My travelogues

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Kerala travelogue - Day 6 (26th Nov 2011) - Aymenem - to 'The God of Small Things'

Holiday Destinations in India

Always was curious why Arundhati Roy, a bong, chose Aymenem, Kerala for her renowned book and my all time favourite - THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS.
Now that I had a chance, didn't want to miss the land of Mammachi, Ammu, Estha, Rahel, Chacko and others. So, was off to Aymenem after bidding farewell to Vivian and Noel who were to spend 5 days at Murarikulam beach near Alleppey. Mr. Babu, being the perfect host, arranged the rickshaw for us.

Our neighbours at Coconut Creek

Our hosts in the centre

Aymenem is a remote village and I had booked my stay for 2 days at 'Backwater Heritage Home' - another homestay. Enjoying every bit of the trip till now, I was in for a surprise.
The homestay in itself is good, amidst mahogany and coconut trees, facing the canal and having a private garden, but the hospitality is pathetic (Can I give negative marks) - more on that later.

Backwater Heritage Homestay

I saw a snake boat, used in the races, easily able to accommodate a 100 people and didn't need a lot of visualisation to think how exciting and wonderful it would be to watch one of these races on the waters. We asked Mr.Xavier for boating options and he fixed a canoe for us after saying that it would be INR 300 for 3 hrs. I needed it only for 1 hr. and told him so.

Snake Boat

What a pose - mind it!!

Canoeing in the backwater canals was really soothing. This was a true peaceful backwater experience as the canal flows through the village. Really enjoyed it and a canoe is the best way to ply the waters. Kids waved as we went past them and we waved back. Of the rafting, covered boat, houseboat (to come later) and canoeing, I liked this the best. The scenery was truly out of Gods' well written book !!

The storyteller of the backwaters

Mid-day traffic

Going home

The storyteller of the backwaters

Now for the great hospitality of Backwater Heritage. They just left the dinner on the table and didn't even inform us. When we finally sat to eat, apart from the food being pathetic, it was cold as the damp weather outside. Nobody even came to ask if we needed anything else, forget about preferences. I was so irritated that I didn't eat and went out to get biscuits. The same thing repeated in the morning during breakfast. Cold tea and putta - they didn't even bother to ask what we wanted - and nobody was there to ask if we needed anything else. And would you believe it, the host had the nerve to charge INR 150 per head for the dinner he had served - 1 veg curry and 3 chapatis per person. For the 1 hr. of boating he charged INR 300. Initially, when I asked him if I should pay the boatman, he said he would pay him - so this was the ploy of settling, overcharging to be precise. Cancelled my stay for the other day, and left as soon as possible this ghost house. An advice to Backwater Heritage - Visit Coconut Creek in Kumarakom and learn a thing or two from their hospitality.

Annotations:

Stay at 'Backwater Heritage' only if you want to spoil your holiday

Kerala travelogue - Day 5 (24th & 25th Nov 2011) - Kumarakom - Romancing the Vembanad

Holiday Destinations in India

Left for Kumarakom after having our breakfast at Ambadi. En route, I insisted on visiting Parunthumpara hills and was rewarded. I am sure there would be similar points on the Peermedu hills as well, you just need to know where. On our way to Parunthumpara and ahead, we were greeted by the same lovely tea plantations.
As we reached the cliff of Parunthumpara, also called Eagles Rock, the wind swept us off our feet...literally. There was such a strong and cold wind that a person weighing less than 40 kilos can easily be swept off (am not exaggerating). As the wind pushed us here and there, the scenery kept us glued to the layered mountains and the valleys. Really beautiful. But as usual, one side of the valley was covered with bottles and all that people had remembered to give back to nature...filth. From there, we went to another nearby point called 'Suicide Point' which was seeing the same mountain from a different angle and equally stupendous. Don't miss visiting this spot if you are to visit Thekkady.

Layered mountains from Paranthumpara hills

An ode to the sky

View from Eagle Rock

Valley below (Eagle Rock)

Captain Noby, the Great

Didn't feel like getting down from the Eagles Rock, but we had to to continue with our journey to Kumarakom. The abundant rubber plantations presented themselves yet again as we moved towards Kottayam. Saw a log cutting/sawing factory on the way. Nearing Kottayam, saw a cattle bazaar and it was disgusting to look at around 30-40 cattle stuffed in a single truck with their horns poking each other and hardly any space to breathe.

Had lunch en-route at a regular Kerala restaurant. While we were struggling eating the rice on our plates, the locals had taken another helping of a greater quantity of rice and finished before we did. Do they chew?? The scenery as we carried on was made even more beautiful by the QSQT and Aashiqui songs being played on our car stereo. I hummed along.

