It finally happened. We got sick.  Part of me thinks this is because we were starting to get proud of our seemingly superior gastrointestinal tracts.  Six months in Asia and we had dodged all major illnesses, until Varkala.

We are not sure the source of the ills.  But lucky for us, our sickness was staggered.  Brandon first and then me.  So instead of lying on the beach, soaking up the sun, we were lying in bed.  I'll spare you the details but let me saw that it's a good thing Indian bathrooms come with a bucket. Despite getting knocked down we both recovered fairly quickly and didn't need to see a doctor.  

Our time in Varkala flew by so we decided to extend our stay five days and cut out Gokarna.  We took it easy for a couple more days and then finally spent our last few days exploring.

Varkala is beautiful.  The tourist town is on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea.  There are beaches with soft, clean sand, and clear water. The power of the surf was stronger than any I'd been in the past, so I stayed close to the shore.

The thing we like most about Varkala were the people.  When we arrived at our guesthouse, Skylark, we found out the owner, Faith, was from Vashon (an island near Seattle).  She went to Evergreen like Brandon and we know people in common.  When we went out to Johnny Cools for cake, we met another expat from Portland, OR and chatted for a couple hours. She had just returned from an evening in Trivandrum where she saw Sting and Sir Bob Geldorf perform.  The owner of the Juice Shack, Umesh, made great drinks and food, but also struck me as a long lost friend.  I met all sorts of people and savored the conversations.

We quickly realized why Varkala sucks people in.  It's a hard place to leave.  But as we have less than a month left in India now, we had to say goodbye so we could see more of the country.

When we arrived in Madurai, the day before Diwali, the festivities had already begun.  There was a noticeable elevation of spirits, joy in the air.  People were out en masse buying new clothing.  And the fireworks were already part of the landscape here.

Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights.  I've gathered it's like Thanksgiving and New Year in the USA, but religious.  Diwali signifies the defeat of Rama over Ravana, good over evil, light over darkness.  On Diwali you start anew, wear new clothes, and blow things up.

Fireworks are an essential part of the Diwali experience.  For three solid days, people shot off fireworks at all hours.  Street vendors sold them, from the small loud ones to the giant fireworks like the ones we'd see in the US on the 4th.  We had a great view from our hotel.  Check out this video I took from our balcony:

The main attraction in Madurai is the Meenakshi Temple.  It's a very famous Hindu temple that has been the center of Madurai for 2500 years (although the current structure is from around 1600).  The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and Parvati (also known as Meenakshi).  We only grabbed photos from the outside as we tried to be respectful of the sacred environment inside.

At the Gandhi museum we learned a lot about the struggle for independence, starting as early as colonization began.  Like US history, the stories of these early freedom fighters doesn't seem to be well known, especially beyond India's borders. 

One evening we went to the "sound and light" show at the Madurai Palace.   We heard a very glowing history of Madurai and its defeat over Mysore (also on our itinerary).  Since it was the day after Diwali, fireworks were still going off around the palace, adding to our "sound and light" experience.

We saw our first movie in India - Robot!  Highly entertaining!  A few interesting things:  we had assigned seats, there was an intermission (good thing, since the movie was 3 hours long), and they shut off the movie before showing the credits.  Weird.  The plot was easy to follow though and lots of fun. 

Finally - and this will not be my last post about food - below is a photo of one of our amazing meals.  Sometimes, when we're really hungry, we go all out and get a thali, a full meal.  This one, half-eaten by me, had a couple of curries, rassam, sambar, curd, mango pickle, and a desert.  Yum. 

Up until now I haven't had a good enough connection to upload videos. Here's one of the monkeys at Angkor Wat:

"No birds," said the man working the entrance to the Kumarakom Bird  
Sanctuary.  Ok, we just traveled an hour by bus to get here, then  
walked around for a half hour or so looking for the place (the sign  
pointing to the entrance had been uprooted and pointed us in the wrong direction).

Seeing we had invested a bit of time and effort into this venture, we  
decided to pay the $1 each and go in anyway.  And the man was right -  
there were no birds. I think there were more birds outside and around  
the park but for some reason they weren't going in.

It was a nice walk and worth the dollar I suppose.  The best part was we met two nice young women on the bus ride who taught us how to say a 
couple things in Malayam, the language of Kerala.

Kottayam was our base for the visit to the sanctuary. We stayed there  
a couple nights.  We arrived via public ferry from Alleppey, which only  two hours cost just 50 cents each.  The ferry is the cheap way to get a  
feel for the Keralan backwaters, without spending a lot of money on a  
houseboat tour.  I highly recommend it if you're being really budget  
conscious. We only spent a night in Alleppey but we loved our meals there (50 cent masala dosas)!  It was Halloween and appropriately, we saw another giant spider!

We left Kottayam and headed to Kumily for another sanctuary - the  
Periyar Wildlife santuary, home to 40+ tigers and loads of other  
animals.  The 4 hr bus ride there was breathtaking.  Kumily is up in  
the mountains, the western ghats, and as we climbed we passed tea  
estates, rubber plantations, and just outright gorgeous views of the  
green landscape of Kerala.

We went on a 2.5 hr early morning "nature walk" at Periyar.  They  
warned us that there would be leeches so I rented a pair of leech  
socks. Brandon decided to stick with his woolies tucked into his pants.

I've never had to deal with leeches before but watching the little  
suckers dive into the mesh of my sneakers was rather horrifying.  I  
swatted them off my socks as best as I could and tried to enjoy the  
hike.

The hike was beautiful. We walked through the forest for about an  
hour.  We saw a tree that had been scratched by a tiger.  Then we entered a gorgeous clearing where bison and wild boar were grazing in the distance. They were the only big wildlife we saw - in the wet season the animals don't have to come out as often for water.

