God's Own Country

Before I begin, if you have trouble seeing some of the pictures (there are 16 in this post), please install the codec from the following link.  I captured some in this format and am unable to convert them right now.   www.nikonimglib.com/nefcodec/    

On Friday I left work late in the day to head to Kerala, a region at the very southernmost part of India.  There was no direct flight, so I had to take two very short one hour flights on a small Turbo prop plane known as an ATR.  It's so small that you take a bus from the terminal out onto the tarmac and board it via the stairs.

I arrived in Coimbatore airport in Kerela at 9 and embarked on a 3 hour drive to Nikhil's house with Nikhil, his brother and my friend Sapeksh.  By the way, it is not "Nikhil's parent's house" as apparently property is considered the family's.  They would actually chuckle and correct me if I referred to it as his parent's house.  I quickly learned that driving in Kerala was quite scary.  While Hyderabad is known for it's crazy traffic, Kerala sports tiny roads with an expectation of constant passing and being passed.  And, of course there are lots of people on the roads, tiny "auto rickshaws" (the tiny 3 wheel taxis that are everywhere), and animals.

They have their own well.  When the power is out, you need to fetch water with a bucket  :)

Nikhil using a cool device to open coconuts

Pointed on the top, the point is pried apart by the lever on the side.  He cracked this in about 20 seconds.

Nikhil's house; his father is on the porch.  Men down here traditionally
wear a Mundu, though pants are often seen as well.
They wear it ankle length in more formal situations, but will
oftentimes wear it knee-length.  Yes, it does look very much like a skirt.

From left to right, Nikhil's dad (Jayakumar), his sister in law, Nikhil,
his mother (Chandrika), me, Sapeksh

We got up early on Saturday morning to travel to a city near the wedding, called Wayanad.  Before we left, Nikhil's father and I exchanged gifts.  I had brought some fine chocolates from the US, and he gave me my own mundu and shirt for the wedding.  On the way we stopped by Nikhil's wife's house where we had breakfast and strolled through the property.  They don't really have yards here, but the trees are thinned out a little bit.  In her back yard there were a few mango trees (we had fresh mango with breakfast), palm trees (they put coconut in absolutely everything down here), and cashew trees, too!  The cashew itself hangs from the fruit that the tree grows. I enjoyed speaking with her grandfather, and ate with my hand for the first time.  I did well, and actually her family asked if I'd done it before.

The fruit from a cashew tree with the cashew itself attached on the right hand side.

Beautiful view on the way to Wayanad

Lots of monkeys by the side of the road.  Cute baby!

After about an hour of driving we arrived in Wayanad.  Nikhil had arranged for our stay at this amazing place, which was basically a coffee plantation with a couple of cabins on the rainforest hillside.  We didn't see any other guests while there.  It was wonderful to see how they had blended their business with the environment.  The owner -- Rajesh and... his wife, were incredibly nice.  They made the most amazing chicken curry for our first meal.  I asked what was in it, and they started naming spices and pointing.  Every single ingredient came from a tree or bush a few feet away.  They raise their own chickens and have their own cows from which the produce ghee and other ingredients.  As such, the flavors were strong and fresh.

Chicken curry and fresh mangos

A cow eating in the rain forest.  Strikes me as funny.
Interesting fact, if he eats from the coffee plants he produces cappucino  ;)

Our cabin on the hillside

Nikhil and his wife had some family business to tend to, so Sapeksh and I decided to drive to a local site.  It was a cave on the top of a mountain that had been inhabited by cave men and had lots of inscriptions and drawings on the walls.  The hike was very very steep and hot, so afterwards we made it a mission to find some cold beer to bring back to our cabin and drink on the porch.  Ice is evidently not used much in Kerala as we had a very difficult time tracking any down.  In a comical turn of events, we found ourselves at an ice cream factory, buying an enormous block of ice.  Fortunately they had a chipper, and we walked away with a monstrous bag of ice for 100 rupees (roughly 60 rupees to the dollar).  Beer was not a problem as folks from Kerala really enjoy a drink.

Ice cream factory worker extracting a block of ice
from the in-floor freezer.

Massive ice chipper.

Eating a banana on the porch of the cabin.

Red bananas.  Nikhil prefers these, and I did, too!

And that is how we spent our evening, sitting on the porch and talking while drinking some cold ones.  It was precisely what I needed after a very long week.  I went to bed at 10 with a good night's rest ahead of me.  Tomorrow, the wedding!  I hope you enjoyed all the pictures today.