Photos of Kerala

There should now be photos and even a video of our stay in Kerala. See

• Homeward via Mumbai
• Kumarakom continued
• Houseboat & lake
• Houseboat (Jan 6th continued)
• Kummily to Kumarakom
• Our driver
• Kumarakom
• Lazy day
• To Thekkady
• Tea plantation at Munnar
• To Cochin
• Kerala - Cochin

Any other photos not published here (or not publishable such as the demonstration of the outside shower) will be available elsewhere.

Poverty

I was saddened and surprised to see an improverished family at the side of the road on the way to Cochin airport. Squatting together, three children and an old man, while another adult worked nearby, they were thin and dusty with matted hair, but the six or 7 year old girl was totally naked. When she saw my white European face looking through the window of our air-conditioned Toyota, she rather listlessly held out her palm, more from habit I think than hope, as she didn't move from her squat for another few moments.

Our driver said they were north Indians. It's the first sign of poverty I've seen in Kerala - people here might have little or nothing, no sewage, no electricy, few goods, but they are clean, healthy, nourished, the children in school uniforms and free schooling provided. The Luce book indicates that there is a lot of school truancy, but in Kerala I think the education and state support for education means that a high percentage of this population is literate, healthy and employed.

Houseboat & lake

Jan 6th - Liz
We spent only one night on the houseboat, but it was a splendid experience because of the

• views
• food
• people
• sounds

The views included a splendid sunset across Lake Venbanad, with birds flying into the dusk.

The food included a delicious ginger and lime drink offered as soon as we arrived on the boat, as well as huge fresh water prawns, delicious curries, and coconut water and meat presented to us fresh from the tree, hewed in front of us. We're delighted to find that our chef, Gireesh Kumar P. C, has his own web site with some of these recipes.

From our boat we could see fisherman, children playing in the water, women washing clothes and crockery at the edge of the backwaters, their houses, queues of people waiting for the ferry.
We heard the children calling, "one pen, give me one pen", and the water lapped around the boat, lulling us to sleep.

Jan 7th - Adrian
The final leg of our houseboat trip took us across the width of the lake to a sumptuous Radisson hotel resort. Unfortunately wife's stomach took a dislike to something so we were confined to our room, which had a small balcony, a large bathroom with a bath (the first encountered in our trip) and in-built shower, as well as two other shower units, one inside and one outside in a private court-yard, which was irresistibly inviting.

Houseboat (Jan 6th continued)

Eventually we reached the coastal area again, which is an extensive area of lagoons, interspersed with canals and settlements, sometimes described as like Venice (but without that city's urban beauty). The largest body of water is Lake Venbanad, which extends south from Cochin and is separated into a fresh water part by a bridge, which we crossed on our way to Allepey. The lake is marked by a floating lily plant which is thickest at the edges (see photo) where is delicate lilac-blue flower intensifies its appearance. Abundant fish life too, so that fish-eating birds flock to it – white herons (and an occasional black one), kingfishers, cormorants (the cormorants looked like grebes when swimming but I saw one pop up with a catch (an eel or a long fish) which took some time to process. Grebes are perhaps vegetarians?!) And an egret which was a drab pale brown on the ground but miraculously in flight has white wings and a black back (Also a pair of golden-brown white-tipped winged fish eagles)

We met up with our houseboat – covered in a bamboo framed, rattan covered roof, like a Chinese river boat – and said goodbye to Sunil, our affable driver. The crew of three – engine –driver, captain and chef (not cook) – were to take us on a cruise through the canals and across the lake, with meals prepared and eaten on board. We stopped to purchase six plate-size prawns (fresh-water) on route (1000Rs per kilo, which was the weight of six of them).

Officially leisure traffic should moor at six pm, so that the locals can go fishing, but there is continual ferry traffic for the locals, which goes on much later. As we passed some of the can’s children would run alongside shouting, apparently, for ‘one pen’. We assembled a few old biros, but too late to see if they were what was wanted.

We moored slightly off shore overnight and feasted on our prawns – grilled in spices – but also some fish curry and ‘boatman chicken’. The chef has a web site with recipes.


