3/19/07 - Hyderabad, India

see my travel map here

Highlights, Observations, Rants, etc.
The past week has definitely been one of the best I've had in India, and maybe since I left the US (despite some major hassles getting from Mysore to Hyderabad, although given my run of amazing experiences I couldn't help but expect to hit a rougher patch at some point). Except for when I was working for ASSCOD, this is as off the beaten path as I've been, and I've really enjoyed the people, culture and scenery of S. India.

• Kakkad Pooram - Hoping to stumble across some sort of live cultural event, I called the tourist office in the Keralan city of Trichur, which is the hotspot for poorams: temple festivals with processions of elephants and various musicians. The only thing going on during my time in Kerala was on March 11 in the small village of Kakkad, about 30 minutes away from Trichur by bus. Not sure what to expect, I rejigged my plans and headed for Trichur to check out the Kakkad pooram.
  After arriving at the temple grounds where the festival was supposed to take place around 1PM (an hour after the festival was scheduled to begin, according to the guy at the Trichur tourist office), I started to wonder if my detour wasn't going to be a big waste of time; there were a handful of stalls selling food and various kitsch and few people milling around, but nothing to indicate a really big event. So I wandered in the general direction of the temple, where Dr. Anil, a local geriatric doctor, introduced himself and insisted on showing me around. He was a little drunk and had the incredibly annoying habit of wanting to hold my hand (which, although not completely out of the ordinary in India, was enough to make me wonder if he wasn't gay and hitting on me), and I tried politely but unsuccessfully to extricate myself from his grasp (both figuratively and literally). Gradually, however, I just realized he was simply really happy and proud to have a foreigner visiting for pooram; I was definitely the only white guy in Kakkad, and probably the only one within at least 10 miles, and so the amazing display of hospitality began. Anil and his friends, of which there were many, walked me all over the village, showing me the various small processions (usually comprising one festooned elephant with a few riders, an ear-splitting band of drums and curved horns, and a small band of onlookers) from small family shrines/temples to the main one, and explaining everything that was going on. Over the next 6 or 7 hours, I was bought beers at the local watering hole as a break from the afternoon sun, led behind one of the processions around the main temple, introduced to the honchos of the organizing committee (with whom I had to drink a cup of tea), invited into various people's homes and given buttermilk, watermelon, chicken, assorted snacks and brandy (but not just any brandy -- this was military issue: the 'good' stuff) mixed with water, as well as offered various other foods I had to refuse to keep from eating the entire time. And anytime I broke out either of my cameras, people either happily jumped in to pose, or cleared a path through the crowd (no easy task, given the crowd that had gathered) to allow me to get a clear shot of the proceedings. I wasn't planning on staying the night and had to return to Trichur to collect my pack before heading on to Calicut, so after the climax of the festival around sundown (entailing a line up of all 20 or so elephants and a theyyam performance with music and heavily costumed dancers) I broke the news that I had to leave soon. Anil and his friends were having none of this, so it was back to the bar for a few more brandies before I finally managed to make my way to the bus station, of course accompanied by an escort and offers of future hospitality should I (or any of my friends or family) return.
  As a capstone to my pooram experience, just today I finally got around to uploading and organizing all of the digital pics I took in Kakkad, so I sent Dr. Anil a brief thank-you email with the link to the pictures. Here's an excerpt of his response (bold and caps are the original):
  "HELLO MY DEAR FRIEND,
  ITS REALLY PLEASURE TO HERE U,THANZ A LOT FOR THE KIND COSIDERATION.WE THE PEOPLE OF KAKKAD IS REALLY THANKFULL TO U FOR BEEING WITH US AS APART OF OUR CELEBRATIONS.LET THANK U ONCE MORE BEHALF OF MYSELF AND THE TEMPLE COMMITTEE...WISH U ALL THE SUCCESS, HOPE U WILL DIRECT MORE FRIENDS FROM UR PLACE .I ASSURE U THE ACCOMPANYMENT IN ASECURED WAY."
  So if anyone wants to see a pooram, let me know -- I can get you VIP treatment...
