The Carolines and Carly do Kerala (and Tamil Nadu)

So wow, I'm lovin South India. I couldn't be happier that I came to come south to where I feel without seeing, I would have had a somewhat warped few of India. I think that it's like only seeing Nebraska or the heartland of America without seeing the east coasts history or the west coasts cosmopolitanism and thinking that's all India is. Women are out on the streets in Kerala and Tamil Nadu like I haven't seen in Rajasthan. Hair out, (with jasmine white flowers strung in their braids), walking around at night, behind shops, it's really incredible. And the food is unbelievable. So far I'd say 70% of our meals have been served on banana leaves and its all you can eat!! You get a heaping pile of rice accompanied with a crunchy pappad and the dallops of vegetables, sambars and lemon/lime/mango pickle. We've been having delicious sweet fried things for breakfast, a huge banana leaf lunch and then a masala (potato filling with onion and spices) dosa around 9 for dinner with coconut chutney. I thought I was really excited to come home to food I know but now i'm rethinking it a bit. I also think my spice tolerance has skyrocketed. I've also seen more of the religious diversity that I had heard of before but never really seen on the streets. Hindu temples next to churches and mosques near another Jain temple. Rosaries on the rearview mirror and ganeshji mini statues on the dashboard are found in jeeps together. People are speaking Tamil, Malayalam, English and limited Hindi (so our 6 weeks of that really haven't gotten us too far but our English has).

These are some pictures from the past week or so of our travels in Kochi (backwater tours and churches), Munnar (British imposed tea plantations) and our current city Madurai (home of the Meenakshi temple). Kochi was amazingly quiet, frindly and tasty. We made friends with a food stall frier Abdul and even bought fish from a stall and had it curried for less than $10. !! The churches and synagogue were gorgeous and we even got the chance to feed pigeons at a Jain temple where the birds flew around the complex three times before they were took food.

Munnar was stunning and we loved smelling tea and climbing around green trees in cool tmperatures (Kochi was swealtering). We also had a wonderful time being surrounded by Indian tourists and not foreigners. Familes from mostly Bangalore and Tamil Nadu come there to escape the heat but we found that all the did was stop at sides and take pictures. None of them trekked according to our guide. That said we went shopping where they did and even bought some South Indian style sarees and tea and other spices.

Then we took off to Tamil Nadu- home of Raja Raja and the Cholans and beautiful temples. The scenery change was stunning on both bus rides through the Wester Ghats. It's basically a pretty hefty size mountain range that just drops off into fields of palm trees, grains and bananas. This morning we went to a once a year ceremony of the "celestial wedding of sri meenakshi sundareshwarar." It is a major annual festival celebrated in Madurai where its queen was said to have married Shiva- now designed to bring about harmony among the three major cults of shiva. It was watching a wedding of two idols with over 10,000 Indians- I would say a mjor highlight of my trip!! Next we are going to Tanjore, capital of the Cholan empire, back to Madurai to catch an overnight train to Varkala-a cliffy beach place to relax, back in Kerala and then to get our flight back to Delhi on Saturday.