Valparai

The other part of our trip down south was spent in a small little mountain town surrounded by tea plantations.  To reach the town we needed to take a three hour bus ride almost completely spent climbing up the mountain.  The road was very windy and I might have fallen out of my seat once or twice as the bus took a few sharp hairpin turns. 

The town itself is really just one main road lined with some shops, a few inns, and very few restaurants.  There are a lot of small houses on the outlying parts of town but most activity is concentrated in the “city”.  In my eyes, Valparai was one of the most beautiful places that we saw in all of India.  Many times I thought that “The Shire” would look very much like this place with its rolling hills and lush green everywhere.  The people were extremely friendly to us and in every direction you looked you could see rolling mountaintops completely covered with tea plants.

The first day we spent wandering around the town and meeting very friendly children and parents.  The children would spot us walking and come talk to us and then invite us down to see their house and meet their family.  The town isn’t much of a tourist town so our presence there was met with much curiosity.  In one instance, we saw a group of people playing cricket down in a field from the road and they saw and and begged us to come down to watch them play.  When we finally agreed and started to walk down to them we were met with a round of applause from everyone on the field.  They didn’t make us feel unwelcome or like a spectacle, they were just happy to have some foreigners watching them play.

The hotel we stayed at (Hotel Myra Lodge) was one of the more unique hotels we’ve stayed at our entire trip.  It was in the upstairs of one of the shops on the main road.  The manager spoke little to no English, but it didn’t matter, he was a jolly man happy to have us stay at his guest house.  The hotel had one main hallway, about three feet wide, with all the rooms leading off of it.  The rooms had no natural light, but we didn’t mind, the only time we spent in the rooms was at night anyways, it was too beautiful outside to do otherwise.

 

The second day we tried to make it out of town to take a tour of a tea estate, but when we got there the security guard told us it was not possible.  Instead, we told the rickshaw drivers that we would just walk back to town and we enjoyed a beautiful, sunny afternoon walk back to town.  Even though our time there was short, Valparai was easily my favorite part of our trip down south.

Topslip

This is an even more dated post than the ones from our up north trip, but we were just traveling too much to be able to update our blog.  Anyways, back in January from the 1st to the 7th we took a trip down south to Tamil Nadu one of the two most southern states of India.  Joanna (Sara’s sister) was visiting India then and she came along with us.  The train ride down was a pretty uneventful 28 hours but we arrived in Coimbatore (a large travel hub) and caught a bus right to our destination Pollachi.  We checked right into our hotel and caught another bus to Topslip National Park.  It was a little bewildering to go from an overnight train at 7am and end up in a beautiful national park by noon. 

The park was absolutely beautiful.  It is situated up in the mountains and is home to monkeys, Sambar deer, elephants, tigers and the like.  We took a 3 hour safari hike with a guide.  He didn’t speak much English, but showed us a good time as we tromped through the jungle.  Though we didn’t see any tigers, we did see a Sambar deer (that had a loud bark), black monkeys, jungle fowl (a glorified chicken) and bunch of beautiful birds.  Our safari took us off the beaten path and deep into the jungle where we were all not too sure if our guide knew where he was going but he got us back safe and sound.  We then took a bus through the park and into an elephant camp.  The elephant camp was just a village where there were a few domesticated elephants that the villagers brought into the park for elephant rides.  At the end of the day we were waiting for a bus to take us down the mountain, but instead of a city bus, there was a party bus with cushy velvet seats and flashing lights all around.  There was no one else on the bus but the six of us and one more tourist named Mark from Canada.  It made for an interesting close to the day.

We actually went back to the park on the third day and took another three hour safari.  We took a different route and had a different guide (named Baby).  Here are some pictures to give you an idea of how beautiful the park was…

 

Here are a family of warthogs near the park office with a monkey looking on.

These two were taken from the bus on our way up to Topslip.

 

These are some pictures from our safari.  This was the first time Joanna was able to touch an elephant!

Some of the crazy flowers we saw on the hike

One of the views from our hike, one of the few times we weren’t in the dense forest with the bizarre trees that twisted and turned everywhere

This is the elephant camp/village which we got to in this sweet van (notice Joanna near the back with a very excited expression).

 

Bodhgaya

Again this was earlier in our trip (right after our trip with Anne and Andrew) but we wanted to post it anyway…

 

On our way back from Calcutta (Kolkata) we needed to break up the train ride (30 plus hours is just too much) so we decided to stop in this little town with big character, Bodhgaya.  It is well known to Buddhists as the place where Buddha was enlightened under the Bodhi tree.  There are lots of Buddhist temples and monasteries, from all over the world.  We went to the Mahabodi Temple, where a descent of the original tree is planted, and essentially it is a working place of worship for many Buddhists, as much if not more than just a tourist sight.  We stayed here for a day and a half and enjoyed people watching and walking around.  Mike LOVED the eastern Asia architecture.  There is a large Tibetan population, so the food there was phenomenal.  We ate delicious soups and noodles along with ginger, lemon, honey tea (my new favorite).  We were surprised to learn that many foreigners come here for years and spend all their time in Bodhgaya, in some sort of spiritual quest.  We enjoyed it for the two days we were there and then headed up to the farm. 

