20L case of water on his head, put it on as a sarong and swam out to get the boat. (Later the sarong, became a pot holder.) When he arrived back, they realized there were no oars, so another of the guys went into the forest, cut down a branch and carved it into an oar in about 5 minutes. They scare away wild animals in the middle of the night. They light campfires in 30 seconds. One of them helped me tailor some clothes to make them jungle friendly. They remain calm when elephants are chasing them. I really felt like there was no situation they couldn't handle - either in the jungle or out. They were both very macho and very charming at the same time. And they all know how to cook like great chefs.

After a lite lunch we headed out on our first afternoon trek with our park ranger and our two trackers. The other three guides stayed back to prepare the campsite and dinner. We walked along the river edge and then up a hill with the guides pointing out various animals. Then we saw our first elephants. We were watching them, and gradually moving up the hill to get a better view. Then, the next thing I knew, our ranger had his rifle pointed above our heads and was motioning for us to get behind him. I don't think he actually said run. I think it was his expression, but we all took off up the hill, with the guides behind us, but also running. Although we were far away, the elephants had seen us and had begun charging. When we were over the crest of the hill, maybe 150 meters, we stopped to catch our breath and then continued to walk rapidly until we were upwind from the elephants. At first, although my adrenaline was pumping, I thought maybe this was something they pulled on all the trekkers since it all happened very fast and I didn't actually see the charging elephants. When we got back to our campsite for dinner, our guides were telling the story to the other guides in Malayalam so we couldn't understand, but the wild hand gestures made it pretty evident that this was not the norm. That said, despite the wild hand gestures, their expressions were excitement, not fear.

We were served an amazing dinner with soup, a main course of six different southern Indian dishes and freshly made flat bread. The guides set up two big fires along both sides of our tents and told us not to worry because they'd be up all night in shifts. They also said that we would periodically hear them scaring animals away, but not to worry. The only thing they would wake us up for was if there were elephants. I never really thought of elephants as unfriendly, but apparently since the poaching stopped, when they use to run when they saw men, they have become comfortable and even aggressive toward man. The guides have an incredibly healthy respect for the elephant's power. Anyway, the other three girls went to sleep after dinner, but since it was only 8 pm, I stayed up and learned how to play a new card game with the guides. Coincidentally, it was a variation of the game the guides in Nepal taught us when we were trekking, Nepali 29, so they were impressed when I picked up the game in the first round.

The jungle makes a lot of noise at night. It sounds exactly like one of the soundtrack options at one of my favorite spas (but they must filter out the monkeys). We were all sitting around and the jungle was making its noises and then after a noise which was totally indistinguishable to me, all six of them sat up straight. Four of them jumped to their feet with their flashlights and darted toward the water. The guy sitting next to me said "the elephants are swimming in the river." Seven words I never expected to hear, especially since I didn't know elephants could swim. He told me to wake up the other women, so I walked over to the tents and said, "wake up, the elephants are swimming in the river." We all got our shoes on and looked at each other wondering what was coming next. The guides set a few small fires and after a lot of again loud discussion, they said we could go back to sleep.

Sleep on a 30 degree angle bed of rocks is a relative term. We woke, if you can say we slept, in the morning and went in search of the elephants. Hoping to have more time looking at the elephants than running from them, the ranger decided this morning we would stay in our raft. Although we had no direct drama on the second day, we did rescue a group of day hikers from coming around a bend toward a family of nine elephants. Our raft was a little bit more underwater than I was comfortable with, but all worked out in the end. After the excitement we rowed back to our camp and had breakfast, packed up camp (which basically meant the guides packed up camp and we watched), and then headed off to our second campsite.

Our second campsite was within a large, deep, dry moat, called an elephant trench, because they can't cross them. We dropped our stuff, went for a swim in the river or bath depending on how you look at it, and then rested up for our afternoon trek.

The afternoon trek was through different terrain, further from the river. At different points, the guides were more or less guarded. When we were walking through the grassy flatland, they kept us close together and more or less formed a triangle around us. You could tell they were highly alert. At other times, they were were more relaxed. It was amazing what they could see. We'd be walking along and they'd motion for us to stop and be quiet. Then they'd walk, completely soundlessly until they found a better view of whatever it was they found. They'd motion for us to come forward. We were never as quiet, but usually didn't scare away the animal. We did have a few more instances of the rifle being cocked and walking quickly away from something, until we made sure nothing was following us -- and thankfully, nothing else started charging toward us.

