From Bad to Wrose to Better

The morning we left Periyar, my frequent bathroom visits should have warned me taht something was brewing. On the windy mountain roads I became very queasy, so we stopped for me to take some dramamine and get a soda. My stomach settled, but the large volume of liquid consumed required a stop which finially initiated me to the "Indian toilet." It was quite a feat of engineering to roll up my pants legs, roll down the top, and carefully tiptoe across the urine-slick floor to find my "perch" on the pink porcelain foot pads over the hole. Let's just say that squatting position did not improve the aroma. I left as quickly as possible, found a water spigot and cleaned not only my hands, but the soles of my shoes...yuck.

When we arrived at our hotel I understood why many web sites say to avoid the government-run hotels in kerala (which, by the way means land of coconuts...for a good reason...coconut trees are EVERYWHERE and coconut is a major ingredient in many, many foods). Anyway - suffice it to say: WHAT A DUMP! If the odor redolent of mold and insecticide weren't enough, the falling down ceiling, group of backpacking students checking in, and the line of ants marching through the room clinched our hasty exit from the premises. Fortunately our trusty driver, Shakkeer, recommended a private hotel that he thought would meet our needs. As is becoming usual, he knew more to remedy the situation than our "guide," Neel...who had purchased a guide book a few days earlier and was thumbing through it for the names of other hotels. We weren't sure if Shakkeer's recommendation would meet our standards, since he was trying to steer us away from some of the other hotels because he said they were too expensive. When we discovered taht the cheapest room at the Radisson was over $400 a night, we decided to check out the Backwater Ripples, which, indeed, was lovely and - while much more than we have been paying - was much more reasonable than the Radisson.

It proved to be one of the best moves we made, as that night I became violently ill with eruptions from both ends. I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say, I was glad to be in a hotel in which I was comfortable sitting on the bathroom floor for almost the entire night. The next day I felt much better, but was certain that I would never want to eat again. I stayed in the nice room, sipped gatorade and 7 UP and prayed for the nausea to pass. By this morning I was all better, and ate a few biscuits, and even felt up to our planned canoe ride through the backwater canals in the Kumarakom backwaters. It was absolutely lovely and we spotted many kingfishers, egrets, purple moor hens, and some sort of woodpecker. Even more interesting was seeing the daily life along these canals in which people bathe, wash their clothes, clean their cooking pots, and probably much more. I saw someone wtih a small fish, scaling it against a flat, rough rock. I think in India, you have to be strong to survive.

The weather here has been amazing - it is not too hot, there are breezes, and remarkably few mosquitoes, given that there is water everywhere. It was fortunate that we had 3 nights here so that I had time to recover before we hit the road again. Tomorow we drive to Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala and, apparently a large city. I think we have both had enough of India cities, but it will provide a stopping point on our way to Kanyakumari - the southern tip of India which joins the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea.

A FEW CORRECTIONS: The bird I liked in Periyar is a scarlet minivet (not minuet). Also I was off by about 224 years on teh founding of the synagogue in Cochin's "Jew Town"...I alone am responsible for any other errors!!!

Just one additional funny note: today as we were on a brief (and futil;e) shopping expedition so that Miriam could get a cheap suitcase in which to bring home her many purchases our group of 2 Jews, a Hindu and a Muslim were approached by a man on the street telling us taht Jesus Christ was the one true God. It cracked us up!! Waht an unlikely Indian scenario. But more and more it seems like this is a place in which anything can happen (except to find a Western meal when our tummies have been upset)...although - sorry = one more note...we did find a supermarket of sorts and went into raptures of ecstacy when they had Silk soymik on the shelves!!! An Indian family next to us became curious as to this strange product that made the Western women so excited.