Week 11: Kerala

We made our way to the south last Tuesday and spent an entire week in Kerala. We flew from Ahmedabad to Trivandrum and landed on a runway that was in the middle of a palm tree forest. Trivandrum, located on the western coast almost on the southern tip of the sub-continent is the colonial name and the capital city of Kerala. It’s Indian name is Thiruvananthapuram, which I cant even begin to pronounce but means “holy snake city”. Snakes are sacred in India (at least I’m under that impression), so much that if you get bitten by a snake you are considered purified and don’t have to be burned in a ghat when you die like we had seen in Varanasi. The weather in Trivandrum was hot and humid, much different from the arid north. I wasn’t convinced I was even still in India until I saw our taxi cab, the same Ambassador model from the 1950’s that picked us up in Kolkata. With that said, the south still seemed like a different world: The men wear skirts (really it’s just a big sheet they tie around their waist), the tuk tuks actually have room for luggage (bonus!) and the people are just about the friendliest we have encountered on the entire trip.

While in Trivandrum, Chels and I did some architourist stuff by finding the works of Laurie Baker, a “Ghandian” architect who did socially responsible, low income, green work. He died two years ago, but his office, Costford continues to operate with the same principles. We saw a coffee house he designed for a coffee bean co-op which is a 4 storey continuous spiral. Inside was a timewarp, it looked like a ramped 50’s diner, with booth seating on the perimeter and the kitchen and bathrooms in the center. The walls and seats were pink and turquoise. The ramped interior definitely did not meet ADA standards, but considering that I don’t think I’ve seen an egress/exit sign in this country yet, I’m sure it is of no concern. We also saw a campus he designed and low income housing under construction in one of the city slums. His brickwork is his signature, and reminiscent of when Alvar Aalto went through his red brick phase (muraatsalo summer house for all you AS2k5 peeps out there) with many different experimentations of pattern, scale, and arrangement. His low income housing also has clay tiles embedded into the underside of the concrete slabs, reducing the amount of steel in the slabs by 25% according to the project architect.

Our last night in Trivandrum we went to this huge old movie house that I can only compare to the Uptown in Cleveland Park only it was a little larger and not as grand. We saw 2012 for a whopping 35 rupees (75 cents!) which was cool to see because it takes place in DC, Tibet and India. They stopped the film mid-way and had an intermission which was strange. The audience was a bit chatty and talked on their cell phones during the show as well.

We left Trivandrum for Kollam on the best train ride of the whole trip. It was only an hour long but it was in the lowest class where we sat in a train car with no glass in the windows (only bars!) and looked out at the towns and countryside of southern Kerala. The doors were non existent and people would jump off of the train as it slowed down before we got to the station.

In Kollam we did a canoe trip through the backwaters, tiny canals that branch off of the river that runs parallel the coast in a similar way the Intracoastal Waterway runs up the gulf coast of Florida. We saw people building canoes, a tapioca farm, and a couple fish farms. I spent a good part of the time laying across my bench looking up at the palm fronds that arched over the waterway. It was very calm and peaceful. The next day we took an 8 hour boat ride up one of the larger waterways to a town called Alleppy. We were on a boat that sat maybe 40 people, but was only half full. We made friends with a couple from Austin who have been traveling since July and have no definite ending date. We swapped travel stories, talked about food we miss the most (we both more or less agreed on Guacamole). It made me feel good that they’ve also had “fat kid camp days” (their words) where they gorge themselves at McDonalds or other western fast food that they see every now and again because it is familiar and although maybe not eaten a lot at home, very tasty on this side of the world. We tried to outdo each other with “craziest bus ride” stories. They knew a guy whose friend Andy was traveling in Boliva on a bus when it got pulled over by a guy with a machine gun. The bus full of people was very nervous but after the machine gun guy stopped talking to the driver, the driver turned around and joyfully said in Spanish “don’t worry, they’re only robbing this guy!” pointing to the only foreigner on the bus, Andy. They took him off the bus with all of his stuff and when he returned he had only the boxers he was wearing. Thankfully, that beats anything we’ve had to encounter!!

When we arrived in Alleppy we went to our hotel which was a resort type place on one of the backwater canals. We stayed in a hut clad in palm leaves with a hammock and what seemed like the first piece of grass I’ve stepped on in months. It was perfect and we were happy to have a change of pace as we wind down the last 11 weeks of being on the move.

Our last week is going to be a fast one, we’re off to the beaches in Goa for 2 days, then Mumbai with a quick side trip to the Ellora Caves which Ted Wolner apparently talked up quite a bit in Arch History (chels remembers hearing about them, I don’t). I’m back in DC on Wednesday!

