Month: February 2019

This group of young men caught up with me just after I photographed the Malabar Giant Squirrel at Top Station that I spoke about in a recent post. They saw me with my big camera lens and asked me to take their photograph. It was really the wrong lens for the photo, but I backed up far enough and took the shot. Then they asked if they could take selfies with me. I allowed it, so if you happen to be on their Instagram feed, once again I am out there with them somewhere in cyberspace.

I try to keep a low profile when I am traveling, but in some places if I am to get the shots I want to get, it is impossible. It was my first time in India and I was worried about how things like this would go. Getting used to the difference in culture while traveling is part of the challenge. Even more difficult than being approached for selfies is being approached for money. It is a dilemma. As soon as you give money or food to one person a crowd gathers around you. I want to help, but it is a challenge figuring out what is right. Walking along the harbor the other day, I saw a young woman carrying a baby coming from the other direction and counting a wad of rupees. She looked up and saw me. Quickly, she tried to conceal the money and changed her expression to one of sadness; then put her hand to her mouth gesturing she was hungry. That time it was an easy decision for me.  I just walked past her, but the truth is poverty is real even in first world countries and we should try to ease suffering.

Ok now for the good story promised in the title. In the long drives I have had with some of my drivers just about everyone has warned me not to give money or anything to people who ask, but they often do give small change to the needy. After I saw my driver do it the other day, I asked him how he determines who is needy. I give when I want to and sometimes I get it wrong, he said. Then he continued on in a story that was quite touching. He said in his family there were eight children and his father gave food to a needy family, but no one knew. When he was still a boy his father passed and when a letter arrived in the mail he opened it and started to cry. In the letter a family asked why his father had stopped delivering food. He said, then and there he knew he had something to do to honor his father who was a good man. He said, now I know I am a good man too, because I have been able to keep that tradition of giving food to the less fortunate going for more than forty years without asking for anything in return. I am not mentioning his name here because he does not want the recognition. He said to this day, neither his wife nor his daughter know his story of giving. I have met a lot of kind people while I have been in India. It is one of the things that keep so many people coming back.

Before I move on to posting about the next country on the try to see it all plan, I want to thank all the people who helped me in India. I want to thank Sonali, who put me in touch with Sumati of T S Travel Services who did a wonderful job putting me in the right places and delivered an experience that produced some images I hope will motivate others to visit India. I want to thank all the people I met from India, and from other countries that took the time to make my stay memorable. I will remember the tigers, monkeys, squirrels and elephants, I will remember the buildings and the scenery, but the people are truly what make India worth visiting.

On the recommendation of both my driver, Josie, and the hotel manager, I booked a ticket to the Kerala Kathakali Centre for a traditional folklore dance presentation. I had nothing planned for the evening and for 350 Indian rupees (a little less than 5 dollars) and a five minute walk from the hotel, I gave it chance. I wish I had booked a little earlier because seating was assigned and it would have allowed me to get better photos. The theater, which probably seated about 150 people, at showtime was nearly full. Many people showed up early because it is interesting to see how they apply the elaborate makeup to transform the actors into the folklore characters. It takes them more than an hour to get made up and in costume. For this performance there were three characters in costume. Though I thought I was arriving on time for the makeup session, the theater, especially close to the stage, was about half full. This was an event some people were evidently looking forward to in Fort Kochi.

People say, variety is the spice of life. Kerala is known for spice, and this performance added a little flavor to my experience. In addition, it might add a little evidence to the statement I make but have not yet been able to sell to my family and friends; when I travel, it is not vacation. If this is your “cup of tea” and you would like to see a few more pictures click here. I got a little video with the music, but I am not set up to edit it or post that to the website…at least not yet.

I left off in the last post talking about monkeys. Actually the picture was of a macaque, but all macaques are monkeys, not all monkeys are macaques. I like the photos I took of the little guys with the crazy looking hair. What I did not like was the fact that they were attracted to a pile of trash, thrown off the side of a steep hill. The pictures I chose to include in the batch if you decided to click on the click here link were not of the trash; most of which was plastic that will not biodegrade for a very long time. It has to be said that to make pictures look good, I usually edit out the bad. Some of the macaques were not eating red flowers as I show in the pictures, but were fighting over choice pieces of crushed plastic bottles that still had some juice or soda pop in them. They would chew through the bottles to get to the little bit of sweetness that was left inside. It can’t be good for the macaques. We have to figure out how to keep the animals wild by providing adequate habitat for them and protecting them from our waste. India, in my lifetime, has become the most populous country in the world. It is a crowded place where there is intense competition between the incredible endemic animals and the wonderful people.

