Kerala vs. Mysore

After a scary trip to Kerala, we had an absolutely beautiful first day. We spent the morning at the beach. From the look of the hotel staff when we asked about going to the beach in the morning, we soon learned that our notion of a day at the beach is different from that of an Indian’s notion. No one goes to the beach when its most hot, like we did. Secondly, no one sunbathes while laying on a towel. Women don’t wear swimsuits, they wear sarees and chudidars in the beach. It was an odd sight to see women with so many clothes on letting the ocean crash over their feet. So needless to say, we served as entertainment to both men and women alike.

We ventured out of the resort for lunch and some unexpected shopping. It turns out that in India my size 8.5 foot is an 11 here. We found a Baskin Robbins, a surprise in a town like Kannur that is less of a city than Mysore. There were a lot of surprises in Kerala in terms of what we had gotten used to seeing in Mysore. Kerala is much less of a city, yet there were far more cars and consequently a lot more gas stations than in Mysore. Secondly, we saw so many advertisements for schools and healthcare facilities. We saw a lot of children in uniforms going to school. Kannur also seems to have quite a large Muslim population. Unlike in Mysore, men wear the traditional dress of a piece of cloth wrapped around their waists. Another thing was that we saw so many furniture stores here and I can’t remember ever seeing a furniture store in Mysore.

While Kannur is far less urban than Mysore, in terms of education it might be more developed. I got the feeling that a lot of people here were more educated. There were cyber shops and places to learn about computers and take English proficiency tests. I would love to spend more time here than just a weekend.