South India

19th July 2007

I have no internet access but I really want to write about the south. So I thought I will just write my posts daily wherever I am and post it online whenever I find internet. The reason I am writing in English is because I want Gazal to be able to read these posts so that she can add stuff to it. We will basically be writing these posts together but just to clarify ‘I’ will be referring to me (Mine).

17th was my birthday. We were still in Delhi. We spend the whole day doing nothing, being lazy at home. In the evening we went to a dinner at Dhaba in Claridges. Gudi Bua (Gazal’s paternal aunt) and her family came to the dinner too. Deepaji’s (Gazal’s mum) friend Anuradhaji and her husband were also there. We came home late and started packing immediately. Next morning, 18th, we had to get up at 4 am. Since we have been used to going to bed late, getting up early business I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal. I was wrong. Once we were up on the plane from Delhi to Cochin, I had the breakfast served and I fell asleep and I opened my eyes once we were about to land.

18th morning and here I am in a place where I dreamed off visiting for a long time. Kerala, better known as God’s Own Country welcomed us with rain. We met our driver, Mr. Sunil, at the airport and got in the car to drive to Munnar. We were reading about Munnar on Wikitravel and under things to do it said ‘Walk in the clouds’. We were in the car ready to get to Munnar so that we could walk in the clouds but on our way we had to stop several times: to buy Kerala Banana Chips, to buy Coconut, to see the beautiful waterfalls and obviously bathroom reasons. The drive was four hours in total, and we saw the ‘Welcome to Munnar’ sign and I couldn’t see any clouds around yet. Once we saw the boards with our hotel’s name saying 12 km, I realized that our hotel was not right in Munnar but further away. Finally we were in the clouds, not walking, driving. Oh one thing I forgot (Gazal will be upset, if I don’t write this). On our way we stopped to have lunch. I wasn’t really going to eat but Gazal was really hungry and anxious to eat Kerala food. She order Fish & Vegetables dish. Guess what she received. 1 big plate of fish curry, 1 big plate of rice and 7 small plates of vegetables. For how much? 55 rupees. ($1=41 rupees) Yes, everything is cheap in India but these 9 dishes for 55 rupees were shocking.

When we arrived at our hotel, Siena Village, we were really tired and we set on our sofa to watch TV and obviously I fell asleep, until dinner. After dinner was not much different, we relaxed and made plans for the next day, which is today. We woke up early (8:30 is early for us) and had our breakfast. I miss nothing about Turkey in India except the breakfast. Food is so good in this country but I think Turkish breakfast deserves the credit.

After breakfast we went to see Anayirangal Dam. ‘Ana’ means elephant in Malayalam. But we didn’t get to see the elephants because we had to walk 4 km. After dam we came back to the hotel, had lunch and we were ready to leave for Kolukkumalai tea factory. We had to get a jeep for that because you can’t drive on the road that takes you to the factory. The road was a real experience. Don’t think that I am a white girl who has never seen bad roads, believe me Turkey has them too but if you only drive on highways in Turkey you won’t see them. This wasn’t a road it was just rocks and stones. Before we started the drive our driver told us that it will be pumping massage. Believe me it was. It reminded me so much of crazy stuff in entertainment parks, where you can’t keep your ass on the seat because you are jumping too much.

For one and a half hours we were in the jeep going to Kolukkumalai, which is the highest place in the world where tea is grown. It is hard to explain with words what we have seen all the way up there. Munnar itself is full of tea fields. All the way we have seen tea fields. And on the hills there were tea fields with waterfalls dividing them. At one place there was a sign mentioning the height we were at and showing an arrow to the factory. Right on that road Tamilnadu was on our right and Kerala was on our left. The driver explained the difference like this “The workers on this side have unions (referring to workers in Kerala) and workers on this side don’t.” For those who don’t know; Kerala is a socialist state. You get to see the socialist flag everywhere you go.

We were feeling dizzy after we got off the jeep, the reason wasn’t the big amount of oxygen in our lungs; it was the ride of course. We had a cup of tea and went into the factory to see how tea is made. All the machines were British and all the workers were Indian just like expected. We bought a pack of tea for Deepaji, and a pack Nurcan (my dear tea addict friend). We came back to our hotel and the ride back was nothing different. We saw the driver’s wife on our way back. He said that they got married on July 9th.

Kerala’s nature is beautiful. I can’t even show the beauty with photos. One has to experience Kerala. Kerala is the place to be. I can see why God wanted this to be its own country. If I was God I would have made it my country too and I would have made it socialist too.