That brings me to the wild Asian elephants I talked about in the beginning of the last post which is continued here titled as Wild Elephants. I saw Asian elephants up close in Bandhavgarh National Park. So close in fact, that I was able to touch two of them, on separate occasions, when their mahouts or drivers had the elephants stop next to our jeep when they were on patrol in the park. They both seemed to enjoy the contact even more than I did. I have seen elephants in circuses and zoos too. They all seemed well cared for, but none of them were wild. When I told Josie early in the morning that we would see wild elephants today because I was a lucky guy, it was me wishful in my thinking, that there were still wild places in India big enough to support elephants and I would see them there in those places.

As you can see from the photograph above, we saw wild Asian elephants from a distance. Unfortunately, as they gingerly moved through the rows of the tea plantation, they were ripping up whole trees roots and all. As beautiful as the plantations were, I could not help but think the elephants were there first. I am not sure that is how the the plantation owners think. I was lucky to see wild elephants, but how lucky will those elephants be?

If you would like to see a few more images of the elephants click here. You can also see a few other pictures of scenery and of plants at a small spice plantation we stopped at as we left Munnar.

I heard about the mountain range called the Western Ghats from PBS documentaries. I had already flown over them several times on this trip and could see from the plane that there was something worth seeing. If I could arrange it affordably, I did not want to leave India without experiencing them. I had seen most of what I wanted to see by foot in Fort Kochi. Though not on the original “see it all” plan (which is not really a plan but an idea I am trying to act on) for this trip, I started investigating. Kochi is full of ways to get tourists to spend their money. Many shops have their owners standing outside beckoning tourists to come in and see what they have to offer. I don’t mind talking to people or looking in their shops, but anything I might buy I would have to carry with me for the rest of the trip. Another business that Kochi has plenty of is tourist information shops. I stopped in a few and got some ideas, but ultimately settled on getting a driver through my hotel. Most people do what I was trying to do in two or three days. My hotel was booked and paid for, so I settled on trying to do it in one day.

The hotel manager encouraged me to get a very early start in the middle of the week for the best chance to have a worthwhile experience. He said he had a good driver available who knew the area well and spoke English. The fee was based on distance traveled but he thought the trip could be done for the equivalent of about $60 not including food or entrance fees. That seemed reasonable to me. On the day planned, he arranged a wake-up call for 4:30 am and since I would miss breakfast at the hotel, he would pack one for me. I met my driver, Josie, waiting at the hotel door; informed him that I was a lucky guy and we would have a good day. He smiled, opened my door, and we were off.

He had an idea of what I wanted to do but we talked while he drove, dodging around traffic and people I could hardly see, while I let him know I was trying to get images for my website. I told Josie that I had not yet seen wild Asian elephants. He said there was a chance (which I knew from my investigation) and he would try his best to put me where they might be, while we made our way through the windy route into the Western Ghats. We were off to the tea growing region near the city of Munnar. I had been to a tea plantation in the Seychelles, but my eyes were not prepared for the beauty of the sun rising above the mountain top. We were only three hours into an all-day trip and it was already apparent to me that I was indeed a lucky guy. I wanted to ask him to stop, but I could see he already had a plan. There was probably no camera lens that could capture the image in my mind’s eye of the intense greens of the manicured tea trees, mixed with the pink, orange and yellow rays of the early morning sun as it filtered through mist and taller trees, some filled with blue flowers, some with red. It was an ethereal moment.

Up the road we went through the town of Munnar with the intent of making it to a national park where a rare and endangered species of wild mountain sheep, the Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), might be found. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the park entrance, a sign said it was “closed due to calving season.” Undoubtedly, this is a wise measure needed to help save an endangered species, but he and I agreed that it gave me another reason to come back some other time. Josie said, next time bring your wife. He then started into an explanation of the driving tours he could take us on in southern India. We headed back down the mountain because now the Tea Museum that Josie had planned to take me to would be open. Along the way we looked for elephants, but we only saw pretty scenery, including huge but non-native eucalyptus trees. Josie stopped to show me a gigantic tree, next to the eucalyptus grove, that was filled with massive honey bee hives. They were impressive, but the lighting was not good, and so another moment for the lens of the mind.

The museum was nice, but no nicer than the one in the Seychelles. It did offer a documentary film on the history of the region and a tea tasting that I enjoyed, even though I am not a tea connoisseur. The young lady doing the tasting must not have thought I was enjoying it though. I was in a class of one, and she asked me very directly if she was boring me. I quickly answered no, but the real reason I was probably looking bored to her was my old and poor ears, which were having difficulty understanding her accent. I didn’t think quickly enough to give her any other answer. Instead, I smiled as the thought crossed my mind of a story my wife tells of herself falling asleep, when she was in a class of one. The young lady moved on. It was apparent to her that I was not going to be good at tea tasting as I guessed everything wrong. I could not even get the mint tea right until she let me smell the unbrewed mixture.  Oh well.

