Sizzlin' in the South

Hello Friends,

It's been a little while since our last posting. Since that time, just about every single one of us has had at least one case of "Delhi Belly", and let me tell you, it's not a pleasant experience. In my case (Mike), the last night in Delhi, I had boasted about all the things that I ate and how I tried like 7 or 8 different things at this "Dances of India" show. The rest of the night and through the next day or two were spent feeling like someone had punched me in the stomach. Though we can't blame it all on the food - we're pretty sure that the anti-Malaria drugs are also wreaking some havoc on our system's as well.

Since our last post, we spent a couple more nights in Delhi, going to see the Ghandi memorial (see photo below), Lodi Gardens, and the recently constructed Akshardam Swaminarayan temple. For those that don't know, this is a temple that was built just a few years ago (after 5 years of construction and over 11,000 labourers), and is now considered the largest temple in the entire world. Unfortunately, no pictures or videos were allowed inside the complex; however, we managed to take the one attached from a distance:

As an aside, we also took a ride on the Delhi metro system, and I've got to say, that it makes the TTC look pretty shabby. I understand that this is a new section of the metro, but man, it's cleaner, less crowded, and overall has a better feel than the TTC. We would have provided a picture, but my dad was accosted by 3 different security guards when he pulled his camera out. Security seems very tight all over India right now, likely because we are approaching the 1 year anniversary of the Mumbai attacks.

After Delhi, we made our way south to the state of Kerala, which lies rougly 10 degrees above the equator. Things in the South are much different than the North. There are a lot of reminders here of the Carribean. The pace is slower, there is a generally tropical feel, people seem happier, and it's much cleaner.

We first arrived in Kochi, the capital of Kerala, where we stayed in a beautiful hotel called the Brunton Boatyard. We all speculated that it must have been a 100-150 year old boatyard that was converted into a hotel. As it turns out, 10 years ago they demolished the boatyard and put up a hotel…kudos to the developers as they had all of us but Nadia's mom Fozie fooled.
In Kochi, we took a little bit of a whirlwind tour since we were only there for one night before moving on to the next destination. The area has a history going back to the Portugese explorers who populated the region in the mid 1500's and 1600's. We actually went to a small church in Kochi where the explorer Vasco de Gama was buried before they later exhumed his remains and took them back to Portugal - please see the rather modest grave of Vasco depicted below:

The town also has a small Jewish community (and when I say small, it's actually only 7 families with 10 total members, along with 55-60 Indians who have converted to Judaism). We saw the one (very sad) eligible Jewish bachelorette in town who's in her mid-40's and still looking for a nice Jewish boy to sweep her off her feet. Any takers?
After Cochin, we took a ride deep into the interior of Kerala to go to an absolutely spectacular resort called the Kumarakom Lake resort. We had a meandering pool room, which means we actually had our own private little alcove that accessed the swimming pool right from our hotel room. The resort was likely the best resort experience any of us have ever had. Please see the attached pictures including one of our room with steps into the water...
From the resort, we took an overnight houseboat trip through the Kerala backwaters. The non-English speaking crew led by Captain "Bijou" took us past rice paddies, and local villages while we dined on local delicacies like river fish and fresh pineapple. We docked next to an island in the middle of nowhere for the night. And not just any island - this one contained a stray dog (they're everywhere in India) as well as the largest bat I've ever seen (think about what an Eagle might look like in bat form). At 4 a.m. we got our wake up call and subsequently floated down the river in the pitch black to the "town" of Allepey; which looked little more than a dock protruding from the jungle around it. Thank god our trusty driver "Wilson" was there to pick us up right at 4:30 a.m. as we had discussed. Go Wilson! I've attached one picture of our houseboat to give you an idea what we're talking about:

Since then, we've been in Goa where we've been enjoying a relaxing few days at an (almost) all-inclusive resort right on the beach. We're in a quieter section of Goa compared to the hippie areas that you hear lots about, which suits us just fine since we need some time to just chill. I've attached a sunset picture taken right in front of our place:
Tomorrow we're off to Mumbai for the last few days of our Indian adventure. After that, my parents will head home with a stopover in Dubai. After traveling to China earlier this Spring, I think they've had enough of extensive travel for awhile. Meanwhile, the four of us (Mike, Nadia, Farouk, and Fozie) will make our way to Thailand. We will write again either in Mumbai or once we arrive in Bangkok.

Cheers,

Mike and Nadia