Every now and then, you need a break from India...from the heat, the dust, the rush, the honks, and the flatness. Every now and then, you need Kodaikanal. This hill station founded by the Americans was a breath of fresh air...literally. My asthma disappeared (but don't worry...it's back!) as the cool air took over. 65 degrees during the day. Freezing at night. My hotel had hot showers (supposedly...the geyser was turned on randomly), wool blankets (most hotels don't even provide bed sheets to use to cover yourself!), and satellite TV. The town also had about 5 massive power outages a day. But no worries...the place still rocked.
Unfortunately, my traveling buddy, Wolfgang, got quite sick as we got up there. He had aches and pains, a sore throat, and diarrhea. Thank god for the TVs. And for the separate rooms. Unfortunately still, being the off-season, the weather rarely cooperated. Heavy mist and downpours made trekking impossible. We wanted to go the 7km (one-way) to Pillar Rocks...definitely not possible if you can't see more than a few feet in front of you. Still, when the weather was decent, I went wandering. I explored all of Kodai, and then showed Wolfgang when he was feeling well. We walked around all 5 km of the lake. Hell, any walk was a trek. Even getting to the main road from our hotel required us to walk up about 100 meters of 50 degree incline. We were puffing by the time we reached the top.
Kodai had no shortage of tourists, even during the off-season. This also meant that there were plenty of great restaurants. I loved the Tibetan food (Kodai has a huge Tibetan population), and a new place, the Sip N Munch, became our favorite during our five-day stay. But most fascinating were all the places selling homemade chocolate. Nobody grew cocoa beans or processed the chocolate themselves. No, everything was made from powder. Still, supposedly tourists love chocolate. So, I counted at least 20 shops...and this isn't including those in the surrounding villages. Still, I enjoyed having freshly made dark chocolates on occasion, knowing that if I walked anywhere, I'd burn away that fat and calories.
Wolfgang and I decided to stay for Pongal, the largest celebration throughout Tamil Nadu. Pongal, which celebrates the harvest, consists of two days. People Pongal is strictly for families...no real parties then. Cow Pongal is public, and for the...cows. Hence, on cow pongal, we saw cows dotted with numerous different and vibrant colors. We also went wandering to the different celebrations. We saw a musical dance performance with an exceptionally annoying female singer (high pitched singing completely off-key). We saw older men do a choreographed dance that reminded me a slower, stationary garba. We then wandered to a village farther away to witness a game played among two teams of young men. We joined the large audience and quickly learned the game. The two teams have about eight members. The winner is the team with anyone remaining in the game. Team A would send a member over to Team B's side. Guy A's goal is to tag any member of Team B and then cross over to his side before getting stopped. Team B's goal is to grab or tackle Guy A, thus halting him. If Guy A succeeds, the person who is tagged must leave the game. If Guy A fails, then nothing happens. The game was pretty interesting, and the audience found Wolfgang, a tall German, even more interesting. Still, we had fun. And it was nice to see all the polka-dotted cows.
Eventually, we had to leave. This was after having met a Gujarati from London named Kalpesh. Still, he was leaving for Ooty, so he wouldn't have been any reason to stay. Wolfgang and I felt sad to leave Kodai, with it's beautiful scenery and perfect weather (and clean, asthma-free air), but we had no choice. Down to Madurai we went, where we then met our friend Marlous. Then, on to Trichy for Wolfgang, and down to Kanniyakumari (KK #2) for me. Kodai was wonderful, and I'd love to one day return during the high season, when I can actually do more trekking.
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