On Friday the 13th we caught a night train from Kochin to Kundapur, and from there we took a bus to Turtle Bay Beach Resort, where we spent the following 3 days and nights living it up in the Ayur village. It was really just a small collection of huts and buildings with hammocks strewn about and a small bar with an outdoor area for eating. Fifteen of us lived in the yoga studio, sleeping on thin mattresses laid out side by side on the ground with an outdoor shower house across the path – it was simple but wonderful and we didn’t mind the extra company of ants, geckos and sand! The resort was set between a rural area and a small fishing village, and boasted a modest yet incredibly beautiful, travel-brochure-worthy stretch of sandy white beach with protruding volcanic rocks and billowing palm and coconut trees. We arrived early on Saturday and the sun was just rising over the trees; with the sight of this pristine beach and ocean, we regained the strength and energy lost on the train and headed right for the water to dip our feet in the Arabian Sea.
The next three days were like a dream; I had to keep reminding myself that I was on a semester abroad and not on an all-inclusive vacation, but that’s how it felt! That entire first day we spent soaking up the sun, lounging in hammocks and swimming in the ocean…there were some sunburns! It’s so ironic that all we want in the West is to have that summer glow all year round, and here they have drugstores filled with “whitening” body lotions and skin creams and the women walk around holding umbrellas to avoid darkened skin. Come on people!
The second day we got a visit from a local NGO that was focusing on building toilets in the neighbouring community to prevent people from defecating on the beach, previously a huge issue since there was nowhere else to go and the tides usually swept it away. It was really interesting to learn about what they were doing and later that day I walked along the beach; sure enough, there was poop, just not on the resort’s stretch of real estate. As a group, we decided to donate enough money for them to construct another toilet. The fewer poops on that beach, the better. We also got to visit the local village and meet some children…they were so curious and absolutely loved being in the photos and seeing them appear immediately on our cameras. We got back to the resort in time to watch the sun vanish over the horizon…we ate dinner and sat around the pavilion drinking beer and chatting. One of our profs got a little too into the booze which was a riot.
Monday a bunch of us went snorkelling, which was a long trip to get out there (hour long bus ride to another beach and another hour on a small motor boat). By the time we made it out to the island most of us were sick from the bus or boat ride or both, and those who weren’t sick were so doped up on gravol we spent half the time passed out on the boat… but we managed to get some decent snorkelling in anyways! The beach we left from was a common pilgrimage site and has the biggest Shiva statue/temple in the world (Shiva is the god of destruction), so that was pretty cool. We spent the last night in Turtle Bay doing pretty much the same thing as the previous night, but took the party onto the beach where we sat around a huge bonfire and stargazed.
On the morning of the 17th we departed for the Rainforest Retreat in the Western Ghats near Madikeri. That bus looked like it was from the 60s (even though Chris had requested a ‘deluxe coach’), and we had to stop a couple times for mysterious mechanical difficulties. It took us 13 hours to get there but at least we did! As usual, there was the difficulty of finding toilets while we were on the road (nevermind trying to decipher confusing and often false directions to toilets); by now most of us have learned not to avoid drinking water on travel days but a bunch of us still wound up in some remote village squatting to pee in a back alley and asking if anyone has toilet paper?!
It was all SO worth the journey – the rainforest retreat is a homestay on a family owned organic plantation called the Mojo Plantation. At one of the highest elevations in India, the Mojo plantation receives a ton of rainfall and has a much milder climate, allowing a vast number of crops to be grown. The two owners are a couple of Ph.D biologists and their daughter, who left their urban life to explore sustainable farming and a more harmonious way of life. They were incredibly cool people and the owner (Sujata) spent the first day giving us a tour of their crops and teaching us about the rainforest ecosystem, biodiversity and the myriad of benefits of organic farming. It was mind-blowingly awesome, and we spent most of the afternoon harvesting vanilla and coffee beans.
Our second day we took a long trek up to a viewpoint on the ridge, where we could see the whole area surrounding us. Hiking back we came across two rat snakes intertwined; at first we were told they were mating, only to find out later that it was in fact two males fighting. Typical. That afternoon, we visited a small school in the nearby village. There were only 8 students there, but we taught them a little about Canada, sang songs and gave them some of the teddy bears, school supplies and tennis balls we brought with us. That night we had a fantastic meal and saw a slideshow presentation by Sujata showing us more of the biodiversity and talking about the connections and interdependence between every living thing on their plantation.
On our third day we hiked across rice paddies and lower farm fields to a temple called the Sacred Grove. The afternoon was spent doing ‘tea plucking’ and learning about how coffee is processed. On our final day in the rainforest we took a bus to a nearby river where we had a picnic and spent the day swimming and enjoying our last day of holiday before hitting the books in Mysore.
On our way to Mysore, we stopped at the Golden Temple, a temple for Tibetan Monks taking refuge from communist persecution. We’re spending three weeks here in Mysore at a Christian Missionary/conference center called the Organization for the Development of People, where we’ll complete half our course requirements (the other half will be in Jaipur). Our rooms look reminiscent of a mental asylum: bars over the windows, hospital-like metal framed beds, fluorescent lights and heavy doors…but hey, we’re all here together!
So far, it’s been great here. The food is good and we’ve had some great lectures and a huge department/grocery store 100m away which was VERY exciting (we had yet to find any kind of grocery store or sizeable retail space in India). Our schedule is between 4-6 hours of class/day and the gates are locked at 9 pm but we have a lot of material to cover in just 15 days of classes! Yesterday, a monkey hopped in through the window of our classroom and made off with one girl’s bananas right from her bag, I’m assuming that’s why we have bars over our window but it was quite hilarious to see.
This afternoon, Devon Peter and I ventured to the town center to explore and get our bearings around here. After a chaotic experience at the post office trying to send Devon’s mail (think hordes of people crowding around one open service desk ten minutes before closing time, with no concept of a line and all yelling at the clerk), a rickshaw driver stopped us in our tracks (as many people do), to ask where we’re from. He proceeded to tell us how much he loves ice hockey and thinks cricket is a waste of a sport and insisted on showing us around ‘his India’.
We climbed into his souped-up auto rickshaw and he introduced himself as ‘Master Blaster’ and proceeded to crank up Bob Marley as he swerved through all these back-alley roads, narrowly avoiding cows chickens dogs and pedestrians. We passed three boys packed onto one bicycle…the last one was holding two chickens, I have no idea how they did it. We went to visit a friend of Master Blaster’s incense shop, where we were ushered inside. A woman was rolling incense sticks and she showed me how to roll the coal over the bamboo stick, telling me she rolls about 7,000 sticks per day. We ventured through some spice and produce markets before heading back to the center for dinner.
That concludes my tales – for now. Life will settle down for the next few weeks while we stick our noses to the grindstone but I’m sure there will be more adventures to come…India has not ceased to amaze, confuse, shock and inspire me!
No comments:
Post a Comment