South India Tour Part II

The group really wanted to go out to these two islands just off the coast of Kan Yakumari, so we stayed an extra day in order to be able to do that. The five minute ferry dropped us first at a temple on a small island. It was a place where a man named Swami had meditated for 30 days; I meditated there for an hour. It was really something, meditating in India finally! Then we ferried over to the next island two minutes away where there was a huge statue of Swami, I'm pretty sure. We climbed up the foreboding staircase with water dripping down unexpectedly out into the open air at the statue's feet. His big toe was larger than two of my feet put together. After being out in the sun all morning, we returned to the cool A/C of the bus with tons of Aloe lotion for our lobstered faces.

The bus headed for the next beach town of Tamil Nadu- Kovalam. It was a beautiful, and, above all, clean stretch of beach that was surprisingly uncrowded. I think this is due to the fact that many Indians have never learned to swim. I don't know why, but I think there are very few. Indeed, all the Indians in the water were staying where the water only covered mid-thigh, which was great because it left all the good body-surfing waves to us. After an unfortunate number of "nasal cleanses", I retired to shopping with Julia along the colorful stretch of beach. With a "Madam, please" here and a "looking is free" there, here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a "sister, good price for you only". Old McAnna had $80, and how she watched it go.  Every girl on the trip got these awesome pants that were like a skirt with the middle sown together. Two holes at either corner of the fabric triangle made room for your feet.

Next day we crossed the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border and headed for the backwaters, where we took a boat to our island hotel. Just a small island in a big river, and a 1.5 hour wait for your dinner. After the food I was the first to get a traditional Kerala massage, but I was sadly disappointed. It took place on a wooden table where this lady rubbed at least 1/2 kilo of coconut oil on me. Not BAD, but surprisingly dangerous as I found out when I was asked to roll onto my side and almost slipped off. Consequently, I had coconut oil in places it should never be (ears and belly button). After listening to one of the two boys' accounts of his massage, I am so contented with mine. He wasn't too psyched about the full naked man-to-man oil rubbing.

We visited a few other towns, but I don't remember their names or what we did so obviously they weren't of much consequence. The last two days were spent near Kochin. We woke up at 6 in the morning to drive an hour and go wash elephants in one of the backwaters, but to our severe disappointment, we arrived too late. We got to see the babies eating, though, which I thought was cool. They wrap their trunk around a bamboo branch and pull off all the leaves to eat. So we packed up, ate cucumber sandwiches, and headed off on another long drive to a waterfall. The last day of the trip we went to an old palace. The guide said that the palace was only in use for one year, and had just been re-opened after sixty-something years for tourists. The architecture was amazing-all the dragons, dancers, lotuses, and so many other designes carved into the ceilings was by itself stunning. And with that our trip ended and the three of us Coimbatorians headed back home.