• The Western Ghats - There are several 'hill stations' (basically mountain retreats, beloved especially by the Brits during the Raj) in South India, and it was originally my intent to visit Munnar in eastern Kerala, famous for its lush green surroundings. But going to Trichur for Kakkad pooram meant to get to Munnar I would have had to backtrack significantly before heading on to Mysore/Bangalore, and so I opted for the more northerly Wayanad district instead. The few tourists who come to Wayanad usually do so for the wildlife sanctuary where it's possible to see wild elephants and a wide variety of other animals (including, in theory at least, tigers). I visited the sanctuary as well, but for me it paled in comparison to the trekking I did on my first two days in the area, which provided the real hightlights. The morning after I arrived, we (me, my guide, and his friend) left at 6:30 for the climb up Chembra Peak, supposedly the 2nd highest peak in Kerala, despite the fact that from the top there were two other mountains nearby which definitely looked higher. At 2130 meters, it's not the Himilayas (although over a mile up) but both the views from the top and the hike up - first through tea plantations studded with teak trees, then scrub forest and grassland (unfortunately charred by a recent fire) above the tree line - were amazing. The next morning I was up early again, this time for a steep scramble down through coffee plantations and then through fairly dense forest/jungle to Meenmutty Falls. Again, stunning scenery (both the forest and the waterfalls), and the quiet and isolation was a nice and much-needed break from the everyday chaos of India.
• The Monkeys of Sultan Batheri Bus Station - After 3 great days in Kalpetta, I was a little sad to leave, and was also dragging from the early mornings, relatively strenuous hikes, and the probably not unrelated onset of a head cold. So I wasn't exactly thrilled with the prospect of a bumpy, crowded 3 hour bus ride to Mysore, especially given the fact that I would be arriving much later than I originally intended. After about a half hour on the bus, we stopped in a town called Sultan Batheri for a break. Not in the best of moods, I got off the bus to stretch my legs and bide the time, but I'm glad I did, because the monkeys at the bus station - not the wild elephants or 4000 year-old rock carvings I had seen earlier that morning - made my day.
  There were a few monkeys clamboring around the roof and walls of the bus station (including some mothers nursing/carrying their young), scrounging for food and generally keeping to themselves. Then a few local guys, obviously well schooled in how to best kill time in Sultan Batheri, bought a small bag of peanuts and gradually coaxed them (the monkeys, not the peanuts) down to ground level, where after a few minutes the braver (or hungrier) monkeys were taking peanuts out of the locals' hands and stuffing them not quite down their throats, but rather down their cheeks into storage pouches just beneath their lower jaws, which soon balloned out into with peanut-shaped bulges. After a short time, two small crowds had gathered, one human, the other primate, and were watching each other with mutual amusement. Even after the peanuts were gone and we were back on the bus, the monkeys weren't finished. Emboldened (or maybe energized), they were now climbing all over the parked buses as well as in through the windows, at least until some passenger would chase them off and they would shriek vengefully and skitter back outside.
  It may not sound like all that much, but it was hugely entertaining, and more than enough to put a smile back on my face.

Random Tidbits

• Everywhere in India, there are roadside signs cautioning drivers about the dangers of reckless driving. Indian drivers are positively insane and/or there seem to be pretty much no commonly adhered to rules of the road, so the existence of the signs is understandable. Except these aren't ordinary 'No Speeding' or 'Slow Down, Save a Life' signs -- they're more like the type of admonitions your grandmother drilled into your head repeatedly when you were 5 years old. Some that I've passed in the past few days are 'Speed Thrills But Kills', 'Time is Precious but Life is More Precious' and the uber-clever 'Slow has four letters, so has life; Speed has five letters, so has death.' I'm serious -- I couldn't make this stuff up (well, ok I guess I could, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't admit to it...)

Photos (again, still lacking proper descriptive info)

Next Stops

• The Himalayan foothills around Darjeeling, then Kolkata, Singapore, and Bali