Our Last Days in India

After we finished building the guitar, we wrapped up our study of Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine). They even gave us a certificate proving that we completed 100 hours of Ayurveda and massage studies, although Kelsi was the sterling scholar in our class of two. We had personal classes taught by three doctors of Ayurveda as well as two therapists. The photo above is four of our staff and the photo below is the 5th staff member, during the theory class.

After "graduating" from Ayurveda school, we decided to check out the far southern state of India called Kerala, which means land of coconuts. The first item on our agenda was a Kathakali drama performance. Before the performance started, they allowed us to watch the application of the makeup, which really added to our appreciation.



Kerala is also famous for it's backwaters. We couldn't come all the way down here without taking a boat tour.



A backwater-style houseboat that we would like to recommend for our next family reunion:

Chinese fishing nets:

Because of it's location in the backwaters area, we also decided to check out the ashram of Amma, India's most famous female guru, who has been dubbed the "hugging guru." She wasn't there when we stopped in to bestow a blessed cuddle on us, but we hear that her hugs are really world class. Aside from hugging, she is building tens of thousands of homes for needy people among her other impressive accomplishments. All pictures of Amma and her Kerala ashram are from Google images, as photography is prohibited in her ashram

Nearly every town in India of almost any size is blessed to have a Missionaries of Charity branch, set up by Mother Teresa and her volunteers. Different branches specialize in meeting the needs of different groups of desperately needful people, from babies to the dying. Although Missionaries of Charity is a worldwide organization, we were interested in seeing once of her centers while in India, so our final destination in Kerala was to visit an orphanage for severely handicapped orphans. We spent our time there playing, visiting, coloring, singing, and drawing with the children. We pulled an image of Mother Teresa from Google Images.

After seeing what we wanted most in Kerala, we spent the rest of our time catching up on things: haircuts, internet, one last bollywood movie, and we payed $15 (that's 2-3 nights worth of accommodation) for going to the gym FINALLY once in 6 months. And we can tell it's been that long... ouch!

After working out, we left Kerala on the night train to Trichy in the state of Tamil Nadu, where they speak mostly Tamil rather than the Hindi language of Northern India. They fed us a really nice traditional meal on banana leafs. You are supposed to mix up and eat the rice and sauces with your fingers. We find this quite enjoyable...

We also took some time to check out the Hindu temples while we were in Trichy. Look at how ornate this temple entrance was!

We spent our last evening in India climbing up a 100 meter hill to watch the sunset from Trichy's famous Rock Fort, which has an amazing Hindu temple at the top. We have spent over 3 months in India, and we can now brush our teeth with the magical tap water without even getting a tummy rumble (not sure if that's good or not). Although, we've really only experienced a sliver of the experiences that this country has to offer, we felt it was time to move on to the next country, Australia...