Bye Mysore!

Last night we enjoyed a meal with our Baha’i friends in Mysore. It is sad to leave them, but we are hoping to see them in Goa as there is a Baha’i gathering there around the 10th of April. We’ll see if our pleas for their attendance are heard!

(Vijay, Christina, Nadim, KY, Naseem, Arshan, Roya, Yasmin, Shimmy, Carmel)

This morning was spent packing and home-schooling. Our train to Bangalore was in the early afternoon. There were some teachers doing an exchange trip who were also on the train with us. India is a very friendly place and so a couple of them struck up conversations with us along the way.

Yasmin and Roya were a big hit with them, and ended up singing one of our favourite songs “Good Neighbours Come in All Colours”. The whole car of passengers was entertained!
We were greeted by the usual crowd of rickshaw drivers who are trying to scam you out of your money, but we are wise to this now and waved them away. Instead we went for the pre-paid auto-rickshaw stand and paid a much more reasonable fair.

Tomorrow we will need to repack and go back to the train station to go to Hampi. I had hoped that we could avoid another overnight train ride, but that wasn’t possible. So I resign myself to one more overnight train ride (to Hampi), and one more daytime train ride (from Hampi to Goa). We were debating taking the train from Goa back to Bangalore, but the schedules weren’t right, or the train was full, so we’ve booked a flight back to Bangalore.

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Karanji Lake

We visited a large park this morning. It was nice to leave behind Mysore’s noise and traffic and enjoy some time with nature. There was a play area for kids, so Yasmin and Roya enjoyed themselves there for a bit while Nadim and I sat on a bench and had some chai, plotting and planning various aspects of our trip. I thought it was kind of interesting to watch the daily life in the park. They had a cart and some oxen that they were using for clearing rubbish. They paint their horns here so they look pretty colourful.

While we were sitting there, a couple with a little baby came up to us and placed their baby between Nadim and me and stood back to take a picture. I thought it was kind of funny. Later we went into a bird sanctuary where we saw beautiful peacocks and other interesting birds, but once again, we seemed to be the attraction and off floating somewhere in the electronic universe is another picture of Nadim and me and the girls with a family we don’t know, but we’re all smiling! I wonder what they will tell their friends... “Hey, we went to the bird sanctuary and we saw some foreigners there...”

We walked to the far end of the park to see a butterfly garden, but it wasn’t too impressive. There were a few butterflies, but not too many varieties. Ah well, the garden was on a little island with lots of flowers and we enjoyed the scenery.

This evening we’re getting together with our Baha’i friends one last time. We’re having a potluck dinner and Nadim and I are responsible for tea and dessert. I think we’re getting off pretty easy this time!

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Sleepy Time

Last night there was a storm. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, the wind ravaged, rain poured down, and Yasmin and Roya slept on oblivious to it all. Nadim and I were not so lucky. We woke up with the storm. The power went out and so did our fan. So we woke up again from the heat and from the mosquitoes. Needless to say we didn’t feel overly rested in the morning.

We took an easy day reading our books and doing a bit of cleaning. After dinner, Naseem and Khodayar stopped by for tea. We had a nice chat with them and also with Vijay and Shimmy. Little Carmel and Arshan kept us entertained with their antics.

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Eventful day

Off to the old age home again this morning. More sewing for me. I’m getting pretty good at sewing with the manual machine! Nadim had more cleaning and repair work on the wheels of the trolleys and Yasmin and Roya were even set to work. They were tasked with stripping out the hard part of the palm leaves so that they could later be made into brooms. They had fun with it and got nice and dirty from the dusty leaves. What more could a kid ask for?

We had some awesome news today from Nadim’s brother. The girls were very happy to learn that they have another girl cousin, named Amaya! We couldn’t get hold of him because it is a holiday and the Internet shop was not open at the right time. Ahhhh.

Later in the afternoon we, along with Vijay and Shimmy, went to Khodayar and Naseem’s house for tea. It was still pretty hot, so we decided to go out to a park in the early evening as it was cooler than the house. Then we all went for pizza followed by ice cream.

