God's own country

And at last we visited the god’s own country, Kerala. There was a plan to trip some nearby place from long time. After the return from the US trip, we were looking forward to the next outing. The destinations were many and plans were plenty, but the plans remained as just plans. Not longer though.

Juniper had organized a day events for the employees’ kids. The event, called kids fiesta, was enjoyed by one and all. The innocent, witty answers cute kids had won the hearts of one and all at the event. After the event many kids felt that it was better to go to office rather than to schools :)

 

This was where our plan to trip got stronger. We had a discussion that its high time to delay and we decided to go on 18 and 19^th of October. Soon the guys started confirming their presence. But as the day neared, many couldn’t make it for personal reasons. But we were determined enough not to cancel the tour for any reason. Finally 5 of us, were all set to leave.Hero did most of the arrangements for stay, travel, etc with the help of his friend’s dad.

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We planned to go to Ernakulam in KSRTC bus, stay in a lodge there and go to alleppey on Saturday and visit athirapalli falls on Sunday. The journey to Ernakulam via Mysore was a hectic 13 hours 480 kms drive. This was probably my longest journeys on bus after my trip to Andhra, 10 yrs back.

 

The journey to Kerala was marred by our bus hitting a standing lorry. Though it was a minor accident, it significantly damaged the bus. Airavatha Bus with no air break – Nice combinationJ. It crawled to the Mysore bus depot, where it got partly repaired. The total time it took for us to reach Ernakulum was a whooping 16 hours.  

This forced us to change our original plan. We decided to go to the waterfalls on Saturday and backwaters on Sunday. We left for athirapalli after having a refreshing time at the hotel. The falls was 85 kms from Ernakulam- a one and half hour journey in tavera. 

Climate in Kerala was equatorial type. The mornings were very hot and humid. The driver said that in the afternoon, it will rain like hell.

Kerala is an imperfect Malayalam portmanteau that fuses kera (”coconut tree”) and alam (”land” or “location). We all stopped to have tender “kera”s. The vendor guessed that we’re from Karnataka and asked whether we are from bagalkot or kolar. Probably he had been to only those places. We said that there’s a place called Bangalore and we were all from there. It made me think that for rural India, the silicon city means no excitement.

Language was a barrier as I expected, there were many instances where I was totally confused. The first such instance was in hotel ‘swad’, where we had lunch. I was obsessed to try out Kerala dishes. So I ordered for the Kerala meals. Since the curry was too good, I asked for more curry. The server, with all his politeness said “I am really very sorry sir, no more”. I was shocked with rude “politeness”. Later I got to know that “more” meant buttermilk and we were all ROFLing .I knew that many more lingual problems were awaiting and I was certainly not wrong.

On our way to the falls, the nature was displaying its grandeur and beauty. The scenic hills, valleys, greenery, occasional small water streams all were giving indication of what we could expect in athirapalli. Our expectations were high and they were not doomed. We reached the top of the falls. She was beautiful. The algae on the rocks had made them slippery. We managed to go for a walk on rocks. We had a good time in water. The better and the best time were yet to come.

athirapalli falls

An 800m walk down the trail led us to the bottom of the waterfalls. When we were coming near the falls, we could feel the moisture in the air and beauty of the environment. It seemed like the water drops were all giving us a welcome kiss. We went as close as we were allowed, to enjoy the mystic splendor. This was the better time, I was mentioning before. We started out journey back to the top of the falls, feeling that we missed someone, someone close to heart.

aournd 2 kms from athirapalli

We went to charpa falls, which was just a mile away from athirapalli. She was a cute little sister of athirapalli falls. We then decided to go to Wazachal and speed boating near a dam, 13 kms away. But destiny had other plans for us. The car in which we were travelling broke down with a mechanical problem and we had to come back.

