Timing is EVERYTHING!!!

Our charriot awaits us!
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I am not by nature a spontaneous person.  In most cases I want to know the who, what, when, where and why of any situation I'm about to participate in.  This, I was warned, would be a particular challenge in India.  Laria prepared me for a world where flights are delayed, trains are canceled and drivers are late if they show up at all.  This definitely put a pang in my stomach, especially since all of our transportation was arranged on the fly.  To my surprise, everything ran very smoothly...until our car from Varkala to Kollam where we were to catch a ferry that would take us on an all day ride through the backwaters to Alleppey.

One of the processions, check out the bars!
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The driver showed up right on time and we headed out in our adorable white taxi for what should have been a 45 minute drive to the dock.  As we winded through the narrow village roads watching swarms of school children pass by, we were stopped as a crowd of people gathered in the middle of the street.  Ganesh, the Elephant God and remover of all obstacles, was no where to be found!  The driver was told that the town was participating in a temple procession and many roads were closed off.  I was panicked at the thought of missing the boat and the idea of having to sit in a car for another 3 hours swerving and skidding our way along bumpy roads or worse, having to cram ourselves into a train car that wasn't 1st class (God forbid :}).  But as the driver tried other routes something incredible unfolded.  We were enveloped by the procession and it was easily one of the most incredible experiences I've had in my life!

One of the temple elephants
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Each section of town had their own group participating.  We witnessed huge temple elephants adorned with gold head pieces being led by young men dancing with one another.  A select few had bars piercing their bodies, some many feet long running through their cheeks.  At the back of one procession was a man suspended several feet in the air by nothing more than hooks through his back!  I was moved to tears by the excitement and devotion that they displayed.  I don't even know what they were celebrating but it was an amazing thing to see.  There was a brief moment of unease as we were surrounded by so many people chanting as we snapped our cameras.  Were we being disrespectful?  Were they going to throw things at us to stop?  Quit the contrary.  One group broke into smiles and "performed" for us while Jenn recorded them.  As the driver tried one side street after another we came upon similar processions blocking our path for over 30 minutes.  I felt blessed to be witnessing this tradition.

Gridlock's got nothin on this!
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Our driver called ahead to the boat dock and asked them to wait for us but we were way too late.  We had missed the boat and had to figure out a new way to get to Alleppey which meant we would miss the backwater experience which is a Keralan "must see".  But then it happened, Ganesh stepped in!  The driver pulled up to the boat dock and spoke to the manager who called ahead to the ferry, got into our taxi and directed our driver to a spot 15 minutes away where we were able to catch the ferry that we had missed (which only left once a day) and shaved an hour off of our trip.

Um, yeah, those are HOOKS in his BACK!
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That day I learned that some of the most magical and wonderful things in life are unplanned!