Christmas in God's Own Country

When you arrive in the state of Kerala in South India, one of the first things you notice is the pride of the region. Signs and busses everywhere exclaim "Kerala - God's Own Country," and I have to agree. Though I have only been to two towns in this southwestern coastal region so far, they have both been spectacular. And, we decided, what a perfect place to celebrate Christmas.


We began our Kerala time in Kochin, a quaint little port town that has a rich history. Marco Polo once remarked "If China is where you make your money, then Kochin is surely where you spend it." In it's heyday, it was one of the primary ports of call for traders from all over the world to access the bounty of India's teas and spices. There is a thriving fishing industry here, with beautiful Chinese fishing nets all along the waterfront. The nets are stationary above the water along the shore, and then they drop them down leave them until they see a catch, and then pull it up quickly. I've never seen these before and was really fascinated by the simplicity of the technique. This morning, I even had the opportunity to stand on the docks with them and help them pull up their nets. I was the lucky first morning tourist to get this coveted post. It was a joy!

Angie and I took a stroll through the local market near the synagogue and it was so colorful, I couldn't stop taking pictures! Every moment was a photo op, and a life moment! Every single sense was completely alive...the smells (which I wish I could relay) of the spice markets, the fish, and the sea; the colors of the women in beautiful saris and all the shop signs and the huge bins of different spices; the tastes (!) of delicious Indian cuisine; the all-too-infrequent cool breezes kissing our sun-baked skin; and the sounds of life happening all around us. It was a beautiful afternoon.
On the way back from the market, I walked alone through the streets of the "non-touristy" parts of Kochin to explore the corners of the city. Again, I was dazzled by the people, and the scenery, and could hardly set my camera down. Along the way, some children asked me to take their photos, and of course I happily obliged. During the photo shoot, the front door of the home opened, and the family all came out! Soon, they were all posing and asking me to take some family portraits! It was such a special moment... the family then invited me in for a nice chat (in their best English ("Barack Obama!") and tea. Upon leaving, I decided to go to a photo shop and print some of the photos that I had taken of their family. About an hour after I left, I showed back up at their house (it was not easy to find!) and gave them the photos. They were positively thrilled. They very well could be the only family photos that they have.


The next day Angie and I departed on a two-day excursion to the hill region of Munnar. Though it's famous for being a huge tea-growing area, what excited us MOST about the package was the opportunity to wash an elephant. (Yes, elephants need baths too!) Though it was with other tourists, it was an absolute delight. Not surprisingly, Angie was the first person to jump in the water with the trainers and the elephants to get to work!


Once in Munnar we stopped at a spice plantation and took a taste test. If you ever get the chance to eat cinnamon bark, do it! Yum...


Then we arrived at our guest house where the ambience and scenery were unmatched. It was overlooking a valley with about 1,000 acres of tea gardens with mist-shrowded mountains lurking behind. There was a Hindu festival of some kind, as well as it being Christmas Eve, and the valley was alive! All night there were drums and voices reaching their way up the hillside from the valley floor beneath. Around 9:00 pm, the fireworks began! That said, when it was bedtime, earplugs were required to get any sleep! The Hindus are full of devotion, and celebrate a new deity or ritual at every opportunity. It's fun to be an observer, though I'm longing to know more about Hinduism and what it is exactly that they worship - besides nearly 300,000 deities!. Hopefully before I leave India...


Next up: I will head south rather slowly and stay with a family on a plantation, then take a boat ride through the famed Kerala backwaters to reach Amma, the "hugging saint." Angie is going to take her last days and spend them relaxing on the Kerala beaches...a perfect end to a wonderful holiday. We'll meet back up in Bangalore to celebrate New Year's Eve, and hopefully not get any sleep before Angie's early morning flight!


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

With love,
Pam

A blissed out broken heart

Oh, the terrible irony...

On Friday, December 12, one of my best dog friends in the entire world passed away suddenly. I got the news via email three days later and immediately called Joanie to grieve with her. Ginger is the sister (pictured on the right) of my dog Sadie, and she is like a second child to me, having spent much of her life with Sadie and me - at work, home and play. She was the tenderest, sweetest , most laid back pooch in the whole world (I've been looking!), and she was completely devoted to Joanie. Being halfway around the globe when something traumatic like this happens to your best friend is so difficult, and suddenly the world - which for three months has seemed so small - is in an instant very, very big. For the first time in my travels, I am homesick. My heart wants to be home with Joanie, and Sadie. Ginger Parsons, you will be missed...

