Kerala

We just spent 4 relaxing days in Kerala.  The first two nights we stayed in a tree fort 'hotel' on a mountain side  at 4,200' above the town of Munnar.  

The room was wonderfully rustic and when one person moved the whole fort moved as well.  There was only space for Jex on the floor so in the creative Indian fashion they simply added a pillow and our bed was now 'made for three'.

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View down onto the town of Munnar…yes that's tea all the way up the opposite hillside.

The tea plantations started 200yds from our fort and extended as far as you could see

I used to think I was tough…this man carried these logs barefoot down the jeep track…at a jog!

We spent a night on a houseboat close to Kochi… very mellow experience with views of local village life on the backwater shores.

Kalaripayattu, an ancient, arial martial art is becoming more popular again.
Cricket is played on every vacant lot and field in every city.  We spent an hour watching the local kids in Kochi.  They were quite shy but kept turning and smiling at us… or maybe it was laughing...

A morning in our neighborhood

Morning milk deliveries by bike.  There are hooks added to the back rack that can hold up to six milk cans.

The knife sharpener bike (powered by pedaling) .

This tailor's shop has been here for 30 years.  The 70 year old Singer machine has been augmented with an electric motor.

Auto Rickshaw drivers are everywhere.  A 10 minute ride costs about 80 cents and can be a bit hair-raising as rickshaws are low in the pecking order of vehicles.  The drivers are prone to having 'no change' but are quite meticulous about the cleanliness of their vehicles.

The tea and snack stands are always busy and serve the best tea in town.  

This lady is selling the ubiquitous household broom (aka bundle of twigs).  The finer whisks are used for sweeping smooth surfaces and the course ones for areas with water or rough surfaces.  I can't get over the gorgeous saris everywhere.  Even the lowest street sweeper lady will be brightly and usually cleanly clad.  

Dhobi Ghat

Kida and I toured this slum yesterday and were amazed by the quantity of friendly smiles that greeted us (maybe it was her cast).  Dhobi Ghat is one of the largest open air laundry areas in Mumbai.  Men migrate here to wash clothes and send their earnings home to their families in the countryside.  Five to ten men will share 8 x 10 concrete rooms that have a wooden sleeping platform over their common cooking area.  

This method of flailing the clothes over stones is slowly being replaced by machines that can work 10x as quickly as the men.  A washerman toured us through the compound and the $6 entry fee he collected from us went to a communal pool to upgrade their equipment and care for their people.

A large portion of Dhobi Ghats clients are fashion houses which prewash their clothing.  Clothes pegs are not used to hang the pants.  They are simply slipped between two twisted ropes.

Saris and dresses are recycled by boiling in the 55 gal wood fired drums below, washing and then reselling for  a fraction of their original price.

Clean laundry is redistributed via large hand pulled carts to the manufacturers and by bicycle to individual households.

Halloween and Diwali

We were able to get pumpkins from our vegetable handler

He may be surprised to learn that we carved them instead of eating them.

Sarita created a Rangoli (sand painting) at our doorstep for Diwali

It sounds like we live in a war zone. The fireworks started a week ago and are likely to last another week.  Last night was the biggest one and we could see the fireworks from our apartment from 7pm through midnight. 

In the morning the walkway along the ocean was littered with the remains

Food

Awesome food, but a tad spicy.

The local grocery store sells freshly ground flour, any type of lentil you can think of and veggie wash (soap for fruit and veggies) so that we can eat any fresh produce as long as we wash it first.  Bit tiresome but much better than only eating cooked veggies for the next 3 months.

The stores here are 1/4 the size of ours and look a bit down at the heel but the food is very good quality and they will deliver anything for free.  Pali Market (street with tiny stores and open air fruit and veggie handlers) has a huge variety of shops including an imported cheese store, liquor store, paper ware and drug store.

Hawkers come to our apartment building daily with offers of veggies, eggs, ironing, newspapers….

Apartment in Bandra

Apartments and houses are located by name and proximity in Mumbai.  To describe our location we say Green Acres apartments 'close to Dilip Kumar's house (movie star)' on Pali Hill in Bandra

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=19.068358,72.826001(I+Am+Here+Sunday+November+3+2013+05:46+PM)&iwloc=A&z=12

The birds we see from our living room 

Our dining area, with our 'Hindi word wall' behind

Sengeeta, our house cleaner comes daily… good thing since the floors are white marble and show every spec of dirt.  Our kitchen has a 4 burner gas cooktop, huge fridge, washing machine, and cold running water but no oven.  It is also the only room in the house without an AC unit.  The temperatures are in the low 30's celsius during the day and drop to 27 at night… AC is very nice to have!

There are several deities on shelves in our apartment but the best one is in our bedroom and chants….