It was eerily quiet as we took the taxi across the empty streets of Calcutta on what was our last morning in the great city, we had awoken very early that day, not through choice you understand but because we had a plane to catch and even on an internal flight these days one must be there 7 hours in advance of the plane taking off so that the authorities can weed out the terrorists and deal with the complications of reading a ticket, checking a passport and making sure peoples bags are not stuffed with illegal things. We satisfied all the necessary criteria in approximately 12 minutes which left us several hours to get some breakfast, peruse the ‘vast’ array of shops and boutiques that littered the domestic airport departure lounge in Calcutta, so another 9 minutes passed and we settled in to wait for our plane. Our days traveling would first take us the 2 hours back to Mumbai with a 4 hour stop before the final 2 hour trip down to Cochin (or kochi, Cochi, or whatever its currently called).
The first part went swimmingly, flight arrival was on time, and Mumbai airport had plenty more to occupy our time that Calcutta, i.e. a bar. We positioned ourselves so we could see a departure board and got a couple of beers and some free wifi and waited…. And waited… the board showed nothing, the flight was scheduled but no gate, no call to board nothing. About 10 minutes to flight time we got a bit worried and were thinking about leaving our perch to check on the progress when a harassed looking Air Asia lady rushed up to us to enquire if we were the 2 idiots that were holding up proceedings and would we kindly get our arses on the plane asap or it would be leaving with 2 passengers missing!! We ran, yes ran to the desired gate, got on the by now private bus which screeched across the airport to our waiting plane. The shame of walking up the aisle as the engines are kicking in and the doors are being closed, with each passengers thinking, oh its your fault is it, was something I did not enjoy and hope never to do again… apparently we were looking at the wrong board?
So? Cochin, the first thing that struck me about the place as we drove from the airport was how utterly different it looked from the north of India which we had now become accustomed, the desert plains were replaced with lush green forests of palm trees and the raw heat of the north was tempered with a cooler breezier climate. It was about a 45 minute drive into Ernaukalem (where we had elected to stay) which is the sister town to the more expensive (kind of) island of Fort Cochin which is the main area for ‘touristy’ thangs. Anyhoo we settled into a great hotel called bijus and went out for a bite to eat and a look around before the proper exploring could be done the next day.
It was a 15 minute ferry ride to fort cochin, we had decided to do a walking tour of the place after we found a free map in the hotel reception, so off the ferry and immediately we took a wrong turn (at this point I will blame Grace who, as a woman, is biologically programmed to be unable to read a map!), after figuring this out and realizing we were completely the other side of the island our walking tour had now had some extra sights to see. A smelly canal containing all manner of rubbish including a bloated dead chicken, several men weeing randomly in the street, and many many sets of pants drying in the sun… lovely. We got back on track after I had deciphered the map and used (not for the first time) the ace compass on the iphone, and found some truly wonderful things.
The most famous ‘postcard’ image of Cochin is always the Chinese fishing nets, and although utterly marvelous they were not in my opinion the best thing about the place. The whole town was so alien to the rest of India that I had known that it exuded a charm that is hard to describe, firstly its the ‘Christian-ness’ of the place that strikes you, there are churches, nunneries and images of jebus all about the place. This coupled with the architectural influences of Portugal and the dutch east India company from way back when and you have an almost European feel to the place. Most delightful. There is also a ‘jew street’ with a synagogue and plenty of antique shops. Overall it was a great place to just amble through and enjoy. Oh also a great place to eat but I’ll get onto that in a bit.
The next day we were up bright and early as we were going on a backwaters cruise which would last the whole day. We started off in a taxi mini minibus, then a slightly bigger minibus before getting into very small boats - 4 people in each, single file and a man stood on the back with a big pole (think Venice). These boats took us through the very narrow rivers and streams of the kerralan backwater system, taking in all the nature and wildlife, it was brilliant, we saw beautiful birds, water snakes, and all manner of insect and plant life. After stopping at one ladies house for a cup of tea and a biscuit, we stopped at a house where a woman was demonstrating the art of weaving rope from the hair on coconut husks; fascinating.