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Volunteering

This morning we went back to the old people’s home. This time we were set to work a little quicker, and we felt a lot more useful.

Nadim was tasked with cleaning and greasing the wheels on a trolley. He was quite happy to make his hands greasy and fiddle with various parts and even use tools again! I think he might have been missing his man cave (or garage as they are known to most of us).

As for me, Nadim helped me out by suggesting to the sister who had put him to work that I would be happy to help him if there was nothing else for me to do. The sister told him that this wasn’t women’s work and wondered whether I could sew. Nadim gave me a glowing recommendation and so I was set to work in the room next door hemming sheets.

I used a sewing machine that was operated with a manual foot peddle. The machine looked like an antique to me, but once I figured out how to make it go forward, instead of backwards, it seemed to work fairly well. I guess they use the foot peddle powered ones because they are less expensive and aren’t plagued by power outage issues. I’ve seen many shop keepers working away with these ancient looking machines, but I guess it does the trick.

The girls helped us a bit, but at lunch time they helped us in the dining hall serving the residents. Nadim and Roya helped in the mens dining hall, and Yasmin and I worked in the women’s dining hall. These folks seem to have quite good appetites!

After lunch it was time for us to head back to the Baha'i Centre and finish our school work. We all perfer school work in the mornings, but for one week we can manage this way.

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Planet X

We went to the “Sister’s of the Poor”, an old age home for the poor. We helped out a little with lunch, and talked with some of the residents. I wished we could have done a little more. Their volunteer employment coordinator is not in this week so it’s a bit difficult to determine what tasks we could do. We plan to go back tomorrow morning so hopefully we’ll be put to good use then.

We did our school work this afternoon and then we went with some of the Baha’is that we’ve become friends with to Planet X. It’s a place with go-karts, mini golf, arcade games, pool tables, and bowling. We spent our time there doing a round of bowling. Nadim was the high scorer with a sickening amount of strikes. I was somewhere in the middle with less than half the points that Nadim had, and we’ll just leave the low scorer nameless! The girls had their own lane with bumpers so that they weren’t plagued with gutter balls.

After bowling we enjoyed some air hockey and a jet ski video game. It was tough dragging the girls out of the place so that we could go to dinner. We went to one of our favourite places, Veg Kourt, and had some laughs around the dinner table and a generally enjoyable time.

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Line-up Blues

Lining up for anything is an unknown concept here! People just crowd around counters and push their way forward, or try to pass their money to the agent (usually from over your shoulder). As some of you may know, I have a particular affinity for orderliness and fairness. You can well imagine my reaction to the inability of people to follow simple rules.

We went to the train station today to book tickets for one portion of our trip to Goa. First you have to find the right counter. There are two and they are at opposite ends of the station. Of course we went to the wrong end but they kind of vaguely wave in the right direction and expect you to find your way. Once you find the right set of counters, you first have to get a form from one counter, fill it out with all the details of your trip, not just name, date and destination, but train number and type and a bunch of other stuff that you don’t know, then you go to another window and make your reservation.

As I approached the first window and started to talk to the agent, someone said “excuse me”, got in front of me and started to buy his ticket, and the ticket agent actually served him first! Well, I had to take a deep breath and pressed on, but this time I kept my elbows firmly on the counter and brought my face directly in front of the window so nobody could edge their way in. As I was talking to the agent, other people were actually trying to push their hands and money in between me and the guy next to me and get the agent’s attention. So I squeezed firmly against the guy next to me, leaving no gap for anyone else while at the same time keeping a strong hold of the counter and window! Some people were trying to get forms, so I promptly removed the stack of forms from in front of the agent and placed them away from the counter and said to everyone “If you want forms, get them here, don’t push through me.” That helped a little, but not too much.

Having filled out the form, I went over to the reservation counter, where people were sort of lined up against the length of the counter instead of in front of it. No matter, I found a spot in the line to wait and made sure I was almost touching the guy in front of me. Good thing too because several people walked by and tried to squeeze into the line. When they got near me, I gave them a dirty look and pointed to the end of the line. Not that they really cared, they just found another “line” to squeeze into.

