photoadayMay First Ten Days

I am taking a picture each day in May, for an online photo challenge. Now, I am ten days through the thirty-one. I wanted to share the photos taken so far, and to share a photo from my past for each day's inspiration. Beneath, I shall explain how the photos fit the theme for the day.

Indian Fast Food

I categorize Indian fast food into either dhabas or street food. Dhabas are usually road side eateries with a fast food feel. They serve meals, but don't have the ambiance to match fine dining. Street food consists of vendors selling items from a cart or out of a booth. Some of the best food can be found at places that don't even have a sign out front. Anything else is a restaurant, and not really fast food, in my opinion.

Toddy: My First and Last Time

To Kochi or Bust

Robin is from Kochi (formerly Cochin) and invited me to come with him one weekend. He was heading to his home town in the state of Kerala to visit family. We took a bus from Whitefield to the bus depot and got on an overnight bus there. Before getting on the bus, I drank a 1L bottle of water, which turned out to be a mistake. On top of whatever liquid I already drank that afternoon, this water wanted out at some point, but the overnight bus was not planning to stop. Anywhere! So, I was uncomfortable for about seven hours of the journey from Karnataka to Kerala.

The Bus From Whitefield

Upon arrival in Kochi, the contrast in temperature and humidity from Bangalore was the first thing I noticed. I stepped off the bus thinking I had been transported to South Texas. We jumped into an Ambassador taxi and were off to Robin's parents' house.

Day one was not even close to being over. I met everyone and we had lunch, then in a rental car, Robin and I headed down to the mountains and tea plantations of Munnar.

Munnar

Beautiful scenery, that is what Munnar is.

Western Ghat Mountains

Mountains, mountains, mountains! It had been fifteen weeks since I had been behind the wheel of a car, and I was driving in mountains! Every sight around Munnar was grand: mountains, trees and rivers. Even most of the trucks on the road were clean and ornately decorated and colorfully painted.

Tea Plantations




Kids Play in the River as Adults Wash Clothes




Majestic Trees Line the Roads

All good things must come to an end, so I pulled over on the side of the road to exchange seats with Robin. He was concerned we might get pulled over and hassled by police in the city if I was caught driving without a license.

Alleppey

The next night was going to be spent on a houseboat, or kettuvallam, on the backwaters of Alleppey. But, before heading away from Koshi, we visited a local fish market.

A Kochi Fish Market

Fishermen on a River in Kochi

We got up early and headed to the market to pick up fish and prawns for the next day's meal. After seeing some local Kochi sights, it was time to head toward the lake and backwater canals of Alleppey.

Kettuvallam in Alleppey Backwaters

Lone Boatman on the Lake

The houseboat experience was very nice and I highly recommend it. Mosquitoes were a pain, so I suggest you carefully pick what time of year you visit Alleppey. When the boat docked for the night, I was able to wander around the local neighborhoods. The entire time, I kept thinking about the property value of this non-commercialized area. Along all these canals there were nothing but simple homes with people who were by no means wealthy.

Guys Playing Cards

Woman Happy to Catch Fish

Having enjoyed some time in Alleppey, it was time to join Robin's family for lunch back in Kochi, where a surprise was waiting for me.

Toddy

I had heard about a local drink named toddy, which I was told to stay away from. I was told that if I were to try it, do so only at the start of the day and that by mid-morning, you should never try the stuff. Here it was, after noon, and I was being given toddy to taste. Robin's dad poured an entire glass of the stuff for me. I tasted it, thinking it was nasty, and then quickly downed the glass to be over and done with the experience. As soon as I set down the glass, it was full again, Robin's dad smiling as if he thought I liked the stuff. Ugh! So, I gulped down the second helping of it and then held onto the glass.

Glass of Toddy

Toddy Bar in Munnar

I had been paying attention to the toddy bars seen all over this area, and toddy was the first word I learned how to write in Malayalam. Robin thought that was funny, saying a person's (child) first word written should be "Mom" or "Dad", not an alcoholic beverage.

A quick lunch of the fish and prawns picked up the day before and we were heading for the train station.

Back to Bangalore

Train Station in Kochi

We hopped on a train for the overnight journey back to Bangalore. The discomfort of the train car was bearable once I found out Robin's mom had packed some prawns for us for the ride home, along with bread made from the remaining toddy instead of yeast. Toddy that way was quite nice.

Train Car for Return to Bangalore

The Best Ride I Never Had

Bike Ride to Kerala

A while back, some guys at the office came up with a plan for a group of us to ride our motorcycles to Wayanad, in the Indian state of Kerala. I decided not to go, then came back to going, then on the evening before leaving decided to ride in a car. Monsoon in Kerala is likely not the best time to be on the back of a bike for more than ten hours in one weekend. Anjali and I joined the bikers at a few points along the way, since we were all going in the same direction, and I snapped a couple pictures:

Just outside Mysore on Saturday

Lunch stop on Sunday

Blue Ginger
Since I had flip-flopped between going and not going on this trip, I lost the prime real estate for the resort where most people were staying. A search for an alternative lead me to Blue Ginger Resorts, and I was able to secure their Cascade Cottage, which overlooks a river and has a waterfall view.

To get to Blue Ginger, a 4x4 Jeep had to pick us up from the main road. We spent the next hour bouncing around for the four-kilometer ride up to the resort, at an elevation of more than four thousand feet above sea level. All the water we drank was a bad idea: we should have emptied our bladders before heading up the mountainside; painful.

Meals at Blue Ginger were not the best, but we had ghobi "65" with lunch on Saturday, which was really good. I had to ask what the sixty-five meant and have subsequently looked it up online.

Cascade Cottage

The Cascade Cottage

We stayed in the Cascade Cottage, which is located in the far back of the resort property, built over the river. The views out our windows were amazing:

Waterfall View

River View

Never a bad view, no matter which direction you looked out. In addition, the sounds of the water rushing was great to fall asleep to.

But Wait, There's More...
After coming back from lunch on that first day, we were discussing how great a memory staying in Wayanad is going to always be. We talked a bit about future memorable trips we plan to embark upon and how long into the future we see ourselves happily remembering the moment we were sharing. I asked Anjali if she would always want to recount memories of us as we were building new memories together, and when she said yes, I told her how much I wanted that as well. It was then I got down on one knee and presented her with a ring, asking her to marry me.

The Proposal Site

Relationship Status Change

The Happy Couple

Sunday meant a long ride back to Bangalore, but the time was filled with many phone calls, updating loved ones on the change in our relationship.

Engaged

The next steps have not really been considered, but we are engaged and happy. We are looking forward to our life together and that is really all that matters.

To read about what the other folks were doing, check out the experiences of Dagan and Bree or Michael. Oh, and more from Michael here.