The monastery that we stayed at was named Bylakuppa, it claims to be about 600 years old, at is considered by the locals as the Golden Temple. There are about 4000 monks in the area, as there is actually several monasteries combined into one big one. Most of the monks are refugees form Tibet that have come here to maintain their faith and way of life. India is very supportive of refugees coming from Tibet, and welcome them.
The main reason that it is referred to as the Golden Temple is the main temple has been painted a very bright gold color and can be seen for miles. I would guess the temple itself is about ten stories high with a very large arch at the top rising another 20-30 feet from the top of the temple. If you think of Buddhist temples or any traditional Chinese buildings, they are built in tiers or levels, each one getting smaller. That is how this temple is built, and the arch on top starts on a mid level tier, but circles over the top of the temple. They have then put large figures/ornaments (possibly ten feet high) within this circle, hanging on the inside. I think the best way to describe it is to say it looks like a ferris wheel on top of the building. The main walls of the building are painted bright blue, and the roofs of each tier are painted gold. The circle is both blue and gold with the ornaments being painted in gold. This main building can be seen for miles around as it is the only building that tall for many more miles around.
We were not allowed into the Golden Temple, but we were able to enter several of the smaller temples at the monastery. Whenever I think of monasteries I always imagine something I’m sure I’ve see in movies; small and quite. Nice green grass with lots of trees for shade and water falls/fountains with benches in front of them for quite contemplation. Monks here and there going about their chores, maybe some chanting off in the distance. There is always a feeling of peace as you walk around the grounds able to loose yourself at any moment.
NOT! There was green grass, which they had fenced off so you couldn’t walk on it. With 4000 monks thats probably not a bad idea. They did have nice gardens, they were kept up, and there were trees, but a feeling of serenity.... nope! There are 4000 monks here. It felt more like army barracks than something a monastery should feel like. There were monks everywhere, all dressed in the same thing and moving about doing their tasks, it made you feel like you were sitting in the middle of an ant pile.
In one of the buildings there were a handful of monks playing some music. The instruments they used were very basic and prehistoric so the sound was also very basic, and the chanting didn’t sound like the gregorian chant CD’s that I have. I must say that it was a big let down based on my preconceived notions of what to expect. Thanks Hollywood!
The temples however where a different story. Most of the smaller temples from the outside looked like standard square buildings, something you might see on a campus of a university, or a group of government buildings. All being several stories high, with lots of windows and some decoration, but not like the main golden temple. Most of the buildings also had lights strung up on them in a draping fashion. You wouldn’t know you were entering a temple based on the outside of the building.
Once you got to the doors, however, the unknown would be left behind. The doors on the temples to enter were huge. 10 - 12 feet hight and 4 -5 feet wide. They they both opened like french doors the entry was grand and magnificent. The doorways themselves were carved of designs, each temple being different, and were all brightly colored; reds, yellows, golds, blues, greens. Sometimes to the sides, or above the door would be small statues of mythical creatures, like dragons and such. (If any of you reading this are buddhist, sorry, I haven’t done any research into this.)
Once inside the temple you can be transported to another place. If the temple was free of decoration, it would be a very large, very square room with support columns. The structure itself is a very basic design. Support columns every so many feet, level ceiling, and lots of windows on all sides except the back side. This of course is looking and the building free of ornamentation.
Each of the support columns are decorated with extremely colorful fabrics that run from the ceiling all the way to the floor which is about 40 feet high. Colors, designs, symbols, tassels, embroidery! In-between the columns are large columns of fabric, once again in more colors than you can imagine, hanging from the ceiling almost to the floor and were about 4 feet in diameter. We had to duck to walk under these. Its really hard to describe what this looked like. It all fit so well, yet as I looked closely, there appeared to be no rhyme or reason for the choice of colors or designs. It was so busy everywhere, up close is didn’t look good, but when viewed as a whole it was spectacular. It was truly a color fairy tale, an image from Dr. Suess, or maybe every holiday all thrown into one!
The back of these buildings were very similar. They all held three very large statues. One large one in the middle and two slightly smaller ones on each side. I will now write a quote from a plaque in one of the temples to explain;
“The statue of Lord Buddha is 60 feet in height (from the base) where as the height of other two statues of Guru Padmasambhava and Buddha Amitayus are 58 feet. They are made of copper, plated with gold. Inside the statues are scriptures, relics of great beings, small clay mould stupas, and small statues, which symbolize the body, speech and mind of the Buddhas. Seeing these statues, venerating them, circumambulating and making offerings to them generates faith, peace, wisdom, loving kindness and compassion in our minds and cleanses unwholesome thoughts and actions.”
We spent the entire morning walking around this place. At one point there was a school field strip of students from a village near by that came into one of the temples and they were being told about the temple and how one worshipped in a Buddhist temple. There were also a few other westerners walking around, which did surprise me, based on the location of this monastery. We were in the middle of now where, off any beaten track. If you passed through this town to get from one major place to another that would make sense, but you must go out of your way from anywhere to get here!
I’m very thankful to Ajay for suggesting that we spend the night here and visit the monastery during the morning hours before we returned to the wedding. We would not have had time in the afternoon to visit before heading back to Mysore. Its back to the wedding now!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Panchakarma IV
One week to go with the Panchakarma. After having to drink the castor oil, things can only go up hill from here. After the cleanse one of the treatments changed and I think it was my favorite one. It was called the oil bath.
So, as usual, I go in for the foot massage first, and by this time there is a part of me that is not looking forward to the massage as it is a little rough, and not relaxing, but there is also another part of me that realizes that it’s doing me great good, and so I should put up with it. Parts of my body that were tight such as my neck and quads have now loosened up very nicely, and I have noticed that my practice is getting much better, especially in the binding asanas like marichyasana D. That is a pose I have never been able to get into until this trip, and I do feel its a combo of the daily practice, plus the foot massages.
Once the massage is over, they put me back up onto the beautiful wooden table face up. There is once again two therapists as they do both sides of your body in unison (right and left) They place between your legs a large pot of warm herb infused oil and using small sponges, they soak the sponge in the oil and the first path they take is up your chest, they circle your nipples then continue up to your shoulders and then down the arms and trace each of the fingers. The sponge goes back into the oil and the second path goes up to the belly button, then down each of the legs, and traces the toes.
They would do this over and over until the pot ran out of oil. The way the table is shaped, its designed to catch all the oil, there are edges on both sides, and it runs down to the end and falls into another pot. They also have a small quantity of oil sitting over a small burner, keeping it hot. They change the empty pot for the full one, mix in some hot oil, just so that it is warm, and start the process over.
This is done twice, then they have you lay on one side, and follow a very similar procedure, first going up your side and down the arms, then moving down your legs. After two pots of warm oil, they have you change sides and do it again.
The last step in this oil bath they have you sit up, with your legs out straight on the table. Then with the pot between your legs again, they would soak the sponge and start at your shoulders, first sweeping across the back and down the arms, and the second sweep would be across the chest and down the legs. Then with the first pot of oil, just before it was gone, they had you sit up nice and tall with the head tilted down and would pour the remaining oil on your neck and let it fun down your back. With the second pot of oil, after the back and chest, they had you lean back just a little so they could pour the warm oil down your chest, and legs, and they paid special attention to your knees and toes.
This oil has the same texture and feel as Olive Oil, very thick and slick, but my favorite part was because of the herbs they used, it was orange! A warm orange oil bath I’m quite sure has just got to be good for you. My two therapists were very friendly, I had one male and one female. The female only knew a few English words such as Hi, and “See you tomorrow”, but the man could put together simple sentences. We all enjoyed teasing each other as best we could without language. I would always act like I couldn’t sit up on the table without sliding around, and sometimes I wasn’t kidding, that stuff was slick! You could have all sorts of fun with the oil..... anyway.
The way they cleaned most of the oil off was by using the strips of the leaves of the coconut tree like we would use a squeegee to get water off on glass. It worked much better than you can imagine. The male would always like to take the leaf and hold it up to my neck like I was a hostage. I’m sure some people would take offense to this, but he always did it after I would slide around, and when you can’t speak it was a fun way to make me behave. After getting as much oil off this way as possible, they would have me stand up (on the floor), and use a towel to get the remaining oil off.
They would then quickly clean the table, and I was back on it having the oil on the forehead thing again....heaven. The last two days, they added one more simple thing, which was a warm water massage on the neck because that is what I had the most problems with. No oil here, just water and I’m quite sure the herb was Cumin. They may have used more than just Cumin, but that is what I smelled. I love cumin, and even make a tea at home using it, so this was great!
One sign that a cleanse is working for you is the condition of your mental health. Many people experience stronger than normal emotions during a cleanse. This can mean feeling happy, sad, depressed, anxious, confused, etc. For me it was a feeling of being afraid of the future, not wanting to be here, not wanting to practice, and not knowing what to do. Even though I knew this was because of the cleanse it doesn’t make things easier to handle sometimes. There were times, and sometimes even days where I just wanted to go home - hated being here, wanted to go back to Vegas, complained about everything, I was simply a reck! This is the main reason why I’m just now writing some of the blogs. The first part of the trip was very busy and didn’t have time and the middle of the trip I felt like throwing the computer in the ocean! Happy to report, feeling great now, my mind is once again organized, and better then before, computer is not in ocean, only me every morning after practice to body surf. (almost wrote the word smurf!)
Only one more thing to do to complete the Panchakarma for this trip. Can you possibly guess what that might be? On the last day, Dr. Unni actually had the nerve to present to me ANOTHER bottle of castor oil!!!! Just who in the hell does he think he is. Of course I smiled graciously and took if from him. This time I’m quite certain that he somehow managed to put at least 3 gallons into that little bottle. I did ask him if there was any other way we could do this as I’m not sure I can drink that stuff again. He told me there was, but that it was very unpleasant (did he just say unpleasant? I don’t think he’s ever taken this stuff before!), and it was considered hard on the body. Since my body took the cleanse very well this was the best way to go.
There was a lady sitting down next to us, and after his answer, she was nice enough to speak up and tell me that she felt the same way I did years ago and wanted to try the other way despite the challenges. She assured me without any doubt that the caster oil was indeed the way to go. I figured if a complete stranger was willing to tell me this, then okay, caster oil it is.
On my way home I was thinking about the different ways I could take the castor oil. I had realized that the “main event” happened about 6 hours after taking the stuff the first time, of course in the middle of the night. It was only about 2 in the afternoon, so I thought that if I took it now instead of at bed time, 6 or so hours from now the event would happen and I would be able to sleep all night. (This was what Daren had done.) I could still be active in the late afternoon and closer to evening I would park myself on the bed and watch a movie until it was time. (This sounds like I’m getting ready to give birth or something.)
While I’m sitting in the hotel room, thinking about drinking warm milk and castor oil again, I became nauseous. At that point in time I realized there was no way I was going to be able to drink the toxic mix again. I keep thinking that this was the last time, and it would do me good, and I’ve spent all this money so I should make sure I get the most out of it, but I resolved it wasn’t going to happen. Sitting on the night stand was a bottle of water that was about 1/4 full. (Not 3/4 empty!) I’m not sure why I thought this, but since the oil has no smell maybe water would be the better choice over milk. Without much more thought, I poured the bottle of oil into the water bottle. I wasn’t drinking it with milk, so if I can’t drink it with water then I wasn’t drinking it, and would just through it away anyway.
As I was shaking the water and oil together in the bottle, I decided that I would start drinking it, and see how far I could go before the awful taste hit my mouth and I needed to stop! I didn’t even give myself a chance to second guess what I was doing, I just did it. I’m happy to report that I was able to drink the whole thing. (The 1/4 amount of water in the bottle, and all 6 gallons of oil!) The after taste was not however pretty at all, and once again made me nauseous, so I simply brushed my teeth! Done. Easy!
I’m happy to report that the rest of the day actually went as planned with one minor drawback. I was slightly nauseous all day long. Daren had reported this as well when he did it. The next day for breakfast and lunch I had that incredible warm salty rice soup, but instead of those scrumptious boiled veggies for dinner I had a warm lentil soup that was very tasty and I felt great after.
There is one more thing I would like to mention, and I have intentionally left this out until the end. After knowing this, it might be fun to go back and re-read all 4 entries having this piece of information. All three hours of treatment, everyday, was done completely naked!
Namaste!
So, as usual, I go in for the foot massage first, and by this time there is a part of me that is not looking forward to the massage as it is a little rough, and not relaxing, but there is also another part of me that realizes that it’s doing me great good, and so I should put up with it. Parts of my body that were tight such as my neck and quads have now loosened up very nicely, and I have noticed that my practice is getting much better, especially in the binding asanas like marichyasana D. That is a pose I have never been able to get into until this trip, and I do feel its a combo of the daily practice, plus the foot massages.
