FAMILY HISTORY

Today after the wedding (and an afternoon nap) Vasu took me for a little field trip to some of his family's property.

We started by walking through the rice fields, which led us to Vasus's cousins house.

The house was beautiful! I loved all the plants that his cousin had planted outside, she had all kinds of orchids growing all over the front yard.

This is a picture of the family temple. They had just put a wick with oil and the squirrel came to drink the oil.

Also, the birds come and they swallow the wick that's full of the oil. Here he knew I was there so we kept flying away and coming back.

I loved the flowers of India... 

I believe the "cannon ball" tree  blooms flowers called "snake flowers"... So pretty!

SMALL CHRISTIAN INDIAN WEDDING

Today somebody in Vasu's hometown was getting married so... We went!

This is not the traditional Bollywood extravaganza Indian wedding that we see in movies. Vasu had warned me that it was going to be a "small" Christian wedding. Apparently the most important thing in a South Indian wedding is food so there was plenty of it! In the South they don't dance so there wasn't any music.

The wedding ceremony was scheduled for 10:30 but we decided to show up at about 12:40 so we could be there only for the eating partake avoid the heat and waiting around of the ceremony! Haha we arrived just in time, the newlyweds were just leaving the church and proceeded to walk out where a group of men surrounded them and they started chanting/ screaming and putting their arms up in the arm and bringing them down and moved to different places of the church. 

We decided to go check out the food...

I was impressed by the amount of people! Look at the queu! There were more than one thousand people at the wedding... On a MONDAY! 

Weddings are extremely important in India and they don't necessarily happen on the weekends! So, people just decide not to go to work in order to attend weddings. In fact, Lakshmi, Vasu's sister, found two of her workers at the wedding! Haha 

There was a HUGE variety of food for veg and non veg!

Nowadays they do more of the buffet style instead of a sitting serving. Plus, the inside can only accommodate 500 people so if there wasn't a buffet offered and people couldn't sit outside they would have to wait their turn after the first round was done eating!

Here is a blurry shot of the bride and the groom inside the salon.

Here's how big the salon is... ginormous!

And here I am eating with my hands!

People just sat outside and ate their lunch.

There were so many people that I bet the bride and groom don't even know who attended and who didn't! We stayed probably for an hour and the newlyweds were busy the whole time doing some kind of ceremony!

Overall it was a good experience! I thought it was a little crazy how many people were there on a Monday by put I guess weddings take priority in India!

A REAL INDIAN HOMESTAY

I have loved my trip but as in any tour it's always very fast paced and by the end you are exhausted. My friend Leslie's husband, Vasu, is from Kerala and while planning my trip he invited me over to his house to spend some time with his family and eat delicious food.

I have been looking forward to my last 4 days in India even before I left home so I am beyond excited about seeing him and spending time with his family.

Finally... Sunday morning Vasu and his sister Lakshmi picked me up from my hotel and since they know how much I like to eat we went out for lunch!

This was my first time trying Puttu! Originally it was a long roll (like sushi) but nowadays they stuff it with different things and is delicious!

Puttu is a little dry so you always want to add a little curry to go with it. Mine was a paneer and vegetables Puttu with paneer butter masala... Delicious!

Vasu and lashkmi's ordered a chicken one and a meat one.

As if putu wasn't enough... We then went for dessert, of course!

We tried a... Don't remember the name... But it was AMAZING!

It's pretty much cream with tons of tropical fruits! We saw a poster with it and decided to get it and shared it. I totally thought we would be disappointed by the look of it since (we thought) it wouldn't look anything like the picture but it looked even better... And tasted just like heaven!

After a great meal we made our wade to Vasu's home where I got to meet Amooma, his grandma. 

She is beyond precious and even though she doesn't speak english she still talks to me and I have no idea what she is saying so I just smille and I repeat what I think she is trying to say in English! Haha

Here she is working on some beans!

I spent the rest of the afternoon eating snacks made by Vasu's amma.

