Thiruvananthapuram

We decided that to complete our coastal tour, we’d make it down to Thiruvananthapuram or Trivandrum as it was known before the name change (and what the locals still call it). Seriously, why go for something so complicated? To get there, we took another train. I know, I know, us and the train rides. I’m beginning to think that our first train ride was just a fluke because I haven’t seen any roaches since then. Then again, it could also be because we’re only traveling during the day and roaches are nocturnal. I don’t know. Anyway, from Kottayam it’s only a three-hour ride, so it wasn’t too bad. We lucked out because there was almost no one on the train and we actually had our sleeper compartment to ourselves. There was an adorable little girl on the train who we played with for a bit. Yes, I like kids and my biological clock starts ticking whenever we meet a cute kid, but not to worry! They start screaming and the clock completely stops. We’re talking sabotage and gears grinding to a halt. Anyway, we got in around 6pm and took a tuk tuk to the Varikatt Heritage Homestay.

Varikatt is run by this really nice retired decorated Colonel named Roy. Roy turned his family’s home into a homestay after he retired as a way to meet people and have some fun. He’s really funny and plans to have a cookbook out sometime next year full of his recipes and anecdotes; I think the title is Cooking with the Colonel. He has some really entertaining riddles that will make it in there as well. I’ll link to it when it comes out. It’s a gorgeous house with five guestrooms and a large main house. Each guestroom is massive and has an amazing bathroom. Oh, and can I just say that Roy also cooks. Amazingly well. And because it’s the South, we didn’t have vegetarian food. Our first night there dinner was tandoori chicken and a sampling of other Keralan cuisines. At the Varikatt you eat family style and Roy also ate with us, which was really nice. He also shared the story behind the house with us. It’s kind of tragic. Girl meets boy on a boat, girl moves from England to follow boy to India. Girl builds her dream house, finds the guy, and marries him only to find out that while he’s away in the tea plantations he is less than faithful. Girl gives up her dream house to keep an eye on her errant husband. The whole story is online and once again, kind of tragic. I can’t believe she gave up her house because of her douche-y husband. Oh well. That’s love.

Because we only had one full day in Trivandrum we decided to do a “best of” tour. Be impressed. Neither of us had gotten very much sleep the night before and we were woken up by a barking dog around 5am. So the fact that we were productive at all was a spectacular feat. We started at the public parks and made our way through the Napier Museum and the zoo there. The Napier Museum was… interesting. It had a good collection of religious artifacts from all over Asia including leather shadow puppets from Bali (so cool!) and a collection of Chinese masks (wasn’t sure what the point of those was). The Hindu artifacts of the different gods were particularly cool and well preserved. The only bummer was that there were no notes up to explain what the different artifacts were or the reason for putting them all together (like why put Chinese vases in the exhibit). The zoo was awesome. It’s this large open-air zoo in the middle of the city and has over 75 different species of animals there. We saw hippos! And monkeys! And I was a bit too excited about them. What can I say? I like zoos.

Then we made it across town to the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The Swamy Temple is one of the holy temples of Lord Vishnu and the outside shows Vishnu reclining over a serpent. I wish I knew more about Hinduism so that I could give a bit more description about the story it depicts, but my knowledge about the temple runs out there. It’s a massive structure. It takes about 15-20 minutes walking to get from the North Gate to the East Gate. You’re actually not allowed inside the temple unless you’re a Hindu, but you can take photos outside and the monks are really nice. It’s a beautiful temple and the most famous one in Trivandrum. We ran into someone who was very friendly and the first thing he said was, “Well, you’re going to the Swamy Temple, right?”

We ended in the Puthe Maliga Palace, the palace of the old rajas of Trivandrum that’s been converted into a museum. You’re only allowed into the museum with a guide who knows the history of the Palace. It’s a beautiful structure that was built about 200 years ago and is full of gifts given to the rajas from various European powers. There’s even a crystal throne. I’m not kidding. A throne made entirely out of crystal. Decadent much? The Palace is huge, there are only twenty rooms open but another sixty rooms still haven’t been renovated, nor are there any plans to renovate them in the near future. It’s kind of a bummer because it could be so cool. The outer courtyard is even used for a classical concert during the winter months that’s free to the public.

Once we were done with the Palace, we were pretty much beat. The heat that day was intense and I think I got sunburned on my feet (again) since they started peeling two days later. I even drank an entire liter of water in about an hour and for those of you who know me, that’s an impressive feat. It was ridiculous. So we went home and vegged out for the rest of the evening before dinner.

