Two weeks in India

Well, it’s hard to know where to start with the India trip- so much happened!
Well, I guess we can start by saying we were unbelievably lucky- things almost never go so smoothly in travel as they did for us on our two week vacation in Southern India. People were kind, lodging was decent and cheap, nothing was lost or stolen, transport was time-consuming but not too painful… really, I’d say our biggest inconvenience were buses and trains being an hour or our and a half late. No big deal. Plus we had a blast together 
Overall impressions- I had heard so much about what an incredibly challenging country India can be- the overwhelming crush of humanity, the poverty, the scams, the chaos, the insane public transit- that I’d really prepared myself for the worst. Fortunately, none of our experiences were anywhere near as overwhelming or exhausting as we’d expected- actually, not overwhelming or exhausting at all. Part of this might have to do with the places we picked- the south is generally known for being more laid-back and relaxing than the traditional tourist routes in the big cities and north-west.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time- not a cloud in the sky. The people were very accommodating, with the only even moderately bad experiences being with snippy auto-rickshaw drivers and hordes of kids (mostly in the rural areas) whose only English words involved asking for money. The kids saw us as walking wallets, for obvious reasons in a country where the minimum wage is about $2 a day. It was irritating after the 50th time in a row, but most of the kids cracked huge smiles and forgave us our stinginess when we offered to take a picture of them. We got lots of great pictures, as it seemed like every person we met asked for us to take photos of or with them.

The landscape in the areas that we visited was mostly very green and tropical. One of the biggest things that we realized on our trip is that we have to come back. India is such an enormous country, in size and cultural and geographical diversity, and we were only able to get a tiny taste of a few little dots on the map. Many of the lucky travelers that we met were in India for a month or several.

We started out in Cochin, a town in Kerala. The area is famous for its laid-back attitude, lush green landscape, and criss-crossing waters. We spent a night there recovering from the trip, eating amazing meals at local restaurants (we could both eat extremely well for $2 in the right places) and trying to get a feel for things. Then we took a local bus south about an hour and a half to Alleppey, right in the middle of the backwaters, where we stayed in a homestay on a tiny coconut and rice farming island and walked around, getting a feel for local life. We then took a super luxurious overnight trip around the backwaters in our own personal houseboat, with our own personal cook and driver. Amazing!

We then took an overnight train to Gokarna, a tiny off-the-beaten track town with stunning beaches. There was just enough tourist development for us to be able to eat well, use the internet and stay in a fun hostel- no more. The gorgeous Om beach was quiet and tranquil, and we spend one lovely day hiking between beaches and watching cows strut their stuff in the surf. We cut our stay in Gokarna a bit short to move an hour north to Goa, one of India’s bigger tourist areas. It’s known for stunning beaches, but most parts are more developed and touristy than Ace and I like. We headed up there because I was determined to be able to hit a market, which we did, and it was well worth it. I had a great time browsing bed covers , funky sandals, patchwork sari wall hangings and cushion covers. It was well worth the stop, but the next day we decided to move on to Hampi a day earlier than expected.
We booked an overnight bus, which turned out to be quite the experience- we shared a little sectioned off mattress in the back of a big bus. Our spot was just big enough for both of us to sit up and look out the window or lay down and try to sleep- as long as nobody tried to roll over. Most of India’s roads are in pretty bad shape, so we found ourselves suspended completely in midair, then slammed back down on the mat repeatedly on the 13-ish hour trip. Fortunately, we’re pretty great at sleeping, and we both felt surprisingly decent when we arrived in Hampi.

Hampi was our favorite- there’s really no way to describe the landscape- you’ll just have to look at pics on our photosite  http://kateandace.shutterfly.com/ We spent a lovely three days, two nights here, scooting around between gorgeous ruined Hindu temples, exploring the amazing landscape, visiting monkeys, and getting blessed by the temple elephant. We then took another overnight train to Bengalore for our flight out. What we saw of Bengalore was pretty nasty- overall, a very dirty, charmless, noisy city- but that was expected. We managed to pass a really nice day there, though, as we’d booked a cooking class. We learned how to cook our favorites in the home of a lovely woman, then went to the grocery store to stock up on spices to bring back. We also watched half of a Bollywood movie in the theatre, something I’d really been wanting to do. We left halfway through, as the movie wasn’t in English and there were no subtitles, but I still got my fix of song-and-dance numbers.

On the trips to and from India, we had 16 hour layovers in Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates. They actually turned out great- we had a lovely day exploring Sharjah on our way to India. Our overall impression was of a very clean, organized, quiet town. Everyone was super polite and the roads seemed extremely wide, quiet and empty after Turkey. On the way back we were able to take a short busride into Dubai, where we hopped on a bus tour and got to see the sights. We were pretty exhausted, but still really enjoyed getting to see the gigantic malls and hotels and wander around on The Palm.
A great trip- we can’t wait to go back and see more of this super interesting country.