Trip Part 2 – Finding our groove in India

People don’t take trips, trips take people. – John Steinbeck

We continued our quick pace of travel while Grandma was there, as we realized Sri Lanka was a bigger island than it appears and we wanted to see as many highlights as we could with her.  Also, we recognize that we are naturally fast paced travelers, we like being on the move every few days.  But, after Grandma left we kept some time to slow it down in Sri Lanka and left some flexibility in our schedule to allow us to stay at one place for longer.  We loved having 8 straight days in Rio, and could have stayed longer. Maybe we could recreate that feeling in Sri Lanka…

Our first stop was Kalpitiya, a beach town with scuba opportunities.  Thinking that our next destination would be peak temperatures in India, we decided to be brave and try doing a beach hut with a fan instead of AC.  We needed to find out if we could handle it.  It was a quaint boutique place, with great staff, but not much else around.  We weren’t ready to put down roots there, but we enjoyed our time relaxing.  And the dive shops didn’t have youth equipment, so we did the dolphin/snorkeling safari instead.  Turns out this was a great choice.  We were in a small boat surrounded by a massive pod of dolphins that were leaping and twisting through the air.  Sitting on the front of the boat, we loved watching them zooming under and all around us.  One of the other guests staying there arrived the same day we did.  He was going to stay for 2.5 weeks at this one resort, and when we said we were moving onto another spot he was so jealous!  He was burning through his books, and getting bored.  We felt good that we had options!

Then we went to the other side of the island where the dive season was just starting and we read about a number of nice shallow dives. This is important because Liam’s age restricts how deep he can go when we dive.  Within a 5 minute walk from our hotel we found a dive shop on the beach.  They sold us on a two tank dive for the following day.  Remembering a great nature video on cuttlefish shape shifting and color changing, I pulled it up on YouTube for us all to watch while we waited the hour it took them to make our dinner at the restaurant.  I knew they were a possibility to see in these oceans, and thought this was a good roadschool opportunity.  (This video viewing was also possible because we bought a local Sim card for our unlocked phone, so I could stream the video at the beachfront restaurant.  That sim card simplified our travel in Sri Lanka so much and it only cost us $10!  Big score.)

On our first dive we were looking at nice corals and small fish, which was enough!  This was the kids first reef dive and it was wonderful.  The second dive had more potential for larger creatures and yes, almost right away we were rewarded with a pair of Cuttlefish!  The kids immediately sighted them.  At first they disguised themselves as coral.  One decided this wasn’t enough protection so he moved away a bit and morphed into a disco strobe light to warn us to stay away.  The other stayed put believing we still thought he was coral.  It was awesome that we got to see how they change their color and texture of their skin to change their appearance.  The dive continued to be awesome after that with clown fish dancing on anemone, a couple of moray eels lurking in the darkness, poisonous lionfish waving their fins, pufferfish, and for a grand finale we saw a sea turtle and stingray during our safety stop. Liam isn’t usually as interested in our wildlife experiences as the rest of us, but maybe his love for swimming factors in.  He is wild about Scuba diving!

At this time we were agonizing about the idea of going to India next.  We had a healthy amount of apprehension, but we invested in four 10 year visas before we left, so we felt somewhat committed.  We learned that April is one of the hottest months to visit, with highs around 110 and lows in the 80’s.  We had heard countless stories of illness, endless assaults on the senses, difficult food options for kids, heartbreaking poverty, etc.  If it was just us, that is one thing, but could the kids enjoy it?  We met two travelers who helped convince us.  A Nat Geo photographer who encouraged us to go to all the places we’d been thinking about, including the Taj.  And another couple who said to us “Oh, India?  We spent a month there, I’ve never been sicker, but we wouldn’t trade that experience for anything in the world.”

So, with a leap of faith and some nervous energy we started making plans for India during our last few days on the Sri Lankan shore.  India’s guidebook is 1200 pages, now at this point of our adventure we aren’t scouring the pages trying to find all the wonderful offerings in the country.  We are taking a “bucket” approach.  What do we need to fill our “buckets”  at this time?  We will always miss amazing things that we could have done.  We have a shortening “bucket list” of experiences that we are pursuing.  Liam wants to dive a shipwreck, Shia wants to see Aussie critters, Chad wants to eat SE Asian streetfood, etc.  And sometimes, to keep our buckets full we need things like two days with fast internet, familiar food, downtime, or gymnastics.  So for India, we decided the mall would fill our buckets, the backwaters would check off Heidi’s bucket list item of seeing river life from a houseboat, Taj  (Wonders of the World are always a bucket list item), Shia desperately wanted to step foot into a gymnastics gym (we’ve been searching to globe to no avail), seeing a wild tiger has always been on Chad’s list and Liam dreams to see Everest so that’s our next goal in India.  So, with that we filled our agenda for India, leaving most of our guidebook unread.