But for now, I am here, in South India. And completely blissed out. I am writing from Kudle Beach in Gokarna and have been spending my time floating in the gentle Indian Ocean waves and working on tanning up all those white parts of my body. It's a hilarious mix of aging hippies, dreadlocked backpackers, hungry cows and us. (My family will be thrilled to know that I am definitely one of the least hippie-like people here!) Our hotel room is expensive in India terms -about $28/night - but it is gorgeous, and looks right out onto the beach through the palm trees that keep our room cool and shady. Anywhere else in the world, this room would probably cost a few hundred bucks per night. Of course, I am on a budget (much to Angie's chagrin!) and we do want to see more of India than just the beach, so we will leave here soon. Direction - south. Destination - TBD.

Prior to the beach, we stayed in Hampi for three nights. Though hardly a blip on the India map, it is one of the most amazing, historic places I have ever been. It is INCREDIBLE! I describe it as Ancient Rome meets the Desert Southwest. Imagine Arches National Park with nearly 1,000 temples built on the rocks, and you have an idea of what Hampi is like. When the Vijayanagar Empire was the center of South India's government (until 1565), Hampi was the largest and most developed capital city in the world... even BIGGER than Rome! We met a local rickshaw driver / mega-entrepreneur "Ragu - like the sauce," who gave us a tour of the many temples and historical sites. The pure awe I experienced upon arrival in the town will stay with me forever.

This is a photo of one spot along the riverside in the morning, with nearly every one of the town's 3,000 residents coming for their morning bath.

This was taken from the top of one of the hills to give you an idea of the landscape. From this place (though you can't see it in my photo) there were at least 20 temples that I could identify - and probably at least 100 more!

This is the largest temple, standing at about 300 feet tall, and built right in theheart of the town directly adjacent to our hotel. There were Macaques (monkeys) crawling al over it.

Though Angie didn't get to actually wash Laxmi, the resident elephant (this is as close as she came!) we did have a wonderful morning on the shore of the river watching her morning bathing ritual (same river, same time as the humans!) and then witnessing her adornment for the local festival. It was awesome to watch, and to be so close to one of nature's true majestic beauties. That said, we are still holding out for an even closer encounter...

It's also been interesting traveling with Angie. I joked before we got here that she would be so hard to find in this land of dark-haired, dark-skinned people. Indeed, she does blend in and is constantly asked where she's from - no one has ever guesses the USA. Most people think she's Indian! Meanwhile, I am like a one-person, white-skinned, blue-eyed freakshow. Everywhere we go (that's not touristy), people want to shake my hand, take a picture with me, and try in their best English to make small talk. In these moments, Angie luckily can sneak away and hardly be noticed. The top photo was of a group of school girls who were visiting one of the temples we were, though they were more interested in me (!), and the other one was taken at the river bank. I had to feign hungriness to get away from this group.

One of the highlighst for Angie on this trip so far has been her experience shopping for a sari in Bangalore. Our hotel was in the garment district, and we passed no less than 100 stores selling silks for saris. If you know Angie, you know she is a fabric geek with an awesome sense of style. Watching her in the sari store really was like watching a kid in a candy store!

It is impossible for me to name a single highlight of India. I have enjoyed every second of this country, though as Angie can attest to, I can not stop comparing it to Nepal. Though it's similar in some senses, it is definitely not the third world. I'm looking forward to heading deeper into the heart of this country and to discover all that I can absorb.

With love and gratitude for friendship,

Pam

Eating Dosas in South India

I arrived safely in India late on Sunday night. So far, it has been rather peaceful compared to what I expected to see based on warning from friends who were pestered endlessly in northern India. When I got a taxi from the airport to my hotel, I was very gruff and said sternly "I DO NOT WANT TO GO ANYWHERE OTHER THAN MY HOTEL!" The guy promised me that the price was fixed (about $30) and that he wouldn't stop anywhere else. It was a nice ride, and he was a nice man, and the road was 100x nicer than anything I'd seen anywhere in Nepal. When we arrived at my hotel he said that I owed him 50% more because it was a night ride. Again, I broke out my mean voice that I had been warned to practice and said "NO! I refuse to pay that. We made a deal!" He agreed that it was his fault for not telling me and waived the extra fee. I guess in India you have to be mean like that. Nepal was much, much simpler.

