The City

I suggest you read "Trivundrum" before reading this post. After leaving the museum is was time for lunch. We went to a location named "Casa Bianca" or "The White House". The lady who owns this restaurant is a friend of the lady who owns "The German Bakery" and "Fusion" both of which we frequent in Kovalam. The main reason for visiting these two all the time is because they are run by westerners and the kitchens are always clean and their level of food expectations are higher than that of the locals.

Casa Bianca is literally a white house that was turned into a restaurant. On the main floor the kitchen is where the kitchen was, and the living room is a large sitting area. Upstairs there are two bedrooms which have also been turned into sitting areas. There are probably only ten tables in the whole place. We sat upstairs overlooking some neighbors garden, which was actually taken care of. The kitchen was closed from 3-6 and the only thing they could offer us, was the salads, sandwiches and pizza. Kitchen's closed between lunch and dinner, but they can make pizza? So I had pizza! Pineapple, and a mild chili pepper. I actually enjoyed the sweet and hot flavor the pizza had. We also had ice cream for dessert!

After a late lunch we headed down to the Central Train Station. (Of course we did!) The people coming and going from this place and the number and length of trains arriving here made Grand Central Station look deserted. It was packed with people. The majority of people here in India do not commute to or from work so these people for what ever reason were traveling. We read in the paper, just this morning, that India wants to have 20 new airports by the end of next year. The only airports this country has, for the most part are international airports into the cities. For a country the size of the United States, or most of Europe, thats not many. The people here in India for the most part can't afford to fly. For those of you that remember, When I bought my ticket from Bangalore to Trivundrum the ticket itself was $35.00. Taxes on that ticket were $42.50. Everyone travels here by train or bus. I could have spent hours at the train station, but was only there about 20 min. I did get some good photos of the place, and some of the unusual practices they have. They are allowed to cross the tracks, even though there is the sky bridge that will get them safely to each platform, and they stand in between trains while boarding! Just amazing.

We then headed to the main Hindu Temple of Trivundrum. This temple stands about 60-70 feet high, and is about 1000 years old so not only is it made of stone, but is also shaped like a pyramid, with Hindu carvings covering the outside instead of step-like. This is the temple that is closed to the general public because of the fundamentalist Muslims. They have had threats on the temple in the past. So here is their thinking; We will close the temple to anyone who is not Hindu. Now, they don't have cards or ID's that say "Hindu in good standing" so they literally take everyones word that they are Hindu. The catch is, because you cannot by tradition, convert to Hinduism, you must be born into it, they do not allow any westerners into the Temple. If you have white skin basically you're out. So, people like us can't go into the temple, people who would completely appreciate the place. This does not however stop a fundamentalist Muslim from acting like he is Hindu and walking in with bombs around their legs. Remember from our last temple visit, men can't wear shirts in the temples. Now, my thinking is that if a fundamentalist Muslim is going to high-jack a plane and ram it into the side of a building, then he would most likely walk into a Hindu temple with a bomb and blow it up. Indians however, don't think this way. (okay, off my soapbox now.) So we walked around the outside and sat on the steps for sometime and talked to a few of the natives. They truly are incredible people.

On our way back we stopped at another smaller temple and they were just starting some chanting for one of the gods - sorry not sure which one is was. I stepped back and watched while Daren, knowing what was going on, took part in the process. They would go up to different shrines, that had the doors closed and would begin to chant something in Sanskrit. After a time the doors would open to reveal the god inside, and then a man would take a lantern (with fire), and move it around the god, so the god could bless the fire, then would walk out into the crowd and the people would reach over and figuratively pull the fire into them as to cleanse their spirits. They did this with about 5 gods inside the temple. The temple walls were covered in ceramic tiles with mantras written on them in what I could tell was at least 5 different languages. This was a modern temple with steal beams for the ceiling so not very old, and didn't have the feel like the older temples do, but was non the less, Holy. After that was over several of the men talked to Daren for a moment and gave him some blessed food (several banana slices) and then waved me over and gave me some as well, just for being there. This truly amazes me, for they know that I'm not Hindu because I can't be, and even Daren, but yet they welcomed us with open arms, had no problems with us being in their temple, and evening wishing us well for the evening. The last man we saw as we were leaving the temple said "Namaste!"

Each temple is a little different on how it is run. We stopped at one more, and could have gone in, but we were not wearing the right clothes. Men are only allowed to wear a lungi, basically a piece of cloth about the size of a towel wrapped around their wast, like a dress. Women wear something similar, but of course, covers the top of their body as well. Had we been able to go into the main temple we would have needed a lungi as well. The temple we had just come from where we were treated so warmly, they didn't care! I'm trying to post the pictures still, but remember that cameras are not allowed into any of the temples - thats the one thing that is consistent, so sorry about that.

By this time is was almost 7:30 and we wanted to get back to the hotel as Friday mornings are the led class which means Lino instructs us through the whole series, and you are not be be late for this practice which starts at 7. Not early, but when you have been in the city for the whole day, especially one like this, its easy to sleep in. Needless to say we were at class on time, but did also get 10 hours of sleep that night. If you are reading this Bruce I thought about you several times and remembering our first trip to NY. The comment you kept making about how dirty the city was. After spending a day here in Trivundrum, I would eat scrambled eggs on the side walk in NY, compared to this place! Dirt was an understatement.