TRIVANDRUM
I stayed in Trivandrum a couple of days to recuperate from whatever bug I had before I took the train to Varkala. In Trivandrum I went to a really nice and unusual market, I never seen so many bananas in my life, yellow, green and red bananas. The red once are used in Ayurveda medicine and is suppose to be very good for you and they taste very nice too, different to our usual bananas back in England. There were different sections to the market, herbs and spices, fish, fruit and veg and a meat market, with some live stock. Walking into the meat market was a bit disturbing a lot of meat being cut up and a lot of live chickens waiting to be slaughtered. In fact I walked past a man that had about 10 chickens tied together, hanging upside down and being weighed, then thrown into a big bucket when I walked past later the man was picking the chickens up one by one and cut their throats, never seen anything like it. I had a fun experience though taking a picture of a lady who I thought looked interesting, when I asked her "if it was OK to take a picture of her", she looked ever so proud and had a little grin on her face looking at her friends in the market and posed in front of the camera. I was then asked if I wanted to take a picture of the fisherman as well and there was a lot of giggling going on, don't know what they laughed at, but I couldn't help to join in with the laughter, it was very funny. In the afternoon I took a train to Varkala which was only 45 minutes north of Trivandrum so a very easy journey. Kerala feels so different to the parts of India I been to, it feels much more affluent and apparently they are very well educated with a very high literacy rate, they also got a very good health care system compare to rest of India. Sadly though they also have one of the highest suicide rates in India, this I been told is because once they finished school, college and university there is not much work around. I been told a lot of people move abroad to find work elsewhere.
VARKALA
I arrived in Varkala and stayed in a room for 2 nights until I changed to a room closer to the seafront. In the night I had to walk down dark alley ways to get to my room and I didn't feel very secure walking on my own in the dark, especially when there were powercuts, which is a frequent occurrence here. My new room is lovely though, with a hammock outside my room, yoga classes at 7am and 4pm on the rooftop, which I by now have done 1-2 classes a day for the last 5 days, it is amazing how quickly your body becomes more flexible, I must say I feel great at the moment. I also found this place that do very tasty breakfasts, I am eating a lot of fresh fish, such as tandoori Kingfish, Keralan fish curries and lovely breads, all really nice and tasty. The beach and the sea is fantastic and it is so nice and relaxing here that I find it difficult to move on. However, a few days ago my feet started to get a bit itchy and I decided to take a trip to Kollam, about a 30 minute train journey north of Varkala. I went on a 2 hour canoe ride in the backwaters through beautiful little villages, stopping for cups of Chi, drinking coconut water and eating the flesh from fresh coconuts, we also got to taste fresh peppercorn. I was surprised how lovely the taste was of fresh peppercorn, it had a kind of perfume taste to it but strong, it left a wonderful taste in my mouth afterward and I can imagine this being really nice to use in cooking. After this trip I decided to stay over night in a homestay. I was picked up by Sasi an Indian man that had this house about 10 meters from the beach. When I arrived, there were two other women staying at the house and we were served some wonderful home cooked food that Sasi had cooked for us. It was a very memorable meal of, various fish curries, Chapati, Paratha bread and homemade chutneys it was so, so tasty, for afters we had freshly pressed pineapple juice, it is hard to describe how lovely, healthy and refreshing this tasted. I slept very well, hearing the waves beating against the shore and a lot of wildlife sounds, it was a very soothing experience. In the morning Sasi took me to the fish market, stopping by for a cup of Chi on the way. I really enjoyed the experience of walking around in the fish market and watch all the activities going on and the amount of fish that gets caught every day. We got back to the house and were served breakfast; Dosa, steamed banana and two different curries, again very tasty.
I am now back in Varkala and will stay here for a few more days until I am traveling south to meet my cousin Annika, we will be living in luxury for 1 week on a Ayurveda retreat, doing yoga, meditation and receiving Ayurveda treatment.
Before I went to the retreat, I decided to stay in Kovalam for a couple of nights as this was closer to the retreat, that was a big mistake I really don't have much to write about this place, I just felt miserable . Arriving at the retreat was something completely different though.
MANALTHEERAM- AYURVEDIC RETREAT WEEK
What an experience my cousin Annika and I have had and it has been so lovely with some fun company and there has been a lot of giggling and laughter.
I arrived to this beautiful place set on the cliff tops with mile long beaches with all fishing boats dotted around on the beach, it was such a fantastic view from the restaurant area. We stayed in a little round thatched roof cottage, it really felt luxurious compare to some places I stayed in before and they had hot showers, absolutely bliss as I don't think I have had a hot shower for over a month, I didn't realise until now how important hot water is. We made an appointment with the Ayurveda doctors at midday, if Annika and I didn't know each other very well before, we certainly do now as we had the consultation together. We had to fill in this long detailed questionnaire about our health and habits then questioned about our answers by two doctors, I am not going to go into details what sort of questions, but let me say some where quite personal, they took our blood pressure and we both had a physical examination. After this they analysed everything and prescribed our treatments. I was given a rejuvenation treatment programme and Annika went on this detoxification/ cleansing programme.
