Kerala Vacation - Indian Road Trip!

Okay!  Fasten your seat belts!  We are about to take a trip to Kerala India!  I have quite a few pictures so I am going to break up our vacation into separate posts.  (Keep ya' comin' back for more, ya know!?)

This was the first trip that we have taken since arriving in Bangalore 11 weeks ago.  Our driver, Cladius, arrived bright and early on Sunday morning and helped us load up the car.

"The Claud" as we so affectionately call him - Ropin' things down to the top of the car!

Luckily, Cladius came prepared (as he always does) and brought along a tarp to cover the things on top of the vehicle because although it was bright and sunny when we left Bangalore by the time we were nearing Kerala - It was POURING!!!  The downpour probably added another hour to hour and a half onto the normal 6-7 hour drive. :/  I am actually still in shock that we were able to take the kids on a trip that required them to be in the car for such a long time.  They take "Are We There Yet?" to a whole new level.  The only conclusion I can draw is that there is always so much going on in the streets of India so you are never at a loss for things to look at out the car window and thus keeps the childhood boredom at bay.  (It also helps that we have a DVD player in the car.  We watched A LOT of movies!!  Can you figure out some of the movies we watched by this clue:

 "Let's Get Together, Fritz.  Please?!  Don't you love your Mother!?  I wish, I wish I were a fish.  I want to Samba b/c it's the Smurfiest!
If you answered:  The Parent Trap, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Rio and The Smurfs...DING DING DING!  You are CORRECT!!!  You've won my very first DING-DONG Prize!

You should be very proud!

Of course we sat in Bangalore traffic for a little while but that allowed me to get a picture of this insightful Indian roadway safety tip.

Safety First Speed Next

PROFOUND, isn't it!?  hahaha

This is a funeral procession!  You can't tell from the picture but the body was laid out within this float.  No casket.

(I told ya!  There's always something to see out the window that I've never seen before!!)

Pretty Countryside

 Some people opt for riding the train. 
I'm afraid.  Wery Wery afraid of the train.  Safety reasons?  No.  It's more the SANITARY reasons that make my bowels tremble.

I have had people tell me that when they rode the train they didn't go to the bathroom the ENTIRE ride b/c of the sketchy bathroom situation.  Rumor has it - Your "Business" just goes straight from a hole in the floor of the train directly onto the track.  Again, this is only what I have heard.  Frankly, even if it is a phony story - It'll keep me off the train for the duration of our three years here!

You see these "Blue Tee-Pee Tarp" houses in Bangalore too.
So Sad.

Arghh!  Can we get a Clean-up on Truck 2!?

No, that is not pretty yellow flowers.  They are SILK WORMS!  They harvest these worms to get the silk they produce and then what do they do with the silk!?  Make sari's, of course!!

When we were a couple of hours into our trip the kids started to get hungry so we stopped at Kamat.  Wonderful Indian food.  We all ordered dosas.  The children got plain ones and Matt and I are fans of the masala dosa.  It's served warm and the dosa is nice and crispy.  Inside the masala dosala is a potato mixture and it is often served with a spicy hot green coconut chutney.  The kids prefer the orange chutney sauce but I'm not exactly sure what it is or what's in it but they LIKE it ;0) 

 Masala Dosa, anyone?!

Picture at our Pit Stop

This picture was taken shortly after we had found David in the little 'trinket store' with his lips wrapped around a plastic bugle toy he found.  I didn't see him do it but I heard the squeaking from the bugle and from the next aisle over I could hear Matt saying in horror, "Oh, NOOOOOO!"  It was already too late.  Air had been puffed.  Germs had been ingested.  If The Boy makes it to five it'll be a miracle!!  In this picture he was still trying to recover as Matt had hoisted him up on the ledge for the picture and David panicked and thought he was falling.  Still traumatized when we snapped the picture.  Poor Kid.



Cabbages!  Although I LOVE cabbage - They are stanky!  Yes, I don't mean stinky - I mean STANKY!!!

Oh, Look!  More STANKY stuff!
Fresh Fish!?  Hmmm....that's debatable!!

 Construction.  Not sure what they are working on here but like I said - It's fun to look out the window and check out

 the local "happenings"

 Can you see what's in the field!?

MONKEYS!!

They must associate cars with FOOD because tonz of them came right up to the car. 

Why, Hello you pretty little primate!  If I do so myself - You have quite a lovely coif of hair going on there!!  I'm gonna let the fine folks in Hollywood know that if Sharon Stone ever needs a stand-in you'd make a fabulous little Anthropoid Actress!! ;0)

Initially, we were all enamoured with seeing the monkeys and Cladius would slow down the car every time we saw one.  We also kept spotting a  ridiculous amounts of deer.  When we were about an hour or so from Kerala, wanting to just reach our destination as quickly as possible, Matt announced to the kids that "we are not stopping or slowing down for any more monkeys or deer.  Well, maybe if we see a monkey with a red butt we'll stop but that's it!"  Hahaha!

  Jealous!  I've never been much of a car sleeper.  I need my bed!

Sweet Dreams, You Two!

Approximately, eight hours after we left Bangalore, we reached Tranquil Resort in Kerala!  http://www.tranquilresort.com/  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah!!!!  (Who am I kidding - The kids did great.  I was the one DYING to get out of that car!)

Tranquil is a privately owned 400 acre coffee and spice plantation.  Nestled within the Wayanad rainforest in the northern portion of Kerala.  We arrived just as they were serving coffee and tea and some snacks.  After chatting with the family that owns and operates the plantation we headed to our Tree Villa.  We were literally going to be sleeping in the trees!  Forget the Swiss Family Robinson - We are the American Family Weimann!!  (Matt thought he was so funny referring to me as "Mother" all week long!....yes, it got old....REAL quick! hahaha!) 

As we came down the hill, we were greeted by the warm glow of the lights shining through the windows of the Tree Villa.

Rachel and Sparkles made an instant connection.  From the moment we got out of our car Sparkles was with us.  She walked us down to our Villa and stayed with us until we were ready to walk back up to the house for supper.

There were four really sweet dogs on the plantation and as you know we are all missing our Charlie back in the US so we loved having the dogs around.  Sparkles, a golden retriever, and Shadow, a boxer, were the two dogs that were pretty much by our sides the entire time we were there.  Sparkles was always running up to us with a rock in her mouth hoping that she could convince you to play a game of fetch with her.  Sometimes the dogs would spend the night out on our porch and they frequently joined us on our hikes.  Shadow even chased after the car when we would leave to go somewhere off the plantation.  

One of the branches of the tree is growing right up through

the shower!!  So cool!

One of the things that we knew about Indian families but hadn't really experienced firsthand until our trip to Kerala was that Indians eat supper much later than Americans.  They typically do not eat their dinner until 8:00-8:30 at night.  Knowing this, I planned ahead and brought plenty of snacks to ward off the hunger pangs so that the kids would be able to wait until Indian Dinner time.

Hanging out - Waiting for supper.

While the other kids were taking their showers, David and I passed the time by making funny faces.

Fake Sleeping

Hahaha!  We're not SLEEPING - We've got LOADS of energy left!! 

CRAZY FACES!!!

Bush Baby!

Me and MY Bush Baby! ;0)





MEAN Faces!



No Double Chin Face!  hahaha!

Fish Wips.  Muah!! xo

Squeaky Clean!

All ready for dinner!

Ya hear that noise!?  It's our tummies growling!  Let's go EAT!

We all enjoyed a delicious Indian dinner.  Definitely worth the wait!  The food they made was absolutely amazing!!  That's the end of Day One!  More fun in Kerala soon!

xoxo Jenny From the B'Block! xoxo