Ellen Besso Coaching

We had the most amazing morning. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I wanted to go to the centre for street children which is near here & was asking directions at the front desk. They told us the owner of the hotel works with street children & took us to his basement office where he told us all about his volunteer work & explained about ‘giving back’ to others to repay bad karma from past lives. He said a 27 yr old daughter, only child like our daughter, who is born into wealth (his take on it) to loving parents in a country like Canada has good karma.

Brij belongs to a volunteer organization. He’s a former auto rickshaw driver from Paharganj (but an unusual one in that he’s college educated) & supports many, many charities for the poor. He took us to 4 in the basement of the hotel…tutoring for young kids, computer training for men & women, sewing training & a dr’s office!

Then he drove us to the orphanage in a nearby hindu temple; he showed us the infants’ room (the other , older kids were at school I think; they live in another part of the temple in an ashram). There were 8-10 babies & one 10 yr old girl who’s slightly mentally handicapped. The babies are rescued after being abandoned; the police call the association & someone goes immediately with a nurse to pick them up. One baby was very white skinned & I feel that may be the main reason for her abandonment in a park. They were mostly girls as people don’t want them…I’m not sure why. The babies are cared for lovingly by paid nurses, given good medical care & food. Then they’re adopted out to Indian families who are unable to have their own babies. The youngest are only given to couples who’s 2 ages do not exceed 90; if they’re older they get older kids. The babies were so beautiful & seemed so peaceful; the energy of the whole temple was like that.

We met a dutch woman who is volunteering for 6 months. She’s doing the website for the children’s centre as that’s her work + she works with the kids too. She doesn’t go every day as she gets too attached & then they’re gone. We may want to do volunteer work through this organization.

Our afternoon was an enormous contrast to the morning viewing the facilitities for poor people in Paharganj. We took the subway one stop to Connaught Circle as Don wanted to see what an Indian subway was like. (The subway stations & toll booths resemble Bart in San Francisco in apperance) & are 5-6 years old. They help relieve the bazaarly congested traffic on the roads we were told). Connaught Circle is a very upscale area of stores as I believe I mentioned earlier & expensive hotels & restaurants. We walked around, had a pizza at Pizza Hut (my choice, I’m beginning my re-entry!), then had dessert & coffee at a new chain of Indian cafes. I wanted to take a bicycle rickshaw back to our hotel for one last ride, but they’re not allowed into that area, so we took an auto rickshaw. After returning we walked through the busy lanes of the Paharganj bazaar again for an hour…our last time…& took a few pictures in the waning light.

I think we both feel ready to leave India & return to the peace of our rural British Columbia town to ponder & process all of our fascinating experiences. We’ll post some more pics next week.

Warm wishes to all.

Namaste

Well, here we are back in Delhi after a long day of travel yesterday. We left Kochi at 7:30 am for a 10:30 flight, but the flight was delayed until 12:15 (it actually left at 1ish). I believe all our domestic flights have been delayed.

We arrived at the Delhi airport at 5 pm, purchased a government taxi ticket to Paharganj, the district our hotel was in (these fixed price tickets are about 1/2 the price of the private cabs). But, these drivers don’t speak English & we didn’t have the street address for the hotel, only detailed directions. There are so many hotels here, especially in the Paharganj area near Connaught Circle, that the cabies don’t know many of them. Our driver did his very best, stopping along the way as we drew closer to Paharganj to ask other drivers & people on the street. Most of them didn’t seem to know much about it! Then, like a small miracle, we stopped to ask a stranger on the street. This man read our lengthy directions, understood them perfectly, said he wanted to go that way & asked for a ride. He directed us to within a block or so of the hotel, then got out at his destination.

We drove through a packed, extremely narrow market street for the length of at least 3 city blocks. The street was full of people, all stalls were open. There were a few cars squeezing through, plenty of motorcycles & bicycle rickshaws. It wasn’t really wide enough for a car street, but this is the way in India. The teeming market with it’s lights & multi-coloured goods looked very magical. It was a good intro to our last day in India!

Our hotel is good, quite retro looking, with the room freshly painted in torquoise, quite clean. The Paharganj area is an alternative to the expensive Connaught Place, which has many upscale shops & hotels (e.g. Benneton). Yet it is tightly adjacent to CP. We’ve seen lots of younger, hippy-looking travellers on the streets here, but also many middle-aged people, mostly European & English.

Today we plan to go to a centre for street children near here, to investigate the work they’re doing & see how we can help. They offer a safe place for children to get off the street for a while, to eat, wash their clothes, & to get tutoring & learn more about hygiene etc. It’s run by a mizo-swiss couple (not sure yet what mizo means).

We leave at 4:30 am tomorrow, Wed the 14th for our return trip to Vancouver, via Hong Kong. Oddly we also arrive home on the 14th! (the international date line I presume).

Namaste

We’ve been in the Kochi area since Monday. It’s a tourist town on the sea & is divided into 3 sections: Ernakulam, a very busy city area, then Ft. Cochin & Mandencherry both on an island reachable by ferry or car or bus over a bridge. The ferry ride is about 20 minutes & since it’s subsidized by the government, costs only 2-1/2 rupees return (about 7 cents). We went there to order new glasses for both of us (one arm snapped off mine after the 1st week in India). (glasses are much cheaper here). We also managed to find a travel agency on the main street, MG Rd., after asking many, many people, & bought new tickets to fly back to Delhi directly from Kochi instead of returning to Trivandrum.