Our return journey was enjoyable, with heavy downpour and the occasional glimpse of sun resting in the west. Throughout the journey something was irritating me. I dint know what was, but something’s were certainly getting bad for me :)

We got a treat from hero in the hotel Tandoor, near the lodge where we stayed. As usual, every cuisine had some native touch in it. We walked our way back to hotel. As I was talking rest, I noticed the black stains all over the blue jeans. I thought it was grease or oil and removed it. To my astonishment, I saw my right leg covered in blood. The blood was oozing from a small pore near my knees. Thanks to my zoology knowledge, I got to know that I had just served a poor little hungry leech. I assured myself that the leech had enjoyed the feast and dropped off. Nothing serious was at the stake. I cleaned the wound and managed to put a full stop on the bleeding. I had a tough time explaining about leech to some of my friends with me. This was what I referred to the best (worst) thing to come 

 

We all got up early the next morning and left for the Venice of the east – Alleppey. A 90 minutes drive across three islands and we were there. We managed to get a nice houseboat for 5.5k.The houseboat had just everything we look for in a fully furnished house.2 BHK, dining area, upper deck sit outs giving a good view of the scenic wonder of nature.

view from the houseboat

We got down at some small islands. We went for a ride on small boat. That was exciting experience. Unfortunately I couldn’t row it. I made up my mind to drive the houseboat at least. Again the linguistic barriers cast its magic spell. I dint know Malayalam and the driver dint know anything other than Malayalam. I used all my dumb-charades experience to make him understand my requirement. Luckily “actions” are one of the few things that’s common everywhere on this earth, the other famous one being emotions.

The driver understood and let me drive the houseboat. Not a great difficulty but certainly a great experience. The driver guided me occasionally, when other boat was coming from the front. I was overjoyed by the 15 mins of driving. 

As expected, the climate drastically changed and it started to drizzle. I sat on the front-edge of the houseboat, experiencing the experience never felt before. Many school kids were on their way back to school on the small boats. Some were waiting for the boat to come. Just then I saw a boat from opposite direction crossing us. The people inside were singing and dancing. Seeing a trophy in their hand, I guessed that they won it in a boat race. I started to cheer them and they were even more happier and acknowledged me. These events just highlighted the importance of the boats in their life. Not only a means of transportation and revenue, but also a means to entertainment, livelihood. In short boats were their heart and soul.

Soon the houseboat began its return journey to alleppey. And I was thinking that the time is moving so quickly. It was all over in a split second. But that’s the way it is – all good things come to end soon. I still remember seeing the time in class and after a strainful hour, the working watch would just show an increment of 5 mins. The lovely moments compress the time. I guess, its a feeling universal to all.

We thanked the houseboat guys and left for alleppey beach. The alleppey beach was one of the more cleaner beaches I have seen in India. The huge waves hitting the coast seemed to tell a simple message. Try and try again… never ever give up…

The fort Kochi was our next destination. We went to the St. Francis church and the Dutch Palace. The Dutch palace had Hindu temples inside. We went to Durga temple. It had its own distinct architecture. It was serene.

I thought of going to one more temple nearby. I was about to enter it when the guys there started telling or rather screaming something. Nor I understood what they meant nor were my questions understood by them. The rules are stricter in Kerala. The access to temple is restricted only to Hindus and men must not wear any shirts. I don’t know what they wanted. May be they were asking to remove my shirt .Probably they thought we were non Hindus or they wanted to tell that access to girls to that temple was restricted. These questions were left unanswered and we returned back.

We got some souvenirs in an emporium in fort Kochi .The Handicrafts there were simply too good. We were immersed in shopping and the time (yet again) didn’t wait for us. We missed the ferry by a whisker. But as I had said in the beginning,

We drove back to ernakulam. The marine drive along the Arabian Sea was nice. And soon we were on our way back. While going to the bus stand, we all took some Kerala special chips. My craze for local sweets made me take Lakshadweep halva and Kerala black jaggery halwa. They were simply delicious.

We went to bus stand and were waiting for the bus. I remembered that I had missed one more thing- the Kerala bananas. I went in search of it in the bus stand. Luckily it was present in a shop nearby. I was really happy that I managed to get it.

The sweetest memories