Gokarna

Gokarna is amazing. It's as simple as that, and I could pretty much end it there, but I'll continue anyway. Yesterday I spent most of the day in Mangalore, an old port city that was replaced in popularity by Kochi in the 1500's. It was uninteresting at best. I thought I only had a few hours there, but then the train left almost 3 hours late for no apparent reason, so I was just hanging out at the train station for quite a while.

Anyway, I took the train to Gokarna and on the way saw one of the most stunning sunsets ever. The picture doesn't do it justice. My camera is nice, but it would have to be downright amazing to take a good picture of a sunset from a moving train.

So I got into Gokarna at about 7:30pm, then hiked over the hill in the dark to Kudlee Beach. It was interesting, just complete darkness and a 20 minute hike, but I made it somehow (I did have a flashlight but it's not exactly powerful. They LCD screen on my camera puts off about the same amount of light).

I couldn't really see much of the beach, it being dark and all, but I walked along until I found a fairly popular restaurant and ate there, then got a room there for $3. I woke up this morning, walked out to the restaurant and fully comprehended that this place is on the beach (as you can see in the picture). Like sand everywhere and the water a 10 second walk from the restaurant.

Breakfast at the restaurant was tasty; oatmeal with papaya, pineapple, grapes, pomegranate, apple, orange and banana. After that I went for a swim, which was amazing. It was before 9am, but warm outside and the water is fairly warm as well (downright hot compared to home, but feels cool compared to the weather outside here). I came into town after that and an Israeli that's been living here for a month took me to this local place that sells banana buns. They're these delicious, slightly sweet fried buns that they only make here. I'll be coming back for more.

So now I'm pretty much going to hang out. There aren't too many sights here, just gorgeous beaches. Of course it being India, they have cows on the beaches as well. I'm reminded of the "Happy

cows come from California" ad campaign, and I feel like these are the truly happy cows (you know, if cows are capable of emotions, which I'm not sure about). They're considered holy, no one with kill them, and they just hang out on the beach and graze in the forest nearby. That's a pretty sweet life for a cow.

I should mention that this is a holy city. There is some sort of holy statue or something that taking just a look at it (after a ritual bath in the ocean) will absolve you of 100 sins, including the murder of a Brahman (the highest caste), so there are a lot of Hindu pilgrims (although hopefully not to many absolving murders), although they tend to be centered here in town where the temple is, with the western tourists at the beaches.

I finished booking all of my trains, so it looks like I have about a week to spend at the beach. I may head up to Goa in a couple days. It's more commercialized, but I want to see it anyway. It was a part of Portugal until something like 40 years ago, so it has a whole different feel to it supposedly. After that it's off to Hampi, then a complicated set of 3 trains to see some caves, then back to Delhi (as I write this I realize I may have mentioned this before, but oh well, now it's booked).

Cruise

Last night I didn't go to the dance thing. Surprise!

Today I went on my little backwaters cruise. It was fun, and not too hot. I would write a bunch but I'm unexpectedly being kicked out of the internet cafe, so pictures will have to do. Enjoy. Tomorrow, Gokarna

More Fort Cochin

Last night I toured around Ernakulam, the section of town where I'm staying that's newer and more like a typical Indian city. I walked to the art museum, which lacked quality art even more than it lacked size (it was three small rooms). The "artist" was actually there, standing by the door, so I felt kind of bad that I left after approximately 10 minutes (and that was stretching it). I do have to admit that despite that fact that almost everything in there was garbage, I was entertained by the two Michael Jackson portraits.

When I left I got to see my first ever Communist rally. The commies are pretty popular here; there are hammers and sickles painted all over the place. It's entirely bizarre to me to see a guy's face on a poster with the hammer and sickle next to it as an advertisement and not some sort of smear campaign.

From there I went to get some dinner. I took the extremely long route (note to the editors of The Rough Guide, "1" and "I" look extremely similar on your maps, please refrain from using them both on the same map, especially when they're in opposite directions from my hotel. Thank you), but found the place eventually. I had some delicious fish masala, I'm not exactly sure what type of fish but it was very meaty, like swordfish. My guess would be the most common locally caught fish, the kingfish. I polished that off with some fresh juice and mango ice cream, and headed back to the hotel.

