Paradise Found...

So last we left everyone we ended up in Ernankulam. Actually, we were headed for Kochi, but the train station is in Ernankulam so that's where we got off....By the way, we spell the names of these cities about as well as we pronounce them so don't hold us to anything if you can't find it on a map! Anyway, we took the train to Ernankulam and the kind students on the train looked after us as we stood for the entire 5 hours since there were no seats. They were actually shocked to see us in 'common class' as the smells alone would drive most tourists to jump from the train! Leslie spent much of the time attaching her bag to her body so that if the theives (which she was sure were sitting right next to her, eyeing her every move) would have to fight her for her bag. At the same time I was having a very friendly conversation with the students (studying hotel management). One of the students offered his flat for us to stay in if we couldn't find a hotel. Of course, in the next breath he warned that we should never trust anyone in India..."did that mean him too?" ...I strapped my bag to my leg...

Surprisingly the train ride passed quite quickly and soon enough we ended up in Ernankulam, another smelly, noisy indian city, with no place to stay. One of the train passengers we had befriended agreed to walk us around to help us find a place and after a couple tries, it appeared we found a place...until our friend left and then the hotel manager said "full"...how convenient! Back on the street we finally found a place, spent about an hour unleashing our frustrations on each other over some beers and went to bed.

Another day, another attempt at success... We took advantage of the hotel's free breakfast and actually met the first Western couple we have seen this whole trip!!!! They were like aliens to us...we stared at them for a while...watched the way they ate their toast...listened to the way they spoke English..."Help, save us we cried!!! Is there any peace in this crazy country!" The offered no solutions, but some stories of hope just around the corner...

We had heard about this place called Munnar and every time we mentioned it people would say "Ah yes, Munnar, very nice..." but then they would say that about anything, even describing an Indian bathroom so we were skeptical to say the least. We packed our bags and headed to the bus station. We have learned at this point to never trust the first person you ask for directions. Indians are horrible with directions and will tell you anything just to have an answer for you. Therefore it is usually our minimum to ask at least 26 people for directions until we are sure that we are headed to the correct place. If 14 of those people seem to be in agreement we become 'somewhat' confident. Thus with some sense of confindence we boarded a bus for Munnar. We actually scored our own row on the bus which seemed to be a blessing until the first stop and 5 other people joined us in our 3 person seat. The good news is of course that since Indian bus drivers are absolutely crazy and seem to take pleasure in overtaking other cars in near misses, we welcomed as many people as possible on our laps to absorb the shock when the bus driver would invariably run us off the side of the road. The drive was actually beautiful and wove through the mountains and tea plantations of Southern India. We arrived in Munnar with the feeling.."things are looking up!" Immediately, we grabbed a rickshaw driver and headed off to find a place to stay in Munnar. We had heard about this cute little place among the tea fields and were sure that good fortune would look our way and we would secure a room there...no such luck...not only was that place full...every place was full! We tried the low budget rooms, the mid-budget, the high end, the hidden resorts...NO VACANCY! As the moon was rising our poor little rickshaw driver "put-put-ted" away up the hills determined to find us a place. He turned up a steep hill that lead to what the sign said was the "highest resort in Southern India..." and all of a sudden our little engine that could, couldn't. Whether is was the size of Leslie's bags or of Kevin's tummy, the rickshaw could not make it up the hill with us in it. So we got out, strapped on our bags and walked to the 'highest resort in Southern India'. One mile later we arrived and were greeted by two young indian guys. I asked if they had a room and after thinking about it for a while (there were only five cottages in this place so I don't know why all the thought) they said they had a place. I asked how much and they said 3000 rs. ($75) "3000 rs!!!" I exclaimed, "are you sure you don't have anything for less?" Our most expensive place at that point had been 600 rs ($15) and 3000 was well above our budget. However, they were quite sure they didn't have anything for less and even more sure that there was no where else I could go! We agreed to the price and they took us to the room...actually I should say house. For 3000 rs we got our own two story house! Much larger than our apartment in NYC! Too bad we couldn't invite all our friends & family for a big party, because we definitely had the room. The house sat right on the cliff overlooking the entire valley...a pretty amazing view. We treated ourselves to some candle-lit room service and a short walk along the cliff before heading to bed.

Our trustly rickshaw driver arrived the next morning offering to drive us around for the day. We took him up on the offer and spent the day seeing the beautiful countyside of Munnar. We saw tea gardens, beautiful mountains, lakes, rare mountain goats (that will eat out of your hand) and tons of fun, wacky Indian tourists all wanting us to pose in pictures with them! We had one of the best (and cheapest) Indian dinners using a banana leaf as a plate and drank some of the most flavorable tea we have ever had. We retreated to our palacial cottage after a wonderful day of seeing the true natural beauty that India has to offer. "Things are looking up..." we thought.

Love from the hills of India,

Kevin & Leslie

Going South instead of North

wow. I just saw a picture of Amir Khan...he's hot...I am flattered!