Once the massage is over, they put me back up onto the beautiful wooden table face up. There is once again two therapists as they do both sides of your body in unison (right and left) They place between your legs a large pot of warm herb infused oil and using small sponges, they soak the sponge in the oil and the first path they take is up your chest, they circle your nipples then continue up to your shoulders and then down the arms and trace each of the fingers. The sponge goes back into the oil and the second path goes up to the belly button, then down each of the legs, and traces the toes.
They would do this over and over until the pot ran out of oil. The way the table is shaped, its designed to catch all the oil, there are edges on both sides, and it runs down to the end and falls into another pot. They also have a small quantity of oil sitting over a small burner, keeping it hot. They change the empty pot for the full one, mix in some hot oil, just so that it is warm, and start the process over.
This is done twice, then they have you lay on one side, and follow a very similar procedure, first going up your side and down the arms, then moving down your legs. After two pots of warm oil, they have you change sides and do it again.
The last step in this oil bath they have you sit up, with your legs out straight on the table. Then with the pot between your legs again, they would soak the sponge and start at your shoulders, first sweeping across the back and down the arms, and the second sweep would be across the chest and down the legs. Then with the first pot of oil, just before it was gone, they had you sit up nice and tall with the head tilted down and would pour the remaining oil on your neck and let it fun down your back. With the second pot of oil, after the back and chest, they had you lean back just a little so they could pour the warm oil down your chest, and legs, and they paid special attention to your knees and toes.
This oil has the same texture and feel as Olive Oil, very thick and slick, but my favorite part was because of the herbs they used, it was orange! A warm orange oil bath I’m quite sure has just got to be good for you. My two therapists were very friendly, I had one male and one female. The female only knew a few English words such as Hi, and “See you tomorrow”, but the man could put together simple sentences. We all enjoyed teasing each other as best we could without language. I would always act like I couldn’t sit up on the table without sliding around, and sometimes I wasn’t kidding, that stuff was slick! You could have all sorts of fun with the oil..... anyway.
The way they cleaned most of the oil off was by using the strips of the leaves of the coconut tree like we would use a squeegee to get water off on glass. It worked much better than you can imagine. The male would always like to take the leaf and hold it up to my neck like I was a hostage. I’m sure some people would take offense to this, but he always did it after I would slide around, and when you can’t speak it was a fun way to make me behave. After getting as much oil off this way as possible, they would have me stand up (on the floor), and use a towel to get the remaining oil off.
They would then quickly clean the table, and I was back on it having the oil on the forehead thing again....heaven. The last two days, they added one more simple thing, which was a warm water massage on the neck because that is what I had the most problems with. No oil here, just water and I’m quite sure the herb was Cumin. They may have used more than just Cumin, but that is what I smelled. I love cumin, and even make a tea at home using it, so this was great!
One sign that a cleanse is working for you is the condition of your mental health. Many people experience stronger than normal emotions during a cleanse. This can mean feeling happy, sad, depressed, anxious, confused, etc. For me it was a feeling of being afraid of the future, not wanting to be here, not wanting to practice, and not knowing what to do. Even though I knew this was because of the cleanse it doesn’t make things easier to handle sometimes. There were times, and sometimes even days where I just wanted to go home - hated being here, wanted to go back to Vegas, complained about everything, I was simply a reck! This is the main reason why I’m just now writing some of the blogs. The first part of the trip was very busy and didn’t have time and the middle of the trip I felt like throwing the computer in the ocean! Happy to report, feeling great now, my mind is once again organized, and better then before, computer is not in ocean, only me every morning after practice to body surf. (almost wrote the word smurf!)
Only one more thing to do to complete the Panchakarma for this trip. Can you possibly guess what that might be? On the last day, Dr. Unni actually had the nerve to present to me ANOTHER bottle of castor oil!!!! Just who in the hell does he think he is. Of course I smiled graciously and took if from him. This time I’m quite certain that he somehow managed to put at least 3 gallons into that little bottle. I did ask him if there was any other way we could do this as I’m not sure I can drink that stuff again. He told me there was, but that it was very unpleasant (did he just say unpleasant? I don’t think he’s ever taken this stuff before!), and it was considered hard on the body. Since my body took the cleanse very well this was the best way to go.
There was a lady sitting down next to us, and after his answer, she was nice enough to speak up and tell me that she felt the same way I did years ago and wanted to try the other way despite the challenges. She assured me without any doubt that the caster oil was indeed the way to go. I figured if a complete stranger was willing to tell me this, then okay, caster oil it is.
On my way home I was thinking about the different ways I could take the castor oil. I had realized that the “main event” happened about 6 hours after taking the stuff the first time, of course in the middle of the night. It was only about 2 in the afternoon, so I thought that if I took it now instead of at bed time, 6 or so hours from now the event would happen and I would be able to sleep all night. (This was what Daren had done.) I could still be active in the late afternoon and closer to evening I would park myself on the bed and watch a movie until it was time. (This sounds like I’m getting ready to give birth or something.)
While I’m sitting in the hotel room, thinking about drinking warm milk and castor oil again, I became nauseous. At that point in time I realized there was no way I was going to be able to drink the toxic mix again. I keep thinking that this was the last time, and it would do me good, and I’ve spent all this money so I should make sure I get the most out of it, but I resolved it wasn’t going to happen. Sitting on the night stand was a bottle of water that was about 1/4 full. (Not 3/4 empty!) I’m not sure why I thought this, but since the oil has no smell maybe water would be the better choice over milk. Without much more thought, I poured the bottle of oil into the water bottle. I wasn’t drinking it with milk, so if I can’t drink it with water then I wasn’t drinking it, and would just through it away anyway.
As I was shaking the water and oil together in the bottle, I decided that I would start drinking it, and see how far I could go before the awful taste hit my mouth and I needed to stop! I didn’t even give myself a chance to second guess what I was doing, I just did it. I’m happy to report that I was able to drink the whole thing. (The 1/4 amount of water in the bottle, and all 6 gallons of oil!) The after taste was not however pretty at all, and once again made me nauseous, so I simply brushed my teeth! Done. Easy!
I’m happy to report that the rest of the day actually went as planned with one minor drawback. I was slightly nauseous all day long. Daren had reported this as well when he did it. The next day for breakfast and lunch I had that incredible warm salty rice soup, but instead of those scrumptious boiled veggies for dinner I had a warm lentil soup that was very tasty and I felt great after.
There is one more thing I would like to mention, and I have intentionally left this out until the end. After knowing this, it might be fun to go back and re-read all 4 entries having this piece of information. All three hours of treatment, everyday, was done completely naked!
Namaste!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Coconut Harvest
One morning while we were at breakfast, the locals began to harvest the coconut trees in the area. There’s a couple of things I should tell you about Kovalam; first, I would say that 99% of the trees here are coconut. The other 1% are Banana, and they are really not a tree, but thats another story. The other item for discussion is that most buildings with the exception of hotel rooms are all open air spaces. The roofs in the area, with the exception of one hotel (see entry about hotel), are very well built and can withstand both rain and wind for the rainy season. However, most places don’t have four walls. The restaurants will usually have four walls for the kitchen area, but not where the guests sit. Most of the restaurants have ledges that go up between 36 and 48 inches, but that is all. No windows, no doors, nothing (I will be writing soon about what to expect when you visit places like this and the things that can happen). Imagine a pool side bar at one of the large hotels in Las Vegas, open air, no doors, etc. That is what Kovalam is like all over the place. There is really no such thing as locking up. There is nothing to lock up!
So, we are sitting at a place called “The Lonely Planet”, having our breakfast when a few guys come around and begin to harvest the coconuts in the area. The first guy finds the next tree they are going to harvest and walks over to it. Using a small rope of some kind, he tosses the rope around the tree and himself making a loop and begins to climb the tree. He pulls on the rope which keeps him from falling down. Thats it! Nothing else to assist in climbing this tree which can be up to 50-100 feet high. By the way, he is also barefoot and wielding a machete. He “scurries” up the tree, as there really isn’t another way to put it, takes the machete out of his belt and begins hacking at the tree.
Coconuts grow in bundles, and on a good tree there could be 30 coconuts on one bundle, and three or four bundles on the tree at any one time. There is no harvest season, like we have for apples or veggies, as the growing season is year round, so the coconuts grow year round. This means that he doesn’t cut everything off of the tree. One bundle might be ready to go and the other ones are still growing.
When he cuts the bundle from the tree, down the coconuts come. (Einstein proved this would happen but the Indians have known all along!) They don’t place anything down to catch them or to protect anything, they simple let them fall, then go and pick them up. Sometimes the coconuts break away from the bundle and go rolling around. If they fall onto the roofs of homes or restaurants before hitting the ground, the noise can be scary if you don’t know what’s happening.
After the first guy comes down from the tree and looks for the next one, the other guy has a huge burlap sack and he collects the coconuts in the sack and takes them somewhere. I didn’t see where he was taking them, but I know that not only restaurants but many vendors buy them. Here in India, if you want some coconut water, unlike in the states where you need to head to the nearest Whole Foods, a local shop will just pick up a coconut from their little pile, whip out a machete, chop off the top and stick a straw in it for you to drink. (I’m really not kidding here). Then you hand them back the coconut, they cut it in half, and somehow make a small scoop out of some of the husk and hand you back the coconut so you can then eat the white fleshy part. If it wasn’t for the straw it would be completely 100% Bio-Friendly. And they only give Westerners straws. An Indian will just drink the water from the coconut with no straw.
This was actually something I wasn’t going to write about. I was just sitting there eating and watching not only the guys doing the harvest, but the other westerners watching the harvest. Then a thought hit me and I started to laugh out loud for I couldn’t help myself. I am now going to re-write this entry, only explain it from the perspective of being in the United States.
Its now time to harvest some coconuts out of some of the trees in town. We need to imagine that we are taking the coconuts out of trees that are growing throughout a small town as opposed to say a plantation since that’s what was going on in Kovalam.
What would be the first step in doing a coconut harvest? We need to visit City Hall to get a permit to harvest the coconuts. This of course takes, two visits, five forms, and a small fee to accomplish. Great! The city has approved the harvest of the coconuts within town.
We next put an add in the local paper to find two guys that are willing to help out with this harvest. Guys who are not afraid of heights or hard work. We need two people who are strong, but able to work inside trees, so they must also be flexible. Three days go by, and we find two men that should work out for us.
Problem. At least one of these guys is going to need to use a machete. This of course requires another trip to City Hall to get the permit to carry such an object. Yes, the customary two visits, five forms, and a small fee where required. Now we can actually have the machete with us, but the guy using it needs to have a background check done. This is actually three visits, seven forms, a test for mental stability, and a small fee.
The next thing we need is one of those “Cherry Pickers”. OSHA doesn’t allow us the have the guy just climb up into the tree. He needs to be able to use the cherry picker, plus wear a bright orange vest and a construction hat for safety. Of course to use one of those pieces of equipment out in public, we are going to need a permit. Yep, you guessed it, City Hall, 2 visits, 3 forms and a small fee.
Perfect! We have that accomplished. Now, the challenging part is that the person carrying the machete must stay at least 1000 feet from any school, church, shopping mall, convenience store, home, police station, fire department, mosque, temple, city park, hospital, grocery store, hotel, daycare, restaurant, college, zoo, amusement park, racetrack or bar. We have found four trees in town that do not have these limitations.
The permit states that we must zone off the area around the tree that we are harvesting with a circle of 30 feet in diameter. This is just in case a coconut falls astray. Okay, all we need to do is put up some hazard tape, warning people of what we are doing. Thats not to difficult, except that two of the trees are very close to a street, which we will need to block off. Can you guess what’s going to happen? City hall here we come. This time we already have the forms filled out and the check ready so it takes only one visit. However, now we must rent all the road signs that warn motorists of the hazard ahead.
Last but not least, we need to have proof of insurance for the two workers, the machete, the cherry picker, the road signs (in case they get damaged), the road in case a coconut damages it, and for the first insurance company in case they go bankrupt! When all is said and done, we have spent $9827.53, and the 192 coconuts we collected brought in $134.98. God Bless America!
So, we are sitting at a place called “The Lonely Planet”, having our breakfast when a few guys come around and begin to harvest the coconuts in the area. The first guy finds the next tree they are going to harvest and walks over to it. Using a small rope of some kind, he tosses the rope around the tree and himself making a loop and begins to climb the tree. He pulls on the rope which keeps him from falling down. Thats it! Nothing else to assist in climbing this tree which can be up to 50-100 feet high. By the way, he is also barefoot and wielding a machete. He “scurries” up the tree, as there really isn’t another way to put it, takes the machete out of his belt and begins hacking at the tree.
