Farewell India...

INDIA DAY 5 & 6:

After a long day of travel from the North of India back to the Southern city of Cochin, we had an incredibly quick turn around before meeting our private guide for another adventure.  Tammy and I organized a backwaters of Kerala overnight houseboat cruise for a few of our friends. The 14 of us were greeted with coconuts to drink and loaded in a van for a 2-hour drive to the rural backwaters.  We tiptoed through three different houseboats before reaching our 2-story, partially air-conditioned, flat-screen TV equipped boat.  Our full staff prepared a traditional Indian dinner and we blared hip Indian music on the speaker system dancing the night away while learning steps from our guide.  We woke up to a sunrise breakfast of omelets and toast while enjoying a 3-hour morning cruise down the river.   We saw local fisherman making their morning catch, mothers bathing their babies, and workers trenching along the shore.  It was peaceful and quite on the river- a nice change from the busy cities we had visited throughout the week.  Overall, we were quite pampered on the tour and had an amazing experience with our closest friends.

With just a few hours left in India, we hired a tuc-tuc to take us to a local market for some shopping.  Unfortunately the market sold kitchen appliances and daily needs items rather than the cool souvenirs we wanted.   However, we happened to wonder up a flight of stairs in a building to a sari wholesale store where we chose from walls and walls of perfectly folded beautiful saris at a low price.  We spoke to the owner for quite some time learning more about life in Cochin and Indian values.  He gave us the name of a few stores to visit for our shopping desires and we salvaged our shopping experience before making it back to the ship.  Unlike any other country I’ve visited, I left India unsatisfied with my exposure to the culture and understanding of the country.  India is overwhelmingly different than America and is incredibly diverse -there is no way to gain an understanding of the country in just one week.  I know I will be back as soon as possible to explore more cities and get a better taste of the true local experience.  Without a doubt, India was my favorite country yet.