Kerala pt 2: Munnar

The next stop on my two-week adventure in Kerala was Munnar. As we drove up through the mountains on our way to the official town of Munnar I found myself instantly in love. I was pretty much ready to find any excuse I could to stay in Munnar forever. The mountain are big and beautiful and covered in tea bushes. The patterns made by the tea plants make the hills look like a huge patchwork quilt. One guide book describes Munnar as having a Sound of Music backdrop and I couldn't agree more. In addition to it's fabulous beauty, Munnar has the benefit of being cool (I wore a light jacket at night!!). If you plan to see the waterfall and are coming from the top of the mountain, make sure you give yourself ample time and don't believe anyone who says it is only two kilometers. There's a very nice hotel on the way down, which I unfortunately forgot the name of but had nice food and looked way out of our price range. On the bus ride into Munnar we passed tons of amazing looking hotels hanging off the cliff, but I'm not sure if those were technically in Munnar or some tiny little towns.
Things seem to close early, at least in the off-season, but there are plenty of sights to see during the day including many gardens, damns and a waterfall. The central hub of town is a bit longer than walking distance from the KRSTC bus station/our guesthouse but there is food within easy walking distance.

Accomodations: JJ Cottage- This was a very nice place with reasonable prices. Three of us stayed in one room with a giant bed (which actually turned out to be 2 beds pushed together) and one of the cleanest and bluest bathrooms I saw anywhere in India. Our room came with a tv and a pretty strong ceiling fan, though unfortunately no window other than one in the bathroom. I was never able to get the water anywhere above chilly temperature despite our hostesses assurance that there was hot water always available. Our friends stayed in a room down the hall which also seemed adequately spaced and nice and clean. There was a bit of noise from a small temple located behind us, but other than that it was a very nice place, with a very sweet resident cat.

Eating: SN Resteraunt - This was the most convenient and least sketchy looking place to eat near us. The food was excellent and served quickly too. Prices are pretty reasonable for any meal. Meals are served on a banana leaf!
Silver Spoon- Further into the main part of town and best accessed by rickshaw if you are staying farther out in the outskirts but also with good food. We came in the afternoon and had to wait a very long time but their paneer was delicious. We were saddened by the fact that the Indian music stopped about 5 minutes after we arrived and was replaced by terrible western 90s music, presumably for our pleasure.

There are plenty of places which sell chocolates, spices and tea in Munnar for extremely good prices, all of which are excellent quality.

A guide to Kerala Pt. 1

I've been back in the states for about a month now and I realized today that I still hadn't put together my little Kerala guide that I had intended to create. The purpose of the guide is just to give my review of places I stayed and ate. While it is true that you can find most of these places reviewed at other sources (LP cough cough), I wanted to provide slightly more detailed account in a forum with more space then say, a guide book. So this is mainly for anyone planning on traveling in Kerala, although there will be some description of my travels too.

So, first off Fort Cochin (central Kerala).

I flew into the Cochin area which was pretty easy, however the airport is about an hour out from the ft Cochin Beach area/ my favorite named town, Jew town. You pass through Ernakulam to get there, which seems to be a very city area similar to Hyderabad, though much smaller from what I gather. You can take a cab from the airport all the way there or you can go to the ferry and then take it across from Ernakulam to Cochin. Our friends stayed at a place which they said was cheap and reasonable right next to the ferry. Where we stayed was about 1.5km from the ferry.

Accomodations: Elite Hotel on Princess street- The rooms are tolerably clean. We stayed for 4 nights without any real problems. The room had a tv and the bathroom was reasonably clean. Not a terrible place to stay but not amazing either. There is a restaurant downstairs which has a great little bakery. The location is what really sells this place because it is right in the center of everything. Hotels line the streets all around there as do shops and places to eat and the water is a 2 minute walk away. Off-season is pretty laid back.

Eating: Kashi Art Cafe - Probably the best place I've eaten western food in India. No it wasn't Indian and yes I enjoyed it but the value is incredible. This place is open for breakfast and lunch only and has one item on the menu per day for each meal in addition to an assortment of cakes and drinks. For 85 rupees I had a bowl of the best cream of mushroom soup I've ever eaten and an epically huge slice of quiche with fruit slices. This place also boasts by far the greatest ice tea I've ever tasted which is served with sugar syrup and fresh lime to be added at your discretion. The breakfast omelets are wonderful as are the cake and fruit platters.
There are many places to eat in the area including our Elite hotel restaurant which had pretty good food at fairly good prices. Notable also is the Calm Cafe across the street with debatably calm music. The prices at Calm are a little higher than some budget places but as we found out, it is generally worth it to pay a little more for higher quality seafood.

Other notes and observations on Kerala/Cochin: It is dreadfully humid!! From the moment we got there we were drenched in sweat. It was not nearly as hot as the dry heat in Hyderabad but the humidity was killer. It was definitely worth it though because Kerala is gorgeous. Kerala is highly Christian and there is an interesting fusion of Indian culture and Christianity in the many churches you find in Cochin. There are large and colorful statues of saints in front of most churches which are reminiscent of Hindu temple statues.

Goats are everywhere roaming about in addition to the usual dogs. There is no Hindi script almost anywhere in the region. The whole state is a giant garden of greenery, thus earning it the nickname "God's Country". The local dance for is Katekali, which is closer to a play than a dance and is worth seeing because it is quite bizarre and fascinating. Kerala in general seems to have a high proportion of Aruvedic treatments. I got a full body massage for a pretty hefty sum by Indian standards, but if you can handle a bit of invasion of privacy its actually a pretty great deal.
During the off season the vendors are incredibly tame by Indian standards, barely even bothering to ask you more than once to have a look in their shop. They are also far more willing to cut deals in order to sell something.

