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.

Labels: India