India Travels- Kochi, part 3

Jan. 24, 2010


Such beautiful Saris in India.

Journal Entry:
"Today was a beautiful day. I went to church at the Basilica, the 2nd Oldest church in India, right here in Kochi. (The oldest being some 6 blocks away, but now it is a ?Anglican? church instead of Catholic, I think?) All the women were wearing the most beautiful Saris. Every color imaginable, red, blue, teal, purple, gold, yellow, green, etc. They all had their heads covered with different color shawls that matched the color and farbic in their Sari. I wanted to if not wear a Sari, at least cover my head in these beautiful silks/cottons/chiffon shawls. I have always wanted to cover my head during mass and now I know why. You should have seen it, it was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life. It's indescribable, and of course, since it was mass, I couldn't and wouldn't take pictures. Oh well. That one will have to last in my memory!

We have switched hostels. Wow, it's funny how you think the next place will always be better, perpetual hope and optimism I guess. Well, not so much. (This ended up being the WORST place we stayed at our whole trip, I will not call them out, but email me if you are going to India so I can tell you what hostel NOT to stay in ;) It was barren, hardest bed I've ever felt, might as well have slept on the floor, except for the bugs that would've eaten me alive even more. As it was, ants got to Travis' chocolate bar in a matter of an hour's nap. I got more mosquito bites in 2 days from this place than the rest of the trip. Needless to say, I feel tired here, and restless. We started getting fussy about being in the room, so we decided to go explore this side of Kochi. We were duly rewarded for getting out of there with: an ELEPHANT! He was just walking down the street with a couple of guys?! We followed him to a random back alley where he proceeded to eat palm fronds using his truck to rip them apart, coolest thing to watch. He was just chillin' in front of some closed shops, or warehouses. The few other people that saw this random show stayed and watched like us for at least 20 min. We weren't sure what was going on, if he was safe, ok? Eventually he seemed great, so we wandered on and found a cool tea house. Later, after meeting a woman from LA :/, we learned that he was in a parade, filled with flowers, drummers, painted dancers, etc. A little lesson learned, when feeling low and in the dumps, go outside, change your scenery!

Email responses from home:
"Wonderful to hear things are going better." -Love, Dad
"...I am so glad you are doing so much better..." -Love, Kelly

Catholic symbols (cont.) throughout India:

"Kochi boasts the first Catholic Church in India, St. Francis Church. Allegedly built in 1546 by the Portuguese, about a hundred years later it became Protestant with the Dutch invasion, and still about a hundred years later, the arrival of the British made it Anglican. In 1949, the congregation joined the Church of South India." reference

Almost all schools in this town were private, another example of the wealth in Fort Kochi and church influence in India.

A rosary in India

All you need is Jesus and a goldfish! haha This was my view every morning from our favorite breakfast restaurant next store to the bookstore.

"Santa Cruz Cathedral/Basilica was rebuilt in the early 20th century and also received the visit of the pope"reference

So beautiful.


Time to leave the worst hostel in India and go exploring:

Travis feels how he looks :)

I want this on my front door! Cool!

Love the trees growing through walls!

Rewarded for leaving the hostel, with... an ELEPHANT!

De-ta-de walkin' my elephant. No big deal..

Got my bling on, eatin' my palm fronds, life is great.

And then!...

I am adorned in Gold!

..but am also chained :(

Drummers.

Twirling flower holders.

No one in India is this tall, this MUST be fake :)

Sounds the trumpets! The king is here.. or just a local guy trying to be mayor we think.

These guys were kinda creepy.

I may dance with you, or I may eat you, depends on how I feel today...

India Travels- Kochi, part 4

Jan. 26, 2010


hello from Fort Kochi!
(I loved this mini door!)

Journal Entry:
"This is our last day in Fort Kochi. We are being picked up tomorrow for the Ashram. I am unsure what to expect. I think it will be a great experience if (the Guru, will be left unnamed, don't want any bad Karma for my viewpoints being blasted;) is there. I am sure it will be super busy if so. I will go with the flow, or try to like I have been trying to do since we got here!

Yesterday we went on a river boat trip and had an Ayurvedic massage . The massage was definitely an 'experience'. I had to undress in front of the 2 women that were to give me the massage. If you've never gotten a massage this may seem 'normal', I mean, you DO have to take your close off to get a massage. However, the normal practice for shy and prudish Americans is for the practitioner to step out of the room to let you jump out of your clothes and into the blankets. Ok, so undressing. Down to my skivies. Nope, not enough. I am signaled (because they do not speak English) to take ALL my clothes off... Ok?! Breathe. There is no hidden camera. This is not a weird kidnapping place. You are here to get a massage. Just breathe, trust and remember this is an experience... Then I lay on the floor on top of a towel. I repeat, on the floor. While I have sunbathed topless in the French Riviera I would never imagine going nude because at least in Los Angeles, and I am sure other parts of the world, there are bugs at the beach. Bugs that can crawl in your neither regions. Yuck. TMI (too much information), I know. But I am trying to create a visual of me laying on the floor in India... Ok. Got it. Then, oil, straight oil, is poured all over my body and I am massaged by two women who continuously pour quarts of oil over me. 'It's an experience, it's and experience', I kept repeating. I mean, it was F'in' incredible, dont' get me wrong. And I did have some trippy visualizations during this experience, one being opening my own center, and hearing a call to heal..I think that is what is supposed to happen during Ayurvedic massage, no? Then, the shower. Here is a bar of soap to wash off the gallons of oil. I will stand here and watch to make sure you do it right?! OK... Water turns on, 1,000 mosquitoes fly up and around me at once. If you know me, this is hilarious, I swat anything and nothing that flies in my face, frantically. I was teased immensely in Africa for this. I digress, back to the shower. Cold water, of course. I rush to wash, and then am dried by the lady. All in all, it was an experience. I ended up tipping the lady a 100 rupees so I MUST have liked it! haha

