The Story of How I DIDN'T Ride an Elephant

So yesterday and today and Friday were a blur of that special hot sweaty fun I have come to love and expect from India.  After my religion midterm and cooking class on Friday, I had the unique and amazing opportunity to visit a local Jain temple.  Jainism is a really beautiful religion.  The primary distinguishing point of Jainism is ahimsa- radical non violence.  All major religions preach against harming your fellow man, but Jains take it to a whole new level.  Ahimsa means no violence, against anything- people and animals, so general pacifist and vegetarians, but also bugs and micro organisms.  A true Jain wont boil water, and wears a mask over their face to prevent from breathing in and killing some tiny creature.  Some sweep the path in front of them to gently move anything out of the way from being trod on, and some really extreme sects live alone or in small groups in the forest naked, spending their time praying and eating only what they can gather.

For all that, their temple was surprisingly typical of many I have seen here.  Again, no pictures were allowed inside, but the building itself was white marble and very ornate and beautiful.  I was surprised by the number of female deities depicted, as well as the number of women and children present, since I had always heard of Jainism a being a very masculine religion.  We had the chance to experience the hourly offerings, and that was definitely something I wouldn’t get this side of the pacific.  After the temple my friends and I made a collective decision about what the Indian food was doing to out digestive tracts, and decided to slow our role with some good old all American Papa Johns.  Granted, most of the pizzas had paneer and capsicum, but the conversation was great and we were able to go home and pack to get up nice and early for Coorg.

Coorg is a very peaceful mountain town about five hours outside of Bangalore.  Saturday, we left at about 5am and were supposed to get their at ten, but due to both divine intervention and the general quality of Indian transportation, my bus broke down for a few hours and we didn’t arrive until after one.  On the plus side, we did get a coerced tour of a quaint one room schoolhouse that ended with us running back to the bus as the schoolteacher pursued, demanding writing utensils and money.  Once we actually arrived,  our “resort” was really  great, very sprawling with lots of little cabins and a central area for dinning and entertainment.  Dinner that night was a wonderful buffet, followed by a traditional Indian dance performance.  After the show, some USAC kids and myself jumped up on stage with a few of the families with small children that were there and engaged in some very high spirited non sexual booty shaking.

This morning, we woke up to rain and a rather unorthodox take on the concept of an omelet before hitting the road to the elephant camp.  In order to actually get to the camp, we had to pile into narrow old boats on crocodile infested waters(seriously) before put putting across to the side of the river with the elephants. When we arrived, and elephant was actually in the water with us being bathed, and I eagerly ran up to pet it before being blasted in the face with a trunkful of water.  The elephants are kept at the top of a very muddy, very slippery hill, next to the edge of one of the biggest jungles in India.  When not being cared for, most of them are released daily back into the forest.   Because of the rain the ground was wet enough that some of the elephants were actually sliding, so ridding them sadly wasn’t an option.  We did get to do lots of touching, photobombing, and feeding though!

After the elephants, we wandered around in another old park, this one prominently featuring huge bamboo plants and dear, before I really got to experience the joy of India during monsoon season.  Lunch was delicious, and I ate it soaking wet.

The Tibetan monastery we visited last in Coorg was one of my favorite religious sites I have seen on this trip.  For starters, I could actually take pictures, so for reference, this is about as ornate as any of the places I have visited, sixty foot tall gold statues and all. I also got to see the monk’s study room, which was actually how you would imagine a room full of monks would study.  Overall, Coorg was pretty great.

However, in Coorg, I came to the revelation that I have less than a week left here, and how sad that makes me.  A lot of my good friends here are staying for the second session, and hearing about all of their future adventures makes me pretty jealous.  As much as I love everyone at home, I love traveling, and all the new experiences I am having here. When I am back at Knoxville, I know exactly what my life will be- cabin parties, Dollywood, Market Square, First Friday, Golden Roast, and the occasional outdoor adventure.  And as much as I enjoy that life, I am really, really going to miss the actual adventures I am having here.