In part one of her adventures in Chennai, the gateway to South India, Tammi Fuller learned how to experience the “real” India without sacrificing the creature comforts. Read on to learn about her adventures from Chennai to Cochin.
We felt like big adventurers once we left the Taj Coromandel’s lush grounds, but we worried about the notorious “Delhi belly,” so just to be safe, we ate every meal at the hotel, where all the water is filtered and nothing is off limits.
Indian food is delicious, and my daughter, the vegetarian, had a field day, every day.
We chowed each morning on the local breakfast: a bowl of curried lentils served on dosas–rice pancakes that come in many textures and sizes (really small round ones to huge cylindrical ones) or uttapams (similar to dosas but in in a thicker patty shape).
The waiters made a spectacle out of mixing up our daily South Indian coffee, pouring it into a cup of sugar and milk and then letting it drop about a foot into another metal cup, repeating the action a few times until it was all mixed. This stuff could/should put Starbucks out of business.
We had wanted to ride elephants while in India, and in our email exchanges, Sricharan said it was no problem, but apparently it was. He spent days before we arrived lining up a 3-minute ride for us with a guide, about two hours from Chennai. But he knew Chelsea had to meet her ship in Cochin, and he also worried we’d be disappointed with this apparent tourist trap.
Instead, he recommended we skip the elephants he found for us, and fly to Cochin a day early, because “that is really the place to see elephants.” Within the hour, this concierge extraordinaire had rearranged our entire itinerary and flight schedules and sent us off to Cochin for a day at a place called the Elephant Training Center.
Don’t miss part one of Tammy’s adventures in Touring Temples & Cultural Travel in Chennai, India.
In Cochin, and again like clockwork, the Taj Hotel Malabar’s Airport Concierge met us and did all our dirty work, dropping us off at the hotel for a local Southern Indian brunch with treats unlike those we gorged on in Chennai. Coconut is a local specialty and even the rice and veggies were dotted with flakes. Cashews too are indigenous to Cochin, and the phyllo date cashew pillow could be the best dessert in all of India.
We took a few with us on the speedboat from the hotel to the Old Town of Cochin, where we drove some pretty hard bargains in the market after seeing the 300-year-old Dutch Fort Kochin and the oldest Jewish synagogue in India (still standing after 750 years). An outdoor tandoori barbecue at the hotel came with windswept tropical breezes off the Arabian sea, which topped off our perfect night in Cochin, my last in India. We retired early and packed up to leave, but not before seeing the long-awaited elephants.
We drove on dirt roads, past rubber and cashew plantations for a couple of hours past the lushness of the green Cochin countryside, winding through small villages where not a single person was spotted with shoes. As we crossed a bridge, a small man was walking his elephant down the roads on what looked like a leash.
The driver turned onto a narrow street, and let us out near a jetty, where, in the distance, we could see a running river with an enormous elephant lying on its side, taking in the early morning sun. We tiptoed down by the water’s edge and some local men offered us coconuts split in half, motioning us to come into the river with them.
Learn more about the area in our India & Central Asia travel section.
As we got closer to this animal, we could see her chest expand as she would breathe, slowly and deliberately. The men told us that meant she was relaxed, and invited us to come closer … and then they taught us how to massage an elephant with a half a coconut. Her coarse, wiry hairs were unruly, but her skin felt so dry and in need of TLC, we just kept splashing her with water and technically “loofa-ing” this beautiful creature. Wow.
Then, just as we looked up, four more elephants were brought down to the river, including two babies, and the handful of people who had just pulled up were as shocked as we were to learn we could all take part in this daily bathing/massaging ritual.
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We spent more than an hour alternating between elephants, rubbing them down as they popped the tips of their trunks out of the water in search of some loving hands. I have never felt so intimately close to an animal like that.
I did wonder for a moment about all the news stories I had covered all the people who get mauled or mangled by wild beasts each year. Then I was reminded that these animals were part of a training center and were quite tame. Yes, we did get a ride on the elephant after the bathing was done, but the real thrill for us had been that we had spent the day as elephant aestheticians.
This was definitely a “you can sleep when you die” trip, and I didn’t get to overcome my sleep deprivation until the long return flight home. But I won’t sit long in California. I’m convinced that our Taj hotel experience trumped any trip to the Taj Mahal. It was a powerful and enticing appetizer in style, service, grace, and presented more than its fair share of magical deeds. I no longer need a reunion with my daughter as an excuse to go back … in fact, I’m waiting to hear back from Parmiso the astrologer to see if he can figure out a way to make my chart compatible with Sricharan’s!
By Tammi Leader Fuller for PeterGreenberg.com.
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