Last Day in Kodai! Sept 20th

This was our last day in Kodai! Though it is sad to leave our friends, Rani and Jason and their family, we will be happy to return to a much warmer, less rainy climate. We had a delicious last breakfast here with eggs with coconut chutney and dosa with a gravy. Its hard for us to imagine a non-salty breakfast anymore! We have been getting our sweet fix from the fresh home-made chocolate that Kodai is famous for, and Cadbury's chocolate bars from our nearby British Spencer's shop. We enjoy giving these out as presents to people too :). We also had some fresh "walapalam", bananas, that we got from a fresh fruit stand. Food here tastes so much fresher and more flavorful than elsewhere, and is much less expensive since everything is grown in local farms or family gardens.

We did a lot of exploring today, walking through the Kodai school's large, hilly campus and to see their church. Unfortunately we came too late for the Sunday service, but enjoyed sitting in the stone chapel nevertheless, reading some hymns. We then walked through the town on our own, taking pictures of the busy streets, men selling jasmine flowers, shops, and cows and dogs on the side of the road. There are many beggars on the street too, but all older women and men, unlike the young boys asking for change in Chennai. We sat for a while sketching by a quite street on a stone wall overlooking part of the town and fields. We received many honks and amused looks, even from a few stray dogs and a perplexed cow. We sketched some houses with laundry hanging outside, a veiled Muslim woman holding the hand of her son as they walked out of a health clinic, and a mother balancing a barrel of clothing on the head while struggling to get her toddler son to follow her.
We then went through the Sunday market that was set up in town. All of a sudden, it was as if in this one street our peaceful town turned into a big city. Vendors stood in front of carts or sat on blankets with goods displayed on burlap sacks in front of them. Jewelry, pomegranate, butter fruit, bananas, garlic, okra, tree tomatoes, used shoes (that we guessed had been taken from outside of temples), machetes, lentils, peppers, chickens... It was exciting walking through the crowded, narrow alley with the sounds of people bartering and yelling to attract customers, and bright colors of fruit and vegetables. We're still working on our bargaining skills though, and have only been able to reduce prices by a few dozen rupees.
We had lunch at a great Tibetan restaurant before heading home to pack up and get ready for returning to Pattiveeranpatti!