More pictures

Here are some interesting pictures I took these days!

These were the spices I saw at a spices presentation. I'm not used to most of the spices; but I love lemon grass a lot.

Bessie with the elephants' food

This is how they wash them

She was still eating with tourists on her back while walking

Turn the other side

Massage!

I'm just back from a massage. It was my first time to experience it. I thought it should be a quite heavy one like what i saw from TV, but it was smooth and gentle. I was asked to take off all my clothes, even the underwear. I was not so surprised because Bessie warned me before i went into the room. Thank you, Bessie! Then she applied some kind of oil onto my skin, which really smelled good.
When she was massaging my arm, she said:"It looks like my daughter's" And I asked how old is her daughter because she looks young. She said:" 2 years old." ehm....Alright, I will eat more.

This is the place where we take the massage. It is interesting to break into a Laurie Baker house accidently again and again. I saw a Laurie Baker coffee house one day when I was walking in the downtown Trivandrum. Yesterday where we take the breakfast was a Laurie Baker house. Today is another one.


Day 16 in Thekkadi
Yesterday I got up at 4:40 and we left the hotel before the sun was up to catch the first ferry. I was still in dream when i was sitting at the back of the bus.
The fog was still there when we got there, so the scenes were amazing!

This is Bessie with our ticket.

The boat we took.

There were two bird nests on that tree trunk. Great house!

A bird with a strange behavior. Was it taking a sunbath with its feet standing and wings open?

We met monkeys! I have never get such close to a real monkey before. Its hair looks really soft and cute.

Elephant

It's my first time to ride an elephant. I had a close touch with elephants yesterday, and today I'm on it!
We were on a baby female elephant. Although they call her a baby, she's already 22 years old. I'm only 19...ehm.....
When I was sitting on her back, I could feel the movement of her bones inside; it was amazing!
We took a short walk on her on a path surrounding by jackfruit trees. On the way,I saw another giant elephant was taking a bath in the river in the valley.

After the short walk, I got an opportunity to witness how an elephant gets a shower. There were two guys holding a water pipe, one of them made some instructions to the elephant. She understood it! She lay down on her side as told, seemed really comfortable and relax with her truck waving and dancing. The workers used a brush to rub her ear and her back. She was like taking a nap and strentch ing herself. When one side was done, she would lay down again to show another side of her huge body and let the workers wash her. It was very interesting.

After the elephant ride, we went to a spice presentation to learn a variety of spices. The one I really liked is the lemon grass. It looks just as a normal wild tall grass, but when I pick a little of it's seed and smell it closely, it's giving out a good fresh lemon- like smell. I have heard of lemon grass before, but it's the first time I see it. I would like to get some tomorrow when we go to the spice outlet if I see  it.

It is awkward to find out that everyone's taking their laptop with them for this short trip except me. :(
I'm not able to post pictures on my phone. So I would add some nice pictures of the elephants and spices when I get back to Trivandrum.:)

first week in India

This is my first week in India.

On the first day, after a whole day's travel, we finally arrived at the Thrivandrum airport. I was shocked by the Indialish for the first time when I entered the custom. (Sometimes I can't even understand the native America English, so Indialish sounds really...ehm....) He asked me whether I'm a student, and I required him to pardon again and again to figure out what he's saying.
Although Jerry informed us that there were huge amount of people at the exit of the airport, I was still surprised because it was only 3 o'clock in the morning!
The first day is a very long day to me. We changed the hotel and I waited for the whole morning for my room because I'm at the end of the list. XD

This airline is great! I found a lot of latest movies and I watched 3 of them during my flight.

Breakfast at the hotel. My first meal in India. It was quite good.

I tried to read their newspaper when I was waiting for my room, but I knew no one appeared on it. 

This was my first traditional India meal called Thali. The green layer underneath was a fresh banana leaf. It was a lot fun to eat with all these small dishes. I really liked the one like rice pudding and the cooked banana.

We began our class from the second day in the Laurie Baker Centre.(LBC) The classroom in which we took our lectures has an amazing structure that open to the nature. It's like a boat floating in the green coconut tree ocean. 

Since it was the end of 2012, we traveled to the beach at late afternoon that day. I have heard that the beach    in Kerala is famous to the tourists. But when we arrived there, it was already dark so I was not able to see the sea in a clear view. We watched a traditional show first. To tell the truth, I didn't get what they were trying to express to the audience and I fell asleep halfway. There was no dialogues in the show at all except one man was kept shouting. Even so, it was an excellent show. I liked the background music and their clothing a lot. I don't quite understand what the traditional Chinese Beijing Opera as well since they are all...traditional..

We saw the fireworks at midnight. Indians were all friendly and energetic..."Happy new year" everywhere.

One thing interesting about the Indian is that when they mean to express "Yes", they wave their heads instead of nodding. It is really cute for them to wave their head. Now I feel a little bit of getting used to waving my head. I keep doing it because it's funny. But I don't think people would understand me when I go back to USA and China. 

I cannot get used to the traffic in India though. One main reason is that people drive on the left side but I'm accustomed to the right side in both US and China. The traffic is even worse than that in China. There are not many traffic lights at the cross. When you are on a running minivan, you would feel all the cars coming from the opposite direction are going to crash in you. 

We headed to Kanyakumari on the third day. It was almost the south edge of India. I tried the Thali again this time without the spoon! I took a long time to hesitate before I finally decided to put my fingers into the food. 

 This is an palace we visited." Padmanabhapuram Palace" It has a history of about 400 years. 

 Every lotus on the ceiling is different.

 From this window, people inside the house can see what's going on downstairs, but  there is  no way for people outside to see inside. 

 Way to the King's bedroom.

This is another hole for the people inside to see the outside. It seems like the King really concern his privacy and power over his men.

 We took the whole morning in a super long line to get on to the ferry to the island. I didn't realize it was that long until i reached the ferry and look back at the queue. 

I sat down before a yoga sign just like the others did, but i didn't get anything. 

 I am a big fan of coconut trees. They are tall and straight into the sky. I enjoyed coconut water as well.

 I wonder if it's a Banyan?

Fruits in India are wonderful as well. I have never seen green and red banana before. The fruits here have a nature smell and taste. They are better than the banana in Shanghai, and much better than the banana in Iowa City. I also like the fresh papaya served at the hotel every morning. They are the most sweet and soft papayas I have ever tried.

I went to downtown Thrivandrum that night where I found the appy apple juice Jerry mentioned. " The Drink of the travel last year."

It is pure apple juice.