India, January 23 - February 12, 2012

You can find my photos of this trip here

IN THE NORTH

Our flight took off right on time and actually landed a bit early. It was uneventful but boring. The movie selection was very limited. For I guess obvious reasons, it was mostly Bollywood, and films in Hindi and regional languages. Interesting but not what I was in the mood for. The other thing that struck me was that the cabin crew was very unsmiling. There was no acknowledgement to my thank- yous. no attempt to make any contact at all. However, the flight was not full, so I was able to spread out a little and even napped for maybe an hour at a time two or three times.

I found the Delhi airport a little hard to negotiate. The passport line was obvious, but when I got out of there I didn't see the baggage claim and had to ask directions and the answer was quite brusque. Anyway, once we met our group leader, Gopal Singh and we were all together we loaded onto the bus and drove to the hotel. Lots of traffic, lots of honking horns, a few roaming cows, a few glimpses of poverty including a legless beggar and two boys trying to sell stuff at a traffic stop. We also passed a fabulous marketplace but I was too lazy to dig my camera out of my backpack.

My room in Delhi was huge – possibly bigger than my whole apartment with a huge flat screen, free wi- fi and a lovely bathroom. Not much of a view. Oddly, there was a window between the bathroom and bedroom with a shade that could be pulled up if one wished. Hmmm..... A nice touch was that one of the outlets had a universal adapter plugged into it. My India adapter didn’t seem to fit most of the outlets. I was concerned that it would be a problem as we moved from place to place, but it turned out that everywhere either had a universal adapter in place or one that worked with a standard European plug.

Wednesday, January 25 was our first day of actual sightseeing and it was a very nice start to the tour. Breakfast was an interesting mix of the expected - cereal, fruit, eggs- and the unexpected - chicken, baked beans, veggie stews. We finally had our orientation meeting after breakfast. It really did make sense to do it after we'd had a decent night's sleep and could actually absorb what we were being told. We met our fellow travelers and got an overview of the places we would visit in the north of India, including some details about our camel safari and the place where we ride elephants.

Our first stop was the National Museum. We got an overview of ancient history, civilizations, and different ethnic groups. A fascinating fact – there are archaeological finds up to the 1500s BCE and then nothing until the 300s BCE. What happened in the intervening years? No one knows!

Our docent, an art history scholar, took us through the galleries displaying statues, artifacts and miniature paintings, some Hindu, some Buddhist, some Jain. It was interesting to see the development of more 3-dimensional carving and to see the changes in representations of Buddha. Initially he was not portrayed at all but statues showed people were at a throne even if no one was on it. Later there were statues and paintings depicting the person. It was also interesting to learn how to tell which god or goddess was depicted in a statue even if the faces looked the same. For example, the river goddess Ganga is shown standing on a crocodile, while the same figure if standing on a tortoise is the river goddess Yamuna.

Lunch was lovely. The restaurant, Café Bizarre, had all kinds of odd touches - a buffet set in the body of a 1925 Fiat, a lovely wrought iron spiral staircase to nowhere, a table for four built into the framework of a four poster canopy bed. And the meal was excellent. In what would prove to be typical of many meals, we got small portions of many things. We had roasted chicken, chicken in a yummy sauce, lamb in yogurt sauce, cheese (paneer) in a sort of spinach purée, lentils, naan, and buffalo milk ice cream for dessert. There was rice, of course, and tea or coffee at the end.

After lunch we made two visits, both connected to Gandhi. First we visited the memorial site where he was cremated following his assassination in 1948. We had to remove our shoes and Gopal, our group leader made a couple of references to putting on our "temple socks." The idea is that we should set aside one pair for temples and mosques, since they do get dirty, and then discard them or whatever at the end of the trip.

The site was lovely, very spacious and open and quiet. In the center is a large black marble slab with an eternal flame. Because of the various festivities associated with the upcoming Republic Day on January 26, the prime minister of Thailand, guest of honor for the celebration, had placed a huge and lovely wreath on the slab. It was all covered with flowers petals and garlands. Gopal gave us some history of Gandhi's role in India gaining independence, the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, and the circumstances of the assassination. It must have been horribly shocking. He was holding a regular prayer meeting with many followers when the assassin walked up to him, paid respects by touching Gandhi's feet and then shot him point blank!

We then drove to the house Gandhi was staying in when this happened and saw a huge display of photos, quotes from Gandhi's writing and speeches and quotes from others reacting to him, his teachings and his death. We had a bit of time to wander there as well. I found a bookstore and bought a lovely copy of Tagore's Nobel Prize winner, "Gitanjali." I wasn't going to buy Tagore since his work is readily available, but it was only 80 rupees, or $1.60 and it was in the bookstore at Gandhi's house - or at least the house where he stayed.

The final activity was a lecture about Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and its relevance today. The lecturer made interesting distinctions between nonviolence and pacifism and referred to Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Mandela and Occupy Wall Street. I don't think I really learned anything new, but it was interesting to hear how Gandhi came to change his life. For example, he made a vow of celibacy when he was in his early 30s, despite being married and very much in love with his wife. His point was that making the vow would have no meaning unless he was giving up something he passionately desired. Makes a lot of sense. I gain no karma points toward a better next life if, for instance, I take a vow not to watch “Jersey Shore” on TV. I don't watch now and I wouldn't care if I never watched. :-)

Thursday, January 26 was Republic Day. Because of the holiday lots of streets and lots of places were closed, so we got off to a late and leisurely stop. We left the hotel at 10:30 - virtually unheard of these trips. Our first stop was the Baha'i Lotus Temple. The building is unusual and quite lovely. It is shaped like a lotus flower opening. We had to take off our shoes just inside the grounds, walked barefoot along a path with security people barking at us to keep a single line. Once we entered the temple we were instructed that we were to remain silent. No photos were allowed inside. The temple is a huge room with rows and rows of benches. Visitors enter, sit and meditate silently for however long they are moved to do so, and then leave. It was a little odd, but very quiet and peaceful. As at the Gandhi memorial, the grounds are vast, simple, quiet and peaceful. It was interesting to see crowds of tourists all being so quiet. Even when we left it seemed appropriate to talk quietly or not at all.

Next we were divided into three groups for our home lunches. Since our group consisted of six couples and six singles, it made sense to make two groups of three couples each and to put the six singles together. The host and hostess for my group were obviously well to do. Their house is lovely, they had at least two people helping – one serving and one in the kitchen. They both have traveled widely, and she spent three years of high school in Japan because her father was was assigned there by the Indian government. We had potato fritters, chicken kabobs, rice, dal, another chicken dish, some lovely spicy pickles and a sinful little brownies, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. The hostess said she made everything herself and even gave us copies of one of her recipes, but we were a little skeptical that anyone who grew up the way she did would do all this by herself. Nevertheless, it was all delicious, our host and hostess were most gracious, the surroundings quite lovely – a nice experience.

