We spent one day relaxing on a houseboat on the backwaters of Alleppey in Kerala, India. This area is also known as the “Venice of the East.” Our houseboat reminded me of a Hobbit Home, whereas Evelyn thought we were on an armadillo fleet floating on the brackish canals. The original houseboats were primarily deployed […]
India 11 – Munnar
While in Munnar, we watched a classical Indian Kathakali dance drama and traditional Kalaripayattu martial arts at the Punarjeeva Cultural Center. By arriving a couple hours early, they allowed us behind-the-scenes access to watch and capture actors dressing and putting on their makeup. The male lead is wearing 80 pounds of clothes, and requires 3 […]
India 10 – Madurai
We started our exploration of Madurai with a walking tour that started at 6AM. This gave us a chance to see the old town wake up, since dawn was at 6:30. Every home had the woman of the house creating an elaborate design using a rice powder, using two fingers and thumb to pick up a […]
India 9 – Cochin
After the excitement of Holi and Hola Mohalla, we embarked on a couple weeks of touring Southern India in a more sedate manner. Pauline (Evelyn’s sister) joined us for this portion of India. Our first stop was Kochi (also known as Cochin). Our hotel was a couple blocks from the beach, so we walked down […]
India 8 – Hola Mohalla
A few days after the Holi Festival, the Sikh hold a three-day celebration of Hola Mohalla. There was very little throwing of powdered paint here. Instead, the big event was a show of horsemanship, martial arts, archery, and military skills. The Sikh are easily identified as all men must wear a turban. Many of the turbans were […]
India 7 – Kaputhli Artist Colony
We visited an artist community in Delhi called Kaputhli. This is a group of some 300 families that was forcibly moved as a group from their prior homes, into temporary housing. They were promised “new and better” homes within two years. I’m sure you can guess the punchline — that was 5 years ago, and […]
India 6 – Holi Festival at Nandgaon
This is the third of three blog posts describing our experience at Holi Festival 2018. For our third day, we moved from Barsana to Nandgaon. Though many aspects of the festival are the same here, there were some very important differences — the biggest being the behavior of the crowds and lots of water mixed […]
India 5 – Holi Festival Part 3 – Barsana
This is the final of three parts describing our time in Barsana, India, during the Holi Festival 2018. People were frenetically dancing everywhere at all times, from early morning, until sundown when we left. Small bands of drummers would wander from place to place (upper-left and upper-right), and start a rapid staccato snare drum beat. […]
India 4 – Holi Festival Part 2 – Barsana
We spent two days in Barsana for the Holi Festival. This is the second of three parts covering those days. Holi powder is sold everywhere. We were told that only red and yellow should be used though, as those represent the upper caste, while blue and green were for the lower castes. After only a […]
India 3 – Holi Festival Part 1 – Barsana
Holi is an ancient religious festival, also known as the festival of colors. It celebrates the start of spring, the end of winter, good over evil, thanks for a good harvest, and in 2018, starts the evening of March 1st, ending March 2nd, 2018 (though celebrations start a week earlier). This festival is celebrated throughout India […]