One thing that we kept discussing was that we saw men everywhere. It just brought home how different India is in the separation of the public and private sphere with respect to gender. We saw women mainly when we left the main streets and were wandering the residential areas. Men were everywhere: in the restaurants, public transportation, stores, and the main streets. Which is not to say that there aren’t women out and about, women work and do all sorts of things. It’s just that the public sphere is very male dominated. It’s usually not too bad; for the most part as long as your clothes are loose you aren’t hassled. It only starts to feel a little threatening when you walk into an Internet café and you are the only woman in the room and the room is packed.

That’s it for now. Next time: Mumbai!

Kumarakom part I

Evidently our adventures on the last cockroach infested train weren’t enough and so on Sunday we decided to take the train down to Kottayam from Ernakulam. After a delicious breakfast at Kashi (because they are awesome even if there was no cake this time) we headed out.

The ride this time wasn’t bad and there were no roaches to be found. After a bit of difficulty with our bags, I swear they’re heavier than we are, we found ourselves sitting with a family headed back home to Trivandrum. It was really cute because the grandmother had lived in California for several years so of course we bonded over that and talked about the recession (and how much everyone likes Obama). It’s been really funny talking to people lately because everyone and their mother has been asking what we think about the administration and we’ve been gone for the last 2 months so we really have no idea what’s been going on besides what makes international headlines. Well, that and the ridiculous bonuses being paid for with taxpayer money but that’s a different issue.

We made it to Kottayam with no problems and were picked up and taken out to Kumarakom. Kumarakom is a series of man made islands with canals in the backwaters. Every house looks out onto the canals and because almost all of them have a boat the canals function as through roads. It’s an agricultural area and it’s harvest time before it gets too hot and the monsoons come. It’s a lovely area and unspoiled by pollution, etc. I think you could compare the peacefulness with the rural parts of Tennessee and that whole Appalachian area.

We stayed at a homestay called G.K’s. It looks out onto the rice fields and the guest house is actually separate from the main house. There are 4 rooms and they’ve all been full. George is our host and his wife cooks the best Keralan food ever. The food has been really healthy with an emphasis on fruit at breakfast and fresh vegetables for the other two meals. Yes, we eat with them three times a day because there’s no where else to go around here. But it’s totally okay because it’s so good. Be jealous. George also took extremely good care of us. He organized trips for us and drivers for the trips and when we went out on the ferry, he told us he was calling to check on it and make sure that nothing had happened. He’s a wonderful host and I’ll post his website later for anyone who has any interest in that part of Kerala.

Our first full day here we went for a canoe ride through the canals. It’s a beautiful ride and shows how impressive the canals are. As we drifted along we saw lots of people in the water doing laundry and getting ready for the day. Everyone stopped to wave and say hello as we passed. Of course part of the friendliness could be that there aren’t any other home stays in our area and so we’re the only foreigners around. Kind of like their own curiosity show. To be fair, I haven’t seen many (read any) black people either and so I’ve been getting a lot of love for my hair.

The second day we took the ferry out to go to the Driftwood Museum. It was… entertaining. Basically, the woman who runs the place started collecting driftwood as a hobby 25 years ago and she trims away the branches to expose the natural sculpture. So there’s everything from a crocodile to a rose. There’s even a handicapped family where the members have everything from a missing leg to missing fingers. It’s true! I couldn’t make something like that up. She even said, “This is the handicapped family. See how his hands are twisted backwards.” The museum itself is an interesting concept but the woman who runs it is just a little too enthusiastic and you can totally tell that she used to be a teacher. At every piece she bangs on it with a metal rod to show how fossilized it is and then makes sure that everyone can see her vision before moving on. My feeling is that it was worth it because it is different and the woman has a genuine passion for her art. And if you’re ever in that area I’d say that even if you have no interest in it, just go for the entertainment value ’cause she was hilarious.

Oh. And the children here are adorable. Every time we pass them on walks they stop us to practice their greetings in English. The exchange goes:
Child: Hi. How are you?
Us: Good. How are you?
Child: I am fine!
The exclamation point is important because it’s exactly how they say it. It’s so different from what happens in the States where we don’t really like to practice our foreign language skills with people for fear of being ridiculed.

So we’ve been having fun. I love Kerala. I really like it here and would most definitely come back. I’ll finish up with G.K’s and the rest of our stay there later, it’s bedtime now.

Fort Kochi and Mattancherry

When I left off last time we were on a train, surrounded by roaches and hurtling towards Ernakulam (the station nearest to Kochi). We got in at around midnight and it was pouring rain. Of course. But we managed to make it to our hotel by 12:30 and passed out.

The next day dawned bright and clear but we were still exhausted so we stumbled out, bleary-eyed to greet the new day. After getting ripped off by a rickshaw driver (50 rupees for a 10 minute ride!) we made it to the ferry to Fort Cochin. Fort Cochin is on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge. You can have a taxi take you across for 50-150 rupees, depending on the driver or you can just take the ferry for 5 rupees. We’re cheap so we took the ferry. It’s a really pretty ride across, the water is relatively clean and as you go across you can see people fishing.

