December 11, 2014. On the road again in India

We had an early morning...took a cab at 4:30 AM to the Hyderabad airport.  This trip takes us to south India.  Our plane stopped in Bangalore, which is a booming, modern city, then on to Kochi, our destination.   Our first sign that this might be a different experience was when about 50 barefoot men boarded the airplane.  Most were bare chested with flower leis and black skirt-like bottoms.  They all balanced a wrapped-up blanket on their heads.  We found out later that there is a famous temple here in Kochi where Hindus make a 41-day pilgrimage each year.  It involves fasting and walking up a steep hill barefoot.

When we landed in Kochi, our tour company representative was there to meet us.  

Nagu (Meredith's father-in-law) has arranged this entire trip.  It is always so reassuring when these chaps meet us as we disembark from planes and trains.

This region is so different from the India we have seen so far.  It is very tropical and hilly.  Palm trees everywhere.  Green, green.  We left the city of Kochi, on the Arabian Sea, and drove east and up through the hills.  In addition to palm trees, we saw lots of bamboo, banana trees, pineapple plantations, rice paddies, cocoa trees, and beautiful tropical flowers.  It was about 90 degrees, and humid from last night's rain.  We also drove by tapioca and rubber tree plantations.

 This is a rubber tree plantation, where they cut the bark and the rubber trips.

We drove through winding, hill roads, spotting monkeys and dodging cars as drivers tried to pass on curvy roads.