Mumbai and the final Goodbye!!!

Well for the the last 2 days in India we headed out with JOHN'S (dad's) shopping list requests. No doubt we also did some purchasing!!! but somewhere in here we did the last few sights to see. the main one to go to the Elephanta Caves which are about 10 km off the coast of Mumbai and are rock cut temples present in these caves, as old as 5th century.


It has been a great trip for Mom (Jan) who said that this would be the one and the only trip to India but now is already planning the return trip! Well in about 4 hours we start the 30 ish hour trip home (assuming there are no delays-- knock on wood!). Thanks for reading-- we really have had fun telling you our stories. Watch out, you may want to hide from us because have lots more to share!
See all you soon!
xoxo C & J

Goodbye Kerala (South India)

Well as I am sure you have gotten are views that south India is a gem and we would highly recommend it as a tropical holiday destination. We had our last 3 swims in the ocean before leaving- only to get to the airport to a 3+ hour delay in the flight to Mumbai. Cait taught me sudoko so that passed the time quite well.

Get of load of this-We checked out of the hotel/resort: here was our bill

• 7 spa and Ayurveda treatments
• 3 dinners lobster, squid, giant prawns
• lunches
• boat trip
• cab (1 hour each way into town)
• and misc expenses

Total bill $264.09 (note to self- when did I say my next vacation is???)

Sun, Surf and "OM"

As I said, we found a substitute resort. This one is really quite nice it is a huge property partly on the backwaters and on the ocean. The cabins are spread far apart so we really feel like we have wide open spaces. They have the spa and yoga, of course pool, and beach. We have been spending the first couple of hours in the morning at the ocean. I am proud of myself for enduring the heat and sun- absolutely no shade, beautiful sand BUT also some intrusion by local men so it is impossible for Cait to go alone. EVEN with me I felt like shouting I AM OLD ENOUGH TO BE YOUR GRANDMA FOR PITY SAKE LEAVE ME ALONE!!!! Besides this, the beach is wonderful (great soft sand and the very warm Indian ocean) the waves are huge for we have been doing alot of body surfing- aka being thrown from the ocean onto the beach. I tried the yoga class -given by and old gray haired yogi- whatever happened to the union of body and mind and working at one's own pace. With 5 of us in the class one was a lady slightly!!! stiffer than moi- the yogi would yell to her NO MADAM!! and run over to her and pull her legs in a variety of directions. So with one eye closed and the other focused on him-I watched to see if he was headed in my direction. I think for tomorrow (our last morning) the best union of my body,mind and spirit will be a walk on the beach!!!!. We have had a few more spa treatments- so if any of you do not see us return on Saturday- please do not send the search party!! We did venture away from the beach long enough to go to the tip of India- along with what felt like 1/2 a billion other locals; it is a spiritual journey for many. The three oceans merge Indian, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea; you can see the merging of the three colours of waters (yellow, green and blue). The best part was seeing the temple incorporating Hinduism, Muslim and Christian architecture. This structure housed the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi prior to the throwing ( I think some) of his ashes into the sea. We are headed off now for a local canoeing us through the backwaters off our resort property. We can’t believe this wonderful adventure is soon to finish. We are off tomorrow to Mumbai and we have 2 last days there. I imagine the shopping (passimas) urges will resurface there. We leave Mumbai on Friday night (actually Saturday morning at 3 am Indian time) for the long journey home.

J & C

Massaging, Boating and the MELTDOWN

Before we left Thekkaky we had our first Ayurvedic message. Cait will have to tell you this story in person but we were slathered with more oil than a Big Mac and super sized fries (I was waiting to be deep fried!). For a very modest culture this was a very immodest experience- I said Cait will have to tell you in person ask her about the loin cloth. We loved our backwater boating experience-we drove to the backwaters near the coast the in land lakes and canals that filter into the ocean. On our private rice boat we cruised for 5 hours had a wonder lunch and sunned and observed the local culture through the backwaters: just a great afternoon.
WELL THE MELTDOWN!- yes it was bound to happen sometime. After the boating, we drove another 4 hours to your ayervedic resort for our 3-day beach and spa retreat. We arrived late and were given the a grungy room about 4 meters square, dirty, with only bare light bulbs etc etc.. Not at all, what we expected for a luxury resort. To add to this our room was next door to the beauty salon, the yoga studio, massage centre and the staff workrooms: the noisiest possible location. The hotel has no interest in assisting us with our complaint so off we went looking for a new hotel with MANY phone calls to the agent in Delhi. Well I now know the hotel and the room I will book for the day after I win the lotto at 700 Euros a night. No we are not at this hotel but after1/2 day found another. The next edition will tell you all about it. Cliff hanger stay tuned!!!
J & C

Trekking, Safari "ing" and Spicing

Well we survived another 5 hour 135 km drive through the mountains to Thekkaky. I have to say we were less than impressed with the Periyar Tiger Reserve. We actually did not expect to see tigers as there are about 40 there but very rarely seen by the tourists. We did think there would be lots of deer, elephants, monkeys, etc. so with this in mind we signed up for an all day safari with some trekking and boating included. Off we went at 530 am-- we saw virtually no animals and from the reaction of the guides we gathered this is quite normal. What I mean by there reaction was-a deer was spotted high on a hill far way!! (putting this into context) about the distance from the Groat Road bridge to the Mackinnon ravine bridge. With this sighting, a mass of jeeps roared to a halt and all scrambled with binocs to take a look (funny photos to come). The same happened when we saw a water Buffalo Safari mayhem to observe this also. The hiking was OK and we did see some elephant habitat areas. The boating a bit of a yawn as we were rowed over to see a waterfall. BUT I have to say the best of this wilderness adventure is actually to know that there are still some nice remote wilderness areas in a country with over a billion people and really here's to the animals to be smart enough to stay deep in the forest.
We best part of our 2 days in this Thekkaky area was the spice plantation tour. Amazing we saw pepper, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, cocoa, coffee all within this one plantation which gives an appreciation for these spices. We bought a ton filling our suitcases about 20$ worth- likely would cost over 200$ at home.
More to come,
J & C

