Dr. Paulose's Amazing Tour of Wonders!

Our friend Jayson Paulose is a native of Kerala, and he came home for Christmas on the 21st. We had to visit him (he insisted) and see his neighborhood and his house. So we did.

As we observed before, there's a lot of religious diversity in Kerala. Jayson's family is Syrian Orthodox - a branch of Christianity reputed to have been founded in the 1st century by St. Thomas, when he came to India. Mackenzie was happy to see a Christmas tree in the Paulose household.

Jayson's father is a business school professor, but he moonlights as a tour guide in his spare time. Dr. Paulose showed us around the backwaters of Kerala and brought us to a dozen churches, synagogues, mosques, and Hindu temples, explaining the religious and historical significance of each.

Here's the Church of St. Thomas Kottekkavu - founded by Thomas himself, not far from where he first made landfall.

Here's the Chennamangalam synagogue, the second-oldest synagogue in the British Commonwealth (the oldest is the one on Jew Street that we saw yesterday.) All of the funding for restoration came from American Jews.

Our driving route happened to take us past a local Hindu temple ceremony. There were three elephants in full battle regalia, with guys standing on them, and a bunch of other guys beating drums in a circle. Photo-op!

Dr. Paulose also took us to Cherai Beach, one of the nicest beaches in India. The December weather was balmy and the waters of the Arabian Sea were warm. Jayson wrote "wheee" in the sand.

Jayson insisted we had to try dosas (a South Indian street food.) They were delicious!

Jayson is sad because his juice box came without a little straw.

God's Own Country

I went to the Garden of Eden on our offsite this past weekend. Kerala is described as "God's own country" for a reason: it's one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (only Yosemite, Hawaii, Delphi, and the Amalfi Coast compare). As I mentioned previously, you can get way more bang for your buck in India. In Boston, they took us on a bus to an off-season ski resort in Vermont for our offsite. In India, they flew us to a tropical paradise. I'll describe one of the most incredible events I’ve ever attended below :

We left at 4:30AM Thursday morning and arrived in the afternoon. That afternoon we had team building activities outside where I meet people from the other offices in India. For our "tea break", we had a man take coconuts from the tree, split off the top and put a straw in. Fun fact: coconut milk (well, really coconut water in my opinion) tastes way better than coconut.

Thursday night, I attended an event that was WAY better than any wedding I have ever attended—we had an amazing party on a beach, where we held a charity auction (I bought two roundtrip tickets any where in India), ate a delicious dinner, and discussed the history of the company in India. This place looked better than any high-class tropical-themed wedding I've seen on Platinum Weddings. I took a picture of the sunset from the party. After the beach party, we went inside and danced until 2AM.

On Friday, we had a morning meetings (I did not sleep much). In the afternoon, I went on a boat tour of the Kerala backwaters and played in the Indian Ocean (ocean #3 for me!). Way better than a Ben & Jerry’s tour.

Friday evening was a dinner and awards ceremony. They flew in a famous D.J. who played tunes for us until 4:30AM. Then I wandered the beach with people before heading home at 6AM.

I stayed an extra night (that I paid for, of course) to recover. I spent the next two days sleeping, eating, swimming in their two infinite pools, and going to the spa (for a pedicure and massage). Fun facts: #1 Kerala massages are very different from American ones—let’s just say you wear a lot less clothing. #2 Southern Indian food is delicious and much lighter than northern food—full of bananas, coconut oil, mangos, and yumminess.

Now only one question remains: when can I go back to Eden?