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Published: January 2nd 2010
Tuesday 22nd December We checked out of 'The Lalit' and were collected by car to transport us to the airport for our internal flight to Kerala. There was copious checking and stamping but finally we were through to departures. The flight was delayed an hour but we used the time catching up on emails etc. and arrived safely in Kerala at about 5pm. We were booked in for five nights at Poopally's Heritage Homestay near Alleppy, about 75km from the airport. As we were now seasoned travellers we were confident that we would just pick up a taxi and would be there in an hour. What foolishness! The guy at the taxi stand told us that all the taxis were on strike and there was no way we would get one. He waved us towards a bus and told us to get on it but gave no explanation as to where it was going. It was then we realised we had no idea where Alleppy was. Eventually the bus started and after about half an hour we were told to get off with a wave in the direction of a local bus station. Bus stations don't seem to have anything except
lots of people and lots of buses. There are no timetables, information desks, signs or numbers or anything that might suggest where the heck any of the buses are going. They seem to wait until hundreds of people are packed on them and then off they go. After many attempts to ask for help someone told us that we were at the wrong bus station and we must get on another bus which would take us to the right one. This bus seemed to take us right into Cochin and, because it was now about 6:30pm and very busy, took a very long time as we were stuck in jam after jam. We still weren't sure if we were actually getting any nearer to Alleppy. Eventually, about 7:15pm we got to another bus station, went through the same procedure of asking numerous people until someone told us there would be a bus to Alleppy in a couple of minutes. He also said we should catch the air conditioned private bus as it was faster and less crowded. We waited and waited and waited. Nothing. About 40 minutes later we discovered that there was an ordinary bus going our way so
clambered aboard. It was packed, of course, and did have a kind of air conditioning in that it didn't have any windows, just large holes in the side. Two hours later we arrived in Alleppy, luckily found the only taxi around, paid a (relative) fortune and at 10:30 arrived at Mr Pooppally's. What a start!
Wednesday 23rd December Pooppally's Heritage Homestay is right on the Kerala Backwaters. The house itself stands in quite a lot of land and is a long single story building making up three sides of a rectangle. The fourth side is the river bank. We are surrounded by a huge variety of vegetation and, because it is also hot and humid, it feels like we're in the jungle. Joseph, our host, is a charming and very sprightly 79 year old retired college professor. This house, built by his grandfather, has been in his family for over 150 years and he now runs it as a guest house with his wife Cicily . Joseph took us on a tour of the grounds this morning. They grow just about every kind of spice needed for cooking; mango, jack fruit, bananas, coconut, dates and okra are there for
the picking. They also grow all kinds of medicinal plants for all manner of ailments. We did very little today except laze around, read, eat and sleep. We did take a walk along the river bank to the little village and it is clear that the river is the mainstay of life here. Every few yards along the bank there are stone steps down into the river. Here, women are washing clothes (they seem to bash the living daylights out of them) or washing dishes. It's also where everyone has a bath so women in saris or men in sarongs are covered in soap, washing their hair etc. immersed in the water. There are also lots of boats going up and down. Many are converted rice barges which now serve as houseboats for rich tourists to hire but there are also small ferries and fishing boats. Fortunately we can just enjoy the river and don't have to wash in it. Our house had its own well and we have a proper bathroom with hot shower - bliss. Our room is quite charming and mostly taken up by a huge bed. This is a six foot square sleeping platform about four
foot off the ground with four posts and a mosquito net - very colonial! Cicily prepares copious amounts of food and Joseph urges us to eat up and have more. The food tastes very good but we're never quite sure what it is we're eating. It is all quite different from Northern Indian food and coconut is involved in just about every dish. Joseph told us that Kerala means 'Land of Coconuts' and it surely is.
Thursday, 24th December We slept late today and after breakfast (curry of course!) we got a taxi into Alleppy. There was a Hindu festival going on so the town was packed and the centre was richly decorated and everywhere was noise and confusion. We explored a bit and then returned to the peace and calm of Pooppally's. Later in the afternoon a boat came and collected us and we went on the river. Because it was only a small boat we could investigate the narrow waterways that led off the main river. We saw acres of rice field, lots more washing, fishing and general river related activities as well as lots of schools, Hindu temples and Christian churches. We stopped at a tiny
chai shop and had tea and donuts (which, surprise, surprise, had chilies in them). It was dark by the time we got back to Poopally's.
