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Published: March 1st 2015
From Kuala Lumpur I flew Air Asia to
Kochi, located the southern state of Kerala in India.
“Incredible India”, as its tourism slogan says, has been very high on the list of countries I wanted to visit and I finally made it! My first impressions were: “Crazy traffic, a different world, very interesting and cheap”!!! India is known to the outside world as a dirty country with low hygiene standards, which in one way is true but you just have to be a bit careful where you eat. There are plenty of small, simple restaurants and if a restaurant is usually busy, that means it’s good and safe to eat at. Meals are very cheap and you could budget around US$ 7 per day for food, but you could get away with even less than that.
I arrived in Kochi around 22:30 and I usually hate arriving at night when I travel. Since there are no buses running at that time, the hostel sent a driver to pick me up for 1200 Rupees (about US$20). So when I walked out there was a guy holding a paper with my name on it. First I got an Indian sim-card and
then went to the taxi. The drive towards the hostel took about 45 minutes.
Kochi is located at the coast and has about 700 000 people. Kerala is known as “God’s own country”, its tourism slogan. I stayed in an area called Fort Kochi and took a whole day to explore this area, which was interesting. First I walked along the Chinese fishing nets where the fishermen are always willing to show you how it works, in return for a small donation. I hired a driver with his auto-rickshaw for a few hours to take me around the area. Kochi has different churches, giving the presence of the Portuguese, Dutch and British. There is also a tiny synagogue (no photos allowed inside), showing the history of the Jewish presence in the city since the 12
th century. Nowadays there are less than 10 Jewish people living in Kochi. I walked along the Fort Kochi Beach for a bit, where mostly locals were having fun, taking pictures, laughing etc. Nobody was swimming though. At the Mattancherry Palace (Dutch Palace) there is a little museum, mostly dedicated to the different Royal Families of the past in the region with. Several paintings
(murals) decorate the walls with Hindu art. Then we went to Dhobi Khana, a laundry-collective where men and women do laundry by hand. They keep slapping the clothes on a piece of concrete repeatedly and hang the clothes in the sun. There is like a big hall where clothes are brought by their clients and sorted. Here they also iron the clothes using a big, heavy iron heated with coal.
I also saw various Hindu temples, including the Tirumala Devaswon Temple. The majority of them are only open to Hindu people. At the Shri Cochin Jan Temple there was a sign saying: “Ladies in their menstrual cycles are strictly prohibited from entering the temple”, and I wondered HOW they would know that. We stopped at a small spice workshop and shop, which was interesting! Once you enter you’ll see a lot of fresh ginger lying on the floor to dry in the sun. A few women in a little room do the packing of the ginger and upstairs there is a little shop with various spices. Here I tried a delicious ginger tea and some ginger candy, which are good for digestion they said. I bought one small bag
and they said to have a little bit after every meal. And yes, like in Bangkok, the driver asked me to “please” go in two different shops where they get commission or free gasoline coupons. He said “please” because when we started I told him that I’m NOT interested to buy anything and to not take me to those shops. Well, at the end I said “ok, I’ll do it for you” so at both shops I acted like I was very interested in a scarf because supposed I’ll be going up north to Kashmir. Anyway, I wasted both employees their time since I didn’t buy anything. I think after these experiences in Bangkok I became a bit of an expert in this ;-) .
The next day I took a tour to the Kerala Backwaters, a huge network of several lagoons and canals and their little villages. Several other travellers from the hostel joined as well. We drove for a bit and then boarded a long, narrow boat with loose seats and a roof. Two men were rowing the boat with very long bamboo sticks, one at the front and the other at the back of the
boat. The scenery was beautiful and unique and the water is very calm. We sailed across the various lakes and canals, and along tiny villages. It was just very quiet and peaceful...I loved it! We stopped for a lunch break at one of the villages, where a local man told us a little bit about the village. We could also see two women making threads out of coconut fibre. Our food was served on top of banana leaves and was very good, of course a little bit spicy like everywhere in India. So far the food in India it has been fine for me and I always say “not too spicy” or “little spicy” when I order. The Backwaters were a very nice experience and also sharing stories and experiences with other travellers on the boat.
The next day I took a bus to
Munnar together with four other travellers. The journey took almost 5 hours on the curvy roads and including various stops along the way. We were the only foreigners on board and when the school kids filled the bus, many of them we greeting me and wanted to talk to me which was really cool.