Since I finished earlier than Josie expected, he suggested we drive up in elevation on a different route to the area called Top Station. He expected the day would be clear enough to see views into the border state of Tamil Nadu. We also would pass two man-made lakes built during the British colonial period that provide hydroelectric power to the region. He had seen wild elephants along the shore there in the past. We did not have any luck with elephant sightings along the way to the destination, but the drive was excellent. When he could drive no further, he let me out and said to walk up the gravel path to the overlook. I looked for birds and pleasing views. The light was harsh and the clouds not cooperating to give me opportunities to take the ideal photo. Then I saw something move in a tree. It was rather large and not clearly in view. I thought it might be a Malabar Giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica maxima) which I had heard about from Dr. Jake Goheen, the mammal expert from the University of Wyoming I met and wrote about while in Kenya.  I did not choose it as the lead photo here (instead, I chose one of the pictures of the Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata) I saw on the path back to the car). However, it did move into better view and I got a few decent pictures which you can see here. I was again feeling pretty lucky with how the day was going and this post is already too long so I will end here and say: to be continued…

I am staying in a small, well run boutique hotel recommended by my travel agent for India, Sumati. It’s called Arches, a few minutes walk from the Gulf of Arabia. It houses Rosoi, one of the best-rated small restaurants in the whole region and I am thankful it’s here.

The town of Fort Kochi is built on low-lying land between the Gulf and a series of water-bound lands in the western part of south India. It is called Fort Kochi because the Portuguese built a fort here with the permission of the king of the area at the time, to protect their interests in the spice trade. The fort no longer exists except as stones in the ground near the current location of the Bishop’s house. The stones, which I saw in the basement of the small Indo-Portuguese Museum, are part of an exhibit that mostly features remnants and articles, including very old vestments and monstrances from the surrounding churches donated by the Catholic Diocese here. While I was there I was the only visitor. I only stayed a few minutes, but I am still glad I went. By comparison, the Portuguese stayed for over 150 years and became the colonial power until the Dutch ousted them in 1683. The Dutch lasted until 1795, when the British took control. The initial burial place of the famous Portuguese explorer and navigator, Vasco de Gama, is in the church, now called St. Francis, just a few steps from the front door of my hotel. His son removed his remains and took them back to Portugal long ago, but there is still a sign inside the church marking the spot.

The town is quiet, by Indian standards, and very walkable. Pictured above are the “Chinese Fishing nets,” one of the main attractions in this region of the coast. The nets seem to be unique to this area of the world, and why they are called Chinese seems to be debatable. The style of fishing has been here since pre-colonial times. As you can also see from the photo, the area is still a thriving port for many items arriving from around the world. Crude oil is shipped here from the Persian Gulf and refined at a large facility nearby, but the area still retains its charm. If you would like to see more pictures from my first few days in town click here.

My last state in India for this adventure is the southwestern state of Kerala. The region is known for its spice trading and its origin in Kerala may go back to 3000 BC. Today the region is still known for its pepper, cardamom, star anise, clove, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and nutmeg. Tea is also grown here in the mountains of the Western Ghats.

I landed at the airport in Cochin (also called Kochi) and headed for the backwaters of Alleppey (also called Alappuzha) for an overnight stay on a houseboat. I had read that it was one of the things to do while in Kerala and so my travel agent made it happen. I was expecting it to be good, and though the boat was a bit oversized for just me, it was as much of India has been, better than expected. My two companions for the trip, Choco and Sebastian, seemed to alternate between driving the boat and preparing meals and tea. The food was good and the bedroom was air conditioned.

It was a peaceful cruise with quite a few photo opportunities. I also learned that St. Thomas is said to have come to Kerala, which had Jewish settlements at the time, preaching the Gospel and making converts. We stopped once at a church recently proclaimed a Basilica that traces its history to 427 AD, but some traditions hold that the actual location was visited by St. Thomas. If you would like to see a couple pictures of the church and quite a few other photos that caught my eye click here.

I am nearly half way around the world from my home and I could not pass up the opportunity to meet a friend I have known since kindergarten. He and his brothers went to the same school as I did (with my two brothers) all the way through high school. He even came back and taught social studies for a few years at the same school I taught at and the school from which we both graduated. He sent his children there and I coached his son.

