"Napkin Madam! This is Kerala"

Says the waitor to me in a slightly sketchy fast food joint in Kochi. Implying, I think, that unlike the rest of India, Kerala is better--well, at least different. And that wiping one's hands and one's nose on the same napkin is just not appropriate. But apparently taking off your lungi (male skirt) in public and re-wrapping it is just a-ok. Alright, I'll live with that.

Kerala, however, is different from all the other states I've been in so far. Namedly...it rains A LOT here...everyday, so its very very green. And despite being the most densely populated state, it seems quieter and slightly cleaner than other places. More educated to boasting 100% literacy in some regions...and the societal structure is a matriarchy. Which astounds me as after 9pm all we see are hoards and gaggles and packs of men...everywhere. Luckily we're a possy of females! (or perhaps unluckily?)

Anyway, we've got a couple more weeks here and now that we've seen the pooram, we're off to some of the inland areas to ride bikes and hike and relax in the green! ah, green! :)))))))))

Sleeping in a train station.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. That's what we did...on the benches with all the other homeless men, women and children. There was no where else for us to go. Then we also slept on the train, which was much better...less cockroaches and rats.

Never done that before!

NB--not exactly our choice but our train just decided to not stop at our station and so we continued an hour past our hotel....and couldn't catch any trains back until 5:45am!

Pooram Festival, Thrissur

Today we went to the Pooram Festival. Wow, we sure saw a lot of elephants...all elaborately dressed.

And then it rained, thundered and lighninged. And then the sun shone. Then it rained and thundered so hard that it shorted out the lights in the tent we were hiding in because of leakage into the tent! So we ran away to another tent and ate icecream while it continue to pour.

Then we went into tents in the "fair" part of the festival...and saw things like the history of India, Indian Railways, plants. And dead babies in jars. Yes, babies. At a fair. I don't know what to think of that. I am not sure what planet I am on. But there they were.

Then I went on the scariesty ferris-wheel EVER! I was scared! Luckily we didn't see any bolts falling off...but we were treated to many jeers from all the other passengers (all Indian and male).

Then we got off and noticed that 98% of the crowd were men...no, make that 99%...no more than that. So, we decided it may be time to go home. Yep. Just another ordinary day of travelling I guess.