July 22nd 2007

We are still in God’s Own Country and everyday I think of my geography teacher, Fatma Albayraktar. There are so many rice fields around and I remember how we used to suffer in her class, ‘How is the rice grown?’, ‘Where is it grown?’, ‘What is Monsoon?’ and endless questions about climate and agriculture. Since I see rice fields everywhere here, her voice is right in my head. Even though I didn’t enjoy her classes, she was really motherly and a great cook.

On 19th night something happened to my camera and my memory card stopped working. I was feeling so sad that I wouldn’t be able to take photos in Kerala. I didn’t really care about Tamilnadu but taking photos in Kerala was more important, especially because Meltem wants to see them. We also need the camera because Gazal will be doing an independent study on Hindu Architecture and her professor asked her to take as many photos as she can.

On 20th morning we woke up with the hope that we will find a memory card somewhere. We started driving and we stopped at downtown in Munnar. Gazal thought I was pushing my luck by trying to find memory card in Munnar, since it is really high in the mountains and it is really small but we found the memory card and continued our way, most of time sleeping. We stopped at a wildlife sanctuary and walked under the rain. We continued driving and arrived at our hotel in Idduku. Our hotel was hidden out in the bushes and a very natural place with all the animals. The birds never stopped singing. Not much attraction.

After seeing the mountains and all the green we were ready to see more green. On 21st we started driving to Kumarakom and we stopped in Vaikom to see a really old Shiva Temple. We started taking lots of photos for Gazal’s study outside the temple, right when we were about to enter the temple a man started shouting at me from really far away (the courtyard was huge). I got upset because I thought he wouldn’t let non-Hindus in. Since language is a big problem here we didn’t understand what he was saying. Finally he said ‘5 o’clock’ and we figured out that the temple just got closed.

We went to our backwaters hotel in Kumarakom. We were welcomed with coconuts. It is really hard to explain the calmness of the place. Since it is off season there was no one else staying at the hotel. I felt like all of the water belongs to us. Last fall Gazal took ‘Arts of Islam’ class and she had to design a mosque and write about her mosque. Her mosque was in Kumarakom. Such a great place to have a mosque or any other spiritual building but I guess religious people wouldn’t like that since there aren’t many people around and there won’t be any donations for that place.

In the afternoon we drove somewhere to go to an ayurvedic hospital where I got massage. It was great but I expected girls to be more beautiful. After the massage we went back to see the temple in Vaikom. We are really glad we didn’t miss that temple, since we haven’t seen any temples in Kerala and it was really old, 11th century.

After doing all the sight-seeing we came back to our hotel and sat down on the balcony facing the backwaters. Such a beautiful place Kerala is. It is unbelievable. Every part has something different to see, to do. After dinner we went to swim in the pool right by the backwaters. It was a funny, scary, entertaining experience. :D

Today we came to Alleppey (Alappuzha), known as ‘Venice of the east’; where I heard azan for the first time in India and surprisingly all of the Namaz on the loudspeakers. We spent three hours on a Kerala house boat relaxing and taking bad pictures of the beautiful land. We have been so lucky about the weather. We had the best weather for the boat ride. No sun, no rain, just warm breeze to make me close my eyes and imagine myself walking on the water.

After the boat ride Gazal got her massage and we continued the day with visiting a Jain Temple. For the first time I have been to a Jain Temple and surprisingly it was Gazal’s first time too.

One more thing to mention about Kerala is food. Fish and Kerala Paranthas, I don’t think I will ever forget the taste even after I leave. Today we got Bananas from the market and bananas are yummy too. My favorites from Kerala; any fish dish(so many of them), Kerala Paranthas, Fish & Vegetables (comes with so many Kerala style Vegetables) and fresh Pineapple Juice.

July 24th 2007

We are in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala. We got here yesterday and our way to here from Alleppey we saw so many mosques. I guess there must be so many Muslims living in the region. On our way we stopped at Karumadikuttan, where we saw an 11th century Buddha statue. We also stopped at a temple, which was chosen by our driver and turned out that is not the one we wanted to see.

We arrived at our hotel Uday Samudra, in Thiruvananthapuram quite late in the afternoon, right by the Arabian Sea, and had an Indian style of adventure in the hotel, which is too personal to be put on blog. (Meltem don’t worry, you’ll hear the story) Actually it is not too personal but too long to write about.

