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Published: August 1st 2005
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Me and the sunset at Chinese fishing nets at Fort Cochin
One of the best places to have a beer I have found so far in my life! Since I have been Kerala for one week and have visited a lot of places I am going to write about my experience of the whole place rather than do individual entries on each. My first port of call was Ernakulam (Cochin) which is a major port and the largest city in Kerala. Arriving at 6.00am made for an enjoyable change as at first light there was no one around to hassle us and we were able to walk freely taking in the city for 2 km to catch a ferry to Fort Cochin, the best part of the city to visit and stay. What really struck me about Cochin relative to other cities is that it is clean with not so many open sewers, there are also no beggars. The reason for these differences will become apparent later on. The ferry ride through the habour was interesting also, Cochin is a major port, there were many boats of varying sizes from very large oil tankers down to tiny fishing boats, there is a place for all here. Fort Cochin itself is very beautiful, the buildings are similar to that of Portugal, it is a very pleasant place to relax. On
the beach there are these fascinating chinese fishing nets that work by a series of counterweights which the fisherman lower into the sea periodically throughout the day for about 10 minutes at a time. It was great process to watch however not very fruitful as each time the only thing the fisherman produced was a small catfish and some rubbish! Kerala lies to the west of the Western Ghats and is a long thin state. Inland between 1 to 30 kms along the majority of the coastline is where the backwaters are found. When the monsoon comes (presently) the backwaters are fed by the rain from the Western Ghats which bring silt and freshwater, the reason that the land is so fertile. When it is summer, the sea pushes more salt water in so the backwaters are a continually changing environment. We took a days cruise of these backwaters. An early start and a one hour drive lead us to a traditional Keralan boat which had very comfortable basket chairs to relax in and enjoy the waters. There was no engine on the boat, instead a driver with a 20 foot bamboo pole guided us through the canals similar to
punting. At first it seemed a little slow but it was definitely the best way to take in the views of the coconut palm lined canals. We made a few stops, the most interesting being at a rope manufacturer and a calcium refinery. The people of the backwaters have three main economies; coconuts, fishing and shells. The coconuts provide a great many products, one being rope. The length of time that the coconut is left on the tree results in different properties for the nut. A young coconut will produce lots of milk, whereas an older one (12 months) can give more products. The shell material surrounding the nut is very fibrous and after being soaked in water for 6 months can be spun in a similar way to wool into rope. An interesting process to watch. At the calcium refinery black shells are brought by the sack load from the bottom of the waters and are mixed with with coke and using old coconut shells as fuel burnt at 1000 degrees until they turn white. Upon addition of water a strong exothermic reaction results producing calcium. The calcium has a number of uses namely in building and petrochemicals. We
stopped on a small island for lunch which was a traditional South Indian Thali, this consists of rice and a variety of very tasty spicy vegetables cooked in simple gravies, delicious! The afternoon was spent cruising the peaceful waters of the Vembanand Lake. The guide we had spoke good english and was very knowledgeable of the local economies and Kerala itself. I learnt a lot about Kerala and its history which is of particular interest and provides a possible explanation for why Kerala is such a sorted place relative to other parts of India I have visited so far. In 1967 the Keralan people elected the first communist state in a democratic country! This party pursued policies of land reclaim and redistribution and compulsory education for children. The results are obvious and are reflected in the character of the state, hence the cleanliness, better sanitation and lack of homeless people I mentioned earlier. 90% of people are educated and 98% are housed, the highest rates in India. In main Cochin I attended a traditional Keralan dance show called Kathakali. A lot of make up and fantastic costumes are used, after years of training the dancers use many different facial expressions
Sunset at Varkala Beach
Another wicked place to have a beer and spend a sunset! to project different feelings and impersonate different beings such as fear and an elephant respectively, very enertaining and not to be frowned upon! The backwaters are very beautiful and tranquil places that are definitely worth a visit. En route to Kanyakumari (actually in Tamil Nadu) I stopped at Kollam (nothing much to report) and Varkala beach. Varkala is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. A 100ft cliff of maroon coloured rock and soil towers above the beach and spans the entire coast of Varkala. As well as the sunset at Fort Cochin, Varkala rates very highly in terms of picture postcard places, the stars were very bright here also and stretched all the way down to the horizon! A combination of smooth trains and spine shattering bouncy buses took me from Varkala to Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of India which is special for a number of reasons. There is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi here. When he died in 1948 his ashes were brought here and stored for a short while before a portion where scattered into the oceans, oceans because this is also the point at which three oceans meet, The Indian Ocean, The
Vivekananda Memorial at Kanyakumari
The view from my hotel over the fishermans homes Bay of Bengal and The Arabian Sea. Built on an out crop of rocks lie two memorials to Swami Vivekananda, an important Indian religious crusader. The meditation chamber and a huge statue are both dedicated to him and are surprisingly well kept by Indian standards, they were a pleasure to visit and offer good views of the ghats and Kanyakumari. Surprise, surprise, there is also a temple here but is of particular interest, men had to remove their shirts as well as the standard shoes. Inside it was a very dark and mysterious place where a number of shrines to various gods can be found, in particular the goddess Devi. For obvious reasons this is a very important place to Indian people and is often very busy, fortunately this was not the case when I was there. Conversely it offered a rare glimpse of the stereotypical Indian tourist and their gift shopping needs, very amusing and not to dissimilar to the sort of junk you can find in English seaside towns! All in all Kerala is a really good place to visit, it is not as well connected travel wise and journeys are not quite so straight forward as other
places but it makes up for it in the beauty of the backwaters and beaches and as a very significant place for Indians.
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Philip Evans
non-member comment
Sweet
Hi mate, Looks like you're having a mental time; didn't know you were a culture vulture. Website is pretty cool aswell. Keep the posts coming. Phil