The backwaters of Kerala are, with some justification, really well known, and we were looking forward to our 24 hours in this bucolic place. However, everything was just a bit over the top:
We scraped by on the meagre lunch, dinner and breakfast provided:
Bliss.
Sue adds - but way too much food. Fortunately, the crew shared the leftovers.
Final moments on the boat
We have all had those moments when a smell, sound image or taste transport us completely to another time and place. The barrier of years between two completely separate events shatters and briefly they merge. There were four events in Cochin that warped my sense of time, not in the instant recall I’ve talked about above but in a more subtle slightly disorientating way. Just the feeling that if I could time travel hundreds, or in one case, thousands of years I would be having exactly the same experience.
Some minor examples. We caught the ferry from our hotel to eat out, the ferry terminal was 200 years old and had not changed. We had to pay the princely sum of 6 cents each, here’s what it looked like. Fortunately there was a much shorter ladies queue and Sue could get my ticket
It hung around for about 20 minutes and asphyxiated every flying insect as well as a few diners. This method has also been around for several centuries.
Then the Chinese fishing nets, these were introduced by the Mongols 900 years ago, same spot same design.
Finally headed to the south of India, the north’s greener, cleaner and less meaner sister. We arrived late afternoon, but just in time for a freebie boat ride
Views from the cruise. More tomorrow
Meal for 2 inside hotel $100
Meal for 2 on wall outside the hotel (with beer) $5. Priceless.
I’ve got some catching up to do as I haven’t yet posted my thoughts on Aurangubad. Here are a few things that struck me that Norm hasn’t already mentioned in relation to our last two stops.
Apparently, Aurangubad is known as ‘the city of gates’. And certainly we passed many gates on our drive out to Ellora caves, about 20 kms outside the city. Difficult to photograph from a moving vehicle, but here is one:
Reminders of home appeared in the form of a Christian cemetery:
… and a replica of the Statue of Liberty!
I also noticed this sign posted regularly on the highway:
I don’t recall seeing this sign anywhere else, but it certainly seems pertinent. In India, no-one seems to pay attention to which lane they are on, and drivers weave in and out, often into the path of oncoming traffic. In some cities, they have erected concrete barriers down the middle of the road to prevent this, and yet still drivers cross over to the wrong side at intersections. Our drivers so far have been extraordinarily skillful in avoiding collisions, and I have realized that the constant ‘honking’ of horns, which I had previously assumed was due to irritation and frustration, is simply a way to let other drivers know you are there and intent on moving forward. I am usually a nervous passenger, and have been surprised at how calm I feel in the face of this ‘horn-honk opera’ as described in the book I am reading. India is having a calming effect on me!
Moving on to Mumbai, this city surprised me in many ways. Much more cosmopolitan than any city we have so far visited, and surprisingly easy to get around. As Norm has described it was an emotional moment to stand outside the apartment where he stayed with an Indian family back in 1977, before he started at medical school. Seemed like an important place to reflect on all that has happened since then.
Mumbai is certainly a city of contrasts, from the opulence of the Taj Palace hotel, to the slums that we drove past surrounding the airport. The book I am currently re-reading is Behind the beautiful forevers: Life, death and hope in a Mumbai undercity by Katherine Boo. I first read this about eight years ago, but it is coming to life in a new way now that we have spent time in Mumbai and I would really recommend it if you want to know more. Our hosts have been very careful, and a little defensive, when we have (hopefully sensitively) asked about the slums and people living on the streets and begging for food. Some have tried to describe these as a lifestyle or ‘career choice’, which is difficult to fathom. Hard to know whether they feel ashamed, impotent, or are simply wanting to present a more positive representation of their country in the hope that more people will visit. Norm posted a picture of a laundry in the slum area in Mumbai that we walked around, and while there was evidence that many of the residents were operating businesses and surviving, I cannot believe that many people would live there by choice. It was truly grim.
And yet still there was a vibrancy and sense of community everywhere we visited. Not sure I will ever be able to make sense of it. If you have visited India, and feel you have achieved a better understanding, I would love to hear from you – either in a comment on the blog or text/PM/email. Next, on to Kochi in the south.
Way back at the beginning of the blog I mentioned that as a raw but (so I thought) invincible 18 year old, I spent nine months living in Bombay (now called Mumbai, except by most people who still call it Bombay). Since then I have been back twice on teaching trips, but never revisited the apartment I lived in with an Indian family (no longer with us). It was surprisingly emotional to see it again, albeit from the outside (its the one below the flat with pink flowers), and a time for reflection on the many years and events in between. The last time I stood here I hadn’t started medical school, now I’m retired. Good to see it with Sue.
Onwards to Aurangabad, a city of over a million people, 45 minutes flight from Mumbai, where we had the pleasure of a seven hour layover. We met a fellow frequent flyer in the airport who could have made it quicker under their own steam.
Take a solid rock cliff and either, start chiselling on the face of the cliff (carving in), or (far more difficult), start chiselling at the top of the cliff, some distance in from the edge (carving down). The first piece of stone you shape at the surface will eventually become the topmost part of your structure. A little like the medieval cathedrals of Europe, these temples (as they were to become) were multigenerational acts of devotion and worship. Different continents, same driving forces.
First some carve in temples: (remember all the spaces you see were once solid rock). Interestingly, there are Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples - all in close proximity, having been constructed/excavated around the 1400-1600s. Shades of ‘ebony and ivory living together in perfect harmony, side by side on…’ oh you know the rest.
Even Buddhist monks like a souvenir!
All these were amazing, but nothing really prepares you for the scale of the largest rock temple in the world (a cut down temple)
And you can walk through buildings:
Then onto another strangely familiar building in Aurangabad “The Taj of the Deccan”
Oh and the acclaim part? Sue and I were probably asked at least 60 times for a photo with Indian people. Good looks or a simple lack of Caucasians post covid? I’ll let you decide. We were happy to oblige.