Ft. Cochin, where our hotel is, is fairly relaxed. We go out in the mornings to look around & shop, then return in the heat of the day to rest, & go out again in the late afternoon & evening. This is one of the few places I’ve been able to shop; people aren’t too aggressive about selling here. Some of the architecture is very old & interesting. There are goats all over the place, but almost no cows, so no you know what!

But the real ‘living’ seems to go on in Mandencherry. We went out with an autorickshaw driver, Mohin for a couple of hours & he drove us slowly (an oxymoron here) around the residential lanes & the markets. We saw a 16th C synagogue & the Jain temple & did some shopping. We also visited a fabric shop, then a tailor here in Ft. Cochin the same morning & Don bought lovely hand-woven fabric for a custom made shirt. It was a late birthday present for him from me. We picked it up today & it is beautiful.

It is very rare to see a beggar here. On the way back from a morning outing today, for the 1st time there was a woman with 2 small children outside the mosque across from our hotel.

Sunday morning we take an early morning 60 km drive to the elephant training facility nearby. We’ll arrive early & see the elephants being washed in the river, then watch as the young elephants are trained for religious ceremonies.

Monday we fly to Delhi where we stay for 2 nights & 1 day before beginning our long journey back to Canada.

All for now.

Canoes on Inland Waters

Cemetery in Puthethope Kerala
Fishing boat near Wild Palms

House on Canal inland waters
Sign on wall of Ganges

Sunset at Wild Palms Kerala
Varanasi Main Ghat

Varanasi
Village on inland water canal

We’ve been in south India for over a week now; I seemed to immediately go into withdrawal mode after we flew into Trivandrum from Delhi – perhaps partly the sensory overload of the northern India cities, & partly the relaxed atmosphere here!

We’ve been at Wild Palms on the Sea most of the time after an initial 3 days at Wild Palms Trivandrum. The state of Kerala in south India is like a different country from the north (although we were mostly in big cities up there). I’m so glad we’re getting kind of an overview of India – all the way from the Himalayan foothills of the far north, to Delhi & Varanasi, now down almost to the southern tip of the country.

Wild Palms is in the village of Puthenthope, about a 20-minute drive from Trivandrum. This beautiful resort with 10 rooms built on a long narrow lot of beachfront was the family land of Justin Pereira, the owner through several generations. Justin & his wife lived in London for 40 years & raised their family there before returning here to build first the city homestay 10 years ago, then the sea resort 3 years ago. We have learned so much about Kerala’s history & politics from our talks with Justin.

We’ve also met many people from different countries here (as we did in Varanasi), & became friends with some of them, & also with the hotel staff. A new Indian friend, who lives in London & is here to sell his family home invited us to spend a day & night on his houseboat for an inland waters cruise out of Alleppey, a 2-1/2 hour train ride north of here. Harris wanted to check out the route & his friend, a professional photographer came along to take pictures for the website.

It was a day to remember. The inland waters consist of a series of canals, a river & large lake. All along the canals are tiny villages with stores & colourful homes, with a narrow pathway along the waterfront where walkers briskly go by & bicyclists & motorcyclists make their way. I’ve never seen anything like it & may never again. (We’ll try to get some pictures of them up on the blog soon.)

There was a general strike on the day we were returning from Alleppey (including all taxis). It was a protest because there was talk of the neighbouring state, Tamil Nadu, taking over 1 of the Keralan rail companies & possibly the Trivandrum airport. This plan is politically driven; the Tamil Nadu state government is the same party as that in power federally. The boat builder said he’d make a car available for us to get to the train station. Our hotel didn’t want to pick us up as they were afraid that strikers would throw stones at the car at the Trivandrum station. It was decided that we’d take a bus (it turned out later that those workers were on strike also). The train trip was uneventful until we neared Trivandrum; then the train stopped & sat for about half an hour. We were stopped right near the Puthenthope station, so our photographer arranged for our hotel owner to pick us up there. We disembarked from the train quickly, walked across several several tracks & onto the station platform. It worked out much better than going into Trivandrum would have. What would a trip to India be without at least 1 strike!

The rest of our time we’ve spent taking short early morning walks around the neighbourhood of Puthenthope, walking on the beach later in the day, & veging by the pool . We’ve walked along the narrow side lanes, where lots of beautiful houses are located, & this morning down the main road to a large church & graveyard. (the Catholic Christians live near the water & the Hindus farther back).

Almost everyone owns their own home in Kerala. It has had communist governments about every other 5 year term since 1958. Justin just told us that he took part in protests to get rid of the communist government in ’58 & was jailed for his part in that. There is a high literacy rate in Kerala which helps the standard of living. However, the main factor in the quality of living here is money sent back from the middle east from people working away. Most families have at least 1 member away. Mercy, our very lovely front desk receptionist at Wild Palms lives with her 8 month old baby, mother & siblings near the hotel, while her husband works as an electrician in Dubai. He has been there since August, & will return on leave after 2 years.

The fishermen go out very early in the morning when it’s still dark, if they can manage to get the boats into water (the waves are high at all times; swimming is unsafe). It’s a hard life with not a lot of rewards we’re told. The fishermen historically were Christians; now there are more Hindus in the business as the Christians often have money ‘from away’ & from waterfront land holdings.

We have 2 more days here to relax; I’ve managed to stretch our stay out to 9 days including the away time on the boat (with no objections from Don I might add). Monday we’re on to Cochin, about a 4 hour train trip on the express train. Cochin is a very old city with interesting architecture, quite touristy, but nice apparently. From our base there we will go to the wildlife sanctuary inland for a couple of days & 1 night.

Well, all for now.

Namaste