The ticket agent told me there was a waiting list for the train we wanted, and when I asked what happens if we show up and there are no seats, she said calmly that you have to cancel your ticket and wait for the next train, which will not be for another 2 days! She was starting to book the waiting-list tickets when I asked her if there was maybe another train that had space. Then she said there was and it had seats available and would I like that one instead! Well let me think about it – YES!

I finally managed to buy our tickets and we got out of there. It is quite frustrating, but you just have to laugh about it because “this is India”. There has to come a time when the Indian people themselves will say enough and start to make some changes. Until that time, we are all just some crazy foreigners with weird ideas like line-ups and customer service, which is a topic for another day!

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comforts of home

We’re back in Mysore with all its comforts. Some of the cleaning that I had done on our first arrival, and contacting the right people meant that we arrived to a nice clean room. We’re really thankful for the kitchen too. The other Baha’i centre had a burner, but didn’t have much else, so the fridge and the various pots and pans are a welcome sight. We’re a bit tired of eating out all the time.

I never thought I’d say this, but even the laundry scrubbing stone was welcome! We’ve been washing our clothes ourselves as we went to various places and Nadim really missed his scrubbing stone! He put it to good use this morning while I was busy with the girls getting school lessons in.

This afternoon we went off to Big Bazaar. We had a coupon and since we’d had such luck the last couple of times we visited, we thought we’d try again, but alas it appears our luck at Big Bazaar has run out. We came home empty handed for a change!

This evening I think we may watch a movie on our laptop. Speaking of movies... Nadim and I watched “Slum Dog Millionaire” a couple of weeks ago. It was really cool to see some of the places we’ve been and some very familiar sights. If you haven’t seen it, you should, and then you should tell us what you thought!

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Back to Mysore

Our plans continue to change as we go. Originally we had planned to stay in Mysore and skip Bangalore, but then we changed our minds and thought we’d stay in Bangalore for the last two weeks of March, now we’ve decided to come back to Mysore for a week. We took the train back to Mysore and arrived this afternoon. It felt a little like coming home.

We missed our friends in Mysore and the Baha’is in Bangalore were slow to get us involved in their projects so we thought perhaps we could be of most use in Mysore where we had already made some connections. The schools are now either in exams or closed for summer so we can’t continue our volunteer work there, but we thought that perhaps we might help out at the old age home that we had visited at Ayyamiha time.

We went out this afternoon with Khodayar and Naseem for a late lunch and now we are happily settling in at the Baha’i Centre. The girls have been happy to get out their Indian Barbies that they got for Naw Ruz gifts, we enjoyed our afternoon chai, and are once more resigned to the power cuts that are more frequent in Mysore than elsewhere it seems!

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Happy New Year!

We spent the better part of the day at one of the Baha’i Centres in Bangalore. There was a Naw Ruz program with dancing, singing, a skit, and a panel discussion. All this before lunch! We particularly enjoyed the dancing. A young girl was performing and she was so expressive, particularly with the eye movements, and she had an amazing costume as well, complete with ankle bracelets with bells.

We had a late lunch, which is typical of India, and then we sat and chatted with a few Baha’is that remained for the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening we had some facilitated discussions around the topic of service and how we can serve humanity in our own ways. This was then followed by some games and then a bon fire and supper. I particularly liked the activity during the games session where four fellows sat in a square and then had to lean on each other. Eventually they could remove the four chairs that were supporting them. I’ll have to remember that one for another time.

The girls had a great time playing with the other kids. In particular they had fun with Ruhi, who was another eight year old girl. I’m not sure what they did all afternoon, but we didn’t hear or see much of them and whenever we did see them, they were full of smiles, so I guess it must have been good... or really bad??!!!

We ended the evening with supper. We had a Persian soup that we hadn't had for a long time and it was delicious! There was a lot of left-over food from the day and I thought it very nice that it was packaged up and given to those in need, that very night.

Happy New Year everyone!