Coconuts grow in bundles, and on a good tree there could be 30 coconuts on one bundle, and three or four bundles on the tree at any one time. There is no harvest season, like we have for apples or veggies, as the growing season is year round, so the coconuts grow year round. This means that he doesn’t cut everything off of the tree. One bundle might be ready to go and the other ones are still growing.
When he cuts the bundle from the tree, down the coconuts come. (Einstein proved this would happen but the Indians have known all along!) They don’t place anything down to catch them or to protect anything, they simple let them fall, then go and pick them up. Sometimes the coconuts break away from the bundle and go rolling around. If they fall onto the roofs of homes or restaurants before hitting the ground, the noise can be scary if you don’t know what’s happening.
After the first guy comes down from the tree and looks for the next one, the other guy has a huge burlap sack and he collects the coconuts in the sack and takes them somewhere. I didn’t see where he was taking them, but I know that not only restaurants but many vendors buy them. Here in India, if you want some coconut water, unlike in the states where you need to head to the nearest Whole Foods, a local shop will just pick up a coconut from their little pile, whip out a machete, chop off the top and stick a straw in it for you to drink. (I’m really not kidding here). Then you hand them back the coconut, they cut it in half, and somehow make a small scoop out of some of the husk and hand you back the coconut so you can then eat the white fleshy part. If it wasn’t for the straw it would be completely 100% Bio-Friendly. And they only give Westerners straws. An Indian will just drink the water from the coconut with no straw.
This was actually something I wasn’t going to write about. I was just sitting there eating and watching not only the guys doing the harvest, but the other westerners watching the harvest. Then a thought hit me and I started to laugh out loud for I couldn’t help myself. I am now going to re-write this entry, only explain it from the perspective of being in the United States.
Its now time to harvest some coconuts out of some of the trees in town. We need to imagine that we are taking the coconuts out of trees that are growing throughout a small town as opposed to say a plantation since that’s what was going on in Kovalam.
What would be the first step in doing a coconut harvest? We need to visit City Hall to get a permit to harvest the coconuts. This of course takes, two visits, five forms, and a small fee to accomplish. Great! The city has approved the harvest of the coconuts within town.
We next put an add in the local paper to find two guys that are willing to help out with this harvest. Guys who are not afraid of heights or hard work. We need two people who are strong, but able to work inside trees, so they must also be flexible. Three days go by, and we find two men that should work out for us.
Problem. At least one of these guys is going to need to use a machete. This of course requires another trip to City Hall to get the permit to carry such an object. Yes, the customary two visits, five forms, and a small fee where required. Now we can actually have the machete with us, but the guy using it needs to have a background check done. This is actually three visits, seven forms, a test for mental stability, and a small fee.
The next thing we need is one of those “Cherry Pickers”. OSHA doesn’t allow us the have the guy just climb up into the tree. He needs to be able to use the cherry picker, plus wear a bright orange vest and a construction hat for safety. Of course to use one of those pieces of equipment out in public, we are going to need a permit. Yep, you guessed it, City Hall, 2 visits, 3 forms and a small fee.
Perfect! We have that accomplished. Now, the challenging part is that the person carrying the machete must stay at least 1000 feet from any school, church, shopping mall, convenience store, home, police station, fire department, mosque, temple, city park, hospital, grocery store, hotel, daycare, restaurant, college, zoo, amusement park, racetrack or bar. We have found four trees in town that do not have these limitations.
The permit states that we must zone off the area around the tree that we are harvesting with a circle of 30 feet in diameter. This is just in case a coconut falls astray. Okay, all we need to do is put up some hazard tape, warning people of what we are doing. Thats not to difficult, except that two of the trees are very close to a street, which we will need to block off. Can you guess what’s going to happen? City hall here we come. This time we already have the forms filled out and the check ready so it takes only one visit. However, now we must rent all the road signs that warn motorists of the hazard ahead.
Last but not least, we need to have proof of insurance for the two workers, the machete, the cherry picker, the road signs (in case they get damaged), the road in case a coconut damages it, and for the first insurance company in case they go bankrupt! When all is said and done, we have spent $9827.53, and the 192 coconuts we collected brought in $134.98. God Bless America!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Berlin III - Final Berlin Entry
Transportation in Berlin, and I’m sure most of Europe, is very different than in the U.S. Many people have cars, and the roads are very busy, but not like it is in large U.S. cities. Its not a habit for the people of Germany to get in their car to run to 7-11 for a large Coke, or even to make a run to the grocery store like we do. They Walk! I think I’m going to repeat that sentence; They Walk!
I will admit that geographically they life is different with respect to distance, but I’m happy to see they haven’t adopted our lifestyle. They can walk to stores because they are close by and easy to get to. Here they have lots of small markets and such, neighborhood stores that you visit for you fresh groceries. In the US we have Super Centers, stores the size of some small towns sitting in a parking lot that is 15 acres in size as well. It feels like if you were to walk from the street, into a grocery store, to the back of the store where the dairy case is, for a gallon of milk, and walked back to the street, that distance would be a mile!!! Germans don’t have stores that size, and parking, if for some reason you need it, is on the street in front of the store.
Berlin has created an amazing system for people that ride bikes. On all major streets, and on many smaller back streets they have marked lanes for bikes. This is not that extra ordinary, except that they treat them as we would a lane in the street. Depending on the size of the street, sometimes the lane is in the street with the cars and other times the lane might be part of the sidewalk, but its there. You learn real fast when you are on a side walk to look for the bike path and make sure you are not walking down the middle of it. They are not rude, but they will ring their bell if you are in their way.
What I found most fascinating about this, is that at certain intersections that we would walk through there were two sets of lights. The large set, over the street was for cars just like we would have in the states, and the second set, was smaller and placed on the support poles. These were used for the bikes. They would give bikes the right of way to cross, turn, etc, just like cars. It was simply amazing! Of course they would also have the walk/don’t walk signals for pedestrians as well.
The other form of transportation they used mostly, at least in the city was the train/bus. The public transportation system for Berlin would put any system in the U.S. to complete shame. They used 4 forms for public transport, the S system, which was the subway; the U, which was the above ground, usually elevated; trams, which were similar to light rail that ran down the middle of streets, and the buses. Purchasing one ticket; one-way, round-trip, or all-day, didn’t matter, included all modes of transport.
In the U.S. most public transportation systems are based on getting people to a downtown area and back into the suburbs, to their homes and cars. Berlin’s system was based more on a wheel and spoke design and there were actually and inner and outer wheel. What would be the difference? If you lived outside the downtown area and you wanted to go somewhere that was also outside the downtown area, in the states you would need to travel downtown, change trains and head back out to your destinations. Berlin; you could get virtually anywhere from anywhere, without the need to go “downtown”. It only took us about one day to figure out how to use the system, and from there the city became our playground. The only taxi we ever took was to and from the airport because they don’t have a train to the current international airport. They are building a new airport, more modern, and the train system is ready to go for that one when it opens in about a year.
One of the main stations in the City of Berlin is right near the government buildings and servers all of not only Berlin, but Germany and Europe as well. It is a recently built structure so very modern and well organized. One of the great things about it, is for its size, it’s not overwhelming like many similar places are. The building has a large square at the center and two tunnel-like extensions on either side. The entire outside structure is made of glass. Coming and going from both ends of the tunnel-like extensions are elevated tracks, on bridges that are very modern in design and made of concrete. Its a very clean, attractive look that doesn’t create a feeling of massive proportions. I think because the glass is in an arch shape and it reflects the sky at different angles it really makes the building look small.
You walk in at ground level, the main area is large and open. Plenty of room for large numbers of people to walk around in, and the glass helps with the open air feeling. The main level and one level up from there is full of shops, ticket agents, restaurants, and lounges. The best way to describe this would to simply think of an enclosed mall. There were clothing stores, a Virgin Records Store, places to get food, and trinkets, restrooms, etc. They also had of course ticket offices and lounges like airports have where if you have a layover you can go there sit, relax, have some coffee, read the paper, and some of them even had food service. You could also go to one of the many restaurants they had as well. During our entire stay in Berlin, we realized that many of the larger train stations were set up this way, almost like malls, but more for basic things such as groceries, dry cleaning. You drop your cleaning off on the way to work at the station, and pick up your veggies on your way home from work! Brilliant!
On the level below the main level was 8 tracks. They had both stairs and escalators heading down between each pair with signs that displayed to perfection the time the next train was arriving and its destination. I noticed at least 4 different types of trains that came into the station on these tracks, one being ICE, Inter-City Express, which is Germany’s “Bullet” train. Out in the country it runs at about 154 mph. On the fourth level of the station is where the four sets of tracks are you could see coming into the station from the bridges. These tracks also served several different types of trains not only for Berlin, but out lying areas.
It was so amazing just to watch the people coming and going. Some trains were full, other trains were not, but it was mid-day and the number of trains was amazing. I would guess that the station sees at least 500 trains per day. This number does include the subways, etc, but still, what an amazing place.
When we made the reservations to go to Berlin, we did it more to see a friend, than because Berlin was on our top ten list of cities to see. After the tickets were purchased we realized that we would be there in December!!!! We leave Chicago to southern India for warmth and sunshine - not snow and cold. I plan to head back to Berlin and spend more time there as a week just wasn’t enough, but if you ever think about going, December is a great month to go. Yes its cold, and I don’t think I would go in January or February, but, Germans LOVE Christmas and so it goes the city was dressed and ready for the holidays.
All over the city they put up little Christmas villages. The best was to describe them would be to imagine a street fair or an arts festival. Only about 10 times better. Each merchant has their own little space, like a tent, but most of the villages were made of wood and decorated to look like a small bavarian town. They would hang the green garland all around the little shop and put lights up. They would put up lots of trees with lights in them all over the place and local restaurants would come in and set up temp places to serve the thousands that would come to shop, converse with friends and truly enjoy the holidays (something I think Americans have forgotten how to do).
Some of the villages would charge a Euro to get in, and the one we paid said that all money collected when to a charity, others had small stages for entertainment. The first one we came across had an ice skating pond, and we thought it was luck that we found this little fair here in Berlin, but soon realized they were everywhere!
In the old East Berlin, one of the main streets is called friedrichstrasse, I would call it Fredrick Street for ease of understanding as I have a hard time pronouncing German. This street could very easily be called the Fifth Ave of Berlin. For several blocks on both sides of the street, store after store, several enclosed malls, hotels and banks. All places were decked out and ready for Christmas and of course there were many of the familiar places we know of such as Gap, Victoria’s Secret, etc. Although we had no interest in shopping, it was nice to walk down that street and watch the people coming and going, looking in the windows, hearing the cheer in the air as friends would run into each other while shopping. This I enjoyed, as I don’t feel that Americans have this experience anymore. They are all in the enclosed malls mad at the world because this store was out of that item in this color and the last 12 credit cards they tried were declined! (So glad I’m out of retail!)
Speaking of American, the one thing that I was very surprised to see in Berlin was the number of Starbucks. Yes, I can see all of you rolling your eyes going of course they have Starbucks. I was sure we would see several, as we saw several McDonald’s and the likes, but the number of Starbucks was incredible. Based on the number of locations, you might get confused and think you are in Seattle! I am happy to report however, that I held to my rule that when in a foreign city, I don’t do things I can do at home and I only went to Starbucks once, and I’ll just add that it was Daren’s fault! :)
(We were standing in a long line, outside, and Starbucks was the closest place to get hot coffee!).
One quick thing about Germans and their beer. The beer there is amazing and you can get so many kinds that you can easily confuse yourself. So, all I’m going to say is that by me going the Germany and being able to order in a regular restaurant MANY different kinds of fruit flavored beer, including my two favorites which was Grapefruit and Banana, you can no longer make fun of me and my pumpkin beer as the Germans think that is completely normal!
The last part I would like to share with you about our visit to Berlin was a spa we went to several times. It was very walking distance from the hotel so we didn’t even need to take a train there. It was called the Liquid Dome, their website is aslkdghjoih and they have an English page. It was very modern in appearance. Exposed cement and wood were the main construction materials used for the decor as well. You would think that this kind of look for a spa would be cold and uninviting, but they pulled it off very well.
After check in you went to the locker rooms where you would store your clothes and personal belonging. They rented towels, shoes and robes if you wanted them. You could also bring your own. Once in the spa, there was a salt sauna, which is similar to a sauna except the temp is not as hot, and the humidity is about 60%. There is also a wall of salt bricks that are reported to balance the positive and negative ions in a room. The salt bricks were back lit, and as the only light, made the room feel very comforting. Canyon Ranch in Vegas also has one of these rooms.
They had two other standard saunas. One was very large and could fit probably 20 people. Both times we were there, there were groups using this room. I’m thinking some kind of workshop or something that includes a detox in the sauna. The other sauna was smaller but over looked the outside hot tub. The wall that everyone faced while in the sauna was floor to ceiling glass.
