Incredible India (Part 3 - The Keralan Backwaters)

We had another beautiful, but life threatening (!) drive down from the hills to a city called Kottayam. Kottayam is listed in the Lonely Planet guide as being a hub for backwater cruises to start so this is where we headed. 

We arrived late-afternoon and headed to the Ambassador hotel (again recommended by the Lonely Planet guide, despite feeling a bit like a prison camp - Thank you Lonely Planet!). Not knowing anywhere else to go and the city feeling rather intimidating after the peace and quiet of the hills, we decided to stay here anyway as it was only one night. 

After dumping our bags we went for a walk to find this 'hub of cruises' and hopefully get some information or arrange something for the morning there and then. After walking for a while, we had not seen any other tourists, any travel agents or the river itself and could not find anyone who seemed to understand the word river!! This was not going quite as planned....and it was getting dark! Just as we were starting to panic, we see what seemed like a 5 star, 'leading hotel of the world' looming in the distance (in hindsight it was probably more of a 3 star but it was the most luxurious hotel we had seen in a while!)- being the daughter of a hotelier I knew we would find a sanctuary here! We almost sprinted through the front doors much to the alarm of the security!

The manager was most helpful and kindly informed us that we were in the wrong place for backwater house boats (Really Lonely Planet!?!?) and that we would need to get a bus 10km away to Kumarakom where we would find boats. Unfortunately it was too late to travel that evening and we had already paid for the delightful Ambassador Hotel which coincidentally was only slightly less than this Hotel Arkadia which was much nicer and even had a pool.Of course Su & I then managed to find our way to the hotel bar for a few mojitos to lighten the situation. As soon as Lex leaves us we end up in totally the wrong place!! Come back Lexy!!

Surprisingly for a hotel bar in the middle of Southern India where we had still not seen another tourist, this bar would not have looked out of place as a London club and reminded me very much of good old 24!

 Is it 24, is it Jalouse? No, just the hotel bar!

You would have thought after Lonely Planet's recent run that we would have learnt our lesson, but no we went to a Thali restaurant on their recommendation. Drum roll please......the restaurant was closed!! Luckily there was an open restaurant upstairs.

Moral of the story - give Kottayam a miss and head straight to Kumarakom or Alleppey to get a backwater cruise tour! 

The next morning we headed bright & early (we couldn't leave Kottayam soon enough!) to Kumarakom by bus. All was not quite plain sailing from here - the bus dropped us off on a dusty road seemingly in the middle of nowhere!! No sign of any houseboats, rivers, tourists, or anything really! Luckily a tuk tuk driver happened to pass and coincidentally had a friend who had a houseboat. What a beautiful boat it was! Our luck was changing and we managed to bargain him down from £80-£60 for an overnight trip including all meals from Kumarakom and ending in Alleppey on this floating palace! 

The backwaters are a network of 5 large lakes, numerous canals and 38 rivers all interconnected in all more than 900km of waterway which extends almost half the length of the state of Kerala. Vembanad Kayal is the largest of theses lakes covering 200km squared, and this is where we were. 

The houseboats are local boats called Kettuvallams which were traditionally used as rice barges transporting the rice harvested alongside the backwaters. More recently, many have been converted into luxury floating cottages as above with upstairs and downstairs seating/dining areas and air conditioned luxury rooms. 

As soon as we set off, all the tensions of getting there and actually finding a boat immediately melted away and you could not help but feel completely tranquil. The lake was stunningly beautiful and so quiet we wiled the afternoon away just watching the scenery pass us by.

It was hard not to be utterly relaxed and completely contented to do nothing but watch the world go by. Such a welcome compared to the contrasting London life. We stopped on a riverbank and a feast was served for lunch!

After lunch we carried on cruising until sunset - there were so many birds to see that Susan has become quite the bird watcher (if you know Susan, you will be able to appreciate quite how funny this is!). She was almost squealing with delight every time an eagle passed overhead.

At sunset we took a walk into the paddy fields & watched the show in it's full glory surrounded by nature with not a car, building, or any wifi in the vicinity. It was wonderful! Unfortunately sunsets never look as good in pictures, the huge blazing orange ball of sun becomes this tiny orange thing - I must invest in a good camera I apologise!!

