Elephants, Yoga and More in India

India! Our port was Cochin, India, located in the southern state of
Kerala. Even though we were so far south, 75% of the ship went north
all the way to the Taj Mahal. However, I stayed in Kerala, and I have
absolutely no regrets about this! I had a wonderful time, and I saved
a lot of travel time - the people who went to the Taj had to go on a
day's worth of travel time there and back!

DAY ONE

Today was our arrival in India! We were all very excited to get off
the boat and experience the country as soon as we pulled into port.
My roommate and I both had SAS trips around 2 so we decided to just go
out and try to do some shopping and get lunch. However, we had been
warned about delays in India, and we experienced our first Indian
delay before we even got off the ship! We started the immigrations
process at 8, and customs didn't clear us until 11:30! By that point,
we decided that we should just get, so our friend Meg joined us for
lunch. We found a taxi and told him to take us to a good lunch spot.
He took us to a place called The Tourist Net Cafe. It wasn't exactly
what we'd had in mind, but we didn't have time to look around too
much. The food here was surprisingly good: I had fish masala and
coconut rice, and it was absolutely delicious. Good start to Indian
food! Lunch took awhile, so we had to head right back to the ship so
Brynn and I could make our trips.

That afternoon I had an FDP for my art history class to see some
buildings showing influence of Western architecture and to go to a
spice market. We started by going to the Mattancherry Palace. This
was a palace that was built by the Portuguese, renovated by the Dutch,
and is now home to a museum. The highlight of this museum was a
series of remarkably well-kept Hindu murals. They were all
beautifully done, and fascinating to look at. After the palace, we
headed to Jew Town, a large market area with lots of different shops.
It was very tempting to buy stuff everywhere, but we didn't have any
time to stop! Our destination was a Jewish synagogue. This synagogue
was really beautiful and eclectic on the inside. It was filled with
different chandeliers, the walls were painted a bright blue and the
floors were made of hand-painted Chinese tiles. We didn't stay here
long, because we had to get to a spice market. This part of the FDP
was a little disappointing. I was hoping we were headed to a huge
spice market, with lots of different sellers and a variety of spices.
Instead, we headed to New Cochin, a more developed part of Cochin than
Jew Town, and just went inside one spice store. There was a great
variety of spices there, but it was not quite what I had expected.

After the FDP, I had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat
before heading to the Welcome Reception. This was a gathering of SAS
and Indian students. I got free henna here (not great henna - it's
already disappearing!) and there was also a variety of different
Indian snacks. The food was delicious! The best part of the Welcome
Reception was the chance to talk with Indian students our own age.
They were all very interesting and friendly. They taught us that the
best way to eat Indian food is with your hands, just ignoring the
silverware! We were also treated to a traditional dance performance -
one of the dances was the national dance of Kerala - then a couple of
students sang for us. They sang so beautifully, I wish I could sing
like that!

DAY TWO

When I asked people for advice on what to do in Kerala, everyone told
me the backwaters was a must-see. Today I went on an SAS trip to the
Alleppey Backwaters, the "Venice of the East". The trip was pretty
small for a SAS trip, which was really nice, and the backwaters were
very beautiful! The backwaters consist of connecting canals, and are
very peaceful and incredibly green with all the vegetation. We just
took a relaxed cruise along the backwaters, where we could just sit
back, talk, and enjoy the scenery. There are a lot of villages right
by the backwaters, so we got a very intimate view of the village life
while we floated by. We also had fun looking at all the elaborate
houseboats! Renting a houseboat here is a popular tourist attraction
for many Western and Indian tourists. It was a very relaxing
afternoon! When I got back, my friend Lexi and I went to a very fancy
hotel and got an elaborate buffet dinner and hookah. The dessert part
of the buffet was incredible! They had a dozen different deserts,
with names like "Chocolate Melt Duet Surprise". We of course had to
sample every dessert!