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Lalbagh Garden

The science projects are proving a bit of a challenge. The glue isn’t working so well, and I really wish we had a glue gun, but we didn’t have room in our suitcases for that! None the less, we will persevere.

This afternoon we went off to the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens to forget our science project frustrations. The garden is full of huge old trees, shaded pathways and palm trees.

There were not a lot of flowers in bloom, but some of the trees were flowering and quite beautiful. Again we sat reading our books, or chatting and simply enjoying the quiet. A chai walla came by so we couldn’t miss the opportunity to have chai in the park.

This evening we went off to the Baha’i Feast to mark the end of the Baha’i year and the beginning of the new one. It was very informal and a little disorganized, but it all worked out nicely in the end.

Tomorrow is the Baha’i New Year (Naw-Ruz)! The girls are excited, as they expect gifts are involved (rightly so, but we tease them that gifts are only for good little girls and are they sure they’ve been good). We plan to spend the day in Bangalore at a celebration where there will be games, food and even a bon fire. The following day we head back to Mysore again to visit Baha’is there once more.

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School Project

The girls needed supplies for a science project that we are starting, so this afternoon we went in search of popsicle sticks and the like. We stopped at a grocery store and found a few other things we needed, but no popsicle sticks.

As the girls and I waited at the front of the store for Nadim to finish checking out, we saw one of the uniformed store staff walk out holding the tail of a large mouse! He jogged across the street with it and laid it gently in a pile of leaves and rubbish before returning to the store. I guess his religious beliefs couldn’t permit him to rid the store of the creature permanently! Yasmin’s face was pretty disgusted. I ended up having a big laugh about it and the store staff just smiled nonchalantly.

We did eventually find our popsicle sticks down one of the side streets. Even in Bangalore, as soon as you are slightly off the main street you see cows at the side of the road. It’s very strange how everything is everywhere in India. I still get a laugh out of it, although it seems much more normal now. Funny how our sense of normal can change so quickly.

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Cubbon Park

Bangalore is known as “The Garden City” for its many parks and gardens. This afternoon we whiled away our time in Cubbon Park, one of Bangalore’s largest. It is shaded by many old trees. I found their strange shapes very interesting, and the girls were happy to climb a tree that had particularly bent limbs.

We stopped and read our books for a bit. We had to find a place off the main path as we didn’t feel like being objects of interest. We find we get a lot of stares. I think staring here is much more acceptable than at home. Sometimes we catch someone staring us, but they don’t look away, they often continue to check us out, unabashed.

The sun crept into our shaded benches and chased us away to explore other parts of the park. We found some boulders to climb, and some other shaded pathways before we found another comfortable spot to sit. It was a quiet afternoon spent with nature that has made us feel content.

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Trains, Planes, Auto-rickshaws

Yesterday was very busy. We caught the train from Varkala to Cochin where we were picked up by an Iranian Baha’i from the area, Mr.Ghanbari. He took us to his house where we visited with his wife, who is from Sri Lanka and their four-year-old son, Vaheed, for the afternoon. We were joined later in the evening by Rakesh, another Baha’i from the area. We had a lovely meal together and discussed both our and their Baha’i communities and the export business in India as that is Mr. Ghanbari’s profession.

We stayed at a hotel near the airport and caught a morning flight back to Bangalore. School work was waiting for us. It has been a much deserved, week-long break from school, but today it was back to it again.

Late this afternoon we went to M.G. (Mahatma Gandhi) Road. It is a shopping area, where I wanted to finish buying a few gifts, and where Nadim was on the hunt for a new knapsack. We were successful on both fronts, but there was some heavy bargaining involved and we actually had to return to one shop because we found the same item a few shops down the line for so much cheaper. All this hassle seems to be second nature to Indian people, but to us we find arguing and haggling quite exhausting, particularly if you aren’t in the frame of mind for it and today I guess we weren’t.


The area also provides some fast food restaurants, upscale coffee shops, and the like. It was a bit of a treat to take advantage of some of these things as well.

