After several monsoon-soaked days in Cochin, we decided to roll the dice and take a day-long backwater cruise. Waiting on the hotel's front steps for taxi pickup, we met Chris, and American PhD student on a weekend escape from his research project. Telling him about our ski touring adventures in the Kullu Valley, and outdoor pursuits back home in Washington, we soon had poor Chris (a Colorado outdoor guy studying on the east coast) thinking hard about his remaining school time in Rhode Island. Not so many mountains there. It was interesting talking to him and getting a better understanding of the panchayat system (decentralized self-governance system, pushed hard by Ghandi, but only recently put into much practice) and a taste of Keralan politics, shortly after the communist party has been elected back into power in the state. When the taxi picked us up, we met the rest of the cruise-goers: a French man, and two Swiss (one of whom - Mesum - was born in India). The cruise itself was a very relaxing affair - a covered boat poled through the water by a boatman on each end. (Pictures will be coming soon... hopefully.) The backwaters are a system of lakes and canals surrounded by palm plantations and covered in mats of drifting water hyacinth. Cormorants, kingfishers, Indian pond herons, and brahminy kites, along with villagers in canoes and little round boats, all compete for fish. Over the course of the morning, we stopped at a factory where locals extract meat from the clams found in the backwaters, then turn the shells into lime. We also stopped at a small-scale rope-making operation, where a family turns the fibers of coconut husks into rough rope. Lunch was served in a thatched shelter on an island, and dished up on a banana leaf. Yummy! The weather stayed amazingly nice, considering the previous few days, and we got a brief foray out on a smaller, non-covered boat. Mesum, a professional photographer, was pretty nervous about his expensive camera equipment, but the rain never came. All of us felt pretty sleepy on the post-lunch journey back to the taxi, and we managed a bit of a nap back at the hotel before meeting up with Chris and Mesum for dinner. After a dry day, we weren't totally surprised when a solid sheet of water slammed into us on our walk to the restaurant. Soaking aside, it was a great end to a fantastic day.

We are now in Bangalore for a few days before heading north to pick up Momma K!!! Being the IT capital of India, Bangalore is incomparably the most western cosmopolitan slice of life we've experienced the last six months. We are staying in the trendy neighborhood called MG Road where the consumerism is at full board. Retail outlets such as Levis, trendy espresso chains, pubs, bars, restaurants, i.e. very much like home (but with large, gaping holes in the sidewalks). And quite honestly, we are basking in the luxuries.

We met up with Vikram and Anushri (the owners of Jungle Hut) for breakfast yesterday to go over our observations and suggestions for their jungle resort. They seemed to appreciate our input and we were pleased to learn that they intend to move to Jungle Hut in about five years and spend the rest of their lives there. We are excited for its future and look forward to visiting it at some future time. Later we found ourselves ordering an espresso drink from the Starbucks-like establishment called Barista for the second day in a row. Shortly after finishing our well poured Americanos on the veranda, we figured we were due for a beer together. We went into Pub World where the dark wood furniture and Multiple TVs showing live Wimbledon action did a respectable job of replicating an English pub. Getting cocky with our western surroundings, I was envisioning my first dark ale since arriving on this subcontinent. Reality came back quickly when the server listed the beers on tap...Kingfisher. Yes, only one lager. While we have come to only trust Kingfisher (some not so good experiences with other beers), even it's quality varies state to state. Fortunately, it is reliable here in Karnataka. Tasting good, we ordered another and with the stereo playing some quality tunes from home, we decided to list our Top 20 songs. As this drill is always good fun, this instance it really highlighted our current music deprivation. Then it was Emily's turn to play frogger across the street and use a pay phone to call some local friends. She returned successful this time and with a big grin stating "I think we are in trouble tonight." She reached Anish and he told us to meet him at The Nightwatchman for a Pub Crawl. Ouch. We had kind of given up on reaching anybody for the night and had been ordering beer thinking Pub World was our last stop before bed. Now a Pub Crawl. Uh-oh.