There was the standard steam room which was made of black tile and had an arched ceiling. They had three small rooms for massage therapy which we did take advantage of both times and there was also a very large bar. This was were you could get water, an assortment of drinks, including beer, and simple food dishes.
They had two hot tubs, but not like the ones in the states. There were no bubbles, it was simply nice warm water. You could feel a current, so the water was circulating, but no jets. The one was outside, which we enjoyed because of the cold weather. One night it was raining/snowing and we were out in the hot tub! The other one was indoors and tucked kind of away from everything. The walls went straight up from the water so there was no ledge to speak of. It was like walking into a room, down some steps into the water. It was lit from lights on the floor in the shade of green with blue tiles on the wall and ceiling. They also had a cold plunge, but can say what that was like, and an area with warm baths for your legs and feet.
The last room was their signature item. It was a room, made out of the cement, but in the shape of a dome. In the middle was a heated pool (not quite hot tub hot, more like bathtub hot), round in shape and about 4 feet deep. They had lights aimed just right that when they hit the water they would reflect up onto the ceiling and create wave looking designs. (Those of you at Canyon Ranch, same thing as the wave room but instead of chairs to sit in, you are in the water) They had water noodles for everyone so you could easily float on your back and watch the light show above. The other treat in store was they also had underwater speakers so when you put your head down in the water to look up you could hear music!
This was a great place, we did go twice and I would almost make a trip to Berlin just to visit the spa again. The last thing I want to share is; We are in Germany and when in Germany do as the Germans do...
In the wave pool a swim suit was required, however, in most of the other areas, expect the lounge/bar, clothing was not allowed. Even the locker rooms and showers were co-ed.
I will admit that geographically they life is different with respect to distance, but I’m happy to see they haven’t adopted our lifestyle. They can walk to stores because they are close by and easy to get to. Here they have lots of small markets and such, neighborhood stores that you visit for you fresh groceries. In the US we have Super Centers, stores the size of some small towns sitting in a parking lot that is 15 acres in size as well. It feels like if you were to walk from the street, into a grocery store, to the back of the store where the dairy case is, for a gallon of milk, and walked back to the street, that distance would be a mile!!! Germans don’t have stores that size, and parking, if for some reason you need it, is on the street in front of the store.
Berlin has created an amazing system for people that ride bikes. On all major streets, and on many smaller back streets they have marked lanes for bikes. This is not that extra ordinary, except that they treat them as we would a lane in the street. Depending on the size of the street, sometimes the lane is in the street with the cars and other times the lane might be part of the sidewalk, but its there. You learn real fast when you are on a side walk to look for the bike path and make sure you are not walking down the middle of it. They are not rude, but they will ring their bell if you are in their way.
What I found most fascinating about this, is that at certain intersections that we would walk through there were two sets of lights. The large set, over the street was for cars just like we would have in the states, and the second set, was smaller and placed on the support poles. These were used for the bikes. They would give bikes the right of way to cross, turn, etc, just like cars. It was simply amazing! Of course they would also have the walk/don’t walk signals for pedestrians as well.
The other form of transportation they used mostly, at least in the city was the train/bus. The public transportation system for Berlin would put any system in the U.S. to complete shame. They used 4 forms for public transport, the S system, which was the subway; the U, which was the above ground, usually elevated; trams, which were similar to light rail that ran down the middle of streets, and the buses. Purchasing one ticket; one-way, round-trip, or all-day, didn’t matter, included all modes of transport.
In the U.S. most public transportation systems are based on getting people to a downtown area and back into the suburbs, to their homes and cars. Berlin’s system was based more on a wheel and spoke design and there were actually and inner and outer wheel. What would be the difference? If you lived outside the downtown area and you wanted to go somewhere that was also outside the downtown area, in the states you would need to travel downtown, change trains and head back out to your destinations. Berlin; you could get virtually anywhere from anywhere, without the need to go “downtown”. It only took us about one day to figure out how to use the system, and from there the city became our playground. The only taxi we ever took was to and from the airport because they don’t have a train to the current international airport. They are building a new airport, more modern, and the train system is ready to go for that one when it opens in about a year.
One of the main stations in the City of Berlin is right near the government buildings and servers all of not only Berlin, but Germany and Europe as well. It is a recently built structure so very modern and well organized. One of the great things about it, is for its size, it’s not overwhelming like many similar places are. The building has a large square at the center and two tunnel-like extensions on either side. The entire outside structure is made of glass. Coming and going from both ends of the tunnel-like extensions are elevated tracks, on bridges that are very modern in design and made of concrete. Its a very clean, attractive look that doesn’t create a feeling of massive proportions. I think because the glass is in an arch shape and it reflects the sky at different angles it really makes the building look small.
You walk in at ground level, the main area is large and open. Plenty of room for large numbers of people to walk around in, and the glass helps with the open air feeling. The main level and one level up from there is full of shops, ticket agents, restaurants, and lounges. The best way to describe this would to simply think of an enclosed mall. There were clothing stores, a Virgin Records Store, places to get food, and trinkets, restrooms, etc. They also had of course ticket offices and lounges like airports have where if you have a layover you can go there sit, relax, have some coffee, read the paper, and some of them even had food service. You could also go to one of the many restaurants they had as well. During our entire stay in Berlin, we realized that many of the larger train stations were set up this way, almost like malls, but more for basic things such as groceries, dry cleaning. You drop your cleaning off on the way to work at the station, and pick up your veggies on your way home from work! Brilliant!
On the level below the main level was 8 tracks. They had both stairs and escalators heading down between each pair with signs that displayed to perfection the time the next train was arriving and its destination. I noticed at least 4 different types of trains that came into the station on these tracks, one being ICE, Inter-City Express, which is Germany’s “Bullet” train. Out in the country it runs at about 154 mph. On the fourth level of the station is where the four sets of tracks are you could see coming into the station from the bridges. These tracks also served several different types of trains not only for Berlin, but out lying areas.
It was so amazing just to watch the people coming and going. Some trains were full, other trains were not, but it was mid-day and the number of trains was amazing. I would guess that the station sees at least 500 trains per day. This number does include the subways, etc, but still, what an amazing place.
When we made the reservations to go to Berlin, we did it more to see a friend, than because Berlin was on our top ten list of cities to see. After the tickets were purchased we realized that we would be there in December!!!! We leave Chicago to southern India for warmth and sunshine - not snow and cold. I plan to head back to Berlin and spend more time there as a week just wasn’t enough, but if you ever think about going, December is a great month to go. Yes its cold, and I don’t think I would go in January or February, but, Germans LOVE Christmas and so it goes the city was dressed and ready for the holidays.
All over the city they put up little Christmas villages. The best was to describe them would be to imagine a street fair or an arts festival. Only about 10 times better. Each merchant has their own little space, like a tent, but most of the villages were made of wood and decorated to look like a small bavarian town. They would hang the green garland all around the little shop and put lights up. They would put up lots of trees with lights in them all over the place and local restaurants would come in and set up temp places to serve the thousands that would come to shop, converse with friends and truly enjoy the holidays (something I think Americans have forgotten how to do).
Some of the villages would charge a Euro to get in, and the one we paid said that all money collected when to a charity, others had small stages for entertainment. The first one we came across had an ice skating pond, and we thought it was luck that we found this little fair here in Berlin, but soon realized they were everywhere!
In the old East Berlin, one of the main streets is called friedrichstrasse, I would call it Fredrick Street for ease of understanding as I have a hard time pronouncing German. This street could very easily be called the Fifth Ave of Berlin. For several blocks on both sides of the street, store after store, several enclosed malls, hotels and banks. All places were decked out and ready for Christmas and of course there were many of the familiar places we know of such as Gap, Victoria’s Secret, etc. Although we had no interest in shopping, it was nice to walk down that street and watch the people coming and going, looking in the windows, hearing the cheer in the air as friends would run into each other while shopping. This I enjoyed, as I don’t feel that Americans have this experience anymore. They are all in the enclosed malls mad at the world because this store was out of that item in this color and the last 12 credit cards they tried were declined! (So glad I’m out of retail!)
Speaking of American, the one thing that I was very surprised to see in Berlin was the number of Starbucks. Yes, I can see all of you rolling your eyes going of course they have Starbucks. I was sure we would see several, as we saw several McDonald’s and the likes, but the number of Starbucks was incredible. Based on the number of locations, you might get confused and think you are in Seattle! I am happy to report however, that I held to my rule that when in a foreign city, I don’t do things I can do at home and I only went to Starbucks once, and I’ll just add that it was Daren’s fault! :)
(We were standing in a long line, outside, and Starbucks was the closest place to get hot coffee!).
One quick thing about Germans and their beer. The beer there is amazing and you can get so many kinds that you can easily confuse yourself. So, all I’m going to say is that by me going the Germany and being able to order in a regular restaurant MANY different kinds of fruit flavored beer, including my two favorites which was Grapefruit and Banana, you can no longer make fun of me and my pumpkin beer as the Germans think that is completely normal!
The last part I would like to share with you about our visit to Berlin was a spa we went to several times. It was very walking distance from the hotel so we didn’t even need to take a train there. It was called the Liquid Dome, their website is aslkdghjoih and they have an English page. It was very modern in appearance. Exposed cement and wood were the main construction materials used for the decor as well. You would think that this kind of look for a spa would be cold and uninviting, but they pulled it off very well.
After check in you went to the locker rooms where you would store your clothes and personal belonging. They rented towels, shoes and robes if you wanted them. You could also bring your own. Once in the spa, there was a salt sauna, which is similar to a sauna except the temp is not as hot, and the humidity is about 60%. There is also a wall of salt bricks that are reported to balance the positive and negative ions in a room. The salt bricks were back lit, and as the only light, made the room feel very comforting. Canyon Ranch in Vegas also has one of these rooms.
They had two other standard saunas. One was very large and could fit probably 20 people. Both times we were there, there were groups using this room. I’m thinking some kind of workshop or something that includes a detox in the sauna. The other sauna was smaller but over looked the outside hot tub. The wall that everyone faced while in the sauna was floor to ceiling glass.
There was the standard steam room which was made of black tile and had an arched ceiling. They had three small rooms for massage therapy which we did take advantage of both times and there was also a very large bar. This was were you could get water, an assortment of drinks, including beer, and simple food dishes.
They had two hot tubs, but not like the ones in the states. There were no bubbles, it was simply nice warm water. You could feel a current, so the water was circulating, but no jets. The one was outside, which we enjoyed because of the cold weather. One night it was raining/snowing and we were out in the hot tub! The other one was indoors and tucked kind of away from everything. The walls went straight up from the water so there was no ledge to speak of. It was like walking into a room, down some steps into the water. It was lit from lights on the floor in the shade of green with blue tiles on the wall and ceiling. They also had a cold plunge, but can say what that was like, and an area with warm baths for your legs and feet.
The last room was their signature item. It was a room, made out of the cement, but in the shape of a dome. In the middle was a heated pool (not quite hot tub hot, more like bathtub hot), round in shape and about 4 feet deep. They had lights aimed just right that when they hit the water they would reflect up onto the ceiling and create wave looking designs. (Those of you at Canyon Ranch, same thing as the wave room but instead of chairs to sit in, you are in the water) They had water noodles for everyone so you could easily float on your back and watch the light show above. The other treat in store was they also had underwater speakers so when you put your head down in the water to look up you could hear music!
This was a great place, we did go twice and I would almost make a trip to Berlin just to visit the spa again. The last thing I want to share is; We are in Germany and when in Germany do as the Germans do...
In the wave pool a swim suit was required, however, in most of the other areas, expect the lounge/bar, clothing was not allowed. Even the locker rooms and showers were co-ed.
Berlin III - Final Berlin Entry
Transportation in Berlin, and I’m sure most of Europe, is very different than in the U.S. Many people have cars, and the roads are very busy, but not like it is in large U.S. cities. Its not a habit for the people of Germany to get in their car to run to 7-11 for a large Coke, or even to make a run to the grocery store like we do. They Walk! I think I’m going to repeat that sentence; They Walk!
I will admit that geographically they life is different with respect to distance, but I’m happy to see they haven’t adopted our lifestyle. They can walk to stores because they are close by and easy to get to. Here they have lots of small markets and such, neighborhood stores that you visit for you fresh groceries. In the US we have Super Centers, stores the size of some small towns sitting in a parking lot that is 15 acres in size as well. It feels like if you were to walk from the street, into a grocery store, to the back of the store where the dairy case is, for a gallon of milk, and walked back to the street, that distance would be a mile!!! Germans don’t have stores that size, and parking, if for some reason you need it, is on the street in front of the store.
Berlin has created an amazing system for people that ride bikes. On all major streets, and on many smaller back streets they have marked lanes for bikes. This is not that extra ordinary, except that they treat them as we would a lane in the street. Depending on the size of the street, sometimes the lane is in the street with the cars and other times the lane might be part of the sidewalk, but its there. You learn real fast when you are on a side walk to look for the bike path and make sure you are not walking down the middle of it. They are not rude, but they will ring their bell if you are in their way.