Today marks six months of traveling! In some respects it seems like it can’t possibly be that long that we’ve been away, but we’ve seen so much that in other ways it seems impossible to have fit so much into that time frame.

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Last Beach Day

Today was our last full day in Varkala Beach. On Friday we had changed rooms to the corner unit. It has been great because we get a cross breeze and there’s a hammock! The kids have been taking turns playing in it, and I managed to get a turn and had a nap in it yesterday. So today we played some cards, read our books, and relaxed in the morning.

Our afternoon was spent browsing through shops and then at the beach. The waves were still huge, but the current that was sweeping us down the beach yesterday had let up a bit so it was a bit safer to play in the waves. The clouds rolled in, as they’ve done for the past few evenings, so we got cleaned up and started to pack things up.

Tomorrow morning we’re taking a train back to Cochin. The following morning we’ll be catching a flight back to Bangalore.

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The Quest

Yasmin is in love with Harry. Who’s Harry? Well of course it’s the famous Harry Potter! She had finished the fifth book in the series a few days ago and was going through withdrawal. The helpful fellow who runs the guest house we are staying in said he had one at home, but he wasn’t sure if it was the sixth or seventh book. He forgot it the first day and the next day he remembered, but it was the seventh book.

We had been looking along the used book exchange places but hadn’t found a copy there either! We went into Varkala town today for the bank, and tried a couple of the shops there, but they didn’t have it either! Yasmin was starting to panic. She had nearly resigned herself to some other inferior book that we had found in one of the book shops along the cliff, but then we went along a little further and Nadim came back with a shining copy of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”! Hallelujah! Big smiles and an afternoon of reading were in store for us. Roya is on the fourth book, and so am I (although this afternoon I had to dig into something else because Roya had dibs). Nadim is on the fifth book, and Yasmin is on the sixth. It’s like we’re an advertisement for the Harry Potter series.

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More boating

We went through some backwaters again today. The rickshaw picked us up at the hotel around 9 for a 30-minute bumpy, bouncy ride to a little dock, where we boarded a bunting boat for our cruise through the backwaters. It was nice and quiet and we could hear the birds as we wound our way through the calm waters.

We passed by groups of people smashing coconut shells to remove the stringy material. They use this to make fishing nets, ropes, etc. One group invited us for a visit, so we went ashore and talked to them for a few minutes. They showed us what they were doing and Christina and the girls even got to smash a couple of shells. There were piles of coconut string all around the area.

We went ashore to another little island, which had a temple complex and a small playground. Yasmin and Roya played on the structures and the tire swings for a while and then we headed back to the boat. It was getting pretty hot by this time and the boat did not have a roof, so we were glad for any little breeze.

Along the way we saw people diving for shellfish with little nets in their hands. The people were very friendly and quite interested in checking out the foreigners. We only saw one Canadian couple out on the water so it was great to visit the area before it gets too touristy.

We got back to our hotel and went back to the beach for the afternoon. The current is very strong and the waves are high, so we are not venturing out too far from the beach.

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Rain

We almost repeated what we did yesterday. Reading, relaxing, browsing through shops... The shops and restaurants are all along the edge of the cliff. It was great to sit having some chai and enjoying the ocean breeze in the early afternoon. It was another very hot day today.

We climbed down to the beach and the water was full of waves and current again. The kids love it, and would have us stay in the deeper water with them all afternoon, if they had their way. They had fun along the water’s edge too though.

We sat under a clear blue sky, but a threatening cloud lingered in the distance. It slowly rolled in and gave us a bit of cloud cover which was nice, but then the clouds got darker and the lifeguards noticed that way up high in the sky a funnel cloud had formed, and out on the distant horizon you could see spray on the water where it had touched down! They didn’t seem too worried about it, but it was enough to send us scampering up the stairs.

As we packed up it began to rain. Big, fat drops of rain had us soaked by the time we reached the hotel. It was pretty warm and other than a brief sprinkle in Cambodia at the end of December, we hadn’t seen rain since early November so it was actually a welcome sight. It poured for about an hour, but it has already let up and the air is fresh and cooler.

