India - Autumn 1998 (del 4)

3 Dec

Early, as soon as the check post at Annapaddy on the Kerala side opened we signed out of the national park, and drove back to Top Slip in Tamil Nadu, and then descended from Annamalai. We encircled the Annamalai area with beautiful views of the hills and then re-entered Kerala; it was immediately obvious that Kerala was richer, and tidier than Tamil Nadu. Along the way we stopped to see tapioca being harvested, and then to look at a rubber plantation. The Indian rubber industry is threatened by synthetic materials, but a large area of Kerala is used to grow rubber. Cups are placed around each tree and the sap runs slowly into them, every morning the rubber is collected and sent for processing.

Stopped for lunch just beyond Trissur, for the first "Kerala meal". It differed from Tamil Nadu meals in that the rice was dark raw rice, and it was accompanied by a fish curry. The National Highway into Cochin was very busy, and in some places was actually a four-lane highway, well signed, and with lane markings (which naturally no-one bothered to follow) and a trail of accidents all the way into Cochin. We arrived in Cochin around 2.30 pm and stayed in the Bharat Tourist Home, a very elegant hotel with shops, two restaurants, an exhibition hall and conference rooms, very good value for around 500 Rs.

However, the reception was very slow, and took twenty minutes to change 100 dollars. They even rang up Thomas Cook, perhaps to enquire what a 50 dollar note looked like, they appeared never to have seen one before.

The hotel was in the modern town of Ernakulam, a pleasant 15 minute walk through a park along the edge of the water to the ferry station. The 20 minute boat trip to Cochin Island cost 1.80 Rs and rounded Willingdon Island before docking at Fort Cochin, once off the boat it was difficult to think that I was in a large city, the houses were low and surrounded by palm trees and canals criss-crossed the area. Many of the people in this part of town were muslims with mosques, schools, and social clubs. Notably the women in this area were not shy, and were more than happy to talk to strangers and be photographed. At sunset I took the ferry back, and walked back making a diversion along MG Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road, there is one in every Indian city) to look at the commercial center.

Dinner in the hotels North Indian restaurant, very tasty vegetable dishes concluded with a banana split.

4 Dec

Breakfast at Indian Coffee House, although Bo and I got there about 6.45 and discovered that they didn't open till 7.30. So we walked around on a very quiet MG Road. It's surprising that India comes to life so late. When we did find breakfast, it was ok, different sauces for the dosas.

Meyappan rented a boat for us, and we sailed first to Matancherri; the Dutch Palace was not open today, so we visited the synagogue, which is situated on Jew street first. Jews have been in Cochin, supposedly since the sixth century, and the present synagogue was built in 1568. The building is decorated with willow-pattern tiles from China, and with Belgian lanterns. There are however only about 70 members of the congregation, although they hold services on Friday evenings, and Saturdays.

In the same area is the spice market, it wasn't very lively at the moment, although I went into one of the warehouses, some workmen were shovelling a huge pile of black peppercorns into sacks, and we could see piles of ginger and turmeric. On impulse I bought a couple of summer shirts for about 100 Rs each.

Then we continued on the boat round to Fort Cochin, first we walked to the St Francis Church, built by the Portuguese explorer Albuquerque in 1510. Fort Cochin is believed to be the oldest European settlement in India, and first saw the Portuguese flag in 1500. Vasco da Gama was first here in 1502, and returned to die in 1524. He was buried here, but his remains were taken to Lisbon in 1538. There is still a memorial and gravestone to him in St Francis Church, the only other noteworthy object is the punkahs which are still in place, they could be operated by ropes from outside.
The church is now part of the Church of South India, although it has been Dutch Reformed and Anglican as well as Portuguese over the years.

Back to the waterfront again and we admired the row of Chinese fishing nets, they didn't appear to be catching much every time they hauled them in, but the stalls still had plenty to sell, and the adjacent food-stalls were frying away. But we didn't eat there, but in the more salubrious surroundings of Bolghatty Island, where at a table on the edge of the water, we ate fish and chips and beer and pineapple.

I returned to Fort Cochin, took a lime soda at the Seagull Hotel, and back to the hotel in time to take a taxi to the "Cochin Cultural Centre" for a Kathakali performance. We could see the artists making-up, and were told a little about the history and characteristics of Kathakali. Several of the stylised gestures were demonstrated, depicting emotions or objects. Finally a 40 minute extract was danced, showing a human woman who fell in love with a princely god, but misbehaved, and was punished by said prince.
After the performance dinner in a Chinese restaurant. Not bad and a change from the South Indian cuisine.