Friday, 25th December Christmas Day. Quite a few of the folk here are Christian so Christmas is celebrated but in quite a low key way. They go to church and then have a family meal. Joseph and Cicily had family arriving for the day (they have 5 children and 8 grandchildren) but not all of them were coming because, apart from us, they also have other guests staying (a family of four plus grandma from Dubai)so there wasn't enough room. It was quite a strange day and didn't feel one little bit like Christmas - no turkey or mince pies in sight. We missed all the family of course and although we tried most of the day, couldn't get our phones to work to call back home. The local Hindu temple were celebrating yet another festival and were blasting out religious music all day over loud speakers. Bizarre! We considered a rousing rendition of 'Onward Christian Soldiers' followed by a medley of Christmas Carols to counter but didn't have the energy. (Suni, we needed
you here in your choir frock!) Christmas dinner was curry with a bottle of Indian wine we had managed to buy from the bottle shop up the road. About 8pm Cicily came in to say that she was off to the hospital because her youngest daughter had gone into labour. A little baby girl was born before the end of Christmas Day. An unusual Christmas to say the least.
Saturday, 26th December Boxing Day and not a slice of cold turkey or a spoonful of Bubble and Squeak in sight. More reading, lounging, curry eating punctuated with short walks along the river bank. A great opportunity to set up our own 'Chinese Laundry' and get some washing done. I rejected the riverbank 'bashing the living daylights out of it' method favoured by the ladies here for the 'bucket of warm water and left over shampoo from the shower' method which we have found works pretty well for us. At least we will be able to start the next tour with some relatively clean clothes. No ironing possible so we will be sporting the heavily creased look which I'm sure must be fashionable somewhere.
Sunday, 27th December We left
the homestay today to travel back to Cochin. I have to say that going back was an awful lot easier than getting there had been. We had a lovely stay at Pooppally's with just the peace and relaxation we needed after 5 hectic weeks of travelling but now we were ready for a bit more action and were raring to go again. A taxi took us to a hotel in Cochin which was to be the start of our tour of Kerala. We booked in and then went out to explore a little. We are staying in Emakulam which is the mainland part of Cochin and very busy and crowded but nothing like as bad as Delhi. We ventured into a wonderful Silks and Saris Emporium, 6 floors of the most fabulous fabrics in every colour and design you could possibly imagine but Terry finally managed to drag me out empty handed. We walked as far as the boat jetty and then back to our hotel for our tour meeting to meet our new guide and fellow travellers. This time we are a group of twelve, made up of five couples, mainly of similar age to ourselves, and two single
ladies. Simon and Deborah (England), James and Mary Elizabeth (New Zealand), Bob and Lorraine (USA), Ron and Anne (USA), Tanya (Australia) and Rebecca (England). Our guide is called Shaji and comes from Cochin so should be able to give us lots of local information. So far so good.
Monday, 28th December Today we left quite early and drove to Munnar which is an old British hill station high in the Western Gnats. These mountains are the highest point in India south of the Himalayas. The journey was quite a long one (about 5 ½ hours) but nowhere near as challenging as our previous ones as this tour is rated a 'comfort trip' and we therefore get a little private 12 seater coach. The drive to Munnar is up hill all the way and the road is narrow and winding as it clings to the mountainside. We had fantastic views and the landscape was lush with vegetation. This is a major tea growing area so the tea plantations stretch for miles and miles and the aroma of tea is everywhere. Our hotel was the highest in this mountain area and so we had to leave the coach and complete the
last part of the journey by jeep but we finally arrived. Our hotel balcony has the most stunning view right down the mountainside to the valley below. Wild flowers grow in profusion; the trees drip Morning Glory, Flame Trees are brilliant splashes of colour and Hibiscus is everywhere. What strikes you immediately is how cool and fresh it is up here compared to Cochin. The down side of this is that clouds quickly gather and mist comes rolling so our wonderful view didn't last for long. Later we ate in the restaurant and then Shaji miraculously produced a couple of bottles of vodka so we had a very pleasant evening drinking vodka and Seven Up (well, it was all we could get!).
