I'm going to take a moment to slack off and write a blog entry. Homework, schmomework! Pfft, I didn't come to India for that crap!
This weekend we went to a lovely little place called Coorg. In a country that's never heard of smooth paving, interstates, or going three feet without hitting a giant speed bump, it's about a 6-7 hour car ride from Bangalore. I've certainly had longer car rides, and with much worse company, but rarely have I traveled so far for long so incredibly uncomfortably. I'm not kidding about those speed bumps, and people with long legs beware: do not ride in vans in India. Unless you like cramped knees, in which case, go nuts!
Coorg was worth the hassle, though. The general consensus was that it was the best place we'd seen so far, and it was (at least for me)! For one thing, it actually felt like a vacation. Technically I'm here to study, and blah, blah, blah. But I really came here to have an adventure and (hopefully) some fun. Coorg was both of those things.
We stayed at a resort where we were housed in cute little cottages and tidy hotel-style rooms. I was strongly reminded of Gatlinburg, actually. The plaster decor was kitschy and fun, and we had a little dance performance before our dinner--so relaxing! The air was actually quiet and refreshing, too. Not a honk of a rickshaw horn or a whiff of that delightful feces/burning-trash aroma you find in the city.
Before dinner Jacob John, who is the USAC director and one of the silliest, most fun people I've ever met, arranged for us to have a jack fruit picking competition.
The game went like this: we split up into two teams, the team leader for each team cut the jack fruit into halves, then quarters, etc., until it was small enough for us (the rest of the team) to pick out the bright yellow fruit. My team dominated! Woo! And our prize was to taste the fruit of our labor, pun very much intended.
Prior to this game I had no idea what the heck a jack fruit was, although apparently about 25 tons of it are consumed annually in America. It's much more delicious than it looks from the outside. They're very sweet, and have a taste that I can only compare to banana Starbursts.
After the jack fruit shenanigans, the dinner, and the dance performance were over, a large group of us went on stage with some of the vacationing families and danced with the performers. It was really goofy and fun. Someone got a video of us doing this, which I'll share on Facebook someday.
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Today was a lot busier. Our first order of business was to go to an elephant reserve to (finally) ride an elephant--or so we thought. Alas, it was raining, and our hopes were dashed! Rain + elephant footing on muddy terrain = no fourth Punic war. Oh well! We still had fun feeding them and fawning over how cute they were.
When we disembarked from the boat that carried us to the elephanty side of the river, we ran immediately to the bathing elephant, who promptly proceeded to spray us all with water from his trunk. I found this adorable, but also annoying, because the kurta I was wearing was poorly dyed. I turned teal for a little while.
After our fun, if slightly disappointing, trip to the elephant camp, we stopped for lunch and did a little exploring. The place we stopped had a pleasant nature walk (this is where I found 28rabbit, Dad) where we could climb tree houses and feed some very pretty deer.
Several Snickers- and Toblerone-flavored milkshakes later, we drove to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. This was stunning! I was taken aback by the unexpected size and beauty of the temple when we first caught sight of it from the entrance. Both the interior and exterior were covered in ornate gold and brightly painted depictions of Gods and buddhas.
All in all it was a great weekend, and I will be riding elephants one of these days...Maybe Tuesday? I don't know. All I do know is that I'm going to sleep now, because it has been an exhausting few days.
-Liz
This weekend we went to a lovely little place called Coorg. In a country that's never heard of smooth paving, interstates, or going three feet without hitting a giant speed bump, it's about a 6-7 hour car ride from Bangalore. I've certainly had longer car rides, and with much worse company, but rarely have I traveled so far for long so incredibly uncomfortably. I'm not kidding about those speed bumps, and people with long legs beware: do not ride in vans in India. Unless you like cramped knees, in which case, go nuts!
Coorg was worth the hassle, though. The general consensus was that it was the best place we'd seen so far, and it was (at least for me)! For one thing, it actually felt like a vacation. Technically I'm here to study, and blah, blah, blah. But I really came here to have an adventure and (hopefully) some fun. Coorg was both of those things.
We stayed at a resort where we were housed in cute little cottages and tidy hotel-style rooms. I was strongly reminded of Gatlinburg, actually. The plaster decor was kitschy and fun, and we had a little dance performance before our dinner--so relaxing! The air was actually quiet and refreshing, too. Not a honk of a rickshaw horn or a whiff of that delightful feces/burning-trash aroma you find in the city.
Before dinner Jacob John, who is the USAC director and one of the silliest, most fun people I've ever met, arranged for us to have a jack fruit picking competition.
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| He also looks very fetching in a skirt, apparently. |
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| If you don't know what jack fruit is, it's those two big, green, kidney/lung/testicle shaped things. |
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| Gory aftermath. |
After the jack fruit shenanigans, the dinner, and the dance performance were over, a large group of us went on stage with some of the vacationing families and danced with the performers. It was really goofy and fun. Someone got a video of us doing this, which I'll share on Facebook someday.
----
Today was a lot busier. Our first order of business was to go to an elephant reserve to (finally) ride an elephant--or so we thought. Alas, it was raining, and our hopes were dashed! Rain + elephant footing on muddy terrain = no fourth Punic war. Oh well! We still had fun feeding them and fawning over how cute they were.
When we disembarked from the boat that carried us to the elephanty side of the river, we ran immediately to the bathing elephant, who promptly proceeded to spray us all with water from his trunk. I found this adorable, but also annoying, because the kurta I was wearing was poorly dyed. I turned teal for a little while.
After our fun, if slightly disappointing, trip to the elephant camp, we stopped for lunch and did a little exploring. The place we stopped had a pleasant nature walk (this is where I found 28rabbit, Dad) where we could climb tree houses and feed some very pretty deer.
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| Look how pretty I am! |
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-Liz
I mock your height and commend you on a successful Punic Wars joke.
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