What I found most fascinating about this, is that at certain intersections that we would walk through there were two sets of lights. The large set, over the street was for cars just like we would have in the states, and the second set, was smaller and placed on the support poles. These were used for the bikes. They would give bikes the right of way to cross, turn, etc, just like cars. It was simply amazing! Of course they would also have the walk/don’t walk signals for pedestrians as well.
The other form of transportation they used mostly, at least in the city was the train/bus. The public transportation system for Berlin would put any system in the U.S. to complete shame. They used 4 forms for public transport, the S system, which was the subway; the U, which was the above ground, usually elevated; trams, which were similar to light rail that ran down the middle of streets, and the buses. Purchasing one ticket; one-way, round-trip, or all-day, didn’t matter, included all modes of transport.
In the U.S. most public transportation systems are based on getting people to a downtown area and back into the suburbs, to their homes and cars. Berlin’s system was based more on a wheel and spoke design and there were actually and inner and outer wheel. What would be the difference? If you lived outside the downtown area and you wanted to go somewhere that was also outside the downtown area, in the states you would need to travel downtown, change trains and head back out to your destinations. Berlin; you could get virtually anywhere from anywhere, without the need to go “downtown”. It only took us about one day to figure out how to use the system, and from there the city became our playground. The only taxi we ever took was to and from the airport because they don’t have a train to the current international airport. They are building a new airport, more modern, and the train system is ready to go for that one when it opens in about a year.
One of the main stations in the City of Berlin is right near the government buildings and servers all of not only Berlin, but Germany and Europe as well. It is a recently built structure so very modern and well organized. One of the great things about it, is for its size, it’s not overwhelming like many similar places are. The building has a large square at the center and two tunnel-like extensions on either side. The entire outside structure is made of glass. Coming and going from both ends of the tunnel-like extensions are elevated tracks, on bridges that are very modern in design and made of concrete. Its a very clean, attractive look that doesn’t create a feeling of massive proportions. I think because the glass is in an arch shape and it reflects the sky at different angles it really makes the building look small.
You walk in at ground level, the main area is large and open. Plenty of room for large numbers of people to walk around in, and the glass helps with the open air feeling. The main level and one level up from there is full of shops, ticket agents, restaurants, and lounges. The best way to describe this would to simply think of an enclosed mall. There were clothing stores, a Virgin Records Store, places to get food, and trinkets, restrooms, etc. They also had of course ticket offices and lounges like airports have where if you have a layover you can go there sit, relax, have some coffee, read the paper, and some of them even had food service. You could also go to one of the many restaurants they had as well. During our entire stay in Berlin, we realized that many of the larger train stations were set up this way, almost like malls, but more for basic things such as groceries, dry cleaning. You drop your cleaning off on the way to work at the station, and pick up your veggies on your way home from work! Brilliant!
On the level below the main level was 8 tracks. They had both stairs and escalators heading down between each pair with signs that displayed to perfection the time the next train was arriving and its destination. I noticed at least 4 different types of trains that came into the station on these tracks, one being ICE, Inter-City Express, which is Germany’s “Bullet” train. Out in the country it runs at about 154 mph. On the fourth level of the station is where the four sets of tracks are you could see coming into the station from the bridges. These tracks also served several different types of trains not only for Berlin, but out lying areas.
It was so amazing just to watch the people coming and going. Some trains were full, other trains were not, but it was mid-day and the number of trains was amazing. I would guess that the station sees at least 500 trains per day. This number does include the subways, etc, but still, what an amazing place.
When we made the reservations to go to Berlin, we did it more to see a friend, than because Berlin was on our top ten list of cities to see. After the tickets were purchased we realized that we would be there in December!!!! We leave Chicago to southern India for warmth and sunshine - not snow and cold. I plan to head back to Berlin and spend more time there as a week just wasn’t enough, but if you ever think about going, December is a great month to go. Yes its cold, and I don’t think I would go in January or February, but, Germans LOVE Christmas and so it goes the city was dressed and ready for the holidays.
All over the city they put up little Christmas villages. The best was to describe them would be to imagine a street fair or an arts festival. Only about 10 times better. Each merchant has their own little space, like a tent, but most of the villages were made of wood and decorated to look like a small bavarian town. They would hang the green garland all around the little shop and put lights up. They would put up lots of trees with lights in them all over the place and local restaurants would come in and set up temp places to serve the thousands that would come to shop, converse with friends and truly enjoy the holidays (something I think Americans have forgotten how to do).
Some of the villages would charge a Euro to get in, and the one we paid said that all money collected when to a charity, others had small stages for entertainment. The first one we came across had an ice skating pond, and we thought it was luck that we found this little fair here in Berlin, but soon realized they were everywhere!
In the old East Berlin, one of the main streets is called friedrichstrasse, I would call it Fredrick Street for ease of understanding as I have a hard time pronouncing German. This street could very easily be called the Fifth Ave of Berlin. For several blocks on both sides of the street, store after store, several enclosed malls, hotels and banks. All places were decked out and ready for Christmas and of course there were many of the familiar places we know of such as Gap, Victoria’s Secret, etc. Although we had no interest in shopping, it was nice to walk down that street and watch the people coming and going, looking in the windows, hearing the cheer in the air as friends would run into each other while shopping. This I enjoyed, as I don’t feel that Americans have this experience anymore. They are all in the enclosed malls mad at the world because this store was out of that item in this color and the last 12 credit cards they tried were declined! (So glad I’m out of retail!)
Speaking of American, the one thing that I was very surprised to see in Berlin was the number of Starbucks. Yes, I can see all of you rolling your eyes going of course they have Starbucks. I was sure we would see several, as we saw several McDonald’s and the likes, but the number of Starbucks was incredible. Based on the number of locations, you might get confused and think you are in Seattle! I am happy to report however, that I held to my rule that when in a foreign city, I don’t do things I can do at home and I only went to Starbucks once, and I’ll just add that it was Daren’s fault! :)
(We were standing in a long line, outside, and Starbucks was the closest place to get hot coffee!).
One quick thing about Germans and their beer. The beer there is amazing and you can get so many kinds that you can easily confuse yourself. So, all I’m going to say is that by me going the Germany and being able to order in a regular restaurant MANY different kinds of fruit flavored beer, including my two favorites which was Grapefruit and Banana, you can no longer make fun of me and my pumpkin beer as the Germans think that is completely normal!
The last part I would like to share with you about our visit to Berlin was a spa we went to several times. It was very walking distance from the hotel so we didn’t even need to take a train there. It was called the Liquid Dome, their website is aslkdghjoih and they have an English page. It was very modern in appearance. Exposed cement and wood were the main construction materials used for the decor as well. You would think that this kind of look for a spa would be cold and uninviting, but they pulled it off very well.
After check in you went to the locker rooms where you would store your clothes and personal belonging. They rented towels, shoes and robes if you wanted them. You could also bring your own. Once in the spa, there was a salt sauna, which is similar to a sauna except the temp is not as hot, and the humidity is about 60%. There is also a wall of salt bricks that are reported to balance the positive and negative ions in a room. The salt bricks were back lit, and as the only light, made the room feel very comforting. Canyon Ranch in Vegas also has one of these rooms.
They had two other standard saunas. One was very large and could fit probably 20 people. Both times we were there, there were groups using this room. I’m thinking some kind of workshop or something that includes a detox in the sauna. The other sauna was smaller but over looked the outside hot tub. The wall that everyone faced while in the sauna was floor to ceiling glass.
There was the standard steam room which was made of black tile and had an arched ceiling. They had three small rooms for massage therapy which we did take advantage of both times and there was also a very large bar. This was were you could get water, an assortment of drinks, including beer, and simple food dishes.
They had two hot tubs, but not like the ones in the states. There were no bubbles, it was simply nice warm water. You could feel a current, so the water was circulating, but no jets. The one was outside, which we enjoyed because of the cold weather. One night it was raining/snowing and we were out in the hot tub! The other one was indoors and tucked kind of away from everything. The walls went straight up from the water so there was no ledge to speak of. It was like walking into a room, down some steps into the water. It was lit from lights on the floor in the shade of green with blue tiles on the wall and ceiling. They also had a cold plunge, but can say what that was like, and an area with warm baths for your legs and feet.
The last room was their signature item. It was a room, made out of the cement, but in the shape of a dome. In the middle was a heated pool (not quite hot tub hot, more like bathtub hot), round in shape and about 4 feet deep. They had lights aimed just right that when they hit the water they would reflect up onto the ceiling and create wave looking designs. (Those of you at Canyon Ranch, same thing as the wave room but instead of chairs to sit in, you are in the water) They had water noodles for everyone so you could easily float on your back and watch the light show above. The other treat in store was they also had underwater speakers so when you put your head down in the water to look up you could hear music!
This was a great place, we did go twice and I would almost make a trip to Berlin just to visit the spa again. The last thing I want to share is; We are in Germany and when in Germany do as the Germans do...
In the wave pool a swim suit was required, however, in most of the other areas, expect the lounge/bar, clothing was not allowed. Even the locker rooms and showers were co-ed.
I will admit that geographically they life is different with respect to distance, but I’m happy to see they haven’t adopted our lifestyle. They can walk to stores because they are close by and easy to get to. Here they have lots of small markets and such, neighborhood stores that you visit for you fresh groceries. In the US we have Super Centers, stores the size of some small towns sitting in a parking lot that is 15 acres in size as well. It feels like if you were to walk from the street, into a grocery store, to the back of the store where the dairy case is, for a gallon of milk, and walked back to the street, that distance would be a mile!!! Germans don’t have stores that size, and parking, if for some reason you need it, is on the street in front of the store.
Berlin has created an amazing system for people that ride bikes. On all major streets, and on many smaller back streets they have marked lanes for bikes. This is not that extra ordinary, except that they treat them as we would a lane in the street. Depending on the size of the street, sometimes the lane is in the street with the cars and other times the lane might be part of the sidewalk, but its there. You learn real fast when you are on a side walk to look for the bike path and make sure you are not walking down the middle of it. They are not rude, but they will ring their bell if you are in their way.
What I found most fascinating about this, is that at certain intersections that we would walk through there were two sets of lights. The large set, over the street was for cars just like we would have in the states, and the second set, was smaller and placed on the support poles. These were used for the bikes. They would give bikes the right of way to cross, turn, etc, just like cars. It was simply amazing! Of course they would also have the walk/don’t walk signals for pedestrians as well.
The other form of transportation they used mostly, at least in the city was the train/bus. The public transportation system for Berlin would put any system in the U.S. to complete shame. They used 4 forms for public transport, the S system, which was the subway; the U, which was the above ground, usually elevated; trams, which were similar to light rail that ran down the middle of streets, and the buses. Purchasing one ticket; one-way, round-trip, or all-day, didn’t matter, included all modes of transport.
In the U.S. most public transportation systems are based on getting people to a downtown area and back into the suburbs, to their homes and cars. Berlin’s system was based more on a wheel and spoke design and there were actually and inner and outer wheel. What would be the difference? If you lived outside the downtown area and you wanted to go somewhere that was also outside the downtown area, in the states you would need to travel downtown, change trains and head back out to your destinations. Berlin; you could get virtually anywhere from anywhere, without the need to go “downtown”. It only took us about one day to figure out how to use the system, and from there the city became our playground. The only taxi we ever took was to and from the airport because they don’t have a train to the current international airport. They are building a new airport, more modern, and the train system is ready to go for that one when it opens in about a year.
One of the main stations in the City of Berlin is right near the government buildings and servers all of not only Berlin, but Germany and Europe as well. It is a recently built structure so very modern and well organized. One of the great things about it, is for its size, it’s not overwhelming like many similar places are. The building has a large square at the center and two tunnel-like extensions on either side. The entire outside structure is made of glass. Coming and going from both ends of the tunnel-like extensions are elevated tracks, on bridges that are very modern in design and made of concrete. Its a very clean, attractive look that doesn’t create a feeling of massive proportions. I think because the glass is in an arch shape and it reflects the sky at different angles it really makes the building look small.
You walk in at ground level, the main area is large and open. Plenty of room for large numbers of people to walk around in, and the glass helps with the open air feeling. The main level and one level up from there is full of shops, ticket agents, restaurants, and lounges. The best way to describe this would to simply think of an enclosed mall. There were clothing stores, a Virgin Records Store, places to get food, and trinkets, restrooms, etc. They also had of course ticket offices and lounges like airports have where if you have a layover you can go there sit, relax, have some coffee, read the paper, and some of them even had food service. You could also go to one of the many restaurants they had as well. During our entire stay in Berlin, we realized that many of the larger train stations were set up this way, almost like malls, but more for basic things such as groceries, dry cleaning. You drop your cleaning off on the way to work at the station, and pick up your veggies on your way home from work! Brilliant!
