Kerala "God's Own Country"

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That is exactly many signs say all over the state of Kerala...."God's Own Country". At first I was thinking it meant the same thing we do when we say we live in "God's Country"...meaning it is a wonderful place to stay. But, here it has multiple meanings, at least to me. First, it is like one might expect the Garden of Eden to be like, luscious, with tropical trees and flowers. Second, in some places you can see a church on one corner, a shrine on another and a mosque right there too. Third, if you take it to mean the Christian God, well there are plenty of them here and they 'ain't' doing bad. I would say this may be the most prosperous state I have been in (although some of the cities, especially Bangalore, are doing well). But, here it feels like everything is better. There is not as much garbage on the roads, the buildings are not merely cement blocks that have mold all over them. They have architectual design features and most look like they are being taken care of. That may seem simple, but in the humid climate of India buildings must be repainted frequently not to exhibit signs of mold...and, as we all can attest.. painting buildings is expensive and a big job. Even the small towns, while not glamorous, look a lot more prosperous than in the north; and,the roads are good. All signs of a bustling economy. From what I have seen, the big 'crops' are coconuts and the things you make from them, fish, bananas and other fruit But, this ignores some vital information because one thing they brag about here that in Kerala there is 100% literacy. That is pretty amazing. I doubt that there is a state in the US that could say the same. So, what do they do with their education. According to a lot of people I have talked to here, almost every single family has multiple relatives living abroad. There are huge numbers living in the Gulf States, The Arab Emirates, Kuwait....plus, many in the US, Australia, Britain, and other places. It is the remittances of these Kerala professionals that drives this economy...not unlike the biggest contributor to Mexico's GDP being remittances of relatives living in the US. Just like in Mexico, a US dollar here goes one heck of a lot farther than it does at home.

My first stop in Kerala was Ft. Cochin. I took an overnight bus from Banaglore because it was really about the only way to do it. It was a private volvo, air-conditioned bus with seats with you could push back into almost a horizontal position...and the roads were good - that's as good as it will get for these overnighters. But, it was still miserable, not much sleep and the driver stopped one time to let us 'do our thing' once in 14 hours (supposed to be 12) and that was only a couple hours after we left. Once, he stopped to do something with the bus and when he was asked about a place to go to the toilet, he pointed to some waist high bushes off the highway in full view of all. The lady across the aisle from me was furious. She was a retired officer with the Indian Reserve Bank and was no wilting violet. She told that driver what she thought, then called the tourist police and made me tell them what had happened. I would never have done that on my own - at least while I was still on the bus and at the mercy of the driver. But, she was adament. I really like her. I have avoided these overnight buses, not so much for the lack of breaks, but I have heard of too many night bus accidents and usually the roads are bad and you don't get to sleep anyway. One thing that really helped is that little blow up neck rest that Sandy and I bought at REI the night I left. It was an inspired purchase. I have used it several times and been extremely glad I have it.

What you need to realize about Kerala is that even before I left the US and a hundred times since I have been in India, fellow travelers have been adament that one must not miss Kerala. From now on I will also be one of those who advise others to not miss this special part of India. It is the most beautiful place I have been so far. Yes, Rajasthan, was special, in a desert stark sort of way and an exotic place to travel. But, I remember that when I was in training in the Peace Corps and they were getting ready to assign sites, they asked me if I had a preference. Kenya has many different climate zones. All I said was, "My favorite color in nature is green" (they sent me to probably the greenest part of the country...what I had overlooked is that it is rain that makes things green). Kerala (and Darjeeling) are definitely the greenest places I have been in India. While Darjeeling is green because of the tea farms and misty/rainy/cool weather, down here it is the tropics. It is now moving into the last days of February and already it is getting very warm. They say that March is miserably hot. Finally when the monsoons come in April (through July) it is actually a relief. But, for those of you who have always associated rain with cool weather. Forget about that. Here it downpours (no NW misty rain here), stops, steams away and then rains again. The heat does not go away with the rain. I got that little suprise my first summer in Taiwan.