You know you are in the Kuttanad region and near Kumarakom when paddy fields fly past on both sides as your car bisects them on the road. We reached Kumarakom in the afternoon at our destination, Coconut Creek Homestay and the first glimpse of it pleased us as well as our local driver Noby. Very nice choice, Sir - he said. The homestay is located 2 mins. away from the lake and has a Church nearby. Inside the compound, you have a nice and clean garden, canal, a bridge over it, a canoe sitting pretty below the bridge, swings all over and all kinds of trees in the backyard. The cottage is a beautiful piece of Kerala architecture and have to say that the owner, Mr Babu and his wife have paid special attention at building this home and have lavished the place with the choicest things. Right from the fish shaped door knob, the marble flooring, the swing, the well maintained garden to the room interiors, everything is something that pleases your eye. We had a couple from England as neighbours who run a traditional golf club in the county.

Coconut Creek Homestay

Sitting pretty

Coconut Creek Homestay

Coconut Creek Homestay

We were welcomed with a nice cool orange drink. The best part about this homestay, other than the hospitality was the the nearby scenic lake. It can easily be called one of the best romantic places. Sitting below tilted coconut trees along the cement parapet lining the lake, as you watch the house boats pass and the birds returning to their homes in swarms and the fishermen leaving for their evening catch and the sun preparing for its dip, your heart will be taken away and you will definitely be at a loss of words. Gods creativity at its best with every nuance captured in the minutest detail. My personal favourite spot was watching the canal flow and merge into the lake, an entwining of two souls.

Soulful Union

Sunset at the Vembanad lake

Go Green

We took in as much as we could and as the sun set, we took a small walk in the country side. It got dark pretty soon and munching bhajiyas we returned to out lovely homestay.

Dinner was crispy Karimeen fry with other delicacies. Enjoyed it. The host, Mr.Babu ensured that we liked our meals and chatted with us during our meals, a very nice gesture. I asked him about nearby places which I had hunted from the Internet, but most of them were a little far and from his look, I could gather that there wasn't much to see.

As I was here to take it easy for the last part of my trip, I narrowed down tomorrows plan to the bird sanctuary and a bit of boating. We dozed of as it started drizzling outside. Aaaaahhh!!! Good night, sleep tight and dream about the amazing sights !!

25th Nov 2011

Had our breakfast of appams and omelettes and left for the bird sanctuary. On enquiry, the gate keeper at the bird sanctuary disclosed that there were not many birds at this time. Hmm, talk about luck. The bird sanctuary is through a dense jungle crowded with swamps. It is a pleasure walk through the jungle, the bird sanctuary being 2 km one way and you have to return on the same path. I had to wait for more than an hour to sight some birds, a green one perfectly camouflaged in the dense foliage. Need to check up the bird names!! Overall I did see some birds, though very few.

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

Spot the bird

Camouflaged

It was funny seeing other people just walking through as if they wanted the birds to surprise them by posing on their paths. You can canoe inside the bird sanctuary for an hour or so. There are houses lining the bird sanctuary, something which shouldn't be there.

Then we went on a boating spree through the canal. I wanted to wade through in a canoe but it started drizzling, so took a covered boat. We had the entire boat to ourselves, which easily could have seated more than 10 people :) Floating through the canal, you can see people least bothered by your presence as they carry out their daily activities, washing, cooking, bathing. Saw lots of birds on our boat trip outside the sanctuary than in it, when I say lots, I mean lots...

Our carrier on the backwaters

Another sight I wouldn't forget was hundreds of ducks wading together. Not one group, but many groups at many places. One of the group of ducks was being herded by a man on a boat - looked funny like a shepherd leading a pack of sheep. The duck farms, violet flowers amongst the water hyacinths, cormorants and storks amongst the water bushes and broken tree trunks are a sight we never see in our busy city - worth much more than money can buy.

Quack quack

Which one's Donald ??

The boat man pulled a common trick on us. We had asked him for a tour of 1 hr. but he took us much ahead and charged us for 1 1/2 hours. No regrets, though!! Back at our homestay, I realised they had pulled the same trick with Vivian, the couple from England :)
On the way back was Driftwood museum, which sorry to say looks hardly like a museum and is so small that we left it alone. Not so very fond of museums anyway. We returned to our scenic lake as we bade good-bye to Noby, our driver as I had booked the car only for 4 days. He wanted us to return and take us to Munnar, which I'm sure we will. It started raining hard, so we had to rush back and couldn't spend much time at the lake and had to call it a day.