Tuesday, 29th December Today was a bit of a difficult day as there was a general strike in Kerala which had the next stage of our journey a bit tricky. Apparently strikes are pretty common here. They seem to have little effect beyond inconveniencing tourists and nobody seems quite sure what they are about but they happen often. Shaji says that wages here are actually the highest in India but the labour unions are numerous and strong
and call strikes at the drop of a hat (or what ever the Indian equivalent of this expression is). Everyone else comes out in sympathy and treats it as a day's holiday so nobody really minds. We were supposed to be leaving in the morning but because of the strike roads would be blocked and petrol stations, shops etc. would be closed so we just lounged around the hotel until later in the afternoon when Shaji reckoned the strikers would be bored with the whole idea and the route would be clear of road blocks. This proved to be the case so we set off on another long journey, this time to stay near the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Because of our late start we went straight to our evening meal which was at a local house. This was the home of Mr Abraham who has the most amazing spice garden. It is actually featured in Monty Don's book 'Around the World in 80 Gardens'. We were supposed to tour the garden first but because of our late arrive we'll be doing that tomorrow. Our meal was a traditional 'banana leaf dinner' which is what you give your friends if you
invite them round for supper. You start off with a banana leaf for a plate which is laid straight on the table. There are about eight different dishes which are brought out in twos and threes so you can eat them in a particular order. You eat only with your hands which is quite tricky when some of the dishes are more like soup. There was a fish curry, a chicken curry, manioc, various vegetable dishes, several different kinds of bread and rice to mop up all the sauces. After this we had a Keralan favourite - banana mash. You put rice on the leaf, add runny yoghurt and sugar and then quash a banana into it and eat it all with your fingers. Very good - the kids might like to try this at home. You end up up to your elbows in bananas but what the heck! (This is coming from someone who isn't there to clear up the mess, hee, hee.) After the meal we were off to check in at the hotel. We were all a bit disappointed as it wasn't the one we were supposed to be in and was a bit rough but never
mind, it was a place to sleep.
Wednesday, 30th December We were up very early this morning to go to the Periyar Tiger Sanctuary for a jungle walk before breakfast. We were met by our guide who equipped us with some rather fetching canvas bootees. These went inside your shoes and tied up under your knees to protect you from leeches and other jungle friends. We set off at 7am and walked for about two and a half hours. We saw various types of trees and plants (teak, rosewood, sandalwood), live things (deer, monkeys, woodpeckers), jumped a variety of streams and followed elephant tracks but unfortunately the tigers, elephants and leopards completely eluded us and none were to be found. A pleasant but 'big game' free walk. Later in the day we went on a tour of Mr. Abraham's spice garden. This area is the spice growing centre of India and spice plantations and spice shops abound. Mr. Abraham's garden is the result of many years of hard work and has every kind of spice you could think of plus 23 different types of banana (yes, I can hear you gasping here that there are 23 different types of
banana). It is fascinating to see all the different kinds of spices growing that you only see in jars at home. Because our hotel was not up to scratch Shaji organised a massage for each of us by way of compensation. Kerala is famous for its massage technique known as Ayurveda. It is linked to treating a variety of medical conditions and involves copious amounts of oil. Here only men massage men and women massage women so we were divided into our appropriate groups and spirited away in tuck-tucks to the massage parlours. Ayurvedic massage is a whole body massage and I mean whole body. No crease, nook or cranny is left out and all human dignity goes out the window. The head massage part involves much head slapping and hair pulling and oil is poured with wild abandon all over you. I can only say that I felt more basted than a turkey and very relieved that Christmas Day had passed or I fear that I might have been popped in the oven and roasted at Gas Mark 6 for several hours . After the massage was a steam bath. This consisted of a wooden box with a hole
in the top connected to a large kettle by a long hose. You sat in the box with your head poking out of the hole. When the kettle boiled steam filled the box and you gently cooked. It was mainly a pleasant but extremely slippery experience. Terry said he had a pretty similar experience although the hair pulling was a non starter but they managed to tie his chest hair in knots.