After lunch we reconvened for a trip to the Jama Masjid Mosque. It's beautifully built and it was quite crowded. There were families, sitting around on the ground kids playing, some folks snacking. The women in our group were given bright colored, long gowns with velcro closings to wear over our street clothes. Gopal explained that several years ago a young Canadian girl stripped down to a bikini while her boyfriend took photos. Since then, Western women are required to cover up,

When we came into the courtyard Gopal gathered us around him while he gave some background on the mosque. A crowd of young boys gathered very close around us. It made several of us edgy. I felt as if I was being cased for a possible grab at my camera or pickpocket attempt. Weird and somewhat unpleasant, but it was the only time during the entire three weeks that I felt at all uncomfortable. After we left the mosque we were treated to bicycle rickshaw rides through the market. Because of the Republic Day holiday it was rather quiet, for which I was grateful. I can’t imagine what it would have been like on a normal, crowded day!

We were supposed to return to the hotel at that point, but Gopal proposed a visit to a Sikh temple and everyone was up for it. We started in a room where we could leave our shoes and socks and everyone who didn’t have a hat was given something to cover his or her head.. Along the path to the temple was a sort of trough filled with water that we stepped into to wash our feet. Inside the temple was a throne with the book, the Guru, that is the central point in any Sikh temple. There were men chanting and silent worshippers. We also got a tour of the kitchen where devotees prepare and serve over 20,000 free veggie meals a day.

It was really something. There were probably 20 or 30 people seated around two long platforms making roti in a sort of assembly line process. One or two at the head of each platform pulled off bits of dough and made them into balls which they then tossed or rolled to one or anther of the people further down the line to roll out. They were gathered, placed in the oven and baked. In another area there were huge vats of lentils and vegetables that men were stirring with paddles that looked like rowboat oars. It was quite a production.

Friday was basically a travel day from Delhi to Agra. We set out on the bus at 7:30 and worked our way through crazy traffic to get out of Delhi. Gopal assured us that we were too early for real rush hour, but you could have fooled me. While we were on the road Gopal gave us a history lesson. He got from the Indus Valley civilization of 1500 BCE or so all the way up to the 11th century, then saw some of us sleeping and so he took a break. It's got to be a weird feeling to be talking to a busload of tourists, watching them nod off. Passing out of Delhi into the next state there was a tax to be paid by the bus. While we waited for that to happen, Gopal bought us little bags of fried and salted small yellow lentils. Tasty!

When we got to Agra, we visited the tomb of Akbar the Great - a lovely example of Indo-Persian design (very symmetrical and very intricately decorated). It was the first of many places we would see whose detail and beauty were awesome. The artistry and craftsmanship that went into designing and constructing these palaces, temples and monuments is almost unbelievable.

In the evening we went to see the Taj Mahal at sunset from a garden on the other side of the Yamuna River behind the Taj.. It really is as beautiful as the pictures. We also saw flames from a crematory along the banks of the Yamuna river (a river in name only since much of it is dried up). Sunset was lovely and sunset looking at the Taj Mahal is pretty special..

On Saturday we had a very early start today, theoretically to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. As it worked out, we saw the line to enter the Taj Mahal at sunrise. We arrived early, but so did everyone else. The visitors were shuttled into four different lines: women, Indian women, men and Indian men. The lines moved very slowly for a while, and then a group of clearly non-Indian women climbed through the railing to the Indian line. The guards didn't seem to care, but we didn't join them. I was near the back of our group with three others. We had a nice chat, but the line took nearly an hour before we got to the entrance. Finally we were inside. At first the morning was misty and that actually added to the beauty of the scene. It reminded me of arriving at Machu Picchu in the rain, seeing it partially shrouded in mist.

The building is even more spectacular than the pictures show. The inlaid flowers and inlaid calligraphic quotes from Q'uran are astounding. The grounds are extensive and one can imagine how it must have been centuries back when those gardens were peaceful, not crowded with tourists. All in all it is definitely one of the places that not only lives up to the hype, but in fact surpasses it when you get close enough to see all the details.

After a return to our hotel for breakfast we visited the Red Fort. It is a citadel dating back to the 1500s that also contains Akbar's palace. It is marvel of engineering, craftsmanship, artistry and design. The stonework is intricate and beautiful. There is carved marble, more inlay, gorgeously decorated walls, ceilings, floors and just beauty everywhere. As always when I visit places like this, I'm astounded by what it took to build it and also by the sense of posterity that the designers or commissioners of these buildings had. We live in such a disposable culture. It's wonderful to see things that were made to outlive the builders by centuries and centuries.

Lunch today another home-hosted meal with a cooking demonstration. Once again, our hostess clearly was extremely well off. Her house has been in her husband's family for three generations and it's huge. We ate under a tent on the back lawn after she showed us how to prepare mattar paneer (peas and cheese.) I wonder who else was struck that she had to consult the recipe as she went along. Somehow I don't think she usually does much of the cooking herself.

Lunch was delicious - the mattar paneer, a chickpea dish, a chicken dish, two kinds of bread and a really interesting sweet made from white squash for dessert. It tasted like very sweet jellied fruit. She also showed us around part of her home, but there was much more to the inside than what we saw. Lots of land, lots of space, lots of money!

Next stop was the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, called the "Baby Taj." It was built a few years earlier than the Taj Mahal and is smaller, but contains similar beautiful details. The inlay work inside especially was much more intricate. There were baskets of flowers depicted in niches along with the same repeated lotus images and geometric designs we saw earlier.

From there some of us went to a workshop and showroom to see how the inlay work is done. The artisans are descendants in the same family line as the artisans who worked on the Taj Mahal, and some of the processes are kept secret. The composition of the glue used to attach the tiny pieces on semi-precious stones, for example, is a closely guarded secret recipe. And only the sons are told the secrets since the daughters would marry and carry the secrets into new families.

Designs are sketched onto a piece of marble, which is painted with a water-based thin red paint. An artisan carves out the design to a depth of a fraction of a centimeter. The red paint makes the carved out areas easier to see. The designs are beautiful - flowers, birds, and so on. Other artisans work tiny pieces of malachite, lapis, carnelian, abalone shell and turquoise into petals, leaves, stems, lines, dots -- minuscule pieces precisely shaped on a hand driven grinding wheel. A final artisan hand glues each tiny piece to its correct place and then it is all sanded with the finest sandpaper. When you run your fingers over a finished piece it feels almost perfectly smooth. We were shown how this kind of Indian marble won't stain, won't break, and how it allows light to shine through. The finished pieces in the showroom were gorgeous, but very expensive. One beautiful little elephant that caught my eye was 60,000 rupees, or about $12,000...