Now, back in Sri Lanka, we were preparing for a rough overnight transport back to the capital city, a wait of 7 hours before our flight in the Colombo airport, and then a flight to India, so we booked a nicer hotel to relax in before this arduous journey.  Then the overnight train was sold out so we were left on the overnight bus.  We were the only foreigners on board and they played Hindu music really loud all night long, but it had AC and the seats reclined a bit.  We arrived in Colombo at 4 am, so we just bit the bullet and took Tuk Tuks straight to the airport to take a nap in the terminal.

We landed in the Indian state of Kerala after a short one hour flight.  Things started to look up when we flew through customs, easily got a prepaid taxi to our Hotel and checked into our nice garden hotel in the middle of the city.  We were a 10 minute walk from the largest mall in India and that mall was the focus of our interest in this city.  We needed to stock up on some clothes and backup food options for Shia.  We were excited about spending the day in AC and using the food court for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And the recent release of The Jungle Book movie couldn’t have been better timed!

After two refreshing days at the air conditioned mall we took a bus down to Alleppey. Kerala is known for its lakes and waterways and our guesthouse was only accessible via boat.  Instead of a road out front, we could watch the boats going up and down the river.  Once there we organized an overnight houseboat trip along the backwaters and got to witness the local Indian life from the comfort of our very nice deck. We saw how the water is so much a part of their daily lives down here, bathing, washing dishes and clothes, fishing, etc.  Here we also were interested to see the majority of tourists on the water were Indian tourists.   Its nice to see more folks exploring their own backyards, and having the means to do so.  These boats were initially used to transport rice and when other means became more economic they just sat around.  Then one guy had the idea to convert it to a passenger vessel for tourists, and voila!  a whole new economy was born.  Now there are over 1200 houseboats on the waterways of Kerala.

After that we jumped on a flight to Jabalpur (in the middle of the country) from here we took a taxi to Bandhavgarh National park so we could search for the Tiger. The car ride was interesting, we were surprised to see so much open space and for not eating beef these Hindu’s sure have a lot of cattle.  We stayed at a guest house near the national park, which was more like a homestay. We chose this place based on feedback we had read about the owners of the guest house and their knowledge of the tigers in the area. And they did not disappoint….the woman is from England and moved to India in the mid-nineties after meeting her future husband there during a trip to see the tigers. He is an Indian that grew up in the area and is very passionate about the tigers. He is a photographer and she an artist who both focus their work on the tigers (which we ended up buying prints from both of them). We got the inside scoop on the tigers as they document each tiger, name them, learn their personalities and log their antics, and laid out the whole family tree for us.  We knew we were in good hands. However, after the first three game drives we had not yet seen a tiger and were getting a bit discouraged.  The game of getting permits for game-drives in India is a bit tricky.  It isn’t a free for all like we’ve seen elsewhere, and lucky for us, they know how to play the game.  So, they made some adjustments one day to get us in a different area to try and boost our chances, or at least show us some new parts of the forest.  It paid off when we saw our first wild tiger emerge from the forest.  This time of year the forest floor is covered with burnt orange leaves and hearing the tiger footfalls through the leaves even before we could see him was thrilling.  Then the next drive back in our former area, we were lucky again!  This time a cub emerged, which looked to me like a full blown tiger.  At 12 months she was huge, and I couldn’t believe it when Kay told me that she could be nursing for up to 10 more months!  Tiger moms are givers!  The cubs aren’t named until they are on their own and claim their territory.  She was interested in shade and while relaxing in the shrubbery a spotted deer buck came for a drink.  We watched her perk up and start to stalk the deer.   She eventually made chase with a half-hearted effort and we watched the deer scamper off with a Tiger on his tail.  Then the cub returned and we could watch her meander from one shade patch to another.  Her siblings never came to show us their faces, but we left our final game drive very excited!  It is also worth mentioning that while we didn’t see Tigers on our first drives, there is a lot of wildlife in the jungle here.  Spotted Deer, and the larger Sambeh Deer, wild boar, dancing peacocks, plentiful beautiful bird life, heaps of Langur monkeys, and mongoose.  We didn’t get a chance to see Bagheera or Baloo- although they are also lurking in the trees of Bandhavgarh.  Fun fact: Jungle means forest, Bagheera means panther, Hathi means elephant, and Sher Kahn means Tiger King.  All these Hindu words found their way into The Jungle Book.