We walked home to drop off the backpack and then hailed the first rickshaw. Not knowing where The Nightwatchman was, we were happy with the driver's suggested fee of only 20 Rupees. Sure enough, he drove us about a third of the distance we just walked and dropped us on the sidewalk right outside our desired bar which happened to be located about 15 feet away from the sidewalk we just walked home on. Classic. With our minds focused on music, The Nightwatchman did not disappoint. Upon finding out that we were from Seattle, the DJ did a good job of slipping in some home-town favorites, tickling my music button further by playing some Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I commented to Anish that this was the best sound system I had heard since arriving in India. Em laughed and swore it was because Eddie Vedder was the voice booming out of it. This always helps, but it was a great sound system!

Fortunately, there was no Pub Crawl. We did our best to compete in the quiz going on at Nightwatchman and before we knew it was after 11:00 and the bar was closing. There was an unfortunate accident about a year ago which influenced the Bangalore authorities to disallow any alcohol service after 11:30 p.m. Quite a shocker for this town as it had a pretty big party image. Considering the average IT employee works until about 10:00 (dealing with US companies in a time zones 10-12 hours away), there are opportunities after hours and most don't consider the evening starting until after hours anyway. Anish wanted to entertain us and had called a friend for the next hot spot. Em wisely chose to be dropped off at our hotel and I continued along. We first stopped by a friend's house and then found ourselves heading back to the MG Road area, entering a nice restaurant/bar via the kitchen door for a final drink. Unexpected, I saw Vinod (a Jungle Hut regular) there and came to realize that Bangalore really is not that big. At over 6 million people living in the city, it is only a small fraction of those who can afford the social pleasures.

It was a fun night and I felt good contributing my support to the locals' confidence in Bangalore's economic future. With daily headlines of software giants investing more and more here all the time, I don't blame them for living it up. I warned slightly of how India's current momentum reminded me of the US's strength in the late '90s and then threw out some controversial talk at how India may be heading towards a huge civil war as it is a small minority who are basking in the contemporary wealth while the heart and soul of the country plunder on in the villages. Some in the conversation had spent time in the US and countered by saying the US also has a huge separation in the way the upper class live with the lower class. True, but we do have a decent sized middle class. Quite different here as India's majority (like over 90% majority) live in villages where a TV is cutting edge. When our economy is strong, the entire middle class and hence a majority of the country feels it. The 90% of Indians are not feeling anything different today than they did a year ago even though their stock market has doubled. Anyhow, a great late night conversation and one of the many reasons I am interested to see this country evolve.

Tomorrow we are on the train for a 40 hour journey northbound to Delhi. Then we pick Momma K up later Monday evening! We are so excited to see her and take in some more of India with her. We are also looking forward to mixing it up and having a third travel partner. While Em and I are kind of amazed at how well we still get along considering we have spent most all the last six months with each other (and lots of that time with only each other), we know a little space or change will be healthy. We intend to leave India shortly after my mom does as we are both getting antsy to start something more meaningful. Em will take her TEFL course in August and then we will decide on a location to settle down and find some work. Em will teach English in a local school and I am unsure on what endeavors I will pursue and probably will remain that way until I know what community (and country) will be called home for the next year. Lots of good ideas and will definitely be ready to execute some of them.

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While it was definitely time for us to move on from Jungle Hut, we will miss it. Sacchi and Pooja and the crew took very good care of us, the jungle was facinating, and the buffet.... did we mention the food was amazing?