We had another dinner on our own and most of the group decided to either skip dinner or eat at the hotel. Six of us went out with Gopal to a very nice restaurant with a fixed price Indian dinner - chicken tikka, garlic bread, tomato soup, another chicken dish, vegetable korma, mutton, dal, rice, rice pudding and tea all for about $20 including tax and tip. On the way home we passed a wedding procession. Gopal stopped the bus and we all got put to watch and to take pictures. The next thing we knew we were dancing in the middle of the group. I think I had as many pictures taken of me as I took of them. It was so colorful, so exciting, so much fun. The groom was a handsome young man in a gold tunic and turban sitting in a gaily-decorated horse-drawn carriage. There was a band – heavy on the drums – and lots of happy guests. The young men were in western suits, but the women were in gorgeous, sparkly saris. We connected with them when they were almost at the bride’s house. We didn't get to see her but the house was brightly lit with colored lights. They kept urging us to join the parade and come to the wedding and I think they would have been delighted if we had come. I know that when we were on the side watching we were definitely invited to come into the group to dance. Our "assistant driver" Kamal who helps us on and off the bus, counts heads, hands out water and generally helps with everything, led us to the places where we’d have the best view and get the best shots. I was so glad I decided to go out even though we’d had a long day and would have an early start the next day.

We left Agra early Sunday and first made a stop at a palace where Akbar and his wives, his harem, his court and his ministers lived and worked. It reminded me of Russian nested dolls. Every time we turned a corner there was another courtyard, another building, mostly red sandstone, beautifully carved. In places you can still see remnants of the painting that also covered every inch of every structure. I had the same reaction as always, trying to picture it being built. And the sign at the front gate said it only took about 13 years! The engineering, craftsmanship and artistry of these places always, always, always blow me away.

As we drove along toward our village retreat we saw some men pulling a cart decorated with flowers and festooned in bright colors. Gopal said they were heading for a temple in Jaipur, probably having had a prayer granted. Now they were on the way to thank the god. A little further on we saw a huge parade. The women were all in bright yellow carrying jugs of Ganges water on their heads. There was also a huge cart with two colorfully dressed holy men. We stopped the bus to take pictures and Gopal made an offering on behalf of the group. I was right beside him when he handed up some money and we were thanked with a shower of flower petals and vermillion powder. One of the attendants gave us a sort of cookie made of sugar. It was quite an experience.

We also made an unscheduled stop at what Gopal referred to as the prostitutes' temple and a red light district. We turned down a side road and a couple of not very happy looking women and a bunch of small dirty children ran out to greet us. There were two small buildings, obviously jerry-rigged from whatever was available. It was really sad, especially to see the children there.

We continued on our way, passing mostly farmland growing winter wheat or mustard. Clearly this was a much more rural area compared to what we had seen earlier on the trip. We passed through a couple of towns and saw markets, camels, cows, water buffalo, dogs, a couple of herds of sheep, some goats and even a couple of peacocks. We heard that India you don't have to go to the zoo; the zoo is right there in the street in front of you. It's true!

We arrived at the Dera Retreat around 1:30. It was charming, peaceful and very lovely. We each had a cabin and there was a separate building for dining, all arranged around a large lawn with areas for cricket, croquet or just sitting under the trees. Each cabin also had a small patio with a couple of chairs where one could sit and enjoy the peace and quiet. It was pretty bare-bones, though. The shower didn't have an abundance of hot water. In fact, it didn't have much water at all. There was a portable heater, for which I was most grateful since it got very chilly after the sun went down. When I came back to the cabin after dinner I found the heater on, the bed turned down and a water bottle tucked under the covers.

After lunch we had a camel safari ride up to a Meena village. There were nine camels and two carts, so they needed volunteers to ride the camels. We got a lesson and a demonstration first. Gopal told us all kinds of Interesting things about camels, including how to tell if a male camel is horny and that once they breed a male camel he's no good for work because all he wants to do is breed. We were all giggling hysterically by the time he was done. We were shown how to get on, how to sit, and how avoid falling off as the camel stood up and again when it kneeled down. It's actually pretty easy. You hold on and lean back when the back legs come up and straighten up as the front legs come up. You go with the rocking of the animal as it walks, and then do the same lean back and then straighten on the descent. I was scared at first, mostly because it feels very high up when the camel first stands up, but after a moment I was fine. In fact, I was happy when we're leaving the village that only a couple of people who took the carts out wanted to ride camels back. So I got to ride both ways.

The village was interesting - poor, primitive, a lot like what I envisioned reading "Nectar in a Sieve." We saw a hand churn, grinding wheel, learned that daughters-in-law cover their faces in the presence of men older than their husbands but daughters do not. That explained why I'd seen women with a scarf or the end of their sari completely covering their faces. We also saw a ceremony with music (a hand pumped hand organ, drums and couple of kinds of cymbals) representing the marriage of two gods. the husband was a black statue representing one of the incarnations of Vishnu and the wife was a tulsi or holy basil plant. It is not the variety of basil that we are used to in our cooking, and is used widely for its medicinal properties. After the men played and chanted for a while, two men picked up the statue and the plant, walked seven times around the little altar and then put them down on opposite sides from where they had been. One of the men also did a very suggestive dance with lots of hip thrusting and crotch grabbing. Eventually he invited several folks to join him. Of course I did!

When we returned to the retreat we had a bonfire and a concert and dance demonstration before dinner. There were four or five musicians singing and playing similar instruments to what we saw in the village. There were two dancers. One girl was clearly better trained and a better performer. She did some amazing stuff - dancing with six pots stacked on her head, getting to the ground with the pots on her head to pick up a bill with her teeth, dancing while balancing on metal cylinders and on a metal pan. There was also a man who did tricks with fire. He ran the flame along his arms, ate the fire, and filled his mouth with some flammable liquid and the spat it out over small torches to make the flames appear to come out of his mouth. Pretty spectacular! They also pulled people up to dance with them, and of course I joined right in.

Monday after breakfast we piled into jeeps to go to the bus to go to visit a huge step well. It is a massive excavation that acted as a reservoir for collecting rainwater, built in the 8th century. There are steps all around leading to the bottom, hence the name. Depending on the level of the water, one could walk down as far as necessary to collect it. There is also a lovely palace that was built in the step well complex, carved and decorated the way we've seen elsewhere. Stored in niches and under eaves are beautiful carvings from a nearby temple. Many of them are partially defaced, the work of Muslim invaders who saw them as pagan idols, but you can still see how lovely they are. We also had a brief visit to the temple itself. There are some carvings still in place and it's easy to tell that it must have been gorgeous.

Our next stop was at a school. We wanted to bring things to the children, so we stopped at a market. Almost everyone bought something - peanuts, oranges, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, notebooks, books, balls and I bought toothbrushes. The children showed us how they chant morning prayers, sang the national anthem, recited a little poem in English, shyly asked us a couple of questions when forced to and then we gave out the gifts.. It got a little chaotic. We were told that there were 34 kids there that day. I had 48 brushes and somehow ended up with only 2 left over, but that was fine.

After lunch some of us got henna tattoos. The process was really interesting. The women who are really artists draw a design with a brown paste that looks like chocolate, squeezed out of what looks like a pastry tube. It has to dry for a half hour or so. Then they dab oil on it, let that sit for several minutes, and they peel off the paste, which has now hardened, leaving the skin below stained orange. I got the backs of both hands done. Others did palms and one man did his feet. We were told it would last for a couple of weeks. I had hoped it might last until I got home, but no such luck.

