RASTA, Honey Valley, etc.

We spent a few busy days in the city of Mysore, in Karnataka. It was our favorite city so far; it felt more manageable than Pune and Mumbai, and it was bursting with culture. There's a stunning palace, though unfortunately you aren't allowed to take any photos. Google it though!

Our friend Cobra, who we met on the beach in Gokarna, lives in Mysore and took us on a whirlwind tour of the city. For 42 rupees each, we got all-day bus passes and went up to Chamundi Hill (pictured below), to Cobra's favorite temple about 45 minutes outside the city, and to his house for dinner.

"He's behind you!"

Chamundi Temple, on Chamundi Hill. You can't tell from this but it was covered in bickering monkeys.

This temple (on Chamundi Hill) feeds 15,000 people per day for lunch, all for free. Food was spicy but very tasty. We were the last ones in the hall, struggling to eat burning-hot food one-handed.

TRUCK O' RICE

Our friend Cobra's adorable and hospitable parents. His mom and sister cooked us a delicious meal, including eggplant curry and the best sweet coconut roti.

From Mysore, we went to Coorg, a lush mountainous region in Karnataka. We wanted to hike the tallest peak, Mt. Tadiandamol, so we stayed at Honey Valley Estate, which is a jungley coffee and pepper plantation with cheery accommodation, an interesting group of avid hikers and tasty vegetarian meals. It was also full of dogs.

Directions for a dozen nice walks around the area... unfortunately they were the most pathetic directions and included instructions like "turn into the hedge" and "turn at the large rock," and many times, "climb over the fence" (there were no fences).

We started off easy the first day, going on what should have been a four mile hike up a small mountain, along a cow trail. It ended up being much longer since we got lost maybe six times.

Not the correct path to take (but look how pretty)!

Special treasures (clockwise): a dead millipede, a mystery seed, an unripe cucumber, and a "fruit that children eat"

The next day we hiked Tadiandamol. It was supposed to be a 16 mile hike, but again we got horribly lost and ending up trekking through a sketchy brush area for about an hour (we found out later cobras were in the area), so it was probably more like 20 miles. We were wrecked by the end, but it was worth it! The views were stunning and the terrain was varied, from mountain ridges to jungle areas to rice paddies and fields.

Our guides on the walk were two dogs from Honey Valley, who we nicknamed Krishna and Parvati. An hour into the walk, things got steamy between them. True to reputation, Krishna was incorrigible and wouldn't leave Parvati alone. We didn't think much of it and kept walking, but a couple minutes later, they weren't following us. We turned around and saw they were stuck! Attached! Conjoined!

Krishna's the brown one--so embarrassing 

She started dragging him down the hill. He looked quite uncomfortable. We were worried they'd be stuck forever! Hamish tried to fix matters by pouring water on the affected area, to no avail. It went on for too long and we didn't know what to do! We wanted to carry on but didn't want them to perish on the mountain. Luckily, they eventually separated naturally and we continued.

View from the top of Tadiandamol

Panorama

Lost again. On the way back, we ended up following this man (who was wielding a machete) through a few fields, in an effort to find Honey Valley.

We passed this dude, who was tending to his chilis

Destroyed feet--eventually we both had to remove our shoes due to blisters, and walk up a long dirt road. It was disheartening.

Honey Valley pepper drying in the sun. When we came back from our walk, they'd all turned black!

Next up was the Wayanad district of Kerala, where we spent a week volunteering at a local NGO called RASTA (Rural Agency for Social and Technological Advancement). Founded in 1987 by a wonderful, socially and environmentally-minded couple, they run tons of programs with the main focus of empowering local women (especially widows) and promoting sustainable and ecologically-friendly practices in the local farming communities. The main crops there are coffee, pepper, banana, ginger, rice, cardamom and tea.