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Beach bums

Our hotel has a little balcony area which was perfect for reading and enjoying the morning air. Although I wouldn’t call it cool, it was certainly more comfortable than the evening. We had some chai while we relaxed. The kids explored the empty lot next to the hotel and it had the comfortable quality of a Saturday at home with the added benefit of an amazing backdrop.

Later we went to buy some laundry detergent and did some washing. We weren’t willing to pay the prices the hotel charges for laundry, especially when we have so much time on our hands.
We had lunch on the cliff overlooking the beach and I read Harry Potter aloud to Roya. She is on the fourth book and is enjoying it, but she still likes to be read to, and I enjoy doing it. After our leisurely lunch we explored some of the shops along the cliff and then when the heat got to be too much we went in search of bathing suits and beach gear.

We all splashed in the warm water and when Nadim and I were tired of battling the waves, we all went inland – Yasmin and Roya to play in the sand and Nadim and I to read our books. The kids played in the sand and splashed in the shallower water until sunset.

We’re all feeling very content and will likely repeat our beach bum day tomorrow.

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Varkala

We debated staying in Alleppey after our night on the boat, but in the end we decided to hire a car and drive a couple of hours to Varkala where there is a beach. The car ride was uneventful. The middle line seems to be used as passing lane, but we are used to that now.

Our hotel in Varkala is clean and quite nice, but not air conditioned. We’ll stick it out for a night and see how we do. There are mosquito nets so at least we can open the windows if it cools down.

The beach is down a steep cliff. The water was clearer than in Cochin and the beach is quite nice, but we were very cautious because there is a very strong current. We didn’t let the girls go in without us. They had fun playing in the sand at the water’s edge. They were a bit of an attraction for some of the locals.

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Houseboat Cruise

We left Cochin by taxi and arrived in Alleppey to board our houseboat just prior to lunch. A bit of hassle about the schedule and drop off location, but with that sorted we were on our way.

The boat is the width of a bedroom and three rooms long. The front “room” is open air and we spent the afternoon there, enjoying the sights or sitting at the table to eat the meals they prepared for us. We’re thankful that travellers are exempt from the fast. The back two rooms are bedrooms and the very back of the boat is a small kitchen.

We traveled through a couple of lakes, and various canals, some big and some smaller. The scenery was typically palm trees and rice fields and some banana trees too, although later in the afternoon we went through village areas and got to see the daily working of rural life in Kerala.

We saw people washing clothes in the canal, others washing dishes, and others swimming or bathing in the canals. A few people were fishing too. We saw colourful clothes on lines strung between palm trees. We saw huts made of palm leaves and a couple of homes that were very luxurious. There were small boats, and large boats and we also saw many birds.

We moored at the side of a canal alongside a rice field in the early evening. We got off for a walk and now we are contentedly awaiting our dinner. In India people eat rather late. Most people don’t eat before eight o’clock and often as late as nine or ten!

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Around Cochin

Cochin is a mix of different architectures. You can see Portuguese and Dutch influence in some of the buildings. We went to see a museum in an old “palace”. It was pretty run down, but the murals on some of the walls were kind of interesting.

In the morning we walked around different parts of town and bought a few souvenirs. We also took several pictures of the streets and town life. The type of homes and luxuries that we have at home are almost totally absent here. So many places are in disrepair with rotted wood, or black mould and dirt stains. This is offset with vivid colours. I’ve seen hot pink, peacock blue, and orange homes. I also love the various vehicles on the road. There are Ambassador cars that look like they come from the 60’s and all kinds of little three wheeled trucks.

The other thing that I laugh at every time I see them is farm animals in the middle of town. A few days ago we saw goats sleeping on park benches, in Mysore we saw cows eating outside some shops, and we often saw a pony wandering down the sidewalk near where we were staying in Mysore. Goats seem to be most common in Cochin.

It is extremely hot here. So by mid-afternoon we had to come back for a shower and the air-conditioned comfort of our room. Almost all shops and restaurants are not air conditioned, and even first thing in the morning it’s hot. It is not only hot, but humid, so we really feel the heat. Within minutes of being outside we’re sticky. We are showering three times a day!