This morning we woke up late since we had enough time to go around. We started our sight seeing with Padmanabha Swamy Temple, where they only allow Hindus to get in. I tried to enter and the man was trying to explain me that I can’t go in. We went to a room where you give the cameras and shoes and get yourself a dhoti to cover your legs if you are woman. Even though we had jeans on, we had to put a dhoti on. In that room I convinced some other man that I am Hindu and I am coming from Delhi. He believed me. Knowing some Hindi helps. Even though my Hindi isn’t more than 5-6 sentences, I guess having non-blonde hair helps not to be considered white.

I have so many different experiences related to my color here. First of all I only met one person in Delhi who knew where Turkey was. I don’t even say I am from Turkey, unless they ask me personally. When people ask us where we are from, Gazal always gets to answer before me and she says ‘Delhi’. People start considering me a Delhite. When I was in Delhi, I used to pretend to be Kashmiri but here I am from Delhi. When I try to enter more temples my new scenario will be that my mum is British but my dad is Indian and a Hindu. I forgot to mention kids running after me to practice their English. They come and ask me my name, where I am from. Obviously not to confuse them I tell them that I am from Delhi but I guess that’s even more confusing for them to see a white girl who says she is from Delhi.

Back to our city tour. We went to Kuthiramalika, a palace near the temple where we saw 200 year old palace. Our guide was too entertaining. After the palace we went to an Art Museum where we saw a gorgeous Temple car, all black, so detailed and so big. We also went to an Art Gallery which I didn’t find really impressive.

Most entertaining part was our visit to Science and Technology Museum which seemed like none of the tourists visit the Museum. Gazal and I did a medical quiz in the museum and got 50% right. I guess we were both bad at Biology in high school.

We also went to Shangumugham beach where I bought myself a bag with Che Guevara’s picture on it. I have seen his picture couple of times on the walls right next to the socialist flag. We did some more shopping. Before we went to the beach Gazal was wishing that she was in Mauritius so that she could have pineapple with masala, the minute we stepped on the sea shore, we saw a woman selling pineapple with masala. Gazal didn’t need to cross the Arabian Sea for that.

Tonight is our last night in Kerala. We are leaving this beautiful state of India, socialist state with 99% literacy rate, where you can see women working everywhere, where you see so many school kids and where you see happy people. Kerala is quite expensive (compared within India, not the world) because it is a great tourist attraction. I really enjoyed coming to Kerala off-season because I haven’t seen white people before coming to Thiruvananthapuram. I felt like I am the only tourist in Kerala but unfortunately there are lots of tourists here in Thiruvananthapuram, city of holy snakes.

July 25th 2007

We left the beautiful Kerala this morning and started driving to Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India. On our way we stopped at Padmanabhapuram Palace. The palace is in Tamilnadu but maintained by the government of Kerala. It was under Kerala section in the guide book so we thought we missed it but our driver told us it was on our way. It is a really big palace used between 1590 and 1790. The entrance fee was 25 rupees for Indians and 200 for foreigners. I wasn’t sure if it was worth paying 200, so I pretended to be Indian and I was stopped obviously but it was an easy test that I had to pass. I just asked the man if he speaks Hindi in Hindi and he let me go in. I had a worse situation in the bathroom. I went to bathroom which is only 1 rupee for Indians and 4 rupees for foreigners. Why would I care for 3 rupees but I guess I liked the game of pretending to be Indian and I told the man I am Indian. He asked me my entire life story. I told him that my mum is Turkish, my dad is Indian. He asked me where we live and I said Turkey, that’s why I was speaking bad Hindi.  If I knew I was going to sweat so much and lose too much energy to speak Hindi I would have given the 3 rupees, I still don’t know why I didn’t want to give the 3 rupees.

Next to the palace there was the archaeological museum which was full of statues of Indian gods and weapons. On our way we stopped at Sthanumalaya Temple at Suchindram and obviously it was wrong timing we just took photos of the detailed carvings for Gazal’s study.

Around 15:00 we arrived in Kanyakumari and we had to rush to the ferry that goes to Swami Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thiruvalluvar Statue because the last ferry is 15:45. Thiruvalluvar was a Tamil poet and Swami Vivekananda was a social reformer who meditated there. We were so hungry and had to go and check in at our hotel. After our really late lunch we went back to the sea-shore to watch the sunset since Kanyakumari is famous with its sunset and sunrise. There was a tower to watch the sunset and we had to keep running up the tower to see the sunset since we were a bit late. We also saw Gandhiji’s Memorial place.

