dede, joey and i finally alighted after 30-plus hours of train paced plunge into the heat (that we now miss so dearly) of the keralan heartland, thiruvananthapuram. our trip began and ended with an indian coffee house; the one outside trivendrum's train station's circularosity beckoned our greasy, train stanky, leftovers-gone-bad-hungry selves with heaping plates of vada and a type of bread we'd never seen before. this mystical, flaky roti (reminiscent of a layer of croissant minus whatever slight crust croissants have) would continue to permeate our trip, but for now all we knew was that these satisfactorily pleasing to the palate breads were parothas.
we ate, we basked in indian coffee house's plentiful sabon supply, then we rose to the challenge of locating the YMCA hotel room we'd booked in advance (relish it now. foresight will not be a motif present throughout the remainder of this blog post).
trivendrum hilites:
-awesome room. the ymca might've been one of the most expensive places we stayed at, but the accomodations made the price seem like a steal. shoot, we probably woulda paid all that just for their hose pressure (indian style, anyone? thanks, joey)
-morning of sight seeing. gorgeous ganepathi temple replete with devotees of all sexes and ages hurling burlap sacks full of coconuts at a coconut backboard for various reasons of prayer: to ensure their doing well on an upcoming test, their relative's good health, a plentiful coconut supply in the upcoming year, etc. we basked in the shade (and bought coconut oil from a stall in front of) a huge hindu temple that we non-practicers weren't allowed to enter, attempted to watch students of some form of concentration-oriented, self-centering, karate-like school fight each other but we got there too late, and feasted on fried banana balls and fresh banana chips. oh we also went to a museum.
-met some cool kids on the beach who told us all about their inabilities to swim. one of them was never given swimming lessons because a couple seers predicted his demise due to drowning when he was born.
-got to visit a much more touristy beach with dede's sister's friend arjun who shared his love for kerala and got marvelously excited when we told him about our bhopal ambitions back in the u.s.
just to prep you now, we should've done more research about which areas to visit because our whole trip ended up being mad touristy.
so our next stop on our way up the coast was ponmudi, a gorgeous hill station in the cardamom hills that was just so unfortunate when it came to lodging. our choices were moldy government guest house or waay overpriced empty resort. needless to say, we chose moldsville. the actual area was breathtaking and it took a bouncy, rickety, hair-pin curve hugging, completely incommunicable, 5 hour bus ride to reach.
we hit the bus to kollam after that.
where we stayed for a night.
i know what you're all really wondering is how this hairy, skinny boy achieved this perfect yogic stance, and i'm letting you know now that i'll get to it. man this post is getting long. i guess i'll just get to it now. we were all trying to do yoga one morning and joey showed us all up. way to go, new york high school gym class.
we went on a few boats, traveled to and from a few cities, and enjoyed a lot of southern cuisine before we reached the momentous event you see pictured here:
joey befriending two men in a toddy shop (toddy is crude coconut liquor) on the most touristy island i've ever imagined, fort cochi. that place wasn't a total waste, though. i got a picture of dede standing under the 'jew street' sign and we got to rent and ride bikes for a couple hours around the island. we chucked rocks at unripe mangos with some kids so they could make pickle with them and savored the most delicious freshly squeezed pineapple-mosambi (green-skinned oranges) juice of all heat-blasted time.
overall cochi/ernakulam was...decent (even though dede and i hobo showered in the stall spigot of a public bathroom there after we'd been booted from our hotel room). we had our hopes set high for bombay. now all we had to do was figure out how to get there. christmas (which we spent in ernakulam, goin all-out on multi-course meals and bombarded by gangs of kids ringing bells and wearing masks, each led by their own stick-thin costumed santa) season travels to bombaby are impossible, to say the least. and thanks to our greivious lack of prescience, we ended up taking two busses to cover the distance from ernakulam to bombay. based on our experience of travel through karnataka, we'd all come to the conclusion that there is not a single paved road through that state chock-full with roopa pride.
so finally...BOMBAY.
the city of the salvation army guest house that has housed bed bugs for decades and tripped out french guys and the museum arranged to and containing japanese perfection and the great old guy with the antiquated glasses shop and the most curious little fruits with husks and the texture and shape of grape tomatos but flavor of a persimmon with punch.
there were new years effigies, a disapointing jain temple, a calm afternoon in hanging gardens, a discovery of the innermost workings of the tower of silence, a baby in the window who waved our problems away with a mechanical wobble of his head, the best chicken in the world (or so joey claimed), out loud sessions of the great indian novel, a night at the gym with ayesha and dinoo dearest, 3 idiots, tons of british-influenced architecture, and the most delicious street food that has ever so much as tickled my nostrils. i'm sure there will be another post devoted entirely to bhel puri so no worries over explanations now.