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Cherai Beach

We set off for Cherai beach this morning, after a lazy breakfast. We boarded the ferry to Vypeen Island with other walking passengers and a bunch of cars, trucks and motorcycles. We could see the Cochin harbour from the ferry and the Chinese fishing nets in the distance. It looked quite serene – partly because we could not hear any vehicles.

We hired a rickshaw to take us to Cherai beach, which is about 23 km from the Vypeen harbour, and bring us back after a couple of hours. The rickshaw driver took us to a beachside resort, which was supposed to have the best location for swimming. We were a little disappointed by the not-so-white sands and the not-so-clear water. Maybe we were spoilt by the amazing beaches in Krabi? The kids had a good time in the water. It was as warm as bath water – warmer than any other beach we’ve been to. The resort people let us use their showers to clean up after our swim and then we had lunch at the restaurant. It was great to sit on the covered rooftop, watch the waves crash on the beach below, feel the sea breeze and have our lunch of prawn curry and rice. Aaaahhhh!

The rickshaw guy picked us up by mid afternoon and we headed back to the ferry terminal. It is so incredible to see the rural life in India. You see more men wearing their traditional loongis here instead of pants, and the women of course are always in traditional clothes. Everyone is going about their business against a backdrop of coconut trees and rice fields. There are all kinds of roadside stands and people selling this or that. Some of the little “shops” were covered with dead grass and vines were growing on them. It was wild!

The traffic, as usual, was very chaotic. There were buses, motorcycles, bicycles, cars, rickshaws, and an assortment of barnyard animals vying for space on the narrow road. Everyone is quite used to it though and they just keep on going without a care.

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Fort Cochin

Fort Cochin is a small, quiet town along the coast of the Arabian Sea. This morning we went for a walk along the water front and took a look at some of the sights. They have Chinese style fishing nets - a design that has been in use since the 1300's. It was interesting to see how they were used. They work on a cantilever system with the net and poles on one side and ropes tied around huge rocks on the other.

It was very hot and humid so after a late lunch we came back to our hotel room. I'm so glad we opted for the AC room! We took in a Kathakali performance. It's hard to explain it, but it has religious elements, acting, miming, music, and elaborate painted faces and costumes. Many of the actions are through exaggerated eye and facial movements.

The performance was good, but we enjoyed the demonstration on the art of Kathakali just as well. The costumes were pretty fun too.

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Train to Kerala

We took a rickshaw from the Baha'i Centre to the railway station yesterday, and squeezed our one suitcase and two knapsacks in with us too! We hired a coolie (luggage carrier) to take us to the platform, because these guys know the train stations inside and out. He got us there quickly and we gave him a little tip, which made him happy too.

We had some time before departure, so we got some chai, puri bhaji, and vegetable puffs for dinner while we waited. The guys at the little shop said Roya looks just like one of the Indian movie stars! We boarded the train and got settled into our berths. We had expected the walls of the compartment to be grimy and dirty, but they were actually cleaner than we expected, although they were by no means clean by western standards.

Christina and I read our books for a while and the kids played some games on the laptop, and then it was time for prayers and bed. They had given us sheets, blankets and pillows, but we noticed that one of the pillow cases looked like it had been used a few times and not washed. So I exchanged it with the one on the next bunk, which was not occupied. All was well, and then we noticed a few little roaches - my old "friends" had found me again! So we stepped on a few of them and made sure our sheets were tucked tightly into the sides of the berths so none of the creatures could come into our beds while we slept.

After a fitful sleep, we got up around 6 in the morning and the train actually arrived on time. Surprise, surprise! There was a driver from the hotel to meet us at the station and we made our way to the hotel in Cochin. This place is quite nice with air-conditioning, and actually has an enclosed shower in the bathroom, so we are pretty excited about that. It is spotless and actually has nice decorations too!