After our final game drive we caught a taxi to the nearest train station (3 hours away) and took an overnight train to Agra. We got off the train about 8 am and headed straight for the Taj Mahal. Now this day was a bit of a fear factor.  Our forecast said “High of 112, Feels like 114”.  So, we tried to keep it as simple as we could to just survive the heat.  I probably don’t need to tell you that we avoided peak crowds with our timing.  A driver picked us up at the train station with an AC car and we had a guide who could enter the monuments and do our roadschooling for us.  The Taj is stunning.  The details amazed me the most with the delicate inlay work and stone relief carvings.  Even in this severe drought there were some beautiful flowers in bloom and I could imagine the courtyard filled with roses and other fragrant blooms to add even more splendor.  And the fact that it was built as a tribute to a man’s love for his wife only makes it more beautiful in my eyes.  After that we went to Agra’s Red Fort.  Here Liam was jumping out of his skin with excitement.  A huge fort with portals for dumping boiling substances or showering intruders with arrows, a drawbridge over a moat that would be filled with crocs and snakes, this was all the stuff his dreams are made of!  Then on the inside of this walled city it became even more interesting.  One of the Moghul rulers who presided for 30 years left a mark of tolerance throughout the city.  During a time of forced conversions and taxing or killing those who follow a different faith Akbar took an approach of tolerance that gave he and his dominion great success.  His buildings were a beautiful blend of Hindu, Islamic and Christian architecture to set an example that this land is for all beliefs.  He chose a wife from each of these religions, and their palaces speak to the styles of their faith.  This sixteenth century ruler was a passionate scholar and it was fun to imagine his library filled with books from all across his lands, and his palaces filled with silk, tapestry and glittering gemstones.  (Right now there is a court battle pursuing the return of a 108 carat Indian diamond that is in a crown in Tower of London that once lived here.)  The walled city itself is amazing but to see it alive back in the heyday must have been magnificent.

We then spent three nights in Delhi, mostly relaxing, catching up on logistics, and recharging at the Hilton Double Tree. While here we visited the local Google office, found a local gym for Shia to practice her gymnastics and discovered a very talented Henna artist for Heidi and Shia.  This is an example of resisting the temptation to see everything.  We didn’t do any sightseeing in Delhi, we’re just taking care of our buckets.  Today we board a plane for Darjeeling where we will do some trekking in the Himalaya’s.

We are very happy we decided to come to India as it as been one of our favorites so far. And we continue to learn about ourselves as the trip progresses. We were feeling a bit complacent and burned out in Sri Lanka as the days on the beach got a bit monotonous (I know, poor us). We thought we’d want the downtime and relaxation on the beach, but its not really our style. We were apprehensive about India due to the potential challenges it could throw at us. But, we’ve learned that we thrive on those challenges and we prefer being immersed in the culture rather than avoiding it from the comfort of a fancy lodge. Don’t get me wrong..we definitely enjoy those moments too. But..we enjoy the budget travel aspects just as much, if not more. Its kinda like how when we are accustomed to an air conditioned room and then we go out it is shocking to our senses.   And going back and forth from heat to cool, heat to cool, can make us feel sick almost.  We find traveling in these developing countries to be similar, when we “hide from the reality” in the lap of luxury going out into the chaos is more shocking and it’s harder to adapt.  When we stay in budget accommodation we’re part of the fabric and it is much more seamless to get into the groove of the adventure, which then always turns out to be more rewarding.  In India there have been lots of moments where we are reminded that money doesn’t buy happiness.  Some money definitely relieves suffering, yes.  But I have loved hearing the drumbeat and seeing the dancing.  We’ve seen folks dancing on the houseboats, the mall grand opening we passed had a drum corp and dancers performing, we’ve seen folks campaigning in a canoe for an upcoming election with singing and drumming.  It’s a nice reminder for me to find joy in simple things like music and movement, instead of buying more stuff.

If you’ve made it this far, I’m impressed. These blogs are doubling as my journal, so they are a bit long!