And then a delicious dinner...

Home made puri 

Don't be fooled... This is not how much I ate! This was just the trial plate!

Since I've done most of the touristy stuff in Kerala I really just wanted to relax and enjoy my last couple of days before I go back home.

The next day I woke up and Vasu took me for a tour of the garden! 

The day before I had noticed all the trees in the property and that they had some plastic around the trunk and he explained that they are rubber trees and the plastic cover protects them from the rain.

He then had the guy who works with the trees show me how they get the rubber off the tree. It was super interesting! I didn't even know that rubber came from a tree! So everyday the rubber tree trunk has to have a very thing layer peeled off, when the layer comes off rubber liquid comes pouring down the trunk and ends up dripping into a coconut shell. The guy cutting the trees then collects all the liquid, puts it into a bucket and when a huge bucket is filled they send the liquid to a factory.

After the rubber trees we went to take a look at the garden where they plant passion fruit, chillies, lemons and so many other fruits!

Later in the day I was entertained by watching how lotus flowers were planted in the pond!

The same guy that works on the rubber trees did the lotus. First he jumped into the pond fully clothed and filled 5 buckets with mud from the bottom of the pond. Then, he got the lotus roots with the lili pads on top and kind of planted it into the mud that he collected. Finally he placed the mud back at the bottom of the pond and made sure the lili pads were placed evenly in the pond!

Here we are observing the lotus flower plantation! Jaja I am seated in Leslie's favorite chair!

BACK TO KOCHI

Today we are leaving beachy Varkala and heading back to Kochi to end our tour!

The journey there was yet another experience... Our last train ride!

As in previous train rides we got in and found an extremely full train and we could barely get in. It was no surprised that people were sitting in our seats! This time the women sitting there tried to tricked us by saying "this is not where you are sitting, you go another part of the train, anybody can seat here"... I've done this dance way too many times to know what's true and what's not so we had to get serious and direct and make them move! Thank goodness a train worker was coming in with a list and he helped us out and he was the one that finally told them all to move!

So here is the thing... All 2nd class trains have reserved seats but they cost more money and since pretty much NOBODY (but tourist) pay the extra fee to sit everybody is used to think its a free for all and they get extremely mad when they are told they need to move! 

This train ride must have been the most uncomfortable so far! It was 4.5 hours way too long! Haha it was so overcrowded that it got very hot, people were pretty much on top of me the whole time and some people stood by us for longer than 2 or 3 hours because they knew we would get out in Kochi and they could have our seat! People did not respect our personal space, 30 mins before we arrive Shree was kind enough to switch seats so I moved to the middle and she was on the edge and getting squeezed by people! The person standing on top of her was sweating and guess who got the drips?!?!... Yeap, Shree! (Poor Shree!)  

On the bright side, we met the most beautiful and smart 10 year old Indian girl. For about an hour she stood between us talking in perfect English! She was so precious!!!

We finally arrived in Kochi and checked in at the hotel! We had to meet in 15 mins but I still found time to take a super quick shower after that terrible train ride!

After going for lunch at Dal Roti (which was DELICIOUS!) we headed over to the touristy part of fort kochi to the Jewish something haha I really wasn't paying attention! And even though I went into a museum the only thing that I was interested in were the fans... It was so hot!

After the museum we had some time to shop

And finally we ended the night by going to a cultural center to watch Kerala's traditional dance.

At first we saw how one of the characters put on make up and then watched the show:

... Simon wasn't impressed

... Show time

The show was phenomenal! I didn't understand the stories but their acting and body movement were beyond amazing.

The man with the yellow make made different eye movements and it was impressive then he showed, I believe, 29 different emotions only moving his face muscles... It was just incredible! The show is 100% recommended!

After the show we had our last group photo and headed to dinner.

After dinner Jud, Aleisha, Cynthia, Simon, and I got together for our last night together and of course answered "random questions" while I did henna on everybody! I love making new friends and connections on my trips!!!