The pictures for this post are located in the Kerala album on our Picasa site. They are in no particular order as to attempt to order pictures prior to uploading to Picasa is futile. I wish I knew what data Picasa used to reorder our pictures so that I could manipulate to a sequence that made sense. So, the pictures that look like mountains are from Munnar, house boats are from Kumarakom, Jessie doing flips by the pool were at the Lake Song Resort, wedding and kite flying was in Alleppey, and everything else was Kovalam on the beach.
Day 01: 24 December, 2008
Imtiaz, our driver, dropped us at BIA for our first experience at domestic flying within India. We worry too much. BIA is a great and modern airport, and it works just the same as every other airport we've every been in. Getting through security is different, especially after the Mumbai attacks, but they managed the queues quickly, and soon we were on our way. We left Bengaluru on Kingfisher Air, and even though it was only a little more than an hour flight, we were pleasantly surprised to get a hot meal on the plane. Once we landed at Kochin in Kerala, we gathered our bags (the airports in India provide FREE luggage carts, rather than charge you $3.50). Nirmal had arranged for us to be met. Our greeter was easily found, and soon we on our way to Munnar to the first hotel with our driver, Mr. Kuriakose. It was Christmas eve, and the drive was about three and half hours. We made one mistake during this phase of the journey. Nirmal asked if we wanted to stop for lunch, and having just eaten on the plane, we indicated no only to learn that restaurants are not 24/7, as we expect them to be in the US. In some cases, even room service is available only in selected hours. Needless to say, that by the time we got to dinner at the hotel, we were really hungry. Munnar is up in the mountains in tea country, and the road from coastal Kochi into the mountains is reminiscent of winding western mountain roads in the Western US of fifty years ago. There are a lot of large buses moving people about; so, rather than having to worry about getting smucked by a logging truck, as is the case in the US, you have to worry about getting smucked by these buses, which are all driven by NASCAR wanna bees. Needless to say, Mr. Kuriakose was very familiar with the road, its challenges, and got us safely to our hotel The Tea Valley Resort. We spent two nights at Tea Valley. Christmas eve they had a program of fireworks and a local drum / dance ensemble. The guy dressed up as Santa Clause was a bit different - by western standards, anyway.
Day 02:25 December, 2008
On Christmas day we did a tour of the Tea Museum in Munnar, and then took a nice hike in Eravikulam National Park to see the Nilgiris goat. After lunch and a little shopping in Munnar to acquire some munchies for those periods when room service was not available, we retired back to Tea Valley. Tea Valley is perched on a cliff at the top of a tea plantation. The view from our room was spectacular! A village down in the valley kept us in music on Christmas eve and day as the valley was a natural amphitheater. The road into Tea Valley from the highway was interesting, and you have to be from the western US to appreciate. One lane, few turnouts, dugout with loose rock, and a steep cliff to one side - almost four wheelin' quality.
Oh, yes, the food. Our hotel bookings (all of them) included breakfast and dinner. Lunch was extra. The hotels served food buffet style. The food was quite good with many dishes to select from. You haven't lived until you've had fresh naan cooked in a kiln! Jess found it a bit hard to find Jessie friendly food as she has not yet succumbed to eating Indian style. She was very happy the last resort had pizza 24/7. Again, there are specific time periods for the buffets; so, keep some munchies handy.
Day 03:26 December, 2008
Well, what goes up the mountain, must come down the mountain. Leaving the Munnar area, we spent about four hours going back down the mountain to Kumarakom to the Lake Song Resort. The drive was uneventful with the exception to the elephant ride that Allison has addressed in another post. The only comment I'll add is this: at my mostly ossified stage in life riding an elephant was a dumb idea, and the pain in certain parts of my carcass has not yet yielded to the medicinal application of Kingfisher beer. Mr. Kuriakose did a nice job of pointing out the flora as we were traveling both up and down the mountain. Tapioca, rubber plantations, cashew nut trees, cocoa trees, coffee both in the tree and drying on the ground, peppercorns both on the plant (a vine), and drying on the ground, vanilla beans, cypress trees (imported from Australia to fuel the tea plants), and many other things now forgotten.
We checked into the resort, said goodbye to Mr. Kuriakose (he would meet us in Alleppey), and proceeded to investigate the new environment. The Lake Song, named for the "song of the lake", which turned out to be a gaggle of white farm geese, is a very nice resort on the edge of Vembanad Lake. (Vembanad Lake is part of a chain of lakes known as the backwaters.) Jessie especially liked the swimming pool, the hammocks, and fishing - she actually caught a small (3 inch) fish. Several pictures of her goofing by the pool are in the Kerala album. We were interested to observe the gardeners trim the coconut palms during our visit - a lot of work. True to our quest of decompression we stayed on the resort property, choosing to not discover other attributes of the area.
Day 05: 28 December, 2008
After two nights of r-n-r, we departed Kumarakom on the Ayodhya Paradise house boat for a one night trip across the lake to Alleppey - the destination for the wedding. We boarded the house boat a bit late as the crew went to the wrong resort, but we were soon on our way. Traveling by house boat is very relaxing. The boat was staffed by three capable young Keralites, a cook, a captain, and the other guy. It was hard to figure out who played which role at any given moment. We stopped for lunch, then toured around the lake stopping later on in the afternoon for ice cream. Years ago, I don't know when, rice paddies were dredged out of Vembanad Lake. The paddies are enclosed by rock walls, which you can see in the pictures, and they are below sea level. Vembanad Lake is called the backwaters and is connected to the Indian Ocean. So, we were surprised to find an ice cream shop in the middle of the lake on the corner of a rice paddy. The real draw we found out was not the ice cream, but the monster fresh water prawns they sell you out the back door. The ice cream was Rs. 100; the prawns were Rs. 1000.
