South Tour: The Final Saga

Here it is, the final adventures of South Tour.  I left you at the southernmost tip of India in Kanyakumari with cheap soccer jerseys, an obscene number of flag pics, and the sketchiest tattoo parlor on the planet.  From there we entered Kerala and took our first of many backwater rides for which the state is famous.  The surroundings were so perfect I could envision the plot of God of Small Things unraveling before me.  It was so calm, and the atmosphere was so natural I found myself also thinking about Heart of Darkness.  I loved how isolated we seemed to be from the rest of the world.  Eventually our boat came out of the backwaters and hit a sandbar separating the freshwater rivers of Kerala from the Arabian Sea.  Needless to say, we all abandoned decorum and ran into the waves, soaking all our clothes.  Luckily, this was only a small taste of our time in Kerala.

By the time we reached Kovalam it was dark, but that hardly stopped us from running into the sea again.  You can imagine our excitement when we realized our hotel was only a 30 second walk from the beach!  The next morning we all rose early in order to fully enjoy our day at the beach.  We discovered that not only was the city beautiful and calm, but full of foreigners and restaurants with international foods.  This was like exchange student paradise!  We swam in the Arabian sea all day, ate great food, and enjoyed some down time in a gorgeous place.  The one and a half days we spent in Kovalam were the most relaxing of the trip.

After we left our little utopia, we headed on another backwater boat ride before arriving at our final location: Cochin.  It was a nice little city, and we saw some pretty interesting things.  However, the main attraction of Cochin, our elephant ride, was canceled.  This was the biggest disappointment of our trip, because riding an elephant is one of the things we had all looked forward to most.  We have since had the opportunity to touch and take pictures with an elephant, but riding one is certainly on our India bucket list.  Our last night we saw a classic Kathakali dance, which was truly interesting.  Kathakali is an extremely old and intricate dance style that has its roots in Kerala.  It takes many years of attending a special school to be ready to perform.  The dance is a silent method of story-telling, and combines acting with actions similar to sign language.  The play follows a script, and each word has its unique step and hand movement.  The only sound is that of the accompanying drums and singer.  It is truly captivating, and is quite an elaborate production, something that I would highly recommend to anyone with an opportunity to see it.  

Complete map of cities we visited on South Tour (click to enlarge)

The next morning, we got on another AC sleeper coach train that would take us all the way back to Pune.  I’ve already talked about that experience, so I’ll save the details.  This train ride took an entire 24 hours, passing my flight from Minneapolis to Mumbai as the longest journey of my life.  One day later, we arrived back in Pune (at 5 in the morning).  It felt so strange to come back home after over two weeks of traveling and experiencing new parts of India, but it was also a welcome relief.  And so ends the epic tales of South India.  I’m all caught up on blogging, and it only took me two months to do it.  To save myself from repeating this mistake, I’m going to try to procrastinate a little less and blog religiously after trips, starting with Goa tomorrow!  I’ll do my best to have fun at the beach while you watch some football and good commercials in below freezing weather.  Bon voyage (again)!