We finally managed to make it out with Abid last week. We continue to be entertained by the different guiding styles, and he took us on a stunningly beautiful hike down into the Moyar River Gorge (pictures are in the same Jungle Hut Album). After Bella's insistance on small group sizes, we were surprised when Abid picked us up at 5:30 in the morning with an extra 3 people in tow. He explained that he's trying to get some of the local boys out into the jungle so they can appreciate it more, and not end up poaching and abusing the jungle. He had mentioned before that we could fish in the river, and we said that would be fun. In the interim, we found out that fishing there is illegal, so that morning we told him that we'd rather the group not fish ("No problem, no problem."). After a nice flat beginning to the hike, we started down the very steep trail into the gorge, with beautiful views across the river into Bandipur National Park. We were happy for the overcast skies, as it was already getting hot and sticky, even at first light. Even as Abid told us in hushed tones that sometimes he saw bear along this stretch, the three tag-alongs took off down the trail ahead of us. We asked Abid if it would be possible to keep the group together so we could all see whatever might be on the trail... he looked puzzled, but called them back. He had told us it would take 3 hours to hike down and 3 to hike back up, so we had prepared for a very long day on the trail. But to Abid's surprise, we were down at the river 45 minutes after leaving the car. When we told him later what we'd been up to in the Kullu Valley, it made more sense - he's really not used to taking mountain people out. Down at the river, the boys pulled out their fishing net (?) and got down to business, and we did some hiking up- and down-river. Not many animal tracks (unless you count those of the tribals that camp there), but lots of lizards and butterflies, some monkeys and giant squirrels, and one really big spider. After a lovely nap on some warm rocks, it was definitely starting to look and sound like it might rain. We told the guys to hurry up and cook their fish, and started back up the gorge. We just made it up out of the steep part when the skies opened up, and within a couple of minutes we were completely drenched. The rain actually felt really good after the tough hike up, and we made it back to the jeep an hour after leaving the river, with the three boys panting and continuously asking us "you tired, legs hurt?"

We definitely saw our fair share of tropical bugs in the Nilgiris. After I posted some pictures that tended heavily toward beetles and millipedes, Dad said it should be titled "Bugs Gone Wild". I don't know if it would sell as well as the other titles in the Gone Wild series... I did end up having an unfortunate run-in with a mystery spider of some kind. I ended up with a nasty bite on my shoulder (we never saw the culprit) and after it got pretty ugly-looking (nothing nearly as bad as the pictures I found online of brown recluse bites) took Sacchi's advice and went to the clinic in Masinagudi. The doc didn't look all that worried, and wrote me a perscription for some antibiotics, which did the trick. A week after I went to his office, it's looking fairly good, although it would be nice if I could keep it dried out better. Nothing is dry here. As things got wetter in the Nilgiris, we also started seeing more mosquitoes, and while they're not nearly as thick nor as aggressive as North Dakota's state bird, we're very aware about the assorted nasties these tropical skeeters can spread. So we've been smearing ourselves with toxic deet, and hoping it's better to slowly poison ourselves than end up with malaria. We do have relief in sight, though - Mom's sending a care package of Avon Skin-so-Soft with Pat (thanks Mrs. Koepke!).

We managed to make it out one more time with Abid for a morning of bird watching in another beautiful setting. I've been keeping track in the Indian bird book Jenny gave me for Christmas, and I crossed the 100 bird mark. Sounds pretty good until you figure there are over 1300 different species on the Indian subcontinent. I'll keep working on it.

Our last few days at the Hut were spent trying to wrap up our self-imposed projects in the office (very little luck there) and figure out where in Kerala we were off to next, leaving when, and by what means of travel. Every person we talked to had a different opinion on the matter. From a Tuesday afternoon departure, we slipped all the way to an eventual Thursday morning exit. We considered trains, buses, and jeeps, and settled on the route Vinnie swore his mom took regularly, involving a Deluxe bus to Cochin. Right. After heated debate with poor Gerald, who could not understand what us silly foreigners wanted, we finally made it onto a local bus (read crowded and uncomfortable) to Thissur, where we'd be changing buses to get to Cochin. The ride down out of the Nilgiris was gorgeous, with tea estates and Wyanad National Park slowly giving way to rubber, coconut, and banana plantations. The windy road was tough on the passengers - 3 of the ladies on my side of the bus spent a good portion of the first hour hanging out the windows. The second bus was a shorter ride, and much more comfortable. Arriving in Cochin (or, as the mainland part is properly called, Ernakulam) we caught an auto rickshaw to the ferry terminal, where we got on a passenger ferry to Fort Cochin, which is a peninsula off the mainland the Lonely Planet assured us was a more romantic choice to stay. Grand total transportation cost for the two of us for 8 hours and 5 different conveyances: 380 rupees (~$8). Hooray for uncomfortable local transport! Walking from the ferry landing to our "Homestay" we turned down several persistent rickshaw-wallas, only to take a good soaking when the ominious dark clouds proved not to be just an idle threat. Now this is the monsoon.