It is fantastic to be in this time of year for someone who likes the tropics, like me. The whole state is crowded with tropical foilage, palm trees, banana plants, mango trees, and every other kind that I can't name. Plus, there are the flowers. (Pam) the plumaria trees in Kauai look like punny little shadows of those here. They are as big as small oak trees. In fact, when I first saw one without any flowers and foliage, I took a picture not knowing what it was. Anna Louise, the person I was with then, is the one who figured out it was a plumaria. The hibiscus here are as big as saucers. Of course, there is buganvillea (sp?), plus, dozens of other flowering plants I can't name. But, one of the most interesting and attactive things about Kerala is that, even without flowers, the place is colorful. People here paint their houses in every color of the rainbow...and a lot more. I have seen all shades of peach/apricot, greens, light yellows, pinks, rust/adobe blues (even purple) - no red ones though, yet. I even saw a church that was pink and blue and gray (and it didn't look bad). This may sound like 'mistakes' but, sitting among all the green foliage, they add another dimension to the beauty of the place. They are like giant flowers, themselves.

Back to the journey. After that exhausting bus ride, I finally made it to Ft. Cochin. It sits on a kind of fat pennisula connected to the mainland by bridges. It is a lovely little village with lots of tourists, which means lots of rickshaws and tourist shops. But, the pressure there was a whole lot less than other places. It is an old Portugese stronghold and still has many of the old houses and buildings. Plus, it is a fishing village. There is a wide promenade around the top of the pennisula where you can walk and watch the fishermen fish right there. To quote the LP, "Strung out along the tip of Ft. Cochin are the fixed, cantilevered Chinese fishing nets which were introduced by traders from the court of Kulai Khan".(now, that was a few years ago!). I've included a picture since they are really unique. they sort of work on pulley systems and these huge wide nets are lowered into the water. Then, when they are ready, they use the pulley system and men to pull and guide the nets back up - and empty out the fish. They sell the fresh fish right there. In the not too distant past you used to be able to select your fish and they would cook it right there for you to eat. Of course, the pressure of the restauant owners interferred because it was taking their business. So, nowadays, you can't do this.

Which, is unfortunate, because I felt that the prices in most of the restaurants in Ft. Cochin were more than I wanted to pay. So, I do what I have so often done in the past and find one restaurant that agrees with my taste and pocketbook and keep going back. In the center of this curved promenade is a park where you can sit and the fishermen bring their nets to mend. My 'restaurant of choice' was outdoors, right across from the park and a perfect place to relax after a 'hard day' of wondering around. Then, there was this great breakfast place to start the day. Made fabulous lattes and had one selection for breakfast every day. A couple of days it was french toast made with thick brown bread and slathered with honey - and half a plate of fresh fruit, papaya, pineapple, bananas, etc. Not a bad way ro fortify oneself for all the walking around I spent my days doing.

Ft. Cochin was a Portguese stronghold, along with Goa so there are a lot of old buildings still from that era. Many have been kept up and are now hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. Other than just wondering around and looking at all these places, the big thing is just hanging out and watching the fishermen.

There is one huge other treat in the area. If you look up 'the backwaters' of Kerala and do a bit of searching you can get a good idea of what the big attraction to Kerala is for tourists. I took my first tour of the backwaters while I was here. There are not backwaters right at Ft. Cochin, we had to ride about 45 minutes to get to them. They are a series of interconnected canals (some manmade, some natural) and lakes that run throughout western Kerala. Some parts are seawater, some are not and some parts are mixed. We did the first part of the trip on a larger boat that was covered with a thatched room in the area where we sat. On this part we visited the bigger parts of the canals and lakes. Then they laid us out this great Indian lunch, like a tali (one of those plates that has a little of many things) and brought in a table and sat it up right in the middle of the boat. Next, we walked a little ways and got to a big canoe (on the way we met another bunch of tourists that were going to a similar lunch on the boat we had just left, while we were taking the canoe they had just left - talk about efficiency). The rest of the tour was through the smaller canals,which, to me were exquisite. I could have drifted down those for days.

Along the way we made stops. One place was a little garden with a whole bunch of spice plants, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, plants that control diabetes, other medicinal plants and many I can't remember. If you saw these plants in the forest, you would never guess they had much importance. None of them are beautiful or in the least showy. I guess they don't have to be since they are valued for their other qualities.

We also stopped at a coconut business on one of the little islands. It is fascinating what they do with coconuts. Depending on the age of the coconut, they are used for coconut milk, the meat of the coconut, the coir (or hair of the coconut) which they soak for months and then spin into fine ropes and double and redouble, etc. (depending on what they are going to be used for, ropes, mats, etc.). Plus, they also use the empty shell of the coconut as bowls. One other important use. When the bud starts to grow, they put a gourd around this bud and 'bleed' the juice out of it. (the guy climbs up the trees every day and retrieves this juice). This juice, when drunk immediately, is a health drink. If you wait 6 hours it is slightly fermented, after one week it is a strong alcohol drink. I tried some of the juice when it came out of the tree. A little bit sweet and a kind of moldy taste to it, with just a little sour....not to my liking. But, one has to try these things. I forgot it on the boat. Otherwise I would have kept it and sampled in after a week.
It was a great day tour and I am so glad I did it.

