Its now about 2.5 days without wifi at the Ashram. Apparently this happens once in a while. In the event there is concern, I’m all good. 🙂 On Sunday my roommate left for her travels through other parts of India. She was not part of the course. Tomorrow is our day off but we STILL have to attend the 6am meditation. So much for sleeping in. This time, I’m SO not getting used to the early wake up time at all. It’s always go-go and there’s no real down time since the courses are frequently running over time. Alice and I are heading to Alleppy after for a back water trip and my former roomie will meet us there. Hope to get some good pics.
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If you ever make it to South India, take the opportunity to rent a houseboat with lunch. The backwater trip was nothing short of beautiful!! The 3 of us had a large houseboat for 5 hours…a huge overkill but worked out well for finding quiet – absolutely necessary for all senses to absorb the experience. Got some nice pictures but can’t capture how calm this was, and yet so full of life.
…
If you ever make it to South India, take the opportunity to rent a houseboat with lunch. The backwater trip was nothing short of beautiful!! The 3 of us had a large houseboat for 5 hours…a huge overkill but worked out well for finding quiet – absolutely necessary for all senses to absorb the experience. Got some nice pictures but can’t capture how calm this was, and yet so full of life.
The house boat -Kerala Backwaters
We enjoyed (vegetarian) breakfast, lunch, chai, fruits, fried plantains and more chai…all prepared on the boat. Talk about lavish! 🙂
The cashew fruit and nut. One of my favourites!
I
“Madam, this is the largest lake in India.” I put down the camera to hear some details from one of the boat guides. I love how they say ‘madam’ so this is one of the few times I’m not at all tempted to ask that they call me by my name! It’s so much better than ma’am. 🙂
Parasurama, the 6th of 10 Avatars of Lord Vishnu, threw his battle axe into the sea. As a result, the land of Kerala arose, reclaimed from the sea.
Sights along the backwaters…
Washing clothes along the bank.
Boat taxi.
My roommate on left and Alice on right.
Really majestic to see elephants here like this but quite unfortunate the chains on all legs. Support the practice of riding elephants, and this ‘attraction’ will continue.
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Great, you were already at Alleppy! Isn't it a beautiful place? We got a smaller boat (your 11th pic). We were advised to see more of local villagers because the larger boats can not go through the small canals.
Great pics, especially you captured the bird which we missed!
I shouldn't spill the beans of the fruit's name 😉
Le
It was really, really nice. If I have time, I'd like to try the smaller boat too. You would know this fruit. Do you like it? The 'tourists' here can't even stand the smell. 🙂
We never tasted it because we found on the previous trip to VN, in a nature reserve. They were thousand of this fruit on the ground in an over-riped fermentation stage. So yes the smell was pungent! Le
Lovely pictures! I know the fruit name – should I spill the beans? mom
I'm going to say it is a quince. Love the pics.
Karen
Its the fruit cashew with the nut on the bottom! mom
I'm curious what they do to the fruit once the cashew nut is removed. Wonder if its really a seed? It's no wonder why cashews are expensive.
Thanks Karen. Nice to hear from you! It's the cashew nut and fruit. The nut grows on the bottom of the fruit on a very large tree.
Aye! You don't like to keep people in suspense eh? :).
WOW! I learned something new today. You sound very relaxed. Much different than the first time.
Karen
My teacher, Bhoomaji gave each one of us a bag of almonds, a bag of raisins, and a bag of unroasted cashews for snack time. Cashews are not expensive in India! Le
someone said it is a quince so got to set that straight! hahaha! mom
I've been eating a tub of these all week. I'd love to try the fruit itself though, as I've never tried. 🙂
– Cedric
Checked up on my/your boys – they are doing well and missing you of course.mom
The fruit is definitely an acquired taste! 🙂
Missing them like crazy too! Taking off sort of helps! :).
Definitely more relaxed compared to my 1st time in India. I think it's due to learning a lot from the first training to the couple years of teaching afterwards…mostly confidence.
beautiful places !! enjoy the experiences madam ;)…. miss u, butt do not get any ideas and work us hard when u are coming back for teaching…. lol 🙂 liliana
Ya right! 😉