In the end, we saw tiger paw prints and tiger poo, but no tigers. We did see the following: Black monkeys, common brown monkeys, malbar squirrel, flying ants, bats, sambhar deer, common deer, wild boars, sloth bears, bison, barking deer, porcupines, leeches, honey bees, termites, dragonflies, butterflies, fireflies, kingfisher birds, long tailed drongo, cormorant, egret, kite birds, grey horn bill birds, red ants, black spiders, eagles, woodpeckers, goldfish, turtle, frogs, tadpoles, otters and lots of tribal people.

Next week, I'm heading off to Keralan cooking school and looking forward to the soft bed and lack of adventure.

Tamil Nadu - southeast India

I met a British couple in the Backwaters who were heading to Ponticherry. I didn’t have any particular plans and they asked me if I wanted to come. So I went.

They had lived in Delhi several years ago and had traveled extensively in India and were much more experienced than me on getting around. We took an overnight train on New Year’s Eve to a town called Trichy. New Years was more or less a non-event other than people saying “Happy New Years”. No raucous parties on the train to write home about. I’d never been on a sleeper train before. It wasn’t bad, but not the best night’s sleep either. I was lying in my bunk and could feel the train going up and down the hills and around the bends and stopping at each of the 19 stations. The interesting thing about traveling through the interior southern part of India was that there were really no westerners. There were many, many Indian pilgrims going to the various temples, but not a lot of tourists.

We only stayed in Trichy for a few hours to see two of the landmark temples - it was 473 steps up at the top of a rock. It was one of the festivals we managed to hit, which was an accident as far as I know. The temples in southern India, in Trichy and Chidambaram, are different from any I’ve seen in other places. The architechture is called Dravidian, but they were built under several different dynasties. They are like pyramids with colorful, almost comical figures of gods carved on the outside. I assume they are repainted fairly frequently because they are very vibrant. The temples complexes are surrounded by walls and courtyards where people assembly. In Trichy, the temple had seven surrounding walls and courtyards, but non-Hindus were only allowed into the first six. We also managed to hit a festival – the chariot festival, at Chidambaram. There were literally tens of thousands of Indians visiting the temple while we were there.

At the entrance to the temple complex in each city, there is a temple elephant - of course. If you hold out a rupee, the elephant will take it out of your hand with its trunk and then will bless you by tapping your head with its trunk. I decided to pass for now because the elephants, even when painted for decoration, are still really big and a little scary. Also, although its silly, I felt like I didn’t want to get to close to it with bare feet (you have to walk around all the temples barefoot), as if my shoes would have helped if the elephant stepped on me.

After Trichy, we took a one-hour trip to Tangore. Tangore was another town which had virtually no other tourists. We saw a few in our hotel, but when you went to the sites, there were masses of Indians visiting, coming to pray, but very few westerners. The temple at Tangore is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was different from the earlier ones because it was not painted, but the carvings were stunning and something about the shape of the temple made it a little mesmerizing.

There seemed to be less poverty in the southern parts of India. Although I guess it should have been obvious, there is more water and regardless of all other circumstances, they can grow food. The cities were still dirty, and lacked basic sanitation, but I didn’t see anything which seemed as desperate as in the north.

On day four, we drove to Pondicherry. Until 1954, Pondy was a French colony – and it shows. The second language (or first) of many of the residents is still French and there are more French tourists than from any other country. It has more (western) culture than any other city I’ve been in in the south. Maybe its even a little chic -- they serve coissants instead of wonder-like bread and they use plates and silverware instead of banana leaves. It’s also the cleanest city I’ve been in. Pondy is located on the Bay of Bengal so it has a beautiful view of the water, but the beach is not really for swimming because it has big boulders you have to climb over to get to the sea. The boulders were said to have protected it from significant damage during the tsunami. I did actually climb down one day and put my feet in just so I could say I'd touched the Indian Ocean (then I found out it was the Bay of Bengal). It feels like a combination of a beach town, a hippy hang out, a very proper colony, and a touch of the architecture of New Orleans (although not the jazz music or craziness).

While here, we visited the Sri Aurobindo ashram. When I say visited, I mean, had a tour, but did not stay at the ashram. The couple I was traveling with had a friend involved in the ashram and one of the directors gave us a tour. The founder and his second in command, known as “The Mother” wanted to create a place to facilitate all people of all religious beliefs to meditate and find inner harmony. There are 1200 members who live in the city and exist for the most part on a barter system, offering whatever services they can, whether it be dishwasher or professor. I’m a little bit of a skeptic though. The group owns a tremendous amount of property and has an associated society with members from around the globe, but I think they tend to target big donors. One interesting tidbit of information -- I always assumed "sitting Indian-style" came from American Indians, but after visiting the ashram, and someone asking me where I learned to sit like that, I'm pretty sure its from India. I answered "kindergarden."