Since we arrived late in Kanyakumari we had to do our sightseeing in the evening. We didn’t want to go back Sthanumalya Temple since we don’t like big temples and we think we have seen enough in this region for Gazal’s study. We will also see enough in Madurai and Trichy. Instead we went to a place which consisted of 3 temples. Small temples are more welcoming and I feel more spiritual in them. Actually I don’t feel spiritual in any temple but I feel like I would have preferred those places for my prayers if I was spiritual because they are more silent. We don’t know the name of those temples but the boy who was explaining us about the temples told us that the name of the temple is Krishna Temple. After seeing 3 small temples we went to a 1000 year old temple, also small, Guganathaswamy Temple. Since I got trained about what to do in temples in Vrindavan, it isn’t really difficult to act like a Hindu here. The only problem is Gazal telling me what to do. Obviously people understand that I am doing what Gazal is saying but I know what to do anyways. The only problem for me in the temples is holy water, holy oil or holy milk… whichever they give I don’t want to drink. I pretend I am drinking it but I actually put all of it on my hair. My hair is usually smelly at nights and poor Gazal drinks all of that stuff.

Lastly before coming to our hotel we went to The Church of Our Lady of Ransom. We got to hear Lord’s Prayer in Tamil, right in front of the church. The exterior of the church was better than the interior.

Now it is time to sleep for us in our room in Kanyakumari, where the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet. We get to see their meeting from our room :D

July 26th 2007

After leaving Kanyakumari, we found a work place for Meltem. We will ask her to move to Tamilnadu so that we will have an excuse to come to South India often. What is the work? There was ≈20 km long road and both of the sides of the road were full of windmills. It looked beautiful and useful.

The ride from Kanyakumari to Madurai was long and tiring but since we have only one day here we had to go around after having late lunch. After our lunch we went to Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal. Once again, I pretended to be Indian but this time no questions were asked. The palace was beautiful, even though only a portion of the palace was remaining. We were told that the king carried the other parts and belongings to Trichy. We were hoping to see the palace in Trichy since we will be going there tomorrow but we found out that the palace was once again moved from Trichy to Tanjore and hopefully we will see it in Tanjore.

After the palace we went to the famous Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple which is dedicated to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. It is the biggest temple we have ever seen so far. The entrances and the shops in the temple reminded of Grand Bazaar to Gazal. I am really happy I have seen this temple because it is really important among Hindu temples but I would have still preferred calm and one-color Kerala temples. I think I was really impressed by Kerala temples and now I don’t find anything more beautiful than them.

In the temple I didn’t go into shrine, first of all now I have proved myself that I can pass for a Hindu or Indian. Second of all I find it unfair for people to decide who Hindu is and who is not. Gazal and I had a long discussion about what religions have become today after we came to the hotel. We believe that temples, mosques, churches etc have become business places and people are missing out the core of the religions.

Quick Notes:

-I have seen Scooby Do in Malayalam, He-man in Tamil but nothing is as entertaining as watching a documentary about monkeys in Hindi. I look at the monkeys. They are so cute and Hindi sounds cute, which makes the documentary entertaining even though I don’t understand it.
-One can go to Kerala, even just to eat Kerala Paranthas. We can’t find them anywhere else
-There are good non-vegetarian Indian dishes too. Don’t believe what you read. Kerala will offer you the best style of fish.
-It is great to travel with someone who knows Art History.

July 27th 2007

It is our last night in the south. Tomorrow afternoon we are flying to Delhi. Today we left Madurai really early in the morning and on our way to Trichy we stopped at Thanjavur to see the Brihadishvara Temple and the Royal Palace. The temple was really beautiful. We love the architecture in the south, excluding the temple in Madurai. Brihadishvara temple’s Puja hours were about to end when we went. They closed the doors of the shrine, even though the man was nice enough to open the door for us, we couldn’t get to see the sanctum because they had already closed it with a curtain.

Today was the first hot day we had in the south. The temple was a great photo opportunity for Gazal but our feet were burning and we always had to find a shade to cool our feet. After walking under the sun for an hour we felt lazy to see the Royal Palace, but we still went there. We had the opportunity to go up to the tower of the palace which looked like Vimanas of the temples in the region, we were still lazy. Instead we just sat on chairs at the door of the palace waiting for our driver to come back from lunch. While we were sitting there were white people coming in and they kept saying ‘Hi’ to me. I was confused, because I was used to Indian kids saying “hi” to me, and me having to wave at 60 of them and say hi to each one of them. So each of the white people started saying ‘Hi’. I was wondering if I look really tourist-friendly and willing to help them or something. I figured out that where I was sitting made me look like I am working for the palace. Gazal still thinks that they were happy to see someone white.

Finally we made it to Trichirapalli, our last stop in South India. Tomorrow we will do sight seeing in Trichirapalli, and then fly to Delhi.