Our homestay is lovely. Homestay here means it's an old home - usually Portuguese or Dutch - that's been converted into a guesthouse. Many, like ours, are nearly 400 years old. Our room has beautiful woodwork, and opens onto a courtyard with a garden in the middle, and a miniature replica of the huge cantilevered fishing nets Cochin is famous for. Our program so far has gone approximately like so: rain - breakfast - rain - nap - rain - shopping - rain Kathakali - rain - etc. The weather has been impressive - we've only been caught out in the real downpours (that's not even a strong enough term for the wall of water that descends) a few times. It's much better to watch it from inside, or better yet, from the covered ferry out on the water. The kids in the field keep playing football regardless. (Speaking of football, we watched the US of A get beat by Ghana the other night... what was up with that penalty call?) We've spent some time wandering around the area, watched the fishermen operating the nets at high tide, and caught a Kathakali performance. Kathakali is traditional Keralan theater/opera/dance, and quite an experience. The locals go to the temples to watch all-night performances, but for tourists the cultural centers host abbreviated versions with introductions in English. If you go early, they let you watch the actors do their makeup - a process that takes an hour and a half! They are done up into caricature versions of Indian gods, goddesses, and demons, complete with elaborate costumes and jewelry. A singer narrates, accompanied by two drummers, and the actors pantomime and dance out the story. Afterward, there was a music performance by a north Indian tabla player, and the same singer from the Kathakali sang ragas. Today we took the ferry back over to Ernakulum for some shopping and a look around.

Tomorrow we're hoping to walk down to "Jewtown", the area where the dwindling Jewish population has resided for at least the last 800 years (I know they've been in India for 2000, but I'm not sure if they started in Cochin). And Monday we might try to do a backwater tour... depending on how bad we think the weather might get. We do have more Cochin pictures coming, but while the internet here is speedy, their photo-editing programs are not.

Labels: India

With the laziness beginning to wear off and the extra trips through the buffet line starting to show, I knew it was time to satisfy the body’s need to get moving again. We are limited to our hiking freedom due to the danger of elephants and other wildlife. Before arriving here, we thought we would be out hiking quite a bit and possibly even leading such treks. Due to some legality issues of foreigners leading groups and more importantly our safety, we have learned that venturing into this jungle is best with a local guide. While elephants are not man-eaters, they are quite unpredictable and can be very aggressive (and known to rag doll our species with great ease). Fortunately, we have been put in contact with Greg at Jungle Retreat and Bella – local jungle man!

Both have quite different styles: Greg is the get-to-the-top guy (great for me!) while Bella is much more the silent-stalker for wildlife sightings (great for Em!). Ironically, and we will not tell Bella this as he would be devastated, we have seen more large mammals with Greg. This morning while jolting down the trail, Greg came to an abrupt stop before back-tracking and telling us to back up. Seconds later, a small herd of elephant crossed the trail about 30 m in front of us. One mother had enormous ears and was guessed to be well over 50 years old. There were also a couple babies in the group. We hung out, let them do their thing (which was lethargically chomp the local shrubs and grasses), and then passed. Just a few minutes further down the trail, we heard the langur (acrobatic monkey) consistently chant their panic call. This is to alert the other langurs that a leopard or panther is nearby. No we did not see a cat, and do not expect to, but we are feeling our chances of spotting one (even the tiger) increase when we’re out with Bella.

While Greg is a young 20-something who looks fairly western, Bella was born and raised locally, and looks exactly like you would imagine a jungle guide should: camouflage pants, old green shirt, and carries a machete. Watching him track wildlife is fantastic! In addition to finding clues through pugmarks and dung, Bella gains information by feeling the warmth of local branches or tapping his machete against the trunk of a tree. Most prevalent for successful tips is his sense of smell. He will often stop on point with his nose in the air and then lead us a certain direction. We’re not sure how much of this activity is for show and how much has some practical wildlife-tracking purpose, but we enjoy all of it! In addition, he keeps conversation to a limited whisper while predominantly using hand gestures. While we understand some basic stop or come signals, we were a little uncertain to some of the other twirly finger maneuvers during our first outing with him. But with time, we are getting it.