Later that afternoon we went to our first session, we were both quite shocked afterward. The therapy rooms looked quite scary, with ropes hanging from the ceiling, old fashioned massage coach, a big mattress on the floor covered in some kind of plastic looking leather, a gas cylinder, incense burner etc. My session lasted 2 hours. I was drenched in oil and I never had such a greasy hair in my life. I had three different kinds of massages, first by one therapist, then I had two therapists giving me a massage together, this was lovely. However, the strangest experience was when I laid on the mattrass on the floor, with my therapist holding on to the rope in the ceiling giving me a massage with her feet. During the week I also had a face mask, which according to Annika made my skin glow with health. I also had Sirodhara where they drip about 3 litres of oil on your forehead, lasting about 40 minutes this is suppose to clear your mind and it nearly put me to sleep, it was so relaxing. Each day after our treatment we were given a green gown and head scarves to wear as we were not suppose to shower for at least an hour after our treatments, because our treatment were in the evening we ended up going to dinner in these gowns and head scarves every night; we were not exactly dressed up for dinner. We have eaten really nice and fresh food all week avoiding meat, dairy products, alcohol, caffeine and only eating natural sugar such as fruit all week. We been to meditation and yoga every morning. I know it sounds very nice, but actually both Annika and I thought it was quite tough, especially the first part of the week, I suppose it was our bodies getting rid of toxins, however we started to feel very good in the second part of our retreat week, with so much more energy.
We went to an elephant sanctuary one day, this varied our day a bit from just relaxing on the beach or by the pool. We also went and visited an Ashram, which both of us would love to have stayed at as it was such a peaceful place. After our weeks retreat Annika had a few more days in India, we went to Kanyakumari, which is the most southern tip of India and where three seas meet; the Indian ocean, the Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal, we also went and visited a palace and an amazing temple in the same day.
We then had few days to see some other things and for Annika to do some shopping. We decided to stay in a luxury hotel in Trivandrum and do day trips, I never ever seen such a disorganised hotel, with so much bureaucracy, first when we arrived all the rooms were full, even though we booked in advance, it took about an hour until it got sorted,I started to wonder whether they didn't want us as guests when they saw us coming into this very grand hotel entrance with big backpacks and probably not dressed appropriately for their hotel. Anyway we got a room in the end, a room we couldn't lock from the outside but they managed to change room for us the following day. Equally checking out took about 1 hour they got our bill completely wrong I don't know how many different calculations the manager did, tapping the calculator buttons, making phone calls, flicking paper and looking very important while 5 other hotel staff just stood around watching and feeling awkward. While all this was going on Annika and I was doing our own calculations. However Annika and I were in hysterics laughing later.
It felt very empty when Annika left, but it was now time for me to start traveling again and see other parts of Kerala, by now I was ready to move on.
ALLEPPEY
On Saturday morning I took a train to Alleppey, which is the get away to the backwaters of Kerala. It was a 3 hour train journey, I arrived to this guesthouse which was fine. I can't write much about Alleppey though, not a very attractive town, just very busy and noisy. When I first arrived the plan was that I was going to go on a 24-hour house boat trip, but decided to take a 1-hour ferry journey to a backwater village and stay in a homestay instead. I already done a canoe trip from Kollam in the backwaters and felt I didn't want to spend 24-hour on a boat. I am so glad I made this decision because I had a wonderful time at this homestay. We, that is an English couple I met on the ferry who were going to the same place as me. We arrived with the ferry to a village called Chennamkary and had a 5 minute walk along the river to Green Palm Homestay where Thomas and Phillip the owners greeted us, we were served some homemade ginger cordial which tasted amazing. There are no cars in this village as it is on an island so it was so peaceful. There were about 12 guests while I stayed here and we were served this wonderful lunch soon after I arrived in the owners kitchen, very nice to have some tasty home cooked food as sometimes I am getting fed up with restaurant food. Later in the afternoon Thomas took us all on a 3-hour village tour giving us a lot of interesting information about life in this village and how it is all changing at the moment, he thinks he will be the last farmer in his family as his younger brother and children don't want to do farming. The education is much better now and the younger generation want to go to bigger cities or abroad to earn more money. In fact one of the major incomes in Kerala are from money earned abroad and sent home to the families. We were taken back to the house in a canoe in time for dinner; water buffalo curry with Paratha, it was hard not to eat too much of it, so fresh and such a wonderful taste.
KUMILY- Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary
I left the following morning to Kumily and had company with the English couple I met on the ferry the day before, it is always nice to have company when traveling on local transport. Thomas took us across the river in his canoe and made sure we got on the right bus to Kumily, he and Phillip were fantastic hosts. The journey to Kumily was a hair raising experience a very fast driving coach up through bendy hilly roads, with a lot of tooting and noisy breaks screeching. As we ascended up the hills the climate and scenery changed dramatically, there were a lot of tea plantations, beautiful flowering plants and it became much cooler, which in a way was nice as it had been so humid in Alleppey. Kumily is a very relaxing place where I will stay for a few days.