so concludes 2009.
and dearest bhopal, there's no feeling like home.
we ate, we basked in indian coffee house's plentiful sabon supply, then we rose to the challenge of locating the YMCA hotel room we'd booked in advance (relish it now. foresight will not be a motif present throughout the remainder of this blog post).
trivendrum hilites:
-awesome room. the ymca might've been one of the most expensive places we stayed at, but the accomodations made the price seem like a steal. shoot, we probably woulda paid all that just for their hose pressure (indian style, anyone? thanks, joey)
-morning of sight seeing. gorgeous ganepathi temple replete with devotees of all sexes and ages hurling burlap sacks full of coconuts at a coconut backboard for various reasons of prayer: to ensure their doing well on an upcoming test, their relative's good health, a plentiful coconut supply in the upcoming year, etc. we basked in the shade (and bought coconut oil from a stall in front of) a huge hindu temple that we non-practicers weren't allowed to enter, attempted to watch students of some form of concentration-oriented, self-centering, karate-like school fight each other but we got there too late, and feasted on fried banana balls and fresh banana chips. oh we also went to a museum.
-met some cool kids on the beach who told us all about their inabilities to swim. one of them was never given swimming lessons because a couple seers predicted his demise due to drowning when he was born.
-got to visit a much more touristy beach with dede's sister's friend arjun who shared his love for kerala and got marvelously excited when we told him about our bhopal ambitions back in the u.s.
just to prep you now, we should've done more research about which areas to visit because our whole trip ended up being mad touristy.so our next stop on our way up the coast was ponmudi, a gorgeous hill station in the cardamom hills that was just so unfortunate when it came to lodging. our choices were moldy government guest house or waay overpriced empty resort. needless to say, we chose moldsville. the actual area was breathtaking and it took a bouncy, rickety, hair-pin curve hugging, completely incommunicable, 5 hour bus ride to reach.
we hit the bus to kollam after that.
where we stayed for a night.
i know what you're all really wondering is how this hairy, skinny boy achieved this perfect yogic stance, and i'm letting you know now that i'll get to it. man this post is getting long. i guess i'll just get to it now. we were all trying to do yoga one morning and joey showed us all up. way to go, new york high school gym class.
we went on a few boats, traveled to and from a few cities, and enjoyed a lot of southern cuisine before we reached the momentous event you see pictured here:
joey befriending two men in a toddy shop (toddy is crude coconut liquor) on the most touristy island i've ever imagined, fort cochi. that place wasn't a total waste, though. i got a picture of dede standing under the 'jew street' sign and we got to rent and ride bikes for a couple hours around the island. we chucked rocks at unripe mangos with some kids so they could make pickle with them and savored the most delicious freshly squeezed pineapple-mosambi (green-skinned oranges) juice of all heat-blasted time.
overall cochi/ernakulam was...decent (even though dede and i hobo showered in the stall spigot of a public bathroom there after we'd been booted from our hotel room). we had our hopes set high for bombay. now all we had to do was figure out how to get there. christmas (which we spent in ernakulam, goin all-out on multi-course meals and bombarded by gangs of kids ringing bells and wearing masks, each led by their own stick-thin costumed santa) season travels to bombaby are impossible, to say the least. and thanks to our greivious lack of prescience, we ended up taking two busses to cover the distance from ernakulam to bombay. based on our experience of travel through karnataka, we'd all come to the conclusion that there is not a single paved road through that state chock-full with roopa pride.
so finally...BOMBAY.the city of the salvation army guest house that has housed bed bugs for decades and tripped out french guys and the museum arranged to and containing japanese perfection and the great old guy with the antiquated glasses shop and the most curious little fruits with husks and the texture and shape of grape tomatos but flavor of a persimmon with punch.
there were new years effigies, a disapointing jain temple, a calm afternoon in hanging gardens, a discovery of the innermost workings of the tower of silence, a baby in the window who waved our problems away with a mechanical wobble of his head, the best chicken in the world (or so joey claimed), out loud sessions of the great indian novel, a night at the gym with ayesha and dinoo dearest, 3 idiots, tons of british-influenced architecture, and the most delicious street food that has ever so much as tickled my nostrils. i'm sure there will be another post devoted entirely to bhel puri so no worries over explanations now.
so concludes 2009.
and dearest bhopal, there's no feeling like home.
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