We also had a lesson about the game of cricket and some of the men played
Finally came the hike. Five of us hiked up the mountain to a Hanuman shrine. Most of it was fairly easy, but the last bit was scary – steep and sheer. But I made it, and I'm glad I went. The view was special. We could see green fields, the school, the resort and the surrounding hills.

Before dinner we had a lecture about the people and history of Rajasthan and a demonstration of how to make chapatti, one of the varieties of Indian flatbread. A few people tried their hand and got rounds of applause when theirs puffed up nicely..

We began Tuesday with a lecture after breakfast about Hindu gods and goddesses, scriptures, epics and various philosophies. I learned about two classifications of belief systems beyond polytheism and monotheism. One is henotheism and refers to a system in which there are many gods, but one is free to choose whichever of them he wishes without causing disrespect to the others. The god or goddess of one's choice them rises to the top of the pantheon and the rest recede into the background. The other is monism is which one believes that god is in everything and so there is no division between deity and the world. Interesting stuff and new to me.

Following the lecture we set out to Jaipur. On the way we made a quick stop along the road to see a marble and sandstone carving workshop. The work is painstakingly done by hand and the results are beautiful.

We arrived in Jaipur in time for lunch and were greeted once again with bindi – a dot of colored powder placed on the forehead to welcome us. We were greeted this way in several places and also received flower garlands as a further sign of welcome in several places. After lunch we had a tour of the city led today by Gopal's brother who was filling in so that Gopal could be with his wife whose father had passed away.

Then it was on to the movies! The theater, Raj Mandir, is huge and elegant. The movie was pretty typical Bollywood. There was a clearly identifiable good guy (very handsome!) and a couple of equally easy to identify bad guys. Periodically and for no apparent reason there were glitzy music and dance interludes. Despite the fact that the dialogue was in Hindi it was quite easy to follow. We left at intermission, but several days later when we had an especially long bus ride we saw the rest of it. The copy on the bus was a bootleg that came out just a few days after the movie’s opening and cost maybe the equivalent of $1.00. After the movie some of us chose to go to a jewelry store and I bought two pairs of studs – one garnet and one citrine – to replace some of the earrings I lost in Israel when I lost my backpack.

Dinner that evening was at the home of the family of the Maharajah of Jaipur. The home is lovely and huge and filled with beautiful things. We were greeted at the door by the daughter-in-law of the head of the family and two children. One of the kids gave us each a flower garland while the other gave us each a bindi.. We were shown into a sitting room off the central courtyard where everyone, including the six year old girl and seven year old boy, introduced themselves. The children were quite poised and seemed very comfortable with their roles as host and hostess. During dinner Raj sat with us and answered a lot of questions about funeral customs. It was very informative. I realized that Hindu customs, like Jewish funeral and mourning customs, seem designed to ease mourners into some sort of closure by structuring the process very precisely.

First on the agenda Wednesday was a visit to the Amber Fort. We rode up to the fort on elephants. Getting on was easy -just sit down and slide over from an elephant-height platform. Once we got going it was scary, but the worst part was seeing out over the wall leading to the fort and seeing how high up the hill we were plus how tall the elephant was. But I'm glad I did it.

The Amber Fort was spectacular. Once again it was vision after vision of beautiful carving and decoration, stained glass, inlay, a hall covered in tiny, mirrored decoration designed to capture candle or torch light and reflect it in thousands of tiny facets. I can only imagine how it looked when it was filled with nobles, beautiful dancing girls showering flower petals, distinguished visitors and probably hundreds of servants.

Next stop was the observatory, constructed in the 17th century with, among other things, one sundial that is accurate to within 20 seconds and another that is accurate to 2 seconds. Another example of the wondrous inventions and creations of scientists operating with none of the modern technology we rely on. The observatory also contains instruments designed to predict eclipses, plot star locations and make other astronomical and astrological calculations.

Then on to the City Palace, another marvel of engineering and artistry. I was especially entranced by a small courtyard with four gates, each depicting a season and each dedicated to a particular Hindu god. The gates depicts peacocks, lotuses, waves and roses and they are gorgeous. There was also a shop attached to the Palace where I fulfilled one of my major quests. I bought a beautiful miniature painting on antique paper of Laxmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity, with her owl. First the artist found one without the owl and offered to add one and deliver it to the hotel. He asked 14,500 rupees (almost $300), and I gulped. Then his assistant found a lovely one with the owl already there. This one cost the equivalent of about $90, a much more reasonable price!

Finally we visited a rug and fabric showroom and workshop where I got a beautiful small rug that is now hanging on my living room wall. The gentleman showing us his merchandise was a star salesman. He read my reactions perfectly and found the piece that whispered in my ear “Take me home” in maybe four or five tries.

IN THE SOUTH

Thursday was a long travel day. We left the hotel in Jaipur at 4:45 AM to catch at 6:15 flight to Bangalore. The hotel had tea and coffee for us in the lobby and a ridiculously large box breakfast for us to eat on the bus. There was juice, a pear, two vegetable sandwiches, a hard-boiled egg and four different little rolls plus a bag of chips. I think almost everyone left at least part of it behind, hoping it would go to some hungry person.

The flight left right on time and was a little bumpy but not bad. We made one stop in Hyderabad and they checked everyone's boarding pass, and had everyone identify luggage in the overhead rack before we took off again. There was some brief excitement when it took a while to find who belonged to one bag, but eventually the owner identified him or herself. Airport security seems very tight. Carry-ons including purses and canes are tagged, the tags are stamped and checked more than once, and everyone gets thorough pat-downs.

As we drove from Bangalore to our hotel in Mysore it was very obvious that the south is quite different from the north. For one thing, we passed through areas that were much more prosperous – fancy looking, high rise buildings, apartments, real shops with doors and display windows, not the sort of garage-door cubby holes I’ve seen in so many Asian and South or Central American countries I’ve visited. Even the villages that seem less prosperous look more comfortable than what we saw in northern cities.

And, of course, the agriculture is different. We saw rice paddies and palm trees here for the first time. A lot of trucks filled with sugar cane and coconuts passed us on the road as well. It was quite warm in the sun but comfortable and breezy in the shade. The power in our hotel blinked out several times, but only for a few seconds each time.

Our time in the south promised to be very interesting with plans to visit to a hill station, dinner with a family that claims to be descended from Alexander the Great, houseboats, an Ayurvedic resort, lots of temples, palaces, forts and other monuments, some lectures on the area and on Hindu mythology. The second half of this trip was almost like a visit to a different country with different climate, language, customs, foods and clothing. I saw more men wearing a traditional dhoti or lungi – a length of cloth wrapped around the waist and legs and tied at the waist. Some of the men we saw folded the bottom up to form a sort of knee-length skirt or kilt. The men we saw in the north were just about all dressed in western clothing. In the south it was almost half and half.