Susan has spotted a bird!

 Of course, I couldn't resist doing some yoga in such a beautiful setting!

Magical skies at dusk (above) & dawn (below)

After another huge feast for dinner and a quiet night, we woke up at 6am to see sunrise. The world was so still & serene, it is one of my resolutions to see sunrise more often (and not by still being awake!).

Unfortunately for us, the cruise was only one day and night and we had to say goodbye to complete serenity and our floating palace. 

If you are going to South India, this is an experience you cannot miss it was so, so peaceful, such a gentle pace of life which we often forget exists. Even though we were delighted with the boat and trip we had, I would recommend starting the cruise in Alleppey where there are many more boats to choose from.

We spent the day in Alleppey waiting for our overnight train up to Goa, it's a sweet town but not a huge amount to see!

Next stop Goa!

xx

Incredible India (Part 2 - Periyar National Park)

Having been gently broken into Indian life by Fort Kochi, we set off early the next day to Thekkady and Periyar National Park a 4hour drive into the hills.

There was an option to take a bus of course (a 6hour ride), but being three of us and still feeling flush at the start of the trip we decided to treat ourselves to a taxi which cost £30 total for the 4hour journey. In London you can just about get a taxi from Bayswatet to Brixton with that! 

The drive was breathtaking, partly for the beautiful climbing scenery of tea plantations and spice farms but equally because of the breakneck speed we were flying round corners and overtaking with! Sitting in the front was a real life roller coaster I had to keep closing my eyes as it was too much to watch! For a while we thought maybe the bus might have been a better idea until we saw it screeching round corners too. It was our introduction to Indian driving! 

The beautiful drive

After finally arriving in Thekkady alive (!) we found a "Wild hut" to stay at on the edge of the park with views over the park too for a bank breaking £7.50 a night for the three of us at Coffee Inn. It was a super basic wooden hut, and doesn't quite look like the pictures on the website, but it did the job! Apparently there were two huge cockroaches sharing the hut with us too but thank goodness I did not see them and wasn't told about them till a few weeks later!!

     

      Vrksasana (tree pose) overlooking Periyar National Park

The town is pretty much a one street town which lives off the tourist trade to the park. Periyar is famed for being home to 35-40  tigers, although we were not lucky enough to see one, and even locals we spoke to had never seen the elusive creature, it is still a beautiful place. 

The Park itself is 777sq km of land with 26 sq km man made lake in the middle created by the British in 1895. We got up early the next day to catch one of the first few boats and hopefully see some wildlife! 

Periyar's lake, pretty chilled! 

The boat ride round the lake is about an hour long, and although we did not see a huge amount, it was very beautiful and serene. If you do ever go there, there is a great walk back through the park to the gates which you shouldn't miss! 

We found a great little place called Frenchies for lunch run by such a warm, friendly couple called Reggie & Supah. Supah fed, watered and delighted us with her stories so much so that we decided to book a cooking class with her that evening.  This cooking class was one of the highlights of the trip for me - we bundled into a tuktuk with Supah and her son and set off to her little pink house! That's one of the things I love about India, all of the houses are painted bright colours - pink, orange, blue, yellow, green. Walking down the street is like walking through a rainbow and you can't not have a smile on your face.

The class was a very informal class in Supah's kitchen - we chatted and cooked and chatted and cooked. On the menu was Dahl fry, Okra masala, Aveel vegetable curry, Coconut chutney, chappati and an Indian sweet  named Kesady (I will do a separate post on these, don't worry!). Supah spoke to us about life and love and gave us a fascinating insight into Indian family life. 

                  

After learning to cook this feast with Supah, we were then allowed to eat it. This was without doubt one of the best meals I had in India! I could not reccommmend Supah's cooking experience enough! It was £5 each for the whole evening and dinner too. 

             

                Supah's super smile! 

We also had the chance to visit a working tea factory and spice factory nearby. The tea factory smelt amazing! We had a very jolly guide called Benny showing us round. Although Benny was clearly very knowledgeable and charming, unfortunately it was rather hard to understand him so we are still a little hazy on the whole tea making process!

        Tea plantation! 