When we got back I took off my leech socks and was surprised to see no 
bites. Brandon wasn't so lucky - he got 11 bites on his feet.

We got back to the hotel to clean up Brandon's injuries. Leech bites 
bleed for a while since the leeches inject an anti-coagulant Into the 
blood.  I decided to change my pants before heading out for breakfast 
and there was a leech on my upper right calf!!  Argh!  Brandon quickly 
grabbed a lighter, lit it under the leech, and it dropped off, fat and 
full of my blood.  Brandon figured that since it was so successful it 
wouldn't be nice to kill it (plus it would have very messy) so he 
airlifted it to the bushes outside.

We spent half the day laid up, waiting for our bites to stop bleeding.  Fun times.

On a less bloody note, we went to a Kathakali performance one 
evening.  Kathakali is traditional Keralan dance.  The performers get 
all made up and use a lot of intricate hand and eye movements to tell 
their story.

Here's a short video I took: 

On a final note - on the main strip in Kumily there were two  
restaurants across the street from each other - Sree Krishna and the  
Lord's Family Restaurant.  Which god makes the best food?

The Lord's Family Restaurant.  Mary makes a damn good gobi masala.

We're back in India!  The AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur took 4 hours and safely deposited us at the Cochin airport, in the southwest of India.   Cochin is a popular starting point for Keralan backwaters tours and such, so it's a fairly touristy area.

It is nice to be back in the country when the weather is more manageable.  It was around 80 degrees when we landed, very comfortable!  Our packs were already at the carousel when we got through customs (so fast!).  When we exited the airport we weren't surrounded by tuk tuk drivers.  Strangely, we were allowed to walk to the bus stop.  So far so good.

It didn't take long for us to have our first reminder that we were back in India.  After waiting for 45 minutes at a bus stop for the bus into the city, we watched it fly past us and leave the airport.  Sweet.  Apparently all the people we asked if this was the bus to Ft Kochi didn't really know.  I grabbed a couple of cups of chai, resigned to a long wait, and luckily another bus showed up within a half hour.

Fort Kochi is a fascinating place.  You can see evidence of all the colonial influences on the area.  The Portuguese colonized the area in the 1500s, making it the first European colony in India.  At the time, there was also a sizeable Jewish community there (and you're still able to visit "Jew Town).  Then the Dutch came and conquered Kochi.  There are lots of Christians there.  It has been and still is a major spice trading market.

We spent a couple days wandering around Kochi.  I got a shirt made, sold a couple of books.  We ate at the Elite Hotel for breakfast every morning -- had amazing idlis, appam, idiappam.  Mmmm, keralan breakfast!! The best.  We checked out the old Dutch Palace which had amazing mural art.  

I found Ft Kochi to be a bit expensive, so we were happy to catch our bus to Alleppey to find some cheap digs and eats.

On October 20th, we left paradise (Koh Lanta) and began our journey to Malaysia.  It took about 13 hours from start to finish, from Koh Lanta to Georgetown, on Penang Island in Malaysia.  Typically this journey takes 8 hours but we did it ourselves, which meant we subjected ourselves to long waits and bus stop confusion, but didn't have to deal with the hassle of being part of a tour.  


People visit Penang for its food as well as the confluence of cultures and religions on the island.  Unfortunately I was stricken with what I'm calling "Malaysian Malaise" for the 6 days we were in the country.  No fever, just generalized weakness and random symptoms.  I don't blame Malaysia for this, but it definitely put a damper on the week in country.


Due to the malaise, we didn't really get to enjoy the supposedly amazing food in Penang.  Most of it seemed to be meat-based anyway, which we're not eating.  We did walk around a bit and loved walking past the temples (Buddhist and Hindu) and mosques.  The smell of incense, the brightly colored facades, the breathtaking calls to prayer.  In Penang, we also began our tour of Malaysia's malls.

In Penang and Kuala Lumpur, there are malls everywhere.  According to Wikipedia, there are 66 malls in the city.  During our travels, we've gone to quite a few malls.  Often just to get out of the heat and take note of local teenage customs.   In Kuala Lumpur, we went to two malls - one at the base of the Petronas Towers and another called "Times Square."

The mall at the Petronas towers was like Pacific Place (in Seattle) or that fancy mall in Copley in Boston.   We splurged and ate at the Sushi King, a conveyor belt style sushi parlor.  Gotta get our fix whenever we can!


Then we hopped the subway to the "Times Square" mall -- 13 floors! - and checked out the amusement park inside.  Then we saw the American movie, "Red."  

One day we headed out to the Batu Caves, easily reachable by the Kommuter train.  An aside - KL's public transportation seems to be pretty expansive, except there doesn't appear to be a transfer system between lines (as they're run by separate entities).  


The Batu Caves are a Hindu shrine dedicated to Lord Murugan (that's him standing out front).  They are loaded with macaques, which also makes for a fun time.  We climbed the steps to the top and checked out the 400 million year old caves.  Maybe a good spot to ride out the apocalypse?

Back in downtown, KL we began to prep ourselves for our return to India, by eating Indian food!


One night Brandon tried to order a masala dosa and the waiter said "no, too small."  He suggested the paper dosa.  Brandon obliged and look at it!! The potato filling was served in a separate dish.  If I were eating it, I would have squashed it down first, but he kept it nice and rounded the whole time.  So disciplined he is!

Finally, I got myself a drink in a bag.  The 2 months we've been in SE Asia I've seen people drinking beverages from bags.   But whenever I'd ordered one, I always got a cup.  Not on our last morning. I got myself some iced coffee.  

Actually, the coffee was awful... way too sweet.  But it still made me happy.