Valparai

This weekend I made a journey to the small town of Valparai, located about 100 miles south of Coimbatore. We started our trip at about 9 on Saturday night, and didn’t arrive there until about three AM. It was quite an adventure getting there, since Valparai is located high up in the Western Ghats and most of the ride is on dicey mountain roads.

One of my favorite things about a roadtrip at night is that you arrive to your destination but really don’t know what your surroundings are. The next morning becomes like opening a present- there’s an anticipation about what you are going to see for the first time. Waking up in Valparai on Sunday morning, I wasn’t disappointed. The town is nestled high in the mountains and is literally surrounded by glowing green tea plantations. After starting the day with several cups of chai straight from the source, we started out exploring.

First, we wandered through some of the local tea plantations, taking in the sights. The tea plants (or bushes really) are arranged in clumps so that workers can walk in between and pick the leaves from them. It’s only the top leaves, that are young and extra green, that are picked to make tea. Apparently, they have the most flavor and also are what gives tea plantations their neon green color.

We then took a drive through tons more tea and coffee plantations to a huge dam on the border of the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It’s called the Solayar dam and is of the biggest and tallest dams in India and the view from there was spectacular. After wandering for a while there, we headed back to Valparai for a late lunch in town and then out of the mountains back home.

I’d highly recommend a visit to Valparai to anyone touring around South India. It has all of the charm of bigger hill stations, like Ooty, but none of the crowds and kitchy, touristy feel. Because of this, there is not much of a tourist infrastructure in Valparai though, so you’ll need to ask around with the locals to find the good spots to go. Here are some pics from my Sunday… enjoy!

This monkey wanted to steal my shiny camera.

The deer here cling to the mountain like mountain goats!

The fog on the Western Ghats with delicious, delicious tea below.

The Ghats and the Aliyar Dam.

Green stairs on the dam

I couldn'ta seen all the AWESOME sights of Valparai if it wasn't for my good friends. Having localite homies in India makes the place 10 times better!!! They all tell me thanks is a bad word in Tamil but who cares, நன்றி, R., V., & A. P.!!!

Masala Dosas at Vidyarthi Bhavan

Oh man, I’m afraid this post might get me in some trouble with some of my Tamil friends. You see, I’ve always said the best masala dosas I’ve ever had were in Tamil Nadu, the state where I live. However, my friends from Bangalore have always talked a big game saying that Bangalore masala dosas were way better. I never believed them, thinking this talk was all about hometown pride/bias. Welp, I stand corrected, I had the best masala dosa EVER this weekend in Bangalore.

The place is called Vidyarthi Bhavan, in the Gandhi Bazar area in Bangalore. It is one of B-lore’s oldest neighborhoods and you can feel it- it has none of the glitz of “new” Bangalore and ten times the charm. The restaurant is really old, founded between the early 20’s to the early 40’s depending who you ask and is renowned for having the best masala dosa anywhere.

There are several charming things about the place- it is very small and feels old, and there are pictures of poets and politicians all over the walls- you can tell this place has serious history. Because it is so small, there are always people standing and waiting next to your table, waiting for you to leave so they can snag your seat. That doesn’t ruin the ambience at all though, cause you are too busy enjoying your dosa. It creates quite a hussle-bussle feel for the place though, with waiters walking around with freshly made dosas stacked sometimes over 10 high and moving quickly. Finally, the bazar outside is full of fresh flowers, and the scent of them wafts into the restaurant, between the smells of dosas and flowers, my nose was in heaven!

As for the masala dosa itself, it won’t do it justice, but here's my best description... they are thicker than any dosa I’ve had, and being thick allows them to be very crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside. The masala (potatoes and onions) is very good and well spiced, but not spicy. Another unusual thing about the place is that they put ghee on top of the dosa, which might not be good for you, but certainly is delicious! Finally, you usually get served a dosa with several kinds of chutney and sambar- here they keep it simple- just coconut chutney. Hey, they know what they do well and keep it simple! All I can really say is try it for yourself- it was the highlight of my trip to Bangalore, by far!

That said, the dosas in Tamil Nadu are still great and way better than any you can get stateside. Also, I still think TN has better sambar and chutney, it’s just the actual dosa was soooooo good at Vidyarthi Bhavan.

I thought I was going to lose some weight this go around in India, but at this rate, I’m gonna pack on a few pounds before I come back!