On the level below the main level was 8 tracks. They had both stairs and escalators heading down between each pair with signs that displayed to perfection the time the next train was arriving and its destination. I noticed at least 4 different types of trains that came into the station on these tracks, one being ICE, Inter-City Express, which is Germany’s “Bullet” train. Out in the country it runs at about 154 mph. On the fourth level of the station is where the four sets of tracks are you could see coming into the station from the bridges. These tracks also served several different types of trains not only for Berlin, but out lying areas.
It was so amazing just to watch the people coming and going. Some trains were full, other trains were not, but it was mid-day and the number of trains was amazing. I would guess that the station sees at least 500 trains per day. This number does include the subways, etc, but still, what an amazing place.
When we made the reservations to go to Berlin, we did it more to see a friend, than because Berlin was on our top ten list of cities to see. After the tickets were purchased we realized that we would be there in December!!!! We leave Chicago to southern India for warmth and sunshine - not snow and cold. I plan to head back to Berlin and spend more time there as a week just wasn’t enough, but if you ever think about going, December is a great month to go. Yes its cold, and I don’t think I would go in January or February, but, Germans LOVE Christmas and so it goes the city was dressed and ready for the holidays.
All over the city they put up little Christmas villages. The best was to describe them would be to imagine a street fair or an arts festival. Only about 10 times better. Each merchant has their own little space, like a tent, but most of the villages were made of wood and decorated to look like a small bavarian town. They would hang the green garland all around the little shop and put lights up. They would put up lots of trees with lights in them all over the place and local restaurants would come in and set up temp places to serve the thousands that would come to shop, converse with friends and truly enjoy the holidays (something I think Americans have forgotten how to do).
Some of the villages would charge a Euro to get in, and the one we paid said that all money collected when to a charity, others had small stages for entertainment. The first one we came across had an ice skating pond, and we thought it was luck that we found this little fair here in Berlin, but soon realized they were everywhere!
In the old East Berlin, one of the main streets is called friedrichstrasse, I would call it Fredrick Street for ease of understanding as I have a hard time pronouncing German. This street could very easily be called the Fifth Ave of Berlin. For several blocks on both sides of the street, store after store, several enclosed malls, hotels and banks. All places were decked out and ready for Christmas and of course there were many of the familiar places we know of such as Gap, Victoria’s Secret, etc. Although we had no interest in shopping, it was nice to walk down that street and watch the people coming and going, looking in the windows, hearing the cheer in the air as friends would run into each other while shopping. This I enjoyed, as I don’t feel that Americans have this experience anymore. They are all in the enclosed malls mad at the world because this store was out of that item in this color and the last 12 credit cards they tried were declined! (So glad I’m out of retail!)
Speaking of American, the one thing that I was very surprised to see in Berlin was the number of Starbucks. Yes, I can see all of you rolling your eyes going of course they have Starbucks. I was sure we would see several, as we saw several McDonald’s and the likes, but the number of Starbucks was incredible. Based on the number of locations, you might get confused and think you are in Seattle! I am happy to report however, that I held to my rule that when in a foreign city, I don’t do things I can do at home and I only went to Starbucks once, and I’ll just add that it was Daren’s fault! :)
(We were standing in a long line, outside, and Starbucks was the closest place to get hot coffee!).
One quick thing about Germans and their beer. The beer there is amazing and you can get so many kinds that you can easily confuse yourself. So, all I’m going to say is that by me going the Germany and being able to order in a regular restaurant MANY different kinds of fruit flavored beer, including my two favorites which was Grapefruit and Banana, you can no longer make fun of me and my pumpkin beer as the Germans think that is completely normal!
The last part I would like to share with you about our visit to Berlin was a spa we went to several times. It was very walking distance from the hotel so we didn’t even need to take a train there. It was called the Liquid Dome, their website is aslkdghjoih and they have an English page. It was very modern in appearance. Exposed cement and wood were the main construction materials used for the decor as well. You would think that this kind of look for a spa would be cold and uninviting, but they pulled it off very well.
After check in you went to the locker rooms where you would store your clothes and personal belonging. They rented towels, shoes and robes if you wanted them. You could also bring your own. Once in the spa, there was a salt sauna, which is similar to a sauna except the temp is not as hot, and the humidity is about 60%. There is also a wall of salt bricks that are reported to balance the positive and negative ions in a room. The salt bricks were back lit, and as the only light, made the room feel very comforting. Canyon Ranch in Vegas also has one of these rooms.
They had two other standard saunas. One was very large and could fit probably 20 people. Both times we were there, there were groups using this room. I’m thinking some kind of workshop or something that includes a detox in the sauna. The other sauna was smaller but over looked the outside hot tub. The wall that everyone faced while in the sauna was floor to ceiling glass.
There was the standard steam room which was made of black tile and had an arched ceiling. They had three small rooms for massage therapy which we did take advantage of both times and there was also a very large bar. This was were you could get water, an assortment of drinks, including beer, and simple food dishes.
They had two hot tubs, but not like the ones in the states. There were no bubbles, it was simply nice warm water. You could feel a current, so the water was circulating, but no jets. The one was outside, which we enjoyed because of the cold weather. One night it was raining/snowing and we were out in the hot tub! The other one was indoors and tucked kind of away from everything. The walls went straight up from the water so there was no ledge to speak of. It was like walking into a room, down some steps into the water. It was lit from lights on the floor in the shade of green with blue tiles on the wall and ceiling. They also had a cold plunge, but can say what that was like, and an area with warm baths for your legs and feet.
The last room was their signature item. It was a room, made out of the cement, but in the shape of a dome. In the middle was a heated pool (not quite hot tub hot, more like bathtub hot), round in shape and about 4 feet deep. They had lights aimed just right that when they hit the water they would reflect up onto the ceiling and create wave looking designs. (Those of you at Canyon Ranch, same thing as the wave room but instead of chairs to sit in, you are in the water) They had water noodles for everyone so you could easily float on your back and watch the light show above. The other treat in store was they also had underwater speakers so when you put your head down in the water to look up you could hear music!
This was a great place, we did go twice and I would almost make a trip to Berlin just to visit the spa again. The last thing I want to share is; We are in Germany and when in Germany do as the Germans do...
In the wave pool a swim suit was required, however, in most of the other areas, expect the lounge/bar, clothing was not allowed. Even the locker rooms and showers were co-ed.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Hindu Wedding-Part One
Daren’s normal schedule is to head right down here to Kovalam, practice yoga with Lino for 6 weeks or so, then as it begins to get really hot and humid here, head up to Mysore, which is higher in elevation and about 600 miles north of Kovalam, so much cooler with little humidity. This year however, one of his good friends, Deepak, was getting married. Deepak even worked out his wedding, knowing that Daren comes every year, so that hopefully Daren and I could make it. Two years ago when I was here, Deepak showed me all over Mysore while Daren did some classes and worked from the hotel room. He took me to one of the main markets, and we walked all over in there, telling me why they have certain things and showing me how they do other things. I really enjoyed the time as I got to see India from a native perspective, as opposed to a simple tourist.
There are four main friends, friends that were together 12 years ago when Daren made his first trip to India, and are still the best of friends now. Ajay now is a yoga teacher and has his own shala (studio). sthalam8.com is the website for Ajay’s Shala. He is doing very well for himself, as his classes are full and he has even begun a teacher training program. Ajay teaches Astanga yoga which has it origins in Mysore. Deepak runs the restaurant that is located at Ajay’s shala. This arrangement has been going on for almost two years now and its working wonderfully. Rakesh is in school. and Umesh is a banker (thats the best way to describe what he does).
Because Deepak was very busy with the wedding, we spent most of our time with Ajay and Rakesh. They are also the ones that took care of us at the wedding. That statement might sound a little odd, but keep reading and you will understand.
I’m sorry to say, I really still don’t understand everything that went on at the wedding, and honestly, I don’t think anyone did except the priest - Hindu priest of course. I can say that with complete confidence since several days before the wedding I asked Deepak about what we should except, and even he didn’t know!!! For the most part, a Hindu wedding will last 2-4 days depending on a number of factors, one of which I was able to figure out; the more days that are in the wedding means the higher the caste you are in. I was actually told this, plus, higher caste people can afford longer weddings, so they naturally last longer. What I don’t understand is what could possibly take longer to do. Can you see this happening in one of our weddings; “Thank you for coming everyone. Today we are going to hear about the bride, tomorrow the groom, day three, exchange vows, and on day four they will kiss.!” Talk about a wedding. Plus, I can see this going over in the US. Parents would spend their entire life savings just to say that their daughter’s wedding lasted 67 days!!!!! Of course they spend their life savings anyway, just to out do the Jones’, but thats another story all together.
The wedding took place outside of Mysore in a village that neither one of us can remember the name. It was is a very small village about a 45 minute drive from Mysore. The people of this village consider Mysore to be a big city. (For my friends in Vegas, Mysore is about the size of boulder, and friends from Utah, make that Beaver!!! So think about how small this village is, if one of these places was considered a city?)
It seemed like the entire village was there for the wedding, and even if everyone from the village was not there, I can assure you that the entire village knew about the wedding.
This was an arranged marriage, the bride was a friend of the families, and all I can really tell you is that her and Deepak had talked many times on the phone together, but had only seen each other twice before the wedding. After talking to Deepak, he told me that he had turned down several other girls, some of which would have put him into family money, but even though he new the marriage was going to be arranged, he wanted to make sure that he had feelings, or thought he could love this person, not just because the family wanted him to get married. I told him that was a very honorable thing to do.
We arrived the evening of the first day of the wedding. The main reason was that we were traveling with Ajay and Rakesh, and Ajay had to teach classes during the first day of the wedding so we left Mysore at about 5:30 that evening. The car ride for me was as usual, very stressful, and I hated it, but it didn’t last long, thank god!
We pull up to the reception center (thats what I’ll call it, and will explain more about it later), and get out of the car. Getting out of that car was the biggest mistake we ever made during this entire trip. I say that with good spirit however. You would have thought, had this been a Christian wedding, that the Pope just showed up. This is a small village, and white man does not come through often, or at least doesn’t stop here! We became the ABSOLUTE focus of attention for at least the next hour! We found out later that by just having us there, two Americans, invited by Deepak, was a very high honor for both families to have.
For the next hour I think I shook ten thousand hands and said my name 150,000 times. Of course at the same time next to me, Daren is doing the same thing. Everyone wanted to know where we were from and what we thought of their village. (Here in India, you must tell people you are from America, because most don’t understand the difference between American and The United States. Many of the people here know of the city Chicago however, because of President Obama). People, I can’t see the village for the villagers! If you ever want to feel like a movie star, just find yourself in a small village in India; and if you have blonde hair and blue eyes... we would never see you again! We had experienced things like this the last time we were here in India, but on a much smaller scale. This time we were invited guests of the groom, and everyone was going to make sure that they got to shake our hands.
Because of culture differences, we spent about 45 minutes only talking to the men that were at the wedding, and then slowly some of the women were bold enough to come up and say Hi. We were escorted to the family members of both the groom and bride, and as per custom, we could and did shake hands with all the men, but with the women, especially the older ones, we could only smile, nod our heads and say hello.
We spent about 2 hours total there that evening. We did get to see Deepak for a few minutes, and we did meet the bride for the first time. She does not speak English except for Hello and a few other small words. She was even hesitant to shake our hands, but Deepak told her in our culture that was considered normal so she did.
I have no idea what went on during the day, the first day of the wedding. I didn’t even think to ask I was so overwhelmed by everything that was going on. There was a hotel located next to the center which most of the family was staying at. Technically they didn’t have a room for us, but many of the family members were willing to condense so that we could have a room. There were as many as 8 people in a room already!!!!
Ajay felt it would be better if they took us somewhere, away from the wedding party, otherwise they didn’t think we would get any sleep. The party goes on all night, and being American, we would not have been left alone. There is a Buddhist Monastery, Bylakuppa, about 20 kilometers way that had places to stay for guests, so off we went to the monastery.
It was just Daren, I and the driver of the car that went to the monastery. Ajay and the gang stayed at the wedding to party. We get to a hotel that is right across the street, and Daren goes in to see if they have a room. We are in luck, they do. Daren gets the room, comes back out to get me and our bag. (We left most of our stuff in Mysore as we were only going to be gone for one night.) There were several shops and a restaurant on the main floor with rooms on the two floors above that. We made it just in time to eat something as they were getting ready to close up shop for the night. Daren took our backpacks up to the room while I ordered for us since they wanted to close the kitchen down. In the states that means clean up for the night, but not really sure what that means here in India?