Still to come: Allepey, Munnar, Varkala

If for some reason you don't know...

I have made it back to the states alive and have been home for a week getting back into life. I have a ton that I should update on in addition to my little proposed guide of Kerala hotels and foods. For now though I have photos.... More to come



Ft. Cochin 1

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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049320&id=29503181&l=a2a3612468

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That's all folks...

So this is the end for me now!! I'm about to head over to the airport and get on a plane for Kerala. For the next few weeks I will be traveling around Kerala which is the south and west of India. I'm going with a few friends and then when they go back I will travel with my roomate for a couple days down to the very very tip of India where all the seas come together.

So I'm saying my farewells because I probably won't have internet or anything over the next two weeks. I'll be flying home from Hyderabad on May 9th so I'll see you all then!

As the end approaches

Although I have been able to get some things which I miss from home I have had them on rare occasions. Other things are just not possible here in India so I present my lists…
Things I miss from the US:
Foods:
Burgers
Salads
Reeses
Wawa- mac and cheese and subs
Cold cuts and mustard and sandwiches (though I’ve had a lot of subway recently)
Good chocolate (most chocolate tastes wrong here)
Chocolate chip cookies
Brownies (home made)
Sushi
Starbucks (There has been some coffee compensation at times)
Mashed potatoes
Mexican Food
Green beans (I don’t know why either)
Bagels and cream cheese
Avocado

Other:
A comfy bed
Being able to throw toilet paper into the toilet instead of into a nearby receptacle
Being in a NJ mall
Summer rains
Being able to cook
Being able to drive


Things I will miss in India:
Tea time
The songs cars play when they back up
Rickshaws
Not getting sunburned!
The really sweet guys who serve us at our meals
Red carrots
Making your own lane of traffic on the road
Soda coming in glass bottles
Weird Indian English

Additionally, I added more photos... Probably the last batch before I leave. I haven't been able to get the videos uploaded yet but I do have a few including our tabla performance and a little tour of the lake area.

Comparing methods of transportation in India

Rickshaw: While the rickshaw may be costly due to an imposed “white tax”, it may be my favorite. It is always an ordeal to haggle with a rickshaw driver but sometimes you can get a fairly reasonable price and you can’t beat the convenience of going exactly where you want to go. There’s something really exciting about being so close to the road (and the traffic) and having the “fresh” air rushing by. If you are lucky enough you might even get a rickshaw driver to blast Indian music in your ears as you speed down the highway. I’ve seen ten people crammed into one little rickshaw so they are also very space efficient (if you are willing to squish).

Bus: The bus wins points for being the most economical, however it is also generally the most unpleasant. I’m not unfamiliar with cramming a large number of commuters into a small space back at home but India is inherently different. A person in New York can be pressed up against you in a subway car but still ignore you; a person in India may strike up a conversation. The concept of social space doesn’t exist here. Of course there is also the added interest of the fare collector making his way back and forth across the bus on a semi-regular basis. If you are taking a long distance bus then be prepared to be crammed into a seat with at least two other people in the heat for the next few hours.

Despite the crowding, the bus experience often redeems itself when one makes a friend. There is almost always someone who is interested in talking to the clearly out of place Americans or helping them with their large bag of purchases from the day.

Cabs: For those who have the money, there is the option of the cab. It costs 500 rupees for four hours and it will take you anywhere (except the airport). If you put five people in a cab that’s only 100r (about 2 dollars) for the luxury of having your own personal driver. We’ve been opting for these a lot lately because it means we can travel to multiple places without having to fight with a rickshaw driver on each trip. While there are cabs about it is not a very widely used option by most Indians due to the cost.

Trains: There are two types of trains: long distance trains and commuter style trains. The commuter trains run in the city and are a pretty cheap and good deal. Depending on the time you travel it can either be very pleasant or very unpleasant. I have been on one extremely crowded train which was as bad as a bus but all my other experiences have been fairly spacious. There are female only cabins and then general compartments which both are reasonable. What I like best about the trains is that there are no doors, or at least they very rarely seem to be closed. You can watch the city outskirts rush by and feel the breeze, though sometimes the smell is enough to make you wish the door would close.

As for overnight trains these seem to range in comfort and quality by a large amount. There are a range of classes one can ride in on the overnight trains from general class (which I’ve been strongly advised against) to regular sleeper to sleeper AC. General Class may leave you without a seat, sleeper will get you a seat which converts to a bed. The sleeper AC classes come in three-tier and two-tier which denotes the amount of beds in a compartment. AC three-tier is like regular sleeper in which three beds will unfold per side of the wall and there is air conditioning. Two-tier is nice because you get a little compartment with four beds (2 per side). I’ve found some trains to be extremely bumpy and a bit nauseating while others have been fairly smooth. Sleeper class is pretty grimy and you will feel gross once you get off the train ten hours later. AC is not quite so bad and sometimes you get shifted around to a different compartment so that it is all female or all male instead of mixed. While trains are generally reliable you may find yourself sitting at a station for four hours for some unknown reason. As with everything in India it is always a gamble.

PHOTOS!

Finally I've uploaded all the photos I currently have on my camera so I'm presenting them here.

Ashram part 1, 2, and 3

Mysore Trip, North Trip 1, 2,3

Random things