Cycling in Kerela-the day before the cycling begins

So from December 27 to January 2, we did a cycling tour in Kerala-the southwestern state of India.  We started in Kochin, and ended close to the capital of the state.  We arranged it through a tour company, and it was just Sandip and I, one tour guide on a bike, and one driver with a van.  They provided the bikes, snacks, water, planned the route, the places we stayed.  All we did was show up.

A bit about Kerala....
It has the highest literacy rate of all the states in India, and probably the highest education rate.  It has a significant amount of shoreline, so not surprisingly there are a lot of fishermen.  There are a surprising number of Christians there too, especially when we were in Kochin (my guess is due to missionaries, which might also explain the high literacy rate).  People look very different from the north-the most obvious way is they are much darker.  Also a lot of the long names of people and places (the capital is Thiruvananthapuram, or Trivandum for short)

We went between 40-60 km each day, which meant there was plenty of time to meander and check out the scenery, relax at our destinations, and kind of stop to smell the roses.  the roads were a mix of paved and stone, 2-lane highway and barely enough room for a car.  We got to see parts of Kerala you wouldn't see in car, so it was amazing to really get in that deep.  We stayed at a broad variety of places-homestays, hotels, resorts, guesthouses-and in settings like the beach, forest, backwaters.  For the most part I was impressed by the hospitality and service-orientation of the people. 

Some trends and highlights:
#1 has to be the crash.  We had a LOT of gawkers because we were on bikes for starters and I am white.   Mostly, people just stared.  In fact, on one road there were two guys on a scooter who were visably staring at me.  They couldn't take their eyes off me, which means they weren't watching the road.  Drive right off it into the sand and had a minor crash.  Hilarious only because no one got hurt.

#2 were the kids. Some stared, but many were more bold.  In some villages, kids on bikes raced us, in others they tried to get us to pull over.  Many people asked where we were going, what is our name, where are we from.  A lot said "one pen" which for some meant they were asking for a pen, for others it seemed to mean hello.  Guide told us that the missionaries used to give out pencils (instead of money) to promote literacy so the trend stuck.  Not sure if that is true, but they asked.  Other kids said "da-daahh" in a sing-song voice that mimicked "hello"  Very cute.  A few kids were obnoxious and annoying, but for the most part they were harmless fun.

#3-the roads.  They were great.  Mainly we were in side roads and riding through villages, so really got to see daily life-houses, people.  The quality of roads was really good.

#4-New Years Eve.  We were at a resort that had a special program.  It started as some kids and teenagers doing traditional dancing-seemed like a dance school or something.  Then it was some random teenage boys doing all these Bollywood "dances" for like 2 hours.  It was weird.  There was an uncle on stage who was pretty much yelling at the audience to clap louder, come on stage and dance.  We were like no thank you.  When they hung a hoop from a tree and lit it on fire, we were both like what is going on.  It was really really weird.  Plus they gave us a seat so we felt bad leaving despite the awkwardness.  We stayed and left at the countdown.  This was classic.  10...9...8...7...6..5...4...3...2...1...and power outage.  aah India.

#5-everything else.  You'll see in pictures and the blog series.

Below are MANY pictures, from the day before we set off on bike.

You can NOT make this up.

This is St. Francis Church in Fort Kochin, very Portuguese in style.


This is decoration outside the church.  Looks like random Easter egg decor on a plant, right?  Nope, it is a modern sculpture.

Inside the church, this is the Christmas tree.  All the trees down south had lights sort of thrown randomly like this.

Yep, our friend Vasco Da Gamma (circumnavigate the globe fame) was originally buried here.

This is a scene from Fort Cochin the city.  Kind of like a sleepy, backpacker place.

See what I mean about the backpackers?  I mean, we look this obvious too.

They are selling fresh squeezed sugar cane juice (see the pile of sugar cane waste?)

This statue was at the courtyard of our hotel.

This is the view from the restaurant at our hotel.  Really nice actually.

Sandip is checking out the menu and wondering-why is Ang taking my picture...

Sandip has a good eye for photos BUT I took this one.  That is a traditional fishing net in the background.  We saw many of these at Fort Cochin (really for tourists), but more on our meanderings through the villages.  You will more of these in another post.