With Bella, we have tracked an elephant, a group of wild boar, langurs, giant squirrel, spotted deer, and more birds than I know what to do with. During one short afternoon walk, Em spotted 28 different birds and 8 additional ones she could not positively identify. Some feathered highlights include: grey-headed fish eagle, fish owl, Malabar grey hornbill, several types of parakeet, sunbirds, and many more. While we are stoked to just be out in such a foreign ecosystem, Bella is a large-mammal specialist and seems determined for us to see “rare-animals” like the tiger. We’ll see!

With a stall in the monsoon, the weather here has been excellent…some sunshine, some clouds, very little rain, and temperatures in the mid 80s. Instead of an early monsoon meteorologists were predicting with the bad weather a couple weeks ago, now they are fearing heat waves and draughts up north in the next couple weeks. With most all of India (and this part of the globe) dependent on the monsoons, we hope the rains come soon.

Labels: India

Life at Jungle Hut

We’ve definitely slipped into tropical lethargy. We’ve been very lucky that the temperatures have stayed reasonable – and now that we’ve officially turned the bend into monsoon season, it isn’t likely we’ll see the extreme heat that’s possible down here.

O.K....life here at Jungle Hut: During the week we stay in one of the guest rooms, and then when the rooms fill up on the weekends, we migrate into the main house, where there’s a few spare beds. The food here is fantastic. Granny should be very happy about my meat intake (I made the mistake of telling her while we were still up north that we were only getting meat every other day but eating enough lentils to compensate - I think she was worried). Here at the lunch and dinner buffets, there are always at least 2 meat options per meal – yummy chicken, fish, and beef (!), as well as mutton, which we mostly avoid. Veggies, salads, different breads, and very nice desserts round out the extensive offerings. Breakfast is toast, cornflakes, bananas, Indian breakfast of dosas, masala stuff, chutney, eggs made to order, and bacon or sausage if desired.

Our work schedule hasn’t settled into much of a routine yet… we mostly hang around trying to be helpful. We man the office, taking bookings and answering questions. We do a lot of “general hospitality” stuff, making sure the rooms get cleaned and are ready for the guests, showing guests to their rooms, and making sure they have everything they need. We play scrabble and cards (in the office or out on the deck), watch the birds and deer, and play with the dogs. In case we were to forget we’re in the jungle, there are big frogs (or maybe toads?) on the deck at night, geckos in our room, garden lizards on the trees, 7-ft. tall termite mounds along the paths, and bright-colored and/or enormous beetles bumbling around. Occasionally we go for a walk on the road, or catch a ride into town to grab something. Weekends are a bit more eventful, with more of the Bangalore crowd and often some of Vikram’s (whose parents started Jungle Hut, and who now owns the place) friends around. Pool parties, bonfires, and cocktails mark the weekends.

Some of our pictures are here, and more will be coming.

Gerry and the Snakes

Last week we met Gerry Martin (the local expert herpetologist, who's done work for Natinoal Geographic) when he came down from Jungle Retreat (where he leads kids’ and corporate groups) to give us a brief lecture and show off some of the snakes that he and Greg have recently caught to study. I was lucky enough to get to handle a beautiful ~3-1/2 ft Ceylon cat snake before Gerry brought out a spectacled cobra, which he kept hold of by the tail!

