Mountain, elephants and movie stars

Mountains of tea

On our way to the hill station, Kumali, we had one of the most incredible bus rides. I quickly learnt that aggressive Indian driving is no different on windy roads that are full of switchbacks and blind corners. However, our driver seemed both skillful and experienced so I spent the 8 hours enjoying the incredible scenery. There are no windows on the buses so the refreshing wind blew in our faces. We travelled up and down mountains covered in lush jungle. From the tops of the mountain passes we had stunning views of the deep valleys. After we climbed high into the mountains the jungle was replaced with hillsides of tea plantations. We had discovered the source of all the great Indian tea. The next day we met two Spanish girls and the four of us rented bikes. The bikes were ancient, heavy and only had one gear but we had a great day biking through the tea plantations and jungle. We stopped to check out a tea plantation and were instantly surrounded with a gang of curious kids who live on the plantation. One little rascal deflated the tire on one of the spanish girl's bike. It became quite the spectacle but somehow a bike pump appeared and eventually the tire was pumped up. After 13 km of biking down a mountain we arrived at a tea factory. It was neat to see how tea is processed from bright green leaves to a fine black powder. We learnt how different kinds of tea are made and sampled a few different types. It was the first time in India I've been served tea without milk and copious amounts of sugar. Then after wandering through the tea plants we began our climb back up the mountain. 

Europe in India

Tucked away from the chaos of India is fort Cochin. Fort Cochin has been ruled by the Dutch, Portuguese, and British. The European influence here is still very obvious. There is a beautiful basilica, quiet streets and hints European architecture. It felt like Europe but with amazing Indian food and rickshaws. 

You people

May 12 was one of the few dates that we planned for in advance because there was supposed to be the biggest Elephant prossesion at a temple festival in Thrissur. We day-tripped from Cochi and arrived around noon. We wandered the extensive temple grounds and ran into several small crowds and groups of 4-7 elephants. Each group of elephants had a musical accompaniment and riders that danced on the elephant's backs. There was even day time fireworks. I orginally thought it  as a typo when I saw fireworks scheduled for 1:00pm. They shot things into the air. Each one exploded with a bit of color and a parachute that opened. The brightly colored parachutes all got caught in the breeze and floated in the sky above the temple. 

Around 4 o clock we contemplated leaving but realized a large crowd was beginning to form outside the entrance of the main temple. The energy of the crowd was too exciting to leave. The police had a large rope holding back the crowds so that the road to the temple entrance remained clear. We weren't really sure where to stand so we asked a police officer. He looked at us but was unsure of how to respond. Then finally he replied that there were chairs for "you people". We quickly headed up the hill leading to the temple and were seated in a roped off platform protected by police officers. There were several other western tourists, a handful of Indian women and people from the press also sitting down. We were lucky to be seated by a lovely local Indian woman. She explained that 15 elephants would come out of the temple, walk down the streets, turn around and then have a face-off with 15 more elephants that would come out of the temple. The goal of the competition was to have the riders change the parosals that they were holding on top of the elephant heads. The first set of elephants alone was beautiful. They showed off a few sets of beautiful parosols. They changed parosols in time with the music and enthusiasm from the crowd. When they began to walk down the street the new elephants emerged from the temple. Simultaneously the rope holding back the crowd gave away and people flooded the road. Never in my life have I seen a crowd of so many people. I feel like a million may be a conservative estimate. The police force lost a lot of ground but by holding hands they were able to hold back enough space to fit the new 15 elephants. Somehow the first 15 elephants made their way through the sea of people and turned around. 

Now changing the color and type of parosol in unison while standing on an elephant is impressive. However, when you have a million people in between the sets of elephants who are dancing and screaming with excitement then it becomes one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. From the elevated platform we had the best view of the procession and were quite happy to be out of the crowd that was probably 90% male. Sadly dusk was quickly approaching and we knew that we should head back to Cochi. The festival continued until 3am and eventually there would be 107 elephants. We were ushered down and out of the thick crowd by the police officers. We arrived back in Cochi exhausted but estatic from the festival.


Hampi


Giant boulders are scattered throughout Hampi. Sometimes they pile into mountains and often they balance on top of each other precariously. They create the most unique and dramatic landscape I have ever seen. Between the mountains of boulders are lush valleys of banana plantations and sugar cane fields. Ancient ruins from an abandoned civilization are scattered throughout the region. There are ancient markets, temples, palaces, homes and ghats. The ruins are too many and too far apart to fence them all off. Instead some have become modern day homes, some are resting spots for shepherds, some are lunch spots for locals and many others lie abandoned to be explored by children, Indian and foreign tourists. Only the most spectacular temple, the elephant stables and part of the Queen's palace are gated and require entrance fees.  The idea of seeing an elephant stable was irresistible so we splurged on the world heritage site fee. We spent a day wandering through many of the ruins.