The dwellings by the canalside were small, but permanent in the most part. As washing of clothes and persons was done in the canal, it would seem that running water, and electricity are not available to most. In addition to the well-stocked lake, coconut tress (and cashew trees) there were paddy fields where water could be fed in from the lake and waterways.

Kummily to Kumarakom

January 6th (Kumilly to Kumarokan)

Before breakfast two pairs of birds stayed long enough in a near by tree to enable us to have a good look. First was the red-crested cuckoo with red stripes to its wings and a mustard yellow back. Then the blackbird which had a surprisingly clear and resonant song, and was distinguished by a tail appendage of two long stalks with a small feather at the end, 10 or 12 inches from the end of the tail proper.

The roads were full on a Sunday morning with buses and pedestrians including many long distance pilgrims, singly and in groups, with their belongings in a bundle on their heads, trekking to some religious destination. Looking out for the variety of Christian churches I espied a Bethany Bible Institute, which Douglas Fairman would have known about, I surmised.

The descent to the coastal plain from around 4000 or 5000 feet was predictably vertiginous, and the occasional group of bus passengers whose stomachs were not up to the challenge were seen by the roadside – another reason why the more basic Indian buses have no glass in the side – windows – I had thought it was just for ‘air-conditioning’. Musing on the journey, I started a list of rules for driving in India.

Our driver

Sunil was our driver for nearly all the ten days, and was excellent. His English was good, and what he had to say was worth listening to, so, for instance he told us various Malayam meanings, like Periyar - sweet water and Kerala - land of coconuts.

Driving on Keralan roads meant the usual avoiding of other road users, but also of numerous potholes and ramps as we passed from one stretch to another, built by different contractors presumably. Sunil slowed down and negotiated each without damage to car wheels or our tummies.

He also directed us away from over expensive shops and restaurants. The day that he started with a huge bee sting from sleeping in the car park near big bees, was also the day that he missed breakfast because our start time was before the staff canteen was open. By lunch time he must have been so hungry. He took us to a small town restaurant - we'd never have found it - but it was clean, simple and had typical Keralan food. So we enjoyed our lunch - a sort of smorgasbord of vegetables and tuna curry, washed down with water boiled with a herb that made it go red - very good for digestion apparently. Finally, he insisted on paying for our meals.

Sunil found the Kalari for us, helped us book it. He knew the spice garden was worth visiting, because he had obviously been there lots of times before because he knew a lot of the information that the guide gave us - they had become good friends. And he also found us a cheaper massage parlour outside the hotel, pointing out that these masseurs - a husband and wife team - were very experienced, and explained that hotels tended to use trainees. Sunil was the one who realising that I was enthusiastically photographing everything pointed out interesting things to photo.

Sunil dropped us off on the eighth day at Lake Venabad, and we hoped that on our last day he would be free to pick us up from the hotel and take us to the airport - we'd really enjoyed his company, but in the event someone else turned up - his English was not up to conversation.

However, after we'd checked in, Anesh, our rep from Distant Frontiers, pointed at the door - there was Sunil waving at us. We couldn't go out because we'd checked in, and he wasn't allowed to come in to the airport - so we could only chat through the gap by the guard as people came in. We have - had his email and meant to keep in contact, find out how his two children do at school and hope to hear that his wife keeps well. But I've lost the email. :-(

Kumarakom

We are here in this fabulous hotel, surrounded by water, lagoon and palms.

Our bungalow overlooks the peaceful lagoon, its sounds being squawks of birds, and no muezzin. It is extravagant luxury. For example, we have a bathroom with nine towels, as big as a double bedroom and not only a bath - the first one we've seen and one with a shower attachment, but two showers - one inside and one outside in a completely enclosed tiny courtyard with pebbles, decorative brass urns and blossoming trees into which exotic birds fly to sip the nectar. You can watch them from the bath through the large picture window.

However, it does not have the ever present bucket, jug and hose next to the loo, strange to Western eyes, but useful for washing, for shaving water (no sink plugs) and refreshing when suffering from s&d.