By this point in the trip several of our group were suffering from various stomach and/or respiratory bugs. A cold was making its way through the group and “Delhi belly” had taken a toll on some others. So our excursions of Friday were a few heads short. We had been awakened at various times by a long horn blast and a call to prayer that apparently started around 3 or 3:30 AM although I didn't hear it until about 5:30. It was not what I expected to hear in India, although I knew there is a large Muslim population.

Our first stop after breakfast was an old, unused Hindu temple to Lord Vishnu. Apparently once the main idol in a temple is destroyed, the temple is desanctified. This one was constructed of sandstone with incredibly beautiful and intricate carvings of Vishnu in his many incarnations, Saraswati, his consort, dancing girls floral designs and animals. it stands on a platform in the form of a sixteen-pointed star. The lowest ring of the platform depicts elephants, for strength. The next ring is horses, then soldiers, then a sort of floral decoration. Inside are altars to Vishnu with beautiful statues. The ceiling is also completely carved with domes encircled by flowers, animals and people. The detail is awesome.

As we drove to our next stop we passed a hall where a wedding was about to take place, so we got off the bus and went in. Everyone there seemed perfectly OK with this busload of strangers barging into their celebration. The little kids were fascinated with us. We even got to see the bride being prepared for the celebration. There were offerings of grain and fruit and other things in her room. She was dressed in a gorgeous red and gold sari and surrounded by other young women – friends or sisters perhaps –all looking quite elegant. A lot of the littler kids wanted their pictures taken. One little girl, maybe 8 years old eyed, me for a while and then came over and said quite formally, "How are you?" when I replied, "I'm fine, thank you. How are you?" she answered in the same formal tone, "I am fine." I asked if I could take her picture and she posed very solemnly but seemed pleased with the result. I can't imagine what would happen at home if a tour group took it upon themselves to crash a wedding. I'm sure the police would be called! But here we were warmly welcomed.

Then we made a stop at a little workshop where they were processing sugar cane to make a kind of sugar called jaggeree. First the cane is crushed, the juice runs through a pipe to a vat and the refuse is collected in big piles. A man shoves the refuse under another vat where the juice is boiled down until it gets very thick. Then it is scraped out of the vat into a wooden container, and carried over to a metal mold where it is shaped into squares that harden and can be divided up for sale. The huge vats are carried from one station to the next - collection, boiling, scraping. A fascinating and very labor-intensive process.

Our third stop of the morning was the summer palace of Tipu Sultan who fought the British (and lost) in the 1790s. The palace is now a museum and no pictures were allowed once we were inside. The walls and ceilings are covered with beautiful frescoes including huge murals of the battles showing hundreds and hundreds of British, French and Indian soldiers in great detail. Some of the artwork was described as being “three-dimensional” and as we walked from one side to the other eyes, horses’ heads and other details seemed to follow us. I was sorry we couldn't get photos of some of the art, but I appreciated that it is being protected from damage that might be caused by flash.

The mythology lecture in the afternoon was very interesting and I found I was starting to get a handle on at least the major gods and goddesses. After the lecture Gopal offered an opportunity to visit the bazaar. I was picturing a market street with stalls and vendors. We walked along streets with small shops, many with glass windows, along a very wide and heavily trafficked street. I did get a kilo of cardamom biscuits to share with the group and take home to a friend. We were also treated to some fresh coconut water by one of the men in the group. The vendor lops off the top of the cocnut until he hits a soft enough spot to insert a straw and then you drink. We did see a few interesting things, but it wasn't quite what I expected. We took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, and that was fun.

In the evening ten of us went for a home-hosted dinner while the remaining eight stayed back to nurse colds, tummy troubles or just to rest. The hostess was a Coorg, one of a tribe of people who claim to be descended from Greeks and Alexander the Great. She showed us a couple of traditional items – a knife, some jewelry – and a book of information and pictures. The people in the pictures looked Turkish. The Coorgs have some customs that differ from other groups. For instance, most Indian women pleat their sari in the front, but Coorg women pleat in the back. Our hostess, Yamuna, also said they do not give dowries, and women have a somewhat better status than among traditional Hindus.. We had a lovely meal with foods she said were all traditional. The dinner was in the backyard, quite charming. I would have liked a chance to talk a bit more with our hostess, but it was very, very lovely nonetheless.

By Saturday morning people seemed to have at least partially recovered from the colds, fevers, stomach issues and whatever else was ailing them. We set out at a civilized 9 AM to visit the temple dedicated to one of the reincarnations of Parvati, consort of Shiva. If I remember correctly, it was in this incarnation that she slew the devil who could turn people into ash by touching time on the top of their head. She tricked him into imitating a dance step that involved placing his own hand on his head. .Entering the temple was an adventure in itself. We had to remove our shoes of course. The line was directed through a passageway separating entrance from exit, barely wide enough for one person. There were groups of school children whose teachers directed them to stay together, even if it meant pushing past others in line with very little space. It was a little harrowing even though I understood the teachers’ desire to keep their charges organized. The temple itself is beautiful, tall, carved with decorations and figures of the gods. We couldn't take photos inside but I got a few nice ones outside. Next we drove a while to see a huge statue of Nandi, the bull who is the transport for Vishnu. The road up to these two places was steep, windy and offered spectacular views overlooking Mysore even if the heights made me a little nervous.

Final stop for the morning was the Palace of Mysore, built in the early 1900s and about to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its completion this year. Once inside we saw stained glass ceilings from Belgium, tile walls and floors from Portugal, cast iron columns from Scotland, chandeliers from Czechoslovakia and beautiful silver doors, silver-plated doors with ivory inlay, murals depicting historical events and portraits of the Maharajah who built the palace. He gathered the best of everything from all over the world to build something truly fabulous.

I did have one serious disappointment with that visit. Out local guide neglected to tell us until we were already well inside the palace itself that, while cameras are prohibited, there is no prohibition against taking pictures with cell phones. Of course I and few others had left them on the bus. I was able to buy a couple of postcards with nice images, but there was so much I would have photographed had I but known.

After lunch we visited a silk factory. It was very different from what I saw in China. We saw thread being wound onto spools and looms producing cloth for saris. It was very loud (we had been warned) and fairly interesting. Then we went to a shop that sells silk, pashminas and sandalwood where we saw an interesting little demonstration of how they create inlay pictures on rosewood. It's similar to what we saw at the marble factory. The design is carved into the rosewood and the carved out places are filled with white plastic and different natural colored woods to create very detailed and intricate pictures. In the past ivory was used for the white parts, but that is illegal now.

One last activity in Mysore. This evening a few of went out to see the Mysore Palace lit up at night. It's a weird sort of arrangement. They light the palace up for about 5 minutes and then shoo everyone away. On Sundays it's lit up for 45 minutes. Strange, but the sight was quite something. It was really breathtakingly beautiful.

Afterwards a few of us took Gopal out to dinner. We went to the hotel next door to ours and had a lovely meal. All four ladies ordered mutton biryani and it was delicious - spicy, lots of nice favors, meaty and good. We could have gotten away with three orders for the four of us because each serving was huge. But that and a club soda was perfect. And the bill, including paying for Gopal, tax, service charge etc. came to only 500 rupees each or about $10. Of all the meals on our own this was the least expensive and the restaurant was in a lovely courtyard, open to the sky, lovely service and much nicer than one would expect for a $10 meal. Gopal was terrific about helping us negotiate the meals on our own. Most of our hotels have not been in places where we could have easily walked to a restaurant but he has been very gracious about escorting us. It was nice to be able make this gesture of thanks.

Before we went out this evening I stopped by the hotel jewelry store and bought a pretty ittle silver aum on a black leather. Now I have a collection of three good luck pieces for travel - my Chinese lotus, my Israeli hamsa and my Indian aum.

Sunday we began our journey into the state of Kerala. We had a one night stay at a very unique resort because the trip was long, so it was broken up with some interesting travel day activities. We set out at about 8 AM and the first interesting bit came about two hours into the trip when our route took us through Bandipur National Park, an animal sanctuary. Gopal said he had seen wild elephants every time and sure enough, we did see one. We also saw quite a few monkeys, including one family group with a baby.

After we had passed through the park we picked up the owner of Wynberg Resort who told us a little about the communities we passed through on the way to his resort and. plantation. The area is predominantly Muslim, but there are also many churches, some quite ornate, and of course lots of Hindu shrines. The area is clearly prosperous. The houses we passed were almost all quite modern looking and fairly large, many painted in very bright colors – bright blue, pink, electric green, orange and purple.

We had to walk in to the resort since the road could not accommodate the bus. It was quite a ways off the main road and seemed to consist of many small cabins, similar to the ones we stayed in earlier in the trip, although maybe a bit more elegant. We had a brief slide show to inform us about the various crops grown on the plantation: coffee, ginger, rubber, cinnamon, cardamom, and pepper, among others.

After lunch we walked through the plantation and we saw all the different crops. It looked very different from the North American concept of a farm as a patchwork of square plots, neatly laid out, each with its own unique crop. Here everything shares space in ways that are to the advantage of each crop. The coffee plants are shaded by betel palms and banana trees. Other plants also share space in similar ways. We got very interesting lessons on how the various things get from tree or bush to market – when and how they are picked, cleaned, dried or whatever needs to be done.

We got back on the bus for a quick ride to see tea close up. The bushes are very sturdy and are sort of round and flat-topped. Again, our host explained how the leaves are picked and processed to get from bush to table.

Back on the bus for the final leg of the day’s travels. After a bit we got off the bus and switched to jeeps for the ride up to the resort where we are staying for one night. It was about a fifteen minute ride over incredibly bumpy roads. Every now and then there was a paved stretch and the driver would speed up, then slow down abruptly for a speed bump followed by another unplaced stretch. We had some good laughs about the effect the bumps were having on each of us.

The resort was very rustic. It is spread out over a fairly large area with individual cabins spread over several levels connected by rock paths, stairs and, to get to the dining room from my cabin, a little suspension bridge. The bridge swayed and I was not very happy crossing it, but I managed. I find that I am getting better at handling some of the things that make me uncomfortable, heights in particular. I get just as nervous, but I manage to do things even if I’m not happy about it. It’s a good feeling.

To get to my room I had to walk down a rather dark flight of steps, across a little catwalk, through a door and down a second flight of steps to a second door. It felt very isolated. The room key locked a padlock on the first door, which also deadbolted from the inside. The second door, into my actual space, also deadbolted from the inside.. When the young man brought my suitcase he warned me to keep the door to my little veranda closed because of the monkeys! That is not something I ever expected to be told. I could hear what sounded like tree toads or crickets and an occasional something else that might have been a monkey. The room was very large and the bed was very hard – a platform with a fairly thin mattress. I was also told that the hot water takes a few minutes, but it was fine.

About an hour after we arrived we had a chance to take a hike around the area and four of us, along with some other guests, went. It was interesting scenery, including coffee and pepper again, and lots and lots of tea. Twice during the hike we actually climbed up hills through the tea plants. The path, such as if was, was very steep and narrow and I pulled myself along holding on the plants, which are quite dense and sturdy. The view out over the surrounding area was worth it.

On Monday we continued on our way to the Ayurvedic resort on a road through a forest. The main road we would ordinarily have taken was closed for repairs. The road was very twisty with hairpin turns all the way. A few people suffered from motion sickness, but I was fine. This was when we got to watch the last half of the Bollywood film we saw in Jaipur. I was surprised that the hero died in the end, but he had slain all of his enemies and his spirit was reunited with the spirit of his dead father, so I guess that could count as a happy ending.

Because the drive took much longer that scheduled, we came straight to the Ayurvedic Resort and had lunch at about 2:30. After lunch we had a brief lecture about Ayurvedic medicine. The principles of Ayurveda are interesting. The belief is that they were handed over by Brahma after he created the world. The whole thing is based on the human system being divided into three doshas, each of which controls different body parts and systems. The medicine is prescribed based on which dosha is out of whack and how. Medicine is administered as emetics, nasally as a colonic, or by blood cleansing through diet. People who come here for treatment or to rejuvenate stay for anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks.

After the lecture we got a little tour of the grounds and saw some of the plants used in the various treatments. Some of us had been looking forward to getting massages, but unfortunately there were a limited number of massage slots open. There were only openings for 5 women and 2 men. I might have had a massage if there were slots for everyone, but I didn't mind missing it. The folks who did get one seemed to enjoy it.

In the evening I attended a guided meditation session that was relaxing, but nothing special. And the next morning before we left I went to a yoga session that was a little disappointing. We did some interesting breathing and a lot of relaxing and few very, very modified poses. But I was happy to have had the chance to practice yoga where it all began.

On Tuesday we picked up one activity we missed the previous day because of the detour. We visited Kalamandalam, a school that teaches traditional Kathakali drumming, dance, chanting, and other arts. We saw classrooms where students were learning drumming techniques, dance steps and make-up. We saw a couple of classrooms where one or two girls were learning a whole dance. Students come at age 12 or 13 and have regular academic subjects along with the arts instructions. They stay through high school, through college or even through post- graduate studies. It was quite an experience to see them learning these traditional arts.

After the tour of classrooms we saw part of a performance where a man in a very elaborate and funny costume was telling the story of Arjuna to a large group of visiting school kids, interspersed with some comments poking fun at various people in the audience, including us. Even though he was speaking Sanskrit and Malayalam, it was pretty easy to follow the funny parts. His gestures were very broad and the kids would turn around giggling to look at the person he was singling out.

After the school visit we went for lunch at a retreat and restaurant on the banks of a river. After a pleasant meal we had an hour or so to sit outside in the shade and relax. It was very hot, but there was a nice breeze that kept us comfortable. It was nice to have some real down time.

