First Email

Hello All!

Below is the first email about our travels. I have put everyone I could think of with the little time I have. If I have forgotten someone (it's not personal) or I didn't have their email, please pass this on to them.

Finally we have a moment (with Internet) for me to share with everyone what is going on over on the other side of the world. Internet has not been universally available and we have been on a strict/busy schedule with Air Bob. Hopefully Alex will clue me in to where our blog is soon, but for now, I will share a few thoughts about our trip so far.
First stop was Kolkata (pronounced: KOHL cutta). The best word I found to describe this city was overwhelming. It was also chaotic and dusty and warm at high 20s centigrade during the day and low 20s in the evening (although to the locals it was chilly in their winter and a lot were wearing sweaters and earmuffs!). Most of our time was spent walking around. There were taxis which were pretty cheap but rather scary to be in and no contact with other people. The metro was also an experience. For the price of 10 cents we could ride the metro up the major vein of Kolkata. There was only one line, pretty easy to navigate. There was a space in the middle of the car that was reserved for 'Ladies'. Men were expected to get up for women in this section. Although the separation of the sexes was apparent, it was not oppressive nor was it imposed on us, it was only a cultural preference. Even when you got off the metro you had to walk a while to get where you wanted to go. Also, the walking was a major part of our experience. We probably saw only a handful of foreigners in the whole week we were there. And even then they were at the major sites like the Victoria memorial and the New Market. The hotel was often shocked when we would ask about things like the local flower market and that we wanted to walk there. One of the women in the hotel said, 'you can take a taxi from here' we said no we'll take the metro. "oh, but you'll HAVE to take a taxi from the metro". No, we've already walked there, we can do it again. "Impossible!" She was so surprised that we had walked there that she thought it was impossible!
I was surprised at the amount of people on the streets. They seemed to do everything on the streets from eating and hanging out to bathing. I was very overwhelmed by how much we were looked at (we were often photographed by mobile phones) and how many people were surprised to see us. Granted, we were 12 white people walking where most Indians didn't walk if they didn't have to.
Next we flew to the state of Kerala. Immediately, it was more beautiful, warmer and clearly more wealthy. We stayed one night in a beautiful resort by the beach. I don't have much info on this place because I was sick and slept the entire time we were there. The next day we drove through Cochin and saw Jew Town (actually) and the old fort. Then got onto two houseboats with three bedrooms each. So relaxing and beautiful in the backwaters, with delicious food, it was a welcome relief from the grime and chaos in Kolkata.

Then up to Wayanad nature preserve. Again, totally beautiful. We climbed up caves and down to waterfalls (a very energy exerting day, that we weren't expecting), with amazing open expanses that compared to Macchu Picchu. The nature preserve included a 2 hour jeep tour. On the tour we saw about 8 elephants, a Malabar squirrel, spotted dear and tiger prints!

I'm out of time, gotta run to see if we can get on the train to Chennai/Madras, which was our original plan, but our travel agent messed up, or if we have to drive the 16 hours there instead.

More to come when I get a chance.

Miss everyone lots, and I expect that to grow when my family leaves!

Katie