5 Dec	We left Cochin early in the morning after a "Kerala Breakfast" at the hotel. This was an all-you-can-eat spread of local breads, vegetable-stew, peas, lentils, and filled me up for the day. Then our bus took us to Aleppuzha (Aleppey) where we transferred to a boat for the three-hour trip on the Backwaters to Coconut Palms in Thottapally. These backwaters were as idyllic as I had heard, sometimes the channel was so narrow you could reach out and touch the palm fronds, and sometimes we crossed fairly large lakes. There were plenty of other craft, dugout canoes crossing from one side to another, regular ferry lines, and other tourist boats. Moored in some places were luxury boats for rich tourists, said to cost USD 400 per night. The population density was high all the way, Kerala is the most densely populated state in India with more than 25 million people living in 38,800 km² (somewhat smaller than Switzerland), and the coastal strip is almost entirely built up, although there is so much greenery that it is difficult to see that. At about 1 pm we disembarked and walked about a kilometre to Coconut Palms; just as we arrived we heard drums and trumpets, and saw a procession including elephants and musicians from the local temple going around the village as part of a festival. Coconut Palms is a wooden Kerala house with rooms arranged around a courtyard, about 15 people can be accommodated, so our group almost filled it up. The house is new, and the rooms are comfortable with mattresses on the floor, and shower and toilet behind. Electricity is, as everywhere in India very variable, but there are plenty of oil lights and candles so it doesn't matter here. After lunch we went down to the water. The beach is grey sand, and the waves were strong so it wasn't so good for swimming.
6 Dec	Around dawn most of us wanted to make a trip to a snake temple and the "Mother"s ashram, so we took our bus and just past Haripad we turned off and followed the throng of pilgrims and other visitors to the snake temple. The snake like several other animals is holy to Hindus, and here there were many representations of snakes and snake gods (no live snakes) but it was memorable more for the intensity of worship here. This was clearly a living temple, and people were crowding to approach the various priests to receive blessing, and to perform their pujas around the various images. Reluctantly we returned to the bus and continued southwards on the road to Quilon (now known as Kollam). After about 40 kilometres we turned off in a small but busy market town called Kayamkulam, and wound our way along some tranquil lanes finally stopping at a dead end in a tiny village called Vallickavu. "There is the ashram" said Meyappan pointing across a backwater. So we all piled into a narrow canoe-like ferry and poled off across together with some market visitors and their livestock. Five minutes and we were on the other bank, and as usual in Kerala, a thick slice of jungle prevented us immediately seeing the ashram but less than a hundred metres and we were confronted with a large and not very beautiful complex apparently still being built, this was the Mata Amritanandamayimath Ashram at Amritapuri. Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known as the Amma (Mother) was born on this spot 45 years ago and more than 25 years ago she devoted her life to benefit suffering humanity. She has built up an "empire" of nearly 300 ashrams throughout the world, and has made several world tours to raise money and create publicity for her activities. (She was in Stockholm some years ago and I was present at one appearance, although I didn't realise until I got to Amritapuri that she was one and the same "Mother"). The activities of the ashrams consist of building homes for poor people, building and staffing hospitals and clinics, providing counselling, and in general trying to improve the lot of poor people. Although basically hindu, religion as such isn't very important to "Mother" or to most of the inhabitants of the ashrams. One story about the "Mother" is that when the 1993 Parliament of World Religions was held in Chicago, she was not welcome by the leaders, however asked to speak, she apparently made such an impression on the participants that she was given a standing ovation. Most of these facts were given us by one of her disciples, a 40 year old timberman from Dalarna in Sweden, who had (also) heard her in Stockholm, and almost immediately given up his life in the forests of Dalarna to work in the jungles of Kerala. In fact nearly half of the inhabitants of the Amritapuri ashram are from the west, from USA and Great Britain, Holland, France and Sweden, even some from Japan. Incidentally the ashram has an e-mail address, so send an e-mail to Amritapuri ashram if you want more information. We returned to Coconut Palms buying tiger prawns (800 Rs per kg) on the way, I also made a phone call home and discovered it was bitterly cold and plenty of snow in Sweden. Villages in Kerala don't have a form we can recognise with a centre, the houses and shops and services are spread out along both roads and rivers, there is a continuous stream of people and vehicles on boats and bicycles. After lunch I walked northwards through Thottapally to the junction with the NH47 which is the main north-south highway in Kerala following the coast. Along the way were general stores selling just about everything necessary to life, rice and pulses, spices and kerosene, cloth and headwear, sweets and Coca Cola. There were also government shops selling a certain ration of basic goods like rice, at lower prices. Tailors, barbers, dentists, had set up shop along the roads, you could see other cottage industries like rope-making (from coconut fibre), toddy shops selling fermented coconut juice. This is "tapped" early in the morning when it has a very fresh taste and low alcohol content. By midday it has lost some freshness but is somewhat stronger. By evening it tastes terrible, but packs quite a punch. In the evening a young dancer came out to Coconut Palms to give us a performance of Kerala dancing. This wasn't quite Kathakali which is a classical form of dance, but a more rustic variant called Ottanthullal. I must say that I couldn't see the difference, but it was a magical performance under the stars in the tropical night with fireflies darting around, and oil lamps sputtering around the stage.
7 Dec	At about six we walked down to the landing stage, and took three canoes for a leisurely tour through the backwaters. People were brushing their teeth in the waters, some of the early workers had started their spinning wheels and were spinning coconut rope. Others were dredging the backwaters, manually, diving into the water, and returning with a bucket of silt. All along the vegetation was dense and lush, coconuts and pineapples were growing, and at one house we stopped and were offered coconuts. After breakfast we went out into the ocean in a slightly larger canoe to try our luck at fishing. The waves were high close to shore but it was calm enough a kilometre out. We didn't catch very much though, half a dozen small shrimps. After lunch I rented a cycle and cycled southwards along the coast. I wanted to buy some spices, and Meyappan said there was a good shop 1 1/2 km southwards. Well, there were plenty of shops, and the goods they had for sale didn't appear to vary much. I bought some coriander (about 65 Rs/kg) and some turmeric (about (40 Rs/kg) and some masala powder (about 80 Rs/kg) and continued towarda Thrikunnapuram. I thought I would come out on the National Highway, but couldn't see it. Just beyond Thrikunnapuram everyone pointed, and said "elephant", and sure enough there were two elephants peacefully standing in a pool, surrounded by a large crowd. I didn't think that elephants were so unusual in Kerala, and it appeared that the people thought these elephants were crazy, and were waiting for them to run amok. I needed some liquid by this stage so I stopped in the village of Thrikunnapuram again for some mango juice. Returning towards Thotappally, I tried to find a track that was cyclable, and went right beside the ocean, and stumbled immediately on a tiny fishing village. I was led like a trophy to a hut where the family gave me a coconut to drink, and then to eat, after a photo session they thought I should stay the night.

