January 22, 2015 -- The Drive to Madurai

Rob will have filled you in on the Madurai experience – i.e. looking for and photographing the temple and palace which good old Uncle Linny photographed in 1858 in Madurai (like we did in Tanjore in October). So I will fill in the cracks.

We left Periyar by car/driver on Jan. 15 and had a lovely drive to Madurai.  Our driver was able to give us some points of interest along the way – notably rubber plantations, tea gardens and tea factory, spice gardens, and brickyards and was quite willing to yank the wheel over and stop on a dime (er… rupee) so that we could take pictures. 

The rubber trees are planted in rows.  Each tree has a tap, with a half- coconut shell to catch the rubber sap.  Above each tap/shell a little awning has been attached to the tree to keep out rain.  Many, many rubber plantations and thousands of trees did we see.

Tea is also grown in this neck of the woods (like we saw in Assam 2004).  The tea bushes have enough space all around each to leave room for pickers, thus  creating a beautiful pattern from a distance.  This was a very lush area.

Kerala, but specifically the area we were now driving through, grows and is notable for SPICES.  Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, curry leaf – just to name a few – so you can imagine all the shops and “spice garden tours” offered along the way.  Our driver thought we should stop at one, (Kick back! Kick back!) and though we said we were NOT shopping (having bought spice in Kochi on our first pass) we agreed to take a spice garden tour.  Well, the tour was really not of a garden of many spice trees, but rather a walk down through a grouping of one-of-a-kind spice trees while the “guide” told us what each was and what medicinal properties it had.  Can’t remember what that “tour” cost us, but I suppose we got as much from that as seeing a huge spread of trees.  We agreed to go inside the shop afterwards, only because they grow coffee too, and we were in need of some more ground filter coffee, which turned out to be NOT BAD, but we prefer the roast blend we have been buying here at Barista.

Bird-wise, we saw again and again on phone lines, the magnificent Indian Roller (which we spotted in Chennai last Fall).  They seem to prefer open fields.

Indian Roller

Now, in the North we see many brick factories sporting tall chimneys as we drive to work -- and they are all over the Punjab.  However, the method of making brick seems to be different in Kerala. 

We kept seeing smoke in the distance -- like someone’s field or house was on fire -- but as we would approach the source of the smoke, it would turn out to be a brick structure (not well made) covered with a thatched roof, and with an opening – full of more bricks being “baked “ by a wood fire inside (we surmise).  Each of these kilns that we passed basically looked like a house on fire -- belching smoke from every crevice.

Brick Kiln

Brick Making

Again and again, we saw cars, trucks, houses adorned with a sprig of some kind of herb or dried leafy plant ( tied to the bumper, or over the door jamb).  We finally deduced from the driver that this was like a good luck charm, but did not know that it was directly related to Pongal, an important, 4 -day holiday/celebration which was beginning that very day.  I believe that plant was Neem, according to Google.

In every tiny town that we came to, there were piles of long sugar cane, with the leaves still attached – being sold at market.  We passed bicyclers, motorcyclists, car and truck drivers – all carrying home several stalks of sugar cane, and it turns out that this too was related to Pongal, as it is customary to make traditional Pongal sweets at this time.   Pongal is celebrated slightly differently in each State of India, but in Tamil Nadu it is a four-day-long event, with the second day being the biggest.  It celebrates the harvest, and honours animals.  It is a time for buying new clothes and discarding old ones, and believe me, the shops in Madurai were doing a box office business!  We saw people bathing their cows, already prettied up with painted horns.  Google Pongal.  There is too much to write here, but we did see rangolis in front of homes, temples, on signage (also mentioned by Google).

Sugar Cane Transport

Sugar Cane Transport

You all may be getting sick of all these pictures, but everything seems new and fascinating to us.  This is a whole other world.

More in the next installment.

Hansi