When you are in places like this in India, you must be very careful about the food you chose to eat. Its not quite like the touristy places that understand the western needs of being clean. Basically you can only order things that have been cooked to death, and even then you must take your chances that the plates and utensils (if they give you some) are clean. We did order some Dal (lentils) and Chapati (basically a tortilla), and bottled water. It tasted good, we ate, and then went to the room.
As we approached the room Daren kept smiling at me and I should have know that something wasn’t good, but, like a dumb ass, I just kept smiling back. I hadn’t seen the room yet. The room was small and very basic, that I understood, and he told me there was no not water. I laughed and said thats why god invented deodorant. I didn’t need to take a shower in the morning, and no offense to anyone, but could guarantee I would be cleaner than many at the wedding.
I can’t say that the room was dirty per say. Its just that it was an old building, and you could tell that no one had stayed in the room for a while. There was a cob web between the pillow and the sheets! As Daren and I looked around the room a little more, we found a few more things that were hard to swallow, but if we slept in our clothes, using our backpacks as our pillows, not turn on the tap water, and keep one light on, we should make it out of here alive in the morning.
At this point, Daren told me he would be right back and left the room. I thought maybe he was going to see if they had a more recently cleaned room. I re-inspected the room again, took a picture and laughed, thinking, well I’m in India. Daren soon came back and had gone and talked to the driver. The driver was able to find out that the monastery itself had a place that visitors could stay, and found out where it was. Daren said we should go and try that place out. At this point in time I was up to sleeping in the car so I didn’t mind. The man was not at the front desk when we left, and I asked Daren if he was going to try and get his money back. He just shrugged his shoulders and said “It was $5, he can have it!”
They did have a room for us at the monastery. It’s layout was exactly the same as the other room, but his one was clean. This is a monastery, and not one that is used to getting western tourists. The mattress, whatever it was made of was soft, but we shared one blanket. There was no hot water, but already went down that road tonight. There was also no soap, towels of any kind, or toilet paper! The walls were bare, but we did have curtains on the window. Thats about all I can say about the place. It was clean, and we could spend the night relaxed, knowing that we would wake up alive in the morning and not be somethings meal for the evening...and so we did.
I’m going to divide up the next several entries. One will be about the monastery, titled such, then I will continue with the wedding.
There are four main friends, friends that were together 12 years ago when Daren made his first trip to India, and are still the best of friends now. Ajay now is a yoga teacher and has his own shala (studio). sthalam8.com is the website for Ajay’s Shala. He is doing very well for himself, as his classes are full and he has even begun a teacher training program. Ajay teaches Astanga yoga which has it origins in Mysore. Deepak runs the restaurant that is located at Ajay’s shala. This arrangement has been going on for almost two years now and its working wonderfully. Rakesh is in school. and Umesh is a banker (thats the best way to describe what he does).
Because Deepak was very busy with the wedding, we spent most of our time with Ajay and Rakesh. They are also the ones that took care of us at the wedding. That statement might sound a little odd, but keep reading and you will understand.
I’m sorry to say, I really still don’t understand everything that went on at the wedding, and honestly, I don’t think anyone did except the priest - Hindu priest of course. I can say that with complete confidence since several days before the wedding I asked Deepak about what we should except, and even he didn’t know!!! For the most part, a Hindu wedding will last 2-4 days depending on a number of factors, one of which I was able to figure out; the more days that are in the wedding means the higher the caste you are in. I was actually told this, plus, higher caste people can afford longer weddings, so they naturally last longer. What I don’t understand is what could possibly take longer to do. Can you see this happening in one of our weddings; “Thank you for coming everyone. Today we are going to hear about the bride, tomorrow the groom, day three, exchange vows, and on day four they will kiss.!” Talk about a wedding. Plus, I can see this going over in the US. Parents would spend their entire life savings just to say that their daughter’s wedding lasted 67 days!!!!! Of course they spend their life savings anyway, just to out do the Jones’, but thats another story all together.
The wedding took place outside of Mysore in a village that neither one of us can remember the name. It was is a very small village about a 45 minute drive from Mysore. The people of this village consider Mysore to be a big city. (For my friends in Vegas, Mysore is about the size of boulder, and friends from Utah, make that Beaver!!! So think about how small this village is, if one of these places was considered a city?)
It seemed like the entire village was there for the wedding, and even if everyone from the village was not there, I can assure you that the entire village knew about the wedding.
This was an arranged marriage, the bride was a friend of the families, and all I can really tell you is that her and Deepak had talked many times on the phone together, but had only seen each other twice before the wedding. After talking to Deepak, he told me that he had turned down several other girls, some of which would have put him into family money, but even though he new the marriage was going to be arranged, he wanted to make sure that he had feelings, or thought he could love this person, not just because the family wanted him to get married. I told him that was a very honorable thing to do.
We arrived the evening of the first day of the wedding. The main reason was that we were traveling with Ajay and Rakesh, and Ajay had to teach classes during the first day of the wedding so we left Mysore at about 5:30 that evening. The car ride for me was as usual, very stressful, and I hated it, but it didn’t last long, thank god!
We pull up to the reception center (thats what I’ll call it, and will explain more about it later), and get out of the car. Getting out of that car was the biggest mistake we ever made during this entire trip. I say that with good spirit however. You would have thought, had this been a Christian wedding, that the Pope just showed up. This is a small village, and white man does not come through often, or at least doesn’t stop here! We became the ABSOLUTE focus of attention for at least the next hour! We found out later that by just having us there, two Americans, invited by Deepak, was a very high honor for both families to have.
For the next hour I think I shook ten thousand hands and said my name 150,000 times. Of course at the same time next to me, Daren is doing the same thing. Everyone wanted to know where we were from and what we thought of their village. (Here in India, you must tell people you are from America, because most don’t understand the difference between American and The United States. Many of the people here know of the city Chicago however, because of President Obama). People, I can’t see the village for the villagers! If you ever want to feel like a movie star, just find yourself in a small village in India; and if you have blonde hair and blue eyes... we would never see you again! We had experienced things like this the last time we were here in India, but on a much smaller scale. This time we were invited guests of the groom, and everyone was going to make sure that they got to shake our hands.
Because of culture differences, we spent about 45 minutes only talking to the men that were at the wedding, and then slowly some of the women were bold enough to come up and say Hi. We were escorted to the family members of both the groom and bride, and as per custom, we could and did shake hands with all the men, but with the women, especially the older ones, we could only smile, nod our heads and say hello.
We spent about 2 hours total there that evening. We did get to see Deepak for a few minutes, and we did meet the bride for the first time. She does not speak English except for Hello and a few other small words. She was even hesitant to shake our hands, but Deepak told her in our culture that was considered normal so she did.
I have no idea what went on during the day, the first day of the wedding. I didn’t even think to ask I was so overwhelmed by everything that was going on. There was a hotel located next to the center which most of the family was staying at. Technically they didn’t have a room for us, but many of the family members were willing to condense so that we could have a room. There were as many as 8 people in a room already!!!!
Ajay felt it would be better if they took us somewhere, away from the wedding party, otherwise they didn’t think we would get any sleep. The party goes on all night, and being American, we would not have been left alone. There is a Buddhist Monastery, Bylakuppa, about 20 kilometers way that had places to stay for guests, so off we went to the monastery.
It was just Daren, I and the driver of the car that went to the monastery. Ajay and the gang stayed at the wedding to party. We get to a hotel that is right across the street, and Daren goes in to see if they have a room. We are in luck, they do. Daren gets the room, comes back out to get me and our bag. (We left most of our stuff in Mysore as we were only going to be gone for one night.) There were several shops and a restaurant on the main floor with rooms on the two floors above that. We made it just in time to eat something as they were getting ready to close up shop for the night. Daren took our backpacks up to the room while I ordered for us since they wanted to close the kitchen down. In the states that means clean up for the night, but not really sure what that means here in India?
When you are in places like this in India, you must be very careful about the food you chose to eat. Its not quite like the touristy places that understand the western needs of being clean. Basically you can only order things that have been cooked to death, and even then you must take your chances that the plates and utensils (if they give you some) are clean. We did order some Dal (lentils) and Chapati (basically a tortilla), and bottled water. It tasted good, we ate, and then went to the room.
As we approached the room Daren kept smiling at me and I should have know that something wasn’t good, but, like a dumb ass, I just kept smiling back. I hadn’t seen the room yet. The room was small and very basic, that I understood, and he told me there was no not water. I laughed and said thats why god invented deodorant. I didn’t need to take a shower in the morning, and no offense to anyone, but could guarantee I would be cleaner than many at the wedding.
I can’t say that the room was dirty per say. Its just that it was an old building, and you could tell that no one had stayed in the room for a while. There was a cob web between the pillow and the sheets! As Daren and I looked around the room a little more, we found a few more things that were hard to swallow, but if we slept in our clothes, using our backpacks as our pillows, not turn on the tap water, and keep one light on, we should make it out of here alive in the morning.
At this point, Daren told me he would be right back and left the room. I thought maybe he was going to see if they had a more recently cleaned room. I re-inspected the room again, took a picture and laughed, thinking, well I’m in India. Daren soon came back and had gone and talked to the driver. The driver was able to find out that the monastery itself had a place that visitors could stay, and found out where it was. Daren said we should go and try that place out. At this point in time I was up to sleeping in the car so I didn’t mind. The man was not at the front desk when we left, and I asked Daren if he was going to try and get his money back. He just shrugged his shoulders and said “It was $5, he can have it!”
They did have a room for us at the monastery. It’s layout was exactly the same as the other room, but his one was clean. This is a monastery, and not one that is used to getting western tourists. The mattress, whatever it was made of was soft, but we shared one blanket. There was no hot water, but already went down that road tonight. There was also no soap, towels of any kind, or toilet paper! The walls were bare, but we did have curtains on the window. Thats about all I can say about the place. It was clean, and we could spend the night relaxed, knowing that we would wake up alive in the morning and not be somethings meal for the evening...and so we did.
I’m going to divide up the next several entries. One will be about the monastery, titled such, then I will continue with the wedding.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Weekend Hotel
During our stay, the hotel that we checked into had told us that during the New Years weekend, they had a tour coming through and that we would need to change hotels for several days. Keep in mind that the hotels here are very small. Only a hand full have more than 20 rooms. The one we are staying at has about 18. Its not like Las Vegas where 3000 is considered the average! We didn’t mind this as the location for this hotel is very central to everything we do, and for several days it wouldn’t be to hard.
Of course that last statement all depends on what you consider hard. The hotel we started in, The Hawha, is a very nice hotel, and for Kovalam one of the better ones. It has marble floors, air conditioning, hot water in the shower (this is not as common as you might think), a TV (we never used) and we also had a small fridge. In certain parts of India this would be considered a 5 star hotel. They even had a security guard up front to keep the peddlers and non guests from coming into the hotel. Without thinking, you get used to some of these, what would you call them; luxuries....?
We Are In India people...! The hotel that we found to spend the four nights over the New Year’s weekend now has a special place in our hearts. A dark place, but a place none the less.
From the outside it looks very nice. Bright colors of paint, the main one being Orange! How can a place painted orange be that bad? I will say, on their behalf, that for the most part it was a clean room. We were told that just over this last rainy season they had up graded the hotel and fixed it up really nice. If this had been last year, we would not have even considered it a place to stay. Fresh paint does not make a place nice!!!
They were asking for more than twice what the other hotel was asking, and they claimed that it was because they have upgraded, and now consider themselves one of the better hotels in Kovalam. They also wanted for us to pay the entire stay up front which we told them no, we would pay half and go from there. The only thing we wanted more than any other was to have internet in the room. We would have preferred Wifi, but just having a cable in the room would be enough. That was part of the deal when we checked in; Internet in the room.
So we check in and got settled for the evening. We had spent most of the day just looking at other hotels to make sure there wasn’t a better one, but because of the holiday we were kind of stuck. The hotel sat behind some larger buildings that faced the beach, and was kind of tucked away, hidden behind most everything else, including a breeze! Its late in the evening and we are getting ready for bed. At this point in time we don’t have internet in the room yet, but the manager said we would later in the evening (how much later, its 9 p.m.). Laying on the bed I realized that I’m not going to be able to sleep because of the heat and humidity.
Most of the hotels here in Kovalam do something that is very clever. All the A/C units are remote controlled, you cannot control the units without the remote. Because electricity in Kerela (the state Kovalam is in), is very expensive they charge you more for A/C. In other words if you want to use the A/C you go to the front desk, pay more money and they hand you the remote. So not only are we paying twice as much as we were (for the internet that we don’t have), but we needed to fork over 250 Rs ($5) for the A/C remote. Okay, so I can sleep tonight.