I had only booked 4 nights in Ft. Kochin. Would have liked to have hung out a few more days (and that was really all one did after walking around looking at all the old colonial buildings). I had planned to me Anna Louise, and a couple of other guys that I met at the caves in Ellora, in Trivundrum, so it was off again. By the way, when I told Jeff I was going to Trivundrum he wrote back and told me he couldn't find it. Like some other places in Kerala, names are shortened..The actual name is Thiruvananthapuram - little wonder they shortened it, huh! Trivundrum is the state capital and not all that interesting. But, we had a couple of nice days visiting temples and, oddly enough, a zoo. We went there because we were extremely lucky that the last night of a big night of a Indian performance festival was going on there. With it they had like 'The bite of Seattle/Portland" , a lot of good restaurants that set up tables and chairs and, for extremely good prices, we could go around and get delicious food, while the festival was going on. There were three separate places of entertainments and you could wander from one to the other: traditional songs, Bollywood pop tunes, and Kathakali.

This last is the one I didn't want to miss. It is their traditional way of story telling of the big epics such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas, the tales that Hinduism is based on. If you read "The God of Small Things" (the writer is from Kerala), you will remember at the very end the twins sat all night watching the Kathakali actors perform the whole version of these stories. Of course, what we saw was only a portion of this, but it was fascinating. The closest thing I can compare it too is Kabuki. Unlike Kabuki, though, in Kathakali every thing is told with looks and hand movements, no one says anything. There are musicians in the background playing softly and you know what kind of character the players are by the way their faces are painted. For example, the hero has a green face and large headgear, the demon is also green, but has a red mark and white knob on their noses and foreheads, etc. Kathakali may be other places but I haven't found it and think it may be peculiar to Kerala. I know a big training school for the actors is near Ft. Cochin.

Now, up to where I am now. After three nights in Trivundrum and constantly missing our two Dutch friends. Mixed up days and times and places. They said to meet them at the Regency. Well, would you belive there are three hotels in the city that are The Regency. Maybe slightly different names but we couldn't differentiate. They said they figured it out just as they were finishing their meals and made a dash for our "Regency" and missed us by 10 minutes. There were so many mix ups that I think it wasn't meant to be.

For the past almost 3 weeks I have been in a wonderful beach cottage just outside of a town called Kollam. I came here to do another backwater tour...and because it isn't quite so touristy as the other places that specialize in this. I arrived by bus and the tourist office was right next door. I went there immediately to book a tour (because it was so close). The guy asked me where I was staying and it was right in town He suggested that I pay just a bit more and stay out of town right on the ocean. It sounded like heaven, so I decided to cancel my reservations and do this. Mr. Sasi, who owns three of thesebeach cottages, came and got me and took me to 'my little piece of heaven. It is a simple place, but it's like having my own little cottage. A big kitchen, lounge area and 2 bedrooms. The whole front side of the house is open windows looking out to the sea. It is about 20 feet from the ocean and the waves beat against the rocks right outside. I can keep the windows open all the time because there are bars across them that keeps the non-invited out Plus, every night one of Mr. Sasi's young employees comes out and sleeps in the other room so that I am not alone. While there is no way to cook, this is fine because Mr. Sasi owns a seafood restaurant and he brings me out huge meals every night. I have had shrimp so often that I am almost tired of it. I have also had lots of crab, some calamari and tuna. PLus vegetables, rice, chapatis...all for about $3.25. What a life.

I came to Kollam for 4 days....and, as I said above, I am still here. It is probably a place I will return to next year. I have gotten to know the neighborhood. There are lots of internet cafes and enough places to buy just the essentials. Plus, there is a diner where I could eat in an emergency and I can get coffee in the morning. The bus to town cost 4 rps. (10 cents) and an auto rickshaw only costs 35 (less than $1). And, in the town there is a real shopping center and a western restauant that serves hamburgers and is attached to a good bakery that has some foreign 'delicasies' like peanut butter and mayo. What more could a gal want! If I weren't leaving India on the 28th I would stay here longer. I even found someone (the cutest young hunk you can imagine), to help me work up a yoga routine that I can do in my hotel rooms. He has a gym, which I can join and use for 150 rps ($3.25) a month, with quite a lot of equipment, if I return. Although, when it is open in the evening, I would definitely be the only female in the place. So, after he taught me a yoga routine, I am now doing it in my lounge, with the seabreezes drying the sweat. And, afterwards I can jump right into a cool shower. Perfecto.