Pictures:

Laurie Baker Indian Coffee House, Trivandrum

We decided against this restaurant, Trivandrum

Center for Development Studies, Campus designed by Laurie Baker, outside Trivandrum

Center for Development Studies, outside Trivandrum

Boatmaking, Backwaters near Kollam

Backwater boat ride from Kollam to Alleppy

Backwater boat ride from Kollam to Alleppy

Backwater boat ride from Kollam to Alleppy

Backwater boat ride from Kollam to Alleppy

Backwater boat ride from Kollam to Alleppy

Backwater boat ride from Kollam to Alleppy

Dusk on the boat from Kollam to Alleppy

Week 10: Jaipur, Udaipur and Ahmedabad

It was inevitable and I knew it would happen: Travelers sickness finally caught up with me and I was in bed for 3 days as a result. I think something in Agra got me sick which forced me to stay in bed in Jaipur, missing the city while Chels went and toured the fort, palace, etc. The city is known as the Pink City, because when Prince Albert of England came to visit, the shah or King or whoever was in charge had the entire city painted Pink in his honor, though I’m not sure why pink was chosen. After only 1.5 days in Jaipur we flew to Udaipur because there were no trains available. I thought I had recovered so I stupidly stopped taking my meds which actually made whatever was wrong with me come back even stronger and I spent two of the three days in Udaipur in bed. When Thursday rolled around, I still wasn’t taking to food, so my thanksgiving feast consisted of 3 or 4 ritz crackers, water, and Cipro. I was able to listen to about 10 episodes of “This American Life” on my Ipod which was nice and the ceiling of our hotel in Udaipur was beautifully painted in bright blue stenciling with peach colored flowers which I stared at for the majority of the day.

Udaipur is known as the White City and has a huge lake with a palace in the middle of it (now a very expensive hotel). The city is also well known because it is where they filmed James Bond’s “Octopussy”. Our last day there when I was probably about 70% recovered I was walking to pick up a pair of pants I had made (if I’ve had one indulgence on this trip, it has definitely been tailor-made clothing) and about 30 seconds after walking in the shop, I turned around and who was there but Johanna, the girl who sits directly behind me at SmithGroup! We knew we were both going to be in India in November, but after an email a couple weeks ago, we didn’t think we were going to be anywhere at the same time so we made no plans to meet up. I had no idea she was going to be in Udaipur and there she was! We hung out for the rest of the day, saw a wedding ceremony (the groom was on a horse, a marching band played, fireworks were shot off, very different from any wedding I’ve ever seen) starting and then watched Octopussy while we ate dinner at a hotel restaurant. What a crazy small world!

From Udaipur we took a bus to Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad is one of the largest cities in India in a wealthy state called Gujarat. Chels studied there when she did CAP Asia in 2005 and one of our professors and a classmate of Chelsea’s were both there doing a Fulbright. I was unsure if I was going to like Ahmedabad but ended up really enjoying it. For one thing, it isn’t really touristy. Its’ claim to fame is that Ghandi lived there after he returned from South Africa in a commune of sorts. There were many perks to being in a city that didn’t have tourists. For one, the tuk tuk drivers don’t rip you off. We were shocked at how cheap it actually is to use them and how much more we were paying elsewhere. Of course it is all relative, but a tuk tuk that would cost 100 rupees ($2) in any of the previous places we had been was only about 25 rupees (50 cents) here. They use meters and you don’t have to barter for the price. It was such a relief.

Ahmedabad had some great modern architectural landmarks as well which was refreshing after having toured about a million temples/religious structures since September. IIM, the India Institute of Management’s (premiere business school, modeled after Harvard) original campus was designed by Louis Kahn. The dorms, faculty ofices, instruction space and library are all in the same vein as the Philips Exeter Library with huge geometric circles cut in to brick facades. Kahn’s mastery of scale and organization of the various programmatic components created a beautiful campus that seemed like an inspiring place to learn and live. I think the most exciting component of his design is his integration of light and shadow with his response to the hot-arid climate. The buildings are laid out like fingers, keeping them small and open to allow for daylight and air. They are connected with long arcades/corridors with rhythmic punched openings that produce beautiful clean, geometric bursts of light on the brick facades while providing a cool space to walk and keeping the buildings out of direct sun. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get very many good photos, because security made me put my camera away.

Another notable building was LeCorbusier’s City Museum. Standing in the courtyward on the ground level you know you’re in a Corbu building because 3 of his 5 ‘ideal principles’ are all present: Pilotis with open ground floor and raised first floor, ribbon windows, and a ramp. It was an institutional brick version of Villa Savoye in a way. The inside left something to be desired though. The circulation of exhibit space was poor (I think due to modifications of exhibit spaces and not Corbu’s intended design) but his stair details were nice and the concrete was beautiful. Sorry to geek out on the architecture descriptions but my exposure to modern architecture had been lacking until now.

From Ahmedabad we fly to Trivandrum which is almost at the southern tip of India. It is in a state called Kerala which is a socialist state and has a higher literacy rate than the US despite being one of the poorest states in India. It should be exciting!

Pictures: Apologies, I have none from Udaipur and Jaipur..

Kahn’s IIM main quad. Library in back, Faculty Office buildings on the left, classroom buildings on the right, Ahmedabad






New IIM dorms recently completed, inspired by Kahn’s original design, Ahmedabad

Old IIM dorms designed by Kahn, Ahmedabad

Kevin's dorm room at IIM, although I didnt get to meet him...

This was a menu item at a restaurant called "Uncle Sams". It was kind of a mix between Friendlys and Chuckee Cheese. Which is why we were shocked to see this on the menu, but it was hilarious! Ahmedabad

This was a Stepwell, an temple that goes 5 stories below ground. Adalaj, outside Ahmedabad

Jama Masjid (Main Mosque), Ahmedabad

I was supossed to be looking at this: Swaminarayan Temple, Ahmedabad



But was more intrigued by this behind me: