1st week in Kerala

We arrived in Kerala, South India, about a week ago after 2 days in Mumbai. I am still kind of in shock to be here but at the same time it feels natural to be back in the tropics. It is a completely different world than Baku, though. Everything is so colorful here -- the palm trees, the flowers, the people's clothing, the food! We have not eaten one bad meal yet. The specialty here in the south is seafood. They do a lot of coconut curry things with the seafood but overall the curries are less spicy than I expected. Today we had our first experience on the Indian Railways on our ride from Varkala to Kochi. It was completely hassle free and I got to eat a masala dosa and take a nap.

The one thing that surprised me the most is the scent of India. It was one of the first things we noticed - it always smells good! Whether it's the smell of some food cooking, or incense burning, flowers, someone wearing jasmine perfume or coconut oil, it just always smells great here. If by chance you happen to smell something bad, like a pile of trash or stagnant water, within 5 meters of passing it, the bad smell is eradicated by the smell of something delicious.