The Netravati Express
Welcome back! My story left off just as we were boarding the train from Mumbai to Trivandrum. The train ride was fantastic, 36 hours, 2 days, one night, about 10 cups of chai each, snacks, books, conversations, amazing sights. We rode third class A/C, the second to lowest one with a place to lay down, but it turned out the train was so empty everyone got a whole berth to themselves, so we were
able to keep our beds made and nap during the day and do whatever we wanted in our 
little area. Here is a scandalous picture of the book I was reading and a picture of one of our tea times. Men in service uniforms walked up and down the train with food, tea, coffee. It looks like this man just sold us vadas (vuh-duhs), fried rice flour 
with peppers and spices (think hushpuppy) and coconut chutney. Yum yum. I did not expect that the countryside would be so breathtaking. Arriving toward the end of the monsoon, the whole countryside seemed to be swelling and running with water. We rode south along the line of the Western Ghats with the mountains on one side of us, the Arabian sea on the other. Water rushed down the mountain toward the sea in rivers, streams and spectacular waterfalls. Where the water gathered and stood in valleys and flat fields, rural people were out tending rice crops there. And you could catch glimpses of passing houses and villages. It was not easy to get pictures with everything going by so fast, but I did take several movies which I will add later. Here is one nice view I managed to photograph, and a picture of me standing at the open train door, watching the night roll by.
And finally we arrived in Trivandrum, just after dark. The train station is in the downtown, but coming from Bombay it seemed less huge. Actually, the cities here seem smaller than a city the same size would in the US. There aren't skyscrapers or superhighways or anything like a highway or the giant complexes we have back home. The organization seems meandering, less dominating and so it feels smaller. I have told you about our time at the Hotel Boban Plaza which was near the train station. We also found a great restaurant in the area, called Hotel Aryaas, where we ate so many meals. I have tried half of the menu and every single thing is incredible. Much like the women's clothes I describ
ed the food is endless variation on a theme: rice or nan with various curries and gravies. My food loving friends who are down with spicy food will have to take my urgent recommendation that it is worth coming to India just for the food. It is a gastronomic paradise. Another note, while I'm on food is that besides the taste the effects on my body are wonderful. One of the effects the diet here has on me is that I never feel hungry or full, there is just this feeling of satisfaction. When I sit down to eat, I am never particularly hungry; I feel fine, bu
t I still know that it is time to eat. In the past, if I am not hungry, food will repulse me, I won't want to eat, but here, I still want to eat, I just don't feel empty or crashed before my meal. So, I sit down, not particularly hungry, and to my surpirse, I eat a great deal of food. But this is a good surprise, because the food feels nourishing, is well balanced and not fattening. Eating a big portion of this is not gluttonous, it is just
refueling. Afterward, I don't feel full the way I do after other types of food. My stomach may be stretched and full, but I don't feel heavy, tired or hungover from what I've just eaten. In fact, I don't feel that much different than when I sat down, still just satisfied. It is really something. So here are some pictures from our hotel window and a picture of a rickshaw, the most common way we get around. These are called autos here, which is short for autorickshaw since there is also a bicycle version. We don't have the bicycle ones here, but anyway, people call these vehicles autos.
Welcome back! My story left off just as we were boarding the train from Mumbai to Trivandrum. The train ride was fantastic, 36 hours, 2 days, one night, about 10 cups of chai each, snacks, books, conversations, amazing sights. We rode third class A/C, the second to lowest one with a place to lay down, but it turned out the train was so empty everyone got a whole berth to themselves, so we were
able to keep our beds made and nap during the day and do whatever we wanted in our 
little area. Here is a scandalous picture of the book I was reading and a picture of one of our tea times. Men in service uniforms walked up and down the train with food, tea, coffee. It looks like this man just sold us vadas (vuh-duhs), fried rice flour 
with peppers and spices (think hushpuppy) and coconut chutney. Yum yum. I did not expect that the countryside would be so breathtaking. Arriving toward the end of the monsoon, the whole countryside seemed to be swelling and running with water. We rode south along the line of the Western Ghats with the mountains on one side of us, the Arabian sea on the other. Water rushed down the mountain toward the sea in rivers, streams and spectacular waterfalls. Where the water gathered and stood in valleys and flat fields, rural people were out tending rice crops there. And you could catch glimpses of passing houses and villages. It was not easy to get pictures with everything going by so fast, but I did take several movies which I will add later. Here is one nice view I managed to photograph, and a picture of me standing at the open train door, watching the night roll by.
