Kerala

Written by S:

In Mysore we saw the famous Mysore Palace. At this point we've seen more of these things than I can count, so they are starting to blend together, but this one, like the others, is a massive monument to luxury, ostentation and waste. The ubiquity of these sorts of palaces in a country where poverty and serious deprivation are so widespread is pretty disturbing and i'm starting to suspect they aren't unrelated. Every time I see one I start thinking about what would have happened had all of these man-hours and physical resources gone into building factories or anything at all productive, then maybe this country wouldn't be in state it is today.

We spent three days in Kochin, which is starting to gain a reputation on the ground as being a little too touristy. I loved it though. As we've found in other places, if you make the extra effort, like avoid the guidebook and walk 10 minutes out of the tourist center, you find totally normal indian life going on all around you. Kerala itself is stunning. All palm trees and lush tropical scenery. We did a daylong
tour of the extensive backwaters there, and I fell in love with the place. It's the most picture perfect tropical scenery you've ever imagined.

We also spent a day at the beach about an hour north of the city. This was our first beach excursion since korea. The beach was beautiful, and we enjoyed the sunset into the arabian sea over dinner. the swimming didn't go exactly as planned though. In case you weren't aware, Indians are extremely, extremely conservative about women's
dress, and the idea of seeing a woman in a bikini is something that is totally foreign and particularly exciting to the young men. Aware of this, we made a serious effort to find an empty spot on the beach so vickie could swim. but on the way we encountered twenty different guys inviting us to go swimming with them. after 30 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of waiting to be sure the coast was clear, we finally thought it was safe. but sure enough, within 30 seconds of vickie
getting into the water, one of the guys we had met 20 minutes ago, having clearly followed us, materialized out of the bushes and began immediately stripping down to his bathing suit. we beat an immediate retreat off the beach, and at least the guy was a little embarrassed, but gender relations still have a long way to go here.