Trekking & Tea Tottling

Well we have just been soo busy these past couple days. We had a guide to take us on a tour of the tea fields and the tea production process. I don't think we will ever look at tea quite the same-- all black teas, green tea, oolong tea and white teas come from the same plant, it's just the production processes that vary depending on the tea. We know all the processes so if you want the inside scoop we'll be happy to enlighten you. Following this we had a tea tasting session (similar to a wine taste- swish and spit) of over 30 teas-- our taste buds were working overtime.

80% of tourism in India is domestic and we found all 100% of these tourists at our next location-- visiting the mattupetty damn and going on a speedboat ride around the lake that is supporting the damn. We were the only white people in this vicinity. The funniest part of this was the two of us white girls speed boating around this lake at 30+ km/hour and the driver of the boat steering the boat with his hip/bum facing us (as in not looking where he was going) and taking multiple photos of us! Mom thought this was hilarious.

Today was a very memorable day. We started off going to Eravikulam National Park, this is the best preserved national park in India. The only way you're allowed in the park is on one of their park buses that take you inside the park. From there you can hike a couple km into the mountains. This park is the home of the endangered Nilgiri Tahr, a cross between a goat and an antelope-- there are only 1500 in the world and 700 live in this park. We saw over a dozen on our hike and I got some great national geographic pictures of them. While we were there we were accosted by Indian men and boys for our photos-- it was quite hilarious because so many families wanted us to take pictures with each one of their wives, children, aunts, uncles, grandchildren.... Now to all of you at home, we know that this will cause you to want our pictures but we ask you to try to refrain from taking our pictures ALL the time as we re-acclimatize.

So we decided we hadn't done enough exercise this morning so we proceed to go on a 2 1/2 hour trek at the hottest time of the day, uphill both ways ;). We hiked from the highest point in Munnar down through the tea plantations, tea plantation village and a beautiful waterfall at the lowest point of the valley and then back up again! To my great fortune there ended up being sprinklers watering the tea plants and cooling us off as we trekked back up the mountain. The scenery is absolutely incredible.

Tomorrow morning we are preparing to go to Periyar Tiger Reserve, 110 km away which will take 4 hours on this one lane road (the width of my back alley). We are self medicating ourselves with gravol-- we're not sure if it's just for the 4 hour drive of windy mountain roads or the threat of listening to the one and only English John Denver CD for the entire four hours. We will keep you posted...

Cochin/ Munnar aka Tea Heaven

Cochin turned out to be a travelling haven for us-- we got to relax, swim (Dad- i swam in the pool 4 times yesterday), walk, ate some non-Indian food and took an Indian cooking class! One of the things that I (Caitlin) really wanted to do while I was in Indian was take a cooking class and since we had some free time in Cochin we thought we would see if there was something available. One of the guides, that took us on a thorough guide of Fort Cochin, set us up with a husband and wife who own a restaurant and want to start teaching cooking classes so Mom and I got to be their first students. Dipu and his wife were so warm and welcoming and taught us how to cook with a wide variety of the Indian spices; we cooked a vegetable curry, fish mollie, Kerala fish curry, and curried prawns. The seafood is in abundance in this town with all the fishermen and Chinese fishing nets (our guide told us these catch more tourists than fish!).
Mom has made an interesting observation over the past couple days.. .hummm.... Our shopping expenditures have significantly declined since the departure of Father John. And it's interesting how he would say that we are the shoppers.. hummm... I think it needs a bit more significant research on this interesting phenomena.

Today (Jan 18th) we started our 135 km drive from Fort Cochin to Munnar which took us a grand total of 4 freakin' hours! (FYI- I can't wait to drive in Alberta where you can go more than 35 km/hour) This adventure started off with our driver, Shiju, wanting us to feel at home with his one English CD. You will never guess what it is... John Denver and the first tune was "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (all we need to feel more at home was a Ford F150 pickup truck and a pair of tight wranglers). The CD scratch, frequently skipped and was at least 18 songs long. Both Mom and I were relieved when the CD finished for 1st time to which was sure that we would enjoy listening to it AGAIN! So John Denver kept was going for at least 3 1/2 of the 4 hour drive (which was straight up hill for 2000 m, twisty roads, mom holding a barf bag and us switching between front and backseats depending on who felt sicker).
So we finally arrived in Munnar. We're staying on a farm stay which is actually a working spice plantation (they grow pepper and cardamon) that has 8 cabins. While we're here on this plantation they will give us a tour of how the spices are grown. This area is absolutely breath taking (my favorite place in India so far)-- there are mountains covered with rows of tea bushes that look like beautiful manicured hedges. And the rows just keep going and going and going. It's about 10 degrees cooler from the coast so my tan may fade a bit in these next 3 days... heheee. Tomorrow we are going on a tea plantation tour where we will see how tea is grown, prepared and sold. I am really looking forward to seeing how this is all done!

Well we're going to go and drink our fine Indian Shiraz wine (Dad it's a 2006!)
That's all for now,
C & J