Bangalore is about a one-hour plane flight southeast of Goa, and is not on most people’s itinerary who, like me, are in India to see historic, or beautiful locations, and wildlife. I knew it was a sprawling city that had grown quickly as a result of the age of the internet, and often when you needed something fixed on your computer you would get connected to someone in Bangalore, who would attempt to solve your problem remotely. The city might have grown a little too quickly, and my expectations were probably set a little low, because when I told people in India that I was going to Bangalore, they got a look on their face followed by the question “why are you going there?” On its own, I have been pleasantly surprised by the place, but my answer has always been, I am going to see my friend Charlie. I am happy I did! Friendships and relationships are to be cherished and nurtured throughout one’s life. I hope he is able to find his way here in India.

In our effort to try to see it all, we should remain open to new possibilities.

Before any Goa lover gets their tail feathers ruffled—I really like birds, and besides my relaxing stay at Casa Susegad, with its delicious food and wonderful company, it is what I like best about this area on the west coast of India. I have quite a few friends who are bird watchers and I am sure they would like the variety and quantity of avifauna in the various micro-habitats.

There are lots of things to like besides birds. If you like warm weather in January and February where you can stick your toes in the ocean on a white sandy beach, Goa is for you. If you like history, especially conquest of territory by once powerful seafaring Portugal, Goa is your place. If you like 16th century and later Catholic Churches in a country known more for other religions, Goa will keep you busy. If you like good fresh seafood cooked in a variety of styles, Goa will suit your taste. But I like the birds—and the people I met while trying to see it all—the best.

If you would like to see more images through my camera lens click here.

I arrived in Goa at the airport after a flight that gave me a perfect view of the setting sun. India has been full of surprises, most of them good. I had no expectation of the place I was staying other than my Indian travel agent, Sumati, had done rght by me so far. Right away things were good as I met my ride to the hotel, a man by the name of Ramdas, outside the airport. He had some lovely stories to tell on the way to the Casa Susegad.

When I arrived I was met by Norman and a couple of his friendly dogs. Instantly I knew it was going to be a good stay, despite that my name was John (which it is not) for the first couple of introductions. He and his lovely wife Carole (who called me Andrew) run a lovely rustic retreat with everything you could want from such a place.

The picture above is of Norman and one of his “adopted” grandchildren. The thing I like most about the place is the way Carole and Norman treat the people, including the staff, like family. You may be able to see it in Norman’s eyes—he loves what he is doing, and the community appreciates how he has taken a falling-down 200 year old Indo-Portuguese plantation house, and transformed it into a place that elevates the neighborhood and is a comfortable and relaxing place to stay.

To see photos of things around the place click here.

It took plenty of travel time to make it happen starting with a three-hour car ride to Jabalpur airport, followed by a two-hour flight to Delhi, an overnight near the airport then a four-hour drive to the first WHS, Fatehpur Sikri. It is the site where Akbar, one of the Mughal Emperors, built a fort in 1571. It is huge and impressive especially for its time. I had a good guide and learned some Indian history. However, the weather was not ideal for photography. I did take my first Indian Tuk Tuk ride to get to the bottom of the steps that lead to the fort. My guide said the soldiers used the steps to stay in shape and I can say it works. He also said the main gate had the largest single arch in the world built at the time. Several honey bee queens had started colonies and built huge nests that hung from the bottom of the arch.

The tour was completed in about an hour and a half and then we were off to the town of Agra, where Agra Fort is located. It is bigger and even more impressive than Fatehpur Sikri. It sits across the RiverYamuna from the more famous Taj Mahal, and on a clear day you can easily see it. This was not a clear day. It was still quite interesting and I much prefer learning history while at the site, rather than from a book. I had an even better guide and he was to be my guide for this fort, and the Taj Mahal.

I had booked a sunset tour from the gardens across the river and a sunrise tour at the Taj Mahal. The weather cleared enough to see the sun and that is the image you see above. Unfortunately, the next morning the fog was as thick as pea soup, but not green. It was rather a shade of gray that I was hoping would turn to pink, or orange, or yellow–something other than gray, but it never happened. So you are stuck with the photographs you can see here.

My guide did show me the Diana bench, with various pictures on his cell phone of other celebrities with a very clear and stunning Taj Mahal in the background. It was not meant to be this time. The tour was good despite the weather, and I enjoyed my ideally located one night at the Homestay in Agra and the visit to the shop where they described how the inlays were done in stone and how not a single drop of paint was used to make the monument that was promised to a favorite wife. It was back to the car again to the promise of pollution in Delhi and an evening flight to the western coastal town of Goa.