Angie arrived early the following morning (about 6 hours after me) and we had a joyful reunion even though we were both exhausted. We explored our neighborhood, OTC Road which is the garment district of South India, and then headed into a very local restaurant and asked what was good. Since we didn't recognize the names of anything, and it was a vegetarian restaurant, we said, "What's good? Please give us one of each!" We ended up with two very different looking items, though both were called 'dosas'. One was masala, and was a very thin pancake folded into a triangle and filled with curried potatoes; the other was onion, and it was a bit like a large circular pancake made of shredded potatoes and onion. Both were served with delicious sauces that I can not begin to describe. Yum!

We then headed to the train station to discover our next destination. Which trains would be available? Leaving at good times? Going to places that were on our interest map? Hampi it is! We will be leaving at 10:30 tonight for an 11 hour trip. Since we originally thought it was at 10:30 am, we didn't ask about sleeping facilities... live and learn. We'll see what we get!

Last night, we went on a mission to discover another good restaurant to eat in our neighborhood, and what we discovered is that apparently the garment makers don't eat! We found silks and saris, but no soup. We were too tired to continue looking so we went to bed without dinner... saving up our appetite for another delicious breakfast!

We're off to Hampi... hopefully where Angie can live her new dream of washing an elephant!

Reflections of Nepal

"In the last camp near the summit I had a very strange vision of all the human parts that I am made of. It is very difficult to keep the vision but I know that I could see a round picture with many pictures inside -- not only of my body but of my whole being. There was a lot of what my life has been, what I did these last years like seeing my life and my body and my soul and my feelings inside a mandala. I was not even sure if it was only mine or generally human, yours or anybody's, just a human being's. It was very, very strange." Reinhold Messner

Though these are not my words, when I read them I felt like YES! That is how it felt reaching the summit of Thorung La at 18,000 feet. It brought so many pictures of my life to my mind. Every person I've known and loved, every place I've been, every place I've yet to go, every word - spoken and unspoken, every dream, every feeling... they were all displayed before me like a like a poem of just images. Simultaneously tears and giggles came forward. My emotions were all celebrating the life moment that would surely be with me for the rest of time. Nepal has been like that for me. I am so carefree and happy, but daily I see images that remind me of how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be traveling, to be here in Nepal. There has not been a day when this thought doesn't cross my mind.

It's been nearly 80 days since I've arrived, though it feels like I've always been here somehow. Each day has been filled with memorable moments - some mundane, some adventurous, some hilarious, some a bit nerve-wracking, and all of them there to teach me something. I have so many photos, thoughts and reflections that it is hard to summarize, categorize and keep it interesting. For this last Nepal post, I want to share some photos that I feel really capture the essence of Nepal.

One of thousands upon thousands of temples in Kathmandu. This one devoted to Kali.

A child I met while trekking, saying "Namaste!" and undoubtedly asking for a sweet or a rupee.

One of a thousand photos I have of the beautiful Himalayas. Every moment of the day, the scenes change and each time I was completely in awe. I never, ever got tired of seeing the mountain vistas.


The daily migration of sheep both to and from their mountain feeding areas.

A public bath at Bhaktapur, one of the historic villages in Kathmandu. Most people in Nepal use public baths (though most are not as beautiful as this one) for all bathing and cleaning duties.

The lush, lush green of a rice paddy right before harvest. So much of the Annapurna region is covered with fields that families tend to religiously. During the Sanctuary trek, the fields looked like this, and during the Circuit trek, they had just been harvested and looked very different.

A typical shop selling socks, hats and other knit items.


One of the hundreds of times that Nepali students clamoured to be in front of my camera, and then to look at their photo with me. Invariably, this involved laughter and smiles.


A scene from Pashupatinath, one of my favorite temples in Kathmandu. These people are headed to the cremation of one of their family members. Notice their beautiful clothing...

