The Further Adventures of South India

The tales of South Tour beg telling, so here we go again!  When I left off, we had just experienced a water and light garden place near Mysore to finish out November 23^rd.  Wow, I am further behind than I realized.  On the 24^th we explored more of Mysore including a bird sanctuary which featured a boat ride near some lazy-yet-scary looking crocodiles (see Trent cowering in fear at right).  We also got our first taste of tall Indian towers and visited the famous Mysore Palace, both of which were quite impressive.  After sightseeing, we headed over to the Mysore bus station where we boarded our luxurious overnight traveling hotel.  It was bad.  This bus was pretty cramped and we shared it with many Indians who were not overly friendly.

After some futile attempts at a good night’s sleep, we arrived in Kodaikanal early the next morning.  The hotel looked a little shabby from the outside, but we were greeted with a hearty breakfast of French toast and Indian-style omelets before collapsing in our beds to make up for sleep.  The rooms were surprisingly large and nicely-furnished which was great.  We found, to our surprise, that Kodai (that’s what we experienced Indian travelers call it) was about 20 degrees cooler than Mysore so we all rushed to grab our jeans and long-sleeved shirts.  Kodaikanal was probably my favorite city on South tour simply because it felt most comfortable to me.  Here I am in India, population well over a billion, and I find myself in this quiet city in the mountains with beautiful surroundings and an abundance of foreigners.  I discovered that in some way it reminded me of Grand Marais, which only made me feel more at home there.  Our stay in Kodai was marked mainly by observing the great views and walking around the town meeting an array of interesting people like a German priest and some French guy with really long dreadlocks who told us the way to the pizza restaurant.

Unfortunately, Kodaikanal also marked the beginning of our group’s declining health and several people got pretty sick.  As we left our home in the hills, it only got worse and spread to more of the group.  Luckily, this illness would make you feel bad for approximately 24 hours before vanishing, and a day later you would feel fine.  Through Madurai and Kanyakumari, 16 of us got sick at some point which certainly put a damper on our enthusiasm. 

However, that did not stop us from seeing amazing sights like the towers in Madurai.  These huge buildings are really beyond words, and were utterly spectacular.  There are four major towers (North, South, East, and West) and a number of smaller ones, each detailing hundreds of gods.  They are one of the most famous buildings in India next to the Taj, and were definitely the most amazing things we saw.  Really magnificent.

After Madurai we headed to the Southern tip of India at Kanyakumari.  We took a ferry ride out to a nearby island where we mostly meandered aimlessly and took a bunch of flag photos.  Kanyakumari is where the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal meet and I have never seen so much water.  It’s much cooler to think about than to see, because all you see is miles of water everywhere.  On shore there were a bunch of guys selling really cheap soccer jerseys.  The quality wasn’t that great, but they were only 100 rupees!  That’s like $1.83.  I really regret not getting a few, even if they weren’t that great.  The most interesting part of Kanyakumari was the street tattoo guy, as in sit down and for a few hundred rupees this guy will give you a tattoo.  One of the sketchiest things we saw on the trip.

Here ends part two of South trip.  To catch you up on Pune, things are going great.  On Saturday we had the Rotary district conference, where all of us Pune exchangers performed two traditional Indian dances for the Rotarians.  I do not yet have the video, but I’ll do my best to get a hold of it.  The rest of the conference was long and boring, but the food was great and dinner was accompanied by a bunch of dancing.  Now, as anyone who knows me is aware, I am not a good dancer.  Dancing really isn’t my thing.  I’d much rather be making the music.  However, Indian dancing is a whole different story.  It’s just a ton of people doing random moves and having a great time.  All of us went a little crazy and danced for a long time.  As we found out, the four D’s do not apply to Rotarians and some of them went a little overboard with the alcohol.  It was nothing bad, but they got a little too close and yelled a little too loud in my ear when welcoming me to various events hosted by their clubs.  It was actually pretty amusing.

 

After returning from the conference I got a call from my Hyderabad family the Dawsons (Rachael, their daughter, stayed with my family in Northfield for three months) telling me they would be in Pune for two days and inviting me to come to a wedding reception.  I was thrilled, and of course I wanted to join them.  I was picked up by Jasper Dawson and his friend Raju, the father of the bride.  As seems to be the case in India, I was welcomed wholeheartedly and the hospitality was nearing on excessive.  Because I knew the Dawsons, I was not only invited to the wedding reception but also offered a room in their apartment.  India!  The next day I said goodbye to the Dawsons after nearly 24 hours together, and I can’t wait to see them again.  Sometime between trips, I have been invited to come down to Hyderabad and stay with them for a week and I am eager to take them up on it. 

It is truly astounding how many connections Rotary continues to bring me and I am so grateful.  My exchange seems to keep getting better, and I am beginning to dread the inevitable time when I leave India (in addition to my excitement at being back in Northfield, of course).  I guess I will just have to come back!  Speaking of more travel, I leave tonight for a week-long trip to Gujarat, the state to the North of Maharashtra where Ted Meyer stayed in Surat two years ago.  We are going to see the kite festival featured in “The Kite Runner” as well as experience some intriguing desert festival.  I’m sure it will be fantastic, but I am anxious about all the blogging I have ahead of me.  I guess that’s the price of having so many experiences!  Until next time.