I did take another backwater tour here and it was every bit as nice as the other. The only really addition I could add is that this is a place that does a lot of saltwater shrimp farming. There were lots of manmade ponds where they grow the shrimp then let the dam drain and harvest them. After the shrimp get to a certain size they have to cover the ponds with netting. Otherwise the kites and other birds just have themselves wonderful feasts (reminds me of the seals at the fish ladders in the Northwest)...a meal just right there whenever they want.

The other interesting thing is that on these islands there are just small numbers of people. On one island only one family lived. The biggest only had a few thousand. And, listen to this, they all have electricity and cable TV with close to 100 channels - for 100 rps a month ($2.50). Now, if that isn't a sign of a prosperous industry, what is.

The last big topic I want to talk about is religion. Goa is a big Christian area. But, I think because you are among so many tourists that you don't really see it. Well, here it Kerala, God is alive and well and worshipped in a big Catholic way. And, in my neighborhood it looks like he/she is rewarding her subjects in an earthly way. Out here I live among small mansions. This is definitely a rich neighborhood and mostly Christians. The bishops house is just down the street and there are at least 5 k-12 private Catholic schools in the immediate vicinity.


Many of them have some European mix in them. It is the first time in India that I have heard anyone refer to themselves as Anglo-Indians. I followed up on this with a one of my internet owners that I frequent and he says that it is actually an organization that keeps a cohesion for the community. The provide scholarships for children and generally support their community. However, with so many going overseas, he said that nowadays there are lots of non-Christian students. Other characteristics of the Anglo-Indian community is that they speak English in their homes, dress in western clothes and will marry Westerns. This is unlike other Indians who, even if they live abroad, come back and get Indian brides - just like the Brits used to do when they were here and wanted a wife (they had them come out for a look-see from England). However, this was probably for entirely different reasons: for the Indians it is probably a matter of religion; for the Brits is was probably more a matter of their feeling of superiorty!

On last but important thing about religion. Why are there so many Christians in this part of Indian and almost none elsewhere. It's easy. When the Portugese came here, they didn't try to convert the 'heathens' the way the Evangelical ministers that came here under the Raj in the north. The Portugese brought the Jesuits and opened schools.. that not only educated (where there was not much of an education in existence) but gave them a few 'bible' stories. The soft way.

If you are interested in India and want to see a revisionist look at why the Indians in the north revolted against the Raj in 1857, there is an excellent book, The Last Mogul" The same author wrote 'City of Djinns', which is the history of Delhi. Actually, this other book is also about what happened in Delhi during the uprising and uses vast amounts of material that have been sitting untranslated in the Indian Archives for 150 years. So, this tells the story from both sides. The matter of these radical Evangelicals coming out to India to convert the heathens in any way necessary combined with a Britain that was arrogant and very full of itself after become the new undisputed world power finally led to a rebellion. Does this situation have a certain 'ring' to it in the world of today!! (Book Club members, this may be a book you would like. In fact both of these books might be considered).

In a couple of days I leave this wonderful place. I'll be traveling fast for the next week or so and depart Calcutta on the 29th for Bankok. That's probably where you will next hear from me. And, by then, you may have finished this 'book'. Cheers' Charlene

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Photos

Chinese Fishing Nets - Ft. Cochin
The fishing is done right along the promenade. Makes foran interesting stroll...Even the goat seems to be intrigued

Backwaters of Kerala
This is one of the tourist boats. We are on one of the bigger canals. The smaller canals are more intimate and serene, but I didn\'t get great pictues of them. This one is more interesting

My Beach Cottage
See there at the side of the picture. Those are waves dashing up along the rocks. There isn't one other house in my view. The people build them back among the palm groves out of the sun. But, my place is a vacation house that is only used during the good season. Is this living, or what!!

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[Sue B (younger than you)]

Happy Belated Birthday
It is that short time when you are older than I, so it was time for me to rub it in a little. I hope you had a great birthday, I was thinking of you.