Women returning from a long walk to the hills to gather food for their animals. Mind you, women do at least 80% of the heavy lifting in this country for reasons that I don't quite understand.










A few other random photos and observations...

People squatting to just rest or have a conversation, umbrellas in the sunshine, cows in the streets, terrible roads, landslides, insane traffic, the beautiful masala of Hinduism and Buddhism combined and the seamless way they are integrated into everyday life (like protecting cars), online chatting with a Buddhist lama, absolutely worthless police officers that seem to travel in groups of 20 and not do anything, public bathing rituals, affection between men and affection between women - but not affection between men and women, spontaneous celebrations including public dancing and singing, women at work, the hazards of just walking down the street (potholes, gutters that are two feet deep, random sharp objects, power lines that cross sidewalks), being offered tea in nearly every shop or office, , wandering sadhus (holy men) who will give you a tika for a few rupees, children in their school uniforms, girls with braids, signs that would never make it in the US, the enormous popularity of Brittany Spears and Avril Lavigne (that is the best America can offer?), the bright, vibrant colors of life, sheep and goats and buffalo, the enormous loads of porters in the mountains, the delicious taste of Pringles after a long day trekking, public transportation and fitting 28 people in a mini-van built for 12, shopkeepers who give you their cell phone numbers and invite you to their homes, Kathmandu's terrible air pollution, tuk-tuks and rickshaws, bridges that would never pass code in the US, sinks without pipes (so your toothpaste lands on your shoes), electrical wires that look like a birds nest that run the power system here, daily power outages ("load shedding") for 4-6 hours, "good price", the absolute natural beauty that is around every corner that you look, the obnoxious, ear-shattering horns in Kathmandu, getting out of the tourist areas toexperince life in the "real" towns, people sweeping their dirt floors, and so much more.


Of all the things that I am grateful for in Nepal, it is mostly the people that I have met (pictured here is Gerdien, Tine and Ellen) and traveled with. I am working to see every person as a teacher and every situation as a lesson...(thank you Liz Gilbert!). I have been enriched by my many experiences in this country and know that I will be back someday.

Next for me, South India on Sunday 12/7 through January if all goes as planned! (Yes, I promise to be safe.)

With love,
Pam


"The human soul does not want to sleep, desires to awaken and wants to win. When I become a traveler to the gold-shining peaks, I feel like I am going in search of heaven."
Mahakavi Laxmi Prasad Devkota

Scaring Yourself is Good Fun!

WOW! I just came out of the sky from my first ever paragliding adventure. It was amazing fun, a little scary, and I nearly hurled. But besides that, I had a blast!!! The cost was a little steep in Nepali terms (around $75 USD) but I decided it was an experience I wanted to have...and I'm really glad I did!! (Sorry mom.)

The truck ride there was a hoot and holler - literally! - in itself. Here's a short video of me and Gerdien in the back of the truck ...obviously a little nervous! (I can't figure out why my videos are in sepia, but I think it adds a little character...)

The take-off was a little quick. There wasn't much introduction, except "run, and don't stop until you reach the cliff". Well, that scared the crap out of me, but he made it sound so easy. So I did what he said, and the VOILA! We were in the air floating at about 1,200 feet above Pokhara. We drifted and floated, and honestly, I wasn't scared at all. It was beautiful, and so completely free. The flight lasted about 40 minutes. Here's a short video of one of the early minutes of the flight:

And a few photos from the air...



That's Gerdien below me...
At the very end of our flight, about 200 ft. or so off the ground, my pilot said, "Do you want to have fun?" And of course, there is only one appropriate answer to that question. And, then without further warning I nearly barfed. He did an acrobatic stunt and spun our glider around in circles at about 100 miles per hour. I screamed so loud, and seriously I almost lost my lunch...we were spinning and spinning, and I couldn't even see the lake or anything. I was pretty sure my pilot knew what he was doing, but I sure felt like I was going to die.

But, then I landed safely...thank God and Spirit and all who watched over me!



And here's Serg, the adorable French pilot who kept me safe...thanks Serg!


And, then I had to lay low for a few minutes and relax my stomach which had somehow lodged itself in my throat...

Reflections? Life is short. Keep it fresh and fun. It's good to scare yourself occasionally!! And in case you were worried, I have resumed eating, post-trek fashion.