Upon leaving the ice cream shop and heading for our mooring for the night, the crew let Jess captain the boat, which was an immediate hit, and a lot of work. Jess was captian until her arms got tired of constantly correcting the wheel. We docked at a rock wall enclosing a rice paddy for the night, and the crew set about preparing dinner. The houseboats are not allowed on the lake after sundown to give the local fishermen a safe environment without fear of having their canoe overrun by a house boat.
Once the sun went down, the mosquitoes came out, and were they thick. Montana and Minnesota have nothing over hungary backwater bugs. So, we retired to the safety of our room for the night. At some point in the night, Allison woke me with the phrase "there's something in here with us". Ok, we're in Southern India, parked next to a rice paddy, what could be in there with us? Cobra? Russel Viper? Something with claws? All possibilities; so, after my imagination settled down, I started to listen to the noises she was concerned about: rats. More rats came to visit the Thornes experiences in India. To explain, they were not in the room with us; rather, they we in the space above the ceiling. Upon investigation the next day, no rodential evidentia was discovered anywhere IN the room. Needless to say, not an extremely restful night for the adults.
Day 06:29 December, 2008
After breakfast, we proceeded to Alleppey jetty for disembarkation. There is not much difference to house boat traffic and vehicular traffic. Both modalities utilize their horns, get congested, and jockey for position. Fascinating culture! We docked at 9:30, and I had been kind of curious about how we were going to link up with Mr. Kuriakose, but hey, no worries! He was at the jetty, and we were soon on our way to the Arcadia Regency hotel in Alleppey. We spent two nights in Alleppey visiting with Erica Johnson from Minneapolis, who flew in for the wedding, and Joe Fish's family at the wedding. [Joe, Erica, and Allison all worked together at Target, and Erica was part of the 2006 Italy wedding trip.] Erica was traveling with her daughter Paige, and Jessie and Paige hit it off and had a good time flying kites on the beach and goofing in the waves.
We're getting pretty comfortable with navigating around Indian cities. Jessie wanted some bangles to go with her wedding outfit; so, we struck out on a walk to do some shopping. Problem solved, we returned unscathed with bangles, a Rs. 20 watch for Jess, and two bottles of wine for the adults, who were still nursing elephant injuries and had run out of Kingfisher. Erica was staying at the Keralite Heritage Home Stay in Alleppey (they're called home stays, not bed and breakfasts), and Alice Thomas, who was operating the home stay, hooked Erica up with a theatrical performance of a Kerala tradition, the Kutiyattam, which was very interesting. When we arrived at the performance, the actor was still getting his makup applied, and another man demonstrated how to interpret the facial expressions and drum music that is the program.
Day 08 :31 December, 2008
We departed Alleppey early as we had another long drive to Kovalam and our final destination. Not soon after departing Allison got a call on her mobile. It was Alice at the home stay, and Erica had been quite ill the night before and had left some stuff behind. So, we returned to Alleppey, retrieved the abandoned belongings, and proceeded to Kovalam. This was just a long drive, with not much of interest to discuss, which is good because this post is getting wordy. We arrived at the Travencore Heritage resort late in the afternoon and got settled in. We had a wonderful cottage with a great view of the Indian Ocean. The Chowra beach was below us, and we got wonderful wave sound, which we discovered was pretty unusual as other cottages did not get such great sound. Our cottage had a great porch, and within minutes of settling in Allison announced "I am never leaving this spot, this is perfect". Each morning, we had coffee on the porch, toying with the Asian Ravens over sugar packets, and each afternoon we shared Kingfisher while Jess consumed a pizza.
The Travencore had a great pool, which Jess enjoyed. Allison had two massages, one being the now infamous "foot" massage". We spent three full days at the Travencore. Nirmal and Kuriakose had set an agenda for us, but we were just enjoying ourselves too much to leave; so, each morning I sent a message to Mr. Kuriakose that we were not coming out. We spent two days on the beach. We all enjoyed playing in the surf, and we had pretty good surf with waves in the 2-4 meter range.
The beach was a working beach. There were many fishing boats on the beach - on the order of hundreds. Some canoes, some larger, all working, all powered by paddles. The larger boats would make a large u shaped traverse into the ocean dropping several hundred meters of fish net. Both ends of the net are anchored by "tug of war" teams on the beach. Once depoyed, the team would pull the net into shore. Once the catchment area of the net approached the beach, other men would be in the surf howling and slapping the water to scare the fish further into the net. The whole process took about an hour and a half. Once the bounty was on the beach, the local market guys would come down, negotiate a price, and carry off fresh fish to the market, during which time the next boat was depoying its nets.
There was one night when the whole fleet of canoes went out to sea at sunset. I got up early enough to see them coming back into the beach by surfing their canoes on the tops of the waves. The canoes were large enough to have 3-4 persons in them; so, canoe sufring is not a trivial activity.
Day 12:04 January, 2008
Our last day in Kovalam was spent going for a quick swim, checking out, getting lunch at another beach, doing a little shopping, and returning to Bengaluru. We were happy to see Imtiaz's face as we left the BIA terminal baggage area. It's about an hour and a half drive from the airport to the house, and it was a little weird as it actually felt like we were going home. Allison and I both commented about that reality as we had separate and similar thoughts on the phenom. When we entered the house, the tabbies were happy to see us, and we did indeed know we were home.
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