8 Dec

We took the train from Haripad to Trivandrum. We travelled air-conditioned class this time, it didn't feel like India. It was cool, and very difficult to see out. The train was about half an hour late coming to Haripad, and then at Trivandrum just before the station it stood for half an hour too. We took a taxi to the Residency Towers, where we had lunch, a 70 Rs Kerala "meals" which was very good, complete with an excellent fish curry.

Walk down MG Road and now it was time to do a little shopping, so I looked in at the crafts shops and spice shops and the shirt shops. I had bought some sandalwood articles and incense in Mysore, I just bought some small wooden souvenirs here. But I found a very well-stocked spice and coffee shop, popular with the locals so it should be reliable. I bought some cardamoms (800 Rs per kilo) and pepper (300 Rs per kilo), some sambar powder, and their own masala blend (160 Rs per kilo) , as well as coriander and turmeric. These latter are around 100 Rs per kilo. I also bought some more shirts, I couldn't find any of the silk shirts I like (they are Thai I think) but I bought some in Indian cotton (160 Rs each).

At the end of MG Road is the Fort and the Padmanabhaswami Temple (its full name is the Sri Ananthapadmanabhaswamy Temple from which Tiruv Anantha Puram takes its name meaning "the abode of the sacred snake Anantha on which Lord Vishnu reclines"). The temple itself restricts entry to Hindus, and only those properly clad, no coloured dhotis are allowed.

Dinner upstairs in a traditional Kerala family restaurant

9 Dec

We had to see Kovalam Beach, one of the few places in India favoured by charter tourism. We walked down MG Road to the bus stand, with breakfast on the way. The bus stop for the Kovalam busses is the only one with English text on it, there is even a timetable, so we probably took the 8.45 bus to Kovalam Beach and on the way Bo told us how much it had grown over the last few years. Even in Kerala there are seats reserved for women on the busses.

We walked along the beach to the other end, and saw the traditional fishing methods, where teams of men stand at each end of a very long net, some hundred metres from each other and slowly pull it in chanting all the while. We saw the results of two separate groups, the first groups catch was meagre, a lot of small fish and quite a lot of jelly, but the second group had apparently come into a school of a bigger fish, tuna or barracuda, and were much happier with their result. There was also a very thriving mussel industry, with a special type of wooden canoe pulling these in. The water was rough, high breakers, making swimming very difficult. It was cloudy today, but we till managed to burn ourselves after an hour or two on the beach.

