Sunday, May 25

It has been quite a while since I posted, but I will try to keep each day’s recap short. 

On Tuesday morning (5/21), we visited the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and heard a great talk about infrastructure in rural India, microfinancing, and an ethical dilemma about viewing the poor as an underexplored market for cheap, single-serving products.  I will be writing a blog post about this talk soon, and will post a link when it has been uploaded to my trip’s blog.  We had a free evening to explore the area, so I went to Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Road, the shopping district near our hotel.  I had a chicken wrap from a street cart and tried a few bites of Indian McDonalds.  Of the items we tried, the McChicken Masala was the best; the “Big Mac”-type burger (chicken and a different sauce) and the McAloo Tiki were forgettable. 

Wednesday (5/22) consisted of an academic session in the morning and a visit to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in the afternoon.  This was our final academic visit (though not our final academic session), to an Indian school.  I had awesome paneer butter masala and naan at a “fast food” street restaurant around the corner from our hotel.

On Thursday (5/23), we visited a farm about two hours outside of Bangalore.  The farm is very progressive in its rainwater collection and distribution techniques.  Runoff is collected on the uphill half of the property and drains to the crops on the downhill side.  The crops are planted in rows about 30-50 feet wide with rows of trees in between each row of crops.  The runoff snakes through the rows of crops via a series of pits and barriers.  I have copious notes that I will share on my return.  In the evening, we returned to the shopping district and a few friends and I bought nice linen shirts.  It is super comfy.

On Friday, my class had its first war game.  This was a mock discussion that served as our final project for the first Climate Change class, Climate Change Hazards and Resilient Cities.  I will be writing a reflection on this war game that I will post on my blog soon.  The game took all day—I only left the hotel for lunch. 

On Saturday (5/25), it was an early morning to catch our flight from Bangalore to Kerala.  The flight was short and the drive was only an hour and a half from the airport to the hotel.  Kerala is a tropical region and the flora appears as such; there are more palm trees than in Bangalore and the weather is very humid.  I swam during our afternoon break.  The pool is a great depth, 4.5 feet.  It is just tall enough to make it much more enjoyable than a standard 4-foot pool.  The group took a boat ride around the area in the evening.  We passed near a port where multiple cranes were unloading a couple giant cargo ships.  The boat stopped at the town on the opposite side of the water for a few minutes.  We saw a fish market (lots of fish sitting on ice on a roadside stand); fishing is a major industry in Kerala.  There was a huge lightning storm on the horizon during our return boat ride.  I attempted to catch some of it on video—not sure how well it will show up.

Today (5/25), we began the day with two lectures and a long period to work on a group assignment.  After our long academic session was over, we immediately rushed off to a traditional Kerala martial arts show.  The two men were incredibly talented and are part of a small group that carries on the traditional style of martial arts native to Kerala.  The man introducing the different types of fighting (eg. hand fighting, sword fighting) spoke good English and had entertaining mannerisms.  The last sentence he said before leaving the stage after each introduction went something like this: “Now you see the knife fighting of Kerala martial arts.” 

After the martial arts, we saw a traditional dance in the same theater.  The dancers put on makeup on the stage for an hour prior to the show.  It is a very involved process.  I walked around the area surrounding the little theater with my roommate Eric for a few minutes during the makeup-applying hour.  We saw some funny signs including “Bike Rentals: Tourists Only.”  We then went back to the fish market we visited on Saturday, bought fish from one of the vendors, and went to a restaurant where they cooked it for us.  The fish was fresh and delicious.  We had mahi mahi, mullet, and shark.  The food took a long time to come, but the company at my table was good.  We sat at the small outdoor café for over an hour before getting our food—it reminded me of eating in Honduras.  The fish was delicious when it reached our table.  Upon returning late to the hotel, I swam in the pool with some friends for about two and a half hours before bed.

Tomorrow we have a long drive to Munnar, another town in the state of Kerala.