The flowers in Gandhi Bazaar, right outside Vidyarthi Bhavan

The Main Attraction! That's coconut chutney on the left. Via http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in (my hands were too messy to take a pic)

Dosas a Mile High! Via http://www.mybangalore.com

Newspapers in India

The print media in India is very impressive, with articles and journalism as good as I’ve seen anywhere in the world. You can find coverage of everything India, from politics to business to cricket and Bollywood. They also often have excellent op-ed sections that give you different points of view on the issues of the day over here. Many of the major papers have different editions for many Indian cities, so I can get my local Coimbatore news in the same paper that gives me my news for Tamil Nadu and India as a whole.

There are literally 1,000’s of daily newspapers in India, due in large part to how many different languages are spoken here. India has 18 official languages, 29 languages spoken by over a million people, and over 100 languages spoken by more than 10,000 people. This creates a demand for newspapers in MANY different languages and as of now there are newspapers in over 100 of them.

I’ve been reading papers every day since I’ve been back- I have found it to be an effective way to keep up with what issues are important right now in India. In particular, it has been interesting to see what shenanigans politicians have been into, and the op-eds offer a pretty balanced view of both sides of the issues.

They also offer very good coverage of international news, so I have been able to keep up to date on the (often depressing) news coming out of the US these days. It is interesting to see their take on such issues as the debt ceiling, the presidential race and Hollywood gossip.

I think the media is especially important in a place like India, where corruption can be such an issue. The fourth estate can keep people accountable here, and I have seen countless articles that investigate and name names of people that are doing the country wrong. For example, look at this article/infographic on corruption that was in today's newspaper. Compare this to a country like China, who doesn’t have press freedoms and therefore makes it much harder for them to keep their officials clean and honest. I think this is one of the best things that India has going for it, while things are far from perfect over here, it is a true democracy and the strong press makes the country as a whole stronger.

If you’d like to check out some headlines from Indian newspapers, here are links to my three favorite English papers, at least in the south. They are The Hindu, which is my fave I think, and then the Times of India, which is also quite good and the Deccan Chronicle, which focuses mainly on South India. It’s worth a click to see what’s happening in India and it might also give you a taste of what Indian English is like- although it’s similar, differences with American and British English will quickly become apparent. Happy reading!

Departmental Store

I went shopping this weekend at Kannan Departmental Store, a 6 level store in close to my apartment in Coimbatore. The closest I could compare it to is an Indian version of a Target or Walmart in the US- a place with good prices where you can buy about ANYTHING imaginable. The first floor is a bakery and also an area with electronics and office supplies. The 2^nd floor is a full-on grocery store, the 3^rd level is full of shoes, belt and tools. The 4^th floor is kitchenwares while the 5^th floor is housewares and finally the 6^th floor is toys and sporting goods.

The biggest difference between such a store here and in the US is that here, checkout is an extremely painful and inefficient process. The first problem is that you must buy things on that floor only, you cannot take things from floor to floor. So, while there is the convenience of having all this stuff in one store, you actually need to pay separately on each floor. Second, the checkout process is unnecessarily complicated. It goes like this:

1. You wait in a long line to get a bill for the items you want to purchase

2. You go to a separate area and register (and new line) to pay for the goods with the receipt from the 1^st register

3. You go a separate area (and line) to pick up the things you purchased- way too much work when this could be all in one area! This is a common thing in Tamil Nadu though, one of my favorite places in Chennai, a shop called Saravana Stores in Chennai uses the exact same process.

I thought you might enjoy some pictures of from the store so here you go- enjoy!

What self-respecting store doesn't carry crossbows?

Or nunchucks? Metal or wood? Oh yeah, they got BOTH!

The shuttlecocks have real feathers- I've never seen this! Oldschool!

The noodle aisle- I've never seen so many noodles.

Bulk rice- over 40 different types!

Bulk pickle! Not your western (cucumber) pickle, but spicy (Indian) pickle- it's delicious chopped up stuff in a spicy sauce, not unlike kimchi. Pickled mango is my favorite and HOT! I'm bringing some back for sure!

The curry aisle. I'm in heaven and bringing a whole suitcase back if I can!

Spice for Gobi 65- just one of 100's in the aisle. This post is starting to make me hungry... I'm going to dinner ;)