The Mother also started a Utopian community called Auroville about 15 km outside of Pondy. Its purpose is to broaden the ashram's goal to help a community find universal harmony. I visited it for a day. Unlike the ashram, they were more open about their challenges. Their goal is to create a society which does not use money and appreciates all members of society. Its especially interesting to try to create this in a country where castes are still an important social status issue. They admit they have not succeeded and that to live there you need to have support from outside family or other funds. However, the tour was very sanitized and there was little opportunity to interact with people from the community except as shopkeepers selling the community members crafts. I wanted to know why they felt were the biggest issues. Did people get along? Was it really a model for the world if you start with people who self select themselves in the community? Why couldn't they do away with money? Would people not do the work they needed to? Did they attract loafers? Regardless, for the people living there, I'm sure it was a very nice way of life. I couldn't help comparing it to a kibbutz, but the community was diverse and seemed to have a lot of communal process, rather than focusing on survival. The picture is of the groups meditation center.

We also went on a tour given by a group called INTEC which has branches in 15 Indian cities which tries to preserve and restore the buildings and historical character of the cities. However, unlike zoning laws or historical sites in the US, there is little-to-no interest or legislative support to aid in their efforts. This is understandable in a country with 30% of the people living below the poverty line. And what little government focus there is goes to preserving and restoring temples and monuments. That said, there are still amazing architectures which are not being preserved.

The group in Pondy seems to be having an impact. They have identified roughly a thousand buildings they want to preserve and although they have no authority have pushed themselves into the building permit process, where they at least now get to try to influence the owner before an old building is knocked down or renovated. And their efforts are having an impact on tourism, so building owners are beginning to take notice.

They are also responsible for starting trash collection in Pondy which I view as perhaps their greatest contribution. I was thinking about one of my urban studies professors who was involved in a project called "the center city district" in Philly. The group was a non-governmental organization which collected money from businesses to privately clean the streets. The philosophy was that people would litter less if the streets were clean. When I asked the director of INTEC about it, he said he thought the Indians just assumed that now someone would clean up after them. It would be interesting to see if it would work in other Indian cities, but again, in a country without a lot of very basic services and a lot of needs, its not a high priority.

The final event of note in Pondy was the International Yoga Convention which had very few non-Indian participants. The main event was a yoga competition, scored in a similar manner to gymnastics. I saw the 10-12 year old category. It was pretty amazing what they could do, but just the same, "competitive yoga" seems to defeat the purpose. Next they'll want to make it an olympic sport.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to the west coast to go hiking in one of the national parks. I'll write more when I get back. Happy New Year and I'll see you when I return (now scheduled for January 27th.

Kerala - southwest India

After Delhi, I decided I needed to relax from my vacation and headed to the south western coast of India – the state of Kerala. Frequently, the writings call the state “G-d’s own country” because of the natural beauty. (Although it’s funny that “G-d” is capitalized and singular given the population. Although the name probably came from one of the various groups which colonized.)

Life in the south is much slower and more relaxed than the north, and probably because they don’t speak Hindi as their native language, much of the population speaks very reasonable English. The temperature in December and January has been in the mid-80s to mid-90s, so I'm amused that the vendors are all trying to sell wool shawls. There’s a siesta in the hottest part of the afternoon where lots of things close for a few hours, although they don’t call it ‘siesta’ – in English they just say to the tourists "lunch". Although it’s said to be one of the more developed states, there is less traffic, but the horn blowing persists. The men walk around in “longhi’s” or above-the-knee, wrap-around skirts. It takes some getting use to.

Kerala is, today, the only state in India which consistently votes for the communist party. There tends not to be as much poverty, or economic extremes in either direction. The literacy rate is said to be above 90%. They don’t speak Hindi, instead they speak Malayam. It’s this very smooth, rolling language where its difficult to tell where one word ends and the next starts, but it sounds a lot like poetry.

One interesting thing in Kerala is that Coca-cola is banned from being sold in state stores and generally isn’t widely available. I thought this was kind of symbolic of it being anti-free market. There were accusations that Coke was tested by a state facility and found to have 14x higher levels of fertilizer than in Coke in other parts of the world and that they weren’t using the same high standards they would elsewhere because it was too expensive. Depending on who you talk to you get different stories. The side I tend to believe is that the product was probably safe, but that if other developed countries have no fertilizer in the water, then 14x can still be a safe amount and probably was significantly less than was in the drinking water. Really the story is that Coke was accused of using too much water and the farmers didn’t like it and they didn’t pay off the officials they were suppose to, resulting in an unresolved suit and counter-suit between the state and the company which will be in the India court system for years. It was an interesting bit of trivia for a diet coke addict.

