Just 'Cuz It's Round: Kerala State of Mind

Ahhh, back on the road. I’m not going to lie, it is taking a bit of time to shake the rust of this adventure and myself. I realize now that this really was a restart. I’d been around friends and family for two straight months. And then I found myself solo again, in a strange land.

India is quite a different place than where I left off in South Africa. Since I had heard that Kerala was laid back and enjoyed by a few of my friends, I chose here to "ease into" India.

The state is on the southwest coast of India, on the Arabian Sean and quite tropical. (I, for one, had no idea that parts of India were tropical!) It is India’s only Communist State and the familiar hammer and sickle are frequent sights (as were posters with Che) and has been dubbed “God’s Own Country”. (their professional video is a good supplement to my amateur photography)

I landed in Trivandrum from Mumbai (people still call it Bombay, by the way, so I might flip back and forth) and hopped in a taxi to Varkala.

The beach at Varkala

I spent a few days on the cliffside perch of Varkala – meeting and having fun with a couple fellow travelers, swimming, eating local fish, walking a beach with black sand and being horrified at an Elephant Festival for the way the animals were treated.

from this...

While beautifully adorned, I couldn’t watch for very long given that the animals were chained and prodded with huge spikes at the end of sticks.

to this...

For a culture that reveres the god Ganesh, who has the features of an elephant, it was sad to see such harm being done to these animals.

UPDATE: I'm not sure how many folks go back and read through old posts, but if you are reading this there was an interesting article about Elephant Festivals and the Treatment of the Elephants in Kerala published on August 14th, 2013 in NYT Magazine. It does much better job of explaining the situation and how difficult it is/will be to change the treatment of these animals. You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/magazine/the-life-of-celebrity-elephants-in-india.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&

So, my first “excursion” in India was a bit of a flop, personally at least, but I had all the right idea. I did some Yoga and got a little taste of the Indian Ayurvedic treatments to make up for it.

A traditional "backwaters" houseboat.

Feeling like I was in one place too long, and that the rest of India awaited, I made my way up to Alleppey, the Venice of India, for a tour of the backwaters. I was told to do an overnight on a houseboat. Traveling solo, I opted for a day's canoe trip instead. Someday, maybe I'll come back and do the overnight thing, but I was happy to be able to go into the smaller canals and get a closer taste of the life here than the big boat would've afforded.

As such, the backwaters are more than just a tourist draw, they are a working community.

The waterways stretch for miles forming a web of interconnected cities that thrive on rice cultivation and fishing, with toursim also serving an important function

We saw people washing clothes, dishes and themselves in our day on the water

On the water taxi ride out to our captain’s house, kids waited at the jetties to pick up the boat to go to school, each gender and age with a slightly different uniform. Men and women were reading the newspaper on the way to their own jobs. And others were already out on the water with full of building supplies. My favorite though were that "toy boats" that travelled through the “neighborhoods”.

For us, it was a really relaxing day spent traveling via canoe through the canals, past Ashrams, rice patties, banana plantations and seeing the daily life here.

The guide made me take this picture. I swear there are bananas in there!

We had breakfast at the guide’s house, stopped for some coconut, and then again for some coconut beer. Our captain even sang us a few songs as he rowed us along the canals.

We returned to the guide’s house for a huge lunch with local fish, a smoked Pearlspot, a coconut thing, a curry and Pappadoms; all served on a giant banana leaf. It was the best food so far!

After the trip I wanted a real beer, but since they don’t sell beer in anything but an off license here I was subjected to my first Indian “line”. After being pushed and sandwiched between several Indian men while thwarting numerous attempts of others to cut into the line, I had them and was back to the hotel to find a place to get them cold. (They were not kidding that there are some intensities in this country!)

The last day was spent in Fort Cochin, a small little town in the Port City of Cochin making plans for the North. It was a little fishing village and lots of good Keralan food.

I left Kerala feeling a little guilty for taking it so slowly, but as I said it’s been a little hard to get back on the ball. It’s not that I’ve done nothing (as you see above) and I’m happy I eased into the trip. I can’t say that I’m well rested, the beds are like sleeping on wood planks in most places, but I’m ready for the North and to get more of India in me!

As I headed north, through Mumbai, the Sun was on fire. As it set, it closed out my time in the south.