Kovalam and Kottayam

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Four days in very hot Kovalam is just what the dotor ordered after the hectic schedule to date. Read, eat, sleep, read eat sleep etc. - very exiciting. We'd expected a brash resort, but went for it becasue it'd where a lot of Indians like to holiday, especially during the festive season. But it turned out to be a very restful and not too spoilt, small, resort.

The walk along to the nearby fishing village showed a bit of rural India as she must have been for a very long while. A surprising number of places of worship - 2 Catholic churches and 3 mosques in the one village. There was community violence here in the 60s with some deaths, hard to imagine now. The houses in the fishing village showed how dirt poor many are - no pics, too intrusive. I know that he top 20% of earners in India's rapidly increasing wealth somehow manage to get more subsidies than the bottom 20 % - something not quiet right there. In China the proportion of poor people (less than $1.25 a day) has decreased in 30 years from 80% to about 15%. In India from 85% to 60% only. This really hits home when you see some of the really poor - hard not to get angry.

So much for the politics...it had to raise it's head somewhere on this trip. Ther's a great book (White Tiger) I've just finished that highlights the plight of the rich versus the downtrodden in present day India, hence my hackles showing.

On Sunday afternoon the beaches are really crowded with the locals. Oddly they behave quite differently to europeans - no women in the sea, no indians on sun beds (my coolie companion, Gariji, says 'what do you expect Artji' ), all walking along the beach or standing in or near the water. By contrast the few europeans are under shade on sunloungers.

Just when we were leaving Kovakam, there's a strike of taxis, so our local fixer takes us to the railway pretending to be going to a hospital (bless him.) A couple of hours later brings us to Kottayam where we are right now for 2 days, mainly to go on the backwaters of Kerala. It's really stunning here, as the photos show. Mainly Indian families of holiday too.

Here for 2 days, and tomorrow off again to Cochin (Kochi) for Christmas.

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Photos

fishing village
small boats, big mosque

sunday at rest
no boats out today, but church attendance is high.

ladies, ladies
families descend and enjoy Kovalam beach

take my picture mister
happy youths enjoy the water

What a scorcher
This is our daily beach lady, a gem who delivers payaya and mangos

Backwaters
A typical scene on the canals around Kottayam and Kumarakom

Man about town
Juat another day, just another scene on the backwaters