Then a few nights ago he asked if we wanted to go chameleon hunting. (Of course!) Trevor and I piled into the jeep with Greg and Robin, and we drove around for about 45 minutes. We saw a garden lizard, and they showed us how reptiles’ bodies catch the light differently than the foliage (I have to admit, it must be an acquired skill, as I couldn’t see the difference). After a while they decided we should try the area around Jungle Retreat on foot (Trevor headed home for some overdue shuteye – the fierce windstorms the 2 nights previous had kept us from getting much sleep at all). Right away we spotted a nightjar (bird) and while it was stunned by the light I got a nice look a the brown whiskered bird. We hadn’t walked long when the guys found our quarry: a lovely green chameleon, sound asleep gripping a branch. Robin coaxed the slow-moving lizard off the branch, and transferred it to his shoulder, where it stayed for about 5 seconds before making it’s way to the top of his head, gripping his hair one slow step at a time. They also managed to snag a mouse, which they brought back to Greg’s room where 2 aquariums house their current collection of snakes – 2 kraits, a wolf snake, the Ceylon cat snake, a bamboo pit viper, and Malabar pit viper. The Malabar viper had been shunning the frogs and geckos the others ate, and the mouse was offered in the hope that she’d be more exited about livelier prey. After only 5 minutes, she made her preference clear with a spectacularly fast strike. (I went home and told Trevor he missed all the good stuff… but then a few days later I stayed home while he went for a drive with Vinnie and they saw 2 sloth bears.)

Keith & Co

We saw Keith’s work before we met the man himself - his cartoon leopard graces the front of Jungle Hut’s t-shirts. He and his wife Valerie, and two sons (Hayden and Graham) were here for almost a week, and we had a great time hanging out with them. The Francis family was kind enough to take us along on their morning safari to Anikutti, where we saw spotted deer, sambar, gaur, wild boar, peafowl, and even a mongoose! The drive through the preserve at dawn was fantastic – the back of the jeeps are open, and we did most of the ride standing up holding onto the bars on top for a better view. We also got a great view of a crested eagle. I think Keith was really disappointed he didn’t get to show us elephants, but we were more than happy with the experience.

All in all we had a nice visit with Keith and Co., and though we don’t know if we’ll be able to take them up on their invitation to come to Mumbai/Bombay this time around, we have a feeling we’ll be seeing them again sometime.

Hiking with Greg and Vinnie

We arranged for Vinnie to pick us up at 6am, and told Greg to expect us up at Jungle Retreat at 6:15. Several people put the odds on Vinnie showing up at somewhere in the neighborhood of 233-1. Trevor had faith…. But we gave up waiting and starting walking up to Retreat at 6:15. Vinnie surprised us, though, and drove up behind us before we were halfway there. Some bananas and a cup of coffee later, we hit the trail.

The first 15 minutes was a flat hike between houses and around fences, but then we met up with the main trail and started up. Rains the night before made the trail into the perfect canvas for animal tracks, and we saw “pugmarks” (Indian term for tracks) of panther, sambar, and gaur. We saw the drama of a mouse deer being pursued by a jungle cat (the deer is about the size of a medium dog, the cat a bit larger than a domestic cat), perfectly preserved in the mud. The trail meandered uphill through broadleaf forest, most of the trees not more than 30 or 40 feet tall. A swaying of branches off to the side alerted us of the presence of a pair of giant squirrels, orange and brown animals ~2-1/2 ft long. We rounded a bend in the trail and Greg brought us to an abrupt halt – grazing obliviously on the trail ~100ft ahead was a gaur (Indian bison). It didn’t notice us for a few minutes, during which Greg informed us that when he did, he’d either charge or run away. Gaur don’t bluff if they charge, so we were all scoping out the nearby tree-climbing options. He eventually noticed us, and after staring for a minute or two, decided to retreat into the brush. A little further on, Greg managed to pick out (with binoculars) some sambar grazing on the hillside opposite us.

We encountered the usual impressive array of bugs and birds, and Vinnie impressed us with his local bird knowledge. Who knew he was a bird guy? The weather stayed pleasant for hiking – overcast, with only a slight misting, but luckily not sunny (the sun here is a force to be reckoned with). After reaching the camp (~ 1850 m) we had a nice tromp back down the hill to retreat (~ 950 m) and a lime juice and soda.

Coming up…

Tomorrow we’re going out for an early morning trek with Bella, a local wildlife guru with a fantastic mustache. Should be interesting.

Further out, we’ve been corresponding feverishly with Pat (Trev’s Mom), who’s coming to visit in July. We’re starting to lay down some more definite plans for her visit, and all getting very excited about it.

Even further out, I’ve started registration for my teaching course in Thailand. It’s in a quiet little fishing town on the coast, so we’re looking forward to that as well.

Labels: India