Kerala

From Goa we moved south onto Gokarna into the neighbouring state of Karnataka.

Palm fringed paradise of 3 beaches inaccessible by road. Its a backpacher place, not many locals. Lots of Yoga and Ayurveda, travelling musicians jamming, tablas and sitars, another sore place to leave. Did my first yoga session there which I enjoyed until I fell asleep.

We had a total panic because we didnt reach the top of the waiting list for our train to Cochin to meet our parents. Since arriving 24hrs late was out of the question, we set out by taxi for the station anyway. On the way we stopped at every bank, and failed every time. On arrival at the station we were told it was impossible to get on the train. We got back into the cab, now around midnight, hundreds of miles away with no money and things were looking grim. Another lap of the town got us some money using a credit card. We went to the bus station and found a bus to Mangalore which arrived at 4am. There we got a room for a few hours and bought a bus ticket for that afternoon and spent all that night on a “sleeper” bus to cochin, arriving at the homestay about an hour before the folks – skills.

Kerala is a lovely place, very green and very humid, great mountains and amazing backwaters. They have an ancient form of martial arts and this mad dance/theatre called kathakali.

We spent 3 days in Fort Cochin, penned in by the sea around this small peninsula, with a constant flow of ships and ferries. An old colonial place, that’s been ruled by just about everyone, with loads of white churches and a maze of streets, Hindu temples, a mosque, a synagogue, Christian churches and Syrian Christian churches and Dutch churches. Lots of nice places to eat and drink. All over Kerala and in Fort Cochin there are these Chinese fishing nets, which are strung up in the air on massive beams and lowered into the water when the tide is high like a drawbridge. They raise the nets and collect the fish and tourists point and take photos, which must be quite annoying really. Here is a photo…

There was a small fish market just next to them and we bought some fish and prawn which Diane cooked in Keralan style wrapped in banana leaves at the homestay…

It was great to see Mum and Karen and Dave.

From Cochin we headed to Alleppey. A town on the edge of lake Verbalam which is part of a massive system of rivers and canals, one of 3 in Kerala to take a houseboat and observe the villages and life along the river. The old converted rice barges are fun to spent the day and night on– sitting under a bamboo shade on armchairs with a drink and watching the eagles and kingfishers and paddy fields and fishing and washing and people going to school and getting around on ferries and loads of lush foliage. The villages on these narrow strips of land where the river is just the source of everything – food, where you wash and clean your teeth, fish, building materials. Its beautiful.

Next we went to Varkala. Red cliffs and nice beach, amazing hotel with a pool. Not much exploration was done here… Only down to eat in the restaurants on the beach where you pick you’re fish and then it’s cooked in the tandoor oven and is so deliciously fresh.

Next a mission into the mountains which run for a long way down near the West coast of Southern India, into the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.

Ooty – 2100m high in the Western Ghat’s, is was refreshingly cool. Theres a great mountain railway there where you chug through the tea plantations and valleys to Conoor. We went to stay in a remote hotel on the steep slope in the middle of an active tea plantation. Loads of wildlife. We took a jeep for a night safari in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and saw loads of animals including many wild elephants and a TIGER.

We headed back to Cochin and stayed in Ernakulum to see mum off. The noisy, stinking place is mostly notable for an amazing restaurant that we ate in every night..

Mums visit was really great. My brothers and sisters came to look after dad at various points so that mum could get away. It was a special time, relaxed and good fun, a much needed holiday! Just such a shame that my Dad couldn’t be there, we really missed him. I was sad to see her go. We had a really good time the 5 of us.

I headed back into the hills with Kathryn, Karen and Dave to Munnar, which is a gorgeous place, and then into Tmail Nadu again. Tamils speak another language and have much darker skin and descend from dravidians so all their temples have a particular style.

Madurai is a small Indian city of about a million people. Its famous for the shree Meenakshi temple, and rightly so.

There’s a great Ghandi museum there where I learnt loads about the raj and partition of India. From there we headed to Pondicherry.

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