Kerala sure is God's own country

I am a Bangalore boy, my parents are from Kerala. That means I inherit the best of both. An urban culture and the traditions from one of the most beautiful states in India. I have to admit that until now I have heard of many mates of mine who have been to the best places in Kerala more than I have. Many of them from Ireland , tell me about how good an experience they have had in Kerala. A place which is my native. I had to hang my head down in shame. A visit to the best places in Kerala appeared on my things to do list.

My best mate from Ireland and his newly wed wife had plans for Honeymoon, so I tossed the idea why not they visit the places they want to and come to Kerala. There my family and I can play the hosts and be the tourists ourselves.  The plans was put into play, my visit to India was rejigged to accommodate this plans. The train tickets were booked from Kasargod to Cochin and the return flights from Kochi to Bangalore was booked two months advance.

End of December, Flew to India to meet my seven month old daughter. Super excited! The weather in Kerala was at its best. A very enjoyable twenty to twenty eight degrees. No rains and just the right amount of Sun. two weeks visiting relatives flew by and the time came for the Kerala trip. 

We took the train to Cochin, which is the financial hub of Kerala. The train journey itself was very exciting because we were on the waiting list of the seat we reserved and we finally did not get it.  

We had to board the general compartment which was jam packed, found ourselves some seats and stuck to it till we reached our destination six hours later.  The views of Kerala from the windows did keep me enthralled. We got to the hotel which was just fifteen minutes taxi from the train station. We all rested and my little one took a good nap. Later in the evening, my parents, my wife, my daughter and myself headed out to check out what the city is like. There was lot of construction work going on and soon we were disinterested in exploring more. Did some generally shopping and headed back to Hotel. i was eagerly awaiting for my friend and his wife from Ireland to arrive. I sure was very glad to meet them at the hotel. Made plans for the next day sorted out the taxi for the next four days and we were all set. 

We were heading to Allepey the next day. It’s the Venice of the east. The back waters which has been the rice bowl of the rice and off late the tourist hot spot. We had rented out a house boat for twenty four hours. We were extremely lucky to have found a taxi driver who knew the whole place like the back of his hand. No asking directions, No checking out the map, No Sat nav. The pick-up point for the House boat was some kind of garage to fix boats. Did not make a good first impression, but once we stepped in through three other boats to get to the boat that was assigned to us, it was a big relief. The boat was spick and span, very comfortable three bedrooms with ensuite. There was a dining area. The deck of the boat is where we all spent most of the time absorbing the gorgeous views of the unforgettable scenery that went by. For less than €500, we had a house boat with air conditioned bedroom for each couple, inclusive of all food and the priceless location. An absolute bargain!

The boat cruised ever so gentle that we settled in and relaxed. The food served was extremely delicious. It felt like a well-cooked homemade meal. We had three crew members. Once to navigate the boat, a chef and a house (boat) keeper. We had a stopover at a local fisher man who had some super fresh catch from the backwaters. Most of them were still alive. We hopped over to the thin shoreline and bought some large prawns for less than a tenner. The chef made some fine curry out of it that everyone enjoyed. I was the only vegetarian on board who was enjoying the vegetarian dishes. 

Looking at how the locals went about their daily routine, like going to school, doing business or getting to work and back was fascinating. Children took to water like how the ducks would be at home in water. Women washing up laundry and at the other shore line women divers were diving to the bottom to pick up molluscs. It looked like every house had their own boat. It’s like how we city clickers having a car at home. We gently eased into the night. Mosquito would have been a serious menace but the crew did such a good work or putting up mosquito net all over the boat that we never had any bites. The dusk presented me with some good opportunities to capture the sunset over this beautiful landscape. Paddy fields and stream all over this place with little and large boats going about left and right. 

The following day we woke up to enjoy a great breakfast, both continental and Indian cuisine. What engaged me and my friend was the skill of a tiny little master of this watery world. The kingfisher! There were many hundreds of them, but well-spaced out on the wires and the branches. All they did was look straight down, more than forty feet down into the water below. With the patience of a saint. Suddenly, it would within the blink of an eye drop like a stone with wings closing just before entering water and out it flew with a catch! We were utterly impressed with what this little birdy was doing. Its perseverance, its eye sight, its reflex, its accuracy simply astounding. 

Our Taxi driver was there to greet us at the drop off point, we showed our appreciation to the crew and left the boat contented.  

