Kerala

---

The Sunday Times has AA Gill and Now! Magazine has, well, Jade Goody. Cat & Pat’s Travelblog is pleased to announce Liz as guest blogger however a warning - I think I’m more in the Jade Goody league!

It was very exciting to meet the bloggers in person and find out that the blog that makes us so envious is a true reflection of the great adventures they have had! And yes they do have (Irish) suntans, they are only semi-emaciated from lack of food and are in flying form.

Kerala, a relatively small state on the south west coast, is the easy introduction to India. From the moment we touched down in the unpronounceable state capital Thiruvananthapuram, peace descended after the mayhem of Mumbai. Stepping off the plane you could feel the warm sea breeze and listen to crickets rather than car horns. We were collected in a white Ambassador car, and the driver proudly told us how the design of the Ambassador cars has not changed for 40 years - so retro! The people in Kerala were the friendliest I’ve ever met. Even though it was late at night when we arrived, the Sea Breeze hotel in Verkala had tea, toast and big smiles with us before we had even unpacked. The location of Verkala is stunning and our hotel was on a cliff top with fabulous views over the sea. This being monsoon, there wasn’t too much sunbathing to be had, so sightseeing, shopping, photographs etc. had to be done in the mornings before the downpours started. Having triumphed at haggling, you couldn’t have your new silk skirts ruined by the rain after all. With all this stress, Cat & I booked in for an ayurvedic massage, amazingly relaxing stuff. Along the clifftop there were a couple of touristy cafés so we headed into town to sample a bit of local nightlife. Our rickshaw dropped us off at the 'best restaurant in town', we thought we’d be lingering over glasses of merlot but this was not to be the case. Once we got inside, after being scrutinized by the locals who were giggling like crazy, Catherine bravely demanded “three of your house specialities and three cups of tea please!”. Fabulous pancakes arrived stuffed with vegetable curry and an assortment of dips & chutneys. No cutlery of course, more reason for the locals to laugh at our take on their customs. You can eat using your right hand only, the left hand needs to be out of view at all times. Left hands are for toilet duty only, sorry. But we were delighted when the bill arrived and it was 45 rupees for the lot - that’s about 79c. “I’ll get this”, says Pat.

A couple of monsoon-dodging days later, we took a taxi to Allepey which was around 4 hours away, and chartered a houseboat through the backwaters. The houseboat had 3 ensuite bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and deck area and best of all came with three staff: a chef and two drivers! The chef cooked up a storm; coconut curry, vegetable curry, cabbage curry (surprisingly delicious), chapattis, rice, fritters, spicy omelettes.. you get the picture. Meanwhile we cruised leisurely through the backwaters, past palm trees, houses, goats and the most excitable children on the planet. Everyone was very excited to see our funny white faces sailing past and waved madly. The children were desperate to get pens from us to show their friends in school, pens were the item of the moment. When we docked that evening we took a stroll along the banks of the backwaters and met lots of the local families, who popped out for a chat with us. The kids especially were taking the opportunity to practice their English on us. The standard of education in India is pretty impressive, though some of the older people have a very quaint turn of phrase, “tell me madam, what is your good name please?”. Back on the boat, the chef had cracked open some beers for us and we settled in for a lazy night of gin rummy.

It was very difficult to leave our houseboat, but we had to move on to our next destination, Kumily. Kumily is the closest town to the stunning Periyar National Park, home to 62 different kinds of animals including elephants, tigers, monkeys, deer; 320 different kinds of birds including kingfishers and hornbills; and 45 different reptiles including snakes, turtles and lizards. On a trek through Periyar we also discovered the thousands of leeches that inhabited the jungle and had to wear special covers over our shoes to stop them climbing up our legs. Friendly little fellas.

In Kumily, we also fit in the highlight of Cat’s trip - a visit to a tea plantation and tea factory! The smell inside the tea factory was exactly the same as the smell of a just-emptied teapot, it was so strong. We got to see the tea being hand-picked, crushed, dried and turned into the tea leaves we’re familiar with. Cat somehow conned me into bringing her back half a kilo of tea, bang went my luggage allowance. We also got to visit a spice garden filled with cardamom, vanilla pods, curry leaves, orchids, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and turmeric. The scent in the air was amazing, in fact the smell was all around the town and our guesthouse even had cardamom and passion fruit growing over the balcony.

One elephant ride later, we hopped on a packed local bus and drove for six hours through stunning mountain ranges to our next destination - Kochi. Occupied by the Portuguese since 1503, Kochi was the site of the first European colonial settlement in India. It remained the capital of Portuguese India till 1530, before Goa became the capital. There are still European traces everywhere from the Catholic churches & cemeteries to the Dutch-style guesthouses. This was also my final port of call in India, so Cat & Pat had to fulfil my wishes: a full day of shopping and a stiletto-worthy night out! We found a fab restaurant that actually served wine, drink is very hard to come by in India so with one bottle nearly knocking us out, I was a cheap date at the very least. The next day it was very very difficult to leave India, it's a fabulous place and one of the best holidays ever. So, in Jade Goody style (honestly I don't like her) I thought I’d sum up my favourite things about India a la Jade:

"I'm liking"

Emotional reunions with family members!
Eating at least two delicious curries every day
The smell of fresh cardamoms and vanilla pods
Tea as far as the eye can see
Lush palm trees and green hills
Being the only spooks in town and giving the locals a good chuckle
The people: always smiling and never stuck for an extremely probing question

Can’t wait to see you back home Cat & Pat,

Lots of love, Liz xx

---