Hello everyone

Thanks for the nice comments, nice to know that this is being read!

Well, we are still in Kerela, in a town called Aleppey, which is about 30 kilometers south of Kochi, where we flew into this state. It is very hot here, although in the shade and under fans it's not too bad. And there are mosquitos, which is a forst for me in December. I've got the bug bites to prove it. But the people here are the friendliest by far. ALL the little kids wave and say "hello" and we get stared at and waved to constantly. After we headed down to the beach yesterday, we were strolling up this alley and came across these guys making rope. THe stood about 40 yards away from each other with these geared hand cranked twisty things and first twist four smaller ropes individually and then spin them toether to make a single strong rope. The guy who waves us over even had us do a few. I forgot his name but he was easily the friendliest person on this whole trip. He's actually studying to be a doctor and makes rope as a part time job. Another thing the same the world over I guess. In the USA he'd wait tables, in Kerela, you make rope. He was really cool tho and I took a pile of photos.

We are staying in a place called The Vrindhavanam Heritage Home. It's off a quieter alley and looks to be pretty old. You walk in and immediatly are in a little courtyard which these rooms arrayed around it with these little verandas. There is a second larger courtyard through the back where they put up plastic tables and that is the restaurant. These tropical plants grow everywhere and you sometimes see little lizards run up the walls and such. The rooms are pretty spartan, buyt the place is seriously old; the doors are hinged at both sides and open in the middle and are super thick. You lock them from the insides with two wooden little beam thingies. Tyhe kids that work here seem to use it as thier hang out for their buddies, as there are always a bunch here but only one or two seem to be actually working!

The neat thing is that they do have a houseboat that you can charter. We booked it for two nites, and leave tomorrow am. It's like a large wide wooden canoe or viking ship with a roof and and sitting areas up front and on top. Kerela has these extensive areas of backwaters, so the idea is to just sorta cruise along, stopping at villages and looking around, and watching for wildlife like guars and cranes and such. We'll bring along beers and the idea is to just be lazy for a bit before we wrap this thing and head up to Mumbai and for me, back home.

Before we left Amristar tho, we had kind of had a cool day. We ran into this couple from California and we ended up splitting a cab to head out the Pakastani border for the border closing ceremony. It's the wierdest thing. Basicly, at around sunset, the guards from both sides have this ritualized ceremony where they call out to each other, then do these super high leg kicks--Monty Python stuff--seriously--and glare at each other though the gate. Meanwhile there is this DJ guy on each side who gets the crowd all riled up and chanting "PAKISTAN!" or "HINDUSTAN!" like it's a sporting event. It actually has a bit of that too. From where we were sitting you could see the soldiers on the Indian side litterally limbering up and practicing those leg kicks and huge arm swings. You'd have to see video to truly appreciate it. It's odd for me. not having a dog in their fight, so to speak. But it made me wonder, "geez...no wonder these countries never go anywhere when they're having pep rallies at the border every night!

After thet, we joined the Californians for dinner, then proceeded out in a futile attempt to procure a gin and tonic--the signature cocktail of British India. Impossible to find, I couildn't believe it. However, as we were leaving this hotel is when the wedding rolled up.

If you didn't already know, weddings are HUGE here. They go on for days and they're a big part of the social scene you could say. So we were trapped by this throng of people, and up through the crowd is the groom slowly making his way on a donkey and wearing this huge vest thing made out of 10 rupee bills. In front of him are clearly the bachelors, pretty drunk already and singing and dancing to these two drum guys wailing away on them. The drums not the bachelors. Then women are off to the other side, in these amazing bright colored saris, and the older men are off and back behind them. We cannot understand a thing of what was being said, but we noticed as usual, and before you knew it we were in the crowd and I was being accosted by a lot of the women, which was odd being they never talked to me before here. They were asking the usual questions and being very gracious when I asked questions. Finally, this big guy approached me and asked me where I was from in this weird accent. Turns out he was Indian but lived in Toronto (doesn't play hockey) and he was able to fill me in on some of the mechanics of this thing. Turns out we were invited, and down to the banquet hall we went. Mostly, lots of drinking goes on, and the bachelor guys all dance toegher to those wacky Indian pop songs. Then they'd have these dancing girls come out and sort of do a number, but it was a very gender segregated thing. They kept me in drinks (mostly vodka and pepsi---ugh), and the children were probably the best, all grins and questions, you know? We lost the californians along the way, and we got a Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel at around 4:00am. No sleep was had and we missed the express train back to Delhi (5:10am departure), but we caught the next one and got to the airport in plenty of time, although I lost my favourite hoodie at the hotel in Amristar :(

It's actually kinda funny tho. I was asleep, but Mike started chatting to these 5 or so guys in the train with us. Turns out they were from Amristar, but were heading down to Delhi for some....shall we say....companionship. Some shit never changes the world over 'eh?

I hope I get a chance to write something from Mumbai before I get on my plane on the 16th, as the boat thing should be a major highlight. But there really is so much more to say about this trip. A lot will probably come to me after I get back. This part of the world is just so WIERD you know? But I am looking forward to some snpow and ice. I miss my skates. I miss all you people too :)

Okay, more when I can

-Kai #10