The next stop was the Preiyar nature reserve, in the district of Idduki. The district that has one of the densest tropical forest of south India. The Preiyar reserve has several tigers and other wild creatures.

We were staying at Cardomom County. It was definitely a very upmarket place but the hospitality and the ambience was worth the price. Top notch! For the evening, the plan was to witness the traditional dance and martial arts of Kerala. All happening within a ten minute walk from the resort. "kathakali" A traditional art form means katha-Story, kali- Dance.

Essentially, its means dancing the story. it was for two hours and the first hours was with introductions to the various gestures, postures and expressions that is involved. The proof of this was in the pudding, the artist pulled up a seven year old from the crowd and just with these expressions and gestures was able to convey, complicated messages to this kid. Not for a brief few minutes, but for a fair bit of half hour. It just went to show how communicative this dance was. The full on Dance was performed which did leave me impressed , but at times lost as well since I could not understand all the gestures. 

The next show at the nearby venue was the martial art, "kallari-paiyattu" . Eight very skilled young men showed off their skills with swords, shields, spears, knives and sticks. Even if each move was planned, the speed at which it was executed was astounding. Even for our eyes it was hard to trace the speed at which this sword or stick moved through the air, forget dodging them. I would say, a slight mistake or lack of attention would cost dearly. There were several occasions where we jumped out of our seats. The crowd was definitely wooed by their performance. I was scared a couple of times because, if the stick of sword slipped out their hands, definitely it would have been a disaster. Given what the guys had to show for, with their experience, they would not have gotten it wrong. 

We retired for the night and the following day itinerary was to explore the nature reserve and some local attractions. The gates of the reserve shut down at five and opened the following day at seven. We were one amongst several others cars queueing up to enter. Looked like we were unfortunate on the particular day, since the tourists were out in several hundreds and we could not get a ticket for the boat ride or the safari. Since that flopped, we had plan B, that is to visit the tea estate. The whole district has several thousand acres of tea estates. The geography was particularly suited for tea. We asked out Taxi driver to take us to one such plantations and I could not have guessed ever, where we would end up. It’s called "Connemara" tea estate.

Yes!! Exactly the same spelling. Amused as we were, the started and it sure did have a Paddy connection. My Friend and I were looking at each other amused. Apparently in the early nineteen hundreds an Irish Engineer came over and set up this factory. It reminded him of Connemara. We, soon were enlightened with all Tea facts. First that tea is not a short shrub. It's a tree which is constantly trimmed to keep its tea leaves accessible. It’s still a very manual process where the leaves are hand-picked. Generally it’s the women folk who do this and the men get to most physical work of moving the leaves to the pickup trucks. I spoke to a couple of the women workers and they were seemed to be happy with their work. What they earn for eight days of work picking tea leaves is close to what one would pay for a cup of tea at Starbucks. It does not seem to be fair at all. The tea tree actually does flower. Green tea and the normal tea is from the same tea leaves. There are only three species of tea and all the different flavours we get at the shelves are a mix of these same tea leaves with something else. We got to see the inside of the factory and the various stages of processing. Quite fascinating, to get to see what the humble tea leaves go through to make it to my cup of tea twice a day. When asked the question, "does the tea from Connemara tea estate get to see the land where Connemara is?” He replied, "might be, packaged as Barry's tea”. That's global commerce for you. We left the place after sampling the tea.

I was not impressed and from the look on other faces. I can say they were not either. 

Spent the evening, shopping for some clothes and local sweets. Took it nice and easy at the resort. My friend and his wife enjoyed the good herbal massage offered at the resort. For the entertainment of the guests there was a dance performance arranged by the management. It was called "Barathanatyam" An ancient Indian dance form. It was performed by a male and a female artist. Quite impressive. The dance ended with the female artist performing dance while standing on the edges of a plate with a jar full of water placed on the head. Not once did she spill a drop of slip of the edge of the plate. Truly skilled. The guests were very impressed.

The following morning, it was time to head back home. It was a long five hour drive to the Airport and we had to start really early. As early as half five. My Parents and we three had to fly to Bengaluru, My friend and his wife had to fly to Ahmedabad, in Gujarat. We were really very grateful to Sumesh our taxi driver, who did a splendid job in getting us to places, in time and even making arrangements for us at different venues. We boarded our respective planes while the beautiful memories of this sweet little trip kept replaying in my head over and over again.