Rediculousness
What Gods Country?
Tuesday, January 10
I heard before I came to Kerala that it was Gods Country. While I'm not sure which god since the state has a crazy mix of nearly every religion on the face of the earth, it is definitely a gods country. While I've only spent a day on Cochi, it is definitely not the most scenic place. However the mix of Portuguese, Indian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Christian is amazing. Actually I just walked down Jew Street. While it sounds like a politically incorrect thing to say I promise that's actually what the street signs say in big letters.
We got into Appali late at night and found a decent hotel that had HBO, a nice treat since I have not seen moving pictures in awhile. Mads and I were supposed to meet a couple of friends and go house boating but our friends got impatient I guess since we took so long to get there (see last post for the trials of reaching Appali). We checked at their hotel to find out they were already gone and then we rushed to the dock where the house boats leave from encouraging the rickshaw driver to go faster the whole way. When we got there we had one of those amazing moments that only happen in India. No we didn't find our friends. After a few agonizing minutes trying to explain who we were looking and what we were doing to a guy who didn't speak English, he pulled out his phone and called his friend. His friend spoke English and quickly said he'd help. Before we knew it, Mads and I were walking up and down the dock along with some complete strangers all looking for our friends. It's amazing how despite feeling like people are constantly trying to cheat you, Indians will amaze you with how they will go out of their way to help you.
Anyway, it turned out that the Kerala god was on our side after all since it rained most of the day our friends were out house boating. Mads and I relaxed and watched a movie and then headed out in beautiful sunny weather onto the backwaters the next day. House boating in Appali truly is amazing. We sat and ate delicious fish and pineapple prepared by our cook, swam and sun tanned. When the sun started setting it was one of the most amazing things I've seen with palm trees framing the pink sky that reflected in the rice paddies and on the lake all around. Gotta give it up to the Kerala God, he/she/they did good work making this place. Sadly the chai on the boat was not very good and I don't think it contained any tea what so ever so I am still in search of good South Indian chai.
We got into Appali late at night and found a decent hotel that had HBO, a nice treat since I have not seen moving pictures in awhile. Mads and I were supposed to meet a couple of friends and go house boating but our friends got impatient I guess since we took so long to get there (see last post for the trials of reaching Appali). We checked at their hotel to find out they were already gone and then we rushed to the dock where the house boats leave from encouraging the rickshaw driver to go faster the whole way. When we got there we had one of those amazing moments that only happen in India. No we didn't find our friends. After a few agonizing minutes trying to explain who we were looking and what we were doing to a guy who didn't speak English, he pulled out his phone and called his friend. His friend spoke English and quickly said he'd help. Before we knew it, Mads and I were walking up and down the dock along with some complete strangers all looking for our friends. It's amazing how despite feeling like people are constantly trying to cheat you, Indians will amaze you with how they will go out of their way to help you.
Anyway, it turned out that the Kerala god was on our side after all since it rained most of the day our friends were out house boating. Mads and I relaxed and watched a movie and then headed out in beautiful sunny weather onto the backwaters the next day. House boating in Appali truly is amazing. We sat and ate delicious fish and pineapple prepared by our cook, swam and sun tanned. When the sun started setting it was one of the most amazing things I've seen with palm trees framing the pink sky that reflected in the rice paddies and on the lake all around. Gotta give it up to the Kerala God, he/she/they did good work making this place. Sadly the chai on the boat was not very good and I don't think it contained any tea what so ever so I am still in search of good South Indian chai.
nicholas, 3:19 AM
1 Comments:
I am not sure you should have been looking for chai in South India... your posts make good reading =)