Thursday, 31st December We left the hotel quite early this morning as we had another long drive ahead of us. Because the roads are so narrow and bendy in this area you can only travel at about 20 miles an hour. Shaji told us that there was a change to the programme and that rather than going to the homestay we were expecting, we were going to spend New Year's Eve on a houseboat (the rice barges we had seen on the river at Pooppally's. I was very excited about this as it was something I had really wanted to do but had dismissed at the planning stage because it is so expensive. Because there were twelve of us we had three boats, one sleeping six and
two sleeping four. We were on the larger boat which had an upstairs lounging and dining area as well as one at the front of the boat, three sleeping cabins and then a kitchen at the back where meals were prepared. Lunch was served and then we adjourned upstairs to glide down the river lounging on a mattress, chatting, drinking beer and generally feeling very chilled and maharaja-like. We watched the sun set over the coconut palms with birds skimming across the water and then tied up for the evening. Everyone came over to our boat in the evening for a meal and to see in the new year. We had managed to buy some gin (quite cheaply) and actually found a shop selling tonic (costing more than the gin) on the river bank so had G and Ts to see in the new year. After the meal we played endless games of charades with much hilarity until 2010 arrived. Pretty special New Year's Eve.
Friday, 1st January A very civilized breakfast on the boat this morning followed by about an hour's sailing. We saw a wide variety of birds swooping over the water and lots of early morning river activity. Apart from the usual bathing and clothes washing there were groups of school children waiting for the boat to ferry them across the river to school, people fishing, gossiping on the river bank or striding out on their way to work. We eventually arrived back at the boat base, said a fond farewell to our houseboat, transferred ourselves and all our luggage to a motor launch and set off on our way to our next hotel. After about an hour we tied up by the river bank and visited a toddy shop. This is the equivalent of the local bar but serves only one drink - toddy, an alcoholic product of the coconut palm. Coconut palms are truly amazing in that they produce so many things: the leaves are used as plates, for wrapping food prior to cooking and also for thatching homes; the coconuts are eaten and drunk and give the oil used for cooking;the empty shells are used as fuel; they produce coir which is used for matting and rope making; the flower buds produce ready made alcohol in the form of toddy. The toddy man goes round to the palms each morning, climbs the tree, and finds the flower buds which have just reached a particular stage of ripeness. He then does something to them which I'm not quite sure about but involves bashing them with a piece of water buffalo bone to release the juice which he collects in a bucket and takes to the toddy shop. When it is fresh Toddy is about 4%!p(MISSING)roof, by evening it has gone up to about 10%!,(MISSING) which is when all the locals drink it. We tried a bottle. It wasn't bad but I don't think it will be replacing G & T as the Connell's preferred drink. After this it was back on the boat to finish the journey to the hotel. We arrived at Kayaloram Resort, near Alleppy, about lunch time. The hotel is built in traditional Kerala style, rather like Pooppally's, with teak wood cottages set in gardens right on the river bank. In fact here the river has broadened out into a lake and the whole place is beautiful and calm. Our room was pleasant with a nice, cool sitting out area a great attached bathroom which was open to the sky. There was a very nice pool, not great for swimming but wonderful for general lounging and gossiping as it is as warm as a bath. We had a very good buffet lunch and then spent the afternoon reading, swimming and generally lounging about. In the late afternoon we all went out in a very large canoe for a bit more cruising about. The boys from the hotel came with us and sang songs accompanied by rhythms they created on empty plastic water bottles - interesting!! Then it was back to the hotel for another massage involving more hair pulling, basting, kneading and slapping (but in a pleasant way!). After dinner they laid on some music so we could have a bit of a party and a dance.
