Friday January 27 - Madurai to Cochin

And I thought that since we had a long, seven-hour drive ahead of us today I'd have nothing to write about.  How wrong I was!  Originally Ferris and I planned to fly from Madurai through Chennai to Cochin in order to avoid the drive.  I had thought the drive would be terrifying because of the swerving, honking, endlessly passing vehicles and the thought of facing vehicles coming at me head-on for seven straight hours was unimaginable.  Basically I thought I'd prefer being water-boarded than doing this drive.

That was until we met Bala and I can't believe how comfortable I've felt this trip driving in India.  After one day of working with him we changed our plans and cancelled the flight. 

We left this morning at 8am and planned to arrive in Cohin at around 3pm.  After that Bala was to drive back to Madurai the same day (we hope he arrived safely) in order to back as quickly as possible with his new bride.  She returns to her school near Trichy (she's finishing her masters degree in engineering) next Wednesday where she lives during her studies. 

The other night after the Shiva/Parvati event at the temple in Madurai, Bala helped us buy CDs of music from Tamil Nadu.  Ferris and I both love Tamil instruments and knew that if we didn't buy them now we probably wouldn't find them.  We bought a contemporary Tamil CD, and classical sitar, violin and nadhaswasram (long shrill horn) CDs.  We had a marvelous time listening to our music as we drove; it provided a perfect soundtrack to the lovely scenery we passed.  We had a day of being in the tropics:  rice fields, sugar cane fields, coconut trees, banana plantations, rubber plantations and even tea plantations when we reached a mountainous area that we didn't expected. 

When you look at the map of South India it looks as if there's a major absolutely straight road all the way from Madurai to Cochin.  That couldn't be farther from the case.  The road is the usual winding two lane affair which gets really interesting when you begin climbing mountains called the Periyar Hills and twisting and turning on switchbacks.  We climbed rapidly and it felt as if we could look down on all of India from our vantage point.  The vegetation changed completely and we were in a dense tropical forest with monkeys climbing trees and running across the road.  We saw a little baby monkey clutching his mother for dear life as she ran.  Once we got to the top of the mountain we stopped in a small town for a break and to stop in a spice shop.  I bought a few Tamil hot peppers.  We also stopped for lunch somewhere where everything was local style.  We wanted Bala to eat with us but instead he ate outside behind the restaurant.  We noticed that towns on the mountain in the sprawling beautiful tea plantation area had many Tibetan shops.  Has there been a migration of Indians from the north to this area?

Arrived in Cochin at 5pm and met with our local guide.  As we unpacked our bags we received a SURPRISE VISITOR!  We were absolutely thrilled to find that Lakuma, Cliff and Cathy's South India guide several years ago, had come to see us and to let us know that she will be our guide for the rest of the trip, beginning on Sunday when we head to Bangalore.  I've run out of time...but I'll finish writing about this tomorrow.