Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

Although Palolem Beach had less of a laid-back, hippy vibe and more of a European package tourist feel, we ended up enjoying our four days there. We found three great restaurants we became short-term "regulars" at that served excellent, authentic, cheap Indian - one place came complete with a local cow who showed up every night to be fed by the cook. Once again, we met a fellow Canadian who we shared a few meals and drinks with - but this time, we did not have our own apartment where we could entertain.

Next up we headed south on an overnight train where we shared our berth with a very friendly Indian nun (Christianity is fairly common down here in the south) who, as usual, had many questions for us about Canadian culture and our impressions of India. When we awoke we were in the southern state of Kerala, home of the world's first freely elected communist government in 1957. The state has the highest literacy rate of any developing nation (91%), a life expectancy 10 years higher than the rest of India, and an infant mortality rate 1/5 of the national average.

Kerala has become a major tourist hot-spot, which unfortunately has made it not our cup of tea.

At our first town, Kochi, we got to see old cantilevered Chinese fishing nets in action. We met a bunch of people doing the Rickshaw Run, a charity event that involves driving a tuk-tuk across India in 14 days (crazy - see www.rickshawrun.com). Talking to these folks made Craig insanely jealous that he had not yet driven a tuk-tuk himself, so as part of our bartering that afternoon our rickshaw driver let Craig do a few laps around the neighbourhood in the rickshaw on our way back to our hotel. Also in town we did a day boat tour of some of the 900km of backwaters in the area, narrow rivers that are a highway network of sorts for many village residents.

Next up was the beach town of Varkala. This town felt as touristy as Kochi. By "touristy" we mean that it had no authentic Indian food (just expensive "Chinese/Italian/Continental") and everything was way overpriced. It almost felt like a resort town, since everything felt so Western-tourist-geared. Two days here was enough.

Today is our second day in the state capital of Trivandrum. We walked around town today and visited the zoo. Strangely, this zoo had many large empty enclosures, and kept the big cats (lions, tigers, and jaguars) in the smallest cages we'd ever seen. The animals were pacing and making lots of noise. It was sad.

During the day, the temperature has been soaring well into the mid/high 30s. It is HOT here! We sweat like mad, while the locals wear pants and sometimes even a jacket or a turtleneck!

Tomorrow we head for Cape Coromin, the southernmost point of the country. With a population of 20,000, we are excited to get back into real small-town India.