Saturday, 2nd January This morning I got up early and went to a 6am yoga class followed by an early morning swim in the pool. (I enjoyed writing this bit as it sounds pretty impressive doesn't it!) Actually it was all fairly undemanding once you got over the shock of actually getting out of bed at 5:45am voluntarily. After breakfast we took a boat to a nearby village for a walk. This was very interesting as Shaji explained to us how village life worked in the rural backwaters of Kerala. There are about 500 families living in this community and they all know one another. The caste system is still very strong and each group of families or 'caste' has its allotted occupation. The are paddy field workers, mussel gatherers (fresh water mussels that they dive for in the river), mud diggers (to keep the waterways clear), fishermen, duck farmers and so on. All marriages are arranged and are within caste and there is hell to pay if you don't invite all 500 families to the wedding. Everyone we met was very smiley and happy to stop and chat, the children particularly so. Even the teenagers, whom you would be lucky to be able to prod a grunt from let alone a smile back in England, were eager to say hello. After the walk it was back to the hotel for more lounging, swimming etc. It is extremely hot here, well into the thirty degrees, so pool basking or lying in an air conditioned room are highly desirable activities. More eating, beer drinking and chatting filled the evening.
Sunday, 3rd January We left the backwaters this morning and set off, heading south, on our journey to Varkala. On the way we stopped off at the Mannarsala Nagaraja (snake) Temple. This large Hindu temple is dedicated to the worship of the snake and is where Hindu women go to pray for a child to be born. It is also a place where families go after a child is born to give thanks to the gods for the child. It was heaving with people and very difficult to get around but very interesting. It is a privately owned temple the only one where the chief priest is a woman. The position always goes to the oldest son's wife and women come from many miles away to ask her to pray to the snake god on their behalf. There are statues of snakes everywhere but fortunately no live ones. We also stopped off at a small palace with hardly any windows. It was was a bit of a dead loss as the electricity inside wasn't working and the guide tried to show us all round with one very small torch. We arrived in Varkala about 2am and checked into our cliff top hotel. Varkala is a small coastal resort with a very hippy, sixties feel to it. There are very steep cliffs leading down to a nice, sandy beach which is not too crowded. Having checked in at the hotel we went to explore. There are lots of cafes, shops selling hippy clothes and goods from Tibet, juice bars and yoga places. I went in the sea which was very warm with big waves that you could body surf in on - great fun. Later in the evening we went to a restaurant up on the cliffs that served very good food and excellent, very cheap cocktails so a good night was had by all.
Monday, 4th January This morning Terry wasn't feeling too brilliant (no it wasn't too many cocktails the night before) so stayed at the hotel while the rest of us went to visit a couple of places. First we visited the Janardhana Swamy Temple and then an ashhram devoted to Kerala's most eminent spiritual and social reformer, Sree Narayana Guru. The Guru, from a low caste family himself, was responsible for achieve huge improvements in the lives of poor Hindus by achieving equality in worship and education for them. As a result Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India at 96%!,(MISSING) values education and ensures all people are knowledgeable about their rights. This makes Kerala the wealthiest state in India. We also went to a small beach where Hindu pilgrims go to perform the last rites in memory of deceased family members. When I got back to the hotel Terry was feeling better so we spent the afternoon lounging by the pool and strolling along the cliffs. Another pleasant eating and cocktailing evening completed the day.
Tuesday, 5th January We left Varkala and got back to Cochin for a late lunch. It was a bit of a shock to return to noise and frantic activity of the city after the much more leisurely life we had been leading. Cochin, known as the 'Queen of the Arabian Sea', has been chosen by National Geographic as one of the world's 50 destinations. It is a port which is one of the oldest in India and has a very multi-cultural history. Jews, Chinese, Arabs and Europeans have all been here to trade and left their mark here. Ernakulam, where our hotel is, is part of the modern bustling mainland but there are also a number of islands where Fort Cochin, Jew Town and Mattancherry have a much quieter, medieval feel to them. These places can be reached by a network of long bridges or by local ferries. Tonight we went by road bridge to Fort Cochin to a little theatre to see a performance of traditional Katahkali dancing. This is a very strange and stylised art form which wouldn't make my top ten list of things to see before I die! The dancers portray demons and spirits and tell the traditional stories with a vocabulary of hand movements and facial expressions but no actual dancing. Even with a sheet describing the story we really hadn't got a clue what was going on so I don't think we'll be trying this at home. It was very colourful but that's about the best I can say about it. As a reward for enduring this we had a very good meal by the water surrounded by twinkling lights.
