communism doesn't seem so bad

So Kerala was amazing. I have returned from our weekend of r&r.

[But first of all, let me say that I have not checked my email in six days. My blog has gone unattended for the better part of a week. My friend here told me she feels liberated by her separation with technology. I, personally, was about to have an anxiety attack. I can't stand being away from the electronic world for very long, no matter how high-maintenance that makes me appear. On the train ride home I made a silent vow to myself to never let it happen again. Amen.]

We left Chennai on Thursday night and took an overnight train ride to Kerala. The ride was 14 hours long, but this was another sleeper train so it went by quickly. (Plus I made sure I wasn't sleeping across from any strangers this time...) We arrived early in the morning and were taken by bus to our resort. Upon arrival we were greeted with necklaces of fresh flowers and fresh coconut juice. We spent the rest of the afternoon running around the little resort and bumping into all the Europeans that were less than happy to see a bunch of loud Americans there.

A little background on the area. Kerala is another state in India, just like Tamil Nadu. The capital city is Thiruvananthapuram, and there are about 32 million people there. I was surprised to learn that the entire state has a nearly 100% literacy rate and unusually high life expectancy for men and women (72 and 76, respectively). This is because Kerala is a communist state and things like education and health care are practically free. I asked our tour guide many questions about how the communist party works there. I did not understand it fully, but I think the way it works is there is a Democratic election every five years and the communist candidate is currently in power. Therefore, all school and health care is free for its residents. Also the maintenance everything in the city is taken care of. The place is cleaner than most in India because the state pays for its upkeep.

Other interesting facts about the state of Kerala:

• Religious breakdown: half are Hindu, one quarter are Christian, one quarter are Muslim. All are VERY spiritual. On Sundays the Churches are packed with worshippers and on Fridays the Temples have lines out the door of those waiting to get in.


• The official state tree is a coconut tree, of which there are dozens of varieties. When a coconut tree is cut down, every single part of the tree is used. And when a person dies, they are cremated and their ashed are placed on top of a recently planted coconut tree to expedite the reincarnation process.


• There are 28 varieties of mango in Kerala.


• The official language is Mallallium. It sounds nothing like Tamil or Hindi because it is only partially Sanskrit based, but to us it just sounds like "mahamallama mahamalamma..."
  

For this reason, the town was VERY tourist friendly. As I mentioned earlier, the resort where we stayed was amazing. It was full of foreigners, mostly European, looking for Ayurvedic treatment. Ayurvedic medicine is the traditional form of medicine practiced by Indians for thousands of years. There are special clinics and colleges set up for the study of Ayurveda (don't know if that is the correct medical term?). It includes practices of oil treatment, massage, yoga, meditation and nutrition.

On our day of sightseeing, we visited the obligatory Hindu temple in town which was fascinating. (However I hate to say this but once you have seen five or six temples it's hard to differentiate between them after a while...). This temple was dedicated to one of the Hindu gods and over seven stories tall with hundreds of wood carving statures adorning the roof. We also saw the coastline with an old fashioned British lighthouse, fish market, and we checked out the local history museum. But what impressed everyone the most was finding an elephant! SO we didn't get to ride it, because this particular elephant belonged to another temple in town. Rajish, our tour guide managed to talk the keeper into letting us touch it and get out picture taken with it [we are SUCH tourists]

This particular elephant is around 35 years old and had been a guard of the temple for most of its life.

[Fun fact: They can keep track of an elephants age by the length and shape of its toenails!]

Since we had no tv, internet, dvds, or even ipod speakers, at Somatheeram, the weekend was mostly just time to relax. We played on the beach and laid in our hammocks and ate plates and plates of fresh cut fruit by the water. We also did a little celebrating as well. Jason and Ryan had birthdays while we were staying at Soma. The resort employees brought us a cake with their names on it and we drank Kingfisher and rum in our bungalows all night long. Basically the most relaxed I have been since I arrived in India...

http://www.somatheeram.in/,

[The women in orange saris clean the walkways with long branches of coconut trees, another one of its many uses.]

On a side note, we have discovered why it is not “high season” around here. We seem to have forgotten that this time of year is rainy season in India. Unlike Chennai, Kerala doesn't get hard monsoons but rather periodic light rains that never seem to go away except for occasionally around noon when the sun is strongest. It is always a little humid and a little cloudy, especially around the beach where the gigantic waves crash on huge boulders that are the size of houses.

However if it's the light rain that keeps the crowds away and the prices low this time of year then I am all for it. I don’t really mind that much; my time in the city has made me accustomed to having frizzy hair and a foggy camera lens most of the time.

I have to go soon, my battery is about to die due to the 11:00 power outage. That is one thing I am not going to miss back home...

More later

-S