Next up was the spice plantation where we saw pepper drying and being made, curry leaves, all spice, tea tree, cardamom, stevia leaves and many many more delicious spices! It was super interesting to see - especially the pepper drying and crushing process as so much work goes into it. I appreciate every sprinkle of pepper so much more now! 

                 

                                     This lemon at the spice farm was bigger than my head! 

Unfortunately we had to say our goodbye (for now - don't worry she will be back later!) to Lex here, as she sped off on Reggie's motorbike to the bus station.

The last thing we did in Thekkady was head to Elephant Junction on the recommendation of a good friend of mine who had just been. We chose to have an elephant ride, and to wash and shower the elephant. I am not always a fan of these types of places given the conditions the animals are sometimes kept in, but these elephants seemed well cared for. If you are tight on time/money I would skip the elephant ride and just do the wash and shower. Su & I thought we would just be helping to wash etc the elephants but unbeknownst to us we were going to be getting a very powerful shower ourselves!! Su went first and her face says more than any words could!

No words! 

The best power shower I've ever had!

Needless to say we both ended up soaked and with big smiles on our faces! If you do ever do this make sure to take a dry change of clothes!

Next stop....The Alleppey Backwaters

xx

Incredible India (Part 1 - Fort Kochi)

I'm sorry I have been a naughty blogger, but I have good reason for it, I promise!

After finally giving up my old job (you can read about that here), I went on a little 7 week adventure to India to travel and do a 200hr intensive yoga teacher training course (YTTC). The YTTC warrants a whole (very long!) post of it's own, but before that I did a bit of travelling around South India with one of my favourite travelling buddies Su, and my amazing cousin Lexy joined us for parts too.

Susan and I have been on 6 adventures together through Brazil, to Thailand, Dubai, Malta, Barcelona and Istanbul and when she decided to join me at last minute for adventure numero 7 I couldn't have been more delighted! We both needed a break from the chaos that comes from London life and this was perfect.

Meeting at Heathrow on a rainy, windy & freezing February evening we were like two giddy school girls delirious with excitement!

Of course, we had to have a glass (or 2) of bubbles to begin the latest adventure, and naturally to help us get some kip on the 9hour flight.

On arrival in Mumbai we transferred straight through and onto Kochi. For anyone travelling through Mumbai airport, I had been warned that it would be total chaos but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was so don't worry!

Kochi is in the southern state of Kerala - nicknamed "God's Own Country" and for good reason too, it is beautiful! We headed straight to Fort Kochi. 600 years ago Fort Kochi was established as the gateway to India, it was from here that the colonization of India actually began. The town nowadays is a sleepy melange of worldly influences: Portuguese churches, Anglo-Dutch houses, Colonial buildings and Chinese fishing nets. 

 Our first Indian sunset over the Chinese Fishing Nets

We were hoping to wash the sunset down with a nice cold beer, but after fruitless effort to find one, a local kindly told us that the 1st of every month is a dry-day where no alcohol is available anywhere. Ah!

Luckily Lexy then appeared from the distance on the back of a motorbike, with a huge grin on her face. Lexy is one of the most amazing people you could meet! She has been on a journey herself travelling solo through Nepal, Sri Lanka and now India, a very seasoned traveler who steered us fresh faced city girls in the right direction!

We even found our way to a temple festival in a village outside Fort Kochi. We had been told there would be fire and elephants there, and although these were no where to be seen, it was still a lovely occasion and it was beautiful to see all the ladies dressed up in their colourful saris! There was a beautiful young girl who had jasmine flowers decorating her hair, she was very shy but let me take a photo! 

Although Fort Kochi was a visually beautiful little place, there was not a huge amount to do here and we found our 2 nights & 1 day was plenty. We visited the Kochi Flower Show, however this was less Chelsea Flower Show, more walking round a Homebase store! Although they did have this very cool bean man! 

Fort Kochi is a lovely little place to stroll around and watch dolphins playing in the mouth of the river, it was a perfect transition from London chaos into South Indian life. There is some delicious food too - if you happen to find yourself in Fort Kochi don't miss Fusion Bay for some great Keralan specialities, and Kashi Cafe & Art Gallery for breakfasts and amazing cakes!

Next stop Periyar National Park.....

xx