The second high point of the day was a chariot festival. In Kerala there is a festival of some sort or another almost every day. This one invovlved two huge chariots, several stories high and massive, housing the gods Ganesh and his brother Kartikeyan. Once a year they are pulled around the temple. A huge line of people, including kids, pull two long chains. Several men help turn and guide the wheels which are taller than they are, and most of the locomotion is provided by two huge levers made of wood. A very large number of men work behind the chariot, wedging the levers under the wheel and then heaving it to force the wheel to turn. There seemed to be hundreds of people involved in the process. There were also a couple of groups of drummers adding to the excitement. The people watching were tossing small bananas and flowers in the general direction of the chariots.

Ganesha is everywhere – in the homes we visited, in restaurants, in shrines. Shops selling souvenirs are filled with little statues of this friendly god. He is a pleasant, childlike fellow who is, among other things, the remover of obstacles. One version of his story says that his mother, Parvati, created him while Shiva was away. When Shiva returned he thought Parvati had been unfaithful and so he beheaded the poor baby. Then he felt sorry for what he had done and replaced the head with the head of a baby elephant.

We were obviously a source of interest and curiosity. Several spectators took our pictures and lots of the little boys pulling the chains caught our eye and posed for pictures before the actually pulling began. Two of them, maybe 8 and 6 or so came up the steps where we were standing and asked my name. The older one told me their names and explained the younger boy was his friend and neighbor and lived in the house next door to his. Then he asked for my autograph! I didn't have pen or paper, but our local guide, Bashir, had a pen and a receipt from something in his wallet. I wrote, "I am very happy that I came to visit from America and got the chance to meet you." and signed my name. It was very sweet. Parents of very little ones held up their babies for us to photograph. Very cute!

It was very exciting, but also very hot watching the festival so we only stayed to watch one of the two chariots being pulled around the temple. We were leaving in the morning for a couple of nights cruising the Kerala backwaters on houseboats and we were told that our luggage would be difficult to transport. I pulled out only what I needed for the next two days and packed my backpack. I was looking forward to the experience, but I was also anxious to get to Kochi. I wanted to see to see the streets and buildings I read about so long ago in "Michael Turns the Glob." And I was hoping to find a bookstore where I could find some poetry by Nissim Ezekiel, a Jewish Indian poet I had read about.

Wednesday was a travel day with one stop that turned out to be interesting. We stopped for lunch in a church near Kochi (which we passed through and would return to for the final couple of days of the trip). We walked into a large, mostly empty room with some benches and were given box lunches from a hotel near the airport. Then one of the nuns came out and opened the door to the sanctuary. The church is small and very old – 500 years according to the nun – and quite beautiful in its simplicity. It’s a Franciscan convent with 60 sisters. They have mass daily and three masses on Sunday said by a priest who comes from a larger church. There is a beautiful garden and, as we walked around, we saw one sister counseling a woman.

We arrived at our houseboats around 3:00. Gopal had told us that there were 3 boats, one with 9 cabins and 2 with 2 cabins each. I was on the larger boat, which is what I had hoped for, figuring it would be more fun to be with larger group. The cabins were much more spacious than I expected with king-sized beds filling most of the space. I could see that bringing large suitcases with us would have been awkward, especially for the couples. There wasn’t much storage space or floor space.

We had a few hours of delightful sailing along the canals looking at gorgeous scenery, seeing the people who live along the banks and finally watching a spectacular sunset. The mosquitos came out after the sun went down so we all scrambled for the bug spray. Our cabins were even supplied with tubes of organic insect repellent. Soon after dinner was served in a closed and air-conditioned area, so there were no problems.

Friday was a leisurely day. We docked and had breakfast, joined by the passengers from one of the smaller boats. After breakfast we walked through a village on the shore of the canals. Our first stop was a beautiful church that is over 1500 years old. It was not big, but the altar was every ornately carved and painted. The ceiling especially was really very beautiful. I think my biggest surprise in southern India was the number of churches. The Syrian Catholics of Kerala trace their roots to the visit of the apostle St. Thomas in the first century C.E. with some influences from the arrival of Portuguese in the 14th century. Interestingly, they retain some Jewish customs in their traditions, such as the eating of unleavened bread on Passover night.

Then we walked through the village for a bit, strolling down a pathway lined with shops and other buildings. We saw a reading room established in 1090 by Leo XIII where local residents can come and read the newspaper (Kerala has 100% literacy!). We visited a couple of shops and I bought a nice cool cotton shirt and my third Indian owl. Even though our walk was fairly leisurely and much of it was in shade I was pretty sticky and sweaty by hthe time we got back to the boat. I can't imagine what this area is like in the summer if it's this hard to take in the winter.

I skipped the boat building excursion because it was too hot to wander around. A few others skipped it as well and we ended up sitting on the lounge area in the shade and having some good laughs. The excursion was pretty quick and everyone was back on board fairly early. We set sail with some confusion about where we were going. We had seen a lake on the map and we wanted to see that, but Gopal told us that we had to return to the same place we started and we weren't sure how that was going to work out in terms of time. We thought we needed to be tied up by 6 so that the canals could be free for the fishermen. Somehow there was another channel that was a short cut back to where we needed to be, so we saw the lake and got to our destination on time.

The cruise was very pleasant and relaxing. The heat and humidity were intense, but there were breezes as long as we were moving and lots of gorgeous scenery to gaze out at. There are some beautiful homes along the banks of these canals. Gopal tells us that the homes often are not as nice on the inside as they are on the outside, which is a shame, though.

We had a last couple of hours on Friday to enjoy the houseboats before disembarking and setting out for Kochi. We stopped for a short visit to a coir factory where we saw the fiber spun into cord and then when into mats and rugs. I knew the word coir from crosswords but I had no idea how it was used or what they did with it. It was interesting to compare this to what we saw in the silk factory. It's all basically the same process: something is spun into thread, the thread is or is not dyed, and then the threads are woven into fabric. The silk is lovely and delicate and the coir or jute (which they also work with in this factory) is rough and strong but it's all the same thing. Same process, very different result.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant near our hotel and most of us ordered tholi, a meal that consists of several small dishes of different things - rice, soup, couple of vegetable dishes, and a kind of pudding for dessert. It was very good and came out to 125 rupees or about $2.50 each.

We got to the hotel, checked in and I sat in my room waiting for my suitcase to arrive so I could rearrange things before going for a stroll. And I waited, and waited and waited. Finally I went to the desk to ask. At first the young man on duty thought I was asking about a bag of laundry. We got that straightened out and he tried calling someone to trace it down. I had seen it come off the bus so I knew it was here. I had almost taken it to my room myself since it was very close to the lobby, but I didn't. Eventually it showed up, and while I was waiting I changed some money. That turned into a major financial transaction since the guy on duty and another guy together, digging through their wallets, came up 13 rupees short. That's only about 20 cents so I wasn't overly concerned. He promised he'd have it for me when I came back after going out. Bag in the room, money in pocket, I set out to do a little exploring. This was the first time we’d stayed in a hotel that was walking distance from some interesting sightseeing and I was determined to take advantage.

