South India

I wrote this yesterday afternoon, but then lost reception. Luckily I typed it out on email so I didn't lose it all!! :)

We are coming to the end of our tour through southern India and have had an action-packed two weeks. We have been extremely fortunate to have a great group and an exceptional tour leader.

We started our journey in Fort Cochin, our first taste of real India, as Tivon mentioned in his last post. Cochin is home of India's largest Jewish synagogue and Jewish quarter. We took a cooking class there, which introduced us to southern cooking and properly eating with our hands (the standard way to eat every meal).

Next we made our way by boat to the backwaters of Kerala. We stayed with a local family and had a room overlooking the river. It was a beautiful and a peaceful setting, minus the mosquitoes buzzing around! We walked around the village, chatted with the locals, took a sunset boat ride home, and had a homemade meal awaiting our return!

We spent a couple days in Periyar National Park, a place known for Ayurvedic therapy, aka Indian-style massages. We each had what seemed like a gallon of Indian-smelling yellowish oil rubbed on our bodies. It took me days to get rid of the aroma in my hair. Needless to say, it was our first and last!

We spent the next several days exploring temples, shrines, museums (Ghandi), palaces, markets and ashrams. Most of the sights revolved around Hinduism and the various forms of the gods and goddesses. I'm glad I only have to focus on one!! :)

The highlight of our trip has definitely been the jungle retreat. We took jeeps through the jungle, spotting wild animals and learning about the elephant refuge camp. Mostly we relaxed and enjoyed the pollution-free cool air.

Our last stop was in the mountains of the Nilgiri hills. The weather was quite cool and good preparation for our upcoming trip to Nepal.

We are now making our way back to Fort Cochin for our farewell dinner. Tomorrow we fly to Delhi and on Saturday Tivon's parents arrive. Early Sunday morning we will be flying high above the Himalayas and starting our next tour: Nepal and Northern India.