To Thekkady

January 4th Munnar to Thekkady (forest) / Kumily (town) or Periyar (river and lake)

We ate breakfast in the Tall Trees restaurants, much impressed by the view through the roof, then packed our bags and descended from the plantation to Munna where we visited a tea museum and saw the mechanics of tea processing. There is only one tea plant whose leaf buds are picked and turned into white tea, (the tip before the leaf has started to open in growth), green tea and black tea (which are both processed mechanically (CTC – cutting, tearing and curling), to reduce the leaf size), winnowing to remove the stalks. Then black tea goes through an oxidation process and is winnowed into about 8 sizes – bigger means more aroma, small means more colour. Blending then produces types for different markets, customers or packaging such as teabags.

Then we set on our way here – a 100 km drive scheduled to take 3 hours but Sunil, our driver, explained that one section hadn’t been upgraded and due to a dispute was in very bad condition. After lunch in a Keralan style local restaurant (fish stew or fish curry and pink coloured drink made from infusing a local spice leaf) Sunil embarked on a detour which meant we only had 5 km of pot holes to negotiate, so that we arrived and went straight to Periyar lake (a reservoir) for a boat-trip – deer, bison and many birds – white heron, snake bird and cormorant nests built on some of the tree stumps which stuck out of the lake – a close view of cormorant fledglings waiting for more lunch – but no elephants.

We booked into our hotel and booked ayuvedic full-body and head and feet massages for both of us. Unlike my previous relaxing muscle massage, this was a vigorous stroking after application of hot oil (and while completely starkers) of (almost) every part – arrived at the blood-vein layout of the human form. Finally we were cooked, separately, in a steam bath apparently powered from a Prestige pressure cooker.

Still oily, we ate an evening meal, as it was nearly 9pm (the massage took about an hour and a half).

Under instructions to keep the oil on until morning, we soon opted for bed, when a gecko climbed up the wall to have a peek at the world.

I slept well, but was awake before 5am to hear the electronic peal of bells and striking of the hour followed by some uplifting (I presume) words. All this was followed by the call of the local muezzin – also amplified – half an hour later. For a state which is about 20% Christian the local churches are surprisingly prominent with their gaudy vernacular architecture, the many schools attended by neatly turned-out, uniformed children, (to judge by one extensive washing line, the school also launders the uniforms). The churches are also diverse – Anglican, RC, Orthodox, Syrian Christians, Seventh Day Adventists and no doubt many others.

Tea plantation at Munnar

Jan 3rd
We packed our bags and embarked on a scheduled 3-hour journey, which immediately got an hour added trying to get through the traffic jams in Cochin. Still wondered why it was going to take 3 hours to do 100km, but as the forest and hills approached, the road started to wind and the pace slowed as the spice plantations emerged.



We stopped after 2 hours for tea and a quick tour of the different plants in a small nursery – pepper, cardamom, vanilla, coffee and the amazing jackfruit.

But the pace slowed as the hills were only foot-hills – now it was in minutes per km. As we got higher the tea plantations started the road became more winding, narrower, potholed, and vertiginous; stomachs became queasy. Eventually at around 5,000 feet we arrived at the hotel too late for lunch, but a complimentary fruit bowl and a glass of beer sufficed (we had bought the beer en-route at a state liquor shop of forbidding aspect – metal barrier ensured a single file to the first grille where the order was placed and paid for, collected at a second grille before exiting).

We then toured the tea plantation on foot where the guide explained that the bushes, which by plucking and pruning would normally grow to 80 foot trees, were at waist height, closely packed, but with room to reach over each bush to pick the leaves (every 12 days).
The bushes are pruned every 3 years and live for 100 years. The complicated ownership of the plantation, and its history were explained by the guide who said that most of the product went to Tetley’s –thus soothing my annoyance at come to a tea plantation hotel and finding Tetley tea bags in our room. We also had a long discussion about the telegraph poles, made of old (1901) pieces of narrow gauge railway track (labeled BNR, which we later decoded as Bengal Nagpur Railway). Several red-bearded Bulbuls were spotted before the evening drew in and we returned to our room snapping the setting sun (see photos).



As we prepared for dinner, the phone rang and an invitation to a local dance demonstration issued – this turned out to be 3 young lads doing fire dancing to Bollywood hits – very impressive in close-up it was and left the mystery intensified as we felt the heat of fire-breathing a couple of yards away, but almost unable to feel the heat of a handful of flames as they were offered to us.