And finally we arrived in Trivandrum, just after dark. The train station is in the downtown, but coming from Bombay it seemed less huge. Actually, the cities here seem smaller than a city the same size would in the US. There aren't skyscrapers or superhighways or anything like a highway or the giant complexes we have back home. The organization seems meandering, less dominating and so it feels smaller. I have told you about our time at the Hotel Boban Plaza which was near the train station. We also found a great restaurant in the area, called Hotel Aryaas, where we ate so many meals. I have tried half of the menu and every single thing is incredible. Much like the women's clothes I describ
ed the food is endless variation on a theme: rice or nan with various curries and gravies. My food loving friends who are down with spicy food will have to take my urgent recommendation that it is worth coming to India just for the food. It is a gastronomic paradise. Another note, while I'm on food is that besides the taste the effects on my body are wonderful. One of the effects the diet here has on me is that I never feel hungry or full, there is just this feeling of satisfaction. When I sit down to eat, I am never particularly hungry; I feel fine, bu
t I still know that it is time to eat. In the past, if I am not hungry, food will repulse me, I won't want to eat, but here, I still want to eat, I just don't feel empty or crashed before my meal. So, I sit down, not particularly hungry, and to my surpirse, I eat a great deal of food. But this is a good surprise, because the food feels nourishing, is well balanced and not fattening. Eating a big portion of this is not gluttonous, it is just
refueling. Afterward, I don't feel full the way I do after other types of food. My stomach may be stretched and full, but I don't feel heavy, tired or hungover from what I've just eaten. In fact, I don't feel that much different than when I sat down, still just satisfied. It is really something. So here are some pictures from our hotel window and a picture of a rickshaw, the most common way we get around. These are called autos here, which is short for autorickshaw since there is also a bicycle version. We don't have the bicycle ones here, but anyway, people call these vehicles autos.Skipping forward, it's finally moving day and Vinesh and his friends have brought the things we purchased in a truck along with Mark and me to our new house. It is dark, because we are doing this on the DL because the truck driver isn't in the union. This is Vinesh in the foreground.
Communists are the current ruling party in Kerala's democracy. It seems to switch back and forth between a few parties and keep things pretty level. 
The noticeable effects of communism so far to me are the prevalence of small businesses, the strength of the unions, and the way our electric bill is figured: the more units you use the higher rate you pay per unit, so it goes up fast if you don't conserve. Not only that, but they just save for you. The power to your house drops after dark so that we can only run a few fans, lights whatever at a time. Saving water is the same way. Our water is currently pumped from a well beside the house into large, black, covered tubs on top of the house where it is heated by the sun. In the middle of the day on a sunny day, it gets quite warm, and you can take a hot shower. But on cloudy days or in the morning there is only cold water. 
Most places here have a shower, but our house happens to do it the old way, no shower heads. We bathe by pouring pitchers of usually cold water over our heads until we are soaked. Then we wash with soap and rinse the same way. It is an electrifying eye-opener. Running out of water a couple of times has taught us to conserve. For water we will ingest, I fill a big pot every night from the faucet and boil it for 15 minutes. Then I fill up our old 1-liter water bottles and load the fridge with 5 or 6 to cool for the next day's needs. I think that must be enough blogging for one day, so finally, some pictures from our roof: our neighbors water tanks and that beautiful Kerala sky!
