Catching up after Kerala

I am back in New Delhi with my friend Ross Miller. We dropped Lynn and Darren off at the airport last night for their return to the U.S. and have settled in here for a couple of days before heading to the holy city of Varanasi, on the Ganges, where a highlight will be the opportunity to attend a speech by the Dali Lama. No time now to recount the marvelous time we had in Kerala over the past week but I will catch up over the next couple of days. The historical city of Cochin is now swamped by the worst aspects of tourism but is such a compelling place that it's not to be missed. It's been a hub of trade for thousands of years and the mix of cultures there is extraordinary. From Cochin, where we celebrated the new year with a gala dinner and where Darren and Lydia danced the night away with the staff, we headed to the tropical backwaters of Kerala for a wonderfully restuful overnight cruise on a huge houseboat. The cook on the boat produced one of the great meals of our trip, local fish and great curries. From there we settled into a fabulous resort on the Periyar river near the Arabian sea. From there we visited an important Hindu temple (the temple architecture here is dramatically different than in Tamil Nadu, low lying with Chinese and Japanese architectural styling, more like Buddhist temples than anything we saw in Tamil Nadu (because of the trade routes here, among other things). We were also able to attend two dance drama performances and visit a school where Kathakali and other dances are being preserved. I'll post pictures later of all these places. After most of our group went home Lynn, Darren, Ross and I spent three amazing days living with Tripthi Pillai's extended family near Kottayam. From there we went high into the Keralan mountains where there are rubber tree and tea planatations, hiking in the high country. The second day we rented another houseboat and took the whole Pillai family for a cruise. The kids took off from school and we had a wonderful day. Much of the food we ate with the Pillai's came from their back yard, roots and plants we'd never seen before prepared deliciously. What a wonderful visit that was, a very special opportunity with extraordinaly gracious people.