Washington, D.C. Trip

Here's a slideshow of our Washington, D.C. trip. It rained every day, it was cold and we didn't take jackets, the people of D.C. were generally rude, and our bodies ached from walking 20+ miles (literally) in 3 days....BUT we still had an amazing time! We toured the White House, saw the famous monuments during the day and at night, went to several museums, and had some great (but overpriced) food. We look forward to going back one day with kids, later in Spring, with jackets, and extra cash for taking cabs everywhere (no more walking)!

Trip to Kerala: Elephant Park in Munnar

We stopped by a roadside elephant park in Munnar for a ride on an elephant. Although I didn't really want to go because it was raining, I'm glad we did because it was so much fun! Our elephant and guide took us up and down and around on the foresty, muddy hills. It was a little scary at times because the hills were pretty steep, but the elephant was huge so it was probably nothing for him! At the end, we got to feed him a treat basket with some fruit, which I also was a little hesitant to do because I had didn't want to get my fingers sucked up in his snotty, hot-breath snout!

Trip to Kerala: Houseboat cruise in Alleppey

We went on a houseboat day cruise in Alleppey. Unfortunately, due to my tiredness, I seem to have lost all of the photos from this part of our trip!

When we stepped onto the houseboat, we were greeted with jasmine leis and coconuts with a straw poked into it. The houseboat was very nice with a little open air living room for us to relax in and soak in the scenery. Our 5-hour cruise took us through the backwaters into tiny little backwater villages completely isolated from the mainland, connected only by the backwater canals- no roads and no cars. We got a close look at village life seeing baths, laundry, fishing, cooking, playing, and just hanging out.

We had three crew members on our ship. The captain was very sweet and told me his name was John. I didn't believe him until he showed me his boat license a while later and his name really was John Vanaynungenbakkam or something like that! The captain let Brian drive the boat for a while while we were int he middle of the lake. The captain's chair wasn't made for Brian's 6-3 body so he looked like a giant!

John spoke OK English, but we still had a little trouble communicating. I have realized that even when were speaking English with some people, we are still worlds apart! John was telling us about the sights we were seeing and the way of life in Kerala. He told us about the different industries in Alleppey- number one industry is rice, number two is fishing and number three is houseboats. Then when we got to the lake, he was proudly telling us all about Ben Bernard Lake. "Ben Bernard Lake?" we asked. Yes! Hmmm...I guess I'll have to look up who Ben Bernard is.

When I consulted my Lonely Planet India guide after the trip, I realized it was Vembenad Lake. If you say Ben Bernard really fast and with a British accent, it does sound surprisingly similar to Vembanad!

We stopped for a traditional Kerala lunch on the boat. We had rice, vegetables, chicken curry, and salad. The best part was the Kerala fish fry- they took a whole freshly caught fish and fried it up for us. This would have been good, but they skipped a few steps that we are used to from back home- gutting it, cutting the head off, taking it off the bone, etc. They served me the fish and it was screaming at me with its mouth open and his tail mid-wag! I quickly his my fish behind the rice bowl so I didn't have to look at it, but Brian tried his. He said the flavor was pretty good, but then on his next bit he got some entrails and just about threw up. Yummm!

Trip to Kerala: Kathakali

From Wikipedia:

Kathakali is a highly stylised classical Indian dance drama noted for its attractive make-up of characters, their elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor playback music and complementary percussion. It originated in the country's present day state of Kerala during the 16th century AD, approximately between 1555 and 1605, and has been updated over the years with improved looks, refined gestures and added themes besides more ornate singing and precise drumming.

In actuality, Kathakali was a little creepy and weirded us out! The man dressed as a woman kept making kissy faces at us, which was freaky. I'm glad we experienced this, but it's not something I would want to see every weekend!

Trip to Kerala: Paddleboat

The weather cleared up just barely enough for us to go paddleboating. For 100 rupees, we got to take the boat out for 30 minutes to enjoy the scenery. If we were in the U.S. there would have been a million rules for an activity like this, but we were just told to put on a life jacket and don't go to far. Ok!

Brian's giant feet were too big for the pedals, so he had to take his shoes off to pedal. He would slow down enough for me to help, so I let him do all of the work. We made a few friends out on the water and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. It started to rain after about 20 minutes and started to get really cold, so we headed back to shore just in time before the heavy rain started up again.

Trip to Kerala: Kodanad Elephant Training Center

I read about an elephant training center on a great traveler Web site called IndiaMike.com. Other travelers had mentioned that you could go at 8 a.m. every morning and see the trainers bathe elephants in the river. I am so glad we did this because it was was of the highlights of our trip.

In the U.S., you would never get the chance to experience these animals so up close without fences, rules and for sure a paid ticket! This was not an organized tour or anything, it was just part of the elephants' care that we were able to witness just because we happened to be there. There was one other couple and a family there with us, but that was it so it made it really exciting to be a part of this activity.

The elephant trainers didn't speak any English, so they couldn't talk to us about what they were doing or why they were doing it, but it was awesome just to watch. One elephant got a thorough bath that lasted over an hour. The others just got a dip in the river. We got to see two adult elephants and three adorable babies.

One of the babies had extra chains on his feet and through the apparently universal sign of "crazy" (rotating your pointer finger in a circle on the side of your head) we figured out that he was the wild child. Poor kid!

Kerala

We made a trip to Kerala, which turned out to be the most amazing trip we have ever taken.

Kerala is a state located in southwestern India. One of Brian's co-workers back home is from Kerala and had told us about how beautiful it was and that it is a tropical location with lots of coconuts. Well, he was right!

It is monsoon season so it rained the majority of the time on our trip. We had planned on that, so it didn't put a damper on our plans. We made the best of it, and I think the rains actually added to the beauty of the land.

We spent a night in Kochi, a day on a houseboat in Alleppey, two nights in Munnar and a day in Fort Chochin. We packed in so much during our short trip that when we looked at all of our photos at the airport while waiting for the flight home, we had forgotten some of the things we had done!

The scenery and natural wonder of Kerala kept us awe-struck for the entire trip. It was more beautiful for words and unfortunately since it was raining we don't have many pictures of the scenery. But, we have it in our memories and will surely go back one day to visit again.