Something else that I thought was interesting. This is also something that is not unusual here in India. The locks on these doors were basically the same kind of locking mechanism you would find on a bathroom stall. There was one on the outside for when you left the room, and one on the inside for when you were in the room. The one on the outside was designed so you would put a pad or key lock on it, so the room was secure when you left. My thought however is that; if someone wanted to, all they would need to do is slide that bolt over into the latch from the outside while you were inside, and there was no way of getting out! Most of the windows here have monkey/people bars on them. Years ago, they placed the bars on the windows to keep monkeys from coming into your room, but over time the monkeys are no longer in these parts, but they continue to place the bars on the windows for your protection and for the protection of your belongings. So, bolt moved over, no way out! Fire in the building.... oh well. Indians don’t think things through the way we do in the west.
Morning comes and we go to practice and then breakfast as usual. Once back at the hotel, Daren goes to take a shower. No hot water! Actually we did have hot water; from the tap. The hot water was not plumbed to the shower head. So, in the room was a large and small bucket. You fill the large bucket from the tap with hot water and using the small bucket, you pour the hot water over you. I guess we didn’t think to ask if the hot water came from the shower or not. Our mistake... still no internet.
That afternoon I was sitting on the patio which was the entrance to our room. They had two chairs and a small table so you could sit and read, or whatever. I soon noticed there was a large number of ants in the area. This was not to alarming, but as I followed the trail of ants I looked over near the edge of the patio, as we were on the second floor, and I noticed part of a spine of a very large fish sitting there, covered with these ants. Now, this part of the patio was a dead end, and the hotel didn’t serve food of any kind, so I’m not sure not only how, but why, this piece of spine made it up to this area of the hotel. Not a huge deal, I just brushed it off the patio and within minutes the ants were gone. Problem solved....still no internet.
Night comes and its time to go go bed. The next day is Saturday and there is no practice on Saturdays, so we get to sleep in and have breakfast at our leisure. At about 1 in the morning it began to rain. The sound of the rain coming down woke both Daren and I up. It was coming down quite hard, so I went out on to the patio which was covered, and watched the rain for a little while. That rain storm would have shut Las Vegas down for days. The amount of water that fell from the sky in that short time was amazing. Of course, this is what it is like everyday during the rainy season so this was nothing to the locals. (Note: Last night, which is about a week after our stay, we had a real Tropical Thunder Storm which was completely amazing! The thunder lasted about 2 hours then it rained non-stop for 8. We had about a 4 hour break, and it is now raining again quite hard. I believe the term would be “cats and dogs!” It didn’t rain once last time I was here so this is very enjoyable to me, plus it keeps the temp nice and cool.)
Back into bed I go. Listening to the rain fall, drop...drop...drop. At this point in time, in bed, it seems like I can now feel the rain. The ceiling is leaking! I grumble a little, tell Daren and begin to laugh. We are in India! So we move the bed away from the leak and return to bed, by this time ready to sleep the rest of the night.
Drip...drip...drip. Again! Different place. Water falling on me. So this time we get up and Daren goes to get the manager. So he arrives and tells us this has never happened before. That was his first answer to the problem...it hasn’t happened before. I didn’t think that was a very good answer to this problem, but he sure did. This I also knew wasn’t exactly true, it just may be the first time they knew about it, as after closer inspection of the ceiling there were older water marks.
Shortly after, the managers helper has come up to check out the amazing ceiling that seems to be creating water, like the rain has nothing to do with it. Maybe they thought of turning this room into a temple and worshiping it, since water is falling from the ceiling? (That was mean, but it is the middle of the night and you are offering no solutions - and we have no internet!) After talking for some time in their local language, their solution is to move the bed. Now, we had already moved the bed into the middle of the room, so now the bed is moved into the other corner of the room. Because of the head board and two walls, we can only get into bed from one side! But hey, at least water is not dripping onto the bed.
Daren then asked if they had another room open in case another part of the ceiling decided to open up and cry for us. This also started a very long conversation between the two of them in the local language. I started to laugh at this because this was a simple yes or no question. This wasn’t something that needed to be debated. Was there or was there not a open room in the hotel? They were talking like we had just asked them to bring some carpenters in and fix the ceiling right now in the middle of the night during the rain storm and while they are at it, fix the plumbing so we could have hot water in the shower, and install internet.
So, after breakfast the next morning Daren was out looking for a new place to stay. It didn’t take long and we were packing our bags. He had a very heated discussion with not only the manager, but was lucky enough to have his uncle, the owner, there as well. Daren had been very smart on the first day and had written into the hotel contract that the price we paid included the internet.
We had paid in advance for three nights, and since we were only staying two was asking for the money back, and since they couldn’t deliver on the internet wanted some of the money back for the two nights that we were there without that service. In the end, we did get some of the money back, which I didn’t think would happen, and the owner called the manager, which was his nephew, “a donkey!” I’m not sure what calling someone a donkey means. Did he mean Jackass? I don’t think I want to know. In front of Daren the uncle asked him why he said we could have internet when he know that wasn’t possible. His response was to fill up the rooms!
Needless to say, the hotel we are currently in is a five star hotel for Kovalam and we are very happy. We have showered in hot water, no leaks, or even water marks on the ceiling, its a new hotel, and they have internet in the restaurant right down stairs!
After about a week in the other hotel, we are back to the original one, and while we were gone they had installed Wifi!!! Now, its not perfect, and does go in and out, but... we have internet!
Of course that last statement all depends on what you consider hard. The hotel we started in, The Hawha, is a very nice hotel, and for Kovalam one of the better ones. It has marble floors, air conditioning, hot water in the shower (this is not as common as you might think), a TV (we never used) and we also had a small fridge. In certain parts of India this would be considered a 5 star hotel. They even had a security guard up front to keep the peddlers and non guests from coming into the hotel. Without thinking, you get used to some of these, what would you call them; luxuries....?
We Are In India people...! The hotel that we found to spend the four nights over the New Year’s weekend now has a special place in our hearts. A dark place, but a place none the less.
From the outside it looks very nice. Bright colors of paint, the main one being Orange! How can a place painted orange be that bad? I will say, on their behalf, that for the most part it was a clean room. We were told that just over this last rainy season they had up graded the hotel and fixed it up really nice. If this had been last year, we would not have even considered it a place to stay. Fresh paint does not make a place nice!!!
They were asking for more than twice what the other hotel was asking, and they claimed that it was because they have upgraded, and now consider themselves one of the better hotels in Kovalam. They also wanted for us to pay the entire stay up front which we told them no, we would pay half and go from there. The only thing we wanted more than any other was to have internet in the room. We would have preferred Wifi, but just having a cable in the room would be enough. That was part of the deal when we checked in; Internet in the room.
So we check in and got settled for the evening. We had spent most of the day just looking at other hotels to make sure there wasn’t a better one, but because of the holiday we were kind of stuck. The hotel sat behind some larger buildings that faced the beach, and was kind of tucked away, hidden behind most everything else, including a breeze! Its late in the evening and we are getting ready for bed. At this point in time we don’t have internet in the room yet, but the manager said we would later in the evening (how much later, its 9 p.m.). Laying on the bed I realized that I’m not going to be able to sleep because of the heat and humidity.
Most of the hotels here in Kovalam do something that is very clever. All the A/C units are remote controlled, you cannot control the units without the remote. Because electricity in Kerela (the state Kovalam is in), is very expensive they charge you more for A/C. In other words if you want to use the A/C you go to the front desk, pay more money and they hand you the remote. So not only are we paying twice as much as we were (for the internet that we don’t have), but we needed to fork over 250 Rs ($5) for the A/C remote. Okay, so I can sleep tonight.
Something else that I thought was interesting. This is also something that is not unusual here in India. The locks on these doors were basically the same kind of locking mechanism you would find on a bathroom stall. There was one on the outside for when you left the room, and one on the inside for when you were in the room. The one on the outside was designed so you would put a pad or key lock on it, so the room was secure when you left. My thought however is that; if someone wanted to, all they would need to do is slide that bolt over into the latch from the outside while you were inside, and there was no way of getting out! Most of the windows here have monkey/people bars on them. Years ago, they placed the bars on the windows to keep monkeys from coming into your room, but over time the monkeys are no longer in these parts, but they continue to place the bars on the windows for your protection and for the protection of your belongings. So, bolt moved over, no way out! Fire in the building.... oh well. Indians don’t think things through the way we do in the west.
Morning comes and we go to practice and then breakfast as usual. Once back at the hotel, Daren goes to take a shower. No hot water! Actually we did have hot water; from the tap. The hot water was not plumbed to the shower head. So, in the room was a large and small bucket. You fill the large bucket from the tap with hot water and using the small bucket, you pour the hot water over you. I guess we didn’t think to ask if the hot water came from the shower or not. Our mistake... still no internet.
That afternoon I was sitting on the patio which was the entrance to our room. They had two chairs and a small table so you could sit and read, or whatever. I soon noticed there was a large number of ants in the area. This was not to alarming, but as I followed the trail of ants I looked over near the edge of the patio, as we were on the second floor, and I noticed part of a spine of a very large fish sitting there, covered with these ants. Now, this part of the patio was a dead end, and the hotel didn’t serve food of any kind, so I’m not sure not only how, but why, this piece of spine made it up to this area of the hotel. Not a huge deal, I just brushed it off the patio and within minutes the ants were gone. Problem solved....still no internet.
Night comes and its time to go go bed. The next day is Saturday and there is no practice on Saturdays, so we get to sleep in and have breakfast at our leisure. At about 1 in the morning it began to rain. The sound of the rain coming down woke both Daren and I up. It was coming down quite hard, so I went out on to the patio which was covered, and watched the rain for a little while. That rain storm would have shut Las Vegas down for days. The amount of water that fell from the sky in that short time was amazing. Of course, this is what it is like everyday during the rainy season so this was nothing to the locals. (Note: Last night, which is about a week after our stay, we had a real Tropical Thunder Storm which was completely amazing! The thunder lasted about 2 hours then it rained non-stop for 8. We had about a 4 hour break, and it is now raining again quite hard. I believe the term would be “cats and dogs!” It didn’t rain once last time I was here so this is very enjoyable to me, plus it keeps the temp nice and cool.)
Back into bed I go. Listening to the rain fall, drop...drop...drop. At this point in time, in bed, it seems like I can now feel the rain. The ceiling is leaking! I grumble a little, tell Daren and begin to laugh. We are in India! So we move the bed away from the leak and return to bed, by this time ready to sleep the rest of the night.
Drip...drip...drip. Again! Different place. Water falling on me. So this time we get up and Daren goes to get the manager. So he arrives and tells us this has never happened before. That was his first answer to the problem...it hasn’t happened before. I didn’t think that was a very good answer to this problem, but he sure did. This I also knew wasn’t exactly true, it just may be the first time they knew about it, as after closer inspection of the ceiling there were older water marks.
Shortly after, the managers helper has come up to check out the amazing ceiling that seems to be creating water, like the rain has nothing to do with it. Maybe they thought of turning this room into a temple and worshiping it, since water is falling from the ceiling? (That was mean, but it is the middle of the night and you are offering no solutions - and we have no internet!) After talking for some time in their local language, their solution is to move the bed. Now, we had already moved the bed into the middle of the room, so now the bed is moved into the other corner of the room. Because of the head board and two walls, we can only get into bed from one side! But hey, at least water is not dripping onto the bed.
Daren then asked if they had another room open in case another part of the ceiling decided to open up and cry for us. This also started a very long conversation between the two of them in the local language. I started to laugh at this because this was a simple yes or no question. This wasn’t something that needed to be debated. Was there or was there not a open room in the hotel? They were talking like we had just asked them to bring some carpenters in and fix the ceiling right now in the middle of the night during the rain storm and while they are at it, fix the plumbing so we could have hot water in the shower, and install internet.
So, after breakfast the next morning Daren was out looking for a new place to stay. It didn’t take long and we were packing our bags. He had a very heated discussion with not only the manager, but was lucky enough to have his uncle, the owner, there as well. Daren had been very smart on the first day and had written into the hotel contract that the price we paid included the internet.
We had paid in advance for three nights, and since we were only staying two was asking for the money back, and since they couldn’t deliver on the internet wanted some of the money back for the two nights that we were there without that service. In the end, we did get some of the money back, which I didn’t think would happen, and the owner called the manager, which was his nephew, “a donkey!” I’m not sure what calling someone a donkey means. Did he mean Jackass? I don’t think I want to know. In front of Daren the uncle asked him why he said we could have internet when he know that wasn’t possible. His response was to fill up the rooms!
Needless to say, the hotel we are currently in is a five star hotel for Kovalam and we are very happy. We have showered in hot water, no leaks, or even water marks on the ceiling, its a new hotel, and they have internet in the restaurant right down stairs!
After about a week in the other hotel, we are back to the original one, and while we were gone they had installed Wifi!!! Now, its not perfect, and does go in and out, but... we have internet!
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