Leslie and I ended up going south to Kochin at the minute due to a somwhat funny story. We were walking along the beach in Calicut and everyone kept coming up to us and introducing themselves. A couple guys asked us if we knew specific addresses in the suburbs of New Jersey and wanted us to call some friend of theirs when we got back to the states....anyway. This one guy introduced himself and said that he would show us around for the day for no money (we have heard that one before!) We kindly said no thanks. Then then next day we were getting on an Autoricksaw to go to a Ayuvedic hospital for a massage that we had read about and this same Indian guy (Altaf) jumped in and told us he was coming with us and would show the driver where to go. He also said that the place we were going wasn't good and he knew a better doctor in a small village (we have heard that one before as well). At that point we were so exhausted from dealing with beggars and shopkeepers and everyone else, we said what the hell, take us to your better doctor. I didn't have much money on me so I figured at the very worst he could take us for $40. The good news is that he took us to this cute little small town with the cutest little Indian doctor. We got two massages (very oily!!!) and stayed there most of the day while he read our palms and we drank tea. He gave us a bunch of Ayuvedic oil, charged us too much, and then we headed back into town. The bad news was, from this point on, we couldn't get rid of Altaf! All night he wanted to hang out with us, drink tea with us, eat with us...The next morning he was waiting outside our hotel to take us to the train station...He kept trying to convince him to stay for two more days and when we told him that we were thinking of heading north, he asked if we would buy him a train ticket so that he could go with us since he has friends in Goa to stay with...of course then we quickly said that we had just gotten an email from some friends and decided to go to Kochin. We quickly bought our ticket, grabbed our bags from the hotel and headed for the train. Of course that didn't stop Altaf from following us the whole way and even buying a platform ticket so that he could wait on the platform with us. To his credit, he was wonderful to us and even tried to get us a seat in the common car (the reserved class was sold out) to no avail. He also held to his word and never asked us for money (although we gave him some anyway) and as the train pulled out of the station he kept yelling to us "don't forget to write me!!!" Thus, the story of how we landed in Kochi! We never did get a seat on the train and thus stood for 5 hours. It was not as bad as we thought and we spent most of the time talking to some students who were amazed that we were in the common class car. We fully expected Altaf to poke his head out from us a seat or on top of the train and say "hey guys, here I am, I decided to join you!"

Love to you all from Kochi!

-Kevin & Leslie

We are OK!

hi friends & family,

we just wanted to let everyone know that we are ok. fortunately, for us, yesterday's tidal wave did not affect the area of India where we are staying right now (Calicut). We were going to head more south today however, we are thinking of changing our plans having heard that there were some deaths about 5 hours south of us in Kochi. we stayed at a wonderful little place near the beach last night and we could only imagine what it must be like for people who are along the east coast of India & Thailand and the grief they must be experiencing. You can feel the sadness here.

In other news, it has been rather rough traveling for us thus far. We have had trouble finding any feeling of relaxation and calm. Things are crazy here! However, we have met some very nice people and had some small little adventures that make us laugh. We have yet to run into ANY other westerners and everywhere we go people stare at us as if we were movie stars. Actually one person said I look like the Indian star Amer(?) Khan, so maybe they think we are movie stars! (Now we know why famous people lock themselves up in big houses and never go out.) The food has been great and at the very least we are each going to gain about 20 lbs. We know that it may take a while for us to connect with the people and places here so we shall keep trying...and eating... We will write more again soon, and thank you all for thinking of us. It was so great to recieve everyones emails today. We miss everyone back home!!

Happy New Year! -Kevin & Lester

We are in India

Hi everyone!

We are just in our second day here in India...for those of you who did not know we were going to India...well now you know. It took a while for us to get here due to some flight problems. Actually the real problems started with us both spending all weekend trying to finish all our projects before we left. Leslie comleting her finals and Kevin doing one of the 50 or so project hanging over his head. In true Merritt style we spent our last minutes in NYC cursing our computers, frantically packing and running down the street to the train station. Thank goodness Bob taught us how to pack light! Most of the train ride was spent discussing how we could have planned better and swearing that NEXT TIME we will not try to finish everything at the last minute! Of course the stress level didn't dimish when we arrived and the airport only to find that the monorail was broken and we would have to take a train to the terminal. Of course then the x-ray machine in our security line broke as well and we were sure we would not make our flight. But low and behold we got on the flight just in time! However, none of this mattered because after two hours of sitting on the runway, the piolet announced that we would not be leaving because the plane was broken. A beautiful night in a Newark hotel was our reward and we got back on the plane the next day, got drunk, fell asleep and somehow arrived in Mumbai (Bombay). We went through customs (a simple "is this your bag..thanks"), met our driver (arranged by our Indian friend from the US who's family lives in Mumbai) and now we are here. Once we figure out what we are doing we will write more. All we know now is that we are headed south to Kerela and are looking for a place to stay there...any suggestions? Otherwise, I guess we will be sleeping under the stars.

Love from the Arabian Sea, Kevin & Leslie