On the way I met a professor of Indian philosophy. He suggested (nay, insisted) that we go have a beer and he would explain the basics of Indian philosophy to me. I agreed to go, figuring I wouldn't get too many offers in my life for a lecture on Indian philosophy to go with my beer.

We made it to the "Cool Bar" and he began to explain Indian philosophy. It was actually pretty interesting. He made it to the part about how I shouldn't ever eat red meat, then mentioned he was an Ayurvedic "doctor". He felt my pulse, then declared my chakras were all out of alignment (or something to that effect). He tried to give me (no, at first sell me) pills to take to fix my "unbalanced" body, but I refused. He then had very little interest in teaching me about Indian philosophy (funny how that works), and we left after one round (note: never buy the first round in India). Yet another lesson learned.

Today I grabbed some breakfast and headed back here to Fort Cochin. This time I actually found the fort, or at least what's left of it. It's basically a couple of small walls, one with a cannon. Very exciting! I also found the oldest church in India, from the early 1500's, called St. Francis. It's a pretty typical church, nothing too special. Vasco de Gama was buried there for a while, but then taken back to Portugal.

I watched the fisherman for a while, then took a look at their catches as they tried to get me to buy stuff to take to have cooked at a little stall. I declined on the merits of food safety and grabbed a thali (full meal) nearby.

This morning I booked an all day cruise for tomorrow. I'll be going on some sort of house boat in the morning, taking a traditional Keralan lunch on the boat, then going for a canoe ride in the afternoon. It should be a good time.

Tonight I may go to a traditional kathakali dance, held only here in the state of Kerala. It sounds mildly interesting; the book highly recommends it but I'm not so big on the traditional dancing. We'll see how I feel when the time comes.

Kochi

Today I'm in Kochi, famous for the "backwaters" (you can take a day cruise around the small rivers and bays and look at all the scenery), as well as its European style Fort Cochin, complete with Chinese style fishing nets (it's a real hodgepodge). It's very hot, very tropical, and feels very good to be in this air conditioned internet cafe (I may stay in here a little longer than I had planned).

I arrived here at 4am, and walked the half hour to the water from the train station. I settled on the only hotel that was open, a little more than I'm used to paying ($18), but it was open and therefore I did not have to sleep on the sidewalk like a homeless person (money well spent I would say). After a nap, I grabbed some breakfast and took the ferry across the little bay to Fort Cochin. It's not so much a fort as some old European buildings (starting in the 1500's it was an important port city). I visited the Pardesi Synagogue in Jew Town, just off Jew Street (seriously), which is apparently the oldest continuously used synagogue in the Commonwealth (in India! I wouldn't have guessed that one). It was a tiny little building, but had it's charms.

After Jew Town I went to Santa Cruz Basilica (and church and a synagogue in the same day; feels more like Europe than India. You know, except for the heat and all the funny symbols everywhere). It's a pretty typical old church, all sorts of paintings on the interior although they were nothing to write home about (even though I kind of am writing home about them).

Now I plan to head back to town for a little rest (the ferry is 15 minutes and 2.50 - that's two rupees, 50 paise, or about 5 cents). Tomorrow I plan to do the backwater cruise, then the night after that I head to Gokarna.

Gandhi Museum

Today I have a 4:35pm train to Kochi, in Kerala. I had to check out of my hotel at 8am this morning. That leaves a large chunk of time I didn't really know what to do with, since I've been to the main temple as well as the "palace" I went to yesterday afternoon, although I should probably start from there.

The palace was a well restored courtyard surrounded by large pillars, all in typical Italian style. The rest of it had been destroyed so its materials could be used in another palace by the original builder's grandson. Basically you could see the whole thing in about 2 minutes, but I stayed around a little longer so I would feel like I got my money's worth at least a little bit. After that disappointment I got myself some juice (amazing orange juice they have here, as well as pineapple) at one of the many juice stands and headed back.