At about 11 a.m. I returned with Märta, there was no bus at the stand so we negotiated a rickshaw for 50 Rs to town, although we ended up at 70 Rs to take us all the way up MG Road.

After lunch it started to rain, so it was more bazaars and markets, more MG Road, and developed photos between showers. One-hour developing is available in most towns, and the quality is excellent. It costs about 25 Rs for developing plus 5 Rs a picture. So a 36-exposure film is around 200 Rs. And this always includes an album. Film cost 60-80 Rs for a Konica (packaged in India) 36-exposure 100 ASA film.

Just before dusk with a heavy shower starting I noticed the Kaudiyar Palace, home of the rulers of Travancore behind the Padmanabhaswami Temple, and went in for a look around. However only guided tours were allowed, and after a certain amount of hanging about a tour was organised consisting of a Swiss girl and me, and three Indian ladies who were probably a family group. Under the eagle eye of a guide we were taken through the rooms decorated in 'typical Kerala style', typical if you were a maharajah I suppose. Part of the palace was taken over by a film team, which appeared to interest the Indian ladies more than the palace. They later explained that one of the actors was the current heartthrob of Malayalam films.

As it was now our last night Meyappan had arranged a special dinner in the hotel with a mixture of Indian and western delicacies. He made a fairly long speech and presented us all with a copy of "The Essentials of Hinduism" in to which he had pasted a picture of each of us taken at some point of the tour. I was lazily reclining under a guava tree, which is a fair summing up of the trip.

10 Dec

Everybody left Trivandrum today - but in 4 separate groups.

I was a little bit worried in case the General Strike planned for tomorrow, December 11th would affect my journey. Kerala has a Communist government and would likely be the worst affected state, so it is lucky I will be in Bombay tomorrow.

First out (around 6 am) were those going the original route via Bahrein and London (Linus and Märta, Pernilla and Kerstin). They had 13 hours to wait in Bahrein and I later learned they were lunched by Gulf Air and given a guided tour of Bahrein.

Next were Anders and Bo and Maria and Kikki who left at 11 am to take Jet Airways' flight to Madras and then Gulf Air to Bahrein where they met the first group for the continued flight to London and then Stockholm.
Slightly later and in "Aries Travel"s taxi Rachel and Britt-Inger left for the airport to catch their Indian Airlines flight to Malé in the Maldives.

So I was last and after lunch with Meyappan we took the car to the airport, arriving about 3 pm. The check-in procedures were minimal for the domestic flight, the only point to note, was that everybody had to point out their bag on the tarmac. Or it wouldn't have been loaded on the plane. The flight was nearly full but Indian Airlines (IC168) did a very good job. Decent in-flight service and exactly on-time. The plane then continued to Delhi leaving me at Bombays domestic airport, Santa Cruz at around 6.30 pm.

I then had about 10 hours before needing to check in at the International airport 4 km away at Sohar. There were several alternatives, the least appealing being a ride to Central Bombay for a very short rest, I didn't fancy leaving the airport area at all so I took the next shuttle to Sohar (despite various taxi touts assurances that the next bus was cancelled, delayed etc). And decided to camp out there, since there were all mod-cons such as comfortable chairs, restaurants, toilets.

11 Dec

As the taxi tout told me yesterday, there was no sign of a strike here, and so there were no problems checking in to Gulf Air for the flight (GF57) to Abu Dhabi, or in changing my remaining rupees for USD15,85. The plane left, exactly on time and only half full for the 3 1/2 trip. Now it was daylight so there was an excellent view of the desert landscape around the Persian Gulf, and even on the ground in Abu Dhabi it appeared as if the airport was in the middle of the desert.

The plane to London (GF5) left on time too and as it was only half-full it was a very comfortable trip. The hostesses are all English (or Australian) - it is very difficult to recruit Arab women for the job - and they appeared to enjoy being based in the Gulf. By the time we got to Heathrow it was dark and wet, the airport was crowded and SAS appeared to have problems, the flight before mine was delayed with technical problems, I think they finally took off in "my" plane, and SAS had to search for a reserve plane, which they finally found and we took off about 1 1/2 hours late. So I finally arrived at a cool (+2) but dry Arlanda at about 01.30 on Saturday morning, 4 flights and about 40 hours after leaving Trivandrum!

South India (24 Oct 1998 - 11 Dec 1998 - part 4)