I find it really funny how many people shake their heads left/right when they talk. Not the gesture to say “no”, but another way. Their chins move left and their foreheads to the right, and the other way around repeatedly. Munnar has roughly 60 000 people and is located at an altitude of 1600m. During the day it’s warm but at night and early morning it’s quite cool and you’ll need to wear a jumper. It’s a small city but the scenery around Munnar is absolutely beautiful, characterized by the many tea plantations which decorates the landscape with their bright green colour. When looking at the tea plantations, they look like pieces of green puzzles put together. After arriving in Munnar we went to look for a place to stay. At first I was planning to go with a German guy who was staying in the same room at the hostel in Kochi. At the end we were five people. I don’t want to be negative, but I much prefer to travel all by myself so I can do my own things, although it’s always nice to have some company. More people means dealing with different wishes and desires and
I can’t stand that. I might sound selfish, but I’d rather do my own thing without having to deal with different people I actually don’t really know. It took us at least two hours to find a place to stay and by that time I already told the other four that I’m not going to walk and look for another place. I told them that they’re more than welcome to do so if they want. So we all stayed at this guesthouse and we hired two rooms. The two German girls in one and I was with the German guy and a Norwegian guy in the other room. For the next day we arranged a driver and his auto-rickshaw to drive us around the many sights in the area. The driver took us towards the northeast, about 36km each way. We stopped at various scenic points to take pictures along the way. We went to the Floriculture Centre (Rose Garden), a small but beautiful park with many different kind of roses. At the Carmelagiri Elephant Park the Norwegian guy and I went on an elephant ride. I didn’t really wanted to since I’ve already been on an elephant before, but
it was for minimum two people so I joined so the Norwegian could do it too. His name was David by the way, the other ones were Robert, Theresa and Marie. All of them very nice and easy to get along with, no complaints about that at all.
We also stopped at the Madupetty Dam and the Kundalay Dam and their artificial lakes with stunning views. The final stop was at a place called “Top Station” and on our way back to Munnar we stopped at the Tea Museum, dedicated to the history of tea cultivation in the region and the tea industry in general. The next day I slept until late and in the afternoon we went for a walk around town. We saw a lot of people on a field making noise and we went closer to look. Here they had various teams participating in a traditional rope pulling competition called “Rasa Kashi”. There was a competition for men and another for women and it was really cool to watch. After this we walked a bit further and the others wanted to go up a hill, but I could not be bothered to go and I took a
rickshaw towards the Athirapally Falls which didn’t have much water because of the dry season, unfortunately. I went down off the bridge and on the rocks and walked a bit further up, where there was a little pool with some people swimming. I didn’t bring any swimming clothes so there was no swimming for me. Back in town I had a haircut and met the others for dinner. It was just a relaxed day, didn’t do too much. The next day I left early to go on a tour towards the north. I went by myself since the others had different plans and it was good to be by myself for most of the day. We were just two people on the tour, an Egyptian guy and I, and he was very interested in knowing more about Curaçao. We stopped at Lakkom Waterfalls to take a few pictures. The waterfall wasn’t big but it was still beautiful. We continued towards the hills and some coffee plantations until we reached an altitude of 2500m, where it was windy and a bit chilly. We drove through the Sandalwood Forest near Marayoor, where we saw deer and buffalo's in the wild but from
a distance, and then through an area with many sugar cane plantations. We had a lunch stop in Marayoor, a small town, and then continued to the entrance of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. The driver told us not go inside because we won’t see any animals. And the Egyptian guy, Mohammed, said that he read on Tripadvisor that there were indeed no animals to be seen. On our way back towards Munnar we took a look at Thoovanam Waterfalls and then we stopped again at Lakkom Waterfalls. Here we did a short, half hour walk in the forest along the waterfall and we went further up to see another part of the waterfall. It was a short but beautiful hike.
The next day I went back to Kochi, from where I caught a plane and flew towards the north. More from India in the next blog-entry!
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Love those backwaters!
I love hearing that there are parts of India that aren't crowded and noisy. And such exotic things--thread out of coconut fiber, lunch on a banana leaf (I love that!), and a sign prohibiting menstruating women from entering a Hindu Temple! You are really in an exotic land! I have to say that I agree with you about traveling alone--I prefer it! I love meeting up with people, but that constant compromising takes a lot of effort. Great that you're off on the next part yourself--you never know who you'll meet!