Our main duties were photographing the local tribal community (the people who benefit from RASTA's programs), documenting the goings-on of the campus, teaching English to amazing kids, and helping to boost RASTA's internet presence. We were volunteering at the same time as a great Canadian couple, Sheila and Lawrence, who help run an ecological sustainability organization called Valhalla. 

On a day out, we experienced cowiest chai ever. It tasted so much like cow, we had to ask where the milk came from. It turned out to be from one of the buffalo behind the restaurant.

 Here's to you, buffalo.
 

Thank you, buffalo.

Tapioca in a field near the RASTA campus

 

This leaf will improve your memory; unfortunately, we forget what it was called!

Long dried-up bean, also a sword

Butterflies on Kuruva Island, near RASTA

Near RASTA, we visited the Pania tribal village and witnessed milk in action.

Fresh from the cow; surprisingly frothy

Milking the cow

The best calf!

Our English students! They ranged from 3 to 10. They were so smart and so cute!

Lotus in a beer bottle in a home near RASTA

Homemade hive for tiny wild bees (made from an old cooking pot, with a hole in the bottom, and affixed to the side of a house with clay). The family harvests honey twice a year.

 Handmade bricks drying in the sun

Extremely tangy fruit on RASTA's campus (no idea what it's called)

Boy who lives in a nearly village that RASTA provides support to. Look how happy this rabbit is... not. Future dinner.

"Why hello"

Orange spotted fish that bit Hamish

RASTA has tons of jackfruit trees. Jackfruit are giant, spiky green plants--kind of dinosaur-egg-like in general shape--that you can use either like a vegetable, when they're younger, or like a fruit, when they're older. We enjoyed many young jackfruit dishes, but our favorite was the jackfruit masala; it had the texture of shredded pork.
 

Jackfruit, cut in half. Parts are really sticky and it's a mission to dissect them and get out the edible bits. Some parts also are only for cows (good job we knew a dude with a cow).

Bhagyalakshmi (whose name means "lucky Lakshmi"), the talented cook, cutting the jackfruit.

 

Plant or sea cucumber?

Pile o' jackfruit

Lunch: jackfruit curry, jackfruit chips, curd and vegetables, and crazy spicy chili.

And now what you've all been waiting for... Raccoon's Cookie Review. This time, he's taking a look at Bisk Farm's "Spicy" biscuits, pictured below.

Bisk Farm's "Spicy" biscuits. Tagline reads: "Tasty, tangy, crispy ... the best biscuit for your tea."

Well, well, well. Raccoon had to disagree about these being the best biscuit for your tea.

Taste: 6/10

Crunch factor: 6/10

Size: 9/10 ("a sizable biscuit")

Dipping time in tea before dissolving: 2 seconds ("pathetic"); 3/10

Overall mark: 6/10

"A bizarre biscuit, which tastes more like a cheese cracker. Light cinnamon taste. Definitely NOT the best biscuit for your tea, as they claim on the packet, but surprisingly moorish nonetheless."

Week of Om

We spent most of the time since we last wrote at the Shankar Prasad Foundation in the tiny town of Bankikodla, near the slightly larger town of Gokarna, in the state of Karnataka. We found it on Airbnb, advertised as a "Yoga Meditation Organic Farm," which pretty much sums it up. It's run by Australian-born, Mumbai-bred, Swamiji, a sudha (a person who leads a simple, holy life--you can tell them apart by their orange clothes. Even Swamiji's crocs were orange)! There was chanting to at 6am and 8pm, and no talking after evening chanting until after breakfast the next day. A sign hung over the dining table requesting that food be enjoyed in silence. Silence for lunch and dinner, too! As you can imagine, this was pretty difficult for us, not being used to much silence. 

The idea is to appreciate your food and be aware of what you are eating. We can see some merit to this, but at the same time, talking while eating is great; especially talking about the food, which was really good. Breakfast consisted of brown/purple-ish porridge, made with oats, ragi flour, water, sultanas, and cashew nuts. Lunch was the main meal of the day, always including rice, dahl, curds/yogurt, chapatis and some sort of salad (our favourite was a grated beetroot and carrot salad). Dinner was leftovers. 

