It's Thanksgiving weekend now and we've been reflecting on all that there is to be thankful for, including this wonderful trip we had together! So before the cobwebs start collecting it's time I finished off this blog... Kevin typed up his journal (all 40 plus pages of it) and I've been reading and remembering. The trip was special in many ways but a couple things stand out.
The first is how many times I heard Indians say, "But I'm an Indian first!" when the subject of their religion/background came up. One perfect example of this was our guide Shafi. Even though he was a Muslim, he took time and effort to help a Hindu family -- and in particular, their small son, calling him 'beta', an endearment -- find a small dark shrine tucked away between the walls of the Ranthambore Fort. It was a place so small and dark that we had to duck our heads, walk single-file and use the light of a borrowed cell phone in order to see the marigold-covered shiv-lingam inside. Shafi was a man who was at peace with not only himself, but his neighbors.
Another example of this attitude was our last night in India, when we were invited to have dinner with the daughter of the Sikh man (recently deceased) whose travel agency we used and who was a friend and business associate of both of our fathers when they lived and worked in India. When we were saying goodbye she said, "I never asked you about your family!" I mentioned how blessed we felt to have two wonderful sons, their wives and children living close to us, she said, "You're right. It is a blessing. Oh, we never got to read the Bible together. Next time you come, we'll read the Bible together, OK?" This from a very modern agnostic Indian woman who described her father as the 'only God I ever knew' and who had just opened her home to two people she'd never met before, but respected because our fathers knew each other way back when.
The second is how this trip had the effect of Giving to us in three unexpected ways: it gave Kevin back his love for India; it gave me back my India-loving husband; and it gave us both time and opportunity to realize how much we love and need each other still, even after 35 years of marriage and a few crises along the way.
Kevin's excited about returning to northeast India in February to work with Operation Smile. He said he wants to give back something to the country that has given him so much.
And now we're tentatively planning (talking around the edges of) our next trip to India which hopefully be in the south. I'm very interested in exploring the Jewish community in Cochin and traveling its beautiful backwaters.
But Africa is also beckoning...
- - -
The photographs are a random collection, the first five of which are of Thailand.
The red letter box was nailed to one of the inner walls of the Bom Jesus Cathedral in Goa.
The colored glass wall was at the new heritage hotel in Jaipur.
The seventh photo from the bottom is at a factory in Jaipur where we did a little cloth shopping and were served some excellent chai.
The picture of the sunset over the lake and the one above it of the huge tree in the field were taken in Sawai Madhopur when Shafi took us bird watching and we came away with that indescribable sense of peace and well-being that is such a part of Indian evenings. I miss the evenings the most: the smell of dust and wood smoke from cooking fires that starts to fill the air, and the sound of the parakeets, cormorants, martins, cranes and doves flying from tree to tree to find their roosts.
This was to be our nicest, fanciest, glitziest destination...! (Based on no information really, except that it was the most expensive of all the places we'd booked!)
We arrived at Devbagh Resort, Karwar, in a drizzle of rain and by the time we'd walked through the forest from the ferry to our Log Hut 5, we were wet and chilled enough to want something hot to drink.
Our hut was spartan but very clean and since we had a long time to wait for lunch and because the beds with their crisp white sheets looked so inviting, we took a nap.
Later we both admitted to feeling a bit depressed. Everything was so dark! The island of Devbagh consisted of a forest of casuarina trees and even when the sun did shine, there wasn't much room for light to get to the forest floor.
We turned on as many lights as we could find but even then the room seemed dreary and dim. The joke became, "Turn on the lights!" with the answer being: "I already have!"
This was going to be an interesting four days, stuck on a rainy island with nothing to do. We looked at each other, took deep breaths, smiled and said, "We can do this! We might have to dig down deep, but we can do it!"
The beach was nearby but apparently swimming was limited to the evening and only on one small portion of it, due to the strong currents from the river that flowed into it. And yes, Devbagh Resort offered a Nature Walk at 7 in the morning, but in the rain that didn't sound like a lot of fun. (Brave Kevin did go one morning -- after 6:30 am Bed Tea -- and came home with his jeans wet up to his knees because they tramped through ocean surf and rivers to have a look at mangroves and eagles.)
We heard a lot of peacocks calling but never spotted any. One morning the Resort took us on a boat ride quite far out into the ocean, around a couple islands, and we did get to see some dolphins jumping. Crows and dogs were the most prominent animals on the resort and at times the dogs seemed to us like professional 'beach bums': playing in the surf, chasing crabs and napping on the sand like they did. They were friendly and harmless, apparently belonging the fishermen who shared the island with the Resort.
So we played cards, we did writing exercises from the book I'd brought along, we napped, we read and we drank coffee; we played cards, we drank tea, we read our books and we napped some more. We did manage to get into the ocean twice but it was rougher than Goa. And we did witness one beautiful sunset. Otherwise the weather was inclement and the cows that wandered through the forest past our Log Huts looked as desolate as we felt. Thank goodness we had sunshine the first afternoon and managed to get some pictures.
The only really awful moment was when a huge beetle joined us in our bed the first night (Kevin whispered, "Are you tickling me?" I replied, "No, are you tickling ME?") and then decided to crawl up my pillow before I managed to turn on the light. Kevin's sure aim with his sandal up into the rafters -- where the beetle had returned for refuge from the slightly panick-ed humans -- ended the poor creature's life but it was hard not to worry about what other critters might be lurking in the dark beams of our log hut. After we righted the lamp that took a hit from the tumbling sandal, and turned off the light, I couldn't help but wonder to myself, What about a snake?
The Resort built a bonfire every night on the beach and served soup, snacks and drinks, before the buffet supper at 9pm. We decided we just couldn't eat that late at night -- and especially not more spicy food -- so after the soup and pakodas we returned to the hut and climbed into bed to read.
One afternoon, eager to communicate with family, we asked about the possibility of taking the ferry off the island into Karwar and finding an internet cafe. The Resort manager invited us to just use the computer at their office on the mainland, so we had a pleasant little outing under gray (but thankfully dry) skies into Karwar. The bungalow where the office was located reminded me of my childhood home in Gadag for some reason and it was fun knowing that we were back in the state of my birth. While the language sounded completely strange to me, some of the trees and flowers seemed familiar. On the way back to the ferry I noticed an interesting plant with a purple flower growing along the rock wall. A voice came behind us, "Touch Me Not. Very good for the treatment of Piles!" And on our return trip to Goa I did see several signs for clinics offering treatment for "Piles, Fissures and Fistulas."
Obviously it wasn't hard for us to decide to cut our time short by a day and return to Goa. Ah, Goa! So bright and colorful and inviting! We couldn't wait to get back to the rooms that were lit with warm yellow lamplight and where people knew English and where there was a TV to watch.
The morning we left it was raining hard enough to need umbrellas to walk to the ferry and about two hours later we arrived back at Goa Beach House to find they'd had lots of rain as well. "We can't predict the weather anymore," people said.
But we really couldn't complain too much. I mean, the staff of Devbagh were all friendly and helpful. It wasn't their fault we'd booked so many days and that there were storms in the area. The facility provided plenty of good South Indian food to eat, plus morning tea and afternoon coffee. And we'd met some interesting people including a young newly married couple from Bangalore who worked at night transposing doctor's notes for the same company that owns the hospital Kevin works at -- an example of Outsourcing up close and personal.
So, IF you ever book a stay at Devbagh Resort, Karnataka, limit it to 48 hours and you'll have just enough time to enjoy what the place has to offer. The beach was quite scenic with the forest behind, islands close by and mountain ranges in the distance.