One night I went to a cooking class learning to cook traditional Keralan food, I enjoyed this so much. We did 3 vegetable curries, marinade for the chicken that then was put on a BBQ, marinade for some local fresh water fish and Parathas. The cooking class took place in the kitchen of an Indian family and everyone joined in preparing and cooking a wonderful meal that we all enjoyed.
I have also been on a tour to a tea factory and a spice and Ayurveda herb plantation. Kumily smells of Cardamon wherever you go as they are growing a lot of Cardamon here, it is such a lovely smell.
Today I have been on a full day walking trek in Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, it was amazing scenery and we were so lucky as we saw bison, black monkeys, deer, and best of all wild elephants including a little baby elephant, it was so amazing. Tomorrow I am off to Munnar which is a bit higher in the hills and where a lot of tea is grown, the scenery is suppose to be amazing.
MUNNAR
I arrived in Munnar after a beautiful journey up through tea plantation hills and some of the views were wonderful. When I arrived, there was a Hindu festival on and there were a lot of people and music playing from the temple the whole day until late at night. I had an amazing meal served on banana leaves in this family restaurant full of Indian families. There were no cutlery, so I just had to tuck in with my fingers, it was a different experience, I had to share a table with an Indian couple that couldn't stop looking at me, but they did a lot of smiling at me. I am so used to this looking, smiling and laughing at me by now that it feels Ok and I am just accepting the fact that this is what they do. I had a wonderful walk up among the tea planations and bumped into some women who was working, picking tea leaves. I took some pictures of them which they found so exciting, I don't know how many pictures I was asked to take and then they wanted to write down their address so that I could send some pictures to them. They were so nice and I can't describe the excitement among them because of the pictures I took of them and then showed them on my camera. I left the day after and continued my journey to Kochi.
KOCHI
I have been staying in Fort Cochin, which is one of the islands that is part of Kochi and I love this place. It is so laid back, a bit like a large village. I am staying in yet another home stay, I have come to realise how nice it is to stay in a family home, rather than little hotel rooms, it feels much more personal. The family I am staying with are lovely and so friendly, every time I come back to the house they come out and talk to me. One day I borrowed their bicycle and cycled around Fort Cochin, which was a great way of seeing this place. I cycled down to the harbour to see all the Chinese fishing nets and all the fish stalls where they were selling fish, I then continued to Jew Town, there were a lot of little shops selling antiques. The synagogue was a wonderful place to spend some time at, it had a beautiful tiled floor where each tile have been hand painted, in the ceiling a lot of different coloured glass candle holders were hung. The window shutters opening up towards a rustic looking courtyard with the sun shining on a yellow, earthern coloured stone wall where green lush plants were growing, it all felt so peaceful and I found myself just standing in this place staring out of the window for quite some time.
One evening I went to the Kerala Kathakali Centre to watch a performance of Kathakali, this is an Keralan art form where drumms and singers play as the actors use facial expressions, and mundras (hand gestures) to perform the story, which often is about righteousness and evil, frailty and courage, poverty and prosperity and war and peace. It was a very interesting evening starting with the opportunity to watch them do their make-up before the performance started.
When I was in Kumily I met a couple who told me about an orphanage in Fort Cochin that they had visited. So I found out about this and went there to see if I could spend some time with the children, it was so sad to see all these severley disabled children that had been left here because their parents didn't want them, or could not look after them. I spent a few hours here just to spend some time with these children and donated some money, it was a heartbreaking experience but at the same time it felt good to give something, even if it was to such a small proportion of the population. The amount of people that are begging and live in real poverty is so disturbing, for me it has been especially hard when I have seen children begging, people who can't walk and are crawling on the streets because there are no wheelchairs, and people with all sorts of other disabilities. It has made me think a lot, and it feels a bit absurd with all the wealthy people around dressed in expensive clothes and often obsessed about having so much of everything and yet there is no support for so many people in need.
Well, I am leaving this chaotic and fascinating country tonight to fly to Singapore. Part of me feel a bit sad, there are still so many places I would like to have seen but at the same time I think I am ready to leave, it has at times been exhausting traveling around in this country. The poverty has been one of the hardest to deal with. There has also been a lot of cultural differences to deal with, so much is done in so many different ways to what I am used to. Interestingly I have started to recognise and understand some of the different behaviors and different customs, which makes it easier and I certainly don't feel so exposed when they look and laugh. Instead I just smile back, I think it is easier if things are taken with a bit of humour. I have met a lot of really nice and interesting people, the children are gorgeous with their big brown eyes, long eye lashes and beautiful smiles. I love the way the women dress in their colourful saris, the men in their lungis, the food has been amazing and there is such a huge contrast to the western world, but I suppose that is what has made my time in India so amazing and eventful.