We will be in Cochin for 3 days, then off to the south of Kerala for a few days. We are ging to fly to Bangalore from Cochin on March 17, because the trains were all booked up. We are also going to fly to Goa and back from Bagalore, so this was the last night we are spending on a train in Asia! No mixed feelings about that!!

NM

Leaving Mysore

Packing, cleaning, and saying good-bye are all no fun, but necessary today. We left our spotless room with bulging suitcases. Apparently we bought a few more things than we thought! We said good-bye to Vijay and Shimy and their daughter Carmel before heading off to the train station.

This train is actually pretty much on schedule, surprise, surprise! We had a relatively quick trip. As we were exiting the train, people were trying to board. It was a bit ridiculous and Nadim got mad and started to voice his feelings in three different languages! Eventually we got out onto platform 7 with all our bags and then we realized that we needed to go up a very large staircase, cross over the trains and back down another staircase so that we could exit the station. Luckily there are suitcase walas who are more than willing to take your suitcases for you, for a price of course. They lift your cases onto their heads and balance them there while weaving through the crowds.

We arrived in the Coles Road Baha’i Centre in the early evening. It is a little dusty because it hasn’t been used in some time, but we have fresh sheets and we are rather excited about the hot water shower. We’re only here for one night before we head off to Kerala on tomorrow’s night train.

CM

Dinner with friends

What an awful night’s sleep we had last night! The power went off at three in the morning and didn’t come on again until six. It was really hot and, without the fan, the mosquitoes were eating us too. Beyond that, a bunch of dogs started barking. After getting up early for breakfast we went back to sleep for a bit and when we finally got going we were a bit out of it. Yasmin had to remind me that they hadn’t had their breakfast yet, and then we had a bit of a scare because I thought they had taken the wrong malaria pills and we all had a little panic before we eventually figured out that they had taken the right ones.

This evening KY and Naseem picked us up to go back to the school for deaf and mute children. We wanted to give them some sweets because they don’t often get special treats and we felt remiss the last time we had visited them. Perhaps KY has ulterior motives. He’s a dentist so perhaps he thinks giving them sweets will be good for business! It was really special to visit these kids once more.

After the school visit we went to Meysam and Farzaneh’s home. This is the Iranian couple that we had met in Ooty. We had had a nice time with them at Naseem and KY’s home for an Ayyamiha dinner and they had invited us for this evening.

They are students and live in a small apartment, but they’ve made it into a comfortable living space. We had an amazing feast. It was great to have some Persian food and they even had some special Persian items direct from Iran. They are well informed politically and it was great fun to have an evening discussing various things going on in the world. It seems to me that they like the freedom of India. As we left, Farzaneh gave the kids a little gift. Yasmin and Roya got beautiful little journals and were quite pleased with them.

Tomorrow we’re off to Bangalore for one night before we take the train to Kerala. I feel a bit sad to be leaving the friends we’ve made here. I’m hopeful that we’ll see them again before we leave India, and who knows, perhaps one day we’ll meet them in Canada.

CM

Mysore Zoo

We reversed our schedule today and went on our outing in the morning and did schooling in the afternoon. We went to the zoo early to avoid the hottest part of the day. The Mysore zoo is full of shade so we enjoyed strolling through the enclosures and visiting the various animals.

I think the favourite animal was the giraffe, but we liked the tigers and the chimpanzee as well. The chimpanzee was really interesting because it didn’t have hair and you could see the muscle and bone structure that was so similar to humans. Some of the tigers were playing together and one was roaring. We imagined ourselves hearing that sound in the middle of the jungle.... run!!

The giraffes were so graceful and we could get quite close to them. They really are such beautiful creatures.

This evening we got together with two other couples and made supper. It was the first day of the Baha’i fast. I find with the heat that you don’t really get hungry, but we were happy for some water when it came time to break our fast! We made our specialty – burritos - and we all got a demo of how to make samosas. It was fun to work away in the kitchen together and even better to eat together.

After dinner we headed off to a nearby village where there are a lot of new Baha’is. There, we had a discussion about the fast and ended the evening with some Baha’i songs. Singing seems to be a big part of the culture here.

CM