For dinner I went back to the same place I've been going to for some dosas, then I went looking for something to do. I settled on getting all my pictures backed up on to DVD (which I had been meaning to do anyway), which was $2 and took a good hour and a half, which I wasn't counting on.

This morning I decided I would go to the Gandhi Museum across town. I walked the 5k and still got there at 9am, but it didn't open until 10. Some local kids who were cutting class came and talked to me, although of course their English wasn't very good from cutting class all the time. We passed the time talking, then moving underneath a random thatched room when it started to rain.

I got to the museum gates as it opened, and they sang a song, followed by some sort of Gandhi chant, then opened it up. It was a pretty nice building, but not a large museum. It followed the history of the white man (their words, not mine) oppressing India. I read pretty much everything in there, and was done in about an hour. It finished with some biography stuff on Gandhi, then the highlight, which was his blood stained clothing from when he was murdered (fun stuff!).

After hiking the 5k back to town I went for another banana leaf special lunch, then went to get some ice cream. I met some random Indian who convinced me to go to the roof of one of the shops next to the temple and see the view. It wasn't all that great and of course they tried to get me to buy stuff (no such luck for them. What am I going to do with a 4 foot tall statue?). So now I'll be going to catch that train to Kochi, which arrives at something like 3:40am tomorrow morning (that'll be fun looking for a hotel at that hour).

Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar temple

This morning I visited the Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar temple (I know, it's a mouthful). I remembered to wear pants (not shorts, I typically remember to wear pants in general) and I left my shoes across the street at a government shop. I entered through one of the massive gates (covered in some of the 33,000 statues of the temple) and was on my way.

It's a very large set of temples, although I was only allowed in maybe half of the place due to the fact that I'm not a Hindu. It was still very interesting, just a huge place full of pilgrims and every day worshipers. Any time there are what I consider exotic animals in a place of worship, you can count me in (this time it was an elephant all decorated, just hanging out in the temple). The statues are impressive, all painted how they were originally (some are "only" 300 years old, but many are much older, no one seems to know exactly how old).

The whole struck me as very ancient, as if it had changed very little in the last thousand years. Hinduism as I see it feels like ancient Greek or Roman religions, full of different gods, with different powers, myths explaining everything and interwoven with the local landscapes. It's very interesting, although the guys taking pictures of me with their cell phones takes away from the ambiance a little bit. Anyway, I'm not sure what I'll do this afternoon, but I may visit an old half destroyed palace of some sort, we'll see.

Madurai

This morning I arrived in Madurai, quintessential South Indian city, and an ancient city at that. I suspected it might be oppressively hot since it's so far south and a good deal inland, but it's not bad.

Madurai is known now for have one of the largest temple complexes in the south, with some massive towers at each entrance, each of which is covered in carvings which have been painted to their original colors. I haven't been inside yet because I was wearing shorts (apparently not allowed), and I'm also not allowed into the actual temple (non-Hindus are not allowed), but I'll be going tomorrow.

The rest of the city I've explored so far is like the book describes the south: more relaxed, cheaper, cleaner and more educated. It's hard to say about educated, but the rest seems to be true. My banana leaf meal (it turns out there was more to it, including yogurt, dal - lentil soup - and sambar - traditional southern soup served with pretty much everything here) was only 70 cents (same as Chennai) and this internet is only 15 rupees per hour, the cheapest I've found in India thus far. You can also get a dress shirt for about a dollar, or they'll reproduce your clothes for super cheap as well.

The salesman and rickshaw drivers seem to be a little less intense as well, so it's been nice.

I booked some more trains. I'll be going after Madurai to Kochi, an ocean-side city in Kerala, the southern-most state on the subcontinent, then up to Gokarna, a little beach town with bamboo huts and supposedly unspoiled beaches. After that (I don't have this part booked) I'll go to Palolem, in Goa, then to Hampi, then to a couple sets of caves carved into the rocks, and at last back to Delhi for my flight.