When we arrived we decided to walk to our hotel. I still can’t decide if that was incredibly stupid or incredibly brilliant of us. Mainly because it’s really humid here and after about 10 or 15 minutes, you start to melt. But we walked and we melted and were instantly charmed by the place. Fort Cochin is a small place but very cute. You can see the Portuguese, Dutch, and British influence here in the winding streets and the colonial style houses. There’s also a bit of Chinese influence here. Along the water are Chinese fishing nets which are worked by a minimum of four people to maintain the balance. It’s really cool and just goes to show how much India has incorporated different influences into daily life.

We stayed at a place called Napier House which is a cute little homestay near the Dutch Cemetery. The people there were really friendly and gave us maps and directions and arranged tickets for a cultural show. One quick thing, so that you understand how ripped off we were on the mainland, here in Fort Cochin you can get a rickshaw driver for 3 hours for 50 rupees. Our hosts were really funny because we don’t speak Malayam and some of them don’t speak English so our conversations were with a lot of hand gestures. One woman in particular would come over to me in the mornings and chatter away in Malayam making lots of hand gestures while I chattered away in English doing the same. I think we looked like crazy people, but it was fun.

We went out exploring and found several churches. There’s the Saint Francis church that was erected by the Portuguese in the 1500s and later taken over by the Dutch and the British. Vasco da Gama was actually buried there before his remains were transferred to Lisbon to St. Jerome’s monastery (which I actually have a picture of on Flickr, I’ll find the link later). Then we continued walking past the Chinese fishing nets where we discovered this cool thing where the fishermen sell you a fish, then send you across the street to a place where they cook it for you how you want and voila! You have a fresh fish lunch! I will admit that I wasn’t brave enough to try it, but I heard that it’s actually really good.

We went to the Santa Cruz basilica which was built by the Portuguese and torn down by the Dutch then rebuilt in the 1800s. It’s a lovely church totally built in the gaudy Catholic style. There’s a very nice man who is the caretaker there who makes sure that everyone is being respectful and let’s you know that it’s okay to take pictures. He’s really funny. We were tiptoing around so as not to distract anyone from their prayers (and because a sign said SILENCE) when he comes up and says in a booming voice, “You can take pictures here! It’s OK! Here, come take a picture here!” Then he went apeshit on a group of French tourists and kicked them out because they actually went inside the confessional to “see how it worked”. It was amusing as well as slightly horrifying.

We made it to the museum at the Bishop’s house and it was more than slightly disappointing. It was a collection of religious relics which could have been interesting except that they were mostly from the 19th century and not very well preserved. They also had an explanation of religious life in Ernakulam and Kochi. It is kind of interesting to see the sheer number of churches here, but other than that the museum was pretty much a wash.

The next day we went out to Mattancherry and Jew Town. Yes, it’s called Jew Town. Mattancherry is also known as the Dutch Palace. It was a gift to the reigning raja during the Portuguese era in order to secure trading rights and the right to build a fort. It’s really big and again, slightly disappointing. Only a few rooms are open to visitors and of those much of the space is devoted to the history of the region, shown through plastic boards with writing on them. But it was interesting. Especially once they laid out the chronology of the rulers and you saw that most of them only lasted 3 years before “falling ill”.

We saw the synagogue in Jew Town which is said to be the oldest one in India. According to them, there are 70 Jewish people in Kochi and only 3000 in India. I’m not sure how much I buy their numbers, but it’s an interesting thought. Jew Town was very cute with more winding streets and lots of small town houses. But it was overrun with people trying to sell you stuff which kind of ruined the feel.

That night we went to a Kathakali show. Kathakali is a traditional performance and the show we went to was at the cultural center. What was nice about the way they did it was that they gave you an introduction to the art itself. When you arrived around 6 you got to see them putting on makeup. At 6:30 the show began with an explanation of the different facial expressions and hand movements. The makeup is exaggerated in an almost comical way so that the facial movements will be more apparent. And the facial movements are kind of intense. It takes years to be a master of them. I don’t remember the names from the story that night, but it involved three actors playing a prince, a demon who fell in love with the prince, and the demon disguised as a beautiful woman to make the prince fall in love with her. The performances were amazing. The actors don’t talk and instead rely on musicians and a singer to tell the story which makes it that much more interesting.

We discovered a little cafe called “Kashi art cafe” which has amazing drinks, lunches, and desserts. The chocolate cake is to die for. We went twice. We also found a cute place called Teapot which is a place for tea and lunch. Very cute and decorated with antique teapots. They also have cake. Good cake. Sugar high inducing cake.

And enough about cake. My thumbs are whimpering right now so our adventures in Karadipara and the epic bus ride will have to wait until next time.