Cochin

Cochin was an attraction for me because one of my many jobs when I was in Israel, was to copy-edit a book at the Israel Museum called “The Jews of India.” Cochin was one of three Jewish communities. The oldest community was the B’nai Israel community who are thought to have left Israel after the destruction of the 2^nd Temple. They were lost to the Jewish community for many years until some members of the Cochini Jewish community identified them by some of their eating customs – not to eat meat and cheese and maybe also candle lighting. The second group are the Bagdadi Jews who came from Persia several centuries later and settled on the east coast of India in Kolkata. Finally, although there may have been some Jews in the region as traders earlier, the community at Cochin came directly and indirectly from Spain after the Inquisition.

Only one synagogue remains active, although there were at one time as many as 16. This synagogue was built in the late 1500s. At its peak there were as many as 50K Jews in Cochin, but in the 1970’s the majority of them moved to Israel. Today there are a handful of older Jews who still live in the area of town called “Jewtown” and the rest of the minyon drives in from surrounding towns on Shabbat. I attended services on Shabbat and was fortunate enough to be invited for Kiddish at one of the member’s homes and talk to him about the history of the community. As it happens, his daughter lives on 71^st street and goes to the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue. It was Chanukah, so we had tradition fried Indian snacks. There aren’t any traditional Jewish-Indian Chanukah foods, I was told. In some ways it feels sad that the community is probably not going to be there in 20 years, but at the same time, they were never persecuted, but they left because they thought life would be better in Israel. Also while I was there I met someone returning for a visit from Israel who had left when she was twelve in the 1970’s and another whose grandmother had grown up there.

Completely unrelated to her visit to the synagogue in Cochin, the woman whose grandmother had lived there, told me one of my favorite “travels in India” stories. She and her boyfriend had bought a camel at an auction and walked through the desert from Puskar to Jodpur on foot (the camel carried their bags) for 16 days steering by the sun. Although they couldn’t speak to them, the people in the villages helped them buy food for their camel and invited them for meals. But they aren’t taking the camel home to Jerusalem. They sold it at a huge loss because they wanted to find it a good home with someone who would love him. They called it Puskar because sometimes he needed a little push. I decided not to follow their trek this time, because it’s important to leave a reason to return.

I thought I’d stay for three days in Cochin, but ended up there for about 5 days and had to remind myself there were other things to see.

The Backwaters

About 70 km south of Cochin is an area called the Backwaters, known for its canals, rice paddies and spa treatments.

I spent one day on a houseboat with two other Americans that I had met in Cochin. About twenty years ago, someone decided the riceboats which were used in the canals could be converted into houseboats and take tourists along the canals. While it was beautiful and peaceful, it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. At present, there are about 400 houseboats out on the canals. Its not that we saw too many of them, but the experience has become to touristy. Although I will say, that our chef was amazing.

Instead of continuing on the houseboat, we found a homestay, actually kind of by accident, but it was really amazing. The house was 150 years old and was located along one of the less traveled canals. The homestay had four rooms, communal meals and was run by the great grand son of the original owner. I read in the guidebook that you have to go by boat to the island where the place is, but I couldn’t believe when it our boat was pole powered, a la the Venetians. The food was outstanding. It was true southern Indian food, served on banana leaves. When we arrived there was a couple there from Sri Lanka, who taught us all how to eat properly with our fingers (although I never realized you needed lessons, there is some technique to being efficient).

Over the next few days, I went on walks along the canals and rode around in small pole-powered boats through the neighborhood. It felt a little voyeristic, but it was interesting and the people were friendly. Two things I noticed. Even though we were out in the middle of the country, there was still a lot of noise. The temples and mosques compete with prayers over the PA systems. Another source of noise, and this will sound a little strange, is the women doing their laundry, standing at the edge of the river, beating the clothing against the rocks. I don't understand how exactly this cleans the clothes, but they all seem to do it and it seems to be a major daily activity. I know I've written a lot about the dirtiness in India, but it only really applies to the public domain. Personally, the Indians seem to take great pride in their hygiene and appearance.

Most of the people who live along the canals work in the paddy fields. Its hard work and most of it is still done by hand. At the time of the British partition the land was divided up and distributed so I think that most people own something, but there were grumblings about it not being done totally equitably, etc. The large field behind the house was farmed communally with the owners dividing the profits proportionately to their ownership.

For the most part, it was another place to relax. The Americans left me there after the first night because they were on a shorter trip than me, but I met my next travel partners there before I left and headed to the east coast with them.