India Trip Kochi day 1 & 2 November 22, 2013 Toto, I Dont Think Were in Rajasthan Any More...but we just might be in Beaverton! It is impossible to get away from yourself. You always bring your baggage along and it always colors your perceptions. Your self. Your genetic self, so much of which you share with people you meet and see everywhere you go. Your historical self, the experiences you live through that inform your judgments of how things are and are not supposed to be. Your memetic self, the cultural construct composed of memes, the cultural equivalent to the genes of your genetic identity, differentiating the exotic and the mundane That self, the cultural one gets battered at every corner in a place like India. But not so much here... After departing Varanasi, we took a couple of flights and arrived in Kochi, or Kochin, as you prefer, in early evening day before yesterday. The difference was striking and immediate. At this moment it seems northern and southern India might as well be different countries. Of course, these impressions may soon be disabused. We were picked up at the airport in a very nice SUV and taken to our hotel, the Vivants. This part of the trip is not part of the Intrepid package. Several months ago Cheryl asked me if I !index if she booked us into a pricier place for the 2 nights in between Intrepid segments. That sounded OK. As we cruised down a nice divided highway, with almost no honking and card staying in their lanes, our driver mentioned that we just missed Prince Charles, yes, that Prince Charles. He had spent one night here to meet with some Indian officials on some project (I have not explored what that was.). Upon hearing this both Lavinia and I turn to Cheryl saying, oh my god what have you done? At the resort we are met by a beautiful elegant hostess, given a cold beverage made from lychee, lime and mint, and seated in a lovely lobby. Everything is elegant. A long mahogany bar stretches across one end of the room. Well dressed westerners and Indian come and go. A lovely dark wooden staircase leads to our second floor rooms. By this time we are all tired from yet another day of travel. We drop our stuff in our room and go to the Pavilion, one of 4 restaurants here. The one specializes in Asian cuisine. Since we ate something on each of the flights, we have some snacks and a bottle of wine. Guy has been feeling a little Ill so doesnt eat much. The food us pretty good but the soups are very salty. Cheryl and I have dessert. My banana fritters are very nice. Back in the room, we dispatch our accumulated laundry to be cleaned, Cheryl watchers some Indian music videos, actually clips from old Bollywood musicals while I go to sleep. Yesterday, we sleep in, or at least Cheryl does. I wake after 7 plus hours with a song lyric in my head and cannot go back to sleep without writing it down. That ends my sleeping. Guy knocks on the door about 0920. The breakfast stops at 1000. He wants to know if we are going (Lavinia is now a bit under the weather, as they say) Cheryl gets up and throws on some clothes and we head for the buffet. Wow! Really this place is like a JR Marriott or a Ritz-Carlton. The buffet is massive and varied. Omelet station, tons of fresh fruit, Indian and Continental cuisine. GREAT COFFEE!!! After breakfast, Cheryl and I sit by the pool. I work on yesterdays post while Cheryl reads. We have a light lunch pool side and then, off to the spa. Cheryl is such a great travel planner. She and Lavinia spent endless hours the past 2 years setting all this up. Among her many arrangements is a 3.5 hour massage package including a body scrub and facial. This is the second time in my life I have had a facial. Of course, with my natural glowing beauty, I dont really nerd it (ha, ha.) This is the best massage experience I have ever had. After a stem room session and a so ask in a jacuzzi, Cheryl and I are shown into an elegant couples therapy room (but not before having another lovely beverage made from, who knows what tasty fruits and herbs.) Our masseuses are excellent. They speak softly saying no more than needs to be said. They explain all the creams and potions they will use, ask about any special needs then lead to us to actual first class massage tables with actual face rings. The last 2 we had were on simple tables where your head had to be turned to one side. They left my neck more sore than when I started. Scrub, wrap, shower, massage (absolutely fantastic massage) it took almost 4 hours and it was an ecstasy. After the massages and barely able to support ourselves on our totally relaxed legs we headed to the room. Guy and Lavinia were in the bar. We joined them for drinks. Lavinia did not feel like having dinner and went back to her room while the rest of us went to the Rice Boat for some seafood. We made a rookie mistake, the same one we made in a Turkish sea food restaurant 11 years ago. We let the waiter tell us what to have. Fish 3 ways. It was tasty and plentiful, though Cheryl did not like it so much. When we got the bill it was over 12000 rupees, or $200. We returned to our rooms after dinner. I finished yesterdays post and went to sleep. Today we will leave this exquisite luxury behind and return to the real India. We still expect it to be quite different from Rajasthan. Kerala has a highly educated population and a much better economy and, so far, no Smokey air. I guess we will see. A word a about the pictures. Many of the pictures I have posted were taken with my Google Nexus 7 tablet. It only has a front facing camera so it is difficult to get the great shot. Many of the best shots are from Cheryls Nikon point and shoot. It is a great little camera and they promote by saying it is the camera pros use when they dont use their SLRs. Anyway, someone mentioned how good some were, so credit where credit is due. More later.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:49:25 +0000
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