Annotations:

Don't get carried away by various 'activities' mentioned in some of the sites on the Internet about things to do in Kumarakom. The bird sanctuary, a nearby dam and boating/canoeing are the only things to do
Asked many people for the potters village but no one seemed to have a clue.
You can visit church in Cherthala, but its a bit far
Do visit the lake, if you are at Coconut Creek, it's really beautiful
Boating/Canoeing is a must.
You will see more birds outside the bird sanctuary than in it. However, the bird sanctuary is still recommended for a morning or evening walk.
Enjoy the local keralite preparations wherever you stay (lots of coconut).
Even though you see coconut trees everywhere in Kerala, still coconut water ain't cheap, same 20-25 INR as in Mumbai.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Kerala travelogue - Day 4 (23rd Nov 2011) - Thekkady - Wading in the Periyaar Lake

Holiday Destinations in India

Rising early for a change, went to the 'Tourist Information Centre' to collect the entry tickets for the wildlife sanctuary. The ticket issuing person raised concerns on my mother wearing a Saree and we were afraid that she would not be let to take the rafting tour. Did a lot of convincing and finally we were off to the boat landing.

Saw some interesting birds at the boat landing. At 8 pm, we were readied for the trek. There were a total of around 15 people for the tour (2 foreigners, a group of guys back from Hyderabad, back from paying their homage to Sabrimala and us). Everybody had to wear the khaki leg coverings provided to prevent us from the leeches in the jungle. A small raft was pulled and to say it truly, we were a little disappointed cause it didn't have seats on it and thinking spending 3 hrs on this was a little uncomfortable. Our doubts were put to rest as this raft was only for crossing the river from where we were to start the trek.

Boat Landing

At the boat landing

Raft for crossing the lake

As we reached the opposite river bank, tobacco was spread on our leg coverings so that the leeches didn't cling to us. And then started our trek through the dense jungle. It was real fun. We trekked for almost 2 hours and saw an elephant skull and some tiger paw markings - pointed by the forest guard and the other guards accompanying us. We didn't sight any animals till now though. During our break, spotted a beautiful blue roller bird. In flight, it looked like a designer bird with carefully crafted wings of colour.
After trekking for another 30 minutes, voila!!, we saw our rafts and jumped in joy.

Jungle Trek

Elephant Skull

Jungle Trek

Spider Man

Blue Roller bird

Sitting on the rafts and wading through the periyaar lake was like magic. All our panting and huffing and puffing vanished as we sat on our rafts. The guards acted as oarsmen and did the rafting and navigating. You can help yourselves too. We landed on another bank a little ahead for our breakfast break. Breakfast was pineapple jam and bread, coffee and bananas.

We wasted no time after breakfast and got back to our rafts. The Sun was playing spoilsport as it played hide and seek with the clouds. You have to experience to enjoy the fun of rafting on the lake, amidst the jungle. Bare tree stumps lying in the middle of the lake with multi-layered shades of surrounding mountains, birds fluttering, flowers ostentatiously displaying their hues create a magical picture perfect. It's like living for the moment and capturing as much as your visual senses can capture and releasing all anxieties and breathing deep the fresh air to cleanse your inner self. Truly magical!!

We broke our comfortable monotonicity by breaking for lunch. Lunch was on the banks of the river. Before lunch, one of the forest guards managed to catch a big fish, almost out of thin air and everybody got excited. My father got down to fishing and it felt good to see him enjoying. Also saw a shoal of black fish, don't know what they were, fish or tadpoles...

Post lunch, we followed the same route, rafting to our breakfast point, where we returned our life jackets and trekked back to the main point. It was disappointing not to miss out on the fauna. The only animals we managed to see were a group of wild pigs in the distance and some bisons on our way back. Missed the elephants. Did see some interesting birds though. All along, I put my Canon DSLR and my newly bought 55-250 lens to good use and the group ended up thinking I was a professional photographer (which I will be, someday) and an avid bird watcher (which I am). Even the guards helped me out with locating birds and went out of their way to point them out to me more than the rest of the group :) One of the guards, R Mugan also took me around a different path and showed me a tiger skull !!

We were back at the boat landing by 4:00 pm and back at Ambadi by 5 pm. Rested for some time and then ventured to the local market and bought spices at the local outlet in the evening. During dinner, overheard a firang couple discussing that they saw elephants during their trek...boo...hoo...

Our Rafts

Rafting the Periyaar

Periyaar

Wild Pigs

Fresh catch

Fishing

The beautiful Periyaar

Bisons

Annotations:

You need to be lucky to spot animals, whether you go on the jeep safari or rafting on the lake. Enjoy the trip though, with or without animals.
Spices, if not cheap would be authentic and organic here as this place is full of spice plantations. Hence, one would be better of doing their spice shopping from here.
Keep your volume levels down if you want to get lucky to sight animals. Our group wasn't quite :(