Observations from Southern India

I had my first professional shave in Kodaikanal and for a few days had absolutely no facial hair.

The life of a local celebrity continues, as always, everywhere we go.

Take a look at this video of local children cheering and waiving at us in Kodaikanal, just because we are foreigners.

Kodaikanal is know for its chocolate. We are not sure if this is because of the cold air that keeps it from melting or what, but it was super tasty.

In the hills, local women harvest blades of grass all day and dry them for many more days only to sell them in the market for 6 rupees (around 12 cents) per kilo.

You can’t get a cold drink in Kodaikanal…no one even has a fridge. When you ask for one they just say, it is always cold…which is just not true.

The final part of our tea tour in Kumili had us stopping at a spice farm where we saw the origins of countless spices and nuts that we take for granted upon purchasing them in a plastic bag or bottle at the supermarket.

We saw more communist signs and flags everywhere in Kumili and even rove past a communist rally on our bus ride out of town.

Kodaikanal was so cold that we had to sleep under 7 blankets

It’s amazing how much cheaper rooms in tourist towns are if you opt for no TV, which is a no brainer since there are MAYBE 2-3 channels in English anyway.

No matter how hard you try, you can never get comfortable sitting on a floor in India. You get comfy for a few minutes, then inevitably have to move again as your ankles go numb or your back starts to ache.

As gross as they are I’m actually starting to get used to flies always being on me. Sometimes I don’t even notice.

When a sign says hotel, it often means restaurant. Not sure why…these restaurants have no hotel rooms.

The view from Kodaikanal at night was simply amazing, as you can see the scattered lights of do view of dozens of towns in the distance.

As our time in India seems to be coming to an end, we keep wrestling with the idea of staying longer and seeing all of the things in the North we couldn’t earlier because it was too cold. And Nepal.

If we don’t stay longer, we have now taken our final train journey…which makes me very sad. So, I will end this entry with a video tour of a sleeper train so that you can better see how we travel.