DAY THREE

Woke up bright and early today to leave for the boat at 7! My friend
Lexi and I were headed to Mata Amritanandamayi Math, an ashram about
three hours south of Cochin. It was a very interesting experience!
Staying at the ashram was super cheap - only $5 a night, all meals
included. Other things at the ashram were very cheap too - they sold
other food, including mochas and other western food, all for under a
dollar. Lexi and I didn't know anything about this ashram when we got
there. It was a beautiful place - it's right by the seaside, so it's
surrounded by palm trees, and the backwaters on one side and the ocean
on the other. The whole ashram is centered around one woman, Amma,
who is known as the hugging guru. She has given hugs to over 30
million different people in her life! The process of getting a hug
from Amma is known as darshan, and this was actually going on when we
went. For the first couple of hours we were there, Lexi and I looked
pretty clueless as we wandered around trying to figure out how the
ashram worked. We made our way to the beach, and sat there for
awhile. The beach was a very beautiful and peaceful area, and we
enjoyed sitting there and watching the crabs. At 5 we had a long
overdue orientation meeting. Here we learned more about Amma and what
she does. They showed us a very powerful video describing Embracing
the World, the non-profit charity organization run by Amma. They do
some pretty incredible things, namely helping out with disaster relief
worldwide. We also got a walking tour of the ashram and learned more
about the people who live there. Some people believe Amma is a
religious leader who has a direct connection with a higher power.
Other people there just think she is a very admirable leader. There
are about 2,000 people who live at the ashram full time. I can't
really imagine that - I think I would last about a week before I
desperately needed more civilization. After dinner we went to receive
darshan. Apparently we were pretty lucky that Amma was there, she
normally travels this time of year. Darshan was a pretty odd
experience. We waited in a line to receive a hug from Amma. This was
around 9 at night, and I'm pretty sure Amma had been giving hugs for
about 12 hours that day. We received some rules for darshan - you
couldn't actually touch Amma, but you had to support your weight with
the arms of her chair. I'm not quite sure what to make of the whole
thing - my hug just felt a little awkward and she whispered something
in my ear that I couldn't understand because it wasn't English - but I
could tell that some of the other people were truly affected by
receiving their hug.

DAY FOUR

Woke up way too early - 5 AM! - to observe one of the ashram's daily
practices, archana. This is the chanting of the 1,000 names of the
Divine Mother, and it lasts for an entire hour. I didn't really know
what was going on, but I was struck by how many people were in the
temple and had this chant memorized. After archana, we went to 6 AM
meditation at the beach. It was very relaxing to just sit at the
beach and zone out for awhile. Right after meditation we went to a
yoga class. I thought it was pretty funny that everyone at the yoga
class was a white woman. The yoga class was quite good though - it
had been awhile since I'd done yoga, so it felt really good! After
yoga Lexi and I just had a leisurely breakfast at the Western Cafe,
and then went to see if we could get an astrology reading. I've
always wanted to do that, but never wanted to spend the money. We
were in luck, and the astrologer wasn't doing anything and was able to
give us a reading. He didn't tell me much about my future though, but
he said I was a priest or some kind of spiritual leader in a past
life. It was mostly just things about my personality and current
life, and he was right about most things. It was pretty cool, but I
certainly wouldn't pay more for an astrology appointment!

We left the ashram right after lunch to head to the Periyar Tiger
Reserve in Kumily, a 3.5 hour drive away. We found a very cute hotel
named Coffee Inn, where we spent the night. Coffee Inn bordered the
inn, and as soon as we got there the receptionist showed us a wild
boar that was right by the hotel! We went out to a very nice dinner,
but called it an early night - we were tired from waking up at 5!

DAY FIVE

After a good night's sleep, Lexi and I spent the morning walking
around Kumily and did some shopping. It was funny, I noticed some
things advertising the "Wild Five" at Periyar - surely a play on the
Big Five from Africa! Around noon, we went for an elephant ride!
This was such a cool experience. We got to ride an elephant on a
trail for about a half hour, and then take a lot of pictures with the
elephant. We also got to feed the elephants bananas! This was lots
of fun, the elephants really like their bananas! I'm very glad I got
to do that, I've always wanted to ride an elephant! After the
elephants, we went on a spice tour at a local spice gardens. We
wanted to do this because we were in an area that was so well-known
for its spices. The spice tour was very interesting, our guide was
very informative. We saw a plant that folded its leaves when we
touched it, and we saw an incredible amount of different spices and
plants. After the spice tour, we got a head, face and shoulders
massage at a local Ayurvedic center. They are all over Kumily! The
massage was pretty different than any other massage I've had, but it
was very relaxing! We went back to Cochin around dinnertime, and a
local Indian woman helped us find a cheaper taxi. She was very nice,
and told us that her daughter is currently abroad, and she's hoping
someone is helping her out too. Our taxi ride was uneventful until we
got into Cochin. Our driver didn't know where the port was, and it
took us an hour to find the ship!

DAY SIX

For the last day in India, I went with some friends to Fort Kochi. We
got a couple of rickshaw drivers to show us around for the day. We
saw a place where the locals do their laundry, a local church, the
outside of a Hindu temple and the famous Chinese fishing nets. After
all that, we went back to Jew Town to do some laid-back shopping and
spend the last of our rupees. India flew by so quickly! It was an
incredible place, and I know that I need to come back. There is so
much to see and do in India, I would love to come back to travel
around the whole country.