Wednesday, 6th January This morning we took a walking tour of Fort Cochin. We saw the Mattancherry Palace which housed some beautiful murals depicting scenes from Hindu legends and a museum. We also visited a Jewish Synagogue, the oldest in the Commonwealth, St Francis Church, built by Portuguese Franciscan friars and the Chinese fishing nets. The fishing nets were introduced to India by Chinese traders who came from the court of Kublai Khan. The nets are a very distinctive image of Fort Cochin but not actually much good at catching fish any more. There are, however, lots of stalls selling and cooking fish by the quay which have been caught by more modern methods. We had a good wander round the area generally and explored some interesting little shops and stalls. We said goodbye to our driver Thampi, who had been with us since the beginning of our trip as he was leaving us today. He had been an excellent driver and much safer than our experiences in the North. Driving here is generally not so crazy as in Rajasthan and there are less hazards such as cows, dogs etc but Thampi has been great and we've had none of the 'heart in the mouth' experiences of a couple of weeks ago. We made our own way back to Ernakulam by ferry which was an interesting experience as the boat was packed but we got home to our hotel in one piece. People come to Cochin from all over Kerala to shop for silk and gold and there are many huge shops selling both. A group of the 'girls' in our party went over the road to gold shop to see what it was like. You can't just wander in and browse as there are guards at the door and you are personally greeted by an assistant who asks what you are interested in buying and then whisks you off. We looked at earrings and necklaces and there was lots of bowing and scraping and refreshments provided. The jewellery isn't priced, it just gives the weight and the price is worked out on the value of gold on the day. It wasn't really to my taste (much to Terry's relief on my return) as it is mainly very ornate, fancy and very bright yellow but one of our group did buy a very nice necklace. I can't even imagine the value of the stock in the place as it was wall to wall gold and gems. This evening we went out for our final meal together and to say goodbye to Shaji our leader, who was leaving us tonight as he had a long journey by bus to get to his next group We have been so lucky on all our trips so far that the leaders have been absolutely great and Shaji was certainly no exception. He had been so helpful, good humoured and caring and given us so much information about life in Southern India that it's been a real pleasure to travel with him.
Thursday, 7th January The last day of the trip today and time for people to go their various ways, some to other hotels for an extended stay, some to the airport to travel home or onwards and some stopping over another night at the Grand like us. This morning Shaji had arranged a cooking class for some of us in Fort Cochin so it was back on the ferry and over to Leelu's Cooking School for a lesson in Southern Indian cooking. This was actually more of a demonstration as we just watched rather than cooked but it was quite good fun and we got to eat all the dishes for lunch. More goodbyes as some were staying over in Fort Cochin but we went back on the ferry for our final night in Cochin. We felt quite bereft without our group as it had been a really good one with some very interesting people. We've certainly decided that one of the best things about travelling the way we are is the people, from all kinds of countries and life styles, that we meet along the way.
Friday, 8th January This morning was spent sorting out the packing and catching up on the blog as the taxi was coming at 2pm to take us to the airport for our flight back to Delhi and then onward to Bangkok, Thailand. We're leaving India after six amazing weeks in a country where there are such astounding contrasts between rich and poor, desert landscapes of the north and lush, steamy countryside of the south, filthy dirty streets heaving with traffic, bikes, cows, dogs and people and peaceful villages living life in the backwaters as it has been led for hundreds of years. It certainly challenges you on many fronts and, although it may not be a place we choose to return to with so much of the world we have yet to explore, it has been a fantastic adventure and one we wouldn't have missed for the world.
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Hilary
non-member comment
Happy Christmas & New Year
Hi Guys sounds like you are having an amazing time - can't wait for the next installment - see you when you get back Love Hils x