Here is the main temple:

 

There were flowers everywhere combined to make beautiful designs or words, all in little plastic cups of water. 

 

More detailed shots of the elaborate building, which was surprisingly simple inside with a very large Buddha statue. 

Here is the Bodhi tree, which we were surprised to find out is in the middle of the action.  There is no fence around it, not even decent soil around it (surrounded by concrete). 

There were countless monks meditating throughout the grounds, in every open (and many times not open yet still there) area. 

In a couple of places we’ve seen prayer wheels that you spin as you pray.  They had gorgeous designs etched into them. 

 

We went to a couple of other monasteries, mostly to see the buildings and Mike loved the Japanese ones:  

Christmas in India

We know this is a bit late, but it’s the first time we’ve had the chance to upload it!  We thought you’d enjoy it anytime of year!

 

Well we can all say that this was by far the most bizarre Christmas we have yet celebrated.  It was hard to think of this time of year being Christmas because, to me, Christmas is so deeply intertwined with family and December weather.  Thankfully when Annie came here she brought along a little bit of Christmas cheer with her.  Christmas movies, candy canes and a paperback copy of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  We also had a few Christmas decorations from packages sent to us as well, so we were pretty prepared to bring in the Christmas season.  Luckily, we had also packed along plenty of Christmas music and in the weeks leading up to Christmas it was  constantly playing.

On Christmas Eve Sara and I started out the day right with Swedish Pancakes, chai and then the classis Anderson Christmas Eve run.  After spending the day prepping for dinner, we enjoyed a beautiful Christmas Eve meal including stuffing, cranberries, a corn broccoli and green bean stir fry, artisan bread, ice cream cake, and a few other select items.  It felt good to have a big meal on Christmas Eve, it was the one part about the night that felt normal.  After dinner we all gathered in the living room around candles and finished reading A Christmas Carol aloud to each other.  We then brought up some lyrics for classic Christmas Carols and sung the night away.  Right before bed, Sara and I decided to open one present from each other. It was a great way to end the night.  We also got to open two Christmas packages a little after Christmas.

  

Christmas Day Sara and I opened the presents we had prepared for each other as well as stockings we made out of bandannas.   That day our friends Paul and Rujuta were having people over to their house for a Christmas party.  It was an all day affair (about 1 o’clock to 10 o’clock) of friends, food, carrom and dancing.  A lot of the people that were there were other volunteers from abroad and they were happy to have friends to spend Christmas Day with.  Again, it wasn’t the classic Christmas experience that we are all used to, but for being a Christmas spent abroad we were very happy with it.

 

Joanna!

My very own Christmas came in late December when Joanna, my favorite sister in the whole wide world, came to visit.  It was one of the most joyful days of my life.  No exaggeration.  Mike and I went to pick her up at the Mumbai airport with a sign in tote.  It was near the middle of the night, yet there was still a gazillion people waiting in the airport.  The airport has a Hollywood feel, bright lights and a fenced in area that greeters have to stay out of.  Mike and I stood outside the fence, scanning the crowds, not knowing how much longer my heart would hold out.  After thinking every woman was Joanna, the real Joanna finally appeared (on time)!  Here are some classic shots.  Joanna with her welcome sign, part of the greeting area (not the busy part), Mike and I really excited, and a sister reunion.  It was well worth the wait.

 

There may be some overlap from Mumbai pictures, but the day after we picked up Joanna we trekked around Mumbai for a bit, seeing Gateway of India and some other notable buildings.  Out of this batch CST is the first picture (the train station we left for Pune from and the one in Slumdog Millionaire), second is Mumbai University, and finally the Gateway of India.  One of the funniest moments of that first day was being trailed by an Indian guy taking our picture and/or video.  Usually people take an obvious shot and move on or stare.  This guy took his shots and then kept taking them!  We were waiting for the traffic lights to turn and the guy went on the side, front, and behind us, cell phone in hand the whole time.  Joanna certainly got welcomed to India, where we are always wanted in a photo.   

      

Joanna stayed for about two weeks and it was splendid.  We traveled down south (read about Topslip), toured around school and Pune, and explored Mumbai.  It was a busy couple of weeks, but they were filled with joy as I got to show Joanna around my life for the last couple of months.  I’ll post more about school and our farewell to Pune, but a sneak preview: Joanna and I got dressed up in saris by one of my students and paraded around the school while students declared, “Wow, you’re beeeeautiful” or “Why are you wearing a custome?”  I love students.