After the massage we took a gondola ride through the backwaters of Kerala. Once we got out of the main area with the houses, it was relaxing. We talked to some couple on a floating house boat, learned about prawns in the water ways, and cuddled. On our way to our romantic lunch at a place along the water we came across a lot of filthy water, and at least 2 dead, bloated rats floating in the water! (shiver) I was hungry, and the food looked good at the table set for two, but I definitely had to suppress my gag reflex after just floating by those things! Travis is so good about being straight forward with people, they brought us two whole fish, eyes included, and he told them we were vegetarians. I would have just felt bad and left them there. And then felt bad for wasting food in India... Yikes! It's just better to say something! I don't know why I get shy with those things. We had a romantic day and evening. Today was a good day!

Email response from home:
"EHHHH YUCK!!!! You are right!!! No thank you... Have a fantastic time at the Ashtam. I know it will be amazing. Remember, live each day as they come :) I will try to get on Facebook soon so I can keep up with Travis' pictures and everyone else's lives..." - Love you tons, Kelly


Last Days in Fort Kochi

Tea house we sketched, wrote, and read at..



Backwaters of Fort Kochi, Kerala

Two cheesers

House with great views of the water

Just floating

He later pulled out a gun and shot the birds down that were eating the prawns out of the water!

Fishing nets

Happy to be eating. Was a romantic meal!

India Travels- Kochi, part 1

Jan. 23, 2010



Journal Entry:
"...Kochi is better. We are staying in a small town called Fort Cochin . It's a sleepy little sea side town; not busy like Goa or Mumbai. Enough to walk around lazily and see, but not the hawking and noise of our other 2 stops. We've talked to a few travelers. One nice lady at a restaurant took our picture (see Travis' photos on facebook:/) and asked if we were on our honeymoon. She was originally from London, lived in Nice, and was traveling India for 3 months! What a life. Some people are really living their lives to the fullest, not wasting a single day. And we talked to another lady who showed us around the first night, she was from Vienna. Chill lady.
...(see next blog for Elephants, they get their own special blog)...
All in all Kochi has been a time to re-charge, sleep, upload pics, send postcards, nap and be in a chilled out space. We are right across the street from a Maritime Museum at a place called Tag und Nacht which is a cheap, friendly place. We liked it well enough to cancel the other hostel and stay here 4 nights. This area of Kerala, India, seems pretty well-off, with: private schools; nice homes; white, classic cars for cabs; nice shops instead of outdoor hawkers. We've eaten: yummy chocolate cream pie at a cool coffee shop that featured local Modern Art; Tibetan dumplings from a terrace restaurant; and a huge bowl of cornflakes from out favorite breakfast place here next to the bookstore. Kochi is making me fall back in love with Travis, not that we ever fell out, but some places make you look over and realize what an amazing person you are blessed to have in your life. He played with my hair and sang to me last night. I feel really lucky to have my amazing Travis in my life. "

Email response from home:
"Sounds like it is getting better, or easier to get used to. Hopefully as you get to do those neat little dances, things will get better in each location. That was a cute response from dad:)" -Love you, Kelly

Photos from Kochi

I know it doesn't look all that appetizing, but when you are hungry, things are miraculously good. Plus, I was so excited that they served everyone "Veg Breakfast"! That's how it should be ;)

Decaying wall paintings on the side of the road


In the airport on the way to Kochi, these women had on fancy Burqas. I had to stop myself from carrying on in a running debate/dialog about the subject....I'll stop there...

A marker street so we knew where we were going. While kochi is not very big, we were staying a bit away from all the action, so when we got to this sign, we knew we were getting close. haha

Images from our walk into town:










In town...
The taxicabs were cool, like classic cars.

This is not a river, this can is stuck in sludge?! EEk!

Thought it was cool this woman was working outside her shop.

Goddess and God statues..


This is Briana in the morning at our favorite breakfast place, sans make-up..

This is Briana at night at our favorite dinner place, sans make-up..

And this is Travis (sans make-up, haha) standing next to the smallest bananas I had ever seen in my life. Scale is bad here, but they were the size of your finger?!