R-e-l-a-x

One day when I was limping around the ashram, one woman said to me, "Well, everything happens for a reason. Maybe you just need to rest."

How true that was.

The past week and a half has been some of the most relaxing and scenically beautiful times of this trip.. which my foot certainly needed. I still have no idea what I exactly did to it... but I sure looked injured. A bandaged foot and a serious limp got me a lot of attention. Everyone wanted to know what happened. It's so funny, how in-your-grill Indians can be. Juliana overheard one family exclaim, "LOOK! Something has happened to that girl's foot!" And then everyone looked over to see me limping away, with lots of "oooohhhhhs!!!!" and "aaahhhhhss!"

After Varkala, we headed to the infamous backwaters of Kerala, which are apparently India's biggest tourist attraction. We rented a houseboat for a night, which was quite romantic, continuing Juliana and my seemingly endless date. But seriously... talk about picturesque. I spent most of my time sitting on the covered rooftop in a bamboo chair, with my feet up, watching the bending palm trees fall into the river. We ate deliciously fresh Keralan food and had discussions about whether all truths are true... and then talked about the fact that we had the TIME to talk about these things, and how lucky we are. Talk about relax.

After another day spent in the backwaters, we took an overnight train to Kannur in Northern Kerala. We got off the train in a zombie-like status and had a semi-frustrating time finding a decent hotel.

We came to Kannur not only because it's a jump-off point for Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, but also because Juliana's got a tip from a friend from home, who said Kannur was home to theyyam performances (an intense ritualistic art form that pre-dates Hinduism)... and the nicest people in India.

Both were true.

We got good vibes from our rickshaw driver that morning (who helped us find a hotel, with no interest in commission...), so we called him later to take us to a theyyam performance. He picked us up around 3:30 in the afternoon from our hotel, and we drove about 45 minutes down the coast, to this tiny, in-the-middle-of-tropical-India temple. Talk about getting off the beaten track. When we were in Kannur, we were getting a lot of those , "how did you get here" looks. Not rude - in any way - just confused. So when our rickshaw driver pulls up to this temple, a couple of men approach us and we're like... "Hi... is there a theyyam here?" And their faces just explode with ear-to-ear smiles and are so happy that we've sought this out. But, we just missed the afternoon performance. Come back at 6, they said.

We had some time to kill, so our driver took us to this quite little beach resort for some coffee. The owner, Matthew, was this adorable older Indian man who wore a bright red lungi and thick black glasses. He spoke no English and laughed, a lot. We loved him. He made us yummy coffee, South Indian style, and ... we still had a lot of time to kill.

I sat with our driver on rocks overlooking the ocean while Juliana went for a walk along the beach, and I am so glad that my foot prevented me from going anywhere, and I was somewhat forced to make conversation with our driver. I love this guy. We covered a lot of ground, considering how slowly and simply we had to speak English. We showed each other pictures of our friends and family, we talked about his love marriage (vs. arranged marriage), how he loved his job because he gets to meet people from all over the world, how he hates when drivers charge too much for foreigners and how he doesn't want us going home saying Indians are bad people.... I talked about how I knew what he meant, wanting to give others a good impression of your country and culture (we all remember the Bush years...), we talked about war, about school... it was lovely. When Juliana got back from her walk she told me about this particularly beautiful moment she just had; as if Life was just saying to her, "I cordially invite you... to live!" And she laughed out loud. I loved that. Life is indeed for living.

It was finally time for the theyyam performance.. which was one of the most special, intimate looks at a culture in my life. Everyone was so welcoming and it really felt like they wanted us to be there, and that they were so proud of their heritage and traditions, and knew how special it was. It was all so real - only locals, in this discreet temple. There were two performers who apparently fast and meditate for days before a performance, and spend hours and hours putting on elaborate make-up and costumes. You really believe that these people become gods, as they appear possessed and start jumping around to intense drumming. All the while, people are praying and kids are running around playing. I am just in awe that something that pre-dates Hinduism is still in practice... and that we got a chance to see it... in such an organic set-up.

Our sweet driver took us around after to find me an ankle brace, and then bought us sweets. What a lovely, lovely man.

The next day we took a 3 hour bus to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. We stayed at a homestay that was so special. Good lord, continuing the kindest people I've ever encountered. This family was so warm. So sincere, and in the most genuine way possible. It was like this infectious disease... this kindness... as every other traveler we met staying there just radiated with joy and appreciation for this family.

We spent a lot of time with a British couple, a French couple and this Swedish woman named Margaret.

Margaret was a special lady. She had to be over 75 years old, and she is traveling around India, by herself. She is itty-bitty and wears thick-framed black glasses and has this poofed up blonde hair secured with about twenty bobby pins. Margaret told us stories about living in India, Indonesia, Japan, Ethiopia... she told us about road-tripping through the Middle East with German tiger hunters...?? She was just an incredible lady. It was funny when she spoke about living in India, "...when Nehru was president..."

Northern Kerala is so calm, so shanti. We had a lot of downtime, as we would go on one "activity" each day (i.e. walking to waterfalls, visiting a tea factory, safari, etc). I spent a good amount of time in this little bamboo perch overlooking rice fields. Can't complain.

I also saw a wild elephant! The French couple and Juliana and I were in the back of a jeep, on our way from seeing a waterfall, and a driver comes to screeching halt. He starts pointing excitedly and shouts, "ELEPHANT!!" So we all squirm for our cameras freaking out and then the elephant starts making somewhat angry noises at us and begins approaching... which is when our driver turns off the car and casually mentions that elephants can run at a starting speed of 40 km/hr, and Juliana chimes in that elephants can outrun lions. And this elephant that we're seeing... it's within 20 feet of us... and it seems to be angry. It was so funny, the four of us in the back are going back and forth between freaking out that there is a wild elephant in front of us and how cool that is and then freaking out about, uh, maybe we should go this elephant could run us down...!!! The driver just sat there and laughed at us.

Northern Kerala turned out to be one of the most special places of our trip. I can't really explain it, but it was just so real.

..... and now we're in Goa. Quite different.