Lights, Camera.....Monsoon??
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2006
1
12
15
Trip End
Nov 06, 2006
Cochin, India
Monday, October 23, 2006
We spent 2 nights in the backwaters and had a little vacation from our vacation. It was an isolated hotel, where we actually had our rooms on one island and had to take a boat to get to the other island where the restaurant was. The peace and quiet was great after all of the noisy cities we have been to. While we were here we went on a canoe ride through the narrow canals and saw where many people lived. We also got to celebrate Diwali, afestival of lights on Oct. 21. Depending on the moon position (always on a full moon), Diwali is celebrated in October or early November every year. The story behind the celebration is based on the Ramayana epic. In this story, Lord Rama (who is the good guy)has his wife Seetha abducted by Rawan (the bad guy). Rawan has special powers that don't allow him to be killed. However, on Dussherra he is killed by Lord Rama (Dusshera was celebrated on October 2 this year).To welcome Lord Rama and his wife back to his hometown, they light it up with lamps. This festival is big throughout India and it is celebrated with fireworks! We bought a lot and set them off on Saturday night on our small island at the hotel. A family from North India was there for a holiday and they passed around sweets and wished everyone a happy Diwali. Normally, in a city there are fireworks going off a few days before, the day of and all throughout the night. People also celebrate by buying new clothes and in Bhujarat it is the beginning of their new year after Diwali.
Before the backwaters, we spent a few days in Thekaddy which is up in some hills and quite a bit cooler than what we were used to. A few of us had to visit the local doctor (a few bad tummies and an infection from a bug bite for me) and I had the pleasure of chatting with the doc. He asked me what I did for work and I explained my dental background. He admitted he hates going to the dentist (could this be universal?) and told me it had been a few years since he had gone. However, he did have several concerns with his teeth that we chatted about them for some time. He also told me that he was going through a bit of a mid-life crisis (he just turned 50 on Oct. 6, yet another Libra) and he always wanted to go to film school! He was looking into several schools that were in Canada even. He has 5 storyboards ready and just has to sell more of his property and he is going to get up and move. He did get to treating my bites but we had a few laughs along the way. The clinic was quite clean and the nurses in their starched white sarees were very efficient!
Lastly, my roomate and I went out for a bite to eat about 5 minutes from our hotel and when we were returning we got caught in a bit of a rain storm. It was the heaviest rain I had ever seen, even more than that little hurricaine I was in when I visited New Orleans a few years ago! We were soaked right through in a matter of seconds even though we had on our 'rain gear'. I thought I was prepared but I was wrong. Everyone else was sitting on their balconies and they had a big laugh watching us two drowned rats coming back. We were leaving the next day so our clothes didn't even have a chance to dry out. It was a few days until we could get them to the laundry at our next hotel and they ended up taking on an interesting smell!