I looked forward to a quiet night’s sleep in the forest silence but as soon as I turned off my light something crawled down my arm – only after two attempts did I espy a hopping insect and give it a terminal sleep.

To Cochin

Jan 1st 2008
We did manage to wake up at 5 am (11.30pm body time), to get our taxi to the airport. Ahmedabad traffic at this time of the morning was easier to cope with there being none, with the almost sole exception of a young man on a scooter with a cricket bat strapped on his back – a Freddy Flintoff style dedication.

We arrived without problem at Cochin to be garlanded with flowers by our rep from Distant Frontiers and to be introduced to Sunil who was to be our driver during our stay. We were deposited at our hotel on one of the islands in the inland sea on which Cochin is situated.

In the evening we had a walking tour of another island (or part of it) called Fort Cochin where the old trading settlements were positioned – Jews, Portuguese, Dutch and English. Being New Years Day it was a holiday and Fort Cochin had a carnival so the narrow roads were thronged with happy (but not drunk as the first of every month is a dry day in Kerala). We passed the Dutch cemetery, the Church of St. Francis (see photo of us) where Vasco da Gama the Portuguese navigator was initially interred, and the Chinese Fishing Nets (see photo) – a productive method of fishing (shore based) built by Chinese traders who came to Cochin.

On leaving the walk we were dropped at Cottage Industries – a national enterprise for craft work sales. We were regaled with green tea with cardamom, smooth sales talk and beautiful Kashmir carpets before escaping to look at some jewellery (more tea, more super sales patter) before we finally made an empty-handed and slightly guilty exit.


In all this, we had received an excellent potted history of Cochin from Susan, our guide for the walk, which we were able to add to the knowledge gained from our stay in Ahmedabad, and the reading of Edward Luce’s book – ‘In Spite of the Gods’.

Although it was a dry day we found a bottle of Kingfisher beer in the fridge in our room, which served as an appetizer before sampling the sea food restaurant where we selected our main course (a pearl spot fish from the local waters which are neither salt or fresh) some massive prawns (plain and tiger) and crisp-fried anchovies as an appetizer.

Jan 2nd
We returned to the old part of Cochin with Mr. Joyce as our guide (he seemed to know many people and his mother still lived there) and commenced with the Jewish quarter. First we looked through the gate at the cemetery and then walked down the main street full of shops just opening before arriving at the Jewish Synagogue, a small hall paved with Chinese floor tiles and lit by many chandeliers of Belgian origin. An anteroom displayed a painted sequence of the length of Jewish involvement in Cochin – supposedly back to the time BCE of King Solomon and ultimately to a grant of authority to dwell in Cochin – there was a thriving community until the new state of Israel was created when almost all emigrated to it (because India for all its tolerance of different religions did not accommodate aspects of the Jewish one - observing the Sabbath for instance).

Next was the Dutch Palace built by them for the local ruler – quite small, with an elaborately carved roof, and murals of Hindu mythology (naughty). Finally, to an Anglican church built originally by the Portuguese, rebuilt by Dutch Protestants, and the first resting place of the navigator Vasco da Gama. After another look at the Chinese fishing nets we stopped again at a different cottage industry outlet to wife’s benefit and a hole in my credit card.

Afternoon spent by the pool (by me, wife was in the hotel shop doing more damage to my credit).
Then we went to see a Katakali dance demonstration preceded by watching the make-up being applied.

Kerala - Cochin

We're in the Casino Hotel, which is a totally different experience from the Host-Inn. For instance, we have two towels each, instead of one between us! However, the Host-inn had two internet terminals - here there is only one, though there is wi-fi. I have to wait for access. And it costs twice as much.

I've added something about Rusi Uncle at http://ejh2.blogspot.com/search/label/family%20history

I'll make other entries shortly. I have to check my email and the hotel shop.

Yesterday evening we went for a walk round the old city, where plenty of people were enjoying the party - celebrating new year. We saw a lot of evidence of the Catholicity of the people here - 20% of the population is Christian. There are lorries painted with holy pictures of Jesus, or Jesus and Mary. One small van was labelled

"My boss is a Jewish carpenter."