The first order of business was to touch the Arabian Sea. I set off down the street to the shore, which is very close to the hotel. I saw fishermen using what Gopal had called Chinese nets. I tried to walk down closer to the water and one of the men shooed me away. So I walked a little ways along the shore and found a little cafe – actually more like a vendor cart and some tables and chairs. I was able to get to the water so I dipped my hand in, sprinkled some water on my head and forehead and walked away. An Indian couple sitting in the cafe chairs looked at me as if they were wondering what the crazy tourist was up to. But so far I have dipped into the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee and the Baltic. Not a bad list.

Walking back I stopped in a shop to buy a couple of light cotton shirts. They are pretty and comfortable and will undoubtedly travel with me to warm places. I asked the man in the shop if there was a bookstore nearby and he actually walked me part way down the street to a store that had a whole shelf of poetry. I bought an anthology called "60 Indian Poets" that includes Nissim Ezekiel, and, as the cover leaf says, "honors the canonical writers who have come to define Indian poetry." Perfect!

It was oppressively hot so, even though I am morally opposed to sitting in my hotel room when I could be exploring a new city, I did return to the hotel, rearrange my suitcase and backpack, shower, and relax after a cup of tea and a couple of the cardamom biscuits I bought in Mysore. And I bought a one hour internet card.

The card purchase was another major transaction. I was still owed the 13 rupees from before. The card cost 68. I had a 100 rupee bill. After digging through drawers and pockets the folks at the desk finally decided to give me the card for 55 instead of giving me 13 and charging me 68. All fine, except the girl gave me 55 in change. I thought it was wrong, but then I thought I might have misunderstood the numbers and that 55 was the change and not the charge. A while after I got back into my room the reception desk called to say I did in fact own 10 rupees. On the way out to dinner we straightened out all the monetary complications.

It turned out that our hotel was once a home, built in 1868 by a Jewish businessman, and out by the pool there is a mikvah! I was very excited to be in this neighborhood that I first learned about when I was maybe 10 years old. Back then it all seemed so exotic and now here I was, right in the place I had read about.

The farewell dinner that evening was also the last of our home hosted meals. This one came with a cooking demonstration followed by a lovely dinner. Our hostess, Nimmy Paul, is the author of a few cookbooks, including one that one couple had bought and that she autographed for them. She had an excellent set up for the demonstration. We each got a little booklet filled with recipes, she told us what page to turn to in order to follow along, and she had a mirror hung behind her work station, tilted at the right angle to let us see inside the pots and pans as she prepared first a fish dish in coconut milk and then a vegetable dish with coconut. We had both at our meal along with a meat croquet, chicken, and a simple but elegantly presented dessert of fruit in a sort of watery jello, something we couldn't identify that turned out to be plum pudding formed into balls and rolled in sugar, and one of the little sweet bananas we have all grown to love.

Saturday was our last day in India! We began the day with a walking tour led by a very nice young guide named Deepa. First she took us to the water where we saw the fishermen auctioning off their catch and then saw a demonstration of the Chinese nets. The nets are huge and are lowered and raised using a cantilever of two long logs and ropes, counterweighted with large rocks. It takes at least a couple of men to maneuver them. One of the men showed us the palm of his hand and it was solid callous. And they do this 200 times a day!

We walked a bit more and saw the remains of the fort and a lovely church. Deepa told us about the various changes the church has gone through – Catholic under the Portuguese, then Dutch Reformed, Anglican when British gained control and finally Church of Southern India after independence in 1947. The actual building dates back to the 15th century. All along the walls are headstones from the old Dutch cemetery and the church also boasts the original burial place of Vasco da Gama who was once Governor of Kerala.

Then we boarded the bus for a visit to the palace and a walk to the spice shop. At this point I found put that we could not visit the synagogue because it is closed on Friday and Saturday, despite the fact that there are rarely services. There are only 4 Jewish families left in Kochi - only nine people - and not enough men for a minyan. There are two Chabad rabbis who come to help but most of the Jews moved to Israel after 1948. The ones who remain are aging and dying out. I was very disappointed, but Deepa did take us to the building, pointed out the homes where the four families live and I got to take photos of the service schedule and some interesting street signs labeling “Jew Street.” I also bought a nice postcard of the inside of the synagogue and later a book called "The Last Jews of Kerala."

We were stuck in traffic on the way to the airport in Kochi and slated to stop for a late lunch/early dinner at the airport hotel. During the traffic jam Gopal gave a quick talk about the meditation yoga he practices. When we finally arrived at the airport after stopping for a quick meal In Kochi the security men at the door were flummoxed by our e-tickets. They couldn't seem to figure out where to find our names or our flight numbers, so that took a while. Once we were all inside the airport we had to check in. That was even worse. I don't know if they were slow typists or if their computers were outdated or what, but it took several minutes to produce each boarding pass.

Anyway, we did get off more or less on time and landed in Delhi only about 10 or 15 minutes late. We were in the jetway, on the way into the terminal when there was a commotion of some sort and we were told to wait where we were. After several minutes we were told that we had parked at the wrong terminal! We had come in to the international terminal and we were supposed to be at domestic. So they loaded us onto buses and trekked us over to the right one.

In Kochi the Canadian group had been given their boarding passes for their flight to Toronto but the US group did not have passes for the JFK flight, so it was another line and another delay. Once we had our passes we proceeded to passport and departure card control. The line was very long, there were only two desks open and almost everyone took ages before their passports were stamped. There were issues with how to designate our address in India that required conferences between the men at the desks. At least one of the advantages of a tour group is that information was passed back along the line, so as time went by the process did get a bit faster.

Once we were through that stage there was a very long walk to the next security check. Now we were at a security check - bags on the conveyer, ladies and men separated for pat downs. That line went a bit quicker, but by now it had been well over an hour since we had landed. So on to the next stage.

Our flight was at a gate 26 which was, of course, the one farthest away. Once again our passports and boarding passes were checked, our carry on bags were scanned and we were patted down. Then another long walk to actually board the plane, yet another security check to see that our carry-ons were tagged and stamped and finally we were on board, two and a half hours after landing from Kochi! The whole process was just crazy.

Now in retrospect I’m trying to sum up my reactions and feelings. I saw some magnificent sights, enjoyed some delicious meals, moved out of my comfort zone and learned a lot of new things about a country and culture that was very foreign to me and now is less so. I got to see places I had read about when I was a child and some places I never thought I’d get to see in person. I rode a camel, an elephant, a bicycle rickshaw, a tuk-tuk, and several rickety jeeps. I saw things growing that I had only previously seen in the supermarket. I got to dip my hand in a new sea. I met some wonderful people, many of whom I hope will become friends. It was a satisfying adventure in every way possible.