Silent lunch... shhh

The day before we arrived, there was a big festival in town, during which hundreds of people pushed this cart (below) through the streets. The cart is anywhere between 600 to 3,000 years old (we got varying reports... either way, it's old). Unfortunately, the axle broke in the middle of the festival! Bad omen--it had never happened before. Everyone was disappointed and blamed the "cold weather" the next morning on Shiva's disapproval. It still hadn't been fixed by the time we left--they were looking for a Brahim mechanic.

The cart in nearby Gokarna.

The coast near Gokarna is spectacular, and a path runs along it for miles, so you can walk from beach to beach over the headlands. Our favourite was Om Beach, which is shaped like an om sign. We saw a couple of most excellent sunsets there, and one morning got up at 5am to take a rickshaw over for sunrise meditation. Led by Sebastian, a German chap who had done it on Christmas Day as well, we walked right out onto the headland overlooking Om and Half Moon Beaches. Sat in meditation asanas, cross-legged (not the most comfortable position), we watched the sun come up.

Sunrise meditation. Lauren needs to work on her posture.

FOOD PROCESSING WILL TAKE 20-50 MINUTES. After the sunrise, we had the DOLPHIN BREAKFST, and very much enjoyed the dolphin cake, which didn't taste like dolphin at all (it was basically a slab of chocolate, caramel sauce and graham crackers).

We were taken by the MECRONI and SPEGHETTI

Every day, Swamiji led a two-hour class on yoga nidra ("psychic sleep meditation"); the aim is to access the subconscious, the place between being awake and asleep. There are five steps designed to get you to relax completely. You lie down in shavasana (corpse pose), and the tricky bit is not falling asleep. Hamish had to sit up, because he couldn't stay awake lying down. The dream-like place you go to is called your “chidarkash,” and could be colourful, like Lauren's cloudy rainbow place (where she befriended a black bear), or more low key. We discovered our favourite foods. Hamish's is scones and Lauren's spicy tuna rolls. But anyway, you see things man, it's a trip when it works. 

Swamiji and friend, with our friend Barry's "Keep Smiling" cards in three languages.

Bananas.... or fingers?!?! (Lots of baby bananas in India).

Spilled powder in Gokarna, left over from the festival.

Market in Gokarna

Hi elephants

One of the thousands of cows we've encountered so far. This one was particularly sassy.

Swami's Parisian Siamese cat, who has his own cat passport (catport?).

SO MANY PUPPIES on the beach!!

Inventive toy at the nursery school on site. All the playground materials were built from recycled local materials.

Nice lady in Bankikodla.

Beach snake! Hamish nearly stepped on him. He slithered back into the ocean soon after. Good move, snake.

Temple on top of the bluffs by the beach by Gokarna. Check out them elephants.

Sudha, the talented cook at Shankar Prasad.

"10 rupees per half bucket with old lady." Never figured out what that meant.

Chalk designs before the fire ceremony.

Peanut fields on Shankar Prasad. Shelling peanuts was one of the top activities there.

There was a heavily-laden starfruit tree in the garden, so Hamish, Mack and Sebastian (pictured) collected them and made several batches of starfruit jam. It was tasty in morning porridge and on top of scones.

Starfruit!

And now for Racoon's cookie review. Racoon has decided to review a different brand of biscuit/cookie every post. This week he decided to try Hide&Seek, by Parle.

Here's what they look like.

"It's a thumbs-up from me. Better than my usual roadside rummagings, but not quite as good as Brazil nuts."

Chip/biscuit ratio: 7/10

Crunch factor: 8/10

Size: 10/10 ("it's as big as my face!") 

Dipping time in tea before dissolving: 4 seconds

Overall mark: 8/10