The little boats then transferred us to a bigger boat, this is so that we could have a spot of lunch – traditional kerralan curry using vegetables that I have no idea of what they were, delicious though all the same. We then had a lazy old cruise around the bigger parts of the river for a few hours, stopping at an island where only a few families of people live pretty much self sufficiently. Our guide took us to one garden where he explained what all the plants were and what they were used for, I’m ashamed to say that I was useless at identifying any of them and their uses. It was amazing though, they used their own garden plants for everything from shampoo and conditioner, to diabetes medicine, toothpaste, insect repellent, detergents, and then there are all the ones that are used in cookery. If I was ever lost in the wilderness I am embarrassed to say I would be useless and would probably die within 12 hours! The worst one for me was seeing a pineapple growing… all these years I thought they grew on trees – what a tool! We then got the boat back to the mainland and the minibus back home to our hotel. After an earlyish dinner we went for another walk before ending the day sat by the sea eating cake from a nice bakery. Kerrala was brill!
After another day which was much like first in Cochin (lots of walking, exploring and eating of lush food), we were headed south on the train to a place called Varkala. We arrived after dark as the train took 8 or so hours to get there, this had a couple of disadvantages; 1 taxis and rickshaws charge more, and 2, we had absolutely no idea where we were as it was pitch dark in varkala (it’s a very very small seaside place with no street lights). The hotel we had selected from the book was unfortunately closed for the ‘off’ season, not a good start we thought, the taxi driver suggested one for us but that is never a good idea in India so we randomly picked another and we got lucky – very lucky infact. Not only was this place cheap it was spotless, and the room was massive with a lovely balcony. We then struck gold again by the fact that the owners ‘brother’ owned a cliff top restaurant and gave us a 10% discount - I should explain here that varkala is situated on a clifftop which overlooks a cresent half mile stretch of gorgeous beach in a natural amphitheatre. Lovely. Anyway a lovely meal was taken along with a few beers before heading to bed with the sound of the waves I had yet to see splashing about my mind.
The next morning we could explore properly, we actually went to the same restaurant for breakfast (as we knew where it was) and then set out to see what was what. We walked along the cliff top for about a hundred yards, passed a few shops selling hippy trousers t-shirts, nik-naks and other such touristy things and then we got our first glimpse of the beach, it was beautiful all that the books had promised and more.
The next few days all kind of blended in with each other, bit of relaxing on the beach and in the clifftop bars and eateries, grace had a face massage and some sort of girly cleansing thing, I got sunburnt and looked like an idiot, I swam in the warm sea and played in the massive surfy type waves (when I say massive they were probably quite small by surfer standards but what the hey), we read about 3 books each and generally had a rare old time. It was wonderfully relaxing.
The other thing I should mention is the food. In kerrala you eat well! Firstly the fish was to die for, freshly caught that day and laid out on ice for you to pick from. I was particularly taken with the monster prawns (served jalfrezi style was my fave) and a delicious fish called a grouper that I had simply grilled with lemon and ‘erbs. Grace too ate well as there is plenty of veggie choice in india anyway, and down here it had the kerralan style added, sweet in both senses of the word. We also ate Mexican food, pizza and full fry ups for breakfast – sometimes it good to get a bit touristy!
Oh one more thing… our last night in varkala was funny as, we had promised our hotel owner that we would attend a party that he and his brother were hosting to celebrate the end of another season (why the season was ending I’ll never know, the weather was ace and there was plenty to do, why shut up shop when it was so lovely?) so after few beers to warm up at some bar or other we decided to stop in. long story short, I ended up dj-ing from my ipod and grace ended up dancing with the guys entire family, lots of drink was taken and all of it free –a great night had by all!
Sadly though we had to leave and it was with a slightly heavy heart that we departed to our next destination which was mysore (via kannaur) the next day, still lots more to see and do in south India so it didn’t take long to perk up!
