Long Ride Today

We spent most of the day in the car today, as we journeyed from Kumarakom to Trivandrum, the capitol of Kerala. We had no idea that this "good" road would go through city after city and offer only the occasional scenic view. But we did accomplish 2 things. First - we secured a hotel in Alleppey for the nights of Jan 8 and 9... and possibly Jan 10, if we are able to delay our flight to AMumbai by 1 day (still need to check this out). The hotel is a heritage hotel...which are generally very nice hotels in historic buildings. This one was found by Neel's stepdaughter and we checked it out and it met our standards. For those following our itinerary - it will replace what was to have been Waterscapes and the Bolgatty Palce in cochin, since we would prefer to stay in one place longer and can easily make our flight from cochin driving from Alleppey - since we don't depart until after 9 pm.

We then embarked on a long drive to Trivandrum, and were delighted to see that the MAscot Hotel (a government run hotel) is indeed a top notch hotel. As a matter of fact - I am using their computer and it is easily the cleanest and fastest computer I've used the entire trip...although the hotel does not have the promised wi-fi. I am so mad at AT&T that I have been completely unsuccessful except for those few occasions in Chennai to connect to data from the iphone and thus you have seen few photos. At this point, I am resigned to getting my photos up on a site when I return and posting the site on the blog.

Since this has been a mostly uneventful day - I will take a minute to comment on the TATA trucks of India. Apparently the Tata family is one of the wealthiest families in India, as Tata manufactures many...most? of the motor vehicles in India. Most of the trucks and buses appear to be TATA. The trucks may be plain, but most have customized painting - from simple to amazingly elaborate. Many have a lotus flower or other simple flower designs. Others have practically every spare inch covered in elaborate and colorful flower patterns. Others have a large Hindyu deity, or a tiger, or an elephant. One could easily spend a year just traveling around India photographing the trucks. I hope I will have some good examples to post...unfortunately I often see them while I'm in the car and can't get a good shot.

My other random thought - where else can you see men walking around in what is basically a flowered skirt feeling perfectly manly? Of course they're not called skirts...they're call lugies (I'm sure I've spelled that wrong) byut it's the male equivalent of the sari...but is only wrapped around the waist. It usuallyt is kept long, at least in teh morning,a nd then rolled up to a shorter length as the day grows warmer. Ceratinly in the areas we've travelled, it is just as likely to see men in this traditional garb as it is to be in trousers. Women are very rarely seen in Western garb. today I finally inaugurated my "punjabi" outfit that I had made in Chennai. It's very comfortable and I don't think it looks half bad...though maybe I've been in India too long!!!