 A river flows through the valley and near the city the ancient ghats are still used today for washing clothes, people and even the temple elephant, laxmi. The many happy bathers and the colorful laundry and saris make the ghats a beautiful sight. It looked like so much fun that Amelia and I spent a full afternoon also swimming in the river and floating in the gentle current. 

Ever since Europe Amelia and I have wanted to rent scooters but the timing was always wrong or the roads were too dangerous for us. Finally Hampi seemed like the perfect destination. We took turns driving down the quiet country roads where the only danger was running into herds of cows. It was an incredible day. We went to the Durga temple and then followed a quiet path up the mountain. We climbed up to a spectacular view point. Giant boulders leaned up next to each other and between them the cracks created a neat network of caves. 

We also drove to the base of another large hill and climbed up hundreds of stairs to reach the monkey temple. It was a really neat temple and we were able to impress them by properly entering the temple as we had learned in Setrawa. There was even a couple of monkeys running about. 

As we were driving we saw a sign that said: cave paintings. This brought us to a gentle man who lead us behind his sugarcane fields to more piles of boulders. He showed us several spots with neat cave paintings. Finally, we were feeling hot from all the steps and climbing so we headed to the lake. We had a refreshing swim in the surprisingly cool water.

Hampi is a spot that many travelers recommend and many end up staying for weeks. Now I understand why. If we hadn't already booked an onward ticket we would probably be stuck lounging in hammocks or in the cosy restaurant filled with cushions and small groups of travelers. However, we managed to leave and we are on the night bus to Mumbai. We are leaving Hampi relaxed and ready to face the city chaos! 


Mumbai madness 

Anyone who has read Shantaram can imagine Mumbai. Leopold's cafe, Colaba, the slums, bollywood and chowpattty beach is just as the book describes. By the end of our 3 days in the city we had connected with a fun, diverse group of travellers. It felt a little bit scripted from Shataram when on our last day we were enjoying a drink at Leopold's when we haphazardly ran into one of our friends. We were soon joined by others for a sunset walk to boardwalk beach. 

 Mumbai is such an interesting city. It has the famous bollywood stars, posh restaurants and clubs, a rich upper class and many member only cricket fields, pools and libraries. The same city is filled with legal and illegal slums. This includes the largest slum in Asia, 1 million people in 1.75 square km. We did a tour of this slum and learned about the fascinating industries within that generate $650 million in legally taxed revenues alone. It is incredible how much recycling occurs in the slum. There is no such thing as non recyclable plastic. Almost any type of 
garbage is converted into profit.  

Amelia and I spent one of our mumbai days shopping and eating our way through the city. We followed a recommended walking route which guided us past stunning examples of British Architecture. The high court, the university, banks and many other majestic colonial buildings retain their original function today. The streets are filled with honking traffic like anywhere in India but old fashion black and yellow taxis have replaced rickshaws. The sidewalks are filled with vendors eager to sell you anything. We bought new flip flops, headphones and restocked our book collection. The book stalls have the most amazing selection. There are the many popular Indian novels as well as the best of English literature. Pretty much all the books that I've ever intended to read are available for $3-5. The sidewalks are also filled with a smorgasbord of delicious street food. All day we sampled various dishes including sugar cane juice, Chinese noodles, sandwiches of deep fried items, bel puri ( a snack mix of dried noodles, puffed rice, tomatoes, onions, lime juice and lots of spice), dosas, and fresh mango ice-cream. Of course we also stopped for chai a few times along the way. 

We ended our day with a sunset walk down the marine drive boardwalk to chowpatty beach. The board walk was filled with families, groups of teenagers, young lovers and old couples. People walked along the boardwalk or sat on the edge. There was even a few speedwalkers and runners along the side. The beach  was packed and full of people, vendors and amazing food stalls. Many people waded along the edge of the sea. Amelia and I impressed some kids with our sandcastle making abilities. When the sun set streetlights light up the 3km long boardwalk which curled around the bay. 

On our second day Amelia and I were recruited to become the next two bollywood stars! Well, that is a slight exaggeration but we were recruited to spend the day as extras on the bollywood set Desi Boyz. We were lucky to be filming with one of the with one of the biggest bollywood stars, Ashake Kumar. He had happened to also star in The Patala house, a film we previously saw in Jaipur. The set was an English underground salsa club so we spent the day holding fake alcohol and chatting with the other Western recruits. It was actually the closest we've been to a club in India.  However, instead of loud music there was cheorographers, the lighting and sound crew and the directors organizing everyone in a mix of hindi and English. The assistant director kept moving us around the set. Sometimes we stood at the bar, other times we were leaning against a hollow pillar or standing in a crowd. It was neat to get a glimpse of the film industry and see how movies are shot. Our girls in Setrawa would be dying in envy if they knew that we may have been caught on camera with one of their favorite stars. It was a long day but quite social and there is a decent chance I may have a second or two of glory as an actress. After the shooting finished we joined the other extras and went out to celebrate our fame. We all put our hard earned 500 ruppees towards a fantastic dinner and a real drink.